Evangelize Now
40 Days of Prayer • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction:
Evangelion: Good News, the exceedingly wonderful message of God’s redemption of sinful humanity through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Evangelize: To spread the Good News
Evangelist: Messenger of Good News
Salvation: (Greek - Soteria) Preservation or deliverance from harm, ruin or loss. For Christians it is deliverance from sin and its consequences, by faith in Jesus Christ. In other words - we owe a debt that we can’t pay. Jesus Christ paid that debt for us - that’s salvation.
Salvation and the good news is the point of all that we should be doing. This is the point of the theme for these past 40 days - NOW!
The passage for the day tells us that now is the time.
2 for He says, “At the acceptable time I listened to you, And on the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation”—
Today we will look at the three reasons why we should evangelize now:
Salvation has a source.
Salvation has a purpose.
Salvation has a time.
Salvation has a source. God through Christ Jesus
a. Our passage says: Now is the time of God’s favor (2 Cor 6:2)
God’s favor -wow. Would God actually show favor to us? God’s favor is Grace. He does something that is impossible for us to do. Salvation. He can deliver us from our sins and the eternal consequences of those sins. That is God’s favor, every time someone puts their faith in Jesus Christ He pours out His favor on that person, so today is the day of His favor.
b. Here is an example of God pouring out is favor on mankind:
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
c. Here is another example of God’s grace.
24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
2. Salvation has a purpose. That purpose is to deliver us from sin and the consequences of that sin. (Redemption, Reconciliation, Atonement, Justification)
a. Our passage says: In the day of salvation “I helped you” (2 Cor 6:2)
Think back to the day you put your faith in Jesus Christ. On that day many things happened to you on the inside. Deep down in your being. That day, the day you put your faith in Jesus Christ was the day of your salvation. It is the day Jesus came to you in whatever circumstance you were in at the time and took your hand and pulled you up out of the darkness. He was your savior, He provided you salvation, “He helped you.” He does it every day when someone puts their faith in Him.
b. Here are a few of the things that happen when we put our faith in Him:
i. Reconciliation 2 Cor 5:19
19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
ii. Redemption 1 Peter 3:18
18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;
iii. Atonement Heb 2:9
9 But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.
iv. Justification Rom 5:9
9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
Saved: deliverance from sin and its consequences, by faith in Jesus Christ.
3. Salvation has a time - NOW! A.W. Tozer is quoted as saying, “Time is a resource that is non-renewable and non-transferable. You cannot store it up, slow it up, hold it up, divide it up, or give it up. You can’t hoard it or save it for a rainy day, when it’s lost it is unrecoverable. When you kill time, remember that it has no resurrection.”
a. Now is the day of salvation 2 Cor 6:2
2 for He says, “At the acceptable time I listened to you, And on the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation”—
How can we help now be the Day of Salvation? One way is through:
b. Divine appointments (Acts 8:26-40)
A divine appointment is a meeting with another person or persons that God has specifically and unmistakably arranged. The Holy Spirit sets these appointments up. They are opportunities for us to evangelize. Divine appointments are opportunities for us to make today the day of salvation for someone who God is calling to Himself. They are opportunities for us to share God’s favor with those who are walking in darkness that they might be transferred to the Kingdom of Light.
A biblical example of a divine appoint is the story of Phillip and the Ethiopian eunuch. The Holy Spirit picked Phillip up and deposited him on a road near a man who was in a chariot reading from the scroll of Isaiah. Phillip was able to explain the scriptures to him and lead him to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. And then he baptized him and poof....
Have you ever had a divine appointment? Watch for them, ask God to provide one, take advantage of the time when you are placed in one.
My favorite example of the acceptable time being now is the:
c. Parable of the Great Banquet Luke 14:15-24
15 When one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”
16 But He said to him, “A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many;
17 and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’
18 “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.’
19 “Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’
20 “Another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’
21 “And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’
22 “And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’
23 “And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled.
24 ‘For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’ ”
People were invited to dinner, the well to do’s the children of Abraham. They all said no when the hour for the banquet arrived. That was their now, their time for salvation. They all said no. Then the broken and lame were invited, the not well to do’s, the marginalized of society. They all came to the party, they wanted to be saved, they knew they needed saving. But that didn’t fill the banquet hall either. So, the slaves were sent out to compel those in the streets and the hedges to come in. Those in the streets and the hedges were the gentiles, the foreigners, the ones who had no part in good Jewish society.
Do you see the difference in the way they were invited? The well to do and marginalized were invited. Those in the streets and hedges were compelled. To compel someone is to use urgency. The time for the banquet was drawing near. The master of the house wanted his banquet hall filled with people. So the slaves went out to force those who were left to come to the banquet. There is now an urgency in what they were doing.
In the end those who were invited were excluded and those who were normally excluded were invited and even compelled to come to the banquet. Those who came to the banquet are the ones who received God’s favor, they are the ones who received salvation.
The time for the banquet is drawing near. The invitations have gone out. We are the slaves who are trying to fill the banquet hall. We must compel people to accept the invitation. All those who are marginalized or are excluded from society are the ones who need God’s favor today.
Exit: Salvation has a source: God through Jesus Christ. Salvation has a purpose: to deliver us from sin and its consequences, by faith in Jesus Christ. Salvation has a time - NOW! Now is the acceptable time, Now is the day of salvation.
Evangelism may be scary, or uncomfortable but the evangelion, the good news, has a point. The point is salvation, the thing none of us can do for ourselves. You might be the only evangelist, a messenger of the good news, that someone meets today. Today might be the day of salvation for that someone.
This might be the day that God sets up a divine appointment for you to tell someone about the good news. None of knows everything so that we can tell someone all about the good news. But if you have experienced God’s favor then you can tell someone about God’s favor.
There are many people living without hope, seeking love and a sense of belonging. They all need to hear the liberating news of God’s provision for salvation, forgiveness, and eternal life through Jesus Christ.
So get out there and testify be a messenger of the evangelion.