Flippin Lamps and Salt Cellars

One of the verses that has most impacted me over the last decade is found, like so many important verses, in the Sermon on the Mount:

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Matt 5:16

In the same way as what? Well in the preceding verses Jesus has just told us that we are salt and light and a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. We let our light shine through good works that people see. Luke commends the disciple Tabitha for her good works in Acts 9:36. When he writes the the church in Ephesus Paul says that we were created for good works:

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Eph 2:10

The writer of Hebrews says:

Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works Heb 10:24

In the second chapter of his letter the apostle James goes to great lengths to show that good works are a huge part of being the church, he goes so far as saying:

So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

James 2:17

The weight of scripture calling us to do good is massive. The church is a lamp in a city that lets its light shine. In fact in Numbers Moses tells his brother-in-law, Hobab:

“Come with us and we will do you good”. Num 10:29

This isn’t some good idea that Moses has to persuade Hobab to join his team, he is recalling the blessing God has promised Abraham in Gen 12:

I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

Gen 12:2

The church inherits this blessing from God so that we too will be a blessing. Once again, as in the church being disciples and priests, as lamps our purpose is far far more than being a Sunday worshipping community.

For a church to be a lamp it must be doing good. For many parts of the church we have read this as a church must be good, ie not sinning. Whilst it’s true that we are called to be holy, we don’t focus our efforts on trying to be holy because Christ has made us holy. Now our efforts can be in doing good to others. Indeed, if we are not doing good, then how can we truly be salt and light? How can we change the culture around us and be the ekklesia. A statement often attributed to one of my role models from history, St Francis of Assisi, says:

“Preach the gospel at all times and if you must, use words” 

Whilst this imperative is clearly aimed at individual Christians it is nevertheless true for the church. I would go so far as to say that any body of Christians calling itself a church and not intending good for those around them, regardless of their circumstances, is not actually a church, not an ekklesia which is bringing about the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. 

Further proof of this is found in Jesus letter to the church in Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2.

To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lamp stands. I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Rev 2:1-7

Jesus accuses the church of losing her first love and gives the antidote to this, repent and do the works you did at first. If you don’t you won’t be a lamp anymore!

We need to find ways to be church which enable the people of God to serve our communities, to do the works which are our first love. This begs the question, can small fellowships truly be church?  This is an important question because surveys show that in the USA about 60% of churches have less than 100 people in them. The 2005 English Church census shows that 28% of Christians in the UK are Church of England and the average size of their congregations is 54 people.

If we assume that 5 of the 54 people in an average church are infants, 10 are primary school age and 5 are teenagers then we are left with 34 adults. Perhaps another 10 of these folk are very elderly. Therefore, a generous estimation would be that the average congregation in the UK has around 24 active adults. These two dozen people will no doubt have their employment, family and homes to occupy them, but they will also have to look after the church buildings and grounds, and maintain the fittings and fixtures like organs and furniture, hymn books and PA systems etc. Many churches will spend quite a lot of time and effort on fund raising for their buildings and activities. Then these 24 people will need to run the Sunday schools, youth work, uniformed organisations, services, and church year events as well as sit on committees and councils of the church at local and national levels. At what point do we think this amazingly busy and dedicated people will have time or energy to be salt and light, let alone be the kingdom bringing ekklesia to their community? Lest I be accused of being unfair to Anglicans, the same applies to free churches, small new church groups and Pentecostals too. Many have even less active adult members and encourage regular commitment at mid week fellowship/study groups as well as worship band practices and mid week youth group etc.

With the average church having so few members it is rare to find full time paid leaders in these fellowships, so the administration, finance and organisation of each congregation has also to be carried out by its faithful few, not to mention the legal requirements for Health and Safety, Child Safety, Charity Laws and a myriad of other requirements.

I believe that most things we call churches in most parts of the UK and possibly the world are well below critical mass. We spend much of our time looking inwards trying to keep the machine going and have lost sight of what the flippin’ machine was made for in the first place. I mentioned worship in the previous blog on priests. Here again a group of Christians below a certain size often finds it very hard to be a worshipping body because they don’t have musical leadership when they gather and so aren't able to fulfil their function as a worshipping priesthood. Meanwhile mega churches are stacked high with gifted musicians who rarely get the chance to lead worship!

A further block to the church being salt and light is that most local congregations are gathered from a distance away where few members are able to share their lives with one another outside of the church meetings. Often members don’t even know each others strengths, gifts and passions, let alone share them. The average person will decide on a church to attend because they like the sunday service style. They will stay at that church because they make some friends. However, they will find it highly unlikely that they share the same passion for reaching their community with their particular ‘thing’. For instance one member may have a desire to serve through sport, another through debt relief, another through performance arts, still another through environmental issues and yet another in addressing homelessness. In practice no avenues are made in any of these areas because everyone is keeping the machine going and would not be able to find energy or common ground for much else.

Please believe me when I say that I am not advocating that we close down all of the smaller churches and become some kind of mega church of thousands. I will look at what an answer might be in a few blogs time. The point I am making here is that we are trying to be something which the Bible did not anticipate us being and Jesus is not building. There will no doubt be some reading this who will counter my points with the idea that the church is to merely be a presence in a community, just being there is the light. However, as I have already pointed out a light must shine and shining is serving those in need and as Jesus says of salt in the Sermon on the Mount:

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

Mat 5:13

The church is not a salt seller but salt.

Those of you who can remember an earlier blog will recall that when I arrived in Croydon I asked our fellowship which of the five aspects of worship, fellowship, serving, teaching, and evangelism were most important to them. You may challenge me that the last part of this blog has really being about serving and the section on priests was really about prayer or worship, and the section on discipleship could be said to be about teaching, so what about fellowship?

I'll tackle these next time.

Flippin’ Priests.

Churches from the low end of the spectrum of churchmanship love to point out to those who call their ministers ‘priests’ that we are now a priesthood of all believers and we quote from 2 Peter:

You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ ..... But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. 1Pet. 2:5 & 9

We built this theology from passages like Mat 27:51 that tell us that at the point of Jesus death the temple curtain was torn in two. 

In the Old Testament the temple was the place where the Jews could get close to God. It was the house of God. But God is holy and so the very much unholy people couldn’t get too close for fear that they might die. Try to think of the temple system as a way of insulating people from the huge powerful presence of God. You wanted to get close, but it was to scary. Imagine that God was like a zillion volts of electricity. You wanted to plug into some power, but not that much power. To get to the real power you would need insulation like the rubber coating on wires.

In the diagram above we can see that the non Jews were only allowed to go as far as the Court of Gentiles. These people weren't at all holy so they had to be insulated by at least four walls. Jewish women were a bit more holy, but still needed no fewer than three walls of protection from the awesome power of God. Jewish men could go one more layer in and priests could go one more step closer because they were even more holy. Of course the rituals of washing and sacrifices also had to be performed to make sure than optimal holiness was achieved and so minimising the risk of spiritual electrocution as it were. But one day a year on the day of Atonement, the High Priest after going through the prescribed preparations, could go into the actual Holy of Holies, he was so holy himself that he could withstand the holiness of God, unless of course he was somehow unexpectedly impure when he would die. For this reason the High Priest always had a rope tied around his ankle before he went through the temple curtain into the Holy of Holies, if he were to die he could be dragged out by the rope!

Now Christians are declared holy by God because of Christ’s death and resurrection and not through our gender, race, or whatever offerings we have made or cleansing we have been through. We are in the presence of the living God and we are insulated by Christ. What is more, the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed in AD 70 and there is no temple but us. We are the house of God and we are priests, but those who don’t yet know Christ as their Lord need us to be their priests, to come before God on their behalf because they, like the gentiles of the temple days, cannot.

