Do the
Work of an Evangelist
by
Pastor Cornelius R. Stam
Paul’s farewell
exhortations to Timothy were written with great urgency. The time of
the apostle’s departure by cruel martyrdom was now at hand and ere
long his testimony would be sealed with his life’s blood. It was
with this in view that, rather than thinking of himself or now simply
“leaving everything with the Lord,” he still kept planning for
the future, still occupied with the ministry which the glorified Lord
had committed to him many years previous. There was still so much to
be done, so many souls to be won, and Timothy must now carry on the
work with renewed vigor. Thus it is that we read in II Timothy 4:5:
“But watch thou in
all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make
full proof of thy ministry.”
There is much confusion
about evangelism these days.
First, there are some who
have concluded from Ephesians 4:11 that the evangelist necessarily
belongs to a different category from “pastors and teachers,” or
“teaching pastors.” It is true that, according to this verse,
some of God’s servants are specially gifted and specially
productive as evangelists, but have we read too much into this
passage?
Some have read into it
that the evangelist need not be a teacher of the Word. He need not be
well-grounded in the Scriptures if only he can tell people that
Christ died for their sins. This reminds us of the converted
performer who, contrary to I Timothy 5:22, was immediately pushed
forward by Christian leaders as an evangelist. It cost heavily to
secure his services, but it was worth it: he could get crowds! He was
barely grounded in the Scriptures, but what matter? He has such a way
with him: he could tell such interesting stories and had written
several popular gospel songs. He was able to induce many hearers to
make “decisions” for Christ just because he had come to the
pulpit straight from show business. To quote his own words, “I
leave doctrine to the theologians. I preach Christ.”
But the question
immediately arises: “Christ who?” “What Christ?” It makes a
great difference whether one preaches the Christ of Palestine or the
glorified Christ proclaimed by Paul. And it makes a greater
difference whether he preaches that Christ of Liberalism or the
Christ of the Bible.
A similar notion prevails
that foreign missionaries (also actually evangelists) need not be
thoroughly grounded in the Word to do justice to their ministries.
But all this is unscriptural and wrong, and the churches established
by such missionaries cannot be spiritually strong.
St. Paul was doubtless
the greatest evangelist that ever lived and he won the lost to Christ
by teaching the great doctrines of alienation, reconciliation,
justification, etc. And today the evangelist, no less than any
minister of God, must be well-grounded in the Word, for souls are
saved only as the Spirit uses the Word (I Peter 1:12-25).
Thus the proclamation of
the gospel is not to be separated from the Word. Those who are saved
— and many are not truly saved — through hearing no more than a
verse or two from the Scripture, presented along with an emotional
and psychological appeal, are often easily swayed and must at best be
spiritually weak. But when the great doctrines of salvation are
taught from the Scripture, those who hear and believe begin already
to be established in the faith. Nor will they be easily shaken, for
nothing so grips the heart of man like the Word, understood and
believed. This writer will never cease to thank God that he was saved
through the teaching of the Word. One blessed result of this is that,
never once since that day forty-four years ago, has he ever doubted
His eternal security in Christ.
To look at this subject
from the other side, there are some who suppose that the pastor or
Bible teacher need not be an evangelist. He can always have gospel
literature ready to hand to interested persons and can from time to
time call in evangelists for special service. As one pastor said to
this writer, “Some of us simply are not evangelists and we should
not try to be.” But the pastor was wrong, dead wrong, for as we
have seen, Paul wrote to Timothy, the pastor and Bible teacher at
Ephesus: “Do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy
ministry.”
Does not this clearly
imply that the pastor, the Bible teacher, who does not do the work of
an evangelist, is inefficient in his ministry? For one thing, such a
pastor shows a shameful lack of concern for the lost, for he fails to
press home to the hearts of his unsaved hearers the urgency of many
of the very Scripture truths which he discusses in his sermons. For
another thing, he disobeys God, who says, “Do the work of an
evangelist”; indeed, who has committed to us all “the ministry of
reconciliation” to be fulfilled as “the love of Christ
constraineth us” (II Corinthian 5:14-21).
If pastors and Bible
teachers were more faithful in doing “the work of an evangelist,”
the general public would not be so readily taken in by the
unscriptural and God-dishonoring methods of evangelism so popular in
our day, methods which create much interest and make statistics but
also do much to confuse both the lost and the saved and to make void
the Word of God.
Finally, does not Paul’s
Spirit-inspired injunction apply indirectly to every believer in
Christ? Are not our pastors simply our leaders in the work of the
Lord? Shall the congregation sit idly by as the pastor alone does
“the work of an evangelist?” God forbid! The pastor is rather to
be an example to his flock to go and do likewise. How well this
writer recalls the days of the so-called Darby-Scofield movement,
when multitudes all over the country thronged to hear Bible teachers
like Gaebelein, Gray, Gregg, Ottman, Chafer, and Newell. These able
men of God expounded the Word as the “blessed hope” of the Lord’s
return was being recovered. But these Bible teachers were evangelists
too, in the truest sense of the word, and their evangelism was
contagious.
In those days almost all
premillenarians, including the young people, carried New Testaments
in their pockets wherever they went. Why? They hoped and prayed for
opportunities to testify to others about God’s plan of salvation
through Christ and they wanted to show them the way from Scripture.
In those days if a Christian failed to have a New Testament with him,
he was apt to be reproved with the words: “What, a soldier without
a sword!” By contrast, few believers carry New Testaments about
with them today, and they certainly don’t carry Bibles! Here at
Berean Bible Society, we still sell many Bibles for use at home and
church, but rarely does a New Testament go out the door.
Some are telling us today
that this brand of fundamentalism is out of date and ineffective in
these fast-changing times. We reply that all of us ought to get back
to this brand of fundamentalism, this earnest effort to personally
win souls to Christ by showing them God’s plan of salvation from
the Scriptures.
God help His people in
general and our spiritual leaders in particular, to “do the work of
an evangelist.”
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