Archives For Evangelism

On The Value of Learning More about Being a Witness of Christ

February 17, 2015

I began my message this past Sunday morning with this illustration that pointedly challenged my hearers about a key issue:

Suppose that tomorrow, several hundred people here in Greenville would go to their mailboxes to get their mail. They find a letter that congratulates them because they have been chosen to attend some very special seminars. Billionaires will give specific teaching in these seminars that is guaranteed to make them very rich.

Can you imagine how eagerly people would pay attention in those seminars? Don’t you think that people would try to learn as much as they could? Wouldn’t they take very detailed notes about what those billionaires teach them about making money?

We are not here this morning to hear from billionaires about how to make lots of money. We are here to profit from the words of God about how to be a witness of Christ, which is far more important than making lots of money. I hope that you will pay very close attention this morning and take many notes from what God teaches you today.

How interested and eager are you about learning more about being a witness of Christ? If you will be in Greenville this Sunday morning (and do not already have your own church that you regularly attend), I invite you to come hear my final message in this series Thoroughly Equipped to Be a Witness of Christ.

 

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

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Learning from Philip as a Witness of Christ

February 13, 2015

Acts 1:8 records that Jesus instructed His disciples to be witnesses of Him to the whole world. The rest of the book relates many accounts of their bearing witness to Him and for Him.

For many reasons, Acts 8 is a uniquely important chapter in the book of Acts for our understanding of being a witness of Christ:

—Shows how not just the apostles, but also other believers were witnesses of Christ (Acts 8:4)

—Has key statements about how believers initially witnessed of Christ to people outside of Jerusalem (Acts 8:1, 4)

—Has far more occurrences of forms of a key verb for preaching the gospel (euaggelizomai) than any other chapter of the book of Acts has (Acts 8:4, 12, 25, 35, 40)

—Provides the only inspired record of the gospel ministry of the only person named as an evangelist in Scripture (Acts 8:5-13; 26-40)

—Provides a crucial statement about the dual-faceted nature of sound gospel preaching (Acts 8:12)

—Records vital apostolic instruction about the necessity of repentance and prayer for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 8:22)

—Relates the vital importance of believers’ helping people understand what that they have been reading from Scripture but have not understood properly (Acts 8:30-35)

—Underscores the importance of confronting people with their need to have hearts that are right in the sight of God (Acts 8:20-23; 37)

Because God has given us Acts 8 to teach us so many important truths that vitally equip all believers for doing the good works of evangelizing and making disciples of the world, we need to profit from it as fully as possible. Because this chapter uniquely provides us with an extensive record of the evangelist Philip as a witness of Christ, we all as believers need especially to learn from Philip how God wants us to be witnesses of Christ.

If you will be in the Greenville area on this Sunday and are looking for a church to attend, I would like to invite you to come hear my message this Sunday morning that will explain these things further.

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

In Discipleship, Evangelism, Preaching
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Beware This “News Report” Approach to Using John 11 in Evangelism!

February 9, 2015

This morning, I used a creative approach with some other believers to help them understand better how many believers have not rightly understood why Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead the way that He did. I believe that a vast number of believers need to understand this key point and then use that understanding to adjust in a very important way their use of John 11 in evangelizing people.

An Imaginary News Report of Jesus’ Raising Lazarus from the Dead

Imagine that a news crew from a leading TV network is able to go back in time to videotape one key Bible event, and they choose when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. This crew has the ability to record what takes place without any of the people even seeing that they are present.

As they watch Jesus and others coming to the tomb, they choose to begin recording only at the exact moment when He actually commands Lazarus to come forth. Getting what they want on tape, they return to the present to share their highly selective eyewitness account with the world.

On a prime time news program, they present the stunning video, which instantly creates a worldwide sensation. As teams of news reporters and analysts all around the world go back and forth discussing the remarkable footage, leading news anchors here in the US carry on a torrid debate about what the world should make of this miraculous event.

The Internet explodes with a never-before-seen deluge of discussion on social media. Many bloggers chime in with their take on what significance the world should attach to seeing Jesus do something that no one else had ever been recorded doing—raising a person back to life who had been dead for four days!

