Reaching the Unreached

I've just read Paul Bassett's chapter called 'The Inner City' in a book called 'Social Issues and the Local Church'. It was published back in 1988, but Bassett's challenge rings in my ears as urgent and relevant for Christians today.

There is a whole section of society in the UK that is unreached. I'm not thinking about a particular ethnic minority group (although they do feature in this picture), or a particular county, but the vast numbers of people who live on council estates, in inner-city tower blocks and are largely excluded from mainstream Christian churches and church culture.

The Church in the UK has become dominated by the middle class. For example, most ministers are expected to study for a three-year theological degree before they take up leadership roles. There's nothing wrong with a theology degree, but it's meant that there's a generation of church leaders who are nearly all middle class.

And the sermons they preach are middle class too. They involve long words, complicated trains of thought, philosophy and intellectualism. How would an illiterate person off the street cope in one of our church services today? They wouldn't.

Does that mean we should shut down all the churches? Of course not. But I think we need to open our eyes to the sections of society that we're not reaching through our apologetics talks and wine-tasting evenings. We need to look at working-class people and their culture of interaction, at the benefits sub-culture that's arisen and how people communicate. If we can't preach the gospel in a language that they can understand, we're failing in our basic mission, as given to us by Jesus (Mt 28).

Paul Bassett, who is still working in Melbourne Hall Evangelical Free Church, Leicester, gives a big challenge to middle class Christians in middle class homes and middle class churches.

'It is in our inner cities that we generally find the red-light areas, where crime and prostitution abound. The inner-city dwellers are mainly poor, whereas the challenge comes to a church that is chiefly middle-class. Never was there a time when we needed more to remember that “God is no respecter of persons” and that “the common people heard him gladly.” (Acts 10:34; Mk 12:37)

It is a hard and unglamorous work.

'We must begin by living there. This is far from easy; it demands a real sense of calling, and a certain degree of sacrifice. It involves the whole family, and it may affect the education of the children. It may also demand adaptation to a very different environment, possibly a violent one.'

But God is there! God is concerned for the lost! When we prayerfully seek Him and ask Him to reveal Himself to people, He hears us.

'We need to remember that men of God have stood where we now stand and, with God-given courage and indomitable spirit, have tackled the seemingly impossible task of winning wicked cities for God.'

May God give us the courage we need to get out there into the tough places, and take the gospel to reach the unreached.

'How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"' Romans 10:14-15

An Overview of 2 Corinthians 1-6

Here's a quick overview of the first six chapters of Paul's letter to the church in Corinth, written around 55 AD.

Chapter 1

God comforts us in all our troubles. Paul endured distress for the Corinthians' salvation. Paul went through times of despair, but this happened so he'd rely on God. Paul reiterates that God makes him and the Corinthians stand firm in Christ, sealing them in His Spirit.

Chapter 2

Paul thanks God for leading them in triumph in Christ. They are the aroma of Christ: death to the unsaved, but life to the saved. Who is equal to such a task? He asks. He emphasises his own sincerity. They did not go to Corinth for profit- quite the opposite.

Chapter 3

Paul derives encouragement for his ministry from the genuine faith of the Corinthians. Paul doesn't claim to be competent; his competence comes from God. Their ministry is the new covenant, of life and the Spirit, not the law and death. This ministry is glorious! And we reflect God's glory, and are being transformed into His likeness every day.

Chapter 4

Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Paul says they don't use deception, or distort God's word. They set forth the truth plainly, fully aware that Satan has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot understand the gospel. Paul doesn't preach himself, but Jesus Christ. He's just a clay pot, with the treasure of the gospel shining out of him. They've gone through huge troubles and persecution, but they're not defeated. Jesus is being shown more clearly in them through their suffering. They are confident that they will be raised up with Jesus. Their troubles are temporary, but there's an eternity of glory ahead of them that they keep their sights set on.

Chapter 5

This life is tough, Paul says, because we're longing to be where we really belong: heaven. So we live by faith, not by sight, and make it our goal to please God in everything. One day He'll judge us for what we do. In light of this, we try to persuade men to take Jesus seriously. He died for all, and His love compels us. We don't see people through the world's eyes, because we know that if they come to Christ, they will be made a new creation. God reconciled the world to Himself in Christ when He died on the cross, and so we are Christ's ambassadors, taking this message of forgiveness and friendship to all.

Chapter 6

This means we don't put any stumbling blocks in people's paths. As servants of God we commend ourselves by being pure, patient and kind, even in severe suffering: physical beatings, hard work, sleepless nights and hunger. We stick to the truth and we cling to the power of God with weapons of righteousness in each hand. We don't have anything, yet we possess everything. It's a topsy-turvy world we live in as Christians, but we're called to open our hearts to those we are ministering to.

