He expects a loving body – part 3 of 3
Love for Fellow Believers
Our love for him should naturally carry over to the people around us who share our unity with Christ. This is exactly what Jesus said in John 13:34-35. As he poured his love for the Father and for us out on the cross, we should likewise be expressive in our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ.
We should care about the emotional, physical and spiritual well-being of our Christian family. Are they joyful in Christ? Are they hungry, destitute or lonely? Are they growing in their walk with Christ or are they stagnant? Jesus consistently concerned himself with these matters when it came to those around him. If we have a genuine love for him, then so too should we.
Love for the Unconverted
However, Christ demonstrated a love for more than the church. He cast his message of grace far and wide and called us to do the same. If we are truly the body of Christ then it seems fair to say that upon his return he expects to find a body of people who both possess and manifest a sincere love for those who have never experienced the redeeming grace of God.
Yet, for that to happen we as the church, the body of Christ on earth, must have within our hearts a love for all of God’s creation, including those who hate and curse him, those who neglect or deny him, and those who have simply never heard of him.
Responding to Indifference
The next words of Christ in this brief letter emphasize his gracious love towards his children, reminding us that we were saved with a distinct purpose in view. In short, we were created to love God and bring glory to him through sacrificial praise and service.
Jesus says to us as much as he did to the Ephesians: “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first” (2:5a). With a profound economy of words Jesus articulated what our response to cold indifference should be: Remember, repent, and return.
Christ’s charge here is the same we discussed earlier. Take a moment once again and think back to the fire you once felt towards Christ. I recall the months following my conversion. I couldn’t wait to read the Bible and learn all that I could about my Savior.
There was such a sweet anticipation as I opened its pages; I wanted to know what would happen next. There was a desire within my soul to tell others about Jesus, a desire that unknowingly seemed so natural. I confess that over the years of my walk with Christ there have been many times were I have had to stop and intentionally remember what it was like to have such a holy fire in my bones. We would all do well to remember.
However, remembering is not enough and Jesus makes that clear to us. Upon remembering our first love we are then to repent, confessing our sin as we cry out to God, pleading with him to create in us a clean heart and renew within us a steadfast spirit (Ps 51:10-12).
With a freshly cleaned heart and renewed zeal for Christ we are then to lay aside the matters which distracted us from him and return to that newly redeemed person who was on fire for Christ. The exciting thing here is that we are not asked to forsake the lessons we learn in the valleys. Rather, Jesus is charging us to take with us what we learn in the trials and sin so that we will be all the more prepared the next time distraction and cold indifference attack our souls.
There is also a flatly worded warning in this letter. Jesus declares: “If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent” (2:5b). I pray that this word of warning stops you cold in your thoughts, for it is a statement designed to do so. He was not referring to his second coming here; instead he was promising to level judgment upon the Ephesian church if they did not repent of their sin and return to what they were founded and called to be.[i]
So with deafening clarity the Ephesian body of believers was told that their church itself might be dissolved if they failed to make Christ their focus and do what he had called them to do. They desperately needed to remember their first love.
Manifesting Love
If we are honest with ourselves, we too, like our Ephesian brethren, need to remember, repent, and return. We all face the same temptations they faced. We all struggle with the same human nature. And as believers in Christ we have been adopted into the family of God and made fellow heirs with Christ the same way they were (Rom 8:12-17). Therefore, we must take to heart Christ’s charge to them and search intently to see if we too are guilty of forgetting our first love.
So what do we look for in this inward search? While physical markers can be misleading, our inward love for Christ was from the very beginning intended to manifest itself outwardly. The Ephesians were praised for their hard labor for Christ, but it was apparently done out of a sense of duty rather than worship.
Just as God rejected Cain’s offering but accepted Abel’s (Gen 4:1-7), God either rejects or accepts our offerings because he knows the inner motivation of our hearts as we serve him in this world. With that in mind, let each of us search our hearts for the purpose behind our service and worship.
Meeting physical needs
Jesus clearly calls us to meet the physical needs of people (Matt 25:31-46). Yet, he also makes it clear that by ministering to the broken we are glorifying him: “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matt 25:40). We need to ask ourselves if we have Christ’s renown in view while we serve or our own.
Bearing with one another
Another mark of love is found in our desire to bear with one another’s burdens. Paul teaches us that by doing so we “fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). James helps us to see that this “royal law” as he dubs it is defined by love (Jas 2:8). So by choosing to bear with our brothers through trials and failures and immaturity we are demonstrating the love of Christ in our lives and loving others as much as we love ourselves.
Obeying God’s word
If the fire for our first love is still burning bright then obedience to his word should still be something which characterizes us. John captures this thought best: “And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it” (2 John 6). Of course, this is not the mere following of the law, it is the joyful desire to obey God because we love him (John 14:15).
Sharing the good news
What about evangelism? As we search out the crevices of our soul do we find an inner desire to tell other people about our savior? If we genuinely have an abiding love for Christ in our hearts and believe that he is the only means of eternal life in the presence of God then the only rational response we can make is to find joy in telling others about him (Rom 1:16-17; John 14:6).
