The Story of I am Not

Standing Alone

The promised Holy Spirit descended on this band of 120 men and women who were in agreement in heart and mind. In that empowered moment, everything suddenly became clear to them. In a flash they realized that the real mission of Jesus was not to establish a government, but to transform the hearts and minds of people. It was not to solve society’s problems from the top down, but from the bottom up, just as he did when he was among them. He healed, he ministered, he fed, he taught, and he loved individual people with real needs. And these people loved him in return. They had seen his transforming mission in action, but they had been too self-centered and self-absorbed in their own personal kingdom building to recognize it. But the power of prayer and the Holy Spirit changed all that.

On the day of Pentecost their confusion turned to conviction. They burst from the room and began explaining the message and meaning of Jesus in the languages of the foreigners visiting Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost. A crowd of thousands gathered in amazement, asking, “What can this mean?” (Acts 2:12, NLT).

Can’t you just see Peter, the most vocal of the bunch, standing boldly before the crowd? Only weeks before he had been the opposite of bold—afraid even to identify himself with Jesus when the Romans arrested his master. But on this day he spoke with an enlightened heart and mind, in the power of God’s Spirit, unashamedly proclaiming: “What you see this morning was predicted centuries ago by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days, God said, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people’” (Acts 2:16-17, NLT).

For ten days Peter and the other followers of Jesus had been bathed in prayer. Now Peter went on to preach a convicting sermon about a new kingdom—a transformational Kingdom movement of God ushered in by prayer and the Holy Spirit. And some three thousand people were baptized into what became known as the Body of Christ—his church. In striking contrast to the religious leaders and people of that day, these fresh new believers didn’t just assemble behind closed doors and keep their religion to themselves. They lived out their newfound relationship with Christ through the power of God’s Spirit. Rather than talking about Jesus, they acted like him. Rather than being religious in a Temple, they were relevant to their society. It is recorded that “a deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together constantly and shared everything they had. They sold their possessions and shared the proceeds with those in need. They worshipped together in the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—all the while praising God and enjoying the good will of the people. And each day the Lord added to their group those who were being saved” (Acts 2:43-47, NLT).

This transformational Kingdom movement swept throughout Jerusalem and turned the current religion of that day on its ear. These bands of Christ followers proclaimed that “pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means we must care for the orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us” (James 1:27, NLT). That was in striking contrast to what the Jewish religious leaders had taught. And rather than erecting buildings and creating an institution of this new religion, these Christ followers gathered in homes where they prayed in agreement and in the power of the Holy Spirit engaged their community, the surrounding countryside, and the known world with a compassion for those in need like that of their Lord and Savior himself. Their lives so reflected Christ that they were known as Christ-ians. Engaging the community around them with a lived-out gospel in the power of God actually transformed people’s lives and house churches were a natural consequence. And this transformational movement of Jesus swept the world like wildfire.  I believe that this can happen today if we are truly seeking to help the lost world around us experience this type of transformation.  I believe the best way to do that is through the model of the early church found in Acts.

The main reason for the Pentecostal boom is that people are looking for real intimacy and authenticity.  The Pentecostal movement offers both. Intimacy is something that I think is misunderstood.  In our society, intimacy is equated with sex.  I believe that true intimacy occurs when we really get to know people, and we are known.  We each long to be understood and accepted.  If we can connect with others on more than just a superficial level, we can attain true intimacy.  I think we can really experience God when we are honest with Him.  He knows us and longs for us to know Him.  The Pentecostal Boom is a result of people being honest about who they are and their need for God.

The major thing that we can learn from the early church is to be proactive and critically engage our society.  This is the approach that makes the most sense biblically.  Jesus chose to fully engage the people of His time.  He took the time to ask the tough questions.  He always asked the questions that would go way beyond the surface.  As youth pastors, we need to know what our students are involved in and ask the tough questions.  For example, this summer I did a message series called “MySpace”.  We took six weeks to look at the who, what, when, where, why, and how of MySpace.  MySpace is an Internet blog site where students can set up a profile, post media, and blogs about themselves.  As I began to research this topic, I looked for our students that had a MySpace account, and I was shocked.  Some of the students had revealing photos, lied about their age, and used profanity fluently.  I e-mailed these students and asked to be added to their friends list.  Within one hour, I had a student at my house. He asked,” How did you find out about MySpace?  He was embarrassed that I had found his site.  He puts on a very spiritual front at church, but his site was far from it.  Others were excited that I took time to enter their world.  If we critically engage the post-modern world, we will truly see change.  As youth pastors, we must lead the charge in an evangelical revolution to reach a lost generation.  

Needs-Based Evangelism

    Evangelism is not often thought of as a discipline, possibly because evangelism is often left to those who are called to the ministry. Many lay people believe that one must have a particular spiritual gift in order to share their faith. Evangelism is in deed a spiritual discipline. Discipline is extremely necessary if evangelism is to be effective and consistently practiced. If prayer is the hardest discipline to maintain, then evangelism is certainly the hardest discipline to begin. Probably no other discipline creates such terror in the Christian as that of evangelism. 

    There are several things I was reminded of as I read this book.. First, evangelism is expected. All Christians are not expected to use the same methods of evangelism, but all Christians are expected to evangelize. Also, evangelism is empowered. The power of evangelism is not ourselves, but is the Holy Spirit. 

