Hello, the following recording is from a Sunday School class taught at Crossroads Bible Church in the fall of 2022. We are using for this class a study guide book called Reaching the Lost Evangelism that's put out by Crossway Books and Nine Marks Ministry. And so I'd highly encourage you to check out both crossway.org and 9marks.org, that's the number 9marks.org for other helpful resources as well as this study guide. As always with the Sunday school class, when we record it, we won't always pick up all the discussion that happens among the students, but we hope this will be for the benefit of the members of our church who are not able to attend the Sunday school class but still want to get the content and others, friends and distant people. that we want to try to serve. So may God bless you, and I hope you benefit and are edified from this conversation. And the goal here is to just broaden our vision of who God's put in our lives. Sometimes we think, you know, well, I don't know who I'd share the gospel with, because, you know, everybody I know is Christians. I can use that excuse a lot, because the people I interact with on a daily basis are people from the church. but it doesn't take long for me to start to think about who else is in my life and pretty soon I can realize there's actually a lot of people in my life. Some of them I don't have much of a relationship with, but this is about drawing some awareness. So any thoughts or comments as you do that exercise? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. That's a good point, Nathan. Yeah. As a matter of fact, like, the people that you're in your house, right? You have a wife and you guys are You know, the odds that you're going to be trying to convert Ebony, there's no use there, right? She already loves Jesus, and so how you evangelize her and share the gospel with her looks different, but it's nonetheless significant. And part of the danger that we'll see is I think we can be tempted to say we need to jump to a far circle, because that's where the work seems easier. It might be easier for me to share the gospel with, you know, my great aunt Judy who lives in Wisconsin, because, you know, it's less, maybe I can write her a letter, which would be a great thing to do, and share the gospel with her. That's an option, but we want to also remember there's people that are right next door that we don't want to neglect. So, and I encourage you guys, like I said, we'll use this again, so you can meditate on this, keep this in your little booklet, and we're gonna come back to this, we're gonna work through this concentric circle exercise for a number of weeks, just in little snippets. But I wanna shift to our lesson for today, and we'll start with a discussion question. I think that everybody would probably say they should evangelize more. I think that's common Christian lingo. I need to pray more. I need to read the scripture more. I need to evangelize more. That's how we usually talk about these sorts of things. And though usually we should probably be quick to say, remember that God is fully satisfied with you in Christ, not that you somehow have managed to perform all your Christian duties today. So we wanna keep that gospel reality in our forefront. And yet at the same time, there's a yearning in us that says, I know that I could be living out my Christian faith in ways that I'm not. And so we wanna encourage that. So the question they ask here, and this is question number two, it's on page 17, is what do you think it would take to motivate you to evangelize more? I think sometimes just Just remembering that we need people inside of our circle. It doesn't, you know, again, I think it's less about being formal, but just being reminded that we are Christ's salt and light out there. Yeah. Sometimes... A lot of times it's easy to go about not just coming, like, out of the store to go for something. Yeah. The word that we all kind of cringe at, which is awareness. We're trying to raise awareness. Why do we need to be more aware? But there is a sense in which when you are more aware of the need of people and who's around you, then all of a sudden, you find more motivation. How about crisis? I think crisis can motivate us to evangelize more. Somebody that you're close to, a friend or a family member, finds out they have a week to live, and you're not sure they know or understand the gospel, I'm pretty sure that the motivation, the concern is going to rise really quickly in that situation, where you go, oh boy, I need to say something. Right? A lot of crises. So, what else might motivate you to evangelize more? Well, I think you hit on something there. If somebody, whether it be a crisis or a need or whatever, once they are convicted by the Holy Spirit, then if this is brought forth, if I understand that they are in crisis of some sort, then it's quite easy for me to move forward. But to go in cold turkey, you really don't know It kind of helps for both sides, doesn't it? Yeah. And so people that are asking, maybe by example, why is it that you're so content? Then you have a stepping stone to start. And so unless that happens, I think any time somebody dies, there's always the, oh, I'm sure they went to heaven kind of stuff, which kind of opens up the door for, you know, not to say no they didn't, but just, you know, they're more receptive to actually thinking about those things, people around them. Yeah, I mean Ecclesiastes 7 says it's better to go to the house of mourning because this is the end of all mankind and the living lay it to heart. I try to read that at every funeral where I'm allowed to because the whole point is, hey, we are the living. We are supposed to look at this dead person and we're supposed to take this to heart. It can be a great motivation. So let's look at some biblical motivations as well. These are all very practical, and the Bible actually gives us lots of reasons. We're gonna get just two of them today, and then we'll do the other three probably next week, unless we just blitz through this, but we're generally gonna take two weeks per lesson. So, this week will be lots of why we should