This is part three of Joshua Anderson’s Announcing the Kingdom evangelism class. In the previous teaching we learned what evangelism is not as well as some ineffective methods to avoid. Today, we’ll hear about what evangelism is and one key to sharing your faith more effectively.
Anderson also explains the history of how our culture shifted from seeing religious matters as objective to subjective. The end result is that people now see evangelism as rude and inappropriate. Knowing this can help us navigate the challenges of sharing our faith authentically today.
—— Links ——
- See all the sessions in this class, Announcing the Kingdom
- Download the notes for this seminar
- Watch the unedited videos of this seminar.
- See more podcasts, posts, and book recommendations about evangelism
- Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library
Sean, you will probably delete this comment as it exposes your sociopolitical agenda that contradicts this:
Matthew 28:18-20
18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. ” NASB
“… teaching them to observe all that I commanded you…”
Mark 12:28-31
28 And one of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord (Yahweh) our God is one Lord (Yahweh); 30 and you shall love the Lord (Yahweh) your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 “The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” NASB
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself” and “Therefore, however you want people to treat you, so treat them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” have not been part of the institutional church since at least the 4th century and have been excluded from the so-called Christian right’s agenda from its inception in the early ‘80’s.
Matthew 25:31-46
31 “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 “And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. 34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink? 38 ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 ‘And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 “And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ 41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ 44 “Then they themselves also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ 45 “Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” NASB
Then there are these:
1 Corinthians 5:9-13
I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; 10 I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters; for then you would have to go out of the world. 11 But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler — not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? 13 But those who are outside, God judges. NASB
Colossians 2:8-15
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. 9 For in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form, 10 and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; 11 and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; 12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. NASB
1 Corinthians 5:9-13
9 I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; 10 I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters; for then you would have to go out of the world. 11 But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler — not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? 13 But those who are outside, God judges.
NASB
Colossians 2:8-15
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. 9 For in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form, 10 and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; 11 and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; 12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.
NASB
Colossians 3:5-11
5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. 6 For it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come, 7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him 11 — a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all. NASB
2 Timothy 3:1-9
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; 5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these. 6 For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8 And just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected as regards the faith. NASB
I fail to understand how Josh, a PCA missionary can teach a course on evangelism as he is a Trinitarian who rejects the Father is the only true God. However, I fully agree with “don’t talk the talk if you can’t walk the walk”.
To paraphrase Joshua, choose who you will serve, either obey the Lord Jesus Christ or a sociopolitical agenda that appeals to Jesus as a figurehead but denies his teachings as you cannot do both.
Hey Robert,
It may be more effective to just cite the verse references rather than quoting them in full. I almost didn’t make it down to the part where you made your point.
Anyhow, I don’t appreciate being accused of having a sociopolitical agenda. Not only is that an excessively vague accusation, but it sounds like you’re accusing me of a conspiracy as well. Please just say what you mean, because I don’t have a clue. If I had to state my sociopolitical agenda, I would cite Matthew 6.33 about seeking first God’s kingdom.
As for Josh, he is not a trinitarian and he is not part of the PCA though he did partner with them for his time in Japan. However, he’s not on here talking about the Trinity or liberal politics anyhow. Have you listened to any of this series? He’s on here talking about preaching the gospel to others. Besides, I’ve benefited much from trinitarian evangelists over the years and don’t think we should exclude them because their understanding of God is incorrect.
Sean, when I think of the gospel, the first Scripture that comes to mind is Luke 4:18 “He anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor”, which leads me to Luke 6:20-26 and James 2. Matt 6 is a good chapter as it addresses the fact you cannot serve 2 masters. I also think of John 6:44-51 when discussing the gospel. Then there is John 17:3, which brings us to the nature of God, which is an essential component of evangelism as is love your neighbor as yourself.
Have I watched Josh’s presentations on evangelism? Yes. One of his strategies is house or cell churches, a concept introduced to America by Dr. Ralph Neighbor Jr. who formed Touch.org. I met Ralph when he was with the 2nd Baptist Church of Houston and became involved in one of his cells. Also, as far as I know I am the only Biblical Unitarian who lives in Grand Junction, CO, so I engage Trinitarians on a regular basis as most of my relatives in the area are Trinitarians, but also include a couple of JW’s, Mormons and a couple of lesbians who are not Christians. So, for me my mission field is my family.
I am a bit confused on why you think discussing various philosophies like modernism or postmodernism is beneficial. If you think this explains how humans view their culture and behavior, the best source is Genesis 8:21 “… for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth..” and Romans 3:9-18. So, how to evangelize these people is to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and then hope this applies to your target audience John 6:44-51, of course praying that God will lead you to those He has called never hurts.
Now, why do I see you promoting a sociopolitical agenda? A lot of your podcasts reflect the same agenda as Jerry Falwell and other evangelicals filled the airways with in the 1980’s. While the church must defend itself against the moral decay of this generation and normalizing sin because our society is normalizing what Scripture warns us against, what happens outside the church is none of your business (1 Cor 5:9-13), unless you support immoral liars like Trump since doing so destroys any real witness you have in evangelism. When the Christian right ignores 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, Ephesians 5, and Colossians 3 (to name a few) for political purposes they demonstrate to the unchurched that you do not walk the walk you just talk the talk. This nation was founded as a secular Republic and our founders were adamant in establishing a wall of separation between church and state: http://addictinginfo.com/2018/07/30/35-founding-father-quotes-conservative-christians-will-hate/?fbclid=IwAR0Jaq1h0Zflhe1E-2ILazSzs8DC0M6rBLumM3vkZPhKTP8h-I-GPztSzCc Page 19 of the 2016 Republican Party Platform claims this nation has a Judeo-Christian heritage, which is an outright lie as any real historian can prove. The way our nation treated Native Americans is a stain that will never be removed.