On a recent Saturday, some twenty brethren and sisters made a fifty mile journey to the township of Murray Bridge to inaugurate a gospel campaign in the area. They gathered on the lawns overlooking the river and, with bowed heads besought a blessing from the Giver of all good, who alone could make fruitful their effort to sow the gospel seed.
As one stood in this circle it was not difficult to recall a similar situation some nineteen hundred years ago. Paul was at Philippi in the midst of his missionary activities in Asia Minor. He had already heard the call from further afield, “Come over into Macedonia and help us”. Without hesitation he assuredly gathered” that the Lord had called him to preach the gospel there; and gathering the small company of believers together “they went down to the riverside”, where in the words of the inspired record, //prayer was wont to be made”. Thus commenced a most fruitful mission in Philippi, resulting in many converts, for in addition to the believers there were also certain “who had resorted thither” to hear the glad tidings. There was the woman named Lydia, “whose heart the Lord opened”, when she heard Paul’s preaching of the gospel, “who was baptised and all her household”. There was also the keeper of the prison, who, falling down before Paul and Silas, uttered those memorable words, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” “And when they had spoken unto him the Word of the Lord, he was baptised, he, and all his, straightway.”
As we reflect upon the activities and the results that so frequently attended the efforts of these early labourers in the vineyard, we find ourselves tending to make comparisons with our own efforts today. But to be constructive these comparisons should become, in fact, a critical analysis of every facet of our work as we strive to make known to others the glorious message of salvation. We know that times, customs, circumstances and conditions have changed radically in the two thousand years which separate us from apostolic times, and from this we can derive some satisfaction.
But the basic things have remained unaltered. The message we preach is the same as Paul preached. The God who called us to this great work is unchangeable. He is still attentive to our prayer as we seek for blessing and guidance. The Lord, who apprehended Paul on the Damascus road with the words, “I am Jesus”, still lives, and He is the //same yesterday, today, and for ever”. The men and women to whom we preach have not altered. There may be external and superficial differences, but basically man, as a creature of the dust, is still subject to the same “lusts of the eye, and of the flesh, and of the pride of life”. And, as has always been the case, this is still the barrier that has to be penetrated before the gospel seed can take root.
The Roman world into which Paul journeyed with his message of hope was little different from ours today. Indeed, it was a faithless world, full of superstition, vice, materialism and every imaginable form of evil. But Paul still made his converts.
Finally, the preachers of the gospel themselves —have they changed? In other words, how do we as the ministers of Christ today compare with these early apostles? Obviously our methods and means of approach will have varied because of the vast social and economic changes. But what of the things that really count? How do we compare with their faith, their enthusiasm,their self-sacrifice, their ardent longing for the salvation of those who are without hope, the urgent irresistible power which permeated their message? Surely it is in this field that we see the greatest change; and, instead of a comparison we see more of a contrast!
Paul was prepared to hazard his life for the cause of Christ, “for whom”, he declared, “I have suffered the loss of all things”. He saw men and women as the victims of false philosophies, of their own environment, or even of their own folly; and himself as that one connecting link in the means of salvation reaching out from God to man. Without contact with this plan of salvation, men were lost, “without hope and without God in the world”. And so his desire to “persuade men” to a belief in the Glad Tidings became the great challenge of his life, and this persuasion was so effective that it reached even to the heart of Agrippa, who confessed, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian”.
Is this the great need of our time? This genuine longing and striving to persuade others, without thought of the cost to ourselves? Is it not the need to see ourselves as perhaps the one means of reaching that one other person who will remain in darkness unless we as individuals step out to reach him? The challenge to the believer today is that the gospel is still the power of God unto salvation, but only when it is in the hands of a dedicated preacher, irrespective of whether the work is on the platform, in the street, on the doorstep, or in outback areas.
. . . During the campaign at Murray Bridge hundreds of homes were personally visited, resulting in a score of people indicating their desire to receive regular literature. This does not necessarily mean that they are particularly interested, but at least a contact has been made, and that is where our real task begins; the slow, arduous, of times unrewarding work of watering, reasoning, leading and persuading. But who knows that in the ultimate even one of these may respond to the call of Christ?
That will depend primarily on the preachers themselves, the missionaries of Christ today, who, heeding the call to ‘do the work of an evangelist”, adjust their lives accordingly, and see in every human being a potential candidate for the Kingdom of God.
“Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that He may send forth labourers into the harvest”, for the harvest “truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few”.
Lord, What wilt thou have me to do?