It's Clean-Up Time in the Church — Philip Powell

Right, well this is our third meeting and our second in the series of the Bride of Christ, the church as the pure Bride of Christ. Last week we dealt with will the real bride please step forward and we looked at four signs of the emerging church in today's world.

Today we're going on to a fairly controversial topic and I guess we'll be making some controversial statements from time to time. If anybody wants to question it in the meeting or afterwards question anything to clarify any point, that's fine.

Cleansing the Church for Christ’s Return

But we will be making some fairly controversial comments. We're doing that quite deliberately and we trust that the message will get out. We believe that it is clean up time in the church. Christ is coming back for a pure bride and that's the topic that we are addressing today.

And so there are some verses of scripture I want to direct your attention to. One is in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 3. But we'll take a little run into that from verse 1. Verse 1, 1 John chapter 3 verse 1.

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God. Therefore the world does not know us, that is, is not intimate with us, because it did not know him.

Christ was the most misunderstood person that lived from the point of view of a worldly perspective. Verse 2, beloved now we are the children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, that is the second coming of Christ, when he is revealed, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is.

And then verse 3, and everyone who has this hope, that is the hope of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, purifies himself or keeps on purifying himself. It's a constant process, just as he is pure. And then in Hebrews chapter 9, Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 27 and 28.

And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many, to those who eagerly wait for him, he will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

The old King James says without sin unto salvation. Then just a couple of other references. One is listed there on your notes, the other one isn't. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 14, verse 12. Let's take a little run in here as well.

Hebrews chapter 12, verse 12. Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.

And it goes on to pursue peace with all men and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord looking diligently. Let anyone fall short of the grace of God, left any root of bitterness springing up, cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.

Let there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.

And then just something else I haven't actually listed here as a text, but it is in the notes later on. 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 17. Again, taking a run in from verse 15. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or a busybody in other people's matters.

Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God, and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?

Okay, last week we made reference to a meeting that we attended, and you can ignore the date there, I got the dates mixed up. But in actual fact it was in Matamata Baptist Church, and it was probably towards the end of last year, was it?

It was December last year, okay. And we went to hear John Jamison, who is the ex-commissioner of the police, and he made an incredible talk about truth and our present society. And he said this, and it remained with me, he talked about the situational ethics of our day.

And he said our society has been so affected by it that it has spilled over into the church. And the church has changed its focus, basically. The focus of the church has changed from being a pursuit of the holiness to a pursuit for happiness.

Now I thought that was really challenging, a pursuit for happiness. And we made reference to that, and we concluded our message last week, just to recap quickly, by suggesting that the one and only biblical goal is that adopted by Paul in Philippians chapter 3 verse 10, where he says, that I may know Him.

Now that is, I believe, the only legitimate goal within the framework of the kingdom of God. We can make goals in the world, that's no problem. But when we bring that motivation over into the church, ultimately we will have problems.

Because there is only one goal that we should have, and that is that I may know Christ and that I may make Him known. That's the goal of the church. The goal is to know Christ and make Him known to others.

That's the supreme objective of all true Christian ministry. So what we did then, we came to a conclusion. I want to pick it up from there, both for those who get the tape and also for our little group here.

Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life

In this connection we made brief reference to John chapter 14 verse 6, and now I want to return to that and develop it somewhat. John chapter 14 verse 6 is that wonderful statement that I personally always associate with Billy Graham.

I suppose it's because back in the 1959s and that era, which some of you can't even think back to that time, we had Billy Graham come through New Zealand and Australia, and he conducted these great crusades.

And one of the prominent texts was John chapter 14 verse 6, and it became a song. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. That's what Jesus said. So this verse, I always link it with that. And John 14 verse 6, now let me explain in the notes what I've done here.

Some people think you're trying to be clever when you do this. I'm not. But I do believe that the Bible was not written originally in English. You agree with that? It was written originally, the Old Testament in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek.

