What is the Church called to be?
Firstly let’s look at what the Bible had to say. In Matthew 5v14: I love the way the Message treats this passage. Most other translations deal with this concept in one short line, the Message however almost gets carried away by it all, leaving the reader breathless with anticipation. Firstly, though, here is the way most translations handle it
“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.
Matthew 5:14 (The Message Bible)
It reads like this: “Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colours in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep an open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.
I really don’t feel I need to add to this. It lays out, succinctly, a cogent plan that we should follow.
Where will the power Come from?
Acts 1&2 (What is the Promise):
5 For John baptised with water, but you will be baptised and empowered and united with the Holy Spirit, not long from now.”
Acts 1 v13 (Where will it happen):
13 When they had entered the city, they went upstairs to the upper room where they were staying [indefinitely] - The first Church.
Acts 2 v 1-5 (The Event):
1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place, 2 and suddenly a sound came from heaven like a rushing violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 There appeared to them tongues resembling fire, which were being distributed [among them], and they rested on each one of them [as each person received the Holy Spirit]. 4 And they were all filled [that is, diffused throughout their being] with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other (b)tongues (different languages), as the Spirit was giving them the ability to speak out [clearly and appropriately].
What should the Church be Doing?
1 Corinthians 1:23&24 (New Living Translation)
23 So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense. (as an aside - “Offended” is a very 21st century word isn’t it and you can hear the Atheist camp, stridently making the “Nonsense” pronouncement on the Gospel)
24 But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Perhaps the main activity of any Church should be to minister to both Jew or Greek alike and, as Fanny Crosby puts it in her lovely hymn:
Rescue the perishing, care for the dying
Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave;
Weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen,
Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save.
What is the Message of the Church?
So how does the Church bring a lost World to its encounter with Him? Hubert Booth, in his brutally honest hymn, is at pains to demonstrate that it begins with us. If we as the Church cannot show our own deep need of Him then, in essence, we don't have a message! :
Saviour, hear me, while before Thy feet
I the record of my sins repeat,
Stained with guilt, myself abhorring,
Filled with grief, my soul outpouring;
Canst Thou still in mercy think of me,
Stoop to set my shackled spirit free,
Raise my sinking heart, and bid me be
Thy child once more?
So where is that hope that we first must live in and then have the courage to pass it on to those seeking their own Salvation experience? The refrain of Hubert Booth’s song lays it out powerfully:
Refrain
Grace there is my every debt to pay,
Blood to wash my every sin away,
Power to keep me sinless day by day,
For me, for me!
How should it change the Church’s Thinking?
As you read these words allow your imagination to take you to the place where, together with others, you meet with Him in prayer and praise and worship each and every week. Most of the time this place will be welcoming and safe, somewhere where you meet with friends and family and where you, to some extent, let your guard down. Now let your mind morph that place into a battered shack which is both noisy and threatening. A place where the cries and screams of the hopeless can be heard through the walls and the sulphurous fumes of the fires of hell that are only metres away, assault your nostrils. It is in a place like that where Fanny Crosby’s hymn that we considered earlier takes on a new urgency:
Will we -
Rescue the perishing, care for the dying
Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave;
Weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen,
Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save.
William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, in his last public address three months before his death in 1912, made this declaration:
“While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight;
while children go hungry, as they do now I’ll fight;
while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I’ll fight;
while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets,
while there remains one dark soul without the light of God,
I’ll fight, I’ll fight to the very end!”
The weapon of his warfare was the Gospel of Jesus Christ with its power to save and deliver. He was always just a few feet away from hell “Snatching them in pity from sin and the grave” The sophistication of the 2020’s is only a thin veneer that seeks to hide the truth and cover a desperate need. If William Booth were alive today his fight would still be relevant and his battle for the lost would still be as intense. Is the Church (us) prepared to make its home in that awful shack among the hordes going to hell and are we prepared to preach there, the Gospel with the same amount of love and fervency that William Booth demonstrated more than a century ago? Revivals originate in the heart of God and are incubated in the hearts of men and women who are consumed by a love for the lost and an unassailable belief in the efficacy of the Gospel.
1 Corinthians 23 again
23 So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.
Yes, We’ve heard it before, but the Battle is the Lord’s and we are called to His service. Will we go?? to take our place in the conflict and when we have stood our ground and fought that battle will we lay hold of that Ultimate Hope - Will we go to that Eden Above??
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