Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

In our last blog, we discussed that Jesus fully understood the cost of our salvation. Fully God yet fully man, he chose to endure a gruesome beating and tortuous death to pay the price for our sin, but He was tempted to turn away. What man wouldn’t be fearful? How could the thought of running away not occur to Him?

No, it is not sacreligious to speak of the temptation of Jesus during His Passion. Too often we emphasize only His godly perfection and relegate the temptation to His wilderness experience. The point of His birth as a man was to overcome the sinful nature  inherent in man. He came to redeem mankind, to conquer sin and death, to restore us to the image of God, and to make us worthy to rule with Him in Glory (Daniel 7:27). Only One who bore both the nature and frailties of man and the nature and power of God could be found worthy serve as sacrifice of the cumulative sins of mankind.

As Christians we are told to deny ourselves and take up our own cross and follow Him. The clause “to take up your cross” explicitly implies that we should suffer the death of our carnal, sinful, nature. It implies also that we should consider Christ of such great value (and ourselves of such little value) that we are ready to die physically for Him if asked.

The Apostle Paul understood just that. While we learn theology through Paul’s letters, we learn his bio in the work of Luke that we know as the Acts of the Apostles. The wonderful thing about Luke is that he wrote two works, one of which is a sequel to the other. We learn about the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. We learn about the birth, growth, persecution, and scattering of the Church in Acts.

There are many other parallels in the literary styles of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, but only one that we will note here. In Luke, we view six trials of Jesus before His crucifixion. The writer makes clear in his narrative that Jesus is innocent in all six trials*. The powers that be – the governors of Judea and Galilee – find that Jesus had broken no laws. Nonetheless, Christ is punished unto death.

In Acts, we see that Paul also endured six trials. In each, he too was found to have broken no laws. He was brought before Porcius Festus and Marcus Antonius Felix, governors of Judea. Like Pontius Pilate before them, both men allowed the sentiment of the ruling class Jews and the public to sway them. Festus sends Paul to Rome where the apostle would – tradition tells – face the Emporer Nero who eventually condemns the apostle to death**.

Is Luke making out Paul to be a replacement for Christ, a new messiah? Not at all. He is emphasizing that, like Paul, we must bear our cross and be willing to follow Christ to our deaths. Paul says in Acts 20:20-24 (NIV), Paul declares,

“You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.

“And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me —the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

A few paragraphs later, he reiterates the same sentiment:

Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” – Acts 21:13 NIV

Paul’s eyes were open wide and he knew exactly what awaited him in Jerusalem,

And, he went anyway.

Would you? Would I? I would like to think so. It is that kind of faith – the kind that says, “Lead me to the cross” – that Christ expects of us.

* Six may significant in that it represents man in the Bible.

** Many scholars believe that Paul won his appeal to Nero and, afterward, ministered in Spain, a journey that was not recorded in Acts. Later, he was again arrested and condemned to death in Rome.

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We’ve all heard the story of the man sitting on his rooftop during a flood. You know it, he passes up a rescue boat, a helicopter, etc., saying he is trusting God to rescue him. This does, I suppose, shed light on the old adage, “God helps those who helps themselves.”

I’ve never had a problem helping myself. I reckon my biggest problem is that I help myself too much and fail to trust God enough. I tend to be proud, prone to action, and perhaps I don’t think things through. Quick to judge. Quick to anger. Of little faith. Because I know these things, I ask God to help me change them.

I find the converse of that story to also be true, or truer. Many Christians are apt to see a brother suffering some sort of flood in his life and do nothing more than pray for him. Here is how that story goes:

A man sits on his rooftop as flood waters rise, desperately praying to God and calling everyone he knows on his cell, saying, “My house is gone. If help doesn’t arrive soon, I’ll drown. Everyone he calls sympathizes, agrees with him in prayer, offers encouragement, but no one rescues him. Not even emergency responders come to his aid.

Of course, while this is just another illustration, there is truth to it. The Bible does not say, “God helps those who helps themselves.” No. That’s a Ben Franklin quote. The Bible speaks much more about how God helps the helpless than about helping oneself. Paul, in his letters talks much more about man’s weakness and God’s strength than man’s strength.

