This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Ignite the Light Ministry's radio and podcast. It is our mission to help listeners develop a deeper relationship with Jesus by sharing what the Bible says and what it means. We aim to encourage and equip you to serve others, share the gospel, and reflect Christ in every aspect of your life. I'm Pastor Wyatt Cudd.
Thank you for tuning in.
So this is something that the Wednesday night Bible study we did together. And it's just been on my heart to teach this again. and preach it. Um I'm going to be teaching you guys How to share Jesus.
So, Matthew 28:18 to 20 is our great commission. Jesus said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go make disciples of all nations, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.
So, this is the great commission. This is Jesus' final command He gave us before He ascended into heaven. He holds all authority. Therefore we go. We make disciples of all nations, we baptize them, we teach them to obey the scriptures, but we don't go alone.
Jesus says, I am with you always. to the very end of the age. As a church, this is our chief purpose: to glorify God. by making his name No. And it's interesting, the word when he says to all nations, the word in Greek is ethnos.
When we hear the word nation, we think of a country. But ethnos is referring to a people group, people who are ethnically different, people of a different culture, people who speak different languages. Fnos. That's the word for it.
So, for example, Guatemala is a good example. Guatemala is one country, we'd call it a nation, however, it has 59 different ethnospeople groups. Taking the gospel to the nations. Is ethnos all of these people groups. It's not just Guatemala, it's the 59 different people groups within.
Guatemala. Yeah. Um Now many of the people in Guatemala have had quite good exposure to Christianity, but there are two unreached people groups in Guatemala. That is the Jewish Spanish speaking community. and the death.
The deaf that can't hear are some of the most unreached people. in the world. You have to learn sign language and They often get forgotten. According to the Joshua Project, there's approximately 17,000 of these ethnos people groups in the world. That are completely unreached.
There's no Christians around them. They could walk for miles. They could live their whole life. and never encounter The gospel.
So Why is why do we have a hard time? sharing Jesus where we are at Um Well, with these people groups, it's hard because we don't speak the same language. There'll be travel involved, and all that. I mean, that costs money.
Well, what about here in our community in Appomattox, where we speak the same language? It doesn't cost much money. Uh yet, we still find it hard. We still find it hard to share the gospel. I think we can have a lot of fear.
with sharing the gospel. We can get anxious that we're going to be rejected. What would it do to our relationship with the other person? Or what if I give a terrible gospel presentation and it just makes it worse? I've had that thought.
And all of these fears can keep us from sharing the most important news somebody could hear. But you see, Jesus says, I am with you. to the very end of the age in this command. I want to tell you that the fear we experience with sharing the gospel, it's spiritual warfare. Satan doesn't want you to share So, what I want to do today is walk you guys through a process.
I'm going to break it into this Sunday and then next Sunday. I'm going to walk you guys through a process of sharing the gospel and a practical strategy that you can use. If you've been part of the Wednesday night Bible study, this is going to be a good refresher. But I want to make sure I preach this where everyone can hear it.
So I'm gonna take you guys to the room. Evangelism 101. All right, so what is evangelism? The root word for evangelism comes from. This Greek word is my laser point.
Yeah, you can't really see it on the screen. It's the top little bullet, right? Yeah. It comes from the Greek word euengelion.
Now there's a smaller Greek word in Uangelion that is angelos. It's the Greek word for messenger. or angel. Bible saying working.
Okay, alright. There we go, got it.
Alright, so a smaller word in it is angel or messenger. UN Geleon is the good news or the gospel. What is the gospel? We say that word a lot. What is the gospel?
We certainly have heard the term, we know what it is, but defining it is something we don't often do.
Now, what we see from the Bible is the answer is a little more complicated than Jesus. The gospel is Jesus.
Well, it's a little more complicated than that. The prophets of the Old Testament certainly did something akin to evangelism as well. God would speak to them, and then they would tell the nations. They would constantly be pointing the nations, pointing Israelites back to the promises of God. God promised Abraham, I would make you a great nation.
God promised Genesis 3.15 he would send a Savior through the seed of a woman to crush the serpent's head. God promised the Israelites in the Mosaic covenant he would make them a kingdom of priests. with special access to God. That they would be a holy nation, distinguished from others. That God would defend them, forgive them, be gracious and merciful.
So when we see the prophets doing evangelism. It's not on the basis Of Jesus and his work, yet it's on the basis of God's promises. That God is here, his kingdom is coming. Repent and believe and trust in the promises. of God.
Yeah. Let me see here. Yep.
So when Jesus enters the scene, we see in Mark 1.14, he is preaching the gospel.
Well, how is he preaching the gospel if he hasn't paid for the sins yet? We see the gospel he is preaching. It's about the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is here. The kingdom of God is at hand.
The Messiah is here. Repent and believe. This was Jesus' message. The prophet's message is the kingdom of God is coming. Messiah's message is God will fulfill his promises.
The kingdom of God is here. So what should our message, what should our good news be in light of everything? Certainly the same as the prophets, certainly the same as Jesus, just more things have happened. Uh So our message Ah, yeah. Oh well, okay.
That's not the right slide. We'll come to that one.
So, our message is this: God's promises have been fulfilled. The kingdom of God is here. The Messiah came, defeated death on the cross, rose again, and ascended into heaven. That person was Jesus Christ. Repent.
and believe. That is our Gospel message. Jesus, he is God. He is incarnate. He is not legend.
He is not myth. He is a very real historical figure that appeared to many witnesses. God, the creator of everything, came down into creation to use humans, or to us humans, and perfectly revealed himself through the person and work of Jesus. Through Jesus, we can be forgiven, we can have reconciliation. and eternal life with our Creator.
That's our gospel. Message.
Okay, so this is on.
Now we live in a day and age where most people walking around Sometimes they just don't have a concept. Of God's promises. When Jesus was preaching to the Jewish people, they knew the Old Testament. But there's many people today that they might be several generations removed. from Christians.
Some people Yeah, some people several generations removed.
So where would we start? This slide, Acts 17. Here, Paul teaches to the Greeks.
Now, the Greeks, they didn't have a concept. of the Christian God. They didn't have Jewish foundation.
So where does Paul start?
So it says, Paul then stood up In the meeting of Are Hagus and said, People of Athens, I see in every way that you are religious. For as I walked around, I looked carefully at your objects of worship. I even found an altar with this inscription to an unknown God.
So, you are ignorant of the very thing you worship, and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
So, Paul. Starts where his audience can understand. He looks around at their culture and finds they are worshiping an unknown God. He says, I see you're worshiping something you do not know. Let me tell you about this unknown God.
God, and that's his entry point. That's his bridge. And the cool thing is creation, God's fingerprints are all over creation. Corregation. If we look around, we can see God has made himself known in creation everywhere.
And so when we step into a different culture or somebody who doesn't know Jesus, there's going to often be fingerprints in their life. that we can look at and say, hey, This right here, this is God. Let me tell you about the God you do not know.
So, America is becoming less and less Christian, but so for example. The secular world, the the atheistic world recognizes the value of science.
So I see you value knowledge and truth about the world around you. Did you know that everything has a pre-existent cause? The universe came into existence So the universe also must have a cause. That cause would be outside of time, space and matter, and all of those things came into existence as well. This cause would have to come before all of that.
Can I tell you that this cause is actually a loving God who created you with intention and purpose, who came to the earth and died for you in the form of a man?
So, like Paul, since our audience doesn't always have a reliable understanding. Of the Bible or the gospel, we have to start with some basic points in Genesis. See here.
So where do we start? We started prayer, y'all.
So, before we even have a gospel conversation, as I'm talking, I want you to think about somebody specific in your life. That does not know Jesus. I want you to be thinking about this person. Picture them. in your head.
Before we can even begin having a gospel conversation, we have to be going to the Lord in prayer and intercession. We have to be praying for this person. We rely on God's strength, not ours. And in order to have a conversation and it be fruitful, we have to be starting in prayer. It's not us.
