In this sermon, Pastor Dave Capoccia explains four main reasons from the Bible why you must discipline yourself for evangelism.
1. You Will Obey God’s Command (Matthew 28:18-20)
2. You Will Show God’s Love (Matthew 22:35-40)
3. You Will Magnify God’s Glory (2 Corinthians 4:13-15)
4. You Will Demonstrate God’s Power (Matthew 28:18-20)
Full Transcript:
Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, we do want to know you more. Like Moses, we pray, show us Your glory. We want to learn Your ways. We want to know how we ought to think, believe, and act in the world. Thank You for Your word that shows us and teach us Your word, Lord Christ. Holy Spirit, teach us Your word. Father, teach us Your word. Help me to speak it. Amen.
I’m going to begin today in a way a little different than I normally do. I’d like you to turn immediately to a Bible passage. Please take your Bibles and open to 1 Timothy 4:7-8. 1 Timothy 4:7-8. This is page 1,188 in the Pew Bible. We’re going to go right ahead and read these two verses,
But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
Last March, we began a sermon series that we called The Disciplines of Grace. In the two verses here, we found a basis for our series. Here the Apostle Paul calls on Timothy, and by extension all Christians, to discipline themselves for the purpose of godliness. You may remember that the Greek word for discipline in verse 7 is the word gymnaso, from which we get in our language words like gymnasium and gymnastics. It’s an athletic term. It refers to the kind of hard training and painful discipline that an athlete voluntarily undergoes to get better at his sport and ultimately to win competition. God calls believers to embrace that kind of mindset for the Christian life. If you are a Christian, you must discipline yourself like an athlete for godliness. You must train yourself by grace through faith in reliance on the Holy Spirit. But you must train yourself to say no to sin, say no to the flesh, and say yes to Christ, and say yes to obedience. You must be committed to painful self-denial in order to please Christ, in order to grow in Christ.
Now who likes pain? Nobody does. Yet if pain comes with great gain, then it’s worth it. Then you can push through that pain. God promises in this text that godliness that comes by way of hard training, it is way more profitable than mere physical discipline. Physical discipline provides some profit, but godliness, God tells us, holds the promise of eternal life, which we experience now in part, but we will experience in full when the Lord comes or when we go to be with Him. So, though pain, self-denial, and hard work are involved, disciplining oneself for godliness is not only our calling, it’s a worthwhile calling.
Yet how does one discipline himself for godliness? We know generally we should refrain from following sin and instead seek after Christ, but can we get any more specific as to how we can cultivate Christlikeness? Why yes, we can. And that’s what we’ve sought to do. Last year we looked together over nine messages about how we can pursue Christ in a disciplined way. We looked specifically at three crucial spiritual activities that we need for our spiritual health and growth. These are often called the spiritual disciplines, but I like even better disciplines of grace. These spiritual activities are fueled both by the grace that we have received in salvation and by the grace we anticipate receiving in Christ as we pursue these activities.
We looked at, as I said, three activities. The first is the discipline of the Bible. If you are a Christian, you must commit to feeding on God’s word meaningfully and regularly. The second discipline is the discipline of prayer. If you are a Christian, you must commit to regular fellowship with God in prayer. It can’t be a leftover thing. This has got to be a commitment thing. And then the third discipline is the discipline of the church. If you are a Christian, you must be committed to regular gathering and mutual upbuilding with the people of God, the church. Now these simple and well-known disciplines are vital for us. We cannot walk with the Lord joyfully, consistently, or usefully unless we are pursuing each of these three things.
Now we talked through over the nine messages the why and the how of those three spiritual disciplines. Yet there is one discipline of grace that we never got to talk about. A discipline that ought to be the consistent result of the other three main disciplines. Which discipline is that? Well, it’s the one that I’m intent to talk to you about today – the discipline of evangelism. If you are a Christian and you are intent on obeying this charge from God to you in 1 Timothy 4:7-8, to discipline yourself for godliness, then included in that must be a real commitment to make new disciples of Christ.
