In His Name Devotionals
CHURCH BUSINESS
In His Name Devotionals
CHURCH BUSINESS
“And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth, Go therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
Preaching the Gospel should not only be every Christian’s chief and essential work, but that of the Lord’s church, too. The “business” of the church of our Lord is to preach the Gospel, present its motives, its power through the Holy Spirit, its ideals, its inspirations; to educate and train men and women for its work. Preachers need to preach the Gospel. Teachers need to teach the Gospel. Leaders in the Lord’s church need to lead in support of the Gospel. This is the basic “business” of the church of our Lord. Without this, all its work will end in failure.
The next basic work of the church is following Christ in His labor for the temporal and physical good of people—He went about doing good. He cured all manner of diseases and sickness among the people. He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them. He cleansed the lepers; cast out demons; gave sight to the blind; and restored the wildly insane. He was moved with compassion for the hungry and the suffering. He, “Himself took our infirmities and bare our diseases.” He fed the hungry. He raised the dead. And to the poor the Good News was preached. Yes, “He loved the church and gave Himself for it.”
If Jesus did not do works that man could not do, then the proof is gone that He was more than man and that His message was a revelation from God. The statement occasionally made today by certain writers, that “Jesus minimized miracle and healing,” is not true. He placed it indeed second to spiritual life and deliverance from sin. The diseased body is of far less account than sinfulness of the soul. He always refused to work a miracle for show, or for Himself, or to exhibit His power. That would have ruined the very purpose of His miracles. Always they were expressions of His loving-kindness, illustrations of His Good News, and therefore proofs of His mission and His power. And He repeatedly appeals to them for this purpose.
Jesus is the revelation to us of our Father. Nature is so vast, so regular and unchangeable in its laws; and God so invisible, so infinite, that it is hard to realize His presence. But Jesus is God manifest. His teachings are divine truth, His life is the divine life so far as it can appear to human eyes, and His miracles are expressions of God’s love and care, His power and willingness to help. God’s nature, what our Father is, can be learned from the nature of Jesus, our elder Brother; He is a real person, not a mere force.
