THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION...bring nothing to the spiritually starving except the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ

"Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. 

The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself 

and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God 

was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses 

against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. 

We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, 

so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

-2 Corinthians 5:11a; 17-21

People are obsessed with programs today. The latest gimmick, method, fad, trend, cultural anomaly seems to govern the thinking of most church leaders in how they structure their church services and do ministry. Christian market researchers have made the audience sovereign and not honored God and His Word as the only true Sovereign in ministry. 

The new hermeneutic of the trendy reformed champion this paradigm: 

interpret Scripture through the lens of culture. Whether they are seeker-friendly; emerging; emergent; grunge; edgy; culturally contextualized; missional, blah-blah-blah-etc. - it's really all the same... a man-centered means to doing divine ministry. 

They simply have forgotten the words of our Lord Jesus Christ when He said, "I will build My church..." He is not only the chief cornerstone and the head of the church; He IS its divine builder and architect. And in so doing, our Lord has given us all the privilege to be about this ministry of reconciliation. Proclaiming His gospel to all; calling all men everywhere to repent of their sins; to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Him; and believe solely on the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation. Oh what a joy to serve the Lord... isn't it? And lest we forget, this ministry of reconciliation (compelling others to be reconciled to God and to flee the wrath to come) is not about healing race relations, ministering to the poor, or carrying for people with AIDS. Though those are things that we should be involved in as a way to love our neighbor - the ministry of reconciliation is one thing: the proclamation of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ!

So why don't more churches simply be about the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the proclamation of His Word, equipping the saints for the work of the ministry, biblical worship and evangelism? Because they are dominated by the times in which they live. Relevance and Pragmatics are the two voices of our postmodern culture that are the dominating voices in any local church pastors meeting.

May I encourage you to pray for your church and pastors today. Pray that they would be men of the truth and not of the times; pray that they would preach the Word in season and out of season; pray that they would fulfill their ministry and do the work of an evangelist. And lastly, pray that the one burning question that they would ask of themselves each week is not: how can we better relate to our people and draw bigger crowds? BUT, how can we bring more glory to God and further exalt the Lord Jesus Christ through the power and ministry of the Holy Spirit according to His Word?

I trust this short Spurgeon illustration below will help to focus our thoughts on what is truly important. It's the gospel...

Think biblically - not culturally!

Steve

2 Cor. 4:5-7

For if I preach the gospel,
that gives me no ground for boasting.
For necessity is laid upon me.
Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
-1 Corinthians 9:16

For I decided to know nothing among you
except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
-1 Corinthians 2:2

"In the days of Nero there was great shortness of food in the city of Rome, although there was abundance of corn to be purchased in Alexandria. A certain man who owned a vessel… noticed many hungry people straining their eyes toward the sea, watching for the vessels that were to come from Alexandria with corn. When these vessels came to the shore, one by one, the poor people wrung their hands in bitter disappointment, for on board the galleys there was nothing but sand which the tyrant emperor had compelled them to bring for use in the arena. Then the merchant… said to his shipmaster, ‘Take thou good heed that thou bring nothing back with thee from Alexandria but corn; and whereas aforetime thou hast brought in the vessel a measure or two of sand, bring thou not so much as would lie upon a penny this time… for these people are dying, and now we must keep our vessels for this one business of bringing food for them.

Alas, I have seen certain mighty galleys of late loaded with nothing but mere sand of philosophy and [entertainment], and I have said within myself, ‘I will bear nothing in my ship but the revealed truth of God, the bread of life so greatly needed by the people. " -CHS

May the ship of Christian ministry bring to the shores of a drowning world, its galleys full of nothing except the life-preserving hope of God’s Word—the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ!