“So when they had come together, they asked Him, ‘Lord, at this time are You restoring the kingdom of Israel?’” (Acts 1:6)

I am always amazed at how often the disciples didn’t get it. They were experts at missing the point. Even after three and a half years under the direct tutelage of Jesus Himself, even after His death and resurrection, they are still concerned about earthly power. They are still focused on kicking the Romans out and establishing the kingdom of Israel. Old habits die hard; old patterns of thinking die even harder.

More than my astonishment at the disciples, though, I am always amazed at the grace of Jesus. If I were Jesus, it would be at this point where I’d take all my toys back and go play somewhere else, with someone more worthy. But it is at this point that He bestows upon these blind guides His vision of the gospel going to all the earth – with them at the middle of it all!

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

While the disciples are still grasping for earthly power, Jesus promises to hand them a different, infinitely superior kind of power. While they seek to reestablish a kingdom within the borders of Israel, Jesus invites them into a kingdom that has no borders. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, they will become partakers in something more earthshaking than all the power this world could muster.

I guess this shouldn’t surprise me, though. Jesus is always offering us better gifts than whatever “prize” we clutch so tightly in our stubborn hands. He is always inviting us into more breathtaking stories than the little ones we’ve plotted out ourselves.

Because although I am amazed by the shortsighted smallness of the disciples’ thinking, I also find that reading about them is a lot like looking into a mirror. I am right alongside them as they chase after things that don’t even matter. But, thank God, I am also right alongside them to receive the grace of Jesus. In the outpouring of that grace, I hear His voice calling me to hunger and thirst for better things – for the gift of the Spirit, for the kingdom of heaven.

http://bandico.deviantart.com/art/Letting-Go-349426169

And as I continue to read, I watch in awe as this small group of unqualified misfits gather together to seek the Lord with all their hearts. I watch as the tongues of fire come down to rest upon them; I watch as their previously cherished dreams drop from their hands and roll away into the shadows. I watch their eyes rise higher.

I, too, want to let go.

I, too, want to fix my eyes on Jesus.

At the baptism of Jesus, the Father’s voice comes from heaven, declaring: “You are My beloved Son. I take delight in You!” (Luke 3:22). The devil then comes and couches all his accusations in terms of doubt, tempting Jesus to distrust His Father: “If You are the Son of God…”

At the heart of this whole series of temptations is the issue of trust, just as it was in Eden. Jesus is taking a stand where humankind first (and ever since) fell. The character of God is called into question, and Jesus chooses to trust His Father unwaveringly.

Jesus answers by quoting the words of God, demonstrating His trust in the Father.

Turning stones to bread: Jesus trusts His father to provide for His needs. God has led Him to the wilderness and has sustained Him without food for 40 days, but now He feels hungry. Whether He feels the hunger or not, He trusts God to satisfy and sustain His life.

We, too, must trust God and rely upon His word regardless of how we may feel or what evidence is thrown against us. We may look around at all the evil in our world and be tempted to distrust the love of God. God may seem to have abandoned us or not helped us at times, and we may feel tempted to turn to those who claim to turn stones to bread, but only by trusting in God and His word will we really live.

Worship the devil in exchange for the kingdoms of the world: To anyone, this would be a temptation, but how much more to Jesus who came to this earth for the very purpose of taking back what the devil had stolen – the people of this world. And here Satan offers Jesus that very thing! But Jesus knows two things: 1) only God is worthy to be worshiped and served, 2) trading with the devil never works out the way he claims. Jesus could have made the trade and “gained” the world, but He would have lost everything eternally. Instead, He chose to trust the Father’s plan of redemption, though it was much more difficult. Jesus chose to trust that only through His sacrifice could humankind truly be rescued.

We, too, face offers from the devil. There are times when he will offer us, apparently, the very thing we’ve been waiting and trusting God to provide. And it will be so much easier to accept his deal rather than to trust and wait for God, to endure the difficult path ahead of us in God’s plan. God does not make it difficult arbitrarily, but His leading is as it is because it is the only way to truly attain what He has promised. We must trust God’s abundant promises and reject the devil’s empty promises.

Presumption/testing God: Since Jesus has been so firm in trusting His Father and His Father’s promises, the devil twists the Scriptures in order to tempt Jesus to sin. He quotes (at least partially) from Psalm 91. But again, notice that the whole thing is done in order to tempt Jesus to distrust His Father. “If You are the Son of God,” then prove it by throwing yourself off this cliff. After all, this God You claim to be Your Father has promised to protect You, so when He does, that will be proof that You really are His Son. If Jesus had done this, it would not have been out of trust, but out of an attempt to force God’s hand, not for any good, but to remove the need to trust.

We, too, must trust God’s promises, but not use them to try to prove His love for us or His existence, etc. His promises are evidence of His character, not means to test His character. Jesus gave us an example of trust in God, and He did so by putting His trust in the Words of God, which are evidences of His love for us. Let us be diligent to study and store in our hearts the words of God, so we too can stand firm in the face of temptation.

Last week we talked about how the church is not a building or an event; the church is people. Which makes me wonder… how did we get here? When did we start having church buildings? When did we start sitting in pews? Preaching from pulpits?

Did you know…?

• ·         The first church building archaeologists have discovered is from the 240s AD – it was a house that was remodeled by tearing out the wall between two rooms to form a larger meeting room, with a third room used for a baptistery.[1]
• ·         Church buildings were not common until Constantine recognized Christianity as a legal religion in the 4^th century.
• ·         Even when Christians began meeting in buildings, there was no seating for the fir 1,300 years – except for “stone benches along the back wall for the elderly or infirmed.”[2]
• ·         It is only since the 16^th and 17^th century that fixed pews became the standard seating arrangement in church buildings.
• ·         The sermon, more or less as we know it today, didn’t exist as the primary focus of church gatherings until the Protestant Reformation. This was in contrast to the Roman Catholic liturgy, which placed the Eucharist as the high point of the “worship service.”

So in the history of the Christian church, the way we do things now – the order of service with the sermon or mass as the high point, with all of us sitting in pews facing the same direction towards a person or small group of persons leading the service – is relatively new. It hasn’t always been this way.

Photo by Matt Jiggins from Toronto, Canada (Church Pews)
[CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

What, then, was it like back in the New Testament? What did it look like when the early church met together?

First, we know that it was Jesus’ practice (as well as that of His disciples after He ascended) to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath (Mark 1:21, 6:2; Luke 4:16, 6:6, 13:10; Acts 13:14, 42-44, 17:2, 18:4). During this time, believers would gather together for “prayer, song, reading, and exposition of the Scripture,”[3] as well as other ceremonial or ritualistic acts.

While the primary purpose of the Sabbath is not gatherings, but rather rest from work, it seems that early Christians continued their custom of gathering together to celebrate/worship their Creator and Savior, to fellowship with each other, and to teach/learn from the Scriptures. There is evidence that they met together in large public places, such as the outer court of the temple, as well as many examples of church gatherings in the houses of believers.

Second, we have a handful of passages that give us insight into what their gatherings were like (Acts 2:42-46; 1 Corinthians 11:17-26, 14:26-33; Ephesians 5:18-21; Colossians 3:16, 4:16; 1 Timothy 4:13; Hebrews 10:24-25). When we combine all the pieces together, we get the following picture of church gatherings.

1. 1.       Met house to house (or public space), ate together
2. 2.       Met to admonish (caution or reprove gently), exhort (comfort, encourage, urge), edify (build up, strengthen)
3. 3.       All could/did participate, sharing through:

a.       Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs

b.      Gratitude/thanksgiving

c.       Reading

d.      Teaching

e.      Prayer

f.        Giving to those in need

g.       Communion

The key difference between then and how most church gatherings take place now is that they came together, not as an audience or spectator, but as participants. They met as the family of God and everyone shared with each other for the good of each other.

It is important how we gather together :

·         In such a place that encourages everyone to participate

·         In such a manner that gives everyone an opportunity to participate

·         In such a size/quantity that allows for everyone to participate

We are all the church; when there is only one person or a small group of people “up front” leading out, the idea develops that they are the church, that they are supposed to feed us spiritually. In reality, each of us must daily go to Jesus to be fed spiritually, and then when we meet together, we come to share from the nourishment we have been receiving from Jesus.

