Evangelism Archives - Page 8 of 9

Reformation Sunday 2011: Reformation in the Boneyard

Joe Harby on October 30, 2011

Introduction

The end of October approaches, and as we mark and celebrate Luther’s Reformation, our heart’s desire and prayer should be for future historians to be able to describe it as a relatively small one. “Small” does not mean insignificant, but we should still see it as the Holy Spirit just getting started (Heb. 9:10). Eye has not seen and ear has not heard what God has prepared for those of us who love Him. So as we emphasize the five solas (as we should), let us exult in the one which is the true integration point for all of them—solus Christus—the cornerstone of every future reformation.

The Text

“Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more” (2 Cor. 5:16).

Summary of the Text

Christ died and rose for the world, and if we are to follow the apostle Paul’s argument here, this means that we have an obligation to see that world differently. We are called to see the world as saved in principle, beforehand, in the reality of Christ’s death and resurrection. We should not see the world as saved when our eyes finally tell us it is all right for us to believe. Who hopes for what he already has? The world will be saved because we already see Christ crucified and risen, and so we declare to the world what that means. What is it that overcomes the world? Is it not our faith?

The apostle tells us that how we see non-Christians is directly related to how we see Jesus. How we see the world is directly related to how we see Jesus. We like to think that a high Christology and a low cosmology go together, but they do not. We like to think that a high Christology and a low anthropology go together, but they do not. New Age mystics and distorters notwithstanding, we worship a cosmic Christ. Externalists notwithstanding, we worship a personal, heart-felt Jesus. “For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart” (2 Cor. 5:12).

Believing this to be the case, we are no longer permitted to understand any man “after the flesh.”There is a way of understanding humanity that does not take into account what Jesus did on the cross, and what He accomplished when He rose from the grave. That way of understanding humanity may call itself “realistic,” but how is it realistic to ignore God’s inauguration of the new creation?

The Obstacle of Total Depravity

Some may want to see men “after the flesh” because of the orthodox doctrine of total depravity (which is the orthodox and biblical doctrine), but how is it that we have come to believe that total depravity somehow has more power to hold down Jesus than the stone tomb did? The fact that Jesus was buried in a stone tomb is a biblical doctrine also, but that was not the end of the story.

Yes, unregenerate mankind is totally depraved. Yes, it is true that we cannot autonomously contribute in any way to our own salvation. Yes, it is true that we were dead in our trespasses and sins. But let us never preach the doctrine of total depravity without also declaring there has been a great earthquake, and that an angel of the Lord has rolled away the stone in front of that imposing doctrine.

We should magnify the greatness of our disease so that we might magnify even more the greatness of the cure. We do not magnify the greatness of the disease in order to proclaim that “not even Jesus, the great Healer, could deal with it.”

Resurrection Talk is Crazy Talk

This is crazy talk, I know. But it is also biblical talk. This whole world, since the sin of Adam, has been nothing but one, vast, pole-to-pole boneyard. We believe that death is the one inexorable ruler. We live in a global Marbletown. Whatever could Jesus do in a world like this? What could He possibly do that could transform a world like this? The gospel reply is that He could come back from the dead in it.

Billions of sinners, dead in their sins. Son of man, shall these bones live? Ah, sovereign Lord, you know. Son of man, prophesy to the bones. But Lord, bones can’t hear anything. Son of man, prophesy to the bones. But Lord, they are not paying any attention. Son of man, prophesy to the bones. But Lord, that’s not how I learned to do it in seminary. Son of man, prophesy to the bones. But Lord . . . but Lord . . . To see men after the flesh is to see nothing but the bones.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).

We do not invite Jesus into our lives—down here in the boneyard. Rather, Jesus invites us into His life, and the whole world is invited. The ministry of reconciliation is based on the fact of the cosmic reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-20).

Definite Atonement Both Ways

Some may object that this dilutes the truth of definite atonement. Not in the slightest. All who were purchased for eternal salvation by Christ will in fact be eternally saved. Those who were not so purchased will not be. The point here is not that Christ died indiscriminately for every last man, whether elect or damned. The point is that Christ died for the world, and those who are excluded from Christ are therefore excluded from that world—they are cast into the outer darkness. To be saved is to be saved into the new humanity. It is to be saved into the world.