evangelize. So let's read, and again, all these passages are printed in your little notebook, so you can turn there if you want, but the passages are in your notebook. Matthew 28, 19, and 20. Would somebody read that, please? So what would be our motivation there for evangelism? It's a command. There's obedience. I think last week, the last lesson we really focused on, evangelism is for everybody. We're all called and commissioned, and we read this passage, right, to preach the good news, to tell people the gospel, to call them to believe. And at some point, like we start here, this is what Christ has commanded us. And remember what he told us to do when we make disciples is to teach them to observe all that I've commanded you. So the implication is, if he's commanded us to go make disciples, we're supposed to teach each other to go make disciples. So it's definitely commanded. So obedience. What's the danger of obedience being your only motivation for evangelism? You do it out of duty rather than love. You do it out of duty. Do people pick up on that? I think so. I think most people can see through an obligation. I don't think that that says you shouldn't evangelize until you just have a white, hot, burning passion full of love for people. I think sometimes duty is enough to get us started. But yeah, we wanna push further than that. We wanna push further than that. All right, so that's the example that Paul lays out here in 1 Corinthians 10. Would somebody read 1 Corinthians 10, 32 through 11, one? Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the Church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. Yeah, does that sound like duty to you? Paul's example that he sets out. Definitely, of course, we remember, hopefully, from 1 Corinthians 10, it's not, it's love, right? That's what his whole basis is. Knowledge puffs up back from chapter 8, but love builds up. This is what love looks like. It's to do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. So obedience is great. Let's keep that and not just say, well, you know, we don't wanna be legalists. Well, legalists are the ones that make up their own rules. The rules that God makes up, that's not legalism, that's obedience, that's joyful obedience. But let's dig a little bit deeper into our hearts. And so there are several other motivations, and we're going to look at at least one more today. Someone read there on the next page, on page 18. This is from Romans 9. And remember, Paul here is writing about the Jewish people. Would somebody read these passages from Romans 9 and 10? So it's 9.1 through 3 in 10.1. I am speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from the Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. And the next one. Yeah, read the next one too, please. Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them, that is, the Israelites, is that they may be saved. So think about this in verse two of chapter nine. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. What's the source of that sorrow and anguish? Yeah, that they would be saved, which I guess is coupled with the anguish that they're not, right? There's a strong desire, we might say, that they would be saved, but the sorrow and anguish is that the Jewish people are not Paul's kinsmen according to the flesh. Yeah. He kind of lays it out, the status of their souls. So what is Paul's, what is he willing to do? Like how does, how deep is this anguish? According to verse three, what's he willing to do to see them saved? Cut himself off from Christ. Give up his own salvation? It's pretty bold. Paul's not saying you can do this. He's just saying I wish if I could I would perhaps give up my own salvation for the sake of others being saved. That's a pretty bold statement. That is a pretty bold, but it definitely captures the sorrow in his heart. So I just picked up a book the other day, because I was reading a book, and I kept quoting this book, and I was like, I'd just rather read the original. And the book is called The Broken-Hearted Evangelist. And it doesn't take long to read the back to know what the whole goal of this book is to get me to where Paul is when I think about the lost people in the world around me, especially those nearby. I don't think that, I don't think we'll ever really be joyfully evangelizing and lovingly evangelizing until we have real concern for people's souls. And so, what does, now based on Romans 10.1, this is question two under this little section, what do we learn from, and what we learn from the rest of the New Testament, what does Paul's concern for his fellow Jews motivate him to do? So what does Paul do about his concern, his anguish and sorrow? Oh, go ahead, Eric. I think if you go look at those passages that it references, Paul often goes to the synagogues. That's one place he goes. Yeah, and tells them. Here's the gospel. As you say, it educates them. Let me tell you what's true. Yeah, and that's Romans 10.1, right? It's my heart's desire and prayer to God for them. So, part of what we do for the lost people in the world, and this is something we'll spend quite a bit of time on at different times in our study, is prayer. Praying for the lost. Yeah, Eric? Another thing he talks about that a lot of people don't really take into consideration, but I've heard you talk about, Single people are not to be shamed or shunned or thought of as lower, when in fact it's kind of put in a way that if you can maintain sexual purity by not having to have a wife, you're not a step above, but you're a step in the right direction. So Paul talks about, and don't be ashamed or shunned by the people that are married and say something's wrong with you because you're not married. Yeah, and in a simple way, I mean, not just in that situation, but in others, Paul's encouragement is leverage your situation for the sake of spreading the gospel. That's his whole argument in 1 Corinthians 7 is, just frankly, you have more time if you're single to do the work of the Lord. You don't have all these other worries. And that can be said about any life circumstance. And that's something we'll talk a lot about is how do you leverage where God has put you to spread the gospel. So we wanna pray. We have a great concern and unceasing anguish in our heart for those who are lost. We want to pray and we want to tell. So we'll get more into prayer, but let's talk about question four. What are some practical ways, or sorry, we should say this, what motive for evangelism does this text give us? Let's just make sure we got that really clear. We've got motivation of obedience. What would you add here for Romans 9 and 10? What's motivation for evangelism? Love for your fellow man. Yeah. Love of others. I heard empathy. We could also say sympathy. Love for others. Concern for the lost. I think in the book, if you go to the next page, it'll say the love for others. So that's good. Or page 20. That's how they list it. So then, like, when asked, Edna, whether or not duty, if sharing the evangelism is not a duty, like, what's the danger? You said, well, it's not very loving, and people will pick up on that, right? So there's, if we couple obedience with genuine love, that's really when, we are living in holiness. Holiness is obedience that arises out of love. And so to share the gospel with somebody because we love them, we have a genuine concern for them, we're both obeying Christ, but we're doing it in a way that's genuine in love. So what are some practical ways then that you can grow in cultivating and expressing love for non-Christians? How do you do this? How do you grow in love for non-Christians? Go ahead, Eric. Yeah, there's sort of a balance of loving your neighbor as yourself. You must have some sort of love for yourself. You must be a loving person in general. How else do you cultivate love for non-Christians? Yeah, get to know people. What were you going to say, Leslie? to look outside yourself so you can pray for that. It's going to be you that generates this huge amount of passion within a lot of souls. It's got to come from God. Yeah, and oftentimes when you sit there and you pray for people, how can your heart not be warmed towards them, right? So yeah, you're praying for people. God's going to produce a new love. There's the aspect of just recognizing that you were in the same position that they're in. It's sort of a gospel-centered empathy that says, I was once lost in sin too. So I think that's a healthy thing as we look at all the evils of the world. I was thinking about, you know, oftentimes the message we get is, let me tell you how bad things are so that you can be angry about it with me. That's sort of the message a lot of, I was watching a news clip yesterday. I don't know if it was NBC or something, and that was the tone. The tone was, let me show you something really bad so that you too can be angry like you should be about this. And I thought, that's not just NBC, that's Christian blogs do the same thing, right? Let me tell you what's awful with this situation so that you can go get riled up. Some people like preaching that's like that. Let me tell you how bad things are so we can all walk out of here going, yeah, things really are awful. You know, that's a good way to rally the troops, maybe. I'm not sure that's what Christ meant. Yeah, sometimes we do that, right? Let's remind ourselves how condemned everyone is so we can feel a lot better about ourselves being saved. We aren't really cultivating there a genuine compassion for others that says, I was lost too, and Christ found me, and therefore I want to see my fellow man. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, so you know, we know verse 17, therefore if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. Right, verse 16 says, therefore I no longer regard anyone according to the flesh. Even though I once regarded Christ according to the flesh, I regard him thus no longer. And so Paul's logic there is, now that I see Christ as he is, I see people entirely differently. And then of course his command is, go and be an ambassador of reconciliation. So that's really good. He refers to the people he's writing to, the Christians he's writing to, as brothers. But then in Romans 9, he says that he wishes he could cut himself off for the sake of his brothers. So there's still that relationship he has. We're all brothers in that sense. Yeah, that's really good. So we've got some good practicals, and we'll keep pressing into those. Let's go ahead and read John 15 and go into the next motivation. So we're looking for another motivation for evangelism. Would someone read John 15, 8 through 11? By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and to prove to be my disciples. And as the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I've kept my Father's commandments and abide in this love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. Excellent. So what are the results of our bearing much fruit? Through obeying Jesus's commands. Joy, that's good. Joy, maybe full, full joy. Abiding in God's love, good. Yeah, verse eight, by this my father is glorified, bearing fruit. And then, of course, in verse eight as well, you prove to be my disciples. So, of course, that's a tension that you can have because, you know, sometimes you say, well, if I look at my life, I don't know if I see any fruit that proves that I'm a disciple. That can be very discouraging. It also can be encouraging to say, you know what, I see, I've been obeying God, I'm seeing myself cultivate a love for others, this is proof that the Holy Spirit is inside of me. So I think that those sort of boil down to another great motivation, and again, we're going to peg this very simply as a desire to glorify God, because when we glorify God, we find full joy. And so, how does evangelism, in particular, bring glory to God? Yeah, go ahead. Oh, go ahead, Tim. Yeah, we're announcing this good news of what God has done. I mean, that's part of how we glorify as we tell about what God has done. What were you going to say, Eric? If you reap what you sow, and you're sowing seeds, you're watching them grow sometimes. Sometimes you're not watching them grow, but you get a joy out of watching seeds grow, knowing that you're planting seeds that will