2032--priesthood of believers

            The following is a lengthening to five minutes (speaking time) of the commentary I posted in December, 2010, which was #32.  One of the notable features here is that I quote from Jon Zens’ The Pastor Has No Clothes, which was only released this year.  I guess that is one thing we can all look forward to as we live this life, both spiritually and physically, is the continual incorporating of ideas from others wiser than ourselves.

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2032—priesthood of believers

            My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.  First Peter chapter 2 verses 4 to 6 say, “Coming to Him (that’s Jesus) as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion, A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame”.  Revelation chapter 1 verses 5 and 6 say, “To him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever.”  Believers are the house of God, and Jesus is the Cornerstone, and every believer is a priest before God.

These scriptures speak of the church, which is God’s people, who desire to build up each other to honor Him.  According to scripture, the church is not a building or a special type of not for profit organization.  Nowhere in those scriptures describing the goings on of the New Covenant people, or any other verses, are the words church, temple, or house of God used to refer to a building or corporation.  The church is a group of believers, even where two or three are gathered.  The theologian Jon Zens has written that the modern English word that is closest to what the early church meant by “church” is “town meeting.”  First Corinthians chapter 3 verses 16 and 17 and chapter 6 verse 19 tell us that we (plural) are the temple of the Holy Spirit, the temple of God.

            A priest, both in the Old Testament and in the pagan beliefs surrounding Israel, was an intercessor between God and man.  When Jesus was tortured to death, God made an earthquake to happen that, in the temple in Jerusalem, tore the veil that separated man from the ark that represented God’s seat.  That signified that, by Jesus’ death, there was no longer a need for an intercessor between God and man.  That’s basic Christian teaching, but after faith in Jesus was made legal by the Roman Empire, one of the things that disappeared soon after was the informal encouraging of each other, replaced by a ritualistic ceremony led by one head person, who eventually was called a priest.  The people who were foremost in the Reformation recognized that the title was incorrect, but among churches that rejected the title priest, they continued to operate with one person in charge, even though First Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 11 tells us to build up each other, and that is practically impossible to do when one person feels he or she (usually he) is responsible to do all the building up, oftentimes in part to justify collecting a salary.

            In this world, I may feel more like a prisoner than a king, and in many parts of the world our brothers and sisters in Jesus may be actually prisoners, but Jesus has made us priests—we can speak to God directly in prayer, without any human intermediary, and the Spirit can communicate the groanings of our spirit, and the Spirit can speak to others through us, as scripture tells us that He gives spiritual gifts, not titles.  We are commanded to pray without ceasing.  I have come to understand that as an attitude of desiring constant communication and communion with God.  I can’t do my job, drive to work, care for my family with my eyes closed and hands folded, but God never defined that as being connected to prayer. 

            The Roman Empire either forced, or somehow allowed pagan customs into the newly organizational church.  They had buildings built over the tombs of the apostles, and named churches after the apostles, like paganism named temples after pagan deities. 

              You can email me at simplechurchminute@yahoo.com or phone me at 757-735-xxxx.  If you would like to go over what I just said at your own pace, a transcript of this talk I have on my blog, tevyebird.blogspot.com, in the entry dated August 28, 2011. You can find out more about non-corporation oriented meetings of believers at www.hrscn.org.

All the scripture quotations, above, are from NKJV.  Zens made the statement I refer to in his book, The Pastor Has No Clothes (Lincoln, NE: Ekklesia, 2011).  I said that God does not give out titles; I address 1 Timothy 3:1 in the commentaries on elders.

Simple Church Minute 61--types of prayer in the Lord's Prayer

61—the types of prayer in the Lord’s Prayer                                           FAST PACE

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            Jesus, when he taught his disciples in Matthew chapter 6 verses 7 to 13, was not giving us a rote prayer to repeat, and we know this because in verse 7 He said, “Do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do.”  Now, if we are not to just repeat it, what do we learn from it?  Here is one idea—each phrase of it is indicative of something we do in talking with God. 

