Evangelism According to Jesus
Pastoral Reflections • Sermon • Submitted
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Two portions of Scriptures today:
John 14:6 and Luke 6:13
Today we are ending this “summer” “series”
which I have called pastoral reflections.
Just reflections that I have as a pastor for you.
And today we end with evangelism.
Next week Oscar will be speaking and then we will go into our fall series.
It’ll be somewhat long like the kingdom series,
but it’ll be on the biblical theme of work.
So invite people,
come ready to learn,
bring a notepad.
Have your hearts ready.
But today,
let’s read John 14:6
and Luke 6:13
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
And now
When daylight came, he summoned his disciples, and he chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles:
Jesus is the way.
No one can go to God except through Jesus.
This is important news.
And we need to get this news out there.
That the way to relationship with the father is through Jesus.
Jesus is the way.
This is important news and good news,
news for everyone to hear.
News that we need to preach through our lives,
through our deeds,
through our relationships,
through our habits,
and through our words.
Today I want us to look at Jesus and how he evangelized.
How did Jesus tell others that he was the way to the Father.
Let’s pray.
...
Besides a Bible in a easy-to-read translation,
I recommend two resources for new Christians:
The first being the Bible Project.
It’s a youtube channel,
that produces free adult “cartoons” to help us understand the Bible.
The founder of the non-profit was my professor back during the summer.
Kinda neat.
I’ve shown the videos during some of my sermons in the past.
Their super good,
and I encourage all Christians to check them out.
Second, the resource I recommend is the free series called the Chosen.
The Chosen is very good.
Have you ever binged a show on Netflix?
Well,
the director for the Chosen wanted to make a binge-able show for the most important story:
the life of Christ.
Currently,
there are two seasons out,
and Alyda and I binged them maybe two months ago.
Super good.
I cried in basically every episode.
Alyda could attest to that.
She would like touch my face to see if I had tears running,
and lo and behold,
I did.
It’s just so good.
Since the Chosen intends to have several seasons,
it takes its time to develop the characters.
You really see the characters of the Bible come to life.
And they are relatable.
And they’re several things that become real to you when you see the Bible in live action.
One is that Jesus was human.
Yes, he is truly God,
but he is also truly human.
Another thing is that what we read about in the Bible:
The ministry of Jesus.
It wasn’t just something he did on the Sabbath.
His ministry didn’t just revolve around what takes place in the temple.
No,
Jesus’ ministry took place,
on the streets,
on the roads,
in the houses of sinners,
of fishermen,
in the big cities,
in the small cities,
near the sea,
and on the mountain.
It took place Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Not just on one day.
Jesus understood the mission that the Father had given him.
And this mission wasn’t a one-time thing.
This mission was essential to his life.
This mission was a lifestyle.
Jesus’ life demonstrated that he was the source of life.
Jesus’ life demonstrated that he has brought salvation to all.
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And Jesus expected that this would be multiplied.
He expected that his followers would follow the model that he demonstrated.
Therefore,
since we consider ourselves followers of Jesus,
we should follow his model.
We show that Jesus is our source of life,
not just on Sunday.
But on Monday,
on Tuesday,
on Wednesday,
on Thursday,
on Friday,
on Saturday.
At our work,
at our homes,
at our hangout places,
at the park,
at the lake,
at the mall,
everywhere we go,
we demonstrate that Jesus has brought salvation to our life.
This proclamation is not a one-time thing that we do,
on evangelism nights or stuff like that,
although we should do organized outreach.
This proclamation is essential to this Christian life.
It is essential for the Church to recognize that we are to do this,
not just on Sundays,
but we are supposed to work together to show that Jesus saves.
Jesus speaking,
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
From this verse,
Encounter Church has developed its mission statement:
We exist to reach the lost generation with the good news of Jesus Christ and to disciple students of the Bible.
If you ask yourself,
why do we do what we do,
from the singing,
to the gathering,
to the teaching.
It’s all because we exist to reach the lost generation with the good news of Jesus Christ
and to make disciples.
