by Walter Beuttler
“After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before His face into every city and place, where He himself would come.” Luke 10:1
He sent them into “every city and place, where He himself would come.” In a sense, missionaries are the Lord’s forerunners. Someone like John the Baptist, a missionary prepares the way for the Lord to come into these lives.
“Where He himself would come.” He is sending men and women ahead of Himself in preparation of His coming to them. One year I received an invitation to come to Tokyo for a week with the Japanese pastors. They wrote and said, “Brother Beuttler, we would like you to come over for a week, if you can, and have a public debate with a Japanese philosopher. We will rent an auditorium and have tickets printed and charge a fee for admission.”
In case this surprises you, that is in accordance with Japanese psychology. One of the hardest things for Americans to learn is that Oriental people do not think the way Western people think. Our government has constant trouble with this.
One reason is that we are sending as ambassadors, men who are political appointees. The Oriental mind is programmed differently than the Western mind. They do not think of many things the way we think of them.
I will give you an example that is purely hypothetical. Incidentally, it gives insight into the problems that missionaries have. Not only do they need to learn the language, but also their culture, and especially their way of thinking.
Let’s say that I am an American businessman and want to relate to a Japanese businessman. We want to have a talk to see whether we could do business with each other. As an American, I might say, “Well sir, I think our interests run parallel.” What the American means is that our interests are so much alike that we can get together and get somewhere.
To the Japanese, it means the opposite. It means we cannot do business together because parallel lines never meet, therefore we can never come together. There is no use carrying on the discussion. “Goodbye sir.” So he breaks the thing off. They think different, and their thinking is surprising.
In Tokyo, I was riding in the missionary’s car and we went to a huge Buddhist temple, which is enjoying a revival in Japan. We saw a motorcycle man, lying in a pool of blood on the street of cobblestone. The man tried to get up and fell back into his blood. People stood around and watched it.
I said, “Why doesn’t somebody help the man? The missionary said, “We cannot help because according to Japanese thinking, if you touch this man to help him, it is equivalent to being responsible for him.” If you help him you are saying, “I am responsible for all your injuries,” and you pay the doctor bills and the hospital bills. If the man is a cripple, you have to take him to your house and support him for the rest of your life because you touched him, and tried to help him. Only the authorities can come and take him to the hospital. This is strange thinking to us.
Back to Tokyo, they wanted to sell tickets and said, “You and this philosopher debate the existence of God.” I wrote back, “Brethren, you are over rating my capabilities. In the first place, I do not have the educational background for anything of that kind of an undertaking. In the second place, that is not my ministry, and I do not think Jesus Himself would accept your offer.”
I suggested somebody else that I thought could take the philosopher on. I said, “But, if you would like me to share with you what God has shared with me, I will be glad to come.” They wrote back and said, “Brother Beuttler, we are changing our program to suit you. We are asking you to come.”
So I went over for a week. During the seminar we had at the Bible School in the suburb of Tokyo, there was such a move of the Spirit of God, such a touch, that one missionary said, “Brother Beuttler, we had asked you to bring to us what we did not need.” They had suggested that I pay attention to the philosophies of Slymaucher and Bruden. Japanese are strongly pro-German. Slymaucher and Bruden are German, and they thought I should read up on that because Japanese have such a great respect for these German philosophers.
She said, “We thought that what we needed was some more philosophies. Now we have found out that what we needed was the Lord and His Presence.” The result was that I went back the next year. “Whither He himself should come.”
This lady said, “We were trying to persuade the Japanese to accept Jesus Christ on the basis of a philosophical persuasion.” Well, that has never worked and never will work. It was never intended to work. She said, “Now we find what we need is the Lord and His Presence.” I do not know what the others said, but she said, “I have burned all my philosophy books and am going back to the Bible to win the Japanese. They are not easy to win.”
Therefore said He to them, The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; pray you therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth laborers into His harvest.” Luke 10:2
I am aware that many missionaries have used this passage. I am not classifying myself as a missionary. I am merely saying that many of you have heard it many times. Then why use it again? For the simple reason, because “It is still written.” The need today is just as true as it ever was.
I want to touch principally on two things:
1) On the need and,
2) On our prayer participation in meeting this need.
The harvest truly is great. What we have here, obviously and logically, is the vastness of the need. I hope you will understand me aright in what I am going to say. You recognize that different men have a different ministry assigned to them by God, therefore a different vision, a different burden, a different approach, and to some extent a different message.
I know my calling. The Lord literally gave me a call in our chapel in Bible school to overseas teaching. We had a revival in 1951 of which I was put in charge. On Friday night we had an indescribable move of the Spirit. Some of the fellows were beginning to get out of line and I knew they would ruin the meeting if they did not come back into line. I was aware of the danger of touching it. I was aware of the danger of not doing so.
