Thursday, January 15, 2015

Did Jesus Christ have a direct and intimate leadership over His Ecclesia as a whole and over its individual gatherings in the first century and today?

An interesting topic for discussion posed to the attendees in a Church Planting class I am taking.

The first scripture that comes to mind is Mark 4:34 - "He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything." In this scripture we are seeing that Jesus continually preparing the Disciples to teach and lead the first century Church. Christ was developing in the Disciples an intimate relationship with Himself so they, the Disciples, would be able to speak with the authority He would give them and having personnel knowledge of Him.

Next would be Luke 24:27 – “27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”  He we see Jesus teaching the Disciples the history of His Father’s relationships with His people. Jesus was also teaching about His purpose through history and how all things from creation through the His second return are focused on Himself, that all things come from the person of Jesus Christ. This was preparing the Disciples to lead and teach with confidence that what is promised by God will be fulfilled.

I would then point to Acts 1:3 – “3 He presented Himself alive to them after His suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.”  He we see proof of Christ resurrection and Him spending forty days teaching and building them up. Giving them the proof they needed to go forward in confidence that Christ is God incarnate and that what He spoke is truth and can be holy relied upon. It was shortly after these forty days that Christ promise of a helper was realized, Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit came to resided within each of us. This is the presence of Christ that lead the first century followers and is still leading His people today. We have Christ Spirit, the Spirit that created the heavens and the earth and everything in it, within us. The question is how much of us does the Holy Spirit have?

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