A couple of hunters are out in the woods of New Jersey when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn't seem to be breathing; his eyes are rolled back in his head. Terrified, his friend whips out a cell phone and dials 911.
“My friend is dead! What can I do?” he cries over the phone.
In a calm, soothing voice, the operator says, “Just take it easy. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead.”
There is a moment of silence, and then a single shot is heard.
The guy's voice comes back on the line: “Okay, now what?” (www.laughlab.co.uk; www.PreachingToday.com)
Actually, that’s a very good question: “Okay, now what?” Jesus is coming very soon, and you want people to repent before its too late. You want your friends and family members to understand the gravity of the situation and turn to the Lord to escape the coming wrath. You don’t want to shoot somebody, that’s for sure! You just want to help people in desperate need of a Savior.
So how do you do that? How do you convince people to turn from their self-destructive ways to a Savior, who can deliver them from the wrath to come? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 2, 1 Thessalonians 2, where we see how the Apostle Paul convinced people in his day to turn to the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 2:1 For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. (ESV)
Literally, it was not empty. Paul’s ministry was effective. Why?
1 Thessalonians 2:2 But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. (ESV)
In Philippi, they beat Paul up and threw him into jail. Then he came to Thessalonica, where a mob came after him! Even so, Paul did not back down: He boldly proclaimed the gospel “in the midst of much conflict,” literally, in the midst of much agony.
The word pictures a wrestling match where the wrestlers agonize and struggle to get the upper hand. Paul was in a very real struggle with those who opposed him, but he never lost his courage. In fact, the conflict only seemed to increase his courage.
Paul was bold in the face of opposition, and that’s what you need to be, as well, if you want to influence people to turn to the Lord.
BE BOLD!
Be fearless in the face of opposition. Don’t back down even when people attack you.
In the fifth century, a monk named Telemachus wanted to live his life in pursuit of God, so he lived alone in the desert praying, fasting, and meditating. Then one day, as he prayed, he realized he was a selfish man. If he truly wanted to serve God, he must serve people, so he decided to return to the city where there was a lot of sin and some very great need.
Telemachus headed for Rome. He arrived at a time when the Roman general, Stilicho, had won a great victory over the Goths, and since Rome was officially Christian, the victory brought people pouring into the churches.
But one pagan practice still lingered in Christian Rome – the gladiator games. While Christians were no longer thrown to the lions, prisoners of war were cast into the arena to fight and kill one another. Spectators roared with a lust for blood as the gladiators battled each other.
Telemachus arrived on the day of the games. Following the noise, he made his way to the arena where 80,000 people had gathered to celebrate. The fights began and Telemachus stood horrified. Men for whom Christ had died were about to kill each other to amuse a supposedly Christian audience.
He jumped into the arena and stood between the two gladiators, begging them to stop. The crowd was furious at the delay of their “entertainment,” and after several shouts and threats, they stoned the monk to death. The rest of the contests were cancelled that day, and three days later, Honorius (the Roman Emperor) declared Telemachus a martyr and ended the gladiatorial contests forever. (William Barclay, The Gospel of Mark, Westminster Press, 1975, pp. 203-205; www.PreachingToday.com)
Telemachus was a powerful influence on the Roman Empire, because he was not afraid of people. He was not afraid to stand up for what was right even if people stoned him. In that way, he singlehandedly stopped a centuries-old, ungodly, violent tradition that was a terrible blight on the entire empire. I wonder what would happen if just a few of God’s people today had that kind of courage.
Someone once said: “If there is one thing upon earth that [people] love and admire better than another, it is a brave man – a man who dares look the devil in the face and tell him he is the devil” (James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, p.127). You, be that man. You, be that woman. Be bold! Be fearless in the face of opposition.
“But how?” you ask. How do you find that kind of courage? Well, you find it when you fear God more than you fear people. Seek to please the Lord alone, not others. That’s how Paul found his courage.
1 Thessalonians 2:3-4 For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. (ESV)
Paul did not tell people what he thought they wanted to hear. He didn’t skew the truth to fit his audience. On the contrary, he boldly proclaimed the truth of the Gospel to please God, not people. He spoke to an audience of One – God Himself. It didn’t matter what others thought, only what God thought.
Herbert Swope once said, “I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody” (Herbert Bayard Swope in Leadership, Vol. 1, no. 3; www.PreachingToday.com). If you want the courage to impact your world for Christ, then don’t seek to please everybody; seek only to please God.
In the early 1990s when President George H. W. Bush had fiery John Sununu as his White House chief of staff, a reporter asked Sununu if his job was difficult. Sununu quickly answered, “No.” The reporter thought Sununu had misunderstood the question, so he asked again, and got the same reply.
Sununu, a former governor of New Hampshire, then explained why he felt his job was easy: “I have only one constituent.” He knew his job was simply to please the President. (Knute Larson, Holman New Testament Commentary: I & II Thessalonians, I & II Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Holman Bible Publishing, 2000, pp. 22-23; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s your job, as well. Just please the Lord! Don’t worry about what others think. Oswald Chambers said, “When you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else” (Oswald Chambers, “The Highest Good,” Christianity Today, Vol. 39, no. 1; www.PreachingToday.com). So fear God alone, and be bold in the face of opposition.
However, in your boldness, don’t boast. Don’t assert yourself as the authority on all matters. Paul didn’t.
1 Thessalonians 2:5-6 For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. (ESV)
Literally, we could have become a weight [on you]. Paul had every right to assert his authority as an apostle of Christ, but he didn’t.
Arnold Palmer, the “Tiger Woods” of his day, was once invited to a convention of blind golfers. He asked the golfers how they were able to know what direction to hit the ball. One blind golfer explained that the caddie went out ahead of him with a little bell, which he would ring as he stood near the hole. The blind golfer would then hit the ball toward the sound of the bell.
Arnold asked how well it worked, and the blind golfer said that it worked so well he was willing to take on Arnold Palmer for a round of golf, and just to make it interesting, was willing to bet Palmer ten thousand dollars he could beat him.
Well, this just blew Palmer’s mind. He pressed him, but the man insisted he was willing to bet that amount on his ability to beat Palmer. So, the deal was struck. Palmer said, “OK. What time do we tee off?”
And the blind man said, “10:30 – tonight!” (Gordon MacRae as sited by James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, pp. 274-275)
Oops! Pride goes before a fall every time. I like the person who said, “The bigger a man’s head gets, the easier it is to fill his shoes” (James S. Hewett, Illusirations Unlimited, p. 438). So in your boldness, be careful not to boast. Don’t assert yourself as the authority.
Instead care for those you serve. Demonstrate love and compassion for those you are trying to reach. Paul did.
1 Thessalonians 2:7-8 But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. (ESV)
Paul cared for people just like a mother cares for her own children. He loved people, and they became “very dear” to him. As a result, He not only shared the Gospel with them; he shared himself! In other words, he didn’t just preach sermons AT them, he gave himself TO them.
Richard Cecil said, “To love to preach is one thing – To love those to whom we preach, quite another” (Leadership, Vol. 4, no. 2; www.PreachingToday.com).
I remember what Howard Hendricks said to our class at Dallas Theological Seminary. As we were preparing for ministry, he told us, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
My dear friends, if you want to influence people to turn to the Lord in these days before Jesus comes, be bold, to be sure. But also...
BE KIND.
Care for those you are trying to reach. Give yourself to people like Paul did.
Soon after we planted our church in Ellsworth, Kansas (1989), a young man (Steve Johnson) walked into one of our worship services with the idea of giving God one more chance. He had grown up in a Christian home, gone to a Christian school, and attended an Evangelical Free Church in Wichita until the day he left home. When he walked into our worship service that morning, he was on the verge of turning away from God and leaving his Christian upbringing far behind him.
He had intended to go to another church, but it was closed, so he thought he’d try the church meeting at city hall, our church! Had he known it was an Evangelical Free Church, he would have never come; because, even though he was willing to give God one more chance, he did not want anything to do with the kind of church he grew up in.
However, in this new church plant, he found a group of people that accepted him just the way he was. He was managing the pig farm north of town, so he came in his jeans with his long hair, moustache, and round wire-rimmed glasses – not your typical churchgoer at the time.
Now, I’d like to think it was my brilliant preaching that kept him coming back and made the difference in his life, but I don’t think so. For, you see, before he left church that morning, he had three invitations to dinner afterward! He ended up at John and Mary’s place, some down-to-earth, what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of people. They were very unpretentious, but they opened their home and their hearts to this young man, and he was hooked.
Soon after that, he committed his life to Christ; and within a year, he had more than a dozen high school students meeting in his home every week to study the Bible together. He was with us for two more years and then took a job in Wichita. Eventually, God led him to Denver Seminary where he graduated in the spring of 1998. That fall, I had the privilege of preaching at his installation service in a church in Wisconsin, where he entered full-time ministry as a youth pastor.
God transformed his life, and He used people who cared. God used people who cared enough to invite him to dinner. God used people who cared enough to accept him as he was. God used people who cared enough to love him into the kingdom.
That’s how God can use you, as well. Care enough to love people into His Kingdom. If you want to influence people to turn to the Lord in these days before Jesus comes, be bold; be kind; then...
BEHAVE!
Live a clean life. Be blameless in the way you live your life.
Be blameless in your work. Paul was. In verse 9 he says...
1 Thessalonians 2:9 For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. (ESV)
Paul could have asked his audience to support him, as most traveling preachers did in his day. Instead, he got a job to support himself, so he wouldn’t be a burden to anyone. Paul was not afraid to work hard, and people respected him for it.
The previous pastor had been a paragon of virtue. He lived up to all the people’s expectations and was willing to live on a very low salary to boot. He loved to work around the parsonage and kept both house and church grounds in good repair.
The new pastor was just the opposite. He hired someone to do a lot of the chores, including mowing the parsonage and church lawns. Naturally, that cost more money, and it was of concern to some of the elders in the church. One day, one of them approached the new pastor and tried to bring this up tactfully.
