Spiritual Disciplines-Evangelism Part 2

My position for the majority of the years I worked in the Financial Services industry, dictated that I visit the offices of our agency at least 3 times per year. Over the years we had offices in eastern Illinois, about a couple hours from here, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and in Denver Colorado. Our office in Denver had only one financial advisor. His name was Jim Butler, and he had been with the company for about 30 years and was nearing retirement. He lived in Parker, which is on the eastern side of Denver. His office was in his home, and since he lived in the Denver area and our son Steven lived near him, usually at least once a year I drove and brought Pam with me. On one such occasion, Pam was waiting in the car while I was meeting with him. She had brought a book to read and was enjoying some quiet time to catch up on some reading, when there was a knock on the window. Jim’s wife, Jodie, had noticed Pam and invited her in for tea. We all decided that from that time on, anytime I brought Pam, she and Jodie would talk and have tea while Jim and I would meet. In the end, that only ended up being one more visit. A month or 2 after Pam and I had been there, Jim had decided to retire. Our plan was to head out for one more visit and to pick up some boxes of client files to bring back to Kansas City with us. A short time before we went out to Denver, I got a call from Jim. He informed me that he had an aggressive form of cancer, the prognosis looked favorable as his daughter had arranged for him to receive a new experimental drug that had been pretty effective attacking the type of cancer he had. I prayed with Jim over the phone and set up a date for our last visit before his retirement.

Fast forward a few weeks. Jim and Jodie had moved into a new home, a beautiful home facing Castlerock, with one of the more beautiful vista views off of their deck we had ever seen. Had we not known that Jim had cancer, you would have never guessed it, he looked as strong as ever.

Jim was a powerful barrel chested man, went to the athletic club multiple times a week to lift weights, had always kept in impeccable shape. As I recall, he had started the cancer treatments, I believe he and Jodie still felt optimistic they would eradicate his body of the cancer, but at the same time they were worried. Before we left, I asked the 2 of them if it would be alright if Pam and I prayed with them before we left, both immediately said yes. We joined hands in their dining room and prayed, when we finished praying, tears were streaming down both of their faces, it is likely that no one had ever prayed with them before that day. It was really a pretty powerful moment.

Over the next few months, Jim called me regularly to update me on how the treatments were going, each time I ended the phone calls by praying with Jim. The following February, I was a work and my phone rang. The caller I.D. let me know it was Jim’s phone.

“Jim Butler, how are you doing?”

There was a momentary pause, then..

“Jim, this is Jodie, I just wanted you to know that Jim has passed away. I wanted to let you know how much you meant to Jim and me and to thank you for your prayers.”

We spoke for a little while longer and I prayed with her one last time.

Over the years I had shared my faith with Jim many times, I had prayed with him on several occasions, but I had never worked up the courage to invite him to trust in Christ as his personal Savior. That fact hangs heavy on my heart to this day. My only hope is that God brought someone else into Jim’s life before he passed away, to do what I failed to do.

Last week, when we began to look at the Spiritual Discipline of Evangelism, I mentioned more than once that time is of the essence. As a result of that fact, we need to take seriously God’s very clear directive to us in The Great Commission.

This morning I want to devote some more time to this very important topic, including giving us all some tips on what we can do to effectively share the truth of the Gospel with others. To begin with, we need to understand that: Next Slide

There are different styles of evangelism.

What we will look at this morning is how different Biblical characters had different styles of evangelism based on their own character. We may identify a style that suits us and stop trying to force ourselves to do something that is not natural.

When evangelism becomes natural, we will start to enjoy it and do more of it. On the other hand, if we try to do something that is not natural for us, the experience may be so traumatic that we conclude evangelism is not for us and we stop doing it altogether.

Now I want you to understand something very important from the very start. Next Slide

The more we share with others about Jesus, the easier it becomes.

Pam and I started a serious commitment to cycling in 2009. We started with riding our bikes to a nice paved trail not far from our house. The whole ride consisted of about 2 1/2 miles and one hill that led up to 159th. That ride was a killer to us, and that hill practically brought us to our knees. In 2017 we did at least 2 century rides, that is a ride of at least 100 miles, as well as several metric centuries, which is a ride of at least 62 miles. Had you told us in 2009 that we would be able to do rides of that length, we would have done our best to find you a psychiatrist! But the more we rode, the easier it became.

