“The Church As Evangelist”

A Sermon Based Upon Acts 8: 25-40

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin. 

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

3^nd Sunday After Pentecost,  June 14^th, 2015

So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?"  He replied, "How can I, unless someone guides me?"  (NRS Acts 8:30-31).

George Carlin the late comedian once said “Religion is like a pair of shoes.....Find one that fits for you, but don't make me wear your shoes.”

Evangelism is a scary or even a ‘dirty word’ among some.   It conjures up images of Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses or even Baptists, going door to door trying to shove religion down the throats of people who are not the least bit interested.   While many in increasingly secular world still have respect for some religion;  that goes only as far as they keep it to themselves.   

Can the church ‘rescue’ biblical evangelism from the negative impressions so many people have about it, in and outside the church?   I believe that we can, and I also believe that we must?  But how?  How can we bear witness to the gospel in a world that is increasingly secular and non-religious?  Perhaps we can take our cue from today’s text in Acts, where Luke gives the first close-up view of one of the very first evangelists.     

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

As we begin to examine this story, let’s try to answer a very important question about what evangelism means and why we should be evangelistic in the first places.   Philip is among the very first to take the gospel away from Jerusalem and take the gospel on the road, so to speak--north to Samaria (8.5), and then down south on the ‘wilderness road’ that leads to Gaza (8.26).  An evangelist is exactly this kind a person; a person who takes the gospel ‘on the road’ away from the church and out onto the streets of life and into the world.

Seeing an evangelist in action is how we best learn what evangelism means.    As we watch this first evangelist in action taking the message of the gospel ‘on the road’ away from Jerusalem reminds me of something I heard from a speaker, who made the observation that “If the church had only remained a Bible study in Jerusalem, we would not be here today (Robby Gallty, 2015).  What was true then is just as true now.  The gospel is a living truth that must be lived, told, shared, and given away.   Just like any beautiful flower or life-giving vegetable plant in the garden, the gospel must be constantly plucked or picked or its beautiful life-giving quality dries up.   Without the practice of a healthy evangelism, a church will also find itself dead on the vine.

The word ‘evangelist’ (which Philip is officially called in 21:8) generically means someone who shares the message of good news about Jesus.   But more specifically, to be an evangelist also means that you explain what the good news about Jesus means.   This is exactly what Philip does.   This Ethiopian Eunuch (26-40) was reading the Scripture, but had no understanding until the reading in the Bible was explained to him.   Without an evangelist, people can read the truth in the Bible, but they will not get to truth of the Bible unless somebody explains it to them.    

      

RE-IMAGINING LIFE  

The good news we Christians have to explain comes from the truth about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.   In other words, the work of an evangelist (2 Tim. 4.5) is to explain what God has done through Jesus that God has done in no one else (Acts 4.12).   That’s exactly what happens in this story, isn’t it?   After Philip heard the Eunuch reading his Bible aloud, he approached him and asked him, “Do you know what you are reading?”     It was then, that the Eunuch responded,  “How can I unless someone guides me? (31).   This is the kind of intentional, personal dialogue that opens the door for the message of the gospel to be communicated, but    since people are seldom found reading their Bible’s in their chariots these days, let’s first consider the broader question of why the church is to be evangelistic.  

Old Testament scholar, Walter Bruggeman, who has been called a ‘prophet’ by those who hear him, can help us zoom in on it.   In one of his prolific writings, he offers a very interesting definition of evangelism as “the invitation to re-imagine our lives” in the story of the Bible, especially in the story of Jesus.   Isn’t that exactly what Philip helps this Ethiopian Eunuch to do---to reimagine what his life means in light of discovering who Jesus is?  Bruggeman goes on to suggest that an ‘evangelist’ is the person or the people who do the very creative work of trying to alter people’s perception of the world, how they view their neighbor and how they see themselves so they will be determined to live differently in the world."  (Biblical Perspectives on Evangelism,  Abingdon Press, 1993, pp. 10; 125). 

Do people around us still need to have their perceptions altered or reimagined?    Of course they do.  Every day in the papers, in the news, and online, we hear and read of people who have some of the wildest, craziest, and even most dangerous perceptions of reality.   These ‘wild and crazy’ perceptions aren’t just restricted to radical Muslims either.   I never forget hearing a Christian woman share about having a vision from God who spoke to her through “pink-dolphins dancing on power lines”!   Of course some of the strange perceptions people have are ‘harmless’, but others can be harmful and dangerous.  Ever wonder what goes on the mind of a person who kills themselves or someone else?  It not the kind of thing you like to think about?   Ever wonder what goes on the mind of a politician or any person who will do anything for money or power?  Ever wonder what goes on in the mind of a person who will hate someone for the rest of their lives, even when the person tries to apologize?  At some time or another all of us need our perceptions challenged or changed.

Many of you heard or saw the movie about Chris Kyle, the American Sniper who was tragically killed by another an ex-soldier he had taken to a shooting range.  Kyle was trying to help that young man overcome the post-traumatic stress of warfare.  When the trial of Eddie Ray Routh was starting up,  police videos revealed images of a mentally ill man, going in and out of delusionary states, which some say proves Routh knew ‘right from wrong’ when he fatally shot Chris Kyle and his friend, Chad Littlefield.  The videos fueled even more speculations about what what was really going on in Routh’s mind and why he murdered Kyle and Littlefield, who were only trying to help him.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Kyle.    

While we may never know what happens inside of a deranged mind like Eddie Routh, what is of even more value is to try to answer what goes on in the mind of people like Chris Kyle or Chad Littlefield, who are willing to put their own lives at risk to reach out and help a fellow human being who is hurting mentally, emotionally, financially, or spiritually.  What really wonders me is not the evil in the world, but the good people do that is beyond comprehension.  What makes people care enough to dare to do the risky, dangerous, and uncertain work of love and compassion for people they don’t even know?  Like that young girl, Kayla Mueller, who went to Syria to help refugees as an Aid Worker and got herself captured and killed by Isis?  What goes on in a mind or a soul like that?  Time Magazine said that it while many  millennials would like to create multi-million dollar app or record a block-buster song, or start in a movie or be a winner in sports, all Kayla wanted to do was end bring hope and suffering.   It would do the world a lot of good if they would make a role model out of her. http://time.com/3705013/kayla-muller-millennials-role-model/.     Wouldn’t you rather live in a world of ‘crazies’ like that, than to live in a world where everyone wants to be sensible, careful, get big or rich, or just get by or play safe with their life? 

Several years ago, there was quite a ‘strange’ discussion among Baptists about whether or not God hears the prayers of Jews.   Today it sounds crazy that someone would even dare suggest they know what God does and doesn’t do?   Anyway, one day, while the discussion was going on in the newspapers,  I read an very interesting statement from a Jew who lived in the United States, maybe in the south, who once had escaped the death camps of Nazi Germany.  He said that where he lived now, in the deep South, his Southern Baptist neighbors were always trying to convert him because they believed he was going to hell.   “How does that make you feel?” the news reporter asked him?   “How do you like living around people who are always trying to get you converted because they think you’re going to hell”?   He answered: “It’s a lot better than living around people trying to kill you and send you there!”     

That Jewish fellow was on to something.   He’s on to the difference that a truly evangelistic church can make in the world.   The difference between people who would try to ‘convert’ each other or those who die to ‘kill’ each other is the difference obeying Holy Spirit can make.  It is the Spirit of God that Philip was obeying (v. 29) when he left Jerusalem to risk going into Samaria and down to Gaza to share the gospel.   People who are evangelistic are those who obey this Spirit--- who is true compassion, who is true grace,  and who is the Spirit of the goodness of Jesus Christ.   This is the ‘spirit’ that still moves obedient and willing people out of their comfort zones to take the risk that is necessary to take the gospel out on the streets of life so that people can re-imagine what life can be and who they can be, if they too obey this same Spirit.    

GETTING PERSONAL

What would the world be like, if no one obeyed this Spirit?   Aren’t evangelist those who obey the Spirit to go out on the road to explain why Jesus means everything and to also explain why we are ready to go anywhere and to go to anyone to take this message of God’s love and compassion.  

But how do we take it on the road in our world, to explain Jesus to anyone or anywhere, especially when our ‘anywhere’ has become less favorable toward evangelism or the gospel?    Isn’t this what frightens most would-be evangelists because we fear what others might think or ask of us?  Besides, how do we share the gospel in a world that is increasingly more secular, post-Christian, or sometimes even hostile toward our faith in Jesus Christ? 

