While we talk about and sing about Heaven a lot, there is the matter of what is taking place here on earth. I have heard people talk about the earth sometimes as if it is a necessary evil and would wish that God would just take us all out of here sooner rather than later. What on earth is God doing?
We get a clue when we observe Jesus instructing the disciples on prayer in Matthew 6. Among other things, He prays what some have labeled The Lord’s prayer. Mind you, this was not just empty words demonstrating how to pray, the words Jesus prayed that the kingdom of heaven and all its characteristics and virtues would come and be realized on the earth. God’s kingdom and God’s will are twins of the same creation. Jesus’ prayer was that in the same manner God’s will was being done in heaven, in that very same way His will might be done on earth. So, this is not just a terrestrial ball that we should seek to escape from, but a place to which God’s kingdom is intended to be established, one person at a time.
God’s will is not done in a vacuum by imaginary characters or by angels sent to earth to do God’s will. Who might be those who are living their lives in such a fashion they are seeing God’s will and purpose done in this earthly abode? Of course, it is the church who is tasked with seeing God’s kingdom come to the earth and His will being done in the earth. We are agents of God’s will.
Of course, we recognize the church is more than a building. A building is where the church gathers. The church is more than just a meeting. It is far more than an organization, although for certain tax advantages, it is important to have an organization. We must, however, make sure we don’t major on the organization to the exclusion of the living organism. The one thing that must be guarded against is for the local church to become nothing but a club. This is a real danger in the western world.
Jesus said to His disciples that He would build His church in such a fashion that the authority of the kingdom of darkness would not prevail against it, nor prevent it from accomplishing its mission in the earth. Jesus’ promise of building His church is an ongoing project. He is still building His church by, as the end of Acts 2 says, “the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” There is an expression of Jesus’ church He is building that is both local and universal. It is not practical for us to attempt to function on a daily or weekly basis with the worldwide expression of the church. Therefore, God has established local churches that do that in harmony and unity. Most of us function in one of these local churches. These local churches are made up of stones that are alive – people. Each of these living stones has a place of infinite value to the builder and architect of the church.
In the 2nd chapter of his letter to the Ephesians, Paul points out that although we were formerly outside the promise of Abraham that is realized in the person of Jesus, we are now no longer strangers and aliens, but rather we are fellow citizens with all the other saints of God in the church. He continues to say that we are being joined together as a living structure, becoming a holy temple unto the Lord.Therefore, we are being built together as a dwelling place for God our Father. When writing to the Colossians, he describes this joining and building as those who are “being knit together” as a body providing nourishment for one another. The apostle Peter must have been listening the same Holy Spirit as Paul, because in his first letter he states that “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house.”
We are built together (emphasis on the word “together”) to be an expression of God and His kingdom in the earth. What on earth is God doing? He is calling His people from the four corners of the earth and knitting/joining them together as a spiritual house, empowered by His Holy Spirit to do the work of the kingdom in the earth. We were designed to live life with other covenant believers. When we came to Jesus and were born again by the Spirit, we at that time entered into a covenant with the God of the heavens. It wasn’t just a mental decision that we made to clean up our ways, but we actually had a spiritual experience wherein our spirits were revitalized and energized so that Paul could write (once again to the Ephesians) “even when we were dead in our trespasses, He made us alive together with Christ.” And when we were born again, we at that time entered into a covenant with all God’s children who were in covenant with Him. Sometimes I have wanted to say to the Lord, “I love you, but I don’t much like your kids.” His reply to that statement is written in the first letter of John, chapter 4 and verse 20.
“If someone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?”
This being fitted together involves a process, as we all carry with us human traits that can frustrate being fitly joined with another human being who also has certain attributes of humanity. It is this process that makes the covenant of God so important. Covenant is what keeps us from running. Covenant is how God causes us to stand still and allow Him to do His work among us. God can only do His work in us if we humble ourselves and hold still. It is this process that often causes a rift among brothers and sisters, and therefore stymies the building together of the saints as a dwelling place for God. This is why the Bible talks so much about forgiveness, honoring one another, deferring to one another, etc.
