Part Two SOME INSPIRING
EXAMPLES
Christ Jesus LUKE 19:10. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save
that which was lost.Jesus Christ is distinctly the world's chief soul-winner
and evangelist. He came "to seek and save that which was
lost" (Luke 19:10). His example will be the standard for all
time for all who seek to bring men to God: "Follow me, and
I will make you fishers of men" (Matt. 4:19). Our guarantee
of success is found in our appropriation of his methods. To
all evangelists he says, "Follow me."
A brief study of this peerless evangelist will be profitable.1. Prophecy set Him out as one who would win souls (Isa.
59:20; 62:11; Zech. 9:9; 13:1; Matt. 1:21).
2. An early group witnessed to his messiahship: (1) Mary
and Elizabeth, (2) the angels and shepherds, (3) Anna
and Simeon, and (4) the Wise Men of the East.
3. The forerunner introduced Him as the evangelist of
the new day.
4. All hell put forth its utmost to prevent His successful
entrance on his campaign.
5. His first public act--baptism at John's hand--an-
nounced Him as one approving this new ordinance, the
evangelist's sign of a soul-winning victory.
6. He began his role of evangelist by starting out Andrew
as a soul-winner, and by himself winning Philip and sending
him out to win Nathanael.
7. Then for three years in public sermon, quiet teaching,
and in personal, face-to-face dealing with men about their[43]
44 WITH CHRIST AFTER THE LOST
souls, Jesus set all the world an example in evangelism.
Philip, Nicodemus, Zaccheus, Bartimeus, the Samaritan
woman, Pharisees, scribes, priests, soldiers, publicans, men
and women, children and young people, testified to His
power to win and save. He sought and saved the lost
everywhere, day and night. He sought out men and
women of all classes and conditions until a world's sin
crucified him.HIS IDEAL MARKS OF EVANGELISM Jesus' evangelism was characterized by--
1. A holy, sinless life.
2. Knowledge of God and complete surrender to his will.
3. A realization of man's condition, need, helplessness,
and impending doom.
4. Limitless compassion for a ruined race, as shown by
(1) his words of love and mercy, (2) his life of unselfish
service, (3) his tireless and unremitting ministry, (4) his
broken heart over the sinning, and (5) his sacrificial death.
5. Intercessory and importunate prayer.
6. An artful, tactful method in reaching men.
7. Enduement without measure by the Spirit of God.HIS PREACHING Some of the winning characteristics of Jesus' preaching
were:
1. Simplicity.--He utilized everyday illustrations, spoke
in simple but pungent word.
2. Positiveness and divine authority.
3. Heart-searching, conviction-bringing power.
4. Abundance of fundamental doctrine and principle.
5. Supreme tenderness and love, often mingled with
scathing, blistering denunciation for the hypocrite.
6. Direct and personal reach.
7. Unfailing appeal to the highest in man.
THE MATCHLESS WINNER 45
HIS PERSONAL WORK 1. Jesus used both direct and indirect methods of reach-
ing men with the truth.
2. He was always tender with those who recognized them-
selves as being sinners. His scathing denunciations were
turned loose on the hypocrites.
3. Instead of directly accusing the unsaved, he usually led
them to a confession of their sins, as in the case of the
Samaritan woman in John 4.
4. He always refused to be sidetracked from the main
matters of the soul by discussion of difficult theological
matters, as seen when he dealt with Nicodemus in John 3
and with the Samaritan woman in John 4.
5. His method of illustration and impartation of truth was
from the natural to the spiritual, from the simple to the
complex. This is shown in his dealings with Nicodemus, the
cultured moralist, and with the Samaritan woman, the fallen
outcast.
6. Both to the wise, cultured, and scholarly, and to the
ignorant and desperately wicked, he taught the profoundest
and most complex doctrine and principle, as shown in the
case of Nicodemus, to whom he first taught the doctrine of
the new birth, and of the Samaritan woman, to whom he re-
vealed the necessity of a spiritual conception of his kingdom.
7. He was never vague or indefinite about the nature,
guilt, and direful consequences of sin, and the necessity of a
divine regeneration, a deep work of grace, in the heart.
