The Gospel & Evangelism

We all have good news to share…

The Gospel

εὐαγγέλιον = good news = gospel Mark 1:15 “15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!””

Hebrew / OT

Significant news in a general sense…

1 Kings 1:42 NIV

42 Even as he was speaking, Jonathan son of Abiathar the priest arrived. Adonijah said, “Come in. A worthy man like you must be bringing good news.”

News of salvation…

Isaiah 40:9 NIV

9 You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, “Here is your God!”

Greek / NT

1 Corinthians 15:1 NIV

1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.

… about Jesus!

English

God-spell - God’s story - gospel / good news

Romans 1:1–5 NIV

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5 Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake.

Romans 1:1–5 “1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5 Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake.”

1 Corinthians 15:1–6 NIV

1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.

1 Corinthians 15:1–6 “1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.”

The gospel is the story about Jesus Christ: who he is - Lord, Saviour - and what he has done - life, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension.

Our access to the gospel is through the Scriptures.

The gospel, which demands a response of faith and obedience, brings salvation.

The gospel is communicated to both believers and nonbelievers.

Chan, Sam. Evangelism in a Skeptical World (p. 18). Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition.

This is the gospel you have believed, this is the gospel by which you have been saved, this is the gospel that is good news for you, for me and for all who hear it.

God created us.

We have sinned against God.

Jesus saves us from our punishment.

We now have a decision to make.

Chan, Sam. Evangelism in a Skeptical World (p. 18). Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition.

Manger

Cross

King

Chan, Sam. Evangelism in a Skeptical World (p. 18). Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition.

The Evangelist

Product Evangelist

<Guy Kawasaki>

Guy Takeo Kawasaki is an American marketing specialist, author, and Silicon Valley venture capitalist. He was one of the Apple employees originally responsible for marketing their Macintosh computer line in 1984. He popularized the word evangelist in marketing the Macintosh as an "Apple evangelist" and the concepts of evangelism marketing and technology evangelism/platform evangelism in general.

“For starters, evangelism comes from a Greek word, which means bringing the good news. So, what an evangelist does is bring the good news, and hopefully, you are evangelizing something that is good news.

For example, for Macintosh, it increased people’s creativity and productivity, and now for Canva, Canva has democratized design. So the difference between sales and evangelism is that sales is usually concerned primarily with one’s success, like quota, commission, income, etc.

Evangelism is concerned with the other person’s success and benefit. So when I tell you to use or ask you to use Canva, it is because I genuinely believe it’ll make you a better communicator by creating great graphics.” https://www.yaagneshwaran.com/blog/product-evangelism-guy-kawasaki/

Sales… about the sales persons success.

Evangelism… about the other persons success - well until you have the purchase of the phone or subscription!

But this points us to something… when it comes to evangelising people with the gospel who are you thinking about?

Yourself or the other person?

Yourself? all sorts of things will stop you from sharing the gospel… Fear will stop you.

“I don't know about you, but I find evangelism utterly terrifying.

It didn't start that way. After becoming a Christian in my late 20s, one of the things God did in my heart immediately was help me see that following Jesus and sharing the news of Jesus were two sides of the same coin.

"How hard could it be?" I thought. Very hard, as it turned out.

My first go at it was with my oldest mate. His response was to take a sip of his beer, look me straight in the eyes and say, "Don't you ever, ever, speak to me about this stuff again". The next few responses were no better; I was mocked, abused and made to feel completely stupid. It wasn't long before I shifted from being someone who looked for opportunities to share my faith to being someone who would do anything possible to avoid it.

In my experience I'm not alone. While evangelism is something most of us want to do, it's also something that most of us never do.

The reason? Fear. Specifically, the fear of rejection.”

Do you feel the same as Dave Jensen?

He is currently the assistant director of Evangelism and New Churches of the Diocese of Sydney!

Solution to the fear? Fear God.

“So how do we engage in evangelism when it's so terrifying?

It's always tempting to think that the answer will be found in some kind of new conversational technique, or social engineering.

The idea is that if we just do this or just do that, the people we're speaking to won't react badly to us.

However, the gospels show us a different perspective. In Matthew 10, Jesus sends his disciples out to proclaim the gospel into a world that would hate them. He explicitly warned them of the danger to come.

But then he does something surprising. He doesn't give them a set of directions about what to do in order to avoid the danger; instead, he offers a different way of understanding the opposition they would face:

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.

Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28).

According to Jesus, what matters most in life is not the here and now, but the eternal future facing us all. It is God who has control over that, not people. The good news is that God shows us grace through Jesus, guaranteeing eternal life for those who trust in him.

The consequences for us transform how we understand fear.

John Newton put it this way in the hymn "Amazing Grace":

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved.

We don't need to fear people. We need to fear God. When we do, it means we are set free from being slaves to the opinion of people.

We are able to see that it's his opinion that truly matters.

But not only that. Fearing God means we shouldn't be afraid of people. We should be afraid for people. The future for those who do not fear God is eternity in hell.

So, what does that mean for evangelism? It means that evangelism starts not with how we talk to people about God, but with talking to God about people. We need to pray that God would have mercy and save those we know, and that we would have the courage to live our lives based on the fear of God, not people.”

If we fear God, then we pray to God, if we pray to God for other people, we are relying on the one who can truly change the other person.

If we pray for other people, we love them just Jesus as loved people and prayed for them.

If we love other people then we will want the best for them.

If we want the best for them, we will not be ashamed of the best news for them… the gospel.

Evangelism is about what is best for the other person!

Evangelism

Acts 8:35 NIV

35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

Romans 10:14–15 NIV

14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Evangelism is communicating the gospel to nonbelievers to urge them to believe in Jesus.

“the essence of evangelism is in the message, the gospel of Jesus. Evangelism is the event of communicating this message, or we might say that evangelism is defined by its message. The essence of evangelism is not the method (preaching, singing, acting) nor the medium (a person, a book, a song) nor the occasion (church service, commencement speech, school camp) nor the audience (believers and nonbelievers).”

Chan, Sam. Evangelism in a Skeptical World (p. 16). Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition.

Evangelism is not a method… there is no one size fits all

Parables by Jesus

Songs

Creeds

Letters to churches

One-on-one conversations

Sermons in formal worship gatherings

Discussion meetings

Public speeches

Apocalyptic literature

Chan, Sam. Evangelism in a Skeptical World (pp. 16-17). Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition.

One way that I would love us to have a go at sharing the gospel with…

<Uncover>

The idea is that with one other person you read through parts of John’s gospel… in 6 sessions.

Retell React Reveal Reason Respond

Retell

Retell the narrative (and recap what’s come before). Note anything that’s unclear or confusing.

React

How are people reacting to Jesus?

Reveal

What is revealed about Jesus (and those meeting him) through words and actions?

Reason

What reason might John have for including this event?

Respond

What does John teach us about how to respond to Jesus?

In the lead up to Easter, and for the first part of this year, I would like you and another person for church to do this together… as practice, remembering the gospel is for all people!

While you do it, pray for two people that you could love by sharing the gospel with them!

God’s story through his people

Romans 1:1 NIV

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—

Romans 16:25 NIV

25 Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past,