We rightly conclude that to enter into the presence of God we don't need a priest anymore. We are all priests. Of course many denominations who hold to this view confuse the issue in insisting that for the sake of church order the ordained person must preside at communion. Many get confused by this and also, because the higher end of church theology and practice sees communion as a sacrifice on an altar by a priest. So we kind of feel that we are all priests, but the top guy, the one with the theological education and the collar, is the real one. However, if we are all priests, as I believe scripture reveals, who then are we priests for? Not for each other, but for the world. For all of those who are not yet in Christ. Of course the people who live and work around us don’t see us as their priests, they don’t necessarily know that we are interceding for them or that we are a way for them to find God. But, if we have a good relationship with them, when they need God, we will be their priests until, by the work of the Holy Spirit, they come to Christ themselves. Just like the Old Testament priests we don’t have access to God just for our own relationship, but to be responsible for all of those who cannot yet come on their own behalf. We are not priests for the Sunday hour or the communion service, but yet again, for 365 days of the year. This means that we must be priests who intercede for those who are not yet part of the Kingdom of God, not just praying for their salvation, but for all their circumstances.

The other thing that Old Testament priests got involved in was worship. They were in the temple day and night and the temple was a place of amazing worship, praise, adoration and thanksgiving. Once again those who don’t yet acknowledge Jesus as Lord do not worship him. The Church worships God because we are called to do so in numerous verses of the Bible like:

Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;

bring an offering and come before him!

Worship the LORD in the splendour of holiness 

1 Chr 16:29

The psalms are full of wonderful worship and would have been sung with instruments accompanying the choirs in the temple. When we worship we are doing many different things and this blog is nowhere near big enough to scratch the surface of what worship is about, but today when we worship as priests, I have noticed a particular aspect which high churches have never lost, but isn’t stressed in low styles of churchmanship. We, the worshipping community, draw others into our midst and they meet with the transcendence and imminence of God through our worship.

When I was a chaplain in the RAF I would get non Christian families wanting me to ‘christen’ their babies or couples asking if I could conduct their weddings. I would always suggest to these people that they should come and experience our church worshipping before they made their mind up about whether they wanted their service in our style of church. Regularly these visitors would come to the church for the fist time and begin to weep as the worship continued. After the service or in the weeks following they would comment that something was happening to them as the people played and sang. Many of those visitor became Christians and joined the church because their first experience of God was when the priesthood worshipped their Lord. Let me make one other observation here. It wasn't that we always had wonderful musicians, although we have been blessed over the years with great instrumentalists and singers, it was that the people of God worshipped. Great bands, organists and choirs are one thing, but if they don’t or can’t lead the priesthood of all believers into worship, then they are not fulfilling their calling.

Next time I want to delve into two of the things Jesus calls us, 'lamps and salt'.

What Does A Flippin’ Church Do?

When I first came to Jubilee in December 1997 (At the time still called Selsdon Community Church) I visited every member of the fellowship and asked them what they thought was the most important aspect of church life out of five major areas. I gave them the choice of worship, fellowship, serving, teaching, or evangelism. The answers people gave to my question largely depended on each persons personality and passion, but the majority of folk answered me in the context of the Sunday morning service. 

Over the years I have noticed that when I gather with a room full of pastors and ministers to talk about church it doesn't take long for two things to happen. If the leaders don’t already know each other well, the first thing is that they start fishing about the size of each others church (or is it just men who worry about comparative size?). 

The second topic of conversation and the one that fills the rest of the time is all about what happens on Sunday mornings. These are leaders know that church is about the people and will actually preach that church is 24/7, but they just can’t help but betray that most Christians still instinctively think of church as the thing you go to on Sunday mornings. This deep down instinct has to come from somewhere, but where?

I believe that most Christians think of church as the Sunday service because we think of Christianity as a religion to get people to go to heaven instead of hell. And our main method of doing this is to get ‘lost’ people to come into a building on a Sunday morning (or other special occasion) and hear a sermon preached that will convince them of their sin and their need of a saviour, so they will commit to Christ and join the church and so become part of the machine which goes on turning.

Now, in many ways there is nothing wrong with this strategy, if its a small part of the whole, but if its the whole part of a small then we are in real trouble. Maybe I will go deeper into the big misunderstanding in a later blog, perhaps ‘Flippin’ Jesus’, but just to say briefly that, if our Gospel is only about making converts then we have totally missed the point of Jesus’ life and teaching. One of the calls on the church is given in Mathew 28

Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations ... Matt 28:18f

Flippin’ Disciples

We are clearly commanded to make disciples not converts. ‘Whats the difference between a disciple and a convert?’ you may ask. Well a convert is someone who just changes his mind on something. Its a crisis point. Some years ago now I went through a crisis point. I had been really let down by some people and I’d anguished for a couple of months over what to do and did a lot of research and asked lots of friends who, I found, had different, even conflicting, advice. Eventually I went to someone who claimed to really know what they were talking about and I made a commitment. The day came when two men came to my house for about an hour and I was converted or rather I should say that I converted to a different broadband supplier!

A disciple, however, is someone who is an apprentice of a master. In ancient Greece masters would take several boys into their home and over many years train them up in all aspects of life which included their specific occupation. These boys would eat, sleep, play and learn together until they eventually became fully trained and completely educated in life. Less than a century ago in England these kind of apprentices still existed. Sent from their family to learn a trade until the day they completed their final test, their ‘Master Piece’ and became master craftsmen themselves.

In the Gospel we find Jesus calling men to himself to be disciples, they followed him everywhere and ate, slept and played together as they learned from him over about three years. The difference is that, even though these men progressed in what they learned, they never became masters, Jesus remained their master and will always be so, and they remain still his disciples. Jesus calls us to be his disciples too and to go and make more apprentice Jesus’. The word ‘Christians’ just means little Christs.

Earlier we saw that the church is called to abide in Christ to make our dwelling in him - the house of God, so that we are now temples, the house of God. A disciple is living in Christ, learning from him as we walk together. Its why one of Paul’s most frequent appeals is for us to live ‘in Christ’ or to 'walk according to the Spirit'. Jesus, in his only recorded description of himself says:

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matt. 11:29f

It was common practice in the first century for an old well trained ox to be yoked to a brand new wilful one until it learned the ropes. In saying “Take my yoke upon you” Jesus is telling us to apprentice ourselves to him, the only one who knows how to live a full life, for the whole of our lives.

Its amazing that we look to all kinds of gurus for how to be happy, make our fortune or be content, but very few people turn to the one who really knows, the one who created us. The only actual genius is Jesus. There is a huge industry of magazines and TV programmes, courses and experts all telling us how to live our lives, when we are called to be apprentices of the one master, Jesus. Being a disciple is far more than one hour on Sunday mornings, it’s our whole lives. It follows that the church is about every aspect of our lives all of the time.

One of the reasons that church leaders tend to think about the Sunday morning services more than the rest of the week and why they think so much about getting people into their church building more than addressing issues affecting the rest of the city, is that the system of calling church leaders is a circular process. It doesn’t really matter which denomination of church you care to look at, the process is fairly similar. You get saved, you grow up in a Sunday morning oriented church, you like the church, you want to do more, you do even more, now the church is getting in the way of your day job so you resolve to go full time. You are selected by Sunday church people who confirm your ‘call’, you are then trained by people who came through the same system and you are then found to be competent to lead a church where you go and repeat the process with the next generation! Can that be what Jesus calls His body?

In John’s Gospel he tells us about the day when Jesus went into the Temple, the house of God, to celebrate the week long festival of the feast of booths. The background to this festival is important here. Amongst other things the feast marked Ezekiel’s vision in Ezek chapters 43-7. The account starts with a thin place encounter with God where his glory prevails and then God tells Ezekiel what the measurements and rules of his new house should be. But then in chapter 47 the vision changes to the back door of the Temple where Ezekiel sees water flowing from the East of the Temple which itself faced East. The water goes into the Kidron valley and gets deeper and deeper until we read:

And he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he led me back to the bank of the river. As I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. And he said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and enters the sea; when the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh. And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes. Fishermen will stand beside the sea. From Engedi to Eneglaim it will be a place for the spreading of nets. Its fish will be of very many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea. But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt. And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.” Ezek 47:6-12

