Yes, this has been around for a while, but it is still funny (and true).
Someone was “offended” at the cross? Of course they are! The bible says that, “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing”(1 Corinthians 1:18). Isn’t it funny how we are supposed to be tolerant, diverse and non judgmental in the United States now, except when someone is “offended” by a cross?
The cross in this video (below) makes mine look dinky. Maybe I can get this woman to make a big one for me.
Ken preaching the Gospel
We went to Manitou Springs yesterday to witness to the folks there. It was another beautiful day in Colorado….God is good. All of our Bibles were taken as well as a bunch of Gospel tracts. As usual, there was quite an assortment of unbelievers there. Connie talked to a Wiccan “High Priest”, and we even witnessed to a group of Muslims. In witnessing to these Muslim women, I tried to explain the difference between Christian faith and the faith of all other religions(including Islam). Only in Christianity can we be assured of salvation. If we repent of our sins and trust in Christ, we will be reborn spiritually and have the righteousness of Christ…who WAS perfect. Jesus never sinned, so He did not have to die. Instead, He died in our place and rose from the dead. No one has ever done that! Not Muhammad, not Joseph Smith, not Buddha, and certainly not Mary or any Popes. Jesus was God, and only through faith in Him can we be saved! As Jesus said in God’s Word, “I am THE way, I am THE truth, I am THE life, NO ONE comes to the Father except by Me.”(John 14:6). Anyone else, including Muhammad, died because they were sinners. They need Jesus to be saved, just like everyone else.
We are planning a Sketchboard Evangelism Training, here in Colorado Springs this Spring! Please consider joining us for this awesome event! Details to follow.
Ken preaching. Chalk box for hecklers.
Ken and I went down to Acacia Park this week on an absolutely beautiful day in January. God is good. We witnessed to the usual crowd of “park dwellers” and business people walking by. Then we witnessed to the high schoolers when they got out for lunch. We picked the usual great spot on the corner and set up the cross and drew a box on the sidewalk with chalk. The chalk box is great to get hecklers to stand in, so that we can address them one by one. If you do not use something like this, then a bunch of people can end up arguing with you all at once. This does not work and just turns to chaos. If you can get one heckler in the box, then a dialogue can be undertaken and the others will have to stand in line. It is amazing how it works!
We got set up before the High School got out, so we first witnessed to the usual crowd at the Park. One guy came over and flipped over the cross and another guy came over and spit on it. A rough crowd. The guy who spit on the cross hung around to listen to the Gospel preached, and took a Bible, but Ken said he ripped it up as he walked away. Sad. A comment from Charles Spurgeon, from chapter 7 “Then Did They Spit in His Face” (pg. 44-48 of Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross)
If we want proof of the depravity of the heart of man, I will not point you to the stews of Sodom and Gomorrah, nor will I take you to the places where blood is shed in streams by wretches like to Herod and men of that sort. No, the clearest proof that man is utterly fallen, and that the natural heart is enmity against God, is seen in the fact that they did spit in Christ’s face, did falsely accuse him, and condemn him, and lead him out as a malefactor, and hang him up as a felon that he might die upon the cross….
…But could I feel as I ought to feel in sympathy with the terrible shame of Christ, and then could I interpret those feelings by any language known to moral man, surely you would bow your heads and blush, and you would feel rising within your spirits a burning indignation against the sin that dared to put the Christ of God to such shame as this….
If ever anybody should despise us for Christ’s sake, let us not count it hard, but let us be willing to bear scorn and contempt for him. Let us say to ourselves, “Then did they spit in his face. What then, if they also spit in mine? If they do, I will ‘hail reproach, and welcome shame,’ since it comes upon me for his dear sake.” See, that wretch is about to spit in Christ’s face! Put your cheek forward, that you may catch that spittle upon your face, that it fall not upon him again, for as he was put to such terrible shame, every one who has been redeemed with his precious blood ought to count it an honor to be a partaker of the shame, if by any means we may screen him from being further despised and rejected of men.
May we feel the affront that sin is to Christ’s glory. And may we joyfully desire, like Paul, to share in Christ’s sufferings.
I did, however, have a guy who was yelling that “the Bible is only written by men”. We bantered back and forth and I finally asked him if he thought Jesus really existed. He said yes, so I asked him if Jesus rose from the dead. He said…”maybe”!. Well, I explained that not only the Christian writers of the time said that Jesus was resurrected, but there were also secular writers that said it happened too. And if this is true….if a dead guy came alive again…maybe the Bible is more than just a “book written by men”. He was freaked and said he would investigate it. He took a Bible and we talked for a while. May God save him.
