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Theology and Practice of Evangelism - Lesson 16

Ethiopian Eunuch

Eunuchs have a servant mentality. Acts 8, Ethiopian eunuch. Five stages in classical mysticism are moral and spiritual awakening, purgation, illumination, dark night of the soul and union with God. Follow up through relationship makes the sphere of influence important. Most of life is subtle. If you know how to pay attention, there is power in subtlety.

Robert Tuttle, Jr.
Theology and Practice of Evangelism
Lesson 16
Watching Now
Ethiopian Eunuch

I. Background and Context of the Ethiopian Eunuch

A. Introduction

B. Historical and Cultural Context

C. Significance in the New Testament

II. Theological Themes in the Ethiopian Eunuch Story

A. Divine Guidance and Providence

B. The Role of Scripture in Evangelism

C. Inclusivity and Acceptance in the Early Church

III. Practical Lessons for Evangelism

A. Listening and Responding to the Holy Spirit

B. Engaging with People's Questions and Curiosity

C. The Importance of Personal Testimony


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Transcript
  • In order to share the Gospel, you must know what it meant, and how people are understanding what you are saying. The gospel core is the least you can believe and still be a Christian. If the least you can believe is sufficient to get you saved, then the least you can believe is the most you can require of anyone.
  • Christianity is the only world religion with an understanding of grace. Your most important ministry will be helping people understand how much God loves them. The heart of the gospel is that God loves you. Sin happens when we attempt to live as if there is no God. God, since the fall has done everything he can to establish relationship. God wants to make himself known to you in a way that you can understand.
  • At the Fall, Satan gained control of the world. Jesus takes it back in Revelation 5 because he meets the qualifications. The core elements of the sermons of the apostles are authoritative proofs, prophecies fulfilled, God’s activities described, apostolic eyewitnesses and miracles proclaimed. You will be heard with authority to the degree you are willing to put your life on the line. You die spiritually when you rationalize sin. Wind moves from high pressure to low pressure. We access the power of the Spirit by repenting and believing. Two sins mentioned throughout scripture are self-reliance and oppressing the poor.
  • The lesson tells the story of a professor who faces personal struggles and overcomes them with the help of faith, healing, and learning to overcome sin, ultimately showing that it's possible to prevail over life's challenges with God's guidance.
  • Through this lesson, you learn the core components of the gospel message, its theological themes, and how to effectively communicate it for evangelism purposes.
  • In this lesson, you gain insight into leveraging your personal, church, and wider spheres of influence to effectively share the Gospel, overcome challenges, and expand your evangelistic reach.
  • Gain insights into ministry experiences and the power of faith, prayer, personal testimony, and baptism stories to navigate emergency situations that are bigger than yourself.
  • You will learn from this lesson that you are uniquely equipped to minister to those in your sphere of influence and that the church is indispensable for your survival. By treating others with respect and recognizing each person's importance, the church can become the living, breathing body of Jesus Christ.
  • In this lesson, you will learn that people are often hurting, angry, lonely, or tired, ministry requires dependence on God and rejection is important, preaching the text is key, our weaknesses can be our strengths, and close community is crucial for doing the work of the kingdom, while leading someone to Christ without providing ample opportunity for growth and nurture is a mistake.
  • In this lesson, you will learn about Charlie Haley, a man with a pastoral background who is currently involved in retreat ministry and considering going into the mission field abroad. The lesson covers topics related to evangelism and ministry, including tract ministry, follow-up and discipleship, and the importance of love and forgiveness within one's sphere of influence. The lesson also discusses the importance of building relationships and addressing felt needs with spiritual solutions.
  • This lecture begins as Dr. Tuttle is relating a story about a lady he met on an airplane. Jesus chose people as disciples that he could demonstrate by showing and telling them, and then depend on them to reproduce what they had been shown and taught. When Jesus gets too close, we raise the religious question to change the subject. As a result of the sin in the garden, we lost our ability to perceive reality beyond the senses. The Holy Spirit came, not to compensate for the absence of Jesus, but to guarantee his presence. We hold the truth, but the world sets the agenda and has the right to ask its own questions.
  • Often, it is implied that once you commit your life to Christ, all your problems are solved. The Hebrew concept of soul is body, mind and spirit. The Greek concept is that soul and body are separate, and that soul is good and body is evil. Prophecy and spiritual gifts are essential for the body of Christ to function. In the teaching in mainline churches, there is sometimes a disconnect between faith and life.
  • Trusting the Spirit of God is the key in this lesson. By remembering and trusting the Spirit, one can be utterly dependent upon God and do the hard work in preaching. Dr. Tuttle shares his personal experience of trusting the Spirit and provides context for Paul's second missionary journey, including Paul's conversion and early ministry, Peter's vision, and the conversion of Gentiles. The Spirit of God also taught Saul how Jesus fulfilled all of the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah.
  • Through a deep exploration of Wesley's Methodism and Calvin's Reformed tradition, you gain an understanding of their respective theological frameworks, evangelistic strategies, and lasting influences on modern evangelism.
  • Through this lesson, you grasp the significance of Wesley's Societies, their organizational structure, theological practices, and the lasting impact on modern church practices.
  • By exploring the Ethiopian Eunuch story, you gain insights on divine guidance, Scripture's role in evangelism, and early church inclusivity, while learning to apply practical evangelistic lessons.
  • Through this lesson, you learn to effectively share the gospel through action evangelism by understanding its theological basis, applying key principles, employing various methods, and overcoming common obstacles.
  • You gain insights into action evangelism's importance, principles, and various methods, while learning to overcome fears and obstacles, and equipping others for effective Gospel sharing.

Dr. Tuttle teaches three critical points around evangelism: how to share your faith story, what evangelism is and how to approach it, and that God has more invested in evangelism than we do – He is in control. God is at work. He wants us to, "show up and pay attention [to the Spirit]," and to care about people enough to "press" them by asking probing questions about what they think and what's going on in their lives.

Evangelism is essentially about the core of the Gospel, ministering in your sphere of influence and sustaining those you reach.

Recommended Books

Can We Talk: Sharing Your Faith in a Pre-Christian World

Can We Talk: Sharing Your Faith in a Pre-Christian World

Those who serve on mission fields in areas where Christian faith is not the dominant religion quickly come to understand a central truth: when one is sharing the gospel, one...

Can We Talk: Sharing Your Faith in a Pre-Christian World

Dr. Robert Tuttle, Jr.
Theology and Practice of Evangelism
TH610-16
Ethiopian Eunuch
Lesson Transcript

[00:00:00] Perhaps you saw on the on the board. I like Unix. I said yesterday, don't get your hopes up. I never met one. But I do like Unix, you know. What would you like to know? Why? They have a servant mentality. And Acts eight talks about this Ethiopian eunuch. And I've fallen in love with this guy. And so in my mind, I've created a scenario. We know he's from Ethiopia. We know he was high. And Queen Candice's administration. We know he was a Jewish allied. Right. We know those things for sure, right? Yes. So that means evidently. Some Jews went to Ethiopia and introduced him to the way God. The Lord. And he's into Judaism. And these Jews who led him. To the way. God. Told him. Before you die. You need to make Hajj pilgrimage to Jerusalem. You know, they did it. And when you go to Jerusalem, what do you want to say? The temple. And so in my mind, I see this unique. Looking to create a junket from Queen Candice so he can get to Jerusalem. And finally he pulls it off. He goes to Jerusalem. Now. Those of you. You need to go. You need to tell. You really do need to go to Jerusalem. I'll tell you why. Here's. Here's the Temple Mount. That's the pinnacle. This is the Western Wall. The tunnel here all the way along the Western wall of Crow eyeball all the way through it. This is San Antonio's fortress. This was the. Temple. Now, here's the Dome of the Rock. Here is Al-Aqsa, and right here are the triple gates. Now, this.

