When All the Multitude Kept Silent

Acts 15 was and is one of the most important chapters in the word of God.  You have to understand what has just taken place.  The multitude has always played it’s role, for good or evil.  They have always had something to say.  

The multitudes are different today.  Then, they flocked to the Lord on His time here on earth.  They marveled at his doctrine and miracles.  Jesus had compassion on the multitudes.  They also came with Judas to betray Him, as well as wanting Barrabas to go free to see Christ crucified.  The multitude always had those who believed, and those who did not (Acts 28:24 And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not.) 

The multitude or masses controlled politicians and religious leaders of their times, the same way they do today.  Why do politics change their politics?  The multitudes. But Acts 15 was the game changer. Acts 15 was what the Pharisees, Sadducees and Chief Priest were trying to quell when the Lord was killed and when the Acts of the Apostles began.  

If it helps, think of it as a uprising or a revolution. There are many references to a new way.  A new doctrine, a new commandment, a new testament. Remember the accusation of Jason, they turned the world upside down.  They would lie, cheat, discredit, and do whatever they could to stop men saying such things as; Neither is their salvation in any other. For there is none other name, under heaven given among men whereby we MUST be saved! (Acts 4:12)  

It was a paradigm shift.  Nearly 4,000 years of hardcore, Jewish tradition, customs, religious culture, and even the “God honored” priesthood was now rendered obsolete.  The temple, the veil that was rent, the altar, the incense, and the “holy things” were no longer the standard of worship.   

With this, many of the religious leader’s seats, leadership and positions were now suddenly being threatened and brought into in question. But something happen in Acts 15 immediately after Peter proclaimed the “Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ”. The very next verse is one of the most important verses in the bible in my opinion. 

Street Preaching Must be Redefined by the Local Churches

The Superbowl, the U.S. Open, the World Series, the Daytona 500, Mardi Gras, Gasparilla, Movie Openings,  Spring Break events, 4th of July events, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, you name it; Seems all the street preachers are actually going to these sort of scheduled attractions, parades and festivals. To go out of our way with God’s money to go to a large group of sinners that have no interest in our Savior and are purposefully meeting for sinful reasons may fall under the category of laboring in vain. Don't cast me out yet. Here is my reasoning.

The Laodicean Church Age is agreed upon by most prominent scholars to have began in the late 1800’s or early part of the 1900’s.  This coincides with the first per-version of the word of God in the Revised Version 1881.  Soon after, you start seeing a strain of apostasy.  The shift no longer is consecrated devotion to the Lord, and edifying the church.  It starts to transform to “evangelistic”, Kingdom building, techniques that emphasizes reaching the masses, planned revivals, and inventing a whole new way of doing missions.

Righteousness is not accepted collectively as a nation as it was in the Philadelphian church age.  Holiness is no longer practiced in the government and education systems as it was in the “old days”.  This is the age of apostasy.  It’s a different age.  As much as I or others would love to live in the 1800’s,  or the 1920’2 or the glorious 1950’s, we can’t and we don’t. 

Many outreach minded pastors consider it a full tilt fight, no matter how the world changes, the old time ways continue.  These big events where we tract bomb and street rant, how can sinners decipher his drawing or calling among 50,000 people. 

We think because we live in America and have our rights (Laodicea) that this is our beloved, Puritan Christian nation of old.  It is not any longer.  America is a after thought to God at this point.  Politics, corruption, corporate greed, our school systems, abortions, vanity, materialism, debt, kids killing kids, love of money, crime, extortion, the poor, the fatherless, the degenerate, the proliferate, divorce rates, theft, atheism, sodomy, lawlessness, lasciviousness.  Who are we kidding.  We are another nation that turned on God, like Israel.

What if?

Recently a family member whom I respect and love deeply approached me with a barrage of questions as to why I believed a certain way.  They were informed I was way off the tracks by someone else. 

I can usually handle myself in situations like that but these were delicate matters, family was involved and I didn’t have all the answers.  I also didn’t want to have the appearance as someone who could thrash them with scriptures.  They just seemed so shocked and genuinely hurt with my change of core beliefs.  They even asked about my finances in regards to my giving during this discussion.

I pretty much summed it up by saying to him that after examining things for many years, I just can’t blindly give to men I don’t know, respect, align with or understand. I can’t just go, “Well, God just told me to give to the work so here you go”.  I’m against that mindset. It’s foolishness to me.  It lines up more with the OT philosophies of physical blessings because of offerings. We don’t give to receive any blessings! We give today selflessly, to recieve nothing in return. 

