12 Evangelistic Pointers from an Old Pro (Part 1 of 2)

The best mechanics fix what is broken.  The best mothers love their children.  And the best Christians speak the gospel.  Of course, we seek for our lives to form a clear picture of life in Christ, but we also know that truth, purposeful and direct, must issue from our lips if the people in our circles would understand, and hopefully come to taste, Christ's inimitable salvation.

To say that this is not always easy would be a fair (if completely obvious) statement.  To suggest that we could use all of the (solid) help we can get would be similarly axiomatic.  If I mention the name of Paul in this context, then we have only to throw our hands in the air and say, "Of course!"  This is not daring ground at all.  Of course Paul knows his work in the area of evangelism, and if we have any reliable record of that work, it is to be found in Scripture, where all is trustworthy and truthful. 

I would like to mine 1 Thessalonians 2 for gems on how to evangelize.  A note first, though - this passage is not an instruction on evangelizing, but rather a recounting by Paul of his early days with the Thessalonians.  The context police tighten their grip on their clubs, but stay a moment - if Paul is commending the evangelistic work of himself and his fellows as blameless before the Thessalonians and before God (as indeed he is), then we may very safely extract some conclusions about good evangelism from his example. 

Here, then, are 12 pointers on evangelism from the great apostle.

1.  A knowing boldness.  "but after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition." (v. 2) They had been abused cruelly and unjustly by certain of the Philippians for their gospel (Acts 16:22-24), and had no reason to expect different in Thessalonica, but this did nothing to blunt their zeal for their Lord's gospel.  God had brought them anguish in Philippi, but had also delivered them from it, and indeed had worked through those trials to spread His salvation still further (Acts. 16:25-31).   Evangelism must be bold, even in the light of danger and persecution.

2.  Pure exhortation.  "For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit;" (v. 3) Paul and his company urged the truth of salvation without a hint of moral compromise.  They did not fall prey to the ghosts of pragmatism or cowardliness, which strive to compel believers to water down their message, cloak that message in deception, or otherwise adjust its focus away from sin or Christ.  The gospel is not about wealth or happiness; it is about gracious salvation from sin and the perfect justice of a holy God. 

3.  God-honoring speech.  "but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts." (v. 4) This is a sobering verse, in a way - Paul and his comrades had been entrusted, by God, with His saving gospel.  What a weighty responsibility!  What an enormous blessing and task!  As Christians, are you and I any less entrusted with the gospel?  We too, then, must feel the enormity of our work, and must make it our urgent priority to please God in our speech.

4.  Honest speech.  "For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness—" (v. 5) A requisite feature of God-honoring speech is speech that is honest in its intentions.  It does not seek to soothe the ego of its audience, for God requires the most empty-handed humility imaginable from those seeking salvation.  It also does not have an undercurrent of greed - how can we cherish an undefiled compassion for a lost sinner, or how can we maintain the utmost priority upon gospel truth, if we are consumed with our own desires?

5.  Humble comportment.  "nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority." (v. 6) If Paul and his friends did not come to mollycoddle human pride, they certainly did not come to be congratulated and praised for their incredible work.  The fact that Paul speaks of apostolic authority here suggests that he refers to their conduct toward the new converts in Thessalonica, and this is a pleasing sort of observation to have - once the work of evangelism has happily given way to the work of discipleship, how do I conduct myself?  It is certainly not the time to seek regard for my heroic character, or my great love, or my profound wisdom, or my palpable leadership, lest I quench the zeal or distract the focus of my newfound brothers and sisters. 

6.  Gentle care.  "But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children." (v. 7) Again, the fledgling church is in view here, the product of Paul's evangelistic mission and the work of the Holy Spirit.  I include this one, as well as the last one, because they demonstrate that our work is not over - not remotely - when a person gets saved.  Evangelism cannot be our sole focus, but when the unspeakably joyous event of salvation comes to pass in a person's life, our lifelong work of nurturing discipleship, patient care, and selfless service begins.  We must approach evangelism with this truth in mind, lest God work His salvation and we are unprepared to lead this new believer onto a path of growth. 

