Foundations for Evangelism (Part 1)
Evangelism: The Why & How of Sharing the Gospel • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 14 viewsA sermon discussing the Gospel and God's involvement in evangelism
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Foundations for Evangelism (Part 1)
Foundations for Evangelism (Part 1)
We are beginning a class discussing the why and how of evangelism. I want to offer a roadmap of where we are heading with the ultimate destination.
We will have six classes (Lord willing) in which we discuss the following:
Foundations for Evangelism (Part 1)- we will discuss the Gospel and God’s role in evangelism
Foundations for Evangelism (Part 2)- we will discuss our role and message in evangelism
The Message of Evangelism- how we can share the Gospel in a variety of instances
Evangelism Basics (Parts 1-3) This final half of our time together will be primarily about discussing the gospel with particular situations
Our ultimate goal is to learn how to share the gospel with people. We want to see our church grow, to see people saved, then we must share the gospel. We want to see lives changed, then God’s method is through evangelism and discipleship. Our focus this morning, and for the next five weeks, will be on that first part.
Let us consider one important passage of Scripture that we call our “Great Commission.” In Matthew 28:18-20 we read these last words of Jesus to His disciples. [Blue tab]
Our mission, then, is to evangelize and disciple. We have the King of kings commission, the promise to empower us, and the perpetual presence for all eternity. Let us now see why and how we should evangelize.
I. What is the Gospel?
I. What is the Gospel?
We begin with an all-important question: What is the Gospel? How would you define the gospel?
After asking this question in the book What is the Gospel? Greg Gilbert offers a few responses,
“The gospel is that God will forgive your sins if you believe in him.”
“The good news is that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”
“The gospel is that you are a child of God, and God wants his children to be abundantly successful in every way.”
I am sure we could come up with many more examples, but I do not think we would debate that there are a wide-range of possible answers, some good, though partial, and others terrible in every way.
The Gospel is the message in evangelism, a point that we will discuss in subsequent lessons. Because of its importance, we must have a deep grasp of what the Gospel is.
Consider Paul’s brief coverage of the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:1-19. While we will not read this entire passage, it does offer us the key aspects of the Gospel.
In these verses (another portion of Scripture is Romans 1-4) we see the essentials of the Gospel. That is, if you leave one of these aspects out then you are not presenting the Gospel, you are only presenting portions of it.
As a way to help us remember these key concepts, I am going to use
Greg Gilbert’s four points concerning the Gospel: God, man, Christ, and response.
We will briefly discuss these.
God is the creator. He made everything, and everything to owes their allegiance and obedience to Him. He makes the rules, and He executes judgment concerning those rules.
We could spend sessions describing this God, but let us note briefly that He is holy, good, righteous, just, and concerned with His creation. As such, He gave humanity commands (represented through Adam), and expects (as Creator) perfect obedience.
Which brings us to man. Humanity are the image bearers of God originally created to spread God’s glory and fame all over the earth. Adam, our head (Paul’s words in 1 Cor. 15:22), failed to obey God in Genesis chapter 3 and doomed humanity to depravity and sinfulness, separation from God, and ultimately, left to our own, hopelessness.
But God (some of the most comforting words in Scripture), being holy and righteous and good, sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place, assuming the full wrath of God for our sins, and imputing His righteousness to us. As a result, we are no longer separated from our Creator, but in Christ have union with our Father and our brothers and sisters in Christ.
This brings us back to us: our response. God the Father sent His Son for our sins, but we through faith and repentance receive the gift of eternal life. We see this in Peter’s call to the people, “Repent!” in Acts 2:38, and again, “Repent!” to the Jewish people in Acts 3:19. Or consider Paul’s expression of our response in Romans 10:9-10, “Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
This is the Gospel, the glorious, life-altering, eternity-changing Gospel of Jesus Christ.
These four components are the composition of the Gospel. Like ingredients in a cake, left alone in our evangelism that will not provide the information or truth to bring about conversion.
With that said, that does not mean that you throw all the ingredients at someone blindly. Gilbert notes,
“Obviously this God-man-Christ-response structure is not a slavish formula. The apostles don’t necessarily tick the points off like a checklist when they proclaim the gospel. Depending on the context, how long they have to preach, and who is included in their audience, they explain those four points at various lengths.”—Greg Gilbert, “What is the gospel?”
Gilbert’s statements will be the meat of our discussions in sessions 4-6. However, what he says is true for our present discussion of the Gospel. Our cake analogy works well. There is an order in which we place the ingredients into the bowl before mixing. Now, since I am no baker, I will not venture to provide an illustration. Since I am more familiar with lifting weights, we will go with that.
The first thing you do prior to lifting weights it to make sure you have the clothes appropriate for the occasion. Then, you warm up and stretch, perhaps even doing some jumping jacks or riding the elliptical. Only then do you approach the weights.
Then there is order in the weights. You do not necessarily load the barbell down with an enormous amount of weight. You progress and build up to the heavier weights.
In our Gospel presentations (i.e., evangelism), we do the same thing. We may start with humanity and our predicament with sinfulness. We may begin with God as Creator. Or, we may discuss Christ and His life and work. The individual (or groups) will factor into that discussion in a large part, as we will see in the coming weeks.
But for now, we must grasp these four points in our understanding: God, man, Christ, and response. At this point I want to offer you some “homework.” This will enhance your ability to understand and communicate the gospel.
