Why Don’t We Witness?
John 3
When the sermon is over today I hope everyone here will have one of three reactions
Walking out the back doors angry at me
or raising hands and shouting “Amen”
or kneeling at the altar
I am going to take off the gloves today and say some hard things.
I want to begin by reading “A PARABLE OF FISHLESS FISHERMEN” by John M. Drescher
Once a group existed who called themselves fishermen. And lo, there were many fish in the waters all around. In fact the whole area was surrounded by streams and lakes filled with fish. And the fish were hungry.
Week after week, month after month, and year after year these who called themselves fishermen met in meetings and talked about their call to fish, the abundance of fish, and how they might go about fishing. Year after year they carefully defined what fishing means, defended fishing as an occupation, and declared that fishing is al¬ways to be a primary task of fishermen.
Continually they searched for new and better methods of fishing and for new and better defin¬itions of fishing. Further they said, "The fishing industry exists by fishing as fire exists by burning". They loved slogans such as "Fishing is the task of every fisherman", and "A fisherman’s _ outpost for every fisherman’s club". They spon¬sored meetings called "Fishermen’s campaigns" and "The Month for Fishermen to Fish". They spon¬sored costly nationwide and worldwide congresses to discuss fishing and to promote fishing and hear about all the ways of fishing such as the new fishing equipment, fish calls, and whether any new bait was discovered.
These fishermen built large, beautiful build¬ings call "Fishing Headquarters". The plea was that everyone should be a fisherman and every fisherman should fish. One thing they didn’t do, However; they didn’t fish.
In addition to meeting regularly, they organized a board to send out fishermen to other places where there were many fish. All the fishermen seemed to agree that what is needed is a board which could challenge fishermen to be faithful in fishing. The board was formed by those who had the great vision and courage to speak about fishing, to define fishing, and to promote the idea of fishing in far-a-way streams and lakes where many other fish of different colors lived.
Also the board hired staffs and appointed committees and held many meetings to define fishing, to defend fishing, and to decide what new streams should be thought about. But the staff and committee members did not fish.
Large, elaborate, and expensive training cen¬ters were built whose original and primary purpose was to teach fishermen how to fish. Over the years courses were offered on the needs of fish, the nature of fish, where to find fish, the psy-chological reactions of fish, and how to approach and feed fish. Those who taught had doctorates in fishery. But the teachers did not fish. They only taught fishing. Year after year, after tedious training, many were graduated and were given fish¬ing licenses. They were sent to do full-time fish¬ing, some to distant waters which were filled with fish.
Some spent much study and travel to learn the history of fishing and to see faraway places where the founding fathers did great fishing in the centuries past. They lauded the faithful fishermen of years before who handed down the idea of fishing.
Further, the fishermen built large printing houses to publish fishing guides. Presses were kept busy day and night to produce materials solely devoted to fishing methods, equipment, and programs to arrange and to encourage meetings to talk about fishing. A speakers’ bureau was also provided to schedule special speakers on the sub¬ject of fishing.
Many who felt the call to be fishermen re¬sponded. They were commissioned and sent to fish. But like the fishermen back home they never fished. Like the fishermen back home they engaged in all kinds of other occupations. They built power plants to pump water for fish and tractors to plow new waterways. They made all kinds of equipment to travel here and there to look at fish hatcheries. Some also said they wanted to be part of the fishing party, but they felt called to furnish fishing equipment. Others felt their job was to relate to the fish in a good way so the fish would know the difference between good and bad fishermen. Others felt that simply letting the fish know they were nice, land-loving neigh¬bors and how loving and kind they were was enough.
After one stirring meeting on "The Necessity for Fishing", one young fellow left the meeting and went fishing. The next day he reported he had caught two outstanding fish. He was honored for his excellent catch and scheduled to visit all the big meetings possible to tell how he did it. So he quit his fishing in order to have time to tell about the experience to other fishermen. He was also placed on the Fishermen’s General Board as a person having considerable experience.
