Hi. My name is Ren Broekhuizen, and I'm really thankful to be able to invite you to study together with me in this course. My main qualification for this course is that I love Jesus Christ with all my heart. I know that what he wants is the whole world to be saved and I want that with him. I want to obey, so let's get into it together with him. As we start, I'd like to pray with you. 

Dear Father in Heaven, thank you for the gift of your Son, the Lord Jesus. And Jesus, even as we study together about this, we know that this is your heart and the heart of your Father - why he sent you. And that you give us your Holy Spirit so that we can do your work here on earth. We love you and we will obey you. Amen.

I want to ask you a question as we begin. When is the last time you actually led someone to faith in Jesus Christ? Someone who didn't know him before? Someone you knew who was lost? And you shared the Gospel with that person.

I was at a meeting some time ago of a seminary. There were some professors there and some students, and we were talking about what is happening to the church in the world today. That in many places, the church is not growing. In many places, the church has very little enthusiasm. We had a long discussion about that, and were making plans on what our churches should do in order to reach out. 

And I said, "I would like to ask the group a question." Around the table, there were about 12 of us. I said, "How many of you have led someone to faith in Jesus Christ in the last year?" Not one person had. 

I spoke at another meeting of missionaries and asked the same question. Not one of them had done it. I'm not condemning them. Because there was a long time for me in my life where I would have had to say no to that question a long time. I was in the ministry. I was a missionary for years before I actually led someone to faith in Christ. I preached. People were strengthened in their faith. But I don't remember personally bringing someone to faith in Jesus Christ.

I read statistics. Over 90% of the people in any church have never shared their faith with a person who is not a Christian. And that same 90% have never had the thrill of obeying Jesus and bringing someone home to him. It makes you think. Imagine if you discovered a cure for cancer. Wouldn't you tell people who had cancer? Even as basic as, say, a restaurant, where you have a fine meal. you can't wait to tell somebody else about it. Well, we have the greatest message the world has ever seen. You don't have to be among that group that has never brought anyone to Christ. This course is for us. 

In a way, it seems like we don't have to have that course, because we're Christians. Here's what I mean. There was an ad in our newspaper some time ago in which an organization was looking for people to teach other people how to read. And the line in the advertisement said, "If you can read this ad, you just passed the course. You can do it." And it's the same with us as Christians. If you are a Christian, you are ready. You know what Christ did in your life. That's all you need to know to share him with others. 

This is just a short course, just 12 sessions, then we'll be done. We keep it that way purposely. We don't have to learn so much more. We just have to do. I have a son who is a soccer coach, and he told me once, "Dad, the game is the best coach." And that's the same here. Doing it is the best way to learn to do it. 

And so, I'm going to start with a thought that vocal witness is possible. In Acts 8:4, we read these words, "And those who were scattered went everywhere preaching." The question I want to ask you-- and study it in your Bibles later-- is who were those who were scattered? Because the ones who were scattered were the ones who were doing the preaching. And when you look back in chapter 8:1, it says these words. "Now, Saul was consenting to Stephen's death. At that time, a great persecution arose against the church, which was at Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria except the apostles." So, those who were scattered were the ordinary, everyday believers. The apostles stayed back in Jerusalem. 

And these people (ordinary, everyday workers, housewives, children, whoever they were), they were scattered because of their faith. And they were the ones who were out there preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, telling others. And it's interesting, because it says that they were preaching. We think of preaching of someone who goes to seminary and stands up by the platform and knows Hebrew and Greek and all sorts of stuff. These people who loved Jesus, they were not the apostles who had spent three and a half years with Jesus. They were the ordinary, everyday believers who had been brought to faith in Jesus Christ just a short time ago. But they knew what had happened to them.

I think that's so important for us to notice that. Because we think spreading the Gospel is for evangelists. We think that spreading the Gospel is for people who have been trained. We think it's a special activity of certain people. And here, ordinary, everyday people like you and me. And if you want to teach this material to others, like the people you'll be talking to, these are the ones who are out there doing it. 

There are other verses we can look at too in the Book of Acts. We call the Book of Acts, the Acts of the Apostles. And some have said we should really call it the Acts of the Holy Spirit. And I think another thing we could call it would be the Acts of Ordinary, Everyday Church People.

Here's a case where Jesus' disciples are going about. They took a lot of abuse. They were beaten. They were put in prison. People looked at them. They knew Peter and John and Matthew and all of those guys. They were from around there. That was their hometown. People said, "He's nothing but a fisherman." Or, "He's just a carpenter's helper." Or, "He farms." Or, "He takes care of sheep." And yet, they're out there standing on corners, standing in the Temple preaching away, telling the Good News about Jesus. When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized-- listen to this-- realized that they were just like we are, realized that they were unschooled and ordinary men, they were astonished. And they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

Who, actually, were these men? The ones I've been just talking about. Men and women like you and me. Men and women who had fear, men and women who didn't know an awful lot about some things, men and women who had sin in their lives, men and women who had temptations, men and women who spent their time on the wrong things maybe and the let the important things go. Who are these people? These were people who had spent their lives with Jesus for the last three and a half years, people who saw Jesus, who touched him, who shared a cup with him, people who laughed with him and cried with him and went to the bathroom with him and slept with him and just spent everyday life with him. These were people who heard the Gospel out the mouth of Jesus. And do you know what they did? They even misunderstood it. 

