Evangelism

This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God...

The scripture is full of examples, acts, people that are pleasing to God. If you truly believe in the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent to mankind then you will seek the things that are pleasing to Him.

If you truly love God and Jesus sincerely, at a point in your relationship with the Lord, it will cause you to take a step back, sit down and examine yourself, execute a sincere assessment of yourself to see if you have really grasped the intrinsic purpose of Jesus' suffering, death, burial, ascension, and exaltation. Unless this is done, some of the pillars of Christianity particularly Salvation will not make much sense to you and abuse or devaluing the criticality of the gospel is inevitable.

• Jesus' suffering - Isaiah 53:3-5

• Death - Matt 27:50-54 [Direct access to God's presence, Display of the Power of God, Fallen Saints raised back to life]

• Burial - Ephe 4:9, Rev 1:18. He descended into hell" is clearly the separation of His body and soul in death. Proved He has risen from death to new life

• Resurrection: Luke 24:1-6, John 11:25-26 [Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus]

• Ascension - John 16:7, John 14:3, Ephe 4:10

• Exaltation - Mark 16:19, Acts 2:33, Luke 22:69, Phil 2:9, Rom 8:34, 1 Pet 3:22

Having an understanding of what Christ has done for you alone will not do justice to how important evangelism is, it is the knowledge of what Christ has done for you and who you are in Christ that gives you the full understanding on how important evangelism is and that understanding fuels your courage to take action into journey of proclaiming the gospel under any circumstances.

In other words, knowledge of Christ and your identity in Christ are the keys to unlocking your potentials towards doing exploits particularly in the area of evangelism. [2 Cor 4:6, John 1:4-5]

What does it mean to have the knowledge of Christ?

It is to know the will of God, understanding who Jesus is, what he has and what he can do.

When you know Christ, automatically you know the Glory of God.

Therefore, when he had gone out, Jesus *said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately. [John 13:31-32]

And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, [Heb 1:3]

How do you discover your Identity in Christ? Who do God say you are?

All you need to do is to look into the manual of life, the word of God and you will find numerous declarations of you, few examples below...

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. [1 Pet 2:9]

You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. [Matt 5:14-16]

As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” [John 9:4-5]

For we are his workmanship {the degree of skill with which a product is made, or a job done}, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” [John 8:12]

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.

When you have the knowledge of Christ, and you understand who you are in Christ then it is easier to find out what pleases God.

Few examples of what pleases God in relation to Evangelism.

1. Salvation of souls

It is Gods desire that all be saved and come to knowledge of the truth. What is this truth?

That Jesus is the Way, Truth and Life, no one comes to the Father except through Him. [John 14:6]. That In Him was life, and that life is the light of men. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. [1 John 5:20]

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. [1 Tim 2:1-4]

2. Growing in Faith

Before stepping out to share the gospel with friends, Neighbours, colleagues, families, it is important we are in a state of rest and not in anxiety mode. Believe that you are about to embark on one of the good works ordained by God according to His will. With this mindset, you can be rest assured that God is with you, and you can have that the Holy Spirit will do the work of conviction.

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. [Heb 11:6]

3. Renewing our minds

To maintain a steady heart for God in faith and to carry out His good works like evangelism requires a deliberate effort of mind renewal. This falling world that we live in has the potential to corrupt one's mind and if care is not taken, you may start to fill your mind with negative thoughts and give a foothold for the devil. I pray this does not happen to you.

it is crucial that a child of God renews his/her mind through the word of God so that we are equipped and ready to do the good works prepared for us ahead of time.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. [Romans 12:2]

4. Preaching the Gospel

Just after Jesus's resurrection and just before He was taken up into the heaven, He appeared to the eleven disciples and the first/last command he gave was "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."

I find this quite intriguing, of all the things he could share with them, going into the world and sharing the gospel was what Jesus considered first and important task. This is because it is pleasing to God, and everyone should know that Christ has paid for our sins and shame in full and we don't need to live in condemnation anymore.

Please understand that this preaching of the gospel is not only for pastors or evangelists etc., but this is also a command for all the followers of Christ.

I'm glad that Mark's gospel confirmed that the disciples went out and preach everywhere and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by signs that accompanied it. This means that you are not alone in this journey. God is with you as you obey his word to share the gospel. [Mark 16:14-20, Rom 8:1, Luke 9:1-6 and 59-60, John 8:29]

5. Making Disciples

In similar manner just as we see in the gospel of Mark making reference to Jesus's command to the disciples to go into the world and preach the gospel, St. Mattew also alluded to the fact that Jesus did not only ask us to preach the gospel, but He also commanded that we should make disciples. We are not only expected to save the lost souls, but we must also take responsibility to ensure they abide in Christ, that is why it is dangerous and a disgrace to accept Christ, become a Christian and remain an infant, never ready to pay the price to grow as a Christian and pursue maturity in the Spirit. If you do not value growing as a Christian then you cannot fulfil Gods Word by making disciples, it is until you make a decision to grow and be grounded and rooted in Christ that you can be effective leader, a mentor, guardian or role model to a young believer.

This is not an excuse for some of you to be lackadaisical about seeing that believers around you are encouraged and supported, you can always start from somewhere.

The interesting thing is that if Christ comes back to today, what do you think he would ask us first as followers of Christ? I think the question would be "How many disciples have you made?"

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.

Having seen from the scriptures that evangelism is one of the good works that pleases God. The next thing I guess you'd ask me is how then shall we go about?

