How Should We Evangelize?

For those of you who are new or visiting and don’t know me, my name is Josh and I’m one of the members of this church. And today, I get to finish off this three-part sermon series on evangelism. If you haven’t been with us the past two weeks (or if you missed any of the sermons for any reason), please go on our website (ebcnipawin.ca/sermons) and watch/listen to those sermons.

Part of why we record our sermons online is because we believe that it’s important to receive the whole counsel of God and we don’t want anyone to miss out on that! So please watch any sermons that you miss in general, especially the last two on evangelism, because I will be taking lots of the truths we learned there and essentially applying them in this sermon on “how to evangelize.”

Whenever anyone gives a “how to” talk on anything today, it usually comes from professional experts on the topic. So I just want to get this out of the way: I don’t have a degree in evangelism. I am just another average Christian (like many of you) who has undeservedly been given the good news about Jesus, and I just want to tell people about this good news (like many of you)—but I still, at times, experience the temptation to keep this blessing to myself (like many of you), because it’s the easier and more comfortable way to go.

Not a Solo Journey

That’s why we’re learning about evangelism as a church. Part of why I signed up to preach this was to keep learning about how to evangelize! To sum up what was said last week: according to the Bible, evangelism is not just for “evangelists” to do—but for every Christian to do.

So, if you’re a Christian today, then we are all on this journey together in learning how to evangelize (and even that word “evangelize” may come off as overly formal or scary, but it literally just means “tell the good news” about Jesus, to people around us who haven’t heard). And we evangelize because the gospel is true and powerful, people need to hear it, and it is God-glorifying (as we heard two sermons ago).

Now, we don’t have to level everything out. We can humbly recognize that some have been on this journey of evangelism longer than us and that we can learn from them. This is why, over the past two weeks, I asked a number of people (some in this room) on how they’ve evangelized (what’s worked and what hasn’t worked)—and I put that all together with some of my own experiences with evangelism.

I also interacted with other Christian authors who wrote on practical ways to evangelize, so I trust that Lord will help us consider these practical steps on how to evangelize and put them to practice as we go out these doors and take the next step in this journey of telling people about Jesus.

But the first place we need to look for instructions on how to evangelize must be the Word of God. So let’s get into our passage this morning—if you haven’t yet, please turn in your Bibles to Colossians 4. And there will be tons of application points, so I’d encourage you to take notes as well.

This is the end of Paul’s letter to the Christians in Colossae, where he gives some general instructions on how they ought to evangelize outsiders (or non-Christians) in their community. First, Paul tells them to pray for opportunities (verses 2-4). Then, he says to look for opportunities to speak (verse 5). Lastly, Paul exhorts them to prepare for such opportunities (verse 6). But the first step in evangelizing is prayer.

Pray For Opportunities To Speak

“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving” (4:2).

First, Paul tells the Colossians how to pray. Steadfastly (devotedly, commit yourself to prayer), watchfully (be alert and vigilant in it), and thankfully (be full of gratitude for the prayers that God has answered and will answer through these steadfast and watchful prayers that you continue in).

Then Paul tells them what to pray for: “At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak” (4:3b-4).

Here, in Paul’s prayer request, we see that Paul’s main goal is that the mystery of Christ be made clear as he declares it (with words) and speaking “the word” in such a clear way that the mystery of Christ becomes as plain as day for those who are listening.

In other words, Paul’s main goal was to evangelize. But here’s the problem: Paul was imprisoned for evangelizing. And he wasn’t alone, which is why Paul asks the Colossians to pray for “us” because he had fellow evangelists who were also in prison with him (Col. 4:10).

This is the kind of hardship that comes with evangelizing. For Paul and co., it was as extreme as being imprisoned for it. For us in the 21st century, our hardships today might look a bit different (especially in our context here in Nipawin). While we might not get actual jail time, sharing the gospel today might make things awkward in our relationships with neighbours or people in our community. Are we ok with that?

It might mean getting made fun of at school or being labeled at work, or it might mean people avoiding us in general and maybe not even wanting to talk with us at all! Are we willing to go through these for the sake of sharing the gospel, like Paul was? Getting people to like us or respect us as Christians is not the goal, like we talked about last week.

And this certainly was not the goal for Paul, because Paul’s end goal was to evangelize—period. Yet, the means to Paul getting to evangelize was getting out of prison. This is why Paul asks the Colossians to pray to God for an open door (or, opportunities) for the word of Christ to be declared.

