What does the real Church look like?

Hello everyone, hope you're having a great day. I would like to share a few things that I have on my heart. When we start, there is something that may be obvious, but I have to state it: we have to agree that the common authority we utilise and refer to is the Word of God. It cannot be our opinions, our thoughts, ideas and interpretations. It can only be the Word of God. It can only be reality and authority that is given by God.

God says in His Word that He is looking for worshippers who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. That word, truth, is aletheinos. It means it is reality, it is something that exists, and that by itself is the authority. So we have to start from that point: the Word of God is our authority. Hopefully we have that in common as we try to evaluate certain topics and aspects.

The topic I want to chat about today is that when people talk about the term "church," they refer to a denomination. But the Word actually tells us that there is only one church. There are thousands of denominations, so that is not the church. A denomination is not the church. A building is not the church. The church is only one thing, and that is the body of Christ in this earth. That is church, according to the Word of God.

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”

Ephesians 4:4-6 (NKJV)

So we can see there is one God, one Lord, one baptism. We have to understand what that is in order to be on the same page, because it already says there is only one body.

“And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

Ephesians 1:22-23 (NKJV)

Now that's amazing. From that place we realise that the church is the body of Christ. But not only is it the body of Christ, it is meant to be His fullness. So if we want to see the fullness of Christ in this earth, we will only see it through His body, which is the church.

If we talk about a body, the way the Word describes it, there are different components: a hand, a foot, an eye, whatever. The components have different functions, but at the end of the day there is one body, and that one body has one mind, one head in charge of it, and one purpose. If you look at your physical body and want to move in a direction, the foot cannot decide it knows best and go that way while the hand says "I know best" and goes another way. It doesn't work that way; you end up with a dysfunctional body.

Unfortunately, if I may say so, the body of Christ in this earth is to a large extent a dysfunctional body because of man-made small kingdoms that people try to establish through denominations and opinions, with everybody thinking they are right. Now, I do understand that the Word explains there are different components in the body, just as in your physical body, meaning there are different ministries with different functions within the body. We are not all called for the same thing, so there is a reason for the differences.

But the challenge is that if denominations - and it's not the only aspect - bring division, if they bring isolation of components that are meant to be part of the body, there is something wrong with that picture. There isn't necessarily an issue with a denomination or a group of people coming together with common beliefs, as long as that is consistent with the Word of God and led by the Spirit. But the one test that makes it simple for me: if what that group of believers believes and does does not work towards and promote the functioning of the body as a whole, unifying it and bringing oneness, there's a problem with it. It's not consistent with the Word of God. We are meant to work towards unity; we are meant to work towards establishing the oneness that has been put inside of us.

When we talk about the body and its different components, it also means there is a role for every individual. Every one of us has a role to play in the body of Christ. No born-again Christian is a spare part that is not needed. Every one of us is critical for this body to function the way it should. I'm speaking straight from the Word of God, and it is consistent with everything in the Word of God, which I'll share about now.

I want to start by saying: we must understand what Jesus came to do. Jesus did not die for religion. He did not die so that we could have another set of rules. Jesus died so that we could become one with the Father again. We have been entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says those who are in Christ are a new creation, but it's because we have become one with Him, and then it continues to say that we have been entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation. That is what Jesus made possible. Through His death, through His resurrection, He made it possible for us to accept Him as our Saviour and our Lord, and through that to become born again, as explained in John 3:3 and Romans 10:9. And through that, we become one with the Father.

That is the ministry we have, and that is what Jesus made possible. So the intention was never - Jesus didn't die for denominations. He didn't die for man-made sets of rules. He didn't die so that we can build our own little kingdoms and cause separation, or have a superiority mentality that we are the only ones who are right in what we believe.

That leads me to a term people generally use, which we also see in the Word of God in terms of how it was executed: the Acts church. If we want to look at the model of what church should look like, I believe we have that model, and we can see it in Acts, and we can also read about our purpose in Ephesians.

