SS Reg. 5 Sequential Evangelism and Witnessing: Pastor Paul E. Penno, Jr...

SS Lesson #4 Evangelism and Witnessing as a Lifestyle: Pastor Paul Penno...

"Evangelism and Witnessing as a Lifestyle"

Sabbath School Today

With the 1888 Message Dynamic

Evangelism and Witnessing

Lesson 4: "Evangelism and Witnessing as a Lifestyle"

A true witness is one who testifies to the power of God to recreate man into His own image and is the very evidence of which he speaks. So, to represent Christ means to re-present Christ--to present Him again--in your life, as your life.

You can only be taught to witness by the Holy Spirit. No man and no religious-like programs are qualified or capable of teaching this.

Then "some rose up and bore false witness against Him" (Mark 14:57). Many in the church of Laodicea are doing the same thing. Their false witness, that Jesus did not come in our flesh, is but the spirit of Antichrist. They rise up, filled with their own wisdom, and question the Holy Spirit's recounting of the Creation. False witnesses are born of the old covenant, deny they are legalists, and refuse the good news of the New Covenant. Their Antichrist mindset prevents them from believing that God can and does keep His people fromsin.

Before we can talk about witnessing as a lifestyle, we must first determine which style of life. Galatians 2:20 teaches that "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." 2 Corinthians 5:14, 15 is clear that all men died in Him, "For the love of Christ constrains [compels] us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again." Our old lifestyle of egocentric concerns is replaced with Christ living in us.

As true witnesses we will be crucified daily--emptied of self, and it will be Christ living out His life within us. It is the Holy Spirit that makes us true witnesses for God, and also the One who teaches us how to tell it. For this purpose Christ came to earth, suffered and died that by His life we may be as He is, a "faithful and true witness."

The Apostle Paul describes Christ's lifestyle when he wrote: "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:5-8). By our own consent we let the mind of Christ do exactly for us just what it did for Jesus. This mind will remove self from us and humble us before God and man.

"The 1888 message is especially 'precious' because it joins together the true biblical idea of justification by faith with the unique idea of the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary. This is a Bible truth that the world is waiting to discover. It forms the essential element of truth that will yet lighten the earth with the glory of a final, fully developed presentation of 'the everlasting gospel' of Revelation 14 and 18" (Robert J. Wieland, Ten Great Gospel Truths that Make the 1888 Message Unique, p. 34).

The one yielded to Christ is a witness to the power of His death and resurrection. He is the witness, because he experiences in himself the working of the mystery of the gospel "which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col.1:26, 27). By this power one is justified and cleansed--a new life and a new lifestyle.

When Stephen was on trial for his life before the Jewish council, he said, "Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen" (Acts 7:44).

It was the Tabernacle of Witness because it contained the testimony of witness, for the law is called the testimony. It is a witness of God's presence. We know that "Love is the fulfilling of the law," and "God is love," therefore the law is God's life.

It was above the ark of the testimony, between the cherubim that the glory of God was specially manifested. And In Psalm 80:1, we read: "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock; You who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth!"

The reason for the tabernacle was: "Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them" (Ex. 25:8). In one sense this was a great honor; yet when we consider the matter further, it is one of the most sorrowful things to be found in the Scriptures. God's people, whom He had delivered from bondage for the express purpose of dwelling in them, had to have a house made with hands because the people refused to have Him live in them. Thus the tabernacle was at once a witness of God's presence and of the unfaithfulness of His people.

"The Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands" (Acts 7:48; see also Acts 17:24). He Himself asked, "Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest? ... But on this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word" (Isa. 66:1, 2). Earlier He said, "I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit" (Isa. 57:15). "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are" (1 Cor. 3:16, 17). "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Cor. 6:19, 20). This is His true dwelling place.

Paul is here speaking of the Good News of the Gospel, which he calls a mystery. It is a mystery because our little minds cannot explain it or truly grasp how this could be, but nonetheless, it is true. Now, this mystery is: "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27).