Enjoying God
Surely there are other benchmarks by which we can gage our affection for God, but honestly the most important one involves our level of joy in him. So we should ask ourselves: Do I enjoy my relationship with him? Is my soul happy because I know that whatever happens in life God is in control and he has my best interests in mind (Rom 8:28)?
Is there contentment in my soul regardless of circumstance because I know that God is holding me in his hands and is constantly at work with the goal of conforming me into the image of his son? Do I enjoy God?
Jesus is coming back. He promised to never leave us; he promised to prepare a place for us. So we can be certain that the day is coming, and I pray that it will be soon. However, in the mean time, we as the church still have time to correct our short-comings and become the people God designed us to be. We still have time to remember our first love, repent of our sin, and return to the fiery people we were when he initially redeemed us.
Let each recall the promise of Christ as we examine our own lives: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God” (2:7).
[i]John MacArthur, Revelation 1-11. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 64.
He expects a loving body – part 2
In a pattern that typifies each of the seven letters, Christ addressed his comments to a particular body and then highlighted some aspect of his character important to that particular group. He then proceeded to praise their works (with the exception the Laodicean church), condemn their failures (with the exception of Smyrna and Philadelphia), charge them and finally provide them with a promise of either judgment or blessing depending upon their situation.
Regarding Ephesus, Christ reminded them that the words addressed to them originated from the one who “holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.” From the first chapter of Revelation we learn that the seven stars are the seven angels and the seven lampstands are the seven churches (Rev 1:20). Basically, Jesus’ point here was to remind the believers at Ephesus that he is the one in control. It is he who directs the angels[i] of these churches and walks among the body of his believers.
This is reminiscent of God’s word in Leviticus 26:12 where God declares: “I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.” So we are to understand by this statement that everything God was about to say to Ephesus (along with the other churches) comes from one who knows intimately what he is talking about. He was there with them; he knew their good deeds and bad deeds. He was not speculating or guessing; the words he shared were totally truthful and accurate. Therefore, there would be no denying or blame shifting on their part.
He began with praise. The body at Ephesus labored with a patient endurance. Rather than totally succumbing to the strain of serving in such a pagan culture, they worked hard to continue serving Christ.[ii] They were commended for refusing to tolerate those who lived wickedly, even testing those who claimed to be apostles.
Their endurance in spite of struggle was rewarded by Christ and surely they were words well received as this letter was read to them. However, as only one who genuinely knows the inward thoughts of a person can do, Christ quickly humbled them by exposing the secret reality of their faith. Sadly, it had lost its luster and grown cold.
He said quite bluntly to them: “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first” (2:4). No doubt these words stung as they left the lips of the one reading aloud this letter and pierced the hearts of all those hearing them.
I can imagine the sagging heads and pale faces. One can almost hear the silence in the room as the thoughts of every person inwardly confessed the truth of Christ’s condemnation, for their once white-hot love for Christ had cooled considerably. We learn from Paul that at some point, perhaps forty years prior to this letter, the Ephesians had displayed a profound love toward all the saints (Eph 1:15), but for whatever reason that love had diminished.
Certainly there are several characteristics that we can focus on in this letter, but I believe they all hinge on the fact that the Ephesian believers had lost their first love. This is significant because love is perhaps the chief characteristic Christ is looking for in his church. Above virtually every other attribute, the church is to display love and ultimately be defined by it.
Jesus says quite plainly in John 13:34-35 that we are to love one another: “[J]ust as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” So from this short letter to the church at Ephesus we must come to terms with the fact that upon his return, Jesus is expecting to find a church that is characterized by love, not squabbling and dissension and unrest.
The sad reality, however, is that there are far too many churches in existence today that have joined the Ephesian church by losing their first love. Take a moment and think back to when you were first made new by Christ. Perhaps you were kneeling at an altar as a child or maybe you were sitting alone in your college dorm.
All of our journeys are different, but there should be one common denominator: An overwhelming sense of love in our hearts. As a new Christian there is a natural influx of love derived from our newfound relationship with Christ. His forgiving and gracious presence engulfs our souls and manifests itself in a multitude of ways. In ways never known before, we display a love for God, a love for fellow believers, and a love for the unconverted. When we ponder what Christ is looking for in his church, I believe each of these aspects were in view as he exposed the Ephesian church.
Love for God
Honestly, as the church this is where we need to begin an honest assessment of our spiritual state. Is there within our hearts an abiding love and affection for God Almighty? When we speak of a love for God we need to be clear that we have in view here the disposition of our heart.
In other words, we need to examine our hearts and discern whether we have a genuine affection for God or are we merely appreciative of what he did for us in Christ? To be certain there is a profound difference in the two approaches.
The former reflects a soul that has been made knew by God through the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit as the gospel separated marrow and bone. The latter reflects a soul that may have been made new and is currently in a deep valley of despair or it could reflect a person who has never actually been redeemed by God.
Without doubt we were made new with the purpose of loving and serving God (Ezek 11:19-20; 36:26; Jer 32:37-41). Therefore, if a genuine affection for God is absent from our lives then we must recognize it and confess that Christ will not be pleased with us upon his return. If we are his children – his church – then a love for him should characterize our lives. This is a love we dare not lose.
[i]There are various beliefs regarding exactly who the “angels” of the churches are. Some hold that they are the bishops while others consider them the “prevailing spirit” of each congregation (Mounce).
[ii]Merril C. Tenney, Interpreting Revelation (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2001. First published in 1957 by William B. Eerdmans), 56.
He expects a loving body – part 1
Series: Christ’s Expectations for His Church
Peter said, “The end of all things is at hand” (1 Pet 4:7). A simple statement to be sure, but they’re powerful words to live by. When it comes to the subject of Christ’s return there is a common thread throughout the New Testament summarized by Peter’s words in his first epistle. He obviously believed that the time of Christ’s return would come about in his lifetime.
The writer of Hebrews likewise believed the time was near: “For, ‘Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay’” (Heb 10:37). The Apostle John believed that the “last hour” would occur in his own lifetime (1 John 2:18). Perhaps the best known biblical confession of a firm expectation of Christ’s imminent and soon-coming return is Paul’s words to the Thessalonians:
For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord (1 Thess 4:15-17).
Clearly, Paul lived with a great expectation and full belief that the return of Jesus Christ was going to happen in his generation. Of course, we trust that Paul knew of Christ’s teaching regarding the hour of his return (Mt 24:36), the fact that no one but the Father knows of its timing, and no where did Paul convey that he knew of a promised date of Christ’s return.
Yet, through his convincing words we are forced to grapple with the faith of a man who was so enraptured by the person of Christ that he could imagine nothing better than Christ returning and consummating history as he knew it. He tried to capture this sentiment for Titus’ sake:
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ (Tit 2:11-13).
Paul had experienced the grace of God in a powerful, liberating way on the road to Damascus (Acts 9). He had been taught to renounce his own ungodliness and worldly passions. He had learned from Christ how to live a self-controlled, upright and godly life in the midst of a pagan world. But more than anything, the grace of God had instilled within his soul a great hope; an impassioned hope of the glorious return of his God and Savior Jesus Christ. Paul left no room for doubt; he was actively looking for Christ’s physical return. Moreover, it seems fair to say that he was longing for it.
Personally, I’m convinced that this was at least part of Paul’s motivation for consistently calling the body of Christ to spiritual renewal.[i] He knew that Christ would return and that he would be expecting to find his church living and serving as he had called them to.
Having been called out of the darkness of sin and entrusted with the high calling of the apostolic ministry, Paul labored over the state of the church until his death. He bled over the church. He wept over the church. He lost sleep and suffered at the hands of both Jew and Gentile alike for the sake of the body of Christ, all so that it could be found as a spotless bride when the bride-groom returned.
Although two millennia have passed since the life and death of Paul, our desire for the return of Christ should be no less zealous than his. Furthermore, our desire for the health and purity of the body of Christ should be no less fervent.
We too should find ourselves contemplating just what Christ is going to find when he returns. Will he find the church he designed or an imposter? Will he find the vast multitude of individual groups labeled “churches” behaving properly and proclaiming the gospel faithfully? On a more personal level, we should all ask ourselves this question: Will he find me behaving properly and proclaiming the gospel faithfully?
This is actually the most important question for us because every church is composed of individual believers and the whole can only be as good as its parts. Thankfully we serve an all-knowing God. He knew that his children would face this question until his eventual return; therefore, he gave us a very clear answer.
While exiled on the island of Patmos because of his faith, the Apostle John received a revelation from God – The revelation of Jesus Christ. This book, the book we know as Revelation, has been studied and pondered and written about by countless men and women throughout the last two thousand years. With its symbolic language and references it has confused many (myself included), but when taken for what it was intended to be it has also provided a great deal of encouragement to many.
I recall one New Testament scholar summarizing the book of Revelation with these few words: In the end, God wins. Sure, we could argue that that is an oversimplification of this weighty book, but when I try to read Revelation from a first or second century persecuted Christian perspective, the fact that God is assured the victory in the end means more to me than understanding the significance of a multi-headed dragon.
Now I do believe that we should study Revelation intently and seek to understand all that God means to communicate through it, but I pray that we will always come back to the encouragement and hope that it was originally intended to foster. This book was meant to convict the church of sin and challenge them to remain faithful to Christ amidst persecution, knowing that he would triumph over their enemies in the end.
This is vital to us as believers because although our setting is quite different from our first-century counterparts, the same basic problems that plagued them still afflict us. Their love for Christ faded over time, so too does ours. Their tolerance for false teaching grew, so too does ours. The seductive cultural influences which surrounded them corrupted their lives, likewise we are permeated by godlessness and it corrupts us just as it did them. Their faith weakened, so too does ours. Their patience and hope grew faint over the years, so too does ours.
Being so similar, we should easily find both comfort and conviction in the words of Christ’s revelation, for his loving words of encouragement and promise along with his stern correction to the seven churches in Asia are just as important and applicable to us as it was to them. With that in mind, we will turn our attention to his words written to these seven churches, praying that through them we will discern exactly what he expects to find upon his return.
Through John, Christ communicated with seven distinct churches, churches that I believe to be real, but also typical of churches that have existed from the beginning. Therefore, every believer and subsequently every church can find words of correction and comfort in his critique.
The first on his list was the church at Ephesus. It was a city bustling with people and very important from a political perspective. Cultic influences permeated the people. It boasted temples built in honor of the Roman emperors Claudius, Hadrian, and Severus.[ii] It is likely that Priscilla and Aquila were the first missionaries to this city around A.D. 52 (Acts 18:24-28).
Ephesus was a city who had heard the gospel and been taught well. Paul himself proclaimed and taught the gospel to them, challenging them to abandon their old lives for newness in Christ (Acts 19-20). Clearly, much had been entrusted to them and with his letter to them it became equally clear that Christ expected a great deal from them.
ENDNOTES
[i]Consider a sample of Paul’s words to the church: Acts 14:19-23; 16:1-5; 20:17-38; Romans 12-15; and 1 Corinthians are just a few examples of his passion for the church to behave as God originally intended.
[ii]Robert H. Mounce, The Book of Revelation. Revised. The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1998. First Edition, 1977), 66-67.
The salty church – part 3
The Church’s Mission
So the church is a called-out body of redeemed individuals drawn together in Christ as one family. Surely there are more articulate definitions, but hopefully this one will serve us well and guide us throughout our study and more importantly our pursuit of establishing healthy churches for the glory of God. Yet, there is more we need to know.
Okay, we are a called-out body, but why were we “called out”? This is a good question, and it has answer. To word the question differently, we need to ask, “What is the mission of the church?” This is more important that many realize. I fear that a lot of Christians will respond to this question with a resounding rolling of their eyes, as if to say the answer to the question is obvious. However, the state of the church reveals that the church at large may not affectively grasp what the mission of the church actually entails. In fact, it is entirely possible that we have begun to place the proverbial cart before the horse.
David Bosch phrases it this way. Speaking of the early church, he writes: “Mission was understood as being derived from the very nature of God…Father, Son and Holy Spirit sending the church into the world…a movement from God to the world…There is a church because there is a mission, not vice versa.”[1]
Did you catch that? The task God has set before us, which is to be his ambassador’s in this world, does not exist because there is a church needing something to do. No, the church exists because there is a mission that must be fulfilled. This is huge. Every Christian and therefore every church which exists needs to grasp this concept, for it provides a constant reminder of who we are and what we have been commissioned to do.
Life is not about us. Ministry is not about us. Worship is not about us. Eternity is not about us. It is all about him. We exist for the glory of God, not the other way around. Moreover, we exist for the good of humanity.
It’s was a preservative
One of the best ways for us to understand our mission as Christians and therefore the church is to give our full attention and obedience to Christ’s words to us from the Sermon on the Mount. There Jesus tells us that we “are the salt of the earth” (Matt 5:13a).
The metaphor is clear. For centuries man has been using salt as a means of preserving meat. Prior to the advent of modern refrigeration, the only way to preserve meat was to rub a great deal of salt into the meat and allow the salt to extract the moisture from the meat, thereby working to prevent the growth of bacteria and ultimately the decay of the meat.
Much the same way, the church has been sent into the world with a mission. We are to act as a preservative for this wicked world. Earlier I mentioned the need for the church to be infused into the world; this metaphor is what I was referring to. Just as salt is rubbed into meat so as to prevent decay, so too the church is to be rubbed into the meat of this world with the goal of being used by God to draw out the sin and wickedness that is present. But how do we do this? How can we as sinful individuals be affectively used by God to identify sin in others and preserve them?
First, we must understand the gospel and embrace it as truth, for only through the gospel of Jesus Christ can the wicked be forgiven and justified before God. Apart from the piercing power of God’s word we have no weapon and no ability to draw out sin from anyone. I can yell from the rooftops that cohabitation is wrong and evil in the sight of God, but unless the power of God through gospel is presented I am accomplishing nothing of eternal significance. For the church to be salt it must embrace and unapologetically proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Second, as Christians we should also be living in such a way as to attract people to God. I say this because we all know that our lives, even on our best days, fall drastically short of God’s righteous standard (Isa 64:6). Therefore, our goal is to draw attention to God through lives that are selflessly devoted to him. This is an attribute the early church exemplified. Think of Paul as he spoke with the Athenians. Through his teaching and witness he left them wanting more of God.
They said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean” (Acts 17:19-20). What a great example of being salt in a decaying world.
However, Jesus knew that not every Christian and therefore every church would live out their design. So he aimed the rest of this metaphor at them. He continued, “…but if salt has lost its taste” (Matt 5:13b). Now scientifically we know that salt does not lose its saltiness, but it can however be adulterated or spoiled. That means that we must conclude that Jesus was referring to churches who were meant to be the salt of the earth, but because of compromise and indifference have become infused with the world.
Of these churches we ask: “Is there any discernable difference between you and the world?” Yes, we are to permeate this world with the message of Christ’s atoning death and the freedom it brings, but if we look no different than the world around us we have failed. This painful reality led Jesus to conclude his metaphor by saying, “…how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet” (Matt 5:13c).
These words should scare us, for Jesus says quite bluntly that if salt is corrupted it cannot be restored (naturally speaking of course). In fact, from a human perspective it has been rendered completely useless and therefore must be cast out and destroyed. This means that a saltless church is a worthless church. Okay, that sounds really harsh, but Jesus made his point didn’t he?
It should be clear that Jesus takes the health of his body so seriously that he is willing to speak the truth in love and shock his body into reality when necessary. Thankfully, although this is impossible with man, all things are possible with God (Matt 19:26). Any Christian or any church who finds themselves having lost its saltiness can be restored by returning to the source of their saltiness, and Christ is the source!
Anytime we cut through the haze of life and see that our lives have been spoiled because of an infusion with the world we must return to the fountain of living water and ask God to restore to us his original intent for our lives. Again, we may not be able to re-establish the saltiness, but God can.
It’s was a beacon
A concluding thought by Jesus on this matter came by way of another metaphor. This time he teaches us that in him we are beacons of truth in a truth-denying world. Yes, we are salt, but we are also “the light of the world” (Matt 5:14a). Again, we are his ambassadors sent into this world with the purpose of magnifying Christ so that this world will be unable to deny his existence and power.
We are like a great city built high and magnificent upon a hill. When the light of God’s glory shines brightly through us we cannot be hidden or cast aside as irrelevant. When God chose to cause the “light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” to shine within our souls and through our lives (2 Cor 4:6), he worked to use us to cast the light of his truth onto the sin of this world. Therefore, it is foolish and utterly inconsistent for us to claim the name of Jesus and then stick our lamp under a basket (Matt 5:15). It just doesn’t make any sense! Rather, we are to let our lights “shine before others, so that they may see [our] good works and give glory to [our] Father who is in heaven” (Matt 5:16).
Both of these metaphors are powerful. From the outset the church was meant to be a preservative for the world and a beacon to the world. In other words, we are to be in the world, living and interacting with others while doing all to the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31). Withdrawing from society and seeking seclusion amongst fellow believers is not what God envisioned for the church.
That means that we who have been made new by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ are to take the treasure of Christ – the gospel – which has been deposited into us and share it to others (Acts 1:8; 2 Tim 2:1-2). This is what it means to be the church of the living God here on earth.
The question is, however, are we doing that? Now I understand the various temptations here. Some of you may be tempted to start listing ministries and quickly draw the conclusion that we are salt and light based on a logical deduction. Meaning that because we have this program and this program we are therefore salt and light. This approach is somewhat of a mathematical approach: A + B = C; therefore, A = C – B.
Please don’t fall into this trap. Jesus was not giving us a formula with these two metaphors. Rather, he was exposing the natural tendency of the heart to grow complacent. We don’t set out to lose our saltiness our hide our lamp under a basket. Yet, it happens to Christians and to churches everyday. So as you prayerfully and humbly ponder your own life and daily workings of our church, ask yourself where your heart is. We’re not salt and light if we have to force it. Now that is not intended to be a dogmatic statement regarding our salvation, but it is meant to reveal that if we find ourselves in that situation it means that we are missing something vital to our walk with Christ.
Granted, the early church was not perfect, but taken as a whole and contrasted with the words of Christ we can definitely learn a great deal about what the church was meant to look, act, and feel like. The imagery of a body and a family are two characteristics that must be present and define a God-called group of individuals claiming to represent Christ. A preservative and a beacon, these are two components of our missional mandate from Christ that likewise must be present and define a God-called group of individuals claiming to represent Christ.
Now if only it were as easy as I just made it sound. Regardless of difficulty, however, if we want to be the salty church God intended, we must take time and search for reasons these attributes are so hard to maintain. This study, which I have entitled, Vital Issues Facing the Church Today, is meant to highlight several important concerns that when misunderstood or misapplied can have drastic affects upon the church. In the messages which follow we will be discussing the root of our joy, the sovereignty of God, worship, the gospel, unity, godliness, ministry and evangelism.
Yes, there are many more concerns, but these are some of the issues that I feel are extremely vital to the church. They are important issues that we must get right.
So the question now becomes this: Will we as a body prostrate ourselves before God and ask him to grant us the grace we need to lament our short-comings, the humility we need to praise him for our strengths, and the courage we need to become a church which honors God through faithful ministry and biblical character? I pray that we will.
[1]David Bosch, Transforming Mission, as quoted by Milfred Minatrea in Shaped by God’s Heart, xvi.
The salty church – part 2
Being well into the twenty-first century, it is time for the church to do a little self-examination. Yes, this will not necessarily be fun, but if churches will approach God’s word with humility and desire to assess themselves in light of revealed truth, I’m convinced that God will grant us the grace we need to lament our short-comings, the humility we need to praise him for our strengths, and the courage we need to become churches which honor God through faithful ministry and biblical character.
The Church’s Character
Having said all of that, we need to actually begin by defining what the church is. From a linguistic perspective, the church is a group of individuals called out from the world. The Greek word behind our English word “church” is ekklesia, which is formed by two Greek words. The first part is ek which means “out” and the second part is kaleo which means “to call”. So the literal rendering of ekklesia is the “called out ones” or something close to that.
Although originally used in more of a political sense, the word became associated with the church because it communicated something about the assembly of individuals known as Christians. As the first century church began to spread by fulfilling God’s intention for them, it became clear that they were a people called out and set apart by God. Although not an exhaustive description of the church, consider a few characteristics of the New Testament church.
