Changing Lives with the Gospel

AJ Rinaldi

Global warming, neo-Darwinism, casual sex, homosexuality, drug-addiction, moral relativism, abortion, pornography, instant gratification…the list goes on and on. These examples of “hot-button” topics illustrate a few of the issues that Christians deal with intellectually and emotionally every day at work, school, church and other social interactions. News stories center on these topics and how they impact American culture.

This word culture signifies something of importance to everyone, yet has many definitions. Of all the definitions for the term “culture” the following three best summarize the idea for discussing what all these issues mean today:

1. A particular form or stage of civilization, as that of a certain nation or period. (Greek Culture)
2. The behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group. (youth culture, drug culture, pop culture)
3. The sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another. (Anthropology)

Differentiating between Western, Eastern, and developing cultures is no longer practical in certain applications. The world is fast becoming a global society. Although major differences still exist and need to be understood, when it comes to issues of morality and lifestyle - isolationism is a thing of the past. Therefore we must be aware of what impacts a culture and how to respond.

How do we do that while operating through a biblical worldview? The answer is deceptively simple. We follow the example of Jesus and his disciples.

Throughout the New Testament, the gospel is the consistent solution to what ails the world. Jesus did not organize a protest. Paul did not advocate dissent and rebellion to the governmental authorities. The writers of the New Testament clearly state that the power to change the world was in changing individual lives with the gospel—Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead.

Christians can be reasonably involved in society with grace and truth. However, believers can be most effective by exercising leadership within their sphere of influence; sharing the gospel to change hearts and minds one at a time…

Join the discussion at the Redeeming the Culture blog.

Mark Batterson on Evangelism

Pastor, author, and blogger Mark Batterson wrote briefly on his blog today about his personal and corporate perspectives on evangelism. First of all personally - he authentically shares:

“To be perfectly honest, over the last several months, the Lord has really convicted me about my lack of urgency…And it’s not about sharing our faith out of guilt. It’s about being so excited about who God is and what God has done that I can’t not talk about it.” (read more)

I love his passion. I have been given numerous opportunities lately to share what I believe about evangelism both in witnessing and in casual conversation. I think the biggest thing that Batterson points out is something that we teach in our evangelism training at EvanTell…that we should share the gospel out of grace and not guilt. Guilt has so often been associated with evangelism that it has given evangelism a fearful, negative connotation. I pray that outlook is overcome. That is my dream for the church.

Batterson closes explaining his dream for the church:
“Can I share a dream? I’ve always dreamed of being part of a church that was experiencing the reality of Acts 2:47. It says people were added daily. Don’t you want to be part of a church that is experiencing life changing transformation on a daily basis?”

Just like I do - he desires to see a church with Acts 2 Church DNA.

Evangelism Out of Grace, Not Guilt

If there is one word in the Christian vocabulary that needs an extreme makeover it is the word “evangelism.” The attitude behind the word is one reason why only a small percentage of believers ever lead someone to Christ. The situation is compounded by the fact that even when Christians do evangelize, they often do it out of guilt – feeling that they have to, not that they want to. This begs the question: “Do you ever get to the point that you do evangelism out of grace, not out of guilt?”

The answer is found in a biblically sound perspective on evangelism. A careful study of scripture reveals that our God of grace wants us to witness out of grace. He wants us to approach taking Christ to the lost with excitement and anticipation. Evangelism can become an enjoyable experience, not an endurable episode. Join the conversation this week at Evangelism.net and offer your thoughts on the importance of doing evangelism out of grace and not guilt.

Evangelism is a Privilege, Not a Pain

The first thing that Christ taught His disciples was not how to manage money or raise a Christian family, as important as those are. It was something bigger. Jesus said, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19). A fisher of fish takes something alive and makes it dead. A fisher of men takes something dead and makes it alive. Jesus was in essence saying, “With Me, your life can have eternal perspective. It will count for something that will last forever.” Furthermore, “I will make you” implies, “I’ll teach you everything you need to know. Just follow. I’ll do the teaching if you’ll do the learning.”

“Wait a minute,” someone might say. “I grew up in a church where evangelism was a means of determining if you were a Christian. You had to evangelize or you weren’t saved.” Another might say, “I was made to feel that I had to present the Gospel to everyone I met. One man I knew pigeonholed people and immediately confronted them with the Gospel. I just can’t do that.” Remember that we do not have to live by the impression we receive from others, especially if those impressions are unbiblical. God tells us to follow Scripture as our guide and gives us freedom to be ourselves.

A biblical perspective on evangelism will help us develop healthier attitudes toward it. We can learn to profit from the good in our past experiences (such as recognizing a person’s concern for the lost), while freeing ourselves from mistaken assumptions. Too often people bring baggage into evangelism that isn’t biblical. Seeing evangelism from a biblical perspective can really set a person free.

