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The War for the Soul of the Church
Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name?
For You alone are holy.
For all nations shall come and worship before You,
for Your judgments have been manifested.
Just prior to His death on the cross, Jesus gathered His eleven apostles around Him and began to pour out His heart in prayer to His Father. His overriding concern was these eleven men that God had given Him as well as all who would believe through their ministries. What He sought was that His Church would come to the oneness with God and each other that He and His Father had.
How were He and the Father one? Jesus both lived in union with Him and was filled with His presence. As He dwelt in His Father, His Father dwelt in Him. As a result, everywhere He went, He revealed the Father. He spoke what God was saying; He did what God was doing. And He became before men the explanation of the Eternal One.
…He has explained Him.
(John 1:18 NASB)
But something amazing had happened. God had given some people to His Son. And Jesus wanted them included into what He had with His Father. Here is what it means to be the people of God. The Church is to have with God relationally what the man Christ Jesus on Earth had with Him two thousand years ago.
This Man was one with God; He and His Father were one entity. And we have been immersed into Him. We are baptized in His Spirit (plunged into God), and we are filled with His Spirit (God poured into us). As a result, a new singular entity began to arise on the Earth two thousand years ago. It was not God, but it was joined to Him. Jesus Christ bridged the gap between God and man. And being both, He became the One in Heaven living out His life on Earth through a people integrated and coordinated by His indwelling presence.
But for this to work in our generation, we must abide in Him seeking to be continually filled with His Spirit.
When we consider the Church today, do we see a singular integrated and coordinated body? Or do we see a scattered and competing dis-coordination? And even more importantly, do we believe that Jesus’ prayer will ever be answered? A careful reading of John Chapter 17 reveals that His primary objective as He prayed was for the oneness of God to be revealed among men on Earth. And because the Father heard His Son, there will indeed be a day when He will have on Earth such a people. And it will not be some “mystical unity” that no one notices. It will be so remarkable that unbelievers all over the Earth will see and be stunned.
…. that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
(John 17:21 ESV)
Christ’s stated purpose for revealed oneness among His people is so that the world may believe. Does God actually intend to more actively release among the nations the grace and power to believe that He indeed sent His Son? When Jesus was praying just hours before the most cataclysmic experience of His earthly life, do you think He was engaging in hyperbole? Or was He praying with great insight? Could it in fact be the plan of God to so integrate His people with each other and with himself that the nations will be confronted with His success at building His own house?
I am not suggesting that the whole world in that hour will be saved. But I am strongly saying that God has plans to release more mercy on Earth prior to the final judgment than many of His people have believed.
And as if such a glorious plan were not enough, Jesus then took His prayer a step further. He asked the Father to do this work so that the nations would not only believe, but that they would in fact come to know that He was sent from Heaven.
…I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
(John 17:23 ESV)
Again, such God-authored unity among us would have such repercussions among the nations that grace would be released to know something unknown beforehand. In Jesus’ mind, success was not simply that He would rescue many people from eternal destruction. He wanted to also do such a work among them that unbelievers would be confronted with the truth that God loved His people as much as He loved His Son. And the living proof of that great love would be His work of integrating them into a corporate functioning body coordinated from Heaven by His indwelling presence among them.
One massive problem facing God’s successful completion of His purpose was that as a nation, Israel did not receive her Messiah (John 1:11). So to make them jealous, God turned to the Gentiles to bring to fullness a wonderful work among us.[16] And to be clear, He will succeed masterfully in completing what He has started. Jesus’ prayer in John Chapter 17 will be fully answered. In those days Israel will turn back to the Lord and be saved (Romans 11:26). Paul informs us that when Israel returns to God, the result among the nations will be greater than what was released to the world when she fell.
Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!
(Romans 11:12 ESV)
In the first century God released apostolic ministry, the planting of many churches, and the salvation of many thousands. Over the last two thousand years Christians have led many to the Lord, influenced nations, built Christian institutions such as schools, universities, and hospitals, and done many wonderful deeds of service. But something much more is yet to be released upon the world.
A new era is yet ahead of us. The coming salvation of Israel will release upon the Earth the greatest expression of the grace of God since the resurrection of Christ. Too many both in the Church as well as those outside look around and see a post-Christian world. Frankly, I think that like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, we who believe have been slow to believe what the Scriptures have promised (Luke 24:25).[17] But let us draw our conclusions from His word and from His indwelling presence rather than from what we see with our natural eyes and hear from those who do not believe (e.g. scientists who do not know God, those in the media who are secular in their world-view, etc.).
Granted, it will not be smooth sailing for the Church in the immediate years ahead. The whole Earth is troubled and is being shaken. And the Church seems unable to sound forth a clear trumpet blast. But remember, Jesus was not praying that His people would get their act together; He was praying His Father’s eternally conceived vision and purpose over them. All of Heaven was behind Him in His concern. And when Eternity is behind a project, there is not a snowball’s chance in Hades of it failing.
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