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The Coming Increase of Christ in His House
Today we see the pervading influence of death among the nations, even infecting the Church. At the same time, Israel is simply not jealous either of us or of the ways in which our faith is made visible. Is God’s plan in trouble? Sometimes, it seems like it is.
Times of revival are accompanied not only by many people being filled with the Holy Spirit, but also by many churches being severely shaken. Sinful attitudes surface, believers split from one another, and the testimony of God is undermined. Yet at the same time, new churches are also planted and many people are born again and filled with God’s Spirit. The problem however, is that even though our numbers are growing, the world sees a muddled Christianity rather than a pure expression of God’s glory. In other words, even in the exhilarating times of the outpourings of His life, we still find death actively and visibly at work among God’s own people.
One thing is clear as we gaze across the spiritual landscape; mixture abounds in the Lord’s house. We need a breakthrough. The Lord promised that His Kingdom would grow slowly as would a seed into a large tree. And it has. But He also promised that however much wealth would be released to the nations through Israel’s fall, much more would be realized through her salvation. What could the “much more” possibly be?
Paul stated that a partial hardening had come upon Israel, but only for a season. When the fullness of the Gentiles came in, all Israel would be saved. At that time, the nations would experience life from the dead (Romans 11:15). Could the phrase “life from the dead” indicate more than simply a sudden increase in the number of believers? Could God also be planning a breakthrough against the power of death and to further deliver the nations from its influence prior to its final defeat at the resurrection?
Isaiah spoke of a time when the Lord would make for all people on the mountain of the Lord, a feast of choice pieces and aged wine (Isaiah 25:6). The Hebrew word for choice pieces is SHEMEN, which is translated as oil in Exodus 30:25-26, where it refers to the holy anointing oil.
A feast of oil and aged wine! If oil and wine speak of the joy, presence, and anointing of the Holy Spirit, then God must want us to feast upon His presence in His holy mountain of Zion. The New Testament teaches that we have presently come to Zion in the gathering of Christ’s church (Hebrews 12:22-24).
Perhaps it is time for us to reconsider our ways and see that God views our gatherings as feasts. When we assemble to worship and pray, we are to feast upon Him by simply coming to Him in faith (John 6:31-35). We are to also feast upon Him in the Lord’s Supper (which should probably be taken in the context of a meal together. After all, Scripture does refer to it as a supper, not a snack (1 Corinthians 11:17-30, Jude 12). Of course, we are to feast upon Him in His Word (Matthew 4:4, Ezekiel 2:8-3:3). And finally, we are to feast by doing the specific works He has given us to accomplish (John 4:34).
But if our times together are not permeated with the oil and the wine, then they will cease to be feasts and simply become times of mere religious formalism.
God has made an amazing promise. As His people begin attending His appointed feast, He will do something miraculous for the nations of the Earth.
And He will destroy {Hebrew, BALA – to swallow up} on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces; the rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth; for the LORD has spoken.
The key to changing the Earth will not be found as churches assemble to form new strategies in order to bring change to their respective nations. Rather, change will come when God’s people submit to His plan and cease from all our good intentions and ideas. God has His own strategy. It is that we make Christ the focus of our lives and of our times together and simply gather unto Him as the true Bread of Heaven. Isaiah informs us that as we do so, God himself will swallow up death’s international veil. He will do so specifically from the locale of His Mountain where His people have gathered to His feast.
He promised that as we feast upon Him, He will then feast upon (i.e., swallow up) death and its influence over the nations. A great breakthrough against the effects of death permeating the nations lies in our future, if we will but arise from where we are and attend God’s feast.
Obviously, death will not be totally destroyed until the time of the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:26, 54). However, the New Testament also indicates that death’s defeat has already begun and is well underway (2 Timothy 1:10; Hebrews 2:14-15). But we must take ground in our day against its continuing operations.
The question we face is whether our times together are feasts or funerals. Funerals are events where life is talked about but death is prominently displayed. Too often, Christian meetings are like that. We can fill our times together with talk about Christ and at the same time display the attributes of death. Pride, self-promotion, envy, political manipulation, unforgiving attitudes, etc., all reveal man’s priorities rather than God’s. But Christ, His life and His priorities are to be what distinguishes us.
Someone once said that if a speaker has the measles and lectures others on the dangers of contracting the flu, the listeners may become experts on the flu, even writing down many notes concerning the dangers of this sickness. Yet while possessing great knowledge of the flu’s signs, symptoms, after effects, etc., the speaker will have infected them with the measles. Talking about one thing, imparting something else. Herein lays a great danger for us in Christ’s Church. We can actually be part of the problem of death’s influence in our particular nation.
Jesus himself is life: He must become practically for each of us our sustenance, and our nourishment. We cannot settle for mere religious formalism. We must recognize that apart from His manifest presence in our lives and in our gatherings, we will die. And we will contribute to the work of death in our nation even while talking about Christ.
We must invite the lost. Notice that all people are invited to this great meal (Isaiah 25:6). Here is our message to this generation; come celebrate the resurrection of God’s Son. He invites all to receive the forgiveness of their sins and to feast at His great dinner.
Two thousand years ago, Jesus likened His Kingdom to a man hosting a great supper that many would rather be excused from than to attend (Luke 14:15-24). Finally, after hearing the excuses, the host told his servants to compel people to come in so that his house may be filled.
God is so committed to filling His house of feasting that He will resort to compelling grace in order to do so. While I do believe that our human will is involved in our salvation experience, it is also true that sometimes God can be quite insistent that people turn to Him. Saul of Tarsus seems to be one example of God’s intense invitation method. While Saul certainly exercised his will to some degree when he turned to Christ, yet it is also clear that it would have been difficult for him to resist a light brighter than the midday sun and the Lord’s audible voice calling him by name.
In the Old Testament, Jonah also found the compelling grace of God would not let him go where he wanted. By the way, have you found yourself on any free fish rides lately?
No matter how you look at it, God’s goal for His people will not be realized by human initiatives but by His ingenuity and sovereign commitment. His house will be filled and it will be known for the feast going on inside.
To sum up our thoughts so far, the Lord will accomplish a work in His people in order to make Israel jealous. Then when the Jewish nation turns to Him, the nations of the Earth will experience what Paul refers to as “life from the dead”. God’s strategy is that as His people learn to feast upon His Son, He will turn and intensify His ongoing destruction of death and its influence among the nations, bringing us ultimately to death’s final demise at the resurrection.
I submit to you that the call of God is sounding forth in our day. “Come attend the feast I have prepared for you.”
I also submit to you that when Israel turns back to God, He will at that time arise in new dimensions of compelling grace in order to see His house filled. As we used to sing some years ago in some sections of the Lord’s feast: “Multitudes are coming can’t you hear the sound and we’re just standing on the edge of the rain.”
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