A job can also be taken to mean a work or task which someone or group of persons are expected to carry out or perform.
As an Evangelist in Christendom, there is a job that you are expected or required to perform, and that job of an Evangelist is what we are going to treat in this religious discourse. And without any further ado, let’s get started with it right away.
The job of an Evangelist.
The job of an Evangelist is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and make disciples whom he will teach how to follow and obey the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is according to the instructions given by Jesus Himself in Mathew 28:19-20 and in several other Biblical passages.
As an Evangelist, your greatest task will lie in the ability to persuade people to depart from their sinful lifestyle and heed to the living words of Jesus Christ.
Threatening people with a fearful judgement day and an eternal damnation in the pits of hell will not be enough to make people depart from their sins, and for that reason you must always seek the intervention of God because in John 6:44, the Lord Jesus said that no one can come to Him except the Father draws him or her.
Also, exhibiting the characteristics of an Evangelist will enable you to carry out the job of an Evangelist diligently.
Let us therefore move on from here to see how you need to do the work of an Evangelist.
How to do the work of an Evangelist.
To do the work of an Evangelist, you must ensure you preach the word of God and be instant both in and out of season, above all you must aim to use that word of God to reprove, rebuke, and exhort people with all longsuffering and teaching. This is according to an instruction that was given by the Apostle Paul to his co-Evangelist known as Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2.
Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
And from the above Bible passage, we can gain the understanding that the work of an Evangelist lies in using the word of God to convince, rebuke and exhort people. And why Paul adds that you do that with all longsuffering and teaching is because people will not easily hearken or heed the word you preach as an Evangelist, until you are able to help them properly understand it through teaching.
In Psalm 119:34, the Psalmist begs God to give him the understanding that will help him keep his law, and further down in verse 130 he reveals that it is through the explanation of the word of God that the ignorant person gains much understanding.
You can liken this to the educational system where teachers are employed to explain textbooks so that the students will understand, and in the end their ability to understand will be tested by way of assignments, tests and exams.
And for this reason, you as an Evangelist must always see yourself as a teacher who must cycle the terms and explain the Bible to the perfect understanding of your subjects.
Now let us move on to see the meaning of reprove, rebuke and exhort as used in 2 Timothy 4:2.
The meaning of reprove, rebuke and exhort.
The meaning of reprove, rebuke and exhort are as follows: reprove is simply the ability to convince someone to give up a bad behavior or character, while rebuke means to disapprove of the wrongs people are doing and exhort means to encourage someone to do what is right or good.
Now let us treat these three words as different subject matters so we can dive a bit deeper into understanding how to use them effectively as an Evangelist.
What the Bible says about reprove in 2 Timothy 4:2.
In 2 Timothy 4:2, reprove simply means using the word of God to convince a sinner to depart from his sinful way and follow Christ Who is able to save him.
Considering the fact that most people always live with the conviction that their sins are way too much for God to forgive, and when you meet such cases as an Evangelist you must use a Bible passage like Isaiah 1:18 to show the victim that even though his sins may be as black as scarlet, God has promised to make him white as snow and even though it is as red as crimson He has also to make it white as wool.
Being acquainted with this kind of Bible passage will make the sinner have a rethink and resolve to give up his sinful lifestyle.
The meaning of rebuke in 2 Timothy 4:2.
In 2 Timothy 4:2, rebuke means that you should use the word of God to make disapprovals on instances where people are doing what it says they should not do and above all else show them the repercussions that accompanies such actions.
For example, in 1 Corinthians 10:1-11, the scripture reveals the following:
- How the Israelites dies massively because of idolatry. (Verse 7)
- How twenty three thousand people died because of sexual immorality. (Verse 8)
- How scores of the Israelites were killed because of their complains. (Verse 9).
And in verse eleven it concludes that all these things are recorded in the scriptures to serve as an example for people who will desire to participate in these kinds of wrongdoings.
The exhortation of 2 Timothy 4:2.
The exhortation of 2 Timothy 4:2 simply means using the word of God as an Evangelist to encourage people to hold on to Jesus who is the author and finisher of their faith.
As Christians, it is pertinent that we will be prone to so much trials that will be accompanied with so much discouragements.
For example, one might hope to God to accomplish a task that he fails woefully at the end of the day. And the result might cause him to consider the fact that it is either God does not exist or He is not in the position to support his goals in life.
The person might begin to consider employing other means of making it in life.
So whenever you come across such cases in your evangelical work, you must use the word of God to show him the worst case scenario that occurred to people in the Bible and how God intervened in the dying minute.
Being equipped with such Biblical instances will encourage the individual to still hold on to God in his hard times.
