Issuu

A SAMPLE OF ENDORESMENTS The following are some of the endorsements for Julian’s 900+ page book called Evangelism: Strategies from Heaven In the War for Souls. Some people are daunted by such a big book so Julian made a small book out of each chapter of the 900+ page book. What you are about to read is just one of the chapters of the larger work.

David Cole, YWAM Campaigns Asia/Pacific Board of Regents Chairman University of the Nations.

“This book is one of the most in depth looks at what Evangelism really is (and what it isn’t) that I believe has been written in the last century. I have been so inspired in my own calling through its content and often use it as a text book for teaching and imparting to young leaders in YWAM training courses as well as throughout other parts of the Body of Christ. Thank you Julian not only for such a valuable resource as well as for modeling the outworking of its content in your own life over the past few decades.”

Pastor Mike Smith, Melbourne, Australia

“An incredible book that all pastors should read. I have been a Christian for 28 years and a pastor for many years, and when I picked up this book, I thought, I doubt this will teach me anything new about evangelism. I was so wrong. It has revolutionised my thinking. This is an incredible book that all pastors should read.”

Grant Buchanan LLB, B.Com, Auckland

“The best book I have ever read. I am a solicitor (54) and a partner in a law practice. I unhesitatingly give my endorsement for Julian s book. Indeed, I would rate it as the best book that I have ever read!” Grant Buchanan LLB, B.Com, Auckland

Michael Angulo, Pastor and Church Leader

“Truly a work of Ministerial art. I really like this book and every true evangelist will love it also. YOU ARE NOT GOING TO PUT IT DOWN, BUT WILL BE THINKING WHEN YOU ARE GOING TO READ IT AGAIN! A truly very well written book with good retrospective learning ideas. No true evangelist should be without this book. It is worth what it is worth and it will catapult you into great, deliberate PROVEN, ministry approach. Great book and I highly recommend it. Get this one, you won’t be disappointed!”

Julian Batchelor, M.ed (Hons), B.Th, Dip.Tâ€™Ching

Church leaders! How To Lead Your Church In Evangelism! (Part 2)

Acknowledgements I owe a lot of thanks to a lot of people for the production of this Mini Series: Sheryl Kampenhout, who transferred a mountain of material from Power Point shows into Word documents and who served and encouraged me in such a loving and kind way; to Matthew Old, a faithful friend and fellow evangelist, who has been a Barnabas. He reached out his hands when the hills seemed steepest, loved me in spite of my failures, stimulated me with his sharp mind, and made me laugh when I wanted to cry; to Janice Teo, and her intercessory prayer team who are as vital to the ministry I direct as the heart is to the body; to the team of editors, including Ken Francis and Julie Belding; to all the financial supporters who have given so generously to me over the years. I especially want to thank Paul and Tina Richards, of Club Physical, owners of a gymnasium chain in Auckland, New Zealand, and Derek van Beynen, who have faithfully sponsored my ministry for over a decade. Few people have the privilege of being able to leave secular work to write and produce resources to further the cause of the evangelisation of the world, and to motivate and equip the Church to do the same. You, and all my other financial supporters, have made this possible; to those I live with who have not seen me for years because I have been locked away in my office writing, I give my sincere thanks. Special thanks to Neil Pollock. To Jenny Windeyer, the graphic artist, who designed the cover of the original 800 page book (which we’ve turned into this Mini Series), and to Jenny’s husband Drew for going beyond the call of duty so that Jenny could focus on this project; to faithful Bernie Anderson who has sacrificed and given way beyond what a leader would expect of a dedicated co-worker; to Eleanor Goodall and Sue and George Jeffrey who epitomise love and true friendship; to the team at ESI for keeping all the various aspects of the evangelism ministry moving forwards whilst I directed most of my time to write this Mini Book Series; for Dr Martyn Bowis who did all the programming for the electronic version of the gospel called “Proclaim it!”; for Henoch Kloosterboeror for producing all the brilliant

drawings; Dr David Stewart, retired Principal of the Bible College of New Zealand for nearly two decades of encouragement and mentoring; Denise James and Anne Bartley, staff at the Bible College of New Zealand for helping with research; all those who have helped proof read the manuscript and given comment, particularly Dr Marie Sewell, Gill Donald, Gill Lukey, Donna Hansen, Ainslie Vines, Ann Hunter, and Miriam and Ted Martin; to the academic staff of the Bible College of New Zealand for giving me a grounding in theology; for all those who have given financially and sacrificially to pay for specific aspects of the publishing of this Mini Book Series; for my friend Ray Comfort, for his inspiration and encouragement. There are few evangelists today who have journeyed on the road of trial and tribulation to achieve breakthrough as Ray Comfort. For John Stott, the academic evangelist for his coaching and input via his many books. For all the people who we have trained in evangelism around the world who are out there doing it â€“ you are the heroes in the battle for souls; for the many hundreds of pastors, leaders, and lay Christians around the globe who have contributed to my life as a Christian, and to this Mini Book Series; and finally, I thank Jesus Christ, whose amazing grace and love has inspired and kept me. All the revelations in this Mini Book Library about evangelism and the gospel were given by Him â€“ to Him be all the glory.

How To Read The Mini Books In This Library This Mini Book is one of a Library of 27 Mini Books. The Library is a detailed critique of the battle between light and darkness which is relentlessly raging all over the earth for the souls of men and women. The insights and revelations in each Mini Book are hierarchical i.e. Mini Book Two builds upon Mini Book One, Mini Book Three upon Mini Books One and Two, and so on. Hence, the ideal is to try and read all the Mini Books in the library in sequence. If you skip Mini Books, or even parts of Mini Books, you might miss something vital, and open yourself to misunderstanding or even defeat. Having said this, after you have read Mini Books One to Seven, which are the foundational books in the Library, each Mini Book is designed to stand alone. So, read Books One to Seven first. This is essential. With respect to evangelism, if you follow the advice I am giving here in the pages of each Mini Book, you’ll position yourself perfectly to be used by the Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus in ways you’d not imagined possible. How so? Read the 27 Mini Books in the library and find out. Along with Mini Books 1-7, I suggest you also purchase Mini Book 27, which is the “Evangelism Fitness Test.” This is a diagnostic survey which will tell you the extent to which you have been unwittingly influenced by the devil with respect to evangelism. Sit this test before you read anything. Then do the same test again after you have read all the Mini Books to check to see if all his devices have been thoroughly purged from your mind!

Church leaders! How To Lead Your Church In Evangelism! (Part 2)

evice 46. To persuade leaders to delay equipping their people for evangelism until they are ready i.e. “on fire!”

“Delay” is a favourite word of the enemy and he loves to hear leaders use it. Remember, he’s an angel of light who specialises in sounding biblical. The following is an example of what the enemy will whisper into the ear of a leader to postpone doing evangelism. He sounds so plausible… “Look, I understand why you want to put delay mobilising all for your people for evangelism. You want your people to be so filled with the Spirit that they will naturally and spontaneously spill out of church and set the community on fire, right? If you want genuine Holy Spirit-initiated and empowered evangelism, you’d better not train them yet. If you do, some might be put off evangelism and never return to it. Don’t listen to those who want to equip your people with tools to proclaim the gospel. It needs to emerge from the overflow of the heart. So just keep praying for the 7

Holy Spirit to ripen your church.” As usual with the devil, there is truth and error here. So what’s the truth? First, we know that mobilising a church for evangelism has the potential to divide people. Any true Ephesians 4:11-12 evangelist will want to move sensitively in order to keep a local church united. When it comes to evangelism, the timid in a church need special coaching. Secondly, when we go and proclaim the gospel, we want to be reliant on the Holy Spirit. Without His empowering, our efforts will be fruitless. As I said, however, there’s deadly error mixed in Satan’s whisperings as well. He doesn’t want leaders to realise that when we evangelise, the Holy Spirit comes upon us. The last thing he wants you to know is that a highly effective way to have your church sense the empowering of the Spirit is to have them start evangelising. ow to get a passion for evangelism… The Chairman of Billy Graham’s “All Scotland” Crusade, Tom Allan, said: “Generally we are told there is no point in doing the work of evangelism until we are better prepared within our own churches. While this appears to be a self-evident truth, in fact it involves a peculiar paradox. The only way to prepare a church for evangelism is by the work of evangelism.”1 Did you get that?! Tom Allan just made a HUGE point and one I pray you’d never forget. As Dr Leighton Ford says, it is as we obey Christ’s command that urgency and compassion come.2 He says that after not doing evangelism for a long time and then trying to start again, once the barrier of hesitation is crossed and the work of witness begun, the old thrill surges back.