We have to understand that Jesus came for a reason, for a very specific purpose. It wasn't a case of Jesus coming and being able to do any one of five things, and all of it being okay. He had to do specific things in order to be our Saviour. He had to die. He had to submit Himself to the Father. He had to be crucified on the cross. He had to die and go to hell, and He had to be raised from the dead, and He had to resurrect and ascend to the Father. That was the only way He could fulfil His purpose.

So we have to understand our purpose is just as specific. We can't just do whatever we want. We can't just think we exist in this earth without direction. We have a very specific purpose, and our purpose is to continue the work that Jesus did. He is the only Saviour; we cannot be the Saviour. But there is something He established in this earth - the kingdom of the Father - of which He is now the Head, and we are the body. So we must continue that work.

Our primary function in this earth is to establish the presence of God, and we do that by establishing the body of Christ, the church, in this earth. The more the church looks like Christ, the more the church looks like God, the more we will manifest the authority of God in this earth. So in essence we are building something in this earth. It might be a strange term to hear, but it's easy to say we are the body of Christ - look at it this way: we are actually the body of God. We are building the body of God in this earth. We are building the mechanism, the unified organism, within which God can dwell to manifest His presence in this earth.

God doesn't stay in a building anymore. God doesn't dwell in something we call a church building. God dwells in the spirit of a born-again believer. If we want to establish the presence of God in this earth, we have to realise we need to come into unity, but we need to build one body. I'll show you from the Word of God: it is only one body. There are not many bodies that we can build and think all these little kingdoms can come together and somehow we are doing what God has called us to do. God has called us to build the body of Christ, to establish Him.

It's not about us. It's about Him. We have been sent to establish Him in this earth, to manifest His presence so that His glory can be seen and fill the earth. If the body of Christ does not rise to the position it should be in, how are we going to fill this earth with the glory of God?

“...till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

Ephesians 4:13 (NKJV)

So we are building this body unto a perfect man. When the body looks the way it should, it will be a perfect man. Jesus will return for a bride without spot, without blemish. So there is something we are working towards: to establish the church, the body of Christ, to prepare the bride for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ - isn't that amazing? To think that the fullness of Christ, the fullness of God, is going to be established through the body of Christ in this earth, and we are part of it. We are it. We are the components. We are the living stones being used to build this dwelling place. And it's not only a dwelling place - if you can grasp this - we are building God in this earth. We are building God unto authority and dominion in this earth, because that is what is expected of us.

“...that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.”

Ephesians 4:14 (NKJV)

As I said from the beginning, the Word of God is our authority. There is no replacement for your personal relationship with God and what the Holy Spirit brings conviction about in your spirit. You can't live somebody else's revelation. You can't live somebody else's convictions. You must have a personal relationship with God through the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit must bring conviction in your heart, because that conviction will never be inconsistent with truth and reality.

“...but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head - Christ.”

Ephesians 4:15 (NKJV)

There is a head. He is in charge, and the body is coordinated through Him. That is why we can only be true in what we are doing if we are led by the Spirit - not our own ideas, thoughts, agendas and intentions. Even if we see that we must be a separate group with a specific function to perform, we have to acknowledge that it can only be according to the guidance He gives us.

“...from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”

Ephesians 4:16 (NKJV)

I just love this verse. I think it is one of the most critical verses in the Word of God that we somehow seem to miss. It says we can only establish the dominance, the prominence, the glory of God in this earth by establishing the body of Christ and building the body of Christ into Him.

And how do we do that? We edify the body through love - it edifies itself through love. The way we interact with one another, the unity, the oneness - all of that builds the body through love. But then comes the critical component: "every part does its share, every joint supplies." We have to understand we cannot stand in front as a pastor and make it all about us - as if we're the only ones who hear God's voice, the only ones who can function in the gifts, the only ones who can pray for people, while everyone else is just passive, coming for one hour a week to receive the Word and going again, and we think we've done what we should. We are not going to get the body of Christ that way.

Remember where we started: "until we come to a perfect man, the unity of the faith, unto a perfect man, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." That is what we are working towards, and we can only do it if we edify the body through love, and every part does its share and every joint supplies.

