Why Don’t We Evangelize, And Why We Should
Updated: Sep 22
Date: 13 Sep 2026, 9.30 am
Speaker: Deacon Jeremiah Chan Sermon Text: Acts 18:9-11; 1 Peter 3:13-17
CLICK HERE to join in our Livestream service on Youtube
TRANSCRIPT
Why don’t we evangelize? And why we should.
Good morning family in Hermon. Today we embark on a series of sermons taken from a book written by Mark Dever called The Gospel and Personal Evangelism.
The reason why we are doing this is because September is Missions month and this year we are focusing on personal evangelism. Sometimes when we hear the word missions, we think mission trips, big plans, organizing camps, going overseas to bring the gospel to others. But personal evangelism is also missions only that there is no mission trip, no big plan, no camps required, no need to go overseas.
We bring the gospel to others simply where we are. Although not everyone actively participates in overseas missions, we as Christians are still called to do missional work. Hence, the focus on personal evangelism.
There are 7 chapters in Mark Dever’s book and we will eventually finish all of them by the end of these 3 series. Today, we’ll be looking at 2 chapters that bookend the entire book. Why don’t we evangelize and why should we evangelize. These 2 chapters focus more on the heart issue rather than the techniques of evangelism.
The techniques, the how to evangelize, what to do after evangelism – those are the heavy lifting which Dn Samuel and Jiayi will do. I get to do the simpler part. It’s a trilogy and good things come in threes so you are in for a treat.
Before we get into the sermon, I have a confession to make. Although I said earlier that I got to do the simpler sermon of the 3, this was not an easy sermon for me to prepare for. I’m not saying any other sermon would be easy to prepare for but this one with this particular topic, was extremely difficult for me. The youths in our midst will know. At the start of the year the youths and I sat down and we did what everyone would do at the start of the year – make resolutions. Give ourselves goals to meet. Set Christian KPIs that we could evaluate ourselves at the end of the year. Well guess what mine was. It was to share the gospel with one person. Just one. Why not two or three or ten? You can already guess, I have a fear of speaking. I fear seeing the responses of people reacting to what I say. Would they like what I say, would they not like what I say? Would what I say be appropriate? What more speaking about the gospel? Is speaking about the gospel appropriate? Absolutely not to me. People are offended by the gospel and I do not want to offend others. I prefer to keep a low profile, not cause controversy, not stir emotions, just keep harmony. So preparing for this sermon was a nightmare. I had to face my demons. And my confession? Three quarters of the year has passed and I still haven’t shared the gospel with just one person.
So what qualifies me to speak about personal evangelism today? I have no idea. You need to ask the team that plans the speakers. I have no credentials but yet I need to tell you how to share the gospel. But here we are anyway with time to kill so why not sit back and listen. This is God speaking through a 100% unworthy evangelist so you got to still listen. How I prepared this sermon was through preaching it to myself. And how I suffered. It’s difficult to look myself in the mirror and preach it to myself. I’m pretty sure any of you would fare better than me. So this is a sermon for myself. If you leave the hall today thinking whoa this Jeremiah very preachy, just remember everything that is preached today is to myself. Even I found myself very preachy.
Before we begin let us pray.
“Heavenly Father, we thank You for bringing us together today and for giving us the privilege of hearing Your Word. Lord, as we come to Your Word, we confess that there are many times when we have been silent about the gospel. We have allowed busyness, fear, insecurity, or concern about what others may think to keep us from speaking about Jesus. As Your Word is preached, soften our hearts and open our minds. Convict us where we need to be convicted, encourage us where we are discouraged, and challenge us to respond faithfully. May we leave today not simply knowing more about evangelism, but with a renewed desire to live for Christ and to make Him known. We commit this time into Your hands. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
So, Mark Dever. Who is he and why did he write about Evangelism? He is an American pastor, theologian and author who had a major influence on evangelical thinking about the local church. He wrote this book because he saw a simple problem: Christians believe in the gospel, but many do not actually tell others about it. He wanted Christians to take evangelism seriously as a biblical responsibility, not just something left to pastors and missionaries. He also wanted to address the heart behind evangelism, not just teach evangelism techniques.
