‘REVISITING’ AND ‘RE-EXAMINING’ THE GREAT COMMISSION
“Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with always, to the very end of the age,’ (Matt. 28:18-20)
First of all, note the unmatched authority of Jesus – the scope is in heaven and on earth – implying that those in the spiritual realm in heaven and those on earth (including rulers and nations) are under his rule and sovereignty.
Perhaps the verses from Isaiah 43 can help to elaborate this:
“You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, ‘and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no saviour. I have revealed and saved and proclaimed – I, and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses,’ declares the Lord, ‘that I am God. Yes, and from ancient days I am he. No one can deliver out of my hand. When I act, who can reverse it?’ Isaiah 43:10-13
In the light of this unmatched authority of Jesus, who is God, he draws out an implication for his followers and one of the most important “therefore” in the history of the world. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations….”
Note the two commands – “go” and “make disciples” The main emphasis is on discipling but the going is necessary.
For some believers, going might involve crossing oceans and borders, languages to learn, cultural divides to bridge; but in our current global context where unreached people are living in cities where there are churches, another kind of ‘going’ may be implied. Such a going might mean being sent out from ordinary, everyday life among people just like us to reach out to people who live and work among us. So the Commission might mean ‘goings’ of all sorts.
‘Make disciples of all nations’ is the heart of the Great Commission, and surely this does not mean the mere pursuit of conversion and statistics. Baptising them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, would refer to one of the two important sacraments in the church, the other being the Holy Communion. The implication is that those who responded positively to Christ should be received into the church and into the fellowship of the Trinity.
Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you is not the mere pursuit of conversion; if discipling all nations does not mean simple classroom information transfer (as in workshops and ‘how to’ sessions), then it must mean aiming at a kind of lived-out spiritual maturity.
And that brings us to how Jesus himself discipled his men, investing prolonged, real-life, day-in, day-out, intentional time with his disciples in order to grow them to maturity – this serves as a model for us to follow as we seek to disciple others in the church context.
And apostle Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2, “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. In effect, Paul is telling his disciple Timothy to disciple others to disciple others.
Discipling, seen in this light, means not merely the pursuit of our own spiritual maturity but getting outside ourselves for personal connection and substantial, intentional investment of time is a few others. Jesus gave of himself to his disciples.
‘Teaching them to observe and obey all things all I have commanded you’ works particularly well in the context of the church as a community and body of Christ – it is not just teaching and communicating in words during worship service in the sermons, in bible study and in small groups, but doing it and living it as the people of God in the context of churchlife where everyone has a part to contribute and receive from one another. It is not just what we say but we do in living together as a community, caring for one another and manifesting the realities of what we learn from God through fellow believers in Christian love.
And finally Jesus promised that He will be with us always, to the end of the age. He will be with us if we are called to unreached nations; He will be with us when hearers may turn on us, in persecution, and in pain, He will truly be with us, comforting us, enabling us and giving us the grace that is sufficient for every situation – until the end and until the consummation of this age. The Great Commission is not an option; it is a command from the Lord Jesus and it is to be fulfilled until the goal of ‘He shall be our God and we shall be His people’ is accomplished.
MORE ON THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER
Why did Jesus use parables in His teachings? To the disciples it has been ‘allowed or ‘given’ by God to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but to ‘them’ (outsiders) it has not been given.
The context in Luke 8: Jesus had been rejected by the Jews and their leaders despite His miracles and teachings which clearly showed that He was the Messiah they waited for.
Hence the parabolic approach – it is used so that “they may see but not perceive, may hear but not understand, lest they turn and be forgiven. In other words, parables, with their inherent riddle quality, are a form of designed judgment; to those who have more will be given, and from those who have not (i.e, have not responded to revelation), even what they have will be taken away (they end up with nothing). Here is a sober and serious warning to us who listen to God’s word – it may be a blessing or it may be a judgment, depending on our response.
Then, to emphasise the point and the issue of design as well as responsibility, in Matthew 13, the citation was more emphatic: : ‘you will indeed hear, but never understand, and you will indeed see, but never perceive.’ The citation goes on: “For the people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are heavy of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should perceive with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hear, and turn to me to heal them.” Here is added a note of human responsibility to the response to what the Lord revealed. A persistent rejection (like that of the Pharisees and the Jews) can lead to judgment.
The parables then are presented as a two-edged teaching: blessing and explanation for those who know Jesus, but a judgment preventing insight for those on the outside.
Note: Each of the three soils fails to bear fruit. None of them accomplishes what a farmer tries to do by sowing seed. Two of these soils initially engage the word, but Jesus does not intend any assurance by that imagery. Nor does the difference in the failures of the second and third seeds make any real difference in the long run, because neither seed produces fruit. The result is tragic in all three cases. Seed was sown, but fruit did not emerge. The way to fruitfulness is strewn with obstacles for the heart.
The good soil is different. This one not only hears the word but also understands it; this seed bears fruit, in different measures, depending on the response.
These hear the word and hold fast to it with an honest and good heart; it speaks to their spiritual integrity. The recipient also has patience, since fruit comes slowly over time. The response shows that Jesus is not talking about a single moment of the spiritual life but is considering the life of response as a whole. Only with the passing of time does trial come. In the parable, only over time does a person get drawn away to pursue riches. Only as time moves on does fruit grow – this is a parable summarising the whole of a spiritual life. Getting to fruitfulness takes tenacity in embracing the word and patience in cultivating it. There is a reference here to endurance and perseverance in our Christian life.
We also need to take note that the Word sown is authored and interpreted by the Holy Spirit – the Spirit is the One who illumines the Word for the hearers to understand. It is the right interpretation and the correct enligtenment (illumination) by the Spirit which enable the preacher to preach powerfully, the teacher to teach accurately, and the listeners to be ‘pierced’ in the hearts, which in turn effects a wholesome response that leads to transformation. The adage “All word and no Spirit and the people dry up; all Spirit and no word and the people blow up. But both Spirit and word and the people grow up”.
We need to be aware that the devil is active to take away the word ‘sown’ before there can be understanding; the devil also manipulated the flesh (the indwelling sin) and the negative ‘attractions’ of the world to ensure that there would be no fruit. The One who can effectively counter the evil one and overcome him is the Holy Spirit. The indwelling Spirit enables us to ‘fight the good fight’ and overcome; He is the One who also guides us, comforts us, and transforms us into the image of the Son. We can resist the Holy Spirit and grieve Him; when we allow the ‘persuasion’ and ‘deceptions’ of the evil one to cause us to ‘wither’ and to ‘dry up’.
