HF104 - Faithfulness and Stewardships
To: Hebraic-Foundations@yahoogroups.com
From: "Pastor Buddy Martin" <Bro.Buddy@ChristianChallenge.org>
Date: Fri Oct 31, 2003
Subject: Bible Study HF104 - Faithfulness and Stewardships
Hebraics,
Paul spoke of his ministry as a stewardship. The Greek word for stewardship is 'okonomia'. A Biblical stewardship is a ministry entrusted to a child of God. As a steward the believer has both the responsibility, and accountability, and the wherewithal to accomplish whatever the stewardship entails.
The apostle defined what the Lord looks for with regard to giving stewardships to His people. Paul said, "Moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy." (1Co4:2) In another place he said, "Just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts." (1Th2:4)
Our backdrop for this study involves a Roman centurion who came to Jesus, with a request that the Lord heal his servant. Out of this setting we will look at what the Lordship of Jesus really entails, but with a special view to stewardships.
This is Bible Study HF104 - Faithfulness and Stewardships.
When it came time to give account for stewardship, the master said, "Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master." (Matt25:21)
I've wondered what is it I would like to hear the Lord say about the stewardship He has given me. Perhaps something like this; "Well done, good and faithful slave, you have taught My people to hear from Me, and to walk with Me. You have preached the message of My cross faithfully."
The reason I say this is because in all my years of ministry, there one issue that remains utmost on my heart. I believe there is no greater need than for God's people to learn about personal Lordship, that is, to learn to hear from Jesus in a personal way, and to learn to walk in obedience from the heart.
Let's see how all this fits in the story of the Roman soldier. It says:
"When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, and saying, 'Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.' Jesus said to him, 'I will come and heal him.' But the centurion said, 'Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, 'Go!' and he goes, and to another, 'Come!' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this!' and he does it.'
"Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, 'Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' And Jesus said to the centurion, 'Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed.' And the servant was healed that very moment." (Cf. Matt8:5-13)
Many times the crowds marveled at Jesus. But only two times in the Scriptures does it say that Jesus Himself marveled. Once had to do with the unbelief in His own hometown. The other time was with this Roman soldier. Here it says, “Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled, and said to those who were following, ‘Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.”
What was it that caused Jesus to marvel at this soldier? What was His great faith? What happened is that the soldier gave insight into who Jesus really was (and is). But he also gave insight into the heavenly stewardship that had been given to Jesus. The soldier fully recognized the Lordship of Jesus.
Is it true that Jesus came into our world with a stewardship? Most surely. He said, "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me." (John 6:38) A steward does not seek to accomplish his own will. He seeks only to please the one who sent him. This is why Paul said, "For we do not preach ourselves but Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your bondservants for Jesus sake." (2Co4:5)
Some years ago the message was going forth in how great we really are, and how that we can command and make things happen, and how that we should never look upon ourselves with any form of negativism. The problem is that this sort of teaching is easily distorted. There is no question that we are children of the Great King. But Jesus said there is an attitude that must be in place if we really desire to walk with Him as we should. The attitude is to be that of humility.
We see this when the apostles ask the Lord to increase their faith. He gave a short lesson on the slave laboring in the field, and ended it by saying, "So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded of you, say, 'We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done." (Luke 17:10) The issue is that we don't need the Lord to give us more faith. We need to be humble of heart and faithful to that which He has given us to do.
But the underlying issue is that we can do nothing of ourselves for God's kingdom. Everything that we accomplish has to be for Jesus, by Jesus, and to Jesus. He has to become our sole purpose for ministry and life.
Before we go any further with the issue of stewardship, let's get a grasp on what the term 'Word of God' or 'Word of the Lord' actually means. After all it is the Word of God that we are called to live by, and to be faithful to.
The term 'Word of God' speaks of anything God has said. It has a special view towards the Scriptures simply because the Bible came from God’s mouth. But there is more to the term.
In the New Testament the gospel is called ‘the Word of God.’ When a certain woman began crying out, "Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed," Jesus responded, "On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it." (Cf. Luke 11:27,28)
And then there is another related meaning for the term ‘The Word of God,' or, 'The Word of the Lord.’ This term also refers to God speaking directly to His servants. It says, "In the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness." (Cf. Luke 3:1,2) It is here where we get the idea of stewardship. A true Biblical stewardship can only come from the mouth of the Lord. It is never second-handed.
