Constant Gospel Conversations – Southampton Evangelism
Today’s outreach was busy; it was a constant stream of conversations and tract distribution. Within minutes of setting up the Free Bible table, five people took New Testaments, and others stopped to take different apologetic and gospel literature.
Nigel nearly instantly found himself in a long conversation with a man who stopped to look at the tracts on the open-air board. From what I overheard, the man was mixed up in his views and at times became quite aggressive, but Nigel remained calm and gently pointed the man to Jesus.
My first conversation was with a lady who took a tract and then said she wanted to speak about what I was handing out. I asked if she had any religious views, but she was cagey. Her argument consisted of questioning the justice of God, the eternality of Hell, and the divinity of Jesus. As I listened to her arguments and her misquotes from Scripture, I asked her, “How long have you been a witness for Jehovah?” She was stunned at this question and tried to change the topic. It was now clear I was dealing with a Jehovah’s Witness who was trying to be sneaky. I took her to the Scripture showing that Jesus is God and that salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone, but she wouldn’t accept the teaching of the Bible; all she could do was regurgitate the Watchtower doctrine. Finally, she admitted she was a JW, and then walked away. I can’t convert this cult member, but I can sow the seed of the gospel and pray the Lord saves her. Please join me in praying for this lady.
For the first hour of the outreach, no open-air preaching took place as we were engaged in constant conversations. During this time, I spoke to three Christians; all of them were teenagers, and to my surprise (and encouragement) each could articulate the gospel very clearly. We encouraged them in their walk with Jesus and gave them resources to help them grow.
After an hour of conversations, I finally had an opportunity to preach. Before speaking I always pray, “Lord, what would you have me preach today?” I want to preach a word in season, so I seek His direction and guidance. In my mind, I wanted to preach the new talk I’ve created, “Who is Jesus?” But I felt it laid on my heart that I should preach on the shortness of life. I hadn’t planned to use that talk, but I figured I should be obedient to the directing of the Spirit.
When I started preaching, nearly instantly people stopped to listen. One man who was riding his scooter past pulled up and paid close attention to what was being said. Soon others joined him; it was the biggest crowd I’ve seen in Southampton without a heckler being present. All listened as I spoke about the shortness of life, the reality of sin, and the gospel of Christ. At the end of the message, when I offered copies of John’s Gospel to anyone who would like to discover more about Jesus - five people took a copy.
The man on the scooter wanted to talk further, so we chatted about the gospel and how it applied to him. He is from Ireland and was brought up Roman Catholic, but he isn’t practising. He told me that his business is illegal, so there isn’t any hope for him to be saved. I shared with him about the Apostle Paul and how he was the chief of sinners, yet Jesus saved him. The Irishman, said, “But if I come to Jesus, I will lose my source of income.” I pushed back on this argument by saying, “So what you are telling me is you’d rather have money now - then Hell for all eternity. You’ll be dead a whole lot longer than you are alive. Better to be poor now and have Jesus forever.” The Irishman agreed and said he has much to think about. He took a copy of John’s Gospel, shook my hand, then road away. Please pray for him.
While talking to my Irish friend, I noticed another man standing nearby. He wanted to chat, so as soon as I was free, he began to talk. It turns out he is a retired engineer and had many questions about Christianity. We spoke about the deity of Christ, the Trinity, the gospel, and the authority of Scripture. He was pleasant to talk with and was open to discussing different ideas. At the end of the chat, he took a booklet on the Trinity and another on the Divinity of Jesus.
One of the challenges with this conversation is a heretic we met last week decided to force himself into the discussion. This heretic is friendly and polite (most false teachers are!), but he denies the deity of Christ. It was clear he was trying to deceive, so I called out his heresy in front of the engineer and made it plain that he wasn’t a Christian. The heretic kept interrupting the conversation and trying to undermine everything I said. Eventually, though, he tripped himself up. He said to the engineer, “Jesus can’t be God, as John 1:18 says no one has seen God. People saw Jesus; thus He isn’t God.” As he said this, I began to turn the pages in my Bible to that verse; the heretic said, “You don’t need to read the verse. I just told you what it says.” I insisted that we read the verse, and the engineer agreed. I read John 1:18 – “No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side—he has revealed him.”
As I read the verse, the heretic said, “No, no, no… that isn’t what it says.” So, I showed him and the engineer the Bible. The verse the heretic misquoted destroyed his argument; it was amazing how quickly he now wanted to leave the conversation
By this stage, the outreach was over. As we packed down, we rejoiced in all that the Lord did today. Please pray for all those we encountered.
SDG!