Beyond The Basics: Evangelism (part 1)

Well, I was reading this week something that Billy Graham's grandson wrote.

And he was talking about his own life and how privileged he was to grow up in a home where God was exalted and Christ was preached.

And then he remarked that when he was 16 years old, his parents had to kick him out of the house.

And he went on and talked about how he pursued his own agenda for about the next five years and got more miserable and more miserable until one

Sunday he was in church. He woke up that morning feeling the full effect of the previous night's activities.

Woke up and just thought, you know what, I've had enough. I'm going to go to church this morning. And he goes,

I really don't remember what was preached. I don't really remember if I liked the songs very much, but I knew that was where I needed to be.

Our topic this morning is evangelism. When you think about Billy Graham's grandson, how many times do you think he heard the gospel in his life?

Once, twice, probably pretty frequently. And for 21 years of his life, he lived in rebellion to that.

How does that happen? How does that happen?

The reason is obvious, because we have come out of the womb opposed to God.

We have hearts of stone. We don't love God naturally. There has to be a supernatural work that God must accomplish.

But I just thought it was interesting, and I can't even say his last name, so I'm not going to try. His first name is

Tullian. He's named after a famous preacher named Tertullian. I guess they just shortened it,

I don't know. Or maybe Tertullian's nickname was Tullian. I don't know. But anyway, here we are talking about evangelism.

Now, first question here, what are some reasons that Christians don't share? And I just use that word share, because everybody likes to say,

I shared. What are some of the reasons why, you know, we don't often find that in Scripture.

You know, Jesus shared the gospel. Paul shared. Paul went up on Mars Hill and he shared.

Stephen, as he was being stoned to death, shared. We don't see that. But what are some reasons that we as Christians don't share or preach the gospel to unbelievers?

What are some of the reasons? Fear. Fear of man.

We're afraid of being rejected, right? What else?

Okay, we don't have a proper perspective of the reality of hell. I think that's exactly right. If we knew, if we were walking around and we just thought, you know, here's 100 people that I'm on the train with.

And 99 of them are bound for hell. Have a nice day. See you guys later.

See you tomorrow. I think Peggy's right.

I don't think we think about hell appropriately. What else? Bruce. Okay.

Discouragement. Things that put us really off what we ought to be about. Sometimes could be our own sin.

Could be circumstances around us that we allow to really move us off what we ought to be focused on.

And sometimes I think that basically gets in the sin, too. I mean, if you're worried, is that sin?

If you're, you know, what's a good euphemism for worried? I'm preoccupied.

That's a good one. I'm preoccupied. Pam. Don't feel equipped to answer questions.

I think that's a great one. I mean, it kind of is a subset of fear, but I think this is where a lot of people are.

Don't feel equipped to answer a lot of questions. What would I do if somebody, you know, if they actually listened to me preach the gospel, and then they asked me a question?

That's good. Anything else? Casey. Yeah, lack of sense of urgency.

Some people that we meet could be dead in a year. Some of them could be dead tomorrow. If we viewed life as fragile, as every breath as literally a gift from God, we would have,

I think, more of a sense of urgency. Any other thoughts? Yes, Steve.

Okay. Selfishness. And, yeah, we're all set. I'm all set.

Thanks. You know. Yeah, I think that's right, too. I mean, and again, kind of a subset of the fear of man, but a much more specific example of it.

If we are not consumed with a sense of where other people are, if we're thinking, hey,

I'm okay, and, you know, these other people are just kind of on their own. It's survivor. It's survival of the fittest.

You know, whatever happens to those guys. I mean, I'm sure we wouldn't think that way, but how many of us are thinking, well, you know what,

I really don't want to be embarrassed. I don't want to go down in flames. Maybe I don't want to go down in flames again.

I don't want somebody to get the wrong idea about me. I don't want somebody to think I'm a religious nut.

Okay, people don't know how to turn a conversation to spiritual things. People don't know how to turn a conversation from whatever it is, you know, maybe who the

Celtics ought to draft or something vital like that, and how do you then turn that into a spiritual issue?