[00:02:52] This down here. These are the steps that come all the way along here. The pinnacle Eastern gate, which is sealed. Antonio Gate. This is Camel Gate. Actually, just little a little door. Campbell's come came came a Campbell can't get get through it without getting down on her knees. Anyway, the steps they've just uncovered these steps about ten years ago. I've preached on the very steps where Jesus walked. I mean, to tell you what Jesus I mean at this point. There's an entrance here. That unit comes in and sitting on his chair, he gets off his chair and he, he this this level, it's about from this level to this top of the Temple Mount is about. 150 feet, 50 yards high. The gate is high. Maybe not quite that. Maybe 30 yards. 9000 feet. 100 feet. Let's say 100 feet. Measure it when you get there. Tell me. And so you go in the triple gate and it goes up, you say 100 feet. To the Temple Mount and you come out on the Temple Mount. There it is. The temple. Now you see the Dome of the Rock, you know, or Al-Aqsa. Actually, Al-Aqsa sits on the top of the temple gate now, but you can see it's walled in. But you can see the outline all the eastern southern wall, the triple gate. Which goes back to the first century. These steps go back to the first century. And so. In my mind, I can see this unit getting off of this carriage going up through the gate. Now, these are stalls here. This is the main staircase here. These are stalls where they sell stuff at haste. He stops about halfway up and buys him a little lamb. He's going to do this, right? He's excited and his heart is pounding.

[00:04:43] Beijing, a little lamp comes up over the temple, up onto the Temple Mount and. I'll show you a model. That's. That's an acre. That's a big model of Jerusalem and Jesus's Day. It's amazing. To see Jerusalem pretty much as it was down here. Is this is this is the Temple Mount. This is the city of David. This is the this is the but the been Henan valley. This is the Kidron Valley. This is. This is the Mount of Olives. This is the Kidron Valley. Runs all the way down to the Dead Sea exits and Getty. He gets up on the Temple Mount and he's who's bat passed out. He's so excited. I mean, his heart is just clutching this little lamb. He can feel a little thing kind of struggling in his bosom. And he's he's he says, All right, sweetie, you'll wake up in heaven. It's all right. This is a worthy cause. Talking to this little lamb. As he approaches. These are the steps to the temple. These are the columns Boaz and Egypt are whoever, you know, the giant bronze pot pillars. Yes, you know that. Read the Bible. It's in there, I promise you. Okay. So he goes up on the Temple Mount. As he approaches the steps, a guard steps forward. And does what? I'm sorry, sir. You can't come in. You've been cut like a steer. No one has been cut in the Americas. No one has been cut can have access to the temple. Little lamb struggling, you know. And it turns around broken hearted. And it's almost in a stupor. Waves his way back down to the top of the triple gate. As it goes down through the triple gate, he stops into a stall and he exchanges this little lamb for a scroll of the Book of Isaiah.

[00:06:48] Hopin maybe I can make some sense of this. He's been looking forward to this for years. And he gets on his chariot. And just going home. You know what God does? You don't think God's a good God? You listen to this. God gets on the horn and he calls up Philip. Where? Philip? He's in some area. He learned all those similar institutions. I mean, Peter and John went and checked them out. God bless God's heart. I just love God that God is such a good God. God knows all this, you say. God get on a hornet cause Phillip said, Phillip, saddle up to go down on the road to Gaza. I've been on that road is a dry, dusty place. All the camels are young. All the old ones die. No, No water for them. I mean, they really tried to play. Philip gets down with his trust. They stayed. Goes down. I think you're probably walking. As a matter of fact. It goes down to the Gaza and he sees this chariot go by. God says, show up, pay attention. He sees this chariot go by. And so he runs up along the side of the chariot and sees this unique, the very same Munich. Reading from the Book of Isaiah. And Philip says, Do you understand what your read Heat reading from Isaiah 53? I'll read I'll show you the exact passage in a minute. Reading from Isaiah 53. I'm sure you listen to this. You don't think God's in this? Listen to what he was reading. You know. I'll take you to the real thing. I'll take you to Isaiah. You can read it and parts of it and. And an X. Listen. He's reading this. Start from verse one who has believed our message and to whom has the arm the Lord been revealed.

[00:08:44] Now this unique is reading this utterly confused. He grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a route out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to and nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hid their faces. He was despised. And we esteemed him. Not. Now, you think this unit can identify with this? That's right on. Surely he took our infirmities and carried our sorrows. Yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him. And by his wounds, we are healed. You know what Philip does? Phillips If you have any idea what you're reading and what's the unit? It's right there. It says, How can I understand if there's no one to interpret? And he invites him up into the chariot. And Philip explains to him who that is. Phillips's darling. Darling. A unique. As talking about Jesus. I know you identify with this. The Spirit of God told me that. But just talking about Jesus, you're a messiah. Who died for you. For our iniquities right there. Is it right that he's reading this? And lo and behold, guess what happens? I mean, this is a miracle. They find enough water to be baptized on the road to Gaza. I have been on this road. There ain't no water down there or not enough water for a bird. But they find enough water to get this boy. I probably probably dumped him. Thrice. Phillip takes him down into the water and baptized him.

[00:10:46] I mean, proper probably gets him all wet. And then you know what happened? You won't believe this. I mean, it will amaze you what happened next. You're thinking, God, let me manage this. I can do better than that. You know what God does? The Spirit does takes Phillip away. And leave this unique. Standing there by himself wondering what in the world just happened. I mean, the man is gone. It says it right there, doesn't it? He's gone. Poof. Like he was a ghost. Now why, she says. How dare you lead people to Christ without also providing adequate opportunity for growth and nurture to do anything less or to pick out children for the murderer? So who does the follow up? Don't you love to preach the word of God in that? Wonderful. You get to do it the rest of your lives. I mean, it's it's it's a blast. If you know the Bible, I'm little preach. It will preach. Guess who does the follow up? What the spirit does it follow? I'm going to prove it to you. Take your little Bible. If you've opened it. If you've opened it. Isaiah. Turn one page. It's all you need. One page. Look. So do look. Look Who does the follow? Just one page. Isaiah 56 three. Who's here? Who here has got guts enough to read that with meaning. But not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord, saying the Lord will surely separate me from His people and let not the what? Let not the what eunuch get out. You're making that up, Gladys. Quit it and let not the eunuch say Behold I am a dry tree written for this says the Lord. To the you, to the home, to the Gladys.

