"...as My Father Hath Sent Me...so Send I You”

And, just as there is plenty more gold yet to be dug out of the earth, so there are plenty more sermons that have not yet been discovered in the pages of this sacred Book.

The Lord is so great that ministers have not come close to exhausting the materials in this Bible that describe His greatness.

Illus: The song writer said this years ago in the words of a song:

• If the ocean was ink, we still would not have enough ink to describe God’s love.

• If the sky was a scroll, we would still not have enough space to describe God’s love.

In John 21:25, John said these startling things about all the Lord Jesus did, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.”

Illus: If you visited the local library and went to the biography section, you would find life stories of great people of the past. After reading those biographies you would know all about those people. Some of those books would be an inch thick. Some might even be three inches thick.

But, again, the Lord’s life here was so much greater than other men that John said, “...I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.”

There are so many things that can be said about Christ! For example, a preacher could preach on-

• The many miracles He performed in His lifetime here.

• His unique birth, being born of a virgin.

• His sinlessness.

• His kindness.

• His forgiveness.

• His crucifixion.

• His resurrection.

• His ascension.

• The many sermons He preached.

• The many prayers He prayed.

• The compassion He displayed throughout His life here.

We can go to any chapter of the Bible and find a sermon about the Lord Jesus. We could go to some of the shortest verses in the Bible and find enough material to preach a sermon.

For example, In this sermon we have chosen John 20:21 for our text. We read, “Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.”

Let us not take the whole verse. Let us pull just that last little phrase out. “...as my Father hath sent me...so send I you.”

In these eleven words we have a powerful message. Jesus, the master soul winner, tells us TWO very important things abut SOUL WINNING, such as:

I. WHERE DO WE FIND THEM?

That is, where do we find lost souls? To answer that question, all we have to do is look at the life of Jesus.

WHERE DID HE FIND THEM?

He found them EVERYWHERE!

The lesson we learn from Him is that we are to SEEK THE LOST in the same way He did! He was the Master Soul winner. He said, “...as my Father hath sent me...so send I you.”

When it comes to reaching the lost, some Christians have the attitude that there are no lost souls around to be won. With an attitude like that, we know why they never win anyone to Christ.

Illus: We need to be like the man named Bill who went to Alaska to hunt bear. Some of the native Alaskans thought they would take advantage of his ignorance about bear hunting and play a trick on him. They told him to go to the woods and get a bear to chase him back to the cabin and they would be inside. They told him once the bear came inside they would gang up on him and capture him. They were all in the cabin laughing about Bill, who was in the woods trying to find a bear to chase him. In a few minutes they heard him yell, “Open the door! Open the door!” They looked out the window and sure enough they saw Bill running with a bear right behind him, and the bear was gaining ground. Old Bill kept yelling, “Open the door! Open the door!” When the grizzly was about six feet behind him and the door swung open, Bill put the brakes on and stepped aside. The old bear kept right on going, right inside the cabin with all the Alaskans. They heard old Bill yell, “I will be right back with another one. The woods are FULL OF THEM.”

The world we live in is FULL OF SINNERS. However, those who believe there are no sinners to be won will never win anyone to Christ.

Illus: They remind us of the story of the fellow who was fishing. There was posted a “No Fishing” sign. The game warden walked up and said, “Mr., can’t you read? That sign says, ‘No Fishing.’” The man looked at the game warden and answered, “Yes sir, I can read! The man who wrote that sign knew what he was talking about. There certainly is no fishing in this pond!”