What the True Church Looks Like?

The present outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the church has reached proportions that can no longer be ignored by any section of the church at large. The number of Christians receiving their personal Pentecostal experience is rapidly increasing, and the gifts of the Spirit are reappearing in many unexpected places.

It is interesting to ask ourselves a question. What is Jesus doing? Can we be any longer satisfied with our particular denomination? Do we not sometimes become engulfed in traditional teachings and practices which prevent us having a clear understanding of what is happening in the spiritual realm? We have met so many people who have suddenly become hungry and only a deeper experience of the Holy Spirit can satisfy them. This is particularly true in Toronto, Canada where many have come to my office and been taught and prayed through to the baptism in the Spirit from several denominations, since the turn of the new decade.

Let us throw our minds and thinking back to the beginning of this Christian dispensation, and the beginning of the creation of this that we call THE CHURCH. The word has been used so loosely that it has largely lost its meaning in our language. The spiritists have 'church and heathen religions like the Buddhists have

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churches'. The word CHURCH (ecclesia - that which is called out) is mentioned very significantly by Jesus when making a first reference to His coming supernatural creation. He said "I will build my church". (Matt. 11:18) Notice if you will that He did not say He would build churches. Further, He would be the only Architect. As the type of the temple in the Old Testament speaks to us of the only true Church of Jesus Christ of the New Testament, it follows that there can be only one basic plan or design for this church. The manifestations of this throughout the world will approximate in format, worship, and the partaking of the Lord's supper.

When Jesus spoke these words "I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH", we must bear in mind that he was speaking to religious men and women who were already members of a church! All these Jewish people were either members of the Pharisees, the Sadducees or one of the smaller sects of their day. The Pharisees (which means separate) were the fundamental denomination of their day, so to speak, and are described by Dr. Robert Young as being noted for their self-conceit, long prayers, unnecessary tithing, vapid fastings, and a stubborn desire to put traditions before the Word of God. Jesus told them that they therefore nullified completely the

effectualness of the Word of God. They had religion without power, but they were quite sure all the others were wrong. Do we have churches like these today?

The Sadducees took their name from their founder Sadok who denied the existence of angels or any spirits, good or bad, and flatly refused to believe in any possibility of the resurrection. They had religion too and they refused to believe in any supernatural content; they were the liberals of their day. There were smaller sects with various degrees of doctrinal error with various men to lead them, and it must be obvious that there was little unity in such a church! Some became Essenes and worked from Monastries copying scriptures, living a very ascetic life and never mixing with the others. Now we must be careful to ask ourselves whether Jesus came to renew or reinvigorate any of these sects. We can safely assume He had no such idea, but boldly stated that He alone was the Architect and Builder of a brand new church, in other words He ran absolutely contrary to all organized forms of religion or 'church'.

The forerunner John the Baptist clearly told the people that his ministry was a preparatory one to make paths straight for Jesus Who would baptize

them in the Holy Ghost and fire. We must assume that thousands answered the call to repent and get right with Jehovah, and were then immersed in the River Jordon, typifying total cleansing and regeneration, for it is recorded that "there went out unto him (John) all the land of Judaea and they of Jerusalem and were all baptized of him. " (Mark 1:5). This would seem to indicate many thousands of repentant Jews. John immediately told all this large company that Jesus would baptize them all in The Holy Ghost. Jesus continued to preach the gospel after the death of John and began to introduce the supernatural again after hundreds of years of spiritual drought. He healed the sick of every disease, He cast out demons, He raised the dead, cleansed the lepers and informed His disciples (disciplined followers) that they would go and do the same. His whole ministry of three and a half years was building toward one great day, THE DAY OF PENTECOST, which was to be the beginning of the Church.

He told the disciples it was imperative that He go away but He promised them another Comforter who would be IN THEM, not WITH THEM, as He had been. This is the difference between a disciple and a Spirit filled member of the CHURCH.

Dr. William Smith in his famous Bible Dictionary, under the word 'CHURCH' writes, "The Day of Pentecost is the birthday of the Christian Church. The Spirit, Who was then sent by the Son from the Father, and rest on each of the disciples, combined them once more into a whole - combined them as they had never before been combined, by an internal and spiritual bond of cohesion. Before Pentecost they had been individual followers of Jesus, now they became His mystical Body, animated by His Spirit." Could this be put more clearly? It was the baptism in the Spirit promised by John that was the purpose and culmination of Jesus' ministry, and obviously He could not have been satisfied until all his disciples were baptized in the Spirit, and were bringing forth the anointed Word of God as a sharp twoedged sword from their mouths. This baptism in the Spirit is not a 'plus' to the church, it is an imperative! It is mandatory if the true CHURCH that Jesus is building today is to meet Satan and his hosts head on and defeat them in our day!

When Paul visited the disciples at Ephesus as recorded in Acts 18 and 19 , he visited 'certain disciples'. It is obvious from the context that their pastor Apollos taught them that Jesus was the very Christ. He

then asked them if they had received the Holy Spirit. They expressed ignorance of the experience and so he taught them, first about Christian baptism, and when they had all submitted to this ordinance, he laid his hands on them and all of them commenced to speak in tongues and prophesy!

Now, why did God send Paul to Ephesus? Had they not a nice church with a splendid Pastor? It is interesting to note that Paul visited them in the absence of their Pastor which was not a very ethical thing for him to do! It could be asked whether Apollos had a very unfavourable reaction when he found what stranger Paul had done to his church! On the contrary, Apollos later became a New Testament Apostle and joined Paul in his work of laying hands on disciples that they might also speak in tongues! This was the birth of the Ephesian Church.

Is Jesus trying today to renew the various Christian groups? We do not think so. We believe He is once again building His one true CHURCH from the living members of all these groups, both Protestant and Catholic, Denominationalism, traditionalism, and sacerdotalism are now giving place to the TRUTH that is setting them free. This is the day of the final building again of the One True CHURCH.