1 Quoted in Dr Leighton Ford. The Christian Persuader. A New Look At Evangelism Today. Harper and Row, 1976, p.63 2 ibid, p.63

“It is like the athlete who gets out of condition. He dreads to resume training. It takes tremendous willpower to begin again that first day, but once he begins to feel the pull of his muscles and the flow of his energy, you can’t stop him!”3 Pastor Darryl of Cornerstone Church in Minnesota explains well how we receive the fire to start doing evangelism. “The Church in Ephesus was reprimanded by Jesus for having lost their first love. Nothing can restore joy to a dull Christian life faster than doing evangelism on a daily basis.” etermining to do it creates a resolve to do it… Determining to do evangelism will result in a resolve to do it. I have often heard people praying for God to give them a desire to do evangelism. What they mean is they want to feel like doing it. It rarely happens. Please listen carefully. I do not wake up every day feeling eager to reach non-Christians with the gospel. But what I do wake up with is a resolve to do it. The dictionary defines ‘resolve’ like this: “to come to a determination; make up one’s mind; determine.” Resolve is much deeper than a nice feeling. Resolve is just as the dictionary defines it. In fact, I would go one step further than the dictionary definition. Resolve involves, at the deepest level, a will to overcome feelings of not wanting to evangelise. When Jesus said in Luke 9:23 “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me,” He was exhorting the disciples to make a resolve to do His will. Check out this verse: “For the Lord GOD helps Me, therefore, I am not disgraced; Therefore, I have set My face like flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed” (Isaiah 50:7). Isaiah’s prophecy

3 ibid, p.38

gives a rare glimpse of Jesus’ attitude. He deliberately set His “face like flint” to trust God during the ordeal, which ultimately was to save us. Flint is extremely hard. He hardened his mental resolve like a rock to let nothing defeat Him. I believe the Holy Spirit gave me, and continues to give me, this resolve, which He will do for you too (Psalm 37:4). We just have to use sheer will power to evangelise to start with. Then over time He will take our mustard seed of will power and grow it into a mountain of resolve. This is how God works. The enemy, on the other hand, wants us to wait until we feel ready to proclaim. He likes to whisper in the ear of a leader, “When your people feel keen to evangelise, when they are on fire, this will be a sign they are ready!” ou have power, despite what the enemy tries to say... The enemy will also try to persuade us that people under our care are not ready to evangelise because they lack power. But the truth is the opposite. Before Pentecost, the Church wasn’t ready to evangelise because it lacked power. Pentecost has come, and all genuine believers are now indwelt by the Holy Spirit. “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us” (Romans 5:5). This Pentecostal power is manifested as we evangelise. Try it and see.4 ow to sense the Holy Spirit… When we decide to go and proclaim the gospel, the Holy Spirit who is there, whether we sense this powerfully or not. But if you feel nothing, go anyway. You won’t “feel” the empowering of the Spirit until the moment you actually engage with the non-Christian you have chosen to share the gospel with. Anyone who evangelises regularly will tell you that as you are

4 But ensure you have good training first, and if at first you don’t succeed after training, keep trying until you do. If you persevere, you will breakthrough.

doing it, and immediately after you have done it, there is, most often, a wonderful sense of the Holy Spirit’s blessing and presence. The next day, or even a few hours later, this wonderful feeling is gone. So the next day, what do you do? We resolve to do it again. hy some people have no desire to do evangelism… Have you ever noticed how people who are completely dead to the idea of proclaiming the gospel have not done it for a long time, if ever? Recall the words of Jesus: “I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away” (Luke 19:26). In the area of evangelism, this can be taken to mean that the longer a person delays mobilising for evangelism, the less resolve they will have to do it. But if we resolve to do it, He will give us an even greater resolve to do it. This is how God works. ow to break through in evangelism… Anyone who has the attitude “Oh, I think I will just give it a try and see how I go” will almost certainly never break through in evangelism. This is not resolving. This is playing around. Jesus did not say to His Father “I will go to earth and see how it goes.” How do you think people like Carey, Wesley, Spurgeon, Billy Graham, Luis Palau, Reinhard Bonnke and Ray Comfort developed their love for the lost and for evangelism? They resolved to do evangelism long before they became ‘known,’ and they would have started with sheer will-power – green, unskilled and frightened. They would have realised evangelism was an acquired skill. Their eventual fruitfulness was the culmination of resolve, faithfulness, consistency, and perseverance. Faithfulness means resolving to do God’s will over a long period of time when no other Christian is watching. Furthermore, Jesus said to the disciples, “I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). He didn’t say “I will pray for you and

