THE QUEST | Segun Mark Alonge Jr

God's love is universal and His thoughts are higher

CHAPTER FOUR
“And they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens, let us make a name for ourselves” Gen 11:4
“When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place” Acts 2:1

THE QUEST
IN WHOSE NAME ARE YE GATHERED? Every structure that is not erected in the name of the Lord would surely be pulled down.
In the previous chapter, we clarified the coming together to ‘make’ by mankind as well as another coming together to ‘make’ which was an absolute work of the Lord.

A good illustration is in the construction of a house. The first requirement is to put together the bricks and other materials that would be needed for the construction. In recent times, the blocks have to be moulded (made) into shape. That would be closely followed by the building process. Mankind (in her fallen state) came together to build a city for themselves apart from God. We could clearly see this in the repetition of the words, ‘let us’. ‘Come, let us make...’.’Come, let us build...’ ‘Let us make a name for ourselves’.

Many today are gathered as unto the servant of the Lord. The vessel has been highly exalted above the potter. May we not grow so deep into the knowledge of the Lord that we would seek independence of Him! I am the Great Shepherd, he said. We are not assigned to Lord it over the flocks but to feed and nurture them. We were called into service and not to be served.

How sad it is in our day, that we now lay claims on the flocks the Lord has assigned unto us. We have opted to run the affairs of the Church as though she is our private investment. We talk down other ministers all to our selfish interests. We now glory in our population at the expense of nourishing those that have been assigned to us.

A quick reminder: You do not own the flocks – if you do, then it is simply your personal investment and such a building is entirely apart from the building unto the Lord. All gifts are for the perfection of the Saints and the work of the ministry.
Mankind dispensed off the name of the Lord and they said one to another, ‘let us make a name for ourselves’. You can only come into the knowledge of yourself by the ‘working in’ of the Lord. Moses wore a veil to obscure the temporary nature of the glory on his face upon returning from Mount Sinai. His literal veil illustrates the spiritual veil which prevents some who read the Old Testament from seeing the true glory of God’s word, which is Christ.
Whenever Moses left the people to go into the presence of the Lord, he removes his veil. Likewise, under the new covenant, to turn to the Lord is to be open to the Spirit, who gives the liberty of unveiled access to God in Christ. ‘But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:18). The image has been clearly expressed in the person of Christ (Heb. 1:3)

How do we come into the knowledge of who we are? We can only achieve this feat by looking into the person of Christ who is the express image and the brightness of the glory of God.
In considering the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, it is important to note that the first verse appears to be the continuation from the fourteenth verse of the previous chapter – just in the similitude of Genesis 11:3&4. ‘When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place’.

Pentecost was an annual Jewish festival, also known as the ‘Feast of weeks’ or the ‘Day of first fruits’ a celebration of the first buds of the harvest. Jewish men were required by law to go to Jerusalem three times each year to celebrate the major feasts (Deut. 16:16): Passover in the spring; Pentecost (Greek pentekostos, ‘fifty’) seven weeks and a day later (Lev. 23:15-16); and Tabernacles at the end of the harvest in the fall.

A building was also seen to be erected here but not a physical structure. It was spiritual in nature. They all held on to the pillar of prayer reaching up to the heavens. They were all assembled in the name of the Lord. Being in one accord here indicates being unanimous, having mutual consent, being in agreement, having group unity, having one mind and purpose. The Lord clearly stated that, ‘Now nothing they propose to do will be withheld from them’ (Gen. 11:6b). The problem was not with the building, the erection, the Law. The problem was with the motive, the heart and the nature. The problem was with the timing as well.

The Lord had instructed his disciples to tarry in Jerusalem to be endued with power from on high and become his witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the Earth. But they were seen to be clogged together still after the endowment from above. It took persecution to fulfil the divine mandate of spreading to the ends of the earth - for as they spread, the light of the gospel of the kingdom shone on as many as they encountered.

Many today have formed the habit of erecting monuments for themselves. Or what could be said of a shepherd who mortgaged the building meant for the regular meetings of the Saints for a bank loan? We ought to address this plague called corruption from within – and it must begin from among us. If not, we would as well be prepared to be blessed with persecution in that similitude from the Lord. Our assignment is to build men and not physical houses made with clay. May we come into this understanding before it is too late!

The church today is fast losing grounds for many are busy at the wrong assignment. Little wonder how we have devised so many means to winning the already saved over to our congregation to enlarge our population when many souls are perishing daily without the knowledge of the Lord. We invest huge resources into erecting structures at the expense of strategic outreaches. Oswald J. Smith clearly puts it thus: ‘No man is permitted to hear the gospel of the kingdom twice before the knowledge has been made known to all men’ (paraphrased). Our assignment is to make it known to all men – not necessarily to have them saved – though it the desire of the Lord and ours too to have all men come into the light of salvation. ‘This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to all men in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come’ (Matt. 24:14)

(culled from the book, "Gaining more Grounds" by Segun M Alonge Jr with Olufemi T. Olayinka)