Matthew 16:18

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

Colossians 2:8

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ

John 8:31-32

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

In Exodus 33:15, Moses told God “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.” This is the heart of the church. If God does not show up, us meeting is little more than a social club.

Colossians 2:8 points out a key distinction between the Christian church and everything else. Does what we do depend on human tradition and the basic principles of this world, or does it depend on Christ? Focus on the word “Depends”. Think about that word. Everything must be built upon on something. If that ‘something’ fails or changes, or if it shifts or even disappears, your structure comes breaks or even crashing down in. That is how it should be with our churches.

The church is not a building, it is His people coming together.

In the same way that Jesus could say that His Kingdom was not of this world while He stood in front of Pilate, so the true Church of Jesus Christ is not what appears to the natural eye. It has form, structure, order, a leader, and a place of meeting, but it is none of these, nor does it depend on them to either exist or function. I doesn’t depend on its rules, nor what is done in a meeting, or any of this. Rather, its foundation must be those leaders who, like Peter, can be called a ‘rock’. And, at its head, or cornerstone, must be Jesus Christ. If that cornerstone were to be removed, the church would crumble and turn to rubble, whether or not there were still ‘meetings’ and a ‘building’. The Church of Jesus Christ would cease to be. It is a spiritual thing, which, like many other spiritual things, has a physical expression.

So this is one of the places that the question can arise, what is our just tradition and what is the truth? And, perhaps more complicated, what is the truth being expressed through traditions? That is, things we do based on truth, which may or may not embody all truth, but which must be evaluated and assessed carefully.

Obviously, one must be spiritually minded and guided by the Spirit to get very far in this discussion. I Corinthians 2:14 says that the man without the Spirit does not accept the things from the Spirit because they are foolishness to him. It says that he cannot accept them because they are spiritually discerned. Paul was so concerned in writing to the Galatians turning to and relying on their previous traditions that he wrote, “I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.” (Galatians 4:11).

There is a basic truth. What we do must depend on Jesus. And, it must depend upon people who have a revelation from God that He is the Christ.

Most of the disciples must have believed, suspected, or thought on some level that Jesus was the promised Jewish Messiah, or they wouldn’t have followed Him for 3 years, and several times they remarked that He was. Yet it wasn’t until near the end of Jesus’ ministry that He asked His disciples who they thought he was. Then, Peter responded and said, “You are the Christ, the son of God.” Jesus recognized the difference in this from the other admonitions of who He really was. He identified something that Peter couldn’t get for himself, nor could it have been given to him by any human. Flesh and blood didn’t put it there, but only the Living God Himself. There was a difference. And that revelation, or that man with that revelation, is what Jesus said would be His foundation for Him to build His church upon. It was from this point on that He talked about building it at all. He is the master builder and he knew what he needed to build with to make it last.

I once asked the question, What are the nuts and bolts of this? What makes it work? What does it depend on? I sensed I didn’t fully understand the question. My mind had originally had expected some kind of form or model, but I began to realize as I meditated on it that I wouldn’t be satisfied with that in my heart. My mind returned to the rock. That is the main ‘nut and bolt’ of the church. It isn’t where it meets, what or if it sings, or what the messages are. It didn’t even depend on Peter being right all of the time (as he was corrected by Paul later).

When one has the revelation from God about something, they are thoroughly convinced. It is as plain as day and isn’t going to be stolen or taken away. With a real and active adversary working against the Kingdom of God, Jesus knew that it would take a strong foundation to withstand the onslaught of the enemy. Only a sure foundation would guarantee that it would stand the test of time. What will make someone stand when everything is shaking and breaking around them? What would make someone be willing to stand and keep a pure heart, message, and leadership? The truth. The purity of that truth, the intensity of that truth, the wholeness of that truth. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but it.

This isn’t something that man can generate or fake. It is a spiritual substance, place, reality even. It’s a place, in the Spirit, that you can dwell in, or, as is so often the case, not even know exists until you’ve seen it.

Jesus spent three years training up His disciples, continually reminding them that He wouldn’t always be with them. Three years He was among them, with both people and devils saying that He was the Holy One of God and the son of David. And, when Peter finally knew, I imagine He must have realized that another great milestone had passed. And that brought Him one step closer to His destination, the Cross.

When Kathryn Kuhlman lived, some said that it was as though God moved in spite of her. Others have come after her and attempted to use her same methods, but, with the exception of a very few, most have had next to nothing compared to the miraculous glory that followed her. The form wasn’t the point, it was the manifest presence and glory of the Lord that changed people, physically and spiritually. Mimicking the structure becomes just as religious and deadly as circumcision and following holy days in the hopes that they will bring us godliness.

There are scant details in the New Testament about how the many new believers held their meetings. Pieces are here and there, and various lines of thought follow. But there is a greater thought here. They weren’t focused nearly as much on the package and the gift-wrapping as they were on what was in the box. Paul had things to say about how meetings were conducted here and there, but his greater focus was on the Centrality of Jesus Christ. Jesus said that when He is lifted up, that He would draw all men to Himself (John 12:32).

The Greek word for church, ekklesia, basically means fellowship. It is a coming together, a gathering, or an assembly. Church begins when two or three come together in His name. Preaching and teaching are good, but they are not all. Prophecy is good, but it doesn’t contain every part. Tongues edify, but they do not generally provide understanding. Healing and miracles are good, but they must be accompanied by love, faith, and peace. The church of Christ is a broad thing, and it must be balanced both in the entirety of the Word, but also in the entirety of Christ and His teachings. We cannot have the church of Acts and the Epistles without building them on the life and teachings of Christ found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

We cannot have the church of Acts and the Epistles without building them on the life and teachings of Christ found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

If you base a church on anything other than the what Jesus taught, it can’t really be His church, now can it? It is a fellowship, but not His. It is someone else’s. Then the difficulty comes in fully understanding what He was teaching. The Kingdom, the Father, Glory, and Eternity are major themes. This is, of course, an attempt to minimize the Epistles, or even to decrease the amount of time and resources already dedicated to them. It is merely pointing out the glaringly obvious fact that unless you found the church you are dreaming of out of the quarry of the gospels, even if it has the timbers of the Epistles, it will eventually fail, crumble, and fall. It might even last your lifetime or more, and you not see it. But everything falls except the Word of the Lord. Given time, it will fall.

To be His Church and His Disciples, we need to know Him. While we can and probably should have form and structure, we must always be vigilant that what we do depends on Christ. Like Moses, we must build according to the pattern seen on the mountaintop, namely Christ, and we must say with him, Lord, if Your Presence does not go with us, we will not go up. Lord, if Your Spirit does not go out with us, we will not go.

The only thing, and I mean the ONLY thing, that will change a person’s heart is the Lord. It’s the anointing will break the yoke. If we have a meeting without the presence of God, what have we accomplished? If we have a thousand days without His presence, so what? Better is one day in His courts, not even in His Temple, just His courts, than a thousand elsewhere.

We must divide Truth from tradition.  Our ultimate guide must be the Word and the Spirit and our heart must be established upon Jesus Christ. To find the truest expression of what the Spirit desires to bring forth in this hour, we must resist the temptation to either over or under emphasize any form, model, or any other natural means. The source and the intent is the point. Form follows function, not function form. The body serves the Spirit, yet there are certain physical limits on the body.

Lord, give us a clear understanding of what it is you are doing in this hours. Lord, open our eyes and our ears to hear and following and fall deeply in love by your Spirit. Give us a spirit of prayer, supplication, and intercession, for it will be by your intercessors working in prayer that this stands or falls. It will be by people laying down their lives and consecrating themselves to you. Give us your heart, your mind, and walk with us every day. Do not abandon your church in this day, Lord. Restore us, your Church. Give us a heart after yours.

In Jesus’ Name.

Amen.