Obeying The Great Commission
Dear Christian friends,
Before our Lord Jesus Christ ascended to Heaven, He left us with one Great Commission, to go into all the world, preaching the Gospel, making disciples of all nations. Two thousand years later, this task is largely unfinished. Every year, the percentage of people worldwide who have heard the gospel is decreasing. According to one study, 90% of all Christians in the United States never witness to anyone. Every year, we see more and more people in our country turn away from God. Yet how can we expect the unbelievers to take the Gospel seriously when we don’t show them that we take it seriously?
The dedication of the cults puts us to shame. Jehovah’s Witnesses (JW’s) have all the responsibilities of job and family that we have. Yet they witness an average of 4 hours a week. (At that rate it takes them 16 years to baptize one convert!) One day, I looked out my window and saw two JW mothers going door to door with their children in baby carriages. Why can’t Christians do that? One of the strongest arguments the JW’s use is that they are the ones who are out witnessing for Jehovah, not the Christians.
Every Mormon takes two years out of his life for full time missionary service around the world before settling down to raise a family. Why can’t we do this? If we did, we’d fulfill the Great Commission in no time. Instead, we come up with excuses for not evangelizing–it’s not my calling, I’m a silent witness, I’m too busy. We find fault with every method of witnessing and every evangelism ministry.
One of the main reasons we have a hard time witnessing is fear– fear of rejection by others. Nobody likes being rejected and when we preach the Gospel some people will be offended and reject us. Rather than admit this, we come up with other excuses for not witnessing. We need to overcome this fear, but we never will unless we are first convinced that we must witness for the Lord in order to be obedient to Him. We all love to claim the promises of God, but how many of us claim 2 Timothy 3:12, “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution”?
We all know that God has a plan for our lives, but many of us don’t realize that Satan also has a plan for our lives. The first part of his plan is to keep us from getting saved. Having failed in this, Satan’s second purpose is to keep us from witnessing to others. He does this through two means: 1. He makes us feel unworthy to witness because of our own sins. 2. He gives us a variety of excuses for not witnessing.
It is time that we stop listening to the enemy’s lies and commit ourselves to obey the Great Commission of our Lord. I believe each of us should be witnessing for Christ in our everyday lives–at work, with our friends and family, etc. But I believe each of us should also be involved in some kind of organized evangelistic activity on a regular basis–door-to-door, on the streets, at nursing homes, prisons, juvenile halls, etc. I pray when the Holy Spirit leads me, but I also discipline myself to set a regular time aside for prayer. I fellowship with other Christians when God brings me in contact with them, but I also set aside regular times for Christian fellowship. I witness whenever I am led by the Holy Spirit, but I also set aside regular times for witnessing.
I would challenge each of you to commit at least a few hours a month to some kind of organized evangelism outreach, in addition to whatever witnessing you do in your everyday life. Instead of looking for reasons for being excused from such outreaches, we should instead be dedicating ourselves anew to reaching this lost world by every possible means. I also encourage you to share this teaching with your pastor. I believe that the responsibility of each Christian to witness needs to be taught from every pulpit. Next month, I’ll be sharing about how to get started in evangelism outreach.
Peace and Safety
World events are certainly moving at an amazing pace. The coup that took place in the Soviet Union threatened a return to repression of religious freedom. However, as the coup failed, the Soviet Union is on the verge of dissolution. We rejoice at the apparent end of Communism in that nation and the possibility of democracy and religious freedom.
Most people are now looking forward to a period of unprecedented peace and prosperity as the major enemy of the U.S. is moving towards democracy and capitalism. However, the Bible says that “When they shall say peace and safety; then sudden destruction will come upon them…and they shall not escape” 1 Thess. 5:3. The peace we are hoping for will certainly be short-lived.
Even now, hundreds of people are dying in Yugoslavia in a civil war between ethnic groups. If the U.S.S.R. breaks up into various republics, will it lead to war between the various ethnic groups? Who will have control over the nuclear weapons? The prospect of numerous republics with nuclear weapons and no food fighting over ethnic differences is pretty scary. It now appears that most of the republics likely to stay in the union are Moslem. This could lead to the scenario described in Ezekiel 38 and 39.
At the same time, the end of communism in the U.S.S.R. seems to remove a major obstacle to a “New World Order,” a secular society in which all nations unite, perhaps under U.N. rule, and ultimately the rule of a single dictator, the Antichrist. The return of our Lord is surely near. We must labor while it is day. The night is coming when no man can work.
Ministry News
We were a bit apprehensive about going to Berkeley after a month of riots over People’s Park. We set up as usual at Telegraph and Haste St., half a block from the park. Several months ago a hotel that stood on this corner had burned down, and during the riots, demonstrators had torn down a fence around the vacant lot. Several people joined us from Neighborhood Church, including Pastor Danny Aguirre. They brought some excellent musicians, and many people came to listen to the music.
Over the past few months, we have noticed a dramatic change in Berkeley. For over three years, we experienced intense opposition–from local people, street vendors, hecklers, and the police–every time we came to Berkeley. People would harass us, scream at us, tear up our equipment, and the police would often threaten, cite or arrest us. Recently, we have experienced great freedom to minister and essentially no opposition.
Pastor Danny also came with some good news. He had just spent a week at Set Free Christian Fellowship staying with Pastor Phil Aguilar. He was really excited about the thousands of people who were being saved there and discipled in the Lord. Hundreds of people are involved in daily evangelism outreaches and thousands participate on a weekly basis. How great it would be to see this kind of commitment in other churches! Also, Phil said that their team had brought back four new believers from SOS-San Francisco, who are now living in their discipleship homes!
Eight high school students from the Community Presbyterian Church in Danville joined us for our Friday night outreach on Labor Day weekend. As I preached that night on Fisherman’s Wharf, a young woman started asking me questions about why her good works wouldn’t save her. Before long, a large group surrounded us, listening to our conversation.
The next day, we went to Lakeport for an outreach with Lakeport Christian Fellowship. On Saturday, a couple from Ukiah sang worship songs at the downtown park while we witnessed. I witnessed to the backslidden daughter of a pastor who has worked closely with our ministry. She was very surprised to see me there. Two brothers from Lakeport witnessed to a man from Vallejo for several hours. He brought his wife and two children to church the next day and his whole family went forward to receive Christ! That afternoon they were baptized in Clear Lake.
On Saturday night we witnessed at the Lake County Fair. On Sunday afternoon, most of the church came to the park for a barbecue and baptism. They fed many people from the park and a large crowd watched the baptism. Afterwards, they held their evening service at the park. Their worship group led the worship and Scott Crawford and I preached. Before we left, their church leaders were talking about doing regular outreaches in this park and planning some outreaches with us next year.
Our Tape of the Month is “Sharing Jesus One on One” by Ron Radachy. Ron is Director of the Holy Ghost Repair Service in Hollywood, CA. This is one of the best teachings I’ve heard on the subject. We need to preach the gospel to the multitudes, but we also need to witness effectively to individuals.
Yours in His love,
Larry Rosenbaum