grow. The fruit bears, the tree grows, the fruit bears, and you can partake in that in a way that's spiritual. And it really fulfills not only an inner purpose, but an outer purpose. And you can do that through the church, Specifically, but you can do it outside of the church as well. You can lead by example. You don't have to be a door knocker necessarily. You can be someone that leads by example. You can lead tracts around. There's so many different ways to do the Christian thing. And I like this system. I call it the system, the Christian system, because it's simplified. It's very foundational. It's a positive thing. And it's foundational. It's so simple that people try to complicate it, try to make it complex. And there's an interesting cycle to this, that as you tell people the gospel, right, which brings glory to God, that often times then you can sit back and realize, like, wow, I did something in obedience to God, and out of love for my neighbor. And that produces oftentimes joy in your heart that then you return in glory, thanksgiving to God. And so it's amazing how God has designed obedience to Him to produce in us not just the attitude of, oh good, I finally checked that box off, but it actually is designed to produce in us a joy that then gives thanks back to God. Yeah, it's very circular. And so that's why, you know, we connect these dots here in John 15 between the Father being glorified by us bearing fruit because that produces joy. And so you can see sort of in here on page 19, he even says those are the two motivations to evangelize, to glorify God and to have joy in Christ made full. by obeying his commands. I wanna wrap it up here, because we have just a couple minutes left, with a thought, though, because I think we have to be careful, and we'll continue through this chapter next time, but we have to ask a really critical question when it comes to being joyful, oh, thank you, Eric. Being joyful and glorifying God, and I think of it like this, what's the scorecard? How do we know we've glorified God? How do we know we've obeyed Him? Because when John says, or Jesus says here in John, we gotta bear fruit. What is fruit in evangelism? And I'd be curious to hear what your thoughts are. What's fruit? If we're gonna glorify God by bearing fruit, what's the fruit? to become believers. That's part of it, right? Yeah, but you've got to be a little careful here because a person can become prideful in this event. Look at me, I have just made a Christian. You've got to check yourself. Yeah, we could do, like, you know, I don't know what the modern equivalent is, you know, the notch on your belt type of thing, but the modern equivalent, I think, is the sticker on your football helmet. If you're watching college football, right, you got all these stickers for all the accomplishments. We can get prideful. The other side of that, though, Tim, is if bearing fruit is seeing people converted, what if nobody's ever converted? Does that mean that you haven't borne fruit and you haven't glorified God? I'm seeing some shaking heads. So what then would bearing fruit be even if you aren't successful? Well, I shouldn't say successful. According to God's will. And then it's, you know, the person that you're preaching the gospel to has a responsibility here too. And if they continue to be lost, I mean, there's not a lot you can do as a human being. They're lost. Pray for them. Yeah, this is important for us to get straight, and we're going to talk about it a lot, so just for today, you can kind of think this in your mind, is that faithfulness is fruitfulness. We believe, but God is the one who has to bear the fruit. People are converted not because we manage to muster up the courage to tell people, but because God works through the preaching of the gospel to make people alive. And so though we don't want to neglect fruitfulness, we should long for people to come to Christ. And when we see it, we should give God glory and have great joy. But... That's not the only measure of fruitfulness. I'm gonna read something. I was in a discussion this week in a class, and one of the gals in the class is a missionary or works with Campus Crusade. They're now called CRU. And she shared this, and I thought this was really helpful. This is CRU's definition for successful evangelism. Here's what it is. It's taking the initiative to share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God. So notice the definition that they use is the fruit is not the number of converts. The fruit is taking initiative. And that's like you said, Eric, you don't necessarily have to be a doorknocker, although doorknocking's great. You don't have to be a street preacher. Street preaching's great. You don't have to be someone that puts tracks on park benches or on picnic tables or on restaurant tables, though that's great. The key to fruitfulness here is obedience. It's just, as they say, taking the initiative. Did you do something in obedience to God? So faithfulness is fruitfulness. We're gonna unpack that concept a lot. It's 9.30, so I'm gonna wrap us up in prayer. You guys can continue to visit, and as always, if you want to pray a little bit before the service with me, you're welcome to join me in a study for a few minutes of prayer. So let's go ahead and give our time to the Lord, and we'll come back to this. So bring your, don't lose this concentric circle thing. Bring it back, and we'll keep working through that in future weeks too, so. God, thank you for the command to tell people the good news of Christ, and to call them to believe. Thank you for the command to go and make disciples, and that you are glorified through our obedience, that you give us joy, and that you produce love for us. I do pray that you would start, as we've sort of said, start making us more aware of the people who are around us, who you've put in our lives. You've put them exactly where they are and when they are, so that they should seek you, and we wanna be a part of that. So God, help us to be aware of who's in our lives and also to grow in our love and concern for them. I ask this in Jesus' name, amen? Amen. Class dismissed.