I am writing segments at a time about home churches also known as the organic church. This is the second part. If you would like to go to the first part, then CLICK HERE.
I will share some of my new experiences. I have been meeting at two different homes for church. I go to one on Wednesday where there are about 15 to 20 adults gathered together (and children as well) and I also go to one on Saturdays because that is the day we rest and observe Sabbath. We also find ourselves eager to get into the Word more, and gather together Monday nights for Bible Study and fellowship.
I have also learned about how we are a body of Christ, and that there is only one head. The body is many parts, and members with a different purpose yet we all contribute. Every member is different, but none is above one another (1 Peter 5:3). The Lord has requested us to be examples and appointed Godly men to be Elders and for women to be examples and mentors as in Titus 2. We are all to be accountable to one another.
Yet, there is only one head of the church.
Who is the Head of the Church?
Jesus Christ (read Ephesians 1:22, 23)
Key Points:
-Jesus Christ is the head of all things in the Church
-We are his body.
We are his body. We are his flesh and bones. (Ephesians 5:30)
Christ is the Preeminence (Colossians 1:18)
*Also heed the warning of leaders who want to claim the preeminence for themselves in 3 John 1:9, 10.
Christ is the High Priest for us (Hebrews 4:14, 15)
* The veil was rent, so there no longer needed to be a man to stand before us to God, but Christ alone. Also note Hebrews 7:26.
Christ is the Chief Shepherd and Bishop (1 Peter 2:25, 1 Peter 5:4)
Jesus Christ is the head of our church, and he dwells in our bodies. Every man in Christ is a priest, and we are to go to the Father through his son, Jesus Christ. We do not need any other authority or "shepherd" but Christ alone. We are to be accountable to one another, exhorting one another and suffering with one another and the Bible says especially as we see the day approaching. Beware of any man who seeks to place himself higher than the body, high as if he was a high priest or a man with authority, and has no accountability but "unto God alone."
Labels: Home Church
We are the church and Jesus is the Head and praise the LORD for that.
The pastor in the NT scriptures is to be an EXAMPLE of serving the people and being committed to the Word and prayer. Many pastors have gotten off track with building additional extravagant buildings rather than simple places for gatherings.
Christ didn't need a multimillion dollar building with chandeliers and pricey surround systems for theatrical performances in order to teach His followers.
People are told by many pastors that they need to seek THEIR advice on decisions in their lives and TAKE their advice or they are told they are UNWISE. That is NOT the way of Christ. We all have equal access to hear God's plan for our lives.
You can find a verse on that in 1 Corinthians 16:1, 2 and I will be writing an article about this soon!
I do believe in the commandments and that they are still in effect (since they are the standards of right and wrong), and keeping the sabbath day holy is the fourth commandment. If that was not in effect, we may as well practice idolatry or commit adultery. Even if we may choose another day, how are we keeping it "holy?"
And I liked hearing about how your elder points to the scripture and to Christ instead of himself. That's a great find! Hard to find nowadays too, unfortunately.
To take Sunday as a day for 'sabbath' really doesn't make sense when it comes to going TO church, because it's NOT a day of rest. Sunday is used as a day to serve. Yet we are to take a day of rest, we serve all week long. Serving Christ should be a lifestyle, not a once a week activity.
Yes, I see that on the first day of the week they gathered together to "lay by" some money for the needs of the assembly (1 Cor 16:2), but the verse above also states that they met on the first day of the week to break bread and to have preaching. I do not mean to be contentious but rather to try to understand your point of view and to point out what I believe. It seems clear from the above Scriptures that the first day of the week was used for breaking of bread, for preaching, and for laying aside as God had prospered them. For myself, I find going to church meetings to be very restful and satisfying, and for me that IS a day of rest. If you look into the history of the early church, you will find that the early Christians in the time of Acts and for some time after that (until Christianity started being destroyed through laziness and false doctrine etc), actually met together for fellowship on both the "sabbath" and the first day of the week. Also, the Lord Himself did things that were considered work on the Sabbath, and that is evidence that He did not believe in sticking to the legalism of the Old Testament, seeing as His coming introduced the age of grace and broke the legalism of the former era. Serving Christ should be a lifestyle, I agree with Lisa - ALL week long, including the old "sabbath", and the Lord's day. We can serve Him without it becoming "work" in our minds. When we think of what the Lord did for us, none of our service or attending of services should be work, it should all be joy! The joy of the Lord is our strength!
"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ."
