227. IS JESUS IN YOUR CHURCH?

(The Information & Edification Series – Batch 5)

In Revelation 3:20, the Lord Jesus conveyed to the Laodicean Church who he stated were lukewarm because they were neither cold or hot and that because of this lukewarm condition, he would spue them out of his mouth, ^“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”

On 24th March, 2022, I listened to a Sermon by Dr. H T. Spence. He stated that we are in a day where there are many people who ‘profess’ Christianity but that the fervent spirit that once existed in our godly forefathers and many who went before, seemed to be lacking from many such people. He stated that what we have today are many people whose love has grown cold and who have lost the reason for why the Church was established in the first place.

He went on to state that we have people today trying to build Churches with Jesus standing outside the door. Yet, he stated: “Christ is the key, not the Church. We must build with Christ.”

He therefore reminded that we cannot build the Church without Christ and he was quite right. For, to do so is to be deluded, to have some semblance or form of religiosity but to be empty, to have no real substance. For, Christ is the cornerstone, the rock, the very foundation.

MY question to you therefore is this: Is Jesus in your Church? Is he really at the head?

In Ephesians 2:19-20, Paul wrote to Church at Ephesus, telling them, “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone“.

In Matthew 7:24, Jesus himself stated, “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house: and it fell not for it was founded upon a rock.”

1 Corinthians 10: 1-4 states:

“Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat;And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.”

One sure way to test if Jesus is in your Church and heading it, is the extent to which your Church submits to the Word of God (the Bible), which is Jesus Christ in written form (John 1:1,14) and therefore OBEYS it.

Is the Word of God, in an unadulterated form, the authority above all other authorities at your Church? Does it have the final say on all matters?

Many so-called Churches today have put God’s instructions on a back-burner, rejected His counsel, doubted his wisdom and applied instead their own intellect and ideas and yet, call themselves a Church, when it is clear that for them, Jesus is not Lord. Their own self-will is.

Jesus himself stated in Luke 6:46, at the hypocrisy of such people, “…why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?”

If Jesus is not Lord in the life of individuals, he will not be Lord in their collective ‘gatherings’, even if they call themselves and the building they attend, ‘Church’.

We cannot put Jesus out of our congregation or refuse to let him come in and yet think that we have a Church and work hard in our effort, to build it in our own strength. This is impossible. We will be fooling ourselves. He must be central to the theme at all times and preeminent, for the Church which comprises of Christians is founded on HIM, Christ and nothing else. He is the foundation. He is the Chief cornerstone. Simply put, without Jesus, there is no Church.

In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said, “…upon this rock I will build MY church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Of course, Jesus was referring to the real Church, comprising of all those who truly believed on him, his resurrection, had confessed with their mouths that he was Lord and therefore, had submitted and surrendered their lived to his Lordship and leading.

The people who had some semblance of being a Church but in truth and in fact, had hearts that were far from him were nothing more than deluded pretenders. For, without Jesus as Lord, what they had was not a Church but a circus.

Let’s get one thing straight: There can be no Church without Jesus as Lord over the life of the congregants and there can be no real Church growth in terms of numbers or spiritual maturity, without him.

Because the Church belongs to him and his rightful place is at the helm, in Acts 2:47, after the gospel of Jesus Christ was given and received, “…the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” and in Chapter 5:14, it states that “…believers were the more added to the Lord…”

He alone has the power to add as he alone is Lord and has the power to forgive sins. He alone died for our sins and rose himself back up from the grave.

The pews of a building may be full and bursting at the seams with members therefore but not all members are converts. Not all Church attendees are part of Jesus’ Church. Only those that HE adds (and he is never mistaken as he knows the hearts of all men) become part of the Church, which the scriptures tell us is the body of Christ.

(Written on 24th March and added to on 2nd April)

Dear Reader, if you found the above Article interesting, informative, beneficial or edifying, you may also be interested in reading the following: