Real Christianity: The Nature of the Church

By R.J. Dawson

What is Real Christianity?
Have you ever wondered how the two thousand year-old discipleship school of an obscure Jewish teacher supposedly developed into modern-day Christianity?

Have you ever tried to figure out how a small band of uneducated Galileans morphed into a multi-denominational world religious body?
Have you ever been just the slightest bit confused about the overwhelming differences between the Lord’s single community at its birth and the scads of disjointed non-relational “churches” spread over the planet today?

If so, this book will undoubtedly give you some of the answers you seek as well as greater insight into the nature of the real Church, including the following:

* The real foundation for the Church.
* The real purpose of the Church.
* Real “fellowship” and why every believer is called to function in some form of ministry.
* The real “abundant life” promised by the Lord for every believer.
* The real Word of God.
* The real creative ability the Lord placed within His community.
* Real discipleship.
* A real living relationship with the Lord Jesus.

Real Christianity gives much deserved attention to the first-century community of believers and the great spiritual accomplishments they achieved as a result of their close relationship with the Lord, their obedience to Him, and their love for one another. In order for believers of the present to do the same, the author calls for:

(1) a Church-wide rededication to the sole authority of the Lord Jesus, and

(2) the reestablishment of the Lord’s discarded and largely forgotten mandate of mutual ministerial sharing (“Koinonia” in the Greek, usually translated as “fellowship,” but often improperly applied), in which every believer finds and fulfills his purpose in the Body of Messiah.

And rather than appealing to religious authority, the author eliminates the middleman and goes straight to the source - using reams of Scripture to back up his claims, especially emphasizing the pure teachings and example of the Lord Jesus, the most real person of all time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R.J. Dawson
• Release date: Mar 6, 2013
• ISBN: 9781624800443

R.J. Dawson

R.J. Dawson is an independent researcher, writer, and teacher with extensive “church” and ministerial experience. He has gained much hands-on knowledge of various Christian customs, practices, and church formats in his three decades within traditional Christianity.

Book preview

PREFACE

At the very heart of the teachings of the Lord Jesus is the spirit of reform. He was not a radical, a revolutionary, or an extremist, but only appeared that way in relation to the spiritual darkness of His time. He wasn’t calling for wholesale changes in society at large. He wasn’t attempting to establish or reestablish an earthly kingdom, but a spiritual kingdom—a kingdom of the heart. And it was the heart of the individual with which He was, and still is, most concerned.

This is often a hard concept for us to grasp. Why would He care so much for us? Why would He care so much for each of us on an individual basis? And how could He?

We often ask these questions because we have largely been conditioned to think that individual believers don’t really matter to the overall operation. And for most so-called Christian operations, this is probably true. But it is not true when it comes to His operation. It is not and has never been true in His community. In His kingdom, every believer matters. Every believer lives a life of consequence. Every one of His children is loved equally by Him and this love is demonstrated in their lives. His love is not a concept or a platitude. It is real.

And this is what His reform is all about. It is about making a journey from the counterfeit to the authentic. It is about putting an end to the masquerade and allowing Him to reveal us for what we could be—His children.

It is about becoming real.

This is what I have been called to write about in this book.

It is the heart of the Lord to reform individuals. To remake them. To give them life. To usher them into real community, which, at its very essence, denotes family. If we allow Him to do so, to change our hearts, all other necessary change will eventually take place. And because living for the Lord is a marathon and not a sprint, He grants us all plenty of time to mature. Therefore, becoming a real disciple of the Lord is only unduly difficult if we refuse to submit to His full loving authority. Otherwise, it is joy unspeakable and full of glory.

That being said, an ever-increasing number of individual believers are sensing in their hearts that the time to commit fully to the Lord Jesus has arrived, and that it will involve some difficult choices. More of us are finding out day by day that there is much within Christianity that could be better. And many hundreds of thousands worldwide are answering their specific ministry callings, and are starting to make a positive difference. It is in this spirit of reform that this book was written.

We must each do our part. This is the only way that the Church can mature.

R.J. DAWSON

NOVEMBER 2000

In the beginning, Christianity was real...

PRELUDE:

THE REAL AND THE UNREAL

A long time ago in an upper room far, far away, 120 people got real.

Within a matter of days, their number had increased to several thousand. After only a few years, the community had spread far and wide, achieving phenomenal growth well into the tens of thousands of members, each person having a purpose and each very real.

Over the next few centuries, however, another assemblage emerged. Its characteristics were strikingly different. It did not possess the powerful testimony of the earlier group. Miraculous happenings were very few and far between. Its varied teachings were impure and often incomprehensible, and the active participation of every member in ministry was not emphasized. As a result, the great love and concern for one’s fellow believer held in high regard by the originals was greatly lacking, and its unity was coerced. And sadly, gone in this assembly was the total dependence and trust in the Lord Jesus, His dominion being replaced by that of others.

All over the empire, a reverse metamorphosis took place. Butterflies crawled back into cocoons. The cocooned became a majority. The majority got unreal. The unreal ruled. In contrast, the real believers who continued to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints¹ eventually became a small minority among Christian adherents. The predicted great apostasy had shifted into full gear.

The church of the unreal ultimately appropriated for itself the official designation of the real guys. Hence, the backwardly mobile Christians—those who strayed far from their roots—were perceived as the genuine article, while the actual true believers were labeled as unconventional and oftentimes castigated as heretics. Indeed, heretics in general came to be known as those deviant ones who refused to be congealed into the new Christian melting pot. Real Christians qualified as such since they declined to be led by anyone or anything other than their Good Shepherd.

To add to this wonderful confusion, get a hold of this: According to Scripture, a real Christian is one whose spirit becomes fused with the Spirit of God.² Now, that’s something you don’t hear in your average Sunday sermon. It sounds pretty heavy, as if there might be just a tad bit more commitment involved than might be desired by the typical Christian person. What meaneth this? Precisely, that two distinct entities become one—that the spirit of a human being actually merges with the Spirit of God. This is how the 120 originals got real. This is how their spiritual descendants who remained true to the Lord got real. They didn’t simply partner with God, and they didn’t simply believe without following their belief with something hugely substantial. When they committed to Jesus, they committed to the nth degree. They gave everything they had.

Yet the Lord, alas, had enemies. Within a generation of the birth of His Church,³ the following prophecy of the Apostle Paul began to transpire:

I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.⁴

Exactly who was Paul referring to? He calls them savage wolves. The Greek word for savage in this verse is barus (bar-’ooce). Its definition gives us a clue: weighty, stern, severe, burdensome, violent, cruel. Obviously, the apostle uses the very illustrative picture of ravenous wolves in the sheepfold, but these weren’t regular wolves. They were cleverly disguised. They didn’t look like wolves. They looked like sheep! Long before Paul made this statement, Jesus warned us:

Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.⁵

These disguised ravenous wolves which the Lord said to be on our guard against were none other than phony prophets who (get this) resided within the Church! Of course, they were not actual members of the Lord’s overall community but they were members of their respective local gatherings, nonetheless. These unreal prophets looked real, acted real, and sounded real. Their entire purpose was to draw away the disciples after them, to deceive real Christians into following them and their perverse teachings instead of Jesus.

What did Paul mean by the term perverse? What perverse things were these false prophets speaking? The Greek word means to distort; to cause one to turn aside. Therefore, the very heart of the false prophets’ doctrine was that which deceived true disciples to turn away from their foundational beliefs and total commitment to the Lord. Once that objective was achieved, they ever so slightly began to bring their confused prey into full orbit and under their complete religious control.

Since Jesus no longer had full authority in the lives of these former believers, all the good things associated with His dominion went out the window—abundant life, spiritual authority, the fellowship of the saints—all gone. Control became the order of the day and the wolves in sheep’s clothing used it well. Though they lured their converts with false love and continued in surface piety, their covert intentions were otherwise. Strict rule became a mainstay. Dissenting opinion was not allowed. New revelation? In the circular file.

Appearing amiable and virtuous, at times their true nature would bleed through. It was a stern and grave nature with no true joy or spiritual expression. They were cruel in that they cut people off from the Lord and placed themselves in His stead. Rather than the lightweight load promised by the Lord Jesus, the false prophets placed heavy religious burdens on the backs of their flock. And though they managed to hide it very well, underneath their pious appearance was a powerful demonic nature. These were the new Christian Pharisees.

WHAT THEREFORE GOD HAS JOINED TOGETHER, LET NO MAN SEPARATE

⁶

When the Lord Jesus created His Church, He created a family of equal members with one Father.⁷ He created perfect unity which was based on each member’s total submission to His leadership. He created the possibility of any number of horizontal relationships between members but only one vertical relationship—that between each individual member and Himself. Though He placed human authority in the body, it was based purely on a member’s gifting, calling, and spiritual maturity level. For example, a member called to teach requires a member in need of knowledge, and vice versa. Each must submit to the other or neither will benefit.⁸ Such an arrangement is indicative of all ministry. Pure equality among members was not to be abridged. He created no vertical relationship between members.

