Unbreakable (Mark 14:66-72)

Pineapple on pizza. There are just some things you do not do in life. Some rules you do not break like putting pineapple on pizza. (I happen to like pineapple on pizza but rules are rules.) Or like the time my canteen at work was serving spaghetti for lunch except it was spaghetti with chicken. One of my very Italian, very food-passionate colleagues looked at that and said, “There are some things you do not do in life.” “You do not kill people. You do not rob people.” “And,” he said, “you do not put spaghetti with chicken.”

What is the one thing you do not do as a Christian, the one rule you do not break as a Christian? If you are Peter, that one thing is to deny Christ. It’s to disown Christ. “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” Mark Chapter 14, verse 31. Like that Bryan Adams song, “Walk the wire for you, yeah, I’d die for yooooou!” Peter’s one thing was to stand by his Christ at the cost of his life. Peter would never deny Jesus Christ.

Except he does it three times. Three times in one night. And here’s the thing. He doesn’t realise he’s done it until he’s done it. Until the cock crows and he remembers what Jesus said, “You will disown me three times.”

What do we learn from this story? Aside from empathising with Peter or feeling guilty about all the times we’ve let our friends down; the moments we’ve let God down, you know, to make us feel bad. Is that the point of this story? Not quite. It’s to see Jesus. He is the one under trial. He is the one under pressure to deny himself. But we miss it because we think, “He is God.” But Peter reminds us we each have our breaking points. You and I, with the right pressure, with the right temptation will do the one thing we never thought we would ever do. But not Jesus. He is faithful. He is constant to the very end.

Three points from today’s passage. The girl. The girl. And the guys. Three pressure points we see in here  Mark Chapter 14: The girl, the girl (again) and the guys.

1. The girl

So, first, we see the girl. This is verse 66.

While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came by. When she saw Peter warming himself, she looked closely at him.

“You also were with that Nazarene, Jesus,” she said.

But he denied it. “I don’t know or understand what you’re talking about,” he said, and went out into the entrance.

Mark 14:66-68

The point of the, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” is that it’s a formal legal statement. You say something like this before a judge when you’re giving a statement. “I don’t know or understand what you’re talking about.” And it emphasizes how Peter is under trial, under questioning just like Jesus. He is being tested.

But it’s by a girl. A servant girl. I don’t mean to be offensive. It could be that this servant girl, as she is described in verse 66, is quite muscular and intimidating and scary and has lots of scary tattoos. It doesn’t say. But you get what I mean: It’s not like Jesus with the priests, elders and guards. “Blasphemy!” goes the high priest and they all condemn him to death and the guards beat him up. No, Peter is worried about a girl who says, “You also were with that Nazarene, Jesus,” but to Peter, this girl was his judge. This servant girl of the high priest was to Peter the high priest. Hence, “I don’t know or understand what you’re talking about.” It’s a formal legal denial as if he’s been questioned by the high priest himself - a denial that he knows Jesus or has anything to do with Jesus Christ. And notice, right after he says this, he leaves. He walks out into the entrance. Why? To get as far away as he can from this scary servant girl!

2. The girl

But, verse 69, we meet this girl again. He doesn’t get away!

When the servant girl saw him there, she said again to those standing around, “This fellow is one of them.” Again he denied it.

Mark 14:69-70

This time there are witnesses - she talks to the people standing around. This time she exposes him as he is trying to run, to hide, to get away from this servant girl but she follows him to the entrance and she says, “This fellow is one of them.” She didn’t have to say “Jesus” or “disciple”. One of them means not one of us. One of them means it’s obvious. You take one look at this guy and you know this guy is different from us. One of them means this guy is trying to act as if he is one of us but come on! He’s not. He’s hiding. He’s running away (from this servant girl).

“Again he denied it.” We talked about Peter’s fear but here it’s really about his shame. Back in verse 54, we read, “Peter followed him (meaning, Jesus) at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. There he sat with the guards and warmed himself at the fire.” It’s Peter, then Jesus, then Peter again, like a sandwich (I really want to find an alternative term for this, “hambaobao”, maybe, where we see Mark splitting up the story about Peter with the main plot about Jesus in the middle of the “hambaobao” with the two slices of the Peter “mantou” story at the beginning and at the end). And we see back in verse 54, Peter trying to blend in. He’s still following Jesus but each time Peter is moving further and further behind, keeping his distance from Jesus. I mean, he’s hanging out with the guards, warming himself by the fire with the guards, of all people.

But the servant girl exposes Peter in front of all these witnesses, “This guy isn’t one of you. He is one of them.” No, I’m just like you, nothing to do with those guys. Nothing to do with Jesus.

That’s sad. When even the world condemns you for being a hypocrite. When even the world condemns you for being worldly. That’s sad because Peter still has no idea what’s going on. To him, he is following Jesus. To him, he is keeping his head low. God understands. No, God is using this servant girl to expose, to bring out what’s going on inside his heart. He is afraid and he is ashamed. Of being with Jesus. Of being one of them. That’s sad.

3. The guys

After a little while, those standing near said to Peter, “Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.”

He began to call down curses on himself, and he swore to them, “I don’t know this man you’re talking about.”

Immediately the cock crowed the second time. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him, “Before the cock crows twice you will disown me three times.” And he broke down and wept.

Mark 14:70-72

Maybe it was his accent. Maybe he was wearing a t-shirt with “Galilee rules,” printed on the front and “Jerusalem sucks,” printed on the back. But soon, the guys standing around Peter go, “Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.” But whatever it was, this was final straw for Peter. It was do or die, and remembering that this was ancient Israel on the night of the Passover, the holiest night of the year, Peter decides to call down curses on himself. That means to use God’s name in vain, to break a commandment and that’s a big deal for a pious Jew, to say stuff like, “May God do this and that to me if I am not telling the truth,” that kind of thing. “I don’t know this man you’re talking about.” To use God’s name essentially to lie.

Just at that moment. “Immediately,” verse 72 says, “the cock crowed the second time.” Like a wake-up call. “Cock-a-doodle-dooooo!!!!!!” Peter realises what he’s done, the one thing he swore he would never, ever do: Deny Christ. And he’s done this three times.

And that’s the thing isn’t it? Jesus knew him better than he knew himself. Peter was Bryan Adams. He was going to die for Jesus, walk the wire for Jesus. No, it was Jesus who was going to have to die for Peter because Peter’s denial was deserving of death. To deny Christ. To be ashamed of Christ. To call down curses on yourself rather than acknowledge Christ. Even though the guards beat Jesus, the high priest condemned Jesus to death, Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss no less and Peter did none of that. And yet, like the high priest, like the guards and in a way, even like Judas, Peter was denying that Jesus really was who he said he was. God’s own Son. God’s own King. God’s chosen Saviour. In front of these guys, these strangers, Peter cursed himself. Meaning, to put it bluntly, he would rather be damned than confess Jesus as the Christ. A slip of the tongue? The pressure of the moment? No, Jesus knew Peter better than he knew himself and Peter remembered the word Jesus had given to him, “Before the cock crows twice you will disown me three times.” And he broke down and wept.

But that’s encouraging because, you see, the last word from Peter is not his denial. It’s his repentance. He broke down or you could say he reached his breaking point. To reach breaking point is not necessarily to be pressured until you break, until you commit some gross sin. It’s to be humbled to the point that you realise you are a sinner and you need a Saviour. To reach breaking point is to know the Christ knows you better than you know yourself, that he has to die in your place, he has to take your punishment of your behalf on the cross. He has to do this. That everything he went through, he did that because you can’t.

And that’s a good thing. In the end, it wasn’t the fact the Peter sinned that woke him up from his self-delusion (“I’ll die before I deny you”), it was the fulfilment of Jesus’ word (“You will all fall away”, verse 27. “I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered”). It was the fulfilment of Jesus’ mission to be betrayed, to be handed over, to die and to rise again.

I’ve been reading “The Hiding Place” about Corrie ten Boom sent to prison for hiding her Jewish friends during World War II. Every day was breaking point for her - to keep trusting in God, to forgive the men who killed her father, to hide copies of the bible to give away in prison. Who does that? I read that and go, “No way I would last. No way I wouldn’t break.” But you see, the point is not to wait until a war breaks out and you’re thrown in prison or to wait for someone to hold a gun to your head and say, “Do you believe in Christ?” Rather, like Peter, it’s realising that God’s word already tells me today, right now, that I need Christ to be faithful to Christ; I will not last a single moment without Christ - that my heart is blind to my constant denial of Christ, of my own self-delusion because of my self-righteousness unless I confess my sinfulness and my brokenness before Christ.

And really the question left for us is simply this: Have you reached breaking point before Christ? Or are you still in your own eyes unbreakable? As I hear testimonies from new converts, it is common to hear testimonies of how good God is, how awesome his love, how amazing his grace and these are good things to hear. But friends, and I say this to you specially if you are from an Asian background, it is good to confess our brokenness and need for forgiveness from God that comes from the cross of Christ - as unChinese as that might be to do such a thing in front of our friends. That breaking point is true conversion. That breaking point is true repentance. To confess that I am a great sinner but Christ is a great and faithful Saviour.

And so Jesus suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.

