Why Evangelism?

In this cultural climate of pandemic anxiety, racial unrest, and political division, why in the world are we calling our church together for five Wednesday nights to study "Evangelism"? Shouldn’t we do five weeks on "How to Recover from All the Disruption and Depression"? Or how about five weeks of studying "Race Relations and Justice”? Or, since we are just nineteen days from E-Day, it seems five weeks on “Unity” or “Philosophy” would be appropriate. 

Though all those are good ideas, and the poignancy of those topics would have a good chance to draw a large crowd, we have chosen to focus on evangelism. Here is the main reason: Jesus did.

With a backdrop of much more intense cultural and societal problems than we are facing, Jesus’ great commission for the guys He was teaching was to focus on evangelism. The unchallenged Roman oppression, the unbridled Judaistic corruption and segregation, and the cultivated hatred between Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles was at fever pitch in Jesus’ day. In fact, less than forty years after Jesus’ resurrection, Rome decided Israel was such a hotbed of turmoil and strife that they completely destroyed it in 70 AD. When I write destroyed, I am talking about no stone left on another and a million deaths (according to Josephus).

Jesus—knowing all this, and experiencing the full sting of racism, religious segregation, and political oppression firsthand—did not tell His followers to focus on reforming those things. He told them to go into all the world and tell everyone about His kingdom and the kind of King He is. I don’t think this was because Jesus didn’t care about power structures. He knew the only way to see reform in the structures of society is to see people’s hearts reformed. And He knew the only way a human heart can be reformed is to come in contact with a power greater than their sinful nature. That power is only found in Jesus Christ. 

Our politicians claim that their plans and their party’s power has what it takes to bring about human flourishing. We’ll hear all about it from Biden and Trump tonight. Our popular talking heads claim their way is the right way and we should follow them and mock the others' ways. Our own hearts continue to desire and devise new self-help plans and methods. But with all that effort, no lasting good is ever produced.

There have been many powerful teachers, leaders, gurus, and prophets who have claimed to have power—until the day they died. The problem is, though they claimed to have power, death still holds them in the grave. Jesus, however, was hit with the full strength of sin and death on the cross, and he rose from the dead three days later, demonstrating that He alone has the power to overcome the plagues of sin and death.

Please join us for five Wednesday nights starting October 21, as we focus on the at-times-uncomfortable-but-always-paramount evangelism. 

David

P.S. For both the in-person and livestream options, you can register here: bit.ly/famnights2020