Matt Redman considers the immeasurable impact of Luis Palau.
—by Matt Redman
I am so grateful to count myself as one tiny part of that immeasurable story – a young boy who journeyed from death to life having been presented with the good news of Jesus Christ.
—Matt Redman
The most defining moment of my life happened at the age of 10, standing in a London soccer stadium.
For that was the night I heard Luis Palau preach the Gospel and decided that I was going to be a worshipper of Jesus Christ.
In a beautiful expression of God’s kindness my journey with Luis didn’t end there. Around 15 years later, we met during a mission to the city of Manchester UK, where I was leading worship – and of course he preached the good news of Jesus that day just as passionately as he had done so all those years ago in London. Every time I’ve been around him since it’s the same story – Luis was a man who simply wouldn’t stay silent about the beautiful news of salvation.
A few years ago, I had the privilege of leading worship in Times Square and Central Park at a mission to New York City, organised by the Palau organisation. After leading some songs, it was an honour to introduce to the crowds the man who had brought me to faith. I felt the kindness of God in that moment – so aware of the wise and generous ways that He weaves together the details of our lives. Back in 1984, the night of my conversion, I love that God already saw this moment in NYC and smiled over it. As Luis started to preach, three decades on, I saw the same fire and passion that I’d always seen - a man still enthralled with the love of Christ and overwhelmed to the core by the powerful grace of the gospel.
Whether a stadium stage, a church pulpit, a factory floor, or a one-on-one conversation you were always going to get the same Luis – a heart set on fire with the glory and grace of His God. That was the mark of the man.
I have heard it said, “Never meet your heroes’ but in the case of Luis Palau, I’m glad I ignored that advice. He was not perfect – no one is - and both he and his loved ones would be keen to not see him elevated beyond what a man should be. But he was a warm-hearted, welcoming and loving follower of Christ – who was more than eight decades into his life and yet still so very passionate about the kingdom of God. For me he exemplified what the late Eugene Peterson called, ‘A long obedience in the same direction.’ When Christ gets hold of a man’s heart and soul, there is an urgency to his ministry – and evangelists are not really the type to ‘retire’. Yes, life can be re-arranged and re-structured to accommodate different seasons and our aging years – but worshippers of Jesus Christ will always be worshippers – and a true evangelist will always stay an evangelist – right until the very end. That was Luis.
The Apostle Paul’s wrote:
“Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”
2 Corinthians 4:16
In his final few years, at times battling both cancer and the effects of chemotherapy, a growing physical frailty was clearly evident in Luis’ worn-down body. But inwardly, and in his spirit, it was a whole different story. Here was a man fully alive. A good while after his cancer diagnosis I remember going to hear him preach at a Spanish-speaking church in Anaheim. Yet again I heard a preacher just as on fire for the good news of Jesus as he was the first time I ever heard him. If anything at all had changed, there was an even greater urgency, as he spoke about the eternal Christ, the promised glories of heaven and the limited time we all have here on this earth.
As I reflect on the life and ministry of Luis Palau, it brings to mind the words of the Psalmist, found in Psalm 40:
“I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord. I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.”
Psalm 40:9-10 ESV
These words from scripture are a very apt description of this Argentinian evangelist – a man who refused to conceal the love of God or restrain his lips in speaking forth the gospel.
We worship a God of the ‘immeasurable’ and some of the most profound things in ministry are the ones that simply cannot be measured. We can count crowds, radio listening figures, or how many books have been sold. We can perhaps even estimate the number of people who might have come to faith in Christ after hearing Luis preach, somewhere around the world. All of these figures could be put on a spreadsheet or measured on a graph. But when it comes to the true impact of the ministry entrusted to Luis and his family, it could never be measured. It is completely immeasurable. We can’t fathom even the worth of saving one soul, let alone the multitudes who found new hope in Jesus through the faithful stewardship of Luis and his team. It is a wave of salvation that cannot be fathomed by our human flowcharts and won’t fit into our statistical models. I am so grateful to count myself as one tiny part of that immeasurable story – a young boy who journeyed from death to life having been presented with the good news of Jesus Christ. I thank and honour my friend Luis for this - and give every ounce of glory and praise to the God who has become my salvation.