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Week 9: Part Four of the Evangelistic Outline: Response

Week 9: Part Four of the Evangelistic Outline: Response

May 31, 2006 | Andy Davis
Evangelism

TEACHING NOTES - CLICK THE "NOTES" LINK ABOVE FOR THE CLASS BOOKLET

 

Part Four of the Evangelistic Outline:  “Response”

 

Team time

  • Reviewing our covenant together
  • Going over outline learned thus far (three-part “over-outline”, four-part “presentation outline”, “key question”, “God”, “Man”, “Christ”)

Outline Work:

 

Response

  • Key Question: “What must I do to be saved?”
  • DO: Repent and believe the gospel!

Repent

Believe

  • DON’T:

Work for it -

Salvation is by grace alone!!

Wait for tomorrow

Today is the day of salvation!!

ETERNAL LIFE NOW: On Earth

New Creation by the Creator

Joyful Servant to the King

Completely Pardoned by the Judge

Adopted by the Father

  • ETERNAL LIFE FOREVER: In Heaven

Response

 

Second Key Question

The time has come for our listener to respond to the gospel.  When Peter preached to the crowd in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, they only wanted to know one thing:  “When they heard this, they were cut to the heart and asked Peter and the other apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?'”  (Acts 2:37).  When someone has been “cut to the heart” by the Holy Spirit, they are ready to be saved… they just need to be instructed Biblically on what God expects from them.  The exact same situation occurred with the Philippian jailer, who rushed in trembling before Paul and Silas and asked:

Acts 16:30  "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

The gospel message calls for a response… it is not merely interesting information.  In the heart of someone on whom God is working, they will at this point be seeking to know how they can receive salvation from their sins.  We must make clear to them not only what they must DO, but also what they must NOT DO!

What they must DO

The answer to this question is as simple as Jesus’ first preached message in Mark’s Gospel:

Mark 1:15   "'The time has come,' he said. 'The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!'"

This is a wonderful verse, for it shows some key aspects of our gospel presentation: 1) urgency:  “The time has come!!” 2)  The Kingdom of God:  the unifying theme of our four-part presentation here has been the Kingdom of God… He is Creator, King (Lawgiver), and Judge.  All of these themes are inherent in Jesus’ preaching of the Kingdom; 3)  Repent and 4) Believe the Gospel.

These last two aspects occupy us here.  “What must we do to be saved?”  Christ’s answer:  “Repent and believe the gospel!”  Not just repent, not just believe, and not just believe anything you want to about God.  “Repent and believe the gospel!”

Repent:  What does it mean to repent?  The Greek word means a change of heart, and new way of thinking about everything.  It implies a rejection of former ways of thinking, and an embracing of opposite convictions from those previously held.  Some preachers use a “U-Turn” illustration… Turn Away, Turn Toward!  Turn away from sin and old ways of thinking and living, turn toward God and His Kingdom.

Most gospel presentations are weak on repentance.  The sinner is never called to come to grips with his/her sin and to reject it as evil.  The sinner is permitted to go on in the old ways AND add Christ to them!  This is impossible.  We will not experience sinless perfection in this world, but God does call us to hate sin and reject it forever.  In order to be saved, the sinner MUST repent!  The old life must be gone, everything must become new.  If they are not ready to reject this or that sin, if they would rather hold on to some of those old ways, they are not yet ready for salvation.

Let’s be very clear:  this does not mean they must immediately and in their own strength start living a perfectly holy life.  If they have some addiction or there is some other sin issue in their life, all that is necessary is that they repent from that sin:  call it sin, feel grief over the sin, and determine by God’s power never to sin that way again.  This is repentance.

Perhaps the best illustration of repentance in the New Testament is in 1 Thessalonians 1:4-10:

1 Thessalonians 1:4-10   "For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia--your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead--Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath."

Note how Paul knows that the Thessalonians were chosen by God:  the obviously changed lives of the Thessalonian believers.  They “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God…” (vs. 9).  This “turn to God from idols to serve God” is the essence of repentance, and it is what Jesus meant when He preached “Repent…” in Mark 1:15.

