Reminders on Evangelism

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Reminders on Evangelism

Introduction: As you know, our shepherds have asked us to focus on a theme of evangelism, especially concentrating on preparation and practical ways in which we can better have compassion on those who are lost and seek to share the gospel with them.

As I have given consideration to this over the past few months, I have worked on a number of ways we can be better equipped to take part in saving a soul. There are a number of varied gifts needed to bring a person to Christ. We need inviters, encouragers, teachers, those who support teachers & Bible studies, and especially time in prayer.

However, before all else we need to be united in our understanding of what the Bible says about saving souls. God has revealed some very important principles that are foundational to what our goal is supposed to be. For example, when I first started preaching, my goal was to baptize a person. I learned the hard way that such a goal was not only flawed, it was not even God’s goal.

Therefore, in this lesson, I would like to look at some reminders of what the Bible says about sharing the gospel.

1. Reminders of God’s Method and Purpose in Saving Souls
   1. First, we need to remember our identity as the offspring of Abraham. God promised Abraham, “Through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed.” In Galatians 3:29, Paul said that when we come to Christ, we become the offspring of Abraham, “heirs according to the promise.”
      1. Isaiah 49:6 prophesied that we would be a “light to the nations to bring salvation to the end of the earth.”
      2. Jesus stressed this when he referred to his disciples as the “light of the world” (Matt. 5:13ff).
   2. Fortunately, God also made promises to us concerning the successfulness of the work he has asked us to do.
      1. “Thus says the Lord GOD: This also I will let the house of Israel ask me to do for them: to increase their people like a flock. Like the flock for sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the LORD.””(Ezekiel 36:37–38)
      2. ““For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”(Isaiah 55:10–11)
   3. Further, Jesus also promised to be with us and help us as we do this work. Luke certainly stressed how Jesus caused the increase taking place throughout Acts.
      1. “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” (John 15:7–8)
      2. When Jesus gave the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20), his last words were, “Behold I am with you, even to the end of the age.”
   4. But the Lord also required us to pray and rely on him before he would respond to help us.
      1. “Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith.” (2 Thes. 3:1–2)
      2. “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison—” (Col. 4:2–3)
      3. Sometimes we might question why we need to ask. The reason is evident for at least two reasons. (1) If we are not caring enough to love our neighbor and desire his salvation, God giving us the opportunity would be both useless and possibly destructive because of our lack of compassion. (2) God does not want to us to take pride in the success we might have. We need to know that only he is the one who gives the increase. He is the one who opens hearts.
   5. In this vein, we must therefore understand God’s definition of success.
      1. “And when the dissension became violent, the tribune, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him away from among them by force and bring him into the barracks. The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.”” (Acts 23:10–11)
      2. Ezek. 2:4-7; 33:32-33
   6. Therefore, there is also an additional principle: the hearer has the greatest responsibility. We are helping people come to a decision. But it is ultimately their decision. We never see Jesus or the apostles “talking someone into” being baptized. In fact, Jesus turned many people away who wanted to be half-hearted disciples.
      1. Matt. 13:10-15; John 6:66
      2. Isaiah 6:11 “How long, O Lord? Until the cities lie waste…” 
   7. That being said, there is need for a disciple to prepare to share the gospel message. 
      1. “But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:14–15)
      2. “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. (Col. 4:5–6)
2. Reminders of the Goal
   1. First, we must remember the prime directive: “Go therefore and make disciples…” We are called to make a disciple, not a Pharisee. In teaching others there has always been a serious danger in converting a person to a church, to a system or organization, or to a set of rules, instead of making a disciple of Christ. The Pharisees knew the rules, but did not know God
      1. John 6:44-45 is proof of this: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me—”
      2. The reason the disciples of John 6 walked away was because Jesus’ requirement went beyond being religious or obeying his commands. “So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” (John 6:53). The result was thousands of followers became just a few.
   2. The question is often asked, Why do we have so few baptisms? I ask that question also, and have done quite a bit of research to discover if there is something more we can do that would fit the biblical pattern. I have thought about it for over 50 years and tried dozens of different approaches. Here are some of my conclusions:
      1. First, I baptized more people when I concentrated on teaching baptism. Within three years, we had baptized 60 people. But most of them were not disciples, and at least 40 eventually fell away. After that, I began to make disciples, and the result was a stronger church with very few falling away.
      2. In fact, if I switched my emphasis to being baptized with those I’m studying with now, I have little doubt I could baptize some of them. But I do not believe they would start attending worship with us, nor do I think they would change their lifestyle. They are, at present, in the category of the “disciples” in John 6.
   3. Shortly after this I read a book by Flavil Yeakley on “Why Churches Grow.” He surveyed the way people in churches of Christ went about teaching the gospel and their results. He found that Christians used three different models:
      1. Information Transmission: a person simply sees themselves as a teacher instructing a student and imparting information. It is like a lecture. This model produced the least number of baptisms.
      2. Manipulative Monologue: the Christian sees himself as a salesman trying to get a person to “buy” their product – in this case, baptism. It is manipulative in that the Christian does most the talking and only responds to input from his contact in order to move the person closer to responding to being baptized. This model resulted in the most baptisms, but there was over a 90% rate of falling away.
      3. Non-manipulative Dialogue: in this case, the Christian sees himself as a friend sharing with a friend a subject of mutual interests. This is what Paul did when he went into the synagogues and “reasoned” with the people. “Reasoned” means he “exchanged thought with thought.” This is the only way the NT speaks of teaching people. This model had less baptisms than the previous, but had a 90+% of remaining a Christian. These had become true disciples.
   4. This past week I looked carefully at all the conversions in the book of Acts, and I made an interesting discovery.
      1. 1. In most areas where the gospel was first preached, there was an initial explosive number of baptisms. Acts 2–12 are notable (3,000, 5,000, multitudes, multiplying). We often use this part of Acts as a basis for comparison and thus our lack of success. However, please remember, this was teaching done in Judea and Samaria, and these were well-studied Jews. They were not ignorant of God or of what a disciple should be (Isaiah).
         2. Next, when Acts moves into Gentile areas, the initial conversions are some Jews, but mostly “devout Greeks” who also were believers in God and regularly attended the synagogues.
         3. When Paul entered areas that were mostly pagan (Lystra, Athens), the response was quite different. Luke mentions a few conversions (stoned in Lystra and mocked in Athens).
         4. Corinth (very eclectic) and Asia was probably the most conversions (though we don’t know how many), but those areas had large populations and were also triggered by the conversions of Jews and devout Greeks, who then took it to the pagans. Paul was so successful in Ephesus that the silversmiths wanted to kill him.
         5. In other words, success in terms of baptisms heavily depended on the culture of the city. Luke summarized Paul’s work in Asia this way: “But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.” (Acts 19:9–10)
         6. Conversions certainly continued in all these cities but not with the same pace of initial growth. Fast forward to 25 years later in Jerusalem and ask whether they were experiencing the same number of baptisms? While I have no doubt they continued to convert people, once the city had heard the word, there became a polarization of Jews and Christians. The newness wore off and, like people do, they settled into their own chosen course and it is more difficult to move them. That is evident when Paul came back to Jerusalem 25 years later and is accosted in the temple!
      2. Therefore, it is important to note that other than Acts 2 and 4, God never gave us the “numbers.” We do not know how big any of the churches were. What was important is that the gospel was being spread so that that the knowledge of God was spread everywhere.
3. Practical Reminders for the Best Outcome
   1. Zoom has been a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that we are teaching people with whom we would have never had an opportunity when all our studies were in person. However, Zoom makes it difficult to make personal relationships. If we are not careful, I believe Zoom will cause churches to dwindle as people use livestream as a substitute.
   2. Please also understand that small group studies are intended to open doors, and they have some very positive advantages. But there is also a major disadvantage:
      1. Group studies provides the opportunity for an outsider to connect with more than just one or two Christians.
      2. There is a greater ease of giving invitations 
      3. However, group studies also have an inherent limitation. Visitors often will not feel comfortable asking personal questions in the presence of others. The teacher also is not able to get as direct with a visitor’s specific circumstance and belief system. In a one-on-one study, I can create a deeper rapport and ask pointed questions about the condition of their spiritual life.
   3. Therefore, in-person studies lead to the best outcome. Our small group studies are important. They get the message out and can create opportunities. However, if we are going to have better results it will be as a result of one or two of us joining together to teach a friend or acquaintance. 
   4. Therefore, the key is twofold: (1) connect more deeply with the people you know so that you can ask them to read the Bible with you (and I’m glad to help). (2) When you meet new people, bring them into your “inner circle.” Invite them for dinner or invite them to one of our potlucks. Other than an unbeliever visiting our worship, these are the best opportunities we can have.

Berry Kercheville