Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

Following Jesus means knowing how to evangelize Matthew 9:35-38 Following Jesus without Freaking out Sermon 09 Are you like me? Some years are just a blur. They run together until a decade is burned up, but I’ll never forget 1985. It’s forever etched in my memory. It really began in the fall of 1984 but 1985 is when it got exciting.   I took a class I’d never taken before…a class I never, ever thought that I’d take. When I was young and naïve, I didn’t even know this class existed. But when I took it, I was one avid pupil. It’s called Lamaze. In Lamaze I was introduced to the world of child birth and that I would be Jane’s coach as she had our first baby. We learned about breathing, focal points, survival bag needs, etc. We crawled around on the floor of this room with about 10 other couples simulating child birth. (Personally, I thought that the old way was better where the husband was out in the waiting room … waiting).   At the time I was the Assistant Pastor at a church in Central Illinois. Our hospital was half an hour a way, so when Jane started having contractions, we jumped in the car and flew the hospital. It was a dry run. The doctor checked things out, we walked the halls trying to make things happen but nothing. That was Saturday. Early Sunday morning I ran for a few groceries for Jane before church. When I returned, Jane met me on the porch of our home, letting me know it was time to go. Her water had just broken and that baby was letting Daddy know that even preaching was not as important as she was.   All the classes in the world cannot prepare you for labor. The next several hours were some of the longest I’ve ever experienced, as I tried to help Jane through the pain but not really able to do anything. Then, in a flash, it was all over. She was born…my baby girl, Charity. 5-5-85 will forever be etched in my memory. As I held her for the very first time, I thought “Heavenly Father, why are you so good to me?”   Let me tell you something that is nearly as exciting and potentially even more exciting. It’s being a spiritual parent. I have three physical children: Charity, Ben and Aaron. But I’ve lost count of how many spiritual children I have. I’m even a grandparent and probably a great-grandparent. There’s nothing like watching the Spirit work in someone’s heart and seeing the lights come on. You see them literally regenerated before your eyes and know that they’ll never be the same. It’s an experience out of this world.   The tragedy is that so few Christians do it and so few believers know what it is like to lead someone else to the Lord. It’s estimated that something like 2% of believers know what it’s like to lead someone else to the Lord. That means 98% have never experienced that thrill that is beyond words of being part of the new birth. That’s exactly what Jesus was referring to in Matthew 9:35-38 (p. 687).   Last year my kids got me set up on Facebook. It’s a great way to stay in contact with friends you haven’t heard from in years. I’d had an account a couple of months and I got a message from Allen Campbell. Now I hadn’t heard from Allen Campbell in thirty years. Allen’s Mom, Mary, started coming to the church in LaCrosse I was working at when I was in college. She was a single Mom with four children. Allen was probably in either Kindergarten or 1st grade when I first met him. I had a bus route and we’d pick up people for church every Sunday. Allen, his Mom and sister, Kandi rode my bus. And little Allen just touched my heart. He had no Dad and his family didn’t have much so I would try to spend time with Allen.   That was thirty years ago. I’d long ago forgotten about it, but Allen remembered. A few months ago he wrote to thank me for taking him to a U-W LaCrosse football game, buying him a Chewbaca action figure…but most of all, for leading him to the Lord so many years ago. Today Allen is married, has a son and is very involved in his church in Winona, MN. In May Allen went on his third missions trip to Haiti.   There’s nothing more exciting this side of eternity than leading someone to the Lord. God used me when I was a wet behind the ears ministry student to touch the life of a little boy from a broken home and now he’s touching lives in Minnesota and Haiti. If there’s nothing more exiting than leading someone to the Lord, why don’t more Christians do it???   Jesus left heaven and came to save this world. While He was here He gave His disciples, not just a command BUT a mandate to witness, to evangelize this world. And He showed us how to do it. True evangelistic success comes to those who evangelize Jesus’ way. A foundational part of being a Christ-follower is sharing your faith and Following Jesus means knowing how to evangelize. 1. What is evangelism? Evangelism is simply the sharing of an eternal destiny altering message. The word evangelism comes from the Greek word for Gospel. Its core meaning is “good news from God.” Evangelism is sharing the Gospel, or the good news of how God has provided a way of deliverance for people trapped in sin. The crux of the Christian Gospel is that Jesus Christ died for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3). But this saving message doesn't end with the Cross because on the third day He rose from the grave.   a) The Gospel is a message to be believed. The angel said to Peter, “Go, stand in the temple courts and tell the people the full message of this new life” (Acts 5:20). The Gospel is a message to be believed about who Christ is and what He accomplished for us on the cross. We can’t believe in it without believing on Him! The evangelists in the book of Acts would have been appalled by anyone who responded to their preaching by saying, “I believe Christ died for my sins and I want to go to heaven, but I don't want Him to interfere with the way I'm living my life now.”   b) Because the Gospel is a message to be believed, we understand faith as a positive response to what God has said and done through Christ. God acts or speaks and then asks, "What will you do with the message I have revealed to you?" By faith, we choose to depend personally on what God says. God initiates the process; we respond by believing.   