Patrick Sookdheo at F17 \u2013 \u201cGod is building a new church\u201d. I\u2019ve been wondering what that might that look like! Anything like Hebraic Church? That is more about function than form, and most of us think form rather than function when it comes to church. Perhaps function should be our focus!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus didn\u2019t say \u201cYou<\/strong> will build My<\/strong> church\u201d and He didn\u2019t say \u201cI <\/strong>will build your<\/strong> church\u201d! He<\/strong> is building His<\/strong> church and it exists to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n It doesn\u2019t exist to support man-made structures \u2013 be they buildings or organisations \u2013 nor to build empires \u2013 secular or religious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Several lines we could go down \u2013 Hebraic Church, Shalom \u201cThe Shalom of Oneness\u201d \u2013 these suggest how we could \u2018behave\u2019 differently to what has been known as \u2018church\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Jesus\u2019 church is already out there and exists as an unseen, or obscured, entity that the Lord Jesus\u2019 is building, and against which the gates of Hell will not prevail! (No other \u2018church\u2019 is promised that!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not so we can be judgemental about the \u2018church\u2019 or churches! But so that we can BE the Ekklesia and identify the Remnant. This will be one equipped for the last days and all that they will bring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I hope that we\u2019ll see from the Bible, although we may already know it, that \u201cthe ekklesia of the NT, the Christian fellowship of the first Christians, was not a \u2018church\u2019 and had no intention of being a \u2018church\u2019 \u2026 the New Testament ekklesia, the fellowship of Jesus Christ, is a pure communion of persons and has nothing of the character of an institution about it\u201d [Brunner p.16\/17]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Primarily then, the Ekklesia is about relationship \u2013 being in community, a worshipping, witnessing and working community. We have tended to focus on meetings, ever since Constantine corralled us into buildings in the 4th<\/sup> century! Michael Griffiths, in his book \u2018Cinderella with amnesia\u2019 says: \u201cThe question arises, where is the community when it is not meeting together? Does the congregation exist only when it is in plenary session, and is it therefore dissolved between meetings? Or does it exist in a state of suspended animation, kept in cold storage from Monday to Saturday?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He goes on to say: \u201c The church continues to be the church, not only when it is actually meeting in congregational session, but also when it meets in smaller groups, as it lives together in Christian families, and as its members who are \u2018the light of the world\u2019 are scattered throughout society during the working day. Salt is not salt only when it is all collected together in the saltcellar. It is equally salt when distributed throughout the meat of society to preserve it from corruption. The Christian family and the Christian home is a basic unit of the Christian congregation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This seems to be how the early church functioned and somehow it has morphed into the organisations we see today. The danger is that we write off the visible communities that we call churches while we are looking for the ekklesia (is that part of the reason that there are some 42,000 denominations today \u2013 each one splitting off as they thought they had the \u2018truth\u2019?).<\/p>\n\n\n\n But where is this ekklesia to be found? It\u2019s an important search as the Lord\u2019s promise that \u201cthe gates of hell will not prevail against it\u201d, is made solely to the ekklesia that Jesus is building, not to the organisations and structures which claim the name of \u2018church\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Emil Brunner wrote in \u2018The Misunderstanding of the Church\u2019, \u201cWith or without the churches, if necessary even in opposition to them, God will cause the ekklesia to become a real community of brothers.\u201d He goes on to say, \u201cNot the hostility of the unbelieving world, but clerical parsonic ecclesiasticism [churchianity] has ever been the greatest enemy of the Christian message and of brotherhood rooted in Christ\u201d. (For examples throughout church history, see The Pilgrim Church\u201d by E.H. Broadbent)<\/p>\n\n\n\n But we do need to recognise that meeting together in community is a gracious gift from our Father (Bonhoeffer\/Griffiths p.123ff), and is the means whereby the body of Christ is fed and built up (Brunner\/Griffiths p.126). As David Andrew has said on a number of occasions, you can\u2019t have the head without the body, as there is a special grace given when Christians meet together \u2013 for one thing, Christ Himself promised to be in their midst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have likened the visible church to scaffolding surrounding the building, and I\u2019m not alone I this! \u2013 J. C. Ryle said the same well over 100 years ago! We have spent centuries building and elaborating and beautifying the scaffolding while ignoring \u201cthe church the Jesus is building\u201d. So the scaffolding is all people see and it\u2019s obscuring the true church and blocking its light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is NOT a checklist so we can judge churches to see if they match up before we can join them! We need to have the Father\u2019s Heart, and the mentality of a Bride longing for her Bridegroom and preparing herself for her marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If this is a checklist for anything, it\u2019s a list to check our own hearts and lives with \u2013 are we being the Ekklesia<\/strong> wherever we are and whatever we\u2019re doing? As we relate to one another? For us, in our search, this all starts with us individually \u2013 after all the local church is only the sum of the people that are part of it and it is only what they make it to be. We are the people making up the Ekklesia!