For the past few months (if not the past year), I have been struggling with a few things that I see going on in the American church’s evangelistic efforts. Many of you know this as I have expressed my concern from the pulpit over the fact that many times we are just trying to get people to say a prayer or sharing a message without mentioning the cross and still trying to call it the gospel. I think these things are wrong and unbiblical.
However, I will acknowledge the fact that it is much easier to criticize than provide a solution. Anyone who leads people in any form knows that this is true. Therefore, I do not simply want to criticize one form of an evangelistic strategy and offer nothing in return. Nor do I want you to wander about, being motivated for the cause of evangelism but not knowing where to start.
For this reason, I am going to share tonight what I think are critical keys for us in how we should go about the work of evangelism. And I want to look no further than Paul’s strategy as he was in Ephesus in this 19th chapter of Acts. For I think this is a perfect picture of what the church in America and the modern day evangelist needs to see. In this passage Paul shows us more clearly than I have seen to this point in my reading of Scripture what is the diagnosis for our evangelistic problem in America.
So what does Paul do? I’ll list four things, and my application is simply that we mimic his actions.
I know that this sounds like a simple and obvious point to make, but many times we think of evangelism occurring in the church when it needs to be occurring in the world.
Luke writes in verses 8-9, “And he [Paul] entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the multitude, he withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus.”
Yes, Paul started in the synagogue before anywhere else. But that is because that is where the Jews were, and he was commanded to go to the Jew first and then to the Gentile. However, when the Jews rejected him, he left the synagogue and began sharing the gospel in a school where a man named Tyrannus lectured.
The way this probably worked is that Tyrannus would lecture and teach his subject in the mornings and then from 11:00 A.M. until 4:00P.M. Paul would use his classroom and share the gospel and teach from the Scripture.
I think we can learn a lot from this example of Paul. Yes, there are going to be some individuals in our midst every time we gather who need to hear the gospel and be convicted of sin. They are those who may be fearers of God but do not know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord. Thus, we need to make sure that the Scripture is what is being taught each Sunday and in doing so, we will secure that the gospel is being shared with such people.
However, the majority of people that need to be reached with the gospel are not going to be the somewhat religious people we find sitting in the pew on Sundays; it is going the masses of people we encounter in the secular world the rest of the week. Therefore, that is where we need to be doing the work of sharing the gospel with the lost. The lost person is never commanded to join the people of God in worship before knowing personally the God whom he is supposed to be worshiping.
John Stott has pointed out, “Our evangelism tends to be too ecclesiastical” (see note 1). By that he is saying that our evangelism is too focused in the church. We try to carry out evangelism by inviting people to church. But it should be well noted that Paul did not remain in the synagogue and petition people to come and join him. Rather, with the Corinthians, he went to a home, and with the Ephesians, he went to the school to encounter those longing for learning. He went to the sick and sinful people who are the very ones in need of the gospel.
We are wrong if we think that we can evangelize by ignoring the world and trying to invite everybody to the church to hear our pastor (or whomever is speaking for the day). Two things happen when we do this: 1) the pastor denies feeding people from the body of Christ if anyone lost is there because he is more concerned to cater to the lost man than to feed Christ’s sheep – which is his calling, and 2) few if any come to church because they hate God. And therefore they shouldn’t gather with a people who have come to worship and adore our Master, our Lord, the one in whom we put all our hope and delight. We need to go into the world and minister to the ones in need of the gospel even as Paul did in his ministry.
But, how does that translate into our day? For it’s not as if we can go down to a room this afternoon where “secular” people are gathering to hear someone who will lecture and we can go and speak the gospel. But there are occasions every day where we encounter individuals in the jobs that God has given us where we are that lecturer in the classroom or the person who invites the neighborhood ladies over for lunch. Is that not quite comparative to the home ministry and classroom ministry that Paul did in Corinth and in Ephesus?
I believe that it most definitely is. But what this means is that we need to have our minds dwelling on the things of God, being sober of spirit always. For the way I see this evangelism panning itself out is when someone builds a house on the plot of land behind me and moves in. I go over to meet that individual, and they say, “Man, I need somebody to do my landscaping.” I then tell them that I know a couple of guys who could do a great job and would probably be just what they are looking for. Then, they call Preston and John. Next they mention to me that they need furniture for their house, they are new in Jackson, and they don’t know where to go. Therefore, I say, “You should check out Madison Lighting” where they go and meet Cindy and Glenn and others. Next, they mention that they need to do some more painting in the house. And guess where I send them? That’s right, to Sherwin Williams, where they meet Mark Rager and strike up conversation with him.
