Three Essential C's To Evangelism Series

Jonah 3:1-10. Three C’s to effective evangelism

Today I want to look at three C’s which I believe are essential for effective evangelism. We live in an age where the Church is a buzz with evangelism tools you can buy endless books, go to conferences, start courses, join training programmes on evangelism etc. But I believe that the Bible is the best source we have in our possession to aid is in effective evangelism, because here we have living examples to emulate from Jonah to Jesus Himself.

We are looking at the book of Jonah and probably one of the greatest reluctant OT evangelist Jonah, who saw a city of 175,000 people turn to the living God in a period of three days the whole city was converted from the man in the street to the King in his palace..

What was it that brought about this dramatic revival in such a God forsaken place like Nineveh?

Is there anything we can take from it to help us to be more effective in our own evangelism. Well I think there are three effective C’s which we can all implement to make our personal /corporate evangelism/witness more effective for God.

1. Obedience to the Commission. v1 – 3. Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. Go to the great city of Nineveh..... Matt28:19

Do you remember learning to ride a bike as a child, maybe it as with your father for me it was with my mother. I remember distinctly the bike and the times, I remember at first I wanted nothing to do with it but mum would be there encouraging me to sit on the bike to have a go, to take part in this new experience eventually I did after much persuasion. Mum would hold onto the back seat , as I peddled trying to keep my balance. All the time mum would be communicate instructions, encouraging, then I would fall , as I fell she would show great care as she wiped me down and put me back on the bike. I would get on the bike again and have another go. What made it successful for me was the fact that mum was there with me every step of the way.

It reminds me of Jonahs situation,Jonah was a reluctant prophet, who didn’t want to get on his bike the first time (the will of God) (1:1 the word of the Lord came to Jonah) Jonah disobeyed instead going in the opposite direction. God wanted him to go to Nineveh but Jonah walked outside of the will of God he didn’t want to do what God wanted him to do, he decided to go on a world cruise. So God pursued him and Jonahs world cruise would turn into the holiday from hell.

If you’re a Christian this morning and you are running outside the will of God things could begin to get really tough for you in the days ahead, as a result of your own actions things will begin to take a sharp turn for the worse. Take head from the life of Jonah.

Time to wake up: The storm at sea that ensued under God’s providence was directed at Jonah as a result of the dilemma in hand Jonah new deep down he was the cause of the problem (2:12), Jonah had come to the point of surrendering his life afresh to the will of God. Here we see him prepared to lose his life yet at this point he would save it.

At Jonah’s point of surrender:God delivers Jonah (compassionate nature of God) by providing a huge fish, from inside the belly of the fish Jonah cried out to God with a testimony of thanksgiving for his deliverance and vowed to commit his life a fresh to God. And so once again on the sea shore Jonah receives a fresh call to go and fulfil the will of God for Jonah and Nineveh. V1 – 3 now Jonah is obedient he gets back on his bike, with his Father right behind him.

Have you ever fallen of your bike? (Are you outside the will of God?)Have you experienced what Jonah experienced a God who PURSUES, maybe you need to experience a fresh deliverance today a need to surrender your life afresh to God? Could it be that the Word of the Lord is coming to you again?

Note: If that is the case God is calling us to get back on our bikes. (Because he is right behind us) God is prepared to use us again the Word of the Lord comes a 2nd time to participate in God’s work. You might feel that you are disqualified from serving God because of your past mistakes. But we must remember that serving God is not an earned position – no one qualifies the amazing truth is that God wants to use us even after our failures.