Hi all,
How many pastors have heaped guilt and condemnation on their congregations for not winning enough people to Jesus? Church outreaches glory in the numbers of those won to Christ like an American old west gunfighter cutting notches on his belt for every man he killed. Because of these expectations, many Christians think they are failing God or aren’t being a good Christian because they haven’t won many people to Jesus.
But…when we compare the efforts modern church culture puts into evangelism and then compare that with what the New Testament actually says, we’ll find there is a huge difference. Though the Lord accepts a person no matter how they come to Him, scripture does describe how the early church won so many to the Lord so quickly.
On a purely analytical basis, all those crusades and outreaches have miserably failed to change nations, societies and cultures.
The first difference: Jesus never said to get people born again
Our culture is all about seeing people ‘born again’. Jesus didn’t teach that. In John 3:3, in a private meeting at night between Jesus and Nicodemus, Jesus told him a person must be born again to see the kingdom of God. That is a statement of what happens to the human spirit when it is recreated by the Holy Spirit. It was never an evangelistic method. Jesus never told the disciples to get a person born again. He never included the term ‘born again’ in any message to the public.
Evangelism has become a head count, a show of hands, mostly set in impersonal auditoriums, stadiums, or even tents with the sole focus on seeing those hands raised for Jesus. There is no relationship, only a body count. Can you imagine Jesus doing that among the 5,000 when He multiplied loaves and fishes? Can you imagine a time after the miracle He would tell them; “Every head bowed and every eye closed now to see who believes I am Messiah?” Of course not. His culture and modern church culture are two very different things. So why don’t we align our beliefs with His culture instead of trying to squeeze Him into our culture?
What He did say is this in Matthew 28: 19-20:
“Go into all the world….teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you.” The word ‘observe’ here mean to watch, and to do. Jesus’ idea of evangelism is to teach people to do through observing us, the things He commanded us. He didn’t say try to get them to make a decision for Him. He said teach them to observe and do what I’ve commanded you.
The Greek word translated ‘observe’ is ‘tereo’ from ‘teros’ meaning ‘to watch.’ It was used in that time ‘to guard, to watch by keeping an eye on.’ We watch over what Jesus said to us and live it out. They watch over us living as Jesus said to live it out. By our watching us they learn of Jesus and want Him in their lives. Teach them to observe all things I commanded you.
With our mouths we bless Him, with our lives we confess Him.
The Great Commission is the command to be close enough to people they can observe us doing what Jesus taught us to do.
Bringing people to Christ requires a relationship with them. It has been reported that only 5% of those who made a decision for Jesus at Billy Graham crusades were walking with the Lord one year later.* Jesus said to teach people by letting them ‘set a watch to keep an eye on’ us as we obey what He has told us. *The Way of the Master; Ray Comfort.
I’ve said for years: “Anyone can say they are a Christian, but the Father has designed it that righteousness is proven through a framework of relationships.” We love the Father vertically, and out of the dynamics of our walk with God vertically, that Life flows outward horizontally towards others. Thus we love the Lord with all our heart, mind, and strength, and (therefore) love our neighbors as yourselves.
The spheres of relationships the NT reveals this is how the gospel spread:
Andrew introduced his brother Peter to Jesus in John 1: 40-42. Family.
Philip was from the same town, Bethsaida, as Andrew and Peter, John 1: 43-44. Neighbors.
Philip had a friend, Nathanael, he introduced to Jesus. John 1: 45-51. Friends.
Peter, James, and John were partners in a fishing business, Luke 5: 10. Coworkers.
One who doesn’t yet know Jesus but knows and accepts you, and later believes through your relationship, Luke 10: 2-9. The person of peace.
On Pentecost 3,000 came to the Lord through the curiosity of hearing the 120 speaking in tongues. But that wasn’t an organized stadium of people. We don’t see anything like that in the rest of the 30 years covered in Acts. We don’t see any letter of the New Testament instructing anyone to hold mass meetings. What we do see is those 5 main spheres of relationships. THAT is how the gospel spread through Europe in the first century.
And how fast did the gospel spread through those 5 spheres of relationships?
1 Thessalonians 1:8: “For from you sounded forth the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia (northern Greece) and Achaia (southern Greece), but also in every place your faith in God is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing.”
Paul’s letter to the church in the Greek city of Thessalonica is among his earliest of letters, in the year 50, about 20 years after Pentecost, yet the gospel had already spread from the 120 on Pentecost in Jerusalem to filling the nation of Greece. The word translated ‘sounded forth’ is ‘execheo’, and you can see the root word ‘echo’. It means ‘to make a sound’ and the ‘ex’ in front means ‘the sound goes out or the sound spreads out’. They were truly echoing the teachings of Jesus and others were observing their walk with the Lord in relationships.
Romans 1:8 & 16:19: “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.””For your obedience is known to all.”
Paul’s letter to the disciples in Rome was written from Corinth in the year 55 or 56, about 25 years after Pentecost and 5 years after his comments to the Thessalonians on the gospel in Greece. By 20 years later the whole nation of Greece had heard. Within 5 more years Rome had believers to the extent their faith was known ‘throughout the whole world.’ The gospel didn’t spread by filling stadiums and preaching the gospel, asking for a show of hands and to come down on the field for prayer. It spread through relationships. THAT is NT evangelism.
Philippians 4:22 – All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar’s household.
Colossians 1:4–6 — “Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints… the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.”
These 2 letters were part of the ‘prison epistles’,* written around the year 64 when Paul was in prison. *Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon. Within 30 years of Pentecost the gospel had spread even to Caesar’s household. Amazing. They all met in homes, not buildings called ‘church’, and these 5 spheres of relationships are how evangelism was done. People observed Christians and wanted what they had.
If you’ve wondered what auditorium church culture is doing wrong, there you have it. Because of the auditorium model of the church is meeting in a large sterile and neutral building, the elements of relationship based faith has been removed. Each produces after its kind, meaning when the church meets in a large building it thinks evangelism follows the same model of gathering large groups and preaching to them.
A modern pastor’s idea of a world-wide revival means more services, larger buildings, an expanding congregation. What Jesus said in Matthew 24: 14 of the gospel being preached in all the world before the end comes, was within the context of His times of meeting in homes, outside, small groups, family, friends, neighbors, coworkers and the person of peace. Next week we will look at how Paul shared the gospel and the ministry of an evangelist as the Bible defines that ministry gift, which is very eye-opening.
Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