Okay, now words have certain meanings, and words change their meanings over a period of time, because of use. For example, the word prevent, just as an illustration, has changed its meaning. When the Old King James was written in 1611, the word prevent meant simply to go before.

It's the same as what our word precede now means. So there is a little verse in Thessalonians where it says, Paul says, now concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, he said, I don't want you to be ignorant.

I think it's 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 or thereabouts. He said that those who have died, those who are alive, he says, will not prevent those who have already died. Now, what he was saying was, those who are alive will not go before those who have died.

In other words, and then he goes on to explain, he says, when Christ comes and the trumpet sounds, he says, the dead in Christ will rise first, right? So he explains it. The word prevent doesn't make sense in that context today, because prevent has changed its meaning from going before now to holding back.

Does it not mean that? You know, if you prevent somebody, you're not just going in front of them, you're actually holding them back. So that word has changed its meaning, and that would apply to quite a lot of words.

Now, this is why, in certain things, just to bring out points, I have tried to go back to the original. Now, I'm not a Greek speaker, nor am I a Hebrew scholar in that sense, but I do have access to some helpful books, not commentaries, but rather concordances.

And so what we do is look up the meaning of the words as they were, and the usage as they appear in the New Testament, and we make certain conclusions. And this is what I've done. Now, you'll notice against the notes that there's a number.

For example, Jesus said unto him, I am the way, and then you've got this number, 3598. That is actually the number that appears in the Strong's Concordance, and it's identified further down in your notes, and the meaning is given.

So that's just to explain that usage there. Now, in this statement, there are really three things that Jesus says. First of all, he says, I am the way. Then he says, I am the truth. Then he says, I am the light.

Jesus said, I am the way. The Greek word is the word hodos, and it appears 102 times in the New Testament. There are two basic words, two basic ideas. It's translated various ways. 83 times it's translated way, just as it is here.

Jesus said, I am the way. Eight times it is translated wayside. Six times journey. Three times highway. And then another couple of occasions when it's translated variously. But basically, it conveys two thoughts.

There's a literal idea about it, and there is a metaphoric idea. The literal idea is a traveled way or a road, a traveler's way, a journey, traveling. So Jesus is basically saying, I am a road. The metaphoric sense means a course of conduct or a way or manner of thinking or a feeling or of deciding.

Now, just make a note here of Ephesians chapter two, verse three. For those of you who are making additional notes, I haven't put that in the reference. But in Ephesians chapter two, verse three, Paul talks about people who have been changed by the power of the gospel.

And he says, he says in this verse, he tells us how we are changed. He says that we are saved by grace through faith and that not of ourselves. It is the gift of God, verse eight and so on. But in verse three, he says, among whom, and this is the old King James now, among whom you had your conversation in time past.

Again, there's a change of meaning of that word conversation. Now when we use it, it means simply verbal communication, doesn't it? But then it meant actually conduct or the way we live. And Paul says in Ephesians chapter two, verse three, he says, right, you used to have a particular lifestyle.

You had a way of thinking. You had a way of doing things. But now that you've become a Christian, you are changed. You are no longer on that way. You are now on another way. You get the point? Jesus said, I am the way.

Now the thing that encouraged me yesterday as I went past the big march was that there were no individual churches identified, but rather there was a great body of Christians going. Now we have used the word Christian now in that wide sense.

But in actual fact, the early disciples weren't called Christians. They were called the people of the way. That was the first name that was given to them. They were called the people of the way, because Jesus said, I am the way.

Incidentally, they were first called Christians of Antioch in about what is it, Acts chapter 13 or thereabouts. They were first called Christians of Antioch, and it was a nickname that was given to them.

They said, oh, you know, they despised them. And they said, oh, those Christians, those Christ ones. But the name stuck. And it's a good name, isn't it? But that basically is the idea of this statement.

I am the way. He says, I am a course of conduct. I am a way or a manner of thinking. I am something which changes your feeling and someone who changes your whole basis of making decisions. Jesus says, I am the way.

