Debunking Evange-Fear

Good morning church. I pray that you have had a great weekend!

Anybody remember March 8th? That was the last time we worshiped here at East before going online only the next week. You remember what it was like to come into church without having to think about masks and hand sanitizer and being 6 feet away from each other? You remember what it was like to get a Mrs. Lisa hug at the door back there and shake hands like a politician throughout the sanctuary?

I miss those days! We need to praying that we can get back there soon! But we want to be as safe as we can until that time.

So much has changed over the last 4 1/2 months. Everyone has had to rethink what they do and how they do it! Many families have gone to grocery pickup instead of shopping in the grocery store. Drive-thrus and deliveries have been the way to “eat out.” For a while, it seemed like everything about our culture was coming undone! Even the things we do as a church have suffered.

We can’t do some of the things that we as the church and us as individual Christians are used to doing under normal circumstances. And some of that is just understandable.

But some of it’s not.

There are some biblical mandates that you and have been tasked with despite the direction or situation of our culture.

Worship

If you stay home instead of coming to worship that’s OK. But you need to be worshiping with your church family from home. It’s not OK to skip that.

2. Personal study and prayer

Life is nuts right now! I get it. But church, we cannot get lax in our personal study of the Scripture and our prayer time. I can tell you that I have fallen victim to this at times during the quarantin-ish times. AND THAT’S NOT OK! Somebody tell me that’s not Ok… Thank you for holding me accountable friend!

3. Groups

We are trying our best to offer groups that are tangible for you right now even if you can’t be in one. But our group numbers stink! We have two online options and 4 in person options. Go to lindsaylaneeast.org/groups and remedy that today. Groups are huge for what we do here. Life transformation happens best in circles not in rows. Get in a group.

4. (This is where we are settling in today) Evangelism

I get it… This is a weird time. You don’t know if the person you run into somewhere is scared to death, thinks it’s a conspiracy or somewhere in between. I KNOW it’s hard to talk with others about Jesus, especially during this time, but I’m here to declare to myself first and then to all of you, GOD DOESN’T GIVE US A PASS ON THIS! God’s life-changing power hasn’t gone into quarantine! God still wants and expects his children who have been saved by the blood of Jesus to tell others how they can be saved too!

This week and next, we are going to try and debunk some of the fears around evangelism. And next week I am going to show you a great framework for sharing with others. A laid back and simple way to share what Christ has done. NEXT WEEK!

But this morning, what I hope you see from the Scriptures is that sharing Jesus is very simple. The fear that we have that keeps us from it is just silly and we must fight to end that fear, amen?

Open in your Bibles to John chapter 1.

If you are looking for something to read this week in the mornings before work, I recommend John chapter 1. It begins with an incredible image of who Jesus is unlike any other place in the Bible. So GOOD! And then we get introduced to this cat named John the Baptist. That can be confusing because we begin to think, “Ah, John was a baptist just like me!” That’s not what this word means. It is “one who baptizes.” That’s why I like to call him John the Baptizer. That seems to clear up the confusion!

This John is not the guy who wrote the book of John. The author never refers to himself by his own name. So if you see John in this book, it’s John the Baptizer.

He is a wild eyed dude who lives off the land and preaches for the people of God to repent and baptized. He is also Jesus’ cousin. At one point, he actually baptizes Jesus! Which is pretty cool. If you are holding back from being baptized for some reason, STOP. Give in. Even Jesus himself who had no sin to repent of, was baptized. More as an example for us of how to handle this. We would love to talk with you about that.

Anyway...

It’s John the Baptizer whom this section of John 1 opens up on. And it gets even better from there...

Read along with me to yourself.

John 1:35–46 CSB

The next day, John was standing with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this and followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and noticed them following him, he asked them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” “Come and you’ll see,” he replied. So they went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard John and followed him. He first found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated “the Christ”), and he brought Simon to Jesus. When Jesus saw him, he said, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which is translated “Peter”). The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. He found Philip and told him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law (and so did the prophets): Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nathanael asked him. “Come and see,” Philip answered.

Pray

This morning, we are going to look at two things Evangelism is and one thing it is not.

1. Evangelism is telling people what you know about Jesus

I’ve heard this excuse: Well, I am no scholar! There’s so much that I don’t know! How could I share with confidence?

Christians have lost the right to this excuse! Every time I get on social media, I encounter a self-proclaimed believer ranting to the world about something they knew very little about like a brand new virus, whether schools should open, how effective masks are… We are on record that we will open our mouths with confidence when we really don’t know that much. So, throw that excuse away!

If we are willing to share about politics and health care necessities without knowing everything there is to know about them, then we can share about Jesus too!

And let’s look at what John the Baptist shares here. Is it some big, long treatise of theology that logically convinces his two followers to follow Jesus instead?

NO!

He says

John 1:36 CSB

When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

That’s all he said! He didn’t know a whole lot more about Jesus than this statement. He simply shared what he knew to be true, and God used it.

Listen, I know you don’t know EVERYTHING about Jesus. I don’t either! But do you know some things about Jesus? Share what you do know with people you encounter! Do you know how he died and why? Can you point to ways that he has changed your life? How a relationship with God through Christ has impacted the way you live?

If you know these things, you know more than John the Baptist shared here!

Don’t be afraid to share because you don’t have much to say, because you know enough to make an impact!

Evangelism is telling people what you know about Jesus.

The story goes on from there and we see one of John’s disciples named Andrew spend the day with Jesus. He seems totally convinced that Jesus is the Messiah. So much so, that he immediately goes and finds his brother, Simon and tells him about it. Leading to our second point...

2. Evangelism is inviting people to meet Jesus.

Andrew is only mentioned 3 times in John’s gospel. You know what he is doing every time? Bringing someone to Jesus! I love that.

