A Brotherhood of Man
Where is the brotherhood of man that John Lennon imagined
in his song? He extended the invitation, "I hope someday
you'll join us." Where is the 'us' of which he spoke?
Where are the dreamers who have given up their possessions
so that greed and hunger could be done away with in a brotherhood
of men and women who share a common life together? And who
is the courageous pacesetter who risked everything to bring
about this brotherhood?
John Lennon was powerless to bring about the brotherhood
of man that he longed for. The stirring message of his song
could not take us beyond the life of the messenger who brought
it. Likewise, the profound truths of the Bible can not,
by themselves, take us beyond the compromised religious
system of Christianity that does not demonstrate the life
it promises. The Christian gospel has been reduced to verses
on bumper stickers and billboards, and Imagine likewise
has been reduced to the sappy sound of Muzak in supermarkets
and department stores. The message has no power unless the
messenger is so enthralled with the message that he gives
up his own life in order to make it a reality.
The idea of a brotherhood of man did not originate with
John Lennon, nor did it die with him. It was born in the
heart of the Creator of all things. From His fertile imagination
He created man and woman to rule over His creation. They
were to fill the earth with their offspring who would share
all the world in peace, living each day to its fullest.
Even though man has fallen from this created purpose, what
is in the heart of his Creator has not changed. He has always
longed for a people whose life is a demonstration of the
love that is in His heart, a demonstration of justice and
righteousness for all the world to see.
But sin is entrenched in the soul of man, and while there is
a genuine desire for life in the hearts of many, the fatal blood
poisoning of sin ultimately overpowers that desire. Man can never
by his own strength realize his full potential as a human being
created in the image of God. Selfishness and greed are so ingrained
into his fallen nature that no amount of self-effort can consistently
suppress them. Ultimately they rise up to rule the human soul
and render futile any attempt to achieve a genuine brotherhood
of man. The only way to achieve that brotherhood is to break sin's
power.
Death
Death is the final outcome of the power of sin. Death is the
consequence of sin, its fair wages. It is not just that
our failure to attain to the brotherhood of man results
in a somewhat less-than-ideal society to which we must all
resign ourselves. Rather, the consequences of our selfishness,
greed, and pride are the first fruits of death itself —
alienation, strife, loneliness, depression, anger, hostility,
murder. The decay of human society, which is evident all
around us, is the sum total of the decay of the individual
lives of which society is composed. Even the earth itself
is defiled by our sin and increasingly becomes a hostile
environment to the very creatures who were intended to be
its loving caretakers. It is happening as the prophets have
spoken:
The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed
laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. Therefore
a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty.
Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men
are left. (Isaiah 24:5,6)
We cannot glibly settle for something less than the brotherhood
of man — we must have the real thing, for our very
lives depend upon it. Each one of us was created for eternity,
and it has always been in our Creator's heart that we would have
eternal life, an eternal brotherhood of man, and not the eternal
death that we reap as the consequence of our sin.
That is why, even from the time of man's fall in the Garden,
God had a plan to break the power of sin and bring about
the true brotherhood of man, the new social order that has
always been in His heart. In the fullness of time, He sent
the breaker — Yahshua,
His own son — who would break the power of sin and
usher in the true brotherhood of man, the kingdom of God.
He was the true dreamer, the imaginer who not only had the
true vision, but also the power and authority to make it
happen. He was the Messenger who was so enthralled with
His message, which came from the heart of His Father in
heaven, that He gave up His own life to make it a reality.
The Cross
Yahshua hand picked twelve ordinary men, calling them to abandon
their own lives so that He could pour His life into them. For
three years they followed Him wherever He went, and hung on His
every word. He taught them about the kingdom of God. He taught
them how to love one another, how to lay down their lives for
each other every day. He did not teach them a program of self-improvement,
power through positive thinking, or maximizing their human potential.
Instead, He said:
If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and
take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to
save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My
sake, he is the one who will save it.
The cross was not an abstract concept to Yahshua's disciples.
They had grown up under Roman rule and had seen men crucified.
The cross meant death of the most excruciating nature. It was
a means of execution saved for the worst criminals and rebels.
Yahshua taught his disciples that the only way to deal with their
fallen human nature, the selfishness, lust, and rebellion that
was in them, was to put it to death, ruthlessly. He taught them
that a man cannot enter the kingdom of God without leaving the
kingdom of darkness that he is born into, the domain of the evil
one whose clutches hold its prey until death. He taught them that
no one breaks free by his own strength.
What Death is Like
He taught them about death, where you are finally alone with
your conscience. You are forced to face your sin, with nowhere
to hide and nothing to distract your mind from the awareness of
your own guilt. Every evil deed, every base thought, every selfish
motive comes out of hiding to torture you. Like a worm burrowing
into the recesses of your memory, eating away at your every excuse,
so is the path of your thoughts as your conscience fully awakens.
The unquenchable fire of your self inquisition leaves you either
weeping in remorse or gnashing your teeth as you resist the truth
about yourself.
Yahshua's disciples didn't understand many things He said. But
they witnessed the purity of His life, His boundless love and
kindness, His unbroken communion with His Father in heaven. They
saw how He suffered and grieved over the hunger, sickness, loneliness,
brutality, indifference and pride in the people He encountered
every day. Then they heard Him say that He would be delivered
up to the Romans and would be mocked and mistreated and spit upon,
and after they scourged Him, would crucify Him. They could hardly
believe it. Was He speaking figuratively? How could He bring about
the kingdom of God if He died? Surely God would not allow it.
Then it happened. One of the twelve betrayed Him into the hands
of the religious leaders who were threatened by His teaching and
the power of His love. They were after blood, and although the
Roman governor proclaimed Him innocent, they chanted in unison,
"Crucify Him!" The only sinless man who ever walked
the earth was cruelly nailed to a cross like a vile criminal and
died.
His disciples were heartbroken, devastated, frightened. They
huddled together in a locked room for fear that they would suffer
the same fate as their Master. What would they do now that He
was gone? He was everything to them. They had given their
lives to Him. For three years they had depended on His wisdom,
His authority, His direction, His peace. Now He was gone. Where
was He?
He Was in Death
When Yahshua, the Son of God, was nailed to the cross, having
no guilt of His own, He took upon Himself the sins of everyone
else. He literally became sin. It was a spiritual event
of inconceivable proportions. That is why the earth shook at the
moment of His death, when His spirit and soul plunged into the
very domain of death. For three days and three nights He endured
the unimaginable agonies of death that you and I deserve. The
purging of death was able to penetrate to the very core of His
being, because there was absolutely no resistance in Him. Out
of His infinite love for us, He willingly bore the guilt of our
sins and received their wages. When death had exhausted its fury
on Him, His spirit returned to His body and the earth shook again
as He stood on His feet, forever alive. By His death and resurrection
He had broken the power of sin forever.
Imagine the joy of His disciples when they saw Him again! It
took several appearances in their locked room before they could
all believe their eyes and ears. For the next forty days He taught
them the things concerning the kingdom of God that they were never
able to understand before. He taught them about the brotherhood
of man, the new social order that they would become by the power
of His Spirit. They would become His messengers to carry His message
to the ends of the earth. He told them to wait for His Spirit
to come to them, and then He ascended into heaven.
Ten days later the disciples were still together, about a hundred
and twenty in all, waiting in Jerusalem. Suddenly, with a noise
like a mighty, rushing wind, Yahshua's Spirit filled the house
and settled upon each one of them. The effect was electrifying.
So great was their excitement that the whole city heard of it
and gathered around the house. The disciples knew of nothing better
to do than to speak to the people the message of eternal life
that was burning in their hearts. Filled with Yahshua's Spirit,
Peter stood up and spoke everything that was on his heart, and
the multitude of people listened with rapt attention. His words
convicted them of their guilt and their participation in crucifying
Yahshua, the Messiah sent to save them. Pierced to the heart,
they cried out, begging to know how to be rid of their guilt.
Dying in Baptism
It was then that Peter told them how they could be saved from
the perverse generation of that day and enter into the brotherhood
of man that Yahshua was establishing on the earth. He told them
that their sins had made them worthy of death, but that Yahshua,
out of His incomprehensible love for them, had willingly suffered
death in their place. If they would willingly surrender their
old, rotten, sinful life and let it die in the waters of baptism,
joining Him in death, then they would reach Him and have their
sins washed away by His blood. Into their clean new life He would
pour His own Holy Spirit that would seal them for eternal life
and make them able to obey His commands and live a life of love
in His holy brotherhood.
Three thousand people received Peter's words that day as if they
had come from Yahshua himself. The disciples baptized and laid
hands on them, passing on to them the very same Spirit they had
received. The result is recorded in the book of Acts in the New
Testament:
And all those who had believed were together, and had all things
in common; and they were selling their property and possessions,
and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need ...
They were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity
of heart ... There was not a needy person among them, for all
who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the
proceeds of the sales, and lay them at the apostles' feet; and
they would be distributed to each, as any had need. (Acts 2:44-47;
4:34,35)
This life waned over the next fifty years to the point where
nothing remained of its essence. What continued was the form,
the dead institution that John Lennon despised — Christianity.
The Brotherhood of Man
Today the brotherhood of man that began with those first disciples
is being restored on the earth. It could not be imagined
into existence. It is coming about because that same Holy Spirit
has come upon a people who gave up everything for Messiah's sake.
It is not the product of a group of people with a common philosophy,
who seek to refine their character, ennoble their human nature,
subject themselves to a rigorous discipline, or pursue a political
agenda. You cannot enter it or bring it about by the strength
of your will. You cannot even achieve it by polishing up your
behavior according to principles you can read about in the Bible.
The only way into the brotherhood of man is through death —
the death of your fallen, sinful nature. And the only way to bring
about that death is to come to Yahshua, to His disciples who represent
Him on the earth, and surrender your life as you are baptized
into the life He is establishing right now — a foretaste
of the age to come.
Printer-friendly