He said to the new pastor, “You know, our previous pastor mowed the lawn himself. Have you considered this approach?”
The new pastor replied, “Yes, I’m aware of this, and I asked him, but he doesn’t want to do it anymore!” (James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, p.357)
Now, I’m not saying that pastors should mow the church lawn, but they should work hard. Anyone who wishes to influence people should work hard, because that’s what it takes. No one respects laziness, so be blameless in your work.
Then be blameless in your walk, as well. Be blameless in your conduct. Paul was. In verse 10, he says...
1 Thessalonians 2:10 You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. (ESV)
Paul was an example to all the believers. He showed them how to live! You see, people don’t DO what you say until they SEE what you do.
Dr. Evan O'Neill Kane was the chief surgeon of Kane Summit Hospital in New York City and had practiced his specialty for 37 years. As a surgeon, he was intrigued with the use of local anesthetics, because he considered general anesthesia to be too risky.
He was anxious to find someone willing to have an appendectomy with just a local anesthetic while conscious. However, everyone he talked to was fearful of feeling the pain of the deep, probing scalpel.
Finally, Kane found a candidate. Hospital staff prepped and brought the patient to the operating room. The anesthesiologist carefully administered the local anesthesia, and surgery began. As he had done thousands of times, Kane cut across the right side of the abdomen and went in. He tied off the blood vessels, found the appendix, removed it, and sutured the incision.
Remarkably, the patient felt little discomfort. In fact, he was up and about the next afternoon, which is remarkable since it was the year 1921. At the time, appendectomies would keep patients in the hospital for at least a week.
It was a milestone in the world of medicine, but only because someone was willing to go first. Who was that brave patient? It was none other than Dr. Kane. He had operated on himself! (Charles Swindoll, “Integrity: How to Live Above the Crowd,” Veritas, January 2002, pp. 1-2; www.PreachingToday.com)
Dr. Kane gave new meaning to the expression, “Physician, heal thyself!” As a result, he has influenced the medical community to this day! And that’s what it takes to influence people any day – Go first! Set the example and show people how to live. Be blameless in your work. Be blameless in your walk.
And be blameless in your talk, as well. Be careful about what you say and how you say it. In verse 11, Paul says...
1 Thessalonians 2:11-12 For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. (ESV)
Paul spoke like a father. He “exhorted,” “encouraged,” and “charged” people to live for the Lord. He spoke in a variety of ways, depending on a person’s needs.
In her book Everyday Evangelism, Martha Krienke shares advice from an anonymous missionary in Japan, who shows how to share the gospel in a way that people will listen.
He held up a cup filled to the brim with water and said:
“The Japanese are like this full cup. Their lives are very busy and full. We’ve got to be careful of pouring on the truth, as important, great, and glorious as it is. If you pour water into a cup that’s already full, where will that water go? Of course, it spills onto the floor.”
He said, “Sometimes in our zealousness to share the good news, we can overdo it, and we just pour it on. And then that opportunity—that water—is wasted because people’s cups are already full.
“But when you take time to listen,” and he took a sip out of the cup, “you’re now providing space. There’s now capacity for you to share something that’s going to impact their heart because now you know their story. Now you know what passage of Scripture to share or what encouraging word to say. Now you know how to pray for them because you’ve taken the time to listen.” (Martha Krienke), “Everyday Evangelism,” The Alliance, 11-20-17; www.PreachingToday.com)
Oh my dear friends, take the time to listen to people so you know how to talk to them.
It worked for Megan Phelps-Roper. Since the age of five, she was on the picket lines for the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church. They picketed the funerals of American soldiers and celebrated natural disasters, because they see those tragedies as an expression of God’s judgement.
Then in 2012, Megan began to have a change of mind and heart. Thanks to Twitter! She zealously debated people on Twitter, but soon things changed. In a TED Talk on NPR, she said:
“People I'd sparred with on Twitter would come out to the picket line to see me when I protested in their city… We started to see each other as human beings, and it changed the way we spoke to one another. It took time, but eventually these conversations planted seeds of doubt in me.”
Leaving Westboro, which included family and close friends, was extremely difficult. They never spoke to her again. She also believed those with whom she fought would shun her, as well. She said, “I wanted to hide from the world I'd rejected for so long – people who had no reason at all to give me a second chance after a lifetime of antagonism.” Then she comments on today’s bitter, political discourse and the people who influenced her:
“I remember this path. It will not take us where we want to go. We have to talk and listen to people we disagree with. And I will always be inspired to do so by those people I encountered on Twitter – apparent enemies who became my beloved friends. They… came to me with pointed questions tempered with kindness and humor. They approached me as a human being and that was more transformative than two full decades of outrage, disdain, and violence. (Megan Phelps-Roper, “If You're Raised to Hate, Can You Reverse It?” TED Talks NPR.com, 10-27-17; www.PreachingToday.com)
Approach people as human beings when you talk to them. As the Bible says, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person” (Colossians 4:6). In these turbulent days before Jesus comes again, if you want to influence people to turn to Him, be gracious in your speech.
Be bold, to be sure! But also, be kind and behave.
