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Biblical Evangelism
I Corinthians 3:4-8
Biblical evangelism is the proclamation
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ with the hope and prayer
that God might use that proclamation to produce genuine converts
to the Lord Jesus Christ. It involves both the Christian and God.
I. The Christian’s Responsibility in Biblical Evangelism
A. It is the Christian’s responsibility to evangelize
out of a
desire to glorify God (I Cor. 10:31).
B. It is the Christian’s responsibility to evangelize
out of love
for God and love for man (Mat. 22:36-40; Gal. 6:10).
C. It is the Christian’s responsibility to diligently
plant and
water gospel seed.
D. It is the Christian’s responsibility to faithfully
and
fearlessly proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
E. It is the Christian’s responsibility to authoritatively
call
upon sinners to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
(Lk. 24:46-47; Acts 20:21).
II. God’s Business in Biblical Evangelism
A. It is God’s business to sovereignly
give the increase, or
cause the seed to germinate as He sees fit.
B. It is God’s business to produce genuine
converts to the
Lord Jesus Christ.
C. It is God’s business to convict sinners
(Jn. 16:8-11), effectually draw them to the Lord Jesus Christ
(Jn. 6:44,65- 66), open their hearts (Acts 16:14), and grant them
repentance (Acts 5:31; 11:18; II Tim. 2:24-25) and faith (Jn.
6:28-29; Acts 18:27; Rom. 3:22; 10:17; 12:3; I Cor. 3:5; Gal.
2:16,20; 5:22; Eph. 1:19; 2:8; Phil. 1:29; Heb. 12:2).
D. It is God’s business to receive all
the glory when sinners
are genuinely converted to the Lord Jesus Christ.
“If we forget that
it is God’s prerogative to give results
when the gospel is preached, we shall start to think it
is our responsibility to secure them. And if we forget
that only God can give faith, we shall start to think
that the making of converts depends, in the last
analysis, not on God, but on us, and that the decisive
factor is the way in which we evangelize . . . If we
regard it as our job, not simply to present Christ, but
actually to produce converts---to evangelize, not only
faithfully, but also successfully---our approach to
evangelism would become pragmatic and calculating . .
. The way to tell whether in fact you are evangelizing
is not to ask whether conversions are known to have
resulted from your witness. It is to ask whether you
are faithfully making known the gospel message.”
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