time of singing that was so vibrant and enjoyable. It was wonderful to start our morning, wasn't it? I'd like to do a lot this morning. So I'd like to walk together through a parable from Luke chapter 19 and then I'd like to share a little bit with you regarding the work of F.B.H.
International Family Bible Hour. So I'll try to do this as efficiently as I can. In Luke chapter 19, Jesus is going through the city of Jericho and he has an encounter with a man named Zacchaeus and many of us I'm sure are familiar with that story. And then after that encounter he tells a parable.
Now in some Bibles there might be a caption of a parable on money usage but I want to look at it a little bit differently because the beauty of the parables is that they're really just bottomless wells and the deeper that you go into these parables of Jesus the more you realize the full richness of all of the teachings of them, the beauty that is contained in God's Word. And so Luke 19, this parable of the minas as it's referred to, it identifies five key teachings. Jesus gives five key teachings in this parable that I hope to cover this morning. So let's read it, let's read from Luke chapter 19 starting in at verse 11.
While they were listening to these things Jesus went on to tell a parable because he was near Jerusalem and they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately. So he said a nobleman went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself and then return. And he called ten of his slaves and gave them ten minas and said to them, do business with this until I come back. But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him saying we do not want this man to reign over us.
When he returned after receiving the kingdom he ordered that these slaves to whom he had given the money be called in so that he might know what business they had done. The first appeared saying, Master your minor has made ten minas more. And he said to him, well done good slave because you have been faithful in a very little thing. You are to be an authority over ten cities.
The second came saying your minor master has made five minas. And he said to him also and you are to be over five cities. Another came saying, Master here is your minor which I kept and put away in a handkerchief. For I was afraid of you because you are an exacting man.
You take up what you did not lay down and reap what you did not sow. He said to him, by your own words I will judge you you worthless slave. Did you know that I am an exacting man taking up what I did not lay down and reaping what I did not sow? Then why did you not put my money in the bank and having come I would have collected it with interest.
Then he said to the bystanders, take the minor away from him and give it to the one who has the ten minas. And they said to him, Master, he has ten minas already. I tell you that to everyone who has more shall be given, but from the one who does not have even what he does have shall be taken away. But these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them bring them here and slay them in my presence.
Now there's a deep historical significance to this parable. It's not insignificant that it's taking place in the city of Jericho. Jericho was the winter residence of Herod the Great. And by extension it was the winter residence of his son, Arkelus.
Herod the Great actually died in Jericho. Now after Herod died, Arkelus, his son actually had to go to Rome. He had to travel to Rome to Augustus Caesar to request the kingship, to request the rule, the authority of his father over Judea and Samaria. They were Roman territories.
And so Arkelus had to go and he had to do that. Now at the same time, Arkelus had a reputation. He was a very brutal man. He was cruel.
And so the Jews knowing this about him, they actually sent a delegation to Augustus as well to stop him from being named king. They actually wanted Judea to be annexed with Syria. That's how much they realized the cruelty of this man, Arkelus. And so this is important for us.
This parable, as it's laid out by the Lord Jesus, is really in some ways a retelling of history that the people in Jericho would have been very familiar. It's important for understanding in this parable. When we see this nobleman going off to a distant country and then he's not going to receive kingship over a distant land. He's actually going to receive the kingship, the authority, over the land in which he lives now.
Just as historically, Arkelus had gone to Rome to receive the kingship over Judea. Now in history, Augustus compromised. And he made Arkelus ethnic over Judea, but not over Samaria. And as predicted, Arkelus reigned for 10 years with absolute brutality.
He caused riots and rebellions to happen in Judea. And eventually after 10 years, he was deposed and he was banished to Gaul. Now that might seem like just a footnote in history, but when we look at this, when we look at what this meant, all of this was extremely important in God's plan of salvation. In Matthew 22, Joseph is returning from Egypt with then the boy, Jesus Christ.
And it says in Matthew 2, but when he heard Arkelus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the region of Galilee. And this was done to fulfill scripture that he shall be called a Nazarene. So it's interesting that this cruelty, this man, becoming the ethnic, the ruler over Judea is what caused Matthew, sorry, Joseph, on his return from Egypt to go to Nazareth, so that Jesus would grow up in Galilee and be called a Nazarene just like the scripture had said.
