One of the most influential evangelists I remember was Billy Graham. I watched him on TV as he spoke to thousands of people in stadiums preaching God’s grace of salvation through his Son, Jesus. I cannot think of anyone as popular as Billy Graham preaching to save the lost to find a Savior.
Billy’s heart was to bring people to Jesus to be saved. He had no ulterior motives wanting people to join his church or to make money from his outreach. He just wanted people to be saved so that they could receive the Holy Spirit and be led to have a personal relationship with Jesus.
The spiritual gift of an evangelist is to show the path to someone who is seeking God by sharing the good news of Jesus, so that they can find him and convince them that Jesus came to save them from their sins so that they could be with God forever.
In the gospel the first evangelist was John the Baptist who preached to the Jews who believed in the coming of their prophesied messiah, that they should repent from their sins because their Messiah was coming soon and he will forgive their sins so that they can be with God in his kingdom.
John was called by God to make a straight path to his Son, which John’s father being filled with the Holy Spirit prophesied about him at his birth.
Luke 1: 76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, 77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, 78 because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven 79 to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace."
The Holy Spirit tells us the work of an evangelist is to give those called by God the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins out of tender mercy and grace of God who sent his Son and the Holy Spirit from heaven to give light to those living in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide them so that they can find peace with God.
One of the 1st church evangelists was Philip who went to the Samaritans to preach the gospel.
Acts 8: 5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there.
Philip was one of the 7 chosen to care for the needs of the church because they saw him full of wisdom and the Spirit and he was also known as an evangelist.
Acts 21: 8 Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven.
No one knows who God is calling to his Son, but sometime the Holy Spirit may lead you to someone being called. Philip was led by the Holy Spirit to someone seeking God.
Acts 8: 29 The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it." 30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked. 31 "How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: "He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth." 34 The eunuch asked Philip, "Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?" 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. 36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?"
The Holy Spirit told Philip to go near the eunuch and just listen. Philip heard him reading from Isaiah seeking to know who the prophet was talking about and Philip knowing Scripture, the Holy Spirit enabled him to explain who the lamb that was slaughtered was Jesus.
The Holy Spirit may lead us close to someone seeking God by just listening to their heart’s desire to know God. So, we must all be ready by being a disciple of God’s word so that the Holy Spirit will enable us to share who God is and then lead them to Jesus.
The work of evangelizing also must be done in the church, which Paul tells Timothy that he needed to do in the church.
2 Timothy 4: 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
Paul tells us that evangelizing those in church is a work of service, so that the church will know the whole meaning of Jesus Christ salvation and have the same hope in him. Only then will the church become the body of Christ having one faith in the complete knowledge Jesus.
Jesus through the Holy Spirit is the only one who determines and gives spiritual gifts, and one is an evangelist.
Ephesians 4: 7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.
Ephesians 4: 11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,
The words of an evangelist are an important part of a church and must be spoken often and not assumed that everyone in the church knows and understands God’s will and their salvation. Without understanding and knowledge of our salvation and the promise of eternal life how can a church be one in Christ.
The church must stand on one true salvation, believing that Jesus is the Son God, sent by his Father’s grace to die for the sins of the world and rose from the grave to save all who believe in him from eternal death and must confess that Jesus is Lord of their life by obeying his Father’s will and those who do shall receive eternal life with God in his kingdom.
When evangelism is clearly sounded in church those who believe will produce good works of service to build each other up to be obedient to the teachings and commandments of Jesus because they love him.
Let us all be true disciples of God’s word so that we can have a heart of an evangelist and be ready for the leading of the Holy Spirit by listening for those who are seeking God and then be an ambassador for Christ.
Be safe in Jesus, Ps. Glenn