Evangelism A Mission of the Church

Introduction

Welcome to all from the South Bumby Church of Christ, where we are serious about shining light in darkness. And this begins with ourselves being the light of Christ. And then once we are doing that, we can then shine that light upon others as the moon shines the light reflecting from the sun. We reflect the light of Jesus and of God upon others around us. As was announced at the 9 a.m. hour on the last Sunday of this month, there will be a special presentation. Where did they all come from? A history of the churches. I’m sure this will be announced later at the end of this service when we have this hour’s announcements. And so this lesson, I’m simply going to trace the history of what happened since the time of Jesus, and beginning with the formation of the Catholic Church, and then so on and so forth, and see the major denominations and how they began and developed and what they basically teach.

And at the end, talk about how then can we really know what we ought to be doing. So this will be an interesting lesson, I’m hoping. A lesson that I’m hoping you’ll be inviting people to, but a lesson that I think will be beneficial for all of us to listen to. So I hope we’re all here for that. We’re thankful so much for our visitors who are here this morning. And if you’re not back on the 31st, we understand because you might live in a different state. But uh, we’re thankful that you’re here and glad that you’ve chosen to spend your time worshiping the Lord on your vacation. I want to talk to you this morning about evangelism, a mission of the church. Evangelism is one of the works of the church.

We typically sum it up in the acronym B: benevolence, edification, evangelism. And those are all very important. And so evangelism is that third one we normally put there in that acronym. It is often, however, perceived as merely a financial work of the church. When the man at the table heading the contribution says this money will be used for the support of the gospel in this country and in and in others, then that plate comes around and it’s possible that somebody drops that check and that plate and thinks, well, I just did my evangelism. Well, it is the work of the church financially to support preachers, but the work of evangelism is more than that. And it is something that in some way, shape, and form, I believe that we are all to take uh to take part in.

Now, as a result of this perception of evangelism being a financial work of the church, very little uh evangelism is done by many Christians, and by evangelism I mean active uh, you might say proselytizing is being done. Did you know that the Roman persecution of the church began in a large part because of evangelism? Once Rome found out and figured out that, you know, this Christianity movement is not merely a branch of Judaism. You know, Judaism really remained kind of to itself. There wasn’t much proselyzing done to others. When they figured out that this is a separate thing, that these Christians, their goal is to convert the world, then that’s when Rome really put their foot down hard. There was a man in a church discussing enlarging the church building.

I was involved in this conversation, and he was in in disagreement of that. That’s not here. This is not here. It’s a different place. And he said, Do we really want more people? And I think sometimes that’s the attitude that, you know, why would we want more? I mean, we’ve got the people we’re comfortable with, and it’s working, and so why don’t we want to mess it up? By bringing in new people. In 2012, one source reports that 95% of confessed Christians said that in the prior year they had not shared their faith with anyone. And I sure hope that’s not true as a rule. I hope it’s not true of us, but probably many Christians really pretty much never share their faith with just about anyone.

1. Defining Evangelism

And I think that’s a shame. So what we need to do is get back to our mission of evangelism. And that’s what I want to be talking to you about. Before we can really talk about getting back to the mission, we need to be able to understand what evangelism is. So we’re going to define evangelism. The new Oxford American Dictionary defines it as the spreading of the Christian gospel by public preaching or personal witness. The English word evangelism is not actually found in most of our Bibles, probably not in any of the Bibles that are here, though you could tap on your little toy, you know, uh iPad and you could find many versions. You could probably find one that has the word evangelism in a few verses.

Sorry, I didn’t mean that to sound disparaging towards using your iPad as a Bible. But we have to be careful because you can also play angry birds on those things. And you can also text a boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever, so we need to make sure using those devices that if you’re using those in church for the Bible, then use it for the Bible. But anyway. The English word evangelism is from the Greek word youngelion. And that word means gospel or good news. And is found 76 times. So that Greek word is there a lot of times. The verb form of that word, youngelizzo, means bring good news and is found 54 times. For example, in Romans chapter 10, 15. In a context of Paul really reaching out to the Jews and speaking of the gospel being brought and needing to be obeyed, he says, how will they preach unless they are sent, just as it is written?

2. Not All Christians Are Expected to Be Teachers

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things. So that those three words bring good news is really the word evangelism that’s there. And that’s the idea. That was loud and I apologize. The word evangelist or evangelists is found three times. Acts 21 and verse 8, Philip the Evangelist. Ephesians 4 11, Christ gave some as evangelists. And 2 Timothy 4 and verse 5, Timothy is told to do the work of an evangelist. So that kind of summarizes the idea of evangelism in the New Testament. Basically, in these contexts, evangelism is the teaching of the gospel to the lost. Now, is evangelism an individual responsibility? You know, I’ve heard it said that God expects all of us to become teachers. That, you know, if you’re not actively teaching the lost, then you are falling short as a Christian.