(Colossians 2:8-17)
These verse show that Christ overcame ALL parts of the law. "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross" He BLOTTED out the ordinances... that means the law, He nailed the old order to the cross! We have no commandments to follow from the Old Testament apart from those the Lord and the New Testament affirm. This does not mean we can run wild and do evil... we are being changed into the image of the Lord Jesus and in that respect we will do good and not evil, but the Ten Commandments are dead to us! Instead we seek to be a reflection of our Lord Himself. We will do good simply because we are His Body, as we see in that last verse! It has nothing to do with the commandments of the Old Testament!
I am wondering if you can find more verses on when the early believers met for breaking of bread and worship.
I know that Lydia and her household met on the Sabbath and Paul and the other disciples joined her that day. I think one of Charlene's articles she had found many examples.
Hebrews 10:25 says to meet 'so much the more as you see the day approaching' So I think it's fair to say we are to meet more than once or twice a week. 'So much the more' seems to tell me as often as possible. So to argue about what day specifically to meet is beside the point. I feel that honoring the Sabbath as a day of rest has been beneficial to my family. I am thankful God taught us about it in the OT. I feel it's wise to take a day for resting and honoring God.
Yet when there is a person in need we should be there for them. I took time one Sabbath a couple weeks ago to help a woman who had been brutally beat by her boyfriend. I went to see her at Behavioral Health at the request of her family and the agency. I then needed to pick up a few last minute items before returning home to welcome our guests that day. I don't feel it's a matter of legalism to do what we can to keep the day for rest.
I used to attend a church on the 1st day of the week and it was a large day, morning Sunday School, Sunday Service, and evening service. I had positions to fill at every service. It was most certainly not a day of rest for me. I got burned out and exhausted to where I couldn not be a proper hostess to those who came to our home in between services. I serve the Lord every day in the ministry we are involved in and needed a day to rest.
Yet in that church even Saturday is not day of rest. It's a day of work to go visit all the people who previously visited the church. Then to work at the church doing yard work and cleaning the buildings. We didn't have much time together as a family when we did that. I think that we need to understand that it is indeed wise to take a day of pure rest. Our bodies need it as does our family. I think that's the part God would be pleased with over anything else.
Proverbs is a book of wisdom that we should follow also. It's not a part of the 'Law' of the first 5 books of the Bible, and Psalms isn't either, but chapter 119 states over and over again how important the Law is. Wisdom is wisdom and should be taken into consideration as we live in this sinful world. I think that instead of trying to reason away God's Word as not for today, we should be looking for His wisdom in it and see how we can apply it to our lives to help us live holy.
I agree that the ordinances of ceremonial law is a shadow of Christ to come. Absolutely! Yet if I choose to circumcise my son or rest on the Sabbath, that I can do so. Not because I feel like I have to in order to be 'right' with God. After all our righteousness is but filthy rags in His sight. But we can most certainly use His Word as our guideline of right living and apply it as the Holy Spirit leads us.
We need to be careful however of saying ALL the Law is gone. Otherwise how do you teach the sinners that they are lost without Christ? We have our pattern for right and wrong spelled out throughout the OT. The Law is used to bring us to Christ and show us our need for the Saviour. Pastor Comfort does a great job in teaching how to use the Ten Commandments when leading a soul to Christ.
http://www.bible.ca/H-sunday.htm
All you need to do is study the Bible and see the verses for yourself. The Sabbath was always the 7th day. The Believers gathered on the 1sy day (Sunday) to bring their offerings together to help the poor and break bread. Many times they met daily. So the day is not something I want to be divisive about. Just that my family chose Saturday and it works for us.
As a matter of fact, study all the verses about how the Believers gave in the NT and you'll find it very different than most churches teach today. The business was not to be done on the Sabbath because it is a day of rest. They met for worship on many days, the 1st day was their business day. Dividing the offerings among the people to help them.
If we really wanted to go in depth on the Sabbath we'd find more than what most Christians care to know. OT was extremely strict as to what you could and could not do on that day. Nothing business-like that's for sure. No buying or selling on that day at all.
Romans 14
"1Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.
2For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.
3Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.
4Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.
5One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. 6He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.
7For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
8For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.
9For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
10But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
11For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
12So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
13Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.
14I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
15But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.
16Let not then your good be evil spoken of:
17For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost."
On the other hand if someone was saying it's necessary to be accepted by God then we should have an issue, because we are accepted by God because of Christ, not because of righteous living. Our righteousness is but filthy rags.
I think that with as much a sin that is prevalent among Believers today, we should be more concerned with restoring lost sheep to the Lord than arguing over which day is better to meet for worship.
For many Believers, Saturday works for them. I never could understand why those who choose another day would be mad at me for choosing Saturday.
Thank you Charlene for letting us have this conversation on your blog.
Yes - thank you Charlene for allowing this conversation on here. And thank you Lisa for an interesting discussion.
May we all continue to obey the Lord as He leads us.
Regarding what the Bible says about giving, our church meeting goes against the modern trend and believes in using the money given for the purposes the Bible states it should be for - and they do not preach tithing as many modern churches do. Tithing a certain amount of money is not taught in the New Testament - each is to give as the Lord has blessed him or her. I am interested to know if this is yours and Charlene's view on this or not, seeing as I can see that you believe somewhat differently to the majority of modern churches. :-)
And I'm so glad you grasped the tithe thing. It is new to us as well but the new testament clearly shows to give above our needs, even to divide amongst the body so none shall lack and none shall have exceedingly above what they need. We also believe in helping the fatherless, widow and stranger. :)
I don't believe that website's 'history' is accurate on the Church since scripture shows otherwise.
http://www.sabbathtruth.com/sabbath_books_read.asp?ID=1167
(more info online too)
And Jesus rose on the first day of the week, because he still observed the Sabbath. He rested that day ;)
Where in the Bible did it say that Jesus told us that the Lord's day was changed to Sunday?
Since Genesis, God always said that he made the seventh day of the week a day of rest, and it is accurately called The Lord's Day. There never has been another.
(Matthew 28:1) made it clear that the sabbath and the first day of the week are different days!
From what I know (which probably isn't a whole lot, sadly), the Lord's day is Sunday because that is the day He rose from the dead - "early in the morning" on the "first day of the week" the women and disciples came to the tomb where Jesus had been laid... This HAS to be Sunday because otherwise the Lord would have risen on the Sabbath because there is only one "morning" of the first day of the week - Sunday morning (keep in mind that the Jewish calendar counted days from sunset to sunset rather than the days of the Gregorian calendar which are from midnight to midnight. So when it talks about the first day of the week, it means sunset Saturday, and when it talks about early in the morning on the first day of the week, it must mean Sunday morning). It was the day He arose, it is the Lord's day of victory, the day He conquered death and the grave. The term "the Lord's day" is only used in Revelations 1 from what I can see, and it is written by John, a disciple of the Lord, who would call that day the Lord's day because he clearly remembered the triumph of the day the Lord was raised from the dead. A very learned man in the things of the Lord, Matthew Henry writes, "The day and time when John had this vision was the Lord's day, the first day of the week, observed in remembrance of the resurrection of Christ. Let us who call Him 'our Lord,' honour Him on His own day. The name shows how this sacred day should be observed; the Lord's day should be wholly devoted to the Lord, none of its hours employed in a sensual, worldly manner." The Sabbath and the Lord's Day are two entirely different days from everything I can see in my Bible. I'm really trying hard to understand this subject and why there is a conflict in understanding the different days, so please can someone help?!
What Jesus did away with was the legalism of the sabbath. The Pharisees abused it by making so many, many, ridiculous rules about the sabbath (like no spitting outside of your home, etc). The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. It was given to us as a day of rest to enjoy it, not to be bound under the legalism and condemnation of it. It is supposed to be a blessing from God.
John wrote that he was in the spirit in the Lord's day in Revelation. I believe the Lord's day is the Sabbath because he created it and established it since the beginning, and to the end.
Exodus 20:8-11, excerpt: ".. but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God."
Jesus is the Lord of the sabbath, it is HIS day, Matthew 12:8, Mark 2:27,28
and I believe you will like this link, http://www.lordsday.org/
Sometimes when I learned something new that was outside of what I had always been taught, my mind would spin, and hurt. When that happens, the best thing to do is to step back, clear your head, and seek God to reveal his truth to you. Truth is revealed only from God, not by anybody else, and not by what Lisa says, or what I say either.
Matt 12:8 For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.
Mark 2:28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
Luke 6:5 And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
These verses and the one Charlene shared above seems to me that the Sabbath is the Lord's Day.
The mentioning of the Lord's Day in Rev is the Day of the Lord, when he comes back.
When He rose the Bible says this:
Matthew 28
1In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
2And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.
I says IN the END of the Sabbath. As it BEGAN to dawn TOWARD the first day.
And although it was RIGHT AT the changing of Saturday to Sunday in regards to the time of the day. (and in John 20:1 it says it was still dark. in Mark Mark 16:2 the women came at the rising of the sun) the Word never says to change the day of Sabbath to a Sunday. Man made that change on their own. It is not supported in scripture.
Don't feel awkward about questioning what an organization may have taught you. You have a right to find it out in scripture on your own. The Holy Spirit is the best teacher. See 1 John 2:27 and john 14:26
I am questioning Revelation 1:10 when John said he was in the Lord's Day. We are familiar of the Day of the Lord when Christ returns to Earth. John said he was in the spirit on the Lord's Day. I am questioning whether he was present in the Day of the Lord in the spirit, since he wrote Revelation.