Evangelism and the Church (1961)

Message from Urbana 61
by Subodh Sahu

"Yes, He delivers us not only from prison into His person, not only from perdition into His pledge; but, also from penury into partnership with Him. From penury, from utter poverty, into partnership with Christ! All that I had, He took; all that He has, He has given me in Jesus Christ. Is it any wonder that I cannot keep silent about the Lord Jesus Christ?"

I want to confess to the glory of God and His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, that I am the result of Western missionary enterprise in my country. In 1938, when India was under British rule and every Indian hated the British, when there was political ferment all over India and every Indian kept at a distance from the British, then a man of God from England, from the Church of England, came to my home town. Before he preached Christ to us, he loved us. I was surprised at this - that an Englishman should love an Indian young man. I could not believe it, but I knew that it was true. There was no guile in him. He loved me from the depths of his heart. There was no duplicity about it; there was no show about it. And I said to myself, "If an Englishman can love me, an Indian, the only answer to this great surprise is Jesus Christ, the Son of God."

So the next day when he was preaching the gospel, I could not resist, but came to hear the Word of God. He did not preach his doubts; he did not preach anything but the Word of God. It is the sharp two-edged sword which pricked my heart - the Holy Spirit; He broke me and changed my heart. He came into my heart. That was 1938.

Before that, many other missionaries had come from the Western church to my home country; they had endured great sacrifice; they had accomplished many things. And because of that, there is a true church of Jesus Christ in India, even though it seems to be overshadowed by nominal Christians - people who call themselves Christian, but are not. I thank God that He is the One who builds the Church, and that He uses missionaries - those who go out heeding His call, endued with His power, preaching Him. May they never fail. The Lord uses them, establishing His Church in the places to which they go, and in the people to whom He calls them.

I give all the glory to the Lord for what He has done for us. So I'll sing an Indian hymn, one verse only, which praises my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. In India, we call it Bhujan. It's a hymn filled with words that evoke the worship of the believer. It says, "Christ Jesus, O merciful Lord, Thou art the Creator. Yet Thou hast become my Savior. So I praise and say hallelujah to Thy name." This hymn seems especially significant tonight, because in the forum we have been discussing music. A music major asked how he can serve and what he can do in India or in the Orient. I told him and others that I learned this particular hymn, an Indian hymn with an Indian tune, from an American missionary who is very musical and who has consecrated his talents to the Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps some of you know him; his name is Don Rubesh. He is leading the radio ministry in Ceylon.

And not only that. I'll also say, there is a brother here behind me, Wilbur Sorley, my brother, I say, in the Lord Jesus Christ. If I put a cover before him and put a piano accordion in his hand and let him sing the Assamese hymns unto Christ, you'd never distinguish that he is not an Assamese. You'd say this is a completely Indian person singing Indian tunes unto Christ. Yet he is fully an American in every way. You see, this is possible, if only you love the people - love the Lord and thus love the people. Then you can love Oriental music and you can worship the Lord Jesus Christ even in musical terms unfamiliar to you.

This song of praise is in my heart because somebody from the West heard the call of Jesus Christ, went to my country, loved me, and preached Christ to me.

Evangelism, the Course of Flaming Fellowship

The subject for this evening is, as you know, "Evangelism and the Church." As I speak of evangelism in relation to the church in Asia, I will present it in this way. I will not say, "This is the nose," pointing directly to my nose. I will say "This is the nose," putting my arm completely round my head to point with my right arm from my left side. Lest I appear to present the work, the task, the responsibility of evangelism in any way that will present a picture of the church in Asia as a proud picture, I'll present a picture of the church in Asia in its humility, in its poverty, in its weakness - yet triumphant because of Jesus Christ in this task of evangelism.

First, we have come to understand from the Word of God that the church, whether local or universal, is the assembly of people called out of the bondage of sin into the fellowship of the Lord Jesus Christ - irrespective of race or color or language or geographical location. That is, the Church is the organism of Christ, rather than an organization in the name of Christ our Lord. Christ is the Head of the Church; the Church is the body of Christ.

