When the average Christian thinks of the winning of the world’s lost to Christ, he generally envisions a big revival meeting, conducted by a powerful evangelist, and accompanied with spirited singing. But is this God’s plan for world evangelization? Absolutely not. What, then, is His plan? Jesus tells us in John 16:7-11 “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Holy Spirit will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of SIN, and of RIGHTEOUSNESS and JUDGMENT: of SIN, because they do not believe in Me; of RIGHTEOUSNESS, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; “of JUDGMENT because the ruler of this world is judged.” A close examination of this passage reveals these amazing truths about evangelism:
- It reveals that the Holy Spirit is the author of evangelism.
- It also reveals that born-again believers are the instruments through whom the Holy Spirit works to turn the lost world to Christ.
The Holy Spirit does not operate in a vacuum, but He works through redeemed individuals. This great miracle began on the Day of Pentecost. On that extremely crucial day, the Holy Spirit transferred His abode from the throne in heaven to the bodies of all born-again persons. Thus our bodies are His tools and temples, and He desires to work through them to convict and convince the lost world of its need of Christ and to turn them to Him.
Often we hear Christians pray like this, “Lord, send your Spirit to speak to Tom, Dick or Harry.” Looking back on the yester years, I think I may have prayed this very prayer, and my prayer was sincere. The question is: Is such a prayer biblical? Certainly, the Holy Spirit is sovereign and could possibly speak directly to an individual. We have no record of Jesus commanding believers to pray for the lost. However, He commands us “to pray that the Lord of the Harvest would send laborers into His harvest.” (Matthew 9:38). But God’s normal plan is for the Holy Spirit to work through the people whom He indwells or lives. We see this clearly demonstrated on the day of Pentecost. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, preached a rousing sermon on that historic day, but he was only a part of the phenomenon in which 3000 persons were saved. There were 120 others, who were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4) and through whom the Spirit was working to bring conviction to lost persons from seventeen countries. The believers in the vast congregation were the witnesses (or soul winners), the Holy Spirit was the “prosecuting attorney,” and the unsaved was the audience.
And what did the Holy Spirit do through His people at Pentecost and still does:
- THE HOLY SPIRIT CONVICTS AND CONVINCES THE LOST OF ONE PARTICULAR SIN -THE SIN OF UNBELIEF OR OF REJECTING JESUS AS LORD AND SAVIOR. The law and conscience will convict and convince the lost of sins, but it is the Holy Spirit, working through believers, who confronts the lost world with its lost condition. Thus, it is unbelief which condemns the lost sinner (John 3:18-21), not the committing of individual sins. Warren Wiersbe observed, “A person could” clean up his life,” quit all his bad habits, and still be lost and go to hell.” What a pity to see Christians urging the lost to quit drinking, cussing, and turn over a new leaf, who do so, and yet they remain lost.
- THE HOLY SPIRIT CONVICTS AND CONVINCES THE LOST OF RIGHTEOUSNESS (not unrighteousness). Whose righteousness? The righteousness of Jesus Christ and Him alone, proven by the fact that the Father received him back into heaven after his resurrection.
- THE HOLY SPIRIT CONVICTS AND CONVINCES THE LOST OF INEVITABLE JUDGMENT. What kind of judgment? Jesus was referring to His judgment upon Satan when He died on the Cross. Satan has already been condemned and is awaiting the “lake of fire.” (Rev. 20:10) So has the lost man. “He who believeth not is condemned already” (John 3:18), and that judgment will be eternal one day, even as in the case of Satan, the papa of all the lost.
In a word, permit me to summarize all I have been saying from our text, John 16:7-11: The only Person who can rescue a lost person from sin and hell is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died for all our sins, and rose again that all might be forgiven and saved eternally. However, “there can be no conversion without conviction, apart from the Spirit of God using the Word of God and the witness of the child of God,”[1]
As we reflect on the history of the Christian church, we first see Triumph in Evangelism. That was when every believer considered himself an evangelist and went forth to win the lost. This exciting story is told in the Book of Acts. The persecution of the church at Jerusalem was so severe that the members were “scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, EXCEPT the apostles” (Acts 8:1). How did these early believers respond to such treatment? Acts 8:4 answers, “Therefore, they were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the gospel.” The word preaching is a long word in Greek (Euggelizemenoi) but a very simple word in meaning. Literally the word means “telling the good news of the gospel.” In laymen’s language, it means that all of God’s people went forth “gossiping” the gospel. Someone has observed that in our day God’s people go forth and “gossip” everything on earth except the gospel. What were the results of the people of God “gossiping the gospel?” Simply this: Within 300 years Christianity had become the dominant and most powerful force in the vast Roman Empire. In fact the Emperor Constantine embraced Christianity as the State religion and pronounced it fully legal in AD 313. The late James Kennedy declares in his book, Evangelism Explosion, that if the church had continued to evangelize as they did the first 300 years, all the world would have been Christianized by AD 500.
But alas the Triumph of Evangelism was turned into the Tragedy of Evangelism. The idea crept into the church that the average Christian was not called to witness but only the trained clergy. Thus the philosophy prevailed which said, “Let Clerical George do it.” Dr. Kennedy, reflecting on this tragedy, makes this analogy: Just suppose the USA is at war. The President of the USA says to the American people, “War is too dangerous for the average citizen, so I am decreeing that only the Generals go to war and not the citizens of the land.” “Would we ever win a war?” Asks Kennedy, and then answers, “Never, never, never.”
Alas, however, Evangelism was transferred to the professional clergy in the 4th century, and evangelism has never recovered from this tragedy to this very day. Less than 5 percent of evangelicals ever witness of the gospel. Few churches are growing and those who are, for the most part, are just adding professing Christians from other churches. It is a rare thing, even in good churches, for a lay person to win another soul to Christ.
Because of this “Tragedy in Evangelism,” MMM, Int’l. is dedicated to turning men, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, into persons who will “gossip” the gospel both by their lives and their lips. Our vision is to have Mission Groups from MMM going to the mission field abroad annually, at the same time we are stressing personal soul winning on the local level through Evangelism Work Shops.
FINAL QUESTION: Are you a Temple through whom the Holy Spirit is able to convict and convince a lost world of its damning sin of unbelief? (rejecting Jesus as Lord and Savior), of the only Source of true Righteousness, who is Jesus and Him alone, and the inevitable judgment in hell for those who refuse to repent and believe.
[1] Warren Wiersbe, Bible Exposition Commentary, p. 362.