As I give thought to Mark 16: 15-18, I am compelled by the Holy Spirit to ask myself, am I manifesting the Spirit of Christ in doing Evangelism? And am I doing it the way Jesus did in the Gospels? When I asked myself these questions, I know I have to some degree, but there is more I can do to bring the sinner to Christ. In my research on  doing ministry like Jesus, I am using the Gospels, Acts and a great resource book titled, “Power Evangelism,” by John Wimber & Kevin Springer. Here is what I found:
 
1. How did Jesus evangelize? At the beginning of His public ministry, Jesus, quoting from Isaiah 61:1-2, proclaimed the following in the synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth: “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. . . . Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:18-21). Throughout the Gospels a clear pattern of the ministry of Jesus unfolds and is repeated wherever He went. First there is proclamation: He preached repentance and the good news of the kingdom of God. Second, demonstration: He cast out demons, healed the sick, and raised the dead— which proved He was the presence of the Kingdom, the “Anointed One.” In Matthew there is significant detail about Christ’s ministry: “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about Him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various disease, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him” (Matt. 4:23-25; 9:35-36). Here again we see the pattern of proclamation combined with demonstration of the kingdom of God, which results in large crowds and many followers. In the rabbinic way of thinking, what one did was as important as what one believed. Jesus passed on to the disciples His life and His way of life. Most people can understand how Jesus was able to preach and demonstrate the kingdom of God. After all, He was God come in human form. “God heals, casts out demons and overcomes all forms of evil.” 
 
But what about the disciples? 2. How did Jesus commission the disciples? For three years, Jesus taught the disciples how to minister from hearts of compassion and mercy, hear the Father, grow in dependence on the Holy Spirit, be obedient to God’s leading and believe that God performs miracles through men and women. His post-resurrection commission, as recorded in Matthew 28:18-20, reaffirms what He taught them: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Notice the three objectives: 1. Make disciples from all nations 2. Baptize them (bring them into the Church) 3. Teach them obedience to God’s Word (discipleship).  Jesus commissioned the disciples to bring people fully under His reign into the kingdom of God. This is a “kingdom conversion” in which people come into a new reality—a reality in which the “supernatural” is quite natural. Thought of this way, conversion involves both a change in the person (being “born again”) and a change of citizenship (leaving the kingdom of Satan and entering the kingdom of God), Col. 1:9-14. The goal of making obedient disciples who are integrated into the body of Christ is a high priority with God. This is why Christ sent the promised “Helper” to fulfill the task: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The promise of the Holy Spirit is the Divine Agent in fulfilling the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20. Just before calling the Eleven to make disciples, Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me” (Matt. 28:18) and then, after commissioning them, He said, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). Through the indwelling Holy Spirit, they were empowered to advance and represent the kingdom of God. When Jesus commissioned them to make and baptize disciples, they understood that they were to go out and do exactly what Jesus had shown them.
 
This leads me to my next point. 3. How did the disciples respond to the Great Commission? A close inspection of the book of Acts reveals that the disciples went out and spread the Good News in the same fashion as Christ: by combining proclamation and demonstration of the kingdom of God. The apostles not only taught what they heard but also did what Jesus did. At the beginning of Acts, Luke says that the purpose of his Gospel had been to write about all that Jesus did and taught (Acts 1:1). In Acts, Luke continues the story of Jesus’ works and teaching, only now they are done by the disciples (Acts 1:8). Clearly, he implies the continuation of Jesus’ ministry on earth, the fulfillment of the Great Commission. In every century of Church history we have documentation of the Holy Spirit using believers. The key to their advancing the kingdom of God was the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2. When the Holy Spirit came on them, the disciples received God’s awesome power. In John 14:12-14, Jesus says; “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” This great invitation is given to us to participate with Him in loving people, healing people, delivering people from the demonic and raising the dead as the Holy Spirit directs. As the body of Christ and as His Bride we should demonstrate in power, His love and compassion to a dysfunctional world. There is presently a wounded generation who Jesus has sent His Church to heal and set free. We need to put on Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:27) and wear Him as our Armor of Light (Rom. 13:12) to demonstrate to this sinful generation that Jesus Christ is here and He has come in the power of the Holy Spirit. For this is not a new concept, it is the Glorious Gospel demonstrated by the ones in, “Evangelism 101.”