CHAPTER
FIVE
Many of the believing Jews in Jerusalem were
hopelessly entangled in the Law and the traditions of men. Because of the powerful presence of the
temple, they had great difficulty embracing their newly found freedom and the
grace that came by way of the cross.
After all, the temple was magnificent with all its gold, majesty and
history. It had linkage to the
tabernacle in the wilderness and the many visitations of God. However, it was a monument of the past, as
God had not spoken to His people through it in over four hundred years. Nevertheless, the power of tradition proved a
formidable roadblock to the Lord's plan for the future. Therefore, the Lord chose to move the center
of His new Church from Jerusalem to Antioch:
Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. News of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch (Acts 11:19-26).
The Antioch Church became the example, which Paul
used to duplicate on his missionary journeys. The Holy Spirit did not have to
contend with man's traditions there. He
had free reign to develop the Antioch church as He saw fit. The Antioch church was Paul's example, and
the modern church should model it as well.
We have seen, especially in the life of Paul,
that Judaism was the first great
enemy of Christianity. From its infancy,
Christianity had to contend with the strong prejudices of the believing Jews
and with the bitter malice of the unbelieving Jews. In its native region and wherever it
traveled, the church was pursued by this unrelenting foe. After the death of the apostles, the church
suffered greatly by yielding to Jewish pressure. Ultimately the Roman flock
succumbed and the remodeling of Christianity on the system of Judaism began. The
"new wine" in Rome was put into an "old wineskin” with all the
visible traditions of worship from the past.
The Jews' continued practice of shedding the
blood of lambs for their atonement after God’s Son's blood had been shed on
Calvary was absolute rejection of God’s perfect redemption. Although it was planned that Jesus was to be
crucified and become the Savior to the world, woe to those responsible. The Father was so angry and
offended at the rejection, persecution and crucifixion of His Son by the
religious leaders in Jerusalem that He marked the temple for destruction in 72
A.D. The Jews then stopped their
practice of animal sacrifices, even unto this day.
Our Father prepared the way for the Age of the Church, but Israel rejected
the Messiah and, consequently, all their own hopes and promises were lost. The opening scene of Matthew 24 is very
significant. And Jesus went out and departed from the
temple. It was now empty indeed, in the
sight of God. All that gave it value to
Him was gone. Behold your house is left
desolate. It was now ripe for
destruction.
Jesus left the temple and was walking away when
his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. "Do you see all these things?" he
asked. "I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another;
every one will be thrown down" (Matthew 24:1-2).
We can feel like we are at the movies watching
the terrible moments before, during and after the destruction of the temple and
Jerusalem as Andrew Miller researched the details:
After the Romans had experienced many disappointments and defeats in attempting to make a breach in the walls, through the desperate resistance of the insurgent Jews, even until little hope was left of taking the city, Titus summoned a council of war. Three plans were discussed: to storm the city immediately; to repair the works and rebuild the engines; or to blockade and starve the city to surrender. The last was preferred, and the whole army was set to work “to cast a trench” around the city. But the siege was long and difficult. It lasted from the spring till September. And during all that time, the most unexampled miseries of every kind were experienced by the besieged. But at last the end came, when both the city and the temple were in the hand of the Romans. Titus was anxious to save the magnificent temple and its treasures. But, contrary to his orders, a soldier, mounting on the shoulders of one of his comrades, threw a blazing brand into a small gilded door in the outer building or porch. The flames sprang up at once. Titus, observing this, rushed to the spot with the utmost speed; he shouted, he made signs to his soldiers to quench the fire; but his voice was drowned, and his signs were unnoticed in the fearful confusion. The splendor of the interior filled him with wonder. And as the flames had not yet reached its highest pitch. Titus little knew that a greater than he had said, “There shall not be left here one stone upon; another, that shall not be thrown down.” The Word of the Lord, not the commands of Titus, must be obeyed. The whole was thoroughly leveled, and razed to the foundations, according to the Word of the Lord.
We are indebted to Josephus for
knowing nearly every particular of the terrible siege of Jerusalem by the
Romans, for he was in the Roman camp and near Titus, the Roman general, at the
time. He acted as interpreter when terms
were discussed between Titus and the Jews.
The walls and bulwarks of Zion seemed impregnable to the Romans, and he
felt most anxious to come to terms of peace; but the Jews rejected every
proposal, and the Romans at length triumphed.
On entering the city, Josephus tells us, Titus was struck with wonder at
its strength; indeed when he contemplated the solid altitude of the towers, the
magnitude of the several stones, and the accuracy of their joining, and saw how
great was their breadth, how vast their height.
