THE EMBRYONIC CHURCH

 

THE EMBRYONIC CHURCH – AND NOW IT BEGINS

Luke Chapter Nine – Ministry of the Twelve Disciples of Jesus.

Luke 9:1, Now He called the twelve (disciples) together and gave them power and authority over all the demons, and the power to heal diseases. Verse 2. And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing. Verse 3. And He said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, neither a staff, nor a bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not even have two tunics. Verse 4. And whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that city. Verse 5. And as for all who do not receive you, when you leave that city, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” Verse 6. And as they were leaving, they began going throughout the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.

Luke Chapter 10 – The Seventy (two) Sent Out by Jesus.

Luke 10:1, Now after this the Lord appointed seventy-two others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come. Verse 2. And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Verse 3. Go; behold, I am sending you out like lambs in the midst of wolves. Verse 4. Carry no money belt, no bag, no sandals, and greet no one along the way. Verse 5. And whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’ Verse 6. And if a man of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him; but if not, it will return to you. Verse 7. Stay in that house, eating and drinking what they provide; for the laborer is deserving of his wages. Do not move from house to house. Verse 8. Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is served to you; Verse 9, and heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ Verse 10. But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, Verse 11, ‘Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet we wipe off in protest against you; yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ Verse 12. I say to you, it will be more tolerable on that day for Sodom than for that city.

The Joyful Results

Luke 10:17, Now the seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name!” Verse 18. And He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning. 19Behold, I have given you authority to walk on snakes and scorpions, and authority over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. Verse 20. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.”

Matthew Chapter 10 – The Twelve Disciples; Instructions for Service

Matthew 10:1, Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every sickness.

Verse 2. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew; and James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Verse 3, Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Verse 4. Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, the one who also betrayed Him.

Verse 5. These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them, saying, “Do not go on a road to Gentiles, and do not enter a city of Samaritans; Verse 6, but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Verse 7. And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Verse 8. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with leprosy, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give. Verse 9. Do not acquire gold, or silver, or copper for your money belts, Verse 10, or a bag for your journey, or even two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for the worker is deserving of his support. Verse 11. And whatever city or village you enter, inquire who is worthy in it, and stay at his house until you leave that city.

There have been and there are influential and powerful people in the Church who have said and will say that what Jesus did as it is recorded in Matthew chapters ten and eleven and in Luke chapters nine and ten was NOT a model for future missionary evangelism. They say it was just a record of Jesus sending His disciples and followers to the Jew only; or they say it was simply Jesus laying the groundwork for future missionary and evangelistic efforts, which, by necessity, would change and evolve with the changes in technology, social norms and advances in education.

To these ideas I say, nonsense!

WHY, OH WHY?

Why would God record ‘temporary and unimportant information or events’ in His Word (The Bible) – which is meant to be eternal? Are we just being entertained?

No. He would not, He did not and He does not.

Every word in the Bible, all scripture is God-breathed, given by divine inspiration, and is profitable for instruction, for conviction of sin, for correction of error and restoration to obedience, for training in righteousness, that is for learning to live in conformity to God’s will, both publicly and privately—behaving honorably with personal integrity and moral courage; so that the man (or woman) of God may be complete and proficient, outfitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work. (see 2 Timothy 3:16-17).

I am a simple thinker; possibly hampered, being a linear thinker, for the most part. But I also consider myself  a critical thinker. I like to try, when reading credible sources which suggest they offer insight to truth into our ever devolving world, first, to take what I read at face value wherever and whenever possible. I then try analyze available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments in order to form a judgement by the application of rational, skeptical, analyses and evaluation.

Please note, I am telling you these things about me because I am not alone. Everyone has a standard – a believability plumbline – by which they measure and observe the things they see, hear and read for its veracity. So, everyone will be biased in some fashion to some degree. It is unavoidable if one is to form and draw their own conclusions. Therefore, some might say that I am biased because I filter all that I read and consider through the lenses of the Bible – on of the oldest and most carefully studied, critiqued and guarded documents in existence. The Bible is a record of history and of faith, which has shaped our world. I, by no means, discount secular world history, but it has been written, debated and disputed by brilliant minds who regularly disagree on many issues and points, depending on the points of view taken. Mine is the Bible.

Therefore, I refuse to stray too far from the obvious when it is framed within the context of the whole. And the obvious face value reading of Matthew chapters ten and eleven and Luke chapters nine and ten, say that Jesus called the twelve (disciples) together and gave them power and authority over all the demons, and the power to heal diseases. and to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing. He told them to take nothing for their journey, (neither a staff, nor a bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not even have two tunics), and whatever house they would enter, they were to stay there until they left that city.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH

“The early Christians believed that Jesus is the very presence of God. They believed that the body of Christ, the church, constitutes a temple. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He made some radically negative statements about the Jewish Temple.’

“The one that angered many Jews most was His announcement that if the Temple was destroyed, He would build a new one in three days! (See John 2:19-21.)

“Though Jesus was referring to the Temple that existed in the architectural sense, He was really speaking of His body. Jesus said that after this temple was destroyed, He would raise it up in three days.

“He was referring to the real temple—the Ekklesia—which He raised up in Himself on the third day (Ephesians 2:6).

“Since Christ has risen, we Christians have become the temple of God.

“At His resurrection, Christ became a “life-giving spirit” (1 Corinthians 15:45). Therefore, He could take up residence in the believers, thus making them His Temple, His house. It is for this reason that the New Testament always reserves the word church (ekklesia) for the people of God. It never uses this word to refer to a building of any sort.” (Excerpts within quotation marks are from Frank Viola & George Barna’s book, “Pagan Christianity”, Tyndale Publishing, 2002, 2008)

“When Christianity was born, it was the only religion on the planet that had no sacred objects, no sacred persons, and no sacred spaces.