Everywhere, people fiercely dispute why Jesus did what He did the way that He did it and what His doing so reveals about who He was. An endless stream of world leaders, political and religious, gives their opinions on whether they believe that the video proves that Jesus was God.

All too often, many Christians have evangelized people by using the account of Jesus’ raising Lazarus from the dead in a very similar way to what I concocted in this hypothetical story. By focusing on a very small portion of the Bible record about this event, they have in many cases not given people a right understanding of why Jesus raised Lazarus the way that He did and what His doing so shows about who He was.

The Foreground Significance of Jesus’ Raising Lazarus the Way That He Did

An examination of the Holy Spirit’s inspired report of what happened shows clearly how this has been the case. When John relates to us what happened immediately before Jesus commanded Lazarus to come out of the grave, he says,

Joh 11:38 Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.

 39 Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.

 40 Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?

 41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.

 42 And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.

Only after relating these events does John tell us the very selective part that the fictitious news story I gave above provided:

43 And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

 44 And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

Had the Spirit only inspired John to write verses 43-44 after he had given enough preceding material to give the basic information about the setting of this event, the news report would have been a more valid representation of what took place on this occasion. John, however, provided vital information in the verses immediately preceding verses 43 and 44 that the news report failed to provide.

Right before Jesus commanded Lazarus to come forth, John says that Jesus lifted up His eyes and talked aloud with God the Father (John 11:41). In this conversation, Jesus thanked the Father for hearing Him and for His always hearing Him. These statements show that Jesus communicated that He had prayed to the Father just before His raising Lazarus from the dead and that the Father had heard His prayer, just as He always had done before this event!

Moreover, John then recorded that Jesus then remarked to the Father, “But because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 11:42). Here John reports from the mouth of Jesus Himself what is the key to understanding why Jesus raised Lazarus the way that He did—He wanted the people to believe the vital truth that the Father had sent Him!

Saying this, Jesus told all those who were present on that occasion that the foreground significance of His raising Lazarus the way that He did was that people would believe that God the Father had sent Him! What He Himself said prior to what He was about to do thus made known that His intent through this miraculous event did not have proving His own deity as its foremost significance.

Yes, what He did testified to His deity but that clearly was not the sum total of what this event testified about Him. In fact, by Jesus’ own statement that John relates, we know that His own deity was not even the foremost truth to which His raising Lazarus the way that He did gave witness to His original audience.

How We Must Use John 11 Properly in Evangelism

As we have seen, this conversation between Jesus and the Father about His hearing Jesus’ prayer was a vital facet of this miracle that the news report completely left out. What Jesus testified about His purpose for doing this miracle the way that He did it is also a vital facet of this event that many, many believers do not account for when they use this account to witness to people.

In using John 11 in evangelism, we must not use this “news report” approach to sharing this glorious event with lost people. We must rather faithfully tell them that Jesus raised Lazarus the way that He did so that they will believe that the Father sent Him!

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

In Evangelism, Exhortation, Exposition, Theology
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Beware “Theological Reductionism” that Overemphasizes the Deity of Jesus!

February 3, 2015

Is overemphasizing the deity of Jesus even possible? Mark 1:1-3 is a crucial passage for showing that such overemphasis is not only possible, but also is very widespread and has negatively affected the theological understanding of many believers.

The Proper Approach to Interpreting Mark 1:1

The Gospel of Mark begins with vital teaching about the gospel of Jesus Christ: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). This theologically pregnant statement juxtaposes many key theological terms: “gospel,” “Jesus,” “Christ,” and “the Son of God.”

Self-evidently, a right handling of this text is of preeminent importance. How then should we approach interpreting what Mark affirms here?

The Holy Spirit answers that question by how He has inspired what immediately follows in the passage: “As it is written in the prophets …” (Mark 1:2a). To interpret Mark 1:1 properly, we must relate it properly to how the Spirit has signified that Mark 1:1 is to be understood through our attention to previous biblical teaching.

What Does Mark 1:2-3 Itself Teach Us?

