The Beautiful Church

 

 

The Church

 

 

Our first introduction to God, in the scriptures, is the description of his act of creating the heavens and the earth. We see presented here a very clear principle that everything God creates is very good. This is his own perfect testimony. He was satisfied with his creation. Everything God does is good, and this is no less true with the church. The church is God’s idea and occupied his thoughts throughout eternity before he created the physical order. He had an eternal purpose, Paul tells the Ephesian church, that through the church he would reveal his manifold wisdom to ‘rulers and authorities in heavenly places’. And I believe that includes both good and bad angels.

The church belongs to Jesus, so he tells Peter, and he has assumed the responsibility to build it.

The church is not lesser than the Kingdom of God. It is the body of Christ; it is Christ in this world. It is the expression of the King of the Kingdom

The church is not a building, it is, as is made clear in the Greek meaning of ekklesia. This refers to a called out company of people.

The church is not an organisation or corporation with a managing director called The Pastor, who oversees various departments.

I have written the above introduction because I believe that the church is under assault by a ‘fifth column’ movement within it, which is manipulated by the enemy, satan. This ‘fifth column’ movement is comprised of Christians who moan and criticise the church. Christians who take the stand not to be part of a local expression of the church etc. The enemy, satan, often doesn’t need to make a full frontal attack upon the church – he has many helpers who purportedly own the name of Jesus.

This saddens me greatly, as I have served Jesus’ church for many years, particularly as a Holy Spirit appointed elder. The average Christian & church member is not perfect in practice, but is on a journey of sanctification to perfection. However God sees us as the completed product. He sees us as Christ himself, and he is well pleased with what he sees.

I believe that the factors I have identified in my first paragraph are important, and as we rightly grasp these things so we will start to see the church as God sees it.

·       Christian, do you realise that the church is God’s idea. What you currently see, even in its apparent imperfection, is God’s idea?

·       Christian, do you realise that the church is the expression of God’s wisdom to angels, even in its apparent imperfect state?

·       Christian, do you realise that the church belongs to Jesus. Yes, even in its apparent imperfect condition?
 

·       Christian, do you see the church as God’s precious jewels, living stones being built together by the Holy Spirit. Even though what is physically visible may seem to be imperfect?

·       Christian, does your vocabulary convey an untrue description of the church of Jesus Christ?

Everything I have said above carries scriptural support. I have refrained from putting references – you can do your own study. But I believe that when we manifest, either in speech or action, criticism of the church, then we are implicitly criticising Jesus. This saddens me!

 

In a future article I will look briefly at some things that the Spirit says about the church. But your own study will probably reveal those things to you beforehand.

 

George Jarvis