Ellet J. Waggoner makes this observation about "witnessing as a lifestyle": "We are fully assured that the Gospel is the making known of Christ in men. Or rather, the Gospel is Christ in men, and the preaching of it [witnessing] is the making known to men of the possibility of Christ's dwelling in them. … the mystery of God is God manifest in the flesh. ... the mystery of God dwelling in human flesh was to be declared to all men, and repeated in all who should believe Him" (The Everlasting Covenant, p. 19; Glad Tidings ed.).

God dwells with "him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at" His word (Isa. 66:2), and He dwells "with him who has a contrite and humble spirit" (57:15). Paul is direct when he teaches that "you are the temple of God" (1 Cor. 3:16), then later asks if they really know this: "do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?" (1 Cor. 6:19). The Jews ought to have understood Jesus when He said, "'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up' ... He was speaking of the temple of his body" (John 2:19, 21). He was the temple indeed, because the law of God was within his heart (Psalm 40:8). He is "the faithful and true witness," and says of us, "You are My witnesses, ... and My servant whom I have chosen" (Isa. 43:10).

When the Lord is given full possession of his temple--his people--then we like Christ, are His witnesses to the world. Christ has purchased us with His blood and we belong to Him, however many refuse to let Him have what He bought.

At the dedication of the tabernacle "... the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting, because the cloud rested above it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle" (Ex. 40:34, 35). Then again at the dedication of Solomon's temple: "... the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house" (2 Chron. 7:1, 2). These are representations of how it should be with God's people, His real temple. So it was with Christ, for "the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). So will it be with His true temple, His people, when they are dedicated to Him.

It is the Spirit that bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. When the Spirit fills men they have power to be tabernacles of witness. Just as no man was able to enter the tabernacle when the glory of God filled it; even so when Christ, the quickening Spirit, dwells in the heart by faith (Col. 1:26, 27), and we are filled with His glory; we will have been crucified with Christ and self will have disappeared (Gal. 2:20) and no man will be in this temple.

Now He that abides between the cherubim will shine forth, and we will have been made ready to witness before the world.

--Daniel Peters

--------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. 

"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888mpm.org

To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to sabbathschooltoday@1888message.org

APRIL1412 SS 3 Spiritual Gifts for Evangelism and Witnessing Pastor Paul...

"Spiritual Gifts"

Sabbath School Today

With the 1888 Message Dynamic

Evangelism and Witnessing

Lesson 3: "Spiritual Gifts"

Does God call people already equipped, or does He equip the people He calls? The answer depends on whether you think evangelism requires faith. Faith accepts that God will equip us for whatever He wants us to do. Those who believe we do nothing until we have discovered our talents or "gifts," or decide a task requires talents we think we don't have, are walking by sight not by faith. Faith never depends on itself. If we think we bring some talent to God's service, we will take at least a little credit for the work we have done. All the glory is God's.

This is not to say there are no differences among people and their capabilities; each person is born with certain capabilities. The Lord told Jeremiah when He called him to be a prophet that He had formed him in the womb. Presumably, God gave Jeremiah what he needed to do the job God had prepared for him. Not all of us are called to be Jeremiahs, but all of us are called to some service for the Lord. Many well-intentioned people think they must study or attend seminars to determine what gifts God has given them so they can decide what they are equipped to do. If we use the model given us in the conversation between Jeremiah and God (see Jeremiah 1), we find that God doesn't want us to worry about what we think our capabilities are. If He calls us to service, we can trust that He either has equipped or will equip us for whatever He wants us to do.

A gift is something the receiver did not have before. Most folks think what we inherit physically from our parents is something that belongs to us, it's not a gift. Using Jeremiah's example, we realize physical characteristics are gifts from God. Whatever abilities God gave Jeremiah when He "formed him in the womb" were not Jeremiah's by right, but gifts from God. When all is explained by Jesus, even negative physical problems we inherit will be understood.

The gifts of the Spirit are not limited to human talents or capabilities.

"Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore He saith, When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men" (Eph. 4:7, 8).

The message of Ephesians is recurring good news:

1. Each of us has been given a special gift of grace. We say of someone who is an acclaimed musician or artist, "he is gifted." So are you. There is something you are equipped to do that no one else is your equal, in that exact respect. Instead of wasting valuable resources of time and energy bemoaning your supposed ineptitudes, expend some energy thanking God for the ability He has given you.

2. The "measure of Christ's gift" is rendered in the Revised English Version as "a particular share in the bounty of Christ." We could say that from out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own "gift." However small you may think your "gift" may be, the Holy Spirit can cultivate it to make it grow.

"He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the world of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God" (Eph. 4:11-13).

Whatever gift anyone has received from the Giver of gifts, it builds up the church. When you're perplexed about whether a message you hear or read comes from God or is a counterfeit from the Enemy, just watch and see: does it build up the church?

Those who have been privileged to study and come to love the message of 1888 know the message itself is a gift that brings such joy we can't help but sharing. It is a gift that when told, will eventually bring complete unity among God's believers wherever they are. After listing the gifts of the Spirit (Eph. 4:11, 12), Paul tells us the message will bring unity and growth. Paul's idea is that the truest church growth is not where specialist gurus come in to cause it, but where the members themselves, filled with agape, are adding new people, and helping those already in the church to grow.

That is the ultimate "evangelism," which will be demonstrated perfectly when that "other angel coming down from heaven, having great authority" illuminates the earth with His glory, calling every honest hearted soul to come out of Babylon. That other angel is again a symbol of a people who have the message and are the messengers. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit as the latter rain will supply the holy energy. The beginning of that final "gift" was given long ago, but by many it was not welcomed at the time. But God will not permit His seed to return unto Him void; He is watching over that "most precious message," and in His providence it will bear its fruit.

To know this message compels us to tell it regardless of whether we think we've been given the gift of preaching or teaching. God will engineer events in your life which present opportunities to share this most precious message. At times, it may not seem like we are doing anything significant, but God uses us as He needs to minister to others. Pray that we walk worthy so God can use us for His purposes.

--Arlene Hill

--------------------------------------------------------

Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. 

"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888mpm.org

To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to sabbathschooltoday@1888message.org

"Every Member Ministry" Paul Penno: Notes

2. EVERY MEMBER MINISTRY

We work hard, energetically to proclaim the gospel.

But is there a yet-untried method of soul-winning?

Not merely by pushing electronic buttons, but that has such a built-in power pack that common people who believe the message can watch conversions take place?

If you attend church, you’ve heard the pleas: “Do more, work harder, win souls! Look how the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons go door to door; why don’t we do more?”

In one large Conference in North America, the cost of each baptism in Net-96 was estimated at $10,000. Of course, the eternal salvation of one soul cannot be computed in dollars. But is this what Jesus had in mind when He said, “Go ye . . .” Is there a more effective way to finish the “great gospel commission”?

Who doesn’t long to see far greater efficiency in soul-winning?

When one reads the letters of the apostles in the New Testament, there seems to be little pressure put upon the, early Christians. Paul commends rather than prods the Thessalonian Christians: “Not only did the message about the Lord go out from you throughout Macedonia and Achaia, but the news about your faith in God has gone everywhere. There is nothing, then, that we need to say” (1 Thess. 1:8, GNB). An evangelist’s or church administrator’s dream! No need for high-pressure promotion.

Was the Gospel of the Thessalonians

Self-propagating?

It seems that it did have its own built-in power pack. It motivated people even to the point of being thought extravagantly zealous: “If we are out of our mind . . . [or] in our right mind, . . . Christ’s love [agape] compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves” (2 Cor. 5:13-15, NIV).

In other words, they sensed a motivation fueled by something special they saw in the sacrifice of Christ. Once you grasped what had happened, you just couldn’t sit still. The tongue-tied had to talk, and the timid grew bold (Isa. 32:4; Zech. 12:8). You saw the Messiah to be the second Adam; He died “for all.” That meant—if He had not died, you would be dead. Since He became corporately one with the human race, “all died” in Him; from now on nobody could go on “living for themselves.” You could no longer think that you belonged to yourself, or that anything you possessed was yours. With one divine sword-stroke, the Gordian knot of human self-centered concern was cut. The cross did it.

