JESUS: Intro Evangelism Message

I'm in the thought process of writing more of my own evangelism tracts. One time, I experimented on the streets of downtown Pittsburgh, asking confessed unbelievers if they would allow me to share for two minutes about who Jesus is and what He did. This was at the bus stop lines, and we normally walked down the line handing out tracts and speaking to people one on one. Although most turn away their faces, there are always a few who are willing to talk for a few minutes.

That was when I started sharing Christ briefly, by mainly focusing on His birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension, ending with His promise of the Holy Spirit to those who believe. I would describe in vivid detail the bloody suffering and death of Jesus, and every time those unbelievers heartily accepted a tract or a New Testament from me after hearing about how Jesus suffered and loved sinners. Well, now I've begun writing this down, only in more detail, and it will be much longer than a two minute brief presentation, but more like a tract/pamphlet.

Here is what I've written so far. Feed back will be very much appreciated by anyone. (Keep in mind, that this is a work in progress, and will need to be edited. Thanks.)

Who was Jesus?

The fact is undisputed that a Jewish man named Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in the land of Israel and that he was from Nazareth. He taught in Galilee, and was known by the Jews and many people from other nations. In fact, his name has been the only name that the Christian faith has proclaimed from the first century, 2,000 years ago, even until now. No one who has taken the briefest look at the past 2,000 years of history can deny that the impact this one man has had on the world is like no other who has ever lived. Even if you don't believe religiously in Jesus, you cannot deny the uniqueness of his character, which has convinced millions of people to learn of his teachings. It was Jesus who began the most despised sect of Jews that ever existed. It was Jesus who was so hated by religious leaders, that they passed the death sentence on him, even without a just cause. It was Jesus who made people rejoice with great joy and hope, while others gnashed their teeth at him in rage. It was Jesus who was hunted down to be murdered from his infancy. His parents had to flee away from Israel and hide in Egypt, while king Herod ordered a gruesome massacre of all two-year-old and under male babies in that land. It was Jesus who was accused of being a bastard, because his mother conceived him before she was married. Yet the holy Scriptures tell us it was because she (a virgin) had been chosen by God to bring His Son into the world, who would save His people from their sins.

Being no ordinary teacher, Jesus travelled through towns and villages, speaking in the Jewish Synogogues and declaring to people that the kingdom of God was about to come, as their Scriptures had predicted. People were amazed at how he spoke, with power and with authority, and yet without flaw. Multitudes crowded around him to be healed of all their diseases and ailments. It was testified that he had brought people back to life after they were dead. Even those who did not like Jesus could not deny his miracles, they just said he did it by an evil power. When Jesus forgave a man's sins, the religious leaders accused him of blaspheming, because "only God can forgive sins," they said. Some didn't like him because he spent time teaching those who had been publicans and immoral. Unlike the sophisticated teachers of his day, he held little children in his arms and blessed them in the name of the Lord. He also touched people with skin diseases and they were healed. They said he opened the eyes of the blind, gave hearing to the deaf, made mute people able to speak, made cripples walk, made deranged people return to their right mind. Spirits of demons which had oppressed and possessed people were driven out by Jesus when he commanded, and those people were set free. Sinners, found at his feet, the joy of knowing their sins were forgiven. They were transformed from being rebelliously selfish to being humble and obedient like no others. Jesus was a preacher to the poor, a doctor to the sick, a merciful shepherd to the wayward and wandering, a deliverer to those held captive.

Those who were against him said he was a deceiver, a blasphemer, a drunkard and a glutton, and that he had a demon in himself. Yet Jesus was the complete opposite of all that they accused him. It made them mad when he exposed their hypocrisy in broad daylight. Therefore we are told that many times his enemies conspired to kill him.

To those outside his way, Jesus was either a lunatic or an extremely crafty fraud. But to those inside his following, Jesus was more than just a man, though they could not believe it until after he rose from the dead. They saw him walk on water, command a storm to obey his voice and calm down, turn water into wine at a wedding, make a tree wither and dry up, feed thousands of people with a few pieces of bread. His closest friends saw him transform himself into a glorious man shining with light bright as the sun or as lightning. They called him a prophet, and even "the Son of God," which for a Jew, could get them expelled from their strict monotheistic (belief in only one God) religion. Jesus himself believed and taught there is only one true and living God, and that all people must repent and worship Him alone. He even claimed to be from Him and to be His only begotten Son. That is why Jesus made himself a whip and angrily drove out those merchants from the temple of God, because he said, "you have turned my Father's house into a den of thieves." Far from committing any sin, with the deepest conviction, Jesus upheld the holiness and worship of the one true and living God.

Everything Jesus taught was perfectly accurate and in harmony with the 39 books of the Jewish Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament). Everything he did and said were in direct fulfillment of what those books had prophesied he would say and do. Those books were in fact written about Jesus, who is the Christ (Greek for Messiah, meaning "Anointed"). Jesus was anointed with the powerful Spirit of God, in order to live a life of perfect submission and obedience to his heavenly Father. This was in order to preach and teach, to perform miracles, to free those held under sin's bondage and Satan's, to give life to the dead, to give the gift of the Holy Spirit to all who believe in his name, and one day, upon his return, to rule as supreme King over all the earth.

to be continued...