THE BLOGALOGUE SERIES:
"Encountering Jesus: Inside and Outside the Meeting"
Jesus only
mentions the word “church” (ecclesia) twice in the Gospels, both in Matthew.
The first time ecclesia is mentioned is in Matthew 16:13-18. He took his
disciples away on a retreat and gave them a surprise test that had two
questions. The first question was easy, it was the warm up question: who do
people say that I am? Everyone had an answer and everyone’s answer was correct.
Sadly, we Christians are better than most at talking about other people’s
mistakes. Everyone likes to get in on that fun.
The second
question was the hard one: “Who do you say that I am?” After Jesus asked this it
got quiet. I believe all the eyes dropped to the ground. You see there is no
risk with the first question. After all, it is other people who are wrong. The
second question is the most important question anyone will ever ask you. The
answer, right or wrong, puts you out on a ledge, vulnerable and alone.
Peter, who
dislikes awkward silence, finally says, “You are the Christ, the Son of the
living God.” I imagine all the heads quickly look up and turn to Jesus to see
if Peter got it right.
After a pause
(for effect), and then a smile,* Jesus replied, “Blessed are you Simon, son of
Jonah, because you cheated on the test.” Okay, he didn’t really say that, but
when I was in school, if you got the answer from someone else they called it
cheating. Peter didn’t figure it out himself, but was given the answer from the
Father. In truth, we all must cheat on this test. We can never figure it out
ourselves…we are too broken in our fallen state to understand God without His miraculous
and loving intervention and revelation. It’s like trying to lift yourself up
out of quicksand by pulling up on your own hair…it doesn’t help. God has to
reach down and lift you out of the muck.
At this
moment Jesus first mentioned church, but before we look at Jesus’ words about
church I think we should pay close attention to the context of those words.
Any good
discussion of church begins with asking the right questions. The questions most
often asked of churches are: Who is the church trying to reach? What are the
demographics of their community? Who is the pastor? How are his/her sermons? What
kind of music do they play? What sort of governance do they use? How old is the
church? What denomination is the church a part of? How friendly does the church
seem upon a visit? What are the youth and/or children’s ministries like? Do
they serve good coffee? All are good questions and all are the wrong questions
to start with.
Jesus begins
His discussion of church with the only right question to ask: Who is Jesus to you? The truth is, if
you skip this question “church” will be more about you and less about him. Church
begins and ends with the question: Who is Jesus? It is when we depart from that
question that we get into all kinds of trouble and start making church about
us—what we practice/say/sing/believe and whom we associate with.
I am convinced
that the world is far more interested in Jesus than they are in us. Why don’t
we make our churches about Him instead of about us? The answer, I believe, is because
we ask and answer the wrong questions when it comes to church. We also end up
measuring the wrong milestones to determine a good church from a bad one.
It is in this
context that Jesus mentions church. In a single sentence Jesus shares a view of
church that shatters all our stereotypes of what church is. He says, “Upon this
rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”
Notice he did not say, “Upon this rock you will build your church?”
From this we
see a few things:
1.
The church belongs to
Jesus. He calls it
“my church.” His church is not Baptist or Brethren, Pentecostal or
Presbyterian. His church is all the above and so much more. His church is not
just your church, but also the one across the street. He is as interested in
the success of the Lutheran church around the corner as your church. Perhaps
you should be as well for in fact we are all His church. When His church
succeeds, we succeed. And succeed it will.
2.
The church is Jesus’ work,
not ours. He says, “I
will build my church.” So often the church is our project that we do for him,
but actually that is backwards. He is the one that does the building of the
church. Though I am a church planter, I realized long ago that I am not ever
told to plant a church. I am to make disciples; he is the one who builds the
church. I am to plant the gospel, not a church. He builds the church.
3.
The church is a movement pressing
into mission against opposition. He said, “…the gates of hades will not overpower
the church.” There is a war all around us in the spiritual world and we are
unwise to ignore it. There is no power on earth that is capable of stopping the
church from accomplishing the mission given to her by Jesus…except her own lack
of faith. It is not Satan or his minions that threaten our success. It is not
any cult, philosophy or “ism” that is holding us back. No government or
ideology of hate can stop the church. The only
thing that can hold us back is our misplaced and weak faith.
Most of us
are familiar with gates and likely have one at home. What are gates good for?
Gates keep dogs in the yard and prowlers out. Gates are not offensive weapons;
they are defensive. Police officers do not carry loaded gates. Terrorists do
not hold hostages at gate-point. Dogs do not wear signs that say “Beware of
gates!” Gates are not a threat. In Jesus understanding, we are the threat, and
the enemy is running scared! Jesus sees the church on offense and Satan back on
his heals on defense with his tail between his legs.
If we
understood church the way Jesus described it, we would not be waiting for the
world to come to us; we would be taking Jesus to the very gates of hell and
setting captives free.
The only
other time Jesus mentions church is a few chapters later in Matthew 18 where he
specifically mentions that He is with us in our midst (v. 20). Most are told
that church is where people need to go to find Jesus. Is Jesus at church? Yes.
But He is not only at church. Wherever His people go, Jesus and His kingdom will
go. Why on earth would we restrict that awesome life changing power to the
space between stained glass windows?
If we get
back to the original question we will likely find the courage and hope
necessary to be what He expects of us. Who is Jesus to you? If indeed He has
all authority of heaven and earth, why are we not going forward in power? If He
is the one who opens the door and that no one can shut, why are we not going
through those doors? If He is the one who preaches the good news to the
oppressed and heals those who are broken why are we not bringing Him to those
who need Him the most?
Here’s a
closing suggestion: Take a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle
creating two columns. On the left write: “Who is Jesus?” and write down all the
things you know about him (descriptions, names, powers). On the right side
write: “Difference this should make in the way we do church.” Write down all
the ways we should be different because of who Jesus is. I seriously doubt you
can leave church the way it is in light of who Jesus truly is. I suspect, you
can’t stay away from a hurting world and remain in the gathering of the
faithful and really know and love Jesus for who He is.
*Yes, this is
my imagination as I read the passage and is not in the text, no need to tell me so.
** The first picture is actually in the location where Jesus said these words to his disciples. The second is a picture of Auguste Rodin's masterpiece called The Gates of Hell.
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NOTE: This blog is
part of a Blogalogue Series of posts from Neil Cole, Richard Jacobson, Dan
Herford, Jon Zens and Keith Giles.
The Topic:
Encountering Jesus: Inside and Outside the Church
The Schedule:
Keith Giles: Week of Feb. 16
Dan Herford: Week of Feb 23
Neil Cole: Week of March 2
Jon Zens: Week of March 9
Video Skype Roundtable
discussion: Saturday March 14 or Sunday March 15
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