Honest Evangelism
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We have now explored the things that we should hold to and to live on a daily basis. We should live lives taking up our Cross daily, living like our Lord Jesus Christ, Loving others as our Father loves us, and seeking to live in the Spirit. Today we will explore how we evangelize to others while living out the characteristics of those who truly believe. Effective evangelism is out of honest sincerity. What does this mean? It means that at Highlands Baptist Church we evangelize because we love people, we love our Lord, and we want to see the lost rescued. We do not evangelize so that we can gain something from others. We do not lie to convince others to follow our ways, we do not judge others for their blindness and we do not hold it against them. We proclaim Christ and not ourselves, we do not tell others how great we are but rather how great our God is. We are honest in our approach of evangelism and we show others the Love of Jesus Christ. Why is honest sincerity in evangelism important?
This world has see some very evil things due to those who seek their own fame, seek fortunes, seek worldly goals. These people often times lead their people to their death and did so while claiming to care about the people. The most known one of these is Jim Jones and the Jonestown Massacre. A pastor who told others what they wanted to hear, Jim Jones built a following. As his power grew with his people he began to separate them from the people they loved and began to tell them that others were all liars and that no one else was telling the truth. He used scripture to manipulate people into giving him their money, homes, investments, and then ultimately their lives. On November 18, 1978 Jim Jones and 900 people including women and children were killed because of his lies and manipulation.
Paul implores the church to live in honesty and to evangelize with honesty. Today in 2 Corinthians 4:1-9
1 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
We will see 4 things in this scripture today. First, Tell the truth- Paul tells the believers that we are to simply be honest, Second, expect blindness- Do not be surprised that others are resistant to the gospel and even try to oppose the gospel. Third, Proclaim Christ- It is not ourselves or our church that we promote or lift up, it is our Lord Jesus Christ. Fourth, do all things in Honest Sincerity- Do not make things appear to be better than they are, we are fragile humans and we deal with struggles it is ok for others to see this.
Tell the Truth
Tell the Truth
1 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.
You have seen this and heard this. Some people are out there right now behind a pulpit manipulating the word of God to tickle peoples ears and to get them to listen to them. They are OK with being liars and with practicing cunning. What does it mean to be cunning? Cunning according to the dictionary means having or showing skill in achieving one’s ends by deceit or evasion. Paul makes it clear that as we evangelize we are to do it in honesty and not thorough being cunning or using underhanded ways to get others to follow Jesus.
“Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects, and discovering other people’s weaknesses.” - William Hazlitt
I cannot help but get a specific picture when I think of cunning. Now with most people who are cunning they are successful. The person I am thinking of though is not very successful. You know him, everyone in here probably has either seen him, heard him, and possibly laughed at him. Willy E Coyote. No other cartoon has been as unsuccessful at being cunning and deceitful. How many times has he painted a fake train tunnel so the roadrunner will run into the wall and he actually paints a real tunnel in a mountain, until he tries to go through it and gets hit by a train? How many times has he placed food under an anvil and tried to kill the roadrunner only to have the anvil fall on him after his trap fails. While this brings us good memories and some laughs there are those in the christian world who participate in this type of behavior. They do not have others interests in mind, they are only there for themselves. They manipulate what the Bible says so that others are OK with following God because they want to live how they live and still feel secured in faith. The fact though is that those who practice such things are not only pointing themselves to destruction but also those who follow them. It is easy to look at these folks and point the finger but have you ever done this? Have you ever been fearful of telling someone what the word of God really says because you did not want them to completely walk away? It is OK to answer softly to others, it is not OK to manipulate the Word to make them feel OK. Look around today at the number of churches who are manipulating the Word of God so that they can appear to be accepting of everyone. Why are they doing this? Is it for the love of others? No these churches tell others that their sins are OK and that no changes need to take place in their lives because they know that crowds will flock to this type of teaching. They are not the only ones who know this though so does the Devil. Being cunning is a human tenancy. You may be saying, that is not true. We have all done it though.
You know what I am talking about? You are driving 80mph down the interstate and an office pulls you over. What is your first instinct? Is it to tell the truth? Is it to tell that officer, well honestly I was just driving fast because I woke up late and did not prepare myself for my drive today and so I decided to speed. No! I can tell you that I do it now just because they are not expecting it and it throws them off their game. They are not used to people telling them the truth.
What does the Bible say about human cunning?
14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.
We must be honest with others about the Faith and the Word of God. Not only must we be Honest we must expect their blindness.