If I may continue using the athletic analogy supplied by Paul in this passage, which we’ve used throughout our series, consider a professional athlete who trains himself very well, but never competes, never actually plays his sport. He makes sure to get proper nutrition and hydration. He spends consistent and quality time with his coach. He also works out with his team, practices vigorously with his teammates. Yet for some reason, though this athlete has been brought onto the team to compete, and though he’s been thoroughly prepared to do so, he doesn’t actually do it. He’ll step into the arena for practice, but not for games. He will run a great race in training, but not for real. Wouldn’t we say that there is something wrong with such an athlete? That there is great reason for concern about him? What is the problem? Is he afraid? Is he lazy? Does he somehow not realize what’s required of him? Does he have no excitement about the game? No hunger for victory? Because without a radical change in approach, not only will this athlete fail to become a truly great competitor, since he actually never goes into competition, he’s never refined by the rigor of actually playing the sport, but also, he will let down his coach and his teammates, because he will not do the one thing that they are counting on him most to do, to play the game, to compete. What good is such an athlete to the team?
Now brethren, there ought to be the same level of concern about a Christian who does not evangelize. You may know the Bible well, you may pray consistently, you may serve in the church, but if you are not committed to evangelism, there is something off. There is a serious disconnect in your life. Your giving the gospel to others is something that God and your brethren, even your brethren here in this church, are counting on you to do. So if you’re not doing it regularly, there is great reason for concern.
Take a moment before God to assess your current discipline in this area. How often do you seek to engage others with the gospel of Christ? How often have you? Are there people in your life that you know that you should speak to about the saving gospel, but you still haven’t? In fact, it’s been multiple years, and you’ve said almost nothing to them about the state of their soul. Do you feel joy and excitement at the prospect of telling others about Jesus? Or do you only feel fear, shame, guilt, regret, dread.
Now brethren, I understand the struggle here. Though it shouldn’t be the case, it often is that evangelism, alongside prayer, is one of our most neglected spiritual disciplines. Maybe we are afraid to tell others about Christ because we fear their reaction, fear loss of relationships, we fear persecution. Maybe we give ourselves excuses about why we don’t have to do evangelism. It’s not really my calling. Maybe we don’t feel adequate to participate in it, so we’ll just leave it to the experts. Maybe we have unrepentant sin in our lives, and so we feel like we’d be hypocritical if we went to evangelize. Maybe we’re too busy with the affairs of this life. We don’t have time to evangelize. We’re pursuing our work, we’re pursuing our pleasures. Or maybe we’ve tried giving the gospel a few times, but it didn’t go very well, so we just gave up.
Truly, there are many hindrances to our consistent evangelism. But these hindrances are not accidental. After all, who would be most pleased if the Christians who make up Christ’s church don’t regularly evangelize? Would it not be Satan? Indeed, he has arranged his minions, he has arranged his evil world system, he has arranged his temptations specifically to stop us from spreading the good news that saves. He has an ally in our flesh, the old sin principle that is still with us, even those of us who are saved in Christ. Satan intends to make us believers lazy, fearful, discouraged in our evangelism, and ultimately to quit evangelizing.
But we are not ignorant of the devil’s schemes, nor are we ignorant of the power and promises of Christ in His word. Christ has both called and empowered us to fulfill this discipline, to discipline ourselves for evangelism. So at the beginning of this new year, let us renew our commitment to that discipline. Let us commit to making disciples of Jesus by taking some special time today and next week to study that discipline.
Let’s talk about evangelism. I’d like to approach our topic similarly to how we have approached discussions of the previous spiritual disciplines. I’d like to take one week to explain the why of evangelism, and then I’ll take another week to talk about the how. Today is disciplines of grace, evangelism, part one, where we will talk about the why. Why should you evangelize? What should be your motivation to get past the ungodly feelings and fears of your flesh? Let’s see what the Lord says in the scriptures.
