Life in the Presence Comprising
Book 1: Pursuing the Presence Richard Spencer and Laura Barratt
Book 2: Living in the Presence Richard Spencer Cover design by James Wade
…we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. Ephesians 5:30-32
© 2009, 2010 Richard Spencer and Laura Barratt Holy Trinity Church, Belle Vue Road, Shrewsbury, SY3 7LL, UK Tel: 01743 244891, email:
[email protected] Version 1, 8456-01
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Contents Book 1: Pursuing the Presence Chapters 1-13
Book 2: Living in the Presence Chapters 14-24 1
Introduction ____________________________________ 6
2
Peter’s Confession vs. Peter’s Rebuke _______________ 9
3
The Authentic Presence of God ___________________ 14
4
The Golden Calf vs. the Day of Pentecost ___________ 19
5
The Sell-out of the Church _______________________ 28
6
Representational Worship ________________________ 36
7
The Bride of Christ _____________________________ 41
8
Experiencing the Presence of God _________________ 48
9
Saul vs. David – Worshipping in Spirit and Truth_____ 54
10
Entering the Presence of God ___________________ 60
11
The Muller Principle __________________________ 71
12
Baptism and Communion ______________________ 76
13
Conclusions _________________________________ 82
14
Introduction _________________________________ 86 3
15
The Two Lives _______________________________ 88
16
The Presence of God __________________________ 94
17
The Church in the 21st Century_________________ 104
18
Entering the Presence ________________________ 110
19
Continuous Revelation – Fresh Bread ___________ 122
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New Wine calls for New Wineskins – Transformation 130
21
Water, Bread and Wine _______________________ 145
22
The Two Trees ______________________________ 156
23
Conclusions ________________________________ 161
24
The Way Forward ___________________________ 165
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Book 1
5
1 Introduction
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here is a passionate intimate Father, looking for passionate intimate children .There is a passionate intimate bridegroom looking for a passionate intimate bride. There is a wonderful life giving Spirit looking to break free in His people. The questions is have you encountered these three in this way? Have you encountered God the Father, Jesus the passionate bridegroom, or the freeing Holy Spirit?
Many of us have only learnt about it, read about it in scripture, or maybe just had a one off encounter years ago. We’ve accepted Jesus into our lives and we know we’re going to heaven so we’re just waiting until Jesus returns and then we know we can be truly happy living in the presence of God forever and having a wonderful life but until then we have to try our best to be good, reading our Bibles everyday, praying everyday, confessing everyday, and trying our best to do what we think would please God or what we may think God wants us to do. We’re just going through the motions. Is this what Jesus meant when he said ‘have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.’1? Jesus is talking about a life that many of us do not know. It is a life of intimacy, of friendship, of love, of peace, of joy, of passion, of wholeness. It is a life of fullness.
1
6
John 10:10
Where can this be found? Only one place – ‘In your presence there is fullness of joy’2. It can only be found in the presence. In the presence of your father, in the presence of your lover the bridegroom and in the presence of the sweet Holy Spirit. God longs for us to talk and relate to him as a best friend, as a father, as a lover. All these things speak of intimacy. God wants you to know him in an intimate way, to encounter him. He wants to talk to you directly, he wants to touch you, he wants you to know his presence. He wants to be so real to you. Not just for a few moments not every few years, but every minute of every day. He wants you to live and minister from a place of presence. His presence. God is in the business of romancing and pursuing you. Of taking you into a deeper place of intimacy with him. For some of us we’ve never been there, but God wants to go deeper with you today. For others we may have started on this journey of going deeper into God, and yet there is so much more! Life and our times together corporately are so much more exciting, life changing and transforming when we allow God to show up and invade us. God is not looking for a people who will hold him at arms length or not allow him to do things his way. He wants you to invite him to want more of him. He wants you to know his presence is all that you need. I believe God wants to move in his people he wants to move in his church. He wants to move comfortably and easily without us putting any restraint on him. He wants us to make room for him in our lives and in our times together corporately where he can come
2
Psalm 16:11 (NRSV)
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and put his feet up and not be told when to leave or how long he’s got before we have to move on to the next thing! Church services will not give you what you are truly looking for, because what we are all truly looking for is relationship. An intimate relationship. Are you satisfied with what you know of God? Are you happy to keep going through the same old pattern of service every Sunday? If you are then that’s OK, and God will still bless you because he loves you. But I urge you to look past what you currently know and what you’ve always done and pursue the presence. Chase after God and know that there is more for you. This book explores what it means to know the presence of God and live in it.
Discussion Points At the end of each chapter there are a number of discussion points which can be used to get the conversation going when this book is being used by a group. The members of the group should read a chapter before each meeting and ask God to speak though everything they read. It is important to approach this material with an open heart and an open mind, no matter if it seems quite radical.
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2 Peter’s Confession vs. Peter’s Rebuke
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eachers often use contrasts between opposites as a way of bringing out essential truths. There is an extreme Biblical contrast in the space of a few verses in Matthew 16. The contrast is in Jesus’ reaction to two statements from Peter. Matthew 16:13-23 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ. From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
After Peter’s confession of who Jesus is, Peter is raised up to be the foundation stone of the church, given keys and authority. No-one 9
else in the Gospels is honoured in this way. All this comes from just a few words from Peter’s lips. Yet, just a few minutes later, Peter makes one more statement and receives Jesus’ worst ever rebuke. There really is not a greater contrast in the whole of the Bible. It is clear that the Holy Spirit wants us to learn something vital from this passage. The contrast here is not simply between good and bad, right and wrong, but between the ‘things of God’ and the ‘things of men’. From what Jesus says to Peter, doing things man’s way is not just second-best or a pale reflection of what God can achieve, it is ultimately the work of the evil one. Peter’s confession of Christ is a direct revelation from the Father, Peter steps out in faith, speaks what he has heard, and brings glory to Jesus. His concern for Jesus’ well-being is the total opposite, no matter how much it accords with our natural human instincts. We need to learn from this that saying or doing what we think is good can be so far away from God’s will that it takes us into the devil’s camp. Waiting for direct revelation and acting on it is the only way we can be part of what God is doing, anything else may be working against him.
Hiding from the Presence The original state of humankind was to know the presence of God in a very tangible way, with nothing between them and him. They had perfect communion with him and continually received his blessing. The contrast between before and after the Fall is striking. After clothing (veiling) themselves, the first act of Adam and Eve after they disobeyed God was to hide from his presence:
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And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
Genesis 3:8 [RSV]
Sin brings shame, and with it the urge to get away from the holy. But it is a central principle of the Christian faith that this is not necessary now; it is through Jesus’ sacrifice that we have access to God. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,…
Hebrews
10:19
This is truly heaven on earth, because we can come into the direct presence of God: And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:18 [RSV]
It is in the presence that we are changed; we are made more and more like Jesus, so that we may be able to receive and to respond to the love of the Father. God gives us so much more than Adam and Eve ever had, because in Jesus we have access to the tree of life, a life lived for ever in the presence of God.
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Discussion Points 1. Skim through the Gospels to find places where Jesus praises people and where he rebukes them. See if you can find if he ever approves of anyone more than Peter in Matthew 16:1719; and see if you can find a more severe reprimand than Matthew 16:23. 2. See if you can find some more contrasts in the Bible between events – for example, the conception of Ishmael3 and Isaac4, and the battles for Jericho5 and Ai6. In each case you will see it is not a matter of good or evil, but whether people trust the revelation they have received and obey God or not. 3. Adam and Eve took the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They wanted to make moral decisions for themselves. Do you think that the law given to Moses at Mt. Sinai is God giving the people what they wanted? Is the rest of the Old Testament a record of the consequences? 4.
The cross is referred to as a tree in the Bible7. Discuss whether we can think of it as the Tree of Life8. Is Jesus the
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Genesis 16
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Genesis 17
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Joshua 6
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Joshua 7
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Galatians 3:13
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Genesis 2:9; Genesis 3:22-24; Revelation 2:7; Revelation 22:2,14,19
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fruit hanging on the tree? Does this give a new meaning to communion? 5. Read 2 Corinthians 3:18 in as many translations as possible. What does this amazing verse mean for us?
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3 The Authentic Presence of God
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ave you ever read great classics of Christian literature and asked yourself “why is my experience of God so pale in comparison?” For example, A.W. Tozer writes: The Presence and the manifestation of the Presence are not the same. There can be the one without the other. God is here when we are wholly unaware of it. He is manifest only when and as we are aware of His Presence. On our part there must be surrender to the Spirit of God, for His work it is to show us the Father and the Son. If we co-operate with Him in loving obedience God will manifest Himself to us, and that manifestation will be the difference between a nominal Christian life and a life radiant with the light of His face.9 How do we deal with statements like that? Do we assume that the manifestation of God’s Presence is only for great ‘saints’ like A.W. Tozer or do we think that he is writing about what is theoretically possible but that is never actually realised?
9
A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, (Camp Hill, PA, USA, Zur Ltd., 1982), Chapter 5
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My great-grandmother, Susanna Spencer, had such an amazing Christian life that her autobiography was published as a testimony despite the fact that she was an ordinary working woman, the wife of a blacksmith. Her extraordinary life of service seems to have flowed from an experience of the presence of God while she was still living with her parents: One terrible day, the burden seemed to become too great for me - I could bear it no longer: I came in from my work, and with heavy steps went straight up to my bedroom, threw myself on my knees by my bedside, and sobbed out the whole wretched tale to Jesus. I told Him how I had tried and tried to be good, and to get peace - and begged Him to take me as I was, and just let me be His child henceforth - I was so tired of myself. Perhaps the surrender was so complete, the trusting Him so real - for, there and then, as I knelt, light came, and a calm peace entered into my very being. He revealed Himself, and I knew Him!10 How do we explain the fact that some Christians “produce a crop—thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown”11 while most of us are almost fruitless in many aspects of our Christian lives? We are all gifted by God in different ways, and we must never feel condemned or even challenged by the ministries of
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Susanna Spencer, My Life, (London, 1917), page 7
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Mark 4:20
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others, yet we know God has no favourites12, and all his children should expect to receive everything he has for us, and to know him working in us and through us. There are many Christian books that will advise you on what you must do to enter into a deeper experience of the presence of God and become more fruitful, but it is the premise of this book is that it is ‘doing’ that is blocking God’s work in our lives. Some years ago, God said to me very clearly, in a time of worship, that we need “manifestation, not representation”. The church (all denominations) is guilty of coming up with ways of representing the presence of God with his people, which effectively say to God, “we don’t need you”. Unless, we are willing to trust God to turn up when we meet (or do anything else) in his name, then we must expect a watered-down experience of him.
Manifestation, not Representation It almost seems at times that the different branches of the Christian church differ mainly in the way they choose to represent God’s presence with his people. In their times of corporate worship, they may express God’s beauty and unchanging nature with liturgy that has been used for hundreds of years, they may convey God’s joyfulness and power in lively songs or they may express God’s wisdom in a carefully crafted sermon; but in each case it is their
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Romans 2:11
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planning and expertise that has determined what happens when they meet together. God is gracious and will still meet us in these human-designed activities, but how much more he gives us if we are willing to allow the Holy Spirit to be our worship leader. Worship is meant to be vertical, directed to God and (under the New Covenant) directed by him. Far too much time and effort is directed into pleasing each other. There is no doubt that we can enjoy a well-crafted act of worship, we can leave it with our spirits lifted; but that is equally true of a concert, a play, a lecture, visit to an art gallery or a good meal. Attending worship should affect us emotionally, but feeling good (or anything else) should be as a result of having quite literally met with the living God. The only parallel to the experience of corporate worship should be what happens when we meet with another human being we love and respect.
The Presence of God under the New Covenant Under the Old Covenant, God manifested his presence in a number of ways, e.g. three men, an angel, a burning bush, a pillar of fire. For 33 years God’s presence was uniquely manifest on planet earth as one human being: Jesus Christ. The New Covenant was initiated on the Day of Pentecost when God became manifest in and through his people. This was accomplished by Jesus taking up residence in each individual who is willing to receive him, living in them and changing them into his likeness by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are the only representation that God needs on earth. As Jesus lives in us, as we are transformed to be like him, as the church becomes truly the bride and the body of Christ, we can re-present God on earth. 17
Discussion Points 1. Describe to the group ways that you have experienced the manifest presence of God. These may be dramatic or like the ‘still, small voice’ that Elijah heard13. 2. Find alternative representation’.
ways
of
saying
‘manifestation,
not
3. Discuss other ways that churches represent the presence of God. 4. Books like The Shack14 use fictional characters to represent the presence and nature of God. Is this of any value, and can it ever be successful in truly portraying God’s nature? 5. What do you feel in a typical act of worship? What is triggering your emotions? What other events in your life make you feel the same (or a similar) way?
13
1 Kings 19:12
14
Wlliam Paul Young, The Shack, (London, Hodder & Stoughton, 2008)
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4 The Golden Calf vs. the Day of Pentecost
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here are a number of Bible passages that speak of how God’s people can experience his presence, and how they can get in his way as he seeks to manifest himself to them and to the world. Helpfully, the Holy Spirit has inspired the writers of the Bible to give us a number of linked but contrasting passages, so that we can see the profound difference that worshipping God can make if we are willing to totally abandon our representations of his presence. When we consider the incident of the Golden Calf at Sinai, at first sight, it seems as if the Israelites have turned aside to worship a false god when they bowed down, but it is clear that this is not what Aaron had in mind: Aaron took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD.”
Exodus 32:4-5
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Aaron made a concrete representation of the Lord’s presence and invited the people to worship him through it in a pre-planned festival. This provoked God’s anger to the extent that Moses had to plead with God. He relented from abandoning them but still about 3000 were killed that day15. This figure has a curious parallel on the Day of Pentecost when about 3000 were baptised and added to the church16. The Jews of Jesus’ time (as in the centuries before and to the present day) celebrated three main festivals: Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. Passover is a thanksgiving for freedom from slavery in Egypt, at Pentecost the events at Sinai are remembered and Tabernacles recalls the time in the Wilderness (Pentecost and Tabernacles are also harvest festivals). Here is another link between the incident with the Golden Calf and the day when the church was born at Pentecost. The connection between the Golden Calf event and the Day of Pentecost recorded in Acts 2 is even more striking when we consider that in both cases the leader of the people had gone up to meet with God, and a cloud had hidden him: Exodus 19:20
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Exodus 32:28
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Acts 2:41
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The LORD descended to the top of Mount
Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up… The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.
Exodus 20:21
Jesus said to Mary Magdalene, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”
John 20:17
After he said this, Jesus was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. Acts 1:9
There is no doubt that the Holy Spirit wants us to contrast these two events, so as to learn how to encourage new life rather than death. Probably the key common factor in these two events is worship. After making the Golden Calf, Aaron: …built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD.” So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterwards they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.
Exodus 32:5-6
This was pre-planned worship, according to a familiar pattern; it can best be described as ‘religious’. The second-in-command (Aaron) decided when and how it should happen, and his decisions were guided solely by a desire to please the people. He implicitly encouraged the people to think about themselves, as shown by their actions at the end of the ‘service’. 21
The worship on the Day of Pentecost was different. As the visitors to Jerusalem said, “…we hear them [the disciples] declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Acts 2:11
The disciples praised God spontaneously, not according to any formula they had learnt. The worship affected those around them, not because someone had designed it to do this, but because the Holy Spirit was working supernaturally through it. The role of the second-in-command (Peter) was not to control or direct the worship, but to speak prophetically in the environment created by the worship, i.e. Word and Spirit working together. The visitors to Jerusalem thought that the disciples were drunk on new wine, but they were ‘high’ on another Spirit, which is another interesting contrast with the worship of God through the Golden Calf. Paul tells us: Ephesians 5:18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
Aaron’s words all through the events are clearly motivated by fear of the people and of losing his position of authority. He even blatantly lies to Moses: Exodus 32:24 “…So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewellery, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”
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In contrast, Peter was able to speak prophetically with great courage to all the people. He was bold enough to tell them that they were responsible for killing the Messiah: Acts 2:23 “…you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.” Peter spoke out the truth, and was given insight into what was going on; he saw in the supernatural that ‘this is that’ which was prophesied by Joel. He was able to tell the people with real authority what they needed to do, and he was able to promise them the gift of the Holy Spirit, God himself, living in them. In contrast Aaron did not have a clue in guiding the people of Israel towards God’s will – he neither heard God, nor seemed to care what God might want for his people. Aaron could only take rather than give – he took their ear-rings, which eventually ended up as human excrement17, a rather ignoble fate! There is a real impatience in the people of Israel which seems to be the initial problem: When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered round Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will Exodus 32:1
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See Exodus 32:19
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go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” The disciples had been told by Jesus to be patient and to be prepared to wait: On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.” Acts 1:4-5
They had to wait ten days, but they did not waste their time. In addition to finding a successor for Judas: Acts 1:14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
So what does this mean for us? From the comparison of 3000 deaths to 3000 people being born again we can tell that the Golden Calf incident is totally negative. It’s clear that worshipping a representation of God’s presence is no better than worshipping a false God. This seems to be reflected in the Second Commandment: Exodus 20:4 You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth 24
beneath or in the waters below… If we construct and worship an idol we are breaking this commandment, even if the idol is intended to represent the true God, or his servants, or his creation. God wants to relate directly to those who love him, anything we put in the way (no matter how well-intentioned) is an abomination to him. It is clear that this is not a matter of balance; we cannot have a bit of Golden Calf and a bit of Pentecost. God is leading us totally in one direction. He is looking for worship that: •
Is completely ‘vertical’, focussing on him and ignoring the ‘needs’ and desires of the worshippers.
