Leading People to Christ (Pt 1) — Nigel Lee

May we enjoy being here in fellowship with one another because we sense that we're learning. Your spirit is causing us to hunger to serve you sensitively and lovingly fruitfully in a way that pleases you.

Help us all. Now lord we pray for your namesake. Amen. Well this is a very refreshing experience for us. We've just been enduring or enjoying three or four days of field leaders meetings talking about finance and policies and all that.

And to talk about leading people to christ is a very refreshing change. I can assure you the material we're going to try and cover in this morning's session. And we're not going to bind ourselves to this.

If discussion goes on we can try and catch up this afternoon. But the material we're going to try and cover is. We're going to begin by looking at two biblical examples of personal evangelism. I'll give one and then nigel will give one.

Now we're going to just try and get a grasp of what the gospel actually is and what actually happens when people are led to christ. When people are converted. What actually happens. And then if we have time we'll look at some of the obstacles which people commonly face or commonly share they face when they are considering that great step of coming to the lord jesus christ.

Jesus and the Rich Young Ruler

So a biblical example to begin with. And i want you to turn to mark's gospel chapter 10. And we'll have a look at this story of the rich young ruler mark chapter 10. And we read from verse 17 to verse 22.

Mark 10 17 as jesus started on his way a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. Good teacher he asked what must i do to inherit eternal life. Why do you call me good. Jesus answered no one is good except god alone.

You know the commandments. Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not give false testimony. Do not defraud. Honor your father and mother. Teacher he declared all these i've kept since i was a boy.

Jesus looked at him and loved him. One thing you lack he said go sell everything you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me at this. The man's face fell. He went away sad because he had great wealth.

Just try and imagine the scene for a moment the lord jesus has probably just passed through a town and he's heading on maybe over a rural road to the next place of ministry. And suddenly he hears the clinking of a chain behind him because the rich young ruler of the city possibly the mayor of that city is running after jesus.

And his mayoral chain is clinking as he runs. And all of a sudden jesus looks around. And here is the mayor of the town he's passed through on his knees in the dusty road. What must i do to inherit eternal life.

It's an interesting personal witnessing situation isn't. It hasn't happened to me this year. Not the mayor of a town on his knees on a dusty road. But let's see how jesus dealt with this particular situation.

And i want us to bring five principles out of the story. First interesting thing not one of the principles i want to share with you is that jesus answered this man's question with a question. The man asked jesus what must i do to inherit eternal life.

And jesus didn't say very much about eternal life. He answered to that question. Did he. He said why do you call me good. There's only one who is good and that's god alone. He got this man thinking. He got this man asking the right questions.

And where did jesus want this man to start thinking. What kind of questions did he want this man to face. Well he wanted this young fellow to start thinking about god. He wanted to turn his eyes towards god.

And in particular he wanted to stress the holiness of god and an essential part of our gospel. And if we're going to truly present our gospel an essential part of that presentation is of the character of god.

And his holiness is of course of great importance. The question is how can we repent to a god that we don't understand. If you're truly going to repent towards god then you've got to have some concept some understanding of the god to whom you are repenting.

That's the first principle he turned this young inquirer's eyes toward the character of the god. He was about to do dealings with. The second thing which jesus did was to remind the rich young ruler of the law of god.

You know the commandments he says in verse 19 don't murder don't commit adultery and so on. I think it's very important today in our presentation of the gospel especially in the western world where most of my experience is to preach or to speak the law in our gospel presentation.

And maybe we can have a lively discussion about this in a few moments. But i don't think the majority of people in my country certainly understand what sin is. And to say to people today you are a sinner.

Well that's going to give certain thoughts to that person. He will probably immediately think of adultery if you use the word sin today in my part of the world anyway he may well think of murder. He's not i would imagine going to think of hypocrisy.

He's not going to think of pride. He's not going to think of rebellion against god and so on. So i would suggest to you that if people are to understand sin they're going to need to have that sin explained to them.

This is what jesus is doing. I suggest by presenting the law of god to the rich young ruler. Now what is the purpose of the law today. Well one of the purposes is revealed in galatians chapter 3. You might like just to turn to that galatians 3 and verse 24.

Galatians 3 verse 24 paul says the law was put in charge to lead us to christ that we might be justified by faith. So there is a way in which the law can lead men and women to christ. There is a way in which the law can lead men and women to justification by faith.

You might like to turn back to romans chapter 7 just for this second verse on the same subject romans 7 and verse 7. What shall we say then is the law sin. Certainly not. Indeed i would not have known what sin was except through the law.

For i would not have known what coveting really was if the law had said do not covet. This is what the lord jesus i suggest to you is doing here. He is using the law of god to reveal sin to this young man.

That's the second principle. Number one he turned his eyes towards god and towards god's holiness. Number two he turned his eyes towards himself and helped him to experience and realize his own sinfulness.

Love, Repentance, and the Call to Faith

And then the third great principle if you turn back to mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. The third great principle is there. In verse 21 jesus looked at this young man and loved him. So jesus isn't only giving this man truth.

He's not just giving this man facts about god and facts about himself. He is loving this young man into the kingdom of god or seeking to do so. David watson just a year or so before he died received a letter and in one of his tracts i think i read the correspondence from a young student who he'd met at university.

And the student had come to christ just before one of david watson's meetings in a university. And this is what she wrote to him. For many years i've wanted to be wanted. I've been unimpressed by sermons religious books or tracts.

Some months ago i came into contact with a group of christians who loved god and in their love for him they loved one another. And i knew that i had come home. Maybe that person when that she came to christ didn't know very much about the facts of god even the facts of her own sinfulness that she was faced by love.

A love she couldn't express in human terms. And the love of a group of christians brought that young lady to a knowledge of jesus christ. So that's the third great principle. Number one he taught him about god.

Number two he taught him about himself. Number three he had great love in his heart for this young man. Number four the necessity of repentance. He says to the rich young ruler go. Verse 21 sell everything you have and give to the poor.

The tendency of some people if they'd been dealing with this young man i suppose i'd have to include myself. Probably would have been something like this. Let's let's not touch the money issue yet. Okay let's get this guy into the kingdom and then we'll start talking about money.

I mean money is going to be the big problem with this fellow. Isn't it. So let's do a lot of pre-evangelism and so on. Let's get him really interested and maybe into the kingdom or at least halfway into the kingdom.

If there's such a position i'm sure there isn't. But then let's start dealing with the money issue. But jesus is absolutely straightforward with this young man. He knows there's no real coming to god before he has left this other god in his life far behind so long before the call of faith the lord jesus says to this young fellow go and sell what you have and give to the poor.

And then finally the fifth principle you have the call to faith. Jesus says to him come and follow me after understanding something of god and something of yourself and the necessity of repentance. If you're willing to turn from these things which rule your life then come and follow me.

That's how jesus dealt with one individual. Nigel? A question there. What about those people who don't have the background of this young man whose questions are more to do with does god exist at all. We can speak of god's character and god's law with those that already acknowledge it.

Do you have anything to say about preaching to those that as i think many of the folks now that we meet are just far further back in their spiritual existence. Really yeah i think we're going to see. I hope we're going to see during this seminar that a great principle of preaching evangelism or personal evangelism is trying to find out where people are at as you consider how you're going to present the gospel to them.

Jesus obviously on this occasion is presenting the gospel to someone who has a religious background probably a strong jewish background. And there are going to be other ways of presenting the gospel to people who are in a different position today.

Of course in britain the view which people have of god is a very very mixed up view indeed and very often i find in witnessing today you have to start with explaining the god that you're talking about because people have so many varied and crazy ideas of god.

A few years ago in the sunday mirror there was the a serialization of some book about god being someone who visited the planets. It wasn't the von daniken books but uh two thousand years ago he visited planet earth and he's been visiting all the other planets as well.

It was a crazy crazy presentation of god and thousands if not millions of people read that presentation and i'm sure a great number believed it or accepted at least part of it so very often in britain today and i'm sure in many other countries even more than britain as nigel says you've got to start much further back than that and you've got to know where a person's at.

In order to know where to begin you may have to start with an explanation of the god whom you're talking about. Can anyone think of now then a parallel passage where you might be beginning with people who have far less than this orthodox jew an example of evangelism amongst those who are much much more ignorant.

Yes cornelius was uh is suggested a god fearer. But he didn't. He wasn't certainly a jew. He didn't have the same old testament background quite of samaria. We'll come on to her in a moment. Um she seems to me to be a half and half case.

Sorry pins. Yes. Now there's another very good example where he's speaking um not to a samaritan. They were corrupted jews originally. They had a lot of jewish ideas and teachings. We used to chat debate talk discuss the intellectuals.

Um he said i'll speak to you about the god. You don't know at all. Yes. Yes. Don the philippian jailer astonished by his prison falling down around him. A sturdy middle-class roman citizen probably um an ex-soldier and would have been completely pagan.

Probably didn't even understand uh why. He was required to keep paul and silas under lock and key. But he had questions that were produced by a catastrophic event. His entire prison fell down around him and paul was able there to to share the gospel.

Yes. Now you've got the idea. That's an important thing peter has started um with a man who is religious with whom we have a lot of common ground. The mark 10 situation. I want to move on to uh john chapter four the samaritan woman.

But to leave that crucial idea in your mind that you must begin where people are at. And you're building bridges. Some of them may be they may need to be very very long. Peter and i spent quite a lot of time over the years in evangelism.

I think he was an evangelist before he came into om. I became more of an evangelist after coming into om and i work a lot with students and i will face roomfuls hundreds and hundreds of students most of whom will have the vaguest ideas of god in many cases quite a rooted opposition to the very idea of god.

And you're beginning an awful lot for spending days just teaching them truth. Laying a foundation before you can ever begin to ask for. Faith comes by hearing the word of god. They've got to first believe that there is a god who speaks through his word.

So you know it takes takes a long time a lot of patience involved in fishing. John four. John chapter four. Now you know the the story. Well we'll begin with verse four. Now he had to go through samaria.

Oh yeah. Why most jews walked around. It wouldn't set foot in it place was was. That was a shame on the nation. It reflected badly on on israel's history. It was a defiled place and they would take the extra days walking all the way around.

Well what does it mean when it says jesus had to go through samaria. There's no geographical have to. It's a necessity born out of love. He had to go to meet a person. God begins to deal with families and villages by picking one person.

He starts with every family by picking one person somewhere in history. So he gets into the family. He begins to work that way. And he knows about this woman. And she is going to be the key to the village.

He loves her. He's going to go looking for worshippers for the father. So he has to has to go to samaria. He came to the town in samaria called sychar near the plot of ground jacob had given to his son joseph.

Jacob's well was there and jesus tired as he was from the journey sat down by the well it was about the sixth hour which uh with john's account of the measurement of of the jewish day that means midday exhausted burning sun flops down.

And we're going to see christ as the evangelist crossing a number of barriers. And the first one that we often face is the apathy barrier. You know you don't feel like evangelism. Isn't that often true.

You know you sit with people you meet them neighbors in the street. And really it's actually much more easy if we don't have to get into an evangelistic kind of conversation with them. Isn't that true.

Oh yeah i find it. So i heard about you uh. And often we have to cross the first barrier in this case the apathy barrier. Everything in him may have been saying oh i've been walking for miles let me let me just flop and rest.

Oh i'll get a drink off this woman. I feel better. But i first of all had to cross that barrier in himself caused by tiredness. First that it was midday the inconvenience. Then the next one is the cultural barrier.

Crossing Cultural and Social Barriers in Evangelism

She was not only a samaritan and the jews have no dealings with samaritans as uh verse nine says. But she was a woman. Great tendency on the part of the jew to say women. Women. You don't expect women to understand spiritual things.

Not the things of god. Not women. Poor ignorant creatures. Orthodox rabbi wouldn't even greet his own wife in the street. She may be coming home from the supermarket loaded down with luggage. And the chap will walk straight past her without even you know see you at home lunchtime.

Dear jesus had to cross those kind of barriers. And and there are all kinds of class barriers even within our own society aren't. I wonder how many people you meet whom you you naturally think that person would not be interested in the gospel.

