I’ve had the privilege of participating in a preaching masterclass offered by our church’s executive pastor, Rohan Samuels, M.T.S.; ThD (cand.). I’m thankful for the course because it brings out the validity and technicality of what preaching can be. The weight of transferring that which is plainly visible on the pages of scripture onto an audience is immense. There are dangers in this task, as the poor methods, modes, and interpretations of scripture and preaching have led to all sorts of evils from chattel slavery, superiority complex, mistreatment of women, and mass suicide and murder.
So why is it so important that we understand that preaching is perhaps one of the most humbling ways we can both understand and communicate God’s revealed word to listeners?
It’s important because God has bestowed us, simpletons, finite creatures, humans, incapable of fully grasping the eternality of God and existence, with this task of furthering and preserving this beautiful text and its message to current and future generations.
Its ultimate message, of course, is consummated in the incarnation of Christ for the redemption of humanity. Forgiveness of sins, the regeneration of our fallen state, and the ultimate hope of an afterlife are revisited time and again via scripture. Creations reunification with its Creator. That’s the consummate message. Redemption. Love. The cross. Salvation.
But the in-betweens are where things get tricky. Not just that but the process through which we go about getting through these lesser-known or exaggerated areas tend to be misused or abused by people poorly trained or people who intentionally distort and perverse the text for their benefit.
Therefore, I wanted to share with you or whoever ends up reading this, the rudimentary terms I’ve learned or relearned through this highly recommended course offered by FLC’s (Freedom Life Church) leadership: Preaching Masterclass.
Mind you, revealing the entirety of it is a disservice to our teacher and this course therefore I will keep this information as bare as possible. That way the reader can develop an appetite for further learning in this area to better understand the styles of preaching and also the dangers of ignoring the structure in preaching.
So, for lack of time, let us define a few terms.
Exposition
Exegesis
Eisegesis
Hermeneutics
Homiletics
Exposition
Minister Haddon Robinson defines expository preaching this way:
“The communication of a biblical concept derived from and transmitted through a historical-grammatical and literary study of a passage in its context, which the Holy Spirit first applies to the personality and experience of the preacher then through him to hearers.”
“To interpret a text by way of a thorough analysis of its content. When you do exegesis, you are an exegete who is exegeting the text. What you are doing is described as being exegetical. In its most basic Bible-relevant meaning, exegesis means finding out what the Spirit originally was saying through its author in that Bible passage.”
“A process where one leads into study by reading a text on the basis of pre-conceived ideas of its meanings. It is rare for someone to be called an ‘eisegete’, because eisegesis has a well-earned negative reputation.”
“The term homiletics comes from the word homily, which basically means “a sermon.” Homiletics is the art of preparing sermons and preaching. Those who study homiletics seek to improve their skill at communicating the gospel and other biblical topics. The discipline of homiletics falls under the umbrella of pastoral or practical theology.”
The Tantamount Necessity of a Preaching Masterclass
The terms defined above by numerous sources are but the tip of the iceberg when it comes to approaching and understanding scripture. Not just that but teleporting the church to the passage in question, within its appropriate context, meaning, audience, intent, and purpose.
When a minister is unfaithful to this preaching and study etiquette they are subject to all sorts of aerobics to bend the Holy Writ to their will in support of various egregious ideas and philosophies that strangle the life and freedom out of people.
Therefore, this simple review of the terminology we have covered so far in our preaching masterclass is a reminder that reading scripture and being blessed by the content and context of the divine writ are two completely different things.
Dr. Steven J. Lawson gives us a vivid and wholesome illustration of what healthy preaching can be. Please read an excerpt from his article from Expositor Magazine called, Embracing Exegesis:
“Diving for Pearls
An illustration would be helpful. Exegesis may be compared to the work of a pearl diver who plunges deep below the surface of the ocean. To find the valuable pearls, he must submerge and swim to the bottom of the ocean. He must carefully gather up the precious jewels that lie on the ocean floor. He will never find these ivory-white gems in the shallows along the shoreline. Neither will he discover them floating on the surface of the water. To secure these pearls, he must plunge deep to the bottom of the ocean.
Once these precious gems are in hand, the diver must bring the pearls to the surface. No one can benefit from them as long as they remain on the ocean floor. He must swim to the surface with them and take them to market. He must give them to a jeweler, who can string the pearls onto a strand, making a beautiful necklace. This collection enhances their luster and makes them attractive and desirable to their observers.”
We do ourselves and our fellow believers, not to mention God and His word a disservice when we live with the superficiality of scripture reading and an errant and erroneous man-centered view of the Bible.
Let us abandoned this sickly view of God’s word and give people the treasures and gems found within the beauty of scripture, within context, of course.
Can’t wait to see what else we’ll learn from our preaching masterclass and how to best apply these truths to my next sermon.
What could have been an exciting Sunday Review has become an exciting two-week late review, and you know what, I’m okay with that.
I wanted to share with you eight principles from FLC’s December 27 service that you can use as foundational stones in your faith to further advance your relationship with God, remind you of His love for you, His purpose and plan for your life because so many of us have lost sight of that this tumultuous year.
Pastor Rohan Samuels of Freedom Life Church dove deep off the cliff of monotony and stagnancy, which many Sunday preachers rely on and he preached as if it were his last sermon ever. There were thunder and lightning, per se, smoke, and fire rising from the pulpit this particular Sunday afternoon.
I likened the service to a person who, when walking down his community takes a whiff of barbecued meat. His curiosity leads him down one street, up a side street, past several homes and cars, where he is able to visualize smoke rising from someone’s back yard and in his hungry stupor he follows the trail of smoke in the air and the scent of mouthwatering meat that ultimately leads him to a neighbor’s back yard party. Upon reaching the location and not wanting to be seen he fails and his friendly neighbor invites him in for a bite. After a moment of false humility he accepts the offer and gracefully levitates to the grill where his appetite has driven him to on this day. To his dismay, what is found sizzling on the grill is not a brisket or chicken drumsticks or lamb chops but red peppers and kale.
In his want for food, he didn’t stop long enough to remember that he lived in a vegetarian community. He sat and ate his grilled kale with a false smile on his face dreaming of the ever succulent taste of smoked brisket meat.
This Sunday’s sermon was not like that. There was smoke, there was fire, there was spiritual meat, of the best cuts, and yes, there was salt as well.
God has blessed us with people who will, time and again, remind us of how great His love is for us in allowing us to be recipients of His wonderful grace which was imparted to us through the perfect life, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.
Please allow yourself to be strengthened by these short but efficacious principles that can lead us into greater depths in the knowledge, love, trust, and grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as we navigate through a purposeless generation.
Principle 1
“Your purpose, anointing, and gifting needs a covering.”
Pastor Rohan informs the church that when Christ was to be born into the world he was subjugated to two systems, one, the right people to nurture his growth, and two, the right people to protect him.
In this, it is the idea that Mary and Joseph were the appropriate couple chosen by God to stewart and usher this child into the world by teaching, admonishing, praying for, and directing Him in the path of righteousness. Not that Christ needed this but He subjected Himself to it.
Christ was prayed for and protected. Our lives ought to be the same. Our groups and circles ought to be made up of people who pray for us and who will lead us not in the path of unrighteousness but individuals we can trust to teach us and yes, even discipline us when the need arises. Without prayer and direction, we are orphaned individuals who know not what we seek nor where to seek it.
Principle 2
“Your gift doesn’t make you superior to those that are assigned to lead you.”
This one, as mentioned above, Jesus subjugated Himself to his earthly parents even though He created them and the world they lived in. Only later would they realize the magnitude of the person they had raised, played with, fed, and taught. Only later would they realize how grand and powerful this child really was and still did not abuse nor did He misuse His position, His status, His history as a means to control those who were placed above Him or those around Him.
It is said that if you give someone enough money or enough power, probably both, their true nature will be exposed.
How many ministers, pastors, teachers, and preachers once given control and authority over a pasture of sheep then become a wolves who devour God’s sheep.
In following Christ’s example we too, as Pastor Rohan explained, must adhere to our earthly authorities even if our intellect, our experience, our tenure, and our education exceeds that of our leaders.
This does not mean we bow down to anyone simply because they’re in a particular position. One must ask God for discernment on who is a Godly leader bent on bending to God’s will and serving God’s people and who is a leader willing to bend God’s will and subjugate His people to disastrous pursuits in the name of pleasure, money, and fame.
Listen to your leaders, your Godly leaders, people.
Principle 3
“God does not wait for you to be qualified to fulfill the call [for your life], His grace qualifies you for the call.”
This is another qualifier of one’s ministry. Most biblical characters were not called from positions of preparedness but more so embarrassing aloofness to God’s calling. We remember Abraham who was but a wealthy nomad when he was called to be the father of God’s people on earth. Gideon was in the wilderness and feared for his life when called to serve. Moses was tending sheep after having fled Egypt for murdering a man. Jeremiah thought himself incapable of speaking for God and Isaiah saw himself too impure and sullied to be a spokesperson for the Divine.
But God time and again reminds us that whenever it comes to accomplishing the divine it will take the Divine Himself to initiate, progress, and finish any project or purpose.
We are reminded that God is the one who calls us, qualifies us over time, and accomplishes His will for our lives without, say, our being qualified to do so.
So if you’re dreaming of building that orphanage but have zero knowledge of how construction works, if you’re dreaming of feeding the poor but find yourself unable to pay for your own food at times, dreaming of taking the message of salvation to a hyper-secular and postmodern society but can’t even verbalize the gospel properly without your knees giving out, rest assured, you’re the perfect candidate for all these things and more through God’s glorious grace that catapults you to places and positions and purposes that you could not even have dreamed of.
Rest in God and His grace to accomplish the impossible.
Principle 4
“Grace oftentimes has your purpose birthed into unexpected locations and situations.”
By this, Pastor Rohan signifies that Christ was born in one of the poorer communities of His day and into one of the poorer situations imaginable, without a place for him to be born, say, an inn or a palace, and still, and still, listen, and still, leaders from around the world sought Him out to welcome His advent into the world.
God’s grace will at times place us or our ministry into certain straits that have no hope or no pleasure in the current situation. Perhaps we start a church in a pandemic, perhaps we open a building while the market is dead, perhaps we are called to lead in an environment where distrust and abuse were rife and rampant and God calls us to help people heal and flourish throught that situation.
God’s grace provides us the position, it grants us the strength, it enlightens our darkened intellect, it pushes us to a place of discomfort, to situations of loss and pain where we can serve people we would have never been near to if our life had remained the same.
Christ was catapulted, one can say, from his Divine splendor and royal seat in heaven to the most ruthless kingdom and sub-kingdoms of the day.
Jesus was born into the middle-east that was under the power and control of the Roman empire, which was bent on destroying anyone who dared challenge its right to global primacy. Israel was surrounded by Romans, infiltrated by roman centurions and tetrarchs, leaders who cared very little for these Jewish people and their faith. Dangerous insurrectionists, which we would call modern-day terrorists and assassins ran through the nation stirring riots and instigating violence.
These were such perilous times that just short of forty years after Christ’s crucifixion Jerusalem, along with its temple and its walls, were all razed to the ground by the Roman empire and the Jews dispersed through the middle east, Africa, and Europe.
Jesus was born into this environment but it is in this environment that He saved the world.
Be not wary or fearful of the chaos you are birthed into because God can accomplish much when we rely on Him completely.
Principle 5
“When you are purposed, the enemy wants to kill what you can produce and your ability to produce [it].”
Pastor Rohan explains that it is only expected of the supernatural to instigate further chaos as an attempt to frustrate God’s plans for our life.
He explains that prior to Christ being born a local king became aware that a Messiah, an Anointed One, a Liberator was soon to be born to be king, superseding this man’s authority over Judah. This troubled him so greatly that he sought to kill every child born within a particular date to prevent his loss of power. Mary and Joseph were instructed to flee south to Egypt for refuge from this murderous king and after his death, they were instructed to return to Judah.
Pastor Rohan states that there are men and women within our churches today, persons in power, modern-day Herods and kings, who want nothing more than to kill the purpose of God in our life when they feel their positions are threatened.
In his words:
Modern Herods are those who occupy leadership positions or functions in leadership capacities, they believe they can keep these positions for however long they can. They believe that everything revolves around them. If it isn’t their idea they won’t support it. If they’re not leading the project and development they won’t want to be a part of it. What is true is that they do not take well to succession and transition.
Rohan K. Samuels
We must be aware of the agents and agencies that have lodged themselves within our faith communities with the goal of retaining power and nothing else. Once the mention of succession is made they fly at the handle of threats and brandish their teeth in rage.
Beware of these for their only intent is to destroy that which God has set out for you to accomplish through His grace.
Principle 6
“The enemy seeks to identify young, gifted, purposed people who are gifted but not fully developed [yet].”
It is said that applause ruins young leaders.
Many of us believe that an early streak of success at such an early stage of our ministry is a sign of ministerial health and stability but we must be sober-minded enough to acknowledge that no matter how many ministries we plant or how often we water them with our knowledge and prowess it is only God who gives the growth and success that ultimately directs our attention to Him.
In the same way, we would not trust an amateur pilot to land a plane or an amateur ship pilot to steer a cruiseliner through perilous seas we must not and cannot trust ourselves to leaders who have not experienced the waves of life and ministry and come out more spiritually mature.
Pride is a damnable sin and no one is above it therefore the enemy of our soul tends to use it to destroy leaders and ministries along with them with applause and unchecked ministries.
And the subtly of it all is what is even more worrisome. In this case, demise does not come with the trumpets of war nor does it come with the backbiting of jealous church members. Here, unfortunately, it comes with ingratiation, adulation, unquestioned servitude, and worship of an earthly leader, especially a young one who is blind to these attacks.
Without discernment and direction from a more mature leadership structure and community that holds its own accountable will have leaders who are susceptible to all forms of erroneous efforts that lead to their ultimate and usually public demise.
Principle 7
“Effective transition becomes relevant and effective only if it is influenced or instructed by the word.”
Pastor Rohan explains that the transition of power in the body of Christ is only effective when directed by the word of God.
We can compare the historical figure John the Baptist with King Herod when it came to passing the baton of power. John wanted nothing more than to shrink into anonymity so that Jesus could flourish whereas Herod wanted more glory and more fame. John fulfilled his ministerial duties by being the voice of one calling in the desert, calling the world to repentance, to change, pointing to the Messiah, whereas Herod wanted nothing more than to continue in his sins, ensuring infanticide was part of his legacy on earth. John the Baptist died as a hero whereas Herod died as a child-murdering coward.
When we follow the rules of engagement, per se, of God’s word we follow a rule that is passed on to us as divine and pure thus giving us stable ground to stand upon when selecting the next leader and group for a ministry.
Dismissing God’s word places people of ill repute and wanton desires over God’s people and we cannot allow this to happen.
You create narratives and realities that are illusions and because you are living in condemnation you see these illusions as realities. You live in an environment that negatively affects your perspective and your spiritual outlook. You make uncalculated and misguided decisions. You’re not able to recognize the difference between a friend and an enemy. You don’t see God as a Father, you see him as a mystic, cosmic, spiritual source. You can’t be happy for a long period of time because you allow your thoughts to pollute and alter your emotional disposition. Living in condemnation is so dangerous that you can be grown in age but deteriorated in spiritual maturity.
Rohan K. Samuels
Principle 8
“Your purpose must begin in the Scriptures and not on an opinion or thought. Your opinion will change based upon your circumstance and environment, but when your purpose is built on the Word it cannot be shaken.”
