Bread of Life
I’m glad to be here this morning. Today is Missionary Day, and I’ll continue from this morning. Wife has reminded me not to speak for over 45 minutes. That’s a very, very difficult thing for me to do. I will try and see if I succeed. We’ll have to see a little later.
I like to get into a different area of missionary work this evening. I’ve had on my heart a scripture to begin with only to give it a certain direction.
“And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod. When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.” I Samuel 5:1-2
Most of you will recall from the Old Testament that the tabernacle with the ark of the covenant was of supreme importance to the Israelites. Inside the ark there were three items. There was the rod of Aaron. There was the manna in a golden bucket like. With the manna and Aaron’s rod were the tables of the law.
Typologically speaking, they speak to us as Christ the truth - that would be the tables of the law; Christ the bread - that is the pot of manna; and Aaron’s rod is Christ the life. Then within the cherubim over the ark, we have the Presence of God. So when the Philistines, the enemies of Israel - historical enemies - took the ark, typologically speaking, they took from Israel Christ the bread, Christ the life and Christ the truth together with the Presence of God, for the Presence of God dwelt between the cherubim.
Then we find in Chapter 6 that the ark was to be taken back to Israel. I tie this in with missionary work. When we go to missionary fields, we are taking in effect (in fact, in a very real sense), the ark of God back to God’s appointed place in the hearts of men and women all over the world. In I Samuel 6:1-2, 12, we have the return of the ark. Here is where we get into the missionary endeavor in principle.
“And the ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months. And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, What shall we do to the ark of the Lord? Tell us wherewith we shall send it to his place.” I Samuel 6:1-2
Now what God is seeking to do, and is doing, throughout all the world is, so to speak, bringing the ark of God back to its God appointed place; back into the hearts of men and women all over the world.
“And the kine took the straight way to the way of Bethshemesh, and went along the highway, lowing as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them into the border of Bethshemesh.” I Samuel 6:12
Now these milk kine were divinely compelled to take the ark of God back into its rightful place. So as your missionaries in the will of God go to their fields, they are going with a divine compunction, an inner drive that comes from God. You notice something very unnatural here. These kine had their little calves left behind. These calves back there were howling for their mummies. The mummies were lowing for their calves and yet you find that these kine’ mammas never turned, never looked back, never turned to the left or to the right. We are told that they went straight forward. Now that’s quite unnatural. They would naturally look backward.
God, by His power and providence, caused them to go directly back to Israel to the place where the ark of God belonged. What we have here is a divine compulsion. The men and women of God who go overseas, wherever it might be, in the will of God, have an inner drive. Jesus put it in these words, He needs go to Jerusalem.
We were flying this summer somewhere after this incident in Bangkok. If I err not, it was between Frankfurt, Germany and New York. Suddenly I got something within my spirit that I said to my wife, “Elizabeth, I’ve got to keep planning. I must keep going.” It was an inner drive of the Spirit not to give up, but to continue in the course which God has laid out.
“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. And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.” Luke 10:1, 9
Now these men had a divine appointment. They were appointed by the Lord and they were sent by the Lord. You remember the passage we used this morning in Acts 13:2: “as these men were ministering unto the Lord in fasting and prayer, the Spirit of God spoke”. Now I do not know how the Spirit spoke. Personally, I think the Spirit of God spoke through one of the men in an utterance in prophecy. I think it was audible. I think it was to all present, “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” Here we have men divinely called and divinely sent for a specific work. As we go overseas, we are doing what these kine did in the Old Testament - taking Christ the truth, Christ the life and Christ the bread to these areas.
Notice something in Luke 10:1 again. “They were sent into every city and place, whither he himself would come.” In other words, the Lord sends forth His servants in advance of
Him where He Himself wants to come. He wants to visit His people. He wants to meet His people. We are simply preparing the way of the Lord Himself to come.
