Bearing Good News 4/87

Bearing Good News 4/87

by Jim Durkin

Some things are beautiful in the sight of God, which to human eyes may not be beautiful at all. In fact, they may seem quite ugly. For example, in Isaiah the Lord says, "How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news" (Is. 52:7).

Beautiful feet? Most people would agree that a finely featured face can be noble and beautiful; hands can be expressive and beautiful, or muscular and beautiful; but feet? To me, feet are probably the least attractive part of the human anatomy. Yet they can be beautiful in the sight of God.

"How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him...who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation, and says to Zion, 'Your God reigns!'" (Is. 52:7).

The feet of the bearer of good news, the proclaimer of salvation, are beautiful feet in the sight of God.
Clearly, God places great value on those who preach the message of salvation. And this means not only ministers or evangelists, but ordinary people who have surrendered their lives to God and committed themselves to spreading the good news of Jesus.

While God's purpose is served when individual believers are conformed to the character of Christ, and when God's love is manifest through the unity of the church, God's total vision-the way in which He will be fully glorified on earth-involves more than just our personal relationship with Him and with each other. God wants His people to take their love for Him and for each other into the very heart of the darkness of this world. We are to boldly proclaim the message of life and hope in Christ, to glorify God in the sight of the nations.

From the moment Jesus received the anointing of the Holy Spirit and began His earthly ministry, He placed highest priority on proclaiming the message of God. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me," He said as He stood in the synagogue, "because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord" (Lk. 4:18-19). Jesus came to preach and proclaim the kingdom of God and to bring glory to the Father.

Nearing the end of His life on earth, Jesus knelt in prayer before the Father and said, "I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do...As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world" (Jn. 17:4;18). Just before leaving the world, Jesus commanded all who had chosen to follow Him to take the good news of salvation to the ends of the earth: "You shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, even to the remotest part of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

Among many others in the early church, Paul was one who understood the Lord's command to spread the gospel. He knew that proclaiming the gospel would bring glory to God, that it was the only bridge between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of God's light.

Many churches today, however, have lost sight of the work that God so highly values. Their vision consists of building a nice church fellowship, having nice homes and nice families, creating a situation on earth they can enjoy until Jesus comes to take them home. But I can't think of any more frustrating way to pursue a life of knowing the Lord than to fail to make Him known to others.

The apostle Paul, along with thousands of other saints throughout the ages, ended his days on earth with the deep satisfaction that his life had been used to magnify Jesus and to proclaim His name throughout the world. "For I am already being poured out as a drink offering," he wrote Timothy, "and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith" (2 Tim. 4:6-7). In another place he said, "I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision" (Acts 26:19).

What tremendous satisfaction Paul must have felt! His life and his words had brought many to know the great and mighty King of Kings. He had been consumed with a desire to make Jesus known to every creature, and he could leave this life at peace with himself and with God.

Tragically, many Christians today have lost this burning passion. We lack the total abandonment needed to spread the gospel. Instead, we hire others to preach the gospel for us, comfortably removing ourselves from any involvement in the work of bringing Jesus to the world. If the proclamation of the gospel were somehow to grind to a halt, many of us would hardly be affected.

Yet Scripture makes it clear that the gospel must be preached to all nations before Jesus will return. How will this be accomplished? It won't be done by a few trained professionals or by two or three large evangelistic organizations. Such a task requires the commitment and participation of every member of the body of Christ. It can and will be carried out only by the people of God, by a united body, totally committed to filling the earth with the name and story and deeds of Jesus Christ.
When faced with such an awesome, all-encompassing vision, the natural mind immediately falters. "How will we ever get it done? How will we break through the cultural and language barriers? How can we possibly reach the whole world?"
At this point the human mind tends to play a subtle trick. "Well, we've got a church of 200," someone might conclude. "If we can double its size, I think that's our share." Or, "My share of God's vision is to reach my community. If everybody could just reach their community, then the whole world could be reached."

But there's no such thing as "my share." What generally happens, in fact, is that a person's vision will shrink from "my city" to "my neighborhood" to "my family" to "I need to get my own life together before I can tell anyone else about Jesus." Eventually, God's vision, which was meant to send us out as lights in the midst of darkness, is set aside, and our lives becomes self-focused again. Such lives will never complete the work of God on earth.

Jesus said, "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come" (Mt. 24:14). After nearly 2,000 years, the church has yet to see this vision fulfilled. Occasionally a group arose that saw the challenge of this great vision, and God displayed a true movement of His Spirit through them. But, for the most part, Christians have settled for visions much smaller than the great vision of God.

Today, God is still waiting for a people who will lay aside their own small visions to commit themselves wholeheartedly to His great and all-encompassing plan.

My prayer is that God will renew His vision in the hearts and minds of His people everywhere; a vision of the church filled with people ready and willing to sacrifice their lives for the privilege of taking the good news to every nation on earth; a vision of the sick healed, the lame walking, the dead raised, and the glory given to Jesus; a vision of men and women like Daniel, Joseph and Esther, raised by God to places of influence among the leaders of the nations; a vision of a united church filled with young, old, black, yellow, red, white, and brown, educated, illiterate, wealthy, and poor people, overflowing with the love of Jesus for one another, and for the lost; a vision of the great harvest of God coming to a triumphant end; and of Jesus returning to the earth in power and glory.

Right now, as you read this, I urge you to commit your life to God's vision, to commit your life to sharing with others the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps you feel inadequate. You may think you have too many problems or that it would be too hard for you. But God can use you, and He wants to use you. The first and most important step is that you surrender your energy, your time, your money and your talents-your whole life-to Him.

back to Articles, Teachings, Etc. by Jim Durkin