A new purpose for living took over: if you believed this self-propagating gospel, you just had to live “for Him who died” for you, and it wasn’t fear or hope-of-reward that moved you. Materialism, sensuality, all self-centered motivations, were transcended by this phenomenal new reason for living. You saw yourself eternally in debt to the Son of God. And the idea caught on, because there were honest hearts everywhere. Jews and Gentiles came out of nowhere, ready to respond.

This understanding of what the cross meant first burst on people’s minds at Pentecost. “You denied the Holy One and the just,” cried Peter.” “You . . . killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. . . . Repent therefore and be converted” (Acts 3:14, 15). And they did repent, and they were converted. “The truth in agape” compelled multitudes to respond—3000 in one day.

This was “the former rain.” Today we await “the latter rain.” That self-propagating gospel at Pentecost accompanied Christ’s beginning work in heaven as High Priest. Now His closing work in the cosmic Day of Atonement will be accompanied by a fully developed “everlasting gospel” that will “lighten the earth with glory.” The same cross-exalting motivation will fuel that final burst of soul-winning.

Says John in Revelation: “I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, ‘Babylon the great is fallen.’ . . . And I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, my people . . .’” (18:1-4). The call will be accompanied by a second-time-in-history power—the first, at Pentecost.

Ellen White in vision witnessed what will happen this second time around: “The light that was shed upon the waiting ones penetrated everywhere, and those in the churches who had any light . . . obeyed the call. . . . A compelling power moved the honest [compare that with the word “compels” above in 2 Corinthians 5:14]. . . .

“Servants of God, endowed with power from on high, with their faces lighted up, and shining with holy consecration, went forth to proclaim the message from heaven. Souls that were scattered all through the religious bodies answered to the call, and the precious were hurried out of the doomed churches, as Lot was hurried out of Sodom before her destruction.”[1]

In 1888 the Lord “sent” us “the beginning” of that message. Ellen White called it “the light which will lighten the earth with its glory?” Had it been accepted, “then the strong, clear light of that other angel who comes down from heaven having great power, would have filled the earth with his glory . . . Heavenly messengers have grieved, impatient at the delay. . . .  Angels of heaven were seeking to communicate through human agencies justification by faith, the righteousness of Christ.” “The loud cry of the third angel has already begun in the revelation of the righteousness of Christ.”[2]

Shall the Seventh-day Adventist Church disregard the authenticated “beginning” of that final message, which was “in a great degree” rejected and “kept away from the world”?[3]

That same writer tells how the first Pentecost relates to the future second one: “A work is to be accomplished in the earth similar to that which took place at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the days of the early disciples, when they preached Jesus and Him crucified. Many will be converted in a day; for the message will go with power. . . . The theme that attracts the heart of the sinner is Christ, and Him crucified. On the cross of Calvary, Jesus stands revealed to the world in unparalleled love [agape]. Present Him thus to the hungering multitudes, and the light of His love will win men from darkness to light, from transgression to obedience and true holiness. Beholding Jesus upon the cross of Calvary arouses the conscience to the heinous character of sin as nothing else can do.”[4]

It meets exactly the heart-longing of every honest-hearted soul in “Babylon” (and there are many!), so that “the truth is seen in its clearness, and the honest children of God sever the bands which have held them. Family connections, church relations, are powerless to stay them now. Truth is more precious than all besides. Notwithstanding the agencies combined against the truth, a large number [will] take their stand upon the Lord’s side.”[5]

---

[1] Ellen G. White, Early Writings, pp. 278, 279, emphasis added.

[2] The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, pp. 673, 1070-1073, emphasis supplied.

[3] Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, book 1, pp. 234, 235

[4] The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, pp. 1073, 1074

[5] Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 612

"Every Member Ministry"

Sabbath School Today

With the 1888 Message Dynamic

Evangelism and Witnessing

Lesson 2: "Every Member Ministry"

We work hard, energetically to proclaim the gospel. But is there a yet-untried method of soul-winning? Not merely by pushing electronic buttons, but that has such a built-in power pack that common people who believe the message can watch conversions take place?

If you attend church, you've heard the pleas: "Do more, work harder, win souls! Look how the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons go door to door; why don't we do more?"

In one large Conference in North America, the cost of each baptism in Net-96 was estimated at $10,000. Of course, the eternal salvation of one soul cannot be computed in dollars. But is this what Jesus had in mind when He said, "Go ye ..."? Is there a more effective way to finish the "great gospel commission"?

Who doesn't long to see far greater efficiency in soul-winning?

When one reads the letters of the apostles in the New Testament, there seems to be little pressure put upon the early Christians. Paul commends rather than prods the Thessalonian Christians: "Not only did the message about the Lord go out from you throughout Macedonia and Achaia, but the news about your faith in God has gone everywhere. There is nothing, then, that we need to say" (1 Thess. 1:8, GNB; emphasis supplied). An evangelist's or church administrator's dream! No need for high-pressure promotion.

Was the Gospel of the Thessalonians Self-propagating?

It seems that it did have its own built-in power pack. It motivated people even to the point of being thought extravagantly zealous: "If we are out of our mind ... [or] in our right mind, ... Christ's love [agape] compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves" (2 Cor. 5:13-15, NIV).

In other words, they sensed a motivation fueled by something special they saw in the sacrifice of Christ. Once you grasped what had happened, you just couldn't sit still. The tongue-tied had to talk, and the timid grew bold (Isa. 32:4; Zech. 12:8). You saw the Messiah to be the second Adam; He died "for all." That meant--if He had not died, you would be dead. Since He became corporately one with the human race, "all died" in Him; from now on nobody could go on "living for themselves." You could no longer think that you belonged to yourself, or that anything you possessed was yours. With one divine sword-stroke, the Gordian knot of human self-centered concern was cut. The cross did it.

A new purpose for living took over: if you believed this self-propagating gospel, you just had to live "for Him who died" for you, and it wasn't fear or hope-of-reward that moved you. Materialism, sensuality, all self-centered motivations, were transcended by this phenomenal new reason for living. You saw yourself eternally in debt to the Son of God. And the idea caught on, because there were honest hearts everywhere. Jews and Gentiles came out of nowhere, ready to respond.

This understanding of what the cross meant first burst on people's minds at Pentecost. "You denied the Holy One and the Just," cried Peter. "You ... killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. ... Repent therefore and be converted" (Acts 3:14, 15, 19). And they did repent, and they were converted. "The truth in agape" compelled multitudes to respond--3000 in one day.

This was "the former rain." Today we await "the latter rain." That self-propagating gospel at Pentecost accompanied Christ's beginning work in heaven as High Priest. Now His closing work in the cosmic Day of Atonement will be accompanied by a fully developed "everlasting gospel" that will "lighten the earth with glory." The same cross-exalting motivation will fuel that final burst of soul-winning.

Says John in Revelation: "I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, 'Babylon the great is fallen.' ... And I heard another voice from heaven saying, 'Come out of her, my people ...'" (18:1-4). The call will be accompanied by a second-time-in-history power--the first, at Pentecost.

Ellen White in vision witnessed what will happen this second time around: "The light that was shed upon the waiting ones penetrated everywhere, and those in the churches who had any light ... obeyed the call ... A compelling power moved the honest [compare that with the word "compels" above in 2 Cor. 5:14]. ...

"Servants of God, endowed with power from on high, with their faces lighted up, and shining with holy consecration, went forth to proclaim the message from heaven. Souls that were scattered all through the religious bodies answered to the call, and the precious were hurried out of the doomed churches, as Lot was hurried out of Sodom before her destruction." [1]

In 1888 the Lord "sent" us "the beginning" of that message. Ellen White called it "the light which will lighten the earth with its glory." Had it been accepted, "then the strong, clear light of that other angel who comes down from heaven having great power, wouldhave filled the earth with his glory. ... Heavenly messengers have grieved, impatient at the delay. ... Angels of heaven were seeking to communicate through human agencies--justification by faith, the righteousness of Christ." "The loud cry of the third angel has already begun in the revelation of the righteousness of Christ." [2]

Shall the Seventh-day Adventist Church disregard the authenticated "beginning" of that final message, which was "in a great degree" rejected and "kept away from the world"? [3]

