The Relentless Love of God
After God scattered humans at Babel, he refused to give up on mankind. Given the disaster at Babel, He changed the way he would bless. He moved from the global – blessing all of humanity, as in Adam and Noah – and chose to use one family among all the families of the earth. He chose to use Abram as a bridge. Through him the earth’s families would be blessed (Gensis 12:1-3).
Sadly, Abram’s family also failed to be the instrument of God’s blessing. They sealed up the blessing for themselves (Mt. 23:13). The ten northern tribes were scattered by Assyria. The two southern tribes were exiled to Babylon. When they returned, the prophets, like Isaiah, were hopeful. Isaiah predicted that the Spirit of the Lord would be poured out on all of them, and they would become a nation of priests, serving other nations (Isaiah 61:1-6). That had been God’s plan. But that transformation did not happen. Judah violated God’s boundaries by their pride and idolatry (Jeremiah 5:1-3; 17:1-10; Lamentations 11:5, 8, 18).
In the opening verses of the New Testament, John the Baptist appeared and called the nation to repentance. He declared that “the ax would soon be laid to the root” (Matthew 3:10). Why? There was no fruit from the nation of Judah, he warned. No mission had been launched to the nations. No welcome was offered to Gentiles at the temple. The Court of the Gentiles had been commandeered for monetary exchange and the profitable sell of sacrificial animals at inflated prices. God was not pleased.
John’s father, Zacharias, was an Aaronic priest who burned incense in the temple (Luke 1:8-12). John could have followed in his father’s footsteps, and he would have also been a temple priest. Instead, he broke from the institutional priesthood of Aaron, clothed himself in camel hair, went to the wilderness and survived on a diet of locusts and wild honey (Matthew 3:4; Mark 1:6). He preached a message of repentance to the nation, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Matthew 3:2). He called for the sons of Abraham to be baptized. Everyone, Jew and Gentile, needed to be cleansed. He picked up the theme of Isaiah – the offer of God to be a kingdom of priests was still on the table, “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him.” People streamed out to the desolate dessert to hear him “from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region around the Jordan” (Matthew 3:5). They confessed their sins and were baptized in the muddy Jordan river (Matthew 3:6).
The Pharisees and lawyers also made the trip out into the wilderness, but only to skeptically observe – they did not venture into the baptismal waters (Luke 7:29-30).
Jesus himself, rose from the baptismal waters, the Spirit descending on Him. He set an example of humility and consecration for us. The Spirit descended on him and the father spoke, and, following a time of prayer and further consecration, he launched a new priesthood of which John had been the forerunner. Jesus could not follow in the Aaronic order of priestly ministry. Instead, he picked up the fallen mantle of the priesthood of Melchizedek, a king and a priest, establishing a royal priesthood. Melchizedek had been king of Salem – the city of peace (Gen. 14:18; Heb. 7:1). And that was the goal of Jesus – peace and reconciliation. It was what the angels sang about at his birth, “Peace on earth, goodwill to men” (Lk. 2:14). That is a radical shift. Jesus, not of the tribe of Aaron, but rather of the tribe of Judah, did not qualify to be a temple priest. With his ministry, he launched a new priestly order.
Aaron’s priesthood was that of class and kind, strict and institutional, and bound to the temple. The priesthood of Melchizedek was not institutional, but organic. It was free of the temple and the institutional rituals. This was God’s original invitation at Sinai. He wanted the whole nation to be “a kingdom of priests.” But they refused – so God instituted the Levitical priesthood (Exodus 19:6; 20:18-20; 29:1, 4-9; Leviticus 8).
After the Babylonian captivity, God again extended the opportunity to the entire nation, to be “ministers of God” (Isaiah 61:6), a kingdom of priests. Everyone would be anointed to proclaim good news, to heal the broken-hearted and set the captives free (Isaiah 61:1-4). Judah again balked. They rejected the offer.
Jesus, in calling his disciples, was again activating the priesthood of all believers. He called some directly. They connected him to yet others. Andrew, for example, brought his brother Peter. In Acts 2, these followers, both men and women were anointed as priests, not by men, but by God. The Holy Spirit came in the name of Jesus to complete through us the work of Jesus. Through our new priesthood, the people of God as a newly formed nation, a new creation, a new race of men are called to complete the mission given by Jesus. Israel at Mt. Sinai (Ex. 19:6, 9, 16-19; 20:18-19), had backed away from the mountain.12 In contrast, these disciples fellowshipped with the fire and received the Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness resulting in a harvest of 3000 people from at least 15 nations. This was not only the first harvest. The converts at Pentecost represented the first international missionaries of the church. They came to Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost, but they returned home with the news and evidence that Jesus was alive. They had witnessed a new Sinai where the fire fell, and God wrote His law on human hearts. The disciples we know, from history, divided up the world, and took the gospel to Asia Minor, Northern Africa, India, Russian and parts of Europe. All, but John, died as martyrs, witnesses, believing that as Christ rose from the dead, death would have no hold on them.
For 300 years, the movement lasted. Every believer saw themselves as a priest. They turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6). In 100 A.D., 70 years after the resurrection, 30 years after the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple – there were only 20-25,000 believers. All the apostles were dead, as were Paul, Timothy, Titus, John Mark and Luke, Silas and Barnabas, and James and Jude, brothers of Jesus.13
Yet, in 50 years, the number of Christians would virtually double to 40,000. By 180 A.D. the number first passed 100,000. Christians were in all the provinces of the Empire, in 23 of the 31 largest cities. By 197 AD every nation had a movement of Christianity, despite the blood of martyrs that still flowed. By 250, the number of Christians passed a million. In 310 A.D. after another episode of severe persecution, there were 20 million globally, 10 million in the Empire (out of an empire population of 60 million, a ratio of 1:6, 14% of the Empire’s population). Unbelievable! All this was after 10 imperial persecutions, each of which destroyed bishops, key leaders and pastors, their best minds, and their most stalwart examples. In a sea of paganism, with an illegal faith and worship that took place in secret, they grew – until the empire capitulated! Foreign armies were no match for Rome’s power, but this group of roaring lambs toppled the Empire.
With no buildings or budget, few resources, virtually no favor from political powers, and with only a handful of untrained followers – the world was changed. Can it happen again? If so, how? These ordinary Christians fellowshipped with fire. In the daily flow of their lives, they carried the gospel wherever they lived and worked. And they were made to the world around them, salt and light.
In cities without churches, two or three believers connected, creating an ecclesia14 – a miniature church. As these cells grew, they became a fellowship for personal encouragement and mission. They evolved, as new converts were added into ‘houses of prayer for the nations.’ Then into more formally organized churches, and they changed cities.
Note the order: prayer – mission – church. Praying people: missional people; praying churches: missional churches. Today, we begin with churches, with buildings, with songs and a sermon, by attracting a crowd and then motivating them to engage in mission and pray for the effort to be successful. The New Testament order and that of the apostolic church places mission first, subordinated only to prayer. And prayer and mission gave birth to the church. The church does not do mission; mission does church.
Our future is in our past, recovering the DNA of prayer and blessing at the intersection of mission. As division and darkness grow, we need unified, humble, praying people, deeply dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit. We cannot reduce Christianity to a personal relationship with God through Christ. That is, we cannot privatize it. It is not merely being loved by God but becoming a loving, blessing Christian.
The darkness is gathering. By its words and deeds, our nation is inviting and empowering evil. A generation has been mentored on Harry Potter and can’t distinguish between Wicca and Christianity. Allah and Yahweh are seen as equivalents. Discernment between right and wrong is so displaced that egregious immorality has become common and acceptable in the land. Biblical morals are seen as oppressive and regarded as hate speech. Only the Holy Spirit can awaken and revive such a culture. The Holy Spirit wants a partner. God desires to empower us as his visible instruments. Are you ready for the ride?
Think of it, the church grew from 25,000 disciples around 100 A.D., to 20 million by 320 A.D. Then with Constantine, it all changed. The movement reverted from the priesthood of all believers to a designated and separated priesthood, an emerging professional clergy, a tiered arrangement. Buildings were donated to the cause, and soon, the structures themselves, not the people, were seen as the church. It was sacred space, not the people who were the carriers of His presence. Evangelism stalled. Over the centuries, the church grew corrupt. The monastic movement kept faith alive. Then came the Reformation. One of Luther’s hallmarks was the priesthood of all believers – but the Reformation did not bring complete reform. So here we are again.
God is again calling us to a kingdom of priests – all of us. We are to stand between God and a lost world. We are to join Jesus in his intercession – He is interceding now! He wants no one to perish but all men to come to repentance and find grace (1 Peter 2:9). He wants to bless others through you. Will you let him do that? In a culture that has fundamentally turned from God, one where only 15 percent of the population is in church on any given Sunday, a professional clergy alone cannot be expected to induce and sustain national spiritual renewal. Will you obey God and step into your priestly role?