By: Dale Weckbacher
Text: Joshua
24:29-33
1 Peter 1:3
Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According
to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living
hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
(ESV)
It has been an unprecedented rough
year for everyone in the world, including the Church. The Church faced shutting down with some
churches now allowed to gather in limited numbers and Churches in other
locations still unable to gather. While
larger churches were able to have congregants view teaching from the pulpit
online, this did not replace the need for the church to gather together (Hebrews
10:25). Smaller churches that did
not have an online presence before the shutdown had to come up with an online
presence to both teach and collect contributions or disband as some have done.
Joshua provided extraordinary
leadership for Israel during his life with Israel never straying from obedience
to God during his tenure as Israel’s leader (Joshua
24:31). In fact, under his
leadership, Israel continued to serve God while the elders outliving Joshua
were still alive. The foundation of Joshua’s
obedience to God came from his commitment to follow God (Joshua
24:15) and being with Moses in the wilderness by getting as close to God as
possible, accompanying Moses as he went up the mountain of God (Exodus
24:12-13). This foundation of
obedience to God gave Israel victory as they entered the Promised Land on dry
land with the stopping of the Jordan (Joshua
3), the miraculous fall of the walls of Jericho (Joshua
6), and God’s intervention in the defeating of the Canaanites (Joshua
24:11). The world needs more leaders
like Joshua
For the Church, Joshua is
symbolic of Jesus Christ. Jesus, the Son
of God, left the safety and glory of Heaven to come to our dangerous and evil
world (John
1:14). Although the ministry of
Jesus was limited to Israel and primarily the region of Galilee, the teaching is
still relevant today. Jesus then does
the unthinkable for even though he was without sin in his life (2
Corinthians 5:21), he willingly takes on the sin of the world and fulfills
the legal requirement of a blood sacrifice to cover sin (Hebrews
9:22). Because of this, all anyone
must do to receive forgiveness from sin is to confess their belief that the
death, burial, and resurrection of Christ provides forgiveness from sin (Romans
10:9-10).
I want to pause from the teaching
for a moment and give those reading this who have not confessed a belief in the
shed blood of Jesus providing forgiveness from sin an opportunity to do so now
by praying with me,
Dear Lord Jesus, I know I have sinned (Romans
3:23) and know that the penalty for my sin is death (Romans
6:23). I ask you to forgive me of my
sin and cleanse me as you promise in your Word (1
John 1:9). I believe you died, spent
three days in the grave, and resurrected from the dead and now declare you Lord
of my life.
The role of the Church during
these unprecedented times is the making of disciples (Matthew
28:19-20). The process of
discipleship is a four E process consisting of,
1) Evangelizing
– Sin separates us all from God and carries with it the penalty of death (Romans
3:23, 6:23). Left in this state, humanity
would have no hope with life relegated to vanity without any purpose (Ecclesiastes
1:14). Thankfully, there is hope for
humanity for God sent Jesus to die for our sins, fulfilling the death penalty (Romans
5:8), so we can be saved and have eternal life by confessing our belief in
the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (John
3:16; Romans 10:9-10).
2) Equipping
– Once one accepts Jesus as their Savior, the Church must equip them for life
in a fallen world through sound teaching from the Bible (Ephesians
4:11-12). God has also equipped his
people with the armor of God, spiritual armor to protect them against the
attacks of Satan (Ephesians
6:10-18). Traditionally this
equipping has occurred through regular meetings in a church building to hear
teaching from the pulpit. During this unprecedented
time, teaching has moved from the pulpit to teaching online. However, this change does not mean the Church
cannot equip God’s people but that the method of equipping has changed.
3) Encouraging
– Hebrews
10:25 reminds the Church of the importance of meeting together for this is
where God’s people receive encouragement when facing challenges in their
lives. This represents the greatest
challenge to discipleship within the church as shutdowns restricts interaction
between believers within the church. Encouraging
in the Church during these times can still occur through small group meetings
in peoples homes for Bible study and fellowship or watch parties to watch live
streamed or recorded messages online.
4) Empowering
– When Jesus was preparing to return to His Father, he commanded his followers
to wait for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit so they would be empowered to minister
(Acts
1:4,8). The Holy Spirit is a person,
the third member of the Trinity possessing the qualities, attributes, and
emotions of a person (1
Corinthians 2:10-14; 12:14; Ephesians 4:30; John 14:26; Romans 8:14,26). Unfortunately, throughout Church history many
have portrayed the Holy Spirit as a force, leading to the Church engaging in weird
activities, turning many off from any association with the Church and the
people of God. The Apostle Paul teaches
about the importance of order in how the Church worships God in 1
Corinthians 14 so that the worship of God is not portrayed as something weird,
but something done with order. The
Church needs the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to effectively minister but
must use this power in an orderly manner to evangelize a lost world, while equipping,
and encouraging the Body of Christ.
The Church as an organization
stands at the crossroads and must remain focused on its mission of spreading
the Gospel and making disciples in a changing world. Jesus taught that the Gates of Hell would not
prevail against the Church (Matthew
16:18) which would include shutdowns due to Covid19. At this crossroads it is even more crucial
for the Church to rely on the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit to discover new
methods of evangelizing the lost in the world, equipping, and empowering the
body of Christ. Please join me in
praying for the Church to thrive in this environment.
1. Graham, Ruth. Small Churches Are in
Particularly Big Trouble Right Now. slate.com. [Online] Slate, May 8,
2020. [Cited: December 5, 2020.] https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/05/small-churches-struggling-coronavirus.html.
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