Before we can understand how Mark 1:1 relates properly with Mark 1:2-3, we must examine what Mark 1:2-3 teaches us itself. Mark 1:2-3 directs our attention to teaching found elsewhere in Scripture:

Mar 1:2 As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. 3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

A careful analysis of verse 2 reveals that this biblical citation speaks of three distinct persons:

(1) the Speaker of the statement (“I,” “my”);

(2) the one who is sent by the Speaker as His messenger and who will prepare the way of another Person to whom the Speaker addresses the statement;

(3) the One Whom the Speaker addresses the statement to and Whose face the Speaker will send His messenger before and Whose way the messenger will prepare before Him (the third Person spoken of in the passage who is the referent of both occurrences of the pronoun “thy” in this verse).

The Speaker is God the Father, the one whom He sends as His messenger is John the Baptist (cf. especially 1:4-6), and the third Person in the passage is Jesus (Mark 1:7ff.).

Because Mark 1:3 informs us that the messenger would proclaim that the One whose way he would prepare (Mark 1:2) is the Lord, interpreters rightly understand that the passage is affirming the deity of Jesus. Is this affirmation of His deity, however, the only essential teaching of the passage about the gospel of Jesus Christ?

What Mark 1:1 Signifies Based on Its Relation to Mark 1:2-3

Many interpreters hold that the phrase “the Son of God” at its essence signifies Jesus’ deity in this passage and support this understanding by noting how that phrase is used elsewhere and by how 1:3 speaks of Him as the Lord whose way the messenger would prepare. Arguing in this way, they affirm that the essential truth about the gospel that Mark is stressing here is that Jesus Christ is deity Himself.

All too often, as they handle the passage in this way, however, they lose sight of another essential truth that the passage plainly affirms about Jesus before it speaks of Him as the Lord—Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is a distinct Person from the Father who sent His messenger before Him to prepare His way and His paths! Yes, this passage affirms the full deity of Jesus Christ, but what it teaches about His deity is not the only essential truth that this passage provides us about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Discussion

When interpreters emphasize one truth that a passage teaches to such an extent that they obscure or minimize without biblical warrant other key truths that the passage also teaches, they engage in what I call “theological reductionism.” Such reductionism, when it is repeatedly done, easily leads to widespread neglect of key biblical teaching and the mishandling of key passages of Scripture.

Yes, Mark 1:1-3 affirms the deity of Jesus Christ as the Lord. No, the passage does not teach that Jesus Christ as the Son of the God means only that Jesus is God Himself.

Rather, through inspiring Mark 1:2-3 as the essential explanation of the meaning that He intends for us to understand about the gospel significance of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Holy Spirit teaches us to hold that “the Son of God” here denotes both His deity and His being a distinct person from God the Father. To emphasize the former at the expense of the latter is to engage in theological reductionism.

Moreover, the passage teaches us that the Father sent His messenger to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus to people as the Lord. The emphasis on the preparatory ministry of the messenger shows us that what would take place in Jesus’ life as the Lord was not a self-determined expression of and exercise of His own deity; Jesus came as the Lord whose paths His Father directed and determined.

Conclusion

Mark 1:1-3 teaches that a right understanding of the gospel significance of Jesus Christ as the Son of God includes both His deity and His distinction in person from God the Father. It also teaches us that another key truth about the gospel significance of Jesus Christ as the Son of God is that the Father prepared His way to come to people as the Lord.

We must take care not to reduce the vital theological teaching of this passage about the gospel in such a way that we communicate that the gospel at its essence is reducible to merely an affirmation of and an expression of the deity of Jesus Christ. To furnish people with a proper understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we must communicate to them not only the deity of Jesus but also both His distinction in person from God the Father and the Father’s essential working in the life of Jesus.

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

In Exposition, Gospel, Theology
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Un testimonio anónimo de la salvación

December 18, 2014

No estoy seguro de donde encontré este testimonio. Se ofrece un interesante relato de cómo alguien ha testificado de su salvación.

Mi Testimonio

Veinte y nueve años atrás el Señor me salvó en un motel en Las Vegas, Nevada. Se trata de 8:00 de la mañana. Yo estaba a punto de beber un poco de vino y de trabajo de algunos.

He trabajado en el motel una novedad para la empresa. Se paga bien. Mi esposa trabajó en un restaurante de una milla de distancia. Que estábamos haciendo bien financieramente.

Yo no estaba feliz de que por la mañana y muy desanimado. Sé ahora que Dios trabajó a cabo de esa manera.

