How Are We To Be Church?
During a
recent prayer-Zoom our lovely Lord Jesus gave our group further answers to the
questions: "What are you saying Lord God?" and "What are you
doing Lord?"
Our group
were praying about a local house church where discipleship of the
"younger" Christians is a priority, and everyone is committed to
Jesus and also ready to contribute in ministry and to grow in Christ ..
We had
also been discussing and praying about how we are to be church once the Covid-19 pandemic is passed.
Then a
voice said: "Do not settle". Immediately we knew that this was Jesus' thought for us all.
The
coronavirus lockdown is easing in
We cannot
begin to know the extent of the changes which are still before us. People are talking about a "new
normal" saying that "things will not be the same", but no one can tell us what the "not" will be like ..
I, and my
prayer partners, believe that "church" will change too. So many
people are saying how blessed they have been over the past months to share very
simply with other Christians, one-at-a-time or with small groups, walking safely-distanced-apart in parks, or talking over the
phone, or on the Internet. They have learned to be "church" in a new
and deeper way. Their times together have been precious and filled with worship;
Jesus was in the midst during the sharing and prayer and as they helped one
another.
Here is my
note-from-memory from that prayer-Zoom meeting; Jesus said to me:
"I want you to be totally available to me and to be
ready to be radically obedient. I want you to love the brothers and sisters I
have put you with, to be discipled by them, and you in turn to disciple them. I
want you to go about doing the works I set before you. I want you to look
beyond one church or group, rather to be a part of a number of groups each with
its own focus; that way you will get to know many people and be close enough
that you can love them.
Beyond this, I want you to look outwards, to always remember
that my focus is the whole world; I
desire that the whole world will hear my gospel (Isaiah 52:7) and know that I
came to set everyone free from their
sin, their rebellion and disobedience, and that they may look forward to eternal life with me. And that everyone can grow into fullness in me (Ephesians
4:12), that my church will grow in unity (John 17:21), and that none should
perish (2 Peter 3:9), but come into the fullness of life in me (Romans 6:23, 1
Corinthians 4:17, 2 Timothy 3:12) and be free (Galatians 5:1)".
Paul
reminds us that the Church is Jesus' body, "the
fullness of him who fills everything in every way" (Ephesians 1:23)
and its members are "Christ's
body" (1 Corinthians 12:12). We
are those members.
Our
primary responsibility as Jesus' people is to put God first always, and to put
our neighbour next (Matthew 22:37-40). By
the time I put Jesus, then my Christian brothers and sisters and my family ahead of me, and do what I
do to look out for others including strangers (Matthew 22:39), and do any work
I'm committed to do, I find myself
well down in my priority list for my love and care .. it is very sobering for
me to think about this ..
Jesus
wants us to gather around Him as our Shepherd; to find places where He is Head,
where He is Centre and the object of our worship, where there is the intimacy
of a big Brother and His siblings, all looking to our Father for active
guidance by our loving and caring Holy Spirit.
We know
that we are to love one another and even to disciple and help one another as we
make room for them to love, disciple and help us (John 13:34-35, Acts 5:42, Romans
12:7, Romans 15:4, 1 Timothy 4:13). Growing in love is a slow processes, so Jesus must mean that we are to call one group
or fellowship or congregation "home", but we are also to involve ourselves well beyond that one group.
In Bible
times Christians met in one another’s homes and at the Synagogues where the
Jews would have been conducting their liturgies, (there were no buildings set
up specially for Christian meetings). There is a sense of Jesus' people being
"one family"; they were very generous and shared much. They knew one
another as brothers and sisters, and together they cared for and nurtured all the children, the old folk and the disadvantaged,
and their neighbours too.
When
Peter, Paul or Timothy, or any mature teacher (1 Corinthians 2:6-7) came to a
city, Jesus' newly formed church would gather in all its variety to hear from
them, this would add another and precious dimension to their Christian walk and
give opportunity for Jesus' Way to be taught (and doctrinal error to be
rectified). The apostles' letters would have been handed around and read aloud
much as we use the Internet today, so that good, clear teaching could reach all
the "ecclesia", all the
"gathered ones".
