Faithful to the Masses (1984)
by Luis Palau
"A passion for the masses comes when we realize that men and women outside of Christ are lost forever. "
To be faithful to the masses we must first have a passion for the masses.
In 1 Timothy 2:1-4 Paul says, “I urge, then, first of all, that requests,
prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone ... This is good,
and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a
knowledge of the truth.”
Here are two thoughts. First, because God our Savior wants all men to be saved, it pleases him that we should pray for all people. Second, he wants all people to come to a knowledge of the truth, the truth that "there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men" (vv. 5-6).
In 1962 I came to Detroit to study and be a missionary intern for nine months. While I was there a missionary from what was then West Pakistan, Mr. Montgomery, laid a burden on us for his land. At that point I didn't have much of a burden for that country. But he gave us a name of one Muslim man who had accepted Christ and who was being persecuted. And I put that name in my Amplified New Testament, which I still have at home. I have prayed for that man all these years. I don't know if he's still alive, or if he's in heaven with the Lord; I have no idea. But the burden that Mr. Montgomery laid on us at the conference at Highland Park Baptist Church turned my life around. And I began to feel a passion for the masses of West Pakistan.
How to Eat an Elephant
Now the thing that gets you when you think of the masses is the sheer enormity of it. As they say, how do you eat an elephant? - One bite at a time. It's the only way. Although it's a massive beast, and there's a lot of meat in an elephant, if you really plan to eat it, there's only one way to do it - One bite at a time. And when you look at the masses of the world who are without Christ, you've got to start somewhere: where you are. I heard Elisabeth Elliot once say, "Always do the next thing."
If you want to get a passion and a burden for the masses, the first step, in my opinion, is to do what the Lord Jesus did. The Bible says in Matthew 9:36 that "when he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." In, other words, first we have to look at them.
Once, I was in a hotel in London waiting to get a bus to go to the airport with my sons Kevin and Keith. The twins were about ten at the time. As we were sitting in the lobby, there were people from all races coming in and out. There were Muslims and Sikhs and ordinary British and Americans. We were bored, so I thought I'd teach the boys about noticing people. I began to watch the people walking by and made comments about each one. And I said, "Boys, what do you think that bellboy is thinking?" He was looking at the change that some guy had given him over the suitcases, and he looked mad. I said, "I bet you he's saying ‘Cheapskate, stupid American,’” and then the boys just began to laugh. Then came an Arab who looked like a sheik with a long, white robe and beard, and I said, "What do you think he's thinking?" And we began to try to guess what people were thinking by looking at their faces. As people hustled in, sweaty with their bags or hassled by the employees at the counter, we just sat there and had the greatest fun - not judging people, but trying to guess what was going on.
When I was seventeen and just beginning to follow the Lord, I used to love to sit in the coffee shops with a magazine and a cup of coffee, just watching and listening to people. In airports I still like to do that. Just listen to people. You hear things; you watch people's reactions; you see couples fighting; you see kids hassling their parents; you see couples just kissing and carrying on. You see all sorts of things in airports. And one way I get turned on to masses is just watching them and trying to second-guess what's going through their minds. And although this might not work for you, it does me a lot of good. Because as I look at their eyes and their faces and try to read their body language, I try to get into their souls, and it is there where you find compassion.
One man particularly taught me a passion for the masses. Keith Benson; was a missionary to Argentina from California. He was a fiery fellow. One day he invited me to pray with him. We set aside every Wednesday after work to pray. I was so excited. I must have been about twenty-two.
We got on our knees and he pulled out a map. He said, "Luis, we're going to pray for your church today - first Wednesday." And he'd learn by memory the names of the elders of my church, even though he didn't belong to it. He learned the names of my mother, my five sisters and my little brother.
He had a passion for prayer. I've prayed with a good number of men and women who really pray - I mean they really pray. But Keith Benson was the first. He would pray and talk to the Lord as if the Lord needed information. It was part of his style. For instance, he would say "Lord, you know Mrs. Palau is a widow. Lord, bless Mrs. Palau." And he'd carry on informing the Lord about every one of my sisters, Monty, Martha, Kim, Margaret, Ruth and my little brother George and about all sorts of things.
He'd pray up a storm and then stop. I had been brought up in both Brethren and Anglican churches, so I prayed too and covered all the territory I knew and said "amen," figuring that would be the end. But he would launch out into a second prayer. And he would pray then for the elders of my church and really lay it on the Lord. And then he'd get up and walk around still praying for neighbors, families and church leaders.
The next Wednesday he showed up with a map of Córdoba, which is a city of about a million people, and there were about sixteen Brethren assemblies marked in blue on it. He'd start praying for each assembly. Now this wasn't a quickie prayer while you're shaving, these were long prayers. He'd point his finger at the map, "Lord, here's an assembly ... Lord, I don't know the elders in that church but ...” and he'd go down and around the map. When he was finished, I felt that we had taken a ride around the city.
The next week he came with the same map, but besides the blue dots there were red dots-the Baptists. Benson knew them all. I prayed with him haltingly at first. But soon I began to pray a little more. I learned to pray, for people - not just say a quick prayer to get it over with. I learned to enjoy prayer.
The next Wednesday he came with a map indicating all the Assemblies of God churches. Then he brought different maps, and we'd pray for all sorts of things. We'd pray for two to two-and-a-half hours. He'd get up for a little bit, but he'd never stop praying.
