Gathering in Jesus Name — Zac Poonen

Praise the Lord. We were looking last Sunday, the subject of why another church. That's a question that many non-Christians ask. Why do you have so many churches among Christians? And it's a question that new believers ask and very often they don't know the answer.

Divisions and the Evidence of Approved Believers

Are Christians people who just split and divide constantly or is there a reason behind it? You remember last Sunday we looked at this verse in 1 Corinthians 11 first of all which said that in verse 18, in the first place when you come together as a church I hear there are divisions that exist among you.

So this is not a 20th, 21st century phenomenon. It was there in the very first century and in part I believe it. And then he goes on to say this amazing word. There have to be these groups or factions or separations and divisions so that those who are approved will become evident.

So there you have the answer. The reason why God has allowed many, many groups and there are thousands of them today is so that those who are approved by God will become evident. Now I suppose every single group thinks they are approved by God.

Everybody holds the Bible and says, most of them anyway, that we are the true church. Many of them say that. So how do we know who is approved? There is only one standard that we can go by and that is God's word.

If it's not according to God's word, God cannot approve it. And so those who don't know the word of God, they will of course never discover who are approved of God or not. And if you are not a serious student of God's word, which he's given you in your own language, then you will think every church is the same.

And the reason is because you don't know God's standard. In the Old Testament, the Lord told Moses to build a tabernacle, but you'd never know whether the tabernacle was according to the pattern unless you read what God told Moses in Exodus.

And if you read what God's written in Exodus, then you can look at the tabernacle, you can know whether it's according to the pattern or not. But someone who just looks at the tabernacle can give his own opinion.

Well, I think, you know, this curtain shouldn't be this color or the pole should be a little high or something like that. It's human opinion. And very often Christians look at churches, Christians who have not deeply studied God's word, and they have their opinions.

They are fit for the garbage bin, the trash can. It's only one who knows God's word who can see is this approved by God or not. And if it isn't, you'll be able to say, here is something in God's word that's not found here.

How could this be approved by God? So that's the meaning of that. Those who are approved will become evident. And we always want to be among those who are approved. You know, if we can say that among Christians, the vast majority only seek God's blessing.

Their main prayer is, Lord, bless me, bless me, bless me. I mean, how many Christians are there who say, Lord, do you approve of my life? Do you approve of my family life? Do you approve of the way I'm living with my wife or husband?

You who see the secret things which other believers don't see, do you approve of it? Do you approve of the way I brought up my children? Do you approve of the way I handle my finances? Do you approve of my thought life?

Do you approve of what I'm watching on the internet every day? Do you approve of it? It's not just a question of whether it's clean. Do you approve of it? Do you approve the amount of time I spend on the internet or the amount of time I spend doing other things or watching television or whatever it is?

I think there are very, very few believers who ask that question. Do you approve of this, Lord? Do you approve? And when we don't ask that, it's almost as though we couldn't care less whether God approves of us or not.

And people who don't ask that question concerning their personal life and their family life, every area and aspect of their financial matters and other things, how in the world do you think they will ask God, do you approve of the church I'm going to, Lord?

I mean, that's the last thing they're interested in. The first thing you should be interested in is your personal life and then your family life. And if you're not seriously asking God whether he approves of those different aspects of your personal life, your thoughts, your words, do you approve, Lord, the way I speak to people?

Do you approve of the way I live at home? Such people will never be interested in finding out whether God approves of a church. And that's why you find the vast majority of Christians, they are, in a sense, spiritually blind as to what is God's pattern for his church.

Choosing a Church by God's Word

And so many people sit there and say, some people say, well, I go to this church because there's good singing. There are various reasons. Some people say, I go to this church because there's a good children's program there.

I mean, I've heard even such ridiculous reasons like, in the United States, I go to this church because there's a big parking lot. I don't have to look for parking for my car. I mean, there are all types of reasons why people go to church, choose a particular church.

Or one is, it happens to be nearby. And that's why I go there. So many people, I mean, you ask yourself, what is the reason why you decide to be a part of a particular church? Is it because you've compared it with God's word, with different aspects of God's word, and says, this seems to be, it's not perfect.

There's no church in the world that's perfect. But this seems to be the closest, as I understand God's word. And if your understanding of God's word increases in a few years, and you discover things that are wrong in the church you're attending, and then you find another church, maybe a little distance away, a little more inconvenient to go there, or you find that's closer to God's word.

If I were you, I'd go there. I would never choose a church by it being close to me. Therefore, I go there. Is it according to God's word? I wouldn't even choose a church according to, are the people very friendly?

I mean, that's a club. I believe people in the church should be friendly. And if we are not friendly, we should be ashamed of ourselves. But that's not the reason with which I would choose a church. I mean, you could go to some cults that are very friendly.

Well, I wouldn't choose that because it's not according to God's word. So, it's very important to know God's word if you want to know whether God approves of a church. Personally, I couldn't care less whether man approves of our church or not.

It's worth nothing. Because the church is something that Jesus is building. He said in Matthew 16, verse 18, I will build my church. And the mark of the church that Jesus builds, the same verse he said, the gates of Hades, the powers of spiritual death will not be able to overpower it.

So, when the powers of spiritual death are able to overpower something that calls itself a church, we can be pretty sure that's not a church that Jesus built. I wouldn't want to be a part of it. Who is more powerful, Christ or Satan?

We know that. It's Christ. He defeated Satan on the cross. And if Satan is getting more and more power in a church and he's able to infiltrate that church with his spirit, the spirit of the world, and the elders of that church are not able to do anything against it or restrain it because they're afraid they'll offend somebody or because they're afraid some of their members will leave, we can say that those elders are being influenced by the devil.

I mean, Jesus Christ has got certain standards. The powers of spiritual death, the forces of darkness are always seeking to destroy the church of Jesus Christ. But the real church of Jesus Christ will stand triumphant until he comes.

Leadership and the Condition of the Church

Now, the thing I want you to see is that when sometimes a church that calls itself a church does not stand true over a period of time, and usually the failure begins with the leaders. If the leaders fail, the church fails.

The book of Revelation, for example, makes that very, very clear. It's when the leaders were good. The church was good in the seven churches, two of them. The leaders were good. And five of the churches, the leaders had backslidden, and so the church had backslidden.

The quality of a church is not determined by the people who sit there. It's by the leaders. It's like in a home. There may be 10 children in a home, but it's the father and mother who determine what happens in that home.

If they are real, godly parents, they don't allow the children to determine how their home is to be run. And if there are godly elders, they don't allow the people in the church to determine how that church should be run.

Because the church is like a family. It's not a democracy where everybody has a vote. Some people think it is, but it isn't. The church is not a country. It's a family. It's not an organization. It's not a board where people have votes.

It's a family where God appoints authority. And just like in an earthly family. So it's the leaders that determine which way the church goes. In the Old Testament, we see that when the prophets spoke to Israel, they always said the problem is with you leaders, the princes, the false prophets, the priests.

Because they went astray, the people go astray. Now the reason I mention that is that when you look at a church, don't see if there are any hypocrites there. Because I'll tell you something in advance.

Every single church, including ours, has got hypocrites. You'll never find a church in the world without hypocrites. So if you're looking for a church without hypocrites, you'll go nowhere. You'll just sit at home all by yourself.

That's not the way to gauge a church. The way to gauge a church is not some, whether some two or three worldly people come there or ten worldly people come there. The way to gauge a church is by what is the standard of the elders?

What do they preach and how do they live? That's the test. Because that's, it's like the driver of a bus. I mean, I don't care if there are a few quarrelsome people sitting in the bus. If the driver of the bus is driving the bus in the right direction, I'll get to my destination.

So I'm interested in which direction the driver is driving the bus. That's more important to me. So keep that in mind as a little guideline. And let me proceed now and tell you Jesus' definition of a church.

Jesus’ Definition of the Church in Matthew 16 and 18

In Matthew 19, 18, sorry, in Matthew 18, it's the second time Jesus spoke about the church. He spoke about the church only twice. One is Matthew 16, 18, where he spoke about the warfare of the church and the church would not be, will not go under when Satan attacks it.

Matthew 16 and verse 18. And that's how our church should be, that we can expect to encounter attacks from Satan. And you know, Satan doesn't come with horns and hooves. He comes through human beings.

He comes through agents. Jude, in his letter, speaks about certain people who have crept into your church without anybody being aware of it. You know, if an elder brother is not a good watchman, a good doorkeeper, all types of people can creep into the church and create problems and corrupt the church.

And if the elder brother is not having discernment, he can give some of those people who appear to be very zealous but who are not spiritual, he can give them some responsibility and then the church is doomed.

So there's a great need for discernment. Satan comes sometimes with open attacks of persecution against the church, but he's never succeeded so much with that. He comes with deception. The Bible speaks of Satan coming as a roaring lion and as a serpent.

And you know, in Eden, he did not come frightening Adam as a roaring lion. He would accomplish nothing. Adam would have run away from that tree of knowledge of good and evil. He came as a very beautiful, subtle serpent.

That's how he deceives man even today. Persecution has never destroyed the church in any generation in any country, but deception has. So we've got to be careful that when Satan comes as a deceiver, the church can overcome it.

The gates of hell will never prevail against the church. That's Matthew 16, 18. The second place where the church is mentioned is in Matthew 18, where it speaks about discipline in the church and that's also needed.

Where sometimes a brother sins, Matthew 18, 15, and you need to, even a brother can sin. We know that. Then he needs to be told immediately and needs to be set right and if he just keeps on sinning, then it says in verse 17, you got to tell it to the church.

If a person keeps on sinning and refuses to be free from sin, I mean, if he leaves the church and goes and joins some other club, that's fine. But if he wants to continue in the church and to keep on sinning, the whole church has to be told, this fellow is sinning and we got to discipline him.

And that's the second place where Jesus speaks about the church and then he speaks about, again, about the authority of the church to bind on earth and then that'll be bound in heaven. Bound in heaven means where Satan has got his headquarters in the heavenlies.

There something will be bound if he bind his authority here on earth and we can lose people in the same way here on earth and they'll be loosed. And then he defines the church in verse 19 and 20. And it's not 200 or 300, it's not 20 ,000 or 30 ,000, it's two or three.

The church is basically, starts with two or three. It's like, you know, like a little baby being born in a mother's womb. It's a small wee little thing, two individual units come together, dissimilar units come together and become one in a mother's womb.

And the moment they become one, that's the beginning of a body. I mean, you know, those in the birth of a baby, I mean, there are so many dissimilar units floating around in a mother's womb, that accomplishes nothing.

A lot of churches are like that. A lot of units floating around. But when two become one, they join together, then it's the beginning of a body inside the mother's womb, then it grows. So it begins with two, never can begin with one.

In the Old Testament, God sent his prophets, they were all alone. But in the new covenant, Jesus sent his people two by two. And he says here, two have to agree. And then they can ask, and the father will grant it.

And because the reason he says is because when two are agreed, or even better, if three are agreed, verse 20, there I am in the midst, who is in the midst, Jesus is in the midst when two or three are gathered together by the Holy Spirit.

Unity and the Meaning of Gathering in Jesus’ Name

Now, Matthew 1820 is probably the most common verse quoted by churches and Christians every time they gather together themselves. They may not be agreed with each other, there may be tensions there, there may be all types of problems of relationships there.

But they quote this verse, Oh, Lord, we are gathered together in your name. And you are here in our midst. He's not in their midst, because they're not in unity. They're not in symphony, like that word says.

There's discord there. Some people who don't get along with each other, somebody who doesn't talk to someone. Then there's no unity there, and the Lord's not there. They can imagine that he's there, but he isn't.

It's a Christian club. I personally believe a lot of Christian churches are Christian clubs. Because the Lord is not there, because they don't emphasize the importance of being one with each other, the importance of unity.

And numbers are not important. That's the thing we see here. When Jesus speaks about the church, numbers are not important. I'd look for a church that's more interested in unity than numbers. That's one of the first things I'd look for.

Let me see a church which is not seeking to increase its numbers, but seeking to grow. You know, it's like a baby in the mother's womb. That body, as long as it's united, it's growing. But sometimes, this is what we call a miscarriage.

