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Incredible Evangelism (Mark 2:13-17)
59 Plays3 years ago
Incredible Evangelism (Mark 2:13-17)
Growing in Grace Devotions and Inspirations
Hosted by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam Street
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
http://fbccolumbustx.org/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Welcome
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in Grace with Pastor Victor Morrison. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas. We are praying that God will bless you as you listen to this message. If you would like additional information on worship times and ministries at FBC Columbus, you can find out more at our website, fbccolumbustx.org. And now take your copy of God's timeless word as Pastor Victor gives today's message.
The Story of John Harper
00:00:42
Speaker
Hello friends, how are you today? I don't know if you're the same as me, but I love a good story. I want to tell you a story to open up our time together in the Word. John Harper was born into a Christian family in Scotland in 1872.
00:01:00
Speaker
When he was 13 years old, someone shared John 3.16 with him. Maybe it was because his name was John. But when they did it, he was saved. He received Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior, and he began to grow as a Christian. When he was 18 years old, he saw a vision of a cross over his town.
00:01:22
Speaker
And I mean John Harper began to evangelize the place where he lived. Evangelist W.D. Dunn often heard Harper sobbing over souls as a young adult. Hearing Harper say over and over, oh God, give me souls or I die.
00:01:43
Speaker
When he was 32 years of age, John Harper almost drowned on a ship in the Mediterranean. Someone asked him, were you scared? He said, scared, not one minute of fear, because sudden death for the Christian means sudden glory. Later, when he was 39 years of age, he spent three months preaching revival meetings at the Moody Bible Church in Chicago.
00:02:09
Speaker
The next year, he was invited to spend three more months at that same church. He was supposed to travel on a ship called the Lusitania, but he was changed to another ship called the Titanic. The night before the Titanic sank, the survivors saw John Harper calmly leading people to Christ on the deck. Can you imagine that?
00:02:35
Speaker
After it struck an iceberg, Harper insisted, let the women, children, and the unsaved go in the lifeboats. Someone said that they actually saw him give away his life jacket.
00:02:50
Speaker
The last report that anyone had of John Harper was given by one of the survivors who said, I heard him out there in the water quoting Acts 1631 and telling the person beside him just to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and he would be saved. Later he was drowned.
00:03:12
Speaker
In Liverpool, at the White Star office, they had two lists of the passengers who were on the Titanic.
Inspiration for Sharing Faith
00:03:19
Speaker
One list had the heading, known to be saved. The other list, known to be lost. Sadly, they put John Harper on the list, known to be lost. But if they only knew spiritually, he was saved.
00:03:37
Speaker
Do you have a desire to tell other people about Christ, and yet somehow it's intimidating? It's a little bit scary to open up and share Christ with someone else. I want to share just a few verses, a brief passage actually found in the Gospel of Mark
00:03:54
Speaker
that tells us about a certain event in Jesus' life. And I hope that you can put some of these truths, some of the observations that I had when I read these verses, hope you can put them into your outreach. Listen to what it says in Mark chapter two, verses 13 through 17.
00:04:16
Speaker
Then he went out again by the sea, and all the multitude came to him, and he taught them. As he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, Follow me. So he arose and followed him.
00:04:37
Speaker
Now it happened as he was dining in Levi's house that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and his disciples. For there were many, and they followed him.
Intentional Outreach Strategies
00:04:50
Speaker
And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to his disciples, how is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?
00:05:06
Speaker
When Jesus heard it, He said to them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
00:05:20
Speaker
What an amazing account from the life of Jesus. I saw some things that really were encouraging to me, so I thought perhaps you could benefit from them as well, so I'm excited to share them with you today. The first one is this. I think we need intentionality in our outreach. If we're not intentional, then we may not ever share the gospel with anyone. We may only hang around other Christians like ourselves.
00:05:49
Speaker
So let's look at verse 13 and learn from Jesus and how he was intentional. It says in verse 13, right at the beginning of this passage, then he went out again by the sea and all the multitude came to him and he taught them. What stood out to me was the beginning when it says, then he went out again by the sea. Hmm.
00:06:14
Speaker
Those words, I just kept thinking about them over and over again, and I thought, wow, it says he went out. Where was he when he went out? Well, if you were to go back, rewind the tape in chapter two of Mark, all the way back to the beginning in verse one, it tells us where he was. It says, and again, he entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that he,
00:06:40
Speaker
was in the house. You see, he was in the house. This is the house that he made his base, his headquarters, so to speak, while he was in Capernaum. But it's interesting, he didn't want to stay in the house. He wanted to go out.
00:06:57
Speaker
And it must have been something of a regular occurrence in his life. I think that he intentionally chose to go outside, but he also chose to go outside more than once because it says here, then he went out again.
00:07:13
Speaker
by the sea. What was significant about the sea? Well, Capernaum was by the sea and so if he wanted to be around people, then he needed to get out of the house and go to where the people were by the sea.
00:07:29
Speaker
Aren't you glad that the Gospels tell us what kind of God we serve? The Gospels tell us that the Lord we serve is a searching God. He looks for those who do not have a personal relationship with Him, at least not yet.
00:07:45
Speaker
But he comes looking for us. I love that about our God. It's also portrayed in three parables in Luke 15. There's a parable, for example, of a lost son. There's a parable of lost sheep, a parable of lost silver. But in each case, someone goes looking for something that's lost.
00:08:05
Speaker
Do you ever feel disconnected from God, somewhat lost in the darkness of sin or the darkness of this world? Well, I want you to know someone's looking for you. It's Jesus. He was looking for Levi, but he's also looking for you.
00:08:21
Speaker
There's something else that I want us to look at, and that's not only the intentionality that should be added to our outreach, but verse 13 reminds me of a couple more things. Let me share the second one with you, the inspiration for outreach. What would really motivate you? What would inspire you to want to go and tell someone else about Jesus? Well, how about this?
00:08:45
Speaker
He went out again by the sea, and all the multitude came to Him." Hmm, there's a couple of things there that stood out to me. I like that word said, and all the multitude, the whole crowd. You know, I think that Jesus loves people of every race, every age.
00:09:06
Speaker
every economic strata that we could think of, it doesn't matter what someone has or doesn't have. You know, God loves everybody. Jesus went to the cross for everybody. And so I thought, that's an awesome motivator to think that everybody out there is somebody that God cares about.
00:09:26
Speaker
But also, just think about this, if enough of us are mobilized to go and tell all of them about Christ, maybe we'll see a lot of people coming to Him just like they were here in Capernaum when it says, and all the multitude came to Him.
00:09:44
Speaker
Have you
Effective Evangelism Techniques
00:09:45
Speaker
ever thought about what is God's end vision? What's the goal that God has? I love what it says in Revelation 7, 9 through 10. It tells us in the book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible,
00:09:59
Speaker
When it's down toward the end, what is it that God wants to see take place? Well, it describes people gathered around the throne, worshiping the Father and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And what it says is that in that group will be people from every tribe, every tongue, every people in every nation. I love that.
00:10:23
Speaker
And that is supposed to inspire us to want to tell the people around us wherever we are about Christ. So I thought that was also really an encouraging observation from this passage. But I did see a third one in this verse. Verse 13 is so loaded, it has one more thing. It says that Jesus taught them. Then he went out again by the sea and all the multitude came to him and he taught them.
00:10:53
Speaker
I wonder what he taught them. I would say that a third thing that we should put into our outreach is this instruction. Instruction within our outreach. You know, if we're going to try to share with other people, why not pick out a verse? Do you remember how I said John Harper in the opening illustration came to know Christ?
00:11:17
Speaker
Remember, someone shared John 3.16, just one verse with him, and he came to know Christ. I know people who use that verse. When I personally share the gospel, I love to use John 14.6, where Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. What verse do you like to share with other people? Another really good one is found in 1 John 5, verse 13.
00:11:46
Speaker
where John said, you know, these things I've written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life.