And this plagues a lot of Christians with guilt. Is this what the Bible teaches? And I just looked at it objectively. Evangelism, in its technical sense, is not commanded of every Christian. That is, in the sense of teaching. Not all Christians are expected to be teachers.

Think about this. Sometimes the Great Commission is portrayed as something that was said directly to you and me. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Certainly that’s God’s will for the church in general. But who was that actually said directly to? It was said to the apostles. That was their special commission. They were sent to bring the gospel to the whole world. That was not said to you and I individually. Furthermore, James chapter 3 and verse 1 says, Let not many of you be teachers, become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. And so the idea of that is, hey, when you become a teacher, you have to be really careful what you say. And I realize that every time I get up here, I’m nervous.

As long as I’ve been doing this, I get nervous because I’m preaching the word of God, and I want to get it right. So this is the context of James 3 of sins of the tongue. And it starts with this idea of let not many be teachers. And so there are some people who really aren’t ready to be a teacher because they’re not in control of their tongue. And maybe what they need to do instead of saying, well, I can never be a teacher, is just get control of your tongue first. Then maybe you can be and become a teacher. But you know what? There are some people who simply don’t have it in their makeup to be a teacher. Teaching is a skill. I come from a family of teachers.

My father teaches music, been doing it for 30 years. Teaching is not easy. Not everybody can just snap their fingers and all of a sudden now that they have knowledge, they can actually impart that knowledge effectively. Some people really honestly have no business teaching. Some people, because of their health or various uh situations like their age, really are not capable of teaching. And also keep in mind that teaching your children is evangelism. It’s really, you know, essentially evangelism. Uh today’s Mother’s Day, and I didn’t say happy Mother’s Day, but Happy Mother’s Day. Um what a wonderful thing to have mothers and fathers who teach their children the word of God. Those are the most important souls you need to be teaching. I I’ve heard of preachers who have spent their lives converting the world trying to, and neglected their own family, and their children have fallen away.

And we’ve all heard of that sort of thing, and and the whole pre the whole PK thing. I almost said pre-K. PK, preacher kid thing. It’s sort of a joke that, well, a lot of times the preacher’s kids end up being the neglect neglected ones who act out and so on and so forth. And so uh it’s so important to focus on our children and to teach them the gospel. That’s your first priority, parents. And and grandparents, you have that um duty as well with your with your grandchildren. I I was at a Fourth of July party one time, years ago, when I lived up in Athens, Alabama, and there was a brother in Christ who had this newborn baby, and he was kind of expressing to me that he sort of felt guilty that you know he wasn’t really using his time for things like uh, you know, evangelism or uh different uh things he could partake in with the church, and that he didn’t feel like he was using his talents.

3. Many Christians Should Be Teachers

That he had said this to a preacher that very wisely and lovingly responded to him and said, Right now, that baby is your talent. And I thought, what a wonderful response. Because that is a responsibility that parents have. It’s a God-given work to teach and train those children. So if you teach nobody else, train your children, that’s evangelism. So, in that sense, we have a lot of people who are teaching their children. I mean, who are doing evangelism. Even here in this congregation, what a wonderful thing that is. Now, having said all of that, let me stomp a little bit on some toes, including my own. There are many Christians who should be teachers that are not teachers. Greg was referencing Hebrews 5 earlier in a context where he’s discussing, the writer of Hebrews was discussing there the high priesthood of Jesus and how it is parallel in a lot of ways with the priesthood of Melchizedek from Genesis 14.

And he says, concerning him that is Melchizedek, we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God. And you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who, because of practice, have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Suppose you went out to eat with a friend and you’re placing your order, and the wait waiter is standing there and you place your order and it’s your friend’s turn, and he says, No, I’m not going to order anything.

I brought my bottle of milk. And he grabs his baby bottle of milk, and that’s going to be his lunch. That would be, well, unnatural, right? But that is essentially the situation with many Christians that by now they ought to be teachers. They ought to be feeding on the meat of the word, but they are still on the milk of the word. And if that is you, then shame on you. You ought to have progressed more. And we need to be progressing to the point that we can’t. Many people could be teachers that just tell themselves, I could never teach. And it’s only because of laziness that that happens in many cases.

Because in Acts chapter 8, where we have the persecution of the church after the stoning of Stephen and Paul, who is called Saul, going in and ravaging the church house to house. In verse 4, it says, Therefore, those who have been scattered went about preaching the word. Now, who had been scattered? The apostles? Who was this? This was just the Christians. The normal Christians. And so many more of us could be doing this that are not. Though there are the exceptions, and those who really think could not become teachers, I think there are many who could be that are not living up to their potential. The church needs more teachers of the lost. I pointed out in a recent sermon that in John 4, Jesus said to his apostles, The harvest is plentiful.

Well, in that passage, he said the harvest is white. And in Luke 10 and verse 2, when he sent out the 70, he said, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of harvests to send out laborers into his harvest. So the problem, according to Jesus, is that the laborers are few. That’s the problem. It’s not the harvest. We need more laborers. What we need in the church of Jesus Christ is we need more people who are willing to get off the couch and turn off the TV or cancel something important in their schedule or some recreational activity and get busy learning how to teach the lost. And get out in the field where it’s hot and where it’s dirty and where it’s sticky and where it’s messy.

And work that harvest and find those souls. It takes effort. It is inconvenient, but the laborers are few. And so let’s make sure that we’re not making excuses for ourselves. Amen.

I like a good hearty amen. James R. Coke said, the greatest need of the church is for the church to change houses, to be willing to get out of the church house, and be willing to get into other people’s houses. What we need is Acts 20, 20 vision. In Acts 20, verse 20, Paul speaking to the elders at Ephesus of Ephesus. He said, I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable in teaching you publicly and from house to house. We need more people who are willing to do that and to teach in private sort of one-on-one studies. J.D. Tant, the old famous Texas preacher. Say, said what kind of a fisherman would you be if he went out to a mountainside and dug a hole, sat down and waited for it to rain so that the water would fill up the hole.

Then you ran and got a fishing pole, and you put it in this new fishing hole, and you waited for the fish to come and jump in the hole. Do you think you’d catch very many fish that way? Some people have in their minds an insidious false concept of church building evangelism. The idea that if there’s any evangelism going to be done, it has to be done within the four walls of the church building. And that’s like saying we’re going to wait for the fish to jump in. We got to go out and bring the gospel to the world. And that happens with personal contact. Now, having said all of this, there are some perhaps who might never become teachers and who maybe cannot. There are many who can.

The big picture of the Bible presentation, which I’ve done here in two parts, and I plan to do sometime in the pretty near future is a one-part, another invitation event where we bring in visitors. This presentation makes it easy for just about anyone to teach the gospel. I mean, even if you have the personality of a cardboard box.

4. Every Christian Is in the Business of Soul Saving

Think about the woman at the well. Jesus, there in John 4 in Samaria, stopped at this well and struck up this conversation with this woman at the well and told her about this living water and convinced her that he just might be the Messiah. She was, she seemed to be pretty well convinced of that. And we read there in verse 28 starting, so the woman left her water pot and went into the city and said to the men, Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done. This is not the Christ, is it? They went out of the city and we’re coming to him. Let me ask you a question. How much training had this lady had in evangelism? She had just learned that this is the Christ.

In fact, she still seems to be questioning whether it’s completely true, but she thinks it just well might be. And she’s not technically teaching, but is she sharing in the work of evangelism? Absolutely. She’s a facilitator. Brethren, what we need is we need more people who are willing to willing to just leave their water pots. That was an important thing. And go and tell people this is the Christ. You know what every one of you have? Your story. You have a story that nobody else has. And you can tell that story to others. That’s something you can share whether you’re a teacher or not. And I tell you, the work of facilitating is absolutely vital to those like me who do a lot of the teaching.

We need people to set up the studies and bring people to us. And I ask you to do more of that, because the more Bible studies for me, the happier I am. I don’t have that. It’s like I don’t have air. It’s like I don’t have water. Jesus said in Matthew 5, you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, so that it may be seen by all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your see your what? Good works. And glorify your Father who is in heaven. And so notice that passage is emphasizing that we are to impact this world around us not by teaching, though that is absolutely important.

But this passage is emphasizing we make an impact on the world around us by our what? Our good works. That is the greatest sermon you could ever preach. When people see your life in action and they say, Man, that person’s different.

I mean, he doesn’t talk like we do. He he doesn’t laugh at the dirty jokes that everybody else laughs at. Look how generous he is, look how forgiving he is, look how patient he is and loving he is and kind he is. Man, what is it about that guy that’s different? I want to find out. I heard somebody say one time, nobody’s example ever saved anybody. And that was a Christian who was trying to make the point that we all have to become teachers. I disagree with that. Example does save people. In fact, in 1 Peter chapter 3 and verses 1 and 2, in the same way, you wives be submissive to your own husbands, so that even if any of them, the husbands, are disobedient to the word, they may be one without a word by the behavior of their wives as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior.

