This morning the local Baptist church that pays for a timeslot on a local television station has the minister preach about Matthew 18:20. He related that verse to the prior four verses, which say what a member of a church should do when found out that “brother” is a sinner. He mentioned how there were few members in that church who would be brave enough to take that confrontational responsibility on. So, he felt it important to spend forty minutes explaining how those verses applied to having a stable church, like that Baptist church was.
His sermon was like a blindfolded Mexican eight-year old swinging a stick at a piñata, after being spun around in a circle several times and let go not knowing where the piñata was. So, I will not attempt to recreate what he said.
Allow me to make it clear what those verses mean.
In Luke 4:14-20 is written:
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” [Isaiah 58:6]
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
In this reading the word synagōgais, synagōgēn, and synagōgē are written, meaning “synagogues” and “synagogue” (twice). Those words are rooted in sunagógé, which Strong’s defines as, “a bringing together, an assembling, a synagogue” [definition], and “an assembly, congregation, synagogue, either the place or the people gathered together in the place” [usage]. This is a word that becomes an equivalent statement about a building owned by some organization, calling itself “Christian,” which presents hired hands to read from the scrolls to those of the same religious beliefs, which is now called a “church.”
In Matthew 18:17 is written ekklēsia and ekklēsias, which are translated as “church.” Both are forms of ekklésia, which Strong’s defines as, “an assembly, a (religious) congregation [definition], and “an assembly, congregation, church; the Church, the whole body of Christian believers” [usage]. One must notice that both “synagogue” and “church” are equally a place of “assembly” and “congregation.” Jesus spoke those words to his Jewish disciples, who attended a "synagogue" every Sabbath. The difference that comes from the assumption that a “synagogue” was only for Jews, while a “church” is only for Christians is an assumption that does not hold water.
In the reference to Luke 4, Jesus was run out of the “synagogue” in Nazareth; and, the same banishment soon after spread to the “synagogues” of Capernaum and Galilee. This led Jesus to preach to Jews on the hillside by the sea. While the Jewish leaders of the “synagogues” (not then officially called “rabbis”) held their ritual practice of “gathering” and “assembling” to read and hear read from the scrolls, along with singing Psalms memorized, Jesus preached the next day, on a Sunday (the first day of the week). The difference between the “assembly” on the Sabbath and the “assembly” on Sunday was nothing of value was preached in the “synagogues,” while Jesus explained the truth of the Word read the day before. He did that in his many sermons from the mount [Matthew 5, 6, and 7 are not one ‘Sermon on the Mount’].
The disciples (and Jesus before he was banned) "gathered" in an "assembly" of believers in Yahweh (Christians call Him "God"). The disciples then "gathered" as an "assembly" around Jesus, where he could explain all the things no one explained in the "synagogue." This was the “church” of Jesus only, because it was only him preaching the truth of the Word, with no ‘two or three’ yet in his name, for his soul to be ‘among.’ When Jesus said he was the fulfillment of Isaiah 58:6, he was saying, "Yahweh has sent me to explain the truth of the Word, so others can be led to seek to marry their souls to Him and become filled with the spirit of my soul, becoming two or three of me reborn (resurrected), as extensions of my church of truth."
In Matthew 18:20, where Jesus said, “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them,” the Greek word synēgmenoi is written, which means “gathered together.” This is rooted in the word sunagó, which is defined by Strong’s as, “to lead together, bring together, come together (pass.), entertain” [definition], and also “I gather together, collect, assemble, receive with hospitality, entertain” [usage]. This follows verse seventeen, where two used of “church” were written. Thus, the purpose of a “church” is “to lead together, bring together, collect, assemble,” and have “come together” those seeking to know the meaning (the truth) of Scripture. The key to fulfilling this purpose is then being “in my name.”
Take a moment to look at your driver’s license or identification card. You will see how you are “in the name” of your father (not your mother, unless she was unmarried and you are a bastard – even then you are then in the name of her father). Now, look around at all your neighbors. They are all individuals “in the name” of someone else, some other fathers. You cannot pretend that you can run out into your neighborhood and gather all your neighbors together and tell them to all believe in Jesus as the Son of God, the Christ, and call that a “church.” Being “in the name” of Jesus (“in my name”) means being Jesus reborn into your soul and flesh. When “the name” of “Jesus” is understood to mean “YAH Saves,” this becomes a statement of being born of the Father, Yahweh. To then become reborn “in the name” of Yahweh means to take on “the name” of His Son, as “Jesus” reborn into human flesh.
This does not happen because one has been told by a hired hand to believe in Jesus as the Christ, as that is like your neighborhood gathering being told that will make none of you or them become the Son of Yahweh reborn into your flesh. Such thinking always has Jesus as one’s bud, who is invisible but always nearby, who one can call on at a time of need, which is whenever one has become so deep in sin one cries out, “Jesus save me … again!” Salvation is a one-time soul event, which lasts an eternity. Thus, for one’s soul to be “Saved” by “YAHweh,” one must be a soul married to Him, completely in submission to His Covenant of marriage, whereby the marriage vows are written in stone through the outpouring of His Spirit upon one’s soul. It is written in one's heart when that soul has become divinely possessed by the soul of Jesus, as one's Lord (who knows ALL the marriage agreements of the Covenant by heart).
