ESTABLISHING A HEALTHY CHURCH

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Contents

Preface..........................................................xiiiI. Gospel Communication..........................................1II. Love - Hearing and Obeying the Word..........................13III. Transformation..............................................25IV. Maintaining Unity............................................34V. Practicing Spiritual Discipline...............................50VI. Resolving Doctrinal Disputes.................................59VII. True Spirituality...........................................71VIII. Understanding Women's Idenity..............................87IX. A True Understanding of the Resurrection.....................98Bibliography.....................................................113

Chapter One

Have you ever thought about the power that lies in communication? Gospel communication is even more powerful. It is the power of God.

When we read the book of Acts we see an account of Gospel communication. It is the history of the early church, which reveals that Christianity is a universal faith. It shows us the dynamic power of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit in the lives of all people, everywhere. It was written to give an account of the birth and growth of the Christian church. Acts presents a chronological record of the powerful growth of believers from Jerusalem to Syria, Africa, Asia and Europe. In the first century the church spread from believing Jews to non-Jews in 39 cities and 30 countries, Islands and provinces.

I believe when the Holy Spirit works, there is action or activity, energizing stimulation and growth. This verifies what is told to us in (Acts 1:8), "But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost shall come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth." I know we have heard and read, and also for the most part, felt the impact of this verse. However, we must understand exactly what this power means to the believer from the spiritual perspective. Power from the Holy Spirit is not limited to strength beyond the ordinary, as many Christians view Holy Ghost power. When people limit the power of the Holy Spirit to just strength beyond the ordinary, they have a tendency to keep their whole view on the supernatural, which, in turn, causes their effectiveness for God, in the natural, to be limited. The results, there is no effective witnessing. The Holy Spirit is a person by whom we are supernaturally empowered, but we are empowered to operate in the kingdom of God in a natural world. We are in the kingdom of God but we are not in heaven yet. There is no other way for the church to communicate the Gospel. You have heard the term heavenly minded but no earthly good.

As Christians if we are going to fulfill our mission and experience the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we must not limit the Holy Spirit to just strength beyond the ordinary. To do this we must understand how courage, boldness, confidence, insight, ability and authority fit in. I included the word authority and I want to put a pin here. Christians can often have the wrong understanding of power, because they don't associate it with authority. When we think of power alone, from the human point of view, it can lead us to believe we have something to prove. So we try to demonstrate our power. Power from a spiritual view will let us see that we have already been given authority or the rights from God. This means we have been given influence power that has already been proven by God Himself. So if we have power (authority) from the Holy Spirit we are to be influentially as well as authoritatively powerful for God in this world.

We have been given the official rights from God to be witnesses for Jesus without having anything to prove.

We can understand now why power in the church is often misused, and, on the other hand why authority is misunderstood. We often take power, in the church, that man gives, and uses it to try and overrule the power (authority) that God has given. That's misuse and misunderstanding of power. Misuse and misunderstanding of power (authority) in the church can cause people to miss out on true spirituality, unity and witnessing with powerful results. When this happens we see the results, an unhealthy church and a lack of Gospel communication. Again Jesus told us, "but ye shall receive power (authority) after the Holy Ghost is come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me" (Acts 1:8). This is a key verse in the book of Acts because it shows that the Holy Spirit gives us the motivation, energy and ability to communicate the Gospel to the whole world. There are many themes on the book of Acts, but the main theme can be the "transformation and communication of Biblical faith." You see up to the resurrection of Jesus, biblical faith was narrowed and held tightly by the Jewish people, namely Jewish men. Then transformation of that faith to a universal religion was accomplished, and a new community was formed through Gospel communication. This was a community of new believers, which cut across the religious, cultural, social, racial, economic and sex barriers that had divided mankind for so many years. The Jewish community had made religion a selfish ambition that they did not understand themselves. Luke gives us an account of the first preaching of the gospel messages to the Jews and growing fellowship, (Acts Chapters 2-7). He tells of the unexpected conversion of many in Samaria, (Acts 8), the conversion of Paul, (Acts 9). He presents the stunning conversion of Cornelius, the first Gentile to come to Christ, (Acts 10 and 11), the establishment of a Gentile Church at Antioch and the first Missionary Journey, (Acts 13 and 14). He presents the meeting of the church council in the first Church Conference, (Acts 15). These chapters can be labeled as mission history.

