What is the Church For? (2) The Church is for Evangelism

Last week, we started to reflect on the question, “What is the Church For?” In other words, what is the purpose of the Church in the purpose and plan of God. And we answered that question in the following way: the Church is for worship. Its purpose is to lead all creation in the right praise of God the Creator. And then we spelled out what worship looked like. We looked at Acts 2:42, with its description of the first worshipping community in the city of Jerusalem. We read about how they gathered to (1) hear the Apostles’ teaching, (2) break the bread, and (3) participate in the prayers. This simple pattern of gathering, listening, eating, and praying undergirds every Christian worship service, from the most basic to the most elaborate. That simple pattern simply is what worship is. That is what the church is for when we say the church is for worship.

You’ll remember, though, that worship is not the only answer to this question. The Church is for worship, but not simply for worship. Neal McDonald, the CBC commentator, annoyed a good many Christians (and other thoughtful people) when he recently wrote in an op/ed that freedom of religion meant only freedom of worship—freedom to do something behind closed doors—and that once outside the doors, strict limits needed to be applied, coercively if necessary. But if we think the Church—that is the people—are simply for worship, we are implicitly agreeing with this point of view.

The Scriptures do not accept this point of view. The Apostles’ teaching and example in the book of Acts, where we have been focusing our attention, tell another story altogether. One in which the first followers of Jesus were unapologetically public and accepting of the consequences.

So what do they do in public that is so very provocative? What accompanies Christian worship that makes the Church the Church, that provide its purpose, that tell us what it is—what we are—for? Maybe you remember the metaphor of the braid, and our threefold answer: the Church is for worship, the Church is for evangelism, and the Church is for service. Next week, we’ll talk about service; today evangelism.

The Church is for evangelism.

Already some of you are shifting uncomfortably.

It’s understandable. Evangelism is an uncomfortable word, isn’t it? It calls to mind all sorts of pictures, some of them time-limited, some of them embarrassing, and some of them evil. Let’s look at these and get them out of the way.

When I use the word time-limited, I mean the same as “old-fashioned,” but without the negativity. And I’m thinking of the crusade evangelism most often associated with the Rev’d. Billy Graham. Now let me be clear: this is not to dismiss Billy Graham, his life of faithful witness, or his calling and gifting as a true evangelist. It is to say, he is the last and best of a method that has run its course. Two hundred years ago, in the awakenings that began with Jonathan Edwards and saw tremendous flowering under George Whitefield and the Wesleys, preaching to large crowds of people in a common area, often outdoors, was the most effective way of getting a simple message out to a large number of people at the same time. And 200 years ago, it was novel. It was, indeed, perceived as threatening by many devout Christian people who thought it treated sacred or holy things in a profane or worldly way.

Billy Graham represents the last and best of that line not because it has been shown to be bad, but simply because time and technology have passed it by. There are other better ways to get a simple message out to large groups of people.

All this to say, when we say the Church is for evangelism, we don’t restrict ourselves to one “method” of evangelism because as time, culture, and technology change, so do methods and that’s fine. Of course it is also to say, because you and I have never and likely will never preach to an arena full of people, we are therefore off the hook. Only Billy Graham is called to be Billy Graham and we thank God for him. All of us, by virtue of our baptism into Christ, are called to be evangelists.

Now let’s move to embarrassing.

Some of us might be shifting uncomfortably not because we’re worried we’re supposed to be Billy Graham, but because, frankly, evangelism embarrasses us. It conjures images of people doing cold-calls and door-knocking. It invites images of people being pushy or rude.

Two things to say: (1) We will never rid the Gospel of its offense. At its core, it is deeply offensive because it insists that we are not the masters of our own ships. That we are sinners in need of rescue. That the mess we’re in is our fault and we can’t clean it up on our own. Not only that, it is also deeply offensive because it tells us that all the little power structures we’ve built up around ourselves to keep us safe, secure, and happy have been overturned by the Lord Jesus, and that he has made a decisive claim upon our lives. This is as true for Kim Jong Un, as it is for Donald Trump, as it is for Tim Perry. And it is, in a very real way, deeply offensive. So, when we say the Gospel is good news—and we do—we do not mean the Gospel is inoffensive. The Gospel even—maybe even especially—when presented honestly, powerfully, truthfully, will offend.