After three and a half years, just before Jesus was going to go into Heaven, they said to Jesus, "Is the time you're going to do it?" What they meant by that, was that Jesus was going to set them up to be the rulers instead of the servants. After three and a half years, they actually misunderstood the message that Jesus had for them and for the world. These are the people who were unschooled and ordinary men. The people around them were astonished and took note that these men had been with Jesus. That's who they were. 

Do you know who these men actually were? They were people just like you and like me. And just like in the other verse, ordinary people went out preaching. Here, these ordinary people astonished people. And do you know what the reason why? Because they had been with Jesus.

Later on in the course, we're going to talk about that and ask where you are with Jesus. Not just that you know about him but that you know him.

We're going to look at another verse together that talks to us. And that is, it tells us that not only is it for ordinary, unschooled people, not only is it for people who have been scattered around. But it's possible for every one of us - for you and for me as well. 

Here's a great story. There's a man who is blind. Don't you wish sometimes that you could have been there when Jesus was here? I want to see some of those miracles. I want to see a man who was always lame get up and walk. And here, there's a story in John 9:25 where there was a man blind from birth. And you know, in those days, there was no care for poor people. There were no government programs. They were miserable. They were beggars. They sat alongside the road hoping, maybe, someone would give them a little coin, give them a little food. There was no hope for them.

And Jesus came along and he touched this man. And the man who had been blind from birth, can you imagine, all at once he sees. It must have hurt his eyes. He sees people. He sees donkeys. He sees trees. He said, "What's that?" 

Somebody says, "That's a tree." 

And he's all excited. He goes into the place of worship, and he's praising God, and he can see, and everything's fine. And do you know what's sad? The people who were threatened by Jesus, they hated it. And they persecuted him. They said, "Oh, yeah. You were never really blind anyway. You were just faking it to beg."

"Oh, no," he said. "I know I was blind."

And then, they said, "Okay. Who did it?"

He said, "I don't know. I never saw him before, of course. I was blind. He's the one they call Jesus."

And they said, "Jesus? We hate his guts. He's not one of us. He can't do that kind of stuff. He's a sinning man."

Here's this guy, all his life a beggar, all his life blind. He stands before those educated people in the worship place and he says, "Whether he's a sinner or not, I don't know. But one thing I do know, I was blind, and now I can see. I can see you. I can see other things. Praise God! I was blind, and now, I can see."

When you read in that story, you ask, "Where in that story in John 9 does it tell us what seminary he went to? Where does it tell us that he studied church history? What kind of philosophy courses did he take? That must be in verse 20 or verse 37." 

But do you know what? It's not there. This is a man who had been blind from birth. They would lead him out to the side of the road so that maybe he could get a little money or a little food. This was a man who had never been to school. There were no schools for the blind. There was no Braille text. All he knew is what he could hear with his ears, but he couldn't put it together. That's who this was. 

How does that compare to you? What advantages do you have? You're a Christian now and you want to spread the Christian Gospel to others. Most likely, you can see. Most likely, you can hear. Most likely, you can talk. Are you seeing something that this blind man saw?

Because what was his reaction when he was asked about what happened? He didn't say anything except what had happened to him. 

They said, "What about this? What about that?"

He said, "I'm sorry, guys. I don't know anything about that. But what I do know is what happened to me. I was that blind beggar. Now, I can see you. He healed me." 

What about you? Have you held back telling the person in the store, the person who drives your taxi, the person who lives next door, a boy or a girl who plays with your kids? Have you held back because you're not ready? What if you say the wrong thing? What if you’re asked a question that you can't answer? 

What are a couple of things that you notice about this witness? One, he had a personal experience. There was no questioning that. Have you? We're going to talk about that. Number two, he didn't know everything there was to know. There is so much in the Bible that I don't understand, and he didn't either. But he shared it. And the third thing, his witness was what had happened to him. 

There's a story in the Old Testament about some lepers. Lepers were not allowed to be around other people, because people thought it was catching. And they were "unclean". They had to stay far out and if somebody started to come near, they had to cry out and say, "I'm a leper." Well, they were sitting outside the gate when their country and another country was going to war. And they thought, "If we stay here in our own country, we're just going to starve to death. We'll go over to the enemy's side. Maybe they'll have pity on us."

Four of them went over there, and when they got there, the whole army had disappeared. It says that God had sent a noise that night that made it sound like another powerful army was coming. Everybody took off. They went into their camp. They were eating. They were drinking. They were trying on clothes. They were putting money in their pockets. They had never had a life like that. And all at once, they said, "Do you know what?" This is in 2 Kings chapter 7. "We're not doing the right thing. Because we have all of this for ourselves, we should share it with others. We're not doing the right thing if we don't share it." That's a story for us. 

There was a missionary once in India, and he said, "Evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread." And that's you and me. We're like that blind beggar. The Lord opened up our eyes. And now, we have that opportunity-- we ordinary, everyday people, we have the opportunity to share not great and noble things, not to explain whatever is in the Bible. But to tell someone the simple story, "I trusted in Jesus. He forgives me. And he wants to forgive you too." That's what you and I can do. Our vocal witness is possible because God uses ordinary, everyday people like you and me. We'll be back to study some more. The Lord is with you.



Last modified: Monday, October 19, 2020, 1:15 PM