Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

Dallas Airport’s Soul Winner

A businessman landed at the Dallas airport and realized he had one hour and 20 minutes before his next plane connection.

He thought, How can I be used of the Lord here?

He had a supply of Gospel tracts with him.

He inserted one of his business cards inside each tract.

Then he gave these to single men sitting waiting for their planes.

But he didn’t just hand them out and pass on.

Instead he said to each man, “Pardon me.

I have a little booklet here that explains how a person can become a Christian.

Inside is my business card.

I would like you to read this over and if you have any questions, I will be sitting over there.

I have some time before my plane takes off.

Or if you would like to write, my address is there.”

At the end of the hour and 20 minutes, men were standing four deep to ask questions about how to become a Christian.

And, for weeks afterwards, the businessman received correspondence because of the business cards in the tracts.

In just an hour and 20 minutes, this man cultivated weeks of eternal fruit.

What are we doing with our spare time?

I titled this sermon "An Approaching Witness" for the double meaning of first, approaches to witnessing; and second, the call to approach others with the Good News

Last week, we established the "why" or the reason & the need behind witnessing, so this week I wanted to dive right into the "how"

Probably, the hardest part in the preparation of this sermon was which passages of scripture should we look at and which ones to leave out for the sake of time.

So, I painstakingly weeded out a few passages until I got this sermon down to just a few hours for you this morning.

Scripture provides teaching, supported by examples, concerning when believers should witness, the methods they are to use, and the manner of doing it.

Matt 28:16-20

Matthew 28:18–20 (NA27)

19 πορευθέντες οὖν μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, βαπτίζοντες αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος,

A Baptist minister once said, "A church that is not growing is a church that is not "going."

Now, Grace has shrunk over the past five years, but our srinkage is mainly due to Northland College shutting down.

What is hard to see, but is true is that we have also grown in these past few years!

Grace used to be primarily a "Northland church" but how many of you are here today from the college?

Now Grace is no longer a Northland church but a thriving community church--just as it should be!

The "Who" to witness

In the home and family

The home is where the Gospel has a chance to work itself out from within you throughout the mundane routines of daily life.

The Gospel must first change you before you can show others the changing power.

We see from this passage from Mark that Jesus actually forbade this healed man from following Him (physically) in order that this healed man would go first to his home to proclaim the Christ and then to go to his own community.

To individuals

Scripture is replete with examples of single, specific, key individuals hearing of Christ and responding

i.e.

Luke, Timothy, Titus, Barnabas, Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts chapter 8 to name a few.

The Disciples were a band of individuals with almost nothing in common, except for being called by Christ--see Christ calls specific individuals and we are to be planting the seed

When you go out to witness to individuals you'll run into primarily two types of people:

The religious - appeal to their zeal for God (albeit a wrong god, at least they have some desire to know God) --even the avowed Atheist is religious, it's just that they, themselves, are their own god.

The nonreligious - (unfortunately the more common of the two types) appeal to their desire and need for something greater, better than what they already know and experience

Some people are easier to witness to (i.e.

ones at the perceived worst part of their life) than others (i.e.

those at the best of their life)

To assembled groups

The foundation for street preaching!

Ac 5:42; Ac 19:8–9

In short, the "who" is whoever, whenever the opportunity arises.

For the Samaritan woman (John 4) the wayside well became a cathedral in which Jesus could present His claims to a needy soul.

From Him we learn that the Christian can witness anytime, any place.

We cannot allow those opportunities to slip away.

Jesus was weary in John 4 and we might be weary during the best opportunities, but weariness did not stop our Lord and should never be our excuse that stops us.

She was an unlikely candidate for truth.

She was a Samaritan.

She was a woman.

She was at the base of the Samaritan temple.

He was an improbable source of truth.

Jesus was not looking as if he was equipped.

He also appeared to be ignorant by his requests.

This was a dodgy scenario for truth.

The disciples walk in on the precarious scene.

The disciples don’t find the food Jesus claims to have.

He gave unbelievable truth

The "What" Methods of witnessing

The Core - What is the εὐαγγέλιον?

What is the Gospel anyway?

what exactly must be accepted for one to have embraced the Good News?

Accept the universal lordship of Jesus - Jesus is GOD

Accept Jesus is Savior: Salvation comes only through Jesus

The sin of God’s people is imputed to God’s Son

The righteousness of God’s Son is imputed to God’s people

Accept Jesus, the Christ, is the promised Messiah

Acknowledge Christ will return to judge the world and bring his people to glory

Respond ourselves by

Turning away from sin,

Turning towards God - Believing Jesus,

growing in Christlikeness

Invite others to respond in like manner

So, now knowing the core, how might we share this core Gospel with others?

Sharing personal testimony - What is the Witness?

Ac 22:3–8 Paul uses the account of his conversion in witnessing.

So, as much as possible, always begin a witnessing encounter with the Gospel.

Confirm the Good News by sharing your personal testimony.

This will make the Gospel message subjectively real by demonstrating the life-transforming power of the Holy Spirit from within your own life!

Explaining the Scriptures

Bible Studies surely build and edify believers, but for the unbeliever they can be a witness.

Answering questions

If God has not prepared that person to respond to the gospel, he or she will raise objections.

When this happens, identify what are the primary objections and switch gears from proclamation to apologetics.

Apologetics has become a discipline of study of the defense of the faith relying heavily on logic and reason in an attempt to remove intellectual (or anti-intellectual) barriers that hinders belief in the faith.

Be careful to just answer genuine questions.

The Word of God instructs us to use discernment in our witnessing and answering.

One beautiful example comes to us in John chapter 9 where Jesus heals a blind man and the Pharisees have some obvious genuine questions.

Now, notice in this passage that the Pharisees don't believe in Jesus, but they are genuine in their questioning:

Through writing

Tracs - illustration of Coach Castillo and his once-Mormon wife working at a Burger King and finding a trac in the trash can

Books - The wordless book for kids

Through holy living