Predestination

Wow! I've been looking at this controversial topic for Doctrine 2, and it's great to read what others have written and to take joy in those passages of the Bible that teach about God choosing people for salvation. That's what predestination is: God choosing people, before they were even born, to be part of His kingdom. He doesn't choose people according to any merit in them, but only because of His sovereign and good pleasure. God was pleased to choose people like you and me to be part of His eternal plan of redemption. It really is mind-blowing!

Romans 9

The really central Bible passage that deals with this whole topic is Romans 9. But you can't really take Romans 9 on its own without the context of the rest of Romans. It is a weighty letter of Paul's, and it deals with massive subjects such as the way humanity has rejected God, the way we all stand guilty before Him, and the way we have been redeemed in Christ. In Romans 8, Paul assures us that NOTHING can separate us from the love of Christ. ALL THINGS work together for good for those who love Him. And yet, from the amazing high of this truth, Paul then moves to the agonising question of what has happened to Israel, his own people.

Many of Paul's generation, as of our own, did not accept Jesus as their Saviour. And Paul felt terrible grief for them, knowing that they were not righteous in God's sight because they sought to establish their own righteousness on the law, not on the work of Christ. Paul knew that it was a hopeless pursuit (see Rom 9:30-32)

But in Romans 9, Paul reminds us that God has been a God who chooses from the beginning. In the Old Testament, He chose Abraham (Neh 9:7). He chose the people of Israel (Deut 14:2). But even within the nation of Israel, He chose some to truly know Him and follow Him whilst others disobeyed Him and were destroyed.

God didn't choose some and not others because of moral goodness. He chose Jacob rather than Esau while they were still in the womb and had not done anything good or bad (Rom 9:11). He chooses simply for His own good pleasure. John Piper emphasises that God's electing love is absolutely free. 'It is the gracious overflow of his boundless happiness guided by his infinite wisdom.'

Is God fair?

This obviously raises the question, is God fair? As David Seccombe writes, Paul's answer is that salvation operates in the realm of mercy. As in the parable of the workers in the vineyard, God is master of his own generosity and mercy and will exercise them at his own pleasure. God is free to exercise his mercy as he sees fit.

But it is also important to note the way that Scripture emphasises that God chooses so that He gets the glory. In Luke 10, Jesus rejoices that the Father has revealed the truth of salvation to 'babes'. In 1 Cor 1, Paul emphasises that 'God chose what is foolish... weak... low and despised in the world... so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.'

As Piper writes, 'the goal of God in election is the elimination of all human pride, all self-reliance, all boasting in man.' That's why God has pleasure in election: it magnifies His name!

What about those who aren't saved? Does God delight in their condemnation?

Piper argues that there is a complexity in God's emotions that we cannot understand. At one level, God does not delight in the death of the wicked. Yet at another level, he does delight in the justice that ordains the judgement of unbelievers. He has a real and deep compassion for perishing sinners. But he is governed by his wisdom through a plan that no ordinary human deliberation would ever conceive.

Perhaps the greatest illustration of this is in the death of Christ. It involved great sin, putting an innocent man to death, and Judas was influenced by Satan to betray Jesus. And yet, God planned it. As Marshall writes: 'We must certainly distinguish between what God would like to see happen and what he actually does will to happen.'

Piper uses the illustration of God's narrow and wider lens. When he looks at tragedy and sin through the narrow lens, he is angered and grieved. But in the wider lens, when he sees it in connection with everything before and after it, he delights in the mosaic of eternity.

Does this make us puppets?

Well, the Bible presents the entire outworking of our salvation as something brought about by a personal God in relationship with personal creatures. God's act of election was permeated with personal love for those whom he chose (Eph 1:5; Grudem).

We need to challenge the idea that a choice is not genuine if it is not absolutely free. We might ask where Scripture ever says that our choices have to be free from God's influence or control in order to be real or genuine choices. It does not seem that Scripture ever speaks in this way. (Grudem again)

Why does it matter?

Many Christians see predestination as an optional extra. But Piper puts forward strong arguments why it is important that all Christians embrace the sovereign right of God to choose those who are saved:

• It's biblical
• It humbles sinners and glorifies God
• It preserves the church from slipping towards false philosophies of life
• It is good news of salvation that is not just offered but effected
• It enables us to own up to the demands for holiness in the Scripture and yet have assurance of salvation
• It gives us the overwhelming experience of being loved personally with the unbreakable electing love of God
• It gives hope for effective evangelism and guarantees the triumph of Christ's mission in the end

Rather than making us apathetic when it comes to preaching the gospel, predestination gives us a reason to do it!!! Look at the example of Paul in Corinth (Acts 18)- he was told by God that He had many people in this city. Paul stayed there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. God's election did not exclude Paul teaching and preaching the gospel; rather, that was His chosen means of saving the elect!

God chooses to use us, in all our weakness, to spread the message of life in Christ all over the world, so that His church grows. That is something to rejoice in!