Yeshua Explored
The Church and COVID – part 3
What has the Church really learnt?
(This series of articles was written a year after the first lockdown in March/April 2021)
Previous articles are still available on the Premier Christian radio website – https://www.premierchristianradio.com/Blogs2/Yeshua-Explored – (until they finally pull the plug!)
What has the CHURCH REALLY learned in the past 12 months?
Of course, a lot that the Church thought it had learned has been valid in a superficial, even worldly, sense. But we need to have a Kingdom perspective and then, if we are honest, we realise that the Church has come out of this “period of re-examination” in much the same spiritual state as it had when the “do not enter” notices were nailed to Church doors all around the country on March 27th 2020.
How do we judge whether the Church, in general, has learned anything? Who am I to judge? Necessary questions, though.
The best guideline we can have is the Word of God. Here’s how God sees His church:
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Peter 2:9)
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing 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 … (Matthew 28:19-20)
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22)
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Ephesians 3:10-11)
The question is, is He currently seeing this … ?
Imagine an Archangel standing before us, God’s Church, with a clipboard, ticking things off. Perhaps you’re in the front row as he fixes his eyes upon you and starts his assessment: A holy Nation? A royal priesthood? Making disciples of all nations? A holy temple? A dwelling for God’s Spirit? An encourager? Showing the manifold wisdom of God?
Was this His Church before COVID? Is this His Church a year later? These are all the marks of a functioning Church as He has designed it to be according to His Word? Are we giving service to these words … or are we just paying lip service? We have come out of a Divine hiatus. How has this affected us?
What should the Church have learned in the last twelve months?
This is an extract from the book, Flockdown Church: Back to the drawing board?, available for £5 at https://www.sppublishing.com/flockdown-church-278-p.asp