Expect Blindness
Expect Blindness
3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
when you present the truth you should expect people to be upset, to be hurt, to not understand why God would expect such things of them. Why? Is it because they are horrible people that hate God and hate you? No, it is because they are blinded by the evil one. The god (little g) of this world the scripture says has blinded them to the truth so that they will perish. When people resist the gospel we should not be offended, write them off, or return to them things against the gospel. On the contrary our hearts should break. When is the last time your heart broke for those who speak against the church, against our God, against the faith? That is not the first instinct of most of us. Most of us get upset and angry about this. I have seen believers post some very hateful things about those who they should pray for, reach out to, be loving towards. Instead because their “faith” is attacked they justify attacking the people God has called them to love. We must expect the world to be blind and not want to hear what God has for them. We should expect that they do not want to change their lives and that it will be difficult for them to see themselves as lost. There is a perfect example of this.
16 And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” 17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” 18 He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, 19 Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 20 The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
23 And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.
Notice Jesus’ response. Jesus did not turn to His disciples and say to them, see this fool walking away from life? Can you believe this guy? No you can almost hear the way that Jesus says this to His disciples with a brokenness in His heart for the rich young ruler. If you will prepare yourself for the worlds blindness and not take things personally then you can respond in a loving and gracious way. We are not to cut off sinners from our lives we are to do all we can to be the love of Christ to them. What does the Bible say about the blindness of the world?
39 He also told them a parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?
18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
40 “He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their heart,
lest they see with their eyes,
and understand with their heart, and turn,
and I would heal them.”
We should not hate those who are against us we should love them, we should have compassion on them, we should pray for them. Jesus loved us to the point of dying on a cross and asking forgiveness for us while He was on that cross. We must be truthful, we must expect that the world will respond in their blindness. When the world responds in blindness we must Proclaim Christ.
Proclaim Christ
Proclaim Christ
5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
It is tempting when others turn down the message of Christ for us to elevate ourselves. What do I mean by this? I don’t mean that you say that you saved yourself. What I am saying is that you begin to tell the other person about how great you are because of Jesus in you. You begin to elevate all that you do and how you can achieve things. The fact is that we should elevate Jesus Christ in these moments. The last thing that someone who is doubting Jesus needs to hear is about how great you are. They need to hear how great Christ is in light of how desperate you were. The world does not need a self-help Jesus book. They need a hopeless without Jesus book. We are called to make much of Jesus and to lift Him up. Paul tells the believers here that they are to proclaim Jesus and to ensure that the others understand that we are willing servants of Jesus because of His exceeding greatness. We are to show others how much Jesus has done for us. We are less and He is more. We did nothing to earn salvation and have only recieved it as a free gift from a loving God. When we evangelize we are not to make much of ourselves or to tell others how great we are but are to proclaim Christ. Others do not need to be given more reason to see themselves as worthy, the fact that they have not sought a savior means that they think they are perfectly fine. They need to hear about how much you needed the savior so maybe they will see their need for a savior.
If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator; If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist; If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist; If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer; But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.
The Bible tells us something about making less of ourselves and more of Christ.
30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”
20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
We are to make more of Jesus than ourselves. There are those who present Jesus and tell others to follow Him because look how great I am since I have followed Jesus. The fact is that you may be blessed with riches when you follow Jesus, you may also be called to the cross and I know which one I want to prepare others for if they are called to it. How horrible to give others a false faith that leads to a real death. We must Tell the Truth, Expect Blindness, Proclaim Christ. We must do all of this in Humble sincerity.
Humble Sincerity
Humble Sincerity
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
Paul is specific here in writing that we are Jars of Clay. Jars of clay were cheap and inexpensive and everyone had these around they were also fragile. Because they were made with wet clay that was not properly treated or kilned they were weak and inexpensive. These Jars of Clay would be an example of a people who are weak. He did not stop there though, He continued to say that we are strong because the power of God is in us. The power to overcome our challenges in life is God in us. The world needs to hear this. They are searching for something. Don’t believe me? Here are some statistics for you that prove that people are looking for something in them to settle things that are coming against them.
The statistics for 2021 are the latest available from the CDC and they state this
Over 106,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2021, a staggering number that marks the highest annual total on record.
Synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl, were involved in over 70,000 of those overdose deaths.
In 2021, over 106,699 Americans died from drug overdoses, marking a 14% increase from 2020—the highest annual total on record.
The saddest part of this is that it is not a specific race or age of people who are dealing with these situations. Tell me that people are not looking for something inside them to help them with external struggles. The world needs very transparent believers who show their struggles and failures because in our weaknesses Christ is made strong and the World sees a hope in something other than what the Devil is offering them. The problem with us being perfect, looking perfect, acting perfect, is that is a bar that the rest of the world is honest about not being able to reach. We must be Humble and sincere in our evangelism. Not highlighting our sin to boast in it but telling others how we are just like they are and the only thing that separates us is that we have the Power of God living in us.