This is a leadership session, and we are discussing our responsibility in the different areas of our life in Christ.
Today and tomorrow, I am going to be sharing on responsibility toward the world. Actually, today I am going to share some convictions and guidelines for us, and then tomorrow we are going to have a question-and-answer time. So you need to be jotting questions down today.
I do not believe there will be time for questions today, but I would really like for you to write some questions down and give them to me. Tomorrow Stephen and Ernie will be answering these questions, and we will deal with all the things that may be on your mind in this area.
Why do we not start the time with a word of prayer?
Father, we have been convinced more and more, as we have walked with the Lord, that You are responsible in every way. Toward the world, in the church, in the family, in the work, You are faithful. We know the Word says You are the faithful witness.
We would ask, by an impartation of life through Your Holy Spirit, that we also may be faithful in our responsibility toward the world. We come together in this time needing Your Holy Spirit to be our Teacher and Instructor. We ask that You would provoke us all for obedience according to Your will.
Now we commit this time into Your hands, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Would you turn to 1 John 1, please? I want to read three passages in 1 John regarding our responsibility toward the world.
As we study the Bible, it becomes obvious that John has written the most regarding our relationship to the world, both in the Gospel of John and also in the letters. If you are interested in studying this more, I would, of course, recommend that we go over the Gospel and letters of John.
But I want to use just three portions to stimulate some of our thoughts for today, first beginning with 1 John 1:1.
What was from the beginning, what we have heard,
What we have seen with our eyes,
What we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life—
And the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness,
And proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested to us—
What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also,
That you also may have fellowship with us;
And indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
And these things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.
Then, in 1 John 2:8:
On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you,
Which is true in Him and in you;
Because the darkness is passing away, and the true Light is already shining.
The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.
The one who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
Then 1 John 2:15:
Do not love the world, nor the things in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh,
The lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life,
Is not from the Father, but is from the world.
And the world is passing away, and also its lusts;
But the one who does the will of God abides forever.
Beginning at this point, I would like to say that our responsibility is not really to the world at all. Of course, our responsibility is to our Lord Jesus Christ, and Him only should we serve. But in serving our Lord Jesus, there is a responsibility toward the world, and we need to be faithful and obedient in carrying out that responsibility.
This last passage in 1 John gives us our first responsibility toward the world: to be separate from the world.
Now, I do not suppose I need to emphasize that line among us here. But within the church as a whole, one of the real problems in communicating the gospel to the world is that they do not understand the gospel because there is not enough separation to make a difference.
John says our first responsibility toward the world is to get out of it. Of course, we need to define a lot of things here. He is not saying that we are to leave this world physically; we are in the world. Neither are we to stop every relationship with people around us who are not Christians, because in order to do that, we would literally have to leave the world.
But we are to separate our allegiance from the world, and especially to separate ourselves from this system that is ungodly, demonic, corrupt, and decaying at the present moment.
You notice that in two of these passages John says the world is passing away. It is already on the way out, and the best thing we can do is be separated from it.
Our separation is another word for sanctification. It is sanctification as regards our relationship to the world. Sanctification, this process of being made holy, actually in its root meaning means to be separated. The very word holy means to be separated.
So our first responsibility is to be separated from the world. First of all, thinking negatively, we are to be separated in the sense of being delivered from the world, saved from the world, and called out from the world.
But there is also a positive side to separation, a positive side to sanctification. We are not separated simply because this world is passing away and God is trying to deliver us. We are separated so that we can enter into the process of glorification, of Christ being formed in us, and of the Holy Spirit giving us the divine nature.
This process of Christ being formed in us, or attaining to the fullness of God, is another reason why we need to be separated. It is a two-sided matter: Christ begins to be built in us, and we are changed from glory to glory through the Holy Spirit as we behold our Lord Jesus.
So, on the negative side, we are separated in order to be delivered out of this world that is judged and dying. On the positive side, we are separated out in order that we may attain unto the fullness of Christ, our destiny. He who is called was justified, and he who is justified is glorified. The Spirit of God is in that process in our life.
Now, the reason I bring all of this up is not that I am trying to talk theology. There is one wonderful result of being separated from the world, as pertains to the world: as we are separated from the world, we become a light to the world.
