Foundational Evangelism
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2017 · 29 January 2017
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 there are many methods of evangelism. There is everything from a simplistic personal presentation to a sophisticated media presentation of Christ to many people at once.
Underneath all this methodology there are some foundational features of evangelism that are very important and are the same. What God wants to say not only comes directly but very often it comes indirectly. The key to Bible study, 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 means when we study Scripture.
So what is the purpose of the Holy Spirit? What principles are implied in what is going on here? Now keep in mind that as the Holy Spirit has been inspiring the book of Acts, these things have been in the text over and over again. Now as we approach Acts 15:36 we know that the church has been growing. What came out of the Jerusalem Council was great unity and the process of evangelism improved.
The Jerusalem Council is over and the results have been announced to the people in Antioch. There's great rejoicing because their salvation is by grace alone. And now it is time to preach the message and the church begins to move out. And as we see the beginnings of the second missionary tour, implied in this narrative are the foundation principles of evangelism.
Effective evangelism calls for the right passion, the right priority, the right personnel, the right precautions, the right presentation and the right place. We will discuss them one at a time. 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 as guided by the Holy Spirit.
So effective evangelism begins first with the right passion. Verse 36, “Then after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they are doing.” In Greek the term "some days" is an undetermined amount of time, but not very long. It is hard to keep Paul in one place for very long.
Paul had a passion for the gentile world that is lying to the west of where he was located in Antioch, and he was always thinking of how to reach people. He was a man driven by a desire to communicate Christ. You can read 2 Corinthians 4 and 2 Corinthians 5 to see the tremendous power of his motives.
In 2 Corinthians 4 he was motivated because of the mercy God had given to him. He was so thankful for salvation and the love of Christ that had been planted in him that he felt like a debtor to everybody else and to God. And he knew that if any man was in Christ he was a new creation and that moved him.
Romans 15:24 says, "Whenever I take my journey to Spain I will come to you.” So Paul saw Rome as just a stopover on the way to Spain. He said the same thing in verse 28, “Therefore, when I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain.” There is only one way to have that passion, supernaturally.
How do you get it that passion?" By studying the Word of God as it says in 2 Corinthians 3:18, "you are transformed into His image." That is the only way to “reflect His glory,” right? It demands to become so united with Jesus Christ that He is loving people through us and we become His extension.
Second thing, evangelism not only needs the right passion, it demands the right priority. Verse 36, “Let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they are doing.” Now Paul here is more than a missionary evangelist who goes around and gets people saved and then leaves them for other Christians to follow up.
Paul was a Biblical evangelist where he saw his responsibility not only as winning people for Christ but also maturing them. Notice that when he took 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 in Galatia. The priority in evangelism is discipleship. He loved their fellowship and he wanted to make sure that they were growing.
1 Corinthians 4:14-15 says, “I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you. 15 For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers.” In other words, you have all kinds of people who would discipline you. But you don't have too many that will love you like I love you like a loving father. So Paul saw himself as a loving father responsible for the spiritual care of his children.
The best way to evangelize is to produce reproducing disciples. Paul knew that leaving a lot of spiritual babes was not the way to evangelize because they weren't mature enough to reproduce. It is better to spend yourselves on a few individuals who might become mature and become like Paul. Jesus spent most of his time only with 12 individuals, didn't he? The heart of evangelism is maturing believers.
You know where Paul went on his first missionary journey? Galatia, right? Where did he go on his second missionary journey? Galatia. Guess where he went on his third missionary journey? Acts 18:23, “After he had spent some time there, he departed and went over the region of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples.” In the long run it is the reproduction of reproducing believers that really multiplies the evangelizing of the Gospel.
The third thing in evangelism that is important is the right personnel. Look at verse 37, “Now Barnabas was determined to take with them John called Mark.” Barnabas insisted on "taking John whose surname was Mark." Remember John Mark got up there to Perga in Pamphylia and looked at the Taurus Mountains and heard all the bad stories and he just took off and went back to Jerusalem in Acts 13:13.
Actually John Mark was a great guy. He was the son of the lady in whose house the prayer meeting was being held the night Peter got out of jail. He is also the author of the Gospel of Mark. But Paul didn't have any confidence in John Mark. Verse 38, “But Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia, and had not gone with them to the work.”
Paul was courageous and courageous people have a hard time tolerating cowardice. Verse 39, “Then the contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus.” They did not agree, and they took off in two different directions: Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus. That's where Barnabas came from. And they continued to disciple the saints in Cyprus and send them out to witness.
