On Mission

The great commission: Laid out in the Gospels, played out in Acts, promised in Revelation

Back to this thing of Jesus wandering the earth and gathering some followers. Just what was the God Man up too anyway? He could have done so many different things. Heck, according to John He did so many crazy things that  “Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” Now that is crazy talk. Jesus did so many things that the entire world could not hold all the books that would be written. That is a lot of things. Three years of stuff that the world cannot contain. I am getting a headache just trying to think of that much stuff.

We do know one of the crazy things He was up to was gathering some followers and teaching them about the kingdom. He was resetting things and decided to train up some folks in His way. But here is the cool thing about God He is so into the details that He was not just showing/teaching He was making. Go figure, creator God and all. In Mark 1:17 He says, “Follow Me and I will make you become fishers of men.” Notice here that Jesus issues a call “follow.” He then issues a promise “I will make.” There is a transaction here that if we will do something, Jesus will then do something. There is an essence that the act of following will result in a transformation. He will make something (creator Jesus), not He will show how. That is super sweet. It is not left up to our skill set, our calling. We love to talk about our calling and skill sets as if God can’t do what He wants. He is the creator and He makes people into new people. Jesus emphasizes this by picking a bunch of mediocre types from different walks of life and makes them all do the same thing. You will all be fishers of men is what he tells them. Matthew was not Jesus’ accountant. He was his disciple. He was a fisher.

In Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus gives a command to the crew who had been following Him around. They follow Him all over the place, but not too far away, and He teaches them the kingdom. When this kingdom teaching is done He gives them a task. He has made them fishers. Now He tells them to go fish. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” The order of things here is amazing: Make disciples, baptize them, teach them what I taught. See how it works. He says get some people who will follow. Get them baptized and teach them the kingdom.  See Matthew 5-7. When the kingdom living portion is understood or at least attempted or at least desired send them out to make more fishers. Pretty weird how Jesus keeps forgetting to have people accept Him as their personal savior or ask Him into their heart. He just keeps discipleing, baptizing and teaching the kingdom.

Fast forward. Jesus has left earth and taken His seat on the throne. He talks to the Father about us quite a bit. The crew is left alone, told to hang out and wait for the Spirit. So they did and that is pretty amazing right there. I hate waiting for my check at a restaurant. They waited and waited and then stuff happened. They got all wild and went out into the streets and started gathering a new crew. In Acts 2 Peter comes out of the room and starts preaching. Peter tells the masses, “repent and be baptized, everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Peter is feeling it now that he just got this very cool gift. It is interesting here that Peter does not promise salvation, he promises the Spirit, which we are told in other places leads us to the wilderness, or truth in others but always to Jesus. Salvation does not seem to be a moment but a movement not from something but rather to something. (Later topic. Not for now. The Spirit leads us to Jesus, not salvation. How many of us are seeking the wrong thing? Too crazy controversial. Note to self. I should drop this idea. It makes people uncomfortable.) Discpleing brings them to baptizing which leads to the Spirit, which leads to teaching. In verse 42  we are told, "and they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

So then we get back on topic and we are shown just what makes the disciples leave town, start going to the nations. In Acts 8:3-4 it says, “Saul was ravaging the church. Those who were scattered went about preaching the Word.” It seems the next phase of the commission is born out of escaping death and beginning the process of the commission wherever they ended up. This probably explains the slowing of the commission process because we found a place where we could stop running. In our desire to avoid all things uncomfortable we sought peace and safety. When we found peace and safety we sat still and forgot our job.

But here is the good news. This task of going to all nations and telling all tribes will be accomplished. We will once again go and that means the peace and safety net is going to wear out. It is made clear in Revelation 7:9 “And behold a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes.” Stunning, The great commission is a done deal. It is a promise. John saw it. At the end of the age the commission has absolutely been completed. (Another note to self. Revelation is actually in the bible. It might explain how this all turns out. Too controversial.) We know the job will get done and we also know it will only be done through us. So the only thing that is uncertain is when this will be finished.

We are told in 2 Peter 3:8-13 that we absolutely are going to make this thing happen and it is clear that we will determine if He returns in 5 years or 5000 years. In these verses there are references to time and how the Lord will bring about the conclusion of the age. Verse 9 speaks to God’s patience that all may hear and come to Him.  Verse 12 speaks to a hastening of the end of the age by not being sidetracked by things of the world. Specifically mentioned is that God demands lives of Godliness and Holiness.  Our pursuit of these two things will directly lead us away from safety and back to our job of fishing. Hastening is done through us accomplishing our assignment.  We are to make prayer and we are to fulfill the commission.

It seems clear that we will be made to be like Jesus. We will be baptized then we will be taught to do what He did. Wash rinse repeat. He shows us how it works and there seems to be a motivation in the going that has to do with escaping where you came from because we are tired of people trying to kill us So we move to a new place.. We are shown that this task is not just doable but it is promised, that it will be done. We are reminded that the faster we get it done the sooner He returns.  SWEET. This is simple stuff for a stiff-necked people. God’s people are always stubborn and forgetful. Going to the nations is nobody’s calling. It is a command. As my genius friend put it, our calling is to obedience. Most people are pretty unhappy with that calling, last time I checked.

Following

On that day when Jesus stepped out and began to choose disciples were Peter, Andrew, James and John the only ones fishing? It is a critical question. How we answer will probably go a long way to forming who we think this God is and How he goes about making decisions. We do know for absolute certainty that Jesus walked up and said for them to follow Him and they said yes. And off they went. We also know a few other things because they are not in scripture. We know that the four did not ask Jesus into their heart. We know Jesus did not ask them to pray a prayer. We know that they did not tell Jesus that they believe in Him and then go back to their jobs. And we for sure know that Jesus did not join them at their work. We know this because He asked them to come join Him at his work. And off they went. So we can conclude that either Jesus put the entire fishing economy of the region into a recession when the four followed Him or there were in fact other fisherman and Jesus never bothered to ask them to follow. In truth Jesus cruised the streets daily, going from town to town, and apparently He did not ask most of them to follow Him either.

There are all kinds of directions to take this. We could argue that not everyone is called to the apostle level. We could argue that some are just called to the disciple level or the spectator level. We could do that or we could ask what set these followers apart and how do we sign up for the set apart level because the set apart level at the very end were the only ones left walking with Him. The 11 and some other followers were still all in when everyone else had long gone back to doing something else, following someone else perhaps.

In John 15:16  Jesus says, "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide." That's good news isn't it? He chose and they said yes and He did it so they can bear fruit and that fruit will abide. In verse 5 He says, "I am the vine you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."

Here is what we for sure know. Peter, Andrew, James and John did nothing to be asked to follow. They were not special, they were not the best fisherman (fast forward to when they went back to fishing and caught nothing til Jesus showed up and told them which side of the boat fish hang out on.), they did not earn the call. They did say yes when they could very well have continued in their no. So it seems to work a little like this. Jesus says follow me and some of us say yes and some of us keep saying no. But long before we say yes or no we already know that He is God. The truth is that every single one of us, even those of us who say yes, used to say no. We all were rebels, we all were haters of God. We all made Him our enemy. We were all dead. And while we were all dead, while we all hated God we knew there was a God and we all said no. We know this is true because in Romans 1:18 and 19 we are told, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God had shown it to them."

Here is God's love: He has made himself known to every single person who has ever lived. He has revealed Himself to everyone who will ever live. He revealed Himself to the Jews and to the Gentiles alike. He showed Himself to Hindus who made gods to look like the things of god. He made Himself known to the Greeks who created a team of gods to explain all things. He revealed Himself to muslims and aztecs, to mayans and athiest. He has revealed Himself to everyone already. He has already called out to everyone and very few have said yes. But there are some, there are a few, who are wandering among us just waiting for someone to tell them what they already know.

We are like the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar in the matrix. We are offering to unplug all the no's and yet there are only a few yes's. And this is what we are made for. God could have done it an infinite number of ways and yet this is His way. He has made Himself known and all have declared themselves to be hostiles. But there are a few of us that are awakened in the mystery that is how God moves and we say yes. We say yes to the unbelievable and we do the unthinkable. We start trying to set all the captives free and sometimes they too awaken.

It makes absolutely no sense that this is how it works. And when my God makes absolutely no sense then I know I am following something so other than that it must be real.  There is none like Him.

Did Jesus cruise up and down that beach that day asking all the fisherman to follow? He didn't need to. Every fisherman already knew who God was. Every fisherman had already declared Him as enemy. But there were four who were about to say yes. There were four who were never going to be the same again. Jesus didn't need to ask all the fisherman to follow, just the four who were going to say yes. There are those among us who are ready to say yes and He already knows who they are. God has revealed Himself to everyone and everyone has said no. There absolutely is not a single yes to the revealing of God. Our task is to go to the no's (that is everyone) and we are to offer to unplug them. Here is the rub. Only the ones who are prepared to say yes will say yes. We won't talk them into their yes. They have always longed to be a yes they have just always been held captive by their no. Each and everyone of us who has said yes absolutely knows that we were a no longing to be a yes. Each and everyone of us knew there must be more than this.

We always ask the wrong questions. We are always asking if God this and God that then why this or why that. All we really need to ask Him is who is ready to be unplugged and then go do it. The why matters not at all. The why of God only distracts us from our unplugging job.

Enemies of the world

I have been reading Martyn Lloyd-Jones "Life of Christ: Studies in 1 John". So many crazy cool things he says. Here is but one: "John has some strong comments to make about this world. We must remember constantly that it is a very evil place. According to the bible the whole mind and outlook of the world is opposed to God; it is under the dominion of Satan and in the grip of the wicked one." I think we might do good to remember that the world, even when it is smiling, is opposed to God.

Not shocking on the surface but in practice, in reality it is a brutal reminder that we are in truth the enemy of almost every one who walks this planet. That is a reality that most of us do not consider. Those who are enemies of God (all unbelievers) have made us their enemies. They have made us their enemies, though they may not act like it. Because they don't always act like enemies we get confused and forget that they are in fact, followers of another god. So we try to tell them about the love of our God and how can they understand that when their god is doing a pretty decent job of showing them love? Jones and David Pawson both seem to argue that telling unbelievers about the love of Christ is a waste of time. Pawson calls it, "pearls to swine." He argues the love of Christ is not mentioned to an unbeliever once in the Bible. Pawson does a study where he shows that the love of Christ is only explained to followers in the Word. They both argue that we contend for their salvation with the truth of Christ long before we tell them of the love. We tell them who He is and we demonstrate in power.

1 John 1:1-3 seems to support this idea. In these verses John declares "that which we have seen and heard we proclaim to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." He is matter of fact. He wants the recipients of his letter to know that he has seen things and that he knows who the Christ is. Before we can know the fullness of His love we have to know what He has done. This is made clear in verse 4 when John explains why people must know what Jesus has done. "We write these things so that your joy may be full." The fullness of joy is after the knowing. Teaching the love or the fullness makes no sense to an unbeliever. They are lost in the happiness of the world. To tell them of the love of God leaves them relativizing this truth. They can only place the love of God in context with the love of the world. When we tell them of love we have placed the cart before the horse. We tell them of Jesus and then He makes their joy full and then they have revelation of the love of God. The order is simple but absolutely critical.

Today Me, Zoey and Anjin were hanging out in balboa park in San Diego. Set up among the main walk were an Athiest booth, a few psychics, a  crew of Krishnas and a crew of Jesus followers. I will tell you that the air was filled with the demonic and the Christ followers were rather sober or somber. I believe they were sincere in their message that "Jesus loves." The athiest crew was looking pretty happy, laughing and joking and the Krishnas were dancing as always. The psychics just looked super oppressed. Whose joy was full? Anjin was intrigued with the Krishnas. They had cool hair and sang and danced. I once loved the Krishnas. I would spend hours reciting the mantra and I even had the cool hair. I read the bhagavad-gita so many times. I fully believed the words. I never had the commitment level to take to the streets like they do. If you ask me did I worship Krishna I would have to say no. But then again if you ask most unbelievers if they follow Satan they would also say no.

We know this is a lie. This is a battle being waged between two followers. There is no neutral party and until we understand this we will never fight this thing well. 1 John 1:5-6 makes clear that "God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness we lie." The world can see what I saw today and they might think the Krishnas are crazy but they are filled with song and dance. The demon who drives that group is strong. he mimics joy and he can only be contended with in the spirit realm. As we passed by them I began to cry out in the spirit. There  was a war to be fought. Anjin asked me who they were and I explained the nature of the demon they follow and the mimic of joy they walk in. I explained to her that when I was unsaved krishna made sense to me because there seemed to be so much joy and so much hardcoreness in them. I desired to have what they have.  I told her that I found in Jesus the fullness of joy and the hardcoreness i was searching for. I found the real and not the counterfeit.  A few minutes later Anjin began to weep. I asked her what was happening and she said that she loved Jesus and their music was making her cry. Her heart was breaking and the music for, and the worship of,  a demon was making her ache.

I am all over the place here but the truth is that if our message is not about the power of Christ, the realness of Christ, then our message looks no different than the message of the world. Which probably explains why the demonic power was great today and while there was a booth of Christians across the way I got the distinct feeling that I was fighting this thing alone. The only crew in worship were the Krishnas and me and two little girls. I kept thinking how does that make any sense? And then I remembered, "the world is a very evil place."

Ekballo

Funny how we learn the bible a certain way and learn a passage a certain way and then one day that way doesn't make sense anymore. God is all strange that way. We have to unlearn something and just say yes Jesus. So for me I have been sitting on this new way of seeing things on a passage for about a month.

Matthew 9:37 and 38 is where I am headed here. My guess is we have heard it and said it so many times we might just have learned it wrong. "The Harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few" That is 37. Now we say that verse and we hear it taught and we probably Amen it for all I know. And what does that mean? Jesus is making a pretty solid point near the end of a series of healings and what not. In 35 we are told Jesus went to all the towns "proclaiming the gospel of the Kingdom, healing every disease, and affliction." Jesus does not exaggerate. EVERY. In 36 we are told He has "compassion for the people because they were harassed and helpless" SO when He gets to 37 and actually starts talking it seems  like he might be worn out, like he could use some help. So He needs some laborers? That's what we're taught. We're told there is a harvest and Jesus needs some laborers. Cue the music have an alter call and everyone start laboring cuz Jesus needs some help.

That's how we do it and no one ever reads 38 because we are all busy signing up for jobs. But what if we did read it. What if Jesus kept talking and we kept listening. Now that would be interesting because in 38 Jesus says nothing about signing up. He says nothing about going to work. He starts talking about praying. He finishes His sentence. "Therefore, PRAY the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into HIS harvest."

Shut the front door. Jesus didn't ask for workers at all. He is not tired. He doesn't need some help. He said start praying and God will pick some laborers and those people will do something specific. They will go labor in God's harvest. Now here I'm just guessing but I'm pretty sure God will pick His laborers and tell them what to do. We won't even have to figure it out. Amazing.

We just need to let Jesus finish talking and then we will hear what He wants from us. Then we can do our part that He told us to do and then God will do His thing. Sweet.

And God's thing is Ekballo. That's the Greek. It is not really send. God is not really going to send when we pray. He is going to Ekballo. That is, He is going to violently thrust or cast out. That's a bit different than send. Our God is going to find some laborers and He is going to thrust them into the harvest with some violence. That sounds more like the God I know. When He moves the earth shakes and things change and the people He moves are forever changed and they are not really signing up for a task as much as they are fully changed into a new person who cannot help but to labor because they know that God doesn't ask, He commands.

Sometimes we just need to let Jesus finish talking. It's funny how that solves all kinds of problems.

This is true

This is truth, even if you don't believe. I have had a headache since 1pm today. I keep falling asleep hoping that when i wake up it will be gone. I have taken two differnt meds. I have drank water. I have drank caffeine. Still hurts.

At 4:04 i read and email from Davis Hill. It is an evite to come watch the movie, Father of Lights. I google the title to see what it's about. I see there are other films by the same director. I see he made a film called, Finger of God. It reminds me that Shannon and Joel talked about a movie where the guy travels the world to document healings and miracles. Maybe it is this movie.

I go down stairs and eat. my head still hurts. At 6pm i come back up stairs to check my emails. I decide to see if the movie is on netflix. It is not. I see I can rent it on Amazon. I then see that Amazon movies can be watched on my Xbox. I download the movie.

I go back downstairs and watch a few shows, my head is killing me. At 9 pm we all decide to go to bed. I remember i have the movie ready to watch on XBOX. Me and Summer decide to watch it. It is filled with crazy stuff, including gold teeth, jewels from heaven and manna. Stuff that makes no sense. Surely God has better things to do. Stuff gets intense. People stop being deaf; people stop being dead. I am watching the film and i start speaking in tongues. I want to believe. The movie ends and I can smell this incense of God. There is a smell I smell when He is present. I am about to turn the movie off and I decide to watch the credits. Suddenly this man comes on and he starts talking about showing how healing works. He looks into the camera and says somebody is watching this right now and you have a headache. In the name of Jesus be healed. I feel better, sort of. I still have a headache. But my heart is filled with joy. Even if our God does not save us He is still God. I have that kind of belief, again.

Some people would say how crazy the coincidence of the events were and they would have no problem believing that the world gives us a crazy random sequence of events. They would rather believe that 6 crazy things can randomly happen than believe that one loving God wanted to remind me of His presence. For me, it wasn't be healed or don't be healed. For me it was simple. The exquisite nature of the details that occurred over the last 8 hours are the details of this powerful God. If He can orchestrate 8 tiny hours to show me His details surely He has a plan that I can never envision. Surely He is mighty to save, and then some.

Revelation

"The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave Him to show to His servants the things that must soon take place." (Rev 1:1) And so it begins again. This book. oh this book that is almost never talked about, never preached on, never read. This book that actually tells us of what is going to happen. This book given to John in a vision from Jesus, Himself. The only recorded words of Christ after He is seated on His throne at the right hand of the Father. And yet we avoid it, pretend that it is not there. Sure it can be troublesome, with all it's crazy imagery and promises of destruction and chaos. This warrior Jesus who is coming back on a cloud to reclaim His bride in his blood stained robe can bring pause to those who have packaged Him neatly in Disney love. But this Jesus who is jealous for me, who not only loved me and died for me, but loves me and will take revenge on all those who scoff at His name, ah this is the Jesus that brought me to my knees. This is the Jesus worth following. Oh how I love this Jesus. Hundreds of times I was told of His great love and I was unmoved but the one time I came to know His jealousy and I was undone. There is more to come. This great book has some troubling sections but oh how it tells of the depth of His love and the steadfast truth of His ways. His way is perfect. This is not a book of chaos, this is a book of triumph. Love certainly does win but it is a love of singular focus and unrelenting truth. This is the kind of love that does not have a grey area. This is black and white. There is light and there is dark. Now that I can understand.

Doubting Thomas?

I doubt that. It has become an obsession of mine, this doubting Thomas nonsense/gibberish/comedy routine. We all know the story. It was taught to us as kids. It is one of those stories that just is because people say it is so. Plus, who doesn't love a cool nickname, especially when we start to confuse the fact that these men in the bible are real and not just some characters to help the story along.

So who is this Thomas that we mock throughout church history? He is believed to have taken the gospel across the Roman empire. It is also widely believed that he took the gospel to India, where he challenged widely held beliefs of Hinduism. It is also understood that he was martyred in southern India. Oh and he also did the little thing of saying yes to Jesus and dying to himself and following the Lord for the entirety of His ministry.

