Evangelization

Evangelization EVANGELIZATION
Reuel Lemmons

Back before the beginning recorded in Genesis, there was a time when darkness covered the face of the deep, arfd the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Out of chaos God brought order, and out of darkness he brought light. In a garden still wet with the fresh dew of time’s morning he created a man, and gave to him the command to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. In penalty for having transgressed the command of God, man was forced to give up the paradise his heavenly parent had provided. His wandering feet meandered hopelessly down a trail of tears, edged with, thorns and thistles, for four thousand years. In the end of those centuries, because God was not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance, he sent his only begotten son—down from the palisades of glory—that he might present to the world his word in flesh, and that Jesus might offer his own body upon the sacrificial cross as an atonement for man’s transgression. The guilt of sin was the universal heritage of transgressing men. There was not one righteous; all had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Some retribution was due to violated justice. The law decreed that the soul that sinneth, it shall die. The majesty of the law of God had to be sustained. There must have been wonder in heaven when Adam continued to live after he had sinned. Angels, men, and devils must have wondered. What a mystery must have been the promise of God that the seed of woman should bruise the serpent’s head. At the end of his life on the earth, Jesus was crucified. He was heaven’s demonstration of God’s boundless love for the race. His torn and mangled flesh hung as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. Here was the fulfillment of Isaiah 53: “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb brought before his shearer is dumb, so opened he not his mouth . . . and by his stripes we are healed.” When he died the veil in the temple was rent from top to bottom, signifying that the way into the most holy place had now been inade manifest. The bars of death were broken in the resurrection-} and Jesus became the first fruits of them that slept, when he arose, from that silent chamber. From a little hill outside Jerusalem he' ascended back to heaven, bearing in his nail-pierced hands the marks of his sacrifice. Ilis own precious blood he offered once and for all as an atonement for the sins of the human race. Following his ascension the twenty-four elders surrounded the throne of God and were commanded to sing a new song, “Worthy art thou to take the book and open the seals thereof. For thou wast slain, and hath redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kmdred, and tongue, and people, and nation.” And all the rest of heaven’s creatures said, “Amen.”

It was resolved in the councils of heaven to offer surcease for the sin-shackled /prisoners of earth upon the terms of the gospel. For every sinner the gospel is an emancipation proclamation written in blood. From that day until this it has furnished the light of life to millions of blind souls moulding their own images of God.

Just before he left the earth, Jesus gave what is generally called the “great commission.” He knew that his work was finished. He knew that he was on his way back to heaven. He knew that upon the shoulders of earthly bemgs was soon to rest the responsibility of evangelizing the world. He commanded them, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that be- lieveth not shall be damned.” In every age the gospel has been inseparably linked with “go.” The fervor of the apostles’ zeal drove them to every corner of the inhabited world. They went everywhere preaching the gospel. No burden was too great to bear, no sacrifice too great to make, no gulf too great to span. They became all things to all men that they might win some. They became the offscouring of creation, a spectacle to world, men and angels for the gospel’s sake. They went sponsored and unsponsored, supported and unsupported. Sometimes they were sent by a church, sometimes they went alone. Nobody sponsored Peter on Pentecost or Philip in Samaria. The comparatively modern idea that every evangelist must have an organizational sponsor is killing some evangelism.

Evangelization has been the secret of religious freedom through the centuries. The power of the preached word has been the force that has bioken the shackles of idolatry and lifted a fallen race. The power of the preached word was the force that liberated religious slaves in the reformation. The spirit of evangelization scorns today the fetters of sectarian orthodoxy. Evangelization has possessed more power through the century than any earthly government. When Rome, that iron nation, drew its carnal sword to match blows with the sword of the spirit, the sword of Rome was broken. All that is left of its wasted glory are a few broken columns sunk in the mud of the Tiber river. Eut the gospel of Christ goes marching on, striding across the fallen forms of its adversaries; mighty in its strength, unscared by criticism, across the centuries: It has pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save those that believe. Faith comes by hearing the word of God God saves all who call. They call who believe. They believe who hear, and they hear who have the gospel preached unto them. Preaching the word of God is the greatest service that any man can render to mankind. The supreme task of evangelization is laid upon us, who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. We have been saved to save others. No greater calamity could befall the church than the influx of vast numbers whose only idea is to be saved, and be helped, and who are not set on fire with an unquenchable desire to help others and to save others. Eterndl salvation is dependent not only upon obedience to the first principles, but upon other things as well, chief among which is the willingness to wear one’s self out saving the souls of others. He who comes into the church must come in as a soul saver. He must labor as a soul saver. His conquest must be measured in the souls he saves. If God cannot depend upon Christians bought by the blood of Jesus Christ to spread a knowledge of his mercy and grace throughout the length and breadth of the world, then, pray tell me, upon whom can he depend? The task of evangelization is primarily an individual task. Many members of the body of Christ think of the church only in terms of an organization. My anti Bible school brethren, to a great degree, throttle the spirit of evangelization because it is hard for them to think of the church in any other terms than the terms of an organization.

