Bold Witness

There are seven billion people in the world, and God doesn’t want anyone to perish.  From the very beginning of Christianity there was an outward movement to know the Lord now, get saved and now, and everyone becoming a witness for Jesus, because that’s the only way people can know salvation, is that they hear the gospel.

Romans 10:14 ¹⁴ How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?

What is the Gospel?

It’s the simple good news that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son Jesus to come and die in our place for the sins we’ve committed although he committed no sins He died for our sins and whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

1 Thessalonians says that when He returns we’re going to be caught up in the air to be with Him and so shall we be with the Lord forever. That will open up something called eternity which is time without end or really no time which is very hard for our minds to kind of grasp because we’re creatures of time and space. The eternal state is going to be different. We learned that this is the heart of God- that the angels rejoice when that one person; your relative, neighbor or friend, when one of them turns away from the way they’re living: self-centered sinful and they say Jesus help me save me forgive me I give my life to you, that all the angels in heaven to rejoice.

When is the last time you shared the gospel with someone? How did it go?

We also learn that Christianity for the most part over the centuries has turned away from Jesus’s first command that the disciples go to all people in the world.

Mark 16:15-17 ¹⁵ And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who has believed [in Me] and has been baptized will be saved; but he who has not believed will be condemned. 17 These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak in new tongues;18 they will pick up serpents, and if they drink anything deadly, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will get well.”

Many believers have circled the wagons and want to argue about doctrine, spirit manifestations, and we want to just stay at the father’s table enjoy the meetings have great fellowship and enjoy the presence of the Lord. All of that has its place but it’s not the most important thing to God. God wants us to get strong to have fellowship to learn the Word so we can be empowered to go out and represent him.

What keeps you from sharing gospel?

We learn that in the New Testament there was not this division we have around the world,  where the members are on one level and the pastors are on another level and they are to do all the work. The idea that the world could be reached by pastors and preachers and missionaries alone is unrealistic. In the world, seven billion people how many of those billions don’t know Jesus as their Savior, could that small group of people do it?

This never was God’s plan. In the New Testament  we learned was that ALL DISCIPLES were preachers, ALL DISCIPLES were witnesses. Jesus says follow me and I will make you fishers of men… So that when a person gets saved God now says: “I’m going to use them, strengthen them, make them a man of prayer, my word in him, but he is going to reproduce himself now and speak for Me and represent Me. The center of his life will not be his needs, his problems, or his difficulties. The center of his life will be My heart My glory My kingdom and I’ll use him.”

While you’re doing that for Jesus, you have the greatest life you could ever imagine. The more you look at yourself and try to have a good life the more you’re going to be empty. It is a law that when you lose your life you gain it and when you try to gain your life you lose it.

How has your life changed since you started living for Jesus?

When the persecution broke out in the book of Acts in chapter 6 and then into a chapter 8 after Stephen was killed, all the Christians were scattered because of a persecution, except the Apostles. Everywhere the people were scattered they preached the word – the gospel. There was no New Testament. They knew no verses because no verses had been written. Think of that. Think of the excuses that we use, “I don’t know enough of the word”. They only shared what they knew about Jesus to everyone they could, but God was working with them which was the promise. When you step out and do the His work, He will back you up with the power of the Holy Spirit.

Have you ever stepped out in faith and the Holy Spirit took over?

If you stay in your church and just ask for Holy Ghost- Holy Ghost Come, Holy Spirit come move in ME! Why? Because we love when you move. That gets very polluted and very weird because God never gave the Holy Spirit just to have good services. He gave the Holy Spirit so that we could go into the all the world and be strong witnesses for Him.

So you think we have been selfish with the Holy Spirit?

The 4 Greek words that are the main words used for preach in the Bible simply mean to say, to publish, to tell, to inform, somebody. It wasn’t formal preaching or bible school. God was using fishermen, business men and women, young people and seniors. He was giving dreams to them and directing them and all kinds of things were happening because they didn’t know any better. They just remember the last thing Jesus said: “Go and tell” go everywhere. Start in Jerusalem where you are. Start with the people that you meet tomorrow. Look for an opening share Christ. Just tell them what Jesus means to you. You don’t have to use a whole bunch of verses to tell them what Jesus means to you. What He’s done. Washed away your sins- just share.

What’s one of the easiest ways to share Jesus with someone?

It doesn’t matter if they want to hear it, we’re just supposed to share it in wisdom in love and kindness. In Evangelism love wins the day. If you’re mean and proud and religious you’re not going to convince many people that Jesus is worth serving. People are broken down by love not by threats,  not by reciting five ten verses and looking down at them, but loving them like Jesus did.

It’s easier to go to church than to go out and try to be a witness to anybody.

To be a Christian and want to share Christ you’re always going to go against the stream. The culture is always “anti” – anti Christ, anti-gospel. People will get saved. Sometimes people in authority will get saved, the wealthy people could get saved, but for the most part in the history of the Christian church from the very beginning is opposition, controversy, and persecution it will always be that way. Jesus told the disciples if they hated me they will hate you.

Hate has been reversed on many Christians today? How do you see this in the World?

In the midst of that hostile environment of the early church Jesus said: Your job is never to convert anyone I do that converting you just make the contact you open your mouth and when you open it I’ll give you the words to say.  After you sow that seed you just pray. I’ll do the converting. Some people might think but “I didn’t see a change”. You go to the next one. Don’t be worrying about it.  Just share Christ, invite to church, bring them into the presence of God, love them. We have to have faith that if we do what He told us to do, He’ll do what He said He would do.

This world is our mission field. There was always opposition. There’s opposition now. You’re going to be mocked, you’re going to be laughed at, and you’re going to be thought of uncool or you’re going to be called a hater.

Notice when you mention God, nobody has a problem with it, but when you mention Jesus, they do. Why is that?

Back then they could, if Caesar said no meetings, and Christians would be caught and killed, so it costs way more to be a Christian than that now in the United States. People mock you your family will turn against you would you think you’re better than us.

In Acts 3, Peter and John were going to the temple after the church was born and they saw a man and the Holy Spirit directed them to pray for this man and speak words of healing by the way some of the most powerful prayers

Acts 4  ⁴ But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so the number of men who believed now totaled about 5,000. ⁵ The next day the council of all the rulers and elders and teachers of religious law met in Jerusalem.  ⁷ They brought in the two disciples and demanded, “By what power, or in whose name, have you done this?” ⁸ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, ⁹ are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? ¹⁰ Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. ¹¹ For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says,‘ The stone that you builders rejected  has now become the cornerstone.’ ¹² There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” ¹³ The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. ¹⁴ But since they could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council could say.