How do you do that? How do you do that, Pam? Okay, you use things that are happening.

Car crash with fatalities. Things that are just generally going on around people, maybe in their lives, and you then turn those things to, for example, the traffic accident that Pam was just mentioning.

You know, do you think that those people, when they got up in the morning, were thinking, well, today's the day

I'm going to die. I'm probably going to die in some fiery, horrific car crash on the highway.

And yet every single one of us recognize that every time we get in a car, every time we leave our homes, sometimes even when we're sitting in our home, life is fragile.

A lot of good reasons or a lot of reasons that we don't preach the gospel, we don't share it as we should.

I don't know if they're good or not, but I think they're justifications that we use. Why should we preach?

Why should we preach? What is our main motivation? I've written here

His command. Let's look at Matthew 28, verses 16 to 20, also known as the

Great Commission. And who has that passage?

Go ahead. Thanks, Will.

Now, it's interesting what Jesus doesn't say. If we just put it in the context of all the reasons that we maybe don't preach the gospel as often as we should,

Jesus say, look, go, therefore, make disciples of the nations, unless you're going to be rejected, unless you're afraid of how people are going to respond to you, unless...

fill in the blank. There is no exception clause. In fact, it's pretty interesting, really, the extent of that.

Look at what MacArthur says here. He's talking about the Great Commission. He says, the Great Commission is the central mission of the people of God, a mission that, tragically, many

Christians do not understand or are unwilling to fulfill. What does he call the central mission of the people of God?

Steve. Exactly right.

I mean, think about it. Why not just save us and then go heaven?

What purpose does it serve for us to stay here? Just individuals, one by one, stumble across the

Bible somewhere in the woods, read it, get saved, go straight up to heaven. Well, we're here primarily to preach the gospel to unbelievers, to do

God's work. It's interesting here.

We're going to talk more about why we should do these things, why we should preach the gospel.

But look at this. Think about this. How many Christians were at that first announcement? How many received the

Great Commission? The first group we could read in 1

Corinthians 15 .6 was 500. Five hundred saw the resurrected

Jesus. Five hundred received that word. Five hundred people against the world.

How does that work? How can that possibly impact the world?

How can we see over the course of the centuries, probably millions, hundreds of millions, billions of people saved?

How can that happen? How can 500 people have such an impact on the world?

But God is an answer. They were faithful and God was faithful. Look at this.

They were commissioned. Roman numeral two down there. By extension, all authority has been given to Christ by the

Father. All authority. No limits on it. In heaven and in earth.

Look at what Kistemacher says. Why does Jesus make known this claim? Answer.

So that he now commissions his apostles to proclaim the gospel throughout the world. They may know that moment by moment, day by day, they can lean on him.

Is not this the clear teaching of such precious passages as, and he lists a few, not only this, but these apostles and those that follow afterward must demand that everyone in every sphere of life shall joyfully acknowledge

Jesus as Lord of Lords and King of Kings. The great claim,

Jesus claimed to have that authority, is therefore a fitting introduction to the great commission.

He has all authority for all time. And he says, go therefore and make disciples.

He still has all authority. Roman numeral number four. His command remains in force to his disciples today.

Who are his disciples today? Only Brian Bartlett is a disciple today.

Thank you, Brian. Believers. Those who are in the church.

The invisible church. We use a scary word.

The church Catholic. The universal church. Not the Catholic big

C church. The Catholic small C church. The universal church of God.

Those who have come to faith in Christ. Now, how can believers fail to understand this or be unwilling?

Well, we've talked about some of the reasons. And I think, and I talked about this at a men's breakfast for just a couple minutes a few weeks ago.

I think, you know, probably what is the most difficult group of people to witness to?

Family. Why? Familiarity breeds contempt.

What did Jesus say? He said, a prophet is without honor in his own home, basically.

