From Acts 5 (RSV) Now many signs and wonders were done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon's Portico. None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high honor. The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed. But the high priest rose up and all who were with him, that is, the party of the Sad'ducees, and filled with jealousy they arrested the apostles and put them in the common prison. But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, "Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life." And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and taught.
I John 1:2,4 (NIV) 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.
The early church was not a debating club on the existence of God, nor a benevolent human agency with good intentions to help other people. The church was a conquering community with startling vitality. It was exhilaratingly alive with the very life of the risen Christ. And that life was contagious, rejuvenating a world grown cold and weary, replacing doubt with faith, fear with hope, and pessimism with courage and confidence in a sovereign God.
Evangelism is offering the life of Jesus Christ to another. Evangelism begins when the power of His life invades and impacts the lives of others. We have that life alive in us. We have the power to impact the life of another with the life of Jesus Christ. Evangelism is complete when we recognize the source and are drawn into a relationship of faith and obedience to Him.
There are still people being put into jails for offering the life of Jesus Christ to others. But, for most of us, our prisons are of our own making. We may be held in captivity by our own complacency. Self-doubt can also bind us, the belief that we are not good enough, or spiritual enough, or we do not know enough to offer the life of Christ to another. We can also be held captive by the closed, cramped quarters of daily demands, hassles and busyness.
Go … and speak to the people all the words of this life. Go, not because you are forced to but because by God’s grace you have been freed to offering the life of His Son to others. Go, not because you are good enough but because you are willing enough to speak to the people all the words of this life.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope August 11, 1985
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell
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