I was reading Luke 10, and I have not been able to escape Jesus’ words. Jesus is instructing the disciples how to be laborers in the harvest field (vs. 2, May 19 post). In other words, he is teaching his disciples how bring people into the kingdom of heaven. He instructs them to be undistracted and singularly focused (vs. 4), to find a person who will welcome you into their home (vs. 6), and then to heal the sick and tell them the “the Kingdom of God is near you.” Demonstration then proclamation.
Recently, I have been listening to a lot of people talking about new methods of evangelism mainly revolving around the concept of finding a “person of peace” who will allow his whole community to hear the gospel. This concept is crucial and is a part of Jesus’ instruction to the disciples. However, evangelism from what I see in the Bible is not merely finding open communities and sharing the gospel with them. Evangelism or at least the type of evangelism Jesus describes here is a known call to a specific area that requires complete abandonment of worldly pursuits (“do not take a purse or bag or sandles”) and a singular focus on the mission and locale (“do not greet anyone on the way). Paul puts it like this, “No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs…” (2 Tim. 2:4)
A person who has been called knows he will eventually find a man of peace because he knows God has called him to that village, town, or neighborhood. Not only that, the person will know he is carrying Christ Jesus’ very authority to cast demons out of people, heal the sick, and raise the dead because he KNOWS he has been commissioned by God to bring the KINGDOM to a specific area or people group. (Mat. 10:8, 5-6) BAM, BAM, BAM!
What is missing in so much of western evangelism today is a sense of God-ordained, specific calling and the demonstration of the Kingdom’s power and authority. The church spends millions to get people in the pews and yet is too timid or lacks the faith to leave everything, find the person of peace, and begin healing the sick.
Notice, it does not say pray for the sick. It does not say ask Jesus to heal people. It does not say ask for the “healing anointing” to come. It says: HEAL THE SICK. Wake up people!!! You – right there, yeah you – heal some sick people! It’s a command not a suggestion, not a hope, not an experiment. And, let me add that Jesus’ immediate instruction to pronounce “the kingdom of God is near you” must imply the people get healed… immediately. I mean how foolish do you look to make that statement when Grandpa Joe is still seating in the corner blind as a bat and Grandma Judy is still bent over double with back pain. Some kingdom.
Our problem (myself included) is our evangelism mainly works like this: we try to make some friends wherever we are, we tell these interested or uninterested friends about Jesus and how you need him to get to heaven, we may even offer to pray for their sickness which they may or may not get healed from, and we hope that eventually they might be interested enough to come to church with us and hear the preacher say it better then we did and then they might get saved. Meanwhile, 80% of our lifestyle looks no different than our friends. There is no sense of mission, no sense of abandonment, no strategic focus, no power, no healing… and in the end no great results.
Friends, it’s time crack open our Bibles again and start reading scripture with new eyes. It’s time to start asking questions like, “How do I heal the sick?” “How do a hear God’s voice?” “What is God’s specific calling on my life?” And, “How does Jesus tell me how to reach the lost?”
We have a long way to go but an unstoppable God. Let’s get to work.
Friday, June 20, 2008
"Wake Up People!"
This phrase just keeps kicking around in my mind for the last couple months. I think it applies to Boston. It is time to wake up the sleeping giant to the real reality. Watch the link until the end :)
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
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