GETTING CONNECTED:
The Method Of Witnessing


A Sermon On:

1 Corinthians 9: 19-27



PREPARED BY

KEN GEHRELS

PASTOR

CALVIN CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH

NEPEAN, ONTARIO



I'd like to do a bit of an association game with you. Let me list some characteristics. Why don't you try and paint a picture in your mind of a certain person.
-He's an extrovert, spending all kinds of moments meeting new people, striking up conversations in the most unlikely of places.
-Tends to be somewhat loud, and a tad overbearing.
-Not unheard of for him to get into finger pointing.
-Give him half an audience and he's away with the message he wants to get across.
-It's a very black and white message. No room for compromise. All or nothing. Live or die.
-You'll see him on street corners.
-Or sometimes knocking on doors.

Enough said.
What sort of picture is in your mind? Who's it of? Did any of you hang the title "Evangelist" over this mental painting?

It's a pretty common description. Sort of the stereotype that a lot of us have of such people.
It's also a stereotype that few, if any, of us fit.

And so what tends to happen, as we look in the mirror, is we end up muttering to ourselves, "well, guess I'm not an evangelist." And when a sermon series gets preached like the one we're finishing up today, or the call comes to get involved in the Billy Graham Mission, we let our shoulders droop under a load of guilt that we pick up while saying, "I'll pass. It's not for me. Check with the gal in the next pew."
"I'll pass." And we do - we pass on opportunities to share the message of Christ's love for people; the message that these people matter to God; that they are important to Him! We just kind of walk around keeping it to ourselves.....
'cause, hey, we're not the evangelistic type, anyway.

We say, "I'll pass" because we're afraid that becoming intentional about openly sharing the good news of Jesus means we have to become obnoxious;that to be effective, we've got to somehow artificially turn into someone we're not.

And you know what happens?
Satan quietly sneaks around in the background, reinforcing this fear, hoping that by such reinforcing he'll shut down the spread of the gospel here in Ottawa-Carleton.He tries to get us to behave like a bunch of turtles; giving up on intentional evangelism, and tucking our heads into the safe shell of our home church.
This morning I'd like us to see the misconception of what an evangelist is for precisely that - a misconception.
And I'd like us to see, through the truth of God's Word, how cheap and empty the lie of Satan is -- the lie that tries to tell you and me that there is no way we can be intentional and authentically true to ourselves at the same time as we try to spread the gospel; that lie that says we have to be a fake so don't do it; that there's only one type of person who can evangelize for Jesus and YOU'RE NOT IT!
This morning I want to see that lie shattered;
broken to bits on the floor right here.

I'd like you to be able to leave here this morning understanding that there is a real place for you -- just the way you are --- a place for you in getting the word out to people here in the city that God loves them, cares about, and sent His Son Jesus to reclaim them.

In fact, would you believe it if I told you that there are probably people right in this city that will need to come in contact with that message as only you can present it in order for them to come to faith.

There are such people.
And God in His Sovereign action will bring them to you.
And He will use you to move them along the road to conversion.
Can you believe that?
Tough, eh?
Well, don't shut down, please. And stop pointing that invisible remote at me, trying to zap me off the stage. Let's follow this one through for a moment or two.

We read some words earlier that the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to put to pen in 1 Corinthians 9. They are words about the job of the evangelist.
I've got to tell you that one of the first times I read those words they seemed awfully wishy washy. It seemed as if this guy Paul had no backbone; no principles. When he's with one group he's behaving one way. When he's with another group, he's behaving another way.Jews; under the law; no law; weak - all things to all men.
Guy sounds like a regular chameleon, doesn't he?
Which, when you keep on reading, is shown to be false. Because the bible continues on to have him describe the Christian life as one of strict training, discipline and spiritual exercise. Nothing wishy washy or wimpy here!

You want to know the simple one-line message of this section of 1 Corinthians 9? There's a lot of different people out there, and we as Church need to use a lot of different approaches to reach them with the one timeless message.
Sometimes one person can use different approaches.
Sometimes it comes through different persons each using their own unique approach, the one they're most comfortable with, the one that God equipped them to use as only they can.
I mean, think about it - why do you think God wanted and created the Church to be a gathering of so many different kinds of people, rather than making us all the same?

1 Corinthians 9 isn't the only place that provides us with this truth that shatters the lies of Satan, lies which try to render our evangelizing work powerless and paralyzed.
If you were to do a quick flyby over some different bible passages you would, in fact, see a whole variety of different evangelism techniques being used by a whole range of different personalities. They become, then, illustrations of the principle that Paul asserts in 1 Corinthians 9. The principle that says: There's a lot of different people out there, and we as Church need to use a lot of different approaches to reach them with the one timeless message.

Bill Hybels, pastor at Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago, once gave a talk in which he highlighted some of these different techniques. I'd like to share with you what he said to us.

First bible passage we'd want to buzz past is Acts 2. We don't have time to read all these passages now. I'd encourage you to write them down and check them out later. Don't take my word for it. Research this for yourself!

Acts 2. We spoke about this passage earlier in the series. The main character is Peter. An in-your-face type if there ever was one. When something needed to be said, Peter's gums were flapping. If something needed doing, Peter was first in line -- only one over the side of the boat and willing to walk on water towards Jesus; first one in the garden of gethsemane to raise his sword in defence of Jesus.

