Matthew 28:18-19, "18Jesus came and told his disciples, "I have been given complete authority in heaven and on earth. 19Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.""
Matthew 22
37Jesus replied, " `You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’[1] 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39A second is equally important: `Love your neighbor as yourself.’[2]
John 17
20"I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me because of their testimony. 21My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, just as you and I are one, Father--that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us, and the world will believe you sent me.
22"I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are-- 23I in them and you in me, all being perfected into one. Then the world will know that you sent me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me.
You know its really time that we as Christians got out of our comfort zones and praise the Lord for His goodness. Its time that we go outside of the confines of ourselves. Instead of saying we have changed its time that we instead as believers demonstrated that change. A Pastor friend of mine says this all the time, "I want to run a rescue shop near the front gates of hell." I think that if we realized the punishments of hell more instead of being all about the grace and love of God that we are as Edwards points out hanging like a spider from a thin thread, then perhaps instead of boasting we would instead serve and bow down as our Lord did with the disciples by washing the feet of those who would ultimately turn their backs upon them.
Its time to stop being so focused upon ourselves and start being focused on God’s Word and upon preaching its Truth, because if we believe that the Word of God is living and active them we will in turn preach the living Word of God to those who are perishing and ill, and sick. If the Word of God is to liberate and save then those who believe in that very same Word that is able to save them must in turn give of themselves so that others may in turn be saved and go out and the process may continue.
The Christian life is all about reproducing its not about sitting around comfortable like and sitting on our fannies and telling others what to do. No, the Christian life is about activity being involved and active in God’s plans and purposes. If we so much as want to see others saved, then we must be involved in the activity of that very same salvation that we claim to uphold and cherish so much.
The biggest failure of the Church is the Great Commission but not so much the Great Commission but the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:38-39), and the Ultimate Purpose of Christ in (John 17:20-23). Many would like to say that the body of Christ is a building and confined within the confines of an understanding of a building yet no where in the New Testament or in Jesus words is this recorded, no in fact the Book of Acts makes mention of meeting in homes, but even that the preaching of the Lost was done on the Streets of the Cities! If we really want to win our cities for Christ we will run a Rescue shop at the front gates of hell, or our cities streets for that matter.
John Piper said, "When the heart no longer feels the truth of hell, the gospel passes from good news to just news. The intensity of joy is blunted and the heart spring of love is dried up. The keener the memory of our awful rescue, the more naturally we pity those in a similar plight. The more deeply we feel how undeserved and free was the grace that plucked us from the flames, the freer will be our benevolence to sinners."
If we really want to win our cities for Christ though we will expose in turn those who are opposed to the Gospel. Philippians 1:15-19, "16They preach because they love me, for they know the Lord brought me here to defend the Good News. 17Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. 18But whether or not their motives are pure, the fact remains that the message about Christ is being preached, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice. " Part of the real problem with our churches today is what is known as postmodernism. Post modernism at its foundation would have us believe in everything as truth; however if this is true then that would counter the teaching of Jesus in John 14:6, "6Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. " So what we see at the core is that those who want to preach Christ out of philosophical reasoning and motivations will not succeed necessarily and be blessed. Those who preach philosophy are causing others to face a stumbling block not the Cross of Christ.
1st Corinthians 1:18-21, 25,30 “18I know very well how foolish the message of the cross sounds to those who are on the road to destruction. But we who are being saved recognize this message as the very power of God. 19As the Scriptures say, "I will destroy human wisdom and discard their most brilliant ideas."[3] 20So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made them all look foolish and has shown their wisdom to be useless nonsense. 21Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never find him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save all who believe. 25This "foolish" plan of God is far wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is far stronger than the greatest of human strength. 30God alone made it possible for you to be in Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made Christ to be wisdom itself. He is the one who made us acceptable to God. He made us pure and holy, and he gave himself to purchase our freedom.”
Philosophy is like a razor to the mind, but theology in the truest sense of the word will always pierce the heart and turn that very heart towards God. While philosophy is purely an intellectual enterprise, theology is an intellectual, spiritual and heart issue. If we do not engage our hearts we will not be engaging truly our minds, since we have the mind of Christ and our hearts belong to the Spirit, the Spirit also residing within our hearts through faith in His Son Jesus the Messiah. Paul brings closure to his argument by grounding the historical outworking of that reality in a theological axiom: God is both wiser and more powerful than mere human beings. To the perishing the Cross sounds ridiculous even folly, but as C.S. Lewis said, “Jesus either who He said He was or a raving lunatic.” So in reality God’s folly has become mankind’s way to know Him in their hearts, the Gospel of Christ has rung around the world for thousands of years now, its message undaunted in its pursuit of all mankind, for them to know God intimately from the depths of there hearts. So our weakness and God’s strength was on display on the Cross and of course God’s strength one, thus defeating the power of sin over our lives, and enabling God’s Son to appease not only the Laws set forth in the Old Testament but also the Law of our hearts, to set us free for His purposes, free from condemnation to restoration, free from emotional distress to inner peace. Is this a reality in your own life? Or is the past become the factor that affects your whole life.
