Old School Evangelism 1 Peter March 21, 2010

Transcription

1 Old School Evangelism 1 Peter March 21, 2010 Introduction: One of the advantages we enjoy as Christians living in America in the 21 st century is the numerous tools available to aid us in the task of evangelism. In the past fifty or so years we ve seen no shortage of books, tracts, and training material produced with the goal of making us more effective at reaching the lost. For example, since the 1970 s evangelistic training materials by James Kennedy called Evangelism Explosion have been widely used to equip people to proclaim the gospel with their friends and neighbors. Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, created a little gospel tract entitled The Four Spiritual Laws which have been used across college campus to help explain the main elements of the gospel. Similar to The Four Spiritual Laws is what s known as The Romans Road, which uses keys verses from the book of Romans to lead people to Christ. More recently, Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron have popularized an evangelistic approach called The Way of the Master that utilizes the Ten Commandments to show people how they ve sinned against God and need of a savior. All of these are great methods and I d highly recommend them as useful tools to help you become better evangelists. But this morning I d like to talk to you about an approach to evangelism that s a tad bit older than Evangelism Explosion and The Four Spiritual Laws. In fact, you could say it s the ultimate old school method of reaching the lost because it s an approach the Apostle Peter encouraged first-century Christians to use. But before we discuss it I want to be up front with you about the serious disadvantages of Peter s method. First, it doesn t have any printed materials with catchy illustrations. Second, it can t be broken down into six-to-eight-week courses. Also, it doesn t really lend itself to a resourceheavy church program or big spectacular event your can invite your friends to. In fact, here s the real kicker: it doesn t even have a web site! In spite of these disadvantages, I thought, Why not at least look at what Peter has to say and give it a shot. Even if Peter doesn t have very good marketing skills, maybe he was on to something. Let s just take a look and see how it goes. So if you don t mind, I d like to spend our time together today examining Peter s old school approach to evangelism and see if it might work here in at Grace Brethren Church. To that s end, please turn open your Bible with me to 1 Peter 2, where Peter presents his evangelistic strategy for the church in v I ll be reading from the English Standard Version. Peter writes, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Since Peter didn t live in an age of advertising and marketing, his evangelism strategy lacks the catchiness we ve grown accustomed to in our modern age, so to help Peter out 1

2 a bit, I thought I d create a slogan for his strategy that also (incidentally) serves as the main idea of the message this morning, and it is just this: Main idea: Live a godly life so that the ungodly might live Peter s old school evangelism strategy is that each Christian in the church should live in such a righteous and honorable way that unbelievers will take notice and eventually come to faith. Like I said, it doesn t lend itself very well to programs and committees, but in spite of that, let s look a little closer at what Peter has to say. We ll begin first by considering our part in Peter s method of evangelism. So our first point concerns 1. Our responsibility: godly living (v. 11) Peter begins by addressing his readers as Beloved or if you re looking at the NIV it translates it as Dear friends. This is a term of affection Peter uses to remind them that although he will be spending the rest of his letter giving instructions about how to live their lives as elect exiles, he does so out of a deep love for them. He s not like some CEO who sends out generic memos to nameless employees further down the ladder; rather he s more like a loving father or close friend who wants to give wise, godly instruction to people he deeply cares about. Not only does Peter address them as beloved but he also addresses them as sojourners and exiles or as aliens and strangers in the NIV. Peter utilizes the terminology he used to describe them way back in chapter 1, verse 1. He s reminding them, and us, that because of our new life in Christ, this world is not our home. As a result, we don t fit in with the rest of the world any longer. We re like foreigners living in a country not our own. Well, what instruction does Peter give to these beloved sojourners and exiles in the world? Look back at v. 11. Peter says, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. When Peter says he s urging them, it means he s making a passionate plea. His instruction is not just some casual remark, like a father yelling to his 16-year-old son as he walks out the door, Don t forget to use your safety belt! It s more like a father sitting his son down, looking him straight in the eye, and saying, Son, your mom and I love you very much and don t want you to be needlessly injured in a car accident. Please always, always remember to buckle up before you drive. That s the kind of earnest plea Peter is making here. The nature of his plea is that they abstain from the passions of the flesh. Peter knows that though they ve been born again and been given a new heart, they still possess passions and desires which are in opposition to God. He describes them as passions of the flesh which is how biblical authors commonly refer to sinful desires. Rather than acting upon those sinful passions that once characterized us before Christ, we re to abstain from them. We re not to give into them. We should not act in such as way that would make us look identical to the rest of the world, but rather we re to live in a way characteristic of our new heavenly home, our true citizenship. 2