As you read the Scriptures, do so with these four concepts in your mind. You may right them on an index card and have it with you anytime you read the Bible. You may make a cute bookmark or something like that. Either way, read the Scriptures with these four concepts, and I guarantee you that as you do, the Lord will open your eyes to the Gospel in passages you may have previously never thought it to be present.
I would also highly recommend Greg Gilbert’s book What is the Gospel? In that book, Gilbert goes into more detail (not overloading readers) of the Gospel. It is only 121 pages, and it costs about $2 used and about $10 new. Or, if you are feeling particularly generous, you can order a case of 20 for $179.00, or $425.88 for 72 books.
Let me add one more aspect before we discuss God’s role in evangelism. Those four points demand greater treatment and study and understanding. It is important, in our culture where truth is relative, to know the Scripture’s teaching thoroughly regarding each one of those points. That is not to say that must know every point of theology before witnessing. We grow in our understanding of the Gospel. However, it requires diligence, and we must commit to that if we are to fulfill Jesus’ commission to us.
II. God’s Role in Evangelism
II. God’s Role in Evangelism
Before we dive into this point I want to recommend another book. This one is by J.I. Packer, and the title is Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. Also, I will include a list of recommended books at the conclusion of our class. These books will be the meat to the bones we address in our class.
Now, let’s devote the rest of our time to God’s Role in Evangelism. If we are not careful, we can assume a burden on our shoulders that we were never meant to bear. Let me explain.
Have you ever, or heard of someone, who shares the Gospel with someone, and then feels a weight of guilt because you did not say the right thing, or you messed up part of the gospel, or you didn’t immediately see someone saved?
The reason for this burden is that is confuses our role and God’s role in evangelism. I hope this point relieves you of some of the unnecessary pressure some have placed on the backs of believers.
In his book, Tell the Truth, Will Metzger writes,
“The crucial thing to remember in evangelism is the distinction between our responsibility and God’s. Our task is to faithfully present the gospel message by our lives and our lips. Any definition of our task that includes results is confusing our responsibility with God’s prerogative, which is regeneration.”—Will Metzger, “Tell the Truth”
We see this demonstrated in several passages of Scripture. We just discussed this passage last Wednesday evening, but notice the words Luke uses in Acts 2:37-41. “Everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
In Acts 13:44-52 we see the account where Paul and Barnabas preach the gospel to “almost the whole city.” This crowd included both Jewish and Gentile people. Notice verse 48 in particular.
On consider these references,
God’s Role in the Book of Acts: “the faith that is through Jesus” Acts 3:16, “God exalted him…to give repentance to Israel” Acts 5:31, “to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life” Acts 11:18, “God…having cleansed their hearts by faith” Acts 15:8-9, “The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul” Acts 16:14, “Those who through grace had believed” Acts 18:27
God’s role in evangelism could be phrased like this,
God’s Role in Evangelism: Since’s humanity’s hearts are darkened through the deceitfulness of sin, their wills completely turned against God’s, while simultaneously captured under the power of the evil one, God must regenerate their hearts through faith He graciously provides for their eternal salvation through the human instruments of His choosing.
This does not absolve us from personality responsibility. There is a branch of believers that holds to such a narrow view of this that they do not engage in evangelism or missions.
Perhaps you have heard of this story, but William Carey, at a meeting with baptist leaders in the late 1700s, was asking for and encouraging the establishment of overseas missions. One older minister replied, “Young man, sit down! You are an enthusiast. When God pleases to convert the heathen, he’ll do it without consulting you or me.” This brand of thinking is antithetical to the missionary emphasis of the Bible. From Genesis chapter 3 until the consummation of all things, God has been a missionary God.
What does God’s role mean for our present discussion? I think one more passage of Scripture will prove useful. 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 is such an important passage of Scripture to bear in mind.
In this passage, the Corinthians were arguing over who was better depending upon who lead them to the Lord. Paul’s reply is that neither he nor Apollos were better. They were merely tools in the hands of God. God was the one who provided the growth. God produced the regeneration and salvation. God is the important factor.
Paul teaches us that God is responsible for growth (i.e., salvation)
Paul teaches us that God is responsible for growth (i.e., salvation)
We see this in Paul’s words “but God gave the growth,” “but only God who gives the growth.” We did not produce the change, and any program or book or teacher that places results on your shoulders is wrong.
Paul teaches us that God uses tools (i.e., you and me)
Paul teaches us that God uses tools (i.e., you and me)
Notice that Paul and Apollos were not kicked to the curb. They were important parts of the Corinthians salvation. “Servants” is how Paul defined he and Apollos. “I planted, Apollos watered.” We did our part. We shared the Gospel. Whether it is the planter or the waterer, they are both tools in the hands of the Almighty.
We will discuss this more as we continue our sessions, but we are part of God’s plan of redemption. God has chosen the foolish things of this world (which removes all sense of pride), jars of clay, to bear witness to the glorious truth of the Gospel, all through His unimaginable grace.
Paul teaches us that we work with God (God’s fellow workers)
Paul teaches us that we work with God (God’s fellow workers)
What a wonderful blessing this is! It follows along with our initial passage in Matt. 28:18-20. We go and preach the Gospel and baptize with God. We are never alone in our evangelism, which is an encouraging truth of the Bible.
Paul teaches us about rewards (i.e., wages according to his labor)
Paul teaches us about rewards (i.e., wages according to his labor)
This is yet another testament to the grace of God. Not only does He save us, not only does He involve us in His work of redemption, He then rewards us for it (a point Paul picks up in 2 Cor. 4-5).