Evangelism 101 - What Is/Isn't Evangelism

If you have your Bibles turn to Romans 10:13-17.

We are nearly through our series on evangelism and I pray it has been beneficial to you. Just so everyone is on the same page, we have this week and one more week on this topic, and the following week is Palm Sunday and then we come to Easter to close out the month and the quarter.

We spent the first 5 weeks going over steps to walk through before we share our faith

Grasp the Gospel

Check your Context

Love the Lost

Face your Fear

Start to Speak

Last week we did something a little different and took some time at the end to practice sharing the gospel with one another to help build our confidence in the gospel and our own ability to share it. This week we are going to introduce and practice a second gospel aid that is more visual and actually helped me understand the basic structure of the gospel message much better.

But first, we’re going to go over a few aspects of what evangelism is and isn’t and even before we do that, I want to know, did anyone get the opportunity to have a gospel conversation this week?

Testimonies

Why don’t we evangelize? - ask class and write their reasons on board

Why we must evangelize

Romans 10:13–17 ESV

13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

What can we do to start evangelizing? (taken from The Gospel and Personal Evangelism by Mark Dever)

Pray - Remember that you do not go into this alone

Plan - to put yourself in situations or relationships that will give opportunities to share the Gospel with unbelievers

Accept - that evangelism is our job

Understand - that all Christians are called to evangelism, whether gifted or not

Be Faithful - To God above any other allegiance (don’t be too polite to be faithful to God!)

Risk - for the sake of evangelizing (maybe you struggle to have these conversations with people you don’t know, but can you invite people to a meeting where the Gospel will be clearly presented or to a helpful video?)

Prepare - by knowing the Gospel, working on your own humility, and studying more so that when the opportunity is there you are ready

Look - for the opportunities that God has placed in your life

Love - others enough that you want to share the Good News with them

Fear - God more than others

Stop - blaming God. We are not excused from evangelism because God is sovereign.

Consider - Christ and His work for us on the cross

What Evangelism Is/Is Not (most are good things! Just not necessarily evangelism)

NOT - Imposition of beliefs

IS - telling the truth about humanity and God

NOT - Personal Testimony (About how your life is changed since becoming a Christian)- though it could certainly help

IS - moving from simply saying what God has done in your life to the facts of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension and how that applies to your non-believing friend

NOT - social action and public involvement - though they certainly do commend the gospel

IS - communicating the Gospel to those who need such social action from you

NOT - having events like safety fairs and inviting the community

IS - communicating the Gospel to the people who come to those events

NOT - apologetics (responding to the world’s agenda)

IS - proclaiming Christ’s agenda

NOT - The Results of Evangelism - conversion - or using means to get people to have a moment where the pray the sinner’s prayer

IS - announcing the good news, regardless of results - trusting that God is the one who converts people through the proclamation of the good news

NOT - a gift (or more precisely only a task for those with the gift)

IS - a gift

NOT - a sales pitch to close a deal - READ pg. 107

IS - faithfully proclaiming the good news, tilling the soil, and trusting the Holy Spirit to bring the harvest

John 10:27–29 ESV

27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

What is the Gospel?

A Simple Gospel Message - READ What if I’m Discouraged in My Evangelism? pg. 47

Gospel Aid 3: 3 Circles

Homework:

· Continue to seek gospel conversations with the non-believer you mentioned last week

Start to prepare evangelistic conversation starters (“How was the sermon Sunday?”)

· Every day, continue to pray for one another for boldness in sharing the gospel and for the people who we will be interacting with to be prepared by the Holy Spirit to respond in Faith.

· Text or call one another with updates on how it is going and encourage one another to press onward.

· Read Acts 8-14

· Be prepared to share with us next week how it is going and be prepared to encourage one another in evangelism!

Prayer of Confession

O Father who knows our hearts,

Search our hearts and make them pure before you. Holy Spirit reveal to us our sin so that we may turn away from it and toward Christ. We confess we have sinned against you. We have done what you have said not to do and we have not done what you have told us we must do. Forgive us Lord, according to your endless mercy. For the sin we remember and the sin we have forgotten, we call on your name for help. We have been envious and prideful, scorning our neighbors. We have been selfish and fearful in our hearts, seeking comfort and withholding from our neighbors, coworkers, and family members the very gift that you gave us freely: the good news of salvation and redemption. We have failed you in our thoughts, words, and deeds and we desperately need the Savior.

Lord have mercy on us.

Jesus, you lived the perfect life, full of love and compassion. Though you were tempted and tried in every way you did not fall to sin. Instead you fixed your eyes on the work the Father had given you. Help us to fix our eyes on you. You finished that work, bearing the sins of your people on the cross, and as you died on that cross you won our salvation. You are our dear friend, brother, and God. Help us to follow you faithfully.

Christ have mercy on us.

It is in Jesus’ name that we pray, Amen.

Scriptural Assurance of Pardon

If you have truly confessed your sin before the Lord, and have repented, turning from deciding for yourself what is right and wrong and submitting yourself to what God has declared what is right and wrong, then I declare to you, according to Ephesians 2:1-10, this assurance of forgiveness of your sins.

Ephesians 2:1–10 (ESV)

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked,

You were following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air

You were among the ones who lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and you were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved you,

5 even when you were dead in your trespasses,

He made you alive together with Christ

—by grace you have been saved—

He raised you up with Christ and seated you with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

7 And he did this so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward you in Christ Jesus.

8 It is by grace that you have been saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9

not a result of works, so that you cannot boast.

10 And you are the workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Your sins have been forgiven, praise the Lord!

Song

Benediction

Ephesians 6:19–20 ESV

19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

Closing Chorus