Surely, he exclaimed, we fought with God on our side; and God it was who
brought the Jews down from these bulwarks; for what could human hands or
engines avail against these towers?
Such were the confessions of the
heathen general Titus. It certainly was
the most terrible siege that the whole history of the world records.
The numbers that perished under
Vespasian, the Roman in the country, and under Titus in the city, from A.D.
67-70, by famine, internal factions and the Roman sword, were 1.3 million
besides 100,000 sold into slavery. Such were the awful consequences of
disbelieving and disregarding the solemn, earnest and affectionate entreaties
of their own Messiah. Need we wonder at
the Redeemer’s tears, shed over Jerusalem?[i]
The Christians of Jerusalem had been told by God
in a divine revelation to depart from the city before the war. They were to inhabit Peraea, a city they
called Pella. When these Christian
believers left Jerusalem, deserting the royal city of the Jews and the land of
Judea, God destroyed that generation of wicked persons, retribution for their
acts of violence to Christ and his apostles.
In those early days, Christians were not led of
the Lord, to erect a building to house their God, which was the custom of other
religions. I call this custom the
“temple syndrome”, which Christianity eventually embraced, and which has
contributed to its tremendous dilution.
God the Father formerly dwelt in the Holy of Holies, and His Shekinah
Glory confirmed His presence. At the
death of Christ the veil in the temple was rent, which was a sign, that God's
presence was no longer there.
Jesus told His disciples that after the day of
Pentecost, they would be filled with the Holy Ghost, and He would be in them. Their
flesh and blood became the temple of the Holy Ghost. They must have reasoned, "So why do we need
to construct a physical temple if we are the temple?" Especially since they were not encouraged to
do so by the Lord. I believe though that
there was a more significant reason, which was powerful enough to keep the
early church from building temples for three centuries. From behind the closed doors of the temple
came not only the conspiracy, but also the manipulation of Pilot to crucify the
innocent Christ, guard His tomb and lie about His resurrection. To the apostles and new converts the temple was
a picture of pompous deceit, by wicked hearts and evil minds. The martyrdom of Stephen sealed this image in
their mind and they never again went back to the temple in Jerusalem. “Do
you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom
you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price.
Therefore honor God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
When the early Christians came together to hear
the gospel or one of the apostles' letters, to pray together and to enjoy the
Lord's meal, which included communion, they met in private homes. Some of these homes are mentioned in the New
Testament. For example, there is Gaius,
whose house was big enough to welcome the whole community of Corinth. "Gaius,
whose hospitality I and the whole church here enjoy, sends you his
greeting" (Romans 16:23). The
house of Aquila and Priscilla; "The
churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the
Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house" (1 Corinthians
16:19). In Troas Paul was speaking in
the upper room of a house. "There were many lamps in the upstairs
room where we were meeting" (Acts 20:8). The catacombs, the burial
grounds of Jews and Christians, were also used as meeting places. Even in times of persecution, the Christians
always knew where to meet, above or underground.
I must make particular note of the church that
met at the house of Cornelius. He was a centurion,
and he and all his family were devout and God-fearing. He gave generously to those in need and
prayed to the God of the Jews regularly.
Cornelius was expecting Peter and had called together his relatives and
close friends. As Peter entered the
house, Cornelius met him. This event is
truly historic. It is the birth of the
Gentile church. This is really our beginning and God the Father took all of the
tenth chapter of Acts and 18 verses of the eleventh chapter to tell the story
to the world. I would advise taking a
few minutes now to read the story in your Bible.
For some reason Christianity does not celebrate
the significance of this occasion. I
believe we should celebrate this birthday every year with a drama, which would
include Cornelius, the apostle Peter, their visions, Peter’s obedience and the
results. It should also include Peter’s
profound effort to convince the Jerusalem believers who criticized him. It was the day all the prophecies were
completed, and the Gentiles were grafted into the Abrahamic covenant. It was the day God planned, letting all of mankind know of His Love for
them, as recorded in John 3:16-18:
For God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal
life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to
save the world through Him. Whoever
believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned
already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.
Those who really stood to lose were the old
tenants. Jesus told the parable of the
tenants. He went on to tell the people
this parable:
A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some
farmers and went away for a long time. At
harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of
the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away
empty-handed. He sent another servant,
but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. He sent still a third, and they wounded him
and threw him out. Then the owner of the
vineyard said, What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will
respect him. But when the tenants saw
him, they talked the matter over. This is the heir, they said. Let's kill him,
and the inheritance will be ours. So
they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do
to them? He will come and kill those
tenants and give the vineyard to others. When the people heard this, they said, May
this never be! Jesus looked directly at
them and asked, then what is the meaning of that which is written: The stone
the builders rejected has become the capstone?
Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on
whom it falls will be crushed. The teachers of the law and the chief priests
looked for a way to arrest Him immediately, because they knew He had spoken
this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people (Luke 20:9-19 emphasis added).
The question now is how are the new tenants doing
17 centuries later? We will take a
glance at the modern church in chapter 7.
One day, I overheard a brief conversation between
two pastors. The one pastor said, "You know there was no tithe in the
Early Church." The other pastor
said "Be quiet before someone overhears you." I didn't know how to assimilate what I had
heard. I didn't want to "rob"
so I continued to tithe, but I decided to take a closer look at Scriptures and
tradition and see if the pastor was right.
What I've found I'm sure you have not heard during the annual tithe
message from your pastor.
According
to Jesus and Paul we must:
Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who
have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give (Matthew 10:8 emphasis added).
What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so
not make use of my rights in preaching it (1 Corinthians 9:18 emphasis added).
Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God
for profit. On the contrary, in Christ
we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God, (2 Corinthians 2:17 emphasis added).
men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed
of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain (1 Tim. 6:5 emphasis added).
We find only two reasons in the new covenant that
money was occasionally collected and that is for apostles and the poor believers. Jesus' instructions to His disciples went
like this:
Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in
your belts; take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff;
for the worker is worth his keep. Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay
at his house until you leave. As you
enter the home, give it your greeting.
If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let
your peace return to you
(Matthew 10:9-13 emphasis added).
It was and still is difficult for an apostle to
earn a living because he is always on the move.
Each apostle had a home base; Paul's was Antioch. They provided his prayer covering. Usually, the church he was spending some time
with paid for his journey to his next destination. He was instructed to look for a deserving man
who would give him shelter and meet his needs while he was there. Most of the time Paul refused financial
assistance from the church he was visiting.
He often labored for himself and those that were with him. The Lord provided for him, sometimes through
churches he had already visited. Here
are some scriptures where the church was encouraged to invest in the work of
the apostles by providing funds, then sending them on their way:
The Church sent
them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they
told how the Gentiles had even converted.
This news made all the brothers very glad (Acts 15:3 emphasis added).
I plan to do so when I go to Spain.
I hope to visit you while passing through and to have you assist me on
my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while (Romans 15:24 emphasis added).
Perhaps I will stay with you awhile, or even spend the winter, so that you can help me on my journey (1 Corinthians 16:6 emphasis added).
I planned to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you
from Macedonia, and then to have you send
me on my way to Judea (2
Corinthians 1:16 emphasis added).
Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the
early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia,
not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you
only; for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when
I was in need. Not that I am looking for
a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account. I have received full payment and even more; I
am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you
sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to
God. And my God will meet all your needs
according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Philipians 4:14-18 emphasis added).
Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers,
even though they are strangers to you.
They have told the church about your love. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy
of God. It was for the sake of the
Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. We ought therefore to show hospitality to
such men so that we may work together for the truth (3 John
5-8 emphasis added).
The other reason for collecting an offering is for the poor believers. Occasionally there was a famine or a great influx of poor converts for whom the churches collectively contributed. Other giving did not go through the church, but directly from the giver to the needy as the Holy Spirit directed each individual. "For the right hand did not know what the left hand did." Paul's management style can be observed as he collected for some of the needs of the poor. When the need was met, the collection stopped.
During this time some prophets came down from
Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them, named
Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would
spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of
Claudius.) The disciples, each according to his ability, decided
to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the
elders by Barnabas and Saul
(Acts 11:27-30 emphasis added).
Now about the collection for God's people: Do what I told the Galatian
churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside
a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no
collections will have to be made. Then,
when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and
send them with your gift to Jerusalem.
If it seems advisable for me to go also, they will accompany me (1Cor. 16:1-4).
There is no verse in the Bible that says an elder or pastor is to be paid for the work he does. Pastors worked only within the local church, looking after people, but not for pay. Here is a closer look at some of the scriptures most pastors use to support paid religious professionals.
The elders who direct the affairs of the church
well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and
teaching. For the Scripture says,
"Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain," and
"The worker deserves his wages" (1 Timothy. 5:17-18).
The elders of the church are due double honor,
not double pay. The writer is saying that an elder's wages come as honor from
those he serves. The ox deserves to eat
because of its work; his wages are grain.
He then talks about the worker who deserves wages because he labors,
while the elder deserves honor not grain or wages but honor. If the elder does his job well, he should
receive double honor. Honor in the Greek means honor, not
wages. "Freely you have received, freely give" is consistent
with all New Testament teaching.
The Holy Spirit was very capable of impressing the believers' heart as to
what they should give to an individual need.
Money was rarely given, except to the apostles. It usually was converted into food, clothing
or shelter. The criteria for giving was
stated by Paul: Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give,
not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver (2
Corinthians 9:7 emphasis added).
In the small church, giving was voluntary. The tithe was part of the old covenant. It was never intended to be brought into the
new covenant. The early church had
nobody to collect the tithe, and they had nobody to pay a tithe to. The early Church had no storehouse. They had no building or staff expenses. They were free from the Old Covenant and had
adequate resources to care for the poor, the widow and the fatherless, as Jesus
commanded. No longer was there a
levitical priesthood to care for. No
longer was the priesthood hounding them even for a tenth of their spices!
The New Covenant held for three centuries. Then the wayward bishops reached back into the past, picked up the cup of the old covenant and poured it into the New Covenant. Up went the temples and back came the priestly caste to displace the early church designed by Jesus and led by the Holy Spirit.
It wasn't until the church buildings were built
and the clergy assumed control that the tithe was reinstated to pay for all the
new expenses. Now that the old covenant
was mixed with the new covenant, a dilution took place from which the church
has never recovered. Mixing the two covenants brought a
multitude of problems that seventeen hundred years have not been able to solve,
nor will seventeen hundred more years ever solve.
Remember how the Israelites wanted a king like
other nations? Instead of allowing God
to lead them personally, as He had since calling them out of Egypt, they
demanded an earthly king. He warned them
how costly that idea would be to them, but they wouldn't listen. So God told Samuel to anoint Saul as king and
give the people what they wanted. How
merciful God was to allow it. Imagine
how offended Jesus must have been to be rejected by His own people. The New Covenant notwithstanding, the
Christians in the fourth century, in effect, have said the same thing to Jesus:
"We want a king." Like Esau
selling his birthright to Jacob, they sold their inheritance of a royal
priesthood for the likes of an outdated priestly caste. How merciful Jesus was to have allowed it.
If you belong to a traditional modern church, you
are not exempt from the tithe in my opinion; you are a part of the old
covenant, and you are obliged to obey it.
Like any organization, the membership must sustain it or it will
fold. Being a member, you have consented
to hire a pastor and possibly a staff to perform various duties for the
membership. As a member, you have also
consented to contribute to the upkeep of a building and grounds. As a part of the traditional church, I
believe you are robbing God if you don't support it. Most of the tithe will go into sustaining the
system and very little will be left to meet the needs of people. That, my friends, is bondage, a lost
inheritance. Today's
pastors, as hard as they try, with all their visions and programs will never be
able to come close to achieving what the royal priesthood of believers accomplished
in keeping with Christ's design.
The Lord Jesus had John the apostle write and
send seven letters to the existing churches in the province of Asia, recorded
in the Revelation. These seven churches were the work of Paul the apostle, who
spent three years in Ephesus teaching the disciples who came to him from that
whole area. The first letter was written to the church in Ephesus and is the
one I would like to discuss. The church
was started about 50 A.D. John's letters
were dated 95 A.D., 45 years later. One
must remember that the church of Ephesus was made up of house churches,
personally discipled by Paul. Yet the
Lord had something against them:
To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and
walks among the seven golden lampstands: I know your deeds, your hard work and
your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have
tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them
false. You have persevered and have
endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have
forsaken your first love. Remember the
height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at
first. If you do not repent, I will come
to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the
practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat
from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God (Revelations 2:1-7).
The Lord commended them for their hard work, perseverance and intolerance of wicked men. He noticed their ability to identify false apostles and not grow weary while enduring hardships for His name. Yet in just forty-five years they lost their first love for Jesus. They had all the right tools, and in this case, church buildings weren't the culprit since they hadn't yet been built.
I am sure the Ephesians where shocked when they
received John's letter. I can picture
all the elders gathered together reading the letter, and then deciding to do
what the Lord said; "Repent and do
the things you did at first." The letter John wrote applies also to us
in 1997 and beyond.
More important to the Lord than doing everything right is not losing our first love for Him. Doesn't that prove that His priority is our relationship with Him? His love never fails, but ours can. Maintaining our love for the Lord is a challenge because we are humans, and He is not here with us in the flesh, though He is with us in Spirit. If we could see Him visibly every day there would be not problem, except for those like Judas. Losing our first love for Jesus is a gradual thing, hardly noticeable. We must periodically test our love for Jesus against our first love that we had for Him. If we find we have failed the test, simply do what Jesus said "Repent and do the things you did in the beginning."