What is Evangelism?

This week, we're starting a new series, a three part series on evangelism, which for some of you maybe sounds like a swear word, but we're gonna try and debunk that a little bit over these next three weeks. The idea is that we talk about this concept because we're heading into Easter. And so this is a wonderful opportunity for us to sort of get primed and get ready as we see the big day, the big event approaching, and as we can start talking with our friends, start talking with our colleagues and our coworkers and so on about this gospel message that we are entrusted with. So the series is called On Mission, Ordinary People with an Extraordinary Message. And this morning, we're going to talk about what is evangelism.

What is evangelism? Now you may have been here in September. We've had a lot of people join us since then. But last year in September, we had a series called organic outreach, which was also talking about sharing the good news naturally. And we would try to be very, very practical about some of the approaches we can take, some of the techniques, some of the good reminders, you know, like the one degree, raising our outreach temperature by one degree and so on as we talk with one another.

And so this is, I guess, a bit of a refresher. Some people ask, can we do something in the new year, in the first half of the year that sort of touches back on these things and just raise that outreach temperature again for us. So we're going to deal this morning with the question, what is evangelism? When I use this word, it may sort of pop into your mind all sorts of images. Like I said, some bad, some fearful images when we talk about these sorts of things.

But plainly, simplistically, evangelism is simply the act of making the central message of Christianity clear enough for someone to respond to. That is what evangelism is. The word evangelism has its roots from the Greek word euangelion, which literally means good news. That's why the gospel is called the good news. And evangelism is simply sharing good news.

Mac Stiles in his book, Evangelism, How the Whole Church Speaks the Gospel, defines evangelism in a really handy way, and we'll sort of use this as our definition the next three weeks. He simply says, evangelism is teaching the gospel with the aim to persuade. Teaching the gospel with the aim to persuade. Now why are we going to be studying evangelism? Because contrary to popular belief, evangelism is the responsibility of every Christian.

Every Christian. Every one of us should be able to share the gospel. It's not a job for the pastor only. It's not the job of an elder only or for the spiritual in the church. Jesus tells all of His disciples, doesn't He?

In Matthew 28, that they are to go into the world with the message that Jesus taught, making them disciples as well. So it's important that every disciple of Jesus is making disciples. And so we, as disciples of Jesus, must equip ourselves. We must hunt down and pursue ways of sharpening this up if we feel unable, if we feel that we are not equipped. So if we take this definition of Max Stiles that I quoted earlier, evangelism is teaching the gospel with the aim to persuade.

There are at least two things, and we're gonna look at three points, but two things that he says. Firstly, evangelism is at its core about teaching people. Let's have a look at a great example of this in Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8, and we're gonna read from verse 26. There's a disciple of Jesus, a guy called Philip, and this is how a story about him goes from the book of Acts.

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert place, and he rose and he went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. He was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah.

And the Spirit said to Philip, go over and join this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet. And he asked, do you understand what you are reading? And he said, how can I unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

Now the passage of scripture that he was reading was this: like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth. And the eunuch said to Philip, about whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this?

About himself or about someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus. So evangelism is firstly an objective message that needs to be taught. It's a declaration, the good news. It's a proclamation of something that has happened in time and space.

But this objective event has implications, consequences, eternal consequences for every single human being. This objective message must be understood if anyone is to come to Christ for salvation. People with no gospel need to be taught this truth. People with a false gospel need to be taught this truth. And so at its very root, evangelism is teaching people a truth about their perilous spiritual condition if they are to continue keeping Christ at arm's length.

That is an objective statement that we must deliver. And then once I have heard of their hazardous situation, then we introduce the good news that Jesus has done something about this perilous hazardous situation. Because evangelism at its very heart is about teaching, it means that there are no shortcuts or substitutes. We have a lot of teachers in this church. I won't get them to raise their hands, but we have a significant amount.

And you ask them and talk to them, and they will tell you that knowledge doesn't just appear out of thin air. A grade one child doesn't see the A B C's, you know, nicely printed letters on the wall, and then all of a sudden he knows how to read. They must be taught what A sounds like. They must practise writing A so that they know this is what A is. This is how A fits in with the other letters, and this is how we therefore read.

Knowledge doesn't just appear. There are no shortcuts to this teaching. This means that evangelism isn't simply then us handing out flyers for a letterbox drop, inviting them to the garage sale. That is not evangelism. As good as that is, as important as that is, evangelism isn't inviting someone to church as important and as necessary perhaps in the process as that is.

Evangelism definitely is not about being really nice and smiling a lot. None of these things are evangelism. Evangelism happens when the truth of scripture is explained. And we see God leading Philip sovereignly. And I mean, wow.

What an experience just to be told to go and there you go. And he's just, at that time, reading Isaiah 53, and it's just meant to be. But Philip had to explain that this is Jesus, and this is what this passage is referring to. Incidentally, this eunuch becomes a believer. He is baptised at the side of the road.

He probably goes back to Ethiopia with the gospel message, and there's all sorts of traditions that say that the Ethiopian church was founded by this man. We need to open the scripture to explain and teach the gospel. The second thing is evangelism is persuading people. Let's have a look at Acts a little bit further on in chapter 17. Acts chapter 17, and we're gonna read just two verses from verses 2 to 4.

Paul and Silas, they arrived in a place called Thessalonica, and verse 2 begins. And Paul went in as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days, he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead and saying, this Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ. And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women as well. We believe as reformed believers that conversion is a work of God and His Spirit from beginning to end. Right?

Conversion is a work of God from beginning to end. But from the perspective of humans, the gospel still needs to be explained to persuade. We see Paul in Thessalonica setting up his ministry in this or beginning his ministry there in the very normal way that he did it. It says, as was his custom, Paul arrives in a new town, then he goes straight to the synagogue, straight to the Jewish meeting place where Jews worship God. And it says for three consecutive Sabbaths, three Saturdays in a row, he's there explaining.

He's there teaching that Jesus is the Messiah and that he had to come and die and rise again from the dead. He explains this to them, proving from scripture that it was necessary. And then verse 4 says that some of the Jews there were persuaded along with God-fearing Gentiles and some of the leading women there. When we evangelise, we are trying to persuade people, and we do this to all parts of a person's mind and their heart. We appeal to everything, to the whole person.

We appeal to their logic and to their reason. And we have to try and say, this is why this happened. We also, therefore, appeal to their emotions and to their passions. And then we also appeal to their conscience and their will. Because ultimately, I guess, you can argue it's the will that needs to be persuaded.

A mind can understand. A heart can feel sad for Jesus or, you know, feel or empathise with the joy that the disciples had when they saw Jesus, but it's the will that must be converted to believe. But there is no single best method to persuade. Evangelism can't just stop at teaching people. You can't just say, here it is.

See you later. It must be said in a way that gives people an opportunity to receive it, to believe it, to repent and believe. That is what Jesus taught, wasn't it? Mark 1:15, He came into His ministry with those words, repent and believe for the kingdom of God is here. It means we don't just tell someone Jesus loves you and leave it at that. Believe that is evangelism.

There has to be a call to action. There must be a call for people to believe. Evangelism, therefore, looks to persuade people to give up, to forsake their old ways of thinking, their old ways of feeling, their old ways of believing, and align those things to the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. So evangelism is persuading people. And then lastly, we see that evangelism takes place in the context of the church.

Now this is, again, in our modern day, quite unusual to say because, you know, we're happy sort of, you know, skilling ourselves up and seeing that this is my individual battle. Like, it's me in the workforce. It's me at uni. It's me at school. But lasting conversion happens in a church family.

It happens in the context of a church. The whole church is involved. There are people who think the last place I would ever invite a non-Christian is a church, but I disagree. What the human heart longs for most is found in Jesus Christ and in His church. It is among God's people that we can be loved deeply.

It is among God's people that we are discipled and embraced. It is in the church I have been the recipient of this to be prayed for. And I can guarantee you guys, because I'm here on a Wednesday morning every week, you are prayed for. It is in the church that we are mentored. It is the place where we learn to extend forgiveness to those who have hurt us, but also receive forgiveness when we have hurt others.

And so it is the best place for those whose hearts are still far from God to come and taste, to come and in some way see people who have drunk deeply from the well of grace, who have filled up and who are experiencing continually the marvel, the joy, the freedom of the gospel message. Of all places, the church is the living proof of God's grace. And if we doubt that the church is helpful in evangelism, we actually are limiting the effectiveness of our evangelism. Why do I say this? Well, our last opportunity is to turn to 1 Corinthians 14.

It's the last little bit of flipping we'll do this morning. And we won't read the whole passage, although it is just amazing. But in the context here, what we see is Paul writing to the church in Corinth, which is a church of, let's say, 25, maybe 30 people. It's a house church. And Paul is writing to this Corinthian church, and Paul says in this passage that he expects believers to be mingled with unbelievers.

This is his assumption. But he's correcting the church here because they have kind of lost the evangelistic plot. The issue here is there are people speaking in tongues. This supernatural language that the Holy Spirit gave them to communicate, to worship, and Paul says, if you are babbling in this way and there's no one to interpret, what is the point? Have a look at verse 9.

Why is this speaking in tongues an issue? Because Paul says in verse 9, so with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? The Corinthian church just thinks, no. This is just me and God. This is just us.

We're just communicating here. Paul says there are people around you that need to be edified by you. Then he says, imagine if someone outside comes in and they hear what you're saying, they will think that you are crazy. They think you are absolutely mad by talking this way, and you'll actually de-evangelise these non-believers, these seekers. Later in the chapter, he says that the prophetic preaching of God's word is far more important, should be far more emphasised because have a look at verse 25.

He says, there, the secrets of this person, this seeker's heart are disclosed. And so falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you. You can expand that now to say that all we do during a church service this morning is to be understandable. It's true that not everyone will understand at all times. Ask Brian when he came to church for the first time five weeks ago.

Ask him what he understood. Not everything will be understandable at first, but it must be in such a way that it's within grasp. It's sort of a concept that might be foreign. The gospel really is so counter-human, counter-cultural in many ways, but it is within grasp. As far as humanly possible, it's important that as a church, we strive to be understandable in what we do here on a Sunday, but throughout the week as well.

And so for Paul, the church, even in its public worship, is the place for evangelism. It's the place where God's Spirit moves, and it's expected that in the church, in the church, people will meet God. And I wanna ask you this challenging question. Do you believe that? Do you back this church?

Do you think that I can invite Sue from work to come and sit here and listen to a message? Do I believe God's Spirit can move even in the humble words of pastor KJ? Even in the English that is, you know, so far short of the marvel and the glory of the gospel. Do I believe that God can move people to respond to the gospel here? Well, this is what we're working towards for Easter.

Whether you believe it or not, that's what we're gonna try and do. And we have four weeks exactly. Four weeks until the Easter weekend. I wanna ask you, will you start praying? Will you start thinking?

Will you start engaging with people? Those South Africans that are just nowhere. Those dear friends that hold on and resist and they tell you that they are stubborn and they will not listen. Will you back yourself? Will you back your God?

And will you back your church? I promise I won't preach in tongues. In wrapping up, firstly, we see that evangelism, the objective teaching of the message, the central message of Christianity in order to persuade, has three things there. Firstly, it is being taught. It is teaching.

Secondly, it is to bring them to change, to be persuaded, whether through their mind, through their heart, or through their conscience. And then thirdly, it is to back the church that God has given the world to do this. Theologian Thomas Aquinas, who is a very significant theologian in the history of the church, a medieval theologian, it's sort of an area we don't often go to. But he himself was a brilliant man, and he himself was also a teacher.

He lectured in Paris, I believe it was. He talks about the art of teaching people at one point. And he said that when you try and convert a person to your view, when you try and persuade them, you must go over to where they are standing, take them by the hand and guide them. He said, you don't stand on your side of the room and shout to them to come across. You don't order them to come to stand where you are.

You start where they are, and you work from that position. He says any effective teaching, any effective persuasion happens with that sort of thinking, guiding, leading. Friends, isn't it wonderful? The example of how God taught us is the same. God didn't stand in heaven shouting down at us, telling us to get up there.

The thing that has brought lasting change for us, the thing that has brought lasting change to humanity, the thing that has established the church that He loves is that He came to us. Jesus started His work from our position, and He led us by the hand. Coming in flesh, He taught us. He persuaded us. He embraced us.

Jesus is the ultimate example of how evangelism is done. And, of course, we only want to evangelise anyone because He came. And He came not simply to teach, but to die. To pour out His life as a sacrifice for sin, my sin and yours. And so taking that sin upon Himself, punished in our place, giving life to me instead, God taught us what it means to really live.

And so if there's anyone here this morning who for the first time this might be new, for anyone this morning that has lost their way, that has forgotten this, remember and know Jesus Christ. Go to Him. Learn from Him. Read about Him and talk to someone here. Talk to me.

Talk to the friend that's sitting next to you. But be transformed and renewed by this powerful God who came to us. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this message again that is challenging, that is always a little uncomfortable. But we know, Lord, there are so many people that must hear.

I thank you, God, for this church that you have been working in for years now to prepare and equip us. I thank you, God, that I can be a pastor of a church that does love and care about the lost. I thank you, God, that over many years, you've been preparing us. I thank you, Lord, that you have turned up our spiritual temperature so that we want to learn and we want to be equipped. Father, I pray that we may be able to teach the gospel, which means we must learn that gospel.

We must understand the essentials of it. Give us the impetus. Give us the motivation to learn. Father, help us to be persuasive. Help us to have the courage to present a call to action to those who hear, an invitation to give their hearts to Jesus.

And then, Father, help us to be a church that worships You in such an evangelistic way that people will come here and say, God is really among you. Help us be a church that is sensitive to the seeker, that is open to those who don't yet understand. Help us all to see the new faces that come here, to make them feel welcome, to make them realise that they are recognised and valued. So, Father, we pray that you will throw open the flood gates, that we are a church ready, that we are a church happy to serve you, to build up the kingdom for your glory. And so, Father, finally, we do pray for Easter and we pray as we prepare our hearts and our minds for that personally as we again just stand still then to marvel.

Lord, I pray that we will also just remember in these four weeks to reach out, to engage, to pray about, to intercede deeply and earnestly for the souls that are at risk of being lost for eternity. Help us, Lord, to find and see the opportunity. Spirit, will you please lead us and guide us? Lord, if you've done it to Philip, Lord, you can do it to us. We ask, Lord, for your help in that.

In Jesus' name, we pray all these things. Amen.