Evangelism Seminar at First Evangelical Free Church of Wichita
God’s heart for evangelism
SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus
I want to talk to you about a couple of topics this evening: “God’s Heart for Evangelism” and “The Importance of the Gospel in Evangelism.” But let me start out by defining the key term, Evangelism. It is essential that we know what we’re talking about when we use this term.
It does not mean proselyting.
It does not mean converting.
It is not even mean soul winning.
The term comes from the Greek and means “to proclaim the good news.” We are called to share the Good News of the Gospel with those who do not know it. We’re in the sharing business; God’s in the saving business.
God’s heart for evangelism
God loves people. I believe John 3:16 means exactly what it says: “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Because He loves all kinds of people (and, I think, all individual people), He wants them to enjoy a full and abundant life now, and He wants them to spend all of eternity with Him in heaven.
But there’s a huge obstacle in the way: people are sinful, while God is holy and cannot have sin in His presence. When we say mankind is sinful, we mean they have rebelled against God and have violated all that He stands for–regarding both character and commandments. Sin is so serious in God’s eyes that it requires death as a payment. In the OT God allowed for animal sacrifice as a temporary but costly atonement, but to permanently resolve the sin issue it took the most radical solution imaginable. God sent His most precious possession, His one and only Son, to earth to become one of us through the incarnation, to demonstrate a completely obedient and righteous life, and then to die as a sacrifice for our sin. He promises salvation from sin and eternal life to all who receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
Now the other side of this amazing love story (and the reason why it is so important that we tell it) is that the Bible also teaches that those who do not have a relationship with God through Jesus will be spiritually lost for eternity. Their very lives and eternal destiny hinge upon hearing the Good News, i.e., hinge upon evangelism.
Let me acknowledge right up front that evangelism is not a popular notion today. In an age of multiculturalism, it is viewed as arrogant and intolerant, because sharing your faith presumes it is superior to the other person’s. Well, guess what? That’s what we believe as Christians. Not “superior” in the sense of being more intellectual or higher on the cultural scale, but superior in respect to truth and reality.
Jesus Himself said, “I am the Way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” If He was telling the truth, then if people don’t come through Jesus, they can’t come to God! So, no matter how much opposition we receive to sharing our faith, how can we help but do it if we really believe our friends and family, to say nothing of nice strangers, will be lost without it?
Evangelism is not easy, but it is possible in a culture like ours. You know, first century culture was a lot like ours in so many respects. People were religious, but formalism and ritual dominated over relationship. People were sinful, and violence was everywhere. Scores of religious gurus offered a variety of answers to the great questions of life.
Yet the Christian faith spread dramatically. The Church literally exploded on the scene in first-century Jerusalem–there is simply no other way to describe what happened. There were approximately 120 committed followers of Jesus who gathered in the city immediately after Jesus’ ascension to heaven. No doubt there were others who believed, but most were so discouraged and intimidated that they would not identify themselves. But within weeks there were over 10,000 believers boldly witnessing about Jesus! So stunning was the growth of the church that the governmental authorities panicked and wondered out loud if the world wasn’t being turned upside down.
In Acts 2:41 we read that there were 3,000 converts because of Peter’s first sermon. A few verses later it says, “the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” By Acts 4:4 the number of men had grown to about 5,000, besides women and children. In verse 17 we find the authorities stepping in, plotting among themselves with these words: “To stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name”, i.e., the name of Jesus.
But they didn’t stop, and in the next chapter, 5:14 it says, “more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.” And in 6:7 we read, “So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests (Jewish clergy) became obedient to the faith.”
And it didn’t stop there in Jerusalem! The message spread to neighboring regions and then very quickly to the whole civilized world.
If Christianity could spread so quickly in the first century, it can do the same thing today. In fact, we’ve seen it happen, not in the US but in South Korea, in China, and in certain countries of central Africa. But the flame will not spread where Christians refuse to spread it. The Media is not going to do it for us. Government will not do it for us. The public schools surely will not do it for us.
Universities are throwing up obstacles all over the place. We’re going to have to accept the fact that the Great Commission is for us, and then figure out how best to get the job done. And that brings us to the question:
How is evangelism done most effectively?
I have found four key ways evangelism was done in the early chapters of Acts, and I think each one is applicable today. First,
1. By believers living their faith before the world. The early Christians lived their Christianity. They didn’t just profess it; they didn’t just teach it; they didn’t just believe it–they lived it. They did so through hospitality, community, and meeting the needs of the poor. You can read about it Acts 2:42-47. This is called lifestyle evangelism. It involves making friends with unbelieving people and trusting God to provide an opportunity to share with them the reason for the hope that is within us. The problem with so many of us is that we don’t often make friends with unbelievers, or if we do, we become like them, instead of helping them become like Jesus.
You know, almost anything can become an avenue for sharing our faith if we will think intentionally about it. Whether it’s golf, or a business lunch, or spending time with a neighbor, or chatting with your hairdresser or barber. Four or five men in our church go to the same barber. He’s not a believer but he’s a nice guy. Two years ago, he and his live-in partner had a baby girl. They named her Wren, so a man in our church who is an expert wood carver carved a beautiful little wren and we presented it to our barber, along with a blessing from Scripture. It opened up new conversations on spiritual matters.
God calls us to live our faith before the world in such a way that they will see a difference and will want what we have to offer.
