There is a saying that evangelism is better caught than taught. How is that so? How do you catch it? Is it like a cold?
Before we answer that, it should be noted that there is little teaching on the subject of evangelism in the New Testament. Jesus gave the command to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel” (Mark 16:15), but after that you don’t hear much about it. If the apostles were, in fact, urging people constantly to tell their friends and neighbors about Jesus, they didn’t leave any evidence of that for us in the New Testament. It just doesn’t appear to be something they did much at all.
Instead of teaching, what motivated their evangelism was a fervent, mission-oriented mindset that spread like a virus from one Christian to another. Acts 4 gives us a glimpse of how this mentality worked its way through the church.
We cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard
Peter and John were arrested after they healed the lame man in chapter 3. They preached that the man was made whole through the power of Jesus, and the chief priests didn’t like that (particularly when they preached that Jesus was raised from the dead). They were drug before the Sanhedrin (the Jewish high court) and questioned, but they didn’t back down. They boldly proclaimed that the same Jesus whom they had crucified was the only way to salvation. The leaders all marveled at their boldness of these uneducated and untrained men (Acts 4:1-13).
The Jewish leaders could not deny the fact that a notable miracle had occurred, so they determined to simply threaten them, commanding they not preach Jesus any more. Peter and John told them they were bound to obey God saying, “we cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard.” They had a message. And that message had to be spoken.
They raised their voice to God with one accord
So what did Peter and John do? They went back to the church to report all that had happened to them.And what did the church do after hearing of all that had happened to them? They prayed.
And what did they pray for? They didn’t pray for protection from persecution, but rather, they “raised their voice to God with one accord” and prayed, “Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word.” (Acts 4:24, 29)
The place where they were assembled was shaken
And how did God respond? We read, “And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.” (Acts 4:31)But let the reader be warned. There’s no cure for this virus. Once you catch it, it’s hard to get rid of it.
So if you’re scanning through the book of Acts to find the secret to the growth of the gospel in the first century, there it is. It’s really no secret at all. They didn’t do anything fancy. No elaborate programs. No worldly enticements. No high-pressure tactics. It was just fervent, sincere disciples who had been radically transformed by the power of the gospel in their lives. They had a message that had to be heard. And armed with the Holy Spirit they went out boldly telling everyone about that message – the good news of salvation.
Is it possible to recapture this spirit today? We’ve got the same message. We serve the same God. Why not?
~ by David Maxson