Personal evangelisation Leichlingen, 9.6.97

Bible passages
Matth. 5, 13 ; - Salt of the world
Matth. 5, 14-16 ; - Light of the world
Mark. 7, 36.37 ; - He has made all things well
- John the Baptist was made known
Luke 4, 36.37 ; - Jesus became known through the casting out of demons.
Luke 5, 29 ; - Levi's meal for his colleagues
Luke 9, 1-6 ; - commission for the 12 and the 70
Luke 10, 16 ; - He who hears you hears me.
Luke 12, 49-53 ; - division
Luke 13, 17 ; - The crowd rejoices at Jesus' deeds.
Luke 14, 13.14 ; - invite the poor to the meal
Luke 16, 31 ; - Only the testimony of the Bible counts.
Luke 19, 3 ; - Zacchaeus seeks Jesus.
Luke 19, 48 ; - All the people clung to Jesus and listened to him.
Joh. 1, 35-51 ; - Come and see
Joh. 2, 1-12 ; - Jesus and his disciples were invited
Joh. 2, 23 ; - Many believed in his name because of what he had done.
Joh. 3, 1 ; - Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night.
Joh. 4 ; - Conversation with the Samaritan woman
Joh. 4, 48 - Without signs and wonders many would not believe !
Joh. 9 ; - One born blind: Passive testimony through change

Introduction
There are some in the exclusive Brethren assemblies who believe that evangelism is not necessary. If God wants someone to be converted and join the church, he will lead him there. Of course, they say, the life must be right, the testimony at work, etc., but evangelism, in whatever form, is not necessary.
What do you think, is that true?
By the way, only a small proportion of all Brethren assemblies in Germany are exclusive, and only a small proportion of them think as I have just described.
We have a mission to evangelise and I would now like to think about evangelisation with you, and not about large-scale evangelisation, with halls and so on, but about personal evangelisation.
I would primarily like to use passages from the Gospels.

Our mission (general)
Matth. 5, 14 - 16 ; (read)
We are to be a light for others in order toglorify God.
"Glorify" means, to put it bluntly, to show how glorious, how good, how great God is.
You can use all the positive expressions there are, they would not be enough to describe God.
Unfortunately, this term "glorify" only exists in our colloquial language with negative meanings, such as glorifying violence. In films that glorify violence, violence is presented as good, as a solution. This is of course wrong; we as Christians should glorify God because he is good and the solution.
Perhaps this linguistic parallelism helps us to better understand the word "glorify".
In the Bible text we have just read, it already says how glorifying God is supposed to work.
Our lives should be such that it is not embarrassing for us if an outsider were to gain a deep insight into our lives. Our works, i.e. what happens in our lives, can be made public, they should be exemplary. We should have a charisma so that people look at us and begin to glorify our Father in heaven.
I have now used the word "should" several times. It also sounds right in this context. We should do this, we should do that, etc.
I recently had a conversation with two Jehovah's Witnesses and because I had already had all the discussions with Jehovah's Witnesses about various topics before, I wanted to talk to them about their practical life of faith. Their answers were, you should do this, you should do that, etc. So I asked one of them specifically: "What does your life of faith look like? What can I see when I spend a day with you?" He seemed a little irritated by this question and stuck to it: "You should do this, you should do that, etc."
The word "should" only appears once in the Bible text we have just read:
"Let your light so shine before men". We are to lead a life that cannot be overlooked by others.
Now I could say, like Jehovah's Witness, that we should do this, we should do that and end the sermon with this.
But I don't want to make it that easy for myself.

Our mission (practical)
I think a big problem for many is that the Bible was written in a different time. We don't find an example in the Bible of a West German employee from the 20th century living his life with Jesus. It doesn't literally tell us how best to talk about Jesus in the office, at school or in the workshop. It doesn't say which Christian books or which tract is best suited for sharing.
There is nothing in the Bible about radio ministry or internet ministry.
Nevertheless, the Bible is complete; I am convinced that God has not forgotten anything, not even one sentence.
But we are not computers and the Bible is not a programme for us. Sometimes we would like it to be: First I do this, then this and then this and then he converts.
That's not how it works. The Bible contains everything we need to know. But in order to understand it and apply it, we have to belong to Jesus; otherwise the Bible is of little use to us.
I would now like to look at the subject of personal evangelism with you using a few Bible passages.

One of the main reasons why people believed in Jesus was because of what Jesus did:
E.g. Luke 13:17b; "the whole crowd rejoiced at all the glorious things that happened through him." or Mark 7:37; "they were exceedingly amazed and said: He has done all things well; he makes both the deaf hear and the dumb speak."
Jesus ministered to people; when someone needed help and turned to Jesus, Jesus helped them.
Now Jesus also performed many spectacular miracles, which attracted many sensationalist people, although Jesus never wanted to perform sensations. Now, according to the description of the letters in the Bible, sensational miracles seem to be the exception rather than the rule, although they are still just as possible and, if God sees fit, they still happen today.
What can we do to make people believe in Jesus?
To approach this question, I would first like to look at Jesus' motives.
Jesus did not prescribe service for himself, but service and love for his neighbour was simply his basic attitude and his actions followed naturally from this. And this certainly attracted many people who wanted to listen to him.
You certainly don't get this basic attitude from Jesus overnight. Nor do I believe that you ask for it once and, bang, you have it. Galatians 5:22 speaks of the fruit of the Spirit and this basic attitude of love and service to our neighbour is certainly one of them. It grows in a close relationship with Jesus.
I would now like to try to uncover deficits in this respect in our lives using a few examples.
Jesus was invited to a wedding in Cana in John 2:2. Now this was quite a mega wedding, perhaps even attended by the whole village, but nevertheless it is specifically mentioned that Jesus was invited. First and foremost, you invite the people who are important to you to a wedding. When was the last time you were invited to such a comparable event? Are there any non-believers in Jesus who would invite you to such an event? If this is not the case, then it may be that you don't care about your neighbour and therefore he doesn't care about you either. I'm not excluding myself from this: The older, more employed, more married you become, the less contact you have with non-believers in Jesus.
One problem with this is that we often approach contact with the attitude:
"What's in it for me ?"
Jesus said to someone who had invited him to dinner: (Luke 14, 12-14;)
"When you have lunch or dinner, do not invite your friends, or your brothers, or your relatives, or your rich neighbours, lest they also invite you again and get back at you.
But when you prepare a meal, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. And blessed will you be, because they have nothing to repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
At that time, it was apparently customary to invite rich and respected people in order to be invited back. Children sometimes do the same thing, inviting the children of rich parents in order to get a big present and to be invited to the mega party themselves.
Adults tend to cultivate acquaintances according to the principle: "What's the point of such an acquaintance? Do I get on well with him, is it nice to be with him? Do we have the same interests, can we have a good chat?" And with non-believers in Jesus there are often few common topics of conversation.
The poor, crippled, lame, etc. of that time were mostly outcasts, uneducated people who had no idea about anything because they were too busy with their daily survival.
They were certainly not attractive company in general. In the same way, we often think that it is more desirable to avoid socialising with some people.
When was the last time you sought contact with someone with whom you had no special relationship? Or do we only have such contact when it is "official" and unavoidable?
I'm not excluding myself here either; I also have many deficits in this area.
But even if we have contacts, it remains difficult to introduce them to Jesus.
Levi, the tax collector, invited all his friends after he was called by Jesus:
Luke 5:29;
"And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a great multitude of publicans and others reclining at table with them."
Levi probably thought to himself, my friends and colleagues need to get to know someone like Jesus. The tax collectors of the time were largely corrupt and did a lot of illegal business, which is why they were despised and hated by all the people.
And there were a lot of them. I don't know if I'd like to have that many of them in my flat. Maybe they would steal from me. What effect would it have on my children if THEY were in my flat? And even back then there were sceptics who rejected Jesus' actions. In verse 30, some Pharisees say: "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" Hey, what kind of people do you associate with?
In the past, as I know from stories, it was not appreciated when church children had unbelieving friends. They should rather have friends in the church. I would be interested to see statistics on whether church children with lots of unbelieving friends go astray more often than church children who are only friends with other church children. I am convinced that the one has nothing to do with the other. Natural contacts with non-believers in Jesus often develop naturally in youth, and these people are then often ready to deal with Jesus and the Bible. There are certainly cases where contact with a particular person is harmful to the child, but I think these are exceptions.