Organization is often times the means of discouraging, rather than encouraging, effort. The true purpose of organization is to (conserve and cooperate effort. This is true of the organization of a local congregation. On the other hand, so many times each individual element in an organization shifts to the composite whole responsibilities that originally rested on individual shoulders. The result is that instead of individual effort, individual responsibility is renounced, and organizational responsibility substituted. Then we usually conclude that it is the organization’s responsibility to produce effort rather than coordinate effort. Organization often times results in less effort.
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There can be no substitute for individual evangelism. The great commission was given in the broad sense to every human being, and in d very specific sense to every disciple. God has wisely given to every Christian the means of propagating the gospel. God has given you two things. He gave you a certain portion of this world’s goods. He also gave you a tongue. God has given to you two corollary responsibilities: the preaching of the gospel of Christ and the alleviation of human miseiy. You cannot alleviate human misery with your tongue. God did not give you a tongue for that purpose. You cannot say to the hungry, “(to, be warmed and filled,” and accomplish the purpose. God gave you a portion of this world’s goods that you might feed the hungry and clothe the naked. You cannot do this kind of work with your tongue. On the other hand, let no brother among us suppose that he can preach the gospel with his purse. You cannot pay me to do yTour gospel preaching for you. I have all of it I can do to satisfy the Lord’s requirements for myself alone. You can no more pay me to preach the gospel for yrou than you can pay me. to go to heaven for you. There is no possible way for you to shirk your individual re- snonsibihty as a procla’imer of the gospel of Christ.
Every Christian must realize that he is his brother’s keeper. Every man. for himself, must purge himself from the guilt of lost souls. We who have been taught must teach others also. We who have been saved must save others also.

We have each received, as an earthen vessel, a heavenly treasure. Each is a steward of this sacred trust with the command to advocate and advance it, to defend and maintain it, throughout the. whole world. There is one qualification of a steward; that is, that he be .found faithful.

Upon each of us is laid the supreme task of evangelizing the world—a task shared neither by God, Christ, angels, or Holy Spirit. We are his only ambassadors. We are laborers together with God in the sense that God provides the power in the gospel which we cannot provide, just as he provides the germ of life in the seed which the farmer sows. On the other hand, we are co-laborers with each other in the sowing of the seed. .
Cooperation is an elementary principle. God made one star depend upon another to hold it in its trackless course. He made flowers, bees, and birds dependent upon each other. ALII nature is a cooperative scheme. Men build communities and h've together in them because of the necessity 
of combining their efforts. Cooperation reaches its nearest earthly perfection in the mutual efforts of members of the church. We are workers together in the supreme task of evangelizing the world. Cooperation, prompted by sincere love for the lost souls of men, need never be suspected.

Some friends one time brought a sick man to Jesus. Because of the multitude that pressed about him in the house, they climbed upon the roof, and tore a hole 'in it, and let the sick man down through the roof before the Lord. I shall never cease to be amazed at the compassionate love of men for a sick mortal, who in turn never lift a finger to cure the sins of his soul. Would to God that the singular and cooperative efforts of brethren would literally lift the roof for the souls of men, that they might bring them nearer to the Lord.

What a wonderful unity would be manifested if all the members of the church and all of the congregations they comprise would labor together in the perfect harmony and unity as parts of the body of Christ, each supplying that which was needful in the field of world evangelism. Men are, primarily, what they have been taught. A doctor’s son usually grows up to be a doctor, and a shoe cobbler’s son to mend shoes. A man is a lawyer, a Buddhist, or a Baptist, depending upon what he has been taught. Rational men are as good as they have been taught. Only the depraved are worse. The world’s benighted condition can well be attributed to its spiritual ignorance. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up. The task of evangelization is too vast for any single soul. It challenges the completely unified efforts of all the children of God. The hand that drove the spear into the side of my Lord is no more stained with blood than the hand of the man who sharpens either pen or tongue to cut the lifeline that others have thrown out to men and nations, floundering in their sins upon the brink of eternity and hell. The gospel of Christ must be preached with boldness. There is nothing about the message that needs even the hint of an apology. The messenger is too aptly described as a soldier to be considered as an apologetic. When one takes in his hand the sword of the spirit, he ought to wdeld it fearlessly. He who is ashamed of the gospel is ashamed of his Lord. I would as soon apologize for Jesus as to apologize for the gospel.

