7.1 Church by Father
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Father is our habitation; Church is Father’s habitation. I don’t know why, but somehow, the phrase “Church by Father” seems to convey that relationship. The Greek word translated into “church” is ecclesia, or an assembly of people together. Such an assembly, arising every moment out from Father at Home, is what I mean by “Church by Father.”
This new understanding we have of symmorphy, symmorphy in and through koinonia, is God dwelling, not just in individuals, but in the gathering together of many. There is a vast expression of God made visible that comes only through two or three or many gathered together.
Symmorphy in Koinonia. This is just a mind-boggling concept, symmorphy in koinonia, freedom and commitment fully merged together.
You see, the impossible part of symmorphy is how God and I could share the same will, while at the same time, being free of one another, yet always one, yet always free. But then you take that impossibility and make it God sharing the same will with many who, by all outward appearance do NOT share the same will, and who are all free of God and of one another – and yet, through their gathering together, become the full expression of God made seen and known.
Fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind (Philippians 2:2).
Sharing Heart with God. “Of one mind” does NOT mean that we are not different in innumerable ways, nor that we “agree” on everything. It means that we love one another.
The one measurement by which all humans are increasing themselves or decreasing themselves through their time in this present age is the capacity of the human heart to contain and to reveal the heart of Father – sharing heart with God. To the extent that I delight in and highly regard other Christians who are VERY different from me is the extent of the increase (or decrease) of my heart to fit God’s. Though Church by Father is the commitment of love, Church by Father is also free. And the best word to express that freedom is spontaneous.
Defining Spontaneous. This session is titled “Spontaneous Community.” We must define “spontaneous,” but first what it is NOT. Spontaneous is NOT God waving a magic wand and suddenly everyone finds themselves doing something that had never before entered their minds. That would be just one more form of the rapture, something God never does, yet it is how many would define the word. Spontaneous IS that which arises from within the heart of each individual person, their own response of faith to a specific Word coming to them (often, though not always, through others). Spontaneous is not a herd of lemmings; spontaneous is the response of the Bride to Jesus.
I Will Go. Here are the words of spontaneity spoken by the women in two of the great love stories of the Bible. So they said, “We will call the young woman and ask her personally.” Then they called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” And she said, “I will go” (Genesis 24:57-58). – And she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth said: “Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you; for wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God, my God” (Ruth 1:15-16).
I cannot copy and paste these lines without tears streaming down my face, for these words have been the fabric of my own heart for many years.
What Is Church? Church is the fullness of Christ. But what is Church? What constitutes Church?
When I see a group of people gathering once a week to have the present-day experience known as “church,” yet with no other connection together, I do not see Church by Father. Yet in the opposing direction, a group of people gathered together under commitment with a sense of obligation to “abandon self-life,” there I do not see Church by Father either.
Church by Father is an assembly of people walking together in a perfect balance of all commitment and all liberty. Such a Church is the love of marriage, devoted to one another, even while setting one another free.
Two More Metaphors. Consider the two men in the love stories mentioned above. Both Isaac and Boaz, when they saw their intended, set themselves to win her heart. Neither man saw obligation; rather, their respect for their bride left her always free to be herself inside of the commitment of love.
Now, we are using the metaphor of “inhabiting the site” to gain some understanding of this site upon which God and us together are building a house for Oone another. You see, we cannot gather together as the Church except by some order. And thus we see two other metaphors God can use to enable us to envision this perfect balance of commitment and liberty that makes a gathering of believers Church by Father. Those two metaphors are a flock of birds and the wineskin.
A Flock of Birds. Every one of us has seen and thus marveled at a flock of birds flying together in beautifully artistic formation. God placed that picture for the whole world to see so that we might understand Christ as He is in the gathering together of the Church.
And we can understand the picture of a flock of birds flying in unison by another picture Jesus used as His description of God’s order for His Church. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved (Matthew 9:17).
The Local Church. Christ is relationships among many. Although there is great benefit in large, or even in very large gatherings of worship and word, still, the real relationships that are Christ are found mostly in the local church. This lesson is on the local church; what is it, why is it, and how does it operate?
Now, I realize that I am a Christian of many years grown utterly weary with churchianity writing to Christians of many years who also are grown utterly weary of churchianity. We are in the same boat; yet we also want to know Jesus. And to know Jesus as Word and to know Jesus as us, we have committed ourselves to embrace all that He speaks, knowing that His Word becomes who and what we are.
We have one response only to the word “Christ is a many-membered body,” and that response is, “Let it be to me.”
The Verse of Ministry. We need one more concept before beginning.
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-13) This is the first time the Lord has brought verse 11 back off my shelf; my understanding of these things, though similar to what I knew in the past, yet now it has shifted wonderfully.
The Purpose of Ministry. Finally, we see clearly, now, the purpose of ministry in each local church as well as ministry to the Church at large. Till we all come to… the knowledge of the Son of God, to… the fullness of Christ.
One of the most profound things that has flowed through my fingers onto the computer screen is from Joshua 4:10-11. So the priests who bore the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished… when all the people had completely crossed over… The purpose of any ministry in the Church is to bear God’s precious people upon one’s heart, to share heart with God over them, believing all for all, giving whatever is needed.
The Knowledge of the Son of God. And so I want to weave these three things into an understanding of God’s intention for each local church and for our place in those local churches: (1) a flock of birds, (2) a wineskin, and (3) ministry. Indeed, I’m looking at those three things astonished at how beautifully they fit together. – A Man teaching and releasing a flock of birds to fly together in the heavens. The knowledge of the Son of God – you will know Jesus as you fly together in the heavens (with your feet on the earth), that is, in rivers of Spirit flowing out, in perfect harmony with other believers.
