Sermon Illustrations on Evangelism — page 6

Known To Be Saved

Luke 10:20

After the sinking of the Titanic, the distressed people in Liverpool, England, anxiously awaited news about loved ones on the ship. Signs were finally put up in the street near White Star Station that read "Known to be saved" and "Known to be lost."

"Tonight, we need to think about who would be on this list, 'Known to be lost,' and what we can do about it. We not only have a responsibility, we have a privilege and a joy to try to win them to Christ."

___________________

Cornelia Williams, an adjunct professor of Christian education at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

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Another version from Abe Kudra:

On the night of April 14-15, 1912, the White Star liner S.S. Titanic, with more than 2,000 passengers on board, struck an iceberg south of Newfoundland and sank with the loss of 1,515 lives. When news of the sinking reached England, the scene outside the steamship office was indescribable. Relatives of passengers on the ill-fated vessel packed the street in front of the main entrance, and all traffic came to a standstill.

On either side of the doorway two large billboards were hammered up in place. Above one was printed in oversize capitals: “KNOWN TO BE SAVED.” Above the other, in equally large letters: “KNOWN TO BE LOST.” From time to time a man would emerge from the steamship office carrying a piece of cardboard on which was printed the name of one of the passengers.

A deathlike stillness would sweep over the crowd as the people watched, emotions strained to the breaking point, to see which way the man would turn. Would he pin the name up on the side of the saved or the lost? In the end, each passenger would end up in one group or the other – either saved or lost!

Filled with the Spirit - A Study

Acts 2:4

Filled with the Spirit - A Study

Every time Christians were filled with the Spirit, they witnessed.

In the Book of Acts

(1) Peter and the 120 (2:4, 41) - 3000 saved and baptised;

(2) Peter (4:8, 13, 21) - could say nothing against;

(3) All (4:31), spake with boldness;

(4) Seven (6:3, 7) - Word of God increased;

(5) Stephen (6:8,10) - not able to resist;

(6) Stephen (7:55, 57) - stopped their ears;

(7) Paul (9:17, 20, 21) - were amazed;

(8) Barnabas (11:22, 24) - much people were added;

(9) Paul (13:9, 12) - deputy believed; and

(10) Disciples (14:1, 13:52) - great multitude believed.

__________

Ralph Bitner

A Family Won By A Smile

When D. L. Moody was asked what he thought of Spurgeon, he said:

“He is a perpetual stream of Christian sunlight. One Sunday morning in London,” continued Mr. Moody, “Spurgeon said to me, just before he commenced his sermon: ‘Moody, I want you to notice that family there in one of the front seats, and when we go horne I want to tell you their story.'

“When we got home,” said Moody, “I asked him for the story, and he said: ‘All that family were won by a smile.'

“‘Why,' said I, ‘how's that?'

“‘Well,' said he, ‘as I was walking down a street one day, I saw a child at a window; the child smiled, and I smiled, and we bowed. It was the same the second time; I bowed, she bowed. It was not long before there was another child, and I had got in the habit of looking and bowing, and pretty soon the group grew, and at last, as I went by, a lady was with them. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to bow to her, but I knew all the children expected it, and so bowed to them all. And the mother saw that I was a minister, because I carried a Bible every Sunday morning. So the children followed me the next Sunday and found I was a minister. And they thought I was the greatest preacher, and their parents must hear me. A minister who is kind to a child and gives him a pat on the head, why, the children will think he is the greatest preacher in the world. Kindness goes a great way. And finally, the father and mother and five children were converted, and they are going to join our church next Sunday.'

“Won to Christ by a smile!” said Moody. “We must get the wrinkles out of our brows, and we must have smiling faces, if we want to succeed in our work of love.”

*

God gives A ministry to every one

John 3:27

Wally's witness in the hospital. Wally is 87, rarely sees anyone new, lives with Christians. Wally in the past has often said to me, "Who can I witness to?" Yesterday in the hospital Wally told me he was bothered about something. He had been talking to an old woman on his ward. He told her what good things the Lord had done for him. She dismissed it with a comment that she didn't believe in any Lord.

It doesn't matter what your situation in life is, God gives each Christian a ministry of some kind. You are either in it or getting ready for it or both.

Lessons From the Healing of the Paralytic

Mark 2:1

Fred Luter Jr., pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, urged students at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary to "save the lost at any cost." Saving the lost at any cost means caring for the lost, being creative in evangelism methods, cooperating with each other and committing to bring the lost to Jesus Christ.

Luter began his spirited message to the students by reading Mark 2:1-5 about four men lowering a paralytic to Jesus by breaking through the roof of the house where he was preaching. "When Jesus saw their faith," Scripture recounts, "he said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven you.'"

Christians must have four characteristics if they are going to bring the lost to Jesus Christ, Luter said.

1. They cared.

2. They were creative.

3. They cooperated.

4. They were committed.

First, lost people need to know Christians care about them, just as the four men cared for the paralytic.

"They took time out of their schedule, time out of their agenda, time out of all the things and they brought this one man to Jesus Christ," Luter said.

"Listen, the lost [people] need to know that we care about their hurts, we care about their struggles, we care about their addiction, we care about their hang- ups, we care about their dysfunction," Luter said. "If we want to bring the lost to Jesus Christ, we gotta care about them."

Second, Christians have to become creative in their method of evangelism.

Bringing the lost to Christ at any cost may mean using unprecedented tactics, just as the four men in Mark 2:1-5 did for the paralytic.

"Listen to me, brothers and sisters, listen to me well, the message never changes. The message should always be Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forevermore," Luter said.

While the message never changes, the method by which the message is delivered might need to be adapted to meet the needs of a lost generation, Luter contended.

"Eighty-three percent of the youth don't go to church. We've got to change our method if we're going to reach this new generation," he declared.

"We cannot expect to reach the CD, DVD generation with eight-track ministry. We cannot expect to reach this hip-hop, gangster rap, B.E.T., M.T.V., earring-wearin', do-rag-wearin', baggy pants-wearin', tattoos all over their body, Brittney Spears, N'Sync, Christina Aguilera, Backstreet Boys, Cisco, misfit, juvenile, mystical generation with eight-track ministry!

"We've gotta do some crazy things to reach the lost and we've got to do it today! We've gotta be creative in our ministry," Luter said. "We've gotta do something unexpected; we've gotta do some unusual things."

Third, Luter pointed out how the four men had to cooperated with each other in order for the paralytic to receive healing.

"My brothers and sisters, one lesson the body of Christ needs to learn from these men is that they all cooperated with each other. They were on one mission for Jesus Christ. We're all in this thing together. God needs every church of every size, of every race, of every color, and we've got to come together and bring the lost to Jesus Christ!"

Finally, Luter explained that Christians must be committed in order to reach the lost for Christ.

"Brothers and sisters, notice whose faith Jesus honored in this text. Notice whose faith got Jesus' attention. The Bible said, 'when Jesus saw their faith,' the four men who cared, the four men who were creative, the four men who cooperated, and the four men who were committed.

"What about you and what about me? There are people we need to bring to Jesus Christ. Let's make the main thing, the main thing -- saving the lost at any cost."

Moslem: I Assumed You Hated Me

Acts 9:3

Ergun Caner spent the first half of his life devoted to Islam. Raised as the son of Acar Mehmet Caner, he practiced the Kalima, Islam's creed; the Salat, praying to Mecca five times a day; the Zakat, contributing a specified portion of his income to the faith; the Sawn, fasting during Ramadan; and awaited the opportunity to participate in the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Seventeen years later, Muslims would call him a "kafir" of the worst type, he told an overflow crowd at First Baptist Church in Dallas, using the term for an infidel declared to be as good as dead. Several hundred Kurdish Muslims were among those invited to hear Caner describe how his life changed in 1982 when he converted to Christianity.

Citing the Koran's words in Hadith in 9:57, Caner said, "Mohammed says anyone who changes his Islamic religion, 'Kill him.' But I also know, my Kurdish friends, that you have given me this hour the greatest gift that I have ever had in my ministry -- your presence here."

Caner told the Christians in the audience, "For 17 years of my life, I assumed you hated me." Similarly, Muslims living in America have similar expectations, he said, in light of the recent attacks justified by members of the Islamic Jihad. "There are those that expect retribution. They expect revenge. But, believers in Jesus Christ, do you know what they do not expect?" Caner asked. "They do not expect you to love them in spite of themselves. And why would you do so? Because that's exactly how he [Jesus] loved you."

Such an outward expression of love won Caner over when he accepted a friend's invitation to Steltzer Road Baptist Church in Columbus, Ohio. "I didn't walk in there and see them spit upon me. They didn't smack me down or call me a sand nigger. Instead they loved me. And when I asked them why they loved me, they said it was because Christ first loved us."

Refusing to back away from a gospel message in the presence of diverse religious groups in his Sept. 16 message, Caner said, "The one thing good Muslims and good Christians agree upon is that we are confounded by the media that keeps insisting that we all offer up prayers to the same God." He added, "I did not switch religions nor did I trade teams. I was saved by the precious blood of Jesus Christ and thus I am born again. What has happened to me was done to me, not through anything I have done. And it is that gospel, that hope in that name that I preach tonight."

All of the television network affiliates sent camera crews to the church service in downtown Dallas. A local Muslim prince offered words of condolence to Americans during the service. Caner, who serves as assistant professor of theology and church history at Criswell College, has spoken in mosques and debated Muslim scholars. [...]

While practicing the pillars of Islam, Caner said he began to realize that the terror he felt was "the terror of religion" as he sought to earn God's favor. "And before you think that's only a Muslim thing, oh, no, no," he reminded. "There are those of us in this room who think, 'God, if I just lose weight, if I read my Bible a little more, if I pray a little bit more, if I'm a nicer person,'" such works can earn salvation.

"The wages of sin is death and the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord," Caner said, quoting Romans 6:23. "There are no works that could save me. There is nothing to equal out those scales. And while I may have followed the five pillars and said my rak'ahs and followed my imam, I was desperate."

Caner said he tired of a fear that Allah would not accept him. "When I heard about mercy and grace, I felt a release of love and liberation that I cannot explain." In subsequent years, his brother, Emir, accepted Christ and now teaches Anabaptist history at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in North Carolina. Another brother, Erdum, also professed Christ and now lives in Indianapolis.

"In 1991, my mother got saved and I got to baptize my mamma in the water," he said to an applauding crowd. "But it gets better. In 1995, at almost the age of 100, my grandmother, speaking no English, with a Bible that Emir duplicated and enlarged, came forward on a walker and accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior." [...]

To the Muslim visitors, Caner reminded, "Jesus will do for you what you cannot do for yourself and liberate you from the bondage of works and give you grace and salvation the moment you repent and turn to him."

While Caner's first copy of the Koran was given to him at age 13, his second copy was presented to him by his father in 1989 who urged in an inscription to "read each and every word for you and for me." As a muazzein in the local mosque, Caner's father took a role of helper and aid, comparable to a servant deacon in the practice of Christianity.

"The day that I surrendered to the gospel ministry was the last time that I saw my father until three days before his death. My father was a good Muslim, but according to his testimony, he went to a devil's hell." Acknowledging the horror of such a statement, Caner added, "Good Baptists also go to hell. God doesn't care whether you're a good Baptist, Methodist, Catholic or anything else. God cares what you did with his Son, Jesus Christ."

Adding that his father died in the shadow of three churches, Caner said, "Not a one of them ever came to his door in the 15 years that he lived there. Who lives in the shadow of this church and has not heard the precious gospel of Christ?" Caner asked. "Who lives next door to you on their way to a devil's hell and you haven't told them?"

*

When the Old Way Isn't Working

Mark 2:2

Every year with our "On Eagles' Wings" team of young Native Americans is an adventure, no matter what reservation or villages we're going to. But our two summers in Alaska were especially challenging. Our usual mode of operation is to travel by bus to each reservation, and we carry under the bus everything we need for our outreach events, literature distribution, and the care of our team. Uh, not when we went to Alaska. See, some of the Native villages there are 400 miles from the nearest road! So, goodbye, bus! Goodbye, carrying everything we need with us! Hello, airplanes! Hello, boats! Hello, shipping everything ahead for each village! Hello, whole new way of doing things!

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "When The Old Way Isn't Working."

Sometimes you just can't get where you need to go if you try to do it the way you've always done it. Not just when you're trying to reach remote villages in Alaska ... but also when you're trying to reach people in your world for Jesus Christ! If you insist on doing it the way you've always done that, you'll never get to where they are - and they will go on dying spiritually.

There's a wonderful picture of taking risks to save a life in our word for today from the Word of God in Mark 2, beginning in verse 2. Jesus had returned to His home town, and the Bible says, "so many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and He preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to Him a paralytic, carried by four of them ... They could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd." In other words, if they had limited themselves to conventional means, their friend would never get to Jesus, the only One who could fix what was wrong with him. The door - the usual way - just wouldn't work in this situation, but isn't that how you get people in?

You've got people in your personal world, your church has people in your community, who are just like the paralyzed man on that mat. They'll never get to Jesus through conventional means. And if we keep on doing what we've always done, we'll keep on reaching who we've always reached - and leave dying those we've always not been able to reach.

But these four friends set an example for us all. The Bible says, "They made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on." Now, Jesus not only miraculously healed this man's body, but He healed His soul by forgiving His sins. But it took the faith of some people who were willing to use unconventional means to get someone they cared about to Jesus. It still takes those kind of people - especially in a culture that is increasingly post-Christian, where lost people don't ever plan to go to a religious meeting to hear a religious speaker talk on a religious subject in a religious place. Isn't that how we usually try to reach them ... and usually miss them?

Spiritual rescue today means thinking outside our traditional Christian box ... it means doing what Jesus did and going where the lost people are, not just inviting them to programs at our place. It means using tools and methods and non-religious words that will communicate to the people who need Jesus the most. It will mean leaving our comfort zone. But, then, hasn't rescue always meant that the rescuer leave where it's comfortable? It's what Jesus did to rescue us.

When we realize what's at stake if we our rescue efforts fail, we'll say as those four friends did in Jesus' day - "We will get them to Jesus - whatever it takes, whatever it costs!"

________________

*

Fruit With Seeds

Genesis 1:29

OK, let's put away all the junk food snacks for a minute - and let's reach for a healthy snack today. Yes, it's time for some fresh fruit. Oh, I don't care, it could be an apple, an orange, a pear - but the next time you eat one, would you look for the example on the inside? I wouldn't recommend you eat the entire apple - you'll probably want to stop when you get to the core. But notice what's there in the middle of that apple - yes, the seeds that can make another apple!

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "Fruit With Seeds."

That little encounter with the inside of a piece of fruit can actually take us all the way back to the first fruit that God ever made - and to a powerful example of some of what gives our lives real meaning.

It's in Genesis 1:29, our word for today from the Word of God, and the Lord told Adam and Eve this, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it." Now, as I was reading that the other day, it really struck me that God has created things with the seeds of reproducing themselves built in. When God created man and woman, He told them to "be fruitful and increase in number." (Genesis 1:28)

But that principle of fruit carrying the seeds of the next generation goes beyond just physical reproducing. Jesus said to His followers, "I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit - fruit that will last." And certainly that fruit includes people who will come to Jesus because of you. They are fruit that your life is supposed to be producing. How you doin'?

