Mere Missions

J esus I s L ord : E ndearment • 49

Celsus, a second century Alexandrian intellectual wrote this about Christianity, “Far from us, say the Christians, be any man possessed of any culture, or wisdom or judgement; their aim is to convince only worthless and contemptible people, idiots, slaves, poor women and children . . . they would not dare to address an audience of intellectual men . . . but if they see a group of young people or slaves or rough folk, there they push themselves in and seek to win the admiration of the crowd” (Stephen Neill, A History of Christian Mission , New York: Penguin Books, 1974, p. 45). Like the early Christians, we must be convinced that God has chosen the poor, marginalized, least of these to expand and advance His Kingdom to every people group on earth. The poor are the next wave of “Kingdom foot soldiers, ambassadors, priests” in God’s kingdom advancement into “enemy occupied territory.” The Church must believe and expect great things from the poor. Are you so endeared to Jesus, that the saved and the unsaved smell His sweet aroma upon your life? “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Cor. 2.14-16). Do the demonic forces know about you because of your endearment to Jesus? The seven sons of Sceva weren’t endeared to Jesus and it cost them their blood, their clothes, and their pride. “Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered