Latest / Reformed Thinking / Compassion and the Great Commission

Transcript

Compassion and the Great Commission · Reformed Thinking

0:00
Welcome to Reformed Thinking. I'm really glad you're joining
0:02
us for this deep dive. We are examining a topic that,
0:06
you know, requires some serious, careful theological precision.
0:09
We are looking at the precise biblical relationship between
0:12
physical mercy ministries and the active proclamation of the
0:15
gospel. And as always on this program,
0:17
we are evaluating all of this strictly through the lens of
0:20
God's absolute sovereignty and the doctrines of grace.
0:24
Right, that is the only valid lens we can use.
0:26
Yeah, absolutely. So our material today comes from
0:29
excerpts of a brilliant book titled Biblical Missions,
0:33
Principles, Priorities and Practices by Mark Tatlock and
0:35
Christ Burnett. Specifically, we're going to
0:38
look closely at essays contributed by Brian Biedenbach
0:40
and Shannon Hurley. It is a phenomenal collection of
0:43
resources, primarily because it refuses to let the reader settle
0:46
for easy, pragmatic answers. The authors force us to look at
0:50
our actions through the strict grid of Scripture, rather than
0:53
taking our cues from modern sociology or corporate
0:56
philanthropy. Yes, I mean, I want you to
0:58
consider your own local church right now.
1:01
Think about your specific congregation.
1:04
Picture the lobby, the sanctuary, the budget meetings
1:07
you might sit in on. Is your local body prioritizing
1:10
social action at the expense of gospel proclamation?
1:14
Are you pouring all your resources into community gardens
1:17
and clothing drives while the actual preaching of the cross
1:20
takes a backseat? That is a highly common scenario
1:23
today. It really is.
1:24
Or, on the flip side, is your church preaching the truth from
1:27
the pulpit on Sunday morning while coldly ignoring the
1:30
starving, desperate people sitting right outside its
1:32
physical doors? We tend to drift toward one of
1:35
those two extremes. OK, let's unpack this, because
1:38
getting this wrong has massive consequences for how we execute
1:41
the Great Commission. It is a critical evaluation you
1:43
must make because the stakes involve eternal souls and the
1:46
glory of God. Mark Tatlock presents a striking
1:49
argument right at the beginning of his essay.
1:51
He points out a theological reality that we just cannot
1:54
ignore. Because Christians have received
1:56
God's extensive compassion and total forgiveness for their own
1:59
total depravity, they have a strict non negotiable mandate to
2:04
show tangible compassion to their fellow man.
2:06
We have to start right there with our own depravity.
2:08
Precisely. Reformed theology teaches us
2:11
that we were not just morally sick.
2:13
We were spiritually dead. We were rotting corpses in our
2:16
trespasses and sins. We were actively rebelling
2:18
against a holy God. And in that state of complete
2:21
spiritual bankruptcy, God showed us massive, unmerited mercy.
2:24
We received grace we absolutely did not earn.
2:27
Therefore, demonstrating mercy to the physically destitute is
2:30
not an optional add on to the Christian life.
2:32
It is a direct command. If you understand the sheer
2:35
volume of grace you have received, it becomes impossible
2:38
to look at a physically broken person with distinct.
2:40
That makes total sense on a theological level, but Tatlock
2:43
observes a terrible modern failure in this specific area,
2:47
doesn't he? He knows that many modern
2:49
missionaries, as well as local church leaders, fail terribly at
2:52
modeling this compassion to the most hopeless individuals in
2:55
their communities, the poor. Why do you think that happens?
2:59
Well, I think it happens because physical poverty is incredibly
3:02
messy. It is uncomfortable.
3:04
It is demanding. When you engage with people who
3:06
lack basic necessities, you are stepping into a world of crisis.
3:11
You are dealing with trauma, addiction, unpredictable
3:14
behavior, and massive emotional needs.
3:17
Many well meaning church leaders and missionaries prefer a
3:20
cleaner, more controlled environment.
3:22
Yeah, predictable setting. Right.
3:24
They want to minister to people who have their lives somewhat
3:26
put together, people who can tithe regularly, people who show
3:29
up on time and follow social norms.
3:31
Engaging the absolute poorest demographics requires a level of
3:34
sacrifice and patience that exposes our own selfishness.
3:37
We naturally gravitate toward comfort.
