Ignorance of Evangelism

Humanly speaking, after apostles and prophets, evangelists are Jesus’ gift to the Church. The Holy Spirit continues to be Jesus’ greatest gift to the Church on a non-human level. But among the human resources the Church has at its disposal, evangelists are the third in order of greatness.

Just as God gave us his greatest gift in the person of his Son, so does our Lord Jesus give us his greatest gifts in the flesh—men who live and minister among us. We must thank God for the evangelists he has given the Church—but who exactly are they? Can you identify them?

Let’s start by examining the evangelists according to God’s definition of the word evangelist.

And he [Christ] gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some shepherd-teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service (Ephesians 4:11-12; NASB, MacArthur).

The modern Church knows little of evangelists. It’s not familiar with God’s definition of an evangelist because most Christians have redefined the term to suit the very bad apostate times we live in. Most Evangelicals think that an evangelist is someone who preaches the message of “receiving Jesus in your heart as your personal Lord and Savior.” Supposedly we witness the work of an evangelist during altar calls at large meetings organized by cooperating congregations.

That’s all wrong, of course. So a big problem with the Church is that it doesn’t know what evangelism is. The Church is ignorant of the principles of evangelism. And because of this ignorance, it doesn’t know what an evangelist should do.

Give Me a Man

Think of the Billy Graham campaigns so popular from the 1950s to the 1990s. They are the stereotypical idea of evangelism. There was always special music and preaching concluding in an invitation for listeners to come forward and pray. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with large meetings and the invitation to pray, but these things are foreign to Biblical evangelism. They’re simply not what New Testament evangelists did.

The man who best embodies the Bible definition of an evangelist is Philip—not the fisherman who was one of the Twelve Apostles, but the Philip the first church chose as a deacon. Now, how are we so sure that Phillip is the model evangelist? It’s simple: He’s the only person ever called evangelist in the Bible.

On the next day we left and came to Caesarea, and entering the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven [first deacons], we stayed with him (Acts 21:8; NASB).

How does the Bible describe the ministry of this man, the only man God calls an evangelist in the Scriptures? First of all, it says that he preached the Gospel in every city he visited. That means that an evangelist is someone who is busy preaching the Gospel, and he keeps preaching it wherever he goes.

… Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he kept preaching the  Gospel to all the cities until he came to Caesarea (Acts 8:40; NASB).

The Work of an Evangelist

So, we’ve established that very few Evangelicals know what an evangelist is, but the situation is even worse than that. Few Evangelicals know what evangelism is, and few know what the evangelion is (evangelion is Gospel in Greek).

But Philip certainly knew what the Gospel was. That’s fundamentally what made him an evangelist—his knowledge of the Good News. A messenger first and foremost knows his message. Do you know the message?

Our message is the Good News of the coming Kingdom of God. It’s a message of forgiveness and hope which only the repentant will heed. It’s only for people who hate sin and who turn from it. It invites them to trust with all their heart in Jesus as their Savior, and God as the One who resurrected Jesus—and yes, it’s necessary that people believe in their heart that God resurrected Jesus from the Dead to be saved.

If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the Dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9).

The Gospel is an invitation for people to enter the New Covenant—a contract with God. The means of entering the covenant is baptism in water and the Spirit. The New Covenant guarantees eternal life. That life starts now with the new birth, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

The promise of life is made complete at the Resurrection, and it will last forever in the Kingdom. What’s the Kingdom? It’s what comes when Jesus returns to reign on Earth as King. We aspire to reign with him to effect all the changes to make this World a paradise again.

The Work of an Evangelist

Paul told Timothy to fulfill his ministry by doing the work of an evangelist. The phrase the work of an evangelist implies that evangelists have a duty, a particular line of work. That line of work is to reach the lost and to call them to repentance.

But you [Timothy], be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry (2 Timothy 4:5; NASB).

An evangelist calls people to repentance. People demonstrate their repentance by producing fruit worthy of repentance. In other words, they undo what they have done. Repentance is not an action, it’s an inaction; but the fruit of repentance is when you replace sin with righteousness. It’s when you amend your ways.

