Every Day Evangelism: Living The Gospel Series

Devoted Together #6

Every Day Evangelism: Living the Gospel

Theme: In the final sermon of our *Devoted Together* series, we dive into the idea of *Every Day Evangelism*. The early church grew not through grand strategies, but because everyday believers faithfully shared the gospel in their ordinary lives. Like the early Christians, we are called to be bold, visible witnesses of Christ’s love. Whether in our workplaces, neighborhoods, or casual conversations, God empowers us to share His message—and trust Him for the results. Let's live out the gospel every day, making the most of every opportunity!

** Introduction **

Video Ill.: Awkward Invites: Bee Farm — The Skit Guys

https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/the-spread-of-the-early-church-11629561.html

It was unthinkable that a small, despised movement from a corner of Palestine could move out to become the dominant faith of the mighty Roman Empire, an empire steeped in fiercely defended traditional pagan religions. The spread of the Christian church in its earliest centuries is one of the most amazing phenomena in all of human history. The church was considered an illegal and depraved religion. Wave after wave of persecution was unleashed to squash it. At least two of the persecutions were empire-wide and intended to destroy the church.

Yet here we are today.

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/early-church-growth/

Robert Louis Wilken, emeritus professor of history at the University of Virginia has estimated the number of Christians in the first few centuries of the church. He writes:

At the end of the first century there were fewer than ten thousand Christians in the Roman Empire. The population at the time numbered some sixty million, which meant that Christians made up one hundredth of one percent or 0.017 percent according to the figures of a contemporary sociologist.

By the year 200, the number may have increased to a little more than two hundred thousand, still a tiny minority, under one percent (0.36).

By the year 250, however, the number had risen to more than a million, almost two percent of the population.

The most striking figure, however, comes two generations later. By the year 300, Christians made up 10 percent of the population, approximately 6 million.

So how did this young fledgling movement make it?

The growth of the church was a natural result of the believers’ devotion to God, to teaching, to fellowship, and to service: the proclamation of the gospel.

In Acts 2, we read:

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling || their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And || the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2, NIV1984)

Sharing the gospel isn't just a duty—it's a natural outflow of a transformed life.

So let’s take a few minutes and see how the gospel was making a difference in the early church.

** 1. They felt the power that is in the Gospel. **

Verse 47 read:

47 … And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2, NIV1984)

The early church didn’t grow by marketing or strategies—it grew because the gospel itself has power.

Paul wrote in Romans 1:

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. (Romans 1, NKJV)

The Cross: Christ Descends into Our Sin

Source: James R. Edwards, Is Jesus the Only Savior (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2005), pp. 160-161 

https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2010/september/3092010.html

Copied from Preaching Today

Theologian James R. Edwards retells the following true story:

In August 1957 four climbers—two Italians and two Germans—were climbing the 6,000 foot near-vertical North Face in the Swiss Alps. The two German climbers disappeared and were never heard from again. The two Italian climbers, exhausted and dying, were stuck on two narrow ledges a thousand feet below the summit. The Swiss Alpine Club forbade rescue attempts in this area (it was just too dangerous), but a small group of Swiss climbers decided to launch a private rescue effort to save the Italians. So they carefully lowered a climber named Alfred Hellepart down the 6,000 foot North Face. They suspended Hellepart on a cable a fraction of an inch thick as they lowered him into the abyss.

Here's how Hellepart described the rescue in his own words: