Preacher’s Study Notes 1993
The church in America today is made up mostly of the middle class. We have very few who are rich or poor. There was a time when the church was mainly made up of poorer people. God has richly blessed us. Our standard of living is quite good. Do we emphasize evangelism to the poor or just to our own class?
“Poor” is a relative term. In comparison to the poor of the world, the poor in America are rich. For example, Randy Tidmore says that he is considered rich in Honduras.
According to The Statistical Abstract In The United States, 13.5% of Americans lived below the poverty level (income of less than $13,359 per year) in 1990. That’s 33.6 million people. The breakdown by race: 3 1.9% black, 10.7% white
In 1959, 22.4% of Americans lived below the poverty level (income of less than $2,973)
Because it is a relative term, we ask, “What poor?” One Greek word for “poor” in the Scriptures is penes, and refers to those who have to work for a living. Kittel says, “This word, related to ponos (‘hard work’), denotes a person who must work for a living” (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged, p. 824) This word is used only once in the New Testament (2 Corinthians 9:9)
If these are the poor we are talking about, we have a multitude of them. Most of us would qualify
Another word, penichros, means “very poor,” “needy,” “wretched,” according to Kittel. It is used in Luke 21:3. The parallel passage (Matthew 26:11) uses ptoche. The adjective, ptochos, means “poor, destitute.” The noun, ptocheia, means “poverty, destitution.” The verb, ptocheuo, means “to become extremely poor.” Jesus became “extremely poor” that we might be rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).
Ptochos or one of its derivatives is the word used in the gospels, especially by Jesus. It is used in Matthew 11:5 in assuring John that Jesus is the Christ: “ . . . the poor have the gospel preached to them.”
Lenski wants to make this the “poor” of Matthew 5:3 — poor in spirit. Won’t work. One mark of Jesus’ ministry that made it superior to all others is that the poor have the gospel preached to them. False teachers generally avoided the poor. The Gentile teachers despised the poor and ignorant and so did the Jewish rabbis. John 7:47-49 shows this attitude. The Living Bible gives the true sense: “Is there a single one of us Jewish rulers or Pharisees who believes he is the Messiah? These stupid crowds do, yes; but what do they know about it? A curse upon them anyway.”
In Luke 4:18, Jesus applies Isaiah 61:1 to Himself: “ ... he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor” . .
One outstanding feature of Jesus’ ministry was His outreach to the poverty stricken. Other teachers showed little or no interest in them. Throughout the Scriptures we see God’s concern for the poor, the unfortunate, the downcast, the depressed and oppressed. Matthew Henry says that Jesus was to be the “king of the poor.” This passage (Matthew 11:5) certainly proves that an outstanding mark of His ministry was that it was a ministry to the poor.
If it was uppermost in the mind of the Christ that the poor have the gospel preached to them, then followers of Christ should emphasize its necessity. He is our example for evangelism. We should emphasize what He emphasized.
We can see from the words translated “poor” that there were degrees of poverty considered. The poor were those anywhere from the beggar to the poor working man.
We have varying classes of poor folks today. We have those who have been reduced to begging through no fault of their own as well as those who choose to do so. Then we have the varying degrees of poor according the standards of men.
I am going to take the word “poor” in our title to refer to the full range of poor, from the poor fellow who has to work for a living to the beggar on the street.
How To Evangelize The Poor
It may sound simplistic, but you evangelize the poor just like you evangelize the rich and the middle-class. You “preach the gospel” to them. It is the power to save for both rich and poor alike (Romans 1:16). Jesus said, “Go preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). He did not say to preach one kind of gospel to the poor and another to the rich.
Naturally, you approach a man on his own level of understanding, education, ability, etc. You begin where he is, but it all comes out the same; you preach the gospel.
There is another question that must be answered. It has to do with:
Your Attitude Toward The Poor
Herein lies the crux of the matter. It is not so much how you evangelize the poor as it is whether you are willing to do so or not. What is your attitude toward the poor?
James discussed this matter in James 2:2-9, “For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparal, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy cloths, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ and say to the poor man, ‘You stand over there,’ or ‘Sit here at my footstool,’ have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? ... if really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin ...”.
There is a tendency for one to want to associate with those on his own social and financial plane or those just above him. It is easy.. to want to win the “good quality” folks — the ones who can add to the social prestige of the church, increase the contribution, and make the church look more attractive to the world. The poor man does not qualify.
When we seek the lost, we must not see class or color or be concerned about one’s Dun and Bradstreet rating. We must see people in need of salvation. “Rich and poor have this in common: The L0RD is the Maker of them all” (Proverbs 22:2, NW).
When our Sunday school brethren began their bus ministries, they brought in a lot of poor children. Some of the older folks complained that they were disturbing the assembly. This brought about the “children’s church.” They really preferred to have it like it was before, without all this poor rabble.
When you really fulfill the commission of Jesus, you are going to bring in people of every kind and social standing; some beneath you socially, some above.
The real question: Do we really want these folks? How do we treat them when they attend our assemblies? Do we treat them in such a fashion that they never return? Do we want them enough to go out into the “highways and hedges” and bring them into the kingdom of Christ?
God Is Concerned About The Poor
Over and over in His Word He speaks His concern for poor folks: Proverbs 14:31; 14:21; 19:17; 21:13.
Pay particular attention to Ezekiel 16:49: “Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy” (NW).
Notice the Old Testament passages where God made sure that provisions were made for the poor: Leviticus 19:9-10; 23:22; Deuteronomy 24:12-21.
Consider these New Testament passages: Luke 14:12-14; Galatians 2:10; Luke 3:11; 12:33; Matthew 19:21; Acts 20:35; Ephesians 4:28; James 2:15-16; 1 John 3:17-19.
and the basic principles of the Bible confirm it.
So, “Let’s do it!”
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