The Church - A living Body
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Important messages
A few days ago, I wrote an article called “The Individual Call",
in which I had comments about the Laodicean Church. The church continued to
function even after it had abandoned Jesus, and at the same time rejoiced in
being “rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing”. See the
self-sufficiency: “I have become wealthy” and in the satisfaction that it
gives: “I have need of nothing”. I can’t enjoy it with them, because my eyes
have seen the invisible and my mouth has tasted the sweetness of heavenly
honey.
Few Christians these days know
anything about a church that is not under man’s control, where only Christ is
the architect with the plan and is building His people beyond human knowledge.
I mentioned that I had written more fully about the church in the book, God
Made the Country, and I thought it might be good to post the chapter that
I referred to. It will give an idea of the true church and how it functions,
even in modern times, if Christ is the Head and has the control.
GOD MADE THE COUNTRY
Chapter 16
THE CHURCH – A LIVING BODY
“(The Father)
put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all
things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in
all.” Ephesians 1:22-23
A
Christian of German descent in Wisconsin was reading a small-town newspaper
from North Dakota. His eyes scanned the church announcements and suddenly he
felt a compulsion to pray for one of these churches. It seemed strange to him,
because the church wasn’t of the same denomination as his own church and he had
never visited it. Every year he drove 500 miles to North Dakota to help
relatives (who sent the paper to him) with their harvest. Months later, during
the next harvest season, in his curiosity to discover the reason behind the
strange desire to pray, he walked into the little church in Finley, ND.
When
our daughter and her family attended church that Sunday, someone directed our
German son-in-law, Tom, to a visitor, who spoke German. In the ensuing
conversation, Tom explained that he met his wife in Germany, where her family
were missionaries. He said that her parents now live in Spain. “Oh!” the
Wisconsinite exclaimed, “I have a relative working with a Christian drug rehab
organization in Spain!” To shorten the story, the man was the son of good
friends of ours, and his relative was in the rehab center founded by my cousin.
He had no idea that our daughter lived in the area, where he was harvesting.
However, the important fact is that, during this time of prayer, the church
experienced special fruitfulness and souls came to Christ.
Another
story centers in exactly the same area of Wisconsin as the preceding one. While
still living in a little village in Germany, six or seven years ago, we
attended Sunday meetings just a few hundred yards from our home, organized by
Christian American soldiers. The pastor was absent one day and a soldier took
charge of the service. He gave his testimony and ended by saying that his tour
in Germany was over and he was returning to his home in Wisconsin. Having been
raised in Wisconsin, after the meeting I asked him exactly where his home was
located. He nailed it down to a rural area, where two of my uncles owned farms
years before. My uncle Bill was in the adult Sunday School class taught by this
soldier’s father. He told me that his father spent many wonderful hours in the
hospital, visiting and praying with my uncle, before he died of cancer. My
uncle passed away many years before this incident that I described.
Probably
all of us have heard stories similar to the account given of an American
businessman, who totally dedicated his work to God, supporting His cause
throughout the world, while maintaining a personal witnessing ministry that
brought hundreds to Christ. He was diagnosed as having cancer and given two
years at most to live. The night before a major operation to take biopsies from
22 parts of his body, a strange warm feeling entered and he knew that God had
touched him. No trace of cancer could be found in careful study of the
biopsies. Without having a clue to his physical problem, a missionary lady in a
distant country wrote him of a burden that had come to her concerning him. She
began to pray and in a certain hour the burden lifted. It was the night that he
felt the warmth sweep through his body.
I
recently heard of another man who collapsed in his bedroom. His wife did not
hear his calls, but for some unknown reason, felt to check on him and found him
dying on the floor. An emergency trip to the hospital saved his life. Weeks
later, a friend of his, a black lady many miles away in Florida, told him that
on the morning that his emergency occurred, as she prepared for work, she was overtaken
with concern for him. She fell prostrate to the floor and prayed.
Just
recently, I man in Norway told me a similar story about falling through the ice
on a lake and he could not escape the icy waters. A curious policewoman saw his
car by the side of the road, found him and called an ambulance. Through the
night, his life hung in the balance, but in the morning his heartbeat
normalized and the crisis passed. At the same time that the accident occurred,
elderly Christian friends of his, for no known reason, were suddenly gripped
with concern for him. They prayed through the night until the burden lifted in
the morning.
These
are nice stories and are by no means coincidental. They are the works of the
master Storyteller, who writes His stories with human lives in real
situations. As these accounts came to my
attention, a question formed in my mind: "These incidents are fascinating,
but there must be a reason why they take place. What is their purpose?"
I don´t
know how God speaks to you, but on a few occasions, I do hear a spontaneous and
clear inner voice. However, most frequently and more definitely, He teaches
through His written word, correlating it with events that take place over a
period of time. It was in this way, as I was pondering the functions of the
universal body of Christ in the scriptures, I heard the answer to my question:
"In these situations you see the functions of members of a living church,
mysteriously moved on behalf of others."
A man
in Wisconsin from a family, who are good friends of mine, ministers through
prayer to a church, in which my daughter and her family attend. He is totally
unaware of these relationships, when he is moved to pray. In a small village in
Germany, a soldier from Wisconsin, whom I have never met, tells me how his
father ministered to my uncle many years before. Through these accounts my own
soul is nourished and I grow in faith in a living God, who takes care of minute
details, as He carries on His eternal purposes.
We can
be so taken up with our own lives and our own ministries, totally encompassed
with the burdens and purpose of "our thing", that we miss the big,
broad picture that God is developing in a quiet, unpretentious manner, through
the instrumentality of countless, unknown people. We see our relatively little
church "family" and organization and, though we should know better,
we act like it is the only thing in which God is really interested and working.
That is a crippling deception, fostered by pride and narrow-mindedness. No single
church group can function alone. We need the input and gifts of others, totally
outside our circle of interest and natural knowledge.
Nowadays,
much importance is given to being sent out by a particular church or
organization, and little recognition is given to divine calling or of a
confidence in the work of God in an individual. The concept of a Christ-centered
and controlled headship has been perverted into a man-controlled and
manipulated society, conforming to the humanistic mentality of our day.
Paul
rejected every proposed effort to establish the church by superficial means.
People were not to be accepted or rejected by means of letters of commendation
from the leadership, but spiritual gifts were to determine that which was
written in the hearts (2 Cor. 3:1). Outward circumcision meant nothing to Paul,
but the circumcision of the heart. Paul saw clearly that the church was God’s
field and God’s building. He had no authority to originate ideas or establish
his own precedents. All had to be spiritual and eternal. He wrote of building
with gold, silver and precious stones – fire-proof materials. All that could
burn, would be burnt, and then, as the source of combustible material, he spoke
of the wisdom of this world. The very finest that human qualities or worldly
material can produce is wood, hay and stubble (1 Cor. 3:7-20).
Jesus
referred only twice to the church by name, both times in the Gospel of Matthew.
One reference is very significant (Matt. 16:15-18). It was in response to
Peter’s correct answer to the question, “Who do you say that I am?” That
answer came by direct revelation from the Spirit of God. Jesus then said that
He would build His church as a result of people receiving the same revelation;
that the Carpenter from Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of God. The church is
constructed with living, pulsating, moving stones (1 Peter 2:4-6), built into a
spiritual house, not joined by man-unifying mortar, but each one is chosen by
Christ and perfectly fit into his place. Simon Peter was named a stone in that
church by the Lord and he was still writing about the revelation in his
epistle: “Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected by men, but choice
and precious in the sight of God.”
Only
the Spirit of God can reveal and teach the mystery which was prophesied
allegorically in the Song of Solomon; the mystery of Christ and His church. I
believe, it is the mystery that Agur said was too wonderful for his
understanding in Proverbs 30:19: “The way of a man with a maid.” Only
that mysterious God/Man is the way to the Father for his bride.
Only He
can build His church, in ways that are far beyond the possibilities and
capabilities of man. “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain
who build it” (Psalms 127:1). Only He holds the blueprint. Those who have
come to Him, find that their place in Christ and His church is not stationary,
but a function given by the Head of the church to each member and must be
carried out by supernatural gifts and enabling. No mere man can ever bring the
church into being and no man can maintain, control or manipulate its movements.
It is all too wonderful for man. “What kind of house will you build for me?
