One And Many: Divine Church Design of Ephesians 4

In Multiply by Francis Chan, the second section, "Living As The Church", begins with "Life In The Church".  That chapter mostly wraps around Paul' description of church in Ephesians 4:1-16.  It's a passage well worth some detailed study.  Paul puts a ton of stuff in a small amount of space.  I'm going to walk through the passage as it broke down for me.

First, there is the call.  The call should inspire us to live in humility and enduring patience; essentially a shorter list of the Fruit of the Spirit (i.e. Galatians 5:22-23).  But here Paul makes much of 'unity', providing a long list of 'ones'; one body, Spirit, hope, Lord, faith, baptism, and Father.  This unity is part of the response to the call.

Then Paul contrasts the unity and 'ones' with what we each have.  So to each of us was given a gift; and rather than one gift, there are many.  He then cites (perhaps incorrectly) Psalm 68:18, inferring that not only did Jesus give us gifts, but also fills all things; therefore has authority over all things.  The point Paul makes is that these many gifts come from one Source, and that Source is Supreme.

Paul then lists some of these 'gifts' specific to 'roles' or 'positions of leadership' in a church rather than the typical list of 'Spiritual gifts' he lists elsewhere.  These gifts are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.  It's not a list of leaders; overseers, elders, and ministers (deacons) are missing and would be expected to be here if this were a list of leadership positions.  Instead it's a list of gifted 'roles'.

The work of these many roles is equipping for service and enabling growth as the body of Christ. The goal progresses through unity of faith and knowledge of Jesus into complete maturity of all that Jesus is.  What happens then is that outside influences of erroneous teaching and perspectives don't create chaos in the church.  Instead, speaking the truths of Scripture, we all grow into that mature submission to Jesus, the One uniting us, holding us together in love.

This is a great picture of how local churches can function.  I don't think it happens very often.  I know I fail in at a few places along this progression.  I'm pretty sure others struggle in the same areas and a few others.

First off, all this stems from living inspired by my call.  This is the first place I struggle.  I'm not 'inspired' by my call.  I know I'm called, and I worship within that call, but my actions aren't driven by it as they should be.  In other words, that the Creator of the universe has specifically called my name to relate to Him has little influence in my life.  Others around me, just as frail and silly as I am are more inspiring to me.  I worry about what they think, what they want, or what they do; rather than being driven by what my Master thinks, what He wants, and what He does.  It's totally backward and ludicrous.

The second area this falls apart for me is in the short list of 'fruit'; humility, gentleness, patience, and so on.  Those are impossible without the inspiration of my calling.  They are also the only way the unity of the Spirit can be maintained, so I'm hung there as well.  Because of this progressive failure, when I do teach, even the content of the 'ones', it fails to build and equip because I don't have those other qualities that validate my teaching.  Clearly I'm not living out what I teach, so why would others learn from me?

So, my goal is to find that inspiration.  The content of my personal study and my corporate worship needs to be full of wonder of this calling, and I need to be focused on the One calling rather than the noise of those around me.  This is what will transform me, and with me, my church, and with us, our community.  And then the world.  I'm in.  I'm on it.

Joining with my Fellow Believers as Jesus Is Joined to the Father?

I never ever pretend to understand the Trinitarian nature of my Master.  There’s really no point because it would take even my daughter a few well-placed questions to reveal that I really don’t understand.  I can’t.  In fact, at the risk of being considered a heretic, I have said before that I believe it’s possible that I might find my Master to have more than three Persons when I arrive in Heaven.  But I can say with complete confidence that He has revealed Himself in Scripture, both Hebrew and Christian, as being Three in One.  That much I do know.  How it’s possible or how to explain it, not a chance.

So, when I get to Jesus’ prayer in John 17, I may be unsettled with its references to being one just as Jesus and the Father are One, but I just chalk it up to one more thing I don’t understand about the Trinity.  But I really want to understand this because I suspect it’s really important.  For instance, in verse 22, which Chambers uses this morning, Jesus prays, “And I have given the glory which You gave Me to them, so that they might be one just as We are One;”  Now, the problem I have here is me being one with anyone in the same way as Jesus and the Father are One.  It sounds like one characteristic of the Trinity I can share with another believer.

I think I have an answer, but I will not pretend to have the answer.  The clue I rely on here is the Person missing from this prayer, but present in the previous 3 chapters, the Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit.  I suspect that any possibility for “oneness” is tied completely to the presence of the Spirit of my Master living in me, and in the other person I become one with.  I suspect this to be true from things Paul has said in some letters of his:  having one Spirit, keep the unity of the Spirit, and so on.  I infer from this chapter the key to divine Oneness is the Third Person, the Holy Spirit.  The term Jesus uses is “glory”, hence my problem.

