Ephesians 4:3 “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” According to this Scripture “every effort” must be made to keep “the unity”. What is unity? The greek word “henotēs”, which is translated as such in the NIV denotes unity but also unanimity and agreement. The websters dictionary simply defines unity as: “the quality or state of not being multiple”. Whenever we are studying the bible, we need to get into the sandals of the first century church and understand what they mean by unity; not its modern interpretation. Let’s look at a Scripture that not only prescribes unity but gives an example of it: Acts 4: 32-34 “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.” This passage is like finding a fossil of a dinosaur that unlocks all kinds of secrets about how that dinosaur lived. This Scripture tells us that the Church operated like the tribes that the disciples were formerly part of before joining the “Church” or “The Way” as they called it. Billions of people in the world still live and die in tribes much like the first century disciples yet it’s extremely hard for the
Author: Tim Kernan
Sound the Trumpet
Luke 9: 23-26 “Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” Jesus is the most loving man to ever walk the earth and yet when he speaks he is also the most hardline. In the Scripture above its amazing how Jesus lays out the standards of being a disciple. I would like to draw your attention to two words: “anyone” and “must”. When Jesus says “anyone” who is he referring to? Anyone means everyone! When he says “must” what does that mean? Its a condition. Whats the message? There are standards involved in being a disciple. What are the conditions? Everyone who wants to be called a disciple of Jesus must give up their life to follow Jesus and carry a cross which was an instrument of torcher and death. What Jesus is doing here is making clear to his followers and prospective followers that there are no “levels” or “tiers” of membership but that everyone is called to the same standards. Jesus wasn’t interested in seeing his movement disappear in a few generations. In our modern parlance he wanted a movement of “black belts” who would
Show the Miracles
John 14:12 “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” Here Jesus says that “whoever” believes in him will be doing the miracles he was doing! This of course does not mean that we can go back to the apostolic era where we had the laying on of hands but it means that Jesus expects us to have, in some ways, even greater impact! The ministry of a man or woman of God is not dull or mediocre but rather is exploding like fireworks with powerful miracles! Today we live in a post apostolic world where miracles no longer come with the laying on of hands and massive supernatural accreditation. In Gods mercy He has already powerfully accredited His plan for all to see and for two thousand years the connection between God and the church is known to every living person with even a passing knowledge of religion. The role of miracles is critical. When one thinks of miracles one thinks of proof of God’s power. However despite what some may think from a worldly point of view miracles do not actually give faith. Rather, it is the hearing the Word preached that gives faith (Romans 10:17). So giving faith is the domain of the preaching of the Word as we breath faith into those around us as will be covered in more depth later on. So then, you may ask, what DO miracles do? Why do I need to show them? Well, what miracles actually do is accredit the Minister of God. In
Focus on the Few
2 Timothy 2:1-2 “You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” Entrusting to reliable men who will be qualified to teach others… This is the method Jesus used to reach a whole lost world that is starving for his mercy. He did not simply build a “church group” and focus on additions to that group. No, rather he invested himself fully in his apostles (Luke 6:13) and multiplied them; powerfully creating exponential and explosive growth. This investment is often called “discipling” since it is the process of making a disciple. This concept requires a lot of meditation and practice to understand well. Paul is talking about many levels of leadership. The Timothy, the “reliable men” or the “others”. In our generation you may be the Timothy, you may be the reliable men, or you may simply be the “others”. Regardless you’ve been called to be part of God’s plan and God has an amazing plan to use you and bless you. Are you ready to participate in it? It will take all your humility and all your reliability to aspire to being a great maker of disciples. So why do people say “focus on the few”? Who are a few? For some, a few might be twelve or more, for others two or three. Focusing on the few is about teaching a right number of disciples that allows you to have dramatic impact in their lives. Anyone who’s had a chance to work in the ministry knows that