The mission of the Church is to disciple the world.  We are to disciple all nations, we are to baptize all who are disciples and then we are to teach those disciples all of the Lord’s doctrine.  . 

Our preaching is to contain two important concepts: repentance must be made “in His name” and remission of sins is given “in His name”. (Luke 24:45-48) 

Our ultimate target is the whole world.  God’s dream embraces a world-wide mission plan. 

We have learned to speak of God as a ‘missionary God.’ Thus we have learned to understand the church as a ‘sent people.’ ‘As the Father has sent Me, so I send you.’ (John 20:21)… God’s character and purpose as a sending or missionary God redefines our understanding of the Trinity.” p. 4  Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America , edited by Darrell L. Guder. William B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI/Cambridge, UK 1998

The scope of the mission group was Jerusalem as the center and initial point; Judea as the immediate environment for natural expansion; Samaria, the next obvious contiguous area, and to the utter most, the ultimate goal of our proclamation.  Our mission as the church is in Guder’s words an “incarnational mission.”[4]  This mission of making disciples is more than just merely “converting people.”  It is an enterprise that leads men and women into the Master’s lifestyle.  A disciple must take the yoke and “learn” of Jesus: Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. (Matt 11:29).  He is to be like his Master (Matthew 10:24,25).  The Lord Himself also offered several restrictions concerning discipleship.  (Luke 14:26-33). 

A disciple must love the Lord Jesus more than his family.  A disciple must be willing to follow the Lord, and a disciple must be willing to count the cost and forsake all he has to follow Christ. 

The early Church had an excellent pattern of discipling.  They multiplied disciples through proper church activity (Acts 6:1-7).  They taught many and then confirmed the souls of the ones taught (Acts 14:21,22).  They went back and strengthened the disciples (Acts 18:23). They encouraged all to learn from their leaders (Philippians 4:9).  Disciples were baptized and then instructed in the teaching of the Lord. 

Such Good News always produces blessed results and will today.  It produces great joy (Luke 2:10); it produces peace by Christ (Acts 10:36; Romans 10:15); it brings tidings of good things (Romans 10:15); it brings light (2 Cor 4:4) and it is a source of hope (Col 1:23). 

An Ever Widening Circle

The disciples began at Jerusalem for this is where the Lord ministered (Matt 23:37).  This is where thefirst church started (Acts 1:12-14).  They witnessed there (Acts 4:16).  They filled the city with their teaching(Acts 5:28).  They multiplied disciples there (Acts 6:7). 

It expanded into Judea.  The disciples were scattered into it (Acts 8:1). The disciples started churchesthere (Acts 9:31).  The disciples published the Gospel all through it (Acts 10:37). 

It spread to Samaria.  Philip preached there (Acts 8:5).  The Apostles came and ministered to them there (Acts 8:14-17).  The Apostles preached in many villages there (Acts 8:25).  Churches were establishedthere (Acts 9:31).  And now we are part of this on-going multigenerational task, to spread the message of Christ to the ends of the earth (Matt 24:14). 

The Biblical Titles of the Church

Many metaphors exist in Scripture that can inform our biblical understanding with regard to the meaning of the Church. Though metaphors must be used with caution, (as they do not perfectly reflect metaphysical realities), we nonetheless need to consider the scripture’s own witness on the subject.

Thirteen examples of the most prevalent Biblical titles of the Church:

The Church is a Family (1 Tim 5:1-2; Eph 3:14; 2 Corn 6:18)

The Church is an Assembly (Ps 89:7)

The Church is the spouse of Christ (Eph 5:32; 2 Corn 11:2)

The Church is the Body of Christ (Eph 1:22-23)

The Church is called the city of the living God (Heb 12:22)

The Church is called the family in heaven and earth (Eph 3:15)

The Church is a New temple ( 1 Peter 2:5)

The Church is a nation of royal priests (1Peter 2:5)

The Church is called The Fold of Christ (John 10:16)

The Church is called the General assembly of the first born (Heb 12:23)

The Church is the Lord’s vineyard (Jer. 12:10; Matt 21:41)

Branches of a vine (John 15:5)

An olive tree (Romans 11:17-24)

A field of crops (1 Corn 3:6-9)

A harvest (Matt 13:1-30; John 4:35)

The Church is called the pillar and ground of truth (1Tim 3:15)

 The Church is the habitation of God. (Eph 2:22)

The Church, whether pictured as a building, a body, an army or a bride stresses  the unity interdependence interrelatedness and interconnectedness not of an “organization” but of a “living organism,,” what Wayne Grudem calls “a community of all true believers for all time” (p 853).