I know it. I mean look at them. The woman or a bus conductor or a garage attendant or a mcdonald's slave. You know they wouldn't be interested in the gospel. Or a godless student sitting there in his arrogance with his arms folded and his feet up on the chair in front had been dragged along by a christian to listen to the meeting.

They wouldn't really be interested. And jesus begins to cross that barrier too the cultural barrier. And he begins to build bridges. First of all there in verse seven he asks for a drink. A simple ordinary human contact.

Can you help me please. A shared human need is how you get on with your neighbors. Isn't it with the people you can you help me hold the door open for someone you you talk about something you share a common problem.

You shelter under the same umbrella. You you know something that puts you into very ordinary human contact. And she's rather surprised because she hadn't expected a jew to ask a drink because the water vessel would have been defiled by her touch.

But he seems to be treating her from the very beginning with respect down to her ordinary human respect. Build a bridge. The purpose of that human contact bridge is so that she might come across to start thinking in a new way raising spiritual questions in her mind.

Jesus immediately that they've got the drinking of the water and conversation about water. Then he starts to lead her across the bridge to think about another kind of water altogether. Very gently. Had she ever thought about another kind of first apart from the first that this water out of the deep well is going to satisfy a first in life itself for something deeper something more meaningful and another kind of water that meets that sort of first see opening up her mind to the crossing the bridge to think about something in a new way.

Build a bridge. And then gently begin to invite the person across it living water he says no more first. Something inside you like a a spring. She's never heard talk like this before. But as jesus talks she begins to feel this is true.

I do have a first. Doesn't at first understand very much she she asks to be given this well so that she doesn't have to come out to this particular. Well the dear lady is a bit muddled still. But let's be patient.

The apathy barrier the cultural barrier. And then verses 16 17 18. Once she started showing that she's a bit thirsty he said. He told her go call your husband and come back. Her eyes dropped. Her voice went a bit quiet.

She maybe went a bit white. I have no husband she replied. Jesus said to her you're right. When you say you're you have no husband. The fact is you've had five husbands and the man you now have is not your husband.

What you've just said is quite true spiritual barrier that will also have to be crossed. You can have conversation about normal human things. You can begin to arouse spiritual thirst. But there's going to have to be a facing up to that which does separate a human from god.

But please notice that when jesus just begins to put his finger on that barrier he does it gently and almost complementarily that you're right. That's true. What you just said is correct. He doesn't hammer her or sort of move away from her.

Or have you know stirring fanatic's eyes. Or start stabbing a finger at her and making her feel as if she is on the other side of a barrier from him. He has actually come to sit beside her. Christ came to this earth to to dwell among men and women in order to sit beside people at wells and and talk person to person.

So he talks gently. But he does face her with the reality not knowing god personally being separated from him by sin. She's lived all her life as though what she did didn't really matter. Life was just an endless circle of physical relationships.

And well she'd married the previous five. We're not told why she'd moved from one to another. But anyway she stopped bothering getting married. Now it was becoming a bit of a chore marriage. So she was just living with this fellow not satisfied.

She's already said so that sense of thirst is arising in her. And now she's facing up to the fact that this is wrong. What then happens in the story. Interesting. Very typical. Immediately questions of religious tradition arise.

Tell me what church do you go to. What denomination do you belong to. Have you ever found this happen. What do you really believe about. And they've got a whole list of things. Abortion capital punishment the government.

Uh what the christians are doing in beirut or northern ireland. Uh do you belong to this place or that place. Down the street suddenly comes up and jesus uh doesn't really answer the question again. But immediately he begins to lead her away from these questions of public religious behavior whether we're to worship on this mountain or that mountain to the reality of a new relationship.

Becoming a christian isn't a matter of new rules and changing labels but a new relationship. You see. So at once in a story he starts to talk about father. He's never mentioned father up to now. But in verse 21 we begin to hear of the father.

And then again in 23 the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth. They are the kind of worshipers the father sees now. Maybe this lady had never had a decent relationship with her own father.

