Those Wretched Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers

The most revered man in the early church by Christians other than Jesus the Christ is the Apostle Paul. We have an image of him as a holy man, pure, devoted, nearly sinless and overflowing with wisdom from God. He is most quoted in the Church. He is called St. Paul. Saintly. Holy.

The problem is St Paul was human. Very Human. If he were alive today he would be pilloried by the press of today and discounted in his ability to hear from or report what God is saying. He would be called a hypocrite.

Read what is said in this article regarding this man who called himself Wretched. When they called him a hypocrite he would probably agree. When people call ME a hypocrite I agree. That doesn't make the Apostle Paul any less a man used of God in Great Things. I hope the same is true of the call of God on my life.

I bring this up because I have become aware of a syndrome that has developed in and outside the church. We have a culture of ridicule that we live in. John Stewart, Don Colbert, Letterman and Leno. They don't tell jokes anymore they make fun of people. No one is perfect (except them).

That has now invaded all our thinking. People who don't believe in God will believe what news media and these jokesters say. They believe that the credibility of the message people bring is measured not by the source of the message but by the character or morality of the messenger. Yet in news reportage it seems to be OK that a reporter can be a moral miscreant and still be able to deliver the truth if his sources are good. Yet in spiritual things it seems like we in the church have bought the lie that our messengers have to be perfect or worse pretend to be perfect. We no longer depend on the credibility of the source but on the nature of the delivery system.

I have a handbook given me when I was credentialed as a minister. It has lots of warnings about how important it is to live a holy perfect life in order to not be disqualified as a minister of God. On the surface I agree with the concept. A preacher shouldn't spend a lot of time in Strip Clubs and then expect his congregation to hear what he has to say on Sunday Mornings. But there is a flaw in this philosophy. No minister of God is sinless for very long. In fact all have sinned and sin. If a minister particularly in the fivefold gifts is going to have a shot at living up to this ideal he must do one of two things:

Pretend to live holy lives. Pretend to have overcome sin. Pretend to be perfect. I have known many men who crumbled under this self imposed pressure collapsed under hidden sin.

Or be transparent and run the risk that people will judge him on his hypocrisy. I have chosen this and get a lot of flack. How can YOU bring God's Holy word when we know you are very human and prone to sin.

I have been working in Church work for nearly 30 years. This has given me the opportunity to get to know the dark side of many men and women of God. I can tell you with authority that I have never ever met even one who can stand sinless before the throne of grace of their own accord. They all need and continue to need the blood of Jesus.

Here's the question I would have of anyone who uses the idea that the person who speaks for God can't be speaking for God because they aren't externally holy or sinless enough. WHO WOULD YOU BELIEVE? The pope? The Dali Lama? Trust me they sin too. Who among any Christian Leaders today are sinless enough that you would trust that if they said to you, "This is the word of the Lord for you" and you would say coming from Him or Her I would believe him.

Using the hypocrisy test the answer has to be I can believe NO ONE. This is a scheme Satan has used to blind people to the truth of the Gospel. Even the very word of God, The Bible is now doubted to be infallible by many. There is no longer truth or light. People are lost because they can't answer the question, who would you believe. IF you are going to get the word of the Lord from anyone it will have to come thru a fellow Wretched Man or Woman.

Jesus told the story of the rich man and Lazarus. This was not a parable, this was a story about real people, Jesus called him a CERTAIN RICH MAN. Lazarus dies and goes to heaven (I know you theologians it isn't heaven in the story, I'm trying to keep it simple). The rich man dies and goes to hell. He sees Lazarus in Heaven. He says, send someone to tell my 5 brothers about this horrible place. Jesus said, "They have the prophets and the scriptures, they don't believe them, they wouldn't believe someone even if he ROSE FROM THE DEAD, speaking of course about himself." The Leno's and Letterman's of the day (scribes and parasites) defamed the messengers and destroyed the message. They poked fun and ridiculed Jesus constantly until they got the people to rise up and say Crucify Him Crucify Him. It's no different today. People called of God are constantly crucified with Christ. We are ridiculed and poked fun at. In a way it's a confirmation of the Call of God on our lives. No one ever kicks a dead dog. If we weren't speaking truth we wouldn't be so subject to the pressure of criticism.

Thinking of that I qualify pretty well. I'm a hypocrite and wretched. So if you will hear from Paul you might be able to hear from others. I have come to trust the word of the Lord from a sold out man or woman of God and look past the fact that they are really human and prone to fall into sin from time to time. One man I most love and appreciate as a Man of God is at his heart one of the most flawed human beings I have ever known. It doesn't take away from the Gift God has Placed in him to carry. He's the real deal.

The world has it's false apostles. News, entertainment folks, celebrities, popular politicians. They live phony lives and they project an image that can't hold up. Yet the world flocks to them hoping to believe.

I would rather get my message from people who are honest with us and with themselves to say, "I'm wretched and I have a good word for you". The Church needs to hear what St John (who I'm guessing wasn't all that saintly either) said in his dying days to people who were believers and were in church and were trying to make life work:

1 John 1:5-10 NLT

5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

The reality of ministry is, we are sinners. We have seen light. We are no longer living in spiritual darkness but we still sin. We confess it, we believe for deliverance and we stop living the life of the hypocrite.

I regret to say many are still putting on a mask and pretending to be something they are not. God deliver them. Deliver ME!

I once more think of that robe that Pastor Phil mentioned and why old high church ministers put it on to preach or minister: To hide in the call of God on their lives and to deflect people from looking at the weak human bearing the strong message. I think there is merit in all that.