Evangelism the Right Way
Acts 15:36--16:10
I've entitled this message, "Evangelism the right way." Ever since the Lord Jesus Christ commanded us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature we have been busy pursuing the ministry of evangelism. The church has done this since the very statement of Christ, and I suppose there are as many methods as there have been weeks since Christ said that. There are all kinds of approaches. There are multitudes of different efforts that have gone on throughout the history of the church in different climates, in different cultures, in different periods of history, all under the area of evangelism. There are multiplied thousands of different tracts and pamphlets and printed devices that can be used today in evangelism. There is everything from a very simplistic presentation of basic verses to a very sophisticated media presentations of Christ, very complicated approaches as opposed to simple ones.
I've seen a tract that is based on the fact "The one thing you need to know" and then I've seen a booklet called "39 steps to salvation." So everything in between, whether it's one thing you need to know or 39 ways to get there, there are many different methods and many different approaches in terms of our efforts at evangelism. We have periodic schools of evangelism. We have great training centers for evangelism. We have seminaries that have evangelism departments and there are some professors of evangelism in some seminaries and even areas in some colleges. Now there's no exhausting of this. It has gotten to the place where it is even parodied somewhat.
There was in recent years a film produced entitled The Gospel Blimp. Some of you may have seen that. It hasn't been around for a while but it was a guy who wanted to reach his neighbor with the Gospel and so he bought a blimp so he could fly over his neighbor's house and drop tracts in his backyard. Of course it turned into an International Blimps Association and it went on and on and on until it got so organized and then everywhere they dropped tracts people were cursing at them and they were cluttering up the yards. It was a parody on the super method, and incidentally when the guy was getting all of the blimp stuff ready his neighbor kept coming over and asking him if he'd like to go to the beach with him and he had a perfect opportunity there but there have been no end to the methods of evangelism, and I'm not discounting them for they are good in most cases and meaningful and helpful and we've used them with great benefit and God has blessed. But underneath all this methodology - and I think very often we get lost in that - underneath all this methodology there are some foundation features of evangelism that are very important, and I don't care what the methodology is, the foundations are the same.
Now these are given in Scripture in many places very directly but if you've learned anything about scripture you've learned that what God wants to say not only comes directly but very often it comes indirectly. For example, without making any theological statement at all in these verses, there is no theological statement, there is no doctrinal statement, yet you have here in an indirect implication the foundations of effective evangelism. We've seen this in the Book of Acts many times, haven't we? They key to Bible study, friends is to be able to take the Scripture and extract the principles that are there either by direct statement or by implication. That is what it is to study Scripture.
And so as we go through these verses I'm not interested in just saying, "Paul and Barnabas did this and then they went to Derbe and there they met Timothy and then they went over there and then they did that and good bye, God bless you, have a nice day." That isn't it. That's fine and that gives us historical background but underneath all this what is the purpose of the Holy Spirit? What principles are implied in what is going on here? Now I believe that's really the difference between real Bible study, real Bible teaching, and that, which is superficial, and so we want to look here at some foundation features of evangelism done the right way.
Now keep in mind that as the Holy Spirit has been writing the Book of Acts these kinds of things have been in the text over and over and over again, and we're gonna see them from a different angle. Now as we approach the 36th verse of the 15th chapter of Acts we remember that for 15 chapters the church has been growing. The church has just gone through a crisis. Satan tried to split the church. He tried to split the Jews and the gentiles over the issue of legalism. Satan tried to foul up doctrine. By getting a new doctrine of salvation you're saved by faith plus works. Satan tried to halt missions by stopping the free message of salvation and making gentiles become Jews first so Satan tried to mess up the church, doctrine, and missions, but as it always happens God reversed everything and instead the church established its doctrine, came out of the of the Jerusalem Council in great unity and the process of evangelism was speeded up. So everything Satan tried to retard he only succeeded in speeding up.
