Saturday, April 25, 2015
HEBREWS 4-6 [Just made the video- so today you get ‘real time’-
P.S.- to my kids- the carnival looks good- maybe we will go today? Text me-
dad.]
CHAPTER 4:
NEW NOTES BELOW-
.SABBATH REST
‘Let us therefore fear [Jews in the first
century, not Christians in the 21st century! At least in this
context] lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest [now defined as
the New Covenant rest. Paul is telling Israel God has left you a promise of
rest in Messiah, where you will cease from your own works [law], beware Israel , our
forefathers missed out on the promise because of unbelief, don’t do the same!]
any of you should come short of it, for unto us was the gospel preached [1st
century Israel] as well as unto them [Israel at the edge of entering the
promised land had the gospel [good news] preached to them by Joshua and Caleb,
they gave the ‘good report’ that the land was great and it was there for the
taking, of course they didn’t believe and therefore couldn’t take it] but the
word did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
For WE WHICH HAVE BELEIVED [the remnant of
Jews who were believing in the first century were entering into the rest of the
New Covenant of grace, they left off trying to be made righteous by the law,
they ceased from their own works] do enter into rest…for he spake in a certain
place of the 7th day on this wise, and God did rest the 7th
day from all his works, and again, if they shall enter into my rest. Seeing
therefore it still remains that some must enter therein, and they to whom it
was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: again he limits a
certain day in David [Psalms] today if you will HEAR HIS VOICE [as opposed to
the voice of the law/Moses] harden not your hearts. For if Joshua [my king
James says ‘Jesus’ this is because the translation is the same] had given them
rest then he would not have spoken of another day, there remaineth therefore a
rest TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD! [Jewish people ‘of God’ not gentile converts!].
Well, we covered a lot here. Paul takes the creation account, the verses that
will later speak of a future rest for Gods people, and then a verse from Psalms
where David prophesies that there still remains a future rest. He puts them all
together to show Israel
that God has ordained a future ‘7th day’ for his people to enter
into. He uses the 7th day as a symbol of Gods ‘day of Grace and
rest’.
He then shows Israel that it really wasn’t
speaking of the rest of the Promised Land after all, because eventually Israel did
inherit it, but yet David still spoke of it in the future tense. So Paul
concludes that the future rest of the 7th day that ‘Gods people’
[Jews] still must enter is the offer of grace to the 1st century
Jew. Wow! This is why some theologians feel Paul was a little too loose with
the scriptures. I think this stuff is great! Paul basically was using all of
his understanding as a first century theologian [Pharisee] and was absolutely
proving Christ to Israel
in a way that none of the other Apostles could do. He was the only Pharisee out
of all the Apostles, one born out of due time. This is obviously why Jesus
chose him. It is so important to see the connections that Paul is making here.
If Israel were following the timeline that Paul is giving, they will see that
their own Old Testament scriptures testify that there was a future ‘place of
rest’ that would be offered to them as a nation.
And Paul also shows that in history, Israel had a
pattern of not entering into ‘this rest’ because of unbelief. And then he says
‘but the rest that Joshua finally did give them [the promised land] wasn’t
really the true rest after all, because David still spoke of it in a future
tense’ then he says ‘see, there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of
God’. Seeing this in context clears up many wrong interpretations of these
passages. You can still read Hebrews as a Christian and get wonderful
principles, but you must see it in context to truly understand what its saying.
‘For he that hath entered into rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as
God did from his’ amazing, Paul says just like God ceased from creative
activity on the ‘7th day’ so likewise when we enter into the
covenant of grace, we too will cease from the works of the law. This is so
significant to the Jewish community whom Paul is addressing. He is showing
them, in their language [Old Testament] the same things he writes to the
gentiles in Galatians and Romans.
He is using the story of Genesis to show the
truth of grace. Out of all the Apostles, Paul is unique in his ability to see
Jesus in all of these Old Testament stories. No one could have made a better
apologetic for the Christian faith than Paul. ‘Let us labor therefore to enter
into that rest, lest any man fall into the same example of unbelief’ Now, I
have heard it taught that this is telling Christians to ‘work for your rest’.
This would be a complete contradiction to this entire letter. But if you see
this in context, that the recipients of this letter are 1st century
Jews who are already under the bondage of the law, then you read this as ‘those
of you Jews who are always working to try and make yourselves righteous, you
need to stop working for this, but instead let all your labors and struggles
end up at the Cross’ in essence ‘labor [struggle] to see these things I am
showing you, and if you do you will find rest’ in the New Covenant of grace!
‘Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens,
Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession, for we have not an high
priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in
all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come
boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to
help in time of need.’ This of course applies to all of us. Paul and other New
Testament writers saw redemption in a way that naturally included everybody. It
was only those who rejected it thru unbelief that were missing out. This is why
you will see statements made like ‘Jesus is the savior of all men, specially of
those that believe’ there was a real sense in the early church that Jesus
really redeemed everybody.
They were not preaching universal salvation in
the sense that everybody will be saved. But the gospel was presented in a way
that simply included everybody. So here Paul says ‘we have a high priest’ he is
including Israel
in the ‘we’. I also like to apply these verses to all of us. How many times do
we feel intimidated to come before Gods throne? We feel unworthy and God seems
unapproachable. Sort of like Saint John of the Cross who experienced the ‘dark
night of the soul’ as well as Mother Theresa. There are times where believers
feel separated from God's real presence. It is during these times when God says
‘come boldly, I too have experienced weakness and separation thru the
incarnation. I know what it is like. Come to me, I can see what you feel like,
I can feel your feelings of weakness and inadequacy, come to me for help my
child’. In the next chapter we will read this in depth. Jesus and all the high
priests of the law were able to identify with man because they were at one time
in mans shoes. This is one of the great realities of the incarnation.
NEW NOTES-
.SABBATH REST
Remember
context- in this chapter the writer is appealing to his Jewish brothers.
And he reminds
them of their own history- he says ‘just like our forefathers died in the
wilderness- because they did not BELIEVE’-
So beware- if
you now reject this new offer of REST- it will be because of UNBELIEF.
The writer is
making an argument for Justification by Faith here.
He spiritualizes
the promise of the Promised Land- and the story of Creation and Sabbath Day.
He says ‘ok- God
RESTED himself on the 7th Day of Creation’.
This REST [a type
of rest found in Christ and the New Covenant- based on Faith/Grace- NOT WORKS -The
law].
Was not the Rest
promised to Israel when they entered the Promised Land.
Why?
Because King
David says many years later- in Psalms 95- that a Rest is still in the future.
What Rest?
The 1st
century offer of Grace- thru Faith- not works.
See how important
context is?
So- when he says
‘there still remains a REST TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD’- He is not talking to Christians-
as this verse is often seen.
No- in the
letter of Hebrews- the People of God are the Jewish nation- who now must
‘labor- work- strive’ to believe the Promise of Messiah- and enter into rest.
These verses
only make sense in this context.
Preachers often
teach the verse ‘strive to enter into rest- people of God’.
And apply that
to Christians- who are already ‘in rest’.
No- that’s the
wrong setting for these verses.
But- to the 1st
century Jew- under the law- then it makes sense.
They were at a transition
stage- they were still under the law [works] and they had to beware- because
this present promise of grace- just like the Old Testament Promise of entering
into the Promised Land- is based on faith.
So- when the
writer says ‘if you strive- and hear this Gospel of Grace- you can enter into
the Sabbath Day Rest’ [a symbol of the covenant of Grace].
And have Rest.
See?
NOTE- It’s not
an ‘accident’ that the writer quotes from Psalms 95- written by Kind David.
Jesus is
identified as ‘The Son of David’ so it’s thru the Davidic line that the promise
of Rest would ultimately be fulfilled.
In a sense the
writer is saying ‘The Joshua that lead our Fathers into the Promised Land was
not the Real One- but the Joshua of the New Testament [Jesus and Joshua are the
same word in the Hebrew/Greek English translation] has now come thru the Line
of David- and he will lead us into the True Rest- if you Believe’
Psalm 95:6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel
before the LORD our maker.
Psalm 95:7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his
pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,
Psalm 95:8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in
the day of temptation in the wilderness:
Psalm 95:9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my
work.
Psalm 95:10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation,
and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my
ways:
Psalm 95:11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not
enter into my rest.
Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all
the host of them.
Genesis 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had
made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
Genesis 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it:
because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Hebrews 4:1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us
of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
Hebrews 4:2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto
them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in
them that heard it.
Hebrews 4:3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he
said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although
the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Hebrews 4:4 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on
this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
Hebrews 4:5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my
rest.
Hebrews 4:6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter
therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of
unbelief:
Hebrews 4:7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To
day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.
Hebrews 4:8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not
afterward have spoken of another day.
Hebrews 4:9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
Hebrews 4:10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath
ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
Hebrews 4:11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest
any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
.
CHAPTER 5:
NEW NOTES BELOW-
HIGH PRIEST.
TIME TO MOVE ON.
‘For every high priest taken from among
men…who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are OUT OF THE WAY
, for that he himself is compassed about with infirmity’ God once again
emphasizes the reality of calling men with faults and weaknesses into
leadership. Why? Because according to the law men who themselves have
weaknesses could then have compassion and not judge others who are ‘out of the
way’. I spent the day yesterday with some homeless friends, a lot of them are
‘out of the way’. They never seemed to transition into the normal routines of
life. Many of them will eventually share their experiences of being rejected as
kids by their parents. Others have had an abusive childhood. For different
reasons they are ‘out of the way’. They also are used to being treated badly by
society. One of the guys is a true believer. He is even ordained as a deacon
for a homeless church, he reads and teaches the word. Really stands out as a
follower of Christ. He is homeless. He told me how sometimes he will go and
just sit on church property so he can sense God and spend time praying apart
from the other hangouts where guys are drinking and doing drugs. Sometimes the
church will call the cops and tell him to move. Now I know the church doesn’t
realize he is truly a believer, but it shows you how society treats those who
are ‘out of the way’.
God chose you,
fully knowing your weaknesses and faults, you might think that your faults
disqualify you for service, God says they are part of the requirement to be a
priest! ‘Christ glorified not himself to be made a priest… thou art a priest
forever after the order of Melchisedec’ once again Paul will use his great
knowledge of the Old Testament to teach something new. He goes to the story of
Melchisedec in the Old Testament. This person was a real priest who Abraham
paid tithes to. Later we will read that this means the priesthood of Jesus is
superior to that of the law. Many use this verse to justify tithing for
gentiles, but it really is showing the superiority of grace over law. Now Paul
also finds a prophetic Old Testament verse that says Jesus is a priest from
this order. What order? Well there have only ever been 2 priests in this
‘class’ and that was Melchisedec and Jesus. In essence Melchisedec was simply a
real person who functioned as a priest before the Levitical priesthood was
established. The fact that Paul finds this obscure verse showing that Jesus
came from this ‘line’ of priests as opposed to Levi shows that Christ’s priesthood
is outside of the law. This is the main reason for Melchisedec’s historical
existence. Some teach that he was a preincarnate appearance of Christ because
we will read he had no beginning of days or end of life. I kind of lean towards
this meaning there is no record in scripture of him having a birth or death. I
don’t see Melchisedec as a preincarnate appearance of Christ. I do find it
interesting how God raised up a man, before Christ, for the sole purpose of
later saying of Jesus ‘you are a priest forever after this order’. In my mind
God did it for this sole reason.
We know Jesus was slain before the foundation
of the world. So basically God raised this priest up just so Jesus could be
traced thru his lineage as opposed to Levi. The significance is great in the
mind of Paul, because once again this makes the case for Israel to come
out of the old system of law [Levi] and come to a priesthood that cannot trace
its roots back to the law. This is solely a grace argument; it is not some
strange teaching that shows a preincarnate Christ who walked the earth forever.
‘Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec, of whom we have
many things to say [I just said some of them!] and hard to be uttered, seeing
ye [1st century Israel ,
NOT CHRISTIANS!] are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be
teachers [God raised Israel
up to be a ‘teaching nation’ in the midst of a pagan world. The purpose of God
for them as a nation was to influence all the nations around them with the true
God. This is why God ordained ways for ‘proselytes’ to come and become
partakers of Gods blessings on Israel .
This is very important to see here, because as we go into chapter 6 this will
be the context to clear up many wrong views of this letter] you have need that
one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God’.
As we go into chapter six I will show you how
‘the first principles of the Word of God’ are all the elementary teachings of
the law, not the message of the Cross! Paul is rebuking Israel because
they had a long time to fully get grounded in the law, it was now time for them
to move on from these ‘basic teachings’ and into Christ. Paul says they need to
be ‘re taught’ the basics again because they are unable to see the pictures
that Paul has been painting for them thru this ‘old testament canvas’. So in context,
Paul is not telling Christians to ‘move on from the Cross’ as many teach. But
he is telling Israel
‘move on from the elementary principles of the law’ unto Christ. This is why it
is so important to read this letter in context.
NEW NOTES
[4-2015]
HIGH PRIEST.
TIME TO MOVE ON.
‘High priest-
after the order of Melchizedek’-
Once again we
see the writer quoting from Psalms [2, 110].
The point the
writer is making- about Melchizedek- is that Jesus comes in a symbolic way- not
thru Levi- the priestly tribe of the law.
But thru another
line [Judah too].
Melchizedek was
indeed a real person- a priest talked about in the bible- and we will read
later that he had no ‘father or mother’- but a type of Christ- without beginning
or end.
Most see this as
meaning there is no record of a father or mother- so he fits the type.
Others think
this man was a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ-
Either way- the
point is Jesus is not a ‘law’ priest- but outside the law.
Showing the
readers [Jews] that they too need to move on from the base principles of the
old covenant- and receive Jesus as the final high priest.
Now- context- he
says ‘the time has come that you should be teachers- but have need to be taught
again’.
Ok- I don’t see
this as speaking to Christians- but talking to the 1st century Jewish
people- the ‘time has come’-
We read in
Galatians ‘in the Fullness of time’.
