An Ambassador's Confidence

Ambassadors don't have to accomplish anything on their own. They simply stand in as a representative, knowing that the one they represent is able to follow through on all he says.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 186-87.

Jesus Has Sent Us

Have you ever had a friend recommend a restaurant, saying "Tell them I sent you"? Or have you ever had a business connection that got you a foot in the door somewhere with that phrase? This is what Jesus is doing. "I've been put in charge of everything," he says. "Make sure you tell them I sent you."

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 186.

Community is Part of the Message

Community isn't just a requirement; it's actually part of the message. As we live our identities in community with one another, we are testifying to the world what it means to follow Jesus.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 184.

Discipleship Involves Movement

As witnesses for Jesus, we don't first and foremost call people to a place or a building. We don't call people to make a pilgrimage to the Jesus-temple or to a stable in Bethlehem. Instead, we seek them out, embracing them as Jesus embraces us. Movement can be geographic, but it's often just as difficult to make relational and intimate movement.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 183-84.

Simple Evangelism

Our tendency is to think that [witnessing] requires a program or a target audience outside the ordinary stream of our lives, but it doesn't. It starts with our being witnesses in the ordinary places where we live and work, and it starts with our simply building friendships and getting to know people.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 183.

Spurious Conversions

Yet arguably, in the West such spurious conversions turn, in large part, on shallow preaching, bad handling of the Scriptures, little spiritual discernment among many pastors and preachers, and lack of courage in the actual handling of the Bible.

--D.A. Carson, Jesus the Son of God: A Christological Title Often Overlooked, Sometimes Misunderstood, and Currently Disputed (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 104.

Biblical Spirituality Needed for Evangelistic Competence

Evangelistic competence for witnessing with the Spirit is the result of a maturing relationship with the triune God and is directly related to the outward expressions of this divine-human fellowship in a lifestyle of biblical spirituality.

--Brian A. DeVries, "The Evangelistic Trialogue: Gospel Communication with the Holy Spirit," Calvin Theological Journal 44, pg. 68.

The Gospel Applied by the Spirit is the Only Hope for the Sinner

Fallen sinners are radically corrupted, and there are no hidden elements of truth that might make him favorably inclined to the gospel. Though rational arguments may be used in the process, the truth of Jesus Christ--when applied by the power of the Holy Spirit--is the only means that can break man's rebellion against God's revelation.

--Brian A. DeVries, "The Evangelistic Trialogue: Gospel Communication with the Holy Spirit," Calvin Theological Journal 44, pg. 63.

Believing in God's Total Sovereignty Fuels Evangelism

Thus, the sovereign monergistic work of the Spirit in regeneration does not hinder evangelism but rather promotes its necessity, urgency, authenticity, and expectant dependency in God's Spirit for its success.

--Brian A. DeVries, "The Evangelistic Trialogue: Gospel Communication with the Holy Spirit," Calvin Theological Journal 44, pg. 61.

The Spirit and the Evangelist

As Thomas Watson states, "Ministers knock at the door of men's hearts, the Spirit comes with a key and opens the door"....While the human witness, therefore, communicates externally to the mind and affections, hoping thus to reach the heart and challenge the will, the Spirit also, and at the same time, communicates internally to the heart and the conscience, often confronting the will and making it willing in the day of his power.

--Brian A. DeVries, "The Evangelistic Trialogue: Gospel Communication with the Holy Spirit," Calvin Theological Journal 44, pg. 60.

Vindicating God's Righteousness in Evangelism

Indeed, Scripture suggests that the primary motivation of Spirit-empowered witness is not simply to tell unbelievers how much they are loved by God but rather to vindicate the righteousness of God in damning rebellious sinners who have rejected his Son and to proclaim the mercy and glory of a loving God who promises to save all those who repent and believe even though they deserve damnation.

--Brian A. DeVries, "The Evangelistic Trialogue: Gospel Communication with the Holy Spirit," Calvin Theological Journal 44, pg. 59.

What Happens when an Unbeliever becomes a Believer?

If the Spirit joins with the Word in order to effectually call, convict, and illumine the unbeliever, then new spiritual life will be recreated, accompanied by faith and its fruits. By this new life of faith, the once-unbeliever will be irresistibly transformed within and will begin to be shaped into a new form without as well.

--Brian A. DeVries, "The Evangelistic Trialogue: Gospel Communication with the Holy Spirit," Calvin Theological Journal 44, pg. 56.

The Relationship between God and His Evangelists (All Christians)

Second, the triune God in Christ has a relationship of communication and fellowship with the evangelist. The evangelist has been united with the triune God in Christ and has been indwelt by the Spirit. Open communication exists, therefore, between them both by the inspired Word and the internal witness of the Spirit (Rom. 8:14-27). Through this constant communication, the evangelist is increasingly anointed, equipped, empowered, and made competent for the evangelistic witness of Christ to unbelievers.

--Brian A. DeVries, "The Evangelistic Trialogue: Gospel Communication with the Holy Spirit," Calvin Theological Journal 44, pg. 55.

The Unbeliever's Relationship with God

The evangelist, then, does not join in trialogue with a neutral relationship between two unknown people, but rather, from the very beginning, communicates in a situation that needs reconciliation. God has already spoken, and the unbeliever--whoever he or she may be--has already sinned against him (Rom. 3:9-18).

--Brian A. DeVries, "The Evangelistic Trialogue: Gospel Communication with the Holy Spirit," Calvin Theological Journal 44, pg. 55.

Evangelistic Trialogue

The communication process in all gospel witness is a trialogue....The assortment of Greek lexemes that cluster around the New Testament concept of witness (Greek: martus) all share in common the essential activity of transmitting a message to an audience. It is foundational for our methodology to establish that this transmission--this communication process--is communication among three persons: the human evangelist, the unbelieving sinner, and the triune God.

--Brian A. DeVries, "The Evangelistic Trialogue: Gospel Communication with the Holy Spirit," Calvin Theological Journal 44, pg. 52.