true2yeshua
October 28th, 2007, 04:18 PM
What is Evangelism?
R.A. Hargrave
2 Cor. 5:17-20
Assuming you readily embrace Paul's statement that "all this is from God", let us seek to understand the answer to the question,"What is evangelism?" Again, evangelism is, quite simply, the propagation of the gospel. And through what means? Through human means. A man or woman is saved by the power of the gospel and immediately enlisted as an ambassador for Christ (v. 20).
The next consideration is this 'ministry of reconciliation', to understand it clearly, we must first consider verse 20: Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ. Who are these ambassadors? We are of those who were once enemies of God. We were trespassers, according to v. 19. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Christ came to save sinners, and we qualified. With hostility, we opposed God and would not submit to His authority, according to Romans 8:7. Paul reminded us in Ephesians 2 that we were of those who walked according to the course of this world and according to the prince of the power of the air. Our lives were lived in the lust of the flesh, and we indulged ourselves according to our own evil desires. Tragically, we were children of wrath, even as others.
You may ask how this reality qualifies us for this ministry of reconciliation. First, it humbles the evangelist. We can hold no pride before our hearers, for we were once as they, dead in trespasses and sins, slaves to sin. Those to whom we proclaim the gospel are sinful, but so were we. They are rebellious, so were we. Let us not forget their hopelessness and vexation, for we have also felt the debilitating power of sin. In fact, we are presently experiencing its power due to the remaining sin that will only be eradicated when we put off this old man, the flesh. This should cast us down in utter dependance on the power of God and strip us of our remaining desire for self-glory in proclaiming the gospel.
Because we were once as the lost are now, we are therefore readily equipped for this task. We are actually more fitted for this ministry than the elect angels are. The elect angelic host would have been cold and detached, for they do not know as we know of the heartache of depravity and separation from God. We have been, by God's providential decree, equipped to most faithfully sympathize with the sinner and show much more tenderness toward him. What profound wisdom we see in the infinite and sacred Head that He would choose those who have known sin's power as the very ambassadors of its remedy. We can only bow before His throne and cry "Holy, Holy, Holy" at such divine wisdom.
Even though we have experienced the awful state of lostness, that in itself does not qualify us for the ministry of reconciliation. No, multitudes - yea, all the sons of Adonai - have known of sin's power and its consequences. Therefore, the ministers of reconciliation must meet another qualification; we must have reconciled according to verse 18.
An ambassador of a nation must know his subject well. He must know the ends and outs of his work. He must know intimately the people to whom he goes as a representative of his homeland. Of course, he must have a well-rounded understanding of the nation he represents. Likewise, the ambassadors of heaven - the ministers of Christ and reconciliation - must not be strangers toward God or unacquainted with the work of reconciliation. God, in His wisdom, has given us Ph.D's in this matter. Not only have we known sin's force in our hearts, we have also known the cross and its power over sin. We are not strangers to reconciliation. We know all too well the sting of the Holy Spirit's conviction upon the soul. We know the sorrow we felt, as we, by faith, saw our Savior suffering in our stead, bleeding and dying for our atrocious sins. Our sins became so offensive because we were brought to the force of them. It was no longer a mere peccadillo but an offense to the Most High God. What once seemed like a trivial indiscretion was now an offense to a Holy God who is angry with the wicked every day. We remember the heaviness and the guilt, as we came face-to-face with the truth. We recall the days of running from it, only finally to be overtaken by it. A blessed overtaking it was, too, when our Savior, through the Holy Spirit and the Word, sought us out with an effectual calling which made us willing in the day of His power.
From this holy calling we remember the freedom we enjoyed when our sins were rolled away and our guilty consciences were cleared. Oh, how our enmity toward God was vanquished and replaced with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Now we know Him not as Judge but as Father, Lord and Savior. Our hearts are enthralled at His mercies which reched into our pit of iniquity and transferred us into the kingdom of Christ. We have been made a kingdom of priests unto God and joint-heirs with Christ.
We are not the sinner's enemy but his friend, even as Christ was a friend to sinners. If the sinner is to be offended, let it be an offense to the message and not the messenger. We come to them with no harm intended but that they may be reconciled to God. And though as His ambassadors we know that we cannot, in and of ourselves, bring sinners to reconciliation, we retain the knowledge that God through us by His Spirit can do all things though Christ who srengthens us.
----------------------------------
Thought this was a good article and wanted to share it. If interested in great monthly little mag typically 25 pages long, visit the website www.graceworx.com.
