AP

1. Introduction – Evangelism in the Presbyterian church – https://ap.org.au/2026/10/22/evangelism-in-the-presbyterian-church/

• Evangelism and Ecclesiology – https://ap.org.au/2026/10/27/evangelism-and-ecclesiology-part-2-of-evangelism/

• Evangelism and Theology – https://ap.org.au/2026/11/05/evangelism-and-theology-part-3-of-evangelism/

It was a strange invitation from an Australian city.

“Can you come and do an evangelistic talk with us?”

“Sure, be happy to do so – why are you asking me? “

“You’re a bit different”

“Why?  My Scottish accent?”

“No – well that too … but you evangelise from the Bible”.

“Doesn’t everyone?” 

“No … its quite unusual”. 

Whilst I am not convinced that my inviter was entirely correct, I am convinced that far too often evangelism and evangelistic messages are not focused on the Bible and that the Bible is far more often used as illustrative rather than source material.  The aim becomes to get the main points of the Gospel over – whatever the passage. 

Back in Scotland I was told that unless a sermon contained the three ‘R’s (ruin by the fall, redemption by Christ, regeneration by the Holy Spirit) then it was not really evangelistic. The Australian version was revealed when I was criticized by someone who was really into evangelism, but thought I didn’t preach the Gospel because I didn’t use Chapo’s four points (God as creator and ruler; Humanity in rebellion; Jesus Christ, dead and risen; The response required).  John Chapman was a great evangelist whom God greatly used – I keep meeting people who were converted through him.  I love his remark that ‘the response is up to God; your responsibility is clarity’.  His four points are a good summary outline, just as the Marrowmen’s three ‘Rs’ is.  But we must be very careful not to reduce the Gospel to a formula. Chappo was a unique, evangelistically gifted individual.  Just using his points does not mean we will have the same impact!

Sometimes even the language we use about evangelism encourages the idea that it is something that we can do, learn and pass on.  There is some truth in that, but I can’t find anywhere in the Bible where we are told to get better at evangelism.  It’s not a technique, a programme, or a learned skill.  It’s more a matter of the heart, the gifting and the Word.

When I look at where evangelism is mentioned in the Bible I find that it includes making disciples, baptising, teaching (Matt 28:18-20); preaching repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Luke 24:46=-48); being a witness of Jesus to all the nations (Acts 1:8); preaching good news to the poor (Luke 4:18-19); seeking and saving the lost (Luke 19:10); preaching the word (Acts 8:4); reasoning (Acts 17); preaching the good news (1 Corinthians 1:17); preaching the word (1 Timothy 4:5); preaching Christ (2 Corinthians 4:5); being an ambassador for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:18-20); defending with gentleness (1 Peter 3:15) and being prepared to go (Ephesians 6:15).  You see a pattern?  It is teaching about Christ … and how do we teach about Christ?  Through his word.  Evangelism is teaching the Bible. Teaching the Bible is evangelism.

Every preacher of the Bible needs to understand that he is an evangelist. I was horrified when I met a pastor who said that he was not really interested in evangelism as that was not his gift – and I should speak to one of the assistants.  We may not all be John Chapman or George Whitefield, but all pastors are to preach the Word in season, and out of season, to all people – who will hear them.

Let me suggest 4 R’s for why we must make the Bible central in our evangelism. (I should call them Robbo’s 4 R’s, and copyright them and develop a course!  Except these are not mine; they are what biblical Christians have been teaching since the apostles)

The Richness of the Bible.

The Bible cannot be reduced to a formula. The gospel is like a diamond that can be viewed from a thousand different angles – and will shine just as brightly from each one of them.  Another way of looking at this is that evangelism is sowing the seed of the Word of God and it comes in many different forms.  The reason we can use the Bible in evangelism is because it allows us to plant fields of wheat, because we are to teach everything that Jesus has commanded.

The Relevance of the Bible.

Sometimes I hear about the need to make the Bible more relevant.  I recall hearing an advert for the Joyce Meyer Bible where a grateful reader gushed over how ‘Joyce just makes it so relevant to modern life’.  The Bible is relevant!   We don’t have to make it relevant.  It takes a particular skill to make it irrelevant but that seems to be a skill that many in the church have acquired!

And all of the Bible is relevant. The Bible says some very uncomfortable things, and we would rather not say them because we don’t want to upset people, and we wouldn’t want to do that – lest they don’t like us and then don’t like Jesus.   We are of course to be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves, but we must remember that it is the Holy Spirit who convicts of sin, righteousness and the judgement to come (John 16:8-11) – not us.   We are not to act wiser than the Lord.  I have seen the Lord use the most obscure passages to bring people to him – including sermons on abortion, Leviticus and Job. 