Israel was
supposed to move on in the reality of Jesus as the Messiah- and enter the
fullness of the Kingdom.
Then as Gods
completed people- they would ‘teach the nations’ of the glory of God [in
Christ].
Much like what
the early disciples did-
But- if Israel rejects
Christ- as a nation- then they will forfeit this special calling they had.
We will read
later that they needed to ‘move on from the elementary principles’-
Once again- not
telling Christians to ‘move on’ [which makes no sense].
But all the elements
of the ‘doctrine of Christ’ were indeed contained in the law.
These ‘base
elements’ are now fulfilled in Christ.
Hebrews 5:5 So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an
high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten
thee.
Hebrews 5:6 As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest
for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
Hebrews 5:10 Called of God an high priest after the order of
Melchisedec.
Hebrews 5:11 Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be
uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.
Hebrews 5:12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye
have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles
of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Psalm 110:1 The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand,
until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
Psalm 110:2 The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of
Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.
Psalm 110:3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power,
in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of
thy youth.
Psalm 110:4 The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a
priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.
CHAPTER 6:
NEW NOTES-
CAN CHRISTIANS BE FORGIVEN- IF
THEY FALL?
CAN THEY CRUCIFY CHRICT- AGAIN?
WHO ARE THE LAPSY?
‘Therefore leaving the principles of the
doctrine of Christ [in Colossians Paul teaches that the ‘principles/ elementary
teachings’ are the law. The law contained all the elementary doctrines of
Christ, it held all the ‘shadows’ but not the reality! Here the principles are
not Christian doctrine, but law], let us go on unto perfection’ Now, it is
commonly taught that Paul is exhorting believers to move on to maturity. While
it is true that Paul teaches this elsewhere, here he is not teaching it. Here
he is telling Israel
‘leave the basics of the law and move on to Christ’. Why is this important to
see? Because if you don’t see it this way, then you will have a doctrine that
says to believers ‘you must move on from the Cross’ many well meaning preachers
have done this, this is why context is so important. When you see it in
context, Paul is not saying ‘move on FROM the Cross’ but ‘move on INTO the
Cross’!
‘Not laying again the foundation of repentance
from dead works [law], and of faith towards God, of the doctrine of baptisms [washings-
Israel had all types of doctrines of baptisms [plural] this is why when John
the Baptist came baptizing people in the Jordan, they didn’t say ‘what in the
world is this guy doing’ they had the ‘doctrine of baptisms’ engrained in their
law! The whole sacrificial system and the tabernacle had all types of lavers
{wash basins} and things] ‘and of the laying on of hands [Moses ‘ordained’ 70,
you had the ‘laying on of hands’ taught in the law] and of the resurrection of
the dead and eternal judgment’ Now, all these verses without a doubt describe
the law. It is easy to read these verses as applying to the New Covenant, but
they really aren’t. In context why would Paul be telling young believers [who
these are not! They are Jews on the verge of transition] to leave all the
fundamental teachings of Christianity? But he is telling Israel to move
on from the basic elements of the law into the reality of what the law was
foreshadowing. That is Christ! ‘For it is IMPOSSIBLE for those who were once
enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of
the Holy Ghost’ Israel had Gods Spirit anointing her Kings for thousands of
years before the Spirit ever came on the day of Pentecost. They had ‘exclusive
rights’ to the things of God pre-Cross. They were made partakers of the Holy
Ghost! They were enlightened in a way that no other nation was, they had
prophets and priests administrating the things of God all thru out their
history.
In context Paul is saying ‘if you Jews, who
have had this favorable position all thru out your history, if you ‘fall away’
from God at this point by not continuing with his revelation of Messiah, then
it is impossible to renew you AGAIN unto repentance’ Part of their system of
law was repentance. All the animal sacrifices and works of humility were for
this purpose. Paul is warning Israel
‘if you miss this opportunity to believe, don’t think that you can keep
bringing your animal sacrifices of repentance anymore, it is impossible to
renew that’ Now do you see? No more arguments over whether these are Christians
who lose their salvation, or whether these were those who professed but didn’t
possess, that’s silly! In context you now know what this means. That’s why I
said in the introduction of this commentary that you can’t read a book on
mechanics and apply it directly to the human body. But you can glean principles
from it that will benefit you. So we see here the great finality of the
sacrifice of Jesus. We see its sufficiency to cover and REMOVE all our sins. We
see the great doctrine of redemption thru the offering of Jesus. What we don’t
see is Christians losing their salvation and being told ‘you can never re
dedicate [renew] yourself back again!’ ‘And have tasted the good word of God
[Israel was reading scripture thousands of years before Gentiles even knew
their was scripture!], and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall
away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they CRUCIFY UNTO THEMSELVES
THE SON OF GOD AFRESH, and put him to an open shame’ Here it is real important
to understand context. How many believers who have struggled with sin have been
told ‘you are crucifying Jesus afresh’? Paul never dealt with believers using
this language. He told the Corinthians that because they were God’s dwelling
place, and the Spirit of God lived in them, that God would judge those who were
in unrepentant sin. But he never used this type of language. So why use it
here?
If Israel rejects Messiah and
continues to ‘keep open’ the sacrificial system post Cross, in essence she
would be saying ‘we want the sacrifice to continue’ or ‘let’s keep crucifying
the Son of God afresh’. In Israel ’s
mind this would be what they were saying. Paul says ‘don’t do this’ in essence
this is an argument, once again, to move on from the law and its sacrifices
unto Christ. ‘For the earth that drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it,
and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, recieveth
blessing from God, but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is
nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned’ In the parables one of the main
themes is Israel not bringing forth fruit to God. The parable of the vineyard,
the cursing of the fig tree.
In John 15 the branches not bearing fruit are
cut off and burned. In all of this imagery Jesus is saying to Israel ‘the time
has come for you to produce fruit, the only way a branch can do it is if it is
connected to the vine[Jesus], if you reject me you will never produce fruit and
your ultimate destiny is judgment’ Paul reiterates that theme here! ‘But we are
persuaded better things of you, that which speaks of salvation… for God will
not forget your work and labor of love that you have showed towards believers’
Many of the recipients of this letter were those who Paul had preached to in
various cities. He would often preach to the Jews on a Sabbath day. After his
departure some believed, others were in transition. They still treated the
believers well and sort of shared a common fellowship. To these who were not
fully converted yet, Paul says ‘God won’t forget how you treated his children,
I am persuaded that you will go all the way and show fruits of salvation in
Messiah’. ‘Be followers of those who thru faith and patience inherited the
promises’ Paul will go thru the rest of this chapter showing how Abraham
received promises from God and after many years of waiting he would get the
promise.
Paul is telling Israel ‘you have waited many
years for the promise [Messiah] do like the fathers did, inherit it thru faith
and patience’ Paul is showing Israel that the patient waiting for their Messiah
was part of the plan. When the promise shows up all you have to do is recognize
the time and believe in the promise. Israel was at a dangerous
transition time, she could [and did] miss the fulfillment of the promise!
‘Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and
which entereth into that within the veil: wither the forerunner is for us entered,
even Jesus, made an high priest forever after the order of Melchisedek’ we are
going to get into Melchisedek again in chapter 7. Paul lays the groundwork, he
is telling Israel ‘we have a great high priest who has entered into Gods
presence for us, he is from another tribe [Judah] and therefore you must come
out from the ‘law tribe’ [Levi] and into the grace tribe [Judah] and you must
leave the Aronic priesthood [law] and enter in to the Melchisedek priesthood
[New Covenant]. Everything Paul points to is for the purpose of getting his
Jewish brothers to embrace Messiah and the New Covenant, Paul sees everything
thru this lens. He is persuaded that Jesus is the only way!
NEW NOTES-
In this study
I’m trying to make the case that the writer is appealing to the 1st
century Jew- and when we read ‘there remains a rest to THE PEOPLE OF GOD’ OR
‘those who were once enlightened- and tasted of the heavenly gift and were
partakers of the Holy Spirit’- that in context- these are indeed references to
the Jewish person- in the 1st century.
How can that be?
Because all of
these covenant blessings- were indeed aspects of the 1st covenant
[law] and were unique to Israel.
Then- when we
read things like ‘if these shall fall away- repentance is impossible’-
Why?
If the Jewish
person- at the time of Christ in the 1st century ‘falls away’-
meaning he does not continue in the covenant promises of God- thru the law and prophets-
which find fulfillment in Christ-Then yes- he ‘fell away’.
Then- if he continues
in the old sacrificial system of the law- he in a way ‘crucifies Christ again’.
How?
The animal sacrifices
were a type/symbol of Christ to come.
And if you
reject Christ as the Messiah- the last and final sacrifice- then in a theological
way- you ‘crucify Christ again’.
In Hebrews this
is a theme- we read things like ‘there is no future repentance’.
The church has
struggled over these verses for centuries- in the early days of Christianity
there were those who ‘re-lapsed’ [called the Lapsy].
They denied the
faith- in order to save themselves from death.
Then later- the
question was asked ‘can they be received back into the church’.
Well- these verses
in Hebrews- were an obstacle- because they seemed to say there was no future repentance
for those who ‘fell away’.
Yet- that seems
to contradict the concept of Grace and Mercy- which are indeed part of the new Covenant.
We read of the Apostle
Peters’ denial of Christ- and yet Jesus did forgive him.
So- does the
bible contradict?
No- not if you
read it in the context I’m showing you.
In the New Testament-there
is no ‘repentance’ for those who reject Christ- who ‘blaspheme the Holy
Spirit’-
Meaning they resist
the revelation of God [the Spirts witness] about his Son.
And yes- that
indeed is the only sin that cannot be forgiven- because it rejects the only solution
to sin- which is the final sacrifice of Christ.
See?
Hebrews 6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of
Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of
repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Hebrews 6:2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of
hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Hebrews 6:3 And this will we do, if God permit.
Hebrews 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once
enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of
the Holy Ghost,
Hebrews 6:5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers
of the world to come,
Hebrews 6:6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto
repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put
him to an open shame.
facebook.com/john.chiarello.5
ccoutreach87.wordpress.com
Note- Do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post
them on other sites as well as the site you read them on. Thanks- John.#
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Went to see Pop’s yesterday- did this short clip as a
memorial to Charlie boy.
Charlie died last week- he was a severe alcoholic- and he
reached the end of the road.
I mentioned it the other day.
I hung with Pop’s for about 4 hours- I gave him a ride to the
AA meeting [though I do not attend].
Bought the old man some cig’s and stuff- the poor guy is
living in a rundown apt.- and struggles.
As we were driving to the meeting- Pop’s told me about an
old friend who just got out of prison- did 10 years.
‘Wow John- what did he do’.
He was getting divorced- and the ex did not want a divorce.
She works at some bank here in Corpus.
She accused him of molesting their young daughter [around
5?]
He was convicted- of course lost his job- and recently got
out- he was trying to get a place where Pop’s lives- but because he is now a
sex offender- life ruined- it was too close to a school and he was turned down.
‘Well John- he made his bad and has to sleep in it’.
Be very careful before you ever say ‘so and so did something’-
If your wrong- then you will reap stuff.
Pop’s told me the guy didn’t do it- the young girl- now
older- has admitted ‘mommy’ made her lie!
So sad.
I asked Pop’s ‘what happened to the mom’.
Nothing.
Well- if this weren’t a Christian site- I would say ‘all you
bitches are going to go to hell for stuff like that’.
But- I can’t say it.
Ok- have a good weekend.
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
John 17:1 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
John 17:2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
John 17:4 I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
John 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
John 17:6 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
John 17:7 Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
John 17:8 For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
John 17:9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
John 17:10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
John 17:11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
John 17:12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
John 17:13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
John 17:14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
John 17:15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
John 17:16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
John 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
John 17:18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
John 17:19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
John 17:20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
John 17:21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
John 17:22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
John 17:23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
John 17:24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
John 17:25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
John 17:26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
John 18:1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples.
Joh
Monday, April 20, 2015
[BOOK]
‘FURTHER TALKS ON CHURCH AND MINISTRY’
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE
HOLY SITES AND HOLY PLACES.
CHAPTER TWO
AUTHORITY IN THE KINGDOM,
WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE UNDER THE LOCAL CHURCH ?
CHAPTER FIVE
BUILDING THE CHURCH AROUND THE
PERSONA OF CHRIST, NOT MEN!
CHAPTER SIX
ORDINATION AND THE BIBLICAL
MODEL OF ACCOUNTABILITY.
CHAPTER SEVEN
EXAMPLES FROM PASTORS AND BELIEVERS FROM AROUND THE
WORLD.
CHAPTER EIGHT
ARE CHURCH BUILDINGS EVIL? [OR
THE GUY WHO WANTED TO CAST DEMONS OUT OF ME!]
CHAPTER NINE
WHAT IN THE WORLD IS ‘THE LOCAL CHURCH ’?
CHAPTER TEN
THE SPIRIT OF COMPETITION IN THE MODERN CHURCH .
CHAPTER ELEVEN
GODS PEOPLE ARE NOT SIMPLY
ASSETS TO AN ORGANIZATION.
CHAPTER TWELVE
WHAT MODEL OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT DO I ESPOUSE?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
THE CAT CHAPTER. [I DID THIS
FOR MY KIDS!]
CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION
Welcome back! I
hope those of you who are reading this booklet have read our other 2 books
first. Though it’s not necessary in order to understand this book, I prefer to
think of these little booklets as an on going conversation with our friends in
the kingdom. Those of you who are familiar with our ministry know that we view
‘ministry’ and ‘church’ in an unconventional way. I see church as the people of
God who are gathered together by Christ in various and unique ways. I see the
people that we associate with and minister to as a legitimate expression of
church. Therefore those of you who have been in conversation with us through
our various areas of ministry [radio,outreach,etc.]are a unique and vital
expression of Christ’s body. Our goal is to simply relate to you in such a way
that the end result would be for you to be built up in Christ and to find
fulfillment in him. In this book I hope to share a lot of personal thoughts
that the lord has communicated to me over a period of time. I feel that if I
can simply communicate to you the biblical idea of church/ministry and how we
all fit into this picture, that I will have in some small way accomplished the
goal of writing this third little ‘letter’ to the ‘churches’ that the lord has
called us to speak into.