The purpose of ministry is to show you who you are together with others. (We will save a closer look at ministry, however, for a later session.)
The Budgies of Australia. Let’s consider a flock of birds. We have already grounded ourselves in previous Symmorphy courses with the picture of a flock of birds flying in perfect harmony, yet displaying patterns of movement and purpose that are a wonder to behold.
The best picture is of the budgies of Australia who are drinking together while, at the same time, fending off a bird of prey from capturing any of them. Some fight while others drink, and when those who have drunk are finished, they go immediately into the fight so that those who are weary might also drink. All budgies drink of life and none are captured by the evil one.
Beautiful Formation. A solitary believer is a prime target of the evil one – and do not imagine that just because we walk in union with Christ that the dragon is not in our birthing room. He has more ways than one to devour unwary believers. But that topic awaits the sessions on the sheltering roof.
We have also seen how, as a flock of birds flies in beautiful formation in and out, up and down, each bird is doing exactly what it loves to do, and each bird is governed by itself. Each bird loves to fly in the heavens – but in conjunction with other birds. And we have seen that the rule that causes the formation to fly this way and that way so fluidly is forgiveness.
Submitting One to Another. Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God (Ephesians 5:20-21). Submitting one to the other, full reciprocity, the walking together of the best and deepest of friends. In the flock, each bird senses when another bird enters its “space,” and, without thought, gives way to the intruding bird – forgiveness, giving space for.
Why the fear of God? Why not in the love of God? At this level of our walk, love and fear are two sides of the same thing. As I treat with you, so I AM treating with God. Those who abuse other Christians for self-gain have great need to be frightened by God, though, astonishingly, they are not.
The Operation of a Flock. So we see several things in operation in a flock of birds. First each bird loves to fly in the heavens together with other birds. Second each bird is governed entirely from within, from its own heart. Third, the formation of birds moves here and there entirely on the basis of forgiveness, of giving space for one another. Yet, fourth, the actual birds in proximity to an individual bird change from time to time – the ordering of the flock is entirely fluid. Then, each bird looks out for the other, some fight while others drink and then they switch places so that all may drink and all may stay safe.
The Metaphor of the Wineskin. Next, let’s look at the metaphor of the wineskin. Wine must be contained, otherwise it is not available when it is desired. In ancient times, no one had glass bottles and corks, so the best method devised was to prepare a goat’s skin, and to pour the new wine into it while it was still fresh before sewing up the final hole. This way, the wine fermented while the skin took its final shape, thus they were able to “move” together; that is, the skin was able to flex with the expanding wine.
If you were to recycle last year’s wineskins, they would be stiff and inflexible and would burst with the pressure of the new wine.
God’s Order for His Church. The wineskin is God’s order for His Church. The life that is Christ must have a context, or else it cannot be truly known. And yes, I am speaking of Church. The full expression of Christ – as He IS – is found only in the gathering together of Church. In other words, Christ is a Body, and He is seen and known in a form, that is, believers together.
We cannot walk together without doing things one way or another. Yet the problem, then, is that, as humans, we imagine that the life we enjoyed last year came from how we did things last year. So we extrapolate to – let’s do things the same next time and then we’ll have the same results.
Always Ready to Change. Do you see what always happens? We leave our source, which is Christ in our hearts flowing out from one to the other as rivers of living water. And we attach our experience with God to outward forms. This is the nature of all Christian denominations and organizations. Jesus did not look or act like Jeremiah to the Jews, thus they could not receive Him as the One sent by God.
It’s not that we change how we do things just to change them; if something works, keep it until it is better to change it. The point is that we are always ready to move on to new ways of doing things, or even new brethren to walk with, in the seasons of the Lord. Our source is always Christ in our hearts, and never the outward form.
Friends Together. To know Christ as He is, we must know Him through our commitment to a local assembly of believers in Jesus. That assembly can include our natural family, most certainly, but it cannot be only our natural family. Our relationship with our natural family is according to the flesh. That relationship, in itself, cannot be the Church of Christ.
However, the “form” that such a gathering together takes is fluid as a flock of birds and as flexible as a wineskin. Yes, it is together AND contained in a form. Yet the “shape” of each local gathering together unto Christ can vary enormously. Thus I say, “community in some form.”
Yet here’s the thing – friends want to be together; it’s what friends are.
The Present Church. I must insert this one piece of understanding. The church in this present age appears as split all apart into opposing groups. Outwardly, there appears to be no unity among Christians. I no longer see it that way. People are different, and Jesus is living AS each one who belongs to Him. God has formed every local assembly with the individuals who gather there, Jesus as them, in His mind.
One believer in who’s heart dwells the Lord Jesus is more comfortable in a Baptist setting, another in a Catholic, and another in a Pentecostal setting. There is more of the knowledge of God for each one than that setting can provide, but each in his or her season. In the present moment, Jesus lives as them, and He does all things well.
Until All the People Crossed. God is not the least bit concerned about all the nonsense going on in anyone’s mind. It is heart which He is shaping for Himself. And heart is shaped only by a reciprocal interaction together with other believers in any local setting.
Heart is neither a feeling nor a thought. Heart is caring for one another even when all feelings and thoughts want to be hostile. Heart is going quietly before Father in the midst of difficulty and placing one’s self in confidence as His channel of life-laid down and love poured out.
And God is preparing a ministry that will stand, there, inside of God, at the bottom of the Jordan, bearing all for all until everything is finished, until all the people are crossed over into the knowledge of the fullness of Christ, into Church by Father.