Heir of All Nations
Heritage is about inheritance. The Son is the heir of the nations. He is a new Adam, whose dominion will be to the ends of the earth. This is the Father’s promise to the Son, who will be the Son of David—Messiah—to reign forever. If Psalm 2:8 is a pledge to the Son of global dominion, then we can discern the deceptive words of Satan when he tempted Jesus in Matthew 4.
Psalm 2 was written by David about the Son of David (Acts 4:25–27). We read about the raging and plotting nations (Ps. 2:1–3), the Lord who sits enthroned and laughs at their vain plans (2:4–6), the Father’s words to the royal Son (2:7–9), and the closing warning to the rulers of the earth (2:10–12).
I want us to think about part of the Father’s words to the Son, the Davidic king. He says to the Son, “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession” (Ps. 2:8).
Heritage is about inheritance. The Son is the heir of the nations. He is a new Adam, whose dominion will be to the ends of the earth. This is the Father’s promise to the Son, who will be the Son of David—Messiah—to reign forever.
If Psalm 2:8 is a pledge to the Son of global dominion, then we can discern the deceptive words of Satan when he tempted Jesus in Matthew 4. The third and final temptation in that chapter took place like this: “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, ‘All these I give you, if you will fall down and worship me’” (Matt. 4:8–9).
Luke’s parallel account gives us this language from the devil to Jesus: “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will” (Luke 4:6).
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Seek the Shade
It is often in structured and spontaneous pausing in the shade that we who minister are ministered to. This is a practice – one which still feels difficult. Learning to relax into the shade, and not sit there with your mind fixated on the next shot, the next thing you have to do, is a practice of relaxing into the shade and shelter of God. It’s not easy, but for you, your family, those you lead with, and those you shepherd – it’s worth it.
I still remember the feeling of confusion as we zig-zagged across the golf course near our home in Florida. To me, the pattern made no sense at all. We’d go to what seemed like a random place on each hole, irrespective to the location of our golf balls, and my father and I would sit and wait for his friends to hit.
We’d just…wait. In what seemed to be a random spot, often far away from where our next shot was. Sometimes in these moments, he would comment on the sky, or the landscaping, or something else in life. Then, after a while, he’d take us over to where I thought we should have been the whole time – our next shot.
I had to ask why we were doing this. Even as a kid, I had a very process-driven mind – hit ball, find ball, hit ball again, repeat until finished. Boom. Golf. This random pattern of pausing and indiscriminate waiting made little sense to me. I had to know.
He looked at me and said these words that I’ve never forgotten – “Rudy, I’m always trying to keep us in the shade.”
As a kid, it didn’t make sense. Who cared about the shade? Let’s get to the next shot! I actually think I saw many things that way – in fact, until a few years ago, I think it’s how I saw ministry. Process-driven – just “get to the next shot.” The next event. The next meeting, The next _______. I’d forgotten the lesson my father taught me on that course – to always seek out the shade. To find moments to break, to rest, to slow, to stop, to pause, to recover, to wait. The shade as a place to just be with Jesus, in the middle of responsibilities that are as constant as the Florida sun.
Perhaps I didn’t forget my father’s lesson – maybe I just never learned it. Much to my own detriment, I didn’t practice seeking out the shade until several years ago when I’d worn myself out to the point of despair. As has been said before, the pain of staying the same had outweighed the pain of change – which turned out to exist only in my mind.
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The Parachurch in Light of the Church
Written by Jared C. Wilson |
Saturday, September 4, 2021
The best parachurch organizations will continue serving the ministry of the church by supplementing her in the spread of the gospel, not just the doing of good works or the promotion of good values. The mission of the church is to make disciples of Christ, to plant and grow local churches—not local utopias. When a parachurch ministry understands this purpose and sets its efforts alongside it—in development of and in deference to the local church—the work that the ministry does will endure into eternity with the good pleasure of our heavenly Father.The phone conversation was going well until I asked a surprising question. I had been speaking to a missionary from an outreach organization who was soliciting a commitment of financial support from our church for his efforts, and I guess I asked something he hadn’t been asked before. Or, maybe he had been asked before and was tired of the question. In any event, I didn’t think I was coming out of left field when I asked: “In what way does your evangelistic work serve the local church?”
He could not answer right away. This fellow knew his work was valuable to the kingdom of God because it involved spreading the gospel in difficult places. But I wanted to know if those won to Christ were also won to local churches in which to be discipled. I wanted to know if converts were baptized not just into the life of Christ but into the life of the covenant community of Christ’s body. I wanted to know the church where he held his membership and the pastor or elders to whom he was in submission.
My new friend fumbled around for an answer. It turned out he was more of a “freelancer.” He had a very clear idea about how his work would benefit the Church with a capital C, the universal church. But he was less clear on how it served any particular body.
And therein lies an important matter for the future viability of many parachurch models and the churches they aim to support. But before we get too far into some potential parachurch pitfalls, we should make some clear distinctions.