Here I would like to give you a few aspects of this thing. We are taking Christ the life. It’s not simply a case of preaching, or simply evangelizing, or simply elevating people. I was in the Marshall Islands one year and saw a statement by a Catholic leader who said, “We have no business bringing to these people a different kind of a religion from the one which they already have.” Now they’re in idolatry, but he said, “We have no business to bring to them another kind of religion. Our business is to elevate them politically, and socially, and economically to help them rise to a higher level.” That is not the Gospel. That is not the Great Commission. That is not our work. Our work is to bring to them Christ the life. I’ll show you how this thing works out in my case because I’m not doing evangelistic work, I teach.
I was with French ministers one year in the Pyrenees Mountains. That’s between France and Spain. We were up in an old castle, way up in the Pyrenees. Only about 18 ministers from that particular region came together. I was sitting at the table and these 18 men sat around in three rows in front. We were there for a week.
I do not remember what I was speaking on there now, but one of the preachers began to shake. He shook and shook and he got so, shall I say, “shooken.” The power of God so came upon that man that it shook him clear off his chair. He was down on the floor kicking and shouting and shaking. Of course it sent up a commotion. Everybody was praising the Lord. Well I didn’t know what had happened except I knew the Lord got hold of him somehow.
Well last year I was back in France and a minister said to me, “Brother Beuttler, do you remember in the mountains that one preacher falling off his seat shaking under the power of God?”
I said, “Yes, I remember him.”
He called him over. He said, “I’m the brother that got shook off my seat. Brother Beuttler, I want to tell you that the Lord transformed my life; that my entire ministry took a different direction as a result of that meeting.” The power of God got hold of him and shook him, so to speak, into a different direction.
Others said, “That man has never been the same to this day.” His ministry prospered. His work grew. God brought about a transformation through the ministry of the Word of God. What is it? It is Christ the life.
I just happened to think of another incident in Australia that happened about two or three years ago. I was teaching on the Holy Spirit. They had a teaching there in the school that no women are supposed to be used in the gifts of the Spirit because it is written that the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man. They thought that left out the women.
Well I came along with a different teaching and as a result several of the girls were used in messages in tongues and interpretations. Mrs. Beuttler interpreted one of them. One girl at the very end of the week was used in giving a message in tongues. It was a beautiful utterance. Mrs. Beuttler interpreted.
When the service was over that girl came up. I thought she was going to hug me. She was so thrilled, she shook my hand and pressed my hand, “Brother Beuttler, it’s wonderful. God has used me for the first time. I thought we girls couldn’t be used. Now we found out we can.” Well, what is it? Christ the life, Christ the truth. The Lord sends us along to places “whither he himself would come.” There He works in their lives. That’s missionary work.
Speaking of Christ the truth. In France last year at a camp meeting with young people down in the French Alps there were 225 young people, fellows and girls. Two girls had asked whether they could come to my little humble abode that I had in the hills, an old, old house with walls this thick, just a shack or so. This girl said that she was studying philosophy and needed help with her philosophy. I’m no philosopher.
I said, “Why do you study philosophy?”
She said, “I’m studying philosophy because I want to bring men and women to Christ through philosophy.”
I said, “It will never work.”
She said, “Oh, yes it will. I intend to prove the existence of God and Jesus Christ through philosophic theorizing and principles.”
I said, “It won’t work.” That girl got a little bit warm. She didn’t like it. I couldn’t help that. You cannot. God has not ordained that men will find the knowledge of God through philosophic speculation. She was quite put out for a while and wouldn’t even talk to me. She would pass me by and had her nose up, so to speak.
But one morning in the tent that we had, the Lord was giving me a message from I Corinthians 1 that bore right down on this vain philosophy. At the end of the service that girl came up and said, “Brother Beuttler, I want to apologize for my attitude. This morning I have heard the best discourse on philosophy I’ve ever had. The result is that I threw away my philosophy books and am following a different kind of an education.” What is it? I would say it is Christ the truth. He has a work to do in these lives. He sends His instruments along “whither he himself would come.” He directs in the ministry. He grants the anointing and here Christ the truth, Christ the life and Christ the bread is deposited in their hearts and their lives change.
