Book 13 Prepare to be amazed. What Jesus really taught about evangelism by Stop Co-governance Publishing

A SAMPLE OF ENDORESMENTS The following are some of the endorsements for Julian’s 900+ page book called Evangelism: Strategies from Heaven In the War for Souls. Some people are daunted by such a big book so Julian made a small book out of each chapter of the 900+ page book. What you are about to read is just one of the chapters of the larger work.

David Cole, YWAM Campaigns Asia/Pacific Board of Regents Chairman University of the Nations.

“This book is one of the most in depth looks at what Evangelism really is (and what it isn’t) that I believe has been written in the last century. I have been so inspired in my own calling through its content and often use it as a text book for teaching and imparting to young leaders in YWAM training courses as well as throughout other parts of the Body of Christ. Thank you Julian not only for such a valuable resource as well as for modeling the outworking of its content in your own life over the past few decades.”

Pastor Mike Smith, Melbourne, Australia

“An incredible book that all pastors should read. I have been a Christian for 28 years and a pastor for many years, and when I picked up this book, I thought, I doubt this will teach me anything new about evangelism. I was so wrong. It has revolutionised my thinking. This is an incredible book that all pastors should read.”

Grant Buchanan LLB, B.Com, Auckland

“The best book I have ever read. I am a solicitor (54) and a partner in a law practice. I unhesitatingly give my endorsement for Julian s book. Indeed, I would rate it as the best book that I have ever read!” Grant Buchanan LLB, B.Com, Auckland

Michael Angulo, Pastor and Church Leader

“Truly a work of Ministerial art. I really like this book and every true evangelist will love it also. YOU ARE NOT GOING TO PUT IT DOWN, BUT WILL BE THINKING WHEN YOU ARE GOING TO READ IT AGAIN! A truly very well written book with good retrospective learning ideas. No true evangelist should be without this book. It is worth what it is worth and it will catapult you into great, deliberate PROVEN, ministry approach. Great book and I highly recommend it. Get this one, you won’t be disappointed!”

Julian Batchelor, M.ed (Hons), B.Th, Dip.Tâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Ching

Prepare To Be Amazed! What Jesus Really Taught About Evangelism!

Acknowledgements I owe a lot of thanks to a lot of people for the production of this Mini Series: Sheryl Kampenhout, who transferred a mountain of material from Power Point shows into Word documents and who served and encouraged me in such a loving and kind way; to Matthew Old, a faithful friend and fellow evangelist, who has been a Barnabas. He reached out his hands when the hills seemed steepest, loved me in spite of my failures, stimulated me with his sharp mind, and made me laugh when I wanted to cry; to Janice Teo, and her intercessory prayer team who are as vital to the ministry I direct as the heart is to the body; to the team of editors, including Ken Francis and Julie Belding; to all the financial supporters who have given so generously to me over the years. I especially want to thank Paul and Tina Richards, of Club Physical, owners of a gymnasium chain in Auckland, New Zealand, and Derek van Beynen, who have faithfully sponsored my ministry for over a decade. Few people have the privilege of being able to leave secular work to write and produce resources to further the cause of the evangelisation of the world, and to motivate and equip the Church to do the same. You, and all my other financial supporters, have made this possible; to those I live with who have not seen me for years because I have been locked away in my office writing, I give my sincere thanks. Special thanks to Neil Pollock. To Jenny Windeyer, the graphic artist, who designed the cover of the original 800 page book (which we’ve turned into this Mini Series), and to Jenny’s husband Drew for going beyond the call of duty so that Jenny could focus on this project; to faithful Bernie Anderson who has sacrificed and given way beyond what a leader would expect of a dedicated co-worker; to Eleanor Goodall and Sue and George Jeffrey who epitomise love and true friendship; to the team at ESI for keeping all the various aspects of the evangelism ministry moving forwards whilst I directed most of my time to write this Mini Book Series; for Dr Martyn Bowis who did all the programming for the electronic version of the gospel called “Proclaim it!”; for Henoch Kloosterboeror for producing all the brilliant

drawings; Dr David Stewart, retired Principal of the Bible College of New Zealand for nearly two decades of encouragement and mentoring; Denise James and Anne Bartley, staff at the Bible College of New Zealand for helping with research; all those who have helped proof read the manuscript and given comment, particularly Dr Marie Sewell, Gill Donald, Gill Lukey, Donna Hansen, Ainslie Vines, Ann Hunter, and Miriam and Ted Martin; to the academic staff of the Bible College of New Zealand for giving me a grounding in theology; for all those who have given financially and sacrificially to pay for specific aspects of the publishing of this Mini Book Series; for my friend Ray Comfort, for his inspiration and encouragement. There are few evangelists today who have journeyed on the road of trial and tribulation to achieve breakthrough as Ray Comfort. For John Stott, the academic evangelist for his coaching and input via his many books. For all the people who we have trained in evangelism around the world who are out there doing it â&#x20AC;&#x201C; you are the heroes in the battle for souls; for the many hundreds of pastors, leaders, and lay Christians around the globe who have contributed to my life as a Christian, and to this Mini Book Series; and finally, I thank Jesus Christ, whose amazing grace and love has inspired and kept me. All the revelations in this Mini Book Library about evangelism and the gospel were given by Him â&#x20AC;&#x201C; to Him be all the glory.

How To Read The Mini Books In This Library This Mini Book is one of a Library of 27 Mini Books. The Library is a detailed critique of the battle between light and darkness which is relentlessly raging all over the earth for the souls of men and women. The insights and revelations in each Mini Book are hierarchical i.e. Mini Book Two builds upon Mini Book One, Mini Book Three upon Mini Books One and Two, and so on. Hence, the ideal is to try and read all the Mini Books in the library in sequence. If you skip Mini Books, or even parts of Mini Books, you might miss something vital, and open yourself to misunderstanding or even defeat. Having said this, after you have read Mini Books One to Seven, which are the foundational books in the Library, each Mini Book is designed to stand alone. So, read Books One to Seven first. This is essential. With respect to evangelism, if you follow the advice I am giving here in the pages of each Mini Book, you’ll position yourself perfectly to be used by the Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus in ways you’d not imagined possible. How so? Read the 27 Mini Books in the library and find out. Along with Mini Books 1-7, I suggest you also purchase Mini Book 27, which is the “Evangelism Fitness Test.” This is a diagnostic survey which will tell you the extent to which you have been unwittingly influenced by the devil with respect to evangelism. Sit this test before you read anything. Then do the same test again after you have read all the Mini Books to check to see if all his devices have been thoroughly purged from your mind!

Prepare To Be Amazed! What Jesus Really Taught About Evangelism!

was teaching in a large church in Australia recently, when a woman in the congregation became rather upset with me. Ellen was a lovely woman in her fifties, who spent a lot of time working with the city’s poor and homeless communities – the kind of person I admire hugely for serving so generously. How great it would be if we all had Ellen’s commitment to the works of the gospel. She bailed me up after the service and told me she sincerely believed the only way to ‘share the gospel’ was to focus on the whole person – to meet a person’s needs and to minister to their hurts before sharing ‘the words’ of the gospel. She believed Christians had to earn the right to be heard – and that the best way to do this was to develop close relationships in the community and to be diligent in service. “Before churches will be heard, they must re-establish trust,” she said, describing passionately one of the excellent programmes the church was running in one of the poorer suburbs. “To establish trust, we must first show love.” inister to the whole person… At first glance, Ellen’s words sound right, and we find ourselves instantly agreeing with her. In one sense, she backs up what I have already expressed in this Mini Book series about the

need for social action and good works in the process of drawing the lost to Christ. For example, in Mini Book Eleven I detailed “The six steps to drawing a non-Christian to Christ” which placed great value on the need to “plough” the hearts of non-Christians. owever… However, on further inspection, there are subtle devices embedded in Ellen’s argument. Is it true we must always build relationship and trust with someone before we present them with the gospel? No, it is not true. What are the reasons? There are five. First, the Holy Spirit is constantly ‘ploughing’ the soil of the hearts of everyone in the world through conscience and creation (Romans 1:20; 2:15). As such the vast majority of non-Christians are ready right now to hear the gospel. The exceptions are the tiny minority who have been hurt by some church experience. Second, all non-Christians are born with eternity in their hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NASB). This means they are hard-wired to be interested in God i.e. the words of the gospel. Third, there are Christian ministries all over the globe who are praying for the salvation of the lost in the world. Their efforts also help to soften the soil in the hearts of non-Christians, making them ready to hear and receive the words of the gospel. Fourth, there is my own experience. When I evangelise, most of the time I am giving the gospel to total strangers. As I have said before, of the thousands I have reached, 98% are open and hungry to hear the gospel. Those in the Church who contend that the lost are not open to the gospel1 are either not speaking from experience or their approach to reaching the lost must be faulty. Fifth, there is the example of Scripture. For example, Acts 5:40-42 says the Apostles never stopped going door to door with the gospel. They wouldn’t have had the opportunity to build trust,

1 It’s my belief that those who say such things are following the example of the spies in Numbers 13-14 who came back to the Israelites with a negative report, putting the people off stepping into God’s best for them.

be diligent in service, and show love in a practical way yet history records the Church exploded with growth. For them, going to strangers was the norm. At this point some ask, “If God is continually ploughing the hearts of non-Christians through conscience and creation, and ministries all around the world are praying for the lost, how is it that in the parable of the seed and the sower (e.g. Matthew 13) Jesus says the hearts of some are like a hard well-trodden path?” Answer: When we look out at a crowd of non-Christians we simply can’t x-ray the hearts of each one to see the condition of the soil in their heart. All we know is that forces are continually at work in the world to soften the soil of each one. So what do we do? We do exactly what Jesus said to do. We go to everyone and attempt to give them the gospel but if we can’t we’ll know that it has to do with the condition of the soil of their heart. If we find soil hard and rocky, we help soften it through kindness, answering questions, prayer and all the other ‘ploughing’ behaviours I talked about in Mini Book Eleven. You see, if God had not been ploughing these hard hearts through conscience and creation, and ministries around the world had not been praying for them, the truth is, their hearts would have been even harder than what they were when we encountered them. They would have been like granite! After we have ploughed up the soil of the hard-hearted, we or some other faithful Christian sometime in the future will get the opportunity to sow the seed of the words of the gospel into the newly-ploughed, stone free, soft soil of their heart. This is how the Early Church believers did it - they went out into the world firmly focussed on the priorty of proclaiming the gospel to everyone everywhere, but they were ready to also plough or water depending on what they encountered. It was not a case of “shall we plough and water, and forget sowing the seed of the gospel?” Not at all. Sowing the seed of the gospel was a priority and mandatory. 9

Ploughing was optional, depending on the state of the soil. The great tragedy of today’s Church is that sowing the seed of the gospel has dropped from ‘first priority’ to ‘optional extra’ or even ‘not necessary at all’. We are jammed on ‘ploughing’ mode. e.g. doing lots of social action, good works, prayer, intercession, building relationships / friendships with the lost etc etc but never getting around to actually going into the world and proclaiming the words of the gospel i.e. sowing. This is the greatest challenge facing the modern Church. Conclusion? For the five reasons I have just outlined on the previous pages, it’s completely inaccurate to think that the hearts of non-Christians have not been ‘ploughed’ if we ourselves have not personally ploughed them. It’s also therefore wrong to think we cannot share the gospel with someone if we have not personally prepared the ground of their heart with a good deed or some social action; or if we have not built a relationship, established trust or built respect. In short, such thinking is most often just a cop out. As such, it’s another device of the enemy. With this device, we say to ourselves “I can’t share the gospel with this person because I have not done a good deed for them. I’ll leave it.” You can see how such thinking would quickly shut down evangelism. Think of all the people we might meet in the course of an ordinary day for whom there is no time to do a good deed? .e.g gas stations attendants, shop keepers, tradesman, school friends, etc. uch thinking puts the handbrake on the evangelisation of the world and any thought or theory or idea which does this is not Biblical. The fact remains, that if the world is ever going to be evangelised we must go to the largest pool of people, which is complete

strangers. And if we find we can’t sow2, then we move into ploughing mode. There are simply too few Christians in the world and too many non-Christians to limit our evangelism efforts to those we have personally served or those with whom we have personally built a relationship.i.e. friends and family. Despite the clear biblical mandate to go into all the world (i.e. to strangers and friends and family) many Christians argue against the idea of going to strangers. They say we ought to focus only on going to those with whom we already have a relationship. When they are saved, so the theory goes, they will in turn save others, who will in turn save others, and so on, until the whole world is saved. It’s called “the domino theory” for evangelising the world. This idea sounds plausible and attractive. We most certainly ought to try and present the gospel to our friends and neighbours. The trouble is, as I have pointed out, research shows only 2% of us are doing any evangelism at all so the domino theory is just that - a theory. By this I mean that even the 2% who are doing evangelism, if they are honest, will tell you that it’s not often (in the Western World) that people are instantly saved when they hear the gospel for the first time. If this is so for seasoned, gifted evangelists, how will the 98% who never do evangelism fare? You know the answer. In my observation, the domino theory is an idea which Christians who are frightened of evangelising hide behind to avoid the challenge of obeying Jesus’ command to evangelise strangers. One major reason why so many of us in the Church are so terribly frightened of reaching out to strangers with the gospel, and why we have gotten ourselves jammed in ploughing mode, is that we just haven’t heard of the majesty and beauty of what Jesus taught about

2 In my experience, only about 1% of the population are not ready to hear the words of the gospel. 99% are hungry and ready.

evangelism in Mark 4:26-29.3 The rest of this Mini Book is about the remarkable, mind blowing teaching of Jesus which He gives in these four verses. But before I take you to this parable, I want to raise an important issue. It’s the issue of the busyness of our lives as Christians and how this works against our efforts to evangelise the world. If we are going to succeed with Jesus’ mission, we must take time to ‘notice’ strangers. Most of us are so busy and pre-occupied with ‘us’ we rush through life not noticing strangers. The very people for whom we were saved to reach with the gospel, we pass by. Jesus was utterly unlike us in this respect. Think of all the strangers He slowed down for, to pay them attention e.g. the Samaritan woman, the woman with the issue of blood, Zacchaeus, the ten lepers, the man with a withered hand etc. The list is endless. He was radically ‘others’ centred. If we are too busy to give the gospel to strangers, we are too busy. low down Take time out regularly to observe strangers. Go to a park or a shopping centre. As you meditate on one particular person, ask yourself the question, “Has that person heard and understood the gospel?” Then, presume two things. First, that they have not heard. Secondly, that if you don’t tell them, no one else will. Begin to see strangers not just as random, distant sinners, co-habiters on the planet who are hustling and bustling their way through life like you. See them as living, eternal souls, more valuable than the combined value of everything in the entire world. Each one is infinitely precious to Jesus and loved by Him. Try this exercise. Fix your eyes on a stranger and say to yourself, “If that person was the only one on the earth, Jesus would have

3 There are other reasons of course. We need good tools and strategies which make it easy for people to evangelise. We have these. Please email me: julian@esisite.com for more information.

died just for them.” Say, “If I don’t speak to them, there will not be anyone else.” Say, “If this stranger doesn’t hear the gospel from me they will never hear it.” If we do this often enough, Jesus will begin to give us compassion for the crowds. “When He saw the crowds, (i.e. strangers) He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). After slowing down and taking time to meditate on strangers and the love Jesus has for them, then what? We must go to them with the gospel, just as Jesus commanded. Engage them tenderly, lovingly, sincerely, gently, accurately, non-compromisingly. Explain the gospel to them. When it comes to the point where we must explain the gospel to a non-Christian, most Christians choke. And, as I have said, the main reason we choke is we have never heard of the beauty, wonder, and majesty of evangelism and how “it” works, as taught by Jesus. Where do we go to find this teaching? We go straight to Mark 4:26-29, THE PARABLE OF THE GROWING SEED. This is the central teaching of Jesus on the subject of evangelism. This passage is the most crucial “evangelism parable” in the Bible. AN OVERVIEW OF THE PARABLE: In this parable Jesus teaches that when we lovingly and tenderly ‘plant’ the seed of the gospel into the minds of non-Christians, the Holy Spirit promises to automatically ‘grow’ that seed. What do we mean by ‘grow’? First we must understand that for the majority of non-Christians ‘God’ is there, but on the vague outer edge of their lives, not central. When they hear and understand the gospel, all this changes. That is to say, through the seed of the gospel, the Holy Spirit brings the truth about Jesus in from the vague outer edge of their lives, to the place where He is central and in full view. 13

He brings them to a place of crisis where they have to make a conscious decision to either continue to reject Jesus, or bow their knee and accept Him as their personal Lord and Saviour. That is to say, through the power of the Holy Spirit, those who hear the gospel are convicted of the truth of the gospel message, and Jesus becomes central in their lives. The implications of Jesus’ teaching in this parable are monumental. The crucial point to grasp is this - it is not up to us to bring nonChristians to this point of crisis, just as it’s not the job of the farmer in the natural realm to grow the seed he has sown. Our job is to faithfully and lovingly sow the seed of the gospel. The Holy Spirit’s job is to bring belief, conviction, and crisis (John 16:8). Ultimately, the responsibility to ‘win souls’ is not ours. Only God can do this. What percentage of people who hear and understand the gospel accept it, believe it, and come to faith? We’ll never know, but what we do know is that it’s the vast majority. How do we know this? This parable ends with the promise of a harvest. The size of the harvest depends on the volume of seed sown, the condition of the soil (Christian ‘ploughing’ activities), the weather conditions (Christian ‘watering’ activities). Every pastor on the planet wants to see a great harvest of souls. Jesus in this parable promises we’ll see this harvest, but only if we obey the conditions for receiving a harvest. The main condition is that we sow seed. With a whole army of people mobilised, the whole world could be evangelised in a very short space of time. And once the whole earth has heard and understood the gospel, all that’s needed for the promise of a harvest to be realised, is for a mighty move of the Holy Spirit to ‘grow’ all the seed. This is the overview of Mark 4:26-29. From now on in this Mini Book, I am going to unpack this parable, verse by verse, sometimes word by word. 14

Once we grasp what Jesus is teaching here, our view of the gospel and evangelism will never be the same again. The insights and understandings Jesus gives in this parable are truly life-giving and liberating. Christians in the Early Church acted on what Jesus taught here, and you know what happened. The Church experienced explosive numerical growth. This is what Mark 4:26-29 says: “This is what the Kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain, first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” To many commentators this parable remains a puzzle because it is not found in Matthew or Luke, and Jesus Himself does not explain it. It has been understood in various ways. Most scholars pair this parable with the next, the parable of the mustard seed (Mark 4:30-32). One sets forth the mystery and secrecy of growth (Mark 4:26-29), the other the astonishing contrast between small beginnings and great outcomes. In the context of this interpretation, the parable of Mark 4:26-29 might be summed up in the Greek word automate which is translated in English as “all by itself” (verse 28). When truly understood, this one word has the potential to ignite your passion and zeal for world evangelism like never before. Understanding this word, and acting upon it, is the key to mobilising the global Church back into evangelism. I discuss this Greek word in detail later on in this Mini Book. ive over-arching lessons… In this parable Jesus compares a farmer’s actions with the workings of the Kingdom. The farmer has faith in the inherent

properties of the seed4 and of the reliability of natural law. The parallel with a Christian who evangelises is clear. There are five over-arching lessons Jesus wants us to grasp in this remarkable parable. 1. The seed of the gospel has inherent power. When we explain the gospel to a non-Christian, and they understand what we have said (they don’t have to believe it and take it on board immediately), we have ‘planted’ the seed. As soon as the seed is planted, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit start working on that seed to grow it. That is to say, to bring the person in whom the seed is planted from unbelief to belief. 2. Results5 from a lovingly-sown, and complete gospel message are inevitable, as long as the person listening understands the message (Matthew 13:23). The person listening doesn’t have to believe the message. They only have to understand it conceptually. Belief comes from God alone. 3. We can trust the Holy Spirit to “follow up” every seed of the gospel which we plant (John 16:8; Isaiah 55:10-11, etc). 4. It is the gospel we are to scatter. Our aim in evangelism ought to be to get beyond peripheral conversations about God6 and church with non-Christians and get to the nitty gritty. 5. If we want to see prolific Church growth again, and unprecedented harvest, we must return to the Early Church practice of mobi4

By ‘inherent properties’ I mean the seed has life, in and of itself. I expand on this truth later in this Mini Book.

By “results” I do not mean that everyone who hears and understands the gospel will be saved. What we know is that everyone who hears and understands the gospel will be brought to a place of spiritual crisis through the work of the Holy Spirit where they have to either accept or reject Jesus. How do we know this will happen? John 16:8 – 9 says ‘He will convict...’ not ‘…He might convict…’ In the parable of the Sower (e.g. Matthew 13:1-23) there are four types of soil. Three out of four accept the word (i.e. they respond to the message): the rocks, the thorns, and the good soil. The only one which didn’t accept the word was ‘the path.’ The reason given? The message was not understood. Does this mean that if we determine to make sure non-Christians understand the gospel when we present it, we were loving and gracious in our delivery, and the message is not compromised, 25% of the seed we sow (i.e. one out of four) will result in conversion? At first sight, to draw such conclusions from Matthew 13:1-23 might appear fanciful. Yet, in Mark 4:26-29, they are a realistic possibility. Here Jesus teaches that the seed of the gospel will strike and take hold just as automatically as good seed planted under the right conditions in the natural realm.

This is not to say that having ‘light’ conversations about God are not valuable. Of course they are. The problem is, most Christians never get beyond these ‘light’ conversations to giving the full gospel message. That’s the problem.

lising the whole Church to reach the whole world with the words of the gospel i.e. return to focussing on completing the Great Commission. I expand on each of these five lessons as we progress through this Mini Book. Throughout this parable, the natural and the supernatural lend meaning to each other. What I mean by this will soon become clear. Let’s break the parable down, verse by verse, and grasp the lifechanging lessons about evangelism. Verse 26: “A man scatters seed on the ground.” Who is “a man” in this verse? In the natural, “a man” is the farmer and “the ground” is the earth into which he sows the seed. e can succeed with evangelism, no matter who we are… In the supernatural, the Greek word for “man” here is the non-specific anthropos which denotes all humans, whether male or female. It appears 552 times in the New Testament. There are at least three reasons why the Holy Spirit inspired Mark to choose this word. First, anyone can evangelise - young, old, male, female, lightskinned, dark-skinned, introverted or extroverted; it does not matter to God. Secondly, everyone is called to evangelise. Jesus did not say, “A skilled, gifted farmer went out…” The initial skills and knowledge needed to be able to proclaim or spread the gospel can be learned in a few hours by virtually anyone.7 Spreading the gospel, which is distributing the gospel, for example,

7 Given that people live on average seventy-five years, which equates to 3900 weeks or 27,000 days, dedicating one of those days to learn how to proclaim the gospel is not a great sacrifice. All of us take weeks for holidays or to go on missions, or visit friends and family, yet dedicate so little time to something so eternally significant and important as evangelism. My prayer is that you will make this initial one day of learning at one of our conferences the beginning of a life time journey of learning how to become increasingly skilful in evangelism. You can purchase a DVD tutorial and learn how to do it from the comfort of your own home (or on line if you wish) by emailing julianbatchelor@xtra.co.nz

in written, audio, or video form takes virtually no skill at all, other than to pick a good gospel tract/booklet or purchase a packet of www.biblein11.com cards. Or, in the case of audio and video files, with the click of the mouse on a computer. Thirdly, everyone can experience ‘success’ in evangelism. In this parable Jesus teaches that ‘succes in evangelism’ is sowing the seed lovingly and uncompromisingly into the mind of a non-Christian, whether they come to Christ or not.8 What a liberating truth this is. The humble efforts of the sower in this parable produce an astounding result. The parable ends with the promise of a great harvest. By using anthropos, Jesus deliberately downplays the farmer’s significance in order to highlight the work, wisdom and power of God working through the gospel to draw non-Christians to Himself. he Holy Spirit is the big player in evangelism… New Testament scholar Dr L.W. Hurtado says “the main emphasis in this parable is the contrast between the puny action of the sower who merely scatters the seed in his field and the development of the crop. Jesus’ point is that the Kingdom of God begins with the apparently insignificant action of sowing the gospel message, but will finish with a great harvest.”9 God is saying to you and me, “Relax. I already know you are not Billy Graham. If you trust in My Word, and Me, I can work through you just as I worked through My servant Billy. Just learn how to sow the seed of the gospel, and watch Me grow it. I dare you!” This parable screams to us “It’s not all about your ability and skills. It’s all about Me, my promises, and My Living Word!” Theologian M.Mills writes:“The purpose of this parable is to

Of course, we earnestly desire people to come to Christ when we give them the gospel, but this is bonus when it happens. ‘Conversions’ are the fruit of evangelism, but never the root of it. The root is simply to succeed with lovingly and graciously sharing and uncompromised gospel message. This is such a liberating truth!

9 L.W. Hurtado. Mark. Good News Bible Commentary. Pickering Books, 1983, pp.62-63

reveal that the power of the Kingdom is in the Word and not in the preaching.”10 This surely is wonderful news for people in churches who feel they are too old, or introverted, or shy, or whatever, to proclaim or spread the gospel or who feel they are passed their “use by” date. God in his grace has given us strategies that will enable absolutely everyone in a church to be active in evangelism.11 e don’t have to be a spiritual heavyweight to succeed with evangelism… Dr Robert Gundry puts it like this: “The construction of the Greek de-emphasises [in this parable] the man’s contribution.”12 The mark of true evangelism is a small man factor and a big God factor. “I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling,” said Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5. “My message and my preaching (i.e. the gospel) were not with wise and persuasive words but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom but on God’s power.” The more we put our faith and trust in God working through the inherent power of the gospel to save, the more we de-emphasise the man-factor. This is not to suggest we ought to dispense with “ploughing” and “watering.” God forbid. What I am saying is that ultimately it is God who gives success, not the sower. Proverbs 21:31 says, “The horse is prepared for battle, but victory belongs to the Lord.” We all know this verse too - “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord Almighty” (Zechariah 4:6). When are we going to “get” this about biblical evangelism and be released from all our terrifying fears and hang-ups e.g. that it’s all up

10 M.Mills. The Life of Christ: A Study Guide to the Gospel Record (Mk 4:26–29). 1999. Dallas, TX: 3E Ministries. 11

Email me: julian@esiste.com and I will explain how you can implement these strategies in your church.

12 Robert Gundry. Mark. A Commentary On His Apology For The Cross. Eerdmans, 1993, p.220

to us to win people to Christ? Interestingly, in the Greek, “the seed” in this verse is singular. Usually a farmer would not sow just one seed but many handfuls of seed. So what does the singular in this verse mean? It could mean that from one seed comes a great harvest. Take Billy Graham for example. He would be an example of a single seed. Each evening in a great stadium somewhere, he would preach the gospel once and thousands would be harvested i.e. respond to the message Billy preached. That is to say, Billy preached one gospel message each evening and from that one seed (i.e. that one message), he saw a great harvest i.e. when he had his altar call, many people came forward to commit their lives to Christ. Or the singular in this verse could be a reference to the uniqueness of the gospel i.e. just as the seed here in this verse is singular, so there is only one gospel message. Or it could be a reference to the power of personal evangelism. If all the Christians in the world were committed to planting the gospel into the spiritual hearts of non-Christians, one person at a time, one seed at time, what would the result be? A great harvest! (verse 29). I think all three interpretations are right. All three interpretations are astonishingly exciting! In combination, they are mind blowing! hat is ‘the ground’ in Mark 4:26? Now let’s look at the “ground.” In the supernatural realm the ground is the spiritual heart of a non-Christian. It is into this “ground” that the seed of the gospel is sown. Their heart is accessed through their mind. Once planted, God begins to grow it. As it grows, the heart into which it’s sown is gradually changed, culminating in what theologians call “regeneration.”13 Between the time when the seed is planted and the moment of regeneration, the Holy Spirit is working to bring

13 E.g. Matthew 19:28; Titus 3:5; Acts 3:21; 2 Corinthians 5:17; John 3:5.

belief. Classical writers liken the change to the changes produced by the return of spring. Before regeneration, the spiritual soil in the hearts of non-Christians can be anything from rock hard and completely unreceptive, to soft, warm, and fertile, open to receive Jesus. o access the heart of a non-Christian, we must go through the mind… As many theologians and scholars point out, when people hear the gospel they process it with their minds. So to access the heart we must go through the mind. Dr Don Carson writes: “Evangelism that does not engage people at [the level of the mind], whatever other levels are touched, is necessarily betraying something vital.”14 Dr Norman Harrison puts it like this: “Its message of transforming power must speak persuasively to the mind (Romans 2:2); filter pervasively down into the heart (Romans 5:5; 6:17); and flow unceasingly out into the life” (Romans 1:17).15 His words are echoed by Dr Millard Erickson. “In creating belief, the Holy Spirit makes use of human minds and reason.”16 And Dr Derek Prince reminds us of where the battle is taking place: “Paul uses various words: imaginations, reasonings, speculations, arguments, knowledge and thoughts…Satan is waging an all-out war to captivate the minds of the human race. He is building strongholds and fortresses in their minds and it is our responsibility, as God’s representatives, to use our spiritual weapons to break down these strongholds, to liberate the minds of men and women, and to bring them into captivity to the obedience

14 Don Carson. The Gagging Of God. Apollos Books, 1996, p.509 15 Dr Norman Harrison. His Salvation As Set Forth In The Book Of Romans. Moody Press, 1926, p.28 16 Millard Erickson. Christian Theology. Baker Books, 1988, p.1065

of Christ.”17 When we proclaim the gospel to non-Christians, we are to speak lovingly, logically and mindfully. he gospel can demolish strongholds in the minds of those with whom we speak… The gospel demolishes all kinds of wrong thoughts in the listener’s mind, from “all religions are the same” to “I will go to heaven because I am a good person.” Jeremiah 23:29 speaks of the Word of God as a hammer, capable of breaking the most impenetrable strongholds. Whether someone believes in Darwinian evolution or reincarnation, or in being saved by good works, or something other than by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8), the gospel is the weapon of choice when it comes to the mind. How does simply proclaiming the gospel demolish someone’s belief in Darwinism and the Big Bang, for example? God, through the Holy Spirit, manifests Himself through the gospel, becoming real and personal to the person listening.18 When this happens, the wrong beliefs of the non-Christian are frequently superseded or overridden (akin to over-writing one computer application with another) by the reality of Jesus and our need for Him. I see this time and time again with people who are freshly and genuinely saved. When a person has a personal revelation of Jesus through the gospel, and is saved, they instinctively want to believe everything the Bible says. And they instinctively don’t want to believe anything that contradicts it. Sure, they will no doubt still want to read about evolution and the big bang, but once saved they will do so from the perspective of wanting to defend Jesus, the Bible and Truth.

17 Dr Derek Prince. Spiritual Warfare. Whitaker House, 1987, p.33 18 Most often this does not happen instantly, but over time.

Through the gospel, people change sides!19 Evangelist and author Mark McCloskey puts it like this: “When the evangelist presents the gospel, they (i.e. non-Christians) gain perspective on their felt needs and come to grips with their real need.”20 he gospel cuts deeply and accurately… Of course, things such as apologetics, which appeal to the mind, are also tremendously effective in the process of drawing nonChristians to Christ. But my point is this: through the gospel, God can cut right through the wrong thinking of non-Christians and take them straight to the heart of the issue – their sin, their separation from God, and their need for a Saviour. It is only the Holy Spirit, working through the gospel, who does this demolishing. Once they are saved, the process of “breaking down” and “demolishing” wrong thoughts will continue for the rest of a person’s life, but it is kicked off most dramatically before salvation, through hearing the gospel. When you plant the seed of the gospel, you give God permission to unleash the fullness of His saving power. hen we present the gospel, we aim to ensure that the person listening understands it… There is one condition which must be satisfied if we want success on the battlefield with winning souls. Our goal in evangelism, aside from being loving, caring and gracious with the delivery and uncompromising with content, is to ensure non-Christians understand the gospel message. I cannot stress this enough. To bring

19 A.W Tozer said : “The way it works in experience is something like this: The believing man is overwhelmed suddenly by a powerful feeling that only God matters; soon this works itself out into his mental life and conditions all his judgments and all his values. Now he finds himself free from slavery to man’s opinions. A mighty desire to please only God lays hold of him. Soon he learns to love above all else the assurance that he is well pleasing to the Father in heaven.” Cited in: http://www.sendrevival.com/pioneers/awtozer/ in_word_or_in_power.htm 20 Mark McCloskey. Tell It Often – Tell It Well. Making The Most Of Witnessing Opportunities. Here’s Life Publishers, San Bernardino, 1977, p.43

belief and conviction of the gospel truth is beyond our control. It is the task of the Spirit alone.21 Our job is to present the message in a clear, easy-to-understand way. We know from the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:1-23 that the person who heard the gospel and produced a great yield was the one who heard and understood it (verse 23). The truth is, many of our so-called “gospel presentations” are clear to whoever is presenting them, but to the non-Christian listener they are nonsense, a collection of disorganised, befuddled truths hastily thrown together. Little thought may have been given to the way the words and concepts we use might be completely new to those listening. When we do not define all our terms, we fail to communicate. When we present the gospel clearly, we give the Holy Spirit permission to release His full saving power upon the listener. When I was a student, the best teachers were the ones who made complex things simple. The better the teacher, the more I understood. And the more I understood, the more I liked both the teacher and the subject. Our primary focus in evangelism, then, is to make our message clear for the non-Christians listening so they can like Jesus and Christianity – and we, the presenters, can glorify God. hen they don’t understand, we give the enemy an opening… In Matthew 13:1-23 we also read that if the gospel message is not understood, the enemy can snatch it away. Paul said in Ephesians 3:9 that he aimed to make the gospel “plain to everyone” and in Colossians 4:4, “Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.”

21 Many Christians have said to me “What happens when non-Christians say ‘I don’t believe in heaven and hell and the Bible’….what do we do then?” I say to non-Christians at that point, “I respect your opinion because there are many different understandings of what happens after death. What I am presenting here is the perspective of Jesus. If what you have seen here is true, where would you go after death?” Once we have sincerely acknowledged and respected the opinion of the non-Christian, they are usually happy to continue to hear the gospel. Then it is up to the Spirit to bring conviction and belief.

ne reason why Jonathan Edwards was used greatly? He preached with clarity and logic… It is said of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), one of the greatest evangelists of all time, that he was not a “ranting revivalist.” “He spoke with a quiet voice and few gestures,” wrote Historian Carl Bogue. This ought to give us great hope! Most people can be like that – quietly spoken, gentle and logical. Carl Bogue continues. “The logic of what [Jonathan Edwards] said and the work of the Holy Spirit were the relevant factors in his success. The preaching of Edwards was clear. I doubt if any ever thought he was going over their heads. Probably they often wished he had.”22 I want to reiterate the point: clarity, simplicity and understanding matter enormously. Edwards did not try to whip up emotion. A logical gospel presentation, combined with the convicting work of the Holy Spirit, ignited holy dynamite. In Edward’s meetings, emotions were greatly stirred but the catalyst for a release of those emotions was a clear and simple appeal to the mind and conscience, made real by the work of the Holy Spirit. Thousands were converted. It can be the same for you with one-on-one evangelism. on-Christians really want to understand the gospel – will you help them? When Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ was being shown in London, I had the privilege of going into a secular theatre and presenting the gospel to a packed audience just before the movie started. When we finished the presentation we received a spontaneous ovation. At the end of the movie I asked a few people why they clapped. An older gentleman typified the answers given: “For the first time, someone has %#@* told me what you Christians are on about...!”

