The Landlord of this entire establishment, the Lord Jesus Christ, has set the bar for His followers in many very important ways. One of those ways was in how He conducted evangelism, reaching out to those who were still in darkness regarding the good news of His kingdom. His clear message to all rebellious human beings always began with the words, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near”. For those of us who have heeded His message, our own message should be the same going out to those who are still in their bondage to sin. This is a message that never changes, as long as the world continues to be hostile to the way of true holiness and salvation, as they instead ‘drink’ from their polluted, broken cisterns in the pursuit of true peace, which yet remains elusive to them.

So then, if we who are now ‘in’ Christ, if we who are gracefully ‘saved by the blood’, if we who are now considered the ‘righteous’ are ourselves in fact ‘barely saved’ (as it is written), then what can we think will actually happen to all the godless sinners remaining under the wrath of God, all those unregenerate lost souls that make up (probably) around 98% of the world’s population? Instead of being in direct opposition to it, many of them haven’t even ever HEARD the gospel to disbelieve it! And that fact should weigh heavily on us as believers, knowing that eternal destruction awaits those who are not in Christ, and should be a motivator to get both creative and busy with our evangelism; the harvest is plenty indeed, but the workers are sadly very few.

We know that the whole message about God’s Son being crucified by the Roman empire on a cruel, torturous execution device around 2000 years ago seems to be complete foolishness in the minds of those dwelling in their spiritual darkness, of those who are on their merry way to perishing eternally. We who know our absolute need for minute by minute divine help when it comes to resisting and overcoming evil, and we who know of our dire need for forgiveness for the many ways we have already each terribly treated both God and other people during our short lives, we are yet the only ones who also know that that desperately sombre and solemn event at the humble and painful cross in Jerusalem all those years ago is ITSELF the very POWER of God, for it is there where we can now dare to hope, where once there was no hope for us; it is there that we see justice and mercy kiss, and at once see the full strength of the love of God for broken human beings, and yet in the same hit, His wrathful eternal severity over sin.

We must always remember that it is God alone who graciously gave His laws to the Jews, in order for both them and the rest of the world to recognise that we are all sinners (that should be) desperate for mercy from Him; yet He who is the ultimate Judge of the world is also the gracious and merciful Saviour too. As almighty Judge, He ALONE has the righteous power to save or to destroy anybody He wants, without His morality being called into question; but, it should be noted that even as His servants, we cannot and do not have such judgement power during this earthly life. Having been His wretched enemies ourselves, then finding pardon from Him, how can we then go on to judge and condemn our neighbours as if WE proudly have a right to do so, now we are so ‘informed’ about sin? No. We must instead be careful to be as gentle as possible with them, praying for our words to be ‘seasoned with salt’, whenever we broach the subject of the Lord’s salvation in our conversations with unbelievers.

Let me be clear; it ISN’T at all our responsibility to judge outsiders of the body of Christ. We can of course be aware that they are under the judgement of the Lord by default, simply from having not received and believed the gospel yet; that fact should give us an urgency to tell as many people as we can about the good news that saves, for we know from scripture that God wants everyone to be saved, and to personally know Him and listen to His instruction, unto eternal life. We can therefore be good ambassadors for Him in that regard, and it is our honour as His servants to make other people aware of the severe danger they are in.

Having said all that though, it certainly IS our responsibility to judge those INSIDE the church who are continuing to sin in spite of them claiming to love and follow God, for they are like cancer to the body, corrupting it from the inside out. Those sorts of sinning people are to be absolutely rejected by the church if they do not heed a rebuke over it, until they truly repent of and turn away from whatever they are willingly doing that is evil in the sight of God. Then after repentance, reconciliation can happen; but only then. In other words, as believers we can only hold righteous judgement over other sinners that are confessing Christ; yet we must not ever judge those who are clearly in the dark about the gospel and salvation, and instead we must try to witness to them in the best way we know how, in order that they would repent and follow the way to eternal life. Believers who have known the heavenly gift SHOULD be completely done with sin; anyone who believes and yet remains in wilful sin is worse than a devil worshipper – take my advice and have nothing to do with them, until they show repentance. Handing a believer who is sinning ‘over to satan’ is the best kind of evangelism for them.

Of course, as followers of the Lord of holy love, it is natural for us to want to try and please everyone in everything we do. We don’t want to just do what is best for ourselves anymore; no. We should always try to do what is best for others, so that many may be saved in the end. We must strive to have good reputations among our peers and colleagues, and especially around worldly people, which will come easily if one truly is following the path of holiness, for no mud can stick to someone who has committed themselves to living a life of loving purity. This is a main witness of our faith to those remaining in the dark, and it fits nicely with any candid testimony we are giving to them about the goodness and grace of God in our own lives, for righteous living confirms the truth about what we are saying of Him and His kingdom. It verifies that we have personally been changed for the much better, and that the opportunity is also open and available for others. As it is written, we defeat the devil and his evil ways by the word of our testimony AND by the blood of the Lamb; they both go hand in hand.

The ‘Son of Man’ is a title that Jesus called Himself as a reference that He, as the only begotten Son of God, was incarnated from Spirit by being born of an earthly creature, a woman. Why then did the divine become flesh, the spiritual become physical? Put simply, He came to seek and save those who are lost. Yes, that’s the basic truth in its skeleton form; Jehovah sent His Son into the world NOT to judge the world (yet), but to save the world THROUGH Him, by faith in His sacrifice for us, which leads to our obedience to His commandments and other fruits of salvation. You can be sure that there is salvation in NO ONE and NOTHING else! The most High God has given NO OTHER name under heaven by which we must be saved. This is all key to understand when it comes to evangelism, because it is both the motivation for us to work hard in the harvest, and is also the actual ‘product’ we are ‘selling’ to others, having received and tasted for ourselves, and known it is right and good.

In His amazing counter-intuitive divine wisdom, Jehovah has seen to it that the world will never know Him through mere human wisdom. Human wisdom is mostly about prosperity, about betterance, about getting ahead; it’s about spiritual evolution. No. Instead, He has used the ‘foolish’ message about the horrific death of the Son of God on that cross, to save those who honestly believe that this event really IS the way to eternal life. Why is it considered foolish, you might ask? Try to earnestly think about it for a second, especially if you grew up from your youth always hearing the gospel in church, for it’s very possible that you are now desensitised to it’s seeming absurdity as a result: let’s spell it out. A torturous, painful execution of a solitary, single, poor Jewish man (albeit a teacher and miracle worker), dying a shameful, criminal’s death, and seeming to have made no real impact on the wider world at all at that time, who now brings TRUE LIFE to all who believe that their own sins are spiritually nailed along with Him to that rugged cross. From a purely human point of view, using their human logic and ‘wisdom’, it’s quite understandable that the world can’t see (and perhaps doesn’t even ever want to see) that this agonising, bloody, murderous death of Jesus’s perfect flesh now BUYS His ENEMIES (the rest of humanity) eternal life, and reconciliation with God, His Father! It’s incomprehensible to them that it is HIS sacrifice that pacifies His Father’s righteous wrath over all of us who have transgressed the moral law! It’s just total craziness to them, even more, it’s complete madness! To admit that one is evil is very humiliating; to admit a need for salvation is very humbling. People in darkness refuse to admit both, because it’s too deep to confess; and here lies the issue. Fear and pride working in tandem.

Why mention this? Because it is very important to understand the mindset of those who will potentially listen to what we have to say. For those of us who have heard this truth for years, it sounds perfectly plausible and reasonable to us (of course). But we need to also be aware that God has chosen that which is foolish in the eyes of the world to save child-like souls who believe in Him and His-story, to shame the ‘wise’ and the learned, to shame those who are too ‘adult’ and logical to believe in such things as the miraculous or spiritual.

If this message I’m preaching right now is still hidden behind a ‘veil’ to some of you, let me warn you that it is hidden only from people who are perishing. Perishing people might continue to breathe their breath on earth for years to come, they might continue to live (what the world considers) good lives until the end of their long lives, drinking good wine, eating good food and often enjoying the sunset, making love and bringing up their children and grandchildren well; but as believers we are to ‘let the spiritually dead bury their own dead’! Those things have no intrinsic meaning without Christ. It is all meaningless and futile in the face of eternity, for we must all stand before our Maker and give an account for our lives; may we remember that our own righteousness cannot save us; and for those that will eternally perish, they will have the terrible shame of giving Almighty God an account for why they rejected the Son of God’s sacrifice, before they are destroyed. Christians can also live good lives like that too, but they should be lives that find their intrinsic meaning IN Christ, revolving around Him and His kingdom. They are also lives marked by service and self-sacrifice, and (of course) evangelism.

Rabbi Paul of Tarsus’s mission was to preach the good news of the cross and resurrection wherever the name of Christ had never been heard. You can read about how he was treated as a result, throughout the world, because of that message. Those of us who have already read about it know that he was treated VERY badly in most places he went to. So, do not be shocked if you receive a similar reception today, for to those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom, and are treated as such by them. But to those who are ‘being saved’, we are a life-giving perfume, a sweet scent that captures their interests and imaginations as the Lord secretly draws them towards Himself. I say, with a hesitancy from knowing the weakness of my own flesh, that any redeemed soul is worth a lifetime of pain and suffering, if we can have the courage to bear it. Thankfully, the Lord gives us all the strength and encouragement we need to overcome the world, if we stay close to Him, and He told us that the servants will be treated no better than the Master was; yet we know His Spirit and have eternal life, and as a result we have a strong desire to share that knowledge with others, and that should override any fear over those who would abuse or kill the body.

Our perpetual duty to the Lord as His servants is to go and preach about the Kingdom of God, however foolish it may sound to those that hide from the light lest their sins be exposed. Don’t be intimidated in any way by the enemies of this good news either. Don’t let them sway you away from your duty to evangelise, for it’s (weirdly) actually a sign to both them and us that they are going to be eventually destroyed, but on the other hand that we who are evangelising this excellent news are going to be saved in the end, even by God Himself! Praise the Lord!

It is written that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”. But how can anyone call on Him to save them unless they have firstly heard about Him and secondly have then believed in Him? How can they even hear about Him and believe in Him in the first place, unless someone tells them the candid message of the cross, and the state of the human soul, and the hope we have in the resurrection? How beautiful are the feet of those messengers who bring such good news to the world! We can be sure that whoever brings such sinners back from wandering around blinded in the darkness will actually help save those people from certain spiritual death, and at the same time be a catalyst in bringing about the forgiveness of many sins. So then, don’t be afraid to preach the TRUE word of God. Be prepared to testify whenever the opportunity comes, whether the time is favourable in your eyes or not.

It is written that at the end of time as we know it, everyone who has ever lived will be tested with a kind of spiritual ‘judgement’ fire. It is that particular fire that will reveal and expose what kind of work each person has done during their lives. This fire will show if a person’s work has any value in the eyes of the Lord. Even during our earthly lives, fiery trials show that one’s faith in Christ is genuine, and it gives God great glory when someone stands firm in those trials, trusting fully in the Lord to help and deliver them. It is also written that our God IS a devouring fire. Is it a coincidence that it is said that ungodly people will be destroyed by fire? This spiritual fire I’m speaking of both purifies and judges, and all souls will be tested by it. It is our prerogative to let everyone know to expect what’s coming in the form of this fiery judgement, and to also let them know that there is an escape route from it; but believers must also pass through their own earthly fiery trials, and ironically they usually come from telling others about the expected judgement fire. Expect it to come! Fire comes to us, sinner or saint, whether we like it or not. But it’s better to be purified than destroyed by it. Don’t be afraid; tell everyone about it!