Chapter 5
Apostolic Character: Blamelessness
...."for our Gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction, just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake".... 1 Thessalonians 1:5
...."you yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews....but I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, in order that I may finish my course, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God"....Acts 20:18-19,24
...."Do all things without grumbling or disputing; that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world"....Philippians 2:14-15
This topic before us this morning deserves an entire seminar in itself but we must catch some sense of it in order for us to continue to apprehend a clear revelation of the apostolic Church.
All the writings of the apostle Paul are completely unself- conscious and unpremeditated and it is for that very reason that it is all the more instructive and powerful.
Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 1:5:
...."Our Gospel did not come to you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake"....
There is a theme struck in that one verse that needs to penetrate our deepest consciousness. Our modern life tends to be set in compartments - the secular and the sacred, the religious and the "everyday", yet Paul did not know these distinctions for he was one true man throughout - the full-orbed man - and that is what an apostle is: he is the thing in himself - the Word made flesh. It is true incarnated God in men - that is why Paul could continually offer himself as an example. He did not say follow my principles - he said "Follow me"! God does not say that it is the "principles" of the apostles and prophets that are the foundation of the Church, but rather the men in themselves - what they are in themselves, in Christ. There is no "compartmentalization". There is no place for the "professional" minister and the private person. We are to be one true thing throughout, day in and day out. In Acts 20:18 we see Paul's farewell address to the elders at Ephesus and again it is a remarkable statement, all the more because it is unpremeditated. There is no pomp or ceremony with Paul. He is what he is, in season and out, always ready, always appropriate, before Jews, before Greeks, instant in season and out. And here is the remarkable thing: God wants an entire Church just like that! This is very different from the "Lutheran" lament, if I may be permitted to put it that way. " I am only human...God knows I'm only human...just a sinner being saved by grace." Perhaps now you can understand why there was a bloody conflict between the Lutheran Church and the Anabaptists of the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries. This Anabaptist people could not tolerate that kind of unbelieving excuse. I do not know how much you know of church history but this was a "martyr" people. It was not the world that opposed them so vehemently and viciously as much as the established church itself. It was because they believed that they should show forth the grace and the testimony of a new life by the Spirit - the Church of the "Blood-bought" - birthed by the Spirit and by an absolute conviction of faith, as against a church-state system by which everyone was inducted by virtue of infant baptism, most of whom knew not the salvation of God at all, and who, in some nominal, religious way, called themselves Christian and opposed the true faith and the true Church. They required their blood because they could not tolerate their "presence". It was too convicting. These precious saints showed forth the radiance of God and they lived sacrificially. They demanded to see the evidence of the new life in the believer and were ever expecting a "Kingdom" to come. They saw persecution and suffering for righteousness' sake as the logical and inevitable consequence of "true" believing. Can you imagine the clash that came with this kind of state entity, the excuse for which was "we are only human"? Something of that yet remains! Something of that is yet in the church's mentality! We need to come again into the Anabaptist's perspective and know that there is a requirement for the demonstration of Christian character, without which our proclamation is valueless. Paul says, "that our Gospel did not come to you in word only but in power and in the full conviction of the Holy Spirit, just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake." Can you see the equation here, the power of the Gospel in full conviction, in exact proportion as you know what manner of men we proved to be among you. There is a conjunction between charisma and character that has been lost to our "charismatic" generation. I would even say that the character precedes the charisma. The holy anointing of God is not to be poured on men who traffic in God! The authority and power that Paul exhibited was altogether in proportion to the kind of man he proved to be, and he says this to the church that was saved by his own witness, "You know what manner of man I proved to be among you" - "I do not have to make any defence of myself, you yourselves know it - what I proved to be among you for Your sake". I do not have time to fully develop this topic this morning, but as you search through the epistles of Paul, you will find mention of only two motives for his apostolic life: "for the glory of God" and "for your sakes" - never for his sake. In his farewell address in Acts 20:18 "You know from the first day that I came into Asia and to what manner I have been with you, at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind." "You know what manner of man I have consistently been with you, at all seasons". It did not matter whether it was up or down or good times or bad times, abounding or abating - there was a precious "apostolic consistency of character". There is no place here for human moodiness or the kind of thing of which we sometimes complain - "up one day and down the next". I pray that you are beginning to get the point. This is something far beyond human good intention and will. There is only one way to explain this kind of consistency, and we have to explain it in Paul's own words, "For me to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21). We count this sometimes as just a fanciful expression, a kind of apostolic extravagance, but Paul meant it literally. "In Him", which was Paul's favourite expression, "I live and move and have my being". This is the only answer - everything else is an invitation to catastrophe! We cannot seek to be apostolic on the basis of a "human determination" - every day biting our lips of what we ought to be - we will fail and we will fail wretchedly. We must find the mystery that Paul found and it is as available to us as it was to him, but we have not believed the Word and we have not wanted to receive it's meaning:
...."I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I!"....Galatians 2:20
There is only one explanation for the phenomenon of Paul - it is the very continuation of the crucified and resurrected Christ that has found for itself another home in another body - wholly yielded to His life, who has no life unto himself or for himself and who can say: "for me to live is Christ". Do you know why we have not stumbled on this stupefying requirement? Because we have lived beneath the apostolic level. We have not felt this kind of requirement of character to be incumbent for us, therefore, we have been satisfied to be "nice guys", or our standard is a standard of "Christian respectability", to be pleasant and polite. But I want to ask you a question: is our Gospel going forth in the power of the Spirit and in full conviction? Because Paul says to these Thessalonicans, in the first chapter, 9th verse:
.... "You know what kind of reception we had with you and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and a true God"....
