THE NEED FOR EVANGELISM
As of Feb. 25, 2006 there was an estimated 6.5 Billion
people in the world and around 300 million of those are found in the
Matthew 7:13 "
Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the
way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 "Because narrow is the
gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who
find it.
These statistics alone
show us that there is a great need to reach out to the lost with the Gospel of
Christ. Another reason we should be concerned about reaching the lost is found
in The Great Commission.
Matthew 28:19
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 "teaching them to observe
all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to
the end of the age."
Mark 16:15 And He
said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature. 16 "He who
believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be
condemned.
Luke 24:46 Then He
said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the
Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, 47 "and that repentance and
remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at
Earlier in Jesus’ ministry he sent his disciples out by twos on a limited commission to teach that the kingdom was at hand, but in the great commission he was commanding that his disciples, which includes you and I, to continue to preach the gospel to every creature and this is to continue until Jesus comes again.
There are at least 8 different things that are involved with the Great commission.
1. There is the authority of Jesus.
Matthew 28:18 And
Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me
in heaven and on earth.
The Great commission is
backed by Jesus authority and we are to preach repentance and forgiveness of
sins in his name, which means by His authority.
Colossians 3:17 And whatever
you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God the Father through Him.
2. It commands us to go
and not sit still. God never had in mind that we should simply wait for people
to come to us or simply make plans to reach the lost. We are to go. Before the
children of
Numbers 32:6 And
Moses said to the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben: "Shall
your brethren go to war while you sit here?
7 "Now why will you discourage the heart of the children
of
Moses was reminding them
of their obligation to do their part to help in gaining what God had promised
to them. So as Christians should we sit on the sidelines as our brother and
sister is Christ battle against Satan as they try to teach the lost? The
command is simply go and how we go is up to us, but what’s important is that we
stop talking about it and we go and do our best to reach the lost.
3. The command is not
just to go its but to go to every person of every nation. Now, this does not
mean that you and I have to go different countries to evangelize, but it could
include this. When it says we are to preach to every nation it also means every
nationality or ethnic group. This is certainly possible here in
4. It involves teaching
or preaching. We must understand that Christianity is a taught religion because
one is not born a Christian. It is up to us no matter where we go to plant the
seed of the Word of God. If no seeds are scattered, then there will be no
harvest. Even if we go on vacation to another country we can still sow the
seed.
5. Jesus specifically
states that the gospel is what we are to teach or preach to the lost. We have
the freedom of how we go and by what method we choose to teach, but we must
teach or preach that which God has given us in His word because his word is the power of God to salvation to everyone
that belives Rom. 1:16. It is through the Gospel that God calls people to
salvation 2 Thes. 2:14. Notice what Paul says in,
Galatians 1:8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven,
preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be
accursed.
So we want to make sure
that we teach or preach God’s Word and nothing else because it has the
information needed to be saved.
6. We should rejoice
knowing that purpose of the Great commission is to save souls so that both men
and woman can be saved from their sins. Jesus blood will wash away our sins
Rev. 1:5, but this will not happen until the sinner hears the Word of God and
obeys the Gospel plan of salvation. Again Mark 16:16 makes it clear that both
belief and baptism are necessary for a person to be saved. Until a person obeys
all of God’s plan of salvation they will continue to be separated from God.
When we see people turn
to the Lord it is a time of rejoicing and it should motivates us to reach more
lost people, but on the other hand when we think about those billions of lost
souls in the world and how they have no hope should also motivated us to reach
out to the lost.
7. Jesus has promised to
always be with us. It should bring great comfort to realize that Jesus is
always going to be there for us. This means we are never really alone. This
same principle was taught in the OT as well. When Joshua was taking the place
of Moses as the new leader God tell him this,
Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and
of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is
with you wherever you go."
These words from God had to have been comforting to Joshua especially since he was about to take on a very challenging leadership role, which involved fulfilling the land promise given to Abraham and at the same time keeping the children of Israel focused on serving God. Well, in the same way, we should be comforted by the fact that God is always going to be there with us not matter what. So, when we start feeling alone and discouraged about teaching others we need to remind ourselves that Jesus is there.
