If you had been on the deck of the sinking Titanic and someone had offered you a lifejacket, I’m sure you would have snatched it from him. Yet unnumbered souls are in daily peril for want of hearing about Jesus, whose death offers a lifeboat to eternal salvation.
Passion for the gospel
With Easter behind us, disciples of Jesus are charged with the task of proclaiming its truth – the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ that sets us free from sin and hopelessness. And when the risen Lord met with his students afterwards, it was the point where they truly left their day-job behind and prepared to ‘fish for men’.
Significantly, it was in the district then known as ‘Galilee of the Nations’ that Jesus commanded his disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel. And though these were his final instructions as recorded by Matthew, it wasn’t the last word of the Saviour who, when back in Jerusalem shortly before his ascension, insisted that his followers wait in the city until they were empowered from on high (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4).
Once thus emboldened by the Holy Spirit, we too will discover a passion for the gospel that cannot be quenched, a courage to overcome all fear and doubt, and a determination to seek and to save the lost.
We must be vocal!
After more than a year of virtual lockdown, there is a harvest waiting to be reaped – of people ripe for a message that makes sense of all the confusion. But many are not being given the chance to believe because we hardly believe it ourselves. Where is the trumpet sounding the certain note that Jesus is indeed the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
I’m not a fan of the much-quoted saying attributed to St Francis imploring Christians to preach the gospel “and use words if necessary”. Yes, our actions should match our words, but we really must be vocal! Paul explains that it is with your heart you believe and with your mouth that you profess (Rom 10:10).
Yes, our actions should match our words, but we really must be vocal!
The gospel is about the spoken word and we have been silent for too long. There are too many lost and lonely people desperately crying out for someone to point the way. The famous England cricketer turned missionary C. T. Studd was certainly not tongue-tied about his faith in Christ, for which he gave away his inherited fortune and risked life and limb in China and Africa, declaring: “Some wish to live within the sound of chapel bell; I wish to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell.”
Evangelist John Harper
John Harper was a Scottish preacher who gave away his lifejacket as the Titanic went down. He considered it would be wasted on him as his eternal soul was already secure in Jesus. Even as he thrashed about in the freezing waters, he continued to urge men and women to put their trust in Christ.1
A young man later described how Harper had repeatedly urged him: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” – apparently the preacher’s last words. The young man was rescued and later testified: “There, two miles above the ocean floor, I did believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for my salvation. I was John Harper’s last convert!”2
Harper had been a hugely popular preacher both in Glasgow and London.
Ironically, he was on the Titanic due to the success of earlier meetings at the great Moody Church in Chicago, and had been invited back for a second visit. Before the ‘unsinkable’ ship struck the iceberg that mid-April evening in 1912, Harper was seen leaning against the deck rail sharing Christ with a passenger.
Church-planting at 96!
Something similar happened in a Surrey care home, where 96-year-old medical missionary Peter Green effectively planted a church before dying of Covid in January this year.3 He was moved there in 2019 after a fall and hip replacement. But with the help of another resident and his son John, he simply carried on with his life’s work of telling others about Jesus.
He prepared a weekly devotional leaflet which became a favourite with a number of residents and their carers. And with the easing of lockdown last summer, he started holding a Sunday service with hymns on CD to sing along with and an attendance of up to 25. Indeed, he planted a church in the last year of his life!
There is a life-or-death battle for the souls of men and women in which British missionaries have been engaged for millennia in the great tradition of St George who, according to one source, was a Roman soldier martyred for refusing to persecute Christians.
Dissatisfied Rolling Stone
I was intrigued to read of rock icon Sir Mick Jagger’s confession to Radio 6 Music listeners that he had found looking back on his life “inordinately dull and upsetting”. He had been attempting to use lockdown to write his autobiography, but had given up the struggle and returned the £1 million advance to the publishers.4
With all the fame, fortune and adoring fans his success had ensured, his admission will no doubt surprise many. But didn’t Jesus ask the pointed question: “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul?” (Mark 8:36).
In the words of one of the rock star’s songs, written over 50 years ago, Jagger has found himself unable to find lasting "satisfaction".
Many, like Jagger, will have been forced by the pandemic to reflect on their life. In the words of one of the rock star’s songs, written over 50 years ago, Jagger has found himself unable to find lasting "satisfaction". But Jesus says: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they might have life – life in all its fullness” (John 10:10).
Even at Jagger’s age of 77, it’s not too late. Jesus can supply his – and our – greatest need – a life rich in meaning and purpose. As the Bible says: “No eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor mind has conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9).
Life and death are set before us… Now choose life! (Deut 30:19f).
Go forth and tell!
Endnotes
1 Heroes of the Faith, April-June 2021, from New Life Publishing
2 Ibid. Check out also Harper’s fascinating biography, ‘The Titanic’s Last Hero’ by Moody Adams (2012).
3 Evangelicals Now, April 2021
4 Columnist Tom Utley in The Daily Mail, April 16, 2021