CHAPTER 1
HOLY SITES AND HOLY PLACES
I recently have
been studying and speaking on the issue of church and ministry as seen in the
New Testament, as opposed to the way we as 21st century believers
view it. In this ongoing conversation [primarily through radio] I have been
talking about our tendency as believers to fall into a pattern of seeing
ourselves as spectators/funders of the work of professionals. We settle into
roles that relegate us into a nonfunctioning position of hearers of truth. We
generally believe that if we attend the church meeting on Sunday and give
financially to the church that somehow this has fulfilled our Christian
obligation and that we are free to do as we please with our time and resources
the other six days of the week. In this conversation there are those who feel
this whole ritual of Sunday church is wrong and should be totally abolished,
but there are others who are not quite that extreme but still see a need for a
radical rethinking of this whole process. I consider myself to be in the more
moderate class.
I personally
don’t find anything inherently wrong with ‘going to church on Sunday’ but the
general theme of New Testament Christianity is against the idea of believers
simply being hearers of the word only. Because of our limited understanding of
the word ‘church’ [ecclesia] in the New Testament we usually do not view
ourselves as Christians in a proper way. One of the main themes in the New
Testament is the idea of the church as community. That God intended for there
to be a body of people who would actually be the place where God would dwell.
He really lives inside the people who believe in Christ. Because of this the
old idea of God manifesting himself only at a certain location [like the
temple] is done away in Christ. If you remember the conversation Jesus had with
the Samaritan woman [John 4] she asked Jesus about the legitimacy of the
religious locations of her day. She wanted him to speak to the issue of which
physical location is the proper one in which people should go to worship. Jesus
reply was there is going to be a change in the whole system of so-called ‘holy
sites’. He tells her that the true worshipers of God will be accessing him in
spirit and truth. He is looking forward to the reality of the body of Christ
being a living temple of people who will be able to be in Gods presence all the
time regardless of there physical location. While most Christians believe this
truth, in practice we often deny it. We look to the religious activities that
surround our church day as some how being a more spiritual site or day of
worship. We gear up for religious meeting and then experience ‘coming down’
from the religious high point
of our week.
Now this is where I take a more moderate view than
some of my brothers. I too enjoy the day of worship and fellowship that takes
place on Sunday; I just wish that we could break the mindset that sees the
doing of this as the primary role for Christians. I wish we could see that God
is really with us on a daily basis as we interact as believers with each other.
There are many times in our focus of going to church on Sunday that we
unconsciously transfer the mindset of the Samaritan woman into the present day.
We tend to view both the place and the day of church as taking place at a set
location at a certain day. Jesus specifically told her that the day was coming
that true worship would take place at a temple in a set location, but that
temple would be the corporate people of God and that place would be wherever 2
or more are gathered together in his name!
CHAPTER 2
AUTHORITY IN THE KINGDOM,
WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?
Not only are we
hindered in our thinking by seeing church as something we go to on a special
day, but the whole idea of ministry being some kind of a corporation that
exists as a 501 c3 entity. Over the years of ministry I have personally come to
rethink this whole issue. I’ve come to view ministry primarily as the kingdom
works that God produces through his people when they are in right relationship
with him. If you think about it this goes right to the heart of the issue of
church being a living society of people. A functioning nation of Christ
followers. When Jesus commissioned his followers to go out into the world and
be witnesses for him, he told them to do kingdom works and to say to the people
that the kingdom
of God has come near to
them. The actual presence of Christ in his people carrying out his works is
true ministry. Later in the book of acts the Spirit falls on a bunch of people
and they go forth both speaking and doing things in the name of Jesus. Ministry
is primarily a function of God working through his people while bypassing all
the technical loopholes of religion. There are certain basic standards that
Christians who want to serve God should live by, but the whole idea of ministry
being this 501c3 entity that exists as a separate thing is really unscriptural.
Jesus not only challenged the idea of holy-sites being a special place, but
also the idea of God’s authority/legitimacy existing in certain religious
offices or institutions of his day.
The religious
class challenged the authority of Jesus. They were saying you have no right to
function as the Son of God. Who gave you this authority? Jesus answered in an
interesting way. He asked them who gave John the Baptist the authority to do
the things he did. Was it from heaven or of men? Well the Pharisee’s didn’t
answer. But Jesus showed us that there where 2 types of authority, or ways of
being legitimate in what you do. One way is that God directly gives you the
right to function as a kingdom person, or you derive your authority from other people.
You somehow seek legitimacy by going through the procedures of men. One of the
main truths of the New Testament is the incarnation. God becoming man in the
person of Christ. The very fact that Jesus was sent by his father, and being
God incarnate in planet earth was all the legitimacy that anyone would ever
need to do ‘ministry’. Any attempt from the religious mind to try and denigrate
his character, or de-legitimize his right to function was directly challenged
by the fact that he was sent by God. The works themselves were proof that he
was legitimate! Now when we in the church seek to become legitimate, or to
derive authority to do ministry through all sorts of natural procedures, we are
in essence saying ‘we get our authority through man’. Its o.k. to become a 501c3 organization if it’s
simply a matter of necessity [you need it to accomplish mission] but if it
becomes a means whereby we feel ‘more legitimate’then we’ve simply jumped thru
a hoop that will become a hindrance down the road.
The pouring out
of the Spirit at Pentecost was more than an event by which the church would
enjoy charismatic gifts. In the Old Testament the Spirit of God would come upon
certain individuals at certain times to give them authority to function in
their offices [kings and prophets]. The fact that the Spirit came upon them was
proof of their legitimacy to function in that office. The day of Pentecost was
a ‘pouring out’ of the anointing on a whole body of people as opposed to a
particular office. God was fulfilling the words of Jesus when he said ‘all
authority is given to me go ye therefore’. Jesus was ‘legitimizing’ a whole
society of people to go forth and do his works. No special class or office, but
the whole body would now have this priestly/kingly anointing. If anyone would
question their authority, or right to do what they were going to do, they would
respond by saying we derive our authority through Jesus. They understood that
their ordination came by the very fact that Christ poured out his Spirit upon
them. Any challenge to who gave them the right to function was seen as a direct
challenge to Christ’s authority. In the Old Testament when you challenged an
emissary of the king you were directly challenging the king, so likewise when
we question the legitimacy of fellow believers because they don’t seem to fit
the ‘normal’ way of doing things, we’re unconsciously saying ‘who gave you this
authority’. Now I am not saying that every Christian has the right to do
anything he feels like doing, but there is a difference between seeking the
legitimacy of man and simply doing the works of Jesus!
CHAPTER 3
I just finished
doing a teaching on the radio on the book of Exodus. We covered the story of
the children of Israel
as they progressed in time from a few people into a whole nation of people. If
you remember your bible well, you can follow the original desire for God to
have a family of people who would inhabit earth and live in fellowship with
him. As man sinned and rebelled against God he became separated from God, but
the desire to build and make a name for himself still existed within man. The
story of the tower
of Babel speaks of this.
Men tried to come together as a corporate group, and even were willing to have
unity [as opposed to ‘doing their own thing’] but it was for the purpose of
building to the glory of man. It was ‘legacy building’. A desire that’s in all
men to ‘leave a name for myself’. In the corporate world of business you find
this mindset existing in a very strong way. In 21st century American
society we call it ‘keeping up with the joneses’.
There is a popular commercial on TV at this
time that shows an average Joe living high on the hog in order to keep up a
certain image in the community. It shows ‘Joe’ as possessing a lot of things in
order to live up to the image of the people around him. At the end of the
commercial the question is asked ‘how does Joe manage to live like this?’. The
answer is ‘he’s in debt up to his eyeballs’. This little commercial captures in
a nutshell the attitude of trying to create an image of ourselves so others
would think more highly of us, or so we can feel vindicated in the sight of our
critics. Now many times in modern ministry and ‘church’ building we give in to
this desire without even realizing it. We build facilities or large
organizations in order to prove to those around us that we can really do this
thing [tower building mentality]. We seem to loose sight of the great reality
that Gods ‘institution’ or
‘organization’ which he uses to carry out his will is the church. It is a
family of people [a holy nation, temple, city, body] that God freely dwells in,
in order to advance his ‘cause’ throughout the earth.
When we
unconsciously develop systems of ministry that we feel are the ‘church’, that
is if we follow certain patterns and models of ministry and then begin to build
these entities with the belief that these models are actually ‘the church’ then
what we’ve done is transferred Gods true desire to build his kingdom [a rule in
the earth that would give glory to his image] and replaced it unconsciously
with a natural desire to build something that gives testimony to our image
[i.e.: ‘look what I’ve done, look at the big legacy I will leave when I’m
gone’]. Jesus warned the disciples that this desire to have authority and be
‘in charge’ of people would not be acceptable in true kingdom building. He was
showing us that this desire for success was nothing different than what already
exists in lost society. Many men sacrifice a lot in order to build institutions
or businesses. People regularly sacrifice their time and resources in order to
get their business going. Often times they even work in unity with many other
people [staff, employees] to accomplish their goal. Now I'm not saying this is
wrong in and of itself, there are many good businesses and institutions that
have started this way. But when we transfer this mindset into the church we can
confuse the energy and excitement that naturally comes with any true adventure
and begin building ‘at all costs’. We can loose sight of the ‘entity’ that God
is building and get caught up in the natural desire to ‘image’ build and become
sidetracked.
In extreme cases this actually leads to
abusive church situations where the leader[s] are so focused on building the
ministry that they begin to unconsciously manipulate people in order to fulfill
the vision. This is why it’s so important to see that the church exists as a
community of people in the earth whom God lives in and interacts with in
various ways in order to build his image in the earth. God wants the knowledge
of the glory of ‘the lord’ to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. The
‘tower’ that all men will see is the ‘Cross’. God will draw all men to the
image of his Son as opposed to some great edifice of man. Gods Spirit wars
against the natural desire in man to ‘legacy’ build to his own image. We as
believers need to reevaluate the motivations behind our outward enthusiasm to
‘press ahead’ at all costs. When we examine ourselves and make adjustments in
our thinking I believe God will allow us to participate in great works for his
name.
CHAPTER 4
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE UNDER
THE LOCAL CHURCH ?
Over the years
of seeing the freedom that we have in Christ, especially as it pertains to
functioning in church and ministry, I have met other believers who have seen
and grown in the same understanding that the lord has given us. I believe this
to be a natural process of the body of Christ coming to maturity. When the head
[Jesus] is communicating with the body [the church] you often find different
members seeing and functioning in the same truths, though they have never
personally met each other. Some of these experiences are lessons for the whole
church. Many times in trying to express truth there is a natural tendency for
fellow believers to respond in a unified way in defense of a wrong [or
misguided] way of seeing things. I remember sharing with a missionary family
how the New Testament teaches a greater freedom for the functioning of
missionaries/apostles than what we put on them today. I showed how Paul simply
operated under the spirits guidance and practiced giving and receiving in a
voluntary way with all the believers he was spending time with. I showed how
even though Paul was an apostle sent out of the church at Antioch [acts 13]
that this didn’t mean he was under some type of 501c3 entity at Antioch that he
was sending his tithes to in order to be in obedience to the ‘New Testament
pattern.’ If you read the story in acts all the apostles and believers
functioned as citizens of a heavenly city and saw themselves all equally as
part of this new community of Christ followers.
The idea that
Paul [or any other New Testament minister] had some type of structural
relationship with his ‘home church’ in the sense that he was sending tithes
back to his ‘home church’ on a regular basis is simply reading 21st
century American patterns into the story that doesn’t exist. You would think
that the missionary family would have rejoiced to have seen this truth, as it
would have given them freedom in moving forward in new ways in the kingdom. But
contrary they were offended in a sense because they truly felt the role of
tithing to a specific group of Christians who meet in a building in there area
was a New Testament pattern that must be adhered to. While its ok to give to
groups of Christians in this way, but to see this as a pattern that if violated
would bring the curse in Malachi upon a person is ridiculous. These are ways
that we confuse the spiritual temple of believers with the entity/501c3
structures that exist in ministry today. While the obtaining of the 501c3
status, or the purchasing of a building for believers to meet in is not
inherently wrong [remember, if its needed for mission it’s o.k.] but to then
view that as ‘local church’ which the missionary needs to tithe to in order to
be in obedience to the ‘local church’ is confusing the spiritual entity of
Christ’s body with the physical entity of American ministry.
When we view
‘ministry’ as a separate organization, we sacrifice the freedom to directly
build into people. I was driving through town one day with a friend and as we
passed by a certain business I mentioned that I needed to go in at a later time
to purchase some equipment. My friend asked why I needed it and I explained I
felt the Lord wanted me to buy it for a friend in order to help him in
ministry. He questioned why I would spend money on someone who had no type of
relationship with us, like a ‘part of our church/ministry’. I explained how
believers should be willing to spend time and money for the benefit of others
regardless of whether or not they are ‘part of our organization’ [by the way we
have no ‘organization’ that someone ‘joins’]. I should mention that the person
I wanted to spend the money on was one of our original friends/converts that we
worked with in the early days of ministry. So the benefit would be purely
spiritual, that is I would receive a reward from God in the sense that one of
‘our disciples’ would benefit directly from this purchase. Paul told the
Corinthians that he would gladly spend and be spent for them. He said the
fathers spend for the children, not the children for the fathers. He was
showing the attitude of building people up for their sole benefit, not simply
building staff or employees but giving yourself away solely for the benefit of
‘spiritual children’.