•
Involves no human-created representations of his presence.
•
Is lead by the Holy Spirit and therefore is unpredictable18 and spontaneous, rather than pre-planned and programmed.
•
Is completely truthful and authentic, and therefore has an impact on those outside the community of faith.
•
Is willing to wait on him.
•
Will spill out into the world.
Jesus said to Nicodemus (a teacher of Israel), “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)
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This is what Jesus was saying when he spoke to the woman at the well: John 4:23-24 “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
Those of us with the responsibility of leading worship need to emulate Peter rather than Aaron. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to be the true worship leader, we need to trust him to inspire the worshippers and to guide them corporately and individually to offer themselves as living sacrifices19. Our job is to call the people together, to provide the environment for worship and to guard the presence of God. We also need to be ready to oversee the delivery of God’s word to the assembly, whether it comes through us or another member of the body of Christ.
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Romans 12:1
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To summarise: Worship, pre-planned to please the people, using a representation of God’s presence brings condemnation and death. Spontaneous, Holy-Spirit led worship (focussed only on God) brings signs, wonders, revelations and new life in abundance.
Discussion Points 1. Read some or all of Exodus 32 and Acts 2. Try to get a picture in your mind of the two events. 2. Can you find any more parallels in the two passages beside those mentioned above? 3. Can you find any more contrasts between the two passages beside those mentioned above? 4. If someone said the connections between the two passages is just coincidence, what would you reply? 5. Is there anything good to say about the Golden Calf incident (other than they were not worshipping a false God)? 6. What can we learn from the comparison of the fear of Aaron with the courage of Peter?
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5 The Sell-out of the Church Substitutes for God’s Presence
F
rom the Bible passages we are considering, it is clear that different ways of representing the presence of God are not just a poor second-best to authentic manifestations. Putting into action human-designed methods for representing God's presence is the reason why so many Christians are starved of experiencing God directly. God says if you want to make a substitute for me, and use it to simulate a relationship with me, then OK, but don't expect me to turn up. It seems almost that the different branches of the Christian church differ mainly in the way they choose to represent God's presence. Some representations are more obvious than others; we will look at some examples of current church practice. The Orthodox Church asks the faithful to pray to God through icons, beautiful paintings of Christ or the saints. They say that they are not worshipping the icons, but when they venerate an image this veneration is actually of the person depicted. Orthodox believers have been accused of idolatry, but their worship is more like the worship of the Golden Calf at Sinai, which, as we have seen involved the worship of a representation of God’s presence, which invoked God’s wrath.
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The Catholic Church focuses its worship on the Mass, the time when the priest says the prayer of consecration and, according to the doctrine of transubstantiation, when the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ. Catholics are taught to venerate the 'host' (the bread that has been consecrated) and to see it as the actual presence of Jesus with them. Jesus told us to share bread and wine in remembrance of him, but this action should be taking us closer to him rather than to a representation of his presence with his people (see Chapter 12 ). The Catholic use of relics (bits of the bodies of dead saints, pieces of ‘the true cross’, etc.) hardly needs commenting on. Evangelicals tend to put the preaching of the word at the heart of their acts of worship. Although this is a less obvious representation of God's presence, it can be one. The preacher may have spent many days working out how to draw out from a passage of Scripture a particular doctrine. He or she will deliver it with the aim of persuading the people towards a desired response. It is always hoped that the Holy Spirit oversees this process, but the sermon (no matter how doctrinally correct) can easily be a human-designed substitute for hearing God directly. Charismatic worship often does not seem complete without a time of ministry, i.e. praying for individuals who have been prompted (hopefully by the Holy Spirit) to ask for this. This, of course, can be completely genuine, and God sometimes does move powerfully, but 'times of ministry' can be times when we are doing what has been done many times before, and is a way that the leadership of the service can give the people what they want.
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Many people see social action as their worship, ‘loving God by loving my neighbour’, but unless our service of others is motivated, inspired, guided and empowered by our love for God, then we have got the two greatest commandments round the wrong way20. Engaging in ‘good works’ may be loving our neighbour as ourselves and thus fulfilling Jesus’ command, but this is not worshipping God. The parable of the sheep and the goats21 can be quoted to support the idea of social action as worship, but it is important to note that the ‘sheep’ do not know they are serving the King when they serve one of the least of his brothers. True worship must be intentional – if we intend to worship God by helping another person then we are worshipping a substitute. We will look later at the example of George Muller22 to see how much more ‘successful’ we can be in our ministry to the world if we are willing to put God’s glory first. It is not only church traditions that are substitutes and representations of the presence of God. The desire to be relevant to the prevailing culture can tempt church leaders to adopt what can best be called a marketing approach to worship. In the commercial world, the developers of products will modify what they are offering in the marketplace according to the perceived needs and desires of their customers. If (as is often the case) the supplier is
20
Matthew 22:37-39
21
Matthew 25:31-46
22
See Chapter 11
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unable to provide exactly what the customer wants at a price that the customer is prepared to pay, the supplier will design the presentation of their product (e.g.. the advertising and the public relations material) to change their customers’ perception of the product, or so that they feel good about it. Marketing can also be used to influence the customers’ own perception of their needs to be more in line with what is on offer. The world is now one huge marketplace, dominated by advertising, and there is no doubt that it works; but can we use its methods (and its morality) as we seek to ‘sell’ the gospel? What we are selling will inevitably be a representation, because to sell something we have to be in control of it. The temptation to alter the ‘product’ to make it closer to what the customer thinks he or she needs is overwhelming. A common form of marketing is often used when a church decides to target a particular niche market, for example families with young children, students, the recently retired, etc.. Churches can attract large numbers when they tailor what is on offer to a chosen group of people. We can use the styles and the language of the culture around us as we express our worship to God, but we must do this just to please him and not each other. Debates between churches often centre on which practice is closest to the Biblical record or a tradition or an aspect of contemporary culture or some other criteria. But the real issue is not which kind of representation to use, but why use one at all, when it so obviously not God's will? The use of substitutes for God's presence has a very long history in church life. They are motivated by the desire of church leaders to stay in control of their flocks, to increase their numbers, and by a 31
lack of faith. If we don't trust God to turn up when we meet in his name then it is very tempting to invent something and say to the people 'these are your gods'23. It gives church leaders immense power over their people if they can persuade them that the ‘something’ they have created is a (or the only) way to meet with God. The people may consciously or unconsciously collude with this deception, because it gives them a sense of security; they know that the ‘something’ is clearly under human control. The alternative may seem too risky; as the writer to the Hebrews put it: It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Hebrews 10:31
But relating directly to God is an essential part of the New Covenant: “The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah… No longer will a man teach his neighbour, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Jeremiah 31:31…34
23
Exodus 32:4
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We are to know God, not just know about him, and not know him through some man-made device. Each time a church leader encourages a church to ‘chicken-out’ of a direct encounter with God, then they miss God’s best for them, and also encounter his wrath. In the Old Covenant, God gave the people very specific instructions as to how they were to worship him; much of the Mosaic Law details the construction of the Tabernacle and the regulations for worship. In the New Covenant, we are led not by a written code, but by the Holy Spirit: He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant— not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
2 Corinthians 3:6
If we are to be New Covenant Christians, above all, our worship must be led by the Holy Spirit. We do not need anything written down, carefully prepared according to a formula or judged by any human criteria. We just need to be open to the prompting of the Spirit, ready to develop the fruit of the Spirit. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23
The second sentence can be translated as ‘According to such things there is no law.’ – there is no fixed method or style of worship pre-ordained under the New Covenant and as soon as we 33
try to impose one we slip back into the Old Covenant. The Holy Spirit longs to work in us and through us to bring out the fruit as we praise God from our hearts. As Jesus said to Nicodemus: John 3:8 “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
If we don’t manifest the Holy Spirit by being (humanly-speaking) unpredictable, than we must doubt our commitment to living our lives Jesus’ way.
Discussion Points 1. Can you think of other representations of God’s presence that are used in corporate or individual worship? 2. Sometimes we just don’t feel like worshipping God when we come to church. What should we do about this: •
Just carry on doing what we have always done in the hope that God will appreciate our faithfulness?
•
Open ourselves up to God and wait until we sense his presence?
•
Any other suggestions?
3. What are the dangers in relying on the Holy Spirit to lead our worship? Are there any safeguards we need to put in place? 4. Skim through some of the regulations for worship under the Old Covenant (for example in Exodus 25-30 and Leviticus 1-9). There is only verse in the New Testament that does the same job: 1 34
Corinthians 14:26. Does this contrast tell us anything about how we should worship now?
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6 Representational Worship
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he events at Sinai are key for us considering the manifest presence of God. As well as being a (perhaps the) significant time in the history of the nation of Israel, God was more tangibly present with them at this time than at any other point in their history. For the Israelites at Sinai, God’s manifest presence with them was the key factor in all that happened. His presence supplied the motivation, the guidance, the provision, the protection, everything they needed. Yet despite this, they still doubted; God directed Moses to release water from the rock in his presence. Exodus 17:6-7 “…I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. And Moses called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarrelled and because they tested the LORD saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”
God is willing to prove that he is with his people by supernatural signs, although he must be in charge of the how and when. Moses and Aaron attempted to take God’s place in the sight of the people years later in again bringing water from a rock. They were barred from entering the Promised Land: 36
Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?”… But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honour me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”
Numbers 20:10..12
It is vital that we honour God’s manifest presence, and not try to take any of his glory. The motivation of church leaders in putting up representational worship (to coin a phrase) is as follows:
with
•
A desire to please the people.
•
A lack of trust in God that he will minister directly to his people each time they meet in his name.
•
A lack of courage in not allowing God to manifest himself in them and in the people.
•
An ego that needs to be in control, and to be the essential piece in the picture of the people’s relationship with God.
•
Following the pattern of the world in copying ‘best practice’, i.e. what seems to be ‘working’ in other churches.
At the heart of these symptoms is a self-focus which misses so much of what God has for us. As A.W. Tozer puts it: To be specific, the self-sins are these: self-righteousness, self-pity, selfconfidence, self-sufficiency, self-admiration, self-love and a host of others 37
like them. They dwell too deep within us and are too much a part of our natures to come to our attention till the light of God is focused upon them. The grosser manifestations of these sins, egotism, exhibitionism, self-promotion, are strangely tolerated in Christian leaders even in circles of impeccable orthodoxy. They are so much in evidence as actually, for many people, to become identified with the gospel. I trust it is not a cynical observation to say that they appear these days to be a requisite for popularity in some sections of the Church visible. Promoting self under the guise of promoting Christ is currently so common as to excite little notice.24 Self-promotion is such a snare that churches and their leaders should avoid it like the plague. With so many voices clamouring for attention in the modern world, it may seem only expedient that the church should publicise its activities whenever it can. We sometimes think that the way to bring people to Christ is first to get them to like us, and then they will be attracted to Jesus. This kind of associative thinking may work in the world of promotion and marketing, but its underlying dishonesty means that we must not use it for the gospel. The logic that says that people need to like us before they will listen to us misses out on the power of the Holy Spirit to convict the sinner. Each time we use our own methods to draw the unredeemed to Jesus, we get in the Holy Spirit’s way. It’s almost like we block people’s view of Jesus, as he said himself:
24
A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, (Camp Hill, PA, USA, Zur Ltd., 1982), Chapter 3
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“…I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.”
John 12:32
He was speaking of his death on the cross, but we can lift him up in our praises, and this is sufficient for him to reach out and to bring people to himself. A.W. Tozer wrote about the state of the church in his day (and nothing has changed): The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the Church is famishing for want of His Presence. The instant cure of most of our religious ills would be to enter the Presence in spiritual experience, to become suddenly aware that we are in God and that God is in us. This would lift us out of our pitiful narrowness and cause our hearts to be enlarged. This would burn away the impurities from our lives as the bugs and fungi were burned away by the fire that dwelt in the bush.25
Discussion Points 1. Read Exodus 17:1-7 and Numbers 20:1-13. parallels and contrasts in these two passages.
25
List out the
A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, (Camp Hill, PA, USA, Zur Ltd., 1982), Chapter 1
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2. Why was God so angry with Moses and Aaron (read his words to them carefully)? 3. Imagine you are a church leader. What would your way be in seeking to lead the people closer to God? 4. Can you find any place in the Gospels where Jesus promotes himself? Can you find any place where he seeks to make a good impression with anyone? Does this tell us anything? 5. As a church, can we rely on God to bring people to join us if we give up on any thought of self-promotion? 6. Read the following quotation, written by the first Bishop of Liverpool in 1867. How relevant are his words today?
There is a natural proneness and tendency in us all to give God a sensual, carnal worship, and not that which is commanded in His Word. We are ever ready to frame for our sloth and unbelief, visible helps and stepping-stones in our approaches to Him, and ultimately to give these inventions of our own the honour due to Him. In fact, idolatry is all natural, down-hill, easy, like the broad way. Spiritual worship is all of grace, all up-hill, and all against the grain. Any worship whatsoever is more pleasing to the natural heart, than worshipping God, in the way our Lord Jesus Christ describes, `in spirit and in truth' (John 4:23).26
J.C. Ryle, Prophecy, originally published as Coming Events and Present Duties, 1867, (Fearn, Christian Focus Publications, 1991), Chapter 4
26
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7 The Bride of Christ Isaiah 62:1-5
For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem's sake I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch. The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will bestow. You will be a crown of splendour in the LORD's hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God. No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah for the LORD will take delight in you, and your land will be married. As a young man marries a maiden, so will your builder marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.
T
his is what God is saying to you, this is what God thinks of you. He sees you as crown of splendour right in the palm of his hand, he delights in you, he rejoices over you, he sees you as his bride. That is how amazingly, crazily in love God is with you that he wants to be married to you. This is mind-blowing - that God almighty wants to be married to me and you! You are his bride. 41
God uses this picture of a bride so we can know how much he loves us, how crazy he is about us. It is an intimate picture. It’s the greatest love story there ever was and that’s ever going to be. This is a love story between you and Jesus. Between Jesus and his church. What God is saying to us in these days is that it is vital that we take hold of his love for us. That we experience it and encounter him because it is God’s love that will change us and those we meet, and it is God’s love that will change the nation. God wants us his church to know how vast, how wide and how deep his love for us is. The Bible is not enough. It’s not enough to read about it and believe it, God wants you to know his love! To feel it, to encounter it. He longs to embrace you. We can not understand what it means to be the bride of Christ until we experience God’s love. Any marriage should be the result of a relationship of love, and intimate relationship between two people. That is what God is saying to his church. I want an intimate relationship with you. I just want to love you, to delight in you, to embrace you. You don’t have to do anything just let me love you. I love you so much that I want to be married to you! Not because you’ve done anything but because you’re made in my image, and I’m so excited by you that I rejoice over you! This is so foundationally key in understanding our identity as the bride of Christ. We have to know God’s love. Before the bride marries the bridegroom, before they embark on their journey of marriage she has to know that the bridegroom loves her. It is not enough for the bridegroom to keep telling the bride that he loves her but never showing it, she needs to feel loved by him. Then on her wedding day she is identified as this beautiful bride. How can we take hold of our identity as the bride of Christ 42
if we have never encountered or experienced his love? It’s not enough knowing it in your head, we need to know it and feel it in our heart. When we have a touch of God’s love then it changes us and we’re never the same again, and we start to see our true identity. We start to see ourselves the way God sees us, as this beautiful precious bride. As a crown of splendour held in his hand. We must encounter the love of God in order for us to take on our identity as the bride of Christ. God has a destiny and a purpose for each of us individually, as well as all of us corporately. God has a plan and a purpose for his bride, his church. We’ve been seeing God move in many ways over the last few years throughout the world. God wants his church to become increasingly aware of his presence where people will be changed, where people will hear his voice, where people will only be speaking out the prophetic word., where people will feel his love, peace and joy. Where people will encounter God in all his fullness. Last year we saw the outpouring taking place in Florida, God was moving. In Bethel church in Redding, California they have been experiencing a revival for the past few years, where people are continually getting healed, where people are coming to know Jesus, and the presence of God is so evident there. God is on the move and we as his church are on the brink of something. There is a wave of the Spirit coming that is going to hit the nation. God is longing to sweep this nation with his love, grace and power and he wants to do it through his church. Through us. Through you! We have a part to play. Jesus is coming back for this beautiful glorious bride. It is time for the church to rise up and shine, to come into her identity as the bride of Christ.
