EVANGELIZATION BACKWARDS
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Have you ever wondered why the early church was so successful evangelizing the world?
What happened to some parts of the Christian Church where our numbers have been progressively declining while other faiths, such as the Muslim faith, have been greatly increasing over the last decades?
I believe that the answers to these questions may surprise some of you. The early church was so successful evangelizing the world because they understood and obeyed Jesus’ heart, which is for His followers to UNITE in the love for one another as a result of receiving God’s love in our hearts, His Grace, which is the true Gospel of Christ.
As Acts shows: “All the believers were UNITED and shared everything. They would sell pieces of property and possessions and distribute the proceeds to everyone who needed them. Every day, they met together in the temple and ate in their homes. They shared food with gladness and simplicity. They praised God and demonstrated God’s goodness to everyone. The Lord added daily to the community those who were being saved.” (Acts 2: 44-47).
Jesus provided the road map to effective evangelization, and it is called UNITY, and UNITY comes as a result of the GLORY which we have received, the Holy Spirit: “I gave them this GLORY so that they can be ONE… they will be completely ONE. Then, the world will know that you sent me and that you loved them just as you loved me.” God’s Grace, which is the true Gospel of Christ, produces UNITY in His followers, and this in return evangelizes the world by showing them how much God loves them:
“I pray not only for these followers but also for those who will believe in me because of their teaching. Father, I pray that all who believe in me can be ONE. You are in me and I am in you. I pray that they can also be ONE in us. Then, the world will believe that you sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me. I gave them this glory so that they can be ONE, just as you and I are ONE. I will be in them, and you will be in me. So they will be completely ONE. Then, the world will know that you sent me and that you loved them just as you loved me” (John 17:20-23).
I believe that one of the main reasons we have not been able to evangelize the world is that we have learned EVANGELIZATION BACKWARDS. We have tried to obey the great commission, without first being UNITED as a fruit of the Holy Spirit moving in our lives by the preaching of the true Gospel of Christ, God’s unmerited favor, God’s Grace. This happened because we have tried to evangelize by proclaiming a false “gospel,” one mixed with the law, basically putting new wine into old wine skins, and the wine skin has burst causing all kinds of division in the church.
The UNITY which leads to LIFE and the DIVISION which leads to DEATH is exemplified in the early church. On the one hand, the true Gospel, God’s Grace produces UNITY, and LIFE shown by the example of Barnabas in Acts: “The apostles continued to bear powerful witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and an abundance of GRACE was at work among them all. There were no needy persons among them. Those who owned properties or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds from the sales, and place them in the care and under the authority of the apostles. Then it was distributed to anyone who was in need. Joseph, whom the apostles nicknamed Barnabas (that is, “one who encourages”), was a Levite from Cyprus. He owned a field, sold it, brought the money, and placed it in the care and under the authority of the apostles” (Acts 4: 33-37).
On the other hand, the mixture of “grace” and the law produces a false holiness that leads to DIVISION and DEATH, exemplified by Ananias and Sapphira: “However, a man named Ananias, along with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property. With his wife’s knowledge, he withheld some of the proceeds from the sale. He brought the rest and placed it in the care and under the authority of the apostles. Peter asked, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has influenced you to lie to the Holy Spirit by withholding some of the proceeds from the sale of your land? Wasn’t that property yours to keep? After you sold it, wasn’t the money yours to do with whatever you wanted? What made you think of such a thing? You haven’t lied to other people but to God!” When Ananias heard these words, he dropped dead. Everyone who heard this conversation was terrified. Some young men stood up, wrapped up his body, carried him out, and buried him. About three hours later, his wife entered, but she didn’t know what had happened to her husband. Peter asked her, “Tell me, did you and your husband receive this price for the field?” She responded, “Yes, that’s the amount.” He replied, “How could you scheme with each other to challenge the Lord’s Spirit? Look! The feet of those who buried your husband are at the door. They will carry you out too.” At that very moment, she dropped dead at his feet. When the young men entered and found her dead, they carried her out and buried her with her husband” (Acts 5: 1-10).
