Why We are Failing the Great Commission
Chapter twenty-seven
Rejected Ambassadors of Reconciliation
In II Corinthians chapter five, the Apostle Paul
addresses the Ambassadorship of the priesthood of all believers (II Corinthians
5:16-21) and accountability for that ambassadorship at the Judgment Seat of
Christ (II Corinthians 5:1-11). A
summary statement between these two realities is found in II Corinthians
5:14-15.
There are two types of rejections of the ambassadorship
of all believer-priests. The first is
the rejection of the message from Christ that is communicated by these
messengers to the world to which they are sent.
The world rejects the message and persecutes the messengers. This is the most common rejection.
Second, there is the rejection by the ambassadors
themselves of the
responsibility to communicate the message given to them by Christ to
communicate to the world. The second
rejection is to what Paul warns about in II Corinthians 5:10-11. Believers have little control over what the
world does with the message given to us by Christ to communicate to the
world. However, nonetheless, we are
responsible to broadcast that message on the widest scale of possibilities of
our influences. Simply because the
common response of the world to messages from God is to kill the messengers is
no excuse for unfaithfulness by the messenger to the message. This is the context of the warning given in II
Corinthians 5:14-15. DO NOT MISS THIS
CONTEXT!
“14
For the love of Christ {to truly love Christ and to love what He loves}
constraineth us {restrains, holds us together, and compels us to
faithfulness}; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were
all dead: 15 And that he died for all, that they which
live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for
them {since Christ died for the believer, the very least we can do is
live in ‘Christ’s stead’ vs.20}, and rose again {to release His Spirit
to indwell the believer and enable the believer}” (II Corinthians 5:14-15).
Most of the God’s communication to us comes to us in the
Holy Bible. This book is God’s inspired
record of human history. The Bible is
written to professing believers who begin in ignorance of God, willful,
existing in various degrees of unbelief and disobedience, and usually living in
extreme carnality. Most of God’s written
communication is ignored and seldom read.
Most of God’s communication is the historical record of His interaction
with unfaithful people who professed faith in Him to some degree.
In I Timothy chapter three, after Paul gives God’s
qualifications necessary for pastors and deacons to serve in these leadership
positions, Paul gives the central ministry and purpose for the assembly of
believer-priests he addresses as “the church of the living God.” This is what Peter addresses to believers as
individual sanctuaries of God living in their individual bodies and corporately
as the living temple of living stones (I Peter 2:5). Paul then gives a descriptor of every local
church as the “pillar and ground of the truth.”
In I Timothy chapter three, Paul is certainly referring to local churches
as embryos of the “general assembly” for the Kingdom Age because he makes every
local church responsible for examining the qualifications of their pastors and
deacons.
In most part, most people completely misunderstand the
metaphor given in “the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the
truth.” Ancient temples were a construct
of immense quarried rocks that necessitated a solid foundation upon which they
were constructed/installed/stacked. One
of the reasons most temples were constructed on mountain tops is because
mountain tops were solid rock. The solid
rock of these mountain tops became the floors/foundations for the
construction/stacking of these enormous quarried/shaped stones constructing
walls, pillars, and a roof of quarried stones.
The solid rock floors/foundations were referred to as “the ground” or stay
of the building.
The second element in the construction of these temples
were colonnades (rows) of pillars often reaching seventy feet into the sky (the
height of a seven storied building).
These pillars were a pile of huge shaped stones stacked and interlocking
one upon the other each weighing many tons.
Every stone within the construct of these pillars needed to be carefully
selected, shaped, leveled, and plumbed. This
portrays the care necessary to the individual discipleship of EVERY
believer-priest making up the construct of the church. Failure in discipleship of any individual
would create a weak spot that weakens the integrity of the whole
structure. This is to what Paul refers
in the statements, “how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of
God” and “without
controversy great is the mystery of godliness” (I Timothy 3:15).
“14 These things
write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: 15 But if I
tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the
house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground
of the truth. 16 And without controversy great is the mystery of
godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of
angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into
glory” (I Timothy 3:14-16).
