The Pilgrim’s Progress – III

“I looked and saw a man named Witness coming to Pilgrim, and he asked Pilgrim, ‘What’s wrong?’ Pilgrim answered, ‘I’ve come to face the fact that one day I’m going to die, and from reading the Bible I’ve learned that I’m a sinner who is facing the judgment of God. I don’t want to die, and if…or when…I die I can’t possibly face God because of the things I’ve done, because of this Burden on my back. I don’t know what to do.’”  [My rendering.]

Witness points Pilgrim to a small narrow gate on the far side of a large field. When Pilgrim tells Witness that he doesn’t see the gate Witness says, “Do you see the Bright Light? Keep that Light in your eye, follow that Light and you’ll find the gate.” [My rendering.]

We may be unlikely to come upon someone reading the Bible in distress, but we can’t help but meet people whose lives are in turmoil and despair. They are all around us. We only have to read statistics; illegal drugs, the misuse of legal drugs, alcohol misuse, divorce, pornography, infidelity, serial sexual partners, spousal and child abuse, depression, stealing (blue and white collar), fraud, fears and anxieties over daily life, overbooked mental health clinics – the list equals humanity.

Dr. Bryan Chapell at Covenant Seminary in St. Louis fruitfully works with what he terms a Fallen Condition Focus when preparing sermons. In essence, he asks the question, “How does the Biblical text before me relate to man’s fallen condition?” The other side of Dr. Chapell’s approach is in effect, “How does Jesus Christ relate to the fallen condition as seen in this Biblical text?” In other words, how does the promise of redemption in Jesus Christ address man’s fallen condition?

This is a helpful approach to sharing the Gospel message with others in daily life, for everyone has some distress in life; by listening, asking questions, and by observing we can often discern an element in a person’s life that we can bring hope to in Jesus Christ. Where is the fear? The uncertainty? The anxiety? What hole in the soul is the person trying to fill with ___________?

A challenge to witnessing in our society is the presence of unbridled pleasure in many lives; people medicate through pleasure and materialism and achievement; they also medicate through greed; since we are a society driven by consumerism, since we worship at the altars of the economy and wealth and affluence, since these altars emit intoxicating aromas that induce dreamlike states in those who approach them, witnessing is often threading the eye of the relational needle in order to penetrate the stupor enveloping those around us. Nevertheless, to use Bryan Chapell’s paradigm, not only does every Biblical text have a fallen condition focus, but every life has one as well – find the fallen condition affecting a person’s life and you find a bridge of witness.