You know, in his own hometown when everybody comes back and says, oh yeah, remember that kid. Yeah, yeah, he brings a sword to the family.

How so? Because he's dividing. He's dividing father against son and all those other things.

Why? Because the truth divides. The truth divides. But ultimately, you know, people will say this.

You'll hear this. If you've ever evangelized anyone in your life, at some point you've probably heard this.

Well, you're judgmental. You're unloving. Who are you to tell me how to live my life?

How many have ever heard anything like that? The rest of you get busy. Oh, we're going to get there.

Hold your fire. Just hold on. Hold your fire. Keep your powder dry. But it is right.

And you do make a couple of very important points. But first of all, all authority has been given to him.

And it's on that basis that he is giving the great commission. He's not just randomly throwing things out.

He is, well, he's the Lord of the church. He is

God incarnate. He is the one from whom we take, as it were, our marching orders.

You know, we always say, onward, Christian soldiers. Well, there are two, you know, that's one of the songs we all love to sing on Memorial Day.

I don't think we're singing it today. But there are two basic ideas behind that. One would be, onward,

Christian soldiers, let's go recapture Jerusalem and kill all the infidels who've filled the land.

And the other one would be what? That we are to faithfully, as with a soldier's mindset, heeding our general, heeding our

Lord, we are going to faithfully do what he has commanded us to do. We are to enter the battlefield every day with his weapons, which is the word of God, and we'll get to that too.

But what could be more loving than to give the antidote to the greatest disease that every man, woman, and child faces?

Sin. And you say, well, is that a disease? Well, yeah. Because it has but one result.

You can't kill it with chemotherapy. You can't treat it with drugs. There's only one antidote for it, and that is believing on the

Lord Jesus Christ. Greene says, the

Great Commission is the counterpart of the great commandment to love God and neighbor. Without that, evangelism would be cold and hard.

What does he mean by that? Yes. Joni, that is great, well said.

We have to have, the only modification I would say is not pity, it is compassion and really a sense of empathy.

That is, I understand exactly your response to what

I've just told you. Because were it not for the grace of God, I'd do exactly the same thing.

Exactly the same thing. And I'm not telling you these things because I want to hurt you. I'm not telling you these things because I'm upset with you.

I'm not telling you these things in any way because I think I'm better than you, because I am not.

I'm telling you these things because I love you and I don't want you to go to hell. And I'm telling you these things because I love

God and He has commissioned me. He has commanded me. He has given me an obligation.

He has saved me and given me one thing to do for the rest of my life. And that is to proclaim

His excellencies. To call people out of the darkness and into the light. That's what we do.

Why will you remain in darkness? Why will you remain in your sins?

Why will you remain on the road that leads to eternal hell? Repent.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. That's what we do. It's not a bad thing.

It's not a mean thing. Do you love your neighbor enough to risk alienation?

Do you love him or her enough to say, I know you think you're good enough.

Can I just tell you the truth? No one's good enough. I'm not good enough. No one is good enough to get into heaven.

Do you love God enough to obey Him? I love the Lord, but I won't tell anybody about Him.

It'll just be my little secret. We'll be kind of pen pals. Will you hide the light of God under a bushel?

Will you protect the gospel against anyone who might hear it?

That's the wrong view. It needs to be proclaimed. The truth needs to be out there.

Well, what do we proclaim? What should believers preach? What should they share?

His message. What else would we give them? I am so disturbed.

When I read things, and I read this a couple times this week, and it's kind of a creep into the evangelical world from churches that we just kind of used to roll our eyes at to now churches that are more accepted.

This term of a seeker. We have to appeal to seekers. We have to be ready for seekers.

And here was a new term I just read the other day, serious seekers. I don't know, man.

It's like, okay, can I see a show of all the seekers in the audience today?

Now, on a scale of one to five, with five being serious, one being marginally interested, how many of you are a five?

Okay, ushers, note those people, write them down. Let's talk to those guys afterwards. What does that mean?