Many times people will unconsciously do the
things I advocate, without realizing it! Recently there have been many examples
of God working supernaturally in the area of finances. Many people who disagree
with my teaching on grace giving have actually been blessed by doing it the way
I teach it! People have been giving testimonies of how God would move on them
to freely give [apart from the tithe concept] and how after they obeyed his
voice to MEET THE NEED OF ANOTHER PERSON, versus ‘paying the tithe’ that the
Lord would move supernaturally on their behalf by another person [not
institution] being moved to give to them in return. I have been teaching this
for years! How when Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for ‘corban’ giving that he
told them their mindset of dedicating money to the temple [institution] caused
them to neglect giving directly to people [their parents]. So the recent
breakthrough in giving that people are experiencing is what I have been saying
all along. God wants us to give spontaneously to directly meet the needs of
people! I realize this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t also give regularly, but the
point is sometimes we reject what a persons saying [like me!] without realizing
that what their saying is right!
I should note something here; over the years I
have consistently taught and believed in the concept of giving as God leads.
There have been many times where the Lord would move on me to meet the needs of
people. Just a few days ago one of my homeless friends asked me if I was still
buying tents for people, I said sure. There was really no second thought or
feeling of ‘I already gave the required amount this week, and this is going out
of the way’. I simply felt it to be in keeping with the New Testament to give
to someone in need. A few weeks back I ran into one of the original homeless
friends that I met many years ago. The first thing he remembered and couldn’t
stop talking about was how when I first met him I was giving away clothes in
the winter to him and a bunch of other people. Theses simple acts of charity
are in keeping with the teaching of Jesus on giving. The New Testament says
‘give to him that asks of thee’ ‘if you have the ability to help your brother
and don’t how dwelleth the love of God in you’ ‘if someone comes to your door
in need and you don’t help, it profits nothing’ ‘let him who is not working get
a job so he MAY HAVE TO GIVE TO HIM THAT NEEDETH’.
All these verses [which I just paraphrased off
the top of my head, you’ll have to look them up for yourself] speak clearly to
the issue of God wanting us to give to meet the needs of others spontaneously
and freely. No sense of ‘I already tithed this week to the church’. This
legalistic mindset actually works against the spirit of New Testament giving. I
am not saying Christians shouldn’t give regularly for the functioning of
Christian ministry, I put aside money on a bi-weekly basis in order to fund
Christian works. It is because of my priority of doing this that enables me to
meet the needs of people when they come up.
I believe
Christians should regularly give to the work of the kingdom, I also believe
that many people would experience breakthrough in their giving if they truly
practiced the New Testament doctrine of grace giving. All the communities of
the New Testament [churches] gave this way. There simply was no tithing concept
taught to the gentile believers. The scripture says the Corinthians gathered on
the 1st day of the week and gave Paul an offering to BRING BACK TO
THE POOR SAINTS AT JERUSALEM. Do you see this ‘THE POOR SAINTS’. They were
giving to meet the needs of people here. We use these verses to tell Christians
if you put in the required amount on Sunday then you’ve met your obligation. We
distort scripture to fit into our way of seeing things. I believe its O.K. to
put money in the offerings on Sunday, many times the work of ‘building based’
churches is good. Supporting missionaries, planting churches and many other
good things. It’s just that we shouldn’t use this as an excuse to by pass all
the other instructions in the New Testament to freely give to others in need!
I want to note
something here, this is a good example of how are ‘seeing’ church as the Sunday
meeting as opposed to the corporate group affects us. The issue of ‘how much
should I put into the basket on Sunday’ was a NON ISSUE in the New Testament.
There were times where all the believers in a community [the church] gave in a
corporate way[ Acts 6, 1 Cor. 16] but there was no ‘Sunday church offering’
that all the ‘New Testament’ churches gave into. Why? Because the New Testament
churches are all the believers in any given community. The focus wasn’t ‘going
to church on Sunday’ that is our ‘thoughts’ or ways of seeing things [it’s O.K.
to go to church on Sunday] but the focus was a community of people living and
sharing on a daily basis. So when Paul writes these churches, or when Jesus
tells us to give to him in need, they are addressing people directly. It’s not
like the focus was on an institution. This is why ‘how much should we give, or
should Christians tithe?’ is not seen in the New Testament like we see this
question today. The bible speaks of ‘churches’ as communities of people; we
speak about them in terms of ‘the church I go to on Sunday’. This basic
misunderstanding of church causes us to hold onto a less than ideal view of
Christian giving.
CHAPTER 5
BUILDING THE CHURCH AROUND THE
PERSONA OF CHRIST, NOT MEN!
In the early
days of ministry I remember listening to some tapes on apostles and how they
build Gods church. Later I came to see ‘church planting’ as apostles [or
evangelists, or just Christians] going to areas and simply preaching Christ to
groups of people. After the people believed there was a natural development of
family and community that took place as Christ’s Spirit develops the body of
Christ. So the New Testament churches are simply bodies of believers in these
location’s who came to know Christ. God’s authority and the works of his
kingdom are simply a natural expression of Christ’s Spirit through his body. As
time progressed in church history people later developed all sorts of offices
and institutions that they incorporated into the church. Eventually people
began viewing the institution or 501c3 entity as a separate thing called
‘church’.
With this
mindset people began seeing apostles and ministers and people who plant these
entities as ‘CHURCH PLANTERS’. Church planting then began to be looked at as
C.E.O.’s who are starting corporate entities with all sorts of projects to do.
The entity itself became the focal point of all ministry and authority in any
given community. The actual people [the real church] simply became servants to
the entity’. The 501c3 itself became the thing that we saw as having the actual
conferred authority of God upon it. The people who did not conform to the
‘system’ in many different generations of Christians were seen as being
rebellious or not coming under the authority of the church [system separate
from the people] though many of these people were truly Gods corporate
community [church] they were looked at as in opposition to the church because
the understanding of church evolved [or devolved] from the original meaning. We
then put expectations on church leaders to build big facilities and to try and
fill them up.
I want to make a note here; I am not against
the modern phenomena of mega churches. If they are growing as a natural
outgrowth of healthy evangelism it is a good thing. Where we often miss it is
when we begin seeing the goal as having the big thing and then pressuring the
flock because they’re not helping us obtain the big thing. Well the original
tapes I listened to from the brother who was teaching on apostles eventually
visited Corpus Christi and he spoke on his vision to build a 7 thousand seat
auditorium and having 100,000 dollar faith and then a million dollar faith and
having faith to build it and that people will want to hear him speak [the money
stuff was spoken at a different time, but this is the context]. While this
minister meant well he simply was not speaking New Testament language. True
apostolic church planting is the natural outgrowth that takes place in
communities of people when they come to know Christ. When we as leaders begin
seeing the entity [501c3] as the goal, and the people as the tools, or fellow
helpers and financial supporters of the entity, we’re then relegating the body
of Christ to simple servants of the system. Sort of like the children of Israel in Egypt . They
were multiple [big numbers] but they were under constricting styles of
leadership that caused them to build the cities of man [Pithom, Raamses]. God
raised up prophetic leadership [Moses] to bring them out of bondage so they
themselves would become a self functioning society on their own, without being
subservient to another system.
The unhealthy
focus of ‘church’ that centers around the high-powered personas of men is in
direct violation of the spirit of the New Testament. Church today too often has
become a community of people whose ‘common bond’ is found in the personality of
the pastor. All healthy groups of people in society will have stages of growth
where they go through the process of leadership bringing them from dependence
to independence and finally to interdependence [the stage where I don’t need
you to survive or find my identity through you, but I need you as a coequal
member in order for us both to function in a healthy way]. The New Testament
ecclesias were groups of believers whose leadership [elders] functioned as
mature guides and facilitators of this corporate experience. This leadership
style is far removed from the present mindset of church leadership, which
patterns itself after the predominant personality of one individual. While its
O.K. at certain stages of group development to have periods of time where one
person is the main influence in an individuals life [like a mentor/big
brother], but if this relationship between mentor [pastor/leader] never grows
to a stage where the ones being mentored do not eventually develop to the point
where they are no longer dependent on the mentor, then you have the danger of
the leader and his personality becoming the central figure that the disciple
organizes his life around. We unconsciously repeat this cycle in the church
without realizing it.
The simple truth of the churches of the New
Testament having no central office where a person [no matter how well meaning
he is] is the primary figure of the community should cause us to rethink our
present mindset of church and ministry. It is inherently dangerous for any
group of people to hear and see and be centered around the giftings of one
person [the exception being Christ]. The gifts of the Spirit that freely
operate through all of Gods children are powerful. God designed a safety
mechanism in the church [body] to prevent the power of these giftings from
causing people to become to oriented around one individual. The method God
chose was ‘body ministry’. That is Gods pattern of all the people of God
corporately sharing and giving to each other would prevent the unhealthy focus
on one persons personality. Any group of people, no matter how well intentioned
they are, put themselves in an unhealthy position when they violate this principle.
We often confuse the New Testament doctrine of leadership and replace it with
the charismatic individual. We don’t realize that we are violating the intent
of scripture when we do this! All biblical leadership should bring people to a
point where ‘He must increase and I must decrease’. Leaders need to be the ones
who take the bold initiative to ‘wean’ people off of our personalities.
Children in a natural home environment will go
through stages in their relationship with their parents that hopefully bring
them to a point of independence. Though they are your children when there
12,25,or 55 yet the way you relate to them will be different as they mature.
The mistake we make in present models of church leadership is we think it’s
healthy to relate to the people the same way throughout their entire lives. If
you hear me preach or function in some prophetic gift week after week for 30
years, and my primary relationship with you is this way, then its only natural
for you to develop an unhealthy view of me. It’s inherent in the gift of the
Spirit to cause people to be drawn to the persona of Christ, when we violate
the principle of body ministry [that is where all the people give and receive
from each other] we unconsciously set up an unnatural environment where people
are eventually drawn to the wrong persona [the person who they see functioning
in the gift all their lives]. Many well-meaning pastors do not realize what a
basic violation of scripture this is. Our goal should be bringing people to a
point in their lives where they need us less and less as they develop a greater
trust in God.
I know that it’s
difficult to embrace these truths, even if they are true! I myself had a hard
time seeing the reality of the present day mindset of ‘pastor/minister’ as a
basic violation of the intention of God for the church [body] to be an
environment where people are centered around the persona [identity] of Christ.
Many times well-meaning pastors become the central personality of the group in
an unintentional way. Out of a sincere desire to ‘protect’ the flock they
unintentionally become the central attraction of the local community. They feel
that if there were too much freedom the people could go off track. This
possibility does exist, but the primary method of preventing people from going
off track is to allow them to develop into mature saints who need not be
dependent upon us. The example of the parent/child relationship. It would be
‘safer’ to allow the child to never leave the home and for you to always be the
child’s main source of comfort and identity, but it would not be right! So
likewise in the church leadership needs to re-examine our proper roles and
responsibilities. If we have embraced
roles of ‘pastor’ that truly violate this most basic principle, then it is
incumbent upon leadership to recognize this and to make the proper course
corrections as God would direct.
I really want to
emphasize the truth that the church is a community of people whose environment
tends to the exalting of the personality of Christ at the expense of the
personality of the individual leader. God intended the Church to be a place
where gifted individuals WOULD NOT come to the forefront in the minds of the
group, but would recognize the fundamental nature of servant leadership and
willingly take the position of humility. [John 13, 1Cor. 12:22 -25]
We don’t seem to
understand that the way modern Christians relate to leadership in the present
day is in many ways a violation of the spirit of the New Testament. Today it is
common in any city to have many churches who all have their own pastors with
believers attending the church of their choice. While all of these people [both
the pastors and believers] are for the most part well intentioned, they
unconsciously develop a mindset that Paul rebuked in the Corinthian church. The
church at Corinth
[all the believers living in the city!] got to a point where they began
identifying themselves by the people they followed. Some said they followed
Paul, while others were following Apollos. The actual seeing of the individual
leader, and identifying around him was rebuked by Paul.
Now I know that we don’t realize this, but for
us today to have many thousands of believers in many cities actually saying ‘he
is my pastor’, to the point where all the believers have one main personality
that they look to and identify with is not the intent of leadership in the New
Testament. The biblical model of believers in any location is to have a plural
group of elders that are viewed as trusted community leaders; this is more in
keeping with the intent of the New Testament. If you later were to visit these
New Testament communities and found them saying ‘he is my elder, or I go to
elder so and so’s church’ this would be seen as division resulting from having too
high of a view of Christian leadership. I know it’s difficult to realize we
have done these things, and I’m not advocating getting rid of all the good men
who serve as pastors today, but if we begin to see the basic violation of
scripture in our present models of leadership this will allow us to take a more
humble approach and hopefully facilitate a greater spirit of unity in the
Church.
What I want you
to see is how we in the church have a view of ‘local church’ that causes us to
have a misplaced loyalty that is inherent in Christ’s brotherhood. Because we
view ourselves as ‘members’ of so and so’s church, as opposed to truly being
one body in Christ, this breeds a spirit of disloyalty to our fellow brothers
in Christ. We tend to hold to the view that if your not a part of ‘my local
church’ [meaning the individual meeting I attend] that somehow I am truly not
responsible to you. While in reality I really am supposed to have the same care
and concern for you as my brother in Christ, regardless of whether or not you
attend my ‘church’ [group I meet with]. In the New Testament there are
references to the ‘church in your house’ and things of this nature.
Where we usually ‘miss it’ is when we think
that somehow these statements violate the concept of our oneness in Christ.
When the bible speaks like this, it is not saying that all the believers in one
location have separate ‘churches’ that they belong to. It is simply saying
‘that part of Christ’s body that meets in your house’. It would be wrong to
view statements like this and then develop an ecclesiology that ‘sees’ a
hundred different independent ‘churches’ [entities] in your city. While there
very well might be a hundred different groups of believers in your city, you
should be committed to these believers just as much as the people you meet with
every Sunday. While God recognizes different groups of believers in each city,
He also lays down guidelines for our mutual care and concern that we are all to
have for one another. Our dividing over ‘who’s church I attend’ creates a false
mindset of a lack of loyalty to our brothers because ‘they don’t go to my
church’.