So I gave these fellows mistakenly a rebuke. When I did, the entire meeting went dead. The move of the Spirit stopped. I did it, though unintentionally, but I knew what they were going to do, likewise unintentionally. The meeting died dead and I knew that I killed it. I knew the meeting could not be saved, so because we had very late meetings every night, I dismissed the students and told them to go to their rooms and go to sleep.
That night at 2:30, the Lord awakened me. Now what I am telling you here is absolutely accurate. I was awakened by a man’s voice singing in my room, an audible masculine voice that woke me up. The sound awakened me.
The Lord stood by the window, full size, dressed in white, His robes going down to the floor. He was looking my way singing two stanzas of a song that I never heard before, nor since. When He finished with the second stanza, He was not there, but He was gone. The first stanza had to do with sin and forgiveness. The second stanza had to do with grace and glory. There was a strong Presence in the room, though He had left, that is Him standing there. I knew it was time to get up. It was 2:30.
I sat before the Lord perhaps 2 hours or so delighting myself in His Presence, when I noticed that I had pushed away the first stanza on sin and forgiveness and sort of reveled in the second stanza of grace and glory. That was more pleasant, you see. When I recognized that I pushed the first stanza away, I became somewhat apprehensive. I sensed something was wrong. I said, “Lord, is anything wrong?”
At once two words stood in front of me, “Uzzah’s error.” Uzzah was the man who touched the ark in the Old Testament and died. I knew the Lord was saying thereby that I committed the error of Uzzah by touching the ark of God in the Friday night service. I touched the Presence in a carnal spirit, at provocation at these fellows, and I killed the meeting. So that’s what was wrong.
I said, “Lord, I did not mean to, but I did.” I asked His forgiveness and said, “Lord, what can I do?” I got the answer at once, “On Sunday morning during the communion service, I want you to stand up and make a public confession to the students for having ruined the meeting and ask for their forgiveness.”
I squirmed and said, “Lord, that is hard. What will the students think of me?” That made no difference to the Lord. Sunday morning we were giving out the bread. My heart started to pound. I thought it was going to jump out of my body. It pounded like everything. I knew that was the signal. I stood up and said, “Students, I have a confession to make.”
You could have heard a pin drop. I could hear them think, “Brother Beuttler! What could that be?” I told the whole thing what happened. I did not color it and dress it up a bit or put a halo around it. I laid it on the line. I said, “I want you to forgive me for having killed the meeting.”
Hardly were my words out when a student jumped to his feet and gave a prophetic utterance with such power as I have rarely heard, and said, “Because you have done this thing, and have humbled yourself before this congregation, therefore the Lord your God will raise you up and set you upon a hill, and cause you to ride upon the high places of the earth.” There was more to it, but I am purposefully leaving some things out.
When I heard this, and it was obviously directed toward me, I knelt down and wept. As I wept, I was hardly on my knees, the Lord spoke in an inner voice that I heard saying, “Go and teach all nations.” That was in 1951. I have been in world travel ever since. It is a long story, but I cut it off here.
Throughout all the earth there is a vast need for more Bible teaching. Others speak about the salvation of all these people. This is all true. Only my ministry is teaching, so I give the teaching part. Another man gives his part. By the time every man and woman with their respective calling gives their part, we have together the symphony of the Great Commission. Each one playing a part, but only “A” part, but through many becoming a part of the whole.
The tremendous need today is for the teaching of “the knowledge of God,” the true knowledge of God, the experiential – that is to say, “the knowledge of God in the sense of a personal experience with the Lord.”
I will not repeat here what I told you before of how the Lord walked into a hotel room after 48 hours of fasting and prayer, and stood to my left for 4 solid hours teaching me out of His Word the subject that I was to take throughout all the earth, “That they might know thee.”
I cannot describe to you the vast openings and demands for Bible teaching, not the academic type of a teaching. No! that is what they need the least of all. That is neither what they need nor want, but an interpreting of God to bring people into an experiential, personal knowledge of God. Like God said to Jeremiah, “I will give them a heart to know Me.”
We can know a lot about a certain person and have a plentiful supply of accurate information about them, without knowing that person. People all over the world need more than mere information about God. They need to be brought, through the Spirit, into a personal knowledge of God, within their hearts. If a young man (I say young because they have the future ahead of them.), or a young woman has this type of a personal knowledge of God, a message from God, there is no limit to the doors of ministry that will open to them throughout all the world.
When I left Northeast Bible Institute a year ago, I had something like 5 Bible schools, some from overseas, write and ask whether I would join their faculty. Over and over again, from overseas, I was asked, “Brother Beuttler, could you stay? Could you come back? Could you join us?” The school in New Zealand asks every year.