3 This call to abstain from the passions of the flesh is a constant responsibility we have because Peter goes on to tell us these desires wage war against your soul. So it s an ongoing battle. We re in a constant war between sinful desires of the flesh on the one hand and godly desires of the Spirit on the other. Now it s important we understand that this is a constant, ongoing battle otherwise we can become burdened with expectations for the Christian life that are both unrealistic and unbiblical. See, early on as a Christian, I was bothered by the fact that although I was a believer, I d still sin. It didn t make any sense to me. I d read passages talking about my need to be holy and to love God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength, and I knew that I didn t do that perfectly. Also, I was working at a Christian bookstore at the time and I d see all these books about the Victorious Christian Life that I was supposed to be living. I knew sometimes I was victorious over sin, but other times I d fall into sin, then I d repent, and then a few days or weeks later I d go and do the same dumb thing all over again! So I d question if I really was a believer. How can I call myself a Christian and continue to sin the way that I do? I was finally rescued from my confusion by an unlikely hero: a German monk from the 16 th century by the name of Martin Luther. He had coined a short Latin phrase that helped me finally make sense of Scripture and my personal experience. The phrase was, (excuse my poor Latin) simul iustus et peccator, which when translated means, at the same time righteous and sinner. Luther understood that although we ve been justified in God s sight through faith in Christ, we still dwell in bodies with sinful cravings and desires. As a result, we re both saint and sinner. At times we act like saints and at other times we act like sinners. Both are true of us which means the Christian life isn t one glorious victory after another, but rather a life of struggle. We have two conflicting desires waging war within our souls: one to obey God and one to obey self. Being a Christian means you must engage in a continual struggle against sinful desires with ever-increasing (but yet never complete) victory over them. It s what the apostle Paul talks about throughout Romans 7 as an ongoing struggle between conflicting desires of the heart. So if you re struggling with guilt because you aren t living the victorious Christian life, let me encourage you with the liberating knowledge that it s okay to struggle with sin. Now don t misunderstand me, I didn t say it s okay to sin. But if you re struggling with sin, sometimes resisting it and other times giving in to it, then that s actually a sign you re spiritually alive. Only Christians struggle with sin. Unbelievers don t struggle with sin; they just sin and sin and sin because they have no desire to do anything else. The reason for this comes back to how our desires influence our will. As you ve heard me say at least a couple of times now, we always do that which we desire the most. An unbeliever desires only to sin and so all he ever does is sin. He s not free to chose not to sin because he has no desire to obey God. He can t do what he doesn t want to do. In a similar way, as glorified believers in heaven, we will never sin because we won t have any sinful desires. In heaven, we won t be free to sin, because we can only do that which we desire the most, which will only be to love and obey God. 3

