The Master’s Plan for Evangelism (Part 2 of 2)

The Bible tells us that as Christians we're to be in the world but not of the world.

But exactly how do you do that? Today on Truth for Life we're continuing our study on evangelism titled Crossing the Barriers. Today Alistair Begg teaches us how to practice the delicate balance of what he calls Holy Worldliness and he explains why it's necessary. We recognize that there is a place for special seasons of evangelism and for unique opportunities in evangelism, especially at a congregational level. But that's not the drift of where we're going this evening. I want us to think largely in terms of it as the overflow of our lives, rather than thinking, it's Wednesday night, it's evangelism.

That brings us then to note quite straightforwardly this truth, that there can be no significant impact without meaningful contact. It's a while since they made the film, The Gospel Blimp, but it was a great story where some church decided in the South that they were going to evangelize their neighborhood. And a couple were really encouraged, as I remember the story, because they were having such difficulty witnessing to their friends. And the church decided that it would take a blimp up, actually a dirigible, up above the community and would drop leaflets about Jesus down on the community. And you have the ultimate irony of the man putting his money in so that the blimp can go up and the material can fall.

And on the Saturday afternoon, his next-door neighbor is out cutting his grass, and he leans over the hedge and he says to the man, he says, what in the world is all this stuff that's landing in my garden? And the guy still can't find it in himself to explain the nature of the gospel. So we would rather, many times, send up one of these blimps and drop little gizmos from the heavens and sign a check for it and ease our responsibilities rather than crawl across the hedge or walk up the driveway and make impact as a result of contact.

It's very straightforward stuff, is it not? But there needs to be infiltration of our communities, identification with our communities, rather than isolation from our communities. And sadly, the church as a whole, and individual Christians in particular, have experienced great failure in this regard, made pretty dreadful impact because we've made so little contact. And so, by and large, the church embracing a kind of warped notion of what it means not to be of the world has isolated, has withdrawn, and has become a withdrawn community. And Christians have grown aloof from their friends rather than have got alongside their friends.

And consequently, we have lost, if we ever had it, the ability to relate to our non-Christian friends and our neighbors. So here is the great challenge, and here is the issue in John 17. Jesus says to his Father, I'm not going to pray that you take them out of the world.

That would be easy. I'm going to ask that you put them in the world, that you leave them in the world, contacts to make impact. But Father, I don't want them to be contaminated by the world, so I ask that you protect them from the evil one. And herein lies, for most of us, the great challenge.

How do we identify with our worlds without becoming totally absorbed by our worlds? Here is the balance that we're called upon to attempt. That is, that we are to be not of the world in the sense that we're like Jesus, not that we're like the Pharisees. We're to be not of the world in that we were like Jesus holy, not like the Pharisees stuffy. That we were like Jesus in the expression of reality, not like the Pharisees in the expression of dull routine. So there is a radically different dimension to our lives, insofar as we are not of that world, we're different from it, but we are in that world insofar as we are involved in it. I want to ask you tonight, do you really have non-Christian friends since you've been saved? Or are we involved in a kind of rabbit-hole approach to Christianity, where we run out of the rabbit hole of our Christian homes into the rabbit hole of offices that we've tried to make largely Christian, into the rabbit hole of our Christian recreation, into the rabbit hole of our Christian education, into the rabbit hole of our Christian fellowship, and back into the rabbit hole of our houses?

No contact, no impact. And it becomes very obvious just to establish these principles that the tremendous opportunity for you folks is far greater than it ever can be for me. I wonder if you understand that, or for any of us that in the world's eyes have got clergy somewhere in our CV, because they expect us to do religious kind of things.

They expect us to try and cajole them into some kind of Christian understanding. But you can sneak up on them unawares. You can infiltrate the mechanism, because you're just like them, in the sense that you sit at one of those computer terminals, and so do they. You sit at that laboratory thing, and so do they.

You have a Bunsen burner, and so do they. And they don't expect you to be radically involved with Jesus Christ. The great impact is not on a Sunday. It's Monday through Saturday, living where you are—radically different, radically involved.

That's the balance of John 17. However, it's so easy to get it out of kilter, just like this, where radical involvement leads to, when we get so involved and take on their lifestyle and take on their patterns and laugh at their jokes and identify ourselves to the point that we're no different in the sports club, then what we discover is that our message becomes diluted. And the difference about us is diminished, and our involvement is exalted, and our message is hindered. Of course, the reverse is also true—that where we make such a deal of being different and diminish the place of involvement, then we have, in the words of Billy Graham's brother-in-law, yeah, Leighton Ford—thank you—in this case, we have a message but no one to say it to because we're not involved enough, and in this case, we have an audience but nothing to say because we're too involved. And so we end up wrestling with the balance of being radically different and radically identified. Okay? Identification is not to be confused with assimilation.

