Well tonight we're turning to John chapter 1. John's gospel in the chapter number 1. And we're going to read from verse 35 of the chapter. So it's John chapter 1 and we begin reading at verse 35. Again, the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold, the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted, Master, where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus, And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah. Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone. The day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me. Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. Nathanael said unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, before that philip called thee when thou wast under the fig tree i saw thee nathaniel answered and saith unto him rabbi thou art the son of god thou art the king of israel jesus answered and said unto him because i said unto thee i saw thee under the fig tree believe us thou thou shalt see greater things in these and he saith unto him verily verily I say unto you, hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. Amen. And we'll conclude our reading at the natural break at the end of the chapter number one. The practice of outsourcing work to others. work that we could well do ourselves is one that is common practice today. Especially in a world where time is off the essence and where life just seems to be getting busier and busier for us all. Think of some examples of outsourcing work that we could well do ourselves. Instead of washing our own cars, getting a bucket and a sponge, We take our cars down to the car wash for them to get washed and waxed by somebody else. Some families have the luxury of employing a cleaner to come in to mop and to dust and to tidy their homes and even to iron their clothes. We employ landscape gardeners to come in to manicure our lawns, to weed our flower beds, to cut our hedges. Rather than cooking and meat ourselves, we make our way down to the local chippy or to the restaurant, and there we partake of the meals that are available to us in such establishment. This outsourcing of work to others that we could well do ourselves is one that has sadly infiltrated the church of Jesus Christ. Christians are quite happy to hand over the responsibility of evangelizing a town or a district to a minister, to a missionary, to a door-to-door evangelist, but as to being personally involved in such a task themselves, well, you can count them out. Beloved, as we see fewer and fewer people come to saving faith in Jesus Christ in this post-Christian, Bible-illiterate, and increasingly atheistic society, the Church of Jesus Christ can do one of two things. It can either evangelize, or fossilize. The Church of Christ can either evangelize or fossilize. Aware that we cannot allow the latter to take place, the challenge then comes to every Christian who is to evangelize the localities in which God has sovereignly placed us by and in his providence. It is the work of reaching the loss with the gospel. One that is entirely the responsibility of a minister, of a church outreach team, or of some home missionary. Well, I don't believe that to be the soul. I'm convinced that every born-again Christian is to be engaged in evangelism on a personal level. Now, the term personal evangelism I trust is self-explanatory to us all. It simply speaks of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ on a personal level. I'm not going to speak tonight about mass evangelism in the form of missions, not speaking about any other kind of outreach endeavor. I'm speaking about you. as an individual on a day-to-day basis, and I on a day-to-day basis, interacting with the general public and speaking to them about their need of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, every day presents us with opportunities to do that as we move around in our different spheres influence there's no doubt that there's plenty of sinners around today sadly that's the case and There's plenty who need to hear the message of the gospel and with few people ever Crossing the doors of a church never mind the doors of an evangelical gospel preaching church today the need to Evangelize such people as greater than it has ever been however How is it to be done? Are we simply to confine our evangelism to times of gospel missioning, to a Sunday evening service? Well, I believe that we should be involved in evangelism 24-7. Every day of the week, those that we come into contact with at work, at school, in our places of obviously employment, and even in times of our recreation. And the wonderful thing about this kind of work is that personal evangelism is the one form of Christian service that is open to every believer. Every believer should and ought to be involved in personal evangelism. Now we read in John's gospel in chapter 1, and as we are thinking about personal evangelism this evening, just taking a break from our studies in the book of Psalms, as the Lord would have led even this week, I trust that you have noticed Now with this thought before us about personal evangelism the three incidences where we find this being played out here in John chapter 1. The first incident is with regard to John the Baptist. John the Baptist yes has preached to large crowds but in John chapter 1 and to verse 35, we find that John now comes to speak on a personal one-to-one basis with two individuals, one of them being Andrew. And as he speaks to them, he declares what he declared in the pulpit, as it were. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Well, those two men decide to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, leaving John the Baptist behind. and following after Jesus Christ. John the Baptist, though he was involved in missioning, we would say, mass evangelism endeavors, he also believed in a one-to-one interaction with the general public with regard to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Andrew having been converted, he then takes his lead from John the Baptist, and he goes to find his brother Peter, and then as a result of Andrew's witness to Peter, Peter comes to faith in Jesus Christ. And then we find thirdly, the third instance in verse 43, that the Lord Jesus Christ, he finds Philip, and Jesus Christ sees to Philip, being brought to saving faith. And then Philip, he goes and he makes his way and he finds his brother Nathanael. And as a result of his witness to his brother Nathanael, Nathanael is brought into contact with Jesus Christ and Nathanael is brought to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so in John chapter one, we have personal evangelism being conducted by John the Baptist, by Andrew, by Philip, and by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we're coming to think about personal evangelism. I believe that this form of evangelism is an activity that fewer and fewer Christians are engaging in today. And that is to the detriment of the furtherance of the gospel in our nation, and with regard to this community and this district. Now, there's no doubt that we support organized evangelism enterprises, gospel missioning, and Bible clubs for children. But to actually speak with someone one on one about their need of Jesus Christ, well, that is something that we seem to shy away from And sometimes we feel it is beyond our capabilities. But tonight I want us to, I trust, deal with this matter and I trust that what I'll say this evening will stimulate again an interest in all of our hearts to engage in personal evangelism with regard to the people that we come in contact with day after day. I want us to see in the first place the exhortations of Scripture that speak of our responsibility to engage in personal evangelism. We want to be biblical with regard to this matter. I trust that we've already seen from Scripture the examples, and we'll think of a few others, but I want you to think about the exhortations of Scripture that really deal and speak of our responsibility with regard to personally evangelizing, speaking to someone one-on-one as a Christian to a non-believer. Isaiah chapter 43 in the verse 10, if you want to turn there, Isaiah chapter 43 and the verse 10, it says, ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen. ye may know and believe me and understand that I am he before me there was no God formed neither shall there be after me ye are my witnesses now these words were spoken to israel national israel and i believe also to spiritual israel And therefore, we come to see that the Christian is to be a witness for Jesus Christ. Now, what is a witness? Well, a witness to any event is, one of the requirements to be a witness is that you have to be there in order to witness. You cannot be a witness if you weren't present. And we are witnesses of God doing a work within our hearts. We are witnesses of his saving power in our lives. We were there, the night, the day, the afternoon that we came to Christ, we were there. And as a result, we have experienced sins forgiven, pardoning of our transgressions, being reconciled to God and being made a member of God's family. And as a result, we are now witnesses of the radical reality of salvation. And we are also witnesses of God's saving power in our lives. And therefore, we are to witness to others what God has done in our lives. We are able to speak from a first-hand experience account. We are able to declare on a first-hand basis what the Lord has done in our lives. And therefore, we are to be witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ. A witness has to speak in order declare his witness. That's very simple. Someone who doesn't speak, well they can't declare what they have seen or what they have heard and therefore it involves us opening our mouths and telling out what we know. And that's what personal evangelism is. It's simply telling others what we know. Do you remember that blind man? Remember he was healed by the Lord Jesus Christ? And he was asked all of those great theological questions by the men, the religious zealots of the day. And the blind man turned around and he said, I don't know, but this I do know, that once I was blind, now I can see. And therefore, you may not be able to get into theological debate and delve into great theological topics with regard to the ungodly, but you can tell them this, that God has done something radical in your life. something transformational in your life. This is what it is to personally witness on a one-to-one basis. In Psalm 126, in the verse number six, there's a promise for the one who goes forth with precious seed. The seed speaking of the incorruptible seed of God's precious word. And they go out to sow the seed. And they hope to bring in the harvest. And the word is, Psalm 126 verse 6, Notice that the text says, he, not they. There's an individuality here. He that goeth forth, not they as a church body, but he as an individual that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again bringing his sheaths with him. His sheaths with him. The one who sows the seed of God's word is promised that they will bring forth a harvest. Do you remember that demoniac that the Lord Jesus Christ so radically changed when he met him there in Mark chapter five? That man wanted to go with the Lord Jesus Christ and the disciples. Remember the people in the country wanted to push him out of the land, the Lord Jesus Christ. They didn't want him in the regions in which they lived. They were more interested in the herd of pigs that were lost as a result of them going over the precipice of that cliff. And so they pray the Savior, they urge the Savior out of their coasts, And the man wants to join the Lord Jesus Christ. It was but the natural response with regard to that man. He just wants to be in the Savior's company. He wants to be in the company of the Savior's