It’s was a body
In his work with the early church and his many writings to them, the Apostle Paul draws our attention to a vital characteristic of the church: The church of Christ is a body of believers. The first Christians took seriously their adoption into the family of God (Eph 1). They no longer saw themselves strictly as individuals; they realized that in Christ they were the parts which produced the whole. Challenging the church to draw together in unity, Paul reminded them of how ridiculous disunity is for the church.
He wrote to the Ephesians, “we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Ephesians 4:15-16). Just as a human body only works as designed if all its individual parts are properly functioning, so too the body of Christ needs all of its parts doing what they were designed to do if it is to be what God intended. Elsewhere Paul wrote:
1 Corinthians 12:14-20 – “For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.”
From the outset the church has been seen as a group, a body. We were never meant to live for Christ on this earth in a solo or maverick fashion. On the contrary, God designed human beings to thrive in concert with other people. We were always meant to be a body of believers.
It’s was a fellowship
Another attribute of the early church was that of family, or fellowship. They were a body; therefore, they were close to one another. In fact, Luke records that along with devoting themselves to important matters such as the apostles’ doctrine, worship and evangelism, they also devoted themselves to fellowship (Acts 2:42). I take this to mean that they were deliberately in each others lives and that they genuinely enjoyed one another’s company.
We all know that human nature being what it is, there were certainly members of this early body that did not “click” or necessarily see eye-to-eye on everything, but there is more to fellowship than merely agreeing on everything, and there is more to fellowship than enjoying a meal together (although that can certainly contribute to fellowship).
Based on the New Testament is seems clear that we are a fellowship of Christ. This means that we are ultimately to find our identity in the person of Jesus Christ. The church, or the body of Christ, is a called out group of people who have been redeemed by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Eph 2:8-9). As individuals we have been declared righteous because of Christ’s sacrifice (Rom 3; 2 Cor 5:21) and given a heart that is no longer reigned by sin, but rather love for God.
This means that as the children of God in Christ we have a new identity, the old lone ranger mentality is to be gone because it has been replaced with a unified and loving bond between people who have been united in Christ (1 Cor 1:9; Heb 2:11).
The salty church – part 1
The story is told of a man named Don who in early September of 2001 was methodically working his way down a river in Alaska.[1] The total trip took fifteen days and exposed him to some of the most unspoiled land in all of North America. There were no cell phones. There were no radios. There was only Don, a single client accompanying him, and the beautiful sights and sounds of the creation which surrounded them both.
So on the morning of September 11, 2001, they awoke from a peaceful night of sleep like so many other Americans. They quickly ate some breakfast, likely excited about what fresh adventure awaited them down river, and then broke down their camp and headed out. As they joyfully lived out that fateful Tuesday, they were completely oblivious to the throws of pain the world had been thrust into.
They did not have the wickedly cruel images of commercial airliners crashing into buildings filled with people who like them, had awoken that morning ready to live another day just as they had countless days before. They were not compelled to sit in front of a television for hours or even days and try to make sense of it all, nor could they try to comprehend what had happened.
They did not experience the immediate impact of September 11 simply because they were disconnected from the world. It would be another ten days before the two men completed their journey and were reunited with humanity. As the account goes, Don was forced to remain another night in the wilderness while his client and much of their gear were transported to a nearby city. He spent that night alone in the wilderness, lying awake and wondering how to make sense of all that had happened.
In much the same way, we as Christians should find ourselves lying awake at night, trying to make sense of the current state of the church, for the church, like Don, is disconnected in many ways from the world. Just as Don was oblivious to the sight of burning and collapsing buildings, people jumping to their death and the panic over the possibility of future attacks, many churches today seem to be coasting along in a state of disconnect from the world.
Too many churches seem to be unable to hear the cries of death and the pains of fear which emanate from scores upon scores of hurting and confused people throughout our communities. Too many churches seem unconcerned about the plight of orphans and widows and the homeless and the hungry. Even worse, too many churches seem unable to hear the heart cries of the spiritually dead people living in their neighborhoods. Just like Don was on that river in Alaska, the church is largely disconnected from the world, this must change.
Perhaps this is a startling, unfair comparison. That’s possible, but perhaps it is dead on. Perhaps we baulk at this comparison simply because it hits home so powerfully. Now don’t misunderstand me, my words here are not an attempt to heap ashes upon the church or condemn every church or even every Christian; that is not my point.
My desire in this study is to be a voice of truth, spoken in love, about the condition of many churches and God-willing to be used by him to bring about correction. I’m certainly no authority on the church. I don’t presume to have all the answers or even to have first hand experience in a vast multitude of churches. Instead, my words are from the perspective of a man who loves God and values the church he established some two-thousand years ago.
I’m personally convinced that we don’t need another statistical analysis concerning the number of professing Christians in America or the ups and downs of church attendance to admit that we are largely failing to accomplish our God-given purpose. We don’t need statistics to tell us that thousands upon thousands of people in neighborhoods across the country are not being reached by the church, to see that all we have to do is pay attention as we drive around throughout the week and then go to church on Sunday. The disparity between community population and church population will be obvious and hopefully alarming.