Says the Lord; Or what place is there for My repose? Was it not My hand which
made all these things?” (Is. 66:1,2 quoted by Stephen in Acts 7:49-50)
Paul
spent 14 years in the deserts of Arabia learning the mystery of the church,
which had been hidden in the Old Testament scriptures (Eph. 3:3-10, Col.
1:24-27). “This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ
and the church” (Eph. 5:32). The church was to remain a spiritual entity in
the world, controlled by other-worldly, supernatural forces, which the citizens
of this present age cannot understand nor tolerate.
When
Jesus spoke to the multitudes about it, He spoke in parables. In Matthew 13, we
find several. This seed of the gospel could only be rightly received by those
whose hearts had been broken from the ways of men, from the self-serving desire
for happiness, from the cares of this world and the lust for riches. The
parable proved to His disciples that the true gospel could never become a
popular thing (Matt. 13:18-23). However, in another parable, he showed that an
enemy would enter in and sow another seed of tares, which would bear
similarities to the good plants, but in the end, would be recognized for what
it was (36-43).
He
showed a mustard seed, meant to be a plant, which instead turned into a
monstrosity, with branches strong enough to bear the nests of birds (31-32,
birds of the air refer to demons, see vs. 18, Gen. 15:11; 40:19). He depicted a
woman, who would mix in leaven (leaven always has negative connotations in the
Bible) and cause it to expand, beyond the legitimate measure of its real
substance. It refers to hypocrites, play actors who are not real (33-34, see
Luke 12:1). When Luke records this parable, he follows with a question posed by
a listener, “Lord, are there just a few being saved?” Jesus then spoke
of the many hypocrites who would say,
“We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets” (Luke
13:21-26). Jesus spoke of a net, which would gather many fish of every kind,
much of which had to be thrown away. But He also spoke of a pearl of great
price and a Merchant, who sold all that He had to buy it (45-46).
The
Jews of His day were having a lot of trouble with these concepts. They were
expecting a charismatic king, like David of old, to liberate their nation from
the Roman occupation and restore Israel to its glory, as it was in the time of
Solomon and was expected to be reestablished through the Messiah. They saw only
a visible kingdom, a literal nation, and rejected their Messiah’s offer of
superior spiritual riches of lasting quality, of which their prophets had spoken.
“Many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it,”
Jesus said (Luke 10:24) and Peter added, “things into which angels long to
look” (1 Peter 1:12).
A
picture of the essential difference between the Old and New Testament can be seen
in the biblical presentation of the seven-fold candlesticks. In the Old, the
seven branches of the candlestick were visibly united by a central stand. Its
form and oneness was outwardly obvious. In the book of Revelation, Jesus stands
and walks among seven candlesticks, depicting seven churches. There is nothing
external holding them together. Their unity is in the Spirit and the one
unifying factor is Christ. He is the Head of the church.
It is a
fact of history that every time that the church achieved popular praise and the
support of society, it became corrupt and apostate. From the New Testament
principle of inner, living strength, it reverted to the outward ways of the Old
Testament. The same story has been repeated over and over. After periods of
revival, when Christ moved to the head of the church and God moved in power,
yet in simplicity among simple people, the time came when they picked the
hayseed out of their hair and became sophisticated and worldly-wise. They
continued to grow in number, become rich in money and talent, and gradually
lost touch with God.
Let´s
ponder for a few minutes, a verse or two from the book of Hebrews. This is a
book written for Jewish believers, who were familiar with the Old Testament.
Here we have as vivid a definition of the church as can be given by human
language: "You have come to
Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to
myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are
enrolled in heaven and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of
righteous men made perfect …" (Hebrews 12:22-24).
The
body of Christ is not only spiritual and universal, but it is also made up of
saints of all the past ages – righteous men made perfect. They play a part in
our lives and in the functions that the church enjoys today. How would we
manage today, if it had not been for the reformers, who translated the
scriptures into our languages? How would you like to learn Latin, in order to
read your Bible? - that is, if you could obtain a Bible at all. Your former
brothers and sisters in Christ died in order to give you that privilege. They
live on in heavenly places.
The
church is the worldwide body of saints of all ages. Let your heart be stirred
by the words of a song that I think conveys the heart of God´s true people
everywhere at any time:
“A parade began at Calvary, the saints of all the
ages fill its ranks,
Oér the sands of time they´re marching to the King´s
great coronation,
And this could be the dawning of that day.
