There are three types of persons that you might encounter as you do evangelism:
I. religious do-gooders or the moralists
II. self-believers, self-made men
III. worshippers of idols
How do we lead them a step nearer to faith in our Saviour?
For this essay, I am covering briefly only Type I: The religious do-gooders. This type is quite common.
How would you reply when a person says, “All religions are the same and teach people to do good and be good?” More than once, I heard this. Recently a 93 year-old Chinese lady on wheel chair said that to me.
An experienced street evangelist has this ready reply, “Yes, I agree, all religions do teach us to be good and do good. But among all religions there is only one founder who came from heaven. He is Shang Di 上帝. He came down to earth, we call Him, Jesus Christ, meaning Anointed Saviour. All other founders of religions are men created by Shang Di.”
“Then use the opportunity to ask a question, “Do you know why Jesus came down to earth? Do you know which year He came? (This is to give credibility to the historical event).”
“Then proceed to bring up the issue of sin. The fact of death to all men as a consequence of sin.” Point out that no matter how good a person is, he or she cannot enter heaven. One needs a Saviour from heaven to be saved.
Present the Good News of the Mediator between God and man. This Saviour died on the cross to take the punishment for our sins.
Bible study is good for Evangelism – sharpening the sword of God’s word
Exodus 20 provides some cutting edges.
As obedient Christians, we can agree with the religious do-gooders. There are five DO NOT’s in Exodus 20: do not kill/commit adultery/steal/bear false witness/covet. These five Commandments are also universal. The rich young ruler that Jesus confronted appeared to pass these standards including the one on filial piety. But Jesus said he lacked one thing (Luke 18:18-22). He could not inherit eternal life by doing good alone.
Jesus confronts all who follow Him with the highest standards. These prohibitions go beyond deeds to thoughts. DO NOT even think or dream about them! One cannot even get vengeful, be greedy, be untruthful or watch pornography or be rude to our parents!
Only one man – the man from Nazareth – has claimed to be perfect in God’s eyes. He has DONE it. He made it possible for all imperfect human beings to attain God’s highest standards. All men can attain a right standing before God by repentance from sins and faith in Jesus’ work on the Cross.
- Challenge to our potential hearers: “Fear GOD – that you may not sin” (Exod 20:20)
- Pray for ourselves to fear GOD, to feed on the words of Jesus, and to walk in step with the Holy Spirit so that we do not grieve Him.
- Ask GOD to put reverential fear in our hearts.
- Walk humbly in His ways and tremble at His Word (Isa 66:5a).
- Pray for all our fellowmen whom we have met and will be meeting while we are still on earth.
Elder Yoong Yuen Soo
