Sermon Central
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What's This Evangelism All About? Series
Contributed by Jeff Strite on Nov 28, 2017 (message contributor)
Summary: Did you realize most English Bibles never uses the word "evangelism?" The Greek word "euanggelion" is actually translated "Gospel"... but what does that mean? And how can that impact how we witness for Christ?
Then it occurred to me that Penn’s argument against Christianity had one fatal flaw.
Did you notice in the video where he said “religion has done a lot of bad stuff”?
Do you know what he was saying?
Penn was saying that a lot of Christians had messed up.
Well, that’s a no-brainer.
All Christians mess up. In fact, some of us are better at messing up than others.
Have you ever messed up?
Do you think I’ve ever messed up?
The argument has legs because the church is always going to have someone in it that will embarrass us.
But notice that Penn didn’t say anything against Jesus. And that’s because Jesus is at the core of the Gospel. He is the power of our faith. Our witness is most forceful when we stay on point with Jesus crucified, buried and risen from the dead.
But now - there’s One Last Thing
Without this One Last Thing… the Gospel isn’t the Gospel.
If you leave out this One Last Thing when you tell others the Good News… it’s not good news.
What is this One Last Thing?
Paul wrote: “and LAST OF ALL he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”
I Corinthians 15:8-10
Now… here’s the deal:
If you come across to others as “holier than thou” and “ultra-righteous” and condemning you’ve missed the point of the Gospel. The Gospel is that Jesus died for you when you didn’t deserve it. Unless you realize that you didn’t earn your salvation - that you weren’t qualified to get into heaven - you will have failed to share the true Gospel.
You see, when you became a Christian… (I walked over to the baptistery)
You were buried with Christ
And you went down into the water A SINNER
And you came up out of that water A SAVED BELIEVER
In that single act you declared you believed in the GOOD NEWS.
In that single act you declared that Jesus died/ buried/ rose from the dead, because that’s what you just did (DIED/BURIED/ ROSE).
You believed the Good News.
And the good news was this – you did not deserve to be saved.
In that single act of allowing yourself to be baptized, you were declaring that it was ONLY by the GRACE OF GOD that you’ll ever have the promise of heaven.
You and I were not saved because we were better people that Penn Jillette.
You and I were not saved because we haven’t sinned like some sinner and prostitutes.
And we were not saved because we didn’t end up in prison/ or on death row
We were saved because the good news is this:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
You’ll only win people to Christ if you put yourself on their level and point out that you care for them and that you want them to have the same forgiveness and healing in their lives that you’ve experienced in your own.
INVITATION