There was no veneer or whitewash in his teachings on man's
moral condition before God. He had one gospel for all--
repentance and faith, the sure and only way to eternal life.
8. He put baptism and church membership in their
proper places, as the simple duty of every disciple, im-
mediately following regeneration and public profession
(Matt. 28:18-20).
9. He put teaching and instruction in spiritual and king-
dom matters in an important place in all evangelism, as a
46 WITH CHRIST AFTER THE LOST
necessity for growth in grace, for development of character,
and for usefulness in his service.
10. The methods he would have us use were strongly
demonstrated in his earthly ministry. To large and small
audiences he preached sweeping sermons, bring men
into his kingdom. In private and personal approach he
faced men and women one by one with the holy truths of life
and death. Blind Bartimeus by the roadside, curious Zac-
cheus up a tree, scholarly Nicodemus in the quietness of
night in an upper room, the scarlet woman by the well curb
--these and many others can testify to Christ's marvelous
tact as a personal soul-winner. He was a "highway and
hedges" preacher; he was a quiet seeker after souls.
11. He was a tremendously sincere and compassionate
evangelist. His tears and sorrowing for the lost have come
down to us, not his jokes and wit and humor. He rightly
valued souls in all their eternal relations and went straight
after them with Gethsemanes of agony and Calvaries of
blood. His soul ached to the dying for lost men. He spared
not himself; he emptied himself and brought men to God
by his own blood on the cross. His tears on Olivet and in
the garden are the insignia of his broken heart for a ruined
world. The ministry needs to follow His example. "They
that sow in tears shall reap in joy."
John the Baptist JOHN 5:35.
The writers of the Gospels picture John the Baptist as a
country preacher of strange birth, a mountain man raised
in the Judean hills, fed on locusts and wild honey.
John was a preacher, evangelist, and prophet. In de-
nunciation of hypocrisy his voice was the thunder of God's
dynamics, yet it was soft and tender when in love he called
the sorrowing sinner to faith in the coming Christ. He was
God-sent and Spirit-filled. His pulpit was the mountains of
Judea; his auditorium was the valleys and vaulted sky; his
audiences were the crowds of all sorts--publicans, sinners,
Pharisees, scribes, Sadducees, soldiers, and people from
city, plain, and mountains. Kings and governors came to
listen and went away to fear. He was great in tenderness;
lionlike in boldness; simple, pungent, convincing in speech;
powerful like a storm from Lebanon's snowy summits. He
was no sissy, no compromiser, no apologist. He was God's
big preacher and prophet of a new day and of a coming
kingdom of heaven.
His was a strange and new message--sin, repentance,
faith, confession; God's Messiah-Lamb ready for the sacri-
fice; and baptism as a demonstration of one's purpose to live
a new life, carrying a new doctrine of redemption by death,
arched with resurrection hope and Holy Ghost power. He
brought in a new day for dying men. That day has grown
brighter ever since.[47]
48 WITH CHRIST AFTER THE LOST
His ministry was a short one--six or twenty-four months--
but, oh, how meaningful to the world's destiny! He over-
turned the traditions of centuries. He brought multitudes
to the Light of life and introduced the Light of the ages to
men everywhere. One of the saddest tragedies in all spir-
itual history was his death at the hands of a drunken king to
gratify the desires of an enraged, adulterous woman.HIS HEAVENLY COMMISSION He was a Spirit-filled soul-winner, sent by God--
1. To make ready a people to receive the Redeemer.
2. To turn the hearts of the fathers to
the children and of the children to the fathers.
3. To introduce the world's Saviour.HIS EVANGELISTIC CHARACTERISTICS As an evangelist, he was characterized by--
1. Simplicity in dress, manner, life, method, thought,
and words.
2. Honesty in life and truth to self, men, and God.
3. Humility.--He was willing to decrease that Christ
might increase. He was in humility unworthy to unlatch
Christ's shoes, but powerful enough in personality and min-
istry to empty the cities when he preached in the wilderness
of Judea.
4. Spiritual courage.--He feared only God's disapproval.
He told kings of their sins and faced soldiers and high
ecclesiastics with their wrongdoings.
