Evangelism (5 of 10 non-negotiable elements of a healthy church)

The Church’s Mission in Light of a Biblical View of Conversion

We'll go ahead and open up your copy of God's Word to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 3, we're going to be starting in verse 5 as we continue our current series of the 10 non-negotiable elements of a healthy church.

And I hope these have been beneficial to you as we've been walking through them. Today we're going to be looking at a specific topic that I want us to see out of this passage here in 1 Corinthians. So let's read our passage here.

Paul says, What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants, through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers, you are God's field, God's building. This is the reading of God's holy inspired Word.

Let's now go to him and a prayer of illumination that he would help us to understand his great truth. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we come to you and we ask that you work in our minds and in our hearts to understand what is clearly written, what has been given to us through your Word.

Lord, you are not a God of confusion. Lord, you are a God of clarity and truth, and we know that your Word is clarity and truth, but we often distort those words in our own flesh. So Father, I come to you asking that you guard us from that.

Guard me from that, Lord. I pray that I would not speak untruth. Lord, guard the saints here that are hearing your Word, that Lord, they would be able to discern what is true from your Word and illuminate that truth in their hearts and minds, God.

And I pray for those in here, those online that maybe do not know you. Lord, I pray that you would awaken them and give them ears to hear, eyes to see, Father. Take out that heart of stone and put in that heart of flesh that can receive your truth.

God, I pray that you would work in our midst. In Christ's name, amen. Last week, we discussed how a healthy church will have a biblical view of conversion. A biblical view of conversion. And that biblical view of conversion is one that sees the process of salvation as an act of the triune God alone.

Not a synergistic act of man and God, a monergistic act of God alone. Not man takes the first step and God takes the rest. Not God taking the first step and then man gets to participate. No, a healthy church, a biblical church, will always teach and keep in the forefront of their minds the fact that salvation is certain through predestination by God the Father.

That it is initiated through regeneration by the Holy Spirit and it is accomplished through justification by the works of Christ. This is a work of the triune God. Man will not and man cannot come to God on his own.

He must be reborn. He must be born of the Spirit just as we looked at last week in the story of Nicodemus. And he comes to him and he says, Rabbi, it's obvious that you are from God. And then Jesus says, well, you only know that because the Holy Spirit has revealed this to you essentially through rebirth, through regeneration.

And it's an order for us to even begin to see spiritual realities in the spiritual realm, right? We only see the physical, but we now can see the spiritual through regeneration, specifically the work of Christ on the cross.

Because the world, when they see the cross, what do they see? They see foolishness. It's something to be despised. Oh, but when we see the cross, what do we see? We see beauty. Why do we see beauty? How can we see it and they can't see it?

Well, it's because of that act of the triune God revealing these truths to us. And many churches, many people hate this truth from scripture, believe it or not. They hate it. And to be honest, I can understand why by default, by default, man wants man to be sovereign over their own fate.

Don't we? We want to be the one responsible. If I succeed, it's because of me. If I fail, it's because of me. If I accept Jesus, it's because of me. If I reject Jesus, it's because of me. We want everything to be about us.

We want to be sovereign over our own fate and specifically over salvation. And whenever we begin to point out the truth from scripture that man is not as sovereign as he thinks he is, and God is more sovereign than we think he is.

Whenever we point this out from scripture, one of the very first accusations brought to us, one of the very first things that's thrown at us is, well, if God is so sovereign, if God chooses who he's going to save and we have no part in that, then why bother evangelizing?

Right? Why? Why would we even bother evangelizing? God's just going to do what he wants. He's just going to save who he's going to save and we can just go on living our lives however we want to live them.

That's the accusation brought to the table, isn't it? Whenever we talk about a sovereign God who chooses and does everything according to his will. And this accusation, honestly, it comes from a place of ignorance.

I don't mean that in a derogatory way. I just mean from a place of lack of knowledge and understanding on the matter. But this accusation exposes something about how they view evangelism. It gives us some insight into what their church has taught them about evangelism.

And it reveals the reason for the practice and approach that we see often today in evangelism. You see, many of the evangelicals in today's American Christianity view evangelism essentially as a sales pitch.

That's how we approach it. I'm not bringing it to question anyone's intentions or their sincerity. I'm not. I truly believe that most of the true believers that are sharing the gospel in this way and see it this way, I think they truly believe this is good news to be accepted.

I really do. I think they love the truth of the good news and the gospel and they want to share it with people. So I'm not bringing in their intentions, right? That's not what I'm getting at. I'm getting at what they view and how they view it and how they approach it.

They see it this way because many of our churches today have taught them how to evangelize with programs and scripts. I think part of the reason that we've done this is because I get the question all the time, I don't know how to evangelize.

I don't know how to share the gospel. And my first question is, do you even know the gospel then? Because everyone can verbalize what they know. And if you don't know the gospel, then maybe let's start at square one.

Let's have another conversation. But so many in the churches, they don't know the gospel well enough and so they need a script to be able to go off of. How many of you did? How many of you learned how to evangelize through a program like the Romans Road, Evangelism Explosion, Faith, right?

A lot of us. I'm not saying that these programs are altogether bad. That's not what I'm getting at. I've used them. I've used all three of those programs in the past. As a matter of fact, I can even look right now at saints from 20, 30 years ago that are still in church that show fruit of salvation that I led to the Lord by using Evangelism Explosion.

So I'm not downing them. That's not what we're getting at here. I'm just pointing, I'm simply pointing the fact that it gives us some insight into the practice and approach of today's evangelism. Christians today feel the need to seal the deal, right?

Much of evangelistic teaching today looks similarly, like, it's eerie how similar it looks to Donald Trump's book, The Art of the Deal, right? You can almost follow line by line. Wow, well Donald Trump's onto something.

All we got to do is just throw some Christian words in there and we've got evangelism. That's what it looks like because we're looking to seal the deal. It's because this walk through the steps of this memorized script and then press for a call to action.

That's how you evangelize. And let's be honest, if salvation was man takes the first step and God takes the rest, then this approach is absolutely correct. As a matter of fact, you better do everything in your power to learn how to seal the deal because you're held responsible to how persuasive you became for a person that you were trying to lead to Christ.

And if they reject it, that's kind of on you. That's the only logical conclusion, right? Okay, but thank God that that's not the correct way. I don't think I could bear the weight of that burden to you.

However, just as I often do, let me give us a contrasting extreme to this view. I don't want to just attack one side. I want to give us a well-balanced view of allowing us to figure out where the balance center is.

And it's the extreme that falls right into their very accusation. Why evangelize? It's one that sees the process of conversion accurately. They see it in scripture. They say, hey, the golden chain that we just read a moment ago there in Romans, that's how God saves and it's God alone and man has no responsibility or any part of that part of salvation, right?

And they see it to the neglect of scripture's seemingly paradoxical call to action of our role. Man's responsibility to go, therefore, and make disciples. You see how that pendulum just swung? We speak of this group often here as a warning for us.

The frozen chosen, that godless distortion of biblical truth. May we never fall prey to such cosmic treason. These are these two extremes. All of that being said, a healthy church will have both of these things simultaneously.

A biblical view of conversion that it is God and God alone and a robust passion for and practice of evangelism. They have to go hand in hand. They both have to be together or you are imbalanced and you are out of the will of God.

You do not understand scripture. You do not understand what God has called us to be. And I want us to see how this is illustrated in the life and ministry of the apostle Paul here in our text in 1 Corinthians.

So let's look at it. But I want you to flip back to chapter one. The apostle Paul is writing to the church at Corinth, hence the name Corinthians. This church has a plethora of issues going on. We think the church in America is bad.

This church that Paul is writing to that he loves dearly, that he is seeking to help. This church has things going on within their midst that even the lost world, the pagan world is outside going, oh man, that's a little extreme.

That's a little crazy in there. Those people live pretty wild lives. So this is the state of the church. And one of the first things that he addresses in chapter one is the terrible division going on amongst them.

Look at verses 11 through 13 there in chapter one. For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. So who is he talking to? Believers. He's talking to Christians here.

Christians that find themselves in the midst of quarreling. What I mean is that each one of you says, I follow Paul, or I follow Apollos, or I follow Cephas, or I follow Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you?

Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? So this sets the groundwork for us to see the text that we're looking at in chapter three. Paul will later expound upon this here in our text. So let's look over there in chapter three.

Look at verse five where we started. He picks up this thought that we just read. What then is Apollos? What is Paul? So he's addressing the divisions. Some of them claim to be following Paul. Some claim to follow Apollos.

And he asks the question here. He's addressing their division. And he asks a question in order to set them straight, doesn't he? He says, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? Servants. Stop right there. This word that we see here, servants, that Paul uses in the Greek, diakonos.

You hear the word deacon? That's where we get our word deacon from. What does deacon mean? Servant, right? So this is a good translation. Servant. Are deacons in the church leaders? They're not. Unfortunately, they are in unhealthy churches.

We see that all the time where they take the place of elders and hold authority that they have no business holding. But not in scripture. In scripture, deacons are merely servants. And Paul is using this word intentionally.

Some of these people want to follow him. They say, okay, I'm following the teachings of the apostle Paul. And he says, I'm not the leader to follow. I'm a servant. Why would you even say you're following me?

Why would you say you're following Apollos? We're servants. Now, that being said, we all know that the apostle Paul was a leader in the church, wasn't he? He's the apostle to the Gentiles. You can't get any more leadership than an apostle.

The apostle Paul has great position of leadership within the church. So what is he getting at here by calling himself a servant, a deacon essentially? It says he is a servant, a deacon, through whom you believed.

So Paul is not talking about his position in the church in this moment. He's talking about what he mentioned back there in chapter one that we just read. Well, was I crucified for you? Were you baptized in my name?

I think not. Who was crucified for us? What's he pointing to? Jesus. Not Paul, not Apollos, not Cephas. Paul is pointing to the gospel, isn't he? He's saying, servant through whom you believed. Just like in John 3 .16, what does it say?

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him, not in Paul, not in Apollos, in him, in Christ. You believed in the Son of God. You believed the gospel. We are servants through whom you believed.

Paul is saying that me and Apollos, we are merely servants that told you the good news, you heard it from us, and you believed. You believed the good news of the gospel. But wait a second. You might be asking, I thought you said we believed because the Holy Spirit awakened us.

That's what we talked about last week in conversion, right? The only reason you believed is because the Holy Spirit awakened you and gave you the faith to believe. And here Paul says that they believed because of them, the servants through whom they believed.

You see, Paul and Apollos came and proclaimed the gospel and the people believed. That is true. In order to understand this, keep your fingers there in 1 Corinthians, flip back to Romans 10. I want us to look at a text here starting in verse 14.

Romans 10, starting in verse 14, to be able to kind of get our brains wrapped around what Paul is getting at here in this text in 1 Corinthians. Romans 10, starting in verse 14, Paul says, how then will they, who are they?

Believers. How then will unbelievers call on him? What's he referring to? He's referring to the passage right before in verse 13. He has just told them that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord that believe in Christ will be saved. We acknowledge that. That's what he's saying. How then will unbelievers call on the name of the Lord in whom they have not believed?

They've not believed. Why have they not believed? Look at the next phrase. And how were they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? Now bear with me here. This might get a little bit complex as we go back and forth from these two passages.

So I really want you, if you're a note taker, you can jot just a few of these things down. No one can be saved apart from hearing and believing the gospel. No one can be saved apart from hearing and believing the gospel.

Regeneration, that new birth by the Holy Spirit, is not the sum of salvation. It's just a part. It's a beginning part of the process of salvation. See, regeneration, the new birth, is a supernatural act that gives the hearers ears to hear and gives them faith to believe.

Now this step is necessary. Paul makes that clear back in our passage in 1 Corinthians 3. Look at the the second half of verse 5. Keep your fingers there in Romans. We're back and forth. Paul makes this clear back in our passage here where he says, servants through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to each.

Catch that? As the Lord assigned to each. So I'm a servant, me and Apollos, we have told you the good news. You believed it as the Lord assigned to each. You see regeneration in the process of what Paul's getting at here?

Why do some believe and others don't? Are some smarter than others? Maybe wiser? Maybe the evangelist is a little more persuasive to one individual than another? They really gravitate to his personality?

I like how he said that. Makes sense to me, where does another? How can someone share the same gospel message, the same truth, to a room of a thousand people and only a handful respond? How does that happen?

Because remember, if that handful of people just happen to be smarter or wiser, then the apostle Paul lied back in Ephesians 2. Because what did he say back there? He says this salvation is not it's not of works.

It's nothing you did, lest any man should boast. So if those handful of people are smarter, wiser, just the ones that gravitate and submit themselves, then they have something to boast in. My best friend in high school heard the same sermons I heard.

He sat under my dad's preaching just like I did. His parents were believers. They shared the same good news in their household. He was raised essentially just like I was. We sat together in church nearly every Sunday.

I believed and he didn't. Why? Was I smarter? Because I can tell you right now, I wasn't. Was I wiser? I can tell you right now, I wasn't. It wasn't by happenstance. If I was smarter or wiser, then I have something to boast in.

My friend who's still lost in his sins just wasn't as smart. He didn't make as wise of decisions. I can't believe that that's the direction that Paul is taking here. Well Paul goes on in that passage in Romans.

Look back in Romans. He says, and how were they to hear? How were they to hear? Those that believed, how were they to hear without someone preaching? Again, they don't hear by the Holy Spirit. Again, don't they hear by the Holy Spirit's awakening?

Isn't that how they hear? Because the Holy Spirit gives them ears to hear? Yes. In conjunction with God-ordained timing and divine providence of God sending his messenger to herald, to proclaim the truth of the gospel of those who he has called.

Right? Yes and yes. Paul says, how were they to hear unless someone preaches? Unless someone goes and tells them. I don't think Paul's talking about what I'm doing here per se. It is what I'm doing here, but it's not only what I'm doing here.

It's what you do at school when you're proclaiming the gospel, the good news to a friend. It's what you're doing at work. What you're doing in your home is proclaiming the good news. That's what he's talking about.

How are they to hear unless someone preaches to them? Unless someone gives them the gospel? So, yes, it's the Holy Spirit awakening and yes, it's the preaching of the word in conjunction. This is why some hear the message and believe and others physically hear the message and reject it.

Paul points to this in verse 15. It says, and how were they to preach unless they are sent? How are they to preach unless they are sent? You see, this verse is the key to understanding our responsibility to evangelize here.

One of the very first commands, or very last commands, I should say, that Jesus gave us on earth. Does anyone know what it is? One of the very last commands that he gave his disciples on earth. Go and make disciples.

He says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Now, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is one of the very last commands Jesus gives us.

What is he doing? He's calling us. He's calling his people into participating in his work. After all, how were they to hear? The Holy Spirit's not just roaming around the earth right now going, ah, that one, I'm going to awaken.

And all of a sudden, some person's doing their job who's never heard the gospel goes, oh, I believe the gospel. It doesn't work like that. God has allowed us to participate in the work that he is doing.

This is why God leaves us here. You ever wondered that? Why doesn't God just, like, take us out the moment we're saved? Like, why doesn't he just say, you know what, I have an elect, and the moment I save that elect, I'm just going to take him out of the earth, because the Holy Spirit's going to wake him anyways, right?

He doesn't do that. He leaves us here for a purpose. He leaves us here with a calling. He gave us a mission. And our mission is what? What is the first, what's the word I'm looking for, that we do with our kids?

My brain just kind of shut down. Catechism. What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy him forever, right? God has set us on mission to glorify him and enjoy him forever, and we do this how?

By obeying his commands. Commands such as go therefore and make disciples, right? That's how we glorify God and enjoy him forever. We obey him. I want you to think about that for a second, Saint. God has allowed us to play a part in finding and rescuing his children.

I'm going to let that set in for a second. He has called you and I, his children, to play a part in finding and rescuing his children, our very brothers and sisters, roaming in the dark. Do you remember the darkness?

Do you remember the brokenness? Well, I sure do. He sought after me. And he used my brothers and sisters that had already been brought into the household of faith to come and find me. He allows us to be a part of that.

You know, we make our plans and he directs our steps, and we all acknowledge that. Everybody likes to reference that passage. Oh, I make my plans and God directs my steps. But you have to understand when it comes to evangelism, when it comes to salvation, when it comes to finding his children, when he has one of his elect from every tribe, nation, and tongue, remember, when he has one at their appointed time ready for the Holy Spirit to move in their life and bring about new birth, he guides our steps into their path.

He's a sovereign God. He says, I'm ready for that one. That's Nathan's appointed time. And I'm going to take one of my servants, one of my other children, and I'm going to place them there just right in the time.

And then the Holy Spirit comes and moves in Nathan's heart, and they share the gospel. And in conjunction with those two things, hearing the truth, and then being given ears to hear, given faith to believe, now all of a sudden that appointed time awakened.

And what happens? Look at verse 17 there in Romans. So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. This is what is taking place in the life of a believer in that moment. We share the good news, the word of Christ, right?

We don't evangelize. The gospel is not let your life share the gospel. I don't even know what the saying is because it's such a stupid saying, right? And when necessary, use your words. That's absurd.

That goes completely against this passage that Paul is saying. No, you have to use your words, and God uses that in that moment. We share the good news, and what do we share? The word of Christ. The words of God are living, and breathing, and active, and God uses that in that moment to bring them to truth.

And the Holy Spirit awakens, gives them ears to hear, and faith to believe. Now I make this statement sometimes. Some of y 'all maybe have heard me say this, and I want to make this statement to y 'all because I think this, when I understood this, it really gave me boldness in my evangelism.

When you understand this truth, you realize that evangelism has a 100 success rate. A 100 success rate. Because if it's their appointed time, they will be saved. If it's not their appointed time, but they're still one of God's children, you've just planted a seed.

You may be playing part in watering that seed, but it's 100 success rate. And if they reject fully and die in their sins, God used it for further condemnation because He gave them the truth and they rejected it.

It's 100%. We do not have to worry about sealing the deal. His children will run to the Savior every single time. Paul points to this in our passage in 1 Corinthians now. I told you to keep your hands there.

Flip back to our passage in 1 Corinthians 3. Look at verse 6. Paul says, I planted. Now, some of you are gardeners, farmers, whatever that may be. Do you see immediate results when you plant? Of course not.

He says, I planted. Apollos watered. Is watering a one-day job and then done? You can go out there and water. That's how I do. I plant trees all the time. I love, I want fruit trees so bad, but I literally water them for two days and then I forget to water them again and they die.

And I do it every single time. I'm terrible. Is it a one-day thing and done? No, it's not. It's an ongoing process. That's what Paul's getting at. He's saying, I planted the seed of the gospel. Apollos came in, lived amongst you, and watered it, cultivated it, cared for it.

But look at what it says next. God gave the growth. God gave the growth. When you plant and then you cultivate, you water, you do all the things you need to do. Do you produce the growth? No. You have no power over whether or not that seed is going to actually sprout up.

You can put some things into place, but you really don't have any power over it, just as we have no power over who is saved. We have no control over that. So, does the worker, the servant that Paul, remember Paul called himself in Apollos, servants, deacons, does the worker, the servant play a part in this?

Yes. By the good graces of the master, they play a part in it. But make no mistake, look at verse 7. So neither he who plants nor he who waters, me and Apollos, any of us that are involved in the process here, neither of us is anything but only God who gives the growth.

It's only God. Like a good servant, our desire should be to honor our master, right? That's what our desire on this earth should be. We're servants, just like the Apostle Paul and Apollos, and we should desire to honor our master.