I will tell you just how much power was in his Gospel and just how full of conviction it was - it was sufficient to turn pagans from their idols to serve a living and true God. How many of us even have this as the criterion in our evangelistic work? Our standards have fallen wretchedly! We are content if men will only "accept" Christ. And we are even happy that after that they will continue to attend Christian services, but no great requirement is made of them. We have come into a kind of "statistical" Christianity - especially in North American evangelism. How many have made decisions and yet remain "pagans"? But Paul's Gospel had another consequence; it turned men from their idols to serve the living God - not merely to attend services. The whole of our standard and criteria needs to be "elevated" again to the apostolic level, for this alone is God's. And I want to reiterate my point: it will never be so, and our Gospel will not have that "full conviction" and power until we become this kind of man, that we "prove" to be among you - for your sake. There is a certain sense of apostolic selflessness, a whole abandonment to the purposes of God, a mindlessness about one's security, one's condition, one's pleasure, one can abound or one can abate - it doesn't matter for it is all the same. Paul says in Acts 20:22-24:
...."And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me"....
Are you seeing this apostolic jewel this morning - this divine character inwrought in a man, who was originally a persecutor and a murderer and are you able to see the eternal purpose of God? It is going to require all of eternity to show the kindness of His grace toward us - not only in this age, but in the ages to come. 54"But none of these things move me"! Are you listening to me this morning children? We shall never have the power and the authority to turn men from their idols so long as we ourselves are "moved" by a single thing. "None of these things move me!" Paul stated. He was impervious to things. We need to come into that apostolic condition.
In 1 Corinthians 7:29-32 Paul states:
...."But this I say, brethren, the time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none; and those who weep, as though they did not weep; and those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice; and those who buy, as though they did not possess; and those who use the world, as though they did not use full use of it; for the form of this world is passing away. But I want you to be free from concern"....
What is the whole purpose of this apostolic exhortation? That you may attend upon the Lord without distraction, for the time is short! He said that almost two thousand years ago but how many of us believe it now? They were so close to the apocalyptic conclusion that they expect it - so here is the point I want to make, among other points: we need to see restored an entire apostolic atmosphere - not the least of which is the sense of urgency and expectancy of apocalyptic end. This cannot be for us an affectation or show - I mean a real urgency, to the point that there is an electricity in our atmosphere, and that even our children are persuaded that what we are about is eminently real and that we are not just "attending services". This will only come about if they do not see a different set of parents come home from the Church than they saw in the Church. I am not just talking about the atmosphere in our meetings but the atmosphere that pervades the "totality" of our life together as an apostolic community, anticipating continually the things that shall shortly come to pass. For that very reason, we must be indifferent to the various fads and fashions of our generation - for the fashion of the world passes away. Have you come to the place where you are not moved by things? Yes, you can handle them and use them but you are not "moved" by them? And if they are removed from you, do you not collapse? I want to tell you something: you will never come to the apostolic condition by yourself! The Church is God's provision for the strength, for the prayer and for the support in breaking the powers of the world in the lives of believers who have the intention together of coming to that apostolic place where: "none of these things move me". We need each other to come to that emancipation and it only comes through the "true relationship" which true Church is. Mere Sundays will never provide it. I can remember well how it first was for me when we began in community; how we gave up a seventeen room house with five bathrooms to come to that farm up there in Northern Minnesota - in a whole radical alteration of our lifestyle, and I saw someone behind the wheel of "my" car, driving "my" car: I had thought that it was only a mode of transportation. How much are we in self-deception and don't even know it? I experienced the shock, seeing another drive "my" car, crunching the gears! We have no idea, in ourselves, how much the "world" is with us. Part of the provision of God through "community" is to break the powers of the world that are upon us - in order that the total statement of our life itself to the principalities and powers is that we cannot be intimidated, "none of these things move me" - "neither count I my life dear unto myself"! For whom else then is it dear? - only for Him! Do you remember how Paul said that he groans in this earthly tent and how much he desires to be in Heaven? But for your sakes he is willing to abide in this flesh. He is a Heavenly man: nothing is dear unto himself, that he might finish his course with joy, the ministry that he has received of the Lord. In 1 Thessalonians 2:10 Paul states:
.... "You are witnesses, and so is God, how uprightly and blamelessly we behaved towards you believers"....
