Series: Exact Representation
Sun am 10th October 2010 – Kobus Swart
1 Pet. 4:17; Eph 3:10; (Isa. 2:2)
“For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1Pet 4:17)
Judgment has started in the household of God. All of us will be weighed and measured; God will test whether we have built with wood, hay and stubble; or whether we have built with precious stones, gold and silver. God is going to test everything that is called Church. What is the purpose of that? Father is looking for households that accurately represent His SON in the earth; a model by which He is going to judge everything else. God is going to manifest His manifold wisdom to principalities and powers in heavenly places through a Church that is tested and tried.
When we say that God is going to bring judgment to the household of God, it also means every one of us is going to be tested. “Now it will come about that In the last days The mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it” (Isa. 2:2). We need to know the responsibility when we call ourselves “church.” Are we building an organization? Are we building an institution? Are we putting together nice programs? Or do we truly want to reflect the image and likeness of the SON (Gen 1:27; Heb 1:3; Rom 8:29)? Judgment has started in the household of God. If it starts with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
There are such things as ‘kairos’ moments; God breaking in to our timetable, our understanding of time, and He downloads something fresh and new. God is going to have to break moulds, break frameworks of reference; the way we do church is going to change. The Church must be the salt of the earth, the light of the world. Something must come out of Church. Church is not just coming on Sundays. We do come together for meetings, but we come to be equipped and to worship the Lord corporately, but then we go back and impact wherever we are. There must be something that differentiates between you as a representative of the Kingdom, and those in the world.
Although we are not event focused, I believe that something will trigger the acceleration in towards the church becoming mature. Remember the parable that when Jesus got into the boat, the boat INMMEDIATELY reached the other side (Jn 6:21). Time is not going to be the determining factor. When we have reached the full stature (Ephes 4:13), Father is going to say, “We have a remnant and the remnant has become a model, and by this model we can now judge the rest.”