But wait, there's more. Even his cruelty, the cruelty of Arkelus causing him to be deposed and banished had a big impact on God's plan for salvation. You see, when Rome banished Arkelus to Gaul, they made Judea a controlled province. And what that means is that they installed a Roman governor.
And in doing that, what it did is it took the judiciary power away from the Jews. Well, why is that significant? Well, in John 1831, the Jews, the Jewish religious leaders filled with rage over the Lord Jesus Christ come before Pilate and it says in John 1831, the Jews said to him to Pilate, it is not lawful for us to put anyone to death. You see, they had lost that right when Rome installed a Roman governor over the province of Judea.
And so I mentioned all this, this is not one of the five teachings from the parable, this isn't a sight because I love history, but also it's an encouraging reminder to us of God's sovereign control over all things. You know, we can look around in our world today, in our culture, in our society today, and we can see so much that can sometimes even make us take a step back and ask God, what are you doing? Why is all of this happening? But if we believe in Christ, if we believe in God's Word and we understand what it tells us, then we can be encouraged to know that even though we may not understand why these things are happening, God is still in control.
God still knows what he's doing and he has a plan. And I'll tell you, that brings me such great, great comfort. So we get back to Luke 19, this nobleman is going away to receive a kingdom. And that's Jesus' first teaching to his followers here in Jericho, that Jesus was going away.
Now again, relatable based on history, but it's also significant in the context of verse 11 which we read that the disciples supposed the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. There's no elaboration in scripture as to what they thought exactly. Maybe they thought that people would crown him king as soon as he entered into Jerusalem.
Perhaps he would overthrow the Roman occupiers. Whatever it was that they were expecting, they were expecting it to happen now. But Jesus knew that that wasn't the plan. Jesus knew that he must go away first.
And Jesus knew that this going away included his death, his resurrection and his ascension. Why? Well, he was going to receive the kingdom from his father. Except this wasn't like it was with Arkelis where there was a potential that he would not receive it already been planned out.
And before time began that this would happen and that he would be given all authority. The Bible talks in many places of how God would put all things in subjection to him to the Lord Jesus Christ. He would reign until his enemies became his footstool. Philippians 2, 9 to 11 says, God highly exalted him and bestowed upon him a name that is above every name.
So that the name of Jesus every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. We see in Revelation the millennial kingdom to come and Jesus reigning on the earth during that time. In Zechariah 14 and verse 9 it says, and the Lord will be king over all the earth.
In that day the Lord will be the only one and his name, the only one. Jesus knew he must go to receive the kingdom. But he knew what had to happen for that to be accomplished. He had to be crucified.
He had to give up his life for the sin of mankind. You know, there's no point reigning over a kingdom condemned. But rather serving as the great high priest, the true high priest, he must first purify the subjects of his kingdom. We read that in the letter to the Hebrews in chapter 9, just for a few verses starting in verse 11 of Hebrews 9.
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands. That is to say, not of this creation and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood. He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctified for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Jesus was going away. And this was no doubt a difficult teaching from this parable. But you know, it was also a teaching with a promise. Yes, he was going away, but he will return.
And we'll come back to that thought in just a few moments. The second lesson that we find from this parable though is that while the Lord is going away physically, he would leave his servants. And today we can translate this to the church, the body of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. He would leave the church.
He would leave his servants to carry on his work, to carry out his ministry. And so this is a message to the believers here today that as believers, we are not simply to accept the grace of God and then put up our feet and wait for his return. We have work to do, his work. And when we consider Jesus' ministry, think of the compassion, the healing, the comforting, the teaching, and above all his mission was to seek and to save that which is lost, to proclaim the good news that the kingdom of God is at hand.
Today this ministry is to be carried out by the church. We can't save anyone, but we can tell people how to be saved. We can point them to the Savior, the one who died on the cross for the sin of mankind, the one who promised that all who believe in him shall be saved. If we read John 13 to 16, we have this great upper room discourse where Jesus is talking to his disciples just before he's arrested and as such crucified.
And Jesus says much of his going away. He talks about it a lot. But you know, he also says that if he goes away, he will send a helper. He will send the Holy Spirit.
And here's an example of digging deeper into the parable and seeing so much more than maybe we see at first. Consider the minus for a minute, these amounts of money that were given to the servants in the parable. The common interpretation is that these represent certain blessings or gifts given to us by God through Christ. And that certainly can't apply.
