“The two happiest days in every believer’s life are the day he believes in the Lord and the day when, for the first time, he leads another person to Christ. The first one, of course, is a particularly happy day. However, the joy of leading another person to the Lord for the first time may be greater than the joy experienced on the day of his own salvation. Many Christians do not have much joy because they have never spoken anything for the Lord; they have never led a person to the Lord.” – Watchman Nee
- Matthew 28:19-20
Jesus wants disciples, not decisions (v. 19): Baptizing them (v. 19) …Teaching them (v. 20)
- Mark 5:24-34 – Disciples see the crowd thronging, but Jesus knows who really touched Him (Mark 5:31)
Who leads people to Jesus?
- John 6:37; Acts 2:47 (John 12:32) – God draws men to Himself
How does God draw men to Himself?
- Romans 10:13-15 – God uses people to spread the gospel (see Genesis 2:18 compared with Ephesians 5:31-32)
Ephesians 6:15 – gospel covers man’s feet
When should people witness?
- Acts 9:1-20 – “Immediately he preached the Christ…” (Acts 9:20)
- John 1:40-45
Andrew immediately witnessed to his brother and brought him to the Lord (vv. 40-42)
Philip immediately witnessed to Nathanael (v. 45)
- As soon as one believes in the Lord, he should confess the Lord before men. Suppose a person gives birth to a child. What would we think if the child could not speak by the age of one or two, or even three? Would we say only that he is slow in speech development? Is it possible for such a person to begin saying, ‘one, two, three, four,’ at the age of thirty and then learn to say ‘daddy’ and ‘mommy’ at fifty years of age? No. If a person is dumb [mute] in his infancy, he probably will be dumb for the rest of his life. If he cannot say ‘daddy’ and ‘mommy’ when he is young, he probably will not be able to say it for the rest of his life. Likewise, if a new believer does not confess the Lord immediately after he believes in the Lord, I am afraid he will be dumb for the rest of his life. If he cannot speak when he is young, he probably will not be able to speak when he grows up. (Nee, “Confession with the Mouth”)
How do you effectively bring people to the Lord?
- Psalm 51:12-13:
“Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And sinners shall be converted to You.”
According to this passage, there are three things we need to successfully convert sinners:
- The joy of our own salvation.
- God’s Spirit.
- Teaching God’s ways.
- THE JOY OF OUR OWN SALVATION
* Mark 4:39-42 – the woman shared her experience, and they went to experience it for themselves
* About a hundred [and fifty] years ago, there was a believer named Harvey Page. Although he did not have any special gift and did not know how to lead many people to the Lord, the Lord was gracious to him and opened his eyes to realize that he could lead at least one person to the Lord. He could not do many great works, but he could concentrate on one person. He could only say, “I am saved. You also need to be saved.” Once he laid hold of one, he would not let go. He would pray and talk to his friend until he was saved. Through this practice he solidly gained more than one hundred persons for the Lord by the time he died. (Nee, “Witnessing”)
* Many people think that arguments can touch men’s hearts. Actually, this never happens. At the most, arguments can convince men’s minds. Their mouths may be shut, but their hearts will not be won over. Arguments produce little result. Try to say less in the way of argument and more in the way of testimony. You have only to tell others that you felt happy and peaceful after you believed in the Lord Jesus, that you sleep well now, and that even meals are becoming tastier. No one can argue with you about these things. They can only wonder. You have to show them that they do not have your kind of peace and joy and that they should therefore believe in the Lord. (Watchman Nee, “Leading Men to Christ”)
- GOD’S HOLY SPIRIT (1 Corinthians 2:4-5; Hebrews 2:3-4)
* 1 Timothy 2:1-4 – before your words can be mighty with men, they must be mighty with God
Luke 11:20-22 – pray for strong man to be bound
* Once there were two sisters whose house was open to travelers. Sometimes, as many as twenty or thirty would stay at their place. They noticed the luxury of the travelers’ attire and the vanity of their conversation. The sisters were bothered and wanted to win them over to Christ. However, there were many guests and only two of them. How could they win them over? They decided to sit at the two ends of the room during the conversation and pray for the guests from each end.
On the first day during the after-dinner conversation, each sister sat at one end, praying for the guests one by one. One prayed from one end, and the other prayed from the other end. They prayed for each and every one of them. This stopped the guests’ jesting and chatting on that first day. They asked themselves what had happened. On that day, one person was saved. The next day, another lady was saved. One by one they were gradually all brought to the Lord. (Nee, “Leading Men to Christ”)
* Matthew 16:16-17 – people need revelation from God to believe
* John 6:37; John 12:32; Acts 2:47 – Only God can draw people unto Himself
* Luke 5:3-11
5:5 – you can toil all night and catch ZERO fish (see v. 10)
5:5-6 – God’s blessing is needed
Need to HEAR and OBEY (see Luke 11:27-28)
- TEACH GOD’S WAYS
* Matthew 28:20 – “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you”
* Luke 4:43 – we need to preach Kingdom of God. Kingdom of God = Jesus is King. If they are to live in God’s Kingdom, they must obey the orders of the King. We must teach what Jesus commands:
“Repent, and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15)
- Repentance (see Luke 15:11-24)
- Belief of the heart (see Romans 10:10)
- The Gospel/”Good News” = Jesus is Lord; He died for your sins and was buried and raised the third day (see 1 Corinthians 15:1-4)
* 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 – “Jesus Christ and Him crucified”
* 1 Peter 1:23; Romans 10:17 – need God’s Word to believe and be born again
* Teach out of the joy of your salvation and utter dependence on the Holy Spirit (Psalm 51:12-13)
Testimonies…“The fear of man brings a snare” (Proverbs 29:25)
- Many people have not heard the gospel because you have not yet testified to them. The consequence of this is eternal separation; it is not merely temporal parting. This is too crucial. A brother was once invited to another person’s home for dinner. As he was very learned and eloquent, he spoke quite much on intellectual subjects. Another elderly friend who lived nearby was also present at the dinner. Since both were very intellectual, they talked for a long time. It was getting late, and the host invited them to stay overnight. The elderly friend’s room was directly opposite to this brother’s room. Not long after they retired to their rooms, the brother heard the sound of something falling to the floor. When he went to the other room, he saw the friend lying on the floor, dead. Other people started rushing into the room. The brother said sadly, “If I had known that this was going to happen, I would not have spoken what I spoke two hours ago! I would have pointed out eternal matters. I did not spend even five minutes speaking to him about salvation. I did not give him an opportunity. If I knew what I now know, I would have tried my best to tell him about the Lord’s crucifixion for him. But it is too late! If I had told him these words at dinner time, you would have laughed at me for speaking at an inopportune time. But it is too late for him. I hope that you will listen now. Every person needs to believe in the Lord Jesus and in His cross!” (Nee, “Witnessing”)
- D.L. Moody was very good at leading men to salvation. He once made up his mind to preach the gospel to at least one person a day, whether or not he was giving a message on that day. One day he went to bed, and then he remembered that he had not preached the gospel to anyone yet. What should he do? He changed his clothes and went out again to look for someone he could speak to. It was already midnight when he looked at his watch; the streets were empty. Where could he find anyone at such an hour? The only person he could speak to was a policeman who was on duty: “You must believe in the Lord.” The policeman was in a bad mood over something at that moment, and he scolded Moody angrily, saying, “Do you not have something better to do than persuade me to believe in Jesus in the middle of the night?” Moody went home after sharing a brief word with him. But the policeman was touched by Moody’s word. A few days later he visited Moody and was saved. (Nee, “Witnessing)
“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” (Matt. 10:32-33)
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