you will instantly be competent fishers of men.” The word ‘make’ implies a process – and time. He took three years to show the disciples how to do it. If we really want to succeed with evangelism, our attitude should be: “I resolve to learn for the rest of my life. I expect a steep learning curve at the start, but no matter what it takes, I am in for the long haul. I want and am going to receive my personal breakthrough in evangelism.” With this attitude, there is no reason why anyone cannot experience a life time of joy and success with evangelism. ow to ignite the fire - and how to keep it… I have seen many start with good intentions, but who don’t continue. They have not resolved in their heart to evangelise. Luke 14:28: “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it - lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish”’ (NKJV). Those who make a good start, and then stop for whatever reason, will likely find their passion for evangelism eventually fizzles, and then dies. To re-ignite the fire, you have to resolve afresh. To keep it burning brightly, we have to take on the attitude of a professional athlete. They know they must practise hard every day, persevere, and commit to continual improvement. I have found it easier to maintain resolve if I reach one person a day with the gospel. Before I resolved to reach one person a day, I noticed that the longer the time lapse between evangelism experiences, the more my resolve dwindled. Perhaps this is why Jesus said “Take up your cross daily.” (Luke 9:23). hy devoting a season of your life to evangelism can change it forever…

Dr Leighton Ford once commented on the pamphlet called Why God used D.L.Moody and said he hoped one day someone would write one entitled “Why God used Billy Graham.” “Among the first reasons,” he said, “will be an unswerving dedication to the primary call of declaring Christ. Billy Graham has sometimes been accused of narrowness. But much of his secret has been to focus all his powers upon one task.”5 Because Billy Graham resolved to do evangelism, God gave him an even greater resolve to do evangelism, and so the number of people who were impacted through him grew exponentially. There is no reason God can’t do the same for you too. Why don’t you dedicate a season of your life to focusing on one thing – resolving to learn how to evangelise? And once you breakthrough, resolve to keep going for the rest of your life. When you meet Jesus face to face you might have a few regrets, as we all might, but you will never regret reaching lots of people with the gospel. The thought of God working through me now to help a lot of people live eternally with Jesus is a powerful motivating factor for me.6 These are my riches in heaven. (Matthew 6:19). No one else can store up these riches for us. This verse says we are to store them up “...ourselves.”

evice 47. To persuade leaders that personal evangelism is too confrontational.

Leaders who worry that personal evangelism is too confrontational have usually formed their opinion after seeing a bad example. But we shouldn’t write off personal evangelism after seeing a bad example, anymore than we would stop driving our car 5 Quoted in Dr Leighton Ford, The Christian Persuader. A New Look At Evangelism Today. Harper and Row, 1976, pp.78-79 6 This is not suggesting that our motive for doing evangelism should be selfish or that we can take any merit for anyone who is saved. As we know, salvation is, from first to last, the work of Jesus, and all the glory both now and eternally goes to Him. Nevertheless, He did exhort us to store up riches in heaven.

after seeing an accident. So what is personal evangelism supposed to be like? The ideal gospel messenger is humble, gracious, friendly, sensitive to the Spirit, and a good listener. There is never any excuse for a messenger to be insensitive or tactless. When we go into the world to present the gospel, we go “as the fragrance of Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:14) and “full of grace” (Colossians 4:4-6). esus and Paul were confrontational… The truth is, however, that the gospel message will always confront. It is a mistake to think we can proclaim the true gospel without confronting. God has designed the gospel to be confrontational. The dictionary defines “confront” as “to stand facing; to bring face to face with; to face defiantly or with hostility…”7 I certainly do not want the personal evangelism I do to be described as “hostile.” But, when I think about whether Jesus and Paul were ever confrontational, I have to acknowledge that sometimes they were. At one end of the “confrontation” continuum there was Jesus in His highly relational and gentle encounter with the Samaritan woman (John 4). She claimed not to have a husband, to which Jesus replied, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” Here Jesus brought the woman face to face with her sin. Yes, He confronted her. esus used a whip… At the other end of the confrontation continuum, Jesus cleared the temple with a whip (John 2). Here His actions met every aspect of the dictionary definition of confrontation. The apostles were also