    Christians fear failure in evangelism, which to most means rejection of the Gospel. But that is not failure; not faithfully sharing Christ is true failure. We are not called to save, we are called to share the Gospel. Conviction and conversion is the work of the Spirit. Success is measured by how faithfully we share the Gospel, not by how many notches we put on our evangelical gun belt. Evangelism should be a natural flow of the Christian life. 

    It is important for us to get a fresh glimpse of what it means to be a follower of Christ. In today’s society, we have lost our since of identity. The early church knew who they were, what they believed, and why they believed it. In order to really see Christianity in a new light, we must reexamine the salvation process. The Postmodern view of salvation is one that tends to shift from the long held modern view of God’s redemptive power of the Cross and a believers response to that sacrifice. Postmoderns view salvation as universal. By Christ’s death on the cross, we all are assured salvation. This view comes from the religiously pluralistic society in which we live. It is hard for most postmoderns to believe that an all-loving and all-powerful God could send someone to hell for not adopting a certain belief system.

     As a result, postmodern evangelicals have adopted new approaches to evangelism. One way is the approach of discipiling a person before they come to Christ. This approach allows a person to ask questions and get to know more about God and His love for them and does not pressure them to hurry up and say a prayer. Postmodern evangelicals realize that salvation is a process of transformation that begins with putting one’s trust in Christ. Also once a person comes to Christ, they are put in an environment to facilitate growth and spiritual maturity. They learn what it means to follow Christ by being immersed within a community of believers to aid in this process. 

    The main weakness I see is that it could be easy for a person to value the process more than the decision. In reality, it all comes down to a personal decision to accept or reject Christ gift of salvation. The process is good in helping people come to realize their need for Christ, but it should be viewed as a way to help someone through the decision making process. We also need to help people develop a new thirst and hunger to hear and relate to the story of God. 

    Narrative theology is a term that refers to the theology that can be learned and applied to one’s life when you look at the narrative stories in the Bible. It is a view of theology that finds meaning in the story itself. We can learn about the nature and character of God. The Bible is a relational book. We can see through these narrative stories God’s relationship to man, man’s relationship to God, and man’s relationship to man. The Bible stories are there to teach us truth of who God is, and then we have to apply these lessons to our lives. We are supposed to interpret and apply these stories according to the original intentions of the authors of Scripture and not by our own criteria. 

    I believe the narrative theology really communicates to the postmodern mind. We cannot assume that the people we minister to every week have any biblical knowledge at all. The narrative approach helps draw them into the great, and grand story of God. It is up to us to help them see that God has a part for them to play in that story. We have to be careful when using this approach because we do not want to open the door for people to interject their own interpretation of the story. We have to convey the absolute truth contained in those stories without compromising the integrity of the message itself. We need to be the church of the market place. The Church needs to get back to a holistic approach as it reaches out to the community in which it finds itself. We need to be able to explain the narratives of the Bible and use them to shine light on universal truth. We need to also tell our own narrative of how God has changed our lives. Our testimony can really help illustrate that God is still in the business of changing lives. The churches that are making the most impact in their communities have achieved a balance between a narrative theology and relational apologetics. This how we are going to help turn the tide of relativism and apathy with the church and the world.

Absolutely

    In John 20:28, we hear Jesus say that He came to “serve” and not be served.  We should have them same attitude.  We have been called to serve the communities in which we have been planted.  Where does this motivation to serve come from?

            Jesus had a very clear mission on earth.  He came to fulfill the mission of God that was laid out in Genesis 3:15 that mankind would be redeemed.  He never lost sight of that mission.  As the called ones of Christ, we must not forget that mission either.  We must be about carrying out this same mission.   In order to be effective in this effort, we must realize that every area of our lives must be invaded by God.  Our motivation for service should never be our love for others, but it should be our love for God.  The Great Commandment puts this into perspective.  We must first love God with all our mind, soul, and strength, then and only then, will we be able to love our neighbor as our self.

            In order to really love God with all that we are we must be totally sold out to Him.  We must not only confess that we love Christ with our mouths, but we must confess it with our lifestyle.  In Luke 12:8, Jesus states that we must confess Him before men.  Oswald Chambers restates this verse this way; “Whoever confesses Me before men (that is, confesses his love by everything he does, not merely by his words), him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God”.  God tends to speak to me through music more than any other medium.  The band Starfield just released a brand new album entitled The Saving One.  On this album they have a new song called Absolutely that speaks on this very topic.  Read the lyrics below and see if they move you like they moved me:

 

Absolutely

Lover of my soul

I want to tell You

Only You have all of me

I cannot contain

My adoration

I’m in love so desperately

No one is as lovely as You are

And there is no one else Who has my heart

Jesus, You have me completely

Every breath that I breathe

I am absolutely in love

Jesus, I am Yours forever

All of me surrenders

I am absolutely in love with You

Down upon my knees

I’m lost in worship

Humbled by Your majesty

What is there to say

But how I love You

Thank You for forgiving me

All I am is Yours

Only Yours

    This song sums up what I want to be.  I want to be totally sold out to Christ.  What about you?  Take some time this week and evaluate at what level are you sold out.  My prayer for you and me is that it would be absolutely.  Have a great week and may you fall more in love with God each day.