Modern Christianity has invented all sorts of unbiblical methods in the name of evangelism to win as many people as possible—at any cost. What’s needed today is for the church to go back to a God-ordained method and recover its meaning and practice. But what is true biblical evangelism? How did Jesus evangelize His neighbors and the surrounding regions? How did the early church reach the lost? Mala Chindongo will answer these questions, and more, in his message, “Recovering Biblical Evangelism.” 

Good morning. Let me ask you to turn to 2nd Timothy. I know I take time to do introductions. You can see the clock is already up and running. 2nd Timothy chapter 4, looking at the subject of recovering biblical evangelism.

Biblical evangelism. 2 Timothy chapter 4 I would like to read verses 1 through verse 5 and we'll take some time to seek the Lord's help. The words of God. Paul writes to Timothy, I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom. Preach the Word.

Be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exalt with all long suffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure a sound doctrine but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, and do afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. Our Father in Heaven, we bring our time before you seeking your help, that you may place in us A desire to obey you in this call, but also a conviction concerning the Great Commission that we may take the gospel to the byways and byways. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.

I take some time every once in a while to listen to our popular Christian social commentators, and many times I've heard them point out that we now live in a post-truth era, that what we have with us is a post-Christian culture, that the majority of the population do no longer identify themselves with the Christian faith. That most of the people are intolerant to the gospel or the preaching of it. Now if you read the first letter that Paul wrote to Timothy and the second letter that we're looking at this morning, you will notice that Paul said it first, amen, that even in his time he was warning Timothy that people will be in Torilent, that in the last days people will be in Torilent to the truth that they will not put up with the preaching of the gospel. Well, in our time others have concluded that the simple and straight evangelistic preaching of the gospel is outdated, that it doesn't work anymore. That somehow we need to find acceptable means of reaching the lost with the gospel.

And you know what sort of things have been brought into the church and are being used as forms of evangelism. Now we need to ask If the apostle Paul, the author of this book, lived in our world today, what would he say to us pastors, to us Christians regarding the preaching of the gospel in a post-truth era? What methods would Paul employ? How would he go about the preaching of the gospel, evangelism, discipleship? How would Paul plant churches in a post-Christian, post-truth era.

How would Paul go about missions if Paul arrived in our cities today and he's traveling city from city to city and he probably sees Adam and Steve holding hands. What would Paul say to them? If he found Christians who were being forced to somehow make a wedding cake for sodomites, what would Paul say in an era like that? How would Paul evangelize cultures like ours? When Paul landed in Ephesus, he had so many things to overcome.

First remember that Paul landed in a city that hosted the largest temple the Greeks ever built for the worship of the goddess Diana. These were Paul's circumstances in that city. The goddess Diana was a visible representation of the sexual revolution of that day. You hear this in Acts chapter 19, the accusation is brought against Paul and his companions. In Acts chapter 19 and verse 27, the temple of the great goddess Diana says, Paul has made it to be despised, that her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worships.

We see this in verses 13 and, you know, Acts chapter 19, that the city was given to sexual immorality, to magic and sorcery and all kinds of Pergan philosophies. This was a city that worshipped idols. When Paul is writing this letter to Timothy, he's well aware of Timothy's circumstances in Ephesus. He knows what Timothy has to overcome. This is a city bankrupt of any moral reason.

He knew the challenges that Timothy would have to face to be able to preach the gospel, to be a witness, to plant churches, to strengthen other leaders in that city. Paul knew well what Timothy was up against. But he still gives them three things that Timothy would need to hold on to if he's going to be what he says in verse 5, but you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill my ministry. And you will notice that in Verse 6, Paul says, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight.

I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge will give to me on that day." Paul is saying, this is where I want you Timothy to labor in such a way that you end up in verse 6, 7, and 8 where I am right now. That you be faithful. You stand in your truth, in the truth that you know which you have been taught and fight the good fight.

So he gives him three things. Number one, he tells Timothy that evangelism, that the kind of ministry that I have given you in Ephesus, Timothy remember it is not optional. Evangelism, biblical evangelism is not optional. Listen to what he says to him in verse 1. He says, I charge you therefore before God.

I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom. He says a sincere warning to Timothy, a deep serious warning, it's a charge to Timothy. He says, I charge you, I plead with you. Timothy, I demand therefore. And he says, Timothy, I am doing this in the presence of God.

