What Is Evangelism? A Short Summary

Introduction

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” -John 16:13, 14 (ESV)

“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.” -John 15:26, 27

In attempt to define what evangelism actually is, it is necessary to begin with the most basic assumption: the truth of Jesus is given by the Holy Spirit. It is impossible to fully know this truth without the Helper’s guidance (John 16:13). These two verses above indicate two things while attempting to define evangelism. First, all truth is given by the Holy Spirit for the glorification of God the Father. This truth is the truth about God, not necessarily temporal knowledge of every kind. Second, the Holy Spirit through his apostles and now through us will bear witness to the truth. The apostles were eyewitnesses and through the operation of the Holy Spirit were able to provide the foundational and authoritative witness to Christ for the church. As the church now, this basic assumption is imperative for growth and expanding the kingdom of God, for it begins and ends with the operation of the Holy Spirit.

Establishing the Imperatives

In the gospel of John, the imperative is to bear witness to the truth of Jesus given by the Holy Spirit, knowing that He proceeds for us. Likewise, in what is called the “Great Commission,” in Matthew 28, Jesus tells those who worshiped him and who doubted that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him (v. 18). His reason for telling them this is clear: as you go – on behalf of his authority – make disciples, baptize them and teach them to observe all the he has commanded. Mark’s gospel additionally corresponds with the command to “go into the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation (Mark 16:15).”

John’s gospel indicates to “bear witness,” and Matthew and Mark’s gospel tell believers to “go.” Luke additionally has Jesus telling the apostles to “proclaim” and to be “witnesses” (Luke 24:47, 48). These scriptures help give a preliminary definition for the imperatives that are given through Jesus to his apostles and ultimately to today’s believers.

Grounded in the Indicative

After establishing what is commanded – the imperatives – one cannot go further without understanding why one must “go” or “bear witness” or proclaim” what Jesus has done and said. One must understand what has been done through and in Christ – the indicative – in order to fully understand the mission of the Christ-follower. Michael Horton suggests that too many people begin with the Great Commission with the words, “Therefore go…” However, he emphasizes that it leaves out a great deal. He then adds, “To begin with, it leaves out the whole rationale for the commission in the first place. […] When we see an imperative such as ‘Go therefore,’ we need to go back and look at what has already been said leading up to it. There is no reason for us to go into all the world as Christ’s ambassadors apart from the work that he has already accomplished.”[1] What is gleaned from Horton’s statement is the absolute necessity to understand that it is because of Christ’s ultimate authority in heaven and on earth that we are able to “go” anywhere. The ultimate authority is the gospel. The gospel ultimately is what Christ has done.

To evangelize it is obvious one must first have knowledge of what the gospel is. Donald S. Whitney remarks, “the gospel must be clear to believers before they can share it clearly with unbelievers.”[2] Additionally if people have a misunderstanding or “doubtful grasp” of the essential Christian message, how can they be expected to share that message?

What essentially is the message? What is the gospel? The apostle Paul tells his beloved church in Corinth what should be of “first importance.” He declares the gospel to be: “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:3).” This should be the plumb line for believers because it centers upon Jesus Christ and what God has done through him. D.A. Carson wrote: “The essential points of the gospel are Jesus Christ’s status as the Son of God, his genuine humanity, his death for our sins, his burial, resurrection, subsequent appearances, and future coming in judgment.”[3] As Carson points out, all essentials of the gospel are packed into 1 Corinthians 15:3. The gospel is what has been done in Jesus Christ – that which is the indicative and grounds the imperative to “Go therefore.”

The Good News

In William J. Abraham’s book on evangelism, he points out that when asked what the definition of evangelism is, most Christians naturally construe it to be the “announcing or communicating or proclaiming of the Christian message to those outside the Christian faith.”[4] Dictionaries define evangelism as “the proclamation of the gospel, especially to...individuals, but means of preaching [or] teaching” or it is the “promulgation of the gospel.”[5] The gospel is central as affirmed earlier and is equated with “good news” deriving its name from the Greek word euangelion. It is exactly this euangelion that captivated the hearts of the apostles. They were witnesses of the God-man or “God on the ground” and it is precisely his good news to the world that the apostles were not only instructed to but inspired to share. The good news of Jesus cannot be without His kingdom coming to earth. It is the incarnation that gives evidence of this most fervently. Not too mention Jesus’ public ministry begins with, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Mat. 4:17).” There is an eschatological element in Jesus’ words. Thus, there is an element of eschatology in evangelism because it is rooted in the gospel of Jesus. Abraham says it this way: “Evangelism [is] related to the gospel of the reign of God that was inaugurated in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.”[6] Just as John the Baptist was the forerunner for Jesus, his apostles were to be the successors of his message and ministry. Therefore, evangelism is the succession of Jesus’ good news.

Proclaiming the Good News

The apostles were commissioned and inspired to tell the story of Jesus to other people. They did not deduce their communication to merely being good examples of Jesus, doing as he did. They had to communicate through words. After all, as Donald Whitney notes, “no one is saved by watching a good example.”[7] He adds that one must not forget that the gospel message is most clearly communicated through words, words about the person and work of Jesus Christ. The discipline of evangelism is about being intentional to speak those words.[8] The question is how does one speak those words? It is the question of the methodology in evangelism. One could look to the life of Jesus himself, having all authority given to him. D. Martyn Lloyd Jones points out that Jesus “clearly differentiated between person and person and type and type. […] He does not handle any two people in exactly the same way. [Jesus] when dealing with people in terms of the same truth, dealt with them in different ways and accommodated His way of teaching to the person. He did not vary the truth, but varied the particular method of presentation.”[9] There is no one formula to evangelism. So how does one know the right method? It is imperative not to focus too earnestly on methods because there must be room for the Holy Spirit and His enabling power. It is by this power the believer needs seek in evangelism. R.C. Sproul comments, “The true power, the power that will change [one’s] life, is the power of God the Holy Spirit, and God promises to attend the preaching of His Word with that power. Preaching has no power unless God the Holy Spirit takes His Word and penetrates hearts with it.”[10]

Conclusion

It begins with the Spirit of truth illuminating the believer’s heart, mind and body to be a light in a dark world. As the light, our imperative to “go” is embedded so deeply in the indicative of what Christ has done and will do. This is euangelion! This is good news to the world. Evangelism is not incidental or accidental because the gospel of Jesus is neither. Evangelism is being intentional with the supreme task of communicating – from the outflow of holy joy – the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the world.

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[1] Michael Horton, “The Great Announcement” Modern Reformation, Vol. 20, No. 1 2011, pgs 12-19.

[2] Donald S. Whitney, “Evangelism & the Gospel,” TableTalk, May 2011, pg. 62.

[3] D.A. Carson, “The Gospel of Jesus Christ,” The Spurgeon Fellowship Journal, Spring 2008, pgs 1-11.

[4] William J. Abraham, The Logic of Evangelism, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), 41.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Abraham, 17.

[7] Whitney, 63.

[8] Ibid.

[9] D.Martyn Lloyd Jones, Studies In The Sermon On The Mount (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976), 448-449.

[10] R.C. Sproul, “John,” St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary, (Grand Rapids: Reformation Trust, 2009), 304.

On Christ the Solid Rock

Let's face it, our world is crumbling. Is it not? With all the earthquakes and tsunami's that are cracking our earth - I am finding a numbness about myself. What hope do these people have? How do I give hope to those in need? I see the images and hear the stories of Haiti and now Chile and I can't relate because I don't understand. Why all this suffering? What am I or you to do with all this information of other people suffering?

I know living in these days I am not blind to the suffering - I will or can not wish it away. There is true despair out there. What hope can we offer? I love the words of Chuck Smith when he said:

"Reality would bring me to despair if I didn't know the hope of Jesus Christ. Because I have a hope in Jesus Christ, I can face the reality of life, but still rejoice in the hope because I know that when He comes we are going to live in a world of peace."

