Matthew 16:18
18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church (ekklesia), and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. NIV
The “ekklesia” was a body of citizens gathered to discuss the affairs of the state (Vine’s Dictionary). The word (ekklesia) refers to the gathering of competent citizens of a city-state in order to decide issues regarding laws, office appointments, and public policy (Mounce’s Dictionary).
Jesus did not intend to build a “synagogue”, a mere gathering of people for religious purposes. He is building church, a system that redeems people from the world system (Babylon) to develop them as effective agents of the Kingdom of God in the earth, capable to advance the Cause of the Kingdom. For a long time we, the church have positioned ourselves alongside other world religions and not against other systems of human development. While the church has a real spiritual mandate to bring people to a place of progressive personal transformation and correct relationship with God, it however must see itself in the category of “United Nations” or any other such global system involved in this issue of developing human existence.
Exploring Some Prophetic Scriptures
Let us explore prophetic scriptures in the Word of God that reinforce the idea of church as a system of development of human existence. Before we do so I would like for us to explore a scripture in Acts 3:19-21.
Acts 3:19-21
19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, 20 and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you-even Jesus. 21 He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. NIV
The word “repent” here that Apostle Peter is using is not a word that primarily defines “an emotional feeling or moment”; it is a word that emphasises the need for “change of minds”, “perspective change” or “paradigm shift”. The word emphasises the need to come to new correct realisations and definitions concerning God and His Kingdom.
Peter goes on to say that Jesus will not be sent back (the second coming of the Lord) until certain things God spoke through the prophets are fulfilled in the earth. Church has always fallen into a trap of “an imminent return of Christ”, that Christ may come back anytime. It is true that He wants to come back soon (Rev 22:12); it is true that He wants to bring this mortal age to conclusion, that there must be no more delay in the advancement and completion of His purpose (Rev 10:6&7, John 4:34) but it is also equally true that He will not be sent back until church brings to fulfilment God’s prophetic imperatives in the earth. There has been times when people even predicted the dates of the Lord’s coming and to their disappointment, it did not happen. Paul had to address these same issues with the Thessalonians. According to Peter, the only way of hastening the coming of the Lord is by engaging in His prophetic demands. He (Christ) must remain in Heaven until “the days of restoration”. The word “restoration” defines a process of bringing things back to their original order; to reconstitute something to a place of health and soundness.
According to Acts 3:19-21, it is prophetically correct to engage in a process of redefinition of church that allows us to begin to function exactly as God imagined it before the world began. As mentioned before, this is what will hasten the coming of the Lord.
Prophetic Scriptures defining Church and its Operations
Isaiah 2:1-4
1 This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
2 In the last days
the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established
as chief among the mountains;
it will be raised above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it.
3 Many peoples will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths."
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4 He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.
NIV
We can agree here that “the mountain of the Lord’s temple” or “the house of the God of Jacob” is church. These are just metaphors that Prophet Isaiah is using to describe something he was seeing in God. The prophet is using the language of his day to describe a reality that would only manifest in the future. If Isaiah was a prophet living in the days of the Book of Acts he was going to use the word “church” instead of “house of the God of Jacob”.
If we agree that Isaiah is in fact describing church, let us then see how he describes it:
· The issue of elevation: the first thing that becomes a trigger to this whole process is “elevation” taking place within the church. “Elevation” here is in the form of standards (or values) and wisdom emerging from the church. So Isaiah says that church must begin by elevating its value system and wisdom in the midst of the nations, if this does not happen then the nations are not coming. Church is a Pillar and a City of truth (1 Tim 3:15, Zech 8:3). The mechanism that helps us set the values and that helps us release wisdom and insight in the church is “doctrine”. Unless the very system of impartation (teaching processes) changes, there will be no new standards and there will be no new higher wisdom in the church. Eph 3:10 says God wants to express His wisdom through the church. “Wisdom” here is not simply a process of pulling the best minds from the world into the church; wisdom is sight of God that produces a sense of understanding of correct structures of human life. The wisdom of God has nothing to do with our natural IQ levels but it comes as a revelation. The word “wisdom” used in Eph 3:10 is the same word that was used to describe “the learning of ancient Greek philosophers” (that some of us studied about at Tertiary education level). And so “wisdom” is basically “new systems of knowledge” coming from God to church (in fact Isaiah does say that law will come from Zion). Wisdom is new systems of knowledge that impart understanding of how human life must be built in the same way that ancient philosophers gave insight upon which most systems of the world are built today. This elevation will give church visibility in the nations, like the lamp that must be put on the table for all to see.