Hebrews 13:12-13

Healing (Acts 9:32-43)

In today’s passage, the apostle Peter heals a man who hasn’t been able to walk for eight years and he raises a woman who has just died. Today’s passage is about miraculous healing.

I wonder if you are surprised to read this in the bible today? Are we seriously going to study a passage which teaches us that God can heal a serious illness? Isn’t that embarrassing in this day and age? Isn’t that irresponsible?

In part, our skepticism in reading such records of miraculous, seemingly unexplainable, incidences of healing flow from our skepticism of God. Some of us simply don’t believe that there is a God.

But some of us are cynical, not because we don’t believe in God or that God can’t heal miraculously - we do - but we’re cynical because we don’t see God healing people today (at least, not in such miraculous ways).

Now if that is you, I just want to say that in both cases, the focus seems to be on miracles as proof of God’s existence: The evidence of miracles is the evidence of God. But that is not the focus of the passage. It’s not the connection the bible wants us to make. Indeed, Jesus, himself, who performed miracles and healed people and raised people from the dead, cautioned us against believing in the miracles. No, the miracles were pointing us to something else. The miracles were meant to make us ask: Why has God done this? Why were they healed?

That is the real surprise in this passage. Not that God heals, but why. Why did God use Peter to heal these two individuals in Lydda and then in Joppa. The simple answer is: these two healings foreshadow the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is, they point us to a greater problem than falling sick and going to the hospital. And they point us to a greater solution than God making us feel better so we that can get on with our day. They point us to the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That is the direction we are heading in as we look at three points from our passage: the raising, the turning and the staying: The raising of Aeneas and Dorcas, the turning of the crowd resulting finally in Peter staying in this place called Joppa.

1. The raising

We begin with the raising. Peter heals two individuals - Aeneas and Dorcas. In both instances the healings are miraculous. In both cases, the healings are instantaneous - Aeneas gets up and walks; Dorcas gets up from the dead - that is, there is no long recovery period during which they progressively get better and better. Both are healed instantly, completely and miraculously.

But also, notice, both are raised. To Aeneas, Peter says to him, in verse 34, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and tidy your mat.” He says the same thing to Dorcas, in verse 40, “Dorcas, get up.” Peter speaks a command and they obey: “Rise up!”

There is something bigger going on here than healing. Healing might even be the wrong word. Healing is what happens when your health improves after an illness; when you get better or feel better after falling ill. No, what God does is radically change the status of these two individuals - from inability to obedience, from death to life. This is a radical complete transformation.

We meet Aeneas: who is a paralytic, bedridden for eight years. To him, Peter says, “Get up!” but also, “Tidy up your mat.” This is a complete reversal of his previous condition: from being paralysed to walking on his own two feet; from laying on his mat all day long to picking it up and putting it away. Peter is saying to him, “That life is done. That old condition you have been in for eight years. Pack it up. Put it away.”

It is a complete reversal from helplessness to obedience. Notice, it is Jesus who heals him, not Peter (verse 34), and it is Jesus who commands Aeneas to rise. The power of his command is seen in the act of healing, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up!” It is also seen in the obedience to that command, “Immediately Aeneas got up.”

This is especially important in the case of Dorcas. The call of Jesus goes beyond the grave.

We learn that her name is Tabitha, or Dorcas (Both names mean “gazelle” or “deer”). She is described as someone who was always doing good and helping the poor. It is why so many of the poor are mourning her death at the funeral. Many of them are widows (verse 39).

Here was a woman who spent her life serving other women in need. Widows in the ancient world were especially vulnerable in their society. They didn’t own property (it was all in the husband’s name) and if they were childless, these women were without any financial safety net. The “robes and the clothing” which Dorcas made for them, mentioned in verse 39 tells us that Dorcas looked out for their physical well-being. These weren’t knitted jumpers you got from your gran for Christmas. Dorcas generously provided for their basic needs, even their clothing.

So, when they hear that Peter was in the neighbouring town - verse 38, says “Lydda was near Joppa,” - they quickly send two men to urge him, “Please come at once.” Peter follows them to Joppa where he meets the widows in the upper room. Again, the reason why Acts records this is not simply to show us what an outstanding woman Dorcas is, but more so, to show us how much these widows loved her and depended upon her. That’s important because right at the end, in verse 41, he “presented her alive.” That is, this miracle was done partly for their sake - to return Dorcas alive to the believers and widows who loved her so much.

But for now, Peter sends them all out of the room (verse 40). He gets down on his knees. And he prays. You might remember another incident remarkably similar to this one, involving Jesus raising a little girl from death (recorded in Mark 5 and Luke 8) where there were also mourners around the body. When Jesus says to the mourners, “This child is not dead but asleep,” they laugh at him and Jesus is forced to put them out of the room and close the door. What is so interesting in the episode involving Jesus in Mark Chapter 5 is what he says to that little girl.

