A Study Of Personal Evangelism - Online Christian Library

1 A Study ofPersonalEvangelism Learning to Be Fishers of Men Gene TaylorA Study of Personal EvangelismGene Taylor1 Table of ContentsTable of Contents ..1 Lesson One: Our Mission: To Carry On the Work of Christ ..2 Lesson Two: Why Aren t More Christians Involved in the Work of the Lord? ..5 Lesson Three: Essential Attitudes for Doing the Work of the Lord ..7 Lesson Four: What Is Personal Work? Why Do It? ..9 Lesson Five: Things Which Hinder Personal Work ..12 Lesson Six: The Successful Personal Worker ..14 Lesson Seven: The Example the Fourth Chapter of John ..17 Lesson Eight: The Example of Philip ..19 Lesson Nine: Time Management for the Christian ..21 Lesson Ten: Developing Courage ..23 Gene Taylor, 2005. All Rights ReservedPhotograph on cover: David Padfield, 1996. Used by Study of Personal EvangelismGene Taylor2 Our Mission: To Carry On the Work of ChristIntroduction believe There is a God in heaven (Daniel 2:28) breathed into man s nostrils the breath of life.

2 (Genesis 2:7) then has spoken to us (Hebrews 1:1-2). told us He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16). came:1) Not to judge the world but to save the world. (John 12:47)2) Not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many. (Matthew 20:28)3) Not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. (Matt. 9:13)4) To seek and save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10) 2. Follow after me, and I will make you become fishers of men. (Mark 1:17) , at the beginning of His ministry, Jesus emphasizes to the disciples the great need tosave the souls of lesson will allow us to watch and see how Jesus personally does this and then how Hisdisciples imitate The Mission of great multitudes. (Matt. 9:35-37) loved the masses and preached publicly to them. (Matt. 5-7) grieved Him to see them refuse His word. (Matt. 23:37) the masses rejected Him and even many of His disciples went back and walkedno more with Him (John 6:66), Jesus did His greatest work on the Personal (John 3:1-22; 19:38-42) A religious leader who later even helpedJoseph of Arimathea bury Samaritan woman at the well.

3 (John 4:1-42) An adultress whose life waschanged by Christ and who, in turn, led many others to hear and (Luke 19:1-10) A rich tax collector who had salvation come to hishouse upon the Lord s visit with (Luke 10:38-42) She sat at His feet to learn of the spiritual truths He had (Luke 24:27-32) He walked with Jesus after the resurrection and hisheart burned within him when listening to Christ speak. II. The Transfer to the Savior transferred His mission to seek and save the lost to His apostles, first on a limitedscale (Matt. 10), and then, after His resurrection, on a world wide with you. (Matt. 28:18-20) to believers. (Mark 16:15-16) repentance and remission of sins to all nations. (Luke 24:46-48) of Christ unto all the earth. (Acts 1:8)A Study of Personal EvangelismGene the great commission, the Son of God left them with a great great claim: all authority in heaven and great charge: bring all men under Christ s great promise: I am with you always, even to the end of the The Transfer to the Jesus transferred His mission to save the lost to His apostles, the apostles transferred theirmission to all the had taken the gospel to all the world (Colossians 1:23), having traveled fromJerusalem to taught were to feel indebted to teach others until the whole world would bebrought to is the same indebtedness felt by the apostle Paul.

4 (Romans 1:14-15) faithful were to teach others. (2 Timothy 2:2) first century Christians accepted this scattered from Jerusalem went everywhere preaching the word. (Acts 8:4) church in Thessalonica sounded forth the word until it was heard in everyplace. (1 Thessalonians 1:7-8). must accept this challenge is God s greatest Personal work program: the law of procreation. As sure as an acorn producesan oak tree, when one Christian plants the gospel seed it will produce another saint. To accomplishthis task, it takes one who Whom shall I send? Here am I, send me. (Isaiah 6:8) success of the Macedonians can be attributed to the fact that they were first gave themselves to the Lord. (2 Corinthians 8:3-5) He who wins souls is wise. (Proverbs 11:30) takes the wise application of Bible knowledge to win )Take heed to self and doctrine. (1 Timothy 4:16)2)Be diligent to show yourself approved. (2 Timothy 2:15)3)Be ready to give an answer with meekness and fear.

5 (1 Peter 3:15) must deal wisely with people in order to win )Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. (Matt. 10:16)2)One s speech must be with grace, seasoned with salt. (Col. 4:6)3)One must become a servant of all, all things to all men. (1 Cor. 9:19-23) illustration of how to be unwise. We are finally convinced that personalwork, one-on-one, is the best way to teach our neighbor the gospel, so we call onour friendly barber who lives just down the street. He greets us with a smile, andthe conversation goes something like this. Glad to see you, Reverend! I have intended to talk with you for sometime but .. But, we cut him off. If you read your Bible you would know that Holy and Reverend is God sname (Psa. 111:9), and we should not give flattering titles to any man. A Study of Personal EvangelismGene Taylor4 Sorry, Pastor. I just meant .. Pastor? Don t you know pastor means shepherd, and the shepherds ofa church are the bishops?