The same holds true of sharing with others about Jesus Christ, the more we do it, the easier and more natural it becomes.

Now let’s look at the different styles of evangelism. The first one is: Next Slides

Confrontational-Peter

Peter was an impulsive, in your face, kind of guy.

When Jesus asked His disciples in Matthew 16:15 who they taught He was, Peter did not mince words. He declared clearly that he thought Jesus was the Messiah. Then a few verses later, he challenged Jesus’ stated mission head on.

(Mat 16:13-22 NIV)  When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" {14} They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." {15} "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" {16} Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." ….{21} From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. {22} Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!"

We also see Peter’s confrontational side on the night Jesus was betrayed. When Judas led the soldiers and others to capture Jesus in the garden, what did the impulsive, in your face Peter do?

He pulled out his sword and cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest.

God later took that confrontational side of Peter and used it in a powerful way.

But the confrontational style isn’t the only style God uses, He also uses the: Next Slides

Invitational-Matthew

We see this in the life of Matthew in Luke 5:27-29 Next Slide

Luke 5:27-29

Luke 5:27–29 ESV

27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him. 29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them.

Matthew relied on the friendships he had built with people as the basis to invite them to meet Jesus. We use this approach when we invite our friends to events such as Christian concerts, special church events, or just to church in general.

The other person in the Bible who used this approach was the Samaritan woman. After she has found the Messiah, she went out and invited her village people to come to hear Jesus. We looked at her a couple weeks ago in John 4.

Friendship is important if we are to talk to people about spiritual things or invite them for church or church type of events. People who are good in this style have an interpersonal approach that allows them to build intimate relationships.

When we use the invitational approach, it will be negative if we only call people when we want to invite them to an event. Very soon, people can sense the superficiality of our friendship. We need to build genuine relationships with them.

The next style is: Next Slides

Testimonial-the blind man

One of the best examples of this one is the blind man in Next Slide

John 9:24-33 Page 1140 in the Pew Bibles.

John 9:24-33

This is one style of evangelism I believe all of us should consider. I think each of us has a story to tell, a story of what God has done in our life. Sure many of you may not have a story of how God saved you from a life devoted to sin. That’s my salvation story. I came to Christ in 1966 at the ripe old age of 6, I hardly had a life of crime! But that doesn’t mean I don’t have a story to tell. God has done some marvelous things in my life and the testimonial style is merely sharing the story of what God has done in your life.

Last week I shared with you a story from our days in the youth ministry in Scottsbluff NE. I’d like to share another one with you this morning that fits with the testimonial style of evangelism. I may have shared part of this in the past, but I want to share a little bit more this morning.

Joanne was our next door neighbor. She was a very nice lady, and Pam and I grew to love her and her 2 children very much. She was a Social worker and was the one who opened up the door for us to adopt Steven. While she was a very nice lady, she was also quite wild. I mentioned that she had 2 children, well these children came from 2 different men, and honestly there was a different car in front of her house on a regular basis all night from different men she was sleeping with.

Joanne had watched Pam and me closely after we lost our 5 month old baby. She knew what had happened to us was devastating, but she also saw that we didn’t completely fall apart, we still had a sense of peace and we still trusted our God through it all. Now to be honest, she didn’t see us all of the time, we were shaken to the core, but we did trust God through it all.

One morning we were in our kitchen eating breakfast. Now let me give you a little of the layout of our homes. Joanne’s home was literally about 12 feet from ours, separated only by our driveway. Just off of our driveway was our deck and on our deck there was a sliding glass door that led into our kitchen and dining area. On this particular morning we had the blinds closed as we ate. Then there was a knock on the sliding glass door. When I opened the blinds, there was Joanne. She had clearly been crying, let me change that, she had been weeping. Ever since Pam and I had lost our baby, we understood there was a difference between crying and weeping and Joanne had been weeping. She asked if she could come in. She sat down at the table and began to share what had happened. One of the men that owned one of the multiple different cars that we had seen in front of her home had told her that he was leaving his wife and 2 daughters, he wanted to start a life with Joanne. She let him know that she didn’t want to marry him. He was less than thrilled when he left. He was a police officers and at some point in time over the course of the next day or 2, he got up early one morning, wrote a note for Joanne that basically said that he didn’t want to go on living without her. He then proceeded to drive up into the Wildcat Hills, pull out his service revolver, put it in his mouth and pull the trigger.

