EVANGELISTS PLANTING CHURCHES

Evangelists Planting Churches

We have already seen that many of the churches in the first century were planted by men referred to as ‘apostles.’ Apostles like Paul and Barnabas preached the Gospel and spent a period of time teaching each church started through their ministry. They returned to these churches, strengthened them, and appointed elders. As we follow Paul’s ministry in Acts and the epistles, we see that he would return to churches he planted, and also send brethren to comfort and strengthen them.

The Greek word for evangelist is euaggelistes. A closely related Greek word, euaggelizo, refers to preaching the Gospel. This verb is used in reference to the preaching of John the Baptist, Christ, Philip the evangelist, apostles, and regular scattered believers.

The plural of the word evangelist occurs once in Ephesians 4:11. The singular evangelist occurs twice in the singular in the New Testament. One is in reference to Timothy, and the other is in reference to Philip.

Acts 21:8 And the next day we that were of Paul's company departed, and came unto Caesarea: and we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven; and abode with him.

II Timothy 4:5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

Let us consider the difference between the roles of apostles and evangelists in the scriptures. Timothy is told to ‘do the work of an evangelist,’ but I Thessalonians 1:1 and 2:6 indicate that Timothy was also an apostle of Christ.

Apostles like Paul, Barnabas, Silas, and Timothy preached the Gospel, taught new converts, appointed elders, and returned to churches to strengthen them.

Philip the evangelist had a little different ministry from these apostles from what little we can see in the book of Acts. Philip evangelized Samaria, and left the ‘follow-up’ to apostles from Jerusalem. He may have left Samaria soon after evangelizing them. After baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch, God quickly transported Philip to another place. Philip’s ministry, at least in the cases reported in scripture, seems to have involved rapid evangelism and rapid departure, as opposed to the ministry of Paul who often spent a lot of time teaching new disciples.

Philip was one of the seven men chosen to care for the feeding of widows, as recorded in Acts 6:1-6. The apostles had laid hands on Philip in connection with the work of feeding widows-traditionally considered to be a ministry of the deaconate. There is no indication that the apostles laid hands on Philip to be an evangelist. Philip’s exploits in Samaria are recorded in Acts 8. After the stoning of Stephen, persecution broke out, scattering the saints from Jerusalem. Saul of Tarsus went around dragging Christians to prison.

There is no indication that the apostles or the church in Jerusalem sent Philip to Samaria. He may have just gone down there as the rest of the saints were being scattered throughout Judea and Samaria due to persecution.

Acts 8:5 Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.

As was probably natural for Philip, when he arrived in Samaria, he preached Christ. Philip was an evangelist, after all, and preaching Christ was probably very natural for him, because it was his gift.

There is no mention of another brother going with Philip to preach in Samaria. It is possible that Philip preached alone. This is very different from the examples we see in the ministry of other apostles. Jesus sent the Twelve and the seventy out in groups of two. Peter and John followed Philip to Samaria-two apostles traveling together. Paul and Barnabas went out together (along with Mark.) Later, Paul went out with Silas and Barnabas went out with Mark. We see apostles traveling in groups of two when they evangelized. Philip may have gone down to Samaria alone.

Something we need to note about Philip’s ministry of evangelism is that he did not merely go to believers who already believed in Christ, and evangelize them. Rather, he preached to people who did not believe the Gospel, who may have never heard it, and evangelized them.

Acts 8:6-7
6 And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.
7 For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed.

As with the apostles, miracles accompanied Philip’s preaching of the Gospel. The result of these miracles was that the people listened carefully to what Philip had to say.

Acts 8:14-17
14 Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John:
15 Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost:
16 (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.)
17 Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.

Here we see a difference between Philip and Paul’s ministry. In Acts19:5-6, we see that after Paul baptized some brethren, he laid hands on them, and the Holy Spirit came on them. In the case of Philip the evangelist, this type of ministry was left to others.

Apparently, Philip left this kind of ‘follow-up’ ministry to the apostles, who were leaders of the church in Jerusalem.

Application to Indonesia

Not every church planter will have the same gifts or grace. One could view Philip here as a church planter, but his ministry in Samaria was different from that of Paul or Barnabas. Philip may not have had the same grace to disciple and teach new believers as Paul, Barnabas, or other apostles.

We must realize that some church planters have grace to evangelize and move on. Others have the grace to evangelize, and to continue discipling others.

Philip was able to turn to leaders of his own church-apostles. Evangelists may want to ask for help from their own local churches, or another nearby church. Such a church can send gifted brethren to come help new believers won by the evangelist. Other evangelists may turn to apostles who are church planters with grace to disciple new believers.

© Paul L. Hudson, Jr. 2002