How to Start (or Join) a Christian Group (Part 2)

"For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them."  Matthew 18:20 NIV

"If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."  Romans 10:9 NIV

A Christian Group is a church in a specific context for a specific purpose.  By church I mean "two or three gathered in Jesus' name and Jesus with them."  Again, if two or three believers are together in Jesus' name, He is there with them, and they are a church, or the church, wherever they are.  So we have to know what it means to gather "in Jesus' name."

TO GATHER IN JESUS' NAME MEANS TO BE UNDER HIS AUTHORITY.

The name of Jesus is above every name as far as authority goes. Which person has more authority: An officer who says, "This is the police, put your hands up," or a genuine and true prophet who says, "This is a message from the Lord?"  Actually, both have authority from God, because "there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist have been appointed by God," according to the apostle Paul.  Yet the name of the officer (or the government) is less in authority than the name of the Lord.  Both the officer and the prophet aren't speaking in their own names.  That's the point.  The authority and power behind the name they use is the key to the authority they have. 

In the same way, when two or three are gathered in Jesus' name, they aren't gathering in their own names, individually or collectively.  They aren't gathering in Calvin's name or Armenian's name.  They aren't gathering in Luther's name or the Pope's name.  They gather in the name of the Lord, under His authority, under the authority of His Spirit.  They gather under His authority and for His glory.

TO GATHER IN JESUS' NAME MEANS TO SEEK HIS GLORY.

This means He is the focus and center of attention.  He gets all of the credit for the meeting and the contents of the meeting.  Not Calvin.  Not Armenian.  Not Charlotte Mason.  (Each of these names, and any other name I mention other than Jesus', represent founders of a particular ideology that some Christian groups adhere to.) 

All of this means that when there is a dispute in the group, Jesus has the final word, and His honor is above all.  If what Charlotte Mason says doesn't match what Jesus says, then Charlotte Mason is disregarded, not Jesus.  The group wouldn't submit to and honor Charlotte Mason above Jesus; a Christian group of homeschooling mothers honor Jesus supremely and exclusively, submitting to and obeying Him no matter the cost. 

Yet this is the same for any and every gathering of two or more believers in Jesus's name, which leads us to how we start or join a Christian group.

CLICK HERE FOR PART 3.