The True Message of Evangelism

We’ve been talking about grace and evangelism, using as our reference point stories from the Book of Acts, chapters 2, 5, 8, and 10. In those stories, we see the spread of the gospel of grace to the Jews in Judea, to the Samaritans, into Asia Minor, and even into Africa, in fulfillment of the Great Commission which Jesus left for his disciples: 

 …but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

Last week, we noted In Acts 15 the contrast between the gospel of grace, which is the root of and the route to salvation; and the rules of the early church, which are the root of and the route to religion. The rules specified common ways of eating and meeting and the shared family values that turned a diverse group of early Christians into a viable community. Jason noted that rules can be exclusive and isolating, but they can be made inclusionary, inclusive, and consolidating and be common grounds on which a group could function. 

In the story of Simon the sorcerer we see more lessons about evangelism and conversion:

 Now a man named Simon had previously been practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great; and all the people, from small to great, were paying attention to him, saying, “This man is the Power of God that is called Great.” And they were paying attention to him because for a long time he had astounded them with his magic arts. But when they believed Philip as he was preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were being baptized. Now even Simon himself believed; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip, and as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was repeatedly amazed.  

 Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they would receive the Holy Spirit. (For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could acquire the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Therefore, repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart will be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of unrighteousness.” But Simon answered and said, “Pray to the Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.” (Acts 8:9-24) . 

Two strong themes emerge from the story: First, that true religion and salvation have nothing to do with magic. We, like Simon, tend to see God as a magic man who can, with the proper employment, work magic on our behalf. We delude ourselves into thinking that we can control God’s power and put it to work for our benefit. God is not in our service; we are in his. The contrast in the story is between Simon’s homemade magic and the true magic of God’s amazing grace; between evil spirits and the Holy Spirit. True spirit greatness is not for sale, it is for free, as Peter says. 

Second, like Simon, we seek to buy the gift of God’s grace with our own effort, by our own money. But, as Peter says, the gift of God’s grace is not for sale. It is just that: A gift, free and full and without price. Whenever we seek to acquire God’s grace with the fruit of our labor, we are dabbling in black magic, in false and fatal religion. It is why the warning of Peter is so chilling to Simon. It is fatal because only God’s gift can save us. The work of my hands could do nothing for me even if my works are so wonderfully spectacular that they appear magical. They are still false and futile, an imposter to God’s true magic, which is his amazing grace. To take his work, his gift, and to try to make it mine is not only dishonest, but it is deadly. 

What is beginning to emerge from these stories is a picture and a message of true evangelism. They show some techniques of true evangelism and the pitfalls to be avoided, that undermine true evangelism. First and foremost, what is the true message of evangelism? In each and every story, we see that the message is a gospel of grace. The good news is that we don’t have to save ourselves, that that is God’s work. 

And what a joy and a relief it is to know that Jesus—the Messiah, the Savior of the world—dispenses his grace through the influence of the Holy Spirit to everyone. He is, as we’ve said often, the God of all mankind. His gospel is the gospel of grace to Jews, Samaritans, and to the whole world. This is the true message of evangelism. This is the compelling message. This is the complete message. This is the only message. This is the route to salvation. Any other teachings are simply rules of the club. 

It is natural and proper that an organization has rules to live by. That is correct and good. But if these rules don’t illuminate the gospel of grace, if they do not highlight or shed light upon or foster the gospel of grace, they are simply rules to live by and have nothing to do with salvation. Whatever we believe, whatever we teach, must be rooted in the gospel of grace or it has nothing to do with salvation. 

When we try to appropriate to ourselves something other than God’s gift of grace, we risk (like Simon) to be full of bitterness and gall and to be captive to sin. The evangelistic message must always and only be the saving power of God’s matchless gift of grace. This is the message of Jesus and this is the mission of the Holy Spirit. 

Secondly, evangelism is driven by the Holy Spirit. You can plan, you can practice, you can preach all you want; but what you cannot do is the work of the Holy Spirit. In each of these stories, we see the Holy Spirit calling the evangelist. The initiation is divine and can lead to the most unexpected places. Philip finds himself, for example, on a dusty, barren, desert road between Jerusalem and Gaza. Evangelism, we see, must have divine roots because in each case, and in every conversion, we see a miracle. We see the miraculous tongues of fire, water sufficient for baptism in the middle of a desert, miraculous visions of animals being let down in sheets; true miracles, contrasted with black magic. And we didn’t even mention the miraculous conversion of Paul in Acts 9. 

No conversion, you see, is man-made, and no conversion is ordinary. Each one is a miraculous product of grace. This is a crucial and essential part of understanding true evangelism. True conversion is always a miracle. 

Thirdly, evangelism is never only one-way. Peter needs conversion just as much as Cornelius needs it. Conversion is always a two-way street. Never think that when you outreach, it will be one-way. Nothing converts the converter like conversion. No evangelist remains unchanged. Grace is for the good and for the bad. Evangelists need grace just as much as converts need it. 

That’s why the message of evangelism must be centered upon God and his grace. It can never be centered upon me or upon us. It means that each of us has much to learn about God, about the gospel and about grace. Our doctrines must be about grace or they are not the gospel. We must be humble in what we share. 

We must see every evangelism as a state of being, a continuous process; not just because we have a point to make but because we profit from it as well. Evangelism is not just an event, a series, or a limited encounter; it is a way of life. We’re inclined to make it an occasion, at the end of which we ask for an altar call or for a commitment call, or for a time to decide: “Are you with us to go forward? Or is this the end of the road?” 

True evangelism means never having to say goodbye, never having to say: “This is finished”, never needing to walk away. It is possible that my evangelism is ineffective because I am the one who needs to be converted, not you. Peter would have never met Cornelius without being himself born again. We too need to look deeply into our own souls in order to see that we need conversion as well. 

Let’s talk for a second about evangelistic techniques. How do we break the ice? How do we begin to say what we need to say? The good news, as we’ve noted, is that true evangelism is driven by the Holy Spirit, so we really don’t have to come up with much. We are simply agents of the miraculous. But a question seems like a good place to start. Phillip encounters the eunuch and asks: “Do you understand what you are reading?” This seems to be the universal question… “What is your understanding? How do you see it? What questions do you have?” 

Most of you know I’m an introvert by nature. I find strangers scary and off-putting. But when I encounter someone I believe wants to engage in things of the spirit, I ask one question: “What is your religious background?” This (at least for me) is an easy question; but it is a loaded one as well. Everyone, you see, has a background, even if they never go to church. “I was raised a Catholic.” “My parents were Anglican.” “I’m not very religious, but my family was from the Lutheran church.” It’s not a threatening question. It’s not challenging. It’s not theological. But it allows them to open up as much as they wish for spiritual conversation. It’s a variation of the universal question of Philip: “What is your understanding? What is your viewpoint? What is your background?” 

Finally, in Acts 2, we see the formula for effective evangelism: 

 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.  Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all the believers were together and had all things in common; and they would sell their property and possessions and share them with all, to the extent that anyone had need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47)

So there you have it: Hospitality, worship, and group study. Any individual leg of the stool would be good, but effective Holy Spirit evangelism involves all three. The overlap in a Venn diagram of these three elements represents the maximum effect or yield of evangelism. 

What do we need to understand from these stories? Can evangelism be based on grace alone? How comfortable are you to engage others in discussions concerning things of the spirit? Do you realize and recognize that evangelism is a two-way street? It’s a way of life and affects me as much as it does those whom I’m trying to convert. What is the role of technology in evangelism? Are we looking simply for answers in evangelism, or is there something more that needs to be needs to be understood? 

Quite a few years ago, David came to my office. We were probably talking about something related to the future of medicine, but somehow religion came up and I asked him that question: “What is your religious background?” He told me he was raised as an Anglican. He had been an altar boy. And that began a conversation that has expanded and grown over the years. 

It’s just one of the personal experiences I’ve had that is relevant to this whole subject of sharing our faith. Can sharing your faith be done by grace alone or do you need to have the doctrines of a church to support your evangelistic efforts?

David: I was indeed a more-or-less standard Christian, although I attended a “high” Anglican church as well. The high church is close to Catholicism in ritual. As an altar boy I would wear a surplice and cassock and walk down the aisle in front of the priest, swinging an incense censer, and I would pour water over the priest’s fingers as he prepared the eucharist. 

As a young man I went to China, living and working in Hong Kong for ten years. There I developed an interest in Daoism, and today l call myself a Daoist who believes in Jesus. I’ve searched the Dao De Jing—the very short Daoist “Bible”—looking for any hint of a call to evangelism and I cannot find a single one. This may explain why you don’t see Daoism everywhere in the world, whereas you do see Christianity everywhere. So in that sense, evangelism works. 

But in terms of the grace of God, is it really making any difference, or is evangelism merely getting a religion recognized throughout the world? I think Daoism recognizes God but calls “him” The Way, the Dao. The Dao De Jing makes clear, in my interpretation of it, that the Dao is fundamentally good. It exists and it always will, whether you’re Daoist or Christian or Muslim or whatever you are. Therefore, evangelism is pointless—the Dao doesn’t need it. The Dao is already everywhere. 

