Truth In Action

Its been said that Jesus is the fullness of the Old Testament offices - Prophet, Priest, and King.

Prophet in that He IS the truth, He proclaims the truth. He is the very Word of God. He casts vision and brings God to the people. Priest in that He is our Great High Priest - Counselor, Mediator, bringing the people to God. And King in that He is ruling and reigning forever. He has set in place the way of life and not just a way.

The church is also to be all three. Ephesians 1:23 states that the church is to be the fullness of Jesus. Ephesians 4:13 also states that as leaders we are to equip the saints to be the fullness of Christ.

So I was thinking about how this would play out in the various aspects of the vision for the church in Fort Worth. One family trait that we will be made up of is Truth. In a future post I will unpack that vision and how it looks more precisely but I want to take a quick overview of it now as it pertains to the church being prophet, priest, and king.

Through the preaching of the truth (prophet) and Christ-centered worship (prophet) will come the repentance and confession of sin. I am huge on dealing with your junk; going deep and being honest about the sins that have been committed against you - rape, abuse, neglect, etc - and the sin in your heart - lust, bitterness, unforgiveness.

Through the prophetic word of God a lot of hurt and junk and sin will be dug up. To properly care for and teach truth to all these new converts, it will take more teaching than Sunday morning can offer and good, hardcore biblical counseling and community. That will take kingly planning and authority.

The kings in the church (elders) will have to have systems and structures, and policies in place in order to properly care for and shepherd (priest) the flock.
I am big on counseling. But one problem I see with it is that most counselors are only priestly in nature, which is why you see people having to go to one for long, extended periods of time. Nothing ever really gets solved, but they get their fix. Counselors also need to be prophets - teaching truth to overcome the lies that the counselee is believing.

What must always be remembered is that truth finally dug up, sins confessed, lives transformed must never terminate on itself. It must always lead to the Truth, Jesus. It must always lead to the church being further on mission for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.