#12 - Convergence
... and Against This... No Can Defend...
“And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it and holds fast my covenant. These I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.”
- Isaiah 56:6-8
Looking back on our last conversation I think that the sentence that we could use to best summarize the conversation would be, “Take up your sword and shield and follow me because it’s time to take the killshot, break the gates, and storm the mountain.” This, of course, is the sentiment that I feel that the King of the Kingdom of Heaven is releasing in the hearts and minds of the people on the earth, and therefore it is good to have this as our focus. I think it necessary to offer another thought here before we run off into the middle distance of the earth and let’s take stock of who we are and truly count the cost of storming the mountain. Let’s look at the phrase “take up your sword and shield...” It sounds a lot like a phrase in Matthew 16:24, “Then Jesus said to his disciples, If any one of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.” Take up your cross and follow me is the phrase the Man used, just after he talked to his disciples about storming the gates.
Matthew 16:18: Gates of Hell can’t withstand the beating…
Matthew 16:24: Give up your own way, and take up his cross and follow Me..
After 16:24 these fives things happen:1
Jesus says, “I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven…”
Jesus says, “Do not tell anyone that I a, the Christ”
Jesus says, “I must die” and he will be resurrected
Peter rebukes Jesus for saying that, “He will die”
Jesus calls Peter “…. Satan” for not being obedient to his Father’s plan
… God’s plan for Jesus is that he dies and then rises from the dead…let us look at another version of the phrase…
25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. - Luke 14: 25 -33
Did you spot the difference between the two passages? Another word was added did you see it? No there is a book that people use to find out what the meanings of words are in the Bible. Because, honestly sometimes the meanings of certain words in English are not as beefy as they are in their original languages and context. This type of book is called Concordance, it gives us the meaning of many meanings of the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, or Semitic words found in the Bible. If you were to look at the additional word "Disciple" in Luke 14:27, the concordance would state that the Greek translation of this word is Mathethes. For your records, the website biblehub.com has an online version of this and does a really good job at making a tool like this accessible to people everywhere; also seen below.
What is a Disciple?
A disciple of Jesus is a person who learns the: - Teachings and Concepts - Practical Way to Live Those Concepts in Real Life - Reason for and How to Make Disciples
Let’s break it down line by line:
#26 Following me is going to cost you the relationships that you hold dear.
#27 Following me will bring you persecution
#28 If you are building a house, then you check your budget before you start, so you know that you can complete the house.
#29 You don’t want to look stupid
#30 You really want a house
#31 What happens if you’re a king about to wage war on a kingdom and you find out right before the fight, that you are outmatched and outgunned?
#32 You would definitely send a representative ahead of you to surrender and make a treaty, with the hope of averting the warfare and your imminent death.
#33 You do not have enough money to finish the project, you are outmatched, you are outgunned. Surrender is your only option so switch kingdoms now and follow Me.
The Point
We are about to enter full-scale conflict, and we the disciples are lining up at the front of the fight. We have to count the cost and we have to know what are our deficiencies. I believe that the church on earth has a single deficiency at present and without correcting this issue and obeying the command from Jesus then there will be no way to win conflict.
Please listen to this audio recording of John 17:
No man builds a building without first counting the cost and finding out after laying the foundation that he does not have what he needs to finish the project. The building is in construction, this plan was made before the foundation of the world. This building known as the church will be completed, and the order to finish the work on earth has already been issued and paid. The deed has been written in the name of the Son of God and extracted by the blood of Jesus; the King of the Kingdom of Heaven.
What is the deficiency?
The church is fractured and divided, the people on earth who believe in Jesus largely have devoted themselves to systems that really work to pacify them rather than ignite them. The church on earth in many places is alive and well, but in many more communities, the church is a shell of what it should be. Unity is the great deficiency of the church in this day and age, unity with each other, unity with God, unity with His Son, and unity in the Spirit.
25 Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. 26 And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? 27 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. - Matthew 12:25-28
Are we divided against ourselves?
I appeal to you brothers and sisters by the authority of Jesus…That you all Agree…
That there be no divisions among you…That you be united in the same mind and judgment. How many churches are in your city? How many of them believe the same things? How many of them are radically different? How many of them work together with other churches for the sake of the city? How many of those churches will never worship and work together…because of their differing beliefs about how to go about working on earth?
