We all know the Great Commission and have heard it countless times from preachers. The Mark 16:15-18 version is “… go into all the world and preach the Good News”. Missions and evangelism, right? Who must do this? All of us of course. Well, how are we doing at this? According to the latest statistics from Barna and Bible.org, the answer has to be “Not so well, I am ashamed to say.”
- Less than 2% of Christians are involved with the ministry of evangelism.
- 95% of all Christians have never won a soul to Christ.
The reasons people have given for failing miserably to ‘evangelise’ are illuminating:
- Discomfort with evangelism.
- The feeling that it is disrespectful.
- Lack of training.
- Lack of relationships with non-believers.
- Fear of rejection.
What is the Problem?
So what’s the problem? Are we all lazy and rebellious? Or, perhaps we just don’t understand what we are actually called to be and do.
Ephesians 4:11 says that the Lord has “given some to be evangelists”. Some means ‘not all’ and so for most of us, the commission to ‘evangelise’ in a formal sense doesn’t seem to apply. Perhaps we should start with Acts 1:8 instead of the Mark passage. “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Some are called to be evangelists, just as only some are called to be prophets or Teachers, and so on. However, ALL of us are called to be witnesses … and I certainly do not mean Jehovah’s Witnesses!
A witness is a person who testifies to what they have seen and heard, first-hand (Ref John 3:32). So the real question is not ‘How do we evangelise’, but ‘What have we personally seen and heard of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one to whom we are called to bear witness?’ (John 4:39-42) So, perhaps the real reason Christians do not witness is because they have nothing to witness to. If we are born again of the Spirit and have a genuine relationship with the Lord Jesus, then we have something to share. If we do not, then how can we be a witness?
The ‘how to’ is natural and not difficult: ‘in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.’ (1 Peter 3:15) And here is a wonderful thought – Nobody can argue with your personal witness. They may think you strange, or ‘religious’, but they cannot dispute your experience. We often get rejected when we try to argue someone into the Kingdom of God, but sincere sharing is evidence of caring. It might require special training to present a systematic version of the ‘gospel’ (i.e. EE3 courses), but witnessing does not.
So with that in mind, please allow me to present John 1:40 -50 to you from a new perspective.
John 1:40-50
‘Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).
The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”
Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote — Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip.
When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.” “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.” Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that.”’
This is the story of how Jesus called his first few disciples. However, if we change the perspective, we can apply it to ourselves. When we ‘make a disciple’, we should not consider them our followers. Of course not, because they are Jesus-followers and our role is to teach them to model on him. We often hear the term, “I lead him to the Lord” and this expresses what I am saying; we introduce people to Jesus and help them comprehend and apply what he says and does. The words my friend used in introducing Jesus to me were “I have found the Lord” I thought him daft at the time, but soon after this I visited him in his home and heard his ‘testimony’ to Jesus.
Andrew brought Peter to Jesus and Phillip brought Nathanael to Jesus with the words “Come and see”.
I just love the simplicity of it. “I have found the Lord”, “Say what now”, “Yes, come and see.” From there on Jesus made a disciple of each of them. ‘Come and see’ is the heart of evangelistic witnessing. Say we encounter someone having a hard time. Instead of offering our own Dr Phillesque platitudes, we respond with something like, “I know someone who can truly help you. His name is Jesus. May I tell you how I met him and how he has changed my life?” I certainly do not want to come over as crass, insensitive, or judgmental, but if you cannot say something similar then you have no witness. And if this is the case, then it is not because you haven’t received the right kind of teaching or learned a methodology, it is because you have not yet met Jesus. To put it another way, you have not been born again.
This idea probably sounds unpalatable to someone with a long-term relationship with a church or denomination. Some churches do not speak about being born again and Jesus plays a secondary role in their religion of good works and church loyalty. There is no getting around it though if you at least believe the bible is trustworthy. You see, just two chapters further on in John’s Gospel, Jesus says these words to Nicodemus: “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again”(John 3:3). Again in verse seven he says “You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again’”
Conclusion
So here is how I see it. So many Christians (95%) have never introduced anyone to Jesus either because they have not been born again, or they do not realise that their job is to witness, not evangelise. It is tragic that so many church-going or nominal ‘Christians’ have never been born again. It is almost as sad that so many of those who have, labour under the misconception that they must be Gospel salespeople, well schooled in the art of persuasion and able to answer all the deep questions of life.
I won’t leave you guessing what being ‘born again’ means. I have written a comprehensive article on this subject and highly recommend you read it.
Once someone introduces us to the Lord Jesus Christ with a personal ‘come and see’, the Holy Spirit convinces, convicts and performs the miracle of new spiritual life. Once we possess this life and enjoy an ongoing, real-time, relationship with Jesus, we have something to witness to and someone to introduce with the words “come and see”.