And is that how we approach things? You know, was Jesus, can we find, if we read through all four

Gospels this morning, and I don't know who the fastest reader in here, but I suggest that we probably don't have time. But if we read through all four

Gospels this morning, would we say Jesus going, you know what? I am here to find seekers.

Is that what he said? Or did he say, I have come to seek that which is lost?

There is a seeker. We hope he's at every meeting. We know he's at every meeting.

But he's not sitting in the pews. What is the message of Jesus Christ?

Well, he said in the Great Commission, and in fact the controlling verb of the Great Commission is to make disciples.

We think it's go, but it's actually to make disciples. Kind of an interesting concept, because making disciples, is that the focus of Christianity?

Is that the focus of the Christian church? As evidenced by, I think, the growing use of the term seeker,

I don't think so. This is from the

MacArthur Study Bible. Again, for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, MSB, that isn't some kind of monosodium glutamate.

That is the MacArthur Study Bible. Not a food additive, but the authorized version.

Thank you. It says this. The kind of evangelism called for in this commission does not end with the conversion of the unbeliever.

Making disciples. We're not satisfied to merely get somebody to make a profession of faith. If it was all about saying the sinner's prayer, and again,

I was at a website, what I presume is a pretty solid evangelical church, and they kind of gave a gospel presentation.

It's interesting, though, even in this one, I thought, you know, I agree with most of what it says, but it really doesn't get down to the holiness of God or who

God is. It did talk about sin, so I had to give them that, and about salvation being by Christ alone.

But I just thought, you know, there's something a little bit lacking here when we get to the end. If you believe all those things, then pray this prayer.

I am a sinner. I receive you, Jesus, in my heart. I just think that's weak.

It's weak. Do we want people to receive Christ? Well, yes, absolutely.

But is that what Jesus calls us to? I want you to go find people who will receive me.

It says, make disciples, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded.

There has to be a content to the gospel. It's not just believe in Jesus without understanding who

Jesus is, why we need to believe in Jesus. We have to teach in order to make disciples.

James Montgomery Boyce says, the third universal of the

Great Commission is the command to teach those we have evangelized. Christ commanded us to teach them to obey everything or all things, which means that for all

Christians, a lifetime of learning must follow conversion and membership in Christ's church.

This command is particularly important in our extremely superficial age.

What we observe in the church seems to be the opposite. Instead of striving to teach all

Christ commanded, many are trying to eliminate as much of his teaching as possible, concentrating instead on things that are easily comprehended and unobjectionable.

But a course such as this is distorted. It is usually grace without judgments, love without justice, salvation without obedience and triumph without suffering.

The motivation of some of these reductionists may be good. They want to win as many people to Christ as possible.

But the method is the world's and the results will be the world's results.

Robust disciples are not made by watered down teaching. Amen. We don't want to lower the bar.

We don't want to empty the gospel of its impact. I think the trend in evangelicalism today will lead to what?

More converts? What's that?

Higher view of man, lower view of God? Absolutely. More false converts,

Barbara? Self -deceived people? And I think, too, if this were to continue, this trend for the next 15 or 20 years,

I think we would see a rapid decline in the Christian church in terms of numbers.

Why? Because if you... Well, basically, it's like building your hand...

Your hand? Your house on the sand or your hand on the sound.

I don't know what I'm... If you imagine this, that we...

Let me just change the picture a little bit. That all we're after is getting people into the kingdom somehow, someway.

And so we fill an entire church with babies and we keep them at that baby state forever.

Then what happens when the geezers die? The people who know everything die. Then we turn to those babies with our dying breath and we say, go evangelize the world.

And they're like... They don't know what to do. They haven't got a clue why because you never bothered.

You know, you were more focused on this week in our continuing series on 14 ways to be a better neighbor.

Pastor Stan, you know, how does that work?

You know, our six tried and true methods to improve your lawn and impress your neighbors. It just doesn't cut it.

