Today we continue our study of the armor of God and come to Eph 6:15, where we’re told to put on, as our shoes, the readiness of the gospel of peace. I think most Christian men want to see God use us in others’ lives to bring the gospel to them. Yet, nearly all would say we fail more in this part of our mission than in any other part. Could it be that it is harder to share our faith than it should be because we have some mistaken ideas of what Scripture says sharing the gospel looks like? That is the question we investigate in this episode.
For many Christians, this is what sharing the gospel looks like: It is having the courage to overcome every piece of emotional intelligence we’ve learned about relationships, and intruding into the life of a co-worker, neighbor, or stranger to tell someone, who doesn’t want to hear it, the gospel message that they are a sinner in need of a savior, and then being willing to suffer rejection if we are accused of being preachy. This “traditional"view has major flaws. It misunderstands the word, evangelism, it misunderstands the gospel, and it misunderstands peace.
The Word Evangelism (EUANGELIZO)
Why have Christians come to this flawed view of personal evangelism that I just read? It may be because the place we look for evangelism models is the book of Acts, which exhibits primarily proclamational evangelism. Joe Aldrich observes,
The early church was planted because of the strong proclamational ministries of the apostles. They preached in synagogues, on street corners, and in marketplaces. …In a new, unreached mission field, evangelism usually begins with proclamation, moves to persuasion, and then as decisions are solidified and converts grow, the gospel becomes a visible presence….Once a thriving church is established, the starting point for evangelism, increasingly shifts from proclamational (confrontational) to presence (relational) (Life-Style Evangelism).
Most of the examples of gospel sharing in Acts were public, not personal evangelism. However, to translate EUANGELIZO “preach” gives a wrong impression of what evangelism is. There is another Greek word, KERUSO, for preach. Translating EUANGELIZO as preach the gospel is especially troubling in Acts 8:4: Now those who were scattered (Laymen and women--not apostles) went about PREACHING (EUANGELIZO) the word. But preaching is not what they did and not a part of the meaning of EUANGELIZO. This Greek word is composed of EU, which means good and ANGEL, which means messenger. It means being a messenger of good news, not a preacher. Later in the same chapter, in Acts 8:26-40, the same word, EUANGELIZO is used not to refer to preaching but to describe Philip’s interactive conversation with the Ethiopian Eunuch, which began with Philip asking the Ethiopian Eunuch a question. Author, John Leonard observes that the traditional view of evangelism has unfortunately been shaped by the word, preach, which focuses on delivering content. He writes,
Traditional evangelism only takes place when we drive home our point over and over again—when we do all the talking. We have gotten the impression that on every page of the New Testament we are commanded to preach the gospel. We know what preaching looks like because we see it in church. The model for traditional evangelism looks a lot like what preachers do on Sunday mornings….
Leonard then speculates that if we think evangelism is essentially preaching, i.e. one way communication to tell people they are sinners who need a savior, it is no wonder we don’t share our faith! He continues, We don’t share our faith because preaching is seen negatively in the culture. We have all said, “Don’t preach at me!” or “Preach to yourself!” The one-way communication style of preaching doesn’t communicate that you care much about the person you are speaking to. Instead, this style is associated with a holier-than-thou-attitude.
Faithfulness to our call to share our faith is not primarily seeking an opening to push the content of the gospel into another’s life! Nor does faithfulness to the call to share your faith require you to violate everything you’ve learned about relationships. Jesus wrote the book on emotional intelligence. It is true that at times Jesus spoke harshly to the scribes and Pharisees! But that is because Christ, the Anointed One, filled the office of Prophet—God’s prosecuting attorney to convict his people of their sin. That is not the way Jesus interacted with others in his every day, private relationships. Instead, he modeled the pattern for communication given in verses like Prov 16: 21, The wise of heart is called discerning, and sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness, and Prov 16:23, The heart of the wise makes his speech judicious and adds persuasiveness to his lips. Jesus wants us to wisely impact our non-Christians friends for him. Evangelism, EUANGELIZO, is winsomely sharing good news.
The GOSPEL We Share
In the traditional view of sharing the gospel that I started with, the hearer must admit he is a sinner who can’t save himself and trust the work of Jesus on the cross as the atoning sacrifice for his sin. Such faith is his admission ticket to heaven. While this is true, it is only two chapters of a four-chapter story—1) the fall, 2) redemption. Failure to see the whole gospel story will cause our gospel message to focus just on another’s sin and Jesus’ death on the cross so he can avoid eternal separation from God in hell. While these two chapters are essential to anyone’s salvation, that is NOT what Jesus referred to as the good news. A thoughtful examination of the word, gospel, in Scripture shows that the gospel Jesus spoke of was the gospel of the kingdom. Jesus had begun his ministry by calling attention to the cataclysmic intrusion of the kingdom of God into time. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mk 1:15). The good news that Jesus preached was not just a message of personal private salvation, but the gospel of the kingdom. “And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people” (Mt 4:23). The good news of the kingdom was that the second Adam, Christ, had come to overthrow Satan, sin, and death, the usurpers of Adam’s kingdom and begun to establish his righteousness kingdom over earth, restoring everything broken by sin. The truncated, two-chapter gospel, man has sinned and needs to trust Jesus as his savior completely misses what Jesus said about his “kingdom.” It is only in recovering the entire, four-chapter Gospel, 1) creation, 2) fall, 3) redemption, 4) restoration that Christ’s vital role as the anointed king, (besides being anointed priest, and prophet) makes sense. When we start the gospel story with creation, we quickly learn that the kingdom is Adam’s kingdom, earth. And the fourth chapter (restoration) reminds us that believers aren’t chosen to escape from this world, but to renew this world. Tim Keller writes,
Some conservative Christians think of the story of salvation as the fall, redemption, heaven. In this narrative, the purpose of redemption is escape from this world…If however the story of salvation is creation, fall, redemption, restoration, then things look different...The purpose of redemption is not to escape from this word but to renew it….(The gospel) is about the coming of God’s kingdom to renew all things. (“Our New Global Culture Ministry in Urban Centers” address).
The true gospel is the four-chapter gospel of the kingdom not just the two chapters of fall and redemption-- that we have a plane ticket to heaven, paid for by Christ’s blood on the cross. If that were the true gospel our job right now would be to wait around at the airport. The true gospel is about God’s glorious creation, earth, a mirror of God’s glory, being set free from its slavery to sin and Jesus fixing everything in Adam’s kingdom broken by sin.
The Gospel of PEACE
The Greek word for peace, EIRENE, does not just mean the cessation of hostilities in relationships, but harmonious flourishing in relationships. The corresponding Hebrew word is shalom, which refers to wholeness and health. Going back to creation, God designed humans to have four types of harmonious relationships:
- Harmonious relationship with God, depending upon his love as our lifeline.
- Harmonious relationship with self, finding our dignity and worth as God’s image bearers.
- Harmonious relationship with others, made to connect to others by loving them as we do ourselves.
- Harmonious relationship with the creation, assigned the job of discovering and developing earth’s potential.
When these relationships are functioning properly, we experience the fulness of life God intended—shalom. But Adam and Eve’s mutiny against God plunged all four of these relationships into disharmony, chaos and decay.
Their relationship with God with God was damaged, as their intimacy with him was replaced with fear; their relationship with self was marred as Adam and Eve developed a sense of shame; their relationship with others was broken, as Adam quickly blamed Eve for their sin; and their relationship with the rest of creation became distorted, as God cursed the ground and the child-bearing process…. Because the four relationships are the building blocks for all human activity, the affects of the fall are manifested in the economic, social, religious, and political systems that humans have created throughout history (When Helping Hurts, Corbett & Fikkert).
Things are not the way they are supposed to be. But the good news of the kingdom is that Christ has come to fix WHATEVER is broken by sin in Adam’s kingdom—to restore harmony in all four spheres of relationship—with God, self, others, and creation. To effectively share the gospel, we must think carefully about all the aspects of human life that have been broken by sin because we are going to see that Jesus tailored the good news of the kingdom to the point of brokenness being felt by his listeners. Joe Aldrich, in his book, Life-Style Evangelism, calls this inductive evangelism, in contrast to deductive evangelism. He writes: Traditionally, evangelism courses teach people one basic approach to witnessing. They are trained to announce a blanket gospel message suitable for all. Lest we be too critical of such training programs, those who have been trained by them are much more “ready” to share their faith than those who have not been so trained. Nevertheless, we must acknowledge that in personal evangelism, Jesus always seemed to follow an inductive model. Aldrich explains:
The inductive model presupposes knowledge of the individual being addressed. The gospel is then tailor-made to his individual needs. The goal is to discover that point in the individual’s life at which the gospel will become good news, and then share it as such. Jesus’ method of dealing with people followed this adaptive, inductive model. To Nicodemus the ruler, he said, “You must be born again.”—he never used “born again,” a highly conceptual metaphor in any other recorded instance in the NT. He talked to the woman by the well about “living water.” But when the rich young man came up and asked what he had to do to have eternal life, Jesus did not talk to him about living water. Knowing that money was this man’s god, he said, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me. He was basically calling him to a total switch of Gods. On the other hand, he didn’t tell Zacchaeus, the tax collector who went up in a tree, to give away everything he had. He simply said, Zacchaeus….I must stay at your household today.” By the end of the day, Zacchaeus had decided on his own to give half of his possessions to the poor.
The inductive evangelism approach fits hand in glove with understanding that our good news is that King Jesus has come to restore everything broken by sin. It includes broken bodies, broken dignity, broken marriages, broken father/son relationships, broken sexuality, broken values that exalt material prosperity and success over caring for the downtrodden. Jesus tailored the good news of the kingdom to the point of brokenness being felt by his listeners. Let’s do a simple exercise to see how to do this, using a tool, Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to point us to the various categories of human need, because sin has broken everything.
A. Maslow says mankind’s most foundational need is PHYSIOLOGICAL--for oxygen, water, food, clothing, shelter, and health. But the curse of Adam’s sin upon the ground has caused humans to lack what they need physiologically to flourish. The coming of Christ’s kingdom means that creation itself will be set free from this bondage to sin. Jesus gave a foretaste of this reality by healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, empowering the lame to walk, and himself rising from the dead. Since his kingdom brings the renewal of the physical earth, Jesus taught his true followers to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, house strangers, clothe the naked, and cure the sick if they could (Matt 25:34-36.) The first message of good news for a starving man is bread. That is why the church historically has always cared for the sick, the dying, the poor, widows the homeless—those harmed by the brokenness of the physical world. The genuine, agape love shown by believers in meeting these physical needs is the best way to turn their hearts to Christ.
B. The next level need that humans seek to satisfy when their physiological needs are met is SAFETY. That is why Christians have founded shelters for battered women, sought to end the sex trade, and founded pregnancy centers to save the lives of unborn children and women from the trauma of abortion. Support groups like Celebrate Recovery are a great way to reach others with the gospel. Addiction to pornography, alcohol, gambling, and drugs have the power to ruin lives. I have spoken to many men who did not come to faith in Christ until they were desperate for his help because an addiction was threatening to destroy their family.
C. The next level of needs Maslow identifies are for LOVE/BELONGING. Jesus knew that this was the path to the heart of Zacchaeus, the outcast traitor. When Jesus spotted him outside of Jericho in a tree to see above the crowds, all Jesus said to him was, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today (Luke 19:5). A few moments later, Zacchaeus repented of his dishonesty and Jesus remarked, “Today salvation has come to his house” (vs 9). Jesus identified this same need in the heart of the outcast woman at the well of Samaria, there in the heat of the day, instead of at the time the other women went out to get water. He seemed to recognize her thirst for love and pointed to his ability to give her living water. I’ve personally seen those who are lost come to Christ through marriage seminars, so they can better love each other through Christ’s power. In a divorce recovery ministry, I saw many rejected, lonely people realize how much they needed Christ’s love and come to faith. Through meeting with a couple who wanted to be married and showing them that they need Christ’s power to love each other well, I’ve seen folks open their hearts to Jesus. The gospel is the answer to broken human relationships in countless ways.
D. Maslow’s next level is SELF-ESTEEM. Sin crushes the high view we should have of ourselves because we are God’s image bearers. So, feeling clean inside, i.e. being forgiven of our sins is a felt need for some. I would also place a desire to be successful in our responsibilities here. I have seen many non-Christians come into a seminar I was leading called, Great Dads. About 80% of the way through the material, we show overwhelming statistical data that proves that children do better in every area of life—their friendships, their grades, resisting peer pressure, etc. if they have a strong spiritual/moral foundation. Then we point out that the best way for them to build that foundation is through their example, as dads. I can almost see it on men’s faces. They realize they can’t take their kids where they need to be without getting right with God themselves. I also watched men and boys commit their lives to Christ at a breakfast with Joe Gibbs—just saying he needed Christ in his life to make it whole, to make it work.
E. Maslow’s highest level of human need, he calls SELF-ACTUALIZATION. It is the desire to know that your life matters, that it is more than a shooting star that streaks through the sky for a moment in time and then is gone forever. When Jesus called Peter to follow him, he did not say, “You must be born again,” or “I will give you living water.” He miraculously filled Peter’s fishing nets with fish and then said, “Follow me and I will make you a fisher of men.” Jesus’ approach to Peter was to enlist him in a great cause. Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Life is the most popular book in the world, outside of the Bible. He appeals to most people’s desire to know, “What is the purpose of life? What am I here for?” His book has brought millions to faith in Christ through appealing to the human desire for significance.
Let me close with a final quote from Aldrich. Effective evangelism begins where people are, not where you would like them to be. As the King’s messengers, our challenge is to help others discover how their needs can be satisfied through a relationship with Jesus Christ (Ibid).
For Further Prayerful Thought:
1. Why is it misleading to understand the Greek word for evangelism (EUANGELIZO) to mean preaching the gospel to others?
2. How does understanding the four-chapter gospel help us realize that Christ’s kingdom power is for more than just an eternal life insurance policy?
3. Can you think of biblical examples not mentioned in this episode of Jesus tailoring the good news of the kingdom to the point of brokenness being felt by his listener?