Paul recognizes God’s sovereignty in evangelism—this is why we pray as a church to reach our community with the gospel, as well as for missionaries around the globe, that God would open a door for the word through their work. Only God could bring about a helicopter so that the Willems can take part in reaching the unreached (which we’ve been praying for, and that prayer was answered—so praise the Lord!)

While God is sovereign, Paul also recognized man’s responsibility in evangelism. Notice how Paul doesn’t just sit there and wait for God to open the door. Even though Paul literally had a closed prison door in front of him, he kept going and evangelizing! How do we know that? He started writing this letter and equipped others to evangelize in the process!

“Waiting For Open Doors” Today

This is really important to note because many Christians today hold to this idea of waiting for God to open a door before they make a decision for the sake of Christ and the gospel. They would say, “God hasn’t opened up that door for me yet, so I’m still waiting.” Or, “I didn’t have peace about going, so I haven’t gone yet.”

I’ve found that this language is often used by Christians who tend to mask or super-spiritualize their anxiety and fear or lack of initiative and decisiveness (whether it’s done intentionally or unintentionally). But this is not how Paul understood the idea of God opening up doors for the word (or opportunities for the gospel).

There are a few places in Scripture that can help us understand better how Paul uses this language of “open doors” (I put them in your outlines so you don’t have to flip in your Bibles). Look at 2 Corinthians 2: “When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ... a door was opened for me in the Lord” (2 Cor. 2:12). So, Paul went to a place (instead of staying and waiting) with the intention and goal to preach the gospel of Christ—then the Lord opened a specific door, a specific opportunity, to preach there.

In Paul’s mind, the idea of waiting for God to open a door before going and evangelizing is non-existent. You just go, and God will open or close doors as he wills. When Jesus said, “Go… and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19), he swung the door wide open for evangelism. And to wait might actually be disobedience.

So when it comes to evangelizing today, we cannot wait for our neighbours to knock on our doors or our co-workers to finally ask us about Jesus. We can’t just say, “I know it’s been years, but our relationship just isn’t at that spot yet.” Will it ever be? Unless we bring up Jesus and the gospel (even at the risk of making things awkward)?

Neither can we wait to “have peace” in going and evangelizing, because sharing the gospel actually brings the opposite of peace! Listen to Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 16 (this is also in your outline): “I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries” (1 Cor. 16:8-9). For Paul, opposition to the gospel signified an open door for effective evangelism.

Just because people snub us or are rude to us after we try to share the gospel does not mean that God has closed the door on us to keep evangelizing. How many of us tend to give up at the first sign of hardship or opposition to the gospel? Instead, we as Christian evangelists should get used to being rejected more than being respected. Unless we have a closed prison door stopping us, then we have an open door to evangelize.

And that’s exactly what Paul tells the Colossians to do next. While the first step to evangelism is praying, Paul immediately tells them to get up from their knees, start walking, and look for opportunities to speak.

Look For Opportunities To Speak

“Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time” (4:5).

Other translations say “conduct yourselves with wisdom” (NASB). So the command here is to act or behave with wisdom toward (or around) outsiders. Why? Because this wisdom shows the mystery of Christ to unbelievers (Col. 2:2-3).

And as we behave wisely around non-Christians, Paul says to make the best use of the time. Another translation says, “Make the most of every opportunity” (NIV). So the goal of being wise Christians around non-Christians is to look for opportunities to speak! Then, we are to make the best use of the time and make the most of those opportunities by sharing wisdom and declaring the mystery of Christ in a clear way!

Now, here’s the question for us today: Is evangelism our goal when we’re around non-Christians? I think it’s safe to say that most (if not all) of us try to act and behave wisely around unbelievers. Like not complaining and being angry customers as unbelievers do (Phil. 2:14-15), or not being rude on the road when they cut you off.

But Paul says that our wise actions are just a means to an end. We show them our good works so that we can find an open door to share with them our good words—that is, the good news of the gospel. Yes, we let our light shine so that they see our good works; but how are they to glorify our Father in heaven without us speaking the word of Christ to them? Unbelievers are capable of good works too (in fact, many polite Canadians are “good” people)—good works alone don’t lead anyone to Christ.

Many of us have heard the famous quote, “Preach the gospel; if necessary use words.” However, the Bible seems to say the opposite: “Preach the gospel; if necessary, use works.” Because good works are but a means towards good words. As Paul says, faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ (Rom. 10:17).

In the same way, Paul in Colossians 4 tells us to act wisely around unbelievers so that we can evangelize them. Do we mow our neighbour’s lawns or shovel their sidewalks—then tell them why we did that? Maybe we have a decent relationship with unbelieving co-workers or relatives, but do we take the next step and talk about Jesus and our faith with them?

Just because they know we’re Christians and that we do good things does not mean we are evangelizing. It can start there, but we can’t just end it there—for their sake. We shouldn’t just stop at our common ground with people (same workplace, last name, life stage, love for sports/movies)—because we want to share Christ as our common ground. Don’t we want our relationship with them to last for eternity?

So what do these opportunities look like today? There are endless opportunities around us, especially here in Nipawin (and area). I’ll start with some personal opportunities we can take advantage of, as well as some corporate opportunities that we can try as a church together.

Opportunities Today

The first place to start looking for personal opportunities is at home—specifically, looking for ways to share your home (and eventually Christ) with unbelievers. Have we met our neighbours or talked with them? Have we invited them over for a meal to break the ice? And maybe you only establish common ground the first time you converse with the, but do it again and go deeper the next time!

Stay at home moms, why don’t you invite unbelievers over to your “workplace” at home? One of the best ways to share the gospel with people is to do life with them. For us in general, mixing our circles of hospitality and inviting unbelievers over with other Christians from church to intentionally talk about our Christian lives (or our church lives) is a wonderful opportunity to expose them to the gospel.

I know some of you have had people (whether family or unbelievers in general) stay at your house for an extended period of time—what an excellent way for them to see gospel living and hear gospel speaking. For many of us, this happens as we host family gatherings in our homes. Let’s make the best use of the time in those (starting with Thanksgiving)!

At our family gatherings, I usually get the chance to lead prayer at these, and I probably prepare for those prayers more than the ones I lead here at church. It would be wise for us to pray more than just saying, “Thank you lord for the food, Amen.” Maybe telling your relatives that you do your family devotions or “Bible time” with your kids during or after the meal (or whenever it fits), so that they can be part of it.

A second opportunity we can take advantage of is our workplace. We talk about all kinds of things at work, including even sinful things like gossip in the lunchroom. So can’t we as Christians find a way to talk about the gospel?

Now, I also talked with some of you who interact with “customers” on a regular basis and said that it is probably not wise to dominate every conversation with Jesus. That’s true. If you work at a restaurant and ask someone ordering a burger if they would like fries and Jesus with that, it probably won’t be the most effective way to evangelize (and might be the most effective way of getting fired).

Yet, while we don’t get paid to preach the gospel from 9 to 5 (as some say to excuse themselves from sharing the gospel at work), we also find time to talk about everything else within “business hours”—so why not find a way to talk about Jesus?

One simple way that we need to just make a routine is inviting unbelieving relatives or co-workers to our Sunday services here. And we need to conduct ourselves in an evangelistic manner that would make sense to outsiders (1 Cor. 14:23-25). One excellent way to do that is follow up with them afterwards (the next step could be doing one to one Bible reading with them).

There are so many opportunities around us today, but maybe some of us here need to take steps towards initiating a relationship with an unbeliever. Are we as Christians even around unbelievers enough to do these things? Do we walk towards outsiders or away from them?

It’s very easy for our schedules to be filled up with things at home or at church or even unnecessary and excessive overtime work hours (guilty as charged)—but do we have time to be Christians around non-Christians in Nipawin? In the words of Colossians 4, how are we ever going to evangelize outsiders if we only ever spend time with “insiders”?

Church, this is a good reminder for us to connect with our neighbours and get plugged in to our community as much as we can (especially for those of us who don’t get to do rub shoulders with unbelievers regularly due to work or distance), so that we can seek gospel opportunities out there!

I’ve appreciated our church’s effort lately to try and minimize scheduled events in our church calendar—not so we can have more time watching movies or sports or playing games at home, but to look for open doors or opportunities today to evangelize Nipawin and area.

One of the opportunities we can evangelize as a church is on Outpour this fall. I talked with Brad about this and this is an organized way that we can evangelize as a church, and specifically taking the step from good works to good words. Don’t let this scare you away from signing up this year—instead, let this be a motivation to prepare and speak the word of Christ to our community together as a church.

Donald Whitney, in his book on spiritual disciplines, makes a bold statement by saying that evangelism is a spiritual discipline. He then says that many Christians don’t evangelize because they don’t even put it into their personal calendars. Are we willing to put evangelism into our schedules to seek open doors for the word regularly? Adding Outpour or other community events to our calendars would be a good place to start.