But in Luke, really the minus, when we look at them, they really represent the grace of God and the life which comes through Jesus. And again, we'll look at that in a few minutes. But Matthew has a similar passage that refers to gifting of the Holy Spirit or opportunities to serve granted to us. But if we take this from another perspective, we can see a glimpse of the Holy Spirit in the minus.
Now, gifting of the Holy Spirit is still somewhat a mystery to the disciples. They haven't had this conversation as far as we are in Luke's gospel. We have the luxury of looking back. We have, you know, John 13 to 16 hasn't happened at this point in time as we read through Luke.
But here's what the disciples could understand so far is that Jesus was going away and that they were to be left to carry on his work. But that the Lord would provide everything they need to carry on. You know, if we look at the parable and the servants in the parable, it would be unreasonable for the nobleman to expect his servants to engage in business for him using their own means. They would be set up for failure.
If the Lord charged us to spread the glory of God, to carry the gospel to all nations, but to do it in our own strength, we would fail. But he didn't do that. He has given us the Holy Spirit and through the Spirit we have everything we need to carry out his work here on earth. And so now we come to the third teaching.
The citizens of his land would reject him. In the context, the immediate sense, this is referring to the Jews and this was fulfilled in perfect detail. In John 19, 15, when Pilate asks the Jewish leaders in the crowd, and he asks them, shall I crucify your king to which the Jews respond? We have no king but Caesar.
Essentially, we will not have this man to reign over us. They even doubled down in John 19, 21, when Pilate had put the inscription, Jesus, the Nazarene, the king of the Jews on the cross and the chief priests responded, do not write the king of the Jews, but that he said I am the king of the Jews. They wanted nothing to do with Christ's authority. And you know the world says this now.
We shouldn't be surprised even as the world seems to move farther and farther and farther from God and from Christ. We were told that this would happen. We were told that there would be this rejection. Perhaps there's someone here who is still rejecting him as Lord and Lord of all and Savior of the world.
Jesus said, if the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you. They will deliver you to tribulation and will kill you. And you will be hated by all nations because of my name. In this world, you will have tribulation but take heart.
I have overcome the world. There would be a rejection of who he is. And that is still going on today. But we as believers, if we call on the name of the as our Savior, we are to be faithful to Christ and continue doing his work in a world that seems to be increasingly hostile to God and to Christianity.
And that's hard. Consider the servants that we see in this parable. They had to engage in business for their master but with whom? With the citizens of the land that hated their master.
That couldn't have been easy for them. And likewise, we have to engage in the Lord's work to preach the gospel, to share the truth of who Jesus is, the citizens of a world that don't want to hear it. They don't want anything to do with God or his son. And they certainly don't want to promote him.
It's why it can be so easy to live for Christ among one another, but shut it off and live differently among the public. And the opposition is real. It can be scary sometimes. Jesus says, so let your light shine before men so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Even among the citizens of this world are those who will recognize God's authority. They will submit. They will be saved. The fourth teaching is perhaps one of my favorite, that Jesus is coming again.
He is going to return. Not as he came the first time lowly and humble, lying in a manger, but with power and with glory. Matthew 2430 tells us, and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. And then all the tribes of the earth will mourn.
And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. 1 Thessalonians 4, 16 says, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God. Titus 2, 13, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. You know, a nobleman left his servants and his land, but a nobleman did not return, a king did, and with him the authority to rule and to judge.
Matthew 16, 27, for the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels and will then repay every man according to his deeds. And that brings us to the fifth teaching from this parable, and perhaps the most sober one for us. There will be a judgment. Whether it's the servants giving an account of their work in the Master's absence or the citizens who rejected the king answering for their decision, all will face judgment.
Hebrews tells us it is appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment. And we don't like to talk about judgment. We don't. It's uncomfortable, but it's a reality.
It's a reality for the church. Those who believe in Christ and are saved, we know this as the judgment seat of Christ. Romans 14 and 12 reminds us that each one of us will give an account of himself to God in verse 10, for we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. And perhaps the best picture comes in 1 Corinthians 3, 11 to 15.
And if we turn there and just read that quickly, we'll see how that goes. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 starting in at verse 11 and says, for no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident for the day. We'll show it because it is to be revealed with fire.