Now I understand that filled churches do not equate to redeemed lives, but when we understand the church correctly we have to admit that the church was designed to be composed of individuals reborn through faith in Jesus Christ. From an individual’s perspective we understand that the redeemed in Christ are called by God to align themselves with a Bible teaching, Christ-loving body of like-minded believers.
Therefore, it at least seems logical that if a church is successfully reaching its community more and more people from within that community will be found in church worshiping with their brethren. Granted, this sounds idealistic or perhaps a little utopian, but it cannot be denied that this is what Christ intended for his church from the very beginning.
So what are we as Christians to do? What are those of us who love the church of God supposed to do in order to be agents of change within our churches and within our communities? The answer is actually quite simple to verbalize: We have to reconnect with the world. The necessity of our infusion into[2] the world is most clearly understood in light of Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount:
Matthew 5:13-16 – “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. 14 You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
If the church today is to have any hope of becoming properly infused within the ranks of our culture and the various communities that compose our world, it must endeavor to become what Christ designed it to be, a strong, vibrant ambassador for Christ on earth. The world must see our redeemer through redeemed lives.
The world must come face-to-face with the power of the gospel as a result of living beside us and witnessing undeniable fruit born from our faith in Jesus Christ. Clothing the naked. Feeding the poor. Adopting the orphan. Caring for the widow. Visiting those in prison. Paying bills. Giving rides. The list could go on and on, but the point is clear: The church is called to lead the way in meeting needs and demonstrating the love of Christ in tangible ways. But there is more. We are also called to work tirelessly, striving to meet the world’s greatest need – a Savior who is Christ the Lord.
[1]Milfred Minatrea, Shaped by God’s Heart: The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004), 1.
[2]As will hopefully be conveyed throughout this study, there is a profound difference being infused into the world and being infused with the world.
Legacy of sin – Genesis 49 (2 of 2)
Judah (49:8-12)
Although each son received a blessing from Jacob, two of them stand out as exceptional. The first to stand out is the prophecy concerning Judah. This prophecy can be summarized as a blessing of kingship, one which would ultimately be fulfilled in the Messiah (49:10). Jacob foretold of Judah’s dominance and importance. He described Judah as a “lion’s cub”, the phrase which spawned the magnificent Messianic title, Lion of the tribe of Judah. Clearly, God intended something special for Judah and his descendents. Of course, God is not obligated to share with us why he chose to place such a blessing upon Judah, but we can justly relate Judah’s blessing with the change that had been wrought in his life. Yes, he had sinned, even impregnating his daughter-in-law.
Sure, we can argue that he thought she was a temple prostitute, but that obviously does not help the argument! However, from the time he uttered those repentant words, “She is more righteous than I” (Genesis 38:26); we witness a change in his life. For example, he fought for Benjamin and the well-being of his family, even placing himself and his own sons in danger. It seems that somehow God had gotten through; Judah had become a God-fearing man (Gen 43:1-10; 44:14-34).
In an earthly sense this prophecy was fulfilled in men like David and Solomon, but more importantly it was fulfilled in the reign of Jesus Christ as the Lion of Judah. The New Testament speaks to this truth with sparkling clarity: “For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah” (Hebrews 7:14a) and “one of the elders said to me, ‘Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals’” (Revelation 5:5). But how exactly are we to see this in Genesis? For that answer we must focus on verse ten for a moment.
Jacob’s words in verse 10 are widely accepted as the third prophecy of the Messiah found in Genesis. The first is Genesis 3:15, which records God’s cursing of the serpent. The second is Genesis 22:18 when God promised to bless all the nations of the world through Abraham’s offspring. James Boice rightly summarizes: “In the first prophecy it is said that the Messiah would destroy the devil and his works. In the second it is said that he would redeem his people, thus bringing salvation to both Jew and Gentile. In the third prophecy it is said that all rule is his and that all peoples of earth will eventually bow before him.”[1]
However, there is some interpretive confusion surrounding this verse. The first portion of the verse is straightforward and all major translations are roughly the same, each call attention to the fact that the tribe of Judah would wield a scepter for a time.
Through Jacob’s words to his son Judah, God communicated to Israel as a whole, teaching them that from Judah a Messiah would arise. The ESV translates the next phrase as “until tribute comes to him”. The question is this: Who is the “him”? The easiest way to see this is by comparing it with other translations. The New King James Version says, “Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people.” The New International Version says, “until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.”
Another helpful translation is the New Living Translation, it says, “until the coming of the one to whom it belongs, the one whom all nations will honor.” So the “him” is the one to whom dominion and authority rightfully belong. The “him” is none other than Jesus Christ, the lion of Judah and our savior. Judah was truly blessed. So here we see that just as sin negatively affects future generations, righteous positively affects those who follow us.
