EVANGELISM-DIFFICULTIES
There are no
easy steps to witnessing! No painless, unembarrassing methods!
You must bring men to see that they are filthy sinners under the wrath
of God who must flee to Christ for mercy.
That is offensive. And there is
no way to coat it with honey.
The Shadow of the Cross – Studies in Self-Denial, 1981, p. 28-29, by permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
It is a
serious reflection for the evangelist that wherever God's Spirit is at work,
there Satan is sure to be busy. We must
remember and ever be prepared for this.
The enemy of Christ and the enemy of souls is always on the watch,
always hovering about to see what he can do, either to hinder or corrupt the
work of the gospel. This need not
terrify or even discourage the workman; but it is well to bear it in mind and
be watchful. Satan will leave no stone
unturned to mar or hinder the blessed work of God's Spirit. He has proved himself the ceaseless, vigilant
enemy of that work, from the days of Eden down to the present moment.
C.H. Mackintosh
In the
Puritan tradition George Whitefield wonderfully exemplified in his preaching a
stable understanding of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. He used to place lost sinners in a vice. He pressed home the necessity of
repentance. But the lost sinner is a
slave. He cannot repent. Yet to be saved he must repent. He cannot.
He must. His only recourse is to
look away from himself to the one who can save.
His escape route is cut off.
There is no help in himself. His
only hope is to call on God for mercy.
And a God of mercy will never cast out those who come to him in faith.
Erroll
Hulse
Who Are the Puritans? Evangelical Press, p.
133.
To make
converts, we are tempted to play down the difficulties and play up the peace of
mind and worldly success enjoyed by those who accept Christ. We will never be
completely honest with our hearers until we tell them the blunt truth that, as
members of a race of moral rebels, they are in a serious jam, and one they will
not get out of easily. If they refuse to repent and believe on Christ, they
will most surely perish. If they do turn to Him, the same enemies that
crucified Him will try to crucify them.
A.W. Tozer
Aren’t the
most popular mission trips the ones that take us far from our own neighborhood? Russia is easy; our own neighborhood is a
constant challenge. Has anyone
consistently had the boldness and clarity of Jesus in testifying about the
gospel? Never. Has anyone consistently avoided the fear of
man in evangelism? Certainly
not. There is a
“foolishness” inherent in the message of the cross. The clear proclamation of the gospel does not
make us look good. It doesn’t make us
popular.
Edward T. Welch
When People are Big and God is Small, P&R
Publishing, 1997, p. 39- 40. Used by Permission.
Perhaps his
total number of devoted followers at the end of His earthly ministry numbered
little more than the five hundred brethren to whom Jesus appeared after the
resurrection (I Cor. 15:6), and only about 120 tarried in Jerusalem to receive
the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:15).
Though this number is not small considering that His active ministry
extended only over a period of three years, yet if at this point one were to
measure the effectiveness of his evangelism by the number of his converts,
Jesus doubtless would not be considered among the most productive mass
evangelists of the church.
Robert E. Coleman
The Master Plan of Evangelism, Fleming H.
Revell Company, p. 34.
(Salvation of
another) is what man cannot do. It is
impossible. Only God can take out the
heart of stone (Eze. 36:26). Only God
can draw people to the Son (Jn. 6:44, 65).
Only God can open the heart so that it gives heed to the gospel (Ac.
16:14). Only the Good Shepherd knows His
sheep by name. He calls them and they
follow (Jn. 10:3-4, 14). The sovereign
grace of God, doing the humanly impossible, is the great missionary hope.
John Piper
Desiring God, 1996, p. 198, Used by
Permission, www.desiringGod.org.
The greatest
hindrances to the evangelization of the world are those within the church.
John R. Mott
Satan’s
greatest success is in making people think they have plenty of time before they
die to consider their eternal welfare.
John Owen
Meditation on the Glory of Christ, 1684, ch. 15.
I contend
that many Christians want to speak to others about the Lord but do not
for fear that the observable, daily sin in their lives is too contradictory for
them to witness….If God does not use sinners as His witnesses, there will be no
human witnesses, since there are no perfect people…This does not change the
fact that the more Christlike our lives, the more convincing our words about
Christ. We need to do what we can to
eliminate any sin that makes our words look inconsistent. But while attempting to do that we must be
convinced that we cannot delay our witnessing until we reach sinless
perfection. Otherwise, we would never
share the gospel! Part of the beauty of
our message is that God saves sinners, sinners like us.
Donald Whitney
Spiritual Disciplines for the
Christian Life, 1991, p. 112-113, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com.
All rights reserved. For more
information please see the website www.BiblicalSpirituality.org.
Some fear
witnessing because they don’t feel confident enough in their persuasive powers
or their ability to answer all imaginable objections to the gospel. But the power for evangelism is not in our
ability; it is in His gospel. You may
have never imagined that an unbeliever could actually be born again by hearing
of Christ from your lips. But that’s not
humility. It’s
doubt, a denial of God’s blessing upon His gospel just because it is spoken by
you. Don’t doubt the power of God to add
His blessing upon your words when you speak of Christ.
Donald Whitney
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,
1991, p. 112, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com. All rights reserved. For more information please see the website www.BiblicalSpirituality.org.
In response
to two excuses why people do not evangelize:
A Christian who has heard biblical preaching, participated in Bible
studies, and has read the Scriptures and Christian literature for any time at
all should have at least enough understanding of the basic message of
Christianity to share it with someone else.
Surely if we have understood the gospel well enough ourselves to be
converted, we should know it well enough (even if as yet we know nothing else
about the faith) to tell someone else how to be converted…Do we really want to
say that we are too busy to fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus Christ to
make disciples of unbelievers (Matthew 28:19-20)? Do we expect that at the Judgment Jesus will
excuse us from the single most important responsibility He gave to us because
we say, “I didn’t have time”?
Donald Whitney
Spiritual Disciplines for the
Christian Life, 1991, p. 106-107, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com.
All rights reserved. For more
information please see the website www.BiblicalSpirituality.org.
I think the
seriousness of evangelism is the main reason it frightens us. We realize that in talking with someone about
Christ, Heaven and hell are at stake.
The eternal destiny of the person is the issue. And even when we rightly believe that the
results of the encounter are in God’s hands and that we are not accountable for
the person’s response to the gospel, we still sense a solemn duty to
communicate the message faithfully coupled with a holy dread of saying or doing
anything that would be a stumbling block to this person’s salvation. Many Christians feel too unprepared for this
kind of challenge, or simply have too little faith and are terrified of
entering into such an eternally important situation.
Donald Whitney
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,
1991, p. 102, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com. All rights reserved. For more information please see the website www.BiblicalSpirituality.org.
Why do you need a voice when you have a verse.
Reckon then
that to acquire soul-winning power, you will have to go through mental torment
and soul distress. You must go into the fire if you are going to pull others
out of it, and you will have to dive into the floods if you are going to draw
others out of the water. You cannot work a fire escape without feeling the
scorch of the conflagration, nor man a lifeboat without being covered with the
waves.
C.H Spurgeon
The
intimidation that we feel in relating Christ to a non-Christian world has to do
with our comparing ourselves to the man or woman, rather than comparing God to
the man or woman.
Jim Elliff
Intimidation and Evangelism,
Christian Communicators Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.