Apologetics Course Reflections, Session 3: Evangelistic Preaching

2003-04-26

The main point of the lecture this weekend is to present a clear evangelistic message to the lost. This is important so that the lost can clearly understand the need for a Savior. People need to see that they are not perfect, but God requires perfection. People need to trust in Christ. Some of the major points are that we need to be communicators, not speakers. We need to be evangelistic people before we can be evangelistic preachers. Everything that the professor spoke of in his personal life and in his organization was backed up these two philosophies. He truly becomes all things to all men that they might be saved.

He went through, step by step, how to make an evangelistic sermon. The method is very similar: Choose a text, study it, develop the main idea, focus the passage, outline the passage, collect the supporting material, write the conclusion, write the introduction, manuscript the message, and then go and preach it. And guess what? Because of the professor’s choice of repetition throughout the weekend so that we would remember his lessons, I typed this from yesterday’s lecture without looking at my notes.

He also stressed the need for having non-Christian friends. If we go out of our way to be with non-Christians and befriend them, the time will surely turn to Christ eventually. If we think of non-Christians in everything they do and the reality of their destination without Jesus, this changes our attitudes.

Obviously, I agree with every point of this man’s message this weekend. This is why we are in ministry. Even if we are dealing primarily with Christians in our ministry (though we should be with non-Christians also for this very purpose), we are equipping the saints to minister to people on the outside. This all goes back to the mission of the gospel going to all peoples everywhere during this current age before the return of Jesus will come.

There were a lot of intriguing ideas and comments presented along the way. One of them is the idea of collecting no less than 10 illustrations per week to file for future messages. This is an excellent idea. This causes us how to think like a non-Christian might think. As the professor taught, we must know two things: the God we preach about, and the audience we are preaching too. If we cannot communicate on the level of a twelve-year-old, we will be little effective. The non-Christians are not going to be interested in hearing about the Bible unless it is made relevant to them. They have needs. The room is filled with people with broken hearts, disappointments, guilt, sins, hatred, and they are just simply lost. What do such people want to hear about? They want to know that they can be forgiven. They want to know that there is hope, because otherwise they are grieved by the fact of inescapable death that waits for them at the end of the road. If we can relate to them and aim for them on a personal level, then we can keep them captivated. A good introduction is important. A much longer introduction is needed than a regular sermon because the crowd is different: something like the difference of a shorter 3-5 minutes and almost 10 minutes. This is a big difference.

It was also interesting to note that the professor also targets a particular type in the audience. Perhaps it might be people that come from a broken family. He targets a particular group to be more effective to a certain type of person. If we pray through this before we choose, we can truly make an impact on the people who need to hear about Jesus.

This is one of the most pertinent information I have come across in this course. This is not to say that the other classes are irrelevant, because I enjoyed these classes thoroughly and the information as already been useful in explaining evolution and God’s existence to my peers. Amazing. However, since I will be going into the field of cross-cultural missions, evangelism is where it is at. I will have to be well-equipped with Bible knowledge to share with people the entire story of Christian history with them. Making the message clear for people to understand will be very important. I need to be able to reach them where they are. Though I do not know where I am going yet, as I will have to learn the other culture from scratch, the message is the same, and it needs to be clear. Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, and He arose again on the third day, so that He took the penalty of our sins. The hope is in that empty grave.