5. Burning and shining messages.--His sermons were hot
with holy fires.HIS DOCTRINES His preaching was filled with the vital doctrines afterward
so wonderfully brought out in the Gospels:
1. Sin--deep-dyed, hell-deserving sin.
2. Repentance--genuine, soul-moving, heart-cleansing,
THE APOSTLE OF THE HOLY FIRES 49
life-purifying repentance, carrying with it fruit in life and
conduct.
3. Faith in Christ as the only hope--trustful, reliant, con-
fident faith.
4. The deity of Jesus.--To John he was God.
5. Baptism in water as a public proclamation of repent-
ance from sin and the initial step in a new life of service
for God.
6. The atonement.--He called Christ God's Lamb.
7. A holy infilling and enduement of the Spirit for world-
conquering service.HIS GREATNESS These elements made him a great evangelist:
1. God's call and the Spirit's leadership.
2. A life of separation from sin and of supplication to,
and communion with, God.
3. An unselfish humility and a fearless courage.
4. A mighty spiritual grip upon the vital truth of God.
5. A faithful proclamation of the gospel.
6. An unchanging, soulful yearning for lost men, which
made him face any peril and endure any sacrifice in order
to win them to God.
7. A life filled with, and used by, the Spirit of God.--He
had yielded to God's leadership in earliest childhood, and
he stayed in the Father's mastery until his head was carried
to the sinning queen on a platter.John taught that life, in its eternal bearings and meanings,
does not consist in meat, drink, clothes, place, earthly honor,
or space of years. It consists in doing God's will in God's
place and through God's power. A life wholly given to God
in soul-winning in the hills of Judea in a remote age has cast
a golden glory and given a radiant hope to all subsequent
history, Jesus said that John, the simple, country Bap-
tist preacher, was the greatest born of women. By God's
50 WITH CHRIST AFTER THE LOST
assize, a country preacher leads humanity's greatness. He
introduced the Saviour to a ruined world and pointed men
to Him. The first man among men, thank God, is the soul-
winner. Introduce the same Saviour, point sinners to him,
preach the same gospel in the power of the divine Spirit,
and you will walk the way of divine favor and glory.
Simon Peter ACTS 2:38.
Simon Peter is world-famed as an evangelist. His fame
was made eternal and secure by one sermon and one day's
evangelism. He was the head spokesman for the most
wonderful group of men who ever lived--the apostles of
Jesus Christ.
Elements of character were mixed strangely in Peter. He
was simple and yet complex in his make-up. No one ever
knew when he would break out in a new place. He cowered
before a Jewish lass in his denial of Christ, and yet faced
without a tremor an angry mob of ecclesiastics when his
soul was set in the power of the Holy Spirit. He faced an
infuriated gang of crucifiers with his single sword at one
moment, and a little later played the coward when facing
his duty to the deserted Saviour. He was a commoner in
Christian discipleship. His thinking and life were close to
the common needs of men.
He was an uncouth, untrained, untutored fisherman of the
waters of Galilee until his brother Andrew showed him
the Christ. He trusted and committed himself to Jesus on
the spot the first time he saw him. He was called, and he
yielded as one of the very first apostles. He was with Christ
as a privileged disciple unto the end. He was a witness to
his miracles and an auditor of his sermons, teachings, and
parables. He was present at Lazarus' resurrection, the[51]
52 WITH CHRIST AFTER THE LOST
transfiguration, the Gethsemane tragedy, and the crucifixion,
and was one of the first witnesses of the resurrection. He
was present at nearly all of Christ's postresurrection ap-
pearances. He witnessed Christ's ascension and heard the
last commission, and got the last word of the angels in
white after the Saviour had gone. He was at the election
of Judas' successor as an apostle and at the ordination of
the seven deacons. He led Cornelius to Christ and brought
in a Gentile dispensation. He was the friend and helper
of the great apostle to the Gentiles.
