An interesting feature of the story of Esther is that even when the King discovers the plot to exterminate the Jews (Haman was planning to commit genocide), there was no measure taken to prevent this from occurring.  Instead, Mordecai and Esther convinced the King to authorize resistance by God’s people against their enemies.  This was partly due to an unusual feature of ancient Persian law, which made the previous edict irrevocable; the best they could do was try to offset it or cancel it out with an equal counter-measure.  Instead of prohibiting anyone from attacking the Jews, the new edict simply authorized the Jews to assemble and to protect themselves, and to destroy any who attacked them.

At the same time, it foreshadows prophetically what God would do through the faithful church.  When Jesus came, he defeated the Enemy by dying on the cross and rising again – just as Haman suffered defeat in Esther.  Even so, Jesus did not prevent all evil in the world from occurring thereafter; he did not even prevent persecution from coming upon the faithful church for hundreds of years.  Just as the King in Esther allowed the original genocide plot to stand, Jesus allowed this world to continue under the dominion of the evil one for the time being (see 1 John 5:19), but established the faithful church to advance and develop as a counter-measure.

This is hard for some people to understand, and the story of Esther provides a nice, clear illustration.  For us, Jesus has given us the authority or right to assemble and to preserve ourselves spiritually (of course, this has nothing to do with Christians using violence today, which would be unbiblical).

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms…”  (Ephesians 6:12).  We never need to resort to violence against other people in carrying out the Lord’s mission.  We do fight a spiritual war, however, to advance the Kingdom of God and to protect the faithful church within God’s project.

Assemble – For us, assembling points to the privilege God gave us to gather as the BODY, with the faithful church.  The first purpose of this is “to protect” ourselves spiritually.  There is spiritual safety, covering, and protection when we are in regular fellowship with other true believers, when we gather and actively participate in the service of the saints.  Today we assemble in the Body of Christ.  The Church is a body of believers who gather together in fellowship and prayer.  Great victories can occur this way.

THE RIGHT to assemble – God gives us the opportunity and the choice.  If we want to participate in what God is doing in the world, if we want to see His kingdom spread, we will actively participate in a faithful church.  Failure to do so may not be a sin or keep us from going to heaven, but we are more vulnerable to the attacks of the Enemy without gathering in the Body.  “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”  (Hebrews 10:25).

Destroy, kill, annihilate – The gates of Hell will not stand against the faithful church (Matthew 16:18).  It is not God’s intention today to justify a crusade or so-called “holy war,” but rather for us to use the “Means of Grace” to make progress.  This is our personal responsibility.

Two days – This points to the two periods of church history when Christians would best function as a Body in carrying out God’s plans – the early church and the faithful church of the Last Days.

Plunder – They did not avail themselves of this right (Esther 9:9 and Esther 9:15).  They were not concerned with materialistic gain, but with the preservation of God’s holy people.  We should have this mentality as Christians  – the purpose of God’s miracles and victories today is NOT for our materialistic gain, but for His project of salvation (eternal) to make more progress.

THAT MIGHT ATTACK – Spiritual attacks and struggles in this life will happen.  It is only a matter of time – yet God has already determined a victory and provided us all the resources we need to overcome victoriously.

Esther, the wife of King Xerxes of the Persian Empire, is a prophetic symbol of the bride of Christ.  The bride of Christ is the faithful church (See Ephesians 5:25-27; Revelation 19:7; Revelation 21:2; Revelation 21:9; Revelation 22:17).

Esther replaced rebellious Queen Vashti (see Esther 1:12-22), just as the church replaced the physical nation of Israel as God’s people after the Israelites rejected Jesus, their Messiah, and as the faithful church of the Last Days replaces the dead Christianity embodied in the unfaithful church.  Many biblical stories contrast two women in order to give an illustration of faithful church (the bride of Christ) and the unfaithful church (institutional Christianity).

“…neither father nor mother…” Esther was an orphan, raised by her elderly cousin Mordecai (who is a prophetic type of the Holy Spirit).  The faithful church is comprised of people who have died spiritually to their natural background and have a new life that comes from Eternity (2 Corinthians 5:17).  John’s Gospel says, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (John 1:12-13)  Obviously, we all had a physical father and mother at some point, but spiritually those in the faithful church receive their source of life from eternity, not from earth.

If we want to be participants in the faithful church, the bride of Christ, we need to stop thinking of church as merely a religious organization, and recognize its identity as a spiritual being with an eternal origin.  (Revelation 21:2).  When our members and leaders understand this, they will take the Lord’s church much more seriously, and have more fear of the Lord about hurting it.

People who view the church merely as a human religious entity will often try to control it (imposing human opinions and agendas instead of following the directions of the Head, Jesus).  They will not see the seriousness of using the church to serve their own needs, whether materially (taking assistance or resources from the church), or emotionally, using the church as a way to feel important, superior to others, powerful, etc.  When we understand the eternal origin of the faithful church, which does not owe its existence to any man or woman but only to the Holy Spirit, then we will recoil in fear at the thought of trying to be in control of others in church, or trying to exploit the resources of the church for our own benefit.  We will avoid the sin of competitiveness and self-promotion within the church.

Just as Esther physical parents were forgotten, and she was supposed to keep them a secret (see Esther 2:20), the members of the bride of Christ must forget their sinful past and focus instead on their new life in Christ.  “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal…” (Philippians 3:13-14)

Paul explains in 1 Corinthians, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived: neither . . . the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.  And that is what some of you were.  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter. Esther had an important role or destiny.  Her preparation for this role actually began in her childhood, when Mordecai was raising her to be a faithful and pure servant of God.  Otherwise, Esther would never have qualified to be the new Queen.

The faithful church is under the responsibility and guardianship of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit trains and teaches the bride of Christ.  We need to teach our members that this is an essential attribute of the church as the Body of Christ – the ongoing training, guidance, protection, and development by the Holy Spirit.  In contrast, the unfaithful church is the product of men, who instill their own personalities, opinions, and cultural values into their organizations.  For the faithful church, the Holy Spirit is in the process of instilling eternal values into the members of the Bride of Christ, shaping us and equipping us as time goes on.

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So he answered the king, “For the man the king delights to honor, have them bring a royal robe the king has worn and a horse the king has ridden, one with a royal crest placed on its head.”

We see here a picture of the mentality of many religious leaders – self-promotion and seeking glory, and being oblivious to the Lord’s purposes.  Men seek to be elevated or have control over others.  The Lord carries out his project without glorifying man or yielding control to any human being.

In this story, the king (Xerxes) has just discovered that Mordecai the Jew had rescued him from an assassination plot, without reward.  Mordecai is a prophetic symbol of the Holy Spirit – the one who guides, who reveals dangers and what others should do to prevent harms, and who works for the good of the kingdom.

Haman entered the court right then to ask the king for permission to kill Mordecai, because Mordecai would not bow before him.  Haman had no idea that the king was planning at that moment to honor the very one he planned to eliminate.  This is a picture of the unspiritual man, who cannot discern what God is actually doing.  Their minds are preoccupied with their personal plans and agendas, and they become insensitive to what God is doing.

Even if they do not admit it, they plan to eliminate the Holy Spirit’s sovereign role in the Body of Christ, so that everyone will submit to them and obey them.  They want to be in control and have the position of glory.  The Holy Spirit does not share control with any person.  He does not rule Christ’s Body through men who want to control others.  The Holy Spirit controls God’s servants directly.

“Who is there that the king would rather honor than me?” -  The fleshly leader imagines that God would want to elevate him above other men – he flatters himself in his own heart constantly.  He cannot imagine that God is concerned with promoting the Holy Spirit’s control and position among God’s people rather than elevating men.  Religious leaders who feel competitive with each other have this mentality.  In Haman’s answer, he reveals the true desire of his heart.  He thinks he will receive these things.

Royal Robe = Glory – Many people want to feel important, and to seem important to others, garnering admiration.  “They love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the marketplaces…” (Matthew 23:6; Mark 12:39; Luke 20:46).  They never feel guilty about this because they feel they deserve it, and they think everyone else would want the same thing.  Yet God does not share his glory with another (Isaiah 42:8).

Horse the King has ridden = Control of the Body – This refers to the godly servants who have already been working for the Lord, bearing him on their shoulders, glorifying and elevating Him above the crowd.  The person with Haman’s syndrome wants to have control over others in the Body of Christ.  Such men feel a thrill when people who wholeheartedly obeyed the Lord Jesus are now obeying them.  It thrills them to have members who have been fervently praising God also praise them.  They relish having people who previously asked God to reveal His will now ask them (the leader) what to do instead.

We see here that the king himself was becoming an object of Haman’s envy.  Haman could have suggested any type of reward, such as financial reward.  Yet he asked for things that would make him equal in glory to the king, at least briefly.  Spiritual self-promotion is a type of idolatry.

Royal Crest – This is the strangest request of all – Haman does not ask for a crown for his own head, but rather a crown for the horse he plans to ride!  Those who seek control within the church naturally want the church to retain all the glory and spiritual authority it has under the headship of Jesus Christ Himself, because this means they are in control of something important and prestigious.  No religious leader wants to admit that his institution or congregation is merely a human organization (which it automatically becomes when men take control of it away from the Holy Spirit).  Instead, they continue to insist that the organization had God’s special favor and God’s spiritual authority.

Of course, the king bestows each of these things on Mordecai instead (see Esther 6:10).  From this, we understand God’s intentions in His project – to give the position of prominence and control to the Holy Spirit, not to any man.  “So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’” (Luke 17:10)

Romans 14:17-20 – “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.”

Here, Paul explains the meaning of the Work of God. We define “the Work of God” as the way we serve Christ and please God, as this passage says. The Kingdom of God has righteousness, peace, and joy as three of its defining characteristics, and these three things should always be pervasive in God’s Work.