Was a woman involved in some way really in evangelism? Though she wasn’t teaching? Her example was teaching. And her example could result in the salvation of her husband without a word. I think that’s significant. And so very, very important. There is something that we all have to be willing to do with our mouths. And Jesus said, Whoever confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I’ll also deny him before my Father who is in heaven. What is that confession talking about? Is that limited to, you know, when a person wants to get baptized and the preacher says, Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? And they say, Yes, I believe.

Is that what this passage is talking about? That would be included. This brethren is talking about our daily confessing Christ. Our our willingness to take a stand and say, I believe in Jesus as Lord, and we do that at work, or we do that at school or wherever it may be, and we’re not ashamed of what other people may think of us. Now that may not be teaching, but in a way, that’s sure involved in evangelism. Because you are touching the lost. And there’s one other thing that we all have to be willing to do and ready to do with our mouths, and that is sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts, and always be ready to give it offense to anyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

You have to be able to explain your faith. Well, I can’t. You have to. Well, I don’t want to. You have to. That’s one of those things we don’t have any wiggle room about. Every one of us, no matter how shy, quiet, what be it, have to be willing and ready and capable to give a defense of our faith. So every Christian is in the business of soul saving in one sense or another. Not everyone is a teacher, but everyone can tell their story. Everyone can shine his lights. Everyone must confess Christ before men, and everyone must give an answer to those who question. Therefore, every Christian is in the business of soul saving. If evangelism is a work of the church, what is the church?

5. Everyone Doing Their Part

Individuals, individual Christians. What is a work? It is an action that is done. Therefore, evangelism is an action that the people of God, individual Christians, should be actively participating in in some form or fashion. And dropping your check in the plate is not enough. Now, how do we carry out this mission of evangelism? First of all, by everyone doing their part. I talked about this passage in a recent sermon in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 16, from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building of itself in love. Each individual part. Those who are on the front lines, who are out there teaching, those who are the woman at the well or the Andrews who are inviting and setting things up, and what be it?

6. Teachers Teaching Others to Teach

Everyone doing their individual part. You know that some people are really good at letter writing. You can do evangelism with letter writing. Did you know that? Sometimes the Apostle Paul thought it would be better just to write a letter. And so sometimes that can be an effective means if you’re not a good face-to-face teacher. And secondly, evangelism, this mission is accomplished by teachers teaching others to teach. In 2 Timothy 2 and verse 22, the things of which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses. That’s supposed to be verse 2, not 22. 2 Timothy 2, 22 is a passage that I always have on my mind because it says, flee youthful lusts. Because that’s why I put that verse on there on accident.

But 2 Timothy 2 and verse 2, the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, and trust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You ever think about how quickly the Great Commission was fulfilled? It was fulfilled in 29 years. Jesus gave the Great Commission to go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation, to his apostles, in about A.D. 33. And by A.D. 62, Paul wrote this in Colossians 1.23 from Roman imprisonment after his three journeys. The hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul was made a minister. All creation under heaven. 29 years. Of course, we know that there was more of the world later to actually be evangelized, but that was the known world at that time.

Think about how amazing. How do they do that? I mean, they didn’t even have Facebook. They didn’t even have gadgets. You know part of our problem today? We think that everything has to be accomplished with gadgets and technology. And certainly that can help, and social media has a role, but it’s the it’s the personal contact. That’s what it requires. And that’s what we need to remember. It was accomplished through multiplication. Think about this. If there was only one Christian on earth, let’s just take that hypothetical. And he taught one Christian in a year. So that by the end of that first year, now there were two Christians. Just one conversion, that’s all. And then both of them did the same thing in the next year and converted somebody so that by the end of the second year there are four people.

If that continued, then at the end of the seventh year, there’d be 128 Christians on earth. By the end of the 10th year, there’d be just over a thousand. By the end of the 20th year, there’d be just over a million. By the end of the 27th year, there’d be over 134 million. By the end of the 29th year, there’d be just over a billion. And sometime in the 32nd year, every human on earth would be converted. That’s completely hypothetical. Of course, every human won’t be converted. But it’s the power of multiplication, teaching others to teach. Evangelism really is the second half of Christianity. We are saved to serve, taught to teach, won to win. Amen. Evangelism is not complete until the evangelized become the evangelists.