disciples. But what does the Lord Jesus Christ tell that young convert? This is what he tells the young convert. Go home. Go home to thy friends. And tell them how great things the Lord has done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. Mark chapter 5 and the verse number 19. You know, the Son of Man, he didn't instruct him to become a great theologian. He didn't instruct him to become a great scholar, as wonderful as that would be. He simply told this new babe in Christ to go home. To go home to his family, his friends. and tell them what the Lord Jesus Christ had done for him. He was to be a personal witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. Surely the Great Commission incorporates this aspect of evangelism, this evangelism on a personal level. Those who belong to the Church of Christ are to go in to all the world and preach the gospel. We can do that, yes, by missioning, and we can do that by our weekly services. We can do that by our gospel open air preaching, but I'm not speaking about those aspects tonight. I'm speaking about evangelism on a personal level. And by doing that, by witnessing for Jesus Christ where you are, your place of work, your place of schooling, Through that, you are spreading the gospel. You are preaching the gospel. You are going into all the world and fulfilling the great commission to preach the gospel to every creature. Did you know that a Christian wife who is married to a non-Christian husband, that they are encouraged by Peter to be a witness in the home? That witness is to be more than simply verbal in its nature. It is also to be visible. 1 Peter and the chapter 3. 1 Peter and the chapter 3. You know, oftentimes when we think, well, to be a personal evangelist or to be personally involved in evangelism, well, I need to be maybe speaking all the time. Well, here we find Peter. As he writes his first epistle, I hope I have this correct, 1 Peter 3, and the verse number one, likewise ye wives be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, if any are unseeth, they also may without the word be won by the conversation or the behavior of the wives, while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. A Christian life well lived before an unsaved husband can result in that husband being brought to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Let's not just think that personal evangelism is done by our lips. Personal evangelism is done by our lives. How we live out the gospel. And here we find a woman in this This situation, her husband is yet not converted, but Peter says that that man can be won, an ear can be won for the gospel, and that man can be won with the gospel by her simply living out the gospel before his very eyes. 1st Peter chapter 3 we're there so we may as well go jump down to verse 15 for it tells us there we're exhorted but sanctify the Lord in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is within you with meekness and with fear there's two commands in the verse we are to sanctify the Lord in our hearts which means that we must consciously live in the fear of God, one who is holy, and we must ourselves walk in holiness before the face of the Lord. But we also are exhorted, commanded, that we are to be ready to give an answer or to give a verbal defense, for the word here is apologia, from which we get our English word apologetics. That's what we're to give, a verbal defense of the hope, the Christian hope that is within us. We are to be ready. We are to be ready to give that at any time of the day, wherever we are, to give an answer, to give an apologetic with regard to the hope that is within us, the hope of the gospel, the hope of Christ. Now, it is true that it says to every man that asks. But brethren and sisters, we must not stand behind the excuse, nobody asks so I don't tell. We must not do that. No, a quick look at the context will show us that Peter is exhorting God's people to walk and to live in such a way in every sphere of their lives that they must expect the world to ask. And they must then be ready to give an answer. Why do you live as you live? Why do you conduct yourself in a way that you do? Why are you so honest in your dealings? Why are you so gracious when others slander you? Why do you not respond? And therefore, in living in such a way, people will then come, as it were, and ask, what is different about you? What is it about you? Now, we must then ask the question, why do our neighbors not ask us about our faith? Why do our friends and work colleagues not ask us about God's salvation? Is it possible that they don't see in our lives how much of a difference there is between us and them. Is there any difference? Surely it should be talked about, maybe even behind our backs. Do you know that man that comes in to the shop? Do you know that girl that works alongside me? Something different about that girl. I don't know what it is, but there's something different. by personally living out the gospel is a way in which we can declare and we can be personal evangelists. Now, even brothers and sisters, if we did not have direct commandments and these direct commands to engage in personal evangelism, surely the examples of scripture of people engaging in such an activity should cause us to do the same. And we have thought about some there in John chapter one, individuals who engaged in personal evangelism. Well, let's think about a number of others. Think about that Samaritan woman that the Lord Jesus Christ met at the well of Sychar, Jacob's well. John chapter four, you'll read her history, you'll read her life story. Having found the Messiah, having spoken to him, having conversed with him, that woman, she runs off into the city of Sychar. the place where she had committed her sins. And she finds the man that she committed her sins with and the man of the city. And she tells him that she has found the one who told her all things that she had ever done in his life. And we're told in John chapter 4 that many of the men believed on Christ because of her word. Look at the verse number 39. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, he told me all that ever I did. A woman was a personal evangelist or involved in personal evangelizing. This woman spoke of Jesus Christ to these men and introduced these men to the Lord Jesus Christ and then were told that they went out to the Lord Jesus Christ and they sought him that he would tarry with them. Here's a woman who believed in spreading the good news of what had happened in her life. Paul was a great believer in personal evangelism. Now Paul spoke to many a mass gathering. Think of that mass gathering near Mars Hill with all of the philosophers. The apostle Paul speaking there the other times whenever he stood when they're about to lynch him nearly we would say and he's about to be put to death he would stand on the steps of that particular city, and he would declare the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Paul was a man who believed in mass evangelism, but Paul was also a great believer in personal evangelism. You think of the many incidences in Paul's life, I'm sure you could recall them to your mind just now when he came to speak to individuals. Now listen, some of those individuals believed what he told them, and others didn't. You need to remember that. Paul was a man who was filled with the Spirit of God. Paul was a man who was in the very center of God's will in his life, and yet some people that he spoke to did not believe the message he preached. Never think that just because people do not believe that you're not doing God's will because you speak to them. That is God's prerogative. Let me throw out a few examples. Think of Lydia. Paul addresses that small company. I know she was with other ladies that day, but he addresses that company and God uses that word in the life of Lydia. God brings Lydia to saving faith. God opens her heart. I think about the Philippian jailer, and he jumps in after the earthquake. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. And we know that that man was converted, and then his family was converted. There was a personal one-to-one encounter. Paul and Silas were there, but they take the opportunity to speak to these individuals about the Lord Jesus Christ. But what about Felix and Agrippa? Paul spoke to them, declared the same message, but they remained in their sin. You see, brethren and sisters, the believing or not believing was something that Paul couldn't control. That wasn't in his power. He couldn't control who was going to believe the message and who wasn't going to believe the message. That was in the sovereign control of Almighty God. But what he could control and what he could do was that he could declare the gospel to those that he came to speak to. And that's what he did. He told and spoke the gospel. Philip believed in personal evangelism. He believed in mass evangelism. Philip, I'm speaking about Philip now in Acts chapter 8, goes to the city of Samaria and the whole city believes in Christ, that's how it appears. The vast majority of them, or the whole city, that's what it says. They received the word, they believed the word, and there was great joy in that city. But Philip wasn't so egotistical. that he thought, I'm just going to confine my evangelism to mass evangelism, to standing, as it were, in the pulpit. No, he says, I'm going to engage in personal evangelism on a personal level. And that's what he did whenever he met the Ethiopian eunuch. One man. Now, there were probably others there that were helping, driving the chariot for him. But he addressed one man. he opened the scroll and he heard him read Isaiah 53 and he spoke to him Christ was spoken about that and God worked in that Ethiopian eunuch's heart and brought him to faith and he was baptized and he went on his way rejoicing he was baptized and He engaged in that public demonstration that he had no faith in the Son of God. But Philip believed in personal evangelism. But brethren and sisters, surely the greatest example is Christ himself, our Savior. Our Savior was involved in evangelism on a personal level. Peter, Matthew, Philip, Nathaniel, Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, the demoniac of Godard, the dying thief, to name but a few were all witnessed to and brought to saving faith through the personal soul-winning endeavors of the Son of God. The passion of Christ to witness to others on a personal level is a passion that must be discovered by all of us who are followers of Jesus Christ. God, who undoubtedly saves by his sovereign grace, is pleased to use the witness of his people to bring others to saving faith. Think of it in this way. How can we obey the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves if we never share the gospel that saved us from sin and saved us from hell? Is the withholding of the gospel not the most unloving thing we could do with our neighbors? Whether they live across the street or whether they sit across a desk from us at school, is it not unloving of us not to share the greatest news with them? Sharing the gospel message with our neighbor is one way in which we can show that love to them. The love of Christ constraineth us to do that. And being persuaded of God's terror, we are also persuaded to witness to them. I close the message by drawing your attention to the encouragements from scripture that really inspire us to witness for Christ on a personal level. As we engage in personal evangelism, whether that's through handing someone a gospel tract, whether that's handing them a CD or a DVD of a gospel meeting, maybe speaking to a work colleague, maybe to a school friend during break time or lunch time, whether it be engaging just simply ourselves going out and speaking to individuals on the street. There are encouragements, I believe, that will spur us on