5.1 Our Jerusalem
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely (Revelation 22:17). – Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! …For there the Lord commanded the blessing—Life forevermore (Psalm 133:1 & 3b).
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go into the house of the Lord.” Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem! (Psalm 122:1-2). – Besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches (2 Corinthians 11:28).
God’s Dwelling Place. When I say, “Jerusalem,” I mean entirely the Church of Jesus Christ, His Bride, made up of those who were formerly Jews and formerly Gentiles, now one new man in Christ. And including those who are without earthly bodies right now, just as much as those with earthly bodies. The Jerusalem which is above, the mother of us all.
More than that, when David sang about entering the house of God inside of Jerusalem, though he certainly had his natural city in view, still, it was not the outward form of which he was singing, but rather, the presence of the knowledge of God. If David were alive today, he would be a Christian with no regard for Jewishness and his delight would be the entire Church, God’s dwelling place.
One and Many. As you read through the verses I included above, you see two assumptions regarding the Church, now our Jerusalem. The first assumption is that the Church is one and universal; the second assumption is that the expressions of the Church are local.
Jerusalem is one; Jerusalem is many.
I have attempted to define the Church in previous courses. Our problem with knowing what is the Church is the same as knowing what is God. As our knowledge of God increases forever, so does our knowledge of Church, for God is known through His Church. In this lesson, I want to approach Church again, but from our present perspectives.
All the Churches. Paul said, “My deep concern for all the churches.”
Paul was speaking of three things, actually. First, the entire Church of Christ, second every local assembly, and third, every individual believer in Jesus. More than that, Paul knew every one of those three levels as existing entirely inside of the Spirit of God, and each filled with Christ Jesus as a life-giving Spirit. Paul knew the Church as the intensity and passion filling the Heart of the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it was Father’s intensity and passion filling Paul.
But think about those words – “My deep concern for all the churches.” Where else have you heard such a thing?
No Sectarianism. I have never once heard any Christian leader in any sect or church or ministry ever express such a concern. Every leader I have known has focused almost entirely on his or her own group or sect or assembly. So many delight in declaring that all who are not in their sect are, for that reason, in trouble with God.
But let’s not deal with the Church of Christ as mental ideas. Take a moment to rest into the Spirit of the Lord, and in that place of rest and perception, draw into your heart every individual believer in Jesus across this earth, every local assembly, the entire Church of Christ. All who call or will call upon Jesus in some way.
Love the Church. You already drink of the same Spirit with every individual, with every assembly, with the entire church. You have already been immersed into all of them as one body together. And don’t leave out the other half of our Jerusalem, our Beloved Church, those without bodies, scattered through the realms of the heavens, with as much differentiation in thought and practice as those with bodies on the earth.
Draw her into your heart and see her as Father sees her, as the very Joy of His Heart. Fear no evil, for the Blood of Jesus makes her every whit clean. See no contention, for the Spirit of God hovers over each one, guiding each in ways they do not know.
Love her.
Suffer for Her. Now, what if Father asked of you, “My dear son/daughter, would you be willing to take every difficulty of your life and call it, together with me, for her sake, that all may know Me?” The suffering of Christ is the suffering of faith, calling every awful difficulty one endures as shared with Father and FOR the sake of His Church.
I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, of which I became a servant (Colossians 1:24-25a). The heart of the Apostle, Jesus in us, carries the deepest concern for every believer and every local church in every nation and practice, and labors with God in all things for her sake.
What Is the Church to Me? When I say, “You are free of me,” I’m not giving you the whole picture. I mean it, yes, as people receive it. No one needs me for themselves to walk with God. Nonetheless, no matter what, no believer in Jesus will ever be free of me, for I will carry you upon the Mercy Seat of my heart all the way through life laid down and love poured out.
Now, the real question is not, What is the Church, but, What is the Church to me?
I want to share with you what Church, local and universal, my Jerusalem, is to me. And please understand, I am speaking only by faith, by saying, “Be it unto me” as every Word that is Christ comes to me.
The Local Assembly. Now, the seeing of God does not go from the many individuals to the universal one Church, nor from the universal one Church to the many believers in Jesus. The seeing of God always places the local assembly in-between the many and the one. It is only in the local assembly that Church becomes real for us. It is only in the local assembly that individual brothers and sisters become part of my life and mine part of theirs. It is only in the local assembly that we experience the ongoing reality of Father showing how He makes Himself visible and heard through our gathering together.
Christianity is NOT divided; the Church is one. And every local assembly is the expression of Christ for each member.
Going to Church. Take a moment to picture everything of reward, of fulness, of incorruptibility, that every Christian you have known places into that realm and experience they call “heaven.”
I place not one iota of that into what they call “heaven.” I place all of it, all reward, all fulness, all incorruptibility, every fulfillment of every dream and promise and desire, the right hand and presence of the Almighty, INTO CHURCH walking upon this earth, into the Church universal, and into every local assembly of believers. For the same reasons, and far more so, that every Christian you know “wants to go to heaven,” I want to go to Church. They want to “go to” heaven to see Jesus; I want to go to Church, where Jesus dwells, to see Jesus now as you.
You see, something incredible has happened in me over the last several years – I have turned around.
Two Paths. Let me illustrate what I mean by “turned around.” Most Christians see our path this way.
Call it what you want, Life, Glory, Fulness, Heaven, Salvation, whatever, it’s entirely and only SOMEDAY.And church becomes just a clumsy place of ritual that is inconsequential and temporary.