It will pack the place out. You know, I never knew church was so practical. And I can get it all in before the

NFL games start. Sweet. I go by a church all the time that talks about grace without judgment, love without justice, salvation without obedience, and triumph without suffering.

It's called the Universal Unitarian Church. I always just kind of marvel when

I drive by that place because they've got all these different religious symbols on it. You know, it's the one place where you can believe anything and go and nobody says anything.

You can be, you know, I mean, they have Islamic signs up there and Hindu signs up there. And I only know those because I play games that have those kind of symbols in them.

But, yeah. But, but I digress.

But it's just, it's fascinating that there is this idea that I'm okay, you're okay, and this is, this is how the world views things.

That's how the world thinks they're going to change things is by making people more savable, by reducing the amount of judgment and everything else that's in the world, by just making people nicer.

Christianity is never about making people nicer. It's about making disciples, about teaching them what

Christ commanded. Page 44.

Obedience to Christ and evangelism means raising the bar, not lowering it. Anybody listen by any chance to those two goofballs who were on the radio?

What was that, Tuesday or Wednesday? What day was it?

I'm not talking about Haley and Mike. I'm talking about me and Mike. We're on the radio and we were talking about lordship.

And, you know, it was pretty interesting because there was actually, I thought that was pretty funny. There was actually a guy named Steve Cooley who called into the show.

And I'm just like, hmm. And he was a pastor too. I thought that was really wild. But, again,

I digress. But, anyway, the point being we were talking about raising the bar in evangelism, not lowering it.

Raising the standard. Let's look at how Jesus taught. Let's look at Matthew 7, verses 13 and 14.

And if the Lord wills, I think Pastor Mike is due to get there sometime early next year. Matthew 7, verses 13 and 14.

And who has that? Pretty. Now let's just take out of the way here for just a moment that the

Lord Jesus Christ said this. Let's just say that you put this in your own words and you told your unbelieving family and friends this.

What would they say? Judging. What else?

You're so narrow -minded. Surely God will beat us with a few stripes and then let us into heaven.

And you know what? Jesus was too loving to condemn anyone.

He would never say anything like that. Enter through the narrow gate.

Many will go through the broad gate. Great song by Charlie Crane.

The gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life. Very few will find it.

Few will be going to heaven. What was Jesus thinking? He's addressing people and He says,

Listen, most of you are going to hell. That's not how you do it,

Jesus. That's not how you build the church. That's not how you pack the pews.

You've got to be more broadly evangelical. You've got to broaden your horizons.

Look at Luke 9, verses 23 to 25.

I'm not just picking on a few texts, although I have a few more. This is the consistent teaching of Jesus Christ.

Not, I have great news. All of you are going to heaven. Don't worry about the details. For some folks, you wonder why

Jesus ever bothered with the Great Commission. Why do that? We're all okay anyway.

That's just not the case. Luke 9, verses 23 to 25. Carl, again, just maybe in a little less formal way, imagine saying this to your family and friends.

And they say, Thank you for sharing, Steve. That's a very interesting perspective you have.

But, what do you mean that in order to save my life,

I have to lose it? What do you mean that it would be wrong for me to gain the whole world?

What do you mean that I have to deny myself? Listen, we live in a world that says what?

Above all else, to thine own self be true.

You go to school. They're not really so much interested. I was just reading something else. I thought this was great.

About, you know, we've heard about new math for quite a while. But actually, many of the people that are involved in education, they want, you know, history,

English, and a lot of things have taken on kind of a post -modern sense to them, which meaning, you know, everybody can have their own different view and everybody can still be right.

You know, you can think we won World War II because of that reason. I'll think because of this reason.

You can think that this, that, or the other thing. You know, everybody can be right. Well, what's more troubling,

I think, is when it comes down to mathematics because they're like, hey, you know what? These kids today don't really need to learn long division.

That's what we have calculators for. We don't really need this, that, or the other thing.

We can do that another way. And you know what? If the kids are off a little bit in their long division, what's the big deal?

