Confusion on who and what the Church is in this day and time abounds. We believe the Church is not an Israel of any type and that Church and Nations have always had separate functions in both Old and New Testaments. In the last sermon (on Acts 15:1-11) we showed how we are not Israel. In previous sermons we showed how the New Testament Church is an extension of the Old Testament Melchizedek Priesthood, now with Christ as it's High Priest, in Heaven, before God's throne. In this sermon we also show how James uses Amos 9 to show that today the Church is like David's Tabernacle.

In the Old Testament, Israel and Church were in fellowship but when the New Testament came and Christ was anointed king, the Nation rejected Him but the Church received Him. This same picture is found with King David. After God, rejected King Saul and had David anointed King, King Saul and the Nation sought David's death. In seeking David's death, King Saul turns against the Tabernacle (Israel's church) by having the Priests of Nob and their families killed (1 Samuel 22). The surviving priest, Abiathar, fled to David for protection and remained separated from the nation until David was received by the nation. James makes it clear that today the Church is with Christ and the Nation is separated from Christ and His Church. We understand from scripture that Israel is separated from Christ, with the world, into the Spirit of Anti-Christ.

We also show how the Church in Jerusalem, predominately Jewish in faith and nationally Israelite, reconciled their doctrine with these understandings of separation of Church and State and how in order to be a peace with other churches, particularly those churches of the Gentiles and other nations, wrote letters clearing up and resolving the errors and the unsettling doctrines their members had started to spread. Lastly we are shown the divisions of ministry between Paul and Barnabas because of personal differences.

In all this we are given a template for resolving issues between Churches and Ministries, either how to resolve them or how to continue on with ministry without resolving our differences. We show how the resolutions are not based on "forcing" our will upon each other other but rather on mutual cooperation and in the template of Matthew 18, where Christ teaches us how to deal as equals with our brothers. Showing If a resolution cannot be made then we are to separate in peace until it one day it can be made. All the while the primary goal is not to harm and keep pure the gospel ministry, in spite of any unresolved personal differences.

Preached: August 5, 2018 Sunday Night. By Pastor John Young, at Edgecliff Baptist Church, Spokane Valley, WA. https://www.facebook.com/EdgecliffCBC/

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