The following study is a continuation of last months study. Please read the previous article before you read this one. Click here to read the previous article. When we become so focused on the opinions of the world, we begin to slowly draw away from our mission and our Savior. We forget what our primary focus should be in following the Lord. After Jesus had taught all that He did, He concluded His teaching on earth with the summary of what was the primary focus of the Church--evangelism. He said “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 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). All four of the gospel writers conclude in some form with Jesus’ exhortation to evangelize the world, with the exception of Luke. However, Luke doesn’t conclude his gospel with the Great Commission because he begins the record of the Church, the book of Acts with the Great Commission. Now John’s sharing of Jesus’ Great Commission is a little indirect, but it is there. He records Jesus’ conversation with Peter in which Jesus tells him to “Tend My sheep” (John 21:17).
Also note that the example of how the Church is to operate is given in the book of Acts. In reading this book, you will notice how frequently the church evangelized. First there is the Great Commission (1:8). Peter’s sermon in the market place, not a church service where only like minded Christians were in hearing distance (2:14-47). Peter preached a second sermon in the Jewish Temple, which was filled with Jews who did not yet embrace Jesus as the Messiah (3:1, 11-26). In fact, Peter and John were ordered by authorities not to continue evangelizing, but they resisted (4:13-22). This happened a second time and the apostles responded the same way (5:17-32). When Stephen faced resistance to his ministry he went into a lengthy defense of himself in which he was very evangelistic (6:7-7:53). Though persecuted the apostles and disciples continued to evangelize (8:4-40). Then Saul was converted and become known as Paul (9:1-19). He began to evangelize in Synagogues, which again were filled with Jews who had yet to believe Jesus as the Messiah (9:20-31). The disciples also continued to evangelize everywhere they went (11:19-30). Paul’s missionary team evangelized in Synagogues and in public places (13:5-14:28). In fact this was one of many missionary trips in which the whole goal was to find people and evangelize them. I’ll stop here with Acts. You can see that there is a heavy focus on evangelism in the early church and this is just the first fourteen chapters. The primary focus of the Church was to convince as many people as they could to become Christians and to help them maintain and grow in their faith throughout their lifetime.
Now we are to evangelize with a true love for people and to be completely kind in our approach (1 Corinthians 13:1-3; 2 Timothy 2:24-26; 1 Peter 3:15). In fact evangelism reveals that we have a true love for the Lord (John 21:15-17). We are to care about and be kind to all of humanity (Luke 6:35; 1 Peter 2:17). However, in noting the above verses and many other statements in the Bible, it is obvious that this does not mean we should never confront others, evangelize, or disagree with others. The Bible is filled with either examples of confronting or simply tells us to confront, even in very strong ways at times (Luke 3:7-9, 11:37-54, 18:18-25, 19:45-46, 22:24-38; John 4:17-18; Galatians 2:11; Ephesians 5:11-12; 2 Timothy 2:24-26, 3:16-4:2; Titus 1:9, 3:9-11).
There are generally two passages of Scripture that those who are opposed to confrontation bring up. One is when Jesus seemingly defended the woman caught in adultery and himself told her “Neither do I condemn you” (John 8:11). Those who use this passage to tell us we shouldn’t confront people over their sin ironically point to the exact verse where Jesus confronts the woman. After telling her He does condemn her, He goes on to say, “From now on sin no more” (John 8:11). In the verse used to show that we shouldn’t confront, Jesus confronts. The second passage generally used is when Jesus said, “Do not judge lest you be judged” (Matthew 7:1). Again there is total irony here. Another passage used as a proof text for not confronting tells us to confront. Jesus would go on to say, “first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5). The log and speck were symbols of sin. Jesus was teaching about a judgmental attitude and taught the order of confrontation. We should be dealing with our own sin first then go and confront others regarding their sin. We are to confront people to challenge them to live up to the standards of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 4:11-16; Colossians 1:28-29). True evangelism is not just being nice to people, it is the attempt to convince people to change their beliefs and lifestyles in a complete surrender to the Lordship of Christ.
In the last article, we began to discuss the movement of the Emergent Church. The article can be found in archives under chronological order as November 2008 or under topical order as Issues with the Emergent Church part one. Let us consider what leaders within the Emergent Church have said about evangelism and you will find that they hold to a view that is completely counter to the biblical view shown above. They have said the following things about evangelism. Speaking of a branch of the Emergent Church movement “Some groups are uncomfortable with blatant evangelism, seeing it as to directive and narrow” (1). Their goal was to be “A place where people can experience God as they are,” which is a slight indication that they resist the idea of trying to introduce Christian change to peoples lives (2). Listen to the negative way Peter Rollins speaks of evangelism and how he completely changes its’ definition. “We started up the Ikon evangelism project - I can hear the gasp - but this project is not about evangelizing others but rather about being evangelized! We would visit groups such as the Russian Orthodox, the Quakers, the Muslims, the Jewish community etc. in order to listen, learn and be transformed. We also watched the ‘Last Temptation of Christ together and read Nietzsche’s brilliant book The Antichrist” (3). Note that Nietzsche was very opposed to Christianity. Also note that Peters’ goal is to have others change or “transform” him as opposed to changing others towards Christianity. There desire to get rid of evangelism is further revealed in the statement, “I long for a church that can be outwardly-focused without constantly pushing evangelism on the congregation, and for a church that does not relate evangelism with church growth as an end” (4).
As can be seen, the Emergent Church opposes another biblical principle. Not just any principle, they oppose the heart of what the church is. They are opposed to evangelism. If one is opposed to evangelism then how can true Christianity be spread? Serving people and throwing non confrontational get-togethers may be good things to do to build relationships with outsiders, but if you never confront them with the gospel then you just have a social club. You may get a lot of people to join groups, attend events, or even attend church services, but if you never confront them with the gospel have they truly become Christian? Even Paul asked a similar question. He said, “whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher” (Romans 10:13-14)?
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