Then he said, I am the truth. And just as in the expression the way. So in the original Greek word here, there are two ideas as in the word way. There's the literal and the metaphoric. So now here in this expression, when he says, I am the truth, there are two ideas.

The first has to deal with fact. The second has to deal with attitude. The word that is translated truth, alicea, could be rendered verity or truth. What is true in any matter under consideration or what is true in things appertaining to God and the duties of man?

Jesus said, I am that. I am true as to fact. I am true as to reality. When you go into a court of law, if you ever are under that doubtful privilege of being there, particularly if you're being judged, the jury are asked to look at the facts.

They're asked to decide. They're asked to put away prejudices. They're asked to examine the evidence. One great lawyer said, if I've got a weak case, I make a long speech. But if I've got a strong case, I produce the evidence.

Right. And Jesus says, I am truth as to fact. Beautiful. Same sort of thing. It's more powerful than that though. When it says verily, verily, it's amen, amen, I say to you, same word. He brings it from the future into the past.

You see, in that sense, it is a wonderful thing with God. You see, we dwell in the present. We can only exist in the present. But we have a future and we have a past. God exists eternally in the now. So there is no thing in all of the passage of history that he is ignorant of.

It is as if it's happening all the time with God. Now, we can't understand that fully. It's something that boggles our mind. But when it talks about you being saved, for example, you know, we make the decision at a point in time.

But as far as God is concerned, he saw it from before the foundation of the earth. Right. It is done. So when Jesus is using that expression, verily, verily, really, he's bringing the whole thing into his, you know, into the expression of his divinity.

And he's saying, it is so, it is so. And they're usually very, very powerful statements. Good. I am the way, then he talks about that in regard to fact, but then also in regard to attitude or as the expression really brings out the idea of truth as a personal excellence, that candor of mind which is free from affection, pretense, simulation, falsehood or deceit.

We live in a world where men and women engage constantly in half-truths. Right. You know that in the world. You know, that is part of our society. Jesus made a most remarkable statement in Matthew chapter six verses twenty-two and twenty-three when he said, the eye is the lamp to the whole body.

And he says, I say to you, if your eye is single, then your whole body is full of light. But if your eye is evil, if you've got an ulterior motive, then your whole body is full of darkness. If the light then that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness?

And this is embodied in that idea where Jesus says, I am the truth. There is no defeat in him. There is no deception. And basically what he says is that gradually as we get to know him, so he deals with all those areas of deception and deceit, half-truths and so on.

Now this is very, very important and I believe it's an issue that the church needs to address because we tend to bring that same motivation and we think it's clever politics and it comes into the kingdom.

Jesus said, I am the truth. Remember when Jesus saw a man and his name was Nathanael. Remember he looked straight into his eyes and he said, behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile. And he was so guileless that he didn't even take it as a compliment.

He said, how do you know me Lord? He didn't try to hide behind it. He didn't say, no that's not me Lord. He said, how do you know me Lord? And he said, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.

And as Jacob Prask, and that was the other thing I meant to tell you in my announcement and I forgot, I'll tell you after I finish the message. But Jacob Prask is a person who has studied Madrash method of interpreting the scriptures, of interpreting the scriptures, said that what Jesus was actually saying to Nathanael there was, before history started, I saw you.

Because the tree was the emblem of the tree of life. And he said, before Philip called you, he wasn't just talking about a literal tree, but he was talking about the start of it all. Because Christ was more than a man.

And that was why Nathanael said, you are the Messiah. You are the Christ, the son of the living God. But that expression, without hypocrisy. Now when I mentioned this in a very notable leadership meeting in Australia, and I said I believe that God wants us to get to the point where, you know, he wants to deal with that two-facedness which we sometimes put on.

And somebody quoted then, to try and counter what I was saying, he said, oh well even Paul said, I've won you with guile. But actually if you look at that verse again, it's interesting. Paul is making a bit of a confession there.

