Evangelism: What Our Life Should be About
Evangelism: Sharing Christ to a Lost World • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 12 viewsEvangelism should be a life style and primary objective every born again believer. This life style and objective should be intentional, done with sensitivity and integrity, and defined with urgency
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Introduction
What is your primary objective in life? What drives your life? Charles Spurgeon writes:
Give me a person who not only has a great objective in his soul, but also is thoroughly possessed by it, his powers wall concentrated, and himself on fire with vehement zeal for his supreme aim. You have put before me one of the greatest sources of power that the world can produce. Give me a person who is immersed with the holy love in his heart filled with some masterly celestial though in his mind. Such a person will be known, whatever his lot may be. I venture to prophesy that his name will be remembered long after the place of his grave is forgotten.
Charles Spurgeon, The Soul Winner, (New Kensington: Whitaker House, 1995), 223-4.
Such a person within the cannon of Scripture is Paul. He had a fire and zeal unmatched by any other of his time or sense. His passion was evident and his testimony matched his zeal and fire for sharing the Gospel to others. He states to the church at Corinth
22 To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak; I have become all things to all people, so that I may by all means save some.
He writes to the believers at Rome
14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to the uncultured, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Outline
How does one reach the lost around them with the gospel? How do we evangelize the lost around us? How do we become what Paul has claimed, I have become all things to all people, so that I may by all means save some.
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There are typically two schools of thought and approach when asked this question.
There is the school of initiative evangelism and the school of lifestyle evangelism.
Initiative evangelism is defined as taking the lead to share the gospel with someone you have just met.
Lifestyle evangelism advocates that the gospel flows naturally through relationships being formed. So, they believe it is important to build a relationship with the lost person and then begin to evangelize them.
Which evangelistic school of thought do you find as better? Why?
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What do you see as strength(s) or weakness(es) of each approach?
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The Initiative Approach
Taking the lead to share the gospel with someone you have just met.
Biblical examples of the initiative approach
Philip evangelizing the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26-40)
29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” 30 Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
Peter evangelizing Cornelius (Acts 10)
38 You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. 39 We are witnesses of all the things that He did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross. 40 God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He be revealed, 41 not to all the people, but to witnesses who had been chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. 42 And He ordered us to preach to the people, and to testify solemnly that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify of Him, that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.”
Paul and Silas evangelizing the Philippian Jailer (Acts 16:22-40)
28 But Paul called out with a loud voice, saying, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!” 29 And the jailer asked for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas; 30 and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of God to him together with all who were in his house.
Possible Weaknesses of the Initiative Approach
It can be insensitive
Ideas such as spiritual ambush, spiritual mugging, or intrusive evangelism can be used to describe some who use this method.
I would like to ask the same question that Beougher uses though, Is this the biggest problem that we have in our churches? For every one Christian who perhaps could be charged with being “too aggressive” in evangelism, there are thousands of believers who don’t open their mouths to tell anyone about Christ.
One might give a positive response, not out of conviction, but out of defeat. They feel there is no other option but to pray a prayer. We must remember that if we can talk someone into accepting Christ, someone else can talk that same one out of believing in Christ. We’re not out win a debate, but used of God to bring that man/woman, boy or girl to saving faith in Christ Jesus under the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
Follow-up may not occur
I can be a “cop-out” in terms of living a consistent Christian life to those around us
Joseph Aldridge, author of Lifestyle Evangelism, points out the following weakness of initiative Approach
…Some initiative evangelism stems from a type of fortress mentality, where Christians will go across town to knock on the door of a total stranger but have never walked across the street to say hell to their neighbor…Evangelism for those living in such an evangelical ghetto is seen as a regular lowering of the drawbridge and a charge out into enemy territory followed by a quick retreat back across the moat.
Timothy K. Beougher, Invitation to Evangelism: Sharing the Gospel with Compassion and Conviction, (Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic, 2021), 174.
The Lifestyle Approach
Advocates that the chances that nonbeliever will come to a true understanding of the gospel with a person whom they have an established relationship are higher than when a person shares Christ with a stranger.
Biblical example of the lifestyle approach
Timothy was converted by the evangelism of his mother and grandmother (2 Timothy 1:5)
5 For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelled in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well.
Lydia, after coming to Christ, shared with her whole family (Acts 16:14-15)
14 A woman named Lydia was listening; she was a seller of purple fabrics from the city of Thyatira, and a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. 15 Now when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.
The Philippian jailer, after coming to Christ, evangelized his family (Acts 16:30-32)
30 and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of God to him together with all who were in his house.
Potential weaknesses with the lifestyle approach
Whose life is good enough
Episcopal pastor-evangelist, Samuel Shoemaker once asked, “Whose life by itself is good enough to speak of Jesus?”
It can sap urgency
It can eliminate a large group of people from Christian witness
So, which is better? The Initiative Approach or the Lifestyle Approach? Or Another Option?
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The Balanced Approach
I would submit that a balanced approach is best. A balanced approach uses both the initiative approach and lifestyle approach. Philip, when he initiated the gospel conversation with the eunuch was led by the Holy Spirit to evangelize the eunuch. Timothy was one through the witness of his mother and grandmother. We see both/and not or within the Scriptures. We are told to be a light on the hill that shines for Christ and let our light shine toward others.
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.
That light shines through our good works (lifestyle), but through the Gospel (Initiative) we bring glory to the Father who is in heaven.
Three keys to sharing the Gospel
Share the gospel with urgency (John 9:4)
4 We must carry out the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.
Richard Baxter, 17th century a puritan pastor, was given a death sentence in his 30s. Baxter decided that if he was going to die, coughing blood, he did not want spend the remaining weeks of his life not in smog-filled London, which seems to make his cough worse, but instead in the countryside. He traveled to a village in Worcestershire and stayed win the home of a friend as he prepared to die. How did he prepare? He meditated on Scripture; he looked at what the Scripture had to say about heaven and about glory. He did not die but ended up living almost to the age of seventy-six. He published his reflections on heaven, and it turned out to be an eight-hundred page book called the ‘The Saints’ Everlasting Rest. Baxter notes that he wrote this book with one foot in the grave, and he talked about how being given a death sentence tends to focus one’s attention on things that matter. After he recovered, he made a commitment that from that moment on, he would speak to sinners with compassion, “as a dying man to dying men.” Evangelism must be done with urgency.
Timothy K. Beougher, Invitation to Evangelism: Sharing the Gospel with Compassion and Conviction, (Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic, 2021), 177-78.
Share the gospel with sensitivity
Evangelism is a two-lane highway that includes both boldness and sensitivity.
We must be bold enough to call people to repentance
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We must also be sensitive enough to let people walk away if they choose to do so
23 But when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely wealthy.
We must realize that those without Christ are lost and need to be directed to Christ not bullied into to Christ
36 Seeing the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast, like sheep without a shepherd.
Share the gospel with integrity (2 Cor 4:2)
2 but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in trickery nor distorting the word of God, but by the open proclamation of the truth commending ourselves to every person’s conscience in the sight of God.
How do we keep evangelism as a lifestyle
Commit yourself
Pray for sensitivity to others and opportunities
Pray for compassion and boldness
Never say “no” for someone else
Be sower, not a soil inspector
Cultivate your daily walk with Christ
Work at building relationships
Conclusion
Jesus Christ came with one objective. It was to save the lost.
10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
This should be our singular objective. This objective should come through not only us initiating the Gospel conversation, being sensitive to the Spirit’s leading, but also lived out in such a way that our lives foster relationships that promote the Gospel and make people ask the question, What is different about you?
As Paul writes
22 To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak; I have become all things to all people, so that I may by all means save some.