In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea. Matthew 3:1
When we speak of wilderness in Canada, we are usually referring to the deep woods, far away from civilization and settlements. So what would happen if one of us were to take a makeshift pulpit out into the woods, and stand up and begin to preach? It sounds silly, doesn’t it? Maybe a camp jay or a squirrel would come by to see what was going on. There would certainly be no audience. The wilderness of Judaea would have been different in many ways, with its sand and rocks and sparse wild vegetation. And yet, John did pretty good in terms of drawing a crowd. He was faithfully blunt, he was strangely clad, and his living habits were definitely unorthodox. But people came to hear him preach, and they had to go well out of their way to do so. His message was repentance and there were plenty of folks willing to hear him on it. With much more to preach today than repentance, and more convenient places to preach than the back woods, why can’t we draw the crowds that John drew?
Some of our Gospel meetings these days might just as well be in the wilderness for all the crowds they draw. For some reason, those who need to hear the message are not showing up. Maybe John was onto something when he went into the wilderness to preach. While we need to maintain our Gospel testimony in our weekly meetings in our halls, we also need to be thinking about the wilderness pulpit. If people are not coming to our halls and our tents, maybe we need to be going out to where the people are. That means more open air meetings, more door-to-door tramping, more booths and handouts at fairs and flea markets, more handing out tracts and New Testaments, and definitely more living out the Gospel in our lives.
But if John’s wilderness was the deserts of Judaea, our wilderness might well be the empty halls and tents where we faithfully hold forth the message. The discouraging sight of empty seats causes us to abandon any trust in ourselves and to rely on the Lord alone for power and guidance. The wilderness of today’s apathy toward the Gospel is sad, but it is the wilderness into which God has placed us, and He expects us to be faithful as John was in his wilderness.
Do today’s discouraging conditions cause you to be lax in presenting and supporting the Gospel? Be faithful with the Gospel, and God will bless His Word. -Jim MacIntosh