4 But Christians have the unique distinction of having conflicting desires. We possess a desire to sin and we also possess a desire to obey God. Those dual desires are not available to unbelievers and glorified saints in heaven. Christians are uniquely both saint and sinner at the same time. As a result, Christians face an ongoing struggle with sin because we have two different conflicting desires influencing our will. So one of the reasons I have confidence that I m a Christian is not because I never sin; rather it s because I struggle with sin. When I sin, I don t remain unrepentant; the Holy Spirit eventually convicts me and I confess it, repent, and once again head back out to the trenches to wage war against those sinful desires that want to gain supremacy in my soul. I struggle with sin because I am alive in Christ; if I didn t struggle with sin, I d either be an unbeliever or in my glorified body in heaven. So ironically, the very thing which used to be the cause of me questioning my salvation now serves as convincing evidence for it. So then, given we have conflicting desires and given that we ll always act in accordance with our strongest desire, how to do go about obeying Peter s instruction to abstain from the passions of the flesh? It cannot be merely by an act of the will since what we will is determined by our strongest desire. What we need is a desire stronger than our desire for sin so that our will, in turn, acts in accordance with that strongest desire. A sinful passion cannot be resisted by mere willpower; it must be replaced by another passion more compelling than it, and that superior passion is a passion for Christ. It is no accident that this call to abstain from the passions of the flesh follows after a lengthy discussion about all that God has done for us in Christ in 1 Peter 1. We can abstain from sinful passions when we understand more clearly the depths of grace and the riches of God s love demonstrated to us in Christ. That s why the New Testament authors start their letters with theology and then follows it with instructions about living. Having minds gripped by the truths of God s love for us in Christ is what inflames our passions for Him and in turn enables our will to obey His commands. Godly living always begins with a fresh vision of God that in turns affects our passions. To give just an example, turn with me for a moment to Ephesians 1: Look at the content of Paul prayer for believers there. He says, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints Paul doesn t pray for them to be obedient; he prays they might have a deeper and clearer understanding of Christ and the hope to which He has called them. What if we individually and as a church modeled our prayers after Paul s prayer, and instead of just praying for good health and for new jobs we prayed for God to enlighten the eyes of our hearts that we might know Christ and all of His glory more clearly? Not only would our prayers be more biblical, but we might just see God answering our prayers by giving us a clearer vision of Christ, which in turn will enliven our affections for Him 4

5 and therefore enable us to abstain from the passions of the flesh because our strongest passion will be for Christ and His kingdom. Now all of that to say we have a significant part of play in Peter s old school method of evangelism. Our responsibility that Peter lays upon us here is to abstain from the passions of the flesh which implies the positive command to indulge the passions that come from the Holy Spirit. In other words, live godly lives. Walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. But now we need to turn to the second step of Peter s old school evangelism plan, which concerns how unbelievers will respond the godly living they see in us. So our second point concerns 2. Their response: glorifying God (v. 12) Look back in your Bibles with me at v. 12. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. When Peter says, Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable he s stating the positive of what he said negatively in v. 11. If we re abstaining from the passions of the flesh, then we ll be behaving in an honorable manner among the Gentiles, who are unbelievers. He then follows his instruction with a reason. He says, Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that (the reason) when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. The early Christians didn t always have a good reputation with the surrounding culture. We have various Roman documents accusing them of practicing murder, incest, and even cannibalism during their secret meetings, as well as accusing them of disturbing the cultural peace. As a result of this slander Christians were often regarded with suspicion and sometimes out-right hostility. That s what Peter has in mind when he says that they speak against you as evildoers. No matter where a Christian went, their negative reputation would have preceded them. Peter s solution to overcome this bad reputation was for Christians to demonstrate that the slanderous accusations against them were unsubstantiated by the quality of their daily lives. Peter says they should live honorable lives so that they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Rumor and hearsay is one thing, but it s another thing for an unbeliever to observe the daily obedience and love for Christ in the life of a believer. Actions speak louder than words, so the proverb goes. Rumors fall flat pretty quick when you have a living, breathing contradiction of that rumor who is a neighbor or a co-worker who consistently lives out a transformed, Spirit-filled life daily before their eyes. The result of living out this life of good deeds and abstaining from the passions of the flesh is that these unbelievers might glorify God on the day of visitation. In other words, when Christ returns, instead of cursing God and cowering in fear of His 5

