Reaching the lost: Jesus' strategy

He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. When you enter a house, first say, “Peace to this house.” If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”’ Luke 10:2-9

If I had to come up with a strategy for reaching the lost, I might think first of arranging some big events. Maybe we would use football stadiums and widely used online channels to get the message out. There are so many people to reach.  Surely we need to speak to as many as possible as quickly as possible!

God in His wisdom seems to have done the opposite. Let’s learn from Him.

Instead of a celestial megaphone with dramatic thunder and lightning to get our attention, God came Himself but without fanfare. He lived as a man, in a forgotten corner of the Roman Empire. An ordinary looking man who simply lived a godly lifestyle for 30 years and then taught and did miracles for 3 years. He usually avoided crowds and and even when he did miracles He asked people not to publicise them!

He sent the 70 disciples to do the same as He did. And He sends us in the same way. Our mission is “incarnational.”

“Incarnational” is nothing more than a buzz word for some but it is really significant. We are called to live among people and share with them. Like Jesus, we are ordinary looking and yet we are also filled with the Spirit. So we can love people, pray and expect miracles. We can teach and expect some to come to know God. Just some!  

Jesus’s strategy is not even to try to reach everyone we are in contact with. Just some. Just the ones who recognise the peace we carry and want to share in it, those who are curious and hospitable enough to invite us in to their household.

Our job is to find the “people of peace” who will welcome us into their network (a Middle Eastern household in New Testament times could include family, employees or business partners in a trade and friends).

Our job is not to speak from on high but to be vulnerable and to rely on hospitality. How powerful it is when we rely on neighbours and let them give to us - it seems the wrong way round but it builds connection and friendship, so we have a right to share with them some of the spiritual good things we have.

Our job is to be spiritually curious about their lives so the people we are in contact with become spiritually curious and want us to stay and share.

Our job is to rely on the Spirit, so we can pray and declare truth and see miracles change lives around us.

Our job is to demonstrate the power and presence of the Kingdom, through what we do and say.

When we do our job, the Holy Spirit will do miracles, not adding one by one but multiplying as whole families and networks respond and become disciples who make disciples who make disciples ….

- Chris Horton

Inward prayer: Lord, give me a revelation of you and how I can play a part in your strategy.

Outward prayer: Lord, help me to demonstrate the power and presence of the Kingdom through what I do and say every day.

1 Comment


Tomi - September 20th, 2021 at 3:26am

Lord,please teach me how to be a disciple who makes disciples.Amen