Ultimately, they come to me and they say, “These people who you keep sending me to are incredible. They are overflowing with hope and joy and peace. And their lives are about more than this world. What is it about these people?” Then I can say, “Well, all these people go to church with me and their lives are not about this world. They are about God. In everything they do, they are longing for God to be glorified above all things. That is what you are noticing.” Now, don’t you think that would make an impact on my neighbor? Absolutely? We could change Jackson like that.
But it requires a few things doesn’t it? For one, it requires that in everything we do, we should do it better than anyone around us: whether in teaching school, landscaping, selling paint, whatever. Why? We do that because we are laboring for someone other than our employers; we are laboring unto God. Then it requires that at all times that we know and delight in God more than we delight in anything. For if we do not, how is my neighbor going to notice anything different in your lives? And if we do not, how are we going to respond when your neighbor has seen this and wants you to explain the reason for the hope that lies within you. You need to be ready to give an answer at that point. You need to know the gospel of Christ.
That’s why I labor in exhorting us to know God and delight in God more than all else. For unless we do that, we are going to always limit our reaching of the world for Christ to simply inviting them to church. If Paul had done that, he would have stayed in the synagogue and not seen Gentiles in the world come to Christ in great number. So we need to go into the world and reach secular people in our secular world.
In Ephesus, Luke allows us to see how Paul went about his ministry. It was two-fold. He was reasoning and working in the power of the Spirit. He would argue from the Scripture and persuade men of the truth of the gospel. Luke writes in Acts 19:8-9, “He entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God … he withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus.” He reasoned and persuaded. And yet in reading the whole chapter, it is obvious that he ministered in the power of the Spirit.
His trip to Ephesus was a clashing of two kingdoms: the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God. And Paul knew the power of the kingdom of God in his life. Luke tells us in 19:11-12 that people were even taking cloths that Paul had and were being healed as they touched them. People were burning their books of magic in light of the power of the Spirit of God that was demonstrated through Paul’s life. He ministered in the power of the Spirit.
I point out both of these things in evangelism because we don’t need to divorce them. The reasoning of the truth and the power of the Spirit must never be pitted against one another. And this too often occurs in the church.
Therefore, know the Scripture, memorize the Scripture, be prepared to reason with men from the Scripture. And at the same time, pray each day, “God, fill me afresh with your Spirit that I might know your gifts, your fruit, your power, and your working in my life.”
We are to be people of Spirit and truth in our evangelism and ministering, and most of us are one or the other. And in recognizing that, don’t just say to yourself, “Well, that’s just the way God made me.” No. Pray that he would change you. If you are more prone truth and give no care for the power of the Spirit afresh in your life, hold on to your passion for truth (and in fact grow in that passion), but ask God to give you a passion for a fresh empowering of the Spirit as well. And if you are all about God filling you afresh with the power of his Spirit and yet you don’t know the truth of the Scripture, press on in seeking the empowering of the Spirit, but pray that God would give you a passion for truth. Paul had both in his evangelism and we need both in ours. We need to be able to reason from the truth and demonstrate the power of the Spirit in this world.
This was so obvious in Paul’s ministry. Luke writes in 19:8 that Paul stayed in the synagogue three months. He writes in 19:10 that Paul ministered in the lecture hall for two years. He mentions in 19:22 that Paul stayed in Asia for a while. He remarks to the Ephesian elders in 20:31 that he had labored there for three years. He spent eighteen months ministering in Corinth. He took time in ministering to people and establishing the believers.
This is a far cry from the ministry that is often promoted today where we make brief encounters and expect quick results.
Evangelism often takes time. You might need to continually minister to an individual for days, weeks, and months before they are to a point of being changed by God. And that’s great. It’s not always meant to happen in your three minutes at the front door of a stranger’s house.
I think we ignore this often in ministries like that of Paul. He stayed three years here. And even when he had to pass through in a month’s time or so, he always left men to follow up. In fact, he can say in Corinth where he spent eighteen months that he only planted a seed. Apollos came behind to water it.
So don’t be shortsighted in your work of evangelism, for we are not wanting confessions from unchanged people but disciples. And this may require time. So take the long view. Charles Spurgeon gives us good advice to this end, writing, “Posterity must be considered. I do not look so much at what is to happen to-day, for these things relate to eternity. For my part, I am quite willing to be eaten of dogs for the next fifty years; but the more distant future shall vindicate me. I have dealt honestly before the living God. My brother, do the same" (see note 2).
