KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii — This past spring (a few weeks after I began to increase my evangelistic activity) I was starting to become slightly discouraged by the lack of visible success produced by my efforts. To this point, I had had lots of amiable conversations with people about Jesus, but I had yet to witness anyone repent and believe the good news. Then, one evening as I set out to spread the Gospel, I “felt led” to go over to Target on Makala Boulevard. There in the parking lot, I encountered five teenage boys skateboarding. Although normally I like to interact with one person at a time when I’m out explaining my faith, for some reason I felt comfortable engaging all five of them in conversation.
After greeting these young men, I quickly launched into a proclamation of the sacrificial death of Christ for our sins. I then explained how they could be forgiven of their sins and enter into the eternally-satisfying life of God. Twenty minutes later, the six of us were holding hands in a circle as they prayed to receive Christ as Lord and savior.
This story proves that I’m an expert evangelist, right? Wrong. Not even close. Huge misunderstanding. As with every occasion in which I’ve prayed with someone who wanted to be reconciled to God, the entire process of helping these teens decide to repent seemed remarkably easy. One reason it seemed so easy is because I — and any evangelist who makes the final Gospel appeal preceding someone’s conversion — only saw the culmination of a collaborative effort that includes people I’ll never meet. These co-laborers are the “sowers” that I wrote about previously. Most importantly, though — assuming the skateboarders genuinely repented — those young men turned to the Lord because Christ, himself, attracted them, not because his messenger was so persuasive.
Jesus said “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”1 We see a microcosm of what Christ meant by this through the Gospel of Luke. This text tells us that when Jesus was confined by a human body to time and space, “sinners were all drawing near to hear him.”2 They drew near to him because they were attracted to his words, his personality and his power. He is just as compelling now and forever as he was then, and now people beyond Israel are “drawing near to hear him” through the four Gospels and by his Spirit. I am convinced that the only reason most people don’t become Christians today is the same reason some didn’t when he walked the earth: Christ’s demand for our highest loyalty and obedience. His demand challenges our selfish desires for autonomy, causing some people to make excuses to not believe he is God.
With these things in mind, I know that I can rest assured that someone’s salvation does not depend on my eloquence or powers of persuasion. The only role I play in someone’s spiritual enlightenment is to present Christ as he truly is. If I merely do this, a genuine truth seeker will be inclined to “draw near to God through” Christ, because “he always lives to make intercession for them.”3 That is a burden-lifting fact.
The teenagers that I encountered this spring did not confess Jesus as Lord because I am a great evangelist. They were won over “through the knowledge of him who calls us to his own glory and excellence.”4 The teens already believed that Jesus is God and understood the concept of damnation for sinners. They only needed someone to explain redemption and repentance. They were willing to accept the Gospel from the first person who explained it plainly because of the previous work of Christ in their lives.
1. John 12:32
2. Luke 15:1
3. Hebrews 7:25
4. 2 Peter 1:3
Photo courtesy of Aleteia Image Department.
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