But in (Acts 16-19) we see mission principles. This helps us understand the fundamental doctrine practiced by the early missionaries in establishing healthy new churches, which are vital to the life and mission of Christ's church in our day and time. Paul did what missionaries today argue should be done in our outreach efforts. What did Paul do you may be asking? Well Paul did something so simple that many Christians fail to see it; therefore, they fail to get involved in it. Paul actually contextualized the Gospel so it can be communicated right. Contextualize or contextual is all about depending upon the context of interrelated conditions or on that which exist or has occurred. It has to do with earlier conditions or events that help to explain the outcome of such events (background or framework). Notice if you will, how Paul never changed the message of Jesus and the resurrection. This is one of the biggest problems we have with Gospel communication today. Instead of changing the Gospel message of Jesus, Paul put the message in forms suited to the thought pattern of his listeners. He wanted his listeners to understand why they needed Gospel communication.

Gospel communication is actually the contextualized core truth of religion. We have already mentioned contextualize. However, when we talk about "core" we are focusing in on the central part, the heart, spirit, soul or most important part of something. Truth as we know it means facts or a fixed principal, proven doctrine or established reality. No wonder Jesus says "I am the way the truth and the life John" 14:6. So when we think of Gospel communication being the contextualized core truth of religion, we are depending on the context or events of the heart, center or most important part of the fact, reality, and fixed principal of the already proven doctrine. In other words it means to depend on the context of the heart of the already proven reality - Jesus.

This makes sense because the Gospel is the good news or glad tidings of the teaching of Jesus. In Old English Gospel is the god spell or good + spell. In Greek it is evangel ion or evangel. So the heart of the context of the Gospel is Jesus. No wonder Paul tells us in (Romans 1:16) that He's "not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes."

Communication is giving of information or news by speaking or writing. This is seen through the establishment of the Gentile churches. (Acts 15:1-21) Paul and Barnabas were appointed with others as a delegation to go to Jerusalem and discuss issues of imposing the Mosaic Law of Judaism on the Gentile believers, with the Apostles and elders. We see here why Gospel communication is important. It is the only way to handle conflicts effectively within the church. Let me say this, we need not run from problems or try to act as though they don't exist. Problems will come, but they must be confronted and all sides of the problem that cause the argument must be given a fair hearing. This is the biggest problem with problems. So often we want to be given a fair hearing but don't want to give a fair hearing to others even if they are wrong. However, the fair hearings should be held before leaders who are spiritually mature and trusted to make Godly and wise decisions. Then everyone should abide by the wise decisions that are made by the trusted and wise leaders. That's spiritually healthy.

Notice the Judaizer position (Acts 15:1). They felt that Gentiles should become Jews first to be eligible for salvation. Sounds familiar? To these Judaizers grace was too easy for the Gentiles and this would also bring too many non-Jewish in their new faith. This way, no doubt, they felt they could control and be in power over the Christian movement. So with them it seems to have been power and control that was most important and not the effectiveness or God's Word on the souls of God's people. A true sign of Selfishness.

The Gentile Christians position, however, was faith in Christ as Savior should be the only requirement for salvation, which made sense. To them submitting to Jewish demands would doubt what God had already done for them by faith in Christ alone. They felt if they could give up their pagan rituals, why should they be forced to exchange them for a system of Jewish rituals, when neither one had power to save. To them all they should have been required to do was seek to obey Christ by baptism (rather than by circumcision) as a sign of their new faith and go on living the way they wanted, a sure sign of Hypocrisy. The results Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians misunderstood salvation.

In (Acts 15:6-11) Peter speaks boldly and explains that faith is the only requirement.

He tried to distinguish between what was still true from God's Word and what were just human traditions. There it is human traditions. Peter wanted them to understand that the law was a yoke that the Jews themselves could not bear, and it had not really helped them throughout their history? Many of them were just holding on to the law for control. James the leader of the church at Jerusalem agreed with Peter (Acts 15:13-21) that, Christ was to be preached to the entire world and unity should be preserved and Christianity could never survive as just a sect within Judaism.

