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About Jesus Steve Sweetman My Journey Through The Ecclesiastical Maze Part - 33 The
Birth Of The Church I believe the fundamental
aspects of church should be firmly based on Biblical thinking.
We can build on this Biblical foundation in such a way that best
meets the needs of the society in which we live.
The one thing we cannot do is to forsake the foundation that the
Bible teaches. This is what I mean by
building on the Biblical foundation.
We drive cars now. We don’t ride horses.
We use computers and the internet in the service of our Lord.
We don’t use the same writing techniques that the apostle Paul
used. We play electric
guitars with various styles of music. These kinds of things are not
directly addressed in the Bible, so there is an element of evolution
when it comes to such things. One problem that we
continually battle with are the arguments and fights we find ourselves
in over these peripheral aspects of church.
We should give grace to one another over these secondary issues
while maintaining what Scripture clearly teaches on the foundation of
church. Another problem we
battle against is substituting the clearly taught Biblical foundations
of church with these peripheral and transient aspects of church.
One thing I’d like to
note here is that the fundamental truths of Scripture concerning church
are “cross- cultural”. This
means they work in all cultures, and in all generations.
The secondary aspects of church, like electric guitar playing in
worship aren’t necessarily “cross-cultural”.
Variations in worship may be different from one society to
another. My banjo may fit
into church life in the hills of My dad couldn’t play
his acoustic guitar or his steel guitar in a church meeting back in 1956
because it was thought of as being worldly and sinful.
A guitar can’t be sinful in itself.
I’ve never seen a guitar commit a sin,
Have you? This was
purely a cultural issue, not a foundational issue, even though it was
presented as foundational. Such
thinking was a disservice to my dad as a young Christian.
Getting caught up in arguments over such secondary issues and
neglecting the primary issues of church didn’t help my dad in his
early years of being a Christian. Getting
caught up in similar situations today doesn’t help any of us either.
The most basic New
Testament teaching concerning church is the role of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit came into the life of Mary which resulted in the
birth of Jesus. In
similar fashion the Holy Spirit came into the lives of the believers at
Pentecost, giving birth to the Body of Christ, otherwise known as the
church. God’s intent in
both of these events was for Him to live among humanity, thus giving a
reputable representation of who He is to the world. Have you ever noticed how
many times God has poured out His Spirit to various peoples over the
years? It appears to me that
this is necessary because we continually replace the Holy Spirit’s
activity with man-made concepts and practices.
What else can God do, but keep pouring out His Spirit in order to
tear down our humanistic structures. Of
course that will all end soon, when He will come to do what we’ve been
unable to do.
The Holy Spirit’s
activity in the lives of Christians is therefore essential to God’s
plan for mankind. The Holy
Spirit is the foundation for both personal salvation and for the life of
the church. Without the
Spirit, there is no salvation, and there is no church. That’s why I
view some so-called churches in the ecclesiastical maze as not being a
church. It’s bad enough
that some Evangelicals reject the gifts of the Spirit as seen in 1
Corinthians 12, but to reject the Holy Spirit Himself and replace Him
with humanistic practices is far from Biblically acceptable.
Such practices distort the very reason why the church exists,
which is, to give proper representation of our Lord Jesus Christ to the
world. Paul, in Romans 8:9 tells
us that anyone “who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong
to Christ”. Paul makes it
clear that the Spirit of Christ is essential to personal salvation, and
thus is essential to the life of the church. Again,
apart from the Holy Spirit there is no salvation, and there is no
church. Jesus didn’t just die
on the cross to forgive us of our sins upon our repentance.
The reason why our sins have been wiped out of God’s records
once we repent of them is so God can see us without seeing our sin.
At that point, and only at that point, can the Holy Spirit come
to live within the repentant person.
Forgiveness of our sins is not the end of the matter for us.
It’s actually the beginning of the matter for us.
Forgiveness of sins is the prerequisite by which we can receive
the Spirit of God in our lives. This
enables us to be who Jesus wants us to be, and do what He wants us to
do. It doesn’t really
matter what one does in a church building or in a church meeting if the
Holy Spirit isn’t present. It’s
not likely that the Holy Spirit will be present in church, if He is not
present in the lives of the church attendees.
This is fundamental to what church is all about. Therefore, the most basic
Biblical truth concerning church is the Holy Spirit.
His presence in the life of the individual, and His presence in a
group of individuals who gather for any kind of activity in the service
of our Lord is fundamental. Without
the Holy Spirit, there is no church.
You may call it church, but it’s not church. It’s
a humanistic organization that promotes its own philosophical positions,
leaving no representation of our Lord Jesus Christ for the world to see.
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