This is the last of “Three key features of a faithful Christian witness” from Jesus the Evangelist.

Third, John the Baptist shows the goal of a faithful Christian witness. John “came as a witness . . . that all might believe through him” (John 1:7). Our goal is for others to believe though our witness. Boice writes, “Its is possible for a person to become so mechanical in his witness that he can go through all the motions of witnessing without actually looking and praying for the response to Christ in faith by the other person. If we could remember this, we would find witnessing exciting, and we would learn that winning the argument often becomes far less important than winning the person to the Lord.” Since our goal is to persuade unbelievers and win over sinners, we should labor earnestly in prayer before and after our witness; and we should persist in telling others about Jesus even in the face of hardship and persecution. If we will commit to this pattern of faithful witness, as modeled by John the Baptist, we will find that God will cause people to believe through us. We will have the great joy of being used by the Lord for the salvation of others.

—Richard D. Phillips, Jesus the Evangelist (Reformation Trust Publishing, 2007), 15.