"Ministering Like Jesus (Witness)" - Lesson 8 - Pastor Jean Ross

[Music] nations [Music] the sun [Music] me [Music] is [Music] there are [Music] did [Music] jesus [Music] where is the sun [Music] [Music] jesus shines brighter [Music] jesus shines [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] nations [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] me [Music] well before we get to our study i invite you just to bow your heads as we ask god's blessing to be with us dear father we thank you that we're able to open up the bible and study a very important subject dealing with how jesus ministered to those around him and how we also following his example can minister to our friends our neighbors those that we come in contact with so lord we ask for your blessing god our hearts and our minds as we open your word in jesus name amen well our lesson today lesson number eight in our sabbath school courtly it's entitled ministering like jesus and if you've been following along with us we do have a memory text and you might have it right there in your lesson courtly the memory text is matthew chapter 9 verse 36 and you can say that with me matthew 9 36 it says but when he jesus saw the multitude he was moved with compassion for them because they were wary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd we find that jesus was genuinely cared he cared about people he met their physical mental and emotional needs those that were around him he was always reaching out thus he was opening their heart to minister to them spiritual truths he was able to share with them the gospel maybe you've heard it said before people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care and how true that is when it comes to evangelism now there is a very important statement that we find in the book ministry of healing and i think we've mentioned this statement before it's on page 143 but it's going to sort of be the springboard for our study today uh ministry of healing page 143 and it's talking about christ's method of evangelism it says christ's method alone will give true success in reaching the people the savior mingled with man as one who desired their good he showed his sympathy for them he ministered to their needs and won their confidence then he obeyed them follow me now the first thing i want you to notice is that there is one method of evangelism that brings true success and that's christ's method so if we can find out what jesus did to reach people around him and we follow his example and his method for evangelism well the promise is we will be successful what is it that jesus did well the first thing we note here is that jesus mingled with men he was not aloof he didn't keep himself at a distance but he got to know people he allowed people to approach him he visited with them he talked to them he ate with them jesus engaged with people he interacted with them so the first principle that we find when it comes to evangelism is we need to be friendly we need to be approachable we need to reach out and engage with other people secondly we find that jesus ministered to their needs now some of the needs that jesus addressed were social needs sometimes it was emotional sometimes physical ultimately spiritual and jesus always went that direction wanting to bring them the gospel and truth but jesus ministered to their needs and in doing so he won their confidence so that he was able to share with them the way of life the keys for eternal life and i think that's important when it comes to our work of evangelism we're ministering to the need needs of people we're getting to know them but the real goal is to win their confidence so that they are willing to share with us a genuine concern or a need that they have and in so doing we can pray for them we can minister to their need we can win their confidence so that they'll be open to hear what we have to say about jesus our savior so jesus met the needs of people around him he was always interested in what people were doing what they were saying what they were thinking he looked for examples and ways that he could minister to whatever the needs are that he saw now we have some wonderful examples of this given in the first few chapters of the gospel of john how jesus ministered to the needs of those around him you'll find in john chapter 2 jesus ministering to a social need and let me give you the background of the story this is just after the baptism of christ jesus and his first five disciples they were invited to a wedding in canaan of galilee now john the baptist was baptizing down in the southern part close to in judea close to jerusalem and so it was a fair journey for jesus and his first five disciples which were andrew peter john philip and nathanael to travel all the way up to galilee and they went to a town called canaan we're not quite sure where that town is today but there was a wedding that was taking place and apparently the mother of jesus who was involved in the preparations apparently it could have been a relative or a close friend of the family but jesus is there with the disciples and during the wedding the bible tells us they ran out of wine literally the wine failed and the mother of jesus came to christ and said you know they've run out of wine and and jesus said well what do i have to do this my hour has not yet come maybe she was hoping that jesus would perform a miracle proclaim himself as the messiah nevertheless jesus did meet that need there were six stone water jugs that were set to the side used for the purifying of the jews and jesus told the servants to fill the water jugs full of water and then to draw out some of the water and take it to the governor of the feast and so in the process of drawing out the water the water became new wine or pure grape juice when the governor of the feast tasted the uh the water that was turned to grape juice or new wine he marveled and he said usually people put the best first but you have kept the best until last so