Aug. 25, 2024

Evangelism, Bible-style (25 August 2024) -- Pastor John Custer

Introduction - This teaching is an attempt to take some of the mystery out of evangelism.  I’ve been in classes, read books, listened to videos, and participated in role play seminars on the subject.  I am still a bit confused about what to say and when to say it.  It’s like CPR.  I can never remember when to breathe or when to squash the patient’s chest.  So today, I’d like to give you the short, biblical version of how to evangelize.  Amazing how the Bible’s version of things is always short and understandable.

Here’s a short version of how to evangelize:

First, find a person with a need.  People who don’t have a problem likely won’t have a conscious need for the Lord.  Jesus walked past thousands of healthy, problem-free people.  He spent all of His time helping the troubled, mainly the poor and the sick, people who were desperate.    

Second, tell them God is their solution and that they need to follow you and be baptized. You can baptize them, by the way, in a pool or a bathtub or anywhere they can be dunked.  Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, (the Lord Jesus Christ).  We should baptize people much sooner than we do.  Really, if you forget everything from here, just invite them to “FOLLOW ME” and the group you are in will get the rest of it done.    

Third, tell them they need a special experience with the Holy Spirit and that they should speak in tongues.  Just ask God to help them do it, open their mouth and speak, except don’t speak in a language they have learned.  

We could stop right here and you’d have enough understanding to bring someone into the Kingdom.  But, for the sake of answering questions from those who have been through books, seminars, and courses and wonder why I’m leaving out some of the classic steps, like a sinner’s prayer, or cold-call door knocking,  I’ll spend some time explaining why the biblical approach to evangelism is so simple.  

Justification vs. sanctification

In order to understand the big package of salvation, we need to realize that it is broken down into two parts, Justification is the removal of our sin through forgiveness.  It happens in an instant.  It is God’s response to our response of faith in Him when reaches out to us through the evidences He has left all around us in the creation.  This explains why an aborigine or Inuit person living in a remote village can be saved from being consigned to hell without someone from a church traveling to him to share one of the well known plans of salvation (Four spiritual laws, Roman road, etc.). 

Romans 1:20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.  NLT

Anybody, at any time, anywhere in the world can respond to God making himself known in this manner.  We know from this scripture that God has not failed to make himself known, and that if a person does not choose to make an excuse for knowing God, he will know God.  This is called faith, and it is what causes us to be justified, to have our sin forgiven.  It requires only our individual response of faith to activate.  

Ephesians 2:9-10 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.  NLT

Sanctification is the lifelong process set in motion by justification.  We are changed from glory to glory in this process. We mature into the stature of Jesus as a result.  When we are first saved, we are infants, but we grow step-by-step by being around Christians and interacting with the church, the Body of Christ.  Here is where the church must be involved in going into the world, or the aborigine or Inuit will never understand what the Son of God has done for him.  The church doesn’t have much to do with justification, but it has everything to do with sanctification.  

So, biblical evangelism doesn’t involve memorizing a sinner’s prayer; there isn’t one in the whole Bible.  Here’s a verse which people use to employ a sinner’s prayer:

Romans 10:9-10 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. NLT

Notice that it is the faith within a person which brings about righteousness (justification), not a confession.  By contrast, a growing Christian will be confessing Jesus as Savior all through the remainder of the his life in worship, prayer, spiritual warfare, etc.  in short, if you’re saved, you’ll talk about it.  

Most needy people you meet are already saved (justified).  They don’t need a lecture about how bad they are and that they need to repeat your church’s version of the prayer.  They simply need to be baptized with the understanding that it is a public proclamation of their intent to follow Jesus.  This does not cause them to be justified, because that has already taken place probably much earlier in the person’s life, but it sure advances their sanctification.   The change from glory to glory really starts with water baptism.  

Water baptism

Acts 2:38 Peter replied, "Each of you must repent of your sins, turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ to show that you have received forgiveness for your sins.  NLT

Water baptism, not a sinner’s prayer,  was the main public confession of a person’s intent to follow Jesus.  We do some people an injustice by giving the impression that all they need to do is say a few sentences and bingo! they’re heaven bound.  The word for forgiveness (Greek word aphesis) means “liberty” or ‘freedom.” Forgiveness does not just look backwards at the past record of sin, which was cleared at the moment of belief, but it looks forward to the breaking of the bonds of sin over the believer’s life from the moment of baptism onward.  Baptism will help a person overcome sin!

Baptism has many other benefits which come from God’s large, inclusive package of salvation for the believer, referred to here as “new lives.”  Peter said that as Noah and his family were saved by being inside the ark, we are protected from earthly chaos and misfortune by being baptized.  

Romans 6:3-4 - Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.  NLT

We baptize by lowering a person into a pool of water deep enough for them to be immersed.  The word is the same one used for dyeing a garment.  We speak over the person, as mentioned earlier, the purpose of the baptism:  it is in the name (with the authority, backing, approval, in honor of ) the  Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  An interesting detail I learned from Teacher Jim Feeney years ago was this:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are titles, not names.  I am a father, but my name is John.  The Father God says “I am the Lord.  That is my name.  The Son’s name is obviously Jesus, and the Holy Spirit’s name is Christ, the Anointed.  When I baptize someone, I like to give honor to the Godhead with this new knowledge.  So, I baptize people in the name of the Father, The Son, and the Holy Ghost, the Lord Jesus Christ.  

Any Christian can baptize another Christian. You need not be an elder.  We need to do better at baptizing people soon after they start following Christ.  In the Bible it was often immediate.  The modern church waits for weeks until it is convenient.  I just wonder what opportunities we forfeit for the baptism candidate by waiting until a convenient water source opens up?

Baptism in the Holy Spirit 

The third experience (it may be the second; it doesn’t matter) the believer has with God is equally as important as the other two, but probably the most neglected in the modern church.  It is the source of the believer’s power.  This is where we get the ability to go into all the world and do exploits which advance the Kingdom.  

Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

The evidence of the receipt of this power is the phenomenon of speaking in tongues, a language the speaker did not learn.  It may be an earthly tongue, a tongue of angels, or an unknown tongue.  This experience is not natural.  Since its is spiritual, it is uncomfortable for us to think about, because we cannot understand it.  It is not a terrifying experience, but itit does require a little bit of courage to attempt the unknown.  Speaking in tongues is not the end goal.  Living a life in the Spirit of God is. 

    Romans 8:14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.  

We minister it to people in the simple manner referred to above in the simple version of evangelism.  The most common hangup is that they do not know that they do the speaking.  They mistakenly wait for the Spirit to start moving their jaws.  They’ll be waiting a ling time!

Conclusion - My hope is that every person hearing this teaching will become conversant with these three doctrines, at least the short version mentioned at the beginning. A more comprehensive set of notes are available on the back table, they are part of a series of the “Leadership Training Series.” Remember “Follow me”?  This implies that you are part of something, and going to something.  It is that destination where God is, for “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in their midst.” (Matthew 18 20).  The ideal, biblical place to take someone you are evangelizing to is a house church, branch group, home fellowship, or the like.  So, get your hand limbered up for your “follow me” signal.  We’ll see you there!