An Appeal For Partners

Dave and Debbie Johnson

Assemblies of God Missionaries to the Philippines

http://www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com/

www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com

 (616) 558-1889

August 18, 2011

Dear Friends,   

For many years now Debbie and I have been serving with the Assemblies of God World Missions in the Philippines.  For some time now, we have been home itinerating and plan to return to the Philippines in late September 2011.  Our vision is to share the gospel with all of the four to five million Filipinos in the Bicol region of the Philippines where we live and plant a church within walking distance of every one of them. Raising up and training Filipinos to accomplish this vision is at the core of our strategy. For more information on our ministry, please visit http://www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com/.  Among other things, you can download a copy of our latest ministry video and get a copy of our bio-data.

Our vision is two pronged.

First, direct evangelism.  Over the last 17 years we have conducted approximately 700 evangelistic crusades in conjunction with local churches.  Many new churches have been planted and others have seen increased attendance at either church services or Bible studies.  We conduct about 45-50 outreaches every year, each crusade lasting three nights.  Except for Debbie and me, all members of the team are Filipinos, as are all of the pastors with whom we work. While the Filipino churches do partner with us in sharing the expenses of this ministry by shouldering the expenses over the dollar figure given above, the nature of this type of work is finance intensive and more help is needed.

Second, in 2007 God gave Debbie a vision to plant house churches.  Working hand-in-hand with Filipino church leaders in our region and one other missionary couple from another organization, three house church planting schools were started and about 12 house churches were started.  Today, this movement has grown to include 15 house church planting schools and at least 191 house churches have been started.  The possibilities for expansion are almost limitless.  God’s blessing on this effort is obvious, and we are anxious to see this movement grow. We foresee the need for expanding the level of training and are excited about participating in it.    

I am writing today to ask for your help.  First, your prayers.  I have taken the liberty to add your name to our email list, which we use for sending out prayer requests.  If you do not wish to receive it, please let me know.  Second, we also send prayer requests over Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin, and you can easily find me there. 

Second, we need financial support.  Our deadline is August 31, 2011.  Here are the details of what we still need:

Monthly Support Still Needed:  $801.32

Cash Still Needed:

General Cash Budget: Completed!

Evangelistic Crusades: $28,000.00

House Church Planting:  $5,000.00                  

Cash Reserve Fund: $8,011.00            

If you can commit to monthly support, you can download a pledge for from our website, http://www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com/, fill it out, and follow the instructions given for sending it in.  Your CASH offerings can be sent to AGWM

1445 Boonville Ave. Springfield, MO, 65802

, designated for Dave and Debbie Johnson, Philippines, acct 2256006, or you can donate online at http://www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com/.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call on my cellphone at (616) 558-1889.

Thanks considering partnering with us,

Dave and Debbie Johnson

The Inauguration of Jesus' Ministry Part IV: Healing (Luke 4:16-30)

The Inauguration of Jesus’ Ministry Part IV:

Healing (Luke 4:16-30)

By Dr. Dave Johnson

Assemblies of God Missionary to the Philippines

http://www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com/

www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com

[This blog is the fourth in this series.  To read the first three blogs, please visit www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com.]

Jesus continued to read the Messianic prophecy in Isaiah 61:1-2. His listeners, knowing that the text included poetry where the second line reinforced the meaning of the first line, listened intently. He came to the third parallelism which began with, “To proclaim liberty to the captives.”

The phrase “liberty to the captives” must be understood within Israel’s historical context.  The Jewish nation had been forged in the bondage of slavery in Egypt and had been liberated only through God’s miraculous intervention.  The theme of deliverance from Egypt runs throughout the Old Testament.  Also, by Jesus’ time, the remnant of Jews had returned home from Babylonian exile.  As Bailey notes, this phrase carries the idea of captives longing to return home.  Since I have lived outside of the United States for most of the last seventeen years, albeit voluntarily, I understand something of this desire.  On many days, I have longed for home. 

When Jesus spoke these words, the Jews were under the authority of Rome—an oppressive master.  While they were in their own homeland, they were not free.  The common understanding of the Messiah in Jesus’ day was rife with political overtones, especially that the Christ would lead a revolt against Rome.  This led Jesus to avoid the use of the term among the Jews, although he had no qualms about it among the Samaritans (John 4:26). I agree with Kenneth Bailey (Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes)here that to interpret this passage solely in spiritual terms is to ignore history.  And there will certainly come a day when the Messiah will establish his Kingdom on earth, a Kingdom of righteousness and justice and to which there shall be no end (Isaiah 9:6).

At the same time, the spiritual connotations cannot be denied.  From Genesis to Revelation the Bible speaks of mankind being enslaved to sin. As one of my theology professors once said, “sin is so terrible only God can deal with it.” Jesus announced here that the day of God’s salvation was at hand. This was the essence of the Good News that he preached—a message that would be sealed in his own blood on a Roman cross.

The second part of this parallelism reads “To set at liberty those who are oppressed,” which carries the same meaning as the first part of the parallelism that we have already considered.  But before reading this phrase Jesus inserted the words “And recovery of sight to the blind.”  This phrase does not appear in Isaiah 61:1-2 but is drawn from Isaiah 42:7, another Messianic prophecy.  Jesus’ inclusion of another passage here posed no ethical problem for his hearers.  According to Bailey, adding in bits of other passages to the synagogue readings was a commonly accepted practice.  But why did he do so? Bailey goes on to note that the Qumran community, a sect of Judaism known as the Essenes that lived near the Dead Sea, believed that the coming Messiah would heal the blind, suggesting that this expectation may have been common in Jesus’ day. But this reason alone would not have been sufficient for Jesus as he was not trying to win a popularity contest.

Isaiah’s reference to healing in 42:7 is similar to that of another well known Messianic prophecy which also flowed from his pen, Isaiah 53:5 “And by His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah and Luke both well understood that sickness entered the world through the Fall of Adam and Eve, making a connection between sin and sickness.  In both Messianic prophecies here, Isaiah also makes the connection between forgiveness and healing.  In this case, both forgiveness and healing are alluded to in the same parallelism here.  Liberty to captives comes from forgiveness and is consistent with Isaiah’s theology of forgiveness through vicarious suffering. 

While the passage comes from the prophet Isaiah, one cannot help but wonder if Luke included it here because, as a medical doctor, he had a deep interest in medical issues and mentions them throughout his gospel.  Blindness was a common malady in first century Judea. In some cases, it seems to have been carried by flies, although there were also cases of congenital blindness (i.e. John 9) (Blindness in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia accessed 4 August 2011).  Because blindness was common, it can be seen as representative of all illness and, therefore, indicates that the Messiah would heal all manner of disease.  Additionally, the term is used as a figure of speech to carry the connotation of spiritual blindness.

The hermeneutical question that needs to be addressed here is how Luke, the author of the account, intended for this reference to be understood.  Also, how did Jesus himself understand it? At first glance, the concept of spiritual blindness would appear to be in view because it fits the immediate context well.  Reflecting deeper, however, it is clear that Jesus himself understood this passage to refer to all manner of physical healing (Matthew 11:1-6). On a broader theological plane, the concepts of healing from both sin and sickness are linked throughout Scripture.  It seems clear, then, all three shades of meaning of the term are in view here, with the strongest interpretation being general physical healing because that this way Jesus himself understood this text. 

The implications of this parallelism and the phrase inserted by Jesus are astounding in what the Messiah would do.  Surely he would have a ministry like no other before him.  Whether Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled this prophecy is a question not yet totally answered.  But before this question can be dealt with as well as the reaction of his hearers to his claim to be the Messiah can be considered, there is one more parallelism that needs to be taken into account.  This and the reason that Jesus only quotes half of it will be the subject of the next blog.

*All Scripture references are from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted.

PLEASE NOTE: Permission is hereby given to forward, print, and post this blog as long as it is done as a complete blog, and its authorship is acknowledged. Thank you for your cooperation.  For automatic notification of future blogs please visit www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com and click on “follow.”

Copyright 2011 Dr. Dave Johnson 

Update on Our Situation

Hello Friends,

 

As the days countdown to our August 31 deadline, I just wanted to let you know that we have received some more pledges and the need for monthly support now stands at around $860/per month.  If you can help us, please get a pledge form from http://www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com/, fill it out and send it in.

 

We did ask our mission leadership if they felt that we should stay longer to raise more funds, but they did not feel the Lord's leading that way and asked that the August 31 deadline that they had given us to remain in place, and we received their direction gladly.  We believe that divine order means submitting to godly leadership, so we are certain that it is God's time for us to return to the Philippines and trust him to bring in the remainder of the budget which, after all, is His problem because its His Kingdom!

 

We recently shipped over 500 pounds of personal effects to the Philippines and purchased our tickets to leave Grand Rapids on September 15 for Seattle to take care of some personal matters and spend time with Debbie's family before leaving for the Philippines on September 29.

