Biblical Evangelism (with apologies and thanks to Mark Dever)



Tolle Lege (Take up and read)



These are study notes from our new class on evangelism.  These are based heavily on Mark Dever's book "The Gospel and Personal Evangelism"  I merely organized the information there in a study note format for my students and added some of my own personal thoughts.  Everything in quotation marks is the work of Mark Dever.  I encourage everyone to pick up a copy.  It is available on Kindle for a little over $7.  The next chapter is "What is the Gospel"  I hope to have that up and ready by next Monday.  Enjoy and may you be encouraged to share your faith and be salt and light "in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation." Phillipians 2:15

Biblical Evangelism

Introduction

One of the clearest commands for the Christian and yet one of the most neglected is the command to share the Gospel (Good News) with others. To go and make disciples. Matthew 28:19 The Great Commission!

So why don't we do it? What is it? Who should do it? How do we do it? How should we not do it? Why should we do it? And what should we do after we do it? These are questions we will attempt to answer over the next few classes.

Why We Don't

A. Basic Excuses

1. I don't know their language. This is a common excuse and not necessarily an illegitimate one. In 1 Corinthians 14:10-23 Paul speaks of the importance of understanding each other. This is a legitimate excuse but there are things that we can do to overcome these obstacles, such as, learn the language.

2. Evangelism is illegal. Again, in some places, this could be a real reason to be careful in preaching the gospel, but for most of us this is not a real problem.

3. Could cause problems at work/school/family. If we are working for someone else, we are to be good servants and not use their time to evangelize, but there are often other opportunities around this to be a witness. Also, at school, we must not be inconsiderate of others and interfere with teaching or learning, but find the right moments to share the gospel with others. And with family, we must share but in love and never with rudeness or forcing it upon our loved ones. “We certainly don't want the sharing of the gospel to bring us or the gospel into disrepute for any reason other than a disagreement with the message itself.” We don't want our evangelism to stand in the way of the evangel (good news).

4. Other things seem more urgent. There are other duties in our life that are good and necessary for us to take care of in a timely manner. Spouse, children, work, etc. All of these are legitimate areas where we need to spend time and care. God has blessed us with these people and things to take good care of them. But sometimes we can use these as an excuse not to do what God has left us here to do.

5. I don't know any non-Christians. This is a common problem among many Christians, especially today. We have created for ourselves little Christian bubbles in which to live. Even in countries like Nepal, it can be easy to do all of your business with and spend all of your time with believers only. This is the opposite of being salt and light. This is the equivalent of hiding your light under a basket or pouring your salt beside your food and refusing to let it accomplish what God has commanded us to do. We must be salt by mixing ourselves in with our culture, by being in the world but not of the world. We must associate with those of this world. (1 Corinthians 5:9-10) We are to live in the world as a light to the world. (Philippians 2:15) But we are to do this blamelessly. We are priests of God representing His name to the nations. (1 Peter 2:9) We cannot do any of this living in a Christian bubble, avoiding contact with all unbelievers. We must not be afraid to engage our culture and it's people!

B. Excuses Concerning non-Christians

“People don't want to hear.” “They won't be interested.” “They probably already know the gospel.” “It probably won't work, I doubt they believe.”

These are all excuses that we have probably all used on ourselves about someone that we felt the Spirit calling us to share the gospel. These all show our faithlessness. Oh, we have faith but not in God. We are putting our trust in our own powers of persuasion or their ability to listen and believe and rightly judging them to be insufficient and not sharing the gospel on those beliefs.

     Like Moses, we hesitate to share the message God has given us because we doubt our own ability or we predict the unbelief of our audience, but really we doubt God and the power of the Gospel! (Exodus 4:1,10)

     What makes them so different than us? Why did we believe? Was it because we were more inclined to believe such a message? Was it because of our intelligence? No! It was the power of God! (1 Corinthians 4:7) Their faith, like ours, will be a gift of God. (Ephesians 2:8-9) Conversion is a miracle! It goes against the very laws of nature. We are born in sin, unable to hear or see God. Without the desire to know God. Everything within us denying Him and His existence. (Romans 1:18-23) The fact that anybody is saved is a miracle of God that is compared to the creation of the world! (2 Corinthians 4:6)

C. Twelve Steps to Help Us Not Stop Evangelizing

1. Pray! - If you are lacking opportunities to share the gospel, pray! Pray and be amazed as God answers your prayers and brings people into your life for you to share the good news.

