Ordinary Christians in the Hands of the
Extra-Ordinary God.
Part
4:
I
Corinthians 1-12:13, 3:4-11, 3:21 – 23
New Living Translation.
12
Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul.” Others are saying, “I follow
Apollos,” or “I follow Peter, [d]” or “I follow only Christ! …… 4 When one of
you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,”
aren’t you acting just like people of the world? 5 After all, who is Apollos?
Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good
News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. 6 I planted the seed in your
hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. 11 for no one can lay any foundation other
than the one we already have—Jesus Christ…. 21 So don’t boast about following a
particular human leader. For everything belongs to you— 22 whether Paul or
Apollos or Peter,[g] or the world, or life and death, or the present and the
future. Everything belongs to you, 23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ
belongs to God.
When
we look at the Church today, what do we see and what do we mean by the word
Church ? to some the word Church has a negative effect on the other hand, the
word Church has a positive effect, to others Church should be consigned to the
past, and it doesn’t have any relevance to them and society both today in the
present or indeed tomorrow the future, some think of the word Church and they
think of a physical building others think of the New Testament concept of God’s
people or a spiritual building.
The
Church today is divided into various camps or tribal groups, that more often or
not have very little to do with other camps or tribal groups, sometimes
different churches can be close to each in terms of a physical distance, but
miles apart in so many other ways. Is
the Church somewhere we can go to or is it a body of people that we belong to,
and are joined alongside each other to work alongside each other to see the
Good News of the Gospel of the Kingdom preached to those without the Good News
of Salvation through our Lord and Saviour Jesus.
We
are divided into groups or denominations that have more to do with our past,
and very little to do with our present or future. We hold onto ways of both
doing and being church because of our history and our responsibilities to that
history, and the expectancies of others. Sometimes we're divided into seemingly
rival tribal groups, because for some our revelation of being and doing church
is driven by being the people of God where His Presence dwells, but on the
other hand we're divided because of politics and personalties !.The Church is a
movement for change and transformation but for many of us The Church has become
a monument to our spiritual forefathers who were a movement for change and
transformation !.
We
follow men and sometimes women, we follow the traditions that were our
spiritual forefather’s doctrines and their distinctiveness from other tribal
groups and when someone from another tribe says let’s meet together for
fellowship and to share together, we say we can't because we’re group a and
your group b and our big chief said in 1920 said that we need to avoid group b
because your understanding of church and Christianity is different from way he
told us to be the church and to be a Christian and therefore you’re wrong, or
we do meet together but in a spirit of reluctance and/or a spirit of mistrust,
we’ve created theories, doctrines,
theologies and solutions how we’re to be the church and to life our Christian
lives and be a Christian Witness, but many of those theories etc belong in the
past, and have become hindrances and obstacles for us today.
Many
of our tribes or denominations have become tied to the way we did Church, 10,
20, 30, 40, 50 or a 100 plus years ago, we look for structure and safety in the
past. We think that the way we do and
are the Church is the right or indeed the only way to be do or be Church, we mistake our history for our present and
future and wonder why despite our best efforts, our prayers indeed our
prophecies, we’re unfulfilled !
When
our Lord Jesus walked the streets of his homeland, he saw a fig tree and when he looked for
fruit he found only leaves Matthew 21:18-20, 18
In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry.
19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside,
he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May
no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. 20 When
the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at
once?
I
would say that so many of our churches are like that fig tree, yes we have life
but it has gone to produce only leaves, instead of producing leaves alongside
fruit, indeed later in the same chapter, Jesus spoke about the physical nation
of Israel, saying that because they trusted in themselves rather than trusting
in the Lord, that had lost the Kingdom of God, Matthew 21:43 43 Therefore I
tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people
producing its fruits.
For
many of our churches today, we’ve lost the Kingdom of God because we’ve trusted
in ourselves, our systems, structures and strategies instead of trusting Him ,
our Lord and Saviour Jesus, we’ve just
grown leaves not fruit and God has gone and left us, even then we’ve created a
theology and/or theory/or solutions around that, see Habakkuk 3:15-18 17 Even
though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines;
even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even
though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, 18 yet I
will rejoice in the Lord! I will be
joyful in the God of my salvation!
However
there is a message of hope, for those Churches that once proclaimed God’s Message,
Haggai 1:6 6 You have planted much but
harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty.
You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you
were putting them in pockets filled with holes! See Haggai 1, our
transformation isn’t due to our living in the luxury houses that are our own tribal
groups/denominations/churches but rather our transformation comes through being
part of His Church, or the Temple or the House of the Lord. We’ve become consumed
that our way of doing and being Church is also the Lord’s way of doing and
being Church, but our ways are not his ways of doing and being Church see
Isaiah 55:8-11
We
have set in place man made structures, systems and organizations to how to do
and be the Church today, we set in place committees, clerical systems and
called and commissioned those He’s not called and commissioned to lead us in
being the Church and we wonder why nothing is working, we’ve watered down and
diluted our message to make it pliable to others, we’ve accepted things that go
against Biblical Standards like Homosexual Clergy and wonder why God isn’t moving amongst us
and blessing us
Yet,
there is hope for us the Church, the old
wineskins of our ways, those beloved
ways of doing and being the Church aren’t working and if we try to add His way
of being and doing Church or the new wine to our old wineskins, our old
wineskins are going to tear and break up, instead we need His new wineskins of
doing and being the Church, his structure, systems, and Leadership* and
following those He has called and commissioned to lead us forward, see Luke
5:37-39.
We
notice in Scripture, there is a God Ordained indeed Organized way of being and
doing Church, no longer will our man made systems cope with the things, our
message should be say no, to the status quo,
We don’t need any other or more denominations or tribes, we don’t need
another methodology of doing and being the Church. We need to be a Movement and not a Monument.
We need to see a restoration of Apostolic Christianity, which is a Movement for
the 21st Century Church not a Monument to the 1st Century Church. We need to see Revival through a Renewed
Church.
It
says in Ephesians 4:11-13* 11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the
church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and
teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and
build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all
come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be
mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of
Christ. See Ephesians 4:11-16 for
context.
Yours
in His Grace
Blair
Humphreys
Southport,
Merseyside
