RELEVANT EVANGELISM

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you!

For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings. We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.

I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children. Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me.

For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.

1 Corinthians 4:8-17

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Today, I am sitting here doing what I do every day, sharing messages from the scriptures with those who choose to read them with the hope of making disciples, either new ones or stronger ones who have already committed to follow Jesus. I do this in the warmth and comfort of a nice home, warmed from the winter temperatures outside. I am safe and have the financial means to afford a laptop and wireless internet to help me transmit these messages to people around the world.

But here’s the thing. Not everyone spreading the Gospel today is as fortunate.

For somewhere in the world right now, a Christian evangelist is living in poverty while sharing the good news of Jesus with others. They don’t have a laptop with an internet connection or a cell phone linked to a wireless network. All they have is their hands, feet, and mouths to do the work Christ called them to do. And on top of these challenges, they may even go about their Gospel work under the threat of harm or even death.

You see, ministering to others for the cause of Christ happens in all kinds of different places and under various circumstances. There is no cookie cutter approach outside of the simplicity found in sharing the good news of Jesus with others. In other words, evangelism and how it is executed is relevant to the conditions by which a person takes on the task of evangelizing.

This is important for us to remember because I think sometimes we get immersed in our individual ministry comfort zones and lose sight of the reality that brothers and sisters elsewhere in the world are literally placing their lives on the line daily for the sake of Jesus. Persecution is real as millions of Christian believers can testify to each and every day.

Well, as we look at our scripture passage for today from our continued study of 1 Corinthians, chapter 4, we see that this matter of relevant evangelism existed as far back as the beginning of the Christian church as we know it. For as we read Paul writing to the Corinthian church, we find him painting a picture of how different ministry was him than for them.

First, he lets the Corinthians know how blessed they are to be able to go about the work of Jesus the way they do. They had all they could ask for and were rich and prominent. The church and its people were flourishing materially but Paul was concerned whether they were equally affluent spiritually.

Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you!

Life was good for the Corinthian Christians, so good that Paul was afraid they had a limited take on Christian service, a take that might paint a picture that one will immediately thrive and be taken to a place of wealth and prosperity just by aligning with Jesus and committing to His work. And so the apostle sought to share his evangelism experience which was strikingly different from his readers in Corinth.

For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings. We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.

This is the point I was trying to make earlier. The evangelism experience is completely relevant to one’s circumstances.

For Paul and the other apostles who traveled from place to place to spread the Gospel endured harsh conditions and constant peril. They were considered fools by many people they were trying to help save. They were weak, hungry, thirsty, brutally treated, homeless, and dressed in rags. As they worked hard for the cause of Jesus, they were cursed, slandered, and persecuted. Although rich in Christ, they were treated like the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world. Obviously, this was in stark contrast to what the Corinthian Christians experienced during their ministry work.

Now, someone reading Paul’s words might think he was trying to throw a pity party through his letter but the apostle moved quickly to dispel those thoughts. He wasn’t trying to shame the Corinthians but rather warn them because doing the work of a Christian can bring a person into hardship and even danger. He did this because he considered himself as a spiritual parent to the new Christians in Corinth being that he was the one who introduced them to Jesus in the first place. And since he had far more evangelistic experience than they did, he encouraged them to imitate him in the way they carry out their work for the cause of Christ.

If a time would come where they were cursed for being Christian, Paul hoped the Corinthian Christians would choose to bless those who were doing the cursing.

If persecution came upon them because of their belief in Jesus, then Paul hoped they would persevere as he had.

If they were slandered as they served Christ, Paul hoped they would answer kindly instead of returning insults in kind.

Ultimately, Paul hoped the Corinthian Christians would conduct themselves as Jesus did when it came to their evangelism work. For if they would (and if we would today), as he did, then they (we) would know that their (our) evangelism would always be proper because they (we) would model it after the One who shared the Gospel perfectly, no matter the circumstances.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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