[00:12:50] Don't lie to me. Keep my Sabbath Who choose the things that please me and hold fast My covenant I will give in my house and within my walls a monument in the name better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Whoa! Don't you love it? Did you know I was in there? Imagine me reading along one day. My name on business and the Book of Isaiah. I've already finished the good part. Get over to 56 by half asleep. And rate? No, I realized the unit was on the previous page. Whoa. Jump right off the page. Grabbed me by the throat and shook the lemon mist about it. Changed my life forever. Wanted, my seminary professors pointed out to me. I didn't know that was there. Did you? Whoa. I was on a plane. And Columbus, Georgia, not Ohio. I wasn't on a plane yet. I was preaching there, preaching my little heart out. And they they worked a mischief out of me. I mean, they had me preaching Friday night and teaching Saturday morning and teaching Saturday afternoon and preaching Saturday night preached three times Sunday morning. Great big old church down in Columbus, Georgia. And I had to preach that night in Detroit. So I go to the airport in Columbus to catch my flight to Atlanta. To catch my flight. Detroit only to realize my flight had been canceled. And I'm so tired, I don't even care. So I flopped around airport a couple hours, finally got me a standby to Atlanta. By the time I get to Atlanta, my flight's gone and the only way they can get me. But yeah, my flight to Detroit has already left. And the only way they can get me on the next flight to Detroit is put me in first class.

[00:14:50] And I'm not afraid of first class. I'm just not accustomed to first class. But are you listening? I crawled across this man who looked like he was plenty accustomed at first class. He had to have $2,000 suit on. I crawled across him, didn't say boo to him. He didn't say Bow to me, not bow. I was tired. I think you've probably tired. And they service our meal. Not one word. And I said to this man had looked at him and hadn't done that. Just mind my own little business. The service our meal. 5 minutes into this meal, I get an insight from on high. I know it was. I couldn't deny it. The insight went something like this. Tell this man if he will allow my spirit to increase his vision for ministry, he won't have to spend the next 20 years trying to hold on what what, what he already has. And I said, God, clearly, God, I am not going to do that. I haven't I haven't said boo to him. He'll think I'm crazy. I'll go back to eating out of my own business. Having looked at him, I'm glad instead of don't know what he looks like. 5 minutes later, the same as I tell this man, if he will allow my spirit to increase his vision for ministry, he won't have to spend the next 20 years trying to hold on to what he already has. And I'm fussing. Powering. Finally I say, God, you'll have to open the door and this is the God's truth. But they both suck at the piece of meat I'm chewing gets so tough I cannot swallow it. And the longer I chew, the longer it gets. And I finally realize if I swallow that thing, I'm going to die.

[00:16:34] And I'm in first class, for crying out loud. Back in coach, you can pick that thing out and a paper napkin put it in your pocket. But the napkins are in first class or thinker's cardboard. And so finally, I just looked at this old man. Not old man. He was like 40 by. Maybe 50. I said. You know, this mate stuff. He laughed and said, Yeah, that's. I gave up on that meat myself. So I don't know where this comes from. I just looked at him and said, Do you make an honest living? He looked at me and said, you know, I don't. He wasn't embarrassed. I was embarrassed. I wouldn't expect how you could have floored me. I wasn't expecting this man to be quite so candid. So I said, Do we need to talk about that? He said, I just saw you pray over your meal, which I don't remember doing. I'm accustomed to doing that. So I'm sure you want to make that up. He's. I just saw you pray over your meal like we need to talk about that. I said talk. I haven't said a whole lot this conversation, I'm telling you. But 20 minutes he tells me about if this honest living. I got to tell you, it doesn't sound very dishonest to me. This man owns a controlling stock and a Fortune 500 company. You might know his name. After 20 minutes, I figured he was ready. And the moment I spoke the words, If you will allow the Spirit of God to increase your vision for ministry, you won't have to spend the next 20 years simply holding on to what you already have. He broke down. Are you listening? He broke down. He is sobbing. His body is wrecked.

[00:18:11] People are staring at us in first class. I got his nose running all over his $2,000 suit. I mean, it's embarrassing, people. I've weakened the springs to the whole machine. It took him what seemed like forever. Couldn't have been more than a couple of minutes to recover to the place where he could even talk. And when they got to the place where he could talk, he said, I guess you're wondering what's going on. I said, Truly, sir, I'm wondering what's going on. He said, 5 seconds before you spoke to me, no more. I was about to make a decision that was better for profit than for people. And I asked God if God cared and if God did care to show me. And within 5 seconds, you spoke to me. I said, What I say. What I say. I want to use that line again. He said, You tell me or may I say that again? Come on, give me something better than that. That's all he said is the truth. He said, Listen up, sir. I want you to know what God is my witness. I'm not going to be in a pressure of people anymore. But that time an airplane lands. And I'm like, sum up across him. I'm going up the jetway, I'm making time, and he's hot on my here. Follow me like a puppy. I hit the gate at the end of the jetway briefcase and oh, he blows by me. And there's a man standing there with a tunnel sign going up. Take me to this. This is 20 years ago. Don't take me to the church. They're singing another hymn. This guy, a businessman, goes up to the guy with a tunnel sign, takes him by the lapels.

[00:19:51] Imagine this and says, Sir, I've just had the most incredible experience of my entire life, and I promise, God, I would witness to the first person I saw when I got off the plane. You're it. This is this business, man. Can you get this? And he said is that I was about to make a decision that's better for profit than for people. And I went, Sir, I want you to know that God is my witness. I'm not going to be in a press out of people anymore. And then with his thumb, he motions over his shoulder and points at me, standing there like. Would you like to know what he said? He points at me and he says these words. I'm this man's unique. If you don't know the Bible, that gets you in trouble. What do you think he meant by that? You're the man on the sitting on the charitable side, right? Well, that would be you. I was Philip. I was Philip. He was the man on the chariot. He was the unit. Yeah, he was the unit. God who prepared his heart to receive that word. I may have mentioned that unit. I don't remember in our chat. I don't remember. I don't remember doing that. Well, the guy met us at the airplane. Had a lot of fun with it. That's where it takes them a day. But they are doctor alternatives to me. Whew. Isn't that amazing? Who here smart enough to pull that off? I guarantee you, Bob Tuttle Smart, not pull that off. That's a God thing. That's a Philip thing. That's a spirit thing. I mean, in the Bible. Good. How would the temple people have known that he was, even though the way he was dressed? You know, they had a they had a garb.

[00:21:45] African units still have a guard. Yeah. The. Because was in the service though. Yes. Uh huh. Okay. And in order to be right. Right. Christianity like riding a bicycle. If you're not moving forward, you're falling off the ship. Work for Cirque Salé or somebody read one of those names backwards. You've heard me say, John Wesley, Don't forget, children for the murder. It's interesting. In Wesley's works, you realize there's an interesting transition. Wesley was born in 1703 at the height of the anti-war, religious movement. It was the Enlightenment, you know, was about to take off. Religion was the burden of a joke. I told you yesterday or the day before, it was the age of Sir Robert Walpole dropped for penning Dead Drunk for tuppence. Religion was abundant of a joke. I told you that the provost at Oxford. Established a rubric that every student had some religion, had to have some religious instruction, and the dean at Christchurch refused to post the notice. Remember that? And Sam and not Samuel Wesley, but Charles Wesley had a rebellion it and when he went to the other common rooms around the 30 3020 and out of the colleges and serve saw the notice every student must have some religious instruction and there were none in Christchurch. He went to his dean and said, Why don't we have that notice published and posted on our our common room bulletin board? He said, they're not going to tell me what to do. Anyway. Wesley, who was homeschooled until he was 11 and then went to Charterhouse, which is a very prestigious boarding school in London. Right up there with Eton. Harrow and Dame Jarred. Do you know London? You've been to London. There's a. In the center of Westminster, there's Westminster Abbey.