The following is a video of the guys flipping the cross and spitting on it. This was our first session without the high schoolers.
The function of the Law in evangelism: The trouble with people who are not seeking the Savior and His salvation is that they do not understand the nature of sin. It is the peculiar function of the Law to bring such an understanding to a man’s mind and conscience. That’s why great evangelical preachers in past ages always engaged in what they called a preliminary ‘Law work.’
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
We visited our hometown in Illinois over the Christmas holiday, and I was able to distribute thousands of Gospel tracts. We went to a bunch of churches in town and put Gospel tracts on the cars in the parking lot. These churches are not preaching the Gospel, so we decided to get the Gospel out, especially on Christmas. And, of course, we did the same to many cars in the mall parking lots. Christmas is such a great time to give out Gospel tracts. I did not get turned down once when giving them to people on the street.
As far as the Churches go. What a shame to not proclaim the Gospel, especially on Christmas. That is what the church is all about…Christmas and Easter. A Christmas skit is fine and singing carols are fine, but none of that is redemptive. Why do these churches exist? Maybe that is why most of them are dying and no one is going to them. Sad….
I stumbled upon an old video of me handing out tracts at a parade earlier this year. It is SO easy to do. Check it out!
Why should we proclaim the Gospel? This video is a response to Rob Bell and his claims of Universalism, but David Platt makes a great case for the truth to be proclaimed. If the Bible is true concerning hell, then we must tell people the truth! It is the only loving thing we can do.
Icon depicting the Emperor Constantine and the bishops of the First Council of Nicea (325) holding the Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed of 381.
I was talking to Robert Gray last night, and he told me of another story of a witness encounter where the Divinity of Jesus was questioned. It seems that this subject comes up all the time when witnessing. Many will say that Jesus was just a man, or a Jehovah’s Witness will say that He was just a created being, or a Mormon will say that He was the physical firstborn son of the Heavenly Father, or Muslims will say that He was just a prophet.
This subject is a very old one, as one of the first major heresies of the early church was that of Arianism. In the 4th and 5th century, a teacher in Egypt named Arias (AD 250–336), proclaimed that Jesus was not Divine, as God was. This teaching caught on, an even the emperor Constantine was swayed by it. This heresy was later denounced at the Council of Nicaea in 325AD and the Council of Constantinople in 381AD. We get the Nicene Creed as a direct result of the refutation of this heresy. These words are found in both Creeds… “And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father , Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father”.
So why is this so important? Jesus HAD to be God because only God could pay the infinite penalty we deserve for sin. All other religions say that Jesus was a man, so His sacrifice was nice, but a person still has to work to be good enough to be saved. Only Christianity says that God Himself became man so that He could die on a cross and satisfy His just wrath for sin. Only God can do this. Man can never be good enough…and this includes Jesus if He was just a created being and not God. This is very important, and something we must communicate to the unbeliever, so that they can be truly saved.
Even though Jesus did not directly say He was God, He said it in many other ways. He said that, “He and the Father were One”(John 10:30). Many around Him understood that He was claiming to be God, when they said, “you claim to be God!”(John 10:33). Jesus said that He was without sin(John 8:46). He said that “before Abraham was I AM!”(John 8:58). The Jews picked up stones to kill Him for these statements, because they knew He was equating Himself with God(John 8:59). The people also were enraged when Jesus forgave sins, and said “who can forgive sins but God alone?”(Mark 2:7). Jesus accepted worship, that only is proper only for God(John 20:28. Matthew 2:11, Matthew 14:33, Matthew 28:9, John 9:38, Luke 24:52). And, of course, the Gospel of John starts out with the claim of Jesus in John 1:1-3… “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made”.
So when witnessing, I explain that..
- God chose those who were to be saved…..”even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved”(Ephesians 1:4-6 ESV).
- The Holy Spirit draws people to Christ and seals them after they are saved….. ” No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day”(John 6:44). “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption(Ephesians 4:30).
- And Jesus. as God, took the eternal penalty we deserve upon Himself on the cross, so that we could be saved…..” whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins”(Romans 3:25).
The Trinity is VERY important in the act of salvation, and we are to proclaim it to the lost!
