MY DESIRE TO PROCLAIM JESUS CHRIST – PART 1
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans
Translator: Robin Barker
How do I talk to people about JESUS?
Someone wrote to me a lovely letter and asked me:
“How can I, without appearing to be fanatic, easily talk to people about Jesus?
I burn with the desire to talk to people about Jesus but I never know how to begin.”
This is then the first of three writings from the Word where I answer this question as I understand it through the Word.
I want to begin by saying:
How wonderful!
It is glorious to receive a letter where you can see that there is someone who truly wants to lead people to Jesus.
Now I want to make a statement:
In my opinion, it is impossible for someone who has a true loving relationship with our Lord, not to have a burning desire in some or other way to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ – Or to become involved in some or other way with the promotion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We read:
MAT 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
MAT 28:20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Do you see?
We are given a command and if I truly have a loving relationship with our Lord, I will make sure that I through one or other means become part of that command.
Still further we read:
ACTS 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Do you see what you have just read?
If the Holy Spirit truly lives within me, I will through one or other way show Jesus to those people. Even if I cannot preach or testify well in public but I can never, never be passive.
I will find something to do to help increase the promotion of the Gospel.
ACTS 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses …”
There are some people who sit in church who are passive about the Gospel of Jesus but those people have at least a reverence for God Almighty, or maybe a fear of Him but they certainly do not have a loving relationship with our Lord as I see it in the Word.
It is just not possible for a person who has Jesus’s Holy Spirit living within him/her not to through one or other way to express his/her love within their heart towards the world.
Remember as you read the following, that according to Peter and John’s knowledge of these people, who wanted to put these two to death. After all they crucified Jesus.
Also remember about Peter before the Holy Spirit was within him, on occasion denied knowing Jesus but what happened after the Holy Spirit was within him?
We read:
ACTS 4:16-20
16 “What are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everyone living in Jerusalem knows they have performed a notable sign, and we cannot deny it.
17 But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them to speak no longer to anyone in this name.”
18 Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
19 But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges!
20 As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
Now you have this great love for our Lord within your heart and you have the burning desire to express it to the world but you do not precisely know how our Lord wants you to do it.
The first thing that you must do, is too regularly as a matter of urgency pray about it.
Remember also then with peace in your heart, that it is not only you that have a need to obtain certainty about what our Lord expects of you in the preaching of His Gospel.
My great hero Paul who our Lord intrusted to write the greatest part of the New Testament, sometimes also had the need to receive clarity about what our Lord expected of him. Therefore on occasion wrote:
EPH 6:19 Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel,
EPH 6:20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
Therefore we read in the Word concerning this matter:
JAMES 1:5-7
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
In my follow-up writing regarding this matter, I share with you more pertaining to this very important matter.
Greetings,
Sakkie