Biblical Evangelism

Part 7 - Be doers of the word not just hearers

In Luke chapter 14 verses 15 to 24 which we looked at in our previous study speaks about inviting the blind, the lame and people with other sorts of disabilities that might not be in a position to feed themselves properly let alone return the invitation to a meal in their home.

The whole idea of inviting someone to your home for a meal (either one-to-one or more if you can afford it) is that you will be able to minister to their physical need before you try to minister to their spiritual need. Many have found that this way round the hearts of the people will be much more open to receive the true gospel.

Revelation chapter 12 verse 11 reads as follows: "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." There is no question here of telling someone what Jesus has done for you if they are going to want to kill you for it afterwards.

If you witness to a Muslim remember that they do not have any concept of love, but they do understand what it is to live your life in honour of someone. If you then tell a Muslim that you live your life in honour of Jesus and then tell that person why they are much more likely to listen to and understand what you are saying.

Muslims do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God, God incarnate or anything other than a great prophet. At this stage, do not argue with that, just give your testimony in a short time and leave God to move things on from there, rather like the experience of Jesus with the woman at the well.

You have your testimony to tell which is very important, if in addition you have the opportunity of telling them about the uniqueness of the Christian faith then the short study below may be of help in summarising what the differences are between the Christian faith and any other faith around today. Jesus is the absolute truth, way and life, it is not a question of what works for you He is this for everyone.

Christianity is unique; there is no other faith like it.

The Christian faith is the only faith whereby you do not have to work to get to heaven, it is through putting your faith and trust in Jesus the chosen one of God. In every other faith you have to try to out-do your bad works with your good works, and even then when you die you have no certainty of a place in heaven.

Some believe that a person is re-incarnated and if they do a lot of good in their life then they will once again come back as a human being. Christianity says that when you leave this world through death you will never again have to come back to such a wicked, uncaring merciless environment, and that if you have walked all your remaining days with Jesus then you will live with Him in splendour forever.

Christians believe that God created the world by speaking it into being and that Jesus is the embodiment of God's spoken word and is in fact God Himself who took upon Himself human likeness so that later He might take the punishment of our rebellion against the ways of God upon Himself in order that through a change of heart, mind and life we might move away from that kind of life and walk in fellowship with Him.

In two of the books of The Bible (Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28) is true story is told of a high-ranking angel who tried to overthrow God so that he could have all the adoration and worship for himself. For this act of wickedness and rebellion he was thrown out of heaven and now seeks to continue to persuade mankind (the pinnacle of God's creation) to continue in rebellion against God and resist His authority over us.

There is the story of how this world was created perfect until this fallen angel introduced sin into it by persuading the first two people ever created – Adam and Eve, that God is a liar and does not mean what He says. He is still trying to put across this lie to everyone in the world today.

Adam and Eve lived in a beautiful garden where everything had been perfect but were thrown out of the garden when they ate fruit from a tree they had been told by God never to touch. This was an act of great love because had they remained in the garden and eaten from the tree of life they would have lived forever in their state of sin and would therefore be irredeemable.

When God found out about their disobedience He immediately began to outline and put into effect a plan of redemption for all mankind whereby their natural tendency to sin would be dealt with and if they wanted to they could come back into intimate fellowship with their creator and live forever in His presence, which is what God wanted so much from the very beginning.

The man who stood in the gap for us and took the punishment we so richly deserve was a man called Jesus who rose from the dead more than 2000 years ago in order to prove to the world that His sacrifice of Himself on the cross on our behalf had been found acceptable by God and now whoever turns unto Him in sincerity of heart and walks in fellowship with Him need have no fear of further punishment in the next life.

All that God requires of us now is that we put our faith and trust in what Jesus accomplished on our behalf through the cross and trust in Him alone, believing that He is our Saviour and Redeemer who is God's Son and lived a life free from sin whilst on earth and because of His obedience was raised from death and taken back into heaven where He now sits at the right hand of His Father, God Himself.

Christians also believe that He is to come again to judge everyone who has chosen not to walk in fellowship with Jesus and to punish them for their evil deeds for all eternity. Those who truly believe what The Bible says about Jesus and have asked Him to be their Lord and Saviour and are walking in fellowship with Him by praying to Him day by day will escape judgement and share in the magnificence of heaven forever.

There is a prayer that everyone needs to say in sincerity of heart and it now follows, if you really want to walk in fellowship with God and have Jesus as your Saviour then I invite you to repeat those things written in this prayer and say "amen" at the end of it if you sincerely want what the prayer is all about.

"Lord Jesus I acknowledge that I am a sinner who has rebelled against your commands, refused your ways and in preference and gone my own way in everything. I ask you now to forgive all my sin, wickedness and rebellion, to cleanse me from it all right now and to be my Lord, my God, my Saviour, my King and my friend forevermore.

I acknowledge that there is nothing I can do to redeem myself from the punishment I so richly deserve and turn to you to make me right and at peace with God your Father. Please help me now to walk in fellowship with you and to trust in you alone every day. I ask these things of you oh God by your grace and mercy. Amen.

The website addresses below are two places where further instruction in the Christian faith and in Christian ministry can be found, these may be very helpful to new believers and/or those seeking a deeper understanding of the Christian faith. The studies on these websites are available in both English and Swahili by writing to dchesoli@yahoo.com

See also www.jesuspowercenter.com

For copies of the complete course through the post please send your full postal address to the contact addresses at either of the above websites.