The Evangelist

By Dr. Brian J. Bailey

As we approach the coming revival and great harvest of souls in these last days, the ministry of the evangelist becomes of prime importance. In this book, Dr. Bailey brings out gems of truths that will be valuable to those who have the ministry gift of an evangelist, as well as to others who desire to be effective soul winners for Christ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zion Christian Publishers
• Release date: Aug 2, 2017
• ISBN: 9781596656741

Book preview

PREFACE

The evangelist is one of the fivefold ministry gifts of Christ to His body: And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ (Eph. 4:11-13).

Obviously, the duty of all Christians is to witness to the lost. However, that does not mean that all have the ministry gift of an evangelist. The prime purposes of this ministry are to win souls for the Lord, and also to teach God’s people how to become soul winners. As with all other ministers, the evangelist should seek to reproduce himself in the lives of others.

CHAPTER ONE

The Person of the Evangelist

The Evangelist in Pilgrim’s Progress

The evangelist is motivated by a passion to save the lost, as one who is in childbirth and who gives one’s life to bring others to the experience of the new birth. He is one who bears in mind the admonition of King Solomon found in Proverbs 11:30: The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise. We will now consider certain qualities of an evangelist. Perhaps none are so eloquently enumerated than those contained in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (Bunyan, 1678, Part 1, ¶ 137). Essentially, the points are as follows:

1. One of a Thousand: He is one of a thousand, of whom the following verse may well be applied: Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever (Ps. 45:2). The ministry gift of an evangelist is unique in that he is consumed with a passion for souls. He cannot sleep, wake up without having that passion for souls, and that is something that God imparts to the ones that He has chosen to be evangelists.

2. A Spiritual Father: He can beget children, and as the Apostle Paul states in Galatians 4:19, he is one who can travail in birth until Christ be formed in them.

When you consider the analogy between natural and spiritual birth, there is a travail, too, in the spiritual to bring to birth people into the kingdom of God. In the natural, a woman travails at the right moment. Travail does not come upon her until the baby is ready to be born.

A friend of mine at a bible school in England told me that he had been praying for and witnessing to his father, seemingly without success. However, on a certain night, he felt a travail in the Spirit coming upon him. He travailed for some time and then it was about the following day that he received news that his father had been born again. Thus, we see that travail in the spirit comes at the moment of bringing a soul to birth.

The evangelist then nurses his spiritual children himself when they are born, feeding them with food that is convenient for the newborn – the milk of the Word of God. These are essentially those doctrines contained in Hebrews 6:1-3 and in 1 Thessalonians 1:9. They include the doctrines of eternal judgment, water baptism and Holy Spirit baptism, turning from idols to serve the living God and also the truths concerning the Second Coming of Christ.

3. Eternal Vision: His eyes are lifted up towards heaven. He therefore has a heavenly vision and, like Abraham of old, seeks a city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God (Heb. 11:10). He lives in the light of that heavenly vision.

4. Meditates Upon the Word: The Bible is in his hands, upon which he must meditate day and night. In so doing, he will become a fruitful tree planted by the rivers of water, bringing forth his fruit in his season, so that his leaf shall not wither and whatever he does shall prosper (Ps.1:2-3).

I remember a fellow who told me that when he was in New York City, he had his Bible and was witnessing with a team to those on the streets of that city. A man came up to him and said, My name is Mohammed. My duty is to convert you to Islam. Give me your bible. He gave it to him. This Moslem man started to quote verse after verse, trying to prove that there was some contradiction in the Word of God. The fellow felt completely defenceless, having given his Bible to him; for the Bible is our sword (Eph. 6:17). Mohammed went off, leaving the poor fellow devastated.

5. Speaks the Word: The law of truth is written upon his lips for, like Levi, he must keep knowledge, as he is the messenger of the Lord (Mal. 2:7). His work is to know and unfold dark things (things that are difficult to understand) to sinners, as it says in Psalm 78:2-7, I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old. Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.  For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:  That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.

One of the things that I have noticed in life is that some evangelists, pastors, or teachers seem to be content just to have a dozen messages. They do not spend time seeking the Lord for an unfolding revelation of His Word, as the psalmist cried in Psalm 119:17-18, Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word.  Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. These ones are prone to fall.

Our inner man is renewed after knowledge and whatever our ministry is, even if it is an evangelist, we need to keep studying the Word of God so that our inner man is strong. Those that go around giving the same old truths will dry up. I know of two evangelists who lacked the depth of the knowledge of God’s Word in their lives. One went into immorality. The other became bitter, and divided his work, ending up ruined.

That an onward revelation is necessary is also seen in Proverbs 29:18, which says, Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. Therefore, in speaking to others, he is also to emphasise that the Lord has exceedingly more blessings for us that we should pursue, as we read in 1 Corinthians 2:9-10, For as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

If you have the ministry of an evangelist, please study. You will enrich people by your messages, and in turn, become enriched, mature, and come to perfection yourself.

6. He pleads: He stands as one who pleads with sinners – there is that urgency of spirit that is so necessary with those who are called especially to be evangelists. Paul manifests this pathos when he cries in 2 Corinthians 5:20, Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. Now is the day of salvation, and we cannot presume that the Lord will give one another opportunity. When we are witnessing to a person, we must seek to bring that person to a decision to accept Christ as his or her own personal Saviour now, and not later.

In pleading with sinners, the evangelist has a real passion. He has the ministry of winning souls. At one point, I was associated with perhaps the leading evangelist at the time in England. It did not matter where he went. He said, God always promised me that when I preached I would have a soul. I was at a certain church that had not