Being Christian

Evangelism in a Changing World

Shortly after the resurrection of Jesus, the disciples and apostles had to make known the things “that had transpired,” as Luke writes in his account of Acts. People had not heard nor understood the implications of Jesus’ resurrection. Thus, to evangelize the world meant to go and proclaim the gospel to people far and wide, because people had not heard about Jesus. We see early on in the book of Acts that the teachers, Peter and John, would not forego the preaching of the gospel to serve tables (Acts 6:2). They were saying that Jesus was so good He needed to be shared without delay.
Let’s assess the Evangelistic issues in first century Palestine. First of all, this was a very religious region, and as such there would have been, and was, a lot of persecution towards these first disciples. And this did not have a little to do with the clear political subversiveness of the gospel message. The “knowing camp” was the disciples and apostles, and everyone else was in the “unknowing camp.” So what is the river that separated them? People simply had not heard the gospel nor understood it. Therefore, I am sure that the disciples had several meetings and prayer counsels discussing how to cross this river: what kind of bridge to build. Paul would create elaborate arguments and letters for churches to help them understand Jesus in light of cultural realities. Paul wrote to Rome concerning Jesus, placing His purpose within the context of a Roman perspective. An early disciple wrote to Hebrews explaining Jesus against the backdrop of Judaism. Paul would also go to Athens, Greece, and have a discussion with religious leaders speaking of Jesus as though he were an idol (Acts 17:23)!
The point is that during the time period in which the early disciples lived, there were certain barriers and challenges to the gospel message that simply aren’t as present today. To the early disciples, the idea of waking up on a Sunday morning and gathering at a local building for coffee, doughnuts, fellowship, and a lively, thought-provoking message from a guy in a suit just wasn’t an option. They didn’t have the comfort of the freedom of religion. They were highly persecuted and were forced to share the gospel in creative, and even subversive ways at times.
These early Christians high-jacked certain Roman signals and symbols as a means to communicate this new faith in Jesus and this new body that was forming. For example, many of you are familiar with what today is popularly known as the “Jesus fish.” Well, this symbol arose, according to history, among the early disciples as they sought to communicate secretly to each other. Something like this would happen: one disciple would be traveling and he would come across a group of people; well, in light of religious persecution the traveler couldn’t just up front say, “Hey guys, I’m in love with Jesus.” No, he would find some way to secretly signal to the group of people that he was a Christian, and then he would wait for a response. This is where the Jesus fish comes in. Legend tells us that early believers would travel and come across groups of people and draw a half-Jesus fish in the ground and wait to see if anyone would complete the symbol. If another person walked forward and completed the fish it was a sign that they too were followers of the Way of Jesus.
Isn’t this exhilarating stuff? See how far we have come? Our religion was founded by a social and spiritual rebel so-to-speak, this rebel was hanged on a cross, and shortly after his message was carried by rugged travels from races and ethnicities considered clean and unclean, pagan and Jewish, man and woman; yet, all united by the one man who stood in the middle of an oppressive Roman government and was hanged for His uncompromising boldness. This Lord of ours carried out His message in the early days through what we would consider unlikely people in unlikely ways: unintelligent and uneducated men, unstudied women, tax collectors and prostitutes, murderers and cowards; all of the unlikely people spreading the gospel in the most unlikely places. This was all happening under the watchful, paranoid eye of the Roman empire who had tried to stamp out the Spirit of Christianity that was subversively being carried throughout its land.
This made for some exciting, tricky, and well-thought out evangelism. These early believers had to grapple with the implications of the gospel and what it meant for their lives, all the while trying to figure out the particulars of the areas they were traveling in, trying to find the most effective ways to speak the gospel into every arena of the culture.
I am not saying that I have all of the answers on evangelism, but, I do love Jesus enough to know that there is something wrong when America has so many “Christians” who don’t want to share Jesus. Evangelism is about understanding your Lord, understanding your context, and figuring out how to most effectively share the soul-filling, life-changing gospel with those around you.
Quit waiting for the courage to invite those non-believers to church with you. Quit waiting for your pastor to give an evangelistic message so that those you care about may come to faith in Jesus. Continue to grow in relationship with the Lord. Continue to understand your context and yourself, and wrestle with how you can most effectively be a light for the gospel where you are. I am not telling you to simply love people (that is a good start), neither am I telling you to carry a pulpit into work with a Bible on it turned to John 3:16. I am not telling you to be Bible thumpers and nor am I telling you to simply continue to “be nice” to people and think, “Hmm, that is a kind of sharing the gospel isn’t it?”
Loving people and being involved in their lives is good, that is a part of the gospel. Sharing the gospel is good, but that is also only a part of the gospel. Paul and his fellow leaders said to the Corinthian church that they not only wanted to share the gospel with people but “give them their very lives as well.” First, we have to come to understand that the gospel has to be spoken and lived effectively and wisely in every context that we are all individually living in.

Break here

The reality of the gospel is this: we are not only carrying it, we are it. We are not only carrying the good news about Jesus, but we are the good news: living proof that Christ can reconcile the world; living proof that God can change a life.

What is the Gospel

This can be a very difficult topic to discuss, not to mention a topic of continued, heated debate. Understanding the gospel is not a small issue that can be discussed in a subsection such as this, but I wanted to offer you insights and direction for further, hopefully helpful reading. The gospel first starts with understanding God’s intended purpose in creating the world; then, understanding what actually went wrong in Genesis 3. To our surprise, nowhere in the chapter of Genesis 3 does it say anything along the lines of “the image of God in you is completely marred,” or, “humans relationship with God is now fractured.” These have been popular assumptions not least in the Western world; however, the passage simply doesn’t say that. In fact, the point of the passage, is that God “curses” the cosmos (earth) and that this “curse” is somehow the antithesis to what was occurring in Genesis 1, namely, God’s righteous rule and stewardship over creation.