This will be particularly intense in the end times with the appearance of the Antichrist and the false prophet – the latter can do ‘miracles’, he can affect the emotions and deceive the minds in many ways. The ‘trials’ and the ‘thorns’ will be numerous – here is a call to be faithful and to cling on to the Lord unto fruitfulness and victory! (from the study on ‘Revelation’).
THE HOLY SPIRIT, REGENERATION AND LIFE IN THE SPIRIT
The FALL involved three things:
1. The withdrawal of the Holy Spirit from the human heart was one of the consequences of sin. Man, destitute of the Spirit, is now called flesh (Gen.6:5); and, they who live the life of sinful nature are designated ‘sensual’, having not the Spirit (Jude 19). The Holy Spirit, in consequence of the fall, departed from the human heart, which was once His temple, and was at first a fit habitation for the divine presence. Only the ruins can be traced.
2. The fall involved our captivity to Satan, which he maintained by right of conquest. The evil spirit can now enter the heart when the Holy Spirit withdrew, and continues to lead men captive, working in the children of disobedience.
3. The image of God in which Adam was created, was replaced by the entire corruption of man’s nature (John 3:6). It is not denied that there still linger in man since the fall some glimmerings of natural light, some knowledge of God and of the difference between good and evil, and some regard for virtue and good order in society.
But without the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit, men are neither able nor willing to return to God, or to reform their natural corruption. Hence, regeneration by the Spirit must first take place before man can be saved; man who is spiritually dead must be regenerated, made spiritually alive, before he is able to repent wholesomely and exercise his faith to receive the gospel, but this faith is something man exercises by himself but is not of himself – it is a gift – it is not an achievement – all boasting is excluded.
Of course, the Spirit works in the application of the redemption purchased by Christ. The work of atonement was finished when Christ expired. The everlasting righteousness was brought in, but the Spirit must apply what the Lord Jesus completed and purchased. The whole interposition of the Spirit of God rests on the ground of the Mediator’s finished work. Obstacles that stood in the way of the Spirit’s return to the human heart were many and insurmountable by any finite means but they are put out of the way by Christ’s vicarious sacrifice and royal priesthood – that is, by merit and efficacy, or purchase and power.
Subsequent to regeneration, there are three distinct expressions in the sequence of operation in the Christian’s experience.
1.(1)They are in the Spirit by the act of regenerating grace ; (2) they are spiritually minded (Rom. 8:6) – that is, they mind the things of the Spirit; (3) they walk after the Spirit, which refers more to their inward and outward practical life.
The sequence is such that it is not sufficient to perform good works which challenge the attention of spectators, unless there be the inner change of character and disposition, which naturally weans the heart from the object to which natural desire is attached to.
2. The Spirit dwells in the Christian (Rom. 8:9). It is the inhabitation which imparts the spiritual mind, the mark by which the true disciple is distinguished; for Christ and His people are anointed with the same Spirit.
3. The Spirit is life because of righteousness (8:10), on the ground of Christ’s imputed righteousness. As He gave life to all creatures at first, so does He give life immortal, incorruptible, and unfading to the new creature. that is, to all the redeemed of the Lord.
4. Those who have the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body (8:13). They are debtors, not to the flesh, but to the Spirit. The flesh and the deeds of the body are the cause of death; by the Spirit, the Christians weaken it and lop off its branches one by one.
5. They are led by the Spirit of God, and are thus noted to be the children of God (8:14). The expression ‘led by the Spirit’ refers to an inward prompting, impulse, and inclination which so rules and guides them that they cannot omit duty or neglect privilege.
6. The other benefit is the Spirit helps their infirmities, interceding in them with unutterable groanings, while Christ intercedes for them.
7. Christians have the firstfruits of the Spirit (Rom. 8:23). The firstfruits are enjoyed in this life, but are after all a foretaste or firstfruits of what awaits us, in all its amplitude and fullness, in eternity.
In summary, the forfeited presence of the Spirit is restored by Christ’s mediatorship and obedience to God’s law in precept and penalty. Those who fail to apprehend the atonement remove the mission of the Holy Spirit from its dependence on the finished work of Christ as the basis or meritorious ground of the Spirit’s return to the human heart. There can therefore be no salvation without the finished work of Christ and no way man can be restored; and the mission of the Holy Spirit also will not be available to humankind as in the age of the Spirit.
After the Fall, men are described as having not the Spirit (Jude 19), and as the necessary consequence of this, as sensual (1 Cor. 2:14); in other words, so sunk into animal life that their wisdom is earthly (James 3:15), and they are without God (Eph. 2:12). These are the true states and realities of men and women without God – if we do not see these clearly, we may not understand why fallen men and women can be so cruel and evil in their motivation and intentions, and we may just be ‘fooled’ and led astray by such ones who may appear so positive and so wise in their appearance. Unless God, in His grace and mercy, draws fallen wretched men and women to Him to a point that they see their ugly true states and cry out for mercy to the loving God, there is no hope for fallen mankind.
Regeneration is an action wholly supernatural, not less so than creation or resurrection, which is described as the incommunicable acts of the same Spirit by whom we are renewed. It is not effected by moral suasion on the one hand nor by the natural man on the other, making use of the light of nature as to win the greater grace of this renovation. For all the subsequent movements are still effected by the same Spirit who works in us both to will and to do (Phi. 2:13).
For those regenerated, they are known by such such terms as the new creature (2 Cor. 5:17); the new man (Eph. 4:24); the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4); as wisdom in the understanding, holiness in the will; as faith, love and hope, and all those fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22). When we ask who are regenerated they are the elect (Rom. 8:30; when we ask what is regenerated in the man, the answer is the whole soul in all its powers: for though no new facilities are created, they are all renovated.
The essential feature of Christianity, according to our Lord’s own delineation, is the new birth; and so indispensable is it, that without the new nature there can be no evangelical health or progress, not any interest in Christ and in the blessings of His purchase.
