Author: Grace ~ DLM

Evangelism is fired by our desire to share our faith in our Savior Jesus Christ.  “All” sinners are under the wrath of God unless they repent from their sins and believe and trust in Jesus, they are “lost”.  This is why it’s vital for us to talk to those around us and those we meet who have no idea that they are “lost”.   We must prick their conscious so they wake up and realize that they need saved.  We “ALL”, Jewish and Gentile alike need the Son of God…we need for our unrighteousness to be exposed by the repenting of sins and accepting Jesus as our Savior so we can be cloaked in his righteousness.  Then and only then will we be able to stand before Heavenly Father with Jesus as our mediator.

When we feel the inspiration to evangelize, it’s vital to pray and ask for God’s guidance so we will be speaking His will, not our will.  Then move forward with the Love of God and Love of Man in our hearts.  Understand: it’s not our place to convict anyone, it’s not our place to try to make anyone feel guilty.  When evangelizing, our only commission is to share the good news (the Gospel) that we all have Salvation and eternal life because of our Faith and the Grace of God and that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, covered us with His righteousness and is our mediator with our Father in Heaven.  The person must feel convicted of their own accord because they realize that they are not following a Godly life.

As Christians, Jesus commissions us to evangelize:  Jesus intentionally chose 12 people to disciple and then he spent the remainder of his earthly life on with these 12 disciples. Matthew 4:19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

Engage others: Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Matthew 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen (so be it, let it be).

If evangelism seems a little intimidating, begin by keeping your heart open to the people around you who are at least curious about God; share with them, you’ll plant the seed and with God’s will, the seed causes them to be hungry for the Word of God and fuel the burning desire to follow Jesus.  When you’ve found this person, take the time to disciple them through scripture and personal testimonials of how God has worked in your life.

YES!!! It would be wonderful to bring thousands to Christ, but right now, let’s just concentrate on planting the seed of Salvation in one person at a time.   As we grow and learn in Christ, it will become easier.  Eventually you will be able to share with strangers. 

After you have engaged a person watch for the evidence of receptiveness:

Are they appreciative of the Word? Are they appreciative of your time and your willingness to guide them? Are they honestly hungry for Salvation or do they groan when you talk about your faith in Christ? Are they truly willing to repent…(probably the most difficult subject to address) the Bible mentions the word “repent” and “repentence” 106 times in the KJV and like many other words used in the Bible, it has various and significant meanings: regret, atone, to be sorry, ask forgiveness, feel sorrow and be remorseful…these are just a few…

Matthew 4:17   from that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand

Acts 20:21 “repentance toward God” (change of mind), and “faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

If at some point in your conversation, if they aren’t as interested as you originally hoped or thought…don’t beat yourself up and don’t argue…if you discover that the person whom you thought was interested isn’t, pray for God to move their hearts and then be okay with it, you’ve planted the seed and scripture tells us to move on…don’t dwell on what you could or should have said…don’t go back to them and try to rehash in order to change their mind as this may cause them to drift further from the truths you were trying to share with them.  Allow our Father in Heaven to do His will…and count it as a learning step for future evangelism.

Luke 9:5 ⁵If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”

Matthew 10:14 ¹⁴If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet.

Mark 6:11 ¹¹And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”

Acts 13:51 ⁵¹So they shook the dust off their feet as a warning to them and went to Iconium.

Luke 10:11 ¹¹‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’

Once you’ve spoken with someone about Salvation, if they show a flicker of interest, you need to ask if they have a Bible and if they don’t have a Bible, be prepared to get one to them (have a Xtra Bible or two with you especially for this purpose)…if they do have a Bible, make a casual but joyful comment about dusting it off and spending time getting to know the Word of God.  Have a couple of scriptures in mind for them to look up because eventually, they will need to take steps on their own. You might also mention that their cell phone has over 2000+ Bible apps available.

There are some evangelists who are able to stand on a street corner and share the message of Salvation to onlookers in hopes of planting the seed…however, this style of evangelism is not a calling for everyone, but we can learn from watching and examining their approach.  If this style of Evangelism sparks an interest in your heart, please take a look at this website it’s given me a lot of excellent information including teaching info on Evangelism, Apologetics and tools to help you share the Gospel.

www.livingwaters.com

Here’s another awesome quote from Charles Spurgeon (1834 – 1892) Baptist Preacher “The saving of souls, if a man has once gained love to perish sinners and his blessed master, will be an all-absorbing passion to him. It will so carry him away, that he will almost forget himself in the saving of others. He will be like the brave fireman, who cares not for the scorch or the heat, so that he may rescue the poor creature on whom true humanity has set his heart.”

As we look forward to celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, who, being raised from the dead has provided us the gift and opportunity for everlasting life, as Christians we delight in this knowledge.  Think about this: if we trust what the Bible tells us about Hades, Gehenna & Sheol (HELL) and what will happen to those who don’t follow Jesus, we need to feel horrible fear for those who don’t believe.  This horror combined with “Love” for our fellow man should drive us to do or say whatever is needed to sear their conscience and turn them to God.  There will be a time when the “Book of Life” is closed and we need to plant as many seeds of faith as we can before that time arrives.

Matthew 10: 7 And as ye go, preach, saying: The kingdom of heaven is at hand. (KJV)

The principle of “Evangelism” is to bring our fellow man to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ as his or her Savior.  We must not be complacent…the day will come when his mercy will end, so we must not take his mercy for granted, we must share the Gospel while there’s still time!

The Bible teaches that as the church, we are the “body of Christ”. “We are to love the people of the world.  We are here for this very purpose – to go into the nations and proclaim the Gospel to all who will hear.” ***(The Gospel Project, Vol 2, p.96) 

As the “body of Christ” we are blessed…we know Jesus died for us and that when we repent (turn away) from our sins and put our trust in Jesus, that by His intercession, He will save us from God’s wrath.  Here’s the hitch…there are many living on this earth, in this country and even in your town that don’t know Jesus, they don’t realize that they’re dead in their sins, because they don’t recognize what sin is.  They may have heard of Jesus, but they have no idea of the consequences of their thoughts and actions, because they’ve never heard the “Good News”. 

Heavenly Father reveals this “Good News” to us through Jesus’ ministry, death and resurrection. Matthew 11:45 (HCSB) “Jesus answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.’”

ALL I can say is WOW! Doesn’t reading this scripture make you want to go out and share the Gospel – The GOOD NEWS- with the entire world. Don’t be afraid to share…as Christians we have the Holy Spirit to guide us and encourage us. Are you on fire for Jesus? The more you study your Bible and allow the Holy Spirit to work in you, the more on fire you’ll become! Soon, you will want to share with everyone you meet. In the letter of Paul to the Ephesians he writes that if you allow Him, the Spirit will mold you and form you in order to bear His message without fear. For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10 (HCSB)

The Old Testament Books and the New Testament Books of the Bible proclaim the Good News! From the very first praise, the entire Bible is about Christ and what He has planned for our Salvation! “In the Beginning”…according to the pictographs… God reveals that the SON of GOD will be DESTROYED with His HANDS on a CROSS.

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the herald, who proclaims peace, who brings news of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Isaiah 52: 7 (HCSB)

Zion, herald of good news, go up on a high mountain. Jerusalem, herald of good news, raise your voice loudly. Raise it, do not be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah,” Here is your God!” Isaiah 40:9 (HCSB)

He (Jesus) came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. As usual, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Him, and unrolling the scroll, He found the place where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed,to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Luke 4: 16-19 (HCSB)

The Apostle Paul taught: For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. Romans 1:16 (HCSB)

“The Mission” Evangelism is our mission!

