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SHARING CHRIST AS A BUSY PROFESSIONAL
By
The
goal of sharing Christ is to bring the hearer to a saving knowledge and
therefore it is part of the process of evangelism.
·
God
demonstrates beginning with the life if Christ that evangelism is a process and
not an event.
·
How
many of you believed the first time someone told you about Jesus? Or even the
second or third time?
·
How
many acknowledge that a word here, an act there played a part in drawing you to
Jesus?
“Even now the
reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that
the SOWER and the REAPER may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘ONE SOWS and
ANOTHER REAPS’ is true. I sent you to reap WHAT YOU HAVE NOT WORKED FOR. Others
have done the HARD WORK, and you have REAPED the benefits of THEIR LABOUR.”
John 4:36-38
Jesus
was telling them:
·
“You
saw the woman at this well, who has been harvested. This is my meat – to talk
to and love and bring her and all her people to myself.
·
But
what I did,” he tells them “wasn’t the hard part. Others have done the HARD
WORK. They sowed into this woman’s life so she was ready to hear about me.
·
Even
so, I’ve sent YOU to also reap where others have sowed. They did the hard part
and you have reaped the benefit of their labour as well.”
·
What
Jesus taught brings correction to what we often think of as a classic
evangelist. He or she is the one who does the reaping while others heap glory
and honour to them for it. But most fail to realize that this final act of
reaping was only the very last part in a rather long process of sowing AND
reaping.
·
What
really happens is that the sowing gets done by, shall we call them “SOWING
EVANGELISTS” and the “REAPING EVANGELISTS” do the reaping. It’s all evangelism. But Jesus called the long-term process of
sowing into people’s lives THE HARD PART
in comparison to reaping.
·
While
one particular evangelist reaps 50 people, you may have sowed into 250 people’s lives with seeds of the Gospel,
and the love of God.
·
In
the case of the woman at the well, let’s say, for the sake of discussion that
she was 35 years old by the time she had five husbands and met Jesus. The
sowing would have taken 35 years with perhaps an hour of “reaping” that Christ
did.
·
Jesus
was keenly aware of the process of salvation. He said, “others HAVE DONE THE
HARD WORK.” (With Jesus, he was always one with the Father, so it can certainly
be said that if anyone could claim ALL the credit for any salvation, Jesus
could – but you always hear Jesus giving the Glory back to the Father).
·
“Even
the few people I’ve personally led to the Lord, I can’t claim credit for.
Because there was always someone else involved in the process, so there is no
way I can point to even one person that I was solely responsible for their
salvation!”
·
One
sows and another reaps. Evangelism is NEVER just reaping. It’s sowing AND
reaping. It’s set up that way. You’re not supposed to have anyone that you can
claim sole credit for their salvation. That’s because the Holy Spirit does the
drawing, the convincing, LONG before the witness opens his mouth.
1.
Prayer
2.
Lifestyle
3.
Preaching or giving witness
PRAYER OR TRAVAIL:
·
Vs
1 could the 72 have been planters going ahead of Jesus?
·
Their
commission was first to “pray ye”
·
Labourers
·
When
were the first pains of Childbirth?
·
Intercession
and travail is very much a part of the process of evangelism.
·
Could
it be that part of the reason we have poor results in evangelism is because we
have not paid sufficient attention to this fact?
Salvation is
called the new birth. The allegory is not for nothing – children are born
through travail. There must be travail for the new birth to take place.
Isaiah 53:11 (KJV):
·
Our salvation
was won through the travail of Jesus.
Isaiah 66:8
·
As soon as
Zion travailed...
Psalm 126:5-6
Mark 1:29-39
·
Jesus
priority on prayer leading to evangelism.
Acts 3:1-10
·
Impromptu
evangelism meetings en route to prayer meeting.
Acts 10:1-
·
Cornelius was
in prayer vs 2 and vs 30
·
Peter was in
prayer vs 9
Out of these
prayer meetings the gospel finally broke the Jewish boundaries.
·
Even when
Peter is sent to the Gentile Cornelius, Peter only just begins to tell the
story of Jesus and the Holy Spirit falls on all the Gentiles. But the Lord had
initiated the process of the whole thing, not Peter.
·
God was
working with Cornelius first. Peter simply obeyed a vision and did his part.
Who knows who else God used to speak to Cornelius earlier in his life.
·
Then Peter
reaped – if you can call it reaping. The Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles while
Peter was in mid-sentence. He never even had a chance to make a “proper”
appeal, much less call for the Sinner’s Prayer. It was as if the Holy Spirit
interrupted Peter with, “Enough! They’ve heard enough! I can’t wait any longer
to pour out Myself and Glorify Jesus!”
·
Evangelism is
sowing and reaping. SOWING is the HARD WORK. REAPING – what most people think
an evangelist does – is easier by comparison.
