Is Open-Air Preaching Radical?
I’ve always heard that only 2% of Christians share their faith in Jesus with others. Now some of the old-time preachers also used to say that they believed only 5% to 10% of people in churches were actually saved. Their estimates don’t seem unrealistic to me. If you have truly received everlasting life, how can you keep that to yourself? But let’s just use the 2% number tonight. If only 2% of professing Christians share their faith, how low of percentage do you think it is for Christians who do open-air preaching? So I ask you tonight: Is open-air preaching radical?
If only 2% of professing Christians share their faith with others, it must be an unbelievably small percentage that gets on a box. So is open-air preaching radical? We get a lot of hecklers, people yelling and cussing us out. Most nights when we are out witnessing we hear “Hail Satan” and “Stop judging people” and phrases like these. Open-air preaching does seem to stir people up. But I ask again, is it radical? Is it radical to stand on a box and plead with people to repent and surrender their lives to Jesus?
Missionaries Are Radical
No, open-air preaching is not radical. Missionaries that go into hostile countries to share the Gospel, now that’s radical. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting people who witness in closed countries and they can’t even tell you their real names for fear of being killed when they go back into the countries that hate Jesus Christ and hate Christians. You can’t post your picture with them. You can’t say anything on social media for fear of endangering their lives. Open-air preaching is not radical. But the missionaries that hazard their lives to share Jesus Christ to nations where Christ hasn’t been preached in centuries, now that’s pretty radical.
Jesus Is Radical
But let me tell what’s even more radical than radical missionaries and that’s Jesus Christ! Jesus left His throne in Heaven, came to this earth – His creation and He suffered, bled and died on a cross for a guilty sinner like me. Jesus absorbed God’s wrath over my sin as He hung there; He died, then rose again 3 days later and He saves His people from their sins – those who repent and put their faith in Him. Then Jesus returned to Heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father. Jesus saved souls 2,000 years ago and He’s still saving souls today!
Can you truly grasp the magnitude of this? Jesus, the One who spoke the universe into existence, inserted Himself into His own creation to save guilty sinners like you and me. Even though He lived a perfect, sinless life, He suffered on the old rugged cross to take the punishment that you and I deserve. Are you comprehending this tonight?
Do you understand that Jesus is the great Creator? Yet, He came to this earth to save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). Talk about radical. This is radical love. Love like you and I have never seen anywhere else. Even the angels in Heaven can’t comprehend this (1 Peter 1:12). Do you understand this great mystery? Jesus, the sinless one took the place of the sinful. The innocent for the guilty. The Creator substituted Himself for His creatures.
You Must Receive Salvation
But you must receive salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. It is the free gift from God. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23). For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).
You receive salvation through repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Repent and surrender your life to Jesus. Do this tonight. We have all sinned against God. Each and every one of us. We deserve death and destruction. Every single one of us deserves to suffer God’s eternal punishment for our sins. You and I really deserve to suffer the flames of Hell for all eternity. We did the crime – lying, cheating, stealing, lusting, coveting, blaspheming, idolatry, fornication adultery, drunkenness, yet, Jesus paid our fine. He took the punishment that we deserve. But you must receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior to be redeemed; to be saved. Not just to save you from the torments of Hell, but to save you from your sins.
Hope In Jesus
Listen to the following words of the apostle Peter: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.
Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy (1 Peter 1:3-16).
Folks, a saved life is a changed life. Those of you out here tonight that profess to be a Christian, I ask you: has Jesus changed your life? Peter says we are to be obedient to Jesus. Our Lord said if you love Me, keep My commandments (John 14:15).
The apostle Peter continues that we are not to continue living for the lusts of our former lives when we are saved. We are to be holy because God is Holy. Professing Christian, does this describe you tonight? I’m not saying that we are perfect. What I am saying is when you have a real, genuine encounter with Jesus Christ the Lord, your life is never the same. You become a new creature in Christ. Not of your own doing, but because Jesus lives inside you through the Holy Spirit – which is also radical!
Are You Truly Saved?
Does this describe you tonight? Are you truly saved? Have you turned from your sins and put your trust in Jesus? Fully and completely? Has Jesus changed your life? Jesus will meet you wherever you are, but then He loves you too much to leave you in the gutter of your sinful life. Jesus will clean you up. He convicts you of sin in your life through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Salvation is radical. Jesus, the Creator, suffers the wrath of God that you deserve. He takes your sins upon Himself as He hung on the cross and He gives you His righteousness. Jesus saves you from sin, Satan and Hell. You are no longer bound to your sins when Jesus saves you. Whom the Son sets free, is free indeed. If you have not been set free from your sins, come to Jesus tonight. Confess and forsake your sins. Repent and put your faith in Jesus. Do this tonight and be saved. Call upon the name of the Lord and be saved.
Is open-air preaching radical? Not even close to my radical Lord and Savior. Thank You Jesus for being radical and radically changing the life of a wretched sinner like me. Open-air preaching radical? No, it may look foolish to this world, but it’s not radical compared to Jesus. The Lord Jesus took the punishment that you deserve. Will you submit to His Lordship? Will you repent and surrender your life to Jesus? If you will do this, Jesus will radically change your life too. Come alive tonight. Be made alive in Christ. Repent and trust Jesus and be ye saved.
(This message was proclaimed in the open in downtown Springfield, MO on March 10, 2017)