06 Rejecting Jesus

Of Jesus' many parables, one of the scariest is the one we read about in Mark 12. Where Jesus talks about a vineyard owner who leases his land and goes away, and then regularly sends messengers back to the tenants. And the tenants mistreat them and beat them and ignore them.

And eventually the landowner says, "I'll send my son. Surely they will listen to my son." But when the son arrives, the tenants gather together and they say, "Come, let us kill the son and keep the inheritance for ourselves." Which is a really warped and stupid way of thinking.

Because if you killed the son, I don't think the father's going to give the son's inheritance to you. But anyway, that's a matter for another discussion. The reason this is so scary is Jesus is obviously speaking about Himself as the Son coming back to give a message to the people of Israel.

And as He forecasts what's going to happen to Him, as He prophesies His own death, He's saying that the religious rulers, the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin, some of them would put Him to death because they thought He was a false messiah and they thought they were doing God a favor.

But according to this parable, at least some of them would put Him to death because they knew He was the Messiah. And they didn't want to lose their positions of authority and respect, maybe their income. These things were so important to them that they overrode their allegiance to God.

Rejecting Jesus to Protect Position and Power

I've seen this principle in play even today. As I've worked into churches around the world on behalf of Andrew and Four12, sometimes you'll speak to someone about the need to partner with the apostolic. Sometimes they reject it and they say they don't want to investigate any further because they don't agree.

They don't see it, they have a different interpretation of Scripture and that's fine. Others see it and still reject it. And sometimes the reason for rejecting an apostolic partnership, when they see that it's a biblical mandate, is that they're afraid of losing their authority, their position, and their power.

They don't want to cede that to somebody else. That is a really scary thought. As elders who are overseeing congregations across Joshua Generation Church, our dozens of congregations, I think this is something that we should be aware of and should be very careful of.

Which is that, we should never take the risk of rejecting Jesus because it might undermine our own position or our own authority or our own sense of ownership over the people or the congregation. We know in theory that we don't own a congregation.

But in practice, in many subtle ways, that can creep into our hearts and in our thinking. What does that look like practically? Well, it means, for example, those of us who are employed by the church should not consider our full-time employment a right.

It is a privilege to earn our income from the Gospel. And yes, Scripture does say those who preach the Gospel should make a living out of it and should be paid well. And that's true, but it doesn't mean that full-time employment by the church is an obligation for any of us.

And if Jesus is changing things, if Jesus wants a shift, then we should be prepared to shift and not reject the message or reject what Jesus is doing because we're afraid of losing our position or our income. Likewise, those of us who are leading congregations, the lead elder in a congregation is not a permanent position, necessarily.

Barnabas and the Humility to Cede Leadership

We need to be prepared for God to move us geographically, or within the team, raise somebody else up. I love the example of Barnabas, who is the one who went out and he found Paul. He brought Paul back to Antioch. In some ways, whilst Paul was taught by no man and directly by the Holy Spirit in terms of theology, it was Barnabas who opened doors for him.

It was Barnabas, I'm sure, who convinced other Christians to let Paul in the door, because Paul was the guy who'd been murdering Christians. Barnabas led Paul for a period of time. And we read in Acts, "Barnabas and Paul" and "Barnabas and Paul." And eventually that changes to "Paul and Barnabas."

And we see that Barnabas cedes leadership to Paul, to a large degree, because he recognizes the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ on Paul's life. Those of us who are leading a team, leading a ministry, leading a congregation, we should understand that our position is as a steward, not as an owner.

Rejecting the Fivefold Gifts Is Rejecting Jesus

Furthermore, we have the privilege of being part of an apostolic-prophetic household. Which means that, not just Jesus Himself, but Jesus coming through His fivefold gifts—the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers are gifts given by Jesus. If we reject the gifts, we are rejecting Jesus.

We may not welcome those gifts as we should because we're afraid that they may degrade our authority, override our decisions, change the direction. Paul did that all the time. Imagine being an elder in the Corinthian church, and then you receive this letter from Paul, which has some harsh words and says, "Your meetings do more harm than good."

In a sense, they had the right, they had the ability to destroy or ignore that letter. They could ignore or cut ties with Paul. But because Paul was representing Jesus, the eldership of that church, as we see in 2 Corinthians, they responded and they changed.

They implemented the things that Paul said. So, as elders, they understood that when the voice of Jesus speaks, whether it be through an apostle or a prophet or anybody else, it's not about my position. It's not about my authority. It's not about my reputation.

It's not about my income. We must be careful that we don't kill Jesus. We don't kill the message of Jesus in order for us to retain those things which appeal to the flesh. But that we are those who are prepared to die. And we are those who recognize, we are simply the tenants, we are simply stewards.

Leaders as Stewards Under God’s Authority

God is the owner. And He will ask us to stand before Him and give an account. When He sends the message of His Son to us, we should be those who receive it gladly, and act accordingly, and respond to it. So let us be leaders who are humble, submissive and obedient.

And those who can clearly recognize the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ working into our midst. His direction. His discipline. His doctrine. I think it was David Pawson once said, when Jesus said, "I will build My church," He didn't say, "I will build your church."

And He didn't say, "You will build My church." Jesus said, "I will build My church." It's a privilege that He uses us. It's a privilege that He partners with us. It's a privilege that He entrusts His people to us. But let us not be leaders who end up killing Jesus.