| << | Contents | >> |
The War for the Soul of the Church
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.
(Isaiah 14:14 ESV)
If Christ is God’s great culmination of the ages, then He must also be the theme that Heaven is presently etching into our hearts leading up to that great finale. We are not to expect the Lord Jesus’ return from Heaven to be totally disconnected from His writing project both in the present as well as in the coming years. Rather, His work among us will culminate in His glorious appearing. While it is true that His return will be sudden and without warning to those who do not know Him, for us that day will not catch us unaware–we will see it approaching (1 Thessalonians 5:1 - 5).
Indeed, we look forward to that day and we long to see Him face to face. Therefore our heart’s cry must also be to see Him today–in each other individually as well as manifest among us when we gather. If our times together are centered in Him, then we will to some degree be studying beforehand God’s final act in history.
For too many, the study of the last times has more to do with charts, chronological events, and timetables than with the Lord himself. But God’s focus is His Son; ours must be as well. As we behold Him, the Lord will arise among us releasing His power to transform us into His likeness.
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
(2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV)
Remember, Christ coming into view is God’s final word to the Earth. His activity of arising into clarity among His people will introduce His visible return to judge the nations.
How we need the Lord to come into increased visibility among His people in our day. Whatever there is in His house that hinders the revelation of God and His purpose must be exposed. Paul spoke of lawlessness in the Church of his day as a mystery (something hidden that people would only understand when God revealed it). It was already present and at work.
For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.
But that spirit of lawlessness would one day culminate in a man of lawlessness who would present himself as though he is God. In other words, he would seek to take the Lord’s place in His temple, His house.
Would you say that God has in some measure over the last two thousand years revealed to His Church what the mystery of lawlessness looks like? Can we not see in Christianity certain activities and practices that obscure the Lord among us? To the degree that we participate in such behavior, we step in front of Him and take His place. How the Lord must do a deep work in us that we would rather die than to ever draw attention toward us that belongs only to Him.
Paul wrote that God intended to reveal the man of sin among His people (2 Thessalonians 2:8). In fact, Christ would not return until there was both an apostasy (some have suggested the time preceding and including the dark ages) and then the revelation of the man of sin/man of lawlessness/son of perdition.
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.
Interestingly, the only other individual who is ever referred to in scripture as the son of perdition is Judas Iscariot (John 17:12). Here was someone functioning among God’s people as an apostle, yet with the heart of a thief. But when Jesus told His disciples that one of them would betray Him, no one knew He was referring to Judas. Without revelation, no one was able to discern this man’s true condition.
It is the same today. Apart from revelation, we will not understand the war presently being waged for the soul of the Church. It has to do chiefly with the One to whom we are gathering. Who or what is to be central among us? To be clear, it is God’s house in which we gather. It is not the possession of the leaders, the musicians, or some wealthy board member who is used to getting his or her own way. Again, whatever obscures Christ simply has no future in the house He is presently constructing.
How will God root out from among us all that diverts attention from Him? He will continue to unveil among us the beauty of His Son. Notice what Paul said: what restrained the revelation of the man of sin in the first century was the fact that it was not yet God’s time for him to be revealed.
And you know what is holding him back, for he can be revealed only when his time comes.
(2 Thessalonians 2:6 NLT)
The Lord Jesus has personally been restraining lawlessness among His people over the last two thousand years. That is why it remains a mystery among us.
For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.
Today He (Christ) who now restrains lawlessness will continue to do so until He is taken out of the way (Greek, GINOMAI EK MESOS). These three Greek words could be translated – to arise out of the midst, to come forth out from among.[10]
Considering the footnote below, we could translate the above verse like this:
For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He arises out of the midst.
In other words, God intends for His Son to arise into clarity among His people thus unmasking and exposing all that is lawless in His house.