And the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. We can see how this lines up with the parable of the minus.
The master returns and he calls his servants to give an account. So to the believer, here today, what are you doing with your mind? What are you doing with the grace and the life that God has given you through the Lord Jesus Christ? You know, the minus were equal.
Every servant in this parable received the same amount, and yet they all used it differently. And all had different levels of gain. There are things that believers should do regardless of our gifting, regardless of what talents the Lord has given us and things that don't require special abilities. Sharing our faith, sharing the gospel, walking in the spirit, loving, encouraging one another, living godly lives, all of these show forth God's glory to those around us and in this world.
We don't need special gifting for that. Micah 6, 8 says, he has told you, oh man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Do we take time to remember that he is God, the Almighty, the most high, the creator of all things? And do we walk humbly with him, knowing that he helps us in all things?
So that's the good news concerning judgment for the believer. But you know, there's a judgment for those who reject him. Turn with me, if you will, please, to the book of Revelation in chapter 20. Revelation in chapter 20, and I'll start reading at verse 11.
Then I saw a great white throne in him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away in no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small standing before the throne in the books were opened, another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things that were written in the books according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death in Hades gave up the dead which were in them.
And they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Don't let this be you. It is not too late. It is never too late while there is breath in your lungs to stop your rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ, to believe that he is the Son of God, the rightful King of Kings, and that he did die on a cross, to take the penalty for your sins, for my sins, for the sin of the world that he did rise from the dead, both defeating death and declaring himself to be the Son of God in power. Accept him today, knowing that through faith in Jesus you will have forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God made right in a relationship with him, the heavenly Father, and that your name will be written in the Lamb's book of life, and that you will never, never have to stand before that great white throne.
There's still time to accept him and to live for him, and to be able to go before the judgment seat of Christ and even hear him say, well done, good servant, you have been found faithful. There will be a judgment. God has provided us a way to escape eternal condemnation, and he's done it through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ who came to earth, who went to the cross, who paid the penalty for our sins, who died and rose again and lives forever more, and is coming back for his own, to take all those who believe in him, to be with him forever. Will you be with him when he comes?
It all depends on what camp you're in. Do you call him Lord and Savior and King, or will you say, I will not have this man to reign over me? The choice is yours. I pray that you will or you have made the right one.
Just like to switch gears now and talk a little bit about FBA, International Family Bible Hour. So this is a ministry that many of you I'm sure may be familiar with from years and years past. Our mission statement, FBA impacts people globally by using communication, technology and innovation to present biblical truth, encouraging them into a transformative relationship with Jesus Christ. We have a simpler version of this, which is preaching the gospel, making disciples.
Now how we do this is through technology. We have a vision statement as well. We call it our impact statement, and this is what our day-to-day operations, this is the goal of our day-to-day operations. First and foremost, we want to initiate conversations about Jesus Christ.
If a person is talking about Jesus, that's a good thing, because there's power in that. So we want to get people talking about Jesus, about who he is, about what he's done. We want to make disciples of new believers. We are a gospel ministry first and foremost, but when we see someone come to the Lord, we don't want to just leave them on their own.
We want to help them grow in their new faith. We want to pray with and for spiritual seekers. Prayer is probably the most important weapon we have in the mission to reach the lost with the gospel, praying for them. Again, we can't do it on our own power, but we have a great and mighty God who works with us.
We want to make sure that everyone has access to the Word of God, whether that's directing someone to where they can get the Bible online, or if we have to physically mailing a copy to someone, if someone wants to know God's Word, we want to make sure they have it available to them. We want to make sure, along with that, that all of our programs that we produce are based on the Word of God and not our own thoughts, but come from the Scriptures that we have. We want to connect people with local believers. We're an office of three people located in St.
Catherine's Ontario, and for us to even begin to imagine trying to disciple everyone that we reach around the world would be impossible. So we want to have connections, strong connections with local assemblies, local bodies of believers, where if someone contacts us, we would be able to say to them, you know, there's a wonderful fellowship, a wonderful collection of Christians, a church meeting in your area, here's some contact information, please go and talk to them and then let the local church follow up and disciple and help them grow. And then finally, we want to make sure that we're using technology to glorify God. A law of technology in this world can and is being used for evil purposes, but the technology itself is not evil.
It can be redeemed and it can be used for God's glory, and that's what we want to make sure that we're doing. So who we are, first and foremost, we are a gospel ministry, Mark 1615, and he said to them, go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. And that's what we see as our mission, as believers in Christ, as individuals, but also as FBA, to proclaim the good news that Jesus Christ died for sinners, and that all who believe in him will be saved. We're a Bible-based ministry.
Our principle is based on Isaiah 55, 10 and 11. It's a thought that I've grown to love so much. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Now, I'm sure you get snow here in Halifax as we do in Southern Ontario and probably rain as well. And we know that they're different, aren't they? And this verse, I'm not an agriculturalist, but I can see what they're saying here is that the rain and the snow do the same thing. They water the ground so that it can bring forth.
But we know that they do it differently. In the spring the rain comes down and the ground is soft and it receives that rain right away and the growth is almost instantaneous. Anyone who has to cut grass knows that as soon as the spring comes and it starts raining, you've got work to do. Snow is different.
Snow falls on frozen ground and it sits there and it sits there and it sits there and then eventually that ground starts to thaw and it receives that moisture and that moisture goes into growth. Well, God's word can be the same. Some people will hear God's word and instantly be changed by it. Some people will hear God's word and it will be blocked.
It will be stopped by a hardened heart. But over time, over time, it's had heart softens as it melts. It receives God's word and we understand that we live by this principle that as we get God's word out, it does what God intends it to do, not on our timetable, but on his. I've heard it said before that the average person needs to hear the gospel seven times or from seven different sources before they're ready to make a decision for Christ.
And so the challenge to us all is have we been one of those sources today. Effective evangelism isn't seeing someone saved. It's moving someone closer to God than when they started. It's planting the seed, watering the seed that someone else has planted.
And so eventually God will provide the increase and people will come to know his son is Savior and Lord. Be faithful in spreading the word of God. And we're an assembly ministry. Some of these men might look familiar to you.
We started way back in 1951 in St. John's, Newfoundland, as the Newfoundland gospel hour with the gentleman on, he'd be on your far left, Don Moffat. He started the ministry and then he moved to Ontario and he was joined by a team there and the Newfoundland gospel hour became family Bible hour. One of the men that joined his team is the gentleman right in the middle there named Arnett McEntee.
Arnett McEntee holds a special place in my heart because he in his later years was a personal mentor to me in my faith and brought me up. And he's actually the main reason I'm with F.B.H. today is because of his training and outpouring into my life. And then the man on the far right is Ron Hughes.
Ron Hughes took over for Arnett in 1994 and for 25 years served as the president and executive director of Family Bible Hour. Ron retired in 2019 at which point I took over for him. I would ask you to pray for Ron. I know Ron's been here before.
Ron has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma blood cancer. The cancer is under control which we're very thankful to God for. The medication is causing a lot of negative side effects and he's also recently got some kind of viral chest infection that he's fighting off as well. So I know Ron would really appreciate your prayers in his recovery and just maintenance through this cancer.
But we have a rich heritage of strong gospel preachers. People who, I don't even want to call them gospel preachers. I want to call them strong believers in Christ who loved people enough to share the Lord with them. Because if you ever especially with Arnett, if you ever heard him share the gospel, he wasn't just sharing it as a matter of academia.
He was sharing it because he looked at you, he loved you, and he wanted you to know the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that's our heritage and that's what we want to try to carry with us as we move forward. We do have partners internationally. Arab World Media is our partner in the Arab world.
Otto Mira and Nada work in Egypt and they field all kinds of calls from people who are seeking to know what Christianity is all about. At the beginning of the year, their team prayed that the Lord would provide them one new believer every day this year. So that at the end of the year, there would be 365 new believers in the Arab world. As of September 30th through their ministry, there's 508 new souls in the kingdom.
We praise the Lord for that. And so now they're praying that the Lord will give them 700 by the end of the year. In the interest of time, I'll skip the story. But if you want to hear a wonderful story about a man named Abdullah in Algeria, please come talk to me after.
It's fantastic what God is doing in the Arab world. We have producers in Russia and Ukraine. These producers, they go to our hope stream radio site and they take the podcasts that we've created in English and they adapt them and translate them for their language and their culture in Russia and Ukraine. Please pray for them.
Igor is under incredible scrutiny. The government is listening to his program as he puts it out there, making sure that he's not saying anything political, anything against the government. They're just looking for ways to shut the gospel down. There's no official state religion in Russia, though orthodoxy is holding hands tightly with the government.
And they have sort of implied directly and indirectly that evangelical Christianity is Western influence, which is a bad thing in Russia right now. They don't want any Western influence. So pray for Igor as he fights that and tries to get the gospel out. Alex and Nadia in Ukraine, they are in a very safe part of Ukraine and have been since the war started.
But they are dealing with, I'll just say incredible heartache. People who have turned to substance abuse, people who are on the verge of suicide, people who have lost all hope, are correspondent from our partners, F.E.B.C. Victor says there is not a single person in Ukraine who has not lost a loved one or someone close to them in the last two years. Yet people are remarkably turning to the Lord and they're receiving the gospel with joy and with gladness because they're finding it is the only thing that provides true hope in their life.
Our English Language Ministry, we have Hopestream Radio, which we've been running since 2015. It's a non-demand website with a collection of Bible studies, special interest, life application messages, devotional podcasts, gospel messages, all kinds of things. They're in audio format and in blog format. I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about Hopestream Radio because I really want to get to what we're doing now, which is really exciting.
But our website is doing great. It's visited by about 140,000 people each year. We're actually now at about 3000, just over 3000 people a week, coming to our Hopestream Radio site, accessing our programs, listening to the Bible studies and sending us comments and encouragement and questions. Our visitors to Hopestream Radio come from all over the world.
Those are the top 10 countries and you can see it's really all over the place. Wherever people speak English or can speak English, they're coming to Hopestream Radio and they're hearing the Bible taught, they're hearing the gospel preached. This has actually been going up year by year. Two years ago, Canada, which we hope would be higher than this, was only averaging about 2000 people a year.
We're up to 6000 in Canada now coming to our website and accessing our programs. Our blogs, you can see the top 10 there and how people are going to them. What I really want to point out is that note at the bottom that five of our top 10 blog posts contain the word or the keyword Bible. It's easy to fall into the trap these days of thinking that people aren't interested in what the Bible says.
It's simply not true. In fact, we're dealing with a generation now who knows absolutely nothing about the Bible, who in some cases know absolutely nothing about Christianity or the Lord Jesus. When Paul went into Athens and he was dealing with the Athenians and said they love to do nothing else, but spend time in learning something new. We have a very similar culture today that people love learning something new.
To so many people in the world, the Bible is new. We're taking advantage of that. We're really seeing that people are interested in what the Bible has to say. Now we've moved in from radio.
We were radio ministry right up until about 2008, 2009. Then we moved entirely online for reasons that were really out of our control. It was all audio format online. Then finally we got into video production.
It started with our annual conference, which we couldn't do because of COVID. We did it on video and shared that on YouTube. A lot of people tuned into that that would support FBAH. We thought, okay, what's the next step?
We started doing video tracks. This was an idea that we could make a video one minute long that shares the gospel, that someone could take and then share that video on their Facebook page or even just send a link to a friend someone that they need that they know that needs to use to hear the gospel. So this was one of the first ones we did. We'll tell the account of Jesus feeding 5,000 people with five loads and two small fish.
The next day, the people returned to Jesus because they wanted to receive more of the bread that had filled them the day before. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. He said that because he knew that their desire for the physical would never satisfy.
In the same way, he knows that for us today the pursuit of wealth, possessions, career or fame is an unending pursuit. We can never be fully satisfied with these things. There is always something more. Jesus came to give us that which does satisfy completely, forgiveness for our sins and everlasting life in the glory of heaven.
To make this possible, he willingly died on the cross in our place and rose again. The Bible tells us that whoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved. That's why Jesus said, I am the bread of life. Whoever believes in him will never hunger or thirst for something greater because there is nothing greater than what Jesus offers us.
Will you believe in Jesus Christ today? So that's where we started and they had moderate success. People were sharing them with some people and we were getting something but what we realized is that a lot of our content people had to be looking for and we started asking ourselves how can we get the gospel in front of people who aren't looking for it? And YouTube gave us the answer through their advertising.
We discovered that we could make 15 second, 30 second and minute long gospel messages and then buy time from YouTube to have them shown as advertisements in front of the videos that people were wanting to watch on YouTube. It's not easy to convince the gospel into 15 seconds. It's quite difficult but the beauty of the 15 second ads especially is that they can't be skipped. Longer ads that are 30 seconds or longer after five seconds.