The great creative plan of God is that when He creates a life, He creates it with the potential of reproducing life like itself. "Fruit with seed in it." The moment you gave your heart to Jesus Christ, God made you fruit with seeds - with the capability and the purpose of making some more like you! Apples generate apples ... oranges generate oranges ... and followers of Jesus generate other followers of Jesus - or at least they're supposed to.

But research shows that only an estimated 10% of believers ever tell someone about their relationship with Jesus Christ. Which means 9 out of 10 believers is missing their destiny - they have the seeds of life to plant in another heart, but they're doing nothing with those seeds. And people around us go on dying without Christ, and without any hope of heaven.

Isn't it time you starting bearing some fruit - like people who will be in heaven because you helped them know how? And God's plan is that we reproduce our own kind. That Moms introduce other Moms to Jesus ... that students introduce other students to Jesus ... that golfers point golfers to Christ ... businesspeople reach other businesspeople ... wounded people lead other wounded people to the Savior. God has made you who you are, He's placed you where you are so you can take people like you to heaven with you! How are you doing with your divine assignment?

We're not talking here about you adding some new activities to your already over-stuffed life. We're talking about using things you already do to bring other people who do them to Jesus. You already live where you live ... you go to school where you go to school ... you work where you work ... you play where you play. Just go there with the conscious mission of taking some of those people to heaven with you!

There are seeds of spiritual life that God planted in you the day you met Jesus. And He's counting on you planting those seeds in the people like you. Their eternity depends on it.

________________

*

Knock On Doors and See People Meet Jesus

Luke 14:21

Knock, knock, knock. The door opens. Such open doors are why Mormonism is "the fastest-growing homegrown religion in America," said evangelist Kelly Green during a "Sharing Christ in the 21st Century" conference at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Green, himself a former Mormon, challenged Christians to get outside their comfort zones and reach the broken and confused world with the personalized gospel of Jesus Christ.

Green, who received a master of divinity degree from Southwestern in 1985, invites teenagers from across the country to gather at host churches for training in sharing the gospel. These "Frontliners" penetrate the neighborhoods of the host church, knocking on doors to share the good news.

Green told of a 14-year-old girl from Texas who was sharing the gospel in West Monroe, Louisiana, with her fellow Frontliners. They were already frustrated and disappointed after a long, hard day when a man opened the door of his home wearing his underwear.

Green said she told the stranger, "If you can handle it, I can too, [and] I've got something to tell you -- his name is Jesus. Would you let me please tell you?"

Then, Green continued, she shared the gospel with the man and he accepted Christ. "On Wednesday night he came fully clothed with her to church."

"If you can go door to door, you can go anywhere and share Jesus," Green said. "There is not a harder venue in all the world than go cold turkey knocking on someone's door [because] you have no idea what's coming out behind that door."

Green, president of the Kelly Green Evangelistic Association in Brandon, Fla., has delivered the gospel for 30 years. In his message, Green said he has visited 800 churches and always wonders why members are not going out and bringing in the harassed, broken and lonely people who need to be rescued.

"It still works to get outside our comfort zone and to inconvenience ourselves, just like Jesus," he said. "Whatever world you live in, are you willing to get your hands dirty in people nobody else wants?"

Preaching from Matthew 9:35-37, Green reminded listeners that Jesus preached to the broken world.

"When people get broken they are more open to the gospel of Jesus Christ," he said, adding that the Lord also preached to the confused world.

People use the word "God" thinking there are many paths to God, Green said. They are confused. They must understand "what it means to know the resurrected Jesus," he said.

Jesus shared with the broken and confused a personalized gospel, and Green encouraged Christians to imitate Jesus as the model for what is good, right and excellent.

Jesus himself did what he told his followers to do, Green said.

The adult leaders of Frontliners do not just tell teenagers what to do; "we go out there with them" instead of staying back in the comfortable confines of their hotels, Green said.

Despite Mother Teresa's questionable theology, "it impressed the world that here was a little Catholic nun who spent 50 years of her life in the garbage cans of the world," Green said. On the other hand, "we sit back in our air conditioned pews every week."

Green concluded his message by reminding faculty and students that only one thing is worse than failing before man, and that is succeeding in the things that don't matter to God.

*

The Divine Art of Soul Winning

Mark 12:31

A passion for souls is rare among church members today. The great mass of Christian people feel not the slightest responsibility for the souls of their fellow men. It never so much as dawns on them that they are their brother’s keeper. If they can manage to save their own souls, that is the end of their concern. The reasons for this apathy are not far to seek.

I. ABSENCE OF CONVICTION THAT EVERY IMPENITENT SOUL IS UTTERLY LOST

There may be a willingness to subscribe to the orthodox creed concerning future punishment, but there is a world of difference between a creedal belief and a working faith.

Judge Mingins had been an infidel in his youth, and had lived with his infidel companions in Philadelphia. Some time after his conversion he was visiting one of them, who said: "George, I hear you are a Christian now. Is that so?"

"Yes," said Mr. Mingins.

"George, do you believe in God?"

"Yes."

"And do you believe in Hell, and that all who do not believe in God and in Jesus Christ will ultimately go to Hell?"

"I do, most certainly."

"Well, George," said he, "does Christianity dry up all the milk of humanity in one’s body as it has in yours?"

"Why," said Mr. Mingins, "what do you mean?"

"I mean this," he replied, "that here you have been living under my roof for three days and three nights, knowing and believing all this, and yet you never put your hand on my shoulder, or said one word to save me." How many of my readers are in the boat with Judge Mingins?

The case was put even more strongly by a gifted and noted infidel, who said: "Were I a religionist [i.e. a Christian], did I truly, firmly, consistently believe, as millions SAY they do, that the knowledge and the practice of religion in this life influences destiny in another, religion should be to me EVERYTHING. I would cast aside earthly enjoyments as dross, earthly cares as follies, and earthly thoughts and feelings as less than vanity. Religion would be my first waking thought and my last image when sleep sank me in unconsciousness. I would labor in her cause alone. I would not labor for the meat that perisheth, nor for treasures on earth, but only for a crown of glory in heavenly regions where treasures and happiness are alike beyond the reach of time and chance. I would take thought for the morrow of eternity alone. I WOULD ESTEEM ONE SOUL GAINED FOR HEAVEN WORTH A LIFE OF SUFFERING. There should be neither worldly prudence nor calculating circumspection in my engrossing zeal. Earthly consequences should never stay my hand nor seal my lips. I would speak to the imagination, awaken the feelings, stir up the passions, arouse the fancy. Earth, its joys and its grief, should occupy no moment of my thoughts; for these are but the affairs of a portion of eternity-so small that no language can express its comparatively infinite littleness.

"I would strive to look but on eternity and on the immortal souls around me, soon to be everlastingly miserable or everlastingly happy. I would deem all who thought only of this world, merely seeking to increase temporal happiness and laboring to obtain temporal goods-I would deem all such pure madmen. I would go forth to the world and preach to it, in season and out of season; and my text should be: ‘What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul.’"

*

Schools to show `cocaine and sex' film about Jesus

A FILM crammed with references to sex and drugs and featuring Jesus as a 15-year-old schoolboy and Mary Magdalene as a single mother is the latest ploy to woo young people back to church.

In an effort to curb the decline in young church-goers, a missionary agency has made a 30-minute film on an £8,000 budget with teenagers playing the leading parts.

Called An Absence of Stones, the film will be screened in secondary schools this autumn with the aim of convincing teenagers of the relevance of the Bible to their lives. It contains references to drugs and violence with the Judas figure portrayed as a drug-taking schoolgirl who betrays Jesus for a "hit" of cocaine.

At one point Jesus accompanies Mary Magdalene to an abortion clinic, although he says he "hates" what she has done. In the end she decides to keep the baby.

Instead of a crucifixion scene, Jesus is murdered by a schoolfriend and is resurrected in a Leicestershire beauty spot. Nigel Roberts, scriptwriter and producer for Youth for Christ, said his aim was to defy the Church's "stuffy" image.

Anthony Kilmister, spokesman for the Prayer Book Society, which has the Bishop of London as its patron, attacked the film as "a distortion" of the Bible and "harmful" to young people.

c Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2001.

Danger lies in ignorance of postmodernism, journal says

Should Christians be concerned about postmodernism? For that matter, what is postmodernism?

That question is tackled in the summer 2001 edition of The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, which is published by Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The newest edition -- titled "Confronting Postmodernism" -- contains selections by various faculty members, as well as essays by Millard Erickson of Truett Theological Seminary and David Allen of The Criswell College.

The journal's writers argue that postmodernism -- the belief that there is no absolute truth and that all individuals construct their own meaning -- poses a great threat to the Christian church. Postmodernists generally believe that all religions are equal and that morality is relative.

In the lead editorial, Southern Seminary professor Thomas Schreiner argues that postmodernism must not be avoided.

"We must note immediately ... the danger that lurks when we choose to neglect a deviant philosophy, especially when the philosophy is gaining ground in the culture," writes Schreiner, professor of New Testament. "We may piously claim to be preaching the Gospel, while in fact we are in the process of being co- opted by the very philosophy that we have supposedly avoided. Our ignorance may become the platform by which we are subverted."

Noting that everyone is influenced by the culture, Schreiner points out that many orthodox [or traditional] Christian beliefs were defined when the early church had to answer various heresies.

"A pastor who knows nothing about heresy probably has a very shallow understanding of orthodoxy," Schreiner writes. "Those who are in the dark about postmodernism may find themselves clutched by its tentacles."

Countering those who may say they are too busy to study postmodernism, Schreiner contends that it is not necessary to be an expert on the issue. He says that postmodern beliefs will be encountered in daily contact with non- Christians and Christians alike.

"We offer this very issue of the journal ... to assist pastors in grasping the basic elements of the postmodern worldview," he writes. "We must not say that pastors have to be experts in postmodernism to understand it. We can, nevertheless, have a reasonably good grasp of many arenas of life without being experts."

Ted Cabal, professor of philosophy at Southern, points out that postmodernism and orthodox Christianity cannot co-exist. For starters, Cabal writes, postmoderns believe that the reader determines the meaning of a book. That cannot be the case with the Bible.

"The meaning of the text of Scripture cannot be regarded as indeterminate and endlessly open to word play," he writes. "Preaching the exclusivity in Jesus, though offensive to postmoderns, is a non-negotiable for His followers."

James Parker, Southern Seminary's professor and associate dean of worldview and culture, argues that postmodernism will eventually die because it is an inconsistent philosophical system.

"When one has given up the idea of normative, universal and absolute truth, there is no reason whatsoever to take what they say as true [particularly since they have conceded up front that 'truth' does not even exist]," he writes about postmodernism's defenders.

Millard Erickson, who teaches theology at George W. Truett Theological Seminary, asserts that a view of absolute truth is a foundation of evangelism.

"Evangelism, and orthodox Christianity in general, has always contended that its assertions about God are actually affirming truths about his nature and actions, and that its historical assertions refer to actual occurrences," he writes.

The journal also contains essays by David Allen, preaching professor at The Criswell College; and Chad Brand, assistant professor of worldview and culture at Southern Seminary. The journal includes the text of a sermon titled, "What Did Jesus Believe About the Bible?" by Daniel Akin, dean of the School of Theology at Southern.

Books reviewed include "The Journey From Texts to Translations: The Origin and Development of the Bible," by Paul D. Wegner; and "131 Christians Everyone Should Know," by the editors of Christian History Magazine.

For information on obtaining the journal, call 1-800-626-5525 (ext. 4413).

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Rescue the Perishing

1. Rescue the perishing, care for the dying,

Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave;

Weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen,

Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.

Chorus

Rescue the perishing, care for the dying;

Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.

2. Though they are slighting Him, still He is waiting,

Waiting the penitent child to receive;

Plead with them earnestly, plead with them gently;

He will forgive if they only believe.

3. Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter,

Feelings lie buried that grace can restore;

Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness,

Chords that were broken will vibrate once more.

4. Rescue the perishing, duty demands it;

Strength for thy labor the Lord will provide;

Back to the narrow way patiently win them;

Tell the poor wanderer a Savior has died.

[Tune “Rescue”]

*

Comments

Mark 16:15

Verwer predicts that “various forms of extremism and false teaching will continue to batter the body of Christ… The church worldwide with over 26,000 denominations is going to get messier and harder to understand, yet in the midst of this mess will continue the greatest harvest to Christ the world has ever known.”

Yet Verwer writes that the world will never be completely reached with the gospel unless Christians show greater commitment to God. “We always like to emphasize the faithfulness of God and give one of our favorite spiritual clichés, but I would like to remind us that most human beings, including Christians, are more known for our unfaithfulness.

“In my view, less than 10 percent of all who profess the name of the Lord are faithful to His Word, especially in terms of prayer, discipline, evangelism, grace and love. Any celebration that we engage in must be filled with Holy Ghost reality in which we are honest about our sins and failures.”

An American based in England, Verwer founded OM 40 years ago. Today the organization has more than 3,000 full-time workers in more than 80 countries, and operates the “Doulos” ship that takes Christian literature around the world. Since 1994 Verwer has led the missions mobilization network, one of several special interest groups set up by AD2000. Each network is filing an assessment of its progress, as AD2000 prepares to shut down at the end of the year.

Verwer says that another success in the last few years has been growing unity. “Among many there is a new commitment to agree to disagree in a loving and grace-awakened way,” he writes. “Almost all of us in the AD2000 movement saw things that… we were not happy about or agreed with, yet for the most part, because of our priorities and goals and the oneness in Christ, we stayed together.”

Fishers of Men

Mark 1:17

While some are wishing for the church to somehow grow, others are preparing themselves to be instruments of God in church growth as "fishers of men" (Mark 1:17).

Pass It On

2 Corinthians 5:17

Sermon in Twelve Steps series. 2 Corinthians 5:17-20

PASS IT ON

==========

Step 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we try to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs."

I. Everyone has a story.

II. People need to hear.

A. The gospel is not merely a nice option.

B. People need to hear, because they are alienated from God.

C. If we do believe this, we harm people by being quiet.

III. People want to hear.

A. There is a spiritual hunger in our society.

B. We have to have a heart that sees the hunger and need.

IV. We should want to tell them.

A. God's love compels us. 2 Cor 5:14

B. It has to happen to us before it can happen to them. 2 Cor 5:16

C. Sharing the message keeps us straight.

V. Seeking out those who will hear.

VI. How to witness in a natural way.

A. Be natural, open, respectful, simple.

B. Remember what you used to be like.

C. Keep at it.

Nothing Like A Rescue

2 Corinthians 5:19

I guess we'll be reliving for a long time the images of the World Trade Center attacks and the heroic rescue efforts that followed them. One moment that really hit me was this interview with a big guy who was helping the rescuers. He was sitting on a curb at Ground Zero, talking with a reporter from a cable news network. He told how he had been delivering food to the rescuers - and then how he was making his way back through the rubble when he decided to reach into that rubble just on the chance someone might be there. Suddenly, he felt a warm hand grabbing his arm. Immediately, he went and got helpers who pulled a firefighter out alive. And then that's when he lost it in the interview - as he choked out these words - "He touched me first."

