EVANGELISM WITH PASSION
Written and composed by
Badmus Ibrahim
November 25 2011
To be used in preparing the heart of brethren for the work of zealous evangelism for our Lord Jesus Christ.
Not to be sold
INTRODUCTION
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. Mark 16:15.
Evangelism should be a major element of the foundation of every church, Jesus our mentor and our Lord started His ministry with evangelism, after being water baptized and also with the Holy Ghost.
“From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of God is at hand. Matthew 4:17
He first evangelized to gather His disciples, we must understand that at that point church had not started, prayer group had not started, but all He was doing was in preparation for the church of the future which later emerged in Antioch Act 11:26.
He laid a solid foundation with evangelism displaying His power and might and great multitude believed in Him, because of this He had great followers. And even when church started, evangelism still continued to win more souls into the kingdom of light.
Definition
The word evangelism means persuading/convincing as many people as possible to join or become Christ-like or Christians.
And that was what Jesus did throughout His stay on earth, He never forced anyone, He just preached and demonstrated His power and a great multitude was won. Evangelism is the heart beat of God, and He desires His children to be doing it for Him. Although Jesus is not here in the body with us again, He has sent His spirit to help us speak the mind of God.
True evangelism comes through the unction of the Holy Spirit, He will give you the right word at the right time, and He knows everyone and also our weak points and areas of strength.
Remember Satan hates evangelism for Christ with a passion, he knows that through it, his own kingdom will be depopulated.
We need the Holy Ghost to empower us, and thank God for fulfilling His promise on the day of Pentecost. His power will make us more effective for the great commission; no man can face Satan by his own might and wisdom. The reason God gave you the Holy Ghost and power was not to speak in tongues alone but to have boldness to preach his word.
“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Acts1:8.
if you claim the true Holy Ghost and power has come upon you, you will have the urge to preach to others, and if this is not happening to you according to Acts 1:8, then you have not received the Holy Ghost, the devil has only manipulated you.
Evangelism is not to be relegated to a particular environment, in the verse stated above, it was stated that it should be preached in every nook and cranny of the earth, every creature must hear about it. Acts 1:8
The apostles made that great mistake of not going round the world when they were baptized and Stephen lost his life for it. In Acts 1:8 above, Jesus told them to go around preaching to others after they might have received the promise which was the Holy Ghost and power, but they disobeyed by staying put in Jerusalem.
When we don’t preach the gospel to others as Christians we are disobeying God and disobedience is a great sin before Him. When a church is not investing and strategizing to win more souls, they are disobeying the commandment of the Father.
And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.
Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. Acts 8:1-6
In the passage above, God allowed persecution to fall upon the church, and Stephen lost his life in the process. God knew and saw when he was being stoned, but He never rescued him. It is expedient that a man should die that others may not perish (John 11:50). God permitted the death of Stephen so that the apostles could wake up to their mandate.
And because of these persecutions, they all scattered in Judea, Samaria and places that Christ had earlier told them to preach the word, and that is why we all are Born-again today, if not for God’s
intervention, we would still have remained in darkness. The same way we all should have to scatter into different directions to evangelize.
The word evangelist means someone who goes around speaking at meetings to persuade people to become Christians. As Christians we all are evangelist. I have heard someone once say he was not called to be an evangelist, but that is not true. The same water that runs through the root of a tree runs through the bark and leaves also, so if we are eager to claim the blessings of God we must also be eager to accept the commandment of “Go ye”.
People love the blessings of Christ but they don’t want His principles. Everything in Christianity is in Christ, so if we have accepted Christ we have accepted everything.
Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongue.
1 Corinthian 12:27-28.
We shouldn’t misunderstand the scriptures, no matter your calling, be it prophet, teacher etc, you have been called to win souls, the prophet must use his prophetic gift to evangelize or win souls, a teacher must use his gifts of teaching to evangelize, the gift of healing and all others are meant to persuade people to become Christians. We all read how Philip used the gift of miracles to win
Souls, those with palsy were healed, the lame also received healing.
The scripture then said in verse 8 of that passage that there was great joy in that city.
Benefit of evangelism
1. Evangelism makes God to be in love with you: - This is because every child obeying his/her father is naturally loved, and as such will make the heavenly Father to want to be close to your heart. Mark16:20
2. The more you evangelise the more the Grace and power of God upon your life: - This is because man can never out give God, the more you use the Grace of God upon you the more he refills you, is like pouring water in a cup, as you drink the water out of the cup, more will be poured in it, but when the water in the cup is not used, flies will start perching on it and it will begging to stink. Romans1:16
3. It makes one to be conscious of one’s walk with God: - When you preach to other, you will definitely be know as an evangelist, some may even be calling you pastor and because of this you will want to be careful of everything you are doing especially in dealing with people so as not to drag the name of Christ to the mud.
