A Passion for the Lost!
Let me begin with a question. Do you ever share your faith with others? When is the last time that you told someone about your faith in Jesus Christ? And if not, why haven’t you or why don’t you?
Christianity Today recently conducted a poll of it’s readers and asked them some questions about evangelism. And when the readers were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with some key statements people were unanimous on two statements that seemed to be true for everyone. 1. 89% supported this statement. “I believe that faith in Christ is the only way to salvation.” 2. 87% agreed with this. “Every Christian is responsible for evangelism.” So it seems like most Christians are in agreement on those two points. That Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven and that every Christian is responsible for evangelism. But then there is the breakdown. What we believe and accomplishing it seem to be two different things.
As this poll went on, 68% said they believed it was very important for Christians to lead non-Christians to faith in Christ. 52% said they had been more active in telling others about Christ in the past year than before. And when asked what some of the obstacles were to sharing their faith 49% said, “It is a feeling that I am not able to do evangelism as well as the professionals.” And then 43% said they were too timid. 40% were afraid of how people would respond.
I don’t know if any of those reactions represent how you feel. It may be that you believe in evangelism. That you think it is important. You think it is a responsibility of every Christian. And if you don’t think it you ought to because the Bible clearly teaches it. But then there may that difficulty of getting over that hurdle of sharing your faith. Is it because you feel you are timid? Is it because you are afraid that people will not respond?
I am going to address these questions in a future message. Actually a series that I will do on evangelism. But I want to go a little deeper today and share with you what I think is a missing ingredient in all of these conclusions that this poll uncovered. I would suggest to you it is usually the missing ingredient in any person’s life as to why they will not share their faith. It is clear from the verses we are going to read before us that the apostle Paul had this missing ingredient. He had it in spades.
Romans 9, looking at verses 1 through 3, Paul says, “I tell you the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh.”
Paul had something that is essential for effective evangelism. In fact, if one is lacking this quality that Paul had everything else is really of no consequence. Paul had a God given burden for those that did not know Jesus Christ. He cared. It burned inside of him. In his case it was for his own kinsmen, the Jews.
Do you have a God given burden for those who do not know Jesus Christ? And if you don’t do you want one? Be careful. If you pray that God will give you this burden, you may be surprised how quickly He answers you and the results could be life changing. Do you really want a God given burden for those who do not know Jesus Christ?
I remember reading that General William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army that he wished if he had his way that as part of the final training of those that were going into the work of evangelism that he could dangle them over hell for 24 hours. You say, “That would be a lot of fun.” No actually it wouldn’t be. The reason that Booth wished he could do such a thing was not so that people he would be dangling would fear it for themselves because they had that hope they would go to heaven. But so they could see the reality of awaits those who do not know Jesus Christ.
As we move to chapter 9, we are gripped by the apparent change in the flow of what is Paul is saying. It is almost as though he is going from joy to sorrow. On one hand he has been glorying in the fact that nothing will separate us from the love of Christ, neither height nor depth, nor or any other created thing, principalities or powers, or things present nor things to come, and so forth. He is just speaking of God’s love for us and how strong it is, and then dramatically without any warning he goes into this description of his sorrow and anguish for those who do not yet know his Savior. It almost seems like a different person picked up the pen and began to write.
But it wasn’t a different person at all. Nor was it a break in what was being said. If you really stop and think about it, it is a flow and continuity. Paul has just spoken of God’s love for him and how it affected him personally. But now he is showing how that same love transfers to others. That it’s not enough to just know that God loves me and that He is doing all of these things for me as I have learned in the first eight chapters of Romans. Now I have seen as a result of that I have a responsibility to others. Those outside the church. Those outside the faith. And if God’s love is really working in my life, it should cause me to do something for Him.
So Paul speaks of his love and burning passion for those that did not know the Lord. I think it’s here so we don’t become overly obsessed with our own struggles and our own spiritual quest and growth that we forget that there are people that need to know God. I think he makes an amazing statement here when he says in essence, “If it were possible, I would give up my hope of eternal life so that others who do not know could come to faith.” That’s a pretty dramatic statement.
How many of us would wish ourselves a place in hell that someone else might have a place in heaven. I don’t know about you, but quite honestly I could not make such a statement at this particular moment in my life. Maybe some of you could. Would I give up my place in heaven so someone else could go there? Or would I go to hell so someone could go to heaven? No. I would like to say I would. I would like to hope that God could change my heart to have such a passion. But that is really commitment.