Ken preaching the Gospel
Many, many people we know, are just FREAKED how we witness to the lost. Forget about us handing out tracts to strangers(gasp), or even preaching on a street corner(GASP)….but even the fact that we speak of things such as repentance and sin is seen as just too much. We hear things like, “don’t be confrontational”, or “just tell them to accept Christ”, or the favorite, “just tell them that God is love”. But is that Biblical? Is it right? Is it the GOSPEL?
John MacArthur has a recent article about this. He agrees that the Gospel is being perverted and destroyed, not just in liberal circles, but also within the community of evangelicals. In his article, he explains how the Gospel is being corrupted by those who speak of the forgiveness of God with no mention of repentance, and trusting Christ and not describing what faith is. This is not a trivial matter, as Johnny Mac says, “If it is a corrupted message, it can give unsaved people false hope while consigning them to eternal damnation. This is not a trivial matter for theologians to speculate on. It is an issue every lay person must understand and get right”. His article continues……..
Such teaching has taken a heavy toll. Faith has become merely an intellectual exercise. Instead of calling men and women to surrender to Christ, modern evangelism asks them only to accept some basic facts about Him. A person can believe without obeying. Thus faith is robbed of any moral significance, and righteousness becomes optional.
Even the way we invite people to Christ reveals this shift. “Make a decision for Christ,” we say. When was the last time you heard an evangelistic message that challenged sinners to repent and follow Christ? Yet isn’t that the language Jesus Himself used (Matthew 4:17; Mark 8:34)?
So let’s be firm and Biblical when witnessing to the lost. We must instruct what sin is to the unbeliever(Romans 7:7), and show them how they have broken God’s moral law(Romans 2:15, James 2:10), and deserve a death penalty in hell(Romans 6:23). This may sound harsh, but it is the truth! We must be courageous and explain that salvation is not an intellectual exercise, and just “accepting Christ” is not enough. We must explain what repentance is and plead with them to do it. We must explain what sin is and show that our unbelieving friends are guilty in the eyes of a God where, “everything will be laid bare before the eyes of Him, who we must give an account”(Hebrews 4:13).
OK….so where does the pancake mix come in? This video shows an open air preacher who had some pancake mix and used it to confront the self righteousness of those in the crowd(you can use whatever God gives you). We must expose how the Gospel has been perverted(check out the signs in the following video), and how that perversion will leave many deceived and still under the wrath of a holy God(John 3:36). Thank God for courageous Open Air Preachers who are faithful to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ that many may be saved, to the glory of God.
I know that this may be “beating a dead horse”, but I have to say it. The Gospel is NOT how we live, but proclamation of the truth. If we love our neighbor, we will tell them the truth of the Gospel that they can only know through proclamation of it. An unbeliever knows that God exists because of creation(Romans 1:19), and maybe how we live our life, but the Gospel must be proclaimed for them to come to repentance and faith, and be saved(Ephesians 1:13, Romans 1:16). Mark Driscoll explains this very well.
Now we know that the message of the Gospel may offend, but if we love our neighbor, we will tell them the truth in love anyway. This includes Open Air Preaching….. Another Christian blogger addresses this well.
The world is not a good way to judge the things of God. When the church stays inside and does not live out their faith, the world calls the church people hypocrites. When the church goes outside and begins to live out its faith by proclaiming its message, the world cries out that the church has gone mad and they need to go back to their church buildings. The world cannot be made happy by people living out truth. The world tells the preacher to stop ‘yelling’. The world claims the street preacher is to judgmental. The world claims that you cannot push religion down peoples throats. The world claims that the preacher is self-righteous. The world that crams all of their philosophies down the throat of the church is now offended when preachers stand and boldly proclaim the gospel in the open-air.
Open Air Preaching can be particularly offensive for the unbeliever, and even especially some who go to church. We are not supposed to keep our faith “private”, and are even commanded by our Lord to proclaim the truth. But is it “effective”? J Randal Easter says it well….
The question of questions that the open-air preacher hears from the world and from the religious people, “Is what your doing effective”? In order to answer such a question one must ask another question, “How is effective to be defined”? The Christian defines effective in the following way. Effective – “Doing that which is pleasing to God for the glory of God because he loves God and doing it in a way that reveals his love for humanity”. This definition takes into account the two greatest commandments. This definition has nothing to do with numbers, popularity, or denominational approval.
The Apostle Paul conquered the entire Roman Empire through the proclamation of the most scandalous message ever to reach the human ear. ~Paul Washer
