a blog for the church
Simply put:
The church is not a “why”
The church is not a “what”
The church is not a “how”
The church is not a “when”
The church is not a “where”
The “who” (Christians)
meet at different “wheres” (address, location, etc.)
at different “whens” (times, days, etc.)
with different “hows” (own space/rented space/public space, coffee/no coffee, etc.)
to do different “whats” (sing, pray, teach, etc.)
because of the “why” (God’s glory).
This past Sunday, I preached on Matthew 1-2 and talked about how Jesus didn’t come to save us from what we wish he would have. He didn’t come to save us from our messed-up families, our human enemies, persecution, or even everyday life. He came to save us from our sin. But, as sometimes happens when preaching, I started to think about point three in particular.
If Jesus didn’t come to save us from persecution, does that mean he wants his church to undergo persecution? If the babies in Bethlehem, the blood on the sand of Roman arenas, the fire-stakes in Europe tell us anything, they say that wherever Jesus comes to make a difference, earthly power comes to make a bloody example. The history of the church is largely a history of persecution. Persecution seems inevitable for the people of God who proclaim a message that threatens the basis of power in this world.
The questions stands: does Jesus want the church to be persecuted?
Tertullian said “The blood of the saints is the seed of the church.” This statement is often quoted, usually assumed, but infrequently examined. The results that seem to accompany persecution are hard to dismiss: strengthened faith, growing church, message going forth. Maybe Jesus does want his church to be persecuted if it produces growth. Maybe I should want the church to be persecuted? That’s dangerous reasoning. While God seems to frequently grant growth to churches enduring persecution, it’s not always the case. Maybe the better way of seeing things is to think of the church attracting persecution rather than persecution launching the church. Because persecution doesn’t always grow the church. In fact, sometimes it stamps it out. North Africa was a Christian stronghold, producing many of the great minds in church history and yet the church practically died out there under persecution. Doesn’t seem like something Jesus would want for his church.
What we need to realize is that Jesus doesn’t want persecution for the church, but he does want obedience from the church. Sometimes the church strays, sometimes it doesn’t, but Jesus’ desire for his followers is constant: obedience to his commands. And those commands are pretty simple: Love God, Love Others, and Make Disciples.
Persecution can produce obedience, but it can also hamper it. Sometimes persecution comes because the church is being faithful, sometimes it comes because it isn’t.
It’s shaky ground as a church growth strategy to say the least.
But persecution isn’t the only option on the table. Something else is also accompanied by strengthened faith, church growth, and the proclamation of the gospel in the life of the church. And, as a bonus, it doesn’t require jail time or bloodshed: it’s called revival.
Revival is defined by Earl Cairns as “the work of the Holy Spirit in restoring the people of God to a more vital spiritual life, witness, and work by prayer and the Word after repentance in crisis for their spiritual decline.”
If revival produces results similar to those we associate with persecution, why in the world would we want persecution? Let’s seek revival!
But before we get too hasty, we need to recognize that revival also requires loss. It even requires death. But not the bloody kind: it’s more involved than that. Revival requires us to die to the American Dream, to die to selfish ambition, to die to consumerist church practices. Revival requires placing everything we have, including our lives, before God and saying, “Here it is Lord, use it however you want.”
Revival is what happens when the church seeks refining on its own, when it recognizes its weaknesses and begs God to overcome them.
Persecution often happens when the church needs revival but doesn’t seek it.
Correlation does not equal causation. Nonetheless, look at the early church in Acts. They were doing some amazing things, Acts 2:42-47. But they weren’t doing the one thing Jesus told them they would do when he left: “be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” They kept hanging out in Jerusalem. So God allowed persecution and it drove them out. One of the places they went was Antioch. They started a church there and that church got it. Instead of waiting around, they gathered in prayer and fasting, seeking the Lord (dare I say seeking revival?). And the result was Paul and Barnabas being sent out on mission, launching the cycle of missions, evangelism, and discipleship that has marked faithful churches ever since. Same result as the Jerusalem persecution (the gospel going out according to Jesus’ promise) but much better circumstances.
The question for us, the modern church, is are we willing to die? That’s really the fundamental element of being Christian: deny ourselves, plan on dying (the plain meaning of “take up your cross”), and follow Christ. Once we do that, it’s simply a matter of whether we die seeking revival or to die enduring persecution. We’re not guaranteed one or the other: that’s up to God. But seeking revival and obedience is definitely preferable from my perspective.
Does Jesus want his church to be persecuted? No, but he wants us to be obedient. If we’re not willing to die for the revival that produces obedience, he may ask us to die in the persecution that requires it.