And when we’re out and about in our community, it would be a good discipline not to gravitate towards sitting or talking with our Christian friends. We don’t have to ignore them, but our main goal is to wisely walk towards non-Christians (quite literally) and strike up conversations with them in hopes of steering the conversation towards wisdom and making the mystery of Christ clearer to them than it was before.

And if you’re there with other Christians, why not intentionally tag team? Maybe sit with unbelievers on purpose and include them in your conversation as you deliberately talk about wisdom through your Christian lives (which means going beyond your jobs or sports or the weather forecast).

Another option when you’re with other Christians is to divide and conquer. Emily and I try to do this regularly at the Early Childhood and Resource Centre, because they put on fun events for our kids (and that’s a nice bonus)! But our commitment to going there is to connect with other unbelieving parents and workers, so Emily takes the left side with the moms and I take the other side with the dads (I’ve tried this with some of the dads from our small group as well, and it worked great)!

There are so many open doors or opportunities whenever or wherever our community gathers in mass amounts! Try this at the pool (in the summer) or at Hawks games in the winter. One of the best things about sports events is that people are literally sitting next to you (so some of us here are on tap for the Labour Day game this afternoon)!

This doesn't have to be burdensome, as in “now I can’t ever just enjoy anything out there without having to work up the courage to talk to others?” According to Paul, rubbing shoulders with unbelievers was just a normal part of the Christian life. We can enjoy being out there, but the point of being around non-Christians is to look for opportunities to speak the word of Christ and make the most of those opportunities.

Walk in wisdom towards outsiders, making the best use of the time. However, evangelism won’t be effective unless we’re proactive about it—so Paul calls the Colossians (and us) to prepare for opportunities to speak.

Prepare For Opportunities To Speak

“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person” (4:6).

Here is probably one of the more well-known verses in the Bible, and surprisingly one that is usually taken out of context. Most people isolate this verse and interpret it as a command to speak kindly to everyone in general. While that concept is biblically true, it is true from other places in the Bible (like Proverbs and James).

But in Colossians 4, Paul specifies how Christians ought to answer each person whom they walk in wisdom towards (outsiders/unbelievers). And Paul’s emphasis here is on Christians preparing how to speak the word to non-Christians. In doing so, Paul uses the imagery of preparing a meal and seasoning it with salt to grace those whom it is served to.

The idea of salt here need not be overthought (it’s a possible reference to Matthew 5:13, but we’re not sure). Neither does it have to be over-symbolized (no, the salt does not represent Jesus). Paul is simply saying to the Colossians: "Season your speech with salt so that it is not bland for unbelievers who hear the gospel for the first time.”

Now, this does not imply that we just “sprinkle a bit of Jesus” into it or make the gospel more swallowable. In fact, it means the opposite because we want to feed them the right dish—which means using all the right ingredients. And where do we find the right ingredients? Verse 3 tells us that it must be from “the word.” So we don’t need to add or take away from the Word, but we want to use the best words when speaking it.

But how do we do that?

Many of you know what it’s like to prepare a delicious meal for guests. You need to know the right recipe and the right ingredients, take the amount of time necessary to prepare it, then make sure it tastes just right (seasoning it to perfection) before serving it at the table.

So when to comes to preparing to share the gospel with others, we need to use the right ingredients (the Bible). Then, we need to take the time necessary to think about the recipe and how to explain the gospel in a clear and compelling way, seasoning it with just the right words to grace unbelievers in such a way that makes them want to know more.

Ways To Prepare & Practice

Maybe you’re the hesitant type who would say, “I wouldn’t know what words to say.” But that’s why Paul says to prepare your words! We have been blessed by many different resources on how to share the gospel clearly, correctly and confidently (see bulletin). Take the time to read through this and practice it by maybe speaking it out loud (or sharing with a Christian you know).

Maybe you’re the confident type who would know generally what to say. But it would still be wise to prepare so you can share the gospel clearly, correctly and concisely. Season your speech by gleaning from clearer “recipes” that others have put into writing!

Another great resource is the tract, Two Ways To Live (we have dozens of these, so please grab one or two on your way out). It is small, short, and simple—but please don’t just give it away to someone without following up with them. Instead, use it as a tool to read and talk about it with a skeptic or unbeliever. Tracts (or any evangelistic tool for that matter) is not meant to replace us—because God designed us to be THE tool to speak the word of Christ to people.

Maybe you’re wondering, is there a less formal way to season our speech in preparing to speak the word to others? An approach I’ve taken over the years (which I’d like to suggest to us today) is using elements of everyday conversation to segue to elements of the gospel. In fact, I recently came across someone who has put this into writing!