The central purpose of the solid foundation and the
exacting specifications for the colonnades of pillars was to be able to
maintain the support of the huge stones that would become the roof of the
temple. The roof is a metaphor for the
eternal truths of God’s revelation given to the world in God’s inspired words
of His Holy Bible. Supporting the “truth”
is the basis for the quality detailed construct of every individual stone in
the colonnades of pillars. This metaphor
is the picture of the “line upon line” principle of establishing truth in every
generation.
“9 Whom shall he
teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that
are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. 10
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line,
line upon line; here a little, and there a little: 11 For
with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people” (Isaiah
28:9-11).
Most of the population of the world outside of Israel was
completely ignorant of the one true God and were immersed in the corruptions of
the sexually perverse idolatry of the pagan fertility cults.
Even the Jews continued to slip back into these corruptions of the
“mystery of inequity” on regular occasions.
The priests of God failed to teach the Word of God. Then God sent prophets (preachers) to the
willful and disobedient professors of belief to warn them of the consequences
of disregarding the commandments of God to which they had agreed to obey. We are seeing parallels of this ignorance within
Christianity in these “last days.”
The true prophets of God were disregarded and even
murdered for preaching the revelations given them from God. The true prophets of God were more preachers
than writers. The prophecies given to us
are the written form of God inspired messages (sermons) they preached
repeatedly as they traveled from city to village throughout the nation of
Israel.
False prophets arose in abundance giving messages
contradicting the messages of the true prophets even denigrating the true
prophets as extremists and false prophets.
The false prophets gave false messages from God that condoned the carnal
licentious practices of the people, telling the people things they wanted to
hear. Even God’s preachers’ warnings
against the false prophets went unheeded by most people. False prophets emphasized nationalism apart
from the spiritual qualities of separation from idolatry and unto
godliness. Separation from idolatry and
unto godliness were the constant focus of all true prophets. Israel as a nation was always secondary to
God because nationalism was irrelevant apart from a spiritual
relationship with God (“vain oblations,” Isaiah 1:13).
All of this defines the “mystery of inequity” against
which every true and genuine believer is commanded that he “should
earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3). Before faith can be truly “the faith,” that
faith must be based upon the correct understanding of God’s inspired Words that
generate a right relationship with God.
This is the front line of warfare upon which the faithful
preacher and every faithful believer battles against a constant barrage of corruption
from “the mystery of inequity.” Failing
to understand this warfare makes a professing believer more a part of the
problem than a part of the solution.
In the Old Covenant, not every prophet was a priest. Not every priest was a prophet in the sense
of receiving direct revelation from God.
However, every priest was supposed to be a preacher/teacher of the Word
of God as well as continually reminding the people of the messages of the
prophets retelling what God had done and what God still was going to do. This too becomes the responsibility of all
New Covenant believer-priests (all “born again” believer of the Church
Age). An untrained and undiscipled
priesthood is doomed to unfaithfulness. Herein
we discover the root of failure in modern Christianity.
Isaiah is commanded of God to preach to the children of
Israel the messages that God gave him through direct revelations from God. In other words, God told Isaiah the exact
words He wanted Isaiah to say. Isaiah
did not just write what God said on sheep skins and parchment to then be sent
to every household in Israel. Isaiah
traveled throughout the land and the people and preached these truths
repeatedly everywhere he went. These
truths then became the responsibility of individual hearers to disseminate to
everyone within their own realm of influence.
However, Isaiah’s preaching came with an instruction book
from God on Homiletics
(the science and art of preaching/teaching).
God expected Isaiah’s communication to be passionate, specific,
confrontational, and instructional. These
instructions from God to Isaiah about preaching are detailed in Isaiah
58:1-2.
“1 Cry aloud {to
call out to someone loudly with your voice to get their attention; urgently and
passionately in order to compel to obey}, spare not {without
restraint, reservations, or prejudices in respect towards persons or the
positions they hold in life}, lift up thy voice like a trumpet {make
sure everyone hears the warning and understands the meaning of the trumpet’s
sounding; ‘For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who
shall prepare himself to the battle?’ I Cor. 14:8}, and shew my people their transgression {The
prophet/preacher is required to speak with specificity regarding failures and
sins. The word ‘shew’ means to stand in
bold opposition against the corruption.
God viewed His ‘people’ in moral revolt against His Law. Isaiah, and all preachers/priests, are
commanded to expose that moral revolt against the character and nature of God’s
holiness in every detail of minutia.}, and the house of Jacob their sins
{the intent of the preaching is to confront the hypocrisy of ritual and
practical externalism without any genuine repentance of the sins. This religious and ritual hypocrisy was
greater than the sin itself. God
addressed this problem in the very first message to Isaiah to give the children
of Israel. ‘Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination
unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away
with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.’ Isaiah 1:13}. 2 Yet they seek me
daily, and delight to know my ways, as {semblance} a
nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God {nothing
real or genuine in their repentance; no substance to it}: they ask of me
the ordinances of justice {seeking solutions}; they take delight
in approaching to God {This all describes semblance without substance;
no genuine life changing repentance. It
is absolute foolishness and self-deception for anyone to think this kind of
hypocrisy of religious externalism is somehow going to be acceptable and
blessed of God.}” (Isaiah 58:1-2).
In Isaiah 6:1-8, God gives Isaiah a vision of Himself
upon the throne in Heaven where the “seraphim . . . cried unto another,
and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is
full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3). King Uzziah dies just before this
vision. His son Jotham had reigned in
his stead when Uzziah was stricken with leprosy by God for pride. Isaiah’s call to prophesy came two years
before Uzziah’s death that happens in Isaiah 6:1.
Isaiah 6:1-8 is one of the most revealing and sobering visions
of the character and nature of God in the Bible. The vision shook Isaiah to the core of his
being humbling him before God; “Woe is me! for I am undone;
because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts” (Isaiah
6:5).
It is this vision of God that is the foundation of
equating Isaiah as the Paul of the Old Testament (II Corinthians
12:1-10). Isaiah’s faithfulness to
preaching was unwavering after this vision of God in His sovereignty. After God gives Isaiah this spectacular
vision in Isaiah 6:1-8, then God commissions Isaiah with his preaching
responsibilities to God’s people. It is
this deep-seated understanding and faith in Who God is that establishes the
foundation of moral responsibility for every believer’s commission to fulfill
the Great Commission. It is out of this
understanding of the sovereignty of a holy God and our accountability to Him in
faithfulness to His commands that true obedience is birthed into this world.
“9 And he said, Go,
and tell this people, {the message of God to the people is as follows}
Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but
perceive not. 10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their
ears heavy, and shut their eyes {the intent is that the children of Israel
would harden themselves to what God was saying and the continual preaching of
the faithful prophet would become a heavy weight of judgment upon their hearts};
lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with
their heart, and convert, and be healed. 11 Then said I {Isaiah
to God}, Lord, how long? And he {God} answered, Until
the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the
land be utterly desolate, 12 And the LORD have removed men far away,
and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land {keep
preaching until there is literally no one left to listen}” (Isaiah
6:9-12).
Isaiah’s ministry would span the lives and the roller-coaster
ride of spiritual devolution and corruption from Uzziah, to Jotham, to the
pagan Baalist Ahaz who passed his own children through the sacrificial fires to
Moloch (II Chronicles 28:3), and then back to revival under Hezekiah (Isaiah
1:1). Within this roller-coaster ride
of spiritual devolution and corruption would rise the opposition to the message
of the true prophets by the ear-ticking, culturally relevant placating
messages of the false prophets who simply told the people what they wanted to
hear with no mention of God’s condemnation or any call to repentance.
Isaiah prophesied for sixty-two years from 760 to 698
B.C. seeing revival under king Hezekiah in his last few years of ministry. The point of this is that he was faithful to
God’s Word through the thick and thin of political corruptions leading through
spiritual apostasy under the leadership of Ahaz to spiritual revival under the
leadership of Hezekiah. The faithful
messenger is concerned only with being faithful to the message given him. There can be no faithful mouth to ear to
heart transposition of truth from one generation to another apart from
being faithful to the message and to a personal relationship with the God of
the message.