6 I m no pastor, I m just a soul-loving preacher,taking the blessed gospel to poor lost souls in this wicked Well now, uh, preacher, I didn t mean any see in our church OUR church? You folk talk about YOUR church as if the Lord didn t havea church. The church belongs to Jesus Christ, who purchased it with His preciousblood. The churches men have planted will all be rooted up. If he runs us out of the house we can always report our persecution at thepersonal work meeting, and counter adverse criticism by saying, We really toldhim the truth. (Robert Turner)C. The Lord didn t lay the task of Evangelism upon machinery; he laid it upon men. All the massmedia, however helpful, cannot substitute for the saint communicating the one gospel to onesinner. That s the way the world will be it is ever saved. God did not give hiscommission to angels, or even to a committee, but to individual men (and women). Thechurch is shrinking because members of the church are shirking.

7 And Heaven isn t prepared forshirkers. (Ruel Lemmons)IV. The Transfer to heart s desire and prayer to God should be that the lost might be saved (Rom. 10:1), but thesoul-winner must realize the power of conversion lies not in himself but in the are nothing but those who plant and water. It is God who gives the increase. (1 :6-7) is our duty to cry aloud and not hold back. (Isa. 58:1) the watchman warned of coming doom and men paid no attention, their death was oftheir own doing. (Ezekiel 33:2-11) the prophet sounded God s warning but sinners failed to heed, then their bloodwas upon their own heads, not the prophet we must transfer the burden of the decision upon the soul-winner who tried will be saved even if those he tried to teach are lost. (1 :11-15). , the Christian who fails to warn of the coming judgment will be held Is the seed yet in the barn? (Haggai 2:19) Israel desired the blessings of harvest without first planting the seed, many in thechurch desire the fruits and rest of heaven without taking the seed from the sack wonderful to have the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of the Lord and continue Hismission.

8 You doing your part?A Study of Personal EvangelismGene Taylor5 Why Aren t More Christians Involvedin the Work of the Lord? Introduction deeply concerned about the salvation of souls and the progress of the church often can be such things as unconcern on the part of the lost or opposition fromfalse greatest discouragement: a lack of involvement on the part of so many Christians. lesson will look at some reasons why some do not become A Lack of basic idea of conversion is change. This change must include a change intellect, will, and (1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Romans 6:1-4) (Rom. 6:17-18) (Colossians 1:13) (Galatians 3:26-27) one has not made these changes, is he really converted? have only been churched. II. A Wrong View of the Local view the church as an agency that will have an impact on the world simply because ofnumerical strength, size of building, and view is manifest by such thinking as, If I join up, support expansion, increasewealth, I am a Christian .

9 Outlook destroys involvement because it makes the church an church becomes an agency one to hire another to do his preacher does the teaching, deacons see to the poor, elders tend to thewayward, , the only responsibility of the individual member is to show up and pay for the sole purpose of serving its are the people who demand must be constantly catered to, visited, called upon, patted on the back, only when it makes collective responsibilities only such things as ushering, leadingsinging, making announcements, complain when they are not used enough, meaning not used in a publicway at least every Study of Personal EvangelismGene Taylor6 III. A Lack of Understanding of Individual common expression often heard is, I don t want to get involved. a Christian means getting involved. (Joshua 24:15; Rom. 6:16-18) in the local body is a must. (1 Cor. 12:12-27; Eph. 4:11-16) cannot avoid individual involvement by being part of a a ball team, each player must be involved in the game.

10 A chorus, one must sing his part. a police force, each officer must patrol his one is added to the church, he is not credited with the efforts of A Failure to Understand That Success of the Local Church Demands Individual collective expressions of worship individual involvement is demanded for discipline, though a collective action, involves each example of the healing of the paralytic. (Mark 2:1-11) four who brought the paralytic to mission was to bring their sick friend to Jesus so that he could be worked collectively cooperating with the others in order to reach theircommon worked individually not a one of them loafed or gave worked to remove the obstacles that would have kept their sick friend fromcoming to mission of the Christian is to bring sin-sick humanity to the Great Physicianfor forgiveness of must work collectively cooperating with other Christians in order toreach their common must work individually no one is to be idle or to give must work to remove the obstacles that keep people from coming tothe A Lack of Sincere Dedication and people have changed sacred history.