7 The Concise English Dictionary. Omega Books, 2001, p.237

confrontational. When they were told to stop evangelising, they just kept going anyway. They were even defiant. Acts 4:18. The apostles were commanded not to speak or teach but they did so anyway. Acts 4:21. The apostles were threatened but continued to proclaim the gospel. Acts 5:33. The religious authorities were furious with the apostles but this did not stop them doing what they were doing hy the gospel is confrontational… Some say Acts is full of confrontation only because of the religious authorities of the time. Surely, they assert, we don’t have such opposition today and therefore don’t have to be confrontational. But what about the other powers we still face today such as the gods of atheism, materialism, mammon, New Age, spiritism and animism? What about selfishness, greed, jealousy, lust, pride, and power-seeking? The hearts of people today are like they were in Acts – corrupt. When Christians today proclaim the gospel they inevitably encounter the dark side of people, a side which the gospel of light is going to confront. When we turn on a light in a dark room, we could say that the light confronts the darkness. This is what the gospel does when a non-Christian hears it. The gospel message we preach today ought to be the same as that which caused the early Christians to be persecuted. So why should we expect a different reaction today? The enemy has slyly tried to suggest that anything a Christian does which is confrontational is “not of God” and “not loving.” But is this true? No, it’s not. Consider the lost people to whom Jesus has commanded us to proclaim the gospel: • They are futile in their thinking and their hearts are darkened (Romans 1:21). • They claim to be wise, but they are fools (Romans 1:22). • They don’t glorify God or give thanks to Him (Romans 1:21).

• They suppress the truth (Romans 1:18). • They worship idols (Romans 1:23). • Many live as enemies of God (Philippians 3:18). • They are living as condemned people (John 3:18). • Their deeds are evil (John 3:19). • They are crooked and depraved (Philippians 2:15). Can we avoid confrontation when we approach these people with the blazing light of the truth? Absolutely not! This is clash of deep darkness (fallen human nature) and blazing light (the light of the gospel). hen light confronts darkness, a clash may be inevitable… “The gospel of Jesus Christ is the best news ever, following the worst news possible,” says Dr J.I. Packer. “The bad news is that the entire human race, from the moment of each person’s conception in the womb, is offensive to God.8 Why? Because we have a proud, unbelieving, thoughtless, careless, greedy, self-serving spirit. We live to please ourselves, and in our hearts we keep God at bay. Our egocentric attitude seeks to play God, use God, fool God and fight God, all at the same time. Our unconcern for love, truth, respect, honesty, integrity, and justice constantly disfigures our actual doings.”9 esus told the disciples what to expect. Why should it be different for us? It seems clear we cannot avoid confrontation in evangelism. If there is no confrontation, then it’s not evangelism that is taking place. When we proclaim the true gospel, we come face-to-face with both spiritual forces (Ephesians 6:12) and fallen human nature. In Matthew 10, Jesus didn’t assure His disciples of a warm

8 Packer is not saying people are offensive to God. On the contrary, we know He loves people. It’s the sin nature which is offensive to Him. 9 Cited in Dr Ravi Zacharias. This We Believe: The Good News Of Jesus Christ For The World. Zondervan, 2000, pp.44-46

welcome when they went out to preach the gospel. On the contrary, He told them to expect confrontation. They would feel like lambs among wolves; they would be handed over for flogging; they would likely be arrested and find themselves in court; they would be betrayed and even handed over to death by blood relatives. They would be hated, persecuted, and vilified. By preaching the gospel they would even end up separating people – including those in their own family. These ‘outcomes’ can only have been the result of preaching confrontational gosepl. What other explanation is there? reach the gospel, live dangerously… After Paul went out and preached the gospel, this was his field report: “I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have laboured and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches” (2 Corinthians 11:23-28). This level of hardship does not come as a result of bending over backwards to be friends with the world so as to avoid confrontation. In fact the New Testament says we can expect trouble and persecution when our message confronts society and its thinking, as every true evangelist will attest.

