©2006 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

02-12-06

Evangelism

2/12/06 Evangelism

I want to spend a few minutes this morning talking about evangelism.

I suppose this is sort of an attempt

to tidy up some left-over thoughts

that came into my mind when I was putting togther that three-week series on Transcendent Truth.

But it’s more than just that.

It is, most of all,

my attempt to share with you

a mental pilgrimage I’ve been on for most of my Christian life

as I have wrestled with my own relationship with evangelism.

Those of you who have listened to me teach for any length of time

know the basics of life on this planet.

Though our lives so often seem so incredibly complex,

with so many issues to deal with,

when we step back a pace

and look objectively at the core issues of life,

there’s really only one thing there.

I love the way our Lord said it to Martha in Luke 10:40-42.

But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him, and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me." But the Lord answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only a few things are necessary, really only one, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her. "

When all of the issues of life are lined up,

there’s always just one issue at the top of the list -

our relationship with our Creator.

And I’m certainly not saying that

because I’m a preacher

and preachers are suppose to tell people

that this God thing is a big deal.

I’m saying it because logically it’s the only thing that makes sense.

We are created beings.

And we have been created by God for Himself - for friendship with Him.

It is why we exist,

and until we find peace with that truth

nothing else in our lives will make sense.

The problem, of course,

is that we all enter this world

with spirits that are separated from God,

at war with Him,

convinced that He is the great enemy to our happiness.

We see Him demanding from us what we cannot give

and then condemning us when we fall short.

And the great calling of our lives,

the purpose for which we are here,

is our discovery of the truth -

that not only is our Creator not the enemy,

but He is what our spirits hunger for more than all else,

and the only source of true fulfillment in life.

But that understanding comes

only when we come to Him on His terms

and place our lives into His hands.

Now, I mention all of this once again this morning

because this thing that we in the Christian community call “evangelism”

is suppose to be that process through which

we help those around us recognize their separation from God

and their need to reach out to Him.

And before I go any farther with this whole thing,

let me be sure that I have clearly stated those things I know to be absolutely true.

First, I know that, with the exception Adam and Eve

and Jesus Christ Himself,

every person who has ever entered this world

has entered it with a spirit that is separated from God.

Second, I know that God actively, eagerly seeks each of us,

calling us to Himself,

offering, well, as Paul puts it,

COL 1:13 to ...deliver us from the domain of darkness, and transfer us to the kingdom of His beloved Son...

The one huge barrier that walls us off from our God

is our sin - our own moral corruption.

And what Christ was doing when He died on that cross

was literally dying in our place, paying our debt for our sin.

And third, I know that no one enters the family of God except by choice.

We can’t study our way into the family of God.

We can’t inherit it from our parents,

or from our culture.

We can’t just sort of drift into the family of God over time.

We must reach the point at the sprit level

where our spirit submits to His Spirit

and we reach out to Him as our God.

Those are the basics of life.

We really are separated from God,

we really do need Him literally more than life itself,

and we really must choose entrance into His family through submission to Him on His terms.

And the fourth thing I would state as an absolute truth in this whole thing

is that, in God’s design,

the chief means through which He calls people to Himself

is by having those who have already found Him

share with others what they’ve found.

The word “evangelist” is found a total of three times in the New Testament.

Do you know what the literal meaning of that word is?

“The bearer of good news. The bearer of good tidings.”

And when we do the work of an evangelist,

that’s all we’re doing.

We are pointing others

to the best news they’ll ever hear.

Unfortunately,

so much of what is done in the name of evangelism within the Christian community

doesn’t come across that way at all.

To those who are being told that they should “evangelize”

it comes across as an awkward, heavy burden

that they are completely unequipped to fulfill.

And to those who are being “evangelized”

it so often comes across as simply one more religious group

peddling one more religious system.

Paul makes a statement to the Corinthians

that has stayed with me from the first time noticed it.

And I do love it.

He says,

2CO 2:17 For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.

And, though I honestly don’t know why it has taken me as long as it has,

I have spent most of my Christian life

trying to work through where I personally fit into this whole thing.

And the answers I’ve been coming up with recently

are among the most thrilling answers I’ve ever found.

Now, I know that when I announced a few minutes ago

that I was going to teach this morning on the topic of “evangelism”,

that announcement probably brought a wide variety of responses

in those of you who are listening to me right now.

There were probably some of you

who thought to yourself, “Well, it’s about time! I mean, really, this is what we’re hear for - to reproduce ourselves, and there’s been far less said about it in this church than should have been said.”

