With all practical instruction in the New Testa­ment, it is remarkable that there is little direct teaching on evangelism. How do we explain this? Obviously, the NT writers did not lack compassion for men's souls. On the contrary, they had the mind of the Saviour who wept over Jerusalem. We read of Paul that he had "great heaviness and continual sorrow in (his) heart" for his lost Jewish brethren (Rom 9:2, 3).

What is clear from the NT is that evangelism is not in the first place something the church has to learn; rather, it is the result of the church being what she should be. The more deeply she experiences the power and glory of Christ, the more profound will be the impression made upon the world. In other words, the Christian by definition should have a heart for evangelism. Allow me to unpack this in five points.

1. A Heart for Evangelism is the Consequence of Real Spiritual Experience⤒🔗

This is clear, for instance, from the beatitudes of the Lord Jesus. There he describes the people who have a heart for evangelism. What are these people like? He says: they are "poor in spirit", they "mourn", they are "meek", they "hunger and thirst after righteousness," etc. These people are "the light of the world", a "city that is set on a hill ... cannot be hid" (Mt 5:14).

The same thing is clear from 2 Corinthians 3, where Paul writes that the Corinthian Chris­tians are legible epistles of Christ in the world, "known and read of all men" (2 Cor 3:1,2). Christ has written on their hearts "with the Spirit of the living God" (2 Cor 3:3). Their lives proclaim the gospel.

Or think of what Paul writes in 1 Thessalo­nians 1:8 about the Christians at Thessalonica:

From you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad...

Paul makes clear that the spread of the message was due not to some skill these Christians had acquired in soul-winning but rather due to the character of their lives. What the pagans observed and spoke about was their "faith to God-ward" and how they had "turned to God from idols" (1 Thess 1:9).

2. A Heart for Evangelism Eyes God's Glory←⤒🔗

The biblical rule is: "Do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor 10:31). Men glorify God by obey­ing his Word. Evangelism is one of the activi­ties that Christ has commanded: "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness" (Mt 24:14; cf Mk 13:10). It is your task and my task. If we love God and are concerned to glorify him, we must obey his command to evangelize.

There is a further strand to this thought. We glorify God by evangelizing, not only because evangelizing is an act of obedience, but also because in evangelism we tell the world what great things God has done for the salvation of sinners. God is glorified when his mighty works are made known. The psalmist exhorts us to "shew forth his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all the people" (Ps 96:2). For a Christian to talk to the unconverted about the Lord Jesus Christ and his saving power is in itself honouring and glorifying to God.

3. A Heart for Evangelism is Constrained by Love for the Lost←⤒🔗

The desire to win the lost for Christ should be the spontaneous outflow of love in the heart of everyone who has been born again. The Lord Jesus confirms the Old Testament demand that we should love our neighbour as ourselves (Mk 12:31; Lk 10:37). Paul writes: "As we have opportunity, let us do good unto all men" (Gal 6:10). What greater need has any man than the need to know the knowledge of Christ? The impulse to evangelize should spring spontaneously in us as we see our neighbour's need of Christ.

If we ourselves know anything of the love of Christ for us, and if our hearts feel any mea­sure of gratitude for the grace that has saved us from death and hell, then this attitude of compassion for our spiritually needy fellow­men ought to come spontaneously to us. It was in connection with compassion for souls that Paul declared that "the love of Christ con­straineth us" (2 Cor 5:14). It is not a good sign if we lack that love and are reluctant to share the precious knowledge of Christ with others whose need of it is just as great as their own. It is a great privilege to be able to tell others of the love of Christ, knowing that there is noth­ing that they need more urgently to know than Jesus Christ. If we find ourselves shrinking from this responsibility, we need to face our­selves with the fact that in this we are yielding to sin and Satan. What we need to do is to ask for grace to be truly ashamed of ourselves, and to pray that we may so overflow in love to God that we shall overflow in love to our fellow­men, and share with them the good news of Christ.

4. A Heart for Evangelism is Steeped in Tra­vailing Prayer←⤒🔗

Before the harvest of souls on Pentecost, the church met continually for prayer and suppli­cation. Before Paul and Barnabas were sent out from Antioch, the church prayed and fasted. When we pray, we give everything out of our hands. Since, evangelism must not be our work, but God's, it is most fitting and proper to give it out of hands. We can do much after we've prayed, but we can't do anything until we've prayed (Bunyan).

We should not imagine, however, that a simple form-prayer is what Scripture is speaking about. It is about labouring in prayer. Paul says to the Galatians: "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you..." (4:19) What is true in nature, is also true in grace: unless there is travail, there are no children.

Spurgeon said it well:

If souls were given us without any effort, anxiety or prayer it would be our loss to have it so, because the anxieties which throb within a compassionate spirit exercise his graces; they produce grateful love to God; they try his faith in the power of God to save others; they drive him to the mercy-seat; they strengthen his patience and perseverance, and every grace within the man is educated and increased by his travail for souls...I have little confidence in elaborate speech and polished sentences, as the means of reaching men's hearts; but I have great faith in that simple-minded Christian woman, who must have souls converted or she will weep her eyes out over them; and in that humble Christian who prays day and night in secret, and then avails himself of every oppor­tunity to address a loving word to sinners. The emotion we feel, and the affection we bear, are the most powerful implements of soul-win­ning. God the Holy Ghost usually breaks hard hearts by tender hearts.

How much more could we pray for the salvation of unconverted people, particularly in our family, and among our friends and everyday associates, but also in our communities.

5. A Heart for Evangelism is an Enterprising Heart←⤒🔗

It is the nature of love to be enterprising. If you love someone, you are constantly trying to think out what is the best you can do for him, and how best you can please him, and it is your pleasure to give him pleasure by the things you devise for him. If, then, we love God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — for all that he has [they have] done for us, we shall muster all our initiative and enterprise to make the most we can of every situation for his [their] glory. And one chief way of doing this is to seek out ways and means of spreading the gos­pel, and obeying the divine command to make disciples everywhere. Similarly, if we love our neighbour, we shall muster all our initiative and enterprise to find ways and means of do­ing him good. And one way of doing him good is to share with him our knowledge of Christ. We shall not ask with reluctance how much we have to do in this realm, as if evangelizing were a distasteful and burdensome task. We shall not enquire anxiously after the minimum effort in evangelism that will satisfy God. But we shall earnestly seek just how much it is in our power to do to spread of knowledge of Christ among men; and once we see what the possibilities are, we shall give ourselves to them prayerfully. May God give us such an enterprising spirit.