Local Church Prisoners: Simple Discipleship for Complicated People

By Dave Zuchelli

Local Church Prisoners is a discipleship study for any Christian who wants to get closer to Jesus. There's an old Jewish saying: "May you be covered in the dust of your rabbi." This study is designed for individuals and groups of all sizes who wish to be covered in the dust of Rabbi Jesus.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 20, 2019
• ISBN: 9780996432672

Book preview

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CHAPTER ONE

ARE WE A COVENANT PEOPLE?

The Bible Is Very Clear

We are called to be a covenant people. The Bible is divided into two parts—the Old Testament and the New Testament (sometimes referred to as the Old Covenant and the New Covenant). If you look up the word, covenant, in the dictionary, you might even see a reference to the Israelites and the promises made between them and the Lord. So, even secular sources are aware of that.

As I began to explore the whole topic of Local Church Prisoners with the congregation I served, we started with the covenants of the Old Testament. When I had finished that part of the sermon series, one of my parishioners approached me and said, I never knew that before. I suspect a lot of congregants would say that. All too often, we ignore that part of our faith history. We tend to treat it like it’s not important.

We dare not ignore it, however, because it’s the foundation of everything we believe and everything we should aspire to be as we seek to lead Christian lives. Ignoring it is tantamount to removing large chunks of concrete from the cellar walls and leaving us to wonder how the building is still standing.

Over the years, The Gathering has called Jesus by various nicknames. You’ve probably heard most of them—the Nazarene, the Rose of Sharon, the Lamb, the Lily of the Valley. The list is seemingly endless.

I’ve been told that one of those nicknames the early Gathering gave him was The Covenant. This name refers back to verses like Isaiah 42:6—I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles… That in itself should give us a clue as to the importance of its meaning.

So what is a covenant? If we are to be a covenant people, it might behoove us to know what entails. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons in second century France had this to say about the importance of the Biblical covenants—To understand God’s plan for humanity, we have to understand God’s covenants with humanity.

It would be good for us, then, to have a general idea of what the Old Testament covenants were as well as the nature of each one. Without that knowledge, we stand to lose some of the basic guidelines of our faith. If we don’t have a solid springboard to begin with, we can end up anywhere.

The word, covenant, stems from the Latin word, convenire. Its general meaning is to come together or to agree. Most of us today would probably use the word covenant interchangeably with the term contract. That would not have been the case in Biblical times, however. Covenants were intentionally about people, while contracts were understood to be more about property. In the case of Biblical history, the people are God’s chosen.

Nehemiah and the Covenant of Love

In the fifth century BC, the Jews were a people living in exile. A prominent Jewish man named Nehemiah, who was living in Persia (today’s Iran), had received some bad news concerning Jerusalem. The famous city was in ruins. It was ramshackled, and many parts of its walls had been demolished. Walled cities cannot be cities at all without the protective barriers that keep out the enemy. In those days, they were the main source of security from invading armies, thieves, and wildlife.

Nehemiah sought and received permission from his boss (Artaxerxes, King of Persia) to return to his homeland in hopes of restoring the ancient city. Nehemiah was appointed to be the new Governor and to tackle the job of rebuilding the walls and refurbishing the city. The job would have been tough enough, but their surrounding neighbors weren’t all that crazy about these returning Hebrews setting about the task of fortifying their old digs. They took it as a threat and began to attack them as they worked on the construction sites at various points of the wall. Nehemiah and his hearty patriots proved up to the task, however, and were wildly successful in completing their restoration project. They were able to complete the project in fifty-two days (Nehemiah 6:15)—a feat that would be a marvel even in our own times.

One of the amazing parts of this story is that Artaxerxes allowed Nehemiah to leave Persia in the first place. Nehemiah held an important position in the court of the king and could very well have been considered indispensable. Scripture tells us that when he had originally heard about the devastating conditions at home, Nehemiah had wept, mourned, and fasted for days. He prayed to the God of Israel to allow him favor with the king in order to get permission to leave and return to his homeland.

In the beginning of his prayer to the Lord (which is conveniently recorded for us in Nehemiah chapter one), he referred to Yahweh (God) as "the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love… (Nehemiah 1:5) Notice that he called God the one who keeps his covenant of love." So what is this covenant?

To understand Biblical covenants, we should go back to the very first covenant recorded in Scripture. From there, we can piece together this all-important covenant of love. As you may have already guessed, we’re going to begin in Genesis. Where else?

In Genesis, we are told of a couple living back then named Adam and Eve. You may have heard of them. God had created this awesome planet and landscaped a spectacular backyard for them. He named it the Garden of Eden (you may have heard of that as well). This is where the real story begins. In fact, you could say this is where all stories begin.

Before we dive into that, however, we should make note of something very important. Centuries later, in a letter written by John to the church, he laid out this three-word concept—"God is love." (1 John 4:16) I jumped to that because there’s an underlying question we might want to tackle here. Why would God create this planet, the Garden, and the new people (Adam and Eve)?

Certainly, God is sufficient within himself. He doesn’t need no stinking planet. He certainly didn’t need any human beings messing up his schedule. Yet, he created all this anyway. He did it because he is love. Love is creative and giving (including life-giving). He made this world as a gift of love, then created Adam and Eve to receive and embrace that gift.

The whole package was a sort of cosmic temple. God would live there with the new humans and their offspring as they multiplied. He would do this because they were the crown jewel of his creation. He loved them, and he wanted them to share in everything.

It’s at that point we read about the first stated covenant. Here Adam. You take care of this nifty planet, and I’ll take care of you. Just don’t eat this fruit over here. See that tree? Yes, that one. All the other ones are cool. Just don’t eat from that one.

Theologians like to call this the Adamic Covenant. Theologians are very clever that way. They also refer to this as a covenant of works. The reason they do so is because Adam had some work to do. He had some tasks to perform to earn his keep. It wasn’t all free and clear. There was some rent to pay and some obligations to be met. This becomes our first clue that a covenant of works won’t fly.

My guess is, you understand enough of the story to know that Adam and Eve couldn’t cut it. The one thing they were told to avoid was the very thing to which they succumbed. They ate the forbidden fruit, and in so doing they broke the covenant. To say the least, that was a bad move. So much for the covenant of works…

Fortunately for all of humanity, that’s not where the story ends. After God curses just about everything he had originally created, he kicks Adam and Eve out of their backyard. What in the world were they to do? They had fallen and they couldn’t get up.

More specifically, they were naked and couldn’t find anything to hide behind. Their disregard for God’s instruction had twisted everything. The Lord would have been perfectly within his rights to tell them to go to Hell (if there was one at that point). Yet he didn’t.

Not only did he NOT do that, he covered up their nakedness. The Genesis account tells us he covered them with animal skins. I’m from Western Pennsylvania, so I know something about animal skins. A lot of my family and friends are outdoorsmen and women. To procure these handy pelts, animals must die. So the long and short of it is this—God performed the first blood sacrifice to cover the sin of Adam and Eve. He offered them grace and mercy when none was legally warranted through the covenant.

Lo and behold! The God of love fixes the broken covenant. The covenant of works now gets replaced by…wait for it…the covenant of love (remember Nehemiah?). We’ve only gotten three chapters into the Scriptures, and God reveals who he is and what he’s all about. He’s a covenantal being who wants to be in covenant with us as well.

In Covenant With Himself

I mentioned earlier that God didn’t have to do any of this. He didn’t need anything. He didn’t lack anything. To top it all off, he wasn’t lonely. We know this as good Trinitarians, because God is three persons in one—Father, Son & Holy Spirit—Creator, Redeemer & Sustainer.

In essence, God was (and is) in a covenant relationship with God’s self. His is the perfect covenantal relationship nestled in perfect love. Since we are made in the image of God, it’s in our nature to want, even desire that kind of covenantal relationship.

So when Adam and Eve fell out of their covenantal relationship with God, they were lost. When I say lost here, I don’t mean their salvation is gone. I mean they are mentally and emotionally lost as in, What do we do now? They were missing the biggest piece of their lives for the first time and didn’t know how to get it back.

Their covenant of works was based on their ability to be righteous and fulfill the terms of that first covenant. Their part was to tend the garden and refrain from eating that one particular fruit. It seemed like such a simple thing, but they couldn’t hold up their end of the bargain.

Since God is a God of justice, Adam and Eve deserved to be punished. So the Lord metes out curses, showing he is just. Then, however, he displays that he is also the justifier. The Just One also shows he can (and will) justify the ungodly. Adam and Eve cannot cover their own sin, so God does it for them. He proves to be both holy and merciful. That’s a great combination and good news for sinners like us.

Just prior to writing that God is love, John states that we can rely on the love God has for us. (1 John 4:16) He relays the message that we can have confidence on the day of judgment… since there is no fear in love. (V 18) When judgment is on the horizon, it’s good to know you can rely on the judge—not for his justice, but for his endless supply of loving kindness, mercy and compassion.

It seems quite evident that the Lord began things with the Adamic Covenant for a reason. It shows us quite clearly just how much we need him. Humanity hasn’t changed much since those early days of Adam and Eve. We still need him. Without the Covenant of Love, we are as lost as they were.

CHAPTER TWO

THE TREE OF LIFE

Every Covenant Has A Sign

Every Biblical covenant had a sign or symbol attached to it. These signs and symbols were reminders of the agreements and the commitments that went along with them. We still do that. Take marriage for example. The sign for that covenant is the wedding ring. If the bride and groom remove their rings, they are still married. When they’re wearing them, however, any observant person can see they are no longer single. They’ve entered into a marriage covenant.

During a wedding ceremony, the officiant usually holds up the rings for all to see. The celebrant then says something like, The wedding ring is the outward, physical sign of an inward, spiritual grace. It signifies to everyone the uniting of these two persons in holy matrimony. The ring, in and of itself, has no significance. However, when used as a symbol of their love, it takes on a deep