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "Nothing Like A Rescue."

That man at Ground Zero had been a part of one of the most moving experiences a human being can have - being involved in the rescue of someone who otherwise would have died. It's an experience God intends for every one of His children to have. Except the rescue isn't the physical kind that may give a person 30 or 40 more years on earth. It's spiritual rescue that will give a person heaven!

Wherever you live, wherever you work or go to school, wherever you shop or recreate, you have been assigned as God's rescuer in your circle of influence. Listen to the incredible position God has entrusted to you, as described in our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Corinthians 5:19 and 20. "God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation." OK, translation: it's up to you whether or not the people in your personal world find out that what Jesus did on the cross was for them. Verse 20: "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us."

So you are Jesus' personal representative to the people you know. Yes, to show them Jesus by your life what Jesus is and how real He can be. But that's not enough. They can only get God's message about Jesus if you tell them about Him. And it's life-or-death information. You're going in for the spiritual rescue of someone whose only hope may be what you know about Jesus!

Begin your rescue work by praying by name, faithfully, for people you know who don't know Christ. Pray for God to open up natural opportunities for you to explain your relationship with Jesus. Look for an opportunity to pray with them about something that's bothering them. Invest some time in being with them, doing things with them, building bridges to them - don't just spend all your time with people who are already going to heaven!

D. L. Moody, the great evangelist once said: "There is no greater honor than to be the instrument in God's hands to lead one person out of the kingdom of darkness and into the glorious light of heaven." And may I add, there is no greater thrill. Just ask a man who has been the first to touch a man who would otherwise have died.

When it's rescue - when it's life-or-death, you drop everything, risk everything, do whatever it takes to bring that person out. For some people you know, you are that rescuer.

________________

*

The Eye-opener

When you live around New York City like I did for 30 years, you take people on lots of tours. We've had friends visit us from all over the country, all around the world - and, of course, they all want to see the sights of New York that they've heard so much about. We've gotten to take many of them to the Statue of Liberty, the late, great World Trade Center, Times Square, Broadway, the United Nations, Central Park. And something interesting happened to me as I introduced others to the places I already knew so much about. In a sense, I discovered those places for myself in a new way ... and I was energized by watching their reactions to seeing it all for the first time.

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Eye-Opener."

Those places that I knew so well became more special to me when I introduced others to them. Just like what happens when you or I introduce someone to the Savior that we've known so long.

That's why Paul prayed what he did in Philemon, verse 6, our word for today from the Word of God. "I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ."

Now, there are many reasons to tell people about the life and love that you have found in Jesus Christ - not the least of which is that their eternity depends on them understanding what Jesus did on the cross for them. But here Paul gives a reason we may not think much about or we don't hear much about - and that is, in sharing your relationship with Christ, you begin to really understand your relationship with Christ as you never did before.

If you remain silent about Jesus, you can just coast along in a comfortable - but shallow - spiritual rut. But once you step up to your responsibility to get this life-saving message to the people around you, something awakens in your own soul. You have to find ways to explain what Jesus did without all the religious vocabulary - I call it "Christianese" -and that vocabulary allows us to believe without thinking much about it. But as you struggle to explain a relationship with Christ to someone else who doesn't know all those words, you start to better understand that relationship yourself. It's like me taking tours of where I lived - it becomes more special to me as I tell someone else about it ... as I see the wonder of someone else discovering what I discovered a long time ago. When you tell others about Jesus, He starts to mean even more to you.

And if you're like most believers, you are missing this life-changing, faith-expanding experience. Surveys show that 90% of Christians never talk about their relationship with Jesus Christ. Which means 90% miss what Paul calls "a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ." And the lost folks in their circle of influence will likely go into a Christless eternity - because of the silence of the Christian they knew. Please don't let that be you.

It's time to start blowing the lid off your relationship with Jesus - by telling people about that relationship! Because when you show someone else this Jesus that you know, He'll mean more to you than He's ever meant before!

________________

*

Evangelism Underlies All Spiritual Gifts

1 Corinthians 14

Although evangelism is sometimes thought to be a spiritual gift, it actually underlies every spiritual gift that God bestows on a person, notes Southern Baptist evangelism leader and biblical scholar Darrell W. Robinson.

Every spiritual gift -- be it one of service, signs or support -- is designed to help fulfill the Great Commission through individual people, Robinson writes in a new book, “Incredibly Gifted: A Fresh, Biblical Look at Spiritual Gifts,” recently released by Hannibal Books.

For example, Robinson describes the gift of exhortation (encouragement) as one that strongly prepares a person for effective personal witnessing. Someone who is an encourager is usually talkative, enthusiastic and knows how to reach out to others in a positive way. A person's gift of encouraging others in a practical way can be used powerfully to share Jesus with the lost.

Someone with the gift of mercy, through his or her sensitivity to others, can be alert to the spiritual condition of the lost as well as feeling for their physical needs, Robinson writes. He contends that each person, regardless of his or her gift, can be taught how to intentionally witness so that he or she can promptly respond to open doors to share Christ.

Many ministries of the church sometimes go begging for helpers because believers feel incapable and fail to rely on God to supply whatever spiritual gift is needed for that assignment, Robinson writes.

Many people flock to take a “spiritual gift inventory” or “spiritual gift assessment” to help identify the gift or gifts God has given them, so that they can adequately serve other members of the body of Christ, he recounts. “These sometimes lead to abuse when people overemphasize their gift or refuse to meet a need because they don't have a particular gift,” he notes. “That approach then becomes a barrier to what God wants to do through us.”

In the book, Robinson tells the story of a church member named Jean, whose pastor asked her to start a ministry to senior adults and homebound persons.

Jean responded, “I am not a leader! I do not have that gift.” The pastor replied, “I believe you can do it and I will help you. This is a real need within our church.”

The pastor kept his word, and Jean's program became a flourishing ministry. Jean found herself using gifts she did not know she possessed: administration and leadership, mercy, giving, hospitality, exhortation, and teaching to meet the needs she observed.

Jean discovered multiple gifts by seeing a need and obeying Christ to help meet it. “Obedience is the key,” Robinson writes. “To simply step out in faith and be available and obey Christ was the critical factor.”

Today's elevated emphasis on “sign gifts” has led to many excesses, misunderstandings and even rejection of the idea of spiritual gifts by some, Robinson writes. “Whenever the term 'spiritual gifts' is used, many think of the excesses they have observed through the emphasis on sign gifts. Others are caught up in the desire for sensational experiences. Consequently the utilization of spiritual gifts in our ordinary, everyday lives has been neglected.”

Regarding the spiritual experience of glossolalia (speaking in unknown tongues), Robinson contends that the legitimate gift of tongues, mentioned in the Book of Acts, provides the ability to speak and communicate the gospel in another language. The interpretation of tongues is the ability to understand a language and convey its meaning to listeners. God indeed still gives the gift of tongues for the communication of the gospel, Robinson writes, explaining, “When the ability to speak in another language to communicate the gospel in order to bring a person to Christ occurs, God gives that ability.”

The apostle Paul wrote the Corinthians not to teach the practice of tongues but to correct the Corinthian church's perversion of the true biblical gift of tongues, Robinson writes. In 1 Corinthians 14 Paul taught these believers to “be zealous for gifts that edify the church.” Believers who elevate the tongues experience to being “The Gift” and contend that those who do not participate are spiritually inferior act in a way that does not build up the body of Christ, Robinson says.

“Those who speak in tongues are not under the control of a force outside of themselves. They are responsible for their behavior,” he writes. “They can control what they do and say, and they are accountable for it. Anything done in church should be orderly and done for the building up of the body.”

Without questionnaires or assessment materials, Robinson's book examines each of the spiritual gifts listed in the New Testament and demonstrates that through Christ believers have the potential to possess any gift the church needs. Christ, the source of all gifts, surfaces whatever is necessary for a person to fulfill his will through that person, he writes.

*

How To Infect A Culture

Luke 10:29

Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell thinks churches can learn a lot from the flu bug.

What do the weird resurgence of Hush Puppies shoes, the sudden drop in New York City's crime rate, the steady rise in teen smoking, and the revolutionary success of SESAME STREET have to do with proclaiming the gospel? A lot, if you take to heart Malcolm Gladwell's thesis in his bestseller, THE TIPPING POINT: HOW LITTLE THINGS CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE.

Gladwell, a staff writer for THE NEW YORKER, has taken principles of epidemiology (the study of how diseases spread) and translated them into strategies for understanding the life cycle of cultural trends. Just like disease epidemics, he says, ideas and messages have "tipping points"-dramatic moments when, all at once, they explode upon a society and "infect" it. Studying these phenomena could help us "start and control positive social epidemics of our own."

Christianity Today advisory editor Michael Cromartie spoke to Gladwell at his NEW YORKER office in Manhattan about social epidemics and their potential implications for the church.

HOW DOES THINKING IN TERMS OF EPIDEMICS HELP US UNDERSTAND OUR SOCIAL WORLDS?

It gives us a new appreciation for the extent to which ideas and behaviors can be contagious, and that we pick things up largely involuntarily. When your 6-year-old decides she wants a Cabbage Patch Doll, she's not sitting down and making a rational choice. She has caught the Cabbage Patch "virus." She caught it the same way kids catch a cold virus in first grade.

There are moments when all of us get swept up in causes, ideas, and behaviors. There's this notion that every time we do something, it's because we sit down and make a rational choice. But we fool ourselves when we think that individuals are autonomous creatures. We're not. We are exquisitely sensitive to the pressures and influences of the world around us.

WHAT ARE THE LAWS OF EPIDEMICS THAT CAN BE APPLIED TO THE SOCIAL SPHERE?

First, there is the Law of the Few; with epidemics, a core group does all the damage, all the work, all the spreading. This is true in social epidemics as well.

Certain personality types are responsible for playing that critical role. There are "Connectors"-a small number of people who know a lot more people than the rest of us do. "Mavens" specialize in knowledge accumulation, and we appeal to them for insight or expertise. "Salesmen," those with a gift for persuading others, are the third type.

These personality types have an extraordinary amount of social influence. But it's not the influence of power, money, or physical attractiveness; it's personality. The people who are ultimately influential in your life are not the ones with status or money but those who inspire trust, credibility, and love.

BUT JUST BECAUSE SOMETHING IS CONTAGIOUS DOESN'T MAKE IT AN EPIDEMIC.

Exactly, which moves us to the second law, the Stickiness Factor. The common cold is the most contagious virus we know, but we never talk about epidemics of a cold because the cold doesn't stay around. We do talk about flu epidemics, and the difference is that the flu is sticky. You're on your back, it stays with you for two weeks, and you remember it. It changes the way you live your life.

The same is true of ideas. For an idea to take off, it must be more than simply infectious. It also has to make a lasting impact on everybody it infects, which is that additional quality of stickiness.

SESAME STREET is a show that deliberately engineered stickiness; the producers figured out not just how to capture a kid's attention but also how to create something that would stick in their brains. We're often too concerned about the initial grabbing of the attention. But an idea takes off not just because it grabs your attention but because it stays with you. And the things that make something stay with you are often not obvious but quite small.

In a famous study at Yale University, researchers tried to influence students to get tetanus shots. They played with all kinds of variables: Should we make them take a two-week course, or a one-week course? Read a 10-page paper, or a 15-page paper? It turns out the only thing that made a difference was the little packet they gave students: it included a campus map to show them how to get to the place that administered the shots. That's what made it sticky. They didn't need to be warned about the dangers; they didn't need a two-week course on the medical history of tetanus. All they needed was a map.

YOU'RE SAYING IT DOESN'T TAKE MUCH TO INFLUENCE PEOPLE, IF YOU KNOW WHAT THE KEYS ARE.

The Power of Context, the third principle I discuss in the book, says human beings are much more sensitive to their environment than we think they are. Years ago two psychologists at Princeton University gathered a group of seminarians and said, "We're giving you a topic to work with. Prepare something quickly, and deliver your message to a group of professors." On their way to give the talk, each student came across a man moaning and in dire need. The question was: Who's going to stop?

A few variables were built into the experiment. They asked everybody whether they were in the ministry to help people or for intellectual and spiritual fulfillment. Some students were given as their speech's text the story of the Good Samaritan. Others were asked to speak on the relevance of a religious vocation. And the third variable was that some students were told they were already late to the lecture and needed to hurry.

Most of us would think the people who were in ministry to help others would be the most likely to help the moaning man. Also, it's hard to believe that somebody who just read the story of the Good Samaritan wouldn't stop to help. As it turned out, the variable that made a difference was whether people were in a hurry or not. Those in a hurry didn't stop. Those who weren't in a hurry did stop.

What this tells us is that even someone who is committed to helping people in ministry, and has even just read the story of the Good Samaritan, can under certain circumstances act in a way-when presented with a certain situation-that does not allow them to express their fundamental humanity.

I don't doubt that all of these students were decent, honest, spiritual people. But at times, even good people have their goodness frustrated by circumstances. External circumstances are incredibly powerful; they can thwart even the most profound set of beliefs.

WHEN IT COMES TO MAKING CHANGES IN AN ORGANIZATION, LIKE THE CHURCH, WHAT IS A KEY FACTOR?

There seems to be a kind of tipping point in human organizations at around 150. When groups get larger than that, all the personal ties begin to break down. You can no longer know everyone's name.

Time and again, churches form with a charismatic, effective leadership and committed people. And because they are so successful, they grow, and at a certain point they grow so large that all the things that made the church wonderful in the beginning begin to fade. Unless you do certain things to promote the same level of intimacy, closeness, involvement, and humanity in a large group as you have had in a small group, something is lost. And when churches start to exceed that 150 level, they need to break up the group into smaller pieces. One of the things that made the early church so successful was that they created small cells, pockets of community where people had close ties.

THIS HAS ALSO BEEN A KEY TO THE SUCCESS OF MANY INFLUENTIAL CHURCH MOVEMENTS IN HISTORY. IN THE BOOK, YOU MENTION METHODISM.

The genius of early Methodism was in setting up structures, not just churches, with rules that held the group together until people were able to build up a much stronger set of personal bonds and greater attachment to their faith. John Wesley spent his life traveling on horseback, seeding all these groups, visiting one after another, giving them an injection of energy and inspiration. The interesting thing about him is not that he managed to create a religious movement in his lifetime; he was able to create a movement that has lasted hundreds of years after his life.

YOUR MESSAGE IS HOPEFUL: MAJOR SOCIAL CHANGE CAN BEGIN WITH JUST A SMALL GROUP OF PEOPLE.

Absolutely. A message or idea doesn't have to have status, power, and money behind it, but it does have to have the right kind of personalities. These people - Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen - aren't interested in furthering themselves; they're just doing it because that's who they are. It's as natural as breathing to them.

Engel Scale

SCIENCE

The DAYSTAR site was highlighted recently in the GCN newsletter. This excellent site explores recent discovers in astronomy and cosmology and raise questions about our existence. It is very accessible to non-Christians. There are interviews with well-known scientists and a discussion forum.

