David Devenish > Quotes

“This message, that Jesus is now ruling, had particular significance for believers in Rome. Caesar, the emperor who lived in Rome, was the most powerful man in the known world. His titles included ‘son of god’, his birthday was celebrated as a ‘good news’, or ‘gospel’, and he ruled the greatest empire the world had ever seen. Yet Paul declares that Jesus is descended from a royal house far older than that of any Roman Caesar, and that Jesus’ resurrection has established his kingdom reign with power – a power that no other ruler can match. This message was a challenge to the whole cultural and political system of the Roman Empire. And this is the message that we must announce – that Christ is ruling. Gospel messages can so often be somewhat less than this, with a focus on Jesus as the answer to our needs rather than Jesus as the King of kings. Paul envisages the apostles being sent throughout the world to claim people’s obedience to King Jesus and bring them under his kingdom rule, rather as the Roman legions were sent to bring tribes and peoples into the Roman Empire in submission to Caesar’s rule. We can hardly imagine Caesar’s generals going through the world inviting people to have a ‘Caesar experience’ where their needs would be met! Rather, they commanded people to obey, and in our proclamation of the gospel we, likewise, must let people know that Jesus is reigning, and must call people to obey him.”
― David Devenish, Fathering Leaders, Motivating Mission: Restoring the Role of the Apostle in Today's Church

“John Stott says, ‘The highest of all missionary motives is neither obedience to the Great Commission (important as that is), nor love for sinners who are alienated and perishing (strong as that incentive is, especially when we contemplate the wrath of God), but rather zeal – burning passionate zeal – for the glory of Jesus Christ.’4”
― David Devenish, Fathering Leaders, Motivating Mission: Restoring the Role of the Apostle in Today's Church

“John Stott comments: Thank God there are those in the contemporary church who are determined at all costs to defend and uphold God’s revealed truth. But sometimes they are conspicuously lacking in love. When they think they smell heresy, their nose begins to twitch, their muscles ripple, and the light of battle enters their eye. They seem to enjoy nothing more than a fight. Others make the opposite mistake. They are determined at all costs to maintain and exhibit brotherly love, but in order to do so are prepared even to sacrifice the central truths of revelation. Both these tendencies are unbalanced and unbiblical. Truth becomes hard if it is not softened by love; love becomes soft if it is not strengthened by truth. The apostle calls us to hold the two together, which should not be difficult for Spirit-filled believers, since the Holy Spirit is himself ‘the Spirit of truth’, and his first fruit is ‘love’. There is no other route than this to a fully mature Christian unity.12”
― David Devenish, Fathering Leaders, Motivating Mission: Restoring the Role of the Apostle in Today's Church

“When he summarizes his mission among them, Paul reminds the Ephesian elders that he went around ‘preaching the kingdom’.32 What does this expression mean? The kingdom is not a static place that you physically go into, like the United Kingdom. To enter God’s kingdom is to benefit from the rule of its King by submitting to the benevolent rule of King Jesus. Wherever the rule of Jesus goes, there is a manifestation of the kingdom. It is a dynamic, not a static, concept. If the sick are healed, the kingdom extends; as the demonized are set free, so the kingdom comes; as good news is brought to the poor, so the kingdom of God is expressed; as justice comes into situations of injustice, so the kingdom of God is growing. Wherever God is obeyed, his kingdom comes. The evidence of the kingdom on earth is his will being done here as it is in heaven.”
― David Devenish, Fathering Leaders, Motivating Mission: Restoring the Role of the Apostle in Today's Church

“Jesus is the second Adam. Just as Adam was the firstborn and the federal head of the old creation, so Jesus is ‘the firstborn from among the dead’28 and the head of the new creation. Luke places Jesus’ genealogy just before the temptation in the wilderness,29 and traces Jesus’ descent back to Adam, as if to bring out the contrast between the two. Where Adam was tempted and fell, Jesus was tempted yet overcame. Where Adam’s sin brought death, Jesus’ suffering on the cross brought life30 and Satan’s defeat.”
― David Devenish, Fathering Leaders, Motivating Mission: Restoring the Role of the Apostle in Today's Church

“The fact that the church had to be on the lookout for false apostles would not have been an issue if the apostolate was restricted to the twelve and Paul.16”
― David Devenish, Fathering Leaders, Motivating Mission: Restoring the Role of the Apostle in Today's Church

“Teaching the Whole Plan of God Paul describes what he taught as being the ‘whole counsel (or plan) of God’, which can also be translated ‘the whole will of God’.12 We will come back later to this important concept. It summarizes what it is to teach apostolic doctrine, and many believers today have not heard it. They have a personal, often private, message of Christ dying for the guilt of their sins (marvellously true!) so that they can have eternal life, but this may or may not impact their day-to-day living and certainly does not radically change their whole outlook on life – what the Bible calls repentance. We have tended to define ‘repentance’ in quite a narrow way, as ‘turning away from past sins’, but the New Testament Greek word for it, metanoia, etymologically means a change of mindset which includes a change of heart towards God, leading to a change of worldview that gives us a radically new way of seeing everything. Turning away from past sin is only part of this broader understanding of metanoia.”
― David Devenish, Fathering Leaders, Motivating Mission: Restoring the Role of the Apostle in Today's Church

“A narrative style of preaching is very biblical and very important in bringing about an understanding of God’s ways and purposes. I believe that this is what Paul was doing when he was teaching the whole counsel of God, and that this narrative is reflected in all of his letters, as we have illustrated already by referring to the epistle to the Ephesians. Laying an apostolic foundation means that people understand this narrative, how it is fulfilled in Christ, what God’s purposes are for the world and how their individual lives and churches form part of this grand story. I do not think it is possible to genuinely lay an apostolic foundation without this understanding.”
― David Devenish, Fathering Leaders, Motivating Mission: Restoring the Role of the Apostle in Today's Church

“Established Christians and new converts alike need to understand the overall plan of God, how it is fulfilled in Christ and the church, and how they as individuals have a part to play in it. Jesus’ teaching method after his resurrection is particularly instructive for us in this context. When he taught his friends on the road to Emmaus, and later that evening taught his disciples in Jerusalem, he opened up the Scriptures to demonstrate that the Messiah needed to suffer. He said to them, ‘Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.’16 ‘The law, the prophets and the psalms’ (or ‘writings’) were the sections into which the Hebrew Scriptures were divided; in other words, Jesus took them through the whole Old Testament, opening their minds so that they could understand, and giving them a summary of Scripture, namely that ‘the Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem’.17 This would hardly be the Old Testament summary that most of us would give if asked, yet Jesus is clear that the Old Testament speaks about a coming Messiah who must suffer and rise again. All the promises must then be fulfilled in and through him, in particular the promise that has been consistent throughout Scripture, of the glory of God filling the earth, and of every nation being blessed through Abraham’s seed. This is why the gospel is to be preached throughout the world. This is the big story, the big picture, the whole plan of God; this is what needs to be understood as a foundational revelation.”
― David Devenish, Fathering Leaders, Motivating Mission: Restoring the Role of the Apostle in Today's Church

“Pragmatically, there is an evident need for the continuation of many of the functions of the original apostles. This would include church planting, laying good foundations in churches, continuing to oversee those churches, appointing the leaders, giving ongoing fatherly care to leaders, and handling difficult questions that may arise from those churches. There are really only three ways for churches to carry out these functions: 1. Each church is free to act totally independently and to seek God’s mind for its own government and pastoral wisdom, without any help from outside, unless the church may choose to seek it at any particular time. When we started the church which I am still a part of, for example, we were so concerned to be ‘independent’ that we would not even join the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, although we adopted their trust deed and constitution because that would prevent us being purely independent. We were at that time very proud of our ‘independence’! 2. Churches operate under some sort of structured and formal oversight, as in many denominations today, where local church leaders are appointed by and accountable to regional leadership, whether ‘bishops’, ‘superintendents’ or ‘overseers’. It is hard to justify this model from the pages of the New Testament, though we recognize that it developed very early in church history. Even the word episkopos, translated ‘bishop’ or ‘overseer’, which came to be used of those having wider authority and oversight over other leaders and churches, was used in the New Testament as a synonym for the local leaders or elders of a particular church. The three main forms of church government current in the institutional church are Episcopalianism (government by bishops), Presbyterianism (government by local elders) and Congregationalism (government by the church meeting). Each of these is only a partial reflection of the New Testament. Commenting on these forms of government without apostolic ministry, Phil Greenslade says, ‘We assert as our starting point what the other three viewpoints deny: that the apostolic role is as valid and vital today as ever before. This is to agree with the German charismatic theologian, Arnold Bittlinger, when he says “the New Testament nowhere suggests that the apostolic ministry was intended only for first-century Christians”.’39 3. We aim to imitate the New Testament practice of travelling ministries of apostles and prophets, with apostles having their own spheres of responsibility as a result of having planted and laid the foundations in the churches they oversee. Such ministries continue the connection with local churches as a result of fatherly relationships and not denominational election or appointment, recognizing that there will need to be new charismatically gifted and friendship-based relationships continuing into later generations. This is the model that the ‘New Apostolic Reformation’ (to use Peter Wagner’s phrase) is attempting to follow. Though mistakes have been made, including some quite serious ones involving controlling authority, and though those of us involved are still seeking to find our way with the Holy Spirit’s help, it seems to reflect more accurately the New Testament pattern and a present-day outworking of scriptures such as 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4. ‘Is the building finished? Is the Bride ready? Is the Body full-grown, are the saints completely equipped? Has the church attained its ordained unity and maturity? Only if the answer to these questions is “yes” can we dispense with apostolic ministry. But as long as the church is still growing up into Christ, who is its head, this ministry is needed. If the church of Jesus Christ is to grow faster than the twentieth century population explosion, which I assume to be God’s intention, then we will need to produce, recognize and use Pauline apostles.’40”
― David Devenish, Fathering Leaders, Motivating Mission: Restoring the Role of the Apostle in Today's Church

“As I suggested in Chapter 3, it is possible that these discussions in the hall of Tyrannus took place between 11.00 a.m. and 4.00 p.m., in other words, during siesta time. It was said of Ephesus that ‘at 1.00 p.m. more people are sound asleep than at 1.00 a.m’.10 Only where there is such commitment to teach the word of God, and such hunger to receive it, will there be advance such as that in the province of Asia, where ‘all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord’.11”
― David Devenish, Fathering Leaders, Motivating Mission: Restoring the Role of the Apostle in Today's Church

“I have noticed that if a good foundation is not laid among those who join a new church early on, there will be a corresponding weakness in the church that is built. These are some of the things I have noticed: • Sometimes when a new church is planted in a nation where there are already many churches, some of those who join early on may be existing Christians dissatisfied with the church they previously belonged to. Often such people come with particular agendas or ‘pet doctrines’, and it is very important that the foundational values of the new church are clearly stated and implemented early on to avoid confusion and division, and to ensure that the church is built on agreed positive values, rather than negative ones of discontent and dissension.”
― David Devenish, Fathering Leaders, Motivating Mission: Restoring the Role of the Apostle in Today's Church

“• I am now involved in planting churches in Muslim nations and I have noticed that sometimes, in the eagerness to see new converts added (because, to be frank, in many such places there are very few), foundational issues are not always thoroughly dealt with in those first new converts. For example, the issue of fear, while very understandable, needs to be addressed in order for a strong faith community to be established. • In all cultures there are strongholds associated with that particular culture. These cultural strongholds and other worldview issues need to be dealt with early on in the life of a new church, as we shall see later.”
― David Devenish, Fathering Leaders, Motivating Mission: Restoring the Role of the Apostle in Today's Church