What Does It Mean? "Do Not
Settle"?
Whatever
else, Jesus is telling us to not
become too settled where we are planted. Scripture makes it clear that we are
to form bonds with other Christians. This means to help, form relationship and share with each
other, and to "love one
another" .. this takes time. But we have been given enough time to do
even more ..
Jesus and
Paul often spoke or wrote about these things: Scripture shows everybody
ministering, love in action, unity, making room for one another, compassion,
mutual growth, humility and service. And most of all, there was a focus on
Jesus, and our Father and His Kingdom. Jesus asked Abba Father to send us Holy
Spirit so we would be equipped and strengthened to do all this (John 14:26)!
I hear
Jesus saying: "find groups of believers where you see lots of wheat and
few tares, where the people are more committed to Me and My Kingdom than to the
world and its culture".
The name
"Christian" was not given to Jesus' people for almost a generation
after that amazing Pentecost when Holy Spirit came with tongues of fire and
Jesus' church was born (Acts 2). The early believers were mostly Jews and still
attended Synagogue. But they also began to follow Jesus' teachings, alongside
of their Jewish religious life. They were initially called "the followers of the Way" (Acts 24:14).
How Well Am I Doing Now?
If Father
God is asking us to come into line with His will in a way that is going to help
the world, then am I doing so? What am I now doing better or more truly? With
whom? When? These are tough questions!
Am I
living as though I am "God's temple" (2 Corinthians 6:16) and Jesus and Holy
Spirit live and minister from inside me (Colossians 1:27)? Are there "rivers of living water" flowing from my
spiritual belly (John 7:38)?
I think a
lot about being a "living
stone" (1 Peter 2:5) .. how well am I doing this? Am I allowing Jesus
to chip away at me and shape me to conform to His will? Am I where He wants me
in His "house of God", or
do I just go where I like and am comfortable?
Do I
bring "salt and light" (Matthew
5:13-16) to people and situations? Am I one who builds "hope and faith" (1 Thessalonians 1:3)? Do I encourage
others with true testimonies (John 19:35, 2 Timothy 1:8) of God's "grace" (Romans 5:2), "love" (1 Corinthians 13), "salvation" (Romans 13:11), “compassion” (Philippians 2:1-2), "power" (2 Timothy 1:7) and "kindness" (Acts 4:9)?
I do not
have answers to these questions but am grateful to our lovely Jesus for asking
them; just thinking about these things helps me to focus more on His will and less on mine, and to
encourage me away from my comfortable or lazy habits. Trish and I both think
that these times are critical for the world, and require us to re-commit to
Jesus and to be sure of our duty to God and to our fellow humanity.
The Father's Heart
Trish and
I have six children. We are so grateful that we all live within a few suburbs
of one another in the same city. How lovely it is when we all get together with
wives and girlfriends and grandchildren too, we often have more than a dozen of
us sharing a meal! How saddened Trish and I are when a rift develops between
some of the kids, or anything disrupts our harmony. We worry and pray until relational healing comes.
Time and
again in Scripture Jesus calls us to unity, it is one of the great themes of
the New Testament. In the church today there is often much talk of unity but
sadly, not much of it to be seen ..
"Do
not settle" has much to say to this state of affairs, as we meet, worship,
pray, fellowship and work with others, unity will grow as love grows, then the
world will see Jesus.
(John
4:23 NIV) "Yet a time is coming and has
now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in
truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks".
(John
4:23 Message) "But the time is coming - it has in fact already come - when what
you're called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter. It's
who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must
engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That's the kind of people the
Father is looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him
in their worship".
Praise Jesus. Amen.
Favourite Bible Verses
"So Christ himself gave the
apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so
that the body of Christ may be built up
until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of
God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of
Christ" (Ephesians
4:11-13).
"My prayer is not for them
alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as
you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may
believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have
given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them
and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know
that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me" (John 17:20-23).
"And this gospel of the kingdom
will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations,
and then the end will come" (Matthew 24:14).
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Praise Jesus.
