1109. Evangelism in the Church

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. The school was founded in 1927 by the evangelist Dr. Bob Jones Sr. His intent was to make a school where Christ would be the center of everything, so he established daily chapel services. Today, that tradition continues with fervent biblical preaching from The University Chapel platform. Today on The Daily Platform, we're continuing a study series about the role of the Church, called Christ's Body, the Church. Today's message will be about evangelism and the Church. Dr. Greg Mazak of the Bob Jones University Seminary will be speaking today. A member of BJU's faculty since 1986, Dr. Mazak has taught numerous classes relating to biblical counseling, psychology, and Church ministry, and has also spoken at hundreds of camps and conferences throughout the United States.

Greg is also senior pastor at Trinity Bible Church in Greer, South Carolina. It's a privilege for me this morning to be able to fellowship with you this morning in chapel, and I'm very thankful for the opportunity to continue on this theme that Dr. Pettit has given to us on evangelism and the Church. And I hope that as we consider some really basic things this morning, it'll encourage you. Now I hope you'll be patient with me.

I'm fighting some kind of cold or whatever, and I've tried to get lots of cold medicines in me and time it just right, that hopefully I won't sniffle and things like that. And if I say something inaccurate or incorrect, I hope you'll be gracious to me. If it's really bad, just raise your hand and wave, and then whatever I just said I'll go back and try to repeat. I want to talk about this topic of evangelism in the Church. It is such an important topic, just this idea of the Church, and I so appreciate my colleagues who've already come and brought wonderful messages that are helping us. I want to begin with just a very simple question for you. What is wrong with these questions? I'm going to put up just three simple questions, and these are questions we ask a whole lot of time, and I don't want to overly parse words and get overly semantic, but guys, what is wrong with these questions? Questions like what? Do you go to church? Or how about a second question? Where do you go to church?

Or maybe even a third question, where is your church? Now what's wrong with all three of these questions? And maybe the answer is obvious, but let's just make sure. Guys, what's wrong with these questions?

You say, it's none of your business. Well, that's not the right answer, okay? What's wrong with these questions? Every one of these questions assumes something inaccurately, and what is that assumption? It assumes that the church is a place. It assumes that the church is a physical structure or a location, right? Do you go to church?

Yes, I go there, right? Or maybe someone asks, where do you go to church? Well, you know, you go up Waithampton and you turn down the Suber Road, and there you find where I go to church.

Or where is your church? Well, again, just go on Suber, take a left off of Waithampton, and you're right there, as if that were our church. And you know, we even perpetuate this, I think, a lot of times on our church signs. Now, I don't want to make fun of someone's church sign because that's kind of a personal thing. It's maybe like making fun of someone's mother, you know?

You don't do that. So I have a sign that I'm going to use as a negative example, but I want to be clear, this is our church sign, okay? So I'm not making fun of your church.

Okay. What's wrong with this sign? Now, some of you are thinking it's very faded. I don't believe you. No, I'm not talking about that. It does need to be redone.

I admit that. What's wrong with this sign? Some of you are saying, well, it looks like that one little bolt is hanging down. Yeah, that needs repair. Okay.

I'm going to give you a hint that's not a mechanical answer. What's wrong with this sign? This sign that says Trinity Bible Church is in front of a building as if the building is our church, but the building's not the church. So maybe now you're thinking, okay, so what should this sign say? Well, I actually found a sign that I like better. Well, I don't like the whole sign, but there's one part of the sign I like. So you tell me what's better about this sign. Can you see it? You see the sign that says what? If you can read that. Now, I'm not saying we should go to the Church of Christ.

That's not my thing this morning. But it says the Church of Christ. Can you see what it says there, guys? Let's read it together. The Church of Christ meets here.

I like that. You know, that's what it should say on a church sign. Because why? Because the building's not the church. The location's not the church. The people are the church. And that location is just where a group of people meet. Now, some of you are thinking, wow, you're really into signs, you know?

Well, you know, I think it matters. You might be thinking, okay, if you could change your church sign, what would it say? Well, I don't even know if it would say Trinity. You know, when you become an elder or a pastor teacher of a certain church, you don't want to just come in and change the name of the church.

That's not necessarily a blessing, you know. But, see, if I were to plant a church from scratch, and I were just to start from the very beginning, you say, what would that church plant sign look like? This is one idea. I saw this sign, and I found that this one kind of appealed to me. And maybe you would like this one.

Something like this, okay? And when I saw that sign, I just felt a warmth in my heart. And I thought, boy, that would be a good one. Now, just to clarify, that's really not – the sign did say St. Gregory the Great, but our pastor is actually my daughter who does photography, kind of did a little bit of editing on that. Okay.

And so I – you got the idea. My main point this morning is what is a church? Well, a church is people, and as we think about that, I think that will help us on the topic of evangelism in the church.

I have two points this morning that I hope will be a blessing and an encouragement to you. Let's take them one at a time, okay? Number one, believers gather together as the church to be equipped to serve. So what do we do when we get together on the Lord's Day, when we come together on Sunday?

Let's take them one at a time. Believers gather as the church, the body of Christ. The church is a group of believers. The church is the body of Christ. And you know that, and we've already had this verse Dr. Reimers pointed out to us, but on Ephesians chapter 1, I will look at verse 1, chapter 1 and verse 22 and verse 23, if I can bring it up. It says, and hath put all things under his feet and gave them to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body. A lot of wonderful truth in that verse, but let me point out something just very, very simple. The church is his body.

So what do we do? We come together as the church. What is the church? The church is the body of Christ. The church is a group of believers. When we come together, when we assemble, we assemble as believers in Jesus Christ. The goal is never to see how many unbelievers we can get together. It's very common today to say, let's get unbelievers in here and let's get unbelievers saved, so whatever unbelievers want, let's give it to them.

Isn't that what we should do? And the answer is no. Because the body of Christ does not include unbelievers. The body of Christ includes believers and we assemble as believers.

You know, yesterday I had the joy of preaching sermons in the morning and in the evening. And when I'm doing my preparation, I'm sure your posture is the same way. I'm not continually thinking, what would an unsaved guy think about this? What would an unsaved woman think about this?

Make sure you don't say anything that an unsaved person wouldn't want to hear. Caution, we love having unsaved people visit our assembly. We go out of our way to make them feel at home and we're glad for them to come, but that's not the purpose.

You know, if it was the purpose, what would we do? We would just stop the average unsaved people and say, what do you want? And if they said short sermons, we'd give short sermons.

If they said we want this kind of music, then we'd give them that kind of music. Just give unbelievers whatever they want and then just do a quick hit with the Gospel. Why do many churches do that? Because they don't understand the nature of the church. A church is an assembly of believers, the body of Christ, and thus we all assemble together. You say, why do we assemble together? Well, we come together, it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 18, when you come together in the church, or we could translate that as a church, Paul writes, I hear that there be divisions among you. I just want to point out one thing now, not on the divisions, just notice we assemble together as the body of Christ.

Why? Because individually I am not the church. Individually I am not the body of Christ. You know, sometimes people say, why would I come together with a group of believers? I could sit at home, I can go on the internet, download a sermon, listen to Christian music, and I could worship in my bedroom.

That is accurate. You could worship in your bedroom, but you're not the church. I am not the church, you are not the church. We are not the church until we all come together and assemble. Thus Paul even says in texts like this, 1 Corinthians 14, 23, if therefore the whole church be come, we could translate that as symbols together into one place, all speak with tongues and there come in those that are unlearned or unbelievers, will they not say that you are mad? It may be that unbelievers come, that's true, but notice what the main point of the initial part of the verse is, it's when the whole church assembles together, because we're not the church individually, we're only the church corporately.

And so what do we do? We assemble together as the body of Christ, and what's the focus? Well, believers gather together as the church so that we can be equipped to serve. And we see that clearly in Ephesians 4-11, right? Paul writes, he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers.

Okay, why do we have men in places of leadership? Why are there spiritual leaders in a local assembly? And many of us think because their job is to do the ministry, and so they're quote unquote ministers, and that's what they're supposed to do. But that's not what the next verse says. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 12, and notice what Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 12 says. It's for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. And I know you might look at that verse and say, okay, so the guys that are in leadership, they're supposed to number one, perfect the saints.

Number two, do the work of the ministry. Number three, edify the body of Christ. But really, that's not how we're going to read that verse.

We're going to read it just a little bit differently. Let me put up a New American Standard rendering of verse 12. It's for the equipping of the saints, no comma, for the work of ministry, comma, to the building up of the body of Christ. I'm a pastor, and I love the opportunity to be a pastor. And one of the things I do is I preach. You say, well, what's the goal in preaching? What's the goal in ministry? To equip the saints to do the work of the ministry.

My job is not doing the work of the ministry, primarily. My job is to equip people that gather together believers as the body of Christ to engage in the work of the ministry. So the first thing I wanted to hit today is just why do we come together? We come together as the church. We come together as the body of Christ. We come together to be equipped to serve. So when you gather together on the Lord's Day, you should be gathering with other believers. And through the ministry of the men that lead that assembly, you are being equipped to serve. You say you haven't talked about evangelism yet.

That is correct. As believers, we gather as the body of Christ. That's our first point. Second point, as believers, what do we do? As believers, we scatter to evangelize. I'd like you to open up your Bibles to one passage of scripture.

We'll spend the rest of our time here. Colossians chapter four. Would you turn to Colossians chapter four, please?

And we're going to look at verses two through six in Colossians chapter four. As the body of Christ, we gather to be equipped to serve. And then as the body of Christ, we scatter to witness and to evangelize. If I could say it this way, the goal is not to get unsaved people into the church building. The goal is to get saved people out of the church building sharing the gospel. That would be a biblical view of ministry.

Now I want to be careful. In many of our assemblies, including ours, we have days of community outreach. On Christmas, we may have a cantata. On Resurrection Sunday, we may have special music. And we make a special attempt to invite unsaved people in to hear the gospel. We have Vacation Bible School. We do the same thing like that.

That's not wrong, but that's not the main focus. The focus is we assemble with other believers as the body of Christ, and then we're equipped to serve, and then we go out. And what do we do? Well, look at Colossians chapter four. Paul writes in verse two, continue in prayer and watching the same with thanksgiving. We're supposed to pray. What are we supposed to pray about? Verse three, with all praying also for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am also in bounds. You say, what is Paul clearly encouraging us to pray for? Pray for gospel opportunities with unsaved people. Paul says, pray. And then he says, oh yeah, pray for us too so that we'll have an open door of utterance.

What is that? Gospel opportunities. We come together with other believers. We're equipped to share the gospel.

Then we should be praying as we all go our different ways. Okay, Lord, would you give me an opportunity to share the gospel with someone? Maybe the waiter, maybe the waitress, right? Maybe the neighbor, maybe the friend, maybe the police officer that pulls you over, right? Well, whoever you're talking, I was just teasing. Well, whoever you're talking to, maybe, maybe just a man at the gas station and you're paying for gas, the person at the store. Lord, would you please give me opportunities for the gospel with unsaved people?

And then let's go a little bit farther, please. Paul says, verse five, walk in wisdom towards them that are without. The second thing we should be doing is not only pray for gospel opportunities with unsaved people, but number two, we should be building redemptive relationships with unsaved people. Saved people should not be isolating themselves from unsaved people. And I know a lot of people will see this differently, but based on the Scriptures, God did not save you so you could live your life apart from unsaved people. And yet, that's what a lot of people do in a misguided, but yet perhaps sincere quest of holiness.

They think, now that I'm saved, I'm going to turn my back on the world, I'm going to turn my back on all the unsaved people in the world, and I'm just going to hang out with Christians. And see, this is kind of what we frequently do, and I've been guilty of this, and I don't want to be silly, but I'm going to give you just a very simple illustration. Let's pretend I'm unsaved, and let's pretend these two guys, I'm not going to say brothers, we're going to pretend they're unsaved, okay? So here I am, and I'm unsaved. And I'm hanging out with Eric and Dave. Dave and I ride motorcycles together, okay?

Eric and I watch sports. I'm unsaved, we're unsaved. Hey, look at all those guys every Sunday going to church. What a waste of time.

I mean, they go like twice on Sunday. Dave, you want to go riding Sunday on the Blue Ridge Parkway? You're unsaved, so you can say yes.

Yes. Okay, there you go. And then what happens? Here I am, and however it works, God gloriously brings the Gospel into my life, and now I'm a believer.

And here's what frequently happens. Now I'm going to go to church. So I'm going to hang out here, I'm going to call them brother.

Hey brother Ed, what's going on? Man, I love being in church, don't you? Look at those guys, they never come. Boy, we should get them to worship with us, huh?

I wonder how we could get them. Maybe we should change the name of the church. Let's not call it the church, right? Let's call it the, like, what do you want to call it?

The experience. You know, maybe they'll come. Oh, they're not coming. Hey, what kind of music do they like? Maybe they want rock music, right? I'm at the piano, I can't play, so it's okay.

If I could play rock, you know, whatever it takes to get them in, let's get them in. And they're not coming. And we think, oh, well what are we supposed to do? But the verse tells you what to do. Walk in wisdom toward. I'm not supposed to be a believer with my back on unsaved people.

