Youtube Video

MP3 Podcast

Summary

In this conversation, Chris Graham explores the themes of personal evangelism, the importance of understanding biblical context, and the value of every soul. He shares insights from various parables, emphasizing the need for churches to focus on outreach and the significance of each individual in God’s eyes. Through engaging anecdotes and biblical references, he highlights the challenges and responsibilities of evangelism in contemporary society, urging listeners to embrace their role in reaching the lost.

Chapters

00:00 Opening Prayer and Introduction of Speaker
00:01 The Importance of Personal Evangelism
07:50 Jesus’ Teachings on the Lost
22:20 The Prodigal Son and the Value of Repentance
28:32 Lessons from the Rich Man and Lazarus
41:15 The Life-Saving Station Parable

Transcript *This transcript was automatically generated and may contain errors.*

Chris Graham (00:01)
might help. In 1980 when I was much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much younger and a preacher student myself at the Bear Valley School of Biblical Studies I came home to La Junta, Colorado and came into my brother’s house. And he had a Reader’s Digest. A brand new book had been published and was in the Reader’s Digest without many of the illustrations by David McCauley.

and we embarrassed ourselves. Our wives forbade us from ever discussing this book again. David McCauley wrote a book for teenagers and for young adults ⁓ about archeology. In the book, The Motel of the Mysteries, David McCauley imagines a world in which

In 1979, a law was passed by the US Congress, signed by the President, put into effect that required every transaction in the United States to be filed with the US government in triplicate. And promptly, the entire country was buried under 10 feet of red tape. And now a

type archeologist has come along and seen the Motel of the Mysteries. He sees these amazing icons of the past separated by a great distance and somehow irregularly placed along there, but obviously manmade. And he focuses on the Tutankhamun Motel.

with color TV. And he misinterprets everything there. This was the sacred pendant in this temple. And this temple in this horseshoe shape was surrounded by mobile sculptures of abstract deities of cougars and mustangs.

and Pinto’s and Mavericks and

This was the sacred altar.

This was the sacred urn.

And one of the archeologists, an assistant, decided to model what the high priestess must have looked like wearing the sacred collar, the sacred pendant, some pretty amazing earrings here. But notice the sacred words. They did not know what they meant, but they were able to read the amazing words, sanitized.

for your protection.

We probably laughed a lot more than it was worth.

But out of context, desiring to misunderstand something, we can misunderstand things wildly. On the other hand, if we actually dig into the context correctly, the information we gain can be as revolutionary as Paul’s revelation of the unknown God in Acts the 17th chapter.

And so, leaving that behind, I want to tell you what I’m doing.

I retired from teaching and I was asked by, I had preached for 16 years in California, New Mexico, Texas. ⁓

and Colorado and been in campaigns in Ukraine and I don’t know 19 states or so and continue to do that kind of work and I have always done personal evangelism. I just come from an era I suppose or the examples around me, my father preached and constantly was involved in personal evangelism. The youth minister, we didn’t have a youth minister, it was the preacher and ⁓ he was either doing a youth activity or he

was bringing people to Christ through Bible studies so often. That’s just my understanding of what a preacher does is we’re sharing God’s Word. And I want to train others. Jack Cummings was a ⁓ professor at LCU in Lubbock and as a serviceman,

He was shown the Jill Miller film strips and converted to Christ. And he began using them himself.

He spent a career as a personal worker and minister. And whenever he was no longer a pulpit minister in nearby congregation, he came to us to help train us in personal work and to found the school of evangelism that I now direct. The idea is simply to train as many people as possible to be personal workers, to tell somebody else about Jesus, to be

trained in not only teaching themselves but guiding others to be their silent partners and to put in effect effective programs of evangelism throughout the Brotherhood as many places as possible. ⁓ We just graduated our fourth class from ⁓ class work.