Jesus didn’t come to save us from what we wish he would have. He didn’t come to save us from our messed-up families, our human enemies, persecution, or even everyday life. He came to save us from our sin.
But if Jesus didn’t come to save us from persecution, does that mean he wants his church to undergo persecution? If the babies in Bethlehem, the blood on the sand of Roman arenas, the fire-stakes in Europe tell us anything, they say that wherever Jesus comes to make a difference, earthly power comes to make a bloody example. The history of the church is largely a history of persecution. Persecution seems inevitable for the people of God who proclaim a message that threatens the basis of power in this world.
The questions stands: does Jesus want the church to be persecuted?
Tertullian said “The blood of the saints is the seed of the church.” This statement is often quoted, usually assumed, but infrequently examined. The results that seem to accompany persecution are hard to dismiss: strengthened faith, growing church, message going forth. Maybe Jesus does want his church to be persecuted if it produces growth. Maybe I should want the church to be persecuted? That’s dangerous reasoning. While God seems to frequently grant growth to churches enduring persecution, it’s not always the case. Maybe the better way of seeing things is to think of the church attracting persecution rather than persecution launching the church. Because persecution doesn’t always grow the church. In fact, sometimes it stamps it out. North Africa was a Christian stronghold, producing many of the great minds in church history and yet the church practically died out there under persecution. Doesn’t seem like something Jesus would want for his church.
What we need to realize is that Jesus doesn’t want persecution for the church, but he does want obedience from the church. Sometimes the church strays, sometimes it doesn’t, but Jesus’ desire for his followers is constant: obedience to his commands. And those commands are pretty simple: Love God, Love Others, and Make Disciples.
Persecution can produce obedience, but it can also hamper it. Sometimes persecution comes because the church is being faithful, sometimes it comes because it isn’t. It’s shaky ground as a church growth strategy to say the least.
But persecution isn’t the only option on the table. Something else is also accompanied by strengthened faith, church growth, and the proclamation of the gospel in the life of the church. And, as a bonus, it doesn’t require jail time or bloodshed: it’s called revival.
Revival is defined by Earl Cairns as “the work of the Holy Spirit in restoring the people of God to a more vital spiritual life, witness, and work by prayer and the Word after repentance in crisis for their spiritual decline.”
If revival produces results similar to those we associate with persecution, why in the world would we want persecution? Let’s seek revival!
But before we get too hasty, we need to recognize that revival also requires loss. It even requires death. But not the bloody kind: it’s more involved than that. Revival requires us to die to the American Dream, to die to selfish ambition, to die to consumerist church practices. Revival requires placing everything we have, including our lives, before God and saying, “Here it is Lord, use it however you want.”
Revival is what happens when the church seeks refining on its own, when it recognizes its weaknesses and begs God to overcome them. Persecution often happens when the church needs revival but doesn’t seek it.
Correlation does not equal causation. Nonetheless, look at the early church in Acts. They were doing some amazing things, Acts 2:42-47. But they weren’t doing the one thing Jesus told them they would do when he left: “be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” They kept hanging out in Jerusalem. So God allowed persecution and it drove them out. One of the places they went was Antioch. They started a church there and that church got it. Instead of waiting around, they gathered in prayer and fasting, seeking the Lord (dare I say seeking revival?). And the result was Paul and Barnabas being sent out on mission. That in turn launched the cycle of missions, evangelism, and discipleship that has marked faithful churches ever since. Same result as the Jerusalem persecution (the gospel going out according to Jesus’ promise) but much better circumstances.
The question for us, the modern church, is are we willing to die? That’s really the fundamental element of being Christian: deny ourselves, plan on dying (the plain meaning of “take up your cross”), and follow Christ. Once we do that, it’s simply a matter of whether we die seeking revival or to die enduring persecution. We’re not guaranteed one or the other: that’s up to God. But seeking revival and obedience is definitely preferable from my perspective.
Does Jesus want his church to be persecuted? No, but he wants us to be obedient. If we’re not willing to die for the revival that produces obedience, he may ask us to die in the persecution that requires it.
A first-century believer suddenly dropped into a modern church wouldn’t have a clue what was going on.
That’s my hypothesis anyway, based on 10 years of ministry experience and focused reading of the New Testament.
I believe one of the most evident points of confusion for that first-century Christ-follower would be the contrast between the modern church’s approach to fellowship and what she was accustomed to.
We don’t; they did.
This marginalization of a vital mark of the New Testament church only makes sense, though. In a cultural milieu that places an inordinate amount of emphasis on expressing one’s self, being one’s self, and promoting one’s self it only makes sense that fellowship, dependent as it is on denying one’s self, submitting one’s self, and reforming one’s self, has fallen out of favor.
If we have any hope of regaining fellowship as a celebrated and integral part of church life, we have to figure out how to overcome the overwhelming cultural influences of the day. Though I know that there are more, I would suggest three (helpfully alliterated) components for rebuilding fellowship.
Gaining the right historical perspective
My mom gave my wife and me a cutting from a plant that my grandmother has. She might have gotten hers from a plant that her grandmother had. Now, I can go to Home Depot and buy a new plant anytime. They’re cheap, they’re usually healthy, and when I inevitably kill it, I can go buy another one. But it doesn’t mean anything. A plant with a family heritage behind it is much better, even if it’s visually the same. The history makes it so much better. I look at the plant differently.
Too often, we have too short a history to have true fellowship. We have the wrong perspective. We settle for Home Depot fellowship. Cheap, fast, and disposable. We have fellowship with someone until they make us mad. Then we dump them and move on. It’s a perspective problem. The kind of perspective that fellowship grows best in isn’t what that so and so said last week, what he did last year, what she posted last month. You’ll never have fellowship if your relationships are defined by past offenses, anger, and accusations. That’s too short-sighted.
Instead, we need to recognize that true fellowship is based on the history of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, coming to earth, being a man, walking, talking, eating with us. Dying, bleeding, buried. Raised, exalted, and glorious. Fellowship with other people is grounded in the fact that God sought fellowship with you at the expense of His Son. With the right perspective, fellowship stops being about you and what you want and how you were wronged and becomes a desire for God to be glorified and for there to be unity between brothers and sisters in Christ. For the Christian, joy is not possible if he or she is out of fellowship with God OR with a fellow believer. Jesus really came to earth, and that historical reality changes everything!
Emphasizing holiness
Contrary to most people’s expectations, fellowship is not best gained by deemphasizing holiness. Instead, fellowship is not possible without strongly emphasizing it! There has to be a standard, there have to be expectations for fellowship to work. Everyone in church life talks about fellowship, but we have to understand that our words don’t mean a thing if our experience contradicts them.
Fellowship is not based on words; it’s based on lived truth. I’m not saying that salvation is dependent on your works. Scripture’s pretty clear that that’s not the case. But I am saying that salvation is revealed by works, and fellowship is dependent on them. If you are continually walking in darkness and yet still professing faith, you’re a liar and aren’t going to be able to fellowship with God or with anyone else. If you are occasionally falling into sin, repenting, and seeking restoration with God and others, you’re practicing the truth.
Another reason to emphasize holiness is the simple fact that a life that is in fellowship with God will be in fellowship with others. It is natural. If we are in good relational standing with the Creator, we will line up with His creatures, particularly His image-bearers. There is a one to one correlation between your relationship with God and your relationship with others. If you are walking in the light of God’s holiness, you have fellowship with others.
Ultimately, though, all of our efforts at holiness will fall short. And that’s good news! Because self-sufficiency does not lead to fellowship, with God or with our brothers and sisters. Scripture calls us to a godly struggle for holiness while also revealing that we will never be good enough. It’s at that point that we must recognize that Jesus’ blood is the only avenue to fellowship with God and with others. Left to our own devices, we won’t make it. But God makes a way through his grace. That’s hard for us to accept. We all want the boast of self-sufficiency. We all want to be master of our own fate, captain of our own ship. But we can’t. We need Jesus. We need Him for salvation, and we need Him for fellowship. That’s why this last point is so important.
Recovering humility
Pride makes us want to pretend we are sinless. Pride kills fellowship. To pretend that we don’t have sin to repent of is effectively declaring that Jesus died for nothing. That’s a lie. God won’t let us get away with it. The antidote for our pride, the potion for restored fellowship, is humility. The recognition that the world is not waiting breathlessly for my next social media update is a good step towards humility. Confessing sin to one another is an excellent step to building in ourselves the mind of Christ.
Fellowship is ultimately just mutually acted out humility. If the modern church is going to demonstrate appealing fellowship to the world, we have to be humble. This means individual humility, where no one believer thinks more highly of himself than he ought, but it also means corporate humility. Whites and blacks, old immigrants and new immigrants, Calvinists and Arminians: none of these are better than any of the others. But until we all recognize it and live it, fellowship will remain marginalized and disposable.
Let’s do it.
Of Shepherds and Sheep 