All the saints are getting restless, they´re not
bound by shackles forged of earthly gold,
Since the day they knelt at Calvary, they’ve been pilgrims ever wandering,
Since the day they knelt at Calvary, they’ve been pilgrims ever wandering,
Just looking for a place to rest their souls.”
The
Bible calls this church the “bride of Christ”, people who have been espoused to
one Husband in a living, love relationship. They long for the day to be
reunited with one another and with Him forever. This is the living, pulsating
“body of Christ”, His hands and His feet to represent Him and minister as one
unit throughout the earth.
Even a
small study like this about the church, would not be complete without
consideration given to the name itself. It helps us to understand it.
Unfortunately, as happens over the years to all the intentions of God, the
enemy enters in to pervert people’s thinking. Wrong thinking leads to wrong
believing and then to wrong intentions and practices.
When
many hear the word church, a worldly
institution comes to mind; an organization rather than a breathing organism. A.
W. Tozer disliked it, when people spoke about “the work”. The church is about
people. We have even applied the name to a man-made building, which is a total
misuse of the word. The Greek word is ekklesia. The prefix ek meaning simply from or
out of, and the root of the word is a
derivative of kaleo, a verb meaning to call. So the noun implies a singular
body of people who are called out. Out of what are they called? Out of the
world. Peter gave the call in the first apostolic sermon in the book of Acts: “Be
saved from this perverse generation!” (Acts 2:40)
From
that time to this, the revealed purpose of God is to call forth people to form
a bride for His Son. We notice that the powerful initial moving of God that
saved thousands in Jerusalem did not save the city itself from destruction in
70 AD. Although the church will have a
great influence and effect upon the society around it, as it did in Jerusalem,
it cannot alter ultimately the curse upon the world’s system in general. This
present world is evil to the core, is destined for destruction and it is not
our business to try to redeem it. To attempt to do so is to ignore the clear
teaching of scripture and to waste time and effort.
Our
business is to search out the bride, to rescue her from the world and present
her to Christ. That wonderful purpose of God continues to this day, as God
sovereignly carries it out, in spite of much adversity, miscomprehension and
compromise. There is still a living, breathing organism, bathed in faith and
baptized in the Holy Spirit, carrying on heaven´s will with heaven´s equipment.
In the
words of Bill and Gloria Gaither:
“God has always had a people. Many a foolish
conqueror has made the mistake of thinking that because he had driven the
church of Jesus Christ out of sight, that he had stilled its voice and snuffed
out its life. But God has always had a people. The powerful current of a
rushing river is not diminished because it is forced to flow underground. The
purest water is the stream that bursts crystal clear into the sunlight after it
has forced its way through solid rock.
There have been charlatans who, like Simon the
magician, sought to barter on the open market that power which cannot be bought
or sold. God has always had a people. Men who could not be bought and women who
were beyond purchase.
God has always had a people. There have been times
of affluence and prosperity, when the church´s message has been nearly diluted
into oblivion, by those who sought to make it socially attractive, neatly
organized and financially profitable. It´s been gold-plated, draped in purple,
and encrusted with jewels.
It´s been misrepresented, ridiculed, flaunted, and
scorned. These followers of Jesus Christ have been, according to the whim of
the times, elevated as sacred leaders and martyred as heretics. Yet through it
all, there marches on this powerful army to be God´s chosen people, who cannot
be bought, flattered, murdered or stilled. On through the ages they march, this
Church, God´s Church triumphant. It´s alive and well! Let the people rejoice,
for we´ve settled the question, we´ve made our choice. Let the anthem ring out,
songs of victory swell, for the Church triumphant is alive...
.....Listen child of God,
It´s alive. Discouraged pastor, it´s His Church, and it´s still alive. Lowly
missionary sow that seed with confidence. The church is still alive. Old saint,
you´re not alone or forgotten. The church is still alive. It´s alive my
broken-hearted friend. It´s still alive, busy mother. Just keep trusting in
Jesus. The church is alive. You’re not alone out there, young student serving
the Lord. The church is still alive. Faithful father, there´s rest in the Lord.
God´s Church is still alive. So cynical skeptic, you have not killed God with
your noisy unbelief. He´s still alive. It´s alive, my friend. God´s Church
triumphant is alive. Alive and well!”
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