We are Divided
I believe that we can be united under the banner of Love and the word of Christ. We can be one with each other and with Jesus and God. You in me and I in you, Christ in us, Us in Christ, Christ in God, and God in Christ. Do you want to survive the battle at the gates? Because this is the fight of our lives and the final onslaught is upon us; we have been delivered to the fight by the hands of time and the battle is here and now. We must be united as one people, one group, one way, one kingdom under one king, and his name is Jesus.
Warning… a lot of Bible is headed your way…1 Corinthians 3 [the whole thing]
1. Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ.
2. I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready,
3. for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?
4. When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world?
5. After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us.
6. I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow.
7. It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.
8. The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work.
9. For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building.
10. Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful.
11. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.
12. Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw.
13. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value.
14. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward.
15. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.
16. Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?
17. God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
18. Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise.
19. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say, “He traps the wise in the snare of their own cleverness.”
20. And again, “The LORD knows the thoughts of the wise; he knows they are worthless.”
21. So don’t boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you—
22. whether Paul or Apollos or Peter, or the world, or life and death, or the present and the future. Everything belongs to you,
23. and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
You are God’s Workers… You are God’s Field… You are God’s Building… You are Christ’s… Christ is God’s… Christ’s Disciples… One Church… One Body… One Thing… Same Thing… a Church… and this Church is not supposed to be Fragmented and Divided… It is not supposed to be like… Southeran Bapstist… Methodist… Lutheran… Episcopalian… Church of God… Assemblies of God… Apostolic… Calvary Chapel… Wesleyan Church… Church of the Brethren… Calvinist… Non-Denomination… United Methodist…and the list goes on. We just rattled off 13 different denominations off the top of my head, not to include the Catholic Church which is a conversation unto itself. Notice we are not including other churches that people outside of the church might place under the banner of Christianity; cult sects such as Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Scientists, or Transcendental Churches.
These churches in America and many of them can be found in the cities and towns, all across the world. Big multinational ministries are operating and competing in the same pool of people worldwide. A home has many materials and they all have a place of importance for their respective jobs. No matter how awesome your dining room table is, you are never going to put it in the bathroom. Neither would you put the best toilet in your house, in the kitchen. Why? Because even though the toilet and the table are in the same house, they have different roles within the home. Who established the roles for the different items and who built the rooms in which they are to be operated? The Builder created the rooms and designated the items that go in and are to be used within those rooms. The time has come for the Glorious Church to arise and shine and shine its light, without limitation. It is time for the people who believe in and follow the teachings of the King of the Kingdom of Heaven, on earth to be one as the Father and the Son are one. Like the Spirit and Christ are one, so are the Spirit and the Bride. The people in the kingdom of heaven living life on earth are going to have to learn how to shake off the things that divide us and become “One” once again. The question is, what is it that actually divides the church? What separates us, nationally, what divides us within our own cities, what divides us within our families? Whatever it is, that separates the washer machine from living under the same roof as the toaster needs to be eradicated from the house entirely.
I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. - 1 Corinthians 1:10 ESV
Some Light Reading
What Divides Us
I'm in Favor of this Suggestion even though it is Ridiculous2
Politics Bleeding into the Building3
Valid Points4
An Amazing Amount of Information in Video Form
Denominations #1 Christian Origins & Early Church Schisms
Denominations #2 Roman Catholics & Eastern Orthodox
Denominations #3 Anglicans, Lutherans & Reformed
Denominations #4 Anabaptists & Quakers |
Denominations #5 Baptists & Methodists
Denominations #6 -> The Cults
A Controversial Video
This centers around the Baptist Denomination, how does it make you feel?
The video was posted online on August 11, 2008:
The pathway forward on the road to reconciliation begins with forgiveness….
Unity starts with reconciliation and forgiveness, and we need to be united because when we are united, we can achieve anything. Let the gathering of the seas into one river begin with you and me; the king has a purpose for the people who become his disciples on earth. Remember a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. We need to be ready to carry our cross and die to our way of living. Those who are disciples are all in the same Kingdom and we are not enemies, we are family; it’s time that we remember who the real enemy is.
- a Real Concerned Citizen
Verses are the Bible’s version of Sentences
https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2022/september-web-only/russell-moore-sbc-baptist-church-splits-dividing-america.html
https://www.salon.com/2022/10/09/america-is-divided-and-broken--so-is-my-church-is-there-hope-absolutely/
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/1996/06/25/the-diminishing-divide-american-churches-american-politics/