THE MINISTRY OF EVANGELIST

Odon, Friday 6th October 2000

When we are gathered together in His name, He is with us. It does not just mean that we are together physically, but spiritually. When we are gathered together in one spirit, God’s presence is with us. We can be gathered together physically, but spiritually we are not, and God’s presence is not with us. God always takes into account the quality of our spirit. Let’s do our best to be together in one spirit so that God’s presence will be with us. It is true that God is not far from us and He is already among us, now we want to see Him, let’s concentrate and listen to what God wants to tell us.

Acts 21:8
And the next day we that were of Paul's company departed, and came unto Caesarea: and we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven; and abode with him.

2 Timothy 4:5
But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

We find this word evangelist only twice in the Bible, in Acts 21:8 and in 2 Tim 4:5.

This word started acting in the New Testament. In the Old Testament we cannot find this word. This word was used for the first time when the disciples obeyed Jesus, Jesus said: “Go in the world and evangelize”.


1. WHAT DOES ‘EVANGELISE’ MEAN?

To evangelize is to go and bring the good news to those who are lost, the lost sheep who need to go back to their Shepherd, this is what evangelize means. But nowadays we hear something different today, we hear that someone who is an evangelist must study first, learn strategies and afterwards he can start working. We are not talking about this type, we are talking about one of the ministries of God found in Ephesians 4:11 “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;”

It means that God himself watched you and gave you this position so that you can do something for the church. It hasn’t been given to you by your elder or pastor but by God Himself. It is not because your parents told you that you will evangelize, it is not because you saw an evangelist and you want to be like them and imitate them, we are not talking about this, we are talking about something different.


2. EVANGELISTS DON’T SIT AT THEIR DESK, THEY TRAVEL

5 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:
6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
7 And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Matthew 10:5-7

Jesus told his disciples not to go to the land where there are no Jews. To understand, we go back to the book of Acts 8:5 “Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them”. Phillip traveled, and this is what Jesus had told his disciples. They must travel around but not in the city were there are no Jews, He said: “Go to the lost sheep because me, the Lord need them, and preach to them that the kingdom of God is at hand”.

When you are chosen by God to be an evangelist, be assured that you will travel. An evangelist is not someone who stays sitting in the same place, at his a desk, office or in the same church. Their office is always outside the church, and he might spend 80% of his time outside his house and just serve God, and as he travels he will preach that the Kingdom of God is at hand. It means that the evangelist will not wait for someone to invite him at church to preach, his mission is to preach everywhere he goes, on a bus, in a taxi, office, anywhere telling them that the kingdom of God is at hand, and the lost sheep will find life. This is what an evangelist does.

Jesus said: “Before you go, remember one thing: do not go to Samaria, do not go to the cities were there are no Jews.” Jesus said that because he wanted to teach evangelists that before you go anywhere you must ask the Lord where to go. You cannot say: “I will go to Australia next year to evangelize there” God Himself will choose where you will go. If He finds it good for you to go to Singapore instead of Australia, this is His will. Always remember you are a slave, and a slave doesn’t argue with his master, and a slave does not try to please his own will, but the desire of his master. Jesus said: “Don’t hide anything but tell people straight that the kingdom of God is near.”


3. TWO JOURNEYS: SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL

There are two kinds of journeys: spiritual and physical.

a. Spiritual journey
Someone for example might come to you here and tell you everything that is happening in Brazil right now, and others might come here and tell us what is exactly happening in Auckland right now. They didn’t receive a revelation from God, but they were transported by the Spirit of God and they arrived to the point of seeing everything that was happening.

b. physical journey
To travel with the physical body we must get ready: sort out for instance where we will sleep, eat and find a ticket to get there. But God does not think that way, He doesn’t want us to seek a ticket, because He has planned for it all. God cannot send someone when they are not ready. You can be sure of that, even at the last minute God will do something for His mission’s success. God for example, can tell you to evangelize in the East, and you don’t have any money, you look right and left but nobody can help you. In that case, don’t be discouraged, always look up to God and He will answer.

I remember a brother in our country who was broke. Although he had nothing, no bed (he would sleep on the floor), he asked God one-day to have a wife “God I want something from you, I want to get married” After two days he received a letter from Belgium from a former schoolmate. One of his friends from school sent him all his furniture. This brother was always at home, and when he was hungry he would ask his wife to cook for him, but there was no food in the house and the wife always asked: “What can I cook you, we have nothing to eat”, “Just put water in the pan and it will boil” Then he started singing with his guitar, asking God: “God, what shall I eat today?” and someone would come and give him money. Sometimes he would say to God: "God, I want to evangelize, but my stomach is empty, how can I speak?"
And God would always answer him.

That is what stops many evangelists today. They forget that their body is here just to support the work of the Lord. Your body will always show you that you don’t have enough money to buy your ticket to go to Te Awamutu.
If Peter goes to Te Awamutu now, for example, he will use all the petrol in the car, so
- It is better that Peter goes next week,
- Peter isn’t going because he has a headache,
An evangelist must realize that the body is very demanding and will always try to stop God’s Word.

In my country (Congo) in the military camp, everyday at 5:00am the whistle would blow to get up, and everybody had to get up in the cold. If you got drunk the night before, that was your problem, you still had to get up. Whether you had eaten or not, seen your wife or not, it was not their problem, you still had to get up. When you heard the whistle blow, every person knew where their boots were and all their gears. They didn’t even have the time to rinse their mouth, because they respected the whistle, if you wasted two minutes you will be punished and arrested for maybe two days. It was an incredible discipline.

This is a picture of how evangelists must behave. When God blows the whistle and tells you to go and evangelise somewhere, you must be ready, clean with the right boots on, at the right size so that you may walk probably. If your boots were too small it may be a hindrance for you.


4. WHAT DO EVANGELISTS DO?

Matt 9:10, “ While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"

Matt. 10:8, “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers,
raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give”.

You must know that you have the power to heal the sick. If you feel in you that God has sent you to evangelize but you don’t have the power to heal the sick, pray first and ask God to fill you with this power. This is one feature of an evangelist. You must always be able to raise the dead, cast out demons, heal the lepers. This must not be in you so that you become proud or make a fortune and be rich. Most evangelists today after praying for the sick and receiving healing ask to be paid the amount the sick would have paid the hospital if they had been there. This is how evangelists pray for billionaires and in their heart want something in return; money. He will not say it with his mouth, but his heart will speak and he will wait for a reward. And if it sometimes happens that a person does not pay a servant of God, they are shocked. They forget they have received freely, and must give freely and they forget that the hand of God will be upon them one day to condemn them. They forget that God can take away the gifts He gave them. The Bible says “Don’t take anything” (Matthew 10:9, Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses). This is what is so difficult for most servants of God.