In that same camp, one of the girls around 18, 19, 20 thereabout said, “Brother Beuttler, do you remember me?”
I said, “No.”
She said, “Why, do you remember when you were speaking in Toulouse in Southern France.”
I said, “Yes, I remember.”
She said, “I was just a little girl sitting in the seats. I listened to you minister and got saved under your ministry and am saved to this day.” I was so thrilled to hear that. What is it? Christ the truth, Christ the life, taking back the ark of God into its rightful place in the hearts of men and women.
Speaking of Christ the bread, and here is where I fault our theological schools. I have been speaking out time and again. I mean down at school. I said, “We’re not preparing our students for missionary work. They’re just not getting the education I think they need for missionary work.” You can’t convince anybody, but it’s true. These people over there, as anywhere else, are not interested in sophisticated theology. That may have its place. I suppose it does have its place, but that is not what people want. People want Jesus Christ, not the theologian. They want Jesus Christ the bread of life, not the cake of life, but the bread of life. They don’t want the theological philosopher or psychology or theologian. They want to hear from God. They want the word of God in the form of bread that they can eat and satisfy the hunger of their hearts - Christ the bread. Oh that some people who go overseas would recognize that!
You should hear missionaries talk, “Brother Beuttler, we had so and so. That man used such high philooton terms. He was way up there in his ministry so high in having materials and documents that the people didn’t know one thing the man tried to get at.” Of course not. They are simple people. They are hungry people who want God. They want bread, the word of God in the form of bread, Jesus Christ the bread, truth that will meet their innermost need.
I was in France one year. In those days I spoke a long time. I have to cut back you know. That’s a must, but it’s awfully hard. I was speaking that morning for 2 hours and 10 minutes. Now that’s a long time. I don’t think you’d stay with me that long, but they did. I spoke 2 hours and 10 minutes in one stretch. I was so exhausted that I said, “Folks, I cannot go on. I have to stop.” I thought I’d close the meeting.
The leader of the meeting said, “Brother Beuttler, behind the platform is a little room with a cot. You go back there and lie down and rest as long as you like. When you are ready, come out again and we’ll be here.”
I went back there and rested for about 10 minutes. The audience was quite large. I hesitate to give a figure, but it was a good size audience. I came back in about 10 minutes and if anybody left, it was not noticeable. They were waiting for more and I went on. I do not know for how long, but quite awhile. How come? People were hungry and they simply wanted bread and they went after it.
They had rented a theater one time and there were some 3,000 people there. I didn’t know where the meeting was going to be held. They didn’t tell me. We came to this big round theater in an open square. It was in the center of it. There were buses, automobiles, bicycles, motorcycles, oxcarts, and donkeys galore. I said, “Will you tell me what’s going on around here?”
They said, “Brother Beuttler, it’s all the vehicles with which the people are coming to the meeting.” They came in oxcart full of people, every way they could get there, some 3,000 people. That’s what they said. What were they there for? They were there for nothing but the teaching of the word of God.
I wasn’t advertised as the whirlwind from the West, a cyclone from America, tornado from the South. The only thing they advertised was, Brother Beuttler, an American Bible teacher, is giving his lectures here at such and such a theater. I watched for a while. Buses drove up, oxcarts came up, bicycles came up, people were walking. They had little wagons with youngsters on them. They came every which way. How come? They were hungry. It reminded me of the 5,000. I’m not saying they had the same feast, but it reminded me of the 5,000 that Jesus fed. The people were simply coming not for something super spectacular. They didn’t come for an orator. I’m certainly not an orator. But the people came simply for the sharing of Jesus Christ the bread.
I can honestly say, “In all these years that I’ve gone overseas. That’s 22 or 23 years now. This was my 26th trip. In all these years, I can only think of two places where I was not asked to come back.”
One was a Bible school where the principal was a highly academic man, and his wife too. They didn’t at all click with me. We weren’t at all on the same wavelength. I wasn’t invited back. The other place I don’t remember, but there was at least one more. What is it? It’s the hunger in people’s hearts, not for a great sermon, but for breaking the bread of life, for sharing Jesus Christ the bread. They are simply hungry and want bread. That’s my message.
I have invitations from countries for many years. I have no hope of getting there. My time is running out. I can’t do it, yet the openings are all full. What for? For the sharing in simplicity of the Word of God in the form of bread. “Whither Jesus himself would come.” They want to get in touch with God. So there we are.
I’ll take you for a moment to Luke and want to share with you some particulars about my type of missionary work, which is not what you usually hear or understand by missionary work.
Years ago I used to teach in camp meetings here in the states, every year, especially Sherburne, New York. The Lord had remarkably led. Is there anybody here who was with me in Sherburne perchance? Sometimes I meet people. You know God’s a great
God. He’s terrific. I’ll tell you an incident at the camp to demonstrate the power of divine sovereignty and the way God does and is able to work.
I was there five years at the Sherburne camp, the only teacher that was asked to come back so often. There was one of the big wigs - I don’t want to specify him-who didn’t at all like Beuttler. He had said, “Beuttler has been here five years. Next year Beuttler is not going to teach in this camp.” He was one of these intellectual fellows and was not at all with me in the things of the Spirit.
The camp committee had wanted me back. I knew that. They had already mentioned it, but not officially, just sentiment. One day, Brother Jones from the Eastern District and Brother Chase came to the camp. I’m trying to show you the bigness of our big God. They attended the meetings for several days. Everybody knew (they let it be known) that they were looking for speakers for their camp next year. They heard about Beuttler and Vineyard. We worked together like clockwork. Obviously they wanted to attend the meetings to see whether they wanted to ask us.
Well the camp committee recognized right away that they were there to get us as speakers if they liked us well enough for their next camp. They said, “We want these men back next year. Let’s have a committee meeting right away and give them an official invitation.”
One of them said, “The chairman of the committee has gone into Binghamton to buy supplies for the camp.” The other one said, “We can’t wait for the chairman. If we wait, those men are going to take our speakers. We better have a meeting without the chairman.” So they had a meeting. They voted for us to come back. After awhile the chairman came back. When he heard we were invited back, he blew his top, but he was in town and the Lord had so arranged it that this man would be in town when the committee had their meeting in a hurry and invited us back for the sixth year.
After the sixth year I heard rumors that they had wanted me to come back for the seventh year. I liked it and needed the income really, you know. I was down at Bible school, and you don’t get paid during the summer. They said, “Brother Beuttler, we’d like to invite you back for next year,” but I already had an inkling from the Lord.
So I said, “I must pray about this and give you my answer.” I waited before the Lord and this is the scripture the Lord gave me.
“And when it was day, he departed and went into a desert place; and the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from them. And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also; for therefore am I sent. And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.” Luke 4:42- 44
I knew instinctively that God wanted me to say, “no,” and go overseas. He had already dealt with me about going overseas, but I hesitated to give up camp meeting work because that was my main income during the summer. I told the Lord, “Lord, I’ll say ‘no’ to the camp and I’ll go overseas for you. You have to take care of my finances.” That was 22 years ago in 1951. As I said, “I’ve gone every year overseas, sometimes twice.” To this day, God has never let me down. It’s remarkable how faithful God has been over the years.
Now then this is what I’m doing. I engage in national or regional conventions, conventions that are centered in a city like Paris or Marseilles or any other major center where other churches share and come in and bring their congregations. There we teach these people. They are very, very successful. Sometimes these conventions are on a national basis, like in France. They include all France, North Africa and some people come from England, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland or Spain. They all come together into a center. It’s a tremendous opportunity to teach these people.
The first time I did that I got scared. We were at the large rented place, a theater. I didn’t know what to expect. They took me in through a side door because the front was blocked with buses and people and what have you, so they took me in the back door. When I got in there and saw these 4 balconies filled with people, the downstairs filled and I don’t know how many microphones up at the pulpit. They were all over. I got scared. I wasn’t used to that. I stood at the entrance for a moment and my knees buckled and shook. I trembled. I got stage fright. The preachers saw me; a couple dozen or so were sitting on the platform already. When I saw those people, I shook all over.
I had to talk to Beuttler, “Beuttler, the Lord’s with you. Pull yourself together, get up there and get to work.” I pulled myself together and walked up there. Once I got started I was all right. Now I don’t mind it, but to me it was a frightening experience.
May I tell you that in France they have published two books in French on Bible studies I gave in France? They have translated some of my notes, quite a few into French. When you go around France into different churches there are books, Walter H. Beuttler, on studies that I have given in France. So this ministry is continuing to minister this thing.
When I was at the camp in France last year with these young people, I walked out through the hall and here were the books. The young people picked them up. I was so glad to see that because words that I have preached years ago are still being printed and multiplied and people are buying them. I say that so you can recognize the wide effect of this. It’s not a case of going there and the preaching is finished. Oh no! These things get printed. They’re in periodicals and they just keep on ministering. That is what justifies the expense.
Then there are missionary retreats. I have told Springfield more than once that missionaries need to get away from their work. Occasionally I get together with them at some resort of some kind up in the mountains at some hotel or Bible school for a week.
I’m just with the missionaries alone ministering to them every day. They get renewed in the things of God and they need it so very much.
I had a seminar in Africa with a group of missionaries. The Lord laid on my heart to speak to them daily studies on Waiting on God, Seeking God, and such areas. At the end the chairman said to me, “Brother Beuttler you could not have brought to us a better truth because we missionaries have become so absorbed in our work we have neglected God. We all recognize it.”
That’s one of the things that I have observed many times. There is a considerable lack of prayer and devotions. The work is there and the demands are so great. People make such demands and if a missionary, shall I say, doesn’t fight for his time, he just gradually loses out in his devotional life. That of course reduces the effectiveness of the ministry. So God uses an outside speaker to renew His people. Believe you me; they are, on the whole, top personnel. I’ll tell you that the missionaries are top personnel. There are a few exceptions, but you find that anywhere. On the whole, they are tops and they do need the time for renewing in the things of God. I’ve had quite a few of those in Africa, Indonesia as well as elsewhere.
Then there are these young people’s camps. I have an invitation for a camp now on the Island of Riccio. That’s in the Indian Ocean on the east side of Madagascar. That would be more or less South Africa. I don’t know how I can get there yet. There are travel problems involved. The time schedule is difficult, but I can’t get them out of my mind. They told me, “Brother Beuttler you’ll have 225 young people.” What an opportunity to teach these youngsters the knowledge of God. I’m supposed to go there in February. I do not know whether I can make it.
These young people’s camps have made tremendous changes in young lives. Just to mention one in France. Mrs. Beuttler was there at the time of the arrivals. A young fellow, a teenager, was known to be the worst one of the pastor’s sons in France. He was known for that. He had absolutely nothing to do with his Father’s friends or anything. His Father said, “You’ve got to go to camp.”
You should have seen that girl there going off on motorcycles leaving Mrs. Beuttler and me behind. This fellow had a motorcycle and she liked to sidle and sit behind him, put her arms around the fellow’s belly and ro o o o o f, off they go. (Laughter) I was scared silly, but there he was.
I sat there at the table teaching. There sat the rebel to my right. That fellow let go a scream, jumped to his feet as he screamed, called on God in repentance, dropped down on his knees. The Lord saved that boy and filled him with the Holy Ghost. I do not know if he got the Baptism at the same time. Before camp was over the Lord used that boy giving interpretations and utterances in prophecy. To this day he has been an outstanding example in the ministry of the Lord. The Lord completely transformed a rebel into a disciple of Jesus Christ. These young people’s meetings are terrific.
Now then lastly perhaps, I hold pastor’s seminars. Here is the activity that I referred to principally this morning. Missionaries will never be able to do the work in these fields. It cannot be done. There are too few. The work must be done by national pastors. This is my principal activity - to have seminars with national pastors, to raise up these men to carry on the work in the place of the missionary. We still need the missionary, every one, and more than what we have. But the big job today is to engage in the training of national pastors. That’s my principal activity. These men are in the work, untrained or little trained. They come together in a center. Sometimes they travel for three weeks to get there.
I told you that once when I went to Belem - in Belem I had 2,000 of them. There’s a large work there. Some of them had come for three weeks walking through the jungle day after day, paddling by canoe down through the jungles of the Amazon. Then they got a ship down the river to Belem. It took three weeks to come there and three weeks to go back for one week of Bible teaching, so hungry are these men.
The greatest investment we can make on the foreign field today is the training of national pastors. That’s my principal assignment. You see, they are already on the field. They need no fare; they need no passport; they don’t need an automobile; they don’t need a television set. You may ask if the missionaries need one. I do not know. Some of them have one. They do not need inoculations. They can eat native food; they’re acclimated and can take the climate. They have tremendous assets. They do not have to come back on furlough, which is awfully expensive. They do not have to send their children to school in the United States. They do not have to send their children to college as many missionaries do. Springfield allows one child to go through college. They have tremendous advantages. A missionary or his family might spend $6,000 in airfare. They have to pay it going and coming. The national workers are already there. He’s acquainted with the people and knows their language. He doesn’t need to engage in two years of language study. He already has it. So if we can take these men who know the language, know the people, can eat native food, need no passport, cannot be expelled from the country when political changes take place, they are our great asset in this work. No money pays more dividends, that is in missionary giving, than the training of national workers. That’s why the Assemblies of God has 93-94 Bible schools throughout the world and they are doing a tremendous job.
So there is my particular field: national and regional conventions, missionary retreats, young people’s camps and the training of national pastors.
I was teaching in Nigeria for a week on the Holy Spirit. The missionary told me that nothing much was happening in their churches. We had about 180 national pastors for a week with studies on the Holy Spirit. They went back to their work and I went on my way.
Within the year I received a letter from the missionary. He said, “Brother Beuttler, I must tell you what’s happening. These pastors have taken your notes back to their fields. They are teaching the lessons on the Holy Spirit and people are getting filled with the
Spirit. We have a revival on our mission field. The pastors took your notes back and started to teach them. God poured out His Spirit and filled people with the Holy Ghost. We have never seen anything like it on this field by way of the moving of the Spirit of God.”
Well, what is it? It’s bringing back the ark of God, Christ the truth, Christ the bread, Christ the life, and the presence of God. Through the simple ministry of the word, God is carrying on His work on these fields and establishing His kingdom in the lives of men and women on the far-flung mission field. That is the real hub of missionary work. So as you are thinking about missionary work and are partaking in your own particular way and opportunity, you might remember that God is doing a tremendous work, and that you too are helping in bringing the ark of God back to its rightful place in the hearts of men and women all over the world - Christ the truth, Christ the life and Christ the bread and with it the presence of the glory of God. He’s sending forth men and women “whither he himself would come.” We go and the Lord comes and does His work in building up the kingdom of God on these fields.
That’s one aspect of the mission field, and as I said this morning, I want to thank you again for the part you have played in my ability to take overseas Christ the truth, the life and the bread for the interests of the kingdom of God.
This message is one of the sixty-six surviving transcripts of Walter Beuttler's teaching. To hear his voice, visit the Messages page. To read the story of his life — from the Brooklyn Bridge to the school of the Spirit — see Who Was Walter Beuttler? The True Story of the Man Who Knew God.
The Man Who Knew God
Walter Beuttler was never famous, yet he carried God's presence to more than a hundred countries. His students said that when he walked into a room, the air changed. This is the first full account of a friendship with God that was specific, sustained, and costly. Read the story of his life →