I am saying this because there is a vast opportunity for the right kind of teaching that people need, that interprets God to them, that solves their problems as they sit in the pews, when they can say, “I heard from God.” They want to hear more than some opinion by a commentator. They want to know instinctively within them that God has spoken. The harvest for teaching is vast. I was in Australia some years ago for a week in Melbourne. The brother there asked whether I could come back for a week for a camp meeting at Christmas time.
I said, “Well, we have school vacation. It’s our Christmas vacation. I could come, but Melbourne is a long ways from Green Lane.” He said, “I know you’re thinking about the fare.” He said, “Brother Beuttler, if I ask you to come, we will pay your fare. How much is it?” I said, “I do not know exactly, but it is about $1,450 round trip.” He said, “Are you coming?” I said, “All right I will be there.” The Lord so moved that he said at the end of the camp, “Could you come back again next year?” I went there 4 years in a row for one week only, Christmas Day to New Year’s Day. Each time they paid $1,450 for the fare and gave me an offering.
What I am saying is this: There is such a vast opportunity and desire for the teaching of the Word of God. If you have the goods, the doors will open. But these “goods” do not come from the places where most are looking. I will tell you where they do come from. Wait upon the Lord in fasting and prayer until we can say, “And the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.” When we have a personal encounter with God, as Samuel did, “And the Lord revealed himself to Samuel by the word of the Lord.” After God spoke to Samuel, Samuel spoke to the people, and they heard a present word from the Lord.
God is looking for men and women through whom He can speak, and after having spoken to them, He then will then speak through them. The harvest truly is great, but the laborers – God’s kind of laborers, are few.
I wish I could put into your hearts the opportunities for those who are prepared. If I were a free man, and gave all my time to overseas teaching unhindered by physical limitations and the encroaching of the years, I could not fill these open doors that are open today for Bible teaching. I have very few years left for this, of necessity. Here is where you come in. “Pray you therefore, that the Lord will send forth laborers.”
We need God-sent men and women, not the self-sent. I have said this to Bible school students for years, “Unless you are sent by Him, you are not sent. You might go, but you are not sent.” I am a believer, and increasingly so, in Christ-centered ministry by Christ-called and Christ-equipped ministers. This is the kind of laborers, which God needs.
It is one thing to be a minister of an organization. It is another to be a minister of Him. I appreciate my fellowship with the Assemblies, but I am not their minister, I am His minister. I am in association with, and accredited by an organization, but I am His minister, accredited by Him above all other accreditations. These kind of laborers need to be built, so to speak, on the foundation of Jesus Christ Himself. These are the laborers for which we need to pray.
“Say not you, There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” John 4:35
This speaks of the urgency of the hour. You might say, “I heard missionaries preach on this 50 years ago!” It was true then, but it is still true today. It will remain to be true until the church is complete.
Jesus said in John 9:4, “The night comes when no man can work.” The opportunity that we miss today may not be the opportunity of tomorrow. There is no time for procrastination.
“The people pressed upon Him to hear the word of God.” Luke 5:1
“Overseas, there is a hunger for the Word!” In modern countries, it is very difficult to get a convert. I used to go to Algeria. There was a church along the coast to minister to Muslims. But they only came to be prayed for, because the missionary there had quite a healing ministry. Very few ever got saved.
This reminds me of a meeting in Italy. They had only a cave dug into the soft limestone, or sandstone. They took out all the seats before I got there. That hole was jammed with people standing. When I arrived, a big, husky Italian man used his elbows to move the people back, and he shoved them. It was the only way they could make a path for me to get to the pulpit. When I got up there, they right away pressed in and I was literally wedged in standing, a solid mass of people so wedged in I had trouble breathing. They were so hungry for the Word of God.
At a convention in Rouen, France, largely with ministers, but others could come during the day. I spoke for 2 hours and 10 minutes and was so exhausted I could speak no more. I turned to the leader and said, “Brother, I have to stop.” He said, “Brother Beuttler, back there is a room with a cot. You lie down for any length of time you want. When you are ready to continue, come out and we will be here.” The people were still there, hungry to hear the Word of God.
Here in America, I was ready to begin speaking at 11:35 a.m. The pastor said, “Brother Beuttler, be sure to stop at 12:00 o’clock. If you don’t, this congregation will get up and walk out on you.”
“And He goes up into a mountain, and called to Him whom He would; and they came to Him.” Mark 3:13
He called to Him “whom He would.” Individuals are called in sovereignty. It is surprising whom God calls into the ministry. I speak now of Bible school. We had some students of whom you would wonder whatever talked them into Bible school. They were unkempt. This was before we had the cult of sloppy dress, which certainly does not bring any honor to God.
