Ed Stetzer, Executive Director, Billy Graham Center
January 12, 2020 - W2002

A Season of Steadfastness  

The Issachar Anointing

Rev. Ed Stetzer 

January 11 & 12, 2020 

Welcome, New Hope! I'm Ed Stetzer, the executive director of The Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, just outside of Chicago, Illinois. Thank you so much, Pastor Wayne Cordeiro and Pastor Jon Burgess, for having me—it's good to be here! And those of you joining us online, I welcome you, as well. I’m super-excited to be invited to share God's word with you at New Hope Oahu! Let me tell you why:

I've been a researcher of churches and cultures for about a decade and a half: I ran a firm called LifeWay Research; and I now serve as the executive director of The Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College. We do a lot of research on churches and cultures, and one of the churches is this church! Actually, I have about 15 years of information on your church; and I can say that a church like this is just not normal! 

As a matter of fact, we have a section for your church in our files called the Freakishly Abnormal Churches—in a very good way! It's amazing what God has done through your church because this is not the normal way that churches usually start, grow, and multiply—I wish it were!                

Today, we're talking about The Issachar Anointing, A Season Of Steadfastness. Pastor Jon Burgess mentioned last week that the people of Issachar could discern the times they were living in and knew what they should do! 

The reality is that we live in very tumultuous times, and people have said that our country has some of the most divided people they've ever seen—maybe in their lifetimes. Globally, there's conflict, confusion, and disruption; and social media has become a shark tank of disagreement and argument. I have a particular passion for that as a PhD in my field called Missiology—training people and missionaries to understand in cross cultures.

You may remember that 2016 was a presidential election year and people were very upset; and my publisher encouraged me to write a book of understanding the age of outrage, and how we as Christians can live faithfully and live in a steadfast way in the midst, as the tribe of Issachar did.  

This is not the first time that the world has been divided and the church unsure of how to react during tumultuous times. The church in Corinth needed The Issachar Anointing, as it was struggling to engage its culture in a very divided world! Paul writes a second letter to the church in Corinth that is corrupted, divided, and wrapped up in a lot of things that weren't glorifying the Lord, and he admonishes them to represent Jesus and His Kingdom! We will learn how to stay steadfast in a very divided world and walk through four things to represent Jesus and His Kingdom well:   

1. Get A New Perspective 

Seeing things rightly through Gospel lenses. 

2 Corinthians 5:16-17 NIV says: “¹⁶So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

This is key: From now on, we regard no one from a worldly point of view; we see people through a new set of lenses that are different than the way the world sees people. The world tries to put people into groups who are angry with one another, and division sets in! And if we're honest, we would have to say that far too many Christians are being discipled by their cable news or social media feed; that's how the world shapes and impacts us—not by the Word of God!

Through new Gospel lenses, we see and understand Jesus more clearly, and we regard no one from a worldly point of view (by human standards). We have become a new creation in Christ (the old is gone), and we see things of the world differently!

You may have been struggling in your life and saying, “I need to turn over a new leaf, maybe some religion would help me make better choices and get a new way of living.” Jesus calls being born again a new life—when the old is gone! Christianity is about receiving a new life, not about turning over a new leaf! 

So, if we're to have The Issachar Anointing and live steadfastly in the moment, here's what we must ask:  “How do I look differently at my community, neighbors, co?workers, or people on social media because of my new life and the new lenses through which I see the world?”

But when our lenses are knocked about to and fro, our gospel call is to readjust the lenses, so we are able to see the world the way Jesus has called us to see them. Now, if we miss that, we miss what it means to be a people of Christ in a divided age—in outrageous times. 

2. We're Sent On A Mission Of Reconciliation

When Jesus died on the cross for our sins in our place, and we received the gospel message by grace through faith, we were reconciled to God! We have now been given the ministry of reconciliation in the midst of a divided world!

The morning after Billy Graham died, we flew to Florida from Wheaton to attend his funeral. A reporter from The New York Times came up to me and asked the normal questions people ask: “What happens now? What do you think his greatest legacy will be?” And then she asked a question that nobody really has the answer to, but I was sort of ready. She asked: “Who is the next Billy Graham?”  

Nobody in the family claims to be the next Billy Graham; and nobody elsewhere probably should claim to be the next Billy Graham—He was a unique man, for a unique time, used in unique ways.

Billy Graham, the Uber driver, you, and me all have something in common: We’re on a highway that stretches 2000 years called The Great Commission Highway. On that Highway, someone told someone, who told someone, who told Mordecai Ham who preached the gospel that Billy Graham heard, and responded that day, and maybe you heard him at a crusade. 

In the midst of tumultuous times, we don't need Christians who hide or run away. Don't let your life be a cul?de?sac on God's Great Commission Highway.  

3. Representing Jesus And His Kingdom

 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 NIV says: “²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Jesus is the true King of the whole universe, and we have the privilege of being His ambassador. The word ambassador is only used twice in our Bible: once here, and in another place where Paul writes, "For I am an ambassador in chains." It's not always easy to be an ambassador; Paul was an ambassador in chains, at times.

I was struck recently while listening to a commencement speech at Wheaton College; our graduation speaker was someone whose name you might recognize—Andrew and Norine Brunson.  He is the pastor who was arrested and imprisoned unjustly in Turkey for 2 years. He and his wife were both arrested; but she was released after a couple of weeks. He was used as a pawn by the president of Turkey who was trying to make a trade, but the people began to speak up—The White House, the members of congress, and the secretary of state.

Andrew told his story of about 2 years of imprisonment. A Turkish prison is not where a follower of Jesus would want to be, an anti-Christian nation, in a cell meant for a few, but had dozens there. He said, "There were times I just broke," but in the midst of his misery, he tried to represent Jesus as well as he could to his captors and guards. He had just come from Turkey, was cleaned up, and was ready to go. 

As he told his story, I noticed that it was just 36 hours from being in a Turkish prison to being in the White House Oval Office! He talked about Jesus the whole time and wanted to pray for this country!

You may not know what your situation will be and how it will work out, but you know that you've been called to be an ambassador, in good times and in bad times. It may be difficult, but we're still called to be an ambassador.

4. Because Of The Cross  

 ²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

In other words, Jesus took your sin and it was deposited into Him. The technical theological word is imputation. When Jesus died on the cross for your sin in your place, your sin was deposited in Jesus! In a twist of beautiful grace, His righteousness was deposited in you!  

So, when God looks at you as a follower of Jesus, He doesn't see your sin or the stupid things that you've done. He sees Jesus' righteousness. God made Jesus to be sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God! How wonderful is that?

This is the motivation for your steadfast living in the midst of an age of division. So, I encourage you as you walk through this whole series of The Issachar Anointing to be like the people of Issachar, who could discern the times and knew what they should do. 

We are sent on a Mission of Reconciliation in this new life. We have new Gospel lenses in which we see the world so, in 2020, let’s represent Jesus and His Kingdom as His ambassador because of what Jesus did on the cross for you and me!  

Discussion Questions: 

1. Explain the meaning of The Issachar Anointing, A Season Of Steadfastness.
2. List four ways we can be steadfast in a divided world and represent Jesus and His Kingdom well.  
3. Share an experience you had when God sent you on a Mission of Reconciliation.
4. As ambassadors of Christ, what are our responsibilities?