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Scripture Reading: John 15:16; Rom. 15:16
In the New Testament the Lord’s first call to us is, “Come” (John 1:39; Matt. 4:19). Then after we have followed the Lord, His first charge to us is, “Go” (John 15:16; Matt. 28:19). The Lord charges us to “go forth and bear fruit” (John 15:16). To carry this out there is the need for us to contact the sinners. However, to my observation, not many Christians are successful in contacting sinners. In this chapter we will fellowship concerning how to carry out a successful contact with the sinners.
To bear fruit we first need to be clear that if we have been saved by the Lord, we have also been charged by the Lord. This is a serious matter in the Bible. Our Lord is also our Master. One day the Master will come and set up a judgment seat, and He will call us to come before Him and be judged (Rom. 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:10). In Matthew 25:14-30, we are His slaves, and He is the Master. He has given each of us some talents as capital with which to do business for Him, and He requires that we make a profit. The slothful slave came to his lord and said, “Master, I knew about you, that you are a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not winnow. And I was afraid and went off and hid your talent in the earth; behold, you have what is yours” (vv. 24-25). He did not lose anything of his lord’s, yet he was rebuked. His lord said to him, “Evil and slothful slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I did not winnow. Therefore you should have deposited my money with the money changers; and when I came, I would have recovered what is mine with interest” (vv. 26-27).
This parable in Matthew 25 applies to each of us. We were redeemed; we were “bought with a price.” Therefore, we are His slaves, and He is our Master (1 Cor. 7:22-23). The first thing the Master wants us, His slaves, to do is to invest the talent or capital He has given us, that is, to do business for Him. The profit from our doing business for the Lord is the fruit. We are not only slaves; we are also branches, ministers, and priests. As slaves, we must use what the Lord has given us to do business for Him; as branches in the vine, we must bear fruit; as ministers of Christ, we must minister Christ into others; and as the New Testament priests of the gospel of God, we must handle the gospel daily. We all must realize our solemn responsibility before the Lord to be faithful in each of these aspects.
To the worldly people today, it seems that the Lord is silent. They have heard about Christ, they have heard about Jesus, but they do not care. They would say, “Where is Christ? Where is Jesus? You have been preaching and talking about Him. But where is He?” The unbelievers may talk in this way, and many believers may have similar feelings. Inwardly they may say, “Christ told us that He was coming quickly, but nearly two thousand years have passed, and He is not here yet.” Because of this kind of thought, most Christians today live sloppy lives. In doing so, they disobey or disregard the Lord’s charge to go forth to save sinners.
Many Christians love John 15 because it teaches us how to abide in the vine, how to enjoy the riches of Christ. However, in verse 16 the Lord said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and I set you that you should go forth and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain.” The Lord did not choose us without a purpose. His choosing was for His setting. He has set us for three things: first, we should go forth; second, we should bear fruit; and third, our fruit should remain. In this matter we have no choice; the Lord requires that we accept our being set.
Regardless of how much we have spoken concerning this, there are some who think, “That is good! There is nothing wrong with preaching the gospel. If the Lord has burdened that brother so much, then he should go. But I do not feel burdened to go. Surely, if the Lord wanted me to go, He would have burdened me.” We may not speak this, but this may be in our heart. One day when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, we will have to give an account of what we have done. If we have not been faithful, we will have to tell the Lord why we did not bear fruit, and the Lord will rebuke us. He may even remind us of this message concerning John 15:16 and ask why we would not take His charge to bear fruit.
Some say that they are busy and do not have any time. This is not true. If our house were on fire, we would not say, “I am too busy. I do not have time to take care of the fire.” What we have time for depends on what we consider is more important. But regardless of whether we have the time or not, whether it is in season or out of season, we have no choice. It is not up to us. He is the Master, and He has charged and is still charging us to go forth and bear fruit. He will not let us go. This is very serious. If we do not bear fruit, we will be cut off from the enjoyment of the riches of the vine (vv. 2a, 6).
