SOME HELPFUL THINGS TO
REMEMBER ABOUT EVANGELISM
MIKE CUNNINGHAM
FEBRUARY 14, 2010
Because of the passing
of time and my study of the Scriptures, I’m becoming more keenly aware of
the fact that my love of God and fellow human beings, together with my hatred
of Satan and his slime-ball cohorts is intensifying greatly. I’m also gaining
a deeper appreciation of His incomprehensible love for His human creatures
through the indescribable agony He suffered on the cross in the Person of
His Son, the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I’ve been hoping and praying each
of you folks are also. The more I learn of the horrors of hell, the more deeply
do I, and I hope each of you also have an appreciation for being able to escape
them through the gift of salvation available only through the Risen Savior.
These days I’m becoming
more and more inclined to share the Gospel whenever I can. That’s why I’ve
been preaching this series of messages on evangelism. I hope to encourage
and perhaps better equip each of you to do the same. Last week I explained
that: “Every Christian has the responsibility of
sharing the Gospel to the very best of their ability at every divinely ordained
easily recognizable opportunity with the lost people the Lord has brought
into their life. You will intuitively know which ones they are. And every
Christian will be held accountable as to whether or not they take that responsibility
seriously.”
I was nagged by part of that remark
throughout last Sunday and off and on during the week. Not because I regretted
saying it but rather that it might be used by Satan in an attempt to con some
of you into laying a false guilt trip on yourself by perhaps thinking you
have been completely negligent in the area of evangelism. In fact, I almost
sent an email to one person warning them to be on guard. But then I ran into
all sorts of computer problems about which Anne-Marie quipped: “I
think that your scary sermons scared your computer to death. It was only a
matter of time.”
I believe the thoughts
concerning evangelism expressed in her brother Mike’s entry in my guest book
are typical of those of many Christians. He said in part: “Dad, sharing the
gospel with others has always been my big weakness. I find it hard to talk
to people about the gospel when I know they really are not interested in what
I have to say. There have been many times when I could have and should have
said something but did not. What I have done is pray for family and friends
that I know are not saved in hopes that God will open their hearts to the
truth. It is quite obvious that most people do not want to hear what God has
to say. All I can do is pray for them and work out my own salvation with fear
and trembling.”
Are any of you folks able
to relate to what my son has shared? Have there been many times when you could
and should have said something, but didn’t? Of course there were. Every one
of us is guilty. That’s why I prayed after my sermon asking God’s forgiveness
for all those times we didn’t do what we could and should have done. Do any
of you folks think evangelizing the lost is a major weakness in your life?
Have you sometimes felt inadequate because you haven’t personally witnessed
anyone inviting Christ into their heart despite your best efforts? After all,
Jesus told His disciples the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few,
(Matt: 9:37; Luke 10:2). Do you sometimes feel as though you are an ineffective
laborer just spinning your wheels, sometimes for years, without any substantial
results? Are you sometimes tempted to “throw in the towel” and leave evangelism
to others who know more about it than you?
2
Corinthians 5:16-20 (ESV)
16 From now on, therefore, we
regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ
according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in
Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has
come.
18 All this is from God, who through
Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was
reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them,
and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors
for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf
of Christ, be reconciled to God.
The Holy Spirit inspired
the Apostle Paul to tell those early Christians that they and all Christians
such as you and me after them, have been chosen by God to engage in the
ministry of reconciliation with Him and serve as ambassadors for Christ.
He has entrusted the Gospel to Christians and He desires that each of them
serve as instruments in His hands through whom He makes appeals to other fallen
human creatures. But how do you feel about talking with all those folks who
really aren’t interested in what you have to say? If the Prophet Jeremiah
was here today, I think he might say something such as: “So what else is new?”
and “Welcome to the club.” For instance, consider these verses.
Jeremiah
6:10 (ESV)
10 To whom shall I speak and give
warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, they
cannot listen; behold, the word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn;
they take no pleasure in it.
Jeremiah
8:9 (ESV)
9 The wise men shall be put to
shame; they shall be dismayed and taken; behold, they have rejected the
word of the Lord, so what wisdom is in them?
Jeremiah
20:8-9 (ESV)
8 For whenever I speak, I cry
out, I shout, “Violence and destruction!” For the word of the Lord has become
for me a reproach and derision all day long.
9 If I say, “I will not mention
him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning
fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
Are you able to identify
with Jeremiah’s disappointment and frustration? He was a prophet and had to
continue crying out. But we aren’t and we don’t. For instance, let’s consider
a Christian woman married to an unbelieving husband who doesn’t want to hear
about Jesus and His Gospel. What should she do?
1
Peter 3:1-2 (NIV)
1 Wives, in the same way be
submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word,
they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, 2 when they see the purity and reverence of your
lives.
It also behooves Christians to
remember that God has set eternity in the hearts of every human being but
they can’t figure out how everything in the world comes about.
Ecclesiastes
3:11 (NIV)
11 He has made everything beautiful
in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot
fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
Ecclesiastes
1:4-11 (NIV)
4 Generations come and generations
go, but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.
7 All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they
return again.
8 All things are wearisome, more
than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill
of hearing.
9 What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which
one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already,
long ago; it was here before our time.
11 There is no remembrance of
men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those
who follow.
Everyone sees this consistent
repetition in our world but they can’t connect the dots as to how it all happens.
With the exception of Atheists, unbelievers each have a sense that somehow
their life will continue after death. That’s because our Creator has set eternity
in the hearts of all human beings and this is the hope of most of them. Can
you imagine the hopelessness of someone who believes that at the moment their
death he or she will cease to exist? I can and I have, and I feel awful for
them. The Prophet Zechariah explains the reason for their attitude.
Zechariah
7:12 (ESV)
12 They made their hearts diamond-hard
lest they should hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent
by his Spirit through the former prophets.
We must remember that most
people despise God’s Law. They don’t want to hear anything about it from faithful
Christians who are actively engaged in the Ministry of Reconciliation just
as much as they didn’t those prophets thousands of years ago. Consider how
those ancient people must have felt. Do you see any similarity between their
experience and yours?
2
Chronicles 30:10 (NIV)
10 The couriers went from town
to town in Ephraim and Manasseh, as far as Zebulun, but the people scorned
and ridiculed them.
2 Chronicles 36:16 (NIV)
16 But they mocked God's messengers,
despised his words
and
scoffed at his prophets
until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no
remedy.
Proverbs
1:7 (NIV)
7 The fear of the Lord is the
beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
Proverbs
5:11-12 (NIV)
11 At the end of your life you
will groan, when your flesh and body are spent.
12 You will say, "How
I hated discipline! How my heart spurned correction!
And, as I have been saying in
my last two messages concerning all those who die apart from Christ: “their
conscience will hound and torment them throughout eternity.” What should we do about those non-Christians who aren’t at
all interested in hearing the gospel?
Matthew
7:6 (ESV)
6 “Do not give dogs what is
holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them
underfoot and turn to attack you.
Mark
6:11 (ESV)
11 And if any place will not receive
you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust
that is on your feet as a testimony against them.”
I
can’t help wondering how Jesus would be judged today by our current societal
standards. How about Him being labeled as being an intolerant fanatic who
delights in spewing hate speech? Paul and Barnabas followed His instructions
and look at what happened to them.
Acts
13:50-51 (ESV)
50 But the Jews incited the devout
women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution
against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district.
51 But they shook off the dust
from their feet against them and went to Iconium.
I’m not suggesting you look for
some dust to shake off of your feet when you leave the presence of a non-Christian
who isn’t interested in what you have to say. Don’t waste your time trying
to persuade them to listen to you. Instead do as my son does and that is to
pray for family and friends
that he knows are not saved in hopes that God will open their hearts to the
truth. If that doesn’t happen your effort will not have been in vain. Your
loving concern for their immortal souls will be used as a testimony against
them on Judgment Day.
Now allow me to share some quotes from what I believe is one
of the greatest Christian books in print that I’m aware of. Although I’m still
not finished reading it, I have already decided to reread and study it and
I encourage each of you to do the same. I’m indebted for much of the ideas
in this message to this excellent book. It’s called, Conformed to His Image,
by Kenneth Boa.