Something breaks apart, and then the body disintegrates. It can still be floating around its mother's womb, but it's not a body anymore. It's dead. So unity is the main thing. Even the shape of an embryo in a mother's womb doesn't look like a human being in the beginning.

It doesn't matter. You know, a lot of people are concerned about pattern. Pattern. I say, brother, pattern is secondary. Unity is primary. The shape of that baby in a mother's womb is not primary. That's secondary.

If it's united and it's got life, by the time it comes out in nine months, the shape will be perfect. So a church, as it grows, the pattern will be okay if there's unity and there's life. That Jesus is in the midst, and that's the important thing.

The True Jesus Saves His People from Sin

Now, the Bible speaks of another Jesus. So we need to ask ourselves, which Jesus is in our midst? 2 Corinthians 11 says, to the Paul tells the Corinthians, when all the wrong things going on in that church, he says, I'm afraid for you.

I'm afraid that you guys will start following another Jesus. And that when you come together and everybody's screaming away in tongues, and you're allowing that fellow who's living in adultery to just live there, and you dishonor the Lord's table, the way you come around it, and you take each other to court, all types of things happening in Corinthian church, but they gathered in the name of Jesus.

And Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11 3, he says, which Jesus is it? Is it the Jesus I worship? Is it the Jesus who came to earth from heaven? We need to know. Let's turn to Matthew chapter 1. This is the first time in the New Testament, the first time in the Bible, where Jesus comes is in Matthew chapter 1, where it speaks in the very first verse about the genealogy of Jesus.

And the real Jesus, here it is. This is the meaning of that name. He will save his people from their sins. Now, forgiveness of sins was there in the Old Testament for years, 1 ,000 years before Christ came.

David says in Psalm 103, bless the Lord, O my soul, who forgives all your sins. So that's not new. Forgiveness of sins was not new. Psalm 32, blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven. But here he's talking about something way beyond forgiveness.

All the people whose sins were forgiven were still defeated by sin. And now a new message was coming. Jesus is coming to save people from their sin. He's called Savior. He's come to save those who are forgiven of their anger.

He'll save them from their anger. Those who are forgiven of their lust, he'll save them from their lust. Those who are forgiven of their cheating and lying, he'll save them from those things. He will save them from their sins.

So when it says, I will be in their midst, I want to make sure that a church is gathering around this Jesus who has come to save people from sin. I want to be in such a church. I believe that's the only church where Jesus is, the real Jesus.

This is from Scripture. He shall call his name Jesus because he shall save his people from their sins. There are many Jesuses in the world. You know, there are many Spanish people whose names are Jesus.

Many Mexicans whose names are Jesus. Which Jesus is it? Is it this Jesus who saves people from their sins? Or is it another Jesus like it says in 2 Corinthians 11 3? And that you can find out by, if you attend a church even for a few weeks, you will know whether they're talking about being saved from sin or whether they're talking about how they can collect your money or whether they're talking about healing.

Healing is very important. The Lord does 101 things for us but the number one thing mentioned is he saves us from our sin. Because other things, so many other people can give. Speaking in tongues, there are people of other religions who speak in tongues.

But it's only this Jesus who can save us from sin. That is the identifying mark. I mean he may give us tongues and he may give us healing. He may bless us in a thousand and one ways but the primary mark is he saves us from our sins.

That's the way we identify. If you're gathered together in my name, what did we read? If two or three have gathered together in my name, Matthew 18 20. That's important. They didn't just gather together, they gathered together in the name of Jesus.

And so we go to the first time the name Jesus is spoken on earth and say with Jesus in the name of one who's come to save us from our sins. I want to gather in a church where people gather in the name of one who's come to save us from all our sins.

Then I can be absolutely certain that's the real Jesus. A lot of people come together to sing songs. They come together for entertainment. They come together because they like the music. They come to sometimes they come together because they want a handout or some financial help or something like that.

There's so many reasons why people go to church. But the real church is that which is gathered in the name of Jesus where they come together to be saved from their sins first of all. And we invite people to be saved from their sins.

There are many reasons as I said why people can be attracted to a church and there are Christian leaders who are so blind as to say we want to make a church that is friendly, seeker friendly. We want to find out what they're interested in and we'll present that.