Second, we have also come to understand from the Word of God that the Lord Jesus Christ has graciously committed the task of evangelism to the Church. We understand that this scriptural evangelism is more than making churchgoers, or even converts, of people. We understand that evangelism definitely and always makes reproducing Christians of any people anywhere. Anything less than this tends to be a mere show. In any local situation, evangelism is not only the task of the missionary or of the pastor, but of every member of the Church of Jesus Christ. In the Scriptures we see the plan and pattern of evangelism as the activity of the Church. Our best example is our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who called the twelve disciples and concentrated on His ministry with them until He made them into a flaming fellowship, giving them the charge of evangelism. So this evening, the theme is "Evangelism, the Course of Flaming Fellowship." Flaming? Yes, emitting flames, blazing, moving like a flame.

Some days ago, when I was in London, I saw a documentary newsreel over the BBC television on the recent great fire, the conflagration which raged for several days in the Hollywood area of the western United States. We saw for two consecutive days how difficult it was to quench the fire, how the flames leaped on and beyond, enveloping houses and all obstacles in their path. The flaming fellowship - the Church of Jesus Christ! Emitting flames, blazing, moving on like a flame. So evangelism is the course, the onward movement, the pursuit by the flaming fellowship of the souls of men.

The Author of Fellowship

The text for tonight the Lord has laid on my heart is 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, verses 8 and 9: "... who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."

God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the flaming fellowship to which the task of evangelism is committed. The Author of this fellowship is the Person who called you and me. He called us out of darkness into His marvelous light, out of death into life eternal, out of bondage into freedom and the liberty of Christ. He called us out of prison into His person.

He is the God who calls - not an idea, not idealism, not any other person, not any man - but God, the Creator. He called us into flaming fellowship with Himself. God called us into the fellowship because He is a Person, not a set of laws and rules such as the Muslim has - pray five times, give gifts to the poor, and go to the mosque every day for prayer. Not a set of rules. It is not the call of laws and principles as such, but it is the call of the very Person of God.

Evangelism, the task of evangelism, is born out of the flaming fellowship with God. Unless you know God, who is fully revealed only in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, in His death and resurrection, in His ascension and intercession at the right hand of the Father - unless you are in fellowship with Him, you cannot launch out into evangelism. And if you are in the flaming fellowship with God in the Person of Jesus Christ, then you cannot but be committed to the task of evangelism. You are committed always and whoever you are. Evangelism is not for missionaries only, but for every Christian called by the Lord Jesus Christ. In that call is the potency of evangelism.

Is it any wonder, therefore, that the Samaritan woman whom we read about in John, chapter 4, became an evangelist immediately after meeting Christ? She met Christ, she had fellowship with God right at the well, with the God who revealed Himself fully only in Jesus Christ. She met God and her need was met. Jesus saved her from her sin. Immediately she left her water pot and ran into the village. She was not a missionary; she was not called into fulltime service; but she engaged in the task of evangelism. She went with a sense of urgency and testified to the people; she called them and said, "Come and see a man who has told me anything and everything that ever I did." The whole village turned out to meet Jesus. Many were saved. They truly acknowledged Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world. Who was the missionary? Not a professional missionary at all. Only one illiterate woman, a woman, who, in her society, had been a fallen woman an hour before; now she was committed to the task of evangelism.

Is it any wonder that when God called a young man on the way to Damascus - "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" - that man heard the call? He was already fallen on the ground. He was blinded, but his inner eyes were opened. He met Jesus. And as he asked, "Who art thou, Lord?" the answer came, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." After that experience, we find him testifying in Damascus, preaching with solid reason, and proving from the Scriptures that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Christ of God, the Anointed One, the Savior of the world.

Mind you, that young man later proved to be the best missionary in the history of the Church. But first he was saved, and in that call that he heard from the Lord Jesus Christ, there was the potency of evangelism from the beginning. And so it is with you, if you know the call of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Have you been called? I marvel at the grace of God. I marvel that God who is the Creator of the whole world, the universe, who is so great a God, clothed with majesty condescends to call you and me, puny men, sinful men, rebels; Yet He calls you and me to cooperate with Him, to work with Him, to win somebody else for whom Christ died.

That's why I repeat that this task of evangelism is based on the fundamental truth of the personality of God, because you are called into the flaming fellowship with Him. It is a fellowship that touches and transforms the hearts of men. You remember the account in Luke 24 of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus? That day they were tired, weary in mind, weary in body; they were confused and puzzled, walking toward the village of Emmaus. That evening they met Jesus Christ. At first they didn't know that He was Jesus, even though He walked with them, talked with them, and visited in their home. Later He broke bread with them, and their Lord was revealed to them. And they knew Him. Then they said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?"

You cannot be in the fellowship of Jesus Christ if you have not heard the call of the Lord Jesus Christ. But if you have come out of prison into His Person, then you cannot but know this inflammation, the enflaming experience of the Holy Spirit, the Person of Jesus Christ, the Person of the Holy Spirit in you, who will drive you in love, in compassion, to the task of evangelism to win somebody else to Christ through your witness.

And it will be so from the first day of your conversion. I pray that it will be true constantly in your life and mine, as we continue to walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. He created us for fellowship with Himself. He called us from prison into His person for fellowship with Himself.

The assurance of fellowship

The source of the fellowship is the Person who called you and me to Himself; the assurance of fellowship is in the pledge of His call. 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 9: "God is faithful." Mind you, some would say these words were written by Paul. I confess that they were written through Paul, but the Author of this Word is the Holy Spirit, God Himself. And it says, "God is faithful." Verse 8: "who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." There is a confidence, there is a surety, there is an assurance in this fellowship. When one comes into fellowship, into the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, he or she cannot but be assured of the pledge that is involved in that call. Because God is faithful. God is a covenant-keeping God. He who has called you "shall confirm you unto the end." In Titus, chapter 1, verse 2, it is written, "God, who never lies ... " In 2 Timothy, chapter 2, verse 13, it says, "if we are faithless, he remains faithful - for he cannot deny himself." How true it is! How many times you and I have denied - yes; denied the Lord Jesus Christ by our actions, by our thoughts, by our words, by our conduct. Yet He has not left us. Hasn't His promise rung true always - the promise of Hebrews, chapter 13, verse 5: "I will never fail you nor forsake you"? "I will never forsake you; I will never leave you." Does it not encourage your heart, His promise, His pledge? John, chapter 10, verse 28: "I give unto them eternal life." "Nothing, no one can snatch you away from My hands; nothing, no one can take you out of my Father's hands." The assurance in this fellowship is because of His pledge, which is in His call.

He has called, and He has pledged Himself in calling. He says, " ... this is my blood of the covenant" (Matthew 26: 28). He has made a covenant with us. We didn't make a covenant with Him first. We didn't seek Him first. We didn't call on His name first. We didn't want Him. Oh, how true it is, Yet, He called us. He pledged Himself. He cannot deny Himself. Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 23: " ... for he who promised is faithful." I Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 24: "He who calls you is faithful, and he will do it." Philippians, chapter 1, verse 6: "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." He will perfect His work. So we have assurance in this fellowship - and this assurance will motivate you and me, as it has motivated the true Church in Asia, in India, in Nepal.

I'll tell you an experience of mine. I met a young man in Darjeeling, a very tall Nepalese young man. And I saw that his right shoulder was hanging down as he walked. I said to him, "Brother, what has happened? Why does your right shoulder hang down?" (You see we in India are very free like the Americans, not like the British.) I asked him this very frankly. And as I did that, he said, "You want to know?" I said, "Please, if you will." He took off his coat. He pulled out his shirt, and he showed me. I put out my hand-my hand went deep, very far, into his side. On his right side I felt not a single bone at all! I said, "What is this?"

He said, "As a young man in the war days, I was sent to Calcutta. I was a big officer in the Air Raid Precaution Department and worked very hard. But I enjoyed my life. I thought I had a good time. Drink, dance - these were my hobbies. And I went on like this. Many a time my own relatives approached me with the challenge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I said, 'I have done away with God and Christ and church and Bible. You never should talk to me about all that.' I silenced their mouths. But I couldn't bind the hands of the Holy Spirit, the sovereign Lord.

"One day in 1942 I woke up, and I spat blood. I was worried, tall, healthy young man though I was. Why should I spit blood? I went to the doctor. Because I was an officer in the government department, I could easily avail myself of the doctor, and the specialist. And the specialist looked me over and said, 'What is your religion? Do you believe in God?' I said, 'Doctor, why do you ask me such questions?' He said, 'I give you only three months to live. You are infected with galloping [Tuberculosis]. There is no hope for you. Three months, and you are out of this world.

"I sank down. I was in desperate condition. I didn't want to go back to my parents. I didn't want to go back anywhere. But there was a missionary couple in Darjeeling." (Some of you know Roy and Elma Higgins.)

"They called me to their home. They nursed me in love. They sent me to the hospital in Ajmer, and there I was operated on. I said, `Lord, I heard you call; you have saved me from my sins. If you spare my life, you will have saved me out of my indifference into activity. Whether I am a preacher or not, I'll set about to tell everybody that Jesus Christ is the only Savior. I'll tell them, repent and believe on Jesus.'"

Today this young man is right out in the Terrai area of Nepal, preaching the Lord Jesus Christ to the multitudes there, to the villagers there. Why? Because he heard the call of Jesus Christ. This call was for him a call from sin into the Person of Jesus Christ. There was assurance in it that he is saved for eternity. And he knew that this assurance would drive him to preach the gospel to every creature; whether he would be accepted as a preacher or not did not matter at all. He knew that he must go and win souls for Christ Jesus.

My dear friends, so it is for you and for me. Just as it was for that young man in Nepal, there is the call, the assurance of fellowship, the pledge. Yes, we are lifted from perdition into His pledge, from prison into His person. Oh, the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ!

The appropriation of fellowship

We move on to appropriation of this fellowship - that is partnership with Him who has called us. Partnership with Him who has called you and me. We experience this in Asia. You see, when the Lord Jesus first called me, He called me into Himself. And whatever He has and is, was given to me. God gave His Son to me. And in His Son is everything that God has for me - it is given in Jesus. I don't mind if I'm a pauper tomorrow, if everything is taken away from me. Even if the clothes I have are taken away from me, I don't mind at all, because as you heard last night, Jesus Christ is the real treasure. He is everything that I need. He is given to me - in Him is the fullness of God, which definitely includes the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

I thank God, I didn't hear it from a preacher, I didn't hear it from my pastor, I didn't hear it from my parents. I read it in the Bible in my daily Quiet Time. As I pondered and waited on the Lord, seeking His face through the Scriptures, I saw the need for me to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I was not so fortunate as many of you are who have access to a wonderful teaching ministry of the Word of God. In my home town, for a long time I didn't hear any real Scripture teaching. But I was not deserted by the Holy Spirit. In the Word of God I saw this: I must be filled with the Holy Spirit. It is a command - Ephesians 5:18: " ... be filled with the Spirit." And my dear friends, in Acts 2:39 I read that this promise is not for you only, but also for your children, and all those whom the Lord calls to Himself.

So I know that when I come into the fellowship, into partnership with Jesus Christ, appropriation is involved. I have to come in, into Christ. I cannot be satisfied that I have everything; I must accept, appropriate whatever Christ has for me. And it is the Lord Jesus Christ who fills with the Spirit. He fills the believer with the Holy Spirit. I came to Him, and He filled me.

You say, how did I know? Through faith. If you ask me how do I know that I am filled with the Holy Spirit, I say, in the same way as I knew that I was saved. I knew that my sins were forgiven through faith. Not by faith, through faith. And so I know the fact of the Spirit's indwelling through faith, through total consecration, which the sovereign Lord wrought in my heart. He wooed me out of myself into total dedication to Himself, and there I understood. And I know that He has filled me with the Holy Spirit.
This filling is not just for once only. It is a continuous, daily and hourly experience. I give all the glory to God, because He does the work. He made me hungry for it. He revealed the truth to me. He moved me and filled me with His Holy Spirit. I give Him all the praise and glory.

And if all this is for me, an Indian young man of Cuttack, from a very humble home in Cuttack, it is also for you according to the promise of God.

So, appropriate all the resources that are in Jesus Christ - resources of Christ, resources of God in Christ. Appropriate them. And as you do that, you cannot but appropriate also the responsibility of Jesus Christ, which is evangelism. This appropriation of fellowship, this partnership with Jesus Christ, will fill your heart with the responsibility of evangelism. You cannot escape it, and you will not.

