This article is based on Pastor Adrian Rogers' message, The Soul Winner’s Six Mighty Motivations.
What made the Apostle Paul the mighty evangelist he was? Why did he spend his life for the cause of Christ? What captured his imagination?
Success is determined by motivation—and that is true in evangelism, too. What was Paul’s Christian motivation in soul winning?
Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him (2 Corinthians 5:9).
God wants us to be acceptable to Him. This is what compelled the Apostle Paul. He wanted to hear the Lord Jesus Christ say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” (See Matthew 25:21.) Paul wanted the smile of God.
Are you living a life acceptable to God? That is not the same question as, “Are you saved?” Does the life you are living, in the flesh today, please God?
The way to please God is to obey God. And God has commanded us to be His witnesses. No matter what else you do—how much money you give, how beautifully you sing, how regularly you attend worship—if you are not a witness for Christ, you are not pleasing to God.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad (2 Corinthians 5:10).
Right now, you are in the flesh. One day you will stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ, and your life will pass by in review. How will you feel? Will there be a reward for you?
“Each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is” (1 Corinthians 3:13). What sort. God is looking for quality, not quantity. A handful of diamonds is worth more than a truckload of hay.
The Judgment Seat of Christ will be a place of reward for some and regret for others. Jesus said, “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work” (Revelation 22:12).
The things of this world pass away. They are corruptible. But ambassadors for Christ are striving for an incorruptible crown.
When you reach the Judgment Seat, if you were not working at winning souls for Christ, you will regret that you failed to obey the Lord.
Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences (2 Corinthians 5:11).
Can you imagine the terror of going into a Christ-less eternity? How sad for people to die and rise in the judgment to face a God they do not know.
If there is no Hell, the Bible is a bundle of blunders—because it teaches about both Heaven and Hell. If you do not believe what it says, why do you read it? Why do you say that you believe it?
Did Jesus Christ die upon that cross to save us from a non-existent Hell? If there is no Hell, how can there be a Heaven?
Any preacher worth his salt is going to preach what the Bible says about Hell.
For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you (2 Corinthians 5)13).
They were saying, “Paul, why do you work so hard? You must be insane.”
Paul answered,
For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15; Emphasis added.)
Do not say that you love Jesus if His love does not compel you. When a man loves Jesus, he will love what Jesus loves. Jesus loves the lost. “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). One of His commandments to us was the Great Commission. (Read Matthew 28:18-20.)
If you are a soul winner, it is not primarily your love for souls that matters—it is your love for Jesus.
Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Feed My lambs” (John 21:15b).
The Christian’s compassion comes from his love for the Lord Jesus Christ, because of Christ’s love for us.
Do you have compassion, or do you sit in church unmoved, wondering when it will be over? Does it make no difference to you? If you do not plead for souls, you need revival, or you need to be saved.
Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:16-17).
It does not matter what a man may have done. He may be a murderer, a rapist, an arsonist, a blasphemer. The moment he puts his faith where God has put his sins—on Jesus—that man, woman, or child becomes a new creature.
Think about the privilege of introducing a soul to Jesus Christ. Paul said, “We regard no one according to the flesh…” What does he mean by that? He does not look at people according to size, or intellect, or education. Rich or poor, famous or unknown—all of that is of the flesh. Every soul you will meet today and for the rest of your life is precious in the sight of the Lord.
Would you like for somebody to receive the same grace, the same transformation that you have? If you do not desire for someone to have what you have in Christ, how can you have the love of Jesus in your heart? How can you believe you have been redeemed? How can a person be made new by faith in the Lord Jesus and be silent about the power of the Gospel?
Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-19).
To reconcile with God means to be brought back to Him. How are we reconciled to God? By Jesus Christ.
God has called you to the ministry of reconciliation. What is an ambassador? Somebody who represents a King in the court of another. That is what Paul means here:
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:20; Emphasis added)
Christian, the King of kings has commissioned you. What greater honor could you have?
2 Corinthians 5:9-20; Matthew 25:21, 28:18-20; 1 Corinthians 3:13; Revelation 22:12; John 14:15, 21:15
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” (Isaiah 52:7).
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:37-39).
