Maya Angelou once said, “You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been.” This is true of the church today. In order to know where the church is going we need to look back at where the church has been.
To help us look back at where the church has been we need to understand where the church originated. For us to get to the origin of the church I put a timeline together showing the religious development of Israel.
Israel had struggled with maintaining its convent with God and was constantly chasing after other gods and ignoring their traditions and rituals. This was especially evident after some of the Jewish captives were allowed to return to Jerusalem by the Persian king Cyrus in 538 BC. By 445 BC the conditions were so bad in Jerusalem that Nehemiah, an advisor to the Persian king Artaxerxes, asked if he could return to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls of the city.
When the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt Nehemiah returned to serve Artaxerxes, but within ten years there was chaos in Jerusalem again. The people living in the land were backsliding again from their covenant with God. Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem and devised a plan to help the people remember their service and promise to God. Nehemiah called a council of 120 scribes, sages, and prophets and established the Synagogue system that would educate the Jewish people about the laws of God.
Synagogues are consecrated spaces used for; prayer, study, assembly, and reading of the Torah. Worship can be in a synagogue but doesn’t have to be. According to Jewish law, worship can be wherever 10 adults are gathered. There can be private worship, the same as private prayer, study, and reading of the Torah.
A synagogue is basically a place for community assemblies. After the 2nd temple was destroyed in 70 AD the Jewish leaders approved individual houses of worship because of the dispersion. Anyone could build a synagogue.
When Christianity spread from Jerusalem, preachers like Paul entered a city and presented Jesus to the Jews first, then to the Gentiles. Some Jews believed Jesus was the Messiah and continued to attend synagogue meetings. It is clear that the synagogue model was adopted by early Christians as a house of worship.
To further clarify how much of the church was patterned after the synagogue I’ve created the following chart comparing the two systems:
Over a 2500-year period, the church was developed based on the synagogue model. Both had the same goals and purposes. But the synagogue was put in place as a bandaid, not a cure. The synagogue was not the original plan of God. A “Theocracy” was always God’s plan with Israel. God’s intention was that his children would have a direct relationship with him. But because of the nature of humanity toward sin God made an adjustment to having a representative relationship with mankind or a “Theocratic Republic”.
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth are all about the theocratic republic of Israel.
Then in 1 Samuel 8:6-7, Israel asks Samuel for a king to rule them. The people wanted a king like all the nations around them. God allowed this request from the people and a Theocratic Monarchy was established.
The prophets and seers were utilized by God to bring messages to the King. When the king didn’t listen to them the prophets and seers went to the people.
Then when Christ came into the world God flipped the script. There was no monarchy and the Jewish leaders were self-serving. The poor, helpless, and oppressed were abandoned by the priesthood, and Israel religiously was forsaken, even though they had religion, the Torah, the prophets, and writings, the leaders abused the people with religion.
Jesus brought a new Kingdom with him; the kingdom of Heaven. Genesis to Malachi was about a people chosen by God, but those people turned their back on God and sought their own authority. By sending his Son, God was graciously offering the descendants of Abraham an opportunity for reconciliation. But they responded by rejecting God’s mercy.
The parable of the “Wicked Tenants” found in Matthew 21:33-45 is about Israel rejecting God’s authority. In Matthew 21:42-44 Jesus plainly states that the kingdom is being taken from them and given to other people. People who recognize Jesus as the cornerstone of God’s kingdom.
Paul tells the church in Galatians 6:11-16 that was creating a New Israel. But the church needed to avoid those who were trying to remain associated with the rejected nation of Israel. They were teaching that believers in Christ needed to be circumcised, but this was only because they wanted to be accepted by the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem. Paul said that circumcision was of no benefit to believers because it is the crucifixion that brings salvation. This is a new creation by God. A new paradigm from heaven. This is the Israel of God.
Paul reiterates this message in 2 Corinthians 5:16-19 by saying that if anyone is in Christ they are a new creation. The church is a new creation. This literally means an ‘original formation’. It isn’t like the old temple or synagogues. It is a creation that is “in Christ”, which is in his body, which is the church.
Paul isn’t the only Apostle who holds this view. John in 1 John 3:2 says the same thing when he explains to the church that we don’t even know what we will be yet but when Christ appears we will be like him. We will be like him because we are his body.
How can this be? Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 15:45-49 that as we share the likeness of the first Adam, who was a “living being”, we will also share the image of the last Adam, Jesus Christ, who became a “life-giving Spirit. The first Adam was physical but the second Adam is spiritual. Those who are of the dust will be like the dust, and those who are of heaven will be like those from heaven. This is a new creation. We are a new creation.
Since Christ is our King, our LORD, and our God we are taught, directed, and led by his Spirit in all things because we are his body. As we bore the image of Adam our way of life was physical, but as we now bear the image of Christ our way of life is spiritual. John agrees with this statement in 1 John 2:20 and 1 John 2:27.
We, as believers in Jesus Christ, are the church, which is a new creation by God. The old way of relating to God was completely shattered on the cornerstone which is Jesus Christ, and a new way of union with God has been established upon that cornerstone.
What do we do with this information? Isaiah 43:18-19 tells us to forget about the way things used to be done. Don’t even think about the old ways. God has made something new. That something is the church which is a new creation of the Body of Christ. God made the way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
- Wilderness is an unknown place, without signs or maps to get out of the wilderness – Jesus is our Way and our guide.
- A desert is a place of desolation, a place with nothing that can sustain us, but God provides water to give us the strength for our journey in this world.
Our guidance and strength come from the Spirit of Christ which is given to all who believe in Jesus. As Isaiah says, “This is a New Thing”.
But the prophet’s question can only be answered individually;
- Do you not understand this?
If you do understand this, then;
- Seek Christ through the Spirit for your guidance and strength
- Abide in the way of the Spirit of Christ, which is Organic Spiritual Living
