Introduction
In Matthew 28:19-20, when Jesus was about to ascend to heaven, He gave a twofold task to the disciples and by extension, the church today. The task of evangelism and discipleship.
In this world, we have two main categories of people. Believers in Christ Jesus. These are people who have received Jesus into their lives as Lord and are now born again. Then we have unbelievers. Those who are yet to acknowledge that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory, repent of their sins and accept Jesus into their lives as their personal Lord and Saviour.
1 Peter 2:11 tells us that we are all sojourners and pilgrims in this world. This world isn’t our final home. We are all travellers on a journey. Believers are travelling on the narrow road that leads to life, while unbelievers are on the broad road that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13).
The work Jesus therefore entrusted into our hands in Matthew 28:19-20 is to help and encourage those who are on the broad road to get off that road and join the narrow road so their souls aren’t destroyed. This is evangelism. Discipleship is helping and encouraging those who are already on the narrow road to stay on that road irrespective of what comes their way, until they see Christ Jesus in glory.
Don’t Be A Stumbling Block, Be A Directional Sign To Jesus
One thing we notice when you are on the road is that every now and then, you come across road blocks. The police or the army can put a road block or barricade on the road to check those that are passing through a particular road. Road construction workers may put a road block to enable them work on a particular road. When a road block is put in place, this can cause a lot of traffic and difficulty. In Romans 14:13 Pauls tells us to determine in our heart not to be a stumbling block or a road block. We shouldn’t by the things we do and say, by the way we live our lives be an obstacle, a hindrance or impediment to those who want to move from the broad road to the narrow road. Nor should we make it extremely difficult or discouraging for those who are on the narrow road to keep walking on that road. God tells us in Isaiah 57:14 to take the stumbling block out of the way of my people. I pray today that whatever it is in our lives that constitutes a stumbling block to evangelism and discipleship, God should remove from us in Jesus mighty name. Amen!
Instead of being stumbling blocks, we are to be directional signs that point people to Jesus. May we be that GO sign on the journey of life that as people interact with us, they are encouraged to keep pressing on, to keep moving, keep believing, to keep following the Lord on the narrow road. May we be the ROAD DIVERSION sign on the journey of life that turns people aside from the broad road that leads to destruction; that gets people to take another route, the narrow route instead of the broad route. May we be the U-TURN sign that encourages people to make a complete change; a U-turn from sin to righteousness, from darkness to light, from the board road to the narrow road.
Evangelism and Discipleship Can Only Be Done Through the Help and Power of the Holy Spirit
When Jesus told His disciples to go into the whole world to make disciples of all nations, teach them about Christ, teach them the Word of God, He didn’t say you have been with me for three years, have seen me evangelise and disciple people so hit the streets and start doing the same thing. NO! Jesus instructed them to tarry in the city of Jerusalem until they are endued with power from on high (Luke 24:29). We can’t do the work of evangelism and discipleship by our own power, might and wisdom (Zechariah 4:6). We need the help, gifts, ability, strength, direction and strategy which the Holy Spirit is ready to equip us with. Acts 1:8 tells us that when the Holy Spirit comes on us we will receive power to witness for Christ. The Holy Spirit will supply all we need for the work of evangelism and discipleship.
The 4 Roles of the Holy Spirit In Evangelism And Discipleship
There are four major things that the Holy Spirit helps us to do as regards evangelism and discipleship which can be seen in Acts 16:6-40:
1) The Holy Spirit Creates and Arranges Opportunities for Evangelism and Discipleship (Acts 16:6-10).
In Acts 16:6-10, Paul planned to go and preach the Word of God in Asia but the Holy Spirit didn’t allow Paul do this. Paul tried to enter Bithynia still for the good purpose of preaching the word of God, but the Holy Spirit blocked him from doing this. Instead, Paul had a vision of a man in Macedonia pleading to him to come and help him. By this vision, Paul knew that an opening, an opportunity, a door had been opened for him in Macedonia to preach there.
For each of us, the Holy Spirit will create different opportunities for us to do the work of evangelism and discipleship. Not everyone will receive a vision from God to go to some town or city, like it happened to Paul. Your own opportunity may come like the slave girl, who her master Naaman had a serious health problem that needed divine intervention (2 Kings 5:1-3). Your boss who hasn’t surrendered to Jesus, may be going through a health, marital or financial issue. This presents a perfect opportunity for you to tell your boss about your God, to encourage him or her that God can intervene and turn the situation around. The problem in your boss’ life is an opportunity to invite your boss to a Church service or program for God to touch your boss and address what he or she is presently going through.
For some other people, your opportunity may come like it did for Philip in Acts 8:26-39 where by divine arrangement, Philip was put on the same road with an Ethiopian eunuch who needed to hear about God. The Holy Spirt will arrange for you to be on the same road, same bus, same class, same aircraft, same hotel, same shop with someone who needs to hear about God.