And about 100 baptisms have now come about because of the students there. 32, I believe, last year in our congregation of 140 members right now. So we are growing and we’re going through lots of difficulties and lots of problems. Praise God for the problems. And so, such is not the case everywhere.

did a survey, just my own informal survey. I got on Google, I got on the internet, and I searched for every Church of Christ I could find with a website in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. And I was able to find about 40 effective detailed websites that told me about what the Church was doing. The number of ministries ranged from about 7 to 24.

And of those churches, two had an evangelism ministry. Lots of them had young people’s ministries, seniors’ ministries, lots of benevolent ministries. And they talked about reaching out in the community in various ways, but did not have anything to teach, tell people how to teach others about Jesus Christ, except two.

These things ought not to be so.

I want to stop talking and let Jesus do the talking. In fact, I love expository preaching and I teach it. And we’re going to take everything we have to say from now on. I hope it’s not just through my lens too much, but we’re going to start in Luke the 15th chapter and we’re going to stay with Jesus’ message.

in Luke chapters 15 and 16 which I would divide in six parables of loss. Six parables of lost things. I don’t, we’ll read a lot of this, although I don’t think it’s necessary. You know all six of these parables if you’ve been in the church for any length of time if you’ve been a Bible student. And I don’t think there’s anything new here for you.

But I will tell you, quite frankly, get your steel-toed shoes on, or just get them out on the aisle because Jesus is gonna stomp all over our toes. We begin. Of the six parables, number one is found beginning in verse four. But before we get there, let’s set the stage as Luke, the physician,

who searched these things out carefully as he wrote this account by the Holy Spirit. Let’s listen to his setting the stage. Then all the tax collectors and sinners, verse one, drew near to him to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them. So he…

spoke this parable. Situation is sinners, the worst of sinners, publicans who are tax collectors for the Roman government who have a franchise with them notorious for their dishonesty because the system was set up that excess taxes went into the tax collectors pocket. They had a system that incentivized them to cheat.

and other kinds of sinners were there and the brethren don’t like it. It’s gotten messy. And in fact, Brian, while we welcome those who graduated from schools of preaching, those who are preaching currently, and we have had a number of preachers come through the program and become much more effective in their ministries. Mike, I’m looking for some of you.

I’m looking for the deacon of evangelism. I’m looking for the sister that greets the members. I’m looking for the person they can’t fire because we’ve got a problem. I need somebody who’s gonna stir things up so badly you wanna get rid of them but you can’t get rid of them. They’ve been there 20 years. And besides, they’re doing the right thing. They’re just making us uncomfortable. Parable number one.

a lost sheep. What man of you, verse 4 of Luke 15 beginning, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness.

and go after the one which he lost until he finds it. And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.

than over 99 just persons who need no repentance. The message that will be repeated over and over, you are important if you are a God wants you to come home.

And to the saints, one of those is more important than all of you. They must be the focus. They have to be who we’re looking for because that’s who God’s looking for. ⁓ that is a dramatic readjustment. For they don’t pay my salary.

But I’m going to talk to them at church first.

My brethren have problems and difficulties which I’m going to listen to and want to talk to and we’re going to pray about it and we’re going to discuss it and I’m going come into their homes, but I’m going to the center first.

because they’re lost.

I have a question for you. Where were the 99? Do not answer from your memory. Find it in the text.

Where were the 99?

The song’s wrong. There were 99 who safely lay in the shelter of the fold. Baloney. They were in the wilderness. They were left to their corporate security of the flock. While the shepherd, the one that had God’s point of view, left them to their own devices and went after the one.

We hire preachers of all stripes to serve us.

We spend millions on things that don’t seek the lost, except indirectly. But the shepherd did what he had to do. That’s where God wants us to be. And God criticizes us when we’re, have a different focus. Second parable.

beginning in verse 8. what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin does not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it. And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together saying, rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost. Likewise I say to you,

There is joy in the presence of the angels of heaven over one sinner that repents.

Same message. One sinner is of tremendous value. We don’t understand the parable very well, but they did. Because their brides follow the tradition that continues on today that their husbands owned everything about them. All of their property became their husbands except

their bridal veil, their dowry veil. Remember seeing a picture in one of these in National Geographic that the woman had about a dozen or more good size silver coins in a network of silver and she wore that every day, she wore that all the time because if she was divorced by her husband that was hers.

The children were hers, but that was hers. And this is not a denarius. You’ll note the notation from the New King James Version in the margin. It’s a drachma. It is worth several times what the amount of silver was in a denarius. And Jesus set the denarius at a single day’s wage. You see,

This woman has lost one-tenth of her portfolio, one-tenth of her security, one-tenth of what is hers. And she will spend whatever money it takes, light a lamp. She will expend whatever effort it takes sweeping that house. She’ll do whatever it takes to find that precious thing because it’s important to her. And God thinks every soul…

Lost in sin or not is so precious that whatever is spent, whatever it takes, we gotta find them. And when we find them, we’ve got to rejoice together. The value of the single soul.

Third parable.

Verse 11, then he said, a certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, father give to me the portion of goods that falls to me. So he divided to them his livelihood and not many days after.

The younger son gathered altogether, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. And when he’d spent all there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want, then he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate. But no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said,

How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough to spare? And I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father. I will say to him, Father, I’ve sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his father, but when he was still a great way off, his father saw him, had compassion,

and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. The son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, bring out the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet and bring the fat calf here and kill it. Let us eat and be merry for this my son was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found and they began to be merry. ⁓ what a story of a lost boy for the sinners and the publicans and for us because all of us have found ourselves in this place. So much here. In fact, I think Jesus’ Bible study here

To restore the lost is better than any I’ve ever come up with.

Just share a Bible story when you go and sit with somebody who’s left the Lord. Don’t let them tell you they haven’t left the Lord. Just let that roll off you. They’re gonna say that and just say, you know you haven’t been to church in six weeks. I don’t know, but I don’t know of anything you’ve contributed. I don’t know of any person you’ve brought to church with you, any souls you’ve brought to Christ. Brother.

Brian, I don’t know what you’d have to do to leave, anymore you’d have to do to leave the Lord, but that’s not what the story’s about. This story’s about the boy who came to himself. If you’re lost, this story, we’ve had the story of the drachma. This story is telling you, number one, sin’s a pig pen.

I’ve been in some pig pens with shag carpeting and beautiful art on the walls, but every life without Christ is a pig pen. And the only sane act in the pig pen is repentance. Remaining there, you haven’t come to yourself yet. You’ve gotta come to yourself. And when he went home,

This is an old man who runs. I don’t know how old his father was, but he wasn’t too old to run. He was looking, and when the boy came a long way off, he ran, fell on his neck, kissed him. It’s time for celebration. And that’s what God will do for you, sinners. And you are that, me too. I’m forgiven, but wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?

I’m still fighting the battle. And God still wants me to come home. By the way, I’m sorry I didn’t speak up yesterday. We missed, I think, the biggest fruit. And that from Matthew chapter four, John the Baptist told the Pharisees, who we’re speaking at now, the axe is already laid at the root of the tree. Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance.

And that’s the kind of fruit we’ve got to keep on bringing. Because sometimes the Lord has talked to us like he talked to Peter. Feed my sheep. Do you love me? Feed my sheep.

Story’s not over. Parable number four.

beginning in verse 25. Now his older son was in the field and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing, so he called one of the servants and asked, what these things meant? And he said to him, your brother has come and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.

But he is angry and would not go in. Therefore his brother came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father, these many years I’ve been serving you, I never transgressed your commandment at any time, and yet you never gave me a young goat that I may make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots.

You killed the fatted calf for him. And he said, son, you’re always with me. And all that I have is yours. It is right that we should make Mary and be glad for your brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found.