But it further means that definite atonement is not synonymous with “tiny atonement.”The reality of definite atonement is seen in the specific numbers allotted to each tribe—12,000 from each tribe, no more, no less. The majestic extent of definite atonement is seen when John turned and looked. What did he see? He saw a multitude that no man can number (Rev. 7:9). How many will be saved? We can’t count that high. Look at the stars, Abraham. Use the Hubble telescope, Abraham. So shall your descendants be.

How will these things happen? What will bring it to pass? The glorious message of a glorious substitution will be declared and presented to every living creature. What shall we tell them? We should give them the message that we were told to give to them. We should prophesy to the bones. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21).

Gospel Intentionality

Joe Harby on May 8, 2011

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The Mission at Home

Evangelism begins at home. Paul argues in 1 Tim. 3:4-5 and Tit. 1:6 that the faithfulness of our own children is a prerequisite or foundation for any other teaching that we will do. This is true for individuals and it is true for churches on a corporate level. To certain extent, successful evangelism within families would make all other evangelism unnecessary.

A Post-Millenial Faith

But Scripture teaches that the Gospel is intended to spread to all nations. And in order for the Gospel to go to other nations, it must go to other families, to people other than our own children. Faithfulness to the Great Commission requires that we disciple people other than our own families. A rejection of this truth is what got the Jews of the first century into trouble. Judaizing was a rejection of a world-discipling Gospel. Therefore, while discipling our families and ordering our houses is critical. It is not the end. We as a church, need to be an evangelizing body. We are here to spread the Gospel. The gospel is a river that runs, not a marsh – backed up and in need of draining.

Evangelizing as a Body

To do this rightly, we must understand our role as a body (1 Cor. 12). Not all of us are called to act as the mouth. But when the mouth speaks, all the body is invested in what the mouth says. If the mouth goes talking trash to a biker gang on a Saturday night, the rest of the body is going to end up involved. So when a part of the body is evangelizing, the rest of the body is invested in that work.

Gospel Intentionality

Regardless of our individual giftings, we should learn to live with our minds and hearts set on discipling the nations – Gospel Intentionality. This begins with prayer. Look to expand your fellowship, where it is natural. Who has God put in front of you? Failing to understand that we minister as a body can place a lot of misguided pressure on saints within the church. We are not all gifted in the same ways. But we are all gifted to work together to the same end.

Evangelism as a Body

Strong families and a strong church do not have to be in tension with living evangelistically. These things not only qualify us to preach, they should actually be our greatest strength in evangelism. For instance, our world is characterized by father hunger. And we, of all the people on the Palouse, have fathers. Our world is homeless. And we have homes. Our world is hopeless. And we have hope. We don’t need to act that much different to proclaim the Gospel. We need to be ourselves, the body that God is making us into, in front of the world. This is Gospel intentionality.

Romans 61: The Priestly Work Of Evangelism (15:13-21)

Joe Harby on July 18, 2010

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Introduction

We have seen that we should not have lethargic or anemic views of evangelism. God is in the processing of saving the world, and that has ramifications for the town in which we live. But we must also be careful to not have irreligious views of evangelism. Evangelism is not mere recruitment; in this text, the apostle Paul gives us a striking image for our evangelistic work.

The Text

“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost . . .” (Rom. 15:13-21).

Summary of the Text

God is the God of hope, and He creates hope in us a particular way. He fills us with all joy and peace in our believing, and He does this through the Spirit, so that we might abound in hope (v. 13). Paul is convinced that the Romans are filled with goodness, and filled with knowledge, with the result that they are able to admonish one another (v. 14). He wrote to them boldly, not because he did not think this of them, but simply to remind them of what they knew (v. 15), according to the grace that had been given to him. God gave this grace to Paul in order he might be a minister of God to the Gentiles, in the priestly office of the gospel, that the sacrificial offering of the Gentiles might be sanctified and acceptable to God (v. 16). As a result he glories in what Christ has done through him (v. 17), and he refuses to take credit for work he did not do in the labor of making the Gentiles obedient (v. 18), while at the same time saying that God did indeed accomplish some marvelous things through him in the power of the Spirit (v. 19). Thus far, he had preached from Jerusalem in the east through Illyricum to the northwest (in the region of modern Croatia, Serbia, and Albania). He has been careful to avoid building on another man’s foundation (v. 20), an important courtesy. Paul must preferred building from scratch. In support of this approach, Paul then cites Is. 52:15—the verse right before the great gospel declaration of Is. 53, and right after the promise that many nations would be sprinkled.

Joy, Peace, and Hope

When God does a work in our hearts, He does not do it simply by zapping us, and then we are happy in some generic spiritual sense. God is an architect, and He builds His graces in us. Certain things come first, and others follow after, and it is all done by the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit. In this case, the God of hope fills us with something else, joy and peace, so that hope may follow abundantly. Without the joy and peace, the hope will be a vain hope, and will collapse. This is the pattern that the Holy Spirit follows. If you are agitated, for example, and you hope that your emotional agitation will cease, this is not the same kind of hope that Paul is talking about here. If you are solemn and grim, and you hope that all these frothy fellows cavorting about you will get a real job sometime, that is not the right kind of hope either. Real peace, real joy, leads to abundant hope. This is the Spirit’s way.

Goodness and Knowledge Both

Paul assumes that a lot of pastoral work is going to be done within the congregation. As the leaven of gospel teaching grows and spreads within the congregation, so does the ability of that congregation to admonish one another rightly. But notice what the two preconditions are. The first is that the admonisher be full of goodness, and the second is that he be full of knowledge. Goodness without knowledge leads to well-intentioned mayhem in the admonition. Knowledge without goodness leads to censorious priggishness, and certain self-appointed fellows with the “gift of rebuking” start letting other people have it.

When a man is full of goodness, and full of knowledge, then and only then is the beam out of his eye. But when these conditions pertain across a congregation, a lot of pastoral ministry occurs that the church leadership never even hears about.

Priestly Evangelists

The language Paul uses to decribe his evangelistic efforts is quite striking. In verse 15, he says that the grace of God was given to him to make him a minister of Jesus Christ (v. 16). The word for minister here is leiturgos, a word used for priestly ministers in a temple. We get the word liturgy from it. He then says that he ministers the gospel of God. The word here is hierourgeo and means “to minister as a priest.” The preach or declare the blood of Christ shed for sinners is to conduct a priestly work. It is not priestly in the old typical sense—clouds of incense and blood on the altar, but it is the antitype. This makes it the real priestly work, of which the older forms of priestly work were just shadows and smoke. We must appropriate the reality here by faith, and This is not a way of spiritualizing it away— evangelists and ministers are priests of the gospel. Note that the converts are an offering made to God. This too is sacrificial language, and it is striking. The Gentiles, symbolized by unclean animals, are now sanctified by the Holy Spirit and are to be offered up as an acceptable offering. Acceptable is even more sacrificial language (Rom. 12:1-2; Is. 60:5-7). If we think of this rightly, it is not worship and evangelism, or worship or evangelism. It is that worship is evangelism. In learning this, we must not skew it.

Turf Concerns

Priests served in an orderly fashion (Luke 1:8). The work of God is conducted in a manner that is consistent with order and good government (1 Pet. 5:3). Just as the land of Canaan was apportioned among the tribes, so also the ministry of worship/evangelism is apportioned. Paul says in this passage that he had been assigned the Gentiles, and this is why he was very careful in his ministry to the Jews.

Obedience to the Gospel

We must take care to distinguish works from obedience. Our understand of obedience is based on whatever the commandment was. If the command was “believe,” then obedience is to have faith alone. If the command was to climb this greasy pole all the way to Heaven, then obedience would be works. So which is it? This is the work of God that you believe in the one God has sent (Jn. 6:29). Obedience is something rendered to the gospel; obedience is a gospel duty (Acts 6:7; Rom. 6:16; Rom. 15:18; Rom. 16:26, and more).

Romans 60: On That Day… (15:8-12)

Joe Harby on July 11, 2010

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Introduction

Our views of evangelism are far too tiny, too anemic, and too weak. Evangelism is not a matter of recruiting enough people so that your church can pay its bills. Evangelism is not a matter of getting market share. Evangelism is not a matter of the Israelite army settling for a portion of Canaan. Evangelism is about the salvation of the whole world.