In this very process of separation, which we might think means our removal from responsibility to the world or from relationship to the world, it actually works out in the end to be a means of witness to the world.
The Lord says, “Come out from among them; be separate.” In that very process, He can also say to us, “Now you are the light of the world.”
If we turn to Philippians 2, Paul is speaking to Christians in relation to the world. Philippians 2:14 says:
Do all things without grumbling or disputing;
That you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent,
Children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation,
Among whom you appear as lights in the world,
Holding fast the word of life.
Here we are to appear as lights in the world. By contrast with what is going on in the world, we stand out. There is an illumination. There is that glory of Christ within us that stands out as a witness, even as we are separated from the world.
I like to think, in the sense of outreach, that being separated from the world enables us, as Jesus did, to come out from the crowd and be pushed out in the boat onto the lake, where there could be a little separation for the purpose of illumination.
Jesus could be heard more clearly from the boat. Jesus could be seen more brilliantly from the boat. He was pushed out a little from the land in order to preach the gospel with greater clarity to the people.
In the same way, as we are separated, it becomes an example that the world can look at and say, “There, there is life.”
Turn to Ephesians 5. In many of his exhortations, Paul brings up this word light in relationship to the world, even as John does.
Ephesians 5:7 says:
Therefore do not be partakers with them;
For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord;
Walk as children of light
(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth),
Trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.
What the Lord does through believers, especially gathered together corporately, is form a microcosm of the kingdom of God. That is the way it should be.
As anybody in darkness views this kingdom of God here on earth—brothers and sisters joined together in unity, holiness, and purity—it becomes a testimony, an example, an illumination to the world.
When they look at the church and see love one for another, the world sees something different. Jesus said, “By this all men shall know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another.”
The world is so devoid of real agape love that when God’s people are separated and love one another, it stands out. Now there is light. There is love pervading.
I read that passage in 1 John that says if you are in the light and really love your brother, it shines in the midst of darkness. This world is passing away, and those in the world see that love pervading fellowship among Christians. It is an example to them.
Finally, in John 3, we see one of many statements made by John regarding this matter of being a light in the world. John 3:19 says:
This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world,
And men loved the darkness rather than the Light;
For their deeds were evil.
For everyone who does evil hates the Light,
And does not come to the Light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
But he who practices the truth comes to the Light,
That his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.
As we are the light of the world, as Jesus shines through us, obviously what it does is force a decision upon the world. There are those who prefer light rather than darkness, if they ever see the light. That is what happened to you.
Then there are those who prefer darkness rather than light. When they see the light, they hate it, reject it, and run and hide. Immediately, the light presents God’s judgment in this world very clearly: You see the light; now what are you going to do about it?
Do you not think the world needs an opportunity to make that decision? There are people out there who want the light. They just have not seen it.
That is where we, in our separation and obedience to the Lord, as He works in our lives, become examples. That light shines, and the world sees it. Those who would come to God are attracted, come into the light, and find salvation in Jesus.
Now, we know these things. Blessed are we if we do them.
The second matter regarding our responsibility toward the world is obviously the matter of declaring the gospel.
This matter of being the light of the world, we could say, is our witness by example. We are all strong on that. We want our own lives to be a witness by example as we are on the job and carrying out our responsibilities in daily life.
But we also have a responsibility for declaration of the truth. We cannot just sit around and gleam and glow and make people guess what is going on. We have a responsibility to declare the gospel.
This is the matter I want to share mostly about this afternoon. In Matthew 24, we find a very clear statement by our Lord regarding declaration. Matthew 24:14:
This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world
For a witness to all the nations,
And then the end shall come.
There is a responsibility there to preach the gospel of the kingdom in all the world for a witness, and then the end shall come. We, as God’s children, have this responsibility upon us to be declarers of the gospel of the kingdom.
You notice in Matthew 24:14 this word, witness. That word in the Greek, as you all know, is the word martyr.
It is interesting to me, as I recently reread the Book of Acts, that the apostles—the twelve apostles—were referred to on many occasions simply as witnesses of Jesus.
We all know Acts 1:8:
Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you:
And ye shall be witnesses unto Me.
That is what Jesus was asking them to do: to declare as witnesses.
In Acts 2:32, this is the primary matter of which they were to be witnesses:
This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.
