Outreach October is officially over for another year, but that doesn’t mean our evangelism is. Across October we looked at 4 incredible passages, with 4 incredible messages:
- John 2 – when we mess up in life, Jesus responds by giving us honour
- John 3 – the way to eternal life isn’t works, it is being born again, through faith in Jesus
- John 4 – Jesus doesn’t want to shame us for past sins, he wants to give us living water
- John 5 – Jesus helps with earthly concerns to remind us of our eternal concern
If one of your non-Christian contracts would benefit from any of these topics, evangelism during COVID is as simple as sending them a link to the relevant sermon. And our passage from last week highlights how important this is.
In John chapter 5 Jesus visits the pool of Bethesda, looking for sick people. Yet strangely he only heals 1 man, then quickly leaves the pool without healing anyone else. Why? Because Jesus’ main concern was not this man’s physical condition, but rather his eternal one. In v. 14 Jesus tells the man ‘stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you’. What is the ‘something worse’? Being raised on the last day only to be condemned (John 5:29).
As v. 19-24 tell us, the only way to avoid being condemned is to be given eternal life by Jesus, which comes to those who ‘honour the Son just as they honour the Father’ (v. 23). This could not be simpler. If our family and friends do not honour Jesus, then they have not crossed over from death to life.
So may we not put evangelism to the side until next Outreach October. Rather, may we be Praying intently for God to work in our neighbours’ lives, look for opportunities to Invite our neighbours to come and meet Jesus, and Engage in gospel conversations with them. Easy as P.I.E.