Perhaps this class is evangelism in its best form. We meet to discuss questions of the spirit that concern us, and as one result we have affirmed that there is goodness everywhere in the world. We use the Bible as a source for the questions to ask, often questions that we wouldn’t have thought to ask. So our class is valuable, but there has been no laying on of hands, no blinding lights, no Pentecostal awakening. I certainly felt, when I talked with Don all those years ago, blessed to discover in him a mind that found answers in the form of questions! 

I think that’s why most of us come here every week. We are a group that evangelizes within itself. We do not lay hands upon one another, but we are transmitting, I think, what God would want transmitted: An understanding of what God is about, namely: Loving one another and recognizing that God exists and that God is the Way.

Michael: I like the idea that evangelism is a two-way street but I think there are practical implications for correcting evangelism. The evangelizer and the evangelized are going to have a better practical understanding and therefore a better life. But usually, when somebody is getting evangelized into a religion, instead of being liberated they become even more burdened with sin and rules and regulations. True evangelism is not like that. It is liberating. It frees us from all that.

C-J: When I think of evangelism, I think of the modeling that Jesus did among the Jews. He asked the questions. “We are Orthodox Jews, right? So what about this? We do what we’re supposed to do in ritual, we come together in community, we have a very clear system of moving in this faith that identifies us as Jews. We’re very proud of that heritage and we perpetuate it within our community. But have you considered this, my Solomon: What about just sitting down with a tax collector, sitting down with a harlot, and saying, ‘Let’s break bread together, tell me who you are.’” 

Because when people start to tell you who they are, they really begin to tell you the condition of their soul, and that’s where the Holy Spirit shows up. I think that was the testimony that Jesus perpetuated. “You shouldn’t be talking to these people!” He goes, “I know, but they’re sick, and God has a work to do here.” 

The other thing is, whenever I meet people (and I’ve worked with such a wide variety of people) I never go at them saying, “What is your faith?” I’ll ask them where they come from. I’m starting to do my checklist: What language will I be using? What is important to this person? How does this person value himself or herself? How do they see themselves in community, not just in their own identity of like-mindedness or birth, but in this new place? Those are the things I’m looking for. And when I find that language this person is telling me, then I asked them to tell me more about the meaning they attribute to that language. Now they know I’m listening deeply. 

Then through that questioning, they will begin to ask me about myself. Where have you been? Who are you? What do you value in life? But usually, if they’re a new immigrant: What can I get from this person? What is their need? And is it in this person that I can find it? I think that that’s the way Jesus operated. “What do you need? And what are you looking for?” 

Jesus was in a time of history, in that region of the known world, that was very volatile and violent. The Jews could find strength in themselves even though they were at odds with each other—the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the conservatives, the liberals. Jesus asked: “What is wrong with you people? Everything we’ve known as our culture and identity, our language… everything is threatened here! Come together, sell what you have, come together in community so we can survive.” 

After the death of Jesus and those events the narratives of “risen from the dead” were perpetuated, and the inner circle, the very small inner circle that Jesus kept around him, that he trusted (and they came from all walks of life—rich, poor, commoner—beyond their faith) were asking: “What do we need to do to survive?” They weren’t thinking about perpetuating until Paul. They were still Jews united. There wasn’t a whole lot of conversation about how to do this as Jews. But Paul came and said: “This is something different. Are you paying attention?” 

My problem with evangelism is that, as I see it today, it has veered off in a direction that does not represent the core of what was modeled back in the first 300 years of the faith—its borders and rules defined. And that is when the church began to amass great wealth, great power, and in the traditions of the Greek and Roman pantheons, building great temples, buying the land and access to politicians. The church began to duplicate that and see itself as set above the commoner. And it does so today. I see megalithic churches get to a certain plateau of their greatest donors, usually white, wealthy people, and they say “We need more money if we’re going to evangelize. So that means we’ve got to bring in more commoners that may look different than us and not have as much money. So where one donor used to donate $1,000, now we need to get 10 people who will each donate $100. 

Then we say the church is growing and we start to say “Go out, go out, go out.” We want to get younger people to do the same: “Go out, go out; stick to the core of salvation, redemption, be water baptized, baptized in the Holy Spirit, clean up your act, and follow these rules as a witness and a testimony to this set a rules, this formula.” It is a problem. It is a big problem. And it is not just about Christianity, because when you are a non-convert to Christianity, and you start talking about who God is and how that works, and you have a blend of all different representations, you start to talk to these people, and they ask: “Why do these Christians, or people who call themselves Christians, do it this way? Where’s the truth? it’s confusing. They say it’s only these books. They say it’s this ritual. They say you must separate yourself. These people say ‘We’re only going to stay here. Our ministry is in people of Asian descent (or) ours is in people of African descent. It’s confusing.’” 