Possibly this was why her relationship subsequently with men had gone so wrong and why she'd moved from one to the other. But he begins to offer her a new relationship with someone whom he calls to her father.

And they begin to discuss how to worship father. Jesus is so interesting. You know the previous chapter john chapter three. He's talking to nicodemus the great expert in jewish worship in religious ceremony.

And then his next chapter with the poor sinful woman. Well he tells one of them that they need to be born again and with the other he discusses the depths of how you worship god now. Which way around would you have done it.

You would probably have discussed the principles and the theology of worship with the theology professor and told the poor dear benighted woman the immoral woman dear you need to be born again. Don't you.

Jesus does it. The other way around very respectful talks to this woman of a relationship that she can have with god who is a father who seeks for her to worship him. She is to become a new daughter the new father.

That's christ's goal. That's why he's come. He says later to the disciples i've come to do my father's will my food. That which actually satisfies me in life is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

And if if it was god's will that he go looking for worshippers. That's what will satisfy. That's christ's goal. In this whole conversation build the bridges establish the human contact lead her to ask questions that reflect her own need.

Gently put aside the the religious questions that come up and show the reality of a relationship with god so that she might worship. We want to leave behind us worshippers. Don't we. That was what satisfied christ in life.

I mean he plopped down um by the well in the early verses his disciples went off to buy food when they later came back from mcdonald's or wherever they got the sort of take away from the the thing they he said no i don't want any food.

Now i'm satisfied i have fed well while you were gone. And they whisper. Has anybody brought him food. No my food. That which actually satisfies me is to have found another worshipper for the father and brought her to understand that a relationship with the father will satisfy her too.

It's often true. Isn't it that the poor and the despised make the best worshippers just have come to look for folk like that not people who are self-sick who need the doctor says jesus in another gospel.

Sowing and Reaping in Evangelism

And then notice too verse 43 that he leaves. He spends two days with them teaching her friends. And then he pushes off after the two days he left for galilee. Now jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet had no honor in his own country.

Get what he's saying. These are verses that we sometimes skip over. You know between the story of the woman of samaria and the healing of the official son. But why did jesus leave that area where things were going so well.

In personal evangelism this one lady has become the key to the whole village because of the transformation of her life. And she's coming to a new relationship. All the others are asking questions. And after two days of that jesus says bye-bye.

I'm going to a tougher place. They're hard up in galilee. They're with those folk. But you know when i was up in jerusalem he's explained to the disciples as they go i actually sowed a bit of seed among these galileans.

They've all come home from the feast. Now back home from jerusalem up to galilee i'm going to see how my my seed is getting on. Don't imagine that evangelists spend all their time reaping. They do some sowing as well.

If there's no sowing well eventually you'll stop reaping. And there are many times when we get into conversations or we preach when actually what we accomplish is far more sowing actually even than reaping.

But jesus knows how his harvest is getting on in different parts of palestine. And there's a crop to be looked at among those galileans. And when he arrived in galilee the galileans welcomed him and they'd seen all that he'd done in jerusalem at the passover feast.

But they'd also been there and so he has some ministry among them. But he's left the samaritans behind who reaped them. You tell me in acts chapter eight the apostles went down and started reaping what jesus had already been sowing.

Now jesus in these chapters said look this is a key principle of evangelism. One sows and another reaps. That's verse 37. What he's saying is that there are usually a minimum of two people involved in any leading a person to christ takes a bit of time.

The harvest takes time to grow. One person may sow a seed and then go away and the lord will lead them to another part of the harvest. And maybe they'll do some reaping somewhere else. And you come in and you reap.

Don't think that you did the whole work. You may well reap where someone else has sown. And it's a great mistake to think that we are only doing god's work when we are harvesting. It's very possible for people who are used in personal evangelism who are seeing people come to christ regularly to think that they are the ones doing the real work and that no one else's part is really worthy of respect.

Let's get that quite clear in our minds at the start of this seminar you know jesus was content to do some sowing and then go off and look at another bit of harvest and leave the reaping there to someone else because his father was the lord of the harvest.

