Biblical Reasons For Every Christian To Evangelize
By Alan Furst
How important is evangelism? Is it meant to be a concern for only certain Christians? Is it just the job of missionaries and pastors and evangelists? Why bother at all to convert people who are content with their lifestyles and beliefs? After having been a Christian for more than a decade and after having served overseas as a missionary, I sat down one day to discover biblical reasons to be motivated in evangelism. This is the list I discovered.
The Lostness of the Lost
In Luke 15, we read three parables about things lost: a lost coin, a lost sheep and a lost son. It is obvious that Jesus is talking about sinners repenting and returning to their rightful owner. But it is not until the third parable about the lost son that we get an insight into the meaning of the word “lost.” Twice we read that this son “was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” Deadness and lostness are equated.
Other New Testament references use this exact same word. Luke 19:10 says, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” John 3:16 speaks of Christ coming “that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
In Greek two thoughts are combined to produce this word which we translate “lost.” The first indicates separation and departure. A relationship has ceased to be what it once was. The second clearly means ruin, death and destruction. That is what it means to be lost.
• The people I know that do not love Christ are lost souls.
The Certainty of Eternity
Jesus says in Matthew 24:35 that “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.” God is an eternal being and this makes His words of eternal significance.
A few of these eternal words found in Daniel 12:1-3 give us an eternal insight. “…Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt….” From these words we can conclude three things that ought to concern us: (1) all men will exist forever, (2) all men will experience a resurrection, and (3) all men everywhere, since the beginning of time, will experience either everlasting life or everlasting contempt.
• The question is not whether there is life after death, but whether a man will have God’s gift of life after death.
The Horror of Hell
This is not Hollywood’s version, but rather the Holy Spirit’s version. “He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of His power” (2 Thes. 1:8-9).
The Book of Revelation adds to this warning, “And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name” (Rev. 14:11). “The devil...was thrown into the lake of burning sulphur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.... Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:10, 14-15).
These verses are clear warnings to those who do not repent. Jesus said, “Unless you repent, you too will all perish” (Luke 13:5). These are the words of Christ, and describe the fate of the unbelieving.
The Prophet Isaiah, at the end of his book, tells us of those who rebel against the Lord – “their worm will not die, nor their fire be quenched” (Isa. 66:24).
• Do you know of anyone that you would like to see spend eternity in this way?
The Exclusiveness of Christ
Many voices are saying these days that basically sincerity and simple goodness are enough to get you into heaven. God, who does not lie nor deceive, has something different to say about this matter. “I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from Me there is no savior” (Isa. 43:11).
Without making any excuses or defenses Jesus proclaimed, “I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). The apostles boldly agreed when they said, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). And again the Apostle Paul says, “There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus...” (1 Tim. 2:5).
If we believe these words then we have no questions about the destiny of all men who practice sin even if they have never heard the Gospel. Nor does there remain any doubt about our sincere neighbors who adhere to a different savior than the one revealed in the Bible. Because there is only one Savior, there is only one entrance into the Holy City.
• That way is really a narrow way!
The Compelling Love of Christ
Paul defines love for us in terms we can understand in First Corinthians chapter 13. Among the many things he says, we find that love “is not self-seeking.” As I understand divine love, it always has in mind how it can accomplish the highest good in another person. As soon as it fails to seek the highest good, it fails to be God’s love. God certainly does not desire that any should perish nor does He deliberately set out to harm someone just for the sake of harming him.
Paul was compelled by this kind of love. “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all...and He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Cor. 5:14-15). If we claim to have the love of God then we must also have a concern for the lost.
The Apostle John agrees when he refers to the love of God in First John. The highest good for any man anywhere is to be right with God. John writes, “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). It would require theological gymnastics to escape the relationship between the demonstration of God’s love for us in Christ and the love of God born in us who believe in Him and are witnesses of His wonderful love.
• If I love God, I must make Him known.
The Promise of His Return
“This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). “...The Lord Jesus [will be] revealed from heaven in blazing fire with His powerful angels” (2 Thes. 1:7). Surely Jesus is coming soon. We do not know how long we have left and once men are ushered before His throne there will be no further opportunities for the Gospel to be preached.
“The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare” (2 Pet. 3:9-10). Such knowledge should spur us on and see to it that God’s heaven is filled with a greater multitude than at the present moment.
• Lord, teach us to number our days!
The Accountability of Each Man
In Second Corinthians 5:10 the Holy Spirit lets us know ahead of time that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” In the context of chapters four and five we are very much aware of the fact that Paul is talking about preaching Christ (4:5), eternal values vs. temporal values (4:18), and the suffering that accompanies the preaching of the Gospel. Christians alone are the ambassadors of Christ with the responsibility of persuading men to follow Christ.
The questions Paul asks in Romans 10:14-15 are for the church. “How, then, can they call on the One they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’” The obvious answers to the questions are, they can’t, they can’t, and they can’t. The responsibility falls squarely on the shoulders of the church. Being a member of the church, that means you and me, too.
• Are you ready to give account?
The Greatness of the Commission
In Matthew 28:18-20, the words we read are not just good words to end a great book. According to the first chapter of Ephesians they were spoken by the Head of the church and the Sovereign Governor of the entire created universe. That’s quite a commission!
Furthermore, this fabulous commission was given exclusively to the church. “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matt. 16:19). “His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known...” (Eph. 3:10). Without a doubt, that manifold wisdom includes how a man can get right with God through faith in Christ Jesus.
• Are you doing your job?
Before you finish this article, I would like to encourage you to write a list of people you know who have not given their lives to Jesus in repentance and faith. Then reread the reasons to be motivated in evangelism. The question we should ask ourselves is not, “Should I be involved in evangelism?” but rather, “Lord, how can I present Christ to these people so that they will be saved?” Is there a biblical reason not to do this?
– Reprinted from an earlier Herald. Used by permission.
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