6 righteous judgment, they will glorify God because they ve become believers. The testimony of the righteous deeds of Christians breaks down their resistance and helps open their hearts to the reality of the gospel. The quality of a life transformed from one of sin and selfishness to humble obedience to Christ can be a profound testimony to unbelievers who would otherwise just dismiss Christianity as just another religion. It s as St. Francis of Assisi famously said, Preach the gospel always; if necessary use words. The testimony of your daily life should always be communicating the truth of the life-transforming power of the gospel. We can t just proclaim the gospel and yet at the same time live in an immoral and dishonorable way. Unbelievers may be spiritually blind, but they haven t lost their ability to smell a hypocrite a long way off. The way we live our lives is a powerful witness to unbelievers of the reality of the power of Christ. But having said that, I want to make sure you understand that while the testimony of a life well lived is an important element in winning people to Christ, it s not the only thing. No matter how good and honorable our lives might be, we still need to proclaim the message of the gospel with words. Paul says in Romans 10, For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? You need to preach the gospel with words as well as preach it with actions. While I like the St. Francis quote, we need to be careful not to use it as an excuse for silence. To say, Preach the gospel always; if necessary, use words is a bit like saying, Sing always; if necessary use your voice. Using your voice is assumed in the act of singing; so also is using your voice assumed in the act of proclaiming the gospel. To proclaim the gospel without words is to be ineffective and to proclaim the gospel without good works is to be hypocritical. To be effective evangelists, we need to have both. So let me ask: what does your life communicate to others about the gospel? If we re to live such good and honorable lives before the unbelievers that they glorify God on the day He comes to visit us, how effective are you at lifestyle evangelism? Last week Dave Shakey stopped by the office told me about a fellow he works with who attends a church in the area but who swears up a storm at work. How can this fellow possibly be a witness to unbelievers at his job when they hear him cursing throughout the week? Quite simply, he can t. We can qualify that as an epic fail to do what Peter instructs us to do here in v But of course this isn t just about our words; it s about our whole lives. What does your attitude at work communicate to your co-workers about the gospel? Does the way you treat your spouse give any indication of the transforming work of Christ in your family? How do your peers at school see your faith being lived out when faced with temptation and peer pressure? Does what you spend your money on, the television shows you watch, the way you treat those who disagree with you, the kind of clothing you wear, the web sites you view are they good and honorable and make Christ attractive to unbelievers or does your life cause them to just scoff at you and call you a hypocrite? 6

7 See, here s the real problem with Peter s old school evangelism strategy: it demands our whole life. Everything from every one of us. Peter s evangelistic strategy doesn t allow us to leave the task of evangelism to the pastor or to some committee that we can pass the buck off to. It s not a program we can advertise with nice flyers or an event we hold twice a year to get unbelievers in the church doors and then feel good about ourselves. Peter s evangelism strategy is that Christians you and I would abstain from sinful desires and live such honorable lives before an unbelieving world that when you finally open your mouth to tell them about Christ they will be more than ready to listen because they ve repeatedly witnessed the transforming power of Christ in your speech, in your job, in how you treat your spouse and children, in what you spend your money on, and in every other facet of your life. And as far as you do that in how you live your daily life before an unbelieving world, you either help or hinder the cause of evangelism here at Grace Brethren Church. The early church didn t have gospel tracts, or Evangelism Explosion, or horse and pony shows in their church parking lot to win the lost to Christ. They had the message of the gospel, proclaimed in words and lived out in the vivid color of their daily lives before their watching friends and neighbors. And somehow that particular old school evangelistic strategy transformed the Roman world with the gospel. Dare I go out on a limb here and say this method might, it just might, still be effective in our world today. Do you desire to see the lost come to Christ? Do you want to see new Christians here at Grace Brethren Church? Then first love Christ above all else. Cultivate your heart s passion for Him and His will for your life. Evangelism starts there. Then when your affections are full of a desire for Christ, then you have the power to go and abstain from your sinful, self-centered desires. Go and love your wife or your husband deeply and sacrificially. Be a man of integrity at your job. Be a woman who finds her beauty in a humble, godly character. Be a teenager who is willing to answer the ridicule of your peers with gentle words. Show the world by your words and deeds that Christ is not simply someone you worship for an hour on Sunday morning but that He is your treasured and precious Lord over every aspect of your life. Do this so the lost might see your good works and one day glorify God because they couldn t help but ask you to tell them what it is that makes your life so different than everyone else they know. Conclusion Peter s old school evangelism strategy is not a gimmick and not a marketing ploy; it is the biblical mandate to reach the lost with the gospel. Peter s old school evangelism strategy will not cost you any money for tracks or seminars; it will cost you your whole life, lived in daily joyful obedient submission to Christ. Peter s old school evangelism strategy isn t accomplished through programs and committees; it s accomplished by each one of us abstaining from sinful desires and living good and honorable lives before the unbelievers God has placed into our lives. Peter s old school evangelism strategy is for us you and I to do; now let s get about the task of getting it done. Let s pray. This sermon was addressed originally to the people at Grace Brethren Church of Waterloo, IA by Pastor Rob Borkowitz. Copyright