Tim and Joseph have been able to visit Ecuador for twelve days to reconnect, encourage and see what God is doing since our last visit more than a year ago. It is not surprising, yet very exciting, to discover that God is working far greater things than we could have imagined.
In one of our last visits, we introduced and trained using God’s Plan for His Church. This created a transformation in understanding how the Early Church grew so rapidly. From this point, they began planting house churches. The expansion has far exceeded their imagination in just two years! By using Zoom, they are now training Spanish speaking couples in Spain and England. This is only the beginning of what they plan and hope to do. In addition to this, they want to immediately translate our new book, God’s Plan for Young Disciples, designed to teach children and young people the principles of Scripture. Their teamwork with us is amazing. We are continually amazed at how God is using our training materials without our knowledge and without our being present. This is fine with us. We have prayed and longed for the indigenous disciples and leaders to do this work on their own without our assistance. That is how the New Testament Church grew and expanded.
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As our study group was talking about how the body of Christ functions and serves one another, I thought of how the Early Church functioned. Even before the New Testament books and letters were written, they instinctively knew how to care for each other and work together in unity. Consider these verses:
“And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need” (Acts 2:44–45). “Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common” (4:32). “And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said…brothers, pick out from among youseven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty” (6:2–3). Is this possible today? ABSOLUTELY! What prevents this from happening is that we are not unified with the Holy Spirit who produced this unity in the Early Church. If we really wanted to see this happen today, and I hope we will, then we will repent from doing church our way and let Him rebuild us together from His foundation - Christ the Head! When this unity begins to work, we will make right decisions and there will be unity in making them. Private preferences will end and what the Spirit wants will prevail. Serving will flow out of following the model of Christ (John 13:14-15; Philippians 2:3-8). Please forgive me for going back to Acts 17:10-15 which I wrote on February 24th. I find many details in these six verses that we tend to overlook and are a challenge for us today. Going from Thessalonica to Berea was not Paul’s decision. Sensing the danger Paul was in, “the brothers [in Thessalonica] immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea” (10). This was not Paul’s choice, but it worked out for the furthering of the gospel because God was already at work.
It was not just the fact that Paul and Silas followed their custom of entering the Jewish synagogue to proclaim the gospel, but God placed them among people in Berea who “were more noble than those in Thessalonica [because] they received the Word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (11). Notice the meaning of these words:
I would love to find a group of people like this! It is often difficult to find persons in our churches who are willing to put time, heart and careful attention to the study of God’s Word. It is simply a priority problem. Disciple-making is more than being able to teach. It is finding spiritual hunger and submission that puts truth into practice. Though the time in Berea was very short (3 months), Paul and Silas left behind them a local church capable of growing on their own. This shows how effective disciple making can be. Is your local church like this? A careful study of Paul’s ministry reveals emotions he had toward those he wanted to share the gospel of grace. Though he was not permitted by the Holy Spirit to go into Asia (Acts 16:6), he, Silas and Timothy went there after preaching and planting churches in Macedonia (16:11 to 17:15).
Once their mission in Macedonia was finished, the first stop in Asia was Athens. “Now while Paul was waiting for them [Silas and Timothy] at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols” (17:16). This raises a question in us as to whether our spirits are provoked by conditions we see in the world or do we brush them off as part of the current trends. We cannot afford to be complacent with trends that are anti-God and anti-biblical. “So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious” (Acts 17:22). Paul pointed out their “religious” lifestyle had missed the true “God who made the world and everything in it” (17:24), including those he was speaking to. As Paul concludes his statements, he reveals very important truth. “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed; and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead”” (30–31). Being “religious” is no guarantee that persons have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. All must come by way of repentance and forgiveness in order to be a child of God by faith. “Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”(Psalm 46:10).
This is a familiar verse that is often quoted when persons are going through very difficult times. There are a lot of reasons for doing that, especially when we realize that this Psalm was written by the Sons of Korah who escaped the penalty of death. God was their “refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble”(1). This Psalm is full of vivid illustrations of what God is to His people in very hard times. But there are many reasons for being “still” in the conscious knowledge of God. Looking again at verse 10 we see that God allows us to go through periods of stress, disappointment and trial so the world around us will exalt and praise God because they see how we rest in Him through a personal relationship with Him. This is hard for us. We tend to naturally default to anxiety and worry and at the same time ‘profess’ to know God. Worry hides the knowledge of God. The command to “Be still and know that I am God” is needed so we turn our focus away from our troubles and experience a deeper fellowship with God that lifts Him up before the world. As I was doing a little work outside today, I was talking/praying with the Holy Spirit, asking Him to give wisdom, discernment and biblical answers to some very difficult situations. After our evening meal, I sat for a short time and pulled out a book by Richard Rushing, Voices from the Past. The next reading was by the Puritan, Richard Baxter which linked to my thoughts on the Spirit.
“Great care must be taken to make Him the principle (standard or rule) of all our operations and to obey Him and follow His movements as He leads you into communion with God. The Spirit of God is only for heavenly wisdom, and not for foolish treacherous craftiness. He moves us to be conformed to Christ. He works in us to perfect our sanctification and obedience.” (Banner of Truth Trust, page 20). I fear that we have much smaller and lower ideas of the Holy Spirit. In all the teaching that Paul gave on the Spirit, there are two statements he made that stand out as huge challenges to the way we think of the Spirit and respond to His prompting. “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:3). “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19). Remember that the Spirit “dwells” or lives in every believer. Every thought or action is evaluated by Him and He will prompt us with correction if we let Him and are willing to be led by Him. Because He is a divine Person, these emotions are real, and our response will either increase our joy in communion with Him or decrease it. As important events happen in this ministry, we want to keep you informed so that both praise and prayers can be made to our God who rules over all things for His glory and eternal purposes. God is doing wonderful things in Nicaragua. On March 3, David met with 80 pastors from congregations in the mountain regions. Their meeting was in the city of Estelí, to study the Bible using "The Plan of God for His Disciples" as a study tool. Though many of them have no formal education, they long to serve the Lord and bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to every remote place in this country. Their training was a great success. David will follow up with them next month. Later this month, David will meet with the Miskito brothers on the Caribbean Coast and the brothers of Waspam Rio Coco who are very eager to listen to God's plan so they can tell others the Good News. Please pray for David and those he will be teaching. I don’t know of any other passage in Paul’s writing that carries such weight and personal emotions as Acts 20:17-38. Though Jerusalem was in the forefront of his mind, he was also intent on leaving behind his personal concern to God’s work in Asia. Ephesus had been a place of exceptional spiritual growth and suffering for the gospel. Paul poured into this new church all the care of a faithful church planter/pastor/shepherd that anyone could possibly give.
He also knew that his absence would bring new challenges that the elders needed to be prepared to face. Reminding them of how he had lived among them and taught them was not a matter of pride but of ongoing concern that God’s work be nurtured and protected by men who had a like passion for what God had done and was yet going to do. This would require personal integrity on their part; “Pay careful attention to yourselves” (28). Reading this warning reminds me of Jesus’ words to the same church and leaders. He applauds their work but exposes a serious flaw; “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent” (Revelation 2:4–5). This was what Paul warned them about before he left. Both warnings carried consequences if not heeded. If Paul or Jesus were to visit us, what would they say to us or the church we are responsible for? What warning or rebuke would they give us? Would we listen? Would we quickly repent and make changes? Complacency is a blinding disease. As I read the section in Acts 20:1-16, I can imagine how Paul is on the move from one place to another speaking and teaching in synagogues or wherever he has the opportunity. As for the churches that were planted in Macedonia, he had preached the gospel in these places during his first visit and now it is important to “encourage” these disciples (20:1-2) with a second visit. Macedonia and Asia are being established in the faith as Paul passes through them for a second time. Part of the encouragement is remembering the Lord Jesus in the breaking of bread which connects believers with the Author of their salvation. I also sense a compression of time with Paul that caused him to “prolong his speech until midnight…he conversed with them a long while until daybreak” (7, 11). He is laying a foundation in these disciples that will make them strong in his absence. Though his time in Philippi was only 3 months, Thessalonica 5 months and Berea 4 months, it was enough time for them to mature and stand on their own. That is why there was no need to return to Ephesus because the work he had done there was complete. There are just a few today who see the benefits of this pattern and are seeking to follow it. I urge you to look for biblical patterns for your life and ministry in Scripture and follow them. Do you remember what happened to Paul and Silas right after they added young Timothy to their team? Yes, “the churches were strengthened in the faith and they increased in numbers daily” (Acts 16:5). But in the next verse when they planned to move on to Asia, they were “forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia” (16:6). Is God not interested in Asia?
Jumping forward to the verses we looked at yesterday, we see that God’s timing for Asia was not Paul’s timing. He is called in the vision (16:9) to Macedonia which included Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea. Then God allowed circumstances in Berea that forced Paul to leave, and he was “conducted… as far as Athens” (17:15). Now he and those with him are in Asia! This included Athens, Corinth and Ephesus. Was this the best way to go about getting the gospel into this region? As Paul, Silas and Timothy continued in Ephesus for “two years…all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks”(19:10). That is perhaps a far greater vision than what Paul had in mind. The greatest fruitfulness in ministry is not accomplished by careful planning, more money or more people and organization. It is made possible through our submission to the Holy Spirit. His timing will always produce greater results than ours. |
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