We are Evangelists

Sadly, the term has gained a bad reputation over the years due to the corrupt, money-grubbing “prosperity gospel” charlatans who shamelessly prey on the weak and gullible. They see them on TV and assume they’re doing God’s will. I’m convinced those “preachers” have more in common with demons than with Christ. Yet we can’t let them deter us from doing what Jesus commanded – evangelize to the inhabitants of this fallen world.

 

The dictionary defines evangelism as “the spreading of the Christian gospel by public preaching or personal witness.” It’s not complicated. But too many believers go overboard and make it about the results evangelizing achieves – something we have no control over.

 

A 1918 Archbishop’s Committee declared: “To evangelize is to present Christ Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit, that men will come to put their trust in God through Him, to accept Him as their Savior, and serve Him as their King in the fellowship of His Church.” There’s lots of good, solid truth in that statement.

 

It encourages Christians to keep our basic message simple and specific by presenting Jesus to folks as the sole Savior and gatekeeper of heaven, conveying the profound importance of acknowledging the ghastly price He paid for our sins on the cross and to inform people, “For there’s one God and one intermediary between God and humanity, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself as a ransom for all…” (1 Timothy 2:5).

 

Evangelists urge lost sinners to repent and accept Christ as the only hope they have both in this world and in the eternal one to come. J.I. Packer wrote, “Evangelism is the issuing a call to turn, as well as to trust; it’s the delivering, not merely of a divine invitation to receive a Savior, but of a divine command to repent of sin.” Concerning the aspects listed, the declaration is spot on.

 

However, there’s a problem with their using the word “will.” It implies evangelism can’t fail to “save souls.” The Bible’s clear: “For by grace you’re saved through faith, and this isn’t from yourselves, it’s the gift of God; it’s not from works, so no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Most Christians know someone we shared the good news with but it fell on deaf ears. Does this mean we let God down? No! We’re seed sowers. Nothing more.

 

“…Neither the one who plants counts for anything, nor the one who waters, but God who causes the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:7). This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive to be the best evangelists possible. However, we must never gauge our efforts by the number of converts we notch on our belts, but solely by the Biblical purity of the gospel message we’re relaying. We have to make sure we’re scattering good seeds and leave the rest to God.

 

The Apostle Paul’s a superb mentor and arguably the most effective evangelist ever. He wrote, “One should think about us this way – as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Now what’s sought in stewards is that one be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:1-2). He recognized he’d been entrusted with something incredibly precious and he was determined to never betray that trust. He felt responsible. So should we.

 

Paul worked diligently as Jesus’ herald (“one who makes public announcements on another’s behalf”). Still, he knew his place and his limitations. “For since in the wisdom of God the world by its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased to save those who believe by the foolishness of preaching” (1 Corinthians 1:21). Paul admitted he was no great orator who could sway folks with slick rhetoric. He knew his job was to simply deliver God’s salvation message sans unnecessary embellishments. So should we.

 

Paul saw himself as Christ’s ambassador (“an authorized representative of a sovereign”). He wasn’t preaching some theology he’d invented. Rather, he was committed to conveying what his master Jesus had told him to declare. He wrote, “My conversation and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not be based on human wisdom but on the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5). We should follow his lead and seek to be exemplary ambassadors of God’s kingdom.

 

Therefore, we can surmise Paul was content to be Christ’s slave; pleased to be His mouthpiece; happy to be nothing more than one of Jesus’ designated envoys to this fallen world. What should encourage us most, though, is not just Paul’s sustained boldness and unshakable sense of authority in face of ridicule and apathy, but his unrelenting refusal to modify the gospel message to accommodate the sticky situations he found himself in.

 

Paul lived life with one purpose in mind – to spread the gospel. But Paul’s in heaven. So are the Apostles. We’re here now and it’s up to us to carry on the evangelistic tradition they initiated. Every member of the Body of Christ has been drafted into the army of God; to ‘…live in a crooked and perverse society, in which you shine as lights in the world by holding on to the word of life… …Poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith” (Philippians 2:15-17).

 

Evangelizing “comes with the territory.” We don’t have to hold a degree from a seminary or be ordained ministers or extraordinary preachers like Billy Graham to fulfill our God-given duty to inform earth’s lost sheep that our shepherd’s sweet voice is calling them to join His flock. We’re not to worry about what folks might think or gossip about us. What they hear us say just might lead them to a redeeming knowledge of Christ.

 

Evangelizing isn’t a burden. On the contrary, it’s a blessing for us to be used by the Holy Spirit as His conduit to broadcast the evangel (“good news”). Packer concluded, “Such is the authority, and such the responsibility of the Church and the Christian….”