Getting Evangelism Right Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Jesus told a story of a great banquet.

The invited guests all had excuses, so the man giving the banquet brought in the poor, the crippled, those who would never expect such a treat. This parable shows us how to approach people with the gospel. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, you're teaching from a parable of Jesus about getting evangelism right. Should we invite the lost into our lives as seems to be the lesson here?

Dave, I'm going to answer your question by saying this. I believe that if America is going to be evangelized, it probably will not be because of some great evangelists such as Billy Graham. We all know that Billy Graham has passed off the scene, but evangelism happens best through personal connection. In a word, I think it's going to happen as a result of hospitality.

That's the point of Jesus Christ's parable here. We here at Running to Win are so grateful for the many people who help us in this ministry. And this is one of the last opportunities you have to become a part of what we call the matching gift challenge.

Some of our friends have said that they are willing to match gifts given up to $90,000. Your $25 becomes $50. Imagine this opportunity. Here's what you do. Go to RTWOffer.com.

RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Remember, your gift will be doubled. Take advantage of this opportunity. One reason is because of fear. People fear their friends and they think, if I come to saving faith in Christ, what are my friends going to say? Or maybe it's fear even of God or fear that they have to give up some sins. I mean, they come and they have all these rationalizations and God says, here is a feast that you can participate in. Now, what happens is the master becomes angry.

We don't usually think of God as being angry, but when you read the Old Testament, you discover that God was frequently angry with unbelief. And the great insult that this was that people would not accept the invitation to his banquet. And so what the man did is the master of the house said to his servants, go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. And the servant said, sir, what you have commanded has been done and still there is room. And the master said to the servant, go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled for I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my banquet.

What powerful sobering words. So the master says, if these people, if they're religious intelligentsia, if they don't come, go out to the highways and the byways. Get the poor and the crippled and the blind.

And who are these? Earlier in the text, we read that Jesus said, these are exactly the kind of people that you should welcome when you have a feast, the people who cannot repay you. So the first characteristic of these people is that they can't repay what it is that God is going to do for them. And you and I can never repay what God is going to do. Salvation had better be free or you and I simply can't afford it because there's nothing that we can possibly do to somehow earn it.

So here you have, first of all, the fact that they can't repay. And secondly, the reason the master loves to do that is because these are people who least expect an invitation. They don't expect it. And so the master says not only the blind and the halt and the lame, but also go out to the highways and the hedges and compel people to come in. Now we're talking about Gentiles, people that the Jews never dreamed.

They never dreamed that Gentiles would be part of the kingdom. And so what Jesus is saying is, you go get them too. Now you can imagine how this parable was being received by the elite of the religious community in Jerusalem. And you and I may say to ourselves, you know, we can expect the man who sits there and says, blessed are all those who eat bread in the kingdom of heaven. We can expect him to get an invitation. But we can't expect an invitation to the kid who's high on drugs every weekend. When an invitation comes to him, he says to himself, it must be in the wrong box.

There's got to be some kind of a mix up. Surely I'm not invited to this feast. And we don't expect that the woman who perhaps feels very defiled because of some man that she trusted who used her and then threw her away like one might the peelings of an orange. We wouldn't expect her to be invited, but she is invited.

And then we might not expect people, for example, some who are listening today. Maybe there's some man who otherwise looks very honorable and very kind and very interested. But the truth is that he has a long rap sheet.

And therefore he can't get a job because of his background. We wouldn't expect him to get an invitation, but he gets an invitation. You know, when Jesus said compel them to come in, that phrase has been misused throughout church history. I'm very sad to have to report that Augustine, that great theologian, used that to justify persecution. We will compel them and we will persecute heretics. We are compelling them to come into the kingdom.

Clearly that's so contrary to the New Testament and contrary to the belief in conscience and contrary to the way in which Jesus even handled himself. But nonetheless, it has been used that way. But the word compel doesn't mean that we coerce them. It means that we have to go out into the highways and the hedges and find them and convince them that the invitation applies to them too. And that's why we should be so glad for the set free ministry here at the Moody Church, which works with abused women. That's why we should be so glad that our women's ministry, under the leadership of Mary Welchel, is spending a great deal of time in terms of finding out how we can help and rescue people from what is called the sex trafficking. Because these people are in the highways and in the hedges and in the back alleys, and they have an invitation from the King of Kings as well.

And we need to tell them that. And that's the message of Moody Church around the world. And you notice, the blind and the crippled and so forth, they need to be taken by the hand. And if you have never heard of By the Hand Ministries, the By the Hand Club, I hope that you go to the website and find out about it, a ministry birthed right here that is very dear to our hearts.