That same writer tells how the first Pentecost relates to the future second one: "A work is to be accomplished in the earth similar to that which took place at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the days of the early disciples, when they preached Jesus and Him crucified. Many will be converted in a day; for the message will go with power. ... The theme that attracts the heart of the sinner is Christ, and Him crucified. On the cross of Calvary, Jesus stands revealed to the world in unparalleled love [agape]. Present Him thus to the hungering multitudes, and the light of His love will win men from darkness to light, from transgression to obedience and true holiness. Beholding Jesus upon the cross of Calvary arouses the conscience to the heinous character of sin as nothing else can do." [4]

It meets exactly the heart-longing of every honest-hearted soul in "Babylon" (and there are many!), so that "the truth is seen in its clearness, and the honest children of God sever the bands which have held them. Family connections, church relations, are powerless to stay them now. Truth is more precious than all besides. Notwithstanding the agencies combined against the truth, a large number [will] take their stand upon the Lord's side." [5]

--Robert J. Wieland

(Compiled by Paul E. Penno)

Endnotes:

[1] Ellen G. White, Early Writings, pp. 278, 279, emphasis supplied.

[2] The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, pp. 673, 1070-1073, emphasis supplied.

[3] Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, book 1, pp. 234, 235.

[4] 1888 Materials, pp. 1073, 1074.

[5] Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 612.

--------------------------------------------------------

Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. 

"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888mpm.org
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to sabbathschooltoday@1888message.org

SS Lesson #2 Every Member Ministry: Pastor Paul Penno.mov

"Defining Evangelism and Witnessing"

Sabbath School Today

With the 1888 Message Dynamic

Evangelism and Witnessing

Lesson 1: "Defining Evangelism and Witnessing"

  

A "Most Precious" Historical Definition of "Evangelism"

  

When "the Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Brethren Waggoner and Jones" in the 1888 era, its basic thrust was soul-winning in preparation for the second coming of Christ in that generation.

Specifically, it was "to bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Saviour, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world." [1] Thus it was far more than a mere theological game for the church members to play. Ellen G. White's definition of presenting the message to the world was the language of Revelation 18. It was what we speak of as the Loud Cry of the third angel's message. She recognized that the message of Jones and Waggoner was its "beginning." [2]

All during the years while she uttered her 300-plus endorsements of the 1888 message, Ellen White's heart-burden was to give the message to the world. She was sorry that in the end of the era human opposition to the message resulted in its being "in a great degree kept away from the world." [3] The message itself was built-in "evangelism." It couldn't be stopped once it started unless "the brethren" succeeded in paralyzing it.

At the end of the era, her principal expressed disappointment was not that more money had not come in for "public evangelism," but that our ministers and people had not grasped the message itself. What occupied her mind at that time of the Loud Cry was not so much what we call "public evangelism" where one or a few individuals proclaim the message and many come to listen to it (that came later), but personal evangelism on the part of members of the church who came to understand the message. She saw a one-to-one method of proclaiming it as highly efficient to the point of success in finishing the world gospel commission in that one single generation. She saw that that was Heaven's intention for us.

But the power behind her vision needs to be understood: it was "the truth of the gospel" as contained in the actual 1888 message itself. It was not theological conundrums unraveled; it was not Conference-administered "efforts" held in tents or meeting halls; it was simple truth grasped by ordinary people which they had never seen so clearly before. It gripped their souls as Good News that met their heart needs. It included fresh views of:

The New Covenant. It never before had been so clearly proclaimed. It inspired people to share the ideas.

The justification that Christ accomplished by His sacrifice "for the sins of the whole world." Calvinist and Arminian views had functioned like spiritual cataracts that blinded people; they were now removed. The resultant clarity was a powerful motivation to share the message.

The understanding of what faith is. It came into focus as a heart appreciation of what it cost the Son of God to save the world. Let the heart be moved with "the truth of the gospel," let the Savior be uplifted on His cross and nothing can stop the one who believes from sharing!

