“For the church to evangelize the world without thinking of the Jews, is like a bird trying to fly with one broken wing.” Franz Delitzsch
How many of you are like me that we want to be faithful and obedient to Jesus’ call to evangelize the whole world? How many of you would agree that sometimes our earnest and sincere desire outweighs our actual practice? I would say that many of us fall into the rut of doing a lot of thinking but not enough sinking into it. I would suggest that we re-look at the commands in Scripture to evangelize: Mat 9:36-38, Mat 28:18-20, Mk 16:15-16, Lk 24:46-49, John 4:34-38, Acts 1:8, 2 Timothy 2:2, Mt 5:13-16. These commands are not just for the professional clergy, pastor, leaders, evangelists, nor to the specialist. These are commands for every disciple to take seriously. We are not spectators but saints meant to be part of the harvest field.
We live in an evangelical milieu where the contemporary church has been obsessed now with “target-driven” evangelism for so long that the true contours of “biblical” evangelism are hardly or scarcely observable or discernible. What do I mean? I mean we as a church have been reaching out to select groups (Seeker-Sensitive philosophy) now for so long we’ve forgotten the statements of Scripture that send us out to “all creatures.” It’s no wonder the Jews have been left out!! Our churches depend on specialized ministries to do the work. We’ve become accustomed to special groups that we can use to do the work for us. This should not be the case. We are commanded to go to everyone (this includes the Jews). This includes people of all colors, nationalities, cultures, ages, and so forth. This means we learn and prepare ourselves to reach out to everyone. This spells out work. Are you ready? Are you willing to sacrifice? Then, I applaud you for joining the ranks of true evangelists. True evangelists see neither color nor race but see only a harvest of lost souls to proclaim the life-giving message of the gospel. Be a harvester, laborer, evangelist, soul-winner, discipler, and preacher of the kingdom!!!
Pastor Jim Cater
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