Finding our Voice: Or, Are Presbyterians Supposed to be Evangelistic? # 2 Not Ashamed 11 Timothy 1: 3-14 Romans 10: 5-17 Early in his letter to the church at Rome, Paul declared that he was not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes (1:16). Similarly, he counseled his friend Timothy not to be ashamed to testify about the Lord Jesus who had saved them and called them to a holy life out of his own great purpose and grace. I am not ashamed, Paul wrote, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day. The background to Paul s words about not being ashamed lies in the fact that he was in prison. He was a man under condemnation because of his loyalty to Jesus Christ, and was suffering accordingly for his beliefs. In the ancient world, imprisonment, for whatever reason, would have been cause for the deep shame, in the same way Jesus being crucified on a cross as a criminal was regarded as the ultimate humiliation. Yet Paul looked upon his imprisonment, not as a dishonor but an opportunity, as he would tell the Philippians, for sharing in the sufferings of Christ and for bearing witness to his Saviour even to the Roman centurions who stood guard over him. But then we need to remember that the gospel was, in many ways, a gospel of shame, embarrassment and folly, at least as the unbelieving world saw it. For it was all about a cross, a sacrifice, about suffering and rejection and humiliation. For a world accustomed to understanding power in terms of the grandeur, economic strength and militaristic might of Rome, the gospel declaration of Christ crucified was seen as a scandal and insult. Even for Jews, the idea of the mighty God coming in the weakness of human flesh and dying upon a cross so as to redeem frail, sinful, undeserving mankind, was simply too crazy too comprehend. Yet for Paul, this gospel was not a matter of shame, but of glory. Of its truth, promise and grace, he was not ashamed. It was nothing less than the power of God and wisdom of God. It was nothing less than the declaration that salvation rested in the name of Jesus who was crucified and raised from the dead and was affirmed as the son of God. That of which Paul was not ashamed was that the gracious love of God was so generous and extravagant, so self-giving and selfabasing for love s sake, that it would go to the most incredible length, suffer the most unbelievable rejection, endure the most hideous death, descend even to the grave and go to hell and back for the sake of winning the hearts and minds of men and women, and winning you and me, for heaven. The gospel is still the amazing hope about which you and I as believers have absolutely nothing to be ashamed. It is the glory, joy and hope for us and for this world. Yet when it comes to the topic of evangelism, how many of us experience a sense of being ashamed? We may not be ashamed of the gospel, but perhaps we have been ashamed, embarrassed and annoyed because of the ways we ve experienced,
seen or perhaps even done evangelism that did anything but honour the graciousness of Jesus, but rather served only to further turn off and alienate the very people we wanted to see drawn to the Lord? Last week, as I began this series, we explored some of the reasons why the very topic of evangelism may discomfort us, even though we may long for the courage, conviction, creativity and capacity to do just that. This morning, I want to focus upon what I hope will be three correctives to what is often a tragic misunderstanding about evangelism. Simply stated, they are: 1) evangelism is primarily about Jesus and only secondarily about the church; 2) evangelism is far more about helping people discover the inviting loveliness of Jesus than it is about pushing them to make some sort of coerced decision for Jesus, or to put it differently, it s more about immersion than conversion; and 3) evangelism has far more to do about praying and loving people into faith and a desire for more of Jesus than it does about our debating, convincing, haranguing, hassling or bullying people into our predetermined agendas or ideas about how they ought to believe, behave and attend. Let me expand these thoughts. First, evangelism is primarily about Jesus and only secondarily about the church. Evangelism is not about getting more people to join the church; it is about introducing people to Jesus and helping them discover the blessing of a relationship with him. Evangelism might sometimes begin with getting people to check out our church where connection with a body of believers leads to a connection with the One in whom we believe, but getting people into the church is never the end of evangelism. Evangelism is always all about Jesus. If the church is our focus, we end up treating it more as a sort of club than we do as a body of believers who are themselves working at growing in relationship with the Lord. Then the spotlight is only on an organization, a building, the activities we do, the friendships we enjoy and the ministries we undertake. All of that can be wonderful. Those relationships and ministries can nurture our knowledge of scripture, our appreciation for worship, our prayer life and our faith, but we can so easily let our focus on the church part of a Christian life get in the way of that primary emphasis on the God part of the relationship. Jesus matters more than the church. And isn t that a reason for great thanksgiving. One of my favourite cartoons is of the pastor leaning over the pulpit saying, You know, I ve been preaching for years about the life-changing grace of Jesus. Why do you still look like the same crusty old bunch of sinners? While I hope the church is full of people ready to give testimony that Jesus has changed their lives, that Jesus healing power has touched their hearts and continues to strengthen them, the happy news is that evangelism is not about how far you and I have come in walk as disciples. It is certainly not about our having to prove ourselves shining examples of holiness and
