Evangelism Handbook

The early church lacked so many things the Western church has today. They had no completed Bibles, no PowerPoint, no killer worship bands, and no teams of songwriters. Yet they worshipped well. They had no Christian bookstores, Christian schools, or Christian parachurch groups. They did not even have church buildings! Yet they grew disciples. They had no great influence in the culture, no seminaries to train their ministers, and no tax-exempt status to encourage believers to give. They lacked so many things we have. But they seemed to have one thing we lack: much power in the Holy Spirit! In fact, if you take the Holy Spirit out of the book of Acts, it would be hard to imagine them becoming anymore than one more religious sect that arose and then quickly faded away.

Today in so many Christian circles I fear if the Holy Spirit left, most of what we do would continue. We can almost put our faith on autopilot in our day. We need the Spirit! He is the One who illuminates the Word (it is the Sword of the Spirit), the One who guides us into all truth, the One who comforts, the One who gives boldness to witness; the One who does the amazing work of redemption. Those involved in evangelism know the crucial role of the Holy Spirit’s power and presence. “No alternative to the Holy Spirit is available for the Christian leader,”² stated Duewel, who added, “We are in danger of being better trained and equipped on the human level than we are empowered by the Spirit.”³ Charles Finney exhorted, “I would repeat, with great emphasis, that the difference in the efficiency of ministers does not consist so much in the difference of intellectual attainments as in the measure of the Holy Spirit they enjoy.”⁴

As a teenager in the 1970s in a Southern Baptist church, I was a lot like the disciples of John mentioned in Acts 19; I was not sure there was a Holy Spirit! Since the birth of Pentecostalism at the beginning of the twentieth century, in particular the Azusa Street Revival in 1906, there has been an increased interest in pneumatology. One thing is clear: the Holy Spirit’s role in evangelism can hardly be overestimated.

Why has the Holy Spirit been overlooked in the work of the church? Certainly part of the reason simply comes from the fact that we have learned to do so much in the institutional church in the power of our flesh. But much of the reason as well comes from how we view the Third Person of the Trinity. Some have neglected the work of the Spirit. He is intangible, a “spirit,” and a little more difficult to picture than the Father or the Son. We tend to confuse corporeality (a physical presence) with reality.

Another reason He is overlooked is ignorance. Many churches give very little emphasis to the work of the Spirit. Extremism by those who do emphasize the Spirit is another factor in his neglect. Some emphasize certain gifts or attributes to an extreme or they associate certain phenomena with His work.

What do we know about the Spirit of God? First, the Holy Spirit is a person, not an “it.” In our songs and discussions, we tend to refer to the Spirit almost like the “force” of Star Wars movie fame. How do we know He is a person? When speaking of the Spirit, Jesus referred to Him as a person: “He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive Him because it doesn’t see Him or know Him. But you do know Him, because He remains with you and will be in you” (John 14:17).

Further, the Spirit does personal acts (John 14:26; 15:26; 16:13). He has all the attributes of a person except a physical body (Rom 5:5; Acts 1:8; 1 Cor 2:10–13). He can be treated like a person (Acts 5:9; 7:51; Eph 4:30).

The Bible teaches there is a seen world and an unseen world. Paul put it like this in Col 1:16: “Because by Him everything was created, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.” People instinctively are aware of this. How many people do you know who talk about “luck” or “fortune” not because either concept is biblical (they are not), but because they know there is an unseen world. Other cultures see this. There is the concept of the evil eye in Islam, for instance. Many people in their everyday lives do not live out their theology. Many professing followers of Christ check their horoscopes and speak of good luck. Why do they do so? Because we perceive there is an unseen world, yet our anemic teaching on the spiritual realities of our faith in general and of the work of the Spirit in particular do not show believers how His work affects the everyday life they live.

