MANIFESTO I—THE CENTRALITY OF CHRIST

I want to take each of the ten issues listed in outline form in the ‘Manifesto’ and begin to dig into them and see what we might learn.

I said previously:

1.                  We need to focus on Christ as the center of all things in our meetings.

Our meetings have become man centered both in the worship and the word. Many churches have changed significant aspects of their meetings to accommodate unbelievers. When we do that we will end up with happy unbelievers attending our churches.

(John 5:39)

The Bible is all about Jesus. He is the subject and focal point of everything from Genesis to Revelation.

It seems in many cases this fact has been forgotten or ignored. Many theologians admit that in the early Church (the pre-constantinian Church) the Bible was interpreted in this fashion but do not bother to explain why this principle of interpretation has changed. A lot has been said about the kingdom in recent times but there is no kingdom without a king. Our king, Jesus, is the creator of the entire universe and is the ruler of it. Presently we do not see all things subjected to Him. The reason is because Jesus honors freedom of the human will on a very high level.  Consequently we have many things that function in direct opposition to His plan. Those things will eventually be destroyed and all things will be brought under His rule.

“Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phi. 2:9-11)

Then in John’s gospel Jesus speaking to the Pharisees says:

"You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” (5:39,40)  

Finally, in Luke’s gospel in the passage where Jesus appears to two of his disciples after the resurrection while they were walking toward Emmaus. Luke quotes Jesus:

"’O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?’ And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”  (24:25,26) 

So we see from Christ’s own testimony that the focus of all the scriptures is on Him.

The overarching purpose of all this is not that I might have my ‘best life now’ but that all things might be brought into submission and have their summation in Him, that King Jesus might be seated on the throne of the universe and worshiped by every being and thing in it and thus the heavenly Father might be glorified in the Son, and finally that He might fill all things with himself. I am not saying that the wonderful benefits and blessings of God promised to believers are irrelevant, far from it! What I am saying is that these things are secondary and subsequent to the issue of Christ’s kingship, his overwhelming greatness, and His amazing love.

If we look at the prayers that the apostle Paul prayed for different churches to whom he wrote, we see that the major emphasis was a deeper revelation of Christ.

First he prayed for the Ephesian Church that the Father would give them a “spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,” (1:16)

And that they would  “..be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height -- to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

The love of Christ is so profound that it is unknowable but Paul prayed that by the Spirit we might know the unknowable!

Then he prayed for those believers in Colossae,  that they might “..increase in the knowledge of God;”

My conclusion is that if this issue was so important to Paul that he mentioned it in several places in quoted prayers then I can do no better than to dedicate my life to cultivating a deeper relationship with Jesus. Then it should be an issue of great value for me.

In Phi. 3:8 Paul tells us, “.. I count all things but loss for the excellency of the

 knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all

 things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,”

I remember bumping into that text in my Greek class in seminary. One of the students asked the professor if the Greek word skubala, translated in the KJV as dung, was

 actually translated accurately. I could tell by the look on the students face that he

 could barely believe that the Apostle Paul would use a term even that severe.

The Professor’s answer was a shocker for the student and nearly all the others, he said,

 “Well, it’s a bit worse than that. The word there doesn't precisely mean dung but

 it is a word that was not used in polite Greek society.” Paul is trying to get the

 reader’s attention. Because of becoming a follower of Jesus of Nazareth Paul had

 already lost his job as a rabbi, his prestige, the respect of the community, the

 future position probably as a member of the Sanhedrin counsel, where as a

 student of Gamaliel he would have ended up; men were already hunting him down to try

 to kill him yet he considered all he had lost as a bunch of ______ (you can fill in

 the blank) compared to what he had gained, “..the excellency of the knowledge of

 Christ Jesus my Lord.”

More later—

MANIFESTO

This is a challenge to believers and church leadership in the USA. The Church in the USA is in crisis

 and many of us don’t even realize it. Jesus is coming to demand once again the lordship over his own

 Church. He said: “I will build my Church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”

 (Mat. 16:18) Below you will find 10 points that I believe do little more than begin to sketch out the

 problems we are facing and what a possible solution might be. I am trying to keep it on the

 positive side. May the wisdom and favor of God cover you in 2013…!

1.      We need to focus on Christ as the center of all things in our meetings.

Our meetings have become man centered both in the worship and the word. Many churches have changed significant aspects of their meetings to accommodate unbelievers. When we do that we will end up with happy unbelievers attending our churches. (John 5:39)

2.      We need to focus on the foundational aspects of the faith—the incarnation, death, resurrection of the Son of God, and the descent of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost). By and large we have forgotten these things and spend little time considering them.

3.      We need to value of the Lord’s Supper (Eucharist, covenant meal)

We have overreacted to the catholic extremes of transubstantiation etc. but forgotten the clear statement of Christ, “This is my body” (Mat. 26:26) We who say we take the Bible literally, what are we going to do about that?

The covenant meal is a major source of life for us but since it is taken today by most of us without Faith or knowledge, it does us little or no good and may even do us harm. (1 Cor. 11:24-34)

4.      We need to refocus on the word and it should be taught and read in every meeting. We need to focus on the Gospels—the teachings of Jesus as the focal point of all that we do and actually make a serious effort to live them out. (John 5:39)

5.      We need to bring prayer back into our meetings. Not just a nice little short one before or after the preaching but significant intercession. Believers need to learn to pray the psalms, not just the sweet ones but the warfare psalms. The Psalter was the prayer book of the first century Church, all of it! They used it effectively and turned the pagan world upside down.

6.      We need to take our focus off of money; Jesus didn’t call it mammon for no reason. “No one can serve two masters…” (Mat. 6:24)

7.      We need to focus on true holiness, without which “no one will see the Lord.” (Heb. 12:14) The moral laxity of the American Church is frightening. It is a stastical fact that the American Church does not live any different than the non-believers in regard to their morals. For instance the divorce rate among evangelical Christians in the US is actually higher than among non-believers. The root of this problem is bad theology. A warped concept of grace is taught on many fronts, we are told that God is uproariously happy with us no matter what we are doing ‘in the body’. The judgment seat of Christ where believers will appear is seldom mentioned and when it is, the concept is presented much like a Sunday school picnic where every kid gets a prize.

8.      We need to distance ourselves from the false prophetic, and in general from unbiblical and flakey phenomena. Many ‘prophets’ are prophesying out of a mixture of what is coming out of their own human spirit and revelation that comes from familiar spirits. Some of the most respected names in the prophetic movement have been caught in serious moral compromise and few seem to be bothered by it. Much damage has been done to what might be a true blessing if handled correctly.  

"An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land:

the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; and My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?” (Jer 5:30,31)

9.      We need to learn what true fellowship is. A handshake a hug and a ‘God bless you’ in a meeting is not fellowship. Koinonia (Gk. for fellowship) is a profound concept that runs deep, requires risk, sacrifice and goes beyond time and space. (1John 1:3)

10.  We need to admit (as church leaders) that our efforts in teaching the word have not produced the results that we thought it would— in bringing believers to full orbed maturity. Teaching is important but we need to dedicate ourselves to press in one on one and in small groups with faithful disciples and work with them as Jesus did with his disciples.