Multiple People Respond to the Gospel – Southampton Evangelism

The Lord is good and kind! His grace and mercy continue to reach out to the people of Southampton. Today, we were blown away by what the Lord did.

There were only two of us on the team today, but the Lord was with us, so we knew His will would be done. The weather was mixed; one minute it was overcast and windy, and then it was sunny and warm. This meant that the city centre of Southampton was busy.

After setting up all our usual equipment, I preached on “Are you good enough for Heaven?” There was little interaction with this message, except for one Christian man who seemed encouraged. As the open air finished, I wondered if today was going to be a challenge, but the Lord acted despite my little faith.

For the next 45 minutes, we focused on handing out tracts and chatting to people. Many tracts were taken, and people seemed open to receiving gospel literature. The Bible table was also busy with people browsing what was on offer. During this time, I offered tracts to a group of eight young men. They all stopped, so a conversation was able to develop. They all told me they were going to Heaven because they were good people. They then went on to boast about how good they are and all the deeds they have done. I wasn’t surprised at their response, as the religion of works is the most common religion in the world. After hearing how ‘good’ they were, I asked, “Are you good by God’s standards?” All of them conceded that they probably weren’t good compared to God, so together we began to look at the Ten Commandments.

As the Law was opened, these young men saw their sin (Romans 3:19-20). Now their tune changed. All of them admitted they would go to Hell, although one said he hoped he would be OK as he had asked Allah into his heart. I stressed to the group that Christ is their only hope for salvation. I explained the gospel and urged them to repent and trust in Jesus.

It was now nearing 2:30pm, so I thought I would preach again before packing up for the day. Based on how things had been going today, I didn’t expect much interaction with the preaching, but the Lord moved despite my lack of faith.

As I began to preach, two men stopped to listen. One of them was laughing; the other was indifferent. I engaged them and quickly discovered that the laughing one was a ‘man of science’ and an atheist. He turned into a very good heckler. As I engaged his arguments, a crowd began to gather. We went back and forth on the issue of atheism and the Bible. This man claimed that Christianity and the Bible did more to harm society than help it, so I explained to him the positive impact of Christianity on this nation. He then claimed that religion controls people and it takes away freedom. So, I asked him, “Are you free?” He replied that he was. I then asked, “When was the last time someone from the church put you in a headlock and dragged you to church?” He said that had never happened, as religion couldn’t control the people. It was at this point he saw the folly of his argument, as did the crowd. There was one young lady who was standing behind the heckler who was on his side, but when she saw the foolishness of what he was saying, she switched sides.

The opening I had was to now preach the freedom and love found only in Jesus. I explained the need for the Saviour and grace of God in giving Christ to be our substitute. The atheist heckler disappeared at this point, but the crowd stayed. In the crowd was a young Muslim man who heckled me the other day in Portsmouth. It was good to see him again.

Since the crowd wasn’t moving, I explained the gospel and called on them to repent and believe. At the end of my message, I took copies of John’s Gospel from my board and offered them to anyone who wanted to find out how Jesus could rescue them. Six people from the crowd walked forward to take a copy. It is always a joyous thing to see people responding to the gospel; may those who want to discover Jesus be found and saved by Him.

I have to say during all this time, my teammate, Nigel, was having a rough time. When the heckling started one man decided to disrupt with ranting. Nigel wisely engaged him in a one to one and took him away from the crowd. For the whole open air, Nigel was stuck with this man who wouldn’t listen and had no interest in answers. I am very thankful that Nigel ran defence for me, as that man would have caused chaos to the preaching.

At the end of the day, as I restocked the board and table, I noticed that during the outreach, nine New Testaments and eleven John’s Gospels were taken by people. Please pray for all those we met today.

SDG!