Old Time Evangelism

-Tonight, the Lord is directing us to look at some methods to use in being evangelists

-We’re going to take a look at old time evangelism

-Evangelism 20 Years Ago

-Door to door / cold turkey

-Crusades

-Early American Evangelism

-Circuit riding preachers

-Street corner preaching

-Renaissance Evangelism

-Crusades - kill those who will not believe

-Early Church Evangelism

-Friends bringing friends to Christ

-I’m talking about really old time evangelism

-Evangelism as found in the Old Testament

-This will not include sharing of the story of Christ, but it does include drawing unbelievers to the Lord

I. Shadrach, Meshach & Abed-Nego

-These are three of the greatest evangelists of all time

-Three men who brought the name of the Lord to a high precedence in the minds of many people

-In Daniel chapters 1 and 2 we are given the preface to the great fiery furnace account

-Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had come and seized Jerusalem

-Jerusalem fell and Nebuchadnezzar took some of the items from the house of God into the house of his own, false god

-The king then instructed Ashpenaz to bring some of the finest men from Jerusalem to Babylon

-Descendants of the king

-King’s noblemen

-No blemish

-Good looking

-Intelligent

-Good discernment

-Teachable

-For the language and literature of the Chaldeans

-They were given food and wine from the king’s delicacies

-As well as three years of education

-So they could serve the king at the end of that time

-Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah

-Renamed respectively Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego

-Daniel decided not to eat the king’s delicacies or drink the wine

-He saw it as being a defilement to himself

-He requested to be allowed not to partake

-The eunuch was concerned with this, he did not want for Daniel and the other three to become weak looking and thereby cause him to lose favor with the king

-Daniel set up a deal with the eunuch for 10 days

-Only vegetables and water

-Then compare them to the others

-After 10 days, they looked better and fatter than those who ate from the king’s table

-From then on out, it was only vegetables and water for these four

-God caused them to increase greatly in wisdom and learning and were found in due time to be ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers in his realm

-The king had a dream which he wanted interpreted

-He went to all of his magicians, astrologers and sorcerers seeking them to tell him his dream and its interpretation

-They were even offered great reward and honor if successful, but death if unsuccessful

-But they all said that it was impossible to do, that only the gods could give the dream and the interpretation

-Angered, Nebuchadnezzar sought to have them all killed, including Daniel and the three Hebrew children

-Daniel meets with the three and together they seek the mercies of the Lord

-God gives Daniel the dream and interpretation and Daniel praises the Lord for it

-Daniel requests that the killing stop and that he be allowed to answer the king

-As Daniel approaches the king, he assures him that the answer comes from the God in the heavens who has revealed to the king what will happen in the latter days

-The dream was of a great image whose head was gold, chest and arms silver, belly and thighs bronze, legs iron and feet partly of iron and partly of clay

-In the dream, a stone, not made by human hands, hit the feet and broke tem to pieces eventually causing the entire image to be crushed and scattered with the wind while the stone became a great mountain that filled the whole earth

-The interpretation was that the king was the head of gold because of his great power on earth

-The other parts were subsequent kingdoms, each less powerful than the previous one

-The stone was the kingdom of God that will break in pieces all other kingdoms and crush them and never diminish, standing forever

-The king, having heard this, ordered that a great offering be given to Daniel, promoting him and making him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief administrator over all of his wise men

-Daniel petitioned the king and obtained positions of power over Babylon for the three Hebrews as well

-That brings us to chapter three

-Nebuchadnezzar made a statue of solid gold

-90 feet tall and 9 feet wide

-He called for all of his rulers and administrators come to the dedication of the image

-This included the three Hebrew children

-It was ordered that at the sound of the musical instruments all were to fall down and worship the image or else be cast into the fiery furnace