The Evangelist Goes Forth

 

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Sermon Six. The Evangelist Goes Forth

You can watch the video of this sermon here.

Introduction

Last week we looked at what the Bible says about Apostles. And it says a lot. It is the most important of all the Spiritual gifts, and a necessary part of the Church. We saw that Paul notes this gift is even more significant than prophecy, which is an incredible statement, but much of the New Testament backs him up, which we can see when we look to the very end of the Bible where were read this:

“9 Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed— 13 on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” (Rev. 21:9-14).

What is this city that John is shown? It is “the Bride, the wife of the Lamb”. In other words, it is the Church. We know this because the angel says in verse 9, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And then he shows him this beautiful city. Jesus’ bride is not a city, his bride is the people of God, we are the bride of the Lamb. But we also know that this city here is really a representation of the church, because we see that that this city is built on the foundation of the Apostles, and we read this last week about the Apostles, “19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,…” (Ephesians 2:19-20).

This is how important the Apostles are. They are the foundations of the place where God dwells, the foundation of the Church. And in many ways the prophets who make up the Old Testament are also part of this building, and so are the 12 sons of Israel through whom the proto-type of the church was built. But it is the “twelve names of the 12 Apostles of the lamb” that are written on the foundations of the city that represents God’s bride. This is an honour, an honour above many other honours, and it helps us understand why there needed to be twelve apostles, and why Judas needed to be replaced and why no other Apostles can be like the 12. As these Apostles died, they were not replaced with men who were just like them, because there were no men like them who had spent as much time with Jesus and who qualified for such a role.

This does not mean we don’t have a kind of “apostolic gifting today” but we see it now more fulfilled in the missionary role. Missionaries go all over the world to share the gospel with people and lay the foundations for new churches and we still need people like this today. But we need more than just missionaries. To work with such people and help such people you need another kind of gospel teacher as well, the Evangelist. I touched on the evangelist role last week, because it overlaps with the Apostolic gifting. In fact, we concluded last week that an Apostle is just an evangelist with extra gifting and extra authority. But we should not forget the importance of the evangelist in the church. Evangelists are vital, they are a part of the necessary lifeblood of the church and this is especially true in a pagan nation or apostate church. Today we are going to explore the evangelist gifting.

So, let’s begin, but I want to start with a bit of Baptist self-reflection before we go much further and examine the role of the evangelist.

Getting The Evangelist Roles Right – I want to do something a little bit different at the start of this sermon, I want to start with something I have learned and observed over the years, and you’ll see why once we get further in to this message. I became a Christian in August 2006, and from the start I loved to share the gospel. I joined an evangelism course at my church in about October/November 2006, to learn how to share the gospel and I put this into practice, in street evangelism regularly.

I went into the streets of Brisbane with my pastors, friends, and anyone who would come. And shared the gospel with countless people. Because of this, the early church where I was being discipled quickly decided I was an Evangelist, big E, and they threw a lot of support behind me to fulfil this role in the community. I even joined up with a group of prominent Evangelists in Brisbane, from different churches and denominations, to be mentored and learn from them about how to hone my skill as an evangelist.

I will not forget many of the things I learnt from these men. One of the things that really stuck with me is how hard it was for them to function in the churches, especially Baptist churches. Baptist churches do not ordain evangelists, they ordain pastors and teachers, and they pretty much at the time expected everyone they ordained to fit into a certain role in the churches, as a pastor or a teacher.

Several of the evangelists I had been mentored by had been involved at different times as pastors and they had all faced either burnout, or serious setbacks in their ministries. Why was this happening? Because they were being forced into a pastoral role when they were gifted differently, and most people could not understand the distinction.

Evangelists are good preachers and often even good teachers, and so people just think: they’ll make good pastors. And sometimes this can work out, and but often it doesn’t. I know multiple evangelists who continually try their hand at pastoring and it continually backfires on them and the church. Conversely, I also know plenty of evangelists who are part of a church, but work alongside many churches and are flourishing.

Some churches don’t know what to do with evangelists, historically Baptist churches especially. They don’t understand that within the evangelist is the inherent call to look outward for “white harvests”. It’s a different mindset to pastors.

This is inherent in the word “Evangelist” itself, as we see in Isaiah 52:7, “7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” The evangelists, or the “good news” preachers as we discussed last week, are sent ahead of the victorious army to prepare the enemy with the news that the new Lord is coming. The evangelist’s job is to warn the enemy to prepare their hearts for his Lord’s reign. He goes ahead of the main the body.

A couple of years after becoming a Christian, I got married and moved and went to a Baptist church. I was going to a Baptist college and so thought I should go to a Baptist church. The pastor, knowing I was at Bible College, put me on as an intern, and gave me a hand at different ministries. What had attracted me to this Baptist church in the first place is that I had heard that they had an evangelist on the eldership, and he was free to function in his role. As someone who thought I was an evangelist this was a sign of a Church that knew what it was doing.