DAYSTAR – http://www.daystarcom.org

~~~~~~~~~~

TO PONDER

“We see things not the way they are, but the way we are.”

W. E. B. ENGEL SCALE

The Engel Scale, proposed by James Engel, is a valuable way of analyzing the level of understanding of the gospel that an individual (or even a whole group) has. It was noted some years ago that OM literature distribution in a certain country had been able to move the awareness of the whole country up one point on the Engel Scale — a remarkable achievement.

The Engel Scale classifies awareness in a range of steps from -8 to +3:

-8 Awareness of a supreme being but no effective knowledge of the gospel

-7 Initial awareness of gospel

-6 Awareness of the fundamentals of the gospel

-5 Grasp of implications of the gospel

-4 Positive attitude towards the gospel

-3 Counting the cost

-2 Decision to act

-1 Repentance and faith in Christ

REGENERATION

+1 Post-decision evaluation

+2 Incorporation into the body

+3 A lifetime of growth in Christ – discipleship and service

The Scale demonstrates that if we are to target people who are at -8 or -7, we need a rather different approach than to target those who are already at -4 or -3. Someone at -8 or -7 cannot be treated as though they already have a wide understanding of Christian beliefs — they will be completely confused by pages which make that assumption — indeed will not stay around to read them.

This is why we should not assume any knowledge of the Christian faith or Christian language. The UK director of a very significant literature outreach said recently in “Interlit” magazine:

“Most Christian literature … begins too far along the evangelistic process; it assumes that the reader has at least some basic knowledge of Christianity and biblical concepts.”

There is a list of Christian terms which is well worth printing out as a reminder of the language NOT to use — check the ‘Commonly Used’ section at: http://www.mcn.net/~wleman/churchvocab.htm

The Engel Scale shows us that ANYTHING which moves someone a little up the scale is evangelistic, not just material urging people to take the final step of commitment.

For an interesting short article illustrating the biblical basis of the scale, visit:

PETER PAUL AND ENGEL — EVANGELISM AS A PROCESS NOT AN EVENT http://www.revivalnet.net/churches/lwcf/evang.htm

Loving the Lost Is the First Step In Leading Them To Christ.

Acts 1:8

When Antiochus invaded Egypt, the Romans delivered an ultimatum to the ambitious Syrian who would be a king. Hoping to gain time, he told the Roman tribune that he needed to think over their demands. He would give them an answer later. The tribune took swift action. He drew a circle in the sand around Antiochus and said, “Decide before you step out of that circle.”

The heaven we read of in the Bible is real. The God it speaks of is holy, almighty and glorious. His throne is the immovable center of the universe. He rules over all. He offers mankind salvation and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. And He draws a circle around us called life, and he tells us to make our decision concerning Him before we step out of that circle.

“Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given We have been seeing over the past few days that revival means “wake up and live”. As you know, whenever the prefix “re” is used before a word, as in re-vival, re-animation, or re-turn, it simply means “back again”. Revival, then, is the Christian Church going back again to the God-given norm.

And what is that “norm”? I suggest it is nothing less than what happened on the Day of Pentecost. Picture the scene with me on that first Whitsunday. Thousands of people fill the narrow streets of Jerusalem, drawn to the city for the celebration of the Feast of Pentecost. Spiritually, however, the nation is at an all-time low. Except for Jesus and John the Baptist, no prophet has spoken in Israel for over 400 years. The disciples are gathered in a house in secret expectancy, waiting for the fulfilment of the promise which Jesus had given them ten days earlier: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you” (Acts 1:8).

Suddenly the Spirit comes and transforms the timid disciples into men who are ablaze and invincible. They in turn go out into the streets and witness in such a powerful way that multitudes are swept into a close and thrilling relationship with God. The very atmosphere is impregnated with divine power to such an extent that one feels anything can happen. This was the “norm” and this is what the Church returns to whenever a revival comes. Indeed, there is clear evidence for the fact that every revival that has taken place over the centuries the Church has been in existence contains some feature of the Day of Pentecost.

– For reading & meditation:

O Father, give us we pray another Day of Pentecost. Open the windows of heaven over all countries and all nations, and pour out Your power. In Christ’s Name we ask it. Amen.

Read: Hos 6:1-11, Ps 80:7, Ps 85:6

1. What was Hosea's exhortation?

2. What 2 things happen when God revives us?

Wake Up Church! Evangelize!

Luke 15:4

“Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet–smelling aroma.” (Ephesians 5:1-2 NKJV)

Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. If we are to sincerely flatter God by being like him, imitation may be the most costly form of flattery as well. You see, love for God is never something that occurs just in our minds or our hearts. Love is something we do for another — it is action. John said in 1 John 3:18 that we must love in both our deeds and our words. Love means to give ourselves up — what we want, our rights, our desires — to honor God and serve others. This is a kind of love that can change the world, or a marriage, or a family.

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?” Luke 15:4

The United States of America used to be — and by some standards still is — a “Christian” nation. We have been instrumental in evangelizing much of the world by sending hundreds of thousands of missionaries. We have more ministers per capita than any other nation in the world. We have more churches on more street corners and more people who claim to attend services in those churches than ever in history.

With this in mind, I ask you a simple question: “Why are there so many lost sheep in America?” Many American churches believe that they have finished their evangelical work. All that is left is a little bit of discipleship and they will have reached perfection. Wake up Church! While the ninety and nine are in the fold, there are hundreds of thousands of lost sheep that need to be found. Wake up Church! The battle is not won! Indeed we are losing the most precious gift we have ever received — the next generation. Wake up Church! While we grow old and spiritually “fat,” souls are crying out for help — and we are using the life ring for a pillow.

Wake up Church! Evangelize! Evangelize! Evangelize!

Before it is too late!

Come … See … Go … Tell!

Matthew 28:6

”Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen … (Matthew 28:6-7).

“Today in the Word” quotes Edwin S. Johnson who said, “One of the greatest missionary texts in all the Bible is found in the words of the angel on that first resurrection morn. Four little monosyllables summarize the program and plan of the Lord to reach people with the gospel … Come, see, go, and tell!”

Once we COME to Christ and accept him as our personal Lord and Savior, and SEE what God has done for us, God wants us to GO and TELL others about this.

Many of us, including myself, are scared to do this in a confrontational way. Years ago I told God about how scared I was to witness for him, but I wanted him to use me so I prayed, “God I’m available to tell others about the gospel but you’ll need to do it through me because I’m too scared.”

And how did God answer this prayer? Probably in 40 million ways! ”Exaggerating?” you say.

Not really. I never wanted to be a writer but through unusual circumstances God put (more liked thrust) me into a literature and writing ministry. And over 40 million of our gospel brochures have been printed and distributed in many countries … not to mention what God is now doing through email and the Internet.

There are many ways to “go and tell” … through our life … through our talents … as well as through our words. One key is to tell God you’re available and ask him to do his work through you.

Suggested prayer:

“Dear God, I’m available. Please use me and the talents you have given me to ‘go and tell’ others what you have done for me … for forgiving my sins, for giving me a new life, a new hope, and the gift of eternal life. Gratefully in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

Be ye fishers of men, you catch them — He will clean them.

No Rescue Without Risk

Mark 10:45

Jenny was a counselor with a student group we had taken to a Youth for Christ conference at the New Jersey Shore. She was walking along the Boardwalk, enjoying all the attractions, when suddenly she heard what she thought was a scream. It seemed to be coming from the ocean. But it was night and it was just too dark to see out there. So Jenny ran down the steps, across the beach, and to the water's edge. This time it was clear that the screams were coming from somewhere out there in the water. Jenny paused for a moment - there are few things more frightening than going into the ocean in pitch darkness. But Jenny's hesitation was only for a moment. She forgot about her own safety, she threw off her shoes, and she plunged in to save what turned out to be a drowning girl. Moments later, others jumped in to help too. Later, Jenny told me, “I had to do it. Someone was dying out there!”

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “No Rescue Without Risk.”

Now, a life was saved that night - because of the courageous, selfless choice of a young woman who was in a position to make a difference. She was scared, she knew it was risky, but she was the one who could do something. And she did. Someone's dying condition became more important to her than her own comfort and safety.

But that's how it always is when there's a rescue. A drowning person; a person trapped in a burning building or the unstable rubble of an earthquake. There's no such thing as rescuing someone from a comfortable spot. There's no rescue without risk. Including the most critical rescue of all - the rescue of someone who is dying spiritually because they don't know Jesus - the only One who can rescue a person from the death penalty of their sin.

Jesus knows there's no rescue without risk. He said it in Mark 10:45, that He came “to give His life as a ransom for many.” Later He said to His followers, “As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you” (John 20:21). Jesus was sent to lay down His life so others could live. And now He's sending you and me on the same rescue mission He died for - to do whatever it takes to try and bring some people you know to heaven with you. Jesus left His comfortable spot - heaven, the greatest comfort zone in the universe - to rescue you and me. He's asking you to leave your comfort zone to rescue someone you care about.

Your mission is graphically portrayed in our word for today from the Word of God in Proverbs 24:11 - “Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter.” Telling people about the Savior is life-or-death business! Like Jenny on the beach that dark, dangerous night, you won't take the risks unless you realize that if you don't do it, that person may very well die without hope.

The Word of God says that the people you know who are without Christ will be “punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). Not because Jesus wants it. He died so they don't have to, but because they haven't reached for the rescuer. And they need to hear about Him from you!

It's time you do what you need to do to build a relationship with a lost person you know, that you spend some time with them. Write a letter about Jesus to them. Pray for some natural opportunities to share life's most important relationship. Win the right to be heard and take them to the cross where God poured out His love for them.

Don't wait for a professional lifeguard to do it. Like that woman on the beach, God has put you in the position to be someone's rescuer. If you know it's life-or-death, and it is, you'll know what you have to do. You cannot stand on the beach and let them die.

__________

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From Sea To Sea

Luke 19:10

Many Christians do not really understand the Christian worldview. Many do not know the historic biblical plotline and how it all relates. While recognizing they have a relationship with God through Christ, many are unsure as to why this salvation is a universal truth and necessity for all. Many are even unsure as to how their present relationship with Christ relates to history and the future. All this leads to a profound doubt and lack of confidence with respect to the evangelistic task. Why would we share the good news if we cannot fully articulate why it is good?

The plotline and great story of Scripture places the gospel of Christ in its overall context, making it intelligible, meaningful, and compelling. The biblical view of history is paradise lost to paradise regained in the eternal plan of God. The good news of salvation is necessary for all because there is, indeed, bad news. Something is very wrong! We need Christ and his sacrificial death to redeem us from the curse and restore humanity to himself. It is a story worth telling.

As we recover biblical literacy in the church and the consequent appreciation of the Christian worldview Christians themselves will have a coherent and compelling comprehension of the message they will want to share. And when our message is both coherent and compelling, non-believers who find Christianity something of a mystery will begin to grasp what it is these “proclaimers of strange divinities” (Acts 17) are talking about.

True evangelism is a comprehensible communication and announcement of the dramatic action and rule of God in history culminating in the advent of Christ, his life, death, and resurrection. This does not mean that friendship, social action, literature, and the arts do not greatly contribute to people's receptivity to the gospel -- they do. Our call is to be living letters devoted to an evangelistic lifestyle. But without this clear explanation and declaration, our task is incomplete. This is why I believe that apologetics -- giving a reasoned defense and justification for belief -- is inseparable from evangelism itself.

Of course, to share the faith can be intimidating at times, especially with friends and family. But there is perhaps nothing more wonderful or joyous in the Christian life than having the opportunity to lead someone to faith in Christ as we are co-workers with the Holy Spirit in his miraculous activity. Just to be a link in the chain of a person's journey to faith is one of the greatest privileges afforded to us.

People need meaningful friendship, but above all they need Christ. Why not begin praying for two or three people, that God would bring them to faith and use you in the process? Why not take the opportunity this year to begin to step out in a new God-given confidence in sharing your faith? If you have no sphere of influence, pray that God will bring you one. Last year I joined a local soccer league and invested in relationships with my neighbors in order to build more relationships with those lost and without Christ in this world. I am constantly amazed by the work God is doing in every heart to draw people to himself, and how open people can be to hearing about the hope that is in us.

As we find our identity and confidence in Christ, put our faith in the truth of his Word, grow in our knowledge, and depend on the Holy Spirit for his enabling, we can be confident that God will grant us success. Let us remember that God is love and He sent his Son into the world to seek and save the lost. He has a vested interest. And let us look to God that He would move again from sea to sea.

________

Joe Boot is executive director of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Canada.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #4280]

Camping In the Nest

Matthew 9:36

Birds had moved into the vent in the exhaust fan of our kitchen range while we were on vacation. They set up their little nest and made themselves at home. And, man, were they noisy neighbors! The nest was so huge that it made the fan unworkable. And some lovely spiders were hanging down from the hood on the stove. Our problem was that trying to remove that nest might have killed that nest full of baby birds. Well, we couldn't see them, but we could sure hear them when they were hungry! So, we waited until Mom and Dad bird took the babies out. A couple of weeks later, after we were sure they were gone, I got a long stick and proceeded to rake out the nest. But when we removed the nest, we discovered a little surprise. Actually, a big, fat surprise. There was the fattest bird we'd ever seen, sitting in the nest. As my wife went to get gloves and a box, he got away. But it took a major earthquake to get that bird out of his nest!

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Camping In The Nest.”

You know, God has some spiritually fat “birds” that have been sitting in the nest way too long. They should be flying; instead they're just hanging around the nest. And God sometimes shakes our nest to get us out of where it's comfortable and into some lives whose eternity may depend on us.

Jesus addresses the tragedy of believers who are camped in the nest in our word for today from the Word of God. Matthew 9:36-37 tell us: “When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Question: is that what you see when you look at the people you work with or go to school with or live near? When you ask Jesus for a heart like His, those people you see almost every day never look the same again to you. No matter how together they may appear, you see them as sheep with no clue where to go, people with the pain that sin causes and as the future inhabitants of hell. Unless someone close to them intervenes with news that Jesus has died so they don't have to.

Then Jesus reveals this deadly equation: “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” Farmers tell me that, to them, the word harvest means “ready.” So Jesus is saying, “The ready is plentiful.” He's got all kinds of lost people ready to hear about Him. The lost people aren't His problem - it's His people. They're sitting in the nest, soaking up spiritual goodies, while people all around them are ready for Jesus but spiritually dying without Him. So Jesus says, “Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest field.” In the original language of the New Testament, the word for “send out” literally means “to forcibly expel”! Jesus has to shake our nest, make us restless with our comfort zone, to get us to join Him in rescuing the dying.

Words like “evangelism” and “witnessing” just don't convey the life-or-death urgency the Bible is describing when it tells us to “rescue those being led away to death” (Proverbs 24:11). When it's “rescue” - when someone will die if you don't go after them - you can no longer just stay in your comfy Christian nest. You have to do whatever you can to rescue the dying. And maybe God even wants to use these words to shake you out of your nest and into the mission for which His Son died.

We can rest in heaven - forever. We only have now to help some people we know be there in heaven with us. As Amy Carmichael said so powerfully: “We will have all eternity to celebrate our victories, but only a few short hours to win them.” We are in those few short hours.

__________

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Made For Misson

Romans 10:6

Purpose-Driven Life series, #6 Romans 10:6-15

MADE FOR MISSION

================

I. How good a job did Jesus do?

A. At least nominally, one out of three humans is a Christian.

B. One of the clearest signs of discipleship - evangelism.

II. The Good News isn't hard. 10:6

A. It never has been.

B. Jesus must be Lord.

C. Anyone can trust in him, and everyone should.

III. The logical layout.

A. Salvation is a chain of events. 10:14

B. Guess who is being sent...

IV. How to get the word out.

A. Have a desire to do it.

B. Take it to the Lord in prayer.

C. Learn simple conversation openers.

D. Learn simple commitment closers.

1) "Four Spiritual Laws."

2) "Romans Road."

3) Romans 6:23. (single verse evangelism)

E. Stick to them like a brother (or sister).

V. Don't enter the Kingdom alone.

Sharing Christ With the Confused

Lindsay is a prime example of someone who is radically postmodern and confused about the Gospel, in spite of her many and varied religious experiences.

In conducting a video interview with 22-year-old Lindsay, we discovered interesting insights into her beliefs and background. She was articulate, well- traveled and open to discussing her beliefs. She spoke freely about her views of God or, in her case, god. She stated that god was everywhere and in everything, including the cigarette she was smoking. “I am smoking god,” she said.

At various points in her life, Lindsay had tried Baptist churches, Catholic churches, Buddhist temples and even aura readings but found organized religion a major turnoff. She acknowledged the Bible had some good morals but believed that people take it too literally. She believed in miracles and even the possibility of the resurrection of Jesus. Regarding Jesus, she said He was a leader; whether He was a fictional or real leader does not matter to her.

Lindsay holds several other positions that are quite strange. She described God with impersonal language, yet when asked about what God requires of us, she used personal language to describe God. She did not believe in absolute truth, but in an individual absolute truth, even if the respective truths are in direct contradiction to each other.

How then is the church and, in particular, individual Christians supposed to respond to the Lindsays, the confused who occupy every single neighborhood in America? Lindsay may seem “out there,” but in reality, most of the people who walk the streets and many who occupy our church rolls are confused as well. Please take a moment right now and pray for Lindsay that she may come to know and grow in Christ.

We live in a postmodern context in which people no longer are looking to the institutional church for answers to their deep spiritual questions and needs as their grandparents and parents did. Therefore, of the three major categories of evangelism -- attraction, projection and media -- projection strategies will have to play an increasing role: Like Jesus depended upon His disciples, the church will become increasingly dependent upon its body to communicate its message outside the walls of the church.

For most Christians, evangelism is neither a positive word nor a part of their lifestyle. However, personal evangelism strangely may be the way out of the decline and the way to expand God's glory in America. As former Speaker of the House Tip O'Neal said, “all politics are local.” With the church suffering from amnesia and those outside the church not finding enough reasons to search for God in our churches, one Christian person telling a searching person where to find God, hope and purpose may be the church's best hope for a brighter earthly future.

Evangelism in a postmodern context has some distinct characteristics. Examining the characteristics of spiritual and evangelistic conversations will provide you with insights into evangelizing people increasingly influenced by postmodern thought.

In the following list, I will attempt to sketch out how Christians need to carry out our great call to share our faith with the confused postmoderns around us. I use the terms postmodern and modern, recognizing that most people do not strictly and purely hold to one philosophy. The insights below are an extended excerpt from my 2003 book, “The Art of Personal Evangelism: Sharing Jesus in a Changing Culture” (Broadman & Holman). For a detailed explanation, see chapter 7 in the book. I recognize that this list is not exhaustive, but it should provide you with insights into sharing your faith:

POSTMODERN VS. MODERN

Multiple encounters ... less single encounters

Listener-centered ... less witness-centered

Dialogical ... less monological

Gospel story ... less Gospel presentation

Story then proposition ... not proposition then story

Asking good questions ... not giving lots of information

Community integration ... not individual isolation

Soft ... not loud

Consideration ... not argumentation

Guided tours ... not ticket sales

More supernatural ... less supersales (natural)

More earthly benefits ... less eternal benefits

More relational validation ... less evidentiary validation

More of time seed planting ... less percent of time harvesting

Sharing Christ can be fruitful and rewarding, yet it will be ever adapting to the changing culture. After conducting hundreds of interviews with lost people, it was easy to determine that the cries of the confused are many and varied. The lost people reflect many of the concerns and views of those around them. However, there is a common cry of the confused. It is found in the title of a Styx song, “Show Me the Way.” Our personal evangelism to the confused, such as Lindsay, will involve showing the way, not simply telling the way.

__________

Will McRaney, Ph.D., is associate professor of evangelism at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

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And the Sadhu Said, Roll Over...

Mark 1:45

In 1995 Indian sadhu Lotan (aka Ludkan) Baba made a 2,500-mile holy journey through the Indian countryside by lying on the ground and rolling over, and over, and over, the entire distance (doing from 6 to 13 miles a day). In September 2003 (reported in video on the CBS News website in January 2004), he set out on a 1,500-mile trip, rolling from Ratlam, India, to Lahore, Pakistan, where he said he hopes to thank President Pervez Musharraf for his India-Pakistan peace initiatives.

There are undoubtedly easier ways to spread news of peace, but at least he is trying something.

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Evangelism & the Kingdom of God

Mark 1:14

While the Kingdom of God was the central theme of all preaching in the New Testament, it has been virtually ignored by modern-day evangelists. This absence of Kingdom-centered evangelism has had devastating effects on the Western church and has now reached critical mass. An anthropocentric gospel of American individualism, which traces its roots back no farther than to the American frontier, has replaced the God-centered “gospel of the kingdom.” The deficiency is so great that most evangelists and professors of evangelism would be hard-pressed even to define the “gospel of the kingdom” (Matthew 24:14; Mark 1:14). The result has been a watered-down message that has no power to change lives.

THE BASIS FOR PREACHING THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM

When John the Baptist came preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!” (Matthew 3:2), his hearers understood he was referring to the eschatological age foretold by Old Testament prophets, a time when God would send a promised messianic king to defeat Israel's enemies and usher in a new age of universal peace. John called people to break with the past as a requirement to enter the Kingdom and escape the coming judgment.

After John's arrest, “Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand'“ (Mark 1:14- 15). Luke tells us that when Jesus stood in the synagogue and read a messianic passage from the prophet Isaiah, he concluded by saying, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). Later, when asked if he were the promised messiah, Jesus replied, “I am” (Mark 14:62). The waiting period was over. The Kingdom had arrived in Jesus. It was no longer a distant hope, but it now had a name and a face connected with it.

Soon after his synagogue discourse, Jesus told the crowds, “I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent” (Luke 4:43). Everywhere He went He proclaimed the “glad tidings of the kingdom of God” (Luke 8:1). The 12 apostles traveled with Him.

Is it any wonder as He sent them out, He commissioned them “to preach the kingdom” (Luke 9:1-2)? Mark's parallel account of the event says, “So they went out and preached that people should repent” (Mark 6:12), showing the link between the Kingdom and the call to repentance. Jesus then appointed 70 others to “heal the sick there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near you'“ (Luke 10:1, 9).

Prior to His ascension, the resurrected Lord spent 40 days with the apostles “speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). Thus, He ended His earthly ministry the way He began it -- declaring the Gospel of the Kingdom!

On the mount, after assuring His followers that there would be a future dimension to the Kingdom, He told them that in the interim they were to be His witnesses (Acts 1:8). Therefore, it is not surprising to find them preaching “the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus” (Acts 8:12). The Apostle Paul, likewise, taught “concerning the things of the kingdom of God” (Acts 19:8). He reminded the elders at Ephesus that he spent three years “preaching the kingdom of God” (Acts 20:25, 31). While under house arrest in Rome, “Many came to him at his lodging, to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God” (Acts 28:23). The Book of Acts closes, significantly, with these words, “Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him” (Acts 28:30-31).

There can be little doubt that the Good News of the Kingdom was the central theme of first-century evangelistic preaching. Consequently, it should be our focus as well.

THE NATURE OF THE KINGDOM MESSAGE

The Gospel is not an invitation to “invite Christ into your heart,” although His Spirit indwells every believer. Neither does the Gospel center on the eternal bliss that awaits believers at death, although every follower of Christ will depart to be with the Lord. Few, if any, New Testament sermons deal with heaven. Rather they focus on the Kingdom and what it means to be part of it, now and in the future.

The New Testament kerygma announces what God has ultimately done in and through Jesus and invites the hearers to become part of God's great plan for history. It is primarily about God, not us.

Additionally, the authentic Gospel is an historical, not an ahistorical or existential message. Through the Old Testament prophets, God foretold a time when He would send a mighty deliverer to establish a new covenant with Israel and bring all things in subjection to Himself. All independent kingdoms to which people give their allegiance, both spiritual and material, will be destroyed. The incarnate Jesus announced that God's Kingdom had arrived, and then He called people to submit to His rule. On the cross He defeated Satan, offered His life as an atonement for sin, and regained dominion over God's creation which Adam had relinquished at the fall.

Calvary was God's death blow to Satan's rule, sin's power and death's victory and, hence, it became the “hinge of history.”

At His resurrection, Christ emerged from the cosmic battle victorious, proving that God, not the rebels, was in charge. After all, if Jesus could enter the heart of enemy territory and not be defeated, then their days are numbered!

>From His exalted position at God's right hand, Christ now rules from His throne until His enemies become his footstool (Acts 2:35; 1 Corinthians 15:23-24). The powers of evil may still function, but only under the authority of Christ (Colossians 2:15; 1:15-16; 1 Corinthians 2:6-8). As one theologian remarks, “All kingdoms are confronted with their rightful overlord.”

As sovereign Lord, Christ now directs the course of history toward its victorious completion, i.e. the future establishment of His Kingdom on earth and the judgment of all nations, which will take place at His coming.

Finally the Gospel is corporate in scope as well as individualistic. The Kingdom now finds root in the church. Becoming a citizen of the Kingdom cannot be done in a vacuum, any more than a foreigner can become a citizen of the United States without rubbing shoulders with other Americans. There is a corporate or community aspect to citizenship. It includes responsibility and privileges that cannot be found by living in isolation. Likewise, it is incoherent to say one can enter that reign of Christ and remain outside the church.

The church in turn, spreads the Gospel of the Kingdom to the entire world and summons humanity to submit to God's rule in Christ and align themselves with other believers in His Kingdom. Whenever and wherever the victory of Christ is proclaimed and obeyed, Satan must retreat. As God's rule expands, Satan's recedes.

When asked what would be the sign of His coming and the end of the age, Jesus replied, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14).

As we implement the Empowering Kingdom Growth initiative, it is essential that we as Southern Baptists re-examine the message we proclaim. Is it the same “gospel of the kingdom” preached by Jesus and the apostles?

__________

R. Alan Streett is chairman and professor of evangelism at Criswell College in Dallas.

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Paul's First Missionary Journey - Forced To Iconium

Acts 13:44

Acts 13:44 – 14:7 — “Paul’s First Missionary Journey — Forced to Iconium” — (outline by F. F. Bruce, NICNT) « Leader information shown in this fashion »

{A.} The Birth of the Church (1:1–5:42)

{B.} Persecution and Expansion (6:1–9:31)

{C.} The Acts of Peter and Beginnings of Gentile Christianity, 9:32-12:25

{1.} Peter in West Judaea (9:32-43)

{2.} The Story of Cornelius (10:1–48)

{3.} Peter’s Action Endorsed at Jerusalem (11:1–18}

{4.} Antioch Becomes a Christian Base (11:19–30)

A. Gentile Evangelization in Antioch (11:19–21)

B. Barnabas’ and Saul’s Ministry in Antioch (11:22–26)

C. Famine Relief (11:27–30)

{5.} Herod Agrippa I and the Church (12:1–24} —

A. Martyrdom of James and Imprisonment of Peter (12:1-4)

B. Peters Escape from Prison (12:5–11)

C. Peter Reports His Escape (12:12–17)

D. Peter’s Escape Discovered (12:18–19)

E. Death of Herod Agrippa I (12:20–23)

F. Continued Progress of the Gospel (12:24)

{D.} Church Extension from Antioch & Apostolic Decree at Jerusalem

Acts 12:25–15:35

{1.} Barnabas and Saul (12:25–13:3)

{2.} Cyprus (13:4–12)

{3} Pisidian Antioch (13:13–52)

A. Arrival at Pisidian Antioch (13:13–15)

B. Paul’s Synagogue Address in Pisidian Antioch (13:16–41)

C. Response to Paul’s Address (13:42–43)

D. Gentile Interest Arouses Jewish Opposition 13:44-52 (NKJV)

1. 44 On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. 45 But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul. 46 Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.’” 48 Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. 49 And the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region. 50 But the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city, raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region. 51 But they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and came to Iconium. 52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

2. In Acts 11:2 we had the introduction of a group that would be an element in the early church;

a. What were they called? « – “those of the circumcision” »

b. Who were they? « – Jews who had been converted to Jesus »

c. What was their concern? « – their Judaism took precedence over their being Christians; today, some Christian Jews take this position, holding onto the Torah while others do not »

d. The inclusion of Gentiles into the church brought this issue to the forefront, causing increasing Jewish opposition to the gospel as we shall see in the rest of the book of Acts. In what Roman province are the missionaries now serving? « – Galatia »

3. Comment on the “Pisidian Antioch Evangelistic Campaign”

a. Its success « – almost the entire city turned out »

b. Its failure « – the rejection by a large number of Jews »

4. “Necessary” (verse 46) has a broad meaning from “useful” to “compelling” but weaker than “mandated.” What were some practical reasons for “to the Jew first,” for going to synagogues?

a. For Paul and Barnabas they were « – kinsmen, same culture »

b. They worshipped « – the true God »

c. They knew « – the Old Testament Scriptures and promises »

d. They were awaiting « – the Messiah »

5. Paul quotes Isaiah 49:6 … read verse Isaiah 46:1 —7

a. How does he apply it here? « – to himself and Barnabas »

b. How can it be applied in context « ? – (1) to Isaiah (2) to the Messiah, Luke 2:29–32 (3) to true Israel (= a., above) »

6. What was the general response of the Gentiles there to these words? « – glad worship that God’s word now held promise for them by “specially those that believe” (1 Timothy 4:10) »

7. For Jews there, general, when they heard these words?

a. how did they respond? « – jealous opposition and politicking »

b. who were their tools? « – religious women, secular rulers »

8. What was wrong with the dust of Antioch? « – as Jesus told apostls to do when a city, as a whole, rejects the message, Luke 9:5, 10:11 – in this way they proved Paul’s words true and they lost the privilege of spreading the gospel to their neighbours »

9. Was this true of all Antioch? « – no, a group of rejoicing disciples was left in this city to be visited later, Acts 14:21 »

{4}. Iconium, Lystra, Derbe Acts 14:1–18

A. Adventures in Iconium Acts 14:1–7 (NKJV)

