World Evangelism Podcast

Jesus' Compassionate Pathway to Evangelism

June 26, 2024 • W. Austin Gardner • Season 1 • Episode 27

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How can embracing Jesus' compassionate approach transform our efforts in world evangelism? Join us on the World Evangelism Podcast as we explore the critical need for evangelism in India, now the world's most populous nation facing minimal gospel presence and significant persecution. Drawing from John 9, we reflect on the contrast between Jesus' healing of a man born blind and His disciples' judgmental attitude. This thought-provoking discussion encourages us to shift our focus from blame to compassion, recognizing and meeting the needs of those around us. Discover how adopting a non-judgmental, empathetic approach within our churches can make a profound difference in addressing both the spiritual and physical needs of people in India.

In this passionate call to global mission, we challenge listeners to become active participants in spreading the gospel, emphasizing the importance of being workers rather than wanderers. We delve into the vital role missionaries play in loving and helping lost, hurting people by sharing Jesus with them. Our conversation is infused with excitement and a sense of urgency for world evangelism, aiming to inspire and empower individuals to fulfill God's calling. We urge you to join us in this mission to glorify Jesus and magnify His name, and we conclude with a heartfelt invitation to share this message and collaborate to save sinners. Tune in to be inspired and equipped for the journey of bringing salvation to those in need.

Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

W Austin Gardner:

Welcome to the World Evangelism Podcast again. I'm very excited to be with you today and, as I think about the country of the week, we are now. If you get Operation World, we're now in the country of India, and what a great need. I know of very few missionaries there. There are great works happening. God is doing great things in India. There's so much more that needs to be done, so much more to get the gospel out, and so I want to challenge you to pray about India, pray for the millions of souls. It's now the largest country in the world and there's very little gospel witness and a lot of persecution, so they are desperately in need of our help.

W Austin Gardner:

Now I wanted to share with you something the Lord just laid on my heart recently out of John, chapter 9. I believe it'll be a good missions passage and I want to just kind of help you see what the Lord's shown me. I'm not telling you that I have any kind of insight, but I do know that there are some attitudes that affect world evangelism that could be impacted by the passage of Scripture that I want to share with you from John 9. And it's a story of when Jesus heals a man that was born blind and Jesus and the disciples are walking along, and to save the time of reading the passage to you, I'm just going to walk you through the passage and then maybe you can look it up later. But in John 9, verse 1, the Bible says and as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. Now, that touched me. That touched me. I know that the gospel writer is saying this is what happened, but I find it very interesting. As Jesus passed by, he noticed. As Jesus passed by, he noticed.

W Austin Gardner:

And I got to wondering about how often we notice. I got to wondering how often we watch for the needy. Too often our churches have become little groups of holy people that aren't very concerned with what's happening out in the wicked world. We can almost become political parties, and so I would challenge you and ask you do we notice people? Do we notice people or do we live in such a bubble that we're not paying attention to and not noticing people? And when I say noticing them, I mean feeling compassion for them, I mean looking at them and seeing they have a need, and we know someone who can meet that need. I wonder how often that crosses our minds. I would question you Are we looking at ourselves? Are we looking at others? I just love the verse. I know it's simple, but it's in context, if you'll read with me. It says as Jesus passed by, he was just going by and he noticed he saw a man that was blind from his birth. So Jesus was watching for the needy. Jesus was on the lookout for those that needed the gospel. And how often are we on the watch for the needy and those that need the gospel? Jesus saw him.

W Austin Gardner:

Now the next verse is horrendous, to be honest with you, because it is so much the attitude that we have in many of our churches certainly not yours, but in many other churches and certainly you're going to want to deny there's truth to it. But listen to what happened. This is shocking. In John 9, verse 2, his disciples ask him saying Master, who did sin, this man or his parents that was born blind. And so here we find the disciples wondering.

W Austin Gardner:

The disciples, when they look at it, they're not noticing the man in the same sense Jesus is, and you'll find that out as we read the next verse in just a minute. But they wonder. Well, you know, I wonder who sinned? They didn't see the need. They saw the sin or the consequences of sin. How guilty are we of that? How guilty are we of focusing on the problems and hurts in our world and not loving the people that are hurting? See, they wanted to see who to blame. Well, did he do it or did his parents do it?

W Austin Gardner:

And so much of our churches have turned to pharisaical blame. We're like the holy people and they're the wicked people. It's us against them, and that was never God's plan for us. God's plan for us is to carry the gospel, the good news, to the world so that all can hear it and be saved and be saved. We look on people in India, the country of today, and we think to ourselves they're idol worshipers and they're wicked. And look at what's happening. And Jesus would have looked. And Jesus would have said I see a man who was born blind. And the disciples would say well, whose fault is that? And I want to challenge us not to see it as whose fault it is. I want to say Jesus was watching and the disciples were wondering, which was really a pretty wicked way of looking at things, and I don't mean to offend, but if it needs to shake up our nest, let it do so.

W Austin Gardner:

We have become known as the judgers and they're critical and the quick to find fault. In our desire to appear holy, we have lost a wholesome love for other people. Sometimes we want our church people to look a certain way, to dress a certain way, to act a certain way. We're not welcoming them in as people coming for good news. We're throwing rules at them and bad news at them. Well, the next thing that happens is you know Jesus is watching and the disciples are wondering, and then Jesus goes to work. Jesus helps them.

W Austin Gardner:

Listen to what the Bible verse says. In John, chapter 9 and verse 3, the Bible said Jesus answered neither has this man sinned, nor his parents, but all this was that the works of God should be manifest in him. You know what. He's got a need so God can meet the need. He's got a need so God can meet the need. He has a need so God can meet the need. He's hurting, so I can help. The whole world's hurting. The people in India are hurting, the people in your community are hurting, and even those that visit your church that sometimes you have a less than welcoming spirit towards them. We don't want that sin mixing up here at our church, I'm afraid maybe we're not having the attitude Jesus had.

W Austin Gardner:

You know, jesus welcomed them to preach the gospel to them, and then I want to remind you that such were some of you at one time. So Jesus goes to work. He says in verse four I must work the works of him that sent me. I got to do what the father who sent me wants me to do. I don't have a lot of time. I've got to get to work. You see, jesus was working. He saw the opportunity to help somebody. He saw somebody hurting and his heart broke for that. Do we see hurting people? Do we look at them in judgment or do we look at them in love to say I want to help? You see, jesus felt the urgency. It says in the verse here. He says I must work the works that him that sent me while it's day, because I don't have long. You and I don't have long, but sometimes I think we're dissatisfied with the holy saints and we don't want to reach out into that lost world and to help those people. So Jesus came to give. Jesus didn't come to receive. Jesus saw the urgency and Jesus went to work.

W Austin Gardner:

And I'd just like to challenge you that as you look around your community, as you notice people out there in the world and what's going on with them, maybe it would behoove you to decide we are not going to do that, we're not going to fall into those attitudes, we're not going to be so pushy and so hard. They ought to be able to walk in the door and hear good news that welcomes them and receives them. They ought to be able to find people who add value to their lives, people that help them. They ought to find a message that's applicable to their life. I often ask young pastors that I'm coaching why do people go to the emergency room? Why do they go to the doctor's office? Because they're looking for help. Why don't they come to the church? Maybe they're looking for help, but when they come, often they don't find help. They find criticism and we're so big on the law that we forgot the grace part. And if they've come looking for help, they probably already know they're sick and they should hear a message of grace.

W Austin Gardner:

So Jesus was working.

W Austin Gardner:

He saw the opportunity, he felt the urgency. He came to give. He didn't come to get. He didn't come to get. He didn't come to receive and take to himself. He came to work and to help people. Then the most beautiful thing in the world happens the man is washed. Look at what it says, if you would, in John 9, verse 6. And when he had spoken, he spat on the ground and he made clay of the spittle and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay and he said go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is, by interpretation, sent. And he went his way, therefore, washed and came seeing. Washed and came seeing. You see, he got changed, he got cleansed. He got changed. He got cleansed. He got converted. He became a new creature. He had a noticeable change in his life.

