Not "go say it in your closet". 95% of professing Christians never share their faith, and of the 5% that do, 80% of them are new believers.
As I tell this story from 1 Kings 18, I want you to wonder why I’m using it to begin a sermon on evangelism…. Imagine the scene, over 400 decked out Baal prophets, 100’s or 1000’s of frenzied worshippers dancing, yelling, cutting themselves up with swords and spears, and lots of sexual immorality out in the open on Mt Carmel. All around a little man-made statue. Lots of action, lots of pleasure and emotional frenzy.
The frenzy increases as the worshippers try to bring fire down from heaven to cook a bull for a sacrifice. Many of these worshippers are God’s own people, the Israelites. Elijah yells over to them, “yell louder you bunch of nutcases, maybe your God is sleeping or stepped out to the outhouse”. And this went on all day, no fire came.
Finally Elijah says, “hey you all come over here”. He had built a little altar with 12 stones in the name of the Lord. He built a trench around it filled it with water and doused water all over the wood and the bull a few times, it was completely saturated. Then Elijah just stepped forward and simply asked God to let Himself be known. Immediately fire came from heaven, burnt up everything and even dried up all the water in the trench. And all the people fell on the ground and proclaimed “the Lord is God!”
I think the story of Elijah is relevant when we look at modern worship. What we are dealing with bears little difference to what he dealt with in his day. The constant problem throughout the history of the people of God is that they always wanted to worship their way. They wanted worship to be about their pleasure, not God’s.
The Baal worship didn’t focus on a deity, but the focus was on the emotional ecstasy of manipulated emotions, with a lifeless statue symbolizing the reason for all of it. It’s quite a show aimed at an emotional experience for the worshippers. Then there’s the solitary Elijah there present in the midst of the person of God not for his own pleasure, but to witness God glorifying Himself.
Elijah simply asks God to glorify himself, and he does, and the simple act of bringing down fire because of a simple request, trumped all the religious frenzy created by the Baal worshippers, who had lots of emotional experience but absolutely no experience of God. And when Elijah got the fire just by being in God’s presence and asking Him to do what he does, it stopped the frenzied Baal folks in their tracks with their jaws dropped. Elijah simply asked God to show himself.
“Ah, pastor, I’ not gettin’ it, we’re talking about worship. I thought we were going to be talking about that word that we don’t like to talk about… evangelism” Let me respond this way, what do think would be the best way to get people to give their lives to Christ? Would it not be to actually witness Him doing something? And could that something be what He has done in your life?
And I want to say with all the love I have for you and for myself, that today the biggest miracle God could do would be to get us out there telling the world about Jesus. I’m sure that would please Him more than what we do on Sunday mornings.
I tell that story about Elijah because people in this world are deceived like the Canaanites, and I truly believe we have gotten so tied up in our idols that we call Christianity (going to church, bible study, concerts, prayer groups) none of which are bad, that we have forgotten the fact that our worship is to be a living sacrifice, in obedience to Jesus, and our calling is what we read in Matthew 28 verses 18-20 which we all call the “not so bad for others who have the gift of evangelism commission”.
No, we call it the great commission, but apparently not too many of us think it’s that great. Jesus physically rises from the dead, comes to his disciples and says, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” It’s about Him not us, and our duty is to give the deceived world the truth that many don’t want to hear, and even more don’t want to share. Jesus says “GO” and most of us say “no”.
Two other Gospels, Mark and Luke give a slightly different version of the same commission, and then finally in Acts 1:8, this one speaks directly to us, “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere – in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”.
We are to be witnesses, we are to show God (what he has done and can do) to a lost world. Do you see here that this is why we receive the Holy Spirit’s power? Yes the Spirit is a comforter and teacher and all that, but the power is for this.
Now we may be tempted to say that this only applies to the 11 remaining disciples. Because you can make an argument that they were the only ones present when Jesus said these things. But clearly these very apostles taught that it was for all of us, because we see that they all stayed in Jerusalem and others were sent out and scattered to share the good news. Evangelism is a true act of worship because it requires love, sacrifice, and most importantly maybe, it is an act of praise and gratitude toward God and his grace. Can we say that about church on Sunday morning?
Let me give you this question, if someone gave you a brand new Mercedes, would you tell anyone about it? How about if you got a great new job, or some store was giving away valuable items? We don’t hesitate to tell people about other great things that happen in our lives, but we have a difficult time telling anybody outside of church about the greatest thing that has ever happened in our lives. I’m curious about that.
Is it because we don’t really think it is the greatest thing? Is it because all those other great things don’t have any belief systems attached to them that may offend? What is it? Is it because you don’t know how to talk about it? Is it really any different than talking about the other good things that have happened? You don’t really have a story because you were a Christian very early in life and didn’t really have a major transformational experience? That doesn’t change what God has done.
Is it because we are afraid that they won’t believe it and we will be discouraged or embarrassed? Is it because you don’t care? Maybe it’s all that and more. Research shows that the two main reasons are fear of embarrassment, and we don’t care, let them figure it out for themselves. Is that how it worked for you?
It used to be that evangelism happened mostly in the church and through church sponsored events. That is no longer the case because we no longer live in a church based society where just about everybody goes. And as such we don’t really have automatic permission or authority to speak about personal spiritual things to another person.
You might recall this from a Seinfeld episode where Jerry is speaking to a telemarketer, (Vid)
But that really only applies to interrupting strangers and using some kind of coercion to get people to do something. It’s an intrusion. Real evangelism is a work of the Holy Spirit that causes us to share good news with a person we are already in communication with.
Let’s say you go to get gas every few days at the COOP, you speak to the same someone who works there every time you go. Now you wouldn’t call that a close relationship, but it is certainly a relationship. You share pleasantries and maybe even talk about some things that are happening in your life or theirs. What do you think would happen if you just in the normal flow of things, asked something like, “Have you ever heard of Jesus?” or “What do you think of Jesus?” What kind of responses do you think you’d get?
The truth is, most people don’t really know what they firmly believe spiritually, because they have never really examined spirituality, they only have bits and pieces if anything. I learned this through all my various journeys down different spiritual paths. The majority of people don’t really give it much thought. Part of our job is to get them thinking about it.
Our job in evangelism is simply to give information. Not to get decisions, we need to be prepared if someone wants to do that, but we really only need to give information, the good news. When we ask a question like, “Have you ever heard of Jesus?” That will give us a very clear starting point. We can see by their reaction whether or not to continue the conversation. But we can also hear how much or little they may have heard about him. They may express a strong belief for or against Him, they might have some very inaccurate information, or they may be quite indifferent.
The point is we are given the commission to start a conversation with them about it and we need to do that in a way that allows us to get an idea of what they believe. You already have permission to talk to them, you’ve been doing that for a while.
They may not give you permission to proceed along those lines at that time, but they may open up the opportunity for further conversation about it down the road. Especially if you are like the 14th person that has come in and started this conversation, because believers are being obedient to the commission. They’re like, “what’s going on, God must be after me.” And though we need to be gentle and patient, we also need to have a sense of urgency about starting the conversation. How can they believe who have not heard, Paul says.
Now I know many Christians are not very excited about Gospel tracts anymore, and frankly I’m not too excited about many of the ones I’ve seen. But I am a believer in giving someone written material about Jesus, the Gospel, and even our testimony. There are some good tracts, and we can make our own, but a lot of the problem has to do with how the tract or flyer is delivered. Most often these are simply left in some public place or shoved into some stranger’s hand.
Someone picks it up and usually takes a glance and in to the garbage it goes. But if you have even the most shallow ongoing relationship with someone, you can ask them if they would be willing to read more about what you believe is the greatest news you ever heard that has changed your life. That’s the key. They will say yes or no, or they will kind of hmm & haw and you can just leave it with them and say something like, “Well, let me leave it with you, you can look at it or not”.
If you have a good tract that clearly and respectfully gives the real message of the Gospel, it will probably be more effective than you stumbling through a verbal presentation of the gospel yourself, if you have some kind of relationship with that person.
Not that we shouldn’t try sometimes and be able to give a verbal gospel presentation, but the reason tracts have lost favour is more because of the method of delivery rather than the content. They can make evangelism easier and more effective sometimes. And in both of these approaches we are getting the permission of someone we already know, to share this information with.
If they don’t give permission don’t push, and don’t stop being nice to the person. They now know you “are one of them” and if you maintain a positive, authentic, friendly, serving relationship with them, witnessing a Christian life, not abandoning them when they say no, they may actually down the road start the conversation again with you. Remember this is an invitation to them, not a demand.
People are very interested in spirituality and having a better life, so though they may balk at talk of a specific religion or belief, they may be open if you present them with the plain fact that something happened in your life at such and such a time that really changed your life for the better. If you’re lucky they may ask what it was, if they don’t just drop it. Sometimes much later they may come back when they are going through something difficult and ask you about it then. Leaving a person with questions is also a way to see if the Holy Spirit is leading them to seek answers at that time.
I hope it’s not too obvious to say we need to pray. This is God’s work, we throw out some seed, but God does the rest. I bet some of you farmers pray before and after you lay your seed, that the seed will bear fruit, that there will be good weather conditions and no hail at harvest time, and so on. Once you put the seed in the ground, it is largely out of your hands isn’t it? You don’t make it grow. Pray before, pray silently during, and pray after, and don’t stop until you see God work. It seems some Christians don’t really believe in the effectiveness of prayer.
Let’s finish with a little chat about the heart. I have a book called “concentric circles of concern”, and in it the author talks about how our evangelistic field goes from close to us to far away – the Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, all the world idea. I think it’s helpful to look at where your heart is centered in terms of evangelism.
The most logical and convenient field is your family, especially your children. If we do a good job of evangelising our children, we multiply very productively. Notice I said evangelize and not disciple. In other words don’t assume that just because you teach them the facts that they have accepted the message and are Christians, then work on discipling a child who isn’t even a believer yet. You have to evangelise theme first. This should be on all our hearts if we have children and families.
But maybe there’s also another population on your heart. You will be most effective in your evangelism if you are seeking to reach people that you have a special care for. Maybe its children in general, handicapped people, specific race or culture. Maybe you have a heart for your town, your country, or somewhere overseas. Maybe its homeless people, professionals, whatever. It might even be unbelievers in your church. Focus your evangelistic efforts in an area of society, or specific people or groups that you have a burden for. God likely gave you that burden.
I want you all to feel good about the fact that you are making an effort to reach people far from Christ in obedience to the great commission, because I know at least some of you feel some guilt or disappointment about your efforts in this area. And honestly, inviting people to church is one of the most effective forms of evangelism. 80% of adults who attend a church will eventually become Christians. Church might be very different from what they imagine or experienced in the past, and hopefully as it was for us, it will be a good different. Even if they don’t come back right away, you can know that they had the experience and hopefully left with some questions to seek answers to.
Action Plan: prayerfully determine where you want to focus your outreach and evangelism efforts, and come up with a plan to put that into action. And let me just say very bluntly, if you don’t make an ongoing effort in this area, you are being directly disobedient to Jesus. Figure out a way, I have lots of books and resources on this, you won’t regret it. No one regrets taking steps of obedience to their Lord if you’re doing it his way. Remember this series is still the Jesus Way.
And I am giving you a great and easy opportunity by these Easter invites. The response last week was frankly quite pitiful. Praying through phone book, where you don’t even have to be seen, or joining the elders in walking through town praying and distributing the door hangers. You don’t have to talk to anybody, you don’t have to knock on the door. I can only conclude if you don’t participate that you don’t think it will be worth it, or you just don’t care. But if you don’t sign up, please at least give a personal invitation with those little cards. One of those three options must be doable for anyone.
Here’s a reason I often hear from believers in all the churches in this community about sharing their faith. They say, I know most of these people and have to live with them and do business with them and so on. Now I understand what you’re saying, but can you see how that can actually be a great advantage.
What? Do we think this Good News is really so horrible that people will hate us forever if we share it with them? First check on how you’re going about it. Secondly make sure you are living a Christian life so they can’t hammer you with the hypocrite card when they see you all the time. And thirdly ask yourself who you are going to have to face at judgement day. Them or Him.
Imagine standing before Jesus and he asks why didn’t you share your faith more. You say, “because I lived in a small town and had to be around these people all the time, you understand”. “Oh, I see, so you were ashamed of me”. Well, no Jesus, but I had to keep a good reputation in the community. Oh, so you were ashamed of being a Christian?
Well, no, but people don’t like you telling them what to believe. How is sharing the story about me and how it has influenced your life telling them what to believe? Oh, come on Jesus, give me a break, do you no how difficult it is? “No, I only came from heaven, devoted my life to it and was tortured and killed for it, I have no idea”.
People we need to get over it. Two things Jesus said, “If you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you before the Father”. Trust me, that won’t be good. And secondly, you will suffer for my sake as a Christian, if you don’t your probably not a Christian, certainly not a practicing one, and really is there another kind?
Have you ever really tried, doing it the right way, the Jesus way, not man’s way? You may be surprised at people’s reactions, and how wonderful it feels to be showing God to people like Elijah did. And even if some people don’t like it, reject you, maybe you lose a customer, or have some people talk bad about you. If you are really a follower of Jesus, you will rejoice in that as long as you haven’t offended people by your own non-Christian behaviour or offensive methods. We are to rejoice in suffering for Jesus’ sake, that is the Jesus Way.
Don’t give up. Imagine standing in heaven one day with someone you introduced Jesus to. Imagine how they will feel about you up there. I think that would make up for all the rejections and discomfort we experienced here sharing the message.
