No.197 english | Huldah Ministry
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Peter heals a lame man at the temple gate called Beautiful. When the people see this miracle, they are amazed. In his sermon, Peter tells the people that it was through Jesus' name and faith that the man was healed, and encourages them to repent and turn back to God. The document also discusses the history of the social gospel movement and how some churches have increasingly focused on social issues rather than proclaiming the gospel and making disciples, which was the commission of Jesus.
No.197 english | Huldah Ministry
- 1. ULDAH MINISTRY LETTER TO THE BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN CHRIST 【SOCIAL GOSPEL OR THE GREAT COMMISSION】 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2 Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. 6 Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” 7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. 8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. 11 While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade. 12 When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. 14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 16 By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, 平成２４年 ６月 月報 フルダ・ミニストリー ー主に在る とこしえの集いー JUNE 2012 NO 200 Eternal Fellowship News Bulletin We believe in one GOD, in three persons; FATHER, SON and HOLY SPIRIT. We regard the Bible (both Hebrew Bible and New Testament) as the only infallible authoritative WORD OF GOD. HULDAH MINISTRY aims to return to the Word Of God, founded on Hebrew background and to interpret it from Hebraic perspective, acknowledging that Jesus is a Jew and the Jewish-ness of His teaching as a continuation from the Hebrew Bible. The Ministry also aims to put His teaching into practice, to have a closer relationship with the Lord, Jesus Christ, and to regularly have a Christian fellowship so that this- worldly kingdom of God will materialise in the midst of the followers of Jesus here and now, as well as earnestly seeking Christ's Return to establish the otherworldly Kingdom of God on earth. All activities are free of charge and no obligation whatever. Just enjoy our fellowship! www.huldahministry.com [email protected]
- 2. 2 as you can all see. 17 “Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. 18 But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. 19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, 20 and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you— even Jesus. 21 Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. 22 For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. 23 Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from their people.’ 24 “Indeed, beginning with Samuel, all the prophets who have spoken have foretold these days. 25 And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’ 26 When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.” ACTS 3:1-26. On the day Peter delivered his first sermon during the feast of Pentecost in Jerusalem, about three thousand believers were added to the apostles. It was then that the church was born and it grew in numbers very quickly. The Word of God spread widely and grew in power, and the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria were strengthened by the Holy Spirit. The believers met daily, cared for each other daily, and searched the Scriptures daily. Thus their Christian faith was not a once a week routine but a day to day reality. They shared their possessions with each other. However, holding everything in common among the first century Christians had nothing to do with socialism or communism because they did it willingly and voluntarily. It was also not that that their goods were evenly distributed to everyone, but they were given to those in need whenever it arose in the believing community. This God-fearing faith-community gained the favour of the surrounding people as well. Even after the Day of Pentecost when the church community was born, Peter and John and all other disciples still went up to the temple to pray. It was on their way to the temple, at the temple gate called Beautiful, that Peter and John were called on by a man who was lame from birth. He did not ask to be healed but for money. Nevertheless, Peter performed more than what this man desired through the Holy Spirit. This act of healing marked the first miracle of the period of church age. The man was not just given some alms but he was completely changed ingto a man who could openly worship and praise the Lord. It is significant to note that the Book of Acts conveys an important message of the continuity of Christ’s salvific work on earth even after His ascension. This man’s healing and consequent reaction from the unbelieving authorities remind me of a similar miracle performed by Christ at a pool called Bethesda near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem, when the lame suffering for thirty eight years was instantly healed by Christ’s Word: ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk’ (Jn.5:8). The healed man started telling the Jews that it was Jesus who had cured him. Because the miracle was performed on the Sabbath, the Jews pressed Jesus for