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[1] http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/asktheexpert/ask_churchbuildings.html

[2] http://www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber/2012/01/the-problem-with-pews/

[3] Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church

By looking at John the Baptist’s ministry, we can learn a lot about Jesus and what it means to seek Him. John’s mission is outlined in Luke 3:4-6:

“Prepare the way for the Lord;
make His paths straight!
Every valley will be filled,
and every mountain and hill will be made low;
the crooked will become straight
the rough ways smooth,
and everyone will see the salvation of God.”

This imagery comes from the custom of kings planning to visit a town. The king would send couriers ahead who would call the people to clear the roadway – filling in potholes, removing large obstacles. Their job was to make the king’s journey to them as quick and easy as possible.

My friend, Matthew Lucio, recently pointed out to me that our mission as Christians is the same as John’s. More or less, our job in bringing people to Jesus is to get out of the way. By that I don’t mean that we are uninvolved, but rather that we do not become a pitfall or obstacle in the way of Jesus entering the lives of those around us. That is also part of our job in our own lives – to clear away anything that would hinder Jesus from having full access to our lives, to remove anything that fuels our resistance to His voice in our heart.

We tend to emphasize and fill our lives (and those we’re trying to influence) with things that, honestly, not only don’t matter, but are obstructing our view of Jesus.

I think that is what John is getting at when he talks about repentance. He warns the Jews that the things which they are depending on for salvation aren’t going to cut it (v. 7-8).

• ·         They can’t escape the consequences of their sinful lives without actually turning away from that lifestyle (“fruit consistent with repentance”).

• ·         They can’t rely on their Jewish heritage (in other words, their church membership), without actually having a change in their hearts.

John is emphasizing the fact that what really matters is the condition of the heart, not merely the external life. Yet when various groups approach him and ask what they should do, he gives very practical, “external” advice. My theory is that, in addition to encouraging them to make positive changes in their lives, John is also laying the groundwork for Jesus’ ministry of transforming the heart.

As each of these people – as each of us – hear what is required, the realization must ultimately hit us that we can’t consistently and continually follow through with these requirements. We may be able to keep up the act for a while, but since our external actions flow out of the heart, unless our heart becomes good, our actions will eventually conform in quality with our heart. We must have purified hearts. And there is only One who can change our hearts.

John points to this when he tells the people, “I baptize you with water, but One is coming who is more powerful than I. … He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (v. 16). The water of baptism and repentance can do good work to remove the obstacles between us and Jesus, as well as awaken our desire for true life. However, we need that spark, that fire kindled in our hearts in order to actually live such a life. Through Jesus, the Holy Spirit purifies and transforms our heart and empowers us to live a holy and abundant life.

This is the promise of John’s ministry: that as we turn towards Jesus, clearing away anything that hinders our view of Him, and as we fix our eyes on Him, He changes us from within, enabling us to live lives which flow out of our renewed hearts.

I’ve been thinking about church lately. What does it mean to have a church? Be a church? What is church?

A brief trip through the concordance brought something clearly to view: our modern concept of church as a building or a weekly event is absent from the New Testament. If you asked one of the first believers, “Where is your church?” or “Are you going to church this weekend?” they would look at you in puzzlement.

Instead, the word “church” is used in the Bible to refer to a group of people. These people, in quantities varying from those meeting in someone’s home (Romans 16:5, 1 Corinthians 16:19, Colossians 4:15, Philemon 2) to all those in a city or region (Acts 8:1, 11:22, 13:1; Romans 16:1; 1 Corinthians 1:2, Revelation 2-3 ) to the worldwide church as a whole (Acts 20:28), are distinct because they are believers in and followers of Jesus.[1]

To be sure, there are instances when the church – this group of people – gather together for a specific purpose, sometimes in a building, but the event or physical structure is not the church; the church is people.

