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NÓS A IGREJA

When Constantine converted to Christianity, he made the official Roman religion Christianity. But, in so doing, he took a lot of the pagan practices that came before this time and made them a part of Christianity. One of these practices was building a large building to honor their god. Before Constantine, Christians met in small, humble homes, and they understood that they were the physical church and not some building. After Constantine, large cathedrals were built to honor Jesus, and the buildings became the house of God.

The Anabaptists understood that the building is not the church. The Greek word for church is ekklesia which means the called out ones. When the Bible talks about the church, they are talking about the people of God and not a building. And even though large buildings inspire awe and beauty, it is really our lives that are to inspire these things.

In Christendom, there was always a special class of people that were the holy ones. These were the priests, monks, and nuns who devoted their lives to being holy. They believed that this type of calling was too great for the masses, and only a select few were to live like this. The masses were to be good citizens while the select few were the holy ones. These communities would create monasteries which would house these people away from the rest of the world. They were to forsake pursuing riches, live simply, and serve the poor. And while a lot of good came from these communities, the entire church is called to live this way, not just a select few.

In fact, the Anabaptists made no distinctions regarding who was to work in the church. It was the rule that only men could be preachers and leaders within the church of that time. However, the Anabaptists made no distinctions when it came to gender. They had many women preachers, including Margret Hottinger. She was a woman who attended Anabaptist bible study, and she eventually felt the call to preach. She began preaching the next day, was arrested and imprisoned for a year. When she was

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released, she began preaching again and eluded the authorities for three years. When she was caught, they took her out in a boat and drowned her.

Dirk Willems was another example of how we can live a life that shows the beauty of the Church. Dirk was an Anabaptist preacher who was arrested and imprisoned. He was locked in a tower, but one day he escaped. As he was running away, a guard was chasing him. They ran across a frozen body of water where Dirk got across but the guard fell through the ice. Dirk turned around and saved the guard. The guard then re-arrested Dirk and a few days later, Dirk was executed. The self-less giving of his life for another’s life was an example of God’s love for people and how we are to love one another.

At Woodland Hills, we also believe in the Church as a body of believers and not some building. It’s why we didn’t need to build some awe-inspiring building. We also believe that there is no distinction between genders, races, and socioeconomics of people. We believe everyone is called to live out their gifts for God. This is the way that the Church was formed under Jesus, and we aspire to uphold that.

Greg began by pointing out that the woman was crippled by a spirit and was not crippled by any fault of her own. He reminded us that this world is under the authority of Satan and the spirits that are loyal to Satan oppress all of creation, including folks like this woman. The reason Jesus came was to break this bondage and bring freedom and life back to creation. As the church—the Body of Christ—we too have the same mission. We are to bring freedom and life to the world around us. One way Jesus did that is through physical healings as we have seen in our passage today.

Greg spent some time showing that Jesus didn’t actually ask God to heal the sick or cast out demons. Jesus did these things on his own authority. What was perhaps surprising is that this authority is not related to Jesus being God, but rather the perfect human being. God intended humanity to

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have dominion over all creation. We were designed to be stewards and caretakers, but we forfeited our authority to do this when we sinned. Jesus corrects this situation and is the first human to walk in truly right relationship to God. But he is not supposed to be the last! We too are to walk in the way Jesus did. We see that Jesus’ disciples did this and they cast out demons and healed the sick. Greg pointed out several texts that make this clear like Luke 9:1, Luke 10:19, John 14:12 and Acts 3:6. From here Greg focused on the connection between power, authority and the spoken word. In Matthew 8:8-9 the centurion got it right. He knew that Jesus had the authority to heal his servant, but he also knew that the power would not be released to do the healing unless Jesus spoke the words. Greg then discussed the abuses that are common in some circles when it comes to “naming it, and claiming it”.

The four dangers Greg identified that are common to the “Word of Faith” and “Positive Confession” groups were:

1. It fails to não levar em conta os contextos Jewish hyperbole (stating something in extreme and

unqualified terms for emphasis.)

2. It doesn’t adequately take into consideration all of the Bible.

3. It tends to embrace and even “Christian-ize” Western consumer values.

4. It asks people to pretend.

But before we throw the baby out with the bathwater, Greg was quick to remind us that there is a profound truth in this movement that we often overlook: When we are submitted to God’s reign, we have authority to speak Kingdom wholeness into all that is broken “in Jesus’ name.” What we believe about our authority and what we speak with authority is vitally important in determining how much of the Kingdom will be manifested in us and through us.

This awareness of the power of our words is a strong theme in Scripture. James 3:4-5 and Matthew 12:36 clearly show that we need to be mindful of how we use our tongues.

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As he wrapped up, Greg gave us a pattern to live by: remember, imitate, speak. We are to remember the authority we have in Christ, and how we are called to live. We then are to imitate Jesus in our actions in response to whatever we encounter in life. And we are to speak the truth in love, which includes speaking wholeness and healing in our own lives and the lives of others.