The Christian Handbook - Evangelism 101

Welcome to through its community church where it's all about Jesus. We love God,

we love people, we reached the lost, we make disciples. My

name is Jordan, I'm one of the elders here and we are continuing on

in our series called the Christian Handbook, where we are looking at, and

have been for quite some time, the fundamentals of the faith. We're trying

to get a good grasp of what it means to be a believer, what

the Bible tells us a believer does, what a believer believes, and how

we apply that to our daily lives. And what's crazy is, I was

talking to Sean earlier, this is actually well, Greg's going to do a

recap next week of everything we've talked about, but this is the last lesson

from this series. It's pretty crazy, and I've been really honored to work

through a lot of these amazing topics that all point back to God's grace and

his divine plan for all of us. So last week we spoke about the

spiritual gifts about how they benefit the church to the glory of God for the

common good. And those that were here last week know that should know that

is the common good. The common good. Sean's got it. So last

week was a lot more informational, right, I'm just telling you. I

was telling you what the Bible says about spiritual gifts, what they are,

who they're for. Today's message is going to be a lot more practical.

We're continue to look at what the Christian does and specifically what we're doing with

evangelism. So my sermon today is tiled evangelism one O one. It's still

going to be a class kind of but I'm gonna give you practical tools from

Scripture of what evangelism is, how we evangelize, and who it's four.

So I'm gonna pray and then we'll get into it. Lord, thank you

for your holy scriptures. I thank you that they are your words to us,

that they benefit us, that they are useful for teaching, rebuking,

encouraging. I thank you for your Gospel, the Good News, and that

we get to read about it from your scripture today. I pray that as

we leave, we would be we would know that we are equipped to do

this good work of being your witnesses, and that I asked you would remind

us that we have each other to lean on. And I thank you that

we also have the Holy Spirit that is in us to guide us and to

strengthen us in every step of our walk. We love you, Thank you

for all these things. Amen. All right, So evangelism one on one.

The first thing I need to address is what is evangelism? And this

is kind of cool. I found this from Licoannier Ministries. One of the

writers for Liganier wrote this, it's not going to be on the screen.

Evangelism simply means to preach the gospel message. And we're gonna look at that

more later. What the gospel messages. But evangelism it comes from the same

Greek word for gospel. I'm totally gonna butcher this. I'm afraid to even

say it Ian Gillan I probably didn't nail it, but eangullen. It literally

means gospeling, gospeling. So when we evangelize, we're actually gospeling. We

are spreading the Gospel of Christ. So that's what evangelism is. It is

gospeling. So next question is why do we evangelize? Good question for the

Christian. The simple answer to this because we're told too, that's the at

bare bones, that's what it is because we're told to. If we go

to John fourteen, Jesus said this, if you love me, keep my

commands. If you'd of me, keep my commands. If the Holy Spirit,

and it is as we see in scripture, is the mark of salvation,

of our assurance in Jesus, If it's the mark of being God's child,

then obedience to his commands is the fruit of our love for him.

And loving Jesus is accomplished and shown through obedience to his word. Loving Jesus

is accomplished and shown through obedience to his word to his commands. So what

is Jesus command for evangelism? For that, If you have your bibles,

you can turn to Matthew twenty eight. I'm going to be all over the

place, so just use the scream for see tim Then Jesus came to them

his disciples, and said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been

given to me. Therefore and will we see here is really cool is that

Jesus first states his authority and deity as God before he gives them this command.

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 that I have commanded. And surely I am with

you always to the very end of the age. So not only does he

make a clear command that we are to evangelize, that we're to make disciples,

but he also assures us he is with us to the very end of

the age, and that's through the Holy Spirit and dwelt within us. So

when we read this, we see is by decree of the One True King,

having all authority and all authority in heaven and on earth, we are

to go and make disciples. That's the King's decree. And this is one

of our primary purposes here on earth. If you've ever wondered what am I

here for? No, I'm not teaching purpose driven life, but this is

basically it spoiler. We've never gone through the purpose driven life. But if

you've ever wondered what am I here for? What am I doing? What

am I supposed to do? This is one thing we're supposed to do.

Tell people about Jesus. And it's actually the second answer of why do we

evangelize? We are purposed and commanded to tell people about Jesus Christ and the

good news of his Gospel. And here is why. In Romans, Paul

wrote, as Scripture says, anyone who believes in him will never be put

the shame. Hallelujah, for there is no difference between Jew and gentile.

The same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call upon him.

And real quick no difference between Jew and gentile. We spoke about this

several times to the series, but also in our series on Ephesians. Is

that Paul is clarifying this because the Jews are the children of God, okay,

and when the Gentiles were being brought into the Church of Jesus, obviously

they're gonna think they're better than the gentiles, and they did for a long

time. Paul always had to call that out. The same Lord is Lord

of all, and richly blesses all who call on him, for everyone who

calls in the name of the Lord will be saved. How then you go

the next one, sorry, So, how then can they call on the

one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one

of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching

to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent. As it

is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news?

And that's why I called this footwork. And just like any sport, all

right, Casey sports analogy. Just like any sport, you gotta work on

your footwork if you want to succeed. Paul shows us here the practical reason

for evangelism. One of the ways God brings sinners to faith and repentance in

Him is through the hearing of his word. If we read this order in

reverse, we'll see how it works a little bit more clearly. So we

are sent to preach the good news of the Gospel, or evangelize, so

that sinners would hear the gospel message, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,

and call upon him. We are sent to preach so that sinners would hear,

believe, and call on his name. And Second Corinthians, chapter five.

All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave

us the ministry of reconciliation. That God was reconciling the world to himself in

Christ, not counting people's sins against them, hallelujah. And He has committed

to us the message of reconciliation committed. We're commissioned to spread the message of

reconciliation to repent and believe. So Scripture has answered the first question of why

do we evangelize? The next question is we're going to get into practicality here.

The next question is how do we evangelize? How do we do it?

Our first tool for evangelism is prayer. To pray, we need to

pray to God for courage in our evangelism. I know I'm not alone in

saying that I've felt great hesitancy or doubt within my own ability escape. You

didn't have to raise your hand, but I appreciate your honesty. But I

think many of us have felt that we feel weary about talking about Jesus to

an unbeliever. But we also should pray that God would soften the hearts of

those that we are speaking towards, the ones that we are delivering the message

too. And also when we pray, consider who it is we're praying,

to consider who it is that's hearing our prayers. God is the one that

saves, not us. I can think of nothing that gives me more courage

and hope when I'm talking to someone about Jesus that it doesn't rely on me.

It's my job to tell them the message. But God's the one who

brings them to himself through the hearing of his word, and that's something that

we can rest in and lean on. Prayers also a useful tool for evangelism

in the moment. Now, what I mean by that is we have all

heard, especially in the media, in politicians and blah blah blah. I'm

not gonna get onto it. You hear the term thoughts and prayers, thoughts

and prayers. A disaster happens thoughts and prayers with those people, which is

not bad in and of itself. It's good to think about other people,

it's good to pray for them. But the difference in our praying as believers

should be our intentionality. We know, as I said, we know who

we pray to. We know the power that he has. Praying in the

moment for someone separates us from the person that tosses around that kind of phrase

like thoughts and prayers. It shows true love and concern and intentionality towards that

person. Why if you've ever had a conversation with a co worker, friend,

and family member and they tell you something that they're some hurt that they're

dealing with, or a struggle that they're dealing with a hardship. And let's

say Duncan was having a hard time and I said, man, that's rough.

I'll be praying for you and then walk away. What does that do?

What does that solve? And as I said, yes, it's good

to consider and empathize and sympathize with other people, but it doesn't really do

anything. We're called to be the salt and the light. We're called to

be the difference makers. How much better would it be if Duncan said to

me, I'm really having a hard time with my son because he's a kid,

and I said, man, that's hard. Can I pray for you?

Right then? And there? In that moment you hear the difference there?

Can I pray for you? They might not always say yes. I

hope as a believer you wouldn't turn down prayer for another believer, but a

cowork, for example, I've had awkward conversations like that and they would turn

me down and say no, that's okay. I don't really feel like okay,

don't stop there, come back and say okay, I'm gonna pray for

you anyway, So you pray for them alone, keep them on your minds,

ask that God would help them, and also that God would help you

minister to them to keep that conversation going. Be intentional and loving, and

have concern for that person, have concern for their soul, and then the

next step is follow up with them. Think about how much power it is

coming back to a person and say, duncan, I've been praying for you,

how's it going with your son? And he would say, well,

he's still a kid, so it's hard. But think about the difference that

makes coming back and saying I'm thinking about you, I am praying for you.

That person hopefully Lord Willing would think, wow, they're praying for me.

They must really believe in their prayers. They must really believe in the

one they're praying towards. You see how that conversation keeps going. So prayer

is a useful tool in our own evangelism, for our own courage, for

our own hope in the Holy Spirit, who is with us when we evangelize,

but also in the moment, in the moment when we're evangelizing to someone,

Thank you. Our second tool for evangelism, the Gospel itself. It

is the Gospel. As I mentioned this before, a lot of us have

or maybe still do, feel awkward or hesitant about talking about the Gospel message,

talking about Jesus. We may struggle with knowing exactly what to say,

or feel inadequate of our knowledge of the Bible or the Gospel message, and

that can keep us from attempting it at all. When you first ride a

bike, like Lindsay and I taught her daughter June, how to ride a

bike two years ago, maybe the last summer. We didn't teach her every

part of the bike and what every part did, and where the manufacturer,

where their headquarters is, and the history of the word bicycle. We didn't

teach her any of that. You sit her on the bike, you teach

her how to work the pedals, and you push her and guide her along

in it. You never get anywhere riding a bike if you don't attempt it.

You have to attempt it. So not having a full understanding of the

Gospel or being uncertain of what everything, what the answer is to everything,

shouldn't stop us from at least attempting it. But that being said, having

a firm, unshakable understanding and belief in the Gospel certainly helps beforehand. It's

certainly helped, but it shouldn't stop us from attempting it. So that being

said, let's look at what the gospel is. Okay, the first place

to start when you're talking about the gospel is creation. Why we talked about

creation much earlier on in the series and from the Bible. From the Bible's

account of creation, we saw that when God created the world and everything in

it, it was very good. He declared it very good. When he

created mankind, it was in the image of himself, in his perfect holy

image. But what happened. Adam and Eve sinned. They rebelled and sinned

against him. They exchanged the truth for a lie. Then what happened sin

and death entered the world. If we turned to Romans chapter five, Paul

tells us Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and

death through sin, and in this way death came to all people because all

sin, so through Adam, death entered the world. But why death,

Because in view of God's holiness, the wage or payment for sin when we

sin against him is death. To have relationship with God requires holiness, perfection.

We could never attain that through our own works, which I'm going to

talk about later, but only through the reconciliation of Jesus act on the cross.

So in view of God's holiness, the wage or payment for sin is

death. But six Romans six twenty three if you want to read more about

that. So another point is it's easy to read this verse and think,

Wow, way to go, Adam, way to go. Thanks for screwing

it up for us, we would do the exact same thing. Do you

know yourself? I know myself. The Bible we just told it, we

just read it, and death. In this way, death came to all

people because all sinned. We sin every day. We are all deserving of

God's judgment. Look at Romans three twenty three, for all have sinned and

fall short of the glory of God. All have sinned, each and every

one of us. In fact, the Bible tells us that if anyone claims

to be without sin, they deceive themselves and the truth is not in them.

And there are unfortunately speakers out there who claim they don't send any more,

they know Jesus, they don't sin. Run the other direction if you

hear that teaching. So God created the world, everything in it. It

was very good. He made mankind in his holy perfect image. Mankind rebelled,

exchanged the truth for a lie, Sin and death entered the world.