Remember that Peter was warned by the Jewish authorities not to mention the name of Jesus. His response to them demonstrates his faith: “We must obey God rather than men! The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging Him on a tree. God exalted Him to His own right hand as Prince and Savior that He might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel” (Acts 5:29-31). Peter heard the message, came to terms with Jesus Christ by faith alone, and then he staked his life on it. Christ was indeed Peter's Savior and Lord.   c) Because the Gospel is a message to be believed, we are delivered from pursuing fleeting emotional experiences. The hope of this great Gospel message is as sure and as lasting as the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ and the eternal promise of God. Much confusion today stems from a misguided notion that we’re saved by having some kind of religious experience. Rather than simply believing the message of the Gospel, frustrated seekers are trying to put faith in faith, or faith in repentance, or faith in their new attitudes or faith in a feeling. None of these will satisfy the heart. Our message must have Christ as its object rather than personal experiences.   d) Because the Gospel is a message to be believed, we understand evangelism as simply passing on this message to others. In the book of Acts, Luke writes that after the first persecution in Jerusalem the saints were scattered and “those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went” (Acts 8:4). These were not professional pastors. They were butchers and bakers and businessmen and homemakers. Although an "evangelist" is a person with a special gift and calling to preach the Gospel to the lost, the task of evangelism is shared by every believer, every single member of the Body of Christ. We can hardly improve on the definition of evangelism made popular by Campus Crusade for Christ: "Success in witnessing means taking the initiative to share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God.”   e) Because the Gospel is a message to be believed, the Church is commanded to give every individual an opportunity to believe it. The most quoted verse from the book of Acts is, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The early church realized they’d been given a mandate to take the Gospel everywhere…and they did! This immense undertaking was bathed in prayer. After being warned by the Jewish leaders to keep silent about the name of Jesus, those early saints came together and prayed, “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable Your servants to speak Your word with great boldness” (Acts 4:29). God continually answered their prayers and opened doors. Luke continues, “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly” (Acts 4:31). Those 1st generation Christians got it! They followed the example of Jesus and evangelized their world. 2. How did Jesus communicate the gospel? A woman was struggling to get the ketchup out of the bottle. As she struggled and pounded on the bottom, the phone rang. She asked her 4-year-old daughter to answer it. "It's the minister, Mommy," the child said. Then she turned to the phone and added, "Mommy can't come to the phone right now. She's hitting the bottle."   Mark Twain was right, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightening and the lightening bug.”   What was it about the way that Jesus communicated that made Him so convincing and so persuasive? What made Him such a master communicator? In John 3, what was it about the way Jesus engaged Nicodemus, a leader of the Pharisees, a member of the opposition that convinced Nicodemus to become a Christ-follower? What was it about the way that Jesus talked to a woman living in immorality, who’d been divorced five times, what convinced the Samaritan woman to believe in Him and realize that He was the Messiah (John 4)?   There was just something about the way that Jesus talked that captured minds and hearts. While there’s never been a communicator like Jesus and never will be again, there are certain communication skills that Jesus had that we can copy as we share the Gospel. No one can talk like Jesus but all of us can talk more like Jesus than we do. As we examine the communication style of Jesus, these principles emerge:   a) Jesus asked questions. Throughout His ministry Jesus asked tough questions as a means of communicating truth. He asked probing questions that forced people to think for themselves. He asked rhetorical questions that made the answers stand out with clarity. He asked confrontational questions that forced people to get off the fence and choose sides.   During His dialogue with Nicodemus Jesus sensed that the Pharisee was avoiding crucial truths. Nicodemus needed some tough questioning to penetrate his thick armor of denial. So Jesus hit him right between the eyes with a challenging question. Jesus used a method of teaching called the Socratic Method. In the Socratic Method the teacher does not dispense information but instead asks questions that stimulate the student to think and search within to find the truth for himself or herself. The Socratic Method should really be called the Jesus Method, for, though Socrates used that method earlier than Jesus, no one ever used it more effectively than Jesus. Jesus used questions to expose false assumptions, to penetrate denial, to illuminate new ideas and to stimulate thought.   While Jesus was a preacher and teacher, He was, above all, a questioner. In John’s Gospel alone we find 161 recorded questions of Jesus.   