Conclusion

We need to plant that seed in every single person that we teach. And I need to do a better job of that myself. Too often a church has only a few who are bearing the heavy weight of evangelism, and those who are bearing that load never effectively teach the new converts to become teachers of the lost. And so that can be fixed. I want to end by reading a modern day parable of the lighthouse. Once upon a time there was a crude little life-saving station. And it was located on a very dangerous seacoast. Shipwrecks often occurred off the coast of those waters. The building consisted of one small hut, one boat, and a few devoted members who tirelessly and selflessly kept constant watch over the sea, seeking those that were lost.

Over time, many lives that were saved, many lives were saved, and much good was done, and it wasn’t long until the little life saving station became famous. Those that had been saved and those that had heard of this good work began the support of it with their time and money. New boats were bought and new crews were trained, and it wasn’t long until the little life saving station grew and prospered. And over time the more sophisticated members became embarrassed with the station’s crude facilities. So they replaced the emergency cots with comfortable beds and enlarged and decorated the building and brought in lavish furniture so much so that over time it became a popular gathering place for its members and really became more or less of a social club.

As time went on, its members became more and more interested in the club’s social activities and less and less interested in going on life saving missions. After all, that was seen as a dirty and dangerous job, and they were not about to risk their lives. And so they hired others to man the boats and to do the job for them. The mission of life saving was still given lip service, but now most of the members were either too busy or lacked the necessary commitment to get personally involved. About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast. The alarm sounded, hired crews were sent out. They brought in boatloads of cold, wet and half drowned people, many of which were dirty and sick. These people looked different and talked different.

To say the least, the beautiful new club was considerably messed up. And so they called an emergency meeting to the property committee and immediately built a shower outside so the folks from the Ordil could clean up before coming into the club. But that wasn’t enough. In the next meeting there was a split in the membership. It seemed that most wanted to stop the club’s life saving activities altogether, claiming it was unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal life pattern of the club. Some were violently opposed to this, saying it was ridiculous to be called the life saving station and not to be involved in life saving. Besides, they argued, this was originally our primary purpose. But they were told that if they insisted on life saving and seeking those who were lost, they would have to leave there and do it elsewhere.

And so they did. They started off with a crewed facility, one small hut and a boat and a few devoted members, who tirelessly and selflessly kept constant watch over the sea, seeking those who were lost. Over time, many lives were saved and much good was done, and it wasn’t long until this little life saving station too became famous. Those that had been saved and others who had heard of their good work began the support of it, both with their time and their money. And over time, this little life-saving station grew and prospered as well, but it wasn’t long until some of the more sophisticated members were embarrassed with the club’s crude facilities. And they replaced the emergency cots with comfortable beds, and they enlarged and redecorated the building, and they brought in lavish furniture, so much so that it became a popular gathering place for its members, really just a social club.

And you know the rest of the story, don’t you? The same thing that happened in the first lighthouse happened in the second and the third and the fourth. And if you visit that sea coast today, you’ll find a number of exclusive clubs. Shipwrecks still frequent those waters. But now most of the people drown. Let him who has ears to hear hear. What the Lord wants for us to do here as an outpost of the kingdom is he wants us to shine as lights in the darkness. And he wants us to be involved in saving those who are lost and forget the excuses. These people are drowning. They’re dying. They need us. And so we need to get back to our mission of saving souls that are lost.

Would you bow your head with me in a word of prayer? Our Father, our God, we’re sorry, and I’m sorry when I’ve been lazy, when I’ve been selfish, when I’ve had doubts that I’ve let take over my mind, doubts about myself, that I can’t do this or that. And I just completely ignore opportunities and pass by people who are literally drowning and need the gospel. I’m sorry, God. I pray that you’ll help me, and we pray that you’ll help us to do better. Father, that we will see that there is something we can do. Even if we’re not on the front lines, there’s something we all can do. Help us to see what that thing is and help us as a church to move together in an organized fashion toward this work of evangelism and to encourage one another and to transform the culture of this church to think more about saving others and not just ourselves.

Through your son, we pray. Amen. The number one goal, brethren, is to go to heaven. The number two goal is to bring as many people with us as we can. If you’re not a Christian, we want you to come with us to heaven. We’re not looking down at you. We’re trying to help you. We were helped. And we’re thankful. And we want to help you. And you have us here for your help. All you have to do is ask. If you want to be baptized, the water is right here. That is the beginning of your spiritual life. And we have teachers who can help you. Are you taking advantage of that? Do you want to be saved? Then come to the Lord today, believing, repenting, and being baptized for the remission of your sins and continuing to obey the gospel until the day that you die.

Why don’t you come now as we stand and sing the song of invitation?