Do you ever get discouraged that people around you aren't getting converted to Christianity? Do you ever feel like you are a failure when it comes to reaching people for Christ? I like to remind myself that God is the great evangelist. He is the one who prepares and persuades. He is the one who awakens sinners (Ephesians 2:5). He opens their hearts (Acts 16:14) He draws them (John 6:44). He empowers the gospel (2 Thessalonians 3:1). And He calls the lost (1 Corinthians 1:24).
Since this is the case, what a wonderful thought it is that He desires for us in evangelism to join with Him as partners and fellow workers in what He is doing (Matthew 28:19). He tells us that a harvest of conversion is out there in the field of His work in the world:
"Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” (Matt 9:36-38)
“Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!”(John 4:35-36).
God accomplishes His divine work through us and our part in three ways:
1. PRAYER Jesus told us to pray for the Lord to send out laborers into the harvest (Matthew 9:38). God has appointed us to pray as a means of finishing the task that He guarantees will be completed (Rev. 11:15; Matthew 6:10; 24:14). We pray because God has promised and cannot fail. Our prayers are the means God has appointed to do what He most certainly will do—finish the Great Commission and establish His kingdom. We pray with all of our hearts like Paul that “the word of the Lord may run and be glorified” (2 Thessalonians 3:1). We pray that God’s word will not return void but instead accomplish what God desires for it to do: the saving of souls (Isaiah 55:11).
2. PROCLAMATION Our responsibility is to speak,commend, proclaim, and instruct others in the gospel. “For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord” (2 Cor. 4:5; Read also Matthew24:14; 26:13; Mark 13;10; Romans 1:9, 15; 10:14-19; 15:16-20; 1 Cor.9:16; among numerous scriptures in the New Testament).
The gospel has the power in itself to save the souls of men and women
(Romans 1:16-17). When we pray and the gospel is proclaimed, a miracle will take place where some will hear the gospel and be awakened into new life by the working of God’s word and Spirit and life within. As a result, they will be truly converted and born again. "Jesus said, I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.” (John 5:25). The Gospel proclaimed will bring forth the fruit of salvation to all those appointed for eternal life (Acts 13:48). “This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes" (Psalm 118:23).
3. AWARENESS AND AVAILABILITY I think we need to be alert, aware, and available to those whom God is really working on and creating a hunger within. It is not that we don’t share with as many people as possible but that we primarily focus upon those who want to move for Christ. A friend of mine calls it "going with the goers". I like that! This is very liberating if you think about it. Sharing with others seems so futile because most people are apathetic, hostile, or indifferent about Christianity. When your antenna of awareness is up, God will
show those who are being drawn to God. If you read the book of Acts you will discover that most of God’s evangelistic strategy seems to focus mainly on people who have been prepared in some way by God to be receptive.
Remember the story of the Ethiopian eunuch and Phillip (Acts 8:28-39)? There you have a hungry soul whom God was working on (the eunuch) and God’s orchestrating to bring Phillip to him while he was reading and questioning the word of God in Isaiah 53. The hunger of the lost Ethiopian combined with the awareness of the opportunity God brought Phillip and the willingness to seize the moment led to God bringing another soul into His Kingdom.
So be encouraged dear Christian!Remember that God is the great evangelist. He will save. He will bring in the harvest. He will accomplish His purposes through you and me.Keep on praying, keep on proclaiming the Gospel, and open your eyes to those that God is working on. “I planted, Apollo’s watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.” (1 Corinthians 3:6-7)
Expecting great things from God the evangelist,
Pastor Bill
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