The odd thing, or difficult thing, for me is considering me as having this potential which my Master actually displays.  While I believe that there is an image of my Master imprinted on me as a human being, I find it difficult to wrap my mind around being one with another person as part of that image-stamp.  I just find thinking of the Trinitarian nature of my Master as being something accessible to people like me really weird or somehow sacrilegious.  It feels like I make this unimaginable indescribable nature of my Master more common or mundane.  It just feels wrong.  But from the Gospel of John, it seems it’s right, weird as it might feel.

So, I’m left with some requirement to connect, if possible, the glory of my Master with His Spirit.  It doesn’t sound difficult on the surface, both being God, they would naturally have the same glory.  But I suppose part of my problem is that I don’t know that I really know how to define the Glory of God.  I would hazard to define it as something which brings praise and honor to God without demeaning His character or nature in any way.  So, I suppose that He could be His own glory in a sense, and therefore His Spirit would also be.  But that sounds overly simple, and I am not confident that’s what Jesus had in mind as He prayed.

Jesus says that the glory given to Him by the Father He gave to them (not the disciples, but the ones believing their testimony, so really, “us”) so that they might be one just as He and the Father are One.  How did Jesus give the disciples and those following them His glory?  The only connection supports my interpretation is that what has been given drives me to praise my Master.  That would be my connection to my Master and that would be the His Spirit.  So, in that sense at least, I believe I can connect the dots supporting this possible interpretation.  So when does this happen?  I believe the modern term we use is “church”.  Oddly and sadly, being one is not a descriptor I would normally use for church in general.  I suspect it depends on the church.

Even the church I’m currently a part of has issues.  The issues don’t seem anywhere near as bad as the issues in other churches I have been part of, but there are some.  But one thing that seems to be the case is that this church is one in worship.  It is just my sense of the experience, but it seems as if the congregation is one in praise to our Master at that point in time.  A lot of that has to do with our great song leader and our pastor, but I believe that even more it has to do with the freedom we give the Spirit of God in our worship.  It’s not forced, I don’t feel uncomfortable nor do I feel bored (I can’t imagine anyone being bored in our worship).

Today I will attempt to keep in my day the glory of my Master I experienced in worship yesterday.  I will seek to apply the wonderfully harsh scrubbing of my pastor to my day, hear again the beautiful and powerful songs we sang together, and keep the conscious awareness of my Master as I work the phones.  I will try to keep the unity of the Spirit of my Master experienced on Sunday throughout the week.  Even writing this, I miss being with them already.  That’s different.  I think I like it!

My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers, December 12

From Saturday to Sunday

I believe that the connection between the cross and the empty tomb is sometimes lost.  The power of my Master is not demonstrated on the cross as much as His determination to save His human creatures.  He showed the extent of His love and mercy there, but He showed His power through the empty tomb. 

On the other hand, the empty tomb is not really appreciated until the extent of my Master’s love is explored over and over as demonstrated on the cross.  So, I need both, and I need to appreciate them in order.  I need a focus and meditation on the Cross of Jesus so I can better appreciate the empty tomb.  Yesterday I was crushed by my meditation on the Cross of my Master.  Today I want to pause at the empty tomb.

The shock experienced by creation was then followed by such deep oppressive despair that it seemed there was no recovery.  Hope died with the Master on the cross.  Sure, all the sins of all of humanity were paid in that event, but now there was this gaping wound that is always left by death.  Death is relational, just like life is relational.  The Spirit could have come then and there would have been a revival of sorts, but there would have been this sense of a hollow victory.  Death would still have reigned supreme, even over the Creator.  And there was something about that which would not settle in the hearts of the disciples, and not in creation.

The debate over three days is odd to me.  Any part of a day includes that day.  We do that now.  We don’t measure it down to complete sets of 24 hours until we want to disprove something.  In normal usage, we just go with any part of a day.  So, Friday evening, and through Saturday, a doubly intense Sabbath, there was silence.  I imagine the silence to be dark silence, not bright silence.  I imagine an oppressive air where no one, not even Jesus’ enemies, felt light.  I suspect that there would have been such an air of hopelessness that it would have been as all life had stopped, as if in a moment of silent grief.  A day where silence permeates to the bones, and into the soul, chill and dark; that’s how I imagine that Sabbath day.