If we really desire to run a rescue shop near the front gates of hell then we had better be ready to call on the name of the Lord, sing His praises and declare His goodness. Psalm 115:1;17-18, “Not to us, O Lord, but to you goes all the glory for your unfailing love and faithfulness. The dead cannot sing praises to the Lord for they have gone into the silence of the grave. But we can praise the Lord both now and forever! PRAISE THE LORD!” Human logic and reason will never lead a person to a place of repentance. While repentance is merely a change in one’s behavior, attitudes and acceptance of the work of Christ on the Cross, it is not motivated as some would suggest by the works of the flesh, no it is motivated by the grace of our God, for our works are merely demonstrates of an inward reality of faith that God is in turn changing us and making us.
Perhaps the greatest failure of the Church is the fact that we have not seen the necessity of doing the Great Commission together with the Great Commandment so that we can fulfill the Ultimate Purpose of Christ. These are not Pastor Jenkins’ agenda, these are God’s established plans for a church that is sadly weak and ill. You can take this as a rebuke or correction, but either way we as the Body corporately had best call upon the name of the Lord and be about the harvest that is abounding and stop grieving the Holy Spirit by not obeying His Word! 1st Thessalonians 5:19, “Do not stifle the Holy Spirit.” Paul means here that we should not ignore or toss aside the gifts the Holy Spirit gives. Here, he mentions prophecy (5:20); in 1st Corinthians 14:39, he mentions speaking in tongues. Sometimes spiritual gifts are controversial and they may cause division in a church. Rather than trying to solve the problems, some Christians prefer to smother the gifts. This impoverishes the church. We should not stifle the Holy Spirit’s work in anyone’s life but encourage the full expression of these gifts to benefit the whole Body of Christ.
1st Corinthians 1:10, “10Now, dear brothers and sisters,[1] I appeal to you by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ to stop arguing among yourselves. Let there be real harmony so there won’t be divisions in the church. I plead with you to be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.” Appeal means to come alongside to help. Paul is softening the rebuke by saying "brothers and sisters" but the authority was based upon the Lord Jesus Christ. This then was a theological matter. This is not meant to be confused with discussion. Discussion and debating are fruitful only when done with the spirit of learning. Learning is profitable for all things, godliness, etc. But the fruit of learning is the byproduct of heart vs. head knowledge. Paul’s appeal was based upon this premise. He wanted real harmony, no more games or facades just working together to accomplish the Ultimate purpose of Christ.
This can best been seen as a local church unity not a whole Body wide unity. God expects believers to work together not apart from one another. When we don’t work together it shows:
1) We don’t take Christ seriously
2) Our love for each other is non-existent.
3) Our faith is meaningless.
This is why others are attracted to others religions because they at least don’t bicker within each other. Stop the backbiting, stop the infighting. Come to peace with God through His Son Jesus Christ. Don’t be ignorant tossed every which way, but learn to understand and heed His Voice! Only then will we be united in His purpose. Not to us Lord but to Your name! Only then under His Name, under His purposes will we be united in thought and purpose.
Paul is laying out a very serious theological matter. It is an issue that we all face. What church do I go too? Go to a church or "group" that believers and preaches Biblical Christianity that is:
1) His Word is inerrant without error.
2) They believe in God’s ultimate dream and are doing something about it.
3) They live out and preach the Great Commission together with the Great Commandment
4) That Christ is perfect both in His birth, life, death and resurrection.
5) That in Him and through Him alone can all mankind have faith by accepting Him for who He is and what he did for all mankind through the Cross.
6) That He is coming back to take those who belong to Him, back to be with Him in eternity.
Any other things not mentioned above do not necessarily mean that they are unimportant just the point is what is Biblical Christianity in fact. Only through Biblical Christianity can there be Biblical faith, can there be further Biblical living, Biblical unity and Biblical love.
