“Evangelism is not an option for the Christian life.” Those are the words of Louis Palau, and it is true. If you are a follower of Christ, if your eyes have been awakened to the beauty and majesty and hope that is in Christ, you should be eager to announce the gospel to all who come into your presence. All too often churches talk about the need to do evangelism, but don’t. I personally believe Ed Stetzer got it right when he said, “Many Christians love evangelism as long as someone else is doing it.” Today, because so few Christians are willing to do the important work of evangelism, it’s like we have to make it into a program. But that is not how was for the early first century church. For them, evangelism was a way of life. Dr. David Jeremiah said, “Evangelism was not a program in the Jerusalem church; it was a way of life.”
At Northeast church this year we are going to strive to do door-to-door evangelism in our community. It is something some of us in our fellowship have spoken about many times and now is the time to act on those words. It’s time for every church to do so. Let me give you my 4 reasons for doing so.
Reason #1: The harvest is plentiful in this country.
In Luke 10:2 Jesus said, “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.” The harvest is just as plentiful now as was when Jesus made this statement; maybe even more so. According to a Pew Research poll that came out December 15, 2021 America is becoming more secular every year. In fact, per this poll, “the declining number of Americans who say they are Christian is offset by a growing number of people who call themselves atheist, agnostic, or people of no particular faith.” According to this poll, “the number of atheists and agnostics…roughly doubled in the past decade.” The reason we have many of the issues we do in our nation is because our nation is growing in secularism, and there are no signs of this slowing down. The only way to combat the growing secularism in our nation is by spreading the gospel, and that cannot happen if we are not willing to take the gospel outside the wall our buildings.
Reason #2: We cannot wait for lost sinners to come to us, we must go to them.
In 1893 Charles Spurgeon said, “Men are going to heaven or to hell, and it is time that we came to close grips with them about this all-important matter. God help us to do so.” I agree with Spurgeon, it is time for us to come to grips that every day 7,123 people die in this nation. That means every 5 minutes someone dies, and they are going to heaven or to hell. Spurgeon also said, “You must go into the fire if you are to pull others out of it, and you will have to dive into the floods if you are to draw others out of the water.” In other words, if we are to draw people out of the grips of hell, we must go to them. The apostle Paul in Romans 9:13-15 said, “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” The point is, the lost cannot call upon the Lord to be saved unless they have heard the gospel, and they cannot hear the gospel unless someone goes to them to tell them the good news. Again, we cannot wait for lost sinners to come to us. We have to do a better job of going to them.
Reason #3: We are commanded by Jesus to do evangelism.
In Matthew 28:19 Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” How do we make disciples? Disciples are only made when someone who does not know Jesus comes to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. While that can happen on a Sunday morning, Jesus does not call us to sit here and wait for the lost to come to us. He calls us to go to them. We see this in The Parable of The Great Banquet found in Luke 14:12-23 when the master says to his servant in verse 23, “Go out to the highway and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.” That is Jesus’ call to us: go out to the community and compel people to come into the kingdom of God! Jesus wants his kingdom full and we, his church, have been commissioned to fill his house!
Reason #4: This is how God builds his church.
God’s method of saving sinners has never changed and never will. It’s not through programs or methods. It has always been and always will be through the proclamation of his Word. We see all through the book of Acts the disciples going from village to village and town to town preaching the gospel. They did not wait for lost sinners to go to them, the disciples went to them, and God consistently granted salvation to those who the gospel was preached to. And if it was good enough for the first century church, it is good enough for us today. By the way, this is also how great awakenings happen.
Who is to do the work of evangelism?
This is for everybody. To quote Elton Trueblood, “Evangelism is not a professional job for a few trained men, but is instead the unrelenting responsibility of every person who belongs to the company of Jesus.” In other words, this is for every person who belongs to Christ. You don’t have to have a seminary degree, a bachelor’s degree, an associates degree, or even a high school education. The first works of evangelism after Jesus ascended were done by 12 unschooled, uneducated men, and their work is still seen today. All you need is to know Christ and be filled with his Spirit. That is one of main purposes of the Spiri: to fill you with power, so that you can bear witness to lost sinners that Jesus is the Christ (Acts 1:8).
Let me close by saying that I know many doubt whether this type of ministry is effective. Many dismiss the idea of passing out Bible tracts or standing on street corners and reading from the Bible publicly. They believe it is not effective. I say this to those objections: God’s Word does not fail. God’s Word will not return empty. It will accomplish the purpose for which it was sent and part of that purpose is the salvation of sinners. Our job is not to worry about its effectiveness. Our duty is to do as God has commanded, and He has commanded that we go out and make disciples, compelling people to enter into His kingdom by repenting of their sins and putting their faith in Christ. We leave the results to God.