Where is Immanuel?
A
sober assessment of why, corporately, "God with Us" oftentimes isn't
(Part
One-The Religious System)
by Matthew Chapman
In this series of articles, we want to look at a number of reasons why
there is often very little, if any, discernable presence of the Lord in
so many "church services" today (whether in religious facilities or even
in many home gatherings) and what we can do to overcome these hindrances.
In "churches" that run the spectrum from charismatic and pentecostal to
conservative fundamental to moderate evangelical to liberal Protestant,
why is it that sheep so often leave their meetings unedified, having the
same gnawing spiritual emptiness they came in with, knowing that they
never really touched the Lord because, in all honesty, He was nowhere
to be found in the midst of the people gathered there? Why is it that
"the church" today, in form and function, bears little or any resemblance
to the church we read about in the pages of the New Testament? Are we
helplessly confined to where we find ourselves in the "evolution of Christendom"
and need to just accept "the way things are" and try to make the best
of it, or does the Lord have another way? Are we really doing it right
and, for some inexplicable reason, the Lord is simply choosing not to
bless us with His presence and power, or are we hindered because we [unknowingly]
cling to a set of underlying assumptions about how church life should
be and the Spirit-quenching baggage that goes with them?
These
are needful and relevant questions that all true followers of Jesus need
to grapple with in our day and time. And as the Master shines His light
of truth in answer to our seeking Him with all of our hearts, we need
to embrace what He reveals along with all the implications of how it will
affect our lives and practices. If indeed we are created for His
good pleasure and not our own (Phil. 2:13 , Rev. 4:11),
and if indeed the church is for Him and not
for us (Eph. 5:22-33, Col. 1:16), then should we not attend to Him personally
and give Him what He wants?! Is it right and submissive on our part to
continue in our entrenched unbiblical practices and traditions, demanding,
in essence, that He settle for what we are willing to offer Him? Anyone
with the Spirit of Truth in them knows the answers to these questions.
Some
years ago, while in a particular city, I was invited to go eat lunch with
some brothers, one of whom was the pastor of a local institution (for
the sake of anonymity, I'll refer to him hereafter as "The Pastor"). After
the waiter took our orders and we began to talk more substantively, The
Pastor began relating a shocking (to him) story he had heard from a particular
preacher who has a fairly extensive speaking ministry (I'll refer to this
man hereafter as "The Traveling Preacher"). I was somewhat familiar with
The Traveling Preacher and knew him to be a man of integrity who sought
to be faithful with the light that he had.
So
The Pastor went on to recount the story that The Traveling Preacher had
told about how, at the outset of his ministry, when he was a young man,
he had begun keeping a journal that listed all the places where he preached.
The journal entries included the date, location, subject he shared on,
and a description of the spiritual condition and atmosphere he perceived
among the people with whom he shared-namely, whether or not he sensed
the presence of the Lord there. Some 25+ years had now passed, and, gleaning
from this journal that he still kept current and updated, The Traveling
Preacher testified that of the more than 800 "churches" he had spoken
at so far, he honestly did not sense any true
presence of the Lord in more than 600 of them.
The
Pastor was both amazed and alarmed by this as he shared it with us. While
he allowed for the fact that The Traveling Preacher is an imperfect and
fallible man, and that he may not have always discerned things correctly
or with complete accuracy, we all noted a certain respect we had for this
man's walk with the Lord and concluded that he probably wasn't very far
off the mark in his perceptions. But then The Pastor continued, "No sense
of any presence of the Lord in 600+ out of
800+ churches!?! Can you believe this?! Matthew, do you have any
idea why this would be so?"
I waited
on the Lord for a moment, praying quietly in my heart, asking Him to show
me how to respond. I then sensed that He gave me a word of wisdom (1 Cor.
12:8) and so I ventured out. I asked The Pastor if he would "go on my
ride" for a moment, indicating that I was about to say some things that
might sound pretty outrageous to him but to hang with me because I would
be making a point in order to ultimately answer his question. He smiled
and responded that he would. I then said, "Brother, would you like to
experience the presence of Lord Jesus in our midst like you have never
experienced Him before?"
"Well
yeah, sure!" he replied.
"Great!
Me too! So here's what we need to do," I continued. "We all need to go
into a room, close the curtains, and put on long purple robes. Each one
of us must then take up a brass pan in our left hand that has incense
burning in it and a hawk feather in our right hand. Next we all need to
begin walking around in a circle, counter-clockwise, shouting, 'Hosanna!'
while swirling the hawk feather around through the incense smoke. I promise
you that if we do this, we will encounter the Lord like we never have
before! So you want to go do it?"
"Well,
no," The Pastor replied.
"Oh
come on, it will be wonderful, even glorious! Come on!"
"No,
I don't think so."
"Brother,
don't you want to experience the presence of the Lord?"
"Well,
yeah, sure, but."
"Then
come on, let's go right now. I know a place nearby where we can get the
robes and hawk feathers and everything we need. Are you ready to do it?"
"No"
"Why
not? It's what the Lord wants us to do-don't you want to please Him? Come
on, let go."
"Brother,
that sounds weird."
"Oh
you're just unfamiliar with the Lord's ways for genuine church life. Come
on now, let's go do it!"
"No"
"Why?"
"I
just don't want to"
"Why
not?"
"It's
just not right"
"Why
is that?"
"Well,
it's just not."
"How
do you know?" I asked. And then he took the bait.
"Well,
brother, first of all, there is absolutely no basis for any
of those things in the Word of God," The Pastor now seriously
retorted.
"Exactly!"
I replied. "And neither is their any basis
in the scriptures whatsoever for Christians
maintaining a government-approved tax-exempt non-profit 501(c)3 religious
organization with a specific name, bank account, property, and facilities,
and calling it and its services 'a church.' Nor is their any basis whatsoever
in the scriptures for denominations, stained-glass windows,
pews, Sunday Schools, youth groups, and many aspects of the role of the
modern-day pastor. There is just as much scriptural authority-none!-for
folks to gather in a room wearing long purple robes and walking counter-clockwise
in a circle shouting 'Hosanna' while swirling hawk feathers in the incense
smoke coming up from their hand-held brass pans and calling this 'church
life' as there is for most all of our present-day practices of 'going
to church' and relating to this religious system as what Jesus laid down
His life for. And we wonder why The Traveling Preacher sensed no presence
of the Lord in 600+ out of 800+ 'churches'?!"
The
Pastor conceded the point.
I think
we can all relate to this story. These trappings of modern-day "church
life" that have been passed on to us from previous generations are now
the "hawk feathers" that we cling to, accommodate,
and esteem as being essentially God-ordained. We assume their legitimacy
without question and thus we allow for their place in our lives and the
lives of our children, and we tolerate their continuance even when we
see how much they get in the way of THE LORD working in/through/among
us. And we have been doing this for so long that we do not see just how
far off we really are in terms of what the Lord is after in His bride.
Like
the Jews in the time of King David, we too have ingeniously built our
"ox carts" in an attempt to transport "the ark of the covenant" (i.e.,
the presence of God) to where we live, and the result is death (even in
the midst of great sincerity in our misguided attempt-2 Sam. 6:1-11).
And like David and the chosen people of His day, we too will not be able
to see the presence of God brought to our tabernacle (i.e., us, together,
becoming "a dwelling of God in the Spirit"-Eph. 2:19-22) unless we consecrate
and prepare ourselves, and then actually do things His way (1 Chron. 15:1-15).
But our rationalizing, pragmatic, natural minds think, "Why the nitpicking?
What's the big deal? Ox carts or shoulders of Levites-who cares and what
does it really matter as long as the ark gets to where it needs to be?"
We'll come back to this point in a minute.
Jesus
said, "Where two or three have gathered together in My Name, there I am
in their midst" (Matt. 18:20). Like most everything our glorious Lord
said, it is so simple in its content and yet so profound in its meaning
and consequence. For Immanuel (which means "God with us;" Matt.1:23)
to be in our midst, He clearly laid out three things we must do together
in order to make a place for Him among us. First, to make
a place for "God among us," there has to be
"us." Jesus said that there must be at least two or three. Okay, simple
enough, we can do that. But then He takes it further.
Secondly,
Jesus said that we must be "gathered together." Note that He didn't merely
say "gathered" but "gathered together." It is
easy for the Lord's people to be physically present in the same place
at the same time, but that does not at all mean that we are gathered together.
In order for us to truly be gathered together
in His economy, there has to be the joining together in "love, which is
the perfect bond of unity" (Col. 3:14)-true "agape" that is, not just
polite acceptance. If, in the hearts of those gathered, there are judgments
toward others, unforgiveness, malice, anger, "comparing themselves with
themselves and measuring themselves by themselves" (2 Cor. 10:12), agendas,
competition, control issues, etc., there is no way we can be gathered
together-and the Lord clearly sees our hearts
and knows what is in them.
Lastly,
and most importantly, the gathering together of two or more must be "in
His Name." He Himself, the Person of the Lord Jesus, must truly
be the one and only focal point, the One to whom all are
looking as their only Source and Head, the One who has "first place in
everything" (Col. 1:15-18). Gathering together in any other name or upon
any other basis not only constitutes direct disobedience to what the Lord
said, but it actually cooperates with being a dwelling place for things
that are not of God, and therein is the bulk of "church" history-the legacy
of a system that honors what God did while
it simultaneously works against what He is doing.
Is this too harsh? Consider what Jesus said in John 8 and Matthew 23 to
those who were the custodians of the Holy Scriptures and participants
of the temple service in Jerusalem at the time He walked the earth. They
too had become the caretakers and propagators of their mixture of the
things of God and the "traditions of the elders" that they had inherited
from previous generations, and their practices, Jesus said, "invalidated
the word of God" (Mark 7:1-23). In fact, Jesus Himself was a real interruption
and disruption to what they had going, and
so it is with the Christian religious system of our day.
So
let's come back to the ox carts. King David and many other sincere folks
of that time had a genuine desire for the presence of the Lord. I'm sure
that they built the very best ox cart they could to transport the ark
in an effort to honor the Lord. As the ark moved along, they worshipped
with all their hearts. But in the end, the Lord did not go along with
their plans for Him, and David became disillusioned
and even angry at God. Fortunately, he didn't get stuck there. He repented,
sought the Lord, consecrated himself, prepared a place, and then tried
again, but this time "according to the word of the Lord" (1 Chron. 15:15).
