Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus the Pharisee in the third charter of John is among the most well-known passages in the Bible. Here in these verses we find out the one must be born again, that the Holy Spirit goes where He wishes, that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son and that men love darkness rather than light. In addition to the immense theological truths that are taught by the Lord Jesus here, I believe there are also lessons to be learned from Jesus about how to share the gospel with those who do not yet believe. I think we can learn evangelism from Jesus from this passage. In this article I want to bring out what the Lord is teaching me about evangelism in this encounter.

First, Jesus makes a statement that is both unexpected and highly unusual, and it causes Nicodemus to ask a question that engages him in a gospel conversation with Jesus. Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God (3:3).” Nicodemus has never heard anything like this from any other rabbi and it takes him almost by surprise. It arrests his attention and causes him to almost spontaneously ask for more information. “What do you mean ‘born again’?” The statement by our Lord demands an explanation or provokes a response, and this is where the lesson begins for me and you. The Master demonstrates a skill for us that we can emulate and learn. APPLICATION (ACTION): The skilled evangelist has learned the art of asking questions or making statements that provoke engagement and that create curiosity which demands an explanation. Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again, so Nicodemus had to find out what “born again” meant. So, Jesus’ statements not only arrested his attention, but they also opened the door for a gospel conversation. I want to develop a battery of planned questions or statements that are provocative (in the right sense of the word) and that lead to the gospel. The skill, then, is to develop these planned questions and statements and then plan how to lead the conversation to the gospel. Jesus does it masterfully, but we can also do this kind of thing effectively.

Second, notice how Jesus takes the initiative and leads the conversation where He wants it to go. Yes, He is the Lord of glory and He knows what is in a man (John 2:24) and we cannot discern those kinds of things in ourselves, but what we can do is engage in evangelism with an ATTITUDE of confident BOLDNESS. We can be confident that the Lord has called us to this activity (Acts 1:8, etc.). We can be confident that the Lord has called us to this task (Isaiah 43:10, 12; etc.). We know that the Lord is drawing His people to Himself (John 6:44), so we can speak the gospel with boldness. And we know that we are not to be those who shrink back (Hebrews 10:39), so we present the gospel whether the other person is open or not. (2 Timothy 4:2; 1 Thess. 2:3; Acts 1:8; Acts 4:27) So, we must be committed to declare the gospel with boldness, but we also must be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Third, as we watch Jesus engage in this conversation with Nicodemus, we see that Jesus moves relentlessly toward the gospel. While it may appear that at times He is just passing the time of day, Jesus is always asking questions and making statements that directly or indirectly declare the gospel. He moves irresistibly and relentlessly toward the gospel. In every encounter, Jesus’ target is the gospel. He is intent on declaring the glory of God and bent on bringing men from darkness to light. His words are not randomly chosen to tickle the ears, but they are sharp arrows meant to pierce to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow. He is presenting a holy God to a sinful person with the goal of laying bare their unrighteousness so that they will bow the knee. In this, the Lord Jesus is the perfect example, and while we can never emulate His perfect presentation of the gospel, we can emulate His intentionality and sobriety. As Jesus is intentional and serious, so we are to be intentional and serious as we, with the empowering of the Holy Spirit, move conversations toward the cross and plead with men and women to be saved from this perverse generation.

SDG        rmb        1/25/2019

Back on June 22 of 2018 I had published the first of a series of articles on “Proclaiming Christ in a Deaf World,” and that first article was on the Sower from Matthew 13:3. As I have reflected on the theme of the Sower since then, it has occurred to me how many verses in the Bible relate to agricultural subjects and pictures. Many of these verses teach the disciples of Jesus how to communicate Christ to any culture. That is, there are embedded in these verses principles for how to present Christ to a culture like ours, that generally ignores Him. I wanted to cover some of those verses now with a few brief comments on each. I had started this list of verses a few days ago, but there are several more that I will add now.

(Again, these are in no particular order but appear as they occurred to me.)

Matthew 20 and the parable of the vineyard is a story in which the master of the vineyard calls laborers from the marketplace into his vineyard to work it. In just this manner, the Lord of glory has called you and me out of the vast, unsaved marketplace of the world and has sent us to labor in His vineyard, and He expects us to bring a return. We were standing idle in the marketplace and spending our lives in useless ventures (Titus 3:3), no matter how noble we thought those ventures were, and the Lord called us to be eternally useful for Him in His kingdom labor.

In Matthew 25, the Lord Jesus tells the parable of the talents, where the master of the field goes away on a long journey and then returns. The point of this parable is that we are to be faithful laborers in the Lord’s field, and we are to invest our time and our “talents” to bring a return for the Lord with whatever He has entrusted to us, whether big or small. The critical question thus becomes, “What does it look like in practical terms for me to be a ‘faithful’ sower?” To receive the commendation from the Master, I believe we need to sow intentionally and persistently and regularly. Then we will hear the Master say, “Well done.”

In Mark 4, our Lord tells another parable: “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the ground; and he goes to bed by night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts up and grows – how, he does not know (4:26-27).” The message of this parable is that, if we do our part, which is scattering the seed, then the Lord will do His part, which is causing the seed to grow. If we as sowers scatter the seed, the Lord can cause some of it to grow, but if there is no seed sown, then the Lord cannot cause the seed to grow. If there is no seed, then there is no harvest. The Lord knows the mysteries of seed growth, but He has entrusted the scattering of the seed to us. Will we be faithful to scatter the seed?

Paul says something similar in 1 Corinthians 3, when he writes, “I planted; Apollos watered, but it was God who was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth (3:6-7).” We are responsible to take the God-given gospel seed and plant it and water it, but we are not responsible to make it grow, because we are not able to make anything grow. We can plant and water, and therefore we are responsible for those activities, but growth requires divine power. But woe to us if we do not do the things the Lord has commanded us to do. We are commanded to scatter the seed and leave the growth to God. Are you scattering seed?

Ecclesiastes says much the same thing when Solomon writes about the life used by God using agricultural terms: “Divide your portion to seven, or even to eight (11:2).” Scatter a lot of seed in multiple fields, because you do not know which one will sprout. “He who watches the wind will not sow and he who looks at the clouds will not reap (11:4).” Concentrate on your task of sowing and do not become distracted or procrastinated. Life is short and the time to sow and reap is brief. So, get after it! “Sow your seed in the morning and do not be idle in the evening, for you do not know whether morning or evening sowing will succeed, or whether both of them alike will be good (11:6).” Do not count on one strategy to succeed so that you ‘put all your eggs in one basket.’ If you assume your single strategy will certainly succeed and then nothing results of it instead, then the sum of your results is nothing. Rather, humbly expect that even your best plan may not succeed, so employ multiple channels and backup plans, so that you will have many potential avenues of success

In these passages, God is not giving us strategies to make money in the stock market or even advice about being a successful farmer. God is giving instruction and principles to His children about how to spread the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us take these ideas and put them to use in the greatest harvest of all.

SDG        rmb        1/21/2019

Back on June 22 of 2018 I had published the first of a series of articles on “Proclaiming Christ in a Deaf World,” and that first article was on the Sower from Matthew 13:3. As I have reflected on the theme of the Sower since then, it has occurred to me how many verses in the Bible relate to agricultural subjects and pictures. Many of these verses teach the disciples of Jesus how to communicate Christ to any culture. That is, there are embedded in these verses principles for how to present Christ to a culture like ours, that generally ignores Him. I wanted to cover some of those verses now with a few brief comments on each. This will serve as an addendum to the June 22 article of the Sower.

(These are in no particular order but appear as they occurred to me.)

Luke 16:10-11 – “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much.” The act of sowing the gospel seed persistently and patiently over the long term is an act of faithfulness. It is not glamorous, but sowing the gospel is necessary if we are to gather in a harvest of souls. People cannot believe in what they do not know or understand (Romans 10:14-15), and sowing is the ministry that spreads knowledge of Christ and raises awareness of salvation. The disciple of Jesus, then, is to be faithful in scattering the seed of the gospel.

2 Corinthians 9:6 – “He who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully.” This is a principle that is both logical and observable. If you want a big harvest, you must scatter a lot of seed. If you want to reap a big harvest of souls, then you must talk about the gospel a lot. How are you sowing? Are you sowing infrequently and sparingly? If so, then why would you ever expect to reap bountifully? While there are many ways to effectively sow the gospel seed, the essence of sowing is to do it persistently and scatter a lot of seed all the time. No strategy of sowing and no theory of sowing will be more critical to the task of sowing than the simple idea that sowing more means you will reap more.

Galatians 6:7, 9 – “Whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” “. . . in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.” This is not the primary application of this verse, but I would say that, if we are faithful to sow the gospel seed, then in due time (in the Lord’s time) we will reap a harvest of eternal life.

Genesis 2:15; 2 Samuel 23:12 – When the LORD God had made the man, He placed him in the garden “to cultivate it and to keep it.” Shammah “took his stand in the midst of the plot (field of lentils) and defended it (against the Philistines) and the LORD brought about a great victory.” The point here is that the LORD has given to each one of us a plot of ground to cultivate and to defend. This “plot” is the circumstances of our life, including the people and the places and the events of our lives. The LORD expects us to take our stand there and to proclaim His holy name in the midst of that plot.

There will be some more ideas in “The Sower – additional thoughts Part B,” Which I hope to have out in the next few days.

SDG         rmb         1/18/2019

Some men from my church have begun a study of the gospel of John and right now we are reading through and then meditating on the so-called Prologue of the gospel, John 1:1-18. This passage presents many of the themes that the evangelist will develop throughout the gospel account, themes that clearly display the Lord Jesus Christ as the unique Son of the living God and as the promised Messiah. The sad reality of our modern age, however, is that most people consider Jesus to be a “good man” or a wise teacher, but they certainly do not seriously entertain the notion that He is God in human flesh. So how would I respond to someone who told me that Jesus was merely a good man or a wise teacher?

“To accept your assessment of Jesus Christ as merely a good man or as a wise teacher, I would need to reject and disbelieve almost everything written in this prologue, and I would reject it all for no reason. To review some of the verses in the passage, verses 1-2 present Jesus as “the Word” and clearly claim that He is God. Verse 3 says He made the world and verse 4 declares Jesus to be the source of light and the source of life. Verse 14 says that He became flesh and lived on this earth and fully displayed God’s glory. Verse 18 declares that Jesus made the invisible God visible. All of these statements are written by an eyewitness to Jesus’ life. This eyewitness lived with Jesus day in and day out for three years and watched Him closely. John the eyewitness is relating fact, he is not inventing fiction. But if this is fiction, why would John write this fiction? Why would John now, 50 or 60 years after Jesus is dead and buried, invent a larger-than-life legend about a man who claimed to be God in human flesh? And if Jesus was just a mere man, where is the evidence that He was merely a good man or a wise teacher? That is, where is the eyewitness account that relates to us the life of a Jesus of Nazareth who performed no miracles, who was not virgin-born, who did not die on a Roman cross and who did not rise from the dead? Where is the account of Jesus’ life that tells us of His goodness, but stops short of declaring His sinlessness; that tells of His wisdom and power, but makes no claims of deity? In word and in fulfilled prophecy and in deed, Jesus is displayed as God in human flesh. Why would anyone believe otherwise?”

SDG          rmb          1/6/2019

The primary task and the primary distinguishing mark of the disciple of Jesus Christ is the proclamation of the Lord Jesus and of His salvation to the entire world. As followers of Jesus, we are to manifest His saving power by living holy lives and, from that essential foundation, we are to “tell of His glory among the nations” (Psalm 96:3) so that men and women everywhere will worship Him both now and for all of eternity.

The purpose of this series of articles/studies is to examine the various pictures of proclamation presented to us in the Bible and develop those into practical ways to proclaim Christ to a world that is blind to His glory, deaf to His voice and indifferent to the work that He has accomplished by His death on Calvary’s cross. I hope that these articles will equip disciples of Jesus to think through how they can become bolder proclaimers of the Lord.

So far, we have talked about two pictures of proclamation, each of which emphasizes a different aspect of the herald’s task. We have talked about the sower from Matthew 13 (6/22/2018), which emphasizes intentionally scattering many seeds of the gospel and of Jesus Christ in the hopes that some of these widely broadcast seeds will find fertile soil for faith. And we have talked about the Watchman of Ezekiel 33 (11/18/2018) whose distinguishing mark was issuing a clarion warning about the coming judgment and urging people to flee from the wrath of God’s judgment.

Part 3 – The Ambassador of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20)

“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ (on behalf of Christ, Greek ‘huper Xristou’), as though God were entreating through us. We beg (you) on behalf of Christ (‘huper Xristou’): Be reconciled to God!”

The apostle Paul, 2 Corinthians 5:20 NASB

Paul says that ‘we’ are ambassadors for Christ. This is a declarative and unambiguous statement of fact: “We are ambassadors for Christ.” But a key question is, “Who is the ‘we’?” From the context of this section of this letter, it is clear that the “we” here refers to all Christians. Part of the responsibility of salvation is the obligation for all believers to be involved in the ministry of reconciliation (5:18) using the word of reconciliation (19) to be ambassadors for Christ (20). Brothers and sisters, you and I are the ambassadors of Christ.

Since, then, you and I are ambassadors for Christ, it is incumbent upon us to understand and carry out the tasks and responsibilities that have been assigned to us as our Lord’s ambassadors.

So, what are some features of being an ambassador?

Like any ambassador, the believer is a citizen of one kingdom sent out personally by his King to live in another kingdom and to represent the interests of the King and of his kingdom and to do the King’s bidding in that foreign land. This is a general task of all ambassadors.

Also, while the ambassador may be sent out to further the king’s commercial or economic or financial interests in the foreign land, it is also common for the ambassador to be sent out to proclaim the power of the king he represents and to offer the other kingdom terms of peace. In this sense, the ambassador for Christ is similar to any ambassador, because our primary message is to proclaim our King’s offer of peace.

What distinguishes “the ambassador on behalf of Christ” from any other earthly ambassador? First, we represent Christ. We are ambassadors ON BEHALF OF CHRIST. This means that we are sent out by Christ to make those who are ignorant aware of our great King and of His power and of what He has accomplished on the cross. In that task, we must emphasize that our holy God is offering sinful men and women terms of peace. “You can be reconciled to our great God if you will bow before Him and repent of your sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.” So, we are ambassadors sent out by the Lord Jesus Christ. The King we represent is greater than any other king.

Second, we “beg on behalf of Christ (5:20).” Unlike other ambassadors who advance their mission through sophisticated diplomacy or social networking, the verb that describes our work as ambassadors is “beg.” We beg people to be reconciled to God. We know that all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ (5:10). We know that it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 12:29). We know the fear of the Lord and, therefore, we persuade men (5:11) and women to run to Christ for safety. We beg men and women to abandon their illusions of goodness and to realize their dangerous position before a holy God and we beg them to accept the only terms of peace that God offers: “Fly to Christ for safety and refuge and reconciliation.” We are beggars for Christ, ambassadors sent out to beg people to be saved from the wrath to come. We are not too proud to beg because our King may decide at any moment to return and judge the world. Therefore, we beg with urgency, pleading with people to not perish, but to come to repentance. O, be reconciled, we beg you!

And so, we beg everyone and anyone, at all times and on every occasion. We beg all people to be reconciled to God as our way of life, as our occupation, because that is what ambassadors of Christ do. Christ is now in heaven, and He has given us the assignment to be His ambassadors and to beg people to be reconciled to God on His behalf. We have a stewardship (1 Cor. 9:17) as His ambassadors to fill the role that Christ has left for us to do. If we do not beg people to be reconciled to God, who will? We have been given the sobering privilege to be ambassadors on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ to beg people to be reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus’ cross.

And what is the means of reconciliation that we offer perishing men and women? How can sinners be reconciled to a holy God, a God who will justly punish all sin? How can sinners escape the wrath of the Lord God and not be consumed in the judgment? As ambassadors for Christ, we not only warn of the need for reconciliation, but we also proclaim the means. The gospel is the means, which declares that all believers have been reconciled to God through the death of His Son and we will be saved from the wrath of God through Christ (Romans 5:9-10).

Paul then concludes this section on reconciliation with a one-verse summary of the gospel: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21

So, we see that Christ has called us to be His ambassadors and has given us the ministry of reconciliation to proclaim peace to all of His enemies who will bow the knee to Him.

SDG                             rmb                             1/5/2019

In meditating on Psalm 24 today, I was struck by a number of points that seemed to warrant my writing them down. Psalm 24 is a messianic psalm which contains the victorious ascension of the Lord Jesus after His resurrection, as well as the veiled gospel that tells of how the Lord imputes righteousness to His people. I have chosen to present the study in four points, namely:

• A momentous question;
• An impossible requirement;
• A victorious Savior;
• A redeemed people.

