Laborers Together in Evangelism

Laborers Together in Evangelism

By: Scott Ingram

Thesis: To establish that we are in a familial effort to work for the Lord.

Introduction:

1) Evangelism is a given for those who are disciples of Jesus, and because Jesus was an evangelist, you can’t be His disciple if you won’t do what He did.

I. Matthew 9:35 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

2) Every one of us must learn to be fishers of men by some means or method that teaches others what they must do to be Christians.

I. There are many available

a) Study booklets

b) Media – create content online

c) Create opportunities through benevolent service

3) We must labor together in evangelism.

I. The church is God’s organization on earth, it’s the kingdom and our king gave us goals to strive for and laws to live by.

4) It’s important because numerical growth doesn’t happen when attendance goes up.

I. It happens when souls are converted.

II. It’s important that we learn to evangelize

Lesson

I. Evangelism is something we teach

A. “And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19, KJV 1900)

i. First they had to follow someone else, and learn from them.

ii. The apostles weren’t born expert evangelist.

iii. They spent 3 years following, watching, listening, and asking questions about the things that they were going to teach, and how they were going to teach.

iv. We send people to preaching school to learn to be evangelist

B. “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew 28:20, KJV 1900)

i. Jesus expected the Apostles to intentionally teach everyone they converted

ii. More often than not, the organized efforts and Bible studies cease when someone is baptized, if lucky someone will voluntarily take them under their wing and try to help them along but seldom do we have organized plans, classes, and structure to continue teaching new converts with the same fervor and effort as we do before they are baptized.

C. “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” (2 Timothy 2:2, KJV 1900)

i. Everyone “should”, reach a point where they can continue the process of passing knowledge on to others.

ii. In order to do that the knowledge must be committed to them, and that takes time and serious effort and planning to fulfill.

iii. This is often at least the de facto motto of many preaching and Bible schools, but it should be the motto of every congregation, and every Christian.

D. Just like we ought to teach the Bible we ought to teach evangelism.

i. It’s importance

ii. Methods

iii. Lifestyle

II. Evangelism is something we each do

A. “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” (1 Peter 3:15, KJV 1900)

i. We often use this verse to say it’s important to be able to defend our beliefs, but honestly it’s about perseverance through persecution

ii. We need to be prepared to teach the Gospel when it’s easy and someone is coming to us wanting to learn, and we need to be able to teach the gospel when people oppose us.

a) LGBTQ+

b) Militant Atheist

c) Possible government mandated persecution coming?

iii. This verse speaks to each of us individually, it’s addressing individuals

a) Every single Christian in this room has an obligation to suffer for doing well, doing good, specifically teaching the Gospel.

iv. We will burn bridges when we teach the Gospel

a) Jesus said he brought a sword

b) Jesus made many enemies when He taught the truth

c) Jesus was left with nearly no one at the cross when compared to the crowds who came to him when the going was good

B. “Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;” (Matthew 9:37, KJV 1900)

i. There are so many condemned souls in the world that we can’t spare one worker

ii. We can learn to speak better, we can write things from letters to articles, we can create digital media that teaches, we can take things other people have made and use them ourselves, pass them out or study them and bring it up in conversation.

iii. We can’t buy our way out of it, putting money into a preaching school is great but it has nothing to do with whether or not your did anything yourself, putting money in the collection plate is great but you can’t hire out your obligation to evangelize any more than you can hire out your obligation to open your mouth and sing songs of worship to the Lord, or than you can pay so someone else can take the Lord’s supper.

a) We can’t take credit for someone taking the Lord’s supper every week just because you helped buy the bread and the juice.

C. There is no minimum number you have to reach each week to say you did the work of evangelism

i. The Lord only expects us to use the opportunities we are given.

ii. If we actually have the ability create opportunities then Lord will only expect as many as we can actually create

iii. We are responsible for the things we can reasonably do, so we need to spend serious time and thought about what we can reasonably do, rather than saying I don’t know how to do that, or I haven’t ever done that before, or I don’t like doing it that way so instead I’ll do nothing until something comes along that I actually like.

III. Evangelism is something we all do together

A. “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,” (Ephesians 3:10, KJV 1900)

i. We have the obligation to work together to be more effective in our efforts.

ii. This is the point where supporting things with money is important and we see those efforts pay off with missionaries, supporting organizations like GBN, or schools.

iii. It is also important that when people see us together, they see the genuine article and that not only do they see the wisdom of God at work in the lessons presented but they see it at work in the way we talk to each other, work with each other, support each other, and organize ourselves.

B. “And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellowlabourers, whose names are in the book of life.” (Philippians 4:3, KJV 1900)

i. If Jesus and Paul, and all the others needed fellow laborers then we need them too.

ii. Even God enlisted help from other people to carry the message and I think that’s because he knew what it would take for us to keep it up when He was not physically present anymore.

iii. Without the help of everyone around us pushing the whole group forward we will stall and shrink

iv. Maybe we should rephrase our children's song, read your bible and pray everyday to read your bible and work everyday

C. “Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.” (Colossians 4:2–6, KJV 1900)

i. Pray for opportunities

ii. The Lord redeemed us, He bought us back, He placed value on us and sacrificed in order to have us.

a) Redeem the time, put value on it, sacrifice things in order to use it, buy it back, make use of it for something good, specifically make use of it when we get the chance to speak with others and fill our speech with grace so that we can influence everyone around us.

Conclusion:

1) Each of us need to be taught to evangelize

2) Each of us need to teach the gospel, and also teach others how to teach the gospel

3) Each of us need to contribute to the collective efforts