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In July of this year God gave me a vision of this. I had this picture of myself walking along a beach. As I was walking I could see Jesus walking in front of me when I saw it was Jesus I started speeding up to get closer to him and I was trying to show him that I wanted to be so close to him walking in his ways and that I was right behind him following his every move. I knew that he wanted me to follow him and watch what he was doing. As I was walking right behind him he put his hand out and I knew he was beckoning me to go and walk alongside him. I felt the Lord say to me “Do not walk behind me, but alongside me. Give me your hand, for you do not have to look at the back of me, come and walk beside me. For I am the bridegroom and you are the bride. Walk beside me beautiful bride, for this is the season I am leading my church into. It is a new season. It is time for the bride and the bridegroom to walk alongside one another. It is time for my church to be visible.” God is calling his church to be intimate with him. For us to walk hand in hand with him. For us to be joined with him hand in hand. For us to be one with him. Isaiah 60:1-3
Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. See darkness covers the earth And thick darkness is over the peoples, But the LORD rises upon you And his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your dawn. ‘Arise and shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord rises upon you!’ Now is the time for us to rise up and shine. Now is the time for the bride to shine with the glory of her Lord! 44
We’re not to rise up and shine when Jesus returns, but before so he can return to his beautiful glorious bride. If you read the rest of this Isaiah 60 passage it later says ‘Lift up your eyes and look about you: all assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm’ and in the Isaiah 62 passage it mentions how ‘nations will see your righteousness and all kings your glory.’ You see people will be drawn in as the bride shines and radiates the glory of her Lord. We will shine out Jesus reflecting him in all his glory, all his love, all his power etc. This is a new season God is leading his church into. He is saying it is time for my bride to be visible; it is time for the bride and the bridegroom to walk alongside one another, to be seen as one. This is why our own personal relationship with Jesus is so key, as we need to continually need to get to know him more and more. We need to know him intimately and encounter his love for us! It’s okay for us to keep falling in love with Jesus over and over again, because the more we get to know him the more intimate we become with him and the more we love him. Jesus is extremely loveable. He is not this distant person we may have in our minds he is intimate and lovely. It isn’t enough to have a one off experience of God’s love. God wants us to continually know his love, to live in it and to rest in it. God wants to keep filling us with his love, telling us he loves us. Like a father may say to his child ‘I love you’ so does God say to us over and over again ‘I love you’ I love you’ I love you. God wants to become one with us. God wants to become one with his church, with his bride. ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will
Ephesians 5:31-32
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become one flesh. This is a profound mystery – but I am talking about Christ and the church.’ When people get married they usually take on their partner’s surname. So with us Isaiah 62:4 No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah27, and your land Beulah28; for the LORD will take delight in you, and your land will be married.
When we come to know Jesus we take on a whole new identity, a new name. You are God’s delight and his delight is in you. God is your husband – see Isaiah 54. Our identity is now found in Jesus and as C.S Lewis puts it we are all little Christs29. You new surname is that of ‘Christ’. This is a new season God is bringing his church into. This is the time, this is the place, it’s time to rise up beautiful bride! It’s time for you to be visible. It’s time for the bride and the bridegroom to walk alongside one another hand in hand. No more hiding, no more being afraid, no more feeling inadequate, you are my bride. It
27
‘Hephzibah’ means ‘my delight is in her’.
28
‘Beulah’ means ‘married’.
29
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book IV, Chapter 7
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is time for the church to be seen as one – one with the Father just as Jesus was one with the Father so will you be. I believe a time is coming where we will know God’s presence like never before, when we will have allowed him to invade us so much that we will hear his voice more clearly, where we will receive revelation from his word like never before. The Bible will become such a part of us that we will be abiding in it. We will no longer have to keep reading about our identity, what God says about us in the word, who we are in Jesus but we will know it and be it. We will be so entwined with Jesus that we will become one with him.
Discussion Points 1. Discuss the suggestion that there are some people who will always find the idea difficult of being the Father’s child or Jesus’ bride. However, should we always persist with these concepts as they are so strong in the Bible? 2. It is sometimes said that the depth of our relationship with God is determined by how hungry we are for him. What do we do that limits his intimacy with us? 3. Read Ephesians 5:21-33 very carefully. See how Paul weaves together the two pictures of the church as the bride of Christ and the body of Christ. In his quotation from Genesis 2:24 he helps us see that when we offer ourselves as Jesus’ bride, he comes to live in us so that we are quite literally his flesh here on earth. What does this mean for the church? 4. With reference to Ephesians 5:26-27, how is Jesus making us ready to be his bride?
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8 Experiencing the Presence of God
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or God to make his presence evident to one or more human beings, he needs to somehow reveal part of his infinite being to very finite creatures. If you ask most people how they experience God’s presence, they will often speak about something intangible, perhaps a feeling or something at the edge of perception. As C.S. Lewis has pointed out so powerfully in his sermon Transposition 30, we have only a very limited range of emotions which are evoked under many different circumstances. To feel that God is there is a good starting point, but we need something more to be really sure that it is him. God is love31 and therefore the closest analogy in everyday life to knowing God’s presence, is enjoying the company of those we love. When we get together we bless each other by communicating, by doing things for each other, by serving each other, by sharing in the everyday tasks and joys of life. So it is with God, when we are in his presence he speaks to us, he reveals more of himself and he listens and responds to what we say. He works in us and with us in what we sometimes call ‘signs and wonders’. He directs us along paths to draw us closer to him. He
30
C.S. Lewis, Transposition in Screwtape Proposes a Toast, (Glasgow, Collins, 1965)
31
1 John 4:8, 1 John 4:16
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does all this in a way which is consistent with what he has already revealed about his nature, in our experience, in the Bible and supremely in the person of Jesus Christ. Yet everything he says or does is fresh, exciting, original; he is truly the God of surprises. It may be good to test that we really are experiencing God’s presence, but ultimately we will have to step out in faith, like Peter on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus allowed him to check that it was really his Lord. “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came towards Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
Matthew 14:28-29
Once we encounter the Lord Jesus, he is always there to catch us if our faith fails. The Transfiguration was a wonderful opportunity for Peter, James and John to experience the presence of the Father and the Son. Jesus was transformed before them at the Transfiguration (the same Greek word, metamorfow, metamorphoo, is usually translated ‘transfigured’ in Matthew 17:2; and ‘transformed’ in Romans 12:2 and 2 Corinthians 3:18). Jesus manifested the glory of God in a direct and undeniable way. His authority was confirmed by the additional presence of Moses and Elijah. 49
The contrast we need to draw here is between what the three disciples experienced and Peter’s initial reaction. He believed that what was needed was a traditional religious act, he wanted to set up booths as are used by the Jews at the Feast of Tabernacles, and he wanted to prolong and fossilise the experience. Matthew 17:4-5 Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
The Father is gracious and he intervened to stop Peter even before he finished speaking. True worship always seems to result in the worshipper receiving revelation, it is then his/her responsibility to act on what has been revealed, which often guides the subsequent flow of the worship. The next action by the three seems much more appropriate: Matthew 17:6-7 When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground, terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.”
True worship results in a direct encounter with God. And then, what could be better than to feel Jesus’ touch on your life and to hear gentle, reassuring words from him? There is one other occasion recorded in the New Testament when Peter has a heavenly visitation and that was when he was on the 50
roof of the house of Simon the Tanner32. A sheet with all kinds of ‘unclean’ animals is lowered from heaven, and he is told to “kill and eat”. This leads to what is sometimes called the ‘Gentile Pentecost’ when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the household of the Roman Centurion, Cornelius. This time Peter acts according to the revelation and orders that all should be baptised, even though they were Gentiles. He stepped away from the religious norm in response to a revelation and is rewarded by a great demonstration of God’s power and mercy.
“My Presence will go with you” After the Golden Calf incident, God’s plan for the Israelites was for them to go and take the Promised Land with an angel to drive out their enemies33, but without his presence. Moses petitioned God and received his assurance. The LORD replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people
Exodus 33:14-16
32
Acts 10
33
Exodus 33:3
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from all the other people on the face of the earth?” Moses made a vital point here. Ultimately, what distinguishes God’s people from everyone else is that the presence of God goes with them. Any other distinctions are superficial and secondary. We expect Christians to be more moral, more joyful, more compassionate, etc. than other people, and that is often our experience, as the Holy Spirit works in them; but Christians do not have a monopoly on these qualities. The whole human race is made in God’s image34 and we all share in his characteristics to a greater or lesser extent. But it is God’s tangible presence, or it should be, that makes Christians different. John Wesley knew this; his last words were spoken twice, with great passion, “The best of all is, God is with us.”
Discussion Points 1. Talk about times when you have felt God’s presence especially powerfully? 2. Share any times you have tested that it really is God’s presence? What have you asked him? How has he responded? 3. Bill Johnson says that God manifests his presence to the extent that he can trust us not to make a representation (or idol) of the experience. Can he trust you?
34
Genesis 1:26
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4. How can we lose the habit of judging each other35, and learn to discern the presence of God in others? 5. Peter is a wonderful example for us (both positive and negative) – we have already seen a number of examples of contrasts in his words and actions. How would you describe his character before and after the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2)?
35
Matthew 7:1
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9 Saul vs. David –
Worshipping in Spirit and Truth
I
t is very interesting to compare the first two kings of Israel, Saul and David, in another great Biblical contrast. These two stand out from the rest of the kings in that they were directly selected by God, rather than by inheritance or a coup d’état. After Samuel anointed Saul king over Israel, he said, 1 Samuel 10:5-7 “…you will go to Gibeah of God, where there is a Philistine outpost. As you approach the town, you will meet a procession of prophets coming down from the high place with lyres, tambourines, flutes and harps being played before them, and they will be prophesying. The Spirit of the LORD will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person. Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you.”
Saul was anointed with oil and with the Holy Spirit, and by the standards of the later monarchs, Saul was a good king. However, God took the monarchy away from him and gave it to David, and 54
for just one reason – Saul led worship to please the people on two occasions. In the first (1 Samuel 13:8-14) he was not prepared to wait for Samuel to come to make the planned sacrifice because his men were scattering, so he offered up the burnt offering himself. When Samuel arrived shortly afterwards, he informed Saul of God’s judgement on him – that he would be replaced as king. Saul’s error was to use an act of worship for his own purpose; in this case, to hold the army together. Until we get an appreciation of the seriousness of this sin, we will never enter God’s best for us. The second time is in 1 Samuel 15. God sent Samuel to instruct Saul to completely destroy the Amalekites and all their livestock. In this Saul, was completely successful, except that he and the army spared the king and the best of the cattle and sheep. Saul gave into his men and allowed them to keep these animals to sacrifice to the Lord. Samuel relayed God’s disappointment with the king he had chosen: 1 Samuel 15:22-23 Samuel replied: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king.”
Saul confessed exactly what had happened: Then Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned. I violated the LORD’s command and your instructions. I
1 Samuel 15:24
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was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them….” This is a lesson to all of us in any kind of Christian leadership; the great temptation is to do what the people want. We must not give in, particularly when we are planning or leading an act of worship. If we trust him, the Holy Spirit will give us all the guidance we need. To short-circuit him to please the people invites rejection from God. In contrast, David did not worry about what other people thought of him; he just worshiped God with every part of his being, he did not care if his wife or anyone else despised him, he was going to give God everything he had. David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might,… 22 “I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes…” 2 Samuel 6:14
The people also realized that David was far more effective in his ‘ministry’ than Saul As they danced, they sang: "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands." 1 Samuel 18:7
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We will see this pattern; those who are willing to work just for God’s glory, are more productive, even in the world’s eyes, than those who compromise by using the ‘things of men’36. However, effectiveness in ministry must not be our motivation; all we need, all we desire, our complete fulfilment is found in God alone. As David wrote: My heart says of you, "Seek his face!" Your face, LORD, I will seek.37
Psalms 27:8
Moses before and after the Burning Bush The life story of Moses gives us another valuable Biblical contrast in that, before he was given his marching orders by God, Moses tried to save the people in his own strength. Stephen tells us what happened when Moses was 40 years old, and he thought he could lead a rebellion against the Egyptians: “…Moses thought that his own people would realise that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not…”
Acts 7:25
36
See Matthew 16:23
In the Hebrew of the Old Testament, the same word is used for ‘face’, ‘presence’ and ‘before’.
37
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God needed Moses to wait another 40 years, just tending sheep, until he received his revelation at the Burning Bush. Again, Stephen’s commentary is helpful: Acts 7:35 “…This is the same Moses whom they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush…”
Although the Israelites continued to grumble against Moses, they accepted his leadership, and saw the salvation which God worked through him. The contrast between doing things man’s way and God’s couldn’t be clearer.
Discussion Points 1. Read 2 Samuel 6. How can we follow David in his worship of God? 2. We know that God does bless those who are, like David, sold-out for him. How can we make sure we are just seeking God’s glory when we worship, and not his blessing, or worldly success or the approval of others? 3. Read Psalm 27 (together if you are in a group). David does not minimise his concerns and fears, but he glorifies God in the midst of them. How can we be equally trusting? 4. Read the story of Moses as told by Stephen (Acts 7:14-43). In his description of the Golden Calf he says that if we celebrate anything we have created (even ‘religious’ things like church traditions), God will not stop us being led astray and worshipping 58
other created things. Discuss whether you can see this in history, the world today or in your own experience. 5. Read the original account of the Burning Bush (Exodus 3). How does God relate to Moses? Can you see parallels to this with other Biblical characters or with people today?
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10 Entering the Presence of God
H
ow do we enter the presence of God? There truly is no formula; God is sovereign and in this area above all: Romans 9:15-16 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.
Yet there are some principles that can facilitate experiencing his presence.
Worship If we love God, it is the most natural thing in the world to express it in worship. Heaven is the place where creation is in the direct, manifest presence of its creator, and Biblical descriptions of heaven are full of continuous, heartfelt, exuberant worship. Therefore, the best place to start in the quest for the manifest presence of God is by worshipping him. We have seen earlier the kind of worship that is acceptable, summed up as: Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of
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worship. It is part of God’s provision that worship is an activity that is best done together, so that we can enter God’s presence in fellowship with others that love him. This means that we can encourage each other and we have the confirmation that it really is God at work in us as we share our experience of him. It may seem surprising that worship comes before prayer in seeking God’s presence, but praise has precedence over prayer because the most important things, God has already done. Worship is humanity’s full reason for existence. Worship is why we are born and why we are born again. Worship is the reason for our Genesis in the first place and our re-Genesis that we call regeneration. Worship is why there is a church, the assembly of the redeemed, in the first pace. Every Christian church in every country across the world in every generation exists to worship God first, not second. Not tacking worship at the end of our service as an afterthought, but primarily with everything else coming in second at best. Worshipping God is our first call.38
Openness and Intimacy The most important thing we need to know about God is that he loves each one of us. If you love someone, you never force
38
A.W. Tozer, The Worship-Driven Life, (Oxford, Monarch Books, 2008), Chapter 2,
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anything on them, even if you think that it is for their ultimate good. It is the same with God, he never forces his presence on us because he wants us to have a free choice whether to accept or reject him. It may cause him great pain, but like the father in the parable of the prodigal son39, he will allow us to go our own way. Therefore, in order to experience God’s presence, we have to give him permission to manifest this in any way he desires. Giving permission is not a formal action, like signing a piece of paper. Rather it is an attitude of heart that says to God, “I am desperate for more of you – touch my life in any way you decide, because I know that you love me and will always do what is best for me”. This attitude of openness with the Father is exactly what Jesus exhibited when he was on earth. He takes it further by the use of the little word ‘in’. He tells us repeatedly in John’s Gospel, that his openness and intimacy with the Father means that he is in the Father and the Father is in him. For example, John 14:10 “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.”
We can only just glimpse at the edge of the penumbra of the relationship between Father and Son, but we see in Jesus what it
39
Luke 11:15-32
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means to allow the Father to be sovereign in our lives. We have Jesus’ promise in his prayer to the Father that he will always be working so that we are able to experience something of the love that holds the Trinity together. “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
John 17:25-26
The culmination of Jesus’ great high-priestly prayer is a promise to continue to reveal the Father to us so that we will know his love and will experience the presence of Jesus living in us. Intimacy with us is Jesus’ deepest desire.
Rejection of substitutes We have looked at the way the church down the ages has invented ways of representing the presence of God with his people. God is gracious and will manifest his presence to individuals when we use substitutes, but how much more will he meet with us if we are willing just to wait on him. A key factor here is patience. God is sovereign over time, and he always chooses exactly the right moment to act. The Jews had to wait 400 years after the last prophet before the birth of the Messiah; the disciples had to wait 10 days from Jesus’ ascension to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In both cases they had no idea of how long they would have to wait, but this is part of our surrender to the sovereignty of God. What we must not do is to try to hurry things along by our efforts, with the examples of the Golden Calf and Ishmael before us. 63
The first step back is repentance; we need to acknowledge that what we have been doing for so many centuries is not only ineffective, it is wrong. In the world, we may have to compromise in many situations. The statement ‘Politics is the art of the possible’40 implies that to get anything done we will always have to settle for the middle-ground, that which is at least acceptable by all parties concerned. The world’s way of thinking has been conditioned by the Theory of Evolution, we think that improvements only come by a series of small adaptations, but God’s way of working is different, he doesn’t mind big dramatic changes. Worship is for God alone, as soon as we start to plan our worship around people’s preferences we are compromising with God himself. We are also not walking by faith if we are just looking at people’s needs and desires, and we know that: Hebrews 11:6 …without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Each time we organise our worship to meet people’s needs, desires and preferences we are not trusting God to reward us with a real sense of his presence when we meet with him. Our worship needs
40
Otto Von Bismarck, remark, Aug. 11, 1867
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to be a time when everything else is overwhelmed by us earnestly seeking him. So it is important first of all to look at what we have been doing and to try and see it from God’s perspective. We need to ask him to show us where we have compromised in our worship, when we have not had the courage to wait for the Holy Spirit to lead us, what things that we say are a man-made representation of him. We need to ask for forgiveness, and to remember that the New Testament word for repentance is metanoia metanoia which means a change of mind. True repentance means being determined to turn away from what we have been doing and to go in a new direction. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to prick our consciences each time we are tempted to go back to the safe old ways, following the patterns that have proved popular in the past. Also, we need the Holy Spirit’s prompting to arrest us if we are tempted to do something new, that we believe will appeal to all or part of our ‘target audience’. Worship using man-made substitutes is not a new problem, Jesus confronted the Pharisees with these words from Isaiah: The LORD says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.”
