Ephesians 2: 14-18
“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.” NIV
Reading my Bible last night, this section really struck me. Jesus destroyed barriers between believers. He destroyed the law, commands and regulations. Yet we constantly try to impose barriers and legalistic regulations on faith. There is no belief that we our belief in Jesus and desire to follow Him will get us into heaven. We are still being drawn into the web of this is the only way to worship to get into heaven.
This takes me back to the 1990s when we were told we had to be baptised in the spirit or we wouldn’t be saved. I have read the Bible several times and still can’t find the verse that says that.
I was recently reading an article about Hillsong and other Pentecostal churches that used image and glitz to promote themselves and attract people.
This journalist related how they watched these charming, charismatic leaders with their glitzy media personas and expensive accessories such as gold watches.
I remember in the 90s when it was very trendy to follow these superstar leaders and glitzy churches. The old way of worship was so outdated and people raced to replace it. Yet people still speak of the old hymns as favourites for the love of God they expressed.
I remember the Christian bookshops that popped everywhere. If you wanted a new Bible you didn’t have to travel to a major centre to a bookshop of one of those old traditional churches, you could just pop into one of those shops. And better still, you could buy books on how to interpret the scriptures, how to interpret the world around you and what was good and bad, how to know which regulations you should follow in order to be saved, books relating the stories of others, CDs, cassette tapes, tea towels with snappy sayings, paperweights reminding you how much Jesus loved you, wall hangings, t-shirts, badges. You name it you could buy it. There was quite a market in Christian merchandise and much money to be had if you marketed your Christian bookshop well. I know, I had friends who owned one.
There is a Christian bookshop near where I live. I occasionally drive past it, I even visited a shop next door one day, but I haven’t gone into it for years. I am not interested in the Christian marketing. I have several Bibles, one particularly well worn because I read it every day, others as cross referencing when I write my blogs. I don’t need any more and I am not interested in supporting such an industry.
The promise in the 90s was that these new Pentecostal churches were for those who were burned out on religion and looking for something new. But it soon proved hollow.
I was living in Europe when everything seemed to go pear shaped. Prominent church leaders had God-like celebrity status. Prominent church leaders cheated on their wives. Prominent church leaders were found to have lied about illnesses to promote their programs or songs they had written. Prominent church leaders were being accused of preying on underage children in their churches and sexually abusing them. Prominent church leaders were accused of covering up the paedophilia. (That sounds familiar. They were being just like the older established churches). Prominent church leaders were found to have embezzled money from their churches. Visiting speakers were being given very expensive gifts, which church leaders also seemed to be giving themselves.
Image was more important than integrity. Image was more important than God.
Parishioners were well dressed people with impressive incomes. Don’t bother joining these churches unless you have a lot of money.
Gone were the church leaders living in humble dwellings and low incomes. These new leaders were rolling in money and enjoying palatial homes, fancy cars and designer clothes.
This is not the Jesus we know from the Bible. The humble man who was homeless. The humble man who relied on the charity of others to eat. The humble man who wore simple clothes. The humble man who walked everywhere when many of these modern church leaders would be riding in beautiful gold panelled chariots with expensive, pedigree horses.
The Jesus I know in the Bible would go among the sick and poor. If he was on earth today he would visit homeless shelters, soup kitchens, Women’s shelters, the places the homeless sleep at night, the homes of the poor. He would talk to the transgender person too frightened to step outside their front door because of terrible abuse. He would tell a young teen struggling to accept their homosexuality that He loves them and worries about the abuse they suffer. He would walk away from the established churches with their legalism and harshness and towards those stumbling in darkness.
I have been to some of these glitzy churches, I even studied music ministry at one of the glitzy churches Bible Colleges. I know the tricks used in services to draw people in and feed an atmosphere that crescendos in a high and simulates the anointing of the Holy Spirit. I can tell you that these crescendos are nothing like the anointing of the Holy Spirit. That when I have been in these churches I have felt despair at the lack of worship going on. People are singing to God, and some genuinely believe they are, but they aren’t. They have never been taught.
This is not to say the older more traditional styles of worship are any better. All the churches fail when they fail to lead people to true worship in Jesus. All the glitz and glamour won’t replace the absence of God.
People are not being introduced to God. They are not getting an opportunity to know God. They don’t understand that they must have a personal relationship with God.
I know I harp on about this, but that personal relationship with God is vital. Yet people are not getting the message.
When Jesus asks people to “Follow Me” who will follow Him?
