Our
Motivation for Evangelism
by Pastor Matt
Black
04 January 2006
Midweek
Bible Study
Biblical
Evangelism Series Message no. 1
Acts 1:8
Introduction:
Open your Bibles to Acts 1 and verse 8.
I want to present to you tonight a burden I have for our church—it is in
the area of evangelism.
Now more
than ever, we need to bring sinners face to face with the Law of God and give
them the only remedy for their sin—the Gospel of Jesus Christ! This is the subject I want to preach on
today.
And now let us turn to the verse that we
are going to deal with today.
Acts 1:8
But
ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye
shall be witnesses unto me both in
From this verse it is evident that someone
who is walking with the Lord, filled with the Holy Ghost, and in communion with
God will be proclaiming the Gospel to people everywhere. We need to be reminded of this!
For so long we have either not gone out
evangelizing, or we have been preaching a false and a cheap Gospel that offers
people eternal life without repentance.
So now instead of Jesus being our Lord and being our Judge, he is our
friend. Our churches are filled with
people who live whatever way they want to because they think Jesus will forgive
them because He is their friend. These
people have never tasted the fruits of repentance.
So how can we be motivated to
evangelize? What is our motivation?
I.
We
must experience God’s POWER “Ye shall receive power.” God is always the
initiator in evangelism. Without the
power of God to move us out of our front door and into the lives of
unbelievers, we will remain apathetic toward evangelism. We need the Lord’s
power—his motivating influence.
Jesus said, “Without Me, ye
can do nothing” (John 15:15).
Matt. 28:18 “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth”
Romans 13:1 “For there is no power, but of God . . .”
I Corinthians 1:24 “Christ, [IS CALLED] the
[VERY] power of God…
A.
God’s Power is SPECIFIC “YE shall receive power.”
1.
God’s power is upon those who are REDEEMED. If you are born again by the power of God,
then you have the unction of the Spirit—you have the power of God. God has actually raised you to life to preach
the Gospel of the Kingdom to everyone you see!
We must not be ashamed of the Gospel.
Let the Redeemed of the Lord say so!
Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ: for it is the power of
God unto salvation to every one that believeth;”
Having said that, I
believe the greatest hindrance to evangelism is unregenerate church
members. There are people in our
churches that do not want to evangelize the lost, because they themselves are
lost. So if you are not redeemed, why
would you want to evangelize?
The other reason truth
reason people do not evangelize is because they are not Right with God.
2. God’s power is on
those who are RIGHT WITH GOD.
We have grieved God, quenched His
Spirit, and we cannot see the lost because of our own sin! We are so selfish! We must go out and evangelize every creature.
I Thess. 5:19 “Quench not the
Spirit of God.”
Ephesians 4:30 “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of
redemption.”
Psalm 51:10 “Create in me a clean heart, O
God; and renew a right spirit within me.”
IF YOU ARE REMEEMED AND
RIGHT WITH GOD, GOD HAS A SPECIAL WORK FOR YOU!! God doesn’t want any singular thing in your
life—He wants YOU specifically! He wants to empower YOU.
B.
God’s Power is SOUGHT “Ye SHALL receive power.”
While this principle is
not found in our text, it is seen in the context of these disciples
lives. The disciples were seeking
God. This was the main motivation of
their lives.
Though unbelievers have
no power to seek God (Romans 3:10 “There is none that seeketh
after God”) it is equally true that those awakened by the Spirit should seek
God more and more. It is not that we are
getting more of the Spirit, but the Spirit is dominating over more and more of
our will. This is our progressive
sanctification.
Acts 1:14“These
all continued with one accord in prayer
and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with the
brethren.”
I Chronicles 16:10-11 “Let the heart of
them rejoice that seek the LORD. Seek the LORD and his strength, seek
his face continually.”
Deuteronomy 4:29, “But if from thence
thou shalt seek the LORD thy God,
thou shalt find him, if thou seek him
with all they heart and with all thy soul.”
C.
God’s Power is SPIRITUAL “Ye shall RECEIVE power, after that the HOLY GHOST IS COME UPON YOU.”
Acts 1:6 “Wilt Thou at this time restore
again the kingdom to
EXPLANATION: The disciples here see the resurrected Christ
in all His power; I
mean a not too long before they had seen Him nailed to a tree. They saw Him die a gruesome death. If He had overcome that, He certainly can
overcome
Zech. 4:6 “Not by might, nor by power,
but by my Spirit, saith the LORD.”
Matt. 19:26 “With God all things are
possible.”
Evangelism is a spiritual endeavor. God is raising sinners from the grave. We cannot expect to mechanically manipulate
people into the kingdom. We are totally
reliant upon God’s Holy Spirit.
II.
We
must experience God’s PRESENCE “After that the Holy Ghost is come upon
you.”
God
is with us!! His very name is Emmanuel, “God
with us” (Mat. 1:23)! Isaiah says
that we should think about this fact!
A. God’s Presence is CONVERTING: God’s finished work. What did Peter say to the mulititude
in Acts 2:38 “Then Peter said unto
them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for
the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 39 For the promise is
unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord
our God shall call.” And 3000 souls were
converted!
Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have
done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration,
and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
Ephesians 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in
whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit
of promise,
I
Corinthians 12:13 “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body,
whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all
made to drink into one Spirit.”
B.
God’s presence is CONTROLLING: God’s filling work.
THE SAME POWER THAT SAVED YOU IS THE SAME POWER
THAT KEEPS YOU!
Acts 2:4 “And
they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.”
Ephesians 5:18-21 “And be not drunk with
wine, wherein is excess; but be filled
with the Spirit; 19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; 20 Giving
thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ; to another in the fear of God.”
EXPLANATION: When a person is drunk he does things he
normally would not do. He commits excessive acts! Same with a person
controlled by the Spirit. Being
filled with the Spirit is not a mystical experience at all, but it is a
yielding of our will to God’s so that He can have free reign over us to do His
will.
Someone
once said “If He is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at
all.”
III. We
must experience God's PROGRAM “And ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in
Paul said in Romans 1:14-15 “I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to
the barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. 15 So, as much as in me is, I am ready to
preach the gospel to you that are at
A.
By
presenting your LIFE “witnesses” This
is not something we do, it is who we are—it is a culture. It comes out of us. We offer up ourselves as a “living
sacrifice.” Sacrifices are not neat and
clean. They are bloody and messy. Sometimes when we offer ourselves up to the
Lord through witnessing, it’s not pretty.
But we are not our own, we are bought with a price!
·
I
Corinthians 6:19-20 What? know ye not
that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which
is
in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price:
therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
B.
By proclaiming
your LORD “unto Me” We are witnesses unto
Jesus. He is who we are
proclaiming.
It’s not gimmicks! 2 Corinthians 4:5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the
Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
It’s not self-glory! I Corinthians 9:16 “For though I
preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me:
yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel.”
C. By
pursuing the LOST “unto the
uttermost part of the earth”
Matthew
24:14
“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the
world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”
Mark
13:10
“And the gospel must first be published among all nations.”
Mark
16:15
“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and
preach the gospel to every creature.”
Application: Are you witnessing as
you should? When is the last time you
witnessed? When is the last time God brought someone to Himself through you?
CONCLUSION: We need to win the lost to Christ! Within the next month, we are going to be
organizing evangelism and giving all who want training the training they might
need. Are you ready to evangelize this
world? How about your family? Are you living the Gospel as a family? Do you have a family altar? Do you preach Jesus to your children? The greatest mission field in all the world is our family.
Are you doing all you should in your
responsibility to evangelize?
Closing
Hymn: 574 Am I a
soldier of the cross?