What’s the message? For sinners, the lost boys, this lost boy who never left home, the message for the sinner is, you’re still worth it even if some of the brethren don’t get it. We need to preach this message because it always disrupts us, upsets us, and…

somebody sits in my pews, somebody brings in little children who are noisy, praise God. Somebody brings in life problems and they didn’t even share all those problems. They don’t understand that they shouldn’t be drinking that or smoking that or living with that. And while we do our very best to explore some of these circumstances and remind people

Such were some of you, but you were washed. Gotta change these things. I remember sitting with one family and we went through that passage and they weren’t married and she just folded that page down. They were gonna talk about that some more later on than I left. You’re gonna cause problems, but God loves you and you’re worth it. God wants you.

Also has to learn consequences are not removed by the blood of Christ. Eternal consequences are removed by the blood of Christ. But the consequences didn’t go away. He had shoes and a ring and a robe because daddy was rich, but he wasn’t.

You see the Father was fair. The message for the saints, for the Pharisees is your jealousy is ugly.

It’s wrong. It’s a shame.

There’s a very clear difference between this young man’s account of what his brother was doing and what the scriptures actually say his brother was doing. He wasted his living, his substance with riotous living, but his brother takes it a step further and I just know he would do what I would want to do and he’d be with the harlots. You see, his imagination.

shows his jealousy, the ugliness of the jealousy he is living in.

The saints need to remember.

There’s enough love in God’s heart. There’s enough room in heaven that it doesn’t matter if somebody went to the field in the first hour of the day and the last hour of the day. I’m not going to get cheated. God’s going to treat me right. This son should have trusted the Father that even though he had perhaps been a bit indulgent,

and let that younger boy go, he wasn’t gonna do wrong by his older son. The real problem was his salvation, his return home was gonna cut into my inheritance. And the father nails it. All I have is yours. I don’t like dynamic equivalence translations, but there’s one place I do.

Now and then the dynamic equivalence is right. That is telling me the thought, the concept of the scripture, and sometimes that concept is right. And I just love the New International’s translation of verse 32. We had to rejoice. We had to.

It was incumbent upon us. It was necessary. How could we do anything else? He was dead and he’s alive again. He was lost, he’s found. How can we not rejoice? We had to. What’s wrong with you brother is really what’s being said. God expects us to look for the lost brother too. It’s not optional. We had to. Now, you might think I’m done.

Unfortunately I’m not, we’ve got two more parables to go. We will not read the next parable. But you remember it. The parable of the lost job. The lost position. This is one of the most troubling parables to expositors of the New Testament, to gospel preachers, Bible class teachers. How in the world does Jesus commend this man who as a steward

is about to be audited, he realizes he’s going to lose his job, and so he says to the individuals who owe his master money, cheat the master. You owe 100 bushels of wheat, write down 50, quickly, do it now. You owe this many baths, no, right, change it, write this down. He’s cheating the master.

And Jesus says even the Master commended Him because He’d acted shrewdly.

Learn from this parable the audit’s Publicans.

And you’re not gonna survive the audit. How about you? I’m not gonna survive the audit either. I don’t want the Lord to remind you of how much I’ve spent on clothing, how much I’ve spent on entertainment, how much I’ve spent eating out. Ooh, that one hurts. And how little I’ve given to the Lord.

The publicans weren’t gonna survive the audit. Maybe Zacchaeus can say, I’ll pay back fourfold. I can just imagine Zacchaeus was already a convert of John the Baptist who said, only take the taxes you’re supposed to. He’d been honest and was looking for Jesus. He still looked down upon, but Jesus’ salvation comes to his house that day. I don’t think most of the publicans could possibly say, I’ll pay you back fourfold.

They’re not gonna make it through the audit, but neither then are any of us. And since I can’t survive the audit.

