But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:8

Over the years many in pentecostal and charismatic circles have frowned on many of other denominational and theological positions over the doctrine of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. In some instances well meaning but misguided individuals even seemed to think that they somehow were better than others because of their experience of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the fact that these others had not.

Now this is a very deep and involved subject and I will leave the most of it to our esteemed teacher who is not with us this morning. However, I would like to bring out a much overlooked facet of the "Baptism" and hopefully encourage you to see it in a whole new light.

In the words of scripture that we took as our text for this morning, five words leap off the pages of scripture at us. They seemingly grasp us by the throat, yet they are the five most overlooked words in all of Scripture. "You will be my witnesses" Jesus was telling us that the power that was to come upon us was for the purpose of being His witnesses! That is Personal Soul-Winners.

Now my background is from the Southern Baptist Church which majors in salvation and soul-winning. Unfortunately, we did not major on the Holy Spirit whereby we would be endued with the power and anointing to accomplish this assignment in the magnitude Jesus intended for us to. But by the same token, so many in the Pentecostal and Charismatic circles have been so caught up in the manifestations of signs and wonders we have failed to keep the main thing the main thing.

Fire chief story about putting out fires being the "real job" of firemen!

Jesus does the same thing seven times in scripture if we follow His ministry and I ask that you indulge me this bit of time this morning. Always and everywhere throughout His earthly ministry we find Jesus involved in personal soul-winning. If it was important to Him, and obviously it was, so should it be for us. Jesus could have used any method He desired to win the lost. The devil tried to get Jesus to use the sensational method, yet Jesus chose the quiet, personal and humble method of one on one more times than you might think. Yes, He did perform miracles, but on many occasions instructed the recipients not to tell anyone of what had occurred. How unlike many ministers in our day who go to all sorts of extremes to create a sensation. Oh Jesus was an orator. The greatest preacher who ever lived. In scripture we read that "Never a man spake like He spake". Yet Jesus continually provided an example of being a personal soul winner and not just an evangelist who spoke to teeming crowds.

First turn with me to John 3:7, a very familiar passage of scripture, from which many an evangelistic sermon has been preached down through the ages: "Ye must be born again!" When those powerful words were spoken they were not spoken in a sermon to thousands. Those words were spoken to a single individual, who had come to Jesus by night to inquire of Him. In that same conversation with a single individual Jesus gave us probably the greatest scripture verse of all time; "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16.

Second let us look at the Woman at the well. Turn with me to John 4:21-24 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." As Jesus spoke these profound words, they were not in some great cathedral or stadium filled with hundreds, they were uttered in a one on one personal interview with a sinful woman, desperately in need of a savior. These powerful words and others in this 4th chapter of John have proven fertile soil for awesome sermons over the years.

Thirdly, we have the paralytic who had four friends so concerned for him that they tore the roof off of a house filled to capacity while Jesus preached and interrupted that sermon so that he might be touched. Jesus turned his attention away from the full-house and gave it to the one man the paralytic, He healed him and forgave his sin then and only then did Jesus refocus His attention on the full-house of folks who came to hear Him speak. I wonder what would happen in many of our churches in America this morning if four men came barging in carrying someone to the altar disrupting the service, not waiting for the altar call but demanding the pastor's attention right now!

Fourthly, we have the impotent man in John Chapter 5:1-8 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie--the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?" 7 "Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me." 8 Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. Here we have once again the point that Jesus departed from the crowds and went seeking a single individual. Jesus ministered one more time one on one.

The fifth occurrence we find is John 9:2:" As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 3 "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." 6 Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. 7 "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. Jesus point being made to the disciples here is that it mattered not the cause of the condition, treat the condition and treat it now. In this instance it was in a one on one experience with Jesus.


The sixth time we find Jesus as a personal soul-winner is in the very familiar story of Zacchaeus. There was a very large crowd that day following Jesus through Jericho. Yet when Jesus came upon Zacchaeus up in the tree, He commanded the little man to come down, walked away from the large crowd that had been following Him and went home with Zacchaeus and in ministering one on one to him, led him to salvation. How many of our christian elite leaders on radio and television would turn away from the teeming masses and go into the home of one individual to lead him to the Lord. Truly it is easier to enlist someone to preach a sermon than to speak one on one with someone about their eternal destiny.

The seventh occurrence we see this morning in Luke 23:39-43One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" 40 But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." 42 Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. "43 Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

Right in the middle of dying on the cross to save us from our sin, Jesus stopped and one more time ministered as a personal soul-winner and won the heart of the theif on the cross. Personal soul-winning was important to Jesus! Important enough to make it a personal lifestyle and important enough to send the Holy Ghost to Baptize us and endue us with the anointing and power to share our love of the savior with a lost and dying world. You don't have to preach a sermon just share the Jesus of your heart with all you meet and come in contact with. Jesus and the Holy Ghost will handle the rest. Results are not your concern. Spreading the good news of the Gospel is!!!!!!! In Matthew 4:19 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." That was Jesus invitation to His disciples then, that is His invitation to us this morning.