Evangelism 101 - Todd McCauley

It's that time again, time to read through the New Testament. I absolutely love reading about the life of Christ.  I now find myself in John chapter three. Jesus and a few of his followers accompanied Him to Jerusalem to attend the annual Passover celebration (cf. John 2:13ff). John 3:1-2 states that a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a Ruler of the Jews came to Jesus at night. When Nick (let's call him Nick) meets Jesus he begins to lavish on the Christ compliments, "Rabbi (i.e. Teacher) we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him".  Jesus responds in an interesting way, instead of Him entertaining the compliments which many of us WOULD do, he cuts to the chase and addresses the question that Nick doesn't ask with his lips but is in his heart. "Nicodemus, unless you are born again, you CAN NOT see the Kingdom of God".

The rest of John 3 then records Jesus's evangelistic conversation with this LOST Pharisee (Jewish religious leader).  This Chapter as well as John Chapter 4 reminds me of our own evangelistic responsibility.  Let me write this as plainly as possible, EVANGELISM ought to be one of our highest priorities as followers of Christ.  You say, "I know that Todd, I just find evangelism difficult and awkward". Also, "If I'm being honest, it scares the living be-jeebies out of me", and "Yes, evangelism intimidates the heck out of me".  You know what?  I get it. Evangelism is NOT the most comfortable activity.  But, be that as it may, it is NOT an activity that we can ignore or put on the back burner because of how it makes us feel.  Here is the good news, Jesus promised us that when we obediently engage in Disciple-Making (of which Evangelism is part) He promises to give us everything we need to be successful (cf. Matt 28:18-20).

Evangelism is NOT something that you should OVER THINK, it's something that you just do and trust God for the results. Our job is NOT to put people in Heaven, Our Job is NOT to make or force people to believe. Our job is NOT to argue people into believing, or Scare people into believing, Our job is NOT to manipulate or TRICK people into praying a prayer, our job is NOT to get people to join the church.  Our Job is to simply share the GOOD NEWS.  Our job is simply that of seed planting (cf. John 4:35-38).

I want to give you a simple four-step process for sharing your faith effectively.

Step one: PRE-EVANGELISM (Here is where you ask the two Diagnostic questions. These questions help you determine where a person is spiritual)

1. If you died today, where would you go?

2.  Suppose you were to die today and you stand before God and He asks you, "Why should I let you into MY Heaven", how would you answer?




Step Two: PERMISSION (Ask for Permission to continue the discussion)

"May I talk to you about someone who changed my life and is STILL in the life-changing business?

(At this point he/she will tell you "Yes or No".  If they answer "No" then you shake their hand and move on.  If they say "Yes" then you're free to proceed to Step Three)

Step Three: PRESENTATION (This step utilizes the excellent tool called, "The Four Spiritual Laws" a little yellow Gospel Booklet produced by Campus Crusade for Christ.  Just start with the cover of the booklet and begin reading it to him/her.  "Have you ever heard of the 4 spiritual laws"?  Toward the end of the booklet you will read and ask this important question, "Does this prayer express the desire of your heart? If it does, I invite you to pray this prayer right now, and Christ will come into your life, as He promised.  The person will answer either "Yes or No".  If "No" then close the conversation and leave them the booklet with your contact info.  If  "Yes" then pray with them to receive Christ).








Step Four:  POST-EVANGELISM (Another name for Post-Evangelism is Follow-up. Follow-up means that we don't leave people hanging.  Receiving Christ is just the first step in a life-long journey.  Read to him/her the remainder of the booklet that read, "Now that you have received Christ".  Write your contact info on the back of the Booklet and contact them within

48 hours.  Listen, Discipleship is meant to be a TEAM sport, so get your church involved in helping this new convert grow).

I told you this process would be simple.  The toughest thing facing you right now is your own fear and insecurity. Go for it.  Jesus said in John 4:35, "Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are ALREADY white (i.e., ready) for harvest". Jesus has got you back.

Soli Deo Gloria

Todd

The Feast of Unleavened Bread... Wait - Isn't it Passover? by Mia Kashat

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The Feast of Unleavened Bread is a feast that is generally mistaken for Passover. Passover however is only one 24 hour period while Feast of Unleavened Bread lasts for seven days.

On the evening after Passover God told the Hebrew people exiting Egypt not to allow their bread to rise, but to grab everything and leave. The ancient peoples used to gather yeast on grape leaves to leaven their bread if they needed to speed up the process, but God said "Don't even let any leavening touch the dough. Just bake it and go."

In their haste they grabbed the necessities and fled toward the land God was preparing for them.

God then told them that in the future they were to commemorate this feast by getting all yeast out of the house for seven days.

On a normal Passover eve a family that celebrates the Biblical feasts will leave a bit of bread in their home in hidden places for the children to find. The children will search out the yeasty creations till they "eradicate" the yeast from the house. The family then takes what is found and burns it outside.

If you are trying to clean your house of all yeast you will realize just how tediously impossible that idea is, on your own. No matter how I sweep or dust, yeast is in the air , hence how it lands on grape leaves, it always finds it's way back into the home.

God even told us what the yeast represented. Yeast represents sin.

When you put a little yeast in flour and water it grows – multiplies with each warm second they remain together. For anyone who has worked with whole wheat, they can attest to the fact they once the yeast is added, there is no way to get it back out.

Because of our ancestors, Adam and Eve, sin had the chance to enter the originally perfect world. We are now born into a sinful world and no matter what we do growing up, there isn't a thing we can do to get all of the sin out of us. We may be able to convince other humans we are "squeaky-clean", but not God. He knows our born-in-sin-nature, completely.

So as we clean out our homes of the yeast and eat Matzo, yeastless bread, we are reminded that it is a hopeless case. Just like our inability to clean out the junk in our souls/spirits. We need someone perfect to do it for us.

Matzo has a special way it is made now. It has stripes that look like bruises and is pierced thru. The Rabbi's reason for this is to make the bread cook fast, from start to finish in 18 minutes actually. Eighteen minutes is supposedly the amount of time it takes to prepare and cook it in a manor that will keep all yeast out. What they don't seem to realize is that they have created the perfect symbolism that God initiated long ago.

Jesus was beaten and bruised and pierced for our sins. He was and is the only sinless person on this planet and His body is represented by the matzo. Even in modern day Judaism they can't get away from God's plan of redemption.

We need Jesus' atoning blood to cleanse us of those sins. We have to let Him come in to live inside of us, in the form of the Holy Spirit, where He can slowly find all that yeast and "burn it up". He burns up the sin just like the families burn up the left-over yeast before these two feasts.

We need God to live this "yeastless" lifestyle. But even then it will be a daily process, because yeast/sin permeates this world.

This feast is the perfect celebration of our Savior whose body was broken for our sins. Come celebrate Him with me.