📖 Evangelism — Unit 5: The Responsibility of the Believer in Evangelism

Orientation: The Question Behind the Command

If evangelism is a spiritual work that only the Spirit can complete, why does Scripture lay the responsibility on every believer? Because God has chosen to accomplish His work through human instruments. The Spirit convicts and regenerates, but He does so through the witness of His people. This means evangelism is not the specialty of a few; it is the responsibility of every believer. Unit 4 closed with the truth that "our sufficiency is from God." Unit 5 begins with the corresponding truth: that sufficiency is given to us, that we may carry the message. The Spirit's work does not eliminate our responsibility — it defines it.

This unit examines four motives that drive the believer's responsibility, the kind of life from which true witness flows, the faithful posture that trusts God for results, the overcoming of fear, the indispensable role of prayer, the consistency of life and message, and the sobering warning of the watchman in Ezekiel. The thesis is that evangelism is not optional for the believer. It is a stewardship for which every Christian will give account.

I. The Command Is to All Believers

Christ's parting words were not addressed to the eleven alone but to the whole church. Mark records the commission in its simplest form:

"Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." (Mark 16:15, NKJV)

Some have argued that evangelism is the duty only of pastors, evangelists, or those with special gifting. Ephesians 4:11–12 corrects that view. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers are given "for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry" — meaning the leaders equip; the saints do the work. The pastor's job is to train the congregation to witness; the congregation's job is to witness.

Peter calls every believer a priest:

"you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 2:5, NKJV)

The doctrine of the priesthood of the believer means we go directly to God through Christ, but it also means we represent God directly to others. In the Old Testament, the priests stood between the people and God. Now every believer stands in that gap, bearing the gospel to lost neighbors, coworkers, and family.

II. Four Motives for the Believer's Witness

Delos Miles, in his Introduction to Evangelism, identifies four motives that ought to drive every Christian into witness. These four anchor the believer's responsibility in something deeper than duty.

1. The love of Christ constrains us. "For the love of Christ compels us" (2 Corinthians 5:14, NKJV). A believer who has truly grasped what Christ did at the cross cannot remain silent. Love presses outward by its very nature.

2. Christ commands it. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations" (Matthew 28:19–20, NKJV). The Great Commission is not a suggestion. It is the standing order of the King to His subjects.

3. The lostness of persons. Luke 19:10 records why Jesus came: "to seek and to save that which was lost" (NKJV). Every neighbor without Christ is genuinely, eternally lost. When that reality grips the heart, witness becomes urgent.

4. The wrath of God. Romans 2:8–9 warns of "indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil" (NKJV). Modern preaching often shrinks from this motive, but Scripture does not. The reality of judgment is one of the strongest reasons we tell people the good news.

III. Witness Flows from a Changed Life

The New Testament pattern is striking: the moment a person meets Christ, that person almost immediately tells someone else. Andrew finds his brother Peter: "He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, 'We have found the Messiah'" (John 1:41, NKJV). The Samaritan woman leaves her waterpot and runs into the city. The Gerasene demoniac, freshly delivered, begs to follow Jesus, but Jesus sends him home with an assignment: "Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you" (Mark 5:19, NKJV).

This pattern still holds. A.C. Archibald, cited by Miles, tells of an unprepossessing, humble woman from his church who worked in a textile mill. When he first met her, he wondered if she could be used in evangelism at all — she seemed so withdrawn and self-deprecating. He gave her the names of two young women from the mill. The next week she appeared at prayer meeting with both of them, freshly confessing faith in Christ. He gave her two more names. Week after week she returned with new converts. In eight weeks she won twenty-one young women to Christ — and then continued the work, on her own initiative, for several years. What set her apart? "An illuminated countenance that came from much talking with the Lord." Her witness flowed from a life lived with Christ.

