Question: If I synthesize the thoughts of my last three blog series using a Venn diagram with three circles, I wonder what conclusion lies in the intersection of the three circles?
Prior to Easter in 2021, the emphasis was on the OLD covenant being set aside and the NEW covenant being inaugurated . The NEW covenant was established by Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. The Jewish nation, and even the followers of Jesus, struggled with the implications of what that really meant to leave behind their entire, OLD life of Judaism, and embrace a, NEW life in Christ, unsure of the implications. They heard the words Jesus told them prior to His death on the Cross; then they had to deal with His death; then they are miraculously given new hope with the fulfillment of His words that in three days He would rise from the dead. What was mentally improbable, became reality; and there He was in their midst. Now what?
The ‘now what’ was the fulfillment of His words given to them in the Upper Room prior to His arrest, the night He was betrayed. He had spent considerable time teaching them about the Holy Spirit, His purpose, and His work in their lives. After His resurrection, for 40 days, Jesus instructed His disciples about the Kingdom of God. Prior to His Ascension, He gave them specific instructions regarding the coming of the Holy Spirt. They were to wait for His coming in Jerusalem. The coming of the Holy Spirit was the Promise of the Father. Jesus told them that when the Holy Spirit comes, “…you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses for Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, NKJV)
Ten days later, after Jesus’ Ascension, the day of Pentecost had fully come. The followers of Christ were in an upper room, and “they were all with one accord in one place.” (Acts 2:1 NKJV). The Spirit of God makes an unquestionable bold entrance; everyone is transfixed in the moment; and things take place that brings amazement and wonder. Some respond positively and others respond negatively. But something NEW has taken place. The person who speaks up is Peter. He takes control and tells them what is transpiring. Where does Peter get this boldness and understanding? Peter was empowered by the Holy Spirit. Peter is experiencing Acts 1:8.
Peter ‘preaches the first sermon’ on the Day of Pentecost. If you read his words carefully, you will understand that what he preached was a message of reconciliation between God and mankind. The substance of the message is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The message of the NEW covenant has been preached. The person of Jesus Christ has been clearly explained. The work that He came to do has been outlined. The culmination of Peter’s initial words are summarized with this conclusion: (Acts 2:36 NKJV), “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” What was the listeners response to this statement? (Acts 2:37 NKJV), “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” “
Acts 2:38,39 (NKJV), answers that question. “Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let everyone of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
The New has come, the message of God’s Reconciliation has been proclaimed, and a statement is being made about Who is in charge. Question: Who is exercising ‘governmental’ control?
Let’s look at the words Jesus taught His disciples to pray.
Matthew 6:9,10 (NKJV), “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…”
Is there any doubt Who is in charge? God has always been in charge. Mankind may believe that they can be in charge; but the reality is that such a thought is a mirage at best. God is Sovereign. It is impossible for God not to be Sovereign, and therefore not to be in charge.
Consider these verses: (NKJV)
Psalm 135:5,6, “For I know that the Lord is great, and our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the Lord pleases He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deep places.”
Psalm 115:3, “But our God is in heaven; and He does whatever He pleases.”
Isaiah 46:9,10, “Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am god and there is none like Me. Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.”
Ephesians 1:7-12, In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth–in HIm. In Him also we obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Hi who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.”
The evidence is there in the Word of God. God is Sovereign. Therefore God is in complete ‘governmental’ control. He does what He pleases. He allows what He pleases. This is confusing to some; but it is Who God is.
Given a Venn diagram with three circles that intersect; each circle representing one of my last three blog series, the intersection of the three blogs would be the Sovereignty of God.
With that conclusion, it is a ‘no brainer’ to say that the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Head of the Body of Christ, is in ‘governmental’ control of the His Church, which is the NEW Israel of God (Galatians 6:16).
I stepped aside from writing this blog and took a nap. When I woke up I was pondering what I had been composing and the redundancy that is prevalent in the three series. One of thoughts that I have had is, Lord why is there is a constant reminder about ‘governmental’ control, and who is in charge? The answer to that question seems to be, you are going to need to remember that so that you can survive what is coming. That is a scary thought. But it is one that I understand based upon what I perceive is going on in our nation and throughout the world.
Not focusing on the what is going on in our nation and the world at this time, I would like to think about the implications that face the Church. Is the Church ready for what is coming to our nation and to the world? We know that Jesus Christ is Lord; and that He is the Head of the Body of Christ, which is the Church. Is the Church functioning under the ‘governmental’ control of the Lord, or is it functioning using its own ‘self’ control? Is the Church doing its own thing? Have we left our first love, taken on a likeness of the world, and are worshipping God in a manner that does not bring glory to His name? Stiff questions, but necessary. Jesus said to the woman at the well in John 4, “God is Spirit, and seeks those who worship Him in spirit and in truth.” Is that the focus of the Church?
Who is the Church ‘in Christ’?
In Exodus 19:4-8, (NKJV), “Now therefore, if you indeed obey My voice (submit to My ‘governmental’ control) and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine ( Who is in control?). And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. So Moses came and called for the elders of the people and laid before them all the words which the Lord had commanded him. Then all the people answered together and said, “all that the Lord has spoken we will do.”, (They acknowledge God’s Sovereignty) so Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord.”
In the New Testament, in I Peter 2:9, we encounter a parallel thought that the Apostle Peter wrote to followers of Christ.
Question: Are the words which were spoken to the nation of Israel in the wilderness at the base of Mt. Sinai (Exodus 19: 4-8), still the same for the Church today?