3:39
We do, but Tatlock forces us to look at Christ as our model.
3:43
He does. While Christ showed immense
3:46
mercy to the physically destitute, His absolute priority
3:50
was always gospel proclamation. He did not avoid the mess, but
3:54
he also never let the physical mess distract him from His
3:56
primary objective. The physical acts of healing or
4:00
feeding were never the end goal. They were constantly coupled
4:03
with the Commission to evangelize.
4:05
We really need to bring the Westminster Confession into this
4:08
discussion to keep our categories clear.
4:11
If we synthesize this mandate for compassion with the
4:13
Westminster Confessions view of the ordinary means of grace, the
4:17
picture comes into sharp focus for our listeners who might want
4:20
a quick refresher. The Confession teaches that God
4:23
uses very specific, ordinary tools to accomplish the
4:26
extraordinary work of salvation. The primary tool is the
4:29
preaching of the Word. That is a central tenet for us.
4:32
Yes, because physical charity does not save us all.
4:35
Handing someone a sandwich or paying their electric bill does
4:38
not contain the spiritual properties required to
4:40
regenerate a human heart. Only the preached Gospel applied
4:44
by the Holy Spirit brings about the new birth.
4:46
That is a crucial distinction. Let's break that down even
4:48
further. Think about a loaf of bread.
4:50
Bread feeds the stomach. It provides calories,
4:53
carbohydrates, and physical sustenance.
4:56
It can keep a physical body alive for another day, but bread
4:59
cannot resurrect A spiritually dead heart.
5:02
It cannot grant faith. It cannot justify A Sinner
5:05
before a holy God. Only the objective truth of
5:08
Christ's substitutionary atonement, proclaimed audibly
5:11
and received by faith, can do. That I agree completely.
5:14
However, completely ignoring physical distress denies the
5:17
tangible grace God commands His people to demonstrate.
5:20
It creates A horrific false dichotomy where we pretend we
5:23
can love a person's eternal soul while despising their starving
5:26
physical body. You cannot look at a man
5:28
freezing on the street, hand him a gospel tract, and say be
5:31
warmed and filled while refusing to give him a coat.
5:34
That kind of behavior actively mocks the gospel you are trying
5:37
to preach. That brings us directly into how
5:39
Christ conducted His earthly ministry, which operates as the
5:43
perfect blueprint for true compassion.
5:45
We cannot just theorize about this.
5:47
We have to look at how Jesus actually operated.
5:49
Tatlock points us to the synagogue and Nazareth recorded
5:53
in Luke chapter 4, verses 18 through 21.
5:55
The Nazareth Manifesto. Yes, Jesus stands up in his
5:58
hometown synagogue and he reads from the prophet Isaiah,
6:01
specifically Isaiah 61. He announces to everyone present
6:05
that he is anointed by the Spirit to preach the gospel to
6:08
the poor, to release the captives, and to give sight to
6:10
the blind. He then sits down and says,
6:13
today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
6:15
He's declaring his messianic credentials and explicitly links
6:19
his ministry to the poor and the broken.
6:21
He makes it clear that his mission involves addressing
6:23
people who are in a state of absolute destitution.
6:25
What's fascinating here is the dual nature of the poor in the
6:28
teaching of Jesus Christ. We have to maintain both
6:31
realities. First, it was undeniably a
6:34
physical reality. There were literal beggars,
6:36
literal blind men, literal lepers and literal captives in
6:39
1st century Judea. Rome was an oppressive empire
6:42
and the taxation system left massive portions of the
6:45
population and dire physical poverty.
6:47
Jesus absolutely cared for these literal physically broken
6:50
people. He had massive compassion for
6:52
them. He did, but Jesus also used the
6:54
social category of the poor to figuratively illustrate the
6:58
spiritual reality of every single individual residing
7:01
outside of God's saving grace. The poor in Christ's teaching
7:04
generalizes all who are spiritually blind, spiritually
7:07
deaf, spiritually captive to sin, and spiritually dead.
7:10
So Jesus is using physical poverty as a visual aid for our
7:14
spiritual condition before regeneration.
7:16
Precisely. Think of a beggar sitting in the
7:19
dirt with absolutely nothing to his name.
7:21
He has no money to buy food, no influence to change his
7:23
situation, and no ability to save himself.
7:26
That physical beggar is a perfect, terrifying picture of
7:29
every single human being before a holy God.
