Introduction
Our first lesson was a reminder of our mission. We have been given the green light to evangelize by the Lord, and this mission was given to each and every Christian, not just a select few. Each one of us are called by God to “love our neighbor as ourselves” and to have an active faith in God and His gospel message.
For today’s lesson, I would like to for a few moments look at the New Testament to see how the disciples of Jesus Christ fulfilled the mission that they were given. Our goal is to compare what we see in the New Testament to what we see in the churches today. We will close with the important question: Is this an area in which we are doing what they did? Has “restoring” the New Testament church gotten into this area? Or do we look like denominations and have allowed the doctrines of men to creep in?
Defining Evangelism
Let’s begin by defining exactly what we mean when we use the word “evangelism.” The Greek word used in the New Testament is “Euaggelizesthai”, and it means to share good news or to bring good news. This word is used over fifty times in the New Testament, forty of those times coming after Pentecost in reference to what Jesus’ disciples did in fulfilling the Great Commission. Some of the different ways in which the word is translated in the New Testament:
• “bring/brought good news”: 15 How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, "HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!" (Romans 10:14-15)
• “Preached the good news”: “But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike.” (Acts 8:12)
• Preaching (Acts 8:4; 1 Cor 15:1-2) “Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word” (Acts 8:4)… “Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:1-2)
In all of the uses of the word which we look at in referring to evangelism, we see that evangelism is simply the act of obeying the great commission: Going and preaching/teaching the gospel to someone. This is what God is telling us evangelism is.
A BIBLICAL PATTERN
God tells us and shows us what evangelism is in the New Testament. Just as He gives us examples of what He authorizes when it comes to the worship of His people, He also gives us examples of evangelism in the New Testament. He gives us a Biblical pattern to follow.
Let’s look at some examples:
• The Apostles: We see many examples in the New Testament of the Apostles fulfilling the Great Commission. In Acts 2, when the Gospel is first preached, we see that when a huge crowd collected, the Apostles took the opportunity God gave them to teach the word of God. Of course, they didn’t have to collect the crowd themselves… the Lord did that for them. Nonetheless, they put themselves on the line, even in the face of persecution, to teach the Gospel to thousands of people. They didn’t just teach those who they were close to. They taught everyone they could. One of my favorite examples is in Acts 17, where Paul preaches the Gospel in Athens. His spirit was provoked because of the idolatry and sin in Athens (17:16), and it moved him to action. He went to the synagogue to reason with the Jewish and Gentile worshippers about Jesus (17:17). We are not told that he preached. It may have been that he just walked up to people at the synagogue to engage them in conversation. We are also told in verse 17 that Paul went into the marketplace daily to reason with those who happened to be there. Some of those who he encountered in the marketplace were Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, who brought him to the Areopagus to a larger collection of people (17:19). Through his discussions he was having with people in the marketplace, he got the opportunity to preach the gospel to many.
• Deacons? In Acts 6, we see some men chosen to be servants of the church in Jerusalem. I believe they were deacons. Not everyone agrees with this… Nonetheless, even though they were given the duty to care for the needy widows in Acts 6, this did not mean that they were not obligated to teach the gospel to the lost when they had opportunity. In Acts 6:8-10, we are told that Stephen, who was full of faith, was teaching the people with such wisdom and with such a spirit that none were able to stand up against him. He put his life on the line, and would end up losing it because he boldly spoke the gospel and spoke the truth to the council he was brought before.
• Evangelists. In Acts 8, we see an example of an evangelist, Philip, teaching the gospel. He first went to Samaria to preach the gospel to the multitudes (8:5-13). As he was performing miracles, large groups were collecting who he could preach to. Also, he was instructed by God to teach the Ethiopian eunuch. He used what the eunuch was reading (Isaiah 53) to teach the eunuch about Jesus, and it led to the eunuch obeying the gospel.
• Christians. Obviously, all of the people we have considered already are Christians. But to show that it was more than those who were in “special positions” that taught the gospel, this is a point that needs to be made separately. In the book of Acts, it does seem that every Christian obeyed the great commission, even those who were not evangelists, deacons, or Apostles. We see this in the beginning of Acts 8.
In all of the examples of evangelism in the New Testament, we see two main things:
• Disciples go amongst the people. They go out into the world… They did not bring the world into the church. They went out and found groups of people and individuals to talk to.
• They give the gospel to a lost person. They don’t tell them their story… They tell them about Jesus… whether they wanted to hear it or not… They trusted the power of the gospel even to change the hearts of those who were not open to it…
What did our Apostles and early brethren do?
• They individually cared about people
• They individually went out “into the world”
• They individually gave the gospel to lost people
They didn’t get other people to do the work they were commanded to do, no matter how uncomfortable it was!
TODAY’S “EVANGELISM”
With all of this said, I would like to ask this question: Is the “evangelism” we see amongst God’s people today the same as what we see in the N.T.?
From what I have observed, here is normally what “evangelism” looks like amongst God’s people today…
Christians are encouraged to be a good example to people and to build relationships with them over a long period of time until they are able to be comfortable enough to invite the person to church. Then the person needs to come to church for a short amount of time so they can be amongst loving Christians and experience Biblical worship until the preacher is able to build a relationship with the lost person and/or set up a Bible study with them. The preacher then teaches the lost person.
This exact process is not what is done in every congregation, but it is common. Does this look like what we see in the New Testament? I believe the answer is no, what we commonly see today is not what we see in the New Testament. There is very little urgency in this scenario. There is more focus on the comfort of the one who wants a friend to hear the gospel. And it ends up that there are very few who actually give the gospel to the lost…
Concerning this scenario, I would like to ask this question: where along this timeline did evangelism begin? I will argue that what the Bible shows us is that evangelism does not take place until someone approaches a lost person to give them the gospel (which is what we see in all the examples we have looked at). With this said, it is not until the preacher teaches the lost person where evangelism is actually done…
It seems like what has happened today is that we have allowed what denominations do to creep into the Lord’s church. It gets to the point where all service/worship and all evangelism is done within the assemblies of God’s people, and very little is done like we see it in scripture, where Christians went out to share the gospel.
What has happened in churches today is this: If we are able to tag the word “evangelism” on a word, that makes whatever thing we are doing “evangelism.” Here are some examples of how this is done:
• Being a good example is called “Lifestyle Evangelism”
• Serving lost people is called “Servant Evangelism”
• Building relationships with lost people is called “Relationship/Friendship Evangelism”
• Inviting lost people to church or to special meetings, we will call “Church Evangelism”
Most here would agree that just as adding the word fellowship to something does not mean that an action is Biblical fellowship. In the same way, adding the word “evangelism” to a word does not make something Biblical evangelism. Let me be clear. I believe all of these things are good things to do. They may be good ways to open up doors for evangelism to be done; for the lost person to be given the gospel, but they in and of themselves cannot replace the act of giving the gospel to someone.
BE A GOOD EXAMPLE, BUT SHARE THE GOSPEL!
It is good to shine your light to the lost. It is important to be a light to the world. It is something we are commanded by the Lord to do, so every faithful Christian will do it. But this does not replace the need for you to confess the name of Christ and to teach the good news. Your example is not the gospel. It alone will not convert someone. Based on just example alone, how different are you from a moral Jehovah’s witness or Mormon? The “gospel” that your actions are sharing with lost people is not much different. I want to encourage you to be a good example, but I also want to encourage you to share the gospel.
DO ACTS OF SERVICE, BUT SHARE THE GOSPEL!
It is good to do individually do acts of service for lost people (this goes along with the last point). This will be a normal outflow of the life of the Christian. But how some define “servant evangelism” is disconcerting. “Actively looking for ways to do small acts of kindness for people so you can “win their hearts” and open them up to share the gospel with them” (servantevangelism.com). This definition makes it sound like the gospel all by itself is not powerful enough to “win the hearts” of the lost. We need to do small acts of kindness for people because we care about people and want to show mercy to them. But we also need to trust in the gospel to do its work. It is sufficient to win a person to Christ. Be a faithful Christian. Do good works of service for the lost, but don’t let this replace giving the gospel to someone.
