Be a Gospel Link

Be A Gospel Link

Key Verses: John 1:35-42

Background:

In this story we find Andrew, a follower of John the Baptist being redirected to follow Jesus. John points out Jesus as the Lamb of God. Andrew proceeded to follow Jesus, ended up staying with Him and then he went to Simon Peter, his brother, and declared, “We have found the Messiah.”

Andrew is not one of the more prominent, charismatic disciples, but he had a “I have found the Messiah” mentality. He was a connector and loved to share Jesus with others. 

Andrew is the one who brought a little boy’s lunch (five loaves and two fishes) to Jesus that resulted in a marvelous miracles of feeding thousands. 

Gospel Links:

Look at the power of being a gospel link. First, John links Andrew and a friend to Jesus. Then, Andrew links Peter to Jesus. Then, Peter, preaches in Jerusalem and 2,000 comes to the Lord in one meeting! Andrew and John shared in the soul-harvest by being gospel links in Peter’s life.

A Contemporary Example of gospel links: 

Edward Kimball, a Sunday School teacher who was determined to introduce each of his class’ students to Jesus personally, met with one of them in a shoe store, where the lad was working. He shared Jesus with the boy and Dwight L. Moody gave his heart to Jesus. Moddy proceeded to preach to more than 100 million people, while personally leading over 1 million to the Lord. In one church where he preached, Wilbur Chapman gave his heart to the Lord. Moody spoke to him about the assurance of salvation and Chapman ended up preaching over 50,000 sermons to over 60 million people. A young Pro-Baseball player, on his day off in Chicago, attended a Chapman meeting and got saved. Billy Sunday entered into the ministry and held over 300 revivals in major cities with over 100 million atttendees and over 1.25 million salvations. Inspired by Billy Sunday’s meetings a group invited Mordecai Ham to preach in Charlotte, NC. There, a young 16 year old Billy Graham found the Lord. In his ministry, in Graham’s meetings over 3.2 million people accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, while over 2 billion people tuned in on television.

All these ministries shared a gospel link. Over 500 million people were added to the kingdom because of one Sunday School teacher’s faithfulness to the Lord. Not all can be a Billy Graham, Billy Sunday, Dwight Moody or Apostle Peter. But we can all be an essential gospel link. What if the Lord uses you to share the gospel to one of the future mega soul-winners of our time?

A Personal Example of Gospel Links: 

In the early days of the Pentecostal movement in South Africa, a missionary couple was asked to preside over the children’s tent at the inaugural campmeeting of a fledgling denomination. The adults congregated in a 4,000 seater tent, while the children gathered in a smaller tent where Jean and Sannie De Ferrier ministered to them. One night the Holy Spirit fell on the children at the close of service and 250 were filled with the Holy Spirit. They cried and confessed their sins and spoke in tongues for hours. Subsequently many of these children stepped into the ministry and served as pastors and spiritual leaders in South Africa for many years. Jean and Sannie continued their ministry to children for many years and visited hundreds of public schools. In one school, a 7 year old Sharon Swanepoel gave her heart to Jesus in front of her friends. Sharon, has been in evangelistic and pastoral ministry since 1989 and through the Seek and Save evangelism project she founded, have led over 400,000 children to Jesus.

We are all linked together through the gospel of Christ.

Sharing Christ with conviction

 Andrew had a “I have found the Messiah” mentality. We have found Him too. Jesus is the answer to all our questions, the joy for our sorrows, the healing for our sicknesses, the victory over our defeats. Get it? Jesus is all this world needs and we can share Jesus with boldness and without hesitation.

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