At the feast of Booths the Jews rehearsed this scene each day. The priest would fill a golden pitcher with water and pour it into a channel on the altar which would flow out of the Eastern side of the temple and into the Kidron valley where it would evaporate... On the last and greatest day of the feast the priest wouldn't reenact the scene, because the people hoped that God would bring it about to fulfil Ezekiel’s dream. And so we read what happens next in John’s Gospel:

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”

Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Jn 7:37-39

This gets even more interesting when we find that the word Jesus uses, here translated as ‘heart’ is the Greek word ‘koilia’ which strictly translated would be bellybutton or navel. If you were to look at a map of the world drawn by Jews at the time of Jesus, you would find that rather than being geographically accurate, the map would depict the Jewish beliefs. Israel was in the centre of the map with Jerusalem in the centre of Israel and the Temple in the centre of Jerusalem and the Altar in the centre of the Temple. The Altar was known as the koilia, the bellybutton, the place where God cut the umbilical when He created the world!

In effect Jesus is telling the Jews and us, that we, His followers, will be the people who have the Holy Spirit pouring from us, the House of God, the thin place, the gate of the Kingdom of Heaven.

This is very different from the church being a group of believers who come together to be the body of Jesus or the called out to be holy ones. We are so much more than a holy huddle. We have the Holy Spirit. In our cities we have real authority, real power, we are the light, the gate, salt, etc. Perhaps this is what Haggai was prompted to write:

The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the LORD of hosts.

Hag 2:9 

Next time I want to start a whole new section looking at what the flipping church is meant to do.

Who’s in da flippin house?

In the first chapter of John’s Gospel we get kind of parallels to parts of Genesis. The first and most obvious is:

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Gen 1:1f 

With its parallel in:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. Jn 1:1-3

But its not long in John’s gospel before we come across this verse:

‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth’. Jn 1:14

The word ‘dwelt’ is the translation of the Greek ‘skenoo’ which some versions translate as ‘tabernacled’ or ‘made His dwelling’.

How startling is this? Jesus comes and there is a house of God where there is a massive display of the glory of God. A thin place that isn't a place but a person, no less than the Son of God becoming incarnate, made flesh and living among us. Wow!

Jesus became the House of God on earth. 

If your still not sure about this just look at what happened at Jesus’ baptism:

Now when all the people were baptised, and when Jesus also had been baptised and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased." Lk 3:21f

The first thing to notice here is that God is clearly from South London because He is ‘well pleased’!! But more seriously, just read it again, the heavens were opened! Jesus is the initial fulfilment of the Genesis 28 House of God.

Now lets go back to the first chapter of John:

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!" Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" Jesus answered him, "Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these." And he said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." Jn 1:47-51

Nathaniel is going to see great and amazing things, the portal, the heavens opened, angels ascending and descending, the thin place of thin places, the house of God, Jesus.

John goes on recording Jesus’ later words:

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples... Jn 8:31

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. Jn 15:4-11

Everyone who abides in Jesus lives in a thin place and has an open heaven. And will see the supernatural of God breaking in from the Kingdom of Heaven to earth. So Jesus is able to say of himself and of His followers:

“I am the light of the world”      “You are the light of the world”

“I do miracles”                           “You will do miracles”

   “I cast out demons”                 “you will cast out demons”

“I heal”                               “You will heal”

“I love”                              “You will love”

He is the temple                 We are the temple

He is the priest                       We are priests

Jesus is the House of God, and now the Church is the House of God. The portal. But it doesn’t end there. If we go back to Genesis 28 we see:

And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." Gen 28:17

The house of God is the gate of heaven and earth. A gate is the transition place between one place and another. 

So Jesus again said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. Jn 10:7

Remember earlier we looked at ekklesia and said that in the Old Testament the elders could be said to be an ekklesia. Gates were places where the elders sat to control who came in and went out of the city. When we look back to one of the verses where Jesus uses the ekklesia word we see:

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church (ekklesia), and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Matt 16:18f

It certainly looks like we are onto something here that isn't the usual understanding of church at all. Jesus is the initial expression of the kingdom gate, being fulfilled on earth, but he is saying that his ekklesia will be a new expression of this Bethel, house of God, where the supernatural of the Kingdom of heaven will powerfully burst onto the earth. Bill Johnson’s book title “When Heaven Invades Earth’ certainly seems most appropriate.

