Let me suggest that there are three elements to reaching people: the commission, the conviction, and the courage.
Scripture gives us our commission from the lips of the Saviour Himself, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mk. 16:15). The Lord sent His disciples into all the world to proclaim the Good News. I, as a Christian, owe my neighbor the gospel. Paul said, “I am a debtor both to the Greek and to the barbarian, both to the wise and to the unwise.” I am a debtor because Christ died for me, and He is the One who sends me.
It is difficult to get a commission like “Go” and not know what I am going for, where I am going, or what I am supposed to do. So the Lord outlines this for us. In John 4:35, the Lord Jesus said, “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” Normally speaking, harvest time was four months away. But, He says, “Lift up your eyes,…the fields…are white already”! He was saying, “Lift up your eyes, and look out over Samaria (where they presently were). You will see fields of people that are ready for harvest, a multitude that need the gospel of the grace of God. Go out there and tell them–there is no time to lose!”
In Luke 10:2, He adds, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth laborers into His harvest.” I think we agree that if we look out over the fields in our own communities, you see fields of people stretching to the horizon–people that need the gospel. At the same time, Jesus said, “the laborers are few.” Compared to the multitudes that are there, there are very few people that are out there willing to “spend and be spent” for the sake of the Saviour.
Stop and think for a minute. Look at your town, your county, your province or state, your country. Think of the last time you were handed a gospel tract, or heard an open-air preacher or had someone share heaven’s good news with you. There are few people that are out there telling about the Lord Jesus Christ.
What percentage have heard the gospel? I haven’t tried to come up with a precise answer. But what truly evangelical work is there in your area? How many have responded to the message? About 13 years ago, when we moved into the little town of Tavistock, we looked over the town and there was no soundly evangelical work there. Here was a community with all kinds of religious people, but no evangelical work. There were probably at least 5 or 6 big buildings there representing 200, 300, 400 people in each congregation with a minister getting up telling them anything but the true gospel. That was the state of affairs. To “lift up your eyes,” is just not a passing glance. Try to size the situation up. What is the need in your area?
There is a desperate need for a fresh vision. People perish without it (Prov. 29:18). The thought here is, where there is no revelation from God, where there is no word coming to the people, they just wander, play religion, go to their services, and consequently they cast off all restraint. People go from bad to worse.
John 3:36 says, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” This present generation, having cast off all restraint, are moving on as fast as the chariot wheels of time will carry them into an endless eternity–without God, without Christ, with absolutely no hope in the world and absolutely no hope for the future. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ saw when He said to His disciples, “Go ye therefore…preach the gospel.”
You say, “Okay. But who is going to provide for me? Lord, you tell me to go, but after all I’ve got to eat, you know?” When the Lord called me into full-time work, I understood that He was going to pay my expenses. I have found that He is absolutely true to His Word. God wants His servants to trust Him.
Along with the commission, we need conviction. Jeremiah was told that he was to go and to prophesy to the people of Israel (Jer. 1:4-10). He responded, “Lord, I am just a child. I can’t do this thing.” And the Lord said, “You just go. I will put words into your mouth; I will be to you whatever you need. Trust Me.”
Jeremiah did that very thing. But when you get to chapter 20, he did get discouraged (vv. 7-9). Reading through Jeremiah, we understand why. He was talking to a rebellious people, a people who didn’t want to listen. It was just uphill plugging all the time. Finally, Jeremiah said, “I can’t handle this any longer. I can’t do it, Lord. I’m just not made of the right stuff.”
Do you remember what happened? The Lord set him on fire! He said, “His word was in me like a burning fire and I could not forbear.” He had to keep going.
Paul was also called by God. The Lord says, “He is a chosen vessel unto Me” (Acts 9:15). Years later, in giving witness to King Agrippa, Paul says, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. God told me what to do, and I went and did it.” Don’t think for one minute that Paul had an easy road to travel. Just read 2 Corinthians 11. But he just kept on going for the sake of the gospel. Conviction! In other words, he couldn’t do anything else. Sometimes people will ask me, “You haven’t retired yet?” My answer is, “Well, I haven’t found the person to hand my retirement papers in to. ”
We will also need courage. Jesus said there will be opposition. “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you…If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (Jn. 15:18).
Will taking the gospel to all nations be an easy job? Are you going to be well received by everybody? Will they come along and pat you on the shoulder and say, “I enjoyed that. Come back again. We just love to be told that we are sinners and are going to hell”? It just doesn’t work that way. But you have to tell them.
Now where are the people we are to reach? Obviously not everybody can go to Africa. But simply lift up your eyes, and there is need around you wherever you are. I was saved when I was 20 years old in 1930. The next morning, I went down and told my mother that I had been saved. That was my first witness. I kept on going–to neighbors and relatives and friends. My oldest brother said, “John, there are more people in the asylum because of religion than for any other cause. Get out of this, or that’s where you will end, too.”
Well, by the grace of God, I haven’t gone there yet. In a matter of a few years, we started open air meetings in towns and villages all over the area. We helped to start an assembly in 1934, the assembly at Wallenstein. In 1935, I went out in full-time gospel ministry, heading first to northern Ontario. I came back to my home area in the fall and started colportage work–getting some books from the bookstore, selling them door-to-door, and trying to get into personal conversations.
We rented halls, advertised our meetings, and preached the gospel. We used Orange halls, town halls, and school houses. Later on, I started doing tent work. I lived in the back of the tent, and did my own song leading and preaching and special singing and handing out hymn books and all the rest of it.
I bought a trailer and we moved from town to town, distributing gospel literature and preaching in the open air. From Kitchener west to Goderich, from Wallenstein north to Owen Sound, there was hardly an assembly in that part of Ontario at all. I thought, “Lord, is this the area you want me to work in?” Well, that is the area that we covered, summer after summer. Every town, every village, every door with gospel literature and preaching in the open air. We did children’s work and then camp work. We also started Bible studies in different homes, beginning in 1936.
As a result of these efforts, by the grace and power of God, about 6 assemblies were started in that area and we were able to help at least 5 others get started in other areas. To Him be the glory; I tell you this simply to remind you that it can be done–and it must be done.
I really don’t think that formulas are all that dependable. But God is dependable. Trust Him; love people for Christ; preach the gospel; water the seed with prayer; teach the Word.
Reaching people where they are–this is what we have tried to do. God has graciously manifested His presence in the witness; people have been saved and assemblies have been started. The work still goes on. Will you join in? Will you answer the commission? Will you have conviction? Will you rise to the challenge and show courage for the sake of the Master?