Manchester Outreach – Day 5
It was a shorter outreach for me; in fact, it was so short, I preached, then left for a five-hour drive home. Due to the distance I needed to travel, and the possibility of heavy traffic, the team leader very kindly let me preach first, then sent me on my way.
But much happened in that one open-air preach! I thought it’d be good to finish the week by preaching on “God is Love!” Normally, this message doesn’t get much angry heckling, but Manchester proved to be different.
An angry Jewish man, who is well-known for being anti-Christian, took issue with me saying God is Love. When I asked why he objected, he ranted that Christians are murderers, and that we kill Jews and Pagans to build churches.
This isn’t true, so I asked him if he could define what a Christian is. He couldn’t. I pointed out that if he is going to make the claim that Christians do certain things, then he needs to explain who exactly a Christian is.
I explained that a Christian is someone who has trusted in Christ and then follows the teachings and commands of Jesus. I then referenced the words of Christ in John 16:2–3, where He says those who kill in the name of God don’t know God or Jesus.
The man wasn’t interested in engaging, so he changed the topic and ranted that Christians locked up Jews in cages, hit them with sticks, and forced them to translate the New Testament. Again, this isn’t true. He stated Christians had to do that because the New Testament was in Hebrew, and they couldn’t speak it. This was an easy counter, as the New Testament is in Koine Greek.
At this point, the man let fly a string of curse words and walked off, but he did attract a crowd. My prayer is that this Jewish man would come to know the Messiah. Please pray the Lord would open his heart.
After he left, I went back to explaining from Scripture God’s love to all who listened, and then called on them to trust in the Saviour.
It was certainly a lively end to my outreach time in Manchester!
I’m thankful that many people came to hear the Good News this week, and I am confident that many more will hear it in the coming days. Please pray for all those whom we met this week, those whom local churches will reach, and all the people who will hear Franklin Graham preach the gospel next week in Manchester. May the Lord save many in this great city!
SDG!
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Josh Williamson is a full-time evangelist with The Open-Air Mission. Since 1853, OAM has been sharing the good news on the streets of the United Kingdom. To stay updated about the work of the Mission, please sign up for the free quarterly magazine and monthly prayer notes.SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MAGAZINE AND PRAYER NOTES