First things first, if you are yet to read Mark Dever’s book The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, then I would highly recommend it. It does not contain the secret cure to our evangelism woes, but it does present a wonderful case for biblical evangelism. With that said, I just wanted to make a quick comment about evangelism from the book of Acts.
In Acts 4, Peter and John are brought before a religious council to be addressed regarding their preaching and teaching. Verses 19-20 gives us some insight on how considerate Peter and John were of their audiences desires. Verses 19-20 read, “But Peter and John answered them, ‘Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” It is clear from the text that the people wanted the teaching to stop, but interestingly enough Peter and John weren’t interested in what they wanted, for the glory that they had seen demanded that it be spoken of.
Though we are not eye-witnesses to the resurrected Christ, we are none the less witnesses of power of the gospel of the glorious God. Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe!
In our weak and feeble attempts to evangelize our friends, families, co-workers, and strangers, we must be sensitive to God’s will for evangelism. This can be especially hard sometimes, but the test of our evangelism is not in the acceptance or rejection of our message, but in the exultation of God in and as the gospel.
Keep your eye fixed on the prize, for it is better to obey God than to obey man!
CH