There is an extreme apostolic consciousness of God as "witness" - an awareness that before Him we are utterly transparent in the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. He sees us in our "public" moments and He sees us in our private moments. He sees us at all times and our life must be "consciously" lived in His sight. This is the only true motivation for blamelessness and you shall never be blameless until you have it. It is a remarkable affrontery toward God the way that we conduct ourselves privately and personally. In most cases it is really a statement to the fact that we do not believe that our lives are being lived in His sight! It is amazing the degree of indulgence that we allow ourselves and I am not just talking about the blatant sexual sensual sin, fornication or masturbation - although that is sufficient to contradict our entire testimony and to indicate to the principalities and powers of the air that we are not to be feared because of the fact that there is no consistency in our character and life - but I am speaking about something even yet deeper than that. Paul speaks about having a conscience without offence toward God and toward men. I will tell you of the kind of indulgence that we have been especially guilty of: we continually think our own thoughts - that is, when we are free to think our own thoughts. How critical are they? How selfish are they? How resentful are they? How sensual are they? How ungodly are they? The apostle is the thing in himself, through and through, the incarnate word of Truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, even in his private and personal thoughts, he is conscious of a God in whose sight he is utterly transparent. "You are witnesses", he said, "and so is God, how devotedly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers." The apostolic requirement is far beyond merely the outward conduct. It requires the integrity of the total man, spirit, soul and body, even in our own thoughts when we are free to think what we will. This is truly a man who is bound in the Spirit, going on toward Jerusalem and it needs to be a description of us as well. I am not saying these things to bring us under any "condemnation", but rather to show you how high the standard of excellence is that God calls "apostolic". And so it must be, for it is the standard that is the plum line from Heaven to earth. It is the ladder that connects Heaven and earth - the standard for an unbelieving world against which all things are to be measured. That is apostolic and it is God's intention for the Church in every place. So the incentive for holiness and blamelessness is always set in the consciousness of God as a judge. That is why Paul could speak with full conviction to the Athenians, "God has appointed a day in which he will judge all nations". I can just see the cold chill coming up the spine of those unbelieving philosophers. They had never before heard such a concept but it only requires "one hearing" when it comes from the lips of an apostolic man who is not just merely speaking a technicality of doctrine, but who awesomely knows the judge. That's why Paul says, "knowing the terror of God, I persuade men". It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. How is it that he knows it and we don't? Does he have a supplement to His Bible? Not at all. He knows it by "relationship", by the "intimacy" of the knowledge of His God, and this is my message for tonight and the deepest of all apostolic requirements. We do not even have to speak of what is the general standard of our present Christianity, alongside of what is being spoken this morning. The church is not yet a true witness unto Him. It is not enough to be a "nice guy". It is not just to avoid the more blatant sins. If we are earnest with God, there is only one standard for us and that is apostolic character - nothing less than the character of God Himself. It cannot be imitated. It cannot be externally imposed. It can only come in union with Him. "Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me for I am meek and lowly". I want to ask you this morning, "Are you yoked with God"? Or are you a free-wheeling independent agent who comes and goes as you please. "I'll attend this conference", "I'll go to that school. "Are you coming to the meeting tonight? I'll see if I feel like it". We need to see brought back into our corporate atmosphere the apostolic elements, not only the love of God and a consciousness of God as judge, which are the two greatest incentives for our blamelessness, but also to know the judge, whose coming is imminent and at hand. Paul says, "don't you know that the saints will judge the world? Why do you go to the world's courts?" "Do you have some matter of conflict between you? Let those who are least esteemed in the Church judge it - because don't you know that you are being groomed to one day judge the world?" Do you know it? In 1 Corinthians 4:5 Paul states:
.... "therefore do not go on passing judgement before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts; and then each man's praise will come to him from God"....
