©2003 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

01/25/04

Life’s Greatest Surprises Pt. 2

1/25/04 Life’s Greatest Surprises Pt. 2

We started something last week

that I want to continue for at least one more week.

Last week I started sharing with you

what I have called, “Life’s Greatest Surprises”.

If you weren’t with us

I should offer just a little reintroduction

for how we got into this in the first place.

This past Christmas Eve

Sandee and I were with our daughter and son-in-law in California.

While everyone else was busy with Christmas preparations

I went for a walk

and on that walk started thinking about how differently I see so many things now

than I saw them during the early years of my Christian life.

I ended up jotting down a list of 18 things

that I consider to be my life’s greatest surprises.

Last week I shared with you the first item on that list - God Himself.

I told you that by far the greatest surprise of all

was the discovery that He was there -

that He was real,

and utterly personal,

and deeply, totally interested in me and my life.

That one discovery, more than anything else,

more than everything else,

changed all of life forever.

I know exactly why so many people

end up choosing the security of religion

rather than the living reality of the God who is there.

Religion keeps us in control,

and it keeps our God impersonal,

distant,

contained.

We can honor Him,

we can worship Him,

we can create mighty empires in His name,

but we never really have to submit to Him.

We retain control.

We get to decide who He is,

what He’s like,

what we think He requires from us as His creation.

And, of course, we always carefully select all those things

that are within our power to do.

It’s a fine arrangement from our human point of view -

we get to feel righteous,

we remain in control of the religious boundaries in our lives,

and most of all our God stays at arms length away from us.

But once we let Him in as God through submission to Him on His terms,

once He is THERE,

His presence alters everything forever.

We loose our right to remain in control of our God,

and the only certainty is that He will not handle our life

the way we would have handled it.

But that was my first great surprise in life -

the discovery that He was really there.

And yes, I know that what I just said

makes a really lousy evangelistic appeal on my part.

I know that I’m suppose to offer you peace,

and joy,

and forgiveness,

and healing,

and the discovery of His love if you turn your life over to Him.

I know that the commonly accepted approach

is to dress God up in such a way

that He looks irresistible to those who listen.

But I am certain I would do you no kindness

if I attempted to introduce you to your Creator in that way.

It is absolutely true that,

when He enters our lives

He brings with Him all that our spirits long for,

and so much more.

But for many of us

that initial introduction of Himself to us

brings with it a great deal of turmoil

because God will only enter our lives as God,

and even though our spirits may sense that He is good,

we also know that His presences with us

will bring about tremendous disruption in our lives.

Years ago I saw a survey of Christians

in which those taking the survey were asked

at what age they came to Christ.

I forget the exact numbers now,

but the overwhelming majority of Christians

came to Christ during their teens and early 20's.

There was a direct correlation

between chronological age

and the number of conversions.

The older the age group,

the fewer the conversions.

I think at least part of the reason for that

is because of the amount of disruption caused by Christ’s entrance into our lives.

The older we get,

the more we have invested in constructing our little empires,

and the more there is for Christ to disrupt.

Well, the second half of my great God surprise that I shared with you last week

was the discovery that He was nice,

the discovery that He didn’t just want me,

but that, for reasons that will forever be a mystery,

He actually loves me,

and likes me,

and enjoys my presence with Him.

Then I ended our time together last week

by my reading to you

the entire list of 18 things I had jotted down on my list of life’s surprises,

and received in response

a flood of requests

that I take the time to go through my entire list of 18.

Well, actually, I only received 3 requests to do so,

but given the fact that I did want to share at least a few more with you,

I have chosen to interpret those three as a “flood”,

and we will continue on with the list today.

I’m not saying I’ll go through all 18,

but we will at least look at several more.

The second surprise that made it onto my list

is the true nature of the church.

And the great surprise for me here

came in the discovery

that the true church,

the church established by Christ Himself on this earth,

the one about which He said,

MAT 16:18 "...upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it.”,

that church is utterly distinct from any human organization that has ever existed.

I don’t want to take a great deal of time with this second item on the list,

but I do at least want to attempt to put my surprise into words

that will, hopefully, make sense to you.

This discovery, too,

like my discovery that God is nice,

has been a slow, progressive thing with me,

a pilgrimage that has been going on for many years now.