22 Carl W. Bogue. Jonathan Edwards And The Covenant Of Grace. Mack Publishing, 1975, p.27

This man, with tears in his eyes, was angry with the Church for making Christianity (i.e. the gospel) so hard to understand. eorge Whitefield made the hard things easy... George Whitefield, a mighty evangelist from the 18th century, went to great lengths to make the gospel simple. This was one reason God used him in an extraordinary way: “[When he preached the gospel] Whitefield used the words most easily understood. He abhorred long and involved sentences. His business was to make the hard things easy.”23 tirring the heart is also crucial… Presenting the gospel is not just about appealing to the mind and aiming for understanding. When I present the gospel, I also ask God to use me to touch the heart of the person I am speaking to. When they sense the presence of God through their emotions, something special, something divine, has just happened.24 A.W. Tozer rightly says: “The work of the Holy Spirit is, among other things, to rescue the redeemed man’s emotions, to restring his harp and open again the wells of sacred joy which have been stopped up by sin. That He does this is the unanimous testimony of the saints.”25 What are the key lessons so far from Mark 4:26-29? Anyone can proclaim the gospel. 1. Everyone should proclaim the gospel. 2. Seed exists to be planted. Unless we sow, we will not reap. 3. Our presentation of the gospel ought to be simple and logical, but not intellectually insulting. 4. The gospel is intended to engage with the mind in order to access the heart and the conscience.

G S

23 James Stephen. Twelve Famous Evangelists. Pickering and Inglis, (date of printing not supplied), p.22 24 We have all met and known people who have been genuinely saved but at the moment of salvation, there has been no tangible feeling of the presence of God. And we have met others who have had a strong tangible feeling of presence of God. There is no rule here. God can save with or without ‘feelings.’ Having said this, I long to see all people sense God in a powerful, personal way when the gospel is preached. 25 A.W. Tozer. The Divine Conquest. Fleming H. Revell Co, 1950, p.108

5. It is not enough that non-Christians only hear the gospel. They must also understand it. 6. It is not about the mind only. Our goal is to ask God to touch the heart and emotions of the person listening as well. Mark 4:27. “Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how…” nce the seed of the gospel is planted, He goes to work on it to grow it… In the natural realm, after the farmer has sown good seed, on good soil, at the right time of the year, he can relax.26 Natural law – the supernatural power of God working in and through the properties of soil, water, sunshine, and seed – will take over to produce a plant. “Night and day” means 24/7. Natural law is always operative. Even when the farmer is asleep and darkness has fallen, the seed is active and growing. Commenting on this verse, Dr Donald English writes: “There is hidden energy at work below the surface, as the gospel message is preached and enacted.”27

Straight away we see a key feature of the gospel message. It is

alive! Many verses in the Bible speak about “the living Word” of God. For example, Hebrews 4:12: “For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (NKJV). The gospel is a living, powerful, penetrating phenomenon. It has a life of its own. Or what about 1 Thessalonians 1:5: “…our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.” The biblical writers who penned 26 Aside from things like irrigation, weeding and pest control. 27 Dr Donald English. The Message Of Mark: The Bible Speaks Today. IVP, 1992, p.101

these verses knew about the inbuilt power of the Word. What Jesus is saying in Mark 4:27 is that after the seed of the gospel has been sown into the mind of a non-Christian (assuming the messenger was loving and the message clear and uncompromised), the Holy Spirit goes to work on that seed to grow it, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks of the year, progressively convicting the person of its truth. Those who accept the conviction are saved. Those who resist are lost. ower encounter in a menswear shop… Let me give you a personal example of the willingness of God to work powerfully and reliably, through a simple, well-explained gospel message. One morning I was in a shop buying a necktie. No one else was in the shop except me and the shopkeeper, Liz, a woman of about 45. We introduce ourselves and make light conversation as she shows me the various ties. I choose one and take it to the counter for payment. As she processes the sale she asks, “Do you live here or are you just visiting?” Me: “I’m just visiting.” Liz: “What brings you here?” Me: “I am working with the mainstream churches here – Anglicans, Presbyterians, Baptists, etc. What about you, are you a church person?” Liz: “No.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out my iphone. Me: “What’s the best selling book in the world?…” Liz: “Dunno” Me: “It’s the Bible. We just made a video which summarises the whole book in 11 minutes. Here, have a look.” I ask her if it is okay to do this in work time. She says, “It’s fine. I am the manager.” She watched the video, and no customers interrupted. Half way through, I stopped it and asked her about thieving, lying, and murdering. When we got to the end of the presentation I asked Liz the key question.

Me:

“If everything you’ve seen here is true, and if you died tonight, where would you go?” Liz: “To heaven.” Me: “Now why did you pick that?” Liz: “Because I am a pretty good person. I’ve not done anything worse than anyone else in my life.” Me: (gently) “But Liz, you told me just a few minutes ago that you were a thieving, lying, murderer. Liz what kind of a record do we need to have to get into heaven?” Liz: “Perfect.” Me: (as gently as ever) “Have you been a perfect person?” Liz: “No.” Me: “Neither have I, so we are the same. Have you turned and surrendered to Jesus yet in your life?” Liz: “No.” Me: “Then where is the only other place you can go at the moment?” Liz: “Hell.” Me: (softly) “God bless you Liz. You have had the courage to say where you honestly stand before God. What you have told me is true. You have told me with your own lips that according to the Bible, if you died tonight you would go to hell.” Liz interrupts me and pushes the iphone away from her. She is not angry but taken aback. Liz: “But I don’t agree with you. I think this is just your interpretation. I don’t think you should be scaring people like this...” Me: (still gentle) “Liz, I appreciate what you say. But I am just the delivery boy. If Jesus were standing here in my place, He would have explained the same message. I can see you are an open-minded, intelligent woman. What I want you to do is take this book home.28 Please read it thoughtfully. Try not to be negative or positive. Just neutral. When you get to the end ask God if it’s true. I know He will answer you.” 28 The book is a small follow up booklet we have produced which we give away to someone after they have heard the gospel. It explains what a person needs to do to be saved. It’s called “How To Be Sure Of Going To Heaven When We Die”. You can purchase this from our shop at www.esisite.com

Liz:

(sheepishly) “Well… okay. But I still don’t agree with you...” (she’s smiling now) She takes the follow-up booklet. I change the subject, and chat about something else briefly. There are still only two of us in the shop. I say goodbye and how much I enjoyed meeting her, and thank her for taking the time to let me explain the gospel to her. Three days later… It’s nine o’clock in the morning and I’m now in another city. It’s Sunday and I’m about to leave the house where I’m staying to go and preach in a church. My cell phone rings. Me: “Good morning. Julian speaking.” Liz: “Liz here. Liz from the tie shop.” Me: “Liz! How are you?” Liz: “Not good.” Me: “Oh, why?” Liz: “Well, you know that book you left with me? I read it and it has really rattled my cage. Do you know of a good church I can go to in my city this morning?” Did I ever! I set about linking her up with some friends I had in that town. When I got off the phone, I was astonished at the inherent power of the gospel. How quickly the Holy Spirit had followed her up. Liz went from scepticism to belief and conviction in three days! To be honest, I had not prayed for her between Thursday and Sunday, and yet God still worked. She had not seen my good deeds or my works of service. The impression she gave me was that she had had little or no contact with Christians or the Church up to this point. t took six weeks for the seed to grow… Another example of the inherent power of the gospel happened after a group of my friends were faithfully proclaiming the gospel to strangers on the streets in their local area. One of the people they talked to was a 22-year-old woman, Susan, from a middle-class family. When Susan heard the gospel, she realised her sin separated her from God and that she was headed for hell. This knowledge had

little effect on her at first. But over a six-week period, the realisation became overwhelming. She devoured the follow-up booklet which explained the gospel in greater detail. Susan would go to bed thinking about these issues and wake up with the same thoughts. The booklet she was given had the name and address of the gospel proclaimer’s church in the back. ix weeks to the day after Susan had first heard the gospel, she decided to visit this church in her lunch hour. She walked in, found the pastor, and asked him if he would help her become a Christian. nd that is not all… She went home and led her younger sister to the Lord. A few weeks later, she and her sister were baptised in the church and the whole family came to watch. At that baptismal service her mother, father and older brother heard the gospel through the electronic version of the message called The Gospel Message!29 They didn’t respond to the altar call, but the seed of the gospel had now been planted in them as well. The Holy Spirit promises to grow the seed of the gospel planted in them, just as He grew the seed planted in Susan. Thus the life cycle in the Spirit continues. One caring Christian who took a risk and took the time to explain the gospel was a catalyst for Susan’s change of destiny, both in this life and the next. And maybe that of her whole family. Maybe someone, somewhere had been praying for Susan and her family. But the inherent power of the gospel is obvious. Some may ask, “Does this happen with everyone?” The answer is “yes” and “no.” Yes, everyone is followed up by the Holy Spirit. But no, not everyone is converted after hearing the gospel. The Holy Spirit

29 To view this presentation, please go to www.biblein11.com.

will put people in a place where they have to decide for or against Jesus. People still have free will to resist God’s drawing power, and a “no” to the invitation of the gospel is still a response. Dr Leighton Ford said: “God holds me responsible for faithful evangelism, not for success.”30 There it is again! Please ‘get’ this - ‘success’ in evangelism is not about winning souls. It’s about planting the seed! It is God’s will that all non-Christians should be put in the place where they have to either accept or reject Jesus, based on a full and graciously-presented understanding of the gospel (Romans 10:14-15). he human heart, spiritually speaking, is a lock, and the gospel is the key to unlock it. Someone once likened the heart of every human to a lock in which the only key that fits is the gospel. The only one who can turn the key is the Holy Spirit, and the only one who can insert the key is a Christian. This is an illustration of how God works through the gospel to save. nother example of how the Holy Spirit follows up. I had a neighbour whom I will call Andrea, who knew I was a Christian. One day she asked me what I did when I went away on overseas’ trips. I told her I trained people in churches how to explain to people what Christianity was all about. I asked her if she would like me to show her. She said “yes” and so we sat down over a coffee and I showed her the video of the gospel. We chatted for a while afterwards, and she asked me an interesting question. Andrea:“What’s the point of explaining this story to people?” (She was not being sarcastic, just genuinely interested.) Me: “Well, it’s like this. The message you just heard is like a supernatural seed. When you heard this message, you did so with your ears. Your ears are connected to your brain. That message I just gave you is now in your brain, plant-

30 Dr Leighton Ford. The Christian Persuader. A New Look At Evangelism Today. Harper and Row, 1976, p.122

ed like a seed. Whoever hears this message is fortunate. God goes to work on that seed and grows it.” Andrea: (intensely interested) “What does that mean?” Me: “It means He goes to work to convince a person of the truth of the message and the reality of Jesus. You’ll probably notice over time that your interest in Christianity will grow. You will probably become more aware of the issues we’ve just talked about. You’ll start to think about God a lot more. When you experience this, it is God growing the seed, drawing you towards Himself. He’s saying, “Andrea, I love you and died for you. I want to know you, and I want you and Me to walk through this life together.” Andrea:(wide-eyed) “Seriously! That sounds awesome … a bit scary though … when will I feel this?” Me: “I don’t know. God grows the seed at different speeds, depending on the person. If you begin to read your Bible, that’s a sure way of fertilising the seed. You can also pray that God would grow the seed…or go to a good church and see what God is doing. All of these things will help grow the seed, but if you do none of them God will still grow it because He’s promised to do so.” We continued to chat for a while and then I left. About a year later, Andrea and I were talking over the fence. We had not discussed Christianity since the earlier conversation. Andrea: “Hey Julian, remember how ages ago you talked to me about God and how I would become more interested? You know what? It’s happening. I’ve been getting library books out on Christianity. It’s really interesting isn’t it? Have they really found Noah’s ark? What’s it going to be like when Jesus comes again? How can I know the Bible has not been changed over 2000 years?” I answered her questions as best I could. Soon after this positive conversation, Andrea moved out of the house she was renting with her children and we lost touch. But I was thrilled to see how the Holy Spirit really did follow up. For Andrea the process took a year.

e don’t need to know how the gospel works… When Jesus said in Mark 4:28 “...although he does not know how...” He was saying to the disciples, “Hey guys, how I save people through a simple message is too deep and mysterious for you to grasp. Just trust Me and go do it.” New Testament Scholar Dr Arland J. Hultgren wrote: “Life is full of instances where a person sows seeds, and then proceeds with ordinary living. In the meantime the seed sprouts and grows. It happens all the time. The one who sows cannot and need not explain how the growth takes place.”31 When I go to the shop to buy grass seed, the attendant doesn’t give me a thick telephone book of instructions as to the genetic make-up of the seed, its DNA, protein structures, energy sources, how that energy will be translated into growth, the composition of the soil, the effect of water, etc. I don’t need to know all this to grow grass. When the seed meets the soil and the conditions are right, the natural law that God established sets the whole process going. All I need do is follow the instructions on the packet. The Bible is a packet of seeds which never empties. One of the seeds within the Bible is the gospel. The instructions are “Open the packet and get sowing the gospel!” (Mark 16:15). e can trust the Holy Spirit to follow up the seeds of the gospel we sow… In the natural realm, after the farmer has planted the seed he can relax. His responsibility in the process of growing the crop is largely complete.32 Yes, he must still water those seeds, and perhaps fertilise or weed the ground. But essentially he relies on God for rain, sunshine, and the marvels of the natural law to kick in.

