Evangelizing the Evangelized
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· 16 viewsWe are encouraged to share the gospel with lost people, but what about with those who already claim to be Christians?
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1 Again he began to teach by the sea, and a very large crowd gathered around him. So he got into a boat on the sea and sat down, while the whole crowd was by the sea on the shore. 2 He taught them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 “Listen! Consider the sower who went out to sow. 4 As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil, and it grew up quickly, since the soil wasn’t deep. 6 When the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it didn’t produce fruit. 8 Still other seed fell on good ground and it grew up, producing fruit that increased thirty, sixty, and a hundred times.” 9 Then he said, “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.”
10 When he was alone, those around him with the Twelve, asked him about the parables. 11 He answered them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to those outside, everything comes in parables 12 so that
they may indeed look,
and yet not perceive;
they may indeed listen,
and yet not understand;
otherwise, they might turn back
and be forgiven.”
13 Then he said to them: “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand all of the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 Some are like the word sown on the path. When they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word sown in them. 16 And others are like seed sown on rocky ground. When they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy. 17 But they have no root; they are short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, they immediately fall away. 18 Others are like seed sown among thorns; these are the ones who hear the word, 19 but the worries of this age, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20 And those like seed sown on good ground hear the word, welcome it, and produce fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundred times what was sown.”
When we are evangelizing, we can learn from parables like this one that as we share, most people will not truly receive the Good News of the gospel.
I know what I’m preaching today is shocking because as I lead people in evangelism training and talk to church members throughout the country, many people are confused when confronted with what a believer looks like and that we have a mandate to share the gospel. I know this because I hear the following:
I just don’t know any non-believers.
Just because I don’t go to church, read my Bible regularly, share the gospel, or have a concern for fellow believers doesn’t mean I’m not a Christian. (No, but it’s a pretty good indicator!)
I know I’m saved because I prayed a prayer to receive Christ during revival. (All the while not being able to explain in their own words how they became a believer OR being able to lead another person to Christ explaining faith and repentance, confession of sin, and believing and receiving the gospel.)
Listen about how Jesus begins this parable:
4 As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.
The first group of people are those who immediately reject the gospel.
Friends, please allow me to be myself as I preach today. I may come across as very blunt; not because I want to be the preacher who shocks, but because our time is short and we need to hear this in order that we search our hearts to see where our affections lie. Instead of blunt, my hope is that you’ll see a passion for evangelism. I passion for lost souls-both within and without the local expression of the church.
Passionate statements:
If you are faithfully preaching/sharing/telling others about the gospel message, you’ll see 99% of those with whom you share reject the gospel.
Most Christians confuse the one time they shared and were rejected with an automatic pass from evangelizing.
6 However, suppose the watchman sees the sword coming but doesn’t blow the trumpet, so that the people aren’t warned, and the sword comes and takes away their lives. Then they have been taken away because of their iniquity, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood.’
I hope you’ll not
The first group of people are those who hear the gospel and immediately reject it (4:4). This should be the most common experience we have. We are regularly sharing the gospel and people are simply rejecting it through an outright rejection or in their indifference.
Next in the parable, we see the verses where we’ll camp out today:
We’ll see that we need to evangelize the evangelized because the problem of “false converts” is running rampant in our churches today.
This parable describes false converts in two ways; and this is where your notes will come in handy.
False Converts Can’t Endure Due to:
False Converts Can’t Endure Due to:
Outside Pressure (5-6, 16-17)
Outside Pressure (5-6, 16-17)
5 Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil, and it grew up quickly, since the soil wasn’t deep. 6 When the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.
16 And others are like seed sown on rocky ground. When they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy. 17 But they have no root; they are short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, they immediately fall away.
The Soil wasn’t deep, they had no root!
The Soil wasn’t deep, they had no root!
An implication of this is that you and I can’t see this immediately!
We see a fertile ground that has excitedly received the gospel and are ready to storm the gates of hell with a water pistol! (or at the very least, someone who received the gospel and may think about baptism!)
Because of this, they fall away due to outside distress or persecution.
Because of this, they fall away due to outside distress or persecution.
So what does this look like?
The word for “distress” here means “direct suffering.”
Biblical examples of direct suffering are found in:
19 Now those who had been scattered as a result of the persecution that started because of Stephen made their way as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews.
and
21 For at that time there will be great distress, the kind that hasn’t taken place from the beginning of the world until now and never will again.
Direct suffering comes as a result of the preaching of the gospel, not your Bible Facebook posts.
It comes when people want to verbally and physically assault you in such a way that causes you to lose your job, or be run out of town, not when someone uses ugly language toward you and moves on.
The kind of verbal abuse most Christians experience are a “no thanks” to a gospel tract or being the object of a Christian joke.
Most of us have not experienced direct suffering.
The other word here is persecution.
The meaning of this word implies that the outside opposition to your faith is such that you are getting hunted down and forced to renounce your faith, or that they are actively looking to destroy you.
Check out these two examples from scripture where this word was used and notice that the type of persecution is not what we would experience in Kentucky...
1 Saul agreed with putting him to death. On that day a severe persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria.
