05.02. The Church Evangelistic

2 The Church Evangelistic

Evangelism apart from the Church is impossible. Christ was, and is the one Evangelist. He now fulfills His great work of proclaiming the good tidings through His Body, which is the Church. In the four Gospels we have a picture of Christ, and at the opening of His second treatise Luke makes use of words which indicate for us the character of the Gospel narrative, and suggest that of the book of the Acts of the Apostles. “The former treatise I made, O Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the day in which He was received up.” That sentence reveals to us the character of the Gospel story. The “former treatise” is the story of the beginning of the doing and the teaching of Jesus. The latter is therefore by inference the story of the continuity of the doing and teaching of Christ. In the Gospel Jesus is seen—to use His own suggestive word—“straitened” until His baptism should be accomplished. In the book of the Acts of the Apostles the same Jesus is seen no longer straightened, for the passion-baptism is accomplished, and He risen, ascended, enthroned, has come into new relationship with men by the Holy Spirit, to continue His work through the Church by the Spirit. Consequently the evangel proclaimed by Christ in measure during His life, is proclaimed by Christ in fullness through the Church by the Holy Spirit in this age.

Evangelism apart from the Church is apart from Christ, and is therefore no evangelism. There can be no evangelism save that of Jesus Christ, and that can only be spoken by Christ Himself through His people by the Holy Spirit. Anything calling itself evangelism which is not the outcome of that new life of Christ, realized in the soul of men, and spoken through men by Christ, is not evangelism.

Unattached and unauthorized evangelism, even by individual members of the Church of Christ, is to say the least, unwise, and not the most fruitful of permanent results. I do not desire to criticize unkindly any movement that acts independently of the churches, although I do not hesitate to say that I have grave suspicion of everything that boasts that it is undenominational. I have a very great love for everything that is inter-denominational, which is quite another matter. But all unattached, freelance work, unauthorized and ungoverned by the Church, is not the best work possible, and tends to disorder and confusion. We must hold to the very highest doctrine of the Church, or our evangelism will be weak and one-sided. Believing therefore that the relation between the Church and evangelistic work is all important, we will carefully consider the Church as to its creation, its nature, and its purpose. The New Testament deals with the Church in two ways, as Catholic and as local; the whole Church of the Living God, and a church in any given locality. Sometimes I am asked what church I belong to. When I reply, I am a Catholic Churchman, I have seen people look surprised. Yet that is exactly what I am. Catholic means universal. The Catholic Church is the whole Church. Such a phrase as “Roman Catholic” constitutes an absurd contradiction of terms. If Catholic, then not Roman. If Roman only, then by no means Catholic. That is equally true of the term “Anglican Catholic.” The New Testament deals with the whole Church, but it also deals with the local church. The word Church is used sometimes of the whole Church of God, and sometimes of a church in a given locality, as in Ephesus, in Corinth, in Thessalonica, in Philippi. So far as the records reveal, the Lord only twice in the course of His public ministry referred to the Church. He used the word Church once in its catholic sense, and once in its local sense, so that the general New Testament uses of the word harmonize with that of Christ. The first occasion was when Peter had made the supreme confession of the Messiahship of Jesus, “Thou art the Christ.” At that parting of the ways the first half of our Lord’s work was accomplished. He had taught a little group of men, the nucleus of His Kingdom, that He was the Christ, the Anointed, the Messiah of God. And then He immediately commenced to teach them a new thing, to bring them into view of the pathway through which the Messiah should accomplish the purpose of God. He began to talk to them of the Cross, but before mentioning the Cross He said to Peter, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” That is a perfect, final, and all-inclusive declaration concerning the Church. First, “Upon this rock I will build My Church.” Secondly, “the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it,” not one thing repeated, but two distinct facts about the Church. I think we have too often read the passage as though the Lord said the same thing twice over. But if you follow the figure carefully, you will find that Jesus was absolute Master of metaphor. There was no blunder, and no intellectual inaccuracy in the figures He used. “On this rock,” that is the declaration of the impregnable strength of His Church against the attacks from without. “I will build,” that is an affirmation of the certainty of its perfection and completion. But what follows? The same thing repeated in another form? By no means. “The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” That does not mean that the Church is impregnable against attack, but rather that she is unconquerable when she goes forth to attack. An attacking force never carries its own gates up to besiege a city. If Hades is contemplating an attack upon the Church, it will not carry its gates with it. The idea is not that Hades will attack the Church, but that the Church will attack Hades, and as she does so, the very gates of Hades will yield before her.

Thus we have two declarations about the Church by the Master; she is built by Christ on the rock, and when she goes forth on the conquests of Christ, she conquers all intervening foes, and finally the last enemy, the very gates of Hades, shall yield to her. She shall conquer through life, through death, and unto the endless ages. That is the Church I belong to, the Church impregnable, unconquerable, marching out in perpetual triumph into the ages beyond. That is Christ’s estimate of the Church. On a subsequent occasion Jesus mentions the Church again. “If thy brother sin against thee, go, show him his fault between thee and him alone; if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he hear thee not, take thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses, or three, every word may be established. And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church; and if he refuse to hear the church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican.” That is the church local. It is impossible to tell to the whole catholic Church anything between your brother and yourself; but it can be told and it ought to be told to the local church if that brother is refusing to listen. It is a perfect picture of the church’s discipline. The church is to be so constituted, a fellowship of souls in Christ, that the wrong doing of one is felt by, and affects the whole; and the purity of the entire Church must be maintained, even at the cost of the excommunication of a brother who persists in wrong doing.

Thus we learn from the words of Jesus, that the Church is the building of Christ on the rock, that the Church is the aggressive force which Christ leads to ultimate victory, that the Church within herself is a fellowship exercising discipline, caring for her own internal life, and able to exercise final and Divine authority in the case of all those in membership. These things are true of the catholic Church, and also of the local Church. From these first uses of the word in the New Testament it is at once seen that the local church is a model of the catholic Church, that all the truths concerning the catholic Church are true in measure and in degree of the local church, and if we would understand what the function and the force of the local church is, we shall have to attempt to get a vision of the function and the force of the catholic Church.

Now as I pass from these words of Jesus, one or two words concerning the use of the word in the Acts of the Apostles will be in order. In the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, and the forty-seventh verse, “And the Lord added to them day by day those that were saved,” the word church is inserted in King James’ Version. It is not in the original text. Its introduction is of the nature of exposition, and translators almost invariably break down when they attempt exposition. The statement there is that, “the Lord added together them that were being saved,” and the translators thought it must be “added to the Church.” Seeing the word Church was not there in the original, the English and American revisers altered it, and put “added to them,” that is, to the disciples. That also is only true in a secondary sense. The thought is that He added them to Himself. Of course it is true that when He adds a man to Himself, He adds him to the Church.

Through the Acts of the Apostles the word Church is used sometimes of the catholic and sometimes of the local church, and the local is always treated as a part and model of the catholic. The actual word ecclesia is used of the congregation of Israel in the wilderness once. In the nineteenth chapter the word is used in the purely Greek sense, “Some therefore cried one thing, and some another: for the assembly was in confusion.… But if ye seek anything about other matters, it shall be settled in the regular assembly.… When he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly.” That word assembly is ecclesia. I am not suggesting that the translation is improper. I think it is wise that the word assembly is used on this occasion. What was the assembly here referred to? It was the gathering together of the members of one particular trade. It is the first record we have, so far as I know, of a trade union meeting, and the word assembly indicates the truth. The reference is not to the great promiscuous crowd which was congregated to see what was going on, but that particular and select number, bound together by a common purpose under a common impulse. The Greek word is there used in its simplest form. It means a called out assembly. It is the assembly of the silversmiths, and it is the assembly of the town government. That is the word ecclesia, in its simple etymological intention. That word has been taken hold of by the Christian fact, and has become the great word for the Church. And it means very simply, an assembly of people, called out, selected from the rest. In the letter to the Ephesians we have a picture of the Church in these wonderful words, “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, Who is over all, and through all, and in all.” There is nothing in all the New Testament that is more wonderful in its revelation of the nature of the true Church. Notice first the apostle describes the Church, as “one body.” What is the body? Christ and every believer. Not the believers without Christ. The body includes the Head. Of course if we speak of the Head and the body, then for the single moment we mean by the body, all except the Head; but in the statement “there is one body,” in this passage the apostle is taking in the whole fact, Christ Who is the Head, and all members. “One Spirit,” that is the life of the one body, the intelligence of the one body, the emotion of the one body, the will of the one body. “He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit,” so that the whole body of the Church is one with the Head, and the Head is one with the body, and that one unifying Spirit of God, in Christ and in all believers, creates the one body. One dominating life that of the Spirit, in Christ and in the believer, unifying Christ and the believer, and all believers with each other, because all are united to Christ.

“One body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling,” that is to say, there is one calling for Christ and the believer, for the whole Church which is the body. In the former part of the epistle that calling is declared to be that of showing to the ages to come the grace of God, and teaching the principalities and powers in the heavenlies the manifold wisdom of God. That will be the work of Christ and His people forever.