The Meaning of Parachurch
While we do not clearly see the presence of what we today call the “parachurch” in the Bible, we can see some historic precedents for the parachurch in religious orders and organizations operating alongside and in service to local churches, fulfilling particular ministry endeavors and spiritual enterprises. From Christian organizations mobilized to feed the hungry to nonprofit publishing ventures, so long as there has been the church, there has seemed to be some form of the parachurch.
A parachurch organization is exactly that—an organization that operates alongside (para) the church. Parachurch organizations are groups of Christians, members of the universal church, who engage in specific areas of ministry that serve or supplement the ministry of local churches.
Really, there seem to be as many kinds of parachurch ministries as there are Christian callings. A parachurch focuses on one particular biblical ministry or vocation of the universal church, ideally to serve the local church in its primary focus to proclaim the gospel and make disciples. “Thus,” Jonathan Thigpen writes, “we could say the purpose of the parachurch is to support and enhance the work of the local church, not to replace it.”
And yet this purpose is constantly in danger of being muddied.
The Work of the Parachurch
I was sitting in the back row of a plane from Atlanta to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. A few others from my fellowship and I were on our church’s annual mission trip. It looked as though many others on the plane were on a similar mission. There must have been forty to fifty young people, mostly college students, all wearing matching T-shirts, on their way to do works of service and ministry.
Sitting near a few of these team members, I asked them where they were going and what they would be doing. It turns out that very few of them knew each other.
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Overturning Roe v. Wade: A Wide Door for Ministry Opportunities
But by the power of God and the fervency of His people, the list of hopeful outcomes goes on and on. And standing above all of this, uniting and summarizing every good outcome, is the transcendent and paramount glory of God, who undoubtedly will receive the honor and praise.
As you’ve likely heard, on June 24, 2022 the Supreme Court upheld a 2018 Mississippi law and in the process, overturned Roe v. Wade. The decision will allow individual states to determine the parameters and accessibility of abortion in their respective states. The practical result will be a smorgasbord of state-by-state parameters on abortion that are determined by state legislatures. It is likely that the result will be the limiting, and in some places severe limiting, of access to abortions.
The decision of the court is both good and at the same time a little strange; but mostly it’s really good. Good because this decision promotes and moves towards a more righteous standard of living by the proper use of the sword entrusted to governing authorities for the thwarting of evil (Romans 13:1-7).
“When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers” (Proverbs 21:15).
These prohibitions are long overdue. In the last 50 years more than 50 million babies have been aborted in America (1.5 billion worldwide). Abortion in America disproportionately targets minorities, girls, and children with physical disabilities (more than 90% of down syndrome babies are aborted in America each year). And the reality is that an overwhelming number of abortions in America are not out of necessity but out of fear or convenience or ease.
At moments like this the church must not waver in her commitment to pursue that which is honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise (Philippians 4:8). Human life is not a random concurrence of human tissues that magically evolve into a little version of a person at some supposed week of gestation, but rather human life is a sheer act of creation, fearfully and wonderfully crafted, by a living God who breathes life and then sustains that life minute after minute of every day according to His power. And so, the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of man (1 Corinthians 1:25). It is a good decision because righteous laws and precepts bring glory to God.
At the same time, the decision of the court is also quite strange to me. Strange because it comes at the advent of what has been described as a post Christian era. And yet, this decision of the court is happening now and not say 30 or 40 or 50 years ago, where a student of history might expect to find it. In the late 1900s, while Christianity maintained an outsized influence on society, abortion continued rather freely as a normative part of our society. While many stores remained closed on Sundays and prayer was still being offered at major sporting events, before gay marriage was legal or transgender was a thing, abortion stood out as an odd and progressive outlier of our society. Now, as all of society seems to be changing at light-speed, when the majority of Americans seem to have no serious religious convictions at all, we experience this decision of the court that will promote goodness and righteousness.
So, since this decision is both good and oddly placed, Christians find themselves in a curious position. We rejoice over just outcomes but we also struggle to find our place in a world where we can so often feel like the annoying antagonists of an apathetic generation. The clear message for the church is this: there is work to be done if we can expect any lasting change. A just legal standard has been established but the hearts of this people are still overwhelmingly against the Lord. My prayer has been that God would use the potency of the law to sear hearts and so to revive many. To accomplish this, the Lord often uses the movements of history to direct the affairs of His kingdom, movements like the ones we now witness. And He has called us to be part of this work and so work we must. “I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest” (John 4:35). There is work to be done! To that end I offer a few simple suggestions:
Pray. Pray for our elected officials, at every level, that they would pursue righteousness apart from vain ambition. Pray for our judges that they would seek the truth, be guided by God, and that they would sense the gravity of the work they undertake. Pray for expectant mothers of wanted and unwanted children that, whatever their circumstances, perhaps God would give them a tender affection for their children, husbands who love and care for their families, a community that will support them, and the courage to honor the image of God in the gift of life. Pray for revival in our communities and neighborhoods, for hearts to be turned to the Lord, that many would “cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s case” (Isaiah 1:16).