Another person’s opportunity may come like that of the Samaritan man. On your way to church, right at the beginning of the street will be someone who has been attacked by armed robbers or knocked down by a car.
Your church picking a day for everyone to go out for evangelism is also an opportunity that has been created for you.
What do we do when these opportunities come our way? Acts 16:10 tells us that as soon as Paul saw this vision of a man in Macedonia, he left immediately without any delay to Macedonia. He seized the opportunity. Ephesians 5:15-17, tells us that when opportunities come knocking, we must make the best use of these opportunities. Especially now more than ever, when the devil knows his time is short and he is doing everything possible to keep people away from God and from living for God (Revelation 12:12).
Opportunities utilised lead to the opening of a great and effective door to impact lives for God (I Corinthians 16:9)
The more we make use of these opportunities for evangelism and discipleship the Holy Spirit creates for us, the more we realise the great and effective door God has opened for us to impact lives for the kingdom, the more we understand the place and people God has destined us to reach out to and how He wants us to go about it. Paul got to understand that a great and effective door to preach to the gentiles and impact their lives had been opened for him (Galatians 1:15-16, Romans 15:18-20). A great and effective door may be opened for you through music, through drama, through writing, through intercessory prayers, through teaching, preaching or through giving. Your own ‘Macedonia’ may be in the prison, in the hospital, in government, in schools, on the streets where drug addicts reside, or on social media. Your own ‘man of Macedonia’ pleading on you to come over to Macedonia to help them may be children, young adults, singles, widows, business men and women, prostitutes, homeless and destitute people, or the elderly.
A great Kingdom assignment has been entrusted into our hands, and opportunities abound each day for us to fulfil this assignment. By tapping into these opportunities, we bring pleasure to God who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4).
2. The Holy Spirit Teaches Us the Value of One Soul to God (Acts 16:11-15, 26-33)
What is the value of one soul to you? How much are you willing to spend just for one soul to know Christ Jesus? How much of your life are you ready to pour out to see that just one soul gets saved?
If we look at Acts 16:11-15, one would have expected based on the vision God gave Paul of a man in Macedonia crying out to him for help that when Paul got to Macedonia, there would be a man waiting to receive him at the city gate. Or he was going to preach a message and like it happened on the day of Pentecost, thousands of soul would hear him and be saved that instant. But what happened when Paul got to Macedonia? It was just some women at the riverside who gave him audience to preach to them. Even when he preached to the women, it was just one woman Lydia, a seller of purple, that accepted Jesus into her heart as Lord. Lydia and her household got baptised. Later when Paul and Silas were locked up in prison, the jailer and his household got saved.
The Holy Spirit through this experience taught Paul the value of one soul to God. The journey of over a day, the stress and strain of travelling by ship, the expenses spent on this journey, were all for God to see that Lydia and the jailer got saved. In Luke 15:4-7, God teaches that even if He has 99 sheep with Him and just one sheep is missing, He will do everything to ensure that the one sheep that has gone astray, comes back to Him. God will go to any extent to see that one soul is saved, to the extent of shedding the blood of His only Son for the salvation of that one soul. Luke 15:7, 10 tells us how the angels in heaven rejoice when just one soul is saved. They rejoice because the blood of Jesus has not been in vain in that life. They rejoice because the pain, agony and sacrifice of the cross was not wasted on that soul.
When it comes to evangelism and discipleship, many of us have the attitude and mind set of the elder brother of the prodigal son in Luke 15:25-31. We can’t understand what all the fuss is for one soul. We get annoyed and irritated when we see so much being spent by churches or Christian organisations on evangelism and discipleship just like the brother of the prodigal son was irritated with all the money his father spent to welcome his brother back home. In worldly economics, the time, money, stress and effort Paul put in to travel to Macedonia for Lydia and the jailer to be saved, doesn’t make wise economic sense. That money should have been spent on thousands of people not just on Lydia and her family, the jailer and his family. But we can’t use worldly economics to do kingdom business. Nothing we spend in our efforts at soul winning and discipleship is more expensive or can equate to the precious blood of Jesus that was shed for that lost soul.
3. The Holy Spirit Makes Our Evangelism and Discipleship Personal and Practical (Acts 16:16-19)
The Holy Spirit is the One who helps us to do evangelism and discipleship in a way that it touches on and affects what people are going through in their personal lives.