8. The Great Commission is a never ending obligation because we are to reach out to the lost until the end of the world. Every generation must take on the task of teaching every nation and every creature because every generation will have many lost souls that need to hear the wonderful message about Jesus.
In the OT, Isaiah asked God how long he should preach to the
house of
Isaiah 6:11 …
"Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, The houses are
without a man, The land is utterly desolate,
God was letting Isaiah
know that he need to keep preaching as long as there was someone still left
alive and that is the same thing we must do today.
We cannot deny that God
wants someone to teach the Gospel to the lost. But whose responsibility is it?
Its not the government, or public schools of social clubs. No, it is God
plan that every Christian teach the
Gospel to others. It is our duty and privilege to do and we shouldn’t lie to
ourselves and think that others like the elders, deacons or Bible class
teachers should be the one that do it. We have to stop treating the great
commission like its an optional matter.
Sometimes we get so
involved in other activities that we leave no time for reaching out to the lost.
Almost 2000 years has passed since Jesus first commanded the great commission
and it just as valid today as it was then. Some accept this responsibility in
the church and other do not, but it doesn’t matter how many people try and
avoid it or make an optional matter because The Great Commission is still in
our Bible’s and it is a command that has not changed.
So the question is not,
“Does the Lord want His people to teach the gospel to the lost?” Instead, it
should be, “What are you and I going to do about getting the gospel to all
people everywhere?
I would suggest when it
comes to evangelism we must have a mind to work. The story of Nehemiah
illustrates this very well. Nehemiah was leading the Jews to rebuild wall
around
First of all Nehemiah was
a great spiritual leader. Second, God blessed these Jews through providence. Third,
the major reason they were able to do this was because of the work ethic of
these Jews.
Nehemiah 4 gives us some
good information on what happened during their effort to rebuild this wall.
First, they accepted the
reality and magnitude of the great task. Nehemiah told the people,
Nehemiah 4:19 "The work is great and extensive,
and we are separated far from one another on the wall.
Notice he did try to
deceive the Jews into thinking this was going to be something easy, he told
them the truth. This is going to be difficult and hard and its going to take a
great amount of work. Even before he made this statement they had managed to
build the wall up half way. But how did the Jews manage to accomplish this even
though there was great opposition? The answer is found in,
Nehemiah 4:6 So we built the wall, and the entire wall was
joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to
work.
Notice there was no
secret formula and it didn’t take some
famous motivational speaker to get the Jews fired up to accomplish their goal
because the people had a mind to work. This is why they had been progressing at
a fast rate on building that wall. These Jews saw a need for work and so they
put their hearts into it and made it reality.
This is the same
mentality we need to have today as we began to follow the command of the great
commission. Its not an easy task and the worker are few, but we must have mind
to work if we every hope to be successful at caring out the great commission.
Nehemiah 4 also teaches
us that these Jews had to overcome some negative feelings about their work. As
they continued to work on the wall the opposition never went away and when
physical and metal fatigue set in some said,
Nehemiah 4:10 The strength of the laborers is failing, and there
is so much rubbish that we are not able to build the wall."
In this statement there
are 2 things are true and 1 thing that is false. It is true that they were
getting fatigued from all their labor and it was true that there was a lot
rubbish left over from the originally wall, but this was just more inconvenient
than anything. But it was not true that they were not able to build the wall.
They had just lost the their will to work and they had developed the I can’t do
it mentality.
As Christians we need to avoid
this type of I cannot do it mentality when it comes to the Lord’s work, because
we can. Do you remember when Moses sent out the 12 spies to the
Numbers 13:31 We are not able to go up against the people,
for they are stronger than we."
They had the wrong mentality as Proverbs 23:7 For as he
thinks in his heart, so is he. But Caleb and Joshua had the right mentality and
Caleb expresses this for to hear in,
Numbers 13:30 Then
Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once and
take possession, for we are well able to overcome it."