And then, there is the matter of functioning together. We are called upon to “live our lives” in community as followers of Jesus Christ. Now, don’t get excited, I am not referring to living together in a commune. I am referencing community, wherein we do life with one another on an ongoing basis. Paul again writes to the Ephesians when he identifies the dynamic of the body of Christ functioning together as one to present to the world a tangible demonstration of God’s love and mercy. He first identifies gifts of leadership He provides to the church so that we can become equipped to do the works of God. Without offering any commentary on my part, Paul lists apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers as those gifted to grow the church (not necessarily in numbers, but in maturity and obedience.) He writes just that as the goal of these equipping ministries; that we would become mature, contrasting that with no longer being like little children, tossed hither and yon by every doctrine that blows our way. We are established in our knowledge of the Son of God. This knowledge is more than just a quantity of information, but rather it is an exact, complete, thorough, accurate, experiential knowledge, not just abstract, intellectual, head knowledge of God or even facts about Him. This is a relationship. Without relationship with Jesus, we only have a figure head for a religion.
The Scripture points out that the whole body which is fitted and held together by the ligament of covenant love, then grows and builds itself up through the work of each individual part. We all bring something to the table. And we all receive from one another. There are some things we must receive from fellow followers, because God has deposited what we need in them. You can see why it is so important to like God’s kids.
This relationship with fellow Christ followers must be one accentuated by unity. Unity is not agreement on all doctrine or a perspective of the Bible or even life. The apostle Peter does a great job of describing what unity looks like among the church of God. Again, in his first letter and chapter 3 we find these words.
“Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.”
Finally, there is the matter of our ministering to one another. We are so designed to need the encouragement and support of our fellow followers. Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica,
“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”
We were never intended to go this Christian life alone, but rather we are dependent upon other brothers and sisters. All the more reason for our being built together as one. In the book of Nehemiah, he gave instructions to the workers on the wall that whenever there was an alarm (the sound of a trumpet), everyone should rally to that spot of the one in need. We as well should be alert to any alarm from fellow members of the body of Christ and rally to them at the point of their need. We should never be so enthralled in our own work that we cannot come to aid of a brother or sister in need. In like manner (this is more difficult for some of us), when we are in need, we should not be hesitant to call upon other Christ family members and sound our trumpet of alarm. In so doing, we exit the “I can handle it myself” bubble.
We are instructed to bear one another’s burdens and rally to others who need a strengthening hand or word of encouragement. In the same manner, we should find courageous people in our own time of weakness and draw from them. We are instructed to admonish one another (Romans 15:14), forgive one another (Colossians 3:13), stir one another up (Hebrews 10:25), serve one another (Galatians 5:13b) and pray for one another (James 5:16). The apostle calls upon the Corinthian church that they “also must help us by prayer.”
This is what on earth God is doing. And what He is doing involves you. You are one of those living stones that He is assembling together to build a spiritual house for the Lord. I encourage you to view the body of Christ as this large entity in the earth that embodies God’s character, God’s love, and the content of His kingdom – which is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. We are a mighty force for God, because we are empowered and anointed by Him. As an army marching through the streets, we bring peace rather than violence; we bring protection rather than disruption and unsettlement; we tell about a benevolent King, rather than a harsh taskmaster. This can only be accomplished by a united church with one goal in mind…to see the kingdom of God come to the earth and to see the will of God being done on the earth just like it is being done in heaven. This is your mission, if you choose to accept it.
I finish with two verses from the old hymn,
Onward Christian Soldiers
S. Baring-Gould (1865)
Like a mighty army
Moves the church of God;
Brothers, we are treading
Where the saints have trod.
We are not divided;
All one body we,
One in hope and doctrine,
One in charity.
Onward then, ye people,
Join our happy throng,
Blend with ours your voices
In the triumph song;
Glory, laud, and honor
Unto Christ the King;
This thro’ countless ages
Men and angels sing.