General Douglas MacArthur has said : "Success in war depends upon men, not money." If that is true in national warfare, it is doubly true in spiritual warfare. Men, not money, that is our need. We must continually remind ourselves of that ! How can the right kind of men be developed? Let us list in sequence the steps that led the first apostles into service as recorded in Mark 3 :13-15:
The record here is arresting. Those He called He ordained, first that they might be with Him; and second, that He might send them forth to preach. We notice that fellowship with God was primary. That was their first responsibility. It still is, for only as men have been with God are they qualified to preach. Service for others must be but the outgrowth of that fellowship.
Then, too, these men were called. "Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you," Jesus later reminded them. The ministry is not a profession; it is a calling. Professional training is good, but it can never be a substitute for heavenly calling. Paul was professionally trained, but he never mentions his qualifications in regard to his standing before God as a minister. Instead he declares that he was "made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God." His professional training was used of God, but the apostle constantly reminds us that his was a holy calling rather than a profession.
Men can choose to enter professions, but no one can rightly invade the ministry by his own choice. A doctor, a lawyer, or a musician can take up his work and leave it at will. Not so with the ministry. "Woe is unto me, if I preach not," cries the great apostle.
The call of God to the ministry is the call to a lifework. The particular kind of service may differ, for some are pastors, some teachers, some evangelists, and some administrators. We are not all called to the same work, but we are all called into fellowship with God—called unto holiness. It was after the Lord called His apostles that He molded them for their lifework.
It is recorded that Michelangelo always made his own tools, selectino.b with meticulous care the metal for his chisels and the hair for his brushes. Just so the heavenly Artist chooses His own material and fashions His own instruments for His work of saving men. The selection is not made purely on the basis of talent or technique. Says MacCheyne "It is not great talents that God blesses so much as likeness to Jesus." "A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God." The man who spoke these words died at the early age of thirty, but before he was called to lay down his burden, every pulpit in the land had felt the fire of his evangel. He had a burden for lost men and a passion for holiness. "He shook Scotland with his prayers," declares Spurgeon.
A minister must be holy if he would lead men in the way of holiness. To reveal the unsearchable riches of Christ to men blinded by sin is not only a privilege but a tremendous responsibility. "The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ . . . should shine unto them." The spiritual surgeon is called to the delicate work of removing the cataracts of sin from the darkened eyes of the soul, that men may comprehend the glories of the gospel of grace.
Minister Should Reveal God to Men
It is the purpose of the ministry "to make all men see the fellowship of the mystery." To do this, God selects men through whom He can reveal Himself. The great apostle emphasizes this to the Galatians when he says : "It pleased God, who . . . called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen." Gal. I I5, 16. To reveal Jesus Christ to men is a great responsibility. The real power of the ministry lies neither in argument nor in technique. It is Christ in us the hope of glory. Pride of place can have no part in the life of him whose one concern is to reveal God's character to men.
A good window is not noticed. Its one function is to let in the light and at the same time be an avenue through which men may behold the beauties of nature. Only the cracked, dirty, or distorted glass attracts attention to itself. Of course, some windows are designed as works of art. Theirs is a different purpose. The minister, however, is not a church decoration. His work is to reflect the light and reveal the Sun of Righteousness to men. These simple lines express the thought:
Some may be an art glass of rainbow-colored hue;
I choose to be a windowpane to let the sun shine through.
A clear pane and clean pane is what I choose to be,
With no distortion, crack, or smear to spoil what men should see.
I'd have God's love shine through me, that friends might simply say
Not "What a pretty window !" but "What a pretty day!"
Once when a friend of mine was hurrying through a department store, he suddenly crashed into something. Much embarrassed by the experience, he picked himself up from the floor and then discovered that he had walked right into one of those modern plate-glass doors. It was so perfectly constructed that in his haste he had not seen it. Had it been cracked or smeared, he would have noticed it at once. Its perfection obscured it. How tragically conspicuous is a minister whose life is smeared by low standards of living !
Fellowship with God demands a prayer life. How easy it is amidst the haste and hurry of these days to become confused and put the emphasis on the wrong thing ! We sing, "Like a mighty army moves the church of God," and that is true. But the power for the victory of that army is not to be measured by numbers or equipment.