You see Caleb understood,
Numbers 14:8 "If
the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to
us, 'a land which flows with milk and honey.'
In this same way, we
should have a positive attitude about reaching out to the lost realizing that
Jesus promised that He will be with this all the way as we take on the
challenge of this work. With His help, every one of us can fulfill the great
commission. We may get tired, discouraged and be ridiculed, but the work of
teaching the lost and leading them to Christ must go on.
We also learn in Nehemiah
4 that those outside the Jewish nation were doing their best to interfere with
the work that was going on in fact their goal was to,
Nehemiah 4:11 …cause the work to cease.
It was a great
accomplishment to have the wall half way done, but there was still a lot of
work to do and many difficulties to overcome, but it would not be impossible to
finish the work. So, Nehemiah told his people,
Nehemiah 4:14 Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord,
great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your
wives, and your houses."
They had to keep focused
on building that wall and reminding themselves that God would be with them and
he would bless them. The same is true for us today. As we take on the work of
spreading the good news, we must not fear that task or have a fear of failure
or fear the opposition who doesn’t want us to succeed. Jesus never said that
teaching and preaching to all nations would be easy, he simply commands to go
and get the job done.
After Nehemiah had made
this statement to his people, notice their response.
Nehemiah 4:15 And it
happened, when our enemies heard that it was known to us, and that God
had brought their plot to nothing, that all of us returned to the wall,
everyone to his work.
You have to love what the
Jews did here. Their work had not changed, but all of them returned to back to
work. They were unified all working together for same purpose. We too must be
unified in our work to reach the lost. When we all have the same goal, great
things can happen for the cause of the Lord. Notice what happens next.
Nehemiah 4:16 So it
was, from that time on, that half of my servants worked at construction,
while the other half held the spears, the shields, the bows, and wore armor;
and the leaders were behind all the house of Judah. 17 Those who built on the wall,
and those who carried burdens, loaded themselves so that with one hand they
worked at construction, and with the other held a weapon.
Notice some of the
workers did one thing, while other did another. Some even did one thing with
one hand and worked with another. They were doing everything that was lawful so
they could continue their work. In similar way as we work together to reach the
lost, some workers can do one thing while others do another. We shouldn’t be
afraid of be flexible in our approach to evangelism as long as it doesn’t break
God’s command. The point is that we need do what we can to reach the lost and
to protect ourselves as we battle our opposition.
We have seen that the
Jews at that time had a mind to work. Notice what verse,
Nehemiah 4:21 So we labored in the work, and half of the
men held the spears from daybreak until the stars appeared.
Nehemiah had planed the
work and the Jews had agreed to do the work. They first talked about working
and then they did the work as labored to build the wall.
Evangelism takes both
planning and doing so we must do more than just plan because at some point we
must do the work. Coming up in couple weeks is our door knocking campaign and
the plan is to handout flyers to invite people to our Gospel meeting and try to
set up bible studies. The plan is in place but now it is up to you have a mind
to carry out that work, not for me, but for God.
Did you notice how much
time the Jews put in to building the wall? They started at the rising of the sun
and worked until the stars appeared. That is a long workday, but they were
willing to work that long because they believed in what they were doing.
How bout you? Do you and
I believe enough in seeking and teaching the lost that we are willing to put in
long hours for the cause of the Lord? Sometime we like to claim that we will,
but do we really?
In the song “When the
Roll is called up Yonder” do you remember what that song exhorts us to do? It
says, “Let us labor for the Master, from dawn till setting sun.” That exactly
what the Jews of Nehemiah’s day did in building that wall. So, how much time
are we willing to invest in reaching the lost?
There is no way to get
around our responsibility to teach the lost and there is no secret formula,
short cut or magic trick to getting the work done because evangelism requires
hard work and it always has. It is an enjoyable work and it definitely worth
it, but it is still work but we must be willing to have a mind to work. So, the
only way the seed of the word of God is going to get spread is if you and I choose
to roll up our sleeves and get to work by obeying the Jesus’ command.
Matthew 28:19
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 "teaching them to observe
all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to
the end of the age."