The twelve apostles were witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus. In Acts 3:14-15:
But ye disowned the Holy and Righteous One,
And asked for a murderer to be granted unto you,
And killed the Prince of life;
Whom God raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.
Again, in Acts 5:31-32:
Jesus is the One whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior,
To grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.
And we are witnesses of these things;
And so is the Holy Spirit, whom God hath given to them that obey Him.
So on through the Book of Acts, these twelve apostles simply say, “We are witnesses, and we are declaring to you that which we have seen and heard and touched. Jesus arose from the dead. We are witnesses.”
One more very interesting passage is Acts 10, where Peter is preaching in the house of Cornelius. Acts 10:40-41 says:
God raised Him up the third day, and gave Him to be made manifest,
Not to all the people, but unto witnesses that were chosen before of God,
Even to us, who did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead.
The twelve disciples were witnesses of the resurrection. Well now, where does that leave us? We were not eyewitnesses of the resurrection.
The Holy Spirit still works in our lives as He did in the Apostle Paul. In Acts 22, Paul talks about his own encounter with Jesus. As far as we know, Paul did not see Jesus during the forty days when He was with the apostles after the resurrection, because he was not part of that group.
But in Acts 22:14-15, as he shares his Damascus Road experience, Ananias says to Paul:
The God of our fathers hath appointed thee to know His will,
And to see the Righteous One, and to hear a voice from His mouth.
For thou shalt be a witness for Him unto all men
Of what thou hast seen and heard.
Again, in Acts 26:15-16, Paul shares his Damascus Road experience:
And I said, Who art Thou, Lord?
And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.
But arise, and stand upon thy feet:
For to this end have I appeared unto thee,
To appoint thee a minister and a witness
Both of the things wherein thou hast seen Me,
And of the things wherein I will appear unto thee.
Paul was to be a witness of the things he had already seen on the road to Damascus and the things he would come to see. Even though Paul did not see Jesus during the forty days after His resurrection, what Paul saw he was supposed to relate as a witness.
Well, there we are. Our declaration is to be witnesses of the things we have seen and heard.
As people who are leaders in the church, or who have a heart to really serve God, we hear these words so many times that we almost pass over them. Sure, we are to be witnesses. But as soon as we even mention the word witness, a whole lot of issues and questions come up that keep us from being a witness, or an effective one anyway.
I am sure you have some questions I have not even thought of yet. When you tell me them, they will make me even more unsure about how to witness. The more questions you bring up, the more difficult it seems.
God simply says to us, “Listen, just share the things that you have seen and heard. That is all. The things you touched, share them.” But by the time we ask all our questions, it stymies us from being obedient, and we back down in confusion.
This word witnessing alone conjures up so many ideas in people’s minds. A certain block of you here today will think immediately of knocking on doors cold, talking to people in unfriendly neighborhoods about Jesus dying for them.
Some of you think witnessing is standing on a soapbox right down in New York City or Philadelphia and preaching the gospel. It conjures up all kinds of ideas in people’s heads that scare them to death.
We have seen so many abuses of what is called witnessing—people who, frankly, are salesmen, who have learned to manipulate people into saying yes when they really mean no, or, “I am not sure.”
There are techniques that are so perfect that there is no loophole in the technique. If they ask you a question you do not know, you disregard the question and go on anyway.
We have seen so many things like that, especially carnality in what is called witnessing: the desire to manipulate people and all such things. We almost throw the baby out with the bathwater. This matter of witnessing scares us so much that we hardly even get by the word itself.
But I think, before we go any further, we have to get hold of something and admit it. I believe if we could admit this, it would be real therapy for our semi-condemned souls.
We are chickens.
When all is said and done, the reason we are not more effectively declaring the gospel is not because we are insufficient in theology or lack methodology. We are just straight-out chickens.
That is not a unique problem. At least you have a room full of people who agree with you on this matter.
If you turn to 2 Timothy 1, you find that Timothy was right along with you all in this. In 2 Timothy 1:6, Paul says:
For this reason I remind thee to kindle afresh the gift of God,
Which is in thee through the laying on of my hands.
I wonder what gift Paul was talking about to Timothy. Well, it must have been a gift that involved a lot of bravery, because in 2 Timothy 1:7 Paul says:
For God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness;
But of power and love and discipline.
