When you tell people about Jesus, the Holy Spirit has already been there.

Steve Brown:
When you tell people about Jesus, the Holy Spirit has already been there. Let’s talk, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Key Life exists to communicate that the deepest message of Jesus in the Bible is the radical grace of God to sinners and sufferers. Because life’s hard for everyone, grace is for all of us. Our host is seminary professor and author, Steve Brown.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. If you’re just joining us, we’re beginning to land the plane in our month long, many months long study in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. And we’re landing the plane by talking about the Holy Spirit’s involvement in evangelism. One of the great things when you witness for Jesus, Is that you don’t do it by yourself. The Holy Spirit has been there. The Holy Spirit has been doing his work and you’re going to be surprised. We’re going to talk about it over this week and probably next week. And then all things considered, we’re going to study the book of Philippians. Hope you had a great week-end and I hope your pastor’s sermon was as good as my pastor’s sermon. Let’s pray and then we’ll study. Father, we come into your presence rejoicing. Not rejoicing because everything is fine and we’re happy, happy, happy. But rejoicing because we’re yours and that makes all the difference in the world. You chose us from the foundation of the earth. You loved us, you brought us by your Spirit to yourself, and you promised to get us home before the dark. It’s in between, Father, as you know, that hurts sometimes. You know the people listening to the broadcast, and you know the hurts, and the pain, and the darkness, and you know the laughter, and the joy, and the party. And you’re a part of all of it. Teach us to run to you in every place in our life, trusting you with every circumstance. Father, we pray for the one who teaches on this broadcast, forgive him his sins because there are many, we would see Jesus, and Him only. And we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. If you’re a Christian, you’re here for them. I mean, the reason you didn’t go to heaven as soon as you came to Christ, is that there was work to do, and it’s ordained and given and commanded. And that work is the work of witnessing what has happened to you, to others. When I was a pastor, I had never been involved in evangelism. And a Crusade for Christ staff person and I had gone to a local Christian college and heard a lecture on evangelism. When we got out of that lecture, my friend said to me, he said, Steve, that was a great lecture. I said, it really was. And we need to do more evangelism. And my friend said, okay, let’s do it. I said, let me get out my calendar. And he said, no, I don’t mean later. I mean, right now. And let me tell you what happened on my first experience of witnessing. We went down to the seashore, there in Wollaston, Massachusetts. And I was praying on the way that nobody would be there. It was the middle of the winter, and people don’t go to the beach in the middle of the winter. And there was one car sitting there and one guy sitting in the car. And my friend and I approached it, he knocked on the window and when it was rolled down, he said, sir, I represent an international Christian organization. Could I talk to you? Could we talk to you for a moment? And the guy said, yeah okay. So, he unlocked the door, we climbed in, and I got in the back seat of a two door car and couldn’t get out. That was planned, I think, by my friend. And my friend began to talk about Jesus to this man. And then when he was about halfway through with his presentation, he said, that’s right, isn’t it, Steve? Tell him. And so, reluctantly, the most reluctant witness in the history of Christendom, I began to tell this man about Jesus. About how he could change his life, and as we talked, it became clear that he was sitting there because he was thinking about suicide. And you need to know that he bowed his head. He received Christ, and it changed his life. But also, it changed my life. You start doing this sort of thing, and it’s addictive. You begin to find, I really like telling people about Jesus. As long as I’m real, as long as I’m authentic, as long as it’s the normal part of my life, I’m going to be clear about the person to whom I belong. Jeremy, who is the producer of this broadcast, is also an incredible musician. He plays numerous instruments. He was the worship leader at the church I attended for a lot of years. He’s incredible at broadcasting and the technical side of it. In fact, sometimes I think he’s demon possessed. But he’s also an incredible musician. And he has a band, and they’re all Christians, and they don’t play Christian music. They play regular, normal rock music from the 70s and 80s. And they’re getting all kinds of great publicity. I mean, people think they’re the best thing since sliced bread. And they did an article about his band, and in the article, he said, they said, that they had all met at church. And Jeremy said, it wasn’t a gigantic witness, but they knew who we were. And I said, it was the perfect witness. Because it’s the open door, because people know who you are. Whenever you witness, one of the surprising and wonderful things about it is that the Holy Spirit is generally there preparing, teaching, drawing before you even show. In that incident that I just told you about in Massachusetts, my first time at witnessing, I’ll tell you something, it was no accident that man was sitting on that cold winter beach In his car that day, thinking about suicide, and that we showed. You file that under the work of the Holy Spirit. It was no accident that when my friend said, could we talk, he whiffed and whaffed and then said, yes, I’d like to talk. That was preparation, that was the work of the Holy Spirit. And when we shared Jesus that day, and the man’s life was changed, it wasn’t a hard thing to do. The fruit was ripe. It was time because it had been prepared by the Holy Spirit. We are, as you know, here for them, and I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself. We’re not here because God is trying to teach us something, even though He is. We could learn everything necessary in a book when we got to heaven. We aren’t here to be better and better in every way, every day. If we could get better and better in every way, every day, God wouldn’t have sent his Son. The cross lets us know how difficult our problems are. We aren’t here to be tried and tested. God already knows about us. We’ve been tried and tested and found wanting, thus the cross, and God doesn’t need to test us to see how we’re doing. We’re sinners saved by grace and called to witness to that fact in our lives. Our work, our play, our works, and our actions. Sharing the fire of the Holy Spirit is the task to which we have been called. And our Lord, the Holy Spirit, is particularly interested in our doing just that. Listen to what Jesus said to his disciples after the resurrection. You’ll find this in Acts 1:4 through 5.

And being assembled together with them he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John truly baptized with water, and you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

So, what did Jesus say? Be still and wait. And when the Spirit, the promised Spirit that I’ve been teaching you about comes, you’ll find that you have a new power. You have a new ability. You have a new gift to share with others the amazing action of God in your life. Listen, you may be a lawyer or garbage collector or teacher or preacher, but at bottom, you have been called and commissioned by the King to point to Him everywhere you go. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thank you Steve. That was Steve Brown teaching us about the Holy Spirit’s involvement in evangelism, good stuff. But listen, we’ve only scratched the surface on this topic, so hope you’ll join us again tomorrow and stick with us through the end of this series Well, I don’t know where you work, but I’m willing to bet your office wasn’t built around 1100 AD, but that is the case for Philip Plyming. He serves as the Dean of Durham as in the Durham Cathedral in England. We recently spoke with Philip on Steve Brown Etc. about the apostle Paul’s hardships and the enduring power of being authentic. It was a delightful conversation that we would love to send to you on CD for free. Just call us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE that’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to ask for that CD. To mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. Again, just ask for your free copy of the CD featuring Philip Plyming. Finally, if you value the work of Key Life, would you join us in that work through your giving? You could charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or just pick up your phone and text Key Life to 28950 that’s Key Life, one word or two. It doesn’t matter. Text that to 28950. And listen, if you can’t give right now, all good, but if you think about it, please do pray for us. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.