REACHING OUR GLOBAL VILLAGE WITH THE GOOD NEWS!
Pastor Colin Meadows
Mark 1:14-20
The time has come, said Jesus in Mark 1:15, the kingdom of God is near so repent and believe the gospel. The challenge is here for us to get on with the task of sharing the Good News. I had an interesting talk with a young evangelist who had spent time in Spain, France and many other countries. He went during his school holidays with a group of others, visiting people in their homes and talking with them about his faith. Some people listen carefully, he said, while others were not interested. It had been much more difficult since Sept 11th, 2002, he explained and now funding for these trips was harder to find. Yes, he explained, but as a Muslim, he had to press on to tell others about Allah.
What about us as Christians? Do we really believe that the time has come and the Good News is for all people? Or have we been lulled into a sense of complacency or even fallen asleep spiritually? Have we been caught by the prevailing worldview that there is no absolute truth and that people should be left to find truth that is relevant for them. Let them scavenge around and find something that 'fills their personal void and completes their humanity.' Some people say that it is arrogant for Christians to talk with others about their faith or to suggest that Christ is the only way to the Father. Instead we should leave people to find a faith that is relevant for them and meets their needs.
Such thinking is not what God's Word says. We should avoid just swallowing the current worldview without thought and reflection. Instead we should hold firmly to what God's Word says. As we listen to God's Word, we will be challenged to build bridges of friendship with others and will then seek to reveal to them the Good News of Christ.
What does the Bible reveal of God's plan for his world? Is there a timeless mandate there for us to act on? The basic message of the Bible is that God wants all people in this world to be blessed. Gen 12:1-3 is very clear in this regard. The words 'all people on earth' literally mean just that! God's heart has always been for the whole world, his world. To experience God's blessing, one needs to discover his Son, Jesus Christ. God's desire is that all people might repent and come into a relationship with him through his son, Jesus. That is the focus of God's plan for his world. He now calls on his people to reach out in relationship to others and to share this good news with them.
God's people down throughout the ages have responded in three different ways to this challenge.
Blenders: For some Christians, their response has been to become complacent about their faith, blending in with the communities in which they live. There was no real difference between them and the people who live around them. Such people are what could be called 'blenders', people who don't wish to be different to the people who live next door. In Judges 2:10 we have an example of blenders. God's people at that time forsook Him and adopted the religious culture of those around them. They blended in and became indistinguishable from others. They didn't wish to rock the boat and be 'judgemental' of others. All truth was relative, they believed; so let's just believe the current fashion, no matter what it is. It didn't matter what you believed, just as long as you were sincere.
This is how many believers think today. It is not fair, some people say, for Christians to speak about absolute truth for that might offend some people. Rather, just allow people to settle for a belief system with which they are comfortable. There is a small lizard in Africa called the chameleon. It has many fascinating features but the most interesting I find is its ability to blend in with its environment. When it climbs over green leaves in a tree, its skin colour becomes green. When it moves to the ground, it adopts the colour of the earth. It seeks to merge in with its surroundings and so be less conspicuous. This is just like many Christians today. They don't wish to stand out from the crowd and thus try very hard to be just like everyone else around them. We are often under great pressure to blend in and to conform. Let us seek to resist the pressure to become a blender.
Keepers: Some Christians choose to become 'keepers' of their faith, people who are not willing to pass the gospel on to others. Such people set up barriers around themselves, and separate themselves off. They avoid mixing with the community outside, for that may contaminate them! Instead they protect themselves by seeking to live by rules and regulations, building walls instead of bridges.
The prophet Jonah is an interesting example of a 'keeper'. See Jonah 1:1-3. God told the prophet to go to people of Nineveh and warn them of the coming judgement. He ran instead in the opposite direction, caught a ship and left town. On the ship he hid below decks, where he fell asleep in a storm. This is a picture of many Christians today, below decks and fast asleep in the storm! (Jon 1:5) When Jonah was finally aroused by God and challenged, he showed little concern and compassion for those in Nineveh who were facing judgement (Jonah 4:10-11). God then said to him in verse 11 "Should I not be concerned for that great city?" God is deeply concerned and compassionate about people who are facing judgment. We too should be the same.
The Jewish leaders in Jesus time, especially the Pharisees, were of a similar persuasion to Jonah. They could not accept that God cared for the unclean. They felt that only the 'religious right' were worthy of God's attention. Such thinking is the very opposite of the gospel. The essence of the Christian faith is that it is for all people for we are all needy. The Good News is far too good to be kept to us alone. Good news is for sharing. We must become sharers of our faith. It is like the Mercedes Benz advertisement concerning their crumple safety design built into their cars. The advert explained that this technology was not patented they said because 'some things are too important not to be shared with others'. That is the nature of the Good News of Christ! It is too good not to be shared with others.
Sharers: We need instead to become 'sharers' of our faith, always willing to pass it on to others. Not blenders, who are indistinguishable from others, not keepers who build walls around ourselves, but sharers, people willing to give away our faith.
The Apostle Paul was a wonderful example of a sharer. In Rom 1:16 he stated 'I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile'. In 2 Cor 5:17 he explained that he is compelled by Christ's love to be his ambassador. In 2 Cor 5:20 he said 'we are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God'. Paul was a man on a mission, fired up with the gospel of Christ, compelled to share it with others. What about us?
William Carey was another great sharer, a man whom God used to stir up missionary vision of the 19th Century. He was a Baptist and thus excluded at that time from access to universities and public office. Such institutions were only available to Church of England communicants. His home church was not enthusiastic towards missions, being focused theologically on predestination, and saying we should leave it all to God. Dr Ryland, one of the Baptist Church leaders of his day, sought to put Carey in his place. "Sit down young man; when God chooses to convert the heathen He will do it without your aid or mine". That was how the church leadership in those days responded to Carey's cry for world mission. They were people who were not willing to share the gospel with a needy world.
Carey served his apprenticeship as a shoemaker for seven years, studying science, geography and divinity and learning Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, French and Dutch. He hung a map of the world in his workroom to remind himself to pray for the task at hand. For a further eight years he sought to encourage others to come with him on his missionary pilgrimage but with little results. Someone wrote at the time 'It was the age of apologetics by which was meant the church apologized to the world for its existence".
Carey at this time wrote a paper called 'An Enquiry into the obligations of Christians to use means for the conversion of the heathens". This book was used by God to spark a new missionary movement. In 1792 he preached on Is 54:2-4 at a meeting of pastors in Nottingham. With eight years of pent-up fervor in his heart, he poured out a challenge to his church. "Expect great things from God and attempt great things for God". Yet the pastors were still hesitant, doubtful and the meeting was about to break without any resolutions. Carey then turned to a friend, Andrew Fuller, and said "Is there nothing again going to be done, sir?" These two then urged the pastors to move forward and form a society for the propagation of the gospel.
This new society was called 'The Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel amongst the Heathen' and started with fourteen people as subscribers. Hindrances at the beginning were enormous - lack of funds, opposition, disinterest and family opposition. His relatives said he was mad and his wife at first refused to go with him. Even his local church resisted. The head of the Baptist leaders at the time said, "The mission that Carey has formed will come to nothing". Carey's response was: "It is God's work". He finally left for India with his family in June 1798.
In quick succession other societies were formed: London Missionary Society, Religious Tract Society, British and Foreign Bible Society and several others. By 1834 there were 14 new British Missionary movements apart from those on the continent and the US. Carey was to spend some 40 years in ministry in India. The first Indian national, Krishna Pal, came to Christ in 1800. By 1801, only three of the original seven missionaries who had gone with Carey were still alive. However by 1832, Bible books were being printed in some forty-four languages and dialects. Yes, William Carey was certainly a sharer.
There has been literally thousands of 'Carey' type believers down through history. One, a young nurse, Ngaire Reid, felt called in around 1973 to go to the San people of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana. She had to struggle with mission officials before being permitted to nurse in the small village of Kang. The ministry developed over time and slowly others joined her. Today there is a church growing amongst the people in that remote area. Around the world today there are many such sharers of the Good News, people joyfully passing on the gospel to others. But such sharing takes time and is costly.
We live in an age where we expect everything to happen painlessly and for change to take place daily. There is often the expectation that people will be transformed as soon as they hear the gospel. Such is seldom the case. We need to remember that true spiritual transformation takes much time. We need to pray, to persevere, and to steadily press on even when there appears to be little signs of change. God is at work, even if we cannot see the evidence. Carey himself said "If anyone should think it worthwhile to write my life, if he gives me credit for being a plodder, he will describe me justly. I can plod…. To this I owe everything." Allow the Spirit of God time to work in the hearts of people. True spiritual change takes much time, time for the Spirit of God to move in people's hearts, time for understanding to come. Let us not lose heart but rather keep plodding in the power of the Spirit of Christ!
Be also aware that there is cost involved in sharing the gospel. David Livingstone, a missionary in the 19th Century to Africa, commented 'If you suffer without succeeding, then someone will succeed after you. If you succeed without suffering, then someone has suffered before you.' Jesus spoke much about the cost of following him, of taking up our cross daily as we seek to serve him. We need to be aware of that and not lose heart when the going gets tough!
Let's not be a blender, seeking to meld in with those around us. Let's not be a keeper, our lives hidden below decks and asleep like Jonah was. Let us seek rather to be like the Apostle Paul and others down through the ages. Be a sharer, fired up with the Good News and willing to share it with others, no matter what the personal cost. Let us shake ourselves out of our complacency and apathy, reminding ourselves of our mission to share the Good News and as we do so to remember the words of Carey and to 'expect great things from God, and attempt great things for God'.
Some Suggested Reading
Griffiths, M., Give Up Your Small Ambitions (London: IVP, 1970)
Packer, J.I., Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God (Leicester: IVP, 1976)
Pippert, R.M. Out of the Salt-Shaker (Illinois: IVP, 1979)
Richardson, D., Eternity in Their Hearts (Ventura: Regal, 1981)
Thompson, P., Hudson Taylor (London: CIM, 1954)
CF Meadows Revised June 2005