Evangelization

The last order of Christ to His apostles was: "Go and make disciples of all the nations" (Mt. 28:19). God's Love was not only for Israel, it is directed to all the peoples and to every person in particular.

God "wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4). But God doesn't want it to happen without our, Christians, cooperation. Christians are called to proclaim the Good News to the whole world. Actually Christians are called to give testimony of the truth to this world.

The ancient church in Jerusalem functioned well. It had all services necessary for valuable functioning of the Church well developed. Moreover, first pupils of Christ were enjoying favor of all the people (Acts 2:47), and God Himself gathered new members to the Church. But something was missing in it...

Lord ordered the Church to be His witness not only in Jerusalem but in all Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (see Acts 1:8).And the first cozy place which Christians made for themselves in Jerusalem was hard to leave, it was hard to search other things to do. That was the reason why God permitted first persecution of His pupils. He permitted it so that the Gospel could be heard in whole world. Actually, those who were scattered by persecution and had to run from one place to another, started the evangelization of Judea and Samaria (see Acts 8:1, Acts 8:4). And not only land of Israel heard the words of the Gospel:
"Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus." (Acts 11:19-20). In this way evangelization of the world started from persecution.

Evangelization is the main mission of the Church and Lord is ready for everything for Church not to waste it.

We can say: "We live in nations which call themselves Christians. Whom shall we evangelize? And those who are leaders of the Church take care of evangelization of non-Christians." That's right, but there are few ‘buts'...
Apostle Paul says that only those who eagerly look forward to Jesus' appearing in glory will be redeemed (2 Tim. 4:8). And Jesus Himself pointed at one very important condition of His returning: "And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come." (Mt. 24:14)

Therefore, if we long for salvation, we must aim at the point that the Gospel be heard by all people. It means that we should be active in evangelization of non-Christians. And this may be done by first of all spiritual and material, especially financial, help to those who are on mission among non-Christians.
Except this, from the above-given quotation (Acts 11:20) we can see the meaning of the Good News - Jesus is the Lord! In Greek language, i.e. the language of the New Covenant original, word ‘Lord' sounds like ‘Kyrios'. It is known that in Hellenistic world of Roman Empire to acknowledge someone your Kyrios meant the same as to acknowledge someone's complete authority over yourself - your thoughts, emotions, soul, spirit, body - all that you have and occupy. Acknowledge someone your own God and Lord. And it is not only in words, but in actions as well. How many of your neighbors, friends, and relatives heard of it and are aware of it? How many people of your surrounding really accepted Jesus as their Lord?

If we will thoroughly and sincerely think over this, we will see that there is a need to evangelize not only non-Christians, but also those who call themselves Christians.

How can we support evangelization of non-Christians and how to evangelize those who call themselves Christians? We will try to expound this in this section.