So what happens when we have overcome all these hurdles? So we have non-Jesus-believing friends that we would like to introduce to Jesus. Maybe a party like Levi had? Unfortunately, we can no longer invite Jesus in the flesh. But how did Jesus behave at the party? I would have loved to have been there. How did Jesus talk to the guests? How did he share the gospel at all ?
There is one important principle:
Jesus almost never preached the whole gospel, but only fragments. If people were interested, they asked questions and then he explained it.
We often have the tendency to explain the whole gospel at once. So, you still have to sign that, then you're a Christian. Perhaps the attitude behind it is: "So, now I've told him everything, now I've fulfilled my responsibility, phew, done."
It could also be that the motive behind it is: "I'm not really interested in you, but as a Christian I have to tell you everything so that I'm not to blame if you get lost."
Whether there is such a motive, everyone has to question themselves, of course.
Jesus was always interested in the people he visited or who met him.
And that is the real secret recipe, which is not a secret recipe.
Through love for one's neighbour, which grows as the fruit of the Spirit, and the resulting interest in one's neighbour, fellowship and conversations arise in which one can then talk about Jesus.
The questions listed above, such as "Are we sometimes invited?" or "Who do we have contact with?" should serve to point out deficits in our lives.
If we are not prepared to admit such deficits when they exist, then Jesus will not change anything in our lives.
And at this point I would like to come back to the deeds. So the type of deeds I do doesn't play such a big role, it's the motive that counts. If I have the same basic attitude as Jesus towards my neighbour, then the right deeds will also follow and then these neighbours will also start to take an interest in our Lord.

And then people will also come and ask questions or even seek help.
Probably the first to come to Jesus were two disciples of John the Baptist, Andrew and an unnamed man (John 1:35-51). They wanted to know more about Jesus because John the Baptist had pointed him out to them. Apparently John the Baptist was a credible man and they had spent some time with John, so they were willing to listen to him.
Another example is Nicodemus. He had heard Jesus' preaching and seen his deeds, so that he visited him at night to learn more about him (John 3:1-21). Jesus then explained the entire Gospel to him, taking into account his previous knowledge of the Old Testament.
Another was Zacchaeus, who desperately wanted to see Jesus (Luke 19:3). He even seemed to be prepared to turn his life upside down and reorganise it after his personal encounter with Jesus. He wants to return all the money he has swindled through his fraud several times over.
Another example is the woman at Jacob's well (John 4:1-26), who, from a normal point of view, meets Jesus "by chance", he leads her to her problem through an empathetic conversation and she is changed as a result.
I think most of those who live with Jesus have already experienced that God has given opportunities for good conversations. You are really amazed at the openness with which people ask questions. I just have the impression that people are often satisfied with such opportunities. But then where are the people you've spoken to? Are we not satisfied too quickly? Of course you can't force anyone, but most people convert to Christianity after prolonged contact. Jesus didn't run after anyone he spoke to, but he spent a lot of time with his disciples, for example, explaining everything to them in detail and setting an example.
In the Acts of the Apostles, it is described in several places that Paul regularly met with non-Christians to talk about Jesus. In one place (Acts 19:31), pagan temple priests are described as his friends.
Are we prepared to invest this time in making new relationships and friendships? It's not easy as an adult either. It was easier as a child: "Come out and play?" That's no longer possible as an adult. What do you talk about with your "new friend"? Casual conversation, small talk? Or do you unpack the Bible and if the new friend doesn't want to listen, that's the end of the friendship?
Of course, you can also offer casually: "Would you like to read the Bible with me once a week?" I know some people who do this and have had very good experiences. It seems that quite a lot of people are interested in the Bible, even if they wouldn't admit it publicly. But would we be prepared to read the Bible regularly, informally, with interested people and talk about it? Or do we have to wait for a pastor to take over?
I have now asked a lot of questions: This was not to get your attention again and to come up with the answer now. These are questions that concern me just as much and which I am far from finished with and to which I have no simple answer myself.

I would like to briefly touch on one point. If you try to continue to speak of Jesus through word and deed, then it can of course also happen that you get into trouble.
You have to realise that. It can even lead to persecution.
I know someone who gave away Christian books at work without restraint. He didn't get on the nerves of his colleagues, but his superiors did. He was then fired from his civil servant position on a pretext. He now works as a nurse and the time during his dismissal was probably not easy for him and his wife.
However, he got in touch with a colleague through a book he had received as a gift, and he met up with her and her boyfriend to read the Bible. This woman and her friend came to Jesus as a result and started a house group, through which probably 30-40 people have already come to faith, including some of this woman's colleagues and therefore also former colleagues of the fired man.
Are we prepared to accept criticism or even greater difficulties?
In Luke 12, 49-53 Jesus predicts that even the closest relatives will quarrel and be divided because of Jesus. But in Luke 12:4-6, Jesus also predicts that we need not even be afraid of those who want to get at us, because God will take care of us personally.

I think I have touched on many questions in this sermon that cannot be answered so easily.
I hope that we will not simply push aside the deficits that I see in myself and in others, but that we will ask Jesus for change in our lives and in our church.
Only then can we be light and salt in this world.
AMEN