“The E-Word”

“The E-Word”

Text: Acts 17:22-34

© April 27, 2008 by C. Edward Bowen at Crafton United Presbyterian Church.

Back during the sixth century, there was a bishop who had a rather unique idea. You see, what bishop Caesarius of Arles did was when he got up to preach, he ordered the ushers to lock all the doors in the church so that people couldn’t get up and leave while he was talking.[1] And today I gave serious consideration to doing what that bishop did, because today’s sermon is about a subject that is so frightening, that is so horrifying, that many of you might be tempted to rush for the exits. You see, today’s sermon is about the E-word. Yes, today’s sermon is about evangelism. And I’m sorry to inform you that it’s too late to leave – the doors have already been locked!

For many of us, the E-word, evangelism, is a frightening and horrifying word. For many of us, when we hear the E-word, when we hear the word “evangelism,” we conjure up images in our minds of pushy people ringing our doorbell and shoving leaflets in our face, or we think of some disheveled-looking man standing on a banana box on a downtown sidewalk angrily shouting at people about Jesus and sin and hell. When you hear the word “evangelism,” what image comes to your mind? Chances are it’s a not a good one.

But our reading today from the book of Acts is trying to show us that evangelism doesn’t have to be a scary word for us. Instead, believe it or not, evangelism can be something positive and good. As Paul shows us, it all depends on how you go about doing it.

In the story that we listened to today from the book of Acts, one day the apostle Paul was in the great Greek city of Athens. Athens, of course, was world-renowned for being a center of education and learning. After all, centuries before, Athens had been the home of the likes of great thinkers and philosophers like Socrates and Plato and Aristotle. And what’s more, Athens was also a center of religion. It was a city where they worshiped gods and goddesses like Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite, and Poseidon.

But when Paul arrived in Athens and began to engage in some evangelism, when he began to share with the people of that city the good news about Jesus, notice how he went about doing it. First off, notice that Paul didn’t start off with some fiery tirade. He didn’t start off by confronting the people of Athens and denouncing them as a bunch of senseless, heathen idol worshipers. Instead, Paul went out of his way to present the good news of Jesus in such a way that it would come across to the people as being good news, not bad news.

And so even though Paul certainly didn’t approve of all the idols the people of Athens worshiped, he noticed that one of their altars had an inscription on it that said “To the Unknown God.” And so Paul turned to the crowd around him and basically said, “You know, you people are really religious, and I appreciate that. I appreciate the fact that you’re so open when it comes to matters of religion. You’re so open, in fact, that I see that you even worship an Unknown God. Well, the good news I have for you is that I’m here to tell you about that God that is unknown to you, because that God is the God who made the universe. That God is the God who made us and who made everything in all the world. And that God is the God who sent his Son Jesus into the world, and after Jesus died on the cross and was buried, that God is the God who raised him from the dead.”

And at the end of that day, when Paul had finished speaking, not everyone in that crowd became believers, but some did. And many others said, “Paul, what you’ve told us today is something new, something we’ve never heard of before. Give us some time to think about what you’ve said, and later on we’d like to hear more about this God of yours.” In other words, because Paul was smart about the way he presented the good news of Jesus to those people, many people were willing to listen to what he had to say. Whereas if Paul had just charged into Athens and ranted and raved about how wrong they all were and how they all needed to change right away or else God was going to get them, chances are no one would have paid any attention to what he saying.

When we have some message that we want to communicate, how we go about presenting it matters a great deal. For instance, patients that are told by their doctor that the operation they are thinking of having has a 90% chance of success are far more likely to agree to be operated on than if the doctor tells them that the operation has a 10% chance of failure. In both cases it’s the same information that’s being communicated to the patient, but the way it’s presented makes a great deal of difference.[2]

Or consider what happened in the African country of Tanzania when some missionaries there weren’t too smart about how they went about presenting the gospel to the Zanaki tribe. You see, the Zanaki people live in huts that don’t have doors. And so if you go to visit a friend, the normal procedure is to stand outside your friend’s hut and call out to him to find out if he’s home or not. And in small villages, such as the Zanaki people live in, everyone knows and recognizes everyone else’s voice. And so among the Zanaki tribe, the only people who knock are thieves. The idea is that by knocking and then hiding, the thief can listen to find out if anyone is stirring inside; and by not saying anything, the thief can keep his identity a secret from anyone who might be in that hut or in a nearby hut.