in such a rewarding task. As God's people engage in personal evangelism, they are encouraged firstly to do so by the person who accompanies them, the person who accompanies them. When addressing his own disciples prior to his departure back to heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ did commission his church to go into all the world and preach the gospel. An annex to that divine command was a promise Though I am with you always, even on to the end of the world." These men went forth to evangelize the nations of the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And as they did so, God promised to be with them. And brethren, that promise and sisters, that promise has never been revoked and has never been rescinded. All who set about this task of evangelizing the lost can be assured that the Lord will enable them in that enterprise. And so, fellow Christian, go forward. Tomorrow, whoever you meet, go forward with the assurance that God is with you. God is with you, the person who accompanies them. The second encouragement to those who engage in personal evangelism is the promise that inspires them. Jesus Christ promised in Matthew 16, verse 18, that he would build his church. and that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. One way in which God goes about building his church is by the personal witnessing of his people. Contrary to pessimistic opinion, an opinion that seems to be rife in the church of Jesus Christ these days, Christ has not given up. on his way of building his church. He still uses the personal endeavors of his people to reach the lost with the gospel and to bring men and women to saving faith in Jesus Christ. And so the Christian can go forth to evangelize on this personal level with the assurance that the task that they are engaged in will be met with success for he will build his church. The third encouragement is the power that enables them. Now I'm well aware that sharing the gospel with someone one-on-one can be a very daunting one. We can meet with much opposition as we attempt to speak a word for the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet God empowers us by His Spirit to witness a good confession of Him before others. Prior again to his ascending back to heaven, Jesus Christ gave a promise to those who would soon engage in spreading the gospel. He said in Acts 1 verse 8, Don't be thinking about evangelizing elsewhere until you've started at home. at Jerusalem and in all Judea and in all Samaria and on to the uttermost part of the earth. And the same power that enabled the apostles to be witnesses for Christ in their day, thank God, is the same power that can enable you tomorrow to go and witness for Jesus Christ to your work colleague, to your school friends. The power that enables them. The fourth encouragement that comes to those who engage in personal evangelism is the prosperity that follows them. Too often we expect immediate results in our evangelism. Now in some cases that might well take place. You might speak to someone tomorrow and they may come to Christ. That'd be a wonderful thing. Many a times it takes months, maybe years, before we see any fruit for our labors. If we are faithfully sowing the seed, the incorruptible seed of God's word, we can be assured that his purposes will bring forth a harvest, or he will accomplish his purposes, and a harvest will be brought forth in those efforts. So shall my word that goeth forth out of my mouth, it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. Brethren and sisters, we cannot wait for the ungodly to become inquisitive about the things of God. By nature, sinful man will not seek after God. Psalm 10 verse 4 tells us, the wicked will not seek after God. But instead, we are to be proactively looking out for opportunities to present the gospel to our family members, our friends, our neighbors, our work colleagues, our classmates, I and even or enemies and doing that on a one-to-one basis, on a personal level. So then, why not get yourself a bundle of gospel tracts and put them into your pocket or into your car? Why not place maybe a gospel CD or a DVD in the glove compartment of your car or your work van and employ that material to initiate a conversation to those that you come in contact with on a daily basis. Speak a word for Christ. Let's not be bashful. Let's not be silent. This is a day of good tidings, and we have an opportunity, all of us, all of us, have an opportunity to be a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ, mother, a witness to the children in the home, father in the workplace, young people in your school, in your place of work, a witness for Christ, personally witnessing and evangelizing your mission field. where God has providentially put you. May we forego our sloth, and may we forego our cowardice in this area of our Christian lives, and may God enable us to sow beside all waters, so the gospel see. Hear a word in season, they are a loving deed. Sinners to the Savior, be it ours to lead, He that wineth souls is wise. May God make us all, all soul winners. May the Lord bless His word to our hearts. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father and our God, Lord, we confess at times we're very backward to speak a word for Thee. And Lord, too often we confine our evangelism to maybe special seasons within the church calendar Lord, we recognize that every day thou dost bring people across our path that needs to hear the gospel. O God, may we follow our Savior's example. May we ever be on the lookout for opportunities to speak a word. May those who come in contact with us question, Lord, question what is different about us. And may Christ be lived out before their very eyes. from day to day. So answer prayer and take that which has been of God to the encouragement and to the challenge of all of our hearts, especially this preacher. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.