“The sins of others work for good to the godly, as they set them the more a-praying against sin. If there were not such a spirit of wickedness abroad, perhaps there would not be such a spirit of prayer. Crying sins cause crying prayers. The people of God pray against the iniquity of the times, that God will give a check to sin that he will put sin to the blush” (Thomas Watson, All Things For Good ).
Declare. Declare our God and declare His truth to the watching world. Too often over the last 50 years the church has emphasized a call to be compassionate and gracious at the expense of the call to be righteous and true. We have been suppressed or have wrongly thought that the only way to appeal to the world is through love and kindness, and so we’ve neutered our message and created a version of truth that seems more amiable to those around us. Yet there is rarely a time the Word of God mentions love apart from truth or kindness in the absence of righteousness. Contrary to human wisdom, the declaration of God’s righteousness is often the very tool that He uses to draw people unto Himself. Look no further than Nineveh upon whom Jonah pronounced judgment leading to their repentance.
“For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death” (2 Corinthians 7:10).
We must be active in our communities and influential in culture and engaged in science and medicine and fervent in our exhortation and in conversations with neighbors and discussions in our book clubs or trivia groups. With abortion, the masses have been duped into believing a sterile and inconsequential version of manslaughter. Those types of opinions don’t change overnight but rather with thought provoking conversation and by the grace of God. Let us be winsome, humble, measured, and peaceful – but let us not cower from the moment as we distinguish between what is good and evil, right and wrong, true and false. And where the Bible speaks clearly, may God make us willing and able to speak clearly ourselves.
Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them (Jonah 3:2-5).
Advocate. Here is where I hope to leave you with maybe the greatest burden and exhortation to action. For many years, legal abortion has disguised and concealed the vulnerabilities of many of our neighbors, coworkers, friends, and family. Many single mothers have been saddled with the weight of carrying a child by themselves, and often, without obvious means to care for that child, abortion has offered a “manageable alternative.” Other mothers have had to deal with the heaviness of discovering their baby had a disability that would impact them for the rest of their lives and abortion offered a way to maintain a “normal life.” Some have been affected by the sin of others through rape or other terrible actions and are without answers, save one, abortion. Many argued that these women and others would be left helpless, without any answers, and many thousands of them would endure great pain and suffering, some may even lose their lives. Let’s not pretend that some version of these are not a logical and expected outcomes. However, far from being a call to relent and give ground to “necessary evils,” this is a call to the church to step up and let faith be demonstrated by action. Consider some of the great triumphs of American history that were simultaneously overtly righteous and exceedingly painful. The abolition of slavery and the triumph of WWII come to mind. These were costly decisions that were blatantly righteous. More importantly, they were opportunities for godly men and women and the church to step into the void and to courageously go where God might lead and to act as God might call them, serving the afflicted and the oppressed.
So too is the moment before us. Now is our time. Christians everywhere must step-up, in an uncomfortable and sacrificial way, in the lives of those impacted by the changes in abortion laws. Young women in many communities need advocates and support networks and help with childcare, with access to flexible work, and encouragement completing their education. Young men need male role models exhorting them to take responsibility and ownership of their decisions and espousing the beauty of fatherhood. Pregnancy and crisis centers will need more counselors, advocates, volunteers, money, and support from our churches. And many, many more Christian families must be willing to be involved with foster care and adoption in their communities in even some of the most challenging situations (e.g., children with disabilities). In most affluent countries the ratio of abortions to adoptions is somewhere between 100:1 to 500:1. This cannot be the case for us. The church must heed the call of our Lord, seize the opportunity before us, and step into the void with unequivocal truth and self-sacrificial love. It will be costly. It must be costly.
“Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” James 2:18
Finally, let’s not forget that the law cannot bring life, only Christ brings life. Just as the Mosaic law does not give life or change hearts, likewise the American courts and legal determinations cannot give life or change hearts. But the law is by design a guide for what is good and a visible deterrent of that which is wrong. The expected outcome of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and the overturning of Roe v. Wade will inevitably produce this type of consequential legal standard.
We cannot estimate how many people will decline to even consider having an abortion if they understand it to be illegal or dubious under the law. Or how many of those same people will ask clear and discerning questions about the value of life and the source of truth. Or the numbers of human lives that will be saved by limiting access. Or the activities and agendas of ungodly people that will be limited or muffled through the curbing of the work of organizations like Planned Parenthood. But by the power of God and the fervency of His people, the list of hopeful outcomes goes on and on. And standing above all of this, uniting and summarizing every good outcome, is the transcendent and paramount glory of God, who undoubtedly will receive the honor and praise.
Bryan Rigg is a Minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is pastor of Mercy PCA in Lynchburg, VA.
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