B.C.F. 07.08.2005

Introduction

Most of the church is dying, the average age of attenders in the Uniting Church is 65, in the Anglican Church is 55.  Whilst there is 28% of the general population in the 15- 29 age bracket, only 14% of church goers are in this age group.  Up to 80% of the growth seen in the large “mega churches” is transfer growth and only 10% of the population identify with the sort of “attractional” evangelism of Hillsong type churches (14,000).  Average for number of baptisms in the congregations of The Churches of Christ in WA is approx 1/year.

Only 39% of churchgoers are male.  Australian men are among the hardest and busiest working men in the world to reach. In a book called, “Why Men Don’t Come to Church”, the author suggests churches tend to be careful places, men however like to take risks – they have their own religion of masculinity e.g. cars, sport, pub etc.

Most congregations will die unless they come to terms with some neglected dimensions of biblical spirituality, one of these is spiritual warfare.  Paul says to the church in Ephesus, ^“For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Eph 6:12)

The struggle going on in the nation, community and church is happening in the unseen realm.  The main obstacle to Australians believing in Jesus is not affluence or sex- scandals in the church or its perceived hypocrisy, but the spiritual powers that have a grip over people’s minds.

“In the past you were spiritually dead [because of your sins and the things you did against God. ² Yes, in the past] you lived the way the world lives, following the ruler of the evil powers that are above the earth. That same spirit is now working in those who refuse to obey God.” (Eph 2:1-2)

What decides the fate of our husbands, wives, sons, daughters, relatives, neighbours and friends is the conflict between the church and evil spiritual forces.  For this conflict God has given us spiritual weapons, “we live as human beings,but we do not wage war according to human standards;⁴ for the weapons of our warfare are not of our human nature, but they have power from God to destroy the enemy strongholds.”(2 Cor 10:3- 4)

These weapons involve what it means to be the church.

Church in the Beginning

The first century was a time when poverty was despised, women were oppressed and children had no power and the sick were neglected.  These were manifestations of a demonically infested culture.  [First there were no “church buildings” (not legal until the fourth century) met in houses max of about 60 people  no “church furniture”, no  pulpits, no sound systems, no song books or the like.  Most of the people probably couldn’t read.]

The way Christians met in the first century powerfully testified that Jesus had conquered the dominating powers of evil.  The Christian church was very different from the synagogue or the pagan temple.  It did not have priests, sacrifices or set “services” as we understand them today – there was no set order for singing, Bible readings or preaching.  The Lord’s Supper [, like the Passover,] was part of a full meal that the whole community ate together in a home.  (Called “love feasts” Jude 12.).

1 Corinthians 14:26 Paul gives us an insight into what happened when believers came together, “When you come together as a church, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.”  When these early Christians came together it was normal for everyone to enthusiastically have something from God to share.

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and sing psalms and hymns and Spirit – inspired songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” (Col 3:16).   There was a confidence in what was later called the “priesthood of all believers” or “every member ministry”.  The “average Christian” anticipated God could speak through them in ways that could benefit the entire church.

Someone I know planted a church in one of the most economically and socially depressed areas of Perth– after a while the new converts began to write their own songs!  They were starting to live as a community of equals before God and to realise that in Jesus they had spiritual authority.

The Church of the Spirit

One of the foundational reasons why the church of the New Testament was dynamic was their experience of the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit.

When the 120 disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:5) they all spoke in other languages of “God’s deeds of power” (Acts 2:11).   In his preaching Peter explains that such testimony is now normal for God’s people, “‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all humanity, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. ¹⁸ Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.’” (Acts 2:17- 18)  All of the believers – men, women, children, old, young, slave and free were speaking about Jesus in the power of the Spirit.

Paul commands the church, “be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart ” (Ephesians 5:19). These abilities do not depend on age, education, class, race or gender.

The expression of these supernatural gifts of grace for the good of the whole body ties it together in a supernatural unity,

“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. ⁸ To one is given through the Spirit [the utterance of ] wisdom, and to another [the utterance of] knowledge according to the same Spirit, ⁹ to another faith [by the same Spirit], to another gifts of healing [by the one Spirit], ¹⁰ to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹ All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.” (1 Cor 12:7 – 11)

It is the dynamic flow of the Spirit that takes us beyond relationships based on human differences and makes the equality of the whole church meaningful and powerful.

Let me give a few examples –Argentina, child evangelists who under adult supervision go out on the streets and speak to people about Jesus and pray for the sick.  One of the people with the most outstanding healing gift I have met was a simple, obese man with little education.