This last principle is self-explanatory.
Our purpose must be biblically sound otherwise it will be subject to change at the slightest change of wind. If our life is not structurally grounded on the biblical person of Jesus Christ then our faith and life will unravel at the first sight of danger, of loss, of pain, of questioning and inquisition because nothing else in this universe is capable of withstanding such a barrage from life other than Jesus and His promises to the faithful through Scripture.
Conclusion
Brothers and sisters,
We must be reminded, constantly so, that purpose outside of Christ is not purpose but folly. If our purpose is found in our career and we lose the ability to fulfill ourselves there we will go without purpose. If our purpose is found in our intellect and we find ourselves constantly wanting in that area we will become cynics and a purposeless people. If our purpose is found in a spouse and we go without one then our life will have little to no meaning at all.
But once we find or perhaps, once we are found by the grace of God in Christ Jesus there can be no agent or entity strong enough to remove our purpose in life.
I pray you receive this grace, this salvation, this innovation, this reinvigorating, life transforming, soul saving, purpose inducing grace of God without tarrying.
Because if you do you will never lack purpose in life again.
What is it that unites us? Is it a custom that we have accepted, a tradition passed down to us from our parents, or possibly habits that we create that help us understand each other better? What is it that unites the church?
One in Christ
“So remember that once you were Gentiles by physical descent, who were called ‘uncircumcised’ by Jews who are physically circumcised. At that time you were without Christ. You were aliens rather than citizens of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of God’s promise. In this world you had no hope and no God.But now, thanks to Christ Jesus, you who once were so far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Christ is our peace.He made both Jews and Gentiles into one group. With his body, he broke down the barrier of hatred that divided us. He canceled the detailed rules of the Law so that he could create one new person out of the two groups, making peace. He reconciled them both as one body to God by the cross, which ended the hostility to God.
When he came, he announced the good news of peace to you who were far away from God and to those who were near.We both have access to the Father through Christ by the one Spirit. So now you are no longer strangers and aliens. Rather, you are fellow citizens with God’s people, and you belong to God’s household. As God’s household, you are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. The whole building is joined together in him, and it grows up into a temple that is dedicated to the Lord. Christ is building you into a place where God lives through the Spirit.” Ephesians 2:11-22
Pastor Rohan K. Samuels of Freedom Life Church led the body of believers through a cyber-service this morning, as the heavens froze over our province and fell onto it shortly after. As beautiful as snowfall can be to the admirer we must not omit the dangers of increased traffic when road conditions have worsened. (Yesterday I witnessed a van skate off the road and find itself suck in a snow-packed ditch. The driver had called a tow truck. All is well.) Because of this, and with the adaptability of the millennial generation, the FLC team had no issue transmitting their efficacious and educational service to an online platform which we watched from the comfort and warmth of our homes.
This adaptability, this ease of protean qualities might just be able to save or reimagine how we do church today. Unless we change, unless we better our methods and strategies we will miss out on too many opportunities to reach people in need and strengthen the faith of those who cannot make the drive to a building in such conditions. Snow and COVID-19 in mind.
But today’s sermon, Made in Christ Part II: Unity was as helpful a reminder to our modern church as it was revolutionary to the church in Ephesus two millennia ago. Paul tackles several topics in this epistle, from spiritual blessings in Christ to the believer being sealed with the Holy Spirit upon regeneration (salvation), continual thanksgiving, an explicit description of humanity’s depravity and subjugation to the ruler of evil, the devil, and finally, in chapter two, Paul reignites their hope in Christ as he informs them that salvation is only attainable by grace through faith alone.
Paul informs the church in Ephesus, a culturally diverse church that was constantly introduced to people traveling from Europe down to the Middle East, Africa, and beyond. So this diversity of ethnicity, race, language, and religious creeds was at an all-time high. Ephesian citizens had lived with continual schisms, divisions, in-fighting, separations based on just about every facet of society but now they had a common denominator to bring them together, Christianity.
The Jews would not associate with the gentiles, (gentile, meaning someone who was not a Jew. Quite broad.) You can imagine what happens when people divide themselves into factions, groups, parties, gangs, and such, the harassment and mistreatment from one side to the other was an everyday occurrence. One faith would not tolerate the other. One nationality would undermine the other. One citizen of the Roman empire would goad and gloat over those who could not be afforded citizenship. Those who worshipped caesar could not stand those who worshipped Yahweh, and those who worshipped sticks would not sit idly by as their neighbors bowed before stones.
The city, a hotbed of religious plurality, was also an epicenter for cross-class and cross-race hostility, and apostle Paul, seeing this embarrassing process in his culture and more so inside the Ephesian church community, set off to explain to them and possibly to those who did not believe like them that in Christ Jesus, these dividing walls would come crumbling down.
Pastor Rohan lists three poisons that flowed through the Ephesian church back then, and in all honesty, may still afflict many of our churches today.
Racism – antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized. (Oxford)
Discrimination – the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex. (Oxford)
Segregation – the enforced separation of different racial groups in a country, community, or establishment. (Oxford)
The Ephesian church, though new, was still plagued by this devilish trifecta that sooner or later destroys any church, blemishes the image of Christ, and discredits a believer’s witness of love, renewal, and sanctification.