[00:23:58] And right just to the right of the door from Westminster Abbey, there's a there's a huge portal which goes into danger, which is Westminster School, a very prestigious boy school today. And Samuel Wesley, John's older brother, he had a younger brother, Charles, who wrote to him, writer, older brother, taught exchange art and lived at danger. And when Wesley was on boarding school at Charterhouse, which was also an infirmary for. Are you interested in this? Also an infirmary for old man. And it is today an infirmary for old man. I got in. I've been in it many times, but I can get in this place. I don't know why they liked me enough to let me in. And I can take my friends, and you just don't get in that place anymore, because. But. But I've seen the little chapel where Wesley worshiped as a boy, 11 years old, 1714. He went to Charterhouse, left 1720. Six years of his life is spent in this and this compound for. But Wesley and his journalist talked about various headmasters, you know, and you see their names on the wall. I mean, it's cool. It really is cool. But Wesley, for the whole of his life, had an inordinate fear of dying. You know, he almost burned to death since 1709 when he was six years old. The people of the Isle of Axum hated. The Westies because they were loyalist. And then I have told you the story. The Isle of. England is something like this. Right. This is Wales. This is Bristol, London. Newcastle and Wesley did the circuit every year preaching. There are three rivers that come together the Idol, the Dawn and the Trent and this area. And here is a swampland called the Isle of Axum.

[00:25:47] Xh0lmi. If you're interested. An airport is right here and root is right here. His father second living. This was a swamp area. And so King George, the first one. Went over to Holland and and hired a Dutchman to come and drain these swamps. Have you been down to Harlem? You can see them that there's a name for these. You see, there's canals. It's really cool. And there's a name for those places where they're actually below water. But they're they have these dikes and created Polder. You ever heard the word polder? A polder is an area where this is dry, but it's lower than the water. This Dutchman comes in and drains the swamps. The king gave the Dutchman a third of the land he reclaimed, kept a third for the crown and left the remaining third for the people of the Isle of Axum. There seems to me that's fair. I mean, a third of something is better than a hole in nothing. In that, Right? But they hated the crown because they thought the king had robbed them blind. And so they were not loyalists. And Samuel and Susanna and and in 1695 Mood, the album Axum is loyalist and very religious. These people were irreligious. Harry Wesley, Wesley's younger sister, though their ashes dull on Dung Hills born. And said route was so far out in the woods and in the boonies that it was route out of England. W00t. Sometimes with an iron in and that was just for the second living. But anyway, Wesley. Was born in the olive zone that people hated. So they tried to burn down the pastor's, the man's. Three time. The third time they succeeded in doing it. There were 18 children born. Only ten survived infancy.

[00:27:40] John. John was on the top floor of the mess and didn't get out. And so they built a human ladder and took him out of the window. He appeared in the window all of a sudden and the rest and Susanna, for the rest of his life, that he's a brand plug in the burning that's in the Bible somewhere. Read the whole Bob. You can see all the interesting stuff, you know, where they really, really read the Bible. Wesley's all of Wesley's language is permeated by the language of Scripture. Like I plowed with your heifer. You know, he uses that a lot. Which is Samson, you see. Wesley was homeschooled. Susanna was an interesting one when she. She carried Thomas Thomas a tempest with with her everywhere she went. There were only two sources for. A devotional reading. In those days, hot church people didn't write devotional, so you had to go to the Puritans like Baxter or you had to go to the Mystics. And so these mystical treatises were in the Epworth Rectory. Suzanne Stanton was reading these mystical treatises and those some of these Puritan treatises to the children, because she held she held court, she raised these children. In the ways of God. She really did. Exceptional woman. But anyway, when he when he was 11 years old, they sent him off to Charterhouse and they stayed there until. But it was a he had an inordinate fear of dying with fear. If you're raised a Puritan and you're center and you die, what happens? You go straight to hell. Do not pass. Go. You do not collect $200. You must tell what Joe and Wesley knew. He was a sinner. He Stanford boy, you trust me. But Wesley knew he was a sinner, and he had a inordinate fear of dying because he didn't want to go to hell.

[00:29:20] Because a campus describes hell. I mean. Well, Wesley would not let his serious minded Methodist read a campus because he made them too serious. He used a campus as a wake up call to the whole Hummers. Imitation of Christ. Put starch on your shirt. I mean to tell you. And you don't have to worry about stooping over if straightening you up. Whoa. Anyway, Wesley goes to Charterhouse, which is also an infirmary for old man. And about once a month, they were carrying one of the old men out the back door and platinum in the garden. And for a kid who had an inordinate fear of dying, that's a serious adjustment. And so he finally gets to goes to Christ, drove to the most prestigious college at Oxford in 1720 as a double major religion In logic, he graduates as an undergraduate. He finishes two undergraduate degree he is, and then he stays on to do some graduate work. He writes his mother after his undergraduate degree, he writes his father, actually. I mean, you graduate from college, you have to face your fate. What am I going to do with the rest of my life? Right. And he'd been going over to the end of the cotton walls and playing cards and holding women's hands, you know. And so he thought he loved women more than he did. God, he never even kissed one of them. But he said, I love women more than God. I mean, for crying out loud. But anyway, he graduates. He said, I think I'll join Holy Orders. And his father writes back instantly and says, Whoa, you've never distinguished yourself in religion. How can you consider Holy, Holy orders and discouraged him? And Susanna caught wind of it and says, Samuel.

[00:30:55] This boyish brand plucked from the burning, do not discourage him. And so on second thought, Samuel writes another letter. So I let me reconsider that. And the second letter encourages them to seek holy order. So he does a master's degree. And religious studies. And he's really smart. This kid is really smart. And so they elected him as a fellow. He became an Oxford Don. I mean, he's a really young guy, you know, age of 23 years old. He's elected to Lincoln College, another one of the college, as does a Don. And if you don't have students, so you're paid by the crown. If you're the vicar of a church, you're paid by the crown. And if you don't have people in your in your parish, you can go live on the beach. And as long as you hire a little curate to do the work, you want to sweep the floors. But if you're an Oxford don, if you don't have students, you can live on the beach. You don't have to be in residence. And when you have students, you have to come back and live in residence. But because you're prey paid by the crown, your salaries are all paid by the crown. And so his father says he goes to Route five miles from Epworth. I mean, I tell you, I can show you a picture on this of route. It's weird. It really is weird. I took a picture of Route 250 years after Wesley was there. I have seen a lithograph of root of the church at root. I toured the same place in the view of the lithograph and took a photograph and 1968. It has not changed. Not one brick, the gravestones or even the same. The names on the gravestones are the same.

[00:32:40] I mean, it has not changed. It's stepping back 250 years in time. It is. I got chill bumps. I compared the two. Whoa. My goodness. Anyway, Wesley was there two years, and then in 1729. They passed a law that Junior Fellows had to be in residence even though they didn't have to. And so we had to move from route. And this was a mystical experiment. The Wesley had this inordinate fear of dying. Mysticism has has this union with God. He thought that was assurance with a wall around. So though there are five stages in classical mysticism awakening, which is a moral, ethical awakening, he starts his diary on April 5th, 1725, and the first entry in his diary is I decided to make religion the business of my life. He had a religious awakening. That's when he writes. His dad decided to seek holy orders. Two is that percolation where you suppress the flesh to the place where it requires little or nothing of the spirit. So when the spirits and prayer and the body says, I'm hungry, feed me, you train the body to do without food so that the body no longer interrupts the spirit when the spirit's in prayer. And when the spirit's in prayer and the body says, I'm tired. I want to go to sleep. You train the body to do without sleep so that the body no longer interrupts the spirit. The spirit in prayer. You get you into this, you understand? So first day is up as awakening a moral, ethical awakening. Second stage is permeation. Third stage is illumination. Now illumination is where just for a moment, you have an awareness of God's presence in your life. It's not habitual, it's not constant, but it's it's periodic.