Someone is probably thinking – won’t church meetings get out of control if everyone has an opportunity to contribute?  No!  Firstly, Paul says, “God is a God not of disorder but of peace.” (1 Cor 14:33).  If a congregation is sensitive to the Holy Spirit there can be no confusion.  Secondly, Paul lists a gift in 1 Corinthians 12:28 (kyberneseis) that originally was used for the pilot/navigator of a ship – sometimes translated as “administrators” “government” “leadership”.  The translation I like best is “guidance” (NJB).  The captain (Jesus) sets the course and the “pilot” is responsible for keeping the ship on the course (rocks, currents).  God gives this gift to the church as it is moving in the direction he wants it to go (see TDNT III p.1036).

The Church of the Ascended Lord

The second reason for the dynamism of the early church has to do with the relationship between the Lordship of Christ in heaven and the workings of the Holy Spirit.  At Pentecost, Peter preached this connection, “This Jesus God raised from the dead, and of that all of us are witnesses. ³³ Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear.”(Acts 2:32 -33)

Similarly, at the beginning of his discussion of the workings of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12- 14, Paul states, “no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.”(1 Cor 12:3).  All spiritual gifts are expressions of the lordship of Jesus.  They are essential ways that he rules in and through the church.

Paul explains in Ephesians “⁸ Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high …he gave gifts to his people.”…^{11 [}The gifts he gave were that some would be] apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, ¹² to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ”(Eph 4:8, 11,12)

It is when we start to get in touch with what has happened to Jesus in his going up to heaven for us that our feelings of spiritual inferiority disappear. Like being in a plane and looking down on a crowd of people below, you can’t tell who is tall, short, male, female, young, old etc.  Everybody appears on the same level (Conspectus).  When Jesus looks down at the church he does NOT distribute the gifts of his Spirit according to age, sex, intellect, wealth or any other humanly measurable ability.

But you might say, Jesus is up there but we are down here.  Are we?  “even when we were dead through our trespasses, (God) made us alive together with Christ… ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus ”(Eph 2:6)

I remember talking to a certain pastor and his wife – even though she was a woman of earnest prayer it became obvious to me after a while that she felt spiritually inferior to her husband (usually it is the other way around).  As I laid hands on her and prayed for her I had an image of thrones, these thrones were situated in heaven and because they were a share in the rule of Jesus they were all on the same level.  All spiritual giftings are a share in the one lordship of Jesus.

Most of our thinking is back to front; in teaching about the church as the body of Christ Paul writes, “it is precisely the parts of the body that seem to be the weakest which are the indispensable ones.^… God has composed the body so that greater dignity is given to the parts which were without it,²⁵and so that there may not be disagreements inside the body but each part may be equally concerned for all the others.²⁶If one part is hurt, all the parts share its pain. And if one part is honoured, all the parts share its joy.²⁷Now Christ’s body is yourselves, each of you with a part to play in the whole.”(1 Cor 12:22ff.)

In the divine economy, if you are a weak person in the natural sense you are a prime candidate for a supernatural gift of God.  What gift it is he wants to operate through you when you come to church each week – do you ask him?  Command in 1 Corinthians 14:1, “Pursue love and strive for the spiritual gifts, and especially that you may prophesy.^”

Jesus Defeat of the Powers

What stops the church moving forward is our failure to grasp that the ascension of Jesus into heaven has defeated the powers of evil,

“how extraordinarily great is the power that he has exercised for us believers; this accords with the strength of his power²⁰at work in Christ, the power which he exercised in raising him from the dead and enthroning him at his right hand, in heaven,²¹far above every principality, ruling force, power or sovereignty, or any other name that can be named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.²²He has put all things under his feet, and made him, as he is above all things, the head of the Church;²³which is his Body, the fullness of him who is filled, all in all.”(Eph 1:19- 22)

Jesus ascension into heaven and sitting on the throne of God means that a human being (one of us) is now equal to God – a human person now possesses “all authority in heaven and earth” (Matt 28:18).  This is why no evil spiritual power can resist the authority of the name of Jesus (e.g. Acts 16:18) -  he operates from a sphere beyond temptation, sin, suffering and death and he seeks by his Spirit to draw us into that realm and authority.

When Jesus died and rose to heaven 2000 years ago, he undermined the authority of all demonic powers (Col 2:15), but he defeats the influence of these powers on the earth through the church.  (Medieval warfare –tunnel under the walls of a castle, tunnels held together by wooden beams – set beams on fire the tunnel would collapse and the wall would come down.  Demonic forces have been undermined by Jesus but need the fire of the Holy Spirit working in the church to bring them down.)

The Undermining of the Powers in the Church

Ephesians 3:10 says that God’s plan is “through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.”

