The Momentous Task
Author: Michael Gott
Every evangelist would do well to honestly rethink the challenge that is faced in the work of evangelism. It could be called “the momentous task” that we are called by God to do.
Jesus enlightens us tremendously to fully understand the true condition of human lostness. He did this by using the vivid language of physical human disability. He spoke of man as blind, blind to his condition and blind to God’s light and truth. He spoke of man as being deaf, without the ability to hear His voice and respond to it. Again, He said we are lame. This is evident in that we walk a crooked path, and we are unable to walk in His ways. Humans will not and cannot walk straight. We are dumb, unable to speak with a tongue of truth and in tones of righteousness. Even more extreme, we are called dead, spiritually dead and without any life whatsoever.
Then Jesus used another powerful image, saying we are captured by satanic forces beyond our control and held as his prisoner. Captured and condemned!
So, let’s list it all—both morally and spiritually we are dead and dumb, blind and lame; we are condemned as prisoners of Satan and unable to hear the voice that could set us free. It is a depressing picture Jesus gives us. It is a state of total hopelessness until we have help from without.
That picture should convince us all that it is ridiculous to suppose that any amount of spirited instruction or passionate preaching can redeem, reach, or rescue people in such a hopeless condition. It takes more, much more! It takes God Himself!
Once we are able to see something of the depth of mankind’s lost condition. We remind ourselves that only Jesus Christ by His Holy Spirit can open eyes that are blind, and ears that are deaf. He alone can make the dumb to speak and the lame to walk. It will take the supernatural work of God to rescue the slave from Satan’s prison of death. He alone can give life to the dead; moving the will, pricking the conscience, awakening the heart, and lifting the veil off the darkened mind. Salvation is of the Lord.
Man has rebelled and is fallen, and an infectious disease has enveloped him. The expression of this condition is expressed in different ways: pride, unbelief, egotism, selfishness, and defiance of God. We dare not weaken our evangelism with an inadequate view of the condition of the human heart.
We remember that it is not just the worst of man’s sins but the best of man’s acts that declares him a sinner. C. S. Lewis said, “Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement; he is a rebel who must lay down his arms.”
I once read of a famous London preacher who was asked to conduct an evangelistic mission at Cambridge University. “I hear you’re going to lecture to the students at Cambridge on the Christian faith,” a friend remarked. “No,” he replied, “I am going to talk to a group of sinners filled with intellectual pride about Jesus Christ.”
Mark Twain made a quaint remark that deserves to be repeated, “Man is the only animal that blushes—and the only animal that needs to!”
Think with me then—the ultimate and boldest proof of the hopeless situation of man is seen in his hatred of the one and only means of solving his problem—Christ’s and His bloody cross.
Donald Grey Barnhouse helps us by saying, “The Bible does not teach that there is no good in man; the doctrine of total depravity does not mean that. The Bible teaches, rather, that there is no good in man that can satisfy God.”
The evangelist confronts that situation head on, and it is a momentous task. We fail totally without the infinite grace, mercy, and help of God through the Holy Spirit. Not only does God still love all without Christ enough to provide a way for their salvation and the satisfaction of His justice (Romans 3:16-23), but He also sends the powerful assistance of the Holy Spirit to enable us to evangelize them as we preach Christ. Without that assistance we cannot succeed as evangelists. That point cannot be overly stressed in authentic evangelism.
We must admit with all that in mind, that if any preacher ascribes anything of salvation, even the least act, to the ability of humans, he knows nothing of what salvation means, and such a person has failed to gain a biblical understanding of the darkness of the human condition and the greatness of God’s amazing love.
Once all that is firmly in place in the thinking of anyone involved in evangelism, that person is prepared to not only sing, but preach Amazing Grace! And as they say, “Let ‘er fly!”
James Denny was both a great theologian but also a passionate evangelist. He lived until just after the 20th century began.
He often said that the cross was like a barb on the fisherman’s hook. He often told of a friend who was fishing with him in a beautiful Scottish river. Without knowing it, he lost the barb off his hook. He fished and fished without realizing the problem. Of course, he caught nothing. When at last he pulled the line in, he discovered the problem by looking closely. He realized the fish had simply taken the bait and gone their way time and time again.
Denny made his point saying, “The condemnation of our sins in Christ upon the cross is the barb on the hook. If you leave that out of your gospel, I do not deny your bait will be taken, but you will not catch men. You will not create in sinful human hearts that attitude to Christ which was created in the New Testament. You will not annihilate pride, and make Christ the Alpha and Omega in man’s redemption.”
Sam Shoemaker believed 90% of the people in the Episcopalian Church thought that Christianity was a high standing moral ideal leading to better behavior. He said, it is true Christianity is concerned with good and bad, but its real focus is to make dead men alive. The good and bad issue is a byproduct of making people alive toward God through the message of Christ’s dying on the cross to give us new life. The stress must be put on the fact God has done something that man could never do for himself. He came to save us, and Christ died for us in love.
This changes everything. It means evangelistic preaching is more than an invitation but a declaration, a declaration of what God has done for us in Christ, something we could never do for ourselves.
It is this, declares John Stott, “which turns Christianity from pious good advice into glorious good news . . .” It is not that God threw us, the drowning ones, a rope. No! He jumped in, tied the rope around us, and lifted us out. That’s the gospel!
We need Billy Graham’s reminder, “The Holy Spirit is the great communicator. Without His supernatural work there would be no such thing as conversion. Satan puts a veil over the truth, and this can be penetrated only by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Woody Allen was once interviewed on French television. He agreed to an hour long interview with several reporters asking various questions. Near the end a reporter asked the most unusual question—“Do you believe in God?” Allen responded, “No, I am an atheist.” But he smiled and went on to say, “In my better moments I am an agnostic—maybe there is a God, but I don’t know.” The follow-up question was most amazing, “If there were a God, and He could say one thing to you, what would you like to hear Him say?” Woody Allen, the whimsical comedian, was serious for just a moment and responded, “You are forgiven!”
That is the longing of millions whether they say it or not. And we have good news for them. The good news is that Christ Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and was raised from the dead on the third day. That’s called the gospel, and it makes it possible for every person to hear God say, “You are forgiven.”
The gospel is not only amazingly simply, it is simply amazing. In the Old Testament God laid down His law to us. In the New Testament God laid down His life for us. In the Old Testament He laid down His law, and we couldn’t keep it. In the New Testament He laid down His life for us, and all we have to do is to accept it.
Ours is the momentous task of getting people to accept it, and yet we have God and all the power of His Spirit to help us.