And he's actually saying, well you haven't got anything against me. And then he thought, well yes, maybe I did try to win you with guile. And he's not putting it forward as a commendable thing to do, but even the great apostle may have had that weakness in his own character which was highlighted when he made that expression.

I still believe God wants us to be guileless. He wants us to be open people. And then, and only then, can we really claim to be people of the way. Now, when people say this, you know, you see, we are human.

And I'm not putting forward myself as a supreme example. I believe I've got to keep the scriptures. And by the grace of God I try to measure up to them, otherwise I'm a hypocrite. But we don't measure truth by example.

What we have to do is see the truth, and then try and live the truth according to the health of the Spirit of God. And that is the way that we humbly accept the correction of the Word of God, and we come under its authority.

Now this word truth has another sort of aspect which is somewhat linked here. But it is a negative in the sense that it comes from a root which means to lie hidden. But it's a negative of that which lies hidden.

So what Jesus is saying is that the way I live, and the way I want you to live, is that there is nothing that is hidden. But rather, everything is open before God. You see, we're crazy if we think we can hide from God.

He knows everything. And so Jesus is saying here, I am the way, I am a way of living, of thinking, a manner of feeling, and deciding. I am the truth. There is nothing hidden, but it is open. Now out of this, you remember, Pilate made a statement in John chapter 17, and asked the question.

Pilate therefore said to him, Are you a king? Jesus answered, You say that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world. And then he adds this, that I should bear witness to the truth.

Everyone that is of the truth hears my voice. Pilate said to him, What is truth? And you'll notice, if you look on in that context that Jesus didn't answer. He didn't have to. By just standing there, he was truth.

And Pilate was smitten in his very being because he encountered absolute truth in Jesus. Now it seems to me that in the church of Jesus Christ today, we have almost lost the art of presenting men and women with Christ.

We present them with all sorts of notions, all sorts of ideas, all sorts of schemes to get joy, happiness, and the rest of it. But our job is to present men and women with Jesus Christ. And when they encounter him, they feel the very truth which flows from his person.

Jesus said, I am the truth. Pilate said, What is truth? Jesus said, Everyone that really hears my voice, everyone that is of the truth, will hear my voice. In other words, I believe that what he's alluding to here is the fact that every sincere, searching heart will ultimately be brought into contact with the one who is the truth.

I remember we were talking just before coming to the meeting today. We were told that we were going to have an unexpected or an unknown guest in our home yesterday. Friday, was it? Friday. And we didn't know who it was.

This person rang up a couple of weeks ago and said, Our name is still listed, well, under my name, but then underneath it's got Eastside Christian Center because we haven't changed the thing in the telephone book.

And so my address is not identified there. And he rang up and he said, Where's Eastside Christian Center? So I explained that we weren't any longer related to that, but I gave him the address just in case that's what he wanted.

And he said, Well, no, really, I want your address. So I gave it and then sort of afterwards said, Well, who are you? You know, I don't always like to give an address like that. He sounded a nice person, mind you.

And he went quiet. I said, You don't want to tell me who you are? And he said, No. I said, Do I know you? He said, Oh, yes, you know me. All right. So I said, Oh. He said, I'll see you on June the 25th.

I said, Oh, that's interesting. 24th, was it? 24th. Yeah, thanks. Okay. All right. Clever, you people. June the 24th. These people are working banks. You've got to watch them. And keep a note of dates.

Okay. June the 24th. And we didn't know who it was and we conjectured who it was. And I did sort of, I did say it could possibly be this person. Anyway, he turned up on our door and it's a person I haven't seen.

Well, he reckons it's for 40 years. I said, I'm not that old. But it was a person I knew in school days. And he was back in our home today because he wanted to see mum and dad. He hadn't seen them either for years and years.

But it was a person that I was very friendly, perhaps my best friend in school. And I hadn't seen him all that period of time. When we were together anyway, to cut a long story short, we were talking about a person who came through New Zealand back, way back in the 50s, who was a missionary in Belgian Congo in those days, what became Zaire.