the first thing that with jesus we find jesus when he begins his public ministry he ministers to a social need to avoid embarrassment and it also uh pronounces christ's blessing on uh marriage well the second uh need that we see jesus meeting in the gospel of john is in john chapter 3 and that's the famous story of jesus and his night visit with nicodemus and nicodemus had a spiritual need that jesus addressed and jesus said except you'd be born again you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven nicodemus said how can a man be born again when he's old jesus began to explain the process of new birth and those seeds of truth that were planted in the heart in the mind of nicodemus that night eventually grew and bore grapefruit especially after the resurrection of christ when nicodemus used these resources to help the fledgling christian church and he himself also boldly claimed to be a follower of christ the next need that we find jesus meeting in john chapter 4 is an emotional need and in this story we find jesus and his disciples traveling up up to galilee once again and they're going through the area known as samaria and at jacob's well jesus meets a woman who has an emotional need as you get into the story you find out that she had been married six times and the person that she was living with was not her husband and yet she had a longing for meaning and purpose in her life she had an emotional need she she wanted to belong and jesus opened up uh the truths of of uh real joy and peace and longing and um she was encouraged matter of fact she went she told everyone in the village i have found the man the messiah she was the first one of the first missionaries that took the gospel so in john 4 we find jesus meeting an emotional need in john 5 we find jesus meeting a physical need and this is the story of a man who had been lame for 38 years in the paralytic that was laying by the pool of bethesda and jesus came on a sabbath and said to him do you want to be made well and the man said i have no one to carry me and put me in the water when the water is troubled and jesus said rise take up your bed and walk and the man was healed immediately so in those first few chapters of the gospel of john we get a taste of the ministry that jesus was doing meeting the spiritual need the physical the emotional jesus ministered to those the emotional need those that were around him so that was christ's attitude we can see christ's attitude in ministering to people now on sunday the lesson is actually entitled jesus's attitude towards people and jesus always looked for the good in others he drew out the best in them one of the criticisms that the religious leaders gave of christ is that he receives sinners and he eats with them now they were concerned because he interacted with the ungodly they were surprised when jesus himself said for i did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance and jesus spoke of himself as coming to seek and save the lost that was his mission that needs to be our mission in matthew chapter 5 verse 13 we read jesus speaking you are the salt of the earth but if the salt loses its flavor how shall it be seasoned it is good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by man so jesus likens the believer the christian to being the salt of the earth salt back in bible times in the ancient world was extremely valuable a lot more valuable than today even roman soldiers soldiers were often paid by salt and that's where the word salary comes from it comes from being paid by salt salt was used to preserve food it was also used for flavoring now the true wealth in the world today the salt is committed christians those who love god and those who are willing to make his gospel known to those around them jesus said you are the salt of the earth but if we lose that spirit of evangelism if we lose the love of souls if we lose our commitment to christ what good are we what can we do how can we help those in need if we lose that desire for evangelism that commitment to making the truths of the gospel known in matthew chapter 5 verse 14 jesus used another illustration as to what the christians to do matthew 5 14 jesus said you are the light of the world a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid so the christian is like and unto salt but we are also likened unto light light does not avoid darkness but light dispels the darkness and so as christians we are not to avoid those in need but we are to shine forth the love of jesus into the darkness of the hearts of those who have never experienced the grace and the power of god not only in forgiveness but also transformation in their hearts and lives it is god's desire that his church shine forth the glory or the character of the savior we actually find that to be the mission of the remnant we find in revelation chapter 18 verse 1 and 2 we call this the fourth angel's message it says after these things i saw another angel coming down from heaven having great authority and the earth was illuminated with his glory now these angels that we read about in revelation both the three angels that we find in revelation chapter 14 we call it the first second third angels message plus this fourth angel that we read about in revelation chapter 18 represent god's people in the last days that are taking the everlasting gospel to every nation kindred tongue and people so this fourth angel that illuminates the world with the glory or the character of god really represents you and i represents the church and the work that we have to do is verse 2 and he cried mightily with a loud voice saying babylon is fallen is fallen and then if you jump down to verse 4 it says and i heard another voice from heaven saying come out of her my people lest you share in her sins unless you receive her plagues now who is this other voice from heaven that we read about in verse 4 that would be the voice of jesus jesus said other sheep i have that are not of this fold but i'll call