Hello Project Ezra! It's time to
start our readings for this year's Mission Good Friday. Though today is the
official day, any day surrounding the Easter holiday will work just fine.
People will be thinking about Easter this weekend, but very few will be thinking
about the death and resurrection of Christ, the true meaning of Easter. That's
why we will be going to the streets, to share that message with many who will
not hear it otherwise. Please pray that God will work in a powerful way, and
that hearts will be changed and souls saved.
Matthew
26 through 28 is the Easter story, so it is the passage we have chosen for this
reading. If you are an experienced open-air preacher, you will likely be able
to find multiple points of entry into a good gospel presentation. For those of
you will less experience, here are some things to consider when using this, or
any, passage of scripture for evangelism:
What the passage says and doesn't say - Some pastors, and
some open air preachers, will try to shoe-horn the entire message of the gospel
into any passage they read. If you do so, you are not handling the Bible
rightly. What you should try to do, if the message is not explicit, is to look
at the passage and see what it's focus is. Some will cover aspects of sin or
judgment, some will talk about God's mercy, or grace, or goodness, some will
recount details of the life of Christ, and almost all will have something to
tell us about the nature of God. Try to read the passage with an eye to the
original intent of the author, and find the place that point has in a Biblical
gospel presentation.
The Nature of God - The gospel is what it is because of who
God is. His nature and character is why Jesus came to die and rise again. A
good idea is to contrast our nature with God's, and explain why that is a
problem. Then explain the solution. Consider these:
God is good, and we are not. What must a good God do with
people like us?
God is a good judge and we are guilty criminals. What must
a good judge do with criminals like us? If He is a good judge, He must insure
that justice is
satisfied.
What if someone paid the fine and satisfied justice so we
could go free? What if that someone were
God Himself? God demonstrated His love
in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
God is a good and loving God. But because He is just, He cannot ignore
sin. Instead, He paid for it on the
cross.
Be sure you cover the basics - Every gospel presentation,
and every open-air preaching session, will be different. This is due to
the change in the scriptures used, the audience, the location/situation, and
even the convictions of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer at that
time. But regardless of the situation, we want to make sure that we cover
the basics of the gospel. A general outline is below.
God created
this world perfect
But mankind, out of pride, chose to
rebel and fell into sin
Now, all men are born sinners, in
rebellion against their creator
And because of our rebellion, we are
deserving of God's justice
The scriptures tell us that justice
will be carried out in a very real place called Hell
But because God is not only a just
judge, but also a loving Father, He made a way for justice to be satisfied, so
we would not have to go to Hell
Jesus Christ, God the Son, humbled
Himself and came to earth
He lived the perfect life that none of
us did, and then died a perfect death on a Roman cross
On the cross, all God's anger and
wrath toward sin was poured out on Him, so it would not have to be poured out
on us.
Then He rose on the third day, as He
had prophesied He would, and after appearing to His disciples, ascended to the
right hand of the Father in heaven.
He now sits as both judge, and
advocate, and if we will turn from our sins and to the free gift of grace
offered by our one true savior, then the price of our sins will be satisfied,
we will be seen as righteous before God, and we will be free.
Then we will spend eternity in
loving relationship and worship of God, as we were designed to do.
I pray that this is helpful, and I
look forward to hearing how your readings went.
God bless, and have a great Easter weekend!!
All for His glory,
Dan B.
