ECCLESIOLOGY, Part 4 - THE NEED FOR ASSEMBLING

When most people think of ‘church’, I suspect they either think of a building with a steeple, or, the people in a Sunday meeting of a congregation. In this post, I’m addressing the latter understanding of church. Christ has ordained that His church meets together regularly. The original history of the Church (the Book of Acts) reveals that the first Church met in the Jerusalem where thousands gathered in the Temple’s outdoor precinct; and, in one another’s homes around Jerusalem. As the Church grew around the Mediterranean world, local churches initially met in the large homes of wealthy householders. These Greco-Roman households provided a ready-made structure to these new churches. It wasn’t too long before problems arose in many of the local churches. This is something that we should all be very thankful for, because the result of these church problems were the New Testament epistles. Within these epistles we find the biblically ordained liturgy (how a church service is conducted) for when a church assembles. Let’s consider what this is...

1. THE CHURCH IS ORDAINED TO ASSEMBLE TOGETHER

When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus

FIRST CORINTHIANS 5:4

I grew up going to a Primary School where the Principal held an outdoor “assembly” every week. I think Mr. Blackie was ex-military, at least that’s what one of the other students said when we had to standard to attention, salute the flag, then stand at ease. It was during this weekly assembly that important announcements were made, special achievements were mentioned, and the school’s rules were reinforced. At the conclusion of the assembly we were all given a small glass bottle of milk and an al’foil lid to drink (which was no fun on a hot summer’s day after these bottles of milk had gone-off in the outdoors full-sun!) This weekly assembly gave me a fuller understanding of what the apostle Paul was referring to when he wrote to the Corinthians. When the church gathered on the Lord’s Day each week, they were to assemble. They were, in a way, to ‘stand’ to attention, give God honour, pay attention to what said, then have a time of fellowship. This was not a mere optional obligation for believers. The writer to the Hebrews exhorts all believers to not to neglect the gathering (assembling) together - as is the habit os some! (Heb. 10:25). 

A Christian is one who (i) believes (in the saving work of Jesus Christ); (ii) belongs in a local church family; and, (iii) behaves in accord with the teaching of Christ. Each church family is called to assemble each week - that is, every believer is called to join with his or her church family and praise God together, participate in the ordinance of Holy Communion together, give heed to preaching and exposition of God’s Word, worship the Lord with their giving, and minister the grace of fellowship to one another. To consider more about the theology of the assembling of the church, I suggest The Community of the King by Howard A. Snyder. 

2. THE CHURCH IS ORDAINED TO PRAISE TOGETHER

Christianity is one of the few religions in which singing is a vital component of its worship of God. When a church praises God together with singing, it helps to refocus the worshipers onto the greatness of God. Congregational praise can be a positive distraction from the cares and worries of life. Singing our praise to God can be prayerful, meditative, and uplifting.  Praising God together can also be an effective witness to outsiders:

And in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy. As it is written,

“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles,

and sing to your name.”

ROMANS 15:9

Praising God should be thoughtful so that it engages the mind and the heart of a believer. The Church has a long tradition of producing thoughtful hymns that enable this. There some denominations of churches which will only use the Psalms as the songs of their congregational praise - but, Colossians 3:16 encourages the use of much more than Psalms as the basis for church praises:

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

COLOSSIANS 3:16

This act of worship—singing—by a congregation is not dependent on whether someone is a good singer, because singing praise is a matter of heart, not talent! This is why every believer who attends their church family’s worship service is obliged to join in singing. 

3. THE CHURCH IS ORDAINED TO CONDUCT THE ORDINANCE OF HOLY COMMUNION TOGETHER

Jesus established certain ordinances (also identified as sacraments by some Church traditions) for His Church. These are universally acknowledged as holy communion (eucharist), water baptism (some denominations also refer to this as christening), and marriage. Each of these involve the interaction of the Holy Spirit.

Holy Communion - Christ, on the night He was betrayed, instigated the Lord’s Supper where He took unleavened bread, gave it to His disciples, and said “This is My body, take and eat.” Then He took the cup of unfermented fruit of the vine, and gave it to His disciples, and said, “This is My blood, drink this in remembrance of Me.”

