A Vision For Evangelism: Bearing Witness

I. We bear witness to hope that is within.
I Peter 3:15
1Pet. 3:15 but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;

II. We bear witness to the Lord who gives us hope.
1Pet. 3:15 but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;



III. We bear witness to the Lord, so that the hearers might be granted repentance.
2Tim. 2:24 The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged,
2Tim. 2:25 with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,

IV. We bear witness, stimulated and empowered by the Spirit of Christ.
Acts 1:6 ¶ So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”
Acts 1:7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority;
Acts 1:8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

…church historian Kenneth Scott Latourette:
"the primary change agents in the spread of faith...were the men and women who earned their livelihood in some purely secular manner, and spoke of their faith to those whom they met in this natural fashion."
--Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of the Expansion of Christianity,
Volume I: The First Five Centuries, 116.,


Recovering from a serious illness, Phillips Brooks refused to receive any visitors, even his closest friends.
When the agnostic Robert Ingersoll called, however, the bishop did not turn him away. Ingersoll, conscious of the privilege, was curious to know the reason behind it.
Said the bishop, "I feel confident of seeing my friends in the next world, but this may be my last chance of seeing you."

--Phillips Brooks (1835-93), US Episcopal bishop—Massachusetts (b.1835-d.1893).
The Little, Brown Book of Ancedotes edited by Clifton Fadiman