Top 6 Bible Verses About Reaching The Lost

Here are my top six Bible verses about reaching the lost as part of the Great Commission.

Mark 16:15-16 “And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

These two verses are similar to what Jesus said in Matthew 28:19-20 to go out into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole world but also to also make disciples of all nations so that they would be taught to observe the same things that Jesus taught His disciples. This discipling of all nations is still going on through the spreading of the Word of God, the Bible. The Bible has Jesus’ teachings and the disciples wrote down what Jesus taught them so today, God is making disciples in all nations and they can observe all the things that He taught His disciples by reading the gospels and doing likewise.

Matthew 9:37-38 “Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

The sad fact is that only one in ten believers have ever lead someone else to saving faith in Christ in their entire lives which means that 90% of Christians keep their faith to themselves which was never what God intended. They are underground, secret and silent believers which we were never intended to be. We are to be salt to the world but we need to get out of the salt shaker. God wants us all to witness to the lost and seek out to save those who are presently separated from God by their sins. The harvest exceeds the number of laborers so we need to “pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest.” Will you pray for that and better yet, will you go and enter into the harvest?

First Corinthians 9:22 “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.”

Paul never compromised the gospel but he did try to put himself in the shoes of those who were different from him so that he could open the door and communicate the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The purpose for Paul’s becoming “all things to all people” was for the express purpose of saving some. This means that we are not to have regard for the rich or powerful or avoid those who are poor or might be in a minority but to become like those who we witness to; that is to see ourselves as no better than anyone and the only reason we were saved was not because we are better but only because God is so good.

Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

Is the reason so many believers are silent Christians because they are ashamed to identify with Christ and proclaim him? Do we fear being rejected, ridiculed, scorned, and despised? If so, then we are ashamed of Jesus Christ before others and that’s not good as Jesus warned “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels” (Luke 9:26). This verse in Romans also tells us that the power of God unto salvation is not in us but in the gospel itself. All we need to is share it and God’s Spirit can take the Word of God and make children of God. It does not depend on us but it is incumbent upon us to proclaim it.

Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Jesus came with the purpose of seeking those who are lost. Do we share that same purpose of Jesus Christ? Do we seek out to save those who are lost? Jesus did and so should we. Remember that Jesus told His disciples to go into all the world and to make disciples of all nations but also to teach them to observe what Jesus taught them. This is part of the seeking and saving of the lost. You will have to seek out the lost intentionally because they’re not likely to come to you so you must go to them.

Proverbs 11:30 “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise.”

Every tree that is attached to the Vine should produce fruit for we cannot produce any fruit without being attached to Jesus Christ (John 15:4) and Jesus again warned “If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned” (John 15:6). Whoever is producing fruit “is a tree of life” for those who are saved and so the wisest thing that we could ever do to be involved in the capturing or saving of souls or in reaching the lost.

Conclusion

We are without excuse if we don’t share the gospel of Jesus Christ or we are in effect, disowning Jesus because “whoever disowns me before others will be disowned before the angels of God” (Luke 12:9) and that is true negligence of the Great Commission given directly by Jesus. There is no “plan B.” We are it! The conclusion is that we should all be going into the world to share the gospel, even if it’s right next door; we should be praying to the Lord of the Harvest for more laborers for there are never enough; we should never have regard for anyone but “become all things to all men”; we should never be ashamed of the gospel of Christ for we risk Jesus’ being ashamed of us on the day of His visitation; that’s why Jesus came into the world, to seek those who were lost; and finally, every one of us should be producing the fruit of righteousness and display the wisdom of God in “capturing” souls but we must remain in the Vine and that is Jesus Christ or we’ll never produce any fruit at all.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.