lad, sad, or mad, the gospel will do it all… Increasingly today, any evangelistic method or message which confronts is viewed as politically incorrect. Some even claim it is not of God. Such attitudes are not Biblical. Check out the attitude of the early apostles. “[They] left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ” (Acts 5:41-42). They viewed suffering for the gospel as an honour. Those who regularly evangelise know the gospel will make people mad, sad, or glad. If, you as a leader, convey the idea to your people that any confrontation in evangelism is wrong, you are way out of touch with reality, and with the truth of the Bible. hy tolerance is a tragedy… “Why tolerance is a tragedy” was the title of an article I read. The author, Lloyd John Ogilvie, argues that confronting non-Christians with the gospel is actually a loving thing to do. He tells the following story to illustrate his point. “A brilliant man who recently became a Christian expressed the point dramatically. ‘I am thankful that you kept after me. You listened to all my philosophic ramblings with patience, but not tolerance. You cared enough to meet me point for point, idea for idea. You took my struggle seriously. I would never have become a Christian if I had not felt that you were absolutely convinced that Christ was the only answer for your life… and that I was lost without Him. If I could have driven a wedge in that conviction, or if you had let me off the hook with some kind of equivocation, I would not have kept searching.”10 This man is saying “Hey, if you

10 Lloyd John Ogilvie. When God First Thought of You. Word Books. 1978. pg 191.

had merely tolerated me, and all my arguments which I put up, I would not have been saved. Thank you for confronting me with the gospel.” What shall we conclude? The true gospel will confront people. But the confrontation has only the highest good of the person we are evangelising in mind – we want them to meet Jesus, glorify Him, and enjoy Him forever.

evice 48. To persuade some leaders that the only valid form of evangelism is one in which signs and wonders follow.

Let me start at a crucially important place. As I have already said earlier in this book, “the gospel” has three aspects - words, works, and effects. For example, if I pray for someone, my prayer is a work of the gospel. If they are healed, that is an effect of the gospel. But have they heard the words of the gospel? No, they have not. The words, say the academics, must convey content. What content? They must convey to an unsaved person: 1. Why they must be saved. 2. How Jesus can save them. 3. What they must do to be saved. 4. The cost of becoming a disciple. If this content has not been communicated, the words of the gospel have not been preached, and no evangelism has taken place. I knew a minister who stopped using the tools we developed to proclaim the gospel because, he said, “…we aren’t seeing signs and wonders when we preach the gospel using your tools. This is a sign to us that we are preaching an incomplete gospel. Jesus said signs and wonders would follow the preaching of the gospel.” The leader then decreed that everyone in his church should stop using the tools. I asked him to write to me when he had found a replacement tool which delivered signs and wonders each time the gospel was proclaimed. That was over 15 years ago, and I still 19

have not received a letter. Just recently I received an email from someone who had watched a couple of the home group style DVD studies we have produced on the enemy’s devices: “I think you’re a great guy and your teaching is spot on, but I also believe it is only half of the coin – like having a one-barrelled shotgun instead of a two-barrelled shotgun. Sure, I have not seen all the DVDs yet but it seems to me that your teaching concentrates on giving non-Christians the Word. When Jesus did it, He gave them both barrels: the Word and the power (miracles, signs and wonders). Aren’t we supposed to be doing at least what He did? Actually, aren’t we supposed to be doing even greater things? To have ‘signs following,’ I think, might mean that we have to be moving in the power of the Holy Spirit - not just moving in the Word. Have you ever seen an aeroplane in the sky or a ship at sea? There is that trail of ‘white stuff’ (their sign) when they are moving. If they are parked up (perhaps even with their engines running) there is no white stuff. I think that when we proclaim the gospel it will be a lot more effective if we have some ‘white stuff’ (signs) to show for it. As you can see, I have been thinking about this these past few days. Having said that, I don’t know how we are going to get to the point where we are doing the ‘white stuff’, the signs and wonders. I suppose to hunger and thirst for it wouldn’t be a bad starting point?” What are we to make of this? What is the truth about “signs and wonders” and their relationship to the proclamation of the Words of the gospel? igns and wonders every time? What does the Bible say…? It is true that signs and wonders sometimes follow the proclamation of the gospel. But it is an error to expect them every time. Sometimes, for example, when Paul preached the gospel, instead of seeing signs and wonders he was thrown out of town (e.g. Acts 13:50).

