"This was spoken..."

Yesterday I heard two separate talks on exactly the same thing, which was odd since I’m pretty sure they didn’t collaborate with one another – in fact I’m positive that they didn’t since one of the speakers has now been dead for over 50 years! Both speakers exhorted their listeners to use the Old Testament in their evangelism.

The first speaker I listened to was Jim Elliot. Yes, I know, you’re sitting there thinking that I must be delusional as he’s been with the Lord for a long while now, but, thanks to the incredible abilities of modern technology, the Billy Graham Centre in Wheaton College have two recordings of Jim Elliot’s sermons from 1951 which are available to listen to; one on the feeding of the five thousand and one on the resurrection. I listened to the latter and was amazed at just how engagingly, relevantly and passionately he preached into a 21^st century context, despite speaking 57 years ago.

Jim justified his comments about the use of Old Testament scripture in evangelism by using the example of the apostles and their use of all Old Testament scripture (see Acts), even the most obscure and seemingly unrelated, to explain the gospel to their audiences. In a way we live in a similar environment, although this may be becoming less the case as years go on and our cultures become increasingly secularised. We live in a culture where people know the Old Testament stories – they know something of Adam and Eve, of Noah, of Joseph, of Moses, of Samson, of David, of Solomon and so on… These stories all point to the life, work, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and we can use them as a springboard for our evangelism while that knowledge is still in the undercurrent of our culture.

I would encourage you to listen to Jim – it can be found here:

Jim Elliot speaking on the resurrection.

The second speaker was Zac Wyse, the UCCF staff worker for Manchester and the surrounding areas. He was speaking on Isaiah 52-53 and the suffering servant. At the end of his talk he asked a fantastic question for group discussion. He asked us to explain the gospel to one another without making explicit reference to the events of the New Testament. This is a fantastic habit to be in especially if we are explaining the gospel to our Muslim or Jewish friends who are far more likely to accept the credibility and authenticity of books such as Isaiah.

God bless.

Dear Freedom