Next we come to the New Testament. When the Lord Jesus was thirty years of age, He came out to fulfill His preaching ministry. During those three and a half years, He did not gather together one gospel meeting. Neither did He put out any advertisement to invite people to come hear the gospel. Rather, He came among men to visit men. Luke 19 gives a record of His coming to Jericho, a cursed city, to visit a tax-collector by the name of Zaccheus. The tax-collectors were much despised by men then. They were not at all respected by others. The Lord Jesus, however, visited this one. He received the Lord’s visit and took Him in for hospitality. This is one example of the Lord visiting people (Luke 19:1-10).
John 4 records that the Lord Jesus was going from Jerusalem to Galilee. According to the map of the ancient world, there were many ways to travel to Galilee. But the Lord said that He must pass through Samaria (v. 4). This was not a necessity geographically. The Lord did this because there was a dishonorable woman who was a God-chosen son of peace in Samaria. The Lord knew that it was not an easy thing to visit her. Therefore, the Lord handled the matter wisely. He waited for her at the sixth hour by the well where she came to draw water and visited her (vv. 6-7). By this we see that the Lord Jesus came personally to be among the people to contact them.
Hence, both from the Old Testament and from the New as well, we see this light. The old way of gospel preaching in Christianity is wrong. We should not invite people to come listen to the gospel. Rather, we should follow the Lord’s example to visit people.
The Lord called Peter and Andrew in Matthew 4 and said to them, “I will make you fishers of men” (v. 19). We know that for a fisher to fish, either with a hook or with a net, he cannot do so by standing there and inviting the fish to come ashore. He must go to where the fish are. For example, one day Peter asked the Lord Jesus concerning the matter of paying taxes. The Lord told Peter to “go to the sea and cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel; take that and give it to them for Me and you” (Matt. 17:27). This shows us that to fish, we have to go; we cannot ask the fish to come. The way we have taken in the past was really wrong.
The God-ordained and God-revealed way in the Bible is to go. At the end of the four Gospels, we see the same revelation. In Matthew 28:19 the Lord says, “Go therefore and disciple all the nations.” In Mark 16:15 He says, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel.” Even when the Lord was on earth, not only did He go to visit people Himself, but He sent disciples to go out as well. First He sent the twelve disciples (Luke 9:1-9). Next He sent the seventy (Luke 10:1-24). In the end, when the Lord resurrected from the dead, He sent all the disciples to all the world to preach the gospel, not only to all the nations, but to all the creation as well. This is the way that God has shown us from the Bible.
Hebrews 10:20 says, “By a new and living way, which He dedicated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh.” The veil here is a type of the flesh of Christ. When the flesh of Christ was crucified on the cross, this veil was rent, and a new and living way was open for us. This way is now prepared in the new creation and is ready for us to walk on. For the same reason, our flesh has to be broken, and we have to deny our soul life. Only then can we walk on this new way in resurrection. Everything that is in the old creation is old. Only by being in the new creation can there be newness. If we preach the gospel by the old creation and serve God by the flesh, our way is an old way. But whenever we preach the gospel and serve God by the new creation, that is, by our spirit, we have the new way.
What then is the new way? The new way is the way of death and resurrection. This way requires that we deny ourselves. By this, we would not be in ourselves, the natural realm, the old creation, or the flesh, but would be fully in the new creation and in life. This is the new way. The secret of the new way is death and resurrection. The natural man cannot take this way. Much less can the flesh take it. It is wrong for a man to assume that, just because he has a higher education or has lived through all the sufferings of the human life, he is qualified to preach the gospel. If we have this thought, even if we say that we are taking the new way, in reality we are not in the new way, because everything we do is in the old creation. The service in the new way requires that we deny the self, the flesh, and the natural strength.
The Lord treasures our love towards Him. He asked His disciple Peter after His resurrection, “Do you love Me more than these?” Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You” (John 21:15). Peter dared not say too much. Before the Lord went to the cross, he had said to the Lord, “Even if I must die with You, I will by no means deny You” (Matt. 26:35). But when the Lord Jesus was arrested and judged, he denied the Lord three times (Matt. 26:75). I believe this was a big blow to Peter. It showed him that he could not love God with his natural strength. The natural man is worth nothing; it is useless. Man’s natural strength must be denied and dealt with.
After the Lord’s resurrection, He specifically sought out Peter. On the one hand, He called Peter with the miracle of the casting of the net to train him to trust God for his living (John 21:1-14). On the other hand, He recovered Peter’s love to Himself, and He charged him to shepherd His church. He prepared him for his future martyrdom, so that he would not follow Him with his natural strength, but would follow Him in resurrection and in the new creation.
We have to see today that we must preach the gospel to all the nations, to bring them the Lord Jesus, the Bible, and the truth, and to dispense to them grace and life. John 15:16 says, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and I appointed you that you should go forth and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain.” We cannot remain in our homes or in the meeting halls. We have to go forth to bear fruit. As to how far we should go, we should follow the Lord’s leading. But we have to see that when we go to preach the gospel, we cannot depend on our natural strength. Such strength is worth nothing. We have to learn to take the Lord’s strength as our strength and to preach the gospel in resurrection.