Evangelism in the Gospel

Pastor Ronnie Teoh

Luk 13:18-21 He said therefore, "What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? (19) It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches." (20) And again he said, "To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? (21) It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened."

3 levels of learning

1. Cognitive learning – lowest level
   
2. Affective learning – touches the emotions and the truth touches us in a special way
   
3. Psychomotor – e.g. playing tennis, etc.
   

We want to invite the Holy Spirit to open His truth to us (at the 2^nd level of learning.)

Pastor Teoh participated in a 3-day pastors and leaders national prayer. Their counterpart in England did the same and saw a vision of Malaysia.

1. These two parables indirectly answer the question – Why is revival not happening
   

The context

Jesus had just healed a woman who had a bent spinal column (possibly calcification) in the synagogue on a Sabbath. This was prohibited by the religious leaders. The synagogue rulers openly opposed Him.

Jesus explained through the Parable of the Mustard Seed that His Gospel cannot be confined by Jewish restrictions because it is universal in character.

Birds nesting on a tree was a familiar symbolism for the gathering of the nations of the world. Birds observed no boundaries. The parable explains the universal scope of the Gospel, it is not just for the Jews but for the whole world. The Jews could not understand this and no wonder they opposed Him.

By the Parable of the Yeast, Jesus explained how the Gospel would spread to the whole world through its transforming power.

Thumb drives and hydrogen fuel are inventions of Malaysia. We have the ideas but we may not have the capability to develop and manufacture the product. The idea of the thumb drive was sold to Koreans who popularized and commoditize it.

By this parable, Jesus was illustrating the most basic method of evangelism.

EEIII (Evangelism Explosion III) works well in the Philippines because most of the people there have a Judea-Christian understanding.

Yeast in the Biblical concept is almost always used as a negative symbolism. The Israelites' offering to God never contained yeast. Yeast represented the evil influence of the Egyptians. In NT, Jesus warned about the yeast – the hypocrisy of the Jews and their negative influence.

1Co 5:1-6 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. (2) And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. (3) For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. (4) When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, (5) you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. (6) Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

Jesus must have very good reasons to use yeast to represent the dynamism and the work of the Kingdom of God.

The principle to observe about a parable is that it usually carries one central idea. We should not be creative and spiritualize the parables. It's "and earthly story with a heavenly meaning." We don't have the liberty to interpret parables. We just need to focus on the central truth. Once we identify the central truth, we can attempt to amplify it.

1. There are two things we can learn here
   
   1. The Parable of the Yeast demonstrates how the Gospel transforms human society.
      

Yeast does its work of transforming dough through direct contact. Yeast it mix together with flour before it's kneaded. A little yeast affects the whole lump of dough. The Jews then were familiar with this. The total character of the lump of dough is changed by the yeast.

Jesus was not interested in the commercial potential of yeast, rather He was using it to communicate a powerful message of the Gospel's ability to transform minds. When this powerful Gospel is deposited in our society and then it will do its work.

Jesus brought the Gospel to the planet earth. He came to earth and walked the earth. He lived a perfect life and die for our sins and rose again. It is now our task to take the Gospel out into our society.

1. Yeast is effective in doing its work because although it started out as dough, it had now been transformed by the power of fermentation.
   

When we received the Gospel, we went through the powerful transformation in our lives. We can bring this transformation into our society.

1. Let us draw three application points that speak to us today
   
   1. Understand the primacy of GO Evengelism taught by Jesus in the Parable of the Yeast.
      

All evangelism methods are either go or come Evangelism. Statistics show that 90% of Christians DO NOT REGULARLY ARTICULATING the Gospel to others.

Haggai Institute in Hawaii published a startling statistic which suggests 75% Christians never bring someone to Christ in their lifetime. If we are a fermented people, we should go to share the Gospel.

Billy Graham once told a story about a middle age man in small town America. He didn't think he needed to become a Christian even though he knew many Christians. He admired his boss. He thought that if he could become more like his boss it would be ok. His Christian colleagues invited him to a church service and to his surprise, his boss was a leader in the church and yet he never once shared the Gospel with him!

We are comfortable with COME evangelism. We'd invite people to come for services and meetings. We hope by attending the event, our friends will receive Jesus.

A lot of Christians cannot even invite friends to evangelistic events because they have never been doing the groundwork.

FGBF in Alor Setar organized a grand dinner and invited all their friends and associates. 400 were invited. That's a big number in Alor Setar. The guests expected this to be a normal Christmas function with dinner and presents. It was then announced that a speaker would share the message of Christmas. Pastor Teoh had 40 minutes to lead the people who knew nothing about Christianity to accept Jesus. The Gospel can transform lives. But the primary method of evangelism taught by Jesus is GO Evangelism. We are fermented and so we should go and deposit into the lives of people.

Organizations all over the world have a tagline. CNN's is Be the First to Know. HSBC calls themselves the World's Local Bank. Pastor Ronnie's tagline is 'Deposit the Gospel As You Deem Best and Let The Holy Spirit Do the Rest.'

We cannot squeeze someone by the neck until they are blue to make them believe in Jesus.

Pastor Ronnie published a booklet entitled 'Are All Religions the Same?' This is the number one religious concept in Asia. The booklet starts with a no and explains why. It also contains a persuasion part. He is going to publish another booklet called 'What is the Meaning of Life?'

1. Effective personal evangelism is the result of a transformed life.
   

If you are still just a lump of a dough with the label Christian on you, you are not much good to the Kingdom of God.

Communism is a second class call. They bring to it the first class commitment. Communism is such a threat because of its ability to influence. Christianity is the first class call. There is nothing that compares to the call to share the Gospel. But we bring to it a second class commitment.

1. God can bring about revival but each of us must obediently bring the Gospel into contact with people
   

Ps Reynold said the 3-month prayer journey must culminate in evangelism, something that connects to people. Revival and evangelism always work hand in hand.

Pastor Ronnie once took a flight from LA back to KL. He took a Korean Airline flight. He chose the cheapest seats. It was a 7-hours flight and they stop over in Korea. He was promised a tour. He went to a place called Nam San (literally southern city.) It was cold so before long, Pastor Ronnie wanted to run back to the bus which was heated. Before he reached the bus, an elderly lady passed him a tract. She probably targeted foreign tourist in Nam San in her distribution of English tracts. It was a cold night,

Korea is seen as a revival country. Amazing amount of evangelism is going on there.

Many years ago, Pastor Ronnie and wife went to the SS2 Pasar Malam around 5:00 p.m. Stall owners were setting up. One was a stall selling idols. The owner was eating noodles when a woman came to rebuke the idols loudly. The man put down his bowl of noodles and told the woman if there was a problem they can discuss. He didn't understand English. The woman continued.

This is not the way to share the Gospel. Ps Ronnie has given us tips for evangelism with his tagline. When there is no personal revival in the Christians there will be no results. Christians need to be stirred up so they will go to the LORD and let the LORD transform them.

We judge who, what, how, etc. in evangelism. One way or another, some way or other, we find some way to deposit the Gospel into the lives of the non-believers. The Holy Spirit is the One who convicts. It is our part that we have failed.

How do we go about doing it?

1. Use common factor / interest – tennis, tour, bakery, etc.
   
2. Once we established a friendship, we must direct / steer relationship without condemnation. A non-Christian has a different value system and operate in a different way. We introduce spiritual truth. Share our testimonies. We must have the agenda that we want to do something, that is to share the Gospel with our friends.
   
3. Grab opportunities – neighbours ask why we go to church every week instead of every month, friends asking us why we give 10% of our income to God, etc. Acknowledge they have legitimate questions and tell them it's hard to explain everything. Offer the booklet ('Are All Religions the Same?') Once the Gospel enters their lives, we let the Holy Spirit do His work.
   
4. Create opportunities – organize parenting seminar. This allows the Christians to connect to non-Christians. We then find an opportunity to share the Gospel. We partner with the Holy Spirit.
   

Ps Ronnie was the first pastor in Malaysia to pick up EEIII. He went to Ft Lauderdale twice.

Question 1: When we tell others the Bible is the truth, how to we respond to doubts? (Kevin Suit)

Don't give theological answers. Determine if our friends are genuinely looking for an answer. Explain how the Bible was written. Talk to pastors, teachers and get them books.

Question 2: What to do with someone who knows about Jesus but could not love his father? (Ong)

Show the stories from the Bible that shows a father's love, e.g. the Prodigal Son, John 3:16, etc.

There are supposed to be 99 names of a god but none of them is love. The God is the Bible is love.

Question 3: Is believing in Jesus enough to go to heaven? (Ong)

We are in a consumerism era where we can choose the best things we want. Many people believe in Jesus in that way. They have minimal involvement with the Body. That's not Biblical Christianity. This is substandard Christianity. (Ps Ronnie just wrote this down in his notebook today in preparation for his preaching tomorrow.) This is a major problem for the church today. People pick and choose what they want from the Bible.

Question 4: How to we handle non-Christians who have been hurt by Christians, perhaps by their lifestyles or cheated by Christians? (Joshua Chan)

It's difficult. Believers are still imperfect. Do not let believers who are imperfect prevent you from knowing the perfect love of God. Don't share testimonies because they already have bad experiences with Christians. We encourage them to look to God and not men.