1. I know God is worthy of praise

2. I look forward to Jesus coming again

3. I need help to do God’s will, which includes that I need help to know His Word to know what it is

4. I desire to see God’s honor grow here on earth

5. I have needs

6. I need to be forgiven

7. I wish to forgive others of their sins against me

8. I need to ask God’s help with regard to my desire to do evil

9. I need to ask God’s protection from others’ evil plans.

10.  I need to ask God’s protection from Satan and his demonic angels

11.  I need to know God controls heaven, where I will live after this life

12.  I recognize that God has all the power

13. (same as 1.) I know God is worthy of praise

            In Mark chapter 11 verse 17, Jesus quotes Isaiah 56 verse 7, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”  In the Old Testament, there was a temple and priests.  In the New Covenant, in Acts chapter 17 verse 24, God does not live in a temple made with hands, but (First Corinthians 3 verse 16) our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, not buildings, and (First Peter 2 verse 9) we (believers in Jesus) are a holy nation, and (Revelation 1 verse 6) we are kings and priests to God, with no need for anyone to intercede for us.  Lots of what we’ve been taught about prayer comes from religious counterfeits and cultural mediocrity that has crept into the church over time.

            You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com. For more info on organic church*, see http://www.simplechurch.com/ or locally at (local website).

On the recording, at this time, it says, “house churches.”  While that phrasing is OK, to say “organic church” is better.  I comment on that in blip 94.

In typing this, I realize that I got this idea from Larry Krieder’s book, Personal House of Prayer, which I failed to reference among the sources in the post which included sources of information I used.

Simple Church Minute 32--priesthood of believers

32—priesthood of believers

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute

            First Peter chapter 2 verses 4 to 6 say, “…coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed among men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are buing built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”  After that, Peter quotes a number of places in Leviticus. “Behold, I lay in Zion, a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”  These verses speak of the church.  That is God’s people; according to scripture, that is not a building or special type of not for profit organization.  Nowhere in that part of scripture describing the goings on of the New Covenant people are the words “church”, “temple”, or “house of God” used to refer to a structure that believers in Jesus used to worship in.  Believers are the house of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus is the cornerstone.  Revelation chapter 1 verse 6 says, “To him (that’s Jesus” who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father to Him be glory forever and ever.”  In this world, I may feel more like a prisoner than a king, but he has made me and every believer in Jesus a priest—I can pray to God directly,, without a human intermediary, and I am to pray without ceasing.  I have to understand that as an attitude of desiring constant communication with God.  I can’t do my job, drive to work, care for my family with my eyes closed and hands folded.

            No buildings were built for Christian worship and meeting together until the Roman Empire made Christianity legal, and forced many political and pagan customs into the church.  They had churches built over the tombs of the apostles, and named churches after apostles, like paganism named temples after pagan gods.

            You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com. For more info on organic church*, see http://www.simplechurch.com/ or locally at (local website).

On the recording, at this time, it says, “house churches.”  While that phrasing is OK, to say “organic church” is better.  I comment on that in blip 94.

Simple Church Minute 6--oration

6—oration

NOTE:  I originally wrote a segment for each of the 61 points Frank Viola and George Barna make in their book, Pagan Christianity, about traditions in the institutional church not based on scripture.  After writing it, I chose to not include this segment merely as I felt that in wouldn’t be an interesting radio commentary.

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute

            A few days ago, I mentioned that oratory became an entertainment form in the Roman Empire in the days of the early church.  Apollos was an orator before his conversion to Christianity, and Paul grew up in Tarsus, the “city of philosophers.” The early church was taught that all believers were kings and priests of God, per Revelation 1 verse 6.  All were important in each other, which is growth in both mind and spirit.  Still, over a couple of centuries, mutual ministry faded, being replaced with religious specialists.   Over this time, some orators and philosophers became Christians, and some of their skills entered the church.  Paid specialists came from paganism; Jewish rabbis of the Pharisaic side, which appear to be the only type that survived the revolt of 130 AD, learned a trade so they did not need to either charge for their teaching or depend on the tithe, in case unbelief swept the Jewish community, as happened at times during the Old Testament days.  History shows that converted orators spoke in a style that was similar to before their conversion, which may not be all that surprising, quoting scripture instead of Homer. Eventually, as the church became formalized, the person giving the sermon was required to have studied rhetoric, and those without such training were not allowed to speak.  Orators called their speeches homilies; the Catholic church uses that term to this day.  The legalization of Christianity by the Romans solidified the Greek style of speaking and professional clergy.  By the time of the Reformation, it was taken for granted that the sermon was how “lay people,” another concept foreign to the Bible, learned the Christian faith.  Of course, in the Middle Ages, non-professionals did not have access to the Bible to know whether what they were being taught was true.  That was what Martin Luther’s 95 Theses was about.

            Speeches do not teach well.  That’s why, in school, there is a mix of studying texts, hearing lectures, having discussions, and doing presentations.

            You…