There remains one final section of Daniel’s prophecies which provides additional insight to Alexander’s Empire.

And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will.

And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled; for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others besides those.  (Dan. 11:3,4)

The angel of the Lord informs Daniel in Chapter 11 verses 1 and 2 that the leadership of the Persian Empire will be a succession of four rulers:

Cambyses, 530 .-522 B.C.

Pseudo-Smerdis, 522-521 B.C

Darius I, Hystaspes 521-586 B.C.

Xerxes 485-465 B.C. 

He then speaks in summary form, giving yet another accurate outline of Alexander’s brief reign. 

Keil points out:

“From the conflict of Persia with Greece, the angel (v.3) passes immediately over to the founder of the Grecian (Macedonian) world-kingdom; for the prophecy proceeds not to the prediction of historical details, but mentions only the elements and factors which constitute the historical development”.

The prophecy of Daniel Chapter 11:3,4 confirms the same facts which have been previously discussed in Daniel 2:32, 39; Daniel 7:6; and Daniel 8:1-6, 15-21.

In Daniel 11:3,4 the founder of the Grecian kingdom is called a brave king or hero-king. His kingdom is said to have great dominion (7:6; 8:1-6; 15-21).  Of his government, it is said that he shall rule according to his own will (8:4).

The text also confirms the unexpected death of Alexander, as well as the division of his empire in four final consolidations.

Walvoord explains:

“The expression in verse 4, ‘When he shall stand up,’ may be translated ‘While he was growing strong,’ that is, while still ascending in power.  Another rendering, perhaps more normal Hebrew, is ‘And as soon as he shall have stood up,’ indicating the brief duration of Alexander’s reign.  The word ‘stood’ has the same military connotation as in the preceding verses.  The angel predicts to Daniel that his kingdom shall be broken and divided to the four winds of heaven.”[1]

Baldwin adds:

“No sooner has he established his empire than it will be split into four (cf. 7:6; 8:8) and ruled, not by his sons, but by others…  The style of rule exercised by the successors of the Greek conqueror would differ from his, necessarily, because in a divided empire one leader would vie with another.”

Dominion was given.  (Dan. 7:6).   As is declared in Daniel 2:21, God is the One who exercises sovereign control over the elevation of each of the four successive Gentile nations; Daniel 7:6 confirms the fact that Alexander’s Grecian kingdom and all he would accomplish  would have to do, not so much with his own abilities, but rather God’s sovereign choice.

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown point out:

“So Alexander, a small king of a small kingdom, Macedon, attacked Darius at the head of the vast Empire reaching from the Aegean Sea to the Indies.  In twelve years he subjugated part of Europe, and all Asia from Illyricum in the Adriatic to the Ganges … not so much fighting as conquering.  How unlikely it was that 30,000 men should overthrow several hundreds of thousands.”

It becomes increasingly clear that the inspiration behind the seemingly miraculous career of Alexander, which in times past has seemed such a mystery to secular scholars, can now be understood if one is willing to admit that it was God who granted supernatural empowerment for a brief season to Alexander.

In Daniel Chapter two, verses 32 and 39, we notice that there are four metals mentioned in relation Nebuchadnezzar’s image: gold, silver, brass and iron.

Keil points out,

“The material becomes inferior from the head downward, gold, silver, copper, iron, clay; so that, though on the whole metallic, it becomes inferior and finally terminates in clay … not withstanding that the material becomes always the harder, till it is iron, yet then suddenly and at last, it becomes weak and brittle clay.”[1]

It is important to note that the majority of conservative scholars, from the time of Jerome in the 4th Century A.D. to the present, have interpreted this passage as referring to the Grecian Empire led by none other than Alexander the Great.

