Learning Evangelism

Introduction

How many times recently have you heard or said something to the effect I’ll be glad when things get back to normal? Or I’ll be glad when things get back to the way they used to be. Now I understand that sentiment and have said that myself, but this morning I want you to think of it a little bit differently. When we think about the church and our individual lives as Christians, rather than saying, I want things to get back to the way they used to be. How about saying I’m ready for things to get back to where they ought to be?

That we won’t get back to the way it used to be.

I am less. I developed poor study habits, poor attendance habits. I got used to being by myself and away. And that’s the new norm. And I’ll be made spiritually weaker. The other option is that I’ll get back to where I used to be.

And I’ll study and serve and obey the same way I did. Yes, I got out of the routine, but I remember the routine, and so I’ll get back to where I was. But there’s a third option. I can start back better. I can see this pause as an opportunity to reset or to remake myself. And I’m going to be a stronger Christian. I’m going to do things that I should have been doing, but I wasn’t.

Is that sometimes a change appalls and a reset can be that opportunity to step it up. To come back with greater zeal and enthusiasm and activity and spirituality.

There’s always some aspect of our lives, some part of our Christian lives that we feel like we should be doing better. Now’s the time to do better. And in one area of our Christian lives that almost universally we feel like we should be doing better is in the area of evangelism. I’ve yet to meet the Christian who says, I’m doing enough. We all kind of feel like I should be doing more.

Maybe the statement is maybe I should be doing something. And we feel inadequate to the task. And we let fear be the motivation for what we don’t do. And so our typical approach is to have some kind of workshop, some kind of, hey, let’s have an expert come and teach us how to evangelize. Teach us the right program to use and what verses to take the lost person to and how to present it, or maybe some kind of PowerPoint slides or a chart or a book that we can use. And don’t misunderstand me, there’s great value in being taught those things. But sometimes maybe the lesson that we need is not in how to do it, but in being motivated to do it. To use the tools we already have, to take the knowledge we already possess and do what we can to reach out to those around about us.

And so this morning I want to challenge you as we’re climbing out of this pit and we’re getting back to normal, that you don’t get back to normal. You get back to better. And you use this as an opportunity to reset and to remake yourself in regard to how you share the gospel with others. And this morning we’re going to talk about learning evangelism. But this isn’t a workshop. I’m not going to give you some kind of book that you can use or some kind of formula that you can follow in home Bible studies. I want this to just be learning the motivation. And to just do something. To reach out to someone. With God’s saving grace. We’re going to talk about three teachers that we have that we find in the scriptures, three people that we can learn from when it comes to evangelism.

1. Isaiah: Here Am I, Send Me

The first, let’s start in the Old Testament, in the book of Isaiah. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 6. In Isaiah chapter 6, we have a familiar statement by Isaiah in answer to a request and a question by God. Isaiah, as many of the prophets, received his commission at a dark time in Israel’s history. At a time in which the message needed to be shared. Somebody needed to go to these people and tell them the word and the will of God. Notice Isaiah’s commission. Isaiah chapter 6. Verse 8, let’s begin. Isaiah says, I also heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I, send me. We remember the call of Isaiah, don’t we?

When God says, who will do this? And Isaiah raises his hand willingly and says, Here am I, send me. And thus began Isaiah’s work of sharing the word of God to that lost and dying nation. But let’s think about Isaiah’s motivation. Why would Isaiah raise his hand and said, Me, whom shall we send? Why would Isaiah say, I’m the man for the job? I’ll offer for you some suggestions as to what are not the reasons. I don’t think Isaiah was said, I’m the obvious choice. I’m the best prophet there is. I know the word of God better than anybody else in Israel. And so obviously I’m the teacher. I’m the man. I don’t think it’s that. I think we find in the verses that precede Isaiah 6, verse 8.

Why Isaiah would so willingly raise his hand and said, Here am I, send me. Back up in Isaiah chapter 6 to verse 1 beginning. The context is always so important. Why was Isaiah so eager to say, send me, let me be the one to share the word? Here’s the reason. Isaiah chapter 6, verse 1 says, In the year that King Isaiah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above it stood Seraphim. Each one had six wings, with two he covered his face, and two covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.

And the post of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. Isaiah sees this vision of God in his majesty on the throne. It almost wasn’t fair that God shows Isaiah that vision of the majesty of God on the throne, and then says, Now who’s going to go. Isaiah says, Well, it’s me. I’m the one who saw God on the throne. I’m the one who saw the seraphim praising God on that throne. I’m the one who saw and understood that the earth is full of his glory. Of course it’s me. Now what about us? God is asking, in a sense, the same question. Who will go and share the gospel with this lost and dying world?

It’s got to be us, doesn’t it? We’re the ones who see the majesty of God. We’re the ones who are bowing down before God upon his throne. We understand who God is and the power and the might of God. Who else but us? But notice what else happens. Keep reading in Isaiah 6. Pick up in verse 5. Then I said, Woe is me, for I am undone. Because I’m a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal, which he had taken with tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth with it and said, Behold, this has touched your lips.

Your iniquity is taken away, your sin is purged. Isaiah sees the majesty and the might of God. And he does, as every rightful person should, he recognizes his inadequacy in that position before God. But his iniquity is taken away. After those two events, him seeing God on his throne, him being touched and having his iniquity forgiven, it’s then God says, Who are we going to send? And Isaiah almost has no choice.

Me who understands the might and the majesty of God. Me who understands that my iniquity has been forgiven. That my lips and my hands and my soul have been cleansed. Here am I, send me. And so who’s going to teach the lost? Who’s going to reach out? Is it not going to be me? Who understands the majesty of God? Is it not going to be me who understands that my iniquity and my sins have been forgiven? You see the motivation of Isaiah. Here am I, send me. I know who God is, and I know what he’s done for me. That’s the lesson we need to evangelize. It’s to understand who God is and who I am and what he’s done for me. Our next teacher is in the New Testament is Jesus Himself.

2. Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well

Turn with me to John chapter 4. John chapter 4 is the famous story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus’ disciples had left Jesus there by Sychar, where this well was located, to go into the city to find food. They had been traveling, they had been working. Jesus had been teaching and preaching and performing miracles. He was tired and he was hungry and he was thirsty. And so his disciple says, You wait here. We’ll go get food. But rather than using this occasion to rest, Jesus used this occasion to teach. Because the Samaritan woman comes up to the well, and a conversation ensues. A normal kind of earthly conversation, talking about water and the well. But Jesus takes this earthly conversation and turns it to a spiritual conversation.

To talk about a different kind of water, a different kind of life. We can use Jesus teaching the Samaritan woman at the well as an instruction to us. First of all, let’s think about the reasons, or maybe we should use the word excuses. The excuses Jesus could have offered for not teaching her. We’ve already talked about some of them. He was hungry, he was thirsty, he was tired.

Another excuse he could have offered, I’ve done my part. The reason I’m hungry and thirsty and tired is because I’ve been preaching and teaching nonstop. I’ve been healing, I’ve been doing these things. The multitudes have thronged against me. I just need a day off. But the excuses could be piled on. The differences that existed between he and this woman. Could have been given as excuses. There was a racial difference. Look in John chapter 4 and in verse 9. Then the woman of Samaria said to him, he had asked her for a drink, the woman of Samaria said to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? And John goes on to give this explanation for the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

There was a good excuse. She’s a Samaritan, and I’m a Jew. We’ve studied and talked long about those racial differences and the animosity that existed between these two races. So much so that it was somewhat unusual for Jesus to even be there because many devout religious Jews wouldn’t even walk through this neighborhood. They would have crossed the Jordan River twice to stay out of this filthy Samaritan territory. But Jesus was there. And she’s shocked that a Jew would be talking to her, dealing with her, and wanting to drink water out of her vessel. There are other differences that existed. There was a religious difference. Notice beginning in verse 19. The woman said to him, this is John 4, verse 19, the woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you’re a prophet.

Our father, speaking of the Samaritans, our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. There was a grand religious difference that existed between them. They weren’t even on the same page religiously. One was a Jew, one was Samaritan. Yes, that was a vast racial difference in that culture, but there was also a vast religious difference.

Look in verse 27. At this point, his disciples, John 4, verse 27, his disciples came and marveled that he talked with a woman.

