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[0:00] 1 Peter, so 1 Peter chapter 3. This will be our text going forward for the next few weeks actually, God willing.

[0:12] 1 Peter chapter 3, verses we've seen before, verses 14 and verse 15. 1 Peter 3, verses 14 and verse 15.

[0:48] Always being prepared to make a defence to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behaviour in Christ may be put to shame.

[1:04] And so on. It's been a few weeks now, I think I said we were starting a new series that will be based on a book. It's probably just before Thomas came to speak. And I think the plan was actually to base on Thomas' book, but I'm keeping Thomas' book for a future perhaps Bible study together on evangelism in God willing next year.

[1:26] It's an even more simple book that I've had for years now in various iterations. It's this one here. And perhaps at the end of our study, if folks have enjoyed hearing parts of this book, we can have some at the back door.

[1:44] It's intentional. Evangelism that brings people to Jesus. And don't worry, I'm not just reading a book every week. You're still paying me to work, so I'm working.

[1:55] But I'm taking, really, his chapter headings. And this is a man. He's a vicar, a Church of England vicar. One of the few, I might say, who are still faithful to the Lord.

[2:09] And who recently actually has faced some hard times from his, those above him, for not bowing to their authority. They want him to be less vocal about his faith and less vocal about the biblical truths.

[2:24] And he's having a hard time about that the last few months. But anyway, he wrote this short book based on years of experience and years of failures and years of stresses and strains sharing Jesus to his friends and family.

[2:41] His whole point is that even though he's a vicar and even though he's this established and esteemed theologian in his circles, it is still at times horrifying and terrifying for him to talk about Jesus.

[2:55] And if you're here, when Thomas was here, Thomas said the same thing. I've said it to you too. Don't think for a second, because we're ministers or because we're trained for years in ETS, that sharing with my good friends or my parents or whoever about Jesus isn't any less nerve-wracking or worrying than anyone else.

[3:19] So taking again the chapters, and we'll go through it for us, and I'll take some quotes from the book as we go through it, but really basing the next few weeks on this section in 1 Peter. And we've looked at the section before briefly, but also we can now look at it under an expanded look over a few weeks for ourselves.

[3:39] At the end of this study, our goal is not to be experts in evangelism. Our goal is not to be experts in the right things to say about sharing the gospel. Our goal is to quite simply understand the need, in a deeper way, the need, but also the great privilege we have in sharing the gospel.

[3:59] He begins then with the problems, the problems we face in sharing the gospel. The first problem is the obvious one. It's fear. It's fear. We are scared at times to share the gospel.

[4:15] And sometimes we hear that, and we say that, and we batter ourselves down with it. But as we all know, it's something we all face. Now, there are a select few people, a select few evangelists, who are gifted by God, and we see that.

[4:31] And you can think of perhaps some that you know of, men and women who are gifted in a special way, who have no qualms in grabbing anyone and sharing the gospel to anyone, who can just relate to people so quickly.

[4:45] Thomas mentioned Bob Aykroyd. I think he's my top example, someone I've actually met. Thomas gave an example, didn't he, of someone Thomas was worried about sharing the gospel with, and he's stressing over months, how do I talk to him about Jesus and all this, and wondering whether I'm a Christian or not.

[5:02] And Bob grabs his person and goes, hi, are you a Christian? And the person talks and shares our story to Bob. That is not us. It's not me anyway. I flounder my words.

[5:13] I get flustered. I talk nonsense. I get my words twisted up. I forget what I'm trying to say. I forget everything I've ever learned in all these years of learning. And the mind goes blank. And the heart starts to beat.

[5:23] And the palms get a bit sweaty. And you think, oh man, what am I saying? What am I doing? Fear. Fear. And Paul Williams, in the book of Mr. Williams, he says that fear is, in his experience, the biggest reason we don't share our faith.

[5:40] The biggest reason we don't share our faith. And I think he's right. I think he's right. And the question is, why? Why do we have this fear?

[5:53] If you forgive me for the next few weeks, it's going to be a bit more conversational, but I want to be conversational as we apply this very much to ourselves. What are we scared about when we share the gospel?

