So, What Do You Expect from a Person Who Is Not (Yet) a Follower of Christ?

• What do we know about human nature generally?
  • What usually happens when the curses of Genesis 3:16-19 (especially the part about the need to work hard) are removed and we are enabled to “Maximally satisfy our considered desires”?
  • A “Thought Experiment:” What if Jesus HAD continued to feed and heal the crowds, HAD allowed them to make Him king … and HAD overthrown the Romans? Would the crowds have been satisfied (or would they have remained content)?
  • Why did the Jews of Jesus’ time “miss” the “suffering servant” role of the Messiah?
  • BACKGROUND: During the time of Jesus, every Jew was waiting for the Messiah.
    • In front of Adam and Eve, the Lord said the seed of a woman would crush the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15).
    • Job said he knew that his Redeemer lives, and that in the end He would stand upon the earth (Job 19:25).
    • Abraham was told all nations on the earth would be blessed through him (Genesis 12:3).
    • Judah was told the scepter will not depart from him (Genesis 49:10).
    • Balaam prophesied of a star rising out of Israel (Number 24:17)
    • Moses told Israel that God was going to raise up a prophet like him, whom God will use to call men to account (Deuteronomy 18:15-19).
    • God told David He would establish the throne of his kingdom forever (2 Samuel 7:16).
    • Isaiah prophecied of a virgin who will conceive and give birth to Immanuel, which means “God with us” (Isaiah 7:14).
    • Micah prophecied that a ruler from eternity would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2).
    • David prophesied about the cross (Psalm 22).
    • Isaiah prophecied about the cross and the suffering servant (Isaiah 53).
    • Jesus’ geneology lined up with these Messianic expectations.
• What do we know (from the Bible) about those who are not (yet) born-again?
  • Their spiritual incapacity (1 Corinthians 2:14)
  • Their spiritual/perceptual inability (John 3:3)
  • Their blindness/spiritual darkness (John 3:18-19; Ephesians 5:8)
  • Their nonrecognition of sin, judgment and eternity (Isaiah 28:15)
  • Their avoidance of these spiritual realities (e.g., Felix, Acts 24:24-25)
  • Their lack of spiritual knowledge (Colossians 3:10)
  • Their lack of motivation to seek God (Romans 3:11)
  • Their bondage to Satan (Ephesians 2:2)
  • Their genetic connection to Satan (John 8:43-44)
  • Their hardened heart (Ephesians 4:18)
  • Their intellectual futility (1 Corinthians 3:20-21)
  • Their lack of 3-way conviction by the Holy Spirit (John 16:7-11)
    • The gravity of sin (Acts 2:36-37)
    • The desperate need for Christ’s righteousness (Matthew 5:6; Colossians 3:11)
    • The inevitable judgment
• Besides, some are simply not chosen/elect. (John 6: 37, 44)
• So, if it’s that bad, why bother?
• What is the role of:
  • You and me?
  • The Holy Spirit?
• So, when it comes to our expectations when we witness/share the Gospel:
  • What should we NOT expect?
  • What SHOULD we expect?
  • How should this affect HOW we go about witnessing/sharing the Gospel?

Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto. Westminster Confession of Faith, 9:3.