Well I'll tell you the world is interested in a lot of things. If you're going to present that you're not going to gather around the real Jesus. If you try to attract people with music they're not coming to be saved from their sin.

They're coming because they like music. They'll be at a rock concert one day and in your church the other day. Or they're coming because they like the building or something else like that. So it's very important.

Why God Raises Up New Churches

So what happens when a church drifts away from this calling? Is God going to leave himself on earth without a witness? No. He's going to forsake that church and he's going to start again with a few people who will gather in the name of Jesus.

And that is to be saved from their sin. And that's always happened throughout the centuries right from the beginning. If you turn to Revelation you see that and see an example of that. Revelation chapter 2.

In the early days it was pretty simple. There was only one church in every town. There was only one church in Corinth. There was only one church in Ephesus. There was only one church in different places.

And if you're a Christian you just went to that one church. But it's so different today. And you can see the origin of it in Revelation 2 and 3. In the Acts of the Apostles we see the beginnings of churches being planted by the apostles and elders being appointed.

And we never read of any split anywhere. But 30 years later this is about 80 -95 means about 65 years after the day of Pentecost. Before the end of the first century things have already become pretty bad.

And then we need to know what happened. In Revelation chapter 2 the Lord says to the messenger. The word angel is really a word which means messenger like in the Greek and in the Indian translations. The other word messenger.

God has not appointed any angel in heaven over a church. Angels are ministering spirits to the church. They are not over any church. The word is messenger. The messenger means among the elders. Every church has elders.

Plural. So that there's no one-man leadership. There's a balance in a true Christian church. The apostles appointed elders we read in Acts 14 and Titus chapter 1. But among the elders one may be gifted with the word more than the others.

And he's usually called the messenger. The one who brings the message most of the time to the church. To that messenger the Lord says here is a message I have for you. Now these seven churches are fairly close by.

Maybe 40 -50 kilometers from each other. Not very far. But they were not one denomination. If they were one denomination and they had some bishop over them then the Lord would have told John send a letter to the bishop and he'll circulate it among the seven churches.

No there was no bishop. Each church was independent with its own elders and one of them was a messenger. So the Lord has to say send a separate message to each church. Even if it's 40 kilometers away it's another church with its own elders.

That's the New Testament pattern. It's not like the in the Jewish system they have what they call a seven branched candlestick or lampstand. But here it is not a seven branched lampstand. One denomination with seven branches.

In chapter 1 verse 20 it speaks seven separate lampstands. It's very different. It's seven separate lampstands. Each is a separate church by itself. Those are seven churches. They've got their own elders.

Now the advantage of this is if they were all one denomination then if one got corrupt all would get corrupt. They say if you have one rotten apple in a basket all the other six good apples will be spoiled in no time.

And that's why the Lord doesn't establish denominations because if one gets corrupt the whole thing gets corrupt. I mean this is usually true. You find a particular denomination. You take any one and you'll find that all the churches with that name usually have certain characteristics.

Good or bad. But when churches are independent of each other, local churches, the corruption of one doesn't get to the other. This rotten apple is in one basket and the good apple is another basket. It doesn't touch this.

That's why each church is to be independent. They have fellowship with each other. Maybe one apostle planted all of them. I mean Apostle Paul planted the church in Ephesus and the church in Corinth but he didn't join them together and make them one denomination.

No. They were independent churches. He had authority over them because he had planted them and the elders were submitting to him but there was no denomination. There was no central control. There was no central you know person determining who should do this that and the other.

The apostle was like a father not a elected chairman like in many churches. So that's the first thing I want you to notice here. So God protected. This way God protects one church from being corrupt by another church which is corrupt 30 kilometers away.

The Decline of Ephesus

So the church in Ephesus was one of those wonderful churches. I believe it was the best one in the days of Paul because he spent three years there more than anywhere else. But before he left he said things are going to be different when I go.

He told them in Acts 20, ravenous wolves will come inside. Those wolves were just waiting for Paul to leave. They knew they couldn't get in because Paul was a very strict doorkeeper. He wouldn't let the world come in.

