RENEWAL THROUGH RECOVERY (5)
W Carl Ketcherside

The first time he sent them out is recorded in Matthew 10. There were twelve of them, men of different backgrounds and temperaments. They were rugged individualists. Some of them were fishermen. Some were caught up in the tangled political situation of the day. All of them needed training and discipline. They were issued stern orders. They were to take no money, no food collection bag, no extra clothing. They traveled light. It was enough for them to realize that “the disciple was to be like his teacher.” Their territory was limited and circumscribed. They were to go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Many of them did not know they were sheep and most of them did not know they were lost. They resented the implication that they were.

The message was plain and direct. “The kingdom of heaven is at hand,” Matthew was a Jew. He knew the Jews rebelled at saying the name of God. It was too sacred, too holy. So he records that they were to proclaim the kingdom by its place of origin, rather than by its originator. They were to say nothing about the Messiah. They were simply to announce that the rule of heaven was near and growing nearer. But that was before he was granted full authority in heaven and on earth. It was before his betrayal by one of them, before his indescribable agony upon the cross, before his death and rising again.

When all of these things had occurred, and they were all connected with the coming of the kingdom, the orders changed. Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” Pause a moment with eyes closed. Think of the word “all” as used here. Let it strike a spark of fire in your consciousness. All authority — all nations — all that I have commanded — always.”

That message faithfully proclaimed can never fail. The promise connected with it is sure. It is certain. “I am with you always.” It is a message, not of the kingdom, but of the king; not of the called, but of the caller. And it was first heralded in its fulness and perfection on the day of the cereal offering when the two loaves of bread were waved before the Lord. Everyone was hilarious with joy, praising the Lord, singing psalms, thankful for the harvest which had been theirs. Suddenly it happened. There came a sound from heaven. It was like the noise of a tornado. It filled the house and persisted. Split tongues of licking flame appeared. They rested upon each of them. The Holy Spirit filled them like waiting vessels. They began to speak in other tongues. The Spirit directed their utterance.

That is enough. You know the sequel. You remember that Peter stood up and addressed the cosmopolitan crowd. They represented seventeen nations, languages and tongues. He told them of Jesus whom God had attested with mighty works and signs. He told them of his death at the hands of a lawless mob. He pointed out that God had raised him up, and that the eleven were all witnesses. Jesus was exalted to the right hand of God. He had received from the Father the promise of the Spirit. He had poured him out and this is what they saw and heard. He finished with the stirring and impassioned plea, “let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

The effect was electrifying. The hearers were cut to the heart. They cried out to Peter and the other apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” That same day three thousand souls were added to them. They heeded the words of Peter to reform and be baptized. The ekklesia was born that day of the new covenant, the Jerusalem which is free and from above, and is the mother of us all. The kingdom which will never die and never be left to other people began, not with the clash of arms, or the screams of the mutilated and dying, but under the gentle and tender ministrations of the Spirit of God, the other Comforter sent down from above.

The ekklesia began with the proclamation of the Good News. The Good News that God had raised Jesus who had been crucified and made him both ruler and anointed Savior. It was the Good News of a person and what had happened to him, and it was also the news of what can happen to us because of it. The gospel (as the word has come to be called in the English tongue) was fully proclaimed that day. It was perfect and complete. Not another sentence was ever added to it. And it was fully accredited, accepted and obeyed. The idea of the gradual growth of the gospel as the church grew and advanced is a false one. It is dangerous as well. It really is destructive of all we hold dear.

If the gospel preached on Pentecost were a partial and an incomplete one, the ekklesia which sprung from it was also without some of its vital parts. That is just not true. The ekklesia, in its infancy was a body. And like any baby, it was in full possession of all of its parts and functions. It could begin to do what it was created to do. And now that we seek renewal and refreshing it can only come as we re-proclaim that original message. Under the influence of the Spirit of God let us herald the news of the resurrected Savior of men. Let us not be confused or confounded by a misplaced emphasis.

We can do incalculable injury to the family of God by inventing and emphasizing such other things as circumcision, eating of meats, or observation of days. Not only are they confusing but they detract from the message. The truth of the gospel, the central fact which makes it the Good News is justification by faith in Jesus. Anything which derogates that, which conceals it beneath excess verbiage or theological jargon, which obscures and befogs it, is not the gospel and can never be. We must determine not to know anything among the pagans of this day except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. It is this which is a real stumbling block to much of our world, and foolishness to many of the rest. But to us who are saved, it is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

And while much of our world is looking for a sign as a demonstration of power, and the remainder is seeking to absorb the philosophic wisdom of this passing age, expressed in gobble-de-gook, we can do no better than to point men to the cross, stark and naked against the evening sky of history, deserted because he who was hanged on it has risen again. Perhaps if the people of God had not been led into the great scams of the ages, by clever manipulators who were quick-change artists, we might be closer to heaven’s ideal than we are. But this is not time for weeping over what might have been.

Neither is it a time for vain contrasts with the days of the apostles. Are things worse with us than they were with Imperial Rome in the dark days of the Caesars? Yet, it was to them that Paul wrote, “Truth has been brought out into the open through the writings of the prophets, and by the command of the eternal God is made known to all nations, so that all men may believe and obey.” We are proclaiming to the wrong people. We are talking to ourselves. Our message has turned from a proclamation to a recitation. Our dialogue has become a monologue. Our audiences have all become like sword-swallowers in the sideshow of a circus, taking in the weapon of the Spirit without even gulping. What about the black neighbors down the street? What about the Chinese boat people who have come to our shores? Are they not a part of the “all nations”?

Are things worse today than they were in Corinth, with its open and licit prostitution, pornography and practice of magic? It was to them the apostle wrote, “The message about Christ has become so firmly established in you, that you have not failed to receive a single blessing, as you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.” Those who had wallowed in the slimy cesspools of sin, had been reclaimed, washed, sanctified, and redeemed. The proclamation of Jesus had come to them like a clap of thunder out of a clear, cloudless sky. That same message can come with the same effect today. The reason we do not see the effect is because we do not hear the message.