A World Waiting To Be Won
Index
Introduction ( by Alan Eyre)
1. We're All Preachers: Motivations For Preaching
1.1 Joyful Urgency
1.2 Making Disciples
1.3 The Focused Life
2. Doctrine Based Preaching
2.1 The Bible is God's inspired, infallible word.
3. “Witnesses unto me”
3-1 “Witnesses unto me”
3-2 Witnessing For Christ
3-3 Paul Preaching Christ
3-4 Boldness In Witness
3-5 The Servant Songs
3-6 The Proof Of The Resurrection Is The Church
3-7 Preaching As Christ Did
4. Humility And Preaching
4-1 Humility And Preaching
4-2 Bent Knees, Wet Eyes, Broken Hearts: Emotion In Preaching
4-3 The More Real, The More Credible
4-4 Preaching In The Workplace: Sample Dialogues
4-5 Guilt And Grace
4-5-1The Extent Of Grace
4-5-2 Grace And Guilt
4-5-3 True And False Guilt
4-5-4 Barriers Against Grace
5. “Into all the world”
5-1 “Into all the world”
5-2 The Great Commission
5-3 The Light Of The World
5-4 Preaching “To every creature”
5-5 Latter Day Fulfilment Of The Great Commission
5-6 The Great Commission In Matthew
5-7 The Great Commission In Mark And Luke
5-8 The Great Commission In John
5-9 Reaching The Unreached
6. Touching The Raw Nerve In Preaching
6. Touching The Raw Nerve In Preaching
6-1 Preaching: Workshop Dialogues
7. Dealing With Error Whilst Preaching Truth
7-1 The Word Will Not Return Void
7-2 The Teaching Style Of Jesus
7-3 Paul's Teaching Style
7-4 Patient Teaching And Preaching
7-5 Glorifying God In Preaching
8. The Hopefulness Of The Preacher
8-1 A Positive Spirit In Preaching
9. Christians Unlimited
9-1 Christians Unlimited
9-2 Limiting God
9-3 The Power Of Preaching
9-4 God Chooses To Depend Upon Us
9-5 Fulfilling The Sufferings Of Jesus
9-6 Bringing People To Faith
9-7 The Limitations Of Pastoral Work
9-8 The Unlimited Christian Potential
9-9 Expanding Horizons In Christ
10. The Child In The Midst: Simplicity In Preaching
11. A World Waiting To Be Won: The Latter Day Expansion Of The Gospel
12. Christian Self-Perception
12-1 Preaching By Door Knocking: Dialogues
13. The Christian Crisis Of Conscience
14. People Matter
14-1 People Matter
14-2 A Feeling God
14-3 The Personal Pleading Of The Prophets
14-4 Passionate Preaching And Prayer
15. Hearts That Bleed
15-1 Hearts That Bleed
15-2 The Parable of The Three Friends
15-3 Passion For The Lost
15-4 Loving Our Brethren
15-5 Reaching Those Who Left Church
15-6 The Heart Of Jesus
15-7 The Value Of Persons
15-8 A dehumanized world
15-9 Grieving for others
15-10-1 The Spirit Of Prophecy
15-10-2 The Counter-Cultural Message Of The Hebrew Prophets
15-10-3 Frontal Attack On Indifference
15-10-4 The Prophetic Attack On Pride And Wealth
15-10-5 The Prophets And Injustice
15-10-6 The Prophetic Criticism Of Israel’s Religion
15-10-7 The Prophetic Experience And Prophetic Consciousness
16. Salt Of The Earth: The Power Of Influence
17. Some Thoughts On Preaching (Alan Eyre)
17. 1“THIS GOD IS OUR GOD”
17.2 THE ORGANIZATION OF PREACHING WORK
18. I Have A Dream: The Church In The Last Days
19. Wounded Christian Soldiers
19-1 Christians Who Fall Away
19-2 Not Giving Or Taking Offence
19-3 Paul And Philemon
19-4 Vendettas And Hatred In The Church
20. The Urgency Of Our Task
20-1 The Urgency Of The Preacher
20-2 The Apostles’ Preaching
20-3 Urgent Response To The Gospel
21. The Primary Importance Of Preaching
22. We Will Be Saved
22-1 Assurance Of Salvation
22-2 Believing In Salvation
22-3 “Eternal life” Assured Now
22-4 Preaching The Good News
23. The Loneliness Phenomenon
24. How To Fund Missionary Work
Appendix 1: Follow You, Follow Me (Some thoughts on eldership in a mission context)
1-1 Pastoral care in mission churches
1-2 All Christians Are Equal
1-3 All Christians Are Responsible
1-4 The Strategy Of Jesus
1-5 Elders And Deacons
1-6 Bishops And Elders
1-7 Paul As The Model Elder
1-8 The Servant Leader
Appendix: Elders And Romans 13
Appendix 2: Winning The West
2-1 Missionary Work In The West: Trends From Canada
2-2 The Potential Of The Unchurched In The W est
2-3 Australian Church Surveys
Appendix 3: One To One Preaching: Sample Dialogues
3-1 Building rapport in conversations
Appendix 4: Why Do Some Areas Respond More Than Others?
Appendix 5: “To the Jew first”
5-1 Why We Should Preach To Israel
5-2 Preaching To Israel In The Last Days
5-3 The Preaching Commission Of Isaiah 40
5-3-1 John The Baptist's Style Of Preaching
Appendix 6: Tears In Heaven: A Missionary Obituary
Appendix 7: Capitalism And Welfare Policy In The Mission Field
Appendix 8: Missionary Training Program
The Program [] Carelinks Missionary Method [] Some Psychology for Preachers [] Dealing with the Poor [] Aspergers [] Giving Your First Bible Talk
FOREWORD
This is a book for all of us who have “wholeheartedly obeyed” the Biblical doctrines of salvation and “the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Romans 6:17; Jude 3). The key word, the operative concept, is “entrusted”. If we invest in a Trust Company, we expect profits as well as the company directors who manage our funds. The Lord Jesus has “entrusted” his treasure to us only and solely because he expects to get a return on his venture capital through our faithful effort (Luke 19:11-27). We may share in that return if he approves our work.
This book contains no new ideas. For those of us who have been ‘in the truth’ for years, what Duncan Heaster tells us in this book is well known and familiar. Peter’s letters, the apostle tells us himself, were written “as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Saviour through your apostles” (2 Peter 3:1-2). There can be little doubt that “the command” Peter has in mind is the command to preach the truth. “A World Waiting To Be Won” is exactly like those important epistles.
Yet, after twenty centuries since the angels sang of God’s goodwill to men above the fields of Bethlehem, our brotherhood needs this book. We need it desperately. For two big reasons we need it.
The first and principal reason is simple. “Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest” (John 4:35). Every magazine in the brotherhood shouts this message. The situation is exactly the same as our Lord Jesus faced himself at the time he spoke those words: the labourers are few. The task before us requires total commitment from us all, however small our individual contribution may be.
The second reason we all need this book is somewhat less obvious, but very real and serious none the less. Early in our modern history as a denomination, the brotherhood was deeply infected with the virus of Calvinism, a deadly heresy. In the 19th century many converts to true Bible teaching were Protestants of some kind before they were baptized, and traditional Protestantism has always been deeply influenced by Calvinism. This heresy did not begin with John Calvin. He simply revived a particularly virulent form of an old spirit of legalism and ritualism characteristic of Pharisees, Judaizing Christians, and many so-called ‘fathers’ of the medieval church. This spirit is totally hostile to the very idea of world evangelism, which is why holders of Bible truth for more than a century did so little of it. It is a spirit of self-righteousness and arrogance which asserts that God is sovereign and we have no say at all in who will or will not be saved, and no part whatever to play in recruiting God’s “elect”. The fact that we are God’s elect is a proof that we were predestined for eternal salvation, but preaching is futile because only God knows who to call. We are told to avoid the world, not turn it upside down (Acts 17:6).
At the ecclesia where I was baptized 55 years ago, there was a small notice outside the meeting hall stating that weekly public lectures on the Bible were held inside it. Inside were ten rows of seats for church members at the front, then a rope across the room, and behind the rope one row of seats “for the alien” as potential converts were called. Behind that row was a long table with many books and tracts. The bookstall steward (who is still alive) dutifully laid out his books and then at the end of the meeting locked them away again in the cabinet. I rarely recall anyone occupying that row for the alien. Yet I know that all the elders of that ecclesia felt perfectly satisfied that their duty to witness was being regularly and satisfactorily fulfilled. Just occasionally a world event would prompt what was called a “special effort”, which was always about prophecy and announced by a very small notice in a local newspaper. We were used to none or very few ever showing up. That ecclesia no longer exists.
Looking back now I marvel at the fact that I should ever have been inspired by this religion. But the fact is, my church of previous connection was far worse! I remember well: in a vast, echoing, smoke-blackened cathedral-like parish church that could hold hundreds, there were sometimes half a dozen at holy communion and the full time priest knew next to nothing about the Bible.
Yet inspired I was. As an early teen I read every book and tract on that table, from cover to cover. I became convinced that this scenario of incredible lethargy and smugness held a great treasure. Just as Paul wrote long ago: “we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). That is Duncan’s message in this book. Heed it well.
One event jolted me into action. Knowing that I was seeking Bible truth, I was invited to a cocoa factory to hear a preacher speak about “Understanding the Bible”. If I had been invited to the world-famous Minster (cathedral) in that city, I would have understood, but a cocoa factory? The very idea seemed absurd.
I went, and the result was startling. Here was an odd little man who worked in the cocoa factory, with signs of some recent accident still grievously disfiguring his body, with passion and eloquence urging us to “understand the Bible” for one utterly compelling reason: it was a matter of life or death, nothing less.
Incidentally, it was no surprise to me when much later Alfred Norris, the cocoa man, wrote “Preaching the Word”, the first treatise on worldwide evangelism to jolt us out of our Calvinist straitjacket.
After the meeting in the cocoa factory, I returned to the ecclesia with the special seats for aliens a much wiser young man. I made some overtures that I would like instruction in gospel truth. There were about fifty brethren in that ecclesia, but it was a sister named May Rhodes who led me faithfully and truly into heavenly places in Christ. May Rhodes was a maid, that is to say a ‘menial’ (that really was the word), a domestic servant. Her only book, almost her only possession, was a well worn Bible full of notes, and in her damp, dingy basement room my heart burned as she “opened the Scriptures” to me (Luke 24:32). Almost all I have been and am spiritually, my knowledge and love of the Word, my appreciation of His grace abounding, my search for a suitable wife in the Lord, and my experience as a preacher in sixty countries on six continents, I owe to God through this humble social nobody who was mighty in the Scriptures and fervent in the Spirit (Acts 18:24-25). Fifty-five years later I still consider May Rhodes to have been one of the greatest preachers of God’s truth I have ever known. The secret was simple: she had an utterly unquenchable faith in God and His promises. To me, no other saint more fully epitomizes the words of the Lord Jesus: “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:38).
I wish to highlight and commend to every reader fifteen great truths which Duncan expounds in this book about preaching the truth.
· God depends for the furtherance of His purpose upon our faith in, and individual response to, His abounding grace.
· Preaching is a joint enterprise. We are workers together with Him. It is a work for the glory of God and His Son.
· Preaching is an exercise in humility. We can be proud of others whom we have helped, but not of ourselves. We are sinners preaching to sinners.
· Our aim in preaching is not to win a theological argument, convince others that they are wrong and we are right, sway others with our logic and cleverness, or even prove that we are the only right church. It is the same aim as the Lord Jesus: to preach good news to the poor, proclaim freedom for the prisoners, open the eyes of the blind, release the oppressed and announce the coming of God’s Kingdom.
· Preaching has not achieved its object unless there is sincere repentance and a total change of outlook in the convert, a mirror image of a similar and prior repentance and change of outlook in the preacher.
· We must preach because we love our fellow men. We do not love them by putting up invisible walls to keep people out of God’s house rather than opening doors to let them in. God - amazing though it is - gave His Son to die a dreadful death because He loved the world, loved sinners, including me, the worst of them.