He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”)

Mark 5:41

Now look at what Peter says to Tabitha.

Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet.

Acts 9:40-41

The remarkable similarities between the mourners being sent out of the room and the command given to a dead body to “Get up!” - even the the similarity between “Talitha” and “Tabitha” - are there to draw a connection between Peter and Jesus’ ministry, they authenticate Peter’s apostolic authority, they signal a continuation of Jesus’ work on earth, but most of all, they remind us this is a call all of us will hear one day and respond to, even from the grave. One day, Jesus will return. We will all hear his voice. And he will command the dead to rise again to face him either as our Saviour or our Judge.

In other words, what we see are foreshadowings of the resurrection. In the same way that Jesus was raised bodily from the dead after his crucifixion so one day, we will be raised - some to eternal life, others to everlasting condemnation. But make no mistake of this, all of us will be raised. Jesus will raise his voice and command the living and the dead to rise up and acknowledge him as Lord.

2. The turning

This bring us to our second point: The turning. The reason why these miracles happened in Lydda and Joppa was to enable the people in these cities to respond to Jesus now before that final day.

All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.
Acts 9:35

This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.

Acts 9:42

Two different words are used to describe the same response - turned and believe. To turn is synonymous with repenting. In fact, it is a better word, I think, than repenting, because many people think that you repent by feeling sorry and awful about the horrible things you’ve done in your life. Not that you shouldn’t feel sorry about the horrible things you’ve done, but that isn’t repenting. That’s feeling remorseful; sorry. To repent is to turn and face God to whom you should say sorry. To repent is to turn away from doing those horrible things and to face God to serve him instead. When Christians repent from their sins, what they are doing is saying sorry to God, asking him to forgive their sins and change them so that they will serve him instead of continuing on in their sin.

The second word is “believe”. Today, someone might say, “I believe there is a God,” but that’s not what happened in Joppa. It wasn’t a general awareness that there is a powerful being who can heal terrible illnesses and therefore I’m going to pray to him whenever I have the flu. No, the people of Joppe “believed in the Lord,” which means that the incident about Dorcas’ being brought back from the dead made them pay attention to what the Christians were saying about Jesus and his death on the cross, his resurrection from the dead and his offer of forgiveness and new life for all who trust (or believe) in him, and they responded, “I, too, trust in Jesus who died on the cross for my sins.” That’s what it means. In short, it means they became Christians.

More importantly, it means they understood the reason why Aeneas and Dorcas were raised - not as a guarantee that Christians will automatically get well if they pray for healing - but that these events were pointers to bigger event when all of us will be raised at the voice of Christ: The Resurrection.

If you understand this, you understand the reason why many don’t get healed. The bible tells us that all illness, all ageing, all pain are but symptoms of a bigger problem: death. We tend to wait till things get really bad before we face up to the reality of death. But death is not just a one-off event that happens at the end of life. No, death is curse we all live with every day. It’s in the air that we breath. It’s on the toothaches, the wrinkles, the hair-loss, the sun-burn. Death reminds us that life is not as it should be.

And the bible tells us the reason for death is sin. We have all sinned, that is, we have all turned our backs against God. We reject him and we don’t want anything whatsoever to do with him. And as a result of that rejection - of that sin - God punishes us with a curse called death.

Death in the bible is separation. We remove God from our lives. In turn God removes us - he separates us - from himself, the source of life. When you understand that, you begin to see that death goes beyond being something physical to being something that is essentially relational. This is why physical death is so painful even for the living. This is why we mourn over our loved ones, why the pain still lingers for years and years. Death separates us from life; from those we love. It separates us from God.

The resurrection is a reversal of death. Now get this, it is not simply the removal of death, but a complete reversal of death. On the cross, Jesus Christ took our death upon himself. He took our punishment of sin upon himself by dying in our place. God treated Jesus the way he should have treated us: by sending him to the cross. But when God raised him from the dead, the bible says that we were also raised with Jesus from the dead. What this means is, for the Christian, the resurrection is not simply a hope for future, it is a living reality for today. Christians live free from the curse (or control) of death. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus our Lord, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1-2)

A reversal means we live a new life empowered by God’s Spirit. We have a relationship with God that is reconciled. We have a relationship with one another that can never be separated.

3. The staying

And this brings us to our final point, which I call: the staying. What does this new resurrection life look like now? We see this in Peter’s journey which ends up with him staying “for some time” in Joppa. Don’t forget that in reading about Aeneas and Dorcas, what we are really reading is the account of God leading Peter step-by-step in his mission. These events are there for his benefit as well, to show Peter how God is making known this new reality of the resurrection age in this age. He does this through gospel.

