The Church and Its Mission - Part 1 — Ern Baxter

Defining the Church Through the New Testament

We don't choose our topics in these workshops, they're assigned to us. So I want to do two, I want to do three things in talking about the church and its mission. I want to define church, and I want to talk about the experience of the first church, touch a little on apostolic teaching, and then we'll do some prayer.

In defining church, I'm probably being rather courageous to attack something like that in such a brief time, but when we're speaking about church, we're not speaking about kingdom. You don't preach the church.

Nobody in the New Testament ever preached the church. They preached the kingdom. John the Baptist preached the kingdom, Jesus preached the kingdom, the apostles preached the kingdom, and the last word we hear of Paul was he was preaching the kingdom.

Now kingdom, like church and other religious words, have taken on so many diverse connotations that when you say church, some people think of a building, some people think of a denomination, some people think of a theological viewpoint.

When the Bible says church, its simplest definition is found in 1 Corinthians 1 and 2. It's all those in every place who call upon the name of the Lord. That's the simplest definition of a church. Now there's a lot more to it than that.

But it's all those who in every place call upon the name of the Lord, and it's important. When you're talking about church in the New Testament, there are just two kinds of church. There's the church in the locality, or the church which is cosmic, not just universal, cosmic.

Some of the church is already in heaven. Some may not have been born yet. That's the vast cosmic congregation of Christ. When you're speaking about church in terms of the earth, there's only two biblical ways of speaking of it.

One is the church of the locality, the church of Rome, Philippi, Thessalonica, whatever, or the churches of a province, the churches of Samaria, the churches of Judea, the churches of Syria, the churches of Galatia, quite a number of them.

These are churches plural. There's no such thing as a national church. There's no such thing as a world church. Now, when you want to speak of all God's people at any given time in the earth, you want to speak of them in aggregate, then you speak of the kingdom of God.

They preach the kingdom. The kingdom is the government of God. The government of God is bigger than the church. The government of God takes in nations, takes in all moral intelligences, it takes in creation.

Now, to cut through a lot of this, let me simply say that the church to which you belong in your locality, that body of people is the local expression and deposit of the governmental authority of King Jesus.

Now, if you heard that, that will affect your praying to a great extent. When you realize that the church of your locality, all those in that locality will call upon the name of the Lord, that that is a local depot, that is a local representation of God's government in that locality.

So that the mission of the church, when you use it scripturally, is really the mission of the local church. Now, if you're talking about the mission of the kingdom, that's into something much larger. I would say this afternoon we're not gathered here as a church.

We're not even, we're gathered here as a part of the cosmic church, but we're gathered here more in terms of the kingdom of God. We are born into the kingdom, we are members of the kingdom, we are here as fellow citizens of the kingdom.

I probably, well of course, I don't belong to your church. I belong to a church in Mobile, Alabama. That's where I am church. Here I'm a Christian with fellow Christians in a kingdom context. Praying in your local church is very important because the sphere and the scope of your influence mainly is your community.

You will affect Ephesus if you live in Ephesus. You will affect Mobile if you live in Mobile. Now in the larger sphere, as a kingdom citizen with other kingdom citizens, you will affect the whole world.

Now maybe I shouldn't even attempt that without being more specific and dealing with it more in depth. But I want us to see this afternoon that we're not here primarily as members of a church. We're here primarily as members of churches who are gathered in a kingdom context and we would pray in a kingdom context.

Local Church Responsibility and Kingdom Authority

However, going back to the matter of the church and its mission, I'm going to talk mainly of the local church because that's where the activity is. The activity is where you are going to church. It's like the word covenant.

People talk about us being in covenant relationship and they get unhappy about that. They think we've made some special covenant. No, when we talk about covenant, we're talking about working out the same covenant that all Christians are in.

I'm in the blood covenant of Jesus Christ with Chinese Christians, but I'm not functioning in it as I am with the Christians in Mobile. Now it's the same with prayer. My most specific kind of praying goes on where I live and where I have influence and where I have sphere responsibility.

It simply raises the point that you live where you live, not primarily because you chose to live there if you're a Christian, but because God put you there. And if God put you there, he wants to make you a community of kingdom authority there so that your prayers will affect the place where you're living.

The First Church and Its Prayer Meeting

All right? Our second point. When we talk about the early church, so often I think we're kind of talking vaguely. The early church, and by that we mean the whole generation of Christians in the first century.

But the early church, as we find it dealt with in the scriptures, is really the church in Jerusalem. That's the first church. And that's the church where most of our prayer material comes from, at least in the first twelve chapters of the book of Acts.

The first twelve chapters of Acts, as you know, is largely taken up with Peter in Jerusalem. And the rest of the Acts is taken up with Paul in the world. And when you get into Paul in the world, you move from Jerusalem to Antioch and then to Greece and Asia and all over the place.