Even Christians can’t get along. “Why do you think that? We don’t do it that way!” What about the unbeliever? All are welcome. We’re not trying to convert you. We just want to love you and let the Holy Spirit do the job. It’s a big problem. I watched services broadcast from Loma Linda. Two months into it, I could not do it anymore. It was just too polished. The word was good. It was biblically based, had good guardrails clearly defined, good modeling, and consistency. But what I saw was white, privileged, and very wealthy. I couldn’t relate to any of it. The word was good. But if I looked different, came from a different place, had a different background. I would think they would never accept me. I don’t know how I could get that blend working inside me. 

Donald: What’s interesting is what starts the conversation. It can be done in a subtle way so that it doesn’t look like you’re trying to convert. You’re just trying to build a relationship and then come to understand each other. That’s quite different from conversion. We tend to talk about Adventism in terms of behaviors, as though behavior defines us. Actually, Adventism began in Daniel and Revelation and Numbers, and behavior followed, is my understanding. It kept getting narrower, but it was the concept of Christ’s return and Daniel and Revelation and Numbers that got other church believers to come to Adventism at the turn of the century. 

If you put a sign with lions and other prophetic icons in front of a church, is that is that the way to start the conversation? If that is truly what your uniqueness is, why not? But it’s all about priority. You may attract some people by sensationalism, which can represent the truth, but I’m not sure that that is the best way to start the conversation.

C-J: Jesus went to a well where a Samaritan woman was. Nobody wanted anything else to do with her. Jesus knew her heart, that she was a seeker. She wanted to be accepted in community and to be loved. And Jesus said, I have both.

Donald: Years ago, my responsibility at the university was really to bring goodwill amongst ourselves and grow retention. University is an expensive place. We’re grateful for parents who bring their commitment and  their sons and daughters as cherished gifts to the university. We are there to provide a good education, a quality education. There are many ways to do. One thing I started, and still continues, is called First Stop. When parents arrived with their kids it was just a free-for-all. There was no direction.

First Stop established a protocol for meeting them and directing them according to their wants and needs. Some people thought this unnecessary, that such information could be found online. We had tables and we sat down and talk to them and tried to understand their dreams for their kids and their kids dreams for themselves so we could match them accordingly. It can all be done online but it’s not a front door. A front door is a handshake, a front door is a smile. It starts a conversation, which I think is very important.

Sharon: I’m in a quandary having been socialized for many years in my work with ADRA* to be opposed to proselytization for Adventism. What we do in frontline ADRA work is relational, and maybe it’s grace evangelism but it is not proselytization. Maybe what we’re doing in traditional evangelism is actually proselytization. I’m struggling now with the question of which is which, and how to relationally connect soul-to-soul with the co-child of God I’m serving or working with in a way that bypasses behavioral doctrinal issues that could destroy, rather than enhance, their walk with God. 

C-J: It’s really not about us, it is about God. If we have loving hearts, God does the rest. They will ask a question, like a child. When the child is ready, when the student is ready, he or she will say, “I have this question, and it’s really important. Who do I trust was such an important question.” It’s always amazing to me that we know intuitively. Think about it in your own life. You go, “Who can I trust with this very important question?” We’re always evangelizing by the way we live. We don’t have to tell somebody. They know. Let God do the work. 

Reinhard: At the personal level, our encounters with people—at work, at home, in society—depend on their needs and the level of their knowledge about God. But at the group level, in church, which I attended in Indonesia (where evangelism is very strong) the more work they need to do, the more funds they need. Judeo-Christian countries tend to donate generously when disasters strike, as with the tsunami in Indonesia in 2004. The United States, Canada, Australia, are among the first to send ship-loads of aid. . So I think we have to admit that people in the Christian world follow the teaching of Jesus through the Great Commission to spread the gospel and then baptize people. 

But the main thing Jesus taught the first disciples—and which has never changed—was to show love, compassion, and to talk about salvation. Every established church has pretty much spread all over the world. They have their own traditions, and are influenced by their leaders. Some rule or regulation might change because of challenges in this world—for instance, same sex marriage—but the main responsibility of every church is to show the love of Jesus and to help human beings. I think that’s the key to evangelism and proselytism. 

In the Beatitudes, Jesus blesses those who are poor in spirit and poor physically. Poverty drives a lot of people in developing countries to evangelistic meetings in this modern world. We don’t see such enthusiasm here for big meetings by well known evangelists as we saw when Billy Graham visited Korea and hundreds of thousands showed up. What we have to do is just remember God’s command to show compassion and love and tell the gospel of salvation. The Holy Spirit will help us to evangelize God’s grace.

Kiran: I was taught four points when I was brought into the church: 1. The grace of God, 2. Evangelism is driven by Holy Spirit, 3. It’s never one way, and 4. Hospitality worship/group study. It took about two years to bring me into the church. It was not like a one-week evangelistic series. 

How do you show love on a podium in front of thousands of people? Is that love or is it just some sort of one-way street? The idea of industrialized evangelism or mass evangelism is not biblical. It’s the lazy way out, because we’re not patient enough to do proper evangelism, where you sit with a person, go through their struggles, share their experience, share your experience, eat with them, feed them, be fed by them…. This is hard work. You cannot do that on a mass scale. 

Yes, Peter evangelized 3,000 people but they already knew the Bible and already worshiped God. Today, the four points of evangelism of the church that I go to are: 1. Daniel and Revelation; 2. Evangelism through total member involvement (that’s the phrase they use.) They don’t talk about the Holy Spirit doing the evangelizing; rather, every member should go and bring in every other member. 3. It’s only one way. You teach the other people what to do. 4. It’s not hospitality that comes first—teaching comes first. There is no group study there. It is a stark: “We teach. You learn.”

Why did we stray so far away from the original points? It is why I never enjoyed our evangelistic meetings. I always felt uncomfortable. If we stick to these four points, I think we can evangelize the people inside our own world. Jesus said to evangelize the whole world, but I think my world—the 25 people close to me—is more important. I learn from them, I share my things with them. I think that’s the point of evangelism, and it is doable and enjoyable to do. It’s not a burden.

Janelin: This all reminds me of the importance of relationship and (not to sound cliche) meeting people “where they’re at.” In the field of medicine, we have the bread and butter of blood pressure and diabetes and we know all the evidence to tell the patient s/he should do this, that, and the other. But my patients are dealing with so much. I can tell them all these things but that’s just not their priority. They are unable to absorb what I’m trying to share. So the visit ends up with my hearing them out, just being a good listener of what’s going on in their life, I have to put the medical evidence aside because that’s not their priority right now. 

I think this parallels daily life, where we try to show love and support and provide a listening ear as we interact with people. Sometimes you can’t get to share some of the things that you might want to. I do incorporate, where I think it’s fitting, questions about their spiritual life, but Connie’s experience with Loma Linda and not being able to relate is a big deal for people, because they won’t be able to see the big picture when it doesn’t seem relatable. 

After several visits from patients and hearing them out, then sometimes we can get into more things, but it definitely takes an, investment of time and building trust and relationship before you can move on to other, deeper things.

C-J: It isn’t that I can’t relate to Loma Linda. The messaging is good. It’s the backdrop, the privilege, because very few people are part of that privilege. But I think of a walk with, a spiritual relationship with, God in terms of the 12 steps. It is all about relationship. The healthier we get, the healthier our spiritual life will be, the more productive we’ll be, and those things that you were speaking of will just come in alignment without somebody cracking the whip. “No, I didn’t buy butter, because you can’t eat butter”, instead of saying, “I think I’m going to try to not eat as much butter,” or “I’ve just decided I’m going to do this cold turkey. Just don’t bring it in the house. Don’t bring potato chips in the house.” 

But that’s because the acceptance of “I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you” and modeling good choices. “I’ll cook you what you want, but I’m going to eat healthy.” It’s a challenge. But you have to make it and commit to it. If you can get it down to four things like Kiran then Woo-hoo! You’re on your way, you’re more than halfway home. But it has to be a work of God,

Carolyn: Going back in the archives of my life: For such a long time, I did not know what the gospel was that I was to share. Was I to proselytize and bring them into the church? What was my goal? We used to count the numbers, but I just feel like sometimes we have to realize, as many of you have said, that friendships and love are the important things. Billy Graham taught the gospel of Jesus Christ as his love for us and giving his all for us. 

Anonymous: I don’t see that we have to take grace and leave the rules. They go hand in hand. To be in grace is like the end of the road, not the beginning of the road. You walk along it and along the way you meet grace. And then you start mixing the old with the new.

Don: Part of our agenda coming up is to ask if there is such a thing as too much grace? Does grace need to be balanced with some kind of rule? 

* * *

*Adventist Development and Relief Agency International. ADRA is a humanitarian agency operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church for the purpose of providing individual and community development and disaster relief. (Source: Wikipedia)