Once again, I see four main reasons from the Bible to discipline yourself for evangelism. Four main reasons from the Bible to discipline yourself for evangelism. And these four reasons will make up my sermon outline today. What is the first main reason from the Bible that you should commit yourself to regular evangelism? Number one, you will obey God’s command. You will obey God’s command. Now you knew this one was coming. We need to face the basic fact. God has commanded us to evangelize. If you are going to live obediently before God, then you must give His gospel to others. And probably the clearest passage to see this truth is Matthew 28. Matthew 28, verses 18 to 20. So why don’t you turn there? Matthew 28:18-20. This is page 994 in the Pew Bible, if you’re using that. The context here is that the risen Jesus is meeting with his 11 disciples, that’s the 12 minus Judas, and probably others, on a mountain in Galilee to give them a certain charge and mission. This is not His ascension. This is just a special meeting that took place before then. Matthew 28:18-20, let’s see what Jesus tells his disciples.
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
This is a very famous passage, isn’t it? It’s known as the Great Commission. A commission is an instruction, a command or a duty given to a person or group of people. And though this commission was chiefly given, it was first given to Jesus’ 11 closest disciples, the church has long understood this charge as applying to all Christians, and for good reason. Notice here that there are two main commands in this passage and they’re both in verse 19 – go and make disciples. Alongside these two main commands are two participles, two “ing” verbs describing what actions ought to go along with these main actions. And those are baptizing and teaching. In other words, Christ commands his followers to go and make disciples, being sure to also baptize them and then teach them all the words of Christ, which is what the Bible is.
And where or of whom are believers to make new disciples? Well, verse 19 again, he says, of all the nations or of all peoples, the word is ethnos. Now we need to appreciate how radical this Great Commission would have been to Jesus’ Jewish disciples. Because aside from a few instances of specific callings given to prophets in the Old Testament, Jews were never told to go out and make disciples of the nations. Israel was indeed meant to be a light to the world, but only in the sense of drawing nations and peoples to Jerusalem. They were to be such a godly and just nation that all their neighbors would hear about it, see it, draw near, and spread the report about Israel and about Israel’s God. This fit with God’s purposes in the Old Testament. But with Christ’s New Testament work accomplished, the mission has changed. It’s no longer stay and pray, now it’s go and proclaim, even to the Gentiles.
Now the apostles were the first disciples to obey this commission. But though they traveled and preached a lot, they never reached all nations, they never reached all peoples. Moreover, they taught the disciples that they did make to imitate them, to imitate the apostles, and to obey the commands that Christ gave His apostles. Thus, we can see Jesus never intended this great commission to only be to the 11, or even only to church leaders. They may have an important role in that, but this call is for all of us. We are all to go and make disciples. We are all to be baptizing and teaching as we do so, new disciples in God’s word. This is Christ’s command to each of us. This is Christ’s command to each of you this morning. And this is not something to do once in a blue moon, every so often if you get around to it. No, this is your commission. This is an overarching mission for you. You have been called, you have been commanded to make disciples of Jesus and to train them up in such a way that they can make disciples of Jesus. How are you doing with that call? Are you obeying that command?
We read earlier in the service from 2 Corinthians 5:6-21. And we see there a description from Paul about gospel ministry, the one that he had and the one that we all partake in in some way. Do you realize that those grand things that Paul says about what he and his companions were doing, that they are also true of you, if you are a Christian? Paul says there, Paul indicates, he shows us there that God reconciled you to Himself in Christ. But He didn’t stop there. He also gave to you, gave to all of us together, the ministry of reconciliation. You are to play an important part in God’s reconciling the world to Himself by the word of reconciliation that He has given you to proclaim. Therefore, as Paul says, you are an ambassador for Christ. You are appealing, you’re even begging on behalf of Christ for your fellow sinners in the world to be reconciled to God. Now, no appointed ambassador, unless he wants to be punished by his government, he refuses to represent his government, or refuses to pass along his government’s messages. He has a duty to fulfill, and so do we, on behalf of God and His government. We dare not take the commission given to us lightly, the position of ambassador, but we are instead to fulfill it with diligence.
After all, let us remember God’s warning to Ezekiel. Ezekiel in chapter 3 of his prophecy, 3:16-21. God told Ezekiel that if Ezekiel refused to warn a wicked person about God’s judgment, that wicked person would die in his sin, but God would require that wicked person’s blood at Ezekiel’s hands. Yet if Ezekiel warned that wicked person, and that wicked person still refused to repent, well, that wicked person would still die in his sin, but Ezekiel would have, God says, saved or delivered himself. You see, it is an awesome privilege to be God’s heralds to the world, but it comes with a sober responsibility. We must faithfully dispense the words of deliverance and warning entrusted to us, or else we risk the chastening, and yes, even the judgment of God.