31 Arland J. Hultgren. The Parables Of Jesus – A Commentary. Eerdmans, 2000, p.386 32 In Mini Book Eleven, I mentioned other Christian behaviours which affect the growth of the seed of the gospel - prayer, fasting, observing the lives of Christians, acts of kindness and service, etc.

It is the same with supernatural law and the gospel. I don’t know how it works. All I know is that it happens. Even the angels don’t know exactly how the Holy Spirit convicts and converts people through the gospel - “Even angels long to look into these things” (1 Peter 1:12). When the Bible says “no one comes to the Son unless they are drawn by the Father” (e.g. John 6:65), how does the Father do this? We’ll never quite know this side of death. Also, when the Bible says “When I be lifted up, I will draw all men to myself.”(John 12:32), we see Jesus’ involvment in growing the seed. Exactly how does He draw people? Once again, we’ll never know this side of eternity. he strategy of the early Church was not complicated... The itinerant evangelists did not stay long in one place. They planted the seed as they pioneered new regions, ploughed and watered when they needed to, and then moved on. Yet the church grew prolifically. Those early Christians didn’t know how the gospel worked either. They just knew it had inherent power to save people, and went about passionately proclaiming it. Here are two more scriptures which affirm the mystery and inevitability of God’s follow-up: “I will send the Holy Spirit into the world to convict the world in regard to sin, righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8). “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, so is My Word that goes out from my mouth. It accomplishes My desire and the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:9-11). t is okay if we never again see the person we gave the gospel to…33 It is unlikely I will ever cross paths again with the vast majority of people with whom I have shared the gospel. Because I am travelling a lot, I usually talk with someone for only a few minutes, long enough to share the gospel – and that’s it. Does this

33 By this I do not mean that I don’t want to see them again! I mean that when we start giving the gospel to complete strangers, there are going to be a lot of people we might only see once.

make my ministry unfruitful and me irresponsible? Not according to Jesus in Mark 4:26-29, for He tells me the Holy Spirit, the Father, and the Son will “follow people up.” Sometimes they will do this by putting another Christian in the path of the person I have just shared the gospel with. Other times one or all of the Trinity might use a sunset, a sunrise, a dream, a vision, a bumper sticker, the prayer and fasting of Christians, or the shining example of a neighbour’s life, or a combination of all these things! But they will always do it somehow. owever, let’s not forget our responsibilities… As I have said, where possible and as time permits, we should follow people up. We should at least pray for those with whom we’ve shared the gospel. Many Christians hesitate to evangelise because they feel unable to fulfil a perceived obligation to follow up. Can you see how the enemy would milk this thinking to shut down evangelism? I hope you can see! Even if someone reads a tract and understands it then rips it up the seed has been planted and the Holy Spirit can begin to work. After all, what does it matter what the farmer does with the packet which held the seeds after they have been planted in the ground? I hope you get the point. Key lessons from Mark 4:27 1. When the gospel is “planted” in the minds of non-Christians, the Holy Spirit, the Father, and the Son go to work on it. 2. They continue to work on it, regardless of any other Christian behaviour. 3. The mechanics of how God saves people through the gospel is a mystery. 4. We need patience in evangelism after we have sown the gospel. In His infinite wisdom, only God knows when or if the point of conversion will come.

5. There is truth and error in the statement that everyone who hears the gospel must be followed up by a Christian.” Verse 28: “All by itself, the soil produces corn – first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.”

You may not have realised it, but you have just read the single most significant word in the entire Bible with respect to evangelism. There is one word which dominates this parable, and we find it here in verse 28. I mentioned this word earlier. It is the Greek word automate, which translates “all by itself.” Greek scholar Kenneth S. Wuest reveals the full weight behind this word. The word means in its totality, “self-moved, spontaneously, without external aid, and also beyond external control, with a way and a will, so to speak, of its own that must be respected and waited for… ‘the earth therefore, brings forth fruit automatically. The nature of the soil, the weather, and the cultivation of the plant, all enter in. But the secret of the growth is in the seed itself.’ ”34 Obviously, the seed relies on and needs the Trinity to grow it, which is the same in the natural world. So when we talk about the seed growing all by itself, we mean in the absence of all human effort. What we are talking about here is a complex, mysterious, supernatural interaction between the seed, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, and the person into whom the seed is planted! Martin Luther put it like this: “We should preach the Word, but the results must be left solely to God’s good pleasure . I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon 34 Kenneth S. Wuest. Mark In The Greek New Testament. Eerdmans Publishing, 1950, p.92

it. I did nothing; the Word did everything.”35 Wow! What great words from Luther! James Denney was a prominent New Testament scholar and theologian of the United Free Church in Scotland. He maintained that the gospel was so powerful that the Holy Spirit could work through it to plough, sow, water, grow, and harvest all at once. That is, he insisted that someone with no care for Jesus, who was not in contact with any Christian, and who had never visited a church, never read the Bible, and never seen Christians shining their lights, could hear the gospel just once and be instantly and thoroughly saved. He writes, “For the preaching of the atonement has something to do with producing the state of mind on which its reception depends.”36 The epicentre of this power is automate. Because of the promise of automate, the gospel, in itself, is not dependent on what comes before, with, or after its delivery.37 It has inherent power, and that power is God Himself. The 229 scholars that attended the This We Believe Conference in 2000 agreed: “We affirm that the gospel is the saving power of God in that the gospel effects salvation to everyone who believes, without distinction (Romans 1:16). The efficacy of the gospel is by the power of God Himself” (1 Corinthians 1:18).” 38 Because God, who is omnipotent, backs the gospel, it has unlimited power. American Evangelist Greg Laurie concurs: “We often underestimate the raw power of the gospel to reach even the most hardened heart. Don’t underestimate its appeal. Don’t be ashamed of its simplicity. Don’t add or take away from it. Just proclaim it – then stand back and watch what God will do. I have 35 Luther’s Works 51:77 36 James Denney. The Death Of Christ. Chicago: Inter Varsity Press, 1951, p.170 37 This is not saying that prayer, good works, social action, etc are of little value. In Mini Book Eleven, I made it clear that ‘ploughing’ and ‘watering’ were vital aspects in the process of drawing non-Christians to Christ. 38 Razi Zacharius et al. This We Believe. Zondervan. 2000, p.331.

been amazed time and time again at how God so powerfully uses this simple yet incredibly profound message to radically change lives. I’ve seen it transform hardened Satanists as well as devoutly religious people who had previously not understood their need for Christ. I have witnessed its ability to heal broken families, break people’s addiction to drugs, and free individuals who have been deceived by various cults. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the most powerful message ever given, and through it God can and does change even the most broken life.”39 In the supernatural realm, this concept of “an automatic seed” is astounding. We get the word “automatic” from automate. Jesus is saying that just as surely as good seed planted in good soil in the natural realm will produce a bumper harvest, so the gospel will because of its inherent power, automatically produce a bumper crop in the supernatural. No wonder the Early Church was so fanatical about proclaiming the gospel. They knew this about automate. The legendary English preacher and theologian Dr W. Graham Scroggie (1877-1958) comments on automate: “[the seed] springs up and grows without the sower’s aid…the seed has a secret energy of its own, a principle of life and growth within itself, and so it will obey the law of its being, and come to maturity... Having faithfully sown, he [the farmer] must believe in the vital potency of the seed.”40 Dr D. Edmond Hiebert adds, “[automate describes] growth produced by a self-acting, spontaneous power within the seed which acts independently of man’s agency. The earth itself does not produce the growth but is the medium for the germinating power of the seed.” 41 Dr B. Harvie Branscomb stated, “The emphasis on [this] 39 Greg Laurie. How To Share Your Faith. Tyndale books, 1999, p.52 40 Dr W. Graham Scroggie. The Gospel Of St. Mark. Marshall, Morgan and Scott, (publishing date not given), P.85 41 D. Edmond Hiebert. Mark. A Portrait Of A Servant. Moody Press, 1974, p.109

parable falls, not on the gradual growth of the seed, but on the fact that it comes ‘of itself,’ that the sower merely sows, and then waits for the earth itself to bring the seed to its full maturity.”42 The Interpreter’s Bible talks about the “indefeatable forces on the side of the Kingdom.”43 This is an outstanding thing to say. Think about it. We are in a battle for the souls of men and women. When the gospel becomes central, we become the undefeatable army of the living God. But when we don’t proclaim the gospel, we put nothing in the hands of the Lord with which to defeat the enemy. When we don’t proclaim the gospel, we give evil, darkness, and sin permission to take over. We have all seen the “undefeatable force” of a seed. Recall the last time you saw a tree push through solid concrete on a road or a footpath? What’s the parallel for evangelism? When we proclaim or spread the gospel, there is real hope for the lost. Hardened atheists, indifferent, yawning agnostics, people who have been hurt by Christians – all can be redeemed through the undefeatable gospel. Skeptical family members, proud employers, unbelieving neighbours and scoffing workmates – their attitude to God matters little to the undefeatable seed. The gospel is no respecter of persons. God delights to work through the seed of the gospel to win them all. • Can you see now why the enemy has launched all his devices to stop evangelism? • Can you see why Jesus considered the evangelisation of the earth a priority? • Can you see why He commanded us to make disciples? In His mind He wanted us to increase the size of the army who 42 Dr B. Harvie Branscomb. The Gospel Of Mark. Hodder and Stoughton, 1964, p.83 43 The Interpreter’s Bible. Volume 7. Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, Nashville, 1951, p.704

would proclaim and spread this supernatural seed! Lest you are still not yet convinced, please read on. Christian Schwarz, the expert on natural church development, comments on the principle: “The ‘all by itself ’ principle is not merely a nice word picture. I understand it to be the very essence of church growth. Growing churches utilise this principle.”44 The tropical rain forests, untouched by humans for thousands of years, are vivid examples of the self-regenerating power of vegetation which God has established on the earth. Everyone of those trees grows seeds, and throws out seeds. What God does in the natural realm, He wants to replicate in the supernatural, but He can only do so if we sow the supernatural seed of the gospel. Another scripture is Romans 1:16, “...the gospel is the power of God for salvation.” According to the Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon, the word “power’” in this verse means “inherent power, power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature, or which a person or thing exerts and puts forth.”45 How should an understanding of automate change the way we are currently doing evangelism? First, we must return to the practice of reaching total strangers through personal evangelism. By total strangers I mean non-Christians who don’t have a Christian friend and who never listen to Christian radio or TV, or read Christian literature. They are a massive group of people.46 Up until now, reaching this group of people through personal evangelism has been put in the ‘too hard basket’ by most Christians – 98 percent of Christians if we go by the statistics I presented in the Mini Book One. Yet, the Early Church relentlessly went to this group 44 Christian A. Schwarz. Natural Church Development. A Guide To Eight Essential Qualities Of Healthy Churches. C&P Publishing, Germany, 1996, p.12 45 Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems Inc, 1995. 46 For example, if 10% of the general population in a nation are genuine Christians, and each has three non-Christians they are actively befriending with the intention of bringing them to faith, we could say that the Christians in that nation were reaching 30% of the non-Christian population. Who is going to reach the other 60% with the gospel?

