by Frank A. Viola
The following message was delivered by Frank Viola at the Southeastern Regional Brothers Conference in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday evening, August 18, 2001.
SPIRITUAL EATING AND DRINKING: A CORPORATE ACTIVITY
I would like to speak to you tonight about a subject which is, to my mind, probably one of the most eminently important matters that we as brothers in the churches can wrestle with. I would like to begin by picking up a verse of Scripture that Gene left us with at the end of his message last night. It is in 1 Corinthians 12. I'd like to bring out three points about this passage before I launch into what I have on my heart to share.
If you remember, we read this text, 1 Corinthians 12:12: For even as the body is one, and yet has many members, and all the members of the body though they are many are one body. So also is Christ. That is one profound passage of Scripture, isn't it? What is it saying? As the body is one, and we are members of that body, so also is Christ. Thats saying that the church is Christ. The church is the corporate Christ.
Then he goes on (v.13), For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we [plural]--we the church, we the brothers and sisters--were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Gene's point to us was this: that the task of eating and drinking Christ is not given to the individual. Its given to the body. We cannot properly eat of Him and drink of Him unless we are vitally connected to the body. This is an action that the body takes. Of course the Lord dwells in the body. Thats the first point of this passage that I want to bring out on the heels of what Gene shared.
THE MANIFESTATION OF CHRIST: A CORPORATE DISPLAY
But there is something else. As you continue to read this portion, 1 Corinthians 12, and you read on to Chapter 14, you have a most remarkable explanation. It is an explanation that is unique to all Scripture. In 1 Corinthians 12, 13 and 14, the Holy Spirit pulls back the curtain, and we get to look into a first-century church meeting. These chapters are the only place in the New Testament where we can do this. We can actually peer into it and see what goes on in the early meetings of the church.
What you have here is the following: you have a meeting where there is no human headship. Theres no human being leading this meeting. There is no liturgy either. In other words, there is no order of worship that the brothers and sisters are following. You have a meeting where every member is free to share. And what theyre sharing is the Lord Himself.
You also have a meeting where there are interruptions. Where a brother may get up and speak, and a sister may be enlightened concerning what he is saying. In this meeting, she is free to interrupt him, and he will yield to her out of the freshness of her insight. That doesn't happen in the organized church, does it? Can you imagine what would happen if while pastor is giving his sermon, someone in the back says, Brother, I would just like to add to what you said. You can bet that thered be snipers in the balcony ready to take that person out. (Laughter.) This doesn't happen in the institutional church.
But the crux behind this meeting lies in Chapter 12. Paul says that we are members of a body. As such, some are eyes, some are ears, and some are hands. It is only when those members come together and function--not sit in a pew as part of a passive priesthood--but when they come together and function, Christ is manifested. Christ is revealed. Christ is made visible. Why? Because each member of His body is now functioning. This is most remarkable.
If I can use an illustration, let's say that we took brother Robby out back. And this is crude so forgive me, but we took a machete and we chopped him up into a number of different pieces. Suppose then that we didnt know that it was Robby out there who has been dismembered. And now the eye rolls into the room. Then the hand crawls in. Get this picture. And now an ear comes bopping in. You will not recognize by looking at those individual parts that this is Robby Wilson. What has to happen is for all those parts to come together. (Of course, when the mouth and tongue enter, we will all know that it's Robby. Laughter.)
There is a point here and it is this: that Christ cannot be manifested unless every member of his body is functioning together in a meeting. It requires this. You can't muzzle the priesthood. The priesthood has to function else Christ cannot be manifested. Consequently, we can put it this way: that not only is it true that it takes the body to drink and eat of Christ. But it is also true that it takes the body together, functioning, to manifest Christ. It is not the responsibility of an individual member to make Him known. It can't be done. The eye cannot reveal Him, neither the hand nor the foot. It takes the whole body coming together to display Him.
THE MIND OF CHRIST: A CORPORATE DISCOVERY
But there is one other point, and it is whats on my heart to share with you tonight. I'm going to read the first two passages of 1 Corinthians 12. Listen to this: Now concerning spiritual manifestations, brethren, I don't want you to be ignorant. You know that when you used to be pagans, you were led astray to dumb idols and you were led by them. Now lets just stop right there. Somebody tell me what a dumb idol is. Its not an idol with a low IQ. Its an idol that does not have the power of speech. Its a dumb idol. The Corinthians in their past were following gods that did not have the power of speech. They were mute. They were dumb.
Then Paul says, "Remember how you served dumb idols? By contrast, I make known to you that if you speak by the Spirit of God . . .when you say something as simple as, 'Jesus is Lord,' the Holy Spirit is speaking through you."
Then he goes on and says, And there are varieties of gifts, but it's the same Spirit. There are varieties of ministries, but its the same Lord. And there are varieties of effects, but its the same God whos working. Notice: there are a variety of ways that God communicates, but it is the same God who is doing all the speaking.
Consequently, the mind of Christ can only be made known through the body. Jesus Christ has the power of speech. He is not a dumb idol. He speaks. And when He speaks He reveals His mind. But He can't do this through an individual. It takes the body. It takes the brothers and the sisters to make known His mind. It takes the body to lay hold of his mind. So here again were back to the corporate nature, the collective nature of the church. It takes the body of Christ to reveal His mind.
I want to read another passage out of Corinthians to make this even plainer. And I'm going to make this very practical because I think that if we keep it abstract, we will not be helped at all. My burden is to make this as practical as I can. Listen to this passage. Youve heard it before. 1 Corinthians 2:9: Eye has not seen. Notice, it's a single eye. A solo eye has not seen. Ear has not heard. An individual ear has not heard. And it has not entered into the heart of man. Notice the single heart. What God has prepared for those who love Him. But for us [plural], God has revealed them through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
Now listen to this next verse. 1 Corinthians 2:16: For who has known the mind of the Lord that he should instruct Him?" Who has known the mind of the Lord that he, the person that supposedly knows God's mind, should instruct the Lord? Well, obviously, its an absurd question. But notice the singular. Who has known the mind of the Lord that he [singular, individual] may instruct God? Its an absurd question. The answer is obvious. No individual has God's mind whereby he can instruct the Lord. But then he makes this remarkable statement. Brothers, listen to it.
But we [the church] have the mind of Christ. We [corporate] own the mind of Christ!
The mind of Christ is discoverable, brothers. Jesus Christ is not a dumb idol. He has the power of speech. But the mind of Christ is a corporate discovery. It is a corporate pursuit. The mind of Christ is not the property of any individual Christian. Its the property of the church! That means this. That if you're a brother or a sister, and you go to church every Sunday and sit in a pew, listen to sermons, go home, and go to the Wednesday night Bible study group, you do not have access to the mind of Christ! The mind of Christ can only be manifested through a functioning body of believers who are free to speak. And why? Because Jesus Christ makes His mind known through the brothers and the sisters! Its only here in the ekklesia, where there is a brotherhood and a sisterhood--and boy we need the sisterhood to reveal the mind of Christ, don't we?--it is only here that Christ makes known His mind. For it is a corporate discovery.
In fact, it is so corporate that sometimes we as individual Christians cannot get clear on the Lords will for us individually unless we are connected to other brothers and sisters. I mean, how many times has it been in your life where you needed the help of the body to make a major decision in your life? Guess what, a lot of Christians don't have this. They don't have it because they don't belong to a brotherhood or a sisterhood. They are solo Christians going to a liturgy every Sunday. Its a tragedy.
THE LORD'S MIND -- A LIFE AND DEATH MATTER
I want to give you an illustration of this. You heard that there are 14 first-century styled churches represented in this room. I'm going to tell you a story from one of them that is simply arresting. It really brought this whole thing home to me about the critical issue of getting the mind of Christ . . . of laying hold of the mind of Christ together even when it comes to individual matters.
Early in one of the churchs lives there was a brother who had just attached himself to the church. A young man. And he was very confused as to what he was to do concerning some old commitments he had made. One of them involved going with a friend of his to take a missionary trip to another country.
As he was meeting with the brothers and sisters, he was having a lot of turmoil about this. It became an issue for him. So what he did was this (and I thought it showed great wisdom), he got together with the brothers. He said, Brothers, I'm not clear. I don't know what to do about this. I'm torn. He was having a lot of pressure from home on this matter because he still lived at home. So the brothers said, Lets get together. There were about 13 of them at the time, and they met together. I was not present. I heard this second hand.
They prayed. But the way they prayed was not typical. The brothers shared first, and then they said, Let's just wait on the Lord and inquire of His mind. Fifteen, twenty minutes went by. The brothers opened their eyes, and one of them spoke. He said to the brother in question, You know, I don't feel you're supposed to go on this trip.
As soon as he said that, all the brothers in the room chimed in. Yea, we have a big check about this, brother. Weve laid aside our own personal biases. As best we can tell, you're not to go on that trip.
Well, the brother still wasn't fully clear. But he trusted the judgment of the brothers. He submitted himself to their discernment. To his thinking, it was pretty bad odds for all of them to be off, so he thought he just go ahead and trust them.
Listen to this. This is a true story, I kid you not. He was supposed to be on a particular plane that took off two days later. He wasnt on it because he submitted to the brothers. But his friend was on it still. That plane crashed. Every person on that flight was killed. That is a true story.
Those brothers laid hold of the mind of Christ. And let me say this: sometimes it becomes an issue of life and death. Not just individually, but also spiritually in the church.
How can we continue as a people if we are not laying hold of His mind? Its absolutely necessary. But know this: His mind has been given to us, and we can tap into it. It is discoverable. But it takes a body. It takes every one of us. Jesus Christ has the power of speech. And He makes that speech known through His church.
THE HINDRANCE OF OUR RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND
I want to make a second observation about the mind of Christ. Not only is it corporate, but one of the greatest obstacles to laying hold of His mind is our religious background. Every brother in this room, including myself, has been given at some point a lens through which we interpret one another. Through which we interpret the Scripture. Through which we interpret the Lord. And through which we interpret the Lord's speaking. All of us have been subject to this. In fact, one of the things that happen in our brothers meetings is that we begin to realize how narrow this lens is. And it is narrow, brothers.
It is critical that we understand that we all have been given such a lens. I want to read something that is quite amusing. It makes the point about how powerful our religious backgrounds are. Most of us are in touch with this in a vague way. But I hope by the end of this message we will get a clearer picture of just how powerful our backgrounds are. And how much they influence how we view the Lord and His speaking.
I've called it, 14 Ways to Interpret a Stop Sign.
Suppose that you are traveling to work and you see a stop sign. What do you do? Well, it all depends on how your religious background the way you interpret stop signs. Now, do we have anyone here who is of the Catholic background? Listen good.
1. An educated Catholic would roll though the intersection because he believes he cannot understand the stop sign apart from his interpretive community and tradition. Observing that the interpretive community doesn't take it too seriously, he doesn't feel obligated to take it too seriously, either. Thats a description of the Catholic mindset, by the way.
Anybody from a fundamentalist background? All right listen to this.
2. A fundamentalist, taking the text very literally, stops at the stop sign and waits for it to tell him to go.
How many of you are from the mainline denominations? You know, the Lutheran, Methodists, Presbyterians, the big ones.
3. A Christian in a mainline denomination doesn't bother to read the sign, but he'll stop if the car in front of him does.
How many of you are seminary educated? Ah, a gentleman in the back. Okay, listen to this, brothers.
4. A seminary educated evangelical preacher might look up stop in his English lexicon and discover that it can mean 1) something which prevents motion, 2) a location where a train or bus lets off passengers. The main point of his sermon the following Sunday on this text is: when you see a stop sign realize that it is a place where traffic is naturally clogged; therefore, it is a good place to let off passengers from your car.
How many of you are recovering legalists?
5. A legalist does one of two things. He takes another route to work that doesn't have a stop sign so he doesn't run the risk of disobeying the law. Or he may stop at the stop sign and pray, Thank you, oh Lord for your commandment to stop. He waits three seconds according to his watch and then proceeds. He also keeps a sharp eye out to see if others run the stop sign so he can condemn them.
Now if anybody in the room has a New Testament scholarship background, you'll appreciate this.
6. A New Testament scholar notices that there is no stop sign on Mark Street, but there is one on Matthew and Luke Street. He then concludes that the ones on Luke and Matthew Streets were copied from a sign on the street that no one has ever seen called "Q" Street.
Now how many of you are recovering eschatology freaks? In other words, you were really into end-time theology. You tried to put it all together, seeking the identity of the beast and the third toe of the dragon. Listen to this.
7. A prophetic preacher of end-time theology notices that the square root of the sum of the numeric representations of the letters S-T-O-P (which are sigma tau omicron pi in the Greek alphabet), multiplied by 40 (the number of testing), divided by 4 ( the number of the earth) equals 666. He concludes, therefore, that stop signs are the dreaded mark of the beast, a harbinger of Divine judgment, and must be avoided at all costs.
How many of you have a Charismatic or Pentecostal background?
8. A Charismatic Pentecostal will only stop if he feels led of the Spirit, and the sign is a rhema word and not a logos word.