Then 2 Timothy 1:8 gives a little more clue:
Be not ashamed therefore of the testimony of our Lord,
Nor of me His prisoner:
But suffer hardship with the gospel according to the power of God,
Who saved us, and called us with a holy calling.
Later in the same book, Paul simply exhorts Timothy, in the midst of several exhortations, to do the work of an evangelist.
There are several interpretations of this passage in 2 Timothy 1, but I personally believe that Timothy, being a rather shy person, had backed up from doing the work of evangelism.
You can imagine, it is easy to do the work of an evangelist when you have Paul standing next to you. Here is Paul: he preaches the gospel until his voice is hoarse, and then he says, “Thank you, Timothy.” Timothy gets up there and shares the gospel, and all the people are saved.
If Timothy runs into a problem, he can say, “Paul, what should I do about this? This man is throwing tomatoes.” It helps to have somebody like Paul around.
Now Paul is in jail, and Timothy has decided to take up the teaching ministry. I have no doubt that Timothy had a teaching ministry, but what I am saying is how easy it is to overlook doing the work of an evangelist. It is tough stuff.
Paul has to say, “You need to stir it up, Timothy. I know you are hiding. You are hiding under a bushel. You need to do the work of an evangelist and suffer for the sake of the gospel along with me. That is why I am in prison: we are preaching the gospel.”
“I know that makes you afraid, Timothy, but deal with that fact. Stir up the gift and be obedient.”
If there is ever a message we could proclaim to the whole church, or at least certainly to us, I think it is something along that line.
I am glad that this is a leadership conference—a leadership time—because I want to share a few burdens that I have, and I would like to address them specifically to leadership.
For those of you who are not in leadership in an official sense, I will address these toward you also. I think it is for the good of everybody. But I do believe that the key to our responsibility toward the world, in the way of declaration, really does lie in the leadership of our local fellowships.
That is why I have to be so direct in this. I hope you will bear with me. I want to share a few burdens regarding this matter of doing the work of an evangelist.
First of all, I know why you are afraid, because I am too. I know why you stand in that kind of position.
One time, the Lord ministered to me in this whole matter of outreach evangelism. He encouraged me and gave me a word that has helped me personally. I felt that the Lord came to me on one specific occasion and said, “There are two areas of ministry in which you always bear My cross and always must move by faith—living faith.”
“One is real intercessory prayer, and the other is evangelism.”
Those are two areas that are the most unrewarding, selfishly speaking—the most unrewarding and self-giving ministries, in one sense, that we can do.
I will be honest with you: it is much easier to teach a local assembly of believers than it is to go out somewhere publicly and preach the gospel.
In an assembly of believers, you always have a couple of people who look very mad, so that is tough. But most of the saints are there. Some are praying for you: “Oh God, help the brother.” Some are smiling at you and nodding, saying, “Yes, we are with you. We are with you.”
But when you are out in the world and trying to declare the gospel somehow, if the Lord is not with you, you are cooked. People laugh, people out-talk you, people leave. It is an embarrassment.
There is no way we can really do the work of an evangelist unless we do it in living faith and unless we are willing to bear the cross.
Is it not the same with prayer? I mean real prayer. Who gets the credit for real prayer? Only God, when the answers come. We are not even involved half the time.
It is a matter of taking up the cross, denying ourselves, and exercising living faith to pray for those things which we cannot see.
In the matter of witnessing and outreach, there are three things that I think the Holy Spirit needs to convince us of.
I love this King James word: when the Holy Spirit comes, He will convince the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. I think the Holy Spirit needs to come and convince us of three basic truths.
If the leadership—if four men together as a small company—could be utterly convinced of these truths, it would change the direction of the fellowship in this matter of responsibility for the world.
First of all, I believe the Holy Spirit desires to convince us that we are to be witnesses. I do not know why the Bible says it in so many places, but we do not believe it.
When Jesus says, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid,” does that not imply that Jesus is trying to set us up in some position of visibility so we can be seen?
It implies that there is a calling upon us to be visible light. He says a light is not lit and then hidden under a bushel; you put it up where everybody can see it.
Does that mean Jesus is talking about somebody else, but for us, we are to be saved and then He immediately hides us?
We are not really convinced, I do not think, that we are to be witnesses. Of course, the fact is, as soon as we are saved, we are witnesses. Our only choice is whether to be a good witness or a crummy witness.
We are witnesses. If we are hiding, people wonder why we are hiding. If we are declaring, people understand where we are coming from.
John 17 has many things to say about the world, our sanctification, and our ministry. John 17:15-18 says:
I pray not that Thou shouldest take them from the world,
But that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil one.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them in the truth: Thy word is truth.
As Thou didst send Me into the world,
Even so sent I them into the world.
On the one hand, I said that Jesus, by His salvation, separates us from the world. But now I am saying that, having separated us from the world, He deliberately sends us back into the world.
This time, not in alliance with the world and not in relationship to the world, but He sends us back as ambassadors to the world. Do we really believe it? Are we convinced that He is sending us, or desiring to send us, back into the world?
If we are convinced, I think two things will happen regarding leadership itself. I think the leadership—the men in responsibility, whoever it is—need to sit down before the Lord and find out what God has to say to them about outreach and declaration in their own community.
I wonder how many brothers actually do that: “Now, Lord, we want to take up this issue with You, and we are not going to stop until we know what Your priority is in the matter.”
Today, as God is recovering His people, there is an emphasis upon the house of God—sanctifying and recovering that which is lost in the house of God. Jesus is concerned, and the Father is concerned, with the end, which is a bride prepared.
But that does not mean that you stop the means—evangelism—which is one of the functions in the body of Christ toward that end of building the church to where it should be.
I really think we must be struck in our consciences that we leave it to Baptists to do all the salvation, and then we take them and build them from there. I think that is a rather divided view of the body of Christ.
I am glad we have people who are faithful in this matter of reaching out. But do we not have any members in the body among us whom God is raising up for this purpose?
Leadership falls into the problem that everybody falls into. Leadership has such a problem with dealing with so many duties and responsibilities in church life that often the tyranny of the urgent prevents them from doing what God is telling us to do.
We are going to set up our priorities one day about what we feel God wants us to do, but meanwhile there are so many things that need to be immediately done. We need chairs for next Sunday, and so-and-so is coming to talk to us in fifteen minutes with a problem.
When are we going to believe, “The poor ye have always with you,” but God says, “I want you to do My will”?
If we had been with Jesus on the hill of Galilee, we would have stayed in town for the extra day when Jesus went to another village to preach.
We let the tyranny of the many things that always need to be done prevent us sometimes from entering into the prophetic vision that we need to see, and into real clarity about our priorities in regards to outreach.
We never seem to get around to it. “Oh yes, we will do that.” Next year comes around: “Oh yes, we must really do that.” The next year comes around: “This spring, we are going to do something about it.”
Every year it is the annual, “We will get around to it.” Meanwhile, everything else gets around.
If we are really convinced that the Lord is setting us up on a hill and wants us to be witnesses, then I think we need to be convinced that somewhere in the leadership there is at least somebody who needs to be an example.
I am sorry, but I cannot completely subscribe to the view that those brothers responsible in the local fellowship should be so busy doing this and that that they have no time for outreach. I do not think that is right.
I think, in the balance of God, surely He must put somebody in responsibility who has a real burden for outreach.
Many times, perhaps they feel held down, or they are overwhelmed like everybody else, and so they never get down to the business that is especially on their heart. Or maybe they are not respected when they try to bring it forward, because there are so many other things that always need to be done.
But I have to believe that, in most cases, is it not true in the church that things are done when we see an example doing them? We see Christ in that example, and we say, “Well, if God has given this person grace to do it, then God must be giving other people grace to do it.”
How is the church, realistically speaking, going to enter into responsibility toward the world until the responsible brothers enter into responsibility toward the world?
It is like the old preacher syndrome. In many churches, you have a preacher always gnawing away at people to go out witnessing, but the guy never witnesses himself. It just will not happen.
But if there is a brother—just one brother, forget four or five—who on a regular basis is sharing the gospel and bringing in sheep in his hands, it is going to affect the church in a revolution, is it not?
They cannot help it. Somebody else with the same burden is going to see it. A sister is going to see him and say, “Look how that brother is always inviting people over and bringing people in and helping people come to the Lord.”
But sometimes perhaps we have fellowships where there are a number of people who are responsible, but nobody who is responsible toward the world.