I individually can have the most amazing ministry and work in miracles and wonders, and so on. The reality is I cannot do and cannot complete what God has called us for unless I am able to activate every single member in the body of Christ. That is why every Christian needs to understand they are significant in the body of Christ. We are equally significant. The Bible says we might have been formed for different purposes and different functions, but we have to understand we are all equally important.

And not only that we are important - the reality is we can't establish the body of Christ unto authority and dominion in this earth until we can get every Christian activated to do their part. That's what it says: every part does its share, every joint supplies. Then we can get this body to the place where it should be, functioning the way it should.

Coming back to that term we generally refer to as the Acts church - it's amazing to see how they functioned. The principle was actually so simple. The way I like to describe it: they did life together. That was church - doing life together, not an hour a week, somebody preaching a sermon, us saying hi, drinking tea, and going home. That was not church.

The model that we saw, the model that worked - because remember, apart from testing something against the Word of God to see if it is consistent, the second way we can evaluate it is: is it bearing fruit? What is the fruit? The Word tells us a tree is known by its fruits. We can all have opinions, denominations, ideas - the question is, are they bearing fruit, and what is that fruit? Are people becoming born again, becoming spiritual, built up in their strength, their faith, their ability? Are they activated to start functioning in the part, the joint, they are meant to be in the body of Christ? Or is it just a belief system that we continue with, but there is no fruit?

If we use this model from the Word of God in the early chapters of Acts, we can see that they yielded exceptional fruit. So let's use that as a model and see what they did - and it's very simple. As I said, they just did life together, and the great thing about what they did is that it was an inward focus towards each other. It was living love. It was being love. It was taking care of each other, and in doing that, in that lifestyle, they simply attracted people. It says they lived this lifestyle, and God added to the church.

People just saw this lifestyle. They saw the results. They saw the impact, and people were attracted by it. Let me read to you from Acts 2:41.

“Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.”

Acts 2:41 (NKJV)

Not everybody received the word. It says those who gladly received the word got baptized that day. Don't get discouraged. If you are somebody who has made a stand, who has stood up, who is starting to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and trying to have an impact, don't be stopped by rejection.

Not everybody will be glad to receive the message of good news. It sounds ironic, but not everybody will embrace it. It says only those who gladly received the word got baptized that day and were added to the church. So don't get discouraged by those who do not receive your word. That obviously doesn't take away our responsibility to intercede, pray and prepare people's hearts and the atmosphere before we try to minister to them.

It says in verse 42 – listen to this, this for me goes to the core of what church is all about.

“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”

Acts 2:42 (NKJV)

That's what they did. That was church. It was doing life together. They just came together. They continually spent time.

They continued in the apostles' doctrine, the word that they received through the apostles. They just spent time. They meditated on it. They discussed it. They continued to spend time in the apostles' doctrine. They spent time in fellowship. Nowadays our lives are so rushed. They spent time. They made time for each other to build strong relationships. Do you even know what is going on in the life of the person sitting next to you in church? Or is it just, if you ask them how it is, they say, “No, everything is fine,” while meantime things are not fine – it's falling apart.

They continued in fellowship. They built relationships so that they could be transparent and know what was going on in each other's lives, so that they could do something about it – not talk about it behind their backs, but actually help each other get over it and sort it out.

So they spent time in the apostles' doctrine. They spent time in fellowship. They spent time in the breaking of bread, which is two components. They literally just ate together. Remember, I said they were doing life together, so the time they spent was eating together, enjoying each other's company, and at the same time, for them, that was communion. Whether it was a specific portion of that or not, it was communion for them – celebrating their oneness in Christ.

Then the fourth item: it says they continued in prayer. We have to get serious about the time we spend in prayer. If we want to establish the body of Christ in this earth unto dominion, we have to spend time in prayer and interceding. There are so many instructions in the Word that we must continue in prayer.

It says in verse 43 – listen to the results of what they did, which was just doing life together, but look at the results.

“Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.”

Acts 2:43 (NKJV)

Fear came upon every soul. Why? These guys were having a braai together. They were just having lunch together. They were just fellowshipping and spending time in the Word. Why did fear come upon every soul? It is obvious that they were so in one accord, of one mind, taking care of each other, putting Christ first, putting each other first. They manifested love. They manifested the presence of God, and the Bible says God is light; in Him there is no darkness.