Isaiah 29:13
Desire At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: “Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand.
2 Chronicles 16:7-9
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Were not the Cushites and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen? Yet when you relied on the LORD, he delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war.” If our hearts are committed to God he searches for us, if we worship him in spirit and truth he seeks us out41. This is all he asks of us, but it so easy to get distracted by lesser goals. It may seem selfish to have one’s whole being fixed on just knowing and experiencing God, but we can do so much more for others if he is working in us, than if we just rely on our own strength, cunning, compassion, etc. We need always to put the two great commandments in their correct order. Mark 12:29-31 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
41
John 4:23
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A vital component of love is desire for the beloved; Jesus emphasises this in that we are to throw every part of ourselves into our love for the Lord our God. Our love for each other must flow from our love for God, and be pale in comparison. Some time ago I called to see Mr. George Cutting, the writer of the well-known tract Safety, Certainty and Enjoyment. When I was ushered into the presence of this old saint of ninety-three years, he took my hand in his and in a quiet, deliberate way he said: 'Brother, do you know, I cannot do without Him? And do you know, He cannot do without me?' 42
Letting go Ultimately, there is only one way to know God’s presences, that is to let go and let God be God. When the Adam and Eve rebelled in the garden, they were declaring, like the Rhodesian regime of Ian Smith, U.D.I. (Unilateral Declaration of Independence). The couple were saying to God, “We don’t need you to know the difference between good and evil”. Unless we are willing to surrender our judgement of how we should do things to his will, his good, pleasing and perfect will43, then we will never reclaim the intimacy that Adam and Eve enjoyed before the Fall. To know God’s will requires the transformation that comes from a renewed
42
Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life, Chapter 7
43
Romans 12:2
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mind, which means that we need to give up on conforming to the way the world thinks. Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
The word that is translated ‘world’ is aiwn aion, more often rendered as ‘age’. This means that we may need not only to reject the patterns of thinking of the secular world, but also of the church of today. One key factor in God’s nature is that he is infinitely creative – he can always give us new ways of worshipping him, of seeking his face, of meeting with him. If we are willing to give up on the familiar patterns, the ‘spiritual disciplines’ and the man-made substitutes for true Holy Spirit-led worship, then God will meet with us as we surrender ourselves to him. The previous verses to the above in the Book of Romans reassure us that when we sacrifice ourselves, then this is acceptable to God, if we are willing to surrender all. Romans 11:33-12:1 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 68
Every sacrifice has to give up on the possibility of independent action. We have nothing else to bring before God, because everything we make in our own strength is tainted by our human pride44. When we meet with God, there is only one possible reaction – worship; and we have only one possible sacrifice to bring – ourselves. The wonderful thing is, when I sacrifice myself before God, I know that this is acceptable to him. If I am in Christ, then the living sacrifice of my body is made worthy by Jesus’ total sacrifice of himself on the cross. There is nothing I have to do, because Jesus has done it all. Everything else is then up to God. The Holy Spirit can always give us new and original ways to express our worship; we can allow him to be our worship leader as we gladly follow. This requires faith, patience, willingness and courage on our part, but not cleverness, ingenuity, talent, or artistic ability. We must come to worship with no pre-conceptions as to what is OK by any human measure, the only questions at the end of the ‘service’ should be ‘Have we met with God?’ and ‘What has he revealed?’.
People sometimes use the analogy of a painting done by a child and brought to its parents as a justification for a work of art being an acceptable offering before God. It is important to note that all the Old Testament sacrifices were things created by God (mainly animals), the things created by man merely provided the environment for worship.
44
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Discussion Points 1. People sometimes say things like, “I worship God when I help my neighbour”, but we have seen that true worship is focussed on God alone. Given that worship must be single-minded and totally ‘vertical’, are there any everyday activities that are worshipping God in Spirit and truth45? 2. Over 120 times the New Testament tells us that we are in Christ, and over 20 times that Christ is in us46. Discuss the significance of this for the believer. What does it mean to be in Christ? How does Jesus manifest his presence in us? 3. Read Jesus’ great prayer in John 17. Try to summarise Jesus’ heart for the disciples’ and our lives on earth. 4. How can we discern when corporate worship is being led to please us or other people in the congregation? How can we encourage worship leaders to just focus on God? 5. How do you offer your body as a ‘living sacrifice’47? How does this relate to Jesus’ sacrifice of himself on the cross (see Hebrews 10:10)?
45
John 4:23-24
For example: John 14:20 “On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”
46
47
Romans 12:1
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11 The Muller Principle Summary of the Muller Principle
T
he church in the 21st Century needs to live out what we can call the ‘Muller principle’. George Muller wrote about his work in running orphanages in the 19th Century: “…His glory was my chief aim, i.e., that it might be seen that it is not a vain thing to trust in the living God, - and that my second aim was the spiritual welfare of the orphanOur primary and children, - and the third their bodily welfare”48. overriding purpose as the church should be to exercise our ministries in such a way that we give glory to God, by allowing him to demonstrate aspects of his nature through us. George Muller demonstrated God’s faithfulness by refusing to use ‘conventional’ ways of raising money; we should seek ways to give God the opportunity to manifest his love, his power, his compassion, etc. in any way that he directs us. This means we should try to live by radical obedience to God, we should live by faith that he will provide all we need – we should try to live (in every way) as Jesus did when he was on earth. Although this is an ideal, it is not an unobtainable ideal, because Jesus lives in us and is transforming us, by the power of the Holy Spirit, into his likeness, from glory to glory. We need to be deliberately seeking this transformation by
Roger Steer, A Living Reality – George Muller’s Experience of God, (Bromley, STL Books, 1985), Chapter 1
48
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always being hungry and thirsty for more of God’s presence in worship, prayer and fellowship – transformation as individuals and corporately as an expression of the body of Christ.
George Muller George Muller (1805-1898) is known for the orphan houses he established in Bristol where more than 2,000 children were housed. In 1871 an article in The Times stated that since 1836, 23,000 children had been educated in his schools and very many thousands had been educated in other schools at the expense of the orphanage. The article also stated that 64,000 Bibles, 85,000 Testaments and 29,000,000 religious books had been issued and distributed. Other expenses included the support of 150 missionaries. Yet despite all these amazing statistics of an extraordinarily fruitful Christian life, George Muller is chiefly remembered for one thing – he never asked anyone for a penny, he never even hinted that he might be in need to a soul. He did express his needs to God in prayer, and all that he achieved is a testimony of the faithfulness of God. Let George Muller put this in his own words: Now if I, a poor man, simply by prayer and faith, obtained, without asking any individual, the means for establishing and carrying on an orphan-house; there would be something which, with the Lord’s blessing, might be instrumental in strengthening the faith of the children of God, besides being a testimony to the consciences of the unconverted of the reality of the things of God. This then was the primary reason for establishing the orphan-house. I certainly did from my heart desire to be used by God to benefit the bodies of poor children, bereaved of both parents, and seek, in other respects, with the help of God to do them good for this life; I also particularly longed to be used by God in getting the dear orphans trained up in the fear of God; but still the first 72
and primary object of the work was (and still is) that God might be magnified by the fact the orphans under my care are provided with all they need only by prayer and faith, without anyone being asked by me or my fellow-labourers, whereby it might be seen that God is faithful still and hears prayer still.49 George Muller, like many other Christians down the centuries, trusted God for every aspect of his life and ministry. We focus on the area of financial provision because it gives a simple, measurable and undeniable way of seeing God at work. However, if we are use Muller as a model and example, we need to allow God to guide us into the ways he wants us to step out in faith in trusting him. For example, one place that the Muller principle should have an impact is worship. In worship, we seek only to honour God and to meet with him. This means that we should not try to please people in the planning or execution of our worship, if our spirits are lifted as we praise God, then we want this to be only because we are meeting with him and are experiencing heaven invading earth.
Martha and Mary As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But
Luke 10:38-42
Roger Steer, A Living Reality – George Muller’s Experience of God, (Bromley, STL Books, 1985), 1985, Chapter 1
49
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Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” A very common reaction to this passage is, ‘Mary may have chosen what is better, but we still need Marthas, otherwise nothing would ever get done!’. Jesus shows us that to be single-minded in listening to him is all that we need. If he wants us to move to action, we need to trust him to tell us. Otherwise, we are probably working against him, no matter how thoughtful or how carefully we plan. Two telling comments from Ian Thomas: God is perfectly capable of taking care of His own affairs, and the reason so little is being accomplished by the Church of Jesus Christ today is that we have all too often organised God out of business. Millions of man hours and countless millions of pounds are being misspent on man’s promotional activity, unasked, on God’s behalf… What embarrassment it would be to you if you had a pair of hands that always tried to demonstrate to you how busy they were!... Surely, what the head demands of every member of the body is restful availability, and prompt response to every impulse of the head in instant obedience,…50
50
W. Ian Thomas, The Saving Life of Christ, (London, Oliphants Ltd., 1961), page 51
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Learn to give God room to manoeuvre. Learn to be still and to know that He is God. You do not have the right to panic!51
Discussion Points 1. If you have more information on the life of George Muller then share what you know. 2. Discuss the difference it makes: •
to live your life with God’s glory as your overriding aim
•
to live your life seeking to help others in your own strength.
or
3. The Bible says ‘without faith it is impossible to please God’52. Can any wholly-human action (no matter how full of compassion) be acceptable to God? With Jesus as our example, how can we ensure God is involved in every aspect of our lives? 4. Is there any part of Jesus’ life where he does not call us to follow him? In particular, how can we have the intimate communion with the Father that Jesus depended on? 5. How can we develop the habits of ‘restful availability’?
51
W. Ian Thomas, The Saving Life of Christ, (London, Oliphants Ltd., 1961), page 109
52
Hebrews 11:6
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12 Baptism and Communion
I
n arguing for the elimination of representations of the presence of God in Christian worship, an obvious question raises its head: what about the sacraments of baptism and communion? In particular, the general Protestant view of communion is that when Jesus said about the bread, “This is my body”53, he meant ‘This represents my body’. Is this a counter-example to the principle of ‘no representations’? Can we see the place of the two ‘religious’ acts that Jesus told us to do in the light of our understanding that he wants us to relate to him directly with nothing in the way? Firstly, we can say that Baptism and Communion differ from all man-made attempts to represent God’s presence in that they were directly commanded by Jesus54, but we need to determine whether he intended that they be in themselves a substitute for his manifest presence.
53
Matthew 26:26, Mark14:22, Luke 22:19, 1 Corinthians 11:24
54
See for example Matthew 28:19, 1 Corinthians 11:24
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Baptism Baptism may represent certain aspects of our relationship with God, but it does not represent his presence with us. The most obvious things that baptism represents are: 1. A cleansing of our sin – this is John’s ‘baptism of repentance’55 2. An identification with Jesus in his death, burial and resurrection so clearly described by Paul: Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.
Romans 6:3-5
3. A prayer for Jesus to baptise us in the Holy Spirit, to do for us what John the Baptist promised56.
55
Mark 1:4, Luke 3:3, Acts 13:24, Acts 19:4
56
Matthew 3:11, Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16, John 1:33
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This last meaning is probably the most significant when we follow through the following steps •
John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah57.
•
The only time that Elijah was involved with a ‘baptism in water’ was on Mt. Carmel, when he ordered that the sacrifice should be drenched with water three times58.
•
Elijah prayed and fire descended from heaven on the sacrifice59.
•
On the Day of Pentecost, the fire from heaven fell again, this time on the disciples60, Jesus had told them to wait for this; this was when they were baptised in the Holy Spirit61.
•
Our bodies are to be ‘living sacrifices’62, water baptism is therefore an act of preparation before we are baptised ‘with the Holy Spirit and with fire’63.
57
Matthew 17:12-13, etc.
58
1 Kings 18:33-34
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1Kings 18:38
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Acts 2:3
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Acts 1:5
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Romans 12:1
63
Matthew 3:11, Luke 3:16
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Baptism is an action that is infused with meaning, but it is clearly not God’s intention that we should use it to represent his presence with us. We repent and are baptised when we come to faith in Jesus, and we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, as Peter promised on the Day of Pentecost64. This means we experience the manifestation of the presence of God; there is no need for representation.
Communion The actions we perform at communion are remarkably un-religious – eating and drinking. Yet, somehow Jesus infused into these everyday activities a wealth of meaning. When he said, “Do this in remembrance of me”, he meant us to think of him and what he has done for us. Paul reinforces this with his statement: For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
1 Corinthians 11:26
For us to be able to proclaim his death by eating and drinking there must be a connection between these actions and something that happened at his death. The most obvious parallel is with Jesus’ burial – communion is therefore an acted-out prayer that Jesus may be buried in us. He died so that our sins might be forgiven and that we could be reconciled with our heavenly Father. In communion
64
Acts 2:38
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we pray that we may take into ourselves his presence, as Paul proclaimed: Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
If Jesus is buried in us then we must expect his resurrection in us, and so he lives his risen life in us and through us. We are his risen body, the life-blood of Jesus flows though us to allow him to manifest himself to the world. When Jesus said “This is my body” and “This is my blood” and asked us to eat and drink him, we are to be his physical manifestation, because ‘you are what you eat’. If this understanding of communion is correct then the bread and the wine are not a representation of Jesus; rather they are a way of us asking to be him on earth, we want to re-present Jesus to the world. The only thing that can be said to be a representation of the presence of God is the church. The church is here on earth to represent him, but much more, to manifest his real presence. Each time we share communion we are asking the Father that Jesus may live in us, by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that he can continue his work of reconciliation in us and through us.
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Discussion Points 1. Share different views of the meaning of baptism and communion (including the views of different denominations in the world-wide church). 2. Read through the account of Elijah on Mt. Carmel in 1 Kings 18. Discuss the sacrifice being baptised in water, then in fire. Read about the fire falling on the disciples on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2. Give thanks to God that New Testament sacrifices are resurrected and not consumed. 3. Read the account of Jesus’ burial in John 19:38-42. Amongst God’s people, only Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus are actively involved in any part of the Easter story. Discuss the possibility that this is the reason why baptism and communion are both linked to burial of Jesus. 4. Read some of the following verses in context: John 14:20; John 15:4; John 15:7; John 17:22-23; Romans 8:10-11; 2 Corinthians 4:10-11; 2 Corinthians 13:5; Galatians 1:16; Galatians 2:20; Galatians 4:19; Ephesians 3:17; Colossians 1:27; 1 John 3:24; 1 John 4:12-13; 1 John 5:12. Look for the common theme. 5. How can we experience the life of Christ living in us? How can we allow, enable, encourage him to reveal his presence in us?
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13 Conclusions
I
t is the premise of this book that the church in the West has got itself caught on a false dilemma. Individual local churches, and sometimes whole denominations, seem to think they must choose between maintaining their traditions (thus holding on to their existing members) and becoming ‘relevant’ (i.e. appealing to specific ‘markets’ currently outside the church). This is a false dichotomy because the focus here is all on the people. The church exists to serve God, Jesus is the head and his body needs to be under his control. In this book, we have explored what can happen if we really put him first. We can trust him to meet all our needs. People outside the church are then attracted by the simple authenticity of what we do and what we are. However, it must be emphasised over and over again, there is no point making any changes if our motivation is anything but seeking God just for himself. If this book has any purpose it is to give the reader the confidence to abandon the ‘things of men’65 and allow God to be God. As Jesus said, Matthew 6:33 “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
65
Matthew 16:23, Mark 8:33
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As we have discovered, there is no formula for truly entering more deeply into God himself except the Two Great Commandments, and because these are commands to love, cannot be applied in any kind of ‘mechanical’ way. From the Bible, we can discern some principles as to how God likes to work with his people. He starts with revelation, he allows us to test this, but he then expects us to step out in faith. This is not ‘blind’ faith, because we depend on his promises, his nature and his great love for us. We know he will allow us to grow in faith, he is gracious and will not expect us to make great leaps at first, but if we are not willing to trust him, and to take what appear to be risks to the world, we cannot grow in him. The final principle in working with God is that he must have the glory. Every move of God in his world demonstrates something of his nature; the only response we can make is to praise him, and to tell others how great he is. So, God’s way for us is: •
Wait for revelation, but don’t limit God in either the timing or the way he speaks to you.
•
Test the revelation, with the Bible, with others you trust, with your own knowledge of God’s nature, but don’t allow fear of man to cloud your judgement.
•
Step out in accordance with God’s revealed will, expectant to see him at work, trusting in his promises.
•
Give him the glory; make sure the world know how great he is. 83
Discussion Points 1. Discuss what it means for a church to be truly God-focussed. Can a church be ‘successful’ if it just seeks to serve God and ignores the desires of people inside and outside the church? 2. Read the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. The whole of the great body of Jewish law is built on them. Compare them with Jesus’ two Greatest Commandments (Matthew 22:37-40). What are the essential differences? 3. Read Isaiah 55:9-11. Receiving revelation is dependant on our willingness to obey, because God’s word always achieves his purpose. How can encourage each other in restful availability and the willingness to respond when God speaks? 4. Discuss ways that we tend to take God’s glory? 5. Pray for each other that we may lives of receiving revelation, stepping out in faith and seeing God’s glory as we live in his presence.