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.⁹

A word often used for a particular level in a vertical relationship between members of an organization is rank. Organizations which have multiple levels of authority, such as the military, have a chain of command. If, however, a person might classify a four-star general in the U.S. military to be more of an American than a private under his command, that person would be very mistaken. As American citizens, the two are exactly equal, though one might have greater authority and privilege than the other.

Usually, in a free secular society, those with greater ambition gain greater prosperity and advantage. Along with such comes increased levels of authority over other people. An employer has authority over his or her employees, for example. Corporate executives rule corporations. The office of the presidency of the United States comprises one-third of the government’s overall authority. There is no doubt then, that along with raw ambition, a person must also possess a greater stake in his or her respective establishment in order to gain and maintain greater authority. In other words, and at the opposite end, an individual’s level of apathy directly relates to his or her lack of authority, but this constitutes no real problem in the secular world. Someone always turns up to fill gaps in leadership.

What does present a problem within a multitiered organization with a chain of command, however, is the partitioning of people into segmented groups. Depending on its size, its members tend to associate with those of like rank. Many organizations force such division. This renders overall unity impossible on any thing other than a businesslike basis. For example, the military must force compliance and unity because it is the only plausible method for achieving the desired result. One must obey his ranking officer or suffer severe penalty. In business, the objective is to make a profit for the company or corporation, and those members who understand this usually rise in their degree of authority. Those who don’t might retain their position, but will remain at the lowest level of authority. Those who fail to do their part can be fired. Note that a person need only be guilty of not following the directives of his or her immediate superior, not necessarily the head honcho, to be found guilty of insubordination.

Though most large organizational pyramids have many levels, they usually break down into two principal divisions. The first is comprised of those at the very top who have the controlling authority to make the most consequential decisions. The second major division is composed of all those remaining who take directives to facilitate upper management’s intended purpose. In other words, one group formulates the plan, while the second carries it out.

When we relate this standard format to the organizational model of the first-century church, we notice only general similarities. The apostles, for example, were the leading authority figures. At one point, when the responsibilities of the growing Jerusalem community began to preclude them from prayer and ministry of the word, they appointed seven men chosen by the brethren to oversee the daily distribution of food.¹⁰ These seven were not, however, mid-level managers, nor was this the creation of a new church office. They were simply chosen to be responsible for a particular ministry. As need arose, it was incumbent upon the community to attend to it. Thanks to the love of Jesus, the power of His Spirit, and the willingness of all involved, there was no need which could not be met.

It was not the apostles, though, who formulated the plan. In this particular case, Greek-speaking Jews, or Hellenists, brought to the attention of the apostles the fact that their widows were being somewhat neglected when meals were dispensed. Since their responsibility in the Jerusalem church involved general oversight, it was the apostles who would have to decide on the matter. Obviously, the help of others was needed, but it would be the community who would do the actual choosing of the men. Why? Because the people closest to the need were the ones who were most aware of what was needed. After the church (not the apostles) had agreed on the seven, the apostles merely finalized the process. In this way, everyone was involved in what was a community decision.

This is not the way things work in control-oriented, top-down organizations. In the Church, Jesus was with the apostles, but He was also with everyone else. It was the Lord who actually supervised the process from the vantage point of each member, not simply a few. The community created by the Lord, therefore, had no built-in divisions between members but was thoroughly and intricately connected one to the other. The apostles had greater authority because they were more spiritually mature than the average member, which meant the odds of Jesus working through them were greater. Their maturity, however, was attainable by any member if said member was willing to become the greater servant. The Lord expressed this truth in the following verse:

Sitting down, He called the twelve and said to them, If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all."¹¹

It was the Lord Jesus who oversaw the entire operation, formulated all plans, and made all significant decisions as His people submitted to His dominion. The members in turn responded to His directives and carried out His purpose. The community that the Lord created was not an inflexible institution but a single, obedient, pliable, adaptable, responsive, accommodating, flourishing, loving, and unified body. And He was as much a part of that body as any other member.

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1 Jude 1:3

2 1 Cor. 6:17

3 The word Church is from the Greek word Ekklesia which is defined as the community of the called-out ones. The word which was most likely spoken by the Lord in reference to His community is the Hebrew equivalent Qahal.

4 Acts 20:29-30

5 Matt 7:15

6 Matt 19:6

7 2 Cor. 6:16-18, Acts 20:28, Eph. 5:23-27

8 Eph. 5:17-21; 1 Pet 5:5

9 Gal. 3:26-28

10 Acts 6:1-6

11 Mark 9:35

CHAPTER ONE

THE REAL BEGINNING:

LAYING THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH

THE UPPER-ROOMERS

The foundations of the Christian faith are fully documented. We know exactly what the first-century Christians believed. We know exactly what they did. We know exactly who they were. What we don’t know is why we are not like them.

Nor does modern Christianity care to be like them. There are various reasons for this. On the one hand, the early Christians are seen as primitive, uneducated, and theologically naive. On the other hand they were human gods, saintly and pure, far above the status of normal Christians. Some think that to be like them would be a step down. Others think it would be impossible to be like them, since they could raise the dead and perform miracles like Jesus Himself. We can’t do that. Or can we?

Actually, we can’t. And the proper theological answer is that they couldn’t either:

So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed.¹²

According to this passage, it was Jesus who was performing the miracles. He had died, come back to life, remained in physical form for another forty days, then ascended into heaven. Yet, after He ascended, He somehow continued to work down on earth with His disciples. If Jesus really left this earth, how did He work with the believers who remained on the earth? If He never left, how did He ascend? Was He actually in two places at once, or is heaven not what we think it is?

Some of the signs He used to confirm the correct teaching of the disciples are listed in Mark 16:17–18. The signs were unquestionably miraculous. This is further proof that the spirits of the believers had become one with the Spirit of Jesus. He had never actually left them, not for long anyway, just as He said:

I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.¹³

In this passage, the Lord Jesus reveals Himself as the Spirit of Truth. He explains to His disciples that though He is presently with them, He will soon be in them. The Spirit who later resided within the disciples was the Holy Spirit, meaning of course, that the Spirit of Truth and the Holy Spirit are one and the same. In those days, when the existence of all manner of strange spirits was openly acknowledged, the designation of Holy referred only to the Spirit of God, as opposed to all other unholy spirits. Thus, the Holy Spirit, or Ruach HaKodesh, was simply a title which designated the Spirit of the Lord.

After the ascension of the Lord and before the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, there was a brief period of ten days. The disciples had become so devoted to their Master that it was extremely painful for them to see Him leave. Imagine how you might feel if someone very close to you passed on, such as a parent or spouse. This was how the Lord’s people felt when He died. Of course, their joy and hope returned after the resurrection, but after the forty day interval was completed in which He was with them in His glorified state, He had to leave for good, at least physically:

Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, ‘Which,’ He said, ‘you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’¹⁴

When the Lord ascended bodily from the earth, it was again a heart-rending experience for His disciples, and they began to miss Him immediately. They were undoubtedly inundated with one of those hollow, empty feelings one experiences when it seems like an intangible floor gives way. It was very difficult to understand how they could ever manage without the Man who taught them everything they knew, who had been with them virtually every day. It was only because of their pure trust in Him that they obeyed and went down to the city, awaiting His extraordinary spiritual return.

John the Baptist had revealed that Jesus would be the one who would baptize His people in the Spirit.¹⁵ Real baptism is an immersion, and in this case it is an immersion in the Spirit of God. Since Jesus is the Spirit, and since He is also the one who does the immersing, it should be obvious, according to Scripture, that He would return in spiritual form and envelop all those who awaited the promise, and this is precisely that which took place. When the day of Pentecost arrived, it was the Spirit of Jesus returning to His people.

But what, exactly, was His purpose for such a thing? There are several. He said His disciples would need a helper or comforter. He said He would not leave them as orphans, but as their Father, He would take responsibility for their welfare. He said He would make their human tabernacles His home. He also said the following:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.¹⁶

In effect, Jesus said it would be impossible to be His witnesses without receiving His power. Some Christians teach that this spiritual power was only meant for the apostles or the early church. But one should be fairly certain that early Christians never reached the remotest part of the earth. There is serious doubt that the Church, in its near two thousand-year existence, has ever reached every part of the globe. Consequently, the power to be true witnesses for the Lord must be for every generation. The fact that some don’t have this power doesn’t mean it’s not available, although post-apostolic church history seems to portray otherwise.

There are reasons for this. As mentioned earlier, the Lord had enemies. A different Christianity emerged which did not have the power of God. The real Christians were without doubt forced underground. Church history was written by the victors, so to speak. If we ever forget or disbelieve that this world is a spiritual battleground, we lose the very essence of what real Christianity is and become completely ineffective in our efforts against evil and for the Lord. Our function is not to sit on our hands and merely occupy space and maintain. Nor is it to collect converts and house them or prop up that which is false, but to fight the good fight and obey the Lord instead of a substitute for Him. There is an old saying, If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. The Lord Jesus needs men and women who can not only tolerate the heat but desire the heat and revel in the heat.

