Tally
Ho, The Fox!
Chapter
8
Chapter 8 How This Standard Works in a Church 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, led captivity
captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended
first into the lower parts of the earth?
He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all
heavens, that he might fill all things.)
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some,
evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the
saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son
of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness
of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro,
and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men, and
cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. (Ephesians 4:7-14) Would the Christianity
presently represented in your church have produced the Book of Acts to begin
with? This
is a stern and searching question.
Honesty allows only one answer:
No. Then
what is the difference between the Christianity that did produce the Book of
Acts and the peculiar and distorted version that we see almost universally in
the American church? In
the early church, they followed Jesus’ model in building people who count,
but today we count people in crowds and institutions. Our
model is more one of disinfecting sinners for a clean life; theirs was more a
model of discipling saints for world impact.
Our
practice is more like putting converts into a safety deposit box called
“eternal security” rather than each believer investing his total life into
other saved individuals for the production of world-visionary,
world-impacting reproducers of other world-visionary, world-impacting
reproducers. So
what is the difference between the Christianity of 42 A.D. and the
Christianity of 2,000 A.D.? Is Jesus different? No, we worship and serve the same Jesus they
knew. Is the Holy Spirit
different? No, the Holy Spirit I relate to today is the same
Holy Spirit who “came” in the full release of redemptive power on the Day of
Pentecost. Is the Bible
different? Be very careful with this question, because the
answer is “yes.” They did not have a
complete Bible. They were finishing
the writing of the Bible through the activities recorded in the Book of
Acts. So the advantage of the complete
Bible lies in our court, not in theirs.
Was the difference in
technological or travel advantages? The very suggestion is ridiculous. We have every advantage; they had no
logistical advantage. God had arranged
the universal peace of the world by Roman might, and the worldwide network of
Roman roads, but these were only slight advantages compared to ours
today. They
didn’t have television, telephone, telegraph, telethon - they just had
“tell-a-person.” They did not have the
“fax” but they had the FACTS! But so
do we! Then, what accounted for
the fact that they had impacted the entire known world in an incredibly short
time, while today: - Roughly two-fifths of the human race is totally
unevangelized And - Two-fifths more is very poorly
evangelized. - The remaining one-fifth has far more man-power
and fire-power than that possessed by the early church, but to what
result? Is the difference between
us and them one of commitment? Some
would argue long and loud that this is the difference, but it isn’t. Not many people in the early church were
any more committed than the typical Christian of today who faithfully attends
church three times a week as well as special occasions, but still has almost
no influence on the 2.3 billion people who have not heard of Christ. The Christianity of the Book of Acts would
never tolerate such a statistic, but today’s church can continue in all of its
activities and pay almost no attention to the most tragic failure on earth. So
what is the difference between the Christianity of Alexander, Rufus, Tryphena, and Andronicus of the first century and Joe and
Susan and Sam and Eddie of the twentieth century? I say that the difference
is solely, exclusively, totally and alone one of STRATEGY. They operated by a radically different
strategy than we do! Let
me illustrate the traditional institutional model of today’s American
church. Picture a bus which travels to
a destination and transports passengers along the way. The church is like the bus. The pastor is like
the bus driver. The bus driver (pastor) welcomes the passengers
on board (and they may be welcomed by their fellow passengers as well). They
are seated and only arise to see to other necessary duties, and the bus
driver (pastor) gives lectures on the scenery along the way as he drives the
large numbers of passive, observing (possibly sleeping) passengers to their
agreed destination. The typical passenger endures the ride, but he
never recruits another rider, and seldom testifies of his appreciation for
the bus, the bus company, the route, or the trip. In short, the achievement of the journey
rests in the capability and efficiency of the bus and the performance of the
driver. This
is a far, far, cry from the Christianity of Jesus and the early
disciples. The Christianity of the
Book of Acts was essentially a people’s movement (Acts 1:8, Acts 8:1 and 4)
and not a preacher’s movement or an institutionalized movement. At
the North Pole there is a huge cap of ice on which the snow keeps building
up. Scientists tell us that if it were
ever to melt much of the world would be covered with water. Laymen
might be called “God’s frozen assets.”
If they were all melted before God and warmed to His vision, His
purpose, His goal, His strategy, “the earth would be filled with the
knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” God’s
model for his Church is clearly declared in Ephesians 4:7-14. The general
subject of the passage is spiritual gifts, but the gifts dealt with here are
not the normal variety of gifts presented in The New Testament. The
lists of gifts in Romans12, I Corinthians 12 and 14, and I Peter 4 are
generally quite different. Those gifts
are endowments from heaven placed by the Holy Spirit within believers. The
gifts here are actually gifted leaders which the Holy Spirit gives to his
Church for special, at-large purposes in the church, and for the
accomplishment of special goals. Let
me give an outline which will supply an overlook of the entire passage. The Giver of the Gifts I.
The Giver of these gifts is presented, v - 8-10. Three great facts are given about Jesus: A. He descended, 9, 10. B. He ascended, 8, 9, 10. C. He transcends, 10b. Note
one rule that emerges: though Satan’s way down is up,
God’s way up is down. “He who exalts
himself (like Satan) will be abased (brought down to the basement of the
universe), but he who humbles himself (like Jesus) will be exalted” (like
Jesus). The Gifts Themselves II. The Gifts (Gifted
men) are profiled, 11. A.
“Apostles.” B.
“Prophets.” C.
“Evangelists.” D.
“Pastor-teachers” (one office, not two). This
list would provide the material for limitless study and speculation. For
example, the question of the first two gifts mentioned is, do they exist in
today’s church? The “apostle” as an official position could only
exist in the early church because the specific qualifications (seeing Jesus
and being with Him) cannot be met by anyone after the first century. The office of “prophet” seems to be a distinctive
Old Testament office. Also, Ephesians 2:20 speaks
of these officers as the “foundation” of the church. Today, we are far up in the building of the
superstructure. The foundation is
important, but only in its place, not in the superstructure. However,
unprofitable speculation may cause us to miss the main point. The rule has often been stated, “like
leader like follower.” The follower
will be like his leader (Luke 6:40, the words of Jesus). So when Jesus gave to His Church four
leaders with distinct and distinguishable gifts, He is clearly telling us
what He intends His entire Church to be. Apostle The
word “apostle” means “one sent away from,” so he intends His entire church
(!!!!) To be a going and sending fellowship.
Many
take refuge from the responsibility to go in the idea of sending, but this
cannot be justified in the New testament.
Today’s church? It is filled
with coming people - people whose Christianity is defined by the faithfulness
by which they come and serve. The
very word “apostle” tells us why Jesus chose them
(Ephesians 1:3, Acts 1:3). The word
“chose” is a middle voice verb, meaning that Jesus chose them “for Himself,”
not primarily for their growth, their health, their wealth, their happiness,
even their fulfilment. A misplaced emphasis has created a
“consumer-friendly“ Christianity, which is a radical
misreading of the New Testament. The
New Testament presents God as the consumer, and we are His fuel. Jim
Elliott prayed truly, “Make me thy fuel, O flame of God!” What
did Jesus choose us for? To go where He wants us to go - “away from,” not
“to” - to be, say, and do whatever He wishes.
So
the only proper goal for any Christian must include a strategy to impact the
very ends of the earth. Can we
possibly see any proper limits on such a strategy in the Book of Acts? Oh, they tried to limit it to local,
introverted attention, but God sent a persecution that scattered them like
seeds (the very word that is used in Acts 8:1, and Acts 8:4, and in I Peter
1:1) out and out and out through the mixed soil of the Roman Empire. Be
wary, Christian, because a giant latter-day persecution is closing in fast on
the Violent fundamentalist Islam is storming the
world, and only the poor and weak The technological achievements and blasphemous
atheism of science and humanism have made potential persecutors
everywhere. So
the days of Christianity in its comfortable, convenient, fortress mentality
are numbered. Another dispersion, or
scattering of Christians, is on the way.
And God is the Sower! You see,
though we are conveniently hard of hearing about the responsibility to go,
God is very serious about it. Prophet The
word “prophet” means a “forth-teller” (not primarily a “foreteller” of
truth). A prophet is a truth sayer
not a soothsayer. A prophet was a “herald,” a “proclaimer,”
a “testifier.” So
when Jesus gave gifted prophets to His Church, He is showing that He intended
His Church to be a non-stop, always faithful, always bold, always speaking,
fellowship of people. “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.” This
accomplishes several Divine purposes.
It matures the speaker, because any person will pursue his spoken
confession, whatever the confession is.
It glorifies God, because He dwells
in the praise and testimony of His people.
And, it presents the Gospel to every
listener. Never
should any Christian check the temperature or pulse of the world before he
speaks, else he never speak at all! We
are speaking first to God, and about God, and for God, and therefore we must
not be silent. “I believe, therefore have I spoken.” The
prophets, preachers, teachers, and leaders of the church must speak fully,
clearly and boldly, and all believers must do the same. Evangelist The
word “evangelist” means a “good newser,” one who
“good newses” Jesus to people, and people to
Jesus. The
Gospel admits some very bad news concerning Satan and his evil devices, man
and his sinful condition and practice, God and His Holy reaction against sin,
and hell as the final asylum of the hopelessly inverted sinner. But sadly, the church has proclaimed the
bad news far more often and far more forcefully than it has proclaimed The
Good News. The
great and dominant message of Scripture is called the “Gospel,” euaggelion, the “Good News.” Nobody has truly received the good news
until he feels good about God, about Jesus, about the Holy Spirit, about
himself, about his salvation, about his present destiny and final
destination, and about the ultimate outcome of all things. God intends His
Church to be glorious and victorious in its presentation of good news. Pastor-Teacher Then
the word “pastor-teacher” yields a final truth of what God expects of His
Church. The
word “pastor” means “shepherd,” and it tells us that
He intends His people to lead. In
order to lead, the Christian must clearly and confidently know who he is,
what he has, where he is going, how to get there, what his purpose is today
and every day, and how to accomplish his assignment. Any
person who knows these things clearly and confidently can lead anyone. The
word “teacher” indicates that Jesus intends His Church to be a truth-telling,
educational, feeding fellowship. And
this is the assignment of every believer.
“By
all means” (I Corinthians 9:22) By
spontaneous word, prepared testimony, formal teaching and preaching, the
dissemination of tracts, books, magazines, letters (God is high on letters),
cassette and video tapes, radio and television, face-to-face and at a
distance, the Christian’s goal should be to influence, to bend, to sway, “to
win some.” These
are the “gifts” that are profiled; thus, the assignment, responsibility and
pattern of the church may be clearly seen. The Goals for the Giving
of These Gifts III. The Goals are
proclaimed, 12, 13. A. To
enlist members, 12b. B. To equip
the members, 12a. C. To
employ the members, 12b-16. To Enlist Members We
are to “build up” the Body of Christ by the use of these gifted men and their
emerging followers. So a new standard of enlistment must be
immediately employed by the church. The full terms of enlistment must be immediately
employed by the church. The full terms of the Christian “contract” must
be stated and accepted from the first moment of decision. Self-denial,
cross-bearing (these are “front-door” requirements, not maturity additions),
inside-out living, devotional and vocational Bible study, worship and warfare
prayer, etc., etc. And these cannot be
instilled as lifestyle by a 1-, 2-, or 3-hour-a-week exposure. Where,
in our evangelism, is a standard and practice for rejecting and dismissing
the idolatrous rich young ruler? And
this devastating standard was employed by Jesus in dismissing a polite,
orthodox, earnest, seeking inquirer (read Matthew 19:16-26 carefully). Incidentally,
the young man’s question, “What good thing shall I do, that I may have
eternal life?” was actually asked twice of Jesus. A lawyer (“expert” on Moses’ law) asked it
in Luke 10:25 in another setting altogether.
And neither time did Jesus give what most of us would consider an
“orthodox, plan-of-salvation” answer.
He applied the “mid-way test” at the front door! You
see, the word “believe,” which is simplistically used by us to state the way
of salvation, is itself a compound of two words, “by life,” and it means “to
live by.” What
you behave is what you believe! All
the rest is airy talk, “much ado about nothing,” pious words, often “full of
sound and fury, but signifying nothing.”
This is the Christianity which discusses but never does, “glories” but
never goes, “delights” but disobeys, purges itself for the sake of cleanliness
but never pours itself out for the sake of conquest, pours in to fill the
church (on Sunday morning) but never pours out to fill and impact the
farthest reaches of the earth . . . . We
must clearly state as an entrance requirement that the New Birth (which is
performed and proscribed only by God) is necessarily followed by the New Life
(which is equally produced and proscribed by God). So
we need a new enlistment in today’s church, an enlistment which understands
the full revelation of Jesus. After
all, should not a signee read and understand the entire contract before he
“sig ns on the dotted line”? To Equip the Members Then,
every member is to be “equipped” for his individual “work of ministering”
(4:12a). This sentence contains one of
the most expansive and definitive words of the New Testament. It
is translated “perfecting” in the KJV, but (as usual) no single translation
can possibly convey the full meaning of this word to us. One
translation says that the gifted men are given to the church to “equip” its
members; another says, “to fully furnish”; another, to “outfit” the
members. One
thing is certain: all Christians - without exemption, exception, or exclusion
- are to be so equipped, or outfitted, or furnished. The introverted institutional model of
today’s church is that the pastor is the star on center stage, while the
“laity” are left with odd jobs as stage hands,
lighting technicians, and custodians. This
model must be altered so that the pastor becomes the “outfitter” and the
people the ministers. The clearly
stated purpose of the outfitting is that each Christian may engage in “the
work of ministering.” You
see, the day you were saved, YOU WERE CALLED INTO THE MINISTRY! Your
pastor is not any more of a minister than you are! In
fact, you are to minister; your pastor is to equip you for the ministry. You
see, we need to rid the world of laymen and PUT EVERY CHRISTIAN INTO THE
FULL-TIME, VOCATIONAL, GOING, PROCLAIMING,
GOOD-NEWSING, LEADING AND FEEDING, MINISTRY!!!!! What a singing, shouting, overcoming,
marching, penetrating, victorious army the church would be! Eugenia
Price said, “The greatest sin of today’s church is that it has almost totally
tamed the Lion of Judah.” We have
tamed all the risk, all the threat, all the danger, all the martyrdom out of
Christianity, so more interest, challenge, and excitement can be generated by
a sports event or a rock concert than by the “all banners flying” march of
the The
word “equipped“ is a cosmopolitan word. A study of the use of the word in the New
Testament would both exhaust and shock us.
In
Greek, the basic word is “katartismon.” The “kat” part is
a prefix, and the “mon” part is an ending. Strip these away and you will get to the
heart and the basic meaning of the word translated “equip” or “outfit” or
“furnish” or “prepare for action.” The
root form is “artis” - from which we get our word
“artisan.” This
assignment consumed Jesus as a strategy for Twelve Men in hands-on, close-up,
round-the-clock, on-the-job training for approximately three years. Again, what does the word “Christlike” mean?
What does the word “Christlike” mean? If we cut away His Strategy, and omit His
Great Commission, and disregard His Model, why should we bemoan the condition
of the church and the world? We are
only living with the commodity we produced.
Remember
that Perception leads to Process, and Process leads to Product. If the Product is wrong (and who can deny
that it often is), then the Process must be wrong. Look
again at the word “equip.” Research
reveals that it was a widely used word in the Greek-speaking world of the
first century. And it carried many
shades of meaning: (1)
To pacify a city that was torn by faction. (2) To set a limb that has been dislocated. (3) To develop certain parts of the body by
exercise. (4) To restore a person to his right mind. (5) To reconcile friends who have been estranged. (6) To fully furnish something or someone for a
given purpose. (7) To order things properly, or to correctly
arrange things. (8) To put something on the path of progress. Before
you leave this list too hurriedly, look back over it and translate each
statement into the job description of the leaders of the Body of Christ. Then, translate each statement into the
life and conduct of all the followers, because disciples will become like
their teacher (Luke 6:40). To Employ the Members So
the traditional roles of “clergy” and “laity” must be reversed. The
“laity” become the troops in the front lines (fully armed, fully aware, and
fully active), and the “clergy,” with the gathered church, exist to support
them. Charles
Colson was right when he wrote, “each of us as believers must see ourselves
as ministers of the Gospel. We don’t
simply attend church, consuming a religious product.” The Christian who has no personal ministry
which eventuates into powerful world impact is a distorted version of a
Christian. The
goal is the full-time employment of every Christian in living the Christian
life and penetrating and impacting the world by means of the strategy of
Jesus. Again,
the building of world-visionary, world-impacting, multipliers emerges as the
Top Priority (as in the Great Commission).
In order for the church to correct its tragic distortions, it must
practice a new and different recruitment, a new and
different equipment, and a new and different deployment. May
God open the eyes of our hearts and flood them with light (Ephesians
1:17-19)! So
the immediate purpose inside a fellowship of believers is to “equip the
saints.” This
will require a full-orbed, all-cylinders-functioning training of every
believer. The ultimate purpose is to
“build up the church” - qualitatively, by edifying it on the inside, and
quantitatively, by enlarging it from the outside. How far outside? Each church must see its assignment as “the
uttermost part of the earth.” So it
must extend its “supply lines” - its personnel, its finances, its plans,
strategies, and actions - to the very ends of the earth. Remember, the light that shines farthest
shines brightest at home. Models of a Local
Fellowship of Believers Let
me conclude this study by diagraming two models of
a local fellowship of believers. One
is the usual model in the American church, the other is the practical model
called for in our text.