Look at what he does here...

John 1:41–42 CSB

He first found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated “the Christ”), and he brought Simon to Jesus. When Jesus saw him, he said, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which is translated “Peter”).

This is what evangelism is! It is bringing people to Jesus. Then they have an opportunity to reject or accept Jesus.

You and I don’t have Jesus down the street at someone’s house that we can introduce people to physically, but when we tell them about who Jesus is, we are introducing them to Jesus and who he is, what he has done. After that, they can either accept or reject Jesus, right?

The mistake we make is thinking that they are rejecting or accepting us! That’s not the case! You are not trying to win an argument or make a sales call! This is not on you. It’s on you to share. It’s not on you if they reject!

STORY of girl after youth group.

Had I failed? Had I mis-communicated something? What was the deal?

In that moment, it was easy for me to feel like I had failed. I had just done the best job I knew how sharing Jesus and she said NO! But I had to recognize that she was saying no to Jesus not me.

You and I are to simply introduce people to Jesus. That’s our job. We hate to see people say no to him, but sometimes they will. And that doesn’t count as an L in your scorebook! You shouldn’t beat yourself up if they say no!

In the same way, you don’t get a W when they say yes, right? We just introduce them to each other. If they surrender to Christ, it’s because God called them and they repented and believed. That’s between them and God. You and I just introduce.

If we can see our role as such a simple task and not take rejection so personal, we will be much more likely to share!

Evangelism is telling people what you know about Jesus and inviting them to meet Jesus. But there is another thing that Evangelism is not...

3. Evangelism is not having all the answers.

Look at the text...

John 1:45–46 CSB

Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law (and so did the prophets): Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nathanael asked him. “Come and see,” Philip answered.

After meeting Jesus himself, Philip goes to tell his friend Nathanael. What is it that he tells him?

We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law and so did the prophets. That’s what we were talking about the last six weeks! The whole old testament was about Jesus!

Nathanael is not quite satisfied with the answer because he says Jesus if from Nazareth. I’ve heard it said that Nathanael said this because Nazareth was a redneck town. It was unimportant in the big scheme of things. It was supposed to be a slam against the town!

But as I was studying this week, I realized there is another reason for this comment. Nathanael was a young Jewish guy who would have heard and read what we call the Old Testament quite often. And he knew that there is no evidence that the Messiah would be from Nazareth. In fact, Nazareth isn’t even mentioned in the old Testament.

This could have been a slam against the po-dunkness of the town, but it was arguably more likely a theological question that Philip didn’t know the answer to. Philip didn’t yet know that Jesus was born when there was a census going on and his family had migrated to Bethlehem for a period, which is the town the Messiah would be from. He didn’t know, yet, of any of the prophecies that Jesus had already fulfilled just through his early life and the stuff that happened.

But he doesn’t let it bother him. He doesn’t check up. Come and see! That’s what he says.

When you are sharing with folks, they will have questions probably. And you might not know the answer to them. Guess what? That’s OK! God’s still going to use your conversation!

I met with a skeptical guy back in February for breakfast. Back when you didn’t have to wear masks in restaurants. You know, the good old days! I shared with him my story and asked him if he had any questions. But before I let him share any, I told him, “I will take any question you got. I may not know the answer, but I’ll do my best to find it for you. And there may be questions you ask that you don’t like the answer I give. God’s Word doesn’t seek to answer every question we may have about God. It teaches us the things about God he wanted to reveal to us. Those are the things we can discuss and know. There will be others that are more of a mystery than you want.”

It was hard to admit that I don’t have all the answers, but I needed him to know that I’m a pastor, been a Christian for 25 years and still don’t know everything!

The people you are sharing with need to know that too!

You don’t have to have all the answers, because you can’t have all the answers!

Deuteronomy 29:29 CSB

The hidden things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.

We can speculate and talk about the things the Bible doesn’t spell out for us clearly, but this passage was a reminder to the Israelites to focus on the things that have been revealed. There are enough absolutes in the Bible to keep us busy talking, growing, and obeying for multiple lifetimes!

You see, evangelism may seem to you like something you cannot do! You may feel ill-equipped to do it! What I hope you see from this passage is that it is very simple! Tell people what you know, invite them to Jesus and don’t worry about having all the answers! That’s it! And it’s so simple you can even do it during a crazy time like this! We must debunk our fears and get after this!

Today, I’m asking each of us to ask God to give us opportunity this week to have simple conversations about Jesus. That God would open doors in conversations to talk about God, your salvation, church, and whatever else you can with your family, coworkers, friends, neighbors.

If you have a conversation with someone this week, let us know! Send me or Greg an email and tell us about it! We want to be able to share some stories next week to encourage the body as a whole.

You may want to use this response time to talk to God about an opportunity.

If you want to join this church, we would love to talk with you about that! We had someone reach out to us this week who’s been watching us online that wants to join! Praise God!

Or you may be a Christian who’s never been baptized. We would love to line that up and get the waters stirred up in the baptistery.

Or, you may be someone who has never trusted in Jesus yourself! Before you can effectively share what God has done in your life through Jesus, you have to let him do something! Though God had a perfect design for all of mankind, we messed that up because we sinned and continue to sin! We often try to live better, do better, and earn God’s favor, but we can’t! It just leads to more sin and frustration on our part. But God made a way to restore his perfect design for us. He sent his son Jesus to live a perfect life, take all of our sin within his body, and die a cruel death. When he died, all of our sin was spiritually in his body. He paid the debt of separation that was deserving for all of us. If you will admit before the Lord that you can’t fix yourself, recognizing that he is the only one who can, you can be saved! We would love to talk with you about that!

Whatever next step you need to make towards God today, take it! Use this time of response to think it through.

I’ll pray and then we will stand and sing.