In verse 35 picking it up, "After all this decision had been made and Paul and Barnabas along with Judas and Silas had gone back to Antioch, which was the base of gentile missions, and they reported the great findings of the Jerusalem Council that salvation was indeed by grace, then they went back to their ministry and things really took off. Paul also and Barnabas continued in Antioch" verse 35, "Teaching and preaching," that's evangelism and edification, "the Word of the Lord with many others also." They have a little parenthesis. In chapter 15 they've got their theology squared away, they've got their directions squared away, they've got their unity in Christ squared away and they took of to finish the task in reaching the world for Christ.
Now as we come to verse 36 the Jerusalem Council is over. The results have been announced to the people in Antioch. There's great rejoicing, great celebration, great joy because their celebration is valid by grace alone. That's how you're saved. It's time to preach the message and the church begins to move out. And as we see just the beginnings in our text of the second missionary tour, implied in this narrative are the foundation principles of evangelism that is done right, and I'm gonna give them to you simply and we'll cover them one at a time.
Right evangelism calls for the right passion, the right priority, the right personnel, the right precautions, and the right presentation, and the right place. Now don't worry about writing those down. We'll get them one at a time. I'll put that all together and give you a definition of right evangelism. You ready for this? Effective evangelism is the right passion directed toward the right priorities by the right people who take the right precautions to make the right presentation in the right place. You got it? Don't worry about it. We'll review it. Effective evangelism begins then with the right passion.
Look at verse 36. Now it wasn't as it Paul and Barnabas had nothing to do, and keep in mind that one of the principles you see in Acts is that God always uses busy people. Well Paul and Barnabas had plenty to do. They were teaching, preaching the Word and really having a great ministry but verse 36, "And some days after" - and incidentally in Greek the term "some days" is an undetermined amount of time, not very long. Perhaps significantly months but we really don't know. "Some days after Paul said to Barnabas these three words" to begin with in English, "Let us go." Now stop there for a minute. At the risk of spiritualizing the text, this gives us a little insight into a dimension of Paul that we run into again and again and again. Hard to keep him in one spot.
Now the verse is not trying to teach us that Paul liked to go somewhere. I'm simply using that statement to cast our minds to some other Scriptures that do teach that. Paul had this in his mind that no matter where he was there was someone else out there that needed him, and he may have been effectively ministering there but tugging and pulling at his heart were the regions beyond. He had a passion for the gentile world that is lying yet to the west of where he was located in Antioch, and always in his brain were simmering these great schemes of reaching people. I don't think he ever saw a ship but what he thought if he might get on it and take the Gospel. I don't think he ever saw a mountain but what he though, "I ought to cross that mountain and find the people that are on the other side and take them the Gospel." He was a passionate man. He was a man driven by a desire to communicate Christ. He was a tremendously motivated man. You can read 2 Corinthians 4 and 2 Corinthians 5 and you'll find the tremendous power of his motives.
In the first place in 2 Corinthians 4 that he was motivated because of the mercy God had given to him. I mean he was so thankful for the salvation he had that he felt that in gratitude he was a debtor to everybody else and to God, and he goes on from there to talk about the fact that his love for Christ constrained him, the love of Christ that had been planted in him. And he talked about the fact that he knew that if any man was in Christ he was a new creation and that moved him, and he also talked about the fact that he knew that he must stand before the judgment seat of Christ to give account for what he had done and that moved him.
Well on the negative side he said this, "If the Gospel be hid, it is hid" to what? To those that are lost, and he knew if he didn't speak it the people who needed to hear it wouldn't hear it. He was a motivated man. He was a passionate man, and everywhere he went it was only a step to somewhere else and believe me, friends, nobody ever was really effective in evangelism who didn't have that kind of passion. You can train people up to their eyeteeth but if they don't have that kind of drive and that kind of motive to communicate the Gospel, all the training dissipates the day they walk out of the class. Believe me, we have seen that many times.