Brothers and sisters, take the long view on this issue. Don’t think of instant pleasure by looking for quick results, for it is often quite damaging in the long run. J.I. Packer has also written on this topic, critiquing this kind of evangelism that began with Charles Finney. He writes,
“Believing that it is in everyone’s power to accept Christ at any moment, Finney equated the immediate response that the gospel requires of all with instant conversion on the part of all. But by making this equation he made it impossible to avoid doing damage to some souls. If one tells people that they are under obligation to receive Christ on the spot, and calls in God’s name for instant decision, some who are spiritually unprepared will come forward, accept directions, ‘go through the motions’, and go away thinking they have received Christ, when in reality they have not done so because they were not yet able to do so. So a crop of false conversions results from these tactics in the nature of the case. Bullying for ‘decisions’ can actually impede and thwart the work of the Holy Spirit in human hearts. When the evangelist takes it on himself to try to pick the fruit before it is ripe, the result is regularly false conversions and hardening. ‘Quick sale’ techniques in evangelism always tend to boomerang in this way; their long-term effect is regularly barrenness. Not for nothing was one of the areas where Finney first worked later labeled ‘the burned-over district’. Finneyism … issues … a scorching of the earth, a state of diminished rather than enhanced responsiveness to the gospel” (see note 3).
Now I know that this is hard when we like to see instant results, but I encourage you (again) to take the long view here. It’s hard to not just to go for the confession and put a notch on your belt. But it’s harder to hear a lost person say, “Well, a while back someone came through and shared this gospel of Jesus Christ, and I did everything they said, and I’m still the same. So you’re ‘salvation’ doesn’t work.” At those times, we will wish our brother had looked down the road instead of the next few minutes in determining what approach to take with our listener.
Take the long, hard road in evangelism. Let’s take this lesson from the ministry of Paul. Look at months and years down the road instead of the often short-lived excitement that tomorrow could hold. The work of evangelism often takes time.
There has been much controversy over these first seven verses of Acts 19. It seems so divided that I could round up one hundred different opinions about the exactness of what occurred in these verses. But instead of dragging us through all of them tonight (as I have done many times in the past), I simply want to address one option and then say what I believe occurred in these verses.
The one opinion that I want to address tonight is the opinion that what these verses are meant to teach us is that after conversion, we are to look for another work where we receive the Holy Spirit. Therefore, Acts 19:1-7 is set up as a model for all of us.
I don’t think that Acts 19:1-7 should be the passage that is used to teach a second filling of the Spirit because I don’t think that that is what the passage is showing. I am not saying that I do not think that we need to be filled afresh with an empowering of the Spirit multiple times after our initial conversion, for I do (see note 4). And in fact I have argued that in the past. However, I do not think this passage illustrates this because I don’t think the individuals to whom Paul is speaking in the story are disciples for the following reasons:
- They had not heard about Jesus.
- They didn’t know about the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9).
- Paul questions the individuals’ baptism (This is not done in Acts 8:14-17).
- Paul has to preach Jesus to them.
Because of these things, I believe these individuals were not Christians but people who had simply heard of John’s baptism and wanted to repent. They had yet to hear of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore, using this passage to argue for a needed filling of the Spirit after conversion is not applicable.
I think that what happened in these first seven verses of Acts 19 is that as Paul enters Ephesus, and he catches word that there are some other disciples in the area. But he doesn’t just ignore their lives and celebrate this fact. Rather, I think he examined them and saw a lack of what it means to be a believer.
Therefore, he asks them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” (19:2). Now, this verse has driven me crazy as I have sat and wondered why he asked this question. But I think he was asking this because he knew this was the case for anyone who is a believer (Romans 8:9), and he saw a lack of evidence in their lives that they really were believers.
Therefore, after hearing that they don’t even know about the Holy Spirit, he presses them one step back and asks them “Into what then were you baptized?” (19:3). Then when they give the answer that they were baptized into John’s baptism, Paul realizes that they don’t know the Messiah has come. They were still living in anticipation of him. So Paul then preaches Jesus as the Messiah. He preaches to them the gospel, and when they believed (see note 5) they were baptized. Then Paul lays his hands on them and they received the Spirit and “began speaking in tongues and prophesying” (19:7).
So the lesson I think we need to learn from Paul in our evangelism is that we need to look for marks of salvation in individuals who confess Jesus Christ as Lord.
It is a shame that we allow our souls to be comforted with men who confess Christ as Lord and live like the devil.
For such men, do not simply ask them if they have been saved, but rather look for marks of salvation. And explain to them that salvation is equivalent to change. Some people don’t realize that to confess to be saved and not be changed is as absurd as confessing to have been hit by a truck and not be changed.
Examine people’s lives and lead them to the true gospel of Jesus Christ when they give clear evidence that they are not children of God (even as Paul did). This is the ongoing work of evangelism. It is hard at times. It does not allow us to rest and pat ourselves on the back when people around us confess Christ and yet obviously do not know him. But in a word, I think it is biblical.
Therefore, let me exhort you to go into the world with the good news, know the Scripture, pray for a fresh empowering of the Spirit, take time in your dealing with people, and examine their lives for results of real and true salvation. Yes, this is hard, but in the long run this is what it will take to fulfill the commission that God has given to his saints.
Grace be with you. Amen.