We need to put the brakes on the many urgent things we are doing and say, “There is something wrong here. There is something wrong.”
A second matter that goes along with the first is that we need to be convinced again of the providence of God.
I cannot help but be amazed in the Book of Acts at the real belief among the apostles in the providence of God. What do I mean by that?
Peter and John went to the temple to pray, as they did every day, and they saw this lame man by the gate. He had been there every day. But one day as they walked by, they sensed the providence of God.
I do not know why it did not happen the day before, except that somehow God brought together a series of events that prepared the way. When Peter and John looked into this man’s eyes, they saw something and said, “Wait a minute. This is a divine moment.”
They took advantage of it and told the man to stand up in Jesus’ name. As a result of this one miracle, within a short time there were a few thousand people brought to the Lord because of the stir it caused in Jerusalem.
These disciples believed in the providence of God. They did not believe they moved from place to place by accident. They had a keen sense that God was leading them.
Peter went down to Joppa, to Lydda, and to various places, and miracles happened. He believed when he went there and met a sister—or heard about a sister who had just died—that God was in it.
Our responsibility toward the world will begin to take on life when we really believe that the circumstances of our lives—the store where we go, the gas station where we pump gas, the people we talk to in the local 7-Eleven, the people on our jobs—are divinely appointed by God.
Many of them are being convicted and worked upon by the Holy Spirit, and they are waiting for you to talk to them.
Somewhere along the way, I believe God in our natural course of life gives us clues that right now we are not sensitive to.
The third secretary you see going in the door every morning has something on her desk—a Bible that she sometimes reads—and she seems concerned and upset. Or you talk to a businessman over lunch and he begins to pour out his heart. God is saying, “It is My clue. Talk to him. Talk to him.”
But we do not believe in the providence of God. “Ah, this is just a fluke. It could not be that God wants me to share with that person.”
It is revolutionary to feel, “This is a divine appointment.” I have a feeling that our lives would be revolutionary if we just took seriously where we walk when we walk down the street.
You would be amazed how many people God has suddenly rush out their door when you walk down the street, if you will be aware of it. Suddenly they are looking for something out in the car. You just happen to see them, say hello, and strike up a conversation.
You and I know that, even though we have not looked for these opportunities, many times they hit us right in the face and knock us over. God has to get our attention by hitting us with a two-by-four. Why cannot we be more sensitive to the providence of God?
Do you really believe that the way you go to school is no accident, and that God has some people around there for you to work on? Where you go to work, the people you work with, the store you shop at—you keep seeing the same checkout girl. There is something to give her; there is something to pray about in relation to that person.
It comes through this understanding that our lives are not an accident. A real sense of providence needs to develop in our lives.
This is wonderfully portrayed in the story when the disciples came back and Jesus had talked to the woman at the well. Jesus said, “Do you see those fields out there? Do not say that there are yet four months until those fields are white, because I say to you, if you have eyes to see, they are already white unto harvest.”
What was the disciples’ problem? The disciples were good Galilean Jews, and they just did not believe the Samaritans were ready for the gospel. Their religion was too mixed up. Morally, there was nothing there. “This field here, Samaria, they are just not ready. Let us go down to Judea or Galilee. That is where there are people cooking.”
You people down here in Richmond say, “It is no good around here. Everybody thinks they are a Christian. They all have some kind of religious background. New York is where it is all happening.”
The people up in New York say, “No, we are not here. Everybody is a non-believer. It is down there in Richmond where it must be happening.”
Everybody has the other view—that the grass is greener over there. The fact is, the fields are white in New York and in Richmond. But it is for those who have providential eyes to see.
Jesus is not saying, “Go and pluck every ear of grain.” Just go get the white ones.
Do we have that sense that the time is now? Or do you really think that where you live it will be another three years? We need a sense of providence. We need to be convinced.
The third thing I want to share in this regard is that we need to be convinced—really convinced, in a practical, down-to-earth way—that Jesus is the door.
We all love the Scripture in John 10, so let us turn there and love that Scripture again. Jesus is referred to as the door, and that has an evangelistic sort of bite to it. John 10:7 says:
Jesus therefore said unto them,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.
All that came before Me are thieves and robbers:
But the sheep did not hear them.
