What Drives us to Share the Gospel?
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This morning I am very excited to bring a challenge to you. It has been on my heart for some time, and it has to do with evangelism. I want to challenge all of us to move forward in our hearts and actions to become people who truly love and commit to our part in the great commission. So we are going to take a little break from our study of Luke to find ourselves in one of Paul’s letters, a letter about our great privilege to be a part of God’s ministry of reconciliation.
Big Idea: All believers should care about and participate in evangelism
We know to fear the Lord so we persuade others.
We are controlled by love so we are his agents of reconciliation
Fear and love, the two most powerful motivations, were what drove Paul to mission.
Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.
We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart.
For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;
and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Author unknown: Do You Begrudge God’s Generosity?
On the same day, same hour, old Mrs. Schmidt and young Mr. Jones died, one at home, one in prison. The elderly woman had raised a family, spent untold hours on her knees in prayer, and was known around her community as a paragon of charity. The young man, convicted on two counts of murder and one of rape, had been incarcerated for a few years before he was killed by another inmate. Just the day before his death, during a conversation with a prison chaplain, Mr. Jones had confessed faith in Jesus.
When Mrs. Schmidt and Mr. Jones died, they both appeared before their Lord, who smiled at both, embraced them both, and said with equal joy to both, “Welcome and well done, my good and faithful servants.”
If this is offensive to you, then good, you have begun to understand the Gospel. It’s not about you; it never has been. The Good News of Jesus is equally good to murderers and grandmas, pimps and nuns, the best and worst of society. The Gospel is not about you but about Jesus: his work, his sacrifice, his death, his resurrection, his ongoing life for you. It’s good news because it is the declaration that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting our trespasses but counting solely upon the work of Jesus.
Some may say, echoing those grumbling workers in the parable that Jesus told, “What! You mean that my hard work in the church and community all those years did not earn me more than that good-for-nothing who repented on his deathbed?” Yes, that’s right.
Does that upset you? Do you begrudge God’s generosity? Perhaps you misunderstood the Gospel all along and thought it was good news about you being rewarded for your hard work. No, it’s about you being given the gifts that come from the hard, saving work of Jesus.
So, quit counting, quit comparing, quit weighing how good or bad you are in relation to others. Instead, rest solely in the incomparable work of Jesus for you, whose generosity invites us all to a faith that receives a full and finished salvation.
As I saw this, I thought what a perfect way to start the sermon this morning. However, my application may be slightly different than the author, because I want us to be reminded that some of those undesirable people in our lives may very well be those whom Jesus will be delighted to save.
Our main focus and our two main points are coming mostly from two verses here: 2Cor5.11
Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;
Fear and love are the two greatest motivations. You don’t have to think very hard about the most exciting movies or books you love. If there is action, if there is conflict, it usually involves one of both of these elements. Fear and love. Tyrants have used these factors to control people. Politicians use these in their campaigns. People go and work hard and save money because fear and love are in the mix. Fear of not having their needs met, and love for family that we want to provide for. Fear and love are truly the two greatest motivators. They certainly were for Paul. Knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.
In this case, the fear is not an outright terror sort of fear, but a reverent and humble fear before a Holy God. And in that sort of fear we may find ourselves greatly desiring to please God and this would be a proper and wonderful way to live in fear. For Paul, this means serving God well. Reverent and proper fear for God should drive us to obedience, and part of that obedience is in keeping the Great Commission;
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Make disciples. How can you make disciples if they do not believe? So in fear, Paul is saying, we persuade others. Paul was all about persuading others. He wanted to live obediently to God’s call, and in this he went about persuading others. Now, it is important here that we are clear. You and I are not, through our ability to speak the gospel, going to persuade others to believe. However, God’s Holy Spirit does persuade people to believe, and he does it through our sometimes weak attempts in sharing the gospel with others.
You see, God does the saving, the convincing, the drawing people to himself. Ultimately, none of us can do that. But here is the beautiful thing: He does it through the means he decided was best, through the proclamation of the Word of God, which is done by weak people who humbly rely on God to use them to make the message heard. Therefore, knowing the fear of God, we persuade others. This word, persuade means to convince, cajole, appeal to, to win over. So Paul is not saying that people somehow can develop skills to do what only God can do, but they should develop skills as they go in order that they may be pleasing to God, doing the very best work they can as His instruments of proclamation. Sometimes when people hear the word proclamation they think it only applies to preaching, but this would be incorrect. Every believer is given the charge to proclaim the good news about Jesus.
And of course, no one could boast about what is outward, Paul said. It is the heart that is of concern. 2Cor5.12-13
We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart.
For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.
Big Idea: All believers should care about and participate in evangelism
We know to fear the Lord so we persuade others.
We are controlled by love so we are his agents of reconciliation
Fear and love, the two most powerful motivations, were what drove Paul to mission.
Now let’s look at the love that drove Paul: 2Cor5.14-15
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;
and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
Wouldn’t it be great if the love of Christ was what drove us in everything we did? Remember what Paul is talking about here. He is talking about the ministry of reconciliation. God is the great reconciler. He reconciles men to himself who have sinned and broken their relationship with God. He has torn down the dividing wall of hostility, so that in His church, people of all backgrounds and colors and whatever else normally divides people, there can be unity and harmony. Paul says the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded that one has died for all, therefore all have died. And those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
You could spend all day in absolute wonder and trembling over these two verses alone, but we must keep moving. It is a powerful statement Paul is making. Don’t forget that Christ died for our sake and was raised. What could he possibly request of us that is too much of a hassle, too much trouble for us to do? Is it too much of a hassle to us to obey his command to make disciples, considering that He died for us?
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
Look, when people get you down, remember you ought not to be seeing things through a human lens, but through a spiritual one. We battle not against flesh and blood. It is a spiritual battle out there!
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Promised throughout time, God through His prophets foretold of a time when he would make a new creation out of men. He would take the heart of stone and make it a heart of flesh. He would cleanse them from their evil. This was all clearly foretold, and in Christ was fulfilled, so that anyone who is in Christ is a brand new creation. The new has replaced the old. Don’t we want to see many new creations? Don’t we want to be first-hand witnesses to the greatest miracle, a heart remade, a spiritually dead person made alive? While we concern ourselves day to day with wanting to have nice experiences, can anything top the experience of being part of God’s ministry of reconciliation? Yet do not forget whose work it really is in the end:
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
It is all from God, and yet He gave us the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, he gave us mouths to speak truth to those around us. He put others around us to speak to. He put us in situations where we can be those who reconcile. He gave us the ministry of reconciliation. And Paul further clarifies what this means:
that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
If he has entrusted to the the message of reconciliation, what have we done with that trust? If I entrust you with watching my house while I go on a trip, what is expected? You watch over it, you make sure everything is ok while I am gone. If you entrust us with your child during a children’s ministry event, what do you expect? You expect you kid doesn’t get killed by a dodgeball, that we don’t let them starve or get heat stroke or get beat up. We know what we expect when we entrust someone with something valuable to us. So what have we done with the message of reconciliation that God has entrusted us with? Have we done as He expects? Do we have higher expectations of each other when we entrust each other with temporary things than we expect since we are entrusted with the most valuable thing anyone could have, the Words of eternal life?
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
We are ambassadors, representatives. God makes his appeal through us. Of all the ways God could have chosen to make His gospel known in the world, He chose to use flawed people to give the message. So God makes his appeal through us. And so, Paul pleaded, he persuaded, he implored people: Be reconciled to God.
Now, I know that 2Cor5.17 is one of those verses many have memorized and is used for a proof text for salvation, and it is, those in Christ are new creations. However, from now on when you hear or quote that verse yourself, I want you to remember the context. The context is the ministry of reconciliation. I want to go a little further in the passage so that you can get even further context:
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.
For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry,
but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities,
beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger;
by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love;
by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left;
through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true;
as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed;
as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.
Paul went through a lot, and all the time he kept pressing on, motivated by holy fear and a desire to please God and love. Controlled by love, Paul relentlessly worked to persuade others. We are called to do the same. Statistics show that Christians are not doing so well at this. While 87% of church goers say they came because of a personal invite, only 2% of Christians invite someone to church. Do we care that little for the lost, that we do not invite them to church, or share the basic gospel with them?
I’m sure many of you have seen videos like I have. I remember a video I saw a few years back, there was a man dying on the sidewalk in NYC. There was clearly something very wrong with the man, yet people were in such a hurry to get to wherever they were going they walked right past, ignorant of the seriousness of the man’s condition. Some people even stepped right over him. Anyone who watches a video like that will hopefully be appalled, and shake their head, ashamed for a moment of the human race altogether. Of maybe you have heard a story like this. A lady died in her home, but no one knew she died. The bills were paid directly from her bank account, which was replenished monthly by her social security deposit, the lawn care was contracted. The only reason someone finally determined she had died was because her property tax was unpaid, so someone went to deliver a final notice. The story is so sad. How could it be that a human could die without anyone noticing or seeming to care?
And yet, spiritually, every day Christians are stepping over the spiritually dying around us without taking the time to share Christ with them. Right before our eyes, we are watching people as they come closer and closer to their spiritual death. May God help us to open our eyes, and may He break our hearts for the lost around us.