W Austin Gardner:

But when people come, they need to hear good news that welcomes them, that helps them know Jesus, that helps them to know that they're loved, that helps them to know that. I was just thinking this week what did Paul preach? What did Jesus preach? Can I tell you what Paul preached? He preached Christ. He preached Jesus crucified. He preached. Here's help for you.

W Austin Gardner:

We ought to be more involved, maybe, in wondering how we can help people get to the one who can wash them, to the one who can change them, to the one that can cleanse him. I think maybe we ought to be less concerned about the cleaning up the outside and them dressing the way we dress and talking the way we talk as much as them coming to jesus, because when he converts them from the inside out, it changes them all the way through. Well, that leads me to my last point. You know, I showed you Jesus watching and noticing people. I showed you the apostles wondering who's at fault here and who they could blame. I showed you Jesus going to work and I show you Jesus washing a man and a man walking away, washed and changed because he's been with Jesus. And that leads me to why I worship him, and I think it's what will change and impact our church. See, we love to tell the old, old story because it changed our lives and it changes other people's lives, and so I worship Jesus today.

W Austin Gardner:

I worship him because he saw me when I had a need, he saw me when I was hurting and he saw me when I was in sin. And he still sees me, and he watches me when I'm hurting. Right now, jesus stands as my great physician, not as my great condemner, not as my great accuser, not as someone that's against me. Jesus stands watching me. What's really funny is Jesus never wonders, like the apostle. Well, whose fault is it? To be blunt, honest, he knows that I was lost in my sin. I got off the way. I didn't understand the truth, I didn't know the truth, and he knew that sin was what was doing something to me and I was a victim of sin. He came to rescue me and to set me free. I was a slave to sin, and so was everybody else all around the world. The people in India are slaves to sin. We need to see them and feel for them. You know what he did Then. He worked in me. He went to work in me and feel for them. You know what he did. Then he worked in me. He went to work in me and he changed me, and he's still changing me. I mean honestly, you know.

W Austin Gardner:

I think sometimes when we preach to people, it comes across as condescending and condemning, because we look at them like you're sinners and you need Jesus. But when Paul addressed people, he said wait a minute, let me just say before we get started I'm the worst, I'm the first of sinners, I'm the chief of sinners, I'm the God's more sin than anybody. If you help me, he can help you. Have we lost that attitude in our churches? Have we lost that attitude in getting the gospel to the world? See, jesus worked, and when Jesus works, people get washed. He washed me, he went to work in me and he washed me. You see, such were some of you. But we're not that. Now we're cleansed and we're new.

W Austin Gardner:

And it's really not about our behavior, it's about his character. It's not about what we've done to gain his love, it's about what he's done to love us. He worked in us and he changed us and he made us new creatures and he gave us a new purpose. And it brings me to worship him. All glory to the father, all glory to the son, all glory to the one who paid the price for me to go to heaven when I die. All glory to the one that changes lives.

W Austin Gardner:

This is a message we ought to share. Every church ought to hear it. Every church ought to hear it. We ought to get off of our high horse of protecting our sanctity because we get our hands dirty. We get into a dirty world that needs Jesus Christ. We're not Pharisees locked away in a room. We're not monks in a monastery. We are workers in a dirty world carrying the good news of Jesus Christ. So India needs to hear that.

W Austin Gardner:

Today I've given you a Bible passage and so I just want to challenge you, if you would, to work with me to think about how we can motivate more people to take the gospel. Young person listening, would you realize that. Don't be a wanderer, be a worker. Let's go see people get washed. Let's help people get to where they worship the Lord.

W Austin Gardner:

Missionary, help love lost, hurting people. Go out to the world where they are and share Jesus with them. Man, I'm so excited I get to talk to you about world evangelism. I just want to see Jesus glorified and his name magnified. That's all I want. I want to inspire missions and empower people to do the work that God's called them to Now. Thank you for taking time to listen. I hope you'll share with other people and invite others to come along and be with us. We're on a journey to see the name of Jesus raised up high, his name glorified, but we're here to help accomplish His purpose that he came into the world to save sinners, and Paul was already number one. I'm number one one, and they need Jesus, and let's go help them get salvation. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you'll help me share this and I thank you for the chance to talk to you.