But something else happened while I was at that church, the pastor helped me to recognize that I was not an evangelist, at least not in the big “E” sense, I was a teacher. My desire to share the gospel was real and genuine, but many new Christians have this “first love” passion for sharing the gospel. It just flows out of them.

Once, I understood where my gifting lay, I was able to get involved in ministries which allowed me to grow in that area. But I never stopped finding opportunities to share the gospel. Because as Paul says to Timothy, 2 Timothy 4:5, “5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” This passage shows us two things:

-        That whether a pastor, teacher, or whatever your role in ministry, you should do the work of an evangelist.

-        But it also shows us that there is such a thing as an ‘Evangelist’, a uniquely gifted set of people. This is vital to understand. 

I am sharing all of this with you to highlight a Biblical point: you need to recognize how God has gifted different people for different ministry, and you need to recognize that these giftings are qualitatively different. What I mean by “qualitatively different” is that they all have different qualities. As Paul says, Ephesians 4:7-12 –

“7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. 8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” 9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,…”

We can note a few things from this passage.

-        V. 7- a different level of grace is given to each of us. Notice that, equality is not a priority of the Scriptures, or of God’s gifts of grace. People are equipped at different measures and in different ways. This should not be forgotten, because it needs to inform what we ask or expect of people.

-        Vv. 8-10 - What he gives people is the spoils of his victory. When a king defeated his enemies he would distribute gifts to those whom he saw fit. These are, in essence, our rewards for being on the winning team.

-        V. 11 - In this passage the gifts are actually the people, the gifts are: Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. They are being given to the church so that it may be healthy. For the church to be healthy, to fulfill the roles that Christ requires of it, it must have the people in place that Jesus gives as gifts.

We should recognize that these gifts are all different. Because those that have them will all have leadership qualities, or teaching and communicating abilities we may be tempted to see them as all pastors. But they aren’t, these are all different gifts with different measures of grace. Indeed, even different people with these gifts will not be like each other.

What happens to a church then if it has an unbalanced leadership? If it does not have people in its congregation fulfilling in some way all of these roles? What happens if you have a guy who is pastorally gifted, loves to care for people, but is not a teacher? What happens if you have the opposite? What happens to a church where they do not recognize the functions of evangelists, or do not have any evangelists?

I think John answers this in Revelation, we read there: Revelation 2:1-7 –

“1 To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’”

We have here a faithful church, that has guarded its teaching very well. Something Paul told them to do back in Acts 20:28-31. They have identified the false apostles by testing them. They also hate the works of the Nicolaitans. This is a faithful church, that guards its teaching well.

But they have a serious problem, “4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” Or as some translations say, “You have abandoned your first love.” Or as the KJV puts it, “because thou hast left thy first love.”

What is this first love? Well, this is partly why I shared the anecdote at the start of my discussion about this. I think we all know what the “love is that we had at first” or what the “first love” we had was: it is the new believers profound love for Jesus and sharing Jesus with others. This flows out of the new believer’s heart.

We all, as believers, have this love at first in one way or another. We are born again with a passion to share Jesus, to worship Jesus, to know Jesus, to love Jesus, to learn about Jesus. And this often overflows in sharing the gospel with people. New converts, or young Christians who grew up in a Christian home, are often incredibly enthusiastic about reaching people. This passion can die off for Christians as they get older, start working, have kids, etc, etc.

But the evangelist is the man or woman for whom this over exuding desire to reach people never fades away. Every church needs that. Every church needs to make room for evangelists to excite this in the congregation. So, what exactly is an evangelist?

The Heart of the Evangelist (John1:1-4) – The evangelist is not mentioned in Scripture as much as the Apostles, in fact, the word is only used directly 3 times in the New Testament (that is whether you look in the ESV, KJV or NIV). However, the word IS used, it is used in some key and important passages, the concept is all through the Scriptures, and remember, a lot of what we talked about last week regarding Apostles overlaps with and applies to evangelists. When we looked at the gospel runner of Isaiah 52:7 or the sending out of the 12 for training in Matthew 10, or the commissioning of the Apostles in Matthew 28, much of what we looked at in those passages about the Apostles, could apply just as readily to the evangelists. But I want to focus on three passages which give us some insight into the heart of an evangelist.

Firstly, 1 John 1:1-4. We have to remember that the gospel writers are also evangelists. Evangelist is another name for “the gospel writers”. In fact, the most common usage of that word in history could arguably be used to apply to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And one of the gospel writers, John, tells us about his heart for evangelism, 1 John 1:1-4 –

“1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.”

“We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete” Why is John the Apostle, the gospel writer, evangelizing? Why does he share the gospel? Why does he reach out to people? Why does he dedicate his life to helping others know that they can fellowship with God? Because it makes him happy, it brings him joy.