I am the door; by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved,
And shall go in and go out, and shall find pasture.
Jesus is the door. We all know that. We know Jesus is the light, Jesus is the bread, Jesus is the living water, and Jesus is the door. But we need to be convinced that Jesus is the door.
What do I mean by that? Jesus obviously is the Mediator, the Savior of the world. He is the One who is going to bring people to salvation.
But in a very practical way, do you not believe that Jesus is the specific way? There is a way for us to go out to the community where we live, and there is a way for the community to come into us where we fellowship.
There is a door that goes out and a door that goes in. Jesus is a door who is not only concerned with the sanctification of the church that already is, but His heart still throbs as the Shepherd for those sheep who are out there.
He still has some who are numbered as His own out there. He is the door. He will forever be a door. We cannot make Him a window. He is a door. He is a way out. He is a way in.
Now, you and I, by the grace of God, have been saved. God has been separating us from the world. We have been fellowshipping with other saints, and perhaps you and I are now meeting four evenings a week with other saints.
It seems, in some ways, that we have become so cut off from the world that we do not even know any people who are not saved anymore. We always meet with Christians. We always have meetings with Christians. When it comes to going out, we say, “Well, we are already so separated, we do not even have contact anymore.”
Ah, but have we come to the Lord of the harvest and asked Him to give us a door out to people?
It is true that He has separated us from the world. If you do not have much contact with people in the world, and that is providentially how it has worked out in your life, I think especially women are often involved either at home with their children or in meetings with other Christians. They may not have a great deal of contact with people in the world as such.
But have we gone to the Lord of the harvest and said, “Lord, we know You are the door. Would You open a way for us out to the people? How can we contact people who are not Christians?”
I know there is a door in every community. You would be amazed what door there is in your community. I do not know what it is, but it varies.
Sometimes it is a teenage door. Sometimes going down to the park is a door. Sometimes it is going into somebody’s house in a certain neighborhood—a specific door.
Maybe there are ten neighborhoods in your area, but there is one neighborhood that is ready. Jesus says, “I want you to go to that neighborhood. Hold that meeting in the home of brothers and sisters in that neighborhood, and as soon as you do, there is going to be some harvest.”
Do we believe there is a specific door out to the people? I do.
Who finds the door? Again, leadership needs to take that up along with the saints. “We want the Lord. It is in our heart. We come to the Lord of the harvest and say, ‘Lord, raise up workers. Is there a door? Is there a way? Can we help in any way? Is there a situation, a community, a Bible study, a home, a fellowship, a park? What do You want us to do, Lord? Show us a door.’”
I believe He wants to show you the door, for He is the door. I believe He is the practical way out to the people.
There is no good in me telling you where to go, because I believe the Door can tell you where to go specifically.
But I also think there needs to be a door into our fellowship life.
In a very practical way, I want to say that I hope leadership will take seriously the fact that we need to have a regular meeting designed for non-believers.
Let me repeat that. I believe the Lord wants us, on a regular basis—not necessarily weekly, nightly, or monthly, but on some regular, consistent basis, perhaps in different ways at different times—to have a door into fellowship.
People need to be able to see what goes on among Christians, and yet it should not be of such high voltage that it scares them.
You need a meeting that is tailor-made for you before you were a Christian.
If I, before I was a Christian, had ever gone to a meeting where I fellowship now, I never would have gone again. It is too scary. By the grace of God, I may have fallen on my knees or died laughing—I do not know why.
We are a peculiar people. The way we meet, we say, “Okay, now let us worship the Lord,” and then there are five minutes of silence. By then, if I am a non-believer, I am thinking, “I just know these people are going crazy.”
Then this person prays, and that person prays. Of course, many times God shows up in these meetings, and unbelievers are really touched by the love of God.
But why do we not have a meeting where they can come in, where we can share our love with them, and where it is low-key in the sense that we are human beings?
We share the gospel with them. We sing songs they can join in. When I have a gospel meeting, I like to sing, “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.”
I do not like that song too much, mainly because I have sung it so much. But I find it is one of the few songs that the world knows, that they can join in and sing. They feel a little more a part of it if we sing, “He’s got the whole world in His hands.”
Then share the gospel, have a meal together, or do various different things. I am talking about having a door meeting.
