Reading through the New Testament, we find some great practical lessons about evangelism in a corrupt society. As I was reading through it again this year, I decided to write some of these down. May God get the glory!
First, Whether Jew or Greek – the message is the same.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16, LSB)
The gospel message is the same for the Jew as what it is for the Gentile. No matter the audience, people need to know Jesus! That was true in the days of the Apostle Paul, and it is true today. The American needs Jesus and so does the African. The gospel needs to be preached to white men as well as black men. The message for men and for women is the gospel. Whether your neighbor is here legally or not, the gospel message needs to be proclaimed!
Second, the gospel message is of first importance.
“Now I make known to you, brothers, the gospel which I proclaimed as good news to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I proclaimed to you as good news, unless you believed for nothing. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.” (1 Corinthians 15:1–5, LSB)
There is no greater message than the message of the Cross, the gospel message. Paul called it “of first importance.” It is of greater importance than the church, baptism, or anything else. That was true in the first century. It is true now.
Consider your own preaching, your own witness. Whether you stand behind a pulpit or not, we all have something to say. What do you talk about the most? Some hobby? Your job? Your pet doctrine? Let it be Christ who is first on our lips! May our message be first of all, Jesus!
“And when I came to you, brothers, I did not come with superiority of word or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the witness of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my word and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:1–5, LSB)
Third, we must consider our audience when we preach to them.
Compare Acts 2 to Acts 17. In Acts 2, Peter is preaching to Jews. In Acts 17:22-34, Paul is preaching to Greeks. The message is the same: Repent and believe in Jesus. However, the approach is different. In Paul’s presentation on Mars Hill, he did something Peter did not have to do on the day of Pentecost. Paul took the Greeks from the very beginning (Jesus is the Creator) so they could understand the very message of the Cross. He quoted one of their poets in order to make a point. In other words, he understood where they were at and he met them there.
This is very applicable to us today. A lot of times Christians will preach an Acts 2 sermon to the world when we are really dealing with an Acts 17 culture. This just does not work. We are not living in the same country we had a few years ago. The culture is no longer familiar with the Biblical terms, but now largely ignorant of them…so much so that we have got to define the terms we use even if we think they are obvious when we witness to the people. In this postmodern world, we are dealing with people who are similar to those in a pre-Christian society. Our audience is largely pagan, and we need to remember it. Take them back to the beginning if necessary so they can better understand the gospel!
“For though I am free from all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. And to the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews. To those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law. To those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some. So I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.” (1 Corinthians 9:19–23, LSB)
Paul wrote this to the church at Corinth, but it is applicable to us today. He considered his audience, not to sin with them or to fit in, but he considered his audience for the sake of the gospel. We ought to do the same!
Fourth, the Bible we use matters.
Have you ever noticed that a quote from the Old Testament in the New Testament is not quite the same as it is in the Old Testament?
The Bible of the early church was a Greek translation of the Old Testament, and you can see evidence of this in our English translations.
For instance, in Acts 7:14 it reads “Then Joseph sent word and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five persons in all.” Stephen was quoting from Genesis 46:27, and when you go back there it says “and the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt were two; all the persons of the house of Jacob, who came to Egypt, were seventy.” This is because he was using the Greek Septuagint (LXX) Version of the Bible and in that translation, Genesis 46:27 says 75 instead of 70.
There are other examples, but the question is why would they do that when the Hebrew Old Testament was available? The answer is that they were among Greek speaking people. Many of the Jews spoke Greek and the Gentiles spoke Greek.
We don’t use the Latin Bible in America. We don’t even use the Hebrew, Aramaic, or the Greek. We use an English translation for the very same reason as to why the early church used a Greek translation. There are differences of opinion when it comes to English translations, and we do have a lot of them to choose from. I’ll not get into the specifics of what translation you should or should not use here (I have posts on that elsewhere in this blog), but I believe we should be using a current English translation for maximum effectiveness. A Bible with 400-year-old English is not in the common vernacular of the people. It is English, but it is not the same English that the people use. Nobody speaks that language anymore.
Was the Hebrew superior to the Greek translation? For sure. Are some English Bibles better than others? Yes. But what good is a Bible if you or those you preach to do not understand it?
Not all people are blessed like we are. Some cultures do not have any Bible version in their language. If you could translate the Bible for a people who have none, how would you do it? Would you use the language they speak now, or would you use a 400-year-old version of that language? I would hope you would use the language they currently speak.
Without translation into the common language, there can be no edification. This principle is laid out in 1 Corinthians:
“For if the trumpet produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle? So also you, unless you utter by the tongue a word that is clear, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air. There are, perhaps, a great many kinds of sounds in the world, and none is without meaning. If then I do not know the meaning of the sound, I will be to the one who speaks a barbarian, and the one who speaks will be a barbarian to me. So also you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, seek to abound for the edification of the church.” (1 Corinthians 14:8–12, LSB)
Fifth, it is a dangerous thing to meddle with the gospel message.
“I marvel that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to the gospel we have proclaimed to you, let him be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is proclaiming to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be accursed! For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a slave of Christ.” (Galatians 1:6–10, LSB)
We ought not change the gospel message…. we cannot add to it, and we cannot subtract from it. That’s dangerous! We just need to simply believe it and be obedient to proclaim it. Repent and believe in the gospel!
Sixth, the early churches went where the people were.
They did not sit in a building and hope others would come in.
“Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and setting before them that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is that Christ.’ And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a great multitude of the God-fearing Greeks and not a few of the leading women.” (Acts 17:1-4, LSB)
Paul’s custom was to go to them. This makes sense. If we are going to be “fishers of men” then we need to go where the people are.
“After these things he departed Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, and his wife Priscilla, who recently came from Italy because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. He came to them, and because he was of the same trade, he was staying with them and they were working, for by trade they were tent-makers. And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade both Jews and Greeks.” (Acts 18:1-4, LSB)
Jew or Greek, he met them where they were. People are in parks, in the stores, at the beach….we ought to find them where they are and engage with them there. The Great Commission begins with “Go…..” Let’s not forget this!
Lastly, we preach but God gives the increase!
“What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.” (1 Corinthians 3:5–9, LSB)
Apollos and Paul were seed sowers and water boys in the work of our Lord. And that’s us too! We are God’s fellow workers. But the harvest is not for us to determine. God gives the increase. He causes the growth.
“And He was saying, ‘The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and he sleeps and rises, night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know.'” (Mark 4:26–27, LSB)
There’s work to be done. Sow that seed, preach that gospel! But then rest in the Sovereignty of God, knowing the results are His!
These are but a few lessons from the New Testament. There are others. Please let me know in the comments below what you think. Are there any other examples come to your mind? How do you reach others for Christ? I’d love to know. May God help each one of us to be more faithful in sharing this message to others!