|
The Call to be
H.I.S. People - with Humility, Integrity and Simplicity ~
About 4,000 years ago, God launched his global mission,
with the first Great Commission, the one he gave to Abraham, telling
him to "Go ... be a blessing ...and through you all nations on the
earth will be blessed". That is God's great mission. That,
says Paul, is the gospel that the Scriptures announced in advance to
Abraham - God will bless the nations!
But there were many obstacles - in Bible times and ever
since; many things that keep frustrating and hindering that
great loving, saving, mission of God. What do you think is the greatest of those obstacles to
God's desire for the evangelization of the world?
Not other religions, persecution, or resistant cultures. Those
are all serious challenges - of course, But....the
overwhelming witness of the Bible is that the greatest problem for God
in his redemptive mission for the world is ... his own people.
What hurts God most, it seems, is not just the sin of the world, but
the failure, disobedience and rebellion of those God has redeemed and
called to be his people, his holy people, his distinctive people.
Idolatry: that's the biggest single obstacle to world mission. For if
God's mission is to bring all nations into the blessing of knowing and
worshipping him alone as Creator and Redeemer, then the greatest threat
to that is the worship of other gods, false gods, no gods. But
the problem was not just the
idolatry of the foreign nations and their false gods, but the idolatry
of God's own people. There are many false gods and idols, of
course, that entice us away from the living God alone, but three in
particular seem especially seductive, just as much for evangelical
Christians today as for Israel of old:
• the idol of power and pride;
• the idol of popularity and success;
• the idol of wealth and greed.
1. The idol of Power and Pride. Listen to the word of the Lord, through Isaiah.
"The LORD Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and
lofty, for all that is exalted (and they will be humbled), ... 17
The arrogance of man will be brought low and the pride of men humbled;
the LORD alone will be exalted in that day, 18 and the
idols will totally disappear." (Isaiah 1:12-18)
Listen to the Lord Jesus Christ himself
Jesus said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over
them; .... 26 But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should
be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves.
...I am among you as one who serves." (Luke 22:24-27)
Sisters and brothers, to be obsessed with power and
status in Christian work is sheer disobedience to Christ and the Bible.
It destroys the very thing we are trying to accomplish.We are called back in repentance to Humility.
2. The idols of Popularity and Success
These idols lead us into
manipulation, dishonesty, distortion - like the false
prophets, false prophets who were claiming to speak the word of God but
were really acting in their own self-interest; who were
claiming to be men of God, but just giving the people whatever they
most wanted to hear or see at the time. Popular, successful -
certainly, - but false prophets in the grip of a false god.
In the early church, Paul warned against those who 'peddled the word of
God for profit', those who "used deception and distortion" (2
Cor. 2:17, 4:2). The church was dazzled by these 'super apostles'
as he called them - who boasted of their credentials, their impressive
speaking, their great popularity. They
were the kind of successful leaders the church at Corinth wanted -
to boost their own image. But Paul says, such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as
apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself
masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising,
then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their
end will be what their actions deserve. (2 Corinthians 11:13-15.)
Sisters and brothers, we cannot build the kingdom of the
God of truth on foundations of dishonesty. Telling lies about our
success, or accepting what we know to be very questionable statistics,
in order to get or to grant funding for our projects, is nothing short
of bowing down to the idols of manipulated success. We are called back in repentance to Integrity.
3. The idols of Wealth and GreedJesus gave a stern warning:
"Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's
life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." (Luke 12:15 ) and neither, he could
have added, does a man's ministry.
We are called back in repentance to Simplicity.
there are parts of the so-called evangelical church today
where the same three idols are rampant. á There are self-appointed super 'apostles' and other mighty and
elevated leaders, unaccountable to anybody, popular with thousands of
followers, lording it over the flock of Christ, unconcerned for the
weak and poor, showing none of the marks of an apostle that Paul talks
about, and with no resemblance to the crucified Christ.
That's the idolatry of pride and power.
á There is a craze for 'success', for 'results', the largest
number in the shortest time. There is obsession with statistics and
outcomes, which sometimes leads to wild claims, unsubstantiated
numbers, untrue reports - blatant manipulation and collusion in
falsehood, all for the sake of funding, etc. That's the idolatry
of success.
á There is the so-called Prosperity Gospel. We certainly
affirm what the Bible says about God's blessing, about the power
of God's Spirit and the victory of God over all that crushes and curses
human life - but, many promoters of this teaching distort the Bible (if
they use it at all), appeal to human greed, have no place for the
Bible's teaching on suffering and taking up the cross, and succeed only
in enriching themselves to a lifestyle utterly contrary to the teaching
and example of Christ. The idolatry of greed.
What then must we do? We need a radical return to the Lord - We need to hear the
prophetic word, from the prophets and apostles of God, and from the
Lord Jesus Christ himself: 'Repent, and believe the
gospel....' Remember, Jesus preached that message, made that command - not to pagan unbelievers,
gentile outsiders, people of other faiths - but to those
who already claimed to be God's covenant people. And so it comes
to us.
• Before we go out to the world, we must come back to the
Lord.
• If we want to change the world, we must first change our
own hearts and our ways (Jer. 7:3-8).
• As we take the words of the gospel to the world, we must also
take with us words of confession to God (Hos. 14:1-2).
á
• Before we get off our seats to seek the lost, we must get on our
knees to seek the Lord.
We invite you to do these things - in prayer before
God.
• Where we have been exalted our status, titles or
authority, let us walk humbly with our God, for the Lord gives
grace to the humble but puts down the proud.
• Where we have manipulated, distorted, or exaggerated, let
us walk in the light and truth of God, for the Lord looks on the heart
and is pleased with integrity.
• Where we have used our ministry for our own selfish gain,
let us walk in the simplicity of Jesus, for we cannot serve God and
mammon.
Humility, Integrity, Simplicity.
- H.I.S.
His People. Let us be what we are, for God's sake, for our mission's
sake, for the world's sake.
Edited and distributed by permission of the author. Calling the Church of Christ Back to
Humility, Integrity and Simplicity a plenary message by Christopher
Wright at the 3rd Lausanne Congress for World
Evangelization, Cape Town, South Africa, October 2010. Dr. Wright
is the International Director of Langham Partnership International,
founded by John Stott.
|
