Hartland Summer Conference 2021: Revelation's Cosmic Conflict

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Hartland Institute of Health and Education

Health Evangelism

Rodney Bowes

01 Lighting the World

It's sitting on the top of the Luxor Hotel.

If any of you have seen Las Vegas before, they have this black pyramid there.

On the top of that hotel is a light that is 43 billion candle power strong.

It's an incredibly bright light, so bright that it causes challenges for pilots who are flying over the area.

They have to avoid so they're not blinded specifically by that.

Well, The screen is over here for you, that's right.

So the Luxor Hotel, 43 billion candle power.

So bright, once again, that the pilots have to avoid it.

You can see this light from approximately 350 miles away if you're up in the air.

The Bible tells us in Isaiah 60 and verse 2, behold the darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people.

So while it is true there are some artificial lights that are incredibly bright in the world, as the Bible describes the earth, it is a dark place.

And this is a very interesting map to me.

I spent some time in the Philippines, in the jungle of the Philippines.

I've been involved in mission projects all throughout the world.

And this map is very interesting because it shows the progress of the gospel by people group.

In missions, we call that the 10-40 window.

Some of you may be familiar with that term, the 10-40 window.

Stretches all the way from West, Africa, North, and then it goes through the Middle East.

India is there, large parts of Southeast Asia, Japan is on the far extreme side of that.

But you will notice there is a unique anomaly that I'd like for you to be praying for.

You see that a large portion of it is green?

Over the course of the last few decades, we have seen a remarkable growth in Christianity in China.

But over the last couple of years, there has been a lot of challenge by the government that they have placed on the churches in China.

So be praying specifically for the church in China.

Now, Let's look at a couple of things together.

As we think of this commission, it says, go into all the world and preach the gospel.

We think of the different nations that are there.

Think of that map that we just looked at.

The United Nations recognizes 237 different countries around the world.

Out of those, how many countries is the Seventh-day Adventist Church in?

So, if you look at that number and you see that, you would say, Wow!

Isn't that what it looks like from that specific statement?

We just need to find missionaries and stir them up and send them to 22 more countries, and then we're done.

Let's look at this more carefully in Matthew 28.

Matthew 28, And let's take a look at these verses.

Matthew 28, as we know, is the great commission that Jesus gives before He is on His way back to heaven.

Verse 18, I love this verse, Jesus came and spoke to them saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Go therefore and make disciples of all...

Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Now, the interesting thing that we must understand is that word nations.

That word nations is not talking about the 237 nations that we think of in our context today.

If you look at it in the Greek, if you have your...

Do any of you have the Blue Letter Bible?

I know a lot of us have our smartphones, and you can also access it on your computer as well, but the Blue Letter Bible, you just tap on it and you can learn the original languages.

If we look at the world in that context, let's look at the country versus a nation or an ethnicity.

02 Lighting the World

What a blessing it is once again to be together today.

We want to ask God's presence and we will get right into our message for the morning.

Father in heaven, thank you very much for the opportunity to be here.

We ask that you will guide us and bless us, encourage us, and thank you again for Jesus Christ.

We love you and praise you in Jesus' name.

So this is a continuation of our message, Lighting the World.

This is part 2, and it's called Sustainable Health Evangelism.

We talked in our first presentation about the importance of what we call medical missionary work, or health evangelism is another way we can say it.

And we're going to look at how we can make it sustainable.

How do we do it so it's not just 1 program, 1 time per year and then it's gone.

You know, as I've had the opportunity to travel around the world and see how things are done in many areas, I've seen that we as humans have a challenge and the challenge is to keep something going.

It's very exciting to get started with something.

And you can rally a lot of people around it, and you can put a lot of resources, and then you can do an event, and it might be an amazing event.

And for me personally, I think that as Christians, as Seventh-day Adventists, we need to be in front of the people on a regular basis.

We need to be a face that people can see, not just once a year, not just twice a year, but on a very regular basis, I would like to suggest, even on a weekly basis.

Just like we go to church and we see 1 another on a weekly basis, what a blessing it would be if our community would see us as medical missionaries actively involved on a regular basis, on a weekly basis.

So, let's take a look at a few things together.

First of all, What is health evangelism or what is medical missionary work?

Health education is an important aspect, but I'll tell you there's a lot of people who are doing health education in our world today.

A lot of institutions are spending billions of dollars on health education and they're putting together some very good programs.

And it's not just sharing Bible prophecies, of which we are supposed to do as well, as Seventh-day Adventist Christians living in the last days, we are called to share the 3 angels' messages, we are called to expose the work of Satan, and we are to look at the Revelation's cosmic conflict, we are to unfold it before the world, but we're not just supposed to do that.

We are supposed to do a blend of those 2 things.

So this is going to be a little bit of review.

Matthew 4, verses 23 and 24, And Jesus went about all Galilee, What was He doing?

Teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people." Again, the three-fold ministry of Jesus Christ.

If you look at the next verse there in Matthew, it says that the people came, they flocked to Him from all the surrounding area.

They came to listen to Him, they came to be healed by Him, they came to be taught by Him.

And if we follow His example, we too can have a great power and light the world for the glory of God.

During his ministry, what does it say here?

No matter what Our background is, no matter what our current vocation is, we are all called to minister like Jesus.

Let's remind ourselves of the commission that Jesus gave His 12 disciples.

Again, I like to repeat, and then we're going to enlarge, we're going to expand, just like the prophecies in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7.

We're going to do the same thing, and so we're looking at Luke chapter 9 once again today.

Then He called His 12 disciples together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases.

And He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick." That is exactly what they did.

Did the 12 disciples come back and have any report?

Did they come back and say, oh, we're so discouraged?

I mean, they had a really good experience because they were working together with God, following the ministry of Jesus Christ, and it was powerful.

And then the 70, Luke chapter 10, And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.

Remember, we read this before in Luke chapter 10.

They were to go and prepare the way in every city and village where Jesus would shortly follow.

Yes, in most places the way was very well prepared.

And so we see the power of medical missionary work in preparing the way for Jesus to come.

To come the first time into those cities and towns and to come the second time to the world.

And then of course, that great commission in Mark chapter 16.

Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

And if you remember our presentation last time, we put a map on the screen that showed us where the world is in need.

We saw that the world is a very dark place.

In many areas people have no idea who Jesus is.

They have no clue, no concept about God's great love, His plan and His soon coming.

How are we to preach the gospel to all the world?

In Matthew chapter 28 it says we're to go to all nations.

Do you remember how many distinct nations there are in the world?

Not nations as are cataloged by the United Nations, but 16, 600.

And how many of those are considered unreached?

40 percent, 40 percent of the world still needs to be reached with the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ.

And here we're told that we are to go and preach the gospel, but I'm going to share with you today that preaching is far more than just words.

Preaching is far more than simply a message from the front of whatever room or auditorium it is.

But again, we want to highlight in verse 18, the very last part of this promise, after it says that they'll take up serpents and drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them, they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.

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Series

Health Evangelism

01 Lighting the World

Transcript

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Parts

01 Lighting the World

1h 6m

02 Lighting the World

1h 5m

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