Needed, A New Way to Meet #2: Rediscovering the Biblical Church

If you can see yourself as one who has partaken of divine life, then you have a biological urge for the ecclesia. You have a biological drive within you for the church. You are driven to her. Watch church history: anyone who gets to know the Lord well will soon begin to long for the community of believers. St. Francis of Assisi, Guyon, Fénelon, St. John of the Cross, Therese of Spain – all of those people, once they moved into a living relationship with the Lord, began seeking community. It is a biological urge, and when you touch it, you feel at home.

Do you understand that statement experientially? That when you actually find her, you sit down, and you find rest, and you know you’re at home. That is a biological thing. That’s not emotion; that’s biology. That’s spiritual biology, and you’ll never be happy outside of her. You won’t be content outside of her. That’s why many of you, perhaps most of you, are superannuated from going to church on Sunday morning. You can’t stand it anymore.  Many of you have gone into some really hot meetings. Wow. We golly gee whiz. But I’ll bet you that if you stop and remember, a large part of what the church meant to you was what happened outside those meetings, and your fellowship with those was very dear to you.

She is divine, and you feel at home there, and Jesus Christ feels at home there. Now, if you feel at home there, He feels at home there. Now, where would He feel at home? He felt at home in the home of whom? Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. He felt at home there. It was a place where He was loved. It was a place where He ate and fellowshipped. That was the closest thing He ever had to home on this earth.

Where did He feel at home? He felt at home with the twelve. He felt at home with God. He felt at home in a relaxed, informal atmosphere with other believers. Write that down, would you? Jesus Christ felt at home in a relaxed, informal atmosphere with other believers. That’s where He felt at home. He would have felt at home in the home meetings in Jerusalem after Pentecost. When people were sitting around sharing their Lord Jesus Christ with one another, He would have felt at home.

Would He have felt at home in the first…come on, Gene, pick on the Baptists. You’re a Baptist. Would He feel at home walking into a meeting, sitting down in a pew, picking up a book, going to a bulletin, going through a ritual? Would that be home for Him? No. That is contrary to all that we understand of the Godhead, of divine life, of our God.

Listen, your God is not a legalist. Your God is really relaxed about things. A man rebuked me one day when I preached in Texas. I leaned over the pulpit and said, “Lord Jesus,” then began to pray. After the meeting, he said, “I could not get anything out of your prayer because you don’t pray to Jesus; you pray to the Father.” I can see God up in heaven. He’s got this great big computer with all these buttons on Him. Here comes Gene’s prayer: “Lord Jesus.” He pulls the power plug and says, “No, I won’t hear you because you prayed in the wrong name.” That’s not my God. Away with your offerings. Away with your rituals. Let mercy pour down like waters. I have not come to condemn the world. I’ve come to save the world.