an explanation of His breach of the law. Then He answered: ‘I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the father does the Son also does…He who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father, who sent him’(5:19-23). As Jesus declared, now Peter and John performed miracles in this name of Jesus Christ, asserting His declaration and His authority. This incident has clearly demonstrated that the apostles did not just give the man a temporal handout but empowered him to worship the Lord, exactly as Christ did in accordance with the Father’s instruction alone. It had been for long taught to the Jews that the one who appeared to fulfill the messianic prophecies would be identified as the true Messiah, which Isaiah prophesied: ‘Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongues shout for joy’ (Is.35:5-6). Their awaiting Messiah had surely come, and accordingly, the people should not
- 3. 3 have marveled at such a wonder with wrong thoughts such as ‘as if by (their) own power or godliness (the apostles) had made (the) man walk’. Peter’s second sermon was addressed at their amazement, and he connected the man’s healing to the life-giving power of the resurrected Christ, in whom the man believed. In sharp contrast to today’s sermons, the apostles in the first century church would never preach a sermon without mentioning Christ’s resurrection. The primary power group in the Sanhedrin (Jewish authorities) in those days was the Sadducees, and they did not believe in the resurrection, nor the supernatural. Peter invited the crowd to repent and turn to God so that their sins might be forgiven because the tragedy that their Messiah was killed on the cross happened because of their ignorance. Jesus still interceded for their forgiveness: ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing’ (Lk.23:34). Then Peter encouraged them to expect their Messiah’s second coming, times of restitution of all things, which would come true if they seek after their Messiah, crying out: ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’ (Lk.13:35). Here Peter mentioned the ‘Jubilee Year’, ―the seventh Sabbatical year plus one year = the Fiftieth year― when all debts are to be cancelled, lands are to be returned to their owners and all slaves are to be free. Thus, the first century sermon of the gospel was focused on Christ’s crucifixion, resurrection, His second coming and the Word of God (entire Bible) which testifies about Christ. The following excerpt from the writing about the social agenda of today’s church concisely represents what the Church and Christians encounter in terms of evangelism today, which would be worth quoting: ‘I was in flight from South Africa last October after three weeks of strenuous ministry and travel. I was exhausted and looking forward to sleeping throughout the night, and when I sat down beside two businessmen, I grunted a relatively polite hello and then tried to position myself for rest. The two gentlemen were gracious to my obvious desire to be left alone and began a conversation between them that would continue off and on throughout the flight. The man sitting next to me was returning from one of the interior countries of Africa from what he termed constantly as Christian “ministry.” He had been on a “missions trip” and his ministry, for several weeks, had been to work with a Christian agency to dig wells in various rural areas to provide clean water for the tribal people living there. The man next to him was on a similar venture in another African country, but he was with a social agency funded, I believe, by the Bill Gates Foundation. The two men had much in common and therefore conversation flowed. The only discernable difference that I could gather between the two was that one considered what he did “ministry” while the other considered his involvement an act of social kindness. I listened in vain throughout the night for the man who saw what he did as Christian ministry to mention something about the gospel or teaching anything about God or the Bible. By the time I was alert enough to desire to enter into the conversation I felt I could not do so without inappropriate embarrassment to the Christian man. I wanted to ask how he viewed what he had done any differently from what the Bill Gates-connected man had accomplished. After all, both dug wells for poor people, providing fresh water (a good thing). And neither man attempted to influence the tribal people with their own views. Yet one had been on a “missions” trip, doing missional work, and the other had bettered the living conditions of tribal people as part of a private social program. I have thought often of that conversation which I think represents some of the thinking in evangelical circles. I hear endlessly of people going on missions trips around the world, even though many of the ones I know going on such trips are not Christians themselves. On many of these adventures, there is no attempt to present anything of the gospel or provide any form of discipleship. These are purely social missions in which wells are dug, people are fed, buildings are constructed or medical attention is given. All of these are worthy causes with which the conservative evangelical church has been involved throughout the ages. Everywhere true Christianity has gone it has benefited the society which it has touched. But historically, conservative Christianity has always seen social improvement as taking a backseat to the church’s true calling of proclaiming the gospel and making disciples. It has never seen the social agenda as an end in itself – until now. The social gospel became the hallmark of the liberal church, as pointed out above, because the liberals had emptied their message and ministry of biblical truth and were left with no other “good news” than solving physical problems. Sadly, evangelicals today are increasingly adopting the
- 4. 4 missional, social gospel of liberalism. However, it would be unfair to say that this is yet a majority opinion or action among true evangelicals. Rather, the more common approach is to espouse a two-tiered gospel which is composed of the biblical gospel of redemption and the social gospel of world betterment. While this is an upgrade from the purely missional model of liberalism it nevertheless lacks biblical warrant and endangers the true gospel of salvation’ (‘The Social Gospel, Yesterday and Today’ by Gary Gilley, Oct./Nov.’11). The author is right to point out the church’s true calling of both proclaiming the gospel and making disciples, which is based on the “Great Commission” by the Lord, which all four Gospels refer to with one accord: ‘Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you’. According to Gary Gilley, after the first great awakening under Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield in America in the 1730s -1740s, the second one begun in 1800, spreading in the first half of the nineteenth century. The second awakening had a different flavor to the first, in that fleshly passion accompanied the gospel presentation. There were true conversions, but people also longed for a spiritual experience and expected traveling evangelists such as Charles Finney to provide them with sensational “revival-style” services. This new means of evangelism became a pattern: ‘People would be whipped into emotional frenzies by evangelists and pastors through the use of new and creative techniques which were devoid of solid biblical content…Singing, shouting, jumping, talking, praying, all at the same time…in a crowded house, filled to suffocations, which led to people having fits…but as soon as the excitement was over, falling away.’ In the mid-1800s many of the cults that are prominent today emerged and also, as a result of revivalism of the early 1800s, numerous utopian societies arose. In the 1900s, the liberal theologians known as “modernists” turned to disguising their teachings by using the same words used traditionally but by giving them new meanings, emphasising feeling and experience over Scripture. Thus, with the denial and doubt of essential biblical truth and the Scriptures, a shift of the focus and purpose of the church developed into social action as the mission of the church. This was the emergence of the “social gospel”. By the early 1900s, social concerns became central among the theological liberals. Liberals believed that Christianity needed to change to survive and virtually all the major denominations became infiltrated by such liberal thinking by around the 20th century, primarily concerned about this world instead of the future and also, more concerned about the salvation of society than of individuals. To the liberals, the kingdom of God is not future or otherworldly but ‘here and now’ and so, while the conservatives emphasise evangelism, disciplining and studying the Word, they increasingly focus on the social gospel. According to Gary, in this century, much of mainstream evangelicals have comingled social gospel with the biblical gospel, in other words, Christians are united mostly over social action rather than the Great Commission by increasingly widening their views and doctrines that would be thought of as even heretical in the mid 1900s in order to maintain their influence in society and to win the world’s approval. The fact that the most popular Christian leaders and authors today stress the social agenda seems to encourage this trend. Needless to say, throughout the Scriptures the importance of social concern about poverty, alienation, oppression and discrimination within the believing community is repeatedly mentioned, yet, there are important lessons to be learnt from the first century church mission – that we don’t just make an emotional appeal to man’s generous and loving heart towards suffering neighbours. NEWS-NEWS-NEWS-NEWS-NEWS-NEWS-NEWS-NEWS-NEWS-NEWS-NEWS-NEWS This month, a money gift of US$ **** has been sent to Frederic in Burundi as an aid for his ministry of equipping spiritual Church and Christian leaders with the Word, and of reaching out to his congregation and many disadvantaged and neglected refugees from the society. He has just returned from a successful out-reach in a rural area. As a result of a door to door mission, he and his team won over the souls of the most hard liners such as sorcerers, enchanters, witchdoctors, and animists into Christ, and their fetishes and idols were burnt off. Pray for the Lord’s salvific work through their commitment.