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The Plea for a Public
Preaching Ministry
There is, in my
opinion, nothing like street preaching. The
men of God in the Bible were street preachers, and street preaching is still the
essential form of public ministry in these days.
After our Lord
gave the great commission to his disciples, the Bible says in Mark 16:20,
“And they went forth, and preached everywhere , the Lord working with
them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.” Everywhere the
disciples went they preached, and they preached everywhere they went. We seem to
have a shortage today of “evangelistic outreaches” that center on the preaching
of the Word of God.
In 1 Corinthians
1:21 the Bible says, “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom
knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe.” God has chosen preaching, not only as the essential ingredient in
regular church services, but also as the chief ingredient in our efforts to
reach this world with the gospel.
Why is it that
preaching is the focal point of our church services, yet left out of our
evangelistic efforts? Could it be that God’s choice method of reaching the world
has been replaced by many so called “fundamentalists” by methods not found
anywhere in the Scriptures? How can one be “fundamentally” sound and not be
involved nor interested in God’s choice method of reaching a lost world?
Maybe the early
disciples of our Lord were naïve? Maybe they weren’t as smart (or should I say
crafty) or as “forward thinking” as the spiritual “brains” of our day who have
come up with “neat” ways of reaching the lost. Or maybe, just maybe, the early
disciples just believed that they should take the Lord at His Word and
“preach the gospel to every creature”, Mark 16:15.
In Acts 8:35,
Phillip took the same Scripture where the Ethiopian eunuch was reading and
“preached unto him Jesus”. Our audience may sometimes be an audience of one
or an audience of a thousand. Either way preaching is God’s preferred method. In
the situation Phillip was in I doubt that he had to “cry aloud”; however, I am
sure that he “spared not”. Nonetheless, I can’t help but wonder about preachers
who never come upon a situation where “crying aloud” AND “sparing not” are
necessary!
Last night
(Friday, April 27, 2007) our church engaged in street preaching in Commerce,
Georgia. Thousands of hotrod fans gathered this weekend in Commerce for the NHRA
Southern Nationals. With sidewalks a plenty, we stood on the public sidewalk
between Wal-mart and Sonny’s Barbeque and held up signs, passed out tracts, and
preached the Word of God. Hundreds of people passed by during the two hours that
we were out on the street.
Some of our signs
rebuke the prevalent sins of our day. Others call men to repent and tell them
that Jesus saves. Gospel tracts were received by many who came by in cars.
Preaching, however, was the centerpiece of our effort. One thing I love about a
public ministry is the fact that it attracts attention. Some attention is
positive. Most is negative. Nonetheless, men, women, boys, and girls of all ages
saw and heard the truth of the Word of God and came face to face with the
demands of the gospel.
In Acts 17:32-34,
the Word of God says, “And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead,
some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.
So Paul departed from among them. Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and
believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named
Damaris, and others with them.”
Some mocked,
others said we’ll hear thee again of this matter, and certain believed. Everyone
is not going to respond positively to the gospel message no matter how it is
presented. Some people seem to have the idea that if you are “doing it right”
there will be little or no opposition to the message. To those with such a
Scripturally naïve thought pattern I say, “Have ye never read?” Evidently not!
At least they have never read the Bible and paid close attention while doing so.
I challenge anyone to find where the disciples carried out God’s will in
preaching the gospel and ran into little or no opposition. It is impossible!!!
There are five men
besides myself in our church that profess to be called to preach. We have a holy
zeal and desire to take the gospel to the streets, and we do. Why sit around and
preach to each other all the time when we can do as the early disciples did in
Mark 6:12. There the Scripture says, “And they went out, and preached that
men should repent.” There are a couple of key words in that sentence. If
you want to do a word study look up the words “out”, “preached” and “repent”. If
you study long enough, you may find out what God wants you to do if you profess
to be called of God to preach His holy Word.
Here’s another
challenge. Find the verse where God tells the world to go into all the churches
and hear the gospel. While you are looking for that one, remember that Jesus
told his disciples, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every
creature,” Mark 16:15. I wouldn’t be too critical of sinners who never
“come” while we have saints who never “go”.
I interject
quickly that we have never returned from a street preaching outing depressed. We
may not see as many saved as we would like, but we don’t come back ready to
throw in the towel. If anything we come back ready to go AGAIN!!! One sure way
to get rid of your anti-depressants is to go to the streets and preach like
Jesus said. Could there be any truth to the statement, “If ye know these
things, happy are ye if ye do them?” John 13:17. The best way I know for a
preacher to get out of the dumps is to get involved in a public preaching
ministry.
Not only are our
preachers involved in the street ministry, our other godly men, women, and young
people are involved as well. We can’t always allow our ladies and younger folk
to go out with us because of some of the places we go and situations that we
know we may get into, but if they don’t go, it is not because they don’t want
to. We have some ladies and young people with more guts and God about them that
most preachers. “They ain’t scared!” A good question may be, “Where are the
Elijah’s of the Lord God?” (see 2 Kings 2:14)
Finally, there is
a unique phenomenon found in churches that are involved in a public street
preaching ministry. Typically, a church has a “revival” meeting in order to get
their people to “go and do”. In a street preaching church, there is rejoicing
around what has been “gone and done”. Could it be that many have gotten things
turned around the wrong way? Maybe that is the reason that many churches cannot
say “The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad?” Psalm
126:3.
Three final
questions: (1) Did not the Lord say in Matthew 28:18-20 that He would be with
those that personally carried out His great commission, even to the end of the
world? (2) Do you reckon the Lord still works with those that go forth and
preach His Word everywhere? (Mark 16:20) (3) If public preaching was God’s will
in the Bible, is it still His will today?
In the battle for
the Lord and Right,
Pastor Kevin
Whitman
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