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by Charlie Wolcott

The Gospel does not merely reach the repentant sinner, though for one to be born again, he must repent of his own sin. The Gospel also reaches the destitute. The destitute are not those who have been broken and shattered over their sin; the destitute are those whom society has broken and left as outcasts. They are those reduced to do “manual labor,” the thankless jobs, in which no one gets noticed. They are the poor, the rejected, and the ones who are refused recognition or support. In India, they have a caste system, and below the four major castes are the Dalites, the poor of the poor, and the ones treated as though they are beneath the Brahman. The Gospel is for these types of people, those who are poor in spirit.

When Jesus began His ministry, He went to His hometown of Nazareth and quoted Isaiah 61, saying His calling was to rescue the lost, free the captive, and lift up the downtrodden. He was the fulfillment of this prophecy for the ones whom society has ignored, the ones whom the world rejects. Judea, that distant wasteland that the Romans deemed almost a punishment to be sent “out there,” was rejected by the world. In David and Solomon’s time, they were the pinnacle of the world. All the nations came to see them. But Israel and Judah sinned against God and made this tiny, weak nation truly tiny and weak, where the only reason it remained in existence was the divine protection of God. Israel was not an affluent nation. They did not have a prestigious heritage. They were slaves. They went to Egypt as a family and were enslaved, but they came out as a nation that was led and backed by God Himself.

The exodus from Egypt and the entering of the Promised Land is a full image of the Gospel. We who were once slaves to the meanest and strongest slave master ever to exist (sin) were bought with the greatest price ever paid (the blood of Jesus). The lowest of all people were brought out of slavery and exalted to the highest possible position: servants of God, people who would worship God, serve Him, and praise His name forever. That is the purpose of the Christian: to love God, to enjoy Him forever, to serve Him, and to be His people.

The ones whom the world has beaten down, the victims of the scams, those whom the government has robbed, those who have landed on very hard times, those whom the bankers have denied, those whom the politicians have run down, all unjustly – the Gospel is for these people too. Unlike the selfish rulers who make promises they have no intention of keeping, God does not break His promises. While God does not promise immediate relief to all people, He does promise He will elevate those who trust Him and yet the world does not.

For those in ministry, if you are in that backside of the desert church, serving only 10-50 people if that, and when you go to conferences to get fed and help you are seen as “lesser than,” understand this: one day, God is going to raise you above all those pastors who use their numbers and congregation size as a boasting figure to look at self. The greatest sermons and the greatest preachers truly are those whom no one has heard.

Jesus said, “The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.” When James and John asked to be seated at the right and left hand of Jesus, you could see Jesus weep with frustration at how little they got the purpose of the Kingdom. The Gospel reverses the order of this world. While man seeks acclaim, glory, prestige, names, money, and power, Jesus seeks humility, service, and love and care for others. The world is all about self and elevating self. The Kingdom of God is about denial of self and serving others and a purpose greater than self. When Jesus comes again, He will bring low those who thought they were the best, and He will raise up those the world refused to allow to grow and develop.

The destitute are those who cannot get out of their situation on their own. They need help. They need someone to come down, reach down, and stoop down to lift them up. They need someone from a higher station to come elevate them. The worldly will keep shoving them down because they don’t want competition and they don’t want to be seen as weak before their blood-thirsty peers. The worldly see these people as mere obstacles in their path. The godly, however, sees the individual despite the circumstances and sees the image of God, even if marred and corrupted, in that person. The Gospel is for these people, too. The Gospel tells them that their troubles in this world are only temporary and that the day will come when they will enjoy paradise forever.

Do not hear what I am not saying. I am not saying that the Gospel will lift these people up if they do not repent of their sins. In every category of person I address in this series, there must be repentance because all have sinned and all fall short of the glory of God in their own right. But the Gospel does much more than cleanse humble sinners. That is primary, but it does more than that. It also lifts up those whom the world has rejected, and it will bring low those the world lifts up. I’ll address that category next week. The Gospel is for the wealthy too.

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