[To be continued here]

For Those Who Grapple with a Difficult Doctrine

Candor is an arm-twister.  Hard as I try, I am obliged to confess that the truth of God's complete sovereignty over completely everything is difficult to wrap my theological arms around.  God's sovereignty gives us confidence, and it answers many questions, to be sure, but it also raises some hard questions, and sometimes these questions amalgamate to cause us to question the very reality of God's sovereignty - how can God be sovereign with evil in the world, and so forth?

Fortunately, the concept of utter sovereignty is not one that is unveiled dramatically in Romans 9.  Paul did not invent it, and neither did John Calvin.  Certainly, that go-to passage in the ninth chapter of Romans speaks very clearly about God's sovereignty, but there are incredible and innumerable pictures of His sovereign hand in action all throughout Scripture.  I would like to touch on one of these - a very well-known story indeed - in order to bolster us in our confidence in this indispensable fact of God.

A word to Moses from his God:  "But I know that the king of Egypt will not permit you to go, except under compulsion.  So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My miracles..." (Ex. 3:19-20a) We know the setup here - God's people are enslaved in Egypt, and He commissions Moses to bring them out.  At first, this appears as merely a predictive statement - God need not be sovereign in this declaration, but merely omniscient.  However, after Moses is first rebuffed by Pharaoh, God reassures him in this way:  "But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt." (Ex. 7:3)

Some will say, and indeed have said many times, that God's hardening of Pharaoh's heart is only because Pharaoh first hardened his own heart - a judgment laid down by a loving God whose hand is forced.  We note, though, that God provides His own reason for the hardening - the same in both of the aforementioned verses, actually - it is for the cause of glory, so that God may do more wondrous works in Egypt.  Elsewhere He addresses Pharaoh himself and categorically states the same (Ex. 9:16, Rom. 9:15).  Glory, not judgment, lies behind this divine act, and it was done not in response to Pharaoh's misdeeds, but in accordance with God's own purposes (His intentions were voiced, incidentally, before Moses ever departed for Egypt, back in Ex. 4:21).  God's plans include and require Pharaoh's sins.  God's power is uniquely displayed!

Then comes the miraculous and repeated devastation of Egypt (Ex. 7-10).  God's targets:  vital crops, coveted livestock, and - most importantly - the false, impotent deities that the Egyptians set up as patrons over these economic essentials.  The façade of legitimacy is forcefully torn from the religious system of Egypt, and her economy is utterly unraveled. 

The final plague, of course, comes at the hand of God Himself, who goes throughout Egypt and kills all of the firstborn personally, a tragedy that would burst into every Egyptian household and family.  This proves to be the final straw, and the Israelites take their leave at long last, laden with the treasures of Egypt, which they obtained merely by asking (Ex. 12).  See how God continues to take things away from the rebellious nation, all in the process of exalting His own name!  God's plans include and require the blessing and deliverance of His chosen people.  God's grace and love are powerfully manifested!

When the children of Israel begin to move out of the land, they are led by God very carefully.  He keeps them from some obvious routes that would certainly lead them into warfare, and in so doing, leads them pointedly toward the Red Sea (Ex. 13:17-18).  When they arrive, God gives very interesting instruction:  "Tell the sons of Israel to turn back and camp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea; you shall camp in front of Baal-zephon, opposite it, by the sea.  For Pharaoh will say of the sons of Israel, ‘They are wandering aimlessly in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’  Thus I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will chase after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord." (Ex. 14:2-4a)

Mark this well, friends.  God has been demonstrating absolute control here, and He now expresses the desire to deceive Pharaoh into still greater folly, one that will brutalize the Egyptian military on top of everything else, by drowning their elite chariot battalions in the Red Sea (which the children of Israel had just traversed on dry land).  God's plans include and require the deception of Pharaoh so he is driven to pursue the Israelites, to great ruin.  Behold His conquering power!

Mind you, this is the same God doing all of these things.  He delivers on one hand, and He slaughters on the other.  He plans the obedience of Moses, unto His glory, and also the disobedience of Pharaoh, also unto His glory.  Amazing!  Divine purpose, when joined with divine omnipotence and divine omniscience, leads to assured outcomes.  Let us make two statements, now that we have looked at God's work in Egypt.