One body, Christ and all the members. One Spirit, filling the whole body up to its last reach. One calling, the eternal calling of Christ in union with the Church, and the Church in union with Christ. This is a general statement concerning the organism, the life, the calling of the Church. The apostle next shows how individual members become members of the Church, how the units enter this living unity. “One Lord,” the Object of faith; “one faith,” set upon the one Lord; “one baptism,” the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that unites the faithful soul with the living Lord. That is the whole process. The first note in the evangel is that of the Lordship of Christ. Jesus is Lord by virtue of the splendour of His character, by virtue of the victory of His Cross, by virtue of the power of His resurrection. That “one Lord,” is presented to the soul as the Object of faith. The answer of faith to the vision of the Lord is the whole of human responsibility. That is the “one faith.” Its nature is that of believing on Him, or receiving Him as Lord. It is the act of the will in surrender. That act of faith is responded to by the “one baptism,” that baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby the soul believing on the Lord is made a member of the Lord Himself.

Thus the individual enters the Church. The one Lord is presented to him. He believes. The Spirit baptizes him, and he is a member. The human responsibility is belief, the Divine answer is the baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby that man is merged into the Christ life, and becomes a member of Jesus Christ. “One Lord, one faith, one baptism.”

Thus is He building His Church. Man cannot admit into the catholic Church. No one is admitted into the Church by water baptism, nor by vote of a church meeting, nor by the decision of a session. A person enters the Church when the Holy Spirit baptizes him into Christ. All the other things may be necessary in order that the discipline of the local church may be maintained. There ought to be solemn recognition of some kind when a man joins the outward and visible church, but all such matters are outward and visible recognitions of the inward and invisible facts. The only condition on which any person should be admitted to a local church is that evidence is given of membership in the catholic Church by the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Once again, “One God and Father of all, Who is over all, and through all, and in all.” That is the last fact of the sevenfold unity. It indicates the glorious realization of the purpose and plan of God in His government of, operation through, and union with the ransomed society. This great Church of the firstborn is being built, and as yet man has never seen it. We see parts of it, but the scaffolding is all about it yet; and sometimes it seems as though there were more scaffolding than Church. But when He comes, all the scaffolding will go; and the glorious Church of the firstborn, made up of ransomed souls baptized into the life of Christ, the great entity and unity through which God will manifest Himself to ages and to principalities, will be revealed in all its radiant splendour.

Let us now think of the local church in the light of this. Every church is, as is the catholic Church, an assembly of those submitted to the Lordship of Christ. That is the gate, that is the entrance, that is the foundation fact. A local church is therefore an assembly of souls submitted to the Lordship of Christ. That does not tell all the story, but it gives the key to the whole truth. Everything else follows, and to understand that, let us go back to our evangel. The first note is that of the Lordship of Christ. Men submit to that Lordship by believing on Him. Then not only do they see the vision of the Lord, but share the value of His death, and the virtue of His life, and the victory of His presence. In the fifth chapter of Romans we see how these things are realized within the Church in the living members who are baptized into union with Christ. The tenth verse, “For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved in His life.” The seventeenth verse, “For if, by the trespass of one, death reigned through the one; much more shall they that receive the abundance of grace of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One.” “Reconciled by His death,” “reign in life.” Now as an aid to memory let us take three words, reconciled, regenerate, regnant. These words mark the truth in the case of every individual believer. The individual believer submitted to the Lordship of Christ, is reconciled to God by the value of His death, regenerate by the virtue of His life communicated, regnant by the indwelling Christ through the Holy Spirit.

Now believing that a church is an assembly of such persons, what results follow? Every church is intended to be within itself a manifestation of all the purposes and the facts of the Kingdom of God. A church is an assembly of persons, who in the power of the indwelling life of Christ, realizing the ideals of Jesus, obey the teaching of Jesus, and take part in the activities of Jesus. It is here where perhaps the Church has most sadly failed in the past, and where the failure of the Church today is most apparent. We have too largely looked upon the negative side, which has to do almost exclusively with such facts as constitute the saving of the individual from sin, and from punishment. These are most important facts. But the great society of God, vitally one, essentially one, socially one, aggressively one, where is it at the present hour? The Church ought to be a society accepting the ideals of Jesus, and realizing them in the power of His life; consequently a society of people obeying the moral code of Jesus, and therefore a society of people manifesting to the world the breadth and beauty and beneficence of the Kingship of God in and through Jesus Christ. Is that what the Church is? That is what the Church ought to be, for that is the Divine intention. But someone will say, What has all this to do with the evangelistic Church. And the very fact of the question reveals the weakness of the hour. The Church has largely failed in evangelism because the Church has not realized within her own borders the force of her own life. We ask how is it that the masses refuse to listen to her evangel, and are treating her in so marked a degree, with contempt? Because the masses see perfectly well that she is not obedient to her own Master’s ideals, and does not realize His purpose. That is the severest criticism, and it ought to make us blush, and hide our heads with shame, that the Church is not fulfilling her Master’s ideals. The evangelistic Church is the Church which shares Christ’s life, and in the power of it obeys His law, and thus manifests Him to the world. Thus alone can the Church engage in His work, and carry out His enterprises. When the Church realizes and manifests her Lord, in her personal membership, and corporate capacity, then, and then only is she doing His work, the work of seeking and saving the lost. That is the evangelistic Church, and that is the true Church of Jesus Christ. The purpose of the Church is certainly that of conserving the life of the saints, but this only in order that every saint, and all the saints, may be strong for carrying out the purposes and the work of Jesus Christ. “Ye shall be My witnesses,” not witnesses as talkers merely, but evidences, credentials, demonstrations, proofs among men. The only Church which is truly evangelistic is the Church which realizes within her own borders all the will of her Lord and Master Jesus Christ.

Strength of spiritual life always issues in the manifestation through the Church to the world of the facts of the Kingship of God in Christ, and the power of Jesus Christ to deal with all the things in human life that are contrary to the mind and will of God. The Church is to be aggressive, capturing men, fighting against wrong, urging everywhere and always the claims of Jesus Christ, and this she can only be as within her own borders there is realized the purposes of God. In conclusion, the evangelical Church is necessarily evangelistic. There are some things so patent they ought not to need stating. Yet there seems to be a prevalent idea that it is possible for a church to be evangelical and not evangelistic. It is not possible. A friend of mine in the ministry, a man of whose scholarship and whose devotion there can be no doubt, talking to me about evangelistic work, accounting for his own lack of interest said, “Well I am profoundly evangelical, but I am by no means evangelistic.” There would seem to be many who take that view. Let me say to you, my brethren, that this is an absurd contradiction of terms. No man is truly evangelical unless he is evangelistic also. What did my friend mean? He meant that he held the evangelical doctrines of our holy faith, but he was not interested in the specific work of winning men to Christ. Now what are the foundation doctrines of our holy faith? Evangelical faith affirms the death of Christ was rendered necessary by the ruin of the race, and that it is God’s provision for man’s salvation. It moreover declares that His life is at the disposal of men for their new life of holiness. Are we evangelical? Do we believe that Jesus died in order that He might save men? If not, then we cannot claim to be evangelical. But if we do, can we seriously assert that holding the doctrines, we are yet content to do nothing for the men for whom Christ died? Knowing that we have the deposit of truth, the great evangel, equal to the salvation of men, are we careless about making it known?

Some times one reads an advertisement which declares a sure and certain cure for cancer has been discovered. A man so advertising is wholly despicable. In the first place because the assertion is a lie, but secondly because if it is true, he is a rogue to hold for purposes of personal gain a secret which should immediately be given to the world for the cure of that awful disease. And a man tells me he is evangelical, he holds the truth about salvation, and is thankful to God for the salvation of his own poor miserable soul. I deny it. If the Cross of Christ in his own life has meant deliverance, cleansing, purity, that consciousness will drive any man out into evangelistic work and effort.

Evangelism demands a Church, and wherever the Church of Jesus Christ is, there is an instrument for evangelistic work, because there is a company of men and women in whom the evangel has won its victory, and through whom it is manifested as a life, and proclaimed as a message.

Let me say to all ministers, you will find you must have your church act with you if you are going to do any evangelistic work. And to church members, it is no use wasting breath in the criticism of a minister because he is not doing evangelistic work. Let the Church fall into line. One of the first missions of the ministry will be to bring his church into sympathy, and that will often need a great deal of common sense and patience. No church ought to be allowed to exist that has not added to its membership by confession of faith. If a church is existing only by letters of transfer, it is time the doors were closed, and “Ichabod, the glory of the Lord has departed” was inscribed across them. This evangelism must begin in the churches. The churches themselves must be turned back to the work of evangelism. We are trusting too much to organizations outside the Church. It is in the Church the work must be done. We shall have to travail in birth for the souls of our own people. When in our own church life all the forces of the Christ life are operative without hindrance, then men will be brought under the sound and power of the great and glorious evangel. May God make all our churches, churches after the pattern of the catholic Church, “one body, one Spirit, one calling,” and “God over, through, in all,” moving to His purpose, accomplishing that purpose through the Spirit of Jesus Christ.