We Should ALL be Evangelists
Well praise Jesus today everyone. As we know in the body of Christ there are many different spiritual gifts and not everyone has all of those spiritual gifts. Not everyone has the gift of administration or helps. Not everyone is an ear, not everyone is an eye. Not all of us have a specific kind of faith that is in a specific situation but all of us do have faith. Not all of us have the gift of healings or all these different gifts that the Apostle Paul speaks of. All of us have some of those gifts as the Lord wills us to have those gifts. We cannot twist God's arm or quote a Bible verse to try to prove to God that we need this gift, but the Holy Spirit gives us gifts as He deems necessary.
Some of us are given dreams, some of us a tongue, some an interpretation, some of us are as prophets, but the Holy Spirit uses each of us for His wonderful purpose and we're not to use our gift to boast in ourself and certainly we are not to be jealous of other people's spiritual gift or how God is using them. But when we are all working together in unity, we are the body of Christ.
Now even though we all have different spiritual gifts, and we don't have all the spiritual gifts, all of us are to be evangelists and what I mean by that is all of us are to be encouraging others to follow the way of Jesus Christ. You can't say I'm a Christian, but I am not an evangelist or I'm a disciple of Jesus, but I don't lead people to God, that's someone else's job. I pay other people to preach the gospel. You cannot buy your way into heaven like this. And for years some Christians, especially those who are more wealthy, they think that they can buy their way into heaven or they can buy the work of God by just giving money to other people to do God's work while they do their own business. But Jesus calls us each to enter into the kingdom of God and to be evangelists, to evangelize the sick, the lost, the sinner and to call them to repentance. That doesn't mean that all of us have to be on YouTube, that doesn't mean all of us have to have an online presence, but what it does mean is that wherever you are, you are always shining your light for Jesus Christ, whether it is just to your children, just to your mom or your dad, just to a brother or sister, just to someone that you are around at school.
But wherever you are, you are called to be an evangelist. We know that those who are ashamed of the gospel and that aren't standing for Jesus, they're not evangelizing, we know that God will be ashamed of them. Jesus says when He comes with the glory of his Father and his angels, He will be ashamed of those people that are ashamed of His gospel. So we need to be proclaiming the truth of Jesus, calling people to repent. That doesn't mean we force religion down people's throat or we hit people with Bible verses, but that does mean whenever we can we shine as a light for Jesus Christ.
The other day someone asked me why I don't celebrate Halloween. They first asked me, what are your children going to be for Halloween? I just told them, “well I don't celebrate Halloween.” And because I was in the professional business setting I didn't really want to say much more. Not a lot of people want to hear the gospel. Jesus says don't throw pearls to pigs. But I also want to stand for Jesus any chance I get. So this person then asked me after a few minutes or after a minute of pause, they said, “can I ask you Andrew why you don't celebrate Halloween?” And they said, “is it for a religious reason?” And I just knew if I said hardly anything it would be taken as religious. But I knew what I needed to say and that was I don't celebrate Halloween because I follow Jesus Christ and I teach my children to follow Jesus Christ. And I just left it at that. And she wasn't concerned about hearing anything more. She just said, “okay yeah it's a religious thing.” But for those of us that know Jesus, we want to stand up for Him. And we want to be salt and light. And so when we stand with Jesus just in simple things like this and proclaiming His name, you know I'm not part of the world because I'm with Jesus. When we just simply stand for Jesus, not that we have all the answers, not that we know how to speak to everyone in the most elegant way, but if we just stand on the truth with Jesus then we are evangelists. And we are calling people to repentance.
Now it was interesting because I don't know if this particular family is Christian or anything like that, and I wasn't throwing any condemnation or anything like that. All I said is I don't partake in Halloween because I follow Jesus. And immediately she said something like, “well I hope God just forgives us then for celebrating Halloween.” God will have mercy on people who receive His Son, who receive Jesus Christ, who receive what Jesus did on the cross, who are baptized and who put their faith in Him. But if you go around just thinking that God will forgive you because years and years ago you said the prayer of repentance in Bible school, but you haven't done anything for Him since, then it's likely you will be cut off from the living God.
Too many Christians want to have a deathbed repentance. They want to serve themselves their whole life. They like lukewarm Christianity. They like living as the world. And then they want that deathbed repentance where they just say, “God forgive me”, right before they die and then they believe they will enter into heaven. But we have to evangelize people telling them the truth that sin will take to hell. And if we want to enter into the kingdom of God, then we have to be living holy. We have to endure to the very end of our life. That is what Jesus said. I want to read to you the great commission that many of you already know, found in Matthew chapter 28.