7:32
Every human being, regardless of their bank account or social
7:35
standing, is naturally in the state of total inability.
7:39
A billionaire is just a spiritually bankrupt as a man
7:42
living in a cardboard box. But the gospel is specifically
7:45
for those who confess their total neediness, who realize
7:48
they are spiritually bankrupt, and who receive mercy through
7:51
faith. When Jesus says he came to
7:53
preach the gospel to the poor, he is saying he is the only one
7:55
who can meet the spiritual needs that earthly poverty perfectly
7:58
illustrates. He came for those who know they
8:01
bring absolutely nothing to the transaction of salvation.
8:04
You see this vividly illustrated in how Jesus chose to live his
8:07
life and who he chose to associate with.
8:10
He provided a massive, unmissable contrast with the
8:13
Pharisees. Let's think about the religious
8:16
elite of his day. The Pharisees loved comfortable
8:19
locations. They demanded the respectable
8:21
seats at banquets. They wanted the places of honor
8:24
in the synagogues. They essentially wanted the VIP
8:27
section of the religious world. They wanted distance from the
8:29
mess. Absolutely.
8:31
They completely separated themselves from anyone they
8:33
deemed unclean, uneducated, or socially inferior.
8:37
They built massive walls of tradition to ensure they never
8:40
had to brush shoulders with the messy realities of poverty and
8:43
sickness. Jesus did the complete opposite.
8:46
He completely avoided those comfortable environments.
8:48
He chose to live simply, constantly interacting with tax
8:51
collectors, social outcasts and the heavy laden.
8:54
He walked the dusty Pilgrim highways.
8:56
He went to the margins of society to find people who are
8:59
physically exhausted and physically needy, bringing the
9:01
message of salvation directly into their messy, broken
9:04
realities. And we see the theological
9:07
motive behind this in Matthew Chapter 9, verses 36 through 38.
9:11
The text tells us Jesus was moved with intense compassion by
9:14
the sight of physically needy people.
9:17
He looked at the crowds and saw that they were distressed and
9:19
downcast, like sheep without a shepherd.
9:21
They were harassed and helpless. He felt intense, visceral
9:25
sympathy for their physical and emotional condition.
9:28
But look closely at his immediate response.
9:30
He did not ask his disciples to set up a soup kitchen.
9:33
He did not ask them to establish a medical clinic or political
9:36
action committee, even though he cared about their physical
9:39
state. No, He turned their attention to
9:41
something else. He did.
9:42
His immediate response was to ask for prayer for workers for
9:45
the spiritual harvest. He said the harvest is plentiful
9:48
but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of
9:51
the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.
9:54
He immediately pivots from their physical distress to their
9:57
spiritual crisis. He absolutely does the true
10:00
harvest. The main goal of his entire
10:02
earthly ministry was always the conversion of souls to faith for
10:06
eternal life. The physical needs elicited his
10:10
compassion, but that compassion immediately drove him to
10:13
prioritize the spiritual rescue of eternal souls from the wrath
10:17
of God. He understood a terrifying
10:19
reality that modern social ministries often forget.
10:21
Healing a physical body only delays physical death by a few
10:24
years. You can cure a man's disease,
10:26
and he will eventually die of something else.
10:28
But preaching the gospel resulting in regeneration
10:31
rescues a soul from the second death.
10:32
It secures eternal life. Therefore, the spiritual harvest
10:35
must always take precedence over the physical relief, even while
10:37
the 2 are frequently paired together.
10:39
That dynamic makes me think of Second Corinthians chapter 8,
10:42
verse 9. The apostle Paul beautifully
10:44
captures this entire concept. Paul writes that Christ, though
10:48
possessing all heavenly wealth, voluntarily became poor.
10:53
He did this so that sinners, through his willing poverty,
10:56
might become spiritually affluent.
10:58
Let's really look at the magnitude of that statement.
11:01
Christ existed in eternity past, possessing all the glory of
11:04
heaven. He had absolute authority,
11:06
perfect fellowship within the Trinity, and total absence of
11:09
suffering. Yet He voluntarily left that
11:12
glory, took on human flesh, and lived a life of extreme material
11:15
poverty. The incarnation itself is a
11:17
staggering display of descending into poverty.
11:19
It truly is. He was born in a stable.
