THE MEANING OF EVANGELISM

2017-08-30T02:58:00.001-07:00

Text:Matt. 28:18-20, 2Cor. 5:17-21, Rom. 3:23, Rom. 9:30, Rom. 10:20

Matt. 28:18-20 And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

Rom. 3:23 for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.

Rom. 9:30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.

2Cor. 5:17-21 Therefore if any man bein Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things areof God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Believers are very privileged to people because of the very serious mandate that is being given to us. Our purpose when we become Christian is to evangelise others. And you can see from this idea that salvation that you have in Christ is not from family, not from parents but a personal experience. It is only when you have a personal experience that you can actually go and market Christ to other people. So exactly what does it mean to evangelise? What is the message of evangelism? What is the significance of this major believer’s pre-occupation. What is the mind of God in asking us to evangelise the world? So the question is we want to know what evangelism is. This would allow us to get a broad view picture of evangelism and not limit it to what most of us think it is.

1. Evangelism is bringing a lost soul to the knowledge of Christ thereby giving him or her the opportunity to accept or reject Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Jn. 3:3, Gal. 2:21, Rom.9:30, Gal. 3:28, Col. 3:11.

This word is very pregnant with a lot of things. So in true evangelism, you bring somebody who is not saved, then introduce Christ to him with all that Christ came to do. Then you confront him with a decision as to whether or not he wants to follow Jesus. Evangelism does not begin or end with presenting Christ alone. It does not end with bringing somebody to church alone. Even though when you bring him to church it is to the goal of letting him know Christ. But it also involves letting him make a decision as to what he wants to do with Christ. So this is the primary meaning that Jesus had when He sent his disciples two by two into the villages and towns to preach the gospel. Peter manifested this on the day of Pentecost when he presented to them what Christ came to do and showed them the need for making a decision. So this will be the primary meaning of evangelism.

2. Evangelism is to bring a saved soul to the knowledge of sanctifying power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Rom. 8:1, Rom. 7:7-25, Rom. 6:1-4

Also and thereby allowing him to choose what type of Christian he wants to be. So this second one concerns us as much as the first one. The reason for this is that you have the gospel and you have the epistle. The gospel is what allows you to come to Christ. The epistle are what you do when you first receive Christ.

This means that if you have someone who is born again, you don’t leave him in his church even though he is saved unless you are sure that he already has the knowledge of the sanctifying power of Jesus Christ. This is what makes him make a decision towards kind of Christian he wants to be.

Christianity is not like education or engineering. It should really have so many diverse forms. It is not one vision here. One vision there. To be a true believer is to base what you have on the founders’ foundation. So it is not about what somebody could come in and say God is leading him to something and this or something elsewhere but the bottom line is that you wants him to be not just saved but sanctified. And this now calls us to understand that we need to be sanctified and live holy if we are going to minister the true gospel of Jesus Christ to anybody. There is a gospel in which you do not talk. That gospel is what Peter referred to there as what the women do without talking and at the same time trying to win their husbands to Christ through their personal lives. It is this second type of evangelism that is really more effective. In the first type you see this person, you don’t even know him. He doesn’t know your personal life but lead him to Christ and you are the way. But the second type of evangelism is the one that you are interacting with people. And they are watching you. Is the type of evangelism that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had in Babylon. Is the same type of evangelism that Daniel had when he was a young boy in Babylon. And this is also the kind of evangelism that is most effective in bringing many souls to Christ. You ask me which one is more effective and I say all types of evangelism are effective. They have their place and programme but we must not put one before the other.

3. Evangelism is confronting people of the world with the message of holiness and discipleship which is what Jesus came to do. 1Pet. 1:15, 1Pet. 3:1-3, Heb.12:14.

Again this is a type of evangelism that changes society. It is not social gospel or social evangelism but it might be described as national re-orientation, national re-engineering to bring the truth of righteousness into a nation. We need to understand that if we can have this kind of evangelism and confront people with the message of the truth of God’s word then we can easily change this nation for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren. Again we can now bring many, many people of Nigerian descent into the kingdom of heaven.

A programme was held in Lagos that drew several thousands of people. A woman I was told saw that from this several may be five hundred thousands people or several millions of people who are supposed to be born again Christians in a Pentecostal Holy Ghost church so to say. A woman had a revelation in which she saw that only four of the millions so to say made heaven. I heard this story. I didn’t believe it as such but it gives out a message that this country needs social re-engineering, social re-orientation which can only be propelled by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

When you do the first part of evangelism, you are evangelizing. When you do the second type, you are evangelizing. When you do the third type, you are evangelizing. The purpose of any form of evangelism is really to elevate Christ. To show what Christ can do in the spiritual realms of people’s lives. It is less of the carnal but more of the spiritual. This is exactly what you need to know as you talk about evangelism.

4. Evangelism is bringing souls to the knowledge and purpose of this life. 2 Thes. 2:16, 2Tim. 1:9-10, Rom. 2:7, Jn.5:39

That is one type of evangelism because God says that He brings immortality to light through the gospel. So in evangelizing the world we are not telling them about carnal things like cars, money, marriage and children. The world can teach them more of this. And the natural man, the unsaved, unsanctified and not spirit-filled person is naturally occupied with this. You don’t have to teach anybody not to love the world, not to be married, not to have children, not to want to own cars. These things are natural with us. They are even more natural in different societies. What is not natural which the gospel brings is for a man to think of what his eternal destiny will be. And not just thinking about what it is but living as if it does exist. Most people will tell you that they are not sure that there is hell or heaven. So the attitude is not more of well I don’t believe it exist but rather I don’t have to do any thing about it. So people think there is hell or heaven or eternity or the second coming of Jesus Christ. The way they live their lives however and run their days does not portray any knowledge or cognizance of this facts. When we now go to evangelise them, we let them know that this thing is real.

1992, the world was expecting the world to come to an end. People got very serious. They were more spiritual. They were repenting, of course, nothing ever happened at that time but for somebody who has known Christ as Lord and Saviour this becomes something that occupies his mind. When we evangelise people we should let them know that the purpose of the gospel is not about this world alone. The word of God tell us if only in this life we have hope in Christ, we have all men most miserable (1Cor. 15:19, 1Cor. 4:9). That is to say that the best this world can give you which includes a private jet, a big house, a beautiful wife, a handsome husband, wealthy family and good health in comparison to things is miserabless. According to the word of God, he that wants silver shall not be satisfied with silver nor the increase thereof. So we believers are so privileged that we are given the greatest mandate and responsibility to show the world what it will never naturally know.

You need to approach evangelism from all these various angles so that when you now go to evangelise, you have these things at the back of your mind and you can be effective in whatever you are doing for God in evangelism.

So as you go out, as you minister to people, as you relate with people, you need to understand the important of evangelism and see it as a mandate which God has committed into your hands for the purpose of saving them. Evangelism is most necessary because right from origin it has been the only way by which the whole world would have been saved through Christ (Gen.12:1-4). If each of us brings one, one person at time to the Lord Jesus Christ, we can win the world through the law of multiplication. So we need to see the importance of this great work and create time. Expend our energy and avenue to make sure that we are in the position where we able to lead as many souls to Christ as possible. This is a very important mandate and it is bigger than any thing that we will ever be called to do in this life. Being an evangelist is not a call. It is a compulsion. It is not for some groups of people. It is for everybody. Therefore, it is most important that we all take part in this programme as you begin to go out every Saturday to make sure that we bring souls to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

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THE MEANING OF EVANGELISM