Herein lays the great corruption of the priesthood of all
believers of the New Covenant by “the doctrine of the Nicolaitans” (Revelation
2:16 and 16) and why the Church is failing the Great Commission. The “the doctrine of the Nicolaitans” was the
creation of the clergy/laity division within professing Christianity. Christ hated “the doctrine of the
Nicolaitans” because it corrupted the priesthood of all believers making it
easy for false teachers to gain control and propagate their false
doctrines. In other words, by A.D. 96
and the giving of the Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John, like the
false prophets in the Old Covenant, most of Christianity had become dominated
by false teachers who then denigrated, radicalized, and marginalized those
faithful preachers who were faithful to the message. The responsibility for the transposition of
the truth of the message of God from one generation to the next under
Nicolaitanism had now become the responsibility of a few, not the
responsibility of the many; the “Church.”
Jeremiah was the last of the faithful prophets to Judah
prior to the captivity. Jeremiah prophesied to Judah from 629-588 B.C
beginning his ministry sixty-nine years after Isaiah. The ten Northern Tribes had already gone into
Babylonian (Chaldean) captivity.
Three more generations of Jewish kings have passed into
history before Jeremiah comes on the scene. Zedekiah was the last of the pre-exile
kings who was carried to Babylon after eleven years of a puppet reign under the
Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah
remains in Jerusalem witnessing God’s final judgment upon Judah in the Babylonian captivity.
Ezekiel (595-574 B.C.) is already in Babylon having been taken
with the ten Northern tribes. Ezekiel
witnessed what God said He would do from that captivity. Daniel is also in Babylon under exile (607-534
B.C.). Daniel would spend the whole
prophesied seventy years of captivity in captivity to live long enough to see
the remnant returned to Jerusalem.
This historical context is incredibly critical to
understanding the difference between being a faithful prophet/preacher and an
unfaithful prophet/preacher. Spiritual
and political circumstances are irrelevant to faithfulness. Although there were ups and downs in
the spiritual and political atmosphere of Israel, what defined faithfulness to
God’s Word remain a constant among the faithful prophets/preachers. Apart from this historical context, Jeremiah
chapters twenty-three and twenty-four would have little meaning to us or be
able to give us the intended understanding of what defines faithfulness.
“1
Woe {a pronouncement of pending doom; curse} be
unto the pastors {corrupted, unfaithful priests and false prophets}
that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD. 2
Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors {corrupted,
unfaithful priests and false prophets} that feed my people; Ye have
scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I
will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD. 3 And I
will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven
them {the regathering of Jews during the Tribulation through the
preaching of Jesus as Messiah by the 144,000 saved, sealed, resurrected, and
glorified from the twelve tribes of Israel}, and will bring them {saved
Jews from the Tribulation} again to their folds {various land
distributions in the Promised Land}; and they shall be fruitful and
increase {marry and produce children and thereby multiply}. 4
And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them {refers
to a new Melchizedekian priesthood in the priesthood of all Church Age
believers from the Church Age grafted into Israel at the beginning of
the Kingdom Age}: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither
shall they be lacking, saith the LORD {JEHOVAH; because Jesus will reign
in omnipotence over the Kingdom Age through His glorified priesthood with a
‘rod of iron’}” (Jeremiah 23:1-4).
We are rapidly seeing our culture being converted from
Amoralism due to Secular Humanism into Immoralism due to total Atheism and
rampant unbelief in the existence of God.
There are few differences between the cultural outcomes of Amoralism and
Immoralism except the complete intolerance of any moral absolutes and any form
of strict moral codes of ethics. Amoralism
and Immoralism create an anti-Christ and an anti-God culture. True and Biblical Christians are rapidly
being viewed as the enemies of this evolving culture (Paganism without physical
idols).
The so-called Christianity of Post-modernism is
more secular than it is sacred. The falsities of Ecumenical Christianity (now Pluralism)
demand the acceptance of a degree of veracity for all beliefs and all forms of
worship.
