15:26,27
At this point the disciples may have been thinking all was lost and pointless. There are two main mistakes we can make in looking at evangelism. One, which I have already alluded to, is the naively optimistic approach, which assumes that people will want to believe in Jesus if only the gospel is presented in a winsome enough way, when we present how wonderful the gospel is. This is simply not true. The other mistake is to think it is all a waste of time because man is irredeemably anti-God. So we can be naively optimistic or hopelessly pessimistic. Both these mistakes take only one part of the truth. The gospel is the most wonderful message there is, and man’s heart is deeply sinful and in rebellion against God. So how can this problem be solved? The answer is the Holy Spirit. He can open people’s hearts to the truth. A man can be born again by the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of Truth and proceeds from the Father. So just as the Father sent the Son, He also sends the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit bears witness to Jesus, and we too must bear witness to Jesus. For God’s plan is that He works through His faithful people.
No comments:
Post a Comment