Here is how I see our path, always into God, always IN God, and Father always flowing through together with us.This dynamic is the life of every local church.
I See the Church. I call it like I see it. As I see Christ in His Church, so I call her forth into her place. I see the Church, as expressed from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, as the End Goal of all that Salvation is and means, and I call her to be so.
I see the Church as the revelation of Father as He fills the hearts of each individual member but expresses Himself outwardly as Love among the gathering together of every local assembly, and I call her to be so.
I see the Church, knowing herself to be family, walking together in the knowledge of God, loving one another with pure hearts fervently as the very visible appearance that is God, and I call her to be so.
When the Church Knows. Now, one might wonder – if the Church is, in fact, the way I see her, why does she need to be “called into” what she is?
What I see is the substance of the Church, yet she does not know what she is, not even a little bit. Believers in Jesus do NOT know what they are, and even less so, what they are inside their gathering together in the local assembly. And since God appears as He is only through our faith, only as we call our every interaction together to be Father seen and known, the Church must know who she is.
When the Church KNOWS that she is the appearance of the Father in heaven/earth, then she has become all that Salvation is.
It’s about Father. Because, you see, this isn’t about us, this isn’t about the local Community of Christ, this isn’t about the Church. This is about Father. It’s all about Father.
Father wants to enter into His creation as part of His creation, that He might see and be seen, speak and be heard, touch and be touched, that He might be the one dancing in uproarious laughter, utterly in, as, through, and with – us together.
I covet one thing. I would possess Father’s Heart, beating as my own. I care about God. And because I care about God, I care about His Church walking inside this heaven/earth, as she gathers together in every place, that she would love one another.
I see my God appearing as His Church together. – I call it like I see it.
Substance versus Appearance. To understand our Jerusalem, however, we must develop this interplay between substance and appearance a bit further. In substance, the Church is the Body of God, the revelation of Father into heaven/earth. In appearance, the church is a prostitute, ignorant of God and of who she is, and jumping into bed with every Tom, Dick, and Harry coming down the pike. And God will never force Himself upon her; she must come to Him of her own desire. Yet many willfully limit their desire for God to themselves, to what they already possess. Multitudes refuse to enter, turning their backs against each of the three passages into the knowledge of God here and now.
One Taken, One Remains. More than that, although we receive each one as Jesus receives us, we cannot know the depths of any heart. In every gathering together, in every country and in every denomination or sect, big or small, reality runs the same. Two sit side by side, or work hand in hand, one is taken away, and the other remains. One decides God is not for them and the other remains in God no matter the cost. One perceives God in all things, no matter how limited their view, nor how much they hurt. The other simply knows a whole lot about “God,” but knows Him not at all.
And God never tells us which is which, NEVER. For that reason, we see all as perfect and we call each into their place.
When We “Arrive.” Some want to say that the Feast of Tabernacles already belongs to the Church, that it is already fulfilled. But when you place enormous New Testament verses in front of them, however, they will see them fulfilled in fulness only someday and not in present Christianity. Yet what I will have in every local assembly of believers across this earth, realities out from the core verses of the New Covenant, they don’t even know exists.
When you hear me say, “We have arrived,” you will know that (1) your body is swallowed up by life, immortal and incorruptible, and (2) the entire world has just noticed reciprocal LOVE among you together in your local assembly and realized that God IS walking this earth as Jesus Sent.
God’s Seasons. Now, we know that God is one thing, but the knowledge of God is something quite different. Here are two believers who know that God wants them to love one another. Here are two other believers who know that their every interaction together inside the local assembly is God revealing Himself as He is. – Same God, totally different seasons of knowledge.
And God has set an order for the unveiling of His appearance to creation as a family of humans. First is Christ Jesus – He who has seen Me has seen the Father. Second is Christ’s firstfruits, those who show the Church what love one another really means.
God’s Measurement. Third is Jerusalem, our Jerusalem, those believers in Jesus across this earth who find themselves ready and willing, running with all their hearts into the awesome transformation of the First Day of the Feast of Tabernacles, God in Person as all our connections together, now tangible and knowable.
To understand our Jerusalem as she is in this hour, however, we must understand the measurement of God. Till we all come to… the knowledge of the Son of God… to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13 – condensed). – But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it (Revelation 11:2a).
Those Who Enter. We see this line between those who are measured by Christ in the present season and those who are not, but who await a future time, as God places it, at the Door of the Holy Place.
There is something very sad inside of God towards those who will not be FILLED with His Spirit running all through their mind, will, and emotions. They will not know Him as He is because they do not trust Him. Yet, it is not the appearance of the Baptism of the Spirit that is the dividing line, but rather, the decision, the simple human decision each one makes, whether to enter in or to draw back. “If anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who draw back (to their own ignorance), but of those who – enter into all the knowledge of God (Hebrews 10:39 – paraphrased).
I Am a Caller. I see Father, NOT KNOWN, longing to be known, determined to show Himself as He is in Person through the gathering together of every local Church, every Community of Christ. And I see our Jerusalem, millions of Spirit-filled (or soon to be Spirit-filled) believers in Jesus all across this earth, the Bride of the Lamb; I see them walking in life together as all the fullness of Christ revealed in this present age.
I am a caller, and I call it like I see it. I call an invisible God into visibility through the gathering together of His Church, and I call His Church into her place, walking together as family, loving one another as God among us.
I am a caller; I call you into LOVE.