Jesus is the Word of God
Previous session (1A) here.
Outline below...
Peter – A Model Evengelist?
It depends which Peter!
Matthew 26:31-34 – Brash and self-assured
John 21 – Humbled, assured of Christ’s love and forgiveness.
1 Peter Overview
Chapter 1
A feeble minority…
Gripped by God…
Showered with blessings…
Enduring suffering
Bringing People to God
He did – 1 Peter 3:18
We are – 1 Peter 2:9-11; 4:10-11
I can – 1 Peter 3:15
A prayer of Martin Luther's:
“O Lord, deliver me from Christian churches with nothing but Christian saints in them. I want to remain in and be part of a church which is a little flock of faint-hearted people, weak people, who know and feel their sin, their poverty, their misery, and they believe in the forgiveness of God.”
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From the overflow of the heart...
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What do you picture when you think of an evangelist?
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Now describe someone who helped you trust Jesus.
Why is there a difference?
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Evangelist means “Teller of Good News”
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Who needs to hear the gospel?
Me!
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What do I need to do with the gospel?
Believe it!
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Does the world need more evangelists?
That depends!
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Matthew 23:15 – Evangelism can grow Satan’s kingdom!
Garbage In – Garbage Out!
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Matthew 12:34 – Evangelism needs to flow from the heart
Gospel In – Gospel Out!
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Full script here
.
From the overflow of the heart...
.
What do you picture when you think of an evangelist?
.
Now describe someone who helped you trust Jesus.
Why is there a difference?
.
Evangelist means “Teller of Good News”
.
Who needs to hear the gospel?
Me!
.
What do I need to do with the gospel?
Believe it!
.
Does the world need more evangelists?
That depends!
.
Matthew 23:15 – Evangelism can grow Satan’s kingdom!
Garbage In – Garbage Out!
.
Matthew 12:34 – Evangelism needs to flow from the heart
Gospel In – Gospel Out!
.
Full script here
Here's the 12 week outline for Outgoing. It's based around four questions:
What kind of God?
What kind of gospel?
What kind of people?
What's stopping us?
Introduction
From the overflow of the heart - The first thing I need to do with the gospel is believe it. When my heart is full, then I will overflow to others (Matthew 12:34). But the first person who needs the gospel is me!
What kind of God?
The Jesus-Shaped God – The big question for Christian and non-Christian alike is “Which God?” Most people believe in God, billions pray to God, trouble is no-one knows who they’re praying to. And everyone’s God seems different. Will the real God please stand up? He has, and His name is Jesus.
The Surprising God – When we see the God revealed by Jesus, that ought to shock us, because He is very different to the God people talk about in the pub or the philosophy department. We might find ourselves having to give up the God we grew up with, because Jesus reveals the Surprising God.
The Triune God – people often think of the Trinity as a problem in evangelism. How do we explain the Trinity? The Trinity is not the problem. The Trinity is the solution to all our other problems.
The Outgoing God – If God is Jesus-shaped, if He’s cross shaped, if He’s Three Persons United, then He is thoroughly outgoing. His posture to the world is “Arms outstretched.” And that has huge implications for my Christian life and for evangelism.
What kind of gospel?
Dead – We need to know who we are as the Outgoing God meets us. Who are we? We’re under judgement. We are sinners condemned under a terrible death sentence.
Buried – More than this, all our solutions are false hopes. They actually mire us even deeper. We try to give ourselves life but we find ourselves addicted to all the wrong things. We try to clean up our act and find ourselves trapped by the law. We have no hope in ourselves. All our hope comes from Jesus
Raised – Christ saves us. And He does it completely and without assistance from us thank you very much. Christ alone saves us, out of His own sheer mercy and grace alone.
What kind of people?
Priestly People – we’ll think of the Priesthood of Christ and the priesthood of all believers. I find who I am in Jesus and in the family of believers – and both those things are priestly realities. Priestly means outgoing – a priest is a go-between. We are a priestly people.
Proclamation People – We are people of the word. The gospel Word creates us, sustains us and flows through us to the world.
What’s stopping us?
