Principles of Evangelism
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
In 1517, Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk who taught theology in Wittenberg, wrote his famous 95 theses in which he wrote against the practices of indulgences in the Church of Rome and nailed them to the doors of the church building. In those days the church doors acted as a community bulletin board, so this wasn’t a defiant stance against the church, but an opportunity to allow theologians to read and discuss the matter. It was kind of like a call to his fellow professors to have a night of discussion. It was even written in Latin so the commoner would not be able to read it. However, someone translated it into German and the next year, those theses were published.
It caused quite a stir throughout the Holy Roman Empire and in 1521, Charles V the emperor called Martin Luther to account at the Diet of Worms. There before Luther was the Emperor, cardinals, bishops, and others, asking if he would recant his works. He asked for the titles to be read and so they read the 25 titles that he had written. Luther then asked for time. He believed that going to the Diet was going to finally be the place where discussion was had. So when he was faced with the question of whether or not he would recant his works without any discussion, he was taken aback. They granted him one night to think through his answer. He prayed through the night, and then when asked again the next morning, Luther began by saying that he had been a bit too harsh in his writing against certain persons. But before he could go too far in his argument, he was interrupted with a demand for a yes or no answer. Would he or would he not recant?
What would you do in that moment? How would you respond? Most of us know how Luther responded. And we wish we would have the courage to say what he said. Or maybe we wish we had the fortitude to say what Peter and John said when facing the Sanhedrin council. When told by the council to stop preaching the name of Jesus, we read
But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge,
for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”
And we wish we could say stuff like that.
How is it that Peter and John, Stephen the first martyr, Polycarp who, as he was encouraged to curse Christ and pledge allegiance to Caesar, responded with,
“Eighty-six years I have served him, and he never did me any wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”
We have a hard enough time talking to people about Jesus voluntarily. These men would under immense pressure and would not reject their Savior.
How does that happen? It certainly doesn’t happen by chance. This morning, as we open up Luke, we find Jesus continuing on with his warnings and instructions to his disciples. And as he instructs those who are his followers, he is giving them three principles to live by when faced with opposition.
The first principle is to do unto him as you would have him do unto you.
The second principle is that you have not failed if they do not believe.
The third principle is to trust the plan and power of the Holy Spirit and distrust your own.
Do unto Jesus as you would have Jesus do unto you.
You have not failed if they do not believe.
Trust the plan and power of the Holy Spirit; distrust your own.
“And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God,
but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.
And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say,
for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
Do unto Jesus as you would have Jesus do unto you.
Do unto Jesus as you would have Jesus do unto you.
If Jesus’s followers (and that includes you and me) want to be able to speak boldly in the face of opposition—whether brutal opposition or light—then we need to learn and remember the first principle that we are to do unto Jesus as we would have Jesus do unto us.
Look what Jesus says here.
“And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God,
but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.
In other words, Jesus is telling his listeners (and Luke is telling his readers) that when standing before people, we have two choices: acknowledge Jesus or deny him. This doesn’t mean that every single conversation we have must be about Jesus. Nor does it mean that every encounter has to be turned into a conversation about Jesus. But it does mean that conversations about Jesus are expected to be had. We should expect to talk to people about Jesus.
Remember the words that Jesus said just a couple of sentences before this one.
Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.
Jesus talk is not just private talk. That’s the way that many in our society want it to be. But we can’t fall into that trap.
The United States has as part of its First Amendment a guarantee that Congress can make no law respecting the establishment of religion or the exercise thereof. For those who know their world history and American history, you know what this is supposed to mean. Going back to Martin Luther. In parts Germany—part of the Holy Roman Empire—Lutheranism was illegal. While in other parts Romanism was illegal. England then became Anglican and then Romish and then Anglican again, and so forth. Being a Baptist was almost always illegal everywhere! In America, you had some colonies that had religious freedom—like Georgia, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, but in Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and New York, the official church of the state was the Anglican Church--often paid for through taxes. Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut were Congregational Churches. Some of these state churches existed until well after the War between the States.
Over the last decade or so, it has become normal to hear people speak of the freedom of worship rather than the freedom of religion. Worship how you choose so long as you keep it in your worship houses. But we are guaranteed freed of religion and freedom to express it in public.
I’m not trying to get political here. I am only trying to show you how easily many Christians have been duped into thinking that religion is a private affair. Jesus said it isn’t. What is said in private is to echoed on rooftops. And we must not be afraid or ashamed to speak the name of Jesus.
We are to do unto Jesus as we would have him do unto us. If we want him to confess us in the courtroom of God, then we must be willing and able to confess him in the courtroom of society. It’s like the principle of reciprocity. How we act will determine how Christ acts. If we acknowledge him; he acknowledges us. If we deny him (or perhaps a better translation is to disown him) then he denies/disowns us.
Remember what Jesus said earlier?
But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!
He was speaking of God, his own Father. Only he has that authority. Now, that would never happen to those who are followers of Christ. John states
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
He is our defense attorney. And he’s never lost a case. He will stand up in the courtroom and argue on our behalf. Unless, we have decided to disown him. Then there is no defense attorney. No advocate to stand before God and plead his own blood.
But then, we cannot help but think about Peter. Peter we know denied Jesus three times. Was he now unforgiven? Is denial the unforgivable sin? Not at all, actually.
Hence we read,
Luke 12:10 (ESV)
And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven. . .
Peter went so far as to curse when he denied Jesus. Yet, these denials—these words spoken against Jesus—will be forgiven. We may see something here that was not implied by Jesus’s words. It would have been understood that the flip side of the forgiveness coin was repentance. We see Jesus restoring Peter in the Gospel According to John. So, it is possible to receive forgiveness with repentance.
But it behooves us that when in conversation with others to remember the principle that we must do unto Jesus as we would have him do to us. If we want Jesus to acknowledge us, we must acknowledge him. If we are fine with him disowning us, then disown him.
You have not failed if they do not believe.
You have not failed if they do not believe.
This takes us to the second principles that we need to remember. You have not failed if they do not believe. I have to be honest. This second principle was the hardest for me to grasp and not because of some guilt that can easily come when I have proclaimed the gospel and someone doesn’t trust in Jesus. It was hardest because I had to wrestle with what it means to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. In Matthew and Mark, this saying is linked with his being accused of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebul. But Luke doesn’t put that here. So what was Luke trying to point out by putting it here? And I believe that it is this second principle.
In the case of Matthew and Mark, Jesus gave it as a warning to his accusers. In the case of Luke, I think he gives it as a principle to be learned. You have not failed if they do not believe.
And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
Let me explain, and I will say Matthew Henry was a tremendous help with this. Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem to die. It’s hard to keep that in mind as we have been on this journey with him for weeks now and we have almost a year of studying Luke before we get to the crucifixion. But we are reading about that which happens in Jesus’s last few months on earth. He is preparing his disciples so that they will be ready to proclaim his name without fear, without shame. Don’t fear those who can kill the body. Fear him who can kill the body and then has the authority to cast into hell. Don’t deny me before men. If you do, I’ll have to deny you before my Father. And then this word: understand that the one who blasphemes against he Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
This was a principle, an instruction to the disciples that they have not failed if people do not believe. They had been with Jesus some two and a half years and would be with him for a few months longer. They loved him. They followed him. They spoke of his goodness. And they were willing to die for him, in sentiment at first and in reality later. To hear those to whom they preached blaspheme his name and slander it as much as they would, would be painful. But don’t stop telling them about Jesus. They can be forgiven for blaspheming the Son. Jesus even said elsewhere that they can be forgiven for blaspheming the Father.
What they cannot be forgiven for is blaspheming the Spirit. They would be speaking by the power of the Spirit (and we’ll get to that in a moment), and the Spirit will be moving and convicting. Remember that’s the Spirit’s job.
And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:
concerning sin, because they do not believe in me;
concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer;
He does this through his word and through those who proclaim the gospel message. But many will not believe. They will verbally reject what the Spirit is doing. They will physically reject what the Spirit is doing. Think about Paul who was beaten, run out of town, arrested, and more. Stephen was stoned for proclaiming the message of Jesus. It wasn’t the blasphemy against Jesus but the blasphemy against the Spirit that was being demonstrated in those moments. It was total and utter rejection of the moving of the Spirit.
John wrote in his first epistle
This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
For there are three that testify:
the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.
The Spirit is the one who testifies. The Spirit is the one who is the truth. The Spirit is working in tandem with the testimony of the Son of God having come in the flesh. For one to thumb their nose at the testimony of the Spirit is equivalent to calling God a liar.
Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son.
Thus, there is no forgiveness for such a thing. Just because people do not believe us, it does not mean we have failed. It means that they have rejected the movement of the Spirit. And hear me when I say this. Not everyone who does not believe has blasphemed the Spirit at first. This is a reflection of those who vehemently reject his works. I already pointed out some examples, but I’ll repeat them. Those who stoned Paul and Stephen would be among those blaspheming the Spirit. But that is for God to judge in the end. For we also know Paul himself was a persecutor of the church, and received grace by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Trust the plan and power of the Holy Spirit; distrust your own.
Trust the plan and power of the Holy Spirit; distrust your own.
This leads us to the third principle. When speaking in the power of the Holy Spirit, we will find ourselves in some controversy. But we must trust the plan and the power of the Holy Spirit and distrust our own plans and power. Jesus told his followers
And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say,
for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
If you’re not used to listening to the Holy Spirit in your regular living, then it is going to be difficult to start listening in the moment of intense pressure.
