Scriptural Evangelism- Chapter one

PART I---PROSE

SCRIPTURAL EVANGELISM

THERE is no more vital subject for the Christian Church to consider prayerfully and seriously than evangelism. The supreme mission of the Church is to evangelize the world, to bring the Evangel, the Gospel, the Glad Tidings of salvation to every sinner. Evangelism, scriptural evangelism, implies the bringing of the message and the means of salvation to men that souls may be led out of spiritual darkness and death in sin into the life and light of God’s saving and keeping grace in Christ Jesus. This the Lord accomplishes through His disciples, as His instruments. The work of winning souls is God’s work of grace. But He does the soul-winning through the lives and lips of His consecrated servants, who bring the efficacious and Spirit-fraught means of grace to the hearts of the unsaved. We are saved to serve in saving others. As soon as a sinner is converted, born again, the love of Christ will constrain him to share his blessings with others. Like Andrew and Philip, having found the Savior, the believer will have a desire to bring others to Him. This passion for souls is an expression of the new life. It becomes not only every Christian’s privilege to engage in soul-winning, but a sacred duty. And if he willfully refuses or neglects to let his light shine before men, he will suffer seriously and run the risk of losing his own spiritual life.

Soul-winning is accomplished in two general ways, either by the public preaching of the Gospel or by doing personal work with the individual. The public preaching must be followed up by personal evangelism. And it is in this very necessary soul-winning ministry that we are weak. There is not enough personal approach by the pastors; and by our parishioners very little of that is done.

It is not enough to be evangelical; we must be evangelistic. There is considerable in what one has said: “The evangelical church is a reservoir of pure water without a pipe running anywhere. If you will take the trouble and climb the embankment, you will get a good drink. The evangelistic church is a reservoir of pure water with a pipe to every heart in the Community, and to every nation in the world. The pipes are the servants of God, clergy and laity, the priesthood of believers. Evangelical may mean truth on ice; evangelistic means truth on fire. The need of the church is not so much evangelicalism as a thing to fight for; but evangelism, as a force to fight with.”

This comparison may be putting it strongly, but there is much truth in it. We very well know that the Gospel preached or read is the efficacious means of salvation, and that the Holy Spirit through the Word finds His way into the hearts to convict of sin and convert to Christ. And yet we are safe in saying that many more, who are under the influence of the Word, and are honestly seeking souls, would find peace and come to a blessed assurance, if there were more personal follow-up work done by the pastor and other mature Christians. Repeatedly have I heard in dealing with seeking souls: “How I have wished for a long time that someone would Speak to me about spiritual matters.” Many seeking souls would have been led to the joy and peace that come from the assurance of faith earlier in life, if someone had approached them tactfully and understandingly in a personal heart-to-heart conversation. Much precious time and many precious opportunities for valuable service were lost to them by remaining for years in this uncertainty. One cannot do spiritual service, until he has the assurance of his own salvation.

Is there not something lacking in the soul-winning ministry in the church of today? We have the Word of God in its truth and purity, and we preach our message on Sunday morning and evening. And if it is a soul-searching message in its application, we often see that there are some present who are deeply impressed. They may be seeking souls, who for a longer or shorter time, have been convicted of sin but have not found the way to peace with God. Perhaps some secret sin stands in the way, or possibly they have a mistaken idea of what is required to find peace with God. Often people are striving seriously but in vain to prepare themselves by doing this, that, or the other thing, before they feel they can come to the Lord and accept His forgiveness. It is surprising how many there are who, in various ways are laboring and groping in serious and honest, but mistaken ways, to be saved. I wonder if there should not be given an invitation and an opportunity at the close of services occasionally to meet the pastor in the sacristy for consultation and prayer. Is it not strange and to be deeply regretted that there are so few, who come to see the pastor in his office to seek advice in spiritual difficulties? And this is not because these vital and personal matters of their souls’ salvation are clear to them. When we are called to their death-bed, we often find that they never really understood or had found the way of salvation. How sad that so many of our otherwise faithful church members shall live a life in uncertainty in this respect! Should we not as pastors do more than we do to encourage our parishioners to come to a definite decision in regard to their relation to God? Is it not deplorable that the greater majority of our church members never make use of their pastor as a spiritual adviser until they are so sick that they do not expect to recover? This is a most inopportune time to settle life’s greatest question for many reasons. Having lived a life away from the Lord, possibly all of one’s lifetime, and having been either spiritually deceived or lived in worldliness and neglect, the hour of physical weakness and mental disturbance, as death is approaching, is the most inopportune and unfavorable time for a conversion. And even if the soul is saved in the
eleventh hour, there lies behind a lifetime lost in sin that cannot be redeemed, though forgiven.

The purpose of the Gospel is not merely to save our souls from hell, but to save our lives from sin that they may be dedicated to the service of the Lord. So many take their religion seriously only at the end of this brief life. When a person takes his religion so seriously in days of health that he weeps over his sins and cries for mercy, there are those who are ready to call it emotionalism and fanaticism. But when a sinner awakens to see his real condition and the Holy Spirit reveals to him his helplessness, there will be and must be an earnest cry to God for mercy, whether he is physically well and strong, or he lies at the door of death.

But this personal evangelism is not only the pastor’s duty. As we have already stated, it is according to the Word of God, the privilege and duty of every true Christian. Here again we must admit that we are weak in our Lutheran Church. In many congregations the pastor is the only one who does personal soul-winning work. When the preaching is more than a mere objective discourse and comes with a personal “thou-art-the-man” application and the heart-searching appeal by such a Spirit-filled message, delivered by a servant of God on fire with a passion for souls, sinners will be reached, awakened and brought face to face with their needs. Every believer in the congregation should then be glad and ready at the given opportunity to encourage such seeking souls. But not in the presence of others. The personal worker must ask God’s guidance to lead him to the one whom he should approach, and then tactfully deal with him, preferably in private.

We need revivalistic sermons and seasons of prayer for a spiritual awakening, and prayer on the part of the Christians for grace and love to do personal work. One has well said: “Evangelistic preaching is fishing with a big net. Personal evangelism is fishing with a hook.” Both are necessary. After all, we are not saved en masse, by groups and congregations. The Christian religion emphasizes personality. Man must be dealt with individually. Personal evangelism is the most fruitful soul-winning ministry. And this is scriptural. Jesus in His teaching as well as in His practice clearly emphasized the importance of personal and individual approach. He won most, if not all, of His followers by the personal touch. He called Matthew at the seat of custom, Peter, James and John while engaged in fishing on the sea of Galilee, the Samaritan woman at the well, Zaccheus at the sycamore tree, Nicodemus in the stillness of the night and Bartimeus on the highway. In His teaching He emphasized the testimony of life and lip in private as in public. He calls the believers “the salt of the earth,” “the light of the world,” “His witnesses,” “the fruit-bearing branches.” In the first chapter of the Gospel of John, called the “Personal Work” chapter, the same lesson is stressed.

Scripturally there is no distinction between clergy and laity as far as soul-winning ministry is concerned. Every follower of Christ is called to go and use his gift as a servant of God. Personal evangelism is clearly set forth in the Book of Acts and practiced by the early Christians. When the persecutions scattered them abroad throughout Judea and Samaria, “except the Apostles,” we read that “they went everywhere preaching the Word” (Acts 8:1 and 4). We read about Stephen, the deacon, “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit,” who spoke so that his hearers “were not able to withstand the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke.” Philip, the deacon, did effective personal work with the eunuch, who had the Word and read it, but did not understand it. Had not Philip done the work of an evangelist and guided him, the eunuch would not have been saved and baptized.

There are many such seekers among us who do not understand, and need to be dealt with individually. The church at Colosse was begun, not by a great revival under Paul’s
preaching, but as a result of the faithful personal work of Epaphras. A certain great divine has said: “If I had the assurance of living only ten years and as a condition I had to win a thousand souls for Christ, and was given the choice between preaching sermons or doing personal evangelism, I would choose the latter method every time.”

Prof. Edward Pfeiffer, D.D. of the Lutheran Seminary at Columbus, Ohio, who has written a most helpful little handbook for workers on the subject of “Evangelism,” has this to say: “In modern times this work of personal evangelism has come to be regarded almost exclusively as the privilege and duty of the ministers, while church members are allowed to be silent and are not encouraged to develop and exercise the gift and privilege of witnessing for Christ. It is well that we are beginning to lay more emphasis on personal evangelism and every-member evangelism.”
The apostles emphasized the Universal Priesthood of Believers. Congregational evangelism is the scriptural ideal. The congregation is not only a field to be cultivated, but a force to be enlisted in the service. The Bible stresses believing and confessing, privilege and responsibility. “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. 10:10).

The doctrine of the Priesthood of Believers was one of the cardinal doctrines emphasized by Luther in the Reformation. But today we have it pretty much on paper only. As the late Dr. Gerberding says in his booklet on the “Spiritual Priesthood of Believers”: “It has gone to sleep.” So many take the “Am I my brother’s keeper’s” attitude. We need to restate and duly emphasize this scriptural claim, that it is the birthright and privilege of every true Christian to have the joy of leading others to Christ. After but one hour’s fellowship with Christ, Philip went to win Nathanael. The Samaritan woman drank in the glad message of the Lord and then hastened to tell her neighbors. This is the kind of personal evangelism the world is waiting for, and no other kind will reach “the lost man, the least man and the last man.”

In our teaching and preaching we must place the personal responsibility for souls upon the believers, young and old, men and women. Our people lack this sense of responsibility, because they lack vision, appreciation of spiritual values and a passion for souls; and this mainly because the laity has been left to think that soul-saving work is the business of the minister.

We seem to have forgotten that Christ’s “Go ye!” concerns every Christian. It does not only refer to going with the Gospel to the foreign fields, but just as emphatically to the evangelizing and winning of the many nominal Christians here at home, who have fallen away from the Lord, and are found within our congregations as well as outside. The lay- membership have delegated this vital work to the clergy and think they have done their duty when they call and support a substitute. We cannot fulfill our obligations by proxy. The Lord counts on each one of His followers to do this soul- winning and soul-shepherding ministry. The Bridegroom sends His friends to win for Him a Bride. “Go ye!” includes all believers, clergy and laity, men and women. It was a little servant girl, a slave, who called the attention of Naaman’s wife to the prophet of the Lord in Israel. It was an untrained fisherman, Andrew, who told his brother Simon, about the Messiah.

“If you cannot cross the ocean
And the heathen lands explore,
You can find the heathen nearer;
You can help them at your door.”

But the pastor should teach, train and direct his parishioners in personal evangelism. The reason why there is so little every-member evangelism in our congregations, is not only because there are so few true Christians, but because our pastors do not call them out, encourage them and put them to work. They are inexperienced and timid, but willing, if trained and guided by the pastor. As soon as a person is saved, he should be made to feel his responsibility for others, who are either unsaved, or fellow-Christians, who may need encouragement. But a certain amount of instruction and advice is necessary as to the how, the when and the where of personal work. The pastor should gather those, who may volunteer, into a training class, where they meet to receive some helpful suggestions, as to how to approach people, how to use the Bible, and how to exercise tact and patience in dealing with souls. A course of study in evangelism should be given to prepare the willing workers to do intelligent, tactful and prayerful soul-winning work. By house visitations, by personal interviews, by distribution of tracts, by letter-writing, and various other ways, as they are led, they will soon find occasion for personal approach and heart-to-heart conversation on spiritual matters. This group of workers should meet regularly with the pastor to report their experiences, discuss their problems, successes and failures, and pray together for the guidance and blessing of God. “We must learn to expect great things from God, and then be willing to attempt great things for God,” as the great missionary Carey said. To win souls and to lead and establish them in the faith is the greatest achievement in the world. “He that converteth a sinner from the error of his way, shall save his own soul from death and shall cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:20).

The pastor must not only regard his congregation as his field, but as his working force. His success in soul-winning will greatly depend upon his success in securing the consecrated co-operation of his parishioners in personal evangelism. The pastor is the leader, the keyman, in encouraging, enlisting and developing congregational evangelism. By preaching, teaching and personal conversation he must cultivate the missionary spirit, and a sense of responsibility in stewardship, not only as to the right use of their material means, but as to the faithful use of the God-given spiritual gifts and talents. Fortunately no Christian, however insignificant he may feel himself to be, however limited his talents, is excluded from the blessed opportunity and the sacred obligation of soul-winning.

Aquila and Priscilla and many others mentioned in the Book of Acts and the Epistles are illustrations of the opportunities afforded every individual Christian to exercise his spiritual gifts in the service of the Lord.

Our commission is not only to preach, but to “make disciples,” to win them by the Gospel for Christ. What a crushing responsibility, if it were not for the assurance we have, that He, who gave this command, is with us always and has given us the Holy Spirit. But we must be faithful ambassadors and stewards. Let us beware of losing ourselves in externalism, in busy-bodiness with non-essentials, with membership campaigns, moneymaking schemes, and aiming to build up a congregation that can outwardly make a show. That seems to be the criterion of success that the world puts upon a congregation and its pastor. Even among us there is a danger to consider that pastor a success, who can raise the largest sum of money, gather in the largest number of members into his church, build the biggest church building and attract the largest crowds. And a pastor may so readily fall before such standards of success, and lose sight of the real success, that of building up a congregation of consecrated men and women, who with their pastor, are reaching out to win souls for Christ.

Worldliness is making disheartening inroads into the church. Indifference and lukewarmness are paralyzing Christian activities. We have our regular hours of Sunday worship. The pastors preach the pure Gospel. But our prayer-groups are fewer and are attended by a decreasingly small group. What is the crying need of our church today? Not primarily more men and means, not primarily more churches and members. We need a baptismal unction of the Holy Spirit upon the pastor in the pulpit and the parishioners in the pew. We need many more men and women, who Spirit-filled and Spirit-led will do personal evangelism. When our pastors and our church members have caught more of the soul-saving spirit, the church will be a power to attract the many who have drifted away from the church and interest those who are indifferent within the church.