And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
It is the clear manifestation of Christ among His people that will uncover among us everything and everyone who draws attention away from Him. Today, too many emphasize an end-time antichrist and equate him with the coming man of sin. While that conclusion might be true, our emphasis is not to be on the enemy and his works.[11] Our great expectation is Christ – His increasing manifestation among His people, culminating in His visible return.
Two men will be unveiled in God’s temple for all to see – the Son of Man and the man of sin. Even as the man Christ Jesus will be revealed corporately through the lives of many, so also the man of sin will be exposed operating through the lives of many as well. These two “expressions of ministry” presently operate in God’s house as mysteries. Paul’s task was to make known his insight into the mystery of Christ and to declare the unsearchable riches hidden in Him (Ephesians 3:4, 8). Indeed, here is the apostolic task – the unveiling of Christ, the mystery of God, who is also the foundation, designer, and builder of His glorious house.
At the same time, the mystery of lawlessness has been at work in God’s house since the first century. Even as Christ will be increasingly coming into view among His people as we are integrated in a corporate expression of life, so also there will increasingly come into view an integrated corporate expression of ministry (i.e. a man) in Christ’s name but where people exalt themselves and their methodologies of ministry.
The key to understanding which of these two we reflect today has to do with the motives of our hearts. Remember, as we behold Christ we are in some measure studying beforehand the final great day of the Lord. That day will bring the destruction of the one seeking to replace the Lord Jesus in His own house. Preparation for the final day has to do with putting to death within us those very desires, thoughts, and plans that would in any way draw to ourselves attention that belongs only to the Lord. The destruction of lawlessness in us prefigures the agenda of Christ on the final day. We must be attentive and learn well as He prepares us.
Jesus said that there would be many who even on the final day would be pointing to themselves and to their ministries in His name.
Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’
Imagine standing in the very presence of Christ on the final day and pointing to yourself! Jesus did not say that they did not do very real acts of power or that their prophecies were not impressive. What He did say was that they worked lawlessness (the same word that defines the man of sin). Though they often called Him their Lord, they did not do what He said. What was primarily lacking in them was a relationship of intimacy with Him (“I never knew you”).
But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.
The reason they would think it acceptable on the final day to promote themselves is because that specific attitude defined their lives of ministry in Christ’s name throughout their lives.
Indeed, the Lord must root out from among His people the spirit of self–promotion. If there is anything that is in accord with the working of Satan, it is this attitude (Isaiah 14:13-14).
Paul also said that the man of sin would move in power, signs, and lying wonders (2 Thessalonians 2:9). The one ingredient that would make these wonders done in Christ’s name to be a lie would be that to whatever degree they brought attention to men, their methods, their particular fellowship of churches, etc., they would be misdirecting God’s people.
To go into the final day with such a perspective would be to face a devastating collapse of all that was once considered precious and a sudden awareness of Christ as He really is. Many would suddenly realize that they were unprepared, the final day having taken them totally unaware.
But God in His mercy has a plan to deal with this insidious infection of lawlessness among His people.
Notice Paul’s insight.
And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath (GREEK, PNEUMA – a current of air, breath, spirit) of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
I suggest to you that the destruction of the man of lawlessness will come in two phases. First, just as God’s breath was life to Adam, and just as Christ’s breath upon His followers was spiritual life to them (John 20:22), so also, but in a reverse manner, His breath will be destruction to all that is lawless among us. The increased recovery among us of His breath, the wind of His Spirit in the revivals sweeping the earth in the final days of Church history will bring an increased consuming of the lawless one, culminating in his final destruction at the brightness of Christ’s personal return–the day of judgment.
Today, our example must be Jesus who while in His earthly ministry did many wonders, did so in order to reveal the One who had sent Him. Similarly, our message is the One who has sent us. Let us gather to Him; let us learn Him; let us bear His presence to one another and to the nations; and let us discover before the fact what the dawning final day is all about.
Search Comments
This page has been visited 0004 times.
| << | Contents | >> |
10 per page