Have You Been Stung?
Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only.
Acts 11:19-21
And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus.
And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.
In Psalms 118 the psalmist writes that his enemies have surrounded him like bees. Have you ever been surrounded and attacked by bees? It’s no fun, I can tell you that. I remember an incident that happened when I was young; My mother was cutting the grass using a riding lawn mower, and she ran over a ground hornet nest. As she was being stung by the hornets, she drove the mower up to the house as fast as she could, when getting to the house she ran inside to get away from them, and she vowed to never cut the grass again.
I remember another time when I was on a camping trip. We were at our campsite for a couple of hours with no problems or issues until we started beating down some brush, and that is when the bees attacked. They surrounded and attacked me, covering every exposed part of my body. We had to fight them off and remove them one by one. Once the bees were “out of the way” we continued making camp, and the rest of the trip was, thankfully, bee free.
When you start beating the bushes for the gospel’s sake, you will be surrounded by the enemy. In this article, I want to speak to you about that very thing, which is called Evangelism
What is Evangelism?
Evangelism is defined as the calling of people to respond to the message of grace, Evangelism has to do with the proclamation of the good news in such a way that the recipient has a valid opportunity to accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour. Evangelism involves both the verbalized gospel (what you say) and your Christian walk (what you do). Peter tells us in 1 Peter 3:15, that we should live our lives in such a manner that other people will ask us about the hope that is in us. If we live our life just like everyone else does, they will never ask us this question, therefore, you can see how important it is to live a sanctified life.
Who is an Evangelist?
Typically people consider evangelist’s as those full time “traveling” preachers that they see during revival time at their local church. In Acts 21:8, we see that Phillip is called an evangelist and Phillips ministry looks a lot like the definition above, but the definition of an evangelist is simply just a publisher of the good news. Every born-again believer should be publishing the good news; therefore every born-again believer is an evangelist.
What are the Types of Evangelism?
Public Evangelism
We will start off by speaking about public evangelism because that is what most people typically think of when they hear the word evangelism. Public evangelism is manifested in a couple of different ways.
Preaching in the Church
Every church service should have an aspect of evangelism incorporated into it. We see from the example of the Apostle Paul that the first thing that he did whenever he arrived in a community is that he went to the synagogue to preach the gospel:
- Acts 14:1
- Acts 18:4
- Acts 19:8
Preaching in Public Places
Paul also took every opportunity that he could to preach in public places. In Acts 17:22-23 we see that he took the opportunity to do some street preaching. The local church should still be utilizing this practice of taking the gospel out to the community. It is just a simple fact that most of the people in your community will not attend a church service, so if we are to get the gospel to them, we will need to take it to them. We need to follow the example of the Apostle Paul and go wherever people are congregating together and take the gospel to them
And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither.
Acts 16:13
Personal Evangelism
The next type of evangelism to cover is personal evangelism. Whereas public evangelism is typically aimed at the public at large, or at least to larger groups at one time. Personal evangelism is aimed at smaller groups, up to and including a one on one conversation. This also manifests itself in a couple of different ways that we will explore below:
Personal Testimony
Your personal testimony is just what it sounds like, it is your personal story of what your experience with the Lord has been
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
1 John 1:1-3
(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
Just simply tell your personal story, that is what both the “mad man” of the Gadarenes and the Samaritan woman at the well did. They both just told anyone who would listen, what their personal experience with the Lord was like, and we all have a personal story that can be shared with others.
And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him.
Mark 5:18-20
Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.
And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel.
And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did.
John 4:39
Door to Door Visitation
Another form of personal evangelism is door to door visitation, some may consider this to belong to the public evangelism group, but I consider this as personal evangelism because it is typically a one on one conversation, or at the most, you will be having a conversation with one family at a time. You see Paul employing this type of evangelism in Act 16:32-34, where he was dealing with the Philippian jailer and his household.
Some simple ways to conduct personal evangelism are to just simply pass out some gospel tracts. Leave them everywhere that you go, in restrooms, at the gas pump, hand them to clerks at the stores and restaraunts that you frequent, or even just hand them out on the street. Most people will accept them, and what they do with them after you have handed them out is between them and the Lord. We are just simply commanded to spread the seed of the gospel.
Another easy way to conduct personal evangelism is by utilizing social media. You can get the gospel into the homes of countless people, without ever knocking on their door. We have created a website to assist with this. The website address is Four-Things-To-Know.com, and it just simply a video presentation of the gospel that explains the four things that every person needs to know.
- We are all sinners
- We have a sin debt that must be paid
- Our sin debt has already been paid in full
- we just simply need to accept that payment
You may be wondering, why in the world did we name the website Four-Things-To-Know.com? the answer is actually quite simple, our hope is that the vagueness of the web address in and of itself will cause people to go there just out of curiosity, and once there they will hopefully watch the short video, it’s only 12 minutes long, and in so doing they will get a simple presentation of the gospel, and have the opportunity to respond by accepting Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour.
When you get busy for the Lord, when you start to beat the bushes for the gospel, enemies will come out of the woodwork.
Two Choices
When that happens you have two choices:
You can run, hide and quit
or
You can fight the good fight of faith.
People everywhere are more sensitive about their mortality that they have ever been.
Be the beacon of hope, sure you will probably get stung here and there, but it’s worth the risk!
Our hope at Irvington Bible Baptist Church is that this podcast provided some encouragement and has helped you to develop a closer relationship with the LORD Jesus Christ.