¶ Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” And He took a cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

MATTHEW 26:26-29

Holy Communion is a sacred ordinance of the Church. The earliest Christians came to recognise this ordinance as a significant aspect of their Sunday worship service. They understood Christ’s emphatic statement that the bread and wine - the elements (also referred to as 'accidents' by some church traditions) - were “My body” and “My blood” meant that when believers celebrated Holy Communion in faith that Christ Himself was present by His Spirit. That is, when the early believers ate and drank the communion elements in faith, they were actually nourishing their souls on Christ. Perhaps churches today might need to recapture some of this reverence for this sacred ordinance. At the very least, celebrating Holy Communion as a church congregation is one of the sacred things which constitutes an assembling of believers as a church.

4. WHEN THE CHURCH ASSEMBLES IT IS TO GIVE HEED TO THE PREACHING AND TEACHING OF GOD’S WORD

The apostle Paul told Timothy, his lieutenant, that his role at Ephesus was to preach the Word (2Tim. 4:2). The preaching and teaching of God’s Word was instigated by the apostles from the Church’s outset (note Acts 15:35; 1Peter 1:25). This demands two important things. Firstly, preachers and teachers of God’s Word are responsible for developing their skill and expertise to fulfil their ministry. I would strongly encourage preachers to learn how to preach the Word of God expositionally, rather than reading or reciting a sermon from a script. Do not read your sermon - preach it! For any preacher who would like to begin to hone their craft, I suggest, The Preacher’s Portrait, some New Testament Word Studies, by John R. W. Stott. Preachers should remember that the aim of a sermon was for a congregation not merely to hear a sermon, but to apply its lessons by heeding it.

Secondly, believers must learn how to listen and heed the preaching and teaching of God’s Word. Believers should bring their bibles to church and come prepared to take notes of what is preached and taught. This is an important component of what Christ has ordained for His church when they assemble.

5. WHEN THE CHURCH ASSEMBLES IT IS TO WORSHIP GOD THROUGH ITS GIVING

The Mosaic Law prescribed in the Old Testament including the bringing animals to be sacrificed, offerings of gold and silver (money), and the concept of regular giving in support of the Levites and priests referred to as tithes. Jesus told His hearers that they should tithe (Matt. 23:23). This was said in the context of the Mosaic Law still being current - despite the general corruption of the Levites and priests. It might then be tempting to dismiss to dismiss such a comment from Christ with a wave of the hand and a “But we’re now in the New Covenant” exclamation. However, before you do so, consider that much of what Christ taught about New Covenant ethics went higher - not lower - than Old Covenant ethics. Consider what Christ said about such things like murder, or adultery. In the case of murder, Jesus raised the standard to hating being equivalent to the sin of murder (Matt. 5:21-22), and for adultery He raised it to lusting after a woman being equivalent to adultery (Matt. 5:27-28)! 

In the early chapters of the Book of Acts we see how the early Church understood what Christ was teaching about giving - and it was certainly not a lower standard than the Old Covenant.

And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

ACTS 4:33-37

The apostle Paul instructed the Corinthians that as they met each Sunday (“the first day of the week”) to also receive a special offering to support the impoverished Jerusalem believers (1Cor. 16:2). In writing to the Ephesians via Timothy, Paul stated that the church was to support those who dedicated themselves to the preaching and teaching of God’s Word (1Tim 5:17). Today, giving continues to be an act of worship by New Covenant believers who give as God has blessed them.

As the Church expanded around the Empire and beyond, and churches grew where it was impracticable to continue meeting in homes of even wealthy householders, funds were raised to build houses of worship and teaching. Yet, the primary need for believers to give financially to their local church was to support the ministry of those who shepherded the local church congregation. Today, this same purpose remains and is supplemented when wealthier churches give to missions projects beyond their immediate locality as well.

6. WHEN THE CHURCH ASSEMBLES IT IS TO MINISTER THE GRACE OF GOD ONE TO ANOTHER THROUGH FELLOWSHIP

When the church assembles it is also called to fellowship. This is a spiritual discipline which seeks to be commune through Christ with a brother or sister in Christ. It involves listening, caring, responding, and sharing. It is an important part of what happens when a church assembles. Done well, it is a blessing. Done effectively, it results in prayer. Done habitually it leads to closeness with another brother or sister in Christ. While it has a place in the time that a church family has met for weekly worship, it also takes place outside of this time.

But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

FIRST JOHN 1:7

We have seen that the New Testament describes and prescribes the components of a liturgy for when a local church assembles. This includes: prayers together, the singing of praise together, partaking of Holy Communion together, hearing and heeding the teaching and preaching of God's Word, bringing our financial gifts, and prayerful/caring/thoughtful fellowship one with another. Sadly, it seems that today, many believers have come to see weekly church assembling as an optional thing. I would encourage all believers to make assembling each week with their church family one of their highest priorities. I would also strongly urge all believers to contribute their willing participation in each of the aspects of their church's liturgy outlined above. In doing so, we may once again begin to see what the apostle wrote about about in Ephesians 3:8-10. If you are interested in exploring the theology of Christian fellowship, I suggest Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Amen.

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ReIMAGINING CHURCH

ReIMAGINING CHURCH

 ¶ For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body,

though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
First Corinthians 12:12

After Christ ascended back to His Father, He then sent His Spirit into the world on the Day of Pentecost to construct His body, His bride, the Church, throughout the earth. Jesus Christ had already revealed to His apostles that He had come not just to save the lost but also to gather the saved into what He called: the Church. Clearly, Christ thought the Church was one of the centrepieces of His plan to save and teach the lost. But what did the original apostles imagine that Jesus meant? Almost certainly they imagined that Jesus meant something like the synagogues that they were already used to. This would explain why all of the earliest churches that the apostles commenced were structured in exactly the same way as a synagogue’s leadership was structured. But as the Church grew and spread across the Empire, the way each church was organised was reimagined. Then over the following centuries as churches spread across and beyond the Empire, it was reimagined again. History reveals that what some church leaders imagined for the Church was far from what Jesus would have approved of. Despite this, in the final revelation that Christ gave to the last surviving of His apostles (“The Book of Revelation”) He presented John with a vision of a glorious, victorious, enormous church, to deliver to seven of the persecuted churches of Asia Minor. Yet there seems to be a huge gap between what the Church became, and perhaps is, and what this revelation declared it would one day be! The lessons from this gap between history of the Church and this ultimate vision of Christ for His Church described in parts of the Book of Revelation should cause us to realise that we need to reimagine how our church can be what Christ imagined it will become and to do what we can in our generation to close that gap!

To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given,
to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God,
who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God
might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 3:8-10

INFORMING OUR REiMAGINATION OF THE CHURCH

To reimagine what Christ and the apostles thought of “church” we have to get a glimpse of what the church is described as doing in the New Testament.

Firstly, we can see that the church met each Sunday as their priority (1Cor. 16:2).

We can see that it was organised with and led by gifted and called leaders (Eph. 4:11-12; 1Tim. 3). These gifted and called leaders were trained to care and minister to people’s needs accordingly.

We see that when the church met they fellowshipped together over food and drink and often ate meals together (Acts 2:46).

Their meetings were both small and large, in that, they all met together and they met in smaller groups within each others’ homes (Acts 2:46-47; 20:20).

We see that it conducted its gatherings in an orderly manner under the oversight of these leaders (1Cor. 14:40).

Prayers were offered to God for [1] their rulers and leaders, [2] the needs within their church, and [3] for people to be saved (Col. 4:2; 1Tim. 2:1-4).

They sang their worship to God together (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16).

The Word of God was read and then explained through preaching and teaching (1Cor. 15:2; 2Tim 4:2).

An offering was taken up when they met (1Cor. 16:1-2; Phil. 4:18; 1Tim. 5:17).

They had a formal membership process and roll (“the right hand of fellowship” Gal 2:9; 1Tim. 5:9-11).

They baptised new believers (Acts 2:41; Rom. 6:1-5).

The Lord’s Supper was regularly celebrated to commemorate Christ’s atoning death (1Cor. 11:26-29). 

They exercised the spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit to minister God’s grace and edify each other (1Cor. 12:4-11; 1Peter 4:10-11).

While this is how the church functioned for the first few hundred years of its existence, the historic record shows that it ceased doing many of these Christ ordained functions. Let us consider some of the glimpses in the Book of Revelation of how Jesus foresaw what His Church would ultimately become.

 

A VISION OF A GLORIOUS, VICTORIOUS, ENORMOUS CHURCH

¶ After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number,
from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages,
standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes,
with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice,
“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Revelation 7:9-10

¶ Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude,
like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder,
crying out,“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult
and give Him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and His Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to clothe herself
with fine linen, bright and pure”—
¶ for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
Revelation 19:6-8

The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.
This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection!
Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ,
and they will reign with Him for a thousand years.
Revelation 20:5-6

 

OUR REiMAGINATION OF THE CHURCH 

Having looked at what the earliest churches uniformly did, and what Christ revealed it would one day become, let us now reimagine how these aspects of those churches’ activities might be done today.

Early Christians recognised that the significance of the Jewish sabbath as a day of rest from normal activity to come together with God’s people to worship, receive God’s Word, and pray, was transferred to Sunday (the first day of the week 1Cor. 16:2). This was at a time when the Greco-Roman world did not have “weekends” where either Saturday or Sunday was set aside for either Jews or Christians to worship! Thus, coming together on Sunday to worship, fellowship, and even eat a meal together, would have been especially special for those Christians who were slaves! These slaves could come together with wealthy people and be treated as an equal because of what Christ had done by saving them too. We now live in a world where diverse people rarely have a time and place to meet together as equals — but our church can be that for people today!

We live in a world where leaders are often susceptible to corruption and pathological behaviour (that is, they don’t really care about others). But our church can model servant-hearted leadership to the oppressed, downtrodden, despised, depressed, and demonised. While a few of our leaders will be paid a modest wage, the vast majority of our leaders will serve as volunteers without expecting anything in return – with the exception of an occasional thank you – but ultimately, the longing that one day they will hear our Master say, “Well done good and faithful servant!” (Matt. 25:21).

Much of the music that our culture enjoys today is focused on the self and contain lots of pronouns such as me, my, I, mine. The music and lyrics we use in our contemporary worship is not performed by celebrity musicians or performers. When we worship together we are not focusing on ourselves. On the contrary, we are worshiping by focusing on GOD, our Heavenly Father and His Christ, and we do so by the empowering of the Holy Spirit. Our time of singing our worship together is a crucial antidote to the world’s toxic  obsession with the individual and the self. While the Church has produced many hundreds of hymns in generations gone by, we can cultivate fresh sounds and lyrics to declare timeless truths about GOD.

In a world that has its priorities all messed up, our church can be a place and people where priorities are realigned to accord with the priorities that make for peace and good mental health (Matt. 6:33). This is why we should buck against the cultural trend to view Sunday as just another day and take a stand to treat it as the the Lord’s day (Rev. 1:10). But we can also create sacred spaces and times to provide doorways and bridges for those unable to join with us in our Sunday morning Worship and Word services. This is why our livestream is proving so invaluable to many people who are not able to be present with us on a Sunday.

The world likes to segment and put people into boxes – often generational boxes – but we can reimagine our church to be a place where people of all ages meet together and interact. This can give people a rare opportunity to mingle together as a multigenerational clan.

Let’s reimagine church in other ways too – not by abandoning what the Scripture describes are those Christ-ordained aspects of our various functions which I have listed earlier, but by reimagining how they might be done today. And may we increasingly know the love of God the Father, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship with the Holy Sprit, as we do so!

Pastor at Large,

Andrew

Let me know what you think below in the comment section and feel free to share this someone who might benefit from this Pastor’s Desk.