Yo estaba sentado en la mesa en el cuarto de motel a punto de ir a trabajar. Encendí la radio en busca de algo de música, pero he encontrado a alguien hablar de Dios. Dijo que, si se quiere pedir al Señor que por favor perdone tus pecados, Él le salvar y darle una nueva vida y, a continuación, gracias a Él.

Bueno, yo pensé que sólo un minuto. Yo no la confianza, pero fui a la cama y se arrodillaron abajo, y dijo: Señor, si con reales como dice este hombre, por favor, perdona mis pecados y salvar mí y darme una nueva vida. Luego me dio las gracias a Él.

Yo no sabía lo que estaba guardado, pero inmediatamente perdió mi desánimo y me sentí pacífico y lleno de alegría. Le pregunté al Señor, si estoy realmente guardado, que me ayude a no pecar.

Por lo tanto, amigo, si usted se siente el Señor habla a usted, y le gustaría que se han salvado y una nueva vida, bajar por usted mismo y rezar. Pregunte al Señor para perdonar vuestros pecados y ahorrar. Si usted quiere decir negocios con Dios, Él le salvar.

~Inspirado por Dios.

¿Qué opinas de este testimonio?

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

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How to Be a Blessed Person

December 13, 2014

Psalm 32 reveals essential truth about how to be a blessed person. Anybody who heeds the teaching of this passage will experience true blessedness in his life.

On Being a Blessed Person

In the opening verses of Psalm 32, David makes four statements about being a blessed person, and none of them speaks about the things that the vast majority of people in the world think are important for a person to have in order for him to be a blessed person:

Psa 32:1 <A Psalm of David, Maschil.> Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

 2 Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

The first three statements show that a blessed person is someone whose sins God has properly dealt with so that God no longer holds him accountable for his sins. Addressing your sin problem, then, is essential for you to be a blessed person!

The fourth statement reveals that a blessed person is a person who has a truly special character—he has no guile in his spirit! Although initially we might think that this fourth statement is not closely connected to the other three, a closer look at the following verses shows us that it is.

No Guile in Assessing Our Own Sinfulness 

Immediately after saying that a blessed person has no guile in his spirit, David adds,

Psa 32:3 When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.

 4 For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.

 5 I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

These verse show that when David spoke earlier about not having guile in one’s spirit, he had in view that a person must honestly acknowledge his sins to God. He must not hide his sins; instead, he must confess them to the Lord in order to have them forgiven.

Discussion

To be a blessed person, you must not deceive yourself about any of your sins. You must not make any excuses for any sins that you have committed.

You must openly acknowledge them to God, who already knows all about all your sins. When you confess them to God, He will forgive you.

Only when all your sins have been dealt properly with by God will you be the blessed person that He wants you to be. God wants you to be a blessed person, and He has shown you how to be a blessed person through dealing properly with all your sins.

Conclusion

If you will without any deceit in your spirit repent of your sins, confess them, and forsake them, God will forgive you. Through repentance toward God and faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, you will be a blessed person!

If you are already a believer in Jesus, you still need to be a person in whose spirit there is no deceit toward God about your sins as a believer. He will forgive you when you confess them properly (1 John 1:9), and you will enjoy again being a blessed person, just as David did when he as a believer confessed his sins to God (Ps. 32:3-11).

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

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The Salvation Testimony of Homer Chinn

October 12, 2014

With permission from Mr. Homer Chinn, a faithful member of my church, I am posting this testimony with the hope that God will use it to bring many people to Himself. May the Lord also greatly encourage many of His own through this message of His great goodness to this man whom He has saved for His glory.

My name is Homer Chinn. I’m a machinist for a company called Honeywell Aerospace where we repair and overhaul turbine engines. About 23 years ago, God saw fit to begin a work in my family.

It all began one Saturday morning when I was working on an old lawnmower. I began to get hot and frustrated so my daughter Amanda, who was only 5, was playing in the yard nearby so I sent her in the house to get me a beer and she said, “No, daddy.”

I didn’t think she heard me so I told her again, “I said Amanda go in the house and get your daddy a beer.” And she just bowed up on me and she said, “No, daddy.”

I knew then that she heard me and I got mad so I said, “Amanda, do you want a spanking”? She said, “No, sir.” Well, I said, “Go in the house, and get your daddy a beer!”

