Christian Living

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I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH

On one occasion a religious leader met Jesus and asked permission to follow Him. Instead of welcoming Him, Jesus put him off with these surprising words:

“Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” (Luke 9:58)

Was Jesus trying to discourage him because following Him would have meant a hard life of deprivation and poverty?

This does not make any sense if one considers that He had already called twelve men to follow Him. Why would He invite some and discourage others from being His disciples? Was it because a group bigger than twelve would be difficult to manage or was it perhaps because of His limited resources?

When we read this text from a Hebrew perspective, it takes on a different meaning. Jesus was speaking figuratively; in other words, what do foxes do in holes; what do birds do in nests? Foxes do not sleep in holes and neither do birds sleep in nests. Holes and nests are used for reproduction. Therefore, Jesus was speaking about reproduction.

What is He getting at?

Was He referring to Himself as the head, and that He did not yet have a body on which to place His head in order to reproduce Himself? Was He in fact advising the prospective disciple that He was not ready to take on a crowd? Hethe enquirer, was to be patient because the time would come when Jesus would welcome all those who would be part of a reproducing body of which He is the head.

This leads me to the next thought. If true discipleship is about Jesus reproducing Himself through His body, why would He want to do that? To find the answer we have to examine the core reason why He came from God to earth in the flesh.

If I were to ask a group of believers why Jesus came to earth, I would get as many answers as people in the group. The most popular answer would probably be, “To save us from our sins”, and that would not be incorrect. In fact, none of the responses would be wrong but, to find the real answer, we have to ask Jesus.

John must have recorded as carefully as possible Jesus’ final prayer before His death, which would have shown us what was uppermost in His mind. He was aware that time was up. He had accomplished His mission and He was ready to face His final task before returning to His place in glory. When we read the gospels and especially John’s Gospel, it appears that Jesus had one passion in His heart, to make His Father known.

“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world...” (John 17:6)

Why was this so important to Jesus?

The religious climate in which He functioned was a rigid system of rules that brought people into bondage and obscured the nature of the God who had originally called Abraham into fellowship with Himself and, through him, to build a nation that would show the world what He is like. Even the death of Jesus would have been misinterpreted by His followers without a thorough understanding of God’s nature and motive.

Jesus’ parting instruction to His disciples before He returned to the Father was to reproduce Him throughout the world as they went from place to place and as they conducted their daily lives in the world.

Unfortunately, our idea of what a disciple is has obscured the Biblical picture. To many of us, a disciple is a church member who faithfully attends Sunday services and whatever meetings are appropriate for him or her during the week. A disciple is one who tithes to the church and keeps away from the sins of his community. Being a disciple may include witnessing by giving out tracts or telling people about the “Four Spiritual Laws” but that is usually left for the “on fire” Christian.

Is this what Jesus lived and died for?

To understand what being a disciple is all about, we must first understand Jesus’ mission and our mandate. To do this, we need to go back to the Bible and to the culture and nation in which God’s plan was born.

JESUS’ MISSION
In Matthew 16:18, Jesus stated His mission - to build His church - against the backdrop of Caesarea Phillippi.

Caesarea Phillippi
“Caesarea Philippi is a large archaeological site containing elaborate building projects erected by Herod Philip and Agrippas II in the area of Dan, at the foot of Mount Hermon in northern Israel. In addition to magnificent Roman structures, Caesarea Philippi is also known for Banias, a collection of springs and pagan worship sites linked to the cult of Pan. The centerpiece of this ancient worship site is a huge cliff and grotto, which contains the remains of numerous altars, caves, temples, and courtyards. This is the location at Caesarea Philippi where Jesus met with his disciples and finally asked the question, “Who do you say that I am?”

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. (Matthew 16:13-17)

The Gates of Hell
“Caesarea Philippi’s location was especially unique because it stood at the base of a cliff where spring water flowed. At one time, the water ran directly from the mouth of a cave set in the bottom of the cliff.

The pagans of Jesus’ day commonly believed that their fertility gods lived in the underworld during the winter and returned to earth each spring. They saw water as a symbol of the underworld and thought that their gods travelled to and from that world through caves.

To the pagan mind, then, the cave and spring water at Caesarea Philippi created a gate to the underworld. They believed that their city was literally at the gates of the underworld——the gates of hell. In order to entice the return of their god, Pan, each year, the people of Caesarea Philippi engaged in horrible deeds, including prostitution and sexual interaction between humans and goats.

When Jesus brought his disciples to the area, they must have been shocked. Caesarea Philippi was like a red-light district in their world and devout Jews would have avoided any contact with the despicable acts committed there.

It was a city of people eagerly knocking on the doors of hell.”

JESUS’ CHALLENGE
“Standing near the pagan temples of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked his disciples “Who do you say that I am?” Peter boldly replied, “You are the Son of the living God.” The disciples were probably stirred by the contrast between Jesus, the true and living God, and the false hopes of the pagans who trusted in “dead” gods.

Jesus continued, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (see Matt. 16:13 - 20).

Though Christian traditions debate the theological meaning of those words, it seems clear that Jesus’ words also had symbolic meaning. His church would be built on the “rock” of Caesarea Philippi – a rock literally filled with niches for pagan idols, where ungodly values dominated.

Gates were defensive structures in the ancient world. By saying that the gates of hell would not overcome, Jesus suggested that those gates were going to be attacked.

Standing as they were at a literal “gate of Hades,” the disciples may have been overwhelmed by Jesus’ challenge. They had studied under their rabbi for several years, and now he was commissioning them to a huge task: to attack evil, and to build the church on the very places that were most filled with moral corruption.
Jesus presented a clear challenge with his words at Caesarea Philippi: He didn’t want his followers hiding from evil: He wanted them to storm the gates of hell.” (www.allaboutarcheology.org/caesarea)

From this background it is clear that Jesus saw His church as a counter-culture based on the solid rock of His identity as the Son of God and His teaching that presented God as Father and God’s character as gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and full of love and faithfulness (Exodus 34:6).

This was the “yoke” Jesus modelled and taught, in contrast to the strict legalism of the other rabbis of His day. He gave His disciples authority to “bind” His yoke of mercy and compassion on all His followers and to “loose” them from the yoke of religious legalism which strangled God’s life out of them and made them slaves of law.

His church would infiltrate the culture of its day and, like yeast in a lump of dough, slowly transform society through the transformed lives of its people, bringing God’s will and the standards of His kingdom to earth, and reflecting Him in the lives of His people.

Not even the spiritual darkness of paganism and the powers of hell would be able to withstand the compelling witness of people transformed and filled with the love of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit to live like Jesus (John 2:6),and to do the works that Jesus did (John 14:12), reflecting the nature of God’s loving rule over His people.

This is the vision Jesus had for His church which He imparted to His disciples over the course of three and a half years. He taught them how to do the works of the kingdom by example and by giving them opportunity to practise under His supervision. He gave them power and authority over disease and demons and sent them out to do the work in preparation for their worldwide mission.

On this occasion Jesus also gave His mandate to His followers - “I will give you the keys of the kingdom.” Before He ascended to heaven, He gave them this instruction, “Go...make disciples of all nations...” He would use the building stones of the disciples they made, to build His church, blending diverse people into a unity that reflected His intimate unity in the Godhead, an impossible task outside of the power of the Holy Spirit.

Copyright Luella Campbell. 2011

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