Living Out Our Faith: The Call to Evangelism

The word of Jesus in John 17 18 as you sent me into the world I have sent them into the world and we've combined that with the 20th chapter and halfway or part way through that in verse 21 Jesus says to his disciples peace be with you as the father has sent me I am sending you or if you have a King James version as the father has sent me soul send I you and that of course has given rise to that great missionary hymn so send are you with this uh tremendously challenging words. [00:01:57]

The evangelism of England is a work that cannot be done by the clergy alone it can only be done to a very small extent by the clergy at all there can be no widespread evangelization of England unless the work is undertaken by the lay people of the church the ministry of evangelism is a charge laid upon the whole church by its Lord it is the very essence of the Christian calling and we lay this down is foundational evangelism is the normal life of the church and can never be an optional extra. [00:02:54]

If evangelism is the normal life of the church and can never be regarded as an optional extra then that is true for us both personally and also congregationally and yet even allowing that to sit before us and for our eyes to fasten on it and our minds to think about it for a moment or two we have to be honest enough I believe to recognize that in many times and in many cases and in churches of which we have been apart and perhaps also this church too evangelism has largely been thought of as the task of a Selected Few. [00:03:57]

The task of evangelism simply of telling others the good news of introducing others to Jesus Christ is to be as natural for us in Christ as it was for Andrew as John records it in John chapter one wherein the calling of the first disciples you'll notice in verse 40 that Andrew was Simon Peter's brother was one of the two who heard what John had said and had followed Jesus so John the Baptist points to Jesus Christ Andrew is one of two who begins to follow Jesus Christ and verse 41 reads the first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him we have found the Messiah that is the Christ in other words the first activity in which Andrew engaged once he had become a follower of Jesus Christ was the activity of evangelism. [00:05:21]

Our Effectiveness in evangelism is diminished so long as we continue to regard it as a special activity in which we engage at certain times rather than that it is a spontaneous and constant outflow of our Christian experience now having said that I'm going to overstate it on one side tonight I want to make you aware of that in coming into this having said that we recognize that there is a place for special seasons of evangelism and for Unique opportunities in evangelism especially at a congregational level but that's not the drift of where we're going this evening I want us to think largely in terms of it as the Overflow of Our Lives. [00:06:39]

Sentness for us is thus not confined to missions or Evangelistic efforts although it includes those but widens out to embrace the whole purpose of Our Lives we are sent into the world in the insurance office the sports club the assembly line the street all we do is as God's people and wherever we go and whatever we do it is as those who are sent by the Lord there should be no separation between our business life and our Christian Life no place for living a double life our membership in the body of Christ is to pervade our whole life. [00:10:28]

Let us thank God for Christians who are unashamed to be known as Christians and pray for those who keep it hidden let us pray that Christian lives be influenced by their caring their integrity and their Joy showing the reality of Christian Living in the Rough and Tumble of everyday life evangelism in the Rough and Tumble of everyday life that's what we're thinking about this evening and acknowledging the fact that Jesus provides not simply a fact but a pattern and here we notice that for example in John 1 and in verse 14 Jesus came into the world we're told the word became flesh and dwelt Among Us. [00:11:16]

Jesus became incarnate bodily present with us he was involved with us sharing our life and its experiences meeting with agnostics atheists Hypocrites and enemies as well as with inquirers Believers and disciples he was a good mixer taking time with people even one to one he could share poverty or he could sit at a rich man's table with equal ease he was not confined to any one form or method of evangelism he adapted his approach to his circumstances he was strategic in action and timing and in all this he was constantly aware of his sentness. [00:09:16]

Despite the fact that that seems so straightforward and we've heard it said so many times our Effectiveness in evangelism is diminished so long as we continue to regard it as a special activity in which we engage at certain times rather than that it is a spontaneous and constant outflow of our Christian experience now having said that I'm going to overstate it on one side tonight I want to make you aware of that in coming into this having said that we recognize that there is a place for special seasons of evangelism and for Unique opportunities in evangelism especially at a congregational level but that's not the drift of where we're going this evening I want us to think largely in terms of it as the Overflow of Our Lives. [00:06:39]

Evangelism has been seen on the kind of smorgasbord of possibilities along with prayer with regarded as an option and uh worship not so much so but perhaps in some instances and evangelism and so on and so the people of God have come along and said well I think I should choose maybe one or two out of the various uh hors d'oeuvres that are on the table and evangelism has been chosen by some and it has been neglected by others but in actuality what we discover when we read our Bibles carefully is that the task of evangelism simply of telling others the good news of introducing others to Jesus Christ is to be as natural for us in Christ as it was for Andrew. [00:04:49]

Jesus Christ came he did not shout from heaven he did not send the message by some other means but he came himself and he came as one who was full of grace and truth and he came in order that the invisible God might become visible and in order that that invisible God might become apparent to the world it's fairly straightforward stuff. [00:12:15]

We are sent into the world in the insurance office the sports club the assembly line the street all we do is as God's people and wherever we go and whatever we do it is as those who are sent by the Lord there should be no separation between our business life and our Christian Life no place for living a double life our membership in the body of Christ is to pervade our whole life. [00:10:28]