If we see that we have been charged by the Lord, we will have a heart to carry out a successful contact with the sinners. We must be serious, earnest persons. We all have to do a job to make a living. The sisters, as wives and mothers, have to take care of their households. But if they have seen that they have been charged by the Lord, their hearts will not be fully occupied with their households. Although they take care of their responsibilities properly, their deep desire should be to go out to visit people with the gospel, to contact and gain sinners.
The Lord is hungry for sinners. In John 4 He told His disciples, “I have food to eat that you do not know about” (v. 32). The Lord’s food was to gain the sinners. When He gained that immoral woman, she became His food. That satisfied His hunger. We all must realize that the Lord is hungry and is waiting to be satisfied.
The lack of gospel preaching today in Christianity is shameful. Christians may like to talk about many things in the Bible except fruit-bearing. In John 15 abiding is not merely for abiding. Abiding is for fruit-bearing. The Lord Jesus said, “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes it away” (v. 2). To be taken away is to be cut off from the vine. Many Christians have already been cut off; they do not have the enjoyment of the riches of Christ. Some may say, “I have not brought one person to the Lord for six years, yet enjoy the Lord very much.” This is based upon their feelings, not upon the fact. The fact is that they have not borne fruit. Fruit-bearing is the real evidence that we genuinely enjoy the Lord. His Word tells us clearly that if we do not bear fruit, we will be cut off.
We have to realize that we have been charged by our Master, and then we must be serious and desperate to go forth, to bear fruit, and to keep our fruit. This depends upon the Lord’s setting us in John 15:16. This setting indicates that He has prepared an environment to accommodate our every need so that we can bear remaining fruit. The Lord has prepared and arranged all of our situations so that we can carry out our being set. Verse 16 is like a mother telling her children, “I have cooked that you should eat.” If they do not eat, they will miss the opportunity. Today many Christians are missing the opportunity. The Lord has set us; He has set everything. Especially for those of us in the United States — what a good setting we have received! We have not been set to live alone on a high mountain. People are everywhere. Furthermore, He has given many of us jobs for only eight hours a day, five days a week. Every evening we have three or four hours, and every weekend we have two days. This is according to the Lord’s arrangement and setting. In addition, the Lord has given us many relatives. There is an environment and situation that is just right for us to gain people. When we meet the Lord, we will have no excuse, because by His setting, He has prepared the environment with all the situations that we need for bearing fruit. The only problem is that we would not go forth. We must take this very seriously. It is not a matter of merely fulfilling our duty; it is a matter of life or death. We must be serious, earnest, and desperate to go forth to gain people for the Lord.
To have a successful contact with sinners, we must be those who pray at all times (1 Thes. 5:17; Luke 18:1). While we are working, we must be praying for one or two of those with whom we work. We should pray, “Lord, remember these ones that I am burdened for. You desire all men to be saved. Remember them and visit them with Your salvation.” We must be persons who pray day and night without ceasing. God’s desire for man’s salvation requires our prayer for it to be carried out (1 Tim. 2:1, 4).
In contacting sinners, we must learn to speak Christ. This is not easy. It is easy to talk about common things, but to speak Christ requires much exercise. Not only must we speak Christ in a general way, but also we must learn to speak Christ in a particular way. The enemy is very subtle. Whenever we share the gospel with a sinner, sooner or later the sinner will try to stop our speaking. When we are speaking Christ, our mouths should never be stopped by the unbelievers. This cannot be learned easily and requires much practice. Every time we go out to preach the gospel, we should first practice speaking Christ for at least ten minutes in our home. We all must practice speaking Christ. If we practice speaking Christ all the time, it will become easier for us, and we will become rich in speaking Christ. Then regardless of how the unbelievers respond to us, we will be able to speak Christ to them in a particular way so that they may be saved. Sometimes we may need to speak a short story concerning Christ, but this should not be a long “sea story.” If we practice, we all can learn to speak Christ to the sinners.
We must also learn to speak by the Spirit. If we are going to speak, we must speak by the Spirit. To speak Christ and to speak by the Spirit will save us from all kinds of meaningless talk. But I cannot tell you what you should speak. The Lord said, “When they deliver you up, do not be anxious about how or what you should speak, for it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for you are not the ones speaking, but the Spirit of your Father is the One speaking in you” (Matt. 10:19-20). When we speak to people, our heart should be always looking to the Lord. We should not speak anything but Christ, and we should speak only by the Spirit. These are the governing principles. If we keep these two principles, the Spirit will lead us to speak the right words.
