Tomorrow’s Evangelism Today By Paris Reidhead*
Will you turn, please, to Colossians, Chapter 3. Some weeks ago, we used this Scripture; but I believe it is a mine of truth, and it has rich meaning for us tonight. Colossians, the 3rd Chapter, and I shall begin reading with the 16th verse and read just the two verses, 16 and 17. Our Theme, Tomorrow’s Evangelism Today:
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
We are living in a day when every priceless thing is being challenged. There exists today a government of one third of the world’s population and earth’s family that declares that the Bible is but a collection of fables, that God does not exist, that there is no such thing as a risen Christ, and that those who hold to these great truths are but the victims of superstition, having been duped by those who would hold them in bondage by means of religion. An avowed, concerted, deliberate program, to destroy the freedom and liberty that we possess is in the minds and hearts of men who have committed themselves to the extermination of the privileges that are taken by us so lightly. Remember that when we consider tomorrow, we have to recognize that one third of the world population, that dreaded tomorrow has already come. For instance in China, in North Korea, in Russia as well, now more recently, and nearer still, in Cuba, this wave of the future has already engulfed the victims in the present. And consequently, when we think of Evangelism in these circumstances, we have to ask ourselves what kind of a Christian life and testimony and ministry would we have if we were forced to live under an alien government that hated everything precious to us, and was determined to exterminate the faith of which we are a part.
In the first place, we are going to have to determine what is essential, and what is not essential. We recognize that there are many things that we take for granted, that have no Biblical origin. They have been historical background, but no Biblical origin. For instance, the very arrangement in which we find ourselves tonight, a hall filled with comfortable seats, and a desk in the presence of the people, has no counterpart in the Word of God. It is related to the synagogue. It is also extracted from the worship of idols of the people in the past, where people gathered in buildings be set aside. It could even be referred back to the Temple or to the Tabernacle, though there is a considerable distinction. But the fact still remains that the early church did not buy property and build buildings as we are accustomed to do, because there was no sense in which they found it necessary to equate a geographical location with a spiritual ministry. And so we find in the New Testament that they sold property. No occasion when they ought. Two occasions when they rented. We will have to therefore conclude that, if the building were to be taken and the privilege of assembly were to be deprived, were to be taken from us, that nothing Biblically essential would have been taken from us. Nothing would have actually escaped and eluded us. Now think for a moment.
If we came next Lord’s Day and found a board across the door, saying, You are forbidden to assemble here, to what degree would the reality of your faith be affected? To what degree would your Christian life be changed? Now this is a dreaded prospect, and one which we do not like to meditate. But if we are to reduce our thinking down to the irreducible minimum, then we are going to have to ask ourselves to what degree is the service, and the place of service, and the particulars of service essential to our faith. I think your answer would be the same as mine. That we accept the privilege of having a building and we accept privilege of meeting in that building as being a gracious thing. We recognize, however, that our faith is not dependent upon it. We are not as those who must have a building in order to reenact the sacrifice of Christ. There is no service of Mass performed in the presence of this company, and there is nothing sacred about these halls that have heard throughout the decades the sounding forth of the Word of God with clarity and consistency. No. Our faith is not tied up with this little bit of real estate. We are grateful, I say, and we shall continue to be grateful. We meet here and shall continue to appreciate the privilege of meeting here. But let it be understood by us now that this is not essential to the structure of our faith our relationship with Christ. We are not real estate centered in our thinking.
We must pass on to something else. This is neither essential to our worship, nor is it essential to our evangelism. We that, in the years past, there have been multitudes that have occupied these seats. And I am sure that if each could testify, there is hardly a one of those who have been in this lower auditorium and remain in the upper auditorium that would not have been able to say that someone sitting there in these 75 to 80 years past has found the Lord Jesus Christ through the faithful preaching of the Word here. And we are grateful for that history. We are grateful for that ministry. And we recognize that if the primary evangelism of this testimony has been confined to these walls then we have deprived the Lord Jesus Christ of what He deserves in measure that is excruciating to contemplate. If all the evangelism that has been done in these 80 years has been done within these walls, then I say we have grossly deprived our Lord of what He had a right to expect from us. For I think again a careful reading of the Word of God will prove that it was not in such assembly that the primary strategy of evangelism rested. It was not that they were to gather together in groups. It was not say, Come and hear. It was, Go and preach. And in His strategy, it was that the believers came together to be fed, to be nourished, to be instructed, to be brought into a vital relationship with Christ. And then to go out and for the remaining 165 or 6 hours of the week, and to gossip the Gospel, and to live the Gospel, and to witness to all whom they could meet and touch. And this, therefore, makes us say tonight that our evangelism is not restricted to these walls, and were it to be in some future and horrible day that we were forbidden to come within these walls, then we would have to also at this moment say that nothing essential in our evangelistic outreach would have been affected. It is not primarily here that God intended our evangelistic work to be carried on.
Thirdly, we would have to say this, that if we were deprived of the privilege of assembly in this hall, we would then also not be deprived of the privilege of fellowship. For, if the only Christian fellowship is that which you have here, in the few moments that you greet one another coming and going, then your Christian fellowship is hardly that which is sufficient to be greatly missed if it were stopped.
I covet for every one of you the privilege of meeting with a group of Christians, or having Christian friends to whom you can share some of the thoughts and desires of your heart. And therefore I would say that, if your fellowship in Christ has been confined and restricted to the time you have spent here, in either organizational work, or in simply passing to and from in the midst of services, then you have been greatly deprived of what the Scripture speaks of when it says that there was a koinonia among the believers, a fellowship among the believers. And so, I would have to proceed to say by the same strength of argument, that if these doors were to be blocked to us some future day, it should not greatly affect our fellowship. For we could meet just as well in some obscure corner of the subway system, or in some home, or in some attic, or some other place and there have fellowship. For wherever two or three are gathered in His name, there He has promised to presence Himself and to nourish, comfort, strengthen, and teach the hearts of those who gather. So, for one third of the world’s people tomorrow has already come.
What are brethren in North Korea doing, these that have survived the period of prolonged assassination, for some 400 thousand have paid for their faith with their lives during these past fifteen years. What are those who remain doing? They cannot assemble. The government is utterly opposed to their meeting, except under the strictest kind of control, so that it could be a show case to the Western World. But what are these in the hinterland doing that have been utterly forbidden and are considered enemies of the state if they even so much as express the desire. We do not know a great deal about it, but we do know that in the report that has come from those who have actually been there and escaped, that in Siberia, for instance, in slave labor camps, there was warm, vital, evangelical fellowship. Up there in the perpetual cold, and seemingly the eternal winter, there was that warm spring of fellowship of those who had found the Lord Jesus Christ precious to their souls. And, therefore, we will say further that fellowship is not dependent upon a plot of real estate, a locality, and a building.
Now having said that, and recognizing that these, our brethren, are going through today the thing that is a prospect, a dreadful prospect to us tomorrow, we have to ask ourselves this. Should we wait until tomorrow comes? Should we wait until persecution overtakes us? Should we wait until we have been deprived of freedom and forced back to principles that are basic and elemental and vital and essential before we begin to examine whether or not those principles are being explored, utilized and obeyed in our lives today. Now recognize that it is a possibility. It could happen here, and there are those who say that it could happen here much sooner that most of us would pleasantly like to think. But still it is a possibility that this could come to pass. Suddenly, quietly we wake up some morning and it is an accomplished fact. It is not going to come from outside invasion
we are told, but it is going to come simply by the fact that it is done, and we would then have to adjust ourselves to the fact that there is no possibility of recovery from it in this generation. Now is it necessary for us, therefore, to have to wait until that hour comes, until we discover that tomorrow’s evangelism may be the secret of today’s need. It is my conviction that we ought to be wise, learn from our brethren in North Korea, in China, in Russia, in Cuba, and elsewhere in the world these Biblical essentials and then ask ourselves if we have attached too much time, and too much attention, and too much importance to the dispensable at the expense of that which is utterly, absolutely indispensable.
If, therefore, our worship does not depend upon real estate, upon buildings and sacred objects, but it is worship directed to the risen Christ, ought we not to begin to recognize that we do not begin to worship when we come here, but that worship is something far more continuous than that. If the study in the Word of God and growth in the Word of God is not dependent upon a place, ought we not to begin to recognize that if we are to mature, we are going to have to use other means than those which are associated with that place. And if we find that evangelism is not stopped when the place is taken away, ought we not to begin to ask ourselves, Are we today performing the kind of evangelism that we will have to perform in some dreaded future day should that day overtake us. It would be a sad thing to think that we have allowed that which is His, eternally His, His revealed will, plan and purpose to be thrust upon us when we have so many ways and means by which we can see it and elsewhere.
I think of our brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ in Ethiopia. What a dreadful day it was when the missionaries had to flee Ethiopia at the Italian occupation back in ‘38. You recall how that every effort to the little native church that was there was to be captured by those who invaded and accompanied the invaders, and the four pastors in the missionary area were put into prison and were sadly abused, and it was then that the church found that it was deprived a place of meeting and the privilege of assembling. And they had their Bibles taken from them, and they were thus coerced to find out what it was. Oh, there was the hidden Bible here and there that escaped those that sought it. And one who had been a servant, one who had not even been entrusted with the task of being a local church officer, was raised up of God to give encouragement and leadership to that little group of scattered sheep. We find that he called them together on Thursday. And they spent Thursday and Friday in prayer, and then these who loved Christ would go back into their communities and there gather in some little shaded place along the creek or some building, or some abandoned house, or in their home, or some place on the top of a hill so that they could watch on every side for those that might molest and disturb them. And they would gather together and there they would speak of the things of Christ. When the missionaries left in 1938, in the three areas where churches were there was only a total of less than 150 Christians and something like 70 or less baptized believers for the three areas.
Well what could we except. I remember joining others in prayer that these would be preserved, and that something of the church would remain as seed, and that they would not exterminate it. We had little idea of what God could do and would do, and was doing. But as these would journey together on Thursday afternoon and spend Thursday night in prayer and all day Friday in prayer and fellowship and study of the Word, and then Friday night again a half night of prayer. Saturday, journeying back to their communities and Sunday gathering wherever they could. God began to bless and to honor. And there were secret baptismal services, and the whole community would come, saved and unsaved alike, at midnight with the moon shining, and there they would follow the Lord in baptism.
And there is an occasion told of two of the women who were the wives of the Pastors, the Pastors themselves being in prison. They knew that it was not the woman’s prerogative to do the kind of evangelism that was represented by their need, mainly going to the villages and preaching in open service. And so these two women would just wander with their little bag of grain, and so on, into a village, ask the chief men for a hut. And they would say, Do you need food? Oh, no, we don’t need food. All we need is water and a place to be away from the beasts and away from danger. And they would go in there and fast and pray. People would come to them and say, Well why aren’t you eating? Well because we are praying. Well, to whom are you praying? And they would have the opportunity. They would say, Well you send the chief men of the village. You send the chiefs here, and we will tell them. And then they would continue fasting and praying, and the Word would come back, But what are you praying about? You tell the chief men to come.
And then they would gradually stir up interest, until finally the people of the village would go to the chief and say, They won’t talk to us. They insist on talking to you. You are the only ones they will tell, and we don’t know what to make of them. They are there all night, it seems, all day. They haven’t eaten food. They are just drinking water. And they are there in this little hut, and we can’t understand them. You’ll have to go. So the chief men would come in and say, Women, tell us what it is. And they would say, Oh no, we can’t tell you when you are like that. You have to come and sit. It takes time. You come this evening when the others are in bed and the village is quiet, and we’ll have the fire and then we will tell you. We won’t come. All right. It’s all right. So then they would spend another day and night, in prayer. And finally the chief men would come and sit there, and quietly say, Tell us what it is that brought you to our village. And then these two women at the invitation of the chief men would begin to tell the story of God’s love and grace and mercy in Jesus Christ. And they wouldn’t be preaching, but they would be sharing the fact that they had met someone who transformed their lives.
Well, the variety of ministries, and the continuation of the testimony, the faithfulness of these under persecution, was something to behold. And when the missionaries come back in 1943, hoping against hope that they would find a little remaining of that work, and something with which to begin to build, can you imagine the overwhelming joy that was theirs? When they started down to one section, and they saw a company of people, for one of the boys had gone on ahead a day beyond them, and told them that the missionaries were coming. And when they approached the area, there came this throng of men, and they saw them as they came down the defile and counted them, and there were over five hundred. And so, as they gathered, approached nearer to them, they said, What is this? The church? They said, No. This is not the church, was the shout that came back. And the missionaries began to ask, Well why are five hundred men coming to us? And when they were near enough to communicate without shouting, one of them said, These are the deacons of the churches. And they found that whereas they had left in the three areas less than 150 Christians, there were now about 70 thousand, and about 35 thousand baptized believers. It had grown under persecution.
Oh, they could not have buildings. They could not have established pastors. They could not have regular services. They could not have a lot of things that they been taught by the missionaries were essential. But they had Him. Now, is it necessary for us to wait until tomorrow comes to begin today the things that we will have to do in that tomorrow? For I believe that unless we are prepared to return to His principles today, God will be forced to allow circumstances to overtake us in order that we will have pressure that will bring us back to these principles. For all He can bless is that which has its origin with Him. All He can bless is that which He has begun. And consequently it seems to me that it is the saddest kind of folly for us to ignore the fact that the Lord has established principles upon which He wants His work to be done. I see them here in the Text I gave you.
And with this background, I think it will have meaning to you. You will notice the first thing He says, and this is a persecuted church, and one half of them were slaves. It was this day when men were being beheaded for their faith, and so we find the apostle writing to the church at Colosse, saying, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Their faith was to be centered in the Word of God, not simply having it, feeling free to read it. Do you realize that in the time of Paul there were very few copies of the letters? Very few copies of the Gospels, for most of them had not even been written. Very few copies of the Old Testament. It did not say, Carry it around with so that you can turn to it, for they did not have printing in the book as we have it at all. When it said, Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, it assumed that the Word was loved, because the author of the Word was loved. It is the Word of Christ. And these who have come to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, because His Word is precious to them. And He said, He that heareth My Word and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me. And so the Lord Jesus Christ had tied the love of His people for His Word. And thus these were His, and because they were His they loved His Word. And they memorized His Word. They had put it in their minds. You cannot have the Word in your heart, until you have had it first in your mind. Have you given time to the Word of God? Have you let the Word of God dwell richly in your mind, and your memory and your thought. This is imperative, that you do that. And therefore think of what may happen tomorrow when the Word is taken from you, and there is a price for holding a Book. Books are burned as they have been burned. Think of what will happen tomorrow; do you not think that we ought to begin today to do what we may have to do tomorrow? And that is, to hide the Word in our hearts, and bury it deep in our memories, until when they take the Book, they have not taken His Word. We have taken it out of the Book and put it on our hearts. Tomorrow’s evangelism is going to have to begin today. We recognize the dread possibility that what has happened in Korea can happen elsewhere in the world,
for this world is no friend of grace. Let us remember that. And let us, therefore, realize that the first step of the Word dwelling in us richly is that it is in our minds.
Do you have a process of memorization, of reading with intelligence, of reading with perception? of reading with hunger? Are you letting the Word come into your mind? Are you listening when it is expounded? Are you relating it to what you know? Are you preparing against the day when it may cost you your life to hold the Book in your home or in your hand? You say, Oh, I don’t want to think of that. Oh, I know, but they did not want to think of that in Cuba, or North Korea, or in China, either. We are living in a day when the unthinkable can become the actual, and it seems to me that we ought to begin to do today what we might have to do in some distant tomorrow. And so I ask you, Are you letting the Word dwell in you richly? Are you receiving it? Are you memorizing it? Are you studying it?
I think of what happened in Russia when they were deprived of Bibles, and a Bible was smuggled through, carried in, and they took it apart. They tenderly took it apart. They loosened those threads in the back, and they took the threads out, and they would take it. Oh, they would not get Colossians 3, and Colossians 4; they would get whatever it was that was on the other side of this sheet. And so they would have one in one book, and one in another. And they would read it, and they would absorb it, and they would memorize it, and they would weep over it, careful not to get the tears on it because that would stain the page. And then when they had finished they would go and find someone else, and this little treasured bit of parchment, that they had just absorbed, they would pass on and exchange. Why do we have to wait until the world falls in to appreciate the privileges that are ours? Why is it that the men on the sea can have calm weather, and care not for the calm until God lets a storm come, and the waves rise as the wind howls, and the little ship like a chip seems destined for the bottom, and when it is about to sink they cry out to the Lord, and then He sends calm. And then when the calm comes after the storm, they are so grateful for the calm.
But why weren’t they grateful before? Didn’t they know that their gratitude could have averted the storm? No, they had to wait until the storm came and swept away everything. Need that be for us? Can we not give ourselves to the Word? Do you know the reason why you are not more effective as a witness for Christ, because the Word is so little in your mind and heart. The Navigators are right when they absolutely insist that it is the intention of Christ that every Christian become skilled in the Word. I believe it is wholesome that you should have some means whereby His Word is going to be implanted in your mind, in your memory. You ought to make it your purpose to have portions of it, precious portions of it committed to memory in order that you will have them under any circumstances.
But listen, just hearing the Word is not enough. Just memorizing the Word is not enough. Just know where it is found is not enough. It says, Let it dwell richly in all wisdom, and before that Word becomes yours there has to be inward revelation. You meditate upon it until the Holy Ghost reveals it to you. There is that revelation, that inner illumination, that inner unfolding, until this Word like seed that is in the ground has the rain fall upon it that softens it, and then the sun upon the rain that warms it, and the seed within it bursts, and it comes up through the shell with that little sprout that breaks the cold above it and forces its way out. And so it is that the Word has to become living in your heart. It is just seed in dry soil until the Holy Ghost illuminates your mind and Spirit and inwardly makes that Word real. And it is not yours just because you have memorized it, essential as memorization is. There has to be inward illumination and unveiling, and unfolding of that Word. He has to make real in your heart what is real in print.
