Do you enjoy sharing with others the light and knowledge of God that you receive? Have you ever wondered why you have such a strong desire to pass on everything good that comes from the Lord or reveals the beauty of God’s character? Why does the heart long to know God more closely and then tell other people about Him? Jesus Himself taught us that it is impossible to hide a burning lamp—and that we should not do so.
As we observe the life of Christ, we see that after His baptism and His trials in the wilderness of temptation, He labored tirelessly for this world and did everything possible for the good of humanity. When the disciples joined the Lord, He first gave them His personal example, and then He began sending them out ahead of Him.
Read Luke 8:1: ‘And it came to pass afterward, that He went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God: and the twelve were with Him.’
We read further in Luke 9:1: ‘Then He called His twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.’
And also in Luke 10:1: ‘After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before His face into every city and place, whither He Himself would come.’
In these verses, we see how the movement of evangelists grew. Jesus understood the importance of evangelism and taught that light must be received and intentionally shared, for this brings joy to the soul and fills life with the awareness of something very good—something that brings happiness.
What does an evangelist experience? He has found the Living Source of Eternal blessings, and as he partakes of the Water of Life and Heavenly Manna, he experiences the greatest blessedness. And this is only the beginning. The heart is set aflame by God, Who is an Unquenchable Fire in the soul, and it becomes simply impossible not to shine. How can you hide the joy of Salvation when you understand that you are free, that you are forgiven, that you are accepted by God, and that this makes you shine with happiness?
When Jesus began His ministry to the world, these words were on His lips. We read in Mark 1:15: ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.’
‘The time is fulfilled’ points to the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning His First Coming.
The Kingdom of God is the Land of Happiness whose laws we study in this School. Repentance and belief in the gospel are the conditions for obtaining citizenship in this Land, which is within us.
And the message of repentance remains relevant in our day.
The One Who knows the end from the beginning declares that we are lukewarm and miserable and offers us a way out of such a condition. He comes Himself to help us and teach us the laws of a happy life in His Land of Blessedness.
Jesus could not remain silent about what brings joy into life. His works testified to God’s power, which becomes the possession of those who repent and believe the gospel.
From the beginning of His ministry, Jesus knew why He had come and what the salvation of humanity would cost Him, but He boldly moved toward that decision and made no attempt to change anything in God’s plan.
Agape love is the result of my personal relationship with Jesus and my desire to be like Him. It is not merely a set of new feelings and experiences; it is Christ endowing me with His character, creating a new mind within me, placing a new heart in me, and producing new feelings in me. Jesus gives me the mindset of a righteous person. In the light of love, all the teachings of Christ become dear and understandable to me. And the same desire that Jesus had—to share the good news with other people—moves me at all times.
Every person whom God brings into my life has unique qualities, and I must always take them into account. A method of evangelism and an expression of love that are suitable for one person may be unacceptable to another. Love senses this.
Love sees everything and understands whom it is dealing with, but it is obedient to the person in whom it dwells. It waits for the permission of my will before revealing itself to the world. Love takes my desires and abilities into account and does not judge me if I have irretrievably missed an opportunity or failed to tell someone something. Not every seed that is sown sprouts or falls on good ground, but this does not stop us. The work continues.
We know from Bible prophecy that the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14 are now being proclaimed. God will entrust the proclamation of this message to those who are bound to Him by strong ties of love and deep knowledge of Him. Anyone can speak this message, but only someone who is led by the Holy Spirit and has a new heart overflowing with love will be able to convey its spirit to the world and persuade a sinner to reconsider his life and repent. Although these messages sound like a sentence of judgment, they also carry the hope that repentance and conversion are still possible. And, of course, they are addressed first of all to God’s children who have become lost in the labyrinths of allurements and temptations, becoming miserable and lukewarm in their failure to understand what is happening. They need evangelists who have found the way out and come alive—people who have studied the laws of happiness and invited Christ in by opening their hearts to Him.
For the Savior, there is no greater joy than sharing supper with those who have received Him and, with Him, have acquired all the riches of Heaven—those who have become happy and desire to share this happiness with others. This delights Jesus so greatly that, in the outpouring of His joy, He promises to seat these witnesses of God beside Him on His throne. Satan could not have imagined a worse testimony against himself. He lost Heaven because he desired to sit upon that throne, yet here this authority is offered to mere sinful human beings if they accept what is offered to them for victory in the last days. Burning with anger and envy, the enemy of souls, like a roaring lion, seeks to keep this light from us and fill our minds with anything at all, as long as we do not receive the oil for our lamps that the Lord counsels us to buy.
But God’s evangelists easily overturn all of Satan’s plans and plant the banner of truth and love wherever their feet tread. And the Lord calls the feet of these people beautiful.
I share the good news. This is the brick in my building that brings me joy now and, throughout Eternity, will move me to tell all the inhabitants of Heaven how good the Lord is, how wonderful He is, and how many fascinating things are revealed in Him with every Eternal day. The beginning of such evangelism is here and now. There will be no better day for sharing the good news than today. And happiness is mine if I share the good news.
Through His life, Jesus revealed God’s character to us. He was a faithful Witness of what the Heavenly Father is like and how He relates to people. The entire life of Christ was a life of love, mercy, and truth. By His example, the Lord revealed to us the path to follow, the path to Salvation, and the path to being established in the truth.
As I look at the life of Christ, I understand that if God the Father had been born into our world, He would have lived His life in exactly the same way as the Son of Man lived His. And I rejoice that the Heavenly Father is just as tender, loving, and friendly as Jesus, even though the enemy of souls is always trying to distort this understanding.
And it brings me joy, having love, to share the good news about love, about the One Who is love, and about the victory of God’s love. For our testimony is also a victory—one that makes us a special people and brings happiness.
Bible verses for this chapter:
1 John 3:11; Revelation 10:7; 14:8; Luke 4:16–19, 43; 9:59–60; 16:16; Romans 10:14–17; 1 Corinthians 1:17; 4:15; 9:13–18; Galatians 1:6–12; Ephesians 1:13–14; 6:13–17; Philippians 1:27; 4:3; 1 Thessalonians 1:5; 2 Timothy 1:8