I looked then, and saw a man named Evangelist coming to him, and he asked, “Wherefore dost thou cry?”
He answered, “Sir, I perceive, by the BOOK in my hand, that I am condemned to die, and after that to come to judgment, and I find that I am not willing to do the first, nor able to do the second.”
John Bunyan, “The Pilgrim’s Progress
“I am condemned to die and after that to come to judgment,
and I find that I am not willing to do the first,
nor able to do the second.”
The crux of our dilemma, the eternal choice of our mortality. You will die. Your life will end. You will breathe your last breath!
Then what… O, tortured mortal soul?
Are you willing to die?
Are you able to come to the Judgment of Almighty God?
We are condemned to die! AND what if, as the Good Book says, ‘we must face the Judgment.’ Are you prepared for eternity?
This, of course, is one of the questions of the evangelist, the unwavering believer in Christ Jesus who stands before you with a Bible in hand and asks, ‘Do you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?’ (For the gravity of Hebrews 9:27 weighs as heavily on his heart as your sin for a time burdens yours.)
The Heart of the Evangelist
Our Eternal God broke with tradition and chose to live among us as a humble Son of man for a brief three decades two millennia ago. Jesus chose twelve Apostles to witness the last three of his life on earth. They heard his teaching and knew his love for them first hand.
After our Lord rose from the defeat of the grave, Jesus appeared to the eleven remaining Apostles and to many followers several times. Christ, now risen from the dead, the Son of God who had walked on water and worked many miracles among the people had words of rebuke for the eleven followers. Jesus cautions us against unbelief and against hardness of heart.
The Great Commission
14 Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. 15 And he said to them,
“Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
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Jesus rebuked the closest of his earthly friends for the hardness of their hearts for not believing He IS. The Lord then sends us into all of the world to preach the Good News to others, that they might also be saved from death and judgment.
Preachers and Bishops are nothing more than mortal men and nothing less than God reaching out though scripture, faith and love to embrace new souls into the arms of Jesus Christ.
Perhaps an evangelist has come to you and asked an uncomfortable question or two about your eternity. Maybe it was a simple as, “Do you think that ____ (so & so, a loved one who has just died) will go to heaven?”
Maybe someone asked you to come to church with them. Or possibly another “member” of your church commented something like, “We haven’t seen you on Sunday for a while.”
Do you have a hard heart when it comes to mention of Jesus Christ or church or Christians?
Are quotes from the Bible anathema to your social circles?
Is the written word of Scripture hidden away in your home and lost to your heart?
The evangelist loves you as he loves all souls hidden in selfishness and lost in sin. One who cares for the very future of your soul reaches out to you with the very word of God from the Bible and offers eternal hope for your salvation.
Who else has cared so for your soul as the one who embraces you with the love of Jesus Christ?
Do you have any hope of heaven, for an eternal life of joy, for love after the death of your failing flesh?
The evangelist or Christian mentor pointing you in the way of Jesus Christ wants your love to blossom and live beyond your days.
13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few…
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits… 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire…
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord… 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
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Do you follow the crowds or will you follow Christ?
“For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. – Matthew 7:13b
The Apostle Peter, who had denied knowing Jesus three times just prior to the crucifixion of our Lord on the Cross, received Christ’s forgiveness, commission and new covenant for all who will believe. Peter writes in a letter to the church for us to read and believe scripture.
19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
An Evangelist come to one in darkness, Bible in hand and as a light in the darkness. Peter, John, Paul; others including Stephen, Lydia and Timothy, all quoting the truth in love from scripture, have been evangelists to the generations. Is it not also your calling in Christ Jesus?
Preach the Word
4 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering,
do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
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Beloved believer, dear lost soul seeking the solace of Christ,
Will you not come nearer to Jesus in these hurried last days approaching the judgment of the world and all souls? Will you only believe that Jesus Christ is our Lord and our Savior, your only way to eternal life? Follow Him, by whose love for you, He ransomed your soul by the Blood of the Cross.
Jesus Christ IS.
Though I am a mere mortal, I proclaim the grace of God’s love though Christ.
Dearly beloved soul looking to Jesus, won’t you follow after Him?
Amen.
To be continued…
NEXT: Obstinate
Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear brother here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground;