35 The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). 42 He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).
5 For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. 6 For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.
Last week we talked about Lifelong Discipleship Formation and Servant Leadership- the more we submit to Christ and Christ’s teaching, the more we want to do for our faith. Carol Finchum came in to speak to me about that sermon and shared her experience. Over the last few years Carol has really been dedicating herself to studying God’s word. She had been a Christian all her life but did not feel like she knew the Bible well. So she has been
listening to scripture on tape,
attending bible studies
and listening to podcasts.
She reads Jesus Calling and 365.org as well as other devotionals.
She has made discipleship formation a priority.
Now she is very excited to say, “I know that story” when a passage is read.
She referred to all this as fertilizer for her faith.
As Christ prunes her, she blooms as a servant. The closer Carol is to the Lord the more she wants to be a servant leader. In her words,
“The more I learn and grow the more I am able to teach and do.”
Today we are talking about the “E” Word- evangelism. In my years of ministry, this has been the hardest thing for Presbyterians to do.
What do you get when you cross a Jehovah’s Witness with a Presbyterian?
Answer: Someone who will ring doorbells but then, when someone answers, doesn’t know what to say. Does that sound familiar? We don’t know what to do with evangelism. Evangelism creates anxiety, fear or we think it is someone else’s job. Maybe we think those fire and brimstone preachers on the street corner, or those televangelists have ruined it for the rest of us. I learned this week that our own Pamela, while working in a boutique in Trump Tower in NYC sold thousands of dollars’ worth of designer clothes to Tammy Faye Bakker. Who knew? Evangelism gets tied up with the evangelists, and all the baggage that comes with them.
But this sermon is not going to be a traditional sermon, rather I want to start with you and how you feel about evangelism? Because I want us to sit with this idea of evangelism and what it means and how it makes us feel. When you hear the word evangelism how do you feel???
- You’re not alone, we are all in this together.
- It makes us uncomfortable
- We’d rather do just about anything else. (Tim rather go to the dentist.)
What is Evangelism? The Greek word εὐαγγέλιον means gospel or good news. The English definition is “the spreading of the Christian gospel by public preaching or personal witness.” But evangelism is more than preaching, it is the simple act of kindness, it is knowing who motivates us in our service, it is sharing love with our neighbor. Those we do all the time, but we just don’t call them evangelism. There are so many ways to show God’s love to others.
Do you know whose way I like? The fellow we met in our lesson from John’s gospel a moment ago…Andrew…the apostle with the missionary heart. Apparently, he had always been a religious man – up till now he had been a disciple of John the Baptist, another fire and brimstone preacher. But one day Andrew met Jesus…and Andrew was never the same again. Three times we find him on center stage in the Gospel record:
here, when he introduced his brother Simon to Christ;
in John 6, when he introduced the boy with the loaves and fishes to Jesus;
and in John 12, as he introduced some devout Greeks to the Savior.
Andrew was always introducing people to the Lord. We do not know very much about Andrew other than that, but that which we DO know is wonderfully attractive…and at the same time, a wonderful model for Christians who desperately need some help in doing “the `E’ word.” (Sermons.com) Helping with evangelism, all we are doing is introducing people to Jesus. Remember Andrew is the disciple this church is named after. He is the model we claimed as we decided WHO we want to be in this community- we are the people who introduce people to Jesus.
That may be inspiring to you or you might be pushing back. But our fears, and anxiety get all mixed us with sharing the gospel. Paul teaches us, “we do not proclaim ourselves, we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord.” So helpful. When we feel nervous we remember we proclaim Christ; it’s not about us. We find courage in knowing the Holy Spirit is with us. Another way of looking at this is the gospel is truly a love story. We are sharing God’s love. Think about when you fall in love, don’t you want to tell everyone! It is so wonderful you want to share the news with others. The good news of Jesus is our love story with our savior. So when you hear the word evangelism I want you to now hear sharing the love story of Jesus.
We are not preaching ourselves, we are preaching a love story. An authentic, intentional love story that Jesus creates with each and every person. That is why we get to share our love story with Jesus in an authentic and intentional way with those we meet.
I took a leadership class this spring at Cabrillo. As we were sharing about where we worked a young woman named Alissa was so passionate about what she did. She was excited about production, distribution, goal setting for her company. I sat there and wondered how could she be so passionate, more passionate than I was, and she was not offering Jesus? You know what she was selling? She was selling vitamin supplements. Why can’t we get that passionate about offering, not selling, Jesus to those around us?
First, Andrew gives us a great example of introducing people to Jesus.
Second, we are not preaching ourselves we are preaching a love story with God, as revealed in the person of Jesus.
Finally, we DO have to ask.
One man came out of his house on his way to church on Sunday morning just as his neighbor came out with his golf clubs. “Hey, Henry,” the neighbor called, “Come play golf with me.”
The man said, “Sorry, it’s Sunday, and Sunday means church.”
After a moment’s silence, the golfer quietly said, “You know, Henry, I’ve often wondered about your church, and I have admired your faithfulness. You know I always invite you to play golf with me, but you have never invited me to go to church with you.”
The lesson for you and me in incidents like that is that WE DO HAVE TO ASK! With Andrew, we have to extend an invitation. In a survey of twenty-two congregations in three major cities, newcomers were asked, “What brought you to this church?” The responses:
2%, an advertisement;
6%, an invitation by the pastor;
6% an organized evangelistic outreach program; and
86%, an invitation by a friend or family member. (Roy Oswald, Making Your Church More Inviting, (Bethesda, MD: Alban Institute, 1992), p. 57) That is more than four out of five. We do have to ask.
This week Warren and Ilene invited me to their family camp for the third time in eight years. They have something they love, that brings them joy and they invited me to share in this wonderful group of Christians. That is where I heard this song from my youth that we will sing as our closing hymn. It reminds us it only takes a spark to share the light and love of Jesus. We do not have to do it all, all we have to do is ask. And God will take care of the rest.
Let’s PASS IT ON. Amen.
