To evangelize means to
proclaim the good news of the gospel of Christ. Jesus in giving the Great
Commission to the eleven apostles says in Matthew 28:19-20, "Go
therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
things I have commanded you." Imagine that Jesus saying these
words to eleven of us today and we were one of the eleven. What would be
our reaction? Impossible? Incredible? Absurd? Or Lord
don't you see there are only eleven of us? Or would we think "Yes
Jesus really means me also." We are also under this obligation to
teach others.
Jesus had just commanded the eleven to go teach and to teach those who were
converted to observe all things he had command them which included that we are
also to be taught to go and teach.
Paul says in Romans
1:14, "I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the
Barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise." In like
manner today we are debtors to every non-Christian because we have the good news
that can save his soul. This places us under obligation to share the
gospel with the lost so they can be saved. Because someone loved us enough
to teach us the truth, shouldn't we do as much for someone else? What if
you were unsaved and doomed to Hell, wouldn't you want someone to teach you the
saving gospel of Christ?
If people have not heard
and learned the gospel they cannot obey it. In 1 Peter 4:17 the
question is asked, "What shall be the end of those
who do not obey the gospel?" The answer is given in 2
Thessalonians 1:8 which says when the Lord comes He will come "In
flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God and that obey not the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." We should not want to see
anyone lost but as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:11, "Knowing
the terror of the Lord we persuade men." People are going to
be lost forever if we don't teach them now!
The Lord doesn't want
anyone to be lost. We read in 2 Peter 3:9, "The
Lord...is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that
all should come to repentance." They can only come to
repentance when they know what to do. We also read in 1 Timothy 2:4, "Who
will have all men to be saved, and to come to a knowledge of the truth."
Because of what the Lord has done for us, we have the obligation to teach others
so they can come to a knowledge of the truth and be saved. Paul says in 1
Corinthians 9:16, "Woe is to me if I preach not the
gospel." How are we going to answer the Lord if we haven't
bothered to tell the good news to others?
Our Lord in teaching His
disciples, tells them in John 4:35, "Do you say there
are still four months then comes the harvest? Behold I say to you, lift up
your eyes and look on the fields for they are white already to harvest."
Our Lord was speaking of the spiritual harvest of souls who would be lost in
eternity if they are not harvested. There is an urgency to teach the lost for Jesus says in Matthew
9:37-38, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the
laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out
laborers into His harvest." We must work in the Lord's harvest
because if we don't then those we could have taught will be lost and we don't
want that to happen.
In the first century the
good news of the gospel caused such great excitement that "And
daily in the temple and from house to house they ceased not to teach and preach
Jesus" (Acts 5;42). We need to be as excited today. And
even when they were being heavily persecuted, some even to death, we read in
Acts 8:4, "Therefore those who were scattered abroad
went everywhere preaching the word." What should stop us
today? We are not being persecuted. We have many more advantages.
We have the automobile, the airplane, the telephone, the Internet, and the
printed page. We are without excuse.
Teaching the lost is the
work the Lord has commanded each of us to do. Successful evangelism is
accomplished one person at a time. Evangelism is not only to be done in
distant lands, but we must also teach those near us, our next door neighbors. God will be with us as we teach His word to the
lost. We will be successful because we read in Philippians 4:13, "I
can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." When we
do what the Lord says to do we will not fail.
When we teach the lost
we cause all of Heaven to rejoice. Jesus tells us that there is rejoicing
in the presence of the angels of God when one sinner repents (Luke 15:7,
10). The joy of teaching one the gospel and seeing them obey it is beyond
description.
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