Now that we have been charged by our Master to go forth and bear fruit, we need all these items as our preparation. We need to be serious, earnest, and desperate in our desire to bear fruit. We need to pray for the sinners’ salvation continually, and we need to learn to speak Christ, to speak by the Spirit, and to speak according to the leading of the Spirit. We can practice these things in two ways. First, we can speak Christ by the Spirit in our homes. We can speak Christ to the air and speak to the air by the Spirit. While we are speaking, we should practice looking unto Him to receive the leading of the Spirit. We can all practice in this way. The other way to practice is to go to your close relatives and speak Christ to them by the Spirit under the Lord’s leading. By this kind of practice, we will learn a lot.
When we go to contact the sinners, we should not go by ourselves but as a team. According to our study, it is best to have a team of three with two brothers and one sister or one brother and two sisters. Because we are going to baptize people, there should be a brother to do the baptizing. Furthermore, the ideal team would have an old one, a young one, and a middle-aged one. To have these three different age levels is very useful. It may be hard to form such an ideal team, but we should do the best we can. Once we have formed a team, each member must learn to bear his own particular responsibilities.
When we go out to preach the gospel, we must first learn how to knock on a door or ring a doorbell in a proper way. If we go to a sinner and ring the doorbell in a wild way, this may offend him, and he may not open the door to us. Even if he opens the door, he may not talk to us because we have made him unpleasant and unhappy. We must learn to do everything in a way that is pleasant to people. No one can teach us this; we must learn it by practice.
The team members must be frank with one another in determining who is the best for each responsibility. Who is the best one to ring the doorbell? We should not be too polite or humble but frank and honest with one another, and we should not be offended by the other team members. One on the team is the best to ring the doorbell in a way that does not offend people. Another may be best at greeting people when they come to the door. We have to learn this as a team. We all were born with different dispositions and appearances. We should have a person greet them with a smiling face that would make everyone happy. Among the three on a team, one may be best at ringing the doorbell, another may be best at greeting people with a pleasant face, and the third may be very smart in answering people. This is a team with a proper coordination. In principle, we must practice in this way. These small steps lay a foundation for our contact with sinners.
If we want to be successful, we must learn to answer people in a proper way. The way we answer means a lot. If we answer properly, this man will be saved. If we do not answer properly, this man may perish. It is a matter of life or death. For this matter we have to pray very much, “Lord, help us in answering people.” If we pray much and trust the Lord, the Holy Spirit will surely give us the best words at the right time. It depends on how the Lord would lead us. Sometimes the Spirit may lead us to say, “We are not Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses,” because at that moment they were considering that we might be Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses. They were tired of that kind of person. We must learn not to speak in a common way. By following the leading of the Spirit, we can answer people properly. Then our speaking will not offend them, but it will stir up some interest within them.
After we go into someone’s home, we should not be shy or fearful. We do not need to be afraid. If they will not ask us to sit down, maybe one on the team would say, “Let us sit down. We would like to read this little booklet with you, The Mystery of Human Life.” When we get into their home, we should not leave the situation under their control. We must learn to take control of the situation in a pleasant way. Then it will be easy for us to speak. We can go directly to the booklet The Mystery of Human Life. To use this booklet, we must become very familiar with its contents, and we should not follow it legally or read every word. In a living way, in a striking way, in an attracting way, we should present the points to them from this booklet. Then when they are ready, we can lead them to call upon the name of the Lord. We should not speak too much, and we should not waste any time.
While we are talking to a person, we also have to discern what kind of person he is. About thirty years ago in Taipei, I classified human beings into more than thirty classifications. Some people were born stubborn, and some were born humble. Some people will agree with anything. From their talk, you can realize that they are loose persons. To them, whether they go to heaven or hell, whether they are baptized or not, whether they believe Buddha or Jesus, it is all about the same. We should not put any trust in such a person. Even if he is willing to be baptized, perhaps we should not do it. We may waste our time on such a one. We have to exercise much discernment in this matter.