You have probably noticed by now the Christ candle is out a little early. Usually we put that out the first advent Sunday. However, I asked if we could put it out so that we can look at it as a reminder to us from now until our Christmas season. A couple of weeks ago, many of you were at our planning meeting, where I laid out my plan to challenge everyone at Oasis to invite people to church during the Advent season. I am going to put together a series of sermons on the incarnation and these sermons will each focus on elements of the Incarnation, that Jesus took on flesh to come into our world and ultimately to bring salvation. All of the sermons will include a clear gospel presentation.
Each sermon will be titled in the form of a question, hopefully to cause unbelievers to be curious enough to come and join us. But just having good sermon titles is not enough. We have all been given this ministry of reconciliation. All of us are now challenged to offer invitations to others to come and join us at church during the season. We will be putting together invite cards for you to invite others. We will have some extra hospitality going on each week during Advent, and then on Christmas Eve, which is a Sunday this year, we will have both our morning worship service and our Candlelight Christmas Eve service.
And the reason I have asked for the Christ candle to be out early this year is this. The candles have no power or grace within them. They are simply a symbol, a reminder, that Christ came. Advent means arrival. Each Sunday morning for four weeks we light a candle with a theme and this is to remind us to prepare our hearts for the Coming King. Then on Christmas Eve at our evening service, we light the final candle, the middle one, the white Christ Candle. It means Christ has come. Here is my prayer. That God would bless Oasis Church with this privilege: That when we light that Christ candle this year on Christmas Eve, that we would be able to rejoice together that this year, the candle not only represents our coming King, who will come again, as we expectantly await his return, but for someone that the Lord brings into our midst, this would be a celebration of that same King coming for the first time into the life of a new believer.
You see, my friends, I long for our church to see new believers coming to faith in our midst. What greater joy could we experience this Christmas than to see this happen, and see it happen because the people of Oasis Church decided that we were going to spend a season of prayer, calling out to God to allow us this privilege of experiencing once again the ministry of reconciliation? My prayer has been for us, that God would break our hearts for the lost around us, that we would be driven to regular prayer for the lost, and that we would be bold to witness and invite others into the grace of God.
It begins with prayer. In a moment, I am going to ask for some clipboards to be passed around, but not quite yet. Before anyone signs up on these clipboards, I want you to fully understand that if you sign up on a clipboard, you will be expected to do certain things that I am about to explain. Don’t sign up out of peer pressure or for appearance’ sake. If you sign up, you are promising to pray for lost people. You are going to receive reminders by text each week to pray for the lost. Additionally, if you sign up on this sheet, we are going to pair you with someone who you will spend 5 minutes with every week in prayer over the phone or in person. We will pair men with men and women with women. Kids, if you want to sign up to pray, then you may if your parent allows it. Hopefully you will get paired with someone you haven’t gotten to know well yet, so that you will expand your scope of people you know well within the church.
In the next couple of weeks, we are going to go a step further. Starting today, I ask that you pray that God give you each 3-5 people who you will commit to pray for daily at least from now until Christmas. And in 2 Sundays, we are going to have you provide those names to us. We will all join in praying for those who God has given us. They could be family members, coworkers, neighbors, friends. You will share those names with your prayer partner. Now, I want to say that I know all of us have people who are in other areas that come to mind. Pray for them too, but this focus is for people that live close enough to Oasis Church to come and join us. We want them to come here and hear the gospel message and experience the love and hospitality of God’s people.
We will be providing you some specific ideas about how to pray as we go. But let me give you a few right now. When we pray on Sundays before D6, we use the Acts model:
Adoration
Confession
Thanksgiving
Supplication (requests)
For adoration, bless God as the great and awesome God who loves and saves the lost. Marvel at His great gift! Confession. Perhaps you may need to confess a lack of concern for the lost. Perhaps you need to confess that you have not been obedient to the charge Jesus gave, to be His witnesses. Thanksgiving: Thank God for saving you, and giving you a part in this ministry of reconciliation. Supplication: Ask God to give you opportunities to share His gospel with others and invite them to come and experience the real meaning of Christmas.
Finally, pray that when we light that Christ candle this year, we will have the very special experience of having new believers join us and understand for the first time what those candles of Hope, peace, joy, love and finally Christ the coming King mean. Now we will pass out those clipboards. Now you know what is expected if you sign up, so don’t sign up unless you feel you can do this with us. Let’s all commit to praying with great intensity, making an appeal to God to give us a harvest of souls at Oasis Church. If you sign up, then in the next week you will begin to receive texts from us and we will begin connecting you with your prayer partner.
Big Idea: All believers should care about and participate in evangelism
We know to fear the Lord so we persuade others.
We are controlled by love so we are his agents of reconciliation
Fear and love, the two most powerful motivations, were what drove Paul to mission.