THE LARGER STORY OF GOD

Lately, I have been thinking a lot through the big picture the Bible paints of God and his continuing story of redemption. The Bible paints it all the way from eternity past to eternity future, but the thing it never misses is that from front to back it is about God and God alone.
 
Sadly, much of our view of God’s redemptive plan is consumed in painting ourselves as the main character of the story. This is exactly what happened to Lucifer, and to Adam and Eve; they fell in love with themselves and forgot the main character. And from those two distinct moments in time, a new story was begun, not about life, but now about death.
 
As I look around this little part of the world in which I live everyday,
I can see these two distinct stories happening all of the time. Some people are clearly about God’s story! Not really in perfection, but in practice you can see it in how they spend their time and money, treat their spouses and kids, treat their day at work, and on and on. They wake up in the morning with a desire and plea to know God more, and the script for his story is engraved on their mind (God’s Word). With every aspect of their life it reflects the presence of the Spirit of God in their life through distinct works that build God’s Kingdom, his church; an everlasting kingdom.
 
Some, even some who call themselves followers of Jesus Christ, have only one script on their mind, “MY SCRIPT!” They are building a kingdom, but the kingdom they are building is their own; the mark of those who are pursuing the wrong story. They are content when everything is falling in line to their script, but agitated and frustrated when anyone dares to break free from the script and ad lib. The word I have noticed that this person uses most is “busy.” That is code for “it doesn’t help me build my kingdom” so I don’t have time. The unfortunate reality for this person is that their kingdom is passing away. Here today…gone tomorrow.

Confessions of Inconsistency or The Church Cart before the Church Horse

I cannot tell you how many times I have taught or have been taught by others that “context is key.” The basic idea is, if you want to accurately understand a passage of scripture, then you must analyze the context in which it was written. This principle is deeply ingrained in the way I study the Bible. Or so I thought. To my surprise, I recently discovered that I have not been consistent with this principle as it pertains to a particular passage of scripture.

Over the years, I have often thought about what the church ought to be and do. One passage that I have been drawn to in this regard is Acts 2:42-47. I would read this description of the early church and try to imitate their example. They met together, prayed together, ate together, and devoted themselves to the apostle’s teachings. After years of reading this passage, I have become very familiar.

But one day it struck me: this passage needs to be seen in its context. This may not be enlightening, but Acts 2:42 comes after Acts 2:41, and those both follow Acts 1:8.  In chapter one Jesus gave the newly formed church a huge task. They were to take the gospel everywhere, including the very ends of the earth. When we come to Acts 2:41, we read that 3,000 people were added to the church. 

Then we get to Acts 2:42-47. There was a reason they were meeting together, eating together, selling things in order to meet each other’s needs, and devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching. They were responding to what had happened earlier in the book.  Jesus sent them on a mission. In order to accomplish this mission, the early church needed to meet together, to pray together, to share with those in need. These were things that were essential to accomplishing the task that Jesus sent them on.

As I examined my life and ministry I realized how frequently I tried
to imitate the activities of Acts 2:42; I would meet with people
(often good friends), eat with them, pray with them. In taking part of these activities, I thought that I was being faithful to what the early Church did. 

I was wrong! The early church did not just meet together for the sake of meeting; they were meeting together for the purpose of taking the Gospel throughout their town and even to the ends of the earth. The central issue was not meeting, sharing, or eating together (even though they did those things). The primary issue was accomplishing the mission that Jesus gave them to fulfill.

If I am passionate about reaching a particular area (e.g., my neighborhood), then it makes sense for me to meet with other people who share in that same passion. But rather than simply meeting for the sake of meeting, I should probably meet with them in order to figure out how to best care and pray for that area. My problem has been that I have not been reading Acts in context. I need to remember that Acts 1:8 comes before Acts 2.  Taking the gospel throughout the region needs to be primary. Meeting together is a good thing, but it cannot be an end in itself. In the early church, it was a means to an end. And that end is fulfilling the mission that Jesus has given us.

Engaging Culture as a Faithful Missionary

Imagine for a moment that you had perfect understanding of the Bible.  Not only that, but imagine that you had the ability to perfectly interpret God’s word.  Being a passionate follower of Christ, you form a plan to move to the other side of the world in order to share God’s word with others.  In God’s providence, you’re able find a few churches that are willing to work together to send you to the
mission field.

So here’s where you’re at:  You have a perfect understanding of
God’s word and the ability to explain what God meant with 100 % accuracy, and you have a network of churches working together with absolute unity. 

Then you arrive at your final destination. You begin your ministry by faithfully unfolding the truths of God’s word.  You continue to do this daily.  As time goes on, people begin to contact you from back home, and you fill them in on your faithful teaching ministry. But you also express a slight degree of disappointment due to a lack of response—people are not growing and changing. Ultimately, you determine that this is just a difficult mission field, and you simply need to persevere. Years pass by and still you continue ministering faithfully. In fact, you end up spending the rest of your life perfectly explaining the word of God to these people.

This sounds like a wonderful scenario. It seems like the perfect use of a talent that has clearly been given to you by God. But let me introduce a slight twist. You have been carefully teaching the word of God in English. But the people you spent your life ministering to don’t speak English. You have been completely faithful and entirely accurate in your teaching, but you have been speaking in a language that the people simply cannot understand.

With that extra bit of information, we would all agree that this potentially perfect scenario turns out to be disastrous. Rather than an example of a faithful ministry, it becomes an example of a wasted life and a misuse of God’s gift. We would all be quick to say that this example is ludicrous.

But here’s the point: you may not be dealing with people who live overseas. You may even be ministering to people who speak English. But are you really speaking the same language? Don’t be too quick to say yes. Have you invested any time in learning the “language” of the culture in which you live? How much time do you spend listening to the people around you? How do they view the world around them? What are their hopes and fears? What do they believe about God and life and death?

Only when we understand the language and worldview of the people living around us can we effectively speak truth into their lives. Only then can we be faithful missionaries to the mission field in which God has placed us.