In other words,
we exist to do what Jesus told us to do.
Go
to make disciples.
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But how are we going to do this?
We need to be honest with ourselves.
Have we been successful in demonstrating to others that Jesus has brought good news?
Have we been successful in demonstrating to others that Jesus has brought good news?
I’ll let you answer that question yourself.
We grow with each other.
But do we grow by multiplying, as Jesus multiplied his message?
Hmm.
It’s not just us.
It’s the Church at large.
More and more Christians are leaving the faith.
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In fact,
part of the reason Encounter Church exists is so that we could help as much as we can to change that trend.
We are an evangelistic church.
We want Lodi and the surrounding areas to thrive because they know Christ and the power of his resurrection.
But we need to consider whether we have been effective in evangelizing.
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If you worked as a software engineer,
you worked super hard for years,
but didn’t create anything.
Even after working for so long,
you would begin to ask yourself,
is this worth doing?
Is this getting the job done?
Is this working?
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This is a question that the Church at large should ask itself.
This is a question that Encounter Church should ask itself.
Are we being effective in evangelizing?
--In proclaiming the message to others
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And this is a question you should ask,
are you being effective?
...
Be honest with yourself.
I am sure all of us could work on being more effective.
But how do we become effective?
Is it by adopting the ways of the megachurches?
of those “successful” churches?
I say no,
as I said when I first began these talks.
We have a unique personality which we should use in our work.
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So from where can we learn?
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We learn the Master Evangelist himself
From Jesus Christ himself.
How was he effective?
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Back to the Chosen,
again,
it has 16 episodes so far.
And you see Jesus,
and how he evangelizes.
And yes he has a public ministry.
But his ministry primarily focuses on 12 individuals.
The Apostles.
The passage we read in the beginning.
Luke 6:13 tells us that Jesus chose twelve to spread his message.
And we don’t see in the Scriptures that he was in a hurry to select the twelve.
You actually see it in the Chosen so beautifully.
I won’t spoil it for you,
but it takes a while for Jesus to assemble the 12 Apostles.
Jesus was not hasty,
he waited until he was thirty to start.
And in the meantime, he was just working as a craftsman.
Not in a hurry,
but determined.
He was determined to spread his news.
And he determined he would spread his kingdom through twelve individuals.
And even after he had chosen them,
change didn’t come right away.
They would do the same thing.
They would have their bad habits.
But Jesus was determined to use them.
——
These 12 Apostles weren’t special.
They weren’t religious or political leaders.
They were average people.
They were part of the working class.
They were fishermen.
One was a zealot—a rebel.
Another was a tax collector.
But no one expected that this group would win the world for Christ.
But what mattered was that Jesus would devote most of his remaining life on earth with these few disciples.
...
Let’s reflect on this for a while.
There are two things that I can extract from this.
First,
if God can use the disciples,
he can use you.
The disciples were far from perfect.
Look at the Chosen,
it really shows their human flaws.
They worked,
they had family problems,
social problems.
And yet,
they would be the leaders of this Christian movement.
It’s okay if you have no church experience.
It’s okay if you have never worked with people.
It’s fine if you have done wrong before.
If God can use the 12 Apostles,
God can still use you.
But you need to spend time with him.
Yes,
God used the Apostles,
but Jesus spent time with them for several years.
The Apostles didn’t just change right away.
You can’t expect that.
You start serving,
and everything is going to change right away?
No,
the Apostles had a whole bundle of problems.
Peter denied Christ,
and was two-faced with the Jews and Gentiles.
So,
it’s fine if you have problems.
But work through them,
with the Church-in community.
With the Lord.
While Jesus is not bodily here,
he is with us through his Spirit and his word.
Spend time praying
Spend time reading
Spend time with Jesus
and let him mold you.
The second thing that we can extract is that Jesus really focused on the few.
And this few were underwhelming you might say.
Think about it though,
throughout the Gospels,
you see Jesus with the masses.
Teaching them.
But then he would leave them.
He knew that the crowds that went to see him
were superficial.
They just went because he was popular and had extraordinary power.
But he would leave them to focus on the few.
Imagine Jesus having a large event,
and he leaves the large event to go to a Bible study of just twelve people.
People would think that’s crazy.
But that’s what Jesus did.
Because Jesus understood,
that he shouldn’t waste his energy with those who are not serious about following Jesus.
He’ll love them,
but he is going to devote his life to those who are willing to give up their lives for his.
It might look sad that Jesus only had a few disciples after he died.
But he knew,
if he can transform a handful of individuals,
they can transform the world.
And for true transformation to occur,
it takes time and energy.
It’s not a one-time type of thing.
It’s spending years with them.
Jesus spent years with his disciples.
He couldn’t do that with the masses.
...
Jesus knew that his purpose was not trying to impress the crowd,
but to usher in the kingdom.
This meant he needed people who could lead.
What good would it have been if he had a crowd following him,
but no one really had a grasp about who Jesus was and what he taught?
So he focused on a select few, people who were average.
Jesus was a realist.
He needed quality disciples over quantity of disciples.
And realistically,
Jesus could not give the type of personal care needed to the masses.
It turns out,
he could only give it to twelve.
Therefore, he focused on the twelve.
...
Robert E. Colemon,
he worked with Billy Graham
and he wrote this book called the Master Plan of Evangelism which highly influenced my thinking on evangelism.
He said,
Jesus
concentrated on those who were to be the beginning of this leadership . Though he did what he could to help the multitudes , he had to devote himself primarily to a few men , rather than the masses , so that the masses could at last be saved . This was the genius of his strategy
Jesus did help the masses as much as he could,
but he knew that if he wanted his message to spread after he died,
he needed to focus on a select few.
...
Churches want the multitudes.
They want them to come in.
They want more and more.
More converts.
More candidates for baptism.
And more members for the church,
with little or no emphasis on spending personal or quality time to establish these souls in the love and power of God.
...
Could it be that the Church has gotten things backwards?
Instead of focusing on the few,
and helping the masses when possible,
the church focuses on the masses,
and helping those serious about growing when possible.
Jesus focused on the few.
We need to recognize that evangelism,
how Jesus did it,
takes place over years,
takes place over eating together.
It’s not a thing you do at the park one Saturday.
It’s not the crowds.
No,
it’s about pouring yourself into a handful of individuals,
and helping them grow in Jesus,
as you grow in Jesus.
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By no means,
are we neglecting the world,
but we are being resourceful with our time and talents.
Focusing on fewer people.
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This does not mean that this is all we got.
How many people are here?
eight or so.
Yes, we focus on the few,
but the few that we focus on should then focus on another few.
And those focus on others.
Look at Paul.
Look at Peter.
They did ministry one by one.
Jesus spent time with them,
and they spent time with others,
and the others made more disciples.
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So look at your relationships,
look at relationships that you could make,
and concentrate on them.
This type of evangelism is slower.
It’s not fast type.
But I think it’s real,
not like the superficial,
get them baptized as soon as you can
type of evangelism.
This slow type of evangelism is the type of evangelism Jesus practiced with the disciples.
It will be slow,
tedious,
because people are going to fall,
and you are going to be like,
but nooo
we have advanced so much.
Like imagine Jesus and Peter,
like c’mon Peter,
you know Jesus is the Messiah,
and now you are denying him,
like you’ve gone so far.
But that’s how it is with people.
It’s not just going forwards or upwards,
we take a couple steps back,
the people we focus on will take a few steps back.
And we are with them for the ride.
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But we work with them,
slowly,
even if they don’t see that we are working with them.
You might not get recognized,
but you will be making a real impact.
An impact that will survive this generation.
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How are these relationships supposed to look like?
Well,
one main thing is just being with them.
I think that is what worked with Oscar and me.
We just made it a tradition
a habit to hangout every Thursday,
and we’ve gone through stuff together,
and grown in the Lord together.
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That is what Jesus did.
He was with the disciples.
He didn’t always have to give a lecture,
although he did at times.
