Perspectives5Bakery

Week 5 - Unleashing the Gospel

2022-09-13

Steven C. Hawthorne

People believe the disciples were not imminently obeying the Great Commission since they were told to stay in Jerusalem in Acts chapter 1. However, when we learn they were actually from Galilee, we see Jesus’
Their shame brought Christ’s glory. (139)

Steven C. Hawthorne

The Wall: barrier of understanding and communicating the gospel of salvation. Challenge of clearly communicating the gospel to people groups.
The Canyon: barrier of conversion and heartfelt repentance in accepting the gospel message from people groups. Challenge to see the gospel be received by people groups (not seeker sensitive; prevent unnecessary cultural suicide).
It is not enough for someone to hear the gospel or to understand it. People must be able to see, for themselves and their people, the radical freshness, the heavenly power and the hope-filled relevance of the gospel. (141)

M.R. Thomas

Acts 11:19 shows that early Jewish converts still thought the Gospel was excluded for the Jews. However verse 20 shows a significant shift in their witnessing as they were now preaching the same gospel message to the Greeks.
The purity and mobility of the gospel was at stake during the debate with the Acts 15 council. Enforcing Gentiles to obey Jewish customs to follow Christ posed a great hindrance to the gospel of faith. The apostles’ response prevented Christianity from becoming another “splinter-sect” of Judaism for this simple reason: following Christ did not require becoming Jewish culturally. It is by faith alone we are saved.
The first century disciples had to sort out the universal glory of Jesus from the cultural patterns of Judaism before they could obey the Great Commission and take the gospel to all nations… We, too, must be ready to celebrate the ways that Christ is obeyed fully, but differently, amidst the diverse cultures of the nations. Only then will the gospel continue to go forward “unhindered” (Acts 28:31). (145)

Harley Talman

1 Corinthians 9:19-22 and 1 Corinthians 7:17-20 establish Paul’s principle for missionaries to “become like” and “remain like” those they are preaching the gospel to.
After analyzing 1 Corinthians 7:17-20, we see that the call to “remain in that situation in life in which he was called” expands beyond martial status. It includes someone’s religious, social, and cultural identity.
We become like so they remain like. (148)
from A New Creation by David Anthony: It’s a new creation in an old environment. (148)

T. Wayne Dye

A mistake missionaries may make is correcting sins in a local community that God was yet convicting them about. We can be impatient with the obvious sins we perceive and convince them to follow us rather than hear God’s voice for themselves.
Christian action separated from the context of local understanding of right and wrong prevents the Holy Spirit from developing the new believers’ ability to hear and obey His voice. (495)
Wagu Village: they sought out the Scriptures themselves to determine which how they should act, which ceremonies to discontinue, etc. They saw no Scriptures condemning polygamy but made a rule that no one can take a second wife if there was existed a single man. This rule actually reduced adultery and promiscuity in their community over time. Polygamy ceased to exist as previous generations died off.

Floyd McClung

Passion is whatever a person willing to suffer for. It comes from the Latin word paserre which means “to suffer.”
Apostolic passion is an intentional choice to commit your life unto death for the worship of Jesus in the nations.
Apostolic passion is dead in my heart when I dream more about sports, toys, places to go and people to see, than I do about the nations worshiping Jesus. (204)
🔥If you will not suffer and sacrifice for something, you are not passionate about it. If you say you will do anything for Jesus, but you don’t suffer for Him—then you aren’t really passionate about Him and His purposes on earth. (204)
There is a story of a young Bible school student approaching David Wilkerson offering to help him in his street evangelism ministry. Upon hearing he only spent 20 minutes a day in prayer, Wilkerson sent him home saying, “Go back, young man. Go back for a month and pray two hours a day, every day for 30 days. When you’ve done that, come back. Come back, and I might consider turning you loose on the streets where there is murder, rape, violence, and danger… If I sent you out now on 20 minutes a day, I’d be sending a soldier into battle without any weapons, and you would get killed.”
Only those who long to broadcast His glory to the nations have the right to stay. (206)

Arthur F. Glasser

The local house church and the mobile missionary band both have the same right to be called the “church.”
Takeaways
Takeaways