Monday September 5
We Are to Seek
Read Luke 19:10, Mark 1:17, Luke 9:2, and Revelation 14:6-7.
19:10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
1:17 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.
9:2 And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.
14:6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
14:7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
Amen! "Heal the sick." And preach the gospel!! Here is the work entrusted to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It is the method we see revealed in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Would it surprise you to know it is just the work entrusted to you and me?
What is one key point that all these texts have in common? That is, what are they telling us to do?
We are left here on this Earth to minister to others, to point others to Jesus Christ. And, we are told just what to say and what to do. What more do we need to know? What is the gospel?
For years a Seventh-day Adventist congregation prayed, “Lord, please draw the people in our community to our church and to You”-as if our church is a giant magnet that will magically draw people in. Yes, sometimes people do walk into our churches, searching for God, all with no apparent effort on our part.
But what is your church to do when years go by and no one from the community walks through your doors? If you merely focus on praying for people to come, you are not following Jesus’ method for winning souls. He mingled, socialized, and sought out people to save. “We are not to wait for souls to come to us; we must seek them out where they are. . . . There are multitudes who will never be reached by the gospel unless it is carried to them.” - Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 229.
Amen. But, let us hear the rest of the counsel that is more than "social justice." Picking it up where the lesson stopped:
There are multitudes who will never be reached by the gospel unless it is carried to them.
The invitation to the feast was first given to the Jewish people, the people who had been called to stand as teachers and leaders among men, the people in whose hands were the prophetic scrolls foretelling Christ's advent, and to whom was committed the symbolic service foreshadowing His mission. Had priests and people heeded the call, they would have united with Christ's messengers in giving the gospel invitation to the world. The truth was sent to them that they might impart it. When they refused the call, it was sent to the poor, the maimed, the halt, and the blind. Publicans and sinners received the invitation. When the gospel call is sent to the Gentiles, there is the same plan of working. The message is first to be given "in the highways"--to men who have an active part in the world's work, to the teachers and leaders of the people.
Let the Lord's messengers bear this in mind. To the shepherds of the flock, the teachers divinely appointed, it should come as a word to be heeded. Those who belong to the higher ranks of society are to be sought out with tender affection and brotherly regard. Men in business life, in high positions of trust, men with large inventive faculties and scientific insight, men of genius, teachers of the gospel whose minds have not been called to the special truths for this time--these should be the first to hear the call. To them the invitation must be given. COL 230.
These will not respond to the offer of temporal food. But, they too, suffer from the modern diseases which so often afflict the children of men.
Various metaphors illustrate this idea of seeking:
1. The shepherd leaves the 99 sheep that are in the fold to seek for the one who has wandered away (see Matt. 18:10-14). Jesus is telling this story in the context of His admonition to nurture and protect “little ones” from sinning. The “little ones” could be literal children or immature Christians. If they wander back into the world, we, like Jesus, are to seek for them and lovingly bring them back to Him.
The point here, as in the texts above, is similar: we are to be proactive in seeking the lost. We need to make an effort to reach out to them. Though, on occasion, it happens that someone walks in off the street and says, “Teach me about God, about salvation, about truth,” that’s generally not the norm, is it?
2. “Christ’s method” of reaching the lost “will not, cannot, be without fruit.” - Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing, p. 144. Are we, however, focusing only on the “low-hanging fruit”-people who already share our Christian worldview, such as Christians of other denominations? What are we doing about reaching the “hard-to-reach fruit”-secular people, atheists, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, et cetera? Historically, people with Christian worldviews find Adventism relevant, but we must do a much better job of sharing Jesus with faith groups that have other worldviews.
Amen! Christ's method alone will work. We must follow the path laid out for us. The "social gospel" is not the way. Let us study what has been entrusted to us as a people. Let us labor not just for the poor by offering food and clothing. This we must do, but, it is not the particular emphasis given to God's remnant church.