{"id":939,"date":"2021-10-18T09:27:56","date_gmt":"2021-10-18T07:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/?p=939"},"modified":"2021-10-18T09:27:57","modified_gmt":"2021-10-18T07:27:57","slug":"bere-outreach-9-to-12-september","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/?p=939","title":{"rendered":"Bere outreach \u2013 9 to 12 September"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rev Hendrik du Plessis<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Bere visit Bible distribution<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During\nour recent outreach to Bere, people lined up to receive bibles, which reminded\nme of the words of our Lord Jesus in John 6:37: \u201cAll that the Father giveth me\nshall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.\u201d The\nword “shall” says it all. They “shall come to me.\u201d, and not they\n\u201cmay come to me\u201d We can especially comprehend this when looking at verse 44. In\nverse 44 the Lord Jesus says: \u201cNo man can come to me, except the Father which\nhath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.\u201d This makes\nmissionary work the most successful profession on earth. There is a 100 percent\nsuccess rate because all that the Father has given to His Son will come to His\nSon. This is non-negotiable. It will and must happen wherever one is in the\nworld. This is what the whole book or Gospel of John focuses on. The Father has\ngiven a certain number of people to His Son, and they can’t become lost, for no\none can snatch them out of His hand or His Father’s hand. In John 10: 27-29 the\nLord Jesus says: \u201c27<\/sup>My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and\nthey follow me: 28<\/sup>And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall\nnever perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29<\/sup>My\nFather, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck\nthem out of my Father’s hand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately,\nsome people seek the Lord Jesus for the wrong reasons. These people, however,\ndo not belong to Him. The Lord Jesus speaks with these people in John 6: The\nprevious day, they were silent witnesses of the most moving miracle imaginable\nwhen the Lord Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes. They were part of the\ncrowd that wanted to make Him king by all means possible. With such a \u201cbread\nking\u201d they believed that they will never go hungry again. They only had to\nfollow Him and He would\u2019ve provided them with food. They also never had to work\nagain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nthe disciples sailed to the other side, the crowd could clearly see that the\nLord Jesus had not climbed unto the boat with them (verse 22). That night, the Lord\nJesus joined his disciples after walking on the sea. When these bums,\n(referring to those with whom the Lord Jesus speaks here in John 6 from verse\n25), did not see Him and His disciples anywhere the next day, they decided to\nseek Him on the other side. They thought that maybe they would find them there.\nOnce they arrived, they were very happy to see Him again (especially due to\nbeing hungry and with intrusive thoughts of the delicious bread of the previous\nday). One can only imagine how they had mutually agreed to greet Him\nbeforehand. They believed that if they were to greet him kindly, He would not\nbecome suspicious. They hoped that he wouldn\u2019t realize why they were truly looking\nfor Him (i.e. those fresh pieces of bread of yesterday). In verse 25, they kindly\nasked the following: “And when they had found him on the other side of the\nsea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither?” To this\nhypocrisy, the Lord Jesus immediately responded in verse 26: \u201cVerily, verily, I\nsay unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did\neat of the loaves, and were filled. 27<\/sup>Labour not for the meat which\nperisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the\nSon of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.\u201d They then started\nto reason with Him about Moses and the Manna in the wilderness for the\nconversation to lead them to the bread. Verses 30 and 31: \u201cLabour not for the\nmeat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life,\nwhich the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.\u201d\nThey were hoping that He could conjure up the delicious bread from the previous\nday for them. The Lord Jesus then explained that it was not Moses, but his\nFather who gives the true bread. More specifically, He who descends from heaven\nand gives life to the world. When they realised that they had nothing left to\nhide anymore, they asked Him for bread without hesitating. Verse 34: ”\nThen\nsaid they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.” What a\ndisappointing answer, however, the Lord Jesus goes on to give them: \u201c35<\/sup>.\n. . I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he\nthat believeth on me shall never thirst.\u201d This brings the Lord Jesus to\nverses 36 and 37: \u201c36<\/sup>But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me,\nand believe not. 37<\/sup>All that the Father giveth me shall come to me;\nand him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\ntheir case, they did come, but for totally and utterly the wrong reasons. According\nto verse 44, they were not drawn by the Father, but merely through their hunger.\nMany examples of this take place when doing missionary work. People come to the\nchurch or show interest in the Gospel, drawn by their personal motives, but not\nby the Father. It reminds me of an anecdote I heard that took place somewhere\non the coast of Africa. A missionary got his church packed each Sunday because\nhe handed out tobacco to the people after the service. He had bought the tobacco\nfrom a ship that passed by early every Sunday morning. One Sunday, for reasons\nunknown, the ship did not make its appearance. How was he going to pass the bad\nnews on to his congregation? That particular morning the church was packed\nagain as usual, and he decided to announce the bad news before starting with\nthe service: \u201cAs you all know the ship did not make its appearance, as usual,\nthis morning. I’m very sorry about that. I could not buy any tobacco.\u201d An old\nman stood up in the back with a commanding tone and said: \u201cPastor, no tobacco,\nno church.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nLord Jesus said that even though the people came, they didn\u2019t believe because\nthey were only searching for earthly bread (this also reminds us of the lentil\nsoup of Esau). The hunger pains we are faced with in the here and now should\nalso come to an end (i.e. prosperity gospel). Later on in John 6, most of the\nLord Jesus’s disciples decide to leave Him (They were 70 at one stage). In Luke\n10:17 we read of them, and in John 6 they are offended after hearing that the\nflesh of the Lord Jesus should be eaten and his blood should be drunk. In verse\n55 the Lord Jesus says: “For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is\ndrink indeed.” It was just too much for them, and then they say in verse\n60: “This is a hard saying; who can hear it?” From verse 64 it says:\n\u201cBut there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning\nwho didn\u2019t believe and who will betray him. 65<\/sup>And he said, Therefore\nsaid I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it was given unto him of\nmy Father. 66<\/sup>From thereon, many of his disciples went back, and\nno longer walked with him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All\nthe money in the world could not have convinced them to go around with the Lord\nJesus again. Why not? The reason being simple: they do not belong to Him. All\nthe reasoning and persuasiveness of even the best of scholars will not be able\nto make them turn around and follow the Lord Jesus again. Why not? They do not\nbelong to the Lord Jesus because the Father does not draw them and give them to\nHis Son. Imagine how unsuccessful this appeared – almost all of his disciples\nhad left him. However, we now realise that we should rather imagine how\nsuccessful this was, for all that the Father had given to Him went to Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During\nour recent outreach to Bere, we experienced this once again. People came from all over to get a\nBible. The arrangement worked as follows: No one can receive a Bible until the\nGospel is briefly preached to them. People showed up early that given morning.\nWe were barely done with one group and then the next group showed up. Everyone\nlistened attentively, and the rest was left for Father, for it remains Him who\ndraws and gives to His Son. They will come to Him, and He will never\ncast out those who come to Him. It does not always happen equally fast across\ndifferent cases. One can plant a seed today but the Lord will determine when it\ngerminates. One can also think of the example of the church father Augustine\nwho had led an immoral life for many years. Even though his mother constantly\ndedicated him in prayer to the Lord, a certain time was determined by the Lord\nduring which he could no longer resist the traction of the Father. We,\ntherefore, urge your earnest intercession; namely that the Lord will give us\nthe strength and zeal to preach the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ everywhere\nwe go, so that those who belong to Him may be drawn by the Father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your\nbrother in Christ, Hendrik du Plessis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rev Hendrik du Plessis During our recent outreach to Bere, people lined up to receive bibles, which reminded me of the words of our Lord Jesus in John 6:37: \u201cAll<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":941,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions\/941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}