[6:03] What is our actual reason to have this fear? When someone comes to you and you see, clearly the Lord is giving you a chance to speak about the gospel of someone. And the chance is given to you. And you think, right, I'm going to say something about Jesus here or invite him to church or do something.

[6:17] And your heart goes and you think, I just don't do it. You don't say the gospel invite. You don't give the church invite. You don't bring up Jesus where there's a good chance that you start talking about who he is to you.

[6:31] And you don't do it. Why? Well, for many of us, myself included, we perhaps fear not having the right answers. I don't know how much you've talked to those who are not Christians.

[6:44] I'm sure we all have family members and friends. And they can throw out at you incredible questions at times, can't they? You know, we aren't experts on the age of the earth or evolution and how that interacts with what God's word says.

[7:03] We're not experts on the question of why is there so much suffering in the world? Why does God allow these things to happen? and so on and so on. We have answers but perhaps when it comes to it we can't give our answers well and we think, well, I can't answer these questions.

[7:21] We don't know the best arguments against the best discussions and the best debates people have about why God doesn't exist or why the Bible isn't true. I don't know these things, therefore, I can't answer these things.

[7:36] So because we are too scared, because we know we don't know enough, we don't even begin to engage when we're presented with a great gospel sharing opportunity.

[7:49] Others of us, we fear saying the wrong thing. We fear saying the wrong thing. We worry that what if I say something to them that takes them further away from the gospel truth?

[8:00] when Peter writes to this church, he's writing to those who have not just a metaphorical, kind of distant fear of saying the wrong thing, he's writing to a church who have a real, real, visceral fear.

[8:22] He's writing to a church who has a fear of their lives being taken away, of their livelihoods being taken away, if they're fortunate, perhaps, of their families scorning them, of their families abandoning them, of the society completely rejecting them, of imprisonment, of torture, of death.

[8:40] Those who Peter writes to had deep fear, were in real danger every time they shared their faith. And the Holy Spirit working through Peter says to them, against those who are questioning you, those who are against you, have no fear of them, nor be troubled.

[9:01] Have no fear of them, nor be troubled. We worry about not knowing enough. We worry about saying the wrong thing. And we also worry, if we're being very honest, we fear rejection, don't we?

[9:21] We fear rejection. Every one of us in some way, we hate someone not liking us. Or we hate someone saying to us, I don't believe a word you're saying to me, therefore I don't care.

[9:33] If we were to do door-to-door, say, work, what's the biggest fear in doing door-to-door work? I bet we can knock on anyone's door in Tulsa for any other reason and say to them, I don't know, your car's on fire.

[9:49] Say to them, your cat's been run over. Say to them, I don't know, X, Y, or Z, without a single worry. We'll do it in a second. But to say to that person, here's an invite to our Christmas service, here's an invite to this or that, the heart goes, the brain goes, the mind stops, we think, no, I'm not going to do it.

[10:11] Why? So we fear rejection. What if they don't accept the invite? What if this is just too awkward? What if this is too uncomfortable? What if they say no?

[10:22] Oh, they shut the door in my face. You know, recently, the OM group were in the west side, but before that, the OM group were in North and South Uist.

[10:35] And speaking to Claire MacLeod, who was involved in planning that OM mission trip, they were prepared to have the door shut in their faces. Almost every house they knocked on the door.

[10:45] They get an invite and a gospel tract and bits and pieces to every single house, basically, in North and South Uist. An amazing job they did in a few weeks for a there.

[10:58] They had almost no one shut the door in their faces. They had almost no one say no thank you to them. In fact, most houses they went to, it led to a good conversation. Now, in terms of gospel work in that person's life, that's the Lord's work alone.

[11:12] But the reality is, and we'll find this, I hope, as we go forward in engaging with evangelism in North Tolstair, the problem is often not a rejection of the gospel.

[11:24] The problem is often a complete ignorance towards the gospel. People just don't know. We assume they know everything, and they know absolutely nothing.

[11:37] At times, even those who go to church for years, we think, I can't invite them to these things, because if they've been to church before, it doesn't matter. churchgoers and non-churchgoers alike, at times, you'd be surprised how little gospel they know.

[11:52] Not information, not facts and figures, but how little gospel they actually know. And we fear rejection, but actually, there are 400 odd houses, or 400 odd individuals, in North Tolstair.

[12:07] How many houses, how many of those houses have no gospel knowledge? How many of those have no gospel understanding? How many of those houses have no idea as to the danger they're heading towards?

[12:21] And yet, it's hard for us to even begin to engage with them, in case they say no to us, in case it's awkward for us. In summary, of all the reasons, all the excuses we have for being scared, Williams in the book says, In the cold light of day, I wonder why I get so fearful.

[12:41] It's not as if I live in a part of the world, where trying to share about Jesus carries the death sentence. It's a painful point, but it's a good point, isn't it?

[12:52] There is no bad consequence to us sharing the gospel, to our friends, our family, our neighbours. There's no bad consequence. The worst they can say is, I don't care, or not just now, or no thanks.

[13:06] The worst they can think about us is, oh, very bit strange. church, there's no police knocking our door, there's no one dragging us away, our church won't be burnt down. When you speak to people like Malcolm McLaurie's Dead Fast Global, you know, you speak and hear about Christians and persecuted countries, and they have the same worries we have.

[13:30] It's not as if they're magically changed somehow, as if they're given some strength at times. They have the same fears we have about sharing the gospel. They find it hard at times too. They're normal Christians like you and me, but they have the understanding that this is life and death for them, therefore they do it.

[13:46] They just do it. In many ways, perhaps we are far too comfortable, far too comfortable, there's no real danger, no real worry, and we've got so much time to worry about being embarrassed or things being awkward that we don't actually recognise that in front of me is a living soul who if nothing happens in their life, as far as I understand, are heading towards a lost eternity and here I am with the gift, with the glorious gospel truth that I can give to them.

[14:17] So what then is the answer to fear? What's the answer to fear? Well, Williams quite simply says the Bible's answer to fear in evangelism, it is not complicated, the answer to fear is to fear God more than people, to fear God more than people.

[14:38] As our verse says to us there in 1 Peter, have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honour Christ the Lord as holy.

[14:53] A healthy biblical gospel fear of the Lord that expels, that changes our fear of sharing the good news to those around us.

[15:04] Two different ways. Two different ways. The fear of God when it comes to judgment. We know, we believe, and we trust in a holy God.

[15:17] We know that God will one day soon judge, as it were, the living and the dead. We know that the day is coming soon when the Lord will, as it were, without going one side of the other, every single person will face him, and the Lord will judge every person.

[15:39] And on that final day, there's no escape, there's no excuse, there's no bargaining, there's no wrangling, and we know that to be true. And we have a holy fear of a holy God who is just, and who will by no means pardon the guilty.

[15:57] And we know, as Christians, that without the saving, sanctifying, life-changing work of salvation in someone's life, there is no hope for people.

[16:10] There's no hope. The best people we know about in the village, the best of our friends and family who as of yet don't know Jesus, the nicest ones, the ones we love the most, if there's no gospel change in their lives, when it comes to that final day, there is no hope.

[16:27] We know that. But we also know that the Lord ordains, as it were, his gospel work, how? Well, through his word, and how is his word shared by his people.

[16:42] So because we know the holiness of God, the perfection of God, because we have that right fear of God, who is just, and who by no means pardon the guilty, or pass over them, but who will enact full justice on them, we come to our friends, our family, our neighbours, and we look on them, and speak to them, and have a fear about inviting them to church, or a fear about sharing the gospel with them.

[17:11] We are face to face with those who at this moment, as far as we know, are under the active but restrained wrath of God. and if nothing changes, they will one day face that wrath unrestrained poured out onto them.

[17:29] That should break us. That should break us. I think of friends, family, loved ones, who if nothing changes in their life with them and the God who made them, then there is no hope for them.

[17:44] So because that is true, that should, compared to our fear of talking to them, it should humble us enough to think, well, are they then, is their eternal salvation, is their eternal good, is their eternal soul being saved, not worth me being embarrassed, or feeling awkward, or saying the wrong thing, or not knowing enough, for X, Y, Z.

[18:18] The second way that the fear of God helps us in our fear, and this is our final point, really, is the fear of the power of God when it comes to our ability.

[18:33] You know, we know ourselves, we're not able. We know that. We know ourselves, how little we know about so much. good, we know that we are weak.

[18:49] We know we're weak. Go door by door, and ask them to give us their best reason why we're not Christians. And I can guarantee plenty of reasons we could answer to, and give answers to, biblically, I hope.

[19:03] But many of the reasons will be hard reasons for us to understand, and to give answer to, and so on and so on. We know that we are weak. We know that at times our own lives don't match up to our confession, do they?

[19:19] We say we're one thing, but at times we think and speak and live and act in a different way. Our own witness at times is shameful. At times we know our own faith is so small.

[19:34] Our own faith feels so weak. And you think, how can I encourage anyone else to come to faith when my faith feels so tiny? When my understanding feels so small? When my service to the Lord feels so small?

[19:45] How can I even engage in sharing the good news? And by doing that and thinking that, we only leave it to others to do, assuming others are somehow better than us.

[19:56] We perhaps leave it to elders or to ministers, assuming ministers and elders don't struggle with small faith and small understanding and big worries. We're all in the trenches together.

[20:08] We're all in the front line together. We all have the same privilege together. Yes, the fear of God compels us because we know His holy wrath and His holy justice, but also the fear and respect of God compels us because we know He is a God who is with His people.

[20:26] He is a God who is with His people. Who again, we're told here, as we prepare, as we work to, as we honour Christ in our hearts as the only true holy Lord, as we understand we are servants of the King, ambassadors of the King, we understand that whatever small work we can do, whether that's sharing the gospel with muddled words, with the wrong wording of things, with a weird back-to-front wording, whether that is a shaky hand asking someone to come to church with us, whether that's a knock on the door and say, we've not talked before, hello, I live next door to you, nice to meet you, whether that is X, Y, or Z.

[21:11] Remember, Thomas was very good at reminding us, it's not about moving outside a comfort zone, is it? It's about actually using where we are comfortable, using the skills and talents the Lord has given us to then share the good news via that.

[21:28] Whether it's hospitality, whether it's visiting, whether it's phoning around, whether it's doing this or that in the village, you know yourselves what skills the Lord has given you. And because He is God, because we understand and respect and fear Him and His great power, we can say, Lord, I can't do much.

[21:48] And the little I do, I am able to do, it's a bit of a disaster, but will you please take this out and use it? But reminder, we do all our work, preaching and teaching, but right down to the very interactions day by day in this village, in our homes, it's all by His power.

[22:08] It all flows from our understanding that He is God and that as weak and as needy and so on and so on as we are, we are the means the Lord has chosen to use.

[22:20] Whether we like it or not, whether we want it to be that way or not, it is the way it is. The Lord has made clear that we are His people and He uses His people to bring His people to Himself.

[22:33] Again, the example is clear and it is so well used, but the boy of the loaves and the fish. That boy hands a few bits of bread, a few bits of fish, a few sardines, probably tiny, it is a wee boy.

[22:47] How big is a wee boy's pack lunch? Wee bits of, wee bread rolls and wee kind of sardines or tiddlers, who knows what size it was. And He hands that or He offers that over.

[22:59] And wee boy, you know, a bit of bread, a bit of fish might satisfy the disciples, maybe, probably not even then. But in the hands of Jesus, we know the story, we know the account, in the hands of Jesus, a few small bread rolls and a few fish in the hands of a good, gracious, kind Lord is transformed and is transformed and is multiplied in a way that feeds thousands upon thousands.

[23:31] Often on a Sunday, on a Sunday, you know, I'll say as part, every minister say, you know, our words can't save you. We know that to be true. I don't know what the maths is.

[23:44] Say it's ten hours you do per sermon. I don't know what my hours are, but say it's ten hours per sermon. Every sermon is different. But to say that's your maths. Supposing I did twenty hours per sermon, forty hours per sermon, morning, noon and night, I sleep for a few hours and every morning till late at night I do my sermons and nothing else.

[24:05] Will that extra work save anyone? Will that extra work transform anyone? Say we learn every single possible answer to every single possible question about evolution and the Big Bang Theory and everything else from there to here?

[24:23] Will answering questions accurately save anyone? Or does the small work, the small knowledge, the small ability we have place in the hands of a great God?

[24:37] Is that not what saves people? Is he not the one who takes the efforts of his children and uses it in his power to transform the lives of those around us?

[24:49] We have a God who we fear, who we respect, who we trust to be good. We know our ability is small but we know that his ability is not.

[25:03] That's why we came and read in John 1 the reminder but he does not despise the small things. In fact, so much so that Son of God takes on himself human flesh.

[25:18] He becomes despicable. He becomes compared to the holiness of God disgusting. Clothed and entombed in flesh.

[25:30] Physically we could say restrained to a body. Laying aside the full glory and beauty that is his but not despising, not despising it.

[25:43] He makes himself of nothing to show us that he uses the small and the weak and from the small and the weak brothers and sisters that's us. He can and he does work his work.

[25:56] He can and he does bring his people in. I'll close with a reminder of what saved or who saved Charles Spurgeon. You've probably heard it before.

[26:07] Let's just remind us. Charles Spurgeon as a young man was seeking and was a wintry out of stormy night. He was heading to church and then not heading and then heading and it was so windy inside he thought well anyway he found go to church and he knew the minister was a good minister a good faithful minister whose ceremonies are always entertaining and very easy to listen to and he goes to this minister to this church to listen to the minister and the minister wasn't there that night instead was an elder or an older Christian man and that older Christian man I've forgotten because that word he could say was to believe in Jesus or whatever it was something simple this poor man who had a sermon in front of him prepared he just couldn't preach it.

[26:56] those of us who have preached know the feeling you think man well the work's here but it's not working tonight whatever it was he says the same phrase this old man stands up and swaying with his eyes closed probably wanting the ground to swallow him up kept saying repeating the same sentence the same phrase to come to Jesus or believe in Jesus and for an old man who had a disaster the other night whose sermon was rubbish who humanly speaking wasted everyone's time from that sermon Charles Spurgeon heard the gospel listened to the gospel was transformed by the gospel work and of course Spurgeon being Spurgeon we know how the Lord used him in his long life in his short life but his long ministry our words are small we don't pretend otherwise the Lord uses small people and small words for his glorious kingdom's work we fear sharing the gospel we fear talking about Jesus every time we fear

[28:02] I'm saying this especially because actually this week this week I've ordered just now yesterday it was 55 invites 55 invites are making their way to North Tulsa just now nice shiny ones to a Christmas service having the 15th I think it is it's two Sundays before Christmas but a clear time where we'll discuss and present the gospel we'll have a family service week after that that's one thing week before that we'll have a Christmas service and we pray and hope we'll have an invite service this is your chance to and my chance to put into practice what we're hearing this evening and these 55 or 60 invites will be there enough for every one of us to take a few each and to say to someone neighbour friend or family will you come sit beside me and listen for an hour will you come and hear the three messages of Christmas whatever the title the sermon is I printed it even on the card it is nerve wracking it is horrifying but brothers and sisters we're called to serve the Lord and we're called to get as many people to hear of God's word as possible be in prayer over the next few weeks that Lord will prepare us but also Lord will give us gospel sharing chances so that we can as it were as we honour Christ as holy in our hearts we can kill that fear and instead replace it with the God glorifying and God honouring duty of proclaiming the glorious good news of Jesus the work is his the work is his we are the builders we are those who are called to do the job but it's his temple it's his church he is building up we're stones in that but we're still called to mix all the metaphors together yes he brings the life yes he brings the increase but we're called to sow and water and sow and water and sow and water and leave the rest to him so pray as we go through this book through this study we'll be encouraged to keep on sowing keep on watering and the Lord who bless his work in North Tolstown we'd see great gospel gain from his powerful work alone

[30:23]  I mean don't move that word of prayer please forever thank you