“Although surrounded by Jewish synagogues and pagan temples, the early Christians were the only religious people on earth who did not erect sacred buildings for their worship. The Christian faith was born in homes, out in courtyards, and along roadsides. For the first three centuries, the Christians did not have any special buildings!

“As one scholar put it, “The Christianity that conquered the Roman Empire was essentially a home-centered movement.”

“Meeting in homes was a conscious choice of the early Christians.” It was a coming together in a more intimate setting, a ones’ home. Very little could be hidden in such an environment.

THE DRIFT BEGINS – 391 A.D.

The Church was barely out of its infancy when the religious spirit of innovation appeared, in the late second and third centuries, and a shift occurred.

“Christians not only adopted sacred spaces, they also had created sacred objects. (They would soon develop a sacred priesthood.) It might seem they had forgotten Moses and the golden calf.

“In all of this, the second and third century Christians began to assimilate the magical mind-set that characterized existent pagan thinking.

“These factors made the Christian terrain ready for the man who would be responsible for creating church buildings. In AD 327, Constantine began erecting the first church buildings throughout the Roman Empire, some at public expense.’ In so doing, he followed the path of the pagans in constructing temples to honor God. Augustine of Hippo (later, sainted by the Catholic church), began his work of making the Christian Movement ‘legitimate’ by government and Catholic standards.

“Interestingly, he named his church buildings after saints — just as the pagans named their temples after gods. Constantine built his first church buildings upon the cemeteries where the Christians held meals for the dead saints. (I ask, WHAT WOULD YOU CALL AN ACT LIKE THAT?)

“Constantine brought peace for all Christians.'” Under his reign, the Christian faith had become legitimate. In fact, it had risen to a status greater than Judaism and paganism.

“For these reasons, the Christians saw Constantine’s rise to emperor as an act of God. Here was God’s instrument who had come to their rescue.

“Christianity and Roman culture were now melded together.” (Again I ask, WHAT WOULD YOU CALL THAT?)

“The Christian building demonstrates that the church, whether she wanted it or not, had entered into a close alliance with pagan culture.’ As Will Durant, author of The Story of Civilization (a sweeping, eleven-volume work on world history that earned him a Pulitzer Prize), put it, “Pagan isles remained in the spreading Christian sea.”

“This was a tragic shift from the primitive simplicity that the church of Jesus Christ first knew. The first-century Christians were opposed to the world’s systems and avoided any contact with paganism. This all changed during the fourth century, when the church emerged as a public institution in the world and began to “absorb and Christianize pagan religious ideas and practices.

“As one historian put it, “Church buildings took the place of temples; church endowments replaced temple lands and funds.”

“Under Constantine, tax-exempt status was granted for all church property.

“Consequently, the story of the church building is the sad saga of Christianity borrowing from heathen culture and radically transforming the face of our faith.

“To put it bluntly, the church buildings of the Constantinian and post-Constantinian era essentially became holy shrines. The Christians embraced the concept of the physical temple. They imbibed the pagan idea that there exists a special place where God dwells in a special way. And that place is made “with hands.”‘ (Once again, I ask, WHAT WOULD YOU CALL AN ACT LIKE THAT?)

“As with other pagan customs that were absorbed into the Christian faith (such as the liturgy, the sermon, clerical vestments, and hierarchical leadership structure), third- and fourth-century Christians incorrectly attributed the origin of the church building to the Old Testament. But this was misguided thinking.”

“Most Americans are struggling to clarify their identity. They tend to see themselves as unique individuals, Americans, members of their family, occupational professionals, consumers, and then as followers of Christ — in that order of priority.

“In the minds and hearts of most Americans — even those whose beliefs classify them as “born-again Christians”— their identity as a follower of Christ pales in importance in comparison to the other roles they embrace. (WHAT WOULD YOU CALL THAT MINDSET?)

“Oddly, most of the born again Christians consider themselves to be servants of God and to have been transformed by their faith in Christ.

“Clearly, there are some missing connections in this self-evaluation. Perhaps the confusion is due to the enormous number of inter-actions and responsibilities that people take on each day.

“Maybe it has to do with the disjointed, topical teaching that most of us receive from our churches. It may even be attributable to the lure of competing perspectives and images bombarding us from the ever-present media.

“The bottom line is really quite simple: You are a priest of God, a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a member of His glorious body. Through your declaration of allegiance to Jesus and your stated desire to live with Him forever, you have a responsibility to be a functioning priest, minister, and member of the Body .

“The organized church has moved down a winding path over the past two thousand years. The only way to get it back on track is for each of us to begin prayerfully exploring the original plan that God had for His people, and then to be willing to respond faithfully to that plan. (Excerpts from Frank Viola & George Barna’s book, “Pagan Christianity”, Tyndale Publishing, 2002, 2008).

I say, “enough of this dangerous game of creative re-imaginative religious realignment.

I would like to suggest that we break the current man-made rigid religious molds. That we break these chains of manmade traditions that are binding us. I suggest that we go back to the beginning. The beginning of what Jesus taught and modeled and re-learn something old, making it new.

It is time we stopped ‘going to church’ to be served (i.e., to get what we want), and start assembling as the Church in order to serve God by finding OUR PURPOSE AS THE CHURCH by doing the works of Jesus!

Click the following link, and begin to pray for God’s Wisdom and discernment.  An invitation.

I humbly offer this after fifteen years of prayer, study, seeking God, asking for His Wisdom to know and follow His Call. I sincerely and prayerfully urge you to do the same.

Your Brother and Friend,

Mike Young

“I assure you and most solemnly say to you, unless you repent, that is, change your inner self–your old way of thinking, live changed lives and become like children trusting, humble, and forgiving, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives and welcomes one child like this in My name receives Me.”

Matthew 18:3-5