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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Phil Mills: Medical Evangelism Weekend

Phil Mills

The Power of Medical Evangelism

Father in heaven, I pray that you'll bless my lips tonight, bless our equipment, and may Christ be uplifted.

We thank you for hearing and answering this prayer.

The method to reach the multitudes is medical missionary health evangelism.

How appropriate to be studying this at a university that was once called the College of Medical Evangelism.

It's foolish to ignore this method in our outreach to others.

Medical missionary work is the right arm That gives the visible 3 legs which sustain and promote the gospel—publicity, protection, and prosperity.

Without it, the gospel outreach is crippled.

Public and personal evangelism is weakened.

First, it is foolish to ignore medical missionary work and our outreach to others because medical missionary work brings the gospel publicity.

Lip-to-lip advertising is by far the most effective advertising.

It is the advertising that Madison Avenue seeks to imitate and seeks to create.

Money can buy media advertising, but the most effective advertising has always been free.

At the Skin Cancer and Cosmetic Dermatology Clinic where I trained in dermatology, Dr.

Chung instilled in our minds that every patient is an advertisement.

A few years ago, Microsoft wanted to compete against the iPod from Apple.

And so what they did is they spent a lot of money on group excitement.

They called it Buzz groups and they offered free beer and all and these, the plants in there weren't to say they were paid by Microsoft, they were just students at the university or colleges and they were to talk about the Zune and how great it was and all of the marketing advantages.

Microsoft paid lots and lots of money to try to get this buzz advertisement.

The iPhone, on the other hand, that had come out before, spent just about no money at all, and it had 98% penetration before the first iPhone was available.

It's now studied, Apple's approach is studied because that's what every other company would like to emulate, how can we get this lip-to-lip advertising?

And true medical missionary work creates the immense publicity.

That's why it's called the entering wedge.

Those who are healed spread the news more effectively than television advertisement.

Those who are healed not only tell their friends, but sometimes bring their friends.

The friends become interested and tell their friends who become interested.

And it is this type of explosive spread that will finish the work.

We found this with the CHIP program in Wichita.

We received excellent television and radio publicity, which cost us very little because of this lip-to-lip advertising, and our church became known because of its medical missionary outrage.

This is how medical missionary work brought crowds to Jesus.

Luke tells us that after healing a leper, so much the more went there a fame abroad of him, and great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed by him of their infirmities.

Had Jesus not done medical missionary work, how much publicity would he have had?

This word of mouth publicity was actually too effective.

The crowds became too big, and Jesus had to go to places more inaccessible as a result.

When we want crowds that convention centers can't hold, we'll start doing medical missionary work.

When we want the windows of heaven to open so that we don't have room to receive the blessings, we'll do medical missionary work.

It works at all times, in all places, and in all situations.

It was medical missionary work that opened Syria to the gospel at the highest levels in the time of Elisha.

In the middle of a war between Syria and Israel at a time when feelings were at fever pitch, when emotions and hatred were at their peak, Elisha's medical missionary work brought peace.

Medical missionary work brought crowds to the apostles.

Luke tells us that believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women, insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them.

There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folk and them which were vexed with unclean spirits, and they were healed." What's the next 2 words?

By the space of 2 years, all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks, and God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul, so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons.

And the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.

Yes, it's foolish to ignore medical missionary work and our outreach to others because medical missionary work does bring publicity like no other work.

But second, it's foolish to ignore medical missionary work because medical missionary work provides protection like no other.

The people protected the medical missionaries from their enemies.

Because of Jesus' medical ministry, the Jewish leaders were afraid to lay a hand on him because of the crowds of people who had been helped by Jesus' medical missionary evangelism.

In fact, the enemies of Christ had to delay murdering Jesus for several years.

At Christ's trial, all mention of Christ's medical missionary work was avoided and excluded because even discussion of it would have prevented His condemnation.

Had Jesus performed a medical missionary healing in King Herod's palace, he would have been released.

This protective effect of medical missionary work is true in all times and in all places.

Spending a Day with a Medical Missionary

It's a pleasure to be back at Advent Hope.

The first time I visited Advent Hope, there were 12 people in a Sabbath school down in the health science some years ago when my daughter started medical school at Loma Linda.

This morning we'd like to look at a passage in Scripture.

It's such a wonderful book, and I love to study its verses.

Whether you're looking at the Old Testament or the New Testament, each verse is part of the story of Jesus and his efforts to save man.

It's designed by God for our daily living, and it was especially designed to help medical missionaries and those training to become medical missionaries.

Let us pray that God will teach us together as we watch the great medical missionary in his work.

Father in heaven, it's with awe and wonder that we turn our ears to hear your voice.

And Lord, we cannot without breath from you, sit here and listen, or without breath from you, may I even be able to speak.

We're completely dependent on you for all things.

For any way that we can understand your word, We must have your spirit to guide us.

And I pray that as we are here this morning, your spirit may fall and your word may come with fresh focus, fresh power, that we may leave different than we came, because we have spent time at your feet in Christ's name.

We'll look at the passage of Luke chapter 7 beginning with verse 11.

Now it happened the day after that he went into a city called Nain, and many of his disciples went with him in a large crowd.

And when he came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a large crowd from the city was with her.

When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, Do not weep.

Then he came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still, and he said, Young man, I say to you, arise.

So he who was dead sat up and began to speak, and he presented him to his mother.

Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, a great prophet has risen up among us, and God has visited His people.

And this report about Him went throughout all Judea and all the surrounding region.

A year ago I was asked to study this passage and give it as a part of a week of prayer.

And I'm embarrassed to tell you that I studied it day after day and didn't get much out of it.

And I kept praying, Lord, what are you trying to tell me from this passage?

McNulty, in his class where I was today, mentioned milk and meat.

We can go to a commentator and get pre-digested milk.

But I find sometimes it's difficult for me to understand what I read.

And I knew the story was in the Bible for a special reason.

God doesn't put stories in the Bible that weren't for me.

Something it was to teach me, something about Jesus, something that I should be able to do, and then share that with others.

I'm slowly learning not to give up on a passage quickly.

And yet in my digging, I couldn't seem to discover what in this passage was especially important for me to understand.

A key question I always like to ask when I'm studying a Scripture is, if this was the only passage in the Bible, how would it teach me salvation?

In magazines sometimes, they'll have a stereogram.

And a stereogram is a three-dimensional picture on a 1 dimension.

And if you get it close enough and you move in and you move out, suddenly a three-dimensional form emerges.

It takes time to bring the three-dimensional picture of Christ into focus.

So let's begin to meditate on this passage together.

According to the passage, when did this passage take place?

When we look in that verse before verse 11 in chapter 7, we find that Jesus had been in the city of Capernaum.

On his arrival at that city, he was met by a delegation of Jewish leaders who urgently requested that he heal a Centurion son— Centurion's servant, excuse me.

Could this Centurion have been Cornelius, a Centurion Peter visited a few years later?

There's no reason to believe this was Cornelius.

Cornelius was in Caesarea, which is 50 miles away from Capernaum.

It was on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

But the 2 centurions may have known each other, and this could have been an influence.

And the other centurions, of course, we don't know.

But Jesus did heal this servant and spent the rest of the day in Capernaum with large crowds, listening to his instruction and observing his miracles.

The next day, Jesus left Capernaum and went to the city of Nain.

Capernaum is on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee.

To better understand this journey, let's look at a map.

Capernaum to Nain is a little over 22 miles and is a walk that is through some hills.

1 would pass through many little villages.

And like tributaries in a river, the crowd probably kept swelling as they passed through each village.

Incidentally, when Jesus arrived in Nain, He was just 6 miles southeast of his hometown of Nazareth.

Now how long would it take to walk 22 miles to Capernaum?

That's almost the distance of a marathon.

And if 1 walked briskly, not pausing for food, drink, or restroom breaks, it would take about 5 and a half hours, 15 miles an hour or so.

Now, why would anyone walk that far, let alone a crowd, just to be with Jesus.

For some, it was heaven to be with Jesus.

Fatigue, hunger meant nothing if they could be with Him.

For others, It was heaven to be with a crowd of excited people.

Without the crowd, they wouldn't have followed Jesus.

They weren't following Jesus, they were following the crowd, doing what the crowd did.

Still, others were in the crowd from curiosity.

They had heard about Jesus and were curious, wondering why so many people were following Him.

Some were there to make money, carrying and selling food and water.

Some were ambitious and there to find a way to obtain greater fame and honor from all these people.

There are a lot of reasons people follow Jesus.

There are a lot of reasons people come to church.

There are a lot of reasons people study their Bibles.

Would you have been in the crowd following Jesus?

Would you have been there for the crowd, the excitement, the novelty?

Or would you have been there to be with Jesus?

What winds your clock?" as the expression says.

Would you be willing to walk 22 miles to be with Jesus without a crowd?

Those interested in Jesus followed Him closely, trying to catch every word.

Those more interested in the crowd were busy socializing, missed much of what Jesus may have said.

However long it took, they ended up in Nain.

This village is situated in the northwestern edge of the Little Hermon, where the ground falls into the plain of Ezralan or Jezreel, about 5 miles north of where Jezebel was killed.

The entrance to the place where our Savior met the funeral most probably was up the steep ascent from the plain.

On the west side of the village, the rock is full of sepulcher caves." The name Nain means pleasant, delightful, or beautiful.

Reaching Professionals, Part 1

John Loughborough was given special instruction before evangelistic work in California.

He was 1 that was sent to open up the work there in California, landing at San Francisco and then starting the evangelistic outreach in Petaluma and other places.

And by following the instruction, he had amazing success.

He then neglected to utilize this method in England, and he had little fruit.

Elder Washburn came and corrected the omission and had significantly different results.

The secret was so important that a prophet reemphasized it in the setting of setting up a mission work in Africa, and it was markedly effective when it was utilized.

But it's been often overlooked in the last century.

His principles are absolutely as dependable as physics.

Like the laws of health, the laws of soul winning are not optional suggestions.

When I finally begin to understand this law, I begin to look at life with new eyes and listening… listen with new ears.

Satan utilizes this method very effectively, and too often God's people don't.

Luke 16, 8 says, the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.

This is such an important topic that we're going to be looking at that we need to open the session with prayer.

Father in heaven, how grateful we are that You love us and that we can depend on You, that Your instruction will give us success where today we might have failure without it.

I pray that your spirit may be here guiding in what is said, guiding in how we hear.

Do not overlook working for the higher class because other classes seem easier to reach.

God has placed the higher class of people within our reach so that we can improve our approach to all classes of people.

Helen White wrote to another missionary with advice much like her advice to Elder Loughborough, Letter 12, 1887, there has been much loss through following the mistaken ideas of our good brethren, whose plans were… what's that word?

And they lowered the work to their peculiar ways and ideas so that the higher classes, what happened?

The appearance of the work impressed the minds of unbelievers as being of very little worth, some stray offshoot of a religious theory that was beneath their attention.

Much has been lost for want of wise methods of labor." She continues, Every effort should be made to give dignity and character to the work.

Special efforts should be made to secure the goodwill of men in responsible positions without sacrificing 1 principle truth or righteousness.

But by sacrificing, what are we to sacrifice?

Our own ways and manner of approaching the people.

Much more would be affected by using more tact and discretion in the presentation of truth.

So what is God calling for in… at the very start?

And God is calling for something higher, and He gives us the higher class as a test of our faithfulness to His way of reaching the people versus our own way.

The soul-winning secret, be willing to adapt your approach to appeal to those in positions of leadership in the world.

There was a very successful pastor, now deceased.

He was trained by Elder George Vandeman with the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy's precise directions of effective outreach.

Year after year, this pastor led the conference in baptisms, including numerous professionals, doctors, judges, bankers, businessmen, teachers, and attorneys.

1 of the people right here, his father was an attorney that this pastor reached.

He trained Mark Finley, Russell Burrell, Marion Kidder, Gary Gibbs, other well-known soul winners.

The approach is useful not only for pastors, but for laymen.

I was trained in this method and have observed its power, and I want to share it with you.

But just because you're Michael Jordan's son doesn't mean you know how to play basketball.

I well remember my dad answered an advertisement.

And so I went with him as we went to a home to buy a refrigerator, and I stayed in the car and finally went to sleep and it got darker and it got darker.

And I don't know when my dad came back in, but as a result of buying that refrigerator, an attorney in the family became Seventh-day Adventist, and Kathleen Johnston is the daughter of the… I mean, Kathleen Sparks is the daughter of the attorney that was won.

After my dad had brain surgery, he was giving Bible studies with his home health nurse.

Learned men can be reached, and how are they reached?

Simplicity of a godly life than by all the sharp arguments that may be poured upon them.

Human passions, vanities, and ignorance must be cleansed from the soul temple, and the grace of God become an abiding principle.

Now often people are afraid to witness to the great because they are afraid they do not know the arguments to support the truths that we believe.

It is important to know how to present the truth persuasively, but it's more important to have a life that backs up the words.

So if we would reach the higher classes, what do we need?

In a manuscript, number 19, 1900, typed on March 5, 1900, Ellen White titled this, A Perfect Ministry.

Ellen White had been in Australia now for 10 years, and she had decided that she was going to live her life there, retire, and probably die there.

She didn't know if she'd ever go back to the United States again, but she received a vision after getting a letter from S.N.

Haskell about some events that were happening in a camp meeting in Indiana.

And she received a vision that told her she must get back to the United States because what was happening was a type of what would be happening just before the close of probation.

And as she was preparing to leave Australia, this particular material was so important, it was some of the final instruction that she penned.

It was first published in the Australian Union paper, and then it was considered so important that subsequently it was published twice in the Review and Herald, and finally included in volume 6 of the testimonies.

Now volume 6 of the testimonies is different than the other testimonies.

Up until volume 6, the testimonies were done basically chronological.

But in volume 6, it summarizes her 10 years in Australia.

There were not any other testimonies, books given during that time.

And what was different about volume 6 of the testimonies, instead of going through chronologically, it went through thematically.

And she selected from the most important writings of the 10 years of Australia.

And it was included in this compilation as 1 of the most important articles she had written in that 10 years.

We talk and write much of the neglected poor, should not some attention be given also to what is the next 2 words?

She goes on to say, many look upon this class as hopeless, and they do little to open the eyes of those who, blinded and dazed by the power of Satan, have lost eternity out of their reckonings.

Series

Phil Mills: Medical Evangelism Weekend

Reaching Professionals, Part 1

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

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