Arise, Shine

Chapter Four

KINGDOM STRUCTURE

"But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants."' And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to make merry."

Luke 15:17-24

This is really a description of us. We've come home to the Father. We've come home with our broken, troubled, mixed up hearts, bruises all over our bodies, and we've received a wonderful welcome. We're being made to know that we are not outsiders. We're not hired servants... we’re sons and daughters. We belong. The father has killed the fatted calf and there's a tremendous celebration, all heaven is rejoicing.

But what happens after the banquet? What happens to this prodigal son after his celebration is over? You could say that every day is a celebration from here on in. And in a sense that's true. But the one thing this younger son now needs, now that he's come home, is to get some structure in his life ... some order. Not monotony. Not legalism. Not rules and regulations like his older brother, but some real order that will hold things together. All the time he was in the far country squandering everything he had, he was trying to be free, he didn't want any kind of order imposed on him from outside, and he ended up not free, but a slave. Now, if he doesn't get some order in his life, he's going to be back there again in a very short time. This man is going to have to learn how to get up every morning and go to the father and say,  "Good morning, father." And to his older brother, who's never been very nice to him up until now, and say,

"Good morning, brother."

Then he's going to have to learn how to take his responsibilities on the farm. He's going to have to learn to fit into his father's kingdom.

The Israelites crossed the Red Sea. The water closed in over the Egyptians and they were free for the first time in hundreds of years. There was tremendous rejoicing. People were dancing and singing and shouting and hollering ... it was marvelous. But, they were a motley crew. There were thousands and thousands of people, but they had no discipline, no order, and they would never have been able to even make it to the end of the wilderness and reach the borders of the Promised Land if they didn't get some order in their lives. And so, in his mercy, the heavenly Father brings them to Mt. Sinai. And there he begins to form them into a nation. He begins to weld them and shape them, so they begin to get some order into their messed up lives. He gives them the tabernacle, he gives them sacrifices for thanksgiving, sacrifices for sin, teaches them an order for living, an order for traveling. They begin to learn how to function together as a nation. Without order, structure and discipline they will never be able to conquer the Promised Land.

Jesus called people to discipleship. And when he called them to discipleship he called them to freedom ... new life, unspeakable joy. And so they left their fishing boats, their tax collecting, their political reaction, their political revolution and they entered the Kingdom ... and it was wonderful. Now they saw a meaning they never saw before. But, after he brings them into the Kingdom, Jesus sits these people down and begins to teach them the ABC's of the kingdom of heaven. And we find this basically in' the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6 and 7. Specific teachings as to how to do it ... what to do ... how to function under God, how to function with each other. Without that order and structure in their lives, these men and women would never have been able to turn the world upside down.

Pentecost comes. Pentecost is a wonderful outpouring of the life of God's Spirit that the Body of believers is baptized in the Spirit of God ... life from above. New joy, new freedom, new power. It's so abundant that it spills out over the rest of the city of Jerusalem and three thousand people come into the Kingdom on that day. But unless life is brought into some kind of form, shape, it will just evaporate like a cloud, and in a couple of days or weeks it will be as if it had never happened. And so we read in Acts chapter 2 verse 41:

“So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. “

They started the day with one hundred twenty. They end the day with three thousand one hundred twenty. How are one hundred and twenty people going to absorb three thousand? We're told in the next verse:

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.“

Now they begin to get some order, some structure in their lives. Without this it would become empty and meaningless. And so today, in this place, two things are happening, and they're happening from the hand of the Lord:

First, the Lord is pouring out afresh, life from his Spirit, upon us. And it's like a welcome home to the Father. It's like coming out of the Red Sea. New life... a fresh Pentecost. Palm Sunday 1970, revival broke out-in-this place and it's been going all these years. Great things are going on. But now a second thing is being added, and this is new for us. In addition to this new life now we're being given by the hand of the Lord some structure... some order. There has to be some kind of structure and order in our lives, or we'll never fulfill the purpose we've been given in the kingdom of heaven. And so we read in Ephesians chapter 2 starting at verse 13:

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility…”

... first there is the breaking down of the old structure...

“by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end.”

What we read in this is that the old structures are being destroyed, the false vision that caused the younger brother to run away to try to find freedom away from his father's house ... that false vision is destroyed.

So is the legalism that caused the older brother to stay on the farm and do everything right and still think he’s an outsider ... that's being destroyed. The wall between the younger brother and the older brother that has divided them from each other all their lives... that's being destroyed. The Lord having broken down the old structure draws us to the Father's house, makes us to know his welcome; but now he forms us with some new structure...some order. Reading on in the same passage:

And he came and preached peace to you who were far off (the younger brother) and peace to those who were near (the older brother); for through him we have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

So, a dwelling place is being formed out of human souls and bodies to contain the Spirit of God, built on the foundation of the cornerstone, Jesus.

Most of us dislike structure. We're afraid of structure, that's why we ran away in the first place. We left the father's house and took off, trying to find freedom, and we ended up slaves to our own passions. Others among us don’t want any structure because we've had enough. We're so full of rules and regulations and legalism and do's and don'ts that we're sick of it. We don't want to be tied down, we don't want to be stuck in cement like a brick in the wall. But what we need to learn is that for all that, there is some order and some structure which is not only good, but essential, without which there could be no freedom at all. We have to get over our fear of structure and order so that we can be formed by the hand of God ---- not by the manipulations of men, not by people who are trying to exploit us but by the Spirit of God. Formed into a Body in which we are knit together so well that the Spirit of the Lord can move among us. He doesn't move in this way with the individual, he moves in this way through the Body. So, We read in I Peter chapter 2 vs 4:

Come to him, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God's sight chosen and precious; and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

In other words, the hand of the Lord is building this thing that's alive and flexible and moving and powerful. But this thing, like the human body has structure. How would you breathe if you didn't have a backbone and rib cage? Your lungs would collapse ... you'd die in a matter of seconds. How would you walk if you didn't have leg bones, knee bones and foot bones? You'd just go down. How would you talk or sing or eat if you didn't have jaw bones? There has to be structure and order for life to exist.

And so having brought us to the Father's house and welcomed us in order that we can fulfill the joyful purpose we're given, two practical things have to now happen in our lives:

1. We have to be built on the cornerstone ... our lives have to be joined to the cornerstone so that from here on the weight of our life rests on him.

2. We also have to be joined to each other ... formed. We're not just a pile of bricks rolling down the hill, we're a Body, a temple. We're members of each other.

Let's look at the first one briefly. We are built on the cornerstone.

“Come to him, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God's sight chosen and precious.” I Peter 2:4

... committed to Jesus. All of us claim that we have a commitment if we eat his body and drink his blood...we know that we're committing ourselves to be part of him. But now we have to put some structure into that. Let's not be afraid of a little bit of order. Let's be willing to begin each day of the rest of our life with an act of the will expressed with the mouth in which we commit ourselves to this cornerstone afresh.

"Lord, I begin this day committing myself to you. I want to be built on you as my cornerstone. I want to be founded on you. I want the life of this day to be absolutely established on you."

Consciously willing this, the day becomes his and he becomes the foundation of this day, the guide, the protector, the one who blesses and prospers this day. Without such structure in our life we really can't fulfill the purpose of the Kingdom of God.

But we also need to be joined to each other. Not only are we told to come to the living stone, in God's sight chosen and precious, but we are also told to be like living stones built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. To be built together. The one who does the building is the Lord. We don't build ... he builds. But we have to cooperate. We have to be willing to be built. Willing that I should be joined to brothers and sisters and linked to them... fit in with them. I need to be willing that he should bind me together with cords of love to these people with whom he has put me.

In John 13:34 we hear Jesus say to us:

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

And we say, "Amen. The Lord will do it." But now we need to put some structure to that. That we begin each day for the rest of our life committing ourselves with an act of the will that's spoken with the mouth.

"Lord today again I commit myself ... I join myself ... to these brothers and sisters with whom you've placed me. And I want to be with them and function with them and see my life as an expression of the Body of which I am a part."

We hear the Spirit of the Lord saying to us and to many in the Body all over the earth,

"Arise, shine, for your light has come,

  and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you."

  Isaiah 60:1

These words not addressed to the individual, they are addressed to the Body.

"For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples;

but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.

And nations shall come to your light,

and kings to the brightness of your rising."

                                                      Isaiah 60:2-3

But for this light to come to us, and this glory to shine in our midst, and this word to go forth as it will with power, and to be confirmed with following signs from the hand of God, that light, that glory and that word are given to the Body not the individual ... to those who are linked to each other in the Body and become members of each other forming a holy temple through which the Spirit of God can move.

Now the one who does the building is the Lord God. He builds, we don't build. But we have to be willing. We have to be willing to be built on the foundation. And built on that foundation not just for three weeks, but for the rest of our lives, and forever. Willing to be joined to each  other not just for an hour a week for the next five years, but every day, twenty-four hours a day, to think of ourselves as part of the Body and functioning in that way. Are we willing to repent of our secret aloofness, of our secret isolation? Many of us have been involved for years and we sit and we say, "Yes, maybe I'll do it. I know I really ought to give up my sovereignty." And sometimes it almost feels like a magnet trying to pull us to the altar rail, but we hold back because somebody might catch me being emotional, or maybe somebody will see me cry, and we back off.

Are we willing to give up our sovereignty and allow him to build us together into that Body? If we are, let's tell him, and let's show him that we are willing to be members of each other, built on the foundation, the cornerstone, Jesus himself. And if we are, and if we follow through with some order and discipline in this matter, we will see the Spirit of the Lord moving in our midst with a power we have never witnessed before.