Remembering What We Are

Author: Michael Gott

At the popular level the majority of church members seem either to have little use for evangelists, or alternatively have the idea they are not really necessarily nor the meetings they hold.  Some attempts are, of course, made by leaders and pastors to reach out to evangelists, but in the main, evangelists today are marginalized.  All too often attempts to use them are short-lived and ineffective.

Added to this is a constant bad press for evangelists.  Any religious personality that does strange things is most often called an “evangelist” for want of a better word.

What, then, in the face of so many false claims and conflicting voices and modern trends are we to say about who we are?

Where shall we begin?  I believe there is only one thing to say that is bedrock safe.  It is this:  we must remember, and it is important to say, we are mere men speaking about God.  And as mere human beings it is not possible for us to know anything at all about Him unless He is willing to tell us about Himself.

So that, all that we report about God, He has generously disclosed about Himself.  God has told us about Himself and all that He desires of us.  It is a complete and full revelation.  The hymn writer captured it in one lone line, “What more can He say than to you He hath said?”
 
It is important to declare we did not discover God; rather, God revealed Himself to us.  It is just as important to say we did not find Jesus; He found us just as He did the early apostles.  The virtue of revealing, of discovering, of first loving is always with God and never with man.  Evangelists must emphasize this truth.

It is the nature of the God of the Bible to reveal Himself to man.  Pagan religions put the emphasis on skillful man, like a spiritual detective, weaving his way through the false clues to find the truth at last.  No, this concept is totally in error.  Rather, the God of the Bible wants us to know Him and has an ever-loving, ever-gracious purpose to make Himself clearly known to humans.

Man cannot and could not attempt to pierce the darkness and the incognito to find God.  Humans have neither the ability nor the desire to do so.  Even if man found God, driven by some human dynamic, it would be with too many distortions to be trusted.  Who could trust it, and who would be the final authority?  The very idea is both useless and presumptuous.

So those who love Jesus must boldly press the issue—God is a God of self disclosure.  That is His nature.  So He speaks and sends light and comes in the very person of His Son; that is God.  That matter cannot be assumed to be understood in our world today, even among Christians.

It is at this point that we face and confront the question of flawless revelation found in the Bible.  The issue of how we find out about God is centered here.  We must be very prepared at this point to tackle that issue.  God has spoken clearly; in fact, without that revelation we cannot say anything of any value about the Lord.  Both the Old and the New Testament make this very clear—both David and Paul speak with authority.  Paul says, for example, “For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him?  In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” (I Corinth. 2:11, NIV)  That is to say, very simply, it takes God to tell us about God!  Here, evangelists stand arms locked!  Together!

So Paul’s point is, that is exactly what God has done.  He gave His spirit to men who recorded the word, and He gives His spirit to interpret the word to the minds of men, who themselves possessed the Spirit, for they are born of the Spirit (John 3).

So, the purpose of this essay is to remind us what the full light of the New Testament indicates is our role as evangelists.  We have not conceived or invented a message—rather, we are reporting it faithfully and, as much as possible, fully.  We are, as evangelists of Jesus Christ, relating and interpreting the message to our own generation.  We are telling people what God has told us.  The well-worn phrase comes into play, “The Bible says.”  Thank you, Billy Graham.

Every evangelist should have carefully examined what the Scriptures and more particularly the New Testament teach and to faithfully and forcefully make the message plain and personal.  Chuck Colson said, “The only way you can speak for God with certainty is to speak from the Bible.”

This distinction is vital; not our message, but His.  Once, an evangelist was confronted in a televised public debate.  “Are you so narrow-minded as to say that you believe salvation is only and exclusively found in Jesus Christ?”  Without batting an eye, the evangelist replied, “That’s exactly what He said, and I believe Him!  If you have a problem with that—you’re problem is with Him, not me.  I just tell people what He said about Himself!”
 
It seems to me that being an evangelist is a useless act and a faulty presumption unless we have this matter of authority fully settled in our thinking.  Authority, preaching authority is the result of being sure of the truth that is preached.  Preaching authority is inherent in truth.  We can say—if a person is not sure about his message, let him keep quiet until he is totally sure!

We are, in that sense, little more than water pipes through which life-giving living water flows to thirsty mankind.  So that is who we are, and that is what we do as evangelists of Jesus.

To add a final point, that is all we are and all we ever hope to be.  We are not “prophets of fad,” we do not run after new teachings found all about us.  The opportunities are abundant today.  We do not lavish our attention on some new thing.  We say, in fact, if it is new, it’s not true!  We stand faithful.

Vance Havner once quipped at a Bible conference, “It has not dawned upon most of us that we do not need some new thing so much as some old things that would be anew if anybody tried them!”

We never tire of saying, “In Him, this Jesus, and in Him alone is salvation.  All other refuges are in vain.”  By preaching Christ, we give single proof that we are authentic evangelists of God.  Eloquent in our simplicity, we faithfully “preach Him.”

Spurgeon said—let me repeat it—“A sermon without Christ as its beginning, middle, and end is a mistake in conception and a crime in execution.”
 
We who know Him best must be best at declaring Him.  We must say—yes, we are mere men, frail and limited, but we are sure of one thing:  Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Jesus alone has brought God into focus and salvation into reach!

In Edinburgh, Scotland, there lived for many years the esteemed preacher Dr. James S. Stewart.  What a preacher he was, so listen as he preaches to preachers:  “It is one thing to learn the technique and mechanics of preaching; it is quite another to preach a sermon which will draw back the veil and make the barriers fall that hide the face of God.”

That is our task.  Let us be faithful and fervent in it!

Top of Page