The viewer has the opportunity to skip the ad and just go straight to their video. And so we started doing that. This was this should be I hope one of our 15 second videos. Jesus said whoever the sun sets free he is free indeed.
Are you searching for that perfect freedom? It's only available through faith in Jesus Christ. Believe in him and be free today. Contact us to learn more.
15 seconds. And it plants the seed. It might be the first source of the gospel that someone hears. It might be the eighth.
We don't know but it's planting the seed and it gets it in front of people and with the 15 second ads we've now reached over a million people across Canada with the gospel through this method. I'm just going to skip this one quick because it's another 15 second and I'm already over time and I want to be respectful of that. We then moved to one minute ads. Now these ones could be skipped and a lesson in humility for myself when we made these and we first used them as ads I said Lord if 25% of the people that watch these ads don't skip them and watch them right through I'll be happy.
And so we ran this was the first one we ran and when it was all said and done we had a 60% view rate. The average view rate for a YouTube ad that's skippable is about 31%. So God was getting his word in front of people who needed to hear. This was the first one we did.
That message itself has been seen by over 82,000 people through the YouTube ad campaign. So God is just, again he's just using this to get the message of the gospel in front of people. We get all kinds of analytics that tell us these are two videos that we've done one that did very poorly and again you are loved. So 60% view rate, they marked the view rate at 30 seconds into the video but on average from we're only losing about another 10% through to the end of the video which is fantastic.
The way the truth in the life you can see 10 seconds in it just drops straight down. So we went and reviewed that and what we learned is that the start of that video was just not compelling enough to hold people's attention. We ran one of our other IM video tracks as an ad, the resurrection in the life. It starts with the phrase death isn't something that we like to talk about.
And we saw that that curve just flattened right out. So the hook, the first five seconds of these videos we've learned is exceedingly important because you're going to get people who are just going to skip on principle. I don't watch ads 541 skip. I'm one of those people.
So I don't blame people for doing that but if you can grab someone's attention in those first five to 10 seconds they'll continue watching. And so we're learning that. That's just a large curve here. This was an ad we did for the Eclipse.
Being just outside Niagara Falls we were reading in all the newspapers that a million people are coming to Niagara Falls for the Eclipse weekend to watch this big event. So we thought what if we do a 30 second gospel message and show that in Niagara Falls in that area over that weekend and just see what happens. And so this was what we came up with. A total solar eclipse is visible somewhere in the world about every 18 months.
But perhaps where you live it can only be seen once in a lifetime. Jesus Christ offered himself for the sin of mankind once only. His death and resurrection will never happen again. But the forgiveness of sin and eternal life Jesus wanted to cross can still be yours if you were willing to ask him for it.
Don't miss out on your chance to have peace with God and everlasting life in heaven. Turn your eyes upon Jesus and believe in him today. And again in one weekend in Niagara Falls 14,000 people saw that video right through. For which we thank and praise the Lord.
That's him getting in front of the people that need to see it. I'm going to show one more video. This is a 15 second one. This is really where we're going with this next.
Just to give a bit of a backstory on this video, we received a call from one of our contacts and an assembly in Milton. And they said, hey, next week we're having a corn roast. And we want to try to encourage people from our community to come to our corn roast. Can you do a video for us and show that on YouTube through advertising in one kilometer radius around our chapel building?
And we said, yeah, we can do that. And so this was the video. You are invited to join us at Milton Bible Fellowship for a Meet the Neighbors Corn Roost. On Thursday, August the 29th at 5.30 pm, we are located at 306 Ontario Street North in Milton.
It's informal, free, and open to everyone. We will be serving corn on the cob, hot dogs, veggie burgers, and soft drinks. There will be games for children and an opportunity to tour a real fire truck. Please come.
We'd love to meet you, introduce ourselves, and tell you a short story about God's love. And so we ran that for two days in that vicinity that they asked us to. And we got a wonderful email from one of the elders there just after saying it was the most well attended event of this kind from the local community that they've ever had. They said they had several Muslim families come out and enjoy a free meal and hear the gospel presented.
We pray for those people who came out. I don't know if any of them are continuing to come out at this point. I'll probably find out in a couple weeks when I go visit them again. But what we're seeing is that it works.
This form of reaching people works. You go out on the street and everyone's walking around like this. And it's a reality. And so we need to be where they are, which is on their screen with the gospel.
And so what we're doing right now is we're really wanting to partner with local assemblies. We want to run campaigns in your areas. I'm actually running a couple of these videos in the Dartmouth Halifax area right now. And after the weekend I'll see how well they did.
But we want to partner with local assemblies where we can run these. We can even change the graphics on those. So instead of contact FBA International it could be contact Northbrook Bible Chapel or contact even an individual to learn more about who Jesus is. And so what we're looking for is we're looking for assemblies who are ready to receive people and to share the love of Christ with them and to help them know and understand what the gospel is and grow in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ if they do in fact put their faith in him.
So it's a really great opportunity. We're looking for people to partner with. We have no problem coming alongside people and promoting events that they might be having at the chapel whether it's DVBS or Sunday school or a men's Bible study, whatever it is. If we feel that there's an opportunity to reach the community and get them to come out and come under the sound of God's word, we want to work with you and make sure that happens.
So there's 5.6 billion people in the world today who are perishing. And if we can reach even one of them is to the glory of God. And God desires that every one of them would be saved. He desires that none should perish but all come to repentance.
So that's one of the things that we're doing with these videos. We're really looking for partners. We're also looking at starting full-length Bible studies and series on our YouTube channel, which is something to keep an eye for. It's something that again they're going to be designed pretty much with gospel and early discipleship in mind.
So perfect for even courses if you've got, you want to run something in your community with seekers and new believers, something that we can help with that. They'd be about 15 to 30 minutes in length and again everything we do is available for free. One of our core values at Family Bible Hours, we will never charge. We will never ask money for God's word.
We want to get it out. We want people who need to hear God's word to hear it absolutely free the way it was intended to be. The free online Bible study courses, all I'll say about that is that's in development. We're actually now speaking with Emmaus Worldwide, the old Emmaus Correspondents School on something like that to be able to offer Bible courses online with video, with audio for people who not everyone is a reader.
I'm not a reader. But if someone were to put that in audio form or even better on a video that I could watch, it's far more effective for me to learn that way. So we want to offer that to people who don't read to be able to watch these videos and have these courses available to them through different means. Some prayer requests for the ministry, a new office location.
We do have to move our office soon. Guidance and content development accuracy and relevance. Pray for our staff, Mark Hillis, Deborah Piggett and myself who really, it's three of us that are making sure all of this happens and there are sometimes when it's an awful lot of work and then just continued provision of the needed resources. I should mention something about these videos.
One of the best parts that we have is the cost effectiveness of them. People here advertising and oftentimes our brains can go wow, advertising is really, really expensive. You know, how much money are we paying? There's a group in the States.
I can't remember their name, but they paid millions of dollars for a 30 second ad during the Super Bowl. And you start to wonder like, is that good stewardship? Would that be good stewardship? But the wonderful thing about YouTube advertising is that we can reach a thousand people with the gospel for approximately $15.
It is very, very inexpensive. Of course, if you want to do it consistently and in large areas, but it is very inexpensive to reach people with the gospel through YouTube advertising. And so we're taking advantage of that for as long as the Lord will allow and to reach as many people as we can. So thank you.
Thank you for praying for F.B.H. I know there's people here who have followed the work of the ministry and supported us for a long time and who continue to pray for us. We value every prayer on our behalf and pray that you would be encouraged in hearing what God is doing through F.B.H. to reach the world with the gospel and just know that people are being saved.
People are still coming to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's close in a word for I do apologize for going over time, but I do hope you've been encouraged. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the truth that you laid down your life, that you died for the sin of mankind, that you promise everyone who believes will be saved and will know you. Father, what a joy, what a privilege to be able to call you Father, to be able to call your Son, our Lord and Savior.
And Father, we know that we have work to do. We know that we have to share this truth with with a world that is dying. And we pray that by your Spirit, you would give us strength, you would give us boldness, you would help us. We pray Father for the testimony of Northbrook Bible Chapel.
We pray Father that you would use this fellowship here to be a bright light, a beacon in this city for your glory and for your truth. We pray Father that the gospel would go forth from here and that people would hear it and be saved and that you would receive all glory and all honor. For we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.