I believe with the creative Holy Spirit behind the minds of the Lord’s people, there have to be ways of having very good outreach meetings in the fellowship where people say, “Those people really love the Lord, but they are wonderful people. They love a wonderful God.”
But sometimes our meetings—surely you have experienced this—you have somebody at work who seems interested, but you are tentative about bringing them to the meeting because you do not know exactly what is going to happen.
You feel as though you will have to interpret everything that is going on. The Lord is wrestling with the people to see if anybody is going to share.
A gospel meeting needs to be constructed by the agenda of the Holy Spirit. A real gospel meeting—not another worship meeting that we call a gospel meeting, but a gospel meeting.
Testimony, song, the gospel declared, an invitation given in some way.
Is Jesus not the door? Then what we need to do is go to the Lord of the harvest and start to talk to Him about putting a door on our fellowship.
Even more specifically, we need to ask Him to raise up a few doorknobs—people willing to turn, be available, and be used. Just some doorknobs in the fellowship, so that the Lord can open the door both in and out.
Even have the boldness to pray that among the leadership there would be a doorknob: a brother whom the Lord could really apprehend in this matter of outreach, in such a way as to be used by God and also be an inspiration to others in the body.
You and I know on a practical basis that the saints usually will not go too much further than the leadership is able to help them come to. It is so also, I believe, in this matter of our responsibility toward the world.
The Lord has separated us and then sent us back in as an invasion force in your particular local area.
Now we need to find the door and the doorknobs, and then obey.
If we are all chickens, we just join along with Timothy and say, “Okay, Lord, I am just going to stir up the gifts You have given me.”
Most fellowships do not have any leader who thinks he is an evangelist. But I do not want you to escape, so I am going to tell you: do the work of an evangelist. That does not mean you are necessarily an evangelist.
I do not know whether Timothy was actually an evangelist per se. But Paul saw that there needed to be an example of somebody willing to preach the gospel. So, “Tim, now you do the work of an evangelist.” Maybe that was his gift, maybe not.
But the brothers who are in leadership need to be serious about this matter of doing the work of an evangelist.
I really believe that God proves, many times, the teaching ministry of many brothers through the work of the gospel. In some ways, I question how much a brother can develop in a teaching ministry who has not had any experience preaching the gospel.
You learn an awful lot by preaching the gospel: about depending on the Lord and about seeing what God wants you to say.
When you preach to the world, you get it down pretty good. Sometimes in fellowship, teaching can be kind of sloppy. People hem and haw, give their thoughts off the top of their head, and share something they thought about for two hours.
But when you are out there and the world is watching you, and they are either going to get up and walk away or whatever, we need to have it, and have the Lord’s anointing.
So I lay that challenge down for you. The Lord is responsible toward the world, and He wants His people to find a living way in the local area to allow Him to be the door, to save those who should be saved daily. That is all He desires.
I think we need to listen to Him and not let this matter drop one more time until we sense what God’s will is and begin to do it by His grace.
Now I think we will just close in prayer. Then I am going to ask you, perhaps tomorrow morning, to bring your questions down to me. I will be down here in the front, or leave them with Jerry or Ken or whoever. Then we will try to answer and deal with the questions.
If you come to the meeting tomorrow and have some questions, write them down. We will try to take them up one by one. Lord help us all, right?
Father, we do thank You that Jesus is such a great witness, such a loving Shepherd, such an open door, that You have not left us without apprehending us toward this responsibility.
Oh Lord, I thank You that You will not let go of that burden for people who are lost, whom You see as sheep to come to Yourself.
Lord, do not let us escape through the tyranny of the urgent from dealing with and facing this important matter. We want to be servants of Yours. We are all chickens. We have seen a lot of abuses, but we want to find You a living way.
We say, “Lord, we will obey if You will show us the way to walk.”
Help us by giving us a vision again of the Lord of the harvest, of the white fields, of the open door, of the providence of Your leadership in our lives.
Oh Lord, grant that we not fall into this dismal abyss of unbelief and thus forfeit this responsibility toward the world.
We thank You that we have been separated from a deathly system. Now we take up the cross as we move in as ambassadors of reconciliation into this world to declare the gospel of the kingdom.
Grant us grace, Lord. Grant us grace through Jesus the Lord. Amen.