When they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were staying; that is, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.¹⁷

The beginning of the Church—the community of the called-out ones—was glorious. It was spectacular. In the days after the Lord had risen from the dead, He was seen by as many as five hundred people at one time,¹⁸ and many of these might have seen Him ascend to heaven. Yet it was only about a hundred and twenty people who followed His teachings obediently to the very end.¹⁹ Where were the tens of thousands who had followed Him during His ministry? Where were the five hundred? If the Lord had failed to gather a group for Pentecost, His entire ministry would have been worthless. Therefore, we in the present should render extremely great respect for the 120, since they were the ones whose own faith, obedience, and unwavering love of the Messiah allowed His full purpose to play out.

For ten days they waited. They prayed, they fasted, they prepared themselves. Some might have fasted for the duration, bringing to mind that which the Lord said:

The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.²⁰

Being suddenly without Jesus, His absence alone began their time of preparation. The 120 were in mourning. They were undoubtedly very insecure and afraid, yet they maintained a spark of wonder. This was no easy time.

It was required that they be transformed from mere humanity to a spanking-new spiritual creation. They were to be the initial offspring of the Last Adam.²¹ The first Adam, due to His disobedience, forced all the generations of man after him to exist in a fallen state, beset with sin and failure. The Lord’s new creation, however, would be harbingers of life seeking to save and restore all those who yearned for it. Because of such a required monumental change in the nature of humanity, a process of refining and elevation had to commence, and it began with turning all of one’s attention to the Lord. As each person focused on leaving the old and venturing to the new with all due intensity, the loosely gathered group of originals was collectively knit together into a single unit.

Most of the refining process had taken place during the Lord’s ministry. The true disciples advanced by leaps and bounds but also suffered greatly. Following the Lord was a roller coaster ride. They had trouble understanding His teachings at every step of the way. They saw strange demonic manifestations and experienced a preponderance of miracles. These followers had been rejected by some, honored by others, castigated by many, strengthened by the Lord, and brought low as the prophetic events concluded. The time they spent with the Lord during their discipleship was truly a very difficult three-plus years but also the most wonderful time of their lives—at least for the 120 who endured unto the end.

Many of those who had followed the Lord during His ministry, by their own choosing, didn’t make the final cut. There are explanations for this, some of which are alluded to in Luke’s Gospel.²² The primary reason, however, was the failure to put Jesus first in all things. Only the fully committed can be fully refined:

And I will bring the third part through the fire, refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are My people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD’ is my God.’²³

Whether the above passage specifically refers to the upper-roomers doesn’t really matter. If one made it to Pentecost, it applied perfectly.

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12 Mark 16:19-20

13 John 14:16-18

14 Acts 1:4-5

15 Matt. 3:11

16 Acts 1:8

17 Acts 1:13-14

18 1 Cor. 15:6

19 Acts 1:15

20 Matt 9:15

21 1 Cor 15.45

22 Luke 14:16-35

23 Zech. 13:9

A SPIRITUAL VISITATION

Scripture doesn’t mention the hour when the Lord rose up from the Mount of Olives and a cloud received Him out of their sight, but we do know it took place on a Thursday. ²⁴ Since Jesus was nailed to the cross six weeks earlier at 9 A.M., ²⁵ it is plausible that 9 A.M. was also the hour of His ascension. If so, it would illustrate the contrast between the restrictive horror of the crucifixion and the liberty of freeing oneself from the bonds of this earth. It would also indicate an exact ten day period between the ascension and the day of Pentecost, an interval in which the 120 had prepared themselves for the arrival of the Holy Spirit, since it was also 9 A.M. when the following transpired:

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.²⁶

Pentecost means fiftieth day. It was the fiftieth day since the resurrection of the Lord. Pentecost marked the occasion of the Feast of Weeks, the second of the three major annual feasts in which all Hebrew males were to appear before God. Of course, for many people during the first century, this meant no place else but Jerusalem, the very location of the temple.

The Feast of Weeks is explained in detail in the book of Leviticus.²⁷ It took place at the conclusion of the grain harvest. The beginning of the fifty-day harvest period commenced on the first Sunday after the Passover Sabbath. This was known as First-fruits and was the exact day that Jesus was resurrected, since He was indeed the first-fruits of the harvest, or the first and most choice portion. The upper-roomers, on the other hand, were the first part of the remaining springtime harvest, a harvest which quickly grew to a minimum of five-thousand souls²⁸ and maybe as much as eight to ten thousand. Many of these were pilgrims in town for the festival:

Now there were Jews living in