Now it’s true that many of the fishermen sacrificed and put up with all kinds of difficul¬ties. Some lived near the water and bore the smell of dead fish every day. They received the ridicule of some who made fun of their fisher¬men’s clubs and the fact that they claimed to be fishermen yet never fished. They wondered about those who felt it was of little use to attend the weekly meetings to talk about fishing. After all, were they not following the Master who said, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men?"
Imagine how hurt some were when one day a person suggested that those who didn’t catch fish were really not fishermen, no matter how much they claimed to be. Yet it did sound correct. Is a person a fisherman if year after year he never catches a fish? Is one following if he isn’t fishing?
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For those who did not get the message, “fishless fishermen” are witness-less witnesses…they are those who call themselves “Evangelicals but do not evangelize… or Christians who do not seek to save the lost.
Those “large, beautiful build¬ings call ‘Fishing Headquarters’" are churches.
The point of the story is to say that it does no good to study witnessing, teach witnessing, preach witnessing, give money to organizations to fish and have national conventions on witnessing… IF WE DO NOT WITNESS!
Why don’t Christians witness, tell lost people about Jesus who can save them and redeem them from their sinful lifestyle and give them eternal and abundant life?
We can give lots of reasons like…
fear, untrained, no leadership, no examples, etc
Now this is where I start to alienate some of you.
The reason we do not witness is not fear or lack of training.
Let me Illustrate:
How many of you have “Lifesaving Water Rescue training? None!!
What would you do if your 2 year old son or grandson fell in the pool? You would jump in and save them!!!
BUT YOU ARE NOT TRAINED
How many of you are afraid of spiders. What would you do if your child or grandchild fell in a hole filled with spiders? You would grab them out!!!
BUT YOU ARE AFRAID
How many of you have been trained in the Heimlich Maneuver?
What would you do if you were in a restaurant and someone beside you grabbed his throat and turned blue? You would grab them from behind and give them a big squeeze to dislodge the food.
BUT YOU DON’T KNOW THE EXACT PROCEDURE
And why would you jump in the pool, or reach into that spider infested hole or do the Heimlich maneuver??
BECAUSE YOU BELIEVED THEY WERE IN DANGER!!!
Some will say “because you love them.” Maybe, you may not even know the child in the pool or the hole or the person choking… BUT YOU WILL STILL ACT.
Why? Because the danger is real.
Now… Why don’t Christians witness?
BECAUSE THEY DON’T REALLY BELIEVE THE DANGER IS REAL!!!!
Why don’t YOU witness?
BECAUSE YOU DON’T REALLY BELIEVE THE DANGER IS REAL!!!!
HOW REAL IS LOST.... And what does it mean that they are lost?
We need to get a vision of how lost people really are
HOW LOST IS LOST?
To be lost is lost enough
1. TO MISS HEAVEN
We read it in verse 3... verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Did you get that? Unless he is born again, born from above, born of the blood, dies to the old nature and is born spiritually as a new creature...
HE CAN NOT ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
Can it get any clearer??????
ALL HAVE SINNED…
ALL ARE UNDER THE CURSE OF THE LAW...
ALL ARE SEPARATED FROM GOD...
And if they die that way they will not go to heaven when they die.
People will ask, "How could a good and loving God not want everyone to go to heaven?"
HE DOES!!!!!!!
It is true that” He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance”... 2 Pt 3:9
But if they do not put faith in Jesus Christ, they will miss heaven
Remember Adam and Eve?
God loved them, strolled with them, made them a perfect place to live.
They sinned.
Here comes God... "What have you done?" Now you must leave the garden, and my presence, FOREVER!!!!!!
Remember the Hebrew children as they stood in Kadesh Barnea, just across the river from the holy land.
God said it is yours, just go in and take it, I will give it to you. They looked at the giants and decided to disobey God.
They would not listen to the two spies but chose to disobey God, not to go into the promised land.
God said just for that, you will not enter the promised land but will wonder in the wilderness until every adult has died and his bones are left in the wilderness.
Remember MOSES…
even Moses did not enter the promised land.
Why?