I need a whole hour again just for this one point - "and then shall each man's praise come to him from God". Children, we will never come to "apostolic blamelessness" so long as we are self- conscious of each other and thus continue to live out our life in the "standard" that is established in our relationship only with each other, rather than as a life lived unto God, for it is only as one abides in this divine standard that "every man shall have praise of God". We are going to be required to stand alone often. We are going to suffer withering blasts of reproach and criticism, and if our praise and esteem is of men, we will not stand. But if our praise is of God and we can wait for it, then, we will stand and stand apostolically! This power and dependency of looking toward men for confirmation, for support, for acceptance and for approval, needs powerfully to be broken and there is only one thing that can break it; it is the "greatest source" of approbation and approval, which comes only from God. It is not an accident that the most profound and deepest and bravest messages that I have ever had to speak publicly for God have, every single time, instantly been met with reproach - men coming to me before I could even leave the platform - telling me they are prophets sent of God to tell me that I have missed the mind of the Lord and that I have erred grievously against God and done incalculable damage to the Body of Christ - a stabbing accusation. "And you need to go back to the microphone and recant and apologize for your message". It is a withering blast and if you have lived habitually in the light of the response of men, needing their approval, you will collapse, for there is only one who can stand under such a blast and that is a man who lives for one satisfaction only - whose praise is not of men - but of God. We are not going to obtain this in a day, but we will not obtain it at all if we do not consciously see it as an object to be desired above all else - that is, to move from our present fear of men to the restoration of the "fear of God". This must be our apostolic goal and mission for which we need the participation of everyone, for we are all in this together. Can you see how extraordinary and necessary the requirement of true Church is? It must be that one place in the earth where we need not put on any appearance, where we can frankly acknowledge our defects and imperfections and speak to one another the truth in love and exhort one another daily. Next Sunday is already too late while it is yet today. ...."Till we all come into the fullness and stature of Jesus Christ unto a perfect man" - mere Sundays will never accomplish this. Exhort one another daily while it is yet today - that means a radical alteration of our present lifestyle and the establishing of a whole new set of priorities - "apostolic priorities" that will make a serious intrusion upon our privacy, on our pleasure, on our time, on our substance and all else. I pray that you are not dilettantes of the most deceptive kind, wanting to hear some new thing, titillated by apostolic concepts, but having no high, serious intention to fulfil them. It were better for you that you had never been here, that you had never heard these things, than to hear them and have no serious intention of fulfilling them. Paul talks about being found blameless at His coming. He says, "others strive for a corruptible crown, but we for a incorruptible". This is not poetry. For Paul it is absolutely vivid and real. For him there is a shameful thing that cannot be considered, that he should come before the Lord in all eternity and have not a crown to lay at His feet. Is that your motive - to win a crown? I will tell you that the crown of Glory shall not exceed the crown of your "suffering"! If you are unwilling for the "crown of thorns", the trials, the demands the reproaches, the sufferings for righteousness' sake, to learn what it means to live a "heavenly life" in an earth that is inhospitable, to contend for this faith and this sacrifice, you shall not have a crown to lay before Him.
Set your affections on the things above where your treasure is. Heaven is not just biblical poetry, but the most practical and real exhortation to be blameless at His appearing. The Lord has been dealing with me. I am an American and we tend to think statistically and in terms of averages. Is it not enough to have nine out of ten or three out of five?
...."Be ye perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect"....Matthew 5:48
But there is an absolute and apostolic standard: "blameless at His appearing and if we will not insist upon that standard we quickly make "allowances" for ourselves: "God knows that we are only human" and "Heaven knows that I am trying." It is blameless or corruptible therefore we must have this insistence and trust for the grace that will be given. That is why the call to us is arise and let your light shine - all the more as the thick darkness and gloom covers the earth (Isaiah 60:1-3)!
Do we have a conscience that is without offense to God and to men? What a condition to be in! To have a conscience without offense toward both God and man. It is nothing less than our "reentry" into the Garden of Eden. It is a return to innocence. It is to be without guile. It is to be as a light in the earth. It is God's invitation to us, not only in our outward conduct but what we are inwardly and privately even in the thoughts that we think when we are free to think what we will. This requires the "community" of the saints and is conducive to all these things. A community that speaks the truth in love that it might grow up unto Him in all things. That is the end of passivity in the church - looking up to the platform while one man conducts the whole service. We need to find and make room to speak face to face not to the back of each other's heads, seeing in each other's faces the glory of God and moving from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of God. What is God's provision for the perfecting of the saints? The saints themselves in "true relationship", in interaction, in "confrontation", in exhortation, speaking the truth in love. We must return to these daily church realities if we are to grow up into Him in all things - who is the Head, even Christ. Paul is not ashamed to say to men frequently: "be ye followers of me". He says to Timothy to: "show of my ways, which be in Christ as I teach everywhere in every church. He says that all things are expedient, but he will not be brought under the power of any. He reminds us that our bodies are a temple of the Lord and the Holy Spirit which abides within us, and that we are not our own. He reminds us that we are to glorify God in our body and in our spirit which are both God's. He reminds us to so run that we may obtain it. He maintains that every man who strives for the mastery is temperate (moderate) in all things. Is it not remarkable that this is a "standard" that cuts through every age and every generation? The apostolic standard of God in every age is moderation! Whether you eat or whether you drink or whatsoever you do, do "all" to the glory of God - the ultimate incentive beyond what men require of us or even what will satisfy our own standard - do "all" to the glory of God. How we need to do all to His glory. It would make life itself a very sacrament. Who then could talk of the things that are secular of mundane, the ordinary or the eternal, the large or the small things, if "all things" were to be done unto the glory of God, even whether you eat or you drink. This kind of sacramental living must be brought back into the church. We must be saved from mere expediency for it is not enough if something functions or serves, and simply fulfils the utility and requirement of the hour. That may indeed satisfy the "world's" requirement, but not God's! The issue is not whether it "functions". We need to see beyond utility to glory in things large and small and do all things as "unto the Lord, being steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, standing fast in the faith, acquitting ourselves as men and women of God. This is only a little gleaning from the vineyard of Paul. Just a chance phrase here and there as it comes to us in the most superficial examination of his epistles, but what a standard begins to emerge, an apostolic standard that he himself walked in and exhibited. It is not a mere abstract hope. It was fulfilled in him. "Follow me, be imitators of me" needs to be said again by apostolic men and women of our own age, even something more frightening than that - to be able to say with Jesus to an unbelieving world: "if you see me you have seen the Father. I and the Father are one". You want to know what God is like? See this humility. See this uncompromising truth. See this integrity. See this righteousness. See this godly character, for this is the foundation of the Church, and our power and authority in ministry is not something unrelated to it, but altogether divinely joined. "Our gospel came to you in power of the Spirit full of conviction, sufficient to turn you from your idols to serve the Living God for you know what manner of men we proved to be among you for your sake in all seasons." How many will subscribe to that standard from this day forth? If you are serious do you know what you will be able to say with Paul? You will speak of "our" gospel, the gospel of His grace. It will no longer be a word of technicality but a "deeply experienced" enablement for those will be holy as He is holy, and perfect as He is perfect.
Let us pray:
I am embarrassed Lord to be the spokesman for this kind of message for the contradictions of my own life are only too apparent, but I want to say with all my heart this morning that I desire to be this manner of man in all seasons, knowing that the grace that was available to Paul is available to me. I thank you for your love, your patience, and your forbearance. You have waited so long upon us. You have seen our "double-standard". You have seen our shoddy performance. You have been a judge and you have observed us in our personal and private moments. You know our "contradictions", but it has not alienated your love. You have been gracious to us and even this morning you woo us with your Word and call us up to a "high mountain" apart that we might
be like you, not only in our own persons, but even in the greater glory, the corporate glory, the Church, the apostolic Church. Bless us Lord we pray. Seal these things in our hearts. May we resist sin unto the shedding of blood. May we despise our own excuses and self-justifications. May we realize that there is a standard far above the world's and beyond our own, or what the present church has casually required. It is a timeless standard.
It is eternal in the heavens. It shall characterize your Church at the end of the age - blameless, full of glory, running the true race, winning, having a crown. Lord, I am
speaking for this people today who are saying amen and amen. This is our desire and whatever it takes, whatever discipline, whatever "chastisement", whatever dealing to flush out our hiddenness and darkness. Deal with our indulgences and habits, we welcome it! My God, shape us in your image and bring us to that place of abiding love that we might speak the truth to one another and receive that speaking as coming from God Himself, praying for one another, exhorting one another daily, that we might come into this perfection - this apostolic character, this witness, this power that alone can turn this generation from their idols to serve the Living God before the day of Your appearing, the day of the Lord, the day of judgement which is at hand and shall shortly come to pass. Let your work be a quick one. We will not cry out and whimper for you are speaking to us not as merely servants, but as sons and daughters, called of You, not only for this generation but for the ages to come. Lord, seal these things in our heart. Give us a new resolve and determination to walk worthy to the manner which we are called - to the Kingdom and the glory, in Jesus name. Amen.