1.  God does whatever He likes, for His own reasons, with absolutely everything.  The centuries of enslavement, the sinful and stubborn resistance of Pharaoh, the enticement for Pharaoh to pursue God's people - all of these were indispensable features of God's plan, purposed before time began.  If we wrap our minds around this - that the evil as well as the good was a part of God's plan (not that He sinned or tempted, but it was in His plan nonetheless) - then amazing comfort begins to build in our hearts.  Could God have delivered the Israelites sooner?  Of course.  Could He have helped Pharaoh's heart to be softened?  Certainly.  He did things the way He did them, though, because these constituted the conditions of maximum glory.  He says, in effect, to Moses, "My glory is more important than your objections to My plan."  To the Israelites:  "My glory is more important than your immediate release."  And, yes, to Pharaoh, "My glory is more important than your repentant heart."  The Lord has His reasons, which far supersede our own, and He acts on those reasons.  Bless the Lord for His wonderful reasons!  When we grasp the value of His reasons, immeasurable comfort is ours, for we see that He commands all things according to His perfect designs.

2.  God is loving and fair.  Absolute sovereignty does not negate what we know about God. This same God pronounces Himself as good, just, loving, merciful, and patient, in response to Moses" plea to be shown His glory not so long after the Red Sea excursion (Ex. 34:6-7).  The fact of complete sovereignty does not change our God; amen?  If you struggle with how He could be in control of all things, and yet completely fair as He condemns or saves, you are certain to have plenty of company.  In fact, Paul has words just for you in Romans 9:20-24.  In a nutshell, we are in no position to question the God whom we cannot fully understand; we must accept what His Word reveals about His sovereignty (just as we do with regard to the Trinity, the divine and human authorship of Scripture, and many other such truths). 


This is one case in which we can certainly have our cake and eat it as well.  We have the double reassurance that God is always going to act with holy integrity, and is always working events according to His purposes alone.  We have the blessing of His sinless, just, certain, and glorious work in all things!

Application Goes Yard

Sometimes the prospect is easy:  "You shall be holy, for I am holy." (1 Pet. 1:16b) Excellent; my work is to pursue holiness.  The application is apparent.  Sometimes, though, things are more difficult:  "For I am the Lord your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I have given Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place." (Is. 43:3) Where is my application?  Have you seen my application?  It must be here somewhere, but it simply is not apparent.

If my entire goal in studying the Bible is unlocking practical application, the only seeds that will germinate in my studies will often be those of frustration, because immediate application is not always forthcoming.  My marching orders are simply not there, so Scripture, which is purportedly God-breathed, does not seem so very useful after all.  This, see, is the major problem:  God did not fashion His revelation - write it, as it were, on tablets of steel - merely to provide moral direction.  If this is your purpose in approaching the Bible, I might recommend Mother Goose instead - it will require far less study and discipline, and will usually have more pictures.

No; the purpose of the Bible is to reveal God and His character (often spelled g-l-o-r-y).  God creates.  He judges.  He sustains.  He saves!  He promises.  He delivers.  God is the constant in His Word - the only constant; amen?  He is the theme, the central thread.  If I reduce the Word down to "What should I do?", though, I see that the Bible in my hands is nothing more than a pretty mirror.  I have taken something that is so overwhelmingly God-centered that it can prostrate a soul in eternal worship, and have managed to reckon it as something man-centered by focusing upon myself.

Let us not mistake here.  Does God give me instruction in His Word?  Abundantly and definitively so, and you shall never (I pray) find me making light of His commands.  Behind every command, though, is the character of God.  Look again at the 1 Peter quote above - I am to be holy because of His holiness.  And would I indeed rush out to follow His commands, were I not convinced of the extraordinary truths about God which pervade His Word?  Would I concern myself with obedience if I did not understand that He is full of wisdom and care, power and justness?  The Bible is about God, His name, and His work.  All else - not only in the Word, but in creation - flows from this.

Where, then, does this leave the concept of application?  Does it lessen its importance, blunt its proliferation?  On the contrary, a veritable application juggernaut is created, one that goes far beyond the others, and that must come before the others.  This application is worship.  Think on this - it does not matter what passage I read, be it narrative, epistle, poetry, or law, I can always, always trace things back to the Lord, and there is always some facet of His character which beams out with dizzying brilliance. 

