A Deeper Dive Into the Book of Revelation - Part 3
Jesus on Earth
The Church began when Jesus was physically here with us on Earth. There are many people who believe that the Church was birthed at Pentecost, but I personally believe that the church began when Jesus was baptized and commissioned into His ministry.
We are told in Ephesians 5:23 and Colossians 1:18 that Jesus is the Head of the Church. I believe that Jesus was acting in His role as Head of the Church during His ministry here on Earth. Shortly after His baptism, He began to gather His congregation of followers, starting with the conversion of Andrew in John chapter 1.
But the time came when Jesus ascended back to His Father God, and the Church lost the incredible experience of having Jesus physically present among them.
Baptism of Fire and Spirit
On the Day of Pentecost, the Church entered into the experience of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and the Baptism of Fire with tongues of fire being seen upon the disciples. This filled the disciples with the manifest presence of God Almighty in power and authority so that people were healed by just being a shadow’s length away from Peter as he walked by (Acts 5:15).
Apostles
At that time Jesus commissioned apostles to govern, guide, and serve the Church. When there were disputes and questions of doctrine, the apostles and elders issued clarifications and guidance to the Church, as we read in Acts chapter 15, for example. These apostles carried the authority of God, as we see in the account of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts chapter 5.
But apostles were not the only anointed servant leaders in the Church. Paul writes of a hierarchy of important servants that God has placed in the Church who carry His authority to lead and to minister.
“First, God has placed apostles in the church. Second, he has placed prophets in the church. Third, he has placed teachers in the church. Then he has given to the church miracles and gifts of healing. He also has given the gift of helping others and the gift of guiding the church. God also has given the gift of speaking in different kinds of languages.”—1 Corinthians 12:28 (NIRV)
It is interesting to compare this list of God ordained leaders and servants with the church hierarchies that we see today. This list does not mention pastors, worship leaders, bishops, deacons, priests, or the pope. In our churches today, do we even know who the anointed and gifted servants are in our congregations? Are these anointed and gifted servants even given a voice in our churches? Are they even allowed to minister? Sometimes, yes, and sometimes, no. God help us!
Prophets
The early church had disciples who were operating in the true office of prophets. These prophets were able to offer warnings, guidance, and insight to the Church that was above and beyond the insight given to pastors and other ministers in the body of Christ.
Agabus prophesied a severe famine in Acts 11:28. Many believers who were affected by this famine were helped because the Church believed the words of this prophet of God.
“Believe in the Lord your God and you shall be established; believe and remain steadfast to His prophets and you shall prosper.”—2 Chronicles 20:20 (AMPC)
Dreams, visions, and other spiritual experiences were given by God to guide these prophets and other disciples, like the Apostle John, who wrote the book of Revelation after his profound spiritual visions and experiences.
Teachers
God also gave gifted teachers to His Church to instruct, guide, and disciple the believers in the ways of God. The New Testament epistles are full of wonderful, inspired instruction by the apostles who were also gifted to teach the people of God.
But it was not only the Apostles who were anointed to teach. One of the most profound discourses on the history of God’s plan on earth was given by Stephen in Acts chapter 7. Many people tried to argue with him, but “they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke” (Acts 6:10 NKJV).
Also, when Apollos needed further instruction in the ways of God, Priscilla and Aquila “took him to their home and helped him understand God’s Way even better” (Acts 18:26 CEV).
God gave these and other mature leaders to the Church in order to bring other disciples to maturity.
“That’s why scripture says, When he climbed up to the heights, he captured prisoners, and he gave gifts to people… . He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. His purpose was to equip God’s people for the work of serving and building up the body of Christ** until we all reach the unity of faith and knowledge of God’s Son. God’s goal is for us to become mature adults—to be fully grown, measured by the standard of the fullness of Christ.”**—Ephesians 4:8-13 (CEB)
The Loss of All Things
Tragically, over time the Church began to lose the gifts, the power, and the truth that God had given—and that Jesus and others had given their lives for. Years after Jesus ascended back to Heaven, the church lost the leadership, guidance, and the unity of doctrine provided by the apostles. Genuine prophets also seemed to become very rare, along with godly teachers who had a firm grasp on the truth of Scripture and the abilities to communicate it effectively to the hearers.
Gifts of the Spirit
The gifts of the Holy Spirit were in evidence in the Church since the Day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. Speaking in tongues, interpretations of tongues, discernment, words of wisdom, knowledge, and prophecy, along with gifts of faith, healing, and miracles were all practiced freely among the disciples. Paul gave invaluable instruction to the church on the use of these gifts in 1 Corinthians 12-14.
But sadly, these gifts faded from use over time and were largely lost to the Church.
Miracles, Signs, and Wonders
Miracles, signs, and wonders were companions of the early disciples. The Bible tells us that “the disciples went everywhere and preached, and the Lord worked through them, confirming what they said by many miraculous signs” (Mark 16:20 NLT).
“Simon himself also believed, and after he was baptized, he stayed close to Philip. When he saw the miraculous signs and powerful things Philip did, he was amazed.”—Acts 8:13 (ERV)
These were not rare occurrences. They happened regularly. We are told that “at the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders (attesting miracles) were continually taking place among the people” (Acts 5:12 AMP).
And it was not just the apostles who experienced these signs, wonders, and miracles in their ministries. “Ordinary” believers like Stephen regularly had these experiences in their ministries among the people.
“Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people.”—Acts 6:8 (NLT)
But, along with the gifts of the spirit, these signs, wonders, and miracles were largely lost to the Church over time.
Baptism of the Holy Spirit
The progression of loss continued in the Church. Over the centuries, the Church even lost the precious Baptism of the Holy Spirit that had been dramatically given by God to the Church on the Day of Pentecost.
Many in the Church even began to exchange the Truth of Scripture for doctrines of devils, saying that God Himself had removed the Baptism of the Holy Spirit from the Church along with gifts and miracles of the Holy Spirit. As Satan stole these truths from the Church, even respected Church leaders were deceived and began to teach that these gifts of the Holy Spirit were not available for believers anymore.
Sanctification and Holiness
As the Church lost the truth of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, it lost its power. As it lost the power of the Holy Spirit, the Church degenerated into people who practiced mostly empty religious rituals without understanding of the deeper meanings of Scripture and without genuine love.
As the Church lost its hold on Scriptural truth, it also lost its grip on morality. Lifestyles of sanctification, consecration, and holiness were no longer valued or practiced as they had been in the earliest days of the Church.
Eventually, the Church sank to such depths of depravity that a corrupt and heretical belief system replaced the truth of Scripture. Church leaders began to sell “indulgences” that supposedly allowed the purchasers to sin without suffering any penalties for those sins in the afterlife. Sometimes sins could also be paid for with works like prayers or pilgrimages, especially if physical suffering was involved.
Paul warned us that this would happen.
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”—2 Timothy 31-5 (KJV)
Evangelism and Missions
From the earliest days of the Church, evangelism and missions were central to Christian life.
Jesus spent His entire ministry traveling from town to town, sharing the Good News with demonstrations of power.
On the Day of Pentecost, about 3,000 people were added to the Church as a result of Peter’s public preaching.
Paul, Barnabas, Silas, and others took the Gospel message far beyond Jerusalem. This was such an integral part of Church life that in the back of many printed Bibles today, there are maps detailing the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul.
Tragically, after the Church descended into spiritual darkness, evangelism and missionary journeys became very rare. When the Church lost its understanding of the truth of the Gospel message, there was no reason for them to venture outside the walls of the church buildings because they had no Good News to share.
Praying to Dead People
Jesus gave us very clear instructions about how to pray and to whom our prayers should be directed.
“But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”—Matthew 6:6 (NKJV)
“This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name …’”—Matthew 6:9 (NIV)
Over time, Satan was able to deceive many of God’s people into believing that they could pray to Mary or to certain saints and that those prayers would be heard and answered.
In reality, this was a grand scheme of Satan to make the prayers of God’s people completely ineffective and neutralize the power of prayer in the Body of Christ.
The Bible is clear that Jesus is our great Advocate. We are told that He “is at the right hand of God interceding [with the Father] for us” (Romans 8:34 AMP). It is also written that the Spirit of God “intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:27 ESV). But nowhere in Scripture are we told that dead saints intercede for us or have any power to answer our prayers.
Prayers to dead people are completely without any Scriptural basis. Those prayers are not heard and certainly cannot be answered by those saints. The very idea that people who have gone on to their glorious rewards are now taking their assignments from our misguided prayer requests, instead of from the Lord, is ridiculous.
Neville Johnson has related an experience of Brother Dhinakaran, an Indian Christian leader, in which he was taken to Heaven and met Mary, the mother of Jesus. Near the end of their conversation, Brother Dhinakaran asked Mary how she handled all of the prayers that were directed to her.
Mary gave him a puzzled look and said, “What prayers?”
Baptism of Infants
As the Church descended into moral and spiritual decay, foundational truths were lost. One of the foundational truths that the Church lost in its decline was water baptism for believers.
When John hesitated to baptize Jesus, Jesus responded by saying, “Allow me to be baptized now. This is necessary to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15 CEB).
Conditions for baptism are clearly given to us in Scripture, as Philip explained to the Ethiopian eunuch,
“Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, ‘See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?’
“Then Philip said,** ’If you believe with all your heart, you may.’**
“And he answered and said, ’I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’”—Acts 8:36-37 (NKJV)
Eventually, the life-changing significance of water baptism was lost, and families were encouraged to bring their babies to be baptized. Infant baptism so replaced the truth of believer’s baptism in the Church that the practice was renamed as “christening” and had nothing to do with faith in Jesus Christ.
Salvation by Faith
Eventually, even the truth of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ was lost to the Church. The Gospel message was totally corrupted and replaced by a religion of works. If salvation did exist, people were taught that it had to be earned, often through personal sacrifice and suffering. This essentially made the cross of Christ of no effect. People were not able to receive salvation by trusting in the sacrifice that Jesus had made for them by dying in their place because they were never told about this truth.
Loss of the Word of God
In the darkest days of the Dark Ages, even the Bible was lost to the church. It was only allowed to be copied and spoken in Latin, which the common people couldn’t understand, and it was only allowed to be read by the clergy. Religious services were also conducted in Latin, and so the people were not allowed access to the written or spoken Word of God in languages that they understood. Translating the Bible into languages that the people understood was forbidden.
Death of Christianity - Satan Wins!
For all practical purposes, in the darkest days of the Dark Ages, it looked like Christianity was dead. The Church seemed to have lost everything. For a thousand years, Satan was able to dance with glee on the grave of Christianity.
But our God is a God of resurrection! Jesus declared, “I am the resurrection, and the life” (John 11:25 KJV).
In Joel 2:25, God declared this promise to His people:
“I WILL RESTORE”
God’s promise will be fully accomplished! His purposes cannot be defeated! And He will use the Church to display His incomparable wisdom and power to the world and to the forces of darkness!
“[The purpose is] that through the church the complicated, many-sided wisdom of God in all its infinite variety and innumerable aspects might now be made known to the angelic rulers and authorities (principalities and powers) in the heavenly sphere.
“This is in accordance with the terms of the eternal and timeless purpose which He has realized and carried into effect in [the person of] Christ Jesus our Lord”—Ephesians 3:10-11 (AMPC)
In the next message we will look at how God has orchestrated the restoration of all things in preparation for the most glorious days of the Church and the return of Jesus Christ.