Ephesians 1:13–14 refers to the sealing of the Spirit at salvation. Seals were commonly used on documents in the first century. Drummond offers the following ideas to demonstrate the significance of this expression for Christians. First, we wear the stamp of God, as His personal possession. Second, the seal brings the mark of authenticity. It also emphasizes security, for a legal document with a seal in the first century was considered secured. Thus, the term seal implies the security of the believer in the new covenant relationship with God. Finally, the seal means service for God is expected. The Holy Spirit who seals us will also guide us.⁵

He fills the believer with power and boldness to witness (Acts 1:8; 2:4). Whenever a believer was filled, he or she witnessed as a result. When Jesus declared that His followers would receive power after the Holy Spirit had come upon them and that they would be witnesses, He meant that we could be effective witnesses—but not in our own strength. Effectiveness comes through the power of the Holy Spirit. The key to effective witnessing is not in our technique or our strategy. The key is in the power of the Holy Spirit working within us. The question is, Do we really trust the Holy Spirit? Do we believe He will use someone just like us, and are we walking in that confidence?

Being filled means to be controlled. The question is not so much, How much of the Holy Spirit do you have? but, How much of you does the Holy Spirit have? Are we yielded to Him? Being filled is to be normal, consistent, and obvious (Eph 5:18ff.). The word for being “filled” with the Spirit in this passage is pleroo. The filling of the Spirit does not refer to a “second blessing” subsequent to salvation. The expression is most often found in Luke and Acts. The term and its derivatives have two main uses. First, being filled with the Spirit refers to the normal, consistent control of the Spirit in the believer’s life. This is seen in the Lord Jesus (Luke 4:1), the early deacons (Acts 6), Stephen (Acts 7:55), and Barnabas (Acts 12:24). So the fullness of the Spirit is the expected lifestyle of any believer. After all, Paul reminds us that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19).

We see this clearly in Eph 5:18. Paul commanded believers not to be filled with wine. How can you tell a person is drunk? By his speech, walk, and appearance. Paul also commanded believers to be continuously filled with the Spirit, in a consistent manner. The term is pleroo, “to fill.” This is the only time Paul refers to being filled with the Spirit.

The verb is passive, emphasizing the role of God in the filling. The present tense notes the continual aspect of the Spirit’s control. Further, Paul’s emphasis to the church of Ephesus is on the corporate body, not a particular few. Köstenberger summarized this verse in its context. Paul’s expression, “in contrast to being drunk with wine enjoins believers to exhibit a wise, maturing lifestyle which is to be expressed in corporate praise and worship as well as in proper Christian relationships.”⁶

If a pastor entered the pulpit intoxicated, you could tell. It would be obvious. You probably would not listen to him! However, Eph 5:18, which contrasts intoxication with the Spirit-filled life, tells us that it is just as great a sin to preach without the Spirit’s control as it is to preach drunk! Lest you think I am picking on preachers, let me say that it is as wrong for a Christian parent to live before their children devoid of the Spirit’s control as it is to be a drunkard!

There is another way the term pleroo is used. It refers to a “sudden, special filling or anointing.”⁷ Green said this second use did not refer to “the settled characteristics of a lifetime but to the sudden inspiration of the moment.”⁸ We see this in Peter (Acts 4:8), the early church (Acts 4:31), and in the life of the apostle Paul (Acts 9:17; 13:9). Believers should live in such a way that the Spirit guides and controls their lives. Still, at times the Holy Spirit gives unusual unction for specific tasks, notably evangelism.

How Can You Know You Are Filled?

The filling of the Spirit does not generally happen through an ecstatic experience or other phenomena. Years ago, I heard pastor James Merritt give this simple test. Produce the fruit of the Spirit, as seen in Gal 5:22–23, and perform the function of the Spirit, to bear witness to Christ. Jesus tells us the Spirit “will glorify Me, for He will take of what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:14 NKJV).

Hindrances to the Filling

Scripture tells us we can grieve the Spirit (Eph 4:30) or quench the Spirit (1 Thess 5:19). We grieve by the act of commission, and we quench by omission. My colleague Andreas Köstenberger noted that these passages are not injunctions directly “linking confession of sins to the filling of the Spirit.”⁹ While this is true, the Spirit is indeed the Holy Spirit, and our sins of omission (quenching) and commission (grieving) can hinder the Spirit’s control in our lives. We are to confess our sins, said Köstenberger, “in order to enjoy continued fellowship with the Spirit and with other believers.”¹⁰

How Does a Person Receive the Filling?

