Social Justice and the Great Commission

I thought  this was a good article since our church is involved in reaching our community with a food pantry.

The Great Commission and Social Justice: 4 Questions to Ask Yourself

• by Elizabeth Russell
• November 15, 2013
• Ebooks

 

How can Christians apply social justice in their walk of faith? God calls us to help those less fortunate than ourselves:
“Defend the weak and the fatherless, uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked” (Psalm 82:3–4).
But is helping the poor solely with their earthly needs all we’re called to do? Christ also gave us The Great Commission—to go and make disciples of all nations. How do these two relate?
Here are four questions to consider:

1. What are your personal motives?

Truly examine your heart with this question. Why do you want to go on that mission trip? Why are you raising money for that organization? Is it to feel better about yourself? To boost your resume? To post about it via social media? Remember Matthew 6:3. Ask yourself, “If no one but God knew I was helping, would I still be doing this? Would I still be just as excited?

2. Are you helping meet peoples’ basic needs?

Sharing the gospel can eternally transform a life. Yet if we really want to impact people in their spiritual lives, we must first show them that we care about their physical lives. It’s comforting to know that my friend prays for me when I’m sick. But it’s more comforting when she drives me to the doctor or picks up my medicine at the drugstore. The same goes for helping others with both their spiritual and their tangible needs.

3. Are you developing relationships with those you’re helping?

Many Americans choose to raise and donate money for charitable organizations designed to help impoverished countries all over the globe. Or change their Facebook profile picture to “raise awareness.”  Good deed for the month: check.  While the motives behind these acts are likely good, challenge yourself to reach out on a relational level. Invite the family in your church where the husband just lost his job over for dinner.  Offer to watch the kids of a single mom in your neighborhood so she can have a day to herself—maybe send a meal home with her when she returns. Get to know those you’re helping on a personal level. Open up about your own struggles. Become friends. Take a look at Luke 14:12–13.

4. Is the gospel infused into your social action?

You’re three for three so far. You have a passion to pour out Christ’s love, you’re bringing food to the destitute.  You know their names, you visit them, and they’ve even been to your house. But have you actually followed The Great Commission? Have you communicated the message of Christ? Helping people with material needs but leaving out the good news of Christ does nothing to differentiate Christians from the rest of culture. It takes courage, but it’s an imperative part of a Christian’s mission.
The problem is that too often we keep social justice and The Great Commission separate.  We have social justice and The Great Commission neatly tucked away in their own boxes. Yet realistically, neither of those can fully function without the other. Social justice and The Great Commission are designed to work together.

Ranting About Worship

Worship is always a natural response to something that is already true. It's not something that is demanded nor can be demanded to be worship. Worship happens because of a realization of God. God is not in need of anything but is eternally self-giving out of His attributes or who he is. 

Toward the end of his ministry Dr. A.W. Tozer commented that the war was lost, referring to the atrocious invasion of the world into the church. He objected to anemic Christianity. “In many churches,” Tozer complained, “Christianity has been watered down until the solution is so weak that if it were poison it would not hurt anyone, and if it were medicine it would not cure anyone!”

No Magic Formula

Remember, there is no magic in faith or in names. You can name the name of Jesus a thousand times; but if you will not follow the nature of Jesus the name of Jesus will not mean anything to you. We cannot worship God and live after our own nature. It is when God’s nature and our nature begin to harmonize that the power of the name of God begins to operate within us. As it was said so quaintly of Samson that “the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan” (Judges 13:25), I believe that God’s people ought to be moved at times to true worship. But we cannot pray toward the east and walk toward the west and then hope for harmony in our being. We cannot pray in love and live in hate and still think we are worshiping God.

Let us suppose we are back in the old days of the high priest, who took incense into the sanctum and went behind the veil and offered it there. And let us suppose that rubber—the worst-smelling thing I can think of when it burns—had been available in those days. Let us suppose that chips of rubber had been mixed with the incense, so that instead of the pure smoke of the spices filling the temple with sweet perfume, there had been the black, angry, rancid smell of rubber mixed with it. How could a priest worship God by mixing with the sweet-smelling ingredients some foul ingredient that would be a stench in the nostrils of priest and people?

So how can we worship God acceptably when there is within our nature something that, when it catches on fire, gives off not a fragrance but a smell? How can we hope to worship God acceptably when there is something in our nature which is undisciplined, uncorrected, unpurged, unpurified—which is evil and which will not and cannot worship God acceptably?

So I’ve got to tell you that if you do not worship God seven days a week, you do not worship Him on one day a week. There is no such thing known in heaven as Sunday worship unless it is accompanied by Monday worship and Tuesday worship and so on.

Too many of us discharge our obligations to God Almighty in one day, usually by a trip to church. Sometimes nobly we make it two trips to church. But it’s all on the same day when we’ve nothing else to do—and that is supposed to be worship. And a Mid-week service is fast becoming something a relic of the past. Three times in one week are you crazy? Don't you know I have Karate practice, gymnastics, baseball, soccer, football, and baseball practice? Not to mention, my favorite reality show is on Wednesday night.

I mean, you don’t really need to be in church—you can worship God at your desk...Our Lord Himself went to the synagogue or the temple, as His custom was, on the Sabbath day. Other days He was a carpenter and worked and shaved and sawed and drove nails with His supposed father.

We can go to church and worship. But if we go to church and worship one day it’s not true worship unless it is followed by worship six days after that till the next Sabbath comes. We must never rest until everything inside us worships God.

What is Your Goal?

More specifically, what is your goal as a disciple of Jesus Christ? And if you can articulate your goal, do you know how your going to get there? In serving in the Army Special Forces, we often trained to fight and called it combatives. The combatives that I'm talking about here are not the ones we see in the video games and in the movie house per se. However, cabatives in the US Army and biblical are similar in that they are both fought for a honorable and principal cause.

When I joined the military and volunteered to be a Special Forces Green Beret, my motives we not exactly honorable. The motto within Special Forces is "De Opresso Liber" - To Free the Oppressed" and as time went on that motto took on a greater significance in what I was training and fighting for. In other words, I learned that I was fighting for something worthwhile and much bigger than I was or ever could be. I believe that part of the image of God (Imago De) of man is that we hunger for a noble fight.

I mentioned the image of God (Genesis 1:26-28) above and in a nutshell that's what discipleship is - image. We were created in the image of the Father but sin messed that image up and were put in a position of desperation for renewal (Romans 5:12-21). Christ's life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and soon return gives us that renewal and ability to relate again to a holy God as well with one another (2 Cor. 3:18; Colossians 1:15, 3:10). He (Christ) is our example and the One we must look to and at as a disciple, which means we must look away from our sin and self (2 Corinthians 4:6). That's why our vision here at Mt Zion Baptist Church is to glorify God by igniting a passion for Christ, period. This vision and gospel knowledge of Christ keeps is on course so that we not only behold but our transformed into the image of Christ to the glory of God. We fight for many things and my fighting in the Army started out in selfish desires but as I beheld the the cause as honorable and principled it changes me. The same is with discipleship - true nobility and honor converge at the foot of the Cross with the Person and word of Christ. It is a true when one says we become what we behold.

I am the son of my Father and he has rubbed off on me in so many ways. The same is true with many others who invested and poured their life into me. The problem, however, is Genesis three. Yes, we're saved but saved sinners. We still have that old nature in us and unfortunately find ourselves sliding back into the broken image. That's why the gospel - the person and work of Christ is not just for our new birth but that same gospel calls us back to look at Jesus over and over again. It's an everyday thing! It was the gospel - the initial grace of God through the drawing of the Spirit (Jn 6:44) that opened our eyes to see Jesus for our new birth and justification. But it is that same gospel that must continue to empower us to continue to behold Jesus and change us into the image of his glory (2 Corinthians 3:17-18). How can this be? Remember when Jesus ascended to be at the right hand of the Father, he did not leave us comfortless. It's the person of God in the person of the Spirit that lives within a believer and a true disciple must rely on the Spirit to focus and draw our attention to Jesus. However, that's where the fighting comes in - amen? Are you still hooking and jabbing with the Spirit to be like Jesus? I would submit to you that it's a definite goal worth fighting for, even to give our very lives to it. When was the last time, like Moses, you said "Please show my your glory" (Exodus 33:18)? Oh that we would be willing to fight the noble fight to behold the face of Jesus in our lives.

So what's the goal of a disciple? First, there is going to be a fight (1 Timothy 6:12). The fight to believe the gospel - a real belief that shakes us out of our culturally comfortable Christianity that has created our own gospel. Disciples of Christ fight in knowing that Jesus' death and resurrection is ours as well. Dead to sin and alive to Christ (Romans 6:11; Galatians 2:20; 1 Peter 3:18). We aren't fighting to be perfect as our perfection is already ours in Christ, but for BELIEF. Do we really believe it? If so we would be beholding Him more as revealed in Scripture and becoming more like Him every day. As we used to say in the Army, "let's gear up for the fight." Let's gear up for the fight and believe the gospel - it's a worthy and noble fight.

How's Your Holy?

In most our Sunday school small group classes this month we have been looking at holiness. That’s really something that isn’t talked about an awful lot in most churches today. I mean our life is hard enough as it is and who can be holy anyway - right? Of course, we want to be a good person and better ourselves and for the most part we don’t do the really bad sins, our sins are the respectable ones. We got the blood and have been saved and pastor (that’s me) tells us that any righteousness or good that we have was given to us by Jesus and so holiness is not so much a requirement and something I need to think about too much. That’s where we tend to go wrong and where we are so good at justifying our sin in failing to grow in holiness.

Kevin DeYoung, in his new book, calls it our hole in our holiness. In other words, “the hole in our holiness is that we don’t really care much about it.” ^[1] He rightly goes on to say that “too many sermons are basically self-help seminars on becoming a better you.” ^[2] However, in realty, the gospel is not about our good, trying to be good or being better. Any good we do and our morality without heralding what Christ has first done for us on the cross is another gospel.

Holiness comes first from Christ sanctifying us by Him giving of himself (Hebrews 7:27; 9:14) as our sacrifice once for all (Hebrews 9:28) on the altar of the cross. Jesus became our Passover lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7) and took our place (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 3:18) and bore our sins (1 Peter 2:24) and became for us a source of eternal food (John 6:53) which meets our deepest needs and gives us eternal life.  

With that said, and all that He has done He also tell us, “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16). And the wonderful thing is, He doesn’t tell us to do anything that He doesn’t expect to do for us through Jesus Christ. It’s all through that wonderful word called GRACE! Paul said it best in 1 Corinthians 15:10  where he says, “by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” There’s a whole lot of grace in that verse, did you see it?

Again, DeYoung makes a good statement here: “My fear is that as we rightly celebrate, and in some quarters rediscover, all that Christ has saved us from, we are giving little thought and making little effort concerning all that Christ has saved us to.” ^[3]

So how can we know that there are holes in our holiness? I think the Scripture gives us one way that we could possible know. 1 Peter 3:15 says, “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.” Did you read that real carefully? If so, ask yourself when was the last time someone asked you about your hope? Of course that hope is the hope we have in our salvation. And because of what He again did for us, we are to live holy lives. In other words, we live so contrary to the world that they obviously see that there is something different about us – we’re holy!

Jesus said it best: “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). So how bright is our light? That light is the holiness of Christ that was graciously given to us by God because Christ lived the life we could not live and paid a debt we could not pay. When we serve Him and allow Him to work in and through us our light shines like a city on a hill that cannot be hid (Matthew 5:14).

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^[1] Kevin DeYoung, The Hole in Our Holiness: Filling the Gap Between Gospel Passion and the Pursuit of Godliness (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012).

^[2] Ibid.

^[3] Ibid

Saved by Baptism?

Last week while serving at the food pantry, I was asked by a sweet lady if I would baptize her baby. It gave me an opportunity to share with her our conviction of what we call “Believers Baptism” and that we do it according to Scripture. I will explain this at another time. However, what she was alluding to was that her baby needed to be baptized in order for her salvation.

I encounter this “belief” quite often as I talk with people. I will ask them if they have a relationship with Christ and they will often answer that they were baptized at such and such time, often when they were younger.

Much of the confusion comes from taking Scripture out of context and not looking at the whole of Scripture and what it teaches in reference to water baptism. One example is in Acts 2:38 where it seems that Peter states that those who respond must not only repent and believe but also must be baptized in order to receive the Holy Ghost. However, this is contrary to many teachings in the whole of Scripture. Paul states that baptism is not part of the Gospel (1 Corinthians 1:17) (That’s important to remember and know what the Gospel is and isn’t!) and that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ (Romans 4:4; Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5-7).

So in order to resolve this we must consider the possible meaning of being baptized for the remission of sins. In this usage, again, we must take the whole context of what Scripture teaches. In close study you will see that first of all the word for (eis) can mean a couple of different things. It could mean “with a view to” or even “because of.” In this verse, water baptism would be because they had been saved, not in order to be saved.

It also needs to be understood that people are saved by receiving God’s word, and Peter’s audience “gladly received his word” before they were baptized (Acts 2:41). In addition, it says later on of “all who believed” (Acts 2:44) as constituting the early church, not all who were baptized.

In looking further at the context, those who believed Peter’s message clearly received the Holy Spirit before they were baptized. Peter said, “Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?” (Acts 10:47). Paul here separates baptism from the Gospel, saying in 1 Corinthians 1:17 “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel…” and that “the gospel of Christ…is the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16). Therefore, baptism doesn’t have any part of what brings us to salvation.

Jesus himself, in context, referred to baptism as a work of righteousness (Matthew 3:15) and that is further emphasized in Scripture how salvation is clearly “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his [Jesus] mercy he saved us…” (Titus 3:5). Not once in the Gospel of John does it give the idea that baptism is a part of or a necessary condition of salvation. It simply says over and over that people should “believe” and be saved (John 3:16, 18, 36, 20:31).

In looking at all of these explanations it seems best to understand Peter’s statement like this: “Repent and be baptized with a view to the forgiveness of sins.” That this view looked backward to their sins being forgiven after they were saved is made clear by the context in Acts chapter two and the rest of Scripture. Believing and or repenting and being baptized are placed together, since baptism should follow belief. But nowhere does it say, “He who is not baptized will be condemned” (Mark 16:16). Yet Jesus said emphatically that “he that believeth not is condemned already” (John 3:18). So neither Peter nor the rest of Scripture makes baptism a condition of salvation.^[1]

It would also indeed be a mistake to link the words “for the forgiveness of sins” with the command “be baptized” to the exclusion of the prior command to repent. It is against the whole teaching of the New Testament to suppose that the outward rite could have any value except insofar as it was accompanied by the work of grace within.^[2] Baptism symbolizes that which has already taken place through grace by faith in Christ and once that happens you are born again or baptized with the Holy Spirit – our water baptism is an outward expression or public testimony to the fact that we have already believed!

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^[1] Norman L. Geisler and Thomas A. Howe, When Critics Ask : A Popular Handbook on Bible Difficulties (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1992), 428-29.

^[2] F. F. Bruce, The Book of the Acts, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1988), 70.

What's so Good about Good Friday?

Today is what we call good Friday. The main reason it's good is because of the Person and work of Jesus the Christ. Good Friday is the day when Christ willingly went to the Cross on Calvary to be crucified. Although he was found guilty, the verdict came from an illegal mock trial and was unarguably innocent from any wrong doing - His entire life was guiltless and within full obedience of God the Father.

However, we are not innocent but guilty of disobeying the Law and stand before a holy, just God with the punishment for that guilt being death (Romans 6:23). Nonetheless, on a Friday some 2000 plus years ago, Christ became our substitute and took our deserved punishment upon Himself and shed His blood and died (Hebrews 9:22). The doctrine that I'm talking about is that of the penal substitution. Now, what we mean by “penal substitution” is simply that Jesus stood as a substitute for his people, taking the penalty that was due to those who actually deserved it - that's you and me! Jesus took our deserved hell and the full wrath of God for us, He (Jesus) was standing in our place.

What I have been talking about is what we might often here as the atonement, but I believe more accurately it should be expressed as the penal substitution atonement. Jesus explained his own death this way and that His life was to be given for a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45). Paul’s declaration that Jesus the sinless one “became sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:21). When we speak of Jesus as our substitute, therefore, we are speaking in a deeply biblical way about what Jesus accomplished for us at Calvary.

D. L. Moody stated, "I must die or get somebody to die for me. If the Bible doesn’t teach that, it doesn’t teach anything. And that is where the atonement of Jesus Christ comes in." Atonement has often defined as "At-one-ment" or simply making up for a deficiency and thereby restoring a broken relationship, specifically here that broken relationship is between us and a Holy God. Jesus was the Atonement that bridged that gap with His death on the Cross (Hebrews2:17). John Owen stated, "There is no death of sin without the death of Christ.

Sin requires the death of the one who sinned. If that is not understood, then the necessity of Christ’s death will never be understood. The peril we are in until we receive Christ will never be understood, either, and we will never have sufficient gratitude to God for our salvation. We must understand the link between sin, death, and atonement. We must understand from the moment of conception, we are all contaminated with sin (Psalm 51:5). It is not that we are incapable of doing good. It is that we are incapable of not doing bad.

Jesus, however, did not sin. Therefore He did not deserve to die. But He came to earth and died anyway. Because He did not deserve to die, God was willing for Jesus’ death to count for ours. If we would, by faith, believe in and receive Jesus as our Savior, God would allow His death to count for ours and give us His life. In this way we could escape the penalty for sin. Wow! That's why we call this new the gospel - the good news.

There is a little chorus written by Ellis Jay Crum which says, “He paid a debt He did not owe, I owed a debt I could not pay.” It summarizes quite simply the link between sin, death, and atonement: all sin, so all die. Jesus, however, died in our place. He provided atonement for our sins. That is, He made up our deficiency, which we would be unable to make up ourselves. Jesus was both God and man, and because He was both, His death was sufficient for our atonement. If He were not man, he could not have died in our place (substitution). If He were not God, it would not have mattered, because His death would not have been sufficient to cover our sin - because it had to be a perfect sacrifice, which only God himself is perfect. He, Jesus being perfect (God in the flesh) died in our place and provided atonement for our sin. That is what is so good about Good Friday!

How To Pray For Our Church

I was emailed this from a guy named Pastor Barry Davis and can also be found at the following link: (http://pastorsoffice.com/how-to-pray-for-your-church/). I have often wondered what God would do if we all prayed? I believe that prayer matters and if we indeed took it seriously and understood the wonderful privilege it would revolutionize our life and that of the church.

 

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” — John 17:20-21

1. Pray for believers to experience true worship

•  Pray for an outpouring of God’s glory in your church as people acknowledge Him, not only with their lips but with their lives

• Ask God for a spirit of worship to manifest itself at your church.

 2. Pray that believers will know, accept, and obey the Word of God

•   Pray that God’s Word be preached continually at your church.

• Pray for spiritual discernment and understanding among the people

• Ask God to make you obedient to His Word

 3. Pray for unity in the church

•   Pray for humility among your church’s leaders and among the body of believers

• Pray that a spirit of repentance will rise up among all your members

• Ask God to break down all racial, cultural, and denominational walls.

 4. Pray for souls to be won to Christ

•  Ask God to continue impressing the vision of winning the lost to Christ among your church’s leaders and members

• Pray for workers for the harvest — believers who will consistently share their faith

 5. Pray for joy in the hearts and lives of believers

•   Ask God to reveal your church’s potential to your leaders and the members.

• Ask God to bring joy to your leaders and members