James in his epistle places great stock in faith, and he pairs it with action. It is not enough to know the Word and Will of God. We must act on it. We must put it into action (James 1:22-25). We are, the body of Christ and, though I do not understand it, God – who created all that exists – has chosen to work His will and His miracles through broken and repentant people like you and me. We are His body, His hands and His feet. Prayer Should compel us to act.

Too often I have been the recipient of a phone call from a flooded brother. I pray, but fail to act. I have sometimes (even recently) been the one drowning and ignored.

Don’t neglect your struggling Christian brothers and sisters. Don’t assume that everything will turn out all right for them in the end. They may get lost in the flood.

Micah 6:8 NIV – He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

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Now let’s pretend that not only your church building loses electricity but your pastor’s house, too. Would your pastor be able to prepare a sermon without Internet? Would he or she have any stories to tell or illustrations to relate without searching online? Could your pastor speak from the heart or would he or she be lost with no light to read from a manuscript?

I imagine a church full of people wandering around in the dark, not knowing when to start the service because the countdown is not projected on the viewscreen. I imagine a congregation That cannot worship because they don’t have music and lights to manipulate their emotions, and because they have never been alone with God.

I remember attending church before viewscreens, before endless choruses, before the Internet, before Bible apps on smart phones, and before dark, cavernous multi-purpose meeting halls with manipulative lights, mood-affecting music, and polished performers.

I remember when we had a pastor to whom we could speak when we had a need, but that was before senior pastors, teaching pastors, youth pastors, children’s pastors, senior pastors, and church CEOs. I remember when we had to learn the books of the Bible and their order. I remember when we committed Scripture to memory. I remember when we were guided by the Spirit instead manipulated by the worship service .

And, I remember when we measured the success of a church not by the number of attendees but by the number of people whose lives were changed.

Why is the Church in the West dying? Because churches are social clubs doing “good works” based on social justice and humanistic principles, reaching out to people based on psychological precepts, marketing themselves like the newest trendy nightclubs, and presenting the prettiest, most talented, and charismatic musicians leading the newest music on a high-dollar sound system.

The dying Church in the West preaches “I can do all things through He that strengthens me,” and “I know the plans I have for you.” The dying Church preaches living “life abundantly.” It preaches giving with a “joyful heart.” But it forgets repentance and deliverance from sin, transformed lives, and freedom from the Law.

I long to find a church where the pastor preaches true Victory in Jesus because he has experienced it himself, not because he finds it in a Bible app. I pray for a church where the congregation is full of humble sinners whose lives are redeemed and transformed by the blood of the Lamb, and who are willing to reach out and lift others from the muck and mire of sin. I long for a church whose musicians play and sing to God’s glory, and not their own. I long for a song leader who doesn’t care if he or she is a little pitchy, because he or she is led by the Spirit and not the latest trends.

I pray let THE CHURCH BE THE CHURCH.

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Eritrea is called the North Korea of Africa. Cut out of the north end of Ethiopia, it is squeezed between Sudan and Djibouti on the Red Sea. It began its struggle to break away from Ethiopia in the 1960s and spent most of the next 50 years at war with that nation. The tiny nation has seen so much war that, for two years, it was responsible for the majority of refugees entering Europe. Even though the country has known peace in the past few years, its government – like that of North Korea – is so repressive, over 3% of its population has fled country.

Like most authoritarian nations, the elite grow obscenely wealthy, the masses starve, and the a dictator wrestles for control of freedoms, including freedom of religion. In Eritrea, about half the people are Islamic and the other half are Christian, but only three Christian churches are recognized: The Catholic Church, the Orthodox (Coptic) Church, and the Lutherans. All others are illegal.

Other churches may register with the government, but registration is such a complicated, lengthy, and invasive processes that the independent church registration has ground to a halt.

Many churches, then, meet in secret, illegally.

The Voice of the Martyrs just released the story of a worship leader in Eritrea – Helen Bethany – who was arrested for her participation in an outlawed church. She was imprisoned for 10 months, kept locked in a shipping container with a severely mentally handicapped woman. The woman physically abused her.

