Sermon: Sunday, 23rd March, 2025
Speaker: Geoff Murray
Scripture: Acts 1:1-11
Over the past few weeks we’ve been reminding ourselves of the vision statement of Kirkcaldy Free Church looking at loving and serving one another, at prayer and today we’ll be looking at evangelism.
Part 3 in our vision statement is: Equipping and encouraging members in personal evangelism.
Evangelism can be tricky for most of us. For those of us who do it, it can often be discouraging as you see apathy and indifference or hostility and anger, for those of us who don’t do evangelism, it can seem like something to be left for the ‘professionals’, something you’re no good at. For all of us evangelism comes with a heightened anxiety, worried what this will mean for our relationships and our reputation.
If we’re honest most of us just don’t want to do evangelism. Most of us don’t want to share the good news.
What are we to do with these dilemmas? Well, if we’re honest often it leads us to inactivity because we feel a bit stuck and unsure what to do about it, our fears consume us and we are left worried. Yet alongside our fears and worries is the reality that time on earth is short and time in eternity is long. There are hundreds of people connected to us as a congregation who don’t know Christ – friends, family members, neighbours, colleagues – who are headed to a lost eternity in hell. Tens of thousands in Kirkcaldy, hundreds of thousands in Fife, millions in Scotland and billions in our world who are headed to a dreadful eternity in Hell.
And so that’s got to mean something to us, that’s got to do something in us. That we aren’t just keeping all the good news to ourselves happy that we’re sorted out and we’re going to a glorious eternity in endless joy in God’s presence forever! That must compel us to go.
In a perfect world that would be all the motivation we need: love for our neighbour. But we don’t live in a perfect world, we are far from perfect people. So we need to let God speak into our fears and our anxieties so that’s what we’re going to do as we study today’s key verse.
‘But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ (Acts 1:8)
First of all, we’ll see for those who think they aren’t good enough at evangelism, all believers receive a new power to evangelise.
Secondly, for those who fear about their reputation, we’ll see that in Christ we receive a new identity which trumps our old identity.
And finally, we’ll see, for those who are discouraged it gives us a new purpose
1. A new power
And we’ll begin with the first few words: ‘But you will receive power…’ The disciples here are meeting the Lord Jesus after his resurrection and he is giving them his final words to them before ascending to heaven where he is now.
And you think of who was there, it was just the 11 disciples and perhaps the women who feature in the post-resurrection account. It was certainly smaller in number than our gathering here today. More than this, they were pretty ordinary folk. Their backgrounds were very ordinary, fishermen and tax collectors. Their spiritual showing up until this point has been quite mixed.
And Jesus is about to ascend into heaven, though he was risen from the dead he was going to physically depart from them. After three years of walking with Jesus in his earthly ministry, being dependent upon him for those three years and now a few short moments from when Jesus spoke these words, he’s going to be taken up into heaven and he will no longer be with them. What now?
Well, Jesus brings into the picture the second player at work here. It wouldn’t be left only to these disciples gathered here, it wouldn’t be in their strength and power, it wouldn’t be in their charisma and chat, it would be in the power of the Holy Spirit.
To those who were fearful and anxious, to those whose spiritual lives were often times erratic, it is to them that Jesus comes and gives this commission to go. Notice though he doesn’t give them this commission to go in their own strength. No, he sends them out in the power of the Holy Spirit.
And that’s what he has done and is doing today with you and me. A lot of this which characterises the disciples sounds a lot like us.
Fearful and anxious when it comes to evangelism, we often find our Christian lives aren’t what they should be. Yet, he comes to you and to me and says that now you have the Holy Spirit, you have power to be his witnesses.
What does that mean in practice to receive power from the Holy Spirit?
(a) Presence : ‘And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’ (Matthew 28:20)
(b) Words : ‘When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.’ (Luke 12:11–12)
(c) Courage : ‘Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.’ After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.’ (Acts 4:29-31)
And so as we pause and reflect. You might be of the mindset.’I’m actually no good at evangelism, I could never have those conversations.’ The first part of Acts 1:8 would tell you otherwise. As you receive the Holy Spirit as a believer, you are given a new power in that he is with you, he gives you the words and he gives you the courage to speak.
Of course, there are some more gifted than others at evangelism, I don’t deny that for a minute. However, what this passage says is that even for those for whom evangelism isn’t their strong suit that God still wants to use you, God can still use you and God will use you even as you feel unable, the Holy Spirit in you is more than able to open your mouth and help you to speak wisely, winsomely and well about Jesus Christ.
Worried you aren’t gifted enough at evangelism? Friends, the Holy Spirit wants to empower you and use you for God’s glory in reaching the lost. So go forth in confidence, not in yourself but in Him to use you for His glory!
2. A new identity
In our passage, in verse 6 they ask Jesus, ‘…will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’
Al Mohler : The Apostles are essentially asking if the end has come and Jesus responds saying their job is not to know the exact timing of the fulfilment of God’s plan. Instead, their job is to be faithful as they wait.
How are they to be faithful as they wait? ‘You will be my witnesses…’ (Acts 1:8)
Some of our worries about evangelism come down to a fear of rejection of what people will say to us or about us, what people will think of us and how gospel proclamation affects our relationships.
So much of our identity in modern life we’re told is shaped by what’s inside, what you feel or think about yourself. However, evangelism reminds us that many of us also look for our identity, our sense of self-worth and value based on what others say about us and people’s opinions. That’s why in conversations you might find yourself not saying what you really think out of fear of how that person will react so you may find yourself going along with the flow so’s not to rock the boat and not to risk their rejection.
However, when we become Christians, we receive a new identity which far surpasses any identity that we could make for ourselves or what others could make for us. We have something in Christ which is far better than anything because it’s settled, it’s secure as our identity is not based upon what we have done but upon what Jesus has done for us.
There are so many aspects to our identity in Christ:
• children of God
• justified
• loved
• believers
• disciples
But one we perhaps don’t think about so much is the word ‘witness’, that is part of our new identity as Christians. ‘You are to be my witnesses…’
What is a witness and what do they do? They give a true and trustworthy account, they gives reliable testimony. And that’s what we’re called to do with Jesus. We’re called to testify, to go and tell others about Jesus Christ. And so that becomes a key part of our identity. We are those who are called in in order that we might go out with the good news of the gospel.
So much of the Christian life is trying, with God’s help, to live up to your new identity and this is no different. If we’re honest evangelism is a challenge for us. There are fears about what people will say to us or about us, there is apathy and indifference about people’s eternal state, there is quite frankly forgetting who we are. And so just as we are holy in God’s sight so we are to progressively become more holy.
In a similar way, our identity is those who are witnesses and so we are called to live as witnesses, to go and tell others about Jesus, about what he’s done for us, and how wonderful he really is.
It can be so easy to be caught up in what people would think of you or say to you but whenever that becomes something we struggle with, we must remember that in the Lord Jesus we have something far greater than people’s approval. We have God’s approval. We have far greater than people’s love and affection, we have God’s love and affection.
And perhaps focussing on our fears in evangelism about what we might lose is entirely the wrong focus. Perhaps we don’t stop to think about the fact that in Christ we actually have everything. We are God’s children! We are loved by the Father! We are redeemed by the Son! We are indwelt by the Spirit! Friends, it doesn’t get better than that! In light of all of this, who cares if people reject or mock?
I don’t mean to make light of the pain that this can cause us, all I mean to highlight is that what we have in Christ is surely far better! And therefore that we might with Paul count all things as worthless compared to the surpassing joy of knowing Jesus Christ our Lord!
That we might crucify our pride, that we might crucify our reputations to make Jesus famous!
Our treasure is not in people’s opinions, our treasure is in Heaven!
Friends, take your fears about your reputation and relationships, and bring them to the cross and find in Jesus your all in all.
And before we go onto the next and final point, just one thing to say and that is all of this fear about people’s rejection may actually just turn out to be the big bogeyman which doesn’t exist. You never know when instead of rejection and hate you get a hearing, instead of being insulted you are being thanked for sharing your faith. All of this is built around a fear of what might happen, but remember not everyone rejects the gospel do they? Remember there are plenty who Jesus is yet to call. Who knows what kind of response you’ll get? Therefore press on with your identity secure that whether this person rejects you or not that you are not and will never be rejected by Christ.
3. New purpose
Finally and very briefly I want to speak about a new purpose. And that is to go to… ‘Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth.’
The ends of the earth still aren’t reached and so we go. According to Joshua Project 3.4 Billion of the world are unreached by the gospel. Locally in Kirkcaldy 50,000 people in the town, would 500 go to any kind of church on a Sunday? Would you get 300 in any gospel-preaching church in Kirkcaldy?
So, what do we do about this positively? Well, we are to go. But what does that look like?
(a) Pray : It is perhaps assumed but pray. That is our first step. If we are to reach our neighbours with the gospel, we must first pray. I shared last week Jesus’ words ‘without me you can do nothing’ from John 15:5 and all Jesus is saying there is you can do nothing of eternal significance without him and without his help. Of course you can’t save anyone, only God can. Your job is as a witness only. Therefore pray. Pray for the Spirit’s help, pray for courage, but pray for those you love who don’t know Jesus that they may come to know Jesus, that the Holy Spirit may take the blinders off that they may see and savour Jesus in all his beauty and glory.
(b) Identify your parish. This line is borrowed from Cory Brock in the talk I sent out this week. What does he mean by identify your parish? He means identify two or three people or settings that you’re really going to intentionally engage with.
Why? Well, I think one of the challenges of evangelism is actually just the amount of people who don’t know Jesus and so it can be easy to stretch yourself too thin and try to reach too many people. This means you can’t meaningfully engage with all those people, you can’t build relationships or be consistent with those people because you as one person are trying to do so much. Meaning you might go a couple of months without seeing that person and it’s too spotty.
So, identify your parish. Perhaps you may say, ‘I’m going to focus on reaching my two next door neighbours.’ or ‘I’m going to go to the gym at the same time every Monday and Thursday to see the same people.’ or ‘I’m going to go invest in this community group’ Whatever it is, identify your parish.
(c) Go and be a consistent Christian presence in ‘your parish.’ Shine brightly as lights for Jesus and tell the folks in ‘our parish’ about Jesus. If you think about it, being a steady and faithful Christian witness in one place with the same few people and the impact that can have over the long haul because the reality is you are likely to be the only Christian that person knows.
I am a bit of a glutton for punishment so I enjoy listening to podcasts about politics. One of the podcasts they had the strategy guy behind the ‘Yes’ campaign during the independence referendum. At the start of the referendum, support for independence was polling about 25%. And he was saying he was asked about this and how far behind they were and he said, ‘We only need our 25% to each convince 1 person each to get to 50%.’
And stop to think about it, of course it’s not about numbers, it’s about souls being saved. But having said that we want to reach those souls and therefore we want to maximise gospel impact as we go out, we want big numbers. Think about if fifteen of you went and brought one person each to church or to faith. That’s a growth of 25% on what we have most Sundays here. It’s not to say that each individual should go and reach fifteen, but rather, if each person brings one person each, the difference to our congregation would be significant. This is, under God’s blessing by his Spirit very doable!
And so friends, the Holy Spirit has come to give you power to go and to be his witnesses, let us go in his power and in his strength to tell the good news of the gospel that many may come to know, love and enjoy God themselves.