So he takes Timothy as it were, and he lifts him up, and he places him before God and Jesus Christ, the righteous judge. And he says, Timothy, look where you are. Look where you're standing. You are standing before God, before Jesus Christ, the righteous charge. I have a charge for you, but I will give you that charge if your eyes can be opened and you can see where you are.

Where is this where Timothy is? He says it is before God, quorum Deo. In the presence of God, who will judge Timothy? And then he gives him the charge in verse 2. The charge is simple.

Timothy preached the word. And if you can just Zero in a little bit on that word. The word he's using is not just that Timothy picks up the Bible on a Sunday morning and is preaching. The word he's using is the word carousel, which means to proclaim. And it is an evangelistic word.

Timothy preach, proclaim, carousal the gospel. And Timothy do this in the presence of God. Timothy, God is watching you. As you go about in Ephesus, doing your ministry, doing the work of an evangelist, a disciple of the church that Jesus has entrusted to you, Timothy Caruso, preach the word. That's the charge it gives him.

So he is holding Timothy accountable. That Timothy, he is a subject of great importance and this is what we need to understand. All preaching, All preaching must be done under the scope of the second coming of Jesus Christ and the judgment set. He wanted Timothy to have a great level of reality regarding biblical preaching, biblical evangelism. It must be engraved in the mind of Timothy that the most important thing in all of the universe is the preaching of the gospel.

David Brainerd once said, he said, I love to live on the brink of eternity. This is where Paul is placing Timothy. In all your ministry, you have a charge, you have one command, and that is to proclaim, that is to hear it, that is to preach the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is where we should be as ministers of the gospel, as members of churches. This is where we should be in the presence of God.

We should live our lives and do our ministry on the brink of eternity. Knowing that we have a purpose in this life and that purpose is to advance and to join Jesus Christ who is in the world today, building a kingdom for himself, calling a people to himself through the power of the gospel. And we join him, whether we are sitting at home and we're sharing with people in our home, whether it is our children, our spouses, and we're speaking to them, we must know we have one charge and one command, and that is the preaching of the gospel, speaking to them of the glories of Christ and what He has done for us. There is no higher place of accountability than to be placed and to be reminded of the judgment seat of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what Paul wanted Timothy to hear and to see.

If you were Timothy and you're getting this later and you're listening to what Paul is saying, I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, Timothy in the presence of God, you would say and agree with Timothy that Paul is leaving you with no choice. So evangelism is not an option. It's not among the things that churches do. It's not among the things that pastors do. We go out and we sit down with our members.

We pray, we counsel, we comfort, and we have friends in the church that we visit, and we have a cup of coffee together, and we hang out. We do so many things. We go on walks. We do so many fun things, maybe with our church members. Evangelism is not one of them.

It's not an option. It's not among the things that we do as churches. It is not an option. It's a charge, it's a command, it's a special task that Jesus Christ has given us and Paul is here to remind Timothy of the great importance to take the gospel and preach it to the lost. It should not be among the least of the things we do as a church.

It should be who we are as a church, that we are soul-winners. The second thing he says to Timothy is in the second part of this to preach the word, Be ready. Timothy, be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exalt with all long-suffering and teaching Timothy knowing the climate, knowing where you are, knowing the kind of people you preach to for the time will come when they will not put up with sound preaching, with sound doctrine. Biblical evangelism is not conditional.

It's not conditional. Be ready. Be instant. Your posture, Timothy's posture, must be that of a man who is ready at every opportunity he gets to open his mouth and proclaim the glories of Christ. Timothy, be ready, be instant in season and out of season.

We should understand that Paul's call here to Timothy is simply an exhortation to faithfulness. Timothy, what he means is that Timothy must give himself entirely to the preaching of the gospel, like a good evangelist taking the gospel to the lost. The servant of the Lord, as Timothy is, must be ready for his duties. He must not be lazy. You know what I've discovered?

The easiest place to be lazy is in the Christian ministry. There's very little accountability when it comes to how pastors, church leaders, those who preach the gospel use their time. I think of where I am in Malawi, in Africa, that the time I have, I could fill it up easily with so many things. I could say to my wife that this is 6 a.m. I'm going to have coffee with these two brothers.

I'm going to go and do this, and I'm going to do this, and fill up the whole day with meetings and all kinds of things but the preaching of the gospel. And all those things are things that are good. But you know what else I can also do? I can also wake up in the morning, 5 a.m., I can go into my little chamber and I can take all my systematic theology books and I can start studying and I can come out at nine and have breakfast with the family and then I can go back in. What is he doing?