We live in the middle of a reckless world. The surging seas toss every craft, and many a boat is without a compass. On a world-wide scale men have sowed to the wind and are reaping a whirlwind. Perhaps there has never been such a need for bold and fearless preaching. The world needs so badly a rock of ages to which it can cling. Bold preaching can be kind preaching. Fearlessness and kindness can be found >n the same man. It is not necessary to be ruthless to be a good soldier. It is not necessary to skin to heal. Sarcasm does not breed confidence. Ridicule does not produce faith, and boldness, based upon the impregnability of a fortress, may well be shown by a coward.

Kindness is the essence of evangelization. There are some old fundamentals that need to be reemphasized. The fatherhood of God, the vicarious suffering of Jesus, salvation by grace, the resurrection from the dead, judgment, heaven and hell need to be reemphasized kindly before a generation headed for eternity. Kindness is inseparably linked with earnestness. Every evangelist ought to believe m his message. He who does not believe in his message, though he deliver a correct sequence of words, can do little to convert a world. This restless world needs something permanent to which it may anchor. Give it a faith. Show it an example of what faith in God and in the word of God will do for a man. You can best show what Christ will do for others by demon-. strating what he has done for you. After all, the highest peak of human attainment is reached by faith inspired action, not by slave like obedience to a set of rules.

It is said of John the Baptist m John 1:23, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord.” That’s what John was. He was a voice. His message was not his own. He was the voice of God crying in the wilderness of the world, “Make straight the way of the Lord.” And so are we. He who discharges his duty to evangelize the world is but the voice of God, crying in a wilderness, pleading for the lost souls of men. Every proclaimer of God’s word should think of himself as beseeching the world in Christ’s stead to be reconciled to God.

If a man shall think of himself as an ambassador of God and shall think of his preaching as the voice of God speaking to a sin cursed generation, he will find no room left in his preaching for his own opinions. He will not be found preach-ing the gospel in a mutilated, maimed, and imperfect form, but in its beauty, purity, and simplicity. With all the earnestness of a man’s soul, he ought to do the work of an evangelist. A real love for the lost must prompt his preaching. Then earnestness can strike fire to eloquence and the praise of God can ring from higher heights than the preacher ever thought himself capable of reaching. Let earnestness produce the world’s best orators to extol the majestic beauty and the saving power of the gospel. We will evangelize the world when every child of God thinks of himself as the Lord’s agent, snatching the lost, as it were, as brands from the burning. Such earnestness will produce a preaching of the truth in love. Each of us will be willing to present himself a living sacrifice, upon the altar of service. We will love him because he first loved us. And we will love the lost millions of earth enough to go to them with the gospel. The Lord has no other agents. If the lost are ever saved, we must save them.

There is the grave danger, of course, that as the church becomes large, and as it numbers many of its members among the socially elite, that it may lose its evangelistic passion. The church must never get the idea that it is fighting for a place among churches. It must never evangelize for social acceptance. God forbid that its efforts be spent in proselyting numbers. May it never seek a position of unpersecuted ease. The peculiar glory of the Christian religion is its evangelistic passion. Had the early disciples been content to enjoy their religion to themselves alone, they never would have been persecuted. The church must preach the gospel to save the souls of men.

While the task of evangelization is primarily an individual one, the fact must not be overlooked that the Lord set in the church, along with other offices, the office of an evangelist. Paul admonished Timothy to, “Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill thy ministry.” The church is in grave danger of destroying the office of an evangelist. The commission was to make disciples, to baptize them, and to teach them to observe all things. It is primarily the work of an evangelist to make disciples. It is primarily the work of the elders, and other members of the body of Christ, to teach the new converts how to live the Christian life. The evangelists are the shock troops of the Lord’s army. They preach the gospel and convert sinners. This is their primary work. In the past generation, we have gone a long way toward destroying the office of an evangelist. We have set our gospel preachers to the task of feeding the flock, and to, incidentally, converting a few. We have given to him a task that in the New Testament rested primarily upon others. I am afraid that we are becoming content to preach the gospel to ourselves alone and to care for the needs of the local congregation. This tendency is destroying the spirit of evangelism. Members of the body shift their responsibility to the organization. The organization hires an evangelist. They give him the task of evangelizing the evangelized. My brethren, this ought not so to be. Let the trend be changed: Let us reemphasize the need for pure evangelization.

We are developing among us another very dangerous threat to the life giving spirit of evangelization. Many are becoming afraid to do anything, for fear they will do it wrong. Regardless of how wrong some trends may be, there is no trend so evil and so dangerous as the trend toward doing nothing. There are methods certainly sinful and wrong, but it is a grievous sin, worthy indeed of eternal death in hell under the vengeance of God, for us to become so involved in a wrangle about methods that we let a generation flounder and die in its sins. The seeds of apostasy are just as omnipresent as the seed of the kingdom. No farmer hesitates to plant his seed for fear some weeds will grow. Just as the seed of the kingdom will always produce a Christian, so the seeds of apostasy will always produce apostates. The church will always have a few. It is nothing short of suicide for the church to become afraid to go forward, lest an apostate raise his head. Eternal vigilance is still the price of liberty.

We have a most glorious opportunity before us. The future ahead is an untrodden path, but God grant us leaders with vision enough and evangelistic fervor enough to dare to dream of the gosoel’s covering the earth like the waters cover the sea. Give us men who are not afraid of criticism, and whose zeal for lost souls is such that it cannot be quenched though mistakes be many, and a million men will follow their lead to proclaim the gospel where it has never been heard.

There is a questioning attitude on the part of the people. The feeling of insecurity, posed by present conditions, has prodded the world’s complacency into energetic investigation. We have said, in every field, “Give us the truth, regardless of what the truth may be.” Two global wars have exacted a terrible toll in sweat and tears and blood. A third is in prospect. Half the world’s income is being alloted to a planned program of self-destruction. Mankind is crying to be shown some more noble purpose on earth than to hate and fight and die. This is our opportunity. In religious realms the trend is toward undenominationalism. The narrow barriers erected by hate and intolerance are being recognized and branded for what they are. The sectarian names, that reflect the animosity out of which they sprang, are being discounted. Human creeds are being belittled, and the sham of human pride in a purely human organization is being uncovered. The trend is toward that basis of unity for which our Lord prayed. This is our opportunity.

Lift up your eyes and look, for the fields are white unto the harvest. We have made wonderful progress in the past few years. Churches have been established by the hundreds. Congregations have outgrown their buildings. The trickle of gospel literature has increased into a flood. The airwaves are criss-crossed with the lovely sound of faithful gospel preaching. Young men by the hundreds every year are courageously taking hold of the sword of the spirit. Doors of opportunity are being opened around the world. A new day is just dawning, if we can rekindle the fires of evangelistic zeal. Give to the world a brand of fearless preaching and faithful living, which is still the power of God and the salt of the earth. Let us use, energetically, every expedient at our command to present the whole truth of God to the world. The world must stand today as it did then, in amazement at the wonderful power of God. The church must not assume the habit of a sect and live to itself alone. The gospel has always been a “go” gospel. It must continue to be. The gospel is not narrow, and we do not have a monopoly on it. We must not present a narrow sectarian view of it. Even we ourselves must war constantly against the danger of denominationalizing the church.
The word of God is a mighty force, a sword that challenges the strongest warrior to wield. When Paul took it to a heathen city, he turned the town upside down. My brethren are doing the same thing with the same gospel today. Opposition? Certainly. There would be no war if there were no opposition. As long as the gospel is preached it will meet opposition. Beware of the preacher who is not opposed, and beware of the time when the church has no opposition.

Beneath the blood-stained banner of Prince Immanuel let us fight the fight of faith until the name of God rises in hymns of praise from the throats of men in the steaming jungles of Africa, and on the barren shores of the sea’s remotest islands. Preach it—preach it—preach it! Preach it to your neighbor; preach it to your friend. Preach it across the sea. Teach men to respect it and demons to fear it. It is the one legitimate battle in which Christians can join until the hosts of Satan have been dispelled. Let the battle cry of freedom ring, and give the angels looking out over the battlements of heaven cause to rejoice. In the strength of our might, and with the help of our God, let the church, all glorious, go forth as an army with banners. Let a perfect unity in the bond of peace bind us together in a force for righteousness and salvation that can never be successfully assailed.

Let us return the task of evangelization to the individual level. Let each warrior, clad in the full armor of God, wield with a vengeance the sword of the spirit. Let it strike fear to the hearts of the denizens of earth. In the power of God’s might, let him stand with his feet shod with a preparation of the gospel of peace. Let his loins be girt about with truth. Let his breastplate of righteousness shed an earthly light. Let his shield of faith be arrow-proof, and his helmet of salvation be crested with a cross. Let his sinews, seasoned with the strength of service, back the thrusts of a sword more potent than Damascus steel. Let him stand upon the battlefield mighty in the strength of the Lord, a champion of truth and righteousness. Let every Christian soldier stand until the fight is over, the foe vanquished, and the victory won. Then let him stand unchallenged on the battlefield. When the last battle has been fought and the last victory won, then shall the captain of our salvation stand upon Zion’s glorious summit with the kings of earth at his feet and the crown of crowns upon his head. His trumpeter shall call the victorious hosts of Armageddon, and they shall answer with a shout of victory as up from the land and sea they come—an innumerable host of living transformed and dead resurrected. They shall flow up unto him a living sea of conquering heroes, and each shall stack his armor on the hills of light and enter in through the gates into the city. There the victor’s song shall ring forever with the volume of a mighty waterfall, and in their midst a great white throne shall rise as a symbol of perennial peace.