In Acts 16:16-19, as Paul and his companions were going around preaching, a young girl joined them. This girl followed them for days as they were preaching to people. She was shouting out loud for everyone to hear that these are servants of the Most High God who proclaim to us the way of salvation. Anyone seeing this, would admire this young girl who was giving her time to do evangelism with Paul. You would have thought she was a young girl with so much passion and zeal for God. But who was she underneath all this? A young girl that her masters were using for fortune telling through the spirit of divination. This young girl was being used by her masters to make money. She was their breadwinner. Through the gift of discernment, Paul recognised the foul spirit that was at work in her and delivered her from the demonic bondage she was under. Paul not just preached the Word, he addressed the personal issues this girl was going through.
Like this young girl, there are so many young girls out there that people depend on for their source of livelihood. Some are young girls who through prostitution bring in money for their family. Some are young girls who through begging on the streets bring in money for their family. Some are young girls who even through stealing bring in money for their family. You can’t just preach to such people and think it’s enough to just tell them that ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son’, without providing a practical solution to what they are facing in their personal lives. We must take our evangelism and discipleship efforts a step further. We must get personal and practical, and this can only be done through the help of the Holy Spirit.
Who this girl was, what she was going through wasn’t written on her forehead, just like most people we talk to don’t have their problems written on their foreheads. The girl didn’t open up to Paul about who she was, but Paul’s gift of discernment recognised and addressed what this young girl was going through in her personal life. The woman at the well didn’t open up to Jesus about her past, but Jesus’ gift of discernment recognised and addressed the problem with men the woman at the well had (John 4:7-18). Dorcas gift of giving addressed the material need for clothing the widows she ministered to where going through (Acts 9:39).
Every believer has been endowed with a gift that is a solution to someone’s problem. Your gift of giving is a solution to someone who is going through a financial difficulty. Your gift of healing is a solution to someone who is battling with a health challenge. Your gift of exhortation is a solution to someone who is feeling down, about to give up or commit suicide and needs encouragement. Your gift of mercy is a solution to someone who is going through so much pain and suffering.
When Acts 1:8 tells us that the Holy Spirit will come upon us and we will receive power to witness, it means the Holy Spirit will come upon us and fill us with everything we need to effectively communicate the gospel to people and these includes communicating God’s love to people through the use of our spiritual gifts.
4. The Holy Spirit Strengthens and Encourages Us to Keep Doing the Master’s Work Even When Challenges Come Our Way (Acts 16:19, 22-24, 40)
There was so much that happened in Macedonia that would make one doubt if it was really God that sent Paul there. Firstly, he didn’t meet thousands of souls waiting and begging him to preach so they would be saved. Then for doing God’s work; delivering the young girl from the work of darkness and demon possession, Paul was beaten with rods and thrown into prison with his feet fastened in the stocks.
Even when we go where God sends us, do what God tells us to do, trials will come. Anytime we evangelise to a soul, disciple a person so the person becomes rooted in Christ, we anger the devil and the kingdom of darkness as they don’t want people to come to the knowledge of the truth. There will be a back lash of spiritual attack, persecution, trials and afflictions. But we are more than conquerors over all this if we remain committed to God who called us and sent us to do this work.
Acts 16:40 is such a beautiful verse that speaks volumes about lifestyle evangelism. After being beaten, thrown in prison, enduring so much hardship just for preaching and doing the work of God, we see that Paul still kept at it. He didn’t say why me? Why is God allowing this happen to me? Why didn’t God stop these people from beating me and keeping me prison? I can’t continue suffering in this way for nothing, I can’t continue with this assignment. Instead, Paul still found a reason to praise and serve God. At midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang to God with all of their hearts and the prison doors were thrown open. When they were released from prison, Paul went to look for Lydia to follow up on her, to encourage her, to disciple her and other brethren. The same men that had just been through so much hardship for preaching, still saw a reason to keep preaching. The strength and encouragement they received to keep at this work, came from no other place and person but from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit strengthens us in our inner being with might and with a fire that makes us unstoppable even in the face of adversity (Ephesians 3:16).
Paul may not have preached in Macedonia a ‘Pentecost Message’ that got 3000 souls saved in one instant. But the faith, commitment, devotion and dedication he displayed in Macedonia, had such great impact, made such a strong impression on the people that in later scriptures (2 Corinthians 8:1-3, 2 Corinthians 11:9, 1 Thessalonians 1:8-10), we see Paul talking in glowing and highly commendable terms about the church that was planted in Macedonia. A church that when they were faced with severe trials, still gave so much to support the believers and the work of God. They could do this because they had seen Paul demonstrate through his life what it means to give God your all; to keep holding on to God and serving God even when you are hard pressed, persecuted and struck down.
We can’t do anything for God, we can’t live right for God without the help of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit in us empowers us to communicate a wonderful message of God’s love through our words and through our lives. The Holy Spirit equips us with all we need to encourage those on the broad road of destruction to get off that road and join the narrow road. The Holy Spirit helps us to encourage those on the narrow road of life, to keep walking on that road till they are welcomed into God’s eternal home.