And (2) There’s no need to make it more offensive by our own behavior! The expectations for Christian behavior toward others in the Church—“be indebted to each other only in love,” is what St. Paul says—and toward those outside—“Love your enemies; do good to those who despitefully use you,” says Jesus—rule out all sorts of silliness that have come and gone and will no doubt come round again in the Lord’s name.

So when some of you are thinking of really cringe-worthy, wincing sorts of behavior that comes under the name of evangelism, I  get it. I share your cringes and your winces. I’m right with you. But that is not what evangelism is, means, or requires. And we can set it aside. We are not excused from out baptismal calling to evangelism because of the bad behavior of others.

Finally, evil. You’re shifting because, sometimes, evangelism can be and has been just plain evil.

I don’t know that we need to enumerate the examples here this morning. We can all think of some can’t we? But we can speak broadly. Evangelism, as we’ll see in a few minutes, is about announcing a victory. A victory that ends conflict. If the conflict is ended, it’s time to put the weapons down.  And that means, evangelism cannot advance by coercion. And when it does, it is evil. It is evil because it is adopting the methods of the devil in service of the message of the prince of peace. It cannot be done. It is yielding to the last and greatest temptation which our Lord resisted: “All these kingdoms belong to me and I will give them to you if you worship me.”

So if your discomfort comes this morning from remembering those times in history when the Gospel went hand in hand with a sword or gun you are right to be uncomfortable. And again, that discomfort does not excuse us from our call to be evangelists.

Well, what is evangelism then? If it is not a method that may be passed by time, if it is not necessarily pushy or rude, if it is not evil, what is it?

Let’s move to our text for this morning: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8).

The risen Lord has been meeting with and teaching his disciples for forty days since Easter. Presumably, he has continued the tutorial that began with Cleopas and his unnamed companion when, on the way to Emmaus, he came alongside them and opened the Scriptures to them, and made their hearts burn. So hot that when he disappeared, they walked the 7 miles back to Jerusalem to announce to the disciples what had happened. Then, he commissions them. You will be my witnesses. You will recount what has happened.

And the rest of the book of Acts follows that rough outline. Peter preaches in Jerusalem and the surrounding Judean countryside; Phillip preaches to the Ethiopian eunuch and to the Samaritans; Peter preaches to Cornelius—a Gentile and Paul takes the Good News to the whole world by taking it to Rome itself. What does this short verse tell us about evangelism?

Here’s a start: evangelism is an announcement.

The New Testament does not invent the words evangel—the Good News, (or the words evangelist—the one who announces Good News, or evangelism—the act of announcing Good News). The word evangel, Good News—Good Spell becomes shorted to Godspel and then to Gospel—is in fact a military term. In the ancient world, when a Roman General won a significant battle, he would send the evangel, the Good News of his victory back to Rome by sending evangelists—heralds or announcers—ahead of the victorious army.

When we by our baptisms are called to be evangelists, we are called to be heralds. Announcers. A great victory has been won! And the victor is on his way to claim what’s his. His enemies are defeated, and it is only a matter of time until they wither away.

The disciples are called by the risen Lord to announce what they had seen, and they had seen the victory of Jesus over death, sin and the devil.

Which allows us to narrow it a little

Christian evangelism is the announcement of the victory of Jesus!

Robert Barron—a true evangelist if there ever was one—is a Catholic Assistant Bishop of Los Angeles. He has said, very simply: the essence of the Gospel, the evangel is this: Jesus of Nazareth is risen from the dead. That is it in its simplest form. If that is true, then God is rearranging creation from the atomic level up. If that is true, then the great victory over death, and over those who dispense death has been one. If that is true, then those who live in fear of death have been set free.

All Christian behaving and believing—and there’s lots of stuff to talk about in both—leads up to or flows out of this simple truth: Jesus Christ is risen. And as the risen Lord, he is the victor. That is basis of our life together, that is what unites us, that is what drives us, that is what sends us. If that is not true, all the other stuff is wasted speculation, or service that can be better undertaken by others with better access to greater funding. If Christ is not raised, we are above all people to be pitied.