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Book 2
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14 Introduction Some words that I believe God gave me: Resting in the Presence means not moving without my clear guidance, living in ongoing relationship with me, depending on my heart of love for you, listening for my heartbeat, feeling my breath on your face, watching for every glimpse of my eyes, smelling my fragrance, knowing my thoughts, being on my side, walking my way, seeking me out, knowing the way I affect a room when I enter, waiting expectantly for me to speak, just being there as I am here, sensing me in those who love me, connecting with me through them, joining in fellowship just to meet with me, seeing the world through my eyes, hearing what I hear, letting me lift you into action but waiting until the exact moment I say “go”. This book is based on one church’s experiences of trying to live out what we believe God is calling every member of the body of Christ to: living the life that Jesus gives us, his life. We believe that he lives in us and the Holy Spirit is working to transform us into his likeness. Our contribution to this process is to invite him in and then to allow him to have his way. We become a barrier every time we think we know better and, like the Pharisees, it is our religion that is the greatest impediment. This helps us understand what it means to be God’s children. As Watchman Nee put it: 86
What was God's objective? It was that His Son Jesus Christ might be the firstborn among many brethren, all of whom should be conformed to His image... In John 1:14 we are told that the Lord Jesus was God's only begotten Son:…. He wanted also to make Him His first begotten. How could an only begotten Son become a first begotten? The answer is simple: by the Father having more children. If you have but one son then his is the only begotten, but if thereafter you have other children then the only begotten becomes the first begotten.66
Acknowledgements Books 1 and 2 flow from the corporate experience of one church, and therefore a significant part of the church family are unknowing contributors – I am most grateful to all of them. Special thanks go to Laura Barratt, our former Worship Leader, whose extraordinary prophetic gifting is at the heart of what you will read. I am indebted to my colleagues on the church Leadership Team, Geoff Cox and James Wade, for their insights and unwavering support. Finally, I thank my wife Bozy for her care through all the ups and downs of leading a people into a very challenging vision. Richard Spencer, October 2010
66
Watchman Nee, The Normal Christain Life, Chapter 7
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15 The Two Lives C.S. Lewis was possibly the greatest prophet of the 20th Century, at least in the English-speaking world. That may seem a controversial statement, but in the last part of his introduction to the Christian faith, Mere Christianity, he explores a theme that has been neglected in the church, but is prominent in the New Testament: there is more than one kind of life: At the beginning of the 21st Century we are experiencing more and more of what Lewis wrote about over 50 years ago. …man, in his natural condition, has not got,… Spiritual life – the higher and different sort of life that exists in God. We use the same word life for both: but if you thought that both must therefore be the same sort of thing, that would be like thinking that the "greatness" of space and the "greatness" of God were the same sort of greatness. In reality, the difference between biological life and spiritual life is so important that I am going to give them two distinct names. The biological sort which comes to us through Nature, and which (like everything else in Nature) is always tending to run down and decay so that it can only be kept up by incessant subsidies from Nature in the form of air, water, food, etc., is Bios. The Spiritual life which is in God from all eternity, and which made the whole natural universe, is
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Zoe. Bios has, to be sure, a certain shadowy or symbolic resemblance to Zoe: but only the sort of resemblance there is between a photo and a place, or a statue and a man. A man who changed from having Bios to having Zoe would have gone through as big a change as a statue which changed from being a carved stone to being a real man. And that is precisely what Christianity is about.67 We are not begotten by God, we are only made by Him: in our natural state we are not sons of God, only (so to speak) statues. We have not got Zoe or spiritual life: only Bios or biological life which is presently going to run down and die. Now the whole offer which Christianity makes is this: that we can, if we let God have His way, come to share in the life of Christ. If we do, we shall then be sharing a life which was begotten, not made, which always has existed and always will exist. Christ is the Son of God. If we share in this kind of life we also shall be sons of God. We shall love the Father as He does and the Holy Ghost will arise in us. He came to this world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life He has—by what I call “good infection”. Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.68 As we explore the implications of what Jesus has for his church in the 21st Century, this word life will occur again and again. We will see how the New Testament helps us to distinguish between the
67
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book IV, Chapter 1
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C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book IV, Chapter 4
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natural life we were born with and the zoe life that Jesus wants to give us. During the 20th Century, the focus in the church has been on the Holy Spirit, we have sought to be spirit-filled believers. Now God wants to build on what he has done, and to re-focus on the life of Jesus for us as an experiential reality. He wants us to receive this life and allow it to grow within us. We are moving from an age where we seek to exercise the gifts of the Spirit in power, to an age when we recognise Jesus living in us, working through us and the Holy Spirit transforming us into the likeness of our risen Lord. The exercise of the spiritual gifts can then be as ‘naturally supernatural’ as in the life of Jesus on earth. In the passages quoted from Mere Chrsitainity, C.S. Lewis is using two Greek words that are used in the New Testament and which are both translated as ‘life’: bios and zoe. There is a third word, psuche which is also translated as ‘life’, and sometimes as ‘soul’. Bios and psuche refer the life that each of us was born with, but zoe, especially in John’s Gospel, carries the sense of something beyond our everyday experience of life. We will carry on exploring the meaning of zoe, and see, as Lewis described, that, because it is the risen life of Jesus, it can transform us and the lives we live here on earth. In order to understand the difference between zoe and our natural life, we need to use (like C.S. Lewis in the second quotation above) an English word that has almost fallen out of even academic usage: begotten. Each of us was created by God, but we were begotten by our parents. We beget things, by the normal process of reproduction; producing beings just like us. This is a characteristic of all living things. Zoe is the risen life of Jesus, and as such, is not part of the creation. He was begotten of the Father, that is why Father and Son are of the same ‘stuff’ 90
John 1:14 [AV] And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among [in] us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
He can only share his zoe with us, he cannot create it in us. One of the reasons Jesus laid down his life was so that he could pick it up again to be able to give it to those who followed him. The Bible speaks about Christians being children (or sons) of God because the zoe life we have been given is begotten in us, not created. Romans 8:29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,…
Revelation 1:5 [AV]
When we come to faith in Jesus, we are adopted into the Father’s family – we have all the legal rights of sons as full brothers of Jesus. Jesus does not stop there; by the power of the Holy Spirit he gives us of himself. The Holy Spirit came upon Mary after the angel visited her when she showed she was willing to accept what God wanted to give her: “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.
Luke 1:38
Then Jesus was begotten in her, taking on her humanity and the divinity of his Father. 91
God has no favourites (even Jesus’ mother) and he makes the same offer to us. If we are willing, the Holy Spirit will come upon us, and the zoe life of Jesus will be begotten in us. Our choice is to whether to allow the life of Jesus to grow and develop; and to eventually take over from the life we were born with. Again, C.S. Lewis found words to express this: It is not a question of a good man who died two thousand years ago. It is a living Man, still as much a man as you, and still as much God as he was when He created the world, really coming and interfering with your very self; killing the old natural self in you and replacing it with the kind of self He has. At first, only for moments. Then for longer periods. Finally, if all goes well, turning you permanently into a different sort of thing; into a new little Christ, a being which, in its own small way, has the same kind of life as God; which shares in His power, joy, knowledge and eternity.69
Discussion Points 6. Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life (zoe), and
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C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book IV, Chapter 7
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have it to the full.” (John 10:10). Choose a few passages from the Gospels where you can see Jesus ministering to people. Discuss, by reference to these passages, the differences between the psuche life that we all have and the zoe life that we see in Jesus. 7. On a sheet of paper, visible to all, write down words that describe the nature and character of Jesus, particularly those characteristics that you find most striking. Do these words help us to see Jesus as a complete human being? Jesus shows us what perfect humanity is like, do the words you have written help you to understand what Jesus wants for you – life lived to the full (John 10:10)? 8. Discuss what the world would be like if it was inhabited with people like Jesus, who had not lost their own individuality, but were, in C.S. Lewis’ words ‘little Christs’. It this what heaven will be like? 9. Discuss the idea that God has no favourites. How much of what Mary, Peter, John, etc. experienced in knowing Jesus when he was here on earth is available to us? Is it possible that because he is living in us that we can know him better than even his mother?
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16 The Presence of God Our greatest responsibility to God and/or people is not to pursue or provide more eloquent displays of the Gospel, or even miracles. Neither is it merely to speak truth in the sense of preaching or a one-on-one witness of the Gospel. Our great responsibility is to know God and make God known. Learning how to do this effectively should capture our hearts and attention for a lifetime. For at least 20 years, a driving force within me has been the conviction that I owe people an encounter with God. I owe them more than just a message filled with truth. Whatever I do for people must contain the opportunity for a divine encounter.70 Have you ever sensed the presence of God, even just for a moment? Many would say that they have been aware of what is sometimes called the numinous, that sense of touching something or someone who is utterly beyond our understanding. Most of us have been overawed as we have looked at the wonders of creation; something has welled up in us to tell us that this cannot just be random, that there must be a creator who is far more creative than any human being. If you are a Christian, you will have known moments in worship, prayer, reading the Bible, hearing a sermon or
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Bill Johnson, Release the Power of Jesus, (2009), Chapter 9
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in meeting with another Christian that transcend any normal human experience. These moments are times when God’s presence with us suddenly becomes manifest. God, of course, is always with us, he fills the universe as David sung: Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. Psalms 139:7-10
There is a difference, however, between God’s actual presence and his manifest presence. The whole human race is probably always unconsciously aware of God’s actual presence; if it was absent we would be, quite literally, in hell. It is when we are consciously aware that God is present that we can speak about his manifest presence. As hell is defined to be the place where God isn’t, heaven is the place where God’s manifest presence is total, continuous, eternal and to use a rather unpleasant, yet appropriate phrase ‘in your face’. Revelation 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God…” Revelation 22:3-4 The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face,...
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We do not know much about heaven but we do know it is a place of continuous worship and that its inhabitants continuously experience God’s manifest presence. So when we have momentary experiences of the presence of God, we are having a taste of what heaven will be like. Is that all we can expect in this life? The deep questions about God always find their answers in the person of Jesus, and this is no exception, because Jesus, during his life in his own flesh here in earth, lived in unbroken communion with his Father. He expressed this in a number of ways, for example: Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?” John 14:9-10
Jesus uses the little word ‘in’ to describe the intimacy and directness of his life with the Father. This closeness is so complete that he has to use a paradox to express it – it is not physically possible for A to be in B and for B to be in A at the same time, yet this is Jesus’ chosen way of describing what it means for a human being to be permanently in God’s presence. One qualification needs to be made to the definitive statement that Jesus’ life on earth was lived continuously in the Father’s presence. There was a point in time when Father and Son were separated; Jesus expressed this with a quotation from Psalm 22:
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And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” --which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Mark 15:34
Jesus was in hell when he was still alive on the cross; this was the point in time when the sin of the whole human race was placed on him. Paul goes so far as to say that Jesus became sin: 2 Corinthians 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The unholy cannot remain in the presence of the holy, and so for those few hours when Jesus hung on the cross he experienced the total absence of his Father. He did this so that we need never go through this experience of being totally separated from the Father as he was. Here is one aspect of the cross that is sometimes missed – here we see God tearing himself apart for our sake. Christians do not need to fear death, the New Testament often speaks about the death of believers as ‘falling asleep’, for example: But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
1 Corinthians 15:20
Our deaths as Christians will be just like going to sleep, because Jesus has already gone through the separation from God caused by death. When we lose someone we have loved, the separation can be unbearable – this is just a taste of what Father and Son experienced as Jesus was dying on the cross. We should give eternal praise to God for all that Jesus did in accepting the 97
consequences of our sin – the total loss of the presence of the Father. So how can we sinful beings be allowed to experience the manifest presence of God? Exodus 33:19-20 And the LORD said to Moses,… “you cannot see my face, for no-one may see me and live.”
The Hebrew word used here paniym can be translated ‘face’ or ‘presence’71, the correct English word has to be selected by the translators according to context. There needs to be a death before a sinful human being can enter God’s manifest presence, so how can this happen here on earth before we physically die? The answer, as always, is to be found in Jesus. The New Testament tells us that when Jesus died on the cross, we died with him (this is part of what it means to be ‘in Christ’); as Paul put it: I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
Jesus did not only come to die for us but to live through us, we are not only in Christ, he is also in us. The life he lives in us is so
71
Or ‘before’ or ‘in front of’.
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different to the life we were born with that in John’s Gospel (and elsewhere) a particular word is used for it. In contrast to the Hebrew of the Old Testament, the Greek of the New Testament often has several words that are translated to the same English word, and so it is with the word ‘life’. As we have seen, John generally uses two Greek words, the first is psuche which is used to refer to the ‘natural’ life we were all born with. The second word is zoe, which is the life that Jesus gives us, eternal, complete, his life; as he said: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life (zoe), and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life (psuche) for the sheep.”
John 10:10-11
Jesus laid down the life he was born with so that he could give us his risen life. Our identification with Jesus in this process is symbolised in our baptism (most clearly seen in baptism by immersion): Romans 6:3-4 (NASB) …all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life (zoe).
So how can we live this new life, the life of Jesus? When John wrote his Gospel, he selected from his memories of what Jesus said and did very carefully, as he wrote:
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John 21:25 Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.
He chose his material based on his stated aim in writing his Gospel: John 20:30-31 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life (zoe) in his name.
John wanted his readers (most of whom, even when he wrote it, would never have met Jesus in the flesh) to put their faith in who Jesus is, and to receive his risen life. This second aim is evident all over the Gospel, for example: John 14:18-20 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me any more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”
Jesus is not speaking here about the resurrection, although this translation seems to imply this. The word that is translated ‘see’ is a word with a meaning more like the English words ‘perceive’ or ‘recognise’. This word is used by the woman at the well to Jesus: John 4:19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet…”
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Jesus had no identifying mark that singled him out as a prophet, she recognised him as such by what he had said to her. Therefore in John 14:19, Jesus is telling us he will make his presence known to us, not necessarily by us physically seeing him (although this has happened many times down the centuries), but yet we will know for certain that he is with us, as he promised72. The word translated ‘realise’ is actually the usual Greek word for ‘know’. His promise to all who will believe in him through the disciples’ message73 is that they will know his presence within them and around them, and through him, the presence of the Father. This is the manifest presence of God on earth: Christ in you, the hope of glory74. If we are living in Christ, and more specifically, if he is living in us, then we carry the presence of God with us, and as we experience this intimate union with him we are changed to be more and more like him. As C.S. Lewis put it in Mere Christianity: An ordinary simple Christian kneels down to say his prayers. He is trying to get into touch with God. But if he is a Christian he knows that what is prompting him to pray is also God: God, so to speak, inside him. But he also knows that all his real knowledge of God comes through Christ, the Man who was God-that Christ is standing beside him, helping him to pray, praying for him. You see what is
72
See also Matthew 28:20
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John 17:20
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Colossians 1:27
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happening. God is the thing to which he is praying-the goal he is trying to reach. God is also the thing inside him which is pushing him on-the motive power. God is also the road or bridge along which he is being pushed to that goal. So that the whole threefold life of the three-personal Being is actually going on in that ordinary little bedroom where an ordinary man is saying his prayers. The man is being caught up into the higher kind of life-what I called Zoe or spiritual life: he is being pulled into God, by God, while still remaining himself.75 The Father created the universe through a human being: Through him [the Word – Jesus] all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
John 1:3
He continues to work through his Son, but he also longs to work through us – it just depends on our availability, willingness and obedience.
Discussion Points 1. If they are willing, ask everyone to share their experiences of time when they were particularly aware of the presence of God. Try to find any common factors in how God manifests his presence with us.
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C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book IV, Chapter 2
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2. Read Revelation 4 (and chapters 5, 20 and 21 you have time). Discuss what we know about heaven from the Bible (e.g. forget about pearly gates and fluffy clouds). The most significant things about heaven are the direct presence of God and the continual worship. Any thing else that strikes you? How can we genuinely experience heaven on earth? 3. John’s Gospel was written for people like us who never met Jesus when he walked on the earth. Read John 14 knowing that Jesus’ words are directly addressed to you and not just to those who would witness the Resurrection. What does this amazing chapter say to you about your life now with Jesus? 4. Discuss all that Jesus went through when he was crucified (see for example, Mark 15). Even though his physical suffering was awful, how does it compare with the separation from the Father that experienced at the ninth hour76? And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:18 (NRSV)
5. Share how you can see Jesus reflected in each other. Silently, in prayer, pray that he will give you a spiritual mirror to see him and his glory in yourself. Praise him for this.