There were probably also others among you

who felt your stomach tighten into a knot

as soon as I mentioned the topic,

and you thought to yourself,

“Here it comes again - I’m going to be told that I really should be telling people about Jesus Christ,

and I’m going to get mentally beat up

because I’m not “witnessing” the way I should.

I wonder if there’s some way I can slip out of here right now without anyone noticing.”

And there were probably others

who heard me announce the topic

and thought to yourself, “Hmmmm, evangelism...I wonder what that is.”

One of the answers to that question

is deeply rooted in the religious culture in which we live.

And in that context

“evangelism” is the term used to describe that process through which

we seek to bring the non-Christians around us

into submission to and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

As it is frequently used by many Christian groups,

it involves our “witnessing” to the people we come in contact with,

pointing out to them their need for Christ,

and seeking to bring them to a point of commitment to Him.

The emphasis on evangelism as I’ve defined it here

varies dramatically from group to group.

I’ve been a part of some churches where the term and the concept is simply never mentioned.

And I’ve been a part of other churches

where evangelism as I’ve defined it here

is the central theme of virtually every gathering,

every meeting.

I’ve shared with some of you in the past

the strong emphasis on this type of “evangelism”

that was a part of my own life during the first three years following my submission to Christ.

I was deeply involved in two evangelistic organizations,

one focused on evangelistic efforts on university campuses,

and the other was involved in evangelism through student teams sent out to other countries.

The first group offered intense one-week training programs in the techniques of effective evangelism,

and one spring break during my college years

I rode on a school bus for 23 hours straight,

traveling from Seattle to southern California,

so that I could go through the training.

I ended that week

by joining a small army of several hundred other student evangelists

all armed with stacks of religious surveys

that were designed to provide us with the opportunity at the end of the survey

to confront the person who took the survey

with their need for submission to Christ.

We invaded a section of the city in which thousands of other college students were hanging out for Spring Break,

and I started giving surveys by the dozens,

but I couldn’t get anyone to respond to my offer of Christ.

I gave so many surveys

that I ran out of sheets

and had to start erasing old ones

so that I could talk with someone else.

And then, just a few minutes before we were suppose to regroup at the buses,

I found myself talking with a fellow who was about my own age.

It was the late 60's

and I do remember his eyes looked a little funny

and he seemed really calm and laid back,

but when I asked him if he wanted to receive Christ as his Savior,

he said, “Sure!”

I led him through the prayer that had been written out for me by the organization,

got his address so that I could write to him,

and returned to the bus elated.

As soon as I got back to Seattle

I wrote a long letter to my first convert,

encouraging him and inviting him to write back.

A few days later my letter came back to me marked “no such address”.

It didn’t discourage me in my evangelistic efforts, though,

and just a little over a year later

I joined a student evangelistic team headed to the Carribean

for eight weeks of intensive door-to-door witnessing.

I wore dark slacks and a white shirt and tie under the Carribean sun

and carried a little black suitcase full of tracts.

I witnessed to several hundred people that summer,

prayed with a number of them,

handed out countless tracts,

and preached on street corners in the evenings,

all while going through the most intense emotional pain and depression I’d ever experienced.

No one on the team knew how deeply I was hurting,

and no one cared enough to notice.

We were fulfilling the great commission,

we were fulfilling our highest calling as Christians.

We were witnessing,

what else could possibly matter?

When the summer was over and the team leader totaled up the results of our efforts,

he told me that I had preached more times

and apparently won more converts than anyone else on the team.

With such remarkable success

I couldn’t figure out why I felt so empty inside

and so filled with pain.

It didn’t make sense to me.

The one witnessing contact from that summer that I remember most vividly

was with a middle-aged lady

who was home alone when I came to the door.

I knocked and then introduced myself,

offering her one of my tracts.

I think now, that she must have seen the pain in my eyes

as I stood there at the door,

because she invited me into the kitchen

and then took out a pan,

turned on her stove

and made me a big plate of scrambled eggs and toast.

As I sat there I kept thinking I really should be witnessing to her,

but it just felt so good to sit there,

and eat,

and have somebody care about me.

Years later the memory of that meal

gave me a whole new insight into those fascinating words of our Lord in Matthew chapter 25.

MAT 25:34-35, 37-38, 40 "Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; "Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, ...?’ "And the King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'

Toward the end of the summer,

one morning as we were all heading out with our tracks on our appointed rounds,

I finally couldn’t take it any longer,

and, when no one was watching,

I went down to the beach by myself,

and sat there all morning,

and told the Lord that I couldn’t do this any longer.

And I do hope you don’t misunderstand me here.

I am not suggesting that I believe what either of these organizations were doing was wrong.