The first step, then, is always to worship and to marvel at the glory before us.  We can do this with any part of Scripture - look for this before anything else.  Look for God on the pages of His Word.  If the passage in question has further applicational derivatives, we will thus find ourselves in a far more humble and joyful frame, and will desire to obey the application from a pure heart.  If, however, the passage is devoid of any other application, as is the case at times, we do not come away from the Word disappointed, because we have seen our God, have grown to know Him just a bit better, have worshipped, and have trusted. 

The application of worship is monstrous.  It is undeniable theocentric; it approaches God's book on its own terms.  It forms an excellent and indispensable starting point in the quest for application, and it is unashamedly sufficient as application when it needs to be.  It tells us that, yes, there is worth and depth in coming away from Scripture with the simple awe of seeing God as He is, even without adding three more line items to the applicational checklist. 

God's Word and the Passionate Non-Pharisee

Not so long ago, we discussed the danger of pulling apart the strands of love and truth in the lifeline called Christianity.  As "knowledge" is frequently and foolishly vilified in many churches of today, it seems desirable to harken back to this subject from a slightly different path, to create a short tally of the immense and enlivening benefits that arise from understanding God's Word.  Psalm 119, unsurprisingly, has much to offer in this matter.  Here are four actions, all crucial to the believer, which an understanding of God's Word unlocks for us.  I will state them as commands to frame their critical nature in our lives; amen?

1.  Apprehend His glory.  "Make me understand the way of Your precepts, so I will meditate on Your wonders." (v. 27) We are happily used to seeing God's glory in the pages of His book, but perhaps it does not always occur to us to see His glory in His precepts.  Situated in those commands, though, are such wonders as His unwavering righteousness, His absolute wisdom, His sovereign hand, and His untiring justice.  These lie at the very heart of our Lord's character, and they radiate from His Word in very real and personal ways, because those very precepts are what shape our actions and choices as believers.  This is one of the invaluable ways in which God's glory becomes infused in our mission as His people - this is glory that we cannot afford to forgo.

2.  Passionately discern.  "From Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way." (v. 104) Here again, understanding is centered around the precepts in God's Word, but here the result is hatred of "every false way."  This is discernment of the most powerful sort.  It is discernment that informs literally every moral decision we must make, and it is discernment that is founded in a ferocious and dogged pursuit of God's righteous standards.  Notice the psalmist does not say, "I do not really like every false way"; he says, "I hate every false way."  Evil is repugnant to him; it offends him and excites a vehement and passionate reaction. He hates what is evil because he cherishes what is good (cf. Phil. 4:8).  Dare we attempt this class of spiritual discretion without understanding God's Word?  This is not sterile and pharisaical book knowledge, friends.

3.  Fervently obey.  "Give me understanding, that I may observe Your law and keep it with all my heart." (v. 34) At first blush, this is very obvious - we understand the Bible and we therefore obey God - but look again.  Not only does it help us to obey, but to obey with all our hearts.  This is fervent, zealous obedience, as opposed to begrudging, joyless obedience - as John describes it in 1 John 5:3:  "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome." 


We must examine this more closely for a moment - how indeed can a book accomplish such zeal as we see in the discernment and obedience described here?  First, it is because God's people read His book in the company of the Holy Spirit, who works powerfully through the Word.  We recall how similar the commands of "be filled with the Spirit" and "let the Word of Christ richly dwell within you" truly are (Eph. 5:18 & Col. 3:16).  God's Word and God's Spirit work together, or they do not work at all (cf. 1 Cor. 2:10-14).

Second, as we read God's Word, and God's Spirit works within us, we encounter none other than God Himself on the pages.  We behold His priorities, His perfections, and His precepts, and so we are given all the reason in the world (or properly, in Christendom) to love His beauty, to understand His commands, to pursue His righteousness, and to fear His judgments.  This is why we had to begin this blog with God's glory - it is the impetus, the force that imparts true spiritual momentum.