Peter declared, You are a community of people, “…a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Israel was a nation, a community of people, chosen by God to be different from the other nations of the world. God would watch over them, provide from them, protect them and bless them. The other nations would see the reality of the one true God living in the midst of His people. How about the Church today?
‘Is the Church conducting itself as Peter proclaimed who we are ‘in Christ’ as the people of God ? If not, then we are not living under God’s ‘governmental’ control. We are living our lives relying on ‘self’ control, and not upon God’s Sovereign ‘governmental’ control.
Strong words, but words, I believe I (we) need to hear, embrace, and evaluate in each of our lives. Why? Because that is the relationship that we called too as believers ‘in Christ’ under the NEW covenant It is that kind of lifestyle that we need to be living, if we are going to be able to walk uprightly with the Lord embracing what lies ahead for the Church in this age.
At this time, I want to ask another question. What is the purpose of the Holy Spirit in the life of the people of God? The Godhead is a Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit.
The person of the Holy Spirit is quietly presented throughout the Old Testament; even though His influence is evident in the lives of individuals and in the nation of Israel. You cannot dismiss the presence of the Holy Spirit from the pages of the Word of God, beginning in Genesis and ending in Revelation. God, the Holy Spirit, is present, active, and significant. The person of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament is an active person in the life of Jesus, the Son of God. When you study the time-line of the life of Christ, there is a constant thread of the Presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was not silent about the Person of the Holy Spirit. He taught about Him and His purpose in the Upper Room to His followers the night He was betrayed. See John 13-17.
After Christ’s death, burial and resurrection, the Person of the Holy Spirit, comes onto the stage of human history in a glorious manner being outpoured by the Lord, as the Promise of the Father, upon His followers on the Day of Pentecost. This is no small matter. It is especially important when considering who is in ‘governmental’ control of the Church.
Which person of the Trinity has been assigned to oversee to functioning of the Church? The third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.
Let me recount, again, something that I witnessed on television after the election of Donald Trump as President. I was watching a news broadcast, and saw a young woman, carrying a sign that said, “Be Ungovernable”. I took a ‘double-take’ to make sure what I thought I saw was correct, and it was. I, we, have seen the growth of that lawless ‘spirit’ in our nation since Mr. Trump’s election as President. Its been over 5 years. And now, as a nation, we are combating lawlessness at levels that are destructive, the taking of innocent lives, and witnessing the actions and words of people that are irrational and seek to “kill, steal, and destroy.”
When I woke up from my nap today? I was thinking about our nation and what is going on; I said to myself, we are living in ‘an age of stupidity’. I know I should not think that way; but in reality, I find it hard to believe that people take seriously what our leaders and ‘those in the know’ pontificate on a daily basis. It is all foolishness.
In the face of this, what is the role of the Church? The Church needs to repent and ask the Lord to forgive us of ‘doing our own thing’. What do I mean by that? Consider how Jesus lived His life as the Son of Man. He repeatedly said, (John 5:30, NKJV), “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear I judge; and My judgement is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of Him who sent Me.” Jesus chose not be His own ‘governmental’ control. (See Philippians 2:5-8). Consider how He taught His disciples to pray in Matthew 6, emphasizing praying, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Do we as the Church live and pray like that? In the Garden of Gethsemane, the night of His arrest, He prayed, “…not My will, but Thine be done.” Is that the motivation of heart of the Church?
Hebrew 5:7-9 (NKJV), the writer explains the principle Jesus lived by, so that He might be our Great High Priest. “…who in the days of His flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries and tears to Him who is able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son yet he learned obedience by the things which He suffered and having been perfected; he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.”
Maybe the question that needs to be asked is, whether or not, the Church obeys Him? If we say yes, then we acknowledge His ‘governmental’ control over us by the Holy Spirit. If we say, no, or we hesitate, then we need to repent, and turn and follow Him.
Do you have a sense that things are ‘ratcheting’ up in our nation and the world? The tension is increasing and the drama is growing. The Church will not make it ‘doing its own thing’; we must be living relationally under Christ’s ‘governmental’ control.
Returning our focus to the Upper Room, Jesus outlines to His followers His departure, and assures them of a replacement of His Presence. That assurance is the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is present to guide us, direct us, teach us and to provide for us ‘governmental’ control in our individual lives, and in the community life of the Church.
In the June 2021 edition of the Decision Magazine (published by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association) there was an article entitled, The Tragic Mistake of the Modern Church. It was written by Chuck Smith (1927-2013). I want to quote part of this article.
“The tragic mistake of the modern church is it declaration of independence from the Holy Spirit. We have declared that we not longer need the spirit to direct our activities. Instead, we follow respected committees of learned men who have been to seminary and who have made in depth sociological, demographic and ethnographic studies of the world. We have a thousand high-tech programs, but the tragic fact is that the church is failing to reach this world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And no wonder. God said, “‘Not by might nor by per, but by My Spirit’, says the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6 NKJV). We need a church that will return the Holy Spirit to His rightful place as Director of activities, a church where the Holy Spirit roots out hypocrisy and corruption; a church where the Holy Spirit edifies comforts and exhorts His people; in short, a church where the Holy Spirit is in charge. (in ‘governmental’ control)
‘Let us Go Forth’, submitted to the ‘governmental’ control of the Holy Spirit in our life. Jesus is Lord.
A journeyer yoked to Christ, deo
Living Words of Encouragement 