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Mark 15:34
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17 The Church in the 21st Century
The Church in Britain seems to be stuck in a dilemma. Does it hang on to its ‘traditional’ values and practices (and thus satisfy its existing members) or does it try to be ‘relevant’ to modern society (either in its worship style or its doctrines) and thus attract new members? In most towns and cities it can do both, with different congregations reaching different niche markets. So everything’s OK then? Just like pubs, restaurants, schools and every other part of our consumer-driven society, the church can offer choice, allowing people to find the place where they feel at home. The forces of evolution will weed out the weaker churches, i.e. those who are not up to the job in meeting the needs and desires of a big enough part of the population, and the stronger churches will go from strength to strength as they ‘tune’ what they offer by observation of what ‘works’. Perhaps there is another way, perhaps we are missing the point by focussing on the people. What if we look in a totally different direction? The primary purpose of the church is to minister to God, if we make this our only purpose, can we not trust him to meet the needs of the people and therefore be drawn to him and his church? This book has been written with the burning conviction that Jesus wants his church back, he wants us to give up our control over what happens, he wants to lead it directly, he wants the members of his body to respond to the nerve impulses coming from him – the head of the body. This means that those of 104
us in church leadership have to stop getting in his way, thinking that we know how to do it. Our job, like Moses and the builders of the Tabernacle, is to provide an environment where God can manifest his presence. One of the enigmatic statements Jesus made was to the woman at the well (not an obvious person to receive revelation about worship): “…a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
John 4:23-24
There has been much debate down through the centuries as to what Jesus meant exactly by ‘worshipping in spirit and in truth’. This phrase must somehow be linked to ‘true worshipers’ and to the statement that ‘God is spirit’. The most reasonable explanation seems to be that Jesus is speaking about the integrity of the worshippers and their willingness to be led by God the Holy Spirit. God is seeking people who will worship him with no other agendas: • Who have no tradition that must be maintained. • Who have no desire to please, impress, or influence in any way any other human being. • Who are never worried about what other people think. • Who put no constraints on what God may say or do. • Who are willing to abandon themselves in worship so that God may be honoured. 105
Conventional wisdom would say that the great diversity in churches today is a good thing. To give people a choice of tradition, style of worship, doctrinal rigour, facilities offered, etc. must mean that everyone can find a church that suits them. But this human-centred approach to church means that each church is like a film, there is a representation of the presence of God there, but it is just a façade. As soon as you change your perspective, the illusion is seen to be false. In a film the camera is held at a fixed position so that the illusion of reality is maintained. It is not possible to do this with people, the only answer is to reject all attempts to please people, and to concentrate on to creating church that is real – i.e. that really is the body of Christ – that no matter where you stand you can see the real Jesus. It seems as if we need another reformation of the world-wide church, perhaps as significant that which occurred in the 16th century. At that time, Martin Luther and the other reformers drew out from the pages of the New Testament the eternal truth that we are justified before God by our faith in the saving work of Jesus on the cross. The Book of Romans was the ‘source text’ for this, although the key doctrines were also discovered in other parts of Bible. At the beginning of the 20th Century, the Pentecostal movement began to experience the work of the Holy Spirit in ways that were described particularly in 1 Corinthians, with strong support from the Book of Acts. The move of God that is starting in the 21st Century has a strong emphasis on Jesus as the head of his body (the church) and sees his life on earth as the model for the lives of his followers. Thus, the Gospels move to centre stage, not just as a record of the saying and doings of Jesus, but as the how-to-do-it (or more correctly, how-to-be-it) reference for all. John’s Gospel, particularly, is highlighted as it contains so much of Jesus’ teaching about himself and his relationship with the Father. 106
If we allow Jesus to take control of his church, then the first place where this will be evident is in worship, as this is where God will meet with his people in eternity (as shown in the Book of Revelation). Jesus told us that the Father seeks those who will worship him in ‘spirit and truth’77, i.e. guided, empowered, etc. by the Holy Spirit and with complete integrity. If the Holy Spirit is to be the worship leader when we come together, then we must not put constraints on how or where he takes us. Jesus made a very telling comment on what we should expect from Holy Spirit-lead people: “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
John 3:8
A key characteristic of worshipping in spirit and truth is spontaneity. It is not that the Holy Spirit cannot lead people to worship God using formal, scripted or planned material; the problem comes when people demand that he use a particular form of words or music. There will always be constraints in how we worship because of the particular gifting, knowledge and skill of those playing and leading the worship, although the Holy Spirit can override this. The Holy Spirit will usually work through human agents to hold the worship together; we are obviously dependent on
77
John 4:23
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those individuals to be ‘in-tune’ with the leading of the Spirit. The congregation need also to tune-in to where the Spirit is leading and to be willing to go together, so that all may experience a real sense of connecting with God. As a church leader, I am in the business of providing a protected environment for people to meet with God. I try to make a safe place where they can encounter the living God. Where they hear his voice like Moses at the burning bush, where they step aside and hear him. I want to make a place where he is comfortable, he is honoured, he is at home. And a place where we are secure, where we are willing to encounter him.
Discussion Points 1. Discuss the different ways that churches ‘market’ themselves. Contrast this with the life of Jesus who never did or said anything to impress anyone (See, for example, John 7:3-4, Matthew 6:1, Matthew 9:30). 2. Discuss how we can be assured that we are worshipping in spirit and in truth. 3. Discuss what we can learn from church history over the last 2000 years, and also from what we know has happened more locally and in recent years. How can we discern when it is God at work in changes in church life, and when it is just human-inspired? 4. Try as a group, to come up with ideas as to how churches ensure that the Holy Spirit is the worship leader, where Jesus is welcomed as the head and where the Father receives the honour that is his due. How can we also make sure that the 108
worshippers are able to express their worship without worrying about what others think?
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18 Entering the Presence We know that God wants a people that will live permanently in close, intimate fellowship with him; he made us to love us, and for us to love him back. The New Testament gives us analogies (or pictures or models) to help us understand the nature of the relationship that God is seeking to have with each member of the human race. Here are some of these analogies (listed by increasing intimacy) that we find in the Bible: • • • • • •
Master – servant Friend – friend Parent – child Bridegroom – bride You in Christ Christ in you
Master - Servant We know we that we are to be God’s faithful servants. We long to hear these words on Jesus’ lips: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant!’78, or to hear what God said about Job:
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Matthew 25:21
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Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no-one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” Job 1:8
It is a wonderful privilege to be God’s servant; in some of their letters Paul, James, Peter and Jude introduce themselves as servants of God and of Jesus79. No matter how intimate our relationship with God may become, we should never lose sight of our status as his servants, indeed we are to be the servants of all80.
Friend - Friend Jesus told a number of parables where a master appreciates his faithful servants, even to the point of serving them81, but this is only the beginning of our life with him. In his final discourse in John’s Gospel, Jesus moves his relationship with the disciples onto another level by calling them friends: “You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”
John 15:14-15
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For example Romans 1:1, James 1:1, 2 Peter 1:1, Jude 1:1
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See Mark 10:42-45
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Luke 12:37
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Receiving revelation from Jesus should convince us that we are his friends. He involves and informs us in what he is doing for the Father. He is still in charge, because he expects us to respond to his commands, but he makes sure we understand what is going on. We are not cogs in some celestial machine, but willing, informed participants in God’s great plan of redemption.
Parent - Child The Old Testament occasionally carries the picture of God as Father to the nation of Israel, e.g.: Hosea 11:1 "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
But it is Jesus who brought the real understanding of God as Father. Perhaps the most telling expression of our status as the children of God is what Jesus told Mary Magdalene to say to the disciples: “I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”
John 20:17
Jesus put us in the same place as himself in relationship with the Father. It is vital that all of us realise that we are sons of God, we all share equally in his inheritance: You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed
Galatians 3:26-28
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yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Bridegroom - Bride Although there are essential aspects of our relationship with God that are most clearly experienced by knowing him as Father, yet he wants us to know him in ways that go beyond any child’s understanding of his or her parents. The closest human relationship that most of us ever encounter is that with our spouse, and it is not surprising that the Holy Spirit has inspired the Biblical authors to use this to bring home how intimate God wants to be with us. This can be appreciated by all, as shown by (unmarried) Paul’s words in Ephesians 5:21-33. In this passage, he beautifully weaves together two pictures: the church as the bride of Christ and the church as the body of Christ. After all, no-one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church – for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery – but I am talking about Christ and the church.
Ephesians 5:29-32
Paul uses the quotation from Genesis to highlight the closeness of the bond between Jesus and his church. He takes the idea of ‘one flesh’ even further in picking up his own image of the church as the body of Christ. He is saying that the intimacy of even the perfect marriage relationship is not close enough to be an adequate analogy of our potential relationship with Jesus – we need to think also about how we regard our own bodies. As we allow Jesus to live in us, we are sharing our bodies with him, the members of our bodies become his, we truly become one flesh. As we will see shortly, the 113
idea of Christ living in us is all over the New Testament, but this is one of the most graphic pictures of the reality of Christ in you, the hope of glory.
You in Christ The New Testament uses a number of alternatives for the term ‘Christian’ (which is only used three times82): believer, brother, etc.; but one of the most common expression is to refer to us as ‘in Christ’. This expression takes the understanding of our relationship with God to a whole new level; if we are in Jesus then we have the opportunity of knowing him in ways that transcend any humanhuman relationship. The many references to us being in Christ point to the understanding that, when we come to faith in Jesus, the Father picks us up and puts us in him. We are covered, clothed, immersed, etc. in Christ so that when the Father looks at us, he sees his first-begotten Son. We are secure in Christ, and we are also already seated with him in heavenly places. Our position in Christ transcends time, so that we were in him when he died on the cross – when he died, we died; we will never have to go through the separation from the Father that he suffered. Praise the Lord, when He died on the Cross I died with Him. He not only died in my place, but He bore me with Him to the Cross, so that when He died I too died. And if I believe in the death of the Lord Jesus, then I can believe in my own death just as surely as I believe in His. Why do you believe that the Lord Jesus died? What is your
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Acts 11:26, Acts 26:28, 1 Peter 4:16
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ground for that belief? Is it that you feel He has died? No, you have never felt it. You believe it because the Word of God tells you so.83
Christ in You Yet, there is another, even deeper picture of our fellowship with God, and that is to know Christ in us. The great high-priestly prayer of Jesus (John 17) ends with these words: “…I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
John 17:26
This can be claimed to be the high point of the whole Bible – hearing Jesus’ pray to the Father for us! He prays for us that we may have the Father’s love for his Son in us, and as the final (and presumably the most important) request, that we may have him in us. Jesus wants above all things that we will know and love Father and Son with that closeness that can only be spoken of by using this word ‘in’. This is knowing and experiencing the presence of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to the greatest extent possible in our life on earth.
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Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life, Chapter 3
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The understanding that ‘Christ in you’ is the deepest expression of God’s presence available to human beings gives us a clue as to how we enter the presence of God. The answer, as always, is to be found in Jesus, and in particular, in his life on earth. When Mary asked how it was possible that she would give birth to the Messiah: The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God…”
Luke 1:35
Then Jesus entered into Mary through her willingness and the power of the Holy Spirit. The conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb was, of course, a unique event. Although Mary was highly favoured84, God does not show favouritism85, and therefore can we expect that what was available to Mary is available to us? Jesus was conceived in the body of Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. From the Day of Pentecost onward, the same Holy Spirit has fallen on those who come to faith. Are we willing to echo Mary’s words86?
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Luke 1:30
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Romans 2:11
God does not ask us for ‘blind faith’, but to trust him in what he reveals to us. Mary gave assent to what the angel had told her was to happen.
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“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.”
Luke 1:38
Paul desperately want his friends in Galatia to be like Mary: Galatians 4:19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,…
Earlier in the same book, Paul was very aware that Jesus was living in him: Galatians 1:15-16 But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles,…
Mary carried the presence of God for nine months within her, Jesus wants to come and live within each person who is willing to receive him. The power of the Holy Spirit is available to work this miracle, if only we can have Mary’s willingness of heart. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among [in] us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:12-14
If we are willing to receive the seed that is Jesus, placed in us by the Holy Spirit, then we can receive his DNA, so that we are not just God’s adopted children, but, more and more, have his likeness. Jesus living in us makes us God’s sons, just like Jesus. Although 117
Jesus took on human flesh for 33 years, we can allow him into our bodies (and his body, the church) so that we can experience his presence in a way that goes beyond any human-human relationship, because he lives in us. We understand: 1. Jesus is living in us and, because of this, we can have an intimate relationship with him; he wants to work in us and through us. 2. We are being transformed into his likeness. We allow the second by welcoming the first. By faith, we take him into ourselves to know him, to love him, to let him manifest himself in us, to learn how he thinks, speaks, acts, to be with him, etc., etc.; so that we become one with him. He prayed explicitly for us87 to the Father, just before he was arrested: “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
John 17:24-26
87 John 17:20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,…”
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It is not unreasonable to assume that Jesus’ prayer has been answered, that we can know Jesus living in us and we can see his glory being manifested as we recognise his presence. As we have seen, Paul tells us to look at ourselves in a spiritual mirror to see Jesus living in us: 2 Corinthians 3:18 [AV] But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
The New Testament has an underlying message: as we experience Jesus manifesting his presence in us, we are transformed to be more and more like him. This is expressed in many ways, for example: Romans 8:28-29 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
The word that is translated ‘image’ or ‘likeness’ in these verses is the same Greek word: eikwn (eikon), and the words translated ‘transformed’, ‘changed’ and ‘conformed’ all have the same root. Our ultimate good is to be made like Jesus. Jesus is the prototype for all humankind, but only the Holy Spirit can do this work of transformation, and only if we are willing to stay in intimate fellowship with the Son.
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Entering the presence of God is therefore a process of increasing intimacy with Jesus, as the Holy Spirit makes us more like him, as he said: John 14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me…”
Discussion Points 1. Discuss how this idea of an increasing intimacy in our relationship with God can help us understand how the Christian life should proceed. Alternatively, does this make things more confusing? Can we really be both a child of God and the bride of Jesus at the same time? 2. Read John 17:20-26 slowly and carefully. Try to find another passage in the Bible that has as much depth as these words of Jesus to the Father. As Jesus prays for us, can you discern some kind of progression in closer and closer relationship with God that Jesus wants for us? He finishes with the words “that I myself may be in them”. Do you think it is true that the ultimate relationship that you can have with God in this life is to know Christ in you, the hope of glory? Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 3. The Bible tells us that humankind is created in the image of God, but it also says that when we come to faith in Jesus we can be transformed into his image. What aspects of the nature of God do we receive when we are conceived and how are these marred by our fallen nature? What parts of Jesus nature do you most want to reflect?
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4. Another relationship that the Bible uses to help us understand how Jesus loves us is that between siblings. If we are children of God, then Jesus is our big brother (but not as seen on TV or in the novel 1984!). Discuss whether our knowledge of how brothers and sisters love each other can help us understand more about how Jesus loves us.
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19 Continuous Revelation – Fresh Bread
As a church, we have been trying to live out this vision: “I saw lots of people on top of a mountain. I could see their eyes looking up to heaven and their hands raised. As they did this I saw God give each one a loaf of bread. Each loaf was different (shape/size etc) as it represented the different ways in which God speaks to His people. Each person would take their loaf and break it and share it with one another. The bread they were given and were sharing was always fresh. We need to feed each other with what God has given us. It needs to come straight from God as it is REAL food and is what we and others need. We need to live and depend on fresh revelation.”88 This vision is supported and clarified by a number of Bible passages:
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Laura Barratt, 17th December 2009
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Bread from Heaven (1) Exodus 16:4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions…. 18 And when they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little. Each one gathered as much as he needed. 19 Then Moses said to them, “No-one is to keep any of it until morning.” 20 However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.
The church tends to survive on stale revelation. God has spoken to his church down through the centuries, and some of these revelations have been fossilised into church ‘traditions’. As we look at the traditions followed in different parts of the church, we may well be able to find much that is good, Biblically-inspired, etc., but God is infinitely creative; he can always give us new insights into his eternal truth. He does not want us to feed on what he gave us yesterday. If we allow him, he will always provide sufficient revelation for today. Just like the Israelites in the wilderness, God wants his church to depend on continuous revelation. This means we not only continue to receive and respond to today’s revelation, but also live depending on the assurance that God’s prophetic word will continue in the future. Planning beyond what has been revealed is not only fruitless, it may stem the flow of revelation as it is a way of saying to God, “we don’t need you”.
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The physical hunger of the Israelites is a challenge to us – are we really aware of our need to live on the word of God? In their hunger you gave them bread from heaven and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock;… Nehemiah 9:15
The Bread of the Presence The bread of the Presence is to be set out before the LORD regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath, on behalf of the Israelites, as a lasting covenant.
Leviticus 24:8
One of the ongoing rituals in both the Tabernacle and the Temple was the laying out of twelve fresh loaves of bread every Sabbath on a gold table. This has been called in English the Showbread, but it is more accurately called the Bread of the Presence. Here we find bread used as a picture of the ongoing fellowship of God and his people; with bread used specifically because it goes stale. Our service to God needs to be as fresh as his provision to us.
Listen and Eat Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.
Isaiah 55:2-3
This passage again uses bread as an analogy of God’s word. As we listen to God, we are sustained, built-up and delighted. Fresh bread does all these things.
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Not on Bread Alone Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”89
Matthew 4:4
It is curious that we ultimately live not by what we put into our mouths, but by what comes out of God’s mouth. This shows the power of God’s word to sustain us eternally. When read the Bible, when we hear it being expounded, when we receive a word of prophecy, we often have a sense of being fed with true nourishment.
Daily Bread Luke 11:3
Give us each day our daily bread. Give us day by day our daily bread.
Luke 11:3(AV)
At first sight, this phrase in the Lord’s Prayer seems simply to be a request for God’s ongoing material provision for us, but it is significant that the prayer mentions bread, and that there is a double emphasis on provision every day. As we have seen, in the Bible, bread is a common symbol for revelation. As bread goes stale quickly, the need for continuing fresh supplies is obvious. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to suggest that, at least in part; this phrase is a request to God that he will feed us on fresh portions of his word every day. Going back to what he has fed us on in the past is not expressing our dependence on him.