Taking children in Chicago by the hand, helping them, teaching them to read, teaching them the gospel, because the world is broken and the invitation is for those who have experienced the most pain, rejection, and marginalization. What Jesus is saying here is, look, if winners are not willing to accept my invitation into the kingdom, those who perceive themselves as winners, then find some losers and I will make them winners in the kingdom. And I will accept them and I will clothe them and I will bless them, invite them to the feast. Now, let us look very briefly at this passage of scripture as we apply it.

First of all, the banquet is ready. God says now that Jesus Christ has come and died on the cross and has been raised again. He who spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?

All things are found in Jesus. What is it that you need today? You say, well, I need forgiveness. Jesus died to bring it to you. You say, I need cleansing. My conscience is troubling you.

The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanses us from all sin. You say, I need companionship. I need companionship. Jesus said that the blessed Holy Spirit of God who is with you shall be in you and the Father and I shall make our abode in your life.

Imagine that. Whatever it is, you say, I need to be loved. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation, distress, persecution, nakedness or peril or sword, nay and all these things were more than conquerors through him that loved us.

God cares. The table has been laid. The banquet is finished. Second, let us keep in mind that the invitation is to everyone. The invitation is to everyone. And so we go and we give that invitation. To those of you who are listening by radio or listening by way of internet, the invitation is for you too, no matter where you find yourself today. Now, Christianity is very exclusive in the sense that we know that there's no way that you can come to God and be accepted by him except through Jesus Christ. But here's the good news. The invitation to come to Jesus is to everybody.

And so we emphasize that. During the time of the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, a huge error was made in terms of invitations being sent out, one for which Buckingham Palace has not yet apologized. And I refer to the fact that I did not receive an invitation to go to the wedding. Still waiting for an apology. So what I did is I went online, which is the closest I could come to and see what the invitation looked like had I received one.

Perhaps it's still lost in the mail. It says this opening line, the Lord Chamberlain is commanded by the queen to invite. And then it goes on from there. I thought, wow, I wonder how many people received that invitation and blew it off. I said, oh, I've got some oxen I need to check on.

I have some land that I've bought that I need to examine. Imagine that. The Lord Chamberlain is commanded by the queen to invite. Now think of it. God of the universe says, oh, everyone that is thirsty, come to the waters. Come without money. Come without price. Come as you are. And I'll even clothe you so that you can get in on the feast.

I am willing to grant to you all these things. If only you come, one of the most beautiful verses in the Bible, you come. And those of you who are rationalizing today, giving all kinds of excuses as to why you don't want to come to Jesus, look at those excuses in light of the one who's giving the invitation, in light of the one who has laid the banquet and says, come with me and sup with me. Dine with me. And let's connect together.

Imagine that. And so I invite you to come to Christ today. And what might your excuse be not to? And this feast that Jesus is talking about begins in this life, but it extends all the way into eternity. One day Jesus was with the disciples and he said these words. He said, this cup is the cup of the new covenant in my blood.

He said, drink this. And then he said, I will no longer drink with you the fruit of the vine until I drink it anew with you in the coming kingdom. And we read in Revelation chapter 19, when the bride of Jesus Christ is in heaven at what we call the marriage supper of the Lamb.

It is there that we actually sit down. And the Bible says that as we are seated, it says in the Gospel of Luke that Jesus himself will gird himself and will serve us. Jesus is going to say, now you folks sit down. I am going to serve you. And we may feel uncomfortable with that, but that's just like Jesus, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, God of all gods, but teaching us to be a servant. He says, I will serve you and you will be mine forever.

Maybe I can put it this way. When you come to Jesus in this life, you first experience the hors d'oeuvres. You begin to get somewhat of a taste of what it is like. And then later on, after death, when in the coming kingdom we sup with Jesus, it is then that we enter into the full feast. And Jesus said, and as for those who reject my invitation, he said they will not taste. They will not even get so much as a piece of lettuce.

They will not get a single crouton. Listen to what Jesus said in another context. I tell you that many will come from the east and the west and recline a table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The people who piously think that because of my religiosity, I most assuredly will be invited and there's no way that Jesus could reject me. They might find themselves outside of the kingdom. The person who is listening to this message today and you feel lonely, despised within you, your conscience troubles you, you know that you are a sinner that needs to be saved.

For you, there is hope. There's an invitation that has your name on it and you can come and you can be received by Jesus and welcomed into the grand banquet, into the feast. There was a woman by the name of Charlotte Elliott. Charlotte was an invalid living many years ago, a century or more ago, and she decided to write a poem. And she wrote a poem that later on was put into music. And her brother, who was a Presbyterian minister, said that my sister did more good in spreading the gospel through that poem than all of my sermons. And I think that when I mention the poem to you, you will immediately recognize it and you'll also recognize the music that was put to it.

The poem goes like this. Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me and that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am though tossed about with many conflicts, many a doubt, fightings within and fears without, O Lamb of God, I come.

And we come to Jesus because he says, come, come as you are and I will receive you and I'll give you the gift of righteousness. In a moment, we're going to pray and in a moment, we're also going to sing a couple of stanzas of that song. But the prayer that I want you to pray today if you've never trusted Christ as Savior will become clear if you listen carefully.

I hope that it expresses the desire of your heart. Let's bow together in prayer. Father, I ask that as the invitation has gone out to the broken, to the weary, to the confused, that you by your Holy Spirit would bring them in and help them to see the beauty of Jesus and the wonder of this invitation. For those of you now who are listening who've never received Christ, you can pray a prayer like this after me. O God, I now realize that I'm a greater sinner than I realized. I know that I need a Savior. I thank you that Jesus died for people just like me in my great need. And I thank you that in some ways I am loved more than I ever realized or hoped. And therefore, I receive this love, this forgiveness as I come to Jesus. I take him as mine. I say yes to your invitation in Jesus' name.

Amen. This is Pastor Lutzer. I want to speak to your heart for just a moment. I want to speak to the broken, to the helpless, to the guilty. Let us also remember the words of Jesus. Come on to me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. From the bottom of my heart, I commend Jesus Christ to you. I trust that you have prayed that prayer.

I pray that the transfer of trust from yourself to him would be clear and would give you the assurance that you belong to him forever. I want to thank the many of you who help us here at Running to Win. You make an investment in this ministry so that we can give the gospel to more than 20 different countries in three different languages. We're coming to the end of the opportunity for your gift to be doubled, matching gift challenge. Here's what you can do. Go to rtwoffer.com. Your gift will be doubled up to $90,000. I hope that you take advantage of this.

Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Time now for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Some Bible passages are easy to grasp. Others leave us not just wondering what they mean, but even fearful of what they might mean.

Adam has located such a passage which raises for him some very serious issues. He writes, Hebrews chapter six, verses four through six says this, For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding Him up to contempt. First, if we are preordained by God already as to whether we are going to heaven or hell, how can we have fallen away from God and not be able to repent, not be able to regain our salvation? How can we fall away at all? Also, does falling away here mean a certain level of sinfulness after we've been born again?

Or does it mean that such a person no longer has faith in God or no longer believes in Him? Well, Adam, first of all, I want to commend you for asking a question, a question about which whole books have been written, books to try to answer your question. And the point of view that I'm going to give you is a little different than most. It's probably a minority opinion, but I'm satisfied with it.

Here it is. The bottom line, I do not believe the falling away of Hebrews chapter 6 is a falling away into hell. Remember that the people to whom the book of Hebrews were written, they were tempted to go back to Old Testament sacrifices, because some of them were losing confidence in Jesus Christ alone as their means of salvation. And they thought, well, what's wrong with re-offering some of these sacrifices, going back to them? And what I think the writer is saying is this, that if you do that, that's the falling away, you cannot be restored to repentance while you are crucifying the Son of God afresh.

That is to say, while you're also depending on these sacrifices. It's not to say that they couldn't be restored to repentance if they left those sacrifices behind, and again, put their faith and trust in Jesus alone. So I think that the falling away is a falling away like the children of Israel in the desert. It doesn't mean that all the children of Israel went to hell. It means that they did not enter into the blessedness of the promised land. And if you go back to dead works, and if you go back to re-offering sacrifices, you cannot enter into everything that God has planned for you. So I think that that is what he is saying.

Of course, it would need a much longer exposition, but I hope this helps. I do not believe that a true Christian can ever fall away to hell, but they can fall away into dead works, into sin, and that's the kind of falling away that is spoken of. And if their focus is incorrect, if it is on such things as sacrifices that they themselves give, they can't, under those conditions, be restored to repentance.

But of course, we can always be restored to God if we desire to and we understand the issues. Thank you, Adam, and thank you, Dr. Lutzer. If you'd like to hear your question answered, go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer, or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

That's 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. A wealthy man decided to fire a manager. Before he left, the manager cut some deals with the master's creditors to curry favor, to have options once his job ended. Jesus made this story into a parable about investments. Next time on Running to Win, why Christ commended a man who acted improperly. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.