Is Evangelism for All Believers?

“'Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.'” Matthew 28:19-20

When Jesus gave the commandment above, although He addressed the disciples then, He didn’t speak to them only but He was speaking to all of those, from all ages, who would come to believe in Him also. The goal was for those who were already disciples to make disciples, and those disciples to make other disciples, and so on and so forth; thus, in doing so, this command was applicable to all disciples.

Some may still argue that the great commission was for the disciples then only, but it cannot be true. If such were the case Christianity would never spread as it did because the apostles and disciples then died eventually and the commission would have died with them. However, such was not the case because the commandment was meant for all believers. Thus, the answer is Yes: Evangelism is for all believers; every believer is called to evangelize. Even, Jesus Himself evangelized.

Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, was the One who began to evangelize, preaching the good news, after He came out of the wilderness, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”' Moreover, Luke 4:18 says, “'“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;'” 

Although prior to Jesus, John the baptism was already preaching and calling people to repentance, he was only doing it to prepare the way for Jesus, preaching the kingdom, and not the fullness of the gospel. The bible says, “'In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord ; Make His paths straight.’ ”' Matthew 3:1-3.

We see John the baptist preaching, but he did not announce the fullness of the good news. Paul later on said, “'[...], “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.”' Acts 19:4. John only prepared a people for Jesus, he call them to look forward, Jesus Christ is the first evangelist on earth. Nevertheless, even Christ Himself called people to look forward for a periord of time, until He died and was raised up. Today, we have the fullness of the gospel message, Jesus has been glorified already by The Father (John 17:1-5) and is sitting at His right hand. Praise God!

Still, other people could argue saying, evangelism is not for everyone but only for a select few whom Jesus called as evangelists. The answer is: Not really! It’s true that Jesus chose some specifically as evangelists but their role is not to do all the evangelism themselves but equip others to evangelize as well, and the same is applicable to the remaining 4 of the 5 ministerial offices established by Jesus. Ephesians 4:11-12 NKJV says, "And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,".

Yes, a called evangelist will have a different grace compared to the average believer when it comes to evangelism, and some of the major distinctive are the level of experience/maturity, impact/effectiveness and greater occurrence of signs and wonders. For instance, we see this in the life of Philip who is the only individual specifically labeled as "Evangelist" in the bible (Acts 21:8). Others had, the evangelistica calling, did the work of an evangelist, but held also other offices, for instance all the 12 Apostles, Paul, Barnabas, Apollo, and etc. Back to Philip, The Evangelist. We can see the sheer impact of Philip’s evangelism and conclude that indeed he was an evangelist. God did amazing things through the hands of Philip and he led several people to Christ.

The bible says, “Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city.'” Acts 8:5-8. However, ultimately a major part of the evangelist office is equipping others to do evangelism, "equipping of the saints for the work of ministry,". We thank God because today, there are many evangelists focusin on actually equipping the saints, rather than doing all the evangelism. The equipping of the saints from all 5-fold ministers is what brings growth and unity in the body of Christ.

Again, the bible says,“'And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.'” Ephesians 4:11-16

Once normal believers are equipped they are the ones who go about doing the work of ministry beyond the four walls of the church, even if it takes persecution. The bible says, “'Now Saul was consenting to his death. At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.'”  Acts 8:1-4.

Notice that the Apostles in spite of the persecution, stayed in Jerusalem, but the rest of the believers, normal/average believer I’d say, were scattered throughout Judea, Samaria and other regions, and they were the ones who spread the gospel outside of the Jewish limits for the first time. Moreover, the bible says, “'Now those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but the Jews only. But some of them were men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they had come to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.'” Acts 11:19-21. Again these were normal believers, like us, not apostles, yet they did evangelize. Just like they did, we are called to do wherever we find ourselves at.

In short, evangelism is for all, for every sing born again believer. The rapid advancement of the Kingdom depends on our participation because from the beginning of the ages, God willed to create us to partner with Him in carryout His desires, and it's not different with evangelism. God promised to be with us as we step out in faith (Matthew 28:20b), and He even promised to perform signs and wonders to confirm the preaching of normal believers, not just evangelists or apostles. Mark 16:17-18 says, “'And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”'.

Let's trust God promises. Let's seek to be equipped to evangelize. Let's do the work of an evangelist in season and out of season as we see the day approaching ( 2 Timothy 4:1-4). Let's remain faithful to this cause until the end. God bless you!!

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