She said, “Daddy, I can’t.” I said, “Well, why not?” She said, “Because they are bad for you.”

I said, “Where did you learn that at?” She said, “At church.” When she said that, God spoke to me through that, and the weight of that just convicted me severely of my sin. I’d never felt that shame like that before.

So needless to say, I didn’t say anything else to her the rest of the day but that bothered me the rest of the day and for a couple of weeks after that. And it had gotten to where I wanted to go to church with my family but I knew if I went to church, God would require me to give up my sin, and I just didn’t want to.

But about 2 weeks later, I was sitting at the kitchen table on a Sunday morning. I started drinking again already then, and I heard my family come in from church. I heard the car door slam, and I heard one of the children skipping up the steps and come through the back door.

It was my daughter Amanda again. She crawled right up in my lap, looked me dead in the eyes. She said, “Daddy said, ‘Jesus died for me and you,’ didn’t He?”

And when she said that, the shame laid heavy on me and I never felt so ashamed in all my life. I was reared in church but had gotten out of it and when I got to be a teenager.

So I knew the truth that Christ had died for our sin but it was God speaking to me clearly through my daughter that day that really got my attention and made it hit home that He had died for me. The shame of her—a 5-year old, 40-pound little girl— telling me the truth, and here I was a grown man supposed to be teaching her weighed heavily on me.

So for another two weeks I resisted and fought it, but one Sunday morning I got up when they got up to get ready to go to church. I got up and went with them.

I thought that I had to go to church to get saved but by the grace of God that Sunday morning I went with them. I was tired of carrying that weight of sin. God had dealt with me and it grew heavy.

So I went to a little country church there in Traveler’s Rest that Sunday morning, and I don’t remember the Sunday school class. I don’t remember the sermon, but they sang the perfect hymnal invitation song for me, and that was “Just As I Am,” and I listened to that song real close, and I knew I had nothing to bring to the Lord but sin.

I had heard before some people thought you had to get cleaned up before God saved you but that’s not right. You just submit yourself, humble yourself before God, and He’ll do the saving.

So that day I walked forward on the last verse of the hymn and gave my life to Christ. Pastor knelt there at the altar and led me to Christ, and immediately my life began to change.

We were in a ministry like that for a couple of years and a couple of years into that ministry God began to show me some looseness and sin in that church that even I knew wasn’t right. I had no family here, I had nowhere to go for counsel, but I would lock myself in the bathroom and commit that to prayer.

And God in His mercy a year or two after I committed that to prayer one day led us to Mount Calvary. It was in the providence of God He allowed me to work with a godly young man named Lenny Bundy who has become a dear friend of mine. It was through his testimony and his walk with the Lord that I came to visit the church here.

My children and I just really plugged into the ministry here and began to grow. But as we began to grow, the trials and opposition came from some dear loved ones too. But I thank God through those trials He crowded us closer to Him. He taught us to take sin and living for Him much more serious than we ever knew how to before.

I saw God do some tremendous work in my girls’ lives which was I’ll forever be thankful. It was here God began to teach me how to pray, a little bit about prayer, the privilege of prayer, the power there is in prayer.

So I began to pray for my children and through prayer God opened many doors for them. He gave them access to people and things that could teach them things I couldn’t. It was through prayer God provided them some godly husbands and gave me some godly son-in-laws Tyler and Wesley for which I’ll always be thankful. And, now I’m going to get the privilege of being a grandfather!

So if you are here today, dear friend, and you don’t know the Lord Jesus as your Savior. Yes, you may know His name, you may know some facts about Him, but until you know Him as your personal Savior from sin, you’ll never get to go to heaven.

It was here I learned what God had called me to do. So I ask you the same question today, “What has God called you to do? Why are you here today? Do you know your purpose?”

Listen closely to the messages today. If God speaks to your heart, be willing to surrender and yield to that—don’t resist. And obey whatever He lead you to do so God can save you so you can come to know the peace which passeth all understanding so you can come to know what your will is in your life and live your life for the Lord.

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

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What Genuine Salvation Is According to Scripture!

July 4, 2014

Scripture teaches that every human being (other than Jesus of Nazareth) has sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). Because of our sin, we have all earned death as our wages (Rom. 6:23).

