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The Coming Increase of Christ in His House
Two thousand years ago, Christ took into His own flesh the enmity, the bitter attitudes between Jew and Gentile and forever obliterated them at the Cross. In that hour, He abolished the Law of Moses as the environment for Jew--Gentile relationships so that in himself He might create one new man made up of both groups (Ephesians 2:14-16). Up until that time, the law was the environment for those relationships. If Gentiles wanted to have any real lasting intimacy with the Jewish people, they had to be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses.
But when the Savior of the world established the foundation of His Kingdom by defeating sin and death at Calvary, He himself then became the environment for relational intimacy for all His people. It is as we are immersed into Him and then learn to abide in Him that we come to love one another as God has loved us. Such love is the proof of our identity as learners of Christ (John 15, 13:35).
As we look at the Church, can it be said that we have proven to the world that we are learning Christ? Do we see emerging among the nations Paul’s “one new man” made up of many diverse parts yet revealing one mind, the mind of Christ (Ephesians 4:13; 1 Corinthians 2:16)? The Church is supposed to be a miraculous entity, an organism not an organization.
It is exactly here on this issue that the war between life and death for the soul of the nations is being fought. If we do not understand and apply properly the truth both of what the Church is and how she is to function, how will God’s light ever illuminate the world’s way forward? How can the nations walk in the light of God’s city if we do not know what it means to be God’s city and then live accordingly?
There can be no illumination for this dark world if the Church continues to be defined by anything other than God’s life. Jewish life, Caucasian life, Asian life, African life--none of these are the basis for building God’s house. And yet many search for biblical justification for walking separately from others in Christ based on human ethnicity.
We must repent. Our common life is the life of God. Fellowship (Greek, KOINONIA) means the sharing of a common life. We must spend time together sharing His life with each other. We have often confused social interaction with fellowship. But they are not the same thing. If unbelievers can have the same social experience among themselves as we do as believers in our times together, then we have simply settled for social interaction among ourselves. Interacting socially with one another is good. But we must not confuse it with the miraculous experience of sharing God’s life with each other. Without such communication, there simply is no illumination occurring in our conversations.
When I plan to get together with other believers, I pray and ask that the Lord will manifest His life in our discussions. Why? The answer is that His life is the light of men, and I need to see more clearly than I do. Not only that, I want to help those in darkness to also see the light of life. Without the experience of supernaturally empowered fellowship, the local church becomes no different as far as illuminating their locale than the local tavern, even if the believers are faithfully canvassing their area with door-to-door evangelistic campaigns.
We desperately need the manifestation of God’s life among us. We need Him to fill our teachings, our exhortations, our singing, etc.
The fact that today so many Christians interpret this verse to mean that the early believers simply enjoyed spending time together is one main reason why the darkness continues to encroach upon and within our nation. In too many cases, we simply don’t get it.
We do not know how to do church. The fact that we think we do, reveals why we do not cry out in desperation to Him that He would come and fill our conversation times together with His life.
How about corporate prayer among us? So many find prayer meetings to be boring. In many cases, I would have to agree with their assessment. By and large, believers do not know how to flow together in life when praying. So one person drones on and on trying to cover everything he can think of, while others take a short nap and wonder why they are so carnal. “Why can’t I get excited about talking to God with others?”
But if we could learn to pray more accurately, according to the flow of God’s life among us, we would then find ourselves actually praying the prayers of God. The voice of the Great High Priest who ever lives to intercede for us would be found sounding forth on Earth through the lips of His people. Intercession is not about getting God to take action according to our desires. It is about joining Him in His strategy to extend His Kingdom in all the Earth.
At that point in the Church’s history, the apostles were twelve men who were known primarily for one thing—they had spent time with Jesus. The key element then in their on-going apostolic ministries would have to be that they continued to spend time with Him.
To view the sending of the twelve as only a one-time event would be to grossly underestimate the necessity of Christ’s ongoing involvement in their lives. Just as Jesus spent consistent time with the Father while on Earth, these men who followed His example were known for spending consistent time with Christ (Acts 6:4). Jesus was constantly sending these men into trying circumstances both locally as well as in other cities. To be an apostle, one sent on a mission, was to be actively involved with the God of Heaven, and then to be regularly dispatched by Him into strategic relational situations.
So when they arrived, what did they teach? They preached Christ.
But when it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him.
Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach.
When Paul came to Corinth, he determined to know nothing among them except Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2). In this verse Paul did not say He preached Christ crucified; he said he knew Him crucified. And yet the context of this verse is Paul’s preaching. What he taught came out of an intimacy that perceived Christ not only in His resurrection life, but also in His crucifixion. To know Him in such a way meant that Paul experienced suffering and yet found Christ in the midst of it. Then when he spoke, he demonstrated the power and presence of the One who had both sent him into that suffering and also then ministered to him there.
In other words, Paul’s words were words of life. They conveyed the life of God so that spiritual illumination came to men’s souls. No wonder the powers of darkness got so peeved. To be devoted to the apostles’ teaching meant that the disciples were devoted to life.
If we equate the breaking of bread with simply sharing meals together, we will fail to see darkness arrested. Remember, it is God’s life that is the light of men. Our times together must be filled with His life.
Evangelistic efforts will never have the impact that God desires if the local churches from which such endeavors emanate are not regularly experiencing God’s manifest life corporately.
If fellowship, the genuine sharing together of God’s life then permeates our church suppers, then it will be easy to see the Lord integrate His supper into those times.
Lord, have mercy on your people. Hear our cries to you that you would arise among us, revealing your life in our times together. As we feed upon you as the Bread of Heaven, go forth devouring the veil of death oppressing our land. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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