John 7 - Organism or organisation?

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Now we get to the root of things. John 7 describes how Yahshua goes up to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles (an autumnal feast). It seems he remains there right through to the winter. At the Passover he will die and three days later he will rise again. Even in the autumn he is clearly aware the authorities are planning to kill him. He travels and arrives incognito (verse 10).

Halfway through the feast he went to the Temple and started teaching, amazing the scribes and Pharisees by his knowledge (verses 14-15). Slowly it dawned on people that this really was the man the authorities had wanted to kill. But because he was teaching openly and they'd done nothing to him, the crowd began to wonder if the authorities were now convinced he was the Messiah. (verses 25-26).

They believed that when the Messiah came, nobody would know where he came from. Yahshua was known to come from Nazareth in Galilee, so this ruled him out. Knowing what they were thinking he said, 'Yes, you know where I'm from. But the One who sent me is true. You don't know him, but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.' (verses 27-29) They knew where he was from (Nazareth) yet they didn't know where he was from (heaven). We are all too capable of making similar mistakes. In very many cases, church is run as a earthly organisation, not a heavenly organism. Our rules tend to be about structures, Father's rules are always about life. What a contrast!

Chapter 7 of John reveals the Son living according to everything the Father shows him in the moment. And it also shows religious authority trying to impose 'correct' structure and behaviour. As Yahshua told them clearly, 'My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me.' (verse 16)

And they tried to arrest him but no-one took hold of him. Four times in the space of a few seconds he has used the phrase 'I am'. That is almost certainly what enraged them. They tried to take him, but the crowd was dense, many had put their faith in him and nobody in the crowd would take hold of him and hand him over. How infuriating!

'I am' might sound like an inoffensive phrase, but it sounds very similar to the name of the Most High, Yahweh or Jehovah. It was probably pronounced something like 'Yah-Veh'. To the Jewish authorities it was an affront of the worst kind, he had uttered the name of the Most High, the name that must not be spoken except once a year by the High Priest inside the Holy of Holies. This was an outrage. To this day devout Jews say 'Ha-Shem' instead of 'Yah-Veh'. Ha-Shem simply means 'the Name'. To see this outrage in action again later, read John 8:58-59, John 18:4-6 and Mark 14:61-64 (if the name was uttered in his presence, the High Priest was required to tear his robes).

The important thing for us to understand is that earthly rules don't apply to Yahshua because he comes from the Father. He does not live according to the world but according to heaven. He was not playing by the rules laid down by the Jewish authorities, he was playing by the rules laid down by his Father. Suppose that a rugby team and a cricket team decided to play a match. Would it work? No! It would be chaos, everyone would be confused. Even the referee and the umpire would be at a total loss.

We, as Yahshua's followers, have to play by his rules, not by the world's rules. This has a massive impact on our daily lives (or at least, it should). Church is a living organism (the body, the Bride) not an organisation. Christ died so that we might have life - not structure! He gave us one way, love, not law. He came to make us free, not so that we could tie one another down with dos and don'ts. A living rose can grow and reproduce with no effort on our part, a paper rose cannot. Praise him!

< John 6 | Index | John 8 >

Eaton Ford (day) - Purgatory?

Roger mentioned the 'Ship of Fools' website and recommended the 'Purgatory' discussion. I took a look at this after the meeting but didn't have time to explore it thoroughly. However, I was much more interested to learn that Roger and Ruth have been trying Church of Two (CO2) and glad that they seem to be enjoying it and finding it useful.

The three of us (Paul, Roger and I) ran through CO2 together. One of the things that was much on our minds, of course, was the recent earthquake in Haiti.

I agreed to send some CO2 literature to both Roger and Paul to help them understand the process better and also to pass on to others they may be interested in teaching it to.

We prayed for some of our friends and spent some time chatting, finishing off with a very fine chip shop meal.

Organic Church - What is it? What isn't it?

A discussion about the meaning of the term 'organic church' has broken out online and I thought it would be useful to summarise it here and provide links to some of the sources. We use various phrases to describe the nature of the life we lead and the meetings we have. House church, small church, gathering, organic church, home group, cell, small group are all terms I've seen or heard. There are probably others.