As the passages above show, evangelization can only happen when the true Gospel is preached; this true Gospel produces UNITY, and UNITY in the Body of Christ shows the world the love of God for them. This is how the early church evangelized the world, and how the church of the end times will evangelize the whole world, and answer Christ’s petition to the Father. The greatest revival the world has seen is coming and it will happen once the true Gospel is preached producing the fruit of the Spirit in us, which is LOVE for one another; in other words, LOVE is UNITY, and UNITY is what will lead to the evangelization of the world.
One way to show UNITY is by supporting our persecuted brothers and sisters. Our support for them shows our love for Christ and for one another, and is the key to the evangelization of the world.
Take for example Meriam Yahia Ibrahim, ARRESTED FEBRUARY 2014 IN SUDAN. “On May 15, 2014, a Khartoum court sentenced 27-year-old Sudanese Christian Dr. Meriam Yahia Ibrahim to death. She was found guilty of both apostasy and adultery. Initially, Meriam was charged with adultery because of her marriage to a Christian man, and the apostasy charge was added upon Meriam’s insistence that she was a Christian.” See more details here:
http://www.prisoneralert.com/pprofiles/vp_prisoner_240_profile.html
“Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body” (Hebrews 13:3).
So, what has been preventing the church from completely evangelizing the world? Our lack of UNITY with one another, exemplified by the parable of the good samatitan parable:
“A man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. He encountered thieves, who stripped him naked, beat him up, and left him near death. Now it just so happened that a priest was also going down the same road. When he saw the injured man, he crossed over to the other side of the road and went on his way. Likewise, a Levite came by that spot, saw the injured man, and crossed over to the other side of the road and went on his way. A Samaritan, who was on a journey, came to where the man was. But when he saw him, he was moved with compassion. The Samaritan went to him and bandaged his wounds, tending them with oil and wine. Then he placed the wounded man on his own donkey, took him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day, he took two full days’ worth of wages and gave them to the innkeeper. He said, ‘Take care of him, and when I return, I will pay you back for any additional costs.’ What do you think? Which one of these three was a neighbor to the man who encountered thieves?” Then the legal expert said, “The one who demonstrated mercy toward him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:30-37).
The priest represents an apostate spirit infiltrated in the church, one that is more concerned in apperances, or religious traditions, than in God’s will and real substance. The Levite represents the spirit of legalism that instills prejudice into the hearts of believers. These are two of the main spirits dividing the church today, and preventing it from being unleashed onto the world.
The church of Christ is unleashed in our UNITY by demonstrating the love of God in our care and compassion for each other, being the hands and feet of Jesus to a hurting world who will recognize Jesus as the Messiah by our UNITY shown in a tangible way by our love for each other, acting like the good Samaritan and not like the religious and legalistic people of our days represented by the priest and the Levite (teacher of the law) in the parable of the good Samaritan.
Lord, I pray that those who read this message receive a fresh revelation of the Holy Spirit, of how important the LOVE for one another is, and how this LOVE is fully manifested in the UNITY of your Body; that we may understand that we are your Body, your arms reaching, your hands healing, your words teaching, your feet going, your LOVE showing that JESUS IS THE WAY.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZW7eTbT1Mk
“Jesus paid much too high a price for us to pick and choose who should come. We are the Body of Christ. If we are the Body, why aren’t His arms reaching? Why aren’t His hands healing? Why aren’t His words teaching? If we are the Body, why aren’t His feet going? Why is His love not showing them there is a way, there is a way ” – Casting Crowns.
Sources and Statistics:
https://www.barna.org/barna-update/culture/661-americans-divided-on-the-importance-of-church#.U6RbzpRdVIE
Interesting Statistics about Americans, Church and God.
1- In America, 3500 — 4000 churches close their doors each year. (from the Barna Study — www.barna.org)
2- Churches lose an estimated 2,765,000 people each year to nominalism and secularism. (from the Barna Study — www.barna.org)
3- Usual Sunday church attendance has dropped from 1,606,00 in 1968 to 881,000 in 2005.(www.churchsociety.org)
4- Only 21% of Americans attend religious services every week. (www.religioustolerence.org)
5- The proportion of the population that can be classified as Christian declined from 86% in 1990 to 77% in 2001.(American Religion Identification Survey)
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