WHERE THE PEOPLE GATHER
2 Timothy 4:2
Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
The night before the alfalfa field had been full of deer... does, small bucks and 2 large shooters. It was a day too early, season opens a day later. That next evening Linda and I were sitting watching that same field but tonight was different, one fawn had been the only deer in the field until the last few minutes of daylight when first, one big 10 point buck than a second showed up. After a quick comparison I gave Linda my opinion... the big buck on the left. It was the biggest buck of Linda's life at the time.
We were there that evening because there was green alfalfa and was were the deer were gathering. It's the place to be when it's time to hunt.
Several years ago I was asked to come and speak at an event in Western Wisconsin for a fundraising event for an equestrian ministry that cared for wounded and disabled veterans.
After I arrived they showed me where I would be speaking, right in the middle of the bar room. Not what I expected, but it's where God wanted me at the time. My talk went just fine and I shared the Gospel and did my best to raise my voice over the voices of those ordering drinks and talking at the bar just 30 ft away. When I shared what Jesus did and that He had done it for all those there that day, you could have heard a pin drop. God had a plan in me speaking in that bar... although it wouldn't have been my plan.
Having been raised in a very conservative church as a child we didn't go near places like I had just spoke in. The places where "sinners" gathered were the places to stay away from. But why not share the good news of Jesus where people need it the most? Even if that is a bar or even a prison cell?
God's plan is that His message go out even to places that are indifferent or hostile to the Gospel. For the apostle Luke, this even gave (and still gives) persecuted Christians an important role: "It will lead to your giving testimony."(Luke 21:13)
Even today disciples who are brought to trial will be able to use the occasion to share the good news. Kings, governors, synagogue officials and prison guards who would never have encountered an evangelist heard the Gospel in Luke's time and can still today. Even through persecution the disciples revealed God's kingdom to those who might never have heard. When we come under persecution today, we have the same opportunities.
Who did Jesus share the message of salvation with? Anyone that would listen. Matthew was a hated tax collector, Jesus called him and what happened? Matthew immediately called his friends to come and hear the Good News of Jesus. Nicodemus was another tax collector that came to Jesus. Jesus went to his house, a place where the spiritual leaders of the day would never go.
In Matthew 2:14-17 we read of Jesus and his answer to those who would have looked down on Him for eating with those that were "sinners" in the eyes of the "spiritual" leaders of the day.
14 As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting in the tax office, and He said to him, "Follow Me!" And he got up and followed Him.
15 And it happened that He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were dining with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many of them, and they were following Him. 16 When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, "Why is He eating with tax collectors and sinners?" 17 And hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
So, with who do we share the gospel? Anyone that will listen. Where do we share the gospel? Wherever there are those who will hear.
Help achieve the mission - GIVE today
Click the button to sign up for Dean’s Daily Devotional. FREE and delivered daily.