them and they'll come and they'll be one fold and one shepherd in order for jesus to call his people out of religious confusion out of babylon god has given us a work to do and that is to proclaim and reveal the glory of god to the world so central to the work of the remnant in the last days is the work of evangelism that's why we are here that's the work that god has given us to do in john chapter 17 verse 15 we read the words of jesus i do not pray that you should take them out of the world but that you should keep them from the evil one they are not of the world just as i am not of the world sanctify them by your truth your word is truth and then verse 18 as you sent me into the world i also have sent them into the world so just as jesus had come to seek and save the lost to minister to the needs of those around him to win their confidence and share the gospel and share truth so we as the followers of christ are to follow in his example now we can see three distinct phases in the work of christ the first is what we call the prepare phase this is before jesus would go to towns and villages and preach the gospel he would often send his disciples before him to prepare the way the entire public ministry of jesus was prepared by john the baptist who went and preached and prepared the way for jesus jesus sent out the 12 disciples to different towns and villages and you can read another occasion where jesus sent out 70 others who were to go and prepare the way before him so the first phase of christ's ministry is preparation and we'll look at how that relates to the church in just a few moments the second phase that we see of christ's ministry was that of preaching where jesus would go to those same towns and villages and he would preach where the work had been done where the preparation was done and then the third phase a very important phase of the ministry of christ was that of preserve jesus taught the importance of nurturing new believers and that's the work that the church needs to do we've got to remember that the baptistery isn't the finish line when it comes to evangelism in reality it is the starting line you can see how the early christian church was established not only to preach the gospel to those who've never heard but it was also established to preserve and nurture those who did believe and we can see this truth beautifully illustrated in a parable that jesus told it's a familiar parable it's the parable of the good samaritan and it's recorded for us in luke chapter 10 and the story is about a man traveling from jerusalem down to jericho and geographically if you were to go from jerusalem to jericho you would literally go down uh jericho is close to the dead sea which is the lowest body of water on the earth so there was quite a geographical change and the man's traveling from jerusalem down a very twisty mountainous road with caves and rocks and as he's traveling down to jericho jesus said the thieves came he fell amongst thieves and they stripped the man of his raiment they beat him they left him half dead and there he was on the side of the road but then a priest came by and the priest didn't really do anything for him neither did the levite but when the samaritan came by and of course you understand that the jews and the samaritans they did not get along but when the samaritan came by and he saw the man jesus said he had compassion upon him and he went over to the man and ministered to his needs jesus said that he poured in oil and wine into his wounds he probably covered him with his own cloak and placed him on a donkey and took him to an end and then he ministered to the man there in the end but then he told the innkeeper you know i need to go if you spend any more money than i've given you i will richly repay you when i come back again now in the parable this man traveling from jerusalem to jericho in one sense can represent the whole human race the priest could represent the sacrificial system of the old testament they couldn't really take care of the sin problem the levite could represent the chosen people israel again they would appoint people to christ they were not the final solution but the good samaritan of course represents jesus jesus came to minister to our needs it says he poured in oil and wine into the man's wounds nursed him oil is a symbol of the holy spirit this new wine a symbol of the atoning blood of christ and then the samaritan took the man to the inn and took care of him and gave money to the innkeeper and said you take care of the man where does jesus take those who have responded to the gospel of grace those whom he has forgiven where does he take them he takes them to the church and jesus has given the church talents and abilities and christ says to us you take care of these people you nurture them you build them up and when i come again i will richly repay you so we can see even in the parable that jesus told the importance of nurturing new believers it's so important when it comes to evangelism well then moving on on monday the lesson is entitled jesus's treatment of people and we've got a few bible stories here that help illustrate how jesus ministered to people around him and uh one of my favorites is in matthew chapter 8 from verse 5 through 10 you have the story of the healing of the centurion servant and it goes like this matthew chapter 8 verse 5. now when jesus had entered capernaum a centurion came to him pleading with him saying lord my servant is lying at home paralyzed dreadfully tormented and jesus said to him i will come and heal him. now remember this is a centurion this is a roman officer this is not a jew but he heard something of jesus and faith awakened in his heart and he said i'm gonna go find jesus and when he finds jesus and tells him his problem jesus says i will come and i will heal him you'd think that most people would say fantastic they would say clear the way jesus is coming to my house but that's not this man's response look at what he says verse 