This corruption is very similar to what was going on
in Israel during Isaiah’s and Jeremiah’s prophecies against Israel and her
false prophets. The false prophets and corrupted priests
(“pastors”) were validating all forms of worship and the integration of pagan
practices into Judaism. This unholy,
worldly nonsense in professing Christianity, daring to call itself by
the Name of Christ, is the continuing evolution of false salvation decisions
unaccompanied by any form of genuine repentance of sin or false doctrines. When false teachers demand that nothing is to
be called false and wrong then everything must be considered righteous. This is the outcome of “having a form of
godliness, but denying the power thereof” (II Timothy 3:5). History is repeating itself.
“9 Mine heart
within me is broken because of the prophets {Jeremiah prophesied under the reign of kings Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim,
Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, which moved from revival under Josiah to complete
compromise under Zedekiah.}; all my
bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because
of the LORD, and because of the words of his holiness. {Jeremiah lived through and personally
experienced the horrors of the siege, captivity, sacking, and destruction of
Jerusalem. The reasons God
allowed all this carnage is now described in verses 10-17. Notice the cause is directly connected to
people refusing to hear the true prophets and heaping to ‘themselves teachers
having itching ears,’ II Timothy 4:3} 10 For {because = cause}
the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the
pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and
their force is not right. 11 For because = cause}
both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their
wickedness, saith the LORD. 12 Wherefore their way shall be unto
them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall
therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation,
saith the LORD. 13 And I have seen folly in the prophets of
Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err. 14
I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit
adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that
none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as
Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. 15 Therefore thus
saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood,
and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is
profaneness gone forth into all the land. 16 Thus saith the LORD
of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you:
they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out
of the mouth of the LORD. 17 They say still unto them
that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they
say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No
evil shall come upon you” (Jeremiah 23:9-17).
As
we transition from Jeremiah chapter twenty-three into the ten verses of
Jeremiah chapter twenty-four, we see that there are extensive long-term
consequences to compromise.
“1
The LORD shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were
set before the temple of the LORD, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of
Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah {Coniah; Jerimiah 22:24, 28, and
37:1} the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with
the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. 2
One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are
first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not
be eaten, they were so bad” (Jeremiah 24:1-2).
In Jeremiah
24:1-2, God presents two different harvests of “figs” in two different levels
of the captivity. The first “figs” were
the best and ripest of the harvest and would be the source from which the
returning remnant of faithful would be birthed in the last generation of the
seventy-years of the Babylonian captivity.
These “figs” are therefore called “very good figs.”
The second basket of figs came
from the third harvest and often came very late in the season. They were seldom ripe enough to be any good
for eating. The captivity of the
first “figs” was accompanied by repentance and revival of real passion for the
things of God and love for God among many Jews.
The later captivity under Zedekiah’s
reign of those at the greatest level of compromise and disassociation from the
heart and mind of God was not accompanied with repentance and a change of
heart. Therefore, these people in this
level of the captivity are called “bad,” “naughty,” and even “evil” figs. Nothing could turn their sour hearts to
sweetness. They would not hear, see,
understand, or be turned from their wickedness.
This is very similar to the
Laodicean church of Revelation chapter three.
They would not see that what they thought they were is not anywhere
close to what God knew they were.
“14
And unto the angel {pastor or messenger} of the church of the Laodiceans
write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness,
the beginning of the creation of God; 15 I know thy works,
that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue
thee out of my mouth. 17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and
increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 18 I
counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich;
and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of
thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou
mayest see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten {rejoice
in your rebuke because there is still hope of repentance if chastisement is
still taking place}: be zealous {this is the ‘rebuke;’ present
tense = habitually be; this is the opposite of being ‘lukewarm.’ The Greek word translated ‘zealous’ here
comes from a root word meaning to boil.} therefore {get some passion for
godliness}, and repent” (Revelation 3:14-19).
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Numerous studies and series are available free of charge for local churches at: http://www.disciplemakerministries.org/
Dr. Lance Ketchum serves the Lord as a Church Planter, Evangelist/Revivalist.
He has served the Lord for over 50 years.
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