YOUR
MISSION: EVANGELISM
Steve W Reeves
INTRODDUCTION:
A. A
sales manager was trying to motivate his sales force. He showed them a large, white poster board with a small black dot in the middle. “What do you see,” he asked?
Without fail they answered, “a black dot.” He replied, “All of you were so focused on
the black dot none of you said, “a white poster board. There is much more poster
board than there is black dot.”
1. In John 4:35 Jesus said, “Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the
fields, that they are white for harvest.”
2. Many times all we see is the “black dot” of ourselves and our families. We fail to
see the white fields of souls ready for harvest.
B. In this series of messages I have talked about your mission in life. I have
tried to challenge you to find your purpose and lose yourself in that purpose. I have
tried to encourage you to develop a passionate determination to find and fulfill your
life’s mission.
1. In these next three lessons I intend to consider the church’s mission. I want us to
think about the mission of this church. What are we passionate about at the West
Side church of Christ in Searcy, Arkansas?
2. Our mission is determined by the word of God. That mission consists of three
essential elements. Evangelism, Equipping, and Encouraging.
Everything the church is about is included in these three words.
3. In this message we will consider the first of these three essential elements. Jesus
calls us to be “fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). Many churches have become
content to be keepers of the aquarium. Their mission is to keep things as they are,
take care of themselves and not worry about anyone else.
C. In Acts 8 we read about a man named Phillip who embodied the passion and mission
of evangelism.
1. He was one of the first deacons (Acts 6:5).
2. According to Acts 8:5, he, “went down to the city of Samaria and began
proclaiming Christ to them.”
3. In verses 25-40 we see his passion for sharing the message of Christ.
I. THE CALL
A. Phillip’s passionate purpose was to obey God. Do you have a passion for obeying
God?
1. In Acts 8:25 Phillip was going through the villages of Samaria preaching.
Suddenly, he received a call to go down to the road that went from Jerusalem to
Gaza (a distance of about 75 miles).
2. Notice the angel’s call, “Get up and go!” This was not a suggestion. It was a
command from God.
B. Do you want to be obedient to the Lord’s commands? Evangelism is a direct
command from our Lord just as much as faith, repentance, baptism and righteous
living. It is not a suggestion, an option or an election.
1. Proverbs 11:30 says, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who is
wise wins souls.”
a. Do you consider yourself to be wise?
b. If you are not endeavoring to share your faith you are not wise in God’s sight.
2. Jesus commanded the apostles to, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with
you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).
a. Notice verse 20, “teaching them to observe all things I commanded you.”
b. If we are to observe what Jesus commanded them we, too, are to go, teach
and baptize.
c. Where do we go? To the whole world! That includes across the street and
down the block. A little boy was told by his mother to get ready to go. He said,
“I ain’t going.” She said, “It’s I’m not going. We’re not going. They’re not
going.” He said, “It sounds to me like nobody’s going.” Sadly, in many
churches today nobody is going.
d. Do you believe we will stand before God to give an account for how we have
lived (2 Corinthians 5:10; Hebrews 9:27)? If so, please consider that we shall
be called upon to account for how we have shared our faith.
C. The call Phillip received was, “Go.”
1. Nowhere does the Bible ever command the world to come to the church. It does
command the church to go to the world.
2. The church is not to be a “sacred society for snubbing sinners.” We are not to
congregate in our “holy huddle” while ignoring everyone else.
II. THE CONVERSATION
A. Phillip saw a man riding in a chariot.
1. He was an official from Ethiopia.
2. He was a respectable, trustworthy man in charge of the treasury.
3. He was a God-fearing man who had been to Jerusalem to worship.
B. Phillip did not hesitate to go up to this man in his chariot and initiate a
conversation.
1. If we are going to share our faith we must be willing to initiate conversations with
people who are not believers.
2. Phillip demonstrated a simple way of doing this. He asked a question about
something the man was doing.
a. The man was reading a passage of Scripture (Isaiah 53).
b. Phillip simply asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
c. He did not go up to him and start preaching. He showed concern as he
initiated a conversation.
d. This was the method Jesus used. He talked with people one on one.
(Nicodemus – John 3; Samaritan woman – John 4).
C. Every church needs to ask, “What are we doing to initiate a conversation with
people in our community?
1. Jesus told a story about a sower who broadcast his seed (Matthew 13). The
seed was good but not all of it produced a crop. The difference was in the
soils. Some of the soil had not been prepared. It was hard, rocky or filled with
thorns. Some of the soil had been prepared and brought forth a great crop.
2. When we initiate a conversation with people we are preparing soil in which the
word of God can be planted. If we are not seeking to initiate a conversation
with people in our community we will never reach them.
III. THE CONVICTION
A. Verses 30-31 reveal, “Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and
said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “Well, how could I,
unless someone guides me?”
1. What was the Ethiopian reading?
2. Verses 32-33 reveal state that he was reading a passage from Isaiah 53. “He
was led as a sheep to slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, So He
does not open His mouth. 33 “In humiliation His judgment was taken away; Who
will relate His generation? For His life is removed from the earth. (Isaiah 53:7-9).
3. The Eunuch had a question (Acts 8:34). “Of whom did the prophet speak?”
4. Verse 35 records, “Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this
Scripture he preached Jesus to him.”
a. Phillip told this man about the value of his soul.
b. He told this man of the life and teachings of Jesus.
c. He told this man how Jesus had died on the cross to atone for his sins and
how Jesus had been raised again on the third day.
d. He shared the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-3) with him.
B. The Gospel is the power to convict people.
1. In Romans 1:16-17 Paul wrote, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the
power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to
the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it
is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”
2. The power to convict people is not in us. It is in the message of Jesus. As a
young man my father taught me to play golf. When I tried to hit the ball hard he
would caution me, “Let the club do the work.” We need to remember to let the
gospel do the work of convicting human hearts.
C. This man was convicted. As they came to some water the Ethiopian said, “Look!
Water! What prevents me from being baptized” (verse 36)?
IV. THE CONVERSION
A. Phillip told the Ethiopian, “If you believe in your heart you may.”
1. Phillip’s mission and passion was for people to change their hearts and serve
God.
2. This must be the church’s priority. We are not here to be a spiritual social society
or a cloistered community. We are here to lead men and women to conversion.
B. These two men stopped the chariot, went down into the water and Phillip baptized
the Ethiopian by immersing him in the water. I pray that we might develop a mission
and passion for keeping the baptismal waters stirred.
V. THE CONTINUATION
A. This story does not end with the baptism of the Ethiopian. Notice verse 39. “When
they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the
eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing.”
1. This story continued as the Ethiopean went back to his country and became the
first missionary in Africa.
2. Phillip continued going from village to village preaching.
B. Evangelism is an ongoing mission that will continue until Jesus comes.
CONCLUSION:
A. As a fifteen year old I went with a group of young people from my home church on a
week-long summer mission trip to Greenville, Mississippi. We spent a week knocking
on people’s doors inviting them to come to a Revival at the county fairgrounds.
Charles Coil was preaching. Leon Sanderson was leading singing. It was during that
week that I made a decision about my life’s mission and purpose. I wanted to become
a preacher. For forth-four years that has been my mission. It has been my passion
and my purpose.
B. What are you passionate about in your life? What are we passionate about at West
Side? May our mission always be to lead those who are lost into a saving relationship
with Jesus Christ.