As the church lives in an equality where is “no longer Jew or Greek, …slave or free, … male and female” (Gal 3:28), as it exists as a harmonious multi- racial, multi – cultural community it’s supernatural unity reveals to the dominating evil structures of the heavenly places that their grip over humanity is defeated and Jesus is their King.  It is these evil spiritual authorities that work to destroy marriages, families, individuals and society – they pollute human life by temptation, accusation, guilt and shame.  They are the reason why people are so irrational, foolish and blind to the truth of God.  Paul says, “if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. ⁴ In their case the god of this world (Satan)has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,[ who is the image of God.]” (2 Cor 4:3 -4)]

In the spiritual realm, the Church is living proof to the evil forces that they have no proper authority; these evil forces cannot resist the wisdom of God in the church [“We are certain that we come from God and that the rest of the world is under the power of the devil. ” (1 John 5:19 CEV)].

This is actually a part of the gospel.  In his prophecy about the coming of , Isaiah 53:11 -12 says, “my servant will justify many by taking their guilt on himself.¹²Hence I shall give him a portion with the many, and he will share the booty with the mighty^”.  In the ancient world the conquering king would distribute the loot to his people.  This theme is fulfilled in the New Testament, “When he ascended on high he took a host of captives and he gave gifts to his people; ” (Eph 4:8).  Jesus captives are evil spiritual beings, he has stripped away their rights to dominate humanity and he imparts spiritual authority to the church to rule the realm where once they reigned.

In the Spirit we, the church, are the “mighty”, we are the ones called to “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. ” (Eph 6:10) as we engage in this fierce conflict with evil powers over the eternal destiny of men and women.

All of this is true, but it only becomes true in our experience through humility and prayer.  It was because Jesus “humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. ⁹  (that) God …highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name,”(Phil 2:8- 9)

Humility is the key to spiritual power e.g. YWAM  mission on the streets of a wealthy and proud city in Argentina, virtually no response, then they went in “the opposite spirit” to the culture, knelt on the pavement in prayer and people started to turn to the Lord.  When the church kneels at prayer we know we are all on the same level under the authority of the ascended Christ.  The authority of the humility of the cross is an authority that evil powers can neither imitate nor overcome – 2 Cor 10:5, “casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. ” cf. James 4:10; 1 Pet 5:6.

Whenever God does something wonderful he first gets the church praying together: before the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost, “They were all constantly devoting themselves to prayer.” (Acts 2:14).  In Acts 4 “they raised their voices together to God” …. “When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.”(4:24 > 31).

Conclusion

A friend of mine tells this story about the power of united prayer to release spiritual authority in the church:

Their service time was 10a.m.  I got there over an hour before the service was due to start, and I got one of the last remaining seats.  And nearly all the believers were praying, either in their seats, or kneeling in the aisles, and there was this holy ‘hum’ of about 2000 people praying,: all quietly praying at the same time, and most kept praying until 10a.m.

Then a sister walked out on stage to the mike and raised her hands to heaven and just said this, “Lets all just worship Jesus!”  Then there was a wave of worship that swept  through the congregation, no song, but it seemed like a heavenly choir, it was so sweet, not raucous, and the Holy Spirit was the conductor.  Then after a while of everyone raising their hands and worshipping, then they started to sing a song.

And when the Word was preached it cut into my heart like a 2-edged sword. There was nothing goofy, flaky, no jokes, no flesh :  MOSTLY JESUS.  A strong conviction of sin, and the answer, the way clearly shown forth.  I was weak at the knees!  (I think i was too proud at the time to fall on my face on the floor and weep).

When the brother was preaching, a [demon possessed] man ran down the aisle toward the front shouting and cursing, calling the brother a false prophet, [(or something like that)], and the brother was totally unphased by it, and he boomed out with a voice of authority:  “Satan, you are bound in the name of Jesus!”, and then he went on with his message without blinking an eye-lid.  The fellow stopped shouting, and looked as if he had seen a ghost, then ran out of the building in terror.

An old song about spiritual warfare has been going through my head during the week, “I went to the enemy’s camp and I took back what he stole from me”.  He could have stolen health, hope, joy, marriage, family, mental soundness, dignity, a career, finance…

God is passionately angry, not with people, but with the powers of evil that destroy them.  Whatever we may want, things in this country and in most of the church are not ”lovely”, they are terrible.

Churches, like people, carry a reputation – BCF once had a reputation for many fine things.  Now it is a bunch of humanly speaking, unimpressive people, perhaps it is one of the few congregations in this city in a situation of such serious weakness where, through humility and prayer, God can release his supernatural power in the way we have spoken today.