It’s a very good idea to have as many individual copies of the individual books of the Bible as you can.  Sometimes I have given someone Ecclesiastes, another time the Psalms, another time the Gospel of Luke.   Would I give someone Leviticus before I give them the Gospel of Mark? Obviously not. But nonetheless, the fact is that all Scripture is useful. So, for example, Ecclesiastes is, in my view, absolutely the best book to communicate the gospel to a post-modern, post-Christian society today. The Gospel of Luke/Acts is just perfect for the historical people. Revelation is great for the Heavy Metal fans!  The Psalms for the poetic and artistic. Genesis for the philosophers and the scientists.

The Reliability of the Bible.

it is very difficult to evangelize when we undermine the authority of the word of God. For example, in our current discussion about women elders, the most important part concerns the reliability of Scripture.  It doesn’t really matter what parents in Christian schools might think, or what the Sydney Morning Herald might print. It really does matter what the Bible says. I accept that there are some who perhaps genuinely believe that we’ve misunderstood and the Bible permits women elders. But having studied this issue for many years, and in a sense wanting it to be so, I can’t see it. The reality is I meet far more people who say when they’re being honest: “I don’t like Paul. He was a misogynist. I think the Bible was wrong.” That is particularly true for the Presbyterian Church in Scotland where people ended up being quite happy to diss Paul as a misogynist (a comment I have heard more than once from Pressies in Australia). 

In fact, those who know their history of the Presbyterian Church in NSW should know that our last heresy trial in 1993 was about this very issue.  Dr Peter Cameron (shamefully a Scottish heretic) argued on the question of women’s eldership that Paul just got it wrong and that the Bible was “an oppressive and often repellent textbook”.   He was rightly removed from office, despite the outrage of the secular press who predicted the death of the Presbyterians.  Dr Cameron has left – and the Church continues. 

The trouble is that if Paul got it wrong on one issue, how do we know whether he has it right on another? When we pick and mix according to our preferences or according to culture, then we undermine the word of God and its authority and its sufficiency.   And our evangelism becomes not the telling of the Good News of Jesus Christ which he has given us, but our version of what we think Jesus should have said.

The Revelation of the Bible.

In Magnificent Obsession I quoted Erasmus’s beautiful statement: “The Bible will give Christ to you, in an intimacy so close that he would be less visible to you if he stood before your eyes”.  Erasmus wrote it in the Preface to the Greek New Testament in 1516.  The original Latin is often rendered in English as “the sacred words will give you a clearer picture of Christ than the sight of him in the flesh”.

We need revelation.  We need the revelation of Jesus Christ.  And that comes to us through the Scriptures.   Christ comes to us through the Scriptures. But the problem is that many modern Christians don’t really believe that. The inspiration of the Bible is one thing, but the sufficiency of the Bible is another. And I think that many of us feel that the Bible is true, but it’s not enough.   We need to add something extra.  But in so doing rather than make Christ clearer, we make him more obscure.  When the argument came into the Church of Scotland, from a twisted misuse of the Shorter Catechism, that the Bible contains the Word of God, but is not the Word of God, the seeds of the self-destruction of the Church were sown.  It has taken decades for them to bear fruit, but those seeds have now seen the Church come to the point of extinction.   

Once we start twisting the Word of God to suit the fashions of the time or the preferences of our own heart, we become like someone who goes into battle firing an artillery piece which has been bent and twisted. It’s useless. It blows up in our face. The Bible is the Word of God. It doesn’t contain the Word of God; it is the Word of God. It’s how God speaks to us, and the good news is to be proclaimed. It’s how Christ comes to us. We preach Christ crucified, from the Scriptures.

The Bible is sufficient. We do not need to add or take away from it. That doesn’t mean that we cannot do creative evangelism. In fact, the Word of God encourages an adaptive and creative evangelism. To the Jews, I became as a Jew. To the Gentiles, as a Gentile. (1 Corinthians 9:20-22).  But it does mean we do not use the Bible as a prop or as an illustration. We proclaim the Word of God in the power of the Spirit (of which more in the next article).

For this one let me finish with from Hebrews: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12) I have seen people quake with fear under the Word of God. I’ve seen people’s faces light up with joy under the Word of God. I’ve seen people become confused and angry as God’s words begin to seep into their hearts. And I’ve seen people’s dismissive, bland, stoic faces. It seems as though nothing is going to get under their skin. Only the Word has that power.

God’s word will not return to him empty.  It will always achieve his purpose  (Isaiah 55:11).   All our techniques, all our programs, all our training and devices, will return to us empty – unless they are used to proclaim, without fear nor favour, in the power of the Spirit, the living and active word of God.

– David Robertson