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Lord\u2019s Promise of victory over Hell is made to the Ekklesia only, not to man-made institutions calling themselves \u2018church\u2019 (the visible church), which are merely scaffolding around the real church that Jesus is building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Ekklesia brings \u201cglory to the Father, testimony to Christ, hope to the lost, and selfless fellowship to their comrades in arms\u201d (David Andrew).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lessons from The 7 Churches in Revelation 2-3, particularly the last 4, which can represent Christendom in our day:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looks like a remnant, particularly in the last one (which may represent the last of the Last Days?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember, this is us, folks!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The more resistance they face, the more the remnant church will become resolute in their faith (sort of like the way the muscles in our body get harder with resistance training). Instead of compromising the message of the Word, they may change their method of presenting the gospel but will never even consider watering down biblical ethics, values and the message of the cross of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The remnant church used to be merely unpopular in the past but has now got to the point where they are hated. It is very apparent that Christian values are constantly mocked by society, and increasingly within the institutional churches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The remnant church will continue to preach the gospel of Christ; they apply the gospel to cultural issues in a wiser, more winsome way. The remnant church will remain faithful in preaching the gospel in spite of the possible backlash they can receive from church attendees and or the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is able to produce disciples because it takes great sacrifice to believe in Jesus in the midst of hostile environments. Consider the Christians still living in Iraq, Syria, Iran, Northern Nigeria, Sudan and similar persecuted regions. Compromising churches produce wimpy believers and the remnant church produces committed disciples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first-century church was a hated minority, yet great power and the presence of God accompanied its ministry! (Acts 3:7-10; 4:3-4, 31-33; 5:13-14)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The more uncool it becomes to be a biblical church, the more the so-called cool (or, compromising!) churches will distance themselves from the remnant church. Presently, it is still not as easy for the average person to discern between remnant and compromising churches. (Most folks still lump us all together.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, as the heat gets turned up more and more, compromising pastors and churches (and individuals) will choose to accommodate culture and compromise Scripture, thus making a clearer distinction between the remnant and mainstream church. Not only that, these compromising pastors and churches will continue to do their best to distance themselves in public from the remnant. (This is what happened in Nazi Germany when the nationalistic churches separated from the confessing churches to avoid persecution and death.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to know what’s important to God look at what the devil is attacking! He’s attacking family in particular and he attacks the church in particular. Just look at where he’s focusing if you want to know and that’s where we have got to mount, not just defensive action, but offensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We’ve got to be offensive Christians! (John 2 Jesus cleansing the Temple \u2013 loved righteousness and hated iniquity \u2013 are we like Him?) We are in a battle and you may have to defend for a certain time but, in the end, the army which wins is the one which advances and so we’ve got to go on the offense in these things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" God\u2019s Objectives for the Ekklesia \u2013 the Church which the Lord Jesus Christ is building Patrick Sookdheo at F17 \u2013 \u201cGod is building a new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13,21,5],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nSo we need to discern the Ekklesia!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Characteristics of the Ekklesia in our day of institutional failure<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How to find the Ekklesia (remembering that we ARE the Ekklesia!)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How to find the Remnant<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Characteristics of the Remnant Church (the Persecuted Church)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
1. They will become more entrenched in the Word of God the more the world opposes them<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
2. They will become the vilified in society<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
3. They will preach a countercultural Biblical message<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
4. They will produce the most committed Christians and make disciples<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
5. They will experience a greater presence and power of God<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
6. They will be more excluded and separated from mainstream churches and denominations.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Importance for Spiritual Warfare<\/h3>\n\n\n\n