2. Plan. - We plan for so many things in our lives: work, family, dinner, vacations, retirement, even entertainment! Why not plan for evangelism? There is nothing nonspiritual about planning time to go witnessing. Keep gospel tracts on you as you go about your day. Even if you can't stop and talk with someone, be sensitive to opportunities to pass these out or leave with someone that you've had the opportunity to share the gospel.

3. Accept. - “We have to accept that this is our job!” “Go therefore and make disciples” (Matt. 28:19) I have heard some say that we are not called to share the gospel but to make disciples. We are only called to train others in the faith, not go and call them to the faith. It is amazing how cowardice can distort our ability to read and understand simple text. We will not have anyone to disciple unless we go and make disciples by sharing with them the good news. This is our duty! It is to this that we are all called.

4. Understand. - “But evangelism is just not my gift.”, somebody might say. Okay, there is a gift of evangelism, but just because it is not your particular gift does not mean that it is not your duty. Hospitality and mercy are also giftings of the Spirit, but if that is not yours it doesn't mean that you are allowed to merciless and inhospitable. How absurd! This is every Christian's duty!

5. Be Faithful. - Sometimes in our attempt to be thoughtful of others, we might forget to whom we owe our allegiance. “Good manners are no excuse for unfaithfulness to God.” Sometimes we can more concerned about how people will respond and not concerned enough about God's glory. Be faithful to God and His glory. That is the business we are to be about. We were created for His glory and now that He has saved us and restored His image in us through the work of Christ, this is the most important thing that we can accomplish.

6. Risk. - We must be willing to put ourselves into situations where the outcome is not known and the end might even be uncomfortable. “We must be willing to risk in order to evangelize.” This is probably one of the greatest obstacles to our evangelism: our own pride. Too often we are more concerned with our own glory and not concerned enough with God's.

7. Prepare. - Sometimes our reason for not sharing the gospel is because of our own sense of unpreparedness. We are afraid we don't know enough, what if they ask me a question and I don't know the answer? Again, we must remember it will not be our own wisdom and ingenious answers that will lead someone to repentance but the Spirit of God. “We should prepare ourselves by knowing the gospel, working on our own humility, and studying more.”

8. Look. - Be aware of opportunities to share the gospel! So often we realize only too late that we had an amazing opportunity to share with someone and missed it because our minds were somewhere else. When this happens, we must not get too discouraged as if that person is now doomed to an eternity apart from God, because we goofed up, but we must be alert nonetheless. If we are closing our eyes in prayer for opportunities to share the gospel, we must also open them in faith and be ready to seize those same opportunities.

9. Love. - “We share the gospel because we love people. And we don't share the gospel because we don't love people. We protect our pride at the cost of their souls. If we would evangelize more, we must love people more.” We must love God's glory and other people more than our own reputation.

10. Fear. - “When we don't share the gospel, we are essentially refusing to live in the fear of the Lord. When the One who is our all-powerful creator and judge is also our merciful redeemer and savior, then we have found the perfect object for the entire devotion of our heart. And that devotion will lead us to share this good news about Him with others.”

11. Stop. - “We should stop excusing ourselves from evangelism on the basis that God is sovereign.” God is calling a great number to Himself from every tribe, tongue, and nation. (Revelation 7:9-10) This should encourage us in our evangelism. This is the means God has chosen to call His people to Himself. (1 Corinthians 1:17-31) “We can't answer all the questions of how God's sovereignty and human responsibility fit together, but we can certainly believe that they do.”

12. Consider. - (Hebrews 12:3) “When we don't sufficiently consider what God has done for us in Christ – the high cost of it, what it means, and what Christ's significance is- we lose the heart to evangelize. Our hearts grow cold, our minds grow small, and our lips fall silent.”

Consider: That God has loved us as He has!

That God is glorified by our telling others of His amazing love.

That by keeping silent, we reveal our coldness to God's glory.

“That if we would be more faithful in evangelism, we would fuel the flame of love toward God within us, and of gratitude and hope. A fire so enflamed by God will have no trouble igniting our tongue.” (Matthew 12:3-4)

Saved, How I love to Proclaim It!

     These are my notes from my sermon this Saturday.  Hope you enjoy them just remember these are only notes, not the full sermon, although they have been fleshed out somewhat. 

