So many times today, preachers are looking for a relaxing and easy ministry. Perhaps they seek a stable church with an existing foundation and tithing members.
Although these positions may open when a seasoned pastor retires, or graduates to Heaven, this is not how great works of the past were established. Certainly, the Apostle Paul did not seek a comfortable ministry. This was not the drive and heart of Paul as he ministered throughout the first century.
Through studying Paul’s ministry, we see he had a pioneering, purposeful, and pursuing spirit for the Gospel message and ministry.
Paul’s heart is reflected in the verses we read about how Paul viewed the ministry placed before him.
Romans 15:20-22
“Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation: But as it is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand. For which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you.”
Let’s look at Paul’s desire to “look where there’s nothing” when it comes to the places he preached the Gospel.
Void of the Message.
Can you imagine a place and a people that have never heard about the Lord Jesus Christ? We sit in churches on a weekly basis, sometimes hearing the same message over and over without giving much thought that there are multitudes, literally billions, that have never heard about the sacrifice of Jesus. Recently, I read a statistic that estimated three-quarters of the world’s population have never heard the Gospel.
That statistic did not say there was a church in their area, and they decided not to go. It stated that Christ has never been preached around them. They never had the opportunity to hear the Gospel. That is staggering!
When we use the word “void,” let us understand that it carries the meaning of there being an emptiness, a vacuum that needs to be filled. It has not been filled with the message of Christ and His love for each of us. As one preacher said, “Why should we hear the Gospel a second time when multitudes around the world have never heard it once?” How true that is, but how far that is from our everyday drive and desire when it comes to the pioneering spirit to preach the Gospel in the regions beyond.
Think about this in the area of church planting.
How many times has it been mentioned that you can just about throw a dart at a map and hit a town that needs a Gospel witness? Recently, my wife and I were driving through town after town of northern Vermont and New Hampshire. Of course, the thought came to our minds of how many people in those towns have no place to go and hear the clear message of Jesus.
The genuine desire in Paul’s heart was to look at these areas with that Gospel void and go there to preach Christ. If you were to ask Paul, “Are you going to preach in such and such town?” He may answer that Christ is being preached there, so he is going somewhere else with the message.
I know there are geographical locations across our country where churches are piled on top of each other, and I’m thankful for the Gospel witness in those regions and cities. Perhaps we could turn our attention to places where people are void of the message of Christ and ask the Lord what we could do to preach Christ among them.
Vision in the Making.
The next thing I noticed in Paul’s ministry about “looking where there’s nothing” is that even before he was preaching in a specific area, he was planning to build. He had a vision that if Christ was preached to a group of people who had never heard about Christ, there would be fruit and the message would not return to Christ void. So many times, I believe, we look at areas that desperately need the message of Christ and approach it with a “see what happens” spirit and attitude. Where is the faith and fortitude that a God in Heaven desires for souls to be saved and churches established? By His grace, we will see God do a great work.
Notice that Paul’s idea of church planting was not splitting another work in town. Nor was it tearing down another church or pastor just for the purpose of building his own ministry. Paul’s desire was not to build on another man’s foundation but to start, preach, and build where there was nothing.
In a recent conversation, a friend and I discussed that true church growth is reaching a community with the Gospel and not reappropriating church members from one ministry to another. We must lift up our eyes and see that there is a void all around us. We must pray that God would give us a vision for what He desires to do with the message of Christ in the lives of those around us.
Victory in the Making.
As we continue in these few verses that Paul wrote, we see that he has assurance and confidence that the message he will preach will work and bring victory. He said, “To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see; and they that have not heard shall understand.” What a promise God gave to Paul about preaching the Gospel in the void where people had not heard! He knew that the victory and difference would be made by the message and power of God and not in his power and the flesh.
Paul told the Corinthian believers, “And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power:” 1 Corinthians 2:4 Paul knew that all the power of the flesh would not make a difference where there is no Gospel, but the message of Christ presented in the power of the Spirit would definitely bring spiritual victory to lives.
Today, it seems like there is every gimmick, program, and method to see churches established and people to hear the Gospel.
Let us be convinced that it is nothing other than the preaching of the Cross that will change someone’s eternal destination and earthly life. Victory is possible when God’s message is preached, God’s way in God’s power. We can have confidence from the Scriptures that our labor is not in vain when it is in the power of the Spirit. We can rest assured that those who have never heard and have never seen will hear and see if we are proclaiming Christ the Bible way.
It should be the prayer and desire of each Christian, Pastor, and church that the “voids” in the Gospel map are filled with Gospel preachers. If there is a place where the Gospel is being preached, then why not pray and ask God to send you where Jesus is not preached.
God has the ability to carve out a work in the hardest hearts and places across our nation. This is being done right now across New England; still, there remain cities and towns where Christ is not preached.
Daniel Nash, a prayer warrior with Charles Finney said, “When Mr. Finney and I began our race, we had not thought of going amongst ministers.
Our highest ambition was to go where there was neither minister or reformation and try to look up the lost sheep, for who no man cared. We began and the Lord prospered… But we go into no man’s parish unless called…. We have room enough to work and work enough to do.”
We are reminded in John 4:35 that the reason the harvest is past is that there is no one to harvest in these areas. They will die on the vine. Oh, may we have the pioneering spirit to go into an area where there is nothing and carve something out for God.
Don’t sit there in the same circuit, piled up on one another, and wonder why there is not a great moving of the Lord. Get into the field where no one has plowed, no one has planted, and no one has reaped a harvest. It will take striving, work, and commitment, but the victory of people seeing and hearing is worth it all.
Who will go where there is no one and preach Someone to everyone? Who will see something where there is nothing?