There are different approaches to evangelism, I will only mention a few that I see Jesus followed as discovered in the Bible as well as other examples observed recently. However, before I enlist them, let me quickly remind you of these things:

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. [Matt.5:14]

A lamp that gives light is not kept under a bowl rather it is put on a stand meaning since you are the light, you have a stand - a platform, your mission field which can be - the place you work, live, play, learn or a people group, its usually one of those things. How do I know this?

When the Lord appointed seventy other disciples and sent them out in two by two to go preach the gospel. When it was time for them to leave, He told them clearly, Go Your Way! [Luke 10:1-3]

Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.

This simply means you follow the path of your daily/weekly/monthly activities and preach the gospel to people you come across along your own way not out of your way. if you still don't get it, I will use an example I got from one of my mentors - Nuel Manufor. He said, check your google map for location history, it will show records where you normally go to. You can easily see some regular places you visit; those places are your ways and all you need to do is to be vigilant, sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and be ready to share the gospel to unbelievers along your ways.

Basic Methods of Evangelism

1. Street Evangelism

This is an outreach event with people on the streets. You can do this with a like-minded friend or colleague on a mission to go to your city/town center and say hello to people. Some will respond and some won't, at least the ones that smile at you, you can then ask them if there are anything they would like a prayer for. I have tried several times with my friend Joe Swales who loves to go out on evangelism, and I can tell you it's quite refreshing and a great experience.

You can also join an evangelism team in your local group which brings more support and encouragement. In my local church, we meet at least once in a week for a three month's term to reach out to people in our town center with jars of hot water for tea, coffee machine, nibbles and snacks stationed in a strategic location and share for free. This attracts people to us, and we are able to friendly chats which triggers deeper conversation into the life of some individual and we were able to give some prophetic words, encouragements and prayers.

2. Lifestyle/Testimony Evangelism

As long we are still living on this earth, we will have to relate with people one-way or the other and building relationships with people at work, school, gym, etc. I have had several experiences where my colleagues at work have asked about my career journey and how come my style of work is different. At that point, I knew this was an opportunity to share my testimony - how God has helped me thus far to my present level. I believe that sharing my testimony with unbelievers is way of liberating their minds to something glorious which will cause them to even ask more questions. This is an opportunity to invite them over for a drink either with you or group of other believers or even invitation to church.

It is very important we take cognizance of our attitude anywhere we find ourselves, how we talk, use of words with flexibility in our mind to allow the Holy Spirit to direct our steps and actions.

If we make evangelism a lifestyle, you will realise it won't be a burden. it will be part of our daily lifestyle.

May God give us the grace to recognise every opportunity to share the gospel and not disappoint when we are supposed to shine the light of God.

Guides to create your testimony:

1. Talk about what your life was like before you accepted Christ [Acts 26:4-11]

2. Describe how God spoke to your heart and opened your eyes to spiritual truth. Include the basic facts of the gospel and your response of faith. [Acts 26:12-18]

3. Finally, share how your life has changed since receiving the forgiveness available in Christ. [Acts 26:19-23]

For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy [Rev 19:10]

And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. [Col 3:17]

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Use your heads as you live and work among outsiders. Don’t miss a trick. Make the most of every opportunity. Be gracious in your speech. The goal is to bring out the best in others in a conversation, not put them down, not cut them out. [Col 4:5,6]

3. Evangelism by Revelation

Let's take Jesus for example in John 4, Jesus left Judea for Galilee and he had to go through Samaria. This could be due to geographical reasons or simply the leading of the Holy Spirit.

The bottom-line is he passed through Samaria and spotted a familiar location called Sychar- Jacob's well (His grandfather), sat down by the well waiting for His target. The interesting thing in those days is that the well is a strategic place to meet women especially for singles. Remember where Abraham's servant found Rebekah - by the well. So, Jesus knew what He was doing before heading to the well, it's just that this time the purpose is to win a soul and at the same time win an evangelist who will go out and proclaim the gospel. You might be wondering, why the Samaritan woman? This is because the woman's profile already shows she probably has some good communication and relational skills even though she is using it in a negative way (She had five husbands plus current one which is not hers).

The fact is that in today's world we also have our own platform where we can find lots of people from different nationalities, tribes, works of life etc which is the social media.

You can use your social media handles for smart evangelism. Learn to share valuable messages, prophetic words, words of exaltation, gospel quotes, articles, interesting sermons you have listened to and many more. All these have the potential to minister to an unbeliever. The most important thing is you have sown the seed. Use your social media outlet for profitable activities and not frivolities.

Why is Evangelism a Necessity?

1. It is the power of God unto Salvation

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed [Romans 1:16]

2. Display of Wisdom

The fruit of the [consistently] righteous is a tree of life,

And he who is wise captures and wins souls [for God—he gathers them for eternity. [Proverbs 11:30]

3. It is our obligation as Christians

For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! [1 Cor 9:16]

4. Dependent on Salvation of lost Souls

For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? [Rom 10:13, 14]

5. Opportunity to proclaim God's good news

“Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. [Isaiah 12:4]

6. To reconcile others to Christ as God has done for us

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling[c] the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. [2 Cor 5:20]

Prayer

1. Father, remove the veil that has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they can see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ. [2 Cor 4:4]

2. Lord, use me for your glory. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. [Luke 10:2]

3. Lord, give me opportunities to witness [Col. 4:3]

4. Father, grant me boldness to witness [Acts 4:29]

5. Father, let those who do not know you be set free from spiritual captivity [2 Tim. 2:25-26].