E3: Who should Evangelize?

The goal of E3 is to see everyone equipped to evangelize.

We will do this by

• Defining Evangelism (we’ll do a quick review of what evangelism is for)
• Knowing why we must evangelize and we talked about that last week!
• Exploring who must Evangelize is what we’ll explore today
• Learning how to evangelize and we’ll do some “nuts & bolts” of how to actually evangelize next week, so you definitely don’t want to miss that!

Biblical evangelism includes several things:

The Gospel

An Invitation

Salvation

Keep in mind, The Gospel is defined in 1 Corinthians 15: 1-4

1 Corinthians 15: 1-4

1Now brothers, I want to clarify for you the gospel I proclaimed to you; you received it and have taken your stand on it. 4 ³ For I passed on to you as most important what I also received:

that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

The Gospel is defined with 3 characteristics:

Jesus Died for Our Sins

He Was Buried

He was Raised on the Third Day

Salvation is clearly written in Romans 10:9 (so important to remember this)

Romans 10:9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 

Last week we looked at what Jesus meant when He said “blessed are the peacemakers” from the Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 5:9 The peacemakers are blessed, for they will be called sons of God.

“Peacemaker” is someone who helps others to be at peace with God, not just making sure people are getting along!

With all that, we have defined Evangelism this way:

Evangelism: People at peace with God sharing The Gospel with unbelievers and inviting them to be at peace with God.

Last week, we went through the biblical reasons why we must evangelize and we left with the question

Is seeing others at peace with God truly important to you?

God makes us all different, and in Ephesians 4, Paul writes to the early church about how the giftings of the believers unite the body and foster Maturity:

Ephesians 4: 11-13

And He personally gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors (Shepherds) and teachers, ¹² for the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, ¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.

Who personally gives these gifts? Jesus! Jesus had all these gifts completely and fully, and He has personally gives us these. Some of these He has given in abundance, and some He has given in lesser amounts. But if Jesus is in us and we are in Him, we have some of all of these!

If your wondering what you’re gifted in, you can take a few minutes and take the test on your own at this website:

fivefoldministry.com

Some guys much smarter than I am have studied deeply into what these gifts mean and what these gifts do in the church. Alan Hirsch is one of those guys who shares this in his book The Forgotten Ways. In a nutshell, these gifts are, as simply explained as possible, as follows (briefly explain each one, if you like, check out www.theforgottenways.org/what-is-apest.aspx ):

Apostle (the sent ones…)

Prophet (They hear God…)

Evangelist (The Recruiter…)

Shepherd (The Nurturer…)

Teacher (The Explainer…)

Every Christian Should Evangelize

Jesus said in Acts 1:8

Acts 1:8

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Paul, in Acts 20, said this:

Acts 20:24

“…I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news….”

Romans 10: 9-15

⁹ If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. ¹¹ Now the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on Him will not be put to shame,^[g] 12 for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, since the same Lord of all is rich to all who call on Him. ¹³ For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.^[h]

¹⁴ But how can they call on Him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about Him? And how can they hear without a preacher? ¹⁵ And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful^[i] are the feet of those^[j] who announce the gospel of good things!^[k] 1

Are you willing?

Come back next week to go over some simple teaching on how to evangelize!