Now, months later, in retrospect, I guess I would say to them, “I just view the church drastically different than you.  I don’t buy in to the nonsense in it.” It's formulas and modern day programs, gimmicks and contemporary styles. It’s not about being disillusioned either!  It’s about waking up to the blatant reproaches! Many fail to acknowledge or examine the symptoms of these reproaches because of the work of the ministry. 

It is so much more than the giving principles and following commissions! How long can we listen to pragmatic teachings and traditions over and over and over? I see so much of “the machine” in our doings, in all of it now that I fear that the best of the independent local churches are now average traditionalist churches, whether they realize it or not!  Just an observation.  Just an onlooker.

"Hi, can I give you something to read please?"

Here I go with another flip side observation.  “Oh you are just picking all the things that used to believe in and do and preaching against them now?” Well, thats not really the case but if you want to believe that what do I care. Sorry!  

I can’t help it.  It’s just my makeup I guess.  It is my knack to teach doctrine through disproving traditions and many human elements that have slipped in under the radar into our ways of service and worship.

Now, lets all get together and go pass out some tracts.  Have you ever heard or participated in such events with your church? There is a danger with such things as gospel tracts, tract blitzes and track bombings.  

I’m not opposed to tracts, but there is the danger of people handing out a million papers to a million people and never opening their mouth to actually witness.  I have seen tracts evolve from a form of opening conversation to more of a “just read this and God bless” and many go on there merry way with their conscience appease that they did something for God. It’s all very Catholic of us isn’t it.  The same as a confessional crutch.  I know people who feel miserable about themselves unless they fulfill some daily or weekly quota. 

In large groups, public outreach operations, especially amongst youth groups there is  this tendency to “one-up” the other that leads more to one becoming a nuisance more than a testimony.  I have seen this hundreds of times in several different places.  Gospel tracts used in such manners turn in to gospel trash.   

Free will, Seed Planting and Fruit Bearing

I Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. ~ No on is predestinated.  One has to choose.  Free will has always been the kicker.  Men choose NOT to believe in God of their own free will.  You know why multitudes of grown men and women aren’t coming to Christ like they were in the Reformation and Great Awakenings?  They don’t want Him!  That was then, and this is now. 

You know why they are not coming to God on the street corners, in bus ministries, huge evangelistic meetings, Gospel Blitzes, at the football games, gay pride parades?  They don’t want Him! They want lucre.  They want sin.  They want pleasure.  They want gratification.  They want drunkenness.  They want drug binges.  They want carnal desires

The religious don’t want him either.  They want buildings and temples.  They want salaries.  They want their own lives.  They want education. They want man made ministries.   They want systems.  They want status.  They want position.  They want religion.  They want a form of godliness.  But they don’t want Him!  I heard a wise man say once, Men are seeking fulfillment at every source but the direct source.

Our Lord said, Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Matthew 7:14 Many times in our ways of doing the public ministry all we really do, if truth were told, is find a sinner who is at his wits in, tired of drugs alcohol, and the affairs of this life. All these names and phrase we have for things we do! I.e. soul winning, gospel blitzes, passing out tracts, street preaching, door to door visitation.  We are all reforming!

God didn’t draw them, nor did they seek him, they repented after worldly sorrow.  Maybe they wanted to simply change their ways.  Maybe they had a horrible day at work and took it as a sign! Maybe they wanted a change of luck.  I have witnessed some that just wanted the preacher to shut up and leave!

The Manner of Paul, his Gospel and his Preaching

Acts 28:25:31 And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers,

26 Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive:

27 For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

28 Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.

29 And when he had said these words, the Jews departed, and had great reasoning among themselves.

30 And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, (Paul being an ambassador, inviting and receiving people into his home, preaching those things which concern Jesus Christ.)

31 Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.

Much has been said about Paul the Apostle. Paul has been pigeonholed by many.  Made to something he wasn’t.  We must make sure our assumptions of Paul are accurate and biblical.  Paul is so important to the body of Christ, as far as his example, and his letters.  “Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ”.  Paul didn’t say this to tell us to imitate what we see in Christ.  We are a peculiar people, yes.  Paul, and the Apostleship was a spectacle in his ministry (I Corinthians 4:9) not us.  

He followed Christ, but never imitated Christ.  He believed the prophets concerning Christ but never imitated them.  Paul was brash and hard in his own way, but you do not see unnecessary disrespect, or judgmental condescending as men claim to find in Paul.  Men do not realize, that Paul’s manner is directly contrary to this spirit we see today among many Fundamentalist of the baser sort.  Men think this way of Paul to have reason and excuse to be vitriolic and angry preachers.

Protesting the World or Proclaiming the Savior?

