-

An Effective Strategy Against Jesus Christ – Hierarchies

Many Christians from the early church were brutalized, persecuted and murdered, Jesus and his followers had brutal enemies. Despite this the body of Christ grew quickly, in fact growth still typically happens where Christians are persecuted. It did not take long however for the enemy of Jesus to find a more effective strategy against him – position within powerful and wealthy hierarchies.

hi·er·ar·chy

ˈhī(ə)ˌrärkē/

noun: hierarchy; plural noun: hierarchies

  1. a system or organization in which people or groups are ranked one above the other according to status or authority.

Rather than attacking and killing Christians, a better strategy against Jesus’ influence and expansion was to put the church on top of or given a place at the table of a highly influential hierarchy in exchange for surrender and cooperation. But that cooperation would directly challenge the Lordship of Jesus Christ among his people.

This strategy seems to have repeated itself even up to today. How many modern young Christians who feel called to ministry strive to create and climb to the top of powerful hierarchical organizations? Most. Whether we try to control massive governments or climb through the ranks of wealthy denominations or build massive individual “mega-churches“. We love hierarchies and when we reach out ambitious goals we say “look at the growth, God must be blessing us, God is doing it.”

But we cannot look at numbers and popularity and assume success in God’s eyes or his blessing or his approval.

Jesus was offered great power and wealth and a great place of headship over kingdoms of this world, but he quickly and sternly turned it all down. I am not sure there is another person on the planet that would have easily turned down that offer from the devil.

“Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if you fall down and worship Me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan…” – Matthew 4:9-10

Later when his disciples began to plan their own hierarchy of greatness (“who will be greatest” read Matt 20), He quickly told his disciples “it is not this way among you.”

“But Jesus called them to himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not this way among you…” – Matthew 20:25-26

Regarding hierarchies among Christians, are we saying in response to Jesus “yes it is this way among us, its always been this way, this is our church, and I have (or so and so has) been put as its head, I (he) deserve it, I (he) was chosen.”? Are we not then intentionally refusing Jesus’ direction.

A group of Christians only becomes church in its relation to its surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Lets all together abandon hierarchy and lording it over one another, as Christians we are all directly connected to Jesus through the Spirit. He is able to lead us all directly and together as a cohesive family.

Hierarchies are ineffective and archaic and will eventually be obsoleted, firstly and especially within the church. Allow the Lord to begin to transition you away from worldly forms of organizing and gathering based on hierarchy, there is a much better way.

More to come, please reach out to me with questions or comments.

Comments 0
-

Modern Edits to 2 Cor 2:14-16

There are many passages of scripture explaining how Jesus met with his disciples and how the first century Christians gathered.

With this post I intend to compare modern church meetings to Christian meetings described in scripture. Not to shame anyone but to attempt to contrast and display just how ludicrous some of our modern traditions are in comparison.

This post series’ message is to attempt to point to the pattern shown by Jesus Christ concerning how we gather, how we minister to one another and the lost and to forsake tradition which has essentially edited and ignored scripture for generations.

Modern Edits to Scripture

2 Corinthians 2:14-16 But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere into the set apart church buildings the fragrance of the knowledge of him of how to be godly and successful and to fulfill your destiny. 15 For we are to God the aroma of Christ successful victorious living among those who are being saved and those who are perishing, loyally attend this particular church 16 To the one we are the smell of death; we are the smell of a pleasant Sunday worship experience; to the other the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?

 

if you enjoyed this check out Modern Edits to 1 Cor 14:24-25

Comments 0
-

My Death and Jesus’ Life

“A dead Christ I must do everything for; a living Christ does everything for me.”

~ Andrew Murray

All that we are in Christ, all the rights and privileges that we have in Christ are behind our own death. Not the one-time symbolic death at our baptism but a daily death to our old man.

You want “success”, you want “victory”, you want to be “above and not beneath”, you want “prosperity”, you want to be “the head and not the tail”?

As if these were things to obtain by our faith or our hard bible study, good disciplined behavior, our faith confessions and strong efforts.

bad behavior1

We are incapable of the following:

  • Loving like God loved by reading about Jesus Christ and doing likewise.
  • Teaching others how to love as if it were a mental activity or a set of behaviors.
  • Doing ‘what Jesus would do’ (WWJD) by knowing what he would do and acting accordingly.
  • ‘Getting our act together’ and obey the varied commands of God by our discipline.
  • Stopping sinning and live holy by our will power.

As if these these good Christian behaviors were things that we acquire, things we attain to in our own God-likeness, adding his behavior to our life.

No, we are hopeless in self, even the most wonderful ones among us, the only thing we attain to is death, he increases, we decrease, not our will, (as good as it may be) but his will is done.

Scripture says “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27), …it does NOT say “you acting like Christ out of your discipline…the hope of glory.” Huge difference.

The truth is that Jesus Christ himself is peace, he is love, he is joy. We know what to do in every situation as he dwells and lives within, our “act is together” forever as he lives through us because his ‘act’ is together.

The key to our life in Christ and growing in him is death to us, just like Jesus died to himself. Both in will and on the cross, “not by my will but yours be done” (Matt 26:39).  Jesus died so that the Father’s love could be shown, displayed and revealed to the world.

Dying is not an act of the will, it is a surrender, a permanent and painful surrender. We ‘die’, we don’t get our way, we lose out, we don’t angrily defend ourselves when attacked, we don’t get vengeance, we repent, we abandon our self-will, our self-strength, our self-life, our self-ambition.

We let go of our good names, our good reputation which promotes us, building our resume of ministry, in all its forms. As we do this, as we die, then … if Christ is within us, he can live through us, he is on display, we hear him easily, we see what he is doing around us easily we are spiritual and not carnal. Death to me puts him on display, if he is living within me…this is how Christians live now, by his life. As we figuratively pass away and decrease he can be there shining within.

Our strong self-life is like the basket covering the light that shines within.. (see Matt 5:15-16)

He is being hidden…as we are strong in our self, as we get our way, as we manipulate life situations for our benefit, as we defend our good names, as we seek to control appearances we are on display. As we set out to ‘make a good showing in the flesh’ (Gal 6:12).

Living the Christian life, for the person who will die to self becomes easy and light like Jesus said. “my yoke is easy, my burden is light” in Matt 11:30. The worst murdering drug addict and the noblest brilliant Ivy-league king are equal in maturity and living for God if they can die and let Jesus live within. The murderous addict’s self-life is sin, murder, living for pleasure. The king’s self-life is his superior brilliance and pride of life and appearances. But if both die to the old man, then Christ conquers them both and now can be on display within them.

We know internally when we are dying to self, we know because it hurts, death always costs something, death is painful, it is uncomfortable.

To some accustomed to winning, to controlling things and others, to being on top of life, to the very talented, to the very gifted and intelligent, to the rich young ruler (Mark 10:17-23) death is expensive, it comes with loss. To others accustomed to losing, to not getting our way, life and perhaps God himself has prepared them. Allowing death is not so foreign, and it may be easier to accept.

In Galatians 2:20, Paul said, “It is not I who lives, but Christ lives in me.”

If you want to dive deeper into this reach out to me and I can recommend a course or some great books.

Please comment below!

Comments 0

Stay Up To Date With Email

​-

I use & recommend Bluehost, buy your domain and hosting here!

Get Adam’s From His Side Book Here! Its about Church Transformaton from Institutional Church to Living Ecclesia

Visitors

  • 55,482 hits

Connect on Twitter

en_USEnglish
en_USEnglish