As with all of my discoveries about life

and about my God,

in retrospect I can see that,

if I could have heard correctly what my Lord was saying to me from the beginning,

this truth should have been evident from day one.

In one of His final comments to the human race

in the hours just prior to His crucifixion

Christ Himself said it clearly and simply.

JOH 18:36 ... "My kingdom is not of this world. ... My kingdom is not of this realm."

The eternal church established by Christ is absolutely real,

it does exist on this earth,

it is the means through which Christ accomplishes His work throughout the world,

but it is never to be confused with any human organization.

There is no building we can point to,

no meeting or gathering of individuals we can identify correctly as the true church.

This eternal church,

as it is presented to us in Scripture,

is simply all those people on the earth at any given time

who have reached out to God for the salvation He has offered the world through the death of Christ.

Now, that truth is not all that complicated,

but there are two factors

that made it so much harder for me to see this whole thing clearly.

The first thing that caused me difficulty

was the fact that our world is flooded with countless thousands of groups and organizations

all of which identify themselves as churches.

They are everywhere.

Just in our tiny Kenai/Soldotna community

there are well over 100 organizations

all of which, socially and legally, identify themselves as churches,

including Peninsula Bible Fellowship.

And for a number of years

I invested a great deal of my thinking in this whole area

trying to figure out which ones were “true churches”

and which ones were not.

I just naturally assumed that somewhere in that mass of groups and buildings

someone certainly knew the truth

and was telling the truth.

It was a little bit like coming across a pasture,

finding it covered with hundreds of piles of horse manure,

and logically assuming that, with all this manure around,

there just has to be a horse in there somewhere.

I was still in this mode to some degree 20 years ago

when Peninsula Bible Fellowship started.

I was as diligent as I knew how to be

in my efforts to write up our doctrinal statement,

and our organizational structure,

and our style of relating to one another

in the way that I honestly believed would allow us to become a true church.

And the second thing that complicated my thinking in this whole area

was the fact that the New Testament writers clearly established designated leadership positions in the church,

giving specific instructions to that leadership,

and even carefully outlining the qualifications that should be used

to determine who is qualified to hold those positions and who is not.

1PE 5:1 Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed,

1PE 5:2 shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness;

1PE 5:3 nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.

Clearly the church talked about in the New Testament has within it

established shepherding and leadership positions,

with qualifications for those who will hold those positions.

And Christ’s instructions to us concerning the church

go far beyond that.

We are also told that each Christian is given by God

special gifts

that then qualify us to contribute to the overall health and growth of the body as a whole.

1PE 4:10 As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

But the real turning point in my own thinking came

when I finally realized that Christ Himself

and the other New Testament writers carefully prepared us

for the presence of two distinctly different churches

that would co-exist on this earth between Christ’s departure

and His personal return to establish His world-wide kingdom.

And it was this discovery of these two distinctly different churches

that finally ended my confusion

and allowed me to make some sense

out of what I saw taking place around me.

First, of course, there is that eternal spiritual church

made up of all true believers on the earth at any given time.

It is this church Paul was talking about in the final verses of Ephesians chapter one when he told us that God, put all things in subjection under (Christ’s) feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all.

Christ is the head,

we are His body here on this earth.

But then there is a second type of “church”

that we are told will also exist on this earth as well.

This second church,

or more correctly these churches

are all of those human organizations that will develop under the banner of Christ,

claiming Him as their source, their inspiration, their leader,

identifying themselves as His followers.

And I find it absolutely fascinating

to see the way in which the New Testament distinguishes between these two,

and carefully prepares us with the knowledge we need

to keep the two distinct in our minds.

Concerning that first church,

the one made up of all true believers on the earth,

Christ said simply, “...I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it.”

No matter how corrupt society becomes,

no matter what forms of evil coat this world,

no matter how much filth and perversion is pumped out into the world,

His true church will remain until His coming.

There will always be God’s people

expressing the life of God through them,

providing a light in the surrounding darkness.

But concerning that other type of church,

Scripture does something very different.

It clearly recognizes that human organizations calling themselves “churches”

will flourish in the world throughout history.

And, in those situations in which those groups are comprised mostly of members of that spiritual church,

people who’s hearts are in submission to Christ,

and who want to relate to one another

in ways that are consistent with His leadership in their lives,

He provides them with instructions explaining how that can be accomplished.

He gives us guidelines that list specific qualifications for those who hold leadership positions,

guidelines outlining what kind of conduct is and is not permitted within the group,

guidelines explaining what to do with those who do not comply,

guidelines that reveal clearly how to recognize false leaders in the group and what to do about them.

But Christ also tells us

that some of Satan’s finest work on this earth

will be work that he does under the banner of religion,

and especially under the banner of Christianity.

And so He tells us that we are never to confuse these two distinctly different churches.

We are never to assume

that even in the best possible situations,

they are identical.

And, even more than that,

we are to mentally prepare ourselves

for the existence of tremendous corruption and evil

that will at times exist under the Christian banner.

In fact,

we are told that this corruption will become progressively worse

the closer we get to the return of Christ.

It is clear to even the casual student of world history

that some of the worst acts of cruelty,

and greed,

and hatred,

and blatant materialism in history

have been accomplished under the Christian banner.

Early in His ministry Christ presented a parable

designed to begin our mental preparation for what would happen.

MAT 13:31 ¶ He presented another parable to them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field;

MAT 13:32 and this is smaller than all other seeds; but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches. "

A healthy mustard plant is just a small garden herb.

Christ says His kingdom on this earth

will be like a mustard plant that starts growing as it should.

But then something goes terribly wrong.

Rather than stopping at it’s intended size,

it keeps growing, and growing, and growing

until it becomes a massive tree,

a tree that then becomes the home for the birds of the air.

In the same group of parables,

when His disciples asked Him for an interpretation,

he told them that He was using the birds to represent “the evil one”, Satan.

He was telling us that what He had planted in the earth

would one day become so grotesque and distorted

that it would actually become the home base

for some of Satan’s greatest work among the human race.

And then, at the very end of the New Testament,

in the final direct message offered by Christ to His people

through the Revelation given by Christ to John,

as Christ pictured the condition of these human church organizations on the earth

in the time just prior to His return He said,

REV 3:20 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me.”

He pictured Himself as standing on the outside of the organized church on this earth,

knocking,

seeking those individuals within that organized church

who will allow Him entrance into their lives.

And when I finally recognized

the existence of these two absolutely distinct churches on the earth

so much that had confused and troubled me

became clear and simple.

Now, I realize that this particular Life Surprise,

the discovery of the existence of two churches on the earth,

may be a far more freeing discovery for me personally

than it is for many of you

because, as a Bible teacher, my Lord has sort of chained me to His church forever.

I understand at least a little of what Paul was talking about when he described himself as “TIT 1:1 Paul, a bond-servant of God...”

and said,

1CO 9:16 “... for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.”

Loosely translated I see Paul saying,

“Drat it! The Lord has me trapped. There’s no way out of this, so I’d better make the best of it.”

But I’ll tell you honestly

that before I finally clearly recognized the existence of these two separate churches on the earth,

and learned how to relate to the corrupted one,

there were times when I was so deeply offended

with so much of what I saw being done in the name of Christianity in our world

that I never again wanted to have anything to do

with any “Christian” organization whatsoever.

To this day

I know that whenever I am forced to identify myself as a Pastor

to anyone outside of our own group here

as soon as I do so

I instantly inherit with that title

all of the posturing,

and facade,

and religious professionalism,

and competition and divisiveness

that is so common among church leadership in our society.

Churches in our American society today

are so often simply small businesses

selling Jesus to the community.

Those who have the best packaging,

and the most persuasive sales pitch

get the most business.

The others limp along,

trying to refine their message,

and dress up their presentations

so that they can get a bigger business share.

But for me

my peace

and my freedom came

when I finally recognized the existence of these two distinctly different churches,

because with that recognition came the freedom

to speak out against those things in the human institutions

that are not consistent with the truth,

and to do whatever I can

to keep whatever group I’m involved in

as close to the truth as I am able.

And of course you are not surprised that,

even though I said I wasn’t going to take long on this second surprise,

I’ve ended up taking the whole morning.

Which means, of course,

that I will be coming back to my list

for at least one more week

because there are a few other things on it

that I want to share with you.