Featured The definition of success in evangelism

I would challenge you to back that up with scripture.

In fact Paul looked for success in his evangelism:

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.
To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.
To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.
To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.
I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
I Corinthians 9:19-23 (ESV)

Paul did not just preach the gospel and then wash his hands of what he preached and the people he preached it to. He had genuine concern for the people to whom he preached the gospel. He worked to remove possible offenses that may interfere with the lost even giving him their time to explain the gospel. He not only understood the evangelist job to be a seed thrower but a seed cultivater. This lines up with what Jesus said about the Great Commission:

And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20 (ESV)

Jesus never broke this Commission down to assign different parts to different people. He presented disciple making as an essential part of the gospel. If you leave one side out you have an incomplete gospel.

Here are the problems with the idea that one can simply stand on a street corner and preach at people:

1. There is no connection made with the lost. Paul was very concerned that there be a connection with the lost. To the Jew he became a Jew, to those under the law he also became under the law etc. He did not just preach at them he worked to remove obstacles that would make the lost obstinate to the gospel.

2. There is no obvious love for the lost. When we do something like this simply out of obedience and not with any care or concern for the people you are preaching at this becomes an obstacle to the gospel just as being a Jew did with Paul or being weak, or under the law. We are talking about something that invokes much emotion and rightly so. Presenting the gospel in a mechanical way without an concern for the people to whom you are giving it to is sin.That is not what God intended us to do and it is not the gospel.

3. Once we have delivered the gospel, once we have delivered it with passion and with genuine concern for those to whom we are presenting it to, and once we have delivered the gospel hoping and praying they will receive it with their whole heart and with every intention to help them grow in Christ should they be saved, then we can say "I have done all that God has sent me to do, it is up to Him, Lord please save them!"

4. This hit it and quit it mentality with regards to the preaching of the gospel is ungodly.

 

The context of this discussion is in street preaching. Our faithfulness is the measure of success but the question remains faithfulness in what? Certainly not hit it and quit it evangelism.

 

If by this you means the hit it and quit it evangelism then we can know God does not call anyone to do that.

 

What we have that Jeremiah and Noah did not have, allowing us to actually see "fruit that remains" when they did not:

1. The Commission commanding us to make disciples, and promising that Jesus will be with us.
2. The indwelling Holy Spirit to lead, help and empower us.
3. The fullness of the Holy Spirit to give us boldness (Acts 4:31).
4. The complete Gospel in all its power (Rom. 1:16). This includes the cross of Jesus which draws "all men" to Himself, and the resurrection, an event unique in history.
5. The New Testament in all of its fullness and power, "the sword of the Spirit" which pierces the soul (Heb. 4:12).

When my Dad preached in a suburb of Denver for 5 years and saw at least 81 come to Christ, he did not use Jeremiah or Jonah one single time as an excuse. (And don't you dare say my Dad was doing "easy believism.") When I preached in a Gospel resistant country for 33 years, I never one time mentioned those prophets as an excuse in my prayer letters for lack of God's power.

 

Comparing the ministry of Jeremiah and the current ministry of the Great Commission is comparing apples and refrigerators. Not even close to the same thing and not comparable. Two completely different contexts.

 

NOah preached for 120 without a convert

 

Now the Holy Spirit is hre to do His work to bring in the Harvest for Jesus, and He just demands us to be willing vessals to be used...

 

Not sure why that has to be explained.

 

That's pure speculation. The Bible doesn't say that. If you speculate that he had no converts, I can speculate that he had many, but they were all martyred by the wicked people in the world then.

At a minimum he had six: his three sons and their wives.

 

The idea that Jeremiah had no converts is also speculation. He may have had many. One possibility is Baruch, a member of the nobility who became Jeremiah's scribe and assistant (Jer. 32, 36, 43, 45).

 

It matters not it is not an even comparison.