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RENDEZVOUS

"Unashamed willingness"

by T. C. Richardson, Stevensville

We’re rounding the corner on 2006. What is the future of our churches? Have we arrived? Are we finished with the race set before us? What do our actions proclaim?

At a recent "Perspectives" course, one speaker was author Don Richardson. In his book Eternity in Their Hearts, Don opens the door on the apostles as they struggled with the challenges of church development. They knew Judaism, the Temple system, and were being exposed to the scrolls. But they struggled with what to do with the Gentiles, and seemed to have misplaced the recently received Great Commission. They soon became settled in their new role as elders in Jerusalem.

Let’s pick up on page 199 of Eternity in Their Hearts, "With the power of the Holy Spirit crackling through their witness, the apostles quickly crossed the first of the four thresholds Jesus (through the Great Commission) mentioned—they evangelized Jerusalem—no problem! Their critics soon complained, ‘You have filled Jerusalem with your teaching’ (Acts 5:28). The comment, ‘The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly’ (Acts 6:7) was also soon recorded. By the end of the seventh chapter of the book of Acts we find, however, that all of the apostles and their thousands of converts are still clustered in Jerusalem. Twenty-five percent of the book of Acts was already history and, as far as the record shows, they were not even making plans to obey the rest of Jesus’ last command!"

We see that even spending three-plus years with the Master Teacher did not open their eyes to the Abrahamic Covenant.

Later, on page 208, Richardson remarks, "How amazing! There were now at least 15 men generally recognized as apostles since Matthias, James the Lord’s brother, and Saul and Barnabas joined the original 11. And yet, out of the 15, only two are ‘commissioned’ to evangelize the estimated 900 million Gentiles in the world at that time. The other 13 are convinced that they are all needed to evangelize only about three million Jews, among whom there were already tens of thousands of witnessing believers! Their unashamed willingness to let Paul and Barnabas take on the entire Gentile world boggles the mind."

A lack of vision gripped the apostles as church elders. Richardson refers to it as "headquarters fever." Why did they linger in Jerusalem year after year instead of going with the power God had given them on bold cross-cultural probes to other people-groups? Perhaps in the early stages they needed to get their collective heads together and take time to compile Jesus’ words and deeds while they were still fresh in their memory.

Did they think their continuing presence in Jerusalem was necessary to guarantee that the Holy City would always be central to the faith? Maybe it was because they took wives? Might it have been church politics? Whatever the excuse, the apostolic band needed to rescue Jesus’ last command from oblivion.

What should we, here in the Rocky Mountain West 2,000 years later, learn from this episode in church history? Can we see any similarities? Will God need to stir the gospel fire here as He did in Jerusalem, causing sparks to fly in "Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8)?

Answer these questions by asking other questions: Who at my church is doing the going? Where are they going?

The voices of many healthy Christians can be heard who believe they are not personally charged with going on a mission trip or being involved with "hands-on" missions. They seem content to salve rather than solve by donating money to be done with the messiness of it all. Other Christians are convinced their calling is more local and choose to exclude foreign missions.

Many early apostles were martyred, but after much pressure and persecution, our brethren finally got the gospel message given by God to Abraham—all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. The apostles ultimately learned that they were not to set up shop in Jerusalem and let all people come to them; they were to go, and to go personally!

Several churches, and even more individuals within them, have ongoing, organized outreach opportunities. Blackfoot Valley Bible Church in Lincoln has ties in Cuba. Lone Rock Bible Church ministers in Mexico. Lolo sends groups to Brazil, Honduras, and Mexico.

What has God given you?

What has God given you to share? What has God given you to share with someone who needs to know Him?