So we're going to be talking mainly about the church in Jerusalem because it was the first church. The beginning of a matter is very important. How did the first church treat prayer? Well, the first church, the first nucleus of Christians and believers was the place where the Holy Ghost came.

And they preceded that great event by a prayer meeting. And so Pentecost and the whole new age, in a very real sense, was born in a prayer meeting. Charismatic and Pentecostal people are inclined to start the book of Acts with chapter two.

They forget there's a chapter one. But if you turn to chapter one very quickly, and verses 13 and 14. Remember our Lord had descended out of this site, told them to go to Jerusalem. Carry, wait, don't go any place until the Holy Spirit came.

And so we read in verse 13, And when they reached the city, they went into a room upstairs where they were staying. Both Peter and James and John and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Lotis and Judas the brother of James.

They all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. Everybody was there. They were all there. The most important people in the nucleus were there.

And they were in a prayer meeting. And the whole thing, from the human standpoint, was birthed in a prayer meeting. After the day of Pentecost, they didn't stop praying. Now we've heard some of these things already.

And the person who talks about the third or fourth day of a conference finds himself synopsizing everything that's been said. But having started the whole matter in a prayer meeting in the upper room, we turn to Acts chapter 2 after the day of Pentecost, and we find that they continued steadfastly in prayer.

So prayer became a part of the liturgical life of the first church, as it should be part of the liturgical life of every church. We read in verse 42,. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching, and in koinonia, or sharing the common life, and in the breaking of bread, the celebration of the Eucharist, and in prayers.

Prayer became part of the permanent liturgical life of the first church. And if the first church is any example, then that tells us that we not only pray once, but we are constantly praying. In fact, the man who understands prayer knows that it is the very life breath of the Christian.

And he never does say a final amen. Sometimes I don't say amen to my prayers, because really all I've done is articulated something that's going on in my spirit. And why say amen? Because I keep right on praying.

Speaking in Tongues and Continual Prayer

Somebody came up to me after the first session to ask about the value of speaking in tongues, and we'll talk about that a little in the morning. I think it's been terribly underestimated. As I'm speaking to you now in English, my spirit is praying in an unknown tongue.

I'm aware of it. I could switch into it, just like switching a gear. I could move right into the language of my spirit. My spirit is constantly praying. So many times people think I don't know how to say amen.

I just don't bother saying amen, because I'm not through praying yet. I'm through saying it out loud, but I just haven't stopped. Prayer becomes an ongoing, constant thing. Now, the third thing was that it happened to them as it will happen to all who live godly in Christ Jesus.

Persecution and the Church’s Response Through Prayer

They suffered persecution. And the first persecution is recorded in Acts chapter 4. And when the man of God came back to tell about how they'd been persecuted and ill-treated, verse 24 says that when the congregation heard that, this is the Jerusalem church.

Now, let me be very specific here. I'm not even sure this is the whole church. This was a house group. If you look back in the 23rd verse, you'll find that they went to their own group. They went to their own company.

If there were 10 ,000 Christians already probably in Jerusalem, then this was just one of the house churches, and they went to their own group. Now, when these people in the church in Jerusalem heard what had happened, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord.

Now, I don't want to be snide here, but I do want to be very direct. They didn't phone their senator. They didn't take up a petition. They didn't call in a civil rights lawyer. I'm not saying that any of those things don't have some place, but I'm wondering how many times we do everything else under the sun rather than pray.

Somebody says, has it come to that that we have to pray? Oh, what needless pain we bear all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. The first thought when something happens should be to pray.

Now, through prayer you may be directed to do all kinds of things, but the first thing is to get in touch with God about the matter. Find out what He wants done. And when they prayed, they started out by using a word that's very interesting in the Greek.

There are two words for Lord. One is the more common word. This is a less common word. It's the Greek word despotes, which translates to English as despot. What they said was, O sovereign, independent, unilateral, only God, you who rule over the whole universe all by yourself, we recognize you as our benign despot.

That puts a good definition on despot, doesn't it? All right? And they said, O sovereign, thou art God which hast made heaven and earth. They immediately go to the creation motif. Isn't that interesting?

People say that believing in evolution is not important. Oh, yes, it is. I believe that God created the heavens and the earth by a fiat of power. That's what gives me leverage in prayer. If I believe man came together by fortuitous concurrence of atoms, I'd feel very funny saying, O God of a fortuitous concurrence of atoms.

That wouldn't give my faith any springboard at all. But I believe that one day there was nothing, and God spake, and there was something. And that gives me great courage to pray, O Lord, maker of heaven and earth.

Verse 25, Who by the mouth of thy servant David hath said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ or his anointed.

And of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate were the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were gathered together. For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

What a faith! No second causes here. Everything that was going on, they recognized as determined by God. Once you recognize that, then you can pray with authority. But you pray more in terms of what the Holy Spirit once prayed.

I haven't time to develop that right now. But a lot of our praying is out of our own wishful thinking. One of the first things we need to do is plug into the Holy Spirit when we pray and find out how he wants us to address the matter.

He may come up with some gigantic surprises. Verse 29,. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings, and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word. Somebody says, that's silly, that's what got them into trouble in the first place.

Well, they pray, Lord, pour it on. We're not going to stop speaking your word because the Gentiles are raging. They're raging because we're speaking the word. God anoint us and we'll just do more of the same.

And stretch forth your hand to heal. That's the big thing, God has some trouble. Just do some more of that too, Lord. And that signs and wonders may be done in the name of thy holy child Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together.

And somebody said, I'd love to see that. Well, it'd be nice. I don't see any moral value in it. Probably if it happened to us, we'd go out and start the movement of the shaking place. A lot of us are more interested in shaking and levitation and all kinds of phenomenon.

That was just something that happened. The place shook because God's presence was there. That's great. But that shaking place isn't going to save a soul. It isn't going to heal a body. It's just something nice to know that God's here and he's shaking the place.

But the next thing is they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and that really matters. And finally, they spake the word of God with boldness. Now, very quickly, all I'm saying is the thing started in prayer and continued in prayer.

And in crisis, they went to prayer and they got some shaking answers. All right? Also, in the case of Peter in chapter 12, when he was in prison, the Bible very simply says, and prayer was made continually of the church of God for him.

Prayer as the Source of Mission and Direction

The word continually is stretched outedly. They just prayed and prayed and prayed. And when Peter came to the door, they were surprised to see him, which is part of the human equation. Now, the final thing that I find in the first church that to me is of significance is that they prayed in mission.

We start, we pray at the beginning of a thing. We pray in the continuation of it. We pray when it's confronted. But we need to understand that the fulfillment of our task must come out of prayer. In 1973, I believe it was, the brethren in Seattle, the charismatic pastors there, called the first charismatic leadership conference.

I happened by the providence of God to be in Seattle at the time they were planning it. And they were asking what form it should take. And I was a guest and they very graciously asked if I had any suggestions.

I said, yes. I've carried on my heart for years a concern. I've lived a lot of years and I've seen revivals come and go. And they largely go because people don't find out why God sent them. I said, I have a deep concern that God's leaders will do what they did in Antioch.

That they'll come together with fasting and prayer and waiting on God until they hear the Lord say what to do. I said, I think it'd be a tremendous thing if you got the charismatic leaders together and we could take two or three days of fasting and praying and waiting on God and hear a directive voice from God.

Do you think that Paul and Barnabas had any question about what they were to do when the word of the Lord came? No, I don't know how it came. I'm glad I don't know how it came. If I knew how it came, we'd probably simulate it.

Somebody said, well, it came by prophecy. You don't know that. Somebody said, well, it was handwriting on the wall. You don't know that either. If you'd been in the meeting, you'd have known how it came.

The point is when God speaks, I don't care how he speaks, I'll know he's spoken. But he didn't tell us how he spoke. But what he said was, separate unto me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.

Then they prayed some more and laid hands on them and sent them away. I said, brothers, if we are already in 1973, assuming that's the right date, if we're already having problems with division and confusion of voices, wouldn't it be a marvelous thing if we waited on God until God spoke?

God is not the author of confusion. God doesn't offer 10 ,000 versions. There is one voice. There is one thrust from God. And if we can plug into God, this is what the Quakers taught us. They sat around until the Spirit told them what to do, and they wouldn't move until the Spirit told them what to do.

We have to sit quiet for one minute. We sing a chorus. Shout hallelujah. Pray a prayer. Kick over a chair. Do anything. We can't stand the silence. I believe one of the great things that needs to be done is that out of our intercession and waiting on God, we'll get some clear directors.

I don't know what to do in 10 ,000 things I'm confronted with. He knows what to do. I've got to get to him and find out. Well, everybody thought it was great. They said, oh, hallelujah. That would be tremendous.

Well, we had the conference, and we didn't pray. And we didn't fast. We discussed whether a man could have a demon or a demon could have a man. We discussed baptism by immersion or sprinkling or dunking.

We discussed everything under the sun, but we didn't pray. And the charismatic movement didn't get any closer together. And I may be just filling the air with words to say to you that it is my deep conviction that until God's people, leaders, and everybody else prostrate themselves in the presence of God and hear what the Holy Ghost wants us to do, we'll go on, every man doing his own thing as they did in the days of judges, and the Philistines will reap our crops.

Apostolic Teaching on Unceasing Prayer

Now, my last point is the teaching of the apostles, and I'm just going to say three things about that. First, prayer is to be without ceasing. First Thessalonians 5 .17 very bluntly and simply says, pray without ceasing.

Now, how do you pray without ceasing? You can't be on your knees. Posture is not terribly important. How can you pray without ceasing? Well, I believe that when you become filled with the Holy Spirit and you keep your spirit activated, that there can be a constant incense of prayer going up from your spirit.