·
Have you
never reaped a person in your life but yet over the years, you’ve invested in
many people, sowing seeds of the Gospel and the love of Christ into lives?
In farming the
reaping takes a relatively short time compared to all that has gone before. How
long does it take to pick an orange or mango?
Then you’ve
been doing the HARDEST JOB THERE IS IN EVANGELISM. WELL DONE GOOD AND FAITHFUL
SERVANT!
I bet when you
have shared the love of Christ like that, or you’ve just shown kindness in 100
different ways. And I bet you never once thought of it as “leading someone to
Christ.” But it is.
And it’s what
Jesus called the “HARD WORK.”
LIFESTYLE:
John 1:35-42
·
What would
the impact of sinners spending a day with you at the clinic or hospital be?
Would they run and tell their friends that come with me and show I show you a
true Christian?
·
This will
only be if our character manifests Christ who was the perfect expression of
Love as shown in 1 Corinthians 13.
The different attributes of love (1 Corinthians 13)
Love is patient:
·
Love does not
hurry others up. Sometimes we are very impatient with people who are growing
very slowly.
·
Love can wait
for God’s answer to prayer,
·
It listens to
the other person
·
Love can
endure hardships, trials, and keeps going on in spite of the obstacles in it’s
way.
Love is kind:
·
Love never
acts harshly or rudely.
·
It pays
attention and shows mercy.
Love is not jealous: (love in competition):
·
Love can
handle it’s brother’s success
·
Love in
competition sees all qualities of life and remains content in it’s place.
·
It is always
generous, wishes the best for the other person and rejoices in their success.
·
It is not
envious
Love does not boast (Love in success or in a
privileged position):
·
Love is not
puffed or proud.
·
Love does not
seek the praise of others.
·
Love does not
parade or show airs.
·
Love works
and rests.
·
Love does not
blow it’s own trumpet nor encourage others to blow the trumpet on its behalf.
Love is not rude (love in society):
·
Love does not
act unbecomingly.
·
Love is
courteous. It is polite. It is cultured.
·
Love can live
with all classes of people, it can be among the rich and it will be at home,
among the poor and it will be at home.
Love does not seek its own:
·
Love is not
selfish, seeks the good of others.
·
Love does not
insist on its own right but finds joy in serving others.
Love is not easily angered (love in disposition):
·
Love is good
tempered – it is approachable; not resentful.
·
Love does not
retaliate or seek revenge.
·
Love is not
sour or bitter.
·
Love does not
boil at 0 degrees.
·
Love does not
blaze out in passionate anger.
·
Love is not
provoked – it is not touchy.
Love keeps no record of wrongs:
·
Love
forgives, does not brood over wrong.
·
Love keeps
short accounts
·
Love does not
let the sun go down while it is angry.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the
truth:
·
Love is
righteous – it hates sin.
·
Love is slow
to expose others and when it does, does not rejoice over it.
·
Love is not
hypocrite. It is honest. It does not pretend.
Love always protects:
Love always trusts:
·
This doesn’t
mean that Love is gullible but rather that it is not basically suspicious.
·
Love believes
the best always.
·
Love
overlooks other people’s faults.
Love always hopes:
·
Love never
despairs.
Love always perseveres:
·
Love bears
all things. It endures all things.
Love does not fail:
·
Love keeps
its position
·
Jesus hung
out with sinners. He came on the scene and began to violently “rock the
pharisaical boat” by demonstrating something God’s people had never seen and
certainly not heard about before.
·
He spent
time. Invited tax collectors to lunch. Talked to prostitutes. Touched the
unclean. He showed compassion for people CAUGHT in sin who couldn’t get out.
·
In fact,
Jesus started and ended his ministry the same way. He started by picking two
thieves to walk with him. In the end Matthew accepted and followed him and
Judas betrayed him. As Jesus hung on the cross, once again, the Creator of the
Universe chose before all time to hang between two thieves. And once again, one
accepted him and the other publicly mocked him.
·
Jesus had a
strange way of evangelizing. The greatest evangelist that ever lived, yet among
those four thieves, he had only 50% success rate. And among the crowds, before
it was over, most would seem to reject him. What a strange way to evangelize...
·
Jesus loved
talking to the woman at the well. He used kindness, words of knowledge, and
revelation gifts to tell the woman “everything I ever did.” He got her attention and then told her He was the
messiah. She and many in the city believed on him. They heard and they
believed.
·
No record of
the sinner’s prayer. The Bible just says they believed on Him.
·
“Somebody’s
got to do the hard part,” you say. ” Somebody’s got to actually lead them to
the Lord.”
REMEMBER THAT
IT IS A PROCESS AND WE CAN SOW AND WATER EVERY DAY and as professionals are
also uniquely positioned to share the gospel.
In my practice
I pray for my patients as I work.
I try my best
to express the life of Christ as I relate to them.
I do not hide my faith before them: music, magazine.