MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
(Revised: 2012)
ILL. I heard a story some time ago of a missionary in Africa who gave a Bible to an African man. When it was given to him, the man hugged it close & expressed great appreciation for the precious gift of God's Word that the missionary had given him.
But when the missionary saw him a few days later he noticed, much to his dismay, that the Bible looked like it was already falling apart, & that many of its pages were missing.
The missionary asked him, "What happened? What did you do to your Bible? When I gave it to you I thought you considered it to be a treasured possession."
The man replied. "Indeed, it is a very precious possession. It is the finest gift I have ever received. It is so precious that when I returned to my village I very carefully chose a page & tore it out & gave it to my mother.
“Then I tore out another page & gave it to my father. And I tore out another page & gave it to my wife. Finally, I gave a page of God's Word to everybody who lives in my village."
We may smile at that, but what a testimony! The message of God's Word was so wonderful to him that he wanted to share it with everyone he knew!
A. That is the way it was with the Apostle Paul. In the 26th chapter of Acts we find Paul on trial for his life, standing in chains before King Agrippa. But Paul doesn't seem to be too concerned about that. Instead, he is trying his best to win King Agrippa to Jesus.
Paul is telling his own life story to King Agrippa, how he once was a terrible persecutor of Christians, taking them prisoner, & he said that he always voted to put them to death. But then Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus. Now listen to Paul tell that part of his story, beginning with vs. 12.
"I was going to Damascus with the authority & commission of the chief priests.
“About noon, O king, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me & my companions.
“We all fell to the ground, & I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.'
“Then I asked, 'Who are you, Lord?' 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' the Lord replied.
'Now get up & stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant & as a witness of what you have seen of me & what I will show you.
“I will rescue you from your own people & from the Gentiles. I am sending you to open their eyes & turn them from darkness to light, & from the power of Satan to God…'" (Acts 26:12-18)
And a few moments later Paul said, "So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven." (Acts 26:19)
Now wait a minute. Something seems to be wrong with that statement. Paul didn't see any vision, only the bright light that blinded him.
He heard the voice of Jesus talking to him, all right, but he didn't see anything special - just the blinding light. So what did he mean about "the vision from heaven?" Just what "vision" was he talking about?
B. Well, I think I know. You see, we use the word, "vision," in the same way today. Over & over again, the world is doing its best to plant some visions in our minds.
ILL. Take the U.S. Army, for example. For many years its most effective recruitment slogan was, "Be all you can be. Join the Army." It was saying, "Catch a vision of just how great you can be if you join the Army. We'll make you into someone special, better than you ever thought you could be."
And the business world tries to plant visions in our minds, too. Almost every commercial wants you to picture yourself using their product. They try to capture our imagination so that we'll not be satisfied until we have whatever they're selling.
I. GOD IS IN THE BUSINESS OF PLANTING VISIONS
A. Well, God is in the business of planting visions, too.
He planted a vision in the mind of Abraham of a great nation through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. He planted a vision in the minds of Moses & Joshua of the Promised Land. He planted visions in the minds of David & the prophets of the coming Messiah & the glory that would be His.
Finally, Jesus comes, & He gathers a group of disciples around Him, fishermen, zealots, & even a tax collector.
He says to them, "Come, I want you to see something. Look at all the people. They're like sheep without a shepherd. They're like fields ready to harvest. So go into all the world & preach the good news to them, baptizing them in the name of the Father & the Son & the Holy Spirit. Then continue to teach them until I come again."
That's the vision He gave the apostles, & isn't that the vision Paul was given, too? Isn't that what Jesus was saying when He told Paul, "I'm sending you to open their eyes & turn them from darkness to light, & from the power of Satan to God…?"
And I'm convinced that is God's vision for the church today, too. He is still calling for us to go into all the world & preach the gospel to every creature.
B. Now we need to realize that having a vision is important. Proverbs 29:18 says that "Where there is no vision the people perish."
