What if you had a special once in a life time encounter with Jesus? What if He came into your living room, sat down on your couch and gave you the opportunity to ask Him one question that He would answer? What question would you ask Him? What if Jesus limited the category that you could the question to lost people that are in your life, your friends, or your family what question would you ask Him?

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Question One: Am I Looking at Lost People the Right Way?

Luke 15:1–10 (ESV)
1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” 3 So he told them this parable: 4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 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 that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. 8 “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Your Heart Should Be Open to Lost People

• Note the following words in this parable, “…the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled…”
• These religious leaders grumbled about Jesus involvement with lost people.
• While we don’t have time for foolishness, we should always have time for lost people.
• Jesus received sinners and ate with them.
• It didn’t minimize Jesus to eat with people who were not like Him.
• Jesus wasn’t any less Jesus because He ate with sinners and neither will you be any less of a Christian if you do.
• When you are in the company of other people, think of yourself as a ‘lifter of men.’
• View yourself as a person that ‘lifts people’ to a higher level when they are around you.
• It is better for lost people to be around you than it is for them to be around other lost people.

Every Person Has Great Value

DEFINITION: coin/drachma – a day’s wage for an average worker. [i]

• Because the majority of people were poor, these coins could represent the life savings of this woman and her family.

Let us look at what is common between these two parables; the parable about the sheep and the parable of the coins.

• Whether it is one sheep out of ninety-nine or one coin out of ten, the search continues until the object is found.
• In the second parable, we have the added description of what it took the woman to find the coin.
• What are we to understand about this parable?
• First, human beings are the ‘coins’ represented in this parable.
• Second, the intrinsic value of the individual coin is not the main point to focus on.
• Jesus is not saying, “Look at how much this individual coin was worth; it was a day’s wage.”

Where is the real value in this parable?

• Human beings are a great value to God the Father.
• The great value is in the great search that this women preformed.
• How can we can tell the coin was valuable to her?
• Notice how she searched for it!
• Note the intensity, the thoroughness, the refusal to give up until the coin was located.

The great value of humanity to God the Father is found in His unceasing search for those who are lost.

• Understand that it does not matter how people in society may devalue one another.
• What matters is that the God, the seeker of men, thinks you are valuable.
• Every day God is searching diligently for way to get every lost soul into heaven.

Question Two: Can I (little old me) Really Be a Soul-Winner?

• It is this way in all operations of God.
• The best you could produce in life apart from His Word is the foolishness of human wisdom (1Cor. 1:20).
• Remember, in all divinely spiritual operations, God always carries the heavier end of the load.
• Successful Spirit-led witnessing is no different.Winning people to Jesus is more about what God does than what you do.

Holy Spirit Encounters with Lost People

• Paul on the Road to Damscus and Ananias – Acts 9:10-20

Acts 9:10–12, 17 (ESV)
10 Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” 11 And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” 17 So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

• Can you see the Holy Spirit’s involvement here?
• Where is the human side to this; the scripture gives us no record of it.
• Now look at the Spirit’s involvement with Ananias.
• Now look at the end results of this entire process:
• The initial appearance by the Lord to Paul led to his calling Jesus Lord, a prerequisite for salvation (Acts 9:5).
• The ‘Ananias part’ leads to Paul’s public baptism and immediate proclamation of Jesus as the Son of God.

Acts 9:18–20 (ESV)
18 And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; 19 and taking food, he was strengthened. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. 20 And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”

• As we look at the process that took place, look how pronounced the Holy Spirit’s part was.
• We don’t just go witnessing without the Holy Spirit’s involvement.
• You don’t start in the spirit and witness in the flesh.

Galatians 3:3 (ESV)
3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

• So, in anything connected with God, look for the supernatural route.
• If the Holy Spirit is not involved, you are not doing it right.
• Jesus said apart from me…

John 15:5 (ESV)
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

• So, in this area of getting lost people to Jesus.
• Apart from Him, you can do nothing.
• You don’t separate the Spirit ‘by going witnessing’ as we have so often been admonished.
• Most of this activity is the flesh trying to produce Holy Spirit type results.
• Our part is to cooperate with Him, to cooperate with the leading of the Spirit of God at the moment.
• Mark it down, it takes the miraculous for people to find God, always has and always will.

• Let’s look at another Holy Spirit energized encounter in the salvation of the Ethiopian eunuch.

Acts 8:26–35 (ESV)
26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. 27 And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him… 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.

• Did you notice the supernatural intervention of the angel of the Lord?
• Did you notice that Phillip received direction from that angel?

Notice the Nature of the Direction that Phillip Received.

• There are tremendous ‘being led by the Spirit lessons here.’
• “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”
• The road from Gaza to Jerusalem, if measured as a straight line distance is 46.5 miles point to point.
• Just exactly where along this approximately 50 mile route was Phillip supposed to go?
• The angel did not say.
• Neither does Phillip have any direction whatsoever as to who he was supposed to meet.
• The only piece he has is ‘Get on the road’.
• When Phillip got on the road at the ‘desert portion’ of that 50 mile track, the Bible says, Phillip received the next piece of direction when he happened upon a certain chariot that carried an Ethiopian eunuch.
• The Spirit of God said, “Go over and join THIS chariot.”
• How many other chariots were on that same road from Jerusalem to Gaza that day?
• ‘Entering the city’ was the general directive for Paul.
• ‘Being told what you are to do’ is the specific.
• The end result of this supernatural encounter?
• The man received Jesus and was baptized.
• We will wrap this up here today and we will continue is this same vein in the next podcast.

Call to Action

What does this all mean to you? Are you looking at lost people the right way, the way the Lord looks at them typified by the extreme extent to which He searches for them? Have you been witnessing in the power of your flesh instead of realizing your desperate need for the Holy Spirit’s involvement?  Well, Spirit life is all about adjustments, isn’t it? Thank God we have an opportunity to continue to learn to walk with Him, and to continue to grow in Him in these areas.

Episode Resources

You can find a more full treatment of the information on this subject by clicking on the link below.

1. Three Questions to Ask Jesus about Lost People [Post]

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Question: If you had the opportunity to ask Jesus one question about lost people, what would you ask Him? Please leave a comment in the comments section below.

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References:

[i] William Whiston, THE WORKS OF JOSEPHUS Complete & Unabridged, First Edition edition. (Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson Publishers, 1987), 3.8.2 §195 pp. 1303.