[Jesus said] “… unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’

‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down’” (Luke 13:5-9).

In this parable, the man who took care of the vineyard was the evangelist.

Some, not Many

Christ gave the Church some evangelists. You’ll recognize them as the men who fulfill the work of evangelism for the edification and growth of the Church.

And he [Christ] gave some… evangelists (Ephesians 4:11).

Evangelist is a position of leadership in the Church—therefore any person properly designated as an evangelist must be a man, for only men should lead in the Church. At the same time, women and children should evangelize. Surely there are many women who evangelize more than their male counterparts, but that does not qualify those women to have the position and leadership role of evangelist.

To All the World

Now, let’s try to define exactly what the function of an evangelist is.

What is being an evangelist about? Quite simply, it’s about preaching the Gospel. So then, what is the Gospel? Well, in the language of the New Testament (Greek) the word euangelion means Gospel. It’s a compound word. That is, it has two morphemes, two parts: 

eu = good

angelion = news

The Gospel is the good news of the Kingdom. An evangelist is a man who specializes in preaching the Good News of the Kingdom. People may or may not repent under his preaching, but the intention of the evangelist is that those chosen to hear his proclamation would come to Christ for forgiveness in baptism and incorporate into the Church. In other words, the goal was that sinners would believe in the Gospel.

… many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand (Acts 4:4).

… more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number (Acts 5:14).

“… this is what the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the Earth.’”

When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the Word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed (Acts 13:47-48).

The Apostles Were Evangelists

Surely the Twelve Apostles fit the bill for being evangelists. We’ve proven that the deacon Philip and even Paul’s beloved ‘son in the Faith’ Timothy also fit the bill. Didn’t the Twelve Apostles also preach the Gospel of the Kingdom? The next verse proves that they did:

… they [the Apostles] began going throughout the villages, preaching the Gospel and healing everywhere (Luke 9:6; NASB).

Certainly, Jesus charged the Apostles with the responsibility of preaching the Gospel. He gave them this charge even while he was still with them, and he commanded that they preach to all the nations even before he was resurrected.

Jesus said to them:

The Gospel must first be preached to all the nations… (Mark 13:10; NASB)

While he was with them, Jesus reminded the apostles of their worldwide commission. He exhorted them that they shouldn’t only preach in Israel, but that they should preach the Gospel to all people, even to the uttermost parts of the World. That command is not just an expression of Jesus’ love for the World; it is Jesus’ command to the apostles to be evangelists. 

… this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole World as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come (Matthew 24:14).

Preach and Baptize

Jesus commanded the Twelve to evangelize, and he gave them specific instructions on how to do it. He wanted them to evangelize in a particular way. In other words, it wasn’t just the message—the method mattered too. 

God uses means to save people. Can you affirm that? If so, then what are those means? Can you define them?

The apostles had to call people to repent of their sins, to believe in the message, and to be baptized in water and the Spirit. That was their 4-part strategy for evangelism. The commission Jesus gave the apostles proves that true evangelization demands three responses: repentance, belief, and baptism. Read the Great Commission passages here:

… repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his [the Christ’s] name to all nations… (Luke 24:47)

… he said to them, ‘Go into all the World and preach the Gospel to all creation. The one who believes and is baptized will be saved’ (Mark 16:15-16; LEB).

… go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit… (Matthew 28:19)

Evangelicals today have all but forgotten that baptism is an integral and key part of evangelization. The majority of their pastors outright deny the role of baptism in evangelization; but to do this, they must make a gargantuan effort to avoid the Bible verses that say that baptism is for the forgiveness of sins.

Those men won’t change. Those self-proclaimed “pastors” will continue in their pursuit of professional success and the approval of men. Let’s not worry about convincing them. They are hirelings—in the ministry for the money—and they will continue to pursue financial gain. But what about you?

Will you try to win souls? Will you aim at the gain of eternal life? If you know that forgiveness is an element of evangelization, and you affirm that God requires baptism for forgiveness, then you must include baptism in your evangelization method. Jesus did—and so did Philip and Peter.

We'll look at their evangelism techniques in the next lesson.