And Peter preaches a black and white, to the point, confrontational sort of message. "When you killed Jesus, you killed the wrong guy. You killed God's son. And unless you change your ways, you're all going to hell." Doesn't get more abrupt than that, does it?

But these people, Jews gathered for a big religious feast, needed that kind of a message to get through their defences. And our Sovereign God knew that, and so positioned Peter to say that great sermon that led to the conversion of 3000 people in one day.

There remain people today who need to be jolted, shaken up, challenged in their comfort zone. And quite possibly some of you - not many, but maybe some - have the sort of God-given personality and drive that will allow you with tact and yet forthrightness to give that kind of comfort zone shaking message.

I remember one fellow I know -- and I'll protect his identity, and won't tell you that he lives in Toronto -- this fellow worked with someone who had a most foul mouth and constantly made misuse of God's name. Constant reminders and requests couldn't get through. Till one day this guy I know said, out of the blue, "Hey, David. Your mother is......" and then followed some rather unkind, uncomplimentary statements. Well, he just about lost his nose, but was quick enough to say, " Wait!! Before you hit me, hear me out. You're really ticked that I said this, right?" "RIGHT!" "I crossed a line by insulting someone very precious to you, didn't I? You know David, every time you use the name of Jesus Christ, it does the same thing to me. It hurts a lot."

And there, for the first time, David was willing to sit and listen about Jesus and His love.

Now hear me right -- I'm not advocating this form of evangelism. OK? Don't want Calvin church to be known as, "Oh, yes - they're the ones who run around town insulting everyone's mother."

The point I simply want to make is that an in your face approach, for certain people and certain places, when naturally done, CAN be used by the Lord to get the gospel through barriers that otherwise are impenetrable.

But you can't always use that approach. Acts 17 makes that clear. There we see Paul -- Mr. Educated. PhD. The whole bit. And he gets together with a bunch of philosophers and university professor types. With them he goes pretty deep. Talks in abstract terms about God. Used philosophical terms they were used to. Met them on their academic turf. Some rejected him. But some said, "Hey this guy makes sense. We want to hear more."

Today, too, there are people who have questions and need honest, intellectually solid answers. Without those answers they can't make the leap of faith. And there are people, believers, gifted with intellectual powers to meet them at their point of need. Some of you are like that. You are, in your own way, like Dr.Alvin Plantinga, member of the CRC, head of the philosophy department at Notre Dame University - someone used by the Lord to bring some of the leading secular philosophers in the USA to a faith in Jesus.

It's people who are willing to take the time to plod through deep questions, and provide deep answers that led C.S.Lewis, one of the leading atheists of his day, to surrender his life to the Lord.

And then there's the approach of John 9. Buzz across there and you'll encounter a blind man who is healed. Afterwards he says, "look, I don't understand it all - but one thing I know. Once I was blind, and now I see. This Jesus has power. Here's what he did for me."
He simply told his story.

And for some of you that's the ticket to evangelizing successfully. You've had God do some pretty special stuff in your life. You know it. Let me tell you. There are tons of people running around this city who would love to hear from a normal, non-preachy type of person a simple story of what happened to them - how God is real to them, and what He did for them.
Maybe they need to hear your story. Maybe God has sovereignly designed it that you are the one whose simply, non-flashy account will flick the switch that turns on the light of faith in their life. Can you share it? Or - check out the guy in Mark 5. Some of you had a look at his story in Adult Education Hour. He was oppressed, terribly, by demons. Jesus sets him free. He wants to tag along behind Jesus. But Jesus says -- hear this -- "No. Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you." Some of you are sitting here thinking, "I haven't got any huge network of people that I work with. I'm no good at talking to strangers. Not even telling them my story. I freeze up."

Then maybe you are the one created uniquely by God to be like this guy in Mark 5. Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you. Grandparents - tell your children and so help them come to faith. Brothers, tell that sister of yours who isn't in a living relationship with the Lord. Tell her what a difference Jesus makes to you.

You don't HAVE to go far. Most of us have close friends or family that aren't active believers. They need to hear in fresh ways, too, that Jesus loves them; that they matter to God.

Want another one? Fly over to John 4. The story of a woman who meets Jesus at a well. He gets into her life, and she drops everything, runs back to town, and says, "you gotta come and see this man. Come on and check him out for yourself."

She's like some of you. Don't have a lot of words. But you can say, "Come with me to a place where you can learn about Jesus, and where you can check him out for yourself." And you bring them here, and you link them to someone who can answer the questions, or explain things better. And you pray that something in the worship service will speak their language and click with their heart and bring them to that wonderful place of letting Jesus inside.

Finally, we could not finish without telling you about Dorcas. You read about her in Acts 9. Dorcas made an enormous impact for Jesus by spreading around simple deeds of kindness. She served others. She freely gave of her time and resources to people in need. And they responded by the dozens.

Do you see, friends?
There is no one right way. No one style is going to do it. No one personality is the evangelist personality.
God has made you to be the person you are, so that somehow, in the special place that His divine hand has prepared, YOU can be a witness, an evangelist for Jesus.;
So that YOU can make a difference in someone's life.
Is that lie of Satan broken?
Can you see the pieces lying on the floor?

Good.
Then let me simply challenge you to leave here thinking about these different styles. And don't hit the "delete" key on this message until you've identified your own unique style -- the one God created you to use.

And then,
once you've found it
pledge before God to go out and use it.