May 8, 2006

Hi

We're glad to have you join us again. Sorry we're so late today. I spent part of the evening on the phone to the tech support folks at Adobe getting their expert help to install the new Adobe Audition software that we are going to use for our podcasts.

Today we continue with some thoughts on evangelism.

Jesus saw to it that his disciples learned his way of living with God and man. His disciples needed to know how his experience was to be maintained and shared if it was to be perpetuated in evangelism. It was no accident that Jesus often let his disciples see him praying. They could see the strength that it gave to his life, and though they probably couldn’t understand fully what it was all about, they must have realized that this was part of his secret of life.

 

One might think that the idea of putting words into the disciples’ mouths to get them to pray was below the capabilities of these disciples, but Jesus would not take such an important matter as this for granted. He emphasized the importance of prayer again and again and continually enlarged upon its meaning as they were able to comprehend deeper realities of his Spirit. Unless they grasped the meaning of prayer and learned to practice it consistently, not much would come from their lives.

 

Jesus taught the importance and use of the Holy Scriptures. This was evident both in maintaining his own personal devotion and in winning others to the Way. He would take time to impress the special meaning of some passage in the Bible for his followers and never ceased to use the Scriptures in his conversation with them. All this was to show the disciples how they should know and use the Scriptures in their own life. The scriptures along with his teachings became the basis for their faith in Christ.

 

Jesus practiced everything that he wanted the disciples to learn. Evangelism was lived before them in spirit and technique. He led them to recognize the need inherent in all classes of people, and the best methods of approaching them. They observed how he drew people to himself; how he won their confidence and inspired their faith; how he opened the way of salvation to them and called them to a decision.

 

Jesus asked no one to do what he had not first demonstrated in his own life, thereby proving not only its workability, but also its relevance to his mission. Every thing he said and did was a personal lesson in reality and the disciples were there to learn every moment of their waking day. How else will his way ever be learned?  There is no avoiding our personal responsibility for showing the way to those we are training. This is the Master’s method, and nothing else will ever do to train others to do his work.

 

Jesus was training men to do a job, and when they knew enough to get started; he saw to it that they did so. The application of this principle is so pronounced that it needs to be considered as another part of his strategy of conquest.

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Thanks. See you tommorrow.

Pastor Bob Emery