The Gospel and Personal Evangelism by Mark Dever - Chapter one, part one

Study guide for the book, The Gospel and Personal Evangelism by Mark Dever.  Part one

Chapter 1 notes for Sunday school. 

1   

   How would you rate your personal evangelism?

2.       How would you define the Gospel?

3.       What is evangelism?

4.       In the past six months, how many people have you shared the gospel with?

5.       Where in the Bible does God command us to share the Gospel?

6.       Which one of the five basic excuses can you relate with the most?

The who is one person that you think, "that person will never come to Christ." P.23

1. Consider the truth. What is true of every person that has come to Christ? Every persons salvation from the beginning of time is astonishing, and all about God's love, mercy, and grace given freely to people who are spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1-10). God had to breathe new life into you, by the Holy Spirit, regenerating your heart.What is going on with us when we don't evangelize?

2. Consider Jesus – Mark 2:15-17, Matthew 11:19

Jesus ate in their homes, yet did not sin. It is a very different thing to interact with those who commit evil and actually committing the evil. Christ called his followers to a radical life, which contradicted the expectations and cultural boundaries. One of the expectations from the religious leaders and the religious culture was to refrain from associating with certain “undesirable” types of people based on their appearance. This is legalism.  Jesus fought against the legalism of his day.

What is Jesus called by the Religious people of his day?

What are actions that are not sin that is called sin today by legalistic churches and pastors today?

Would others consider you a friend of sinners or a religious snob?

3. Consider the following 3 examples:

The Unbalanced Religious Immersionist

             
            "This person has a religious background and is familiar with the Gospel. He

has totally immersed himself into the secular culture and is

regularly participating in the popular sins of culture. In doing

this, he has gained an audience of non-Christian friends but has no

message to share with them because he lacks any kind of radical

difference from them. He is ineffective in his witness simply because there is

no life-change in him. There is nothing different about him that would

separate him from an unbeliever. This is someone who is not a Christian and

needs to focus on the Gospel, repentance and faith."

The Unbalanced Christian Rejectionist 

“This person has many Christian friendships, is involved in many Church

activities, and is morally pure. In doing this, she has a message to share but

has no audience of non-Christians with which to share because she lacks

any sort of radical identification with the culture. She is ineffective in her

witness not to mention disobedient because she is not sharing the Gospel.”

               

The Contagious Christian

“This person has many Christian friendships but also has many non-Christian

friendships. He or she lives a life that is authentic and he or she actively shares their faith.

They have a message and an audience. They have radically identified with the

culture while at the same time it is obvious that he or she is radically different from

their culture. He walks the tight rope between the kingdom of God and the

world just as Jesus did. He is effective in his witness, seeks the Lord in

everything.

4. Consider the appearance debate. The question is asked, “Doesn’t the Bible say to avoid the appearance of evil in 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22? In context, this verse tells us to avoid evil, not the appearance of evil. The King James Version is the only version that uses the word appearance, all other verses use the word “Abstain” or “Avoid.” So it reads in the ESV, “Abstain from every form of evil.” Which means, do not participate in the sins of the world, which is evil. For example in 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 the Apostle Paul tells this church to excommunicate (perform church discipline) on a member who was having sex outside of marriage with someone inside the church. Paul writes, “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people- not at all meaning the sexually immoral of the world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you need to go out the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexually immorality or greed’….not even to eat with such a one.” Jesus Himself, who did not sin, was called a friend of sinners, a drunkard (alcoholic) and self pleasing glutton (Luke 7:34, Matthew 11:19). Eat drink and be merry! The Bible is clear that we are to share the Gospel yet not participate in the sins of the world.