1. 1 Now it happened in Iconium that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great multitude both of the Jews and of the Greeks believed. 2 But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren. 3 Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. 4 But the multitude of the city was divided: part sided with the Jews, and part with the apostles. 5 And when a violent attempt was made by both the Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to abuse and stone them, 6 they became aware of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding region. 7 And they were preaching the gospel there.

2. What did Paul and Barnabas do the same in Iconium? « – went to the place of worship, the synagogue and preached gospel »

3. What were the marks of success?

a. Verse 1: « – the belief of many, both Jew and Gentile »

b. Verse 3: « – the opportunity of extended ministry there »

c. Verse 3: « – the signs and wonders worked by God’s grace; in the presence of general unbelief, these were curtailed »

d. What was the stated purpose of these? « – to witness to the truth of the Gospel »

4. “Unbelieving Jews” is also translated “Disobedient Jews” – both are correct and show the strong connection in Greek between the two ideas of trusting and obeying. What disobedience was involved? « – the gospel invitation is a command; consider Paul’s words in Acts 17:30 and Romans 10:16 »

5. What Satanic devices were employed to inhibit the gospel?

a. Verse 2: « – stirring, agitating the minds (get them worried) »

b. Verse 2: « – poisoning, inflaming against brethren (hate, strife) »

c. Verse 5: « – cunning, surreptitious force »

6. What is the effect of the Gospel …

a. … here? « – there was a schism of the city »

b. … promised by Jesus (Matthew 10:34–39)? « – division »

7. What is the missionaries’ response to opposition? « – continue to preach the gospel; compare Philippians 1:15–18 »

8. What did Paul look like? Of course we do not know, but there is a tradition which comes from The Acts of Paul (circa 150 AD) telling of a man, Onesiphorus, who lived in Iconium, setting out to meet Paul: “And he saw Paul approaching, a man small of stature, with a bald head and crooked legs, in a good state of body, with eyebrows meeting and nose somewhat hooked, full of friendliness, for he now appeared like a man, and now he had the face of an angel.”

The Shoes of Readiness

Ephesians 6:15

Howard Hendricks has quoted his father, a veteran of World War II, explaining that you can tell where a soldier is by what he complains about: far from the front lines he complains about cold food, warm beer, and old movies. Near the front lines his complaint changes drastically; if you ask the soldier what he needs, he will say, “Give me more men, give me more ammunition, give me more air support.”

These observations underscore the radical difference in the preoccupations of one who is ready for battle and one who is not. The soldier who is far from combat has his mind on civilian affairs. His concerns are for his comfort, not his safety. Yet when he is confronted with the immediacy of danger, he becomes single-minded; his sole purpose is to win the battle. His mind and even his body become vigilant, taking on a readiness that belongs to the front lines.

In his description of the armor of God, Paul told the Ephesians to have “your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace” (Ephesians 6:15). Being caught without shoes on is a sure sign that someone is not ready. When little children hear a command to “put your shoes on,” they know it is time to go somewhere. Having your shoes off signifies relaxation. Putting your shoes on means that you are ready.

Are your feet fitted with readiness? Although the comfort of our lives and the tepidity of our complaints may not suggest it, we are near the front lines. We should not wait until the enemy's attack is upon us to suit ourselves for battle. To our peril, we forget the spiritual war being waged around us until it is too late.

Yet if the thought of engaging in the spiritual battle makes you feel tired and discouraged, you may be misunderstanding the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. The gospel of peace is news that the battle has been won, liberation has been achieved. Although many a tired soldier may have little strength left for combat, they might be willing to strap their boots back on to bring the good news of liberation to captives. The movie La Vita È Bella (Life is Beautiful) vividly portrays the good news of peace. When the tanks of the liberating armies roll into the prison camp, they are not there to wage war but to announce that the war is won.

The prophet Isaiah proclaims, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation...” (Isaiah 52:7). The prophet Nahum exclaimed, “Look, there on the mountains, the feet of one who brings good news, who proclaims peace!” (Nahum 1:15). There is no better journey for a foot soldier than to spread the news of peace. And this is the task we have been given. Christ defeated sin when he died for us and he defeated death when he rose from the dead. It is our privilege to spread this news!

Prepare yourself for your part in the war. Put on your shoes and steady your mind. But do not neglect to keep in your heart the beauty of your assignment, the spreading of the good news of peace.

__________

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Quick Prayerism

Mark 1:15

“Quick Prayerism” is a method of soul winning that has spread widely since the 1970s. “Quick Prayerism” evangelism is quick to do two things.

First, it is quick to get people to pray a “sinner’s prayer” regardless of whether or not there is any evidence that the individual is even slightly interested in Christ, let alone that he is calling upon Christ from a heart of true repentance and genuine saving faith.

Second, it is quick to give assurance to those who have prayed such a prayer and to include them in salvation statistics when there is no evidence that they have been born again and, in fact, when their lives witness against their profession. “They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good” (Titus 1:16). See also Matthew 7:21-23; John 10:27; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; 2 Timothy 2:19; 1 John 2:3-4.

A church in Maine had a soul winning campaign a few years ago and the people were instructed to go house to house and ask the following question: “If I could tell you that you can go to heaven when you die and you won’t have to change anything, would you be interested?”

I believe that type of methodology is heresy and deception. We must tell people the same thing that the apostle Paul told them, that “they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds” (Acts 26:20).

To tell sinners that God demands that they repent will cut down on the “decision” statistics, but it is the only honest and scriptural path. God has commanded that they repent (Acts 17:30) and Jesus said they can’t be saved without it (Luke 13:1-5), so how can we fail to tell them this? What good are empty professions and bogus salvation statistics?

________

Holwick: Scripture references changed to NIV.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #21623]

Jesus Saves!

1. We have heard the joyful sound– Jesus saves! Jesus saves!

Spread the tidings all around– Jesus saves! Jesus saves!

Bear the news to ev’ry land, Climb the steeps and cross the waves;

Onward! ’tis our Lord’s command– Jesus saves! Jesus saves!

2. Waft it on the rolling tide– Jesus saves! Jesus saves!

Tell to sinners far and wide– Jesus saves! Jesus saves!

Sing, ye islands of the sea! Echo back, ye ocean caves!

Earth shall keep her jubilee– Jesus saves! Jesus saves!

3. Sing above the battle strife– Jesus saves! Jesus saves!

By His death and endless life– Jesus saves! Jesus saves!

Sing it softly through the gloom, When the heart for mercy craves;

Sing in triumph o’er the tomb– Jesus saves! Jesus saves!

4. Give the winds a mighty voice– Jesus saves! Jesus saves!

Let the nations now rejoice– Jesus saves! Jesus saves!

Shout salvation full and free, Highest hills and deepest caves;

This our song of victory– Jesus saves! Jesus saves!

Flies Four and A Half Feet Deep

Mark 2:1

A female housefly becomes an adult in two weeks. Usually she lays two batches of 125 eggs each. Ten generations can develop in a summer. If all eggs hatched and multiplied at the usual rate and none were destroyed, by the end of the summer 15 quintillion (15,000,000,000,000,000,000) flies would cover the earth four and a half feet deep.

Holwick: Evangelism is not quite this dramatic (though neither is the population growth of flies!) Nevertheless, the principle of multiplication is the key to Kingdom growth.

________

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Tool For You - Encourage Your Church To Share Their Faith

Mark 16:15

Churches may use this article within their congregation to encourage evangelism during the Easter season.

Clearly, every Christian is called to go out into the world and bring people into the Kingdom. We’re supposed to share what we’ve been given.

But what exactly are we supposed to share?

Here’s your message in two words: Good News.

Mark 16:15 tells us to “proclaim the Good News to everyone, everywhere.”

Do you like to get good news? Everybody does.

Do you like to share good news? Most people do. In the Warren household we compete to see who gets to share the good news.

I know you’re thinking, “The people I work with, my friends — they’re not interested in the Good News.”

You’re dead wrong! They may not be interested in religion, but they are interested in the Good News. The problem is not that your friends and co-workers aren’t interested; the problem is you have forgotten how good the Good News really is.

Once you’ve been a Christian for a while, you forget how miserable it was to live without hope. You forget what it was like to worry where you would go when you die. You forget what it was like to have guilt, fear, regrets, bitterness and boredom in your life before Christ brought meaning, purpose and significance.

What happens is — the longer you’re a Christian the more you tend to take for granted how good the Good News really is.

If you go out on the street and ask, “How do you convince God to like you?” — then 99 percent of the people will say, “You’ve got to work real hard to get God’s approval and you’ve got to be really, really good. You’ve got to keep a lot of rules and you probably have to follow a lot of regulations and do some rituals. You’ve got to be religious. I’m none of those things – so I’m never going to please God or get to know him.”

The Good News is that you are able to enter into a relationship with God through an attitude of trust — trust in Jesus Christ — and not through a religion of rules, regulations and rituals.

When I trust my life to Jesus Christ, I’m given three incredible, fabulous, wonderful benefits. These are the three benefits you need to share with people: He takes care of your past, your present and your future.

He forgives your past

If we were to take everything you’ve ever done, said or thought and make a movie of it and show it on a screen to everybody, you’d be really nervous! And probably embarrassed.

And so would I!

None of us are perfect. Everybody’s made mistakes. Everyone has skeletons in his closet — things he or she wishes had never happened. God comes along and says, “When you trust Jesus Christ with your life, I take that movie and I burn it. I take everything you’ve ever done and wipe the slate clean. You get to start over with a brand new life.”

Now, is that Good News?

He takes care of the present and gives you a purpose for living right now You are not an accident. God created you for a purpose. But you’re never going to know God’s purpose for your life until first you get to know God. When you get to know God, you’re going to know who you are. When you figure out God, you’re going to figure out yourself.

I meet people all the time who say, “I’m just trying to find myself.” You know what — you probably aren’t going to like yourself once you find yourself!

These people say, “There’s something missing in my life.”

God’s missing! You weren’t made to live and go through life just on your own power.

He gives you a future

And that’s a home in heaven. Most people hope they’re going to heaven. But they’re not sure. Most people think if you do more good in your life than bad, maybe God will grade on a curve and say, “OK, you can come in.”

Wrong! It doesn’t work that way.

You won’t get into heaven on your own power because you’re just not good enough. The Bible says that heaven is a perfect place – free of sorrow, suffering and sin. That means only perfect people get to go there. If he let imperfect people into heaven, it wouldn’t be perfect any more.

And that leaves me out and it leaves you out, too.

There’s only one way you can get into heaven – on somebody else’s ticket. Since none of us are perfect, God came to earth in human form and that form was called Jesus Christ. He lived a life of perfection. He died on the cross, paid for our sin and then went back to heaven. Now you get into heaven on his ticket – if you trust him.

Romans 6:23 says, “God gives us a free gift — life forever in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NCV) It’s a gift. That means you can’t earn it, you can’t work for it and you can’t own it in any way.

Think about these three things: God says you get to know me just by trusting me. If you trust my Son with your life, you get forgiveness for your past, a purpose for living in your present and a home in heaven in the future. Is that Good News? I guess so!!!

Do you think anybody you know would be interested in that? Of course!

Satan has fooled you. You think that none of your friends or the people you work with are interested in hearing the Good News. You’re dead wrong. The world is hungry for Good News. They’re looking for it. There’s a great spiritual hunger in our world. I’ve discovered that the Good News keeps sounding better and better because the bad news of the world keeps getting worse and worse.

Don't Forget Your Keys!

Romans 10:9

The story is told of a man who put his keys into one of his shoes each night when he went to bed.

In the morning as he dressed to begin a new day, he would take the keys out of his shoe and repeat the following prayer: “Lord, this day I will come to certain doors that are locked, but I shall use these keys to open those doors. Remind me today that there is a key to every situation, a solution to every problem. Please don’t allow me to surrender to one of life’s locked doors, for I know that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to you.”

Keys and locks make good analogies. Our Lord referred to them in Matthew chapter 16, verse 19, when He tells His disciples, “And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you lock on earth will be locked in heaven, and whatever you open on earth will be opened in heaven”(NLT).

As Christians, God desires to give to us the keys of His kingdom to help us spread the Good News of His love and forgiveness and to help us fulfill the Great Commission of our Lord.

A problem is that we often see or experience locked doors but we do not use our spiritual keys to unlock them to accomplish God’s will. What are some of these keys?

In the context of the above verse, Jesus had asked Peter, “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God”(vs.15-16).

This is where Jesus gave His classic reply, “Now I say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it” (v. 18). It is in the very next verse that Jesus refers to the keys to the kingdom above.

The first key, therefore, as with Peter, is our confession. Peter had just confessed that Jesus is “the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” It is important to confess Jesus Christ as Lord (confess His deity). “For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9, NLT).

It is also important to continue to confess God’s Word in our lives, which opens kingdom doors and releases God’s power in everyday situations. Other important keys include faith, love, obedience, prayer, and witnessing.

Praying For the Lost

Luke 23:34

Before Jesus gave up His spirit as He hung on the cross, He took time to pray for those who were murdering Him. He prayed, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). God began to answer His prayer on the Day of Pentecost as some three thousand people repented and were baptized that day, and there have been countless multitudes that have been saved through the centuries. In response to Jesus’ intercession for the transgressors (Isaiah 53:12), God has snatched many souls from eternal death.

Do you have a heart to pray for the lost like Jesus did? Do you have the passion that inspired John Knox to plead, “Give me Scotland or I die”? Is your attitude that of George Whitefield, who prayed, “O Lord, give me souls or take my soul”? Do you, like Henry Martyn, mourn when you see others trapped in false religion and cry out, “I cannot endure existence if Jesus is to be so dishonored”?

God used those faithful men as powerful tools to bring salvation to dying people. Each of them had a clear and vivid understanding of what is at stake in the gospel — it’s an issue of life or death, an eternity in heaven or hell. Do you realize that your unbelieving family members, your co-workers, and your neighbors will spend forever suffering in torment away from the presence of God if they don’t embrace Christ? That realization should drive you to your knees to plead, not only with them to believe the gospel, but with God to save their souls.

The seventeenth-century English Puritan Richard Baxter wrote, “Oh, if you have the hearts of Christians or of men in you, let them yearn towards your poor ignorant, ungodly neighbors. Alas, there is but a step betwixt them and death and hell; many hundred diseases are waiting ready to seize on them, and if they die unregenerate, they are lost forever. Have you hearts of rock, that cannot pity men in such a case as this? If you believe not the Word of God, and the danger of sinners, why are you Christians yourselves? If you do believe it, why do you not bestir yourself to the helping of others?” (cited in I.D.E. Thomas, ed., A Puritan Golden Treasury [Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1977], 92)

It is one thing to pray for family and friends, those for whom you have natural affections. But God wants you to pray for all people. Paul writes, “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority” (1 Timothy 2:1-2). Kings and people in authority in Paul’s day weren’t bound by civil rights and were often unjust, self-serving, and cruel. Do you pray for the salvation of people like that–those who disagree with you politically, those who advocate ungodly agendas, those who openly embrace sin and reject the Scripture?

The Bible has several examples of radical evangelistic prayer, and for the worst of sinners. Here are a few examples:

Moses interceded for Israel after catching them in orgiastic idolatry at the foot of Mount Sinai. After he confronted and dealt with their sin, he turned to the Lord and prayed, “Alas, this people has committed a great sin, and they have made a god of gold for themselves. But now, if You will, forgive their sin–and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!” Moses was willing to forfeit his life for his people, even though they were guilty of wicked rebellion!

While being stoned to death, Stephen followed the Lord’s example by praying for the salvation of his executioners: “And they went on stoning Stephen as he called upon the Lord and said, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!’ And falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them!’ And having said this, he fell asleep” (Acts 7:59-60).

Standing among those who killed Stephen was a young man named Saul of Tarsus. His salvation was an answer to Stephen’s prayer. Years later, the apostle Paul communicated the depth of his concern for his people Israel, and in Romans 9 he sounds very much like Moses:

I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, [… ]Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. (Romans 9:1-3; 10:1)

His brethren according to the flesh, fellow Jews, were the very ones who persecuted him so severely, disrupting his work, stirring up mobs, even plotting his assassination. And yet he loved them and prayed that God would show them mercy.

God honored those men’s prayers for the souls of the lost; He’ll honor yours too. Whether friend or foe; whether moral or immoral; whether you know them or not–pray for the lost. For those God brings your way, open your mouth in love and compassion to tell them the truth. Warn them of God’s judgment for their personal offenses against his holiness, but then tell them the good news. There is salvation in Jesus Christ from God’s eternal wrath, if they will only repent and believe. Once you’ve told them the truth, keep praying for them and trust God for the results. You will rejoice as you see God use you to save people from their sins and grant them new life in His Son.

Evangelism: Believe the Right Things

John 8:23

Because the heart of the Christian life is admittedly faith in a person, Jesus Christ the Lord, it has been relatively easy for some to press this truth out of all proportion and teach that faith in the Person of Christ is all that matters. Who Jesus is matters not, who His Father was, whether Jesus is God or man or both, whether or not He accepted the superstitions and errors of His time as true, whether He actually rose again after His passion or was only thought to have done so by His devoted followers -- these things are not important, say the no-creed advocates. What is vital is that we believe on Him and try to follow His teachings.

What is overlooked here is that the conflict of Christ with the Pharisees was over the question of who He was. His claim to be God stirred the Pharisees to fury. He could have cooled the fire of their anger by backing away from His claim to equality with God, but He refused to do it. And He further taught that faith in Him embraced a belief that He is very God, and that apart from this there could be no salvation for anyone....

To believe on Christ savingly means to believe the right things about Christ. There is no escaping this. That Incredible Christian, 22.

"Thank You, Lord, that You are Who You claim to be and that our salvation does indeed rest on a solid foundation. Don't let me ever back down from this vital truth of Who You are. Amen."

And He said to them, "You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." -- John 8:23-24

Because the heart of the Christian life is admittedly faith in a person, Jesus Christ the Lord, it has been relatively easy for some to press this truth out of all proportion and teach that faith in the Person of Christ is all that matters. Who Jesus is matters not, who His Father was, whether Jesus is God or man or both, whether or not He accepted the superstitions and errors of His time as true, whether He actually rose again after His passion or was only thought to have done so by His devoted followers -- these things are not important, say the no-creed advocates. What is vital is that we believe on Him and try to follow His teachings.

What is overlooked here is that the conflict of Christ with the Pharisees was over the question of who He was. His claim to be God stirred the Pharisees to fury. He could have cooled the fire of their anger by backing away from His claim to equality with God, but He refused to do it. And He further taught that faith in Him embraced a belief that He is very God, and that apart from this there could be no salvation for anyone....

To believe on Christ savingly means to believe the right things about Christ. There is no escaping this. That Incredible Christian, 22.

"Thank You, Lord, that You are Who You claim to be and that our salvation does indeed rest on a solid foundation. Don't let me ever back down from this vital truth of Who You are. Amen."

Daisy Chains

Amos 6:1

Amy Carmichael was one of India's most heroic missionaries, and a woman whose life continues to inspire many people today. She has written some inspiring words, but none more inspiring than her account of a scene she saw in her mind one sleepless night as she agonized over the people around her without Christ. She saw herself standing on the edge of a sheer cliff that dropped off into dark and seemingly bottomless space. She describes the people who were moving steadily toward that edge. She saw a blind woman plunge over the cliff with a baby in her arms and a child holding onto her dress. Streams of people began to come from all directions; all of them blind. There were terrible screams as they suddenly found themselves plunging into that awful darkness. There were, thankfully, a few sentinels along the edge, but the gaps between them were far apart. And while the sentinels were able to save a few, most people were plummeting unwarned into oblivion. In Amy Carmichael's words: “Over and over the people fell, like a waterfall of souls.” She went on to say, “Then I saw a little picture of peace, a group of people under some trees, with their backs turned toward the gulf.” When she investigated what had them so occupied that they were ignoring the carnage just beyond their circle, she found them playing with the grass and the flowers. They were busy - making daisy chains.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Daisy Chains.”

It's an awful picture. One I cannot get out of my mind. And, honestly, I hope it's a picture you will not soon forget. Because somewhere in that tragic vision is you and me. If you've never put your total trust in Jesus Christ and His cross to rescue you from your sins, you are the blind man or woman headed for spiritual destruction - not because it's what God wants, but because you've never opened your heart to the Savior who died so you don't have to. And none of us knows how soon we'll reach the edge.

Or maybe your place in the picture is standing as one of those sentinels, trying to stop as many people as possible from going over the edge into a Christless eternity. You're actively praying for opportunities to tell people about Jesus. You're seizing every possible opportunity to give them the life-saving message of Jesus. Because of you, some of those folks will be rescued by Jesus. They'll be in heaven with you, and that's the ultimate legacy of any life.

But sadly, too many of us are in that group sitting in the grass, doing nothing about those around us who are moving steadily toward an awful eternity. We're real busy - making our daisy chains. Listen to God's warning in Amos 6:1, our word for today from the Word of God. “Woe to you who are complacent in Zion.” Complacent in God's place. Going to heaven but not caring much about those who aren't - making daisy chains. You're so immersed in your work, your family, your activities, even your church that you're missing the reason God has placed you where you are - to help some of the folks there be in heaven with you some day! To be sure, God must draw them to Himself, but His chosen deliverer of how to know Him is you. He won't be sending an angel to tell them what Jesus did for them on the cross. He's left that with you. You're their chance.

Maybe there's a gap in the rescue line because you haven't taken your place as God's rescuer of the people around you. God's command from Proverbs 24:11 is: “Rescue those being led away to death ... If you say, 'But we knew nothing about this,' does not He who weighs the heart perceive it? ... Will He not repay each person according to what he has done?”

How can you be content making your oh-so-important daisy chains when every day someone else is plunging over the edge into an unthinkable eternity?

________

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Evangelism: Not Willing To Take Contempt

Acts 20:24

We are 20th century Christians. Some of us are Christians only because it is convenient and pleasant and because it is not costing us anything. But here is the truth, whether we like it or not: the average evangelical Christian who claims to be born again and have eternal life is not doing as much to propagate his or her faith as the busy adherents of the cults handing out their papers on the street corners and visiting from house to house.

We are not willing to take the spit and the contempt and the abuses those cultists take as they knock on doors and try to persuade everyone to follow them in their mistaken beliefs. The cultists can teach us much about zeal and effort and sacrifice, but most of us do not want to get that serious about our faith — or our Savior. Jesus Is Victor!

“Lord, let me pray with Paul, that I might not ‘count my life dear to myself.’ I pour myself out today as Your servant, no matter the cost. Amen.”

Survivors To the Rescue

John 1:41

Each season in the U.S. seems to bring its beauty and its unique dangers. In the spring, think tornado, for example. In the summer and fall, some of us know what the word hurricane is all about. In the mountains in winter, it's important to be aware that with that season's snowy beauty may also come the danger of deadly avalanches. Every winter, we hear about some people who lose their lives as massive chunks of snow suddenly break loose and roar down the mountain. But every once in a while, we hear about lives saved. Last year, the rescuers were there not long after this avalanche, and they immediately started digging for survivors. In minutes, they pulled out one skier who was not only grateful to be saved, but in remarkably good shape for what he had been through. And the news reported that after that man was rescued, he didn't just head for a warm place to recover. He joined the rescuers, working side by side with them to save other lives. And they did!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Survivors to the Rescue.”

A person is saved from a deadly situation and they instinctively go back to help save someone else. That's exactly how lives are saved eternally. The rescued are supposed to turn around and be the rescuers. When they're not, they make it out, but they leave others to perish. It's not supposed to be that way.

If someone rescued you spiritually by telling you about Jesus Christ, then the eight words in our word for today from the Word of God are personal orders from God to you. Jude, verse 23, simply says, “Snatch others from the fire and save them.” The implication; you got snatched from the fire, now go back and get someone else.

That was instinctive for Andrew the day he met Christ. The Bible says, “The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, 'We have found the Messiah' ... and he brought him to Jesus” (John 1:41-42). And Simon became the great leader of the apostles. My guess is that when you first discovered the love of Jesus for yourself, you had that Andrew instinct. You knew you had found something you could not keep to yourself. You may not have done the best job of explaining Jesus at that point, but you just knew that people you cared about had to have the same chance that you had. That's how the rescue work of Jesus has gone on for 2,000 years - rescued people becoming rescuers of others.

But as time has gone by, have you become content to just find a warm spot among other people who are already headed for heaven? to believe the beliefs, give the money, be at the meetings, and live as if the reason you were rescued is to enjoy the fellowship of the others who've been rescued. No, you were rescued to rescue.

Oh, we have our excuses for our silence about our Savior. “I'm afraid, I'm inadequate, I'm imperfect, I don't know enough, I might mess it up.” Well, look at who Jesus used to bring an entire Samaritan village to Him - a woman with the worst reputation in town, a woman who had just met Jesus, but she knew enough to say, “Come see a Man.” (John 4:29) Come and check out Jesus. If Christ could use her to be His ambassador to her tribe, He can surely use you to be His ambassador to yours. They'll listen to you because you walk the same trail they do - much more than they might listen to some “professional rescuer” who's from outside their world.

Hundreds of people were rescued from the sinking Titanic by being put in lifeboats. But those same people refused to turn those lifeboats around to rescue the people who were in lifejackets in the water, even though many lifeboats were half empty. And 328 people died because the people who had been rescued did nothing about the people who were dying. There are too many like them in the lifeboat “Jesus.” Please don't be one of them.

________

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Peter's Message

Acts 2:14

Acts 2:14–36 — Peter’s Message — (outline by F. F. Bruce, NICNT) — « Leader information shown in this fashion »

[A]. The Birth of the Church (1:1–5:42)

[1]. The Forty Days and After (1:1–26)

[2]. The Day of Pentecost (2:1–47)

A. The Descent of the Spirit (2:1–4)

B. The Crowd’s Amazement (2:5–13)

C. Peter’s Proclamation (2:14–36)

1. Introduction and Explanation “This is that” — Acts 2:14–21 (NKJV): 14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. 15 For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16 But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel {2:28–32a): 17 ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. 18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy. 19 I will show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapour of smoke. 20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. 21 And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved.’”

a. 2:14–15: Denial of their charge

(A) what physical endowment(s) did Peter appear to have? « — a loud voice (toughened by years as a fisherman) that could gain attention over the noise of the crowd and the tongues being spoken by the others; maybe also he was taller. The word “said” denotes a solemn utterance as of a prophet, and as in verse 4, inspired though it seems not in tongues as verse 40 indicates this section of the sermon was more or less reported verbatim as opposed to being a digest or précis. »

(B) the third hour of the day is: « 9:00 a.m.; there is a humour in this response which would refute the charge both if it were a jest; if not, humour can turn aside rebuffs to advantage »

(C) morning prayer was from dawn until the fourth hour, with no refreshment until it was over; thus Peter denies both

(1) that « these 120 were drunk »

(2) that « these 120 were irreligious men »

b. 2:16–21: This fulfills Joel’s prophecy

(A) context to this quotation is found in Joel 2:12-14a where there is a call to repentance; Peter later brings in that theme. «

(B) What does “last days” mean? Different interpretations exist. This is mine. God’s purpose for the old economy (Greek: oikonomia; provision, arrangement, dispensation … note that this word differs from “covenant”) was fulfilled when the true Israel, the Christ, died on the cross. Accompanying this were the portents listed. (Note: some point to the lunar eclipse Friday, April 3, 33 as turning the moon to blood, but spring equinox seeming to follow the previous new moon makes that problematical.) With the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and the birth of the church the new economy of God began. But Revelation (see 6:12) predicts the same signs at Christ’s coming to judge. Joel’s prophecy covers, it is clear, the entire church age. Read 1 Peter 1:10-11, 20. Thus, the last days began with Christ’s appearance on earth, we live in them, His return will consummate them. »

(C) what is one message that is uniformly applicable throughout this age? « — the Gospel invitation to call on the name of the Lord which will save or deliver; this brings salvation; how does this fulfill Moses desire (Numbers 11:29; verse 32) »

(D) who is the Lord whose name does this (Acts 4:10–12)? « — Jesus, the Messiah, of Nazareth (Joel says “Yahweh”!) »

2. The Resurrection of Jesus proclaimed — Acts 2:22–28 (NKJV): 22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know — 23 Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; 24 whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. 25 For David says concerning Him: ‘I foresaw the Lord always before my face, For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. 26 Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope. 27 For You will not leave my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. 28 You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’

c. 2:22-24: Jesus’ ministry, death, resurrection:

(A) How was Jesus accredited by God?

(1) in ministry? « — the works, as listed, God did through Him. »

(a) What kind of evidence did this comprise? « — it was inarguable as the audience themselves could vouch its truth; amongst them were eye-witnesses; Lk 7:16 »

(2) in death? « — though apparently an act of lawless men, it was completely part of God’s plan and purpose »

(3) in after-death? « — God raised Him from the dead; the verdict of a higher court overturns the “kangaroo” court »

(B) from a moral standpoint, why was it not possible that death should hold Jesus the Christ? « — He was both man and God; the Scriptures had to be fulfilled; it completed the act of our justification; that He might be the first fruits from the dead; that He might be exalted to His rightful place in heaven »

d. 2:25–28: David foretells resurrection (Psalm 16:7–11)

(A) what key assurances did David possess?

(1) « he would not be shaken »

(2) « he would not be left in the grave (Sheol) »

(3) « he would not see corruption »

(B) how did he react to such assurances

(1) « a rejoicing heart »

(2) « a glad (praising) tongue »

(3) « a hope in this physical life

