“Be the Gospel”
Acts 4:15-17 ESV
“But when they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another, saying, ‘What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.’”
I know I just taught on this recently, but the Lord has
another message he wants me to share from this, perhaps from a slightly different
perspective, but with the same theme in mind. For there are people today in
high up positions in the institutional church and in the government who are
encouraging Christians not to share their faith and who are encouraging them,
instead, to promote politicians and political parties as the solution for
delivering our nation from the evils that have overtaken it.
Rather than just telling them outright that they shouldn’t
talk about Jesus and about the gospel to people, they manipulated and tricked
them into not sharing their faith and the gospel with the world around them. I
can still recall sitting in a Bible study at a local institutional church in
2012. The leader of the group said that we should not talk with people about
the gospel until we befriend them for at least two years, and we were supposed
to accept that. It all had to do with not offending the people of the world.
And then we heard pastors telling us to “stay in your own
lane,” meaning “mind your own business” and “don’t talk to anyone about the
gospel because you don’t want to offend them.” So, we were getting this massive
indoctrination in being “seeker sensitive” and in not saying anything to anyone
that might offend him or her or that might make the person feel uncomfortable
or judged in any way. For they were teaching us that in order to “grow our
churches” that we needed to not offend people with the truth.
Then, my husband and I attended another institutional church
the following year, and they were teaching a class on discipleship, so they
said. So, we signed up for the class and we were given textbooks to follow and
to fill in the blanks. And there they were teaching that we were to “be the
gospel,” which if understood correctly is true, but that is not how they were
interpreting it. To them, being the gospel means you do not share Christ and
his gospel with people verbally but you just do good deeds to them.
Now, good deeds are important. We are all supposed to be
kind to others and to love them and to do good to them and to feed the hungry
and give a drink to the thirsty, etc. But even those professing no faith in
Jesus Christ do good deeds to the people of the world. And in fact, sometimes
the people of the world do a much better job at ministering to the needs of the
people of the world than do those who profess faith in Jesus Christ. So, there
is nothing there to distinguish the godly from the ungodly.
Anyway, being the gospel to them means that we are supposed
to “immerse ourselves in the culture” in order to connect with the people of
the world, and being the gospel means we invite our neighbors over to watch a
movie (any movie) and eat pizza and pop popcorn and drink sodas (or beer). Or we
are to meet up with them at a restaurant or do something good for them. And I
am in no way mocking good deeds here, but I hope you are beginning to see the
big picture.
They want to silence us. And they do it through manipulation
and shaming and trickery rather than outright telling us not to share the
gospel. And they make it sound like this is a good thing and that it is kinder
than talking with people about their sin and telling them that they need to
repent of their sin and that they need to follow Jesus in obedience, and then
they will have salvation from sin and eternal life with God.
That is just not friendly to them, and they find it
offensive, mainly because it confronts them with their own habitual sins, and
that makes them uncomfortable because it makes them feel judged and they don’t
want to feel judged for they want to believe they can keep on sinning without
guilt.
[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17;
Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:19-20; 2 Co 5:15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; 1
Jn 1:5-9; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; 1 Co 15:58; Php 2:12-13; Col 1:21-23]
Going to the World for Help
Isaiah 31:1 ESV
“Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help
and rely on horses,
who trust in chariots because they are many
and in horsemen because they are very strong,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel
or consult the Lord!”
Now, here is yet another aspect or side to this whole issue
of not sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with the world around us. Not only
are they shaming professing Christians into not verbally talking about Jesus
and into not sharing his gospel, but they are shaming them into promoting
humans and human solutions to deliver us from the evils of our world. For they
are shaming the church for not taking a strong stance against issues such as
abortion and such as the things being taught children in public schools.
And so they are appealing to their emotions and they are
convincing them that if they just follow a particular politician or a political
party that they will be able to conquer, with their help, the evils that are in
our society, but while they ignore the evils lurking inside the walls of the
institutional church. For the church at large has altered the gospel to make it
more acceptable to human flesh, and so sin, especially sexual immorality, is
running rampant with the gatherings of the church (or in what is falsely called
“church”).
But I hope you can see what is going on here. This is the
work of Satan, and he is working within the institutional church and within our
government and within social media and the news media, etc. to convince us that
God is not enough, that God can’t solve the issues of our society and so we
need the help of the government in order to conquer evil. But this isn’t at all
about conquering evil. This is about getting us to reject Jesus as our ONLY SAVIOR
AND HOPE and getting us to make the government our savior, instead.
They do this, as well, in the area of our physical health,
convincing Christians that they have to rely on the government to help them
find physical healing or to keep them from getting sick, while the government
plays God. And this is what this is all about. The whole scenario is to try to
shame and scare the people of this planet, including or most especially geared
toward Christians, that we need the government to survive, and in order to be
safe, and in order to be healed, etc.
So, I hope you can see where all this is coming from. This
is obviously from Satan, but it is also coming from those who are serving Satan
and his agenda, and this is about trying to convince us to bow to the beast and
to reject Jesus Christ. But we have to resist him. We have to continue to make
God our only God and our only HOPE and our only SAVIOR. And we need to turn to
the Lord in everything and trust him in all things, and we must keep on sharing
the gospel verbally (or in writing) with the people of the world.
For
Our Nation
An
Original Work / September 11, 2012
Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.
Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Men deceiving: we’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.
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