Just to give you an illustration, turn to the end of the Book of Romans. You would think well, here's Paul. He probably wants to get to Rome. I mean if he could get to Rome, the seat of the Roman Empire, right? Highly populated area. A guy could spend the rest of his life evangelizing Rome and never get the job done. I mean what could be done in Rome could take a lifetime and never scratch the surface, and if Paul could just get to Rome, and here in Romans he says to them, "I'm coming to you. I'm coming. I want to impart on you some spiritual gift" in chapter 1, "I want to minister to you. I'm a debtor to you. I want to get to Rome." He always had this longing, this passion to reach those further out.
Well you know something? Amazing thing about this man, verse 24 of Romans 15. He says, "Whenever I take my journey to Spain I'll come to you." You know what he saw Rome as? Just a stopover on the way to Spain. Somebody says, "Why did he want to go to Spain?" Somebody else said, "Well it was there. Why else?" It was about as far as you could go. The next step was into the ocean. The only thing that was a barrier to him was the capability of reaching a place. He wanted to go to Rome only just to get some supplies to put some things together to go to Spain and he said the same thing in verse 28. He says, "When therefore I have performed this and sealed to them this food I'll come by you into Spain." You say, "Why do you want to go to Spain?"
Well aside from the fact that it was there; there were some great men there. Some of the great - well the Roman empire of course was occupying Spain and there's still evidence of Roman roads and Roman architecture there but men were there of great fame - Marshall, the master of the epigram, Luke and the poet, _____ who were literary geniuses were there. Quintillion the great orator was there and most of all Seneca was there, Seneca the stoic, master philosopher, Seneca the tutor of Nero, Seneca the Prime Minister of the Roman Empire. It was a great place to go and Paul could see tremendous possibilities.
He was a passionate man. He was passionate for evangelism. That made the difference. He was likened to Henry Martin who went he went to India said, "Now let me burn out for God." He was so lost in the love of the people there. The Apostle Paul said, "Whoa is unto me if I preach not the Gospel." He was totally lost in the passion of proclamation. Robert Moffett, the great evangelist missionary wrote this, evidencing the same attitude, "My album is the savage breast where tempests brood and savages rest without one ray of light. To write the name of Jesus there and see that savage bow in prayer and point to worlds more bright and fair, this is my soul's delight." Well that's the passion.
Now I don't want to just get oratorical about it. There's only one way you'll ever have that kind of passion and that's not by learning evangelistic methods and that's not by saying in your mind, "I think I'll have that passion!" and grunting a lot and grimacing and groaning and stirring up some kind of spiritual frenzy. There's only one way you'll ever have that passion and that is, friends, to begin with it's unnatural, right? It is a supernatural one.
The only way you'll ever know that kind of passion is when you're so mingled with the person of Jesus Christ that He loves through you. You see? That's why Paul said, "Above all things that I may know Him." That's why over and over again he would say, "Be followers of me as I am of Christ that for me to live as Christ and the life which I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God." In other words he was lost in Christ and Christ in him so that there wasn't even a dividing between who was doing the loving and who was passionate and who was caring. Passion that is legitimate comes when you are so lost in the mingling of your spirit with the spirit of Christ, that it is He who is passionate through you. You say, "How do you get there?" By studying the Word of God simply "as you gaze into His Glory" 2 Corinthians 3:18 "you're changed into His image." The only way to come into His image is to gaze into His glory; the only place to gaze into his glory is in The Book, right?
So first of all, true evangelism is built on the right passion and we cannot take somebody who doesn't really have that kind of passion and just give them some format. It runs out. And I don't even think it's as simple as just keep on training them over and over again. I think it demands that they become lost in the person of Jesus Christ so that He is loving through them. Second thing, right evangelism not only needs the right passion, it demands the right priority. This is great. I love this. Verse 36; let's go back. "And some days after Paul says to Barnabas, 'Let's go and watch again and visit our brother and in every city where we have preached the Word of the Lord and see how they Do." Now stop there. That's a very significant statement.
Now when you think of Paul do you think of Paul as a local pastor? He was in Antioch for three years in _____ and in other places, but when you think of Paul you think of a missionary evangelist don't you? Sure, he was an Apostle. He was sent. He was the apostle of the gentiles. We think of him as a church planter. Now when we think in our minds today of a pastor we think of a guy who stays around a long time and lives in a house in the neighborhood and teaches the Bible. When we think of an evangelist we think of a guy with a briefcase and a handful of sermons and you heard him in several different cities and he gave the same message and this kind of thing, and you think of a kind of traveling guy, see? Well that's really not the Biblical picture of an evangelist. We think of an evangelist as a guy who runs around and gets people saved and then leaves them around for Christians to follow up and that's basically what evangelism is today.
But you know what Paul was in terms of an evangelist? He was a Biblical evangelist in so far as he saw his responsibility not only as winning people but as maturing them, and I want you to notice that when he had opportunity to take off on a second missionary tour in verse 36 he was planning with Barnabas to go right back to the same place they just finished evangelizing, Galatia. "Let's go, Barnabas!" "Where, Paul? The world is at our feet. We're empowered by the Holy Spirit. The whole world is out there! Where do we go?" "Well let's go back to those people that we already went to Christ." You say, "Has he lost a sense of his calling?" No, not at all. Do you know what the priority is in evangelism? Discipleship. It is discipleship believe me. We say a lot about this but it's true. Visit our brethren in every city. You say, "Well why does he want to go back there?" Let me give you two simples reasons. One, his love for his own spiritual children.
I think one of the things that very often is missing in our evangelism and I'm guilty of this I think too often, is a failure to really love the individual that we've led to Christ to the point where we feel this tremendous responsibility. Paul loved his spiritual children. I believe he wanted to go back just because he loved them and he loved their fellowship and he wanted to see if they were growing. Go to Philippians 1 and let me illustrate it to you, verse 3.
He says, "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy for your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now." He just loved the fellowship of these Philippians he had won to Christ. Go look at verse 8, "For God is my witness. God knows my heart. How greatly I long after you all in the tender mercies of Jesus Christ." He longed to be with them. He loved to be with them. The only thing better than being with them was going to Heaven. Remember what he said? And you know over in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 he was saying the same thing. He says, "Brethren" verse 17, "Being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart." He says, "I've been away physically but my heart is there. I endeavored more abundantly to see your face with great desire. Why? Oh, you're our glory and our joy." He had a love for those he had led to Christ and he longed to see them built up.
1 Corinthians 4 is interesting. Verse 14 says, "I write not these things to shame you but as my beloved sons I warn you." Even when he was lambasting the Corinthians he says, "Now take this as it comes. This is not to shame you. This is to warn you." And he goes on in the next verse, "You have 10,000 instructors in Christ but you don't have very many fathers." In other words he says, "You've got all kinds of people who'd be real happy to discipline you. You don't have too many that'll love you like I love you so you'd better take the love of a loving father. You'd better take the wisdom of a loving father. The only other alternative is to take the discipline of 10,000 who are gonna discipline you" and the word "instructor" is a _____, which was a slave who tutored a young child and he didn't do much teaching and every time you saw a picture of a slave he had a whip in his hand. _____ was somebody who beat the kid into submission. Paul says, "You may have 10,000 people with whips but you've only got one loving father. You'd better take my advice." So Paul saw himself as a loving father responsible for the spiritual care of his children.
Bishop Riles said regarding George Whitfield, he said, "They couldn't hate the man who wept so much over their souls." He's right. First of all I believe Paul wanted to go back because he loved those children of his own, spiritual children. Secondly he went back because beloved he was committed to discipleship. You know what? If you don't learn anything about evangelism, learn this. The best way to evangelize is to produce one reproducing disciple. You got that? Paul knew that this running around creating spiritual infancy all over everywhere and leaving a whole lot of spiritual babes lying on their backs screaming was not the way to go at it because they weren't mature enough t