In
the first model, the congregation is made up of auditors, observers,
supporters - unfulfilled believers.
When the commitment narrows and sharpens a bit, the more committed
person becomes a leader in the fellowship.
As the commitment sharpens more (usually centering only in the local
body), church staff members emerge. And
behold, the most committed person in the church is usually seen to be the
pastor! The distortion of this model
is evident. So the weight of the body
and of its responsibilities rests largely on the pastor. The
pastor carries innumerable responsibilities inside the body and is often the
only one who sees or addresses responsibility outside the body. Special programs entice the most committed
members to the “special” works of soul-winning, missions, special community
services, etc. But the burden of
performance, achievement and world impact falls largely upon the pastor. The
results of this model are three-fold: (1) A very discouraged leadership. Over 1,000
pastors a year are leaving the Southern Baptist preaching ministry. Over 300
a month are being forcibly removed (“fired”) from pulpits across the Southern
Baptist Convention. Does this
embarrass us? It certainly
should! And it can be corrected. (2) A largely “carnal” (self-centered,
self-gratifying) church membership. In
this model, the members recognize no assignment except church attendance, institutional
loyalty, and auditing support. Is it
any wonder that they remain carnal? (3) A largely unevangelized world. Most of the human race have either not
heard the Name of Jesus at all, or they have only “barely” heard it. The Christianity of the Book of Acts
addressed an even more hopeless situation and completely changed it in a
shockingly short time. The situation
can be changed just as dramatically today, but not by the continuation of the
same crippled model. The
other model is almost the precise opposite of the former one.
In
this model, the pastor has the first responsibility chronologically. His position is one of responsibility, not
of prestige! The responsibility of
such a position is immeasurably greater than any prestige that might be
gained from it. In fact, it could
almost be stated as a rule: any profile of the body that eventuates in the
ever-enlarging reputation (for success, ability, etc.) of its leader is
highly suspect from a Christian viewpoint!
Flesh courts attention, recognition, decoration, and this is only one
weakness flesh is heir to! Flesh
cannot be trusted with the kind of accolades that are given to super-status,
super star leaders. The
pastor’s first responsibility in this model (an American church, thus
limited, model) is to equip and infect his staff, and this includes the
vision of disciple-making to penetrate the entire world. This
common vision should determine the ministry of each staff member, and should
dictate his goals for the disciples he is building. The pastor is also responsible to equip and
infect the leaders, but now he has an incredible advantage. The leaders are now being “doubly equipped”
with a common vision and strategy, one directly from the pastor, the other
from the staff. And
now pastor, staff and leaders will be united in equipping all the saints for
their work of ministering. When this
expectation is implemented, the “dead weight” will fall away and the “rich
young rulers” will be gone. But the
eyes, mouths, ears, hands, knees, and feet of the body will be seeing,
speaking, hearing, doing, kneeling and walking, in complete consolidation -
always moving out toward the ends of the earth. The
local fellowship is not the primary place of ministry (though much ministry
takes place there), it is the powerful base for
ministry. The people are automatically
showing and sharing Christ wherever they are, and they are consciously
structuring strategies to personally penetrate to the ends of the earth. At
this point, I want to strongly recommend that each reader obtain and master a
book by David Bryant entitled, In the Gap. It concerns the vocation of every believer
to stand “in the gap” at the widest places between the evangelized and the
unevangelized in today’s world. One of
my own men called it “the best book I have ever read outside the Bible.” What
is the outcome when the second model becomes a reality? Again, there is a three-fold result: (1) The most excited and fulfilled leaders on
earth. (2) Ever enlarging numbers of “spiritual”
believers (Christ-centered, God-honoring, Spirit-filled, world-impacting
saints). (3) An increasingly evangelized world. The
strategies for implementing the second model are inherent in the Mandate and
Model of Jesus and the Mandate and Model of Ephesians 4. But we must be very careful. God’s ultimate purposes depend on the
fulfillment of His immediate purposes.
- Are you yourself being discipled - close-up,
“hands-on,” with on-the-job assignments for world impact? - Are you building into others - close-up,
“hands-on,” with on-the-job assignments for world impact? Selah! |
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Copyright © 2005, by ToBeLikeHim Ministries