 

We are looking forward to getting back to our labor of love for Jesus in our adopted homeland.

 

Remember that all giving should be channeled through your local church.

 

Again, if you have already informed us of your decision regarding support, please just take this as an appeal only for prayer.

 

May God give you his best today!

 

Dave and Debbie Johnson

Assemblies of God Missionaries to the Philippines

The Inauguration of Jesus' Ministry Part III: Proclaiming (Luke 4:16-30)

The Inauguration of Jesus’ Ministry Part III: Proclaiming (Luke 4:16-30)

By Dr. Dave Johnson

http://www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com/

www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com

[This blog is the third in its series.  To read the other two blogs, please visit www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com.]

Jesus continued to read Isaiah 61:1-2 while his hearers listened intently, wondering what this carpenter’s son and lay Torah scholar would have to say about this majestic Messianic prophecy set in Hebrew poetry—a text potent with meaning, especially the claim of being empowered and anointed by the Holy Spirit, which served as the basis of the claims made here.

Jesus claimed that the Holy Spirit had sent him to “. . .preach the gospel to the poor. . .” What does this mean? The term “gospel” literally means “God’s good news.”  The good news, in this specific context, is that the Messiah has come to liberate his people from their oppression.  While his hearers understood this to be the political oppression of their Roman masters, Jesus was dealing with spiritual oppression. Sin always takes you further than you wanted to go and exacts a price higher than you wish to pay.  But while sin enslaves, grace redeems. God intervened in history to save us from the effects of our own sin as well as that of others.  But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

To preach, here, is to proclaim or tell.  In this case, it took the form of a homily or sermon in a Jewish synagogue.  The focus here is on the content of the message, not the context in which it is delivered.  This is true with probably every reference to preaching or proclaiming in the New Testament.  Delivery styles change over time and vary from one context to another, but the message never changes.  Here, Jesus announces his messianic claim in a distinctly Jewish context.  In John 4:1-26, he is in a Samaritan context and speaks in a way that a Samaritan peasant woman would understand.  But in both cases, the message is the same that Jesus is the long awaited Christ. The gospel message is focused on who Jesus is and what he has done.  To argue that Jesus is any less than God in human flesh is to dilute the Gospel message and strip it of his power.

To the poor (v18) is rather enigmatic, at least to me.  Kenneth Bailey, in his fine book Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, provides some clarification (see p. 158ff). Bailey holds that Isaiah used the words poor and meek interchangeably.  He also contends that this is the way in which the Qumran Community, a religious order known as the Essenes that lived near the Dead Sea in Jesus’ day, understood the concept—suggesting the likelihood that Jesus’ hearers would also understand this in approximately the same way. Bailey goes on to say that the early church and later writings by Jewish believers reflect the same meaning.  For Bailey, to define the concept of being poor only in political or economic terms is to ignore history.

Now that we have defined the term poor as being meek or humble, what are we to make of it? The idea of being meek can be juxtaposed to that of being arrogant or self-assured.  Those who are such do not likely feel the need for God, but the meek and humble have no such barriers. In the ministry of Jesus it was the self-righteous Pharisees who gave him problems. The common people heard him gladly. They seemed much more open to the idea that they were sinners and in need of a Savior.  Jesus spent much of his time and drew most of his disciples from the lower classes of Jewish society.

The meaning of the second line of the parallelism echoes the first.  He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted.  Being broken in life is part of being human and is one of the many consequences of sin.  Life can be hard and harsh. People die unexpectedly, widowing spouses and orphaning children.  Unexpected sickness comes and ravages bodies and drains bank accounts.  The economy tanks or the stock market goes haywire and jobs and homes are lost.  Some go through divorce or discover that their spouse has been unfaithful.  The trials of life are endless. But to all who have been broken by life, Jesus offers good news of rest, recompense, and reconciliation in him. He is Immanuel, God with us.  And if God is with us, then life, while the trials still come, has purpose, hope, and destiny.  We are not cosmic accidents who crawled out the primeval slime as some would have us believe; we children of God upon whom his favor rests.  And that’s not all.    

*All Scripture references are from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted.

PLEASE NOTE: Permission is hereby given to forward, print, and post this blog as long as it is done as a complete blog, and its authorship is acknowledged. Thank you for your cooperation.  For automatic notification of future blogs please visit www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com and click on “follow.”

Copyright 2011 Dr. Dave Johnson  

The Inauguration of Jesus' Ministry Part II: His First Sermon

The Inauguration of Jesus’ Ministry Part II: His First Sermon (Luke 4:16-30)*

By Dr. Dave Johnson

http://www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com/

www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com

[This is the second in a series of blogs on The Inauguration of Jesus’ Ministry. The first blog can be read at www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com.]

The crowd in the synagogue sat quietly as Jesus stood to read the well known Messianic passage in Isaiah 61:1-2 beginning with the words “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me” (Luke 4:18ff).  In recording this soon after penning the words in Luke 4:1, Luke drew a connection between Jesus’ baptism (Luke 3:16-22), his experience in the desert, and the launching of his public ministry.  The baptism revealed God the Father’s seal of approval upon his Son.  But anyone whom God approves, especially for ministry, he also tests.  It seems that the greater the ministry, the greater the testing.  In Jesus’ case the testing came before the beginning of his ministry as part of his preparation. After his wilderness experience, the ministry was unveiled.  The thread that ties these three experiences together is that the Holy Spirit was involved in each of them. In short, Jesus was endorsed, tested, and then anointed to begin public ministry.  Many who feel a call to ministry want to short circuit this process, but that is not wise.  Like the butterfly who struggles to get free of the cocoon, we need the testing to develop our character through which ministry gifts can flow.

Many in the crowd that day nodded as he continued reading “Because he has anointed me. . . .” The term anointing has been so bandied about by Pentecostals and Charismatics that the word seems to have lost much of its rich potency.  Fortunately, however, Jesus’ listeners had no such problem. Their concept of the anointing was based on its Old Testament definition.  Roger Cotton explains:

The specific practice of anointing by pouring oil on the head was used as a

symbolic act for officially, designating and setting apart a person for a certain public,

leadership function in the community. It was a one-time event much like an inauguration

or ordination. Things could also be sanctified or dedicated to a special purpose for God

by anointing (Exo. 29:36). The three kinds of leaders anointed for their ministries in the

Old Testament were: priests, Exo. 28:41; kings, 1 Sam. 10:1; and prophets, 1 Ki. 19:16.

A major difference between Israel and the other nations was that when God had someone

anointed or authorized for leadership He also provided the empowering of the Holy Spirit

to do the job (1 Sam. 16:13; Isa. 61:1). http://www.agts.edu/faculty/faculty_publications/articles/cotton_anointing.pdf

While Jesus goes beyond Cotton’s definition by claiming to be the Messiah or, in Greek, the Christos or Christ, which means the Anointed One, the meaning here does retain its Old Testament function and purpose. Here, Jesus is claiming that the Holy Spirit had anointed—or commissioned and empowered him, to perform a number of functions.   

In order to more fully grasp the functions for which the Holy Spirit empowered Jesus, we need to understand the style of writing Isaiah originally employed here. Here, Isaiah used a form of Hebrew poetry known as a parallelism where the meaning of the first line is repeated in the second.  The first parallelism is The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me. . . . In Biblical imagery, the Holy Spirit coming upon, anointing, or empowering someone (i.e. Acts 1:8) expresses the same idea.  In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit regularly empowered people to prophesy or do exploits for God.  Here, that Jesus was claiming the Spirit’s anointing or empowering serves as the basis for what follows. In the next blog, we will look at the three parallelisms that follow and whether Jesus did indeed fulfill them.

*Unless noted otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the New King James Version of the Bible.

PLEASE NOTE: Permission is hereby given to forward, print, and post this blog as long as it is done as a complete blog, and its authorship is acknowledged. Thank you for your cooperation.  For automatic notification of future blogs please visit, www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com and click on “follow.”

Copyright 2011 Dr. Dave Johnson 

The Transcendence of God

Theological Definition of Transcendence

By Dr. Dave Johnson

www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com.

When someone says that God is transcendent, it means that he exists outside of his created order, such as the concepts of time and space, but regularly crosses the line and is active within what he has created.  The best example of transcendence is the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, where God entered our world as a baby and lived as a first century Jew (Galatians 4:4). 

Another example of transcendence comes from the modern space race.  A number of years ago, some Russian cosmonauts went on a spacewalk and later stated that they did not see God.  Had they read Moses rather than Marx, they would have known not to have expected to see him, although his handiwork in the heavens should have been obvious.  In responding to those remarks the late Baptist preacher, Dr. W.A. Criswell, stated that had they taken off their space suits while walking in space, they would have met God immediately.  Heaven, the throne room of God, exists outside of our understanding of space and time.  That is transcendence.