Question 5: Some people think they already belong to a certain god. How do we share with them? (Jen Leong)

We have to show the idea of science. If we look at this world, we can tell there is a Creator. Friendship is important as it enables us to have heart to heart talk with our friends. There are many evidences. The Big Bang Theory (the expanding universe) supports the idea of a Creator. If we read the Bible, we find that the Big Bang Theory is consistent with the Creation of God.

Fear of Holy Books from Farish Noor

http://www.othermalaysia.org/content/view/149/1/ Fear of Holy Books Written by Farish A. Noor

Thursday, 07 February 2008

Not too long ago, a certain Dutch politician – Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right Dutch Freedom party – caused a stir in that rather flat country by suggesting that the Quran should be banned on the grounds that it was a ‘dangerous book’ that spread the message of hate and violence. As the rather pointless and tiresome debate took its course, other right-wing politicians chipped in, suggesting things such as new laws that forbade the reading of the Quran in public, limiting the sale and dissemination of the Quran in Dutch society, controlling the number of Qurans being brought into the country, etc. Needless to say, Geert Wilders got what he wanted, which was to project himself yet again on the national stage as a rather loud and outlandish advocate of far-right causes. Predictably, the Muslim community of Holland and other European countries were upset by Wilders’ remarks. Many came to the fore to insist that all this talk about banning Qurans was part and parcel of a wider trend of Islamophobia in the EU; that it was essentially racist and that it was an attempt to rob Muslims in Europe of their fundamental rights and liberties. What offended many Muslims was the suggestion that the Quran could be seen by some as a ‘dangerous text’ which Wilders even compared to Hitler’s Mein Kampf: An ironic comparison to say the least considering Wilders’ own far-right political leanings. That Muslims would be offended by such claims and demands is understandable as no doubt most faith communities regard their sacred books as precisely that: sacred arks that bear the message of God and divine revelation. To even suggest that the Quran could be read profanely as some terrorists’ manual or guidebook for fanatics was to demean the text, and by extension Islam and Muslims. Yet the question remains: If Muslims can get so worked up by the fact that some right-wing Dutch politician hungering for publicity can stir up a debate by demeaning the Quran, why is it that so many Muslims remain indifferent to how their fellow Muslims treat the holy texts of other faiths and belief-systems? A case in point is the recent seizure of thirty-two Bibles from a Malaysian Christian who was on her journey back to Malaysia from the Philippines. Upon arrival in Malaysia, her bags were checked by the customs authorities and all of the Bibles were confiscated, on the grounds that they had to be vetted by the Ministry of Internal Security. But since when were Bibles deemed a security threat in Malaysia, and to whom might they pose a danger? More worrying still is the fact that the customs officers – who we were told were Muslim – had seized the Bibles on their own initiative, despite there not being any formal ban on Bibles in the country. (After all, there are literally millions of Christians of all denominations in Malaysia and they have lived there for decades if not centuries, so why the fear of Bibles now?) In the event the Bibles were eventually returned to the Malaysian Christian in question, but worrying doubts remain. What will be the fate of other books of other religions and belief-systems? As a scholar who teaches comparative religion, I have in my collection not only numerous editions of the Bible but also Taoist, Buddhist, Hindu, Tantric, Animist and Jewish texts. Are these to be screen and vetted too? And on what grounds; that as a person born to the Muslim faith (a contingency of history that I did not decide or determine, I might add) I am not allowed to read such texts for fear that I may be ‘contaminated’ by alien ideas of alien creeds? Predictably the first to react to the seizure of the Bibles were the Christians of Malaysia. But it is sad to note that the same level of anger and outrage that was expressed by Muslims over the Muslim-bashing sentiments of a Dutch politician thousands of miles away was not evident when this outrage was perpetrated on their own shores. Universally this has become the norm, where religious communities the world over have grown more introverted, inward-looking and consequently selfish in their motives and concerns. In the same way that non-Muslims seemed relatively indifferent to the constant Muslim-bashing that is taking place in places like Europe today; Muslims are equally indifferent when injustices such as the seizure of holy books are meted out to those who are not of their flock. Should this trend continue then we are certainly on the verge of a balkanisation of the religious communities of the world, and this spells trouble for multi-faith nations like Malaysia and the countries of the West. The remedies are primarily political ones, which include controls on hate-speech and fear-mongering by far-right demagogues like Wilders in Holland and other equally right-wing demagogues in other communities, including Muslim communities too. But all this can only work if we begin with the fundamental premise that sacredness is not something exclusive to ourselves and our own faith community. When Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists alike realise and respect the sacredness in the other, and drop the claim that they alone monopolise all that is good and holy; perhaps then we will be one step closer to recognising the fundamental humanity we share with each other – whether we like it or not.