Part 4 Evangelist and Evangelizers
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction:
Introduction:
On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the moon. It is looked upon as one of the most significant achievements of mankind. Looking back upon it we tend to emphasize the role of the astronauts and visionaries that made it possible. Would you be surprised to learn that in fact over 400,000 people were involved in that historic mission! There were flight directors, controllers, planners, engineers; the rocket designers, builders and technicians; the managers, supervisors, quality control and safety inspectors; the programmers, electricians, welders, seamstresses, gluers, painters, doctors, geologists, scientists, trainers, navigators, dieticians, cooks, secretaries, maintenance crews, and on and on and on.
What a fantastic accomplishment! Who was most important? Who was not needed? How could one begin say? It’s like the story of an argument between a sea captain and his chief engineer as to which one of them was the more important to the ship. Failing to agree, they resorted to the unique idea of swapping places. The chief ascended to the bridge, and the captain dived into the engine room. After a couple of hours, the captain suddenly appeared on the deck covered with oil and soot.
“Chief!” he yelled, wildly waving aloft a monkey wrench. “You’ll have to come down here; I can’t get the engine to go!”
“It doesn’t matter,” replied the chief. “I’ve run her aground!”
It is not possible to say who was most important in putting a man on the moon, nor is it possible to say who is most important in the Church!
Like NASA, the Church of Jesus Christ has a mission, it is one that has been entrusted to us by Jesus, Himself, and every follower of Christ has a part. The mission was communicated to us by Jesus just before He ascended into heaven.
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
This is our mission, this is the one task that we are all called to do and we all have a part in this most noble of all tasks, to evangelize the world, to make disciples of all nations!
Now there are both similarities and differences in our mission as the Church and in NASA’s mission to the moon. On the one hand both missions involve many people with different roles. In the Church we call the roles spiritual gifts. In NASA some of the roles were quite specialized and some more general. In the Church the roles tend to be more general. A particular gift, say teaching, is general, and could be used in teaching a small group, a children’s class or as a Bible college professor, as just a few examples.
One other key difference is the expectations that even though in the Church we each have a special gift, there is a normal level of participation or activity for all followers of Christ in all the areas of spiritual giftedness.
POWERPOINT SLIDE
So to take the example of teaching again, let’s say only one out of twenty Christians has the spiritual gift of teaching. I have no idea what the real number is, I’m just making this up for the illustration, OK? If there are 20 people in a church then one would have the gift of teaching, would be a spiritually gifted teacher. Follow my reasoning? Does that mean that the other 19 don’t ever teach? Does that mean they shouldn’t teach? No, it doesn’t mean that at all. In fact, all of us need to, at some point, be involved in teaching.
Let’s look again at the great commission we looked at a moment ago.
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
It doesn’t say “teachers teaching them” it just says teaching them. Jesus gave this command to all of His followers. It wasn’t just to the apostles and it wasn’t just to those gifted as teachers. As part of our mission to make disciples, we will all be called upon to teach others at some point. This doesn’t mean teaching a class or teaching in the worship services. It means when you are in a situation and have an opportunity to teach someone truth from God’s word, you will do it.
We teach in many settings not just in a formal setting. For example . . .
All of us who have children have taught them the truth of God’s word anytime we have answered a question from God’s Word. Teaching is something that all Christians do, because it is part of our mission.
There are times when those who are gifted to teach are called upon to teach. If a person has the gift, he or she will be more effective, supernaturally effective, in fact. How many of you can think of something that God taught you through a teacher, maybe years ago, that has stuck with you? It was likely someone gifted to teach who taught you. It didn’t have to be, but that’s how God uses teachers.
With many of the spiritual gifts there is an overlap with what all Christians are to do and with what some are supernaturally enabled to do. All Christians are to serve one another, some have a spiritual enablement in that area. All are called to give to support the ministry financially, and some have a supernatural enablement to do that.
Although the Christian life is not a job, we could actually think of what we are supposed to do as Christians like a job description. At your work, you have a job description. It may be written out or not, but you know what it is you are supposed to do. Even though we each have at least one unique spiritual gift, there are aspects of many of the gifts that should be present in all of our lives.
Let’s start with the gift of evangelists. We find the gift in Eph. 4:11.
