To evangelize means to
proclaim the good news of the gospel of Christ. Jesus in giving the
Great Commission to the eleven apostles says in Matthew 28:19-20, "Go 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,
teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you."
Imagine that Jesus saying these words to eleven of us today and we were one of
the eleven. What would be our reaction? Impossible?
Incredible? Absurd? Or Lord don't you see there are only eleven of
us? Or would we think "Yes Jesus really means me also." We are
also under this obligation to teach others. Jesus had just commanded the
eleven to go teach and to teach those who were converted to observe all things
he had command them which included that we are also to be taught to go and
teach.
Paul says in Romans
1:14, "I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the
Barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise." In like manner
today we are debtors to every non-Christian because we have the good news that
can save his soul. This places us under obligation to share the gospel
with the lost so they can be saved. Because someone loved us enough to
teach us the truth, shouldn't we do as much for someone else? What if
you were unsaved and doomed to Hell, wouldn't you want someone to teach you
the saving gospel of Christ?
If people have not
heard and learned the gospel they cannot obey it. In 1 Peter 4:17
the question is asked, "What shall be the end of those who
do not obey the gospel?" The answer is given in 2 Thessalonians
1:8 which says when the Lord comes He will come "In
flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God and that obey not
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." We should not want to see
anyone lost but as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:11, "Knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade men."
People are going to be lost forever if we don't teach them now!
The Lord doesn't want
anyone to be lost. We read in 2 Peter 3:9, "The
Lord...is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that
all should come to repentance." They can only come to repentance
when they know what to do. We also read in 1 Timothy 2:4, "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come to a knowledge
of the truth." Because of what the Lord has done for us, we have
the obligation to teach others so they can come to a knowledge of the truth
and be saved. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:16, "Woe
is to me if I preach not the gospel." How are we going to answer
the Lord if we haven't bothered to tell the good news to others?
Our Lord in teaching
His disciples, tells them in John 4:35, "Do you say there
are still four months then comes the harvest? Behold I say to you, lift
up your eyes and look on the fields for they are white already to
harvest." Our Lord was speaking of the spiritual harvest of souls
who would be lost in eternity if they are not harvested. There is an
urgency to teach the lost for Jesus says in Matthew 9:37-38, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His
harvest." We must work in the Lord's harvest because if we don't
then those we could have taught will be lost and we don't want that to
happen.
In the first century
the good news of the gospel caused such great excitement that "And daily in the temple and from house to house they ceased not
to teach and preach Jesus" (Acts 5;42). We need to be as excited
today. And even when they were being heavily persecuted, some even to
death, we read in Acts 8:4, "Therefore those who were
scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word." What should
stop us today? We are not being persecuted. We have many more
advantages. We have the automobile, the airplane, the telephone,
the Internet, and the printed page. We are without excuse.
Teaching the lost is
the work the Lord has commanded each of us to do. Successful evangelism
is accomplished one person at a time. Evangelism is not only to be done
in distant lands, but we must also teach those near us, our next door
neighbors. God will be with us as we teach His word to the lost.
We will be successful because we read in Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me." When we do what the Lord says to do we will not
fail.
When we teach the lost
we cause all of Heaven to rejoice. Jesus tells us that there is
rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God when one sinner repents (Luke
15:7, 10). The joy of teaching one the gospel and seeing them obey it is
beyond description.
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Copyright © 2005 Ron Boatwright