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Quoting Deuteronomy 8:3
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Emmaus Luke 24:30-31 When Jesus was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognised him, and he disappeared from their sight.
When Cleopas and his friend invited the risen Jesus into their home in Emmaus, they seemed to have had no idea what was going to be revealed to them. The moment of revelation was when Jesus shared the bread.
Bread from Heaven (2) John 6:27 Jesus said, “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”…32 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”…35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty…. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world… 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.”
John 6:30-71 is a long discourse centred around the revelation that Jesus is the true bread from heaven and that we need to feed on him. He is, of course, also the Word, the ultimate revelation of God to humankind. 126
Breaking Bread Every day the disciples continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,…
Acts 2:46
The only written material the first church in Jerusalem had was the Old Testament. Sharing revelations of what God was saying and doing must have been just as important as sharing food. I am sure they fed on Jesus, God’s revelation of himself.
Spiritual Gifts 1 Corinthians 12:7-8 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,…
The first two of the charismata listed in 1 Corinthians 12 are revelation gifts. The translation above has been changed to more accurately reflect the original Greek in that individual messages of wisdom and knowledge are given to members of the body of Christ to be shared ‘for the common good’.
Depending on Continuous Revelation This vision helps us to understand that we are to be a people that are dependant on continuous revelation. Our decision-making is to be based not on plans that we have drawn up, or on an interpretation of what God has done in the past, or on what we believe will appeal to people, but on what God is revealing here and now. We do not need to worry as to how today’s decisions will affect what can be done in the future; God can see the end from the 127
beginning90, and he can direct us. If some kind of preparation is needed for a future event, God can prompt us when we need to take action. We first need to be a people that are prepared to depend totally that God will continue to speak to us. I was praying a little while ago, and I believe God said to me: I need to you to be continually aware of my presence, that I can speak at any time, and at the moment when you need it. Jesus did not write anything down permanently; he let me speak into each situation.
Discussion Points 1. Can you find any other Bible passages that somehow connect with the vision at the beginning of this chapter? Which of the passages that are given seem to clarify best what the vision is about? 2. We are to live depending on continues revelation. Share times in your life where a fresh revelation from God has had a real impact on your life.
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Isaiah 46:10
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1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. 3. It is obvious that we need to test revelations to see that they really are from God. We know that feelings can be deceptive, that it is not sufficient just to say “I feel that God is saying…”, even if this may be the start of receiving some genuine revelation. Share ways that we can build up confidence in what we believe God is saying to us.
4. Break bread together and pray that God will give each person some revelation to share with the rest of the group. Wait in silence for God to speak.
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20 New Wine calls for New Wineskins –
Transformation Paul’s favourite expression for the church is ‘the body of Christ’. He uses this analogy on a number of occasions in the epistles to great effect and it helps us to see further into the purpose God has for his church. A human body is the outward, physical container for the person within. This means that the church’s job is to be the physical container for the life of Christ. It also means that the church should represent (or re-present) the person of Jesus. For this to happen, the church must be a place where: • • •
Jesus is welcomed, where he can feel at home. Jesus is in charge (as its head). Jesus is allowed to express himself with no constraints, and where there is nothing that is not of him.
It is self-evident that this cannot be achieved by human efforts, although there are many ways that the members (and especially the earthly leadership) can get in his way. Jesus used a parable to help us understand the importance of the container when we are considering something as alive as the life of Christ. 130
Matthew 9:16-17 “No-one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Jesus is speaking of our need to be transformed into suitable containers (both individually and corporately) for his new life that he wants to pour in us. It is not possible for us to patch the old ways of thinking or what the church has been; the church must be a body that has the characteristics of the body of Jesus when he walked the earth. His is the only perfect example we have of a new wineskin. We need to strip away everything in us that can get in the way of his work of transformation to make us like himself. The main area of transformation required is in the way we think. Paul expressed this clearly in this verse which is part of the lynchpin of the book of Romans, as he moves from the theological (in chapters 1-11) to the practical. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:2
It should be noted that the word translated ‘world’ is αιων (aion), more usually rendered ‘age’. Thus we should be wary of following patterns that have been established in the church as well as in the secular world. This is the active part of the sentence for us, but it is negative – something we should not do. The positive part of the 131
sentence is passive – we can be transformed if we allow our minds to be renewed. The great benefit of this is that we will be able to discern God’s will for our lives. Our minds are the containers for our understanding of who God is and what he is like. They need to be new wineskins to be able to receive, hold, use, etc. the revelations that God gives us. Jesus discussed how the religious tend to conform to established patterns: Mark 7:5-9 …the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with ‘unclean’ hands?” He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.” And he said to them: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!...”
Jesus’ quotation from Isaiah 29:13 shows that, in worship, it is the same whether we follow a tradition (even if it has its roots in a previous revelation from God) or go after some modern fashion. In both cases, we are conforming to the age, rather than allowing the head of the church to be its head. If we do not allow the wineskin that is the church to be renewed, then we will either not receive the new wine of the life of Christ, or if we do, then the church will ‘burst’ and the wine will be lost. As we have seen, allowing renewal means deliberately abandoning the 132
ways of being church that we have become comfortable with, because this means that Jesus is uncomfortable – he needs to be directly in charge of what happens, not mediated through any manmade structure, tradition or theory. There is a movement in the church that goes back to the 1890’s called ‘What would Jesus do?’ (WWJD). It asks its followers to try to work out what Jesus would do in the situations they find themselves in life. The problem with this approach is that, as we read the Gospels, we realise that Jesus is totally unpredictable. He says that we are to be the same: “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
John 3:8
We should not be asking, “What would Jesus do?”, but asking him, “What do you want me to do, Lord – right now?”, confident that will lead us. However, we can apply the WWJD principle in a negative way, because there are things we can be fairly confident that Jesus would never do. Here are some of the ‘What would Jesus not do’s’ (WWJND).
WWJND: Make an impression Jesus’ brothers said to him, “You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. No-one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.”
John 7:3-4
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In our marketing-oriented world, people’s impressions of something are seen to be more important than the thing itself. When selling something, the impression it makes on its target market is accorded greater significance than what it actually is. It is so easy to allow this to slip over into the church, particularly when we come to evangelism. Jesus never did anything to try to impress anyone; he even tells a number of people who received healing to keep it a secret. Jesus really is ‘what you see is what you get’ (to borrow a phrase from the world of IT), and the church should be the same. We need to deliberately give up on putting on events, ministries, services,… i.e. anything that makes people feel good about us, because they are inherently dishonest. A secondary reason for deliberately avoiding a marketing approach to propagating the gospel is that, in our society, everyone is very aware when they are being ‘sold’ something, and have an in-built reaction to resist and to mistrust the ‘seller’. Even though this is true, this pragmatic reason should not be the factor that determines our decision-making, when we have the clear example of Jesus before us.
WWJND: People-please John 6:15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.
Our society, as well as being marketing-driven, is obsessed with giving people ‘choice’. This comes from applying the Theory of Evolution to public life. It is thought that if we allow, for example, parents to have unlimited freedom in the choice of schools for their children, then only the fittest (presumably the ‘best’) will survive, 134
thus raising standards and efficiency. People-pleasing, i.e. giving people what they say they want, is the way it seems that the church needs to go. We are told that this is the way we love our neighbour as ourselves, by listening to them and doing what they say. In the Gospels, we only rarely read that Jesus loved someone (though we know he loves everyone), but when we are, it’s instructive to see what he did to love them. For example, the young man who asked Jesus about eternal life: Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Mark 10:21
Jesus did not say or do what the man wanted, but this was real love – an invitation to be like the twelve in following him and to have treasure in heaven. Another example of real love, as opposed to responding to people’s demands can be found with Peter and John at the Beautiful Gate: When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”
Acts 3:3-6
If we seek to please God rather than people, then we can give them what they really need, loving them in the way we would love to be loved, encountering God as his glory is manifested. 135
WWJND: Substitute human planning for revelation Matthew 11:25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.”
We can consider ourselves very clever in the church, as we ape the practices of the world in trying to plan for the future. One commonly-proposed method of church planning is to ask the question “Where do you want the church to be in five years time?”. We are then meant to give a reasoned answer of the desired future and then plan how to get there. If Jesus is the head of the church, then he is the only one who should be asked. There is no promise anywhere in the Bible that God will reveal anything to us before we need to know it. In fact, it is fairly clear that we could mess things up even more comprehensively than we do now, if we knew more of what was going to happen. The example of Abraham shortcircuiting God’s will following the promise of a son should always be before us when we are tempted to start planning. We are meant to live by faith and not by sight91, which means relying on God that he will lead us when we need leading. As W. Ian Thomas put it: God is perfectly capable of taking care of His own affairs, and the reason so little is being accomplished by the Church of Jesus Christ
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2 Corinthians 5:7
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today is that we have all too often organised God out of business. Millions of man hours and countless millions of pounds are being misspent on man’s promotional activity, unasked, on God’s behalf… What embarrassment it would be to you if you had a pair of hands that always tried to demonstrate to you how busy they were!... Surely, what the head demands of every member of the body is restful availability, and prompt response to every impulse of the head in instant obedience,…92
WWJND: Hold on to ‘sacred cows’ Luke 14:3-4 Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away.
In Chapter 5 we showed how easy it is to transfer one’s faith from the living God to some representation of his presence. This has been done many times and in many ways by the people of Israel and by churches down the centuries, from the Golden Calf to today’s vast range of traditions and styles. We see this in the Catholic Mass and in the personality cults around some charismatic leaders; in the use of icons and in formulaic approaches to sermon preparation. In each case, church leaders are implicitly claiming that they have something that guarantees the presence of God with his people.
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W. Ian Thomas, The Saving Life of Christ, London, 1964, Chapter 5
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What often happens is that a golden calf turns into a sacred cow, that is, a religious formula or method or artefact becomes so precious to the people, that they cannot abandon it. We need discernment to distinguish those aspects of our faith that are nonnegotiable from those that have arisen through human effort. We need to separate the ‘things of God’ from the ‘things of man’93. This is where the Bible is so valuable, it gives us a universal, unchanging litmus paper; we must not hold onto anything in the practice of our faith that is not found in its pages.
WWJND: Treat God like a machine Matthew 15:9 “…‘They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’”
We human beings love to be in control. This is one of the reasons that many of us have a fascination with machines: cars, power tools, computers, etc., is that we can make then do exactly what we want. When a machine goes wrong or we don’t know how to make to do something, we get frustrated, because we are no longer in control. There is a real tendency for us to treat God like a machine, because it gives us the false security of believing we are in control of what he does. Many of our ‘religious’ practices are just this, ways that an encounter with the living God can be kept under control. It is easy to see where these practices have come from. A group of people may have come together to worship God, they may have been led
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Matthew 16:23
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by the Holy Spirit to offer their worship in a particular way and God may have tangibly shown up and manifested his presence unmistakably. The problem comes when they meet together again – the temptation will be to do what they did last time, in the hope that they will experience the same result; but this is treating God like a machine that will always respond in the same way. This is why we need to allow the Holy Spirit to be our worship leader, only by listening to him and obeying in the moment, as we offer our worship to Father, Son and Holy Spirit, can we be assured that we are giving God his due. The etymology of the English word ‘worship’ is to do with ascribing worth to the object of our worship. Any kind of worship that is mechanical cannot be expressing how worthy God is of our praise.
WWJND: Worship or pray ‘horizontally’ Luke 20:45-46 While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, “Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted in the market-places and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets…”
It is easy in worship to focus on the second greatest commandment and forget the first. Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’…”
Matthew 22:37-39
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It may seem compassionate and loving to plan and execute our worship to please the people we are worshipping with. People often tell us they can only worship God in a particular style and because we want to appear loving, we try to conform what we do to their preferences. However, worship is for God – how we or anyone else feels during an act of worship is an altogether secondary consideration. We need human worship leaders to exercise the skills God has given them to provide a platform for corporate worship, but we also need to trust them to be led by the Holy Spirit as they chose their material, either already written or spontaneous, to honour him. The songs we sing are just containers into which we pour our heartfelt thanksgiving: …as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
Colossians 3:16
The less we are concerned with impressing people or trying to avoid offending them, the more we can direct our attention on serving God. Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
A sacrifice is abandoned to the service of the one being sacrificed to; it has no thought for itself or the other sacrifices. Paul’s use of the word ‘bodies’ here implies that the whole of our physical beings, including our hearts and minds, are to be lost in praising God. It is wonderful to know that we can offer an acceptable sacrifice of ourselves, because of Jesus’ offering of himself on the cross. 140
WWJND: Depend on anyone but God “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work…”
John 4:34
C.S. Lewis made this telling comment How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints.94 Yet those who have been powerfully used by God do have at least one characteristic in common, they are utterly dependent on God. For example George Muller’s overriding motivation in running orphan houses was not the care of the children, but to demonstrate that it was possible to live and to minister powerfully without asking anyone for money, and without earning it, but by depending on God alone to provide for all their needs. It is good to share our experiences of God with others doing the same kind of work as us, because hearing testimonies can really build our faith; but we must we very wary of copying other people, God is infinitely creative and he is always willing to lead us in the way that is right for us.
94
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book IV, Chapter 11
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WWJND: Be concerned about the things of men Matthew 16:23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
In our Chapter 2 we looked at the extreme contrast between Jesus’ obvious delight in Peter’s confession of who Jesus is, and the response in the verse above to Peter’s ‘natural’ revulsion of what Jesus said he was going to have to go through. Jesus commended Peter more highly than anyone else in the Gospels because, as he said: Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven…”
Matthew 16:17
The ‘things of men’ no matter how compassionate and thoughtful they are, are the work of Satan, because they make us censor the voice of our Heavenly Father, and replace it with the voice of reason, of human kindness, of common sense, anything to avoid an encounter with the living God. Peter was willing to speak out the sudden and unexpected revelation that the man he had been following was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, and received Jesus’ greatest praise. Just a few moments later, when, out of his compassion for Jesus, he tried to persuade him not to go to the cross, he heard these chilling words, Matthew 16:23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
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If we want to be a people who live in the favour of our Master, then we had better get used to working out of revelation.
WWJND: Demand a particular timescale Luke 24:49 Jesus said, “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
Just before Jesus went back to the Father, he made the disciples this promise, and he fulfilled it ten days later on the Day of Pentecost. Very few of the promises in the Bible have any timescale attached, God seems to maintain his sovereignty over when things happen. This means that we need to be both patient and always alert, like a cat watching a mouse hole, at peace until the moment comes to act. As noted above, W. Ian Thomas came up with the phrase ‘restful availability’ which seems to summarise how God wants us to live.
Discussion Points 1. Discuss how, as new wineskins, need to be transformed to contain the life of Jesus. Is the renewal of our minds the most important part of this, or is there another part of our beings that is more crucial? How does our transformation as individuals help the transformation of the church? 2. Put the WWJND’s in order of importance. 3. Can you think of any more WWJND’s? Each of them needs to be tested out using the Gospels. For example, it is not true that Jesus never became angry, see Matthew 12:21-22. 4. Discuss W. Ian Thomas’ phrase ‘restful availability’. How can we be always available to God without rushing around doing 143
what we think is best? How do we insure that we are open to his prompting at all times? What are the characteristics of
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21 Water, Bread and Wine As we have experienced more and more of God’s presence manifested as we draw together to offer him our worship, he has given us greater insight into the two specific acts of worship that Jesus commanded: Matthew 28:18-20 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
1 Corinthians 11:23-25
There is a progression in the Christian life, we start with one act of baptism in water and move on to sharing bread and wine repeatedly. This seems to have a number of echoes in what Jesus has for us.
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Firstly, the move from water to wine seems to have a connection with Jesus’ first miracle at the wedding in Cana95. It is interesting that the water jars were used for ritual purification on the outside of people’s bodies, Jesus changed the water into something that was received internally. Water baptism signifies external cleansing, but also being in Christ. Communion clearly speaks about Christ being in us. Water baptism needs only to be done once, saying that the Father places us in Christ for ever, when we come to faith in him. Communion is repeated because we can always have more of the life of Jesus in us, he takes the Holy Spirit that has been poured into us and transforms the Spirit into his life. Secondly, both baptism and communion signify the burial of Jesus. Paul makes this point about baptism: Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.
Romans 6:3-5
95
John 2:1-11
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The burial of Jesus (by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus96) is the only place in the whole of the Passion narrative where believers played an active part. The rest of the action is by God or by unbelievers (Pilot, Caiaphas, etc.). So it is not surprising that the picture of Jesus’ burial and resurrection should be so obvious in the act of baptism by immersion, as the candidate is taken under the surface of the water, only to rise again. We are linked with Jesus’ burial and resurrection through our baptism, the re-enactment is a kind of prayer that Jesus’ death may be our death; a prayer that he has died in our place. Paul is again helpful when we come to consider the connection between communion and Jesus’ burial. 1 Corinthians 11:26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
In order for us to proclaim the death of Jesus by doing something, there must be some fairly obvious physical parallel between some aspect of Jesus’ death and what we do at communion. The only part of the Passion Narrative that has any connection to the act of eating and drinking is again the burial. Jesus told us to regard the bread as his body and the wine as his blood. Symbolically therefore, in communion we are burying Jesus in ourselves, we have become the tomb. Our active part is to allow our bodies to be Jesus’ resting
96
John 19:38-39
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place, so that they can become the place of his resurrection. Communion is an acted-out prayer, that we may know Jesus’ risen life, living in us. This is what Paul wrote about to the Galatians: I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
Another powerful picture in the act of eating bread and drinking wine is that the parts of Jesus’ physical nature that they symbolise were separated on the cross. His blood was poured out through the beating, the nails and the spear thrust into his side. Symbolically, as we consume the bread and the wine, Jesus is made whole again inside us (not on the communion table). Again, this speaks powerfully of him living in us. Thirdly, the progression from baptism to communion says something about baptism in the Holy Spirit. The water of baptism is an undeniable picture of the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist was emphatic that his (water) baptism was just a precursor to the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the baptism that only Jesus could do. In our Chapter 12 we saw how, by looking at Elijah’s contest with the prophets of Baal, we could understand the relationship between the two baptisms:
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John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah97.
