““Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel.”
(Joshua 1:2, NASB95)
Along with the headlines of a fallen Evangelical leader, Christian social media has also been alerted to the situation in Alberta, Canada, where Pastor James Coates has been arrested for refusing to submit to the unjust laws of the land. These laws require him to limit his church services to 15% capacity and stop serving our God with his responsibility to lead Christ’s Church. Currently Pastor Coates is in custody and will not be given bail unless he agrees not to hold services. The church was ordered to close in January and Pastor Coates was arrested and charged in early February. You can read the story from a Canadian news source here: (Global News), and see the official statement of Pastor Coates’ church here: (GraceLife Church). The aim of this post is not so much about Pastor Coates, but about the growing need for pastors to take up the courageous charge to lead in the face of growing adversity.
The times are changing. For Joshua, a new era began the moment Moses took his last breath (Joshua 1). To Joshua and the Israelites, the days must have looked very dark. But the Lord gave him and Israel courage as they looked to the future. What can we learn from God’s words to Joshua?
Although we may lose key people and leaders, we will never lose God’s presence. Therefore, we take courage because God is always with us.
We cling to the promise of our inheritance of a heavenly city, believing that God does not lie. Should we die in service to our God, we will be in the presence of the Lord.
Just as no enemy could stand before Joshua and Israel, so too Jesus has told us that the gates of hell shall not prevail against his church.
We are commanded to be strong and courageous, trusting in our God. The child of God seeks to obey even in the face of fear of the enemy and the unknown.
As we follow Christ and move forward in faith and courage, the same message of walking by faith is communicated to our people and they too, gain courage in seeing our faithful obedience.
Whether it is governmental restrictions, personal attacks from the enemy, disgruntled members, destructive wolves or some other form of attack, be strong and courageous. Our God is with us.
One day, all of these challenges and threats will be a distant memory as we are gathered together worshipping the Lord God in his presence. Remember this future as you face these light, momentary afflictions. Jesus is coming soon!
Luther was a confirmed bachelor until he was 41. He resisted marriage, and only chose to marry after he had preached on the need for the young ministers of the reformation to get married, against the unbiblical practices of Romanism (how romantic!).
On June 13, 1525 Luther married Katharina Von Bora, a former nun who had fled the convent with a group of nuns who had been convinced of the truth of the reformation. Katie was 26.
Luther was already very famous and a wanted man outside of Saxony. It was an overwhelming thing for Katie to be instantly known as Luther’s wife, but she took up the task with vigor.
A biography of Luther describes the woman behind the great Dr. Luther: “Katharina immediately took on the task of administering and managing the vast holdings of the monastery, breeding and selling cattle, and running a brewery in order to provide for their family and the steady stream of students who boarded with them and visitors seeking audiences with her husband. In times of widespread illness, Katharina operated a hospital on site, ministering to the sick alongside other nurses. Luther called her the “boss of Zulsdorf,” after the name of the farm they owned, and the “morning star of Wittenberg” for her habit of rising at 4 a.m. to take care of her various responsibilities….In addition to her busy life tending to the lands and grounds of the monastery, Katharina bore six children: Hans, Elizabeth, Magdalena, Martin, Paul, and Margarete. The Luthers also raised four orphan children, including Katharina’s nephew, Fabian.”
What is the saying? Behind every great man… It is also true of Martin Luther. Martin and Katie were so close, their hearts so knit together that Luther called Katie “my rib.”
In the New Testament we also find a couple who serve alongside one another. They pop up in six places in the New Testament, and always together. Their names were Aquila and Priscilla.
Acts 18:2 tells us that Aquila was a Jewish native of Pontus, which is in Asia Minor. They lived and worked in Rome until 49 AD when Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome, which sent them to the city of Corinth. It was in Corinth that they met the Apostle Paul on his second missionary journey. We don’t know for sure, but it might be that Paul led this couple to salvation.
From this amazing couple, I’ve chosen Three Lessons We Can Learn Regarding Ministry Together in Christ.
1. Ministry Together Means Ministering Where You Are (Acts 18:1-3)
Here is the first occasion that the New Testament gives of this ministry couple, and we find out a little about them—they shared the same trade as the Apostle Paul, they were tentmakers or leather workers.
Acts 18:3 says that the Apostle stayed with this couple and he worked with them. Paul worked by day in the trade of tanning hides and sewing together awnings and tents, possibly in the shop that Aquila and Priscilla owned.
At the end of a long work day they would retire to their home, which Paul shared with them while he was in Corinth. On the Sabbath, verse 4 tells us that Paul would move into the synagogue and would reason (lit. dialogue) with those gathered there, mainly Jews and some Gentile God-fearers who had converted to Judaism. Paul also ministered in the agora, the marketplace where all the merchants gathered.
What I want you to see is the way that Aquila and Priscilla were so key to this situation, right where they were. Their whole life, both work and home-life was sanctified for the sake of the gospel. Not only did their business help support Paul and his ministry, it must have been a place of wonderful theological training and edification!
Can you imagine the conversations around the dinner table? Aquila and Priscilla took advantage of the circumstance they were in and used it for the glory of God; using their lives together as a place of ministry help and fellowship for Paul as well as edification and spiritual growth for themselves.
Luther used his dinner table as a mighty tool in the church. It rivaled his pulpit in influence as he gathered theological students around his table to hash out the implications of the gospel. He called them “table talks.” A table and a meal became a place for the mighty Spirit to move.
What could your home and workplace become for Christ? You don’t need to change jobs, or go into full time ministry to be used mightily for God. You and your spouse can look at where you are right now and ask God to take your circumstance and use it mightily for him.
2. Ministry Together Means You Need to Be Both a Student and a Teacher (Acts 18:4, 24-26)
Because we are told that Aquila was a Jew, it is highly possible that so was his wife. They would have gone with Paul to the synagogue every Sabbath and listened to the debates that Paul brought to the people.
Over time, this couple became very well equipped in the gospel and doctrine. They knew their stuff! Their time with Paul was not spent in chit-chat and trivialities. They were focused on learning as much as they could about the Christ.
Acts 18:18-21 teaches us that Paul and Aquila and Priscilla went on to Ephesus together where they had to part ways.
Then in verses 24-26 Aquila and Priscilla met up with a man named Apollos who was a powerful preacher, but his theology was lacking in some areas that are pretty important. Verse 26 says that when this couple heard him, they took him aside and taught him “more accurately.”
If you think about it, every teacher was at one time a student. And that is where everyone needs to begin—sitting under the authority of the Word of God and walking in obedience to what it says. Priscilla and Aquila sat patiently under Paul, soaking up what he offered to them. They saw the need to be students first.
I once had someone in our church who said that they didn’t feel like they were being spiritually fed at our church. But here was the problem—our church has three preaching services a week (Sunday morning and evening, and Wednesday night) along with Sunday school classes, Bible studies, discipleship groups, and other ministries, all of which were available to this person. But he didn’t take advantage of any of them except for Sunday mornings, and at this service his attendance was sporadic. I told him, “We’re serving up the Word, you’re just not coming to supper.”
What about you? Are you a student of the Word? Husband, are you stopping your wife from getting fed under the guise of wanting “family time?” You’ll regret it. And wife, are you dragging your feet about your husband being at church so much? You’ll regret it.
And beyond your own spiritual benefit, the church will be poorer for it. Because you cannot give what you do not have. You can’t teach what you don’t know. You can’t lead where you have not first gone yourself.
Sometimes church members complain about the ministries of the church, but they don’t see their own part in it all. How can the Lord use you in your immaturity?
And those who are laboring need you! The church needs godly couples who love Christ and His Word. We need more people like Aquila and Priscilla who can come alongside the Apollos’ of the church and teach them more accurately.
Are you a student of the Word? Could the leaders of our church ask you to come alongside them to help teach and lead this church?
3. Ministry Together Means Working with a Kingdom Focus (Rom 16:3-4)
At some point Priscilla and Aquila moved back to Rome and became an active part of the church there. According to Romans 16:5, they used their home as a meeting place for the church.
Paul called them sunergos, fellow-workers. These two were more than a couple, they were team workers. They didn’t see their part in the church as building up their own little kingdom. They were part of something much bigger.
That meant that their view of this life was much more than living to make a buck. Even though we were told that they were tentmakers back in Acts 18, it is never mentioned again. I’m sure they kept practicing their trade, but they weren’t defined by that fact. Their life wasn’t about being the pre-eminent tent-makers of Rome. They were part of the mission of the Church, and that was where they focused their love and energy.
This is shown in what Paul says about them in verse 4. He tells that whole church something that we wonder how many knew before he wrote it—that Aquila and Priscilla risked their necks in order to save Paul’s life. We don’t know how they did this or any of the circumstances, but it is there, locked into Scripture for all eternity. Priscilla and Aquila were bold enough to be willing to die for the sake of the gospel, and they knew that Paul was a key player in God’s plan. They were so sold out that they would rather have died than to see Paul die. It didn’t happen, but they were ready to take a bullet, so to speak. That’s how focused they were.
They didn’t let pettiness, selfishness, career, ambition, or anything else derail them from the mission. They didn’t care who got the credit, they were working for the same goal—to see Christ magnified through the proclamation of the gospel to the whole world.
In her book, One with a Shepherd, Mary Somerville describes the attitude that God calls us to. Writing from the perspective of ministry together, she writes: “My marriage is unique in that I am one with God through Jesus Christ and that makes me uniquely one with Bob [her husband]. We have a complete oneness that those outside of Christ cannot experience. We have one Savior and Lord, one name, one new family, one goal, one Word to guide us, and one focus of our lives—to glorify God. We have the Holy Spirit living within both of us to empower us to love each other sacrificially and to help us work through all hinderances to our oneness. With Christ in our lives there is hope for any difficulty we face. By his grace we can forgive as we have been forgiven. The Spirit knits us together and gives us a new heart that desires to serve Christ and give sacrificially to one another in love.”
And even though Mary Somerville is writing as a pastor’s wife, there is nothing that she wrote that isn’t true of all Christian couples serving God in all capacities from the perspective of either husband or wife.
If God calls you to any ministry, he calls you together. You may not serve together (i.e., elder, teacher, nursery, etc.) but you’re marriage brings you together to mutually support and care for one another in every ministry.
Ministry together means:
1. Ministering Where You Are
2. You Need to Be Both a Student and a Teacher
3. Working with a Kingdom Focus
What are some steps you can take to make these things happen?
1. Begin developing a family culture around the Word of God. Not just reading but discussing the Word. Husbands with wives. Moms with children. Dads do this with the family. Grandparents with children and grandchildren. Use that dinner table for the glory of God. Discuss the sermon on Sunday. Make your meal a theological feast, even if its around peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!
2. Tolle lege! Take up and read! We all need to be better students of the Word. That is primary. But after you have feasted on the Word, you cannot stop. Pick up good theological books. I know that many people think that they don’t have the time, but I will let John Piper convince you that you really do:
Now, I know what you are thinking: I don’t have the time or the ability to get anywhere in books like that. So I want to show you something really encouraging. When this was shown to me about four years ago by my pastor, it changed my life. Most of us don’t aspire very high in our reading because we don’t feel like there is any hope.
But listen to this: Suppose you read about 250 words a minute and that you resolve to devote just 15 minutes a day to serious theological reading to deepen your grasp of biblical truth. In one year (365 days) you would read for 5,475 minutes. Multiply that times 250 words per minute and you get 1,368,750 words per year. Now most books have between 300 and 400 words per page. So if we take 350 words per page and divide that into 1,368,750 words per year, we get 3,910 pages per year. This means that at 250 words a minute, 15 minutes a day, you could read about 20 average sized books a year!
3. Come alongside those already serving, including your spouse. Support them in regular prayer. Provide them resources that will help them and give them plenty of encouragement. In this way, you will have a part of their ministry.
May the Lord take all of us and make us into more Aquila’s and Priscilla’s. O how the church could use more like them. Focused not on our own agenda, but on the greatest mission this world has ever known, making our great God known to every corner of the earth!
Right now the Christian community is responding with grief, anger, and shock about the unveiling of another Christian leader whose sin has found him out. My interest is not in adding to the finger pointing, but rather to step back and gain wisdom–or as the Bible says, take heed lest you fall. My mind goes back to Genesis and another great moral failure.
The biblical account of the first recorded murder is one that demonstrates the fact that the descendants of Adam and Eve inherited the sin nature of their parents. Some people get hung up on the type of sacrifice that Cain offered when in reality the issue had largely to do with Cain’s heart. But there are more lessons to learn from this account. I’d like to highlight three lessons we learn about sin from the short account of Cain in Genesis 4.
We are both responsible for our sins as well as eventual victims of it (Genesis 4:7-8)
““If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.”
(Genesis 4:7–8, NASB95)
Everyone generally agrees about Cain’s need to be held responsible for his sin. It is clear-cut: Cain killed Abel (v. 8). There were only two people there in the field, and only one walked out. No passing the buck here like Cain’s parents did when they were asked about eating the forbidden fruit.