The head of gold in the statue, (Babylon), was the first empire in time containing within itself the idea of a world-empire.  The inferiority of the second empire in the statue, (Medo-Persia), is symbolized by pale silver, both inferior in value and solidity to gold. The second empire, Medo-Persia, was also inferior to the first, Babylon, as it was compounded of two parts.  The third empire, in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, (the Grecian), has a dark and lowering color.  Yet the loins of Greece would hold together the belly of Asia.  In the fourth empire of iron, the Roman, we see strength ending in division. 

John Walvoord adds:[1]

According to the prophecy of Daniel and his interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s image, the Grecian Empire was to be the third kingdom of brass (Dan. 2:39).  Further light on the characteristics of this empire is given in Daniel 7:6 in the description of the third beast in Daniel’s vision.  … While Daniel’s prophecies concerning Nebuchadnezzar and the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians were fulfilled in part in Daniel’s lifetime, in his prediction of the empire of Greece, he accurately foreshadowed an empire which did not come into existence until 200 years later.

Daniel Chapter 3

Chapter three recounts Nebuchadnezzar’s mounting ego which resulted in his building a golden image of himself in the plain of Dura.  Obeisance was to be done before the statue, any refusal being punishable by death.  Certain Chaldeans inform the great king that Daniel’s three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, refuse to worship the image.  Nebuchadnezzar orders a furnace to be heated seven times hotter than usual; yet through divine intervention, the three Hebrew children are miraculously delivered.

Daniel Chapter 4

Nebuchadnezzar receives a second dream that his wise men are unable to interpret.  Daniel again is given the divine insight and proper interpretation of the dream.  This dream differs from the first in that it is derogatory to the king.  Twelve months after Daniel’s audience with Nebuchadnezzar, the king lost his sanity for a season.  His mind is eventually restored, an act for which he fully acknowledged the sovereignty of Jehovah.

Daniel Chapter 5

The great feast of Belshazzar, one of Nebuchadnezzar’s successors, occurs in this chapter.  Belshazzar is an arrogant leader who, while dining, defiles the vessels of the holy temple of Jerusalem, revealing his utter contempt for the God of the Hebrews.  The party abruptly ends as writing appears miraculously upon the wall.  Daniel, well on in years, is called upon to interpret the writing, which signals an end to Belshazzar’s rule, while predicting the rise of the next Medo-Persian kingdom.  That same evening, Belshazzar dies.

The word tardemah is also used in scripture to speak of unholy slumber, sleep which makes us vulnerable to satanic attack.  Just as God has designed sovereign tardemah ‘seasons’ of blessing, so Satan seeks to bring his ‘counterfeit sleep’ into our lives.  These four kinds of counterfeit sleep always represent the most subtle threat to revival in any age.  They are:

The sleep of “escape”

The sleep of “presumption”

The sleep of transgression”

The sleep of “error.”

Jonah And The Sleep Of Escape

“But, Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship;  and he lay, and was fast asleep.”  (Jonah 1:5)

What a curious instance of deep sleep.  Willen A. Van Gemeren explains:

“The use of tardemah in Jonah 1:5,6 may be ironic, pointing to a prophet who fell asleep not in order to establish contact with God, but to escape it.”  (Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, Vol. III, Zondervan, 1997, pg. 1057).

I believe that the great reality and power of addiction in our culture parallels Jonah’s express desire to escape through sleep.  When we seek to evade the realities and responsibilities of life through any form of mood altering slumber, we risk the danger of awaking to find ourselves, like Jonah, hidden, isolated and running from God!

Our families and friends are all too often forced to take on the role of Jonah’s shipmaster who cried:

“What meanest thou, O’ sleeper, arise, call upon thy God, …that we perish not.”  (Jonah 1:6).

It’s time to ‘wake up’ to call upon God and turn from the false sleep of escape!

We make ourselves vulnerable to Satan’s greatest bondages when we sleep to God’s will, God’s call, and God’s word!  Such a sleep of escape proves a contradiction even to non-believers who ask: “Why hast thou done this.”  (Jonah 1:10).  Satan watches over all those who presently slumber in escapism.

Notice also the familiar theme in Jonah’s steps toward his sleep of escape:

“He went down to Joppa…He entered the ship…paid the fare…and went down into it…but, when Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; he lay, and was fast asleep

He went down into the sea…then down into the whale’s belly.”  (Jonah 1:3,5; 2:15,17)

When we run from God in order to evade the realities and responsibilities of life we always go down!  The sleep of escape always leads down, and away from God’s blessing.  Notice also that when we run from God, we always pay the fare and never reach our destination!  So it is with the reality of addiction in any of its forms, we pay with our lives to sleep a sleep of utter isolation and fruitlessness.

Let’s heed the counsel of the apostle Paul and:

“Awake to righteousness and sin not…” (I Cor. 15:34).

We have pointed out the difference between the two Greek words chronos and kairos.  Chronos speaks of our normal nine-to-five, while kairos speaks of the extraordinary moments in life when the divine intersects the common.  When a ‘kairos,’ occurs, (and a Tardemah of Divine Destiny is a kairos,) God also bequeaths power to fulfill the life words He has given!

Prophetic promises are true the moment they are spoken; yet the impartation of negligible power needed to bring them to pass is often delayed for years.

For instance, David’s first anointing with oil as Israel’s future king was characterized by an immediate impartation of God’s presence which never left him, whereas others such as Abraham had to wait years before experiencing their kairos fulfillment and corresponding empowerments.

Abraham and Sarah had to be empowered with the necessary strength to conceive Isaac.  They waited for years exploring every human avenue of fruitfulness, yet to no avail.  God imparted His power at a moment chosen and in accordance with His own will.  So it will be for you and for so many others in the near future!

Take heart.  The coming revival will be an outpouring of God’s power for both reconfirmation and impartation!

THE TARDEMAH OF UTTER GRACE – THE REDEMPTION OF IMPOSSIBLE PASTS

 “Let the quantity of thy sins be the measure of thy repentance”  (Isaac Bargrave)

“See now that I, even I am he, and there is no God with me; I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand” (Deut. 32:39)

In Chapter Four, we introduced Jacob’s Tardemah of Utter Grace.  Now we will turn from its local ‘interpretation’ to its ‘global application.’  God is getting ready to redeem impossible pasts!  The question with God is never ‘can He restore?’ but rather ‘will He restore’?

 Do you have an unredeemed past?  If you have experienced ‘moral failure’ of any kind, then there are certainly those once present in your life who will never trust you again.  There are those who will never be able to bear the thought of you.  There are even others who will never be able to hear your voice proclaiming the word of God again!  There are also those who may never be able to look you in the eye without Technicolor images of your past sin flashing across the screen of their minds.  The question is: Is God one of them?

Let’s return for a moment to the four foundational truths which were reiterated in Jacob’s tardemah of utter grace -  truths that became the foundation for the healing of his past:

Security – His secure standing in the patriarchal line was reaffirmed.  (Genesis 28:13)

Hope – He received his personal promise that the land would be given in perpetuity to both he and his descendants. (Genesis 28:13)

Influence – Jacob’s fruitfulness was guaranteed to affect all future generations.  (Genesis 28:14)

Favor – He received the assurance of God’s personal presence for the rest of his life (Genesis 28:15)

The promises of security, hope, influence and favor will now become the sacred ingredients of the healing balm used for the redemption of Jacob’s past!

THREE POINTS OF GRACE

God and Trust

God answers Jacob’s issues of trust, not by punishing him, but by continuing over and over to demonstrate His own trustworthiness.  Despite Jacob’s lapses, God uses the continuity of His own covenant faithfulness as the means of healing the ‘trust breech’ in Jacob’s soul.

God and Fear

God approaches the great fear of Jacob’s life with love.  Far from rejecting or abandoning him because of his sins, God instead reconfirms His covenant love by assuring Jacob of his full acceptance in God’s generational plan of redemption!  It is perfect love alone that drives out fear.  Only the assurance of unconditional acceptance can remove the paralyzing effects of fear.

God and Deception

How did God deal with Jacob’s deception?  Just as He didn’t punish him for mistrust nor reject him for his fear, so God didn’t demean Jacob for his deception, rather He transformed him!

God doesn’t brand him as worthless.  In fact, God is the very one who will change Jacob’s name so that all men for all time may know that God is a God of patience and loving kindness!  Far from demeaning or shaming Jacob, God confronts him with the question his father had asked years before: What is your name?  Jacob, now all alone with God and surrounded by the security of  God’s love and direct presence, finally acknowledges the mistrust, fear, and deception of a lifetime!  ‘I am Jacob!’

