Question: Did God preach to the Jews? 1 Timothy 3:16 says, “Preached unto the Gentiles.” P. B. E.
Answer: The point of the passage is to bring before us that the mystery of godliness was great indeed. “God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”
Yes, He was preached to the Jews, and they rejected God’s message as a nation, then God turned to the Gentiles, and gave them also eternal salvation. (See Acts 11:18; 13:46-48; 15:3, 7, 12; 28:25-28; Rom. 1:16.)
Question: “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth laborers into His harvest.” Matthew 9:37, 38; Luke 10:2. Say something about this verse. S.
Answer: In both places where this verse is found, the needy souls are just round about the Lord and His disciples. We are to pray to Him to send workers into His harvest. We can have fellowship with Him in His sending them. This we see in Acts 13:2-4. There is no ordination of ministers in Scripture. We are to pray the Lord to send them. This praying with them, and laying their hands on them, expressed fellowship and interest in their service.
The assembly might send money to the poor, and messengers to carry it, as was done in 2 Corinthians 8:18-23, but that is not sending evangelists to preach. Such must go as sent by the Lord. The brethren may see that the Lord is sending them, and show their fellowship in prayer, and by communicating to them the necessary means, but they should feel their authority for going is the Lord Himself in answer to their heart’s desire, “Here am I; send me.” Isaiah 6:8.
We see the first preachers of the gospel outside of Jerusalem after the Holy Spirit was sent down, in Acts 8:1-5. It was by a storm of persecution they were scattered and sent. They had to go, and they went everywhere preaching the Word. They had no appointment; they needed no license. They were dependent on the Lord, and He provided for them. Paul preached immediately that he was converted that Christ was the Son of God (9:20). A minister set over a congregation is foreign to Scripture. Paul had apostolic authority, but he could not send laborers, except it was their will to go (1 Cor. 16:12), but he did exhort Archippus to take heed to fulfill his ministry (Col. 4:17) which the Lord had committed to him. For one not to do this would be serious loss to the Lord and to us.
Each one of us has some service to do for the Lord, and it begins just where we are. We might well ask ourselves, Are we doing it? If you cannot serve the Lord now where you are, you could not serve Him anywhere else. Do we speak to souls about their salvation now? Do we tell them of the love of Christ and of God now? Then the Lord will guide us where He wants us to be to do His work.
We need to be much in prayer that we might be guided aright. Begin now, cultivate a heart given to praying always. He will help you to help others also.