Sermon Tone Analysis

*“TOTAL EVANGELISM”*

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*I Corinthians 9:22-23*

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*            /“I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

And this I do for the Gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.”  /*

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*            *For many years, a debate continued in the evangelical Christian community about which kind of evangelism is the more important, /“presence” /evangelism or /“proclamation” /evangelism.

The difference is this:  those who advocated /presence/ evangelism said that a Christian presence—the physical presence of a missionary, or of some other genuine Christian, or of a visible Christian church—was the necessity for Christian evangelism.

This view held that no proclamation of the Gospel was necessary, that witnessing was to be /visual /instead of /verbal.

/ The “proclamation” evangelism opponents held that /proclamation /was the only necessary thing in witnessing.

Short-term mission teams which practice quick-hitting evangelism and quickly return to their homeland or home community practice this kind of evangelism, returning with a statistical report of a certain number of people who “made decisions,” “got saved,” or “prayed to receive Christ.”

This view is that proclamation can produce effective evangelism without the continuing presence of a missionary or a church.

The conflict between the two views is a moot argument.

It is equivalent to asking which leg of your body is the more important (remember, it is /your /body; I think you will agree that both legs are crucial).

In the evangelism of the book of Acts, there was hard-hitting, quick-triggering evangelism practiced all over the Roman world, but it was never an evangelism that left the converts without a vital means of growth, of fellowship, of developing leadership—in short, the new Christians were left with careful indoctrination on a continuing basis that would hopefully lead to personal spiritual growth and numerical growth for the new fellowship of believers.

Another unnecessary argument developed over which is the more important in the presentation of the Gospel, /conviction /or /compassion.

/Again, which half of a pair of scissors is the more important?

Which wing of an airplane is the more important (especially if /you /are riding on the plane)?

Again, this is a moot argument.

The answer should be a “given” to any thoughtful Christian.

More important is the question of the nature of true evangelism, the need for it, and how it is to be practiced.

The cosmopolitan passage of Paul in I Corinthians nine addresses these questions fairly and forthrightly.

I prefer to label the Christian concept “total evangelism.”

Let’s examine just a part of Paul’s discussion of total evangelism.

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*I.

THE MOTIVES FOR TOTAL EVANGELISM*

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*            *First, we will consider the /motives/ for total evangelism.

The question of motive is vital.

It is evident today that it is even possible to engage in Christian evangelism from motives that are not Christian.

Verse 23 says, “And this (literally, “all things,” and this is the word for “all things in their smallest parts”) I do for the Gospel’s sake, that I might be partakers thereof with you.”

This verse suggests three key motives for practicing evangelism.

Motive number one:  “/For the Gospel’s sake/” (you might say that we are to share the Gospel /for the Savior’s sake)./

Because of what the Gospel is, because of the Good News that Jesus is a Savior, Christians have no option but to make it (Him) known.

The very nature of the Gospel constitutes the Christian’s missionary charter.

What do we know about the Gospel?

First, we know that the Gospel is /universal in its scope.

/It is for all men, without distinction of race, or class, or color, or culture.

The word “whosoever” is found 110 times in the New Testament, and it is never used with a restricted meaning.

The Gospel is for every human being.

“God so loved the world,” says John 3:16.

“He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world” (I John 2:2).

“He died for all” (II Corinthians  5:15).

“The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (II Peter 3:9).

“God now commands all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:31).

These familiar verses remind us of how vast and universal is God’s love in Christ.

No human being is excluded from the embrace of our Lord’s outstretched arms on the Cross, and no man should be excluded from the witness of the Christian Church.

Then, the Gospel is /unique in its salvation./

The Gospel tells of the one and only salvation God has prepared for men.

There is no other religion of redemption in the world.

There are other religions of considerable influence, such as Animism, Confucianism, Shintoism, Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, but these religions have no word of pardon for sinners, no salvation to offer to guilty souls.

English preacher Joseph Parker once said, “Comparative religions there may be, but Christianity is not one of them.”