 

Recently I read about a Texas truck driver who was fired for listing “Jesus” as his co-pilot on his official log book.  He said that it was his custom to do this with his other employer, but now his new employer has fired him for doing it.   The driver protested his firing by calling upon other truck drivers to stand with him, by standing up for their rights to share their faith. While I’m certainly not questioning the sincere commitment of that truck driver, if you take that kind of stand you will also have to deal with the rights of an employer to demand that legal documents remain legal.   Even the truck-driver admitted afterward that he would have kept his faith more personal, if he had known he’d be fired. (http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/13/texas-truck-driver-claims-he-was-fired-for-writing-this-word-in-his-logbook-and-now-he-wants-other-drivers-to-stand-up-for-their-faith/).

It amazes me how desperately the early church respected the rights of others and did not to break the civil, secular or social laws or customs when they shared their faith.   (Rom 13: 1-8).   We also see this kind of wisdom when we observe how Philip did not just following the Spirit to, but he also waited on the Spirit to tell him when to speak and what to say.   Do you see how Philip waits upon the Spirit to open up the conversation?   Only after he saw the Eunuch reading the Bible and after the Eunuch asked the right questions, did Philip ‘then’ (v. 35) share Jesus (vs. 35)?  Today, we need to follow the leadings of the Holy Spirit more than ever.  We need to be like Philip in knowing when is the time right and what is the right way.  If we can learn anything from Philip’s example, it is that when the Spirit is leading and if we are obeying, we can also trust that the Spirit will provide the right occasion and opportunity;  but we must still follow and not get ahead of the Spirit.

Iran born, ex- Mulism, and now Texas Baptist pastor, Afshin Ziafat, tells how BJ Higgans was a young man who accepted Christ at age 8 and wanted to share with everyone about his new found faith.   BJ was so bold in his witness, that as a child, his teacher had to warn him and his parents also had to ask him to try to be a little more careful in how he shared his faith.   In his early teen years, BJ went on his first mission trip to Peru, but really wanted to go to North Africa, especially to Morocco and there to one day be a missionary.   He told his older sister that he wanted her to go to Morocco with him so they could tell others about Jesus.   But at age 15, BJ contracted a rare disease and after a six-month battle, BJ died and went to be with the Lord.     

BJ left a diary, which he wrote about his thoughts and hopes when he was only 13 years old.   In that diary BJ wrote with incredible wisdom about the events of the world and how Christians need to get out of their comfort zones and share the love of Jesus more now than ever before.  After he died, his parents, Brent and Diana Higgins, felt that the diary needed to be published and put it in a book entitled, “If I Could Die For You”.   In that book they address the issue of why God would allow a young boy to die and be unable to answer his call to the mission field.  Why?

In the book the answer that comes, is revealed after BJ died, and his parents and older sister take BJ’s ashes of to Morocco, to scatter them on a hill overlooking a Muslim village.  The guide who took them to the top of that hill keep on asking them why they would do such a thing, and they told him BJ’s story of how he wanted to share the gospel with the people and this why they would bury his ashes on this hill.   Then, they prayed for that village and then came home.  Only later did they find out that the guide who took them to the top of that village was so moved by the story of the spreading of that young man’s ashes, that he gave his life to Christ and is today the leader of the underground church in that Moroccan village. 

Later on BJ’s dad went to the Sudan on a mission trip and is still carrying with him BJ’s Bible that BJ never got to take to Africa.  On a bus one day,  a poor Sudanese preacher who speaks English, tells BJ’s Dad that he doesn’t have a Bible.  Instead of getting a Bible for him,  BJ’s Dad, gave that Sudanese preacher BJ’s Bible and now that Bible is being used by a Sudanese pastor to preach the gospel in North Africa. http://thevillagechurch.net/resources/sermons/detail/jonah-gods-heart-of-compassion/.

I tell you this story because many people would not be caught ‘dead’ sharing their faith. But a young 15 year old would have.   He died, but his witness is still alive,  years after he died.   I know that I would much rather be a witness in my life than in my death, wouldn’t you?   But sadly, but many Christians are very much alive, but their witness and evangelistic energy is very much dead?  Jesus has given us life, not just once but twice, so why aren’t we following his Spirit?  We can trust that the Spirit has given us life for a reason and that reason is a reason that one day can outlive us, if we will now decide to be alive in our witness for him.   Amen.