[00:34:24] You have an awareness of God's presence in your life. So Wesley got hope you see, from these mystics. Wesley gets help from these mystics and because he has an inordinate fear of dying and he just for a moment, he has hope. But the force stage, get this, the four stage is dark Night of the soul. Now imagine a kid who had an inordinate fear of dying, trying to negotiate the dark night of the soul when, according to the mystics, God intentionally withdraws, forcing them to come by blind faith or naked trust. And he's what he wants the opposite. He wants an assurance. And but in order to get the union with God, which is constant assurance, you have to negotiate this dark night of the soul. Wesley was emotionally incapable and negotiating. And this is what separates the band from the boys. Sounds a bit sexist, but you know what I mean. Wesley was emotionally incapable of negotiating The Dark Knight of the Soul. But for 13 years, he tried to negotiate The Dark Knight. So three experiments, one in route is solitude comes right out in the middle of nowhere. The second one is the Holy Club. When the provost said Junior Fellows had to be in red. He comes back to Oxford in November of 1729. Only to realize that Charles the previous may have started the Holy Club, and John becomes immediately becomes the head of the Holy Club. And they were calling them Bible. But Mars and Bible bigots and super irrigation man with super irrigation. Your seminar, students will know what super irrigation is. It's doing works above and beyond what was required. What God requires super irrigation. It's requiring people to do more than God would require. It's like oral.

[00:36:15] I told you, I got into an argument with oral Oral in a faculty meeting where they said the only way to train the spirits to pray in tongues. And I'm saying, you don't mean that. I don't care if it's Latin. If you're praying, you're praying in the spirit. Yeah, he did. He didn't enjoy it and threatened to fire me on national television the next morning. But he said, Well, you're right. I said, Why would you do that? He said, I didn't know all that had the people in the room off the hook, guards singing the prayer language. You thought you had the gift of time with the new, but everybody had the prayer language. I don't find that in the Bible, by the way. What do I know? Well, I know a little bit about the Bible, so I can say that Kenna and all humility. But anyway, super irrigation requiring more of people in the God require. S qpr. E. R. O. G8. O. N. Super irrigation. You may call him super irrigation man. And guess what? Call him Methodist. Wesley ran all those names up a flagpole and all of them saluted Methodist. So he wasn't terribly offended by that. So they began to call him Feathers. It was a holy club. They also call it the Holy Club. But anyway, this is. This is great fun, Wesley. He's in the holy class. He's back at Oxford. Is an Oxford Don. 79, 17, 29, 1735. It's 1735. His father's health is failing. It begs him to come back and and take over the parish in Epworth and Root. His father been given the second living at root. That's why he gave the little church to his son as a curate. During that time.

[00:37:55] By the way, I spent a lot of time with his mother reading these mystics. So he tries his three mystical experiments. The first is, at root, mystic solitude. That's when he says, We know of no religion but social religion. No gospel. The social gospel that's not about social. BEUTLER Believing in social gospel. That's not that's against mystic solitude. Remember that? Very important. And a man named who only comes to him at root and says, You cannot be a solitary Christian. And Wesley goes back to Oxford and said, Methodist. No, no, no holiness, but social holiness, modern day Methodist, Thank you for making an appeal for social gospel. He's not, although he loved the social gospel. You understand that? I'm not. He never he never was against that. Anyway, he goes back to Oxford. That's another mystical experiment, the college club. And then in 1735, his father's health was failing, begged him to come back to Epworth. Wesley decided he's going to do it. He's going to resign as an Oxford dorm. But before he can get there, his father died. And the living is given to someone else. He loved the Oxford cloister. He loved it. He loved the academic kind. He was a brilliant man. He got a five foot, £222 the whole of his life. You see a statue there on the campus? That's his real size. He wasn't much to look at. God bless him. But he had already made the mental adjustment to leave Oxford. And so he seized on notice on the common room bulletin board from the SPG Society looking for missionaries to go to Georgia. And so he and Charles in the theater made the mental break from Oxford, he said. He goes to his mother and says.

[00:39:35] What do you think, Mom? They got this. They're looking for missionaries for Georgia. You know what she said? She said, If I had a thousand signs, I would want every one of them to go to Georgia as a missionary. That's all. All John needed. And he has still has this inordinate fear of dying right now. Aldersgate is not yet. So he said this will be another mystical experience. This is where I can experience a dark night of the soul. I'll probably die on board a ship crossing the North Atlantic and the wintertime. There's a good chance you would die. It really was. I don't know what the percentage was, but it was. Like 25% of the ships went down. Maybe a slight exaggeration, but you had a good chance you were going to die. An early 18th century cross in the North Atlantic. But he gets there. Crossing over. There's a storm. It goes goes down on underneath. And here singing. He goes in and these people are singing. They're not worried about the storm. And he knows the children have complete peace and looks at them and says. Why aren't you afraid? And I said. I have to be afraid of looking. You know how kids look. What's to be afraid of? And he said, we're going to die. And the kids the children said, we're not afraid to go to heaven, for crying out loud and having to go be a whole lot better than this old smelly ship. And Wesley. Hmm. They start thinking about that. Hmm. Okay. Anyway, they get there. There's a masked man meeting them at the wharf. Name? Hispanic Bird, who's a moravian. One of these go folks like you met on the ship. And he says, Do you have the witness of the spirit? And when she says.

[00:41:24] Well, yeah, I'm a Christian. Then what do you know? You know what he wrote in his journal? In brackets. I fear they were vain words. We didn't have the witnesses spirit. Even these Moravian children had more faith than he did. The loss of a fear of death than he did a disastrous couple of three years in Georgia. Charles and it makes it less than a year goes home. Woman threatens to kill him with a pair of scissors. Finally, Wesley falls in love with a little woman named 18 year old while he's 3435. Falls in love with an 18 year old woman named Sophie Hopkins. And wants to marry or goes to the woods to pray about it. He comes back and she stays. He stays too long. It goes down to St Simons Island here. But at the same time, while he goes down to Fredricka, I'm saying time is out, you know, the northern end of the island and stays gone too long and comes back and she's married and a plumber out of spite. So you have to register for communion the previous Saturday in the Church of England. You're supposed to now. Kind of like confession if you're going to receive communion on the Sunday. She refused to register, so he refused to serve her. This was never enforced, but he enforced it with this woman spiteful. And her husband sues him for defamation of character. And the court battle goes on for six months. They cannot ever get it resolved. So in the dead of night, he slips out and takes a ship back to England. And when he gets back to England, that told us Peterborough this morning is waiting on. You've got to purge yourself of this philosophy of yours.