I think of Jesus’ words in Luke 9:26, where Jesus says,
For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
And understand, to have the Son of Man ashamed of you, that is no small matter. The previous verse talks about forfeiting your soul. I think that’s the way we ought to understand it. When you are ashamed of Christ, you are giving up your place in His kingdom. That’s the way He will be ashamed of you. He says, he doesn’t belong to Me. Thus Paul exhorts us, like Paul exhorted Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:8,
Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God,
Brethren, we know, the Bible is pretty clear, suffering will come as part of our fulfillment of this great commission. But faithfulness amid suffering, it will not only result in the display of God’s great power, but it also will result in our commendation from Christ. He’s looking for faithful ambassadors, faithful slaves. If you believe in Him, that is what you will pursue.
After all, this is not merely a matter of duty. This is not just a sober duty from God, but it is a matter of love to Him and gratitude. For what does Jesus say to His disciples in John 14:15. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Brethren, do you love the Lord? When you consider the commandments of His word, do you love Him and say, well, of course, I’ll do that for You. Yes, Lord, I will do that for You. I love You. Well, then here’s another area for you to do that. If you’ve come to know Jesus Christ, if you’ve experienced His amazing salvation, then these impediments of discomfort or persecution, they should not stop your obedience. The Lord desires this from you and for you. His commands are good. They’re actually not burdensome, says the scriptures. Not even this one. So because we have been saved and because we do love Jesus, let us obey his command to make disciples.
But Christ’s command is only the first reason that we must discipline ourselves for evangelism. The second reason is, I’ll give this to you now, number two, you will show God’s love. Number two, discipline yourself for evangelism because you will show God’s love in doing so. Please turn over now to Matthew chapter 22. I guess we’re still in Matthew. Matthew 22:35-40. Page 984 in the Pew Bible. In this passage, Jesus is in Jerusalem during the Passion Week. He’s talking back and forth with the Jewish religious leaders who are trying to stump Him or entrap Him so they can get rid of Him. One scribe decides to test Jesus with a certain question. Let’s read what that question is and what is Jesus’ response. Matthew 22:35-40:
One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
You know, people often try to dismiss Christianity as just a collection of rules, laws, and duties. But we see even just from this one passage from the words of Jesus, the beating heart of Christianity is not rules, but love. True love, wholehearted love, is what is to drive everything that a Christian does. First, love for God. Second, love for neighbor. These are the greatest. These are the summary commandments of God’s Word, even the law of Christ. God calls you, fundamentally, to love Him and to love your neighbor. Who’s your neighbor? Well, there’s a separate parable for that, but you know what the answer is. Anybody who’s in need. And who’s that? Everybody.
But do you realize the greatest need that your neighbors have? Your friends, your family, your co-workers, even your literal neighbors? It is their need for reconciliation with God. They need rescue from the wrath of God. They need rescue from hell. They need rescue from eternal torment forever. They need rescue from slavery to sin. They need someone to point them away from the broken cisterns of this world, which can hold no water, cannot satisfy or save. And they need people to bring them to He who has the living water, that will become in them a fountain of water leading up to eternal life. They need someone to pull them out of darkness and from the domain of Satan and bring them into the kingdom of light in Christ. You know what’s amazing? You can supply that need. Well, not you yourself. Christ can supply that need through you. You as a faithful witness of Christ, you can give your neighbors what they most desperately need. Is there anything more loving you can do than to give the gospel to someone so desperate? Is there any greater unkindness you can do than to withhold the gospel from someone so desperate? The fulfillment of the great commandment to love your neighbor requires that you discipline yourself for evangelism. You are to reach out in love to meet the greatest need of all the doomed people around you.
