If you were to select persons to carry an extremely important message – a message of freedom, who would you choose? There were false teachers that had ‘gone out from the Jerusalem church and troubled’ new believers with a message of bondage through following the Law. The Jerusalem church came to an agreement to send these “troubled” believers the right message of freedom in Christ based on grace. So important was this message that they had to select messengers of integrity who would be faithful to the truth.
“It has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Acts 15:25–26). It is critical to note that this church was totally unified about the qualifications of those they were sending. There was no higher quality than “men who had risked their lives for the name of Jesus.” The importance of the message and the quality of the messenger cannot be separated! Those who do not place a high value on Christ will dilute His message by the way they speak and live. I pray that this will challenge you, as it has me, to value the message of Christ and honor it with our lives, even if it requires death.
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We come back to the series on Paul’s life and ministry, looking at his missionary ways that were so effective they are recorded for us in Scripture. As the gospel expands and the Holy Spirit falls on the Gentiles as He did the Jews, a question is brought to the church in Jerusalem as to whether these Gentile converts must be circumcised in order to be saved?
Peter states what he saw God do very clearly: “And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:8–9). In the same way, Barnabas and Paul “related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles” (15:12). Notice that the agreement forged in Jerusalem about the new converts was not in developing a doctrine to fit their past perceptions of Judaism or traditions, but in what God was doing at the moment by the Holy Spirit. As Paul lays out the pure gospel in Galatians, he clearly points out that he did not receive the gospel from man, nor did he “go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before” him. He “went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus” (Gal. 1:12, 17), the very place where he met Jesus, who turned Paul’s life around. I have no doubt from this record that the time he spent with the Lord in Arabia was where the gospel became abundantly clear to him.
I will begin with a quote from Oswald J. Smith again to give context to this blog. “One real look through the eyes of Jesus Christ and we will sink our funds, not in bricks and mortar, luxurious Bible Training Schools and expensive institutions, but in the souls of men” (The Challenge of Missions, page 93).
After Jesus had secretly spent time alone with His Father in the early morning, “Simon and those who were with him searched for Him (Jesus), and they found Him and said, to Him, “Everyone is looking for you.” But He said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out” (Mark 1:35-38). Notice that Jesus never deviates from His purpose – preaching the message of the kingdom to those who have not heard! While building, schools, hospitals, orphanages and many other good things may serve a limited purpose, Jesus and the apostles never got involved in these activities. It is the souls of men, women and children that have eternal value which these other things do not and cannot have. It is time were STOP and re-examine the direction of our preaching and ministry. What passion for Christ and the gospel are we communicating through our words, actions and lives? If we are placing higher value on anything other than communicating Christ and the gospel, we are not being true to our call. Let the Holy Spirit adjust our values to agree with heavens eternal standards. We received an email today from a dear brother in Myanmar who has worked through God’s Plan for His Church twice, and translated it into the Chin language. This is the exciting report he sent us:
“Wherever I go, I share about the GPHC. Many pastors from the Chin people are interested and want to study this manual at their church. A pastor said that “if we had this kind of book before, our church would not have divided.” Consider how God will enable them to ‘rebuild’ on a biblical foundation and unite the body of Christ on God’s principles once again. Please pray for the expansion of this work in this, and many other countries around the world. Let’s take a step back from the blog I posted yesterday and look at the power that is inherent in the gospel. If we preach the pure gospel of grace, there is power in that message. Paul’s emphatic statement in Romans 1:16 grips our attention: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.”
In speaking of the native who comes to Christ through the gospel, Oswald J. Smith says, “All that a man needs to begin with is a knowledge of the fundamental truth of the gospel and how to give them out. If a country is to be evangelized it must have evangelists. The one and only thing to do is to preach the gospel.” (The Challenge of Missions, page 87). Adding man-made approaches to presenting the gospel does not add power to the message. In fact, they will divert the hearer away from the Person and Power of the Gospel! We must rely on the Holy Spirit for purity and power in the presentation of this glorious message. As I was reading some of A. W. Tozer’s book, The Pursuit of Man – The Divine Conquest of the Human Heart, I came across comments contrasting how we preach the gospel and what happens in those who receive it. I quote a portion here for you to ponder:
“The gulf between theory and practice is so great as to be terrifying. For the gospel is too often preached and accepted without power, and the radical shift which the truth demands is never made. There may be, it is true, a change of some kind; an intellectual and emotional bargain may be struck with the truth, but whatever happens is not enough, not deep enough, not radical enough…there is about the gospel an urgency, a finality which will not be heard or felt except by the enabling of the Spirit” (Emphasis mine – page 21). When Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom, His words were radical to those who heard. Have we allowed the culture to turn us away from the real message of the gospel? Have we become ‘soft Christians’ unprepared to “count the cost” of being a disciple of the King of kings? I invite you to reread Luke 14:25-33. We are NOT old sinners with different clothes. We are NEW CREATURES IN CHRIST with a completely new life given to us through death and resurrection with Christ (2 Corinthians 5:14-17). In an age of ‘make-overs’, this must be our view of the gospel. One of the most serious mistakes we can make in doing the Lord’s work, whether it is evangelizing, preaching, teaching, or equipping, is to specialize our message and work. What do I mean by that? The best way I can explain this is by contrast. Jesus said; “teaching them to observe (keep on obeying) all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). Paul said to the Ephesian elders, “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole (total, every kind) counsel of God” (Acts 20:27).
When we ‘specialize’, we leave out important parts of God’s BIG PICTURE. Jesus did not want the disciples to forget any of His teaching, by word or example. Paul did not want the elders to lead the church with just a partial picture of God’s plan for His church. If we ‘specialize’ because of denomination, Bible School or Seminary training, or because we follow favorite teachers, we will become imbalanced and miss some vital parts of God’s BIG PICTURE. Worse still, when we are imbalanced in presenting God’s truth, we leave holes where error and deception will find its way into hearts we are trying to reach. What is the answer to this problem? Appeal to the Holy Spirit to teach you all the truth! Jesus told us that the Spirit “will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26). I do not want to give the impression from my earlier comment that I am opposed to any particular denomination, Bible School or Seminary, but there is a danger of equating them with Scripture. Remember that Jesus referred to the Spirit as “the Spirit of truth” (14:17). All truth is contained in Him and in the person of Christ (14:6). Therefore, we have a priority and obligation to spend time with them so that we learn and obey all the truth! This is the best way to prevent error from creeping into our thinking and teaching in the church which deceives and robs God of His glory. At my age, I am still learning and the Holy Spirit is still gracious teaching me! This calls for worship! Baptism as presented by Jesus in this section (Matthew 28:19) has a very unique message which is usually overlooked by most. As David Hesselgrave points out, the word “in or into” (eis) “implies that they come into the ownership of the Triune God.” As Paul describes baptism in Romans 6, he uses the word “united” (symphytoi) which means to “be one with” Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. It is no wonder that Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 that “you are not your own, for you were bought with a price.” The gospel message of salvation from sin and hell must include that we have new Owners: God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
In making disciples, make sure that we help converts understand this “ownership” principle. If the Holy Spirit teaches them this principle through our message, there will be few problems with “observing (obeying) all that Jesus commanded.” New life in Christ brings with it a new relationship and a new purpose and plan for living – God’s glory! A careful look at Matthew 28:19, “Go therefore”, reveals that the word “GO” is a passive verb, not an imperative which many attempt to turn into a command. David Hesselgrave helpfully points out that the word “Go” really means “as you are going” or “as you move from one place to another”. I would argue that this supports the idea that the best evangelists for any people group are the indigenous missionaries who carry the gospel message through their normal daily living.
Where is the imperative in this verse? It is in the word “make disciples”, those that believe and by faith follow in obedience. The method of making disciples of all nations (“ethnos”) is through baptizing them and teaching them. As we look at the Book of Acts, this is exactly what the apostles did after the Holy Spirit came. The prime example is Acts 2:38 where Peter preached repentance – the starting point for every disciple. More will be written tomorrow about baptism. In Matthew 28:16-20, we have looked at spending time with Jesus, yet knowing that He will be with us “always, to the end of the age”. As we are with Him, it is natural for worship to be our first and highest priority. Now we will look at verse 18; “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Considering this in the context of verse 20, Jesus promised to “always” be with us in fulfilling the Great Commission, so will “all HIS authority…on earth” be with us. Without knowing the authority in His presence, we will lack CONFIDENCE in proclaiming the gospel of grace and there will be no Holy Spirit power in our witness (see Acts 1: 8).
How then is this authority experienced by us who proclaim the gospel? First, His authority must be a reality in our lives; every aspect of the way we live personally, in our marriage and family, in the church, and in every way we intersect with the world. Then the gospel of grace will be spoken with authority because we are living under Christ’s authority. This must come before any human authority. |
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