Paul addresses a complicated problem in the early church, a point of division. On the one side, some of the early Christians (especially those from Jewish backgrounds) felt that they should boycott eating meat sold in the public markets, because all of the butchering in ancient times involved pagan rituals and offering the animals as sacrifices to false gods. The association of the meat market with paganism troubled their consciences, so they abstained from it. The problem was that they sometimes pressured others in the church (who did not share their scruples) to conform to their self-imposed religious restrictions. It is one thing to expect other Christians to live according to what God has clearly revealed in his Word. It is another thing to make our own rules, usually “as a matter of principle,” and then judge fellow church members for not being as strict.

On the other side, many early Christians understood that material items (like a piece of meat) could not have a spiritual dimension, because they are inanimate objects. For them, it did not matter what the meat vendors had done to associate the animal with some false deity beforehand. All that mattered, they felt, was their own intentions. Boycotting the meat market seemed silly. The problem was that they would push back against the more scrupulous members by flaunting their “freedom” in front of them, inviting them to dinner and announcing that they were sereving meat from the pagan marketplace. The more conscientious members would understandably feel offended by this.

The problem was that both sides were partly wrong. Paul does take the doctrinal position that inanimate spiritual objects cannot transmit curses, pagan spirits, or anything like that – meat is just meat, no matter where it comes from. There is nothing magical about food. In this sense, he sides with the second group (those who saw nothing wrong with the meat).

What makes food potentially sinful is attitude or intentions of those eating it. In this sense, Paul sides with the boycotters, those with extra personal religious rules. For some, usually those from a pagan background, the association of certain items with paganism was so strong that it represented for them an actual participation in idolatry. In such a case – where a person strongly associates an inanimate object with something wicked – their conscience may require them to abstain.  God will honor them for being conscientious about their faith in Him. This is why Paul leaves the matter up to each person’s conscience. Even though the meat from the marketplace was not inherently evil, it affected some Christians in a way that undermined their fellowship with Christ.

Those members who were flaunting their disregard for the consciences of others in the church were also sinning, by provoking and shocking their brethren unnecessarily. They should have respected the other members’ sensitivities and conscientiousness. Similarly, those with self-imposed rules about this matter should have refrained from imposing their sensitivities on others, because the others actually had the correct view of the spiritual reality.

MUTUAL EDIFICATION – The real solution, Paul writes, is that everyone in the church needs to become more conscientious about edifying fellow church members, instead of winning and argument or teaching the other person a lesson. We should all be more scrupulous or sensitive about how our choices affect others.  Paul himself made the personal choice to abstain from anything that might disturb the faith of those he loved (1 Corinthians 8:9-13; Acts 15:20, 29).

Today, the dispute is usually not about eating meat from the market instead of home-butchered fare. Instead, there are other things in our culture that derive from paganism, the occult, or immorality – such that many Christians cannot ignore the strong association. Perhaps you are confident that it is not sinful to do a certain thing that others in the church find spiritually objectionable. Even so, it is sinful to flaunt your choice in front of them. This unnecessarily provokes, discourages, and scandalizes other church members. For some, they may misinterpret it as a sign that it is OK to do something that truly would be sinful for them.  They could misunderstand and think that God has no expectations whatsoever, that even immorality is acceptable for a Christian. One member’s refusal to respect the sensitivities of more scrupulous members can nudge the others in the direction of outright apostasy or backsliding.

Of course, developing a mentality of mutual edification – being sensitive to the sensitivities of others – requires a self-sacrificing heart. We have to become less self-centered and self-absorbed in order to devote a lot of mental energy to the effects of our behavior on others in the church. Yet if the whole church works toward this mentality, we will come closer to our goal of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

]]> http://www.maranathaglobal.org/latest/5849/feed/ 0 http://www.maranathaglobal.org/latest/3756 http://www.maranathaglobal.org/latest/3756#comments Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:23:35 +0000 dru http://www.maranathaglobal.org/?p=3756 Ephesians 5:25-27 – “…Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”

The Bible teaches that Jesus gave his life on Calvary for the sake of a church that is “radiant” (NIV) or “glorious” (KJV). This church is not just a religious organization, or a Christian ministry. It is a living entity, holy, cleansed from sin and impurity. It is Jesus’ bride. Yet there are many “churches,” denominations, and Christian organizations that do not fit the description here. There is a difference between a “religion” (i.e., Christianity) and a radiant or glorious church.

In Maranatha, we normally refer to this radiant, glorious, holy church as the “faithful church” and the Christianity that does not fit these criteria as the “unfaithful church.” Of course, the phrase “faithful church” never occurs in the Bible itself – it is merely a convenient moniker for the church described in Ephesians 5:25-27.

How do we define “the faithful church”? In this passage, Paul lists seven attributes of the faithful church:

1) Cleansed through the word – The faithful church follows the revelation of God in their lives (the word used in the original Greek here for “word” is “rhema,” not “logos,” and refers to “prophetic words” rather than to the written Word or the Bible). God’s daily revelation becomes part of their identity and guides them away from things that displease God. The unfaithful church, in contrast, is not cleansed through the word.

2) “Radiant” or “Glorious” – The faithful church is full of God’s glory and the operation of the Holy Spirit. It has spiritual light (revelation) from Eternity, not merely human ideas and organization. It is spiritually magnificent.

3) Without stain – A stain is a mark from an outside source. A stain on the clothing usually comes from outside, spilling onto the fabric. Here it symbolizes defilement of the church from worldly influences – things from outside the church that leave an unsightly mark, visible to everyone. The faithful church is free from stain – there is no contamination from the world, nothing to tarnish its eternal splendor.

4) Without wrinkle – Unlike stains, which come from without, a wrinkle is a defective arrangement of the fabric itself. The unfaithful church always has things out of place, out of proportion, badly timed, inappropriately expressed. The services are either chaotic (spontaneous and having no order) or liturgical (stuck in old patterns of tradition, like a crease in the fabric that never comes out). The faithful church is without wrinkle, perfect in its arrangement and order. God is not a God of confusion, but of order and peace.

5) Without any other blemish – A blemish is a visible defect or ugly spot that is part of the object itself, not just a stain left from another object. The unfaithful church has many distortions because of its vain attempts to adapt to the surrounding cultural values, politics among the leadership, false doctrines, and materialism.

6) Holy – Paul mentions this attribute TWICE in the passage, emphasizing its importance. Holiness or sanctification is an essential attribute of the faithful church. It is consecrated to God, set apart for His will and purposes and separated from sin and fleshliness.

7) Blameless – The faithful church does nothing to harm anyone and cannot be accused of wrongdoing or blamed for anyone’s problems.

Throughout the Scriptures, we find pairs of women who, side by side, illustrate the attitudes and choices of a church that pleases God (and those that do not). Martha and Mary provide one example of this pattern. When these pairs present a contrast between two women (Sarah and Hagar, Hannah and Peninnah, etc.), we know that it prophetically represents the faithful church and the unfaithful who are nominal believers. Paul makes this prophetic interpretation clear in Galatians 4:21-31. We believe that God included these pairs of contrasting women throughout the Bible to teach us about the difference between the faithful church and the unfaithful church.

Take the example of Mary and Martha in Luke 10. The Lord taught us that there would be a faithful church that hears his voice and obeys him, and an unfaithful church where people follow their own ideas an understanding, even though they do it in the name of Christ. Hannah and Peninnah provide another example (1 Samuel 1).

“That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” (Ephesians 5:27 KJV)

The Revealed Word – We believe that preaching should focus on how the Word of God – including the entire Old Testament – reveals Jesus and his work of salvation in our lives. Jesus taught this during his earthly ministry (John 5:39; see also John 1:1), and the Apostles used the Old Testament almost exclusively as a collection of prophetic typologies of Christ. We have found that this is the only kind of preaching that truly feeds people’s souls, as opposed to appealing to their intellect or to their emotions. The Bible refers to itself and says that the “letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6), so we never focus on historical, grammatical, or literary analysis of the Scriptures in our sermons. Scholasticism makes preaching spiritually ineffective. We also avoid “prosperity preaching” and the “motivational”-type messages that are so common in churches today. When the pastor preaches the revealed Word of God, the members grow spiritually and the Holy Spirit operates more powerfully and speaks more clearly in their midst.

Pleading the Blood of Jesus – Our understanding of the significance of the blood of Jesus for Christians today is more multifaceted than in other churches. Traditional churches talk about Jesus’ sacrifice only in terms of purchasing forgiveness for sins (atonement), and Pentecostals and Charismatics usually talk about the blood of Jesus in the context of “spiritual warfare,” loudly invoking Jesus’ blood when rebuking evil spirits. These are both aspects of the blood of Jesus, but there is so much more. The Bible says that the “life is in the blood,” (Leviticus 17:10-14) and we receive Christ’s life within us through pleading the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus integrates us into his spiritual Body (Matthew 26:27; 1 Corinthians 11:29). Pleading the blood of Jesus enables us to enter God’s presence in worship and prayer (Hebrews 10:19-22). The blood of Jesus provides the operation of the Holy Spirit within us to sanctify us (Hebrews 9:4), and to fill us (1 Corinthians 12:13), giving us spiritual gifts. The blood of Jesus “speaks” today (Hebrews 12:24). We want all of these blessings.

The Church as the Body of Christ – We must approach our participation in the local church as integration into a living, spiritual body (the Body of Christ), rather than as membership in a religious organization, or attendance at a lecture or liturgical performance. This requires us to step out of our self-centeredness, to stop focusing exclusively on our own problems and goals, and to begin focusing on others’ needs in the church. We must put the good of Christ’s body before our own interests and agendas. God wants believers who devote themselves to prayer for the needs of the others in the congregation, and who strive to show Christ’s “agape” love toward their fellow members consistently. Too many churches talk about the “body of Christ” as merely meaning “all the real Christians everywhere,” but this undermines the significance of the concept as the Bible presents it. If Christians are not integrated into a faithful church and laying our lives down for others (1 John 3:16), they are missing at least half of the relationship with Christ that God intended them to have.

Asking God to Speak – The Bible is full of examples where God speaks to his people through dreams, visions, and revelations (prophetic words, etc.), besides the written revelations he was giving through the Scriptures. These are instances where God takes the initiative to speak to us. At the same time, we can approach God to seek His will, asking God to speak to us through a verse in the Bible. Most believers have had experiences where they opened the Bible right to a passage that spoke to their immediate situation. We experience this on a daily basis, inquiring of the Lord about His will for different decisions that we must make. It revolutionizes a church when the leaders and members can ask God to speak through His Word about the situations they face.

God’s Revealed Will – It sounds obvious to say that we should follow God’s revelation instead of mere religious traditions or human ideas, but it is unfortunately hard to find Christian leaders who are committed to doing this consistently. When we look at the characters presented in the Bible, we see that those who enjoyed God’s favor were those who did whatever God wanted most consistently (like David – see Acts 13:22). Those who displeased God, like Saul in the Old Testament, would often follow their own judgment and opinions instead of what God said. We have made a commitment to following God’s revelation consistently. Of course, all revelations must be in accordance with Scripture, which is the ultimate standard.

Avoiding idolatry – The Lord has instructed us – through both specific revelations and the Word, to avoid religious icons and images. This includes supposedly “Christian” idolatry that we see all around us today. These images and icons grieve the Holy Spirit and quench His operation in a church or group; they can even open the door to evil spirits. (See 1 Corinthians 5:10-11; 1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Corinthians 10:7-14; Galatians 5:20; 1 Peter 4:3; 1 John 5:21; and Revelation 22:15). Of course, greed, immorality, rebellion, and other sins that substitute other things in place of God can be idolatry in our hearts (see Ephesians 5:5; Colossians 3:5; and 1 Samuel 15:23).

Salvation – Salvation is the starting point, of course, the first thing we must have in order to participate in the work of God. Yet many Christians have a one-dimensional concept of salvation – they think of it merely as forgiveness of sins or a guarantee of going to heaven. The Bible teaches that salvation has many facets and features, not just forgiveness or redemption. It includes the miracle of regeneration, repentance from sins, sanctification, participation in Christ’s body, the indwelling of Christ through the Holy Spirit, eternal life, joy renewed daily (see Isaiah 12:3), peace, hope, prosperity, healing, being taught and guided by the Holy Spirit, being empowered to share our faith effectively, and much more. Believers need teaching and instruction about all of these aspects of Christ’s work in their lives so that they can receive everything God has for them.

Of course, we also embrace the classic tenets of the Christian faith: belief in the Trinity, the Deity of Christ, Inerrancy of Scriptures, the Virgin Birth, the imminence of the Second Coming, the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and Salvation by Faith. These are basic truths – absolute truths – without which we could not have the genuine work of God in our midst and that permeate all our teaching. At the same time, doctrinal correctness by itself does not guarantee that the Spirit can operate freely in a church. Many stagnant, lifeless churches have correct doctrines without putting them into practice or transforming the lives of the members. The spiritual reality within a church depends on these other factors as well.

God gives us His light by His revelation. He gives us this so that He might prepare a Faithful Church to live in His presence forever. His light is what guides us day by day to this holy and perfect destination.

What message did the Apostles preach? Many people today assume that the Apostles preached the same type of messages they always hear in their church. Those who always hear “prosperity preaching” or “motivational messages” tend to assume the Apostles preached like that as well.  Those who always hear intellectual, scholarly messages tend to think the early church parsed verbs and had sermons about Hebrew grammar. Yet the Bible tells us explicitly – in several places – what Jesus and the Apostles preached, and it did not resemble most of the preaching we hear around us today.

John says their message was simple: God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. Complete holiness, no compromise or mixture, no mistakes. No darkness at all is in Him. The people in the ancient world worshipped false gods who were a mix of good and evil, who had strengths and weaknesses. Their religions were full of compromise and relativism. Even today, we see leftover symbols from ancient religions like the “ying-yang” that depicts the forces of light and darkness as equal. These false deities and false religions created the expectation that their followers would also be a mixture of good and bad, light and darkness. They could not offer pure light.

We must not mix God’s light or revelation with any human ideas or opinions. There is no darkness at all in him, no mistakes, nothing dependent on our culture, time, or preferences.

The second part of the Apostles’ message was about religious hypocrisy and spiritual consistency. Every religion has people who claim to be faithful but who really follow their own way much of the time. The early church preached an all-or-nothing message about obeying the Lord. They had no category for “carnal Christians” or worldly believers. As John puts it, claiming to have a relationship with Christ (“if we say we have fellowship with him…”) while walking in darkness makes us liars, people who do not put our beliefs into practice (“do not practice the truth”). In the Bible, “truth” is something you do, in addition to something you believe. Today, people think it is enough to believe the truth without “practicing the truth.”

Their message, however, was not just a negative-sounding condemnation of hypocrites. There was an amazing promise: for those who walk in the light, we grow ever more integrated into a living, spiritual body – the Body of Christ (“fellowship with one another”), and we receive cleansing from sin through the blood of Jesus. The “fellowship with one another” is something miraculous, not merely the warmth and familiarity that naturally comes from meeting with a group of people for a long time. True fellowship is an operation of the Holy Spirit that transcends human friendship and collegiality. This type of true fellowship – the miracle of the Holy Spirit weaving us together in a faithful church – is a necessary component of a genuine relationship with Christ. It is a consequence or result of walking in the light, living in revelation and putting the truth into practice. This is the definition of fellowship.

The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. Most Christians understand that the blood of Jesus provides atonement and forgiveness. Yet many never understand that it also removes sin from our lives, transforming us into godly people whose lives are set apart for God’s purposes. This is the definition of sanctification. This was a basic part of the Apostles’ message.

How do we define “walking in the light”? John tells us: “…as he is in the light…” – that is, like Jesus. Jesus was consistent in listening to his heavenly Father’s voice, saying what the Father told him to say, and doing what the Father told him to do. He was in the light all the time – living out the revelation from Eternity, never deviating into this world’s darkness or sin. That is how we should walk in the light, in God’s revelation. “In your light, we see light.” (Psalm 36:9) “The unfolding of your words gives light.”  (Psalm 119:130).

Genesis 20:12-13 (KJV)

“And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.  And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said unto her, ‘This is thy kindness which thou shalt shew unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother.’”

Twice during his wanderings in Genesis, Abraham encounters situations where the local ruler takes Sarah into his harem (pagan kings back then had a large collection of wives, of course).  The first time was with Pharaoh in Genesis 12, and the second was with Abimelech in Genesis 20.  In each case, before any harm comes to Sarah at all, the Lord intervened and rebuked the ruler, so that Sarah came back to Abraham immediately.  Prophetically, this illustrates how we as believers are both Christ’s brothers, as well as the Bride of Christ collectively.  

Some people who read the Bible find these passages confusing, because they assume Abraham was lying when he told everyone Sarah was his sister.  Abraham was not lying, however, as this passage explains.  In those days, only a few generations after the Flood of Noah, there were not very many people in the world yet, and many married their cousins or half-sisters.  Sarah was a daughter of Abraham’s father Terah, but not from the same mother.  This was not a lie, but rather had a prophetic meaning. 

The faithful church is the Bride of Christ, just as Sarah was the bride of Abraham.  Sarah is an illustration of the Faithful Church today (see Galatians 4:21; 1 Peter 3:6).  

“Just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless… ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’  This is a profound mystery-but I am talking about Christ and the church.”  (Ephesians 5:25-32). “I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband…’Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’”  (Revelation 21:2, 9; see also Revelation 19:7).  The faithful church is the Bride of Christ but we are also his brothers and sisters – both are true in a heavenly sense.  

The Bible says we are also Jesus’ brothers: Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers.”  (Matthew 12:41; see also Matthew 28:10). 

Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. He says, “I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises.”  (Hebrews 2:11-12; see also Hebrews 2:17).  “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers”.  (Romans 8:29). 

Just like Sarah, of course, we are not exactly full brothers and sisters – Jesus is divine, from eternity, and we are his brothers through our adoption as sons and daughters by his Father. (Romans 8:23; Eph 1:5).  We are Jesus’ co-heirs, in addition to being the Bride of Christ. (Gal 3:19; Romans 8:17). Sarah was the daughter of Abraham’s father, just as we have adoption as sons and daughters of Jesus’ heavenly Father.

The message Jesus has for the world today is to point to the Faithful Church and say, “This church, these people, are related to me; they show what I am like – they belong to my Father.”  Abraham says Sarah is from his father, and Jesus tells the world today about His Heavenly Father through the faithful church, which has the same Father.  The world does not understand our intimacy with Christ, our relationship to Him as the Bride.  Only the Bride knows this mystery.  The way Abraham kept this secret that Sarah was his wife was a prophecy that the world would never understand the true relationship between Jesus and the Bride, the Faithful Church.

Abraham had told Sarah to tell everyone about how she was his sister, “So that I will be treated well for your sake.” Indeed, each time Sarah gave this report, at the end of the story Abraham received large donations and offerings (flocks and herds).  When we testify to the world about the blood of Jesus that is inside us, transforming us to share in his life and character, it brings glory (offerings) to Jesus, and his flocks grow (outreach).  

Surely, it was a trial for Sarah when she found herself temporarily in a frightening situation – but this reminds us of our own struggles in this world, because the world pressures us to belong to it, not to the Lord Jesus.  The world is always trying to corrupt the faithful church, to take the ones who belong to the Lord and make them part of the world instead. 

In the end, the Lord will bring us safely from this world, out from under the Enemy’s plans and pressures, to be with our Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus.  In the process, Jesus is growing his flock through our presence in this world, through our testimony about his Blood that makes us have the same life from his Father.

The Bible gives us this story as the first example of Solomon’s extraordinary wisdom.  Solomon asked the Lord for wisdom in the story immediately preceding this passage (see 1 Kings 3:9), and we can see here that God answered his prayer.  Most Christians are familiar with this story.  Two women who lived in the same apartment had newborn infants that were the same age.  One woman accidentally smothered her baby during the night in her sleep, and she switched her dead child with the other woman’s living baby, because it was hard to tell them apart.  The other mother realized in the morning light that the dead baby in her arms was not hers, and brought her complaint to Solomon.  Of course, the other woman accused her of fabricating this story in order to trade her dead baby for a living one.  There were no other witnesses, the stories were mutually exclusive and equally plausible, and the case seemed impossible to solve to most people at the time.

