FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Scripture Reference: Romans 1:16; 1 Timothy 1:8-14

“I am not ashamed of the gospel,” shouted the apostle Paul. He might not have been, but sadly, the truth is, most of us are.

At school? At work? Or, the bridge party? The discussion turns to religion or the latest clergy scandal, and everyone speaks disdainfully about the church’s hypocrisy. Is it possible in these situation you feel like a fool at times to admit you’re a Christian during these times?

Why is there such little boldness these days about the Christian faith? While there may be many reasons for our feelings of timidity, one reason is often the Bible itself. Many people today view the Bible simply as a collection of myths and fairy tales, clever to read and full of morality tales but hardly acceptable to the scientific mind.

“You believe the Bible?” one man asked me a long time ago as if surprised. “It’s so outdated and full of nothing but myths and fables. How can you honestly believe all that stuff you read?”

He had a point, to a degree. The Bible can be hard to believe, even harder to explain. Since the dawn of the Freudian era, we have come to think about the world in ways different from our ancestors. Due to this, I believe, is one source of our embarrassment.

The Jewish rabbi Harold Kushner touches on it in a story he tells of a boy who was asked by his mother what he had learned in church school that day:

The boy described the story of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt, but when he came to the dramatic portion about the crossing of the Red Sea, he edited the story saying, “Moses took out his walkie-talkie and called in the Israeli Air Force to bomb the Egyptians, while the others built a pontoon bridge to cross over the Red Sea.”

Perplexed at his version of the story, the boy’s mother asked, “Is that how they told you the story?”

He dropped his head and muttered, “Well no, Mom, but if I told you the story the way they told it to me, you’d never believe it!”

That’s truly the sum of our problem, isn’t it? Whenever we read the Bible, we are suddenly thrust into a world which seems so foreign to us, especially in the western world. A world where seas part and folks trek across on dry ground; bushes burn but are not consumed; manna drops out of the sky to feed hungry people; folks walk on water; the blind are given their sight; paralytics, and quadriplegics are made to walk; and the dead are brought back to life. How do you explain that kind of world to a people who live in a world accustomed to analyzing itself under a microscope?

My point? You can’t explain it! The stories of our faith live on from generation to generation, not because skilled practitioners of religious truth perfect better ways of explaining the stories but because the stories themselves have a life of their own. Yet that is the key; they are stories and accounts of faith! They need no explanation. They need simply to be told. The more we seek to reduce the Christian narrative to a carefully categorized set of propositions, the greater our anxiety will be about the Bible and our faith. In short, the more we try to explain the Bible, the less confidence we have in the Bible.

It’s time we let the Christian story speak for itself. Its story is our story. If our interest is in strengthening the believing person’s confidence so he or she can say with the apostle Paul, “I am not ashamed of the gospel,” we will come closer to accomplishing that objective, not by wrangling over whether the hare chews the cud (see Leviticus 11:6), but by affirming the truth of the Christian story. Do we need to be ashamed? Absolutely not!

With that in mind, I’ve listed a few reasons why we do not need to be ashamed of the Christian faith. To be continued over the next several days.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Matthew 9:35-38

II. The Necessity of Enlisting the Layperson – Continued

Satan’s strategy in our world today is to convince the laypeople of the church that Christianity is complicated, winning people to Christ is too complex, and only ministers can do it. What if someone could convince us that wars are too complicated, dangerous, and only generals can fight wars?

You and I are to penetrate the society in which we live with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Great Commission begins with the phrase, “Go therefore and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19).

There’s an illustration of a lady disembarking from an airplane after talking with a handsome man. Her jealous husband asked, “What did you talk with that man about?”

“Nothing in particular, but he asked the strangest question, ‘Are you a Christian?’ ”

The husband responded, “Why didn’t you just tell him it was none of his business?”

Hugging her husband she said, “Had you heard him speak, you would have known that it was his business.”

That is the spirit you and I must have as we share the gospel of Christ in the world in which we live. We need to be like the elevator operator who would say to people in the elevator, “Make sure your last trip is up.” We must never be contented as keepers of the aquarium when Jesus has commanded us to be fishers of men.

III. The Urgency of the Task

One of the great secrets of Jesus’ ministry and success was His comprehension of the urgency of the task. Listen to Jesus, “Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!” (John 4:35). When the fields are white, they must be harvested immediately, or they are lost. Normally, the farmers reap the fields when they are yellow unto harvest, not white.

As Jesus looked out at lost humanity, He saw them perishing as sheep with no shepherd, as a field ready to be reaped with no harvester. That is a picture of our world today.

According to the 2022 world population sheet, in 2021 there were approximately:

• 5 births per second
• 270 births per minute
• 16,200 births per hour
• 388,800 births per day
• 2,721,600 births per week
• 11,823,408 births per month
• 141,912,000 births per year

Every year there are 141 million new people born into the world; and as of 2024 there are approximately 8.1 billion people in the world. All churches of all denominations under the Christian umbrella win less than five million of these people a year to Jesus Christ. We must aggressively seek out those who are unsaved and do our utmost to lead them to our Savior.

The Bible in every one of more than eleven hundred editions says “come” six hundred times. Let us not go about in this world saying to everyone who will listen, “Look what the world has come to.” Instead, let us say to them, “Look Who has come to the world!”

