David Pawson--Back to New Testament Church Pt1

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• published: 05 Feb 2016
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David Pawson’s “Back to the New Testament church”. Thoughtful Thoughts 6.2.16 – “I’m very well, over the circumstances!” David Pawson was invited to Finland to talk about how the New Testament Apostles structured the church. This series “Back to the New Testament Church” shows us how the church used to be. So, just what was the church? How did it use to be? Jesus used the word ‘church’ to describe those who would follow Him. The word ‘church’ was a word used to mean people who were “called out” for a purpose, people ‘set apart’ to do something…and Jesus used that word for the community following Him. (The word holy had a similar meaning.) The New Testament used the word in two ways…one to mean all believing people worldwide, and one to mean the local believing community that they were part of. It was only used to describe people and never buildings or organisations. (ie…It had nothing to do with organisational institutions and structures, as it does now.) The word ‘church’ was used to mean a group of believers. The word “Christian” was added later by citizens in the book of Acts trying to describe those who followed Jesus, and coming up with the new word, “Christians”. Peter tells us in Acts 2.38 that a Christian was someone who repented, was baptised and then filled with the Holy Spirit. Because the church were the ‘holy ones’ or “ ‘set apart ones’, for God”, they were persecuted and murdered by the world. (We are warned to expect persecution if we follow Jesus”). It was the Roman Empire which persecuted Christians for the first 300 years and thousands were murdered this way. The ‘church’ ate together in each other’s homes, (literally ‘breaking bread’ together daily), and prayed together daily. They used their giving to help the widows, orphans and poor, so that no one had any needs and they did this as the “tithing tax” was cancelled…(2 Corinthians 9:7, “no longer under compulsion”). They prayed over the sick, who were healed, and outsiders were afraid of them but who also respected them. The church grew daily. The Holy Spirit was with them personally, and not in the Temple ‘Holy of Holies’. When the church was persecuted it grew. We see this happening whenever Christians are persecuted. Whatever Satan did to destroy it, his tactics had the opposite effect. The church of Jesus Christ is the only group of people that gets bigger when its members die, as they are simply promoted to glory. The worldly people will hate, persecute, and murder Christians, but be encouraged, for the ‘church’ of Jesus followers are the over-comers who will see His face! Paul said he had seen heaven and he said he would rather go to be with the Lord than stay down here. Then Constantine, (the Roman Emperor) became a Christian and he changed the law to stop the murdering of Christians and did away with crucifixion as the method of a death penalty. Then for a while there was peace. This ‘lull’ in persecution was the quiet before the storm, but that’s for next time. We are in the world but not of it. If you live in a part of the world where the church of Jesus Christ is persecuted, Jesus told us not to fear as He has overcame the world and there is nothing more that they can do except kill the body if we follow Him. He takes us to be with Him, in His home, which Paul was shown. After that he just wanted to go to be with the Lord! Overcome, and live with Jesus. I’m John Dunning and that’s “Thoughtful Thoughts” for another week. (Contact us through our website, www.inspirational.org.nz)