But someone might say, hey, I’m willing to do that, but they don’t want it. They don’t want this love. How can I love people when they don’t want the love that I want to show them? Brethren, remember your own miserable state before you came to Christ. You didn’t know what you needed. And when people tried to give you what you needed, You were resistant. You told them you were a good person. You resented that they made you feel convicted, or something else. You resented God. You resented the messengers of God. You were in such darkness that, like the Gospel of John says, you hated the light. But how did Christ regard you in that state? Well, just like He regarded the unbelieving crowds of His own day. Matthew 9:36-38 records about Jesus:
Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
That’s just one example. Brethren, you know, if you’ve read the Scriptures at all, if you’re saved, then you know that our God is a God of compassion. He is a saving God. And this is most obvious in Jesus, right? The Son of Man came to seek out and save what was lost. The Bible declares that God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, nor does He desire that any should perish, but that all might come to repentance. What does another verse say? God demonstrated His own love for us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. For those who didn’t want it, weren’t looking for it.
So, as those who have experienced this amazing, self-sacrificing, initiative-taking, undeserved love of God, we are to show that same love to the people of the world. They don’t deserve that love. They deserve the wrath of God for their evil. But you know what? So did we. So do we outside of Christ. Their evil is ugly. It calls for the judgment of God, yet they are ignorant, just as we were. They are lost sheep. They think they’re fine. They don’t know how much in danger, how terrible their state really is. So we need to love them by giving them the gospel.
But perhaps someone else will say, well, I don’t really need to do that because, hey, God is sovereign in salvation. If God wants to save him, God will save him. I’m not being unloving by not going out there. What will be, will be. Well, we’ll talk more in a moment about the sovereignty of God in salvation. But let’s not ignore another clear truth from the scriptures. And that is this – people will not be delivered from darkness, from wrath, from sin, unless someone actually goes to them and declares to them the gospel. People will not be saved without the gospel. Romans 10:14-15,
How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!”
Brethren, aren’t you grateful that someone gave you the gospel, that someone took the time, someone took the risk to give you the gospel without knowing how you’d react to it? That was a very loving act. And if you are grateful for that, if you are eternally grateful for that, well, then shouldn’t you have compassion on those who are just like what you were? Shouldn’t you have compassion on those who do not yet believe? Perhaps God has raised you up specifically to be the messenger who gives them the gospel that brings them to life. God is sovereign, but you have a responsibility and an opportunity to show soul-saving love.
And one more thought before we move on from this point. Do you remember when we were discussing the spiritual discipline of the church? I told you about how the church is Christ’s bride, it is Christ’s body, it is God’s temple, so that when you show love and devotion to God’s precious church, you are by extension showing love and devotion to God Himself. Well, have you ever thought about this – how do you show love to the church before it becomes the church? You evangelize it. And guess who understood this very well? Christ and the apostles. Just think about the work of Christ. Did Christ love the church before it had become the church or afterwards? Well, it’s both. He started before. He died for sinners, not those who had already been saved. And it was the same with the apostles. Listen to what Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:10,
For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.
Brethren, do you love the church? Do you love the bride of Christ? Well, then understand this. Loving the church and loving Christ by loving His church, it also means loving the church before they’re the church. It means going out and rescuing God’s elect, God’s chosen members of His church from the domain of darkness. You say, but I don’t know who specifically those people are. Well, guess what? Neither do I, and neither do any of us. So what does that mean? We’re to treat every unbeliever as a potential member of Christ’s church. We are to love them with the greatest gift that we have to love them with, the gospel of Christ. We want to see them added to God’s church. We want to see all God’s chosen, all His chosen sheep brought in.
So we’ve seen two main reasons to discipline ourselves for evangelism. A third main reason that we are to discipline ourselves is this – number three, you will magnify God’s glory. You will magnify God’s glory. The call to obedience and the call to love the lost, these two things we’ve just discussed, they are important motivations for evangelism, but you’re going to need something grander if you’re really going to persevere in this. Because we are weak in the flesh and people are awfully stubborn. If you don’t want to find yourself giving up in evangelism, you need a grander motivation than the two we’ve mentioned thus far. And you know what that grand motivation ought to be? The glory of God. You want to see God glorified. Pick your Bibles now and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, and we’ll look at verses 13 to 15. This is page 1157 in the Pew Bible. Much of the book of 2 Corinthians is Paul describing and defending his gospel ministry. We see another description of gospel ministry in this chapter. Listen to the way that Paul describes the connection between preaching and God’s glory. 2 Corinthians 4:13-15,
But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed, therefore I spoke,” we also believe, therefore we also speak, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.
