Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20050130.htm

SPECIAL INTERLUDE
A "Biblical Witnessing 101" Primer
(Revelation 22:17 et al.)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

From many events that I have witnessed over the last few weeks, two of which are recorded here, I have been repeatedly impressed with the need for believers to know the proper WAY to witness to the unsaved about Christ:

(1) While visiting Phil Giramonti at the New Britain General Hospital on January 15th, my wife and I along with Jan and Phil heard a Christian man "witness" to a man in the bed next to Phil in a way that really bothered us! He was insensitively going on and on about all sorts of spiritual matters to a man who was trying to shut the speaker's words out by closing his eyes all while his television was showing an R-rated movie! At one point, Phil, who was in a lot of pain from his double knee replacement surgery, said, "I can't take that guy's going on like that any more -- I wish he'd quit!"

(2) Then, I read the January 2005 issue of Dave Hunt's newsletter, The Berean Call that arrived with a stunning report on page 1. A recent Barna poll of those who claim to be "'born again'" Christians found that 35 percent of them do not believe Christ rose from the dead, 26 percent claim all religions are equal and 50 percent of them assert that good works will get one to heaven!

Since the Gospel of Christ is about His death, burial and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1-12), since Acts 4:12 reveals Christ to be the only One through whom we are to be saved and Ephesians 2:8-9 teaches salvation is by faith alone apart from any works, it is clear that even many alleged "'born again'" Christians are ignorant of the Gospel and may not even be saved!



So, since we are between sermon series and this need to have a message in a NUTSHELL on EFFECTIVE witnessing has been recently and greatly impressed on me, we'll cover it today . . .



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )



Need: "I know I need insight on witnessing effectively for the Lord, so, IS there a short primer' I can use for Biblical witnessing?!"
  1. We MUST KNOW and TRUST the TRUE Gospel to be SAVED to QUALIFY to BECOME an EFFECTIVE witness for Christ:
    1. The TRUE Gospel of salvation is as follows: we must trust in Christ Who died for our sins, was buried and rose from the dead, that by faith alone in Him alone, we will escape hell and receive eternal life, 1 Cor. 15:1-11; John 3:16; Ephesians 2:8-9; Acts 4:12; 1 Timothy 2:5.
    2. We must personally believe that Gospel to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit to be empowered for effective witnessing, Rom. 8:9b; Acts 1:8.
    3. Please BELIEVE that Gospel NOW if you have not yet done so!
  2. Then, we MUST realize that SPIRITUAL factors involved make MERE HUMAN WITNESSING EFFORTS UTTERLY FUTILE!
    1. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 shows Satan has blinded the lost to God's truth!
    2. Also, Satan tries to ruin a believer's credibility before the lost or even himself to make his witness ineffective and/or to stifle his confidence so that he will give up even trying to serve God, Zechariah 3:1-7!
    3. Then, the unsaved are not able to receive spiritual truth, 1 Cor. 2:14!
  3. Yet, GOD makes it possible for US to witness EFFECTIVELY:
    1. The Holy Spirit Who is GOD (Acts 5:3-4) counters Satan's work and the lost's inability to receive the truth by convicting the WORLD of sin, righteousness and judgment, John 16:7-11; Revelation 22:17a.
    2. Then, Christ's Gospel is the power of God that can penetrate Satan's blindness and the lost's spiritual inability and SAVE them, Rom. 1:16.
    3. The indwelling Holy Spirit equips the believer to be effective in witnessing IF he relates WELL to Him, Acts 1:8; Galatians 5:16!
  4. Thus, we must ADJUST to these facts to witness EFFECTIVELY:
    1. We must relate well to God by (1) confessing any post-salvation sin(s) we have committed for cleansing (1 John 1:9) to QUALIFY for His practical blessing followed by (2) leaning on the Holy Spirit for power (Gal. 5:16) to (3) heed Scripture for effective witnessing, 1 John 2:3.
    2. We must properly handle Satan's WILES to DEFEAT his effort to ruin our testimony before the lost and thus also our will to witness:
      1. By putting on God's whole armor, we defeat Satan's efforts to ruin our credibility before the unsaved or ourselves, Ephesians 6:10-19:
        1. We tell the truth versus Satan's efforts to undermine us by getting us to lie or misrepresent the truth, Ephesians 6:14a.
        2. We lean on our position in Christ and on our experiential confession of sin (1 John 1:9) to be upright and thus offset Satan's charges of sin against us, Ephesians 6:14b.
        3. We prepare to give the Gospel at a moment's notice to thwart Satan's efforts to get us sidetracked with side issues, Eph. 6:15.
        4. We believe Scripture's words versus Satan's efforts to disrupt our doing so with false doubts and error to the contrary, 6:16.
        5. We rest in our position in Christ to foil Satan's debilitating attack on our assurance of salvation and its security, Eph. 6:17a.
        6. We use Scripture to support our righteous thoughts and deeds to offset Satan's wiles to make us doubt and abandon them, 6:17b.
        7. We pray for God's help in the witnessing process, Eph. 6:18-19.
    3. The believer must adjust AND relate to the unsaved in offsetting their lack of receptivity to God's truth and their Satanic blindness:
      1. We must let our lives back up our verbal witness of the truth, Matt. 5:16. Such a life will exhibit love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self-control, Gal. 5:22f.
      2. Then, we must wait upon God to open up a door for an effective witness BEFORE we try speaking on our own, Colossians 4:2-3.
      3. We must boldly clarify the Gospel's truth once God opens the door for us to verbalize it, Colossians 4:4; Ephesians 6:19b.
      4. In giving the Gospel, we must not get sidetracked, but, like Jesus with the Samaritan woman, direct the listener back to it, Jn. 4:19ff.
      5. We must use gracious, wise words, Col. 4:5-6; 1 Peter 3:15-16.
Application: (1) FIRST, may WE be sure that WE trust in Christ for salvation so that WE are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, John 3:16; Rom. 8:9b. (2) Then, may we rely on Him and God's Word for the power and direction we need to witness effectively. (3) We will then be used by God to witness effectively for Christ, Rev. 22:17!

