Jesus is the Word of God
Giving an evangelistic talk is more than sharing a few thoughts about a Bible passage!
Evangelistic speaking is a spiritual event – God himself is speaking.
Does that mean preachers can say "Thus sayith the LORD" with impunity?
Listen in as we begin our new series about evangelistic speaking, based in 2 Corinthians.
Crossing London is a city wide mission happening this year. Hear about the many opportunities to get involved. Also listen to an interview with one of the organisers, Martin Durham head of Kerygma 180. We speak about Crossing London, the work of K180 and the way God is working through street outreach.
As mentioned in this episode, check out
Kerygma180, and
This year UCCF reckon there'll be 100 university missions reaching over 30 000 students.
Andy and I talk over a day in the life of a university mission.
We discuss the use of the UNCOVER Luke’s gospels and shamelessly rip off Michael Ots’ website, and in particular his Definitive_Mission_
UCCF estimate that 30 000 students this year will be reached through 100 CU missions.
In this podcast I talk about last week's mission to Edinburgh Napier University and Andy and I start to talk about student missions more broadly. More to follow in next week's episode.
Must you evangelise? Well that depends on what kind of "must" we're talking about.
Take financial giving as an example. Must we give money to the cause of the gospel? Well, remember that both Moses and Paul insist you give freely and not under compulsion for 'God loves a cheerful giver.' (Exodus 35; 2 Corinthians 9). It's the same with mission. It shouldn't be done reluctantly and from compulsion for God loves a cheerful evangelist.
Here's my conversation today with a taxi driver called Luke. I wrote it down about as soon as I finished speaking to him, so I've remembered it pretty much as it happened...
- Do you like working Sundays? Bit quieter right?
Absolutely. Saturday night is something else though!
- Yeah? What happened last night?
Oh, well... Actually I got a call at midnight. My friend drank himself into a near coma last night. He was rushed to hospital.
- Oh no. Is he alright now?
Not really. He has stage 4 Hodgkin's disease and time is running out. He should have been dead already really. He used to be a full on Christian but he lost his faith and now he's hit the bottle hard.
- Oh man. I'm a Christian minister actually. I'm on my way to Edinburgh to speak about a few things - including God and suffering.
You're a Christian??
- Yeah. I speak about God and suffering all the time. One of the things I always say is, if you get rid of God, you've still got the suffering, but now you're on your own.
Yeah, hitting the bottle has not been the answer. So you're a vicar? I'm not religious myself. No, I reckon I'm going to hell, haha.
- But there's no need! No-one ever needs to go to hell. That's the whole point of Jesus.
Yeah but I was a real fighter as a youth. I've done a lot of... I guess you could call them sins.
- Well that's good cos only sinners go to heaven.
Only SINNERS go to heaven? Wait. Sinners go to heaven?
- ONLY sinners. One of Jesus' most famous sayings is "It's not the healthy who need a doctor, it's the sick. I haven't come for righteous people I've come for sinners." Doctors don't want you to pretend you're healthy, you need to admit you're sick.
That makes sense actually. Haha... There were a couple of Christians in my cab a while back, they kept going on about how my name was the name of a guy in the bible. They said there's a book of the bible called Luke, is that right? They said they were going to send it to me. Still haven't sent it though.
[About 3 minutes earlier I had taken a copy of Luke's Gospel out of my bag, ready to give him. I place it on the dashboard of the car underneath the satnav.]
- Luke, I'll give you one guess what this book is?
You're joking! Is that the Luke book?
- Yep. And here's the thing. When I packed my bag on Friday I put Luke's Gospel in it praying that God would give me an opportunity to give it to someone.
- No way! This is what those Christians were going to send me??
- Yep. I reckon God wants you to read it, don't you?
I'm not religious but I like reading spiritual things. I'll definitely read that.
- Great, well it starts with the Christmas story - Jesus' birth and all that - and then follows him as he grows up. I became a Christian when I read that book, so I'd watch out if I were you.
Haha - I'll definitely read it. I'll definitely read it. And if I become a Christian I'll blame you.
- Haha, I think we've just seen this is out of both of our hands!
So pray. And carry gospels.
On Twitter and Facebook I asked for your favourite books to give away to non-Christians. Below are the responses. I should add that this doesn't necessarily imply endorsement - I'm familiar with only about half of these titles. But I've enjoyed checking out some of them in the last few days, perhaps you will too...
Ultimate Questions (Blanchard); Grace for You (MacArthur); A New Beginning (Cairns); All of Grace (Spurgeon); Roger Carswell's little hardback evangelistic books.
If God then what? (Wilson); What we talk about when we talk about God (Bell). Confident Christianity (Sinkinson)
A maroon coloured Gideon's NT... "Red on the outside, but rarely read on the inside."
Jim Packer's Knowing God, C.S.Lewis' Mere Christianity.
Gospels. Usually Luke or John.
Lewis: Mere Christianity, Keller: The Prodigal God, Dickson: If I were God I'd end all the pain.
Stott's Basic Christianity
"Longing for Paradise" (tract) and "Lives Jesus Changed" (book) by Simon Vibert
Grill a Christian by Roger Carswell
'The Case for Christ' by Lee Strobel
TryPraying.org
Keller's 'Reason for God' for sceptics and 'Prodigal God' for seekers. If they're keen to encounter Jesus 'King's Cross'.
The Be Thinking booklets. John Chapman books (e.g. A Fresh Start)
Mere Christianity (Lewis)
'A Fresh Start' (J. Chapman) and 'More Than a Carpenter' McDowell
If I could ask God one Question by Paul Williams and Barry Cooper
The Christianity Explored and Alpha books
Amy Orr-Ewing - Why trust the bible? But is it real? J John's "The Life"
Keller's Counterfeit Gods
I give out Gospels - usually John, but I take the opportunity of explaining chapter 1 to them first:
"The Word is Jesus, meaning He explains God to us and the rest of the Gospel shows how wonderful it is that Jesus is the revelation of God."
I encourage them to pray as they read:
"If this is God's word then reading it is a spiritual thing. So I recommend shooting up a prayer and saying, 'God if you're there, show me Jesus.' If God isn't there, He won't answer, but if He is, then there's nothing more important than meeting His Son."
Sometimes I give Chappo's Fresh Start - maybe cos of sentimental reasons. It made a big impact on me when I was 14.
Any more you'd recommend?
And please pray for me as I'm currently trying to write one myself...