When we repent toward God, confess Jesus as Lord with our mouths, and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead, we are saved (Acts 20:21; Rom. 10:9). Calling on the name of the Lord, we receive forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life because we honor Jesus as we honor the Father who has given all judgment to Him by appointing Him as the Judge of the living and the dead (John 5:22-24; Acts 10:42-43; Rom. 6:23; 10:13).

According to Scripture, however, genuine salvation is much more than just having one’s sins forgiven and going to heaven when we die. When a person is genuinely saved, he is delivered from the power of Satan and darkness and translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son (Acts 26:18; Col. 1:12-13) so that he would walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4)!

Praise God for so great a salvation!Salvation - The Kingdom of God

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

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The Evangelistic Importance of Testimony about Jesus’ Exorcisms

June 14, 2014

In many ways, the NT highlights the evangelistic importance of testimony about Jesus’ exorcisms. This evidence calls for adjusting our evangelistic strategies so that they properly account for this importance.

The Synoptic Gospels Provide Much Testimony about Jesus’ Exorcisms

The Synoptic Gospels underscore the evangelistic importance of Jesus’ exorcisms by providing multiple accounts of his casting demons out of people. The following list provides in chronological order[1] the passages that record Jesus’ performing exorcisms (parallel passages among the Gospels are indicated by the use of “/” between references):

1. Mk. 1:21-28/ Luke 4:31b-37;

2. Matt. 8:16/ Mk 1:34;

3. Matt. 4:24/ Mk 1:39/ Luke 4:41;

4. Matt. 12:22-37/ Mk. 3:20-30;

5. Matt. 8:28-34/ Mk. 5:1-20/ Luke 8:26-39;

6. Matt. 9:27-34

7. Matt. 15:21-28/ Mk. 7:24-30;

8. Matt. 17:14-21/ Mk. 9:14-29/ Luke 9:37-43a.

9. Luke 11:14-36

The Synoptic Gospels also underscore the evangelistic importance of Jesus’ exorcisms by providing information about other exorcisms that Jesus performed for which the writers of the Synoptic Gospels chose not to give an actual account of His doing so (seven demons cast out from Mary Magdalene [Mk. 16:9]).

This data makes clear that the Holy Spirit viewed including testimony about Jesus’ exorcisms as vital in the writing of these Gospels. Because the Gospels were written to evangelize people, the inclusion of these accounts shows us the importance of evangelistic testimony to Jesus’ exorcisms.

The Synoptic Gospels Record Jesus’ Commands to Testify about His Exorcisms

The Synoptic Gospels further emphasize the evangelistic importance of testimony to Jesus’ exorcisms by recording on at least two occasions that Jesus commanded people to give testimony about His exorcisms:

 Luk 8:38 Now the man out of whom the devils were departed besought him that he might be with him: but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 Return to thine own house, and shew how great things God hath done unto thee. And he went his way, and published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had done unto him.

Luk 13:32 And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. 

Because the Synoptic Gospels not only provide testimony about Jesus’ exorcisms but also make known that He commanded some people to testify about them, we learn that such testimony has great evangelistic importance.

Acts Records Apostolic Gospel Testimony about Jesus’ Exorcisms

Like the Synoptic Gospels, Acts also shows the evangelistic importance of testimony about Jesus’ exorcisms, but it does so in different ways than the Gospels do. Acts emphasizes such testimony by recording a seminal statement in Peter’s gospel message in Caesarea:

Act 10:38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

Luke highlighted testimony to Jesus’ exorcisms in a profound way with this statement because that testimony is the only explicitly recorded information that we have about how Peter testified on this occasion to the miraculous works of Jesus.

Through directing Luke to record this gospel testimony for us, the Holy Spirit also has provided us with a superb model of how we should evangelize people concerning their understanding of the term Christ (for more information about this point, see the brief discussion of Acts 10:38 here).

Acts Highlights the Evangelistic Importance of Testimony to Jesus’ Exorcisms through a Striking Account of Jewish Failure in Exorcism

Acts further emphasizes the evangelistic importance of testimony to Jesus’ exorcisms through a striking account that contrasts apostolic success in exorcising people possessed by demons versus Jewish failure to do so (Acts 19:11-17). While Paul was in Ephesus, God worked special miracles through him, including even the casting out of demons from people through their coming into contact with handkerchiefs or aprons from his body (Acts 19:11-12).

Some Jewish exorcists then attempted to perform an exorcism by invoking the name of Jesus whom Paul preached (Acts 19:13-14). Not only did these men fail to drive out the demon, but also the man who had the demon overpowered them and drove them out “naked and wounded” from the house where they were (Acts 19:15-16).

Through the spreading of news about their striking failure, the name of the Lord Jesus was greatly magnified among all who were in Ephesus (Acts 19:17). Hence, through testimony that dramatically contrasted the successful apostolic exorcisms with the unsuccessful attempt of these Jewish exorcists, many lost people received a powerful evangelistic witness of the power of Jesus’ name.

As the readers of Acts, we thus see that Acts accords with the Synoptic Gospels in emphasizing the evangelistic importance of testimony about Jesus’ exorcisms.

Discussion

Both the Synoptic Gospels and Acts instruct us in various ways about the evangelistic importance of testifying to Jesus’ exorcisms. This evidence is more than sufficient to teach us that we should include such testimony in our evangelism whenever possible.

Some may object to this conclusion by pointing out that explicit testimony to Jesus’ exorcisms is strikingly lacking in the Gospel of John, which has an explicit statement about its evangelistic purpose (John 20:31). Does this seemingly major difference between the Synoptics and the Gospel of John mean that testimony to Jesus’ exorcisms is not an important aspect of proper evangelism?

For several reasons, attaching such determinative significance to this lack of testimony in the Gospel of John is invalid. First, as noted above, the Synoptic Gospels and Acts provide abundant evidence that such testimony is important.

Second, because the Gospel of John was almost certainly written after all the other Gospels and Acts were written, any reader of the Fourth Gospel would need to interpret it in conjunction with all that God had revealed prior to giving this final Gospel.

Third, at the point that John was written, the apostles and other believers had already been evangelizing people for several decades and thus already knew well what was important to include in evangelistic testimony. For that reason, the lack of explicit testimony to Jesus’ exorcisms in John would not have played any important role in changing the thinking of believers about what they should say when they evangelize people.

Finally, although John lacks any explicit accounts of Jesus’ exorcisms, John has implicit teaching that fully accords with that vital aspect of Jesus’ ministry. John writes that Jesus interpreted a voice that thundered from heaven (John 12:28-29) by giving vital testimony concerning what His upcoming death would mean for the devil:

 Joh 12:30 Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes.

 31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out (Gk. ekballw).

 32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

 33 This he said, signifying what death he should die. 

Jesus’ statement that the devil would be cast out (John 12:31) ties at least implicitly to many passages in the Synoptic Gospels about His casting out demons from people because the same verb ekballw is used both in John and in those passages in the Synoptic Gospels.[2] This strong link between John and the Synoptic Gospels further supports the conclusion that lack of explicit testimony in John to Jesus’ exorcisms does not negate the vast evidence in the Synoptic Gospels and Acts about the importance of such testimony.

Conclusion

Profuse testimony in the Synoptic Gospels about Jesus’ exorcisms makes clear that such testimony is of great importance in proper evangelism. Additional evidence in Acts further supports this conclusion.

We should include testimony about Jesus’ exorcisms in our witnessing whenever it is possible to do so. We can provide such testimony by sharing Acts 10:38 with everyone we witness to and explaining that statement to them thoroughly.

 

[1] This chronological listing is based in part on information provided in “An Outline For a Harmony of the Gospels” (Thomas and Gundry, A Harmony of the Gospels, 7-14).

[2] Matt. 8:16, 31; 9:33, 34; 12:24, 26, 27, 28; 17:19; Mk. 1:34, 39; 3:22, 23; 7:26; 16:9; Lk. 11:14, 15, 18, 19, 20; 13:32

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

In Evangelism, Exposition, Gospel, Interpretation
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Do You Appreciate Peter Properly as the Blessed Disciple That He Was?

April 21, 2014

Overall, my perspective over the years has been that many believers consistently emphasize negative aspects of Peter’s life at the expense of a number of key good things that Scripture reveals about him. To help change this unwarranted emphasis, this post presents four points about Peter that show that he was a uniquely blessed disciple of Jesus Christ.