9. A prosperity preacher will stop at the sign, make a positive confession about stopping, and offer the prayer of Jabez, thus concluding that God must make him rich.
Okay, now I am on dangerous ground here so don't throw your stones too hard. We're going to see how sensitive this group is.
10. An Arminian believes that if he runs the stop sign he will lose his salvation. So with fear and trembling he works hard at stopping at every sign.
11. A Calvinist believes that God has predestinated his reaction to the sign. If he runs the stop sign, he was never saved to begin with. If he stops, he was elected before creation.
12. A Southern Baptist believes that God wants him to stop at the sign, but he will still be saved if he doesn't. For if you once stopped, in Gods mind, youve always stopped.
This next one was just given to me.
13. Upon seeing the stop sign, a libertine begins to sing "Hallelujah I'm free," pushes his foot down on the peddle and runs the stop sign at full throttle. He then gets run over by a Mack truck!
And the last one is dedicated to liberation theology. I don't know how many of you are familiar with it, but . . .
14. A liberation theologian believes that stop signs should only stop those who are of the elitist, wealthy class. But the poor are free to run them whenever they wish.
Well, it makes a point, doesn't it? We all have a lens that has been given to us by our religious background. And we interpret the Scripture, we interpret the Lord, and we interpret His speaking through that lens.
HOW GOD COMMUNICATES HIS MIND
I want to talk to you about two things as we proceed. One is, how does God make known His mind? And two, how does the church lay hold of that mind? I am going to try to be as practical as I can.
There is a very obscure passage out of the Old Testament that I'd like to read. Its in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 18:18:
Then they said, Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah. Surely the Torah is not going to be lost to the priest, nor Wisdom to the sage, nor the Prophetic word to the prophet.
There are three things in this passage.
1. The Torah and the priest.
2. The Prophetic word and the prophet.
3. Wisdom and the sage.You have three people or three instruments: priest, prophet, and sage (a sage is a wise man). You also have three items: Torah, which goes with the priest. Prophetic word, which goes with the prophet. And Wisdom, which goes with the sage.
The Hebrews divided the Old Testament up into three sections. The first section is called the Torah, and it includes the five books that are ascribed to Moses--the first five books of the Bible. That is the Torah. Its a body of literature. And it is the priests all throughout Scripture who instruct out of Torah.
The second section of the Old Testament, according to the Jews, is the Prophets. Now the prophets include the major prophets such as Jeremiah, Daniel. It includes the minor prophets like Zechariah, Zephaniah, and Joel. It also includes the historical books like Kings, Samuel, and Chronicles. The steward of the Prophets, of course--the major player is the prophet.
The third division of the Old Testament is called the Wisdom literature or the Writings. And this includes the Psalms along with those books that we hardly ever hear anything about in evangelical Christianity: Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and Song of Solomon. The steward of the Wisdom literature is this person called the sage or the wise man.
Now, brothers, I believe that these three sections of the Old Testament represent the three major forms by which God communicates His mind to us. The Old Testament is God speaking, is it not? Consequently, these three divisions show us three different forms--or three different ways--or three modes by which God communicates His thoughts and His mind to his people.
GOD'S THREE-FOLD SPEAKING
Now with that said, lets go through each of these forms slowly. I want to look at each one more closely. Again, this is going to become very practical to all of us who meet as brothers in the churches.
The Torah. The Torah contains the foundations by which the community of Gods people is built. I'm going to repeat that. It contains the foundations by which the community of Israel, Gods people-- Gods redeemed community-- is built. In the Torah you have the Old Testament version of the gospel. And the community is build upon that gospel. The Old Testament gospel is simply this: it is Israels deliverance out of Egypt. In the Torah you have the nonnegotiable, unchanging standards of Jehovah. These are His moral principles. These are the standards that spring out of His very nature. They do not change. Theyre uncompromising. These things are what the Torah communicates. They are the foundations of Israel, Gods people. And they change not. It is the Torah that gives us these unchanging, moral principles that are in God Himself. They are expressed in this layer of literature.
Now we come to the Prophets. The Prophets are very interesting because they almost seem to contradict the Torah. The prophet, who is the instrument of all the prophetic literature, is the person who comes in to the community of Gods people and causes an abrasive, disruptive upheaval of what the people believe when it comes to keeping the Torah. In other words, the prophet is challenging the people's response to Torah, which is usually made into a ritual, a dead letter, or it is totally misinterpreted.
So the prophet comes in and brings this explosive, intruding word that causes a major upheaval in what the people are doing in their response to Torah. He challenges their own way of trying to fulfill Gods standards. Does that make sense?
The prophet is not contradicting the Torah. Hes contradicting the peoples response to it. We are fallen creatures and sometimes we take the standards of God and the foundations of God and we turn them into dead rituals. Either that or we misinterpret them.
Then you have the Wisdom literature, which to me is one of the most interesting parts of all of Scripture. And it is the most neglected for sure. The Wisdom literature contains within it something that we as Christians don't have great abundance of--wisdom. Thats the truth. How many times have you heard people speak out of Proverbs or Ecclesiastes in the institutional church? Not much. These are the most neglected books of all Scripture.
I'm not really going to define wisdom. I'm just going to talk a little bit about it because I think its important for us to understand what this body of literature says. Wisdom is knowledge that is gained through experience. But wisdom always has within it a predictive element. A wise person is a person who through his experience can detect patterns. Because of this, he is able to foresee outcomes. Wisdom always has a predictive element to it.
There is a passage in the Gospels (Luke 11:49) where Jesus says, Thus says the Wisdom of God, I will send apostles and prophets to you, and you will persecute and kill them. Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees here. Notice He doesn't say, This is what the Word of God says. No. He says, This is what the Wisdom of God says, I will [future] send these men to you, and you will [future] kill them.
Remember Solomon. Barring Jesus Christ, He was the wisest man who ever walked the earth. Remember the first instance of his display of wisdom? Who remembers what it was? After he received wisdom from God, he was presented with a dilemma. What was it? He had two women who come to him, both claiming to be the mother of a child. Solomon gave a solution to this dilemma and said, All right, give me a machete, were going to divide the child. Were going to split it up between you two women. Each of you will have half the child."
What did that do? It caused one of the women to cry out and say, Dont do it! Give the child to the other woman! Shes the real mother! Of course, the one crying out was the real mother. Solomon had the wisdom to see into the future. He knew that if he offered this solution, it would yield the true mother. Do you see that?
Consequently, a wise person is a person that may make a statement that goes something like this: " What you just said sounds really good, but its not going to work, and heres why." Thats a statement of wisdom. Proverbs says, The prudent man foresees the evil coming, and he avoids it.
What you have in the Wisdom literature, then, is not the standards of God. Thats not a question that wisdom asks. Neither do you have this in-breaking word of the prophet that comes from another realm to represent the present burden of the Lord when Gods people have turned the standards of God into a ritual or dead-letter. You don't have that. What you have is the Wisdom of God which asks the question, Is this wise? Is this foolish? What kind of fruit is this going to produce? It is a totally different question.
A few years ago I was really put in a pickle when a fellow teacher at my school dropped dead during the school day. He had a sudden heart attack and he died on campus. Guess who was asked to do the funeral? Yes, they asked me to do the funeral. My first instinct was to say, No way, Jose. I'm not interested in doing a funeral. But as I thought about it I saw it as an opportunity to preach the gospel.
Well, let me ask you: what are you going to say to your colleagues, most of which are not Christians, if you were the main speaker at a funeral? There were 200 people who showed up. What are you going to talk about? Man, I needed wisdom. And brother, I didnt have it.
I found a passage in Ecclesiastes. That obscure book in the Bible that is never talked about. Let me just say something about Ecclesiastes. To me, Ecclesiastes is probably the most practical book in all of Holy Writ. It deals with life under the sun. Thats the whole theme. How life works. What human behavior is like. How the worlds system operates. How human being react to things. Its filled with wisdom. Its really the other side of Ephesians. Where are we in Ephesians? Were in the heavenlies. Were not even on the earth. Ecclesiastes puts us right here in the muck and mire, and it shows us how things are on this planet.
Well, theres an interesting passage in Ecclesiastes 7, and it says this, It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting, for this is the end of every man.
When I read that, I had my text for the funeral--straight out of the book of Ecclesiastes. So I preached death. I preached that its good to be in the house of mourning, for we all are going to die. And then I preached Christ, the Resurrection. But thank God for Ecclesiastes. I love the book of Ecclesiastes. I think its great.
The instrument of the Wisdom literature is the sage, the wise old man that has the gray head. He is sought after for his wisdom. Why? Because he has the experience of life. As a result, he can see things in the future.