b) Jesus provoked questions. Jesus not only asked questions, He inspired and provoked questions from the people around Him. What form of speech are people the most receptive to? Lectures? Sermons? Or answers to their own questions? I can tell you that I sit up straight and pay attention when a speaker answers the questions that are on my mind. I'm sure most people respond the same way.   So how do we get people to ask us questions? As we look at the example of Jesus, we see that He provoked questions in two ways. First, Jesus provoked questions through His actions. He continually did things that raised the interest and piqued the curiosity of people. One of the things Jesus did was perform miracles, in particular, miracles of healing. Now obviously, you and I can't perform miracles but there are many things we can do to attract attention and provoke questions. Our accomplishments—from running a successful business to running a marathon, from writing a book to righting a social wrong—inspire interest and provoke questions. Living out the fruits of the Spirit always grabs attention and makes people interested in what we have to say.   The second way Jesus provoked questions was with His words. Jesus said things that provoked questions. Just by speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus provoked questions. She asked him, "How can you—a Jewish man!—ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" Jesus sidestepped the question and made a profound, attention-getting statement. "If you only understood the loving generosity of God, and who I really am, you would ask me for a drink— and I would give you living water." Once Jesus said that, the woman had to keep listening!   When you talk, think about startling, attention-getting words and statements you can use. Frame your words in ways that capture the people’s attention and provoke them to ask questions.   c) Jesus used every occasion as an opportunity to communicate His message. When Jesus sat down at Jacob's Well, He was hot, tired and thirsty. Who would have blamed Him for just taking a rest in the shade? He and the woman could have easily ignored each other like strangers on an elevator. But when Jesus saw the Samaritan woman approaching with her waterpot, His mind and heart were instantly engaged: Here was a woman who was world-weary and hurting, He thought: “How can I help her? How can I reach her? What can I say to her that will meet her need?” Jesus did not let an opportunity pass Him by, no matter how tired He might have been or inconvenient it was.   d) Jesus used normal life situations to communicate His message. Jesus didn't have a megaphone or a lectern or a PowerPoint presentation system. All He had was His voice and a well with some water at the bottom…but that was enough.   Notice how Jesus used the water to open the conversation: He asked the woman for a drink. He asked for a favor, placing Himself in her debt. That’s an excellent way to connect with other people. Something powerful  happens when you ask someone, "Would you please do me a favor?"   If you want to dialogue with a child, a good way to do that is to get down on your knees so you can talk on the same level. Asking a listener for help is a symbolic way of doing the same thing—descending to another person's level. It's an endearing act, a display of humility. It puts people at ease and makes them more ready to receive what you have to say.   The inequality between Jesus and the woman was a cultural harrier of that era: A Jewish man was to have nothing to do with a Samaritan woman. By asking this woman for water to drink, Jesus revealed He had no prejudice toward her. He erased that cultural barrier and placed Himself on her level. Before the conversation was over, the tables were turned, and the woman was asking Jesus for water!   e) Jesus really listened. When Jesus talked He had dialogues, not monologues. When people spoke, He listened. That guaranteed that when Jesus spoke, people listened. People always listen when they feel listened to; people always try to understand when they feel understood. Jesus was a master at making people feel listened to, understood, affirmed and cared for. Jesus was a great communicator because He was first a great listener.   f) Jesus was never in a rush. This one really steps on my toes. Jesus was never in a hurry when talking with people. Nicodemus came to Him late at night and might have even interrupted Jesus' sleep. But Jesus still made time to talk with him. The Samaritan woman approached Jesus when He was hot, tired and hungry after a long journey. He probably didn't feel like talking. But Jesus simply turned his exhaustion and thirst into a conversation starter by asking the woman for a drink.   As He talked, Jesus didn’t rush to score His favorite, pre-rehearsed debating points. He was patient, listened and gently moved the discussion in a direction that would reveal the truths that His listener needed to grasp.   g) Jesus stayed on track. In John 3 and 4, on two different conversations, a late-night talk with Nicodemus and a noontime talk with the woman at the well, we see that there are numerous points when each conversation could have veered off in some other direction but Jesus stayed on-message.   At one point in His conversation with the Samaritan woman, she became argumentative saying, "You seem to think you are greater than Jacob, the father of the Samaritan people. After all, this well was his, and he drank from it, along with his sons and his cattle, and he left it to us, his descendants." She knew Jews considered that statement an abominable lie, and she seemed to be going out of her way to offend Jesus. But Jesus calmly brought the conversation back to His original theme. "You know," He said, "everyone who drinks of the water in that well will eventually become thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water I have to give will never be thirsty."   