11:22
He had no place to lay his head during his ministry, and this
11:25
culminated in the agonizing, humiliating death on the cross.
11:29
He did all this specifically to secure the spiritual wealth of
11:31
justification and adoption for His elect.
11:34
He gave up everything so the destitute sinners could inherit
11:37
the Kingdom of God. We cannot overstate the
11:39
significance of that exchange. Christ did not just become poor
11:43
to show solidarity with poor people.
11:45
He became poor as an act of substitution.
11:48
He absorbed our spiritual poverty.
11:50
He took the wrath we deserved, the complete bankruptcy of our
11:53
sinful record, and he credited us with his perfect
11:56
righteousness. That is the highest act of
11:59
compassion. When a church forgets that
12:01
substitutionary act and reduces Jesus to a social activist who
12:04
just wanted to fix income inequality, they lose the entire
12:08
gospel. Here's where it gets really
12:10
interesting, especially when we look at the book of James and
12:12
apply a rigorous Reformed analysis to the text.
12:15
James deals with the practical outworking of this theology in
12:18
the early church. In James chapter one, verse 27,
12:21
we are told that pure and undefiled religion involves
12:24
visiting orphans and widows in their affliction.
12:27
Then in James chapter 2, verses one through 13, the early church
12:30
is severely warned against the sin of partiality, specifically
12:34
the sin of favoring people based on their physical appearance and
12:37
earthly wealth. The partiality issue was tearing
12:39
those congregations apart. Yes, James paints a picture of a
12:42
wealthy man coming into the assembly with a gold ring and
12:46
fine clothes and a poor man coming in with dirty clothes.
12:49
The church was giving the best seat to the wealthy man and
12:52
telling the poor man to sit on the floor.
12:54
James rebukes this harshly, and then he asks A piercing question
12:58
in chapter 2, verse 5. Did not God choose the poor of
13:01
this world to be abundantly blessed in faith and heirs of
13:04
the Kingdom? That verse is a direct,
13:06
unavoidable statement regarding God's sovereign choice.
13:09
James is explicitly telling the church that their favoritism
13:12
toward the wealthy is a direct contradiction of God's elective
13:15
purposes. God explicitly decreed that many
13:18
who are poor in the eyes of the world would be the recipients of
13:20
His saving grace. As Reformed believers, we must
13:23
link this directly to the Apostle Paul's theology of
13:25
unconditional election found in Ephesians chapter 1, verses 4
13:29
through 6. Paul tells us that God chose us
13:31
in Christ before the foundation of the world from eternity past.
13:35
Operating an absolute sovereignty, God predestined for
13:38
faith many whom He also decreed would live their earthly lives
13:41
in physical poverty. So God's election is not based
13:44
on any foreseen faith, nor is it based on someone's earthly
13:47
status or potential. It is entirely unmerited.
13:51
God did not look down the corridors of time, see who would
13:54
be successful or influential, and choose them so they could
13:57
help build His Kingdom. He simply chose to display His
14:00
glory by saving those the world despises.
14:03
He chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
14:06
He chose the poor to be abundantly blessed in faith.
14:10
When a local church ignores the poor in its community, it is
14:13
ignoring the very demographic that God has historically and
14:16
sovereignly targeted for His electing grace.
14:19
And we have to be extremely clear here so we do not fall
14:22
into a different kind of error. James is not saying there is
14:24
inherent moral merit in lacking money.
14:27
Being broke does not make you holy.
14:29
A poor person is just as totally depraved as a wealthy person.
14:32
Poverty is simply a physical picture of a person's total lack
14:35
of spiritual merit. It vividly highlights human
14:38
inability to purchase forgiveness from from a holy
14:40
God. You cannot buy your way out of
14:42
total depravity. No amount of money, or lack
14:44
thereof, changes our fallen nature.
14:46
Right. However, worldly poverty
14:49
actively removes false earthly security.
14:53
Let's put this into perspective. When you do not know where your
14:57
next meal is coming from, when you cannot afford basic medical
15:00
care, you are placed in a position where you are acutely
15:03
aware of your desperation. You cannot rely on your bank
15:06
account to shield you from the harsh realities of a fallen
15:08
world. This physical vulnerability
15:11
often makes a person much more receptive to hearing the gospel
15:14
called to faith and repentance. Compare that to the snare of
15:17
wealth, which Jesus speaks about extensively.
15:19
Think about Luke 12 with the parable of the wealthy fool and
15:22
Matthew 13 regarding the deceitfulness of riches.
15:25
Earthly wealth deceives people. It tricks them into thinking
15:28
they are self-sufficient. It makes them believe they can
15:30
live completely independent lives without ever acknowledging
15:33
the Creator who gives them every single breath.
15:36
The wealthy person in Luke 12 builds bigger barns.
15:38
He accumulates massive amounts of resources.
15:40
And then he says to his soul, Soul, you have many goods laid
15:43
up for many years to come. Take your ease, eat, drink and
15:46
be merry. He completely ignores the
15:48
impending judgement of God. He thinks his wealth makes him
15:51
untouchable. But God says to him, You fool,
15:53
this very night, your soul is required of you.
15:56
Yes, his wealth provided a fatal illusion of security.
16:00
Poverty strips away that deceitful illusion.
16:02
It forces a person to confront their mortality and their
16:05
helplessness. And for the elect who are poor
16:07
in this world, God promises A glorious eschatological hope.
16:11
They may have absolutely nothing here.
16:13
They may suffer hunger, disease, and oppression on this earth,
16:16
but they are promised a home in heaven.
16:18
They are promised a glorified body completely free from pain,
16:21
sickness, and hunger. They promised a crown of life
16:24
and a permanent inheritance in the new heavens and the new
16:27
earth. These are promises decreed in
16:29
ages past by a sovereign God who cannot lie.
16:32
When you preach the gospel to a destitute person, you are
16:34
offering them an eternal inheritance that makes all the
16:36
wealth of this world look like dust.
16:38
This theological reality makes the hypocrisy Tatlock describes
16:42
so incredibly glaring. Think about the massive
16:44
disconnect here. How can a local church honestly
16:48
claim to preach a message of divine, unmerited grace while
16:51
coldly ignoring the starving people living in its own
16:53
neighborhood? It is a terrifying
16:55
contradiction. You were telling people from the
16:57
pulpit that God loved his enemies enough to die for them,
17:00
but you as a congregation will not even cross the street to
17:02
give a starving neighbor a piece of bread.
17:04
You will not organize a food pantry or open your doors to the
17:07
freezing. It shows a catastrophic
17:09
disconnect between the theology a church claims to believe and
17:12
the fruit that theology is supposed to produce in the lives
17:14
of the congregation. If your theology does not
17:17
produce radical compassion, your theology is entirely
17:20
theoretical. And we must remember that the
17:23
unbelieving world watches the local church very closely.
17:26
Your secular neighbors are observing how you live.
17:29
They are watching how your congregation spends its money
17:32
and utilizes its building. If they see a group of believers
17:35
who claim to have the love of Christ completely ignoring
17:38
physical affliction right in front of them, the message of
17:40
the gospel becomes almost impossible for them to hear.
17:43
They will look at your localized body of believers, see your nice
17:46
cars in the parking lot and your expensive sound systems, and
17:49
then watch you step over a homeless person on the sidewalk.
17:53
They will conclude that your religion is entirely
17:55
hypocritical. You become a massive stumbling
17:58
block to the very gospel you claim to cherish.
18:00
The early church in Jerusalem as described in Acts chapter 2
18:03
provides the correct model for how this should look.
18:06
When the Holy Spirit fell at Pentecost and thousands were
18:09
converted, their true spirit wrought.
18:11
Repentance directly affected their sinful pride in their
18:14
natural self love. It LED immediately to radical
18:17
self denial. They willfully sold their
18:19
property and possessions and they share their goods to meet
18:22
the physical needs of those in their community.
18:25
No one forced them to do this. It was not a religious tax.
18:28
It was the organic result of regenerated hearts.
18:31
Their theological belief produce tangible sacrificial action
18:35
toward the physically needy among them.
18:37
I want you, the listener, to carefully evaluate your own
18:40
church body right now. Take a hard look at your local
18:44
congregations ministries. Does your congregation purposely
18:47
pursue broken, impoverished populations to gain a hearing
18:50
for the gospel? Do you intentionally go into the
18:53
hard neighborhoods in your city, or are you looking for a more
18:56
comfortable audience? Are you designing your outreach
18:59
programs to attract people who look like you, dress like you,
19:02
and have the exact same tax bracket as you while actively
19:05
ignoring the destitute? If a destitute person walked
19:08
into your sanctuary this Sunday, how would the ushers react?
