# 26 Evangelism 101

Joh 1:45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote--Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." 46 And Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."

Jesus found Phillip, now Phillip sets out to find Nathaniel and excitedly tells him of Jesus. But what’s this? Nathaniel throws a little cold water on the fired-up Phillip! “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” “How can anything good come out of that place, much less the Messiah?”

The town of Nazareth was synonymous with “despised” in the days of Jesus, and Nathaniel’s question wasn’t meant to be disrespectful, flippant, or judgmental! This place just had a bad reputation! We’ve all been there! We all know of such places in our own environs, and typically steer clear of them. You can be sure that Nathaniel was not the only one with a low opinion concerning Nazareth! This was a general consensus!

The fact that Jesus was from Nazareth fits in with the prophecy found in  Isa 53:3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Okay Phillip, how are you going to handle Nathaniel’s concern? Well, he didn’t get into a debate about the character of the citizens of Nazareth. He didn’t get into a theological discussion about prophets or a Messiah coming out of Nazareth. He simply extends the invitation to check it out for himself….”Come and see!”

Sometimes we make evangelism a lot harder than it really is. Sometimes we think we are the ones who have to do the convincing. When you really think about it, that’s very arrogant on our part. It is God who does the convincing, our part is to go, proclaim, and invite.

Observe Phillip’s method again: He (1) went and found Nathaniel, (that’s the go part) He (2) proclaimed, (We have found Him of whom Moses in the law and prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph) and he (3) invited, (“Come and see!)

You can use this same method wherever God has planted you! Go to your family! Go to your friends! Go to your neighbors! Go to your co-workers! Proclaim to them that you have found Jesus, or more correctly, that Jesus has found you! Then invite them to come and see for themselves!

Invite them to your Bible believing and Word of God proclaiming church! Invite them to your Bible study! Invite them to any place where they may go and hear His claims! Then let God do the rest!