ILL. Travel in Europe today & you'll see some magnificent cathedrals built in centuries past by people with a vision, people who heard the call of God & recognized the need. So they built these magnificent church buildings, & they were filled with earnest worshippers.
But in many places today, moss is growing on the roofs, & bats are flying in the belfries of those cathedrals. Spiders are spinning webs on the pews that once seated hundreds & thousands of people all because some have lost the vision & God has been forgotten.
II. THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE WHO STILL HAVE THE VISION TODAY
But even though some people have lost the vision, there are many others throughout the world who have caught it. And the results have been tremendous!
ILL. I imagine that most of you know that among the Hindus in India there is a caste system. In fact, the encyclopedia tells us there are over 2,000 castes, based partly on differences of region & birthplace, & partly on different occupations.
A Hindu belongs to the caste of his parents, & he cannot leave it. And generation after generation of children grow up to do the same kinds of work that their parents did before them.
Each caste has its own behavioral customs that limit social contacts with members of other castes. Hindus of different castes usually do not eat with each other, & inter-marriage seldom occurs. But changes are taking place, & many educated Hindus of upper castes are beginning to mingle freely, & some barriers are coming down.
But for centuries members of the lowest castes of all, those who always held the filthiest & most demeaning of jobs, were called "untouchables."
So ostracized were they that there were even laws to prevent them from entering temples or drawing water from public wells. They were the lowest of the low, & no one else would come near them.
In the northwestern Punjab region of India the untouchables were called "Chuhras" & they had their own villages, because no one else wanted to live anywhere near them. And in one of these villages was a man named Ditt. He was short, dark, & lame. He made his living by buying & selling the hides of animals that had died.
One day Ditt heard about Jesus. He heard that Jesus was the sinless incarnation of God; that He had gone about doing good & had given men wonderful teaching. He also heard that Jesus had died on the Cross so that men might be forgiven of their sins.
Ditt said, "I want that kind of Lord, One who loves sinners & saves them from sin & ignorance & teaches them the truth about God. I want a religion in which there is no caste, where we Chuhras will learn that we are men every bit as good as Brahmans & Thakurs."
Finally, he became a Christian, & a few days after his baptism, when his wife was scolding him for becoming a Christian, he said, "Listen to these words of God. Are they not wonderful? Why don't you learn them too?" His wife answered, "I? I cannot learn. I'm a woman."
Ditt replied, "Jesus Christ gives women power to learn. Repeat these words over together with me & you will learn them, too." They repeated the words of the Lord's Prayer over 40 times &, to her surprise, Ditt's wife learned the Lord's Prayer.
Then she & their daughter listened eagerly to the stories of the great & wonderful works of Jesus, & of His death on the Cross for sinners. And they repeated them to the man & wife who lived in the hut next to them. Soon, all 4 of them were ready to become Christians, too.
Three months from the date of Ditt's baptism these 4 walked 25 miles with him to Sialkot to be baptized & then walked back home to their village again.
Now their whole village was aroused. Five of them had become Christians. People asked Ditt, "What did you get for becoming a Christian? Money, legal help, a loan?"
Ditt answered them clearly, saying, "Whoever changes his religion for money is a rascal. I work as I did before. I live in my old home. I have received nothing from the Christians but the true religion, a religion in which there is no idol worship, no worship of the Brahmans, & no castes.
"I now have a Bible which tells us that there is no high caste or low caste, but all are equal in the sight of God, & all are brothers here on earth. I have found the true religion, & therefore I have become a Christian."
This testimony greatly impressed his relatives, & soon he took 4 more men to be baptized. With 9 new Christians in Shahabdike Village, the native pastor at Sialkot came to visit, & while he was there many others became Christians, too. All of these new Christians continued to live in their village & to do the work they had always done.
Ditt's work of buying & selling hides required him to travel around to many of the Chuhra villages. Wherever he went he said, "My friends, we Chuhras must find a way out of our sin & ignorance. Our ancient religion tells us that we are untouchables. It keeps us ignorant. We have no Savior.”
“But the Lord Jesus Christ came to save people like us, save us from sin & ignorance, & to make it possible for us to live a good life & go to heaven. All Chuhras ought to accept the Lord Jesus Christ."
Some would object, saying, "If we become Christians, we'll lose our relatives." Ditt said, "No. Look at me. I became a Christian, & while it is true that for a few weeks people were angry, first my wife & then my neighbors & my relatives have become Christian. Within a few years, because this is the true religion, everyone will become Christian. You become a Christian & others will follow."
Hearing this, Chuhras in many villages started to become Christians. So great was their witness that the message of Christ spread throughout the Punjab, & before he died, Ditt saw over 450,000 Chuhras in the Punjab choose to follow Christ, & the number is still growing. Ditt had caught the vision, & his people were led out of darkness into the light.
But it's not just India. It is happening all over the world.
ILL. In the late 1940's, when the Communists took over China, there were less than 2 million Christians in China. The communists drove the missionaries out, killed thousands of Chinese Christians, & put most of the rest into "reeducation" centers where they experienced terrible persecution.
Some of my friends in China were among those killed or taken from their families to be "reeducated."
But despite 65 years of unrelenting persecution - maybe even because of it - & with almost no contact with other Christians outside of China, the gospel has been preached & the church has grown from less than 2 million to over 80 million Christians in China today.
You ought to read about the underground church in China. It reminds me of what the early church must have gone through during the centuries of Roman persecution.
ILL. Maybe just as thrilling is what has been happening in Russia since the collapse of Communist rule. While parts of the former Soviet Union are trying to clamp back down on Christians, they are finding it hard to do.
A few years ago, Bill Bright, Pres. of Campus Crusade reported that the evangelistic film, "Jesus," was being freely shown in public theaters throughout the former Soviet Union. He wrote, "Thousands are turning to Jesus daily!…”
“In the Soviet Republic of Georgia, over 2,500 people packed out the Philharmonic Concert Hall to see the film. The parking lot surrounding the hall overflowed onto side streets as curious, spiritually hungry people jammed every seat & aisle to see 'Jesus.' Many were Communist Party & high-ranking government officials."
But this was only the beginning. During the next few nights over 25,000 more people came to see the film, many with tears streaming down their cheeks as they watched Jesus being crucified. Night after night downtown theaters began to show the film … & were packed to overflowing.
Bill Bright wrote, "Christians who had known only harsh persecution & oppression were now seeing a whole new spiritual revolution. Entire generations who are empty, hungry, & ready to receive the truth, are receiving the Lord of Lords into their hearts."
ILL. Joe Garman, President of A.R.M., tells about visiting a Russian prison. When a visiting evangelist finished speaking about Jesus & offered the invitation, so many prisoners started coming forward that the evangelist said to his interpreter, "They don't understand. Tell them this is a life-time commitment they are making. Only those who fully understand the seriousness of this confession should step forward."
The interpreter asked everyone to stand still. He then went into a lengthy explanation of what the evangelist had said. "Now," the interpreter said, "only those who really desire to choose Christ should come forward." And everyone continued forward from where they had been stopped. Not a single one returned to his seat.
CONCL. Folks, I could continue on with story after story of what's happening among Christians in the world today.
But just listen to this promise that God made a long time ago. It's found in Habakkuk 1:5, "Look at the nations & watch - & be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe even if you were told."
Who would have imagined it? India, China, Russia, & the uttermost parts of the earth are hearing the story of Jesus, some for the very first time, & lives are being changed all over the world.
The vision is alive & well. The world needs to hear it. The church needs to proclaim it. And our congregation, you & I, need to be a part of it.
This morning, if you are outside of Christ, then we offer you His invitation, & pray that you'll begin to see what God can do in your life. God waits for you to come. We extend the Lord's invitation & pray that you will respond as we stand & as we sing.
