This article is based on Pastor Adrian Rogers' message, Faithful in Evangelism.
Simply put, God requires faithfulness from us. There are several factors to faithfulness. One of the factors to being faithful is evangelism: sharing the Gospel with lost souls.
Do you consider yourself a wise person?
Does God consider you a wise person?
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise (Proverbs 11:30).
Why is this true?
What makes anything valuable? Something is valuable when someone wants it, and the ultimate value depends on how much someone will pay for it.
What was the Lord Jesus willing to pay for your lost soul?
You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot (1 Peter 1:18-19).
But something is also valuable because of how long it will last.
God created the human soul in His own image, and your soul could never cease to exist anymore than God could cease to exist. Your soul will have eternal life in Heaven, or eternal damnation in Hell.
Another factor defining a thing’s value is what it could become.
The people, the souls sitting around you, are the most sacred things you will ever see on this Earth. That person next to you has the potential to be transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ, or the horrible potential to spend eternity in the very pits of Hell.
Another reason to evangelize lost souls is because Christ has commanded you to do so.
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Matthew 28:18-19).
No matter how faithfully you attend worship, or how circumspectly you walk, or how liberally you give, if you are not endeavoring to win the souls of lost sinners to Jesus Christ, you are disobedient to Him. All Christians are called to be evangelists, making disciples of all nations.
There is no greater joy, and no greater reward in this life than to be a witness for Christ.
Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever (Daniel 12:3).
You will never be a soul winner until you get at it. Nothing will take the place of going. You do not have to be a missionary on some foreign field; you have to go into the everyday sphere of your life to win souls. We are to be spiritually distinct, but not segregated.
Too many churches have no heartache for those on the outside. We somehow think that to be good Christians we are to disassociate from lost sinners. We put the salt in one barrel and the fish in another.
Pity the lost! They don’t know what you know. Their problem is not their lying, drinking, or carousing; their problem is they do not know Jesus. How are they going to hear of Jesus unless you tell them? Open doors! Invite others into the joy you experience in your own life because of Jesus! This is relational evangelism.
He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him (Psalm 126:6).
Tears touch the heart of God. Ask Him to give you the eyes of the Lord Jesus who, when He saw the multitudes, was “moved with compassion.” (See Matthew 9:36.)
What would happen if a non-Christian came to you and said, “I’ve heard about Christianity. I’ll gather all of my family and friends if you will come to my house and tell me what it’s all about. Tell me why I should believe in Jesus Christ.”
What would you do?
That is the story in Acts 10. The man was Cornelius. He was a pagan and a Roman centurion. An angel had told him, “Send for Simon Peter.” So he did.
The Lord worked through an angel on Cornelius, and the Lord worked through a vision on Simon Peter. Because there is something that even an angel cannot do, and that is to share Jesus Christ.
Simon Peter told Cornelius and his family,
The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all—that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached….And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree (Acts 10:36-37,39 Emphasis added).
You ought to have a witness like that if you have experienced the Lord Jesus. What you have not seen with the physical eye, you have understood with the eye of faith. A Christian with a glowing testimony is never at the mercy of a pagan with an argument.
But how was Cornelius to know that this was not just Peter’s own wishful thinking? Peter gave a second line of evidence.
We do not give only our personal witness, but the witness of the Holy Scriptures. All of the Old Testament prophets—not some, all—speak unanimously that Jesus is Lord. (See Acts 10:43.)
The seed we scatter is God’s Word. “For the word of God is living and powerful” (Hebrews 4:12a), and if you keep scattering the seed, it will sprout and give life, and sometimes the hardest heart will crack.
But remember, anything you can talk someone into, they can be talked out of. Therefore...
Salvation is God’s Work. We are totally dependent upon the Holy Spirit of God to convince people of the message of the Gospel—just as Simon Peter was.
While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word (Acts 10:44).
While Peter was speaking to Cornelius, the Holy Spirit was there saying, “Amen. That is true.” He is the one who really persuades us to believe the good news of Jesus Christ. (See 1 John 5:9.)
As an ambassador for Christ, before you witness to unbelievers, you must say, “Holy Spirit of God, speak through me.”
This does not mean that everybody who hears your witness will be saved. But in the parable of the sower, the sower did not analyze the soil. He just sowed the seed. “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:6). The transformative power comes from the Holy Spirit alone.
You cannot make a seed grow, but you can sow a seed. We are dependent upon the power of God. But there is this promise: if you will keep sowing, beyond the shadow of any doubt, you will have a harvest.
You will get more joy out of leading a person to Jesus Christ than you got when you were saved yourself, because you know more about what the love of God is doing to him than you knew what was happening to you at that time.
We are waiting for the Lord of the harvest to come. When the Lord comes and all the harvest is caught up to meet Him, what a day that will be!
Psalm 126:5-6; Proverbs 11:30; 1 Peter 1:18-19; Matthew 9:36, 28:18-19; Daniel 12:3; Acts 10:36-37,39,43-44; Hebrews 4:12; 1 John 5:9; 1 Corinthians 3:6
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:15-16).
How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!” (Romans 10:14-15).
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound…(Isaiah 61:1).