Why does this matter? Very simply: it changes the nature of the questions we ask about what it means to be a church. The important questions are no longer centered around the architecture and location of a building, nor the content and order of the weekly “worship service.” Instead, we have to start asking questions about what it means for us to live our lives together as followers of Jesus. This means we focus our questions around two foundational issues:

1) what is important to Jesus and how can we join Him in His ongoing ministry, and
2) how can we do this better together?

We see this truth in the metaphors used to represent the church, such as the bride of Christ(Ephesians 5), or the family of God (1 Timothy 3:15; Romans 8:12-17). Even when using the metaphor of a temple, we are described as living stones and Christ is described as the cornerstone (1 Peter 2:4-7). But this truth is especially exemplified in the metaphor of the church as the body of Christ (Ephesians 1:22-23; Colossians 1:18-20; 1 Corinthians 12:12-31).

As the body of Christ, Jesus is the head. We follow wherever the head is looking or wants to go. We are made up of many parts, each important and unique. As we follow Jesus and move throughout the earth, we are His representatives, His hands and feet doing good to those around us. 

Again, the concept of the church as a group of people rather than a building or event is important here.  If church is a weekly (or even bi-weekly) event that takes place at a specific address, then the church is very small. But the truth is much bigger! When you walk out of the doors after the sermon, you’re not leaving church; church is leaving the building. The church is the all of us following Jesus every day of the week wherever we go, at home, at work, at the gym, at restaurants, etc. The church is everywhere and has the chance to impact anyone, anywhere, rather than being limited to a specific time and place.

It also means that every single person is important and crucial to the ministry of the church. The health and vitality of the church depends on each and every one of us doing our part with the gifts God has given us – whenever, wherever we are. This is exciting to me because it means that God wants each one of us to be a part of His work in this world. He wants us by His side every step of the way.

And what is it that He is doing and wants us to join Him in doing? What are the things that are important to Jesus? Well, that is something this blog is dedicated to exploring. But for right now, we will take a look at two passages which outline the primary mission of the church.

Matthew 28:16-20 – inviting others to also be baptized, born into, adopted into the family of God, to become part of the body of Christ, to follow Jesus and learn the things He taught were important.

Acts 2:41-47 – very practical here… they continued the Great Commission, learning about the things Jesus taught; they fellowshipped – koinonia “a having in common, partnership”… basically: togetherness, unity in shared experiences; eating together; praying together. Also, taking care of those in need around them.

We sell ourselves short when we limit the concept of church to being a building or event (or even a series of events, like evangelistic meetings). If the church is really people, then we cannot expect church to really happen while we sit around in pews, staring at the back of each other's heads. True church is a lifestyle. True church means being in our community and, like Jesus and the early church, helping those around us with both their immediate and eternal needs.

This is one of my favorite quotes that sums up this idea of being the people of Jesus in our community:

“Christ's method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The Saviour mingled with men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, 'Follow Me.'

There is need of coming close to the people by personal effort. If less time were given to sermonizing, and more time were spent in personal ministry, greater results would be seen. The poor are to be relieved, the sick cared for, the sorrowing and the bereaved comforted, the ignorant instructed, the inexperienced counseled. We are to weep with those that weep, and rejoice with those that rejoice. Accompanied by the power of persuasion, the power of prayer, the power of the love of God, this work will not, cannot, be without fruit.” (Ministry of Healing, p. 143-144)

When we look at the life of Jesus, we see that He cared about and took care of people’s immediate, physical needs. He loved them enough to take care of their temporal troubles, but He also loved them enough to bid them, “Follow Me,” knowing that a good lifetime is not enough if it ends in death – only a life that overflows into eternity can truly satisfy the longing of our souls. Jesus showed true love by caring about and providing for both immediate and eternal needs.

I believe this is what Jesus cares about and what we should care about as His followers. Jesus is calling us to koinonia, to togetherness as we live in our communities, reaching out to those around us and dedicating our lives to meeting their immediate and eternal needs in the name of Jesus.

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[1] This concept is even found in the linguistics of the Greek word for church, ekklesia, which means “a calling out.” This signifies that the church is a group of people called out or set aside for a specific purpose.