Uplifting Christ

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins soul is wise. Proverbs 11:30. What if a Christian doesn’t win souls? What becomes of him?

Before Jesus left, he told us to GO into the entire world and preach the good news to all creature. He gave us Power to heal the sick, cast out demons, etc. While Jesus was on earth, He told His disciples the reason God sent Him. He said in Luke 4:43 that “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other town also, because that is why I was sent.” When He called His disciples, He sent them to go and preach the good news on different occasions; in Luke 9 and 10. In the gospel of John, Jesus said “as the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (John 20:21).

The world is facing a lot of crises because we are silent. We prefer to stay in our churches every Sunday or possibly throughout the week, waiting on the Lord. Jesus wants us to go and win more souls. If I go out, and You also go out to preach, and win more souls, the world will be full of Light, and darkness will have no power. Why are people committing suicide bombing? Why are some women killing innocent babies? Why would some people burn their fellow human beings alive when they were having service? Why is darkness dominating our world today? Why are people depressed? Why are people worrying about what to do with their lives? Why are people starting to believe there is no God?

We are the lights of the world. If we could go out there to places where darkness prevails, more people would be saved, and there would be light everywhere. As a child of God, you go to Church to renew your mind, strength and ask God for wisdom, knowledge and understanding, present your report for the past week; the number of people you have won for the Kingdom so that further arrangements can be made by the church to draw those people closer to God, then you out there again to tell people about God’s goodness and mercy through Jesus Christ. This is what Jesus wants us to do; to reach out to the lost souls, those depressed, those who are suffering from the works of Satan, those who are poor, broken-hearted, etc. Surprisingly, this is what most of us are not doing. We want people to identify us as Christians because we go to church daily, clean the temple, sing, usher, play instruments, etc. We prefer to live in big buildings while the lost sheep are in the world, heading towards eternal destruction.

Sometimes, I wonder if there is something wrong with our Gospel. Why are people not receiving our Gospel? Why are Christians rejected in place they are not supposed to be rejected? There is more Power in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. However, Most Christians today are not doing what Christ wants us to do. People, especially unbelievers, believe in evidence. They believe in what they see more than what they hear, that was why when Jesus sent out His disciples to preach, He gave them Power to heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the death, etc.

How would an unbeliever know that Jesus loves him or her?

Most people ignore the Gospel because of our approach. We first condemn them instead of showing them or telling them about the Grace of our Lord Jesus. From the scriptures, Jesus showed Mary mercy before telling her not to repeat her life of sin. John 8:1-11.

When Jesus met Zacchaeus in Luke 19, He didn’t say Zacchaeus, if you don’t stop your evil deeds, you will not received Grace, you will go to hell, and you will die. The Bible says a soul that sinneth will die. However, do not tell a person you are a sinner, fornicator, adulterer, etc. And expect the person to take it lightly. When Jesus met the Samaritan woman in John 4, He knew the woman commits adultery yet He never called her adulterer or sinner. He used an approach that not only made the woman believed, but many Samaritans. You can read John 4:39.

An unbeliever is like a child. The way you treat him or her will determine the kind of respond you will get. Jesus told Zacchaeus “come down immediately. I must stay at your house today”. Jesus’ actions alone changed Zacchaeus’ life from bad to good. Let us first present Christ’s Love and that action will yield more results. When an unbeliever is hungry, feed him. That action alone will communicate more than what you would say. When you see an unbeliever who is sick, pray for him, and when he gets well, he will come with his whole household to follow Jesus. In Acts 3, Peter and John healed one man, and that action brought many to believe in Jesus. In Acts 4:4 the bible says “But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand.” After healing the man, many came to listen to the message of our Lord Jesus, which drew about 2000 souls. Wasn’t that amazing?

How was Peter saved? Jesus said a Word, they obeyed, caught a large number of fish. When you read Luke 5:8, “when Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”. Jesus didn’t say anything about repentance to Peter. Peter was caught by what Jesus did. Peter and his colleagues had toiled all night without any result. Probably, they were stressed up. How would he have listened to Jesus if Jesus had told him to leave his sinful life? Jesus did something that showed Peter His love for Him. That is the way we should approach an unbeliever, or a sinner. We, first of all, must give or show an evidence of Christ’s Love for them. When Philip went to Samaria in Acts 8:6 “When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid attention to what he said”

Don’t just go and tell a hungry man Jesus loves you. He won’t believe that. First, make something for him to eat, give him something for the pocket. Tell him the secret behind your riches, strength, happiness, and what motivated you to do what you did. That secret, I believe would be Jesus. Don’t just tell sick folk “John 3:16”. Pray for his deliverance, and he will get up believing the Power in the Name of Jesus. Try as much as you can to offer some help before you speak about the message of the Cross. That help could be mere words of encouragement, etc.

Christians today must revisit the original way of reaching lost souls. Jesus gave us Power to heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead, etc. Let your Faith do the work. Practise what you have learnt in the Bible. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. However, Faith without deeds is dead. When you don’t practice the Word of God that comes to you (Your Faith), the Word will be of no use. That is to say, your Faith has no worth.

The Role of the Church:

Most of us today spend huge sums decorating a church building when some members are suffering in the church. As the saying goes, charity begins at home. The change must start from the church. In Acts 7:48, we are told that God doesn’t live in houses made by men. We are His temple according to the scripture. A true shepherd wouldn’t spend money decorating the Pen when his sheep are starving. We must do what the believers did in Acts 4:32-36. Let us feed the hungry among us, Cloth the naked in our midst, Provide support for the needy.

Pastors, Evangelists, Preachers, and all ministers of the Gospel must focus on the human soul. Jesus said in Luke 15:7 that “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” Fighting for Powers, popularity, huge congregation, etc was not God’s reason for calling you. He called you to demonstrate His goodness and mercy. In the end, God wouldn’t congrats you for having a huge congregation, nice cars, nice suites, being more powerful, popular, etc. What Paul did, I believe will be the basis for ministers of the Gospel, including you and me. 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 “¹⁹ Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. ²⁰ To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. ²¹ To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law.²² To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. ²³ I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.”

There is nothing wrong with our Gospel. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. This gives us Hope that Our Gospel will stay forever. We only need to go back and follow how Christ wanted us to reach out to lost souls.