As we study the Bible we see that God’s plan for the church (the body of Christ) is much greater than man’s plans.  In the book of Revelations 2, there are 7 angels sent to convey Christ’s letters to 7 churches…when you read these letters to the churches, you realize that they all fall short in one way or another.  As I study the 7 letters, I find myself praying that as the body of Christ, we will heed the messages in these letters and do our best to follow His plans for us and the world. 

***I used excerpts from The Gospel Project (our adult Sunday school guide).

*Most of my Scriptures are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible…for the sake of the person who has trouble understanding the King James Version of the Bible. I have used the KJV all of my life until I was called to Evangelize and then I realized that people who don’t know God have difficulty understanding the KJV vocabulary as easily as the HCSB.

2 Cor 6:16 (HCSB) And what agreement does God’s sanctuary have with idols? For we are the sanctuary of the living God, as God said: I will dwell among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people. 

Mark 16:15 (HCSB) Then He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.” John 14:6 (HCSB) Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”  The church is the collective body of Christ. As a people who’ve proclaimed Christ as their Savior, our bodies are now the temple of the Holy Spirit. As followers of Christ, we are the Disciples of Christ, we’ve been given a tremendous task: we are to glorify God by living Godly lives and being steadfast in our commitment to Christ. We’ve been granted and called to the commission of leading others to reconciliation with Heavenly Father through belief in Jesus Christ.

I will be speaking a lot about “Responsibility in Salvation” as well as our commission to “Evangelize”.  In the fast paced, busy world that we live in today, it’s difficult to manage the reality of this assignment to go into all the world and preach the Gospel.  We don’t need to go into the WHOLE world, we only need to start by having a relationship with our neighbors, whether it be next door or in line at the grocery.  Yes! I know it’s already challenging to meet the demands of our jobs and to find balance between family commitments and our commission to share the Gospel.  When we stop at the grocery, we’re thinking about what we’re doing next and if there’s enough time to get from point A to point B before it needs to be done.  

I’d like to say that I have an answer to the dilemma, but to be honest, I just know there’s a quandary and it’s up to each individual or family unit to find the way.  For some it seems very complicated…but it may be as simple as sitting down (first alone and then with our families) and making a list of what’s really important and what’s not. 

Start this with a prayer asking Heavenly Father to show you His Will.  You can then assign each commitment a number of 1-5 with 5 being VERY important.  Perhaps when you compare notes with one another, they will give you some idea of what can be eliminated or rearranged to make room for more time to devote to Heavenly Father and the Gospel.  Through this process, you may discover that there’s certain commitments that the family is participating in under duress, you may find some commitments that you all “LOVE” and these are definitely keepers.  Now comes the point in time where you need to look at the lists fairly and arrive at agreements that the whole family can live with.  If one person has an item on their list that is very low and it’s higher up on the other lists…you need to have an open-minded conversation about why this specific commitment is or isn’t on equal footing with the whole family.  Keep in mind that this is not an overnight process and that it may take you weeks or months to sort it all out, but it will be worth it in the end.  

Once you’ve sorted out your busy lives and in some cases removed some worldly activities, now you can make time to commit to Evangelism.  Remember, we must do only things that honor His name and bring Him glory!  When we follow his commandments Mark 12:30-31(HCSB)  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. “The second is: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.” We need to offer ourselves as living sacrifices – acceptable to Heavenly Father in thoughts, words and actions.  We must provide the Holy Spirit with a Temple that cherishes our Heavenly father and has the desire to share all the wonderful things that God has done in our lives.  When we’re feeling a little selfish with our time, we need to ask his forgiveness and remember:  “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.  When you talk to someone about what Jesus did on the cross for mankind, share with them that you too are a sinner and don’t deserve his forgiveness…speak to them with loving kindness and an honest desire for them to be saved.  It may be as simple as asking someone what church they go to…if they don’t have one, it will give you an opportunity to invite them to your church.  When you bring someone to your church stand up at announcement time and introduce them as your neighbor or new friends.

***HCSB is the Holman Christian Standard Bible. Very easy to read and understand…especially great for a new follower of God.