Our Evangelistic Legacy

Author: Michael Gott

With little more than a single sentence the great historian Stephen Neill gives evangelists a most profound but indirect compliment.  He pointed out that only three religions in the world have been exported to other cultures across the centuries—Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity.  Each had a teacher/founder.  Each had a commission to go out and proclaim the message.  But Neill said, “Christianity alone has succeeded in making itself a universal religion . . . this is something that has never happened before in the history of the world.”

And the explanation:  he said, because generation after generation of people with an overwhelming evangelistic passion went out to share the message; that is, he credited evangelists.

The reason for this is all rooted in the words Jesus himself spoke, “And the gospel must first be preached to all nations” (Mark 13:10).  Thus, with the words of Jesus the concept of evangelism was born—tell everybody, everywhere, in every age.

It was all rooted in the Old Testament, in prophecies like that of Zechariah, which says, “. . . his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth” (Zechariah 9:9) and in David’s 72nd Psalm, “May the reign of this son of mine be . . . gentle and fruitful . . . Let him reign from sea to sea . . . to the ends of the earth . . . his enemies shall fall face downward in the dust . . . Yes, kings from everywhere!  All will bow before him!  All will serve him!” (Psalm 72:6, 8, 11; Living Bible)

Very early the followers of Jesus came to believe the will of God was to be a bold program of expansion throughout the world.  So, the early evangelistic messengers went forth “with an unfailing sense of urgency because for each man any and every moment may prove to be the crucial time of decision” (Stephen Neill, A History of Christian Missions).  And the result, Luke says Paul and an array of unnamed evangelists went out aflame, and “all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks” (Acts 19:10).

There is also another interesting insight into early evangelism and its amazing impact on the pagan world.  Plinius Secondus, commonly referred to as Pliny, was governor of Bithynia (now Turkey).  He was appointed about AD 111 by Roman Emperor Trajan.  Pliny loved to write letters, and we have one of his letters to Trajan, and it deals with the evangelistic passion of early Christians.  In the year 112 Pliny wrote a letter to the Roman Emperor Trajan telling of the amazing and even frightening spread of Christianity largely due to the work of itinerant evangelists.  He spoke of widespread conversions to Christ; “many in every period of life, on every level of society, of both sexes . . . in towns and villages and scattered throughout the countryside.”  In his letter, Pliny asked Trajan something like, “What am I to do?”  The growth of the Christian faith was so rapid that Pliny felt it would soon create major problems for the Roman empire.

He described their activities; “They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before sunrise and reciting an antiphonal hymn to Christ as God, and binding themselves with an oath—not to commit any crime, but to abstain from all acts of theft, robbery, and adultery, from breaches of faith . . .”  This piece of historical evidence clearly shows the depth of commitment, the evangelistic nature of the Christians, the fact that to them Jesus was Lord and God, and that they were even prepared to die for their faith.  According to Michael Green one of the great frustrations for Roman authorities was these itinerant evangelists.  Their activities could never be predicted, for they would preach any time and any place from sunrise to midnight.  They were impossible to stop, and they seemed to never stop evangelizing.

Dr. Max Warren, one of the ministers of Westminister Abbey, London, wrote with great respect of the early mobile ministry of evangelists.  He said it was Paul who “. . . set a pattern which has never been lost.”  In fact, the Didache was written to guard against the potential abuse of the itinerant evangelists.  He said, “Yet, nevertheless theirs was an important ministry not elected by the churches they responded to what they felt was a call from God.  Their lives, the message they proclaimed, and the spiritual fruits of their preaching were their credentials.”  Warren spoke of these “men of restless energy,” and he concluded, “These wandering preachers set a pattern which is with us till this day.”

Church history reveals, according to Stephen Neill, in every generation God has raised up evangelists who have been persecuted by the pagan world or who have even been opposed or ignored by the established church, but who, nevertheless, labored to communicate the gospel and did so successfully.  But if we go to the very heart and spirit of the early evangelists, what do we find that made them so very effective?  What did they have that we often lack?

In order to give a full and biblical answer, I must go to the Greek New Testament itself.  One special word is all that is required, “plerophoria.”  That word is found in I Thessalonians 1:5.  Paul says to the people of Thessalonika that “our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much plerophoria,” which means “overflowing confidence.”

So, the early evangelists preached with an overflow—like a fountain that is overfilled so that the fresh water spills over continually.  “Confident overflow”—it is a word very often found in the New Testament, and it describes the liberated spontaneity of those early evangelists.  They were so full, so joy-filled, and so confident about Jesus that telling the good news was a very natural thing.  They were filled to the overflow, and that is what evangelism was like in the early church; it was a continuous overflow of confidence related to the good news about Jesus.

If one evangelist went down and was led off to execution, another took up the task.  They were taught by the Spirit, led by the Spirit, and empowered by the Spirit.  They had one message:  Jesus.  Even people who strongly opposed the Christians and these evangelists who spread the message had to admit, like Pliny, that they were impressed with the amazing quality of their lives.

Like they, if we expect to carry on a truly effective evangelistic ministry that brings glory to God, the enthusiasm we have for the task and the message we preach must be backed up with a consistent life filled with the Holy Spirit.  Additionally, Jesus spoke of overflow and rivers of living water.  In every great river the flow is never exhausted because it has a source that is constant.  So it was with the early evangelists, and so it must be with us.

Dr. J. Edwin Orr said in his book that one of the prayer/poems of the great revival in Wales was:

      Fill me, Holy Spirit, fill me,
      More than fulness I would know;
      I am smallest of Thy vessels,
      Yet, I much can overflow.