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—
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