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Morning
By daniel | September 12, 2004
Morning!
I thought we?d spend a few minutes reviewing and piecing together some of what we?ve learned over these past months. Sometimes getting an eye for how it all fits gives us the perspective we need to live in it.
To start with, we?ve spent the last several weeks in Acts, examining the church life and how it spreads. Acts 2 and Acts 4 gave us snapshots of what the church life looks like when people are living together around the Holy Spirit. We saw how the saints in a given city would all regularly meet together in large public places, and then meet in smaller units throughout the city, “continuing in the apostles teaching,” and doing so over meals, from house to house and day by day “taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart.” All the while, they shared all things ? material and spiritual ? in common.
Now let?s recall the four aspects of the church we?ve examined so far in Ephesians and see how they play out in a dynamic like the one described above. First, there?s the Body of Christ. The uncreated life of God flows down from the Head, out from whom the whole Body grows. The life flows into each member, and each member in turn supplies the Body with what the Head has given. Thus, the Body grows up into the Head. When the saints meet together, each enjoying Christ and bringing the fruit of that union to the gatherings, Christ supplies the Body through the members, and the church grows.
Then, the New Man. Someone recently mentioned to me how afraid she is to bring children into this world, specifically into American culture. That?s understandable. The world is a dark place, and human society (every human society) is characterized by conflict. But the church, the New Mankind, is characterized by peace. As the New Man, the church forms a counter culture within its host culture. Not a foreign culture. A counter culture. Religion would have us form a foreign culture ? different clothes, different language, different food and drink. The Bible instructs us to keep our clothes and food and cultural forms, but to fill them up with God, forming a counter current within the cultures we find ourselves in. As the church, the New Man, spends lots and lots of time together, we can form new rhythms and habituations around the Life and Rhythm of God. That kind of environment is not a scary place to raise my daughter.
The church is also the kingdom of God. In the simplest possible terms, the kingdom of God includes those individuals, relationships, situations and actions in which God?s will really is done on earth as it is in the heavens. Where God?s best intentions actually happen ? that is His kingdom. When the saints meet around Jesus, endeavoring to understand and execute His will, they are meeting “in His name.” So when we see the early saints gathering in homes around the Spirit, God is ruling there. That is the kingdom of God. And the obvious entrance of that kingdom into the affairs of men “turned the world upside down,” as one irritated unbeliever put it.
Finally, the church is the family of God. We all eat with our families. And if we?re going to include someone else we have to invite them over, simply because they?re not family. Our inclusion in the church is an inclusion in a much larger family ? God?s family. Whereas we would naturally share all things in common with our biological, nuclear family, now we share all things in common with all the saints. Whereas biological family shares the bread and butter quite naturally, now God?s family is our family as well; since I can?t fit God?s whole family into my home, I fit as many as I can, and around the table we enjoy our common dinner, our common fellowship, and our common God.
So, while the four aspects of the church we?ve so far covered may be difficult to experience the contemporary American church life, the simplicity of the early church afforded enough room for the church to be all she?s intended to be ? in all her beautiful facets. And that same simplicity made the spread of the church life a relatively straightforward matter as well.
The church life is spread through many vehicles, but two are conspicuous: persecution and the sending of apostles. As the saints enjoyed the Lord together before the eyes of the unbelievers around whom they lived and with whom they worked their daily trades, the Lord added to their number those who would be saved. Thus, the church life expanded within the locality of Jerusalem. Soon, the church in Jerusalem reached critical mass, and the darkness of the religious world responded. With that response came a persecution, and through that persecution, the church life was spread from Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria (Acts 8:1 and following). This persecution resulted ultimately in the cultivation of the first largely Gentile church in Antioch (Acts 11:19ff).
And from Antioch Saul and Barnabas were sent as apostles. We don?t have time here to explain all there is to know about apostles; instead, I strongly suggest you take time to seriously explore Richard?s comments (on behalf of the elders) included as an insert in your bulletin this week. For now let?s notice that local spread of the church life happens as saints live simultaneously mindful of the living Spirit, looking to the well-being of the church, and aware of the lost ones around them. Local spread occurs as unbelievers are brought into an existing church. Extra-local spread ? spread into localities that have not known the church life before ? occurs as believers are sent out as apostles into the world. Local spread brings the lost in; extra-local spread sends the believers out.
I?m really excited about the conference this week, and I so look forward to seeing you all ? every single beautiful face, each and every one, no one missing?no not one, no not one ? at all the meetings and workshops. I hope this little review has helped prepare us to interact with Lord in dynamic and responsive ways. I love you.
Yours,
Virgil
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