PRIVILEGE DEFERRED:

PRIVILEGE DEFERRED:

Yahweh, the LORD God, said to Abram “Go…” and Abram went.

Near the terminus of His physical presence on earth Jesus said to those disciples who had been with Him - those whom He called, who had walked with Him, who had seen and heard His authority and love, who had rejected Him in Eden, abandoned Him in Gethsemane, witnessed His crucifixion, seen the stone to the tomb cast off, and witnessed Him resurrected - He said to these in Matthew 28:19:

“Therefore, having been brought through, disciple all the ἔθνη..."

That Greek word ἔθνη (eth-nay) means families, clans, tribes. What Jesus was saying to His followers was something akin to (paraphrase): “Considering what I’ve done for you, now allow yourselves to be poured out as servants of My love and grace for everyone to the ends of the earth.”

When we look back to God’s unilateral covenant blessing to Abram in Genesis 12:3, “...and all the מִשְׁפְּחֹ֥ת (mis-pa-hot, i.e. families, clans, tribes) on earth will be blessed through you,” we see how Jesus’ “Great Commission” in Matthew 28:18-20 becomes the fulfillment and “Manifest Destiny” for true followers of Christ.

There was nothing inherently, genetically, or morally awesome about Abram before or after God blessed Him with the gift of faith. Just a few verses after God issued this incredible covenant promise and blessing (12:3) we read in 12:11-13:

When he was getting near to Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know you are a beautiful woman. Therefore, when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ They will then kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister so that I may be treated well for your sake. Then my life will be spared because of you.” Abraham repeats this pattern of anxiety, insecurity, and deception at the opening of Genesis chapter 20.

God’s transcendent gift of faith, and Abraham’s fleeting moments of willful, obedient participation (e.g. Gen 12:3; 13:8-9; 22:5) became the literal manifestation of God’s providential blessing for all the families, clans, tribes on earth.

The very same was true for Jesus’ disciples. Those men lied, denied, fled, doubted, and waivered in their faith before AND AFTER witnessing Jesus’ resurrection and ascension (e.g. see Gal 2:11-21). But just like with Abraham, there were fleeting moments of willful, obedient participation in God’s providential blessing for all the families, clans, tribes on earth.

------Now stay with me because I’m going somewhere with this apparent rabbit trail here.-----

Because of Israel’s perpetual rejection of God throughout their history, God brought divine judgment upon them through the nations of Assyria (722 BC) and Babylon (586 BC). Following the Babylonian conquest of the Southern Kingdom of Judah in 586 BC the lingering remnant had lost everything near-and-dear to them: the kingship, the temple, and their land. All of these “externals,” which were intended by God to blessings to ALL the families, clans, tribes, instead became twisted into idols and symbols of national supremacy and prideful exclusivity.

God’s justice and punishment upon Israel was intended to be a divine wake-up call, but instead only solidified Israel’s hardness of heart. In the midst of exile Israel repeated their historic pattern of idolatry and adopted the gods of Greek culture - rhetoric, philosophy, religion, art, and intellect. Rather than softening their hearts and turning their “stiff necks,” Israel chose to replace the temple (worship) with the synagogue (academics), divine appointment and calling with intellectual accolades and distinction (academy), the kingship (anticipatory office of stewardship) with political/religious office of autonomy (Sanhedrin), and divine prophetic revelation with synthetic writings (Apocrypha).

Now fast-forward to today: As Pastor David Tripp notes in a short video (LINK HERE), the problem is one of culture and it is systemic. “We’ve constructed a pastoral culture that can’t work… Perhaps it begins in seminary where we’ve academized the faith… We call people into ministry we don’t know and we’re not interested in. We’re hiring knowledge, and experience, and skill… then we allow the pastor to live outside or above the Body of Christ…”

Consider how much what Pastor Tripp has to say about our modern churchy-culture echoes the woeful idolatry Israel adopted during exile - the worship of rhetoric, philosophy, religion, art, and intellect. Consider how our church communities are one’s bereft of pastoral care BECAUSE, as Tripp noted, WE construct and WE call. That’s exactly what Israel did in creating their synthetic culture of religion and academy. That’s exactly what Jesus rebuked the religious leaders/academy for in Matthew 23:13-39:

V.13 You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

V.15 You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.

V.23 ...you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness.

V.37 ...how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.

In OUR construction of Christian religion and culture we ignore divine appointment and the gospel of our LORD Jesus Christ. We approach salvation as a personal decision rather than a transcendent gift. We call pastors, preachers, and ministers to entertain our kids, and us, with skits, music, and sermons rather than affirming those divinely called as ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Have a look at websites like churchstaffing.com and read the job postings there. We hire - NOT based on divine calling or a desire for authentic gospel community, but rather based on academic resumes of knowledge, experience, and skill: “Masters or Ph.D. preferred,” “minimum of 10 years in full-time ministry,” “send 3-5 preaching videos with your application,” and “compensation commensurate with experience.” Now read Romans 12:2...

As Pastor Tripp noted, “Every pastor is a sinner in the middle of his own sanctification… Thousands of pastors are living with a huge disconnect between their public ministry personas and the details of their private lives.” That’s reality, but we don’t want reality. We want sterling, peerless, anonymous messianic figures to lead our churches. Then when they fall short we cast them out with all our transferred and projected sin and guilt - just as Israel did with the scapegoat (Lev 16:10).

We’ve created a Christian culture of decaying synthetic religion - not one of surrender to, and worship of, our LORD Jesus Christ. Paul addressed this very notion 2,000 years ago when he wrote, “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”

We’ve shifted the responsibility of living as authentic gospel communities. We’ve transferred all the responsibilities of cultivating, nurturing, and watching over to “professional clergy” whom we judge for their humanity from the safety of our armchairs. We’ve constructed synthetic cultures of religion with figureheads we control with salaries, bonuses, and the authority to hire and fire when we’re not satisfied, impressed, or sufficiently entertained.

As David Tripp stated in the video reference above, “We’ve constructed a pastoral culture (in fact a Christian culture!) that can’t work. It drives pastors (i.e. those truly called by God) into hiding.”

For this exact behavior Jesus said, “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth…”

God didn’t call Noah, Abram, David, Peter, Paul, me, or you because of our personal piety or righteousness, but simply because of the inherent value we have in being made in the image and likeness of Elohim - our God of Holy Trinity, and the subsequent gift of faith.

Rather than affirming synthetically constructed communities of “professional clergy” hired to do the work of ministry while we go about the “pressing matters of daily life;” rather than participating in the existing culture of “calling” pastors based on knowledge, experience, and skill; and rather than transferring, shifting, reassigning, and deferring our privilege and blessing from God - “through you all the families, tribes, clans of the world will be blessed,” let’s take gift seriously. Let’s take it seriously in the way we live, relate, speak, laugh, disciple, worship, and actively participate in the mission of God from our backyard to the ends of the earth.

Pastor Tripp noted, “The cure is right before us in the gospel of the LORD Jesus Christ.”

Are you living out the gospel - Jesus’ “Great Commission,” in a way that is impacting your community, your nation, and in fact the world? Or are you content with critiquing and criticizing those who are - and hoarding God’s blessings for yourself?

Are you living out Christ’s grace in leading others from death to life, or is that a privilege deferred?

Blessings,

-Kevin M. Kelley

aMostUnlikelyDisciple.com

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