The Work of the Evangelist Pt.2

The Work of the Evangelist Pt. 2

Adapted from an article from Michael W. Pemberton

       Last week, we began to discuss what the role of the evangelist is in Christ’s church. We learned that he is a gift from Christ to the church and he’s given the responsibility of appointing elders and making them accountable. But, this week, to help us better understand the work of the evangelist, we’ll begin by comparing it to the work of the elders.

          First, the elders’ work is to be within the church. No, I’m not talking about a building, but the congregation. They are to be able to teach (1Tim 3:2). They are to watch over souls (Heb 13:17), be protectors (Titus 1:9-11), be overseers (Acts 20:28), ordain evangelists (1Tim 4:4), feed the flock (Acts 20:28), be examples (1Pet 5:14), visit the sick (James 5:15), and equip the saints for works of ministry (Eph 4:11-12).

          The elder is the one who visits the members of the church in their homes because he is the overseer, and that word means that he does so by visitation. He is also the pastor or shepherd because he’s the one who feeds and protects the flock.

On the other hand, the evangelist’s work is to be both inside as well as outside the church. His work inside the church includes: edifying, educating, and equipping the saints for works of ministry and service (Eph 4:11-12); setting the church in order (Titus 1:5); ordaining elders (Titus 1:5, 1Tim 5:22); correcting disorderly churches (1Tim 1:3); rebuking sinning elders (1Tim 5:17-20), and recruiting and training workers (2Tim 2:2). Now, let’s take a few minutes to look at the Biblical duties of the evangelist in more detail.

The evangelist is the one who is to set the church in order; not the elders, not the deacons, not the church board, and not a men’s meeting. In God’s divine order, it’s the evangelist who is to set the church in order.

Now I realize that the letters that Paul wrote to Timothy and Titus are many times referred to as the “Pastoral Epistles”. But we have to understand that these letters are not written to pastors or elders, but to evangelists; telling them their duties and how to conduct their ministries. If things aren’t right and nothing is being done to make it right, it’s the evangelist’s Biblical duty to see that things are made right and set it in place. If there’s a wheel that needs greased and no one else is greasing the wheel, it’s the evangelist’s job to see that it’s greased.

So, let’s take a look at the letters that Paul wrote to these evangelists and what his instructions were.

The evangelist is to:

1.                 Rebuke false teachers (1 Tim. 1:3)

2.                 See that fables and divisions are avoided (1Tim 1:4)

3.                 Encourage love, good conscience, and true faith (1Tim. 1:5)

4.                 Encourage prayer for all men (1Tim 2:1-2)

5.                 Encourage prayer by all men (1Tim 2:8)

6.                 See that women dress modestly and decently, behaving as women            professing godliness and that a woman is not teaching or exerting authority   over the man (1Tim 2:9-14)

7.                 Ordain godly men as elders and deacons (1Tim 3)

8.                 Warn of false teachers (1Tim 4:1-5)

9.                 See that the Word of God is not taken out of the worship service (1Tim   4:13)

10.            Be an example (1Tim 4:16)

11.            Ensure godly relationships (1Tim 5:1-2)

12.            See that true widows are taken care of (1Tim 5:3-16)

13.            See that the elders who rule well are paid (1Tim 5:17-18)

14.            Rebuke elders that sin at the mouth of two or three witnesses (1Tim 5:19-   20)

15.            Do nothing out of partiality or favoritism (1Tim 5:21)

16.            Ordain and appoint elders (1Tim 5:22, Titus 1:5)

17.            See that employees give honor to their employers, especially those who are   Christians (1Tim:6:1-2)

18.            Warn the rich not to fall into temptation (1Tim 6:9)

19.            Warn the rich not to be high minded, but to have their hope in God (1Tim   6:17)

20.            See that God’s people are rich in good deeds, generous, and are willing to   share (1Tim 6:18)

21.            See that there is no godless chatter or non-Biblical “knowledge” such as   humanism or evolution (1Tim 6:20)

22.            Not be ashamed but a partaker (2Tim 1:8)

23.            Not to be ashamed but persuaded (2Tim 1:12)

24.            Not to be ashamed of godly brothers (2Tim 1:16)

25.            Persevere in the gospel (2Tim 2:1)

26.            Be a good soldier of Christ (2Tim 2:3)

27.            Be a hard working “farmer” and first partaker (2Tim 2:6)

28.            Be a student of the Word of God (2Tim 2:15)

29.            Be a good and honorable vessel (2Tim 2:21)

30.            Be a good servant and not quarrelsome (2Tim 2:24)

31.            Keep reminding the church of the trustworthy saying: “For if we died with   Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will also reign with   Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us; If we are faithless, He remains   faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” (2Tim 2:11-14)

32.            Warn others about quarreling over words (2Tim 2:14)

33.            Continue in the things he has learned, especially when challenged by   deceivers  (2Tim 3:14)

34.            Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke,   exhort, with great patience and instruction. (2Tim 4:2)

35.            Teach the older men to be temperate, respectable, self-controlled, and   sound  in faith, love and endurance. (Titus 2:2)

36.            Teach older women to be reverent in the way they live so they can train the   young women to love their husbands and children, to be sober-minded,   pure, kind, and respectful to their husbands so the Word of God will not be   dishonored (Titus 2:3-5)

37.            Teach the church to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be kind and   considerate, and to show true humility to all men (Titus 3:1-3)

38.            Warn those who are divisive, and after the second warning have nothing       more to do with them (Titus 3:10)

That’s quite a list, huh?