We are calling people to forsake the sin which leads to the wrath of God.  They are to think differently about it, hate it, and resolve to fight against it until the day they die.  We are calling people to repent!  In Luke 5:31-32, this is clear:  Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."  Jesus said the issue of repentance means the difference between eternity in heaven or hell: (Luke 13:3, 5; cf. Also Luke 16:30)“But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”  He also said that heaven rejoices over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:7)  Most convincingly, Jesus made it very plain that this message of repentance must be preached in the whole world:

 Luke 24:45-49   "Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”

Jesus commanded that we preach “repentance and the forgiveness of sins” in His name to all nations.  What could be clearer? 

The apostles understood this.  In Mark 6:12, “They went out and preached that people should repent.”  After Pentecost, the Apostles consistently proclaimed to crowds that they must repent in order to be saved: (Acts 2:38, 3:19, 5:31)  In Acts 3:19, Peter connected repentance and forgiveness of sins plainly:  “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out…”  And the Apostle Paul also made this statement to the idol-worshipping pagans of Athens (Acts 17:30): “In the past, God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.”  Finally, Paul summarized his preaching ministry twice in the following words:

Acts 20:21  "I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus."

[NOTE:  this is exactly what we are calling people to do in our outline!!]

Acts 26:20  "First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds."

This verse indicates that genuine repentance is always proved by subsequent actions.  True repentance results in a changed life, false repentance does not.

Believe the good news:  The central element of our gospel is that we are declared righteous before God (i.e. justified) simply by faith, by believing a promise made by God.  Faith is a settled assurance that God will keep His promise, and it comes merely by hearing the gospel.  Faith is not a work, not an achievement… it just simply trusts that God will save us in Christ.  The best extended treatment of saving faith is found in Romans 4, when it speaks of Abraham receiving the promise from God.  God took him out under the stars and had Abraham look up.  Then God spoke a simple promise to Abraham:  “So shall your offspring be!”  Then Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6).  This is the moment of justifying faith.  A simple trust that God can do what He has promised to do.

Saving faith must be attached to something… we are believing specific truths or promises from God.  In Mark 1:15, Jesus calls on us to “Believe the gospel!”  What is the gospel?  The set of truths that we have been discussing:  1)  God:  that there is a God who created heaven and earth, who rules as a King over His creation, who makes rules that must be obeyed and who is our judge if we disobey; 2) Man:  that we are created in the image of God to love and obey God, that we have rebelled against God’s rule, and that we are naturally under the death penalty of hell because of our sins; 3) Christ:  that Christ is the incarnate Son of God who led a sinless and miraculous life, who died an atoning death, who rose from the dead on the third day, and who offers full forgiveness of sins on the basis of His death and resurrection.  This is the full gospel message, and all of it must be believed.  We believe THAT these things are true!

But there is also a personal side to it.  Saving faith also involves believing a person, Jesus Christ.  John’s Gospel repeatedly speaks of trusting/believing/putting faith in Christ.  Ultimately, there is no real distinction between these two… Belief THAT certain doctrines are true leads to Belief IN Christ Himself.  This can be made personal by “calling on the name of the Lord” (Romans 10:9) through prayer.  This has been called “the sinner’s prayer”, but we should note that it is nowhere exemplified in the New Testament (nor is it necessarily a bad thing).  Saving faith, however, is always focused on a person:  Jesus Christ!

But there’s one final aspect.  The individual sinner must believe that all these blessings belong to him/her personally, and must trust Christ to fulfill this promise of eternal life.  This is saving faith:  “Christ loved me and gave Himself for me!!” (Galatians 2:20)

There are so many verses on faith and belief (John’s gospel alone has over sixty references to faith/belief) that it would be impossible to go through each one and explain them clearly, nor is it necessary, since the doctrine is so familiar to you.  Simple trust in Christ saves us from hell… and that is GOOD NEWS!

What they must NOT DO

We must also make it clear what people must NOT DO to be saved.  Here we explain very clearly that salvation is simply a free gift, and that any effort we make to earn it shows we have not understood how much we owe God for our sins and how impossible it its for us to pay for them.  Here we must also make it clear that they must repent and believe TODAY, and not assume they will live forever.

Do Not Work For It:  The most popular religion in the world is salvation by works.  As a matter of fact, it could rightly be said that there are only two approaches to salvation:  salvation by grace (Christ merits) or salvation by works (human merit).  We must make it clear that the guilt we feel for our sins cannot be worked off through good deeds.  Salvation is a gift by the grace of God alone through simple faith.  No verse makes this as clear as Ephesians 2:8-9

Ephesians 2:8-9  “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”

A gift cannot be paid for, or it will cease being a gift.  Efforts to earn salvation are insulting to God, and really nothing more than pride on our part.  Such efforts show a gross underestimation of how costly our sins are (remember the parable to the slave who owed 10,000 talents:  Matthew 18), and how precious is the blood of Christ.  Remember Psalm 49:7-9  "No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him—the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough—that he should live on forever and not see decay."

Such efforts also assume that we can do any good works that God didn’t expect from us anyway!  Can we ever “get ahead of” the Two Great Commands:  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; love you neighbor as yourself.”??  NEVER!  Any “good deed” we do, God expected it anyway!  So how can we use good deeds to pay for sin?  Rather, we must simply accept this gift by simple faith.

“Grace” is a crucial term for us to understand.  Grace is not simply “unmerited favor,” but rather (as we’ve seen before) “God’s richest blessings lavished freely on those who deserve God fiercest punishments!”  Salvation by grace is damaging to our pride, but our pride MUST BE “damaged,” or rather, put to death.

Do Not Wait For Tomorrow Another damaging element of human pride is the assumption that we will have another good opportunity to repent and believe tomorrow.  James 4 calls our assumption that we will even be alive tomorrow “boasting” (James 4:16):

James 4:13-16  "Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil."

The words from James are chilling as they are true:  “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live…”  If it is not the Lord’s will, we will not live!  It’s simply not up to us whether we live or die.  God has made many promises in the Bible of amazing things, but He has never promised any of us that we will be alive tomorrow!  Quite the opposite, He urges us to make the most of every day.  How much more needful is it, then, that our hearers should repent and believe the gospel TODAY, and not wait till tomorrow.  My favorite verse for this is found in Hebrews 3:15 “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts ...”  You could use this verse to make a direct appeal to your hearer:  “Do you feel Him pulling on your heart to repent and trust Christ? Do it now, today!!  Don’t wait for tomorrow, for tomorrow may never come!”  If you put off what you know you must do, you may never get another opportunity.  Paul also spoke of this in 2 Corinthians 6:2 

2 Corinthians 6:2  "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.”

Don’t leave a sinner who refuses to trust Christ with a calm assurance that everything will be all right.  Leave them instead with a warning not to presume on God’s grace.  Ask them again who will pay their death penalty.  Ask them perhaps what would they say to God if they were to die tonight.  Press home the urgency of the matter, then leave it to God.  Don’t be obnoxious about it.  But neither leave them comfortable with rejecting the gospel (which is what a postponement is).

Eternal Life Now

The final aspect of our Gospel Presentation makes it clear what the outcome of saving faith will be:  eternal life, both now and forever.  In the present enjoyment of eternal life, we return finally to our three roles for God:  Creator, King, Judge.  God the Savior brings us back to God the Creator, King, Judge.  God the Savior adds another as well:  Father!!  Eternal life is knowing God (John 17:3) in each of these four roles

New Creation by the Creator:  God recreates us from inside out, transforming us so that we will love Him and love what He loves.  God makes us into a new creation so that we can obey His commands (as we will discuss in a moment).  God prepares us for eternity in heaven by this new creation work in our souls.  This alone enables us to live out a life of repentance and faith until we die:

2 Corinthians 5:17  “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone; everything has become new!”

This would be a good time to tell the person that God will send His Holy Spirit to live inside the person’s new heart forever, to help them live the Christian life.  A good verse for this is Titus 3:5  “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit…” and that verse could substitute for 2 Corinthians 5:17 if you so chose.

Joyful Servant to the King God recreates in order that we may now obey Him joyfully in His eternal Kingdom.  God is a King and we had rebelled against Him.  Salvation now enables us to obey Him gladly in His Kingdom.  Without that glad obedience to His commands, there is no indication that we have been saved, for this is exactly what the Holy Spirit has come to work in us.  The first form of obedience a saved person ever makes is obedience to the command to “Repent and believe the gospel!”  From then on, the Christian life is one of a constant desire to obey God’s commands by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Romans 8:4 shows that the “righteous requirements of the law may be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature, but according to the Spirit.”  We are saved in order to obey the Laws of God (especially the Two Great Commandments, love God/love neighbor), and to obey them by the Spirit with joy:

1 John 3:24  "Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us."

If we refuse to obey God’s commands, we should have no assurance that God lives in us.  We have not been saved.

