Mark 3:13-18 joins a host of other Bible texts that teach significant kingdom of God truth in very short order. A few samples: The Creation in three chapters; the entire Mosaic tradition in 10 Commandments; four slim volumes that reveal the Glory of Jesus Christ in simple words what no words at all can hardly express. One slender volume that details the spread of Christianity from one Israelite city to the major cities of the Empire, even to Rome itself.
The first feature of that brevity was, Jesus recruited the Twelve to watch him at work. The second, that he sent them out to preach a message that surprised everyone: Christ crucified to offer God’s forgiveness of sin; resurrected from death to declare his sacrifice had achieved God’s purpose. It all seemed foolishness to the unconverted, but to “those whom God has called…the power of God and the wisdom of God” I Corinthians 1:21-25. That message of Christ, preached in the Spirit of Christ, still wins the unsaved to forgiveness and builds the saved into re-producing witnesses. The third, “and to have authority to drive out demons.” They replicated Christ’s very own presence in their preaching tours: sovereign over demons, sickness, disease, broken and shrunken limbs and death. Demon-possession poses no significant risk where the Gospel has been sovereign in human life. But Satan’s venomous nature still expresses hatred of Christ by seeking to weaken the Gospel message from God’s Power to human pleasure. Any compromise with Gospel teaching diminishes the church’s witness. As a result, churches lose incentive, growth and outreach. Not because the Gospel is now less effective, but we are less sufficient in trusting it to achieve God’s purpose. Thus, relying on our failed methods, we find God’s judgment active against the church today: more public than ever before, with less spiritual potency. Meeting in million dollar buildings while preaching a cheap gospel that makes people comfortable. Chasing ever-larger numbers while seeing ever-fewer convictions and conversions. Fini
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
May 2024
Categories
All
|