We've been talking about witness as a
part of the gospel, and over the last few weeks, we've been talking
about what it means to be a false witness, and also what it means to
be a false leader. Let's go positive, and talk about what it means
to be a good witness. Let's talk about successful evangelism.
So, how many people have YOU led to
Christ? Does anyone have a number? Has anyone led one person to
Christ? I was asked that on a survey once. How many people have I
led to Christ? And the answers were “between 1 and 10, 10-30,
30-100, over 100”? Really? Is that what makes an evangelist?
Let's see, I led that person to Christ, but I'm not with him. I
guess I should call that person up and see if they are still with
Christ, because if not, then that wouldn't be a successful “lead.”
Do you see how ridiculous this is? We cannot put a quantity on
evangelism.
If we look at John 4:36-38: “The
reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal
life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the
saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps.” I sent you to
reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you
have entered into their labour.” There is no single person leading
someone to Christ. This is not notch-on-the-belt stuff. This is a
team of people working on bringing people to Christ. Well, we may
say, let's assemble a team of evangelists, and one can be the sower,
and another can water, and another reap, and another can store in
barns, and another can package, and another can set prices, and
another can take to the grocery store, and another can buy, and
another can eat.
This isn't team evangelism, either.
This is “God is doing the evangelism” evangelism. Jesus is
trying to dispel the myth that we are the ones who do this. We are
tools in God's utility belt, nothing more. We don't know who sowed
seed, or which seeds were the ones that took, or which seeds were the
one that fully grew up. God doesn't want us to say, “I led someone
to Christ,” or even, “Jim and I led someone to Christ.” God
wants to fall on our knees and say “Wow! Lord, look what you DID!
I never could have done that!”
Our Acts passage dramatizes this point
clearly. Did Philip know where to go? No. God sent an angel to
tell him where to go. Why was the eunuch reading Isaiah? Did Philip
put the scroll in his hands? No. Where did he get the scroll from?
Someone else. Do we know that person was? No. How did that other
person get the scroll in the eunuch's hands? Did he just say, “read
this?” No. A third person must have planted a seed somehow
motivating the eunuch to get the scroll. There's probably
eight-sixteen people in the line of evangelists between that
unbelieving eunuch and Philip. Do they know each other? No. This
was an Ethiopian. He had no reason to be reading Isaiah, and he
wasn't a Jew. He may have converted in Ethiopia, but that would have
been done by yet another person in his home country. Isaiah hadn't
been written at the time of Solomon, so the Queen of Sheba certainly
didn't have a copy.
How did Philip know to go over to the
chariot? The spirit told him. Did Philip take the eunuch through
the book of Isaiah line by line? No. He only interpreted the one
line the eunuch was already reading. And then he was able to preach
the whole gospel from there. Philip didn't need to manipulate
anything. He didn't need to say, “Isaiah is a good book, but you
really need to be reading Deuteronomy. Go find Deuteronomy and then
let's set up a coffee date. I'll meet you at Front Porch Cafe at
9:30am sharp!”
All Philip had to do was know that the
scriptures are about Jesus. He knew this, because that's how God
works in us. We are able to see Jesus throughout scripture. We look
at the world—at life—through Jesus tinted lenses. God got the
scripture into the eunuch's hands through many people. God got the
right interpretation into Philip's mind through the Holy Spirit.
Then all God had to do was get the eunuch and Philip together.
Everything just happened. As the phrase goes, “it just worked
itself out.” What happens after the eunuch is baptized? Philip is
whisked away. No time to get the eunuch in an Alpha program or find
the right home church for him. Nope, God doesn't want Philip to
screw anything up. Your job is over! On your way, now!
God does everything. We are his
resources. The best metaphor for this is in our gospel reading.
“Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear
fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless
you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide
in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do
nothing.” We are members of Christ's body, and we can do nothing
of or by ourselves. We allow ourselves to be used by the vine. We
are grafted onto the vine. The lifeblood of the vine flows into the
branch. Christ's lifeblood is in us. We bear fruit, not because we
are trying very hard, but because we have the fruit-bearing lifeblood
in us. I bear fruit and the fruit falls to the ground and bursts
open and the seeds inside help God's kingdom grow. You bear fruit
and your fruit falls to the ground and bursts open and the seeds
inside help God's kingdom grow. Together the seeds from our fruit
interact in a way that God wants. The Father is the vinegrower. He
is the only one who sees how the seeds of the fruit are going to
interact to grow his kingdom. But if we aren't bearing fruit, we get
pruned. We have to willingly submit to the vine so that Christ's
lifeblood is running in our veins. Otherwise we are useless, and we
get cut off.
When Paul lists all those witnesses in
1 Corinthians 15, it's not just to say, “look at all these
witnesses!” It's also to say, “look at the different kinds of
witnesses!” Someone might read about the risen Christ appearing to
James and think, “Wow! That's the brother of Jesus, who didn't
believe during Christ's entire earthly ministry, and then, when he
witnesses the risen Christ, he believes! That's enough for me, I'm a
believer!” And the seed gets planted. But another person may say,
“James doesn't do it for me. I'm a believer because of the 500
witnesses! That is the power of mass witness!” Each of us will
get a different seed out of different things in scripture, history
and relationship, and as these seeds build up, as the witness becomes
overwhelming, we all reach the same goal—a relationship with the
risen Christ. He is the one constant in evangelism. He is the
destination. He is the goal. Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday,
and today, and forever. No matter what seeds of evangelism get us
there, he is waiting at the end of the line.