00:11:55
Speaker
Do you know that you have eternal life? I guarantee you there are people that are at the place where you work. There are people maybe on your road, your street. There are people at your school. They don't know for certain that they're going to heaven. But we can know because we've trusted Christ. So I don't know what kind of verse that he was using.
00:12:18
Speaker
Luke records some parables that the other Gospel writers like Mark, for example, that they didn't include. Maybe Mark was just so enthralled, or perhaps Peter, who gave Mark the information, was so enthralled with what Jesus was saying that he couldn't even remember it at the time.
00:12:38
Speaker
But Luke, he kept on pressing, he kept on interviewing until he finally found out, oh, he taught a parable of two debtors. Here they are standing outside of the tax office. Do you ever owe the IRS anything? Well, this parable that Jesus taught in Luke 7 verses 36 to 50, it reminds us that our debt, our sin debt can be forgiven.
00:13:07
Speaker
You know, I think there's a verse somewhere in the Bible. If you were to take that verse and share it with somebody, God could use it. You know, we don't have to think in just terms of something that's written, something that is literate and so forth, because a lot of people, they're really motivated by a visual, some kind of visual aid.
00:13:29
Speaker
You know, there's a man in our church who loves to use the gospel bracelet or what's known as the wordless book. This gospel bracelet, this wordless book, they're both based upon colors. They use various colors to communicate the truths of the gospel.
00:13:48
Speaker
I know when I was in college I heard the bridge illustration. It's a wonderful way to draw on a napkin for someone in a coffee shop how to trust Christ and come across that bridge of the cross. So what is it for you?
00:14:04
Speaker
I know at Christmas time, sometimes we take the candy cane. You know those Christmas candy canes? Well, the guy that invented that, he actually did that so that he could share about Jesus with people. I don't know what Jesus would have said, but I wonder if it was intentional that there he was
00:14:23
Speaker
talking to these people, wanting to see them there some day at the throne of the Father, and there he is telling them now how to
Personal Experiences and Community Engagement
00:14:33
Speaker
trust him for salvation. Perhaps he was saying something like Isaiah 55 verses 1-4.
00:14:41
Speaker
where the prophet Isaiah was inspired by the Holy Spirit to say, come, come. You don't have to have any money. You just come because there's bread that you don't have to pay for. Wow.
00:14:56
Speaker
Whatever the verse is, my encouragement to you is to think it through and think, what can I put within my outreach? That would be just one word of instruction. We always need to make the gospel clear.
00:15:12
Speaker
But now let's move to a fourth observation from this text. You know, verse 14 goes on to say, as Jesus passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax office. Hmm, let's think about that for a moment.
00:15:31
Speaker
Have you ever thought about praying that God would give you insight for your outreach? Insight. How many times are we just like Jesus there where we're passing by people as we go through our day, but the only difference is he noticed Levi. Do you notice the people that are around you? I mean the people you pass every single day. Some of them may not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
00:16:00
Speaker
So what we need to say at the beginning of a day is just a sincere prayer to say, God, I would really love to tell somebody about you, but I don't know who would be receptive. I don't know who needs to know Christ. You see, Jesus was so in tune with the Father that I think when he walked by that tax office and he looked over there and he saw Levi, he thought, I need to say something to this man.
00:16:30
Speaker
You know, sometimes I travel to the country of Ethiopia, and the last time I was there, we were having a great time. We had just been in the marketplace, we had shared with many people about Christ, and now it's getting dark, so we started to head back to our hotel. And you know what happened?
00:16:48
Speaker
the van that we were traveling in broke down. I mean, we were just at a standstill. On the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere, there was a house on the right and one house on the left. And other than that, we hadn't seen anybody for miles. So there we are. We couldn't move. We were trying to contact people with our cell phones, but they weren't answering. And so what can we do?
00:17:12
Speaker
Well, while we're all sitting there and we start munching on candy bars and energy bars and stuff that we had brought with us, we began to notice that some of the people that lived in those two houses, they were standing outside of our van looking at us, staring at us. And we had the door open and we were like, hello. But we didn't know what we could do. We were just stranded. We couldn't move and so forth. But we did have our translator with us.