As noted, there is no set formula that will work, but certain principles do apply. We should yearn for the presence and power of the Spirit who dwells within us. Further, we should never seek the filling; we should seek to be obedient believers (Luke 11:13). Do you desire the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to control your life? Are you willing to yield all you are to Him? Yield yourself to the Spirit and be active sharing the gospel, and believe He will use you to the glory of God.

There is an increasing emphasis on the role of spiritual gifts in the American church.

There are many spiritual gift inventories designed to assist a believer in determining his gifts. However, I believe such tools tend to identify convictions or preferences more than spiritual gifts. They can be helpful, but I would not use them as the primary means of determining the gifts of the Spirit. I find it hard to imagine the apostle Paul encouraging the use of a spiritual gifts inventory in his day! Perhaps such inventories exist because we have failed to teach people thoroughly the Word of God, and how to apply the Word to life.

Here are a few tips to help you determine your spiritual gifts:

• Be a responsible Christian until those gifts are made clear. Don’t sit around and do nothing because you haven’t found your gift! You find the will of God by doing what you already know to be his will, not by sitting on the sidelines of life. You also discover your gifts by faithful service.

What about the “gift of evangelism”? Much of the literature on evangelism and church growth uses this term. However, the Bible does not say anything about the gift of evangelism. It does speak of the gift of evangelist. Further, some people have argued that in the average church only 10 percent of the people have the gift of evangelist.¹¹ Others have picked up on this idea. This is a cop-out.

Certainly, some people are more effective than others in witnessing. We need to start where people are. Nevertheless, the New Testament mandate is the total penetration of an area with the total participation of the church members. Jesus never told 10 percent of His followers to win the world to Christ; He commanded all believers to do that—period. Every believer must become involved at some level in evangelism.

The New Testament term for evangelist in Eph 4:11 might convey the idea of a harvest evangelist where we think of a great evangelist like D. L. Moody or Billy Graham. It could also indicate a person who preached or shared the gospel where it had never been heard, as in the case of Paul. Or one could argue from the New Testament usage that the gift of evangelist, since it refers to equipping the saints for ministry, is a person gifted in teaching and inspiring others to evangelize.

We have to be careful to distinguish between our duty as Christians and our specific gifts. I’m not denying some people are more effective in evangelism than others, even as some men are better preachers than others. But the New Testament does not say some believers are to witness while others are not. The Great Commission is for every believer. Every believer ought to be able at least to administer spiritual CPR. If they meet somebody who wants to be saved, they should be able to tell them how to come to Christ.

Pastor Johnny Hunt of the First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Georgia, discussed the place of spiritual gifts in a message on his philosophy of church growth. He makes a distinction between “servant” gifts and “sign” gifts:

God has given us servant gifts. Let me tell you churches that are filling them up today: Churches . . . that are dealing with sign gifts. “Ah, I want to be there where somebody speaks in tongues. I want to be there where there is interpretation of that. Oh, I want to be in a service where there’s prophecy.” You want to get into that mystical movement of the Spirit of God. Friend, if you want to get down where the rubber hits the road, you leave those sign gifts and get into the serving gifts. They are laid out for us clearly in the word of God in Romans 12:3–8. Let me just mention them to you: Wisdom, teaching, helps, hospitality, giving, government, mercy, faith . . . Those are gifts that God has given the church, and He’s given them to us.

During this message, Hunt then went into the congregation to note individuals with particular gifts:

We never witness alone. We always have the Spirit with us. How does He aid us?

It was a rough day—four hours of driving—and I was late to a meeting. After I arrived, the meeting yawned on for five hours. Finally, I got to bed. I was staying at a military base. I had just drifted off to sleep when someone knocked at my door. The lady at the door said, “There’s a bomb threat. We need to evacuate the building immediately.”

A bomb threat? On a military base? I got dressed and headed out the door. I asked her, “Does this sort of thing happen all the time?”

“No. There’s a package underneath a car in the parking lot and we don’t know what it is. You need to get out to the field quickly.” We went out to the field, and I could see armed military personnel along the perimeter. Security vehicles, a fire truck, and other vehicles arrived. Lights were flashing everywhere, and soldiers walked around talking on walkie-talkies. There was a sense of urgency.

Fortunately, there was no bomb. And we were able to go back to our beds. But I thought about that—urgency. There is a ticking going on. It’s not the ticking of a bomb. It’s the beat, beat, beat of hearts—hearts of people one heartbeat away from eternity without Christ. Do we sense that urgency? The Spirit of God gives us the urgency to share Christ.

The Holy Spirit teaches believers truth. The Holy Spirit, Jesus said, would bear witness to Jesus—not to Himself, not to others—to be witnesses to the truth of the gospel, the truth of the Christian faith. John’s Gospel tells us that we will know the truth and the truth will set us free. Jesus also said that the Holy Spirit would guide us in the truth. The Holy Spirit helps us to gain victory over sin: “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature” (Gal 5:16 NIV).

Temptation is not sin; temptation is an enticement to sin. The thought that comes across our mind—the attitude that we think about—is not sin. The Holy Spirit helps keep us from fulfilling that temptation to the point where it becomes sin in our lives. The Holy Spirit works to bring into our lives the risen life of Christ.

Some passages in the New Testament talk about the work of the Holy Spirit in us, and other passages talk about Christ in us, the hope of glory. There’s no contradiction in the Godhead. The Holy Spirit works in us to bring alive the resurrected Christ in our lives.

We read of the Holy Spirit’s work ahead of the witness in the account of Cornelius in Acts 10. Before leading Peter to share Christ with Cornelius the Spirit had already been at work in his life. On a summer day in Evansville, Indiana, my witnessing team was ready to call it a day. We decided to knock on just one more door. A thirty-one-year-old man answered the door and listened politely with little obvious interest. Sensing our fatigue, he invited us into his mobile home. He still seemed totally uninterested, but I continued to share Christ with him. When I came to the point of inviting him to respond to the gospel, he suddenly burst into tears. “I am a paramedic,” he said. “Over the last two weeks I have thought about death every day.” He opened his heart in repentance and faith. The Spirit had been preparing him for our visit. I have seen this happen many times when sharing Christ.

Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send Him to you. When He comes, He will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in Me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see Me; and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. (John 16:7–11)

The term elegcho is translated “convict” or “convince.” The Spirit of God, our Comforter (parakletos) of the converted, becomes the prosecutor of the unconverted, convicting the lost of three things:

1. Sin. Spurgeon, commenting on the conviction of the Spirit in his life, said, “When the Holy Ghost made sin to appear sin, then I was overwhelmed with the sight. . . . A naked sin stripped of all excuse, and set in the light of truth, is a worse sight to see than the devil himself.”¹² It is the work of the Spirit, not our argumentation, that convinces a lost person of his sin.

3. Judgment. The world, as well as Satan, will be judged (see John 16:11; 1 Cor 1:18). Those individuals not convinced of the truth of the gospel will see it as a stumbling block or foolishness (1 Cor 1:18). But for those who respond to the Spirit’s conviction, the response is like that of my favorite contemporary hymn:

“He saved us not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). On a busy day at an airport, one man was particularly rude. He had more bags than allowed, they were overstuffed, and the skycap mentioned this to him. He demanded that his bags be checked. The skycap went about his business, and the man didn’t give him a tip. A couple standing next in line said to the skycap, “You certainly seemed cool. That man was so rude to you, it’s hard to believe you didn’t retaliate.” The skycap smiled and said, “No big deal. That man’s going to New York, and his bags are going to Brazil.” The skycap had total control over the bags. The Holy Spirit—not you or me—changes the eternal destiny of people.

The Holy Spirit takes a willing witness and a seeking sinner and brings them together to make a new believer. Philip and the eunuch are biblical examples (see Acts 8).

The Holy Spirit will lead us to divine appointments if we are sensitive to him. Pastor Ronnie was on an errand. A man approached Ronnie and noticed the name of the church on the van. After learning Ronnie was the pastor, he said he was going through some serious problems in his life and had several major decisions to make.

