If we’re Christians here this morning it should be our joy and delight, our duty and privilege, to see the good news about Jesus spread far and wide. It ought to be our hearts’ desire that men and women around the world get to know the forgiveness, love and grace of God that we ourselves have experienced through faith in Christ.
This good news of the Gospel is too good to keep to ourselves – and the Church actually ‘under orders’ from Jesus himself to proclaim him to the ends of the earth. Christ’s Great Commission won’t be fulfilled until people across our community, our country and our world have come to hear of him.
This is the great work of ‘evangelism’ that every Christian is called to participate in. But how? What does effective evangelism actually involve? And what part can we play personally? After all, many of us are at an age and stage of life when it is not practical for us to launch a new career as an overseas missionary, or to start street preaching in Chester city centre. And even if we were, most of us are not confident enough to stand on a soapbox and publicly proclaim the Gospel.
So what are we to do? Are we entitled to simply stay silent and play no part in the spread of the Christian faith in our country? Are we unable to do anything to help advance the Gospel message around the world? Can we simply opt-out of the Great Commission?
Well today we reach the end of our sermon series in Colossians. And as the apostle Paul ends this short letter to the church in Colossae, he gives them (and us) some very practical advice on effective evangelism.
Paul identifies three things that every Christian – regardless of our age, stage or temperament – can do to help spread the Gospel. He says we are to Pray hard; Act wisely; and Answer questions. Let’s unpack each of those in turn…
- Pray hard! (v.2-4)
Firstly, we are to pray hard. Because Paul begins by urging his readers to pray earnestly for the spread of the Gospel. “Devote yourselves to prayer” he says in verse 2.
Now, to “devote” yourself to something is to prioritise it, to persevere at it in all weathers. So whether we are feeling too tired, too busy or even simply too bored to pray, we are to keep at it, says Paul. Praying for the advance of the Gospel should be part of our daily routine, a “holy habit” that we keep up all year round.
But how do we persevere in prayer, you may ask? Well, one way we can keep going is by adding variety to our prayer times. Rather than nodding off in your armchair have you tried praying whilst walking? Or praying out loud as you potter about the house?
We can also help ourselves persevere in prayer by keeping ourselves informed about specific individuals and their prayer requests. All of the main Christian mission agencies publish prayer requests on their websites. Log on to the websites of the Church Mission Society, or Crosslinks, for example, to read updates from their missionaries working in the UK and overseas.
Interestingly, in verses 4 and 5 of our passage today, Paul shares his own personal prayer requests with the Colossian Christians. Writing from prison in Rome, Paul writes: “Pray for us, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. [And] pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.”
I’m sure every Christian missionary today would echo the essence of Paul’s prayer request. We can pray that God will open up new opportunities for every Christian missionary to share their faith, both at home and abroad. And we can pray that the Lord will give them the right words to say when the right opportunity does arise.
Thirdly, we can be helped to persevere in prayer by praying with other Christians. Its something we already do in our Sunday services and midweek house groups, and from 10thSeptember I’ll be praying Morning Prayer here in church every Wednesday at 9am. Do join with me to intercede for the work and witness of Christ’s Church in the world.
Returning to today’s passage, Paul adds that our prayer life should also be “watchful and thankful”. By this Paul may mean that we should be on the look out for answers to our prayers, and rejoice when they do occur. We should be watching for news of the spread of the Gospel – near or far – and thank God for the growth of Christ’s kingdom. Again, the websites of mission agencies like CMS and Crosslinks are a great place to get informed.
So as Paul says, let’s pray hard for the growth of the Church and the spread of the Gospel around the world – its an essential ingredient of effective evangelism.
2. Act wisely! (v.5)
Owls are my mother’s favourite bird. We’ve just returned from a few days at my parents’ home, and the house is full of owl ornaments. Every window sill and mantlepiece seems to have at least one owl on it, made of pottery, glass or some other material!
Owls, of course, are famously associated with wisdom. And so too should every Christian – because ‘Acting wisely’ is Paul’s second piece of evangelistic advice in our passage today. In verse 5 he writes: “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.”
To live “wisely” in this context means to live in a Christ-like way. It is to act and behave in public in a way that is godly, upright and attractive.
There is nothing worse than when someone known to be a Christian ‘lets the side down’ by being publicly seen to be immoral, unethical or just plain foolish. The credibility of the faith we profess is let down whenever our behaviour falls far short of Christ’s standards.
On the contrary, however, when our lifestyle is attractive, self-sacrificial and distinctive in the eyes of unbelievers, they will be more interested in the Christ we claim to follow. They will be more inclined to believe that God’s Spirit is at work within us, and more curious about the faith we profess to believe. We should take every opportunity to point people to Jesus by our Christ-like behaviour.
So let’s ‘act wisely’ to earn more of an audience for our faith. That’s the second ingredient of effective evangelism.
3. Answer questions! (v.6)
If, like me, you love quizzes, the pleasure comes from being able to answer the questions posed by the quizmaster. My strong subjects are normally sport, geography and general knowledge (The music round is usually my downfall!)
And the third and final ingredient of effective evangelism today is also all about answering questions. Answering questions that non-Christians may ask us – not about general knowledge, geography or music, of course – but about our faith.
As I said earlier, the idea of doing ‘evangelism’ ourselves is quite frightening for a lot of Christians, probably including most of us. Evangelism is often seen as something for a select few, maybe the apostle Paul and overseas missionaries, but not for the ordinary Christian person in the pew.
But in truth there is no need to for us to travel the world, climb on a soapbox or address a huge crowd to engage in evangelism. And there’s certainly no need for us to ‘brow beat’ our non-Christian friends and neighbours, trying to force our faith into every conversation we have with them.
On the contrary, in our passage today Paul envisages evangelism as something far more personal, and much less confrontational. In verse 6 he defines evangelism as engaging in a dialogue about our faith – carefully answering non-Christians’ questions rather than being like a bull in a china shop!
Listen again to what Paul says: “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”
That other great apostle, Peter, puts it even more simply in one of his letters. He writes: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have… but do this with gentleness and respect.”
So as Christian evangelists, we need to be ready to answer questions that unbelievers have about our faith. Questions about Christianity that may be prompted by our behaviour, or something we’ve said or simply the knowledge that we go to Church on Sundays.
We need to be ready to graciously and gently answer questions about what we believe and why. Such questions about our faith may arise over coffee with a friend, over the dinner table with a family member – or perhaps over a pint in the new Golden Lion!
To be ready for such conversations there are three things we can do to prepare:
- Firstly, we need to be sure what we believe. That’s why reading the Bible and reciting the Creeds is so important.
- Secondly, we can rehearse our personal testimony. What I mean is that we can prepare ourselves to explain why we personally became a Christian and the difference it has made to our lives.
- And thirdly, we can read one or two books that will help us answer common questions about Christianity. Anything by CS Lewis is always helpful, as well as books by more modern writers like John Lennox, Amy Orr-Ewing and Alister McGrath.
Taken together, those three steps can help us feel much more confident to answer questions by non-Christian family and friends –more ready to share the hope we have in Jesus.
Conclusion
Well, that’s all from Paul, as his letter to the Colossians comes to a close. We’ve heard from him this morning how to evangelise effectively, by answering questions, acting wisely – and praying hard!
So why don’t we pray right now…?