It's not our perfect ability to articulate the gospel if such a thing exists. that's going to change people's hearts. It's the Holy Spirit. That does the work. Our only job is to show up.
and have the conversation. and say yes to God when He leads us. You're going to experience fear. You're going to experience doubt. You're going to experience worry.
leading up to a gospel conversation, it's spiritual warfare. Satan's pushing back.
So, the very first step to evangelism is prayer. The person you want to share the gospel with, bring them to the Lord. Say, God, I want to reach this person. Prepare their heart, Lord. Open the door.
And, Lord, if you open it for me, I will walk through it. And now sometimes a conversation, an opportunity, it'll appear before we really have time to think about it. You know, you can't really get on your knees and begin praying for the person when they're standing right there. But in this case, you can quickly say, God, just take the lead. Take the lead in this conversation.
Say it under your breath before speaking. and then step out of the boat. Mm-hmm. I had an uncle who was in Vietnam. Um he passed away some years ago.
Uh he was a machine gunner uh on a helicopter and he I mean there's no telling how many lives he took in that and he would certainly never talk about it. Vietnam, it it really messed him up. He wasn't the most articulate. He certainly had his struggles with sin. But I gotta tell you guys, he loved the Lord so much.
He would make these keychains out of wood. It said Jesus on one side and John 3:16 on the back. He would carve out these keychains and he would sit there and make them in his shed. And I don't know how many of those he made. He did it his whole life.
And he put them on people's cars in like the Walmart parking lot. He would give out box fulls of them to truckers so as they're going around the country, they have a little tool that they can share the gospel with somebody.
Some of them even made it internationally, but his keychains spread all over. And I went to visit him about two weeks before he passed away from cancer. And I remember him telling me uh he didn't think anybody would show up to his funeral. He was very depressed, he was a very lonely person. But with this, this ministry God gave him, he was faithful.
And when I went to his funeral, guys, that church was slam-packed full of people I have never seen in my entire life. People from all over the country had been affected by his small ministry. People had come to know Jesus because they were having a terrible day. Nothing that was going their way, and they're wondering, God, do you even see me? And then they walk to their car and they see this Jesus keychain.
Yes, I see you. God can take your faith and your obedience and move mountains far better than anyone can who's well-spoken but disobedient. Evangelism starts in our hearts. It starts in prayer. You don't have to be articulate.
You don't have to have a perfect gospel presentation. That doesn't exist. You just have to be willing. When God says go this way, we say yes. And we step out of the boat.
So we start with prayer.
Okay.
So for today we're going to go over the main gospel points and then next Sunday I'm going to teach you guys my favorite strategy for sharing the gospel.
Okay, so our first point, these are non-negotiable, this is the gospel. First point: God exists. Second point, he loves you and created you with intention. It's John 3.16. Humanity has sinned, and there is a gap between us and God that we can't fix on our own.
But God came in the form of a man, Jesus, to bridge the gap for us. He did this by dying on the cross for our sin, rising again three days later and ascending into heaven. in victory. Therefore, we can know God personally, have peace. and eternal life with him.
If we repent. and believe. So I'm gonna make this Even easier for us, we'll see here. I don't know why I'm pointing at this. The thing's over there.
Just think like, go.
Okay, so I call this the gospel multi-tool. Take a picture of this if you'd like to. Um The gospel multi-tool, and honestly, it's just Romans Road with some modifications.
So If you get a chance to share the gospel with somebody, take them to these verses. Man, even if you get to one of them and then they get up and walk away, you have done your job. I'm giving us a like a full-length framework of no matter where you're at. You know where the next step is. You don't always get to the next step, but that's okay, because evangelism is a process.
First, You say, you take them to Romans 3.23. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Humanity has sinned. Second. The price of sin.
Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death.
So, what does God do about it? God's solution is Romans 5:8, that while we were still sinners, Christ died. For us, that's God's solution.