In John 10:41-42 we learn that the mighty ministry of John the Baptist was not accompanied by any miraculous sign. And in Acts 16:14, we read about Paul’s encounter with Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from Thyatira, who worshipped God and was open to Paul’s message. No miracles are mentioned in this instance, although shortly before, at Iconium, they had been in evidence. “So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of His grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders” (Acts 14:3). Notice that it was the Lord who enabled them. While we cannot conjure up signs and wonders, we ought to earnestly ask God for them as we preach the gospel. But they can never be guaranteed. o, what’s it to be? One barrel or two? Sometimes the enemy will suggest the message of the gospel needs signs and wonders following in order to be effective, as a car needs petrol. We have already seen from Mark 4:26-29 in Mini Book Thirteen that we can quickly dismiss this idea as heresy. In Mark 4:26-29 Jesus clearly teaches that when a non Christian is saved, the salvation they experience is a full blown New Testament miracle! What shall we conclude then? Will one barrel do the job, or are two necessary? The Words of the gospel alone are a sufficient work of grace for salvation, but signs and wonders are a highly desirable, added dimension of it. hat revivalist Jonathan Edwards thought about this issue… Jonathan Edwards, the great revivalist, preacher and academic, commented on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. For Edwards, God’s Word was more powerful for effecting salvation than signs and wonders. Of verse 31, he said: “The warnings of God’s Word are more fitted to obtain the ends of awakening sinners, and bringing them to repentance, than the rising

of one from the dead to warn them.”11 eep proclaiming whether you see them or not… David Larsen, Professor and Chairman of Practical Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, said: “Signs and wonders are given or withheld according to the sovereignty of God. In special times there have indeed been breakthroughs of supernatural happenings to accredit Christian testimony but nothing in Scripture or church history would lead us to believe that such are normative in evangelism.” “The power of evangelism is the power of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and the transforming power of the [words of the] gospel” (Romans 1:16).12 Please don’t misunderstand me. When God shows His power through a sign or a wonder, the sight can draw the unconverted like a magnet. Oh that we would see signs and wonders every time the gospel is preached! But we need to remember several things. First, many people who saw Jesus perform miracles did not convert. Secondly, Mark 16:19-20 does not promise they will always follow. I wonder how far Billy Graham would have got if he had decided to quit unless he saw a signs and wonders every time he preached? Imagine ceasing to pray if our prayers were not instantly answered? Thirdly, what exactly is ‘a sign and a wonder’? i.e. when people who are “dead in their trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1) and blinded by the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4) convert to Christianity, isn’t it a sign and a wonder when their eyes are opened by the Holy Spirit through the gospel? Yes, it is.

11 Cited in Jonathan Edwards. The Works Of President Edwards. 4 Vols. New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1864, 4:330 12 David L. Larsen. The Evangelism Mandate: Recovering The Centrality Of Gospel Preaching. Crossway Books, 1992, p.51

wo introverts see signs and wonders following… Consider this guy called Craig. He was an introverted person, scared of evangelising. I took him out and apprenticed him, and we went around his church neighbourhood from door to door. Several weeks later he emailed me this story. One day when he had been out giving the gospel, the Holy Spirit came upon him and he burst into tongues. He said that he had prayed for the gift for a long time but it had never come. Now it did, spontaneously and unannounced. He was so excited. Some time later he cast a demon out of a woman who started to talk to him with a man’s voice. Signs and wonders were beginning to follow the proclamation of the gospel for Craig. He is now hooked on evangelism, and we made a video of his remarkable story. In Mini Book Eleven I mentioned a nurse called Adelle, a self-confessed introvert who ended up sharing the gospel with more than 1000 people in six months. Using the tools we’ve developed for proclaiming the gospel, she has also seen signs and wonders. One day, while she was out giving the gospel door to door, God gave her words of knowledge about the names of everyone in four houses in a row. The bottom line on signs and wonders in relation to evangelism? The Lausanne Covenant on Evangelism sums up nicely what I believe is the right biblical position when it states: “We must reject both the scepticism which denies miracles and the presumption which demands them.”13 The truth of the matter is this - it is extremely difficult as it is just to motivate and train the average Christian to proclaim or spread the gospel, let alone requiring of them the need to demonstrate a sign or a wonder alongside proclamation. Sure, let’s pray for people after they have heard the gospel, and believe for a miracle of some kind, according to the need. But if God chooses not to do one, rejoice 13 Dr John Stott. Editor, Making Christ Known. Historic Mission Documents From The Lausanne Movement 1974 – 1989. Paternoster Press, 1996, p.11