James concluded however, that there must be evidence of change by rejecting parts of the old lifestyle. (Acts 15:16-17) He quoted (Amos 9:11, 12) and pointed out that the Jews shouldn't make it too difficult for the Gentile brothers who turned to Christ. The Gentiles did not have to be circumcised, but they were asked to abstain from all association with idol worship; reject sexual immorality and give up unbled meat (relating to (Leviticus 17:10-14). If the Gentile Christians would abstain from these practices, they would please God and get along better with their Jewish brothers and sisters in Christ. Of course, as always, there were other inappropriate Christian's actions, but the Jews were especially concerned about these.

This compromise helped the church grow unhindered by cultural differences of Jews and Gentiles. Therefore a healing took place through Gospel communication and the goal was pleasing God.

As Christians do we sometimes find ourselves seeking to impose our own standards or traditions on other believers as the price of acceptance? We must avoid making the unwise mistake of upholding traditions, structures and even legal requirements for obeying at the expense of overlooking what God requires. We must make sure that the Gospel brings freedom and life to those we are trying to reach for Christ. We can all find ourselves being guilty of having some "test of fellowship" that we selfishly insist on and many times with good intentions. But we must understand so often our good intentions are not God's intention. One writer says, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." If we are going to establish a healthy church for Jesus we must see some principles in the decisions of the church in (Acts 15) and let these decisions apply to our church and our lives today.

How To Deal Wisely With Basic Issues

One of the keys to Gospel communication is learning to deal wisely with basic issues. To do this we must make unity of the church our prime interest and not the laws of legalism. Paul wrote that unity is on the basis of faith in Christ (Ephesians 4:3). If this were so, then, believers should see the Law of Moses in a new perspective. And if the Law of Moses is seen in the right perspective we won't misinterpret what freedom from the law really means. As Christians we can blow it when it comes to Christian freedom.

Paul wrote that the law was a teacher and a guide that pointed out sin but man could not keep the law (Romans 3:20; 2:25). This was why the Jews needed to be free from the burden of keeping the Law of Moses. We need to understand, however, that freedom from the law does not imply that we are free to live unrighteous. On the contrary, freedom from the law will actually lead to a new dynamic righteousness for all that see it in the eyes of faith. And I must pause for a moment and say this; the reason why so many believers have problems with Gospel communication is that they don't have the right understanding about God. Too often we try to deal with and even understand God in the natural or physical realm in order to bring Him to our logical level. The Bible specifically tells us "God is Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth" (John 4:24).

I once witnessed to a young man who told me he attended the First Assembly of God Church. I asked him if he was saved and active in the faith? He told me he attended Sundays at 11:00 a.m. I asked him if Christ was his Savior and did he really understand the Gospel of Christ? He was puzzled, so I let him know that understanding the Gospel can only come through Gospel communication and that takes more than just being in worship at 11:00 a.m. This young man assured me he was saved, that he believed in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, the church as well about Christianity. However, he had one problem. He couldn't figure out where God came from. I told him I didn't know where God came from either. But I let him know that the Scripture says "In the beginning God created ..." This means God has always been. And God has always been everywhere. And if God has always been everywhere (it is impossible for Him to come from somewhere. I reminded this young man what God told Moses in Exodus 3:34), "I am that I am." And (Psalm 90:2), "He is from everlasting to everlasting." This means that God doesn't have to figure Himself or anything out nor does He expect us to understand Him. I told the young man if God is Spirit this means God is not a physical being limited to our human sense of reasoning. I assured him when Christ is active in someone's life they don't try to figure God out we just trust and obey Him. Which means when Christ is in someone's life that person allows God to figure him/her out through His word by the power of the Holy Spirit. And this can only come through Gospel communication. The young man let me know this was missing in his life. We prayed and we parted.

I wanted this young man to understand that Gospel communication works when nothing else does.

You may be wondering; does Gospel communication really work? Well it did in the first century church, because Luke tells us in (Acts 16:5), "the churches were established in the faith, and increased in number daily." What I am saying when there is gospel communication the Holy Spirit does allow the church to enjoy a time of relative peace. In Acts chapter 16, we see how the Gospel had an affect on all walks of society. Lydia was a wealthy and influential businesswoman of Philippi who opened her heart to Christ and her house to God's servants, (Acts16: 14-15). As a result she was converted and she and her household were baptized when she believed. We can see in the early church Gospel Communication even worked in and through women.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from ESTABLISHING A HEALTHY CHURCHby Madison Clark Jr. Copyright © 2010 by Madison Clark Jr.. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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