Bearing Fruit Consistent With Repentance
When John the Baptist appeared on the scene preaching the kingdom of God, many came to him repenting of their sins and being baptized. There were some from among the Pharisees and the Sadducees who approached him as well. These two religious groups were very educated in the Law, but really did not understand the Law. John strongly encouraged them to “produce fruit consistent with repentance” (Matthew 3:8).
I was reading a blog entry this morning entitled, “Southern Baptists . . . An Unregenerate Denomination.” Jim Elliff, the author of this entry pointed out a few statistics in regards to unregenerate church membership in the convention. This is not an attack on this great denomination but an assessment as to why so many of its members seem to be unregenerate. His entry is very informative because he brings to light what might be some key issues to this dilemma. The one I want to stress is the evangelistic approach.
I was a youth minister in a Southern Baptist church while I was attending college. We would meet on Sunday’s and Wednesday nights. At the end of each lesson, I was very intentional in bringing it back to “Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). During a lesson one Sunday, I asked the class, “who is ready to follow Christ?” I do not believe that we should ask such a question because we have no examples in Scripture. But what we read in Scripture is that the Gospel is preached and that whoever is ordained to eternal life will come (Acts 13:48). One student raised her hand and then I said to her, “we will talk after class.” As we talked, I wanted to make sure she understood the “cost” and what it means to “repent and believe.” After our conversation she decided that she was not ready to confess Christ as Lord. To tell you the truth, this was the first time that I had ever really taken a different approach, or I should say the biblical approach to presenting the Gospel. This is when I realized that I was neglecting to give the whole message. My understanding of evangelism changed after this encounter.
Though we do not know whom the Lord will call, our evangelistic message should always include the righteousness of God, the sinfulness of man, and repentance. Some make a decision without understanding that there is a cost to discipleship. I know that there will always be unregenerate people who think they are Christians, but I believe if we be true to the message, we will have less people coming in droves looking for Jesus to be a “quicker fixer upper.”
Joshua Parker