The capacity to dream is God-given. To be able to envisage mentally is essential to making a plan. Plans have to be made before the object can be achieved. Nehemiah took a ride in the moonlight amidst the broken down walls of Jerusalem but he dreamed of rebuilt walls. God has a dream for the world and he has supplied what is essential for it to be so, if man has a mind to. He has a dream of a saved world, but its tempered with the reality of the free-will of man. What it boils down to is the dream of a lost world containing a beautiful bride – the body of Christ.
We need to be realistic. Catch cries like Win the World for Christ! probably do more harm than good. It’s not going to happen because of Matt.7:13,14 – most refuse the narrow way. Some are lamenting that the world isn’t listening, but I’ve got news for them – It never has! And it must be a cause of great disappointment to God to see the religion of His Son segmented and denominated by the doctrines, opinions and traditions of men. What He dreams of is the church in the 21st century to be like the church as it was at the beginning before it was torn asunder by man. God is a willing participant in the desire to have a congregation in each community that will reflect Christ and His truth. We must be committed to this fantastic, faith-building idea , one that tops our agendas. Matt 6:33 What must we do to maintain and further the dream?
- Restore the name. The church belongs to Christ – it is His (Matt.16:18). He paid the ultimate price for it (Acts 20:28), and she is His bride (Eph.5:27). Further , He is the head of the church and its Saviour (Eph. 5:23). The church is the church of Christ, not any other man or woman. It seems that some are so ashamed of Christ or His church or both, that they identify themselves by anything other than the church of Christ. Shame, shame, shame.
- Restore the organization. Some man-made churches have more superstructure than a battleship, with all sorts of man-made titles and offices. The early church was comprised of autonomous congregations with no over-arching organization. The New Testament has but one reference to an arch-bishop and that is Jesus (1 Pet. 5:4). It makes no reference to popes, cardinals, arch-deacons, prelates, vicars, or monsignors. Jesus said not to use “Father” as a religious title (Matt. 23:9). Each congregation has the freedom to appoint its own elders (also called pastors and bishops) and deacons, and submits to the headship of Jesus Christ, not an organization. The wisdom of this design is seen in the fact that if a congregation goes into apostacy, other congregations can choose to remain faithful.
- Restore the simplicity of worship. There are five basic activities by which Christians approach God in worship. The Lord’s Supper, centering on the eating of unleavened bread and drinking the fruit of the vine to remember the body and blood of Christ, is to be observed on the first day of each week (Acts 20:7). Preaching is to be as the oracles of God (1 Pet. 4:11), thus true to God’s word. Giving to the work of the Lord is to be sacrificial, generous and cheerful (2 Cor. 8,9), again each first day of the week (1 Cor. 16:1,2). Men are to lead prayer (1 Tim.2:8) in such a way that all can hear and understand (1 Cor. 14:15-17), and singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs is to be engaged in by all. The playing of instruments is not authorised and so it is that the first instrument did not appear till the 6th century A.D.
- Restore Christian principles. Christian living was an important part of the early church. The laws of marriage, purity of life, the rules pertaining to labour, paying of debts, care for widows and orphans, feeding the hungry, relationship of neighbours, obedience to authorities – all of these must be restored as out lined in the New Testament (Eph.5:3,4)
- Restore the simple plan of salvation and church membership. The plan of salvation and church membership are inextricably joined, because the church is actually made up of those who have been saved (Acts 2:47). Nobody is in the church who has not obeyed the following commands: a. belief in Jesus as the Christ and resurrected Lord. b. repentance (or change of mind) that results in a change of behaviour. c. Confession of Christ with the mouth in what is called “the good confession”. d. Immersion into Christ in water for the remission in the new birth. You can join any number of man-made denominations without ever obeying this simple plan.
- Restore proper terminology. Members of the early church were called Christians (Acts 11:26). No denominational names were allowed (1 Cor. 1:10-13). Congregational leaders were called elders, bishops, overseers, shepherds or pastors. These terms described the same office and each term highlighted a different aspect of the work. Those who taught the word were called preachers, teachers or evangelists. The terms “reverend” or “father” were not used (cf. Matt.23:9). George Orwell observed the corrupting effect of corrupted language in politics: Our language becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. This applies equally to religion. Nehemiah lamented his people speaking a jargon, the speech of Ashdod (Neh. 13:24). I hear members of the church talking about “another denomination”, or he’s “church of Christ”, or “the unchurched” or “pastor” instead of preacher. We need to do Bible things in Bible ways and call Bible things by Bible names. Why? 1 Cor 2:13 supplies the answer. When we discuss religious subjects we should use terminology that accurately reflects the Biblical position.
- Restore the spirit of Christ. You can restore a house but that does not make it a home. We can restore the identifying doctrinal aspects of the church but unless we possess the attitudes of Christ we restore a shell. The spirit of Christ is manifested in friendliness, caring, love for truth and man, and a hatred for sin and Satan.
- This dream, this plea is (a) Biblical – because it is an attempt to go back to the pattern God gave originally. (cf. Heb. 8:5; Jer. 6:16). (b) Possible – it is often said “It can’t be done! You can’t take something like the uncluttered church of the New Testament and transfer it to our sophisticated age!” Why not? Luke 8:11 says the word of God is seed and where the pure seed is sown it will produce Christians, and Christians only, because seed produced after it own kind. If the seeds sown are producing different denominations it means different seeds are being sown in the hearts of men. (c) Desirable – because it is Biblical it has God’s approval and because it will promote the unity He desires (John 17:20,21; 1 Cor. 1:10)