NO ELITE

When we get emmeshed in ecclesiology, we can lose sight of the fact that whether you are a follower of Jesus Christ who has been ordained by your denomination or you are an un-ordained follower of Jesus Christ in your respective denomination, you are both members of Christ’s Body here on earth, His church.

Being the church, all followers of Jesus Christ are living in a world that desperately needs to be in the same relationship with Jesus Christ that you know by grace through faith. Whether you are called “lay, Deacon, Priest, Bishop, Pastor, Evangelist, etc.” you are to be IN the world as “salt and light”, but not “OF” the world. You are OF God’s kingdom, not the world’s.

Believers are meant to be “thermostatic” …changing the “atmosphere” in the sphere of influence God has called you to work and function in. There was never meant to be a “class of believers” who engage the world and then come to communicate the needs of the world to the rest of the church. The church is never to be like some walled-off religious ghetto, isolated from the brokenness of our culture so their sin doesn’t jump off them and infect us.

Jesus was never afraid that the sickness, leprosy, brokenness or evil infecting other was going to infect Him as He met people at the point of their physical, spiritual, emotional or mental needs. He met them with the authority of the Kingdom of God as He healed the sick, cleansed lepers, raised the dead and cast out demons. That same authority and anointing power is now given to every true follower of Jesus Christ.

Jesus stated clearly that the things He did, His disciples, His church, would also continue to do (John 14:12). He put no time-frame on that call to all who follow Him; there is no “shelf-life” indicated in God’s Word as to when signs, miracles and wonders might cease. Jesus said that as we “went” we were to make disciple, people who would look like Jesus because we taught them to do everything He had taught us to do. The disciples in the Book of Acts relied on the fact that the Holy Spirit was living within them in permanency, an anointing to do all the Lord would ask them to do. Teaching new converts about the authority given to Jesus’ followers and His power meant to be manifest in and through them by the Holy Spirit, as He directed them was simply “following Jesus 101”.

Remember, Jesus said that He only did what He saw the Father doing. He only said what He heard the Father saying. He then tells us, His disciples, “As the Father has sent me, in the same way I am sending you.” John 20:21. Then He breathed on them and they received the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. That night, Easter night, they became new creations. On Pentecost, they were clothed with power from On High; they were baptized in/with the Holy Spirit. They were soaked through, spiritually dyed, with the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary. Son of God incarnate, He was then anointed with the fullness of the Holy Spirit at the Jordan River. So, to be sent as Jesus was sent, we must be born of the Spirit and empowered by the Holy Spirit to live the life we’ve been given. It’s all part of the same inheritance for those who are now joint heirs with Christ.

This happened at first to those 120 believers, which means it was more than just the 12 disciples as we know them. Then 3,000 more were born again and empowered to live the new Life they had been given. They were ALL to be witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus Christ to the people around them, to the world bearing witness in word and deed that Jesus Christ is Who He said He was. He IS the Lord, Eternal God the Son, the Word of God made flesh, the singular Salvation of humanity through His death and resurrection.

The early church grew in knowledge, wisdom, humility and authority as they relied on the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit…living out in them the resurrection Life of Jesus. Their hope was not in culture, politics, economics, power or prestige as the world deems them. Their hope was and for us still IS a Person: Jesus Christ. Hope is not wistful thinking. It is either grounded in Jesus Christ, or it is like unbottled gas.

The world needs to see what it looks like to live with deep roots in Someone infinitely greater than one’s self. Jesus Christ has given to His followers an unassailable stability as a community that draws its identity and courage from the singular Source of Jesus Christ, Himself. The ground of our unity is not found in age, economics, gender, education, power, position or culture. It is the Person of Jesus Christ that produces hope, faith, love, power and authority in His people. There are no “elite” among us. Each one, each follower of Jesus Christ is an outpost of the Kingdom of God. 

Believer…where ever you are, the Kingdom of God is…in power, in authority, in humility, in grace, in sacrificial love and mercy. We once were also lost, but now we’re found…once blind, but now we see. Trust His Life, power and grace being lived in you. It’s meant to be lived through you.