R.A. Hargrave
2 Cor. 5:17-20
Assuming you readily embrace Paul's statement that "all this is from God", let us seek to understand the answer to the question,"What is evangelism?" Again, evangelism is, quite simply, the propagation of the gospel. And through what means? Through human means. A man or woman is saved by the power of the gospel and immediately enlisted as an ambassador for Christ (v. 20).
The next consideration is this 'ministry of reconciliation', to understand it clearly, we must first consider verse 20: Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ. Who are these ambassadors? We are of those who were once enemies of God. We were trespassers, according to v. 19. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Christ came to save sinners, and we qualified. With hostility, we opposed God and would not submit to His authority, according to Romans 8:7. Paul reminded us in Ephesians 2 that we were of those who walked according to the course of this world and according to the prince of the power of the air. Our lives were lived in the lust of the flesh, and we indulged ourselves according to our own evil desires. Tragically, we were children of wrath, even as others.
You may ask how this reality qualifies us for this ministry of reconciliation. First, it humbles the evangelist. We can hold no pride before our hearers, for we were once as they, dead in trespasses and sins, slaves to sin. Those to whom we proclaim the gospel are sinful, but so were we. They are rebellious, so were we. Let us not forget their hopelessness and vexation, for we have also felt the debilitating power of sin. In fact, we are presently experiencing its power due to the remaining sin that will only be eradicated when we put off this old man, the flesh. This should cast us down in utter dependance on the power of God and strip us of our remaining desire for self-glory in proclaiming the gospel.
Because we were once as the lost are now, we are therefore readily equipped for this task. We are actually more fitted for this ministry than the elect angels are. The elect angelic host would have been cold and detached, for they do not know as we know of the heartache of depravity and separation from God. We have been, by God's providential decree, equipped to most faithfully sympathize with the sinner and show much more tenderness toward him. What profound wisdom we see in the infinite and sacred Head that He would choose those who have known sin's power as the very ambassadors of its remedy. We can only bow before His throne and cry "Holy, Holy, Holy" at such divine wisdom.
Even though we have experienced the awful state of lostness, that in itself does not qualify us for the ministry of reconciliation. No, multitudes - yea, all the sons of Adonai - have known of sin's power and its consequences. Therefore, the ministers of reconciliation must meet another qualification; we must have reconciled according to verse 18.
An ambassador of a nation must know his subject well. He must know the ends and outs of his work. He must know intimately the people to whom he goes as a representative of his homeland. Of course, he must have a well-rounded understanding of the nation he represents. Likewise, the ambassadors of heaven - the ministers of Christ and reconciliation - must not be strangers toward God or unacquainted with the work of reconciliation. God, in His wisdom, has given us Ph.D's in this matter. Not only have we known sin's force in our hearts, we have also known the cross and its power over sin. We are not strangers to reconciliation. We know all too well the sting of the Holy Spirit's conviction upon the soul. We know the sorrow we felt, as we, by faith, saw our Savior suffering in our stead, bleeding and dying for our atrocious sins. Our sins became so offensive because we were brought to the force of them. It was no longer a mere peccadillo but an offense to the Most High God. What once seemed like a trivial indiscretion was now an offense to a Holy God who is angry with the wicked every day. We remember the heaviness and the guilt, as we came face-to-face with the truth. We recall the days of running from it, only finally to be overtaken by it. A blessed overtaking it was, too, when our Savior, through the Holy Spirit and the Word, sought us out with an effectual calling which made us willing in the day of His power.
From this holy calling we remember the freedom we enjoyed when our sins were rolled away and our guilty consciences were cleared. Oh, how our enmity toward God was vanquished and replaced with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Now we know Him not as Judge but as Father, Lord and Savior. Our hearts are enthralled at His mercies which reched into our pit of iniquity and transferred us into the kingdom of Christ. We have been made a kingdom of priests unto God and joint-heirs with Christ.
We are not the sinner's enemy but his friend, even as Christ was a friend to sinners. If the sinner is to be offended, let it be an offense to the message and not the messenger. We come to them with no harm intended but that they may be reconciled to God. And though as His ambassadors we know that we cannot, in and of ourselves, bring sinners to reconciliation, we retain the knowledge that God through us by His Spirit can do all things though Christ who srengthens us.
----------------------------------
Thought this was a good article and wanted to share it. If interested in great monthly little mag typically 25 pages long, visit the website www.graceworx.com.