Today I read Romans 5. When I read it I could tell how excited Paul was in this chapter. His tone changes and he can't wait to say what he says:

"We boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame (or 'disappoint us' in the NIV), because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." (5:2b-5).

I feel if I just gave this verse to those who were suffering it would only be a spiritual band-aid to them. It would only cover up the cut temporarily and then what? How do we help others have the hope we do? First of all, do we believe in the hope that we have in Christ Jesus? And that is where I am stuck at. I desperately need to believe that if I were faced with true suffering, I would stick to my hope in Jesus and not waiver. Do you believe this too? I told the kids at my youth group today that the Bible is a book of HOPE. It is a book we can trust through-and-through to give us light in dark places. But it is also a book that tells us that we who believe and follow Jesus will also endure hard times, we will suffer. Maybe not like other people in the world (i.e. visit persecution.com to find out) but we will suffer. Jesus tells us this in his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. We are to be blessed when we suffer for the sake of His Name. Sometimes in this world - it seems we are made to suffer. Doesn't it? I think of Joey Belville's lyrics:

"Isn't this world something beautiful

that we were made to suffer both its majesty and cruelty?

And is grace not something beautiful that we were made to suffer?

the lucid touch of clemency

And our tears become a sanctuary

we are made to suffer

with tenderness and empathy"

I love how Joey answers his own question: with tenderness and empathy. That is quite biblical too. Paul tells the church at Corinth that God comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in trouble with the comfort we receive from God (2 Cor. 1:4).

All I know is - that how I cope with all this suffering is a direct correlation with where my anchor is grounded. If I am anchored in my financial successes or my career or my relationships it is not going to help me through my sufferings or even that of others. What helps us cope is the Grace given and the simple fact that Jesus died and has risen and has rescued us already. In Him we have hope. We are not abandoned even though we are suffering (2 Cor 4:9). My hope cannot be built on any else than on Jesus' blood and his righteousness. Thus I think of this glorious song Solid Rock:

My hope is built on nothing less

than Jesus' blood and righteousness

I dare not trust the sweetest frame

but wholly lean on Jesus' name

When darkness veils his lovely face

I rest on his unchanging grace

In every high and stormy gale

my anchor holds within the veil

On Christ the solid rock I stand

All other ground is sinking sand

All other ground is sinking sand

His oath, this covenant, his blood

supports me in the whelming flood

When all around my soul gives way

He then is all my hope and stay

When he shall come with trumpet sound

Oh may I then in him be found

Dressed in his righteousness alone

Faultless to stand before the throne.

Are these not the perfect words for today? Read them over and over again. Download the song and listen to it today. Meditate on the fact that it is only on Christ the solid rock we can stand - to get us through these days...

Our Commonsense

What got me to this idea I'm about to write about was inspired by this quote from Oswald Chambers from his book "Studies In The Sermon On The Mount":

"The conflict for the Christian is not a conflict of sin, but a conflict over the natural life being turned into the spiritual life. The natural life is not sinful, the disposition that rules the natural life is sinful; when God alters that disposition , we have to turn the natural life into the spiritual by a steady process of obedience to God, and it takes spiritual concentration on God to do it."

I have been time and time again trying to understand the difference between my natural life and my spiritual life and how I can live in the spiritual all the time. According to the dictionary, "disposition" is 'a person's inherent qualities of mind and character.' It's my mind and my character that need to be devoted to the obedience of Jesus. But at so many times, I am stopped by my sense of self, by my commonsense.

Reading the Sermon on the Mount and studying it is a tough task for sure. Diving into what Jesus is really talking about and how it relates to my relationship with him, always stirs in me a frustration with myself but also a complete LOVE for His teachings. (And I hope when you read the Scriptures, you also fall more in love with it.) I begin to understand the Why, which motivates me to the figure out the How.

And today it's my battle with my commonsense. It's thinking "Am I acting out of my own thinking, or am I thinking out of what Jesus wants?" It's not just "What Would Jesus Do?" It must be what would Jesus Say, what would he Think, how would he Act and how would he Love? He had a reversal of thinking to the world. And he asks us to think like him. It's the world versus Jesus. The world - our commonsense - says we should look after ourselves, think about how we're going to live and what we will save and that that matters.

But look at Matthew chapter 6 verse 25:
"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?"

Do you see what he's doing? He making a stark difference from the commonsense to how we need to think. Look at those who you work with or go to school with, see what "carries" them day by day. The daily grind is all about self-preservation, especially today. Think about it. And I have to ask, are we really like that? Are we anxious about our clothes, our rent or mortgage, our money? Jesus says a few verses before that we cannot serve both God and money or mammon. But what is mammon? The Greek word mammon is a Semitic word for money or possessions.

But Chambers says it quite well: "It is the system of civilized life that organizes itself without considering God." We as believers consider God. Right? We are to organize our thoughts, actions and character WITH considering God. Although our commonsense tells us not to. And that is the battle (for me at least).

I'm struck with the image of Jesus standing on the edge of the Sea of Galilee looking up the hill to all his listeners and saying to them "If you want to follow me, you must disobey your commonsense. The way you think you ought think is not the way you should think at all. Come, let me show you how to think and live your life according to my Father in Heaven."

He teaches a doctrine of division, a doctrine of detachment. I am getting that. I am floored by it. I am now looking at the rest of today as a way to align my disposition to be altered and changed by God. To his character. I will look today to be in total concentration of God - not in my commonsense but continue my steady process of obedience. I will ask "Is this the kind of thing that Jesus Christ is after or the kind of thing Satan is after?"

Our Purpose Today

I've been reading some of Paul's letters in the Bible as of late and I have found the first chapter of Ephesians to probably be the most intense chapter he's ever written. I could not get over this chapter; I've read it over and over and over again. I'm trying to figure it out, trying to figure out what Paul is saying. I've come to one conclusion: it's about PURPOSE.

There are many definitions of "purpose." Most people try to find their "purpose" in life. Ask your co-workers what their purpose is in life...you'll be surprised I'm sure. But we, are not most people. We are not the same. We have a true purpose.

Here's the dictionary definition: "the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists."

I believe - using that definition - that Paul answers that in the first chapter of Ephesians. We could dig and dig into everything he is saying, but that's not my intent. I want to discover or rediscover our daily purpose. And that is our goal is it not, to be daily renewed, daily engaged "in Christ"? It is for me - I suck at it - but I strive for it...

There are a few things I want to pull out of this chapter and share. First is to see what God's purpose is, or will or plan is... Verse 5 & 6 "he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved." Paul used the words purpose and will together, but what are they: "to be the praise of his glorious grace." And this is what has caught my attention the most while reading this chapter...

Look down in verse 12 & 14: "so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory... the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory." Do we realize that we are to be that? We are to be the PRAISE OF HIS GLORY. I'm quite humbled thinking about that. I severely convicted at that thought of that. But with that conviction comes one thing: HOPE. We have to hold onto hope, which is Christ Jesus.

Today, in my devotional Oswald Chambers wrote about chapter 1 verse 18, that "you may know what is the hope to which he has called you..." I love how he starts this devotional:

"Remember what you are saved for - that the Son of God might be manifested in your mortal flesh. Bend the whole energy of your powers to realize your election as a child of God; rise to the occasion every time."

Later he writes and ends with this: "We have to exercise ourselves in order that the Son of God may be manifested in our mortal flesh. God never has museums. (I love that!) The only aim of the life is that the Son of God may be manifested... we are here to submit to His will so that He may work through us what he wants. When we realize this, He will make us broken bread and poured-out wine to feed and nourish others."

What is our purpose today? Time today to refresh our memories. Let us be one thing: to be the PRAISE OF HIS GLORY. But how, you ask. By knowing your hope. By remembering your purpose, by allowing God to manifest himself in your life. Spending all your energy, all your capable power in bring Christ to life in your "mortal flesh." And as I'm writing these words, I am thinking of my own day, it's not easy; never is. Our hope, our Purpose, our Life is all because of Jesus Christ...

It's time to manifest him today.