Do the Work of an Evangelist
After calling Timothy to always be sober minded, endure suffering, Paul’s next call to evangelism.
I remember being told by many university students ,when I was starting out in ministry, that there was no direct call for evangelism in the Bible. Now setting aside the Great Commission, the numerous calls of the New Testament to be prepared to give an answer, they argued that the word was never used. Embarrassingly, I did not know my Bible well enough to point them to this verse. And while this verse is immediately applicable to Timothy, Paul has already told him in 2 Timothy 2:2 to pass on to others, who themselves will be faithful to share with yet more again, everything that he had heard from Paul. Yes, Christian ministers especially must answer the call of Ch 4:5, but it is not only ministers who must be sober minded, endure suffering and presumably be engaged in evangelism at some level.
Timothy was to answer this call, presumably because he was encountering something of an emptying of his church. Just a few verses earlier Paul has alerted Timothy to the fact that if people are leaving his congregation in order to listen to those who will say what they want to hear, he was not in an unusual situation. But how he responds is vitally important. So Timothy was to do the work of an evangelist ‘externally’. Crudely put, if others were leaving his church and going elsewhere, Timothy was to go out onto the highways and byways and encourage anyone, everyone, to come and hear that good news of Jesus Christ. He was to have a public ministry of evangelism, proclaiming the gospel in the world.
However, his ministry of evangelism was not only to be exercised in the world. It was also to be exercised in the church! Timothy was ministering in Ephesus at the time of Paul’s writing to him. A quick read of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians will soon uncover that the work of an evangelist (along with the apostles, prophets, pastors/teachers) also had a very clear focus on equipping the church for the works of ministry (Ephesians 4:12). In other words, to be an evangelist, is not only expressed by reaching those outside the church with the good news of Jesus, but also equipping those inside the church, presumably to do the same. Hence any attempt to argue that we are not commanded to do evangelism in the New Testament comes further unstuck.
Neither of these two aspects will happen however, if the evangelist him or herself is not doing the heart work internally necessary to keep sharing the gospel. To do the work of evangelism must surely also include examining our own hearts in respect to their desire to reach out with the gospel. Some of us are simply lazy and don’t want to disturb our own personal comfort. Others of us are more scared and let fear drive us into silence. Still there are others of us think too little to ourselves and defer to others who seem far more competent. All these are heart attitudes towards the lost and will one day be revealed before the all seeing eye of Jesus our king. We ought to…we need to examine our hearts now in relation to evangelism and leave no stone unturned until we can see how we do actually have a part to play in this great ministry.
Particularly in church planting, the need to be sober minded, endure suffering are essential character traits precisely because church planting puts evangelism front and centre. Let us pray for two former qualities before, during and after we exercise this ministry of evangelism, both outside and inside the church.