00:17:39
Speaker
So someone suggested in the van, they said, why don't one of us just jump out and just go ahead and present the gospel to these people? I mean, we can't go anywhere, anywhere, anyway. So it was like, that's a good idea. So a vote was taken, and I won the vote. They said, OK, Victor, you go out there, and you tell the people that's around here that Jesus loves them, and he went to the cross for them.
00:18:06
Speaker
So you know what I did? I got out there with the translator and suddenly a group of about 10 to 12 were gathered around. I started presenting the gospel and about that time, the man who lived there at that house, it comes in with this cattle. He probably had about 20 head of cattle and he brings them right through us. And so anyway, after he gets the cattle pinned up, he comes back around to join us in that circle.
00:18:35
Speaker
You know what? Some of them prayed to receive Christ. I went to the fifth thing that I would like to share with you about what to put in your outreach. You see, we had insight that we should maybe share the gospel with them. Perhaps that's the reason why the van broke down where it did. But here's the fifth thing. How about giving an invitation? How about saying to them,
00:18:59
Speaker
Would you like to receive Christ? Maybe they won't. It's not our part to have to talk them into accepting the invitation, but it is our responsibility to say, well, we should at least tell them and let them know that Jesus did die for them.
00:19:18
Speaker
You know, Acts 17 describes the Apostle Paul in three different places, Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens. Do you know that in all three of those places, everywhere he went, the Apostle Paul not only told people about Jesus, but you know what he also included? An invitation. He also gave them this opportunity if they would like
00:19:41
Speaker
to receive Christ. So another thing I would just encourage you to do is to give them the opportunity to receive Christ, to trust Him, to follow Him.
00:19:51
Speaker
As a matter of fact, have you ever heard of an evangelist named Billy Graham? Most people have. I don't assume that you have, but there's a famous evangelist in America named Billy Graham. He came to know the Lord in 1934 when he was just a young guy. He was in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was at some kind of a crusade revival-type meeting, and they were singing a song at the end they called the Invitation Song.
00:20:16
Speaker
and it was called Just As I Am. And as he heard that song, Just As I Am, it's just like the Holy Spirit was drawing him, but he wasn't quite ready. So when they finished that song, he saw others going forward to trust Christ, but he just couldn't do it. And so he stayed there, and then they sang a second song called Almost Persuaded, Now to Believe.
00:20:41
Speaker
When they got to the last verse of that song, Billy Graham said, I could no longer stay there. It was like I had a load on my shoulders and I went to Christ and I unloaded the burden of my sin. Wow, I'm so glad they gave an invitation because Billy Graham has perhaps led more people to Christ than anyone else in the whole wide world. So anyway, I just thought, yep, I think an invitation is a really good thing to include.
00:21:11
Speaker
There's something else that's really significant because I want to see people know Christ, but I don't always know the right approach. But here's a novel idea. Now it happened as He was dining in Levi's house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples, for there were many, and they followed Him.
00:21:34
Speaker
So now I have another thing to recommend. How about you invite or talk to insiders wherever you live, find other insiders who know people in that community. And maybe if they were to have like some house meeting, a dinner party,
00:21:53
Speaker
Invite over some friends? That's exactly what Levi did. He invited Jesus, but he also invited some of his tax collector friends. Some of his other friends that, well, Mark classifies them here as sinners, but the Bible says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
00:22:12
Speaker
You know, I think that stood out to Mark because Mark includes eight home meetings. Eight times in the gospel of Mark, there were house meetings. So I think God can definitely bless whenever there's a meeting in a house. But remember, they were in the home of Simon Peter and Andrew already, right? At the beginning of Mark chapter two, that was the headquarters in Capernaum. That was the house that Jesus was in, but it said he went out of the house
00:22:42
Speaker
He goes along the sea. He goes by the tax office. He shares the gospel with Levi. Levi accepts the invitation to follow him, but then what does Levi do? Levi says, Jesus, would you come to my house so that I can introduce you to my friends? Man, that's powerful. I encourage you to do that.