Next he came with a map of the whole province of Córdoba. He knew all the towns in the province, and he knew how many had churches. He would start praying from south to north, which was his habit. "Lord, I've never been in this town, but there's a church there," and he'd begin to pray. Then the next Wednesday he came with a map of all Argentina, and he'd start praying province by province, though not in so much detail.
Do you know what this did for me? It expanded my soul. I suddenly began to pray for people far beyond Córdoba and my little assembly and the twelve kids in my Sunday-school class. Suddenly we were really praying.
Then of course, you can imagine, he came with a map of South America, and we prayed country by country. One day he brought a globe, and we prayed continent by continent. Finally, he grabbed the globe and said, "Lord, I love the world!" And oh, I tell you, that really moved me. I knew he loved the world.
One way to expand your heart and to begin to get a burden for the masses and a desire to do something about it is to pray. I really don't know any other way. Faithfulness to the masses has to begin with prayer. Obviously, we can't go everywhere. Single-handedly we can't convert all the Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and all the other masses. But one thing we can do is to intercede in the power of the Holy Spirit. And then, under God, we decide "where does the Lord want me?" God will show us the little comer of the world where he wants us to be.
Eternity and the Masses
Faithfulness to the masses must remind us about eternity. Eternity is the most awesome thing in the world. Yes, we get all shaken up about hunger, war, torture, killing. But eternity should move us much more strongly. I believe that the passion God wants us to have for the masses comes when you think of the awesomeness of eternity. People die fat and people die hungry. People die in rich countries and people die in Third World countries. Everybody has to face eternity. Whether you are rich or poor, whether you are hungry or you are stuffed, you still have to face eternity. And a passion for the masses comes when we realize that men and women outside of Christ are lost forever.
Dr. R. A. Torrey said there are three steps in getting a passion for the masses: studying what the Bible has to say about the lost, believing it, and then dwelling on this truth until it takes hold of our hearts and we realize its meaning. In other words, we have to give ourselves time to let it sink in. Men and women outside of Christ are lost; and if we don't go out to them, they will die without Christ. And if they die without Christ, they are lost. Now the Judge of all the earth shall do right, I'm not concerned about that. But I am concerned about doing what I'm supposed to do, and dwelling on this gives me my burden.
I want to share with you about Dr. Kraft and his son, David, and how they renewed in me a vision for the reality of heaven and the reality of eternity. Dr. Kraft is the minister of Twin Lakes Baptist Church in Santa Cruz, California. David, his only son, went to Biola College, a typical young fellow that a father would love. David loved the Lord, enjoyed everything in college, liked girls, and had fun, played basketball, and so on. After college he got married to a great gal and settled into the Bay Area.
When they were expecting their second child, David began to have some physical ailment. He went to the doctor, but the doctor couldn't figure out what it was. It got worse and worse and neither medicine nor prayer nor anything seemed to do anything for him. He was only thirty-two.
He had directed a camp for kids in the summer. People loved him. His dad loved him. Everybody loved Dave Kraft. Then there was nothing they could do; they took him to the hospital in Santa Cruz.
When I went to a missions conference there just a few years ago, the deacons said to me, "We've really got to pray for Dr. Kraft. He's so shaken by David." David was plugged into all sorts of cables, and he was being kept alive on a life-support system, but he was totally awake.
The Sunday morning I was supposed to speak, I saw Dr. Kraft. He seemed so relaxed. So I went up to him and I said, "Dr. Kraft, how's David?" He said, "Last night he went to be with the Lord."
We were walking into the stadium to the platform, so I sat down beside him and began to think how I could comfort him. While the song service was going on I leaned over and said, "Dr. Kraft, I am really sorry. What shall we do this morning?"
He said, "Let me tell you something." And while the song service
was going on, he told me this. He said, "Last night I went to the hospital
with my twin brother Roy. We prayed together and afterward David said to my
brother, “Uncle, could you leave the room? I want to talk to Dad alone.” When
Roy left the room, David said, “Dad, come over here and give me a hug.”
“
I went over, knelt by the bed and put my arms around him. And David said to
me, ‘Dad, I'm going to go home tonight’.
“I looked at him and said, ‘Dave, you lucky guy. I thought I was going to beat you to it, but you'll beat me.’
“And he said, ‘Dad, I want you to tell Mom how much I love her
and tell her thanks. I want to thank you for the example you've been to me,
I want to thank you for teaching me how to love the Lord Jesus, and I want
to thank you for the way you have lived.’
“'Dave, you lucky guy, to think that tonight you're going to go to heaven, and
you're going to see Abel and Moses and Joshua. Can you imagine, Dave, you're
going to see Daniel and David and St. Paul. But best of all, you're going to
see the Lord Jesus. And when you see him, tell him tonight, that your father
loves him very much.’
“We hugged each other, and I prayed for him. I went home after a little while and at about four o'clock in the morning, the doctor called and told me that David had just died. That's why I'm so relaxed this morning. Because Dave is in the presence of the Lord.”
And that's why we must be faithful to the masses. Because a man who dies with Christ as his Savior has the assurance of eternal life and the reality of heaven - here and in eternity. And that ought to shake us to care for the masses, to be faithful to the masses and to proclaim the message of the gospel. Because there are so many millions who are hungry to know the reality of eternal life.
As of 1984, Luis Palau heads an international evangelistic team which has held crusades throughout North, Central and South America, the West Indies, Europe and Australia. The team includes members from Argentina, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States. In addition to several booklets in Spanish and in English, he has written five books published in Spanish and seven in English, including Heart after God, The Luis Palau Story and Our God Reigns.
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
Print
Email
Comments
Be the first one to add a comment.
To post a comment, please login or register