Paul isn’t the only one who had this kind of a burden. Moses in the Old Testament had that same kind of a heart. The heart of an intercessor toward his people. You remember that Moses had gone to Mount Sinai to receive the commandments of God. Coming down from the mountain instead of finding the people waiting with anticipation as to what the message of God would be, he found them before the image of a golden calf naked, dancing, worshiping this false God. He threw the commandments down in disgust and just about had had it with this group of people. But going back up to the mountain to speak with the Lord again, the Lord was speaking about the guilt of the people. And Moses interrupted Him with a cry of prayer and said, “Lord, why does your wrath grow hot against your people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?” In other words he was saying, “Lord, why are you mad at your people whom you brought out? This was your idea Lord. These are your people.” God said to Moses, “They are your people.” Moses said to God, “They are your people.” Nobody wanted them at this moment. Naked and dancing before the golden calf. Who wants them?
Sort of like two parents arguing when a child has crossed the line. “Your son has been disobedient again.” You reply, “No, no, he is your son.”
Now in righteous indignation Moses had broken those tablets. And he was now speaking to the Lord and it was going back and forth. So God basically said, “I am going to judge these people. I will tell you what, I will raise up a new people. Let’s just forget it.” Now Moses might have gone for this on an earlier occasion. More than once he had had it with these Israelites and their whining and complaining.
But this time when he realized that God was ready to really judge them, he made a statement that is unparalleled in the Bible except perhaps for this statement that Paul makes. He came to the Lord and said something that is really more of a sign and a groan and a cry. He said, “Oh this people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of gold. Yet now if you will forgive their sin.” It’s interesting because at that point in the Hebrew there is a long pause. Even in your English Bibles you probably find the punctuation there with a long dash. Because when he made this statement there was a pause as though he were thinking about the full implications of what was about to follow. “They have sinned a great sin, yet now if you will forgive their sin,” a sight, a groan, a long pause, and then he went on to say, “But if not, then blot my name out.”
Here was a man who was standing in the gap. He was saying, “Lord, if it will help, I will be blotted out. I will be removed that you might forgive them.” That is a man that was ready to stand in the gap. God is still looking for men and women to stand in the gap today like Moses. Like Paul. With a God given burden for those that do not know Him.
Ezekiel 22:30 says, “I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me in the land that I should not destroy it, but I found none.”
If God’s Holy Spirit would search among us listening in this room right now, I wonder if He would find such a man or a woman willing to stand in the gap. Willing to pray. Willing to be available. Willing to reach out to those that do not know Him.
Alexander McLaren said, “You tell me the depth of a Christian’s compassion and I will tell you the measure of his usefulness.” How deep does your compassion go? God is still looking for such people.
In the book of Isaiah we read where God said in the presence of Isaiah, “Whom shall I send, and who shall go for us?” I think in a sense God is still asking this question. Whom shall I send? Who shall go for us? Will you go? Will you stand in the gap?
Now Paul translates this burning passion that he had for the Jews over in Romans 10. Let’s move over there. He says, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
Now his burden is still running deep for the Jews. These Jews were following Paul from city to city declaring that he was an apostate Jew. And because of the message that he proclaimed about Jeshua as Hamashea, Jesus as his Messiah, they said because of this he was apostate and he was denying the faith of his fathers. Yet Paul’s compassion did not diminish. He was not discouraged by persecution and rejection. It only made him firmer in his resolve. He was deeply moved.
Now does it affect you knowing that there are many people who do not know Christ? That are basically on their way to a certain judgment. Does it move you. Because until you are moved in the depths of your soul you are not going to move your feet. You are not going to take any action.
So I am suggesting to you a lot of Christians will say, “I’m too timid, and I’m afraid of this and that.” But I would say I think a lot of Christians just really don’t care. I don’t think they really have a burden for those that don’t know the Lord. I think if that burden is burning with enough passion inside of you, you will just get out there and work through that obstacles. That is not to say that there are not real obstacles and things that we need to learn to more effectively share our faith. But it is to say that if the burden is really there you are going to get out and do something with it. The bottom line is a lot of us really don’t care that much. It’s not a big deal to us. That is why I am stressing how important it is to have this burden that God wants to place in your heart.
We can’t mention such a thing without referring to Nehemiah. Here was a man who was in a position of great influence and power serving under the king. Nehemiah was not a preacher. He wasn’t a priest. He wasn’t a scribe. He was not in any kind of ministry as we often like to refer to it. He was an ordinary man. What we might call a layman. But one who loved God. And one day someone told him about the plight of the Jews and how the city of Jerusalem that had once stood with walls erect in honor of a God that the people served was now lying in ruin and rubble and burned out. Nehemiah began to weep and pray and say, “Lord, what can I do about this problem. That is so important because after his weeping became working. After his despair came determination. It touched him and then he wanted to do something about it. So he prayed and he devised a plan. And then that plan began to unfold.
Those are two essential ingredients in effectively sharing our faith. It must start with a God given burden leading us to prayer. And then we need to get out and do something.
Listen. I would rather get out and fall flat on my face and make every mistake there is to make in sharing my faith than sitting around and never do anything. Because at least through making mistakes hopefully I will learn something. But sitting around and doing nothing for fear of being rejected or for fear that it isn’t always going to be an astounding success is really missing what God has called us to do.
Let’s read on in Romans 10 and look in verse 14. Because Paul really tells us the very technique that God has established to communicate our faith. “How shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent. As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of them who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!’ But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our report?’ So then faith faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
How will they hear without a preacher is a question that is asked in verse 14. From the original Greek we could translate that verse, “How shall they hear without one preaching.” The Phillips translation puts it this way, “How can they hear unless someone proclaims Him.” Therefore, the emphasis is not on a preacher, but it’s on preaching.
We might think that the work of evangelism is only for those who are called to be an evangelist. Granted, there are those in the church that God has raised up to be evangelists. This is not only limited to those that go preaching to the multitudes. I have seen many individual believers that obviously have this gift. I can think of trips that we have taken to different places and you will see certain individuals that are just gifted in articulating their faith.
I remember we were in New York and one of the ladies in our group, actually, really was leading a lot of people to faith. In fact, I don’t know what her age is, and I’m hesitant to guess in case she is sitting here, but suffice it to say she was a little older than some of the younger people that were on this trip. But this lady’s energy and commitment knew no boundaries. She left everybody else in her dust as she was leading people to faith left and right. Unquestionably in my mind she had the gift of evangelist.
And then on a recent trip we took to Hawaii where we had our crusade there, I think of our people going out on the streets and sharing. One individual was really used of God in a powerful way to lead people to faith. So I would say he probably has the gift of evangelist. There are certain people that have that gift.
Though it is true that some are called to be an evangelist it is also true that every Christian is to evangelism. To evangelize. Really it’s a mystery to me that God has chosen to communicate His work through preaching. Through the proclamation of His word.
And then in verse 14 this question is asked, “How shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?” Many times we cop out from sharing our faith. We say, “I will just live it. I will just be a witness. And I will leave the preaching to others.” Yet God has said in 1 Corinthians 1:21, “It has pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” By the way that phrase preaching means the preached thing. Or Christ crucified. That doesn’t mean you have to scream and yell and wave a Bible. It doesn’t mean you have to pace back and forth on a platform and speak in some huge voice. What it means is that you recognize that the primary way that God has chosen to reach the lost is through the proclamation of the gospel. By people. Verbal communication primarily.
We are mistaken when we think the way to believe the nonbeliever in the church is through entertainment. Or through some program that will attract them. God has chosen the agency of the proclaimed word to bring someone to salvation.
I was reading a magazine the other day about churches that are reaching out to their community. I read about these churches that were developing these entertainment programs and other things to attract the nonbeliever in. One church built a gymnasium to bring the kids in to play ball. That’s good. I’m not against them. But my point is this. Once you have brought them in give them the gospel. Many times in these churches they will bring them in and think, “We will just be a good example to them. We will just show them that Christians are really nice people. And may some of them will come to the Lord.” What is that going to do? So these people may come and say, “Christians really are nice people. They aren’t as jerky as I thought they were.” But that doesn’t change their eternal destiny. Somewhere along the line they need to be confronted with the gospel. Because it is clear that every person must hear those facts and then make a decision.
I have found that people want to hear that. I think our Sunday night services attest to that fact. People are interested in truth. People want to know what God has to say. They don’t come to church to entertained per se or to be dazzled by some program. They want to hear about God.
Constantly I read polls taken among nonbelievers who don’t go to church and the reason they don’t go to church is often because they say they don’t talk enough about God in church. They talk too much about money. They talk too much about politics. They don’t talk enough about God. I can’t believe this. Here are the nonbelievers telling us what we ought to be doing. And they are right.
Meanwhile pastors are going to these growth seminars and learning the latest gimmicks on how to reach people. If they would just shut up and listen they would find out. Listen to what the nonbelievers are saying and more importantly listen to what the Bible says.
Don’t be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. Don’t be ashamed to confront people with the truth of the gospel. It’s the greatest thing you could ever do. Sure it’s good to feed someone. Sure it’s good to clothe them. Sure it’s good to show God’s love in tangible way.