If our theory is true then we should see signs of this in the rest of the New Testament. In fact we don’t have to go far before we come to the Acts of the Apostles

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Acts 2:2-4

If that isn't a sign of the believers being a thin place, the house of God, then I don’t know what is. 120 people become that body, the ekklesia, the gate, the house of God. And as we read in the rest of Acts the entire atmosphere changes in that region. Thousands get saved, healed, set free etc.

So the church, or rather we should say for clarity, the ekklesia, is the people of God, who are the house of God, who are the gate of heaven where the supernatural comes down, including angels. So we bind what is bound and release what is released in heaven, and pray let your kingdom come. And it comes through the gate.

And we can do all of this because Jesus has sent His Holy Spirit to fill us and flow through us.

I will finish my thoughts on this section tomorrow.

Has The Flippin’ Church Always Been God’s Plan?

A few years ago I spent two separate weeks at Bethel Church in Redding, California. I can honestly say that I glimpsed something there which has niggled at me ever since. Something of the vision which God put in me the day I was saved connected with things I observed and enjoyed at Bethel. Twice I sat in a classroom with 30 other church leaders and listened to the apostle from Bethel, Bill Johnson, share his heart for the kingdom and for the church. The two lots of five days I spent at Bethel were filled with classes where members of their team poured their insights for church and ministry into our hearts and minds. They were very powerful and provocative times, but before leaving, I picked up a book by Bill Johnson called ‘When Heaven Invades Earth’. I am much indebted to that book for the next few blogs and am convinced that you would do better to read Bill’s book than my précis and subsequent thoughts.

Its no coincidence that Bill Johnson’s church is called Bethel. In Hebrew ‘Bethel’ means ‘House of God’ and comes from its first use in Genesis:

Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it." And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."

Gen 28:10-17

Flippin’ da house of God

Now I don’t know about you, but I have never been too keen on the term ‘House of God’ for a church building. I’m sure it has something to do with my weird experiences of church as a small child. I have half memories of people getting very angry with our school class because we weren't being reverent enough in one of our long church assemblies. They would say things like “Don’t you know this is a house of God?” Even as a child I wanted to say “well, if its God’s house, why doesn’t he get the heating fixed?” But, if God was lurking somewhere in the dark corners of the building I didn’t want to annoy him so I stayed quiet. Nevertheless, something stuck in me about this phrase ‘House of God’ and I just hated it. 

A few years ago, on my day off, my wife and I went to Hampton Court. It was originally built by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in the early 16th century and then in 1529, as Wolsey fell from favour, the palace was passed to King Henry viii. Our visit was on a cold winters day and was very enjoyable until we went into the chapel when a steward stopped me and, with a very disdainful air, asked me to remove my hat because this was a house of God. Sometimes Ruth intuitively knows I’m about to blow, she grabbed my arm and steered me to a stained glass window commenting on how beautiful it was. But, as a sign of how much a man of God I am and how you shouldn't mess with me when it comes to church, I kept my hat on for another 15 seconds before quietly removing it.

Well, I might not have liked the phrase ‘house of God’ but God loves it. And he wants us to understand something of huge significance about it when it comes to the church today. Often when we read scripture, the first mention of a subject is the blueprint for other references to build on. Its a beautiful feature of the Bible that God reveals something and then continues to build on that theme without contradicting himself throughout the Old and New Testaments. No other book written by so many different people over such a huge period of history comes close to this phenomenon. But then again, this is God’s book and as Paul says:

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. 2 Tim 3:16

So back to Genesis 28 where we find that God introduces us to ‘The House of God’ where angels ascend and descend, in other words they come and go from heaven to earth.