We
have a similar opportunity today, but what will we choose? Like those
who thought the ox cart wasn't a big deal, Christians today think that
gathering together in other names is innocuous and of no consequence.
They gather in the name of non-profit corporate entities and denominations
all the time-Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, Assembly of God, Mennonite,
Evangelical Free, Reformed, Presbyterian, etc., etc.-and think nothing
of it. Likewise, there is all the gathering together in the name of a
common cause or agenda, a common pet doctrine, or even lifestyle preferences-joining
around things like Christian political activism, anti-abortion activities,
homeschooling, standards of modesty, parenting preferences, reconstructionism
and other forms of dominion theology, spiritual gifts, etc. Down here
in the South, there is even a sect of "Cowboy Churches" that have rodeo
arenas as part of their facilities! We may laugh at the obvious fallacy
of some of these things, but do we foolishly excuse ourselves from doing
the very same things? To gather together in any name other than, truly,
the Name of Jesus is a potent disobedience that carries real consequences,
the greatest of which is that it thwarts God having His ongoing dwelling
place among His people and it functionally denies Jesus His rightful place
of exercising His headship over us.
You
can go to most any religious institution on any given Sunday and proclaim
from the pulpit, "It doesn't matter if you are a Baptist or Methodist
or Pentecostal-it only matters that you know Jesus!" and you will get
a thunderous chorus of "Amens!" But call for people to make
real change, and it will become deathly silent. I was asked some years
ago to speak to a gymnasium-full group of men at an Assembly of God organization,
and that very thing happened. They heartily amen-ed the fact that denominations
were not created by God. They applauded the truth that knowing Jesus is
paramount and labels don't matter. They even rejoiced in the reality that,
scripturally, there is only one body of Christ. But when I called for
them to go tear down the sign out in front of their building, break all
denominational ties (1 Cor. 1:10-13, 2:14-3:4), dismantle their non-profit
entity, refuse to be called anything other than a Christian (Acts 11:26),
and gather together only in Jesus' Name, the room fell dead silent and
tense.
When
Jesus walked this earth, He did so with a group of people who followed
Him around wherever He went. Day in and day out they were gathered together
around Him, listening to His words of life, receiving His love, ministering
to Him, and having their lives shephered by Him. Jesus used the context
of real daily life in order to teach them, sanctify them, and allow them
the room to live with Him, make mistakes, receive correction, and grow.
And all of this went on day by day as they would "lay down, rise up, sit
in their houses, and walk along the way" with Him. This was
the sum total of their experience of Jesus for the three years they were
with Him. Then, after His death and resurrection but before
His ascension, Jesus commanded them, saying, "Go and make disciples
of all nations. teaching them to observe all
that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you
always, even to the end of the age" (Matt. 28:18-20). And
with the coming of the Holy Spirit, they began doing just that. Consequently,
if you read the Acts of the Apostles and glean from the New Testament
letters, the testimony of the life of the church looked no different,
in its essence, than the lives of those men and women who followed Jesus
around every day for those three-plus years before His death, only now
Jesus was unseen and His fullness was expressed in how He orchestrated
His life through the members of His body (1 Cor. 14:23-26, Eph. 1:18-23,
et al.).
They
had no perverted concept of "going to church"-they themselves were
His church, His set-apart people, following the Lamb wherever/however
He led them, day in and day out, gathering together in His Name, whether
many or few, and making a place for Him in their midst. And they did this
when they were sharing meals with others, or serving their families, or
meeting together to share and encourage one another in His life, or traveling,
or helping widows and orphans, or listening to and dialoging with equipping
brothers (Eph. 4:11-16, 1 Cor. 12:27-28), or working with their hands,
or whatever. Jesus wasn't a part of their life, He was
their life (Phil. 1:21, Col. 3:4), and having Him in their midst was everything.
What
about you? Will you continue holding on to things that do not cooperate
with making a place for Immanuel, or will you begin your trek of unloading
your religious system baggage and discover, in Jesus, His "new and living
way" of abiding in the holy place and experiencing "God among us" with
others in the simplicity of daily life? Do you hear Him whispering to
your heart, wooing you, calling you to let go of your fear and, like Abraham,
the father of our faith, "go out to a place that He will show you" (Gen.
12:1-4, Heb. 11:8-16)?
I know this little article doesn't answer all the questions about church
life, but that's not the point. "Square One" is paying the price of doing
whatever it takes to learn what it means to "gather together in His Name,"
make a place for our unseen Lord in your midst, and allow His Spirit to
orchestrate His life and expression among you, for this is the very fabric
of what ultimately makes "a dwelling of God in the Spirit" (Eph. 2:19-22).
Will you begin doing this with a few others wherever you live? If we don't
know how to make a place for Him among us, then the broader questions
about church life are really irrelevant.
Kindling Publications
6303 CR 233
Tyler, Texas 75707-3147
USA
www.KindlingPublications.com