In fact, I doubt you could find many other churches with an aggressive social program than we have in this church. We are involved in touching our community in everything from feeding and clothing to housing to providing furniture to helping them in their drug and alcohol problems to reaching out to hospitals, jails, prisons, juvenile halls, convalescent homes. We are out there doing it all. But yet we don’t lose sight of the most important thing of all. They need the gospel. All of these things we do are good, but they are bridges to preach the gospel. You can feed someone. You can clothe them. You can house them. And they still can be going to hell. They need to be confronted with the gospel. That is what Paul is saying.
You say, “Well, God doesn’t need me. He can get the job done without me.” That’s true. I think that’s relatively important to understand. For all of us to understand that God can get the job done without us. Yet at the same time it is also true that God wants you. He has chosen you. He wants to speak through you. And when He gave what we call the great commission, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel,” it wasn’t a suggestion. It was a commandment. And to not do so is disobedience to God. And also it is missing out on one of the greatest blessings there is in this life.
I can tell you that next to knowing that your sin is forgiven, the privilege of personally leading someone to faith is one of the greatest joys I know. Have you ever done that? “Oh no I could never do that. God would never use me.” I think He could. And I think He would if you would say like Isaiah, “Here I am, send me.”
It’s worth noting that no person in the New Testament came to faith apart from the agency of a human being. Have you ever stopped and thought about that? No person in the New Testament came to faith apart from God working through a person. I can cite example after example.
There was the Ethiopian. There are many ways that God could have reached that man from a far country. He could have sent an angel to meet him. But instead the Lord sent an angel to a man named Philip and told him to go to the man of Ethiopia. And Philip went and proclaimed the gospel to that man.
And then there was the Philippian jailer. Many ways God could have reached them. But instead He allowed Paul and Silas to be incarcerated and be a witness and ultimately to proclaim the gospel bringing that man to faith.
Or we can think of Cornelius, a man who was searching for God. An angel was sent to him and spoke to him. What did the angel say? Did the angel tell him the truth of the gospel. No. The angel said, “You need to meet this guy named Simon Peter and I will tell you how to find him.” Interesting. The angel could have given the gospel. Some other way God could have articulated the gospel to these men. But He chose to use people.
You may say, “Wait a second. Saul when he was converted, nobody led him to the Lord. It was on the Damascus Road.” That is basically true. But it was sandwiched in between two people who influenced him. First it was the witness of Stephen that softened his heart and made it receptive to the seed of the word when he was confronted by Christ. Stephen was the witness that awakened Saul’s sense of his need for the Lord. Then it was afterwards that God sent Ananias to follow up on Saul and pray for him to receive the power of the Holy Spirit. So you see God used people. And He wants to use you.
But how can they go unless they be sent. God wants you to send and use you. Because it concludes with, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
This verse is often invoked to show that one develops in their faith by the hearing of the word of God. In other words, as you read the Bible your faith will grow. I don’t argue with that. That is basically true. But in it’s context this verse is saying something else that we don’t want to miss. Another translation of it is, “Faith comes from what is heard and what is heard comes from the preaching of Christ.” Or the Phillips translation says, “Belief you see can only come from hearing the message and the message is the word of Christ.” So again it’s coming back to this truth. it is the message of Christ that is going to bring people to faith. The message of what Jesus did on that cross. How He died and He rose again from the dead and how if they will turn from their sin and receive Him as their Lord and Savior they can be forgiven. That is the way that God has primarily chosen to reach the lost. Every other way is not the main way.
Yet once we have proclaimed the gospel the rest is up to the Holy Spirit and not to us. This is very important. This is where many people grow frustrated. You see, God has not called me to lead people to Christ. Because I am incapable of doing so. I have never really personally saved anybody. And I can’t take credit for leading anyone to the Lord. I know that has been the work of the Holy Spirit. My responsibility is to lay out the facts. To lay out the truth. But then it is God’s responsibility to do what He will with what happens in that person’s will.
Effective evangelism is not necessarily defined by a positive response. Effective evangelism is defined by faithful proclamation. In other words, it’s up to God to save people. It’s up to God to convert ten or a hundred or a thousand or one. That is the work of Him. But it is my responsibility to lay out the truth of the gospel. Jesus said in John 6:44, “No man comes to the Father except the Father which has sent me draws him.” And then He said in John 6:65, “No man will come unto me unless it is given to him of my Father.”
I believe as well as there is God’s desire for people to come to faith there is God’s timing. I think He has His timing in every nonbeliever’s life to become a believer. Where they have an appointment with God. I don’t know when that appointment is. But I will tell you one thing. I get real anxious. Because when I sense there is a nibble, I want to reel them in. I don’t want to wait around. I don’t care if there time is next month or next year. Now. I want to do it at that moment. Of course, that is not good. You have to leave that in the hands of God.
One may water. One may sow a seed. God is the one that ultimately will bring the increase. God may use you as one link in a chain of reaching a person. God may give you the privilege of leading that person to faith, but one thing is certain, if you were the one who was a link in the chain by just sharing the gospel or you had the privilege of leading them to faith, you have been a part of a master plan that has probably gone on for months even years. And then someone will reap a seed that you sowed years ago. That person that you just shared a little bit of the gospel with it made an impact and took root. And someone else later prayed for that person and someone later on reaffirmed what you said. And maybe tomorrow someone will lead that individual to faith. But you had a part in the process. It’s all very interesting. I don’t understand any of it. But I am so thankful to God that He allowed me to participate.
My objectives are quite sinful and quite clear. Proclaim the gospel. It’s up to God to do what He will with that seed.
Closing with verse 15. “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!” This phrase beautiful could also be translated in full bloom. Many believers are like the buds of a flower that haven’t yet bloomed or blossomed. All the color and beauty is just waiting to break forth. It’s there. It wants to break forth.
God wants you to come into full bloom. He wants you to come into the gifts that He has called you to. And when we get later on to Romans 12 we are going to slow down our pace and seek to define what some of these gifts are that God wants you to have as a Christian. How to develop and use your gifts in the church. But He wants you to come into full bloom which means to develop in what He has called you to do.
There are many believers today who complain of spiritual dryness. A lackadaisical complacency settling into their lives. God addressing this problem in Isaiah 58 where the people complained of spiritual dryness and deadness and unanswered prayer though they were observing outward ordinances like fasting, praying, and other things, God said, “Boys, you missed the boat. Here is what you need to do. In Isaiah 58:6 He said, “Here is the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free. You must draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul. Then shall your light rise in obscurity and your darkness shall be like the noonday and the Lord shall guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in dryness, and make strong your frame. You will be like like a watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.” Isn’t that a great promise. You really ought to look that up later. Read it. Go through it carefully. Chew on it. Think about it.
Basically what it is saying is the people were saying, “We are going through all of the motions. We are doing all of the right things. We are fasting. We are praying. We are seeking to obey.” God says, “You are missing it. Here is the fast that I have chosen. Loose the bands of wickedness. Undo heavy burdens. Let the oppressed go free. Draw your soul out to the hungry. Think of somebody besides yourself.”
It seems today in our Christian culture, especially here in Southern California we have become so narcissistic and self absorbed. Always talking about our needs and problems. We have too much emphasis on delving into ourselves and seeking inner healing and wanting to change this and I need self-esteem. Oh shut up. People are going to hell. And while you are sitting around contemplating your navel there are people facing a certain judgement. God help us. You know the interesting thing. The deeper you delve into yourself the more unsatisfied you will be.
And what God is saying to the people in Isaiah 58 is, “Though you are doing all of these outward things you have become too focused on yourselves. All you are thinking about is yourself. Here is what I have asked you to do. Draw out your soul to the other people. Reach out to these people. And then as a result when you get your priorities right your soul will be like a watered garden and I will satisfy your soul in dryness.” What a wonderful promise.
The key is giving out. We as believers have a choice. Evangelize of fossilize. Give our or stagnate. Give out what God has given to us or hoard it, stagnate and miss out on being used by Him.
Proverbs 11:25 hammers home the same point. “The liberal soul will be made full, and he that waters will be watered himself.” If you are generous in giving out what God has given to you, God will bless you. He will replenish you in the process. And as you water, you will be watered.
Proverbs 11:30, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that wins souls is wise.”
God wants to use you to win souls. God wants you to proclaim His word. God is looking for people to use.
Back to the question that God asked in the presence of Isaiah. “Whom shall I send and who shall go for us?” Isaiah said, “Here I am, send me.”
Would you say such a thing? Would you volunteer? Are you ready?
As I have said so many times, God is not looking for ability. He is looking for availability. In time He will help you in your ability. He will help you in your technique. He will help you in all of those things. But what you need to start with is a God given burden. And you need to respond and say, “Lord, I am available. I am available today wherever I would be to be your representative. I am going to stay tuned in to what your Spirit would lead. Call on me Lord. Here I am. Send me.”
But as I said in the beginning. Watch out. Because if you pray that prayer I am certain He will call on you. Be prepared. If you are prepared and want to do it, God will use it. If you don’t believe me, why don’t you just ask Him and make yourself available.