Priorities?
Many years ago a notorious criminal was caught. After his trial for burglary, forgery and double murder he was condemned to death. As he was being led to the scaffold, the chaplain walked by his side, offering what was called the ‘consolations of religion’. The chaplain was talking of Christ’s power to save when the wretched man turned to him and said,
“Do you believe it? Do you believe it? If I believed that I would willingly crawl across England on broken glass to tell men it was true.”
There was a well known non-Christian who criticized the incongruity between what some Christians said and how they lived. His comments are very perceptive and challenging.
“Were I a religionist, did I truly, firmly, consistently believe, as millions say they do, that the knowledge and practice of religion in this life influences destiny in another, religion should be to me everything. I would cast aside earthly enjoyments as dross, earthly cares as follies, and earthly thoughts and feelings as less than vanity. Religion would be my first waking thought and my last image when sleep sunk me into unconsciousness. I would labour in her cause alone. I would not labour for the meat that perisheth, nor for treasures on earth, but only for a crown of glory in heavenly regions where treasures and happiness are alike beyond the reach of time and chance. I would take thought for the morrow of eternity alone. I would esteem one soul gained to heaven worth a life of suffering. . . . I would strive to look both on eternity and on the immortal souls around me, soon to be everlastingly miserable or everlastingly happy. I would deem all who thought only of this world, merely seeking to increase temporal happiness and labouring to obtain temporal goods – I would deem all such pure madmen. I would go forth to the world and preach to it, in season and out of season;; and my text should be, ‘What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul.’ ”
Q1 Is this view rather extreme or is it close to the teaching of Jesus?
The prophet Jeremiah knew of this passion.
“But if I say, ‘I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary with holding it in; indeed I cannot.” Jeremiah 20 v. 9
Jesus himself made it clear that His Spirit was given so that others could be spiritually satisfied. He himself gave people spiritual life and his church was to continue this work.
“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.” John 7:37-38
When the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost, he was to enable Christians to pass on the message about the Saviour of the world.
“But 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 2:8
The book of Acts describes how the Spirit motivated and enabled the church to be effective in this task.
Q2 How can we develop such a ‘concern’ for others?
Paul had this same concern.
“Brothers, my hearts desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.” Roman’s 10 v.1
General Booth’s wanted those in the Salavtion army to have this same passion but his answer was not very practical!
“I would like to send all my young men to Hell for twenty four hours.”
A young missionary, who had been invalided home, was asked why he was so eager to get back to his people. He replied,
“Because I cannot sleep for thinking of them.”
William Burns, who was greatly used in reviving Murray McCheyne’s church and later in China, was commencing his ministry. His mother met him one day in a Glasgow street. Seeing that he had been weeping she asked him, ‘Why tears?’ He answered
“I am weeping at the multitudes in the streets, so many of whom are passing through life unsaved.”
Dr. Goodell diagnoses the problem when he says,
‘No man can be a herald of his Lord’s Passion if he does not himself share it.’
John Harper was a Baptist minister who was lost with the Titanic. At a conference in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada a man gave the following testimony,
“Four years ago, when I left England on board the ‘Titanic’, I was a careless, godless sinner. I was in this condition on the night when the terrible catastrophe took place. Very soon, with hundreds more, I found myself struggling in the cold dark waters of the Atlantic. I caught hold of something and clung to it for dear life. The wail of the awful distress from the perishing all around was ringing in my ears, when there floated near by me a man who, too seemed to be clinging to something. He called to me: ‘Is your soul saved?’ I replied ‘No, it is not.’ ‘Then’, said he, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.’ We drifted apart for a few minutes, then we seemed to be driven together once more. ‘Is your soul saved?’ again he cried out. ‘I fear it is not,’ I replied. ‘Then if you will but believe on the Lord Jesus Christ your soul shall be saved,’ was his further message of intense appeal to me. But again we were separated by the rolling currents. I heard him call out the message to others as they sank beneath the waters into eternity. There and then, with two miles of water beneath me, in my desperation I cried unto Christ to save me. I believed upon him and I was saved. In a few minutes I heard this man of God say: ‘I’m going down, I’m going down’, then ‘No, no, I’m going up.’ That man was John Harper.
Q3 Why did Jesus emphasise that his followers will be persecuted?
Jesus gave the answer.
“Blessed are you when people insult you, perse cute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5 v. 11-12
“All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands to the end will be saved.”Matthew 10 v. 22
“You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Mark 13 v. 9-11
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master’. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.” John 15 v. 18-21
Christ’s followers will share the gospel about Jesus and many people will resent its implications to themselves.
Q4 What is it that annoys non Christians about us?
Is it primarily because of what we believe or the challenge of our message that upsets people? Jesus recognised that it was what he said that caused great offence.
“If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me, hates my Father as well.” John 15 v. 22-23
Q5 Is it necessary for Christians to be ‘up front’ about their allegiance to Jesus? Can we not avoid problems by saying less and just being nice?
Remember what Jesus said,
“If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” Luke 9 v. 26
“Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.” Matthew 10 v. 32
Jesus wants us to share what he has taught us, whatever the cost.
“What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. . . . So don’t be afraid; you are woth more than many sparrows.” Matthew 10 v. 28-31
Q6 What is it that prevents the Christians of this country being more effective for Christ?
Surely we need to learn again to live in obedience to God’s revealed truth. Only good comes from this source, starting with our acceptance into God’s kingdom. The Word teaches that we must live with eternity, both ours and others, in focus.
“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have a sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of the imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.. For,
‘All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands for ever.’
And this is the word that was preached to you.” 1 Peter 1 v. 22-25.
It is nothing less than living resolutely as God has taught us in his Word, the Bible. It is here that the teaching of Jesus, that the mind of God is revealed. If Jesus spoke out, lived and died to save people for God’s kingdom and to train them in godliness, should this not again be our priority?
How today’s Christian need to catch a new vision of God’s purpose for us.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a crowd of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Hebrews 12 v. 1-3?
The great crowd of witnesses mentioned here are spiritual heroes in the Old Testament mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11.
Q7 Are the present problems of the churches a new problem?
Jude wrote about some of the problems early Christians faced. What were his solutions?
“But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, ‘In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.’
These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
“Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snat ching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear – hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” Jude v. 17-22.
Scoffers will inevitably come as Christians share the gospel, but they are to keep giving out in word and action so that people may be saved.
David Brainerd died when little more than thirty years old.
“I wanted to wear myself out in His service, for his glory. I cared not how or where I lived, or what hardships I went through so that I could but gain souls for Christ.”
It is worth knowing the following verse by heart by heart.
“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” John 3 v. 18
When you have learnt it, will you go and pray “Lord, what would you have me do?”
BVP
