Do You Love Me More than These?
The Church and Our Call to Evangelize.
Still on the theme of Evangelism, we are reviewing the Lausanne Covenant 74, and its relevance to our world today. The Congress of World Evangelization was convened by men imbued with a passion to obey the Lord’s Commission to “Go into all the world, and make disciples of all nations…” They saw the need to awaken believers in their generation to the one responsibility that binds them to believers of all ages - the only reason the Church was left on the Earth by its Founder and Head, Jesus Christ.
In this series, we intend to jolt ourselves to our overarching responsibility as believers here and now in our world. Apostle Paul says, “For none of us lives for ourselves alone” (Romans 14:7). We are spiritually responsible for souls in our spheres of influence (1 Cor.12: 20,26).
Think about it. One writer puts it bluntly in these words:
“To give in to physical selfishness, intellectual laziness, or spiritual stubbornness is to put everyone around us at risk.”
At risk? What does he mean?
The writer speaks to the heart and mind of why we do what we do, both at the level of ministry and at the level of individual believers going about our daily routines. For all that I know, none of the adjectival/abstract nouns is one of the fruits of the Spirit. So if any of them reflects you or your attitude as it does with me, we need to do something about it.
Let’s step back for a while, pushing aside our ego, and pause pandering to men’s praise. Why are you doing what you are doing? I mean why are you in Ministry?
Physical selfishness may be reflected in physically exercising ourselves toward obtaining stuff for “me and my family”; Intellectual laziness, I guess, is reflected in our failure to study and be well-grounded in the Word. We are urged to “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV); Spiritual stubbornness is to get stuck in dogma, and refuse to entertain other perspectives. It’s easier to double down than to rise above our comfort zones.
So, as a putrefying saw, we become risky, even toxic, to people around us. It is what happens when we slip back to our old ways - pretending to be what we are not.
Peter is a star - we have much to learn from him:
He is outspoken, passionate, and voluble. He is in the front of the pack - a leader of a kind. Luke 22:31, 32, tells us that during the Last Supper with his disciples, Jesus predicted Peter would deny him: “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat.”
Take note of that. Jesus said, “Satan has asked” - Satan asked for permission “to sift all of you like wheat.” Satan out there has permission to shake all believers. “But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.” Like sifted wheat your faith will be refined. Because Jesus prayed, he knew Peter would get back on his feet. Thence, he must focus on his primary assignment - to “feed my sheep”, and “strengthen your brothers.”
Rather than submit to the Master, Peter replied, boasting, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.” But Jesus said, “I tell you Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times that you know me.” (vv.33,34)
After Jesus was arrested, Peter denied knowing Jesus three times. The first denial was when a servant girl said, “This man also was with him and someone else said, “You also are one of them.” Peter denied Jesus saying, “I don’t know what you are talking about”, “I don’t know the man”, and finally when confronted by those standing by with “Surely, you are one of them; your accent gives you away,” he “began to call down curses, and swore to them, “I don’t know the man”. (I will not ask you, believer, reading this, how many times you have denied Him).
After denying Christ the third time, a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembers Jesus’ words and goes outside to weep bitterly in remorse (Matthew 26:69-75).
One wrong step often leads to another. Having disappointed himself and God, Peter lost his bearing; He could not see his way forward fishing for men; he went back to his old trade, fishing for food. Peter a leader, told the other disciples, “I’m going fishing.” And they all replied, “We’ll go with you.”
Bad leadership, bad example!
But Christ’s love will not let go of Peter. In his old trade, he begins the struggle, trying unsuccessfully to catch fish.
“So they went out and fished through the night, but caught nothing. Then at dawn, Jesus was standing there on the shore, but the disciples didn’t realize that it was him” (John 21:3-19).
Jesus was right there to bail them out. He told them where to throw their net. As they did, they caught so many fish. The Lord did not stop there. He went ahead and prepared a table before them: “Come and have breakfast”, he said to them.
“When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
Jesus repeated the question to Peter until reality stared him in the face, and he saw his vulnerability. The big question resonates with Ministry and Church leaders today.
Our Love! - love for God or love for stuff? Remember, Satan asked “to sift all of you”?
Satan gets smarter by the day. Pastors, Evangelists, and Teachers don’t have to abandon the Ministry for secular jobs to get stuff. They only need to change the message - drop the ball. Messaging is it. Say it repeatedly and it sinks no matter what, as long as it’s what people like to hear.
The above narrative gives us an insight into what prompted Evangelist Billy Graham and Bible teacher John Stott to convene the Lausanne Congress in 1974.
Article 6 of The Lausanne Covenant - The Church And Evangelism, states:
“We affirm that Christ sends His redeemed into the world as the Father sent him and that this calls for a similar deep and costly penetration of the world. We need to break out of our ecclesiastical ghettoes and permeate non-Christian society. In the Church’s mission of sacrificial service, evangelism is primary. World evangelization requires the whole church to take the whole gospel to the whole world. The church is at the very center of God’s cosmic purpose and is the appointed means of spreading the gospel. But a church that preaches the cross must be marked by the cross. It becomes a stumbling block to evangelism when it betrays the gospel or lacks a living faith in God, a genuine love for people, or scrupulous honesty in all things, including promotion and finance. The church is the community of God’s people rather than an institution, and must not be identified with any particular culture, social or political system, or human ideology.”
(John 17:18; 20:21; Matt.28: 19; Acts 1:8; Eph.1:9, 20:21; 3:9-11; Gal.6:14, 17; 11 Cor. 6: 3,4; 2 Tim.2: 19-21; Phil.1: 27).
In His High Priestly prayer before entering Gethsemane Jesus said,
“Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” (John 20: 21); After His resurrection, Jesus commands His disciples to “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.” (Matt. 28:19, 20);
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1: 8).
Paul writes,
“And God gave me the work of telling all people about the plan for his secret, which has been hidden in him since the beginning of time.” He is the One who created everything. His purpose was that through the church all the rulers and powers in the heavenly world would now know God’s wisdom, which has so many forms.”
God planned to use the church to show his wisdom to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.
In Acts 20:27, Paul reminded the elders in Ephesus,
”For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” “ Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified.”
“I was chosen to explain to everyone this mysterious plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning (Eph.3:9-11).
“We (church) are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light, and we are now the people of God” (1 Peter 2: 9-10).
So let’s spread the Gospel. It’s not about you — It’s about Jesus.
