He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.... As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
Here we have what I consider to be the basics of doing ministry in Jesus' name. Although the disciples were sent out and commissioned and empowered specifically for this short time before Jesus' death and resurrection and before the Holy Spirit was given to all Believers, the commission reflects Christ's heart, methods and approach. Since we are followers and apprentices of Jesus, learning to be and think and live like our Master, we should pay special attention.
First, there is, of course, preaching. In the context of ancient Israel and Jesus' appearance as their awaited Messiah, the message was that the Kingdom of Heaven is near -the Messiah has come. I believe that we still need to understand and preach about the Kingdom of God, but the scope of the message has broadened in light of what Jesus did on the cross. Our message is that through Jesus, forgiveness of sin, right relationship with God and intimacy with God are possible. God is no longer holding our sins against us. We in the modern Evangelical church have done an adequate job of this. Unfortunately, we have largely ignored the rest of the commission.
We are also to be driving out demons and healing every disease and sickness. Jesus said that this is the proof that the Kingdom has come. Jesus said that this was part of what it means to destroy the works of the devil. There are many who claim that the Holy Spirit no longer empowers Believers to operate with this kind of power in these kinds of ways. That is foolishness. Are people still suffering from sicknesses and diseases? Is evil rampant? Is the demonic still active? Are the works of the devil still operating in this world? If so (and obviously it is so) we need to still be walking in and operating in and using the authority of Jesus to destroy the works of the devil. We are the hands and feet and voice of Jesus.
It is time we take the debate out of the arena of Pentecostal vs. Non-Pentecostal. Forget those artificially erected, man-made theological arguments. Those are arguments that are not and never have been honoring to God nor conducive to Kingdom ministry. Let's just take the Bible at face value and do His work His way. No need to apologize or explain away or argue. We need His empowerment to do His work, and we need to do the work that He commanded us to do. Let's do it.
This simple model presented to us by Christ is one that challenges much, if not most, of how we "do church" currently, does it not?
ReplyDeleteOur youth pastor recently challenged us to think differently about our expectations of and our involvement in the Church.
The typical American Christian is in roughly this kind of routine:
I attend church once, maybe twice a week, and the pastor, who has spent hours and hours of preparation by reading and studying and meditating on God's Word and praying, pours the results of all that work into my "funnel of reception" that may or may not be clogged with worldly crap and gunk that has accumulated over the past week/month/year/lifetime, and maybe some of it leaks through and makes it into my soul and I "get something out of the sermon" that helps me in my walk, or encourages me in some way, so I can coast along until my next "fill-up".
Why are WE not the ones who do the hours and hours of studying and praying and communicating with God and operating in His Spirit so that WE can be the ones pouring God into open hearts that He has prepared in advance to be receptive?
In general, I think the American Church is crippled, poor, blind, and naked because we expect the pastor and other ministry leaders to do our work, while we just sit in the stands watching the game, always taking in but never giving out. Freely we receive, but stingily we give, if at all. We've removed ourselves from the flow, or let the world clog whatever conduit is there with gunk because we spend so much time letting the things of the world flow in us through us.
Mark P.
Mark, I think you are right. I don't want to be too hard on the modern church ... I believe it is still God's chosen vessel for ministry; however, we need to get some basic things right if we want to fulfill our mandate.
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