No matter how much we wish for it to be, there is simply no father without the son. No one can claim a relationship with our heavenly Father without abiding in Jesus Christ the word of God.

Being under authority is the norm in the body of Christ, this is the same for men and women. There can be no ministry unless  we are first discipled in a church and then sent.

The gifts may work, so will the devil against us, because we stand alone.

This question of accountability and submission is so vital that I tell people that when they meet a minister for the first time, the first question  they should ask is “Who sent you?” or “Who do you submit to?” If the minister or pastor says “God” then, I warn that they should run from these quakes as fast as they can!

You see, if such women/men of God are sent, there is submission, obedience and accountability, If not they simply don’t want to submit to anyone else or have someone over them telling them what to do!

The Lord Jesus set an example by constantly referring to the fact that He was “sent” or “given” things to Him by His Father to do the work He gave Him to do. This shows He never called Himself to minister; Jesus needed to be sent or given ministry by someone higher than Himself for His ministry to be legitimate, even though He is God the Son (John 17:2-4, 6-9, 11-12, 18, 21, 23-25).

The early church also functioned with this concept of sending. For example, even though Saul and Barnabas had already felt called by God into ministry they didn’t dare send themselves until the leaders of the church in Antioch also received a confirming word from the Lord to send them. (Read Acts 13:1-2, in which the tense of the original Greek wording shows that God had already called Saul into the ministry before the leaders of the church received the confirming word.)

Even Paul the apostle submitted the gospel of grace he was preaching (to the Gentiles) to the leading apostles of the Jerusalem Church (Peter and John) for fear his work was in vain (Galatians 2:2, 9).

• Galatians 2:2 2 I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain.
• Galatians 2:9 9 James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews.

The bible specifies that while it is the God who calls, it is the church that sents.

Jesus said in Mathew 9:37 that the harvest is ready, but the workers are few. This shows that it is not just a matter of calling. In Matthew 22:1-14 we understand that many are called but a few are chosen. Even among those called, there was one present without the wedding garment who resolved to yield no homage, but to assert his independent self-sovereignty. What that symbolizes about that man is that

• He came into the banquet when he was told to, but he came only in appearance, he came not in heart.
• The banquet was intended for the honour of the son, this man was willing to eat the good things, but he intended no respect to the prince.
• He said, “I will come, but it shall be in such a way that the royal purpose shall not be served, but rather my purposes and needs be met.
• I shall be present myself as an onlooker, but take no share in the ceremony
• I will, on the contrary, show that I have no care for the business in hand, except so far as it serves my turn.
• The man came in full exercise of self-will and self-love.

The Lord calls every one to his kingdom regardless of sex.  The wedding garment highlights in a special way that he also expects all of us to abide by his expectations. Those who do not will be cast into the exterior darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. These are called but not chosen.  ( cf Mt 22:14).  THEY CAN NOT BE COUNTED AS WORKERS OR LABORERS FOR THE HARVEST.

Jesus stated his expectations for preparations of the laborers in Matt 28: 18-20

i)        ¹⁸Then Jesus came to them and said,

(1)    “All authority in

(a)    heaven and

(b)   on earth has been given to me.

ii)       ¹⁹Therefore

(1)    Go (Remember, they are already his disciples, not untrained strangers)

(2)     and make disciples of all nations,

(3)    baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

iii)     ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

iv)     And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

In 2 Timothy 2:2, Paul tells Timothy “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.” (NIV). How will they be qualified? By being entrusted with the things Timothy has heard, they will be qualified. They are reliable, they can be relied upon to walk the talk, to obey and to do, to submit to their calling.

Jesus discipled the 12 and sent them. Jesus expects them to make disciples of all nations. Discipleship requires submission to authority. It is those proven disciples in the church who are marked by the Holy Spirit to be sent by the elders.

This is the way it is according to the Bible. The choice is ours to abide or not.

A sister in the church has this line at the bottom of all her emails “A man cannot touch his neighbor’s heart with anything less than his own.” The fact is that we do touch others with the contents of our heart, and if our heart is set on rebellion, it will affect others in the church. This is the principle behind 1 Cor 5:9-11,  2 Timothy 3: 1-5, and Eph 5:11; where the bible tells us to have nothing to do with them, talking about those who call themselves Christians: “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.”

There is simply no Father without the Son. No one can claim a relationship with our heavenly Father without abiding in Jesus Christ the word of God.

Those who claim to do so are under deception. Have nothing to do with them.

“The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable”  – Brennan Manning

I’d replace atheism with rejection of the message of our Lord Jesus Christ thus: “The single greatest cause of the message of the rejection of the message of Jesus Christ in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable”

Greetings mighty saints of God.

Exodus 20:7 tells us to “not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain;” . We’ve been taught that this means to not use the name of God in common language as swear words or even expressions. The word vain is shäv in Hebrew. The Blue Letter Bible defines its Biblical usage as:
emptiness, vanity, falsehood
a) emptiness, nothingness, vanity
b) emptiness of speech, lying
c) worthlessness (of conduct)

Without discounting any of the above usages, I believe that passage has more to do with worthlessness of conduct than emptiness of speech, lying etc. We are called to be Ambassador’s of our Lord Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:20), we represent and enforce His Kingdom on Earth. Our conduct has to be worthy of this calling.

Is there a specific order of conduct prescribed by which we can stand without error in our representation of our Lord Jesus? In John 13:34-35 Lord Jesus said ” A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

By this ALL will know that you are My disciples, if you have LOVE for one another

This is a commandment and not a suggestion.

I have three children. When they fight, I get irritated, but God forbid, if I ever find that they have no love for each other, that would break my heart. Our heavenly Father feels no different. A long time ago, He asked Cain about the whereabouts of his brother Abel, to which Cain replied “I know not, am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9). Earlier, both Cain and Abel had made an offering to the LORD. He was pleased with Abel’s but not Cain’s. Abel had offered a better sacrifice by faith (Heb 11:4). Then the LORD asked a sulking Cain “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? ⁷ If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” (Genesis 4:6)

King James Version says “… sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.”

I find the similarity between that and the passage in Genesis 3:16 where the LORD says to Eve “…  Your desire shall be for your husband,  And he shall rule over you.” curious.

Coming back to the Cain, we understand that he succumbs to sin and kills his brother. It is when God confronts him that we get the famous reply “I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?”

Let us analyze this

Cain starts by saying “I know not”. This is the first lie said by a human recorded  in the bible. Even when Adam and Eve fell, they did not lie, but just pointed the finger and passed on the blame.

Genesis 3: 9-13

And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

We can say that rather than lying, it can be said that Adam accused Eve and she in turn accuses the serpent of tricking her.  This too is an inherited trait of Satan, who is the accuser of the brothers (Revelation 12:10).

In Cain’s case, the LORD had warned him that sin desires to consume him, and it is interesting to note that the KJV personifies sin as him. Once consumed by sin, the first thing that comes out Cain’s mouth is a lie. In John 8:44, Jesus tells us that Satan is the father of lies.

In other words, after declaring to the LORD who he was with now, Cain goes on and asks “Am I my brother’s keeper?”. What he is asking is

• Is this my concern?
• After all, aren’t you and him good buddies now?
• Aren’t you supposed to take care of him?
• What does all this have to do with me?

Sin had turned Cain against Able and God, as a result he neither had love, care or concern for his brother, not had any regard about what his Heavenly father’s concerns for his brother were.

Coming back to our times, do we have a responsibility to watch out and care for our “brethren”? We read earlier that Lord Jesus commanded us to love another, and that the world will know that we are his disciple by seeing the love we have for one another.

Paul writes to the Romans stating that they must owe nothing to no man but love; that love is the fulfillment of the law (Romans 13:18). Love one another fervently, writes Peter in 1 Peter 1:22.

Other than what Jesus said in John 13:35-35, what touched me most was Paul writes to the Corinthians in 1 Cor 13:1-3

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

So it is clear that the Lord Jesus tells us that we MUST be known for our love for each other.

It would be dangerous to stop at that without understanding how He expects us to fulfill this command.

This is no “free love”; the belief in or practice of sexual relations outside of marriage. Jesus was no hippy with a harem.

In the Bible, there are specific instruction given to express this love.

Four commands to “Love”:

1. Love your enemies (Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:27,35).
2. Love your fellow Christians (John 13:34; John 15:12,17;  1 Peter 2:17; 1 John 3:23; 2 John 1:5; Galatians 5:14).
3. Love the brotherhood (1 Peter 2:17).
4. Love your brother (1 John 4:21).

Two things not to love:

1. The world (1 John 2:15)
2. Things in the world (1 John 2:15)

Three ways to love:

1. Fervently (1 Peter 2:22)
2. With a pure heart (1 Peter 2:22)
3. As brethren (1 Peter 3:8)

Ways to show our love to one another.

1. be reconciled to one another  – Matt 5:24)
2. “receive one another” – Rom 15:7
3. “edify another” – Rom 14:19
4. “serve one another” – Gal 5:13
5. “bear one another’s burdens” – Gal 6:1-2
6. “forgiving one another” – Eph 4:32
7. “submitting to one another” – Eph 5:21
8. “exhort one another” – Heb 3:12-13
9. “consider one another” – Heb 10:24-25
10. “hospitable to one another” – 1 Pet 4:8-10

Remember

1. All will know we are disciples of Christ by our love for one another
2. This is the fulfillment of the Old Testament
3. It is a new commandment (not a suggestion) given by the Lord Jesus
4. Without love expressed Biblicaly by faith, we are nothing but a clanging cymbal, or full of hot air
5. Without this, we are nothing.

An interesting point to note is that all the 10 ways  is addressed to believers, the Church. We are called to be Ambassador’s of our Lord Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:20), we represent and enforce His Kingdom on Earth. Our conduct has to be worthy of this calling. Let us not cause the message of Jesus Christ  to be rejected by the world through our denial of Him in our lifestyle.

with love in Jesus

J.S.Kodiyil
Pastor
The Father’s House Church, Cochin & Ooty

E. CONCLUSION

The Africans tell a story about a mouse who teamed up with a lonely elephant. The mouse always rode on the elephant’s back, just behind his right ear. There he could sit and chat happily with his friend the elephant, keeping him company as they walked along.

One day they came to a bridge over a river. it seemed sturdy enough, so the elephant stepped out on it, and they crossed the river. When they arrived on the other side, the mouse said to the elephant, “Wow! We really shook that bridge, didn’t we?”

You and I are like the mouse. We have teamed up with an all powerful God. By ourselves – like the mouse – we couldn’t shake anything. But working together with God, learning and listening to hear His voice, we can bruise that old serpent, Satan, and set the prisoners of sin, sickness and poverty free (Rom 16:20).

Remember:

1. Academic Knowledge,

While useful in some arenas, cannot produce saving, healing power of God, nor the kind of leaders needed in the Church today. Remember that most of Jesus’ disciples were described as “unlearned and ignorant men. But they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). so take much time to be with Jesus by prayer and fasting. See what a different that will make.

2. God’s Word (Rhema) And His Plan Are Unique …

for every situation, person and organization. Patterns, methods, formulas and traditions – unless energized by the Holy Spirit – can be great hindrances to our hearing and obeying God’s voice.

3. God’s Plan For Your Life Is Much Bigger Than Your Own…

Wait on the Lord in prayer until you have a clear understanding of what God’s plan is.

Let us pray

Lord Jesus, I want to hear Your voice. Let faith come to me now by hearing Your voice. I surrender my life my church, my ministry to You. Guide me by Your word (rhema) and truth (logos). AMEN!

Now quietly listen! What is He saying to you? You. You just asked Him to speak to you. Stop and listen for one or two minutes.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, said something we should take heed to. “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it” (John 2:5).

D. THE MESSAGE – NOT THE MORTAR (Part 2)

3. Spread The Message

The New Testament does not have one word to say about building physical church buildings. (Neither does the Old.) Yet that is one of the highest priorities in most Western churches or organizations. In China, they have a better way.

The emphasis in the New Testament is on “spreading the message.” “And the disciples went every where preaching and the Lord was with them and confirmed what they said by the miracles that followed their messages” (Mark 16:20 tlb).

“For I am not ashamed of this good news [the message] about Christ. it is God’s power-filled method of bringing all who believe it into heaven” (Rom 1:16 pph).

“Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel not where Christ was named… but we preach Christ crucified… Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (Rom 15:20; 1 Cor 1:23,24).

Lavish church buildings will not cause sinners to believe or the lost to be saved. Only God’s power can save the lost.

Dead religious rituals will not bring men to the living Christ, Who triumphed over death, Hell and the grave. But fully preaching the gospel will. Paul wrote, ” … through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God… I have fully preached the gospel of Christ (Rom 15:19). I want to add: The gospel is not fully preached until accompanied by the miraculous displays of God’s love through mighty signs and wonders.

4. A Spiritual Graveyard

Years ago, I walked into  a great cathedral in Australasia. It had seating for 2,500 people, choir boys who could sing beautiful medieval hymns, a great pipe organ to fill the place with majestic sounds, highly educated ministers who recited the sermons and prayers. On the surface, it was very impressive. There was only one problem – they had everything but people! And this was in a city of over five million.

I attended the regular Wednesday night service in that great cathedral. The choir boys sang, the organist played, the priest read the prayers and the sermon. All in all – it took about one and a half hours.

Beside myself, there were only two other persons in the church building, two very old sweet silver-haired ladies. We three sat through this ritualistic relic of a dead Christianity which pretended to be the representation of Christ. The cathedral occupied land worth multiplied millions of dollars.

It would have been to sell the whole lot, shut down this spiritual graveyard and bury this insult to the powerful living resurrected Christ Whose eyes burn as flames. Whose feet shine as burnished brass, Who holds all power in Heaven and earth and Who promises to vomit out every church system that propagates a lukewarm gospel.

In that same church, a priest was saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. He began conducting healing meetings and hundreds started flocking out to his Tuesday night prayer/healing service. Church law would not allow such meetings in the cathedral. He was refused permission and had to conduct his services in a parish hall – far too small to accommodate the sick and infirm who came for salvation and healing.

5. Re-Prioritize Resources

Church leaders – believe me! it is an unholy infatuation those in the Western church have with cathedrals (be they crystal or otherwise). When they construct elaborate sanctuaries at the expense of spreading the gospel, they are an offense to a God who commissioned us nearly 2,000 years ago to, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Until we align with that priority, all else we do is “wood hay and stubble” (1 Cor 3:12).

Two billion still wait to hear! God says, “Their blood will I require at thine hand” (Eze 3:20).

After fully preaching the gospel throughout the Roman Empire, Paul could testify, “I am pure from the blood of all men” (Acts 20:26). Are we? I think not! We must re-prioritize our resources to do what God has said in the Bible, and what He is telling us by His Spirit to do.

I am not against modest church buildings for necessary users. I am against investing dedicated resources for elaborate ego fulfilling project that could and should be used for helping the poor and spreading the gospel.

Next Week

Conclusion

D. THE MESSAGE – NOT THE MORTAR (Part 1)

Church leaders in Western national often compensate for their lack of power and ability to hear the voice of the Lord, by investing millions of dollars in impressive cathedrals and lavish sanctuaries. They think this will impress the world and attract people to their church.

As you study Church history, you discover the more backslidden the church, the more the leaders invested in massive structures which did little to help people or to spread the gospel. These structures likely only served one main purpose – they pandered to church leaders’ and affluent church members’ pride.

Observing how the Church operates, you would be left with the distinct impression that Jesus’ last words were, “Go into all the world and build cathedrals for every creature.” The top priority of most church leaders is to “build a bigger barn.”

1. God’s Priority

What Jesus said was this: “Go ino all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). God puts the priority on the message – not on the mortar. God puts the emphasis on  helping people. Man puts the emphasis on more mortar (buildings).

One cannot help but contrast this behavior of church leaders with our Lord. He chose a stable for His birthplace, lived as part of a poor carpenter’s family in Nazareth, and told us He had come to preach the gospel to the poor. He had no place to lay His head during the years of His ministry. At His death He was wrapped in a borrowed shroud. His body lay in a borrowed tomb during those hours of glorious conquest over death, hell and the grave. For our sakes He became poor.

From whence then do church leaders receive authority to wantonly waste the resources of the Church on gaudy cathedrals and lavish church sanctuaries when two billion people still wait to hear the gospel?

There is no record of church buildings going up until the third century when Constantine, the first “Christian” Roman Emperor, merged church and politics.

Constantine’s influence was spiritually detrimental and disastrous for the Church. Once the Church became respectable and affluent, her power with God was gone. What had been a living organism -  spreading life and blessing everywhere – became a dead organization, proliferating “form without the force” – de void of God’s word and power. Paul admonishes us, “From such turn away” (2 Tim 3:5).

2. The Church In China: An Example

China provides an interesting case study for what can happen when a church is freed from infatuation with cathedrals and elaborate church buildings.

Since before the changes in 1950 God raised up indigenous works that recognized God’s special hand upon China and its culture.

Rather than relying upon the Western way of doing things, they began to see that many aspects of Chinese culture were in harmony with the Scriptures, such s the strength and structure of the Chinese family and the importance placed upon the home as a place of worship.

So even from this time many movements began whereby Chinese believers met in their homes to worship and pray to the Living God as families.

Now too, we can understand why after the changes in 1950 (when all Western missionaries are forced to leave  China) millions of brothers and sisters from all over the country have found spiritual fulfillment not through the Western-style cathedrals, but through an ever-growing network of house churches.

After the changes in 1950, the Chinese Christians began sharing their faith with their relatives and friends. Through “relational evangelism” (that is, evangelism that spreads from relative) an amazing miracle of church growth began to take place in the church in China.

After 120 years of Western missionary activity, there were about two million Christian believers in China in 1952. Twenty years later (1972), when China opened up again to the West, it was discovered there were over twenty million Christians in China. Today (1990) knowledgeable sources place the Christian community in China at fifty to sixty million believers.

Why this dramatic growth? Freed from Western missionary money (which is often a controlling influence) and Western missionary ways of doing things, the Chinese church adapted quickly to methods much more compatible with its culture. Shut out of the cathedrals, they reverted back to the New Testament practice of meeting in homes. The believers then began functioning as a family, with dramatic results in evangelism.

Because the church in China was relieved of the economic burden of massive buildings, they could put their money into helping people and spreading the message. The priority became “spreading the message” – not ‘spreading the mortar” (building more cathedrals).

Next Week

The Message – Not the Mortar Part 2

C. THE REAL THING – NOT SUBSTITUTES

I wish co-workers’ meetings and training materials would place great emphasis in their curriculum on teaching students how to move in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, and how to hear God’s voice.

1. God’s Word And Spirit, Not Academic Knowledge

Thank God for men like Dr. John Wimber, Dr. Peter Wagner and Dr. Donald McGovern, courageous servants of God who stand out in the history of our nation as men who acknowledged the importance of the Holy Spirit in the work of evangelism and church life.

They were not like their contemporaries who emphasized philosophy, literature, history, psychology and a host of other subjects instead of the Bible. these men taught others to prepare for a spiritual battle with Satan and his demons.

They taught the students how to heal the sick, cast out devils, and preach the gospel with miracles confirming the ministry of the Word. Instead of merely turning out students with theological degrees, they raised up men who were aflame with the Spirit. These could dispel the demonic influence spread over our land.

We need men like Philip, who went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ.

The Bible says, “The people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spoke, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them, and may that were lame were healed” (Acts 8:6,7).

Our training should be turning out men of faith like Stephen and Philip – men who will challenge the powers of darkness and triumph in the process. Then we will see “this gospel of the kingdom preached in all the world, for a witness to all nations” (Matt 24:14).

2. Faith No Pride.

If we continue substituting academic knowledge for the rhema of God, we are destined to failure. One of the great dangers of higher education is turning out men of pride instead of mean of faith. To paraphrase Paul, “Knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth up” (1 Cor 8:1).

Let us not worship at the altar of worldly knowledge. Let us not put our faith in academic wisdom and technology which can only provide a convenient, but ultimately fruitless, substitute for God’s power in our lives and ministry. Rather, let us seek to be hearers and doers of God’s word. Let us learn to hear from God.

Next Week

The Message – Not the Mortar

B. RELATIONSHIP – NOT FORMULA

We need to realize that God’s life-giving word seldom comes in response to religious forms or formulas. Jesus healed one blind man by mixing dust and spittle, forming mud and applying it to the blind man’s eyes. The blind man was then sent to the pool of Siloam to wash the mud out of his eyes, and was healed (John 9).

If I mixed dust and spit and put it in blind men’s eyes, probably all they would get is mud in their eyes. If God told me to do it (as He told Jesus) then the blind would be healed.

It is not the form or formula. It is hearing God’s voice and taking obedient action in response to what God has said. On other occasions, Jesus healed the blind with other means (Matt 9:29; Mark 10:52).

A proper relationship with His heavenly Father was the secret of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus said, “I do always those things that please the Father” (John 8:29). Because the condition of Jesus’ heart was always right with His heavenly Father, He could easily hear and obey His Father’s voice.

Jesus made it clear. “The Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing, and in the same way he sees the Father doing it” (John 5:19 tlb).

1. Spend Time With God.

Jesus knew the Scriptures. He confounded the wise men in the temple at age twelve with His Bible knowledge. But the secret of His ministry was His sensitivity to the Father’s voice – doing what He saw the Father doing, in the same way He saw the Father doing it.

When Jesus needed to hear from the Father, He went away for times of prayer (and sometimes fasting). You remember that Jesus’ ministry began with forty days of fasting and prayer. Often thereafter, we see Him spending nights in prayer (as before choosing His twelve disciples). We find Him withdrawing from the multitudes and going into the desert to pray.

Out of that devotional life came the sensitivity to hear the Father’s voice. Have you developed your relationship with the Father in times of prayer and fasting? If not, why don’t you try it and see what happens? You may be surprised.

Next Week

The Real Thing