00:23:06
Speaker
You know, sometimes the gospels call that person a person of peace, a person of peace. Well, a person of peace is someone that's gonna introduce Jesus, introduce him to all their friends. So I love that. God would want you to use insiders in the community to reach out to those who are still outside the faith. Let's move to a seventh thing, and that is innovation. Innovation.
00:23:36
Speaker
You know, verse 16 sort of informs us that not everyone was really glad that Jesus was at the home of Levi sitting with those tax collectors and those sinners.
Innovative Outreach Methods
00:23:48
Speaker
Listen to what it says in verse 16. And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to his disciples, how is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?
00:24:04
Speaker
Hmm, they didn't like that. You see what was happening? He was doing something fresh. He was doing something new and innovative. Sometimes I think that we're doing the same things, and we need to try something creative, something different, so that we can reach those that have not been reached with the gospel yet.
00:24:24
Speaker
That's why at our church, we've tried something called paid for you. And what we would do is we would take $1,000 and we would offer people to have $10 worth of gas. Do you know that 100 people would come through within like three hours time? While we were pumping $10 worth of gas in their car, we would tell them, you know, this gas is not gonna cost you anything, it's free.
00:24:51
Speaker
But just like that, Jesus died on the cross so that salvation, you can be welcomed into his family. You can be welcomed into heaven someday free because of what Jesus paid for you. So think in terms of how to reach out. There's a group of ladies that do the clothes closet. There's a group in our community that reach out through the food pantry. You could even think in terms of the internet. How can you use social media to share the gospel?
00:25:20
Speaker
Well, let me give you another one, incarnational outreach. It says that Jesus was with the tax collectors and the sinners. There he was sitting with them. You know, I think that that's why God sent his son from heaven. He could have just stayed there in heaven, but the word became flesh and dwelt among us. So I encourage you to get out there and to say, how can I take the light of Jesus Christ into a dark world?
00:25:50
Speaker
Let's close with verse 17, the infirmities in outreach. You know, I think that the Bible compares sin to like, well, a sickness. Jesus says, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
00:26:12
Speaker
You see there's an interruption that is also included in outreach. It's whenever we say to someone, look, if you don't do anything,
00:26:22
Speaker
You're headed in the wrong direction. Please turn around. Do a U-turn. Go toward Christ. Christ can give you forgiveness. He can guide you so that you don't continue down that wrong direction. I remember when I was in Colorado Springs one time, I saw from the interstate a senior adult couple
00:26:44
Speaker
And they got on the wrong way. They were on a feeder road beside the interstate, and they were going in the one way, only the wrong way on a one way. And so I was screaming. I was yelling. I was waving. I was trying as hard as I could to tell them, stop. You're headed in the wrong direction.
00:27:04
Speaker
But thankfully, they pulled in a parking lot because I guess they realized it before anyone came along, and there was no head-on collision, there were no accidents whatsoever. It was really wonderful, but I got to thinking, am I that passionate to try to help those who don't know Christ?
00:27:24
Speaker
I just hope this passage has given you some fresh ideas from Mark chapter 2 verse 13 through 17 on how you could reach out to those who are in your life. I encourage you, take the gospel message, take the love that you have for Christ, take the love that Christ has for you and share it with someone else today. Hey, let's pray together.
00:27:50
Speaker
Lord, I'm so glad that you sent your son from heaven to come down to this earth. Lord, I pray that you would help us now to leave our houses, to leave the church building, and to want to try to make a connection with someone else. Lord, there's bound to be people
00:28:08
Speaker
that are all around us who do not have that personal connection with God through Christ. And so help us to look for ways that we can share the gospel, even if it's creative, even if it means, well, we have a dinner party at our place, and invite people over, and then we share about Jesus with them. Whatever it is, Lord, let the gospel spread across this community.
Conclusion and Blessing
00:28:33
Speaker
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
00:28:36
Speaker
Hey, thanks, friend. Glad you were with us again today. Pray that God will bless you as you go through the rest of your week. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.