Prepare The Way

1Co 11

24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye

drink it, in remembrance of me.

26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come. 

John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus' ministry during the first coming. The Church is called to prepare the way for His Second Coming. Yet, are we really doing that? Oh, you say there are a myriad of churches, TV, radio and Internet ministries sending out the message. Surely, we are preparing the way. It is true that great quantities of seed are being sowed, but it is not all good seed. The enemy is sowing tares as well.

If we are not loving our enemies and setting the captive free we are not preparing the way of the Lord. Also as this passage indicates, how the Church acts is either a roadblock/pot hole or it is making the way smooth and straight. We are to make a straight highway even in a desert to prepare the way of God. (Isa 40:3,4) Are we doing that? Are we really showing forth the Lord's death until His return?

The Corinthians were having as much trouble transitioning from paganism as the Jews were moving from Law to grace. They were living somewhat the life a restaurant promotes; no rules, just right. Yet, that right was pretty much whatever the pagan religions deemed right and that included temple prostitutes and drunken orgies in the name of whatever idol they worshiped. Though they were saved by trading the myriad of gods for the one true

God they still needed a lot of work in dropping cultural norms for the godly norm.

By coming to Church to participate in the Lord's Supper in the same way they used to celebrate their pagan gods they were corrupting the purpose and meaning of the ordinance. Paul had to set them straight as God takes the ordinance seriously. It was sending a wrong message to the community as well. Can you imagine Lucas asking Demetrius what he did yesterday and Demetrius says he was at church observing the Lord's Supper and says how he got really messed up and had to go outside to barf because the church did not have a vomitorium. Lucas would think that Jesus was just another one of the gods and he was happy with Athena, but glad Demetrius was enjoying this new god's worship activities. When people think of us or our church do they just see us as no big deal because they see no difference in our lifestyle or patterns of worship?

We are called to be different as we are in the world, but not of the world. I am not sure how that would have spawned the seeker church movement. If we are to come out from among them and touch not the unclean thing why did we start bringing the culture into the Church? Why do we try to dress and act like them to bring them to God when God is so far different than our cultures? I know Paul said he was all things to all men so that by any means he might win some, but that did not mean he was going to join a nudist colony to win the nudists. Yet, we pick out various fads among the subcultures as well as the main culture and take on their attributes.

Do we win some? Yes, but the early church won far more and grew faster because the message and their lifestyle were so radically different. They would not going to be speaking in the public forum which was the talk show of the day. Most times if they were in the public forum it was to be crucified or feed the lions. They were not popular with the culture because they were different, but they transformed culture because people were drawn to them and were saved.

They did not stop preaching Jesus or anything else because they were warned not to speak about Him and many things the culture adored. They did not get piercings, tats and black lipstick to hopefully draw a group to them. They were not really allowed to get into any kind of politics to effect change because Rome was not going to change that way. Changes were made in the Empire as people were converted. It seemed the more the Christians were persecuted and killed the more there were being converted. They did not strive to tick off the world, but neither did they appease the world. The message ticked off the world. Yet, the same message spoke to the hearts of many people and that message was worth facing death because it brought new life here and eternal life at death. They made a pathway in the desert that is the world by their faithfulness unto death to a higher way of thinking and living. We need to make radical changes in our lives and in the life of the Church. We must get back to basics or First Century Christianity if we are going to set captives free and prepare the way before it's too late.