Right from the beginning, in verse 32, Peter is travelling about the country with the intention of visiting the Christians in Lydda. At this point the gospel has spread beyond the borders of Jerusalem, such that there are now Christians all over Israel - in Judea, Galilee and Samaria (which we saw last week in Acts 9:31). Peter is visiting some of these churches to strengthen them and encourage them as brothers and sisters in Christ. At least, that is his plan for making this trip around the country.

But pretty soon, we realise that Peter is not in full control of his itinerary. He heals Aeneas and the whole town of Lydda becomes Christian. Then the widows hear about him and urgently send two guys to bring him to Joppa, where Peter heals Dorcas, which, in turn, results in many people becoming Christians in Joppa. Do you see? The events themselves are pulling Peter in a particular direction - out of Jerusalem to Lydda and finally to Joppa.

Now look at how the Chapter ends in verse 43.

Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon.

Acts 9:43

Contrary to our modern usage of the word “tanner”, Simon the tanner does not operate a shop where you can get fake tans and end up looking like George Clooney with a curry-coloured complexion. A tanner is someone who skins animals to make leather, meaning he works with a lot of dead animals in his backyard, meaning that when it says that Peter lived in Simon’s house “for many days” (ESV), Peter would have been breaking Jewish social taboos and Old Testament laws which forbade touching dead animal carcasses.

But God led him to that city in Joppa. Next week we will see that God led him there so that he can tell the gospel to a Gentile named Cornelius, and by doing so, Peter was breaking one of the biggest no-no’s in Jewish etiquette: mixing with an unclean outsider. But the point is, God led him there, step-by-step, to show him that the resurrection of Jesus Christ breaks down the barrier between life and death but also between Jew and Gentile. God raises the dead. He forgives the sinner. He welcomes the outsider. If death means separation, new life in Jesus Christ means reconciliation with God and with one another.

That is something we will look at in more detail next week. But for now, I just wanted us to notice that Peter staying in Joppa with Simon the tanner was no accident. In the same way that Aeneas was healed and Dorcas was raised was no accident, but these were events put into place by God to point us to one single reality: Jesus Christ is Lord.

Peter makes it clear to Aeneas, “Jesus Christ heals you.” Whether or how or when such healing takes place today is in the hands of Jesus Christ, not ours. And before the dead body of Dorcas, Peter bows down on his knees and prays. He cannot do this, only God can.

Friends, what would it take for us to acknowledge Jesus as Lord; to submit our lives and the lives of those we love into his hands. Some of us think that it is only when faced with a real situation of death and despair. When we are in the halls of the cancer ward or before the coffin in the funeral home. Now, that may have been the reaction of the mourners at Dorcas’ funeral, but I want you to see that it isn’t Peter’s. In Chinese we say, “Boh Pian” - “No choice. Haiii, I guess, we should pray about it.”

That wasn’t Peter’s attitude in submitting to Jesus. No, rather it was trust in the completed work of Jesus Christ in taking our death and our suffering upon himself. It was the knowledge that Jesus is Lord because he took our death and suffering upon himself.

Am I saying that we should not pray for healing? Quite the contrary. There can be no doubt that the God who made the universe and sustains every single living being by his will can heal us. In an instant. To say otherwise is just plain silly. He, otherwise, would not be God.

But we reveal something about what we really know about this God when all we pray for is healing. We reveal that we don’t need anything else, but healing. If all we pray for is healing, then we reveal quite clearly that Jesus Christ is not our Lord.

Why was Peter in Lydda and then Joppa? It tells us right from the beginning. He was there to see the believers, to encourage them, to remind them to stay faithful in Jesus. And that’s just what he did - through the healing, which resulted in many turning to Jesus - yes, but then by pointing them back to Jesus. He pointed them to Jesus, the one who heals, the one who sustains, the one who forgives and the one who raises even the dead to new life.

The church and the Word of God

William Tyndale translated the first English bible in the 16^th Century, from the original Greek and Hebrew languages. His intention was produce a version of the bible that was clear and understandable; one that it made sense even to the “ploughboy” – the ancient equivalent of a checkout assistant at Tesco.

One of the most controversial verses translated by Tyndale was Matthew 16:18. These were words spoken by Jesus himself in response to Peter’s confession that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” My NIV bible reads as follows:

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
Matthew 16:18

Tyndale didn’t use the word “church”, instead replacing it with the word “congregation”. Tyndale’s bible caused a great stir within the Roman Catholic Church. One biographer writes, “To change these words was to strip the Church hierarchy of its pretensions to be Christ's terrestrial representative, and to award this honour to individual worshipers who made up each congregation.”