He's working. I can come out at lunch and have lunch. I can come out again, maybe for dinner, and I can do it again and again and again and again. And yes, there has to be, if we're going to preach, there has to be hard study of the Word of God. We must study it.

But we are also not called to disappear out of the world because we are studying for preaching. When you have studied, you must go and preach what you've studied, especially in our Reformed worlds and circles where we want to make sure that We've studied so hard and crossed all the T's in that sermon and studied all the dots and the commas and see what it says in Greek. That can take a lot of time, isn't it? It is a good thing and I love that. I love to study.

I can give it as a good excuse and I love it. I'm not bored in there. I'm really enjoying it. I'm laughing. I'm all alone in that little office, but I'm laughing, I'm jumping, I'm praying, I'm crying.

The day is passing. I can do that all day, all week, all month, all year round. But he can also be an excuse for not going out to preach the gospel, to meet people and share the gospel with them. And so a servant of the Lord must not be lazy. He must be diligent.

Shepherding God's people, evangelizing our community is hard work. It needs strong-spirited men. It needs courageous Christians. What Paul is saying to Timothy is that, Timothy, you must be on speed dial. You must be ready.

You must be instant. You must be prepared to open your mouth whether opportunities presents themselves or when they don't present themselves. You see, evangelists, Christians who are serious about preaching the gospel are not those who are waiting all the time for people to ask them, why do you live like this, for them to open their mouth. They're also men and women who are looking for opportunities to share the gospel. So they're the ones in many cases to start their conversation.

And this is what Paul is saying to Timothy. Timothy, be ready when it suits you in season and out of season when it doesn't suit you. Not only that, Timothy convinced. So this is not just preaching, throwing words out. There is a specific method, and this is what many Christians are saying today that, you know, it doesn't work anymore.

It's what Paul is about to tell us You know you go to people and you tell them that they are sinners and you tell them that they have broken God's law, you know what they will do to you? If you tell them that Jesus died for you, if you tell them that they will pay for their sins whether in hell or in Christ, you know this doesn't work anymore. But it's what Paul tells Timothy. He says, Timothy, you reprove. Timothy, you convince, you rebuke first, you bring that sword, You bring the law, you apply the law, you show people that God has entrusted to you and your neighbors in Ephesus, and you rebuke and you show them that the wages of sin is death.

That is not outdated, amen? As long as sinners are still sinning, that is not out of date. Because we've been persecuted or been beaten to submission, that we think this doesn't work anymore. This has always worked. Amen?

As long as there is sin in the world, as long as people are still under the judgment of God, as long as this Holy Spirit is still in the world, convicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, this works. And Paul says to Timothy you rebuke Timothy you convince you exhort you show them what the Bible says what sin is and you show them you teach them the right word you exhort Timothy you show them what God has done. You show them that there is a solution. So Timothy, reprove, repute, correct the errors of the culture, repute, correct their moral life, teach them, show them the right way. And then he goes on to say In verse 3, for the time will come.

And just before we go there, it says, do it with long-suffering and teaching. This is very important. If we're going to win souls in our communities, if we're going to preach the gospel, if we are going to recover biblical evangelism, we must be men and women who are patient with those we are reaching out. You know, you will speak to people that never heard the name Jesus, do not even know what the word repentance is. It's going to take time for you to explain to them what that is.

What does repentance look like? Where does it talk in the scriptures? And when you say you've placed your faith in Jesus, what does that mean? What does the Bible say? So that will need an evangelist, a man who is patient and is taking time to teach.

It might mean a couple more visits. It might mean spending time with people that you're reaching out. And many times we want to correct results very quickly. We want people to make a decision very quickly when we meet with them. But it might not be that way.

Maybe God at times will allow us that. But for the most part, we're going to need to take time with people, teaching them what does the Bible say when it comes to the fall of man? What is wrong with this world? What is wrong with us? What is wrong with you?

It's going to take time. So we are coming. We are meeting with people. Timothy must be an evangelist, but he must be one who is patient. I remember, you probably remember how people were patient with you.

Probably you said you had received Jesus five times and they listen to you and they say, no, not yet, let's talk about this a bit more. I'm ready, I need to be baptized. No, no, no, no, no, slow down. Let's talk about this a bit more. And they teach you patiently, they walk with you, they show you, they teach you doctrine, they bring all of that so you understand God's will for your life.

Convince, rebuke with all long suffering and teaching for the time will come when they will not put up, they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears. You know, Timothy was doing ministry, This is what I said a few days ago, that when we come here, we hear people say, this is the post-truth era, meaning you have had the truth, but you're moving away from it. And I say, you see, where we are, we are stumbling upon the truth. We're just coming to the truth and practical Christianity. So for us it's opposed to nothing, okay?

