Home Bible Study Soulwinning
David Joseph

I. Home Bible Study is God’s Plan.

A. Saving Souls is God’s most important goal.

I. God orchestrated the most catastrophic event the world has ever seen (the Cross of Calvary) just to reach and save lost souls. The Cross was His burden by day and pallet by night. He did not come to prove He could whip satan … He came to save you and I. God created satan, and He has always had complete power over satan. He tells us specifically the reason why He came: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

2. Even God’s NAME reveals His desire to save the lost

i. During the time of the Old Testament, God granted many titles for Himself, but it was prophesied that eventually He would reveal and be called by only ONE NAME.

a. “And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one” (Zechariah 14:9).

b. This one name was revealed at the time of the Incarnation: “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

ii. “Jesus” is English for “lesous,” which is Greek for the Hebrew “Jehoshua,” and it means Jehovah-Savior (Yahweh-Saviour)!

a. God’s one, chosen, final, supreme name for Himself centers around SALVATION.

b. This is the one name spoken of in Zechariah 14:9.

c. Everything that God has revealed to mankind about Himself shows that His entire nature, His identity, and even His name all revolve around the principles of selfless love, sacrifice, and giving to provide one all-important result: SALVATION FOR ALL MANKIND.

iii. Etymology of the name “JESUS”:

a. Strong’s (Greek) #2424: lesous, ee-ay-sooce’; of Heb. or. [H3091]; Jesus (i.e. Jehoshua), the name of our Lord and two (three) other Isr.: -Jesus.

b. Strong’s (Hebrew) #3091: Yehowshuwa’, yeh-ho-shoo’-ah; or Yehowshu’a, yeh-ho-shoo’-ah; from H3068 and H3467; Jehovah-saved; Jehoshua (i.e. Joshua), the Jewish leader:–Jehoshua, Jehoshuah, Joshua. Comp. H 1954, H3442.

3. Since God’s supreme goal is saving souls, anything that works to accomplish the reaching and saving of the lost will be pleasing to Him.

i. Soul-saving activities will be anointed by Him, because such things tap into His heartbeat.

ii. When you live the life of a soulwinner, you automatically become an integral part of God’s most important plan and desire!

iii. Our noble, scriptural role in soul-winning: “… God, who hash … given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ…” (II Corinthians 5:18-20a).

4. Furthermore, God has NOT promised to anoint any efforts that are not in line with His goal of reaching the lost.

i. Some wonder why, after only a few weeks or months have passed since being filled with the Holy Ghost, the level of power and anointing present in their life diminishes. Such should ask themselves, “Is my goal the same as His? Am I reaching out to the lost?”

ii. If you have been feeling stagnant, shiftless, uneasy and dissatisfied with your present spiritual life … START REACHING OUT TO THE LOST! You will find that as you align your goal with His, you will simultaneously align yourself under the flow of His power and anointing.

iii. Those who have selfish gain as their main goal allow the Lord NO CAUSE to intervene miraculously on their behalf. On the other hand, if the Lord sees that granting a miracle will help win a soul, He has ample cause to intervene for you. Do you need a miracle? If so, then make sure soulwinning is your highest priority!

iv. II Kings 4 tells of a desperate widow whose husband (one of the “sons of the prophets”) had died, leaving her with a debt she could not pay. Her creditors were going to take away her two sons. (It was their right to make them slaves to work off the debt.) She cried to the man of God (Elisha) for help. Many a sermon has been preached from his question, “What hast thou in the house?” She answered, “Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil.” He revealed a plan: she was to bring home all the EMPTY VESSELS she could borrow, close the door, and pour. As long as there was an empty vessel for the oil to flow into, the oil continued to flow. When there were no more empty vessels, the oil stayed.

a. Some among us go at this backwards today: we love to “close the door and pour” without bringing any empty vessels into the house! We close the church door, and we pour and pour (preaching to ourselves and praying for ourselves), but no real anointing flows, because there are no empty vessels (lost people) for the Holy Ghost to flow into. We always possess the oil, BUT IT LAYS DORMANT as long as there is no empty vessel to flow into!

b. We need to go out and find, meet, befriend, and win lost people. We need to convince them of the truth with Bible Study, and bring them into the house (Kingdom) as empty vessels to be filled with the Holy Ghost! As long as there is an empty vessel to be filled, we will witness the POWER, ANOINTING and GLORY of the Holy Ghost as it flows.

c. The next time you hear a nay-sayer offer a negative comment about not feeling anointing or power in church, ask the complainer what they have done lately to win a soul! It doesn’t matter how dead, cold or lifeless anyone is, if someone gets a burden and starts winning the lost, they will instantly bring REVIVAL, POWER and FIRE to where they are, because they will have tapped into God’s heartbeat!

B. Home Bible Study WORKS!

I. Growing churches have found that almost all of their new converts are won through a combination of several contributing factors, of which Home Bible Study is often a predominant factor!

i. Often growing churches find Home Bible Study is a common
denominator in as much as two-thirds of all conversions.

2. Examples and Testimonies*:

i. was won through H.B.S…

ii. and were won by____ through H.B.S…

iii. Did know that, who has won so many people lately, was him/herself won through H.B.S.?