Incredible man. And I'm just thinking of it now. This man, William F .P. Burton, his name was. He told the story when he went to the Congo, nobody else had been there with the missionary message. And he went into, you know, jungle territory.

He went among the the people who were cannibals and witness of Jesus and amazing stories. He could tell amazing, amazing stories. After 30 years of working for Jesus there in Belgian Congo, he left behind 1000 churches.

But I remember one little story he told of a of a person who and I don't know, he did write a book called Moody Congo, Congo Hunter. And it might have been this Moody. I can't remember exactly. But he actually was nowhere near any missionary, this particular person.

He was a heathen. He didn't know the gospel. And he trekked right across the country, eventually got to Mr. Burton's home. And he said, I've come to hear a message. And he said, God has directed me right across the country to your home.

Now, he didn't know Jesus. He didn't know the gospel. But he had a desire to know truth. And Jesus said, everyone who desires to know truth, everyone who hears my voice, everyone, everyone, praise God.

Now, I don't know about you. But there are many things about, you know, eternity, hell and heaven that I don't fully understand. People say to me, you know, if they haven't accepted Christ, and if they have been presented with Christ, certainly and rejected him, then the Bible is very, very clear.

But there are certain areas that I am not certain about. But I know this, that the God of all the earth will do that which is right. And there is something, something mysterious about the power of God.

We never know how many deathbed conversions there will be until we get to heaven. But God is incredibly kind. I'm absolutely convinced of that. And the one who came into the world and said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, came not to cast people into hell, came not that people should perish, but he came that they might have life.

Now, I know that our motivation must always be that everybody has an opportunity to make a decision. And we must preach the gospel as much as we are able. But we cannot, we do not know everything, how God, how it's going to unfold ultimately.

But the one who said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, said that he that heareth my voice, everyone who knoweth the truth, that is of the truth, everyone that is of the truth, heareth my voice. Okay?

So Jesus said, I am the way, Jesus said, I am the truth, Jesus said, I am the life. And that word that is translated life appears 134 times in the New Testament. Now there are three ideas here, and let me run down them quickly.

Christ as the Source of Natural, Spiritual, and Eternal Life

There is the idea of natural life. Jesus is claiming to be the life. He is the source of natural life. Paul teaches this in Acts chapter 17 and verse 28, when he says, and he quotes a poet, a Greek poet.

He says, as the poet has said, one of your own Greek poets, in him we live and move and have our being. Now there is nothing spiritual about that. That is a purely natural statement that the life that we live, the natural life that we live, we derive from God.

Did you hear that? Incredible? But the life, the source of life, God is the source of life. None of us has inherent life, we have imparted life. God alone has inherent life. He is the source of life. We are dependent.

Our life is but a vapor, it can go like that. It may last for threescore years and ten, and then it is extended beyond that. But how many do you know who haven't reached that period of time? My family here, we know.

I mean, I lost a brother when he was, how old was he mum? About fifteen. Young. In him we live and move and have our being. He is talking about natural life. He is also talking about spiritual life, when he says, I am the life.

John chapter 10 verse 10, which we are going to come to in a moment. The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they may have life. Spiritual life now he is talking about, that they may have life.

Life that is the absolute fullness of life, both essential and ethical, which belongs to God. He is talking about a spiritual dimension when he says, I am the life. But then he is also talking about another dimension, he is talking about an eternal dimension, when he says, I am the life.

Life that is real and genuine. Life that is active and vigorous, devoted to God, and that will last forever. So last week, in looking at the nature of the emerging church, we suggested that there are four characteristics, which are hallmarks of this bride of Christ that we are talking about.

The emerging church is first of all characterized by real life. The emerging church is characterized by true holiness. The emerging church is characterized by genuine unity. And the emerging church is characterized by sincere love of the truth.

Now that begs a question which we need to ask. We have put it there for you in your notes. Is there an emerging church in today's world? I want to give you four illustrations. One of them appears in the Omega Times, which is attached to your notes.