And there is the second phase of it. And oh that somehow it might be that today, while we have so-called peace and freedom and liberty, we were asking the Spirit of God to use these hours that are ours, for they may be nothing more than that, measured in hours, to make this Word come alive to us, so that in the hour of trial we won’t have to grope for something upon which to lean, but that Word will have been there, nigh us in our mouth and in our hearts, the Word of Faith that the Spirit of God has illumined to us. And so the evangelism of tomorrow is not going to be because we have a book that we can thumb through and we have marked with red ink, and blue and green, so that we know what verses there are. For it just could be that tomorrow there won’t be a Book in our hands or the privilege of holding one. And the evangelism is not going to come from how skillfully we can flip the pages and find our way around. It is going to come from that which has been made real by the Holy Ghost in our hearts and lives. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. And this is to be the Evangelism of tomorrow.
Why shouldn’t it begin today? Why shouldn’t you have something living every week, every day, if you please, that the Holy Ghost has breathed upon? Why ought not you have been living on the threshold of daily miracle, as God is quickening His Word to your heart. In that day it will be. Why shouldn’t it begin today?
We see something else. Not only is the Word of Christ to dwell in your richly in all wisdom, but it says, Teaching and admonishing one another. And it is that which has been made real to you that you can make real to others. This is the reason why we have so little of freedom and liberty in speaking, because so little is real to us. You let something become real to you and you have to share it. And I think that we ought to begin today to do what we will have to do tomorrow. You ought to do this. Everything that God makes real to you, you ought to find someone to share it with.
Many times, you know, you have lost truth, because you have buried it in a napkin in the soil. God has shown you something. He has given you a talent of truth, and instead of sharing that and letting it be communicated you have just buried it. I’ll put it this way, Nothing is yours in terms of truth until you have given it away to somebody else. If it has not gripped you to the point where it is so important, so precious that you have to share it, it just is not precious enough to hold. And the only way you can hold it is to share it. Did you know that?
Frank Laubach has taught multitudes to read, because he has a principle. You do not get the second lesson until you have taught someone the first, and you don’t get the third lesson until you have taught someone the second. It is called, The each one teach one principle, because he knew you only have what you give away, and you only keep what you share. And so it says, Let the Word of God dwell richly in you in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing. And this is what is going to be tomorrow. Why shouldn’t it begin today? Why should there not flow out of your life a sense in which it is your personal responsibility to communicate with others what God has made real to you?
I was saying to someone the other day, If I didn’t have the privilege of preaching, I would pay for it, because I learned years ago, the only thing I could make mine is what I give. Do you understand what I mean? The only thing that becomes mine is what I give. And when some truth becomes illumined to my mind and heart, I immediately cease on it and nourish it in prayer and thought, and then give it to somebody as quickly as I can, because it is not mine until I have given it away. Well, if that is operative in my life, it is operative in yours. It is His principle. It is a Heavenly principle. And this is what He wants. Everything He illumines to you, He wants you to share with somebody. Oh, do you see it? This is the evangelism of tomorrow, where everyone that has something real shares it with those who have nothing. Why can’t it begin today? Why shouldn’t it begin today? The message that was given to you this morning came, because on Friday night a gentleman came to me after I had ministered the Word. And he said, Do you know there is one verse of Scripture that the Lord has made precious to my heart as you have been speaking tonight. I said, What’s that? He said, “And He was willingly received into the ship.” (John 6:21) That just laid hold upon me. I saw something. I went home. I was chewing it over, meditating upon it, praying about it, studying it, and the message that was given to you this morning has grown up out of something that was shared with me by a humble lay believer not far away. This is what we mean. You cannot keep it unless you give it. It is not yours unless you share it. And this is the evangelism of tomorrow.
You are in a prison camp, or you are in a community, you are under great privation in distress, and somebody is suffering, what are you going to do? The Spirit of God is going to quicken something to your heart and quietly you will share it with them. Why shouldn’t it begin now? Why must we wait until we are in prison camps? Why must we wait until every privilege is taken away, and do the thing we ought to be doing, because it is wise and right, and good and proper.
To the next thing. Admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. The Word is real, and worship is continuous. This is part of evangelism. Don’t you understand that you cannot convert anybody to Christ until they have been converted to you? Did you know that? You never can win anybody to Christ until they have been won to you. And you say, Well, dear friend, won’t you accept Jesus so you’ll go to Heaven when you die. And they look at you, sour and pained, and sore and miserable, and bitter and full of strive and distress, and they say, You are talking about dying. What about living? Oh, can’t you understand that they have to be converted to us, before they can be converted to Christ. You say, I never heard that before. Well, you have heard things similar to it. For this is nothing new. They have to be
won to you before they can be won to Him. And, therefore, He says that there is to be an element in our life, there is to be a quality in our life that is going to be winsome, there is going to be something about us that is going to make those who want to know Him because they have walked with us. Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Every once in a while you meet someone like that. They are just radiant. They are just absolutely transparent, incandescent with the presence of the Lord.
