What is the Evangelistic Message: Going Deeper

(If you are looking for the connect study for this upcoming week it has been posted directly underneath this entry)

In his book, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, J.I. Packer asks the question, "What is the Evangelistic message?" He answers it by giving us four essential ingredients:

1. The gospel is a message about God. It tells us who He is, what His character is, what His standards are, and what He requires of us, His creatures. It tells us that we owe our very existence to Him, that for good or ill we are always in His hands and under His eye, and that He made us to worship and serve Him, to show forth His praise and to live for His glory.

2. The gospel is a message about sin. It tells us how we have fallen short of God's standard; how we have become guilty, filthy, and helpless in sin, and now stand under the wrath of God. It tells us that the reason why we sin continually is that we are sinners by nature, and that nothing we do, or try to do, four ourselves can put us right, or bring us back into God's favor.

3. The gospel is a message about Christ. Christ is the son of God incarnate; the Lamb of God dying for sin; Christ the risen Lord; Christ the perfect Savior. We must NOT present the person of Christ apart from His saving work. We must make clear to our hearers who it is we are introducing to them; his whole person, who he is and what he has done.

4. The gospel is a summons to faith and repentance. All who hear the gospel are summoned by God to repent and believe. Faith being the casting and resting of oneself and one's confidence on the promises of mercy which Christ has given to sinners, and on the Christ who gave those promises. Repentance is more than just sorrow, but a change of mind and heart, a new life of denying self and serving the Savior as king in self's place.

Let us all with a love for God and desire to glorify Him and a love for our neighbor discipline ourselves to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

Evangelism

The Discipline in Focus

Evangelism can be defined as presenting Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit to sinful people, in order that they may come to put their trust in God through Him, to receive Him as their Savior, and serve Him as their King in the fellowship of His church (J.I. Packer). Evangelism is simply telling people the good news of Jesus Christ. Evangelism is seen in relating that salvation is found through Jesus Christ alone. Evangelism is not merely teaching moral law or general truths about God’s existence; it is not just telling of the example or the teaching of the historical Jesus, nor is it only telling of Jesus as a helper or friend, but evangelism is proclaiming a specific message of salvation in Jesus Christ. Christ is to be proclaimed as “the one mediator between God and men”, who “suffered for sins that he might bring us to God” 1 Peter 3:18. J.I. Packer states that there is no evangelism where this specific message is not declared.

Also in evangelism we are not only proclaiming a message, but are exhorting sinners to accept Christ Jesus as their Savior and Lord. In evangelism we are calling sinners to repent and believe. It is a call to turn from sin and trust in Christ. Evangelism is a work of communication in which Christians make themselves mouth pieces for God’s message of mercy to sinners. The delivery of this message involves calling the hearer to conversion.

Training Points

Evangelism is something that is expected of Christians. Jesus Christ has commanded us to witness. (Matt 28:19-20, Mark 16:15, Luke 24:47, John 20:21, Acts 1:8). We are all commanded to tell others the good news of Jesus Christ.

Evangelism is empowered by the Holy Spirit. Believers are empowered to evangelize (Acts 1:8). Believers are often fearful of sharing the gospel for fear of failure. But success in evangelism is in being faithful to share the message. Success is not primarily seen is the responses to the message. Regardless of the results, whenever we share the good news of Jesus Christ we are successful. It is through the gospel that God gives the power to believe (Rom 10:17, Rom. 1:16).

Evangelism is a Discipline. When we share the good news of Jesus Christ it should be similar to the message of someone who has just gotten engaged or a couple who has had their first child. It should be with great joy and excitement. A message that has to be shared because of the joy it gives. A message that overflows out of that person’s life. Evangelism is also a discipline that must be worked on. Donald Whitney suggests that we must work to get ourselves into the context of evangelism, that is, we should not just wait for opportunities but should pursuit them (see Matt 5:16 and John 9:25). It is not for lack of training that we do not share the gospel, but a lack of discipline. If we understand the message enough to accept it ourselves we should know it well enough to tell someone else how to be saved. We must train ourselves to pursuit evangelistic opportunities or we will excuse ourselves out of them.


Respond
1. How would you define evangelism? Could inviting someone to church be called evangelism? Why or why not?
2. Does evangelism have to be done the same way all the time? What are some different ways to evangelize? (door-to-door, inviting non believers over for lunch, living the gospel in front of people and looking for times to share the gospel, serving people in times of crisis, developing friendships with nonbelievers etc…)
3. What are your fears concerning evangelism?
4. What are some ways we can discipline ourselves to evangelize? (Believing that this is commanded from the Lord, knowing that God will use my words, being active in planning opportunities to share the gospel)

The Analogy of a Wedding Anniversary - Worship

(If you are looking for the Connect Bible study for this coming Sunday it is directly below this post)

The following is quoted from John Piper's book Desiring God...

Worship is a way of gladly reflecting back to God the radiance of His worth. This cannot be done by mere acts of duty. It can be done only when spontaneous affections arise in the heart.