2. By sharing the storyline of Scripture. There is value, friends, in knowing the Bible, in being able to trace the story in such a way that one can see that all of history is the unfolding drama of redemption. The early Christians studied the Scriptures, which for them was the Old Testament, and they used what they learned to reach unbelievers. In at least three different situations in the early chapters of Acts, we find Christians telling God’s redemptive story with great results.
The most dramatic example is Stephen’s speech at the beginning of chapter 7. He begins with Abraham and traces the history of God’s dealings with His people through the patriarchs, the Egyptian captivity, the Exodus, the Wilderness wanderings, the conquest of Canaan, and the building of Solomon’s temple. The climax of his recital of history is found in verse 51-53:
“You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One (namely, Jesus). And now you have betrayed and murdered him.”
Now I wouldn’t recommend being quite so blunt in our application of Scripture as Stephen was. Instead of winning converts, he got himself martyred, but the fact is, knowing the storyline of Scripture is invaluable in sharing our faith.
And there was one key convert from Stephen’s speech. The first verse after his death is recorded (Acts 8:1) is this: “And Saul was there, giving approval to his death.” One chapter later Saul is converted on the Damascus Road and becomes the greatest missionary and theologian the church has ever known. It doesn’t say it in so many words, but I believe the reason he is mentioned right after Stephen’s death is to draw a connection–he may have given approval to his death, but God was using Stephen’s testimony to begin a convicting work in Saul’s heart.
3. By sharing our personal faith stories. Repeatedly in Acts we read these words, “We are witnesses….,” and then the early Christians tell what they had seen and heard. Anyone can tell their own personal faith story, particularly if we work on it. I heard a statement recently that really got my attention: “There’s only one way to God, but there are many ways to Jesus.” Think about that for a moment. There’s only one way to God–we must come by faith in Jesus–but there are many different ways people come to faith in Jesus, and sharing how we came can have a powerful impact.
4. By making the Gospel crystal clear. The Gospel is the Good News that God has taken care of our sin problem by sending His own Son to die in our place and then raising Him from the dead. And that’s what the early Christians made crystal clear over and over.
Look at Peter’s sermon in Acts 2:22-24, 36, 38:
“Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him…. Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ…. Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Every major element of the Gospel is laid out there clearly–sin, the death and resurrection of Christ, and our need to appropriate the gift of salvation by faith (repentance).
Look at Peter’s sermon in Acts 4:10-12:
“Know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
The early Christians didn’t share warm fuzzies about how Jesus was a good teacher, loved everybody, and wanted us all to live in peace. When they shared the Gospel, they always made three basic facts clear:
1. We have a problem called sin.
2. God solved our problem by sending his Son to die in our place.
3. We must appropriate that solution by receiving Jesus as Savior.
What constitutes true conversion?
I believe we should be giving less attention to decisions for Christ and more to making disciples for Christ. Many of the terms we use for conversion express this penchant for decisions.
Put your faith in God
Believe in Jesus
Invite Christ into your life.
Be born again.
Receive the free gift of salvation,
Pray to receive Christ.
Some of these aren’t even biblical.
Too often we talk as if once a decision is made, conversion is an automatic result. The fact is, the best we can say after any of these decisions is that the person professed faith in Christ.
Evangelism, to be effective in our post-modern culture, must:
1. Be content-specific.
2. Include the notion that Christ is the exclusive way of salvation.
3. Result in a radical change of belief and conduct in the convert.
1. Be content-specific. In his excellent book, Tell the Truth, Will Metzger presents a compelling apologetic for making sure that the person being evangelized understands the maximum amount of truth possible, not the minimum. “Man-centered evangelism shortens the message. It so focuses on man that it reduces God. It so fears doctrinal division among true Christians that it allows the most imprecise gospel messages to become common currency.”
We must define who God is, who we are, what sin is, who Jesus is, what Jesus has done about sin, and what we must do about what Jesus has done.
2. The exclusivity of Jesus’ claims to be the only way of salvation is not some minor issue that we should hide from our post-modern culture out of embarrassment. John 14:6 and Acts 4:12 can only mean that the one being confronted with the gospel cannot “believe in Jesus” in any saving sense and at the same time entertain the notion that there is another way of salvation.
If we fail to address the issue of the exclusivity of Christ, then we may well find that our converts have simply added Jesus to an intellectual pantheon that may include Eastern philosophies, New Age goddesses, self-help psychology, or even black magic.
3. Conversion must result in a radical change of belief and conduct. When one turns to something, he must, at the same time, turn from something else. That something may be idols, self, sin, alien beliefs, agnosticism, atheism, or even spiritual apathy. The NT term for this is repentance.
There is a school of thought in evangelicalism called “free grace.” It is the notion that salvation is a free gift and that nothing is required to receive it other than faith. Eph. 2:8-9 is used to justify this view. But I think this minimizes the dominance of the theme of repentance in the NT. In fact, I don’t think a person can exercise saving faith until there is repentance in his heart. In other words, he cannot turn to Christ for salvation unless he also turns from his sin.
Conclusion: When God is doing an exciting work in us, we want to tell others about it. Just think about the last time you saw a great movie or read a great book or enjoyed a fabulous vacation—you couldn’t wait to tell your friends about it, right? When we get set on fire by our relationship with Jesus, we are so filled with awe and wonder and enthusiasm that we cannot keep it to ourselves.
DATE: March 30, 2012
Tags:
Evangelism
Repentance