EVANGELISM ON PURPOSE

Several years ago I had the opportunity to meet and learn from a preacher by the name of Marvin Phillips.

Marvin is a fiery kind of preacher with a great heart for evangelism

Marvin always talked a lot about doing things on purpose –

                      which was before Rick Warren’s books on the Purpose Driven Church.

Marvin had a lot of short sayings that carried a lot of truth

"What the mind of man can conceive, and believe, it can achieve."

"Aim for nothing and you’ll probably hit it every time with an amazing amount of accuracy."

                      "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss your target you’ll be among the stars."

Way back in April, you may remember that we talked about the purpose of the church.

           As a part of the church, we realize that instead of just letting things happen,

we are to put forth some effort, that will encourage growth in God’s Church.

When Jesus Christ was born into this world, He had a purpose.

                      The angel told Joseph, that the babe was to be called Jesus,

                                 because He would save His people from their sins.

That purpose has not changed, and as the church, that purpose has now become our purpose as well.

Our main purpose is to lead people into a saved relationship with Jesus Christ.

Our purpose is to evangelize the lost...

                                 Say that with me.

We are going to be using 1 Corinthians 16:5-9 as our text this morning on evangelism.

Paul had spent about 8 years on his first 2 missionary journeys

           During that time he traveled from city to city preaching the gospel and starting churches

However, it wasn’t always easy, as he faced a lot of opposition.
He had been flogged with whips, beaten with rods, and even stoned and left for stone–

                                 all because he longed to share the saving grace of Jesus Christ with the world.

As he is writing this letter, Paul is on a third missionary journey, and is staying in the city of Ephesus.

           He has a tremendous desire to go back to the Corinthian churches

                      and spend some time with them–maybe even stay all winter.

                      But there is work to be done in Ephesus first,

                                 and then he hopes to spend some time in Corinth.

1 Corinthians 16:5-9 After I go through Macedonia, I will come to you--for I will be going through Macedonia. 6 Perhaps I will stay with you awhile, or even spend the winter, so that you can help me on my journey, wherever I go. 7 I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. 8 But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, 9 because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.

Paul says that he had plans to stay in Ephesus until Pentecost,

because God was opening up a great door of opportunity.

However, he didn’t realize how great of an opportunity it really was.

                      He ended up staying there 3 years,

which is twice as long as he stayed anywhere else,

                                            as he traveled establishing churches

                      The reason that Paul stayed so long, was because God had opened a door of opportunity.

I. A DOOR OF OPPORTUNITY

Ephesus was not a town where most Christians would want to settle–it was a little bit on the wild side!

           It was one of those wild and crazy cities where most anything goes.

It was also a financial and commercial center, and there was a lot of money that went through that city

Ephesus also was the home to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world –

the temple that was dedicated for the worship of the goddess Diana – the goddess of fertility.
How do you worship a goddess of fertility?

                                 Through a variety of immoral practices, to say the least.

                                            The temple was full of immorality and legalized prostitution.

The people believed in magic and were very superstitious.
They were constantly looking for soothsayers and fortune tellers,

                                            to guide their lives.

           It was a very wicked city

Now there are two different kinds of people in the world –

           there are pessimists,

                      who see a problem in every opportunity.

           And there are optimists,

                      who see an opportunity in every problem.

Well, Paul looked at all of the problems in the city –

           he saw the thousands of people, who were lost,

                      and decided that there was a real opportunity here.

There were so many people who needed to hear about Jesus–
So many lives that needed to be changed.

                      So many people who needed to hear the Gospel message.

And Paul was determined to turn that city upside down for Jesus.

He saw a great opportunity.

While many people profess to be Christians today,

           there are still many who have never accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior –

                      who are still lost.

           Jesus said, (John 4:35) open your eyes and look at the fields!

                      They are ripe for harvest.

Beating people over the head with a Bible, will not usually get you very far in winning someone to God’s side.

But, their will be opportunities to share–opportunities will come
Look for them!

2. A DOOR OF OBLIGATION.

Paul not only saw the open door, but he felt obligated to walk through it himself.

VS 9 - a great door...has opened to me

           He didn’t say it was open to Timothy or Barnabas or anyone else.

                      He felt a personal responsibility to stay and preach the Word of God to them.

As Christians we need to take a personal responsibility for the ministry of this church.

Although Jonah and I are paid to do the work of the church,

                      we are not responsible to do the work that God intends for you to do!

Amy Carmichael spent most of her life as a missionary in India where she died in 1951.

           She tells of dreaming that she was in a jungle sitting by the campfire one night.

           As she watched the flames of the fire soar into the sky,

                      she said that she could see a grassy place, a clearing in the jungle,

                                 and many people were walking across it towards a terrible precipice.

           There was a mother with a little girl clinging to her skirt, walking towards the precipice,

                      and no one said anything to her.

                      She fell over the precipice, and Amy could hear their screams, as they plummeted to their death.

           Then she saw a little boy walking towards the precipice, and he was blind,

                      even as the mother and the little girl had been blind.

                      As he was walking to his death Amy thought, "Why doesn’t someone say something to him?"

           As the boy fell over the cliff, he grabbed hold of a little tuft of grass and screamed for help.

                      But no one came, and finally he, too, plummeted to his death.

           And there were thousands of others, all of them blind,

                      and all of them were heading towards the precipice, too.

In her dream, Amy Carmichael said, "I cried from the depths of my soul, ‘Why doesn’t someone tell them about the precipice and warn them of their danger?’" "Then," she said, "I heard the voice of God saying, ‘Whom shall I send?’ And I said, ‘I’ll go.’ ‘All right,’ said the Lord, ‘Then you’re my messenger.’"

Do you understand that you have an obligation to share Jesus?
I know that, that very idea just scares some of you to death.

You may not be gifted in this area of evangelism as others are,

                      but you still have influence in the lives of people around you.
 

If one of your children or grandchildren were about to run out in front of a speeding automobile,

           would you remain silent and say,

                      "Well I really don’t have the gift to warn people."

No, you would do all you could to protect them from harm.

People without Jesus Christ are lost–bound for an eternal hell.

Benny Hester - song "How in the world will they ever know if we don’t tell them."

3. A DOOR OF OPPOSITION

VS 9 - there are many who oppose me.

There are always going to be people who oppose the advancement of the gospel.

In Ephesus, there was a silversmith by the name of Demetrius, that didn’t like Paul being there one bit.

           You see, he made silver idols, and sold them, which had become quite a lucrative business.

When people starting turning to Christ, they stopped buying his idols.

We will face opposition today as well.

There will be some who will want to label us as fanatics.
We will be called Fundamentalists.

                      Jokes are made about Christians being homophobic and close-minded.

But it may be that the worst opponents to the advancement of the Gospel, are not those who stand up and oppose it.

           It may be those who sit in the pews and are lukewarm Christians.

Revelation 3:16 So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

We hear the messages, we see the blind people walking toward the precipice,

but go home unmoved.
Sometimes, there is even vocal opposition,

to doing things that will help bring more people into God’s kingdom.

I have known many churches to go to 2 worship services – partly out of need and partly to give people more than one opportunity.

                                 Number one complaint–"I won’t get to see everybody."
 

Let’s go back to where we started.

Our purpose:

Is our purpose to be a social club?

Is our purpose to join a church where everything is done exactly the way we want.
Or is our purpose to reach the lost?

How would Jesus answer that?

Sometimes a church will start to grow and some members might be heard to say something like,

           "We’ve got so many new people it just doesn’t seem like my church anymore."

It’s not your church to start with–it’s God’s Church

I hope that God’s blesses us so much, and sends us so many new people,

                      that we will realize that this is not our church,

                                 that it’s the church of Jesus Christ.


4. STEPS TO SHARING YOUR FAITH

We must realize that people without Christ are lost.

Maybe we need to be a little more blunt than that:

People who have never made a commitment to Jesus Christ,

will spend their eternal lives in hell–away from a loving God.

Until we realize that, we will never be motivated to do anything about it.

If we simply believe that everyone is going to heaven –

           that all you have to do is be good –

then we won’t be motivated to encourage anyone to change.

           Pray for opportunities

           Look for the open doors

                      There are times when people are open to hearing about Jesus.

                                 Each situation is different

Be prepared
1 Peter 3:15 But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,

Personal Responsibility
See yourself as an instrument of God.

NIKE Attitude - Just Do It!
New Christians make some of the best evangelists,

because they are not that far removed from their former way of life.

Witness - Be a positive example.

Invite people to come and see.

                      When Jesus was just starting His ministry, one of the men he called was Phillip.

John 1:46 "Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked. "Come and see," said Philip.

           Persistence - Don’t give up.

                      Some of you are Christians today,

                                 because their was someone who was not willing to give up.

This may be the hardest part, because as hard as we try,

           there will be some who will simply reject Christ – and that is their choice.

           But that is very difficult for us, when we know, they are destined for an eternity without God.

CONCLUSION:

Our purpose is to evangelize the lost!

           How does God want to use you to accomplish His purpose?
 

            Col. 4:3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.