These believers were constantly bombarded by a community of Jewish believers that considered them less than because of their nationality, their citizenry because they weren’t Jews. And above all, at one point, they were without God, without hope, and without a future outside of Christ.
But thanks be to Christ Jesus, this wall of legalism, of circumcision, of Judaizers, of implementation and dedication of standards, rules, regulations, and laws was done away with or better understood as completed in the person of Jesus Christ.
He lived the Jewish Law perfectly. And before there was a Jewish Law, Christ existed, and whatever law that preceded or proceeded Christ, He stood high and above them. He did this so that He could be the perfect archetype to pay for our sins, reunite our broken and fallen state with the Father, and stand before the Father in our stead.
Paul was reminding the Ephesian brethren that their schisms and divisions were obsolete.
Pastor Rohan reminds the listener that the Ephesian church struggled with its image. Were they gentiles that had been grafted into Judaism or Jews who had capitulated their Mosaic Laws and traditions, accepting all forms of pagan idolatry and mixing for the sake of an ecumenical utopianism? Were they to be led by Jews or led by gentiles? Were they allowing only Israelite citizens to hold positions of power and those born outside of the Promised Land prohibited from even speaking in the body of believers? Were the Jews to sit in the front of a gathering whilst gentiles sat in the back or possibly waited outside until the service was over?
This church struggled with the advent of Christianity into the Roman empire and the only thing that could merge them all was not dividing classes, economic structures, a free market, or a state-run system of health care.
What united this church, as other churches would learn with time, was Jesus.
The closer we come to Jesus the more foolish these divisions look.
Rohan K. Samuels
Pastor Rohan goes on to explain how these embarrassing schisms of old followed the church into the 20th century through Jim Crow laws. Racism, discrimination, and segregation ran rampant in churches located in the United States South. From east Texas through Georgia and up to North Carolina through Florida’s Key West, Americans, and especially those who pledged their lives to Christian creeds would devalue their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ because of the color of their skin.
We must face the fact that in America the church is still the most segregated major institution in America. At 11:00 on Sunday morning when we stand and sing and Christ has no east or west, we stand at the most segregated hour in this nation. This is tragic.
Pastor Rohan goes on to list a litany of America’s dirty laundry from Jim Crow Laws. These laws, policies, and socially accepted norms were put in place to separate white Americans from the recently freed black slaves and their progeny, so as to distinguish between those who were wealthy, educated, socially accepted, and righteous from those who were deemed dirty, uncouth, and savage-like.
Blacks would have to sit in different quarters of a locomotive, enter a business through a different entrance, drink water from a different fountain, swim in different pools, ride the bus and sit in the back, have assigned seating in restaurants, or possibly not allowed to dine in them at all. Interracial marriage was prohibited. The black vote was suppressed, the black voice was silenced, the black representation in the public square was shunned and nearly nonexistent, and dared a black man or woman confront these regulations or condemn them he or she would either be arrested for breaking the law of the land or publicly lynched at the hands of their fellow white brothers and sisters in Christ.
Pastor Rohan informs us that what applied to the Ephesian church then is just and possibly more applicable to our church today. Praise God that we have progressed from the trans-Atlantic slave trade, we have progressed from the antebellum south, progressed from the civil war that emancipated the black Americans, progressed from the reconstructionist era, progressed from Jim Crow’s systemic rule, progressed from the Civil Rights era that covered black Americans with the same rights as white Americans, but what we fail to understand is that the sin that caused all of these virulent ills to fester in the church then, in Ephesus of old and in the America of not too long ago, is a sin still present in our church today.
It is true that Jim Crow laws have all but been abolished and discrimination based on race criminalized but racism, discrimination, and segregation are evils that are very much present in our churches, nevertheless our communities, today.
The world progresses from one evil to the next but when the church adopts a particular kind of it and later waves its banner from its rooftop, it then shifts its focus from Christ and places it on a nation, a race, a culture, a people, a structure, an economic model and ends up in a ruined state.
And as Pastor Rohan informs, “Unity in Christ cannot be accomplished by works.” So any time we remove Jesus from the forefront of our unity within the diversity, whenever we extract Christ from our unified body of people, we are reliant on something other than the Divine. And the temporal can only sustain a system for so long before it crumbles.
Again, Pastor Rohan informs us that, “the church needs to be careful so as to not promote barriers of discrimination and segregation because of traditions.”
Lest we forget, Bob Jones University, founded by fundamentalist preacher Bob Jones Sr. in 1927, prohibited African-Americans from admitting into the school until 1971 and even once African-Americans were allowed to attend they were discouraged from interracial dating and marrying because of racist traditions. It wasn’t until 1976 that this discriminatory policy was dropped and only in 2005 did Bob Jones Sr.s’ great-grandson, Stephen Jones, apologize for the rhetoric and traditions of old that did not serve to honor Christ or His creation.
There are traditions that we create, then we deify these traditions, and make doctrines to protect them, and later force others to behave in accordance with them only to find that these edicts and patterns serve only to divide us. You can list them, women in pants, head-coverings for women, to speak or not to speak in tongues, tie or no tie, grooming, to drink or not to drink, to eat pork or not to eat pork, to listen to gospel music from the 70s and 80s or contemporary Christian music.
Ad nauseam.
All of these modes and patterns are created to mold us into representations of a reflection of Christ-like conduct but they leave us unchanged within thus creating not a church of believers but a community of unregenerate segregationalists and discriminators.
This should not be.
Paul addresses social and theological implications.
ROhan K. Samuels
We cannot substitute the glue that holds our salvation, our unity, our peace, our spiritual growth, and maturity together, which is Christ, with anything or anyone other than Christ for the moment we do, everything we have worked for disappears.
Christ came to demolish the dividing walls that stood between cultures.
Rohan K. Samuels
In shifting gears, Pastor Rohan goes onto condemn traditions that limit the unity we have in Christ. He exposes the frailty of “tradition centered” churches who cannot survive change, cannot adapt, are not protean, are not malleable entities who adjust with our changing culture, our changing environment, and natural disasters, COVID in particular. Churches that created an idol of in-person services, in-building gatherings, and the faulty church-service-in-a-building-onlyism mindset.
And this is not to discredit the gathering of the saints, for we are admonished and encouraged by scripture to not forsake this, but nor are we to idolize it as if attendance and presence in the church, in and of itself is an act of righteousness unto salvation. As Pastor Rohan expressed (I) is that “if bringing someone to the church is our evangelistic outreach goal but now that we can’t go to church (because of COVID) then our evangelistic outreach has reached its limit.”
How embarrassing of us, Church. Really. How sad.
QUOTE
Our great commission is to go out into the world but we have settled for going into the church.
Rohan K. Samuels
And coming to the end of this segment, Pastor Rohan focuses not just on how skewed our understanding of evangelism has become in the 21st century, but he also points out that the motivation driving our evangelistic outreach is misplaced.
QUOTE
Our evangelism is done out of guilt.
Rohan K. Samuels
How many of us, as he resonated, will work a double shift, attend every church service of the week, sleep through prayer services, snore through Bible study, and still find the fervor to go out, in our exhausted and delicate state, to evangelize as if we’re finding greater merit from Christ from our sacrifice to Him.
Christ has already paid the full price for our salvation. He has paid the full fee, entry, bill, price, sentence, judgment, and more for not only our salvation but for that of the world.
What should catapult us into evangelistic outreach, and perhaps this understanding of evangelism is outdated for it we call it an “evangelistic outreach” which means that as Christians we are not always evangelizing and at times we aren’t always reaching, is a passion for God and people.
If our great commission is only great on the basis of a weekly or monthly send out and we’re only commissaries on the request of our local pastor then we aren’t fulfilling the call of our Great Shepherd. We’re appealing to and gratifying the needs of a local body of people, not the lifelong, day long, all-too great, and all-too satisfying life mission of living for Christ and speaking about Him to everyone that we know. If we do not embody Him and reflect Him in all that we do then we cannot say that we are evangelizing.
Nowhere in the Bible do we find the apostles setting off to evangelize, just for a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon before service. No. They lived their faith and pursuit every day of their lives; so much so that twelve men spread their faith in Christ from Jerusalem to Samaria, Israel, Africa, Europe, and beyond. Two millennia later and we’re still hearing the fervency of this message because it is just that important and because those who set off to share it did so out of love for God and His creation.
Pastor Rohan asks the listener a set of questions that I’ll leave you with this night:
Are our churches set up to unite only on the basis of dress, looks, and aesthetics?
Is it preferences that unite us?
Does our unity have limitations?
Please, brothers and sisters in the faith, take these words to heart. Understand that we are one body, one entity, one group, one blood in Christ Jesus. If your church is divided on any line, racial, cultural, ethnic, economic, class, or whatever, please consider revisiting this text from Ephesians 2:11-22 to understand that racism, discrimination, and segregation upsets the heart of Christ. And the only way to repair this gap, this chasm, this, what seems and truly is an irreconcilable tear, is through Jesus Christ.
Allow the Lord to also heal the ills, evils, hatred, and discriminatory behaviors that are present in your heart. If you are to be a place where God dwells, you cannot have these things in your heart.
“As God’s household, you are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. The whole building is joined together in him, and it grows up into a temple that is dedicated to the Lord. Christ is building you into a place where God lives through the Spirit.”
Think about it. Pray on it. Deliver it onto God. Be free. Love. Unite. Progress, all under Christ and for Christ.
This afternoon we had the continued privilege of praising God with Freedom Life Church and to sit under the expository preaching of pastor Rohan K. Samuels.
We were thankful to revisit the topic of grace. In fact, the title of today’s message was The Gift of Grace, based solely on a passage from Ephesians that informed a church two millennia ago about the doctrine of salvation and continues to inform and nourish the church, worldwide, to this day about the concept and practice of grace.
Let us read the passage in full.
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” – Ephesians 2:1-7
Again, we cannot talk about God’s gift to mankind, this undeserved mercy, and unmerited favor without discussing grace. Jesus walked this earth, sinless and pure, fulfilling in his short life the requirements of a holy life and was eventually betrayed by his friends and the religious counsel of his day where from there he was tried by a kangaroo court and sentenced to death by crucifixion.
Christ endured this vilest and cruelest execution methods imaginable because of His love for us and His willingness to submit Himself to the Father, for our sake.
GRACE
Grace is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary in three ways.
Unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification
A virtue coming from God
A state of sanctification enjoyed through divine assistance
How beautiful, really, to know that this gift of salvation, regeneration, of redemption, justification, propitiation, and sanctification of sinners comes from God and God alone.
It is such a joy to know that God has accomplished the total work required for our salvation alone. He did not need our help, our strength, our effort, or our struggle to complete His redemptive story.
Rest assured, sinner, the work is done.
Pastor Rohan emphasizes the need for effective and continual theological training from the pulpit because far too many congregations and congregants have settled for a water-downed gospel which in turn leaves them with a particular teaching of Christ and His salvific mission that gives Christians and unbelievers an uneasy feeling of uncertainty regarding their own salvation.
He lists three categories that have led, at least in our western churches, to the crippling of the gospel.
Theological Illiteracy
Theology is but the study of God and God’s relation to His creation. When we fail to understand who God is, how He has communicated with His creation and why, then we resort to erroneous understandings of God, which leaves the student of scripture with a flawed perception of their Creator.
When we avoid theological training that builds our understanding of God then we are left with a man-made deity that best serves us as a butler and we are led to believe this is who God is.
We could not be further from the truth.
And what is essentially paradoxical about studying theology, or rather, studying the revealed personality of our Creator, is that the more we learn about Him the more in awe we are about Him. We actually come to know less about Him, the more we know about Him.
In trying to understand and decipher the infinite, the finite thus bows its head.
But too many church attendees find their comfort in theological illiteracy because they postulate that if it is impossible to know all of God or all about God, it is rather best to not know anything about Him at all, other than what He can give us.
Poor theology leads to poor anthropology.
Olivet Theory
This faulty understanding of our Creator and Perfector leads the congregant to a deistic understanding of God. A God who is there but too far away and too busy to care.
Theology, like understanding the basic laws of physics help an individual understand why jumping from a third-story window is a bad idea. Ignorance is only bliss when you’re freefalling but the ground eventually catches up with you.
Poor theology leads to poor anthropology.
Therapeutic Preaching
Therapeutic peaching is just that. Words and sermons delivered for the betterment of our feelings and emotions. You leave the church uplifted, emotionally, but spiritually unchanged.
There is no trace of sin, corruption of the soul, menacing thoughts, devilish influence, Satanic oppression, or perpetual damnation because these doctrinal points are too polemic to discuss in church.
Therapeutic preaching serves best in areas where people struggle with their understanding of God, their understanding of sin, their understanding of scripture, and their ultimate understanding of the gospel.
Here, people perish not just for lack of knowledge but for love of pleasure and comfort.
As you scratch their backs, in an elocutionary way, the better they feel about you and about God. But the moment you discuss or preach about sin and the need for spiritual reconciliation with God, the church has tuned you out.
This ought not to be.
Charismatic Speakers
This approach is self-explanatory.
There are far too many televangelists to list and it would be a disservice on my part to bore you or perhaps excite you with their names. I’m sure you can picture a few popular faces who have built empires of wealth around themselves under the guise of Christian living and teaching. However, these ministers of the self have done everything within their power to divert the focus away from Christ and toward themselves.
That is why, whenever one of these lucrative speakers is caught in an embarrassing scandal their church must struggle with the possibility of losing its financial stability and the followers that keep this industry moving.
Charismatic preachers do nothing for the gospel of Christ, nor do they express or explain the beauty of God’s grace demonstrated in scripture through the salvific work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Their intention is to grow their following and amass wealth.
Healthy theology from the pulpit leads to a healthy community.
Orthodoxy leads to orthopraxy.
The Scrubs
Pastor Rohan donned dark grey scrubs this Sunday afternoon and for a moment, I thought he had either come from a shift in the emergency room or was on his way to one as soon as service came to an end.
But his intention was to demonstrate that like a physician diagnosing a condition or a disease, we, humans, have to diagnose the illness present in our hearts.
We understand that there are structures, systems, cultures, ideologies, and persons who behave in such villainous ways but we rarely pause to consider the cause of their behaviors.
Sin festers in the heart before an action is ever taken but far too often we’re combating the symptoms of sin, whereas we must address, first, the presence of sin and second, the remedy for it.
Olivet Theory
Pastor Rohan references one of these issues, namely, racism in our world. Specially how people have conducted themselves towards other people in such condemnable ways but we rarely pause to ask why they behave that way.
The human heart has a disease, a corruption inherent in the human essence and it is called sin.
Sin is the cancer that spreads from one generation to the next. Sin is the spark that ignites lust in man’s heart before he commits rape or adultery. It is the flame in a child’s heart before they set their home ablaze, killing everyone inside. It is sin that thirsts for more liquor even though the inebriate wants it not.
Sin festers in the heart before an action is ever taken but far too often we’re combating the symptoms of sin, whereas we must address, first, the presence of sin and second, the remedy for it.
We must diagnose the illness of the human heart before we can do away with the symptoms it produces.
That is why the gospel is called the Good News because before we ever receive the gospel we must inform, or, rather, remind the sinner that they have an insidious disease running through their veins; no, deeper, it lives in their soul.
Paul reminds the church of Ephesus that we were all children of wrath.