perfection. Praise God evangelism is not about me, or you, or us. As Paul said, I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able. Our witness is all about how far Jesus has gone to bring salvation, healing and hope to us. It s all about how deep the Father s love is for this world that he gave us Jesus. It s all about how great is the wonder of knowing Jesus and growing in him; and all about our hope and trust that he hasn t finished with us yet. Do you remember the old adage that the church is not a gallery for the exhibition of the saints; it is a hospital for sinners? Our focus and hope, our witness and power is all about the great physician, the great healer, the good shepherd, our loving Lord. Which leads to the second affirmation: evangelism is far more about helping people discover the inviting loveliness of Jesus than it is about pushing them to make a decision for Jesus. To put it differently, it s more about immersion than conversion. Now, let me hasten to say that I do not mean a decision for Jesus is unimportant; but the deep need in our faith journey is not that once upon a time we made one single decision for Jesus, but that each and every day we make that decision afresh. Let me put it this way: at around four in the afternoon on the 23 rd of August, 1975, a young lady named Janet Robertson and I found ourselves standing together at the front of a church in Kenora, Ontario. We nervously said our I do s to each other and we were pronounced as being husband and wife; but we ve spent every day since then fulfilling our vows and building and renewing our marriage. A wedding is a moment; a marriage is a lifetime. In the same way, a conversion moment is just that a moment, but a life with Christ continues for years and involves a lifetime of little conversions as we seek to keep following him, keep learning more about him, keep falling deeper in love with him and keep on allowing him to make us become more and more all that a true disciple should be. One of the great errors of the church is we have put far too much emphasis on evangelism as leading to a climactic moment of conversion and then believe our work is done, rather than understand evangelism as a process of introducing, leading, nurturing people in an ever deepening and growing relationship with Christ. Not only do we then tend to fail miserably at follow-up and the discipling of new believers, we put too much focus on getting people to say a certain set of words, pray a particular prayer or otherwise cross some magic line separating believer from non-believer thus making them one of the in crowd of Christians rather than one of the out crowd of pagans. Do you remember St. Paul s words about striving to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus had taken hold of him? Friends, don t ever forget that the foundation of our hope is not in that we made a decision for Christ, but that Christ first of all made a decision for us, and gave himself for us. Evangelism is always an ongoing process of discovery and appropriation of that good news of grace into our hearts and souls, our lives and our living, so that as much as I may evangelize, I always am in need of being evangelized. Tell me the old, old story, says the hymn; tell me the story often, because I forget so soon.
All of which goes to say that our sharing of the gospel, our being witnesses of faith in Christ, is about sharing our heart for Jesus, our journey of faith with others and planting the seeds of interest, curiosity, question, longing and desire to experience something of the hope, comfort and joy that we ve found in our relationship. Certainly, there are times when people make a dramatic and climactic decision for Christ; but far more often, it is a waking up one day to the realization that we have fallen in love with Jesus. We journey alongside of people we meet, people we call friends, not because we see them as a project to be accomplished belt-notch evangelism but because we want to open our lives to them and invite them into discovery and knowledge and love of who our Lord is for us, and who he wants to be for them. In the language of sociology, organizations are sometimes classed as open set, or closed set. Closed set is all about boundaries, and definitions as to whether one is in or out, belongs or does not belong. Closed set groups are all about the fine points that divide and distinguish in from out. In terms of churches, that means the emphasis is all about believing the right things, behaving the right way, doing what is necessary to prove that one is in. Open set organizations are focused on the what is at the centre, not the boundaries; about what unities, not what divides; about what draws us together not what isolates and separates. For churches that are truly healthy, that centre is Jesus, and what I like to think of as not just open set but growing set, what matters is that I m being more and more oriented towards Jesus and am being drawn closer and closer to him. What matters in evangelism is encouraging people to orient their lives towards him, to move from peripheral relationship to ever deeper and more intimate connection, to pursue him more fully and to more and more fully allow him to work the power of his grace and truth in their lives. Which leads to the third affirmation: evangelism has far more to do about praying and loving people into faith and a desire for more of Jesus than it does about our debating, convincing, haranguing, hassling or bullying people into our predetermined agendas or ideas about how they ought to believe, behave and attend. Again, that is not to say theology is unimportant, or that conforming our lifestyles to ways that honour Christ or being part of a worshipping body is not needful. But those elements of our Christian walk flow as the heart s response to Jesus love for us. We do not become good or do good so that God loves us, but rather because he has loved us so. If we want to lead someone to the Lord, pray for them. Pray relentlessly for them that they would open their hearts to Christ and that the Spirit would put the right people into their paths who may be able to bear a meaningful witness to their faith and hope. But here s what we need not do. We need not tell God how he is to orchestrate the conversion. We need not tell God who should or should not be the living signposts directing a heart to the Lord. It s not our job to determine the time frame in which God will lead a person to his arms nor is it our responsibility to decide when someone has or has not fallen sufficiently in love with Jesus as to be said to be his. All that work belongs to God and to God alone. Ours is to pray. And to love.
We often say that faith is caught more than it is taught, and it is true. Contagious Christians love people into the Kingdom with the open-hearted grace and patient acceptance of God. Truly evangelical Christians love folk where they find them and are prepared to love and bless them relentlessly and extravagantly for Christ s sake. Period. More hearts have been drawn into Christ s embrace because an ordinary person dared to love them unconditionally and unashamedly in Jesus name. How beautiful the feet of him who brings good news, Paul said, which means how beautiful it is when we dare to journey alongside another person s life, bearing in us, in the simplicity of our friendship, compassion, our readiness to share joys and sorrows and life, in our prayers and by our presence, the good news of that heavenly holy love that is waiting to be discovered and received. In Jesus name. Amen.