Problems of the head? – Do we fail at evangelism because we don’t know the answers? That might explain some of it. Certainly we all need to know the gospel better. But we need to figure out the place of “right thinking” in bringing someone to Christ.
Problems of the heart – You know why I don’t share my faith? Because I’m scared, I’m selfish, I feel superior and I’m spiritually dry! Those are my real problems. And what’s the answer? Return to Christ as He’s offered to me in the gospel.
A heart-warming video interview on the love of Christ by Dave Bish. Go watch now!
Yesterday I had two different conversations with people who called themselves atheists.
“Why are you an atheist?” I asked each of them. They both answered in exactly the same way. I wonder if you can guess what they said:
“Religion causes wars” they said.
It’s a common accusation isn’t it? Days after the September 11th attacks, Richard Dawkins wrote in The Guardian, “To fill a world with religion... is like littering the streets with loaded guns. Do not be surprised if they are used.”
That thinking is very prevalent. And on a day like today it might seem difficult to argue with. 10 years after the planes flew into the buildings, 10 years of war, surely it proves the atheists right, doesn’t it? Religion causes war.
Well now, let’s think about that for a second. The last hundred years have been called the murder century. Over a hundred million people have died violently in those 100 years. But do you want to hear the top three perpetrators who account for the great majority of the deaths? Stalin, Mao, Hitler. Add to this Mussolini, Tito, Pol Pot, Idi Amin. All of them atheists either dogmatically or practically. They have killed more in a century than religion ever has.
If we’re going to compare body counts, there’s blood on everyone’s hands. You cannot flee from the evils of religion to the safety of atheism. You cannot escape the human problem because the problem IS humans. Religious humans or irreligious humans – we are the problem. God is not the common denominator in war. Man is.
I say “man”, and I use that politically-incorrect label for a genuine reason, as we’ll see shortly. But God is not the common denominator in war, man is.
Man might use God to justify war. But man might also use godlessness to justify war. It seems that people can come up with any justification for war. What’s the problem? The problem is with us.
After so much war and suffering and terror, people have wanted to ask “How can you believe in God after the last hundred years?” But that is not the question is it? The question is, “How can anyone believe in man?”
That seems to me to be an obvious observation. But let’s think a little more biblically. Because actually, in the Bible, there is hope for man. And actually in the Bible religion does cause wars.
But we’ll have to come at the issue the way Paul does. We’ll do it by studying Romans 5 together and by thinking about that little word “man.”
...continue reading "Religion Causes Wars – Man is the Answer. A sermon for 9/11"
Judging by the title and blurb, this author deserves the egg on his face!
As used in our evangelism course last night...
The Skit Guys: The Skinny on Evangelism:
What does it mean to pray in Jesus' name?
Here's Jesus Himself using the phrase 'in my name':
Many will come in my name, saying 'I am He' and will lead many astray. (Mark 13:6)
This is a very strong understanding of 'in my name'. Here to act "in Jesus' name" is to act as Jesus and to appear to others as Jesus.
Well now - Jesus Himself asks you to pray to the Father 'in His name' (John 14:13,14; 15:16; 16:23). So when you come to the Father, come as Jesus. Come as son, come as christ (anointed one). Call on God Most High with Jesus' own cry - 'Abba, Father' (Mark 14:36 <=> Gal 4:6). By the Spirit, you are so identified with the Son in prayer that you pray as Jesus. And the Father hears you as His very own Beloved.
Jesus does not point the way to prayer, nor simply blaze a trail and ask you to follow along. He incorporates you into Himself in His own self-offering to the Father. As you pray you are not outside the Trinity. But neither are you a fourth member of the Trinity. You are in Christ, filled with the Spirit of adoption, calling on your Abba, Father.
That's prayer "in Jesus' name." But of course we do all of life - whether in word or deed - "in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Colossians 3:17). We don't only approach the Father "clothed in Christ", we approach the world "clothed in Christ." That's our true identity. More true than any phony masks we wear.
I say this stuff with glib assurance but as I write I realise I have no idea of the magnitude of Christ's mediation both to God but also the world!