But he saw his presence with them as his own school and curriculum.
It was primarily informal how he discipled them especially when we compare him to the Pharisees of his day.
...
But it was clear:
If these disciples wanted to continue what Jesus was doing,
if they wanted to preach
or to cast out devils,
they needed to be with Jesus.
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Isn’t that the way we raise our children?
We spend time with them,
over and over,
and that’s the best type of school for them to continue our heritage,
whether good or bad.
We don’t even need to give lectures.
Just by spending time with our children
they will end up acting like us.
...
Jesus spent time with the disciples.
In the series,
you could see Jesus traveling with the disciples,
walking with them,
sleeping in the same campsite together.
They walked together on the lonely roads.
They sailed together.
They prayed together.
They went to church, or to synagogue together.
Jesus’ ministry evolved around the disciples.
...
Again,
he couldn’t do this with everyone.
He did what he could with 12.
And what he did,
he did through his presence.
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Don’t feel guilty if you just spend time with people.
If you are just there living life with people.
Your presence itself is super powerful.
Preaching,
Bible studies,
necessary—important.
But they are not enough.
Neither are prayer meetings or training classes.
Truly building men and women is not easy.
It takes personal attention,
the type parents give their children.
A class or organization can never evangelize.
Children are raised by their parents being there.
We need to be there for others.
That’s evangelism.
That is proclaiming that Jesus saves.
We’re saying by being there,
we’re demonstrating that Jesus would be there.
We are there because Jesus would be there,
and because he was there for us.
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The Church at large has failed at this point.
We don’t like just hanging out.
We need classes.
We need events.
We need Bible studies.
We need programs.
We need worship services throughout the week.
...
And while these things can be good,
they are no substitutes for just being there for a person.
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When we substitute programs for presence,
we are leaving the people all on their own to find the solutions to innumerable practical problems confronting their lives,
any problem could mean disaster to their new faith.
We need to spend time with them,
where conversations about anything are taking place.
That’s what Jesus did.
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Jesus,
the Son of God,
did not give the disciples a bible study for a couple of weeks,
and then left them.
No,
he spent years,
at least three years,
with his few disciples,
and one of them was lost.
How can a church expect that it will change lives
through a program or a gathering that just occurs a few days out of the year.
...
It takes time.
Studies show that it takes over a year for a person to finally commit to seriously following Christ.
It takes time.
...
You are the church.
People are the church.
It’s not just about bringing them to one of our church services.
It’s more about being with them and living life with them.
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One of the worst things I have heard that pastors say,
“You bring them,
I’ll save them.”
I’ll never say that to you.
I won’t say,
“You bring them,
I’ll save them.”
What I will say is spend time with those few people whom you can show the love of Christ to.
We will have classes and programs;
We’re gonna have one in September, Lord willing.
A super good one.
it’s nice to have those things.
BUT,
they’re not a substitute for you being the hands and feet of Jesus.
Go be the presence of Jesus by being present with people.
If you have questions about being present with people,
talk to me.
We can work on it.
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I end with two quotes.
The first is from Robert E. Coleman:
We should not expect a great number to begin with , nor should we desire it . The best work is always done with a few . Better to give a year or so to one or two people who learn what it means to conquer for Christ than to spend a lifetime with a congregation just keeping the program going .
The second is from a book that has helped me understand God’s love for me.
In his book, The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning wrote this:
The ministry of evangelization is an extraordinary opportunity of showing gratitude to Jesus by passing on His gospel of grace to others. However, the “conversion by concussion” method, with one sledgehammer blow of the Bible after another, betrays a basic disrespect for the dignity of the other and is utterly alien to the gospel imperative to bear witness. To evangelize a person is to say to him or her, You, too, are loved by God in the Lord Jesus. And not only to say it but really think it and relate it to the man or woman so they can sense it. This is what it means to announce the Good News. But that becomes possible only by offering the person your friendship—a friendship that is real, unselfish, without condescension, full of confidence, and profound esteem.
Let’s pray.