Yes, He delivers us not only from prison into His person, not only from perdition into His pledge; but, also from penury into partnership with Him. From penury, from utter poverty, into partnership with Christ! All that I had, He took; all that He has, He has given me in Jesus Christ. Is it any wonder that I cannot keep silent about the Lord Jesus Christ? Is it any wonder that I approach my dear brother from Punjab and tell him that Jesus Christ is the Lord, the only Savior? There is none beside Him.

Because I know, I know, I know Him. He fills me with the Holy Spirit. He gives the power. He drives me to testify to the great saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. He lifts me from penury into partnership with Him.

The adventure in fellowship

And finally, there is adventure in fellowship. Adventure in fellowship! This is the greatest adventure that you can ever indulge in, the task of evangelism. Adventure in fellowship is the passion of His call. Read 1 Corinthians, chapter 9, verse 14 on. You find in verse 16 it is written, " ... woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!" Woe is unto me - there is the passion of His call. This is the adventure. Paul, who once could never have gloried in Christ, now says, "woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel," the gospel of Christ.

If you know the fellowship of the Lord Jesus Christ, as a true believer does in Asia, you'll also say with us in Asia, "Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel of Jesus Christ." It does not matter if you cannot preach homiletically. It does not matter if you cannot preach so that people will clap and say, "Wonderful! Wonderful!" - it doesn't matter at all. But from the heart to the heart you preach, you testify, you tell that Jesus Christ is the Savior. That's what I did. Previously, as I preached for the last eighteen years in India, it was all that I did. I had one text, I had one message, I had one conclusion - the same thing. But the Lord worked. He saved, not I. He worked, He convicted people, He broke their hearts, He brought them to the foot of the cross.

So it does not matter whether you can preach like a great preacher; just tell the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ sincerely and be filled with the Holy Spirit, and the Lord will work. If you can get any training, if you can preach homiletically, so much the better. But if you do not have such gifts and opportunities, be like the Samaritan woman, going and calling the people, "Come and see the Man. Oh, come and see the Man who told me all that ever I did. He told me everything. Come and see." She preached Christ. "Is not this the Christ?" she asked, and the whole village turned out to see Jesus.

So it will be, my dear friends. And that will be the passion of His call, consuming, burning, and flaming in your heart. And like Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:22 you'll say, "I will become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some." You cannot but say this. You'll consecrate yourself for this, just as the true believer in Asia does, just like those who have gone out into Nepal. Just like that young man, George from Kerala, from the Syrian Christian Community in South India, who has gone out into Katmandu, preaching the gospel there.

Just in the same way, just like another brother from Mokokchung. He went to Assam, to the Konyak and Naga tribes, and there he was preaching the gospel. And the people began to threaten and to try to kill, persecuting the whole group that went to preach the gospel to the Konyak and Naga headhunters. And he knelt down and began to pray for these people. And the people, some of them, came and slew him right there, severed his head from his body.

This passion will cost you something, because it is the passion of Christ. It is not just a strong desire to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, but it is suffering to which you are called. It will mean identification on your part with the people to whom you go. Yesterday, a young man told me that we have failed in the Skid Rows of our cities. I don't know what Skid Row means, but I guessed the meaning. I guessed he referred to the down-and-outers in the home mission. Leave Skid Row. Right in your university, in your college, there's that young man, that young lady - very smart, but utterly foolish because he or she does not receive Jesus Christ, accepting the claims of Christ. If he's near you, he's your chum (in your language), he's your friend, but you have not dared to testify to him right there in your own college. Right there in the hospital, to the nurse in charge. Right there in the office or factory, or in the home to your parents who do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Right there, you'll have to suffer. They'll taunt you, they'll persecute you.

You cannot preach to them right away; first you'll have to sit in their place. You'll have to identify yourself with them, put yourself in their position. You cannot really preach to them unless you identify yourself with them. And that is a very, very hard task. And it is much more so on the mission field. To identify with the poor in India, to identify with the down-and-out in the villages and in the towns of India is very, very difficult. It will cost you something.

But we are called not only from prison into His person, not only from perdition into His pledge, not only from penury into His partnership, but also from perversion into His passion. Jesus Christ! Suffer with Him. Preach Him. Identify with the people for whom He died, sit in their place, know what they are, love them as persons, not just as souls to be saved and added to the Christian fold. Love them as persons. And there win them to Christ.

