Thursday, July 02, 2009

PART FOUR OF MESSAGE

WOULD JESUS BE WELCOME IN YOUR CHURCH TODAY--- PART FOUR

July 2, 8:33 a.m.

Please: before reading today's content read part three first; this is a continuation of my second point in this five-point message. If you are new to reading this blog I encourage you to begin at the beginning and read my opening point also. Thanks.

Soon after I was saved, my pastor, (Art Hage) by tape, introduced me to Dr. Jack Hyles... I was enthralled! He was a great preacher. We began to yearly go to the Pastor's schools that were held in Hammond, Indiana.
I had only been saved for about 30 months when I wrote to Dr. Hyles for the first time: I had a question for him. Soon he responded and there is one sentence in his letter where he said he would like to have a "chat with me." That letter was written by him 25 years ago and I regret to this very moment that I did not get in my car and drive the nine hours to see him. At the time though I was busy in the Lord's work and I did not go.
I did meet him a couple of years later and we corresponded by mail several more times. In three days it will be twenty years since I last heard from him. He closed that letter with two promises: "I promise you I will pray for you every day in a special way. I also promise you there will not be a day until I die that I will not thank God that on my way to Heaven I had a friend like you."
I loved Dr. Hyles and his ministry and in the work of the Lord I felt that he stood head-and-shoulders above most preachers.
(I have to take one of my daughters to pick up her car. I hope to be able to write more in a little while.)

10:11 a.m.

I loved and respected my own pastor, Art Hage, but I always thought of Dr. Hyles as a pastor's pastor. He was a person who hundreds of other pastors thought of him as their own pastor. I enjoyed going out into the Chicago area and visiting with people from the church and school for soul-winning and bus visitation. Their work was and is an important work in that area and throughout the world.
What I have written so far is just so that you will know that I loved Dr. Hyles and the ministry that the Lord gave to him. I counted it both an honor and privilege to be able to go out and in a small way represent First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana. However, even though, in my mind, there was no one else like Dr. Hyles: I could never have joined that church by membership. Even though I was quite happy to go there on many different occasions. Remember: the title of this message of mine is; WOULD JESUS BE WELCOME IN YOUR CHURCH TODAY?
I am trying to write against church traditions and manmade ordinances that would preclude men of God from serving in local groups of believers. If anyone would ever take from what I have written (thus far) and say that I believe that Jesus would not be welcome at First Baptist Church of Hammond... I will call them a liar to their face. What I am saying though is that many churches... including Hammond... did and does have manmade ordinances that stops Godly men from serving.
Example: until late in the life of Dr. Hyles they did not allow men with facial hair to sing in the choir at Hammond. Remember that Jesus, as well as all of the disciples and prophets all wore beards. In point of fact they would have all been long and most probably unkempt, and that is on the authority of the Bible. Leviticus 19:27 "Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard."
My point is only that if the Bible has no prohibition against a man wearing facial hair... what right does any New Testament church have in making a prohibition against it in order to serve?
If a person were only to read or hear what I have said about the Bible in the last 28 years they might have a fairly skewed idea about my personal life or appearance. The reason is that throughout the years I have known many people to take a principled stand on certain topics and it just so happened that they were themselves involved in whatever they were taking a stand on. Let me set the record straight though on just a few topics: I have at present and have had in the past only one wife... I do not drink alcoholic beverages... I think that as long as you give thanks, it is okay if you choose to eat meat... I don't wear a beard... etc. etc. etc. (Although on that last one I would like to wear a beard, it is just that I can't get past that itching stage as it starts to grow out.)
The reason I wrote that last paragraph is so that none reading this might imagine that I personally have been stopped from serving in some capacity simply because of facial hair or anything similar. It is just that I am wanting to defend what the Bible teaches against many sacred cows that have been brought into our New Testamant churches.
Another teaching prevalent today is an unwritten rule about dress code. Before I begin to go into depth on this subject I want to ask all pastors of new Testamant churches just one question: though I will phrase it in different ways. Where does the authority to be the head of a local group of believers come from? Where is the "charter" for your local New Testament church found? Where do you garner the rules by which you lead a local body of believers? Perhaps I could figure out a hundred different ways to ask the same question, which is... "By what authority do you do these things? If you are truly the pastor of a New Testament church... then every single one of you ought to answer with the exact same answer! The only rules, regulations, bylaws, ordinances, etc. that any church has, needs to come from the Bible itself. Anything that is added to that, or taken away from it is manmade and dangerous. Every New Testament church's charter is found primarily in the book of Acts.
I am believing that the people who read this blog are probably students of the Bible: otherwise, why would you read? I am stating that because I am going to be typing a lot of familiar verses, yet, even though they are going to be familiar, I have surmised that many people, and especially pastors who read them must not truly be weighing or reflecting upon what they read; else, many of the regulations and unwritten rules in churches today would not exist.
Before I begin I have a few more questions for pastors (in particular) to ponder as I continue to write. Should a church be run like a business... even a successful one? Should a church take their lead from a political office? Do you believe that in this day and time it is still possible to "... entertain angels unaware"
(One of my grandchildren is calling for me to come and see a mouse that is on television. I must do the important thing and go. I will write more tonight after work.)

10:37 p.m.

I just got in from work and I will add a little more to this blog. I want you to consider some of the occupations of the men who Christ called into service: Matthew... sitting at the seat of custom, Luke... the beloved physician, Peter and Andrew... for they were fishers, my point is that each of these men had occupations that would have caused them to dress differently in their every day lives. Another example is that Christ was a carpenter, and this would have also caused Him to dress differently than the others.
My best guess is that Luke and Matthew probably dressed in somewhat nicer clothes than did Christ, Andrew, or Peter. Now to my point I would like to make. Every single time He called a man into service they immediately left what they were doing and Followed Him!
There was not even time to go to their houses and pack. And if you think the Lord permitted them to go and gather things, think again. In the eighth chapter of Matthew a disciple only asked for leave to go home and bury his father. Jesus said, "Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead."
I am only trying to cause you to think of the situation these men found themselves in when Christ called them into service. Luke and Matthew might have been dressed up, but I imagine that Andrew and Peter probably had fishscales on their clothes as they went forth to begin their service to God.
Keep those thoughts in mind as I remind you that when Jesus sent out His twelve he commanded them not to have two pairs of shoes or two coats... they only had what they wore on their bodies. He repeated this as He sent out His seventy also. I am fully aware that there was a larger lesson here than only permitting them the clothes they wore: God was showing that He could take care of them and that they would lack nothing. But that does not alter the fact that the clothes they wore in their everyday service to God was the exact same clothes they wore to the synagogue on Saturday. There was no such thing as "Sunday go to meetin' clothes" nor was there a "Saturday go to synagogue clothes."
Read of the four-thousand fed in Matthew 15:32 "Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way." Consider these words again: because they continue with me now three days.
Now, if you beleive the Bible... all of the close followers of Christ would have only had in their possession what clothes they were wearing on their backs. So, for at least this missionary trip, and I personally believe it happened often, these God-called preachers ministered to the multitudes in clothes they had worn for a minimum of three days straight!
My favorite evangelist in all the world was telling me one day that a major personal expense that he incurred was when he held month-long tent revivals in west Texas during the hot summers there. Believe it or not it was dry-cleaning bills. After all, he said, "You can only sweat-down a suit once." I didn't say anything because I was young and, as I've already said he was (and is) my alltime favorite evangelist. But I thought, then why wear a suit? Buy a cheap cotton shirt and wash it for only a few pennies.

I will add to this story when I write more tomorrow. Hopefully I will be able to show you at that time that "dressing up" to lead a service is a recent thing and certainly not part of the early church.

posted by Robin Johnson @ 8:37 AM