Yet if we take a look at the early church they were united in thought and deed sacrificing for one another for the glory of God (Acts 2:42-47; Acts 4:32-36). This is the problem of the church today the Body of Christ. We have lost site of the fact that we are to reach the lost and hurting with the Gospel that never changes with the power of God that never changes with the Holy Spirit that resides within the hearts of everyone who believes in Jesus, in what He did on the Cross, that He was resurrected from the grave and Ascended to the right hand of heaven. If that is not our focus then what is honestly? If that does not unite us spiritually then what does? Our fleshly pride and selfish guile? The reality though is that our flesh will not save us only Christ will save us and redeem us through the sacrifice of what He did on the Cross to liberate us.
If the good news is to be the Good News then the Good news must expose all falsehood in our society. While the majority of our society is so focused on the philosophical aspects of itself, the reality is that it is missing a major component of what established our society that is the Word of God. If even one person repents and accepts the Good News of Jesus Christ the angels in heaven rejoice and sing. I, no longer want to just preach to the masses, I want to see souls changed, and restored, liberated and set free from the addictions that assail our culture, exposing darkness and making the demons scream because this is the nature of the Word of God when it goes forth it will change people and change the way they behave.
This of course will ruffle some feathers with the established church system. They would rather have us believe that the denominations surrounding our culture are true, when in fact many of them are purely out for self glory and praise. 1st Corinthians 1:12-17, “12Some of you are saying, "I am a follower of Paul." Others are saying, "I follow Apollos," or "I follow Peter,[1] " or "I follow only Christ." 13Can Christ be divided into pieces?Was I, Paul, crucified for you? Were any of you baptized in the name of Paul? 14I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15for now no one can say they were baptized in my name. 16(Oh yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. I don’t remember baptizing anyone else.) 17For Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the Good News--and not with clever speeches and high-sounding ideas, for fear that the cross of Christ would lose its power.”
Who is a denomination greater than? A denomination is an affront to God’s Word. God did never want to build a denomination although this was a nature human enterprise to be sure. God is not limited to the walls of our denominational understanding of Himself, just as He is not limited to the confines that philosophy puts Him in. He is the King of Kings and the Warrior of all, and nobody can slay Him nor His Word will go forth and prosper and do as it will when it wills. That is not between man that is up to God in order for Him to accomplish as He pleases. Some can view this as they wish, but the reality is that God created the heavens and the earth and human beings to enjoy Him and the pleasures of creation forevermore. What we do with that decision and choice reflects the nature of our soul not the nature of God. The real problems with the Body of Christ today stem from the fact that we are not teaching our people to love God supremely, to love our neighbor supremely so that we can see souls saved and the unity of the Body restored. Instead, we are like a little children thrown to every activity and whim in every which way which leads us to the main thrust.
If we are the Body then we will shine like the Body not reflect the ungodliness that the world has exposed upon us. The Church today is focused upon the world’s ideas and agendas, instead of the Spirit’s moving. We long to experience revival and have revivals in our churches but do we long to have national revival? To have national change? To have worldwide change and revival? In many lands the revival has hit, in Asia, and Africa millions of people are being changed by the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If what we desire is to run a rescue shop at the front gates of hell, then we must repent first for our lack of honest pure desire of preaching God’s Word faithfully and truthfully to our flocks and to our people. In order to experience grace, you have to experience heart ache, and in order to experience heart ache you must experience powerfully the truth that you are a sinner in desperate need of God’s Son Jesus Christ, who through His sacrifice fulfilled the purpose of the Law so that we can have eternal life, He promised in the Garden of Eden, thus giving us this new life through His very blood, as the Passover Lamb, He fulfilled the standard of the Law, while still exposing us to its intent so that we could see the Law itself as it was, and thus turn in repentance and faith in Jesus.
So my plea is for the Body of Christ to be about what God intended it to be all along. Run the rescue shop at the front gates of hell, save the lost and the broken hearted, and set the captive free. This is God’s purpose in loving our neighbor so that together we can see the ultimate purpose of Christ expressed in its fullest sense. The Church is built upon these truths, but it is these truths that we have ignored for far to long, and it is these truths that will rise us and grow us into the Most holy faith of God’s Word. Then and only then we will not be Ephesians 4:14, "14Then we will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different or because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth." And then we will fulfill Ephesians 4:15-16Instead, we will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love." May we all as Pastors, teachers and followers of His Word be careful that we are running a rescue shop in our own lives at the front gates of hell, Amen!
Pastor Jenkins