Notice in verse 15 of what we just read. Paul clarifies that he is willing to work hard, even suffer for the sake of the gospel for a specific purpose – so that God’s grace may spread, resulting in thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. Now, brethren, I ask you again, Do you love the Lord God? Do you love your Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ? If so, then be about the making of disciples, because as that saving grace of God spreads to more and more people, they will give Him thanks, both privately and publicly, which means that God’s glory will abound before the universe. You want to see God glorified? Then go and give the gospel.
This is the same attitude that we actually see in the Psalms, many Psalms. One example is Psalm 67. Psalm 67:1-4, which says:
God be gracious to us and bless us,
And cause His face to shine upon us.
That Your way may be known on the earth,
Your salvation among all nations.
Let the peoples praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise You.
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy;
For You will judge the peoples with uprightness
And guide the nations on the earth.
Do you hear the psalmist’s expressed desire? His great prayer is that God and His ways might be known among the nations so that all the peoples will praise and sing for joy in God. In other words, evangelism is a direct way to multiply praise and worship to God on the earth. And isn’t God worthy of all praise and glory? Don’t we find such joy in seeing God praised, glorified? If we’re Christians, we should.
John Piper has some notable words on this topic. Speaking of missions, which is just a global application of evangelism, Piper says, worship is the goal and the fuel of missions. Missions exist because worship doesn’t. Missions is one way of saying the joy of knowing Christ is not a private, a tribal, or national or ethnic privilege. It is for all. And that’s why we go, because we have tasted the joy of worshiping Jesus, and we want all the families of the earth included. Brethren, it should make you happy at the prospect of others getting to enjoy God the way you do. God is that great. God is that worthy. God is that beautiful. Your joy will increase when you see others enjoying Him. So again, if you love and cherish Jesus Christ, if you enjoy worshiping Him, then you should discipline yourself to make disciples of Christ so that they may love and cherish Him as well, and that will increase our joy together. So you see, our goal in evangelism is not merely obedience. It’s not merely seeing lost souls saved, but it is actually chiefly that God will be glorified.
And this should inform our prayers. Listen to the way Paul asked for prayer in 2 Thessalonians 3:1,
Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you.
The glorification of God’s word, we also see the glorification of God. Now you know what’s actually a great comfort when it comes to this concept of glorifying God in evangelism. The comfort is that no matter how the other person responds to your evangelistic efforts, God will be glorified. Think about it. Your choosing to be obedient and tell others about the good news of Jesus Christ, it shows that God is glorious and worthy to be obeyed. Otherwise, why would you do it? The scripture you speak as part of your declaration of the gospel is a testimony of God’s character and works, so you are displaying God to people, to the world. That glorifies Him. And if the person responds positively to your witness, if they respond in repentance and faith, that glorifies God in salvation and through the new praise of that saved person. But if the person responds negatively, in unbelief, apathy, persecution, well, then God glorifies Himself in His demonstrated patience and how He graciously brought you to declare that word regardless. And He’s also glorified in your faithfully suffering for His sake. The person didn’t respond well. They attacked you for it. But you know what? If you still are obedient and you endure that, that glorifies God. You again are showing His great worth to the world.
So in one sense, evangelism is a can’t fail opportunity to glorify God. Isn’t that what we were made for? Isn’t that our chief desire? The only way to fail to glorify God in evangelism is to not try, to not do it, to not do it His way. Indeed, if we commit to bold gospel declaration, then we can have that same confident hope and expectation as Paul did about his own life. Remember what Paul said in Philippians 1:20? He’s in prison. He’s not sure exactly how it’s going to turn out, but he says this,
Christ will, even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
That was his confident expectation and hope. I know I’m going to stay, I’m going to keep seeking the Lord regardless of how the situation works out. If I’m released, God provided deliverance and was glorified. If I die, well then I died for the Lord and He’s glorified. We can have that same kind of confident expectation and hope in our evangelism. Knowing God will be glorified in our evangelism ought to be our greatest motivation to make disciples.