The question we must ask ourselves is what are the angels coming for? And our answer is, they are coming for what they came for throughout scripture and history for that matter, to do the works of God on earth as they do in heaven. As the writer of Hebrews says about angels:

Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? Heb 1:14

Celtic Christianity in the early Middle Ages identified places like this, where they felt God was especially near, as ‘thin places’. I like the idea that there are places where the membrane between the kingdom of heaven and earth are especially gossamer like. So the house of God is the place where the supernatural of heaven comes down to earth. Its a thin place and its what we pray for in the Lord’s prayer when we say:

‘Let your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven’

Gen 28 tells us that there is a place where this happens and its Bethel – The house of God. In fact the first thin place was really the Garden of Eden. But since the fall there hadn’t been a house of God on earth.

As we read through the Old Testament we see this house of God developing as first, the tabernacle tent of meeting and then the stone temples are built. Thin places are also found in scripture in the story of the burning bush on Mount Sinai in Ex 3 where again an angel ministers to Moses, and possibly when later in Exodus, Moses again goes up Mount Sinai to receive the tablets of stone and hears the voice of God. Commonly the house of God is full of his shekinah glory and angels ascend and descend there. We could see it as the the kingdom of Heaven having a portal, an open heaven.

When the tabernacle was consecrated, God came in in a most striking way. His glory filled the tent to such an degree that Moses couldn’t enter (Ex 40:34-36). The pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire rested on the tabernacle, signifying the powerful presence of God. The Israelites would remain in a given location until the pillar or cloud would lift from the tent as a sign that it was time to move on. Throughout the rest of the Old Testament story God occasionally sends angels through the portal, and into the House of God.

God began something recorded in Gen 28, but in the next blog we will see what happens in the New Testament a few thousand years later.

What about the flippin’ Romans?

As we all know from the Christmas story in Matthew and Luke’s Gospels, Jesus was born in the Roman Empire. However, we need to remember that the Empire’s language was still Greek and they were a couple of hundred years away from being largely Latin speaking. So ekklesia was a common word in the Roman culture too. They took their understanding of the word from the Greek Empire days, but it had moved on in how it was used by the time of Jesus.

When the Romans regularly and very successfully conquered a new region they swiftly made that place entirely Roman. Anyone watching channel 4’s  popular archaeological programme, ‘Time Team’, will be well used to Tony Robinson banging on about Britain's Roman villas, Roman roads, Roman temples, Roman aqueducts etc. 

Any church leader knows that trying to change a group of people is like trying to stop an ocean going oil tanker, it takes ages! So how did the Roman’s achieve such rapid cultural changes in people groups who had been very different for many generations? The answer is the ekklesia. To the Romans this was group of specialists sent into a conquered region to alter it’s culture until it became Roman. By one means or another the Roman ekklesia would persuade the invaded nationals that they wanted everything that Rome could offer. Clearly the ‘Life of Brian’ characters hadn’t yet been fully persuaded in the oft quoted “What have the Roman’s ever done for us” scene in the Monty Python film.

A significant, but overlooked fact about the Roman ekklesia was that they were led by an apostle! The apostle was the guy sent by Rome to lead the team to change the culture. It seems that the apostle was the guy with the blueprint of what Roman culture looked like. More about this role in later blog.

Could it be then, that when Jesus used the word ekklesia, he was speaking of a people in a city that would have spiritual authority to legislate and extend his government and rule. To bring about his kingdom culture. That’s the kind of ekklesia that the gates of Hades will not over come. The governmental plans of the god of this age, being overthrown by the true authority, Jesus Christ, via his body. Now that would be flippin’ church.

And don’t forget that gates in the Bible were the places where the elders sat, governed and decided who came into and out of the city. There they judged and exercised authority.

In flesh and blood terms the ekklesia Jesus instituted, rules in a city not by might, but by serving as Jesus did, by being the people of God, the Royal Priesthood, the body of Christ. In spiritual terms it is exercised entirely militarily with the weapons which we fight with not being of this world nor against flesh and blood …

I have majored on this word ‘ekklesia’ and on Jesus’ use of it because it seems that that is more in line with how the early church saw themselves. They weren't small worshipping communities, or any kind of holy huddle. They were there to change society and early church history shows us just how brilliantly successful they were at it. Over its first 250 to 300 years the church transformed the Roman Empire and the whole known world. Twelve scared men in a upper room got filled with the Holy Spirit and, as apostles, they led the ekklesia to bring about the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. In this time we have no records of any special buildings or anything else called church. Just the ekklesia trying to work out how it should function to see the lost saved, the blind receive sight, the lame walk and captives set free. Hallelujah!

Flippin’ Living Stones

The early ekklesia clearly met and organised themselves to be the spiritual authority of the city and didn’t have buildings or even building funds (what on earth did they spend their time doing), but they were made of stones, “living stones” as Peter says in his letter:

You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1Pet 2:5

As I have studied the topic of church over my life many biblical illustration have been used to describe what the church is; the body of Christ, the royal priesthood or the bride of Christ etc. However, one that seems to be overlooked by many writers and practitioners is the church as ‘living stones’.

Just after the Falklands war, I was stationed on Ascension Island in the Atlantic just south of the equator, as part of the air bridge to keep the Falkland Islands resupplied and protected from further arial attack by the Argentineans. Our flying hours were very long and our living conditions were sparse. During our free time we either sun bathed or made things to make our life easier. Now Ascension is a volcanic island with very little vegetation, so the wood was all imported deliberately or was washed up on the beaches and so was in short supply, although we did make an awful lot of furniture from packing cases. 

One of the things we spent a whole week on was building a huge BBQ made from volcanic rocks. These rocks were the size of footballs, very heavy and had razor sharp edges due to the way the lava had flowed and cooled. Nevertheless, we built our BBQ by placing just the right stone, one upon another. This meant that we had to gather lots of rocks and grade them as to where they might fit our construction. We ended up with something which closely resembled a dry stone wall with an area to put wood on.

So why have I told you this scintillating story? Well it seems to me that whenever we talk about building churches of living stones, most attempts in history have started with a blueprint and trimmed every stone to fit a particular gap in a way that is neat and tidy. We have ended up with smart walls of similar looking stones all symmetrically fitting together. In the minds of those building there must have been ideas of splendid palaces or mansion houses. But there are two things wrong with this idea. First and most clear from scripture is that it is Jesus who builds His church and not us:

I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Mat 16:18

Jesus puts the living stones where He want them to be.

But the second implication of this is that every member of His church is a living stone and not one cut to fit a gap. Jesus’ building is much more like our Ascension Island BBQ or a dry stone wall. He places the people he has chosen where he wants them to be, one upon another, in our eyes in a seemingly random way, but actually so that a wonderful church is built. 

To us the whole thing will no doubt look very messy. We would really much prefer the building to look neat and tidy because its very much easier to control. But we were never told to practice church control. In fact scripture only allows us to control one person and that is ourselves. Paul tells the Galatians in chapter 5 verse 23 that self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. We will look at how this actually works in a later blog, but just for now let me say that messy church isn’t about having the kids do finger painting during the sermon or allowing toddlers to run around the room during a service, it is living stones being put together God’s way. It is entirely different to a man made organisation where we can control staff or even volunteers. It is not top down planning where we recruit to fit a slot to make our machine work perfectly. A living stones church is about valuing each other for what God has, and has not, made us and helping one another to give and receive ministry.

So what is the flippin’ Church?

We have seen that the church is the ekklesia who were a people who changed cities, who had real authority and whom God put together as living stones. The Bible also calls the believers a body:

For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Rom 12:4f

In fact Pauls first letter to the Corinthians chapter 12 is almost entirely about how this body works and later in the letter to the Ephesians in chapter 4 and 5 Paul again calls the church Christ’s body with Jesus himself as the head. When we read through these scriptures we understand that the church is a mutually supporting system with all kinds of gifts and functions where each plays a full part within their particular gift and calling. Very few Christians would disagree with this understanding of the church as a body with all kinds of equal parts, but our structures and governmental patterns consistently betray the fact that we don’t build the church this way at all and therefore struggle to be the kind of church which Jesus is building. We will look at an alternative way of seeing church later.

So far we have tried to see the church in the light of the New Testament references, but to get the subject in perspective, next time we will go on to see where the church fits with God’s plans.