Of course he reaped sowed a bit and went. And we too need to be be willing to sow. Now there are those two stories. I'll come back to act 17 um later on probably this morning. But let's ask ourselves now from these two what is the gospel.

Unless you've got questions about the lady and the tactics with her. I'm sure it's true. In christian work particularly um you know if you're in an engine room or an office uh and you have a community life among other christians to go from the beginning of the week to the end meeting very few non-christians.

Now i have a number of non-christian friends and uh i must say i do know some christians who regard it as a matter of great sanctification that they have no non-christian friends that would be worldly.

It's not sanctification at all. It's a disgrace. We ought to have non-christian friends. We ought to be um taking care that we meet them somehow. Now it's tougher for the office folk isn't it. This isn't actually a friendship situation is it.

This is a flop down and be willing to chat and be flexible about time. The disciples presumably thought that this was just a sort of one meal stopover a kind of motorway turn off grab the grub and keep going.

They found actually that they were staying there for two days. Plans shot two days late in arriving where they were going to be. But a whole village eventually transformed. I doubt if jesus had explained it all to them in detail beforehand.

This sort of flexibility. Meet non-christians have them over be willing to chat a bit stay around. It can be terribly annoying can't it if there's a father in a family and the whole family are hurrying driving to somewhere and the father pulls into a country garage and starts chatting to the the greasy mechanic under the car and the family are in the car.

They're desperate to go on and and little timothy's been sick and and you know louise is quarreling with amanda and the wife you know wishes her this fellowhood wouldn't always be involved in evangelism.

I personally have no answer to that problem. Um other than to appeal that we we be we place a higher priority on on uh friendship with people than our jobs sometimes. Comments if you have. Yes we've just had a situation.

I'm saying this for the tape. Now uh explained where a wife was being taken out for a special evening with husband. They're not going to spend a lot of money but just a little something anyway to be private together.

And the wretched husband starts witnessing to somebody. The wife's sitting there fuming. Now that is is so biblical. Do you remember in uh mark chapter six it is the disciples come back from an evangelistic campaign.

They've grown a little bit now he's not just watching the lord do it. They've been sent out and they get back and they report to the lord all that they have said and done. I think it says done and said.

And jesus says well done. You need rest. Come away with me to a desert place and we'll have some quiet some rest. You'll be with me. And so this is. I think this is great. You know the lord isn't one of these people who is drive drive drive you know fanatical work work work all the time he wants them to rest.

And when they get there there's a huge crowd of people who've seen them going and got around and got there quicker. And so jesus starts to talk to them. And these poor disciples are grumpily sitting in a fat sort of holiday.

This is you know preaching again. My kids get like that. You know daddy preaching again. And then the end of the day and there's no food. And you remember he how he feeds the five thousand. My belief is that actually watching him do that and then feed miraculously with no resources exactly the way the the disciples felt spiritually.

They had run low in resources. And then they saw the lord doing a miracle with what they had anyway. And they each finished up with their own basket full told to go and gather it. They'd been waiters at this meal.

And then they were told to gather up the bread. Why is jesus against feeding the birds. Or is he on an anti litter drive or something. Well no i i'm sure. They then ate of the food themselves. Waiters do eat often of the bits that come back on the on the plate.

And then they went on. It was watching the lord listening to him and observing a miracle that accomplished the purpose of refreshment and drawing closer together. So the lord accomplished the original purpose even though not exactly in the way that the disciples thought he would.

It's it's a crucial thing isn't it to have. Well we can go to the family seminar. You know you'll get exhortations there to you know to spend time together. We must have non-christian friends and a willingness to be a bit flexible.

Now peter you in the year ahead find yourself in an om situation where you really just aren't making non-christian contacts. And you're desperate to do so and i do hope you'll speak to your leader about that.

Maybe you'll want to join some outside organization maybe a local squash club or something. And if he says there's no money and it's impossible then maybe you want just drop me a little letter and i'll write to him.

I think that's very very important for om that we don't get into this narrow kind of life where we're not really interested in life very much. We've just got very narrow tunnel vision. And actually when we do meet a non-christian we don't really know what to talk about because all our mind is on this this one thing beware of the om machine.