with the gospel, and in doing so experienced prolific Church growth. There is a second implication for evangelism when we truly comprehend this word automate. This is illustrated in a conversation I had with a Christian businessman. He was excited about a “new” strategy he felt God had given him. “Julian,” he began, “My wife and I have led a dozen families to the Lord since we became Christians 20 years ago, just by building relationships and letting our light shine. They have all been baptised...they went the whole way. Our whole family of five was involved. This is the most effective way to win the lost and glorify Jesus! If everyone in the Church did this – led one person to the Lord a year through being a shining light – and then those who were led to the Lord led one person a year to the Lord themselves, and so on, we could double the Church every year!” He was excited, but once again, his strategy contained truth and error. The truth? First, building relationships and letting our light shine are critically important “ploughing” and “watering” behaviours in the process of drawing non-Christians to Christ. Secondly, it is a wonderful thing to involve a whole family in leading other families to Christ. William Booth and his wife Catherine, founders of the mighty Salvation Army, were shining examples of this. Finally, the businessman’s mathematics are accurate. hat are the misunderstandings this businessman has taken on board? First, his idea promotes the device of the enemy that evangelism is the winning of souls, as opposed to proclamation. Secondly, letting our light shine, as important as it is in the process of drawing non-Christians to Christ, is not the most effective way to win the lost. Thirdly, it does not take into account the supernatural promise of the “all by itself” principle. For example, instead of adopting

the proposed “let your light shine” plan, let’s look at what would happen if this businessman spent 20 years proclaiming the gospel just by himself (i.e. taking no time to train anyone else how to share the gospel) and letting his light shine with the twelve families. Say he shared the authentic gospel lovingly and graciously, with one person a day. Not taking into account leap years, he would have planted the seed of the gospel in 7300 people. Let’s suppose automate kicked in but only a meagre 10 percent of the “seed” came up “automatically” (i.e. 10 percent of 7300 people were saved).47 A staggering 730 would have come to the faith plus twelve families. Let’s say the other four members of the businessman’s family followed his example and started proclaiming the gospel. Potentially, 3650 people (i.e. 5 x 730) would have been saved. It is no coincidence that the parable of the mustard seed (Mark 4:32) follows Mark 4:26-29. Please take time to read these two parables and meditate on their intimate connection. y ordering these two parables in this way, The Holy Spirit, through Mark, is trying to communicate to us the enormous potential of gospel proclamation, but we are just not getting it. Jesus is trying to encourage the disciples to see, by faith, the stunning potential of true Biblical evangelism. He is trying to tell them that out of twelve disciples, a mustard seed of men, the worldwide Church as we know it today would grow, but only if they scattered automate seed. The disciples believed Him and did what He said. Look what happened. “...The largest of all the plants in the garden has sprung up [i.e. the Christian Church we see today]” Mark 4:32. Knowing what you now know about the gospel, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work out why Jesus issued the

47 In the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1ff), there are four types of soil. Only one is ‘good soil’ which bears fruit. Purely hypothetically, let’s speculate that Jesus is teaching that 25% of the time the gospel is sown, it will strike good soil. With my 10% calculation, I have significantly under estimated the strike rate.

command to “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel.” In the long term, the most effective way to win the lost is through personal evangelism – if we are to believe Jesus regarding automate. Why on earth would Jesus give us that instruction if there had been a better way? Even if the current strategy of your church to win the lost is working, and you are not majoring on proclaiming the gospel, you are moving in, and living in, God’s second best. You are effectively saying to God “Move aside God. We know better.” If you are a leader reading this, why keep your people living in God’s second best? Surely, as their shepherd, you have a responsibility to lead them into the best? Yes? No? (James 3:1). Plan “A”, the best, God’s will, is right there for you. But you will only step into this plan when you take seriously His plan to mobilse 100% of your people for evangelism. The enemy knows all about the word automate, and the teaching in this parable, and that’s why he has majored on shutting down personal evangelism. Get a vision of everyone in your church skilfully and regularly proclaiming the gospel. Ask God to help you see the whole world as one great field, and 100% of believers as a great army of seed sowers. See all non-Christians as ready to be sown. Get a vision of you personally leading the way. When you do this, you will have captured the very core of Jesus’ heart for you, His Church, and for the salvation of the world. o evangelism by faith, not by sight… Make personal evangelism a feature of your life – and be patient when it comes to seeing results. Evangelist Greg Laurie testifies: “We need to keep sowing the seed of the gospel – because

it is not over until God has finished working.48 God tells me I need to be patient when it comes to sharing my faith. [Patience] is not an easy task. An important thing to remember, however, is that the harvest is not over at the end of the church service but at the end of the age. We have heard so many stories over the years of those who have attended our Harvest Crusades and did not commit their lives to Christ at the actual crusade but came to the Lord later. Sometimes it is no longer than when they step out into the stadium parking lot after the meeting. At other times it may be a day, a week, a few months or even years later.”49 Charles Spurgeon said much the same thing more than a century earlier: “You must have great faith in the Word of God if you are to be winners of souls to those who hear it. You must believe in the power of that message to save people.”50 ou give permission for God to open the iron gates to set prisoners free… Before I bring this discussion about automate to a close, let me show you a final thing about this word. The only other place in the New Testament where the word is used is in Acts 12:10-11. “They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself [automate], and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, ‘Now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent His angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.’” God worked through an angel to “automatically” open an iron gate to free Peter from prison. The angel could have just prayed

48 Greg Laurie. How To Share Your Faith. Tyndale books, 1999, p.21 49 ibid. pp.17-18 50 Charles Spurgeon. The Soul Winner: Advice On Effective Evangelism. Christian Focus Publications, 2003, p.41

for him. He didn’t do that. He went to him and led him out. Is it just coincidence that this is the only other place in the Bible where this word is used? You know the answer. You too can be like one of God’s angels. Just find nonChristians, plant the seed of the gospel in the soil of their heart, and wait for God to “automatically open” the spiritual gates which are barring them from salvation. You too can be used by God to rescue prisoners held captive in the kingdom of darkness. Only you, one of God’s angels, can plant the seed. Only God can open the iron gates. You are the seed planter. He is the gate-opener. Verse 29: “As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” In the natural realm, good seed put into good soil, at the right time of the year, results in a harvest. There are two things we can learn from this, which apply to the supernatural realm: 1. The farmer has to discern when the crop is ripe. He does not put the sickle in until he discerns its readiness. After we have shared the gospel with someone, not all will be ‘ripe’ for harvest. When we present the gospel one-on-one, we must discern, case by case, whether to invite the person to convert to Christ. In the natural realm, if we pick the fruit before it is ready it is wasted and tastes sour. Yes, we can let the fruit ripen in the bowl, but fruit ripened in this way does not compare with fresh, tree-ripened fruit. If we put the heat on non-Christians to convert before they are ready, we can stall or even torpedo their progress towards Christ. Some may argue, “Hang on. Didn’t Jesus say ‘the fields are white for harvest?’” True, He did say this, but He did not say they were all ready for harvest, all of the time. You get the point. Dr William Barclay, in his commentary on John 4:35-38, gives 46

words of great wisdom and truth when he says “So in this passage there are two things. (1) There is the reminder of an opportunity. The harvest waits to be reaped for God. There comes times in history when men are curious and strangely sensitive to God. What a tragedy it is if Christ’s Church at such times fails to reap Christ’s harvest! (2) There is a reminder of a challenge [in John 4:35-38]. It is given to many a man to sow but not to reap. Many a ministry succeeds, not by its own force and merits, but because of some saintly man who lived and preached and died and left an influence which was greater in his absence than in his presence. Many a man has to work and never sees the results of his labours. I was once taken around an estate which was famous for its rhododendrons. It’s owner loved their acres and knew them all by name. He showed me certain seedlings which would take twenty-five years to flower. He was nearly seventy-five and would never see their beauty - but someone would. No work for Christ and no great undertaking ever fails. If we do not see the result of our labours, others will. There is no room for despair in the Christian life.”51 2. When the non-Christian we are talking to is “ripe’”we must not be afraid to apply the sickle. od wants us to expect certain and dramatic results if we faithfully sow… If we interpret verse 29 as a continuation of the previous verses of the parable, and most scholars do, we learn that in a well-sown field, most of the seed strikes. The point to grasp is that the harvest is certain. He does not say “...the harvest might come” or “...the harvest could come.” He specifically says “...the harvest has come.” This is a critical piece of information for us. If every believer was committed to planting the seed of the

51 Dr William Barclay. The Gospel Of John. Volume 1. Chapters 1-7. The Daily Bible Study. Saint Edinburgh Press. 1987. p.169

gospel everywhere as they went about their day, the results would be breath-taking. As I have already pointed out, the parable of the mustard seed which follows Mark 4:26-29, encourages us to look for a harvest of souls larger and grander than we have ever imagined – but only if we plant seed. From a tiny seed, and an insignificant beginning, something huge can grow. Are you “getting” this? losing the gap between theory and practice… The time of endless theorising, planning, praying, and conferencing about evangelism without executing a definite plan to mobilise everyone to actually do it must come to an end. I cannot think of a church or Christian organisation anywhere which does not have somewhere in its mission statement a reference to the priority of reaching people with the gospel. Yet I can think of only one or two churches in the world that are actually seriously attempting to mobilise their people to do it. The bottom line? The gap between theory and practice for many churches and individuals has become so appallingly large, an outsider looking in would conclude we are living in deep deception. We are living in spiritual la la land. Dr David Barrett, an Anglican historian, wrote: “The greatest enemy of world evangelisation is Christian rhetoric - the continual discussing and arguing, the endless talking and preaching about evangelising the world, without any of the crucial implementation.”52 We are experts at being diverted, distracted, delayed, and duped regarding evangelism. The time to obey Jesus and sow the supernatural, unstoppable, undefeatable, all-by-itself, Godordained gospel is now. The following poem illustrates our talent for putting off

52 Cited in George B. Duncan. One Race. One Gospel. One Task. World Congress On Evangelism. World Wide Publications, 1967, p58

participating in evangelism. On one hand it is amusing, but on the other, deeply challenging because it’s communicating truth about you and me.

The Fisherman’s Poem Now it came to pass that a group existed who called themselves fishermen. And lo, there were many fish in the waters all around. In fact the whole area was replete with streams and lakes, replete with fish. And the fish were hungry. Week after week, month after month and year after year, those who called themselves fishermen held meetings and talked about their call to fish, the abundance of fish, and how they might go about fishing. Year after year they carefully defined what fishing meant, defended fishing as an occupation, and declared that fishing was always to be a primary task of fishermen. Continually they searched for new and better methods and for new and better definitions of fishing. Verily, they said, “The fishing industry exists by fishing as fire exists by burning.” They loved slogans such as “Fishing is the task of every fisherman.” They sponsored special celebrations called “Campaigns” and “Fishing Month.” They sponsored costly nationwide and worldwide congresses to debate fishing and to promote fishing and to hear about all the ways of fishing. 49

New fishing equipment, fish calls, and whether any new bait had been discovered. Fishing HQ was built: large, beautiful buildings. The plea went forth for everyone to fish. Only... They didn’t. They organised a Board to send out fishermen to other places. Staff were hired, committees appointed, meetings held. Meetings to justify fishing and to decide what new streams should be targeted. But the staff and committee members did not fish themselves. Large, elaborate training centres were built, in which to teach fishermen how to fish. Studied were the needs of fish, the nature of fish, where to find fish, the psychological reactions of fish, and how to approach and feed fish. The teachers had doctorates in fishology, although the teachers did not fish themselves. They did issue licences. Many felt the call and were sent to fish. They built power plants to pump water for fish, and provided tractors to dredge new waterways. They made all kinds of equipment to improve fish hatcheries. Some said they felt called to furnish fishing equipment. Few of them actually fished. One young fellow, after a stirring meeting on “The Necessity of Fishing,” went fishing. 50

The next day he reported that he had caught two outstanding fish. He was honoured for his excellent catch and contracted to visit all the big meetings possible to tell how he did it. So he quit doing it in order to make time to tell others about the experience. They placed him on the Fishermen’s General Board as “A person having considerable experience.”53 According to the research I quoted at the beginning of this Series, this poem describes 98% of the current Church. Why don’t you make a decision right now to quit being part of the 98% and determine to join the 2%? Ultimately only you can mobilise yourself for personal evangelism. My prayer and vision for the Church is that within ten years, this ratio will be inverted. Now, back to Mark 4:26-29. o not be discouraged if we do not see results straight away...or even if you never see results. In Mark 4:29, the phrase “As soon as the grain is ripe…” follows the phrase, “first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.” This is an exhortation to patience. We are not wasting our time and resources if we evangelise and we don’t see a result straight away, or even after a long time. In fact, as I point out in a later Mini Book in this series, even if the whole world was evangelised and absolutely no one was converted, Jesus will have been glorified through our evangelism efforts, which is what evangelism is ultimately all about. Whatever you do, don’t miss the Mini Book which deals with our motivation for evangelism. It’s packed with thrilling revelations about motives!