(C) of Psalm 16:9 (NKJV): “Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope.” the much later Midrash Tehillim comments, “my glory rejoices over the Lord Messiah, who will rise from me.” a demonstration that this Psalm was accepted by the Jews as Messianic in character. »

3. Jesus: Lord and Messiah — Acts 2:29–36 (NKJV): 29 “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, 31 he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. 33 Therefore being exalted to {or: “by” see Psalm 118:15–17} the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, 35 Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”’ 36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

e. 2:29–31: David foretold resurrection of Messiah, not himself — what proofs does Peter use that this is the case?

(A) « David is dead & buried »

(B) « his tomb is there to be seen, near pool of Siloam; also see Nehemiah 3:16; John Hyrcanus desecrated it; Herod tried to do the same, but later built marble monument in its front »

(C) « David is a prophet »

(D) « David had God’s oath that Messiah would be of his seed, Read Psalm 132:11 — that Jesus was David’s descendant was so widely recognized it is merely stated by Paul, Rom 1:3 »

(E) so his words were by foresight about Messiah, not himself

f. 2:32: Witnesses to Jesus the Messiah’s resurrection. — who comprised the witnesses to whom Peter refers? « — it is the group who have just been speaking in other languages (120 assuming that this is the same group who have been continually meeting) »

g. 2:33–35: Further proof of the Resurrection (Psalm 110:1) — what further proofs does Peter use?

(A) Christ has been « — exalted to the right hand of God, even as Jesus stated in Luke 22:69 »

(B) which is shown by « — the fact that the Holy Spirit has come »

(C) and prophesied « — that Jehovah would have David’s Lord (who the Jews understood as, and Jesus confirmed, being a prophecy about Messiah … e.g., see Matthew 22:41–46) »

h. 2:36: Application of the Sermon

(A) who is this message for? « — the phrase, “the whole house of Israel” echoes Ezekiel 37:11 and refers not just those present but all those in Judea and beyond, at that time and forever … this sermon is the fundamental message to the Jews »

(B) what is the application? « — God’s contrasting reception of Jesus as the very Messiah for which the whole house of Israel had long awaited and had now rejected should bring upon them the overwhelming burden of their sin; to this Jesus, then, we fully give the name “Lord,” reserved only for Yahweh »

Brethren, We Have Met To Worship

1. Brethren, we have met to worship

And adore the Lord our God;

Will you pray with all your power

While we try to preach the Word?

All is vain unless the Spirit

Of the Holy One comes down;

Brethren, pray, and holy manna

Will be showered all around.

2. Brethren, see poor sinners round you

Slumb’ring on the brink of woe;

Death is coming, hell is moving–

Can you bear to let them go?

See our fathers and our mothers

And our children sinking down;

Brethren, pray, and holy manna

Will be showered all around.

3. Sisters, will you join and help us?

Moses’ sister aided him;

Will you help the trembling mourners

Who are struggling hard with sin?

Tell them all about the Saviour–

Tell them that He will be found;

Sisters, pray and holy manna

Will be showered all around.

4. Let us love our God supremely,

Let us love each other too;

Let us love and pray for sinners

Till our God makes all things new.

Then He’ll call us home to heaven,

At His table we’ll sit down;

Christ will gird Himself and serve us

With sweet manna all around.

[Tune “Holy Manna” or, alternate, “Beecher”]

*

He Was A Hero At Ground Zero

Jude 1:23

Rick Rescorla directed security for Morgan Stanley, the largest employer in Tower Two at the World Trade Center. After the Trade Center bombing in 1993, Rick Rescorla urged authorities to prepare for another attack, including one from the air. Repeatedly, he trained the Morgan Stanley employees “how to be saved” from a disaster he felt was coming.

And come it did - the moment that jetliner crashed into Tower One. Even when there seemed to be “no real reason to get out,” Morgan Stanley employees began evacuating even before Tower Two was hit. As both towers were burning out of control, Rick Rescorla continued to go from floor to floor, looking for people who needed to be rescued. His final words to his wife on the phone - and his final words to a company executive - were, “I have to get everyone out.” Rick Rescorla died that day at Ground Zero. But he is credited with saving the lives of some 2,700 people!

On September 11, lives were saved - for another twenty, forty, maybe fifty years - because one man was willing to sacrifice his life so others could live. Two thousand years ago, another Man made that same choice - except His sacrifice means lives saved forever.

On that awful Friday on Skull Hill, heaven's Prince hung on a cross and was cut off from God so we would not have to be. Then, on that glorious Sunday, He exploded out of His grave and death itself died.

Surely, every person Jesus rescued would want to help as many others be rescued as possible - to “snatch others from the fire and save them” (Jude 23). But sadly, so many have simply settled back with the already rescued, seemingly oblivious to the dying people all around them.

Recently, a friend came across a directory of over 500 Christian organizations. To her amazement, only 8% of those ministries have evangelism as part of their stated mission! Perhaps that reflects how many of Jesus' followers have rescuing the lost as part of their PERSONAL mission.

The rescuer's cry on September 11, “I have to get everyone out” - that's the passion that drives evangelists. When lives are at stake, your mission is clear - RESCUE THE DYING, WHATEVER IT TAKES.

Six Evangelistic Styles In the New Testament

Acts 18

Six Evangelistic Styles in the New Testament:

• Paul's Intellectual Approach (Acts 18)

• Peter's Confrontational Approach (Acts 2)

• The Blind Man's Testimonial Approach (John 9)

• Matthew's Interpersonal Approach (Luke 5)

• The Samaritan's Invitational Approach (John 4)

• Dorcas's Servant Approach (Acts 9)

*

Peter Defends Himself

Acts 11:1

Acts 11:1–18 — “Peter Defends Himself” – (outline by F. F. Bruce, NICNT) « Leader information shown in this fashion »

{A.} The Birth of the Church (1:1–5:42)

{B.} Persecution and Expansion (6:1–9:31)

{1.} Stephen (6:1–8:1a)

{2.} Philip (8:1b–40)

{3.} Conversion of Saul of Tarsus (9:1–31)

{C.} The Acts of Peter and Beginnings of Gentile Christianity, 9:32-12:25

{1.} Peter in West Judaea (9:32-43)

A. Peter at Lydda: the Healing of Aeneas (9:32–35)

B. Peter at Joppa: the Raising of Dorcas (9:36–43)

{2.} The Story of Cornelius (10:1–48)

A. Cornelius the Centurion Sees a Vision (10:1–8)

B. Peter, the Apostle, Sees a Vision (10:9–16)

C. The Two Visions are Connected (10:17–23a)

1. Peter’s Perplexity (10:17a)

2. The Messengers from Cornelius Arrive at Joppa (10:17b–21)

3. The Beginning of the Explanation (10:22–23a)

D. Peter Enters the House of Cornelius (10:23b–33)

1. Peter and Cornelius Meet (10;23b–27)

2. Peter’s Explanation and Question (10:28–29)

3. Cornelius’ Explanation and Invitation (10:30–33)

E. Gentiles Hear the Good News (10:34–43)

1. Peter Connects His Message to His Audience (10:34–37a)

2. Jesus of Nazareth, His Ministry (10:37b–39a)

3. Christ Jesus, His Redeeming Work (10:39b–43)

F. Gentiles Receive the Holy Spirit (10:44-48)

{3.} Peter’s Action Endorsed at Jerusalem (11:1–18}

A. Peter Called to Account 11:1–3 (NKJV)

1. 1 Now the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. 2 And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him, 3 saying, “You went in to uncircumcised men and ate with them!”

2. Today’s passage is principally a repetition of what Luke has told us in the previous chapter. Peter adds some things, leaves some out, and expresses others differently. In this fashion, he answers questions we have previously raised.

3. The rite of circumcision was practised by the nations of Moab, Edom and Ammon, as well as the priestly class of Egypt; does that mean that Jews were free to have concourse with these? Why or why not? « — No. See Genesis 17:10–14, Leviticus 12:3, Exodus 12:48; what made it important was that it was a mark of the person’s being part of God’s covenant people; it was necessary for every male Israelite and for any proselytes »

4. The role of the law to Messiah’s redeemed became a problem in the early church. The term “those of the circumcision” came to be more sharply defined a few years later than this. What were some fundamental misunderstandings these held? « — (1) need for circumcision by gentile believers (2) application of dietary laws, culture, and traditions (3) making law condition of salvation »

5. What particular act of Peter (and the others, and not mentioned in Acts 10) made them so contentious? « — that of eating; hence we now see more clearly the import of Peter’s vision »

6. How do Christians make these same mistakes today? « — discuss such things as (1) expecting reformation prior to conversion (2) dependence on works to assure salvation (3) promulgation of rules without the context of spiritual principles »

«

7. The admission of the Gentiles marks a turning point in the book of Acts and the history of the church. The church had a measure of favour with the common people. In Acts 12 we find that the arrest and execution of James met with popular approval. This change may be explained in part by indignation at Gentiles being treated equally (without requiring proselytism) »

B. Peter’s Defence 11:4–17

1. Peter Narrates His Vision; 11:4–10 (NKJV): 4 But Peter explained it to them in order from the beginning, saying: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw a vision, an object descending like a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came to me. 6 When I observed it intently and considered, I saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. 7 And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ 8 But I said, ‘Not so, Lord! For nothing common or unclean has at any time entered my mouth.’ 9 But the voice answered me again from heaven, ‘What God has cleansed you must not call common.’ 10 Now this was done three times, and all were drawn up again into heaven.

a. What things does Peter omit in his account? … why were they not needed? « — (1) that he was on the housetop (2) the time of the vision (3) the fact of his hunger — these were his own personal situation having nothing to do with the message of the trance-vision »

b. What does he add? « — that he observed this intently and he considered it; thus he indicates that he was not passive, but fully cognitive while this trance-vision took place; it., it was a demonstration that this was not a common dream. This adds a vibrancy not found in the prior third person account »

c. What is the key element in the trance-vision recounted by Peter? « — the thrice repeated words of God, “You must not regard as profane, what God has cleansed.” »

2. Peter Tells About His Being Summoned to Cornelius; 11:11-14 (NKJV): 11 “At that very moment, three men stood before the house where I was, having been sent to me from Caesarea. 12 Then the Spirit told me to go with them, doubting nothing. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. 13 And he told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house, who said to him, ‘Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon whose surname is Peter, 14 who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved.’

a. Note that the “doubting nothing” is a figurative rendition of the more literal “separating (or, distinguishing) none from yourself” or “being at variance in yourself concerning none” « (If MS reading of the active participle is adopted, the implication is even more pronounced: “making no distinction”) » cf Acts 15:9

b. How many responded to Cornelius’ call to Caesarea? « – seven including Peter; thus, in everything that Peter said there was a significant confirmatory witness »

c. Last week it was pointed out that the messengers to Peter told him that Cornelius had sent them so that he could “hear words” or “hear what he had to say,” that is, to receive a message from him. How does Peter now explain that more specifically? « — these words were the gospel message which would explain the way of salvation; divine judgement pronounced in accordance with a person’s works (Romans 2:6–7) but salvation, not of works but of grace, only entered Cornelius’ house with gospel »

3. Peter Tells What God Did; 11:15–17 (NKJV): 15 “And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?”

a. Of what other words of Christ might Peter have well been reminded? « — John 10:16, Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 1:8 »

b. What was particularly pertinent of the words that Peter did remember (Acts 1:5)? « — it was addressed to the apostles (1:2) so Peter sees this event not just as the Gentiles being included along with the Jews but rather the essential unity that exists between each and every Christian, through the baptism by the self-same Holy Spirit »

C. Peter’s Defence Accepted 11:18 (NKJV)

1. When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.”

2. What happened to their contentious feelings toward Peter? « — they were silenced and change to praising God »

3. What peculiarities (of speech) do you note in the way they describe the conversion and salvation of the Gentiles?

a. « It is God’s granting or gift, to distribute a favour which they had always considered particularly Jewish, that of being God’s people, outside of the nation of Israel »

b. « That the gift God gave is not described as forgiveness or as remission of sins — which it is — but as repentance, that change of heart, mind and soul from sin to serving the living God; what we normally consider man’s responsibility is here considered a gifting from God »

«

D. Draw a verbal picture of a church under change: a new pastor, new converts, new styles of worship, and so on. People entering the congregation who are unfamiliar with its unwritten (or written) code of conduct; who smoke, play cards, drink, dance, or whatever. What are would be the reactions by long time attendees of that church? What is the problem? What is are answers? How should Christians ready themselves for such an activity by God? »

Renting His Head

Twenty-year-old Andrew Fischer, a Web designer from Omaha, Nebraska, offered his forehead as space for an advertising message. “People will always comment on something out of the ordinary,” Fischer proclaimed in his sales pitch on eBay. “People like weird.”

No argument there.

But it isn't as if Fischer has an especially large forehead. Nor is he one of those who will do anything - no matter how offensive or outrageous - for the right price.

Fischer did stipulate some standards: no crude or tasteless messages that would be unacceptable in traditional advertising formats. Sounds reasonable enough, but who would pay good money for a single individual in Omaha, Nebraska, to wear a logo or message on his forehead?

At least one company saw some merit in this idea. The company that produces SnoreStop, a snoring remedy, has paid Andrew Fischer, entrepreneur, the sum of $37,375 to advertise its product on his forehead for 30 days.

“I look forward,” commented SnoreStop CEO Christian de Rivel, “to an enjoyable association with Andrew - a man who clearly has a head for business in every sense of the word.”

________

Source: Adventist Review, ISSN 0161-1119, (c) March 17, 2005, http://www.adventistreview.org/; submitted by Mary Thayne

*

Meeting A Divine Encounter

It's a day I’ll never forget. I began the day the way I seek to begin every day.

I asked God to help me have my eyes open to lost people He will bring my way. But I didn’t ask Him to bring those people my way -- I know He will do that. I am just so full of self so often that I will pass them by without His help. I will spend all my time on lesser things and all my relational time with people who already know Him. But He is so patient with me, and this day He had something very special in mind.

I was in Scottsdale, Arizona, for a meeting and was scheduled to be at a dinner, but there was a mix-up with my ride and I found myself with a free evening. So, I made my way to the fitness center for a good workout. It was quite a facility, with racquetball, weights, a spa and pools, so I was surprised that there was no one there. A sign on the reception desk said that even the trainer was on break.

I began to lift weights in a strangely quiet room. But almost immediately, the door opened, and an elderly man slowly hobbled in on a cane. I was amazed to see him inch toward the bench press, hang his cane on the bar, and begin to do push ups on it. We struck up a conversation and I told him how impressed I was. His name was Pete, and he shared with me that although he was 82 years old, he had always been a power-lifter and a Marine, and did his best to stay in shape.

For the next half-hour, Pete opened up and shared his life with me. It struck me that God had allowed this place to be empty because this man was lonely and needed a friend. He lived nearby and had joined the hotel’s health club. Since we were alone, he openly shared very personal experiences, including his role in World War II at Iwo Jima, and the horror of watching so many of his friends killed.

I told him that I worked with our military chaplains and that I was also a law enforcement chaplain. He seemed startled by that and said, “My son is a law enforcement chaplain but hasn’t been able to do much good with me.” I knew at that moment that this man was so loved by our Lord that He had put together every circumstance so I could share the Good News with him. And so very simply, sitting beside him, that’s what I began to do.

When I finished, with deep emotion he said, “I have thought about these things many times but even in the war, I never knew what would happen to me if I died.” I told him that God could change that right now, and give him the life he had always sought. With a very “Marine-like” answer, he said, “Well, let’s get to it!” I knelt beside him and said, “Pete, let’s turn this fitness center into a worship center!” And Pete prayed with me and met Jesus!

As soon as we said “Amen,” the door opened and people began to come in. I was in awe of how God put all this together. We exchanged numbers and Pete said, “I almost didn’t come today, but a little voice told me, 'Pete, get off your lazy rear and go work out!'” Wonder whose voice that might have been?

As we parted, Pete said, “Well, I may never see you again.” “I will see you forever, Pete,” I said. As our emotions began to flow, he quietly whispered, “I have a call to make. I need to tell my son.” And he slowly hobbled out the door. The next day, two wonderful Arizona Baptists agreed to be Pete’s friend and disciple him.

326 Sermon Illustrations on Evangelism