“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin… Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed (or clothed) like one of these… if God so clothe the grass (so beautifully)… how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith?” Matthew 6:28-30
If God made the lilies more beautiful than Solomon’s glory, how much more will He clothe you? The cult of sloppy dress is a reproach to our heavenly Father. What a mess they look. Our heavenly Father is ashamed at the way some of His children look as though they came from some alley and dragged their clothes (if that’s what you call them) out of some kind of garbage bag. What a reflection on the character of the heavenly Father!
But I have seen some of these youngsters in school transformed in a most remarkable way. “He called to Him whom He would.” Here you see divine selection, saved by divine sovereignty – Christ-called laborers.
“And when they were alone, He expounded all things to His disciples.” Mark 4:34
Early one morning around 2:30, I was sitting before the Lord and there was a Presence that I could feel. I knew it was the Lord’s Presence, but it had a strange feel to it, and I simply did not recognize it. I remember saying in a low tone, “Lord, what kind of a Spirit is this?”
He gave me an answer, “It is the Teaching Spirit.” Then I knew. The Spirit quickened I Corinthians 12, 13 and 14 for a period of time, quite early, morning after morning, and opened up these chapters, giving insight on the Holy Spirit. These chapters are in the notes on The Holy Spirit. I saw things I never saw before in all three chapters.
“When they were alone, He expounded all things to them.” The Lord needs men and women who take time with Him alone, sitting in His Presence with His Word, and allow Him to open their understanding of the Word of God.
“And Jesus said to them, Come you after Me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.” Mark 1:17
The Lord needs men and women who are God-made, made by the Lord. That is to say, a transformation is wrought in their lives. I came from Germany in 1927 and went to Bible school after awhile. Of all things, the matron put me to washing dishes, but I would not wash dishes. I said, “Miss Sunder, I am not washing dishes. I am German.”
She said, “That does not make any difference. You are washing dishes, young man.” I said, “I am not washing dishes, that is a woman’s job.” In Germany, a man would not think of shining his own shoes, or washing dishes. The wife or the kids do that, but not the man. I cannot speak for today, but that is the way it was then.
She said, “Young man, you are going to do dishes until you like them.” And I could tell from her face that I would be well advised not to say another word, and I did no, but I can think. I thought, “I will not.” I went up to my room angry and said, “If Pentecostal people believe that men should wash dishes, I am in the wrong religion. If Bible schools believe that their students should wash dishes, I in the wrong school.”
I packed my bags and quit. I walked out in a huff, so angry that I did not even say goodbye. I was through. Wash dishes! I was around 20 years old. I knew there was a Pentecostal meeting going on that morning, and I thought, “I will go to one more meeting.” I sat right in the middle about the third row. A message in tongues was given that went through me like a knife and I slinked down in my seat.
Then came the interpretation given by a very quiet Englishman. He shouted at the top of his voice, “Rebellious man, rebellious man,” and I got a stinging rebuke from the Spirit. I knew it meant me. He continued with, “Submit yourself to the mighty hand of God, and I will do thus and so.” I realized for the first time, a woman’s hand was God’s hand on me, and I was supposed to submit myself to a woman. Now that is not my present attitude, but that is the way it was then.
That night, I went back to school. The next morning I showed up washing dishes. Nobody ever said a word. I was gone a whole day. I cannot explain it. The matron did not say, “Why weren’t you washing dishes?” The teachers did not say, “Why weren’t you in class.” Nobody said a word. I thought, “I did not say goodbye, why say hello and give myself away.”
After 4 weeks, she came back to change my duty. I said, “Oh Miss Sunder, don’t change my duty. I like to wash dishes.” She was right. I did dishes until I liked them, and I still can help my good wife. There was something in me that needed to be transformed. In the final analysis, no matter who we are, we must be made by Him. A change, or transformation must be wrought within, in the path of obedience and submission.
“Follow Me” – this is submission and obedience. “And I will make you.” The Lord of the harvest needs Christ-made ministers.
“Then He called His twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.” Luke 9:1
These men who were called by Christ were also equipped by Christ. God needs laborers called to their specialty work, but also being equipped by Him for their work. He does the equipping. Christ-equipped laborers, God-given ministries is what it takes. Going back to Luke 10:
“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.” Luke 10:1
They were sent by Him. I have talked to you briefly, as each one of these points would merit a whole hour, about a need that we have before us on the mission field. It is a far greater need than in the days of the Lord because of the multiplication of the human race, an astronomical figure.
“Pray you therefore that the Lord will send laborers,” laborers who are called by Him, taught by Him, made by Him, equipped by Him, and sent by Him.
Here is where your part of the Great Commission comes into play. “Whom shall I send and who will go? “ To this we could add, “Who will pray?” Who will pray that they may go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature? This is your segment of the Great Commission.
God bless and prosper His Word in your hearts.