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?

Asking Jesus A Question

• The only parameters for the question would be that you couldn’t violate scripture: that is you couldn’t ask about somebody else’s business.
• You’re cross-wise with scripture when you do that.

John 21:20–22 (ESV
20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” 22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”

• But, you know how it is.
• Some folks try to mind their business, God’s business and everybody else’s business.
• The Lord will not tell you about some else’s business at your request anyway, that is why He gets silent when you ask Him those kinds of questions in your own personal prayer life.
• You never heard the Lord gossip about anything; that is a clue to you.
• You couldn’t ask Him a question for monetary gain like “where is the biggest oil well reserve located.”
• The question you could ask had to be about your life’s walk on planet earth.
• What if you had ONE chance to ask Jesus ONE question about anything that you wanted to know about your life?
• What would you ask Him?
• Do this as an exercise.
• Bounce this off your heart.
• In fact, make sure the question that you ask Him is a heart question not a head question because if you had this opportunity and Jesus ‘just appeared’ to you, what would come out of that encounter would be what was on your heart at the moment.

Luke 6:45 (ESV)
45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

• Now, you might go away from this encounter and sort through a hundred other questions that you think you should have asked.
• But, the thing you are ultimately going to ask Him in that moment is what’s on your heart at that particular moment.
• So, now let’s expand this exercise a little for the purpose of this lesson and narrow the subject matter down to one subject: Lost People.
• What questions would you ask Jesus about the lost people that you are acquainted with in your world?
• So, here are some questions that you might come to ask.
• These may not be in exact order.
• They may not even be the exact questions you have on your list.
• But since time is limited, we will just deal with a few possibilities.

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…”
• That statement should be a ‘red-flag’ to you.
• Since this particular group of religious leaders were diametrically opposed to Jesus life work and ministry, then, anything that they stand for you shouldn’t stand for.
• Anything that they grumble about, you should definitely not engage in.
• These religious leaders grumbled about Jesus involvement with lost people.
• If it was up to them, they would have nothing to do with these people.
• What does that say to us?
• It says that we should do the opposite of what these religious leaders did.
• It should say to us that we should do as Jesus did, that is receive lost people.
• We should be involved with the lost.
• We should receive sinners and eat with them.
• You may have to keep reminding yourself of this because what is the tendency?
• The inclination is to shun them.
• Why is that?
• It’s not because we dislike them.
• We are Jesus people, we love everybody.
• It’s because we are serious minded about the things of God and sober-minded people don’t have time for foolishness.
• And lost people engage in a great amount of foolishness.
• But, while we don’t have time for foolishness, we should always have time for lost people.
• Lost people can only act one way, LOST.
• They cannot act like saved people act.
• True believers love to be around other true believers; it is a great joy for us to fellowship and be in one another’s presence.
• We love that sense of God’s presence that comes into our midst when we come together.
• Our love for godly fellowship should be balanced with the purpose of God 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.
• You elevate people to higher places.
• It is better for lost people to be around you than it is for them to be around other lost people.
• You are a leader of men that are lost.
• You point the way.
• Let’s look at something else in this parable of the lost coin.

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.

• Reread those verses and note the phrase, ‘until he/she finds it.’
• 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.
• This woman lights a lamp.
• This woman sweeps the house.
• This woman searches diligently.
• 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.”
• If that is what Jesus was trying to get across, that people are valuable just like this coin, if that was His point, than a rich person reading this gospel would have never gotten the point of his parable.
• Why?
• Even though 95% of the population were poor, a day’s wage is really not all that much money to begin with.

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.
• If you spend your whole life looking for something, if you give your whole being, your whole life to find that something, and you finally find it, doesn’t that have great value to you?
• If you spend 70 years looking for something, and then you find it, how valuable is that?
• Isn’t it more valuable than a day’s pay?
• In this parable, the value is in the search!
• No matter what the denominational value of the coin was, whether that coin was valuable in the economic climate of that day is irrelevant.
• The bottom line here is this: that coin was valuable to that women.
• How can we can tell it 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.
• What are you saying?
• I am saying that God is likened unto this women.

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.
• It doesn’t matter how mankind devalues human life with its laws.
• It doesn’t matter how people may treat each other poorly, because they don’t value people as they should.
• None of these things changes the value of mankind.
• What matters is that the God, the seeker of men, thinks you are valuable.
• So much so, that every day, He lights a lamp.
• He makes His lamp, to rise on the good and on the evil (Matt. 5:45).
• Every day He sweeps His house looking for a laborer to yield to Him.
• Every day He is searching diligently for way to get every lost soul into heaven.
• The value is not just in the coin.
• The value is in the search.
• So, that is question one: am I looking at lost people the right way?

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

• Winning people to Jesus is more about what God does than what you do.
• It is this way in all operations of God.
• Have you prayed and received an answer to prayer in your lifetime?
• When you examine that prayer fruit, ask yourself these questions.
• Who stirred you to pray and believe in the first place, was that of your doing or God’s doing?
• Was it my great faith that produced the answer, or was it God’s Word, the source of my faith?