· Nations and many peoples will stream to church (the house of the Lord) to be taught “the ways”: this point connects to the issue of elevation and church producing new knowledge systems in the earth. We have to develop what the Bible calls “the ways”. The word “ways” is described as “a road, the course of life, mode of action, and as a custom”. God revealed His ways to Moses (Ps 103:7). This word indicates that the church must begin to focus on developing knowledge systems, patterns of life, cultural systems that can in fact be exported to the nations. All of this is part of our gospel. We preach a complete gospel of the Kingdom of God (Matt 24:14) which Jesus, John the Baptist and apostles preached (Matt 4:17&24, Matt 3:2, Acts 1:3, Acts 8:12); we are not only preaching a message of salvation. “Salvation” is only one portion of the gospel of the kingdom of God. It is the gospel (message) of the kingdom – the kingdom of God is an entire system of life. This means we are not qualified to preach the message of the kingdom if we have not understood the kingdom itself (as a system of life). Without the development of “the ways” then nations are coming to nothing, in fact they will never come. According to Isa 2, nations are not coming to a church service primarily but to a developed system of life.
· Church as a Teacher of Life: Isaiah says nations will come to be taught. The word “teach” here is defined as “to flow as water, to point out as if by aiming the finger, to direct, inform, instruct” etc. The word therefore defines the prophetic space church has in the development of humanity. Church here has the responsibility of giving direction to humanity’s development.
According to this prophecy, it is clear that in the mind of God, church must function beyond the church service and engage itself in the business of human development. Church must produce a system of human existence (not just church organisations) that the nations can import.
Deuteronomy 4:5-8
5 See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. 6 Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people." 7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him? 8 And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?
NIV
Becoming an Ekklesia of God demands that we begin to consider the politics of the Kingdom of God (Kingdom Politics) and establish the political dimension of Christ in the saints.
Defining Kingdom Politics:
We said politics deals with the formation, development and regulation of human existence. God is the One who formed human existence (Gen 1:26, Acts 17:26) and He is actively developing it. God therefore demonstrates politics to us.
Kingdom Politics: is an internal revelation of Christ that produces a sense of justice, activating a process of serving and developing humanity to a place of correct and equitable human existence.
· Kingdom Politics begins with a personal sight of Christ’s nature. It begins with seeing Christ as a system of Equity and Justice. Jeremiah says “to know the Lord is to defend the cause of the needy and poor” (Jer 22:16). We cannot claim a knowledge of the Lord and yet be stepping into positions of injustice, greed and materialism. A sight of God’s nature brings one to a place of justice-consciousness.
· As a personal sight of Christ, kingdom politics is a deeply spiritual process. That is, kingdom politics is not Party Politics and it is not Political Science. There are Politicians out there who have no understanding of justice and equity, otherwise if they did they would not be squandering Public Resources the way they do, causing deprivation and human suffering. There are Political Scientists who have an academic understanding of Politics and yet do not possess it as their nature and mentality. Kingdom Politics is the impartation of the nature of God into our lives. He is a God of justice. So therefore kingdom politics is nothing but coming to positions of Christlike-ness.
· As a personal sight of Christ, kingdom politics is not for the immature, it is activated by correct processes of personal growth in Christ.
· Kingdom Politics is discharged through a spirit of serving humanity. In the kingdom of God, ruler-ship is service and to be the greatest is to be the servant of all (Luke 22:26-27, Mark 10:43-45). This means that kingdom politics is not position-oriented; it is less about occupying positions in structures of Government and more about practically serving humanity. One day people came to David and said “while Saul was king over us you were the one who led Israel” (2 Sam 5:2). This is the testimony the church should have in the nations.
We are identifying the revelation of Christ as a trigger for the activation of Kingdom Politics. Let us examine the messages Paul used to preach:
· The first thing that Paul said was that Christ was revealed in him (Gal 1:15-16). So whatever Paul preached constituted his revelation of Christ.
· Paul preached removal of injustice and ethnic dominance. He told the Gentiles that they were “heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus” (Eph 3:6). This was not a “nice Christian sermon”, this message sought to de-throne Jewish dominance and establish ethnic-racial equality.
· Paul preached socio-political cohesion. He told the Jews and Gentiles that God was “removing the dividing wall of hostility” and forming out of them “one new man”. He spoke about Jews and Gentiles having equal access before God (Eph 2:14-18). Again this was no “nice Christian sermon” this message was a deeply political message that sought to establish new and just platforms of human existence. The question here should be where was the Politician of the day? Where was the Roman Empire and its institutions of governance?