But Peter's greatest distinction is that he was the evange-
list of Pentecost. God chose him as the central human figure
in the most momentous day in Christ's churches after Christ's
own resurrection. He preached the first sermon in the
world under the vicegerency of the divine Spirit. John the
Baptist introduced Jesus, and Peter introduced the Holy
Spirit, to a lost world.HIS LIFE'S CRISES 1. His conversion and call--the evangelist saved and sent
(John 1:35-42; Matt. 4:18-22; Mark 3:13-16).
2. His vision of Christ's messiahship--the evangelist in-
structed and humbled (Matt. 16:13-23; John 6:66-69).
3. His unsuccessful effort to walk on the sea--the evange-
list tested (Matt. 14:28-31).
4. Christ's transfiguration--the evangelist seeing the Re-
deemer's glory (Matt. 17:1-13; Mark 9:2-13; Luke 9:28-36;
2 Peter 1:16-18).
5. His fall and backsliding--the evangelist realizing his
weakness (Matt. 26:58-75; Mark 14:54-72; Luke 22:54-62;
John 18:15-27).
6. His restoration to Christ's favor--the evangelist appro-
priating his only hope of usefulness (Luke 24:34; John 21:
1-23).
7. Pentecost--the evangelist endued for service (Acts 2:
14-41).
THE PENTECOSTAL PREACHER 53
8. His persecutions--the evangelist strengthened for fur-
ther battles (Acts 4:1-22; 5:17-20; 12:1-9).
9. His experience at Joppa and with Cornelius--the
evangelist getting a vision of the world's need and Christ's
commission (Acts 10:1-48).
10. Crossing swords with Paul--the evangelist indoctri-
nated (Gal. 2:11-21).
11. His death--the evangelist sent home (John 21:18-19).HIS WINNING POWER His power was enhanced by his simple straightforward-
ness of character and of matter. He was unconventional.
He had no dignity to bother him. He was hampered by no
sacred traditions. He struck straight. Peter went after
lost men as he sought the finny tribe in stormy Galilee--
cast his net in where the fish were and pulled them into
his boat.
He preached plain, unvarnished truth right out, without
apology or compromise. He saw men as sinners, realized
that their need was Christ, and knew that the gospel re-
vealed Christ to them. His sermon on the day of Pentecost
was packed with doctrine. Study that sermon (Acts 2:14-40),
and you will find that he preached the deity of Christ, the
rejection of Jesus Christ as the darkest sin, the resurrection,
Hell, the enduement of the Holy Ghost, the final victory of
Christ's gospel over sin, Christ's second advent, repentance,
faith, baptism. He did not mince manners. He dodged
nothing. Such preaching accompanies all evangelistic vic-
tories.
He faced all dangers for Christ and, filled with the Holy
Spirit, feared no man or group of men and was willing to die
for the truth. Difficulties did not bother Peter. He went
through them all to do his duty. He did not have influence
enough to keep out of jail, but he had power enough to
break out. He did not take his orders from man, but from
54 WITH CHRIST AFTER THE LOST
God alone. A Petrine boldness is needed in evangelism
today.
Peter was a master at organization for evangelism. He
must have put every member of the Jerusalem church to
doing personal work on the day of Pentecost and afterward.
Pentecost was a victory of personal evangelism. It took or-
ganization to carry through the divine program on that day.
Peter did his work in the power of the Holy Spirit. His
gospel was irresistible because spoken in heaven's power,
Here lies the worth of Peter's example to the world: God
was with him. His whole being was yielded to heaven's will
and way.
Paul ACTS 20:24, 26-27.
ACTS 22:12-15.
ROMANS 1:14-16.
ROMANS 9:1-3.
1 CORINTHIANS 9:22.The apostle Paul is, by universal consent, the finest
product of the gospel and the greatest man yet made by the[55]
56 WITH CHRIST AFTER THE LOST
creative and re-creative power of God. He tops all others
in character and as a spiritual philosopher, Christian states-
man, mission leader, church-builder, religious writer, theo-
logian, preacher of the gospel, religious teacher, and
soul-winning evangelist. He was Christ's master soul-win-
ner. His influence in the world today, after twenty centuries,
is next to Christ's. He is God's most powerful human advo-
cate and exponent. He is Christ's noblest witness. He
ranks first in the world's long list of evangelists. He said
he was the chief of sinners, but the world says he is the
chief of saints.FACTORS IN HIS CONVERSION 1. First among the hidden forces which operated in his,
and every other man's, salvation was God's predestinating
love. He said, "But when it pleased God, who separated
me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace,
To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the
heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood"
(Gal. 1:15-16). The effective grace of God's election
operated in him and thus fulfilled God's eternal purpose
(Rom. 8:28-29).
