Posted: 30 Mar 2015 05:16 AM PDT
A number of years ago I was invited to share with a group of pastors, teachers, and leaders for a two-day retreat.On the last day of the retreat, I was asked to share some snapshots of Christ-centered community from my own experience.
I told the story of one such community. This body of believers didn’t have a clergy or a pastor, but they discovered Jesus Christ in the depths and learned to love one another through thick or thin.
They also learned to have New Testament-styled church meetings where every member functioned, sharing the riches of Christ through their various gifts . . . all without a pastor, a facilitator, or an administrator present.
Their gatherings and their community life was under the headship of Jesus Christ.
One of my closing comments was that this group of believers had discovered that Christ was alive enough to be the head of His own church, not in rhetoric, but in reality.
They certainly had their share of problems and issues — as was the case with every church in the first century. But they also discovered how to find the Lord in the midst of them.
When I finished, there were two reactions in the room.
One was amazement. Some of the leaders had never seen or heard anything like what I described. So they quizzed me with questions privately afterwards.
I was highly impressed with those particular people.
The other group didn’t quite understand what I was talking about. They had no context for it, so they politely listened and then went on to other things, never asking a question.
One gentlemen in the room was both a professor and a pastor. After hearing me rehearse story after story about the amazing things that can (and did) happen when a group of Christians discover how to live by the indwelling life of Christ together, he shared his opinion with the group.
In effect, he said, “what you’ve just described is a sociological reality called group form dynamics.”
Jaws began to drop throughout the room.
It was stunning.
This man just heard the living testimony of Jesus Christ through His body, and his response was, “you’re describing a sociological reality.”
Here was a leader in the Christian world, a pastor of a very large denomination and a professor, and that’s what he heard.
My response was simple. I talked to him as though I were speaking to an atheist. I said, “I believe that Jesus Christ exists and that He’s real. I also believe that He lives in His people, and when they learn to live by His life, they can express Him in remarkable ways, shaming principalities and powers in other realms. That’s what this group of simple Christians had discovered.”
The conversation then moved on to other things.
I tell this story, all these years later, to make a point.
That was a Nicodemus movement.
Consider what Jesus said to Nicodemus.
“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? Very
truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we
have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I
have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then
will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? John 3:10-12
Just because someone may sport a clerical collar, pastor a church,
hail to “Reverend,” or hold more degrees than a Thermometer is no
indication that they know the Lord very well.Don’t mishear me. I am friends with institutional pastors and professors who have an authentic walk with Jesus Christ and they can perceive when He’s working.
But sadly, there are many Nicodemus’ extant today.
They may hold Phds. in theology or ministry, but that doesn’t count for a toot on a tin whistle when it comes to knowing Christ and living by His indwelling life.
The situation is no different today than it was in ancient Israel when God was enfleshed and brok into human history.
May the tribe of the unknown yet insightful Annas and Simeon’s increase, for they had eyes to see in a religious culture that was blind.
Read Luke 2:25-38 if you’re looking for a footnote.
Bottom line. Never be impressed with externals when it comes to spiritual knowledge and experience.
Jesus of Nazareth was a day laborer. He had no formal religious training, as did the scribes and priests of His day.
Neither did the twelve men whom He chose to take His place.
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