When Israel came to Rephidim on the way to Canaan, they fought and won a battle over the Amalekites. The simple story recorded in Exodus 17 is impressive. All day long the tide of battle ebbed and flowed. First Israel prevailed, then Amalek, then Israel again. Why this fluctuation? It seemed without reason until it was discovered that the real issue did not rest with the fighters in the field, but rather with the intercessors in the mount. Moses, Aaron, and Hur were on the top of the hill, and with them lay the decision. It may be we need to restudy this story.
With the emphasis being placed, and rightly so, on evangelism, are we not in danger of placing the emphasis on technique or talent, equipment or organization—trying to persuade ourselves that if we do certain things in certain prescribed ways, we are bound to get certain results ? That is a delusion. It is prayer that changes things. It is prayer that makes men victorious. It is prayer that decides the issue on the field of battle. Only evangelism that is saturated with prayer is worthy of the name. More fellowship in prayer on the mount with God will make us more dynamic in our appeal to men. And further, we will be more bold in claiming men for God.
When Korah and his associates challenged the leadership of Moses and Aaron, they brought a crisis in Israel, and God was about to consume the people for their iniquity. A plague had already broken out among them. Then God said to Moses and Aaron, "Get you up from among this congregation, that I may consume them." It was a tense moment. But instead of running, these men of God fell on their faces in intercessory prayer. As they rose from their knees, Moses said to Aaron, "Take a censer and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them." This might look like presumption, but Moses knew the heart of God. He had lived so much in the mount with God that it seemed he knew God's mind, and he knew how to plead for sinners. The record says that Aaron ran into the midst of the congregation; and, behold, the plague . . . was stayed." Num. 16:47. He made an atonement for the people. He might have spent time arguing with those sinners, discoursing on the enormity of their guilt. But it was not a time for argument. It was a time for prayer. And with incense as the symbol of prayer, this man of prayer threw himself into the breach. He stood between the living and the dead. Not the prayers of the congregation, but the prayers of the leaders of Israel, saved the nation for God. Are we standing between the living and the dead ? Adlai A. Esteb presents this challenge in his poem, "The Minister :"
O Lord, we view our solemn task with dread; Sin's awful plague, long since begun, has spread; We haste to stay the plague, in Christ's own stead, And stand between the living and the dead.
Behold earth's sorrows—streams of tears are shed; Behold earth's sins—men sick in heart and head; Behold earth's wars with rivers running red; We stand between the living and the dead.
Are we trying to do by argument what should be done by prayer ? Intercessory prayer can be just as powerful today as it was thirty-five centuries ago. Is it having the place in our ministry that it should, or are we so burdened with the various details that we have little or no time for prayer? "Look ye out among you seven men. . . whom we may appoint over this business." Many times we have needed this apostolic counsel ! But are we heeding it? Those leaders with anointed vision placed the emphasis where it rightly belongs when they said, "We will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word." And it is thrilling to read that "the word of God increased ; and the number of the disciples multiplied ; . . . and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith."
Those postpentecostal experiences are to be repeated. We talk a great deal about multiplying our evangelistic results. And so we must. Furthermore, we long for the time when a great company of the Christian clergy will accept this message and become obedient to the faith. But it may well be that we as leaders will have to unload some of our business onto other "men of honest report," that time may be given to real study and prayer. Is there not great need for a restudy of prophetic truth ? Do not the times demand that we rethink our message ? Such study may lead us to revise some of our methods. The everlasting gospel is a timeless truth, but it has its distinctive emphasis for every particular era. Prophetic interpretation must move forward with the times. Are we advancing in our thinking? Are we successfully meeting the need of the particular generation to whom we minister?
Elder J. F. Wright's articles in the last two issues of the Ministry come as a challenge to every leader and worker in this cause. Our losses are appalling. Our impotence is tragic. That picture should be changed. It can be, and it must be. A familiar defense slogan reads, "We can. We will. We Must."
Our need is not so much evangelistic methods as evangelistic men—men with evangelistic confidence, evangelistic courage, and evangelistic consecration. Only such men can contribute to real evangelistic conquest. Pentecost experiences will be repeated only as we meet Pentecost conditions.