You know, they need to learn to think and to be more creative. Another thing

I read, I mean, I'm just reading a lot of goofy things this week, but along those same lines,

I was reading this thing where they think that if they were to start right now, they could not build a Saturn V rocket.

Who knows what a Saturn V is? It's what they sent the guys to the moon in, right?

And why? Because they've lost, you know, all the people that could do long division and all that stuff, you know, all those technical things.

They've lost the technical proficiency to do those kind of things because of retirement and other things, and they really don't have the knowledge.

And this all, they started fiddling around with this because they were, this will make you feel really good, they were working on some of the nuclear bombs, you know, kind of bringing them back up to speed because they were getting a little antiquated.

And they started going, there's a certain ingredient that they put in there, and they're going, they realized they didn't know how to make that anymore.

And so then, you know, they started looking at all the different things, all the technological things that were so secret, nobody wrote them down, and now nobody knows how to do them.

And I just thought, you know, this is the reality of what's going on in evangelicalism, that instead of focusing on doctrine and all the technicalities, all these, you know, deep, heavy things, just kind of, you know, it's not really that important.

You know, you can, when it comes to, let's just all agree that Jesus is

God, and he died for our sins, and, you know, the rest we'll just all sort out when we get to heaven. It's not what

Jesus said. He said, deny yourself. Don't worry about your own self -image.

Take it a step further, really, and I love the way MacArthur says this, he said that you need to refuse to associate with your former self.

Take up your cross daily.

No, that doesn't mean drag a cross around like they do in the Philippines. You know, come

Easter, there's always some guys running around doing that, and then they get crucified. That's not the point. That is not the point at all.

You have to be willing to lay down your life for the truth. That's the point of taking up your cross.

Refusing to associate with yourself. Being willing to lay down your life to carry out the commission of the

Lord Jesus Christ. To be obedient even to the point where it costs you your own life.

That's what he calls us to. He set the bar very high. He didn't say, listen, I'm just into packing the pews,

I just want to see lots of people get baptized, and I don't really care what you know as long as you know that I died for your sins.

Making disciples involves teaching them everything. Now, do you have to know everything to get saved?

No. But it is an ongoing process where each person needs to be taught, they need to be willing to learn, and to continue to grow in Christ.

But we don't make it easy, we don't simplify the gospel to the point where it's no longer the gospel.

We want them to understand how serious a commission, or how serious a responsibility they're taking on.

What did Jesus say? I want you to consider the cost. He was talking about people who would follow him need to count the cost.

You know, I think that's a marvelous picture. How many of you have been over to the Middle East? It is, walking around Israel, it is remarkable to me, and I think

I primarily saw this in the Palestinian areas. You would see so many homes, not burned or destroyed or anything like that, but where you could see that the outside was three -quarters of the way finished, there was nobody working on it, and there was nobody occupying it.

It's like they thought, okay, this is going to take $75 ,000 to build, I've got $50 ,000 on hand,

I'll start. Yikes, I don't have enough. To me it just looks like they didn't consider the cost.

Following Christ costs everything. And if you preach that gospel, problems.

Maybe people don't like it. Look again, Jesus discouraged those who thought it was easy.

Let's look at Luke 18. He discouraged those who thought it was easy to get to heaven.

Luke 18, 18 -26. A ruler questioned him, questioned

Jesus, saying, good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal.

Do not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother. And I'm going to stop right there for a second.

We hear those commandments. And you know what? If you ask most people, they'll say, well, I don't do those things.

I haven't committed adultery. I haven't murdered anyone. I haven't stolen anything. I've not borne false witness.

I've honored my mother and father. To which I could just say, how many mothers and fathers would say, you know what, my child always obeyed perfectly every single time.

At least when hooked up to a lie detector. I've never lied. I've never exaggerated.

I've never withheld the truth. I've never said anything false about anyone. I've never stolen.

I've never coveted. Jesus went on to expand that in the Sermon on the

Mount. Do not murder. Do not hate. Do not say angry things about your brother. Do not commit adultery.

Do not even lust in your heart. Now, if anyone can look at all those things and say, I have never done that in their life.

Well, let me just tell you a little secret. They're lying.

Verse 21. And he said, all these things, talking about the rich young ruler, all these things I have kept for my youth.

When Jesus heard this, when he heard this lie, he said to him, one thing you still lack, namely eternal life.

But that's not what he said. So all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven.

And come, follow me. But when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.

And Jesus looked at him and said, how hard is it for those who are wealthy to enter, or how hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God.

For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

They who heard it said, good job, you chased him away. No, they said, then who can be saved?

You just set the bar too high. Verse 27. But he,

Jesus said, the things that are impossible with people are possible with God.

Jesus set the bar very high, but he said, listen, if this was about appealing to people, you'd probably have a point.

But it's God at work here. And when God saves someone, nothing's out of the realm of possibility.

When God is at work, anything is possible. Jesus chased seekers away.

Jesus chased seekers away. Look at John 6, verses 65 to 69.

Again, he had apparently not read all the books on church growth, didn't know how to make a convert, because he was just chasing these people away.

He had a multitude of people following him at this point in his ministry. He could have built a really big church and kept them packed for week after week if he'd just done the right thing.

John 6, verse 65. And he, Jesus, was saying, for this reason

I have said to you, that no one can come to me unless it has been granted him from the

Father. As a result of this, as a result of all his teaching here, many of his disciples, what is a disciple?

A follower, right? Some might say today a seeker. Not necessarily a believer, but people who were following after Jesus.

Many of his disciples withdrew and were not walking with him anymore. They were no longer his disciples.

They just said, you know what, I've had enough. I'm resigning from my discipleship. So Jesus said to the twelve, you do not want to go away also, do you?

Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

We have believed and come to know that you are the Holy One of God. Jesus answered them.

Well, I won't go on and read that, but here's the point. The point is, the true disciples did not abandon

Jesus because of his hard teaching. They didn't fully comprehend it, but they were going to keep plugging along anyway.

But those who were in for the miracles, for the free food, for all the things that they expected a

Messiah to bring along with him, abandoned him when he began teaching the difficult things of Christ.

When he began teaching difficult doctrines, things that weren't easy, they left.

We need to set the bar high in terms of evangelism. Just quickly, we do the four

W's. We need to teach whenever we're going to give someone the gospel, and you need to be ready to give this to anybody at any time.

It may be you come upon that car wreck. Someone may be dying, and the last thing they're going to hear in this world is you give them the gospel.

You can say, are you feeling okay? Not too bad, and then they pass into eternity.

Or you can say, do you know who God is? Do you know that you're a sinner?

Do you know that because of your sin, you will go to hell eternally, that you have fallen short of the glory of God, that even one sin, one missing of the perfection of God is enough to send you to hell forever, but God sent his son,

Jesus Christ, fully God, fully man, into this world to bear the sins of people just like you, that believing in him, believing that he died, was raised on the third day, and now reigns in heaven, you may be saved, and he commands you to repent, stop trusting in yourself and your own goodness, and to rely wholly on him.

Can you do that? Can you do that? Let's close in prayer.

Father, we do thank you for your clear word.

We thank you for the marvel of the gospel, that you would take those who spurned you time after time after time, even as we think of Tullian, and how he lived hearing the gospel daily, rejected it, fled much like the prodigal son.

But Father, in your time, you convicted him of his sinfulness. Lord, we praise you that you are a

God who saves sinners. We praise you that you are a God who uses reclaimed, repentant sinners to preach your gospel.

Who would ever think of such a thing of taking the foolishness of men, of taking the refuse, the riffraff, the no -goods, us, to proclaim the excellencies of God.

Lord, would you make us more faithful, more open to opportunities, fearless, not because we want to have little tick marks on our

Bible, but because we want to obey you. Father, I pray for each one here, including me, that we would be bolder in our proclamation of the truth.