According to the Word of God and the signs the Lord left with His disciples, it is apparent the time we have to evangelize is getting shorter, day by day. We need to intercede in prayer for the lost and we need to pray for anointing to evangelize. Soon, for the lost, it will be too late.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Matthew 9:35-38

I. The Waiting Harvest – Continued

A Christlike Commission

From Last Lesson: The five operations on the crippled boy were performed, and some two years later, the boy came back into the gymnasium.

Sangster spoke to a group of women later, “I was in the gym the day that the young boy came back. He picked up a basketball, dribbled it down the court and leaping off his feet, he placed it in the basket. My heart nearly jumped out of my breast I was so excited. I said to myself, ‘There is one boy that I have helped.’ ”

But, as Margaret related the story, her voice trembled. She asked the crowd of women: “Do you know where that boy is today? I wish I could tell you that he is a teacher, carpenter, an electrician, a doctor, a lawyer, a preacher, or governmental employee. Unfortunately, he is none of these. In fact, he is in the penitentiary. He murdered seventeen people!” Then Margaret Sangster said with great insight, “I was so busy teaching that boy how to walk that I forgot to teach him where to walk.” It is ever the job of the church to point people to Christ and to say to them, “This is the way, walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21).

II. The Necessity of Enlisting the Layperson

Jesus knew that the success of His church was dependent on enlisting the layperson. He chose twelve disciples as He began His ministry, and there was not a single priest or Levite in the group.

When Jesus told His disciples that the laborers were few, they must have been shocked. The priests in Jerusalem were so numerous in Jesus’ day that they had to take turns in performing temple ceremonies. There were twelve tribes in Israel, one of which was the tribe of Levi. Every member of that tribe was dedicated to religious service. In the face of this, Jesus shocked His disciples by saying, “The laborers are few.” The temple dominated the landscape in Jerusalem, yet Jesus said the laborers were few. There were many synagogues, and yet Jesus said the laborers were few. Religion was the biggest business in Israel, and yet Jesus said the laborers were few.

If the world is ever going to be won to Christ, it must be won by the laypeople of the church. Jesus said that we need to pray for laborers. The difficulty of the church today is that Christianity has become too professional. We have a “let-the-preacher-do-it” syndrome. We must ever remember that all Christians are in full-time Christian service. The minister works at the church. The laypeople work outside the church, but they, too, are in full-time Christian service.

A man was once asked, “What is your occupation?”

“Being a Christian.”

“No, what’s your chief interest?”

“Being a Christian.”

“No, what is your business?”

“Winning people to Christ. I work at my other job to pay expenses.”

That must ever be the attitude of every member of Christ’s church.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Matthew 9:35-38

I. The Waiting Harvest – Continued

A Christlike Compassion

When Jesus saw Matthew, He did not see a conniving, cheating, and thieving politician. Rather, He saw the writer of the first Gospel. When Jesus met Simon Peter, He wasn’t looking at a cursing fisherman. He was anticipating the day that Peter would be the great preacher of Pentecost. When a woman taken in adultery was brought to Christ, He did not see her as a harlot; He saw a potential home missionary. And when Jesus saw Saul of Tarsus persecuting the church, He did not see a cruel persecutor; He saw the greatest missionary the world would ever know, the apostle Paul. Christian history shows that the worst sinners can become the greatest saints. You and I are to reach out with an arm of love to bring them to our Savior.

That is the same type of compassion you and I need, the compassion of the Savior. When Jesus saw the multitudes, He began to weep and encouraged us to lift up our eyes to the fields that are ripe for harvesting.

A Christlike Commission

As we see the world, we will not only have a Christlike compassion, but I think we will also have a Christlike commission. The purpose of our ministry must be clear. There are many members in churches today that do not have a clear understanding of what they are to do. You and I are to be about the business of winning people to Christ and teaching them to observe all things that Christ has commanded (Matthew 28:19-20).

Jesus taught us that people need to be reached, for the Bible states, “Jesus went about all the cities and villages.” People need to be taught. Matthew tells us that Jesus was “teaching in their synagogues.” People need to hear preaching. The Bible states that Jesus was “preaching the gospel of the kingdom.” People need healing. As Jesus reached people, taught people, and preached to people, He ultimately healed them. Matthew tells us that Jesus went about “healing every sickness and every disease among the people.”

The church is to evangelize people, enlist, and enlighten people (Matthew 28:19-20). When our Lord won Zacchaeus, He summarized His whole ministry in one sentence: “The Son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:9). In the final business meeting with the church before Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father in heaven, there was only one item on the agenda: evangelism and world missions. John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church, once said, “The only business that you have, young ministers, is the salvation of souls.” Professor Schmearton of Edinburgh University, who long since has gone to be with the Lord, stated to a group of seminary graduates, “Gentlemen, reckon your ministry a failure if you do not win souls to the Lord Jesus Christ.”

I read a story of Margaret Sangster, the great religious poet, writer and editor, that indicated her patience, compassion, and love. As she did some volunteer work in a gymnasium in a metropolitan city, a boy came hobbling in on two crutches. His feet were turned in almost facing each other. Sangster’s heart went out to him.

One day she inquired, “Have you ever gone to a doctor to see if you can be helped?”

The lad responded, “My parents are so poor that we have never even talked about that.”

With the permission of the boy’s parents, Sangster took the lad to an orthopedic surgeon. The findings were encouraging. The surgeon said, “Margaret, with a series of five operations that will take a period of two years of convalescence, I can have that boy walking and running.” The doctor offered his services without cost. A local banker raised the money to pay the hospital bill and incidental expenses. The five operations on the crippled boy were performed, and some two years later, the boy came back into the gymnasium.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.