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1-2 ESV)

“we have been justified by faith”

     Abraham believed God and is was accounted to him for righteousness. (Romans 4:3) Abraham was saved by faith apart from the law. (Romans 4:13) It was not by your own good works you were saved nor from anything you have done. (Ephesians 2:8-9) It is by faith and faith alone in the accomplished work of Christ on the cross.

“we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

     Because of this faith, given to us by God, we now have peace with God. Did you realize that you were in need of peace with God? Who do we need peace with? Those with whom we are at war! We were at war with God and even worse, He was at war with us! (Romans 5:10; Col. 1:21) We were His enemies and He chose to love us. He broke down the wall between us and made peace with us! (Eph. 2:13-16) Why we were still His enemies, cursing His name, not honoring Him, using up all of His blessings and not thanking Him for any of them, (Romans 1:21) He sent His own son to die for us and receive our wrath for our sins so that we could receive His righteousness and be reconciled to Him. This is what it means to have peace with God through Jesus Christ. We can say it so fast and not listen to what we say. There is so much packed away in those words. Jesus took on himself the punishment, the wrath of God himself, for our sins! “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5) So that we could once again have fellowship with God. (1 John 1:7) Wow!

“Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace”

     Through Him, because of what He has done, we have obtained access. We have been allowed in! We can now approach God. We have access to the Father because of who Christ is and because of what He has done! (Hebrews 4:16; 12:22-24) By faith we have received the adoption of sons and daughters of God. (Romans 8:15-16) By faith! Again, not because of us or anything we could do, but by faith, that He gave us!

“in which we stand,”

     This grace is the very ability to fellowship with God that we have been talking about, but how do we stand in it? This is the power of God sustaining us in His salvation. Not only are we justified by faith in Christ and in what He has done for us, but we are sustained by that same faith! This is our sanctification! We have been saved. That is our justification. God has put our sins and our guilt on Christ and punished Him in our place therefore we are no longer guilty. We have been justified in God's sight. But now God is saving us from the power of sin in our lives, making it possible for us to live holy righteous lives in His presence. We are being saved! This is our sanctification! God is making us more like Jesus! (2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 8:29; 1 Corinthians 15:49) How does He do this? He does this by the very same sacrifice of Christ! We are baptized (immersed) by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13), upon belief, into the death of Christ. (Romans 6:3) Therefore, whatever Christ experienced, we experience. Just as we were in Adam and when Adam fell we fell into sin. (1 Corinthians 15:22) Now we are in Christ (the second Adam) and when he died we died. We are no longer under the power of sin, because we have died to sin. And when Christ raised from the dead, we were raised with Him. This is a miracle! So we no longer live as slaves to sin, but we are alive now to God to serve Him in righteousness. (Romans 6:3-14)

“and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

     We have been saved (our justification), we are being saved (our sanctification), and we will be saved (our glorification).  God has taken away our guilt and our shame. Given us the righteousness of Christ in it's place. He is in the process of making us more and more like Christ every day by the same powerful gospel. And now we see that there is a future hope, a time when we will be saved from this present sinful world to be forever in the presence of God and to rejoice in His glory forever! (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)  “And so we will always be with the Lord.” That is Heaven. Not to spend eternity reunited with your family and friends, not to be done with your labors here below, not the mansions and the streets of gold, not even the new body or to escape the flames of hell but that we will be always with the Lord and He will be forever ours!

     Does that sound like Heaven to you? To spend eternity glorifying God and enjoying Him forever? The very idea should be thrilling for us, for this is the very purpose of our creation. To glorify God, “Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.” Psalm 29:1-2 And to enjoy Him forever, “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” Psalm 34:8

     God is the supreme good! In Him (Jesus) all fulness dwells. (Colossians 1:19) How can we help but enjoy Him? Everything that is good is in Him. He is the ultimate prize! Anything in this life, good or bad, can only satisfy for a season, but in Him is eternal satisfaction. Imagine endless days with such a God! This is the ultimate reward!

Conclusion:

     So, have you been saved? Do you have peace with God?  Are you walking in the light with Him?  Have your sins been taken away from you and put upon Christ and has His righteousness been placed upon you?      

     Are you being saved? Are you working to achieve your own holiness apart from Christ by the works of the Law or are you daily being transformed into the image of Christ? Do you experience conviction of sin in your life? Can you see evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart?

     Will you be saved? Are you looking simply for a free ticket out of Hell for you and your loved ones or do you look forward to the return of Christ with a great longing to be with Him forever? Do you see the great value of Christ? Is He precious to you?

     If the answer is no to any of these, then repent! Cry out to God for mercy! There is peace available for you. Surrender to Christ.

GBC Class Pictures (Second Semester 2011)

Back row (left to right): Ashok, John, Amit, Steve, Gopal, Subarna
Front Row (left to right): Prajowl, Momita, Sabitri, Punam, Pramila, Mina, Pastor Tika

Namaste Everyone!

     Sorry it has been so long since my last post.  We have been fighting flu and cold here pretty hard the last week or so.  Daniel had a temp of about 103 from Monday to Wednesday last week and both of us ended up with a pretty nasty head cold.  Both of are doing pretty good now.  Daniel is getting back to normal, both in personality and appetite. 

     We are moving along quickly in our classes.  We are just about to finish up in our Doctrine of God and Doctrine of the Word of God classes.  In fact, when we come back from holiday, we will be finishing the Sufficiency of Scripture in a couple days and the Attributes of God in a couple weeks.  Next in line is Biblical Evangelism: The Law and the Gospel and Pneumatology: The Work of the Holy Spirit. 

     For the Biblical Evangelism class I will be using Mark Dever's book, "The Gospel and Personal Evangelism" as a guide.  We are also continuing through our study in Exodus in the afternoons.  That has been both a challenging and rewarding class!  Lot's of great stuff packed away in Exodus, but it takes a lot of hard digging to get it all out!

     I have been wanting to get some pictures up of the students this semester, but the weather has been so rainy and cloudy, it has been hard to find the right time.  This last Friday was perfect, so we took off early and got these pictures.  Hope you enjoy!  The students are all off this week for holiday, and they were supposed to give me some more information to go with their pictures before they left.  But they didn't!  Anyway, I'll update the info later, so check back. 

Jaimashi!

Steve and Daniel

Amit!  (If I were ever going to change my name to something cooler (like anything could be cooler than 'Steve Wingo')
I would change it to 'Amit')  Amit is one of the few students that has been with us for both years of GBC's existence.  He is translating for me in my Doctrine of God class and is basically teaching it himself.  He knows the Word and is a great student and friend.  I really expect to see him teaching in the next couple years.



Ashok: First and Second year student, great brother and encouragement, loves the Lord and knows the Word.




Ashok and John (I don't know why John looks so serious)




This is Gopal.  He is a few years older than me and is exmilitary.  He has only been a believer less than a year.
He is from a village in Chitwan and is very eager to learn and be equipped to share the Gospel in his village.





This is our dear brother, John!  Or as many here pronounce it Joon!  John is our guest student.  He just started college, but school is out for over a month due to the Hindu holiday "Dashain" so he is sitting in on the classes.



Here is our dear sister Mamita!  Great student and even better cook!  (and good friend :))

Pramila and Punam suppressing a giggle.



Pramila!  We don't really have any bad students, but even so Pramila is one of the best and brightest!
She always seems happy and joyful which is a great encouragement on those days that I'm not feeling so happy
and joyful myself!



Punam!  Another one of our lovely female students.  We have more girls this semester than any other previous semester, I believe.  Punam is a great student and always seems to have a great attitude.  As you can tell from the photo below, her and Pramila like to smile!

Punam, Pramila, and John posin' for the camera

Sabitri!  Good student!  Does great on the exams, but very quiet!



Sabitri trying to keep a straight face for pictures






This is Mina.  Another great student but very quiet!

 

Subarna!  Fast becoming one of the better students.  Very quiet guy, but works hard and very smart!

Where would I be without Pastor Tika?  He has been a great help in working with me to teach with an interpreter.  He is also teaching one class in the mornings on Bible Survey.  Not to mention, he is always busy shepherding the local church.  Pray for Pastor Tika.  He is a hard working pastor and needs lots of prayer and encouragement.  (He  is also apparently very funny, at least in Nepali.  During devotions in the morning he will have the students cracking up, but I can't understand a word of it!)

Prajowl: This is Momita's husband and a good friend.  Like I said before, we really don't have any poor students this year and if you want to stand out, you really have to work hard, but Prajowl is one of those students that really does stand out!  For example: on his exams, he rewrites everything by hand and goes into great detail on just about every answer.  (one of my favorite things is reading my students exams and seeing how they have answered the questions and what they have learned.)