Evangelism in a Postmodern World
Evangelism: Sharing Christ to a Lost World • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Sermon Series: Evangelism, Sharing the Gospel to a Lost and Dying World
Opening Passage: Romans 1:21
Introduction
I have stated that there is a collapse of the church coming to America. I need to rephrase this to be Biblically correct. We know that the church, the body of believers that Jesus purchased with His very Own blood, will not collapse.
18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
When I speak of a collapse, it in reference to the “church culture” of America. As Reggie McNeal writes, The current church culture in North America is on life support. It is living off the work, money, and energy of previous generations from a previous world order. He further brings a staggering statistic, eighty (80) percent of money given to congregations comes from people aged fifty-five and older. Either the collapse will come when the money runs out of the loyalists die off or both.[1]
He goes further and states an alarming statistic that shows where fifty-six (56) percent of those born before 1946 will attend church faithfully, that drops to around thirty-six (36) percent of gen Xers.[2]Among those who are unchurched, about fourteen percent of the population have “no religious preference.”[3]He goes further and quotes Dawson McAlister, a national youth specialist, that states ninety (90) percent of kids active in high school youth groups do not go to church by the time they are sophomores in college. One-third of these will never return.[4]
Why is this? What type of culture is driving this pattern? This post-Christendom culture is being fueled by a postmodern mindset. There is only way to address this issue, we learn to do church different. We must learn to get back to the basics and learn to preach Christ and Him crucified. We truly are living in a time that is much like the first century church. With that said, this should encourage you. Why? Because if God can bring about the church that is today from the grass root efforts of eleven fisherman, then He can take some 50,000 SBC churches alone, and do something even greater. Once again, the stats should bring to us an urgency to share not an excuse to remain content and at a lost.
Opening Passage
21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their reasonings, and their senseless hearts were darkened.
Outline
So, if postmodern ideology is pushing a post-Christendom culture, what is post-modern ideology? I say this, because to defeat an enemy you need to know your enemy. How does one define postmodernism?
Timothy K. Beougher defines postmodernism this way:
Postmodernism is an attitude, a mindset, that affirms everything is relative. According to postmodernist, absolute truth does not exist…Truth is relative. What is true for you may not be true for me.[5]
George Barna in a survey about religion in America, entitled Absolute Confusion. revealed the following alarming results:
Nearly two of three adults contend that the choice of one religious faith over another is irrelevant because all faiths teach the same basic lessons about life
Most Americans cannot name the first four books of the New Testament
Most do not know who preached the Sermon on the Mount
When non-Christians were if they knew why Christians celebrate Easter, 46% could not give an accurate answer.[6]
How do we relate, as Christians, in a postmodern, post-Christendom world? There are four ways in which we can relate to society.
4 Possible Ways to Relate to a Postmodern, Post-Christendom World
We can choose rejection– a withdrawal and isolation from sinners
Many try to justify this position by using 2 Corinthians 6:17 as a foundation
17 “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. “and do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you.
However, if we choose rejection we fail to be what Jesus has called us to be, the salt and light of the world.
13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by people. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; 15 nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
Not only do we fail to be what Christ has called us to be, but we fail to follow His example.
10 Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and began dining with Jesus and His disciples.
While rejection is an option, there is also another option.
We choose Immersion– to radically identify as a Christian or church with the culture around them
In this option, one chooses to be so like the society around them that one cannot tell the difference between the church house and the club house. Those who choose this lifestyle may have a host of lost friends, but their message and life is typically no different than those of their lost friends. They have failed to do as the Lord has called us to do:
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
We even find those that wish to combine rejection and immersion and come to another option.
We choose split adaptation – an attempt to blend rejection and immersion. As Beougher writes, In reality it is a form of spiritual schizophrenia. James warns us of this mindset when he writes:
8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
If rejection, immersion, and split adaptation is not the way to relate to a postmodern world, then how do we relate to this crazy and confusing world that we live in? I’m glad you asked. There is a fourth option.
We choose critical participation – we are called to be spiritually distinct from the world’s culture but not socially segregated from it
14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I am not asking You to take them out of the world, but to keep them away from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the Law, I became as one under the Law, though not being under the Law myself, so that I might gain those who are under the Law;
No that we know how we are to interact/relate with this world around us, critically participate, how do we evangelize the postmodern, post-Christendom world?
I answer this question with a question. Have you ever seen the movie staring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd? It was that little series of movies entitled, “Back to the Future.” To effectively evangelize our world, we must go back to a not so distinct time from our own, the first century. Within the book of Acts, we find Paul was ministering to those of Athens, the home of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. However, Paul was not worried about anything except for giving God glory and evangelizing the lost around him. This should be our heart too.\
Within Acts 17:16-34, Paul gives us four keys to effectively evangelizing the world around us:
16 Now while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he observed that the city was full of idols. 17 So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be present. 18 And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers as well were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What could this scavenger of tidbits want to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? 20 For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean.” 21 (Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)
The effective witness ministers out of a burdened heart (vv.16-17)
Most scholars would estimate some thirty-thousand different gods were being worshiped that day. Paul just cared about God getting the glory and honor that was rightfully His. He wanted the people to know Jesus. This was the thrust of his ministry: The love of Christ and the judgment of Christ.
Why do we not share the Gospel? Could it be as John Stott states: Is this not the cause of our guilty silence? We do not speak for Christ because we do not so love His name that we cannot bear to see Him unacknowledged and unadorned. If only our eyes were opened to see His glory, and if only we felt wounded by the shame of His public humiliation among men, we should not be able to remain silent.[7]
The effective witness begins where people are in their spiritual pilgrimage (vv. 18-20)
Paul studied his audience. Paul began witnessing to them right where they were. Paul made a bulls-eye for their spiritual hunger (v. 23)
The effective witness teaches the true and living God (vv .24-29)
The effective witness points people to Christ (vv. 30-31)
Three reasons are give as to why one must repent
Judgment day is coming
There is an unchangeable judge
God has made these truths evident by an irrefutable fact (Resurrection)
So, what about the results of evangelizing to a postmodern, post-Christendom society…It will be like Paul’s day.
The Results of Effective Evangelism(vv. 32-34)
Some will mock
Some will want to know more
Some will be converted
Conclusion
Let us be about our Father’s business.
[1]Reggie McNeal, The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the CHURCH, (San Franciso: Jossey-Bass, 2003), 1.
[2]Ibid., 3.
[3]Ibid.
[4]Ibid., 4.
[5]Ibid., 90.
[6]George Barna, Absolute Confusion: The Barna Report (Ventura: Regal, 1994).
[7]Timothy K. Beougher, Invitation to Evangelism: Sharing the Gospel with Compassion and Conviction, (San Francisco: Kregel Academic, 2021), 96.