Faithful until Christ Returns (Urbana 84)

by Tokunboh Adeyemo

"The business of the church is more than just sharing with unbelievers how to get to heaven. We are in the business of putting down all forms of wickedness and unrighteousness in this age, in this world. "

To the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. I know your afflictions and your poverty - yet you are rich! I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death. (Rev 2:8-11)

I repeat, be faithful - faithful until Christ returns.

"Faithful in Christ Jesus" has been our theme for Urbana 84. As has been publicized and demonstrated, faithful witnesses can change the world. Moses changed the world of his day. As a faithful instrument mightily used by God, he changed the geo-economic, socio-political and spiritual destiny of his people - from slavery to sonship, from oppression to freedom, from repression to release, from captivity to Canaan, and from hopelessness to a joyful destiny! The Bible says Moses was faithful in all his assigned ministry as a servant of God (Heb 3:5). God could trust him. God knew that Moses would refuse identification and conformity with the status quo of Pharaoh's daughter. God knew that Moses would esteem the reproach of God more than the treasures in Egypt. God knew that Moses would rather suffer affliction with the people of God than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. God found in Moses what he was looking for to change the world: faithfulness.

Like Moses but far greater is our Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says that Jesus "was faithful to the one who appointed him," for Moses was "faithful as a servant" but Christ "as a son" (Heb 3:2-6). The psalm of his life was to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind and to set at liberty those that are oppressed (Lk 4:18). In all of these Jesus was faithful. Even when that meant hunger and thirst, when it meant rejection and hostility by the establishment, when it meant suffering and death, Jesus did not waiver. He remained faithful to the end. No wonder in his message to the church at Smyrna he admonishes the believers to be faithful unto death.

Faithfulness means trustworthiness. To be faithful is to be loyal to another person - true to fact and constant to one's conviction. Our call is to be faithful until Christ returns. While the resurrection of Christ supplies the ground for our faith, the hope of his return has always motivated the church to get down to business. In Luke 19 Jesus tells the parable of a nobleman who went into a far country to receive a kingdom and to return. He called his ten servants together, gave them money and said, "Occupy till I come." The Lord is saying to his church, "Occupy till I come!" Are we faithfully occupying the world for Christ?

Confessing Jesus as Lord

First and foremost the church is charged to confess Jesus Christ as Lord. This is a resurrection mandate given to the church. Death could not kill Jesus Christ. The grave could not keep him. Satan could not destroy him. In triumph Jesus rose from the dead, and he is alive forevermore. This cannot be said of Muhammad. It cannot be said of Confucius. It cannot be said of Buddha. It is only Christianity that has a risen Lord. God the Father has highly exalted Jesus and has given him a name that is above every name. It is not just a title; it is a name. "At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord" (Phil 2:10-11).

In this divine declaration, God does not exclude any part of the created universe. Everything is under the domain of the lordship of Jesus Christ And everything means everything. His lordship is not confined to our private lives. The lordship of Jesus Christ covers all of life and its daily reality. Lordship means ownership. A maker of any object is its owner. Take for example, a Swiss wrist watch. The maker of that wrist watch is its lord or owner as long as that wrist watch has not been sold, or given freely to somebody. Even if it's stolen and kept for years, the maker is still the rightful owner. Ownership means lordship.

By the act of creation Jesus is Lord of all. He is the Lord of every one, whether a Communist Chinese, a socialist Swede, a secularist Britisher, a religious Indian, or a superstitious African. Jesus is Lord. Though they may not acknowledge him as Lord, we know that he is Lord because by him all things were created. As Lord, Jesus Christ has both authority and power over the destiny of every man and woman, every boy and girl. In addition, by the act of redemption, Jesus Christ is Lord because he has purchased us by his precious blood. His claim on us is twofold: he made us and redeemed us.

Simply stated, confessing Jesus Christ means a complete surrender to him. It means total obedience to his command. It means absolute allegiance to his reign. In Communist Russia, for example, confessing Jesus Christ as Lord may mean coming into conflict with the ruling power. In apartheid South Africa confessing Jesus Christ as Lord may mean condemning the inhuman racial segregation and discrimination. Confessing Jesus Christ as Lord under the totalitarian regimes of many Latin American and African States, may bring us into conflict with the powers that be. In the increasingly materialistic and secularist West, it may mean a radical examination of our lifestyles and values.

In every situation and instance we are to testify that the ultimate reality is Jesus Christ, not Caesar. If all of us would rise up and confess Jesus Christ as Lord in our different situations and locations, we would turn the world upside down as the apostles did. But today, the church is not doing well. The church is deceived. Within the church there is a malady of compromise. Instead of confessing Jesus Christ, we accommodate and conform to society. Beware of civil religion. Beware of cultural captivity. Beware. If Jesus is Lord, he has absolute control.

Many of us are afraid of death, and as a result we keep our mouths shut. Listen to words of the Master: "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather; be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell" (Mt 10:28). What am I saying here? Our business in to stand and be counted for Jesus Christ, and that at all costs. Whatever it may cost you, stand up and be counted for Jesus Christ This is our first business as the church of Jesus Christ. This is where mission begins: proclaiming Jesus Christ is Lord.

Discipling the Nations

The second business of the church is that of discipling all the nations of the world. While confessing Jesus Christ is a resurrection mandate, discipling all the nations is a Pentecost mandate. The Holy Spirit was not given to the church for private enjoyment. Never! The Holy Spirit was given to the church so as to set the world in revolution, on fire for the Lord. The Master says, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and
in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

The apostle Paul did not stand before King Agrippa just to win an argument; he was not there simply to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and fold his hands. He stood before the king to confess Jesus Christ as Lord and to persuade King Agrippa to believe on Jesus. Agrippa got that message because he said, "Paul, you almost made me a Christian" (Acts 26). That should be the intention of every Christian. In whatever relationship you find yourself, in whatever situation, don't forget that your first and foremost business is for Jesus Christ. Your business is to confess Jesus as Lord: in order to persuade people to believe in him. Discipleship is persuading people to forsake their ignorance, their indifference, their skepticism, their pride, their corruption, their, wickedness. And as they forsake their old ways, they are to embrace Jesus Christ and be brought into the fellowship of his church. This is our business. To this we have been called. We are to do it with compassion; we are to do it in' the power of the Holy Spirit. We are to do it everywhere and always.

Hudson Taylor, one of the fathers of the modern missionary movement, once cried out: "Lord, give me China or else I die." Elisabeth Elliot tells of the brutal murder of her husband and four other missionaries at the hands of South American Indians of Ecuador in the course of bearing witness for Christ. It was this sense of business - the desire to disciple the nations - that led these people to their death. The history of the African church will be incomplete without chapters written on people like Livingstone, Mary Slessor, Ajayi Crowther, Prophet Harris and, many others - people who laid down their lives for the sake of the Master. These men and women were light-bearers of the. gospel to my own continent which used to be called "dark." Though physically dead, their work lives on.

Suppressing Evil

The third business of the church is that of suppressing all forms of evil. Any, form of wickedness, whether it is personal, structural or societal, must be suppressed in the name: of Jesus Christ by his witnesses.

The Bible tells us that all forms of wickedness and unrighteousness are of the devil. And the reason Jesus came into the world, according to 1 John 3:8, was to destroy the works of the devil. If that is the case, then whenever we see any form of wickedness or evil, whether personal, structural or societal, it must be our business to pull it down and destroy it for the sake of Jesus Christ.

In some instances, evil takes the form of ignorance, disease, famine, and poverty, as among millions of Indians, Africans and Australian aborigines. In such instances, we are duty bound to provide functional education, medical facilities, personnel and food. With compassion we are to share our God-given resources with those who are in need. Jesus Christ went about doing good. If we do the same thing, we are like our Master, Jesus Christ. At times evil takes the form of religious and traditional superstition, myths and magic. It is our obligation in such an instance to confront superstition and dislodge magic by the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I remember my own tribe, the Yoruba of Nigeria. For many years we lived in darkness. We lived under constant fear. There was superstition about everything. But the entrance of God's Word brought light. Jesus said, "If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (Jn 8:36). And today I live no longer under the fear of superstition, because Jesus Christ has liberated me by the truth of his gospel. The force that ignited the Reformation fire in Luther and Calvin and set the people free from religious bondage was the Word of God given back to the people in the language they could understand and at the price they could afford. The Word of God is alive, and is capable of liberating people.

The more rampant form of wickedness today is that of structure. This often takes the form of discrimination, violence and exploitation. It manifests itself in institutions where powers and privileges are shared along racial, tribal or sexual lines. We have also seen it where position is assumed and power is maintained by violence against people's wishes. It can also be seen where economic order is tailored to favor the rich minority and deprive the unfortunate masses kept constantly poor. In all of these cases, in whatever form wickedness shows itself, it is our duty as Christians to confront it, reject it and denounce it with the power of the Holy Spirit.

Remember John the Baptist's message before the tax collectors. These people were notorious for their exploitation of the people. They came to him to ask, "What should we do?" And he said, "Don't collect any more than you are required to" (Lk 3:13). To the soldiers he said, "Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely - be content with your pay" (v. 14). How we need prophets like that today! Remember the prophet Nathan as he stood before King David. David had committed the atrocious sin of taking the wife of Uriah to be his own wife. Nathan was bold like a lion before him. Pointing at David, he said, "Thou art the man." This is what we need in our pulpits today. Many of our preachers are just political puppets. We need prophets, prophets for Jesus Christ. We are tired of the Voice of America and the Voice of Moscow. We need the voice of the Lord. We need preachers; we need Christians that will stand for righteousness, for truth and for
love.

William Wilberforce almost stood alone against all odds for the abolition of slave trade in nineteenth-century England. We also remember Abraham Lincoln's signature to the Emancipation Proclamation. Martin Luther King, Jr. struggled against racial segregation in the southern states of North America. I don't know whether all these men were Christians. But one thing is sure: they all shared in God's desire that justice should reign. I am tempted to believe that their
convictions were drawn from biblical principles. I also believe that their motivations were inspired by none except God who is righteous and just in all of his ways.

The business of the church is more than just sharing with unbelievers how to get to heaven. We are in the business of putting down all forms of wickedness and unrighteousness in this age, in this world.

My heart cries out for Christian statesmen like Nehemiah and Daniel, prophets like Amos, apostles like Paul, queens like Esther Christians that will stand for righteousness for the sake of Christ. Christians that will stand for justice, equity and truth. I pray that the Lord will give us ambassadors for Jesus Christ like those I've
mentioned here.

Equipping the Saints

The fourth business of the church is that of equipping the saints for the work of ministry. This business is particularly directed to the gifted leaders in any given Christian community. Peter challenges his colleagues, the pastors, to feed the flock of God. In his epistle, James said the same thing of teachers. Paul addresses the evangelist with similar emphasis in the second epistle to Timothy. The message cannot be missed. Wise leaders either at home or in the mission field are ones who reproduce themselves in others as Christ is reproduced in them. Paul charges Timothy, saying, "The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others" (2 Tim 2:2).

We as Christians need to be thoroughly equipped for our mission in the world. There is no excuse for ignorance. We need to understand and explain the Word of God thoroughly, but at the same time we need to understand and explain the world that we are trying to reach thoroughly. We cannot be effective or relevant unless we understand the world to which we have been called to minister.

The Master has adequately equipped his church to succeed. "I will build my church," Jesus says, "and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Mt 16:18). What pieces of equipment has the Lord given to his church? Precisely three: the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, and the heroic examples of men and women of faith.

The Holy Spirit

As a politician depends on public opinion for his business, and as a military general depends on his soldiers in a warfare, so the church depends on the Holy Spirit for its faithful witness. Take the life of our Lord Jesus Christ himself. Everything about him was done by the power of the Holy Spirit. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. He was baptized by the Holy Spirit. He was driven, to the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. He performed miracles by the Holy Spirit. He was able to endure pain by the Holy Spirit; And it was the Holy Spirit who raised him from the dead. Jesus did his own work in the power of the Holy Spirit. Are we doing the same? Many of us treat the Holy Spirit as a guest or a visitor. We pack him away in the spare bedroom of our mind. The Holy Spirit is given to us to anoint us so that we can do the Lord's work.

Power to proclaim the good news of the kingdom comes from the Holy Spirit. Power to heal the sick comes from the Holy Spirit. Power to drive out evil spirits comes from the Holy Spirit. Power to pronounce peace to a troubled heart comes from the Holy Spirit. How well are we doing today? Are we doing the Lord's work? Are we living under the power of the Holy Spirit?

The Word of God

Along with the Holy Spirit, the church has been given the Word of God. The Word of God was not promised, it was given to us. The Word of God is to enable us to stand against all that is against God. We read in Hebrews that the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword. It was Spurgeon who said, "The word of God is like a lion. You don't have to defend a lion. All you need to do is to let the lion loose and the lion will defend itself."

The faith of Christian men and women

From the inception of the church to the present, there have always been men and women who have had to face persecution and even death for the sake of the gospel. By faith they have stood on the Word of God. From their example we learn about the life of faith and about God. Can you imagine a Bible without the story of Abraham? Can you imagine a Bible without the stories of Moses and Joshua? Can you imagine a Bible without the story of the apostles? Do you think all these stories were given to us just to fill up the pages? Not at all. The stories of these men and women were recorded for us in the Scriptures so that we can draw strength, motivation and inspiration from them. "And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign enemies" (Heb 11:32-34).

Faithful men and women, as we read or hear about them, give us strength, encouragement, motivation and inspiration. One of the best examples and testimonies we have today is that of Sadhu Sundar Singh from India. During his life he covered every part of his great country, from north to the south, east to the west. He considered himself as a debtor to God, yes, but also to his people who had of heard the good news. On foot he crossed the Himalayas to take the gospel to Nepal.
From this man of faith and courage has come to the church a song that has become my favorite: "I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, nc turning back. You can take the whole world, but give me Jesus, no turning back, no turning back. The world behind me, the cross before me, no turning back, no turning back."

Lord, raise up men and women who shall be faithful to you and your mission unto death or until you return.

[in 1984] Tokunboh Adeyemo [was] general secretary of the Association of Evangelicals of Africa and Madagascar and chairman of the executive council of the World Evangelical Fellowship. A Muslim by birth, he was converted as a young school principal in his homeland of Nigeria.

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Faithful until Christ Returns (Urbana 84)

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