That is, we identify with the world in its need and in the recognition of the trueness of our humanity, but we're not assimilated by the world in its sin. So here we're going to school. Here we're in university. Here we are in the sports team. We're going on the bus. And on the bus, let's make it a rugby team in Britain. And on the bus, they sing these fiendish songs. I don't know if they do it here in America, but the dirtiest songs you've ever heard in your life.

And there you go. You went to church Sunday, you went to the Bible study Tuesday, the Christian group, and Saturday, man, are you on that bus. And you're with your buddies, and the songs start up. Well, what do you do then? Do you sing the dirty songs to prove you're one of the guys?

No, you don't. That would be to be assimilated, not identified with. That would be to confuse our Christian friends. Somebody was telling me about a boy on a sports team on a AAA baseball team during the summer, or some kind of a baseball team.

Again, I don't know about all these days. But he was on a baseball team that was a wee bit better than just a college team. A Christian, away from home by three thousand miles, living in digs, playing ball, sitting in the dugout every night. And in the course of the conversation, a fellow sitting on his left started to chide him about being religious. And he said to him, Mark, you're a religious guy, aren't you? What's the matter with you? Why are you so religious?

Why don't you get involved with us after the game when we go do this with this and this and this? And before Mark had an opportunity to answer, the boy on his right leaned around in front of him and said to the other fellow, he said, no, he said, Mark's not religious. He said, Mark has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Isn't that right, Mark? And this guy wasn't a Christian either! One got the message, the other didn't. But Mark was not assimilated. He was involved, but not at five, maybe at level two. So he was not drawn up here.

Rather, nor was he so different that he was isolated. And here is the great challenge to find the balance. And this is as true for us in rearing our children and in deciding the things they can attend and can't attend and must attend and shouldn't attend and all these other things.

It's not an easy one. The identification of Jesus with the world should not be confused with assimilation. Now, let me draw this to a close by mentioning one or two final things. Having quoted an archbishop and a bishop, I will now finally quote a canon.

Okay? Speaking myself as a pea-shooter. Canon Vidler, in his day, said that what the children of God needed was a holy worldliness. It's a great phrase.

It's a great phrase. A holy worldliness. In that, the Christians were street-smart, where it was okay to be street-smart. They weren't like, ooh, ooh. They weren't a bunch of weird wimps. They were normal individuals. They were men.

They were girls. They were in the world and obviously so. They knew what time it was. They knew what day it was. They weren't walking around in some kind of duam.

Translation follows. But despite their identification with, they were holy. In other words, they were supernatural.

But they were supernatural in a very natural kind of way. And ultimately, the evidence for the credibility of the gospel in the eyes of our friends will be in the quality of our lives, not in the quantity of our words. Indeed, unless there is quality in our lives, there is no reason for there to be any words at all. Oh, says somebody, then he was saying that words don't matter. We're going to come to that another night, but that's not tonight. Yes, it's going to be very important to be able to open our Bibles and verbalize the gospel. It's essential that it takes place.

Romans 10 and 9 tells us that. However, some of us are quick draw McGraw with the words and can get the guns out of our holster when it comes to quality of living. Again, borrowing from Joe Aldridge, he said, our friend—well, this is paraphrasing, actually—our friends will pick up the melody of the gospel faster than they'll learn the words.

Pick up the tune quicker, you see. Floyd McClung, whose name will ring a bell for some. Ah, sorry. Who was not an archbishop. Floyd McClung said, people don't care how much we know until they know how much we care. They don't care if you did a course in personal evangelism for 47 weeks and graduated with a high A. They don't give a rip. They don't care how much we know until they know how much we care. And we have no right to go and tell them how much we know until God creates in our hearts a genuine care and concern for them. We're not spiritual sharpshooters.

And finally, although our ministry is spiritual, we must be natural. You like that? I like it. Do you know the language your friends speak? Do you speak their language?

The more I listen to people share their faith, the more the hair stands up on the back of my neck. Cliche-ridden jargon from start to finish. Phraseology that is the language of Zion.

