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Stephen: For those who, by the grace of God, glimpse the hopelessness of sin in their life, there's no better news than salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
Since day one, sharing that good news with men, women, and children who have never heard it has been the charter of Christ's church. When a Christian shares this good news with another person—or maybe with a group of people—we call that evangelism.
On the surface, this might sound like the job description of a missionary too. Maybe they share the good news in another country or in another language. But for many of us, missionary is just a term for someone who does evangelism full-time.
Chad, this impression is at the heart of the question we want to ask you today. This one comes from Alex on Instagram. Alex asks, “What's the difference between evangelism and missions?”
Chad: Thank you, Alex, for your question. Whenever we use terms like evangelism or missions, we need to define those terms. Biblically, evangelism is the proclamation of the good news. Listen to what Jesus says in Luke 24:44–49:
"Then He said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
Then He opened their mind to understand the Scriptures and said to them, “Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I’m sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you’re clothed with power from on high.”
I want you to note four aspects of evangelism that we find in this passage.
First, in verses 44 and 45, we learn that it’s in accord with the Scriptures. The good news is the fulfillment of what the Old Testament promised. Further, the New Testament lays out those truths inherently, infallibly, authoritatively, and sufficiently. The Scriptures are necessary to our task, which is why Paul is keen to tell Timothy to preach the Word as it is breathed out by God.
Second, in verse 49, we learn it is by the power of the Holy Spirit. The apostles are eyewitnesses of these events, but they’re to wait in Jerusalem until Pentecost. They’re to go out to Jerusalem and all Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth in the power of the Holy Spirit and speak on behalf of Jesus. Inasmuch as they do, Christ’s voice is heard by Christ’s sheep. As John Owen has said, "Without the Holy Spirit, we may as well burn our Bibles."
Third, in verse 46, we learn that it’s the announcing of a set of historical facts. They were announcing the historic facts of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. These facts are always present in the gospel proclamation of the apostles in Acts.
Fourth, in verse 47, we learn that it’s also announcing the doctrinal implications of those facts. If you look to Christ in faith—a faith that bears the necessary fruit of repentance—then you’ll be forgiven your sins in His name. In other words, evangelism has a call for response: faith and repentance. And it has a promise of benefits: forgiveness and eternal life in Christ.
Now, we see the apostles follow this pattern in Acts. We also see them commend the same in the epistles. This is evangelism. This can be done by members of my local church. This must be done by gospel ministers.
Now let’s consider the idea of missions. When we speak of missions, we’re using a Latin word that speaks of being sent to do the work of evangelism and church planting. In Greek, the word apostolo means “sent one.” You recognize that word because you’ve heard of apostles. Apostle is a reference to a foundational office that has now gone away.
But there is a more generic nature to it—of being sent. So the apostles were sent to proclaim the gospel, and no one can preach unless they are sent. So when the church sends missionaries, we’re sending people to do evangelism. However, we’re sending them to do more than just evangelism. We’re making disciples, as Jesus commanded. The means to making disciples is baptism, which speaks to a new people being identified with Christ—with our triune Lord—and teaching, which speaks to ongoing edification of the new disciples.
And all this assumes church planting, as Jesus told the apostles that He’s building His church (Matthew 16:18). And He gave them instructions about church discipline (Matthew 18:15–17).
Further, this is the pattern we consistently see with the apostles in light of what I’ve said about evangelism and missions thus far, consider what is said in Acts 2:22:
“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves know—this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God—you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised Him up, loosing the pains of death because it was not possible for Him to be held by it.”
Now consider verse 37 and following:
“Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself.’”
Now listen to verse 41:
“So those who received His word were baptized, and there were added that day about 3,000 souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
Finally, think of how Paul went about planting churches and then wrote letters to those churches. Jesus also addressed the churches in Revelation. So while missions is more than evangelism, it’s never less than evangelism.
Missions is being sent to proclaim the gospel to the end that people are saved into Christ’s church and then helping mature that church—appointing elders and deacons and passing the leadership on to them. That takes a significant investment of time and energy. When you do that in a language group that’s never heard the gospel, you must first invest years into language learning, literacy, and translation.
This is the commitment to give your life for those who’ve never heard. We do so because the love of Christ compels us. He laid down His life for us, and now we want to lay down our lives for others.
So I encourage you to tell the gospel to your friends, family members, neighbors, and co-workers. It will not get easier when you go to the nations—but go to the nations. We must.
Stephen: Thank you, Chad. To find out more about what makes the missionary calling unique, visit us online at missionary.com. We have hundreds of free articles, videos, and other resources available to inspire you and your church to better follow the Great Commission. If you have a question you would like to hear answered on Ask Missionary, get in touch with us on X, Instagram, or you can contact us through missionary.com, and your question may be featured on this show.
And don’t forget to subscribe to the show to get notified when our next episode, “What Should I Pray for If I’m Thinking About Giving My Life for Missions,” airs next week. Thanks for listening.