This book doesn’t give you the top 5 techniques to evangelize and be sure to convert. Rather it asks the question: why don’t we want to tell people about Jesus?
So perhaps that is a question worth asking ourselves today. Why don’t we evangelize? We know the gospel, believe in it and have received it. So why are we sometimes so reluctant to tell others about Jesus?
If the gospel is good news, shouldn’t we naturally want to tell others about it? We tell other people things like “Good news! We’re expecting or great news! I got a promotion, fantastic news” but when it comes to the gospel, the news of Christ’s death and resurrection and salvation, we often hesitate. The author begins his book very bluntly – Christians have been commanded to tell the nations of this good news, to be fishers of men and to be ready to give a reason for their hope, but yet we fail to do so.
Now the problem is not that the command to evangelize is unclear. We all know Matt 28:18-20 which is why we didn’t read it this morning. You know it, I know it. If I point to someone in the congregation, he or she can recite it.
See even a Christian like me who does not evangelize knows this command. So it is not that it is unclear. It is clear. The problem is that our hearts find many reasons not to do it.
So why don’t we evangelize? Here is a list of reasons or bluntly put, excuses.
I don’t have the gift of evangelism.
Evangelism could cause problems at work.
My social circles consist of Christians only.
Other things seem more urgent.
I’m waiting for the right opportunity.
And then there are non-believer related excuses:
They are not interested.
The gospel turns lives upside down, unbelievers are happy with their current lives.
They have already heard the gospel.
They probably wouldn’t believe.
They think too highly of themselves, the gospel is only for the weak.
To be honest, not all of these excuses are from the book. The excuses the book listed might not be relevant for our society because it was probably written for an American audience so now you know that 80% of these are my excuses. I have a lot and I could go on all day.
Why is it important to identify and list down all these excuses? Well because they are excuses. If we don’t see them as excuses, we legitimately think that these are good reasons why we do not evangelize. We need to come face to face with these reasons, identify them as excuses and not kid ourselves anymore.
But Dever’s response is important: we do not know whom God may save. God has saved unlikely people throughout history, and even our own conversion is evidence of God’s surprising grace.
So which is your favourite excuse? Is it listed here? An excuse can sound very reasonable while still hiding a heart that does not want to obey.
The deeper problem is not our circumstances — it is our hearts
Dever has some responses to our non-evangelism
1. Pray and plan.
We often say, “we don’t have opportunities” but have we prayed for opportunities? Evangelism needs to be intentional, not accidental. We need to create and pray for opportunities for God to open doors for us to talk about him. Take me for example, I have never prayed for an opportunity to tell others about Jesus. I have always been waiting for the right opportune moment that will never come because I have not been intentional about it.
Will you pray for God to give you an opportunity to share the gospel with someone this week?
Not only should we close our eyes in prayer for opportunities but we must then open our eyes to see them. Sometimes we pray for opportunities but when it does present itself, we are blind to it and do not take it. Maybe we are too busy, maybe we are too lazy, maybe just simply selfish – unwilling to be inconvenienced into sharing the Gospel.
All these are part of the planning process for evangelism. It needs to be intentional. We pray for it, prepare for the opportunity and when it comes, take it.
2. Stop hiding behind “I’m not gifted”.
Dever makes a distinction between having the gift of evangelism and the responsibility of every Christian to evangelize.
Not having the gift of mercy in no way excuses us from being merciful. All Christians are to exercise mercy; some will be particularly gifted to do
this in special ways at certain times, but all are to be merciful.
The same goes with evangelism. I may not have the gift of evangelism, but that does not remove the command given to me to evangelize. All of us have been given the command to share the gospel regardless of having the gift of evangelism. Having the gift of evangelism might make one more able to persuade large groups of people to come to Christ, but not having this gift doesn’t mean we totally stop. Every Christian is called to be faithful.
Evangelism is not just a gift given to some Christians, it is a responsibility given to all Christians.
3. The real problem: we don't love people enough
We don’t evangelize because we don’t love people enough. We share the gospel
because we love people. And we don’t share the gospel because we don’t love people enough.
This is true of me. My heart is cold to other people. I have a distorted self-love and a deficient love for others. Why don’t I speak? Because I am afraid of awkwardness, rejection, looking weak, losing respect, being labelled as “that Christian”.