50 But the Jews incited the prominent God-fearing women and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from their district.
Friends, false converts WILL NOT withstand this type of pressure. In fact, if the American church faced this type of Christian persecution tomorrow, you’d most likely see the vast majority of those who called themselves believers fall away from the faith.
False Converts also can’t endure due to:
Inside Pressure (7, 18-19)
Inside Pressure (7, 18-19)
7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it didn’t produce fruit.
18 Others are like seed sown among thorns; these are the ones who hear the word, 19 but the worries of this age, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
Mark 4:
Notice Jesus isn’t talking about struggles inside the church-like the lady who doesn’t want you in her seat,
or the deacon who told you’d better keep those kids under control because there’s no running in the house of God,
or the “they’ve changed everything!” person has run off another new person.
The inside pressure Jesus is referring to is ourselves
“Worries of this age, riches, desires for things”-or other important stuff looks different to each of us.
Inside pressures include us exhibiting a lack of faith through worry.
Focusing on our own sense of financial security with little to no concern that God will meet our needs.
Or desiring and serving material things over a desire for the eternal things of the Lord.
In these verses we see that there is nothing wrong with the seed or sower, but in the ground.
Real Converts Endure and:
Real Converts Endure and:
Hear and Accept (8, 20)
Hear and Accept (8, 20)
8 Still other seed fell on good ground and it grew up, producing fruit that increased thirty, sixty, and a hundred times.”
20 And those like seed sown on good ground hear the word, welcome it, and produce fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundred times what was sown.”
Listen to how Jesus describes a real convert:
Seed sown
Good ground
Hear the word
Welcome it, and here is the major difference between this description and the previous three.
Produce fruit (30, 60, 100 times!)
Bear Fruit (8, 20)
Bear Fruit (8, 20)
8 Still other seed fell on good ground and it grew up, producing fruit that increased thirty, sixty, and a hundred times.”
20 And those like seed sown on good ground hear the word, welcome it, and produce fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundred times what was sown.”
5. Produce fruit!
True converts produce fruit through multiplying disciples!
“I can’t multiply myself 100 fold!”
If you reached just one person for Christ this year and spent the rest of the year pouring into them, there would be two of you.
The following year, you do the same. Take 6 months to reach one person while the other person does the same, there will be 4 of you.
By year 6 there are 64
Year 10 there are 1024
Year 20 there are 1,048,576
Year 30 there are over one billion!
All in focusing upon just 1 new believer a year and training this believer to do the same.
Friends, this type of ministry works!
John the Baptist told the religious people of his day in , that they needed to bear fruit worthy of repentance.
They were claiming that they were fine. They had Abraham. They had the scriptures. They had tradition.
Friends, the fruit that Jesus is describing here is not the fruit of the Spirit as found in Galatians, but of soul’s saved!
Listen to the passion that Paul has to evangelize and see people saved!
13 Don’t you know that those who perform the temple services eat the food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the offerings of the altar? 14 In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should earn their living by the gospel.
15 For my part I have used none of these rights, nor have I written these things that they may be applied in my case. For it would be better for me to die than for anyone to deprive me of my boast! 16 For if I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast, because I am compelled to preach—and woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17 For if I do this willingly, I have a reward, but if unwillingly, I am entrusted with a commission. 18 What then is my reward? To preach the gospel and offer it free of charge and not make full use of my rights in the gospel.
19 Although I am free from all and not anyone’s slave, I have made myself a slave to everyone, in order to win more people. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win Jews; to those under the law, like one under the law—though I myself am not under the law—to win those under the law. 21 To those who are without the law, like one without the law—though I am not without God’s law but under the law of Christ—to win those without the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, in order to win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that I may by every possible means save some. 23 Now I do all this because of the gospel, so that I may share in the blessings.
24 Don’t you know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way to win the prize. 25 Now everyone who competes exercises self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable crown. 26 So I do not run like one who runs aimlessly or box like one beating the air. 27 Instead, I discipline my body and bring it under strict control, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
1 Cor. 9:13-
Those who are born again, listen to this warning from John in Matthew’s gospel:
10 The ax is already at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I. I am not worthy to remove his sandals. He himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn. But the chaff he will burn with fire that never goes out.”
Matt. 3:10
Friend, I call out to you today to search your soul and see if indeed you heard the Word of God and it was planted within shallow soil.
If indeed you are relying upon yourself and your false sense of goodness to get you into heaven.
12 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Friend, repent of your sin and put your faith in Christ! He alone will give you salvation.
He alone will give you a burden for lost souls.
He alone will give you the boldness necessary to be the type of witness that multiplies 30, 60, or 100 fold.
Have you truly been Born Again?
Paul gives a great gospel presentation in
3 For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
Have you repented of your sins, and received Him by putting your faith and trust solely in Him?
I want to invite you to do this today if you’ve truly never done this.
Church member, are you broken over the lost in your community? Have you been challenged today to know that not all who claim to be Christians are? Will you commit to asking people you don’t really know gospel questions with the intent of either sharing the gospel with them, or working toward discipling someone so they may better know Christ and the Good News of the gospel?