The Text

“Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: 9 And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name. 10 And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people. 11 And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him, all ye people. 12 And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust” (Rom. 15:8-12).

Summary of the Text

Jesus Christ was a minister of the Jews, a minister of the circumcision, in order that the promises that God made to the patriarchs might be confirmed (v. 8). Jesus was a rabbi of Israel. But He was not just as rabbi of Israel, but was also the desire of the nations. He came in such a way that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy to them (v. 9). In support of this, Paul cites 2 Sam. 22:50 and Psalm 18:49—confession is to be made among the Gentiles, and songs of praise sung in their midst (v. 9). Then he quotes Dt. 32:43, where the Gentiles are invited to join in the praise (v. 10). Then he quotes Psalm 117:1, where all the nations are called upon to sing praise to the Lord (v. 11). And then he tops it off with a most instruction quotation from Isaiah 11:10, where the prophet tells us that the root of Jesse will spring up, that He will rule over the nations, and that the Gentiles will in fact hope in Him (v. 12).

A Minister of the Circumcision

Jesus Christ came to the Jews, and He came to them as a servant, as a deacon. He is described here as a minister or servant of the circumcision, in order to accomplish two things. The first was that He came in order to fulfill the promises that had been made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But the second was based on the first, and it was something that the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had not understood. The promises made to the patriarchs of the Jews were not exclusive promises, but rather promises that encompassed the whole world. The confirmation of these promises therefore overflowed into the Gentile world as well—Jesus was a minister of the circumcision so that the uncircumcision would be able to glorify God for His mercy. This was not an esoteric aspect of the promises given to the fathers. Abraham was told, remember, that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him. The Lord had pointed to the stars and had said, so shall your descendants be. And as Paul argued earlier in Romans, Abraham believed God in this before he was circumcised, making him the archtypical Gentile. And he was then circumcised, making him the archtypical Jew. He truly is Father Abraham.

Let the Gentiles Sing

As the great King David was on his death bed, he sang about how he would praise the Lord in the presence of the Gentiles (2 Sam. 22:50). A variation of this is found in Ps. 18:49). The Gentiles watch while David praises the Lord. But they are destined to be more than spectators. Remember that Dt. 32 has been a key to understanding Paul’s view of Israel’s apostasy. In that verse, the Gentiles are invited to praise the Lord, together with His people, for the Lord will avenge the blood of His servants. The Gentiles are invited to sing and rejoice in the context of the coming demolition of Jerusalem (Dt. 32:43). Then Paul cites the very short psalm, where the nations are invited simply to praise the Lord—His merciful kindness is great toward us (Ps. 117). The Church needs to stop preaching to the devil’s stragglers, and start preaching to the world.The salvation that the Lord is bringing upon the earth is by no means limited to the Jews. This salvation is for all the world, all the nations, all the peoples, and all the tribes. The Church needs to stop preaching to the devil’s stragglers, and start preaching to the world.

Is Isaiah Out of His Mind?

The next quotation, from Isaiah 11, is quite instructive. Let’s look from the beginning of that chapter.

1And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 2And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; 3And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: 4But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. 5And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. 7And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. 9They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. 10And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious” (Is. 11:1-10).

What is Paul doing? He is citing this passage, along with all the others, in order to justify his mission to the Gentiles, which he began two thousand years ago. There are two things we must remember in this regard. The first is that these days of glory do not arrive, wham, overnight. The leaven works through the loaf, and the mustard seed grows. But the second is that Isaiah tells us what the loaf looks like fully risen, and Paul tells us that the leaven was at work in the loaf in his day. Is Isaiah out of his mind? No, but we who call ourselves Christians are frequently out of ours. Why do we not believe what the prophets have spoken?

The Pentecostal Gift

Joe Harby on May 23, 2010

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Introduction

As we celebrate the various holidays of the church year, we generally know what they are about. Christmas celebrates the birth of Christ, and Easter His resurrection. And even if you didn’t know what Ascension Day was about, you could probably guess from the name—in a “who’s buried in Grant’s tomb?” sort of way. But what is Pentecost about? Even if we know the reason for the name, what is it we are celebrating?

