When I became a lead pastor, I preached the gospel enthusiastically, but I didn’t understand its winnowing power or how positive that process would be. Like all pastors, I didn’t want division. I wanted unity and inclusivity. But that’s not how ministry works.
Everyone in the first century knew what John the Baptist meant when he predicted that Christ would winnow his church (Matthew 3:12) because everyone in the first century knew the purpose of a winnowing fork. Farmers used it to separate the wheat from its chaff. They tossed the grain into the air, the wind blew the lighter chaff to the side, and the heavier wheat fell to the threshing floor.
In other words, the gospel was Jesus’ winnowing fork that separated people into two piles—wheat and chaff. This is what Simeon meant when he warned Mary that her child would be “appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel ” (Luke 2:34). In his adult years, the response to his ministry was usually “a division among the people” (John 7:43). It was the same for Paul: “And the people [of Antioch] were divided” (Acts 14:4).
Faithful gospel ministry means preaching the “whole counsel of God”
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