Completely Pardoned by the Judge God is still our Judge, but now we know that the judgment we deserved has been forever paid by Christ.  We have been completely pardoned by the judge and will never be condemned:

John 5:24  "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”

This is a magnificent promise from Jesus Christ Himself: simply believing Christ’s word results in eternal life and NO CONDEMNATION.  The death penalty has been paid, and will never be required again!

Adopted by the Father To these three offices, we now add the highest of the gospel blessings, and the greatest relationship we will ever experience with God: Father.  God is not universally “Father” to every person, but everyone who trusts in Christ is spiritually adopted into the very family of God… an almost incalculable privilege:

John 1:12   "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God"

Eternal Life Forever

Our original Key Question asked “In your personal opinion, what do you understand it takes for a person to go to heaven?”  Here at last, we get to answer that question.  Heaven is waiting for all who simply believe in Christ.  Life after death is the ultimate gift of the gospel:

John 11:25-26  "Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

This final question from Jesus is the perfect entry to ask them if they are ready to trust Christ.

Homework

  • Review: three-part overview, four-part presentation, key question
  • Review: “God” section with Scriptures
  • Review: “Man” section with Scriptures
  • Review: “Christ” section with Scriptures
  • Memorize: “Response” section with Scriptures

Preparation

Introduction:  Introduce yourself

Interests:  Ask general questions about their life interests

Involvement:  Ask about prior involvement in church; listen for clues as to their spiritual state

Inquiry:   Key Question “In your personal opinion, what do you understand it takes for a person to go to heaven?”

Presentation

God:

  • God is Creator

Genesis 1:1  In the beginning, God created heaven and earth.

Therefore, God is loving

Acts 14:27  "He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy."

  • God is King

Psalm 47:7  "For God is King of all the earth."

Therefore, God is sovereign

Psalm 103:19  "The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all."

Therefore, God also makes laws

The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20)

The Two Greatest Commandments (Matthew 22)

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. 

Love your neighbor as yourself.

  • God is Judge

Psalm 96:13   "He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his truth."

Therefore, God is holy

Habakkuk 1:13  "Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, you cannot tolerate wrong."

 

Man:

  • Man is Created by God (Creator)

Genesis 1:27  "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."

Our nature:  created to be like God

Our purpose:  created to know/love God

Our role:  created to serve God

  • Man is Rebellious Against God (King)

Universally Rebellious

Romans 3:10-12   "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."

Rebellious Against God’s Laws

1 John 3:4  “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.”

[Remember God’s Laws:  Ten Commandments, Two Great Commandments]

  • Man is Under Judgment by God (Judge)

Judgment Day

Matthew 12:36  “I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.”

Judgment Penalty

Romans 6:23  “The wages of sin is death…”

 

 

Christ:

  • God’s Fourth Title: Savior

Isaiah 33:22  "For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king;  it is he who will save us."

Saved from what?

Matthew 1:21  "You will give Him the name Jesus because He will save His people from their sins."

  • Jesus’ Supernatural Life

God-man

John 1:14   "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us"

Miraculous

Matthew 11:5   "The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor."

Sinless

1 Peter 2:22  "He committed no sin, nor was any deceit in His mouth"

  • Jesus’ Substitutionary Death

1 Peter 2:24    "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree…"

2 Corinthians 5:21  "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God"

  • Jesus’ Saving Resurrection

1 Corinthians 15:3-5   "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,  and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve."

  • Jesus’ Salvation Gifts

Total Forgiveness of Sins (Death Penalty Paid)

Ephesians 1:7    "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins"

Eternal Life

Romans 6:23   "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Response:

  • Second Key Question

Acts 16:30  "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

What You Must DO:

Mark 1:15   "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

Repent:  U-Turn:  Away from sin; Toward God

Believe the gospel:  Believe THAT it’s true; Believe IN Christ personally

What You Must NOT DO

Do Not Work For It

Ephesians 2:8-9  “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Do Not Wait For Tomorrow

2 Corinthians 6:2  "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.”

Eternal Life Now (on earth)

New Creation by the Creator

2 Corinthians 5:17  “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone; everything has become new!”

Joyful Servant to the King

1 John 3:24  "Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us."

Completely Pardoned by the Judge

John 5:24  "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”

Adopted by the Father

John 1:12   "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God"

Eternal Life Forever (in heaven)

John 11:25-26  "Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?'"

Other Classes in This Series