Wednesday, 12 October 2011

• How The Church Was Built

  Even before Jesus was crucified, He told His followers what would happen and that He would rise again the third day.   He would leave earth to return to the Father and to be seated at His right hand.   But the disciples would remember that Jesus had reassured them, saying that the peace in their hearts would continue so that they need have no fear:

  "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." (John 14;27 NKJV)

  "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;"

  "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." (John 14:16,26 KJV)

  So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. (Acts 9:31 ESV)

  How was the church being built up?  God, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter brought peace and made their testimony and their preaching effective.   The fear (wise respect) of the Lord governed their methods and it became a regular occurrence having new converts added to the church.  

  Surprise!  The church never has been built up by any other method!   All of the programs and second-guessing God's methods produce crowds sometimes for a short time, but the church is the Body of Christ and cannot be built by man:  

  "Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the
  LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. (Psalm 127:1 ESV)

  Everything I've written here is like old news to most, yet fear of the world (or fear of not keeping up with the world) seems to govern the modern church and "un"church movements.  What God says about the man or woman walking with God is true for the whole of the church:

  Blessed is the man
     who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
  nor stands in the way of sinners,
     nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
   but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
     and on his law he meditates day and night.

  He is like a tree
     planted by streams of water
  that yields its fruit in its season,
     and its leaf does not wither.

   In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so,
     but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

  Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
     nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
   for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
     but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1 ESV)

   

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