Okay, so what does Jesus say has to be done? We must be born again, become a new creation. John 3:3. How do we become a new creation? Romans 10, 9.
It says, if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord, you will be saved. What's the results? Romans 5.1. You can have peace. with God.
You're in a conversation with somebody. Do you want peace? With God? Revelation 3.20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart.
Will you let him in? This right here is our gospel multi-tool. Take a picture of that if you want to. Yeah. Okay, let me see here.
Oh yeah, fucking cook over here. Come on.
Okay, all right.
So now We look at that and it's like, wow, there's so much I have, like I said, so much to remember. There's so much I have to say. Let me take the pressure off of you.
So evangelism It is not a one-stop conversation. We can work it up in our heads that this conversation has to go perfect. And if it doesn't go perfect, I should probably just not have the conversation. No, that is not the right way to think about this. Evangelism is not just a one-stop conversation.
Evangelism sharing the gospel is a lifelong process. It is a lifestyle for us. It is not one conversation.
Okay, there we go.
So, this is the process of. Evangelism. Evangelism, it's a lot like farming. I mean, Jesus says he compares it to a harvest. It's like farming.
So as we talked before, First, we start by plowing the field in prayer. Who am I going to witness to? Who are the people that are lost? God, let me take them before God. God, I want to lift this person up to you.
I just ask you to make yourself real to them. And Lord, if you want to use me, open the door and I will go. We start evangelism. in prayer. Second is we furrow the ground in service.
We show them that we love them. This is a sacrificial service, the agape love that is foreign to us, the godly love that is self-sacrificial love.
So we can start the evangelism process, kind of like Derek did, where we are meeting a physical need, we are meeting a need for the people we want to reach and showing them. God loves you.
So we start in prayer. We furrow the ground by acts of service, caring for the other person, and this gets them interested. Why is this person doing this? Why is this person showing me love? The world doesn't understand the Godweight love, self-sacrificial love.
So when we show them sacrificial love, you are sparking interest and you are showing them sacrificial love is real. Lost people may have never experienced that. We get to show extensively.
Okay.
Okay, the next one is what we typically think of: sharing the gospel. Sharing the gospel is planting the seed. But you'll notice. The gospel conversation is one part of six.
So it's not just a one-stop conversation. This is a process that we do lifelong. Planting the gospel seed. That is, when the opportunity presents itself, we step out boldly and we share the gospel. And Jesus is with us when we do that.
Then the next one. Grow. Was walking with the lost.
Sometimes we'll plant the gospel seed and we won't see a radical conversion. We won't see them immediately come to the knowledge, but we have planted the seed. It's not going anywhere. It is there lifelong.
So Somebody's still lost. We've shared the gospel with them. We continue to walk with them through life. We help that seed grow, we help that seed germinate. Then the next one's the harvest.
They come to The saving knowledge of Jesus. They give their lives to Jesus. This one right here, there's not anything I can say about this other than this belongs to the Holy Spirit. There's nothing for us to do at the harvest except for rejoice, praise God, the lost sheep has been found. Praise God, the prodigal son has come home.
The harvest belongs to the Holy Spirit. We get to witness it.
Alright, so let's say you have somebody give their lives to Jesus. You have this conversation and they give their lives to Jesus.
Well, we're not done. It's not great. You're saved. See you later. Have a great life.
Well no, so The next step is discipleship.
So if it's somebody in our community, it would look like, hey, come to our church, come find a family of believers, come find Christian community so that they can pour into you and help you continue to grow. That's discipleship. If you get the chance to lead somebody to Christ. It is your responsibility to make sure that person gets connected with community. Hey there.
I hope this sermon has enriched your day. If you like this message, I want to personally invite you to join us for Sunday worship. We have two locations in Virginia. Trinity Methodist Church in Concord, and Mount Comfort Methodist Church in Appomattox. Come join us Sunday morning at 9.45 and we will help you get connected.
As always, I'm Pastor Wyatt Cudd. Thank you for tuning in.