19:11
Would they be welcomed as a potential heir of the Kingdom or
19:14
would they be viewed as a nuisance?
19:15
We need to bring in the answer from Brian Biederbach here
19:18
because he issues a massive warning about how missions have
19:21
drifted regarding this very issue.
19:24
Over the past 50 years, there has been a drastic shift in the
19:26
world of missions. The focus has moved sharply away
19:29
from church planting and gospel proclamation and shifted heavily
19:33
towards social action, medical missions, and well drilling.
19:37
Beedebach outlines 3 distinct approaches to this issue that
19:40
have developed over the last few decades.
19:42
Let's look at the first one, holistic missions.
19:45
This idea really gained traction in the 1980s during the Lausanne
19:48
movement. The core concept here is that
19:51
spiritual renewal comes through preaching and social action
19:54
happening simultaneously. Proponents of this view argue
19:57
that because Jesus fed people and preached, we must do both in
20:00
equal measure. They treat social action and
20:02
evangelism as 2 equal wings of an airplane.
20:05
It sounds appealing on the surface, but Beat It Back
20:07
provides a very cautionary anecdote from his own experience
20:10
in Central Africa regarding this first approach.
20:14
He describes a situation where he went to the mission field.
20:16
With this holistic mindset, he found himself constantly busy
20:19
managing agricultural projects. He was raising chickens,
20:23
breeding goats, building orphanages, and organizing wall
20:25
drilling projects. He was doing absolutely
20:28
everything under the sun to improve the physical community.
20:31
He was working exhausting hours to raise the standard of living
20:34
for the people in his area. But what was the spiritual
20:36
result of all that physical labor?
20:39
The result was disastrous from a Great Commission perspective.
20:42
The local church in that area remained incredibly weak and
20:45
completely immature. Why?
20:47
Because all the missionary energy, all the funding, and all
20:50
the time was poured into physical administration.
20:53
There was absolutely no time left to disciple anyone in the
20:56
Scriptures. The newly converted believers
20:58
had no one to teach them sound doctrine, no one to train local
21:01
pastors, and no one to establish church discipline because the
21:04
missionaries were too busy acting as farmers, project
21:07
managers, and social workers. They gave the people better
21:09
diets, but starve them of the Word of God.
21:12
Which leads to the second approach.
21:13
He identifies extreme holism, sometimes called the revisionist
21:16
approach. So if the first approach is
21:19
well-intentioned but highly distracting, this second
21:21
approach sounds downright dangerous.
21:24
This is an alarming trend in modern missiology.
21:27
In this model, human welfare becomes the sole goal of the
21:29
mission. It is a strict either approach
21:32
where actively proclaiming the gospel of salvation from sin is
21:36
actually considered non essential.
21:37
You can just dig a well, build a school, or hand out medicine and
21:40
they call that missions. The focus is entirely on
21:43
achieving what they call biblical Shalom and overcoming
21:45
societal evil through political or social means.
21:48
They want to fix the culture without fixing the human heart.
21:51
From a strict Reformed stance, this extreme holism is a
21:54
complete theological disaster. It completely dilutes the Great
21:58
Commission commanded by Christ. It abandons the absolute
22:02
necessity of substitutionary atonement.
22:05
It assumes that giving a spiritually dead person a better
22:08
standard of living somehow advances the Kingdom of God.
22:11
But we know from Scripture that the Kingdom of God does not
22:13
advance through improved agriculture, better political
22:16
systems, or higher education. The Kingdom of God advances
22:19
exclusively through the effectual calling of the Holy
22:22
Spirit. Operating through the preached
22:24
Word. Making a person more comfortable
22:26
on their way to eternal judgement is a colossal failure
22:29
of Christian love. If you give a man clean drinking
22:32
water but never tell him how to be saved from the wrath of God,
22:35
you have completely failed him eternally.
22:37
You've practiced philanthropy and not biblical missions.
22:39
That brings us to the third approach, which Beadabach
22:42
champions Is the only truly biblical approach, the priority
22:45
of preaching? In this model, spiritual renewal
22:49
comes only through gospel proclamation.
22:51
Social action is a byproduct. It is a fruit of changed hearts,
22:55
not the root of the change itself.