HAVE NON-CHRISTIAN FRIENDS, BUT SHARE THE GOSPEL!
It is good to become friends with lost people (to a point… We must remember warnings about evil companionship corrupting good morals). But there is not an example of friendship/ relationship evangelism being done by Christians the way it is done in many of today’s churches. I found this definition of friendship evangelism, which is the way it is most commonly practiced today: Friendship evangelism is a process of gradually developing meaningful relationships with people in which they can see the gospel lived out in your life in good morals and acts of service, which hopefully will lead to spiritual discussion, and maybe even an opportunity to share the gospel.
Again, there is no problem starting with those who are closest to you in sharing the gospel, but building relationships over long period of time until you are comfortable enough to open up your mouth is not what we see in scripture. If you are going to become someone’s friend, don’t wait to share the gospel until you are comfortable. In my opinion, the longer you wait to share the gospel the harder it becomes to actually share the gospel. You have more to lose the longer you wait! Have a little bit of urgency and do not assume that you will have years to build a relationship with them before you can share the gospel with them. Be a friend, give them the gospel.
INVITE PEOPLE TO CHURCH, BUT SHARE THE GOSPEL!
What about inviting people to church? I am not a fan of doing it because I believe the assemblies are designed by God to equip the saints for ministry and to stir them up to love and good works. I am not going to say it is wrong to do because we do see at least one verse in the New Testament that talks about lost people within the assemblies (ex. 1 Cor. 14:23-25). We are not told how they got there. It is possible that they were invited. I don’t know. Nonetheless, the danger of making “inviting people to church” one of the only things done amongst God’s people does make it so that all of the evangelism is done within the walls of this building by the preacher either when he preaches the sermon or is able to sit down and teach the lost person. The invitation itself is not evangelism. The one who teaches the gospel is the one doing evangelism. Also, the pattern that we see in scripture is that the majority of evangelism, if not almost all evangelism, is done outside of the walls of the place of worship. Worship was the place for the saints to come to honor God for what He has done through Christ.
This is a mindset that has risen over God’s people: Many Christians invite people to church and teach them about the one true church so they will leave their church and come to ours, and hopefully over time be baptized into the one true church. It can very easily get to the point where the church is the focus of our teaching and not Christ. We are told in scripture that we need to “invite” and convert people to Christ, not to the local church. The gospel is to be preached, people obey the gospel and are added to the universal church. Then they add themselves to a faithful local church. Is this not what we see in scripture? With this said, if lost people do come into our assemblies, we need to welcome them and make sure they are given the entire Gospel in some way before they leave. We also should make sure they understand what is going on. Go talk to them. Show your love for their soul and show some urgency, or try to set up a time as soon as the lost person is free in which you can get together with them to study God’s word.
All of these are good things to do to a point, but they in and of themselves are not evangelism just because we label them as such. Anything we do before the gospel is actually taught is not evangelism, but pre-evangelism. They are done before the good news is given. Once again, they may be good ways to open doors for evangelism to be done (good pre-evangelism techniques), but they in and of themselves cannot replace giving the act of giving the gospel to someone.
CONCLUSION
Have we redefined “evangelism” to ease our consciences? I believe many Christians have redefined evangelism… This seems to be one area for many Christians where the New Testament pattern goes out the window for the sake of our comfort.
You may disagree with the things that I am saying here. You would not be the first, and you definitely will not be the last. But I would challenge you to re-examine what the Bible teaches about evangelism. I believe this is one area in which God’s people have accepted the traditions of men which I believe contradict the word of God. If we want to be like the church that we see in the New Testament, we need to do what they did when it came to evangelism. They were able to turn the world upside down because they believed in the power of the gospel and did not make excuses for not sharing the gospel like we do at times. The gospel is just as powerful today as it was in the first century! It can convert people today the same way it did back then.
I will close with this question: Do we really want to be like the first century Christians? Do we desire restoration even in the area of evangelism? What is your answer to this question?
