Kingdom Unity 1987

I think that most of us are beginning to see ever more clearly that this coming together in Jesus' name to commune with him and with each other in the breaking of bread each week is really a kingdom homecoming, and it's essential to our life as believers. All week long we're out there living our lives and exercising our ministries in the places where God has put us, and now we come back together, come home to the family, to be refreshed for the battles that still lie ahead of us. Now the power of this gathering in the name of Jesus, week by week, to give us that refreshment and that strength which we need hinges to a large degree on what goes on out there all week.

In other words, did I give out what the Lord put into me? If I didn't give it out, then I don't have room to get any more. Did we let our light shine? And especially, and this is what I'd like to have us concentrate on today, did we practice the unity of the body out there? There can only be unity in the body of Christ when it comes together like this, if we practice that unity all week long. Many people in modern American Christendom have the idea that vital worship on a Sunday morning can be engineered by having the right kind of music and the right kind of preaching and the right worship format.

And of course all those things play a part, but the essential ingredient that makes the gathering of the believers on a Sunday vital and fills it with life is really the spirit that we bring to it when we come. See, are we in fact gathered in Jesus' name? See, when we're in his spirit, under his name, in his mind, then the hymns, the music, the scriptures, the praises, the sermon, the prayers, and whatever else goes on is visited by the power of God. The spirit of God comes down into our midst and moves.

Jesus, alive from the dead, manifests himself to us, speaks to us, clarifies our vision, empowers us to go out there and conquer evil and set the captives free. But it all hinges on unity. Reading from Matthew 18, 18, truly I say to you, and Jesus is speaking, of course, truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.

Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

Now that's a promise that Jesus always keeps. Always. But notice, that promise is based on unity.

It can only be kept when we are in unity. This is the climax of a teaching that Jesus is giving us on being reconciled, on unity, and it begins a few verses earlier, verse 15 of Matthew 18. Jesus says, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.

And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Strong words. And we often have the idea that, you know, the apostolic Christians never had any problems.

They had all kinds of problems, but they worked through them. And so then, with that as the foundation, he then says, truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. See, when you're in unity, whatever you loose on earth shall be loose in heaven.

When you are one, where two agree on earth, unity. Where two or three are gathered, unity. In my name, unity.

Now, that unity is a gift from God himself. We don't bring it about. Jesus paid for it with his blood.

He made us one by his death on the cross. But now he gives it to us, and it's our responsibility to maintain it. And we maintain it, not just Sunday morning at 1045, but all week long.

Twenty-four hours from now, we're going to be gathered in two, three hundred places. And it's important for me to remember, wherever I am, as each of us is, working, trying to solve problems, thinking, talking, whatever we're doing, for me to remember that I'm about the same thing that you're about. That Jesus is still in our midst.

That we are still binding and loosing. And that we are still in agreement. And when we have that, when I'm sure of that, then he's able, Steve, to fulfill the purpose of the body.

We're gathered in unity around him, and we're fulfilling a purpose that we've been gathered and brought together to do. You know, it's not just the body of Christ when we're together like this, it's the body of Christ all week long. And we're one in him, all week long, and we're about the business of the kingdom.

Specific work, all week long. So we're talking about a unity around the person of Jesus. Nothing else! We're diverse in every other way.

Nothing else. We don't have the same political viewpoints here. We don't have the same backgrounds, we don't have the same anything.

Only Jesus do we have in common. That's all we have. He is our unity, and we are one in him, and we are one in the purpose that he gives us.

And our purpose is simply to bind and loose, as he says, to bind evil and to loose the captives. Reading from Revelation chapter 12, verse 7. Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who was called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.

He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the land and by the word of their testimony, for they love not their lives, even unto death.

Rejoice then, O heaven, and you that dwell therein, but woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short. You can pick up the free press of the news, and you see it on the surface. You read this passage, and you're seeing what's beneath the surface.

What we're seeing here is a description of something which has happened. Satan and his angels have been thrown out of heaven, out of the headquarters of the universe. They're confined to the earth.

Whatever that means, God will make clear to us when we need to know. But we know at least that this planet is their domain. We know that for sure.

And because of the presence of Satan and his angels, there is continuous war and conflict that builds up. As the end comes near, it becomes more intense. Convulsions increase.

See, and it's not just in Beirut or Iran and Iraq or South Africa or Central America, but these eruptions are increasing everywhere. We're going to see them with our own eyes, not just in our TV sets, but in our own streets. And the reason behind it is that the spirit of anti-God, anti-Christ, is at work in the world and coming, now organizing the thing and, you know, coming to its culmination.

But what we're told here is that the enemy, Satan, the dragon, the father of lies, is defeated even on this earth by the body of Christ. Not by the individual believer alone. Always by the body.

And the individual only as part of the body can do this. Never alone. They overcame.

They conquered him by the blood of the land. They conquered him by the word of their testimony. They conquered him by loving not their lives, even unto death.

It's the body in unity that has that power. Nowhere else. And if I'm in any way split off from that unity, if I'm off on a tangent, my power is gone because it's the power of Christ given to the body and only to the body.

Unity, a threefold unity, makes us conquerors. First of all, the unity of a clear conscience. Secondly, the unity, under that clear conscience, the unity of a clear testimony.

And thirdly, the unity of crucified lives. First of all, there is the unity of a clear conscience. They conquered him by the blood of the land.

All through this service, you know, unplanned, the blood is coming up before us because it's the work of the Spirit. He's reminding us of this. They conquered him by the blood of the land.

We are made one with God and with each other by the blood of the land, washing away our guilt so that we can conquer evil. See, but that blood is effective to wash us and cleanse us only if we walk in the light. If I'm walking in darkness, it's like I have, uh, what's that Scotchgard on me? It just washes off.

It doesn't, it doesn't do me any good. And so we read, uh, in first John chapter one, verse five, this is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth.

If I'm walking around with a grudge, I'm walking in darkness. If I walk around with an attitude, I'm walking in darkness. And the blood can't help it.

But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. See, if I come up out of that into the light by confessing my sin, repenting of that attitude, getting rid of that grudge, getting that thing right, when I do that, then I have fellowship. And then the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses me from all sin.

And when you have a body of believers walking in the light, cleansed by the blood, you have the power of God to bind and loose. And only then, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you've gained your brother.

But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

Now, we all confess that we've failed again and again to follow that procedure. But what Jesus is getting at here, and we need to repent for having not done that, not having done it many times, but what he's getting at is that there must be unity. There can't be power to overcome evil.

There can't be power to set the captives free unless we are one. And if I refuse to fit in to what the Lord is moving me to do as part of the body, then the body moves on and I'm left behind. In the interest of keeping that unity, it's high priority, only when the brothers and sisters function 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, not just at church time on Sunday, all the time in that kind of unity do we have power.

Then, when we're walking in the light and cleansed in the blood as a body, what we bind on earth is bound in heaven. What we loose on earth is loosed in heaven. When we agree, it is done, and when we gather, Jesus is here.

Secondly, there is the unity of a clear testimony. They conquered him by the word of their testimony, a word coming forth not just from one or two mouths, but from every mouth. The testimony is to be given forth.

Our pulpit is not up here. This isn't the pulpit. The pulpit is out there for me and for you.

It's out there. And it's to be a word coming forth without shame and without apology and without fear and without hypocrisy about Jesus. And a word which may sound absurd to the science worshippers of this world and the many, many forms of religion in this world.

And yet it's the word that has transformed our own lives. And we have to be faithful to it, not only in obeying it, but speaking it. We have to proclaim to that world out there, with one mind and one mouth, that Jesus died on that cross to overcome sin, that his blood cleanses, that he rose from the dead.

He is living. He rose from the dead. It has to be the resurrection gospel with the cross, even if it seems absolutely absurd.

It did to the people that Paul talked to in Athens. And it will be that way for most of the people who listen to us, but we proclaim it faithfully. He died on the cross.

He rose from the dead. He has a name above every name. All authority is given to him in heaven and in earth, and he is coming soon.

And we are to speak that with one mind and one mouth. God, help us to repent of our timidity and to speak the word which we have been given, which has changed our own lives, the word which has the power to break those gates of death, to set those captives free, to open those blind eyes and those deaf ears, that Jesus is Lord. If that word is in our hearts, let it come out of our mouths and let it come forth in our living.

Finally, there is the unity of crucified lives, a part of the gospel that is all too often neglected these days among us, all over the earth, and particularly, I think, in the Western world, and especially in the United States. They conquered him by loving not their lives, even unto death. My flesh loves its life, loves its comfort, loves its security, loves to call its own shots, loves to be in charge, loves to make its own schedule, loves to do it its own way.

But the Lord who died for us and stands in our midst now, alive from the dead, is calling us to come out and die with him. He is calling us to follow him on a path which will absolutely, inevitably lead, in each of our lives, to the loss of our security, our freedom to do it our own way, any glory for ourselves, and finally, life itself. Jesus said to Peter after the resurrection, When you were young, Peter, you girded yourself and walked wherever you wanted to, but when you are old, someone else is going to gird you and carry you where you don't want to go.

By this he signified by what that he was to glorify God. And Peter right away says, Hey, what about John over here? You know, what's going to happen to him? And Jesus says, If I want him to stay alive till I come back, that's none of your business. Follow me.

And when he said follow me, he said, follow me to a cross. Now what do you think that cross is that you carry every day? Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. What do you think that cross is for? Who's going to die on that cross? You are! But as we, in unity, carry our crosses behind Jesus, we then conquer.

We win victories. We conquer evil and we set the captives free. When I hold on to my own life, my way, I remain weak and sick and ineffective.

And when we do this together, as we arrange to do it together, then we remain divided from each other. When we give up our lives, yield them in obedience to Jesus, then the power of God comes to rest upon us and we are one. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, salvation, power, kingdom of our God, the authority of his Christ had come.

For the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony, and by loving not their lives, even unto death. Today, as we come up to this altar to commune, let's come up here walking in the light.

Let's come up here repenting of every attitude and every grudge so that the blood of the Lamb will be effective to cleanse us from all sins so that we can have fellowship with each other. When we leave the altar today, let's go down from this altar with the testimony of the Lamb in our hearts and on our lips, that together with one mouth we're going to proclaim to that world out there this week that Jesus is Lord. And when we go out that door today, let's go out there determined to love not our lives, even unto death, scared as we may be, to follow Jesus to whatever cross he chooses for us, that in the unity of a clear conscience, the unity of a clear testimony, and the unity of our crucified lives, the power of God may rest upon us to bind and loose, to conquer evil and to free the captives.

Let's just wait upon the Spirit of the Lord for a minute in silence, please.