[00:43:01] That's just the end of his third mystical experiment, trying to get through the dark night of the soul. He can't do it to save his neck. And then he has let least was always experience. I we talked about that, where he's preaching faith justification by faith, even though he doesn't have it. And Burleigh said, preaching to you, do you get it? And then because you have it, you're preaching. I think that's all I need to tell you. I was trying to give you the story of the mystic, the mysticism about solitary religion. You want to read more? I wrote a book on it in the first person. 40 years ago. Donovan called me up and said, We like your book. We don't want it in the first person. I said, Listen, some of the stuff I ever read, I wrote this going to be good. You better not miss it. Imagine telling that to a publisher. A 30 year old kid didn't know what I was doing, didn't know, said album circum. And they published in the first person. The only book, the sophomore for two years was the Bible for them. They love me. John Wesley's life and theology. He never could negotiate the dark night of the South. We never got to the Union with God. Aldersgate was not a union with God. The assurance he got it all Ashgate. Was not habitual, but he could pray it away. He could pray away the doubt. After all, all that changed his life. The methods scholars say all of the midlife crisis have are out of their gourds. Dead wrong. It changed his life. Let me give you an example. You compare Wesley's preaching. I wrote everything he ever preached. That's recorded. You compare his sermons pre aldersgate and post all gay.

[00:44:35] Faith and the evangelical sense. As the assurance that things hoped for, the evident things not saying, and how many times that word faith is used that way in all of it. All of his pre 1738 sermons never the word faith only appears seven times and it refers to the faith that the church are in personal kind of faith. Never a personal sense. After Aldersgate. The word faith and the evangelical sense assurance of things told for evidence that things isn't on every page. Don't tell me Aldersgate didn't change the man's life. You go to some liberal seminary. I mean, say that because it sounds pejorative and they tell you all this great was a there's a Wesley Scholar, a good guy named Jenkins, teaches at University of Chicago, wrote a book on Wesley. And the poor thing that Aldersgate was a midlife crisis. He made the mistake of pulling out on me at Oxford once in the middle of one of my lectures. I never want anybody to just by arguing. But I don't mind a good argument. Especially in an academic setting. It's okay. They're all trying to lead him to Jesus Christ out loud. Whoa! We went after it. Midlife crisis. I told him, Sir Ted, if you ever read Wesley's sermons, compare them. Please don't tell me the midlife crisis. The word faith in a person is never. Now read after he said, well, he had a theological shift between 62 and 62. You're right, he did have a theological shift, but the theological shift was not giving up on justification by faith. But we're simply saying before 1748, he says, by greater say through faith, that's confirmed by assurance. Wesley wanted assurance. Union with God. He couldn't get it. And so he said, Well, I preach faith like our faith are preach assurance.

[00:46:25] I get assurance, but that's not biblical. He goes to Germany and checks out these Moravian after Aldersgate and he says, Do you have assurance that every one of them had assurance? But he said, You have to have assurance to be safe. They said, Of course not, but they all had assurance. So he thought they were messing with him. So he preached by grace, we say through faith is confirmed by assurance. And in 1748, the Bishop of Bristol, under a pen name, John Smith, smoked him out on what he calls perceptible inspiration and says, You have to perceive that you're saved. To be saved is a but that's not in the Bible. It's not in the Bible. And so Lesley backs off. He says now it's the common privilege of every Christian. You know, I have to have to know your side is there, but it's a common privilege. And then in 1762, Ted is right about that. Ted Jennings, who thinks they always get with the midlife crisis. There was a theological shift, but the theological shift was not giving up justification by faith. It was saying, we're bus by grace. Recite through faith as confirmed by works. Faith has an irritable fruit. That's what he change his attitude toward these mystics. He said as the rock upon which I'm nearly made shipwreck. And then he said he uses their life to illustrate perfection. You can't have it both ways, he said, because the miracle of manifest fruit that only faith can produce. So they must have faith without talking about it. So when I did my district state dissertation was realizing here bridges ten mystical treatises. There was a Ph.D. dissertation just came out on Wesley Mysticism while I was in his study in in England and had read Wesley with an index didn't read all of Wesley had not read the first edition.

[00:48:03] Pine 1771 1771 Edition Not realizing Wesley abridged a thousand pages of mystical extract. The guy writes a Ph.D. dissertation on Wesley Mysticism and never knows it because the second edition left out a thousand pages of mystical abstract without without a footnote. And I'm just trying to get everything read. I mean, the British Museum reading room. Whoa. And so the ten mystical apprentice, then they said, My Don at Bristol said that you won't find exact edition. I'll have to treat Wesley at a mentor and I Cambridge down at Bristol. I knew more about Wesley in three months than he did. He had a total recall. So we all everything he knew about Wesley was on the surface. He intimidated me. Little ole kid for three months. After three months, I'm saying, Whoa, this guy, he's just about that. But that deep. After three months, he didn't bother me anymore. I mean, never. He said, Sir, don't call me sir. Help me here. I helped him a bunch. When hoo who only pointed out that you couldn't really have a solitary gospel. He kind of swung all the way and said he nearly hit shipwrecked. Through mysticism and then he swung away from it. Is that it? Until he. Yeah, that's right. That's exactly right. Fruit. Wherever. That's right. You can't be saved by works. Which can't be say without them either works or the inevitable fruit being hungry, clothe them. That could visit in the second in prison. Are you listening? This is a good theology. Go preach this. Teach it the rest of your life. Trust me on this. That's why you pay seminary professors to do what they do. They're supposed to know This stuff is supposed to help you learn this stuff. Nobody help me with this in seminary.

[00:49:57] I remember almost nothing of my seminary education. I remember everything of my MPH day. And I finished my stand on 27th birthday. I remember it all. I don't remember my name at the time, but I remember all that. That's why you go to seminary. I told you. Billy Graham said if he knew Jesus was going away for years to come back. It's been spent three of those years in seminary. We could save you 30 years. We can give you a leg up. That's why you're here. I know it's costing you an arm and a leg, and I'm sorry about that. I really am. This stuff is also interesting. It's interesting to see how people how their faith makes the adjustments and how they can be an instrument of God. As a means of growing. You see what's happening in your own minds. That's why I want you to journal. See what's happening. See how your faith is growing. And what God is teaching you and what your sphere of influence is. That's what this course is all about. Helping you sort through who you are. Develop some kind of expertise in some area you don't have to do a Ph.D. won't make anybody in this room smarter. Pitched a little better than average intelligence. Who are overachievers? You don't have to get a Ph.D., but developing a feel of a field, develop an expertise where no one threatens you. A place where you can withdraw and feel safe. I'm embarrassed to tell you that. But it'll help you. Where no one intimidation. Everyone needs a place where you can withdraw, where you're safe, where no one intimidates you. Some expertise. I'm giving you this for nothing. Not because it's worth nothing. I want you to know something about something more than anyone else knows.

[00:51:56] And then you'll write about it someday. It'll become a bestseller. And I'll come to you and say, I know you win. Follow up through relationships makes the sphere of influence so important that I tell you about the Muslim in London. I led to Jesus when? When I lived in London. I lived in London for just six months. But I work into the British Museum reading room. You know, you're Anglicized. You can talk about the band with a straight face. Beam Reading Room. British Museum Reading Room. I live down on Edgware Road and a place called Sussex Gardens. Cheap place to live. Halfway out, there was a little delicatessen owned by a muslim family. So two or three, sometimes four days a week, I stop and get a sandwich. I was poor and you could get them for three shillings, $0.36 a good. You get a whole meal for three and six. But I'd get me a sandwich. It was a delicatessen where the room was. The whole building was no much, much wider than this. So you walk in, walk in the door, and it's just about that much. Had the window here and the counter here with a kind of a just this much room in the whole restaurant. Delicatessen. And so you would stand here and look in the case and and order your sandwich and they would hand it to you. And there were no top no room for tables. So you'd have to go outside to a little picnic area just right next to the delicatessen and have your meal. From that, I take it how much time I'd have at that table. I'm sitting out having my sandwich at that table, and their son, who their 25 year old son, couldn't do anything right.