22:57
You treat the gospel, the Holy Spirit regenerates the heart,
23:00
and that new believer then loves their neighbor and care for the
23:02
poor. Kevin Deyoung and Greg Gilbert
23:05
capture this perfectly in their writings.
23:07
They point out that Jesus is driving ambition on earth was
23:09
not to heal every sick person in the Middle East.
23:12
It was not his ambition to empty the poverty rolls of Judea or
23:15
overthrow the oppressive Roman government.
23:17
His driving ambition was to save his elect from eternal
23:19
condemnation. Improving A sinner's earthly
23:22
life means absolutely nothing if they lose their immortal soul
23:25
for eternity. Beatabach spent 19 years
23:28
observing this dynamic first hand in Africa, and his
23:31
observations are incredibly sobering.
23:33
Over nearly two decades, he watched foreign churches
23:36
continually send social action workers.
23:39
They sent doctors, engineers, and agricultural experts.
23:42
But while those numbers swelled, the number of men dedicated
23:45
exclusively to pastoral training and church planting steadily
23:48
dwindled. He uses a striking analogy to
23:51
describe this massive Western imbalance.
23:53
He says Western churches left a garden hose on pouring water
23:57
wastefully into Africa without cultivating the Kingdom God's
24:00
way. I love that analogy because it
24:02
provides such a vivid mental picture.
24:05
We have all accidentally left a hose running in the yard.
24:08
What happens? It does not gently water the
24:10
plants. It floods the flower bed.
24:12
It washes away the top soil, exposes the roots and causes a
24:15
massive mess. Bidabak is saying that Western
24:17
churches have flooded the African continent with millions
24:20
of dollars in aid and social programs, but they have
24:22
completely neglected the spiritual soil.
24:25
They provided the physical water, but they failed to plant
24:27
the seeds of the gospel and established local doctrinally
24:30
sound churches to actually disciple the people.
24:32
It is a massive call for reassessment.
24:35
If you are a listener, involved in church leadership, if you are
24:37
a pastor, an elder, or if you sit on a missions committee.
24:40
You must evaluate where your church's focus lies.
24:43
Look at your missions budget. Where is the money actually
24:45
going? If you're funds are going
24:47
exclusively to social organizations that only deal
24:49
with physical needs, your church is failing the Great Commission.
24:53
You are funding humanitarian aid, not biblical missions.
24:57
Now let me be clear, there is a place for humanitarian aid.
25:00
Christians can and should support efforts to relieve
25:02
suffering. But we must never confuse
25:05
secular humanitarian aid with the strict mandate Christ gave
25:08
to his Church. Christ did not command us to go
25:11
into all the world and dig wells.
25:12
He commanded us to make disciples, baptize them, and
25:15
teach them everything He commanded.
25:17
Shannon Hurley's insert provides excellent best practices for how
25:19
we should handle this tension. We know we have to care for the
25:22
poor, but we know preaching must remain the absolute priority.
25:26
So how do we actually do this? Hurley starts by pointing out
25:29
the scar contextual differences between a Western outlook and a
25:33
majority world outlook. This is something we often miss
25:35
in America. In the West, we have strong
25:38
medical services, relatively stable justice systems, and
25:41
general financial security. Even our poorest citizens often
25:45
have access to state funded assistance.
25:47
We take basic survival for granted.
25:49
In the majority world, missionaries face heavily
25:51
corrupt justice systems and a daily scarcity of basic
25:54
necessities. People literally starve to
25:57
death. When you preach the gospel to
25:59
someone who has not eaten in three days and has no social
26:01
safety net, you cannot ignore their physical reality.
26:04
So Hurley's first practice is the constructive application of
26:07
biblical commands. He points right back to the book
26:09
of James. Faith without works is dead.
26:12
Christians must embody pure religion.
26:14
We must show mercy because God showed us mercy.
26:17
And this is where the motive becomes everything you mentioned
26:20
earlier, the danger of doing the right thing for the wrong
26:23
reason. Hurley rightly cites First
26:25
Corinthians chapter 13 verses one and three to address this.
26:29
Paul says that even if you give all your possessions to feed the
26:32
hungry or surrender your body to be burned, if you do not have
26:35
love, it profits you nothing. You can be the greatest
26:38
philanthropist on the entire planet.
26:40
You can give away billions of dollars and build hospitals
26:42
across the globe, but if your giving is not motivated by a
26:45
desire to see God glorified and eternal souls saved, it is
26:49
spiritually useless. Your physical charity must be
26:52
driven by a biblical love that desires the eternal spiritual
26:56
good of your neighbor, not just their temporal comfort.
26:58
Which brings us to Hurley's second practice.
27:01
He clearly states that preaching is the sole means of true
27:04
spiritual renewal. This raises an important
27:06
question regarding humanitarian aid.
27:08
Is it enough to just show love through actions?
27:11
Hurley argues, and Reformed theology agrees, that love
27:15
cannot replace truth. Mercy ministry operating without
27:18
evangelism is just humanitarian aid.
27:20
It is not Christian missions. the United Nations can dig a
27:23
well. A secular non governmental
27:25
organization can build a hospital or distribute grain,
27:28
and those are good things. But only the Church of Jesus
27:31
Christ holds the keys to the Kingdom.
27:33
Only the church can preach the gospel of substitutionary
27:36
atonement. Therefore, mercy must always
27:38
remain A subordinate assistant to the gospel.
27:40
It is the servant of the message, never the master.
27:43
Physical acts of compassion are the vehicle that delivers the
27:45
cargo of the gospel. If the vehicle arrives empty,
27:48
the mission has failed. Which perfectly sets up his
27:51
third practice. Everything must be centered on
27:53
the local church. Doing mercy ministry about
27:56
pointing people to a local biblical church is, as Hurley
27:58
says, like swimming without water.
28:01
I think about the massive parachurch organizations that
28:03
operate globally. They drop into a town,
28:05
distribute food, holds a massive medical clinic, maybe even pass
28:09
out some Bibles. And then they leave.
28:11
You are leaving new converts completely orphaned.
28:14
If you feed someone and share the gospel with them, but fail
28:17
to integrate them into a local body of believers where they can
28:20
be shepherded by qualified elders, disciplined when they
28:22
stray, and fed the preached Word of God weekly, you are
28:26
abandoning them to the wolves. The Apostle Paul makes this
28:29
abundantly clear in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 12 and 13.
28:34
Christ gave pastors and teachers to equip the Saints for the work
28:37
of ministry and for building up the body of Christ.
28:40
Christ did not establish para church organizations as His
28:42
primary instrument for Kingdom growth.
28:45
He established the local church. Para church organizations, no
28:48
matter how well-intentioned or heavily funded, cannot replace
28:51
the disciple making mandate given exclusively to the local
28:54
church. The local church is God's
28:56
ordained institution for the gathering and perfecting of the
28:59
Saints. Any compassion ministry that
29:01
bypasses the local church or fails to funnel the people it
29:04
helps directly into a local congregation is operating
29:07
outside the biblical framework. So what does this all mean?
29:10
Let's synthesize everything we have covered in this deep dive
29:14
so we walk away with a crystal clear understanding.
29:17
Christians have a strict, unavoidable mandate to show
29:20
physical compassion, especially to the destitute and broken in
29:24
our communities. We do this because God showered
29:27
massive, unmerited compassion on us while we were still His
29:31
enemies, spiritually dead in our sin.
29:33
But this physical compassion must always operate as a vehicle
29:37
for the primary mission. The main goal, the highest
29:40
priority, is always proclaiming the gospel of grace to
29:43
spiritually dead sinners whom God is sovereignly elected to
29:46
save from before the foundation of the world.
29:49
The physical bread we give is meant to point them to the Bread
29:51
of life. The physical healing we
29:53
facilitate is meant to point them to the Great Physician who
29:56
heals the disease of sin. If we connect this to the bigger
29:59
picture, I want to leave you with a final thought to ponder
30:01
long after you finish listening today.
30:03
Consider this. What if the greatest act of
30:04
social justice you could ever perform for your neighbor is
30:07
ensuring they hear the gospel, making every physical act of
30:10
mercy you do nothing more than the opening line of an eternal
30:13
conversation? Thank you for joining us for
30:15
this session of Reformed thinking.
30:16
We strongly encourage you to look at the outreach programs
30:19
and the budget of your own local congregation this week and
30:22
measure them against the strict standard of Scripture.
30:24
Ensure your compassion is fueling the proclamation of the
30:27
truth. Until next time, keep your focus
30:30
on the supremacy of Christ and the authority of His Word.