The explanation of these three primary roots, however, in no way removes responsibility from Jacob.  Responsibility implies the ability to respond!  Jacob was, as we are, fully responsible for his every life decision!  While we could not control the initial woundings we received in life, we are nonetheless responsible for every personal decision we have made thereafter.

Jacob was guilty!  We are guilty!  All the kindling in the world piled in a heap will never cause a fire.  Fire alone causes a fire.  Jacob’s family of origin contributed to Jacob’s past for sure, but they didn’t cause his sin.  Jacob did!  Lack of trust and persistent fear led to covert acts of deception deliberately designed to seize control of situations which were never Jacob’s responsibility to begin with.  

A Familiar Pattern

Does this pattern sound familiar?  Is it hard for you to trust anyone, including God?  Is it doubly hard to believe stupendous promises, when all the facts around you point only to doubt and fear?  Have you ever tried to help God out in the meeting of your needs by taking over in your own strength?

Jacob’s story sounds so familiar because Jacob’s past is the pattern of our lives!  Mistrust, fear and deception are at the root of all human frailty.

Hitting, Leaving, Or Demeaning

When you failed, were you punished or threatened with punishment?  Were you abandoned or threatened with the withdrawal of love?  Were you demeaned, treated as though you had no value?  Did you know that God never uses these methods when redemptively correcting His children?

He never says, ‘That’s enough, you’re going to hell,’ (hitting) or, ‘That’s it, you’re never going to see Me again,’ (leaving) or, ‘You worthless scum, you’ll never amount to anything’ (demeaning).  God doesn’t employ punishment, abandonment, or demeaning with His children, because such non-relational methods only reinforce a ‘fear of punishment’,  a ‘fear of abandonment’, and a corresponding sense of ‘worthlessness’!  They may produce short-term behavioral changes, but never lasting results.  God never uses such methods because they never end in true repentance.  Trust issues can never be healed by threats of punishment.  Fear issues are never assuaged by the withdrawal of love, and deception is never satisfactorily addressed through tirades or damning epitaphs.  We may punish, reject, or demean in an attempt to control or modify the behavior of others, but God does not!  How then does God redeem a past like Jacob’s?  The answer is the same in every age: by His grace!

‘In principle,’ I understand the dynamics of the story.  “Give freely back to God what He has given you, etc.”  But ‘in practice,’ as a father myself, this seems almost inconceivable to me!  To take my son, Grant, with all our shared love and life together; to watch his face, tears of fear welling up in his eyes while I lay him down on a wood-laden altar; to then kill him with a knife, drain his blood, dismember his precious body, and then reduce it to ashes!  I don’t know if I could do it.  Yet the Bible says:

“… Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac, his son, and he took the fire in his hand and a knife and they went both of them together.  And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, my father: And he said here am I, my son.  And he said behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?  And Abraham said, my son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering; so they went both of them together.  And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him upon the altar upon the wood.  And Abraham stretched forth his hand to slay his son.”  (Genesis 22:6-7, 9-10)

What on earth is going on?  What is God up to?  How could such a command contribute in any way to the fulfillment of God’s promises?  I’ll let you in on the secret!  I believe God’s intention in this command was to win Abraham back!  ‘Back from what?’ you ask.  Back from years of being consumed by  ‘an abstract promise’.  Abraham had lived for years believing and hoping in ‘promises’ of personal blessing which would be realized always in  some future event, experience or far off occurrence. With Isaac’s death now a foregone conclusion in Abraham’s mind, we notice that his focus shifts drastically away from the ‘means’   (Isaac) and back to the ‘source’ (God).  From the ‘blessing’ Abraham will now turn to the ‘Blessor,’ instead of the ‘promise’ he will now embrace the ‘Promise Giver,’ from ‘provision’ alone he will turn to the ‘Provider.’ Even at the risk of the world’s salvation, Abraham is willing to obey.

Nothing makes sense anymore.  Abraham enters ‘mid-life’ free of youthful certainties.  He didn’t even question the morality of the command.  Who could?  Life belongs to God.  He can therefore demand what is His any time and in any way He chooses.