Romans 10:17 (ESV)
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

•  You will find that you can trace all success in the Christian life back to God’s power, God’s Word, and God’s working.
• The same is true for witnessing.
• It’s His saving power, not yours.
• You wouldn’t even know about soul-winning if weren’t for God’s Word.
• The best you could produce in life apart from His Word is the foolishness of human wisdom (1Cor. 1:20).
• Yes, you have a part to play in God’s economy for there is a Godward side and a man-ward side to all moves of God; that is, there is God’s part and our part.
• But remember, in all divinely spiritual operations, God always carries the heavier end of the load.
• Successful Spirit-led witnessing is no different.
• Let’s look at some encounters with lost people and let’s see God carrying the heavier end.

Holy Spirit Encounters with Lost People

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

Acts 9:10–20 (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.” 13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. 14 And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” 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.” 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.”

• Let’s examine the degree of Holy Spirit involvement in the conversion of Saul (Paul).
• Understand that this encounter is the back end of the story; that is Paul has already had a tremendous ‘glory of God’ encounter with Jesus.

Acts 9:3–6 (ESV)
3 Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. 4 And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” 5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”

• 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.
• Look at the chain of events here.
• Jesus appears to Saul and gives him a word of wisdom.
• Ananias has a vision; this is Holy Spirit territory.
• Ananias receives a word of knowledge in that vision; “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”; this is Holy Spirit territory.
• Ananias receives a second word of knowledge; “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” this is Holy Spirit territory again.
• This second piece of knowledge that Ananias receives indicates that Paul is also, at the same time, receiving manifestations of the Spirit for the Spirit is showing him that a man would be coming to pray for him.
• So the Spirit of God is working both sides of the track.
• Ananias next receives a word of wisdom; (understand that many times gifts of the Spirit [1Cor. 12:4-11] flow together, we are separating them here for discussion purposes) “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”
• 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.
• There is a spiritual order to these things.
• 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 you are reading your Bible, ask yourself, “What is the spiritual route here?
• How can I engage the Holy Spirit as I read my Bible?
• The same is true for prayer, church, or worship.
• 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.
• In the area of your salvation.
• It took God’s power to get you saved.
• It will take God’s power to get other people saved.
• 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.

ILLUSTRATION: How I Came to Jesus
I came to know Jesus in July of 1976. I was a college student just finishing my first year. Life during those days were filled with skepticism and a general negative attitude towards church. At one point, I said to The Lord, and I say this with shame, “God if this is what you are about I want no part of you.” I was raised Catholic but had great ideological problems with what I saw I in those days. Thank God for His mercy towards me. One day as I strolled through the college library I approached an individual who was reading the Bible. I had seen Mark reading his Bible many times. A person reading the Bible was a foreign sight to me. I wasn’t used to seeing anyone with a Bible. I approached Mark with the intent of challenging him with my superior skepticism. Mark shared his testimony with me how he had been committed to the psych ward of a military hospital because he was so strung out on drugs that he thought at one point he thought he was ‘Jesus Christ’. But, Jesus had powerfully come into Marks life and to prove it, Mark reached into his wallet and pulled out his current GPA which sat at 4.0 in electronic engineering. Jesus had healed Marks mind and totally delivered him from drugs. Needless to say, my skepticism was no match for his testimony. But that was not the part that ultimately convinced me. It was these next words. “Emery, I have been studying the Bible for a year and I told the Lord that I was ready to tell someone about Jesus”, and in I walked! When Mark said those words to me, the presence of The Lord came upon me. What caused me to give my heart to Jesus was the miraculous moving of God in answer to one man’s simple prayer.

• Let’s say it again, 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 8:26–38 (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. 36 And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” 38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

• Let’s look at the miraculous in the salvation of the Ethiopian eunuch.
• Did you notice the supernatural intervention of the angel of the Lord?
• Did you notice that Phillip received direction from that angel?

QUESTION: Out of the nine gifts of the Spirit which supernatural gift was in evidence in the appearing of the angel?
ANSWER: Discerning of Spirits (1Cor. 12:10).

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.”
• What strikes you about this direction?
• First, it is extremely general.
• Historical Background: Gaza
• Gaza was a coastal city of the Philistines.
• The road from Gaza to Jerusalem, if measured as a straight line distance is 46.5 miles point to point.
• If the road had any curves to it, the road would be around 50 miles or so in length.
• Understand that this is fifty miles worth of travel in the first century.
• Just exactly where along this approximately 5o 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.”
• Here is another question to ponder.
• How many other chariots were on that same road from Jerusalem to Gaza that day?
• Here is a side note while we are at it that will help you in being led by the Spirit of God.
• Specific direction sometimes only comes when the general directions are followed first.
• We have already looked at Paul’s case.

Acts 9:6 (ESV)
6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”

• ‘Entering the city’ was the general directive for Paul.
• ‘Being told what you are to do’ is the specific.
• If you can’t follow the general directive, you will never get to the specific.
• The Spirit told Phillip to join himself to this specific chariot and, as it turns out this eunuch ‘happened to be reading Isaiah’ at that exact moment.
• 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 next week.

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.

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.