My Brothers Keeper: By Tim Kernan
Ezra 10: 1-4 While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a large crowd of Israelites—men, women and children—gathered around him. They too wept bitterly. Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, one of the descendants of Elam, said to Ezra, “We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the peoples around us. But in spite of this, there is still hope for Israel. Now let us make a covenant before our God to send away all these women and their children, in accordance with the counsel of my lord and of those who fear the commands of our God. Let it be done according to the Law. Rise up; this matter is in your hands. We will support you, so take courage and do it.”
Here we see the heart of our Old Testament brothers and sisters who were confronted with their sin. In this touching passage when the spiritual leader Ezra was personally broken hearted about his sin the peoples hearts were broken as well and they pledged to repent. There is a lot to learn from this passage for all leaders. People follow what we do more than what we say. They imitate our hearts and what we are communicating to them with our lives not just our sermons. (1 Timothy 4:16) One of the major difficulties that confronted returning exiles from Babylon was that they had become yoked with unbelievers and had foreigners and Jews among them in Jerusalem who were not committed to the Kingdom. Ezra had not been his brothers shepherd and his brokenness about this grave problem prepared the peoples hearts to deal with the issue. Of course it was Nehemiah who settled it a little later on: “I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair…” (Nehemiah 13: 25) .
Ezra and Nehemiah, like Jesus, knew that the membership needed to be defined. Nehemiah knew they could not rebuild the Kingdom if the Jerusalem was full of spiritual enemies. Jesus taught that the church was the committed disciples. Jesus didn’t beat anyone however he promises things worse than beatings to those who do not conform to his words in Luke 14: 26-27: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple…” In a number of ways Jesus is actually more demanding than Nehemiah. Our hearts need to break if our church is not made of sold out disciples… and then we need to do something about it.
I don’t know any leader who doesn’t want the fruit of Jesus ministry or the ministry of Nehemiah. The fruit of these ministries was love, deep relationships, trust, friendship, and meaningful victories. We all know that the produce of Jesus ministry is on the hearts of every sincere Christian leader in the world. Not only that but, more than anything, every Christian in the world wants to be part of a ministry with those fruit. What is the barrier that holds so many of us back? The problem that prevents us from having those results is that we don’t have the brokenheartedness of Ezra or the grit of Nehemiah. We want the results but we don’t want the pain and hostility that comes with it. Sometimes we have to trade popularity for fruitfullness as Jesus did. Jesus truly loves each and every one of us and is calling us to walk the path he walked.
Defining the fellowship cannot be done in an interview process. You cannot simply have people sign a document to make sure they all agree philosophically that Jesus is Lord and we should all copy him. What a disgrace that would be in comparison to the richness of Jesus plan. In fact defining the membership is about drawing people into a spiritual life and a community of dynamic and loving disciples. Again this is not a simple matter of issuing a decree. Lets look at Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians:
1 Thessalonians 5: 12-15 Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.
It always encourages me that the Thessalonians repented of their less noble ways! (Acts 17: 11) We see here that Paul calls for leaders who admonish to be respected and to be held in the highest regard in love. Its a shame to see leaders who multiply kisses and a fellowship who disrespect their leaders. In the end neither get what they want. According to Paul its better to have it the other way around! What Paul says next its of critical importance in regards to defining the fellowship. Paul writes that we should learn to care for the different elements in the church in different ways. The idle must be warned and spurred forward firmly. The timid must be encouraged and lifted with vision. The weak, yet still fully committed disciples, must be helped.
Elder Bob Bertalot, in a sermon recently in London, used the example of and elderly lady crossing a busy street. It does no good to stand on the curb yelling encouragements. She could very well still be in the middle of the street when her green light changes to red. What the bible calls for is for us to go and physically help her. Some disciples don’t need to be told to learn their first principals, or have quiet times, or even evangelize; their heart is in the right place but they need someone to physically get out there and help them. Some of my most fruitful relationships are with disciples who need exactly that type of help. They appreciate it so much. They are committed but sometimes because of depression, stress that comes from financial debt, mental illness or the damage wrought by sin they are weak and need the hand of a brother. Simply being your brothers keeper is a major part of drawing people into the spiritual life and thereby defining the fellowship. If you are your brothers keeper the whole flock is kept. When we have drawn in these committed disciples we reveal the traitorous false brothers who have traded salvation for sin, who have captured by Satan to drag the church down. That category needs to be revealed quickly and sorted out just as fast. 2 Sam 23: 5-7.
When in China do as the Chinese. When in the church be a disciple. Somehow this simple thinking which we apply so well in all the other areas of our life gets lost when we are dealing with the church. Luckily, even though we can be ambiguous, God is not. He is clear that the membership of a church must not include non-Christians.
One of the most powerful elements of getting “the many” moving forward spiritually is to focus on “the few”. 2 Tim 2:2 “And 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.” Powerful words: entrust, reliable, qualified. What Paul is telling Timothy here is to copy Jesus ministry. Jesus wanted to reach everyone but he knew that as God who allowed himself to be constrained by being fully man he had to focus. A minister in London called me to tell me I was making too big of a deal about discipling. He went on to tell some of the disciples in our fellowship that a simple phone call a week was enough to meet the bibles minimum requirements. However as Paul wrote these words in chains, in a Roman prison he would never leave in the flesh, I don’t think he envisioned a phone call a week. From the Scriptures we see that he was begging Timothy, with all of his heart, in the presence of Jesus himself to entrust the message of eternal life to men who would be reliable and in turn pass it on to others. Focus on everyone and you focus on no one. If you want to start a fire you don’t simply let the sun shine on a pile of wood. You get out a magnifying glass and burn one spot until it bursts into flame.
Lianne and I have spent an absolutely wonderful time here in Toronto. A couple that has been a massive encouragement to us is Gerald and Ann. Gerald is a former Canadian reserve paratrooper who loves target shooting, cold weather and a good bible study down at “the Tim Hortons” (the Canadian Starbucks). Where have you been all my life?! Ann is a future matriarch of the Kingdom. She gathers sisters together and brings them closer to God like a mother hen with her chicks. I’m so encouraged by their love for God and friendship.
Its been great to have Chris take up the slack in my absence in London and I have been so proud of his amazing work through the Spirit. We were all delighted to hear about our second recent baptism and the amazing work the brothers and sisters are doing on campus. Check out Chris’ article at www.lecturehalloftyrannus.org our London Church campus website. All the brothers and sisters have grown so much and this time away has called everyone higher.
I am very much looking forward to my trip to back to Congo DRC in a few days. Its a critical mission to a country which is rated by Forbes as one of the infamous top three most dangerous countries in the world. A mission fully worth dieing for. I wrote about it at www.africatrustfund.org where you can also contribute to feeding hungry third world disciples. If you click here can also listen to an mp3 sermon I preached when I returned to London after my last trip to Congo. (This is also a great little memory from the first days of the mission team).
Things happen when we define the fellowship and get things moving. What defining the fellowship comes down to is one thing: When people say “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen 4: 9) we say “Yes”. When we are our brothers keeper the fellowship is defined and ready to be a noble tool in God’s hands. There is absolutely no doubt that this is what every Christian wants. The question we have to ask ourselves now is: “Am I my brothers keeper?”.
Jesus is Lord!
Tim Kernan
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