Part of this oppressive sense of hopelessness comes from the Creator Himself.  The unthinkable has happened; God has suffered the loss of The Son!  The Creator has lost the Uncreated One.  The Three are somehow Two.  The fundamental truth of the Source of the universe and all that holds it together has fractured and a piece is missing.  It is impossible.  It cannot happen.  It can’t!  How?  The crushing question is why, but now in the aftermath, even that answer seems lost in the echo of the darkness left behind.  Is this love?  Is this mercy?  The hole left in my heart from losing my father is nothing compared to the loss incurred by the Creator and His creation at the loss of the Son.  This Saturday is one of grief from the One and Only God right down to the infinitesimally small sub-atomic particle.  It is grief on a cosmic scale.  It crushes the world and the cosmos.

And then the unthinkable, unimaginable, shattering power of the Creator of the universe and all it contains totally annihilates the enemy that is death itself.  Light overwhelms the darkness, and shatters the grief spreading shards to the uttermost ends of creation.  Each shard carries the sound of the truth: HE IS RISEN!  Life sweeps out from that central point on the spinning blue globe and life stirs once again.  Creation takes a deep breath, not realizing it has been holding its breath, gasping for the life of the Son.  Joy so radiant in the darkness of grief that few dared hope it was true swept through the lives of 200 gathered together, and the ripples of that joy continued into Samaria, Judea, and all the ends of the earth.

Life, real life, returned from the grave of despair.  And this is the eternal life that they might know You the One True God and Whom You sent Jesus Christ.  I can know my Master now, I can speak with Him, listen to Him, seek His face, and worship Him.  But one day I will run with Him in the fields of Heaven!  I will worship before His throne!  I will see Him face to face, serve Him in His presence, and I will be who He truly made me to be.  He will give me a new name, and I will know His.  Then I will run and not be weary, walk and not faint.  I will fly, but only for the joy of my Master.  And all the joy of life will make up the air I breathe and the ground beneath my feet.  And I am not alone in this, but one of an unnumbered crowd all together in worship and joy; the voice of which will shake remaining debris of this life off like dust.  We will stand completely clean and whole before the Conqueror of death, Giver of eternal life.  And we will do so forever.

That is what the empty grave means to me.

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, November 26

Why Is God So Interested in Blood?

The entry for today is based out of 1 John 2:2, and it relies on a word which most people in this day do not understand.  Even reading the definition doesn’t bring home the significance of it.  The word is propitiation, and it is important because of that often overlooked part of the life with the Master of the universe, His wrath.

The Greek word is only used twice, and only in 1 John.  It is related to a word used for the “Mercy Seat” in the Hebrew Temple.  That relation is where the trail of blood is typically lost.  The Mercy Seat was where the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled to atone for the sins of the nation of Israel.  It took blood, and it had to be repeated every year. 

That practice of blood on the Mercy Seat was what Jesus overly fulfilled in His death on the cross.  In that event, the blood of a perfect sacrifice was used, God provided it, and it was not just for the nation of Israel, but for the whole world (actually for the entire created order, cosmos).  In other words, God, Creator of matter and energy, had to be appeased.  Appeasement implies a threat, and the great threat of the Universal Master is His wrath.  This is not a comfortable place for believers to hang out.

Unfortunately, not hanging out in that truth means it isn’t communicated to this world, and much of the world then falls into the wrath of God.  It’s like standing in the middle of the street hoping that if the speeding bus is ignored it won’t hit me.  Reality is quite different.  The good news is that the terror of the wrath of God is met and removed in the work of Jesus’ blood.  He Himself is the blood sacrifice that appeased the wrath on our failures to measure up, and not ours alone but also the whole created order.

This is one of those areas where I have had to wrestle with and offer up the ideas of what I want my god to be like, and accept in its place what the God of the Universe describes Himself to be.  Just because my Master has revealed Himself as the Son and the Spirit, does not take away the consistent truth that there is a Father.  But even in the descriptions of Jesus in Revelation is fairly terrifying.  He rides a white horse, and His robe is dipped in blood.  He leads an army into battle and the destruction of that war rearranges the entire created order.

I am a knight of the realm, servant to the King, and my King wields a mighty sword.  His wrath is impossible for His creatures to appease on their own, so He made the sacrifice Himself.  I serve a powerful King, a Destroyer King, but also a Creator King.  He has created the means to survive His coming destruction; but it is coming.

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, October 15