The Message of Evangelism: The Gospel

Bobby Howell

Evangelism: The Why & How of Sharing the Gospel • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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The Message of Evangelism: The Gospel

We have come to our third session discussing evangelism. Up to this point, we have focused on four primary aspects of evangelism: the Gospel, salvation, our role, and God’s role in evangelism.

All of these are part of evangelism, but we have yet to really discuss evangelism. How would you define evangelism?

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We see evangelism throughout the Scriptures. Let’s focus on the ministry of Jesus, and limit it to the Gospel of John. In John chapter 3, we see Jesus sharing the gospel with Nicodemus. In John chapter 4, we see Jesus sharing the gospel with the Samaritan woman at the well. In John chapter 6, we see Jesus telling the crowds that He is the bread of life. In John chapter 8, we see Jesus telling the people in the Temple that He is the light of the world.

We will stop there, but Jesus was an evangelist during His time on earth. He shared the gospel with people, both individually and collectively. He was sharing the Gospel. That is why I title this lesson “The Message of Evangelism: The Gospel.” In this lesson I want to wrap up sessions 1 and 2, and this morning’s lesson will form a nice bridge to the next few sessions that are more practical in nature.

I have mentioned J. Mack Stiles’ book, Evangelism, before, but we return to it this morning (and over the next several weeks) because it is just so helpful and practical.

Let’s begin with his definition of evangelism.

“Evangelism is teaching the gospel with the aim to persuade.”—J. Mack Stiles

In his book he elaborates on the three essential points concerning evangelism: teaching, the gospel, the aim to persuade. We will discuss these briefly.

I. Evangelism involves teaching

When we consider what we have learned over the past two weeks, this should come as no surprise. However, there are several connecting points that I think will make this even clearer. And the clearer we grasp evangelism the more effective we will become.

Teaching involves material

We will deal with this more in our second point concerning evangelism, but we cannot teach nothing. We have to teach something, and that something is the Gospel (4 words). You see this throughout the Scriptures.

Look at Acts 16:25-34 quickly. Paul and Silas are singing “hymns to God” in verse 25. Hymns, as many of you know, contain doctrinal truths (and at times even Scripture). They were teaching without even knowing it! Then, after the earthquake, they were able to finish that teaching the jailer no doubt heard with those comforting words, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Teaching involves material, which is why we must understand the gospel ourselves in increasing ways.

Teaching implies ignorance

Now, often times we hear this word used in a pejorative sense, and I would say that most of the times it is used it is meant to be that way. However, the word simply means lacking knowledge. This is not a bad thing as we are not omniscient. However, teaching, or the need for teaching necessarily implies that we are ignorant.

If it were not the case, there would be no need for teaching and we should all live happily ever after. But we are ignorant, of sin and salvation, of God and His Messiah.

We see this displayed by the Athenians in Acts 17:22-34. Paul begins to share the gospel with them in verses 22-23, but then focuses on “the unknown God.” He instructs them on God’s transcendence, His omnipotent power, His aseity (self sufficiency), and so on.

However, he tells them in verse 30, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent…” In other words, they were ignorant of some truth and needed to be taught.

This is something essential that we must keep in our minds, particular in our present day and age. Truth is considered relative, and the morals that once were held by almost all people in our country are now vastly different. Not only this, but knowledge of the Bible has also waned (even in the church). This will affect how we evangelize, and must affect it.

Teaching involves time

Moving on to chapter 18 of Acts we see this idea. Paul arrives in Corinth and begins to share the Gospel immediately. Silas and Timothy join him, and they see many people saved. God encourages Paul with a vision (vs. 9-10). Then we read this statement, “And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.”

Teaching involves time, which has several different shades that we must briefly discuss. First, we need to understand that evangelism is a long game. It is not a quick, Tic-Tac-Toe game. It is Risk. In other words, while not neglecting sharing the Gospel, we should not assume that with one evangelistic encounter to see fruit. That may be the case, as someone else may have planted and you enjoy the harvest. However, that is up to God, and we must remember that teaching involves time.

We must also see that as teaching involves time it will take time, depending upon the individual, to build up their knowledge. I mentioned this last week, but some people have a general sense of one God, sin, and such. Teaching them may not require as much time. But there may be an individual who has no concept of truth. This may require a lot more time and effort in teaching.

Let me end this section with Stiles’ on words, “No matter where or with whom, the process is simple: we read the passage and talk about what it means. Over time, in ones and twos, people come to Jesus because they are taught the gospel. Such teaching may not be as exciting as a massive revival, but if every Christian did this with non-Christian friends, it would have far greater reach and authenticity.”

Evangelism depends on the Gospel

Since we have dealt with this in great detail in our first session, I just want to remind you of the key aspects of the gospel, summarized in the four words: God, man, Christ, and response.

Again, this does not mean that every conversation we have will have these four concepts in them. In one conversation we may discuss God, or in several conversations, as the case may be.

Again, this is why it is vital that we give ourselves to understand the gospel. We will see how this looks in real life through the apostle Paul.

One more quote from Stiles that I think frames our needs well. He writes,

“The hope in evangelism is that we so steep ourselves in gospel truth and gospel living, and so apply ourselves to gospel study, that the gospel can’t help but come out of us.”—J. Mack Stiles

Let’s close this point with Peter and John’s word to the religious leaders, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19-20)

III. Evangelism aims at conversion

Stiles writes, “There is a very specific bull’s-eye to our aim: to persuade people to convert, to become followers of Jesus.”

He goes on to write, “I find the word persuade helpful, as it guards us from error: we persuade, but we do not manipulate; we persuade, but we are not the ones who bring about repentance or conversion.”

Before we dive into the aim, I want to discuss two points that Stiles brings up in that previous quote. We do not manipulate, nor should we ever manipulate. We can see such manipulation as lowering the lights and setting the mood. We can see it in mass appeals. We can see it in children’s ministries when you ask a child, “You don’t want to burn in hell forever, do you?”

While there is a balance to be struck (of discussing hell, etc.), we must avoid manipulation. We can use health or wellness, or happiness, or marital bliss, etc. to convince people they need Jesus. We must avoid these manipulative uses.

Also, we see the error of confusing roles. We must always be watchful of this, because if we are not careful we can skew the difference between our role and God’s role. We are simply conduits, tools, planter and waterers for God. God is the one who applies His gracious salvation.

The London Baptist Confession of Faith helps us, “The grace of faith…is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts, and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word...” (14: 1)

However, since we have distinguished between those roles, we move on to the aim: to persuade. We want to see people become followers of Jesus Christ (i.e., disciples, cf. Matt. 28:18-20).

The command Jesus gives us is to go and make disciples. That is our goal. Why do we say this? Because, as we have mentioned throughout our time, we fall short of this aspect. This is where our discussion of salvation comes into play. That is our goal.

Paul, after sharing how he became a follower of Jesus Christ, pushed for persuasion in Acts 26:27, “King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe.” He was persuading. He tells King Agrippa, “Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am—except for these chains.” (vs. 29)

This is evangelism. This is one of the reasons why we are here.

Let’s spend the remainder of our time discussing what we have addressed these past three sessions.