Let me explain what I mean. In 1 Thessalonians 5:19
Do not quench the Spirit.
we have these words. That word quench is often used in our vernacular as if we’re thirsty. We quench our thirst, and that’s fine if we really intend on saying that our throats are on fire. Because that’s the way the word is meant to be understood. It’s in reference to fire. Such as quenching the fiery darts of Satan with the shield of faith or of hell where the worm never dies and the fire is not quenched.
We read in Ephesians 4:30
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Thus showing that when we ignore what the Holy Spirit is doing within us, we grieve him. We cause him to mourn. That again is what the word means. It’s the same word that is in 1 Thessalonians 4 that tells us not to mourn as those who have no hope.
Now, beloved, we have a problem. It is our natural tendency to be afraid of fire. We like small fires that we can control. Gas stoves are okay. Small campfires that have stones around them are fine. We’re afraid of fires we cannot control and so when fire begins to look like it’s getting out of hand, we seek to quench it. We extinguish it. Paul said, “Don’t do that to the Holy Spirit.” When the Spirit burns, you’ve got to let him burn. Let him burn where he will. There are plenty of sins that need to be burned up in our lives. There are plenty of lies that need to be set ablaze. So long as we try to contain the Spirit because we want control, we will find that we are not being led by the Spirit. We want the Spirit to be a torch…a small flame that we can wave around at our whim. But God is a pillar of fire and not only that but he is a consuming fire.
And if we can’t get out of the way of the Spirit today when we aren’t facing persecution, how can we expect we will tomorrow? If we won’t let him burn brightly in our lives now, why would we change our position tomorrow. If we trust our plan and our power today, then we ought not think that we would trust the Spirit’s plan and power tomorrow.
Only if the Spirit is already allowed to have free reign within us will we be willing and able to trust his plan and power in our time of persecution.
Jesus wasn’t saying here that we aren’t to be studied up. He isn’t saying that we can be passive in our holiness. He isn’t saying that we don’t need to worry about being prepared to give an answer for the hope that is within us.
What he is saying, is that the Holy Spirit will take over when we stand before those in our lives. The Spirit will fill us with fire—with boldness. He will fill us with answers and knowledge. He will take what he has been working in us and pour it forth in front of others.
The apostles, on Pentecost Sunday, stood before thousands and none of them had ever preached a sermon like Peter was about to preach. How did it happen? Acts 2:4 - they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Peter and John before the Sanhedrin; how did they stand against them? Acts 4:8 - And Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them… How did Stephen stand up tot he crowds and the council? In Acts 6:5, we see from the get go that Stephen was a man known for being fulling of the Spirit. But then we see in verse 10 that they could not withstand the wisdom and Spirit with which Stephen was speaking.
Over and over again, we find people in the Bible who are able to face the fiercest crowds and councils, rulers and authorities, and proclaim Christ in truthful and winsome and forceful ways. But brothers and sisters, that doesn’t come out of a vacuum. It comes, as we see with Stephen, from being a man and a woman already full of the Spirit. It comes from trusting the Spirit—God the Spirit who is a consuming fire—to have his way in our lives before things go south.
So church family, let me ask you where your confidence lies? Is it in your cleverness? In your plans? Is it in your knowledge? Your commentaries? Your biographies? Those all have their place, but their place is not on the pedestal of confidence. That belongs to the Holy Spirit. Those filled with the Holy Spirit shall be able to speak by the Holy Spirit.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we finish with these five verses, we have seen three principles to live by. We do unto Jesus as we would have him to unto us. We take care of our declarations and deeds in regards to the Holy Spirit. We need not only be careful not to blaspheme him, but also not to take one step down from blasphemy: quenching or grieving Him either. We’ve seen that we need to trust the Spirit’s power and plan over our own.
Such was the man, Martin Luther. As he stood before the emperor, the archbishops, and all the others who demanded he recant. I believe being led by the Spirit he said,
Unless I am convinced by the Scriptures of by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the Pope or in the councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience…I cannot do otherwise, here I stand, may God help me. Amen.
Those last words are not recorded in the original report. However, some said he uttered them quietly. “May God help me. Amen.” Do you hear the plea for help? He did not trust himself in standing strong. He did not trust those whom he stood before, nor those who said they had his back. His help was from the Lord.
He was able to acknowledge the truth of Christ before the diet. He was able to honor the Spirit and cry out to him in faith, but only because who he was before the diet was who he was in his private life. The same will be true for us.
Prayer
Heavenly Father,
May we leave here this morning ready to treat Jesus as we would have him treat us. We never want to be rejected or denied by him so may he never be rejected or denied by us.
May we remember that our job is to be the Spirit’s voice, but never believe that we have failed in giving his truth. May we always remember that we cannot keep anyone from blaspheming your Spirit. We can only be a mouthpiece for him.
May we trust the Holy Spirit to blaze a fire within us now. May we be ready to follow now, so that when troubles come and we must stand before those who are hostile toward us, we will be ready to follow then.
In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.