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The only time that Elijah was involved with a ‘baptism in water’ was on Mt. Carmel, when he ordered that the sacrifice should be drenched with water three times98.
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Elijah prayed and fire descended from heaven on the sacrifice99.
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On the Day of Pentecost, the fire from heaven fell again, this time on the disciples100, Jesus had told them to wait for this; this was when they were baptised in the Holy Spirit101.
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Our bodies are to be ‘living sacrifices’102, water baptism is therefore an act of preparation before we are baptised ‘with the Holy Spirit and with fire’103.
We have seen that Jesus wants to turn water into wine for us; therefore he will take the gift of the Holy Spirit, given to us at our conversion (with the Spirit’s power to refresh, revive and empower us) and transform what we have been given into his risen life. The Holy Spirit brings gifts to enable us to exercise ministries as Jesus
97
Matthew 17:12-13, etc.
98
1 Kings 18:33-34
99
1Kings 18:38
100
Acts 2:3
101
Acts 1:5
102
Romans 12:1
103
Matthew 3:11, Luke 3:16
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did, but Jesus goes one step further; he lives in us to transform us into his likeness – not just his power, but his nature. Bill Johnson put it powerfully in a recent prayer: I pray… that we would effectively become a people that truly represent and re-present Jesus on the earth. My heart’s cry is for an authentic, clear manifestation of Jesus on the earth through his people. That he could take anyone of us… and there would be a clear manifestation of his goodness, his kindness, his mercy, his power, his forgiveness; everything about him that is so wonderful would be seen in every one of us.104 To summarise, baptism is the sacrament of the Spirit, communion is the sacrament of the life of Jesus. Baptism speaks of us in Christ, communion speaks of Christ in us.
Flesh and Blood The meaning of the Lord’s Supper, Communion, Eucharist, Mass, whatever we call it, has been one of the most controversial subjects during much of the last 2000 years of church history and therefore it is right to pause before proposing another explanation as to why Jesus instituted it, and why Christians have always found it so
104
Bill Johnson, part of a prayer at Bethel Church, Redding, California, 11th July 2010
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valuable. Yet, the appreciation that Christ is in us and that the Spirit is transforming us into his likeness gives us such a natural way of looking at the bread and the wine. All we need to do is to recognise that ‘we are what we eat’. My physical body is very largely made of the food and drink that I have consumed over the years. When I take the bread (“This is my body”105) and wine (“This is my blood”106) at communion I am implicitly asking that Jesus may live in me. His body and blood were separated when he was dying on the cross, his life is put back together, not on the communion table or in the hands of the person presiding, but in me. Jesus gave us the physical act of eating and drinking because it so directly symbolises the desire of our hearts – to receive more and more of Jesus into ourselves so that we know him more and more intimately and we are changed to be more and more like him. Jesus taught on this extensively in John 6:25-52, and then summarised this in verses 53 – 58, where he tells us six times that we have to be willing to let him in so that we can be made of the same stuff as him. John 6 53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth,
105
Matthew 26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24
106
Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24
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unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
Jesus is speaking here of his life, the abundant life107, the new life108, the eternal life109, which we can have by allowing him in.
54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
Eating and drinking is in the continuous present tense here, we need to go on receiving more of Jesus throughout our lives to have an assurance of eternal life.
55 For my flesh is real food Food sustains us and becomes and my blood is real us, gives us life, energy and drink. substance. To sustain eternal life all we need is Jesus. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.
107
John 10:10
108
Romans 6:4
109
John 3:16, etc.
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Ephesians 2:6
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This is a wonderful promise, that is we are willing to feed on him, we can carry him with us wherever we go. It also means that, if we are in him, then we are already seated in heavenly places110.
57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.
The word translated ‘because of’ can also mean ‘through’; Jesus’ life is from, by, through the Father – if we actively go on receiving Jesus into ourselves we can live in the same way that Jesus did.
58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live for ever.”
We need to be careful of sacramentalism, the manna was physical bread from heaven, but it did not bring eternal life, it just sustained them in the wilderness. Therefore, the physical bread of communion is nothing more than just that; but when we receive it with faith and understanding – as an acted-out prayer – then we have the assurance that the life of Jesus will sustain us for ever.
Although we naturally focus on the cross when we receive communion we need to remember what he actually said: …when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
1 Corinthians 11:24-15
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He did not tell us to take communion in remembrance of what he had done, but to remember him, to bring him to the centre of our minds, to allow him to be the mainspring of our being. The death of Jesus is what justifies us before God, that makes any kind of relationship with him possible, but: For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life (zoe)!
Romans 5:10
Paul tells us that we are saved through Jesus’ life, and communion is a way Jesus has given us to invite him to live within.
Discussion Points 1. Briefly allow everyone to share their understanding of baptism and communion before reading this chapter. What do the members of the group think about the ideas presented in this chapter? 2. Read the accounts of the feeding of the five thousand (John 6:1-14) and the changing of water into wine (John 2:1-11). It is a simple calculation to work out that Jesus changed five thousand cups of water into wine. These two ‘signs’ are obviously connected, and also by the fact that they are the only ‘creative’ miracles that Jesus did. Discuss why Jesus created bread and wine and what it means for us. 3. Read John 6:22-59. In this discourse, Jesus seems to be repeating the same points repeatedly using differing words. Try to summarise what he is saying. Repetition is often used to emphasise the importance of a point, is that what Jesus is 154
doing here? Is there something else that he is trying to say that comes over in there words? 4. Read John 6:60-71. Why do you think some of Jesus’ disciples could not accept this teaching? Have you had the experience of not being able to accept some teaching that you found in the Bible? Have you found difficulty with some of the teaching in this book? Is so, are you tempted to give up in some way? Acts 2:46-47 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. 5. The words above were written about the first church in Jerusalem. Try to emulate them – break bread togther and praise God.
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22
The Two Trees
We have been looking at the difference between two kinds of life. One of these seems to us perfectly natural; it is the life we were born with, and the New Testament uses the Greek words bios and psuche to identify it. For the second kind of life we have the Greek word zoe, and we have seen that it is the risen life of Jesus. In Genesis 2 we are introduced to the Garden of Eden and the two trees at the centre of it. One of these trees is called the Tree of Life, and in the Greek of the New Testament and in the ancient translation of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint, the word used is zoe. Is it possible that the other tree, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, is somehow connected to what we think of as our natural lives? Being able to know the difference between right and wrong, between good and evil, seems to be the first step in living the kind of lives that God wants us to. In fact, this could be said to be the essence of the religions of the world. Each one will give its adherents a somewhat different set of ‘dos and don’ts’, but the religions are alike in each having a moral code. The apparently universal desire for religion stems from the decision made by Adam and Eve in the Garden to want the ability to make moral decisions based on knowledge. The fig leaf clothing that they made as they hid from God among the trees is a picture for us of the flimsiness of man-made religion and its inability to save us from the wrath of God. 156
At the end of the account of the Garden of Eden, we get back to the Tree of Life: The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live for ever.” So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Genesis 3:21-24
The garments of skin correspond to the Old Covenant, which God imparted, thousands of years later, in the form of the Jewish Law. This is the real knowledge of good and evil. The animal skin garments were obviously much more serviceable than those made from leaves, and spoke of the animal sacrifices that were to be such an important part of worship and atonement for evil. Part of the curse following Adam and Eve’s choice of fruit was that they were to be kept away from the Tree of Life. The Old Covenant (while being a genuine gift from God) is not God’s best for humankind, it can never take us back to what Adam and Eve had before the Fall: a relationship with God that covered everything. Jesus gives us access to the Tree of Life; he made the way clear by his death and resurrection. In fact, we should probably think of the Cross as the Tree of Life and of Jesus as the fruit hanging on it. There was a purpose in Jesus dying in this way.
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Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” {Deut. 21:23}
Galatians 3:13
It is clear that we must give up what we have inherited: the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, in order to have the fruit from the Tree of Life. Galatians is a single-issue book where Paul attempts to help us realise that if we try to hang onto both fruits we will lose that which is most precious. He puts this most succinctly here: I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!
Galatians 2:20-21
More support for the idea that the Cross is the Tree of Life comes from the Easter story in the Gospels. The crucifixion and the burial of Jesus happened in a garden: John 19:41 At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no-one had ever been laid.
When May Magdalene saw Jesus for the first time, she thought he was the gardener. This is an echo of the Garden of Eden – the only person Eve expected to see was Adam, the gardener. In her joy, Mary reached out for the fruit that she saw before her, because of what Jesus’ resurrection means: new life for all. There was 158
however, more that Jesus needed to do before the way was made clear for all his disciples to receive his risen life: Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’"
John 20:17
On the cross, Jesus accepted on himself the consequences of the choice we all make to know the difference between right and wrong, and to keep doing the wrong. If we are willing to drop this old fruit we can now come and grab the fruit of zoe life from the other tree and know the manifest presence of God continuously and for ever – much more than even Adam and Eve had in the beginning. This reaching out to receive is clearly symbolised in communion. Bread and wine together have the same characteristics as a piece of fruit, with its flesh and juice. As we come with empty hands to receive, we are praying that we may take what Jesus is giving us: his body and blood – the fruit of the Tree of Life. The Tree is now the place of God’s presence, the way is now clear for us to come to him. Cherubim guarded the presence of God throughout the Old Covenant; they were placed on the cover of the Ark of the Covenant. As God said to Moses: “…There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the Testimony, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.”
Exodus 25:22
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But now: …we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body,…
Hebrews 10:19-20
Discussion Points 1. It is interesting that both the Fall and the Resurrection took place in a garden. Can you see any other connection between these two extremely important events? Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.” 2. What do you think Jesus meant by the words above? How should we, as New Testament Christians, view the Law given by God to Moses?
3. Can we carry the fruit from both trees, or do we have to drop the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, i.e. the presumed authority to make moral decisions based on knowledge? If we just take the fruit from the tree of life, can we trust our knowledge of and relationship with God to guide us? 4. Pray for each other for the assurance that we can be in God’s presence, through all that Jesus accomplished on the cross.
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23 Conclusions As we have explored the workings of God in the 21st Century, we have been brought to the conclusion the manifest presence of God is experienced here on earth through the actual presence of Jesus living in us. It is, as we allow him to use us for the Father’s glory, that we are transformed into his likeness. This is how we, as members of the body of Christ, can re-present him to the world, how he can express himself as he did when he walked the earth in his own physical body. We have seen how the church needs a new reformation, not based this time on doctrines expressed in the Pauline epistles, but on the life of Christ described in the Gospels (especially John’s). We are moving from a time focusing on the work of the Holy Spirit (as in the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements) to a time where the emphasis is on the life of Christ in us. The Pentecostal and Charismatic movements were fully dependent on what had been established by the Protestant Reformation. In the 21st Century, we need all that has been accomplished by the Reformation and Pentecostalism, but God is moving his church on. Jesus was filled with Spirit without measure111 and he operated in all the spiritual gifts mentioned in the epistles112, so the age of the life of Christ will
111
John 3:34
112
With the possible exceptions of the gifts of tongues and the interpretation of tongues.
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still be characterised by signs and wonders in the power of the Holy Spirit. One criticism of Pentecostalism that it focused on the gifts and not the Giver will be answered as we allow Jesus to work through us. If the church is to be truly the body of Christ then we need to allow him to be the head; not just through a set of doctrines or carefully worked-out practices, but dynamically, in each moment. It is clear that he operated, when he was physically on planet earth, in constant communion with the Father, and he offers us the same access. All we need to do is to listen, and to give up our traditions and our thought-out plans and programmes. Worship needs to be more spontaneous, responding to what God is doing at the time; like the Day of Pentecost113 and not the worship of the Golden Calf114. As Jesus never did anything to make an impression on anyone, but was totally honest in the preaching of the gospel, so we need to avoid methods of evangelism that have any kind of hidden agenda. Jesus relied on the presence of his Father being manifested in the power of the Holy Spirit and so must we. This does not take away from us the obligation to help those in need with all the resources at our disposal, but our giving should have no strings attached of any kind, implicit or explicit.
113
Acts 2
114
Exodus 32
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Allowing Jesus to be the head of each local church removes the dilemma which many churches seem to face: do we try to be relevant in doctrine or practice (or both) to the culture around us (and thus hopefully attract new people) or do we hang on to our traditions to retain our existing people? Rather our purpose should be to create an environment where God is sovereign and our worship is totally for him and directed by him; this will attract and hold people without us needing to worry about providing what they want. This is hard for church leaders and church members to take on. God will still bless us no matter the form of our worship; we can experience his presence no matter what the environment. If we have a formula (e.g. a tradition) which seems to ‘work’ and pleases the people we have, why should we change anything? There is no doubt that God has meet with many Roman Catholics during and since the 16th Century Reformation, but through Martin Luther and the other Reformers, God was calling his church to move on into a more complete understanding of our salvation. Similarly, God worked through the early Pentecostals to show his whole church that the Holy Spirit is at work in the world as he was in the First Century. This appreciation of this work of God started to penetrate the mainstream church in a big way over fifty years later. Imagine the state of the world-wide church today if a significant number of people had not taken God seriously and been willing to ‘do’ church the way he was revealing. The question is: ‘Is God calling his church to move on again in the 21st Century, and if so, in which direction?’ From the experience of the previous moves of God we should expect to find direction in the Bible, especially in passages that had seemed difficult to interpret with the currently accepted theologies. It is hoped that this book has at least raised the possibility that there is enough evidence to suggest that, particularly 163
using John’s Gospel, the Father wants us to live in his presence through the life of his Son in us.
Discussion Points 1. Discuss what would be the possible impact on local churches, denominations and the world-wide church if a new reformation (as described in this chapter) were to take place. How do you think the world outside the church view such changes? 2. If this new reformation got underway, which aspects of it would you find easy and which difficult? What about other people in the church? It is probable that God does not expect any church to be totally renewed overnight, what might change first, and what might be delayed? And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. 3. It is clear that all of these changes require us to step out in faith. How much faith is required in ‘conventional’ church worship? Can that be rally pleasing to God, no matter how well it is done?
Hebrews 11:6
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The Way Forward
So how do we put all of this into practice? Some of what we have been looking at requires that we stop doing things, not just because they are ineffective, but because they get in God’s way and demonstrate our lack of faith. One way to come up with a kind of checklist is to consider what we believe is God’s will for us; cooperating with him is so much better than any man-made scheme. The paragraphs below are a summary of what we have discovered.
Our Relationship with God God wants us, above everything, to have an intimate, loving relationship with him, that includes knowing him as Father and as Husband, but goes beyond any human-human experience to knowing Jesus living within us, transforming us into his likeness. Anything that gets in the way of this, even if it appears to be sanctified, self-sacrificial, conforming to a Biblically-inspired formula, etc., must be dumped.
Depending on Continuous Revelation God wants us to depend on continuous revelation from him, i.e. to live by faith that he will always guide us, reassure us, teach us, etc., and we never need to substitute human planning for revelation. We know that true revelation will always bear testing by the Bible, and by the leadership and the body of the church.
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No Constraints We must not constrain how or when God speaks to us. We must not limit what he asks us to do and we must not to have any ‘sacred cows’ that we are not prepared to scrap. God is infinitely creative, he will continue to surprise us for eternity as he reveals more of his nature and purpose for us, so we had better get used to being surprised now.
God is not a Machine We should never to treat God like a machine, i.e. we must never assume because he has worked in a particular way in the past that he will repeat himself, even if the circumstances appear identical. It does not matter how amazing God may have worked in a different time or place, we must not expect him to repeat himself.
Worship must be vertical Worship that is not totally ‘vertical’ i.e. directed to him and by him is not honouring him. If I am trying to please myself or anyone else as I worship then I am corrupting the very thing I was made for.
Dependency on God Wanting to be independent of God is what got Adam and Eve kicked out of the garden. Self-reliance is, in the world’s eyes, a virtue; but it is the thing that can most easily spoil our relationship with him. It is hard to trust God for everything, but there are so many examples in the Bible and in church history of those who did, that we can follow and receive God’s blessing.
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Allow God to set the Pace We need to allow him to reveal the timescale and methods of change in our life together as the body of Christ. God is sovereign over time, and we must do things at the pace he sets. Very few, of the promises in the Bible have any kind of timeframe attached – we just need restful availability to move at the instant he says.
Discussion Points 1. Discuss each of the paragraphs in this chapter in turn – how are you as an individual and us as a church getting on with them? 2. Skim through the whole book. Which points do you believe are most significant? 3. Are there any other practical ways we can work to help to make the church the Body of Christ in reality as well as in name?
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