The natural man, apart from the supernatural work that the Holy Spirit does in him, CAN DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, and that he needs to be replenished by the Spirit of life. The church righted again by adopting the position that the subject of conversion cannot also be a co-operating factor, and that the sole cause of conversion and faith is the Holy Spirit working through the word – that is, as giving a full proclamation of law and gospel. No Protestant confession has assigned any agency for the human will as a THIRD CAUSE. If all good flows from the Spirit of God, down to the very first desire, then dependence and prayer constitute the only fitting attitude for the church in general for every individual soul (in the task of evangelism and mission).
The Holy Spirit, in returning to the human heart, anticipates the will – that is, works in us to will – at the first moment of conversion and at every subsequent step. The first desire, wish or resolution to return to God, as well as the first prayer offered with this end in view, is from the Holy Spirit. That all spiritual good emanates from the Spirit of God is a simple formula which keeps every inquirer in this department right. That the Spirit’s power and grace precede the will is a maxim to be carried with us, unless we are prepared to ascribe a merit to the first step, or to view the first step as originated on the man’s own side.
The application of redemption is from first to last by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit inhabits and replenishes all the mental powers, and supplies them with the help which makes them fit for active Christian service.
LUKE 9:23-27 – THE CALL TO DISCIPLESHIP
“Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for you to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit your very self? If any of you are ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes inhis glory of the Father and of the holy angels. But I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God”. (Luke 9:23-27)
In 2013, I penned a book sharing on Luke 9:23 ,and I sent to each one of my medical colleagues (all those I have their addresses) observing our 40th anniversary after graduation from medical school – the book was centred on ‘Following Christ Jesus in the Last Days”.
Now, after observing our 50th anniversary, I had the privilege to share again with my classmates the gospel in our anniversary dinner and subsequently in interactions on our Reunion apps.
I came back to this passage Luke 9:23-27 recently, and again, what the Lord Jesus said ministers deeply to my heart, particularly when I observe the ‘world situation’ and also the ‘state of the church’ in the light of the last days, and the nearness possibly of the Lord’s second advent.
Verse 23 spells out the cost of true discipleship. ‘To deny himself’ is not simply to forgo little pleasures in life. The word means ‘to disown’, and the model for such denial is Jesus. Jesus did not go His own way, but God’s. He sought not His own glory, but His Father’s. He did not pursue His own agenda or good, but the agenda and good of God.
After 58 years since my conversion, and after some 30 years of serving as one of the three elder pastors in a congregation (and practicing medicine at the same time), and after going through many ‘ups’ and ‘downs’ in life and Christian service, I must say that ‘to deny oneself’ is perhaps one of the most difficult tasks for a disciple. I see the ‘failures’ and ‘struggles’ in my own life as well as the gracious lessons God is teaching me; also I see the same predicament in fellow Christian leaders, pastors, teachers and in the secular context as well. It is very difficult ‘to disown’ – it is much easier to follow our way, to seek our own glory, to pursue our own agenda or welfare rather than that of God’s, or for that matter even that of other human beings (in Christian and secular contexts as well).
‘To take up the cross’ is not a picture simply of bearing a few small hardships. The cross was a first-century instrument of torture and death. The disciple therefore is to consider him or herself dead to self.The word ‘anyone’ or ‘whoever’ at the start of the sentence suggests that this kind of cross-shaped discipleship is not an optional extra – it is for everyone. The word ‘daily’ suggests that it is not an occasional affair, but an everyday affair.
Verse 24 explains why genuine discipleship must be like this. Jesus commands the true disciple to ‘lose his life ‘for my sake’. To lose life, then, is to place life in His hands and to live wholeheartedly and unreservedly for Him….’Take my life, and let it be consecrated Lord, to thee’. To ‘save his life’ is, for a disciple, to cling on to his or her own agenda apart from Jesus.
In verses 22-23, the Son of Man went to His death to carry God’s judgment on the sin and selfish ambition of man. That which the world cherishes is that which God hates. The true disciple will understand this and thus seek, with His help, to put to death everything that God hates and for which Christ died. The key to active putting to death of sin lies in a clear grasp of the cross of Christ.
Verse 25 provides further incentive for true discipleship. The incentive that Jesus gives is in the form of the strongest possible warning. To gain the whole world but to lose oneself is an image of utter dereliction – the poor little rich man. To cling on to precious desires and sinful habits, at the cost of destruction because of being apart from Jesus, is to lose everything! We recall the lessons from the parable of the Sower.
Verse 26 drives the point deeper still. The Son of Man will come in judgment ‘in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.’ For the Son of Man to be ashamed of a would-be disciple on the Day of Judgment is a prospect of utter despair. What does it mean, to be ashamed of Jesus and of His words? It is to be ashamed of Jesus and His teaching. Jesus’ disciples are to stand with, by, and for the word of God in the Bible – even in the face of unpopularity and persecution. In spite of the costly nature of true discipleship, His disciples should take heart from the glorious Kingdom which Jesus’ death and resurrection would establish.
Genuine discipleship means putting personal ambition and goals to death as we place Jesus and the service of His Kingdom as our primary goal. This will impact both the small habits and the personal challenges in our lives. If we know that there is something we do, or something we love, that Jesus hates, it is to be killed off! Every area is involved – what we watch, how we spend our time and our money, our sex life, our family life, our work life. But it also involves the big decisions – where I choose to live, what job I do and how much time I devote toit, whether I accept promotion, whether and whom I marry, and so forth. Whatever gifts and abilities I have are to be placed at His disposal, in His service, as I take up my cross daily and follow Him.
As I ponder over these verses and their implications, I realise that it is only possible with the ministry and the enabling of God to deny self, to die to self, and to follow the example of our Lord Jesus, and in keeping step with the Holy Spirit. And we need fellow believers to encourage, to exhort one another as we travel along this pilgrim road to eternal glory!
SOME THOUGHTS ON SUFFERING AND DEATH
Recently, a Christian brother brought up the subject of ‘suffering’ and how Christians view this. In 2018, after studying the book of ‘Job’, I penned a book from this study – “Understanding suffering, evil and the unfathomable wisdom of God” (available on website http://www.livinginthelast days.com).
The subject of suffering and death is a very complicated one and to do justice to it, it may even involve studying many books; however, some helpful Christian books have been published on this subject. I venture now to just share some thoughts on this subject, further to that shared in the book on ‘Job’, and these thoughts are certainly not comprehensive. I am glad that in the previous sharing (Luke 9:23-27), ‘discipleship’ has been discussed; for discipleship has a lot to do with wholesome approach to the subject of suffering and death for the Christian. A true and genuine disciple of the Lord Jesus is in a better position to understand, appreciate, and apply the thoughts on the subject of suffering and death.
We know that if we have lived long enough, we will suffer; our dear ones will die; we may suffer from illnesses and disease; life may bring its own pressures (disappointment, sense of failure, progressive weakness in physical strength, relationship problems, etc.). My mum had dementia in her eighties and the most painful experience for me is to lose the ‘bond’ with her as she was very close to me; my mum-in-law also suffered from dementia in her old age and could not even recognise my wife subsequently before her demise.
The above sufferings represent suffering that takes place in relatively stable and developed societies; however, if we add racism, war, genocide, poverty, famine, starvation and natural disasters like earthquakes, we will not be surprised with the question ‘why?’. Why all this pain, sufferings – where is God? This question was also frequently asked in the BIble itself by the psalmists, the prophets; and the problematic question is why the wicked prosper and bad things happen to good people?
The Bible itself insists on the evil of evil. “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Isa. 5:20). Evil is to be abhorred (Rom. 12:9). Prophets and apostles agree on the exceeding hatefulness of sin.
Paul writes, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away; they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” (Rom. 3:10-12)
Evil is evil because it is rebellion against God. Evil is the failure to do what God demands or the performance of what God forbids. Not to love God with heart and soul and mind and strength is a great evil, for God has demanded it; not to love our neighbour as ourselves is a great evil, for the same reason. To covet someone’s property or car or wife is a great evil, for God has forbidden covetousness; to nurture bitterness and self-pity, for a similar reason. The dimensions of evil are thus established by the dimensions of God; the ugliness of evil is established by the beauty of God; the filth of evil is established by the purity of God; the selfishness of evil is established by the love of God.
Evil may refer to the primal, moral sense just described; it is rebellion against God. But evil can also refer to all the suffering, pain, and adversity that is properly the consequence of evil in the first sense. The latter ‘evil’ is therefore part of the penalty of human rebellion.
The Bible recognises as a ‘given’: the goodness of God. There is no darkness in God at all (1 John 1:5). The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble (Nah. 1:2,7). The sovereign and utterly good God created a good universe. We human beings rebelled; rebellion is now so much a part of our makeup that we are all enmeshed in it. The Bible itself centres on how God takes action to reverse these effects and their root cause, sin itself; and the believer’s hope is the new heaven and earth where neither sin nor sorrow will ever be experienced again.
Christians undergoing pain and suffering will benefit by contemplating the Bible’s story line and meditating on the price of sin. We live in an age where everyone is concerned about their ‘rights.’ But there is a profound sense in which our ‘rights’ before God have been sacrificed by our sin. If we truly believe that our sin properly deserves the wrath of God, then when we experience the sufferings of this world, all of them the consequences of human rebellion, then we will be less quick to blame God and a lot quicker to recognise that we have no fundamental right to expect a life of unbroken ease and comfort.
For the moment it is sufficient to observe that illness can be the direct result of a specific sin and it is not necessary to connect a particular illness with a particular suffering, for there may be no connection (as in the man born blind in John 9). War, plague, birth defects and such afflictions are not very discriminating; if we see them only as retaliation or retribution for specific sins, we shall be confused when people who have not indulged in such sins suffer along with those who have. Instead, if we see such suffering as, in the first place, the effluent of the Fall, the result of a fallen world, the consequences of evil that is really evil and in which we ourselves all too frequently indulge, then however much we may grieve when we suffer, we will not be taken by surprise.
A helpful passage is Luke 13:1-5:
“Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, ‘Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them – do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
Notice that Jesus does not assume that those who suffered under Pilate, or those who were killed in the collapse of the tower did not deserve their fate. Indeed, the fact that he can tell those around that unless they repent they too will perish shows that Jesus assumes that all death is in one way or another the result of sin, and therefore deserved.
Also, Jesus does insist that death by such means is no evidence whatsoever that those who suffer in this way are any more wicked than those who escape such a fate. The assumption seems to be that all deserve to die. If some die under tragic circumstances, it is no more than they deserve. But that does not mean that others deserve any less. The implication: it is only God’s mercy that has kept them alive – there is no moral superiority on their part.
Jesus treats wars and natural disasters not as agenda items in a discussion of the mysterious ways of God, but as incentives to repentance. It is as if God uses disaster as a megaphone to call attention to our guilt and destination, to the imminence of his coming righteous judgment if he sees no repentance. Jesus might have added (as he does elsewhere in the Bible) that peace and tranquility, which we do not deserve, shows us God’s goodness and forbearance.
We need to recognise that God’s discipline may include war, plague, illness, rebuke, ill-defined and rather personal ‘thorns,’ bereavement, loss of status, personal opposition, and much else beside. The difficulty is that many of these things are themselves evil, and in other contexts can be portrayed as the effluent of a fallen world or the work of the devil. The apostle Paul has no doubt that this ‘thorn in the flesh’ is simultaneously ‘a messenger of Satan’ and something that God himself sent Paul to keep him from becoming conceited (2 Cor. 12:7). We must come to terms with these ambiguities – if we do not, we will constantly be assigning this part of our life and circumstances exclusively to the devil, and some other part exclusively to God. We may then live our live as if we were in a dualistic universe, with neither good nor evil quite strong enough to claim our loyalty; we may conclude that since some circumstances in our life is demonstrably evil, we must assume that God, being good, must remove it in response to a prayer of faith. If this evil does not disappear, then either we are disappointed with God or crushed because our faith is so bankrupt.
In reality, God is always sovereign; part of our learning to live faithfully as children of the sovereign God is tied to trusting him when he can at best be only dimly discerned behind events and circumstances that the Bible itself is quick to label evil. This is part of the mystery of providence; for the moment, it is important for us to see that at least some of God’s means of discipline, all designed for our good, can simultaneously be viewed as calamitous evils. For example, prolonged suffering from chronic illness is certainly not a ‘good’ thing, yet rightly accepted it can breed patience, teach discipline of prayer, genuine compassion for others who suffer, engender some reflection and self-knowledge that knocks out cockiness and the arrogance of condescending impatience. However, having said that, there are times when all that the Christian can responsibly do is to trust his heavenly Father in the midst of the darkness and pain.There have been prolonged periods in my life when I can honestly say that I do not understand what is happening and why God allows such developments in my life, but God graciously help me to come to Him and cry out, “Lord, I do not understand, and I find it very difficult and perplexing, but I know that you are a good, perfect, and loving God, and I just want to tell you that I affirm my confidence and faith in you, and I do want to love you despite all these”. And that kept and keeps me going in my life as a disciple of the Lord; and up to this moment, I still do not have all the answers as to why I need to go through such prolonged agony and pain in certain situations in my life, but that does not matter, for my perception and understanding of God my heavenly Father remains intact, by His grace.
