After Pentecost, Peter preached to the men who accused him and the apostles of being drunkards. Soon after, the profundity of Christ (and of course the Holy Spirit) prompted them to ask the apostles what they should do about it. He told them to repent and to be baptized and turn to Christ: the most basic conditions for salvation that Christians learn from a very young age. However, the basicness of these concepts have become rote to the majority of Christians. We assume everyone knows the basic story of Christ. So why tell it?
Because the truth has the power to cut to the heart. Peter wasn't telling them just to do something. Many evangelists attempt that method today. They tell people to repent and turn to Jesus. That is where they start and end their evangelism. Yes, we must all call on Jesus, but sometimes we neglect to tell them about Jesus first.
Many people struggle with the fear of leading the lost to Christ. Why would any lost person do what I tell them? They have no reason to do so. However, we were called as witnesses of Christ. Witnesses in a court simply report the events they have seen. They do not try to decide the verdict; if they did, their testimony would be ignored as biased. Of course a witness may have a desired outcome, but they do not have the ability to force their own verdict.
Has not Christ called us to be his witnesses? We are to report what Christ has done, and the Holy Spirit will bring about the 'verdict.' God will cause the seed to grow. The lost will seek him because of the Holy Spirit's leading. Thus, God will do the work, simply present what He has done.
3 comments:
Dude! I'm reallly liking your blog. You're a whole lot easier to understand when you write things down :P haha
And this is definitely and interesting point. I'm liking the way you portray it, I've definitely never thought of it that way.
Dude. This rocks.
Way to be! This is so cool. :)
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