“which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”
(Ephesians 1:23)
Before Jesus ascended to Heaven, Jesus established the ‘church’ as a basis to delegate His authority. The church is a congregation of followers who have faith in Jesus. The Bible says that some members of church function as hands, some function as feet, and others as eyes. It is only when such individual members are unified in love as ‘one’, the kingdom of God can exercise its power through the church. When the church is united with Jesus and bands together as ‘one’ body through love, it can carry out Jesus’ mission on this earth. The church is then authorized to give spiritual freedom to people, deliver people from the bondage of sin, bring light to those who are spiritually blind and deaf, and heal the sick as a way of unveiling the kingdom of God for anyone to see.
This is why the church emphasizes unity. The ministry of the Holy Spirit itself is based on keeping the unity in the church. (Ephesians 4:3). Therefore the fruits of the work of the Holy Spirit are manifested via human relationships. The fruit of giving love to others, the fruit of rejoicing with one another, the fruit of being in peace with one another, the fruit of being kind to others, the fruit of spreading goodness to others, the fruit of being faithful to one another, the fruit of being gentle to others, and the fruit of self control.. (Galatian 5:22-23) the Holy Spirit uses these fruits to unite the church as one. And the Bible commands the church to ‘make every effort’ to keep such unity accomplished by the Spirit (Ephesian 4:3).
On the contrary, Satan always wants to divide the church so that the church will lose its spiritual power and fail to finish its mission. Galaatians 5:19-21 records the acts that drift people away from inheriting the kingdom of God. “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God”. It is obvious that these fruits of flesh are used to ruin relationships and the church.
The kingdom of God is not attainable by ‘Sunday Christians’ who occupy comfy seats in a ‘church building’ only on Sunday as a religious activity. This is why the modern churches and their congregations are losing their spiritual power. The early church was made up of house churches because they had no other choice but to gather in each other’s house. However there laid the divine providence of God! The house church where Christians gather for worship in each other’s home was the founding stone for the church that Jesus intended to build. Jesus said that the church is a family and He taught us the values of the Kingdom of God. House church is a means that accomplishes all that Jesus said.
Last week’s Sunday worship service, I offered you the ‘invitation to the God’s Kingdom’.
Now I am offering you the invitation to the ‘House Church’.
Following the shepherd…
Pastor Jiwon Choi