The image selected is that of a young Bob Grey.  Like many Fundamentalist then and now, they have people in the world they attack and preach against.  For him it was Elvis.  For many preachers today, it is all sorts of nonsense that tends to nothing but laboring in vain and wasteful ministries.  Yeah I said it!  What? 

In the sense of public ministry, us servants of the Lord, are we (watch as I wax homiletical) Protesting Sin, Provoking Sinners, Promoting Wrath or Proclaiming the Savior?  There seems to have been this recent rash of confrontational sensationalism among our ranks.  Whether it is in the pulpits, pushing for decision by any means necessary, or it is on the streets, ranting and raving about all sorts of sins and unrighteousness.  We are out of the way, thinking we are promoting the way.  Who's world do you think this is?  

Some years ago I remember quite distinctly, Christians, Protestants, Catholics, and even a state power, the Vatican, all came together as one protesting "Brokeback Mountain" at the theaters worldwide. Many across the nation in protest of this film could be seen holding up signs with negative “sodomite sayings” and the typical, verses of scriptures to lay at the feet of any unrighteous believer.  We have our ammo ready all the time.

As I watched it play out, I observed many men attempting to inaudibly speak through a megaphone over the noise of 100 cars driving by with their windows up.  In my view, this would only attract more attention to the spectacle!  But what do I know right?

Good Works and Working for God

I selected this image with careful consideration to deal with something head on in our ranks which is elitism and  hypocrisy in our leaders (and I know you hard-core, militant uncompromising preachers will get ruffled seeing a bare breast, or a nipple slip, at least you will have something to preach about Sunday!) There  is a  predominantly fixed mindset and problem which we will get to, that has run through the local churches  like a rash over the last 2o years.  You protest so much and take such offense, and yet when someone tells you that you and your cronies have been sucking off the same protestant, Fundamentalist teat for decades, it just doesn't register.

It's like a preacher I knew took his shoe off one Sunday moring and chunked it across the room on the wall where it left a scuff.  No one knew what to do!  Did he loose his mind? He was making a point and said, "Now some of you care more about the fact that I scoffed the wall, which I meant to do, then the fact that..." and then he proceeded in his point.  A great illustration!  

This woman in the image is doing a great work for God! Much like Tabitha in Acts 9. Tabitha was full of good works, alms deeds, She used her talents and gifts while SHE was with them.  She made coats and garments, while she was with them.  She used her members.  The body of Christ was established on this in Acts.  Simply gifts and talents being used to minister to others.  She didn't stand out.  Most likely poor to boot. Simply doing what she could.  This is a work of God.  That was a ministry.  That was her calling so to speak.  

We are Christians not because we say we are or go to this church or that church.  People in the NT were called Christians because they shone forth fruits of righteousness associated with Christ. He desires us to have his fruits of righteousness, as in the holy spirit actually bearing those fruit in us, so that we can have fruit unto God and unto perfection.

The Intended Effects of the Fruits of the Spirit

What is the purpose of passing out a tract?  What is the purpose of witnessing or testifying for Christ?  Why do preachers preach?  Why do believers tell others of their salvation?  

I hear preachers commonly say “Contend with them!” referencing sinners for salvation.  Contend with the unbelievers int he streets, they say! Contending was never a reference to any saved person dealing with the lost!   

Jude 1:3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. 

Ephesians 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

Titus 1:4 To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.

This is a striking verse.  The term, “the faith” is only found in the New Testament beginning in Acts 3. “The faith” was no longer being preached.  It was delivered to “the saints” which is a OT and NT reference.  God’s collective bodies, the saints and the body  of Christ, are all considered saints now.

Jude said the “common salvation”.  “The faith was reference many times to mean the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The faith IN Christ! To contend for the faith is to contend for the common salvation!  

Men were making it uncommon.  Men were apostatizing already.  Men were getting into unorthodoxy. Men were making things religious.  Preaching other gospels (Galatians 1)  Men were going back in to the Temple, men were keeping the law and the oblations.  Men were rejecting any gospel of grace.  Men were keeping to the old paths so to speak.  To do this was rejecting Jesus Christ.  To hold to the Law was to reject his payment for sins!  It was denying the Lord that bought them!

"Hyper-Deputationalism"

I coined a word!  I think? You know those bad words or terms in Baptist societies and churches that are thrown around to label people; such words like, "Hyper-dispensationlaist" or "Double Inspired" and many more.  What these terms and phrases mean are really a matter of perspective, due to so many people defining them differently. Let it be stated as well, that such words are used as divisive and incendiary comments! Therefore, I have created Hyper-Deputationalism.

But c'mon, joking aside, lets not beat around the bush, for every 10 decent, honest, true, laboring missionaries you know that are on the foreign field doing their "service" to the Lord, there is 50 that never made it to their intended fields.  For every 10 ten that answered "the call", there are 50 that also answered, but could never reach their place of burden, or calling.  There are many reasons for this.  The economy would be one. Lack of support from Christians. Family hardships would be another.  Financial strains of selling houses and quitting jobs, etc.  But what about the processes and turmoil of gaining ones support that many call "Deputation", why does it seem to work for some, but not for others?

Deputation defined is simply "the act of appointing a person or body of people to represent or act on behalf of others." Money, is not involved in the definition, nor the gaining of funds for the representation of anything.  What you find among a lot of Christians, is many of our divisions are because of our definition of terms and phrases.

Reproving and Rebuking as it Relates to our Conduct in Ministry

This may shock some, but here goes, I believe not everyone you come in contact with must hear the word preached!  You gasp at this! Chalk it up how you like.  

I also believe in answering questions instead of parading biblical superiority.  I believe in “a door of utterance”, not knocking on 500 doors.  

I believe in the holy Spirit’s guidance and leading.  You just can’t understand how someone could say such a thing.  Many public ministries are simply effective only in doing something offending people.  

And they know it, and brag about it even and purposefully attempt to do it.  They think they are doing God a great service!  Our public ministry should be our examples in public, not something we do on Saturdays in front of the Gay bar!  

Public ministry is about planting and watering.  But today, it is loud angry men with bullhorns and enough scripture banners and signs to cause traffic impediment at busy intersections.

This is not effective fishing of men, or being ambassadors of Christ nor does it typify what we see from the practice of seed planting and bearing.  

We don’t preach at our plants, and fruits for not blossoming.  “Grow stupid plant”.  “Repent of your  stubbornness you filthy weed!”  We give them “nourishment”, water, sun light, time, care, patience, longsuffering, and tender care.

Don’t be ignorant of Satan’s devices. We preach against “time saving” technology but we use their same core production valued principles we preach against in public ministry. Our “Over Efficiency” in our evangelism has given way to irresponsible behavior with the word of God. 

Ambassadors of Christ or Fishers of Men?

In 2 Corinthians 5:18-21, the apostle Paul says;

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Who would disagree with this passage.  A ministry of reconciliation was given to us?  We pray for people to be saved.  We pray for people to be reconciled to God. All Christians can have a ministry of reconciliation.  Now then we are ambassadors! We represent Christ as ambassadors, teaching that men SHOULD repent, not MAKING them, or forcing their hand.  We are not to call a man’s bluff so to speak, and get them to show their cards, to give ourselves an occasion of the flesh to show our lofty knowledge of the scriptures.

Does it matter that the Lord’s disciples were told to be fishers of men, but Paul was given a ministry of reconciliation, and treated it like ambassadorship.  Commercial fishermen, and ambassadors for nations are 2 entirely different trade crafts.  We should be mindful of the distinctions. We can learn some things from them.

The Lord told the disciples these things  about being fishers of men in Matthew 4:19. Mark 1:17.  However, we within the body of Christ, far removed from any apostolic age,   completely dissolved of any miraculous gifts, commissions, calls, or powers, we are to be more like ambassadors, who represent a King in a foreign world that is not our home.  

Evangelistic, Confrontational Madmen who Refuse to Work

You must understand the mindset among many street evangelist or street preachers.  It’s not that they can’t work a job, it’s that their demeanor and conversation of life as prophets and gallant soldiers for God will not allow them to work a job. 

A secular job for these men?  It would never happen unless they learned to submit to others, and in this day, it may be a woman.  “I can’t have that bless God.”  They can only be  “keepers at home” and so forth.  Submitting to a woman goes against their belief system.  

It would be like trying to enclose a rhino in a cardboard box.  Everyone around them would be compromisers, harlots, drunkards, fornicators, adulterers, pagans, sodomites, hypocrites, heathen, philistines, bastards, faggots, queers, homo’s, etc. Forty hours a week around people who hate God, who are perverted, who are blasphemous, who are wicked, who are pagan or so the street preacher views them.  

The legally binding policies of their employers and superiors (or Masters, in the Bible) who are over them will not permit them to preach or pass out tracts.    They, according to their own professions and testimony have already shown that they will go to jail before anyone, including police, tells them to stop preaching.  

They cannot adapt and learn to speak peaceably.  They cannot engage society and wickedness civilly. It’s as if they have never learned self control as children or something.  They are quite like children in their actions, lashing out, deflecting, casting off, ignoring, dominating conversations, screaming, etc...