Well, when Christian missionaries went to the Zanaki people, one of the first Bible passages they preached on was Revelation 3:20, where Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” Guess what? At first very few Zanaki people were interested in hearing what the missionaries had to say about Jesus, because based on the way those missionaries were presenting their message – saying that Jesus is someone who stands at the door and knocks – the Zanaki people figured that Jesus was some kind of a sneaky thief. And what kind of God has a sneaky thief for a son, they wondered.[3]

Another group that has their heart in the right place, but who I believe does a not-so-good job of presenting the Christian message is the Gideons. The Gideons, of course, are a group that promotes Bible reading and who spend a great deal of time and money distributing Bibles to people. If you stay in a motel, chances are that there is a Gideon Bible there in the nightstand.

But despite all their efforts, handing out millions of Bibles over the years, I seriously wonder just how successful they’ve been at communicating the Christian message to people. The reason I say that is because the Gideons insist on handing out only the King James Version of the Bible. And in case you don’t know, the King James Version of the Bible was a translation of the Bible that was prepared back in the early 1600s. And the language in the King James Version is filled with thee’s and thou’s and hitherest’s and whitherest’s, the kind of language you would find if you read one of Shakespeare’s plays. It can be beautiful to listen to, but the problem is that nowadays most people simply don’t understand what many of those words mean.

And so when the Gideons go up to high school or middle school students, and smile and hand them a King James Version of the Bible, what message are they communicating? I’m afraid that quite often the message they’re communicating is this: unless you’re smart enough to read and comprehend Shakespearean English, you’re never going to be able to understand what the Christian message is all about. And I’m afraid that many high school and middle school students open those King James Bibles, try to read a couple of lines, and give up in frustration, thinking “I guess being a Christian is far more complicated than I thought it was. I guess being a Christian just isn’t for me.”

As you’re probably aware, the New Testament was originally written in Greek. And the thing is that back in the first century, when the New Testament was being written, there was a high-brow, intellectual version of the Greek language. But when the Gospel writers and the other New Testament authors sat down to write, that’s not the kind of Greek language they used. Instead, they used the common, ordinary version of Greek, the kind of Greek that everyone in that day was able to understand. And I imagine they did that because they understood that if they wanted the message of Jesus to get through to people, they had to present that message in the right way. They had to present that message in a way that people could understand.

You see, I believe that in order for us to be effective when it comes to evangelism, in order for us to be effective at taking the good news of Jesus and communicating it to other people, we need to ask ourselves, “What is the good news that this person, or this group of people, needs to hear right now? And how can I best present that good news to them?” Now, I’m not suggesting that we should change Jesus’ message to fit what we think other people want to hear. No, I mean that we need to take the time to learn about what’s on other people’s minds, to find out what their questions are, to find out what their struggles are, and then try to figure out how to present the good news of Jesus in a way that connects with them.

After all, that’s what Jesus himself did. When he saw a hungry crowd of people around him, Jesus didn’t blather on about all the fine points of the doctrine of the Trinity. No, when Jesus saw a hungry crowd of people around him, he fed them, because he knew that right then and there, that was the best possible way that he could present God’s good news to those people. In the same way, when Jesus saw someone who was sick or hurting, he communicated God’s good news by healing them. Or when he saw someone who was tormented and ashamed of their sins, Jesus communicated God’s good news by forgiving them. Jesus didn’t have a one-size-fits-all approach to evangelism. Instead, with each person he met, he tried to discern what was the best possible way to present the good news of God to them.

And that’s the same sort of thing that we need to be doing as well. We need to be trying to figure out: What is the good news that Jesus wants to communicate to that 85-year-old woman who lives in a nursing home? What is the good news that Jesus wants us to communicate to that 10-year-old boy in elementary school? What is the good news that Jesus wants us to communicate to that single mother with three children? In each of those cases, how can we present the good news of Jesus in such a way that it comes across to each of those people as being good news?

When it comes to evangelism, I believe the best place for us to start is with something fairly simple, with something that we can all do. And that is: invite someone. Invite someone to come with you to worship. Invite someone to come with you to Bible study. Invite someone to come with you to Women’s Association. Think of some friend, some family member, some neighbor, some co-worker who is not currently involved with a church, pray for them, and then invite them to come with you, and see what happens. Over the years, researchers have found that somewhere between 60-80% of all people who start coming to church do so because a friend or family member asked them.[4] That’s not to say that everyone you invite to come with you is going to say yes right away, but you never know. It could very well be that someone you know is just waiting for someone to invite them.

The E-word doesn’t have to scare us. Evangelism doesn’t have to be something that we’re afraid of. Instead, the heart of evangelism is realizing the good news that we’ve experienced through our relationship with Jesus, and then moving out to share that good news with people around us. Who are the people that you know who don’t currently have a meaningful relationship with Jesus? Spend some time praying for those people. And then look for opportunities to invite them, to invite them to come with you, and to meet Jesus for themselves. Who knows what might happen? But we’ll never find out until we try.