Hunt asks Empower audience: “What happens when Jesus is in the house?”

IRVING—Johnny Hunt, NAMB senior vice president for evangelism and leadership, challenged the Empower audience during the Tuesday morning session, Feb. 23, to evangelize with a purpose.

Hunt alluded to the Southern Baptist Convention’s Who’s Your One campaign of one-on-one evangelism, telling listeners that statistics show 85 percent of people in evangelical churches had been invited by others.

“Do you have a friend, relative, work associate or neighbor that you’re being intentional [about] … the rest of this year?” Hunt asked, issuing the following counsel: “Pray and let God work in their lives first, then … make an appointment. Find the time to share the gospel.”

Hunt said he had just interviewed a 16-year-old girl from South Carolina who had recently led three of her best friends to Christ.

Turning to Mark 2, Hunt opened with the question, “What happens when Jesus is in the house?” 

Mark 2 shows Jesus at his “home headquarters” of Capernaum, Hunt said. People heard Jesus was in the house and showed up to hear him.

“Can you think of anything better that can be said about your church [than] that Jesus is in the house?” Hunt asked.

As Jesus preached to the crowded room in Mark 2, four men opened the home’s roof to lower their paralyzed friend, who soon heard from the Lord: “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Asking listeners where they were when God “spoke those eternal words” into their souls, Hunt recalled his own conversion at age 20, on a snowy Sunday night when as a high school dropout managing a pool hall, he heard God’s call. Hunt found both entry into the family of God and fellowship with him, a truth the scribes of Mark 2 do not see.

“Forgiveness is the foundation of fellowship with Jesus Christ,” Hunt said.

While the scribes in Mark 2 describe Jesus’ statements as blasphemy, Jesus asks which is harder: to tell a man to walk or to tell him his sins are forgiven? The Lord next makes a “purposeful statement” paraphrased by Hunt: “I’ve done what I’ve done because there’s something I want you to know … that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sin.”

The time is short, Hunt said, emphasizing the urgency of responding to Christ. 

“The only place you can get your sins forgiven is while you’re on earth,” he said. “Every major religion in the world other than Christianity believes that you can get your sins forgiven after you leave the earth.” 

Capernaum was Jesus’ home city, his headquarters on the northwest shore of the sea of Galilee where much of his ministry activity occurred in this “town of opportunity,” Hunt said, admitting that for the most part, the hometown remained unresponsive to the Lord.

Jesus even gave a “personal rebuke” to Capernaum in Matthew 11:20, predicting its downfall, Hunt noted.

What happens when Jesus is in the house? Hunt offered the following observations from Mark 2.

1. The Word is preached (Mark 2:1-2). There is a “drawing power about Jesus,” as seen in Mark 2, where Jesus also showed “dynamic preaching” by “feeding them the Word of God.” Hunt referenced Mark 12:37, where the “common man” heard Jesus gladly. “At the end of the day, we are all common folk,” Hunt said, adding that when Jesus preached, he drew a crowd, the marginalized who became confident. Jesus also drew criticism.
2. Faith was persistent (Mark 2:3-4). Four men zeroed in on one, Hunt said: “There’s always many who will never reach Jesus unless someone takes them. If there were more bringing believers, there would be more saved sinners.” The friends “put feet to their faith” and brought their friend to Jesus. 
3. Forgiveness is present (Mark 2:5) Jesus forgives the man’s sins. “Forgiveness is the greatest miracle that Jesus will ever perform,” Hunt said. “It meets the greatest need … costs the greatest price … brings the greatest blessing … brings the most lasting result.” 
4. Doubt is on the prowl (Mark 2:6-11). The scribes accused Jesus of cursing God. The Jews connected sin and suffering, Hunt explained. “Suffering was the result of sin to the Jewish people,” said Hunt, referencing Eliphaz, Job’s comforter. 

Amid recollections of his own life as a believer, Hunt said that as of Feb. 23, his mother had been with Jesus 36 years. Even though his family moved frequently, she is “now a permanent resident of heaven.”

Not so for many, he lamented, cautioning that “The church must stay active. The body of Christ must stay active. Nobody else is dispensing hope.”

Turning to the current pandemic, statistics suggest that of 500,000 Americans dead of COVID, 85 percent may be in a “Christless eternity,” Hunt said. COVID has also changed life expectancy. “We’ve lost a year” because of COVID, Hunt said, citing current studies showing life expectancy is now 77, rather than 78.

“I’m way into the last quarter of my life,” he said. “There’s an urgency,” with a somber reminder that there is a “path that leads from earth to heaven,” and not the other way around.