We will see as we make our way through Psalm 24 that, even though obviously messianic (meaning evidently about the coming Messiah Jesus Christ), the psalm leaves Jesus and the gospel of salvation veiled or concealed. This is of necessity, for when David wrote this psalm, God had not yet revealed the fullness of His redemptive plan and had not yet sent His Son into the world. Psalm 24, then, drops clues about the Messiah and about the gospel that have since been fulfilled. This “gospel-veiled” and “Messiah-concealed” ideas will be a large part of our study.

A MOMENTOUS QUESTION

“Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD and who may stand in His holy place?” (24:3) Here is a variant of THE question for every fallen man. “What must I do to be saved? (Acts 16:30)” “What shall I do to inherit eternal life? (Luke 18:19)” “Then who can be saved? (Matthew 19:25)” There is no more important question that can be asked and no more crucial answer that may be sought. All of us have been separated from the Lord because of our sins (Isaiah 59:1-2) and we must find a way back to His holy place. But who is qualified to approach the LORD? Who may stand in the presence of the consuming fire? (Hebrews 12:29)

AN IMPOSSIBLE REQUIREMENT

The psalmist provides an answer to the momentous question, but it does not appear to be very helpful. “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood and who has not sworn deceitfully.” (24:4) Alas, on this basis I am disqualified from His holy hill, for my hands are not clean and my heart is not pure. Also, I have often lifted up my soul to falsehood and I have many times sworn deceitfully. I have failed to keep the Law and have instead transgressed. Is there any means of cleansing for me? Is there any path to righteousness? Has forgiveness been forever forfeited?

A VICTORIOUS SAVIOR

The final verses of the psalm trumpet the triumph of the victorious heavenly King. The “gates” and the “doors” (24:7, 9) are certainly the gates of heaven and the psalmist leaves no doubt as to the identity of the King of glory: “The LORD (YHWH) strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle (25:8).” Then further, “The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory (v. 10).” But notice carefully that the King of glory, the LORD is coming into heaven. Twice the doors and the gates are commanded to lift up so “that the King of glory may come in (v. 7, 9).” Now, how is this possible? For if the King of glory is now coming into heaven, it must mean that at some point the King of glory must have LEFT heaven. When in the Bible is there a time that the LORD leaves heaven and later returns? The answer is that here in this passage is concealed the journey of the Son of God from heaven to earth and back again. That journey included the Incarnation, when God the Son took on human flesh to accomplish the Atonement on the cross. After accomplishing His mission of atonement, Jesus was then gloriously resurrected and ascended to heaven to re-enter heaven’s gates as the victorious Savior. The King of glory is coming into heaven (v. 7, 9) as the LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Jesus Christ has accomplished the mission (John 17:4; 19:30) and has vanquished the enemy (1 John 3:8) and is coming back as the conquering King. This psalm, then, is describing the coronation of King Jesus after His victory on the cross.

But there is yet much more about Jesus here in this psalm. Not only did the Lord Jesus purchase atonement for His people and ascend to heaven as the glorious King, but He also perfectly kept the Law of God while He was on the earth. Jesus has perfectly clean hands and an immaculately pure heart (24:4), “who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth (1 Peter 2:22).” Thus, Jesus has met “the impossible requirement” (see above) and His perfect righteousness is now willingly and joyfully (Luke 15:7, 10) given to “the (entire) generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face – even Jacob (24:6).”

A REDEEMED PEOPLE

Now we can see how it is that we are allowed to ascend into the hill of the LORD (v.3). The one who has repented of their sins and who has placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the same as the one here described as “the generation of those who seek Him (v. 6a).” This “generation” is the redeemed people of God, the ones who will “receive a blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation (v. 5).” Notice especially that these people receive righteousness from God. We know from the New Testament that this righteousness is imputed to us. Because we seek the Lord Jesus in repentance and in faith, His perfect righteousness and His clean hands and pure heart have been credited to our account, and we may thus ascend the hill of the LORD and stand in His holy place.

CONCLUSION

Thus, we can see that this psalm conceals both the Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel. We see that God requires holiness for those who would come to heaven. Since we lack holiness, we need a Savior to give us righteousness. The Lord Jesus leaves heaven and comes to earth in the Incarnation, dies on a cross, is resurrected and ascends to heaven and from there gathers His people, the entire generation of those who seek Him in repentance and in faith.

SDG                 rmb                 12/31/2018