“Most people associate evangelism
with an event (conversion), but from a scriptural perspective, it is more
of a process. In fact, the Bible uses agricultural imagery to portray the
dynamic process of evangelism (e.g., John 4:35-39; 1 Corinthians 3:6-9). Crops
do not happen-reaping a harvest is the outcome of a lengthy series of events
that cannot be bypassed or overlooked.
The first phase in this series
is the preparation of the soil. Unless the ground is cleared and plowed, it
will not be ready to receive the seed. After the soil is harrowed and furrowed,
the second phase, sowing the seed, takes place. Cultivation, the third
phase, is the lengthiest part of the agricultural process; it involves irrigation,
fertilization, and weed control. Only when the crop is mature is it ready
to undergo the brief fourth phase of reaping.”
“When we substitute “soul” for
“soil,” the spiritual analogy of these four phases to the process of evangelism
becomes obvious. Before people are ready to receive the seed of the Word,
their souls must be prepared, and there are many ways in which this can happen.
Often God used adversities and setbacks to pull people away from their illusions
of autonomy so they can begin to see their true condition of spiritual need.
The sowing of the seed is exposure to the truths of the Word of God, and the
process of cultivation is the gradual realization that these truths speak
to their deep needs. The Lord uses His servants in each of these phases as
they pray for people without Christ, develop relationships with them in areas
of common ground, and share their own journeys when appropriate.”
“Jesus prepared the soil when
He asked the Samaritan woman for a drink of well water (John 4:7-10). In speaking
to her, Jesus overcame three barriers: first, the racial barrier (Jews had
no dealings with Samaritans), second, the gender barrier (Jewish rabbis would
not address women), and third, the social barrier (this woman had a poor reputation
among her own people). Jesus knew everything she had done, and yet he gently
and lovingly offered her the living water of eternal life.”
“The parable of the soils in
Matthew 13:3-9 and Mark 4:1-20 illustrates the phase of seed sowing and underscores
the need for receptivity to the Word of life. The seed does not take permanent
root when the soil is unprepared. The cultivation phase is illustrated in
the fact that Jesus was called “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Matthew
11:19 and in Paul’s desire to find areas of common ground in order to win
Jews and Gentiles to Christ (1 Corinthians 9: 19-23).”
“The final phase of reaping the
harvest is depicted in the metaphor Jesus used of the Samaritans as a field
that is white for harvest (John 4:35-42). This image is immediately followed
by the account of the Samaritans’ coming to faith in Jesus (John 4: 39-41).
The key concept to be gleaned from this process principal is the liberating
truth that if we are engaged in any one of these four phases, we are doing
evangelism.”
“In any area of life and ministry,
we should understand that we contribute
nothing to the purposes of God. He has no lack or deficiency, and for us to
make a contribution would mean that we bring something to the table that he
does not already possess. God does not invite us to participate in his purposes by being a part of what his Spirit is
accomplishing in the lives of people. This means that in evangelism, as in
other areas of life, we are called to be faithful to the process and to leave
the results to God.” “We are incapable of changing others, although we often
make the mistake of trying. When we adopt the goal of changing people, we
are committing ourselves to manipulating and coercing them. But when we realize
that the whole process of evangelism begins and ends with God, we can take
comfort in the fact that he is in control and that we are given the privilege
of participation.”
I know you folks continue to
sow seeds as you have the opportunity. However, unless I’m greatly mistaken,
most of you are primarily engaged in the often long arduous seemingly never
ending work of cultivation. Continue pleading with God to give you the
strength of Christ within you to enable you to endure and not get discouraged.
Ask God to constantly remind you that as long as there is life there is reason
for you to have hope, and that you should never give up! And ask Him to help
you to remember that you have brothers and sisters in Christ who are also
pleading with God on your behalf. And don’t let Satan or anyone else con you
into believing you’re a failure and not actively engaged in evangelism.
It’s been my prayerful hope that
each of you has found in this message ‘Some Helpful Things to Remember
About Evangelism.’
Lord willing, next week….