One aspect that helps me in this respect is to take the long view in the assurance that God’s justice will prevail over the oppressors, even though the oppressors are instruments in God’s hands to punish the covenant community. I think of the Lord Jesus, who, ‘for the joy before Him, endures the cross’.
A passage that is very helpful is Habakkuk 3:16: “I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us”. By taking the long view, Habakkuk can more easily accept that punishments will be meted out on the short term by a nation yet more evil and violent, if he is assured that all nations, including the oppressor that will administer the chastening, will ultimately be held to account.
Some of our sufferings appear a little different if we view them from the vantage of the End, and know that God would judge righteously and fairly.
For Habakkuk, however great the sufferings he must share with the covenant community, he will delight the more in God. It is as if the threatened loGod: there is nothing and no one else to rely on, and therefore nothing to mask the enjoyment of God that ought to be the believer’s’ focus. “Though the fig tree does not bud,” he writes, “and there are no grapes on the vines; though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour” (Habakkuk 3:17-18). It is the resolution of one whose eyes have been opened to see where his delight should have been in the first place. God’s discipline, displayed in calamitous punishment of the nation, becomes a means of grace, if not for the entire nation, then at least for Habakkuk and those who join him in the same response. Hence, Habakkuk commits himself to praise, not complaint.
What about us believers today? We are quick to complain, to murmur against God. Like the Israelites of old in the wilderness, we are quick to forget God’s goodness and deliverance, and we so quickly yearn to return to Egypt (the place of our captivity) and we long for what Egypt (the world) can provide, when we face dire situations where there is a lack of ‘water’ and ‘meat’ and fierce enemies to battle. Taking the long view, Joshua and Caleb urged the people not to rebel, but to look forward to God’s interventions and victory, as well as the promise of the promised land. The parable of the Sower reminds us not to be fruitless in the face of trials, and being ‘choked’ by the pleasures and riches of this world, which is passing away.
THE OBEDIENCE JESUS REQUIRES OF DISCIPLES
The following is a commentary on Matthew 28:20 by J.C. Ryle which speaks to our hearts this sunday evening:
“The obedience which Jesus requires of all who profess themselves His disciples. He bids the apostles to teach them to observe all things, whatsoever He has commanded them.
This is a searching expression. It shows the uselessness of a mere name and form of Christianity; it shows that they only are to be counted true Christians who live in a practical obedience to His word, and strive to do the things that He has commanded.
The water baptism, and the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper alone will save no man’s soul. It profits nothing that we go a place of worship and hear Christ’s ministers, and approve of the gospel, if our religion goes no further than this. What are our lives? What is our daily conduct at home and abroad? Is the Sermon on the Mount our rule and standard? Do we strive to copy Christ’s example? Do we seek to do the things that He commanded? These are the questions that must be answered in the affirmative, if we would prove ourselves born again, and children of God. Obedience is the only proof of reality. “Faith without works is dead, being alone (Jas. 2:17, 20,26). ‘Ye are my friends,’ says Jesus, ‘if you do whatsoever I command you’ (John 15:14)”.
And may I add Luke 8:21: “Jesus replied, ‘My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.’ Hearing God’s word and acting upon it brings a person into the family of Jesus. Those who hear the word and do it will be those who hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience (the parable of the Sower). Those who hear His word and do it will publicly declare what has been made known, that is, the truth God declared in Jesus should be put on a stand like a lamp so that as many as possible can see its light and the good news of the kingdom of God is to be declared far and wide. Such ones will be given access to yet more truth from God and they are more intimately connected to Jesus and His kingdom than His own immediate family.
Following the parable of the sower in a parallel passage in Matthew 13:3-8, Jesus went on to share the parable of the weeds in the field (Matt13: 24-30). And when the disciples asked him to explain this parable, he answered, “The one who sowed the good seed in the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous (the seed that produces fruit) will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear”.
TRUTH IS COMPLEX
This morning, in my Bible reading and meditation, I pondered over John 18:36- 38, recording the conversation between Jesus and Pilate:
“Jesus said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.’ ‘You are a king then!’ said Pilate.
Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and I came into the world is to testify to the truth, Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.’
‘What is truth?’ retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered around there and said, ‘I find no basis for a charge against him.’
Specifically, I am focusing on ‘truth’ mentioned by the Lord Jesus and the question of Pilate regarding what is ‘truth’.
Jesus declared that he came into the world to testify to the ‘truth’. Pilate asked ‘what is truth?’ and did not bother to know what Jesus had to say on the subject of truth. Of course, in this conversation, it is clear that Jesus’ kingdom is not of this earth, and he did not reject the statement that he is a king (of a different kingdom).
Truth is a complex subject but perhaps, it may be beneficial for us believers to think about what truth means, although we cannot cover this comprehensively. In the parable of the Sower, and the parable of the weeds, the word of God is tied up with ‘truth’ and the response of obedience that is required when confronted with the ‘truth’. In a previous sharing, we noted how obedience is required of Jesus’ disciples.
The revealed Word – the BIble- is necessary because of the complexity of revealed truth. It is necessary that the work of restoration and redemption from the Fall should have an educational, instructional aspect. God must speak to men and women, to teach them His character, aims, standards, and proposals. He must explain to them what His purpose is for them as individuals, and also for the church, the redeemed community, and the whole cosmos, so that they may know His mind at least in principle (but not in every detail, for He alone is God) regarding every issue and situation with which they have to deal, and in which He has to deal with them (i.e. all that is needed for salvation and redemption minus the ‘secret things’ which belong to Him).
Only as God addresses us directly (in our language and words), and works on and in us in conjunction with His message, can our activity take the form of rational, personal response to Himself (and His Word and Truth). Therefore a revealed Word from God to mankind, embracing a wide range of instruction, was necessary from the start. Such a revealed Word cannot avoid being complex if it is to deal adequately with the complexity of human life, “that the man of God may be competent, equipped from every good work” (2 Tim. 3:17).