Solomon had a flash of insight and ordered the baby to be cut in half and divided between the two women.  He did not intend to carry out this plan, of course.  He knew that the real mother would plead with him to save the child, even if she could not have him, and the pretender would be content to let the other woman’s baby die, so that they would end up equal. 

We can glean a much deeper lesson from this story than merely acknowledging that Solomon was clever.  There is a profound application to the church today. 

Christianity has always been comprised of two groups – the faithful church and the unfaithful church.  The faithful church is the true Bride of Christ, the people who walk in the fear of the Lord and devote themselves to Him fully.  The unfaithful church bears the name “Christian” but has no commitment to obeying Christ or pleasing the Lord – they look out for their own interests.  These two categories do not necessarily refer to denominations or even congregations, although some churches and denominations fit mostly into one category or the other, depending on the priorities they have chosen.  We must decide on an individual level whether we will put God first, and his Project before our own interests (see Matthew 6:33).

Often we find those from the faithful church and the unfaithful church together in the same denomination or even in the same congregation, just like these two women who lived together in Solomon’s time.  Just as both of those women had children who looked very similar, today we see “fruit” or converts in both camps, and it is often hard to tell them apart.  In the end, there is only one living Body, and everybody wants that.  Even unfaithful, self-interested religious leaders would like to have control of the Body that is really alive and growing, just as the mother of the dead infant in this story wanted to take the living baby from its own mother.

How can we tell the faithful from the unfaithful?  Solomon’s wisdom shows us the way.  His decision was a revelation of the Holy Spirit that still speaks to us today.  When there is a conflict in the church – and disagreements are inevitable in any organization – the two sides always have the option of dividing the church between them, causing a split.  This could be a formal split, where two entities result, or a functional split, where factions emerge within a congregation and then live in an ongoing standoff or cold war.

The unfaithful have no true spiritual connection to the Body of Christ, just as the false mother had no biological connection to the baby in this story.  So these people are quick to propose a division.  It does not bother them to see the Body of Christ divided, because they lack a connection to the spiritual life in the Body.  All they care about is making sure that nobody else has something that they do not have.  The faithful, in contrast, feel deeply that it would be a tragedy for Christ’s body to be divided.  They are willing to lay aside their own claims for control, or their right to win an argument, in order to preserve the unity of the Body.  The Lord sees this and honors these people, entrusting his Work to them.  They show that they are the rightful owners of the Body because of their willingness to relinquish control in order to preserve it intact.  We should all develop this attitude about the Lord’s Body, the church.

Micah 7:14 - Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance,
which lives by itself in a forest, in fertile pasturelands.
Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in days long ago.

God’s “flock” is the faithful church, the Body of Christ in the world today. Prophetically, the Body of Christ reaches a special stage of full development or maturity immediately before the Rapture (see Eph. 4:11-16). Micah and other Old Testament prophets foresaw the spiritual Body, God’s flock, of the Last Days. We live in the moment when these prophecies reach their fulfillment.

Unfortunately, many Christians remain disconnected from the Body, and Christianity in general is in a state of chaos and confusion. This sad situation (also foretold in the prophecies) prompts Micah’s entreaty that the Lord would shepherd his Body faithfully in this age of spiritual darkness and deception. This passage from Micah offers us insights to understand the true nature of the Body, so that we can assimilate ourselves into it more fully. We must have the Body as a reality, not merely in words or rhetoric.

“Shepherd your people” – Today, Jesus shepherds the faithful church. This is more than quaint imagery or poetic words. It is a spiritual reality. It affects how we operate as a church. A flock of sheep stays together, near its shepherd. Any who wander off are in danger from predators. Today, the Body’s top priority is to stay close to the Shepherd, where we can hear his voice, remain under his protective eye, and follow his lead. Contrary to what many “excitement”-based ministries claim, this is the highest priority of the faithful flock, more than evangelism, missions, prayer, etc. It takes precedence over all the other good and productive things we do. We must evangelize, of course, and we must pray, worship, reach out, etc. Even so, these things have meaning only when we stay closely connected to the living Jesus, as a flock is to its shepherd. Many religious groups and movements go their own way. The faithful church is under the control and care of the Good Shepherd. We must be able to hear his voice.

“With your staff” – the Shepherd’s staff refers to the Holy Spirit. Shepherds used their long staff for several important purposes – to guide each step along rocky mountain paths (which points to the Spirit’s revelation and guidance), to tap the sheep when the flock moved to keep any from moving in the wrong direction (the Holy Spirit’s correction of individuals), and to protect against attacking predators. Today, we can have the true Body only when the Spirit governs and controls everything, guiding, rebuking, correcting, and defending.

“The flock of your inheritance” – What is the focus of God’s attention in the world today? Is it the great political leaders or the impressive social movements? No. God’s primary focus is on the Body, his flock. He values it as we would value an inheritance, something entrusted to us to cherish and keep forever. For our churches, one of the central teachings is the church as the Body of Christ. Of course, almost every group of Christians thinks of the church as the Christ’s Body in some sense. The true Body of Christ is not just a social movement, or a group of religious people latching on to certain styles, rhetoric, or famous personalities. The doctrine of the BODY is one of the most important messages we have to offer the world at this hour. We recognize that this emphasis makes us different from other churches, but we must be obedient to the calling the Lord gave us.