53 Dr Darrell W. Robinson. People Sharing Jesus. Nashville. Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995, pp.21-23

Bible scholar Dr Richard Glover comments on the meaning of this verse: “Put away all impatience and all fear as to its ultimate success.”54 I have seen the “ultimate success” of the gospel and the “putting away of all impatience” in the lives of others many times. On a recent ministry trip to England, for example, I went to lunch with an elderly man and his wife. I asked them to tell me how they were saved. She had been a Christian all her life, but had married a non-Christian. Early in the marriage she had shared the gospel clearly with him, but he had not responded. They had two children and the marriage became very difficult – he turned antagonistic towards Christians and Christianity and would not allow Christian literature or Christian talk in the house. The only thing he would allow was grace at mealtimes. One day, after nearly three decades of marriage, they sat down to breakfast and proceeded to say grace before the meal. On the surface, this grace was no different from any other. But this day was different. During this particular grace, the Holy Spirit came in sudden power upon the husband. In front of the astonished family members, he broke down at the table, and in tears confessed his sins, asked his family for forgiveness, and invited Jesus into his life. According to his wife, “You couldn’t stop him evangelising, and you couldn’t stop him smiling. He was ‘up’ for months!” God chose to move suddenly and dramatically. This real life testimony shows “automate” at its best. Drawing someone to God takes time. Factors outside of God’s convicting power can fertilise the seed (for example the quality and number of Christian friends, prayer, the influence of Christian family, TV, radio, books, tapes, reading the Bible, etc) but ultimately 54 Dr Richard Glover. The Gospel Of Mark. Marshall, Morgan and Scott, 1957, p.70

only God can grow it. According to Dr David McKenna, Jesus is deliberately slowing us down by describing a process which cannot be sped up or shortcircuited: “Because we cannot control God’s timing for the growth of the Kingdom of God, we must trade in our stopwatches for calendars.”55 racking John Wesley’s meetings… It is worth noting that a researcher, Thomas Albin, once tracked people who had attended John Wesley’s meetings. Many people were converted during those meetings but many more went away without converting immediately. Albin tracked the latter group. He wanted to know how long it took for the seed of the gospel Wesley had preached to strike, grow, and ripen for harvest. Albin found that some took two minutes to convert after hearing the gospel after leaving one of John Wesley’s meetings, some two hours, some two days, some two weeks, some two years, and some twenty years. The average was two years.56 ow does this Parable sync with the Parable of the Seed and the Sower? (Matthew 13:3-9; Mark 4:2-9; and Luke 8:4-8.) In the parable of the seed and the sower, Jesus points out all the opposition the gospel faces: rocks, weeds, a path, and birds which turn out to be the devil, riches, tribulation, persecution, and the cares of this world - eight opponents. These opponents of the gospel are no trouble to automate! How do we know this? Mark 2:28 does not say “All by itself the earth might yield crops...” It says “All by itself, the earth yields crops.” In other words because of automate, the crop is “a promise” not a “maybe.” For a crop to realise from the planting of seed, opponents must have

55 Dr David L. McKenna. The Communicator’s Commentary. Mark. Word Books, 1984, p.102 56 Dr David L. McKenna. The Communicator’s Commentary. Mark. Word Books, 1984, p.102

been vanquished. What’s the point? God can overrule in any situation no matter how hard because of the promise of automate in Mark 4:28. Because of this revelation of automate, the Parable of the Growing Seed is therefore the central teaching of Jesus on the subject of evangelism in the New Testament. It “trumps” all the other parables which allude to evangelism because no other parable reveals this amazing key to unprecedented harvest. lan for a football stadium of souls in heaven, not a tea party… Just the thought of planting the seed of the gospel into the minds of non-Christians, perhaps never seeing them again,57 and then meeting them in heaven is an inspiring thought which causes my spirit to overflow with excitement! I don’t want to be greeted in heaven by a tiny, back-garden tea party. I’d prefer multiple football stadiums, jam-packed.58 The only factor determining which one will be yours, is what action you take - and continue to take – for the rest of your life, and how many others you train to do the same. If you sow the gospel, either by spreading it through tracts or proclaiming it, God will work through you to save people. If you don’t, he won’t. At a base level, it’s as simple as that. I want you to meditate on the thought of living with Jesus for eternity, surrounded by millions of souls,59 knowing that God used

57 This is not saying we don’t want to meet them again! But if we want to reach the world, there will be many people we reach who we will not see again in this world because either they are moving around or we are. 58 Please don’t interpret this as promoting the idea that we do evangelism for self gratification or personal glory. God forbid. In Mini Book Twenty Three, I discuss what ought to motivate us for evangelism. 59 Yes, I mean millions. The people God uses you to save, God will in turn use to save others. God will use you to start a “domino effect of salvations” which could last, literally, into all eternity, especially if you teach others how to proclaim and spread the gospel. This thought, I pray, rather than pollute your motives for evangelism, will spur you on to greater fruitfulness. When Jesus exhorts us to store up riches in heaven (Matthew 6:19), the most valuable of all heavenly riches is ‘souls’ (Mark 8:36).

you in a small way, through the gospel, to get them there.60 Then, when you arrive in heaven, not only will you be eternally thankful to Jesus, giving all the glory to Him, but you will be thrilled that you took what Jesus taught about automate in Mark 4:26-29 seriously. No wonder the enemy is wildly committed to shutting down evangelism. He knows full well the Parable of the Growing Seed and wants to rob you of this eternal possibility. etting a Kingdom mentality about evangelism… As I draw this exegesis of Mark 4:26-29 to a close, I want you to notice that Jesus began the Parable by saying, “This is what the Kingdom of God is like.” Why is this significant? God is looking for leaders with a Kingdom world view of evangelisation. Let me explain. Proclaiming the gospel will not specifically guarantee an influx of new converts into your church. We need a new maturity and understanding about this. To succeed with evangelism in the world, we must be committed to growing the Kingdom, not just our kingdom. Will you, as a pastor, sow resources into a harvest field that might not show an immediate result for your church? What happens if the resources you sow into the people of your neighbourhood result in a harvest for the church down the road? Jesus calls you to rejoice at the thought. One great thing God has done for me in evangelism is change my heart. Once I had a “my church” mentality. God has changed that. I now love all the churches and I want to help fill them all

60 If you faithfully spread and/or proclaim the gospel, and not one person is saved through your efforts, you will have at least four things to rejoice about in heaven. (1) You will have glorified God on earth, for we know that spreading and proclaiming the gospel is one of the most potent ways of glorifying Jesus. (2) The blood of non-Christians will be off your hands (Ezekiel 33:7-9) (3) You will have the satisfaction of knowing that you did the priority of the will of Jesus. You will hear Him say to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21). (4) You will have loved God (John 14:21), fulfilling the greatest commandment.

for His glory.61 ree at last… When I go into churches to preach, I always proclaim the gospel and then give an altar call. Sometimes people come to the front, after the service has finished, and tell me sheepishly that they have discovered for the first time that they were not Christians; and they apologise for not coming to the front at the altar call. When they ask how they can be saved, I direct them to the follow-up booklet which we have produced and ask them to work through it. I ask them to think carefully about their impending decision and encourage them to work with their pastor for clarification and support and to have questions answered. Below is a letter, originally written by hand, that was on my desk when I returned home from a ministry trip. When I first picked it up I noticed the return address was a women’s prison.The writer has given me permission to share what she wrote.

C Wing Mt Eden Women’s Prison Private Bag Auckland New Zealand. Dear Julian, You may not remember me, but you came to [my church]62 last year. I talked to you afterwards and told you that I realised I was going to hell. You told me, “You know what you have to do then.” 61 This does not mean I don’t have a great commitment to my own church. Clearly I do, and I want you to have the same commitment to your local church. It’s not either/or. It’s both. 62 The church name was provided, but has been intentionally omitted.

Yes, Julian, I did know. It took me a month or so to do it, but I did. As you can see, I am now in prison on remand because the only way I could make sure I got to heaven was to go to the police and confess to them after I had told my pastor. Well, I am now facing a murder charge and am looking at life imprisonment. But you know what Julian – I am finally free. I am finally able to go to God and be clean. I am more free than I have ever been. I have two of your follow up booklets63 in here but wouldn’t mind a few more. Thank you so much for your words. I guess no one knew exactly what it would result in, except God. Thank you. Best wishes Andrea There it is, a modern-day illustration of the Pearl of Great Price. No one would ever have found out this woman’s crime. She had, literally, gotten away with murder. When she heard the gospel, the holy wound was inflicted through the Law, and then the holy balm of grace was applied through the Cross. She confessed, and later accepted imprisonment in order to be right with God. Now she is clean. This woman is a heroine because of her courage; and the gospel once again proves its power to save, heal and restore. I proclaimed the gospel in a church service where Andrea sat, and it clarified the real issues. The Holy Spirit brought conviction, she responded, and God received all the glory. ime has not eroded the effectiveness of the gospel… Here is the challenge for you and I. Andrea’s story could be repeated all over the globe if only we would realise the gospel really is the power of God for salvation.

63 The follow up booklet is called “How To Be Sure Of Going To Heaven When We Die” which we give to people after they have heard the gospel. They are available from www.esisite.com

In our battle for the souls of men and women, to relentlessly proclaim the gospel to all non-Christians everywhere is to tap into the most potent of all strategies from heaven. After considering everything I have written in this Mini Book, can you see why Paul in Galatians 1:6-9 gives such a strong rebuke to the Church in Galatia for preaching another gospel? Paul knew full well what Jesus had taught in Mark 4:26-29. He knew that if we change “the seed” (by stripping out vital content such as justification by faith alone, sin, the law, justice, hell, final judgement etc) the seed would not grow, just as a chopped-up seed in the natural realm will not grow. Can you also see why churches which turn to commercialism, hype, and marketing at the expense of evangelism to win the lost are doing something which is utterly insulting to Jesus? Something completely at odds with His plan and pattern for the redemption of this lost world? Can you see why if we simply and endlessly worship Jesus through singing songs, attend Bible studies, listen to great sermons, do good works, pray, and attend conferences and camps but don’t go to the lost with the gospel 365 days of the year, we are utterly failing with the priority of Jesus? Let me say it again - our number one priority before God is to mobilise the whole Church to take the whole gospel to the whole world. The results are up to God. But will we do it? What action are you going to take? What action is your church going to take? I leave the final word to eminent theologian and author Dr Millard Erickson: “The Church can display the same confidence in the gospel that Paul had, for it is still the same gospel; time has not eroded its effectiveness.”64 “..if the Church is to be faithful to its Lord, it must be engaged in bringing the gospel to all people....if it does not, it will spiritually ill, for it will be attempting to function in a way its Lord never intended.”65 64 Millard Erickson. Christian Theology. Baker Books, 1988, p.1065 65 Ibid, 1054

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God has chosen to appoint people as His co-workers in both the physical and spiritual realms. In the physical realm, the farmer sows the seed and then waits for growth to occur. Likewise, in the spiritual realm, Christians have been commanded by their Lord to sow the seed of the gospel (Romans 10: 14-15; Mark 16:15) and demonstrate the Word (Luke 8:11) to those around us. We too must wait for God to “grow” the seed of the gospel (1 Cor. 3:6-7). In both the physical realm (i.e. agriculture) and the spiritual realm (i.e Christian evangelism), the power of life and growth is in the seed. With right strategies and tools, evangelism is easier than most think. With the right strategies and tools, absolutely everyone can succeed with evangelism. It is a mistake to think we must personally “plough” the hearts of non-Christians with a good work, or build a relationship with them, before we present the gospel to them. The Holy Spirit is constantly “ploughing” the hearts of nonChristians through conscience and creation to prepare them to receive the seed of the gospel. Furthermore, being made in the image of God, and having eternity in their hearts, the vast majority of non-Christians are right now open to hear the Gospel message. This does not mean we are to not engage in social action and build relationships with the lost etc. Social action and building relationships simply add to the “ploughing” that God is already doing through conscience and creation, having eternity in our hearts etc. On the basis of the bullets above, we have no excuse to not 59