· Paul preached about “redistribution of wealth” from the rich to the poor. He spoke about Christ as a system of equality (2 Cor 8:13-15).
The messages of Paul were therefore not mere sermons but they represented the philosophy of the kingdom of God.
As a matter of fact, John the Baptist did the same thing, he spoke about redistribution of resource from the poor to the rich (Luke 3:10&11) within the church. How come then we preach a gospel of “prosperity” that promotes greed, materialism and a neglecting of “my brother”.
The gospel of Paul was therefore not filled with “spiritual-superficiality” and “momentary glory” that fades away (2 Cor 3:7-11), it spoke on prevailing issues of life and revealed Christ (a system of life) as a solution to the crises of humanity.
Origins of Kingdom Politics
· Kingdom Politics originates from God’s nature. He is a God of justice (or a God of correct and equitable human existence), Isa 30:18, Ps 9:16. The word says we must partake of the nature of God (2 Pet 1:4) and actually imitate Him (Eph 5:1).
· Kingdom Politics is also seen in the Adamic Mandate in Gen 1:26-28. The mandate was “to rule”. Ruler-ship is a political term. However, ruler-ship in the kingdom of God is not holding positions, it is serving and developing life (Luke 22:25-27). The ruler shepherds the people (Matt 2:6), i.e. the ruler establishes processes and systems of human development. Adam was the pattern of Christ (Rom 5:14) and so what Adam fell from we are now reclaiming through Christ (1 Cor 15:45-49). Adam was mandated with kingdom politics in the earth, we are now walking into the reality of this dimension of Christ.
Kingdom Politics and Positions of Son-ship
Romans 8:19
19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. NIV
There are many things that define true son-ship. We know that Adam was the son of God (Luke 3:38) and Christ came as the son of God (Matt 16:16, John 3:16).
We want to understand what true son-ship really means? What positions of existence is a “son” church called to?
Psalms 2:7-9
7 I will proclaim the decree of the LORD:
He said to me, "You are my Son;
today I have become your Father.
8 Ask of me,
and I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You will rule them with an iron scepter;
you will dash them to pieces like pottery."
NIV
Revelation 12:5
5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. NIV
Psalms 89:19-29
19 Once you spoke in a vision,
to your faithful people you said:
"I have bestowed strength on a warrior;
I have exalted a young man from among the people.
20 I have found David my servant;
with my sacred oil I have anointed him.
24 My faithful love will be with him,
and through my name his horn will be exalted.
25 I will set his hand over the sea,
his right hand over the rivers.
26 He will call out to me, 'You are my Father,
my God, the Rock my Savior.'
27 I will also appoint him my firstborn,
the most exalted of the kings of the earth.
28 I will maintain my love to him forever,
and my covenant with him will never fail.
29 I will establish his line forever,
his throne as long as the heavens endure.
NIV
Generally, the principle of son-ship speaks of a perfected church in Christ. Over and above this, we also realise that whenever we see God speaking about “His son” He is really talking about a church that becomes a system of ruler-ship and government in the earth (through service and human development and not through coups or through taking over positions of influence, although this is good as well – in the scriptures we see Daniel, Joseph and Esther).
The son will shepherd the nations. “Shepherding nations” is nothing but engaging in processes of human development out of maturity in Christ.
The first son, Adam was a ruler (Gen 1:28), Christ is a Ruler (Rev 1:5) and so the “son Church” must become a ruler in the midst of the nations. God says He will “set our hand over the sea (i.e. masses of humanity, Rev 17:1&15)”, Ps 89:25. For these things to take place there must be a radical shift in our concept of God, definition of church, building processes (teachings) and operations. If we declare these things without practically implementing certain changes then they become just pulpit rhetoric.
According to the Prophetic Scriptures, there must be a Church generation (saints) that arises to fulfil its Political Mandate in the Nations.
There are already many believers within the church, who have a true political stirring from the Spirit but who do not necessarily want to engage in Party Politics and yet do not have a Doctrinal basis and or an Operational space within the church to function. God has come for us and is revealing Himself afresh so that the nations can see Him correctly.
Isaiah 52:14-15
14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him —
his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man
and his form marred beyond human likeness —
15 so will he sprinkle (i.e. shock) many nations,
and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see,
and what they have not heard, they will understand.
NIV
We are building a new system of church, a new priesthood and a new representation of Christ in the earth.
To be continued…
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