HOUSE (of God) RULES

Our theme for this year is Welcome home and there’s a good reason for it. I pray regularly that God will bring into our church the hurting, the lost, the lonely, and the broken. What these people will need most is: love, care, support, understanding, acceptance, friendship, and rules. These are the things that a good home provides and they are also what our church can deliver. But it will mean that we will have to be very clear about the rules for achieving this because hurting, lost, lonely, and broken people are all too often hardened, bitter, self-pitying, and very negative people who don’t live with ‘house rules’. When Paul wrote to the Ephesians he went to great length to explain to them what the church was, what people could expect  from church, how a church was led, how a church helped a believer to grow and become like Christ, and the rules for living within the ‘household of God’.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God
Ephesians 2:19

HELPING THE HURTING,LOST, LONELY, CONFUSED, FRIENDLESS, & BROKEN

If you’ve fostered a child, you’ll understand what I’m saying. Children who are made wards-of-the-State have often been hurt in unimaginable ways and quite possibly have never experienced true love. When foster parents offer to take in such a child, it is often heart-breaking for all concerned. A child who is hurting, lost, lonely, confused, friendless and broken, is hard work—just ask any foster parent who has attempted it!

in whom [Christ] the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:21-22

When Paul wrote to the Ephesians he was writing to a church comprised of Jews and Gentiles who saw the world very differently and came from radically different backgrounds, and often didn’t get on very well to put it mildly. But Paul tells them that Jesus has now “broken down the wall of hostility between them” and brought them together into the church.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility
Ephesians 2:13-14

While Jewish converts were familiar with God’s moral laws and even His instructions for how a family should function, these Gentile converts in the Ephesians were not. Paul later tells the Ephesians that when it comes to selecting elders, you should only consider the candidates who “have one wife” and “have their household in order”. This gives us a clue that there were possibly many in the Ephesian church who, in typical Roman practice, may have been married to several wives (polygamy) and quite probably had several ‘concubines’ (‘sex-slaves’). In setting the church in order, Paul describes what families should look like: parents who love each other; parents who love their children; children who obey their parents; fathers who teach their children about life and God; and how the family unit is a bastion of spiritual warfare against the forces of darkness. And all the while, this single, celibate, apostle, has an even bigger picture in mind: what the local church should be like. Despite being comprised of people who have just come out of lifestyles of immorality or religious arrogance, he sees the local church as a big family where everyone must learn to live in Christ together (Eph. 2:5; 2:21; 2:22; 4:16).

In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:22

Paul’s strategy for healing the broken was to minister Christ to them by the power of God’s Word. This was because what the hurting, lonely, self-pitying, despondent, really needed was not what they themselves thought they needed — more attention, more popularity, better looks, more money, more wishes to come true — but the True Source of Satisfaction to their deepest and greatest need: Jesus. 

In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit
Ephesians 1:13

That He might sanctify her [the church], having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word
Ephesians 5:26

THE POWER OF THE WORD WITHIN THE COMMUNITY OF THE CHURCH TO BRING HEALING

People who are hurting and consequently feeling misunderstood and isolated, often become very bitter. In the Old Testament there is a story about a school of prophets who were served a stew that was very bitter and tasted like poison (bitterness is indeed a poison and it causes hurt people to hurt people). They called on Elisha for help. He instructed them to take meal (a very finely ground flour) and cast it into the bitter stew (2Kings 4:41). When they did this, the bitter stew became safe and savoury to eat. This is a picture of what the Word of Christ does to a bitter and broken soul. He and His Word takes a bitter, lonely, hurting soul and transforms it into a healed, whole, and attractive soul. Thus, Paul told the Ephesians- 

¶ Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
Ephesians 4:25-31

HOUSE (of God) RULES

Based on the above passage we can see that the Apostle Paul gave the Ephesians some important ‘house rules’ for their church. We might summarise the house rules of Ephesians 4:25-31 in this way-

• Speak the truth – leaders should not shy away from correcting the wayward
• Don’t withdraw if someone in the church upsets you – if someone innocently offends you don’t let your anger lead to the sin of slander (especially if it was a leader) 
• Forgive quickly – unforgiveness gives the devil an foothold in a church to weaken its effectiveness
• Be a contributor – both within the church community and in the world so that you can share with anyone in need 
• Speak positively about the church – let your words build others up not tear them down
• Cooperate with the Holy Spirit – Christ has sent the Holy Spirit into the world to assist in the outworking of His plan of redemption through the church, therefore resist the Devil’s temptation to be a rebel and cooperate with the Holy Spirit in praying for your church (remember, bitter criticism and slander is your admission of prayerlessness)

In the meantime, please continue to take a moment to welcome those who are new to our church then be on the look out for those who may feel left out. This is what families do, especially church families, and it’s what makes a house a home.

 -Pastor Andrew