Whatever term we use, most of us are probably thinking of a life that is Christ centred and involves meeting with others who have the same focus. Additionally we may (or may not) be thinking in terms of a movement.

Taken together, the items below cover this debate pretty well. If you have time to read only one, read Frank Viola's contribution. It's a great statement and analysis and I agree with every word. Thanks Frank!

If you are aware of other items we could add to this list send the link as a comment and I'll add it in if it seems useful.

Chris Jefferies blog post - This was published before the discussion began, but it covers aspects of movements that are relevant to the debate.

Mark Galli's article - The debate began with this article in Christianity Today. Mark sees organic church as another movement that will eventually crash like other movements in church history.

Neil Cole's response - Neil explains that, for him, it's not about success or failure but about being Christ-centred every day.

Bill Heroman's blog post - Bill's humourous response suggests that death is part of life. He has a good point.

Chris Jefferies blog post - This item tries to draw further attention to the debate, and particularly to Neil's response.

Frank Viola's response - Here Frank provides a cogent and well-written definition of what is and is not organic church.

Mike Morrell's comments - Mike provides some comments on the discussion so far, adding more thoughts on the way.

Mike posts again - Some more of his own thoughts and experiences on organic church.

Related material

Henry Drummond - Writing in the late 19th century, Henry Drummond is best known today for his essay on love, The Greatest Thing in the World. But he wrote other works too. One of these, Natural Law in the Spiritual World identifies some of the striking parallels between the natural world and the spiritual world. You can read the whole thing online, but regarding organic spiritual life see especially the chapter on Growth.

Theodore Austin-Sparks - Possibly the originator of the term 'organic church'. See these items in particular.

Other relevant authors - Watchman Nee, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Communio Sanctorum, Letters and Papers from Prison)

John 6 - With him or without him?

< John 5 | Index | John 7 >

John 6 is another very rich chapter. Which part should I choose? To tackle the entire chapter would need a lot more space than a blog post! There's the feeding of the five thousand (verses 1-15), the events on the lake (verses 16-24), Yahshua's discussion about eating the living bread from heaven (verses 25-59), and the loss of many followers as a result (verses 60-71). These events are connected and most of them involve eating.

I'm going to focus on the section about the lake (the Sea of Galilee). The disciples acted much the way we do ourselves, there's a valuable lesson for us here in Kingdom living. The twelve disciples had seen the five loaves and the twelve baskets of pieces that were left, but what happens next?

Yahshua heads off alone into the mountains, the disciples get into a boat and set out to cross the lake without him. (Matthew and Mark describe events slightly differently, Yahshua tells them to go ahead on their own. But this doesn't alter the principle that when we do it alone we are likely to find it hard going.)

A strong wind blows up and the waves rise higher, not only that, the wind must be in the wrong direction because they row for three miles or more. To add to their troubles it's now dark. Have you ever felt like that? Life seems such hard work, progress is a struggle, you can't see where you're going, and the Lord is not with you. Do you know that feeling? Are you going through a patch like that right now? We've all been there!

At last they see Yahshua coming towards them. This would normally be great, but he's walking on the water and they are just petrified! How would you cope with this? How would I? On the beach we'd probably have a screaming fit and run away inland, but the twelve are in a small boat bobbing on a heavy sea with a strong wind blowing in the wrong direction. There's nowhere to go, except over the side of the boat!

In Matthew's account this is exactly what Peter does. Yahshua called to them, 'Courage! It's me, don't be afraid.' And Peter, do-it-first-and-think-later Peter replied, 'If it's you, Lord, tell me to walk out to meet you'.

And notice what happens next. He gets into the boat with them and immediately they arrive at their destination.

What a contrast! Without him, instead of sailing they had to row against the wind. But with him, they arrived immediately.

I don't think I need to spell the lesson out, it's obvious to all of us. So when you embark on any course of action do you think you'll be better off with Yahshua on board, or would you prefer to do it all yourself leaving him behind?

< John 5 | Index | John 7 >

Eaton Ford - Church, life, homelessness

Sean and I met at 20:00 as usual, Jim joined us later as he had another meeting first. We began by talking about church and whether it's better to have small groups networking with one another or larger groups. We couldn't see any reason to change what we're doing, but felt we might benefit from stronger (but informal) links between groups. We also discussed the Moggerhanger meeting on 7th February and Peter Farmer's meeting in Nottingham on 12th.

Next we considered life in Christ as a process. We begin to change long before we commit ourselves to follow him, and after that point we continue to grow in knowledge and grace. It's not true to think of people remaining static apart from a step change at the point when they first believe. So we felt we should get too hooked up on the idea of getting a person 'saved', but rather do our best to meet them where they are now.

We wondered about ways of helping the homeless. Jim told us that he is thinking and praying about doing something for homeless people next Christmas.

We went through CO2 together as a threesome (if that's not a contradiction in terms). Once again we found this to be a useful way of going a bit deeper with one another and it was good to hear how we feel the Lord is leading us individually.

A phrase that was mentioned was, 'Church is built on people who denied Jesus', Certainly true for Peter, and true for Paul as well - he persecuted Jesus' followers.

Jim prophesied, 'He'll give you extra strength, you'll be surprised by how much strength he will give you'. That's quite a promise!

John 5 - Learning from Dad

< John 4 | Index | John 6 >

In John 5 we have an amazing catalogue of right and wrong ways to see things. This is important because seeing things the right way provides an opportunity for life while seeing the same things in the wrong way leads to death.

The chapter begins with the healing of an invalid. Two factors are significant. First, the invalid had been regularly and patiently trying to follow an accepted approach to healing, but Yahshua chose a much simpler way. And secondly, the healing was performed illegally because it took place on Shabbat, the day of rest. It seems that the traditional and legal ways were completely ineffective. But Yahshua's novel and illegal way was entirely and immediately effective!

Yahshua had a conversation with 'the Jews' about this. The term 'the Jews' normally means the scribes, Temple priests, Pharisees, Saducees, and probably other groups like the Essenes. These groups didn't agree on everything, but they certainly agreed that true authority was to be found somewhere in their teachings about the Law and in all the traditions and regulations they had built around the Law.

With that in mind, lets look at some of things he said to them.

John 5:17 - We are disciples, or perhaps the word apprentices describes it better in modern English. And in a sense, Yahshua himself was the first apprentice. He learned the skills of working in wood from Joseph just as any boy in Galilee would have learned the family trade at that time. And being an apprentice meant living and working with the master craftsman in the family home. Usually, the master craftsman would also have been the apprentice's father. So it was natural for Yahshua to have the same relationship with his heavenly Father, doing what an apprentice does, watching Dad at work and learning by copying. So Yahshua told them, 'My Father's always doing his work even today, and I'm working too.' And what was today? It was Shabbat, the Holy Sabbath day of rest. No wonder they're angry! Not only is he saying he's the Son of the Most High (they already know that's what he's alluding to), he's also saying, 'The Almighty works on Shabbat so I do too.'

John 5:19 - Here's a perfect description of family at work, apprenticeship at its best, the Father and the Son in unison, the Son following the Father's lead.

John 5:20-23 - It doesn't get much clearer than this! The Father loves the Son (as indeed any good father does). And he shows him what? Just the beginner's tasks? Everything but the really important stuff? No! He shows him everything! He even gives the Son the choice of who shall live, and he gives him responsibility for judging people. Why? So that the Son will get the same honour as the Father. And now he tells them to their face, 'If you don't honour me, you don't honour the Father either.' Ouch!

John 5:24-27 - But it gets worse for these Jewish authorities. Now Yahshua tells them that anyone who listens to him and believes his Father, already has eternal life, won't be condemned, and has crossed over from death to life. He tells them that even the dead will hear, that the Son is judge. They began by judging him for working on Shabbat - now he says he is going judge them!

So you see, this really is a matter of life and death whether those Jewish leaders thought so or not. We need to understand that Yahshua (Jesus) is who he claimed to be - the Son of the Most High. We need to understand that he has the power and authority to judge us, and that we have already crossed over from death to life if we hear him and believe. It makes a difference!

< John 4 | Index | John 6 >