There are just things that cannot exist in the presence of God. Like we saw in the Old Testament when they went through the desert, there are some things that just didn't happen to them – they were not sick, nobody was barren. There is something that the presence of God brings, and this oneness, this love, this focus, this one mind manifested the presence of God, which meant miracles started happening. Just in that presence, people got healed.

People's lives were changed, and because of that, fear came upon every soul, because they saw a guy walk into the room who was crippled, and when he walked out, he was not crippled anymore – but nobody even prayed for him. That oneness, that focus, that love, that doing life together with the mentality and focus of putting Christ first, it just manifested the presence of God, and there are just some things that can't exist in that.

“Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.”

Acts 2:44-45 (NKJV)

It just shows you the mentality in terms of what their priorities and focus were. Nothing else mattered to them more than the people, the oneness and the love, and manifesting that just changed lives.

You can see the condition of these people's hearts. Continuing daily, it says – not for an hour a week, continuing daily. They made time. Every opportunity they had, they came together and spent time together, just to get to know each other, to build relationships, to understand what's going on in your life, and if you had an issue, they could minister into that need. This was just doing life together, daily, with one accord.

That's very important. They didn't all have their own agendas. They were in one accord. They were convinced that they had to manifest the presence of God, that they had to spread the gospel, that they had to live, love and take care of each other.

“In one accord in the temple daily, and breaking bread from house to house.” If you go into somebody's house, you will see things you would never be aware of if you never went there. You can see whether they are struggling. You can see what their priorities are. They went from house to house. It's not this cold, clinical thing where we come together in a building but don't know what's happening in each other's houses. We need to spend time at each other's houses. We need to spend time in fellowship, in prayer, in building relationships.

“They went from house to house breaking bread. They ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart.” Gladness and simplicity of heart. They were not chasing after the riches and things of this world. They had a priority. They made up their mind that Christ, the church, the body of Christ, was priority. They made up their mind that every single individual who was part of this communion, this community, this faith community if you want to call it that, became their priority. That became their focus.

Listen to what happened.

“They ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”

Acts 2:46-47 (NKJV)

It's always about God first. It's always about Him. Worship Him, praise Him. It's always about God, not firstly about us – it's firstly about Him. The Lord added to the church daily. Isn't that amazing? The Word explains to us here in Acts 2 that these people were just doing life together. They were just having a good time.

They were coming with one accord, one mind, one purpose, looking towards each other, taking care of each other, living in love, and they had no value for the things of this world. If they had to sell something to take care of somebody else, they just did it. They were just doing life together, and as they were doing this, as a faith community taking care of each other, people would just come. It says, “The Lord added.” They didn't even have to go out and search for people.

At this particular instance, they just had to look towards each other. They had to spend time together. They had to manifest that love in true authenticity, and through that, their lifestyle attracted people, and people just came. Now isn't that exactly the same as what we should be doing in this time we are staying in, in this earth, in this season, especially in this critical time we have been called for, to manifest the presence of God and establish the body of Christ? We just need to do life together.

That, for me, is what church is all about. It's not about a structure. It's not about somebody standing in front. It's about every person being activated, every part doing its share, every joint supplying, and we are focusing on each other. We are taking care of each other. We are making time to eat together, to fellowship, to spend time around the Word, to spend time in fellowship, to break bread, to go from house to house, to spend time in prayer. When we just do that, we will manifest the presence of God.

It's so easy to say that we must walk in love. It is so easy to say that we must be the light. How do we do that? We have to practically live it. I have to put aside the things that maybe are of interest to me and are priority to me, and I have to make the people that God has entrusted to me a priority. I have to spend time with them. I have to build relationships, and then through that, you can manifest love. You can live love, and it becomes so real, so authentic, that people can see straight through it and know there is no hidden agenda.

There is no little kingdom. There is no set of requirements for them to become a member and receive a member certificate and whatever else. It is just being real, being transparent, living love together, and in that, it becomes so attractive that people will just come. That is the church that we should be living and that we should manifest in this earth. Hope you enjoyed that. Chat to you soon.