Zebulun and Issachar (49:13-15)
The prophecies concerning Zebulun and Issachar were short. Zebulun would dwell near the sea and border Sidon, which was a wicked city (1 Kings 16:31). We are told very little about Zebulun in Scripture, but we do know that Sidon (Zidon) proved to be a snare to Israel over the years (Judges 1:31, 10:6; Ezekiel 28:20-26). Throughout Israel’s history Zebulun was a strong nation numerically speaking (Numbers 26; 26:25; 1 Chronicles 7:5), but the mention of Sidon was a warning and their wickedness proved disastrous to this tribe. Later, Jezebel, a daughter of Sidon (1 Kings 16:31) would marry Ahab, the son of Asa and bring with her a host of sinfulness.
Jacob referred to Issachar as a strong donkey, which was actually meant to be a positive remark (Judges 10:4; 12:14; 2 Sam 16:1-2). He was also said to be satisfied and complacent. History reveals that this characteristic carried over to his descendents. The tribe of Issachar was also strong but satisfied and they were often invaded. Ultimately they fell along with the northern kingdom of Israel to Assyria in 721 B.C.
Those Born to Bilhah and Zilpah
Dan (49:16-18)
Jacob prophesied that Dan would provide judgment for his people and strike like a serpent when necessary. The strongest fulfillment of this prophecy is seen in Samson. Samson was a judge in Israel for many years. He was a strong, bold man who is probably known more for his seemingly supernatural strength and military giftedness than wisdom. He certainly fulfilled all that Jacob foretold.
Gad (49:19)
Gad was to be raided, but in the end stand strong. We know little about Gad and his descendents, except that they were brave warriors (1 Chronicles 12:8), but by choosing to settle east of the Jordan and not partake of the Promised Land, they exposed themselves to some of the most deadly nations of their day, Ammon and Moab, and most certainly faced hard opposition from them.
Asher (49:20)
Asher would enjoy abundance to the point that their food would be fit for a king. However, their abundance caused them to wallow in themselves while their brethren fought for the kingdom. Deborah, a judge of Israel, and Barak called for Israel to stand and fight. Following their victory Deborah lamented the fact that “Asher sat unmoved at the seashore, remaining in his harbors” (Judges 5:17b). Apparently their wealth had gotten the better of them. On a positive note, once again we see that repentance and forgiveness can bring about change, for some where along the way the cycle was broken. As Jesus was presented in the temple, one of Asher’s descendents was present to worship him:
Luke 2:36-38 – “And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, 37and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. 38And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.”
Naphtali (49:21)
Jacob prophesied that Naphtali would bear beautiful fawns. The King James Version translates this as “godly words” rather than beautiful fawns. There is interpretative difficulty with the original text here as well, but the idea seems to be that they would produce a people with an unchained spirit. Barak, the brave man who fought alongside Deborah (Judges 5) is a great example of one of Naphtali’s descendents who captured this sentiment well.
Those Born to Rachel
Joseph (49:22-26)
Jacob’s beloved Joseph garners the other exceptional prophesy. Essentially, Jacob’s words can be captured with one word – fruitfulness. Joseph was a fruitful bough, or limb in Jacob’s eyes and he believed that this quality would remain with his offspring for years to come.
The fulfillment of this prophecy is easily seen in what became the largest of the twelve tribes, Ephraim. In fact, this tribe became so large that at times Scripture refers to the entire nation of Israel with the name Ephraim. Through Joseph many great men arose and served God faithfully. Among them were five of the fifteen judges: Gideon, Abimelech, Jair, Jephthah, and Samuel.
Benjamin (49:27)
Jacob’s final prophecy was almost anticlimactic. Working off the great truths of God’s sovereign and gracious work in Joseph’s life, we are simply told that Benjamin was a ravenous wolf; he would be small but a leader. We see the fulfillment in different places. One is in Psalm 68:27 where we read, “There is Benjamin, the least of them, in the lead”. There were of course many mighty men from the tribe of Benjamin: Saul, Jonathan, Abner, Mordecai, Esther, Ehud and the apostle Paul. However, physical might can quickly turn into arrogance and strength into cruelty.
Toward the end of the book of Judges we read of a Levite man and his concubine traveling through Benjamin’s territory. While there certain Benjamites attacked and assaulted his concubine, ultimately killing her. As the word traveled throughout Israel anger and disgust was the common response. Israel as a whole was disgusted at how these men of Benjamin could allow their strength to consume them; truly they had become ravenous wolves.
“All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him” (Genesis 49:28). A dying Jacob had spoken his peace and provided a stern challenge to his posterity. As we have seen, they were slow learners for the most part. The question which we now face is this: Will we learn from them? Moreover, will we learn from them quickly enough so that we will be able to teach our children how to live for God before we find ourselves confined to a bed because of our rapidly approaching death? The choice is ours. We can either leave a legacy worth leaving, which of course is one that is saturated with God, or we can leave a legacy of sin.
Thankfully, repentance on our part and forgiveness on God’s is a means by which the course of our lives can be eternally changed. We do not have to wait until death knocks at the door. We can change now by surrendering to God’s call upon our hearts to forsake everything and follow him by faith. We can change now by pleading with him to rip from our chests the heart of stone we were born with and replace it with a compassionate, joyful, and God-fearing heart (Ezekiel 36:26). Yes, our testimonies can change. Like Jacob, we all have a certain legacy of sin, but it does not have to be our greatest legacy. Make the decision. Amen.
[1]Boice, 1197.
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