I knew the very well-known evangelist in Britain called David Watts, and he worked among the Anglicans, a very fine man, and I worked with him quite closely when I was in Manchester. And David Watts used to have a saying about the world.

He said, the world generally, incidentally he died when he was 40, he was a great man and we never understand the mystery of it all. He died of cancer, which is where there is no simple answer to that whole area of healing and the mystery of it.

I don't understand it. But David Watts was a great man doing a tremendous job for God. And David Watts had a saying. He said generally in the world, out there, the world says yes to Jesus, but no to the church.

Now I think that's true. Really, they want Jesus, but they don't want all the trappings and trimmings that come with the church. Another evangelist in Australia used to say a similar thing. He works among the bikers, his name is John Smith, and he has a tremendous grasp of things, although I wish he would use, you know, sometimes he uses swear words, and I just wish he wouldn't do that.

But he has a tremendous grasp on things. And he makes a statement, he says, the world says, Jesus, OK, the church, no way. Now I've found that so, both in Australia and in New Zealand, and increasingly so.

When I was over in Australia, I found people were moving out of the church, and they were disillusioned by the organized or the structured church. Now I've noticed this as it happens, and I believe it's happening very much here in New Zealand, that people are becoming disillusioned with the structured church, and they gravitate into groups, and it was happening in England for a period there, and I found even my own colleagues couldn't understand it, and yet that was how they had formed originally as a group.

And it's funny, isn't it, when this sort of thing happens, I've worked mainly with the servants of God most of my life, but as soon as something new starts to happen, the old starts to look askance at it, and the AOG, a lot of the leaders in England were very critical of the house church movement as it was spoken of, but I began to see something that was happening, it was happening, it's happening in Australia now, and it's happening increasingly, and it will continue to happen increasingly in New Zealand.

Why is it? Is this this sort of new emerging church? When I came to Hamilton, about how long have we been here now, 18 months, something like that, we made contact with somebody because we wanted some equipment, we wanted a photocopier, and some fax equipment, and the person who came out to see us was a new Christian, and we asked him how it all came about, and he said, oh well, I just got hold of a Bible, and I started to read the Bible.

And he said, I believed, and I began to see that there was something in it, and he said, I went round to the churches, and I didn't feel at home, and many of the churches he went to, and eventually he gravitated to a fairly new group, which I won't identify, but here in the city of Hamilton.

A little while ago, shortly after we moved into St. Andrews, I was walking by the river, and I met a man, and started to witness to him, and he said, oh yeah, I'm keen on Jesus, but he said, I'm disillusioned with the church, and then, just this last week, we had a person come to our home to help us with a communication problem that we have with our equipment, and we started talking to him, and he said, it's funny that, I offered him a book by a friend of mine, who is a lawyer in Britain, who has written on the resurrection, and Val Grieve, some of you remember meeting him when he came through not so long ago, and I offered him this book about the resurrection, and I said, look, it's proving the resurrection from a legal perspective, and he said, oh, that's very interesting, he said, only a little while ago, I went out and bought a Bible, and he said, I'm reading the Bible, he said, but I had difficulty understanding the old King James, and he said, so I've got a modern version now, and he said, I'm reading it, and I felt, well, yes, there's something happening, there's something happening, people are being turned on to reality, now, I believe this is a sign of the emerging church, now, I believe, with all of that in the background, and how long have I got?

Pardon, about 15 minutes, have I? About 15 minutes, got to get it on the take, so I've only got an hour, 7 past 4, getting late, yeah, OK, pack everything, OK, four areas which we, the church, must address, J .B. Phillips, in 2 Corinthians 5, 7, that's his rendering of that verse, says this, for if any man is in Christ, he becomes a new person altogether, the past is finished and gone, everything has become fresh and new, is that true?

If any man is in Christ Jesus, he has become a brand new person, the past is finished and gone, everything has become new, if everything has become new, why are churches and so-called counsellors all the time addressing that which is old, why are they?