But perhaps you’re hearing all this and you’re thinking to yourself, Pastor Dave, this all sounds really great. I mean, I’d like to be obedient to Christ. I’d like to show His same love for others. I’d like to glorify Him in bold witness, but I just can’t. I’m weak. I’m shy. I’m not a good speaker. I don’t have very much experience evangelizing. I’m not very good. How could I ever evangelize for the Lord? How could I ever really make a disciple of Christ? I understand that. I think we’ve all felt that kind of feeling. But let me share one more reason from the Bible that you should discipline yourself for evangelism. And these overlap a little. That’s okay. What’s the fourth reason? The fourth main reason from the scriptures that you should discipline yourself for evangelism. Number four, you will demonstrate God’s power. You will demonstrate God’s power.
I think so many times we are afraid to make disciples because we simply feel inadequate. But you know what? That is the correct feeling. You are inadequate and so am I. We aren’t strong enough or clever enough or perfect enough to win souls. But guess what? That’s part of the point. It was never about you. It’s never about me. It’s never about our power. It’s always been about God and His power working through no-account vessels who have faith in Him. That’s how God is intent on glorifying Himself. Turn back to Matthew 28:18-20, because there were two parts of that verse that I didn’t really emphasize when we looked at it earlier. So this is again page 994. Matthew 28:18-20, the Great Commission. Let’s read it again:
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Notice how the main commands here that we saw in verse 19 – go and make disciples, they come with a therefore. What does the therefore mean? Well, it means that the commands of verse 19, they are based on a reason that has just been stated. What’s the stated reason? Well, verse 18. Jesus says all authority in the universe has been given to Him. What are the implications of that? Why should that matter? Well, at least two important implications. One, as the supreme authority, Christ is worthy of your making disciples for Him. But two, as a supreme authority, Christ is the one who make possible your making disciples for Him and He will bring it to pass. If He indeed has all authority, then He’s the authority to change the hearts of people to believe. And that’s a great comfort because you know what that means? When you do the hard work of evangelism, your work is not in vain. You will see people saved and you will see God glorified.
As if this guarantee of help were not enough, look at what Christ promises in verse 20. He says, lo, or behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. You mean Christ Himself goes with me in my disciple making and my suffering persecution for Him? Yes, indeed. Which means you will never be alone in your labor, even if there’s not another person next to you in a physical sense. Christ goes with you and He Himself will give you all the power and help you need to be a faithful witness for Him.
I’m reminded again of what God said to Moses. I feel like I always keep coming back to this because it’s so applicable. You remember Moses, Exodus 3 and 4. He’s already tried to bring about a slave deliverance, try to get the Hebrews out of Egypt once before by killing the Egyptian. That didn’t really work. And God comes to Moses many years later in the wilderness and He says, I want you to go and lead my people out of Egypt. Remember how Moses responded? He didn’t say, wow, what a great privilege, what a great thing you’re doing, God. Sure, I’ll go. No, he says, God, I can’t do it. God, I’m not able to do this. I don’t know what to say. I’m not a good speaker. What if they won’t believe me? This is Exodus 3 and 4. What’s God’s basic response to Moses and all these excuses and objections? Moses, I will be with you. I will provide. I will give you the miraculous signs. I will give you the words. Moses, it’s not about you. It’s about Me. You’re just My mouthpiece. You’re just the agent that I’ve ordained. But I’m the one who’s going to do it and I’m with you, so don’t be afraid.
The same is true for us. Every person in this room, whether you’re a child or you’re very old, you can be a faithful witness of Christ, even a powerful soul winner for Him. It’s not you. It’s God. It’s God who’s got the power. He’s just chosen to work through you. This, of course, makes me think about 1 Corinthians 1:26-31. You might remember Paul clarifies there, regarding salvation and those that God has saved, God has not taken the great, strong, the wise persons of the world to bring Him glory. No. He has specifically chosen to take the weak, the ignorant, the despised. Why? It’s that no one will boast before God, but all will acknowledge that they are only in Christ by God’s doing. This is what glorifies God. Or let’s look at another verse, 2 Corinthians 4:7, Paul again describing gospel ministry. But we have this treasure, that is the glorious saving gospel of Christ, in earthen vessels, so that the suppressing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. It’s like what Pastor Babij preached not too long ago. God has chosen to glorify Himself through baked dirt. That’s what we are.
