How few know how to deal with an ignorant, worldly man, for his conversion! To get within him and win upon him; to suit our speech to his condition and temper; to choose the meetest subjects, and follow them with a holy mixture of seriousness, and terror, and love, and meekness, and evangelical allurements – oh! who is fit for such a thing?
The Reformed Pastor, Chapter 3, Section 2.
The great principle of ‘incarnational mission’ (teaches us that)…the ministry of Jesus was one of involvement, not detachment; and therefore we must face the fact that we cannot minister to a lost world if we are not in it.
Preaching for God’s Glory, Crossway, 1999, p. 30. Get this book!
Our witness – good or bad – is the overflow of our lives.
Made For His Pleasure, Moody Press, 1996, p. 171. Get this book!
When Christ is central in the heart of the man, what does the man want to do? He wants to tell others about Jesus, and he will do so effectively. Let Jesus Christ be central in the heart of a man, and he is going to be burdened and troubled because millions have never heard of Christ. It is going to disturb him and bring him into action. What he needs is not more exhortation; he needs Christ. And the Christ within him who died for the world will speak through him to that lost world. Without true passion for Christ, nothing works consistently. It loses its power.
What [others] most need is to see in you a reflection of what God is like and of the transforming power of the Gospel. Your life can create hunger and thirst for God in others’ lives and can be a powerful instrument in the hand of the Holy Spirit to draw their hearts to Christ.
Holiness, The Heart God Purifies, Moody, p. 62.
We have not made enough of the fact that evangelism has a great deal to do with what you expect God to do. If you raise your antennae as the day begins and ask God to make you an instrument for divine encounters during the day, it will happen – almost every time. Christians living in anticipation of being used by God are like cats on the lookout for mice. They never lose their focus. They seem to sleep with their eyes and ears alert. When you stay ready, you are actually living by the faith you claim to exercise!
A More Spontaneous and Genuine Evangelism, Christian Communicators Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
Our works don’t replace the verbal preaching of the gospel, but in them we demonstrate, tangibly, the love and grace that we proclaim with our mouths. Effective gospel preaching is explaining with our words what we demonstrate with our lives. In our service, we make visible the invisible Christ.
Gaining by Losing, Zondervan, 2015, p. 122.
The motto of every missionary, whether preacher, printer, or schoolmaster, ought to be "Devoted for life."
The Greek word translated "example" is tupos, which means model, image, or pattern…When you set an example, you are giving people a pattern to follow. Someone once said, "Your life speaks so loud I can’t hear what you say." Your lifestyle is your most powerful message.
The Master’s Plan for the Church, Moody, 1991, p. 159.
One thing I have observed in all my years of ministry is that the most effective and important aspects of evangelism usually take place on an individual, personal level. Most people do not come to Christ as an immediate response to a sermon they hear in a crowded setting. They come to Christ because of the influence of an individual.
Twelve Ordinary Men, © John MacArthur, 2002, p. 68.
I am convinced, by the way, that friendships provide the most fertile soil for evangelism. When the reality of Christ is introduced into a relationship of love and trust that has already been established, the effect is powerful. And it seems that invariably, when someone becomes a true follower of Christ, that person’s first impulse is to want to find a friend and introduce that friend to Christ.
Twelve Ordinary Men, © John MacArthur, 2002, p. 123.
If you can do nothing but live a true Christian life – patient, gentle, kindly, pure – in your home, in society, at your daily duty – you will perform a service of great value, and leave many blessings in the world. Such a life is a little gospel, telling in sermons without words – the wonderful story of the cross of Christ.
In Green Pastures.
[Nature teaches us that every believer should be a soul-winner]. It is an essential part of the new nature. We see it in every child who loves to tell of his happiness and to bring others to share his joys.
Many believers are “rabbit hole” Christians. In the morning they pop out of their safe Christian homes, hold their breath at work, scurry home to their families and then off to their Bible studies, and finally end the day praying for the unbelievers they safely avoided all day (Jan Johnson).
Moody Monthly, Nov. 1987.
Be encouraged that simply finding people interesting and caring about them is a beautiful pathway into their heart. Evangelism gets a bad reputation when we are not really interested in people and don’t seem to care about them. People really are interesting. The person you are talking to is an amazing creation of God with a thousand interesting experiences. Very few people are interested in them. If you really find their story interesting, and care about them, they may open up to you and want to hear your story—Christ’s story.
I am Sending You to Open their Eyes, 2 Cor. 4:1-7, www.desiringgod.org, Used by Permission.
If we follow the first commandment and place no other gods before the true God and we are naturally wired to speak of that which is most important to us, it only stands to reason that we will we a faithful witness for Jesus Christ, our treasure chest of holy joy.
Sermon, The Faithful Witnesses of Christ – Part 2, Revelation 11:1-19, January 3, 2015.
This is how I see all the commands to evangelize. I don’t view them as something I just need to turn on in certain situations. I see them in the context of a robust relationship with God. It’s getting to a point where God is so special and adored in our lives that speaking to others about Him, either fellowshiping with believers or evangelizing unbelievers, is simply from the overflow of our hearts.
Sermon, The Faithful Witnesses of Christ – Part 2, Revelation 11:1-19, January 3, 2015.
The Bible does not so much command Christians to be witnesses for Jesus as much as it identifies those who are witnesses for Jesus as Christians. As fish swim and birds fly and the IRS collects taxes, all Christians are identified as witnesses for Christ.
Sermon, The Faithful Witnesses of Christ – Part 2, Revelation 11:1-19, January 3, 2015.
It is of no use for any of you to try to be soul-winners if you are not bearing fruit in your own lives. How can you serve the Lord with your lips if you do not serve Him with your lives? How can you preach His gospel with your tongues, when with hands, feet, and heart you are preaching the devil’s gospel, and setting up an antichrist by your practical unholiness?
Joy is the winsome magnet that draws people in because it is the one thing they do not have.
The communion of the gospel is by seeing as well as by hearing. This double strand runs all through the Bible: image and word, vision and voice, opening the eyes of the blind and unstopping the ears of the deaf. Just as Jesus is the Word of God and the Image of God. The Word become visible, the Image audible… We are familiar enough with the verbal element of evangelism. Where is the visual?
God forbid that I should travel with anybody a quarter of an hour without speaking of Christ to them.
Christian History, Issue 38.
