Study 8 ("Overcoming the barriers")
We looked at the passages for the study (Is 61:1-3 and Luke 15). The Isaiah passage is one of the "servant songs" in the book, passages which point to Jesus as the suffering Messiah. Jesus appropriates this passage for His own in Luke 4:18. Luke 15 tells the story of salvation in 3 different ways through 3 parables: the lostness of a sentient sheep, the lostness of a non-sentient coin, and the lostness of a beloved son. Daniel observed that the sheep was 1 of a 100, the coin was 1 of 10, and the son was 1 of 2 that were lost. All the lost objects originally belonged to the finder, and when all are found there is great rejoicing. Taken together, the 3 parables lay out the scope of salvation for every believer (i.e it is not that some of us are sheep, and others, coins, and so on, but that God works in various ways in everyone who comes to faith. As in Isaiah, the seeker/finder is portrayed as divine.
The passages therefore cannot be taken to explicitly tell us to do what God does - some of God's work is to be done by God alone, and not His children. But we know that we can see that God is not remotely planning the salvation of man in some sovereignly disengaged way - He is most active in seeking the lost, desiring their return and waiting for their repentance. Our attitude must mirror His.
The Great Commission in Mt 28 and Ac 1 explicitly tells us to 'go', yet in Acts 2 there is a certain attractiveness about the early church that causes people to come to faith. We must therefore also ask ourselves not only how active our evangelistic efforts are, but how winsome and desirable our personal and corporate testimony is. We spent time looking at the personal/church barriers and community barriers that make us ineffective in our witness and non-Christians unable to come to faith. Many of our barriers as Christians are rooted in our fears - fear of rejection, fear of being thought superstitious/unscientific, fear of being responsible for people not getting saved when they reject us. I noted that Paul speaks of effective witnessing as that which will certainly bring death to some hearers even as it brings life to others. The sharing of the Gospel is not a commercial transaction that the hearers can pick and choose to receive or not. It is done in the presence of God with the full understanding that we represent God faithfully (2 Cor 2:15-17).
We are to be 'sent into the world' (Jn 17:18) yet not 'of the world' (Jn 17:14 and repeated in 17:16). For Jesus, the way this can be possible is that we be kept from the evil one (v.15) and sanctified in the word of truth (v.17). We ourselves therefore are to be watchful against the work of Satan (1 Pe 5:8), the prince of this world (Eph 2:2). We are also to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Ro 12:1-2). This leads us to avoid unrighteous behaviour (1 Pe 4:3-4) and inappropriate desire (1 Jn 2:15) for the world.
We saw in different passages how Jesus was public with His ministry, how He sought out social outcasts, engaged in Spirit-driven ministry and ministered physically and spiritually, at every opportunity.Jesus accepted devotion from outcasts and did not hesitate to ask for help from unbelievers. In this way he built bridges for His spiritual purposes.
The passages therefore cannot be taken to explicitly tell us to do what God does - some of God's work is to be done by God alone, and not His children. But we know that we can see that God is not remotely planning the salvation of man in some sovereignly disengaged way - He is most active in seeking the lost, desiring their return and waiting for their repentance. Our attitude must mirror His.
The Great Commission in Mt 28 and Ac 1 explicitly tells us to 'go', yet in Acts 2 there is a certain attractiveness about the early church that causes people to come to faith. We must therefore also ask ourselves not only how active our evangelistic efforts are, but how winsome and desirable our personal and corporate testimony is. We spent time looking at the personal/church barriers and community barriers that make us ineffective in our witness and non-Christians unable to come to faith. Many of our barriers as Christians are rooted in our fears - fear of rejection, fear of being thought superstitious/unscientific, fear of being responsible for people not getting saved when they reject us. I noted that Paul speaks of effective witnessing as that which will certainly bring death to some hearers even as it brings life to others. The sharing of the Gospel is not a commercial transaction that the hearers can pick and choose to receive or not. It is done in the presence of God with the full understanding that we represent God faithfully (2 Cor 2:15-17).
We are to be 'sent into the world' (Jn 17:18) yet not 'of the world' (Jn 17:14 and repeated in 17:16). For Jesus, the way this can be possible is that we be kept from the evil one (v.15) and sanctified in the word of truth (v.17). We ourselves therefore are to be watchful against the work of Satan (1 Pe 5:8), the prince of this world (Eph 2:2). We are also to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Ro 12:1-2). This leads us to avoid unrighteous behaviour (1 Pe 4:3-4) and inappropriate desire (1 Jn 2:15) for the world.
We saw in different passages how Jesus was public with His ministry, how He sought out social outcasts, engaged in Spirit-driven ministry and ministered physically and spiritually, at every opportunity.Jesus accepted devotion from outcasts and did not hesitate to ask for help from unbelievers. In this way he built bridges for His spiritual purposes.
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