18And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
If you are wondering what you are supposed to be doing as a disciple of Jesus, as a Christian, then read over this great commission of Jesus Christ again and again. You are to be salt and light. You are to fulfil the great commission, bringing people to repentance, whether that is only in your family, at your workplace, in the world, wherever God will open those doors. But if you are not a light, if you are dwindling, then you cannot be standing for Jesus. If you are not even sure God exists, if you are not sure that God is good, then you won't be spreading the good gospel. You will always be thinking, I don't know if God exists, I am just scared to stand for the truth. God isn't getting any glory if you are going around timid as a dim light. When God gets glory from your life is when you are bearing much fruit because you are evangelizing. When we stand up for the truth of Jesus and His gospel, He will be proud of us. He will be honored to call us His sons and His daughters. But if you reject His work, if you turn your back on Him for the things that you want to do and you make other things more important than His gospel, if you are ashamed of Him and all of that, then when He comes He will also be ashamed of you. We know that for a fact. That's what Jesus said. If you believe in the gospel, you also believe that Jesus will either reject you or accept you based on your words, if you are proclaiming His gospel or if you are ashamed of Him.
We also have this commission recorded but slightly differently in Mark. I'll read it to you also in Mark. 14Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.
See, it's very easy for us to stop believing in God, to think maybe Jesus didn't exist, or to think maybe what Jesus did is not applicable to our life today. And even the disciples who saw Jesus die on the cross, just because they didn't see Him with their own eyes, because they heard the testimony of the ladies who saw Him, they thought, well, maybe it didn't really happen, maybe the ladies are just hysterical, maybe this Mary didn't really see Jesus, but she saw someone else. So even though they saw all the miracles of Jesus and that He raised Lazarus from the dead, they couldn't believe that Jesus was raised from the dead by the power of God. So, Jesus rebuked them for that, and He rebukes Christians today also for disbelief, for not believing that He is the Great I AM, for not believing that He is God, for not believing that He is worthy for us to lay down our lives for and proclaim the gospel.
15And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
When we preach the truth of Jesus to people and they reject it, when they stand before God, that will be brought up, that will be opened up, and they will see that before their eyes and it will condemn them because they rejected God. And those who believe in Jesus when they hear the gospel, that will be accredited to them as righteousness.
17And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
These are the things that the true church does all the time, and it is a marvellous thing to see Jesus Christ working in us and through us. Are we part of this true church that evangelizes, that prays for the sick? Are we part of the true church that has received the Holy Spirit with our new tongue? Are we preaching the gospel with our new tongue? Are we allowing the Holy Spirit to speak through us? Or are we scared, are we timid, are we ashamed of the gospel, or are we to a point where we are so weakened from the devil that we don't even feel comfortable talking about our faith? Maybe you have started to believe that your faith in Jesus is only for you, it's not for you to share with others because people can believe what they want anyway, so you're to the point where you don't even open up and share the gospel. We need to be taking part of the new covenant, the great commission that Jesus has given for all of those who will receive the truth that He died on the cross and He made this covenant with us that if we believe in Him, then His blood covers over our sins. If we preach this gospel to the world and people believe it, they will come as a new creation, they will come out of the old life of death and into the new life, the life that Jesus has to offer.
So, are you ashamed of the gospel today? Are you scared to stand with Jesus for what people think? Or are you walking upright as an evangelist, as a Christian, as a disciple who will walk with Jesus and not be ashamed? I hope this message encourages someone in the true body of Christ, the true church to stand up and be a light to your family, be a light to your friends, be a light in your school, in your workplace, wherever you go, be a light for Jesus because we are to be part of the new covenant and we are to be a part of the great commission, encouraging others to repent and to put on righteousness before Jesus comes.
So I want to pray for the true church that wants to put their faith in Jesus and to serve Him and to be evangelists. So “Lord, I pray that people will put their faith in You, that they will seek You with all of their heart and they will encourage their family and their friends and anyone that is in their life that You have given them to be influence on, that they would influence them for righteousness, calling them to repent and that we would be good examples, that we would be a beacon of honor and light for You because You have called us to be the light of the world and to let our light shine before men, that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven. So let us be a bright light for You, shining for You, Jesus, calling others to repent and being above reproach ourselves, leading by example, not being full of hypocrisy or any sin but being a good example of what it means to be Your disciple. In Your name I pray, Lord Jesus, Amen.”