THE LORD'S SPEAKING IN PRACTICE
We have three ways by which the Lord communicates His mind. I'm going to summarize what I just said in a different way.
The priest is authorized by the authority of the Torah. The Torah contains what God has previously spoken. Torah contains the foundations that God has given to the community.
The prophet is authorized by the present burden of the Lord that is on him. The Spirit is inspiring Him to speak Gods mind today, in the here and now.
The sage is authorized by his experience and the fruit of his wisdom, which can be examined by the future outcomes of this counsel. ("Wisdom is justified by her children," the Lord said.)
These are three modes by which God communicates His mind.
The Torah looks to the past and sees what God has already said. It asks of the foundations by the which the community is built upon.
The prophet looks to the present and asks, What is God saying right now? What is his present word? If God's people have missed what the Lord has previously said or made it into a formula or ritual, the prophet comes along and announces Gods word for today to disrupt our misguided practices.
The sage looks to the future and asks, Where is the community going? Where is it headed? How will our actions today affect the future?
In the church, we have to deal with many decisions. Some just get resolved spontaneously. Theres not a lot of thought involved or anything like that. Its very clear to all the brothers. But sometimes we have to deal with difficult issues, and it takes time to sort through them.
Consequently, if the church must make a decision . . .
Someone who is looking through the lens of Torah will ask: Is this Scriptural? Does this have a root in what God has previously said? Does this map to what the Lord has spoken already? Is this in line with spiritual principle? Is this righteous?
A person who is looking through the lens of the prophetic literature will ask: Is this what God is saying right now? Is this the leading of the Lord now? Is this Gods burden for today?
A person who is looking through the word of wisdom is not going to ask the question, Is this righteous? Is this Scriptural? Neither will he ask, Is this what the Lord is saying now? Instead, hes going to ask, Is this wise or is this foolish? Where is this going to lead us? What is the outcome going to be?
To put it in the language of the Bible: The priest asks: "What do these stones mean?" The prophet asks: "Is there a word from the Lord?" And the sage asks: "Where shall wisdom be found?"
These are three different ways of looking at the same problem. But this is the way that God communicates His mind.
THE INHERENT DANGERS OF EACH
What I am about to say right now is very important. And I hope that I have your undivided attention through the storm outside.
Each form of God's speaking has its own dangers if not attended to by the other forms. Each form has its own peril--its own danger--that can only be avoided if the other forms of God speaking are attended to.
For example, if a church is only conditioned to recognize the Lord through the form of Torah, at best it will become ritualistic. It will find itself doing the same thing every year. It could take as its anthem that great song, As the mighty turtle moves the church of God, brothers we are trodding where weve always trod. No changes. Were stuck in the same dead ritual that weve always been stuck in. At worst, it will become legalistic. Thats if it only sees through that one lens--if it only recognizes the Lord speaking through that one way. Are you following that?
A church that only recognizes the Lord speaking through the lens of the prophets is going to end up with another problem. At best, its going to be unstable and erratic. At worst, its going to be deceived because the prophet can be false or true. His inspiration could be bogus. Consequently, the prophet's word requires discernment. The church must exercise discernment to test the prophetic word--to see if it is from the Lord or not. How do you do that? Well, a prophetic word is going to be faithful to the spirit of what God has already said. It is also going to reflect wisdom.
Then, of course, if the church only recognizes the Lord speaking through the lens of wisdom, it will give itself over to secular, human reasoning. Empty philosophy. Good ideas that have nothing to do with God or Jesus Christ. Because true wisdom will always be faithful to what God has already said--Torah. And it will also be responsive to the in-breaking of the prophetic word.
Consequently, we need all three working in the church. We need all three because the Lord speaks through all three modes. He communicates His mind in all three different ways.
THREE DENOMINATIONS
Here's what I want to say to you: Your religious background has conditioned you and me to recognize the Lord's voice through only one form. In other words, we have been conditioned by our religious background to recognize and to acknowledge the Lord speaking through only one of these three modes.
Consequently, if you have a fundamentalist background, what mode do you think you only recognize the Lord speaking to you through? Torah. It has to be an appeal to Scripture. It has to be an appeal to a standard of God or a principle of God, else you don't recognize it to be the Lord. That narrow lens has blinded you from hearing Him and recognizing Him through other modes.
If you are from a Charismatic/Pentecostal background, what lens do you only hear Him through? The prophetic word. Its got to be that " the Lord is saying this now." " This is the word of God today." An appeal to Scripture or what He has said before has no registration with you whatsoever. It doesn't matter. Who cares what He once said, you think? An appeal to wisdom doesn't appear on your spiritual radar screen either.
If you're from a mainline denomination, its whatever sounds reasonable. Wisdom is your language. You don't care what God has said in the past. And as far as you're concerned, prophetic revelation or insight is bogus.
Question: Isn't this similar to thinker, feeler, and doer?
Yes, I think so. Those who prefer Torah-speaking are the thinkers. Those who prefer Prophetic-speaking are the feelers. And those who prefer Wisdom-speaking are the doers. Three temperaments, three denominations, three forms of God's speaking. (By the way, it is worth noting that our temperament is connected to our religious background. For we are typically drawn to the denomination that matches our temperament.)
We have been conditioned to recognize our Lord speaking through only one of these forms, depending on our religious background. Our religious background is a major hurdle that stands in the way of laying hold of the mind of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, brothers, here is my point. The Lord Jesus Christ discloses His mind through all three. Remember what Paul said (I'll summarize him): Jesus Christ is not a dumb idol. He has the power of speech. And where does He speak? Through His body! For there are many ministries, but one Lord. Many gifts, but one Spirit. Many operations, but one God. There is diversity in the body of Christ.
JESUS CHRIST: THE INSTRUMENT AND THE FORM
All three ways of God speaking, brothers, must be held in tension. They must be embraced. Do you know why? Can any of you tell me why?
Because Jesus Christ embodies all three modes. He is also the reality, the incarnation, of the instruments by which all three modes come forth.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the real Priest! And every priest that has preceded Him from Melchizedek, to Aaron, to Ezra was but a picture that depicted Christ, the real Priest.
But thats not all. He is the Torah. He is the embodiment of the standards of God Himself. He is the incarnation of the foundation of God himself. What did Paul tell the Corinthians? There is only one foundation and it is Jesus Christ. He is the Torah. The real Torah.
I think when we look at the Gospels, the best picture of this is when the Lord is standing on a mountain and He has His disciples around Him. And He gives them what has been called the Sermon on the Mount. There you have Jesus Christ as the real Priest disclosing the real Torah, which is Himself. Everything He says to them, the very standards of God, and the foundations by which the heavenly community is built upon, is Himself. It is all an expression of His nature. There is no other foundation that can be laid save Jesus Christ. He is the Priest and he is the Torah.
But thats not all.
Jesus Christ is the real Prophet! The prophets afflicted the comfortable and they comforted the afflicted. Jesus Christ is the real Prophet. There is only one prophet, brothers. It is Christ. Every prophet from Moses, to David, to Elijah was but a picture depicting the real Prophet, Christ.
But thats not all. He is the Prophet Word itself. He is the Logos. The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy.
I think the best illustration of this is when Jesus is sitting in a room with all the Pharisees. And He brings that explosive, intruding word that upbraids them. That word shatters their understanding of Torah and their ritualistic, habitual, and formulaic ways of trying to interpret the Old Testament. He just breaks through it as the Prophet.
But thats not all.
Jesus Christ is the real Sage. A greater than Solomon has come. But He is not only the Sage of all sages, He is Wisdom itself! Paul tells the Corinthians, Jesus Christ is the Wisdom of God . . . God has made Him Wisdom to us.
Watch Him in the Gospels as He delivers the parables, so full of wisdom and insight. Those parables came out of His experience as a man. And most of them give foresight into the future. In his parable-giving, Christ is the Sage of all sages . . . Wisdom incarnate.
What does all this mean for us, brothers? It means this: that this Christ who dwells in us speaks, and when he speaks through some He will speak as the Prophet. Through others He will speak as Priest. Through others He will speak as Wisdom.
They sound different, brothers, but it is the same Christ! We, because of our religious background, have been conditioned to hear Him only one way. But listen to me: As we are open to one another, recognizing the Christ in one another when He speaks, then we open ourselves up to the entire Christ and to His self-presentation. This is how we lay hold of the mind of the Lord.
A CLOSING ILLUSTRATION
Now, I want to give a real-life example of this. This happened a number of months ago. I am going to protect the names of the churches involved by giving them a new name.
There was a meeting held by the church in Gaberville. The subject under discussion was a crisis that was going on in the church in Whoville. So the brothers of Gaberville got together in a room to discuss the crisis that was occurring in the church in another city, in another place--the church in Whoville.