All of mankind falls short another result of sin. We are made enemies of

God. We are made enemies because of our sinful nature. And Colossians chapter

one we read once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds

because of your evil behavior. Because of our sin, we are relationally separated

from God. We are aliens to him and enemies because of our evil behavior.

That's mankind's natural state of sinfulness. To sin and death enter the world,

we are enemies with God. The next point is this hell. Now

this is the fire and brimstone portion of my message. But it's the truth,

and every unbeliever needs to know it. Every believer needs to hear it

again and again and again so that we can have a firm comprehension of everything

that Jesus accomplished on the cross for us. Thank you Lord for your grace

in Revelation twenty one. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile,

the murderers, the sexual, immoral, those who practice magic arts, the

idolaters and all liars. They will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning

sulfur. This is the second death. So not only as sinners do we

pay the price for our sin. Without Jesus, we pay the price,

which is death. But the second death is hell. Why because God is

just Remember we're the creation, He's the perfect holy Creator. Without repentance and

faith in Jesus, we are destined to eternity in hell, where one is

not separated from God. They are eternally in the presence of His wrath and

just judgment. And I know that's scary and that's hard to hear. It

should be. We all sin, we all fall short, and we are

all prior to saving faith in Jesus, enemies of God, and we all

deserve death and the eternal presence of God's wrath and hell. That's the reality.

Now. I mentioned earlier that the Gospel means good news, and so

far doesn't sound like much good news. Let's get into it because we have

to preface all this so we really fully understand what the good news is.

This is the next step and understanding the gospel salvation in Jesus. When you

go through all those steps with someone that's heavy. This is the good news

salvation in Jesus. There is a way of escape. God, in his

grace and love towards us, made a way, the only way of escaping

his wrath by having forgiveness of sin through Jesus's death on the cross. We

looked to Isaiah fifty three. I promise I won't cry, but I usually

cry when I read this CASEY knows I was reading. We were reading the

Bible together like years ago, and we were reading through this. I was

like verse, look what Jesus did. But he, Jesus, was pierced

for our transgressions, key was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought

us peace was on him. And by his wounds we are healed. We

all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to

our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us

all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth.

He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep

before its shearers, is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

Thank you Lord. Further on in Romans chapter five, but God demonstrates his

own love for us. In this, while we were still sinners, Christ

died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how

much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him? For if while

we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of his

son, how much more having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his

life. Not only is this soul, but we also boast in God through

our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Hallelujah.

Jesus willingly laid down his life for us on the cross and paid the penalty

for our sins. Because of his blood that he shed, we are reconciled

to God. But the good news doesn't stop there. Yeah, it gets

better, but a John chapter one. Yet to all who did receive him,

to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become

children of God. So not only did Jesus die for us, but for

those that for those that submit to him as Lord, who believe in his

name, he gives the right to become children of God. What we go

from fallen, rebellious, alien enemies of God fully deserving of his wrath and

just judgment to adopted children, because he himself took our place and paid our

penalty. He died a death he deserved. He rose in power to show

his glory and offers this salvation freely out of the overabundance of His grace and

love towards us. What that's the good news. That's the good news.

Booh okay, thank you Jesus. The final piece of the Gospel isn't asking

this question what's a sinner to do? Talking through creation, sin and death

being enemies of God through God's power that should give a person an understanding of

their state without him hearing about our need for a savior should give us hope

in the escape with him. Well, what do we do? Repent and

believe? That's literally it, Repent and believe. Why what I just explained

wasn't enough. This will because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is

Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,

you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified,

and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says everyone

who believes in him will not be put to shame, for there is no

distinction between Jew and gentile, Jew and Greek or gentile like, yeah,

same thing. But the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches

on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of

the Lord will be saved. Hallelujah. It's not called the free gift of

God for nothing. This is literally all It takes belief in Jesus in his

death and resurrection. But the unbeliever may ask why Jesus, I see plenty

of other claims and methods of salvation, or maybe a false sense of rightness

within myself. This is why Jesus. Jesus said to him, I am

the Way and the Truth and the life. No one comes to the Father

except through me. Jesus is the only way to the Father, the only

way for forgiveness of our sins, and the only way to be reconciled to

God. It is through belief in the Sun, not salvation that is found

within ourselves or our works, and certainly not false gods. Why not that

may be another question. Let's go to Proverbs. There is a way that

seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death furthermore

in Acts chapter four. And there is salvation in no one else, for

there is no other name under Heaven given among men by which we must be

saved. Our way leads to death, a death that we all deserve.

Everyone must look to Christ and trust in Him, not our works, for

the forgiveness of sin and eternity, in His good, holy, loving,

and glorious presence. As believers, we need to think on this and consider

it always so that we can give thanks to God for this. And unbelievers

need this gospel delivered to them by the ones that are sent, and it

needs to be delivered in love, sincerity of heart, and humility. And

to emphasize humility, because none of us deserve God's grace more than the next.

But to summarize this incredible good news of the Gospel, God made every

everything, and it was very good. Through Adam and Eve's sin and rebellion,

death entered the world the payment do our sin. We became enemies of

God and were bound for hell, the eternal presence of his wrath. But

through the overabundance of His love for us, he sent the son Jesus to

take our place on the cross. And pay the debt. We owed to

reconcile us to himself to save us from his just judgment and wrath. I

said, I wasn't gonna cry during it and secure our sonship as adopted children

of God, all of this by belief in Him alone. Halleujah. And

he's like one of those Yeah, it's a good speaker trick. You ponder

that I'm not crying. You're crying, all right? Next question, who

and where do we evangelize? Who? And where? Everyone everywhere? Pretty

simple, everyone everywhere. We should be looking for opportunities to share the gospel

with everyone everywhere. And if you're uncertaint or weary to do it by yourself,

take a buddy. Look at Mark chapter six, and he Jesus called

the twelve his disciples and began to send them out two by two, and

he gave them authority over the unclean spirits, authority. How the same holy

spirit that's in us we sent them out two by two. We should never

feel like we're in this by ourselves. The church is to support and help

one another in everything, and that doesn't stop with evangelism. If you don't

feel prepared to evangelize, to talk about the Gospel message, and you don't

have to say it the same way I did without the tears. Might help.

I don't know. Actually it probably would help everyone cry. But going

out with another believer is going to help immensely. You can support each other.

Also, as I mentioned, Jesus sent this Holy Spirit to help.

This is in Acts chapter one. But you will receive power when the Holy

Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in

all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. I love that

Jesus clarified this because in their immediate vicinity, they would hear Jerusalem and they'd

say, Okay, yeah, you're Judea, Samaria be like, okay,

a little bit farther, but that's that's fine. To the ends of the

earth. Share the Gospel with everyone everywhere. We are called to be His

witness to the world, and He gives us the greatest support we will ever

need, God himself, the Holy Spirit. God is with us when we

evangelize, and that if that doesn't give us hope, I don't know what

will. When we evangelize, know that God is with us, and bring

a buddy some other more practical resources. If you feel like you want some

training or maybe experience someone else's sharing the gospel, I would highly recommend checking

out wretched dot org, also Wretched Radio. Todd Friel. He is,

I'll tell you himself. He was called himself the worst of sinners, stealing

thattline from Paul, and he speaks about God's salvation to him and to those

that believe in a humble, gentle way. And I've learned a lot of

methods and ways to speak to challenges or debates that come up from unbelievers from

Todd Friel. Another one is Ray Comfort Living Water Ministries. He has a

very simple formula that he uses over and over and over again with each person

he ministers too. Both of these gentlemen have i'll say hundreds of videos,

probably more on YouTube. So those are some practical resources. Wretched dot Org,

Living Water Ministries, good stuff. Okay, they get the band come

up? Not can I get up here? Band? I'm not gonna cry

baby, do you hear that? I thought you'd get away with that.