[00:53:32] This kid was messed up. He was so messed up. He was an embarrassment to his mother and dad. And one day I. I have my sandwich. This kid comes out and sits down next to me. I've been in their home, you know. I know that knew him pretty well. I went there a lot. And I've forgotten his name. I can't believe I got his name. But I said his name. I said, You know what's happenin? What's up? Yeah, I mumble, you know, And I, I, for some reason, have no idea where this come from, I said. Tell me about the Islamic law. When I asked him that question and he did the best he could. You know, give me the five pillars and, you know, some of this some of this, I'll say is now said, you really want to obey that law. He looked at me and said, Bob. I've been trying to obey that law all my life. I said, listen up. I'm going to tell you a story. I got good news for you. And what I tell him. I tell him how I could measure up to the Islamic law by putting his faith and trust in Jesus and accessing the power of the Holy Spirit. And he said, Let me see if I got this straight. You're telling me I have to become a Christian in order to become a muslim? I said, That's your only hope. Your only hope for measuring up to the Islamic law. Everybody has that need to measure up. Your only hope for measuring up to the Islamic law is to become a Christian, to access the power of the Holy Spirit. He said, Are you sure it's worth it? I said, What do you mean? He said, Well, you know, it'll cost me my family.

[00:55:13] I should tell you what I want you to do. I said, I want you to go back in and tell your mom and dad they know me. What I just told you about how to become a muslim by accessing the power of the Holy Spirit, by putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. So he went back into the building. I said, Then come back here tomorrow and tell me what they said. The next day. I was early. He was earlier. He was waiting on me. I said, Well, what did he say? You know what they said to him? His Muslim mother and father. They said, Son, go for it. You're an embarrassment after where you are. Whatever it takes to measure up to Islamic law. Go for it. I led him to Jesus and 15 minutes took him. Then the point of this is took him to All Souls. Langham Place. You ever hear of John Stott? Great man. Basic Christianity. Great man. Up front. Up there with C.S. Lewis. He was the vicar at All Souls Langham Place. He was a bachelor and would have guessed for lunch every Sunday because he was a bachelor and he served meals and I was by myself. And so I'd have lunch every Sunday with John Stott. One went to Lazard. He was kidnaped in Lausanne. I was sitting in the front row. They got to be 6000 people in the room. He looks at me, He points at me and goes. Winked at me. I'd have made my day anyway. He had a group for Muslim converts. All I did was just plug this kid in this group of Muslim converts and they disciple him. That's the point I'm making here. Oh, well, John, bless him.

[00:57:04] Did he remain a muslim? Yeah, he remained a Christian. A muslim? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but who? He was a Christian. Yeah. But it really tried to measure up to this. And he prayed as a muslim. His parents were so proud of him. Mhm. Praying five times a day. Sober. Gave his money to the poor, Got a job. His parents love me. Corrie ten. Boom. Not good, if detached. I'm going to spend a week next week with her girl Friday for ten years. Ellen de Croon. Married to Bob Stamps, the guy who led me to Jesus. She wrote a book about my time, my years with Corey. Matthew 1818 whatsoever You, the church, listen to this whatsoever. You the church. Bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatsoever you, the church loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Talking about community, talking about the important born again. What then? You got not good, if detached. You get single out, you get picked off. The only strain of humankind to evolve into modern humankind was Homo sapiens, because they were not the fittest. They were their own, the ones that dare to become community. Margaret Mead. Civilization was in place, at least from the earliest human fossil with a healed, broken femur. Only way to survive a broken femur. Someone else has to feed you. We really do need each other. So church, by the way, Jesus says on this rock, I give you the keys to the kingdom, to Peter. Every time you see Peter in Rome. Peter has the keys. Paul has the sword. Peter has a key. I know the keys to the kingdom. Whenever you see statues of Peter, you had the keys. Hold up the keys to the kingdom.

[00:58:53] On this rock. I'll build my church. Post church. His church. Jesus. The church. Right. I'll give you the keys to the kingdom. So what? What? Jesus. Saint Peter, I'm gonna give you the keys to the kingdom. So Peter's to do the work of the kingdom. Jesus. This church. We get it back. We say, Whoa! Jesus. You do the work of the kingdom and we'll look after the church. Church is our church. No, no, no, no. In my church, my body. You do the work of the king. We get it backwards. I used to be able to say that better, but you get the point. Matthew. Lucy. What do you think that's really talking about? When you become a Christian, you're baptized by the Holy Spirit or the body of Jesus as the body of you become the elect. Apart from the body. You're not. You're not cut loose. The only way to get to heaven is to be a part of the body. Doesn't mean you have to join a physical church, but the church is the body of Jesus worldwide. That's why. Bart, don't you love Carl? Bart? I mean, you can have your cake and eat it, too. He believes in election. Jesus is the elected man. And if we put our baptized by the Holy Spirit into his body, we become the elect. You know that. You believe an election? These all reform theologians don't threaten you. Cowan had a current kidney stone that told you that he died sitting on a toilet seat trying to pass one of those suckers. Now, you know, I believe in total depravity. God bless him. Those folks don't bother you. I believe in the election. I believe that Jesus is the elected man. And when I'm baptized by the Holy Spirit into his body, I become the elect.

[01:00:36] So whatever you bind, whatever becomes a part of the Body of Christ is part of the body of Christ and heaven, whatever chooses to be loosed from the body of Jesus. It's not a part of the body of Christ in heaven. I think that's what it means, don't you? Trust me. Yes. You believe that, don't you? Yeah, Bob, I believe that. Thank you. I just manipulated you a bit, and I'm ashamed of myself. Clem Coleman's master plan of evangelism. Jesus spent most of his time with his 12 disciples, not with the crowds. He picked a few, by the way. Planet of Evangelism has about nine, six or nine chapters. Three of them, one one in chapter is selection, one is demonstration of the one is reproduction. Those are the three most important chapters. I tell you how I met Clem Coleman. If you see, my plan of evangelism is a classic. Written in 1973. He's written 2000 books. He's an Asbury icon. I went to Lausanne trying to talk to all these people. I'm a kid, you know, trying to talk to these all these famous theologians. I read all their books and couldn't get anybody to look at me. I'd get in front of them for 30 seconds, and after 30 seconds, they all would. They're always looking over my head, looking for somebody else. And finally, within 30 seconds, inevitably, they'd look down at my name tag and said, Oh, Bob, I'm sorry. I've got I've been looking for this person for three days. I couldn't get anybody to pay attention to me. Until Clem Coleman. Robert Coleman. I met Robert Coleman. He was bigger than these other guys. As Clem Coleman IV definite name is claimed. Robert Coleman. I met Robert Coleman.

