Outlined Transcript:
Hi everyone,
In previous videos, I have talked a little bit about disciple-making movements and discovery Bible studies. I want to keep going in that series.
I do not actually have a lecture plan for some of these videos. I am doing this as it comes to mind. I will probably pause after this video and do some other topics next time, but I will be circling back to this topic periodically because I am starting to write on it.
I am creating little booklets to help not only the missionaries I know, including former students, but also some of the Hill Tribes pastors I work with. Part of my ministry responsibility is undoing bad teaching or doing damage control.
This is not necessarily only from Americans. Some of the ideas do come from America, but often missionaries from Korea, India, China, or other countries in Asia come in and hold little conferences. They get everybody excited about the next method that really works, or the next secret teaching they have discovered. People get excited, and then they become confused.
When I interact with some of the Hill Tribes pastors, unfortunately, I would say probably half of their churches have never truly heard a clear gospel presentation. Many have, but some have not. These are farmers. They come and go. They are very simple. Sometimes they are not always around because of their farming responsibilities at different sites on different parts of the mountain over the weekends.
But I do think people are generally confused and exhausted by a lot of the false teaching, especially the DMM stuff, the disciple-making movement stuff.
So I want to read a few passages and give the biblical framework for how I think about the difference between the natural mind and the mind of Christ that believers have, the role of the Word of God in making us born again, and the role of proclamation and teaching.
Spiritual Truth Comes Through Words
1 Corinthians 2:12 says:
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given to us by God.
And then Paul says:
And we impart this in words.
Notice that. This is a very obvious observation, but it does not say we impart this in pictures. It does not say in videos, in drama, in songs, in skits, in friendships, or in relationships.
No, we impart the truth of God in words. Propositions. Grammar. Syntax. Conventions.
Paul continues:
Not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit.
Human wisdom is trying to understand, achieve, or approach all that is God in a way that God has not commanded. In this context, it is probably using the rational mind to rationalize your way to God, to discover God through thinking, in a very Greek philosophical way.
But human wisdom could be anything we do to somehow access, achieve, or benefit from that which is only sent by the Spirit of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to the regenerate heart that has received the gospel of Jesus Christ through faith alone.
So we impart this in words, not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit.
How does that happen? Through the Word of God. Through the written Word of God. Not through a seance. Not through experience. Not through an inner impression or a prophetic word. Not through some special secret Gnostic teaching from a sophisticated intellectual with lots of degrees behind his name.
No, it is through the Spirit, and that comes through the Word.
Of course, the way that happens is often through somebody opening the Word. It does happen when we read it by ourselves, but the Bible also gives gifts to the church: apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, and pastors. Ezra opened the Word and gave the sense. The opening and unfolding of the Word gives light and understanding to the simple.
That is how the Spirit works. It is not just the naked written Word. It is the Word as it is proclaimed and explained.
The Natural Mind Cannot Receive Spiritual Truth
Paul says this is “interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.”
So what is the prerequisite for understanding spiritual truths? The Spirit must teach it through the Word, but you have to be spiritual to understand spiritual truths.
In other words, you cannot understand spiritual truths unless you are born again.
That is the problem. It is like speaking to a grave. There is a body in the ground, but that body does not have the faculties or capacities to understand anything you are saying. It is a dead body. It must be born again in order for a living person to understand what you are saying.
So gospel ministry to unbelievers is like speaking to dead people. They are not sick in sin. They are not just weak in sin. They are dead in sins and trespasses.
It takes the miracle of new life, of regeneration, of being born again, so that they have the capacity and the desire, the ability and the inclination, to receive the things of the Spirit from the Word.
Paul continues:
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God.
The natural person, the person dead in sins and trespasses, does not by nature receive the teachings of God.
The analogy I use is this. If you put a bowl of fruit and a big bowl of salad on the side of the road next to roadkill, the vultures circling above will eat the roadkill every time. By nature, that is what they eat. The inclination of their nature is to eat the disgusting, rotting flesh on the side of the road, even over fresh, cool salad and fresh, cool fruit.
If you take away the roadkill, clean up the spot on the ground, and leave the fruit and salad, those vultures will circle and circle. They will either go away or starve to death before they eat the fruit and salad. Why? Because by nature, the inclination of their nature is to eat rotting flesh on the ground.
They are not vegetarians. By nature, they are carnivores.
That is the idea here. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. Why? Because they are folly to him.
And then Paul says:
He is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.
There it is. That is the key. We have the mind of Christ.
Renouncing Manipulation in Missions
Now flip over to 2 Corinthians 4:2-6. Paul is talking about the apostolic method of getting the gospel out to unbelievers.
He says:
But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways.
That means manipulative and shameful ways of doing ministry. This is part of being a missionary. We must not soft-pedal these things. We have to renounce methods that are manipulative, underhanded, and disgraceful.
Paul continues:
We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s Word.
Cunning is trickery. It is manipulation.
Too many missionary methodologies tamper with the Word of God. They extract verses out of context. They teach things that are not there in the text. They make the text say things it is not saying.
But Paul gives the alternative. That is the negative. The positive alternative is this:
But by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.
The open statement of the truth.
Open. Clear. Courageous. With conviction and confidence.
It is the open testimony of the Word of truth. It is being bold enough to say all that the Bible says, and then being humble enough to say no more. To say, “Thus saith the Lord,” and then stop.
Of course, if you need to give missionary, pastoral, or Christian wisdom, then qualify it. Say, “This is just my opinion,” or, “This is based on my life experience.” But that belongs in a completely different category of authority.
When the Word of God is open, God speaks. And when the missionary, pastor, or preacher gives the sense, God is speaking. So we must be clear and bold with the open statement of the truth.
Paul says we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.
In other words, you should receive us as missionaries. You should judge us based upon the open statement of the truth. Are we clear and courageous with the Word of God?
The Gospel Is Veiled to Those Who Are Perishing
Paul continues:
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.
In their case, this is their problem:
The god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers.
Why?
To keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Then Paul says:
For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.
Too many people talk about themselves. Too many people refer to their own experiences. Too many people talk about what worked for them, what methodology worked for them, what they did to get right with God, or what they do to stay right with God.
But Paul says, “We proclaim not ourselves.”
We proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord. Adonai. Kurios. Yahweh.
And ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.
Let Light Shine Out of Darkness
Then Paul says:
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
That is conversion.
“Let light shine out of darkness” refers back to the creation account. God says, “Let there be light.” In the dark, wild wasteland of the pre-formed world, God commands light to exist where light had never existed. Light and heat come and penetrate the forming creation.
That is essentially what happens in the human heart.
The human heart is unable and unwilling by nature. It is so corrupt in Adam and condemned in Adam that it cannot please God. So God must make light penetrate the wildness, wasteness, darkness, and coldness of the human soul.
That light comes through the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
And this comes through the proclamation of the Word of God that unveils who God is in the face and person of Jesus Christ.
Cutting Straight the Word of God
This is the challenge of missions.
It is the open statement of the truth.
We do not practice cunning. We do not manipulate. We do not tamper with the Word of God. We cut it straight every time.
So pray for us. Pray for me. Pray for my family, that we would cut it straight every time and commend ourselves with the open, bold, courageous statement of the truth.
Thank you.