Walk in wisdom towards. And now that I'm a believer. Dave, man, you want to go riding sometime? Now, you know what, not Sunday, because I don't know, I put my faith in Jesus. I know you don't understand that, it sounds weird, but maybe we'll talk later sometime. Maybe some Saturday, you want to ride up to the Blue Ridge Parkway, and Eric, you know, there's a Saturday, big football game's on, and you want to come over and watch a game together? And just, you know, some friends and stuff, and maybe we could talk?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I don't want to go and watch it at that bar. But I mean, I'm not putting you down, but I just kind of, some things have happened, maybe I could tell you later on. And what am I doing? I'm walking in wisdom towards those that are outside. That's what Paul is talking about in Colossians. So number one, we pray for gospel opportunities with unsaved people. Number two, we build redemptive relationships with unsaved people. The longer you're saved, the more unsaved friends you should have. Who's that true of?

Virtually no one. And to my shame, it's not true of me. The longer I'm saved, the fewer unsaved friends I have. But that wasn't Paul's heart, I don't think that's the heart of Jesus Christ. And then number three, why are we walking in wisdom towards those that are without redeeming the time? We need to share the gospel with unsaved people.

And that's what we should be doing. We gather as the body of Christ, we're equipped to serve as we gather as the church. And then the goal is not to change everything, so unsaved people think it's cool to worship with us, right? Well, let me make it this way.

When you invite an unsaved person to church, and I'm not saying that that's a bad thing and I'm using the church wrong, I know, but when you invite an unsaved person and he doesn't come, don't be surprised. If you stopped me after chapel and said, Dr. Clark, we're having a birthday party for my grandma, you want to come? I'm going to say no. And if you say why? I say, I don't know who your grandma is. And you say, but she's wonderful. I would say, I don't care.

Okay? And that's how the average unsaved person thinks about coming to church. The goal's not to get the unsaved people in, the goal is to get believers out. We put this all together and we conclude.

And what would that conclusion look like? Evangelism in the church. We gather with other believers to be equipped to serve, and secondly, we scatter as witnesses to evangelize unbelievers.

This is kind of an illustration of what should be happening. We've all gathered together this morning. This is not a church, but this is an illustration. We've all gathered together this morning from many different places. And we've all come together to be equipped to serve. So as we're here, we should be thinking about the Gospel. We should be rehearsing the Gospel. We should be growing in the Gospel.

We should be learning more about Jesus Christ and what a wonderful Savior He is. And then as we leave, we all go in different places. We scatter. And wherever we go, we're talking about Jesus and we're sharing the Gospel. And the Gospel just keeps going out and out. It's going everywhere.

It's going across the lands. And that's what should be happening in our churches. So we come together, we assemble, and then we're equipped for ministry. And then by God's grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, we scatter, we talk about Jesus, and the Gospel continues to go across the lands. You've been listening to a sermon preached at Bob Jones University by Dr. Greg Mazak, which is part of the study series about the Church titled Christ's Body, the Church.

Since we're in a study series about the Church, we thought you would be blessed by hearing the song, O Church Arise, sung by the Bob Jones University student body. Let's sing this song in the strength that God has given. This shield of faith that loves us good, will stand against the devil's might. And our reward stands on Christ's law, reaching out to those in darkness. We call to the Lord, the Lord has a soul, but His grace and faith shall never turn. And with His sword we will raise our wounded home, we will fight for faith and manner. We will raise two towers on every side, we know the end of history, Christ for love, Christ for which He died, and ever since the page shows.

See the cross through love and mercy, as the Son of Christ should live. Let's sing it through the earth beneath the sea, and the mouth of the earth as wide as the sea. Let us all rise from the grave, and worship the earth as from the grave. Let's pray it through the eyes, and sing it still today, every eye and heart shall see Him.

We will come, safe in every sight, in grace forever Your word alone, as we may come into the end of life, and the Son of God may come, as saints of all to the world today, with God with power of love and grace. Let us pray it through the earth, and the mouth of the earth as wide as the sea. Let us all rise from the grave, and worship the earth as from the grave.

Let us all rise from the grave, and worship the earth as from the grave. These daily programs are made possible by the many friends of Bob Jones University and this radio ministry. If you appreciate these programs and benefit from the faithful preaching and teaching of God's word, would you consider sending us a special financial gift today? You can easily do that through the website, thedailyplatform.com, and then click on the give button on the home page. I'm Steve Pettit, president of Bob Jones University.

Thank you for listening to The Daily Platform. The Bob Jones University School for Continuing Online and Professional Education offers convenient and affordable online programs. Whether you're seeking to expand your skills, pursue a passion, or develop a ministry on your own time, qualified and engaged instructors will help you reach your goals. For more information, visit scope.bju.edu or call 888-253-9833. You've been listening to a sermon preached at Bob Jones University, which is part of the study series about the Church titled Christ's Body, the Church. Join us again tomorrow as we continue this series here on The Daily Platform.