A Life Worth Leading†                        Pastor Sue Briner                                               Acts 8:26-38

Evangelism—The Importance of Inviting                                                          Ephesians 4:25-5:2

October 14, 2007                                                                                                Matthew 28:16-20

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Did you hear the news?

            Ernest and Laura had a baby!

OMG– did you know that Rachel and Travis are dating???

Have you noticed how fast good news like this gets around?

Of course, good news isn’t all that spreads like wildfire.

Look how fast gossip goes around school,

                        Or workplaces or church.

We just love to share juicy tidbits of info.

So why is it that we are often hesitant to share the good news,

            The WONDERFUL news about Jesus Christ with others?

Today’s topic in our sermon series on A Life Worth Leading

            Is “Evangelism.”

And of all the topics we’ve talked about so far:

            Worship, fellowship, discipleship and ministry,

                        Evangelism is probably the least familiar to us as Lutherans,

                                   AND the most scary.

                                                Even though we’ve got the word “evangelical” in our name!

Maybe it’s because we have those stereotypes in mind

            Of TV Evangelists

                        With slick hair and slick smiles

                                    Who tell us if we’ll just send them a bunch of money

                                                God will bless us.

Or we think of those folks who corner us with questions like:

            “SISTER, have ya been saved?”

                        Or “if you died tonight; do you know where you’d spend eternity?”

We know a lot about how we don’t want to evangelize.

But where does that leave us on how we should evangelize?

Well Lutherans have typically had three main evangelism “tactics”

The first is to have babies.

                        And we’re doing a really good job of that here!

The second is to marry non-Lutherans

The third is to be a part of a growing area,

            Where you’re the only ELCA church in town,

                        And you wait for the out-of-town Lutherans

                                    To come in the doors.

Now, these “methods” are a way to grow the membership rolls,

            But if we listen to Jesus’ words in today’s gospel,

                        He’s talking about more than that.

The Great Commission Jesus gives us isn’t to “go and add members.”

“He says “make disciples of all nations.”

            Or a better translation would be,

                        “Continue making disciples.”

Jesus isn’t interested in just adding numbers;

            He wants to grow disciples,

                        He wants to bring all people into relationship with Him.

                                   And the first step in that process is evangelism

The root of the word evangelism means “good news.”

In the New Testament,

The Good News is specific.

It is “the good news of Jesus Christ,

                                    The Son of God.” (Mark 1:1)

It’s the good news about God’s upside down kingdom

            I spoke about last week.

                        Where our relationships with God and with one another

                                    Are restored,

                                                And everyone will have enough to eat,                                                                                            And there will be no more cancer or death,

And no more need for prisons or homeless shelters

                        Or weapons of mass destruction.

And all those who are outcasts in our world,

            Will have places of honor at God’s banquet table.

Christ came to earth to begin this new kingdom.

            That was His mission,

                        So everything He did while He was here;

                                    The healings, the miracles,

                                                The teaching,

Were all designed to show and tell others

                                                                        About this new kingdom.

And in His death and resurrection,

            Jesus showed us that He has the power to defeat

                       Everything that would separate us

                                    From what God has in store for us!

And now God has chosen to share that mission with us,

            He wants us to share the good news about the healing,

                        Transforming power of His son Jesus Christ

                                    And His kingdom.

We talked last week about how we do that with our ministry,

            By loving and serving others,

                        Using whatever gifts God has given us.

Well, evangelism

            Is witnessing to what this kingdom is all about,

                        And what a difference our Lord

Jesus Christ has made in our own lives.

In the book of Acts (1:8) Jesus commissioned His disciples

            By telling them:  “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;

And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,

In all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

What do witnesses do?

            They testify truthfully about what they have seen, heard or experienced.

And that’s what we’re called to do;

            To testify to what we know to be true about Jesus Christ and God’s kingdom.

                        And we have first hand knowledge of this,

Because Christ wasn’t just active in our world

In another time and place;

He is alive and active in our lives as well.

And as we live out our other purposes of worship, fellowship

            Discipleship and ministry,

Our relationship with Christ grows,

Our first hand experience of His love and His power

                                                In our own lives grows.

And as all that grows, so does our gratitude,

            And our desire to share the good news of Christ with others

                        Who have not heard it before,

                                    Or who have heard it

But not believed it could be for them.

Pastor Eric Burtness suggests four ways we can share this good news.

The first is through your testimony; by telling others how God has been active

            In your life and the difference He has made to you.   

Think about the cottage meetings we held last spring;

            The first question we asked each of you was

                        “How have you seen God at work in your life this past year?”

That’s testimony, or witnessing to the truth

That Jesus Christ lives in and among us.

The second way is through sharing your life lessons with others –

            Things you have learned about life

Simply by living closer to the way

                                   God wants you to live.

For instance, one of my life lessons

            Is that God doesn’t necessarily take away the pain and struggles in my life,

                        But He promises that He walks with me,

                                    And that something good will always come out of the struggle.

Maybe not the way I expect,

But I can look back over my life

                        And see God at work during all those tough times.

And this gives me the hope that whatever

            I’m going through now,

                        God will see me through it,

                                    And He will use my struggles to help others

                                                In some small or large way.

The third way to evangelize

            Is to talk about things you are passionate about.

It could be about issues of abuse, or depression,

Or homelessness, for instance.

The fourth way is to share the gospel

With someone who needs to hear the good news.

Maybe there’s someone you know who is carrying around a lot of guilt,

            And you can talk with them about God’s forgiveness.

                        Or they are feeling alone,

                                    And just by your presence you can assure them

Of God’s love and care for them.

God has a way of putting us in touch with people who need

            To hear a cleansing, healing word of grace.

Let’s look at our first lesson from Acts.

An angel of the Lord prompted Phillip,

A recent convert, to go to Jerusalem,

Just like God often prods us to do something.

And as Philip responded,

            God put a stranger, an Ethiopian Eunuch, in his path.

            Now, God was already at work in this man’s life

Before Philip showed up,

            For he had been to worship and was now

Trying to read the Bible.

So Philip didn’t have to strong arm the man into joining the church.

            The man asked for help,

                        Which opened the door for Philip to share the good news.

And then he asked to be baptized. 

            All Philip had to do was walk along side with him and share

                        The story He knew about Jesus.

And that’s a great model of evangelism for us too.

            When we’re open to God’s leading,

                        He puts people into our lives,

                                    People whose hearts He has already been working on in some way,

                                                And He calls us to witness, to share what we know to be true

                                                            About Jesus and his saving, healing power.

We’re not responsible for conversions; God is.

            What we’re responsible for is to be open to sharing the good news

                        In whatever situations God may place us in.

You should have received a small card when you came in.

            And on one side of the card it says “For me to think about”.

                        I invite you to pray about your answers to these questions,

                                    And write them down,

                                               Or talk about them over lunch,

                                                          Or in your Sunday school classes.

Then on the other side,

            I invite you to take some specific steps in evangelism.

                        Think about 3-4 unchurched people that you know.

                                    Especially those who are going through some sort of transition,

Either a positive one or a challenging one.

Like a divorce, a job change, or leaving home.

Transition times are when we’re forced to think about

            What’s most important to us.

                        And over half of first time visitors to church are there

                                    Because they’re in the midst of a significant transition,

                                                And they’re looking for something in their lives.

Then pray for these folks by name each day this week – just 5 minutes or less.

            And pray for God to open the door to some sort of conversation.

Then stay alert for how God nudges you,

            And trust that God will equip you to share His good news when the time is right.

God rejoices when He draws someone closer to Him,

            And we rejoice too.

                        Won’t you consider taking steps to be a part of that for someone?

Let us pray:

            O God, thank you for sharing the good news of your Son and your Kingdom with us.

            Help us to share this good news with others.

            In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen