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Biblical Evangelism
I Corinthians 3:4-8
by John A. Kohler, III
Biblical evangelism is the proclamation of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ with the hope and prayer that God might use that proclamation to produce genuine converts to the Lord Jesus Christ. It involves both the Christian and God.
I. The Christian’s Responsibility in Biblical Evangelism
A. It is the Christian’s responsibility to evangelize out of a desire to glorify God (I Cor. 10:31).
B. It is the Christian’s responsibility to evangelize out of love for God and love for man (Mat. 22:36-40; Gal. 6:10).
C. It is the Christian’s responsibility to diligently plant and water gospel seed.
D. It is the Christian’s responsibility to faithfully and fearlessly proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
E. It is the Christian’s responsibility to authoritatively call upon sinners to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (Lk. 24:46-47; Acts 20:21).
II. God’s Business in Biblical Evangelism
A. It is God’s business to sovereignly give the increase, or cause the seed to germinate as He sees fit.
B. It is God’s business to produce genuine converts to the Lord Jesus Christ.
C. It is God’s business to convict sinners (Jn. 16:8-11), effectually draw them to the Lord Jesus Christ (Jn. 6:44,65-66), open their hearts (Acts 16:14), and grant them repentance (Acts 5:31; 11:18; II Tim. 2:24-25) and faith (Jn. 6:28-29; Acts 18:27; Rom. 3:22; 10:17; 12:3; I Cor. 3:5; Gal. 2:16,20; 5:22; Eph. 1:19; 2:8; Phil. 1:29; Heb. 12:2).
D. It is God’s business to receive all the glory when sinners are genuinely converted to the Lord Jesus Christ.
| “If we forget that it is God’s prerogative to give
results when the gospel is preached, we shall start to think it is our
responsibility to secure them. And if we forget that only God can give
faith, we shall start to think that the making of converts depends, in
the last analysis, not on God, but on us, and that the decisive factor
is the way in which we evangelize . . . If we regard it as our job, not
simply to present Christ, but actually to produce converts---to evangelize,
not only faithfully, but also successfully---our approach to evangelism
would become pragmatic and calculating . . . The way to tell whether in
fact you are evangelizing is not to ask whether conversions are known to
have resulted from your witness. It is to ask whether you are faithfully
making known the gospel message.” J. I. Packer
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