But something more is revealed in this account about the nature of temptation. Sin is depicted as a stalker. In verse 7, like a tiger waiting to pounce upon its prey, sin is crouching—hunting for Cain. This is the way sin is in some ways. It is personified as a hunter looking for our weakest and most vulnerable moments-those unguarded times-and then pouncing to take advantage of them.
Prov. 1:10-19 speaks about the lying promise of sin—like a parasite, it kills its host. It says:
“My son, if sinners entice you, Do not consent. If they say, “Come with us, Let us lie in wait for blood, Let us ambush the innocent without cause; Let us swallow them alive like Sheol, Even whole, as those who go down to the pit; We will find all kinds of precious wealth, We will fill our houses with spoil; Throw in your lot with us, We shall all have one purse,”
My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your feet from their path, For their feet run to evil And they hasten to shed blood. Indeed, it is useless to spread the baited net In the sight of any bird; But they lie in wait for their own blood; They ambush their own lives. So are the ways of everyone who gains by violence; It takes away the life of its possessors.” (Proverbs 1:10–19, NASB95)
Hear the Lord’s words to Cain-sin wants to rule over you, it wants to enslave you. You must rule over it, but you cannot master it in your own strength, without Jesus. But with Christ, you can have victory over sin through the power of the Spirit.
2. Sin not only seeks to destroy you, it seeks to destroy the very things that you love most (Vv. 12-14)
““When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is too great to bear! Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.””
(Genesis 4:12–14, NASB95)
Obviously Cain didn’t love his brother or his family all that much, so we aren’t talking about that loss here, although we wonder if Cain ever missed his brother. But we do see that Cain did love two things, and they were interrelated:
First, He loved himself. Listen to his wining about the punishment he received for killing his brother (vv. 12-14). No remorse or repentance is in his complaint, only that the punishment is “too great to bear.”
Second, He loved his job as a farmer. God cursed the land for Cain. The land he farmed would no longer produce for Cain the way it had before. Others could till the soil and it would yield a harvest, but it would no longer produce a yield for Cain. At one time he loved gardening and the harvest so much that he only gave his second best to the Lord in worship. His job had become an idol for him. Now God forcibly removed it from his hands.
So, the sin that Cain did not want to flee from destroyed him and his selfish loves. Although he didn’t receive the death penalty for his sin immediately, if he was unrepentant to the end of his life, he would extend his penalty into eternity.
The same can be said about others and their chasing after an idol that would eventually destroy them:
Samson lusted after Delilah.
David lusted after Bathsheba.
Amnon lusted after Tamar.
Solomon lusted after many women.
Ahab lusted after a vineyard.
Gehazi lusted after riches.
Israel lusted after other gods.
Judas lusted after money.
And in every instance, the thing lusted after was the very thing that destroyed the lover. You and I are not better.
3. Our sinful attitudes and habits are not kept to ourselves, but are shared with our children and their children (Genesis 4:17-24).
After his banishment, Cain went on to have a family of his own, and that family grew until only five short generations later the sinfulness of Cain had grown by leaps and bounds (vv. 17-18)
By the time of Lamech, we see in this ancestor of Cain:
Polygamy (v. 19)
Pride (vv. 23-24) (he actually wrote a poem about his sin!)
Violence and murder (vv. 23-24)
Cain’s ancestors (and the testimony of human history) are a visible record of how sin affects a family–sometimes for generations. This isn’t an excuse for sin, but it demonstrates for us the power of influence and example.
We have heard about genetic diseases that are passed on to family members. That’s why they ask questions about our parents and family on medical questionnaires. One form I once filled out asked if I had any family members who had mental instability. I was tempted to answer, “Who doesn’t?”
We need to remember that in our example, we will pass on our lifestyle, our fear and reverence for God and whatever attitudes we have about sin. These attitudes and examples will have an influence, and in some ways, you will be held responsible. Cain’s name even comes up in his great-great-great grandson’s poem about his own wickedness. Isn’t that interesting?
The flipside of this negative influence was Seth (Gen. 4:25-26). Seth was the son that replaced Abel. In a very real way, Adam and Eve had lost both sons on that fateful day in the field. Abel was murdered and Cain was banished.
Now Seth would replace Abel. Seth means “appointed.” God had appointed Seth to replace Abel as the godly son. Seth would have an influence too—on his son Enosh. It was after Enosh, perhaps because of his influence, that people began to call upon and worship the Lord.
