So we continue today to talk about evangelism and sharing our faith. It is absolutely foundational to being disciples of Christ. We are called, in fact commanded, to share the good news about forgiveness and repentance. Like most of our church language, I think the term evangelism has become normal to us and abused that we in fact hear it without engaging it. When we don’t engage it honestly we don’t react to it, hear it, or practice it. We become callused to it. Evangelism is something the church does, but not something I need to do. That is not my job. As we talk about evangelism I hope you gain this one thing from it. Evangelism cannot happen in the church until it starts in your life. It’s like expecting to have a vibrant, living community in the church overflowing with the presence of God while spending no time praying at home. If you don’t seek to experience God at home, you cannot expect to experience God in church. If you do not evangelize in your everyday life, you cannot expect the church to be a place where evangelism thrives. If you do not speak his love then how can you expect others to? Evangelism is not a church thing, but rather it is a lifestyle thing for the individual and the church. So hear me when I say you ought to be literally speaking God’s love to the world while you go about your daily life. Whether it be grocery shopping or working. Evangelism is the very intentional sharing of God’s grace and love verbally to another individual and living out towards them. It is not passive, it is not easy, it’s not forceful, and it is not silent. So thinking of evangelism in this manner what kind of things come to the forefront of your mind as you think of speaking God’s love to your neighbor? More specifically what kind of feelings are present?
While there are a great many answers that could be given for this one I think that if we are honest with ourselves the most prominent answer in any church congregation would be fear. We are quite often found to be afraid of sharing the good news. For what reason could we ever be afraid of sharing the gospel? For starters I think it is because we make it too big, too complicated. Evangelism is a well organized, sorted out, and systematic process in which we must be well prepared, ready to present any material or pamphlet to answer any question that might arise. If this is our vision of evangelism then it definitely belongs to the church organization and cannot be done by the average person. It takes an extraordinary person to accomplish such professionalism in evangelism. We make it way too big a thing for anyone to accomplish. We make it a lot larger than Jesus made it out to be. We need to shrink down our image of what constitutes sharing the grace of God. It is the perpetual build up of the small experiences that constitute the conversion experience, not the big moment. So let’s bring it down from its pedestal into something attainable and applicable to our everyday lives. Evangelism is not something so big and extreme that you are unable to accomplish it. It is not systematic structure of say this and do that. One of the most popular methods is taking them down the Romans road. I think this fears us because we believe there is some Romans road method to getting them into the kingdom of heaven and I don’t know it off hand. That doesn’t tell me you love me or that God loves me but rather that you read your church bulletin or pamphlet and can recite it back to me.
So what else cause us to fear sharing our faith? I think most of us are afraid of what other people think. Let’s face it there are some very real, and justified, stereotypes out there regarding Christians. They are just going to think I am another one of those crazy church goers who believe in an invisible God who can’t be explained or understood. They’ll just think me an uneducated religious nut. Then you have those stereotypes that other churches have laid upon us that have nothing to do with us and we don’t deserve. One that I hear in regards to the Church of Christ, which has in fact been earned by some congregations, is that we believe that only our denomination is going to heaven or even worse only our congregation. I say this has been earned because I have heard church of Christ congregations speak like this, but you and I both know this is not us. Yet we also know that this will be applied to us. There are so many others that will get applied as well, earned and unearned, such as homophobic, judgmental, foolish, mystical, racist, crazy, superstitious, uneducated, war-mongers, weak, and on and on. We allow our fears of being tagged and judged completely silence our message.
But I think our most debilitating fear of all is our fear of inability. I won’t have all the answers. I won’t be convincing enough. I am not a good speaker. I am not this, I can’t do that. The worse part of all is that I don’t think any of these fears are empty. Paul himself said it in 2 Corinthians, we are incapable of being ministers of the new covenant. We do not possess the ability to evangelize to the world as we have been called to do. You and I will never have all the answers, we will never be convincing enough, we will never be strong enough to bring those we love into the kingdom of heaven. But remember that is not where Paul ended. We may not be strong enough but we know someone who is. God does not call us to accomplish deeds we are capable of doing, but rather he calls us to accomplish deeds which we can only do with Him. Paul said God makes him able to be a ministers of the new covenant. He says that it is in our weaknesses that God’s power is made perfect. Think about all of our so called Bibles heroes. None of them were actually heroes, but rather it was God who was the hero. They were frail and weak unable to accomplish such a call. They became heroes simply because they allowed God to work in them. When Moses died God called Joshua to become the next leader of Israel and to conquer the land of Canaan. How qualified was Joshua to lead? He was at Moses’ side consistently so it all made sense. But in reality how many wars or battles had Israel fought in the last few hundred years or so. Not very many at all. There would most likely not have been one qualified tactician in the whole of Israel. They had been slaves, not warriors. Joshua is greatly under qualified for the position he is receiving and he knows it. God comes to him after Moses’ death and comforts all his fear before he can even bring them up. Turn with me to Joshua 1:5-9;
No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."
Joshua was unable and unqualified to be the leader of Israel and accomplish the calling of God. But didn’t care, He went with Joshua and made him into the leader they needed and God himself accomplished what was impossible for Joshua. You and I are in fact incapable to share the word of God, his love and grace, to this world. But God looks at us and tells us it doesn’t matter, He’ll make us capable. He says be strong and courageous. You will face social scorn, be strong and courageous. You will be looked down on, be strong and courageous. You will lose friends, be strong and courageous. You will not have the answers they want, be strong and courageous. You won’t know what to say, be strong and courageous. You will not be able to convince them, be strong and courageous. We will find ourselves lacking, but that is where the power of God starts to take form and work. God will enable us to be what he needs us to be. But the only way for us to accomplish this is to overcome our fear and speak. We speak and God changes hearts, we keep silent and the world fades away.
But what do we say, you have to start somewhere right? What often happens is our attempt to find something leads us to convincing, debating and arguing. We should not be trying to convince, debate, or argue. All of these are counterproductive to who Christ is and who we are supposed to be. Our task is to share and to love. Just because we are baited doesn’t mean we have to bite. Are we so easily controlled? Do we have to win every point in the eyes of man? I think that if we want to find some place to start we need to take note of what the blind man in John 9 told the Pharisees when questioned. Verses 25 of John 9 reads, "Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see." He says I don’t know who this Jesus is. I don’t know the answers, but I do know one thing, I was blind and now I see. This is the message of salvation. It is not some Romans road, or Hell prevention program, it is that I was blind and now I see. Every single one of us can do this. If Christ resides within us, if we have been saved then we can say to the world, I was blind but now I see. How great our God is to save one like me. I know where I was, I know where I am, and I know who got me there. Who cares if you don’t know the answer to questions like, "Why does God allow pain" and "What is the end times going to look like" All that matter is I was lost and now I am found. We can all say this and we all should be saying this daily.
We cannot try to pass our call to evangelism off as something too big or difficult for us to accomplish. We cannot allow our fears of social rejection and inability to keep us from speaking and living his word to a lost and needy world. God loves the lost and wants every one of them, and he has tasked you with guiding them towards him. We cannot be afraid. Fear cripples and crushes us, making us ineffective and mute. But God has made it clear that he will make us strong and He will overcome any obstacles that are placed before us. Our God is great and we must believe in his strength, power and ability to succeed. It is only when we remember what he has done for us and proclaim it aloud that the world is set free. We must shout out in our jobs, friendships, shopping and just overall lives that I don’t know much, but this one thing I do know, I was blind, but now I see.
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