Category: The Church

So last time I explained what I believe the whole gospel is. (See below) How does this impact The Church? We need to look at how God wanted to redeem the world through Israel. In the Old Testament Israel was God’s vehicle for redeeming the lost. They were to

• love Him with all their hearts,
• leading to obedience to His law,
• leading to His blessing on the nation and presence among them,
• leading to authentic worship at the tabernacle/temple,
• leading to the nations seeing God’s blessing on those who love Him,
• leading to the nations’ return to God.

Unfortunately this didn’t work out so well. Israel was lured away by other nations. They thought worshiping a god they could see and touch was better than worshiping the God Who revealed Himself in the pillar of fire and smoke, delivered them from Egypt, gave them their own land, defeated enemies, etc, etc. Rather than revealing God to the nations, the nations drew God’s people away from Him.

Enter “The Church.” Jesus came to “reboot” the system. He is the One Who can truly bring redemption. He lived, died, returned to life and returned to heaven, leaving behind His “body” on earth, called The Church. The Church is all those who are truly faithful to Christ. It is both universal, meaning everyone in all times and places who truly follow Christ. It is also local, comprised of a small piece of the universal Church that meets together. It’s the role of this local church that intrigues me.

So Israel blew it. Jesus came to set up His church to do what was not completed through Israel. How? As I explained above Israel was to…

1. Love God with all their heart,
2. Obey His laws because of their love,
3. See God bless them because He loved them and they responded to Him,
4. Worship God as a response to His goodness,
5. Give God the credit for the blessing they received. They were to tell others the “good news” of God’s love and blessing,
6. Receive those who responded to their message by accepting them into the nation, teaching them God’s ways, allowing them to worship God too.

Bottom line? God was to be glorified through the nation of Israel.

So how does the Church fulfill these?

1. Those in the Church are to love God with all their heart, soul, and mind. This is called discipleship. We are to be true lovers of God.
2. This love leads us to want to follow Him, listen to Him and obey Him.
3. We will experience God’s blessing, not because we earn it, but because He truly loves us and we respond back to Him with love. (Insert argument here that God’s blessing can actually come in a form that may appear bad to some, say, Chinese Christians who endure great persecution but count it a blessing to endure for Christ’s sake. That’s another discussion for another time.)
4. We worship Him in spirit and in truth, with authentic worship flowing from grateful hearts.

We give God credit for His blessing. I see this happening in two primary ways:

• As individuals, telling our friends how God has blessed us. We are “witnesses” to His goodness, no matter what our circumstances may be. God uses this witness to draw others to Himself.
• As a church, by obeying Him, experiencing God’s moving, and telling those around us. As a church the “telling” may be different than as individuals. I think it has to do with bringing tangible help to those in need. Jesus said to care for the poor, imprisoned, hungry, widows, etc. (Isaiah 58) As we reach out to those in our communities with love we are saying “God has richly blessed us and we want you to experience that blessing too.”

6. As people respond we accept them, disciple them and welcome them into our worship community. As this happens God receives even more glory and worship.

I’d love your comments on this. How do you see The Church (or a church) fulfilling its role as a successor to the Old Testament nation of Israel?

Peace.

Bill

I’ve been reading a lot lately about what the word “gospel” really means. To many today it can be summed up like this:
“I am a sinner, Jesus came and died to save me from my sin, I accept His gift of forgiveness, live my life for Him and go to my reward in heaven when I die.”

When we explain “the gospel” to someone, we tell them how they are sinners (like that’s good news!), how Jesus died for them, they must accept Him as Savior and they’ll go to heaven.

As I read about what “gospel” meant to Jesus and the apostles, it seems they had something much broader in mind. To them the gospel begins at creation and continues until the new heavens and new earth. I would summarize it this way:
“God created a perfect world. It was wrecked by ‘the Fall’ when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and sin entered the world. God wanted to redeem the world through His chosen people, Israel. Through their witness He would call all nations back to Himself. They blew it. He sent them into exile as punishment, but God was faithful to His covenant with Israel by preserving a remnant. God was also faithful to His covenant with David, the epitome of earthly kings. From David’s line came a Messiah, Jesus. He was perfectly able to restore all nations to God. He gave himself as a sacrifice for all to satisfy God’s just wrath toward sin. Everyone who responds to Him in faith will be saved. These faithful form ‘The Church,’ His body on earth. God now wants The Church to be His vehicle for drawing all people to Himself. Eventually Jesus will return to earth and ultimately establish a new heaven and earth where He will rule forever.”

The gospel, then, is the whole story of God’s love revealed in the bible and Israel finding their fulfillment in Messiah or Christ. That’s a pretty big story. How do we explain that to someone for the first time? It won’t fit in a tract. Well, that’s where The Church comes in. Intrigued? Check back next week & I’ll explain what I think the role of The Church is in all this. I’d love to hear your thoughts as well.

Peace,
Bill

Last week I asked my church choir what they think of when they hear the word “household.” Some responses were

• Respect
• Family
• Chores
• Serving
• Dysfunctional
• Support

I asked because that morning I had read 1 Timothy 3 in which Paul is sending Timothy instructions so that he “will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth.” There are several times when Paul refers to the church as God’s household. (Eph. 2:19, Titus 1:7) He attaches to this “household” a weighty title: church of the living God. No longer is the presence of the Lord God almighty focused on a temple or ark. Now He is present in His Church, His household, His very people. That’s you and me!!

What else? God’s household…His Church…is “the pillar and foundation of the truth.” Remember what Christ said about truth? Not that He brought us truth, but that He is the truth, He is the way and the life. And now that truth lives in us, members of God’s household, His Church, the “pillar…” This is an amazing thing.

What does this look like? When Jesus walked with the disciples, he imparted to them truth. After He left them, He sent the Holy Spirit to remind them of his teachings. The disciples guarded the truth against heresies and imparted truth to those around them, who passed it down through the generations. Through the early Church fathers, the dark ages, Reformers, all the way to us today. The Holy Spirit has guided the Truth all the way to us, 1980 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. As disciples and members of God’s household, we are entrusted with this precious gift of truth, not to keep for ourselves, but to continue to guard against heresy and pass along to others.

So next time you’re listening to a sermon, in a bible study group or reading on your own, realize you’re continuing a process that began all those years ago with Jesus & His disciples. Read, learn, apply, live out, and pass along. You are part of the pillar of truth.

Peace,
Bill