I have the microphone. So we've looked at what evangelism is, why we

evangelized, and how we evangelized through sharing the gospel message, which is we

are all sinners and need of a savior, and that savior is found in

the person of Jesus Christ. So I'm going to close by looking at two

more verses. We'll talk about him, and then we'll pray and praise God.

Another song first up is Romans one, for I am not ashamed of

the gospel because because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone

who believes, first the Jew, then to the gentile. For in the

Gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith.

From first to last. Justice is written. Just as it is written,

the righteous will live by faith. As Paul wrote here, he said

he is not ashamed of the Gospel. This is coming from someone who was

imprisoned multiple times, who endured untold hardship and rebuke. He was not ashamed

of the gospel message that he was sharing. He knew what Jesus did.

He believed in the Lord and was so convicted he obeyed jesus commands. And

this is someone who was would he call himself chief of sinners? Yeah,

yeah, the chief of sinners, someone who's the pharisee of Pharisees who knew

God's law inside and out and turned turned from all of wicked ways. He

persecuted the church before Jesus confronted him on the road to Damascus. He turned

from all of that. In his ministry, he was not ashamed. It's

natural for the believer to struggle with doubt. Should never be ashamed of the

Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the very thing that saved us. Next up

in Luke, I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, the

son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God. Well, do

not be ashamed of the gospel, even if we are, even if we

encounter slander or God forbid physical persecution, but that happens elsewhere in the world.

To pray for our believers outside of the US. Do not be ashamed

of the message you're delivering, because you're doing the work we are commissioned to

do. Furthermore, when we do not deny the gospel, when when we

acknowledge Jesus, the son of Man, Jesus will himself acknowledge before the angels

of God. If I acknowledge Jesus in my gospelling. When I get to

heaven, Jesus is gonna say, look at Jordan here, he did what

I told him to do. Our motivation should not be this is great.

Our motivation should not be praise and the one who died for us. Motivation

should be Evangelum is a response. We should want to evangelize. We should

want to share the good news of Jesus Christ. That I'm gonna end there.

We're going to move on to our time of response. We're gonna worship

God through a couple of different methods versus giving. If you came prepared to

give with these envelopes available, or you can just drop your entire credit card

and the bin out there. Now you couldn't write your yeah, you can

write your card number here also, or connect card on the front. You

can write down your information should you feel comfortable providing it. Little checkboxes these

allow us to support you. Should you want to join a team, should

you want to become a member of the Roots which membership class next weekend.

It's also a great place to come and just want more information about it.

You don't have to sign the covenant to be a member. You can just

show up to learn more about us. You committed your life to Jesus today.

Praise God or iphen need prayer, If you need prayer for anything,

we want to pray for you. These prayer requests go to the elders that

go to community group leaders and there it's a tool that we use so that

more people can pray with you. If you want it to be a private

prayer where it just goes to the elders, just right private. We're anonymous

and spell it. And I've made that joke before, but it's not an

easy word to spell myself, and the other elders that are available will also

be on either side of the room for prayer. I'm fine praying for your

prayer if to write it down, but I would much rather pray with you.

And lastly, we're gonna sing another song, a song of praise in

worship of the one who deserves it, the only one that is worthy.

Let's pray, Lord Jesus. I thank you. I thank you for reconciling

us to the Father through your sacrifice on the cross, for taking our place,

for dying a death you did not deserve, for being the only way

for forgiveness of sin and eternity. With you, Lord, and our evangelism

to our neighbors, co workers, grocery store checkout, workers, party,

whoever it is. Help us to see the opportunity, give us the courage

to act on it. Remove any hint of doubt or shame that we may

feel in the gospel, and help us to deliver the message. Even if

we're uncertain about our own abilities, Lord, we can be certain of you.

I love you. Thank you for the truth of your word. I

thank you for your Holy spirit that helps us just help us to be better

followers of your Lord. We love you. Thank you for all this in

your name. Amen.