Pastor Rohan informs the church that mankind is born in this reprobate state of irreversible fallenness. He states:
The nature of the unbeliever is fallen
The unbeliever is unable to revive himself, spiritually and physically from the dead
We are all subjugated to the will of the devil
“Spiritual deadness finds its source in Satan.” Said Pastor Rohan. “Every unbeliever is spiritually dead, sons of the devil.”
Paul poetically informs us of our depraved and unregenerate state in the letter to the Romans this way:
“as it is written:
None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.
Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.
The venom of asps is under their lips.
Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Romans 3:10-18
And again:
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
Romans 3:23
And let the reader understand that sin is the diagnosis and the prognosis, the outcome of sin, is death.
But thanks be to God in heaven that through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the grace which was given to us through His efficacious work on the cross, we are saved by grace through faith!
But God
You can imagine a man on top of a horse on his way to the gallows for crimes unpardonable. You can imagine the same man facing the people who once trusted him, a people he once called friends now throwing rotten vegetables at him, yelling obscenities from the top of their throats at him. He listens to the gallop of the horse he is seated on and wonders how many more steps it will take before it reaches the gallows. He looks side to side and pictures the world but the unease of his execution prevents him from fixating on anything good.
He is dismounted from his mare, forced up a set of steps where a priest is reciting strange words to either him or the crowd, he is not sure. He captures the executioner, in clad black armor, face covered by a black hood. The crowd cheers when the noose is wrapped around his neck. He hears something coming from the priest about last rites or last words but shrugs and wants nothing more than to be done with this life, this world of illness and disease, this world of pillage and murder, of prostitution and abandoned bastards. He wants nothing more than that which he has earned from his way of life. His wants and desires have led him to the very noose that now hugs his throats so dearly. His wages have merited him a speedy and all too comforting death, comforting compared to the death he dealt his victims. This man is a killer, a cold-blooded murderer who deserves nothing but the tightening of a just and fair rope around his neck as his body struggles against itself. This man deserves death.
But short of the executioner pulling the trap door mechanism, a fine hairs’ distance away from sure and complete death a trumpet blasts in the distance. A sound the townspeople know all too well. It is sounded of the arrival of royalty. The crowd makes way for a man dressed in kingly attire but it isn’t the king, it is his son, the prince. This gallant figure approaches the gallows as the crowd stands in awe, in silence, in reverence of his eminence, awaiting, perhaps, for him to adulate the execution of the criminal but he does the opposite of that. He stands, makes eye contact with the spectators, and disrobes. His body, now exposed to the elements shivers. The cool air embraces his naked body as his servants turn in shame. He approaches the priest and demands he be silent. He approaches the executioner and orders him to remove the noose from around the neck of the convicted man. Everyone gasps as both priest and executioner obey without hesitance. What happens next is the most unexpected case of all time, the prince, the son of the king of the land places the noose around his own neck. The crowd shudders, they whimper, some scream in fear, and others grab on to whoever they can. No one dares interrupt the work of the king’s son, for that, they thought, would also merit a sure death on the gallows.
The prince looks at the murderer who moments ago was a dead man and whispers something to him about forgiveness, about go and sin no more, about your sins are forgiven you, and I will see you again.
The killer, unsure of how this is happening, unable to grasp the profundity of this act of selflessness from the royal son, is brought to tears, there, at the gallows but unsure why. The hate he once felt for the world begins to dissipate and he is unsure why. He attempts to explain to the royal prince that it is his neck that should be wrapped by the noose but the prince raises a hand and the crowd and the murderer are brought to silence. A sudden and complete silence.
The prince looks to the executioner, to the priest, and to the crowd at which point he explains to them that the crimes of the man before him are unpardonable and that death by hanging was the only way this killer would leave this world. But, the prince, loving the man and the crowd so much, said he would take on the crimes of the kingdom and the crimes committed in the past, and crimes yet to be committed by his servants on to himself. If anyone was to die, he would die for them all.
At this point, he gives the executioner the command only royalty could and down his body goes and with him the guilt, crimes, ills, killings, and sins of the man he saved. No one dared lay a hand on the forgiven man for the prince, the son of the king, had taken his place on the gallows, thus giving him another chance at life.
But God…
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.”
Saved. Raised. Seated.
“saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,”
God has activated, He has rekindled life in our soul. Not only washing us of our sins but sending His Son, Jesus, to die for our sins. He has raised us from the wallow of sin to life everlasting when He raised His Son from the grave. And now remains for us a brighter future beyond the grave, thanks be to Christ Jesus.
Pastor Rohan informs us that not only are we awakened from a deadly spiritual state but our position before God is another. We were once distant, desolate in the soul, reprobate, and deserving of wrath but because of God’s great mercy, because of God’s gift of GRACE, we are now children of God.
We can approach our heavenly Father as little children approach their parents and rest in their embrace.
Mind you, God’s embrace is not weak. His grip over our lives, our salvation, our future, and eternal state is not feeble. He who saved us is He who maintains us in Him and He will not relent. He will not loosen His hold of His children the same way a mother does not release her grip over her babes in light of imminent danger.
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The Creator of our universe can save you, raise you, and seat you by His feet for all eternity. His grace affords us this incomparable gift.
It’s His gift of grace to us all.
Why linger, why falter, why wander any longer, reader?
Accept His generous gift and be welcomed into the family of God with opened arms.
Olivet Theory 