Jesus Himself declared the exclusiveness of Christianity and the Gospel when He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes unto the Father but by Me.”  Peter and John repeated the same exclusive, intolerant claim before the Jewish Sanhedrin:  “Neither is there salvation is any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

Paul is equally insistent in writing to Timothy: “There is one God and one Mediator between God and man, Himself the Man Christ Jesus.”

Christ died and rose again for all men, and without Him all men are lost and will perish.

Unless men receive the Lord Jesus Christ, they remain eternally lost.

None other Lamb, none other Name,

                          None other hope in heaven and earth or sea;

                          None other hiding place from guilt and shame,

/                          /None beside Thee.”

Finally, the Gospel is /uncompromising in its stewardship./

The Bible insists that

every Christian is a trustee of God’s grace.

Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, “As we were

allowed by God to be put in trust with the Gospel, even so we speak” (I Corinthians 2:4)./

/The spiritual wealth God has given to us in the Gospel is not our private property, not for our exclusive personal benefit, but a trust lodged with us for the benefit of others.

We are “stewards of the mysteries of God,” according to Paul (I Corinthians 4:1), and “it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.”

The Greek word for “stewardship” means the total management of a household, and describes a position of high trust in an ancient household.

Biblically, Joseph is identified as a steward, a steward in Potiphar’s household, and it was once said of his master Potipher that he “knew not what was in the house.”

He had committed the responsibility for managing all of his wealth to Joseph his chief steward.

A steward is an administrator of an estate.

Joseph was the chief trustee of Potipher’s estate, governing it for his master’s benefit.

The Biblical demand for the stewardship of the Gospel is uncompromising.

When a person /gains/ Christ through faith, he is immediately responsible to /give /Christ to others who are without Him.

When he is /saved /by Christ, he is to /share Christ.

/If he /owns /Christ as His own Savior, he /owes /Christ to the whole world./

/His responsibility is two-fold:  he is responsible to Christ and the Gospel, and he is responsible for a famished world.

Evangelist D. L. Moody said, “A Christian is a person to whom God has entrusted all men.”

Paul stated his stewardship when he wrote, “Necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the Gospel.”

He regarded himself as one under a solemn obligation.

Let me remind you once more of Paul’s words in I Corinthians 4:1, where he spoke of “stewards of the mysteries of God.”

Nearly in the same line, he added, “And it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.”

The owner of an estate did not carefully supervise his steward; it was an office of trust.

In a very strong sense, Jesus Christ has committed to each of His followers the keys of the Kingdom of God.

Not to the Pope, or to some specially ordained order of leaders, are the keys committed, but to every believer.

He handed you those keys the moment you were saved, and you will either open the door or close it to each person who affords to you an opportunity to share the Gospel.

You will either be a bridge to Christ or a barricade from Christ to other people.

The New Testament indicates that to be a Christian at all is to be a debtor to all men.

Paul confesses this obligation in Romans 1:14-15, where he wrote, “I am debtor both to the Greeks and the Barbarians; both to the wise and to the unwise.

So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the Gospel….”

To paraphrase a humorous bumper sticker, the Christian motto should be, “I owe, I owe, so off to share the Gospel I go.”

Motive number two:  /For the sake of sinners who need to be saved.

/And the purpose of total evangelism with regard to sinners is /to make saints out of them.

/“This I do for the Gospel’s sake,” Paul said, and then he added, “that I might be partaker thereof /with you.”

/Paul’s purposes, plans, vision, compassion, evangelism, etc., always centered on whatever “you” he was with at the time.

He regarded every personal contact as a part of his stewardship of the Gospel, as a part of his obligation to share Christ.

If the individual was lost, Paul regarded himself as Heaven’s Ambassador to present to him the terms of reconciliation with God.

If the individual was saved, Paul regarded himself as the disciple-maker who would help the saint come to maturity, thus enabling him to be better equipped to practice total evangelism.

Christian, are you taking these words personally?

Are you taking them seriously?

Do you seek to use /every personal contact/ as a possibility for advancing the cause of Christ?

I was at breakfast recently with a new Christian, a man who was not saved until his late middle-aged years.

As we visited, he declared that “though I worked among professing Christians regularly during my years on the job, not once in those thirty years did a single Christian ever approach me about Jesus.”