In spite of her imprisonment in such harsh conditions, Helen sang and prayed throughout the ordeal, even when guards beat her for it. She explains why she sang in this quote from The Voice of the Martyrs News, August 14, 2018:

When I was in prison just worshiping, [it] just kind of gave me strength. Also when you sing, it’s a heavy stone on the head of Satan, because he put you in these kind of things and when you start worshiping he is shocked. People don’t understand when something happen they close their door and cry … so he comes with other kind of [trials] or you repeat the same exam.

But when you start worshiping God … it is totally no space for Satan to attack you again and again.

What does following Jesus cost you? Your very life. Jesus tells us to consider the cost before we commit to Him, for we must give Him that which we love most: everything that we are, everything that we do, and everything that we ever hope to be. The cost is the commitment of our entire life. Our life is His to use as He pleases or to take as He wishes, for only He sees it from the unique perspective of the all-knowing creator of life. It is His breath in these lungs that I so foolishly consider my own. Who am I to argue with the very essence of life? All that I am is His.

My Tribute – by Andre’ Crouch

How can I say thanks for the things

You have done for me?

Things so undeserved yet You gave

To prove Your love for me

The voices of a million angels

Could not express my gratitude

All that I am, and ever hope to be

I owe it all to Thee

__________

__________

Holiness is, perhaps, the most misunderstood concept in Christianity. Anyone who has striven to follow the life of Christ can likely tell you that it is impossible to do. No one can match His love, His grace, or His compassion. For no one but Jesus is perfect. Once the believer is filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit, though, he or she is filled to the brim with the love of Christ, and desires nothing more than to please God and follow in Christ’s steps. The love of sin is gone. In its place is a love and passion for others. That is Christian Holiness. This is Christian Holiness Daily.

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Here are some interesting facts: according to Barna, 20% of Americans claim no faith (no religion). 1% were not sure if they had faith or not. 6% were something other than Christian. 73% identified as Christian Faith. Out of those who identified as Christian, only 31% claim to be “practicing Christians.” The question is, how can you be a non-practicing Christian?

I don’t know, but reaching non-practicing Christians should be a part of the mission of the Church.

Here is the mission statement from the Nazarene World Headquarters website.

The mission of the Church of the Nazarene is to make Christlike disciples in the nations

I.                   What is the Church and What is our purpose?

The best place to find the purpose of the church is to look in the Bible. If we look at the book of Acts, chapter 1, verses 6-9:

Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

                One can see the semblance between these verses and the mission statement of the Church of the Nazarene. The Nazarene Church doesn’t mention Jerusalem, Judea, or Samaria, but does mention the nations.

I could simply say that those verses are the mission of the Church and dismiss us. But that is not sufficient. The tension in the church today rests not in the mission, but in how it is implemented. Let me give you an example: At Christian colleges and universities, there are three routes that students can follow: 1) Study Theology and History of Theology; 2) Study to work in the mission field, whether at home and abroad; 3) Study arts or sciences and take only the required minimum number of religious courses. Why is that a problem?

Because nowhere in the Bible does God say that the Mission of the Church should only apply to a CHOICE few.

If so, Acts would read like this:

Then they gathered around him and the Simon called Peter asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority, so why don’t you stick to just leading the church and leave the prophesying to John. John, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and so I want you to be a theologian who specializes in eschatology; Matthias, Andrew, Nathaniel, Stephen, you guys just don’t have what it takes to be a preacher and don’t have the capacity that John does, so you will work secular jobs and be my witnesses by the way you act. Oh, and if anyone asks you why you act differently, then feel free to tell them about me. But only if you are not imposing, and only IF they ask first. And whatever you do, don’t sound preachy.”

After he said this, he was taken up a cloud and within a few years they wondered if what they had seen was real or a mass delusion.

The problem doesn’t lie solely in Christian Colleges. Theologians rarely think about how to spread the Gospel. Missionaries and pastors in the field rarely think deeply about theology. The rest of us, don’t realize – or don’t want to admit – that we too are supposed to carry out the Mission of the Church. Yet, a theologian who doesn’t care about missions is about as useful as the G in Lasagna. A missionary or a pastor with no theological grounding is nothing more than a community organizer.

That is a little of the problem with the way the Mission of the Church is carried out. We will look deeper into the situation tomorrow.

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