He wouldn't let so many things come in. He wasn't interested in numbers. But he looked at the four or five elders who were sitting with him one day in Acts 20 and said things are not going to be the same once I go.

I know what's going to happen. All these wolves will come right in and you fellas are going to draw disciples after yourself. Maybe I should show you that verse if you're not familiar with it. It's in Acts 20.

There are two things he said. First of all the devil's going to come in through ravenous wolves in verse 29. Acts 20 29. He's after my departure savage wolves will come in not spare the flock. They're going to tear the flock apart.

Divisions, strife, deception, all types of things. And secondly I mean if there were five elders sitting here there in front of him he said from yourselves some fellows will start drawing little groups of those who are attached to him and draw the disciples after them and they'll form little groups.

And we see that happening. You know some elders getting certain people who are their devotees and some other elder has certain other devotees and it becomes like a split in a political party. That one political party becomes four or five and this is what happens.

And so in Revelation chapter 2 we can see the condition of that church 30 years later after Paul spoke to those elders and what he prophesied was fulfilled. Unfortunately the wolves got in and he says say to the messenger of the church in Ephesus still only one church there there's a lot of good things there.

Verse 2 I know your deeds your toil your perseverance you cannot tolerate evil men you put to test those who are called false apostles and they are not found them to be false perseverance you got endured for my name's sake so many good things you've not grown weary but I have one thing against you you have left your first love and you've left the most important thing see the first commandment is not to go out and serve God.

The first commandment is love God with all your heart and all your soul strength and mind. And the second commandment is also not to go out and serve God. The second commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself.

A new commandment I give you. Jesus said that you love one another as I have loved you you will to lay down your life for one another. So if we are not willing to love God and love one another everything else we do becomes worthless.

First Love, Holiness, and Discernment

Please remember that brothers and sisters when a church forgets to proclaim that love for God to love Jesus with all our heart soul strength and mind is supreme. We got to love him more than father mother brother sister wife children everything else.

That church has already started drifting. It's not preaching that. And if that church doesn't major on the fact that we got to love one another forgive one another not hold any grudges against each other but majors on activity activity and music and things like that and forgets about love.

It becomes like the church in Ephesus. So it says here if you don't repent and this is the point I want you to see verse 5 and if you don't see if you don't recognize remember verse 5 from where you have fallen.

Where were you once you have fallen. Can you fall when you have so much activity. And verse 2 toil and perseverance. And they still have their conferences they still have their music. The numbers are increasing.

Would you say that such a church has fallen. Jesus says such a church has fallen. See. Many Christians don't have discernment to see when a church has fallen. They think oh numbers are increasing more people are coming.

I'm not excited to tell you honestly when more people come to our church. And that's not the test. I praise God for those who have a hunger to hear God's word. Wonderful. But the test is is this church growing in fervent love for Jesus.

Are there more and more people in this church who worship who are worshippers who love Jesus more than anything on this earth and who are not looking forward to heaven but looking forward to meet with Jesus.

And who are really judging themselves severely when they find anything unloving in their heart towards one person in this church. That's the type of church that Jesus is looking for even if it doesn't have much activity.

Activity is secondary. When Jesus said the Holy Spirit will come upon you and you shall have power and you shall be my witnesses. One of the most misunderstood words verses he did not say you shall bear witness unto me.

Do you know the difference between bearing witness unto Jesus and being a witness of Jesus. World of difference. Bearing witness means I can live an adultery sin. And I just speak with my mouth and bear witness about Jesus.

He died he rose again. And that's what's happening in many pulpits today. You all of a sudden discover that the pastor has fallen into sin. He's an adultery pastor is divorced or something like that. Why is.

And I'm saying I say how in the world did all these stupid Christians sit there for so long and not discern that this man is like that. Or he went after money or some scandal like that. How is it. All these people didn't discern because they don't read their Bibles.

They like the music. They like the numbers. They thought God approves of this church. Because a club is popular when the numbers increase there's a lot of entertainment in that club. And many churches are clubs.

But mark of a true church is love. You have left your first love means you have stopped loving me like you did in the beginning. And you stopped loving one another like you loved in the beginning. You remember the early days the Lord says when you really loved one another how you cared for one another.