Angelic in its tones, but useless in its impacts. We have no right to expect our buddies at school to learn our language so that they may meet our Jesus. We must learn their language, not dirty language, the parlance that touch us, so that we may introduce them to our Christ. So yes, it is a spiritual responsibility, but it is natural. And if you want to know what key to play in, play in the key of be natural. Be natural. Not be flat. Not be sharp. Be natural. For that's where integrity lies for you. Don't go out and try and do it the way I would do it or the way the person next to you would do it. You can't do it.

You shouldn't even try. But God gifted and graced you to be able to do and speak and live in and where and when you should, so that you might become a bridge over which Christ may walk into the hearts of those who are our friends and neighbors. Our approach, then, is to be stereophonic evangelism—the written Word, the Bible, the lived Word, our lives.

And we'll probably have to have the channel of the lived Word sounding a little louder at the beginning, so that we may then bring up the left-hand speaker of the written Word, as people, having heard the melody and liked the tune, began to inquire about the words. We need to get close enough to people to make shouting completely unnecessary. Are you brave enough? Am I brave enough to get that close?

If the answer is yes, then the possibilities are great. If the answer is no, then at best we'll be left with the hollow cries reverberating in the hallways and corridors of the places of our daily appointing. You're listening to Truth for Life and our continuing study on evangelism, a series called Crossing the Barriers. Alistair Begg is here with us today as we continue this study. Alistair, this is content you originally delivered more than 30 years ago, long before there was social media. The pressure we feel today to be assimilated into the culture is, I think, greater than it was back then. Arguably, that makes this study even more relevant now than when you first preached it. Well, that is a great point, Bob. You know, there's no question that the pressure to conform to the culture actually seems heightened now compared to 30 years back.

And I think you're right. The study is supremely relevant, regardless of the amount of time that has passed. It's timeless because it comes from the Lord Jesus himself. That's why we're taking the opportunity to encourage one another to not only listen each day as the series continues, but to apply what we're learning by being intentional about and sharing the gospel with our friends and neighbors. We'll be learning more about how to do that on the program over the next few days, but we also have some materials to help you along the way, and I'll let Bob tell you more. Yeah, we do indeed have some great resources that can supplement our studies so you can feel more confident talking with others about Jesus. First, our current study, Crossing the Barriers, has a corresponding study guide that includes 12 lessons. This will help you dive deeper into each message in this series, and it's designed for you to listen to Alistair's teaching, take notes so you remember what you've heard, answer some questions along the way. It's free to download, or you can purchase it as a booklet for just $3 at truthforlife.org slash evangelism. Also, if you have your study guide and you want to go back and re-listen to any of these messages, or if you missed any of them, all of the sermons can be heard online for free. And the book we have been recommending to you as a companion to this series, Crossing the Barriers, is titled Before You Share Your Faith.

In the book, there are five helpful tips covered. There's a whole chapter that addresses how we overcome reluctance when it comes to talking with people about the Gospel. In fact, I found this book so helpful that I asked the members of my church congregation to read it.

We gave copies to everyone, and then I encouraged them to put what they were learning to work. I know you'll find the practical suggestions from the book's author, Pastor Matt Smethurst, equally beneficial. Ask for your copy of Before You Share Your Faith when you give a donation through our mobile app or on our website at truthforlife.org slash donate. Finally, let me mention one other item you can share with a friend. It's a large print English Standard Version Bible that comes in a soft brown leather cover, makes a really nice gift, and you can buy it from Truth for Life for just $35.

That's 80% off the retail cost, and there's no charge for shipping in the US. Once again, the website where you'll find all these items is truthforlife.org slash evangelism. Now here again is Alistair to close with prayer. As we conclude our time tonight, let's just ask God to bring to our minds faces and places where we can have an impact. Let's allow God to confront us with a spirit of isolation that has removed us from the place of usefulness. Let's allow the Lord to show us where we've been assimilated into the thought forms and patterns of our peers to the point where our message is rendered obsolete. Let's commit ourselves to wrestle individually and as a congregation with what it means to be radically different and yet vitally involved. Gracious Father, give us people with whom we may live in such proximity that we don't need to shout. Take us out into the days of this week in the power of the Spirit, in the freedom of the Spirit, in obedience to your Word, in glad service.

May we lay down our lives so as to become bridges over which you Lord Jesus may walk into the experience of our non-Christian friends. Thank you for this day. Thank you for each other. Thank you for your Word. We commit one another lovingly to your care. Take us to our home safely. Be with us there until you bring us together again in your purposes. For we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm Bob Lapeen. I hope you'll join us tomorrow for some evangelism myth-busting. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.