The Text

“But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men” (Eph. 4:7-8)

Summary of the Text

After Christ ascended into Heaven, where He received all power and authority, as well as being given every nation of the earth, His first regal act was to disperse gifts among His people. This is what a king does upon his coronation. Paul says here that among believers “every one of us” has received something, in accordance with the measure of the gift of Christ (v. 7). So the Lord ascended on high (v. 8). He led captivity captive, meaning that all the Old Testament saints who had been waiting for release from Sheol, followed Him to Heaven (v. 8). And once He was established there in Heaven, He began the glorious work of establishing His rule on earth. He rules in principle, and is the only legitimate ruler of the nations of men. He has commanded us to go out and proclaim this reality to all nations (Matt. 28: ), and so that we would not be powerless as we undertook the task, He gave us gifts to equip us (v. 8). Pentecost is therefore a celebration of evangelism. It is a celebration of harvest, and of the workers who have been fitted out to labor in that harvest. It is the answer to the prayer that Jesus suggested, that God would send laborers into the harvest (Luke 10:2; John 4:25).

The Old Testament Pentecost

Our name for this festival comes from the Greek name for the Old Testament festival that was called the Feast of Weeks (Lev. 23:15; Dt. 16:9). The name means “fifty” and refers to the fifty days that began with the wave offering of Passover. The thing being celebrated by Pentecost was the conclusion of the grain harvest. Although it is a spring festival, it is a harvest home festival. This imagery is not altered in the New Testament Pentecost, but is rather picked up and expanded. It is still all about the harvest, but it is the inauguration of the harvest, not the conclusion of it. The original band of workers has gathered, and God gives out the gifts that will enable them to work—He hands out the scythes, and He bestows the power to wield them. He does not give us Pentecostal power so that we might enjoy a buzz in our heads, but rather bestows power so that we might work (Col. 1:28-29).

Puzzled By the Gifts

But we still need to be checked out on our gear. Many Christians have been distracted by the biblical description of some of these gifts, instead of feeling equipped by them. The first thing to note in our passage is that God gave four basic gifts—apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor/teachers (Eph. 4:11). Here the metaphor is one of building, not harvesting. Apostles and prophets are foundational. Evangelists bring in the materials, and pastor/teachers assemble it into the building. Apostles and prophets pour the concrete. Evangelists are the loggers and sawmill operators. Pastor/teachers are the contractors.

Signs of an Apostle

What gave the apostles and prophets the right to pour the foundation? Since their work set the boundaries for all subsequent work, we need to be sure that they are from God. “Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds” (2 Cor. 12:12). The foundational work that we are building on is the foundation work of Scripture. The sign gifts were, among other things, a sign that the person who had that gift, or was a source of it, was someone authorized to do foundation work—which is to say, someone authorized to write Scripture. And remember that the other fundamental sign that tongues provided was a sign of judgment against the Jews (1 Cor. 14: 22). It meant, in essence, that they were no longer the authorized builders. The stone the builders rejected became the cornerstone.

Real Tongues

But if this is true, then what are we to make of the “ecstatic utterances” that accompany the worship of many modern Christians? The biblical gift of tongues is a gift of languages. This means two things. First, it has to be a coherent language, and not a jumbling of syllables with way too many a’s. Second, it needs to be a gift, and not acquired the normal way—which would be by growing up in a culture, or by arduous study.

On the first point, it shouldn’t be babababababra-ann, for some Beach Boys tongues, and it shouldn’t be shambala shambala, for some Three Dog Night tongues. It needs to be a language—In principio Deus creavit caelum et terram, for Latin, or Feallen sceolan hæÞene æt hilde, for Anglo Saxon, and tres biens, mademoiselle is French . . . or so I am told. At Pentecost:, the words given to the believers on that day were words of other tongues (Acts 2:4), which were then called dialects (Acts 2:6). And men from many different nations understood them. And the second point is that a real language has to be given, just like that.

What Non-Christians Are For

The celebration of Pentecost reminds us of what we should see when we look out at the unbelieving world. What are non-Christians for, exactly? We should have the same feeling about that as a farmer has when he is looking at a field that is “white unto harvest.” When we call non-believers to repentance, we are not meddling or interfering. When we proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to men, we have come to our place in the story. Christ was born, lived, died, rose, and ascended. And He gave gifts to men.