The Inauguration of Jesus' Ministry Part I: Setting the Stage

The Inauguration of Jesus’ Ministry Part I: Setting the Stage

 By Dr. Dave Johnson

http://www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com/

www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com

Nazareth was hardly a thriving metropolis.  It was small hick town in the lower hills of rural Galilee. The townspeople, like everybody in Galilee, spoke the local lingo with a distinct dialect and were regarded by their countrymen as country bumpkins.  When Nathaniel asked if anything good could come out of Nazareth (John 1:46), no one who heard him, not even Jesus, wondered why he would ask such a thing. Kenneth Bailey, in his wonderful book Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels (Downer’s Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2008, 147-169) gives some excellent backdrop on the inauguration of Jesus’ ministry.  According to Bailey, Nazareth came into existence sometime in the second century B.C. Aristobulus the Maccadean intentionally settled Jews in Nazareth and elsewhere in Galilee to ensure that the area would remain loyal to him. Such settler communities, according to Bailey, tended to produce citizens that are politically nationalistic, which may partially explain what happened the day that Jesus spoke in the synagogue.

When the Romans came, one trusted source stated that they established an army outpost in Nazareth—complete with all the vice normally associated with military towns, which contributed to Nazareth’s poor reputation.  In all, it was a small town on the backside of nowhere.  Of all the desirable places for launching a global ministry to save the world, Nazareth was not on anyone’s list.

Except one.  

Our story begins in Luke 4:16-30.  Jesus had waited approximately thirty years for this moment.  For three decades, under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, he had prepared for public ministry.  With a common name and growing up in the obscurity of a carpenter’s workshop with parents who had deep roots in the community, Jesus was thought of as an ordinary lad.  He was just one of them, or so they thought.

Bailey notes that around this time a lay movement of pious Jews known as the habarim sprung up in towns like Nazareth where laymen gathered to discuss the Old Testament, the Bible of the day, and how to apply it to their lives.  They likely also discussed the writings of the various well known rabbis.  These groups nurtured a rabbinic style of debate or discussion and we can be certain, based on Jesus’ knowledge of the law and his familiarity with the rules of rabbinical debate, that he was an active participant. Becoming known as a lay scholar maybe what gave him the opportunity to speak in his hometown synagogue.

By the time Jesus rose to speak in the synagogue, he had gone to Judea and had been baptized by John the Baptist, been driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tested by the Devil, returned to Judea where he picked up his first few disciples, Andrew, Peter, and perhaps John and his brother, James, traveled through Samaria and encountered the woman at the well (John 4), performed some miracles in Capernaum, and returned home.

Since it was the custom of the Jews to allow any man in good standing in the community to address those gathered at the synagogue, Jesus had no problem gaining an audience.  According to Bailey, the text he read, Isaiah 61:1-2, could have been the assigned reading for the day, or Jesus could have arranged it in advance with the attendant.  Jesus’ intentional declaration that the text, which everyone understood to be a prophecy of the coming Messiah, was fulfilled that day suggests that he may have done the latter.  Bailey also notes that the phrase “bore witness to him,” (4:22 NKJV) could also been “bore witness against him.” The confusion comes from the fact that the Greek pronoun used here could be translated either way.  This would mean that the crowd was against him from the beginning rather than turning on him as he continued to speak.

A careful analysis of the text reveals that Jesus did some editing, something that was common practice in the public reading in the synagogue, according to Bailey, and similar to what modern preachers do when reading some verses from a given text and not others. It may be that the editing was done by Luke, the author of the account.  For reasons that will be obvious as we continue in this study, I believe that Jesus himself did the editing. 

Bailey also contends that the average villager did not understand Hebrew, the language of most of the Old Testament, as Aramaic had become the common language in Israel after the Babylonian exile, and that an interpreter was used to translate what was said.  Other scholars, however, believe that Hebrew, as well as Aramaic and Greek, which came into Palestine with the Romans, were understood by the masses.  That Jesus, a nearly life long resident of Nazareth, spoke Hebrew indicates that the latter was probably the case.  

Why Jesus selected Isaiah 61:1-2, how he edited it to suit his purposes, what exactly it was that so irritated his listeners that they wanted to murder him, and how he fulfilled the claims in the text will be dealt with in the blogs that follow.

PLEASE NOTE: Permission is hereby given to forward, print, and post this blog as long as it is done as a complete blog, and its authorship is acknowledged. Thank you for your cooperation.  For automatic notification of future blogs please visit, www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com and click on “follow.”

Copyright 2011 Dr. Dave Johnson