8 the centurion answered and said lord i am not worthy that you should come under my roof but only speak a word and my servant will be healed for i am also a man under authority having soldiers under me and i say to this one go and he goes and to another one come and he comes and to my servant do this and he does it when jesus heard it take note of this when jesus heard it he marveled and he said to those who followed assuredly i sound to you i have not found so great of faith no not in israel and of course jesus did speak the word and the centurion servant was healed now you can just imagine the man saying i am not worthy lord for you to come under my roof but just speak the word he had faith in the power of the word of christ and when jesus heard that he turned to those standing around him and said i have not seen this kind of faith no not in israel here we find jesus encouraging the faith of the centurion and using his faith as an example to the jews who were lacking this kind of faith that whatever jesus said they believed or he believed this interior believed it would happen because there was power in the word of christ and we want to encourage that same kind of faith in the people that we minister to we have another story recorded for us in mark chapter 12 verse 34 and this is where a scribe comes to jesus and asks asks christ what is the greatest commandment in the law and you'll recall the response of christ he said there are actually two commandments the first is to love the lord thy god or your heart or your soul or your mind or your strength and the second is like unto it you must love your neighbor as yourself well after jesus said that these words made such an impression upon the scribe he responded said you have answered correctly he said indeed to love god with everything is the most important to love your neighbor is yourself but then jesus responded to him this is verse 34 of mark 12. now when jesus saw that he answered wisely he said to him you are not far from the kingdom of god now that's quite a statement here is a scribe searching for truth wanting to find the way of life he asked jesus a question because he was genuinely concerned jesus gave him an answer he responded positively to that answer and then jesus said you're not far from the kingdom of god that must have encouraged him to learn more to study further we want to encourage people in their walk with christ it's easy to discourage someone by pointing out their faults and their errors and their sins but what jesus did was to encourage people to build on their faith even if it was a little christ wanted to strengthen their faith and build on it so learning from the example of jesus we can see that christ looked for the good in people around him and he tried to encourage faith he tried to encourage spiritual growth isaiah chapter 42 verse 3 it says a bruised reed he will not break and as smoking flex he will not quench in other words jesus was careful not to needlessly bruise a sensitive soul you try to encourage people colossians chapter 4 verse 5 and 6 it says walk in wisdom towards those who are outside redeeming the time let your speech always be with grace seasoned with salt that you might know how you ought to answer each one so when it comes to evangelism here paul is telling us in colossians those outside the church how we to treat them let your speech be seasoned with grace and pray that god will give you wisdom as you interact with them ephesians chapter 4 verse 15 says but speak the truth in love that you might grow up in all things unto him who is the head which is christ so we are to speak the truth in love we are to always speak with grace we can find that this is an important work when it comes to evangelism because it's planting seeds of truth in the hearts and the minds of people when it comes to evangelism we can see the example of jesus there are different phases of the work that christ did and we want to learn from jesus here's our example now i want you to imagine for a moment a farmer who decides to grow wheat and so he plows up his field and maybe he fertilizes it and he waits for the wheat to grow but nothing seems to happen his neighbors their fields are filled with green shoots of growing wheat but he's got nothing growing in his field and so he goes to his farmer friends and he says to them i'm not sure why wheat's not growing in my field and so they ask him what type of fertilizer used he tells them and they ask him did you check the ph balance of the soil and he tells them yes and oh they can't figure it out well one day all of his friends come over to his farm because they're curious about this and there they walk out onto the farm onto the dirt and onto his field and around it is beautiful green fields but nothing is growing on his on his field so finally one of his farmer friends says to him well say what kind of seeds did you plant anyway well with that our farmer friends looked down and a little embarrassed he says well you know i've been hoping for wheat i've been praying for wheat but i guess i didn't plant any seeds now of course that's not a true story there isn't a farmer alive that would expect a harvest without first planting seeds but when it comes to evangelism we pray for a harvest we hope for a harvest but often we neglect the importance of planting the seeds of the gospel we look at the example of jesus he was always planting spiritual seeds now when it comes to evangelism there are different phases that make evangelism successful we typically call this the evangelism cycle and it's been divided up into six phases of evangelism and each of them are important you've got the personal preparation phase this is even before you get involved in some kind of evangelistic outreach uh phase two is preparing the soil phase three is what's called sowing the seed and then you got four phase four cultivating phase five the harvest and phase six is preserving the harvest so i'm going to just highlight a few things about this evangelism cycle as we look at the example of christ the first phase is personal preparation and it begins with us as individuals we are to seek for revival we are told in review and herald march 22 1887 it says the revival of true godliness among us is the greatest and the most urgent of all of our needs to seek this should be our first work so in this phase of personal preparation we are to seek revival how do we do that while we spend time in prayer we spend time studying the word uh some of the last words that jesus told his disciples before ascending to heaven he said that they would go to all the world and they would preach the gospel but before they were to go out to the world and preach the gospel jesus told them to tarry in jerusalem until they received power from the holy spirit in order for evangelism to be successful we must be filled with the spirit of god you can't give something that you don't have so the first phase of evangelism is seeking for a deeper experience pleading for the holy spirit spending time in prayer it's also wise to do some planning what is the plan for the church what are we going to do to try and reach out to those in the community so some of the things that we want to be looking for during this first phase of evangelism we're looking at the spiritual practical christian experience of the believers we're looking at the commitment that the individual members in the church have to evangelism to the fulfillment of the great commission the focus of the church needs to be on the work of evangelism sharing the gospel we want to have some planning taking place we want to plan for an evangelistic series some other training events taking place so the first phase of this evangelism cycle is spending time preparing our hearts and our minds for the work before us before jesus started his public ministry right after his baptism he went into the wilderness for 40 days where he spent time fasting and praying where he was equipped and filled with the spirit and prepared for the great work that he was about to do the second phase then of this evangelism cycle is what we call preparing the soil before the farmer plants the seed he needs to go plow up the the soil and he needs to fertilize etc what does this involve in an evangelism cycle well we want to be involved with things like friendship evangelism getting to know people find out about their family their occupation what is their religious background maybe you can even share your own personal testimony with the people you engage with the church wants to be involved in community service programs where we are ministering to the needs of those around us we might also want to start advertising for bible studies we might want to do surveys door-to-door to find out the interests the spiritual interests of the people in the community we want to be involved in building up a database of names of people that we can follow up on those who might be interested in spiritual things so what are we looking for in this second phase of the evangelism cycle we're looking for the number of positive relationships between the church and the people in the community we're also looking for the number of positive relationships between the members of the church and non-members those in the community around us now on tuesday the lesson is entitled jesus's healing ministry and there's two parts so tuesday is part one and then wednesday is part two and uh in the introductory to tuesday's lesson it says jesus ministered to the needs of people one of the greatest needs that jesus addressed was in the area of health and healing the ultimate need however is that of having a saving transforming relationship with god jesus said i have come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly jesus was concerned about the quality of life that people had not only concerned about their need or the quality of their life now but he was ultimately concerned about their eternal destiny concerned about having them having eternal life so we can see how jesus used healing the work of ministry in healing to lead people to a spiritual experience we have a couple of stories that are given in our lesson of how jesus did this we have one in matthew chapter nine it's the healing of the man lowered through the roof and this is what it is matthew chapter nine you can also read the story in mark a parallel passage there it says so he got into a boat crossed over and came to his own city and that would be capernaum and that was the home also of simon peter we believe this story actually took place in the home of simon peter verse 2 says then behold they brought him a paralytic lying on a bed and when jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic son be of good cheer your sins are forgiven you now again mark tells us that this story took place in a house and the man on the bed was carried by his friends to jesus but they couldn't get in because of the crowd so they went up onto the roof and as jesus is preaching and teaching suddenly he is interrupted by a scraping noise as they begin to move the roof tiles the roofs back in those days flat roofs and often there was a hole in the center of that of the room where the smoke from the fire could go and there were tiles that were covering often that opening and here jesus is preaching and suddenly stops and everybody begins to look up as the tiles are moved and here is this man lowered down to where jesus is and of course everybody's staring at christ wondering what he's going to do and jesus is looking at the man he knows his real need so before even healing him physically jesus wanted to heal him spiritually and that's why jesus said those beautiful words son be of good cheer your sins are forgiven you and before the man could even respond i'm sure there was peace in his heart but before he could say anything the story goes on it says verse three and at once some of the scribes said within themselves this man blasphemes you see rightfully they knew that only god could forgive sins and they said jesus is blaspheming because you know he's forgiving sins but of course they didn't recognize jesus as god and jesus had the power to forgive and verse 4 but jesus knowing their thoughts he said why do you think evil in your hearts for what is easy to say your sins are forgiven you or to say arise and walk now for us if we put ourselves in the place of of uh christ and somebody was in need of of forgiveness and they were in need of a miracle uh we might think well the easiest thing to do is to forgive them i mean especially if they didn't hurt us too badly we can say you know okay i'll forgive you but when it comes to performing a miracle well that's something we can't do we can't perform miracles but in the case of jesus what was easier for jesus was it easier for jesus to forgive or was it easier for jesus to perform a miracle you see what does it take for jesus to perform a miracle he simply needs to speak the word and the man is healed but what did it take for jesus to be able to give that man forgiveness you see jesus knew that in order for him to provide forgiveness it would involve a cross it would evolve his crucifixion his suffering his death thus jesus said what do you think is easy to say your sins are forgiven or rise and walk you see jesus was illustrating here the importance of spiritual healing yes physical healing is good and nice but in the eyes of god even more important than physical healing is spiritual healing it's obtaining that forgiveness that only jesus can give and then verse 6 but that you might know that the son of man has power on earth to forgive sins he said to the paralytic arise take up your bed and go to your house and he arose and he departed of course the people were amazed and they saw what jesus did we have another story recorded for us in mark chapter 5 and i'm not going to read through the whole story because of time but it's a woman that came to jesus while he was journeying in a crowd and she couldn't actually get close to him but she was able to reach out and touch the hem of his garment and she was healed of this flowing of blood that she had struggled with for 12 years and when she reached out and she touched the hem of christ's robe immediately she was healed she knew within herself that she had been healed she kind of slipped back into the crowd but jesus stopped and he turned to his disciples and he said who touched me the disciples said but lord there's so many people pressing it around you how can you ask who touched me jesus says no somebody touched me i felt virtue or power go out of me and then of course she came forward she confessed everything it says she was trembling she was afraid but jesus said to him verse 34 of mark 5 daughter your faith has made you whole go in peace and be healed of your affliction jesus affirmed her faith jesus encouraged her so jesus ministered to all kinds of people those who were strong in faith those who were weak in faith he ministered to those who are humble all classes of people didn't matter what their position jesus recognized that here is a soul to be saved and so it is when it comes to our work of evangelism we want to be planting seeds of truth so we minister to the physical needs of people we want to win their confidence so that we can share bible truth and the way we do this in a practical way is through different types of bible studies it might be a personal one-on-one bible study we could drop off a lesson that somebody could read on their own at home we might invite somebody to a small group of bible study but just as jesus ultimately wanted to lead people to a saving relationship so we in our work of evangelism want to lead people to being exposed to bible truth so that they can make a decision for jesus we also read that an important part of the work that we have to do when it comes to evangelism is cultivating these new interests those who show an interest in spiritual things uh in doing so we might want to invite them to church to some church activity we might want to invite them to a special program that the church is putting on we want to introduce them to other church members who might have similar interests or backgrounds and of course one of the greatest things you could do is invite them to come to your home for a small group bible study maybe a meal at first and then transition that into a bible study so some of the things that we are looking for here is the number of consistent personal bible studies that are taking place uh between the church members and those in the community we also want to look for the number of people who are actually attending these bridge events that the church might put on health seminars and alike well then we come to wednesday and wednesday's lesson continuing with jesus example of healing people we also see that there were three phases to the work of jesus teaching preaching and healing in matthew 4 verse 23 it says and jesus went about all galilee teaching in their synagogues preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all kinds of sicknesses all kinds of diseases amongst the people so there we see jesus teaching preaching and healing in mark chapter 1 verse 32 it says that evening when the son had said they brought him all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed and the whole city was gathered together at the door this is after the healing uh that took place of a demon-possessed man in the synagogue that sabbath morning now the sun had set saturday evening and people came this is taking place at capernaum people brought their sick to jesus and he healed them verse 34 says and he healed many who were sick of various diseases he cast that many demons he did not allow the demons to speak because they knew him now in the morning this would be early sunday morning having risen a long time before daylight he went out and departed to a solitary place and he prayed and then simon whose house jesus was staying at and simon and those who are with him search for him and when they found him they said to him everyone is looking for you speaking to jesus but he said to them let us go into the next towns that i might preach there also because for this purpose i've come forth and he was preaching in their synagogues throughout all of galilee casting out demons so we find that jesus was not content just to minister to those that were close to him jesus has a burden to minister to as many people as possible and he actually began his first galilean tour traveling from town to town village to village he was preaching the gospel he was healing he was sharing with them the truths of the kingdom in luke chapter 19 verse 10 jesus says for the son of man has come to seek and save that which was lost so we see an important phase of christ's ministry not just ministering to the needs of people and not just providing healing but we also see a very definite emphasis on the preaching part of christ's ministry when it comes to evangelism we don't want to neglect the importance of evangelistic preaching and i want to encourage churches especially those who haven't done an evangelistic series for a while i want to encourage churches to be involved in doing a public evangelistic meeting and during this public evangelistic meeting you want to invite those that you've ministered to those who have you you've won a re uh confidence you've built a relationship with them you want to invite them to come and during this evangelistic series you want the message the gospel the three angels messages to be preached clearly and you want to call for a decision you want people to respond now if you can't do an evangelistic series in person maybe you don't have an evangelist maybe the pastor is unable to preach an evangelistic series you can still do a video evangelistic series you can even invite people to your home and you could do a evangelistic series right there on the television you can invite them night after night but the goal is to share these life-saving truths the three angels messages with people what are the things you're looking for in this phase well first of all you want to get a crowd you want as many people to come out to your evangelistic series as possible so that they can hear the word you want to keep a crowd so that might involve visiting people throughout the evangelistic series encouraging them to come giving them resources and materials answering their questions and you want to baptize a crowd jesus said go preach the gospel to every nation kinder tongue baptizing them in the name of the father son and the holy spirit teaching them to observe all things that have commanded you lo i am with you always even until the very end so the commission that we've been given by christ is to preach to teach and to baptize to bring people into a saving relationship with christ now once somebody makes that decision to be baptized and to join the church we mustn't neglect the importance of preserving their faith and growing their faith statistically if a person doesn't develop meaningful friendships within the church in the first few months of when they join it's very unlikely that they will actually stay with the church so not only presenting bible truth is important but also connecting them with other like-minded believers building relationships encouraging them in their walk with christ especially if maybe they the only believer in their family and they're going to have challenges at family maybe they're going to have challenges at work because they are standing up for bible truths as a church we want to be there to encourage people and to build them up so in summary then looking at the example of jesus we find jesus involved in different phases of ministry we see jesus ministering to the physical needs of people we see christ interacting befriending people and as he won their confidence he began to share with them the truths of the gospel we want to follow christ's example in getting to know people being friendly being approachable allowing people to comment and building relationship with them ministering to their needs winning their confidence so that we can share the word maybe that'll be inviting them to an evangelistic series maybe inviting them to a small group bible study or maybe even just a one-on-one bible study but we want to get to the point where we're able to share the word with them and then we need to nurture these new believers in their relationship with christ three reasons why evangelism sometimes does not work we don't plant enough seeds we need to remember that the seed is in the harvest we need to keep doing the work of evangelism and we neglect preserving the harvest we don't want people coming in through the front door of the church but leaving through the back door we want to hold on to them we want to nurture them we want them to grow in closing then let me share with you this verse 2 corinthians chapter 9 verse 6 but this i say he who so sparingly shall reap also sparingly but he who sows bountifully shall reap also bountifully god wants us to plant the seeds of the gospel as far and as wide as we possibly can that there might be a rich harvest of souls for the kingdom i want to remind your friends about our free offer for today it's a book entitled is it possible to live without sinning and we'd like to make this available to anyone in north america just call 866 788-3966 and ask for offer number 187 we'll be happy to put in the mail and send it to you if you would like a digital copy of the book you just need to text the code sh040 to the number 40544 you'll get a digital copy of the book is it possible to live without sinning again we want to thank you for joining us here for our sabbath school study hour and we look forward to studying with you next week again

Channel: Daily Hymns

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Length: 49min 50sec (2990 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 13 2020