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reach total strangers with the gospel. Under no circumstances are we to substitute sowing for ploughing, which is what the vast majority of churches have done. In a nutshell, this is the tragic problem this book is addressing. Another reason we don’t give the gospel to strangers is we don’t understand the beauty, majesty, and wonder of how evangelism works and what Jesus taught about it. The beauty, majesty, and wonder of how evangelism works and what Jesus taught about is most clearly seen in Mark 4:26-29. This parable is the central teaching of Jesus in the New Testament on the subject of evangelism In this parable, Jesus teaches that our job in evangelism is tiny - we plant the seed. His job is huge - He brings belief and conviction. In this parable, Jesus teaches that if we sow the seed of the gospel, He, by His almighty power, will grow it. The pivotal word in this parable is automate. Another reason the Church has generally failed to give the gospel to strangers is that it has lacked good tools and strategies. How God grows the seed of the gospel is a mystery. The more seed we sow, the greater the harvest will be. This is the Law of sowing and reaping. Most Christians have never been discipled when it comes to knowledge and understanding of the theology and practice of evangelism. This is a tragedy beyond words given the evangelisation of the world is the priority of the Christian Church. It’s also a tragedy because it highlights a gaping hole in the discipleship programs of most churches. 60

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Galatians 1:6-9 (i.e. “woe to you if you preach another gospel”) and Mark 4:26-29 (i.e. “sow the seed of the gospel and reap a harvest” ) are intimately connected. If we play around with the seed (i.e. compromise on the content of the message) automate is nullified, and the whole redemptive plan of God is threatened. If in our church mission statements we say we promote and value evangelism and the Great Commission yet in reality we fail to mobilise our church members to spread and proclaim the gospel (i.e. we play lip service to evangelism and the Great Commission) we unwittingly send our people the message that evangelism and the Great Commission are just theories which don’t need to be out-worked in reality. CTION POINT: Start spreading awareness of the truths raised in this Mini Book to other Christians, particularly leaders. Email it to everyone on your address book and encourage them to do the same. Send them a PDF file. If you are reading a hard copy of this Mini Book, you can obtain a PDF copy by sending an email to julian@esisite.com. CTION POINT: Go to the leaders of your church. Ask them to make changes to their mission statement so that evangelism becomes central. Explain that it’s the Biblical priority to attempt to mobilise 100% of the people in your church to be active in evangelism. Ask them to contact me so I can show them how to do it (julian@esisite.com). Pray for them. Encourage them. Work with them. Support them.

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In the next Mini Book, I examine how Christian leaders, authors, evangelists and parents are singled out by the enemy for special attention. Some of the devices he uses to target them are more dangerous and toxic than any we have discussed so far. If you have any kind of leadership role in the Church, the insights in the next 61

Mini Books are intended to help you maximise your influence and effectiveness. If you are not a leader, the insights you are about to receive will enable you to pray more strategically for those who shepherd you in your church. Come with me. We are going right into the epicentre of the battle! This is one battle we must win if we want to see a Great Commission resurgence, a world-wide harvest of souls, and the glory of Jesus flooding the earth!

Real Life Story A High Court Judge Hears The Gospel England

Today I travelled by train from Southend-onSea to Exeter. When I arrived at the station and bought my ticket, I discovered the journey involved changing trains several times and some walking in between. Great, I thought, this will be an adventure! Everything went smoothly. At each station I asked the attendants for directions to the next train and there was no problem. The last leg of the journey was from Paddington to Exeter, which would take two and a half hours. I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t believe how many people were waiting to take this train and how long it was. When the gates were opened, a tsunami of people flooded into the train. The door to the carriage nearest the gate was open and so I went through it, put my bags on the racks, pulled out my lap top and promptly sat down. The first thing I noticed was how lovely the seats were. Opposite me was a man who looked like a lawyer, the table in front of him being strewn with 63

legal documents. Next I noticed the air-conditioning, the soft music and the leg room. My opinion of British Rail was going up rapidly. This was going to be a lovely ride to Exeter. It also registered – rather vaguely – that the carriage I was in wasn’t very full. I figured that was because the train was so big and that everyone else was spread out along it, enjoying the same unexpected comforts. As the train pulled out I tapped away on my laptop, looking up occasionally to enjoy the ever-changing view. About halfway through the journey I became conscious of the sound of clinking glasses. I looked around, and sure enough, to my delight, a waiter was working his way up the aisle, giving out drinks and food. I partook. Then, about two-thirds of the way to Exeter, another man appeared, asking for everyone’s tickets. When he came to me I gave him my ticket and thanked him for the excellent service. A little amused, he leaned close to my ear and explained, rather furtively, that I was sitting in first class, that I wasn’t supposed to be sitting here, and that if 64

I wanted to pay another £40 I could stay there for the remainder of the journey. He told me there were some spare seats at the opposite end of the train. I felt a little embarrassed and somewhat deflated. The ticket man left and the lawyer spoke up. Lawyer: “They are very pedantic aren’t they? I couldn’t help overhearing what he said to you. You know, I had trouble with one of these guys one day when he…” And he proceeded to tell me about the time he had lost his season ticket and British Rail would not let him travel. The rules! We talked for some time, and then I asked him what he did for a job. He told me he was a High Court Judge in London. His name was Alan. Never wanting to miss an opportunity, I said “Can I ask you a question. What’s the best selling book in the world?” He said “The Bible” and I explained that we’d made a video which summarises the whole book in 11 minutes. I invited him to watch it on my iphone, which he accepted. Thankfully, no other passengers were within earshot, and so our encounter was private. When I reflected over the incident later, it reminded me of Nicodemus and Jesus and their episode in the middle of the night. Alan was transfixed all the way through. When we reached the end of the presentation he confessed, albeit meekly, that if he died that night he would go to hell. I saw his eyes water, and felt overwhelming compassion for him. He told me, as if he were sharing a secret, that at 60-something 65

years old, he had never heard this message before. We talked a little more, still huddled over the iphone as the train rattled along. He was going to a city beyond Exeter he told me. At the end, I gave him a little follow-up booklet called “How To Be Sure Of Going To Heaven When We Die.”1 He took it eagerly. We both sat back in our seats and then I said to him that I had better heed the rules and head down the train into the other section. He asked if he could look after my bags for me in first class so that I didn’t have to take them all the way to the other end of the train. It was a lovely gesture. Walking through the carriages to the other end of the train seemed to take forever. I would have sat down close to first class if there had been a seat, but there wasn’t. When I did get to the other end of the train, there were no seats and so I stood in an area outside the toilet. Standing didn’t bother me – I had been sitting in luxury for more than two hours! As I stood there resetting my iphone for the next presentation of the gospel, a lady came out of the toilet and was looking out the window. I asked her if she would help me. She agreed and I proceeded to show her the video of the gospel. Near the end, she told me calmly and matterof-factly that she didn’t agree with any of it. She said she was from Bulgaria and “religion” had never been part of her life and she was an 1You can purchase these from www.esisite.com 66

atheist. Me: “Oh, how interesting! I don’t meet many atheists nowadays. You are becoming quite rare!” We laughed and then I asked her the final question. Me: “If you died tonight where would you go?” She said again that she didn’t believe in Jesus or God or heaven or hell. Me: “If this were true, where would you go?” Her: “Hell.” I offered to give her a follow-up booklet but she declined. We talked a little more about other things and then she moved back to her seat. “Well, Holy Spirit,” I said quietly, feeling rather sad for her, “she has heard the full gospel clearly and lovingly, and so now it is up to you to bring conviction.” I could rest in that thought. I was released. Ezekiel 33: 7-9 said that her blood was now off my hands. My responsibility was to sow the gospel with love and grace and without compromise and God’s responsibility is to grow it. She was so different from Alan! When the train pulled into Exeter I got off quickly and headed for the rear carriage where Alan would be waiting. However, the train was so long that by the time I was about half way, the station master’s whistle blew and the train was about to move on to the next station – with my bags still on board. Breaking into a sprint, I noticed Alan in the far distance, on the platform, with my bags in hand. He was talking to a station attendant. 67

As I got closer, I could see the attendant was in radio contact with the driver, asking him to wait. When I finally reached Alan, the attendant had gone and I had one of those precious God-moments in evangelism. He told me kindly that I was doing a wonderful job and wished me well “on my mission!” Puffing from the run, I said to him: Me: “Alan, if I never see you again on this earth, then I will look for you in heaven! You had better be there!” He got back on the train, the whistle blew, and the train pulled out. The last image I have of him was waving through the glass in first class. See you in heaven, Alan. And that is how the encounter ended. Thousands end like that. Nothing very dramatic. No triumphant story of instant salvation. Just the deep satisfaction of knowing that God has just used me to reach another human being with the incorruptible seed of the gospel and glory has gone to His name. I know Alan felt God touch him. It feels, truly, like life in all its fulness.

Julian’s comments.

Both Alan and the atheist heard the full gospel, delivered with love and grace. They are now safely in the hands of the Trinity. For an evangelist with right theology, this is a good days work. The main consideration for me as I reflected on this day was that Jesus had been glorified, and really, that’s the main thing about which we ought to be concerned.

The Full List Of Books In ‘The Truth About Evangelism’ Mini Series Book One Evangelism Lost! Exposing The True State Of Evangelism In Today’s Church

Book Two Seven Deadly Motives Exposing How The Enemy Is Shutting Down Evangelism.

Book Three The Sorrowful Collapse Of The Great Commission- A Dangerous Redefining Of Evangelism

Book Four Evangelism Redefined? Six Subtle Yet Devastating Redefinitions Of Evangelism

Book Five Confusion Busters 7 Things You Should Know About The Gospel Message

Book Six Six Ways To Move From Gospel Confusion To Gospel Clarity

Book Seven

The Evangelisation Of The World Is The Ulimate Purpose Of The Church. 7 Irrefutable Reasons It Is Time To Prioritise

Book Eight A Gift, A Call, Or A Commission. Are All Christians Commanded To Evangelise

Book Nine 12 Keys To Fearless Evangelism In The 21St Century

Book Ten Take Them Down. 12 Road Blocks And How To Get Through Them

Book Eleven The Key To Victory. Start Viewing Evangelism As An Event, Not A Process

Book Twelve

Confidence In The Gospel, Come Back! Four Essential Steps To Reclaiming Lost Ground!

Book Thirteen Prepare To Be Amazed! What Jesus Really Taught About Evangelism!

Book Fourteen What Leaders Must Do To Cause A Resurgence In World Evangelism

Book Fifteen A Plan Of Action To Cause A Resurgence In World Evangelism

Book Sixteen Church Leaders! This Is Your Time To Step Up! (Part 1)

Book Seventeen Church Leaders! This Is Your Time To Step Up! (Part 2)

Book Eighteen Church Leaders! This Is Your Time To Step Up! (Part 3)

Book Nineteen Church Leaders! This Is Your Time To Step Up! (Part 4)

Book Twenty Church Leaders! This Is Your Time To Step Up! (Part 5)

Book Twenty One Climb On Board! 4 Reasons Why Doing Evangelism Will Help Create A Better World!

Book Twenty Two Devastation! How Pseudo-Conversions Hinder Evangelism And What You Can Do To Stop The Rot!

Book Twenty Three “Friendship evangelism.” What’s good about it, and what’s heretical?

Book Twenty Four Unholy Grief! Five Ways Evangelists With The Gift Can Grieve The Holy Spirit

Book Twenty Five

The Highest Motive For Doing Evangelism? You’ll Be Amazed What The Bible Teaches! Conclusion

Book Twenty Six Appendix One : If We Fail To Evangelise, We Fail. Period. By Dr K.P. Yohannan

Appendix Two : The Pastor Evangelist. By Dr. Roger S. Greenway

Appendix Three : True Gospel Must Be Heard, By Kevyn Harris

Appendix Four : This We Believe Signatories

Appendix Five : Device 84. “I don’t like being told to do evangelism!”

Book Twenty Seven The Evangelism Fitness Test