Ronnie was in a big hurry, but he agreed to take time to talk with the man. The stranger shared his heart and the decisions he faced. Ronnie shared the gospel with the man. When he asked the man if he desired to turn from his sin and place his faith in Christ alone as Lord, the man said yes. Many times I have seen this or heard of it being repeated in similar fashion, as the Spirit creates divine appointments for faithful witnesses.

The work of the Spirit through people to lead to salvation can be described as a “net.” Imagine a young man named Joe who grew up in a totally irreligious home. When Joe went to college, his assigned roommate turned out to be a “Jesus Freak.” He was extremely excited about being a Christian. He would do Jesus yells in the shower and have a devotional time at six o’clock in the morning, even on Saturdays. He constantly prayed about everything from tests to world peace. Joe had never known anyone who took religion so seriously. They had some interesting conversations from time to time, but Joe never made any kind of response to the gospel. For the first time in his life, however, he did begin to ask himself what he believed about God. They only roomed together a semester.

After college graduation, Joe got a corporate job. He had a secretary who was a Christian. She kept a small sign on her desk that read “Prayer Helps,” and every Monday morning she came to the office and talked about the Sunday worship music, the sermon, or a special event at church. From time to time she would invite Joe to bring his family to her church, but he always made an excuse not to come.

What Joe noticed most about his secretary was her disposition. She always seemed happy, and she never talked about people in the office. She did her best with every responsibility, and her uplifting spirit was contagious. Occasionally, Joe would say something about wishing he could bottle and sell her optimism, and she would respond by saying that “Jesus likes to give my kind of joy away to any person who really wants it.” Joe didn’t agree with her religious beliefs, but he did like the impact they made on her and his office.

Joe eventually joined a health club. One day he was looking for a racquetball partner, and the club teamed him up with another member. His opponent was very competitive, and they made a good match. When they were visiting casually in the locker room afterward, Joe was shocked to learn that this guy was a youth minister from a local church. He had always thought that ministers were religious professionals who spent all their time in church. They began playing together and became friends. Joe became interested in what the youth minister did at the church, and occasionally they got into theological discussions. The youth minister answered some of Joe’s questions about God, but Joe still had little interest in church or thinking seriously about a personal faith.

After a few years, Joe was transferred to another office on the West Coast. His boss, one of the top producers in the company, turned out to be a committed Christian. Once or twice he would invite the office to his home. Without fail, the boss would say something to the group about the role Jesus played in his life. Often he invited Joe and his family to church and occasionally Joe would go. It was not as stuffy and formal as he thought it would be.

For the first time, Joe was with a superior who was a committed Christian. Joe always thought of religion in terms of your private beliefs about God, but this man was deeply affected by his faith at many levels of his life. Joe greatly respected this man’s work habits and abilities, and he began to understand that religious convictions were a major factor in defining his boss’s character.

One spring Joe was flying across the country to a national convention. The lady next to him was going to the same convention. They began chatting, and suddenly Joe found himself opening up and telling her about some serious problems. His marriage was about to fall apart, and he was feeling like a rat trapped in a maze with no place to go.

The woman listened for a time and then told him that he sounded just like she and her husband did three years ago. They were going opposite directions in their careers and were about to file for divorce when a friend shared what Jesus could do for her. The lady said she became a Christian, and slowly Jesus began putting the pieces of her life in order. Now she was happier than ever before because she knew that God loved her and that He had the power to help her.

Joe was deeply moved. He had never thought of God as one who would get involved in the personal lives of people. He began to realize that what he believed about God could affect far more than his theological opinions. It could impact his daily life.

A few weeks later, Joe was home alone when his doorbell rang. Two people from an area church had come to ask him if they could tell him about Jesus. Joe invited them in, and 45 minutes later he gave his life to Christ. Although the witness team led Joe to Christ, they were only the final strands in a net of witnesses that the Holy Spirit used.

God Himself is the great harvester. He takes the various witness efforts of His children, weaving them into a great net guided by the Divine Fisherman, the Holy Spirit. And the awesome thing is, when a new believer is born into the Kingdom, he gets to be a part of the net as well as he goes about sharing the good news.