Christian evangelism is an announcement in which I am implicated.

You will be my witnesses, says Jesus. A witness can only announce something he or she has seen or heard. In some way, I am caught up in the victory of Jesus that I am to announce! Now it’s easy to see how the first disciples were witnesses. They actually saw the risen Jesus. But what about Philip? What about Stephen? What about those later witnesses in the book of Acts: Apollos, Priscilla and Aquila? We in many ways stand with them. We have not seen the risen Christ. We have seen, hopefully, signs and hints of his rising in Word and Sacrament that feed us and in lives transformed by enlivening, resurrecting, saving grace.

Those are things I have witnessed. Not only do I have the evidence of the resurrection of Jesus that is common to all—the appearance accounts, the empty tomb accounts, the utterly amazing transformation of the first disciples, but I also have the evidence that is unique to me—what I have seen, what I have lived, what I have experienced, that puts me in continuity with that great story, tht great announcement. I am a witness, too.

Long before I became one of the co-pastors here, I was out for coffee with an old friend. We were talking about the challenges that come with believing and living faithfully as a Christian both generally and specifically here in Shawville. What he said to me has rung true to me, not only for this community, but for many and it captures exactly what I mean when I say “evangelism is an announcement in which I am implicated.”

Do you want to know what he said to me? Here it is.

“What your church needs is for an old sinner like me to come in and get saved to remind them why they’re here in the first place.”

That stings a little doesn’t it? It should. It’s true.

What we need, in other words, is a reminder of what the transforming power of the Gospel is about, how the announcement that Jesus Christ is risen can change lives in ways that are not long ago and far away, but are right here, right now. Ways in which we are involved. Places were we see transforming grace, where we see the reign of the risen Lord, where we see the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. So that we are not merely announcing the past witness of previous generations, but the ever present witness that was true then and remains true now. Christ remains risen. He is still victor. His Spirit is still renewing the face of the earth. I am a witness and so are you.

Well what do we take home from this?

(1) We are witnesses

When Jesus said to those who witnessed his ascension, you will be my witnesses, he was not limiting himself to that group of people. His words extend through time to embrace all those who have been caught up in the great story of God’s victory over sin, death and the devil. Those who spoke to the risen Lord directly were witnesses in a unique and irreplaceable way. But Philip and Stephen and Lydia and Apollos were also witnesses. Every Christian throughout history from the book of Acts even up to you today is called to be a witness. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. Here’s how I am caught up in the story. It is good news.

(2) We are community with a message to announce in public.

This message is what Lesslie Newbigin called an Open Secret.  It is open—it is to be announced publicly. There is no people group from whom it is to be withheld. It is secret—it is found in the strangest and smallest of places, among marginal people.

It has been given to us. We’ve heard it again today. Now, it’s time to go and take it to the world. Even as Cleopas and his friend responded to their encounter with the Risen Lord with the words, “Let us go,” so now we are at the end of another service sent. Back to our jobs, our daily lives, our town. Sent with a message: “Jesus Christ is Risen. Here’s how it has transformed my life.”

(3) That announcement is made without weapons.

This might be an odd note to end on. But it is worth remembering that the announcement is one of victory. And if the victory has happened, then it’s time to lay down our arms. For the first Christians, this was very literal, from Jesus’s instruction to Peter to put his sword away in the Garden of Gethsemane, to the martyrs of the Roman Empire. The war was over; there was no need to fight. But it is not simply a long ago and far away story. The martyrs from Stephen up to today have wagered their lives on the announcement that Jesus alone is victor.

Why do we need to remember it? Because of the ease with which we yield to the tempter’s invitation to wed our message to political power, to manipulative words, even to violence to ensure success. It won’t. The victory is won. Lay your weapons down. Announce the good news with joy.

Finally an invitation.

I would be a pretty poor pastor indeed to spend an entire sermon on evangelism not to make that announcement this morning.

Jesus of Nazareth is risen from the dead. He has transformed the lives of my family such that my life is very different from what it might have been. His offer of transformation, his invitation to share in his resurrection life is extended to you today. What will you do with it?

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