The headlines of a fallen leader should be a sobering thing to us. They should cause us to examine our own lives. And they should serve as a warning that we must heed. Sin is crouching at the door. Will we seek the Lord’s help in mastering it, or will we allow this beast to take control and bring us to ruin as well?
Do you minister out of a compassionate heart or only for your comfort? In other words, do we seek to reach all of humanity with the gospel message of hope and restoration, or do we avoid those that are deeply troubled and seek out instead the people that are more like ourselves? Jesus’ encounter with a mother and daughter should teach us a lesson about this:
Matthew 15:22–23 (NAS): And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed.” But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, “Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us.”
What did the disciples see in the demon possessed girl? A pest and a nuisance? Just another broken person that would demand more time, energy, and money? I have heard Christians moan when another drunk comes to church. I have seen the faces of “God’s children” when another mentally disturbed person needs more time in prayer and counsel. I have seen the way that too many needs by the poor can begin to irritate a local body, even when those in need are from within the congregation.
Brethren, look at the verses above! We have a mother pleading for her child. See her desperation! What if you were that mother! Do we see that this woman cries out to the “Lord, Son of David” in hope and reverence, or do we see her as the outsider, the “Canaanite?” She is different. She is desperate. And to some, those differences and desperation are off-putting and repulsive. “Let them go somewhere else. We don’t need that here. This is a respectable place.”
Do we see the demonic and want to push it away, or do we see that she is “cruelly demon-possessed” and our hearts are broken for her bondage and we want to see her set free? Do we cast blame, saying that she probably did this to herself, that these are probably the consequences of her poor choices, and so she deserves what she has become? Do we point to this person as an example to our children of what to avoid, instead of pointing out the need for compassionate Christ-like love?
I fear that we can worship the idol of comfort in our churches and not the God of all Comforts who wants to bring peace to people like the demon-possessed woman. Look around the next time you’re at church. Do the people reflect the needs of broken humanity brought to peace in Jesus Christ, or do they reflect the social comfort of being around respectable people? Then ask yourself, are we more like the Lord or like the disciples when we encounter the deeply troubled?
“The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts.” (Proverbs 17:3)
Just as a crucible and a furnace are used to test the mixture of metals to bring the sludgy waste to the surface, so too the Lord uses adversity and trial to bring our sinful attitudes and actions to the surface to reveal our need for purification. This sanctifying process of being put through a trial is very hard and unpleasant, but is necessary if one wants to become purified. There is no shortcut to this process.
Sickness, disease, economic hardship, difficult relationship issues, and more all contribute to who we are as people. They shape us—sometimes for good, and sometimes for bad. For the Christian, trials and hardship are used by God to draw us closer to him and to show us those areas of our life that need spiritual attention. It is in these trials that we are forced to refocus and take account of the state of our heart. The problem is that sometimes we don’t take advantage of the lessons being taught, but instead we squander the opportunity that is afforded to us.
I remember two occasions when this was illustrated to me vividly. Both occasions were when loved ones were completely incapacitated by injury or illness. Lying on your back in a hospital has a way of getting your attention. For each of these people, it was a sobering time of contemplation. They were helpless and their forced stillness brought about a spiritual awareness of God’s presence. In those long days, the Lord did a work in their hearts, teaching lessons that each needed to hear, but couldn’t because of the busy noise of their everyday lives.
I learned this lesson myself when I too ended up in the emergency room, not on a pastoral visit, but as a patient. I was in excruciating pain and found that no matter what else may have been important before, everything stopped as my body screamed out for my attention. God was beginning his refining process with forcing me to look up to him.
Trials and difficulty are one way that the Lord clears our schedules and removes every other distractions so that he can whisper to our needs and speak to our heart. In these moments it is wise to listen.
Sometimes the trials of life don’t have the same effect. Instead of pointing them to God, they bring out the worst in people and shows what type of character that person truly is inside. They might be all shiny on the outside and look like “pure gold” to everyone when things go well, but a little heat applied through a trial might show a person to be only gold leaf over rusty tin.
The Coronavirus and the political issues on display every day in the news cycle, along with the normal wear and tear of life reveals the “stuff” people are made of. These trials and hardships put on display for all to see what is in their hearts. But instead of looking at your neighbor, I’d ask you to consider your own heart. What has the fire of these trials revealed to you about your own heart? Whatever it is, the Lord waits to hear from you. Go to him to thank him for the refining that he has brought through your trial. And then take some time to listen. He is not silent.
Always Reforming 