From http://someonehastosay.wordpress.com/2014/12/29/anycostal-the-cost-of-faith/
{For SI brothers and sisters.....if me sharing these things is not helpful or whatever, be kind enough to tell me. I share these long time thoughts and things I have written in the past because I trust the feedback here. But, you are more important than unwitting or reluctant responders. Thx, Tim}
Anycostalism: The Cost of Faith
In the first post, "Anycostalism: What It Means To Really Follow Jesus”, we looked at the meaning of this wholly made-up word, "anycostal”. We defined it, too.
"An anycostal is a Spirit-filled follower of Jesus Christ who is currently, constantly being reshaped into the image of Jesus and who is taking ownership of the call of Jesus to be a disciple-maker by purposely and deliberately preparing, equipping and training to (A) live the crucified life and (B) share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others until they, too, are living this way.” Please refer to that post for more discussion on buzz-words or catch-phrase jargon in that definition.
Jesus gave the disciples a mission. We are disciples; so, their mission is ours. Where the Twelve enjoyed the hands-on teaching by Jesus in human flesh, we enjoy "Spirit-in” teaching by Jesus through the Word of God and the relationships with one another that He has ordained in the church. He gives the Holy Spirit as Comforter and Helper and Empowerer for this mission.
Either we’re on mission with Him and the apostles or we aren’t. That mission is not only to follow, learn and do His works in our lives, but to actively seek and find lost people and compel them to train and follow us as we train with one another and follow Him. We cannot have it both ways ”“ our way and His Way. In fact, that word "and” is liability. We have to saw the "ands” out of our lives.
By the time of John’s banishment to Patmos, the Roman Empire had become more fully engaged in opposing Christian faith. Christians would only acknowledge one God. Roman life was essentially pagan life and pagan practices were government practices. Government set the cultural tone then as it does now. When Christians in ancient Rome did not value what the government valued, when they held themselves out wholly separated from the political apparatus and would not acknowledge that government was right to compel them to worship someone other than God-in-Christ alone, the empire and culture of Rome fell hard on Christians.
Roman Christians could have said, "We’ll serve Jesus AND the government.” They could have pursued God AND country, God AND culture, Jesus AND paganism. They could’ve gone through all of the outward motions of recognizing Jesus AND done what was beneficial for themselves, their families and property, etc. They could’ve done that if they would only co-exist with worshipping the gods of the Roman Empire. They didn’t have to reject Jesus. They simply had to add something else to Him, and that is exactly the appeal of the world to the Christian today. And, we’ve largely bought it.
Philippi in Macedonia ”“ where the gospel entered Europe for the first time ”” was a Romanesque city. It had been established by King Philip II of Maecdon centuries before Paul ever took the gospel there. After Octavian Caesar was renamed August Caesar by the Roman senate in 27 BC, Rome renamed the city to add Augustus’ name. It was basically Augustus’ Phillipi. The new boss put his name in front of the old boss. It was considered a miniature Rome. There was great pride, some wealth and real advantage to being a Philippian. What the kingdom and the culture wanted from Philippian Christians was to be Augusta Christianou ”“ Augustus’ Christians. Caesar’s Christians. As if to say, "You can identify with Jesus and say He is your boss, but the new boss is the true boss. The government, the culture is your real boss; feel free to use the name of your old one.”
We are creatures of our culture. Our political structures reflect what we want culturally. Our cultural expressions of what we want are further reflected in business. Gold ruled Philippi. Wealth was there to be taken. Lydia is mentioned in Acts as one of the earliest disciples to be baptized in Philippi; she was a thriving market dealer in purple linen. People pursued pleasure, wealth, power and advantage. How is the church in America today any different?
When the gospel was introduced with its demands that people follow Christ, with its insistence upon a change of mind about the culture, about advantage, about wealth accumulation, about what prosperity is, about what pleasure is, about being a citizen of Rome at all ”“ BAM. The culture hammer dropped. BAM. The political hammer fell hard. BAM. The people swelled up against the gospel like antibodies on an infection. The gospel of Jesus was seen as a disease to be eradicated.
Paul and Silas were soon mercilessly beaten and put into prison there. Paul managed to plant a church. When he and Silas left Philippi, the small band of believers was shaky but committed to shun the culture and follow the Christ. For them, there was no "Jesus and….”. By the time Paul wrote a letter to them a few years later, he was able to say this of them:
"So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12, 13).
Always obeyed. (That’s the cost.) God at work in you to will (want) and to work (do) His good pleasure. (That’s the faith.) The faith and the cost of faith are inseparable. Believers in Philippi had not set their minds on earthly things, but on the things of God. They were discipling.
Yet, there was an influence of those who had joined them but were not so minded. That conflict brought pressure. Paul reminded them ”“ and teaches us ”“ exactly what it costs our cultural, political, prosperity-seeking minds what we have to change our minds about in order to live in this faith.
"For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh”” though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith”” that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:3-11)
What ways of thinking do I have to give up in order to simply be in this faith of Jesus? Can I not keep ANY of my other devotions? Or, am I going to pay any cost at all, whatever He requires in his Word, in terms of my own self, in order to know Jesus as His student? Can I not just keep one of these devotions to something else? What harm can it do?
If I really believe Jesus and that He is Lord, then He has control over me. I cannot acknowledge or allow any other controlling influence as right, acceptable or simply judge it as harmless. I have to reject it publicly and in my own mind as against Jesus ”” or, in a more potent word, anti-Christ. Because, that’s what the culture is. That’s what the political apparatus of [insert country, cartel, corporation or cause here] is. That’s what the prosperity apparatus is. That’s what the amusement apparatus is. Anti-Christ.
We want to confine that "A” word to some future time and person that we’re depending on God to protect us from. But, as the apostle John said 2,000 years ago, the spirit of antichrist is already at work among us. It is subtle and lying. It tells us that we can have Jesus AND all of ”” this ”” too. None of that is future. We can not put off answering the question, "what does faith cost me?” any more than we can put off the decision about Jesus Himself. Why not? Because they’re the same question, and the answer to one answers the other.
In Philippians 3, Paul said, "if anyone has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more.” He rattled off as "in the flesh” the kinds of things we point to as Christian virtues. "I come from a good family” (the tribe of Benjamin being one of the most prestigious). "I am from the best part of the best country” (an Israelite). "I’m part of a great church” (a Hebrew of Hebrews). "I’m a good citizen and I work hard” (as to the Law, a Pharisee). "I’m doing better than a lot of people my age” ("I was advancing in Judaism beyong may of my contemporaries among my countrymen,” Galatians 1:14). He stated the case that, "You can’t find any fault in how I live…”, that is, "if you have a mind to put confidence in the flesh.” The things of the world. The things that are NOT from God, 1 John 2:15-17. That’s a condemnation ”“ not a recommendation ”“ of all these things as a place for confidence.
If you have confidence in the flesh and the things of the world, you will value your citizenship, your career, your family history, your stuff, your political parties and your voice in all of that. These are things you will value if you trust in anything other than Jesus and try to trust Jesus, too. There is no such thing as putting confidence in "God and __________.” If we do, it is only confidence in what lies on the wrong side of that "and”. Jesus made it clear that you cannot serve two masters. You will truly cling to one. Matthew 6:24. As soon as we introduce "and”, we admit, "I really don’t believe in Jesus.” "I really don’t TRUST Jesus.” "I really don’t have FAITH IN Jesus.” "He’s not enough to me.”
We are clever, though. We disguise "ands” with other words, like "but I”. "I trust Jesus, but I have a duty to _____________.” That’s an "and”.
Please understand. This is mission critical. We’ve been lied to by the world and the evangelists of the gospel of "and”, the world’s system that has lulled us into darkness and comfort.
Zoom in on verses 7-9: "[W]hatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ and may be found in Him.”
This is how serious Paul was about sawing off the "ands”. His entire life was tied up in what lay on the other side of "and”. He did a calculation. He ran the numbers. He used accounting terms in the original language in this sentence. What he had considered as "gain”, what you and I would still put under the "this profits me and is good for me” column, he moved to the other column as "loss”. The "that’s gone because it is not good for me” column. The "that only takes away from me” column. He had a change of mind, and he continued to have one mind (Philippians 2) that at ANY COST, he preferred to pursue the things of Jesus and let the chips of the world just fall. To let the chips of his prosperity fall. The chips of his good citizenship and his family heritage to just fall. He calculated and that the advantages of all those things should dry up and blow away because they were worthless in view of the far greater value of knowing Christ as his Lord, King, Controller, One to Obey. He found that nothing matters if he could gain Christ and be found in Him!
The ESV politely translates the word "rubbish” what the KJV better renders as "dung”. Excrement. That’s what Paul summed up all of the "ands” as being, as if to say, "All of my life was ordered around God and these other things, but when I met Jesus, and ever since I have known Him, I have changed my mind. All of that which I worked so hard for, all of that which any self-respecting person would say, ‘He’s a good guy and doing well,’ all of that is excrement.”
If Jesus is not enough for me without the "and”, if He is not enough for me at any cost, then He is nothing to me at all. And, I am nothing to Him. Watch. Mark 8:36: "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” "Forfeit” stems from the same original root word as Paul’s "loss” in Philippians 3. It means you lose it as if you never had it from the get-go. That’s the sense of Paul’s calculation of all that he ever had and knew ”“ as being as if he never had it from the get-go. Think of what it means to run the numbers on your life and to count the Savior as being nothing from the get-go, and counting as nothing from the get-go as valuable enough to stake your soul on it.
We’re not to be pitied for giving up what we cannot keep and what does not profit us. There are plenty of gutter-to-glory testimonies in the history of the kingdom of God. May there be plenty more! But, the target is the glory of God, not the memory of the gutter. The BEST of everything we have ever done is the gutter compared to knowing and being found in Jesus. Paul’s word to us is "Live as if you never had it.” Because Jesus says if we don’t live that way, we forfeit ”“ loss, count as dung ”“ our own souls, and in a sense that He never had us. What is all of this we order our lives around going to do for us for eternity?
I cannot serve "Jesus and” anything. The cost of faith is that I change my mind about everything I counted as gain up to now, and that I consider it as a pile of dung ”“ as if I never had it and never want it ”“ in order that I may know Jesus and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death so that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Why? Philippians 3:20-21 crystallizes that nicely. "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”
He will transform us into the image of His Son. And, he will do that as we obey Him, doing what He commands, commissions and calls us to do. The chief labor in that regard is to make other student-teachers of Jesus in such a way that we move together toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Will you be anycostal? Will you run the numbers? We will also look at the cost of following, the cost of fruit and the cost of fellowship. Pray that the Holy Spirit awakens us in our spirits that we have changes to be made.