IV. Faithfulness, Not Results

Paul reminded the Corinthians that the work is divided:

"I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase." (1 Corinthians 3:6, NKJV)

The believer is responsible for faithfulness. The results are God's. This distinction sets the witness free from two opposite errors: discouragement when results are slow, and pride when results are abundant. Both errors come from thinking that we produce the harvest. We do not. We plant and water; God gives the increase. Some plant where another will water; some water where another planted. But every faithful sower will receive his reward, and no faithful sower labors in vain.

V. Overcoming Fear

Fear is the most common obstacle to witness. Paul wrote young Timothy:

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." (2 Timothy 1:7, NKJV)

Tom Phillips, a quiet, reserved executive, sensed God leading him to share Christ with Chuck Colson — then the most feared political operative in America. Tom's natural reserve rebelled. He rehearsed what he would say. The next day, when Colson walked into his office "seemingly proud and confident," Phillips suddenly felt timid, fearing Colson might think him "some sort of religious fanatic." He took several deep breaths, found an opportunity, and made his statement of faith. Colson did not respond at first; Phillips left convinced he had failed. Colson later wrote: "To this day, I wonder what might have happened if Phillips at that critical moment had flinched and ignored what seemed to be God's clear call." That obedience opened the door to one of the most influential conversions of the twentieth century — and to Prison Fellowship, which would reach millions. Tom's boldness "went against his low-key nature. Yet it was so obviously right."

Fear is overcome not by becoming naturally bold, but by yielding to the Spirit who is power, love, and a sound mind. The shy may witness more powerfully than the gregarious when they speak in dependence on God.

VI. The Role of Prayer

Paul, in chains, asked the Ephesians to pray "that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel" (Ephesians 6:19, NKJV). He asked the Colossians the same: "that God would open to us a door for the word" (Colossians 4:3, NKJV). If Paul needed prayer to be bold and clear, so does every believer.

Why pray for evangelism? Four reasons. First, because God desires all to be saved (2 Peter 3:9 — "not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance," NKJV). Second, because only God can draw men to Christ (John 6:44). Third, because God is already seeking them — Acts 17:27 says He set the times and bounds of every nation "so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him" (NKJV). Fourth, because the Enemy is constantly undermining the witnessing activity — the wicked one "snatches away what was sown in his heart" (Matthew 13:19, NKJV), and "the god of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe" (2 Corinthians 4:4, NKJV). Prayer is not a preamble to evangelism. It is the warfare that makes evangelism possible. Jesus said, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest" (Matthew 9:37–38, NKJV).

VII. Consistency of Life and Message

The witness lives in glass. Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:16, NKJV). Peter wrote, "always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear" (1 Peter 3:15, NKJV). The world reads the believer's life before it reads the believer's tract. An inconsistent witness undermines the very gospel he preaches. A consistent witness, however ordinary, opens doors that no clever method could.

VIII. The Watchman: A Sobering Word

Ezekiel describes the prophet as a watchman on the city wall. The watchman did not need to be a soldier; he only needed to sound the trumpet when he saw danger coming. God told Ezekiel:

"When I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand." (Ezekiel 3:18, NKJV)

But if the watchman warned and the wicked refused, "you have delivered your soul" (Ezekiel 3:19, NKJV). The believer is not responsible for the response. He is responsible for the warning. Silence in the face of eternity is a sin of omission Scripture takes with great seriousness.

Conclusion: A Stewardship to Be Discharged

Evangelism is not the believer's hobby. It is the believer's stewardship. The command is to all; the motives are deep; the witness flows from changed life; faithfulness, not results, is the measure; fear is overcome by the Spirit; prayer is the indispensable warfare; consistency between life and message is required; and the watchman's responsibility is to sound the trumpet. The unprepossessing woman in the textile mill, the reserved executive in his office, the believer in your church seat next Sunday — every one of them has been given a trumpet. The only question is whether they will blow it.

Prayer: Lord, You have entrusted to us a message and a world that needs it. Forgive our silence. Make us bold like Tom Phillips, faithful like Andrew, urgent like Paul. Give us hearts pressed by love, gripped by lostness, sobered by judgment, and steady in faithfulness. May the trumpet sound from our lips while there is still day. In Jesus' name, Amen.

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