I just read a
verse in Isaiah [55: 8] ‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your
ways my ways, saith the Lord’. I want you to see that when we view things from
our own perspective [our thoughts] we often violate Gods ways [his thoughts].
Many times when dealing with issues that would personally affect an
individual’s present mindset, or the lifestyle that he’s living [like when I
deal with the subject of tithing, or the lack of the full-time paid minister in
the New Testament story]. People will often reject the truth of scripture [Gods
thoughts] simply on the grounds that they are already practicing ‘church’ in a
certain way [their thoughts] and have no desire to ‘give up’ their present
practice of doing things. Many times it’s simply a matter of personal survival.
‘If you are right John, then it will affect me too much, and I am not willing
to ‘die to the way I see things [my thoughts] because it will entail too much
pain [I think they used to call this ‘bearing our cross’]’.
So while I don’t want to personally condemn
any brother for his views on church and ministry, I want us all to see how we
are subject to preferring our own views to Gods [even me!]. It’s a natural
tendency of the sinful nature to presume ‘our thoughts’ [our way of seeing
things] are ‘Gods thoughts’. It’s when we take this presumption to the extreme
that we get into trouble. We get to the point of seeing others who don’t hold
to ‘our thoughts’ as violating scripture [Gods thoughts] and then we
unconsciously fall into the category of the Pharisees where we condemn those
who don’t ‘see things our way’.
CHAPTER 6
ORDINATION AND THE BIBLICAL
MODEL OF ACCOUNTABILTY.
In the 1st
century Jesus showed up in the midst of a religious system that had a voice of
its own and refused to acknowledge anyone who did not submit to its authority.
This system [religious Judaism] not only resisted Christ and the disciples, but
would later resist the freedom and growth of the New Testament churches
established by the apostle Paul. The leaders of this system actually said that
they feared loosing the influence they had in society if the young church
continued to experience success. They were already showing signs of the
kingdoms of men resisting the kingdom
of God . The Pharisees had
their position that religion gave them and they were unwilling to give it up,
even if it meant their rejection of messiah. The Pharisees used the law and
religious protocol as a means to de-legitimize those who would not jump through
the hoops of their day. Many of our modern concepts of church and ministry
unconciously produce the same results. The very idea of ordination in the new
testament was simply the public recognition [through the laying on of hands] of
those leaders [elders] in the Christian community [not some non profit entity]
who were deemed grounded in the person of Christ and could be looked up to as
spiritual guides in a voluntary society of believers.
Over the years
ordination has evolved into a ritual of licensing and certification from a
religious institution in order to be legitimate to function in church circles.
So the simple concept of all believers having the ordination of God [John 15]
has now developed into a system of approval that one must have in order to
function in the church [as a full time minister]. Now while I personally have
no problem with ordained ministry, we must see that what we call ordination
today is a more developed concept than was originally intended in the New
Testament. It can become wrong when we begin to limit the function of all
believers as ordained priests under God and use the modern concept of
ordination to de-legitimize those who don’t have it. The 1st century
Pharisee saw Jesus ministry as a direct violation of their understanding of
legitimate ministry. They were using law and religious regulation to exclude
people from feeling accepted in Gods society. Jesus way of doing ministry not
only violated the current standards of the day, but also opened up a whole new
realm of people who would be able to function in Gods kingdom. All who would
simply accept him and become a follower were now given legitimacy to spread
God's kingdom despite their unwillingness to submit to the system of their day.
This is what offended the religious mind of the 1st century
Pharisee. They spent years jumping through the hoops of religious protocol in
order to function as religious leaders, Jesus comes on the scene and bypasses
all their procedures and vests authority to do kingdom works to the common
people.
There was a
spirit present in both the mind and religion of the 1st century
Pharisee. They had an intellectual knowledge of scripture that focused on
particular aspects of scripture while never being able to comprehend the ‘body
of truth’. Their religious position in society gave them a greater degree of
responsibility to be able to understand that Christ himself was the goal and
result of all religious learning. In essence they were guilty of possessing a
special position in society and because of there unwillingness to loose the
‘honor’ that came from this position they committed the worst type of offense
that leaders could commit. They actually rejected the person of Christ in order
for there own personas to continue to be at the forefront. If you remember when
Paul speaks of antichrist [I am not saying here that present Christian leaders
are antichrist!] Paul says that ‘he sits in the temple of God
showing HIMSELF to be God’ 2 Thes.2: 4]. There is an aspect of ‘anti-christ’
that rejects the development of the person of Christ in the Church [body] in
order for mans persona to remain at the forefront. He sits [antichrist-not
wanting Christ to be seen!] in the place of God taking the glory
[adulation/honor] to his persona that belongs to Christ.
I want you to see that no matter how well we
know scripture, we really know nothing until the actual person of Christ is at
the forefront [Jesus being Lord]. When man persists in his pride to continue to
hold on to a position of attention in the Christian community that rightfully
belongs to Christ, he unknowingly is violating one of the most fundamental
truths of the church. What I want you to see, without getting too much into the
whole subject of antichrist, is that he wants the place that rightfully belongs
to Christ. In the Christian community Christ’s rightful place is the center of
our attention. True worship is Him actually being the focus and center of
attention. The unhealthy attention that we often see given to people’s
personalities is a subtle way the enemy uses from keeping Christ’s image and
person from being the center of community.
Recently there
was a Christian brother who fell in a very public way. It was a situation where
he admitted to certain sins [adultery] and it was very public. While I wont use
his name, he was a very influential leader in charismatic circles. He held the
title of ‘arch-bishop’ [I don’t understand why we do this stuff!] Well as usual
when word got out about his fall, people began to expound on why this happened.
Some explained that they thought it was because he wasn’t ‘accountable enough’
[he was archbishop to more than 200 churches!] We never seem to think that if
we allow individuals to be exalted above measure, that this itself is a
violation of the principle of New Testament leadership. Jesus said whoever
exalts himself will be humbled. Many times in Christian circles we don’t
realize that we are doing this!
We often blame
the fall on ‘lack of accountability’. True accountability is submitting to each
other in love. It is not some unnatural structure that we create. I have heard
it taught in the way that if some outside person is our ‘covering’ and they
call us once a month and yell at us, that some how this is being humble and
being accountable. You can’t be accountable without true friendship and
relationship. We often jump to the conclusion that when one of our brothers
fall that it’s a result of a lack of accountability, when it just might be that
we allowed them to be lifted up to a place where the Lord had to humble them.
[I don’t want to judge this man, I didn’t even realize I was going to share
this but during my prayer time early this morning I continued to pray for him
and some other brothers who have fallen, and then I felt the Lord permitted me
to share this!] When we allow leaders to attain honorific titles in violation
of scripture we are unknowingly placing them in a position where Christ must
humble them.
Let me mention here the interesting
phenomena of Christians [charismatic and others] seeing the ‘need’ for
believers to revert back to ecclesiastical structures. During the Jesus
movement of the 70’s, as well as the charismatic movement, there were well
intentioned brothers who felt like the freedom of ‘simply following Christ’ and
the working of the Spirit were not enough to keep the movements from going off
track. They sensed the need to have ‘structure’ for the new believers. Jack
Sparks, a brother who felt this way, eventually reverted all the way back to
Greek orthodoxy and is an orthodox priest today in California . Others like Bob Mumford and Ern
Baxter became involved in the discipleship/shepherding movement which placed an
overemphasis on the concept of covering and being in submission to authority.
These men were well intentioned, but it is my feeling that there is a degree of
arrogance and elitism that causes people to believe that somehow through
establishing ‘structure’ that they can safeguard the new Christians who where coming
to Christ at this time.
The whole phenomena of reverting back to
previous church communities is nothing new. You had the ‘oxford movement’ after
the reformation where many Anglican scholars became Catholics after studying
the church fathers and other early sources and felt that the earliest Christian
witness was Catholic. You had cardinal Newman later on also becoming catholic,
or a Frances Schaffer jr. leaving evangelicalism in order to become eastern
orthodox. In all these scenarios these are good men who are finding refuge in
‘structure’. While I consider all of these faiths to be Christian, I believe
the error of this type of thinking is we seem to believe if we add structure to
new believers this will keep them from going off track. The ‘structure’ of the
New Testament churches was nothing like this. Their safeguard was in keeping
Jesus pre-eminent in their lives and living together in Christian love and
brotherhood. When a Paul or other Christian leader saw them getting off track
[Galatians/Corinthians] the answer was not more structure, but simply refuting
the error and re-presenting Christ. It was ultimately being able to trust God
to finish the work that He started in them.
CHAPTER 7
EXAMPLES FROM PASTORS AND
BELIEVERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.
I recently did a
study on the whole phenomena of the house church movement. Many of the stories
I encountered while doing research went along theses lines. You would find
various groups of believers who felt disenfranchised with their roles in modern
church systems; they felt like they were professional spectators. The whole
concept of church became to them a place where you go to hear lectures. The
only one who finds fulfillment in expressing themselves are the professional
clergy [and a few rebellious prophets who could muster up the nerve to stand up
and speak!] but the overall sense was these people were simply filling roles of
listening to preaching week after week without ever truly functioning. Many of
these people left their churches to form house/cell type churches. There were
also many traditional pastors who saw this same restricting style of
contemporary church and also left the whole concept of professional pastor and
simply became a bi-vocational leader in a voluntary based movement of believers.
Some of the
movements I studied were tremendous in their ability to rapidly spread
throughout regions without the drag of salaries, buildings and all the other
usual things associated with full time ministry. I find these movements to be
exciting and biblical. The whole idea of average believers advancing the kingdom of God without all the trappings of modern
religion is truly getting back to the heart of New Testament Christianity. Many of their stories shared a common theme
of being seen as rebellious or not willing to submit to authority because of
their willingness to break out of restricting mindsets in order to advance the
kingdom. Many of the pastors who also left traditional church roles found
freedom in not having to raise huge amounts of money for salaries and
buildings, they testified of a freedom that came with their not having to
sermonize on tithing and other money raising efforts. There was a real sense of
effectiveness in the reality of the ‘church’ being vibrant groups of believers
who can rapidly expand across a region without having to stop and build
structures and set in order clergy and all the other trappings associated with
modern day church. While I personally don’t advocate one form above another to
the degree that some house church enthusiasts do [it can be just as bad to
focus on the ‘house’ in house church as in the building in modern church] but I
do see in this movement a return to the simple reality of Christ moving and
expanding through his people [true church growth].
As you read the New Testament you never get
the feeling that Jesus or the apostles were going to areas to start some type
of meeting that they would get people to attend. They were being sent out to
spread the great message of Gods kingdom. All the sermons in the book of acts
focus on Jesus and his great work for us. After people in these various regions
came to the reality of Christ they were then considered to be the church. The
actual reality of Jesus living in them through his Spirit is the entity that God
recognizes as legitimate to carry out his works. There was no magical element
of organizing under a particular form that would then become the ‘church’. They
were church by virtue of the fact that Christ dwelt in their hearts by faith.
As these
communities spread throughout the earth they would have more mature leaders in
their midst who gave guidance and direction to the flock in a voluntary way,
but the concept of one professional minister who was hired to perform religious
functions for the community was absent from these New Testament ecclesias. The
whole mindset of ‘church-planting’ was simply the natural outgrowth of people
coming to know Christ. There wasn’t a separate calling to start churches apart
from the great commission to go and tell all people about this great gospel of
Christ. Apostles had a special gifting to help build these communities, but in
no way is this separate from the calling to preach the gospel. It is simply the
proclaiming of Christ to communities of people that holds the power of ‘church
planting’. And the thing that we’re planting is Christ in the hearts of people.
I think if we can get back to seeing things on these terms there will be less
of a pressure to go and make something happen, and more of a balance on Christ
in us, the hope of glory!
CHAPTER 8
ARE CHURCH BUILDINGS EVIL? [OR
THE GUY WHO WANTED TO CAST DEMONS OUT OF ME!]
Many years ago
before I really understood the truths of ecclesia and the communal aspect of
the church, I was introduced to the belief that the ‘church building’ itself
was wrong. I don’t personally adhere to this belief, but let me share the
story. While ministering as a new believer in Christ and learning ‘the ropes’
of ministry, I remember driving past a brother who was a street minister from Mexico . It was
unusual in the way he was conducting his street meetings. He would get
permission to use an empty lot and then set up actual church pews in the lot
without walls or any type of cover over it [even if it rained!]. Well one day
on my daily rounds of visiting people and witnessing for Jesus [because this is
what ministers are supposed to do, right?] I stopped by this brother’s lot and
figured I would bless him with some lunch and listen to him preach [I felt
sorry for the brother because no one else was attending his meetings]. After he
spoke I had a chance to fellowship with him. After hearing his thoughts I
realized it was on purpose for him to have no walls or cover over the pews
[these were actual church pews that were out there in the open!].
He shared with me the verse in Hebrews [13:10 ] where it says that those who
worship at the sanctuary have no right to partake of the altar of Christ [the
cross]. He saw this as meaning that all Christians who meet in buildings [the
sanctuary] were lost! Well, even as a young believer in the lord I was smart
enough to know that this verse had nothing to do with ‘church buildings’. I
showed the brother that in context the verse simply meant that those Jews
[remember who the book of Hebrews was written to] who were not willing to leave
the old covenant system [the sanctuary] could not move on with the new covenant
truth of Christ and his cross. The sanctuary represented the whole concept of
law and Judaism. This verse had nothing to do about the inherent nature of
church buildings! Buildings themselves are neutral ground; it’s the style of
one person functioning [the pastor] at the expense of the rest of the body that
I see as less than ideal.
Well after seeing the obvious error of the way
this brother was reading this verse, I began to ‘expound unto him the way of
God more perfectly’. When he finally understood what I was saying [you could
tell by the look in his eyes that he saw the truth] instead of repenting of his
distorted view, he became irate and began to cast demons out of me [hey, I
didn’t think there were any in me!]. The reason I share this example is because
there are those in the house church movement, while not as extreme, seem to
view the church building itself as an evil thing.