Consider the analogy of a wedding anniversary. Mine is on December 21. Suppose on this day I bring home a dozen long-stemmed roses for Noel (Piper's wife). When she meets me at the door I hold out the roses, and she says, "O Johnny, they're beautiful, thank you," and gives me a big hug. Then suppose I hold up my hand and say matter-of-factly, "Don't mention it; its my duty."

What happens? Is not the exercise of duty a noble thing? Do not we honor those we dutifully serve? Not much. Not if there's not heart in it. Dutiful roses are a contradiction in terms. If I am not moved by a spontaneous affection for her as a person, the roses do not honor her. In fact, they belittle her. They are a very thin covering for the fact that she does not have the worth or beauty in my eyes to kindle affection. All I can muster is a calculated expression of marital duty....

The real duty of worship is not the outward duty to say or do the liturgy. It is in the inward duty, the command --"Delight yourself in the Lord!" (Psalm 37:4)....

The reason this is the real duty of worship is that this honors God, while the empty performance of ritual does not. If I take my wife out for the evening on our anniversary and she asks me, "Why do you do this?" the answer that honors her most is, "Because nothing makes me happier tonight that to be with you."

"It's my duty," is a dishonor to her.
"It's my joy," is an honor.


How shall we honor God in worship? By saying, "It's my duty?" Or by saying, "It's my joy"?

Worship

Worship

The Discipline in Focus

In Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life Donald Whitney explains that the word worship comes from the Saxon word weorthscype, which later is translated worthship. He says, “To worship God is to ascribe the proper worth to God, to magnify His worthiness of praise, or better, to approach and address God as He is worthy.” God is to be approached as the King of the world that he is. He is to be approached as Holy, Sovereign, Creator, and Judge. Worship is focusing on God and prizing him above all things, as he deserves. Worship is a response to God that shows how worthy He is of our affections, time, thoughts, and life. Worship is what happens when someone encounters the worthiness of God. Worship is more than singing and preaching. It is more than words and actions. Worship is always to be done in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:23-24). It is not something that is done just be going to a place (WOW, Connect, or “big church.” Worship is first and foremost an experience of the heart. Prayer without heart is vain. Songs without heart are vain. As believers we have within us the Spirit of truth. Without the Spirit residing in us worship will not happen. True worship is motivated by the Spirit. The Spirit is the one who makes cold hearts, hearts that are on fire for God. We also worship God according to the truth of Scripture. We worship Him as he is revealed in the Bible. We are to worship in response to truth, says Whitney.

How then is worship a discipline? Whitney again helps us by explaining, “Worship is a spiritual discipline insofar as it is both an end and a means. The worship of God is an end in itself because as we’ve defined it, is to focus on and respond to God. There is no higher goal than focusing on and responding to God. But worship is also a means in the sense that it is a means to godliness. The more truly we worship God, the more we become like Him…People become like their focus….Godliness required disciplined worship.” Focus, mediation on truth, godly responses to our circumstances, godly relationships, godly thoughts….all these are acts of worship. Prizing Christ above all things takes discipline. Worship has to do with real life. Everything we come against in this life will point us away from worshiping God. “We breathe God ignoring air,” John Piper says. We must be disciplined to continually aim our affections towards Jesus Christ.

Scripture

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1-2

John 4:16-26
Isaiah 6
Mark 12:30
Revelations 4:8
Matthew 15:8-9



A Practical Response

1. What does the word worship mean?
2. According to Isaiah 6 and Revelations 4:8 what does worship look like in Heaven?
3. True or False: What you love the most in your life is what you worship.
4. What does it mean to worship in Spirit and Truth?
5. Will you put actual worship into your acts of worship? (If worship is boring to you, then you are not really worshiping.)
6. What does worship look like away from the church building? (How does one worship God in their relationships, their work ethic, what they watch or listen to, etc?)

More on Prayer

(If you are searching for the Prayer Study for this Sunday look directly under this post).

Here is some more Scripture on prayer:

Pray for those who persecute you. - Matt. 5:44

But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. - Matthew 6:6

And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do. - Matt. 6:7-8.

Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. - Matt. 9:38.

How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. - Luke 11:13.

Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. John 14:13.

When we look at the whole of Scripture we see that Jesus desires to create a people that pray. He led by example: rising early to pray (Mark 1:35) seeking times alone to pray (Matt 14:23) spending whole nights in prayer (Luke 6:12) and preparing for his suffering and death by prayer (Luke 22:41-42).

Praying is a way of relating to God in that we receive joy and help and God receives honor and glory.

Quick Addition

Why do we pray "In Jesus' name"? Two answers by two great pastor-theolgians:

Thomas Watson says that "We are to pray "in the name of Christ." To pray in the name of Christ is not only to mention Christ's name in prayer but to pray in the hope and confidence of his merits." (The Ten Commandments, pg 240)

John Piper says "The confidence we have in prayer is owing to Jesus. He did not just teach us to pray -- he died for us and rose again to remove insuperable obstacles to prayer. Without the death of Jesus, our sins would not be forgiven and the wrath of God would still be against us. In that condition we could expect no answers to prayer from God. Therefore, Jesus is the ground of all our prayers. This is why he taught us to pray in his name. Ending our prayers "in Jesus' name, Amen" is not a mere tradition; it is an affirmation of faith in Jesus as the only hope of access to God."

Praying (Connect Study)

Praying
The Discipline in Focus
The Westminster Catechism asks, “What is prayer?” And it answers, “Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgement of his mercies.” Prayer is a spiritual discipline that accompanies all the other spiritual disciplines towards godliness. When we read God’s word we should pray, when we fast we should pray, when we worship we pray, when we serve we pray. In other words, prayer is important. So important in fact that J.I. Packer once said, “I believe that prayer is the measure of the man, spiritually, in a way that nothing else is, so that how we pray is as important a question as we can ever face.”

Martin Luther once said, “As it is the business of tailors to make cloths and of cobblers to make shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray.” Prayer is something that is God expects from us. We are commanded in Scripture to pray.

Colossians 4:2, “devote yourselves to prayer.” What are you devoted to? When you sacrifice for it, spend time planning it, and make it a top priority then you know you are devoted to it.

I Thessalonians 5:17, “pray continually.” Donald Whitney says of praying continually, “Prayer is in one sense an expression of a Christian’s unbroken relationship with the Father. You might think of praying without ceasing as communicating with God on one line while also taking calls on another. Even while you are talking on the other line, you never lose your awareness of the need to return your attention to the Lord.”


Our devotion to prayer will reveal a lot about ourselves. How often you pray says a lot about who you trust. If you are constantly calling out to God in prayer then it is more likely that you are trusting God more than yourself. What you pray about is revealing as well. John Piper writes,

• What a person prays for shows the spiritual condition of his heart. If we do not pray for spiritual things (like the glory of Christ, and the hallowing of God’s name, and the salvation of sinners, and the holiness of our hearts, and the advance of the gospel, and contrition for sin, and the fullness of the Spirit, and the coming of the kingdom, and the joy of knowing Christ) then probably it is because we do not desire these things.

How we pray will show us what we love the most. How we pray will show us what our heart truly prizes above all things. Remember that prayer is a spiritual discipline that ends in God receiving glory and us becoming more like Christ.

Scripture to Study on Prayer
Matthew 6: 5-14, Matthew 7:7-8, Luke 11:1-13, Col 4:2, 1 Thess. 5:17, James 5:13-18, Luke 18:1-8.



Getting Practical
The disciples asked Jesus in Luke 11:1, “Lord, teach us to pray.” As believers in Christ we learn to pray gradually. Prayer is something every believer can and is expected to do, but just as a child learns to talk, Christians learn to pray. We learn how to pray by:
Praying – The best way to learn how to pray is just to pray. The Holy Spirit will teach us to pray as we continue to pray.
Meditate on Scripture – When you read the Psalms what you notice is that prayer and mediation go hand in hand. When a person is meditating on the laws of the Lord they are praying as well. Matthew Henry said, “David’s prayers were not his words only, but his meditations; as meditation is the best preparation for prayer, so prayers is the best issue of meditation. Meditation and prayer go together.”
Spend time praying with others – Spend time with godly men and women who are prayer warriors and love spending time meditating on Scripture.


Respond
1. How often do you pray? What do you pray for?
2. Since prayer is expected, will you pray more? What plans can you make to help you pray more?
3. What does Matthew 7:7-8 say about God answering prayer. Does he answer prayer?
4. What is the purpose of praying?
5. What does your prayer life reveal about you?

Applying God's Word: Conforming to Scripture

Sorry for the delay this week. This week we are talking about how to apply God's word to our everyday lives. We have to keep in mind that our goal is godliness; conforming to Jesus Christ; conforming to Scripture.

An old Puritan pastor Thomas Watson puts it like this:

Let us lead Scripture lives. Oh that the Bible might be seen printed in our lives! Do what the Word commands. Obeidence is an excellent way of commenting upon the Bible. "I will walk in thy truth" Psalm 136:11. Let the Word be the sun-dial by which you set your life. What are we the better for having the Scripture, if we do not direct all our speeches and actions according to it? What is a carpenter the better for his rule about him, if he sticks it as his back, and never makes use of it for measuring and squaring his work? So, what are we the better for the rule of the Word, if we do not make use of it, and regulate our lives by it? How many swerve and deviate from the rule!

The Word teaches to be sober and temperate, but they are drunk; to be chase and holy, but they are profane; they go quite fromt he rule! What a dishonor is it to religion, for men to live in contradiction to Scripture! The Word is called a "light to our feet" Ps. 119:105. It is not only a light to our eyes to mend our sight, but to our feet to mend our walk. Oh let us lead Bible conversations!

I love that last line. Oh let us lead Bible conversations!. I pray we will in our Connect groups this Sunday.