And every seed we plant, every crop that we water, every time we share the gospel, every time we pray, every time we read our Bibles, every time we go to church, it should be done out of a heart of honor and obedience towards our good and gracious master.

Everything should flow from that. And when we begin to understand this, evangelism takes on a whole new level of fervency. Us people who believe that salvation is a work of God and God alone are accused of not pursuing evangelism, but let me tell you the truth throughout history.

All modern missions that you see were created and started by men who held to this view of conversion. And you know why? Because they knew there was an elect from every tribe, nation, and tongue. And when everything seemed hopeless, they knew they could enter that tribe, nation, or tongue, and God had a people for himself in there.

And that evangelism had a 100 success rate. But you see, the servant has no idea which seeds will grow, does he? The servant really doesn't even know which soil is rich and ready, and he definitely doesn't know whether or not the rains are going to come for that crop.

He has no idea. But a servant does know that the master has told him to do this, and they do it with all their might, to the glory of their master, with joy in their hearts and faith that the master knows better than them.

They don't argue. They don't say, well, I'm just going to sit here because I don't think that soil is ready. The master doesn't know what he's talking about. I don't think these seeds are any good, so I'm not going to plant these seeds.

Master doesn't know what he's talking about. It's not what a good servant does, is it? And we take it even further. Our master is a sovereign, all-knowing master. There's not even a question in our minds as to whether or not our master knows what's good and what's ready.

Not only does he know which seeds will grow, he has foreordained which ones will grow. He's sovereignly chosen them. He's pulled them out for nothing to do with them, out of the mix of seeds, and said, I love you eternally, and I'm going to sacrifice my own son to redeem you, and you will grow.

He knows exactly which ones, and he has set his love and affection on specific ones before the foundations of the world even began. He's already prepared the soil. He's the one that brings the rain. He is using you and I, his children, to work those fields.

He's given us a part. He says in verse 9, he says, for we are God's fellow workers. I love how Paul puts that in there. He doesn't even just say workers, he says fellow workers. We're working with God.

God has given us the privilege to come alongside and work the field as his servants. And he goes on there in verse 9, he says, you are God's field, God's building. Who's he speaking of? He's speaking of the church, right?

That field, that soil that's been prepared perfectly, that seed that's been called out is going to produce fruit, and it grows itself up into the church, and that's what we see today in our own lives is being called, set apart, and brought into the church.

God has that elect. Those elect make up his church, and he has not lost one. He will seek, he will find, and he will adopt each and every one of them without question, and nothing can thwart that plan.

That gives us boldness and evangelism, doesn't it? But if you think that means that you can sit back and be a lazy servant, then you don't understand what God's called us to. Remember that extreme I pointed out, those frozen chosen?

I'm just going to sit back, read all my books and my theology, get my John Calvin commentaries out while the world is lost and dying in their sins. Ah, God's going to save who he saves. He'll send somebody.

What do you think God's going to do to that servant? Verse 8, there in 1 Corinthians 3, Paul says, he who plants and he who waters are one. There's the church again, right? It's just like our church name, Romans 12 5.

So we, though many, are one body, and individually members one of another. He's saying, me and Apollos, we're one, and each, now he divides them, will receive his wages according to his labor. We're one body, we're moving as a unit, but God is going to identify individuals.

Say, what have you done? Were you a good steward? What did you do for my kingdom? Did you take those talents and hide them away? Or did you multiply them? Did you do as I told you to do? Each will receive his wages according to his labor.

What's Paul talking about? He's talking about storing up treasures in heaven, isn't he? Those treasures in heaven that we are storing up to lay at the foot of our Savior, our great and gracious Savior who died for us, we get to come before him and say, this is what I did for you on earth.

I got to play a part, and I lay them at your feet because you're the one that accomplished them. You gave me the privilege of playing a part in it. I think this is what Paul's getting at. And I, for one, I don't know about you, I desire to be a faithful servant.

I desire it. I long to hear those words, well done, my good and faithful servant, now enter into my rest. I long to hear those words. Now all of this being said, this doesn't mean that every Christian should drop everything and go on the mission field.