The problem is my pride. I am protecting my pride at the cost of others’ souls.
We need to ask ourselves the question, “whose opinion matters more to me, the unbeliever’s or God’s?” We should fear God rather than man.
So with regards to evangelism, the question is not so much of “how can I be better at evangelism?” The deeper question would be “What must I remember about God and the gospel so that I actually want to evangelize?”
Which moves us to the next segment. Why should we evangelize?
Why should we evangelize?
Dever gives 3 fundamental motives.
A desire to be obedient – we evangelize because Christ commands us.
Dever emphasizes that evangelism is obedience to the risen Christ. He also points to Acts 8:4, where ordinary scattered Christians preached the word, and 1 Peter 3:15, where Christians are commanded to be prepared to give an answer for their hope. That is not to mention Matt 28:18-20 which we spoke about earlier.
Therefore, evangelism is not about “do I feel comfortable doing this?”, but rather “has Christ commanded me to do this?” Our feelings become immaterial once we identify that evangelism is a command.
We evangelize because we love the lost.
In Romans 10:1, Paul’s heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. Do we care whether our neighbour is saved? The question we need to ask ourselves is not “do I like to evangelize?” but “do I love this person?”. We need to have compassion for the lost in order for us to share the good news with them.
We evangelize because we love God.
This is the most important reason for evangelism and probably the only sufficient motivation for us to do so. Why? Because love for others can fail when people become difficult. Because fear of rejection can silence us. But if we have genuine love for God, this will keep us faithful.
If we love God, we will want to evangelize because God is glorified. Evangelism is ultimately about God’s glory. More people come to know God, more people come to worship God, more people come to be reconciled to God, God is glorified in all these things.
There is one reason for not evangelizing that I feel should be explained on its own due to its theological nature which regards God’s sovereignty. Some Christians think “if God has already chosen who will be saved, why is there still a need to evangelize?” As we read in Acts 18:9-11, it was about Paul in Corinth. What was he doing in Corinth? He was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. But the Jews opposed him and reviled him such that he gave up on them and only spoke to the Gentiles. There were many who heard Paul and believed. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.”
God told Paul that He had many people in Corinth. Does that mean that Paul could stop preaching? No, God commanded Paul to go on speaking and do not be silent. God’s sovereign election gives Paul the confidence that his preaching will bear fruit.
Therefore, we evangelize not because we are uncertain whether God can save, but because we are confident that God does save through the proclamation of the gospel.
So in closing, Dever gives us some encouragement to share the Gospel.
God is sovereign. Our work in telling others of the good news will bear fruit.
Hell is real. If we believe that hell is real, then we should go and tell others about the saving grace of Jesus.
The gospel has power to save. We have heard the gospel and we have been saved. Now go and tell others.
Consider the cross. If we think that God’s love for us is amazing that He would send Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, how will others know of this beauty of God’s love displayed on the cross? Someone has to tell them.
Main Idea
We do not evangelise because our hearts are often focused on ourselves; we evangelise when our hearts are turned toward God, toward the lost, and toward the cross.
Let us close in prayer.
Heavenly Father,
We thank You for Your Word and for the reminder today of the wonderful gospel that You have entrusted to us.
Lord, we confess that we have often been silent when we should have spoken and have given many excuses to not speak. Forgive us.
Thank You that our hope does not depend on our own ability, how eloquent we are, or our success. You are the One who saves. You are sovereign, and yet You have chosen to use ordinary people like us to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.
Give us courage to speak when opportunities come. Give us eyes to see the people You have placed around us, and give us genuine love for those who have not heard of You.
Most of all, turn our eyes again to Christ and to the cross. Remind us of the great love You have shown us in sending Your Son to die for sinners. May that love move us to love You more, obey You more faithfully, and share the gospel more freely.
Father, help us not to leave this place merely convicted, but changed. Put people on our hearts. Give us opportunities to begin conversations. Give us courage to take the first step, trusting that the results belong to You. May our lives and our words point people not to ourselves, but to Jesus. And may everything we do—including our evangelism—be for the glory of Your name. We ask all this in the precious name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Comments