2. God's Spirit worked in his soul with convicting power
and voiced God's call for his soul and service (Rom. 8:30;
John 16:8-11).
3. Apostolic preaching and testimony contributed to his
salvation, and Stephen's sermon and dying testimony broke
his heart (Acts 7:58-60). He was welcomed into the hospi-
table home of one Judas. Ananias, devout Christian, came
to remove the scales from the eyes of the blind, convicted
sinner.
4. His own supplication in the hour of sorrow for sin
was a factor in his conversion. "And the Lord said unto
him [Ananias], Arise, and go into the street which is called
Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called
Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth" (Acts 9:11).
THE TOPMOST EVANGELIST 57
5. Also, there was the personal impact of the risen and
ascended Christ. Paul's redemption was a victory for and
by the personal, present Christ. He appeared to the arch-
persecutor and overwhelmed him with his glorious, redeem-
ing love. Paul got a vision of the Crucified, and with a
complete inward yielding of all, he said, "Lord, what wilt
thou have me to do?" The gospel embodied in the Re-
deemer won, re-created, mastered, and took complete con-
trol of, the greatest personality yet found among men, filled
him with the Holy Spirit (Acts 9:17), and sent him forth to
bear witness to all men.HIS SOUL-WINNING SUCCESS Some of the elements of his success were:
1. A fourfold vision.
(1) He saw himself a lost, ruined sinner, dead in tres-
passes and sin, without God, without Christ, and with-
out hope.
(2) He saw Christ and his gospel as God's dynamic
power to save to the uttermost (Rom. 1:16).
(3) He realized the lordship and mastery of the con-
quering Christ, whose every order must be obeyed and
every purpose fulfilled.
(4) He saw the world ruined by sin and heard its in-
most and deepest soul-cry for spiritual help. He yielded
his life to such a service. He said, "I was not disobedient
unto the heavenly vision" (Acts 26:19).
2. A holy courage.--He feared only God's disfavor. His
courage ran in the following lines:
(1) A courage to die to self and the world.
(2) A courage to live for Christ only.
(3) A courage to suffer for Christ's sake.
(4) A courage to face any danger or to undertake any
task for Christ.
(5) A courage to persevere in perilous ways and against
overwhelming difficulties.
58 WITH CHRIST AFTER THE LOST
(6) A courage to preach plain truth and to stand for
Christ's doctrine against all the world.
3. A victorious, reliant, restful faith, which made him
sing while bleeding in chains behind prison bars.
4. A holy optimism, based on God's predestination and
Christ's unfailing promises.
5. A consuming love for Jesus Christ and a deathless com-
passion for lost men (2 Cor. 5:14; Rom. 9:1-3).
6. A mighty, relentless grip on the vitals of the truth.--
The inspiration and authority of God's Word; sin, deep and
ingrained in the souls of all men; the deity of Christ; the
saving efficacy of Christ's blood; the reality of Heaven and
Hell; the resurrection; the eternal keeping power of Christ;
His second advent--all these and other vital truths were a
part of his soul. They were the substance of his faith, and
they filled his preaching.
7. A versatility and adaptability of method.--He never got
in ruts. He was all things to all men that by all means he
might win some. He believed in winning men by public
preaching, by private teaching, and by personal appeal, at
all times and everywhere.
8. A holy and consecrated life.--He was a pure man. In
Romans 12, 2 Corinthians 6, Galatians 5, and Ephesians
4:11 to 5:11, he laid out the pattern of character and con-
duct of a Christian which he himself followed.
Paul was a man full of the Holy Spirit, who built all his
ministry around the crucified, risen Christ. His preaching,
his teaching, and his life were in the power of the Spirit.