When you put these related meanings together you get a feel for what the term ‘God’s Word’ means. The Word of God is God acting directly upon our lives, whether it is our hearing the gospel, in our reading the Scriptures, or simply having the Shepherd speaking directly into our hearts.
The Scripture that explains this best is Hebrews 4:12,13, which says, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight.”
Once again, why did Jesus marvel at the Roman Centurion? He marveled because the soldier recognized Jesus on a level far beyond anything that even the apostles had caught on to at that time. This man recognized Lordship. And Lordship is what has to be fully recognized before a believer will be entrusted with a stewardship from the Lord.
Listen carefully to the language of the Centurion; “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed.” Did you hear it? He said, "I am not worthy." That is a wonderful place to begin. But the soldier said something else that shows he recognized who Jesus really was. (And is.)
When the soldier said, "Just say the word," this by itself is the key. For him to say this can only mean that he truly recognized Jesus. And this is what made Jesus marvel. None of apostles at that point had made such an awesome connection. The centurion was calling Jesus the Lord God Almighty.
Listen carefully to Psalm 103:19-22: "The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all. Bless the Lord, you His angels, mighty in strength, who perform His word, obeying the voice of His word! Bless the Lord, all you His hosts, you who serve Him, doing His will. Bless the Lord, all you works of His, in all places of His dominion; bless the Lord, O my soul!"
Somehow the soldier knew that Jesus was more than just a prophet, or a miracle worker, or a holy man. He knew that Jesus had the power to command things into existence. The Psalmist said, "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their hosts." (Psa33:6)
But to bring this to a proper level, there is a key to be understood by all God's people. We must remember that the written Word and the spoken Word of God never contradict. God did this on purpose, simply because many spirits try to speak into our lives. Therefore God gives us two safe guards for our walk with Him.
Every child of God is given the Holy Spirit as a testifier to truth. Every child of God is given the Scriptures by which the Holy Spirit teaches us God’s ways. But it is the issue of Lordship that is always going to be bottom line in our walk with Jesus.
Those who get in trouble spiritually are most always those who place esoteric experiences above God’s Word. While dreams, visions, and prophecies, can play an important part in our walk with the Lord, nothing is ever to take the place of learning truth from the sacred Word of God. It is a love of truth that will put the believer into the true realm of faith. It is also a love for truth that will cause a believer to hear from the Lord.
What was the Lord’s final word to the Centurion? He said, "Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed." Does this have any relevance to us? Absolutely. We will hear from the Lord when we are able to testify fully to His Lordship over life. When we can say, "Lord, all you have to do is speak the Word," then we have come to a proper place in our walk.
There are things to be understood. First, our faith walk will always be in proportion to who Jesus is to us. Secondly, our faith walk will always be personal. No person can walk in another person’s faith. And thirdly, our faith walk is always determined by what we believe, and not what the other fellow believes.
To put faith on the level it belongs, we must have a passion for truth. This is what the word godly means. It means ‘god-toward ness.’ The godly or righteous heart always seeks to please the Lord in all things. As long as there is an attempt to force God’s Word to meet our life style, the result will be failure and misery.
Until we can come to the place that was expressed by the Roman soldier, we need not concern ourselves with a stewardship. A steward must be found faithful. Faithful to what? Faithful to God's Word. This means that we are not to be found adulterating God's Word. Nor are we to be found as merchandisers of God's Word. Nor are we to be found seeking great things for ourselves.
And so, where does faithfulness begin? It always begins where we are. Jesus said, "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much." The the Lord explained how He determine faithfulness among those who would call to service.
He said, "Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?" (Cf. Luke 16:10-13)
The lessons here are crucial. When Jesus speaks of 'unrighteous wealth', he is including how material things can cause us to be unfaithful in our walk with the Lord. Paul later wrote, "For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." (1Tim6:10)
But the second lesson is equally important. The Lord spoke of being faithful in our service to someone else. One of the most valuable teaching tools for ministry is for the Lord to place a young minister under a seasoned minister. This is a Biblical pattern. The Lord placed Joshua under Moses, so that Joshua could learn faithfulness by observing the man of God.
Let's stop the study for now. There is much more to be said. Feel free to make a contribution or ask questions.
The Lord bless you,
Buddy
Lawrence E. (Buddy) Martin, HF Host
email: Bro.Buddy@ChristianChallenge.org
Web: http://www.christianchallenge.org/
"See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled." (Heb12:15)