In our last teaching “WHAT IS A DISCIPLE?
SPEAKING THE TRUTH IN LOVE III”
we asked the question, “Why do we have a tendency to ignore these important teachings?” Referring to the teachings of Jesus.
For years the evangelical church has taught or at least strongly implied that Christianity is all about what you believe and not about what you do. This tendency has caused Christians in many circles to live however they please and assume that they were good Christians. This tendency probably goes all the way back to before the reformation when they believed you only had to make confession and everything was taken care of. Many evangelicals today believe that salvation is based only on what you believe and has nothing to do with what you do. Even Luther said that if your actions didn't change after you were saved then maybe nothing happened. I agree that initial conversion is by faith and not works but I also believe if we do not experience change in the way we live after we are converted then we need to reconsider whether or not anything really happened when we accepted Christ.
I remember doing a term paper in seminary on The Sermon On The Mount. I went through twenty-two different books which were either written on that sermon or commentaries on Matthew’s gospel. Out of all those books I only found one that actually said that those teachings were for today and to be taken seriously and obeyed. The others either attributed those teachings to the inter-testamental period, saying that they didn’t apply to us or that they were teachings for a future time perhaps the age to come. Others, yet, inferred that only certain parts could be applied to us today and the parts that didn’t make sense were not to be taken seriously. Some said that Jesus knew that they were impossible to apply literally in our lives but were written just to give us an understanding of what sin really is.
An understanding and application of Jesus’ teachings is the primary thing that separates the believer from the world today. Current statistics reveal that the life style of 21st century believers in the USA and their secular counterparts is basically the same.
This is not surprising when our current popular theology has told us that Christianity is based only on what we believe and has nothing to do with our actions. This is simply not the Christianity of the Apostles nor what was taught by the church fathers during the first 300 years of church history.
Pastors today in many sectors of the church no longer believe that there is really power in the gospel to transform lives to the point that we can really see the character of Christ manifest in the life of the believer. When a believer actually acts according to the gospel and turns the other cheek or loves their enemy it is looked upon by other believers as some kind of an anomaly, an almost unbelievable rarity.
I remember hearing the testimony of a Chinese evangelist called Yun. (his given name is Liu Zhenying). Yun and two other apostolic leaders received a vision of sending 140 thousand missionaries the west and south to preach the gospel all the way to Jerusalem.[1] Yun said that if they had sent out anyone who had wanted to go they would have sent out the full quota of preachers immediately in spite of the fact that they had no money or resources of any kind to help them get to their destination. They would have to go totally by faith.
Not only that but it is illegal for Chinese people to travel about as they wish; they must secure travel documents that are only given to people on official government business, or special circumstances. They only sent out seasoned veterans who had at least ten years experience as gospel workers or pastors. I couldn’t help but wonder if the call went out in every evangelical Bible believing church in America for volunteers to go without money or resources and to be dropped off in some Middle Eastern country to preach the gospel, how many hands would go up?
I’m not suggesting that believers should respond to some emotional appeal from a zealous evangelist but if we are true disciples we must consider our lives in the light of the general call of Jesus, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15) As one missionary friend said, “Two thirds of God’s name is go.” When I first read Brother Yun’s book, The Heavenly Man, I ran into statements that I simply couldn’t believe. I finally pitched the book in the corner of my room and said, “I don’t believe it.” Before the book even hit the wall, I sensed the conviction of the Holy Spirit coming upon me. He spoke clearly to me saying, “Yun is a servant of mine and everything he is saying in this book is the truth.” I sheepishly picked up the book from behind the bed and continued reading. I heartily recommend it to you, along with Fox’s Book of Martyrs as “must reads” for all disciples.
It is a shock to many believers to find out that Jesus actually wants his disciples to fully obey his commands in fact it goes deeper than that, he expects us to be so filled and flooded with his word and his power, living so close to him in deep and intimate fellowship that we automatically, out of the abundance of our hearts act and respond in any given situation like Jesus would live, act and respond if he were we.
It’s no wonder that pastors in the west are looked on as not much more than chaplains of a cultural country club and that the world does not take us seriously. Why should they, when we don’t even take our Lord seriously? For a long time I have thought that God has supernaturally installed something in the heart of every human that somehow knows something of how a Christian is supposed to live and are deeply offended when we don’t live up to what Jesus has commanded us.
“..the pastoral ministry is doomed to the petty concerns of helping people feel a bit better about themselves, rather than inviting them to a dramatic conversion. The pastor becomes nothing more than a court chaplain, presiding over the ceremonies of the popular culture, a pleasing fixture for rites of passage like weddings and funerals,”[2]
We are needed to say the benediction at the football game as well, but please refrain from using that dreaded name.
Our gospel has been watered down and transformed into a message of self esteem, a self help, pop-psychology course.
I have also studied through the teachings of the early church fathers and found that the teachings of Jesus, especially those contained in what is called The Sermon On The Mount (Mat. 5-7) was the primary focus of a lot of their writings. Jesus seemed to know that theologians, pastors and Bible teachers would look for ways to circumvent these teachings. At the beginning of the teachings he offers this warning, “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Mat. 5:19,20) then at the end of the teaching he concludes with the parable of the houses built on the rock or on the sand,
"Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 "and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 26 Now everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall." (7:24-27)
Note that Jesus says, “..these sayings of mine…” indicating that they are pivotal teachings for New Covenant life.
It is notable that immediately upon finishing the teaching he descends from the mountain and encounters a leper who asks for cleansing. Jesus immediately reaches out his hand, touches the leper and he is made clean. Leprosy in the Hebrew understanding was symbolic of sin. Any Jew who touched a leper was considered contaminated with uncleanness. He should wash his clothes and take a bath and not touch anyone else until after sundown. Jesus reversed the law of uncleanness, he touched the man who represented sin and made him clean. Many of the miracles that Jesus did were signs reinforcing the teaching that he gave.
To be continued.
[1] Back To Jerusalem by Paul Hattaway; contains the story of Yun, Peter Xu and Enoch Wang.
[2] Hauerwas avd Willimon; Resident Aliens, p-123
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