So when the King James bible – a new English translation – was later commissioned and published in 1611, specific instructions were given to translators not to use “congregation”, but to reinstate the word “church” in its place.

What is the church?

Today we use the word “church” in a variety of ways. As I write this, Prince William and Kate Middleton have just gotten married in a majestic church building (that is Westminster Abbey). Each Sunday, I go to the Chinese Church, while many of my friends go to other churches – like Eden Chapel, St Andrew the Great and Cambridge Presbyterian Church. Hence, we use the word “church” to describe a building (“We are raising funds to fix the church hall”), a Christian event or meeting (“I had an awesome time in church this morning”), a Christian denomination (Baptist, Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist), a specific group of Christian believers (“my church; your church”) or all Christians around the world (the universal or catholic church).

Yet how does the bible describe the church?

This week, I have been asked to speak on the topic, “The Church and the Christian”, exploring the relationship between individual believers in Jesus Christ and the church. The brief I was sent included very relevant questions for us as Christians today. How do we integrate with the life of the church beyond Sundays? What is the relationship between the church and parachurch organisations, like Christian Unions and mission agencies?

In other words, how does this apply to me? Should I attend my college group or get more involved in a church house group? How do I find a church when I return home after my three/four years here at Cambridge?

In preparation for these very relevant and applicable issues concerning the church, I thought it might be helpful – at least, for me – to first think through the foundational questions of what the church is, the definition of a good and healthy church (conversely, a bad church) and the reasons why, if at all, is the church important?

So before exploring the connection of the church with the individual Christian, it might be worthwhile to establish the church within the framework of the following relationships:

1. The church and the Word of God (Today’s text)

2. The church and the glory of God

3. The church and the body of Christ

4. The church in and out of the world

5. The church and the Kingdom of Heaven;
and then finally,

6. The church and the Christian today

I will build my congregation

Back to Tyndale. For him, the church was never a building. Nor was it a complex social organisation, with layers of bishops and archbishops, such as the Church of Rome. He used the word “congregation” to mean small, discrete, localised gatherings of individual Christians.

The Greek word is ekklesia, literally, “called out”. It wasn’t a particularly religious word, as ekklesia commonly referred to gatherings of a social, or even, political nature. We find it in Acts 19, never speaking of Christians, instead referring three times to non-Christians, worshippers of the pagan god Artemis, who had gathered in front of the town hall to cause a riot. A few months ago, hundreds of students gathered outside the Senate House, protesting the sudden increase in university tuition fees. You could similarly call them an ekklesia, a gathering of individuals.

Another important thing to note is this: When the bible does use ekklesia to refer to Christians, in almost every single instance, it is talking about the local church. Most of the New Testament consist of letters written to individual churches – local gatherings of Christians situated in different parts of the world.

To the churches in Galatia.
Galatians 1:2
(Note the plural “churches” – not one single church, but many church located in this one location)

To the church of God in Corinth.
1 Corinthians 1:2

After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.
Colossians 4:10

To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Thessalonians 1:1

To Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker, to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier and to the church that meets in your home.
Philemon 1:1-2
(A Christian gathering that meets in someone’s house is here, also called a church. Similarly, Romans 16:5)

The fact that these Christian gatherings were held in homes meant you could only have so many people meeting in one location. While Acts 2 records the explosive growth of the believers numbering thousands (2:41) and meeting daily in the temple courts (2:46); after the dispersion of Acts 8, outside of Jerusalem, it is clear that the early Christians met in houses (often of its wealthier members); gathering for worship and even for meals (see 1 Corinthians 11 – dealing with the Lord’s Supper).

Yet, the bible calls each of these gatherings, though small and scattered, the church of God (1 Corinthians 1:2, 11:16, 11:22). As a social entity, they are individuals from diverse backgrounds – poor and rich, slave and free, Jew and Gentile, men and women. In God’s eyes, they are his church.

This does not disqualify large church gatherings today – mega-churches numbering thousands upon thousands – renting out football stadiums and filling up concert theatres. Then again, even the humble Chinese Church in Cambridge would be considered a mega-church when compared to say, the church in Corinth, numbering 40 to 50 believers at most.

However, this does affirm the church in China today: Millions of believers meeting in homes, secretly in small numbers, sometimes just a few families in an apartment. These have a lot in common with the early New Testament church. When they gather in the name of Jesus Christ, they are no less, the church of God in the fullest sense.

Now I am all for the use of the word “church”. It comes from kuriakon meaning “belonging to the Lord (kurios)”. It is a wonderful reminder of the church pointing forward to Jesus as our head, our foundation, our God and our Saviour. He has redeemed us. He is our Lord. We are his church.