Who is sufficient for these things? One who knows inspiration by experience through consecration, into whose heart the Lord has breathed in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. One who knows how to go about the infiltration of people by identification, who has the aim of invasion through intercession. One who knows that he has the task of impartation through instruction, who knows that he - not only he, but the whole Church - is concerned with the task of inundation by intercommunion. Inundation with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We must preach Christ and Him crucified to inundate the people and the country with Jesus. Is it impossible? The first-century Christians turned cities and towns upside down. People were afraid of their power, God's power in them, wherever they went. Has Christ changed? Is the power of the Holy Spirit any less for us? Are you and I not called into fellowship, into deep fellowship - out of our prison into His person, from perversion into His passion - and into the great task of evangelism. The Lord will bless you just as He has blessed us in Asia. And we trust that we'll continue in this task of evangelism.

If you should come over to our country, if the Lord should open the door and bring you, we'll work hand in hand like brothers with brothers, sisters with sisters. We'll go about this task of evangelism. But before you ever stretch out your hand to us in Asia or in Africa, perhaps the Lord will put you to test right here in your college, in your town, in your neighborhood, in your home. And the Lord will give you all success. I pray that the Lord will bless you to that end.

O Christ, Thy nail-pierced hands, Thy riven side, Thy crowned head .... How dare we make excuses? How dare we reject Thy call? Speak, Lord, in the silence. Speak to me.

Let Thy blood drops fall upon our hearts and again flood in and cleanse us from all our disobedience.

We would surrender our wills tonight to Thee, O Lord. Thou art Lord.

Let your heads be bowed, let your eyes, be closed, and I will sing with you one chorus of "When He calls me, I will answer."

[At this point, Subodh Sahu led the thousands of students gathered at Urbana in the following chorus. He sang the first line almost entirely alone, until the students caught the idea of words and melody and joined him in what became one of the most moving moments of the convention.]

When He calls me, I will answer,
When He calls me, I will answer,
When He calls me, I will answer,
I'll be somewhere working with my Lord.

Lord, accept our consecration, because we offer ourselves, in he name of our Lord Jesus Christ and for His sake. Amen. Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God our Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with us all now and forever. Amen.

In 1961, Subodh Kumar Sahu, an Indian evangelist, was studying at the London Bible College, London, England. Mr. Sahu was the secretary for Evangelism for the Evangelical Fellowship of India, and for a time served with the Indian Youth for Christ.

Introduction by Urbana 61 Director Eric Fife

In this day and generation, no missionary conference worthy of the name could fail to bring students face to face with the stark realities of our day. The Church is engaged in conflict. But this conflict is not something peculiar to the twentieth century. This conflict began when the Church began. Why did it so begin? Because the Church by nature is intolerant. Jesus Christ said, "I am the way ... no man cometh ... but by me." Immediately, almost immediately the Church was born and came into conflict with the Roman Empire. It need not have been so. Had the Church been prepared to be regarded as merely one more religion, to be fitted into the general framework of Roman religion, there need have been no vital conflict.

But it was the intolerant message of Jesus Christ and His Church that made the conflict immediate and inevitable. "No man cometh ... but by me." "Him only shalt thou serve." The very nature of the Church is to express this truth. By its very nature, the Church is a missionary agency. The purpose of the Church is to bring others to a recognition of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. This is our goal. This is one of the reasons why we have been called into existence as the Church of Jesus Christ. This is part of the raison d'etre of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship. Our first avowed purpose is to evangelize. If as a Christian you are not evangelizing, you are sinning. If as an Inter-Varsity group you are not evangelizing, you are a complete failure, though you have six hundred members in your chapter. A goal of the Church is evangelism.

Some of you may feel that we have plucked this chord just a little too energetically. Every Bible study each morning (I refer to the 500-odd group Bible studies) has been concerned with evangelism. But we return to the theme this evening with no apology. We believe that in the whole area of conflict, in the whole area of commission, evangelism is utterly basic. And we feel that it is particularly appropriate tonight that a member of one of the younger churches addresses us on such a tremendously important topic as "Evangelism and the Church."

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Evangelism and the Church (1961)

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December 27-31, 2009