We often encounter those who try to distract us, change the subject and pull us off our message. At such times, we need to remember the example of Jesus. He never let other people move Him away from what He came to say. He had a message for the world and He didn't let anyone keep Him from saying it.   At times we probably feel it would be so much easier if we could be like Lucy in the Peanuts cartoon. Lucy says to Charlie Brown, "I would have made a great evangelist." Charlie Brown answers, "Is that so?" She says, "Yes, I convinced that boy in front of me in school that my religion is better than his religion." Charlie Brown asked, "Well, how did you do that?" And Lucy answers, "I hit him over the head with my lunch box."   But Jesus never forced the Gospel on His listeners. He was instead a great communicator and every one of us needs to know how to effectively communicate. A lost world depends on it. How will they ever hear the good news of the Gospel, of God’s love and forgiveness if you and I are not good communicators? 3. How can we be like Jesus when it comes to evangelism? Even with His enemies Jesus was always loving. He was strong but He was loving. Luke 19:41 records for us, “As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it.” When a rich young ruler came to Jesus, though Jesus knew that the man would reject Him, Mark tells us that “Jesus looked at him and loved him” (10:21). With Nicodemus, the woman at the well, Zaccheus, even the woman caught in the very act of adultery – as Jesus dialogues with each of them about eternal truths, love flows from His lips.   Too often though instead of hating sin, we hate sinners. We’re not all that different from Fred Phelps and his crusade against homosexuals. We may not carry signs saying, “Turn or Burn” but we feel that way. Many Christians feel that evangelizing is passing out tracts or putting a bumper sticker on their car. But evangelizing must flow out of a loving relationship – Jesus was a friend of sinners.   While speaking in London, Evangelist D. L. Moody was approached by a British companion who wanted to know the secret of Moody’s success in leading people to Christ. Moody directed the man to his hotel window and asked, "What do you see?" The man looked down on the square and reported a view of crowded streets. Moody suggested he look again. This time the man mentioned seeing people--men, women, and children. Moody then directed him to look a third time, and the man became frustrated that he wasn’t seeing what Moody wanted him to see. The great evangelist came to the window with watery eyes and said, "I see people going to hell without Jesus. Until you see people like that, you will not lead them to Christ."   How do you see lost people? They’re just like us. They have families like we do. They work beside us, live in our neighborhoods. They live moral lives, but will spend eternity in hell unless they believe on Jesus Christ. Jesus looked out over Jerusalem and was moved with compassion as He saw the multitudes. He calls us to lift up our eyes and see the lost souls in our community. We must love people with God’s love and reach out to them with His kindness. Conclusion: There are five big days in my life. Five days that are more  important to me than any others. One I don’t know the exact day of but the others are easy: July 2, 1983; May 5, 1985; May 1, 1987 and August 24, 1990. I don’t remember the exact day when I trusted Christ as my Savior. But I remember kneeling by my bed as a Jr Higher, tears running down my cheeks because I knew that God loved me and I didn’t think that anyone could ever love me and He gave His Son for me. And that evening I committed my life to Christ. Then, Jane and were married twenty-five years ago this coming July 2nd. Charity was born on May 5, 1985. Ben was born on May 1, 1987 and Aaron was born on August 24, 1990.   While Charity’s birth was scary and difficult, when Aaron was born (maybe it was because it was the third one), Jane and I were both laughing even during the contractions. In fact, we were giggling so much we almost named him “Isaac” which means laughter. But shortly after Aaron was born, as soon as I left the birthing area of Memorial Hospital, I had an emergency phone call waiting for me that I was told to return immediately.   Todd Mosier from the McCarthy-Koenig Funeral Home was trying to get a hold of me. While Aaron was coming into this world, Darlene Bayer’s and Virgil Orndorf’s mother, Mildred Walling, was leaving and they needed to get in touch with me to work out the funeral arrangements.   The irony of that moment has never ceased to amaze me – life and death – within moments of each other. I left the birth of my son to go and comfort a family who had just lost a loved one.   That’s the world we live in – one of life and death. Ours is a world that is continually on the precipice of eternity. You and I have the message of life, eternal life…that Jesus came into this world to pay the price for sin, our sins and forgive us so that we and every single other human being could live for all eternity! It truly is good news…the greatest news of all time.   So why aren’t we like Jesus…sharing it? When was the last time that you shared with someone that God loves them…even though they’re sinners and gave His Son on the Cross to die for them…so that they could be forgiven and live forever?   Following Jesus means knowing how to evangelize. 98% of believers have never experienced that thrill that is beyond words of being part of the new birth, of leading someone to Christ.   By God’s grace, let’s turn that statistic on its head at Grace Church. May each of us reach one and then another and then another and then another…until He calls us Home. That’s what I want to do, don’t you?