God is in the business of populating heaven. If you’re interested, He will let you in on the privilege of assisting Him. The fruit of your life will last into eternity.

Bring the Lost to Christ or Bring Christ to the Lost?

By nature, we take things on our shoulders God never intended us to carry. That’s one reason we approach evangelism with so much anxiety and guilt. We take God’s responsibility on our shoulders and then wonder what went wrong if the person does not respond to the claims of Christ.

It is important to remember Jesus’ words, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44). We should say, “I can’t bring people to Christ. Only God can do that. I can only bring Christ to people.” That’s what makes evangelism so exhilarating. With each individual, we need to try to see where we fit into God’s plan for bringing that person to Christ. You might be the tenth of fifteen people He will use, or the fourteen of twenty-six. A taste of heaven is when we are the twenty-first of twenty-one!

Sometimes a person might say, “I just need time to think about it.” We need to be sensitive to those that need just a little more time to process the freeness of God’s grace. In situations like this we have to realize that we have done our part. You must do our part and trust that it will now be up to someone else to pick up where we left off.

God will never ask us how many people we led to Christ. Stop counting and concentrate on conversing! God knows that apart from Him we will never lead anyone to Christ. He simply asks us to take Christ to them. As we do, sooner or later we will have the life-transforming opportunity of leading someone to the Savior.

God is Asking You to Walk Through Open Doors

One thing that worsens our guilt-driven approach to evangelism is the mentality that we must present the Gospel to every person we meet. They will be receptive; otherwise, we have failed. The fact is that we will run into closed doors. Don’t let that discourage you. Simply keep looking for the open doors. It takes prayer to open the door. The apostle Paul asked the Colossian believers to pray that God “would open to us a door for the word” (Col. 4:3). While in prison and upon his release from prison, Paul invited people to pray that God would give him and his co-workers doors of opportunity for the Gospel.

How do we know who is open and who is not? If someone is open to me you as a person, assume that to be an open door for the Gospel. Go as far as you can through that door. If nothing else, you can usually give a tract or booklet for the person to read later.

The door may not open today, but knowing how God works, it would open next week. Until then we can only pray, and avoid the tendency to live in guilt.

What is Saving Faith?

It has two elements. The first is knowledge. It is self-evident that to believe in a person, you must know about the person. The fact that saving faith includes knowledge is not only evident from common sense. It is also plainly taught in Scripture. As Jesus told the Samaritan woman, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water” (John 4:10). Similarly, Jesus told a crowd in Jerusalem, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life” (John 5:24). Other writers of the New Testament also told individuals’ hearing before they believed (Acts 18:8; Eph. 1:13). Saving faith is not without content or substance. Before one can believe in Him, one must know about Him.

The second element of saving faith is appropriation. Passages such as the ones studied earlier show that personal response is demanded. That response in essence is, “Believing that you have the gift of eternal life and You alone are able to give it , I willingly take what You have to offer.” To convey this idea in introducing others to Christ, many use the word “trust.” Not only is this consistent with what is meant by the Greek word translated “believe,” it also readily identifies in a lost person’s mind what God is asking him to do. Having heard the Good News of Christ’s substitutionary death and His resurrection, the sinner is asked by God to trust Christ as his only means of salvation. When people trust Christ for salvation, they are relying on Christ’s sacrificial work as their only means of right standing with God. It is then that the benefits of Christ’s death are applied to sinners they are saved by the grace of God. Some people “believe” in our English sense of the word. The mentally assent to the fact that Christ died and arose, while depending on their good works to save them. “Believe” in the biblical sense of the word means that if one mentally assents to the fact that Christ died for his or her sins and arose, they trust in Christ alone to save them.

A person is saved when he or she understands the ability Christ has to save and acts on that knowledge by trusting Christ. That is saving faith. One is not saved by simply understanding that Christ died and arose or even mentally assenting to that being a fact of history while depending on one’s good life for salvation. One is saved when as a sinner deserving of hell, on has trusted Christ alone for salvation.

Dr. Larry Moyer - Grace Conference

Dr. Larry Moyer has a burden that the church today will not be known as a church that talks about the lost, but rather it will be known as a church that talks to the lost. Recently, Dr. Moyer spoke at the Grace Conference in Chicago, Illinois. His message was a challenge to church leaders to have God’s heart for lost people. Dr. Moyer made it clear that if a church is going to be evangelistic, then the church leaders must be evangelistic. God is not saying bring the lost to Christ - God is saying bring Christ to the lost. If you do the presenting, then he will do the persuading. And the power is in the message, not in the messenger. Churches that operate from that conviction will be churches committed to declaring the Gospel of Grace worldwide. Listen as Dr. Larry Moyer encourages over 450 pastors at the Grace Conference in Chicago, Illinois.