Verse 40-41, “but Paul chose Silas and departed, being commended by the brethren to the grace of God. 41 And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.” Who was right? The Scripture doesn't say but we know that God arranged for Paul to take Silas and for Barnabas to team up with Mark. So instead of one team, there are now two teams. Barnabas later was commended by Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:6. And Paul also loved Mark in 2 Timothy 4:11, "Timothy, come and be with me. Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry.”
God chooses the right people for the right job. If you are going to travel around in the Roman Empire it is helpful to be a Roman citizen. Silas was a Roman citizen. If you're going to be visiting synagogues it's helpful to be a Jew. Silas was also a Jew. And if you're going to announce that the Jerusalem church has established salvation by grace, it's nice if you happen to be from the Jerusalem church. Silas was.
The Gospel that started in Jerusalem spread north until it hit this area of Cilicia and Syria. In verse 41 they went there to strengthen the churches. Again they knew the priority, strong believers will reproduce. Now where to go? Acts 16:1, “Then he came to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek.”
Now this woman's name is given by the Apostle Paul. Timothy's mother's name was Eunice, and his grandmother's name was Lois, and she was a believer but his father was a Greek, so here was a half-Jew, half-gentile. What a perfect choice. Here is a guy that is from the Roman Empire and he has an in with the gentiles and he has an in with the Jews.
Verse 2, “He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium.” That's another important factor in the right personnel. Remember the qualifications for elders and deacons in the New Testament that they be blameless in terms of their reputation. Verse 3, “Paul wanted to have him go on with him. And he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region, for they all knew that his father was Greek.”
The last time Eunice and Lois saw Paul he was blood-soaked and he was lying on the city dump. He had just been stoned. And here he was saying, "I'd like to invite your son to come along on our missionary efforts. How about it, mom?" In 1 Timothy 4:14 Paul says to Timothy, “Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership.”
In other words they had a little commissioning and they laid their hands on them and Paul was reminding Timothy that they had ordained him. And so the Lord filled up his team now consisting of Paul, Silas and Timothy. Paul had a special relationship with Timothy. Paul called Timothy, "My true child in the faith" in 1 Timothy 1:2 and he called him "my beloved and faithful child in the Lord" in 1 Corinthians 4:16.
In 2 Timothy 1:5 Paul says, “when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.” You know who led Timothy to Christ? Lois and Eunice. So Timothy was really a second-generation believer and that confirms strongly the priority of evangelism. Win somebody else who in turn will win another person.
Fourthly, it involves the right precautions. Acts 16:3, “Paul wanted to have him go on with him. And he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region, for they all knew that his father was Greek.” Some says, Paul was a Judaizer here. That isn't necessary for salvation, but that isn't the point. It says that Paul circumcised him because of the Jews in those quarters.
Paul recognizes that this is key to reaching the Jewish people and the synagogue was the first place he went in every new town. He had been brought up in a synagogue situation. All he needed to do was just get circumcised and he would have full entrance and full acceptance among the Jews and it wouldn't hinder his work among the gentiles. And so it was just to allow the ministry to function more smoothly.
Now when Titus came along and Paul forbid him to be circumcised. Now some people are confused why he let Timothy get circumcised and not Titus. The simple answer is that Titus was not s Jew. To circumcise a gentile would then have been to impose legalism but to circumcise a Jew was simply to allow him to be more effective.
In addition to these features, evangelism is founded on the right presentation. Verse 4, “And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the decrees to keep, which were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem.” Salvation by grace through faith. And, "We want to add this, that you abstain from blood and things strangled and fornication and things offered to idols." Why? So you don't offend others.
So what is the message of Christianity? Two fold. 1. Salvation by grace 2. Living with love. You are saved by grace and now you live the royal law of liberty which is the law of love. That's what they preached. And the result? Verse 5, “So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily.”
You need the right passion, the right priority, the right personnel, the right precautions, the right presentation and lastly in the right place. Look what happened when God stops them in verse 6, “Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia.” God is leading His people every step of the way.
Look at verse 7-8, “After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. 8 So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas.” They can't go east, they've been there, and in the south is water. So north, to Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. But Paul still had a corridor there, and so he just went between Bithynia and Asia and he kept going and finally he got to Troas.
He stopped because he was at the Aegean Sea. Verse 9, “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” You know what cities were there? Philippi, Corinth and Athens. The Gospel was going to reach Europe. Verse 10, “Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.”
Well God uses those who have the right passion for the right priority with the right personnel taking the right precaution to make the right presentation and they submissively keep following Him. Are you a reproducing disciple? This is what God is telling tonight. You can with help of the Holy Spirit! Let's pray.