NRBC Blog

What is our mission? Jesus said that we are to go into all the world, and that includes the world around us. As we go, we are to make disciples, baptize, and teach them what God has already taught us. It’s the Great Commission, and it’s why we are here. Or, is it?

There is considerable discussion within the church today concerning why the church exists. Does it exist for those who are already a part of it; IE, to teach the word in ever-increasing depth. Or, does it exist for those who are not yet a part of it; IE, evangelizing and making disciples?

I find two clues that lead to an answer to that dilemma. First, why does God place leaders in the church? He says that the pastoral staff is to “equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:12, ESV) It is not just to impart greater knowledge of the word but also to equip the members for greater doing of the work. Yes, building up the body of Christ involves individual growth but it also means corporate responsibility. It necessitates the need to hear the word, but also demands that we do the word. (James 1:22) The church in Jerusalem was growing in knowledge, but it was also multiplying. There is nothing sadder than a Dead Sea church. When Believers are content to sit and soak rather than train and work, the church not only loses its vision, but totally fails in its mission.

I am impressed that when Jesus gathered His disciples around Him, He not only taught them but also sent them out to herald His coming. And, in the same text that records the sending out of the Seventy, we read God’s perspective of the church’s greatest need. “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest o send out laborers into His harvest.” (Luke 10:2, NKJV) Notice that He says into His harvest. The church never wants for a harvest. It is laborers that we sorely need. Harvesting is what the church does as it goes out into the world!

There is, however, a second hint concerning why the church exists. It is the fact that we are here at all! I know that God wants the best for me, and what is the best that I will every experience? Is it not to be in heaven with Him? That is my living hope, and, as with Paul, the great longing of every truly committed believer. (Philippians 1:23) But, there is an apparent contradiction in this! If God’s best is for me to be with Him then why am I here? Answer: He has me here to do a work that carries out the Great Commission. If it were to just teach depth of knowledge… well, in heaven I will “know even as I am known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)

Please do not misinterpret my intent. It is imperative that we preach the word, and that means being faithful in exposition of the text. There is no end to practical life-studies, but none is a suitable substitute for biblical preaching. Seeker friendly is sometimes an excuse for shallow study and often it is an effort to water down the message, but I find that when Jesus taught, He forced people to stretch. That having been said, pews have a way of becoming easy chairs, and worship centers, bedrooms where God’s elect are lulled to sleep after feasting upon good things. The church ought to fires us up, not cool us down. All Believers are in ministry, and that ministry is to connect people to a growing relationship with Christ. What I learn in church, I ought to be carrying next door.

It would do all of us good to self-evaluate how we are doing in our ministry. Are we growing in heart as well as head, and are we reaching out as well as reaching in? Fulfilling our mission is at stake. We must become mission central!

Last night, I watched a program about The Da Vinci Code on the Discovery Channel. Can you believe all the hype? Fabrications and lies which were denied, confessed, or disproved ten years ago are now back on the table and being dealt with as if they were fact. It reminds me of a line in an old high school play, "If you tell someone the truth, they'll think you are telling them a lie; but, if you tell them a lie, they will believe you!"

I confess that all the present controversy tends to upset me. I guess I am prone to get into the flesh and feel more like fighting than loving! Then, I am pulled back to reality when I'm reminded that there is nothing new about those attacks. Assaults on the credibility of Jesus as God and Messiah were being circulated even before the New Testament was written, and the Scriptures do not deny them. In John 8:41, the Jews said to Jesus, "...We were not born of fornication; we have one Father--God." Some think that is a vague reference to a rumor which was being circulated among Jesus' enemies that He was of illegitimate birth. The Jewish Talmud, an early record of Jewish teachings, records that rumor in an attempt to discredit Jesus.

Another attack is seen in Matthew 28. When the soldiers who had been guarding Jesus' tomb came to report the events surrounding His resurrection, the Bible records that the Jewish leaders bribed them to report to their superiors, "...'His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.' And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will appease him and make you secure. So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day." (Matthew 28:13-15) Notice, the rumor was already being circulated. But, Jesus was not threatened by either of those accusations, and He is not endangered by the present ones.

The point is this: The Bible and especially the New Testament have been under attack for millennia. As a child I heard my teacher use the illustration of the anvil and the hammers. You remember it! In the blacksmith's shop was a pile of worn out hammers. The visitor asks the blacksmith, "How many anvils did it take to ware out all those hammers?" And, the blacksmith replies, "O, just one anvil!"

The Bible can take the heat! Jesus prayed to His Father, "Your word is truth," and truth does not change. It is ignored, and it is denied, but it does not change! Like the Author, it is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

We must not be distracted by the many claims and accusations that are presently being leveled at the Bible. There is really only one thing the adversaries want to bring into question, "Is Jesus Who He claimed to be?" That's the issue. Everything else is smokescreen. But, at the very heart of our faith is this clear, unmistakable, and gloriously comforting promise that Jesus made, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him." (John 14:23) Christ in us is our hope of glory, and Christ in us is the proof we cannot deny. Martyrs through the centuries have gone to the fiery stake with this certain knowledge that they knew personally the One in Whom they had believed, and as the fires lapped at their mortal bodies, their eyes were fixed on heaven where a loving Father waited to receive them home! O, the enemies of Christ were always horrified by the way Christians lived, but they were never able to ignore how they died.

The Da Vinci Code! It's not a book or a movie I fear. It's not even an author who will spout fantasy as if it were fact. What concerns me is that the present attacks are only filling a vacuum that the church has created. We have failed to be the salt and light that is our destiny to be. We have become like the landowner in Jesus' parable whom while he slept, the enemy came in and sowed weeds in his field.

We know that nothing happens apart from the knowledge and attention of God Who "works all things according to the council of His will." Could it be that this present attack is a wakeup call for the church? Paul wrote in Romans 13:11, "...it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed."

We must preach and teach the truth in every venue. It must be heralded from pulpit and lectern, in worship and small group meetings to ensure that every member is fully grounded in what they believe and why they believe it. And, we must be real in a world of fakes! Our lights must shine into the darkness so that a culture which has been blinded by the devil might be drawn to the truth that Jesus really is God in the flesh and that He desires to be God in us. The strategy has worked for the past 2000 years, and it will still work today.

Be love, be real, be ready, be!

What’s good about the Good Book? For decades the Bible has been called that… the Good Book. People who don’t follow it or believe it at least appear to respect it. Courts have witnesses swear over one and new presidents are sworn in with their hands upon one, and what home does not have at least one. It’s the best selling book ever, with an estimated 2.5 billion sold since 1815, and the first book to be printed with moveable type. But, what’s good about it?

Recently we have seen what appears to be an orchestrated effort to discredit the Bible. Proponents would have us believe that there is little believable in it and not much good about it. The fictional novel, The Da Vinci Code, has been at the forefront of that attack with its fictitious authority leveling barrage after barrage of accusations against the Bible’s authenticity. Notice I said fictitious authority because the book is fiction and does not purport to be an authentic evaluation of scripture. It is, however, being received by many as believable and is resulting in some people questioning the faith. In similar words, they are asking, “What’s good about the Good Book?”

Well, we could go to great extremes to prove the credibility and reliability of the Bible, and no doubt we should. Jude said that the church must “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” (Jude 3) But, it strikes me as both impressive and comforting that the Bible has always endured the years and the innumerable attacks leveled against it. Skeptics are not new, and the spirit of Antichirst has been in the world for at least 2000 years. If I correctly interpret biblical prophecy, things are only going to get worse before they get better. Yet, truth endures because it is truth, and it can only be hidden, never destroyed. The critics of the Bible will offer their contrived and often counterfeit attacks, but Jesus promised, “God's Law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground at your feet. Long after stars burn out and earth wears out, God's Law will be alive and working.” (Matthew 5:18, MSG)

What’s good about the Good Book? It’s sharper than a double edged sword, it’s a light for the paths we walk, water that keeps us clean, source of the faith we need, and a foundation that never moves or changes. And, it’s more! For the martyrs, it was hope for the future, for the Reformers it was truth that led to real salvation, to the evangelists it has always been the word we preach, and for me, it was a word from God that came just this morning! It’s as fresh as the daily newspaper, as relevant as a book of instructions, and as practical as a prescription from your family doctor. It’s good because it’s from God, and He’s always good!

So, the attacks will continue, and the church will muster its forces; but, whether we are preparing for battle or on the battlefield, let’s never forget that it is God’s Word in us that empowers us. In the final analysis, the best defense of scripture is to read it!