“…Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.”                      (The Murder weapon was stones)                                                   (Matthew 23)

 

What is a denouement you might ask. A denouement is a revealing or a resolution to a mystery.  If you’ve ever watched a mystery on television or read a mystery, there comes a point when the detective gathers all of the suspects together into a room.  The detective then addresses each of the suspects one by one until the detective points the finger at the culprit.  Hercule Poirot and Nero Wolfe and Miss Marple are examples of what I’m talking about.

In our text above our Lord uses a denouement of sorts.  In 2 Chronicles 24 a good priest Zacharias rebukes the people and the king orders his death and the people stone him.  Our Lord tells the Pharisee that they are of the same spirit.  In the Old Testament the faithful prophet Nathan points the finger at David after telling David of a neighbor who had many lambs but took the single beloved lamb of his neighbor and killed it to feed his guests.  Nathan asked David what should happen to such a man. David gave his judgment and Nathan using the denouement, points his finger at David and says, “Thou art the man.”  In the Apocrypha, there are two (2) cases in which Daniel is a detective of sorts and he too uses the denouement.

We will use the denouement in our article, (DV).  In this article we will see if we can find the true enemy of the local church.  There are many suspects to be sure. Here is a list of just a few…
*(s)atan
*The World
*The Flesh
*Wicked men
*Politicians of the liberal sort
*The Homosexual Agenda
*False Teachers
*False Believers
*Easy believism
*Watered Down Gospel
*Unsound Doctrine

As you can see there are many suspects. Could the real enemy of the local church be one of them, some of them, or all of them?  The truth is, these are only hired guns. The real and true culprit is Apathy!!!  The enemy of the local church is apathy, a spirit of indifference.  Why have all of the suspects above gained so much ground?  The apathy and indifference of the contemporary saint……..in other words, Thou art the man.

In the early days of the church, persons were burned at the stake, be-headed, drawn and quartered, hanged, etc. over issues of faith.  There was no indifference or apathy to be found in those days.  I’m not suggesting that we bring back the guillotine or hangman’s noose and execute Jehovah’s witnesses or Mormons or heritics or homosexuals….not at all but what i am suggesting is the ire of the saints be raised. The church needs a resurrection of zeal and fervency.  The church needs the Macabean spirit to resist all the usual suspects and enemies of the church.

How is this empathy to be defeated?  How can this indifference be different?  The church must be honest with itself and confess this apathy to God and beseech Him to stir our spirits…to raise up a standard and to send us all the spirit of Elijah that we may be jealous over our God. We need to pray and ask God for a Spirit of David so that we might be shepherds, armed with rod and staff.  We need the spirit of Adino, the Eznite, who slew eight hundred (800) men at one time with his spear. We must call upon the Spirit of Might (Isaiah 11:1) Who dwells within us and use the three (3) cord Scourge of our persons…..our thinking, our feelings, and our actions/will to whip the enemies of God and His church. We need the spirit of Nehemiah, who grabbed men and pulled their hair out in a fit of righteous indignation.

Reader, I’m not inciting anyone to physical violence. I am inciting you to spiritual and mental violence however.  I am inciting you to verbal jiu jitsu. I am inciting you to stamp out political correctness.  I am inciting you to throw off your spirit of empathy and indifference and to “put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ…”  I am inciting you to put on the Whole Armour of God and fight for the purity and life of the local church.

Everyone has a passion. Some find their passion in their work, others in sports, others in politics.  What if we directed that passion into our faith?  What if we cheered at church like we cheer at sporting events?  Why do we not cheer at church?  Empathy and indifference, pride, shyness, what? why?  This writer attends  WWE events and we can tell you, we are more vocal at church than we are at the WWE event.  In church, when we attend, we Amen the preacher, we nod our head, we shake our head, we sing, we lift up holy hands…we are excited by the things of God.

Daniel, when prophecying about the end of time, said that the believers will do”exploits.” The definition of exploit is a bold or daring feat.  The Scriptures tells us that the righteous shall be bold as lions. Your Christ-ianity can be exciting, fun, and full of exploits.
We have in the past written to false prophets/preachers/teachers warning them of their fate lest they repent.  Al Sharpton has heard from us and has been warned with Scripture.  We have written to politicians and gave them our opinion on different matters.  We have written to other believers that are being targeted by the homosexual agenda.  We hand out tracts and engage others in conversation. We write here on our site. We try to make a difference in the stead of being indifferent. We seek to make a difference in the lives of others….caring about others can be an adventure in itself.

Examples or proofs of the apathy we speak of:
We have offered to answer Biblical questions or offer counsel from a Biblical perspective on FaceBook.  This questioning can be done publically or through messenger.  Do you know how many persons asked a question? Zero (0).  I did not know my readers, all of them were theologians…I am humbled to be writing for you. Another example, I have written on very contraversial subjects and not one person questioned my doctrine or challenged my view.  This writer, when he reads something wrong, false, or bad writing he challenges the other writer or commenter.  In fact, the only reason this writer started up with FaceBook was to defend the Billy Graham family from slander and lies.  FaceBook was the only way we could comment, so we started on FaceBook.

My hope is this article will do something like Acts 16:9,10, “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night….And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go…”
Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia calling for him, and immediately Paul jumps up and wakes Dr. Luke and says, Let’s Go!!! (Let’s Go is not in Scripture, we are using our Sanctified Imagination)

Let’s pretend that I am Saint Paul and you are Doctor Luke…. and we will cosplay the scene from Acts 16…….I just had a vision, Doctor Luke, Get up Get ready, and Let’s Go Go Go!!!

Godspeed.