Grace filled evangelism

 

Reflection Sunday 9^th August 2020 Romans 10: 5 – 15

 

As you may have heard, this year’s Methodist Conference met online at the start of July. The Conference “voted overwhelmingly to implement a new Church-wide strategy for Evangelism and Growth. The God for All strategy commits the Church theologically, culturally, and financially to deepen its mission to be a growing, evangelistic, justice-seeking, and inclusive Church.”

Now I know that some of you reading this will be shuddering at the mention of “evangelism”. Evangelism has unfortunately become a dirty word to many people. People know it exists, but they associate it with old fashioned tent revival meetings, street preachers and fundamentalists.

This is unfortunate because at its heart evangelism is the work of those who are the messengers of good news. The word itself has the same roots as “angel”. And surely if ever there was a time for people needing good news it is now? But it is hard for many of us to think of ourselves as evangelists, bringers of good news.

Broadly speaking we can think of evangelism in two ways. On the one hand there are those who see evangelism as closely linked to mission of some kind – by funding the work of others to share the Good News via some kind of action; whether food banks or Street Pastors close to home, or overseas through charities such as Christian Aid or Tearfund. On the other hand, are those Christians who have no fear in going out preaching and whose members are happy to talk about their faith to others.

Both forms of evangelism are valid – and that statement from the Methodist Church at the start of this Reflection picks up both I feel.

But, we need to remember that both form of evangelism are about one thing – about sharing the Good News and bringing others to Christ. Neither form of evangelism can make someone into a Christian, however. Those who feel that they can “save” others whether by good works or by words missed the point. And this is made clear in the part of Roman’s we are considering this morning. Paul is clear (Romans 10: 8 - 10)

Paul reminds us that that Christ is already present. It is not up to us to save the world. God has already done that. What is up to us is to believe that it is true and live as though we believe. We cannot save others by our actions alone. In fact, we cannot save ourselves in this way. Of course, this may be a comfort to you.

You may say “As Christ has come into the world to save sinners, why do we need to do anything?” If God in Christ has already done it all, what are we supposed to do? What is our purpose in the world?

Paul addresses these questions as follows:

¹⁴ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? ¹⁵ And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’^[g] Romans 10: 14 – 15

In Paul’s view, although Christ has come into the world to save people from sin, to be saved they still need to have heard the Good News that belief in Christ can save them. 

⁹ if you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10: 9

This begs the question of course “If people genuinely have never heard that they may be saved through Christ, will they not receive eternal life?”

In a round about way John Wesley addressed this when he spoke of “prevenient grace” or as we might put it today “preceding grace.” The Rev. Gary Henderson, of the  United Methodist Church explained it this way: “Prevenient Grace is a really large term but to keep it simple, it is “grace before we knew we needed it.” Grace reaches out to us. It is God’s provision for us before we knew it and before we were aware of it.”

In other words, God’s grace extends to all people from the beginning of their lives. Thus, those who genuinely have never heard of Jesus Christ, and the salvation he offers, are included in God’s kingdom by prevenient grace. However, those who do know of Christ, and then chose to ignore him, may ultimately find themselves excluded from God’s kingdom.

However, I digress. I would not advocate any of us starting out as evangelists by discussing prevenient grace. What should our starting point be? It might not be discussing prevenient grace, but it could well be exhibiting and telling of the way we have experienced God’s abundant love in our own live. Those who know God’s abundant love in their lives are to ensure others to do.

As Methodists I suppose we always look to John Wesley and how he converted tens of thousands of people in his lifetime. And often this was through his preaching. What a gift he was given to bring people to Christ through preaching. But few have such a  gift and it seems to me that the way for believers to explain God to those who have not heard of his saving love is not by our theological brilliance or by quoting scripture at any given opportunity. Instead it is living out the “word within”

⁸ But what does it say?

“The word is near you,
    on your lips and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); Romans 10:8 NRSV (my emphasis)

The word of faith we proclaim means living out the Gospel of Christ. Sharing the Good news in a way it can be understood. This may mean witnessing to one’s own faith by speaking about it or by engaging in actions that proclaim the faith in tangible ways. Whichever way we are called the message is clear: those who believe are to messengers of the good news. To be evangelists.