The reality, brethren, is that the power and sovereignty of God, they are what enable us to evangelize boldly and faithfully. Some people like to think that believing in God’s sovereignty or sovereign election, that that will kill evangelism. But actually, God’s sovereignty, when rightly understood, is the only real reason to evangelize at all. Because you know that God will use you, he will use the church to save His elect. Jesus says in John 6:37,
All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.
Jesus isn’t worried about whether His chosen ones will come, whether His sheep will come. He knows they will, but He tells us, you go get them. You’re going to be the ones who bring them in. So we are to be like Paul in 2 Timothy 2:10, which we read earlier, enduring all things for the sake of those who are chosen, because they will, they will obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.
You say, what? Even me? But I hardly know anything. All you need to know is the word of God. All you need to know is that saving gospel and rely on God as you faithfully speak it to others. It’s His Spirit that gives life and it’s His word He’s chosen to be what the Spirit uses. So if you faithfully give that, you don’t need to do anything else. That’s something that we can all do. If you’re a new Christian, you can do that. Because if you know enough to be saved, you know enough to tell others how they can be saved.
So, brethren, amidst such promises of Scripture, amid these truths that we’ve seen today, how can we not choose to discipline ourselves for evangelism? If we will obey the Lord and demonstrate His same love to the lost people of the world, and we know not only will we glorify God, but He will use us to save His elect and to build up His church. What does that mean? No more sitting on the sidelines. No more endlessly training without actually competing. It’s time to get into the game. In the end, we know that we are going to win it in Christ. So why are we afraid? There may be some element of fear in our flesh that’s always there, but by faith you can push past it. You can be obedient. So, brethren, will you? Will you be obedient to the Lord in this area? Will you take a risk for Christ, even like we were talking about last week? Will you take this wise risk, this holy risk for Christ? Because you say, I know God’s promises. I’m making myself open to whatever great thing He might do.
Perhaps some of you are thinking, Pastor Dave, I do want to discipline myself for evangelism now more than ever, but I still don’t quite see how to do it. I know why, but I need to know more about how. Well, good, because that’s what we’re going to talk about next week. So be back for that.
Let’s close in prayer. Great God, Jesus Christ, You are so wonderful. You are so great. You’ve accomplished such a mighty salvation. It cannot be something we keep to ourselves. Not only would that just be so unloving, it would be disobedience to You. It would be as if we treated Your glory of no account. God, we do not glorify You when we just think about how unworthy we are, how inadequate we are. We will glorify You when we acknowledge that, but when we still go, because You are worthy and You have promised that You will give us the power. Lord God, we ask for Your forgiveness for how lazy and fearful we have been when it comes to evangelism. We have been more concerned about just being comfortable in life than being faithful to You. This was sin. This was ugly. This was ungrateful before You. And it also was taking us away from the greatest joy that we can experience in this life. Oh Lord, putting You on display, inviting others into the great joy that is knowing God, knowing Christ. Lord, we ask for Your forgiveness, but we don’t just ask that so we can continue the way that we were. We ask that forgiveness, that parental forgiveness from You, because we want to change. We don’t want to be ashamed and fearful like we so often have been. We want to be faithful. We want to be obedient. We want to show You, God, like Peter did after he had shamefully sinned, that Lord, You know all things. You know that we love You. Lord, we want to show that by being faithful evangelists to others. We cannot do this without Your power, but You’ve promised it, God, so we’ll rely on that. Lord, we know there’s still much to learn about how. We know that as we actually do this, we’re going to improve. We’re going to learn different ways to do it better. But ultimately, God, we do not want to rely on ourselves, our own wisdom, our own strength. We want to rely on You. So God, be glorified in our faithful evangelism. We pray even more specifically, be glorified in saving souls. Lord, we do want to see more people praising You. We do want to see people enjoying You, God, because You are so enjoyable. Lord, let us be found faithful in this. Help us, guide us, glorify Yourself. In Jesus’ name, amen.