4. If you are faithful to evangelism in your environment, you are likely to preach in other countries of the world: - Your environment is a very good training ground if you are planning to be a big time evangelist, if you have not successfully evangelised your environment for Christ, what testimony do you have for the outside world. Act1:8
5. It changes the heart of people thereby reducing crime: - The worst criminal’s heart could be converted for Christ if only we can reach out to them. Saul of Tarsus is a good example, he was a great persecutor of the saints until Christ himself met him and he was converted to be Paul the preacher.Act9:1-7
6. It helps in populating the kingdom of God, i.e. the church of God: - The more we preach the gospel the more we depopulate the kingdom of Satan and populate the Kingdom of God. Act 8:6-8
7. It brings about revival upon the land: - Revival could mean a process of something becoming active or strong again. When we preach, we change the heart of people and make the Christian faith better and more active. The people of Nineveh were meant to perish because of their sins, but the message of brother Jonah brought revival and the whole land where saved. Jonah 3:1-4
8. Evangelism erodes darkness and brings about light: - The word of God is life and light itself, John1:1-5 so as you preach the word you are eroding away darkness and the light of life will shine. Mathew 4:15-16
9. Evangelism itself is deliverance according to John8:32: - It is a way of bringing deliverance to the land. The truth brings about liberation; I might be sitting on a gold mine and might not know, but when the knowledge of the gold mine is passed to me I become richer and better.
Types of evangelism
1. Early morning cry: - This has to do with going out very early in the morning before people start waking up at about 5am to 6am to preach the word. In this kind of evangelism a lot of people are reached and attention is being gotten because a lot of people might still be on their beds. Act5:21, Luke21:38
2. One on one evangelism: - This has to do with speaking to individuals in order to win their hearts for Christ. John4:7-40
3. Market Square Evangelism: - The market is a very populated environment where a lot of people could be reached at once, so when you preach in such areas you attract the attention of a lot of people not minding there religious background. Act17:17
4. Vehicle Evangelism: - In this kind of evangelism one can board a vehicle purposely to preach the word, or preach on your way out to your office. Philip is a very good example who preached to the Ethiopian eunuch on his way back home.Act8:26-39
5. Internet Evangelism (e – vangelism): - In this kind of evangelism, you can post a message on your wall on your facebook or twitter or even send e-mails to preach to people. The coming of Christ is very near and we as soldiers of Christ must do everything in our capacity to win the mind of men to inherit the kingdom.
6. Text message Evangelism: - We are living in the days of technology where a lot of things could be done at a push of a button. One could type a text on his/her mobile phone to preach Christ and also send words of encouragement. Most of the epistle of the scripture was written by Apostle Paul while he was in prison, and he had to send it through someone, that is a form of text message, or we could call it courier message.
Collosian4:1-18
7. Evangelism by tract distribution and stickers, (correspondence): - This is done by taking tract or write up to public places like schools, eateries, police stations, banks, event centres, filling station, such that after sometime a revisit will be necessary to re supply more for continuity sake, plans could also me made to put them in daily news print in order to reach men of various sects. Sticker could also be designed to be pasted on vehicles school etc carrying the inscription ‘when will you give your life to Christ, Jesus is coming soon, go and sin no more, Jesus is Lord’ and so on. For example when Jesus Christ was nailed on the cross, there was a superscription that was put on his head written in Greek, Latin and Hebrew saying ‘THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS’. Luke23:38
8. Crusade evangelism: - This kind of evangelism is the most expensive out of all, because it involves printing posters and banners, renting chairs and public address system; but the advantage of this is that a lot of people are reached at the same time.Luke5;1-4, Act14:1-3
9. Evangelism by kind gesture: - According to Longman dictionary of contemporary English 1995, the word gesture means to use a movement of your hand to tell someone something, or show them what you mean. There is no man on earth that does not understand the language of love; the bible says we love him because he first loved us.1John4:19, preaching to someone while lending a helping hand will go a long way; we could help carry a load, wash someone’s car or even help to spread cloths for the person you are trying to get their attention.1John41-10.
10. Village evangelism: - This is a situation whereby evangelists leave the city to a remote village settlement to reach out the message of Christ to the people. Mathew9:35, Mark6:6, Luke8:1, Act8:25.
11. Character evangelism: - Character means the particular combination of qualities that make someone a particular kind of person. What kind of character do you possess? If you are the type that nags in your neighbourhood you might not likely be a good evangelist in your environment, education can take you to any height in life but character will sustain you. Mathew22:16, mark12:14. Sometimes you might not need to preach to someone verbally but your character could speak to the person.Act6:1-7
12. Evangelism by giving: - When we give we not only give to win the hearts of men, but we also lend unto the Lord.Proverbs19:17, God had to give Jesus to reap the entire world, i.e. ratio one to many. The bible also encourages us to cast our bread upon the water and we shall find it after many days, and when it shall finally return to us it would have swollen and become twice or thrice the value. Ecclesiates11:1-3 Jesus also fed thousands of people, and it even got to a time they wanted to make him king.
References
All Bible references were quoted from King James Bible
The watchman by Badmus Ibrahim 2007
10
Evangelism with passion. By Badmus Ibrahim