He was a great leader of the Children of Israel for 40 years... any other leader would have given up on this stiff-necked, hard-headed crowd.
40 YEARS OF FAITHFULNESS
They have no water because of their sin. Moses intercedes. God sends a rock. God tells Moses to speak to it. Moses STRIKES the rock... twice.
God says to Moses... you will not enter the promised land… for this one sin.
ONE SIN and Adam and Eve missed the garden
ONE SIN and the Hebrew children missed the promised land
ONE SIN and Moses missed the promised land
When you commit even one sin here is what Hebrews 10:29 says you do...
"Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of god, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done the spite unto the spirit of grace?
How much do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?"
Don’t fool yourself… God WILL NOT WINK AT SIN
HOW LOST IS LOST?
LOST ENOUGH TO MISS HEAVEN.
2. LOST ENOUGH TO GO TO HELL
Lost people cannot go to heaven so where do they go?
Pergatory?
THEY PERISH!!!!! The only place left is HELL!!!!!
Perish means "twisted and distorted."
God’s will is for everyone of us to come and live with him in heaven, where all is perfect.
Every person who dies and perishes = goes to hell... IS A DISTORTION OF GOD’S WILL.
You go to the junkyard and see thousands of twisted and perverted automobiles. That was not the makers plan or design. The designer did all he could to design a car that would stand up to crashes... brakes and steering that would avoid a crash, horn and lights to help avoid a crash.
Hell is the junkyard of all of those twisted and perverted lives that were never the will of the designer and builder.
LOST IS LOST ENOUGH FOR YOU TO MISS HEAVEN AND GO TO GOD’S JUNKYARD... HELL
3. LOST ENOUGH TO BE JUDGED
In verse 17-19 God used the Greek word "crine" which means judged
Judged does not mean stand before the judge... all will do that
Judged does not mean have judgment passed on your actions ... all will do that
Judged means to stand before the judge and hear him pronounce you GUILTY!!!!!!!
Those who are saved never have to fear that word.... GUILTY!!
Those who are not saved will not escape that judgment.... GUILTY!!!!
You are guilty of all the sins you are charged with, you cannot go to heaven, you will have to go to hell.
4. LOST ENOUGH TO BEAR GOD’S WRATH
Look at verse 36
“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”
God’s wrath is already on the lost.
God’s wrath is not God’s hatred.
It is God’s settled disposition, and his only and eternal reaction to sin.
God’s reaction to sin is to judge it... condemn it as guilty and then to destroy it, punish it.
So do you see how this relates to our theme of witnessing?
Lost persons are dead men walking. They are walking around with the wrath of God on them and on their eternal destiny. Their future is set. The stench of hell is already on them. They are already sentenced and just waiting for death so it can be served.
We need to see them as dead men walking, with one foot in hell, already wearing their prison clothes.
If we could see them that way...
We’d have a greater burden for them.
We’d be willing to risk rejection when we tell them
We’d make time, overcome obstacles to tell them
What does it say that we don’t witness???
One thing…
WE DO NOT TRULY BELIEVE
THAT LOST IS LOST ENOUGH…
TO MISS HEAVEN
TO BEAR THE WRATH OF GOD
TO BE JUDGED GUILTY...
AND TO GO TO HELL ETERNALLY.
I want to use another analogy… a three legged stool on uneven ground.
Have you ever sat on a stool when the ground was not level. You could not get all three legs on the ground at the same time. You could get these two, but the other one was up. Or you could get a different two legs down, but another one was off the ground.
That is what it is like when Christians do not witness.
Imagine a stool with three legs…
Believe… love… refuse
If you can love the person… one leg
But you refuse to witness to them… second leg
THEN YOU DO NOT BELIEVE
If you BELIEVE LOST is REAL one leg
and refuse to witness to people second love
THEN YOU DO NOT LOVE
We Christians have to decide which one it is…
Either we do not BELIEVE… or we do not LOVE.
Which are you more comfortable with as you leave here today?
INVITATION
I have a powerpointto go with this sermon. You can get a copy by emaiing me at reverick57@hotmail.com
