MINISTRY GIFTS 101… Part 4

I had initially thought of just sharing about Ministry Gifts in general not knowing it would turn out to be quite a mini-series. You may check out the other Ministry Gift blog articles here: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3

Source: Google Images

In this article, we’ll turn our attention to the Ministry Gift of the Evangelist and again let me point out that this too, like the other articles, is simply a basic overview, not an exhaustive study (no, not by any stretch) of the Ministry Gifts we are discussing.

The word “Evangelist” means “the bearer of good news”. The Evangelist will seize any and every opportunity, regardless of how it presents itself to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ. The Evangelist has only one agenda, and that is to get people saved. In the New Testament we see the account of Philip, the Evangelist. When the authorities decided to persecute believers in Jerusalem, the church was scattered, most of them fled from Jerusalem, save for the Apostles ( Acts 8:1) as true Apostolic Ministry will not be intimidated by persecution.

As the church scattered, they went everywhere preaching the Word; Philip went to Samaria and being an Evangelist took that opportunity to preach the Good News of Christ to the Samaritans with miracles, signs and wonders following his ministry, many Samaritans believe the Gospel and a great revival broke out in Samaria.

⁵ Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. ⁶ And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spoke, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. ⁷ For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed with them; and many taken with palsies and who were lame, were healed. ⁸ And there was great joy in that city. – Acts 8:5-8 KJ21

As we've seen, signs, wonders and miracles are part and parcel of the Ministry Gift of the Evangelist. They proclaim the Word of God, the Good News about Jesus Christ, who He is and what He’s done for everyone and the the Lord Himself backs up their proclamations with signs, wonders and miracles confirming the Word which is being proclaimed. This Ministry Gift directly obeys our Lord’s command to preach the gospel to every person.

¹⁵ And He said unto them, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. – Mark 16:15 KJ21

And the Lord in response confirms what the Evangelists are proclaiming by signs, wonders and miracles. This is the reason we see many healings, deliverances, miraculous signs and wonders in Evangelistic campaigns, they confirm the Word that is being preached.

²⁰ And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the Word with signs following. Amen. – Mark 16:20 KJ21

Mature Evangelists do not bring messages of fear and condemnation, they do not scare people into the Kingdom of God, they are not in the business of manipulating people to repeat a prayer or sign a card, they don’t dilute or tweak the Gospel to get a “favorable” response, no they are not in it for some selfish ulterior motive, they aren't interested in making a name for themselves, they are more interested in seeing people genuinely being translated from the Kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of light, the Kingdom of God’s dear Son, Jesus!

Evangelists draw people with their proclamation of the Good News that everyone can be reconciled to God through believing in Jesus and what He’s done for them, that is He has taken all their sin, guilt and shame on His body on the Cross, how He died and rose again and that He’s made a way for everyone to be totally, completely and absolutely accepted before God without any reservations whatsoever.

⁹ that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. ¹⁰ For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. – Romans 10:9-10 KJ21

The heart of the Evangelist is to get people saved and delivered from every bondage the enemy has held them captive to. The Evangelist will call people to Jesus, telling them and reminding them that it is only through Him that we can be saved from eternal separation from God and the eternal damnation in hell. As the Word declares:

¹² Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” – Acts 4:12 KJ21

This Ministry Gift has the highest frequency of itinerancy of all the Ministry Gifts; they are always moving on to the next harvest field as it were. Looking at the ministry of Philip the Evangelist again we see this pattern. After revival broke out in Samaria and the Apostles came down from Jerusalem to establish the Church in Samaria, Philip doesn't hang around to claim any leadership position in the new church which he was instrumental in planting, he isn't after fame or fortune. He leaves the apostles to take care of establishing the new believers in Samaria and goes to the desert in obedience to God’s instructions via an angel.

I wonder how many Evangelists today would up and go right in the middle of a revival … and not just go … but go into some desert in obedience to God’s direction?! I have this sneaky suspicion that some would even try to bind that “angel of light” that's telling them to go to some road in the desert when clearly revival is happening where they are and they are the ones who were instrumental in ushering it in…I hope I’m wrong on that one…

The Evangelist is a people person, this Ministry Gift reaches out and touches people with its disarming openness and genuineness which flows from a heart of love. Evangelists are genuinely interested in people, they are uniquely graced with the ability to easily converse with those they meet. This grace is evidenced in the way they can steer any conversation in the direction of who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for their audience. The Evangelist will use any and every means at their disposal to preach the Gospel.

The message of the Evangelist doesn't change depending on the size of the audience, whether it’s an audience of one as the case was with Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:27-39) or a multitude, as was the case with Paul functioning as an Evangelist to the crowds in Athens (Acts 16:17-34).

Evangelists equip the Church to boldly step out in faith to proclaim, not to  explain, not to reason and certainly not to debate the Gospel but to proclaim it, to declare it, to announce it, yes to preach it and as we do, the Lord is faithful to His promise, He will back up those declarations about His love, His goodness, His mercy, His justice, His judgement and His grace in and through Christ with signs following.

Source: Google Images

Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church has given this Ministry Gift to His Body so that by it we may be equipped to effectively reach out to unbelievers with the Good News of the Gospel. This Ministry Gift is extremely effective when it comes to getting people to be reconciled to God through Christ.

Every saint needs to sit under this Ministry Gift on a regular basis and good Shepherds knowing that the fields are ready for harvest will endeavor to make it a priority to bring in this Ministry Gift to equip believers with a practical and proven Evangelistic model that glorifies the risen Christ.

In closing let us all, regardless of our callings and our giftings, heed the inspired instructions of the Apostle Paul:

⁵ But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. – 2 Timothy 4:5 NKJV  

Beloved, we may not all be Evangelists but we’re all called to do the work of an Evangelist, and He who has called us is faithful, He will enable us.