Joanne looked at us and asked us the following questions; “How do you go through something like the loss of a baby and not just want to give up on life.”

If I remember correctly, my answer was something like this. “Joanne, honestly, I can answer your question in 2 words, Jesus Christ.” Then Pam and I began to share with her of our relationship with Jesus Christ, and how He was with us every moment and had taken us through the loss of our baby.

Less than a week later she had trusted in Jesus as her Savior.

You know, if you've been a Christian for much time at all, you have a story to tell, a story that God can use to bring someone else to trust in Jesus as their Savior. What you need to do now is think through that story, maybe put it down on paper, and ask God to give you an opportunity to share it, the rest is up to Him. You’ve already shared your stories with us, all you have to do now is adapt your story for someone who has not yet trusted in Jesus.

That brings us to the next style of evangelism: Next Slide

Relational

This is another one that any of us can do. You see relational evangelism is simply living life with people. Over time, as your relationship grows, as they see a difference in your life, your life that has been transformed by the Holy Spirit Who indwells you. Then you begin to pray that God will open up doors for you to share your faith, your story, with others. If that is your prayer, I can tell you, God will open up doors. He loves answering those prayers. When He does, have the boldness to walk through the open door. It won’t be perfect, and you will surely make mistakes, but the more you take the initiative, the easier and more natural it will become.

That brings us to the next style of evangelism: Next Slides

Intellectual-Paul on Mars Hill, Ravi Zachariahs

Next Slide

When God wanted to send someone to the highly educated philosophers in Athens, He chose Paul (Acts 17). There, Paul presented  an ingenious argument starting from the Athenian idol to an unknown god and moving eventually to the one true God and His Son Jesus who came to die for us. His approach was so effective that some of his listeners became believers.

Acts 17:16, 22-31

Acts 17:16, 22-31 Page 1178 in the Pew Bibles

That brings us to the last style of evangelism we will look at this morning, Next Slide

Service-

The Institute of American Church Growth polled more than 14,000 Christians and asked them, "What or who was responsible for you coming to Christ?" Ninety percent of the respondents stated that a friend or a relative who cared for them and invested time in them was the primary factor in their decision to accept Christ as their Savior.

Even people who are resistant to the gospel will drop their hostility if Christians are kind to them. The early Christians gained favor among the people through kind acts and unselfish sharing.

That is it for the styles of evangelism we will look at this morning, there may be a few others as well, but we will stop here.

Now I do want to make sure we all understand something key right now. No matter which form of evangelism we choose to use, and chances are there may be different times you may use each of these, at some point in time you have to give people the opportunity to respond to the good news of what Jesus did for them. I never did that with Jim Butler, and every time I think of that my heart aches.

Get Intentional about what you do to share your faith, and be praying regularly that God would open up doors for you to share the good news of Jesus with others.

With that in mind, there is one last thing I want each of you that have trusted in Jesus as your Savior to do. At the bottom of your notes is numbers from 1 to 3. What I want you to do now is to write the names of 3 individuals you know. Next I want you to commit to praying for them regularly. Lastly, I want you to pray that God would open the door for you to share your story with them, or at a minimum invite them with you to church.

Take these names and write them down on a 3 x 5 card, then post them somewhere you will see them each day, perhaps on the bathroom mirror or some other place, but commit to praying for them daily.

If each of us will commit to doing this for the rest of 2019, there is no telling what God will accomplish.

3 people they know in the area.

Impact Card:

Names of Individuals I am committing to pray for:

1. ________________________

2. ________________________

3. ________________________

Pray for every day.

Seek to share a witness to.

When they show an interest, invite them to attend church or church functions with them.

Challenge to put the Impact Card somewhere they will see it every day.

Mirror, in the bathroom

Pray and ask God for divine appointments.

How about the timid, find ways to help them...