What happens when believers are passionate about evangelism? Church is packed with people who are different than us, people we invite and bring with us to connect to Jesus.
Why do most believers neglect or resist evangelism? Because it’s difficult. It risks offending people. It feels awkward, like a sales pitch. It takes work. It can cost money and time.
Read carefully what I write next: Evangelism is only difficult when it’s our way and we make it all about us. When evangelism is about faith in God’s way and about love that wants to help others connect to Jesus, evangelism is easy.
The Bible teaches 3 of God’s ways in the book of Jonah that make evangelism easy for anyone.
First, evangelism is easy because the messenger is God’s way. Jonah wondered, “Why me? Why Nineveh? I can’t. I won’t.” “Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.’ Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh” (Jonah 3:1-3).
The original Hebrew language brings it out well with three emphatic commands from God to Jonah, “Get up! Go! Tell!” and three immediate responses on Jonah’s part, “He got up. He went. He told.”
That’s it. Evangelism is easy when you are God’s messenger, on God’s mission. So “Get up! Go! Tell!” Get up because Jesus once got up on a cross and sacrificed himself for people who were so different and undeserving. Go because Jesus went out of his tomb alive and with authority over all things. Tell because Jesus tells you, “I will use everything you do and everything you say—even the fumbling and mumbling—for my holy purpose. Just get up, go and tell.”
Secondly, evangelism is easy because the message is God’s Word. As Jonah approached the hundred foot towering walls of Nineveh he wasn’t wondering what to say. God had supplied him with a specific message and that’s what Jonah said. “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4). You may not be the best talker or connect creatively with unbelievers, but it doesn’t matter. You have the powerful message of God’s Word.
Finally, evangelism is easy because the miracle is God’s work. God did not expect Jonah to work miracles. That’s God’s job and he’s perfect at it! That’s it. When God’s messenger (you) mentions the message (God’s Word) then God is the one who will work the miracle of salvation in a person’s life.
Who did the Ninevites believe? Jonah? No. “The Ninevites believed God … When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened” (Jonah 3:5,10).
It’s one thing for God to work a miracle in you and your life, but it’s so much more when God works miracles through you. And he will when people you invite to church or tell about Jesus believe in him!
PRAYER: God, I’m on a mission. Your mission. But sometimes I make it more about me. You already make it about me by your grace, love and promises. So ignite my passion for evangelism and being on your mission. Your way. For more people. Amen.
EVANGELISM ACTION: Google “Blues Brothers Mission from God YouTube” and watch a clip depicting Jake and Elwood convinced that they are on a mission from God. These clowns pull all kinds of mischievous and even illegal stunts to raise money for the private, Christian school they attended as kids. How does their belief about being on a mission from God make even criminal activity easy for them? How does it make evangelism easy for you (without the criminal activity LOL)?
