Reposted from the Servants of Grace Blog
Effective evangelism beings and ends with understanding who Jesus is and what He has done. Evangelism begins with who Jesus is and what he has done because this forms the basis for the reason for evangelism. Evangelism ends with Jesus because He is the One who sends forth His disciples with His Gospel-message to make disciples of all the nations for the sake of His joy and our good.
Since evangelism begins and ends with Jesus learning what His message is and how He ministered that message among people is vital. There are several snapshots that one can look at in the Gospels in order to discover how Jesus ministers to people. One of my personal favorite Gospel accounts is in John 4. In John 4 Jesus goes out of his way to meet a Samarian woman at the well. Jesus asks her questions in order to reveal her heart which was far from Him. In the process of doing this the woman learns that the One talking with her is none other than Jesus Christ.
The story of the woman at the well teaches that Jesus meets people where they are in order to bring them to the knowledge of Himself so that they may believe in Him. In other words effective evangelism begins with meeting people where they are at and sharing with them the Life-giving Truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ—His life, death, burial and resurrection.
The story of the woman at the well also illustrates that the one engaging in evangelism ought not to see one as better than the other. Christians are often accused of being “holier than thou” but Jesus ministers His grace to the woman at the well regardless of who she was or what she had done. In the end the woman was confronted by the reality of who Jesus is and her life was so radically changed that she went back to her town and shared the Gospel.
Effective evangelism begins and ends with knowing Jesus and making Him known. He has sent forth His disciples to proclaim the acceptable time and season of the Lord in the work of Jesus Christ. The believer has been empowered by the Holy Spirit to do the work of an evangelist and to make disciples. The believer has been equipped with spiritual gifts, talents and abilities to make known the Gospel. In every way the Lord God has supplied for man’s every need in order to fulfill His mission of seeking, ransoming, reconciling, justifying, shaping and forming a people, a holy nation for the sake of His own name and glory.
Will you stand on the sidelines and watch as the Lord uses others in mighty ways or will you join God and live on mission in the great task of evangelism? Effective evangelism begins and ends with your growth in understanding who Jesus is and what He has done. The believer will never know everything about Jesus, but Jesus has given the believer His Word to know enough about who He is and what He has done in order to declare forth eternal life in His name.
Paul near the end of his life charged Timothy in 2nd Timothy 4:5,
As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
Your level of effectiveness in evangelism or any ministry directly relates to how seriously you take your own spiritual growth and personal holiness. Effective evangelism and ministry is the result of a life that has been saturated in the Gospel of God and the Word of God.
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