So what comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘Evangelism’. Is it a picture of a deranged religious zealot? Maybe it is a wave of guilt because the pastor talks about evangelism like you should be doing it, but you are not? Potentially you are totally indifferent to the term. Or you may not know what it means.
In simple terms, I define evangelism as telling others about Jesus. Some would use the term to mean living a good life, or giving things to people, or preaching a sermon in a church. These do not fit my definition, because there is no direct confrontation with the person of Jesus.
So why should you do evangelism? The question assumes that you are a Christian. By that I mean that you have understood your bankruptcy before God, knowing that you are not perfect and you can never make yourself perfect. You have heard about and accepted the free gift of being made right with God through the sacrifice of Jesus, which is shown by his perfect life, his willing sacrifice of his life on the cross and Jesus’ resurrection. The process of becoming a Christian is all done by God, simply accepted by you. A term that describes this process is the Gospel.
The first reason to do evangelism is that Jesus commanded that we should do it:
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” – Matthew 28:18-20 NIV.
For years I knew about this command and simply ignored it. It is amazing that Jesus would put up with a follower of His that simply ignores Him. But He does.
There are other reasons for doing evangelism. One is that by doing evangelism you demonstrate understanding of the Gospel. Active evangelism shows that you believe the Gospel; you really believe that if people do not hear and act on the Gospel, they will spend eternity in torment, separated from God.
The final reason that I will add today is that evangelism brings me face to face with the unpredictable work of God. Last Sunday, Darrin, Lori and I were talking with some men in a park. The first man we talked with was incoherent and simply wanted food. We did not have any money or food. We did talk to him about Jesus, but that did not seem to go anywhere. Then we talked with some other men who we had previously talked with. It was then the first man called us all over to him and told us that we needed to pray. He started praying. It was the heart talk of a man who knew he needed God to act. The situation in these men’s lives was not good and they needed God to intervene. After he was done, another man prayed, and then it was my turn. I prayed, but it seemed insignificant compared to the prayer of a man who just a few minutes before was incoherent. I was at a place and time where God had shown His presence. Wow.
So why do I do evangelism? There are more reasons that I have given here, but as scary as it can be sometimes, I do want to see God moving in His unpredictable way. I have witnessed it before and I will witness it again. I just cannot tell you when, but the chances are better when I am trying to talk to others about Jesus.
I have always wanted to ride a motorcycle. I never rode one as a kid and did not start riding as a young man. Marriage, full time job, family expansion with two boys came and the ‘practicality’ of starting a motorcycle riding career was not good.
I started talking more about riding a motorcycle as the boys made their way through high school. As my youngest son approached high school graduation, my wife gave me an encouraging comment about starting to ride a motorcycle. I signed up for the local riding course, earned my motorcycle license and bought a motorcycle. I started using the motorcycle as my primary commuting vehicle. I would ride all winter, as long as there was no snow.
Last summer we took a ~4,500 mile, two week trip to Yellowstone, Boise, Las Vegas and Flagstaff. It was one of the best vacations I have ever taken. We rode in a snow storm in Yellowstone and experienced 117° in Vegas.
So this brings us to last weekend. We had five of us and three motorcycles for a trip to St. Louis for the weekend. The one event was pizza at our favorite place in St. Louis, but the main event was riding the bike with my two boys. It was the best father’s day I have ever had. It was even better than the one when Tom Watson won the US Open (which is cheating because I was not a father at the time).
Advice that I would give to the young parent, spend time with your kids. Take trips, do special things that you will never be able to repeat at another time.
I work as an engineer and I am currently between my 2nd and 3rd years of Seminary. My plan is to move west from KC and be involved in introducing people to Jesus and organizing churches.
The introduce people to Jesus part has always been hard, as predicted in the Bible. I have spent years in a Baptist church that told me to do evangelism but never showed me how to do it. With no one to take my hand and show the way, I never tried. I was living life in disobedience to the command of Jesus (Matt 28:18-20) but I did a good job of covering up any problems that I had with my disobedience.
My life has been slow progress toward deeper commitment to Jesus, my Lord and Savior. He has been my Savior since the summer of 1973 when I accepted the free gift of salvation at the end of a Christian summer camp. The active embrace of Jesus as Lord has been the tougher part. I earned a couple of Engineering degrees, was married to Lori, started work as an engineer, and did life. As the years passed, it became apparent that I could continue working as an engineer and have the life drained out of me, or I could embrace the Lordship of Jesus in my life and have a full life. Choosing the later has brought me down a path that has led me to working part time as an engineer and doing four classes each semester in seminary. The description of this path will have to wait until another time.
Currently I am trying to learn how to do 'evangelism', which is the churchy/seminary word telling people about Jesus. My plan this evening was to help out with a church that I do not attend in their efforts to reach out to others with the message of salvation through Jesus. The church cancelled. It breaks my heart the majority of churches in this country are like this church. Ignoring the command of Jesus as a corporate body and as individuals, just like I did so well for years (not that I am excellent in my level of obedience today, just trying).
I long to be part of a group who attempt to be obedient to Jesus. I am not concerned with perfect obedience, mainly because that is impossible. I want to be with a group of people who try.