God the Father Uniquely Favored Peter

In Caesarea, Peter made his famous confession of Jesus as the Christ (Matt 16:13-20). Jesus responded by declaring that the Father had uniquely favored him to enable him to do so:

Mat 16:16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

 17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

In spite of all Peter’s failings, the Father chose to bless Peter in a special way with glorious revelation about His Son!

Jesus Uniquely Favored Peter

Not only did the Father specially favor Peter on that occasion, but Jesus did so as well. Jesus promised that He would build His church upon the rock of Peter’s confession of Him as the Christ (Matt. 16:18). In addition, He gave to Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 16:19)!

Certainly, Jesus knew Peter through and through, including how he would shortly thereafter be an offense to Jesus Himself (Matt. 16:22-23). In fact, even Jesus’ full knowledge of how Peter would yet fail Him grievously in the future (Matt. 26:34, 75; Luke 22:31) did not lead Him to withdraw the special calling that He had given to Peter.

The Holy Spirit Uniquely Highlights His Selection of Peter

While Peter was thinking about a miraculous vision that he had seen (Acts 10:17-19a), the Holy Spirit spoke directly to him:

Act 10:19 While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee.

 20 Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I [Gk. egw, emphatic personal pronoun] have sent them.

Remarkably, the Spirit emphatically asserted (using an emphatic personal pronoun) that He had sent the men who came to summon Peter to come speak words to Cornelius and his household by which they all would be saved (Acts 11:14).

This is the only evangelistic account in Scripture that the Spirit directly declares that He purposed that a specific disciple would be the one who would preach the gospel on a specific occasion.

The Book of Acts Uniquely Emphasizes the Gospel Ministry of Peter

The book of Acts recounts how the Church was born (Acts 1-2) and how the disciples proceeded to evangelize the world thereafter (Acts 3-28). Of the lengthy accounts of apostolic gospel ministry that the Spirit provides us with in Acts, the records of Peter’s ministry in Jerusalem (Acts 2) and in Caesarea (Acts 10:1-48; 11:1-18; 15:7-9) are the two that are highlighted both by their being the two longest accounts and by their being the two most important accounts.

Furthermore, the inspired record of the Jerusalem Council proceedings uniquely emphasizes the gospel ministry of Peter in a way that sets his ministry in Caesarea apart from all other evangelistic accounts. To understand this unique emphasis, we must closely consider the following facets of what transpired in Jerusalem at that time.

First, Paul and Barnabas went up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders to resolve an all-important question—did the Gentiles have to be circumcised in order to be saved (Acts 15:1-2)? Although Paul and Barnabas did contribute heavily to the proceedings of the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:4, 12), Scripture provides only a one-verse summary of their ministry to Gentiles (Acts 15:12) in reporting what they contributed to the actual proceedings of the Council.

By striking contrast, the Jerusalem Council report highlights Peter’s ministry in Caesarea by providing five verses concerning his ministry and its implications (Acts 15:7-11). Remarkably, Peter’s ministry on that occasion is the only specific evangelistic encounter mentioned in the entire record of the Jerusalem Council proceedings.

This comparison shows that the inspired record of the Jerusalem Council features an explicit emphasis on Petrine gospel ministry while only providing a summary statement about Pauline ministry to Gentiles!

Second, James authoritatively settled the issues at hand by again referring to God’s use of Peter in Caesarea and how what took place on that occasion was in fulfillment of the words of the prophets (Acts 15:13-21). In this way, we see that the Jerusalem Council account clearly presents a unique emphasis on Petrine gospel ministry.

Conclusion

The four points discussed above show that Peter was a disciple who was uniquely favored by the Father, Son, and the Spirit! Moreover, the inspired records in the book of Acts (of apostolic evangelism and of apostolic determinations concerning how Gentiles are saved) show that Peter was a uniquely important God-chosen minister of the gospel.

Based on the biblical data, we should take care not to emphasize negative aspects of the Scriptural record about the apostle Peter at the expense of much glorious revelation concerning how he was a uniquely blessed disciple of Christ. Let us appreciate Peter properly as the blessed disciple that he was!

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

In Evangelism, Exhortation, Gospel, Interpretation, Theology
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