When a person receives Jesus Christ, one of the first things he ought to do is tell someone else that he got saved.  Darrel Robinson, who wrote the book, Total Church Life, used to take his new converts soul winning with him as soon as the next day after they got saved.  He took them to see their old friends so that they could tell them that they had gotten saved.  Of course, he grew some very large churches and some very strong Christians, as a result.

The pattern of witnessing to others right after salvation is something that we find in the Bible.  For instance, when Jesus was witnessing to the woman at the well in Jn 4, she believed that he was the Messiah.  And as soon as she believed that, she left her water pot [Jn 4:28] and headed for the city where she told the men, “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” [v. 29]   The result of her testimony was that “many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, “He told me all that ever I did,” [v. 39].  Notice she testified to the truth of what she knew.  That’s what a witness does.

In Acts 3, when Peter and John healed the lame man “in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth” he let people know right away what had happened to him.  “And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God,” [Acts 3:8].  He was unashamed to publicly praise the Lord for healing him.  And of course, his public display and testimony caused them that were there to be “filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him,” [v. 9].

In Mark 7:31-37, Jesus healed a deaf man with a speech impediment.  He charged him and the men that brought him to Jesus “that they should tell no man,” [v. 36].  Here Jesus  specifically told them to keep quiet about this miracle.  They were given a command not to say anything.  And yet, in spite of Jesus’ charge, “the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it,” [v. 36].  Most of us are looking for an excuse to keep from having to witness to people.  Not these folks!!  They had more than an excuse.  They had a command.  And yet they were testifying.  That’s what we’re supposed to do.  See Matt 9:27-31

Now we have a great lesson to learn from the blind man that was healed in Jn 9.  He was cornered by his neighbors who wanted to know exactly what happened to him [v. 8-10].  And when you get saved, you are going to have some neighbors that are going to want to know what happened to you, too.  Anyway, look at his answer in verse 11.  He tells it just like it  happened.  He gave a perfect testimony.  “A man that is called Jesus [v. 3] made clay [v. 6], and anointed mine eyes [v. 6], and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam [v. 7], and wash [v. 7]: and I went [v. 7] and washed [v. 7], and I received sight [v. 7].  When you witness to people, just tell them exactly what Jesus did for you.

One of the wickedest men in the whole country of the Gadarenes got saved and when he did, his conversion caused quite a stir [Mk 5].  He had so many devils in him that when Jesus cast them out, 2000 swine drowned in the sea [v. 13].  Needless to say, Jesus wasn’t welcome to stay in that region [v. 17].  When he got ready to leave, the formerly demon possessed man wanted to go with him [v. 18].  But Jesus told him rather to stick around and tell the folks “how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee,” [v. 19].  So, he did what he was told to do and look at the results.  “And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel,” [v. 20].  That’s  what we need to do.  We need to tell them about the great things  Jesus has done for us.

One more time, we’ll look at an example, but there are more.  When Saul (later called Paul) got saved in Acts 9, he had a good reason to fear telling others about Jesus because he had been making havoc of the church and persecuting the church [Acts 8:1-3].  Nevertheless, within just a few days of getting saved “he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son
of God,” [Acts9:20].

Now, we have no excuse.  We need to tell as many folks as we know about the Son of God and what he has done for us.  Remember, a witness is not responsible for the decision that others make based on his testimony.  What they decide to do with what they learn from your testimony is strictly up to them. Your job is to tell them who saved you, how he saved you and what he has done for you since you have gotten saved.  Then you can end your testimony by encouraging them that Jesus will save them, too.

It is a good idea to carry good gospel tracts with you that clearly present the gospel so that you can leave them with interested listeners.  You should have a pocket New Testament with you and you should mark and memorize verses dealing with salvation so that you can show them from the Bible what the Bible says about how to be saved.  We have Bibles and tracts for you that are very suitable for this work.