Based on this passage, and others like it, one of the best bits of advice I think you can ever give a Christian who is not feeling the joy of their salvation is this: go out and tell someone about Jesus. Tell a bunch of people about Jesus. See what happens.

As Ray Comfort says, he often goes out evangelising dragging his feet and he always comes home clicking his heels. The Evangelist is just like other Christians, but this motivation is increased. You can see this special anointing on their lives, this drive to reach people.

Now, I believe this is true for every Christian. But the evangelist is going to have this driving force more than the average believer. Even though Jeremiah was a prophet, not an evangelist, he gives us some insight into this, “If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot” (Jer. 20:9). Just like there was for Jeremiah, there is a burning desire in the Evangelist to go out and find people to tell about Jesus. Whether crowds or individuals.

Now, I think this desire is there to some degree in any believer, but we suppress it, or ignore it and quieten it with busyness. But I think people forget that the reason they feel so much joy in evangelism is because when you do it the Holy Spirit is jumping for joy inside of you because you are telling people about Jesus.

This is why you want Evangelists in your church, active and free to engage in their various forms of evangelism. They inspire others to evangelize and create opportunities for others as well.

Luke 10:1-3 –

“After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. 2 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.”

This passage reminds us that Jesus did not just train the 12 Apostles, he also trained others to go out and do evangelism.

They went out in pairs - this is wise, for many reasons. It is backup, encouragement, oversight, protection and more.  

They see that the harvest is ripe, and they fulfill the call. I have never met an Evangelist who is not optimistic about reaching out. Even if they see no converts that day, or for some time, they are always looking for signs that the harvest is ready.

The truth is, you don’t need this gift to do this yourself. But believe me, if you take the opportunity to do this with an Evangelist, you will find great blessing in that.

Remember this message was written for us by the Evangelist Luke. Who gives us one of the best researched documents of history even written all to make sure people know who Jesus is. This is how evangelists work.  

Philip the Evangelist – We can’t round off this sermon without talking about the one man directly called an “Evangelist” in the Bible. We see this in Acts 21:8 where he is called an “Evangelist” – “8 On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him.” But if we want to see him at work, we need to go all the way back to Acts 8.

We see throughout this whole chapter Philip going out to reach people with the gospel. He even appears to be gifted with some similar miracle power as the Apostles, and then he gets this opportunity. Acts 8:26-35 –

“26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. 27 And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. 33 In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.” 34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.”

This is basically a dream evangelist moment: you are reaching out to people, and one of them shown to you by the Spirit, asks you to explain the Bible to them. And a passage like Isaiah 53 which tells the heart of the gospel.

And so what does the evangelist do: Acts 8:35 - “Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.” This is what the evangelist does everywhere they go.

In fact, if you ask a true evangelist what the time is, he or she is going to be explaining to you in about 3 minutes “the good news about Jesus”. This is just what they do. This is why we need such people. They always bring it back to the message of salvation that Jesus died on the cross and rose again so that all who believe in him could be saved.

We need Evangelists to do evangelism and train others to do evangelism. So how do we apply this sermon?

Application. I think there are a few important points for us to consider when applying this.

-        Not all are evangelists. Big “E”. Not all are gifted in this way with the same measure of grace as others. Some Christians think that we should all be Evangelists. Often these people are evangelists themselves. But we should not all be Evangelists, some of us are pastors, teachers, deacons, this, that or the other. We are not all gifted the same, and this is ok.

-        That being said, we should all still evangelize. We don’t leave all of the evangelism to the Evangelists. Anyone can share the gospel. Evangelists are just gifted at it in a supernatural way. My encouragement is if you know an evangelist or two, ask to go evangelising with them. You won’t regret it.

-        We can never have too many labourers for the harvest fields of precious people’s souls. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few, you can change that.

-        Evangelists are not the same as pastors or teachers. They can often preach, they can often teach, but their gift and measure of grace is different. Tying down an evangelist to the role of shepherd can hurt them and the church that is trying to do it.

-        For other pastors, who may hear this, note, this why you want to release evangelists to work in and alongside your churches. They will reach people who you can’t.

-        A pastor might preach the gospel faithfully, regularly, and then an evangelist can come in and a person or people come to faith. This is how God has designed things, don’t be competitive. Joyously work within your gifting and encourages other to do so too.  

-        If you lack joy in your life, find an opportunity to evangelize. No, scratch that, create one. Don’t ask for opportunities to evangelize, ask for boldness to make use of the ones God has already sent your way. As the Apostle Paul himself prayed, Ephesians 6:18-20-

“18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.”

Conclusion – We need evangelists, gifted evangelists, to advance the cause of the gospel in Australia. But we also need to recognize that all of us can evangelize and if we do we will find blessings in the process, as Daniel was told many, many years ago, “2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever” (Daniel 12:2-3). Let’s hope that we may all be used here to turn others to righteousness. Let’s pray.