Everything about His marvelous life teaches us about soul winning.
Illus: For example, when Jesus wanted to let the world know that He loved them, He did not yell from Heaven, "I love all of you! Come to Me, and I will save you" Now He could have done that, but He didn't. Notice what He did do.
The Bible tells us, John 1:14, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us..."
What was the Lord teaching us about soul winning when He "...became flesh..."?
He was teaching us that if we want to be effective soul winners the gospel of Christ has to become flesh and bones - that is, the gospel has to get into our flesh - into our innermost being!. We have to become the gospel, wrapped up in flesh and blood.
Christ was the master soul winner. He was the "...Word..." that became "flesh, and dwelt among us..."
Oh, may the Lord so fill our lives with this gospel that we become the gospel wrapped in flesh.
Illus: With this in mind we can understand what Martin Luther meant when he said, "Every Christian ought to be a Christ to his neighbor."
In John 20:21, We read, "...as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you."
We can not be effective witnesses for Christ unless we become the incarnation of the Word of God in the world today.
Illus: Henry Drummond said, "God's truth will not go into a word, you must put it in an image. God Himself could not put truth in a word, there He made the Word flesh."
One thing we are often guilty of is preaching a great deal on the crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and second coming, and rightfully so. We need to preach on these subjects time and time again, but at the same time we need to preach on the incarnation because most folks do not know the importance of Christ's coming in the flesh, and what that means.
Let us look at THREE things about Christ's incarnation that will help us become soul sinners like Christ.
I. WE SEE THE VISITATION OF A SOUL WINNER.
If the incarnation teaches us anything, it teaches us that God wanted to identify Himself with humans by becoming flesh like they are. Thus He visited us!
This was prophesied in the Old Testament by Isaiah when he said (Isa. 7:14), "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."
The word Immanuel here means: "God with us." God took on human flesh and dwelt among us. He wanted to identify Himself with mankind and so He had to visit us personally.
Again, for us to be effective soul winners we must be the incarnation of all that Christ was, and experience what lost mankind experience.
Illus: John Wesley VISITED Savannah, Georgia. He preached to a congregation of 517 people. Among them were the rich, Indians, slaves, and many just plain poor folks. He noticed that many of the people wore no shoes. For the rest of his time there he preached with no shoes.
Why? He wanted to be gospel in the flesh, and in order to IDENTIFY with those people, he had to become as they were.
Illus: John R. Stott said, "All true evangelism demands a kind of incarnation, an entering into other people's worlds, into their pain and suffering, into their loneliness and lostness, and even into their thought world."
Illus: It is said that Father Deamien never was effective in dealing with the lepers until he became leperous himself, then he could say, "We lepers..."
If we are going to pattern our lives after the Master Soul Winner we are going to have to become the gospel incarnated, as He was.
Illus: The Indians have an old saying that still applies to us today. It goes like this, "One man should say nothing to another until he has walked in his moccasins."
This was exactly what the Lord did. He was the gospel in the flesh and this is exactly what we must be if we are going to be soul winners.
He voluntarily limited Himself to human flesh.
He became a PARTICULAR MAN, for a PARTICULAR PLACE, for a PARTICULAR TIME.
If we hope to win souls to him we have to do the same thing. We have to become the "temple" for Him to live in and work His work through.
His incarnation teaches us to do this. His incarnation was His visitation to mankind. His incarnation shows us something else...
II. WE SEE THE VISIBILITY OF A SOUL WINNER.
His incarnation made God visible to mankind. When He became flesh and dwelt among us, men could SEE, TOUCH, and FEEL Him. Before His incarnation no man had ever seen what God was like. But when He took on human flesh He could say, "...he that hath seen me hath seen the Father..." What did Jesus mean when He said, "...he that hath seen me hath seen the Father..."? Probably the closest we can come to explaining that paradox is to consider a woman who carries within her an unborn child. The paradox is that the TWO are ONE.
Illus: Rachel Richardson Smith said, "The two are distinct from each other, though they are not separate." She continues with this line of thinking by saying, "Christ does not contain God, Christ is not all of God, as the newborn baby is not all of the mother. But in Christ, God gives birth to God."
Illus: R. W. Stott said that God solved His invisibility problem by the birth of Christ. He said, "In the coming of Jesus Christ, who was the visible image of the invisible God."
God now wants to reveal Himself through the flesh of the Church.
Illus: You see, lost people do not read their Bibles, and very few of them even attend church, so God wants our lives to be "...written epistles, read and known of all men."
Some say, "Yes, I tell people all the time that they need to accept the Lord Jesus Christ." However, If one's WALK does not match his TALK, it is a waste of time.
Illus: We are told that people only retain 11% of what they hear, but they retain 87% of what they see. We are told that the eye is said to be 22 times faster than the ears in transmitting images to the brain.
The name given to the incarnate Son of God was Immanuel, that is: "God is with us." The world should be able to tell by the way we conduct ourselves that God is still with them as we yield bodies to Him that He might be the incarnate Word of God through us.
III. WE SEE THE VULNERABILITY OF A SOUL WINNER.
When God became man, He became VULNERABLE. He became so vulnerable that men were able to:
• Curse Him.
• Spit upon His face.
• Whip Him.
• Thrust a spear into His side.
• Place a crown of thorns on His head.
• Nail Him to a cross.
• Bury Him in a tomb as a common man.
He had never been vulnerable before.
Christ was willing to forsake the safety of His heavenly Father's provision. Why? BECAUSE OF LOVE! It was love that compelled Him to become flesh and make Himself vulnerable to man.
The point is, Christ suffered because He became flesh. He was not going to ask us to do what He Himself was not willing to do. We do not have many today who are willing to sacrifice that others might be helped.
Illus: Our politicians in Washington, D.C. ask the American tax payers, time and time again, to make the ultimate sacrifice and give more and more of our income while they sit in Washington and vote themselves large pay increases year after year. The very thing they ask us to do, they are not willing to do.
Illus: Have you ever noticed how in the old cowboy and Indian movies what happens when it comes time to wage war? The old chief gets on his horse, gathers all his braves around him and off they go. But, when they get to the battle site the chief sits on his horse on some high hill while his braves get their brains knocked out. Aren't you glad the God we serve is not like that? He became flesh and lived among us.
Jesus was not going to say to us in the flesh, "I want you to preach this gospel to the four corners of the earth. It is going to make you vulnerable; and evil men and women will persecute you as a result of obeying my command," without having experienced persecution Himself.
The One Who told us to GO, is the same One Who CAME in the flesh and suffered and died. We all have read many times of how Christ came in the flesh and suffered and died. Since that time many have invited the incarnate Word to dwell within them. They have yielded their flesh to Him to promote the gospel to a lost and dying world!
Illus: During the age that we call the age of the martyrs, Christians fled into almost 600 miles of underground molelike tunnels and caverns outside Rome. Ten generations of Christians were buried in the catacombs during approximately 300 years of suppression. No one knows the exact number, but archaelogists estimate between 1,750,000 and 4,000,000 Christians were interred in the dark tunnels. Inscriptions of Scripture can still be seen on the catacombs' walls. One of the most frequent inscriptions is the sign of the fish, but the inscription which best describes their faith says, "The Word of God is not bound."
Through the centuries many Christians have become temples of the Holy Spirit, or allowed The Word to be incarnate in them and have placed themselves at great risk by doing so. Americans of this generation have a hard time comprehending that kind of sacrifice.
We have a new breed of Christian today. People want to claim the name of Christ, but not let anyone know that they profess to be saved.
One can only wonder if those who make a PROFESSION of that kind really POSSESS what they secretly profess. Those who have really accepted Christ as their Savior and Lord become like Jesus, Who placed Himself in HARM'S WAY for us.
Illus: Talmadge tells the story of years ago that a Roman emperor said to a Greek architect, "Build me a coliseum, and when it is done, I will crown you, and I will make your name famous through all the world." The work was done. The emperor said, "Now, we will crown that architect. We will have a grand celebration."
The coliseum was crowded with a great host. The emperor was there and the Greek architect, who was to be crowned for putting up the great coliseum. Then they brought out some Christians, who were ready to die for the truth; and from the doors underneath hungry lions were turned loose.
The emperor arose amid the shouting assemblage and said, "The coliseum is done, and we have Christians at the mouth of the lions, and we have come here to honour the architect who has constructed this wonderful building. The time has come for me to honour him, and we further celebrate his triumph by the slaying of these Christians." Whereupon, the Greek architect sprang to his feet and shouted, "I also am a Christian!"
And they flung him to the wild beasts, and his body, bleeding and dead, was trampled into the dust of the amphitheatre."
Conclusion/Summary: We, who have this gospel permeating our bodies, cannot be silent. Jeremiah expressed it this way in chapter 20, verse 9, "Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a BURNING FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES, and I was weary with forebearing, and I could not stay." In the person who has Christ incarnate within...
I. WE SEE THE VISITATION OF A SOUL WINNER.
II. WE SEE THE VISIBILITY OF A SOUL WINNER.
III. WE SEE THE VULNERABILITY OF A SOUL WINNER.