But I think Tyndale was saying something very significant in his translation. Ekklesia simply means “gathering”. That is why Tyndale went with “congregation” – you “congregate” when you meet with one another; when you assemble. And the significance of Christians being gathered together in the New Testament is seen in God’s work and purpose in gathering his people to himself in Christ since the Old.

The church in the wilderness

Curiously enough, Acts 7 describes the Israelites during the time of the Exodus as the “ekklesia (NIV: assembly) in the desert”. We read:

(Moses) was in the assembly (ekklesia) in the desert, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living words to pass on to us.
Acts 7:38

In fact, we find ekklesia recurring frequently in the Old Testament (the LXX; Greek translation of the Old Testament) to refer to Israel as a nation. It is used in place of the Hebrew word Qahal, often translated as “assembly” in our NIV English bibles. For example, the title to the book of Ecclesiastes is transliterated from the Greek, whereas in Hebrew it is known as Qoheleth, meaning “teacher of the assembly”.

God has been gathering his people to himself all throughout the history of the bible, not just beginning with the New Testament. However, one important point to note from the assembly of the people of God in the Old Testament is this: They are gathered to hear the word of God.

Look back at Acts 7:38. On Mount Sinai, God speaks to Moses through the angel. He receives “living words” from God. God rescues Israel from slavery in Egypt so that he might gather them to himself to worship him (Exodus 20). He speaks to them from the mountain, delivering the Ten Commandments. Moses compiles the laws which become the Book of the Covenant. God reveals instructions for worship: the tabernacle, the priests and the sacrifices.

Reflecting on this, Moses would later call this event the “Day of the Assembly”. You could also translate this the “Day of the Church”. It was the day “the Lord proclaimed to you on the mountain out of fire” (Deuteronomy 9:10, 10:4, 18:16).

On that day, the people of God gathered to hear the word of God.

God’s people around God’s Word

The author to the Hebrews picks up on this same event, using the picture of the Israelites gathered at Mount Sinai. He then goes on to say that we as Christians have come to a different mountain. Same God; but the big difference is we have received a better word. We have Jesus.

¹⁸ You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; ¹⁹ to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them

²² But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, ²³ to the church (ekklesia) of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, ²⁴ to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24

The comparison is between two gatherings (two ekklesias), two mountains. But also, two words. The Old Testament people came to a mountain where they received words that terrified them. They “begged that no further word be spoken to them”.

We have come to Zion; not a physical location, but “the heavenly Jerusalem”. God is still judge. He is still just as awesome and fearful (Hebrews 12:28). But through Jesus we receive a covenant that “speaks a better word.” This word defines our worship and our joy. It defines the church.

God gathers his people around his word. For the Israelites at Sinai, it was the Law. For Christians, it is the gospel – the fulfilment of the law and prophets, found in the person and work of Jesus Christ. But in both cases, the church is gathered to receive and obey the word of God.

Today, we are more likely to say that the main reason why we meet together as the church is to worship. Not bible study. “You can read your bible at home. When we come together, we ought to love another, pray for each other’s needs.”

The context of this passage from Hebrews 12 is acceptable worship. The church gathers to worship God. Yet the whole book was written to Christians tempted to worship God by returning to their Jewish traditions and roots. In so doing, they were abandoning Jesus. Jesus is the only true worship leader. He offers the only acceptable sacrifice – his body and blood on the cross.

The key to acceptable worship, according to the book of Hebrews, is listening. Again and again, the author says, we must listen:

We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
Hebrews 2:1

Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.
Hebrews 3:15, 4:7

See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks.
Hebrews 12:25

The problem the book of Hebrews is addressing is this: In their earnest desire to worship God, these early Christians had abandoned the word of God. They were abandoning Jesus.

Please don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that you shouldn’t pray during our meetings, or that you should only have bible studies in every meeting. It isn’t a question about what the church does. I am dealing with the question of why the church exists.

God gathers the church around his word, the gospel. The gospel enables us to worship God acceptably and joyfully. We respond to the gospel. The church is the result and fruit of the gospel.

And where there is no gospel, there is no church.

On this rock I will build

Jesus says he will build his church in Matthew 16. But he also tells us what he will build his church on.

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
Matthew 16:18

This is one of the most controversial verses in the bible. The Roman Catholic Church see Jesus here establishing a line of succession in leadership for the church, beginning with Peter as the first pope. Others think Jesus is speaking about Peter’s confession (“You are the Christ”). Still others would say Jesus is speaking of himself. He is the Rock.