And so where the rest of the world is, they have never heard the Christian faith go all the way to the roots and transform the culture. They're not sort of moving away from something. Most of the world is not where you are. Most of the world would be where Timothy was in Ephesus. For their time will come when they will not put up with some doctrine.

Not because they have heard it before and they're just moving away from it because they have never heard of it. They love their idols. They love to worship their idols. They love their sin, but according to their own desires because they have itching ears. What he's saying to him, Timothy, the people that you're speaking to are sick.

They're sick. The picture he's painting for Timothy is that of ears that are diseased, that you can scratch and scratch and scratch until they breed and nothing will happen and you won't be able to help these people. They have itching ears, they're diseased, they're sick. These are the people you're preaching to. Timothy, that's your audience as you go out to preach the gospel, doesn't that sound like our cultures?

Doesn't that sound like our people that we preach to? They have itching ears. They're sick with sin. They can't hear. Their ears are clogged.

But you know the only thing they can hear? They will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. That's the only thing that can penetrate their ears. Timothy, these are the people you're ministering to. So old school evangelism, old school evangelism, where we as men and women as Christian people see it as the most important task that God has given us.

And we are looking at investing everything. You see how we know whether a church is serious about evangelism or not? Look at the budget. Like you always say, follow the money, isn't it? Look at the church budget and look at how much is invested towards the proclamation of the gospel.

And so we're going to reorder everything because here's a priority. Timothy, Paul says to Timothy, God is watching Timothy and you will give an account. It's not an option. It's not conditional. It's not when it suits us.

So we have to go. We have to go out, and we have to stop people. Even when they say, no, we were doing ministry for many years in a country where you could go out with your tracts with some of the most offensive titles on the front of that tract. And you'd give it to people and literally everyone would say would receive it. Well whether they read it or not that's a different question but they would receive our tracts.

Ten years later where we are you go out to do evangelism probably 70% will take your tract. Fate will tell you upfront that no, they don't need it. Others will tell us that you know what, I don't need that because I don't believe in God and that's a good place to study conversation isn't it the moment you hear that you're like yes that's the one let's talk now I love that one every time I hear that I'm like huh you don't believe in God yeah yeah I don't believe in God well sounds interesting you know what I would love to hear how you landed at that conclusion. Can you speak to me how you landed at that? Every time I hear it, I actually look for it.

Oh, no, don't give that to me. I don't believe in God. I say, wow. How did you end up there? How did you land there?

Can you speak to me about that? Oh yeah, you know, I used to believe in God, you know, but one time this pastor said to me that, you know, God had showed him a revelation and he said, go sell everything, give away everything, and He will give me back a hundredfold, you know. And so I went and I sought everything that I had. And you know, I prayed and I fasted and I waited and five years later, ten years later, all the things my pastor told me never came back and I'm as poor as before. And I said, so what you're saying is you are angry with God, not that you don't believe in God.

And probably that's misplaced anger. You need to be angry with your pastor, not God, because I was not God speaking. That's a true story. That's a true story. Here's the last thing Paul says to Timothy.

Look at verse 5. But you'll be watchful in all things. Endure afflictions. Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry.

So biblical evangelism is not an option. Paul makes it very clear to Timothy. It's not conditioned, it's not when it suits you. And lastly he says to Timothy, biblical Evangelism must be the sum total of your whole life. It must be the sum total of your life.

Listen to what he says to him. Timothy, you must be watchful and do in all things, and do afflictions. Do the work of an evangelist. Timothy is a shepherd in Ephesus and Paul says to him, you do the work of an evangelist. Timothy is a shepherd in Ephesus and Paul says to him, you do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

He's saying that to Timothy because Paul has done that in verse 6 through verse 8. He's fulfilled his ministry as a faithful evangelist. And so he says to him, Timothy, when it is all said and done, people must remember you for all the things you were able to do and accomplish in Ephesus. People must remember one thing, that you taught them Jesus. Do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

When it's all said and done, people can come to your funeral, can come to your funeral, and as they are lowering your casket down in their minds that can say, this man, this woman showed us Jesus. Can people say that about your life? Paul wanted Timothy to be a disciple maker because he, Paul himself was a disciple maker And he got that from our Lord Jesus Christ. From that time, He, Jesus, Mark chapter 1 and verse 17, He, Jesus did what? Began preaching and saying what?

Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. And Paul would say to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, when I came and I was a man you I determined I made it my business to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified. So yes we can talk about all these small things about politics and sports and and all these small things we love to talk about but people should, as we go, people should remember one thing. Did you hear the way he or the way she spoke about Christ? He says, you be watchful in all things.

Evangelism is front lines ministry. Whether you're doing it abroad, whether you're doing it in the home, whether you're doing it within your church, whether you're doing it in your community, to your neighbors, in your city, in your town, wherever you're doing evangelism, you are doing front lines ministry and the devil will be after you. See the devil is, he doesn't mind if we meet and are just having fun and seeking to have small meetings and do all these fun things. He doesn't mind. But the day you and I look at our community and our souls are burning, our hearts are burdened for the lost and we're saying we are going to pray and we are going to go out and we're going to stop every man every woman every child and we're going to hand out a tract, and we're going to speak about Christ to them, that's the day you're going to start having too many problems in your church.

That's the day a lot of people are going to get sick. That's the day you're going to have death. That's the day there will be many problems in your life. And Paul says to Timothy, you be alert. And the alertness that he's telling him is moral alertness.

You be watchful because this is front lines ministry. Suffer well, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist. They need to be consistent. Let's close with these last few thoughts. There are so many methods that people employ today in our day and age in the name of culture and how the culture has changed.

We need more and better acceptable methods. If anything needs to change, it must be a clear sight of Christ. And a remembrance that we are men and women under the oversight of God. Charles Spajan had this to say concerning soul winning. He says, the best attraction is the gospel in its purity.

The weapon with which the Lord conquers men is the truth as it is in Jesus. The gospel will be found equal to every emergency in an arrow which can pierce the hardest heart in a bomb which will heal the deadliest wound. We need the straight and simple preaching of the gospel with a clear conviction that this is a command, it's not an option, and to understand that it is not conditional, It is not when it best suits us and that in the end people can say over us that we indeed showed them Christ. Conversations I've had with many pastors personally for the last five years, I've made it my point as a mid-pastor to ask, what are you and your church doing when it comes to evangelism? I always hear two things.

We are praying about it, and we are doing seminars on evangelism to train our church to evangelize. I'm saying, brother, but this is what you taught me five years ago. When are you going to start? Pastors are not modeling for their churches. They're not showing their churches.

Here's how you do evangelism. Here's a man with a heart for the lost. You know, we speak of young people, we speak of older people that maybe at the end of their lives, Paul here was a man now in old age. And he's writing to young Timothy. But you and I have read enough biographies of men and women in their teens, in their 20s, who influenced the world and were committed to the preaching of the gospel.

That today we can look at their grave and we can look at their biographies and we can say, wow, look at this young man, look at this young woman, 28 years old. But what did he do with those few years on earth? He showed us Christ. So young people here don't say that, you know what, when I'm 50, when I'm 60, when I'm 70, when I'm 80, 90 and 100 and there's some thought of my life, People should be able to see that, yes, I preached the gospel. I was a faithful evangelist.

Yes, I fulfilled my ministry. It shouldn't be. Like we say, even the good die young, Isn't it? Even at the age of 14, if you were to die today, even at the age of 20, even at the age of 25, 30, if you were to die and people say, this man, This woman, this young man, this boy, this girl has gone on to be with the Lord at such a young age and then they should conclude, but he or she showed us Jesus. I want to leave you with this one, and this one is for free.

This is from Charles Page, and he says, and what have I to say of soul winners? He says, belongs not to the learned doctor of divinity or to the eloquent preacher alone. Listen to this. But to you all who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Pray with me. Jesus. Amen. Pray with me. O God and Father, remind us, place within our hearts a genuine A genuine concern for those who are perishing in our homes, in our own churches, in our own communities, in our own cities, in our own countries, give us a genuine conviction and remind us that we have no option, That this is not an option, but to preach, to proclaim to Herod the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and to bring hope to the lost.

God help us take away the fear of man from our hearts that we may be bold, that we may be strong, oh God, we pray you would place in us your fear, that we may not fear people, especially those who have rejected you, O Lord, that we may take the gospel to them. Not only when it suits us, but Lord even out of season. The world will always live in rebellion against your name. And without your word it won't improve. And so Lord help us and remind us and place these things before us every day, oh God.

Remind us of the corruption and the corruptions of this world. And give us grace, oh Lord, to be determined to go out and reach the lost Lord help us give us grace place in us or God a conviction from your Spirit to number our days. When it's all said and done, people can say of us that He or She showed us Christ. Amen.