11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,
1. The word “evangelism” isn’t in the Bible, “evangelist” is. Acts 21:8, Eph. 4:11; 2 Tim. 4:5
1. The word “evangelism” isn’t in the Bible, “evangelist” is. Acts 21:8, Eph. 4:11; 2 Tim. 4:5
Evangelist is found in three places in the Bible, Acts 21:8, Ephesians 4:11; 2 Timothy 4:5. We will look at all three.
“Some” are evangelists. Ephesians 4:11
2. Some are gifted evangelists 1 Cor. 15:1-4, Acts 8:26-38
2. Some are gifted evangelists 1 Cor. 15:1-4, Acts 8:26-38
An evangelist is one who brings good news.
The root meaning of the noun means one who brings good news. The verb means to tell good news. The good news here is very specific as the English word “gospel” means good news. An evangelist is on who brings the gospel. To evangelize is to tell people the good news. What is the Gospel?
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,
The Gospel
Christ died
For our sins
He was buried
He rose again.
The word evangelist is only used three times in the NT and one time it talks about a man named Philip as an evangelist. We have a story of one of time when Philip shared the Gospel or evangelized in Acts 8:26-38. Let’ look at this passage and we will see some of the unique characteristics of an evangelist.
26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. 29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” 30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.” 34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. 36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” 37 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.
A. Sensitivity to the Spirit’s leading
A. Sensitivity to the Spirit’s leading
Philip was just an average guy, we don’t know what he did for a living, but most of the disciples were in the trades. Yet the Spirit of God led him to go and talk to a very high royal official. I would guess he had bodyguards and soldiers around him. Yet the Spirit said go and talk to him.
If you are led by the Spirit to talk to someone about the gospel, you will often find an openness in that person to listen. Some of you have experience that and it is wonderful, it is amazing. It is in fact, supernatural. You don’t have to be an evangelist to experience this and evangelists don’t experience it all the time. Philip also had
B. Clarity in sharing the good news
B. Clarity in sharing the good news
This involves the ability to make the gospel relevant. Just what is it that Jesus, a person who lived 2000 years ago have to do with me and my life. For the Ethiopian it was maybe 5 to 10 years from when Jesus lived. Part of the gift is getting people to see how the truth of the death burial and resurrection affects them.
Lastly, we see that it also includes an
C. Effectiveness in leading people to Christ
C. Effectiveness in leading people to Christ
A person gifted as an evangelist leads more people to Christ than those who aren’t so gifted. The same is true regarding all the gifts.
D. Identifying the gift
D. Identifying the gift
i. Desire to share your faith
ii. Ease in sharing your faith
iii. Effectiveness in sharing your faith
No evangelist will tell you that they always lead people to Christ, but they will be noticeably more effective than those of us who don’t have the gift.
3. We are all to be evangelizers.
3. We are all to be evangelizers.
A. A gift is not a role. Jude 22-23
A. A gift is not a role. Jude 22-23
22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
B. We are to be witnesses. Acts 1:8
B. We are to be witnesses. Acts 1:8
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
B. We are all to do the work of an evangelist. 2 Tim 4:5
B. We are all to do the work of an evangelist. 2 Tim 4:5
5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
C. All believers evangelized in the church. Acts 8:1-4.
C. All believers evangelized in the church. Acts 8:1-4.
1 And Saul approved of their killing him. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison. 4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.
“preached” in verse 4 is εὐαγγελίζω
D. This is part of the works of the service Ephesians 4:12.
D. This is part of the works of the service Ephesians 4:12.
12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up
Conclusion
Conclusion
a. Having a spiritual gift doesn’t mean it is easy to do something.
b. Having a spiritual gift means that the Spirit of God works through us to bring about supernatural results.
c. Not having a gift doesn’t relieve us of the responsibility to serve in that way.
33.215 εὐαγγελίζω: to communicate good news concerning something (in the NT a particular reference to the gospel message about Jesus)—‘to tell the good news, to announce the gospel.’ ἀρξάμενος ἀπὸ τῆς γραφῆς ταύτης εὐηγγελίσατο αὐτῷ τὸν Ἰησοῦν ‘starting from this very passage of Scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus’ Ac 8:35; ἀπεστάλην λαλῆσαι πρὸς σὲ καὶ εὐαγγελίσασθαι σοι ταῦτα ‘I have been sent to speak to you and tell you this good news’ Lk 1:19. In Lk 1:19, however, the reference is to the birth of John the Baptist.
Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, pp. 411–412). New York: United Bible Societies.