As God’s sheep, we must live in a flock, and this flock is his inheritance. For us, the Body is something we live on a daily basis, and emphasize constantly in our teachings. Our beliefs about the Body are connected to our belief in God’s revelation – we believe that the Holy Spirit still speaks today and wants to guide and teach God’s people, so we believe that the Body of Christ is dynamic. It is alive, always learning, and progressing toward a goal. This understanding of the Body affects our approach to ministry, evangelism, salvation, how we handle spiritual gifts, worship, and church finances. As members of the church, we understand that our function is to contribute to the life of the Body, to show concern with the spiritual life of all the other members, and to avoid things that harm the Body of Christ. The spiritual life of each member contributes to the spiritual life of the Body as a whole.

“Which lives by itself” – The faithful church has a clear line of separation from this world – we live in the world, but our lives must be different, free from worldliness. The Body stays separate from pursuits led by man. The big trend in religion today is ecumenism and merging. Traditional churches have conventions where they abandon all their points of doctrine, even the Bible itself, for the sake of including modernists and unbelievers. Pentecostals and evangelical groups love to combine forces for big, exciting (expensive) events. They bring any guest speaker, prophet, or healer from anywhere for a crusade in their midst, without concern about the man’s doctrines, testimony, personal habits, prayer life, or accountability to the Body. The only goal is a moment of excitement and sensationalism. This is not the case with the Body. The Body does not live off excitement or enthusiasm. It lives from revelation alone (Matthew 4:4; Luke 4:4). The Body, Jesus’ true flock, separates itself from all these combinations and enthusiastic crowds of disparate religious groups. It lives by itself, untouched by the fads and fashions that sweep through Christian churches every few years. It does not need these things because it stays with the Shepherd. The Lord has told us through prophetic words not to mix with other religious groups or join in their combined events.

“In a forest” – what a strange image this is – flocks usually live in open grasslands, not in forests, and the next line mentions pasturelands. Spiritually, we have both. There is a sense in which Jesus’ flock lives in the midst of this world of darkness and religious deception all around us. Today He keeps a special flock that lives by itself in the forest. From the standpoint of our position in this world, we live in a forest. From the standpoint of our own experience with the Lord, we are enjoying a fertile pastureland here in the Body.

Bashan & Gilead – In biblical times, these were the fertile areas east of the Jordan River, in modern day Jordan (not in modern Israel). They were the best areas for grazing but were also the closest to the Gentiles. Prophetically, this foreshadows the fact that the Church of the Rapture will be predominately Gentile (Israelites convert mostly after the Rapture, during the 7-year Tribulation). It also reminds us of how we live, as mentioned in the previous section. We mentioned how prophetically, we live in a “forest” (in the midst of this world, surrounded by unbelievers and false Christians) and at the same time in a “fertile pastureland” (our experience in the Body of churches that stays close to the Shepherd, where we feast on His ongoing revelation every day). Bashan and Gilead make the same prophetic point. We do not need to separate ourselves physically or geographically from this world or unbelievers. We maintain our secular jobs, or attend school, and we keep showing love and affection to our unsaved relatives and friends. Like the shepherds in Bashan and Gilead who lived closer to the pagans than other Israelites, we are in this world but not of it (see John 17:14-16).

Unfortunately, many Christians make the great mistake of thinking that they must abandon their secular jobs, school, or even unsaved families in order to be closer to God. This is incorrect. The Flock of the Last Days feeds in Bashan and Gilead – our souls receive strong daily nourishment of the revealed Word, the Blood of Jesus (Holy Spirit), and every other spiritual blessing, even as we continue to live productive lives as productive members of society (see Titus 3:14). We live right next to the false believers and unbelievers, but we feast on the spiritual banquet that the Good Shepherd spread before us each day.

“As in days long ago” – The Body (which is also the Bride of Christ) is the fulfillment of God’s promises and prophecies from eternity past. He has always planned for this moment in history when the faithful church would be completely ready for the Rapture.

The church of the Last Days enjoys the same blessings as the church of the First Century, the church of the apostolic era. Even though Christianity went through a thousand years of darkness, false doctrines, pagan customs incorporated as traditions and holidays – God always planned to have the church at the end be as great as at the first. Remember that when Jesus turned the water into wine (John 2), there was wine at the beginning of the wedding and at the end, with a gap in the middle where they ran out. This was a prophetic foreshadowing of church history – the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the early church, followed by centuries of dead religion and tradition, and then another great outpouring at the end (our days, immediately preceding the Rapture). In fact, the “best wine is the last” in God’s economy – the outpouring of the Spirit in the Body today echoes the first century church (“as in days long ago”), but also surpasses it.

The prophet Micah ministered around 730 years before Christ, according to the list of kings of Israel that he identifies in the first verse (Kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah). This means he lived at the same time as the biblical prophets Isaiah and Hosea, but we do not know if they knew each other. Many years later, his ministry was mentioned in the book of Jeremiah (Jer. 28:17-19).