4.  Partake of true life.  "Your testimonies are righteous forever; give me understanding that I may live." (v. 44) As God's Word is immutably righteous, being laid down and preserved by He who is immutably righteous, it imparts spiritual life to those who understand it.  We do not, as Moses tells us, "live by bread alone," but rather, "by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord." (Deut. 8:3b) We cannot be pulled out of our Ephesians 2:1 spiritual death into Ephesians 2:5 spiritual life without an understanding of the Word.  Once God has given us life, we cannot grow and continue in that life without an understanding of the Word.  Would we scoff or ignore the very book that unlocks life itself?  By no means.

God has blessed us beyond measure with His Word, and it becomes us in every respect to seek a knowledge of it.  We must not fear becoming Pharisees simply for poring over its wealth, but we must see it as the divinely-appointed flame that truly ignites our hearts.  As a final note, do you see how every last one of these blessings (God's glory, obedience, discernment, and spiritual life) represents something that is beyond our natural inclinations?  We would not give glory to another, would not trouble to improve our discernment, and so forth, were it not for the work of the Spirit through His Word.  It is remarkable how the Lord turns us right side up, with powerful blessings which come through the Bible.

My Abundant Source of Lack

Unsought blessing is a definite component of God's program of grace.  Do unrepentant sinners continue to draw breath, often for a lifetime, untroubled for a time by the fetters of eternal, divine fury?  Are such as these sometimes granted an inexplicable understanding and acceptance of the need for Christ's salvation, such that they seek it with earnest repentance?  Does God preserve His children in salvation, even when they foray deep into sin?  Unsought blessing is all around us - without it, we would not last for even a moment in this world, much less taste the joy of salvation.

There is also, however, such a thing as sought blessing - those articles of grace which God chooses to withhold until we ask Him for them.  If we know something of the priority God places upon the demonstration of His glory (and we really should), this only makes sense; we perceive a lack of some sort, and our pervasive inability to satiate it compels us toward the throne.  By making us active participants in the communion of grace, God helps us to see more fully just how we need Him (in a quiet piece of irony).

This certainly places a high premium on prayer, does it not?  James says to the scattered Jewish elements of the church, "You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask." (James 4:2) Let us approach this from the opposite direction:  because I do not ask, I do not have, and the vacuum created by my prayerlessness draws in temptation - a sad substitute. 

It is tempting to fool ourselves into the notion that a period of prayerlessness does not truly affect our spiritual state - we feel that just as a healthy eater can eat the occasional Crunchwrap Supreme without adverse corollary, the spiritual believer can coast along for a day or two without prayer.  What blessings, though, are we missing on these off days?  The gifts of the Lord that fall upon us are not optional graces sent for our amusement; they are blessings intended to equip us for godly worship and kingdom work.  Similarly, the gifts of the Lord that befall others when we pray are for God's purposes of good and glory.  Do we, as children of the Most High, truly desire to ignore these opportunities from our kind and powerful Father?  Pray, friend.  Pray often, and pray for the kingdom; dress your prayers in quality and quantity alike.

We must go further than supplication, of course.  James certainly does:  "You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures." (James 4:3) He maintains, with divinely-supported clarity, that we lack because we ask with wrong motives; that is, our hearts are not right in prayer.  For this reason, the other elements of prayer - praise of God, confession of sin, and thanksgiving for past blessings - take a crucial role in shaping our hearts into what God desires.  In this frame, we find contentedness in the work and character of God.  We ask with a different attitude, and for (sometimes very) different things in this state, but indeed this is vital work whether we open our mouths to ask for anything or not. 

We are led, then, to two simple questions we might ask if we find ourselves in a state of dissatisfaction or want:  Am I in prayer?  Is my heart in line with the Lord?  Perhaps the answer is that I have not brought my cares to my loving Father, or maybe I have been selfish in my supplications, and am thus unfitted for His answer or undeserving of a present resolution.  God does not always remove the thorns from our flesh, but He always stands ready to give us the grace to persevere - a powerful answer to prayer indeed, if we are exhibiting steadfastness of prayer and unity of purpose with Him.

There is always, always an answer to our present lack to be found in prayer.  He is faithful, and He is sufficient!  How then do we not pray, brothers and sisters?  How is it that I can muddle through a day apart from my Father, whom I know in my very bones to be gracious and sovereign and near?  He stands by with grace in His keeping, and He desires for us to embrace our utter need for Him (remember this?).  May prayer be to the soul even as breathing is to the body.