So how about that for a man who is mocked as having doubted. Which I guess is fine except that the Bible does not show this to be truth. Careful examination of the Word of God shows if anything, that Thomas was faithful to the end. In John 20 and in Luke 24 we can see the events play out.

Jesus has risen from the dead. He is cruising the earth and visiting folks. He is traveling around in His resurrected body. In Luke 24:36 He stops in to talk with the disciples. If we know our accounts we know from John that as Jesus makes this first appearance to the disciples Thomas is not there. (Hint: this is the super important part where we learn something new about Thomas and stop making fun of a man who followed and died for the King of Kings.)

Beginning in verse 36 the 10 (minus Thomas) are astonished. We are told"they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a Spirit."(37) In verse 38 Jesus asks them, "Why are you troubled and why do DOUBTS arise in your hearts?" IN verse 39, "See my hands and my feet it is I myself. Touch me and see. For a Spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have." Verse 40, "And when He had said this He showed them His hands and His feet. And more astonishing in verse 41, "And while they still disbelieved He said to them, "Have you anything to eat?" Time out. Stop, breath, Jesus is hungry. What is up with that? In verse 42 they give Him some fish. And in verse 45 He goes ahead and "opens their minds to understand the scriptures." That's pretty cool.

On to John just to make a really long point. In John 20:20 He shows them His hands and side and then the disciples are glad to see Him. In verse 24 it is made clear that Thomas is not there on that fine day. In verse 25 is where all the pulpit comedians get their jokes and doubting Thomas is born because he doesn't believe all these yahoos who, as we have seen, were shown hand, side and feet holes and still were not believing. (Return on back to Luke 24:41). They are all excited in John 20:25 about seeing Jesus and Thomas says, "unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into His side I will never believe."

So there you are, we have been taught a million times that Thomas does not believe it is really Jesus when really what he does not believe is that these guys, who he has been hanging out with, have conveniently seen Jesus, while he was out doing some stuff, running some errands, who knows. Eight days later Jesus shows up again. He comes to Thomas and says, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve but believe." Okay, another stop and wait moment. Jesus repeats what Thomas had said eight days earlier to the disciples. Cool. But here is some more crazy stuff where our retelling of the event is based on tradition and not the Holy Word of God. We are always taught that this declaration of Thomas not believing and Jesus' proof of the truth all happen in one sequence. We are taught that Thomas says this not believing stuff to Jesus but again he says it to the disciples because he does not believe them. And why should he really? This crew of ten has done nothing but doubt, including some ongoing disbelief after the hole in the hand, foot, side demonstration. And don't forget the yummy broiled fish. They thought Jesus was a Spirit. They didn't think it was Him so He ate some fish. They were clueless.

But here we have Thomas and Jesus says touch and see that I am really Jesus but Thomas never does touch. He just stands there and knows what he is looking at. He knows he is in the presence of not just Jesus the man he walked with but he knows that he is with God. (Critical truth). He says to Jesus, "My Lord and my God." No doubt, he is fully sure of the truth of not just Jesus rising from the dead but Jesus as the Messiah, as the God. Thomas is quick to know he is in the presence of the one who came to save. He doesn't have an instant of doubt when he sees the Messiah standing in front of him. The other 10 had to be convinced with some fish eating.(this fish eating thing is just nuts)

I want to punch walls with that truth. The other 10 were so filled with unbelief that Jesus had to eat some fish and yet Thomas, upon seeing the beauty of this man is undone. He is so sure that he is in the presence of the most high God. So sure he is going to go to his death. No fish demonstration needed, thank you very much. Of them all he knows what he sees when it is clear the rest had no clue.

You have got to be kidding me with how theologically inaccurate the entirety of the church is on this Thomas stuff. Sometimes I am sure I am going to lose it. Maybe it's just me. I doubt it. See what I did there?