3. No one can argue with results. If people are consistently being born
again of water and Spirit (John 3:3-5, Acts 2:38) then somebody is doing something right!

4. Teaching Home Bible Studies is God’s will, because anything that accomplishes real soulwinning is, by virtue of its results, accomplishing God’s deepest felt desire.

C. Home Bible Study is biblical; it is Apostolic.

I. Home Bible Study is personal.

i. To work personally was certainly Jesus’ own method:

a. Jesus and Nicodemus-(John 3)
b. Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well-(John 4)

I) “Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)” (John 4:6-8). Notice that Jesus was working personally with the worst of the worst (not only was the woman a Samaritan-someone whom the Jews viewed as a “dog”-she was also very immoral). Also, notice that the disciples were gone into the city.

2) We will pick up the story near the end of Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman (verse 24, which begins with Jesus speaking): “God
is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the city, and came unto him” (John 4:24-30). Notice that the disciples brought back NO ONE to the Lord-they returned from the city without having stooped to witness to even one Samaritan “dog.” On the other hand, notice that one lone woman who was willing to talk to people brought a crowd from the city back to the Lord!

3) The story continues (verse 31): “In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work” (John 4:31-34). The joke here is that Jesus sent 12 men to town to buy lunch for 13! It is humorous, but true. And it is obvious he really wasn’t even hungry! He simply didn’t want prejudiced disciples to hinder the Samaritan woman from hearing Him. The story ended with this profound revelation: His sustenance (“meat”) was found in working with sinners, and in finishing the work of providing salvation for all mankind. When was this work completed? At His death on the cross “…he [Jesus] said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost” (John 19:30). If you want to obtain sustenance from God, you will find it in soulwinning! us and the Gentile (Syrophoenician) woman with great faith (Matthew 15, Mark 7)us and Zacchaeus-“Today I must abide at thy house” ike 19). Have Luke 19:1-10 read aloud.

To win souls, we must to be willing to “get our hands dirty” (so to speak) by dealing with sinners.

We (correctly) tell our converts they must stop their old, worldly, sinful habits. But sometimes we make the mistake of also working to get them to totally disassociate themselves from their old (sinner) friends and acquaintances (for fear they may be tempted to backslide). The fact is that when someone is truly converted, it is THEY who will win their old friends to God, not the reverse. Studies show that a majority of soulwinning is usually done by new converts (in the first few months of their walk with God). After this initial period the convert’s sphere of influence has been “depleted” of prospects. They have won all their friends who are hungry, and the remainder have found themselves to be no longer compatible with the convert. In our pushing for a new convert to make an immediate and total break from all their old friends and acquaintances, we subconsciously communicate two serious falsehoods: I) that the power of the Gospel is not strong enough to help them withstand real-world pressures, and 2) (even worse) we send the message that it is wrong, dirty, or sinful to have any association with lost people. If we never associate with sinners, we will never win them to God. If we don’t work personally with sinners, we can never impact their lives for the Lord.

3) Jesus worked personally with sinners, even though He was criticized for it. He is our example, so we also must work personally with sinners, even if we are criticized for it. Anyone who criticizes you for having contact with sinners is so far removed from the heartbeat of God that their criticisms are not worth caring about. We must view sinners not as our enemies, but rather we must see them as victims of sin and satan, and have compassion upon them.
4) We see Zacchaeus up in a tree, and Jesus down on the ground, looking up. Notice that the God of all creation, who could easily look down on sinful mankind from above, lowered Himself (robed Himself in flesh), to come and look up at sinful mankind. Who are we then to look down upon lost people? Who are we to feel that we are “better” than they? To reach the sinner, you must not have a pious, “holier-than-thou” attitude. You must be willing to be friends with the sinner … if you hope to win them.

e. Jesus taught the multitudes, but then turned away from the masses to work personally with just a fisherman nearby (Simon Peter):

I) “And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon’s, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship. Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men” (Luke 5:3-4, 10).

f. There was a marked difference between Jesus’ manner when teaching publicly and his personal work with those close:

I) “And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given” (Matthew 13:10-I I).

2. H.B.S. is convenient to the sinner.

i. We are not to demand that sinners come to us-we are supposed to go_ to them: “Go ye…” (Matthew 24:19).

ii. H.B.S. takes the Word of God to sinners, even to their homes, if necessary:

a. “And how I … have taught you publicly and from house to house” (Acts 20:20). This verse is sometimes called the 20120 vision verse because a person who has “20/20 vision” is one who can see well both up close and for off. This verse describes just that: “publicly” = good far off vision; and “house to house” = good close up vision. It’s interesting that this verse is located in Acts 20:20. When we support missions, that is good “far off” vision. But we must also have good “close up” vision and work to save those close to us!

b. “And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house…” (Acts 2:46). Note that mention is made of fellowship over a meal (breaking bread) occurring from “house to house.”

3. H.B.S. is “going out f the way” to reach souls.

i. Philip’s “Bible Study” with the Ethiopian eunuch (have Acts 8:26-40 read aloud).