I’m gonna give away all I can. I’m gonna do what’s right. I’m gonna take care of others in their needs. And as a leader in the church, I’m not just gonna wait for the folks off the street to come to me. I’m gonna be looking for the brethren who’s lost their job.

the brothers and sisters who seem to be anxious and worried, is it a money problem? I’m gonna be looking for problems I can solve and help and I’m gonna do good to all men, but first I’m gonna do it to the household of faith. That’s Galatians chapter six. I’m gonna send my money on ahead. And then, let’s continue our reading with beginning in verse 14.

The Pharisees who were lovers of money also heard these things and they derided him. That’s Jesus they’re making fun of. He said to them, you are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your heart for what is esteemed.

is an abomination to the sight of God. The law and the prophets were until John. Until that time the kingdom of God has been preached and everyone is pressing into it and it’s easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail. Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. And whoever marries whoever is divorced from her husband commits adultery.

Why is Jesus saying that? Because they trusted money. And they have taken the loosest interpretation of divorce available to them by the rabbis. And they have ignored God’s law, what God’s together, let not man put asunder, from Matthew 19. And they have set aside the law. And so Jesus tells them,

about a lost soul. You know the story, the account. We shift. Luke does not say Jesus tells another parable. Jesus has a name in this account about the rich man and Lazarus.

This is a message. We’ve seen the message of the lost job.

And we have the rich man who does not provide anything toward the needs of the poor man he is in contact with daily and constantly. Who longs to be even fed with his crumbs. But the only comfort he gets, if it’s comfort at all, is dogs licking his sores. Amen? Lazarus dies and how does he go to heaven? The angels carry him to Abraham’s bosom.

The rich man dies and he lifts his eyes up in torments.

What’s the message?

There’s a lot of messages here.

But for the Pharisees who are unhappy that the wrong people are coming to Jesus. Jesus is dealing with the wrong people. And Jesus isn’t telling them, fix everything and you don’t belong here because you’ve done wrong. Do what you can now, fix it now. Go ahead and give now and be right. God wants you home, come on home. And we’re gonna have to all rejoice with you, which is definitely aimed directly at those Pharisees.

But Jesus knows the real problem.

and the key to the rich man in Lazarus is I am convinced not just to give a picture of the afterlife to those who need to know that things aren’t going to go as well as they hope.

It scared me to death as a child, it should. Still scare me as an adult, it still does. I never want to be in torments. But I’m also looking forward to being with Jesus. Whatever paradise is, Jesus is gonna be there. ⁓ Paul wants to depart and be with the Lord, which is far greater. So there’s something even greater coming in heaven.

looking forward to the resurrection and having a resurrection body and being somehow like Jesus. What an amazing thing. Behold it.

We shall be like him, John tells us. That’s gonna be amazing. But the message is in the last verse of this account.

when the rich man wants Lazarus to go and warn his five brothers. When you finally get God’s point of view, you’re gonna be evangelistic. When you finally figure out what this is really all about, you’re gonna care about those five brothers you didn’t invite to come to church with you, except maybe once in a while when you had friends and family day.

You’re going to figure that out. But the message…

The message to me, if I see the problems of evangelism and I make the excuses for my evangelism, Lord, thank you for all who do play their part in evangelism and those who fulfill their abilities. Priscilla and Aquila, it’s almost always Priscilla and Aquila. And.

They’re the advance team for Paul in Ephesus. Read that carefully. Paul goes through Ephesus, speaks in the synagogue, but leaves Priscilla and Aquila behind, and there they privately speak to Apollos. I’m reading into the text. This is ace of Jesus, and I know not to do that. But I think there’s a clear implication here, as many times as it’s Priscilla and Aquila, that perhaps Aquila was not

a public speaker, was not one to stand up in the synagogue like Apollos did and confound others with the truth. And Aquila, in a private situation, Priscilla and Aquila as a team work so well together.

We don’t ever want to commend leadership roles taken by women in the church.

whenever God tells us an elder must be.

the husband of one wife. Hard for to be even women. Whenever we’re talking about how the worship is done decently in order, let the women keep silence in the church.

But my mama, she never stopped sharing God’s word with me till the day she died. I’ll never forget her telling me after one of my first sermons, you got pretty feet, She had to explain what she meant, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach to God the good tidings.

But they understood, you gotta teach the word, you gotta preach the word. And if I lose sight of the lost in the assembly with us as visitors.

the tradesman that’s in my home, the person who comes to my yard sale or the one who’s having the yard sale, everyone I come in contact with, if I ever lose sight and start thinking that person is not worthy, I have lost the vision that God has for us and I am in danger of losing honest interaction with God’s word.

where they had perverted for their own purposes, financial purposes, Jesus implies, those who are lovers of money, who put aside God’s law. And what a message this ends with. Neither if they will not hear Moses and the prophets. ⁓ Moses lived hundreds of years for most of the prophets.

Those are the two great divisions of the Old Testament. If they will not hear the word, neither will they be persuaded if one rises from the dead.

Jesus puts words of prophecy in Abraham’s mouth. For when another Lazarus rises from the dead and it’s undeniable, they will not be persuaded. Instead, they will want to take his life too. And when Jesus comes up from the tomb, is resurrected,

They will look for every lie and every excuse they can. They won’t be persuaded when one rises from the dead. That must not be us. We must not be among the Pharisees who complain about the problems of evangelism and the mess it causes and the difficulties it causes. We must be grateful for the God who runs to them and to us.

One of the oldest stories that I ever tell. I finally searched down the source of it and I’m not sure it’s the source, for I don’t believe Christianity today in the 1950s actually gave credit for this. But this modern day parable.

I don’t want to lessen its impact. So I’m just going to read it to you.

On a dangerous sea coast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a little life-saving station. The building was primitive and there was just one boat, but the members of the life-saving station were committed and kept constant watch over the sea. When a ship went down, they unselfishly went out day or night to save the lost because so many lives were saved by that station. It was famous.

Consequently, many people wanted to be associated with that station to give their time and talent and money to support their important work. New boats were bought, new crews were recruited, a formal training session was offered. And as membership in Life Saving Station, that Life Saving Station group, some of its members became unhappy that the building was so primitive and that the equipment was so outdated. They wanted a better place to welcome the survivors pulled from the sea.

they replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged and newly decorated building. Now the Life Station became a popular gathering place for its members. They met regularly when they did. It’s apparent how they loved one another. They greeted each other, hugged one another, and shared with one another the events that had been going on in their lives. But fewer members were now interested in going to sea on life saving missions.

So they hired lifeboat crews to do this for them. About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast and the hired crews brought into the life saving station boatloads of cold, wet, dirty, sick and half drowned people. Some of them had black skin, some had yellow skin, some could speak English well and some could hardly speak it at all. Some were first class passengers of the ship and some were deck hands.

The beautiful meeting place was a place of chaos. The plush carpets got dirty. Some of the exquisite furniture got scratched. So the property committee immediately had a shower built outside the house where the victims of the shipwreck could be cleaned up before coming inside. The next meeting, there was a rift in the membership.

Most of the members wanted to stop the club’s life-saving activities for they were unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal fellowship of the members. Other members insisted that life-saving was their primary purpose. And they pointed out that they were still called a life-saving station, but they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save the lives of all those various kinds of people who got shipwrecked,

They could begin their own life-saving station down the coast. You know what? That’s what they did. As the years passed, the new station experienced the same changes that occurred in the old and evolved into a place to meet regularly for fellowship, for committee meetings, for special training sessions about their missions. But few went out to the drowning people.

The drowning people were no longer welcomed into the new life-saving station, so another life-saving station was founded further down the coast. History continued to repeat itself, and if you visit that seacoast today, you will find a number of adequate meeting places with ample parking and plush carpeting. Shipwrecks are still frequent in those waters.

of the people drown.