These are the things that the evangelist is given to do by the Word of God to set the church in order. This is the work that the evangelist does within the church.

Now, if you’ll remember, I said that there is also work for the evangelist outside the church. We can see examples of this if we take a look at the life of the Apostle Paul.

Acts 13:2-5 says this: “While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they reached Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews.”

Paul was already an apostle. So what were he and Barnabas ordained to do? When we look at the work they did, we have to come to the conclusion that they were sent out to do the work of an evangelist; taking the gospel to those who hadn’t heard it and establishing new congregations.

You see, the evangelist isn’t meant to be a pastor; he’s meant to be an evangelist. That being the case, whenever he can, he is to attempt to establish churches where none exist. In other words, his responsibility outside the church is to be a church planter sent out from his home congregation. Romans 10:14-15 tells us, “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, "HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!"

Today, it seems, that formal education is a necessity for a man to be given an opportunity to preach the gospel. I wonder what college Timothy attended. Do you suppose Barnabas had a B.A. from the Jerusalem Christian Bible College? Does that question sound ridiculous to you?

The point is: it’s the responsibility of the church to train and send out preachers to proclaim the gospel and establish new churches. It’s the church’s responsibility to send out evangelists to preach the gospel! Again, how will they preach unless they are sent? Unless the Word is preached, how can the lost attain faith since “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Rom 10:17)?

So then, this comes around to another responsibility of the evangelist which is both inside AND outside the church.

As I mentioned before, there are bible college after bible college. And a lot of these used to be good conservative Christian institutions. But, I’m afraid that we live in a time where our colleges are turning out more Joel Osteens than John the Baptists. After me saying that, you may be sitting there asking yourself if I’m slamming our Christian colleges. Well, if you are, let me make it completely understandable. Even though there are those who fit the description of the ones I mentioned earlier, there are still a few good strong schools out there. But, consider this:

A part of the scriptural responsibility of an evangelist is to perpetuate his office. Putting it in other terms; we, the community of Christians as a whole have taken away the God-given duty of the evangelist to “commit the word to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.” (2Tim 2:2)

I’m forced to wonder: Is today’s church so lacking that we must send our men to colleges to learn what they should be taught in our churches? Has today’s church become so secular and worldly that we feel that if we’re going to get things right we have to do it the same way the rest of the world does? I have to say that if this is the case, we truly need to repent! It is not the role of an institution to train evangelists. It’s the duty of the church with the evangelist taking the lead role!

I believe that this attitude is also the reason so many of our evangelists today are beginning to wear the name “pastor”. Maybe it’s because they can be made to feel so insignificant to the church, that unless they take on the title of the pastor or elder, they won’t be taken seriously, and therefore will be denied His God-given duties by man-made rules of church government. But, we have to remember that the Scripture tells the evangelist and no one else, “Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.” (Titus 2:15), as well as, “These things command and teach.” (1Tim 4:11). And then you have this:

Many evangelists today have had to become pastors. Why? Because so many elders have taken away the Lordship of Christ as the Head of the Church and claimed it for themselves, thereby refusing to shepherd the flock and passing that duty on to the evangelist. The saints are not equipped for the work of ministry because we “hired” the evangelist to be “The Pastor”. The evangelist eventually gets burned out from doing all the bailing, trying to keep the ship afloat, and when he can’t keep up with all the leaks the congregation gets dissatisfied with him because he’s perceived as the one who’s caused the problems.

Then, to top it off, it seems that many in our brotherhood have the idea that we’ll be more successful if we do things the way the denominations do them, so if their preacher is The Pastor, then ours should be, too. But by doing things the same way as the denominations, are we any different from the Israelites when they wanted to be like all the other nations and be governed by a king? Did they not receive a warning from God about this? In the letters of the New Testament, do we not also receive warnings about following those who do things which are contrary to God’s will and purpose?

What’s been the outcome? We’ve been negligent in teaching and preaching on the work of the evangelist, and because of this, this work which was set forth by God has been lost and replaced by the way those of the world would run a business with presidents, CEOs, CFOs, and the like. What we, God’s children, absolutely always must remember is that the world’s ways are not God’s ways. God has given us a different plan for His enterprise and we, as His workers in whatever capacity He’s seen fit to give us, must be obedient to His design.

The body of Christ has become lukewarm because we hire the preacher to do our work and be the go-fer of the elders. As a result, the church is not set in order, and the church dwindles and souls are lost.

If we are to expect God’s blessings in this church, we have to return to God’s order and pattern! To do that, the Body of Christ is to allow and support the evangelist in his work. The Body of Christ needs to understand what that work is. The Body of Christ has to contend with those who would attempt to change God’s Divine order for His church. The Body of Christ must pray for the evangelist and his efforts. And the Body of Christ must be prepared to assist in those efforts as good works of service!

God is still calling through the gospel message, “Who will go for Us?” The evangelist is the one who answers, “Here am I Lord, send me.”