Yet no one said, What do you seek? Or why are you talking with her? And so culturally, that was not the norm. So excuse after excuse. There was a moral. We talk about the religious difference, the vast religious difference between the Samaritans and the Jews. What about the vast moral difference? Jesus would say to her, look beginning in verse 16. Maybe in a provocative statement, go call your husband and come here. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. And Jesus said to her, You said well, you have no husband, for you’ve had five husbands, and the one whom you have now is not your husband. She’s had five husbands and seems to now be just living with a man. And who is he? As Elijah pointed out in our Lord’s Supper discussion, he’s the sinless one.

And he’s talking to her. Excuse after excuse could be given why this conversation at the whale should never have taken place. But it did. And I offer to you, there’s many excuses that could be given not to talk to her, but there were three reasons why he did talk to her. Number one, he saw her as a lost soul. He didn’t see her as a woman. He didn’t see her as a different religion to Samaritan, didn’t see her as a different race, a Samaritan, and he a Jew. He didn’t see the moral differences as an obstacle. He saw her in her lost condition. And secondly, he had the answer to that lost condition. And thirdly, he had a deep concern for all of mankind. That’s the only motivation he needed.

She was lost.

And he cared for people.

3. The Pharisees: How Not to Do It

Can I, like Isaiah, say, here am I, send me. I know who God is. And I know what he’s done for me. And like Jesus, I see the lost condition. And I know the truth. And I care about people. And I see them only as a soul who will stand before the judgment seat of God. And so I’ll speak. When maybe everything else is telling me not to. Our last teacher may surprise you. And that’s the Pharisees. Turn with me, if you will, in the book of Luke, chapter 18. Now, obviously, we’re taking a different tact here. Jesus and Isaiah were positive teachers, positive examples of why and how I should teach. But sometimes we need a negative teacher. We need somebody to show us how not to do it.

And boy, the Pharisees fit that bill, don’t they? And so we can learn from them how not to view the lost and how not to react to those. Who, like that Samaritan woman at the well, need the mercy and the forgiveness of their sins and iniquity that Isaiah and we have received. You remember the story in Luke chapter 18, beginning in verse 8. It says, I tell you, excuse me, verse 9, also he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Let’s pause there before we talk about this brief parable. They trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and they despised others. They were the opposite of our two previous teachers, weren’t they? Isaiah didn’t trust in himself.

He saw God on the throne. He didn’t think that he was righteous in and of himself. He understood that it was an action of God that had forgiven his sins.

Jesus, though he was righteous in and of himself, did not despise others who were not. And so he tells this parable. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank you that I’m not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all I possess. And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. And Jesus concludes by telling us the moral of the story. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.

Can I learn from that? Yes, I can.

As one who, in a sense, like Isaiah, sees God on his throne. In one somewhat like Jesus, who knows the saving truth that the lost and dying world doesn’t know, but yet needs to know. What do I do with that knowledge? And what do I do with my status? Do I recognize my own unworthiness and like Isaiah, say, I’ll go. I’ll go to these people. Do I see not just the majesty and the might of God, but the love and the compassion of God in the person of Jesus Christ? And unlike the Pharisees, do I recognize that I too? And just a forgiven sinner, saved by the grace of God. And there stands another who needs what I have.

Conclusion

Is it helpful to have a workshop and to have maybe a book or a guideline in how to teach the lost? Sure.

But none of that benefits anyone until I’ve learned these lessons. I’ve learned not to be self-righteous and self-important and selfish with the grace of God. Until I learn to see people as God sees them. It’s a lost soul. Until I see God as Isaiah sees him and says, Well, then it’s got to be me. I’ll go.

And pray and plead. And do what I can so that they can be just like me. A sinner forgiven by God. What about you this morning? Do you like Isaiah, see your unworthiness before the might and the majesty of God? But do you also see His grace and His love that your iniquities, though they may be great, can be forgiven? Will we strip ourselves of our self-righteousness and self-importance and come bowing before God, offering our obedience and our allegiance to Him? Would you do that this morning? And then this afternoon, knowing that you know enough and that you care enough that you can share that same message with others who need the grace that you’ve received. If we can help you this morning, why not let it be known right now as together we stand and as we sing?

Come to