In our going, we should not be anxious to get many people baptized. We should not bring forth too many children. If we baptize twenty-one, these twenty-one will exhaust us. We will not be able to raise one properly. If each of us baptizes only three, we can spend all our energy to raise up these three children in a proper way.
When we talk to people, we should exercise to realize what kind of persons they are. Then the Spirit will lead us to know what to do. We should not be so anxious to get them baptized. If no one is baptized tonight, we still have tomorrow. If no one is baptized this week, we still have next week. If no one is baptized this month, we have next month. Even if we cannot baptize one this year, we have next year. We all must have this kind of attitude. Our goal is first, to get people saved, and second, to get the saved ones into the church life for the building up of the Body of Christ as a living testimony. Through our experiences we have learned that to bring people to Christ is not as hard as to bring the saved ones into the church life. If we brought one out of twenty baptized ones into the church life, that would be marvelous. If we went out about once a week, maybe for only forty-five weeks in one year, we could easily baptize twenty to thirty. Then if we could get one out of these twenty to thirty into the church life, that would be wonderful. This is a word of experience. We should not be anxious but learn how to exercise our discernment.
If we practice earnestly, after three or four weeks of going out, we can surely get two or three baptized. Although our discernment is not always accurate, in principle, we have to exercise our discernment regarding these two or three. If we realize that none of these are that promising, we should go on to get more baptized until we can get two or three that we consider to be quite promising. Then we should stop getting people saved for a while and use our time to take care of these newly baptized ones. Because it is difficult to bring someone into the church life, we must do this in a selective way. Of course, we have to realize that our selection might not be so accurate. While we are selecting, we must trust in the Lord that He will lead us. Then we can concentrate our labor and our time to feed and to raise up these few just like our own children, and we can be quite hopeful that they will be brought into the church life. If we can bring only two out of thirty baptized ones into the church life within a year, that will really be marvelous.
If we take this fellowship and put it into practice by teams, each team can baptize about thirty people within one year. I believe that two to four of these can be brought into the church life. I do not expect all the church members to go out to preach the gospel in this way. Some are not so healthy or have other reasons. After much study I feel that as long as one-third of our members practice visiting people for the preaching of the gospel, we will have good success. Out of one hundred fifty meeting together, fifty must be burdened and charged to go out in this way.
Visiting people in this way is not easy. We cannot do it according to our natural way. It is something we must learn. In order to do anything skillfully, we must be trained. If we desire to play basketball, we cannot play it in a natural way. We must be coached. If we want to play the piano, we need instruction and training. In like manner, to preach the gospel successfully, we must be trained. In Philippians 4 Paul says, “The things which you have also learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things” (v. 9). Because Paul was a person absolutely for God, he not only received the vision, but he also practiced what he saw. Then he trained Timothy, saying, “I write to you...that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God” (1 Tim. 3:14-15). Timothy did not know how to walk, how to behave, in the church of God, so Paul instructed him. Every chapter in 1 Timothy is full of instruction. Paul instructed Timothy in a detailed way. Surely Timothy had to exercise. When he spoke to a young sister, he had to practice the proper way (5:2). When he spoke to a young brother, he had to speak in a different way (v. 1). Today we desire to learn of the Lord so that we can be useful in His hand. Eventually, the Lord will gain a people through whom He will be able to fulfill His New Testament economy to build up His own Body. Then He will come back.
After we baptize someone, we should stay to talk to him. If time allows, we should talk to him for two hours. We should not go away quickly. After a mother delivers a child, she should nourish this little babe with milk right away. We have to stay as long as possible to give the new ones their first feeding. Then we should go back at least within three days. If we do this, we will surely raise up some of these new believers. In raising them up, we must try to bring them into the church life. If we carry out the proper feeding, nourishing, and cherishing of the new ones, there will be a good possibility that they will be brought into the church life.
This is the way for us to carry out a successful contact with the sinners. When I say successful, I mean that we would not only bring them to Christ and baptize them but also raise them up as genuine believers growing in life and bring them into the church life. I hope we would all try to take this way and practice what we have fellowshipped in this message.