All I’m saying is that, for me,

it became a burden that nearly crushed me,

and in the end it drove me into a rethinking process in this whole area

that has been going on for many years.

The concept of evangelism that I’ve just presented

is one that is most commonly used in our church culture today.

It involves a system,

a formula,

a technique for, hopefully, moving people into a commitment to Christ.

But when we look at Scripture itself,

what we see there

doesn’t look exactly like what we so often see in the church world around us.

It isn’t a system we learn.

It isn’t something we do for God.

It isn’t an obligation we fulfill.

It is, in fact,

something that God does through us

in a way that is perfectly matched to who we are.

It may surprise you to know that the word “evangelism” is never found in the Bible.

The word “evangelistic” is never found in the Bible.

What does appear there

is the word “evangelist”.

And, as I mentioned a few minutes ago,

the word means literally “one who brings good tidings”.

It’s used a total of three times,

each time referring to a person

who has been equipped by the Spirit of God

to present people with God’s offer of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Now, certainly there are people within the family of God

who have been both chosen and equipped by God

for special types of evangelistic roles.

The best known contemporary example, of course, is Billy Graham,

and there are many other men and women throughout the world

to whom God has given the authority

to publicly confront our world

with their need for submission to Christ.

I have known such people.

I have seen the special work God does through their lives,

and it thrills me.

But for those of us who have not been gifted by God

in that way, for that work,

to try to imitate what God does through them would be foolishness.

Like any other flesh-based imitation of God’s work within us,

it would soon become a heavy burden to us.

Rather than feeding our spirits,

it would weigh us down under a load we were never equipped to carry.

But there is another type of evangelistic work

that I believe God seeks to accomplish through our lives,

one that fits perfectly with the life of His Spirit within us.

And it is this work that I have been discovering recently in my own life,

this work that I was trying to share with you

as we went through that series on transcendent truth.

It begins not with the system,

not with the message,

not with the content we are trying to present.

It begins, instead, with the relationship.

And what I tell you now

will very likely go directly against

some of what you may have heard from the Christian community around you.

It certainly goes directly against much of what I was told

during much of my early Christian life.

Nowhere in the New Testament

are we ever commanded to go out and witness for Christ.

That verse in Matthew 28:19

that we are so fond of calling “The Great Commission”

does not say what we think it does.

Many of our translations have it reading as if the first word in the verse

was spoken as a direct command.

"GO!!! therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit...”.

But that’s not the way it’s written.

Exactly the same word is found in Luke 9:57 where it says,

And as they were going along the road, someone said to Him, "I will follow You wherever You go."

That’s an accurate handling of the word.

And what our Lord actually says in Matthew 28:19 is,

“As you are going, make disciples...”

“As you are going about your daily life,

as you are going about the business of living life with Me...”

And in Acts 1:8

when He said, “...but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth...”,

here again He was not giving us a command “...you SHOULD BE my witnesses...”,

He was giving us a sure and certain promise, “...you SHALL BE my witnesses...”.

He was giving us the assurance

that the life of His Spirit within us

will be seen by all who get near us,

and our lives will be the greatest validation this world will ever have

of the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and of the salvation He offers.

We are not commanded to try to witness,

but we are commanded to do something else.

In fact, it’s the only commandment our Lord ever gave us.

JOH 15:12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”

Do you know what I hear Him saying to us?

If you learn to love the people

I have entrusted into your care

you can’t help but point them to Me.

And it will flow out of you

in the way that is perfectly matched

both to you and your personality

and to them and their needs.

And because they know you love them

it will have an impact in their lives

as nothing else can do.”

And if you don’t love them,

if your words don’t flow out of your deep caring for them,

they will come across as just one more pile of religious babble.

Paul said it with painful clarity.

1CO 13:1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

I know that all of this should have been so clear

and so simple for me to understand 40 years ago.

But having begun my own relationship with evangelism

from the perspective of it being something that I had to do for God,

I got stuck there

and it took me a very long time to back off from it enough

so that I could risk looking at it more objectively.

Now I have come to realize what I should have realized from day one,

what I have preached to you for 20 years,

that true evangelism is not something that God ever wants me to do for Him,

it is something that He can and He will do through me

if I’ll just do what He asked me to do, love those around me

and allow that love to dictate what comes out of my life.

So here’s where I’ve ended up -

if God is able to love through us,

if He is able to put within us a love for those He’s entrusted into our care,

evangelism will not be a religious duty,

it will be the driving desire of our lives.

And if He is not able to place within us a love for those He has entrusted into our care

then all our best efforts to present Christ

will come across simply as nothing more than our peddling our little religious system,

with no power to touch their lives or reach their hearts.