Obedience to the law. In the wake of the proclamation of the 1888 message, obedience became a joy. "Thousands of dollars" in back tithe flowed into the church without pressure being applied simply because the message of "faith which works by love [agape]" gripped souls.

Returning back tithe to the Lord, which became a joy because now it was seen that Christ's "yoke is easy, and [His] burden is light." Love of money was eclipsed by love of the gospel.

The nearness-of–the-Savior truth. This brought Jesus so close that "we" saw Him as being real, "a Savior nigh at hand and not afar off." The confusion in "our" idea of Christ's personality was resolved. Biblical ideas replaced the dimness of Protestant fog inherited originally from Roman Catholicism. Ellen White said that young people were brought face to face with Christ as though they turned a corner and there He was.

At last the boring sanctuary doctrine came alive. "We" discovered a reason for living that constrained "us" with new zeal. We could cooperate with Christ in His closing work as High Priest. Each individual suddenly acquired a self-respecting importance, someone who could help hasten the return of Jesus because we could actually help Him in His final task.

And on and on, the 1888 truths caused many to exclaim, "I never saw the Bible so clearly before!"

They just had to tell others! No one could hold believers back.

That was "evangelism," pure and simple. The power was not in a Conference-promoted campaign, but in truth itself. It was seen how Paul was right when he said, "The love of Christ constraineth us." You couldn't sit still! (Conference-promoted media campaigns are fine if the distinct and unique elements of the latter rain/loud cry truths are in the message. That's where the real power is that converts people and holds them faithful until the Lord comes.)

Ellen White's dream was that the message should be proclaimed in "every church," and then it would spill out to the world beyond, where millions would find precious truth in a teaching of the cross which they had never seen before.

The cold fact is that multitudes of Protestant and Roman Catholic Christians, utterly sincere, have never understood the cross of Christ! The reason is that their commonly held belief in natural immortality had been a dense fog that hides from their view the truth of what happened on the cross. Seventh-day Adventists have taught the non-immortality of the soul, but their confusion over the two covenants has kept them from seeing clearly what happened on the cross. So the proclamation of the cross of Christ became the essence of the 1888 Loud Cry message that "we" had looked forward to for decades, and yet we had never known what it would be.

Jesus proclaimed this same truth which later is "evangelism" in the 1888 message. It was at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem just before His crucifixion: "On the last and most important day of the festival Jesus stood up and said in a loud voice [was this a precursor of the "loud cry" we look forward to?], 'Whoever is thirsty should come to Me and drink. As the scripture says [Song of Solomon 4:15] "Whoever believes in Me, streams of life-giving water will pour out from his heart"'" (John 7:37, 38, Today's English Version).

This is a profound statement of the method of evangelism that Jesus loved. He is not putting pressure on us to do this or that; He is not making us feel guilty for not doing more "evangelism." He is guaranteeing that if we trulybelieve in Him, the purest evangelism will be flowing out of our hearts as from an overflowing fountain. Of course, no one can truly "believe" if he doesn't understand the message. Therefore the proclamation, the teaching, of the "most precious" truths is utterly essential.

This is the idea that Ellen White and Jones and Waggoner saw in the 1888 message. The love for the message that is awakened by one's first discovering it, never dies. You long somehow to share it with every soul you meet. It's a replay of what motivated the early Christians. Youth catch the vision readily once they understand the message clearly.

Ellen White told us that we would "be surprised by the simple means" that God will employ in the final proclamation of the third angel's message [4]: this message of 1888 was it. It took everybody by surprise in 1888, including Ellen White herself. When the message itself in its pure strength is undiluted with Babylon's concepts that compromise it, will it not be proclaimed as Heaven intended, to "every Seventh-day Adventist Church" and then to the world? (It will, yet, in the providence of God!) The final blaze of gospel glory will illuminate the world, and for the first time since Pentecost the word "evangelism" will at last come into its own.

--Robert J. Wieland

Endnotes:

[1] Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, p. 91.

[2] Review and Herald, Nov. 22, 1892.

[3] Selected Messages, book 1, p. 235.

[4] Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, p. 300.

--------------------------------------------------------

Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. 

"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888mpm.org

To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to sabbathschooltoday@1888message.org