The first thing to notice is that Jesus is building his church – he builds the church; the church is his. And we have already seen that ekklesia has a rich background in the Old Testament people of God, especially in the events of the exodus. They were rescued from slavery under Pharaoh and gathered as the new community of Israel under God. Yet this is more than national identity. “The gates of Hades will not overcome” this new community. There are cosmic and eternal dimensions to this earthly community. “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Secondly, Jesus says he will build his church “on this rock”. It is a word play on the name Jesus has just given Peter. “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah,” Jesus says, “I tell you that you are Peter.” Jesus gives him a new name, petros (which means “stone”; whereas the Greek word for “rock” is petra). Peter is an unusual name for a Jew. Yet, the way in which the New Testament widely refers to him as Peter, instead of his actual name Simon, means the authors recognise the significance of this one individual and the name given him by Jesus.

Jesus will establish his church and he will use Peter in a unique and significant way. The question is: how?

The book of Acts traces the growth of the early church, placing special emphasis on the role of Peter. He stands up to address the brothers in Chapter 1 of the importance of choosing a replacement for Judas. At Pentecost when the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples enabling them to speak in tongues, Peter stands up once again to preach evangelistically to the large crowd that had gathered, calling them to repent and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38), resulting in three thousand being added to their number that day.

Peter continues to feature as the main character in the subsequent chapters. He heals the a crippled beggar in Chapter 3, a large crowd gathers to see the miracle, and he preaches to them about Jesus. The church grows to five thousand in Chapter 4.

When he and John are arrested by the guards and brought to face the rulers, elders and priests in Jerusalem, this simply becomes another platform for Peter to speak boldly about Christ. Luke, the author, remarks how the Jewish leaders were caught off-guard by the courage of the apostles; “they... realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13).

Chapter 5: Ananias and Sapphira attempt to deceive the Holy Spirit, at the cost of their lives; Peter is there speaking the very words that convict them of this truth. People brought the sick, laying them on the streets, on mats and beds that “Peter’s shadow might fall on some them as he passed by”. Peter is a big deal.

That is, until Chapter 12. Peter gets arrested (again!) and is miraculously freed by God (again! 5:19). After that? No Peter. Acts has 28 chapters. Peter’s story ends in Chapter 12.

Well, that’s not entirely true. He gets up to speak in Chapter 15, as one voice among many in the Council at Jerusalem, nonetheless an important voice. The issue is about Gentiles – non-Jewish Christian believers – in the church. He says this:

⁷ ... Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. ⁸ God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. ⁹ He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. ¹⁰ Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? ¹¹ No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.
Acts 15:7-11

After these words, we do not here about Peter ever again in the book of Acts. Meaning that according to Luke; from the author’s perspective, Peter’s role was done. He laid the foundation for the church. Through Peter’s witness to Christ’s death and resurrection, he and the apostles were used by God to establish the church – in Jerusalem, onto Samaria, then onto the ends of the earth.

The church’s one foundation

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians has the most amazing things to say about God and about the church in all of the bible; and we will look at this letter in more detail at a later date. And Paul writes these words describing the one foundation of the church.

¹⁹ Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
Ephesians 2:19-20

What does God use to build his church? What is absolutely essential in the church of Jesus Christ?

Yes, the answer is Christ Jesus “the chief cornerstone” – the end of verse 20. But verse 20 begins with the words, “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets”. They are one and the same. It is the apostolic witness to Jesus as the Christ – the true Son of God, as Peter together with the disciples confessed back in Matthew 16.

Or, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3, in establishing the church at Corinth, “I laid a foundation as an expert builder... for no-one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Paul lays the foundation; yet there is but one foundation. He is referring to the gospel, “the message of the cross” (1 Corinthians 1:18) or “Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).

Or as John writes in the book of Revelation, recording his vision of the new Jerusalem descending from heaven itself – the Holy City. There John describes the foundations of this city of God:

The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
Revelation 21:14

What is the foundation of the true church of Jesus Christ? It is the apostolic witness to the gospel - The message of the cross. Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Where there is the gospel, there we find the mark of a true church. Where there is no gospel, there is no church.

Jesus says he will build his church on this rock. When he said this to Peter and the apostles, there was no established church. The apostles were simple fishermen with little or no education, much less theological training. Yet what they had was Jesus. And for that one – albeit, brief – moment, they recognised Jesus for who he really was.

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Matthew 16:15-16

For that Jesus said to Peter, You are blessed. For that confession, Jesus says, was revealed not by man, but by his Father in Heaven. And Jesus was saying to Peter and to the twelve apostles, God would so use their confession of Christ such as to build his church – Jesus’ church – here on earth; and in heaven.

What is the church? It is God’s people gathered around God’s word. The gospel is the one foundation of the true church of Jesus Christ.

¹⁰ By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. ¹¹ For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:10-11