The Kingdom Advances in Winchester

It was great to be back in Winchester; this ancient city has become one of my favourite fishing holes. Today, four of us went out to share the gospel, but before the outreach commenced, we prayed. Our prayer was that the Lord would open doors for the truth to spread, that we’d encourage Christians we met, and that the Lord would bring people along to listen to the preaching. He answered those prayers!

With the news of a submarine lost near the wreck of the Titanic leading the news cycle, Paul started preaching by using the Titanic as an example. Over a century since that ship sank, people still are intrigued by it. A few people stopped to listen, and then some began to engage in conversation.

The first lady who engaged Paul was polite, but she was hurting. She said that due to all that was happening in the world, she was strongly leaning towards atheism. The issue for this lady was the question of suffering and pain. Paul was able to answer her questions, and she took a tract dealing with the issue of atheism. Shortly after finishing with that lady, a man stopped to talk. He raised a few issues, but after talking to Paul he took a copy of John’s Gospel and a tract.

Over at the Free Bible table, I chatted with three university students from Germany. They had no concept of Christianity; I tried to explain the gospel, but the language barrier made it difficult. Thankfully, I had a card that referred them to a website that contained the gospel in German, and I also had a copy of “Ultimate Questions” in their language. They were amazed that we could share material with them in their mother tongue.

When it came time for me to preach, I spoke on “Hope for a Broken World.” The issue of brokenness seemed to connect with people, as all of us know what it is like to live in a broken world. I pray that people found hope in Jesus as the gospel was proclaimed.

After I had finished preaching, Paul spoke again. This time, he preached on “A Brief History of Time.” People stopped to listen as Paul explained the gospel; one lady, who is from a Roman Catholic background, listened to the whole message, then took a Gospel of John at the end. Paul was able to share with her further after his message.

It was now around 1pm, so I decided to finish the outreach by preaching again. I spoke on “Warning: Six Deadly Lies.” As I preached, people began to stop to listen. Something that doesn’t happen all the time, is that when I explained the good news of Jesus dying and rising again, a person in the crowd began to clap. It is rare to see people engage with the preaching to the point where they must clap the gospel! I wrapped my message up by calling people to turn to Christ by faith, and then I offered a copy of John’s Gospel to anyone who wanted more information.

I thought the message was finished, but the Lord had other plans. As I went to finish my sermon, a heckler called out, “What is your view of slavery? The Bible supports slavery!” As I looked at the young man who heckled, I noticed he had his phone up to record the interaction. I thanked him for the question, then asked, “Where does the Bible condone slavery?” He couldn’t give me an exact reference, so I took him to Philemon to show how slaves should be treated as beloved brothers (Philemon 1:16). The man didn’t like that answer, so he twisted my words and charged me with supporting slavery. It was clear he wasn’t interested in answers, rather he was looking for an argument. But what he meant for evil, God used for good. The largest crowd I’ve seen in Winchester formed to watch the interaction, so I used his heckles to point to the gospel.

Eventually, the crowd could see that the heckler didn’t want to hear the answers to his questions, so people began to turn on him. The heckler was being heckled! This gave more opportunities to preach the gospel, and it was encouraging to see people in the crowd nodding in agreement and supporting what was being said. Afterwards, a young Christian couple came up to offer encouragement; they said they were inspired and encouraged to see Christianity proclaimed in the streets.

The Lord answered our prayers today. We rejoice that He allowed His Kingdom to advance. Please pray for all those who heard the good news today.

SDG!