I’ve told you about him before. I’ll tell you again. If I stay longer, I’ll tell you some time in the future, because I believe that this is what the Spirit of God wants to do in your heart and life. Smith Wigglesworth1, that dear man that loved the Lord so dearly, that plumber, that man who was a tradesman, who had met Christ, and knew the fullness of the Spirit. A little girl she knew him and that SW had taken her on his knee and prayed for her and held her, for he was a friend of the family. But it is Smith Wigglesworth who was going down from London to Derby, to Ebson where the race was held, and it was during race season, but he was not going down for the purpose of witnessing the race. He got into a compartment and there were two clergymen there, and a man who obviously by his dress was going down to the race, and by his looking at the odds sheet was planning to do betting. And so the clergymen were talking about the day it gave them, and the other man silently was making his plans for the loss of his money. And Mr. Wigglesworth looked at all of them and was gravely concerned, gravely burdened. So he went out into the corridor, slipped out of the compartment, and out into the corridor, and he walked up and down, praying, and crying out to God, and worshipping, worshiping, worshipping the Lord, in Psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in his heart to the Lord, just crying out to God in the midst of worship for these that were in the compartment with him, that he had no right to intrude upon their privacy, and no right to preach to them, but he said, O God, do something in me that will open the way. And when he had spent this time, maybe half an hour just walking up, down, praying, and praising, and worshipping, adoring, came to his compartment door, quietly slipped it open, slipped it closed behind him and stood there a moment, looking where to sit down, and one of the clergymen looked up at him, looked up at him, and then looked up again. With a very still, quiet voice, he said, Sir, I do not know who you are, but you convince me of my sin. And the second clergyman looked up and said, And me of mine. And the man put his paper down through tear-filled eyes he said, I don’t know what sin is or what has happened, but, he said, I want to pray. And within just a moment, without Smith Wigglesworth saying a word, these three men were knelling against the seats on either side of the compartment, praying.
What was it? Oh, it was the glory of Christ, presence of Christ. It was that ultimate witness, that ultimate ministry. It was Jesus Christ Himself in the presence of another, manifesting Himself through that other. And this is the evangelism that the world waits for. O, they have been overwhelmed by our lives, and they have been impressed by our erudition, and they have been amazed by our Scripture memory. They have been just appalled by our lack of touch with their daily lives and reality, but you know, they have seen everything but Christ. And this is what they are waiting for. And so the evangelism of tomorrow is going to be an evangelism similar to that of the first century when it was said and they took note that they had been with Jesus. And it is this that I long for myself, and it is this that I trust that you will long for yourself, and that together we shall understand that it is not simply the Word at work through us, but it is worship from within us, and it is knowing Him, and living in fellowship with Him with constant conscious communion with Him. This is the evangelism of tomorrow. Oh, it is not a great center, it is not a great program, it is not a great activity, but it is the presence of the risen Christ through our humble vessels where He can manifest Himself. And this is what He is waiting for in you, and this is the evangelism tomorrow.
We may not have our crusades. We may not have our rallies. We may not have our efforts, and our weeks of special emphasis tomorrow, but what we can have is worship of the risen Christ until, filling us with Himself, we can become incandescent with His presence. This evangelism of tomorrow ought to begin today. This is evangelism, you say. For the evangel is the good news that God will tabernacle with men, that He will forgive sins, He will wash away the past, and He will fill us with Himself.
I read some time ago of a group of business men meeting down in Miami in the same hotel that the teamsters were meeting. And these people were there for fellowship, just to worship the Lord, and praise the Lord, and assure one another’s hearts in the Lord, and these teamsters coming out of their meeting there (Jimmy Harper and all the other co-horts with him) and
1 Smith Wigglesworth (1859-1947) A British evangelist.
something happened. And one time one of the men came up to one of these brethren and said, I don’t know what it is, but there is something about you. I would like to talk with you. Will you come and have a sandwich with me? And they went down into a restaurant that was open in the hotel, and they began to talk about the Lord. And this man said, I have never heard anything like this. He said, Do you mean that Jesus Christ will come into my heart and my life? I gave up church when I was a boy in my teens. I haven’t been back since, but nobody told me Christ would come into my life. I don’t want church, but I want Him. And that next day, this man walked out into the swimming pool and was baptized as a testimony to the fact that during the night hours Jesus Christ had come into his heart. They never could have gotten him with argument and persuasion, but he had to see the presence of Christ. Worship that is going to make us translucent and incandescent with His presence. And this is the evangelism of tomorrow, when you where you are recognize that it is the Lord Jesus Christ filling you, and revealing Himself through you. We may not have the privilege of gathering people and using the newspapers for advertising and the radio to bring the crowd, but we can still know Him and worship Him, and Love Him. So why don’t we do it today?
And then we have the last thing. And this is whatsoever ye do in word or deed; do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. This is work that is sanctified to be a testimony for Christ. I would like to spend about six weeks talking with you about three hours a day about some of the things that are being pressed upon my mind from this area, for I am convinced that it was God’s intention for us to work, to work with our hands, and to work with our brains, and to work meaningfully, and to put integrity into our work. For He has sanctified our work. And He has said that the work that we do and the manner in which we do it, and the purpose for which we do it is part of’ our witness for Christ. I believe that part of our evangelism of tomorrow is going to be right in this level. I know this. I know that I have had business men say to me, even in this area, and certainly elsewhere in the country, that it is very dangerous to hire Christians, because so frequently they feel that because the employer is a Christian, and they are Christians, that all they have to do is just glide through the task, getting by with as little contribution as possible.
And I had one Christian business man say to me, If a man comes to me and says he is a Christian, he has two strikes against him right then for employment in our firm, because our experience has been so often that they are not going to render the kind of service that we feel a company that has stockholders to remember will deserve. Oh, this ought not to be the case, and thank God it is the exception, and thank God the business man who said it realized that it was the exception. But, on, I trust that we are going to recognize that part of our evangelism is the manner in which we do our work, whatever that work may be. It says, Giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. Work is not something to be endured. Work is not something to be tolerated. Work is not something to try to escape from. God has sanctified work and made it meaningful to the human personality. And you ought to thank God for work, for the ability to do the work, and for the capacity to increase your ability to work. And we ought to recognize that, however menial the task may be, sweeping the floor... You say, There is nothing very elevating about that. Well I assure you of this, that you can glorify Him, and have a witness in it if you will sweep to the glory of Christ. And these is no such thing as work that carries not dignity with it. I believe in work. I believe in it. I believe that it is God’s intention and purpose for us to learn how to work.
If I had my way, I would do this, and do it forthwith. No one would have the right to get a college education at government expense in tax supported schools, until he had completed at least two years of an apprenticeship, because I think that it is imperative for the welfare of human personality, and to keep our mental hospitals from being filled, and that people should understand the creative necessity of their spirits for work, meaningful work, and that they should also understand the kind of therapy in the kind of world that the pressures that this world we live in has.
I believe, dear friends, that right here we have one of the principles of evangelism of tomorrow, whatsoever you do in word or in deed, do all on account of the reputation of Jesus Christ. But you see work is for gainful employment. We sing, Work for the night is coming, and this work is going to be the highest of our tasks, and that is to be available to Jesus Christ for everything He wants to do in us and through us. This is your ultimate task. You are a laborer, a co-laborer with Him. And therefore work is more than that. Work is the gainful use of your time, and gaining is not in terms of the money that you will put in your pocket, but the glory that will come to the Son of God. And therefore, part of your evangelism is to be available to Jesus Christ to work. And that work is going to be to be hands to Him, feet to Him, be lips to Him, ears, brains, eyes, to Him so that the Lord Jesus through you can do what He wants to do. I have told you about her. I close by relating it again, for some have certainly not
heard. My dear friend, Mrs. Cordekamp from up in northern Minnesota. She was down in Iowa. She and her husband worked a lifetime to save enough money on their Iowa farm so they could retire and live at ease in Cedar Rapids. Well they did. They had an auction. They sold the farm, the land, and took in quite a sizeable sum of money, and invested it in Samuel Insull stocks and bonds. And you know what happened to the Insull Empire. It collapsed. And one day they went to bed rich, and the next day they woke up with a little money in a checking account, some $1500 and their house free and clear. She rented out rooms to stretch her cash, and then one summer she went up to Lake Osakis to a SIM missionary conference, heard missionaries speak, and heard the challenge, and realized that she was not making her life count for eternity, was not working in His will and purpose, and so she sold her house, sent the money in to build a mission station, and with the check came in her letter she said, And I have been invited up to Oak Hills Fellowship in northern Minnesota to be their laundress. And so she went up there to wash the linen for the missionaries, and the school, and the fellowship up at Bemidji, Minnesota. But she was working. She realized that God had called her there to work. And so she would hear about some family out in the Jack pines, poor, and mother sick, father working hard to get a little money for the family. And then she would have someone take her out, and say, Now look, I want you to take me out tonight, and come and get me tomorrow morning so I can be here at the fellowship in time for work. And she would go out. She would have clean linen, clean bedding, clean clothes for the children which she had gotten from the supply that was there, and a big container of soup some meat, and bread, soap powder. And she would come in, and she would build a fire if the house was cold, and she would change the sheets, and bathe the sick mother, and care for the kiddies, and feed them the warm soup, and then scrub the floor. And then she would just sit down, and they would say, “Why did you come, Mrs. Cordekamp?” And she said, “I just came because I love Jesus.” And then she would tell in her own humble way what the Lord Jesus Christ had done for her. The next morning they would come for her pick her up. She had not slept that night, feverish mother, and sick crying children, but that was all right. And she would go back to the fellowship to do the day’s laundry and ironing. You see, she had learned that whatever she did in word or in deed, she was doing all for God’s glory.
And I believe the evangelism of tomorrow is the evangelism that is going to touch the whole man. It is not going to be to slip a tract alone, or to just give a word. It is going to be to identify ourselves with the need of the people and realize that in sanctified work we have the means of revealing the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here it is, the evangelism of tomorrow is the word hidden in our hearts, and worship that flows constantly and work that has been sanctified to the glory of Christ. Why cannot that evangelism begin today?
Shall we bow in prayer? Our Father, we thank and praise Thee, that Thou hast given to us this testimony of the risen Christ, the Lord Jesus who died and rose again that He might redeem us unto Himself. We pray for everyone that is present. We pray for Thy truth. We trust it has found its way, its lodgment in hearts. We ask that the Holy Ghost will brood over us. Lord Jesus, perhaps there is someone who has come in tonight with a load of sin and guilt unclean, unsaved. Might they realize that Thou dost love them, Thou art standing at the door of their heart, waiting to be invited in, to rule and to cleanse, to forgive and to pardon, to make whole, and Father, here are Christians who have been attending church and service. They have been contributing to the means and ministry. They have been serving in some capacity in the organization. And they have been bringing others out from time to time, to hear speakers. Lord, we thank Thee for this and it is good. But we believe it is only a portion of what Thou dost want from us. Thou dost want Thy Word to be hidden in our hearts and come alive, like a seed buried that springs to life. Thou dost want worship to be constant, joyous, the effervescence of Thy presence manifest in our illumined hearts and minds, in our incandescent spirits. People ought to know, not only because we say so, but because something of Thy marvelous presence, that we have been with Jesus. And then, our Father, our work, we ought to do it gladly as unto Thee, and we ought to realize that it is not just the 8 hours we give to an employer, but that we are serving the Lord Christ, and available to Him for overtime in any way or manner, or condition that He chooses. And grant that the ministry of the evangelism of tomorrow that will be forced upon us, perhaps, because of the change of circumstance shall begin gladly and willingly in us today. So to that end, seal this ministry.
Invitation
Our Father, we thank Thee for the one whose hand has been raised. O God of Grace, Thou knowest the need of this heart and all that is behind it. For the sake of our Lord Jesus, show him right now that Thy Son died that he might live, shed His blood in
his place, all of his sin has been carried and washed away. And Thou has raised Thy Son from the dead to testify that the penalty is fully paid. Might there come to him tonight a glad commitment to the Lord Jesus, an opening of the heart’s door to invite Him in. O Lord Jesus, do Thou make Thyself wonderfully real to the one who has made known his need by upraised hand tonight, and grant Lord that each of us as we go shall remember that it is the Word in us richly, it is the worship constantly, and the work gladly that characterizes the evangelism in the witness of tomorrow. Might it begin truly tomorrow as we make our way back to the place of responsibility might we serve the Lord Christ.
Shall we stand for the benediction? Both the one whose hand has been raised and others of you who may have need, we invite you to remain where you are quietly, seated till others have gone. We will come and talk with you and pray with you and open the Word. If there is anyone who has reason to want to converse further, we invite you to stay. Now “may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, the communion and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be and abide upon us, now and until Jesus comes again. Amen.” (II Cor. 13:14)
* Reference such as: Delivered at The Gospel Tabernacle Church, New York City on Sunday Evening, June 10, 1962 by Paris W. Reidhead, Pastor. ©PRBTMI 1962
Be the first to react on this!
Paris Reidhead (1919 - 1992)
Was a Christian missionary, teacher, writer, and advocate of economic development in impoverished nations. A spiritual crisis during this period—as he described two decades later in what is probably his best-known recorded teaching, "Ten Shekels and a Shirt"--left Reidhead with the conviction that much of evangelicalism had adopted utilitarian and humanistic philosophies contradictory to Biblical teaching. The end of all being, he came to believe, was not the happiness of man, but the glorification of God. This theme would recur throughout his later teaching.Since Mr. Reidhead's death in 1992, Bible Teaching Ministries, Inc. continues under the leadership of his wife, Marjorie, and daughter, Virginia Teitt, a dedicated Board, and the many people who have donated time and talent after being changed by God’s Word through this message. The message of the Gospel is reaching an ever-widening audience all over the world.