By Rev. John Timothy Stone, D.D., Chicago, Illinois, Ex-Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.
The story of evangelism is the specific history of the Cross of Christ. Great movements and revivals have made up much of its general history, but slowly and quietly through the years and centuries the Evangel has won, as men and women have led their fellow human beings to repentance and have by precept and example followed in the footsteps of their Lord.
Jesus Christ won most of His followers and chose His Apostles one by one. He called men to Himself, and they heard and heeded His call. The multitudes sought Him and heard Him gladly, but He sought individuals, and those individuals sought others and brought them to Him. John the Baptist said: “Behold the Lamb of God,” and Andrew his disciple heard and followed. Andrew found his own brother Simon and brought him to Jesus. Jesus the next day found Philip and bade him follow Him; Philip found Nathaniel and answered his questionings by the Saviour’s previous reply, “Come and see.” The Master called Matthew from his unworthy work, and so the other Apostles. Saul of Tarsus was arrested by the Divine individual call as he pursued his intense and terrorizing campaign against the early Christians. His “Who art Thou, Lord?” was followed by his complete surrender as he asked, “What wilt Thou have me to do?”
All through those first decades of the early Church, and on through the ages, individual work for individuals has progressed and accomplished results. How largely the Gospels, the Acts and the Epistles verify this fact! Even the marvelous work of Philip in Samaria was not the immediate plan of God, but the Spirit sent him past Jerusalem, down into the desert at Gaza, that he might win the Ethiopian eunuch to Christ, and through him no doubt countless hosts of Africa. The missionary journeys and efforts of Paul were filled with personal service. His letters are filled with personal messages. Some of his most important letters, such as Philemon, the Timothys and Titus, are addressed and written to individuals. His winning of Onesimus in Rome, and the letter to Philemon which resulted, is one of the most effective and beautiful experiences recorded in all the Word of God.
God has used men mightily in reaching vast multitudes of people, even from the days of His own ministry and the days of Peter and his associates at Pentecost. Even at this time, two hundred years after his unparalleled ministry, we are reminded of George Whitefield, who preached at times to fully thirty thousand people in the open air, and won his thousands and tens of thousands. We recall the vast multitudes who were reached by our own Moody and Sankey; we note the vast audiences who flocked to hear Mr. Spurgeon, week after week, year after year. The strong evangelists of our own generation verify before our very eyes God’s honor placed on those to whom He gives such signal power. But our thought goes back to the great universal method our Lord Himself instituted, of reaching the individual by his fellow man.
The Almighty could have so arranged His Divine plan that He Himself, without human help, might arrest and enlist followers as He did with Saul of Tarsus, but this was not His plan. By man He would reach men. Human mediums of power must do His wondrous work. Man must go, in the power of His Spirit “into all the world, to preach the Gospel to every creature.” And His promise was sure and permanent: “Lo, I am with you alway.”
GOD S HOLY SPIRIT
The first requisite in winning men to Christ must be the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. “It is expedient that I go away from you, for if I go not away, the Holy Spirit will not come.” With His presence “greater works” than the works of Christ “shall ye do.” “Ye shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses.” To live in the power of God’s Holy Spirit, and to know that He is present and will lead, is in itself an assurance of a joyful and successful service. The Spirit will constantly “call to our remembrance the things of Christ,” and hence we may not be anxious as to the words we are to speak, for He will direct us and speak for and through us.
So many times we are fearful and embarrassed, but this will not be the case if we are under the influence momentarily of God’s Spirit. “He will guide us into all truth.” “He will not speak of Himself,” but will glorify Christ. That which we say in weakness He will use with power, and “His word will not return unto Him void, but will accomplish that whereunto it was sent.” We may always take for granted His preparation, for He does not send but calls us. His word is not “Go,” but “Come.” Thus we will always be on the alert for opportunities to speak the things He would have us, and our words and thoughts will be those which He suggests and honors. We will be nourished constantly by His Word within, and equipped with His sword for sustained protection and aggressive attack. If His Word abides in us, we will never be weak in body, nor unprepared and weaponless. His Spirit will also give us courage and endurance, and the fearless one who has stability and patience need not fear the unexpected nor the aggressive opponent. The Spirit of God also prepares the one whom we must approach, and is working in his heart as well as with our words.
Prayer is also a real factor in our lives, and we live in His presence by the true conversational method of association. As God speaks to us through His Word, so we talk with Him in prayer, and the place and surroundings are of little relative importance, as we are always with Him and He with us. The word we speak and the act we perform is the expression of Himself, and the impression is bound to be His as well, for our association with Him takes others into His presence as they communicate and associate with us. We may pray before and after and as we speak with others, and do it so naturally and impulsively that we may actually live in the atmosphere of prayer without hypocrisy and without pretense. And prayer will become more and more a power in our work as we approach individuals from the very presence of the unseen but not unknown God. Assurance and confidence result, and we are agreeably surprised with ourselves to find that our happiness does not depend so much upon the evidence of our success as upon the consciousness of our faithfulness.
We will also seek to win others to Christ that they too may be used by His Spirit and associated with Him, rather than simply to obtain salvation; not what we can do for them, but what God’s Spirit can and will do with them.
The Spirit of God will also lead us to gain from others the experiences and methods through which they have gone to learn to do this work for Him; hence conferences and testimony will take on new life and gain keener interest. We will overlook littleness, and the greatness of God is seen in His confidence placed in those who win others to Him. Criticism will give place to appreciation and suggestion to expressions of gratitude. We will see in others what God sees, and fail to see what we have seen before by way of fault and error. We will also learn to take the difficult things to God in prayer instead of taking them to men in controversy, and will be surprised to find how many easily adjust themselves for us.
God’s Spirit will also prompt us to spend longer seasons alone and seriously think upon life’s greatest issues and values. Prayer will be less general and more specific and individual. Souls will mean more, and things less. Lives will become more attractive and fascinating, and books, papers and stories will only control interest when related to lives which can be influenced for and by Him.
The last verse of “In the Secret of His Presence” asks the real question:
“Would you like to know the secret of the sweetness of the Lord?
Go and hide beneath His shadow; this shall then be your reward.
And whene’er you leave the silence of that happy resting place,
You must feel and bear the image of the Master in your face.”
This will be the result, and others will be won by you as they see in your very face the reflection of Christ, because His Spirit dwells within you.