Every brother in that meeting spoke. I happened to be there. I watched and participated in it. It was so interesting because every brother shared. And what they were sharing had a different flavor to it.
Some were speaking through the mode of what we would call Torah. Now listen to their questions. Listen to their comments: Do we have a Scriptural example of one church helping another church in crisis? Then another brother would say, Well, you know, we have to be careful that we do not overstep our bounds, because we have no authority in that other church. It belongs to another city. So we need to discern the difference between help and taking over or controlling.
Those were questions that were sensitive to one aspect of the Lord's speaking. His previous word. It's underlying point was: does this have a root in what God has already said? Let us make sure that we are in line with Divine principle in what we do. Brothers, that was the Lord speaking in that meeting.
Then there were some other brothers that would say things like this: What the Lord is really after here, and we need to keep in mind, is not the solving of this crisis. What He is after is the strengthening of the brothers in Whoville. Thats really what our energies ought to be toward. To strengthen them so that they can deal with other crisis. This is just a predecessor to many more crises. We ought to be involved. Were clear on that. But God's burden is for us to strengthen the brothers in Whoville. Thats the prophet word coming forth.
Then there were some brothers that would say something like this: All right, if we go there and tell them what to do, this will happen, this will happen, and this will also happen. If we tell them to come here, this will happen, this will happen, and this will also happen. If we go there and encourage them, and have them deal with the problem themselves, this will happen, this will happen, and this also will happen. What is that? That is wisdom speaking. That is foresight.
In that meeting, we had the mind of the Lord being revealed in all three modes. Sensitivity to his past word, perception of his present word, and foresight into the future. Brothers, after that meeting was over and every brother finished speaking, we had the mind of Jesus Christ! We laid hold of the mind of Jesus Christ! Because He was speaking through all different forms, and we recognized Him in one another.
The challenge before us tonight is to throw our preferred lens away because it is too narrow. My brother, Jethro, shared something today, and you know what? Ninety percent of it may very well have been way off base. But it is easy to criticize that ninety percent. Its so easy to hear a brother speak and then just look at what hes saying that is not right. We have to do this brothers. Exposure is good and necessary. But guess what? Sometimes we don't hear the ten percent wherein Jesus Christ is speaking through that brother. Do you follow that? We don't recognize it because it doesn't match up to what were used to hearing. It sounds different to our ears. Were not used to hearing the Lord speak in this way. So if we will continue to have the mind of the Lord, let us be ever aware that He speaks in all these ways.
He is Torah. He is the prophetic word. And He is wisdom. In the church, the mind of Christ is discoverable. Outside the church it is not. In the institutional church, you are on your own, brothers.
But here, in the churches, thank God, Jesus Christ speaks through us. Brothers, you have been experiencing what I've talked about tonight. I have simply given you language for it. And perhaps a greater awareness of how He discloses His mind through each brother. My exhortation to you is: lets continue to hear Him when He speaks, even when it sounds different to our ears.
A STEWARDSHIP GIVEN
I want to end this by saying something in appreciation to what Gene has done in starting the work here. Gene has taken what I would call " the long view" in planting the church here and in raising up the work. That is to say, he has built with a view to the future in everything he has done. I appreciate that because we have a God who thinks in terms of generations. We have a God that takes the long view. He doesn't just live in the here and now. With respect to His promises and His purpose, He is looking to the future. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Thats three generations. In the New Covenant He says, The promise is unto you and to your childrens children. Thats three generations. We have a God thats generational in His promises. We have a God that thinks in terms of generations. The average American church can't think past lunch! But our God takes the long view.
Brothers, a stewardship has been handed to us. And I think that it is so precious. That, number one, we have been given a stewardship to experience, to practice eating Christ and drinking Christ corporately as a body. Because it cannot be done individually.
We have been given a stewardship to manifest Christ, to express Christ, and to make Him visible by every-member functioning in the body.
But we have also been given a stewardship that we can lay hold of His mind together as a body. This is something that most Christians simply do not have. You certainly can't have it if you're a pew warmer in an organized church. Nor can you have it if you've got a pastor over you making all the decisions for you.
Brothers, if we are faithful to this stewardship--if we continue to get a beat on it and a handle around it, we have something to pass on to future generations. We can take this baton on and hand it to the next generation and guess what? If we can continue to lay hold of the Lords mind, and they can lay hold of the Lords mind, and they can pass it on to the next generation and they can secure His mind . . . the flame that burns now will never go out! It will never go out.
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