My personal view is the church building can
become a hindrance when we view it as part of a system that makes up ‘church’.
We seem to see the whole concept of the church building and the pastor as the
weekly speaker and all the other things associated around this structure [like
tithing to the storehouse] as ‘the system’ that God instituted to carry out his
work in the earth. Remember Gods inherent authority resides in no human system
or mode of religious worship. His authority resides in the church, the actual
people of God in any given community on earth. So if there are believers
carrying out Gods purpose, whether they have the whole system that we deem
‘local church’ or not, is irrelevant. Remember what we said about Jesus and the
1st century religious mind? They were finding fault with Jesus and
his disciples because they were not following the religious protocol of the
day. When we embrace certain mindsets that see ‘local church’ as the limited
system of Sunday worship and all the other usual things associated with it,
what we’re unconsciously doing is vesting authority in a style, or form of
religious worship while by-passing the true legitimacy of Gods people. Its not
to say that Gods people who function in the whole system of Sunday church are
illegitimate [that would be making the same mistake as the brother who wanted
to cast the demons out of me!] but this shows us how we unconsciously make the
same mistake as the 1st century Pharisee by seeing as illegitimate
those who don’t follow certain protocols.
It was a common thing during the 90’s to speak
about the ‘changing of the wineskin’ in order to receive the new wine [the new
move of God]. Many of theses thoughts were helpful in causing us to re-think
the way we ‘do’ church. I also remember a common theme being ‘God wants to pour
out his Spirit, but the wineskins are not ready’ in some of these examples the
ministers actually meant that we don’t have big enough buildings to put all
these new converts so God is ‘withholding the new wine until the new buildings
go up’. At this point you should begin seeing how once again this is confusing
the reality of Christian community with ‘the church building’. I find it
interesting that the pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost was not delayed
because of the lack of facilities to put all the new converts in.
Also the great missionary journeys of Paul
were not delayed ‘until the new wineskins were in place’. This shows us how
we’ve come to view the people of God as being dependent on the present system.
Could it be that God withholds His Spirit because the ‘new wineskin’ could
refer more to believers seeing themselves as the actual church that God wants
to fill? If we are not rightly discerning Christ’s community as a
self-sustaining society of people then the church really isn’t able to contain
the new wine. If we are so limited in our thinking to view the new wineskin as
larger facilities, as opposed to a rethinking of what it means to truly be
Christ’s body, then maybe the holdup has more to do with a change in the way we
view ‘church’ then it has to do with bigger church buildings!
CHAPTER 9
WHAT IN THE WORLD IS ‘THE LOCAL CHURCH ’?
Growing up as a
catholic boy [though not a good one] I remember when I came to know the lord I
started reading through the bible and found how the bible contradicted many of
the religious beliefs I held to as a boy [this is not to say Catholics are not
Christian]. Later while attending a good Baptist church I naively believed that
good Baptists must have it right because they do read the bible! Well now I see
that none of us have everything right [including me!] but some of us are closer
to truth than others.
One of the traditions I saw with my Baptist
friends was their whole concept of ‘local church’. They seemed to see it as the
actual process of ‘going to church on Sunday’ and all the things associated
with that particular form of worship. Many of them found fault with the
Catholic Church and her traditions, but could not see how their own limited
view of ‘local church’ was just as religious as some of the Catholic teachings
that they so often criticized. Till this day I still cant see how so many of my
brothers in Christ view a particular form of modern church service as ‘the
local church’. Some brothers view it to a degree where they really do harm to
the rest of the body of Christ.
When any system
of church or worship is embraced to the degree of seeing others who don’t
embrace it as lost or in rebellion, then we unconsciously are saying that all
others are illegitimate. While the practice of Sunday church and the other
expressions of it are o.k. with me [to a degree], I still couldn’t see how
bible believing Christians could view this form as ‘the’ legitimate form of
church that Jesus established 2000 years ago. The ‘church’ in the New Testament
are all the communities of believers in any area where they reside. She is not
some limited form of worship or specific social group that someone joins. How
arrogant would it be for me to teach that the meetings or expressions of my own
ministry were ‘the’ local church, and then tell people if they do not put 10%
of their money into this expression that they would be under a curse! This
really is wrong at the heart of it. Its o.k. for Christians to associate in
this Sunday church way, but its not o.k. to view this form as ‘the local
church’ to the exclusion of all the other varied forms of ‘church’ that exist
in a living organism [the real ecclesia].
I recall reading
an article from one of the leaders of ‘youth with a mission’ [ywam] this is a
great organization. This leader is seeing many of the truths I’m expressing in
this book. He went on to explain how in the early years of ywam that they would
lead many college students to Christ, and these students would naturally form
on campus Christian associations/bible groups that would flourish naturally as
any living organism should. But they would then tell their students that in
order to not be in rebellion they needed to be ‘part of a local church’ [not
realizing that they already were ‘part of the local church’ by virtue of the
fact that Christ was dwelling in them and having expression through them as
they met together]. Well the brother explained how they would then send them
into ‘the local churches’ [which really meant lecture hall/church building environments
in order to hear sermons]. And how these young groups of students would
stagnate by being told to be under this type of authority. So what they viewed
as being in submission to authority and being ‘under a local church covering’
was really a violation of the true expression of church that already existed in
the on campus meetings. The brother also shared how they felt constrained to
send the students to ‘the churches’ in order to appease the egos of the men who
led the churches. This little example shows us how the mindset of viewing one
form of religious expression as ‘the local church’ can actually hinder ‘the
local church!’
One night I
attended a fellowship group where a bunch of Christians ‘unofficially’ met
together to eat and share and just have a good time [much like the early
atmosphere of the Lords supper/love feast]. During this time of fellowship
everyone just shared, sang and enjoyed themselves in a very relaxed atmosphere.
The place we were at is a beautiful environment out in the country that is
dedicated to the body of Christ. This place is not considered ‘a local church’,
though every aspect of our meeting fit the criteria of ‘local church’ to the
tee. On our way back to Corpus Christi
the friend I was with had recently read some of our books and sincerely asked
me about my views on the ‘local church’. This brother is a mature older prophet
in the Corpus Christi
area with a proven track record of faithfulness to the Lord.
He couldn’t understand why I saw very little
distinction between the ‘local church’ and para-church ministries. Well as we
were driving back into town it was late in the evening and all the lights of
C.C. could be seen, it was a great view of the city. I explained to my friend
how what we just experienced at the ‘para-church’ ministry was a real
expression of ecclesia and Christian unity. Two or more were gathered together
and Christ was present. As we drove back into town I explained that today [it
was Sunday] many various groups of believers met in many different locations
and that this was also an expression of the Body of Christ. And as we looked
over the city I told him that my understanding of all the various ‘churches’
that met together in all the different locations were in Gods eyes one church.
That the New Testament doesn’t show them to be 100 different separate entities
that we call ‘local church’, but that all the believers who gathered in this
day were ‘local church’ [ecclesia] even the ones who met at the Christian camp
[actually the style of meeting at the camp was more in keeping with the 1st
century model].
God sees his church as one entity, not as many
different entities all with their own separate identities. There are many
church buildings going up in our city [nothing wrong about this], while driving
to work not to long ago I noticed how one of the churches is building within a
few hundred feet of another church. They are both good churches, but God simply
doesn’t see these brothers as separate entities. It would be like the kids
living in your home, they might be in different rooms right next to each other,
but they don’t ‘operate’ as unique entities apart from the other siblings [at
least I hope not!].
I was
fellowshipping with a friend and sharing with him some of the thoughts in this
book. During our discussion he was struggling with the concept of ‘the church’
being a free society of Christ followers [a brotherhood] as opposed to the
normal way we see church today [the whole concept of Sunday church as the
‘church’ we go to]. While trying to explain myself [or should I say ‘defend’] I
noticed that there was a picture of the last supper on the wall. I then used it
as an illustration of ‘local church’. I showed him how this ‘supper’ was one
aspect of Jesus sharing of his life with the disciples. Jesus lived and walked
daily with his disciples for three years and is now going to leave them for
their benefit [even though they don’t see it yet!].
During this final meal he rightfully is the
center of their attention. He has already taught them the principle of calling
no man on earth ‘father’ or ‘master’ or ‘rabbi’, because they are all brothers
and their master/rabbi is Christ himself. So the atmosphere of them all being
equal at this supper with him being the focal point is an intentional lesson for
them. He then does the unthinkable, he gets up from the table and puts on a
servants garb [towel] and begins to wash their feet! He tells them he is giving
them an example of what it will mean to be a leader in the church. He shatters
the gentile idea of leadership [being at the top] and once again shows them
that the last will be first is a real mindset that is to be lived out in
Christian community. True ‘local church’ is the common sharing of the life of
Christ [the Eucharist is a picture of this] in Christian community where we all
are equals [this means all, do you see how there was purposely no man or office
that was predominant here, apart from Christ] and where leadership is
identified by a servant’s heart!
CHAPTER 10
THE SPIRIT OF COMPETITION IN
THE MODERN CHURCH
Over
the years while working with brothers who were addicts or ex-cons we would
spend a lot of time just fellowshipping and spending time together as friends.
Jesus was actually accused of being a friend of sinners. This accusation seemed
to imply that it was all right to view people as a thing to be ministered to,
but to actually befriend sinners was a violation of the religious world of
separation between sinner and saint. The religious mind views people as a
resource pool to accomplish ministry goals. People are viewed as being
expendable. I have often seen the example used where if people are in the way
of accomplishing religious goals then you must avoid them. While the principle
of not allowing critics to stop us from accomplishing God given goals is
important, yet we must put in perspective that the actual city/building that
God desires to build is the community of people herself. Many times while
working with these friends of mine we would run into or have experiences where
other pastors would interact with them in efforts to ‘get them into their
church’. Some would visit one church or another and then later tell me how the
one pastor would be offended that they went to the other ‘church’. They seemed
to be able to see right through the church games that these men were playing.
The goal of these well meaning
pastors was to get people to go ‘to their church’ which in many of these
scenarios simply meant attending a building to listen to someone preach. If the
many ‘churches’ are simply competitive lecture halls from which men find
personal fulfillment by having people come and listen, then in these scenarios
the struggle or guilt that we put on people to make them come is an actual
violation of the true church, which after all is made up of all these various
believers in our communities. I am not saying that in all of these types of
situations that there are never legitimate expressions of church, but the
actual spirit of this type of thing goes on a lot in the average city. The people
can fall into mindsets of where their simply being viewed as tools to
accomplish religious goals. In the New Testament the mindset of ministry and
‘church planting’ had nothing close to this sort of attitude. The New Testament
Churches were simply communities of people who gathered around the reality of
Jesus. In these communities church was a daily way of life, it was not focused
around meetings at all.
This is why I take issue with the
strong house church emphasis that actually sees a pattern of ‘house church’ as
the only legitimate expression of church. This is the same mistake as the
building centered approach. They are both focusing on the wrong thing, where
the people meet. The focus in the New Testament is not on where or even how
they meet, but the emphasis is on the reality of all the believers in any given
location as being the corporate expression of Christ in all types of
situations. The fact that Christ lives in all of us is the great mystery. It’s
really insignificant in my thinking on exactly how we meet. Now I know that
some styles are better than others. For instance a meeting where all the
believers function by sharing and caring for one another is much more edifying,
but the daily reality of Christ manifesting through us as we interact in
community is the true church. This obviously includes our meetings, but like I
said earlier the New Testament thrust was preaching the gospel to people. It
wasn’t on setting up meetings at all. The meetings were a simple outgrowth of
true church life. When we loose the reality of this we digress into this
competitive approach that causes pastors to compete with one another in a
childish way. Paul told the Corinthians that their sectarian attitude to gather
around the personas of men was a sign of their immaturity.
I can’t believe how immature we are in our
thinking. I was having a discussion with a mature leader in the church and when
I shared some of these truths he actually said ‘my pastor knows how to spot
wolves who try to come in and harm us’ [or something to that effect] the
feeling I got was he was feeling threatened. Now this was a mature believer in
his 50s[I’m 43 as I write this book]. The reason I say this is because it
seemed so unnatural for a mature saint to even use the term ‘my pastor’. In the
body of Christ there are many different gifts, some are apostles others
prophets, some evangelists, but out of all these gifted ones it would be highly
unscriptural to refer to any of these in this way. Just try it, do you feel
comfortable saying ‘my prophet’ or ‘my apostle’ then why do we think ‘my
pastor’ is not indicative of our immature thinking. I am not advocating the
doing away of this term [pastor] but this language should cause us to rethink
our immature ways of seeing church. Church is not an endless series of
religious meetings whereby people ‘attend’ in order to listen to bible words
being spoken. The practical instruction and teaching that are operating in any
healthy group of people will allow there to be room for the functioning of all
the people in the group. This codependence that we’ve developed with the
emphasis on one persons persona is in direct violation of the function and flow
of New Testament thought.
The phenomena of
one person being the primary voice and expression in the group [ecclesia] are
an immature result of not rightly discerning Christ’s body. When people are
together at social functions there is usually at least one person who has had a
few drinks. You can identify that person by the way he acts. He wants to dominate
the conversation, if you try and talk back he’ll cut you off because he derives
enjoyment when the conversation centers around himself. He actually feels good
about being the predominant voice in the group, to the exclusion of every other
voice! I don’t know if we realize it or not, but in many modern church
scenarios this is what the world sees. They frankly don’t want to ‘go to
church’ because it has become an environment where one person is doing all the
talking, and a lot of times it’s about him! People are tired of this. Our
conversation [more than one person speaking] should revolve around the person
of Christ as opposed to the persona of any one person.
Grasping the
biblical truth of leaders choosing between effective ministry or ministry for
the honor of men is a hard pill to swallow if you are involved with the ‘honor
of men’ mode at the present time [if you are now reading this and it describes
you!]. What I want us all to see is that it takes true courage to walk in truth
in every generation of believers from the 1st. century until today. There were
many well-meaning Christians during the time of the reformation who were
serving God as priests in the Catholic church. Many felt it to be a disruption
to go on in the new truths of the reformation [justification by faith] and
simply remained faithful to God in the majority position of their day. These
priests were still Christians [for the most part] and many of them sincerely
followed Christ to the best of their ability without embracing the new truths
that God was bringing forth in their day. I mention this because there are many
well-meaning brothers in Christ who see the things in this book as truth, but
choose to stay in the majority system of contemporary church and will continue
to be used by God to a degree. The real question for us is do we want to be a
part of ‘modern reformation’ or just be faithful to the system [after all our
brothers have been doing it this way for years!].
CHAPTER 11
GOD’S PEOPLE ARE NOT SIMPLY
ASSETS TO AN ORGANIZATION!
Getting back to the story of the
children of Israel
in the book of exodus. If you remember the story God took his society of
people, who were many [big numbers] and he brought them through stages to lead
them into a place where they would become a self-sustaining entity on their own
[with God as their king!]. They were living in Egypt and being ruled over by
taskmasters. The bondage they were under was an expectation to produce a
certain amount of building materials in order for the cities of man to be built.
The cities represented the images and personas of men. In the process of God
delivering them from this bondage of image building he raises up Moses [a type
of Christ]. Moses God given prophetic authority begins to confront mans
authority [pharaoh] and begins a process of freeing the people from this
mindset of being ruled over in order to produce things so the images of men
would be glorified [ouch!].
As Moses confronts mans authority, he at the
same time leads the people on a journey. The journey is exciting and life
changing, but it also has many risks and pitfalls. The children of Israel ’s
response determined how long this journey would take. The more they complained
about this new walk and all of the difficulties involved with it, the longer it
would take before they could enter a place of rest and true self rule [under
God]. During this season of testing and trial in the wilderness they actually
longed to go back into a system of being ruled over because the old system
provided a sense of stability and structure that they were comfortable with,
despite the fact that they were slaves in it! In process of time they [their
children] eventually do enter into the promised land of self-rule.
They obtain their own national
identity [the nation of Israel ]
apart from simply existing under another’s identity [Egypt ] and God begins leading them
with the assistance of prophets and judges and elders [a type of plural
leadership flowing freely in society]. During process of time they reach a
stage where they see how all the other nations are ruled [watch out!] and
decide that they too want a king [man] to rule over them. Wow, after all that
God brought them through to deliver them from mans control you would think they
wouldn’t have done this! Well God actually says that by doing this they are
rejecting his leadership for the leadership of men. He even warns them that
this type of ‘mans rule’ will take of their best men and use them for the
self-advancement of his dynasty. God says this king will even demand the tithes
of the people in order to fund his kingdom [wow]. I guess when God says that
the things that happened to Israel
were for a sign for us so we don’t make the same mistakes; he really means it
[1st cor.10]!
Many times in our present
understanding of church we view people as assets to our ‘organization.’ ‘Wow if I could just get that talented person
as a staff member in our church’. This way of viewing people as things that can
help our organizations grow is the ‘Saul’ mindset ‘he will take of your best
men’ mentality. People have intrinsic value, they are valuable in Gods eyes
because of the simple fact that Christ died for them and has purchased them
with his blood. People are not objects or tools to be looked upon as assets to
an organization. If you were to adopt a child [a very noble task] hopefully you
would do it because you loved the child and wanted to be with them. If this
child later found out that you did this in order to gain some type of benefit
[like a tax deduction or something of this nature] your child would be
devastated. So when we view Gods children [the true church] as objects that
will help advance our ‘churches’ [organizations] we devalue them.
I am not saying
here that all present models of leadership in the church are ‘mans rule’, but a
large degree of it is. There is so much image building that goes on in the
church that it’s not even funny. Much of the collecting of tithes is simply a
process where one leader is in competition with the other in order to ‘out
build’ him, and a lot of times the people begin to simply be weekly attendees
of our meetings who we deliver messages to and then hope to bring in a huge
offering so the image of ‘our church’ can gain a degree of respect in the
community. Like I said before, there is nothing inherently wrong with ‘big
churches’ or ministries, but we must be careful that as we build we are not
doing it at the expense of Gods true heritage [the people of God!].
If we can grasp
the concept of Gods people actually being the vehicle that God uses to express
His image and purpose in the earth, then we will stop viewing them as being
simply a resource pool to accomplish ministry goals. My own prayer time has
evolved as I began to see these truths. I used to spend a lot of time praying
for the success of ‘my ministry’ but as I’ve come to see these truths I focused
my prayer time more on the actual purposes of God to be made manifest through
all the people we relate to. I began praying for God to accomplish and activate
his purposes directly through his people. I began viewing ministry as not so
much ‘something I am building for God’ but as the expression of his Son being
developed and manifested through the people I relate to. If the people you
influence over your life are truly impacted by the person of Christ, then in
essence you have had a successful ministry. Many of these approaches to
ministry will obviously not have the same amount of outward ministry things to
look to [like buildings] therefore the concept of not building for the honor of
men must be fully grasped by those who take on this style of ministry. This way
of seeing and doing ministry also allows you to be free from having to raise
large amounts of money in order to accomplish ministry goals. God truly can and
will use any believer to expand his kingdom in the earth as you begin to see
ministry this way.
Jesus simple way
of sending the disciples out and telling them not to worry about purse or scrip
[money. I like the way the message bible puts it ‘don’t think you need a lot of
extra equipment for this, you are the equipment. No special appeals for funds,
keep it simple’ Mark 6] shows us the simplicity of all believers being able to
carry out ministry by virtue of the fact that Christ is in us. This is what I
tried to stress earlier, that as you begin to view ministry as a simple
function of Christ revealing and manifesting himself through his people, then
this is something we all can do all the time. No big process of raising money
[no special appeals for funds] but simply being a Christian in society and
interacting with God and fellow believers in all types of situations makes the
presence of Christ manifest [where 2 or more are gathered there am I in the
midst]. It is common today to view ministry as a function of professionals and
the need for them to raise money for projects causes there to exist in the
Christian community a mindset where good Christians are always appealing for
funds in order to accomplish some project. This actually projects the image
that ministry is some type of a separate function apart from us. This really
violates the whole concept of ministry being a natural outgrowth of believers
being in right relationship with God [John 15].
CHAPTER 12
WHAT MODEL OF CHURCH
GOVERNMENT DO I ESPOUSE?
Over the years
when dealing with these types of issues I have found it difficult to break
through the ‘normal’ way and pattern of thinking that most Christians have. For
instance some times people will ask me the question ‘what type of church
government do you believe in’? Most Times in their minds they’re really asking
me ‘what type of order, or pattern of Sunday church do you espouse’. While I
also understand that they are including the concept of government that applies
to the broader association of the various denominations, to me they are still
‘seeing’ church government as a particular order imposed by the ‘separate
entity’ of their denomination. Let me try to make this a little clearer
[hopefully].
If I were to
explain to someone the reality of natural human life, I would go through the
process of showing how life starts between a healthy relationship of 2 people
coming together by Gods design [I hope I don’t have to get to detailed here!].
As children are born they will go through various stages of development and life.
They will encounter many different situations as they proceed along this thing
called life. One of the many things that most children will have [though sad to
say, not all] is a home environment. This home environment is just one of the
many things that make up their lives. In this home/house they will at different
times and in different settings be taught all types of things, both by example
and through actual instruction [I thought I told you to clean up your room! 2
days ago!].
In this home environment you might have a
special day where you all come together in the family room for devotional time
[this day varies with my younger girls but I try to do this on a weekly basis].
While this devotional time is important, it is only one small aspect of their
entire lives. If you were to refer to this one day of teaching as ‘the life/the
church’ I would correct your thinking and say this small area of Christian
activity, though important, is only one aspect of their lives. Life itself is
the actual organic reality of them being human beings who were birthed and grew
up as real human beings. The sum total of all their experiences have shaped
them, but they themselves, by virtue of the fact that they were born and
actually [really] exist as human beings, is life. Life does not describe the
home/house environment only. Or just one specific way in which we do our
devotion time. It consists of the fact that they are truly alive!
So getting back to the question
of ‘what type of church govt. do I believe in’ I often answer ‘none’, to the
surprise of the person asking the question. I then go on to explain that I view
‘church’ as the actual living/organic entity of Gods people. God’s people are
Gods people by virtue of the fact that they were born into his family; they are
children of God, really! They are ‘church’ because of this fact. They will
experience many good [and sometimes bad] things along the way. Most of them
will find a ‘home/house’ environment to go to in order to associate with other
believers [what we often describe as church] during these times of fellowship
there will be certain days in which instruction is given [normally Sunday]. And
they will experience many other types of situations throughout their Christian
experience. So when someone asks me what type of church govt. do I believe in,
I usually see the question to mean ‘what type, or style of Sunday church
meeting do you espouse’. I try to make an effort to explain that I believe in
the ‘actual church govt.’ that is I believe that all the people of God, all the
time make up the church everywhere they are [remember Jesus answer to the
Samaritan woman].
As God is daily communicating and interacting
with his people by his Spirit this is an actual real existence that we share
both with our creator and all of our brothers and sisters in Christ. This type
of ‘church govt.’ is what I espouse. The ‘ordaining’ of elders in the New
Testament was simply the recognition of more mature/grounded spiritual leaders
who the early Christian communities could look to for guidance and direction
[or correction] as they experience and live out ‘church life’. We have such a
legalistic mind that as Christians we have changed church govt. to describe a
certain form, or way of doing religious meeting while it originally referred to
God ‘governing’ His people through the ‘govt.’ of Jesus being at the right hand
of glory!
CHAPTER 13
THE CAT CHAPTER [I DID THIS
FOR MY KIDS!]
Whenever I have this type of discussion I
usually receive different responses from well meaning Christians in defense of
the old way of seeing church. Some feel it is total rebellion to even dare
question the system [my pastor knows how to spot wolves mentality, which
usually means me!] sometimes people try to devalue this message by saying ‘oh,
that brothers one of those theologian types’ which I assure you I’m not! [never
been to bible school, never been ordained [by men]]. Some feel that this way of
seeing ‘church’ is impractical. I believe that seeing all of Gods people as the
actual entity in earth that God has ordained to advance his kingdom is the most
practical thing you can do. I personally have been active and involved as a
believer in all sorts of practical charitable outreach. I do this by virtue of
the fact that I’ve been ordained by God to go into all the world and make
disciples. Whether you realize it or not, so are you!
All the ‘ministry’ stuff I do is not some
higher calling that I have in which others need to recognize and support in
order for them to get some type of reward simply because they support me [by
the way we do not accept financial support]. This mindset creates a false
barrier that causes Christians to see ministry as something separate from
themselves, that somehow relieves them from their own personal responsibility
to spread the kingdom. We sort of give the attitude that if the ‘average
Christian’ simply supports the pro’s that he’s fulfilled his obligation. I
often tell people that I am no different than them. God requires all believers
to reach out and touch society around them in real practical ways.
No one is to simply be a book writer, or radio
speaker or any other ‘thing’ we see as ministry. But we are all responsible to
reach out in real practical ways, touching the lost world around us. Our real
message as Christians is that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.
The message that the world needs to hear from us is that God is not mad at
them, or trying to make them conform to some church standard. But God has
already embraced and accepted them through Jesus Christ. Our message is one of
total reconciliation and forgiveness. We all bare a responsibility to give our
lives away for the sake of others. This whole book is to emphasize the reality
and responsibility we all share in the great commission. The great truth of God
‘legitimizing’ all of us bares with it a great responsibility to touch the
world. Jesus said to whom much is given much will be required.
This book
hopefully opened your eyes to some degree to how much has been given to you.
Much is now required. All the ‘ministry’ things that I personally do, working
with homeless people, ex-cons [or present ones!], doing radio, personal
outreach/evangelism, all of these areas are a natural function of trying to
hear God and respond. I’m not saying I do everything right, I’m sure I don’t
[really sure!] but I try to view ministry as simply hearing and doing the works
of Jesus. If the verse in Mark says to
‘make no special appeals for funds, travel light because you are the
equipment’ then my first reaction to God calling me to do something in ministry
is to simply act. This is a forgotten doctrine of the old traditional church; I
think they used to call it ‘obedience’. So my response to God should be ‘Lets
go’.
Now I realize practically there are many contemporary
building based churches that are hearing and responding to God, and that many
of these pastors are obviously not going to personally fund everything they do.
But I’m trying to show how we often respond to God’s call on us by perceiving
that ‘God wants me to start a ministry’, once again falling into the trap of
seeing ministry as some type of entity [usually a 501c3] that God wants us to
start. God isn’t telling the ‘entity’ to do it, He’s telling you! [Or me] do
you see this? So all the ministry stuff I do is without a board, no 501c3, and
no separate entity at all. Just do it! [I should make a note here, in the early
days I did incorporate and had a name, Corpus
Christi outreach ministries, but this now is simply
the name of our radio program. It’s more humble to leave it like this then to
tell everyone ‘you’re listening today to John Chiarello’]. Now the principle of
team work is important, after all this book is about the Church, Gods corporate
people, but what I want you to see is you are free to do kingdom works without
starting some ‘thing’.
I have also
sensed at times that when I share this simple approach I take concerning
ministry, that it will offend others who have gone the more traditional route.
Sort of like a feeling of ‘how dare you think that you can just do these things
on your own, who is your covering!’. This attitude is what I was trying to
express earlier when I shared how the mindset of the 1st century
Pharisee was offended at both Jesus and his disciples simply doing kingdom
works because they were sent by God. There seems to be a lack of understanding
of the true nature of our sonship in Christ. While God doesn’t want Christians
to be rebellious or out of order, we often use this type of language in order
to challenge true believers who are walking in the will of God.
If you think
about it all of the commands in the New Testament are given to believers in
order for us to actively participate in kingdom works. Jesus says when he
returns that all nations will be judged on whether they fed him when he was
hungry, or visited him when he was in prison [actual things that Christians
should do]. He gives instructions on when we invite people for a meal to invite
the down and out because they cant repay us [no political lobbying here!] but
how many times have we actually done these things? We seem to read the new
testament and confer the responsibility of these things on ‘the church’ as in
if she were some type of separate institution that if we just give money to
that we will be relieved of our responsibility to act!
Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for this type of
thinking. Jesus also taught that there would be people who at the judgment
would be rejected because they never knew him, these people primarily focused
on ministry as being ‘performance’ [have we not prophesied in your name type
mentality]. This shows us that true ministry are the works done as a response
of the compassion of Christ being expressed through us. Ministry is primarily
not a function of religious performance. In American Christianity we often view
ministry as a time were someone will be performing in an audience type
atmosphere. Either a great sermon or fantastic singer, while there are times
where these types of gifts edify, we often view ministry in these ways not
realizing that for the most part this is simply ‘performance’. [I don’t want to
sound mean here, but I really don’t know how else I could say this!]
A few weeks ago
I took a trip to the New York City
area, before I left I gave specific instructions to my kids to not bring home
any more cats! I told them that they all ready had enough pets and I didn’t
want them to have any more. My daughters have been involved with a lot of pet
rescues where they find strays and get them fixed and get all their shots and
find them homes. The only problem is some times the home they find is mine! To
be honest they have done pretty well. I also now have two dogs living with us
[it’s a long story]. So when I arrived back from my trip I was greeted by the
whole family and I noticed there was a strange looking kitten, I wasn’t really
sure if it was new or one that I just didn’t remember. Well as the puppy is
playing with the kitten my daughter says ‘oh, daddy did you see the new kitten,
she belongs to the puppy’ in essence they were telling me that they really
didn’t get any new pets, but that one of the pets got a new pet! This is what
you would call living up to the letter of the law while violating the spirit of
the law. This is what we do in our understanding of church and ministry. The
whole intent is to build and edify people. They are the valuable object to God.
In our efforts to ‘build ministry’ we often devalue them [most of the times
unconsciously]. As we re-examine our ideas and concepts of church it is my goal
to lead us to a place where people are valued again, even if it’s at the
expense of the institution!
Let me end this
chapter with one more ‘cat’ story. One day one of our cats was killed by a car.
My kids were upset so I violated the rule of not bringing any more cats home
and went to the local shelter and adopted this real cute kitten. Well being I
was the first voice that this kitten would hear [from my family] she became
closer to me than normal. After a few more bad experiences with cats getting
out my kids took 3 new stray kittens [recently rescued] and put them all in
their room for months. The litter box, food and everything they needed was in
this little isolated closed environment [watch out], well they stuck my little
kitten in there too!
After a few months
I told my kids that this isn’t right. I haven’t seen my kitten for so long, she
used to play with me and really liked me a lot, being I was the first voice
she’d grown accustomed to. Well my kids warned me that she isn’t like that
anymore, she’s been with the little scared strays in the room for so long that
she’s picked up the scared attitude and is afraid of people. Well I couldn’t
believe that she would have forgotten my voice, I know its been a long time
since she’s heard it, but after all I am her ‘daddy’ and she was a special
kitten to me. Well I finally broke this little secluded environment that they
were living in and went into the room. Sure enough all the cats were scared of
this type of forced intimacy. I was just to close! They all had this scared
look and ran under the bed. I couldn’t believe that even my little kitten was
so affected by the natural fear that these strays had, that she too thought it
necessary to hide from the face of her father.
Well after a few
seconds my little cat came running out from under the bed and into my arms, as
if to say ‘yes I remember you, your that first person that rescued me that day
a long time ago, Its been so long since I saw you that I had forgotten your
voice. I have been living with these unwanted strays for so long that I was
afraid to approach you anymore’ well I think this is what happens to Gods kids
sometimes. They start out at ‘the day of rescue [salvation]’ with the joy of
hearing His voice, but after living our lives out in unnatural environments
[closed rooms] for so long we forget what it was like to truly hear his voice
and to commune with him. Often times there needs to be an intrusion into our
closed environments before we can recognize the voice of our father once again.
[NOTE; when I told my girls I was going to put a story about our cats in the
book, they said ‘wow, our cats are going to be famous’ we just cant seem to get
away from this desire to legacy build!]
CONCLUSION
Leadership is primarily the function of
helping people ‘get out of their rooms’. It is the process of leading people
away from feeling content and satisfied in our little rooms of fellowship and
doctrine, which cause us to feel superior to our brothers and sisters in
Christ. The end result of this little book shouldn’t be ‘now that I see these
things I have found a ‘new’ room to dwell in [the room of the doctrine of
ecclesiology/house church] but the result should be seeing ourselves as free in
Christ and being built up as co-equal members of Christ’s body, Paul said
knowledge puffeth up but charity buildeth up [edifieth]. As we all come out of
our peculiar rooms of various doctrines [some of which are true!] we don’t
advocate the belief that doctrine is not important but want to bring people to
a place where we find our identity in the person of Christ as opposed to the
doctrines of men.
I would like to end this little booklet in an
unconventional way. I want to simply share some thoughts from my own personal
mission statement. Also I want to speak directly to all of our friends who
either listen to us on radio or who I relate to in some way in the kingdom.
Over the years of sharing these truths I would often have people who have heard
us or read one of our books and after seeing certain truths would express their
concern about their church, or so and so’s church. I without fail have always
defended the church or pastor. The reason is I feel that the truths in these
books are not to be used to personally come against a particular church or
pastor. I do believe we all need to examine our motives and readjust our
thinking when it comes to why we do the things we do ‘for God’. Its possible to
be involved in church building and without realizing it, to be building
monuments that will burn up in the day of judgment. All true church building
consists of unselfishly depositing into other people for their growth and
benefit. Ministry is not a ‘career choice’ as if someone were choosing between
auto mechanic/fire-fighter/pastor. Ministry is a gift that God deposits in all
his people for the mutual edification of the whole body. What we fail to see in
many present forms of church is how we are simply empowering a few individuals
at the expense of the people in the pews.
I have seen many well-meaning men go into
ministry and immediately feel a sense of fulfillment because they are flowing
and speaking and giving out of themselves to others. The writing of this book
as well as the radio programs I do give a sense of fulfillment in that we are
all created to give ourselves away. But in many current situations the main
speaker is finding fulfillment at the expense of the rest of the body. God
designed the church to be a place where all of Gods people would find
fulfillment in giving themselves away. The unnatural act of submission that we
often teach is not true biblical submission. We often tell people if they are
not satisfied with their passive role as listeners that they are in rebellion.
While in reality true rebellion is not developing into the mature functioning
person that God wants all of us to be. My purpose is not to give Christians
excuses to ‘not go to church’.
The mindset of
‘I can worship God on the golf course’ mentality. But to cause us to radically
rethink what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. The Pharisees of Jesus day
were involved in all types of religious activities, but Jesus said their main
motivation was to simply attain a certain status amongst their fellow peers. He
said that’s what they were in it for and that they already received their
reward [the honor of men]. Why do we want to build big ministries? Is it truly
for the glory of God or are we unconciously enjoying the natural success that
comes with the adventure of any big project? I’m not against big projects in
and of themselves, but we must examine our motives for doing the things we do. True New
Testament Church
planting is simply depositing Jesus image into the people we relate to over our
lifetime. What legacy did Paul leave behind? Was it some huge earthly
institution? We find him at the end of his life living in a rented house,
receiving visitors and declaring the kingdom
of God [Acts 28; 30-31]
he left behind a legacy of gentile communities who believed in Christ!
Here are some of
my own personal thoughts from my mission statement.
1 spend time making quality
friends, all ministry takes place in this type of atmosphere.
2 true leadership is relating
directly to groups of people in cities, not starting some type of organization.
3 the apostle Paul had
relationship with believers in different locals, but he didn’t own them.
4 don’t try to produce only one
type or way of church, but allow Gods natural process to work in various ways.
5 relating to areas/groups of
people regularly is building the body. Either a church building, home or any
regular place of contact can be the format for building the house of God.
6 planting churches in the New
Testament sense was not the concept of setting up regular meetings in which
Paul would preach to them week after week as a pastor, but planting churches was
an apostle going to a location and making believers of the gospel of grace, and
then trusting the Spirit in them to continue his work. Paul did speak of
recognizing and ordaining elders in these cities, but it wasn’t a weekly church
concept.
7 in the book of acts the focus
wasn’t on setting up meetings, but sharing Christ with groups of people and
relating to them as a family of children of whom you will always have
relationship with, but allow them to mature and grow up on their own and
eventually become independent.
8 the focus isn’t meetings but
ecclesia. That is the actual people you disciple. when Jesus sent them out 2 by
2 it wasn’t to start home groups, but to bring the kingdom to regions. Don’t
sacrifice the freedom of touching people directly. Jesus and those he sends
simply speak, do, share and communicate with people. His great commission to go
and make disciples and baptize. Direct authority to do kingdom without having
to start or set up a movement. The movement itself is ‘Jesus family’ [ecclesia].
You will meet with people, but the focus is the people not the act of meeting.
Learn to relate to people without having an agenda. Simply be free to love
people.
9 look at Jesus and the 12. Later
in acts, even Paul when going to a region, he holds meetings for a limited time
[though the longest was around 2 years] preaches Christ, has a give and take
with the community and then leaves. No ‘starting’ of anything, but a revolution
in the hearts and minds of people. Later when re-visiting these communities,
these are the ‘churches’ of the New Testament. We must see and operate in this
simple way. This simple way is New Testament church planting.
10 his yoke is easy and burden
light. Go into all the world and preach the gospel. Don’t loose the simplicity
of doing Gods will. He requires nothing more than to go and touch and share and
love. The people you touch are the ecclesia.
11 in these friendships the main
truth will be Jesus and his grace, these friends will be encouraged to continue
in Jesus and his grace. Prayer, bible study, fellowship and their journey with
God. Be available to baptize and communicate with them, but allow God to grow
the seed.
12 you never get the
sense/feeling from Jesus or Paul that they were going somewhere to recruit
people to their ministry. The sense was bringing this great message and kingdom
to people! The people continued in the apostles doctrine and fellowship with
each other and later Paul would come back to see how they were doing, not to
start some type of ministry, but true long term friendships in the kingdom.
13 the freedom isnt 'house
church’ or ‘temple worship’ but the kingdom being amongst us now! Obeying Jesus
command to love! This command is free from all forms and structures of
ministry, and allows us to daily love in action, always sharing in word and
deed Jesus. A willingness to baptize those who believe and share and love and
relate on a friendship basis. Jesus style.
I would like to
note here that at the present time [2000’s] there are many worldwide Christian
movements that are actually doing many of the things that I mentioned in this
book. There are many ‘ex-pastors’ who have left their former roles as the
central figure of the people they were pastoring and have continued to serve
the body of Christ in a bi-vocational way [not getting paid to pastor!]. While
I am not advocating this for every pastor who might read this book, I share
this to emphasize that these thoughts are presently being practiced on a large
scale worldwide [I do a lot of research!]. When people are confronted with new
truth there is a tendency to discredit the messenger, so I wanted you to see
that there are many thousands of believers who are walking this path right now.
There are also many brothers who have seen these things before I did and I
appreciate the role they played in helping me to see new truth. In many cases
the believers who have left there former churches to live in simple community
have been ostracized and looked upon as backslidden rebels. This has created in
some a resentment in those who are technically correct in their seeing the
church as the community, but many wont hear their voices because of the barrier
of resentment that they pick up from them. So you have some who remain in the
old way of seeing church and justify it by the fact that some who moved on have
a bad attitude. We are all responsible before God to respond to truth when
confronted with it, regardless of how much we resent the messenger! I
personally believe that after reading this little book that your level of
responsibility has gone up. You must ask God how He personally wants you to
respond to the truths presented to you.
A few weeks ago
I had a dream that I felt was prophetic, over the years I have had many
interesting dreams and visions. I have never shared any of them in book form,
but have spoken about them through our radio program. I dreamt that I was going
to a Christian university, when arriving at the university there were many
scholarly people dressed in suits and ties. There were many classes going on
and discussions taking place about theological subjects. As I continued on my
tour of the university there was a classroom where all the professors were
gathered in a circle examining something. As I got closer I saw in the middle
of these scholars there was what looked like an Indian warrior, he was crouched
and just sitting there as something to be examined. He was severely scarred,
not just normal scares but sort of a grotesque mutilation. He was there as
something to be examined [I thought of the verse in Isaiah where it says he was
marred more than any man, that he was wounded to beyond the point of
recognition]. Later when I woke up I felt part of this dream spoke to the
danger of us as Christians being able to learn and study truth, while never
fully embracing the mystery in Christ. We have a tendency to build people up
with all sorts of doctrines and never arriving at the point of fully grasping
Him. My goal is after reading this book that your focus will not be ‘now I am
going to go do the things in this book’, but that you would be able to see Him
to a greater degree. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.
Let me close
with this, the apostle Paul told the Corinthians that he was given authority by
God to build them up and not to tear them down. He actually regretted being so
hard on them in his 1st letter, but later said he was glad he made
them sorry for a season because it would later bear good results. While I'm not
comparing myself to the apostle, I do see a similar situation in some of the
teaching we do. Its seems to upset people initially but after a while it will
produce good fruit. My intent in examining our whole idea of church and
ministry is not to give people ammunition to fight against their church, but
rather to cause us all to embrace a more biblical concept of church and
ministry. I personally do not advocate the total deconstructing of all present
day church practices. I personally believe there is room for both building
based churches [the church building] and the house church movement. My appeal
is for us to look at all these issues and come to our own conclusions on how to
embrace these truths at our own pace. I thank the lord that he has been patient
with me as I walk this journey and I want to give you all the same room and
grace he has extended to me. May God bless you guys until the next book!
In Christ
John Chiarello
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