In our journey in spiritual growth, at times, we may feel as if we have understood all that is to be understood regarding God and truth (including His Word and instructions) only to realise with deep humility that our understanding is still very limited. It is as if we are trying to understand additional and further mathematics when we have just accomplished understanding of addition and subtraction – even this is at best an inadequate illustration (for God is transcendent, awesome, and almighty).
The heart of the knowledge (of ‘Truth’) which God seeks to impart to us is knowledge of the risen Jesis. understood in terms of the triunity of God, incarnation of the Son, the mediatorial office, and saving union with Christ – perhaps the most complex and elusive concepts in the whole history of human thought (and the human mind at its best is very limited and finite).
The gospel (revealed in the Word) does in truth proclaim the redemption of reason. All truth is God’s truth; facts, as such, are sacred, and nothing is more un-Christian than to run away from them. The Christian’s life of thought (and the mind) is part of his life of faith and homage to God (hence believers should not ignore using the sanctified mind and studying theology in conjunction with the Bible).
The function of the mind and reason in relation to faith is threefold:
Its first task is to receive the teaching of God. Scripture pictures the believer as one called to take the attitude of a child, and who is looking to his divine Teacher for instruction (Psalm 25:4-5). God teaches the church through the Word, interpreted by the Spirit, accordingly, the Christian seeks the help of the Spirit to enable him to learn what Scripture teaches. His mind is necessarily active in this.
The second task is to apply the teaching of God to life: to bring it into constructive relationship with our other knowledge and interests, and to work its bearing on the practical problem of daily life and action.
The third task is to communicate God’s truth to others. The duty of Christian witness involves reasoning with the mind. Faith is not created by reasoning, but neither is it created without it.
Then we will be on the long journey to unravel the complexity of ‘truth’ that is so very important for Christian living and for the church, for all truth is ultimately God’s truth.
SOME THOUGHTS ON AGEING AND DEATH
In the Bible, two thousand years or more, the preacher-teacher in the book of Ecclesiastes urges the young to “remember…your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come…; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened”, ..”in the day when the keepers of the house tremble” (arms weaken, hands shaking), “and the strong men” (legs) “are bent, and the grinders (teeth) “cease because they are few” (they drop out), “and those who look through the windows” (eyes) ” are dimmed, and the doors on the streets are shut” (deafness develops) – ……”the almond tree blossoms ” (hair turns white), “the grasshopper drags itself along” (one’s walking grows erratic and unsteady), “and desire fails” (emotional numbness sets in)…(Eccles. 12:1-5).
The picture is of loss, weakness, and apathy, leading to death. This is the preacher’s story about ageing. It is interesting that this distinct description of the process of ageing and death is directed to the young in the days of their youth. Lest we think that ageing and death only concern the old and feeble, the preacher sought to start off by reminding the young, for we all are set to age and die once we are born in this fallen world.
“O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and grey hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come”. (Psalm 71:14-18) Here again, notice that the psalmist, from his youth until old age, he learns to focus on God’s teachings and deeds and to desire to declare them to the future generation.
We cannot stop our bodies ageing; as our bodies wear out, they become more vulnerable to infections, breakdowns, heart problems and cancers. There are particularly two temptations peculiar to old age for Christians – namely, to go with the flow of bodily decline and waning physical desires, and to allow our discipleship to Christ and our zeal for seeking, displaying, and advancing the kingdom of God also to slow down.
The other is not facing up to the fact that our physical decline is actually happening. Why this refusal? Behind this attitude stands pride – pride, the essence of original sin, the irrational, insatiable drive always to be the one on top and in charge, always honouring, serving, and pleasing the great god self; pride, that treat domination, control,and outscoring rivals as a never-ending task.
The devil and God both test us: Satan and his minions do it in order to bring us down in flames; by contrast, God does it as a training exercise, to strengthen His servants for their future role in HIs plans. We need to see both Satan’s malice in the foreground and the gracious purpose of God’s overruling providence in the background. When Satan tempts, God is always present, just as when God blesses, Satan is never absent. So we need to be constantly on our guard.
If we go with the flow, following the path that the secular community (and often the institutional church to which we belong) is on already; and we identify with the standards and assumptions that we find dominating the culture around us, this is one aspect of what the Bible diagnoses as love of the world, or worldliness, though we rarely see it in that way.
In the present secular world, society conceives retirement as taking one out of what we call the world of work; now we become our own masters and can set our own agenda. Retirement is seen as an invitation to relax, slackening the pace and thrust of our lives, and as such is envisaged as a wholly good thing. Thus we view retirement as our warrant for taking it easy across the board and prioritising self-indulgence for the rest of our lives. By moving us to think this way, Satan undermines, diminishes, and deflates our discipleship, reducing us from labourers in Christ’s kingdom to sympathetic spectators, and as such passengers whom the congregation carries by means of the exertions of others.
Taking their cue from the secular world, churches organise trips, parties, and so forth for their seniors and make pastoral provision for the shut-ins, but they no longer look to these folks as they do to the rest of the congregation to find, feed, and use their spiritual gifts. Such a view is tantamount to viewing spiritual gifts and ministry skill as withering with age but in fact, they do not. What happens actually is that they atrophy with disuse.
So eldercare in the churches, while rightly taking into account of increasing bodily infirmities among the ageing, should at the same time seek to cherish and continue to harness the ministering capacities that these Christians displayed at earlier stages of their lives. Elderly Christians themselves should press on in the worship and service of God, and in pastoral care for others, up to the limit of what they still can handle in terms of learning and leading, as they used to do earlier in their lives. Lifelong learning, both of the truths by which Christians are to live and of the way to live by them – also of how these things are taught in Scripture and how they are misunderstood, and misapplied in the current world – is every Christian’s calling.
Congregations in every age must see themselves as learning communities in which gospel truth has to be taught, defended, and vindicated against corruptions of it and alternatives to it. Being alert to all aspects of the differences between true and false teaching, and of behaviour that expresses the truth as distinct from obscuring it, is vital to the church’s health. When truths are genuinely and sincerely defended, this should not be dismissed as being negatively critical; not vindicating the gospel truth against distorted teachings and corruptions is in fact being unfaithful to God.
The challenge that faces ageing Christians is not to let our ageing bodies to slow us down spiritually, but to cultivate the maximum zeal for the closing phase of our earthly lives. Why zeal? Because it is zeal that keeps us running the Christian race. Zeal for God and godliness and God’s honour was integral to God’s image in Christ, so it should be inus, and we should cultivate zeal, along with the rest of Christian virtues, up to the ending of our lives on earth – or at leas, for as long as we can consciously focus and direct our thoughts. Zeal means priority, passion, and effort in pursuing God’s cause.
J.C. Ryle produced a classic statement on the subject of zeal:
” Zeal in religion is a burning desire to please God, to do His will, and to advance His glory in the world in every possible way……A zealous man in religion is preeminently a man of one thing. It is not enough to say that he is earnest, hearty, uncompromising, thorough-giving, whole-hearted, fervent in spirit. He only sees one thing, he cares for one thing, he lives for one thing; and that one thing is to please God. Whether he lives, or whether he dies, – whether he has health, or whether he has sickness – whether he is rich, or whether he is poor – whether he pleases man, or whether he gives offense – whether he is thought wise, or whether he is taught foolish – whether he gets blame, or whether he gets praise – whether he gets honour, or whether he gets shame – for all this, the zealous man cares nothing at all. He burns for one thing; and that one thing is to please God, and advance God’s glory. If he is consumed in the very burning, he cares not for it – he is content….” (Practical Religion).
Maintaining zeal Godward as our bodies wear out is the spiritual discipline to which we ageing Christians are called. Zeal must be fed by hope. We have covered extensively previously on the ‘Christian Hope’.
When one has a sure hope that thrills one’s heart, eager anticipation of it, delight in the prospect it opens up, and zeal in pursuing it are natural and should be applauded, not derided. As seniors’ powers of body, memory, and creativity grow less, so their conscious focus on their hope of glory should grow sharper and their meditations on it grow more joyful and sustained. As this happens, passion to continue being of use to God and His people, in holiness, love, and what Scripture conceives as neighbourliness, should and will intensify, to the very end.
AGEING, DEATH, AND HUMILITY
We need to recognise that not all aged Christians and senior Christians are inevitably spiritually matured. Spiritual maturity is a deep, well-tested relationship to our triune God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and a quality of relationship with both believers and unbelievers that embraces concern, sympathy, warmth, care, wisdom, insight, discernment, and understanding. It is a quality that is identifiable only in relationships,one that all pastoral ministry requires; and one that should, and in fact constantly does, mark out Christian seniors, equipping them for ongoing usefulness in the congregation.
HUMILITY
Pride, that is, self-promotion and self aggrandizement in disregard of God and at others’ expense, has been identified as the heart of human sin. Humility is the product of ongoing repentance as one decides against, turns from, and by watching and praying seks to steer clear of pride in all its forms. As the battle against pride in the heart is lifelong, so humility should become an ever more deeply seated attitude of living at the disposal of God and others. Real spiritual growth is always growth downward into deeper humility, which should become more and more apparent as one ages; unfortunately, it does not always follow. Young or old, the battle against pride continues throughout our life on earth. The seniors may even conclude that they have more years of experience, having ‘eaten more salt’ as some put it, but such an attitude borders on pride and the forsaking of humility.
I think of George Whitefield: his preaching sparked and sustained revival in tens of thousands of lives on both sides of the Atlantic for more than 30 years. For many years he spoke in public an average of 50 hours a week. He recorded himself as having preached over 18,000 sermons of one or two hours each. He preached in churchfuls and open-air crowds numbering up to 30,000. Some of us may not know that he suffered from asthma and often after each sermon, he would vomit and be in distress.
And his dicturm: ‘Let the name of Whitefield perish, if so be that Christ is glorified”.
It is well known that Whitefield did not agree with John Wesley in ‘theology’: Whitefield was a reformed theologian while John Wesley was an Arminian. They exchanged many letters, trying to convince the other regarding the ‘right theology’ but they maintained much courtesy in their exchange. Whitefield, before his death, requested that John would preach at his funeral. When asked who will be nearer to Jesus in God’s kingdom, Whitefield instinctively said that John would be while he himself may be further away.
When asked how he was able to keep going in his preaching and ministry, he replied, “Christ’s labourers must live by miracle.”
The other individual is John Calvin. At a relatively young age, he wrote “The Institutes”. He was inflicted with many illnesses, like gout, kidney stones, but not only did he write the great volumes of the Institute, he preached many sermons in a week and wrote commentaries on almost all the books of the Bible, with the exception of ‘Revelation’. When he was dying, he requested that his grave be not written with commendations on his life. Even in his last few sermons, he had to be carried to the pulpit, but he kept on going in his ministry, despite being called ‘a dog’ by those who opposed him and despite many situations when his life was in danger.
Let us prayerfully maintain repentance as a way of life and let us focus on honouring and glorifying God all the days of our life, from youth to old age. Let the lives of those who were faithful be an inspiration to us to always remember our proper place before an almighty, great, transcendent God!!
THE ‘MEASURE’ OF ‘SUCCESS’ IN GOD’S WORK
To know the signs of the times (as revealed in Scripture) is more than taking notice of headlines and breaking news; it is knowing what is significant among the happenings in our world – events and movements, trends and ideologies. More than ever, Christians must be among those who know the significance of the signs of the times and also know how to live their lives in the light of them – they ought to have a sense of what to think, how to act, and the manner in which to respond. Real wisdom is always more than knowledge in the most appropriate ways.
But, at this juncture, I am not addressing the broad subject of ‘the signs of the times’ but rather to focus on how Christians and the church measure ‘success’ in God’s work – this is significant in keeping in line with God’s measure and God’s evaluation as noted in Scripture, and not to compromise with the trends and ideologies that have ‘penetrated’ the thinking of believers and God’s community (which may have been orchestrated by the devil (like in the parable of the weeds) and secular thinking and ?wisdom which seem to be dominant even in God’s work). False spirituality (spiritual without being religious, spiritual, yet ignoring the Person of God and His revelation) will prove to be more dangerous than ‘atheism’ and ‘agnosticism’.
The late John Stott, when asked how he would describe the Christians scene in his days, replied, “growth without depth”. It is true that the church has grown numerically in many countries; but it also true there is superficiality of discipleship everywhere, and many honest Christian leaders are concerned, while some just concentrate on their own ‘flock’ and forget that the Christian family is not just their church or the focus of their own Christian work.
Charles Colson, in “Prison Ministries” shared that he had been involved with many Christian crusades and had been directly helping in the follow-up of many of the “converts’ – his observation was rather startling – many of these “converts’ he followed up subsequently ‘give up their Christian faith’ and became ‘worse than before’ in their values and outworking of life. Many of these apparently went forward following the invitation at the end of the crusades to say the “sinner’s prayer’, being moved by the enthralling atmosphere of music, the crowd, the ‘electric environment’, and not by a deep conviction of sin accompanied by repentance and faith. Someone has said that these ‘conversions’ are conversions by human beings, and not by the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity.
An article in “Christianity Today” by the late Packer entitled “Nothing fails like success” is very ‘revealing’: “…I found that most churches, pastors, seminaries, colleges, and parachurch agencies and agents were in the grip of the secular passion for successful expansion …Church-growth theorists, evangelists, pastors, missionaries, and others all spoke as if: (1) numerical increase is what matters most, (2) numerical increase must come if our techniques and procedures are right, (3) numerical increase validates ministries as nothing else does, and (4) numerical increase must be everyone’ main goal.
Four unhappy features marked the situation. First,big and growing churches were viewed as far more significant than others. Second, parachurch specialists (evangelists, college and seminary teachers with platform skill, medicine men with traveling seminars, convention-circuit riders, top people in youth movements, full-time authors and such) were venerated, while hard-working pastors were treated as near-nonentities.
Third, lively laymen and clergy were constantly being creamed off, or creaming themselves off, from the churches to run parachurch ministries, in which quicker results could be expected and where accountability was less stringent. And fourth, many ministers of not-so-bouncy temperament were returning to secular employment in disillusionment and bitterness, having concluded that the pastoral life is a game not worth playing.
It is not that I do not value parachurch ministries, Amid the complex cultural pluralism of our age, local churches cannot stockpile all the skills needed to minister to all types in any effective way. But these supplementary forces with specialised abilities must be seen as giving to the churches, so strengthening them, rather than taking them from the churches and, in effect, impoverishing them.
Nor is it that I am against churches growing numerically. I recognise that a megachurch with powerful preaching and an adequate infrastructure for pastoral care has its place; and when I see church growth that is qualitative as well as quantitative, I am thrilled. But when numerical growth is idolised, so that churches and their clergy get rated failures for not achieving enough of it, my heart sinks”.
How do we measure ‘success’ in God’s work? More importantly, how does God measure ‘success’ in His work? Paul’s statement that what is most important for stewards is to be faithful – does it still hold water today? What about doing God’s work in God’ way? What about ‘God looks at the quality of the heart and not outwardly as man does’? God delivered Gideon with just 300 men, and not with a numerically large army – does this apply today in God’s work? What is most sad is for believers to depart from God’s values and desires in HIs work, and to stray away to values that seem popular, and unfortunately, secular, without even being aware of it because of the deception of the evil one, and apparently reaping ‘success’ but in reality is producing ‘works’ that would be ‘burned’ in the face of God’s judgment!!
As a Christian and a medical doctor, I have many concerns about the subject of healing and power encounter – this is ‘supported’ by the theology of victory, triumphalism in the face of sickness (which proclaims that sickness should be overthrown as part of the triumph of the kingdom).
It is important to note that a theology of healing and power encounter must not neglect a theology of suffering; a theology of victory is inadequate without the theology of the cross; a theology of life must be balanced with a proper reflection on the place of death.
It is one thing to see the triumph of the kingdom when sickness is overthrown, but another to fail to see the transformation of people in the midst of sickness. God’s power is often displayed in the midst of continuing weakness; and triumphant faith may exactly be displayed where there is perseverance in the face of incredible suffering (see Hebrews 11 on the ‘portrait’ of the people of faith).
Christians acknowledge that sin and suffering are evil, but they also see a sovereign God standing behind them, even using them as instruments of needed discipline, as well as instruments of moulding the character of His people (see the destruction of Jerusalem; note the life of Joseph whom God undertook to prepare him to save his people).
Our approach to pain, suffering, sickness must be located within a larger biblical framework that deals with the problem of evil and suffering and death more holistically.
Often, signs, wonders and miracles in the Bible are seen at initiation of important and significant events in the history of God’s people (eg. the coming and affirmation of the Messiah; the day of Pentecost; the era of the prophets in the OT as noted in Elijah, Elisha; the inclusion of Gentiles in God’s salvation plan and so on).
Even in the Gospels, in the ministry of Jesus, it is almost always the case that his teaching and preaching are in view, and not his healings (eg. Mark 8:3-4; 9:20-22; Luke 7:1-10; JOhn 4:46-54), although his healings were part of his messianic work. There is no record that Jesus held a healing service, inviting people to be healed, or offering prayers for healing and inviting people to come forward for a laying on of hands. Where Jesus takes the initiative with an individual, it is never trivial or ambiguous.
What is most cruel is to tell believers they ought to be healed, and that if they are not, it is because they lack faith, or giving a reason that is not acceptable. I know of someone close to me whose relative was very ill and when a pastor visited her, he told her he had a vision that she was well and sitting up. Days later, she passed away, and the pastor insisted that now she is completely healed, and in heaven – and obviously the reason given caused many to be stumbled.
As a doctor, I have personally encountered a believer who claimed healing when a well known international healer laid hands on him. His was a chronic disease, diabetes, and although this individual was encouraged to have his blood tested by me, he refused, believing that is not the way of faith. He had to undergo an operation subsequently and the surgeon refused to carry out the operation because his blood sugar was shooting sky high. He saw me to control the diabetes and later went through the operation successfully. On returning to see me, again he refused his medications and also insisted that no tests are required, believing he was healed of the diabetes. Several weeks later, I heard that he collapsed and passed away during breakfast. The family was distraught; and as far as I know, the international healer carries on his healing ministry.
I have more real examples in my Christian patients but I do not wish to share them at this juncture. Suffice to say, I am personally distressed to see the sad outcome of such patients, who could have continued for a long while in generally good health with medications and follow up.
Thoughtful Chhristians must come to grips not only with the truth that God can and sometimes does heal, but also with the truth that this side of Jesus’ return “people are destined to die” (Heb. 9:27).