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The Evangelism Weekend 2010
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Evangelism & Apologetics
Intro
i. Definitions:
Evangelism = telling people that Jesus is Lord.
Apologetics = telling people why they should believe that Jesus is Lord
ii. You don’t need to be an expert in science / philosophy Islam before you talk to people about
Jesus, all you need is a Bible.
1. The task: defending our hope
Key Bible verse: 1 Peter 3.15-16
‘But in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a
defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with
gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered,
those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.’
- Answering people’s questions is part of what it means to be godly
- God’s demands of me are quite high: always… anyone…
- Includes: testimony, why believe, answers to common questions
- My ‘direction of travel’ matters more than my current level of expertise
NB:
beware the twin dangers of defeatism & plateau-ing
expect ‘being prepared’ to be hard work
2. Sin & salvation
Our approach to evangelism flows directly out of our understanding of sin & salvation
2.1
Sin
Key Bible verses: Romans 3.10-12
‘As it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one
seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no
one does good, not even one."’
Temporal consequence of sin: unbelievers are ‘dead’ (Jn 5.24), under God’s
wrath (Jn 3.36), evil (Jn 7.7), blind (Jn 9.39-41), children of the devil (Jn 8.44),
and ‘unable to enter the kingdom of God’ (Jn 3.5).
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Note especially the ‘noetic’ effects of sin:
‘Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the
Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their
understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in
them, due to their hardness of heart.’
Ephesians 4.17-18
‘Total depravity’ – not that we are all as immoral as we could be, but that every
part of our life is tainted by sin.
‘When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing— they believe
in anything.’ G. K. Chesterton
‘False faith’ – Turretin
Implication
2.2
The absolute necessity of ‘new birth’ – salvation is ‘all of God’
Salvation
Key Bible verse: 1 Peter 1.23
‘… you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through
the living and abiding word of God.’
The Spirit regenerates by the word
Implications
Positively: The Word is sufficient for belief
‘Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not
written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.’
John 20.30-31
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Negatively: The insufficiency of ‘evidentialism’ as an apologetic method
- people are not unbelievers because they lack information about God
- we will never argue anyone into the kingdom, so we will never rely on
extra-biblical arguments in our evangelism (if you could give one book to a
friend…?
- so why does so much ‘apologetics’ take people away from God’s word?
3. Evangelism & apologetics:
These convictions feed our understanding of the relationship between apologetic argument and
the proclamation of Scripture.
NOT:
Two distinct categories
Teaching the Bible
to non-Christians
Apologetic argument
NOT:
Apologetic argument as a sub-set of evangelism
BUT:
Two largely overlapping categories
Teaching the Bible
to non-Christians
Additional apologetic
arguments
Directly biblical
apologetic arguments
Implication
‘Normal’ evangelism is reading the Bible (Mark’s gospel?) with a friend
Who is Jesus, why did He come, what does He require?
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4. How then do I answer people’s tough questions?
i. Work out what they believe:
The ‘worldview’ of Jesus
The ‘worldview’ of the world
Christian
life
Some other
way of life
Christian
beliefs
Some other
beliefs
THE PERFECT WORD OF
THE LIVING GOD
SOME OTHER FOUNDATIONAL
AUTHORITY – what is yours?
Learn to think Christianly about the things that other people believe:
Are their beliefs intellectually credible?
Why do they believe what they believe?
Are they existentially satisfying?
ii. In apologetics, we want both to attack unbelief & to proclaim belief
a. Attacking unbelief:
i. For its implausibility
‘Why do you believe that?’
‘Why have you decided NOT to worship Jesus?’
ii. For its inconsistency
‘Didn’t you just say that there’s no ultimate morality?’
iii. For its impracticality
‘Can you really live like that?’
‘Do you really want to live in a world like that?’
iv. For its ultimate futility
‘Do you have any hope in the face of death?’
Tolstoy, ‘Is there any meaning in my life that will not be
destroyed by the inevitable death that awaits me?’
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b. Proclaiming belief in Christ:
i. Defend belief in Christ against its detractors: it is true & it does work
a. Evidentially:
Reliability of the Scriptures
Arguments for the resurrection
b. Morally:
The goodness of God in a world of suffering
The justice of God in the light of hell
c. Philosophically:
The exclusive truth of God in a world of pluralism
d. Existentially:
It really works
for individuals (testimony)
for families
for society
for eternity
ii. Declare Christ as Lord
a. Sooner rather than later, cf. Francis Schaeffer
THE BIG QUESTION:
What does this person think about Jesus?
Why do they believe what they believe about Jesus?
What is their authority for what they believe?
Have they ever investigated his claims seriously?
Why do they think Jesus had to die?
b. Tell the truth… in a loving way
c. Remember you are talking to a person: why are they asking this question?
d. Keep the discussion open – end with a ? not an !