Lesson: (1) Spiritual realities make one's BEST, MERE HUMAN efforts to witness UTTERLY FUTILE! (2) So, to be EFFECTIVE as a witness for Christ, (a) we MUST FIRST KNOW and BELIEVE the TRUE Gospel just to HAVE eternal life and become INDWELT by God the Holy Spirit for equipping with God's power to witness. Then, (b) if we have sinned since salvation, we ADJUST via confession of sin and renewed conscious reliance on the Spirit to witness well. Consequently, (c) we can adjust to the ANGELIC CONFLICT (d) and to the UNSAVED as described above in the witnessing PROCESS to be EFFECTIVELY USED by the Holy Spirit to reach those who are THIRSTY for Christ, cf. Revelation 22:17!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 At our last Men's Leadership Support Group meeting, January 14th, a man attended who is not part of our Church who also did not have a Bible; he sat between Mike Terwilliger and me as I led the 25 minute lesson before we went on into our hour-long group discussion.

After the meeting, this man rather sheepishly apologized to Mike and me for not making any comments in the discussion as he was not familiar with the Bible, and he did not know where to look in the Bible that Mike had loaned him for the meeting for effective insight to make such comments. He asked us what kind of Bible he could buy so he could prepare for the next meeting!

I recommended a Bible for him as though I do so it every day! Further, to make him feel at ease, Mike shared that it was not a problem that he did not know much about Scripture, explaining how he had started at one time from scratch himself! I backed up Mike's testimony, telling him not to worry about his lack of knowledge, that we were all still daily learning new truths from Scripture.

The man thanked us, shook our hands, and left the meeting seeming to be in an "upbeat" attitude.

Now, Mike, the Church Board and I did not originally plan for the Men's Leadership Support Group to be an evangelistic outreach per se, but if that happens, and a visitor comes to faith in Christ, we will all of course be delighted!

The point is this: in consideration for HIS FEELINGS, Mike and then I tried to make the man without the Bible and Bible knowledge feel as much ACCEPTED and AT EASE as we COULD while continuing to present the Bible's truths in his hearing in the framework of the study itself! In ministering this way and seeking in God's leading to discern WHAT to say and HOW to ACT, GOD could make us EFFECTIVE witnesses to the truth EVEN if he is in all probability NOT YET a believer! Eventually, if his need for salvation becomes evident, we can be used of God to give him the Gospel at the opportune time!

May we all thus PARTNER with GOD, becoming HIS mouthpieces, HIS hands and HIS feet, mirroring by the indwelling HOLY SPIRIT'S power the kindness and acceptance that GOD has for the LOST that WE might BE effective TOOLS of God in the witnessing process for HIS glory!