Evangelism 101: Ethos-Know Your Facts
February 7, 2010
Introduction
Have the students draw a subject out of a hat. They must then proceed to tell us about it for two minutes, even if they have no clue what the subject is, or they are not an expert in the field. At the end of everyone’s turn, see who was the most believable of all the presenters.
Aristotle believed that there were three ways of persuasion, Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. Logos was the words that were said, a logical appeal. Pathos was how it was presented, an emotional appeal. But Aristotle believed that Ethos was the most important. It was the credibility of the speaker. When we played the game, many of you didn’t know what in the world you were talking about. It’s like going to ask someone about a product only to hear that they’ve “never used it, but heard it was great.” We would rather hear from experience.
I think one of the biggest problems in the world today, when it comes to evangelism, is the fact that very few of us have good Ethos. Over the next four weeks, we are going to take a look at the ethos of evangelism, and how it should influence how we go about spreading the Good News of Jesus.
The first key ingredient of having good Ethos is knowing your facts. Newspapers have to send out corrections rather frequently because they do not do adequate research and give a false story. Once someone is caught in a false story enough times, they become ignored. Think about the boy who cried wolf!
Lesson
Everyone turn to Acts chapter 2. Here’s the background: This is right after the Holy Spirit ascended down. Those who were looking on asked if these people were drunk!
Read v. 14-16
Peter wants to make sure what is going on doesn’t get passed over as drunkenness. He wants them to know that they know what is going on, and it is important. Have you ever been around someone who converted to Christianity? Most of the time they act like a new person. Yet, when other people see them, they believe something is wrong with them. They think it is just an act. We must make sure that our faith and joyful living is not mistaken for a show. We must make sure that everyone knows the reason we act like we do.
Read v. 17-21
He explains the phenomenon that is happening at the present time. These are religious people, they would understand the Scriptures and for many, it would make sense to them. Peter’s smart. He realized he has all their attentions, and now he is appealing to their intellect.
Read v. 22-24
This would have been still fresh on the minds of all who were gathered here. While there was no National Enquirer, TMZ, or anything like that. But you who go to school know that rumors spread all over the school very quickly. Jews were very close-knit people, word would have gotten around. These people were in the very city that Jesus was crucified in. This would have been a big deal.
Read v. 25-28
Why is it important that Peter brought up David? (If you were going to get anything spiritual across to Jews, it starts with God, but David is like 1a. He must be mentioned and discussed in all things that have to do with religion).
Read v. 29-36
Peter uses Scripture to back up his claim that Jesus was the Messiah. He wants them to know that he is fully coherent and knows what he is talking about. If he had made wild claims but had no spiritual backing, he would have gotten shot down very quickly. But he knew Scripture, and his argument is grounded in it.
Application
Some questions for us today:
· How well do you know the message that you are supposed to be spreading?
· Can you get the facts straight so that no one can find any faults in your statements?
The first step to evangelism is to know the message and the significance of the message that you are spreading. If we cannot get this part right, there is no point in going on to any other step in evangelism. Tonight is the Super Bowl. There are going to be plenty of people who know ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING about football who will turn into football fanatics tonight. They are going to be made fun of (maybe even to their face) and ridiculed. I dare say we have a lot of people in our faith who are Super Bowl Christians. They talk big game, only when the show is on. But the rest of the year they do not act like Christ, read about Christ, or firm up their foundation in Christ. Let’s not be one of those people. Let’s make sure we know the facts about Christ. Only then can we hope to reach out and change the world
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