Dakota Community Church
February 10, 2013
Grace at Work - 13
Evangelist
Ephesians 4:11-13
11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Evangelist - Called and gifted to readily share the gospel (last week we covered the good news) with unbelievers in such a way that men and women often become Jesus’ disciples.
Vines Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words:
2099,euangelistes "a messenger of good" (eu, "well," angelos, "a messenger"), denotes a "preacher of the Gospel," - euangelizo, "to proclaim glad tidings," and euangelion, "good news, gospel." Missionaries are "evangelists," as being essentially preachers of the Gospel.
The gift of evangelist, is only mentioned two other times in the New Testament (Besides our text)
Acts 21:8
Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven.
2 Timothy 4:1-6
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure.
We do not get to see Timothy in action “doing the work” of an evangelist.
In Acts 8 we do see Phillip in action:
Acts 8:5-8
Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was much joy in that city.
Acts 8:26-40
Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. 27 And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:
“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth.
33 In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.”
34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. 36 And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” 38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
All believers are called to reach the lost but we know that not all are evangelists in the Ephesians 4 sense because the verse tells us that God gave “some” to be evangelists.
So how do I know if I am an evangelist? How does the rest of the church know? Should we be looking to add an evangelist to our church staff?
If so what questions do we ask in the interview?
I could tell you the following:
If you are obsessed with reaching the lost,
if you think everything else is a waste of time,
if you are constantly frustrated that the rest of the church doesn’t care about the lost,
if you never stop seeking out the Pastor of your church to bend his ear about outreach, and...
if you easily lead people to Christ on a regular basis - you are an evangelist!
- Pastor Dan’s Personal Experience
Or, how about this:
Evangelists do not have a message for the Born Again Church. Teachers have a message for the Born Again Church. Evangelists proclaim redemption to the lost people of the world. Teachers explain the benefits of redemption to the saved people within the Church.
- The Evangelist by Pastor John Hamel
Perhaps this is more helpful:
People with this gift show:
Love for others, Love for Jesus, Zeal, Compassion for the lost, Good speaking ability, Knowledge of the Scriptures, Friendliness, Persuasive personality, Passion
Characteristics:
1. In a compelling, persuasive way the evangelist urges the hearer to make a decision to follow Christ as a natural step of commitment. The evangelist is a persuader, born of the conviction that a person without God is headed for eternal punishment. He is passionate about rescuing the perishing and caring for the lost.
2. Although all Christians should be able and eager to tell others what Christ has done for them (Mark 5:19), not all are called to be in the office of an Evangelist. It is a distinct gift given by the ascended Christ to some of His servants.
3. The evangelist will tell the story—proclaim the good news. The word evangelist contains the smaller word evangel, which literally means good news. The evangelist is also able to give a reason and defense of the faith against false and untenable claims.
4. The evangelist works within the local church, the body of Christ. Along with other gifted ones, the work of the evangelist is to prepare people for God's work in the harvest—work that extends naturally into discipling those who are born into the Kingdom and nurturing of God's people.
Victory Life Church - Gift of Evangelist
There is a lot of teaching about evangelists available to those who are interested
- most of it is of an extra-biblical nature.
In other words, it may be helpful, it may even be true, but the bare bones truth is that the Bible does not clearly teach it.
Within the Christian faith there are issues that are debatable:
Romans 14:1
Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.
The fine line between being Spirit lead, and falling into the error of mysticism.
God speaks, Jesus speaks to His sheep and they know His voice.
Jesus has a voice in our day to day lives.
The primary way that we are to hear His voice is through the words of scripture - your Bible!
2 Peter 1:16-21
For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son,[i] with whom I am well pleased,” 18 we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. 19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
The Bible does not tell you which school to attend, which job to apply for, or which church to join, it does tell you to work and to join a church.
We do not determine God’s love for us, or his plan of salvation based on direction from the Holy Spirit, or deep feelings, or amazing worship times or anything in the world but the Word of God.
The Plain Truth On Church Government:
The categories of church government and leadership fall largely in the arena of “Christian Liberty”. We are given details of various requirements for elders and deacons, bishops and pastors, evangelists and prophets; however there is no clear Biblical layout of how these gifts and positions are to function in a local or extended church setting.
What is the correct leadership model?
Pastor leads, elders implement, deacons do hands on?
Elders lead, pastor not necessary, everyone does what is right in his own eyes?
How should the service look? - There is no scriptural order of service.
Other examples of disputable matters:
Letting children dress up and go trick-or-treating
Celebrate Christmas, have a tree, include santa etc.
Read Harry Potter, Go to movies, Participate in sport, Drink tea coffee or beer
Tattoos and body piercing - Hair length, make up, cigarette or cigar smoking etc.
The church gets into trouble when we take things that are not actually commands, maybe general principles, and find an applicational rule, and we make that rule equal with God's law.
Example: - God tells us not to be worldly.
1 John 2:15-17
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
So some people read this and determine that dancing is worldly, so they make dancing a sin. Dancing is forbidden - anyone who does dance is going to hell.
We make an extra-biblical rule:
People in our church can't drink alcohol. If you drink, you are sinning. Then somebody drinks and everybody judges him when the Bible does not explicitly say that we should not drink.
It says we should not get drunk, but not that we shouldn't drink.
The Bible does explicitly say that we should not judge our Christian brother exercising his liberty, and no one should be our judge with regards to food or drink.
Colossians 2:16-17
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
That is explicit in the Scriptures.
When we exalt man's rules to the level of God's law, we actually violate God's explicit law.
The one who is innocent is expelled, and the ones guilty of violation are promoted.
If you are going to adopt a rule that applies to all Christians, you must be able to identify an explicit Biblical prohibition.
PowerPoint available (Free of charge) on request dcormie@mts.net
Follow Dan on twitter: @DanCormie