[01:02:19] I couldn't get rid of him. He said, Come sit down. Come sit down. Talk to me. 2 hours. He talked to me. More famous than any other people, and I couldn't get rid of him. When I moved to Chicago, he was teaching at Deerfield at Trinity. And before we went to Gordon Conwell, where he retired from Gordon Conway and now lives in Wilmore. We had breakfast twice a month. For ten years. He disciple Billy Graham. Tilda goes to Asheville once a month. You heard of Billy Graham? He's a good guy. He really is good guy. Clem Coleman, planner of Evangelism Planner, Discipleship. He's spent most of his time A selection. He'd picked a few. It taught them by modeling ministry demonstration, and they expected him to reproduce. When you disciple people, you go into your first church. What do you do? You don't change a thing. Who was telling us about last night at your church? At your house? Someone was saying this young pastor came in and changed everything. We all. They all hated him. I don't blame him for hating him. Well, you don't go and ask before you know what the questions are. I don't change a thing. Don't matter what the organist I, even though she's 80 years old and been playing it for 60 years, leave her alone, at least for one year. After you've been there for a year, you've knocked on doors and preached good sermons. All you do for the first year, knock on doors and preach good sermons, knock on doors and preach good sermons. Let people know that you love them. Then you can start to change stuff. Don't go and start changing stuff right off the bat. People will rise up and bite you on the rear.

[01:03:58] They will. They won't put up with that. Use your hands. Picked a few who were teachable. The disciples weren't the smartest. But they were teachable. They had hearts for God. Jesus was the master. Show and tell. Demonstrating his method. Working with the sick, the demonized rothblatt. Right. The poor, the rich and privileged, the outcast, the rulers of the synagogue. The seminary professors. The Gentiles. Doesn't he? Just demonstrates all that stuff. His genius was with his disciples. Time with his disciples. Where he modeled the ministry. Klem Cohen does the same thing. He'll take you to the streets of Lexington, Kentucky, and students and preach on a stick street corner and do it in such a way that you're not offended. I've got, evidently. Florida State University. I've had two case studies from students from Florida. Where they talk about an evangelist who comes on campus and shots at people and calls people, whores and all that kind of stuff. Oh, my. Yes. I mean, they feel call of God to do it and has it very hesitant to be critical of anyone else's ministry. But I want to slap somebody like that. Also, grow up. You're doing more harm than good. I know you want to be obedient to God. I salute you for that, sir. But there's better way to do it. You do more harm than good. Marshall. Jesus. Well, just call. Call the Pharisees. Hypocrites. Yeah, but. Not very often. So we watched Jesus working with the sick, the demonized, the poor, the rich and privileged, the outcast, the rulers of the synagogue, the seminary professors, the Gentiles. They watched him. He demonstrated prayer that, you know what? You know what the Greek word Ramos means? You see it all over the Bible.

[01:06:06] It's a lonely place, you know where the lonely place is. I have found it. You know that little monastery. I'll take you there. That little monastery where Jesus went to pray by himself. A Ramos went out alone. Went off alone. It's a cave just above Tabqa. It's here. Jerusalem. Jericho. Mount Nebo. Sea of Galilee. That's a Capernaum that's bestowed as Corazon. That's the Miracle Triangle. This is Capernaum, a mile and a half. West of Capernaum is a place called Tabqa. Loaves and fishes. You know, you've seen that mosaic of the loaves and fishes that's on the floor at the mosaic, on the floor of this cathedral. I lived there for two months. Wrote a novel there. And right up above this is. This is the Beatitudes Mount of Beatitudes. Where Jesus preached to the 5000. There's a church of the Beatitudes up there. And right here. And there's a road going along here, Not here. That's up 50 yards from this monastery. Up on the side of the hill is a cave. And these monks tell me about this cave. And there was a legend of a paralytic who called himself in that cave to escape the torch of the Pharisees, because the Pharisees associated disease with sin. And he was himself in to escape the times of the Pharisees. Not because he thinks they're wrong, because he knows they're right. You understand? I wrote a novel about this guy. It took me too much to find this cave. I fell in it. I'm walking my bicycle down from the down the steep hill and the dust is like that thick and that part of the where the sand washes down. And so I had to get I couldn't run my bicycle through that dust when I'm walking and I see a tree growing out of a strange kind of an angle, I go over to examine fall in this cave, and there's remnants of a walk rock wall.

[01:08:00] It was a pillbox during the 67 war, and they claim it's the remnant of this cave or this paralytic. And this is the only place. I'm convinced of it. Where Jesus went to pray. I used to sit on that wall and watch the Scuds go over. Anyway, I told you 70% of the miracles that Jesus worked, worked in that little triangle. You can ride it on the bicycle and a half a day. But Jesus prayed. He went to this lonely place and pray. And he demonstrated. He did it so well. The disciples said, Whoa, you do that so well. Teach us to do that. Don't you want somebody to come up and say, Whoa, Cathy. But yeah, it's going to happen. It's going to happen. Whoa! Kathy, you minister so wonderfully. Teach us to do that. Just by the way, you touch people. You know, at the mall. People just. It works, doesn't it, though? Admit it. It works. You want to maul people? Yes. I have a friend where Diane and our best friend. My best friends. We met them in Wales, staying in a hotel, and they ran out of rooms. So they only. We don't stay there one night as they. But you stay with Tiggy up on the hill. She owns her mother. Really owns all this place anyway. And so we call up, dig in and say, Yeah, I didn't come a corner. So we go up and Tiggy is a character. She is a real character. She's like, I'll go pick up my boys at school. Just come on and make yourself at home. So we're in her kitchen looking at her pictures on her refrigerator. I looked at the two of the pictures and said. I recognize that person.

[01:09:47] It's Prince Harry and Prince William holding her two children. They're the godparents for her two little chortle. I said, Tiggy, when she gets home. What's up with. She said, Well, I was their nanny. Prince William and Prince Harry. And I was with them when Dad was killed at Balmoral. Did you see the wedding? The royal wedding. You know the little boy. But behind the bride dressed up. That's her son. Her mother is. Is the lady in waiting for the queen? Anyway, I gave it up, and I think it was worth nothing. Why do I tell you that, Tiggy? What? Oh, yeah. Thank you very much. Tom, this kid in the wedding, you know, thought his good luck, kid. One time, Tom was showing us how to fish. Tiggy is a really good fisherman. She lets me fish this river. She loves me, loans me, her waiter, waiters, you know. And that's how we write once a month. You know, she really. We really. We really like each other. And Tom messed up one day really badly, and he's about to cry. You know what? You did dig. You went. We're given. It's all it took. Just forget it. Do you like that? Diane. Sometimes my wife says we're giving. Most of life is subtle If you know how to pay attention. And there's power and subtlety, I mean, incredible power. You don't have to call people whores and shout at them. It's always overkill. I have a friend, Jim Buskirk. Who? It was chairman of our board and seminary for a while. A six foot five, and he was my dean at our youth for a while. He'd come into faculty meeting and shout. Finally, one day I just took him aside and said, Buskirk.

[01:11:45] When anyone's as big as you are, whatever you raise your voice, it's always overkill. Someone your size should never raise their voice. It's always overkill. You need to whisper. Power and subtlety. If you're dead serious about life, don't take yourself too seriously. But to get serious about God, there's incredible power and subtlety just forgiven. Okay. Let's take a break. They want to come back. May I practice my three devotionals on you? And then we'll let George. Talk to us.