So here’s another resource I want to highlight—Gospel Threads by David Platt—Platt’s goal in this book is to help Christians “weave” elements of the gospel into everyday conversation. What I’ve called “segues,” Platt calls “threads” (and Platt will probably be more helpful and detailed than what I’m about to suggest here, so sign out the copy from our library)!

Gospel “Segues"

One of the simplest ways to segue to the gospel in normal conversations is talking about your church! In fact, I’ve found that it’s actually really helpful to introduce myself to people as someone from Emmanuel Baptist Church instead of my hometown or job title. That way, it can open up opportunities to share about church life or Christian living in general!

I actually got to do this at a Filipino Christmas gathering a few years ago where the organizers invited me to join the singing contest—but my main goal in grabbing that mic was to publicly say, “Hi, I’m Josh, that’s my family over there and we’re from Emmanuel Baptist Church,” which basically distinguished me from most of the Filipinos there who were from St. Eugene’s Catholic Church.

To this day, that has started so many conversations with Filipinos in Nipawin: “Josh, you’re so young but you have wife and kids already?!” And this helps me segue to my marriage and kids (and eventually Jesus)!

Married couples, your marriage is all about Jesus—so this is one of the easiest and smoothest segues to Christ! Wives, one of the best conversation starters is talking about your husbands and examples of you submitting to them (if that doesn’t cause questions or reactions from unbelievers, then I don’t know what will)—all because you submit to Christ. Husbands, you can talk about examples of sacrifice for your wife (as Christ laid down his life for you).

If you have children, a wonderful segue would be to contrast your impatience with your kids with your heavenly Father’s patience with you as his child! Or maybe sharing about how you discipline your children (which would be so outlandish to many unbelieving parents out there).

And there is not a better segue to talking about sin and evil in this world than talking about little kids in general! As in, we don’t have to teach kids to do bad—they are just cute little sinners by default! Now, we as parents don’t have to shame our own children, but we can generally acknowledge man’s sinful nature in kids and segue to our own need for a Saviour.

If you are single, we live in a culture that prizes marriage and family as the ultimate goal. So, you have endless opportunities to segue to your need for Jesus by vocalizing your identity and security in Christ apart from the opposite gender (that is absolutely NUTS to the world)!

Injustice is another great opportunity to segue to the believer’s joy on judgment day. A few weeks ago, a younger man (who was vocal about his unbelief) asked me: Josh, how can I believe in a God who lets abusers live?” (He eventually shared with me in tears that he was a victim, and that the guy is still out there). So I went on to encourage him about the justice of God, and how Christ will make things right in the end.

If death or tragedy happens, it is one of the most effective (and most important times) to segue to the hope of the resurrection. No unbeliever will deny that death is a reality. So if all things and all people in this world are headed to the the grave, then what? Where or who do you find life in, if not in Jesus who gives you eternal life?

In fact, one of the most common segues that I’ve made is how I find life in Jesus instead of my wife. I typically talk about the promises Emily and I made to each other on our wedding day (till death do us part), and the fact death will part us one day. Then, I emphasize how Jesus gives me a better promise to hold on to (I will never leave you nor forsake you). Why is that better than Emily’s promise? Because Jesus defeated death and rose from the grave, so I can trust his words that give me life (eternal).

The main encouragement from this is for our conversations with non-Christians not to stop at the physical blessings that we’ve received—but to use those as a springboard and segue to point them to the spiritual blessings that we have received in Christ (Eph. 1:3).

And one of the best ways to prepare for this is to practice doing it with fellow believers! As was mentioned last week, could it be that we don’t talk about Jesus with unbelievers because we feel awkward or uneasy (at best) or apathetic and unwilling (at worst) to talk about Jesus with each other? If so, could that change today?

Taking The Next Step

Maybe the first step for us here today is to speak to each other about Jesus in here (after Sunday services), so that we can practice sharing Jesus out there? Maybe share with someone about whatever stood out to you from this sermon or this series, or how you’ve grown in your faith recently?

Let us not be ashamed of the gospel, and let us proclaim the gospel to one another—so that we would do so out there. Starting with communion right after this (as we practice proclaiming Christ’s death and resurrection to one another), and continuing on after the service.

As we prepare and practice in taking the next step to share Christ with unbelievers around us, let’s continue to pray for opportunities and to look for opportunities as we go out there and make the most of each one. Like the song we will sing in response to this says, “Facing a task unfinished that drives us to our knees; a need that undiminished rebukes our slothful ease.”