That makes one a “Messiah” (in loose Hebrew), while also a “Christ” (in loose Greek). When one is “Anointed by Yahweh’s Spirit,” then a soul-bridesmaid becomes a wife-soul; and, Yahweh then places the seed of His Son’s soul within the soul of His wife, so she gives rebirth to the Son in the flesh. That flesh is the body a soul, which gave life to that it was born into, with the soul of Jesus then being merged with the soul of that flesh, becoming the Lord over both. Notice how this is the double-birth that Nicky Demus could not grasp, when Jesus said Salvation comes from a soul being born again from above. The word "above" means from Yahweh the Father; and, to have Yahweh be one's Father, one must first become Yahweh's spiritual wife (a soul), Anointed by His Spirit in the marriage ceremony of Holy Baptism.
This is how a “church” becomes an individual soul-body, where the soul of Jesus is “among” one or “in one’s midst.” Jesus is no longer one’s ‘bud,’ as he becomes the Lord over one’s submissive soul, never again allowing that soul-body to wander back into the cesspool of sin, erasing the divine Baptism by Spirit that forgave all past sins. Jesus “among” one is then the eternal soul that keeps a soul-body from ever sinning again.
It can only be from one’s soul being the High Priest of one’s body-temple, where one’s soul is the attendee to the needs of Jesus, following all his commands, that a “church” can fulfill its purpose and preach the truth of the Word. One’s body of flesh stands looking like the sinner all one’s neighbors know, when they cannot see the soul of Jesus as the Lord that has now changed one to be “in his name.” This is the Saul-Paul dilemma, where one’s reputation precedes oneself. The Galilean disciples, who became Apostles, were still seen as country rubes who barely knew how to write their names, much less write books. This is so a “church” is not seen as a magic place, where the famous Jesus is like some cult hero that the worthless want to “congregate” around, as if the aura of goodness will bathe them in a security blanket that wipes away grimy sin residue. That fancy spa of ritual water cleansing was called the Temple of Solomon, where G-d was a slave kept hidden behind a curtain. Now days, fancy cathedrals, megachurches, grandiose buildings of glass, steel, and stone (with big screen television signs by the road) advertise 'Jesus is here this Sunday',' when Jesus, like Yahweh, only occupies flesh and blood, when merged with a soul. Buildings have no souls.
Jesus is, was, and will never will be a hired hand. He is always the Good Shepherd; and, each and every “church” he is “amid” is an extension of that Good Shepherd, where the purpose is to lead lost souls to Salvation … through marriage to the Father. The metaphor of a Shepherd is to tend to the flock and return lost sheep to the fold. Yahweh is the owner of those sheep; so, Jesus is the Son who is both the gate to Salvation and the gatekeeper that keeps the lost always found and safe. That guidance can only come from explaining Scripture truthfully, like Jesus speaking from the hillside by the sea.
This local Baptist church had gone quite a long time without their prior pastor, who suddenly disappeared from their Sunday morning televised recording of his sermons. Nothing was said publicly; but it seems he was caught knee-deep in his own sinful actions and fired. This says that popular Baptist minister was actually a fraud, because he was not a “church in the name of Jesus,” with the soul of Jesus one with his soul as his Lord, forever keeping him from sin. This means everything he preached, he preached from having applied his brain to learning the policies and doctrines of an organization called a “church.” Yahweh does not marry organizations, just as he told Nathan to tell David, “Do not build me a box of cedar, because my temple is made of flesh; and, I go where those who are My fleshy temples go.” Therefore, that failed Baptist preacher was good with the tongue; but just like those who led the synagogues that kicked Jesus out, sending him to the hillside by the sea, he told nobody how to marry their souls to Yahweh and become Jesus reborn into one’s flesh.
The replacement minister is no different. He comes from a stable of seminary graduates, who spend years learning how to preach a “church organization” doctrine, by going to the ignorant in foreign lands that welcome those who come to help their poor, while saying salvation comes from simple beliefs. Call all the neighbors around and let’s pretend Jesus is here among us! He was interviewed by a committee of “church members,” none of whom had ever heard the truth of the Word preached to them, to choose the one who looks pretty enough to be on television, bringing in new money. If it was the way a true “church” was stated by Jesus to be (in Matthew 18:15-20), then every few Sundays or so, an Apostle would stand on the stage and pronounce, “Well, there are nothing but new faces in the audience today, because all the ones before have married their souls to Yahweh and become reborn “in the name of Jesus.” So, those are all out preaching the truth of the Word to seekers finding those “churches” inviting.
Relative to the fired minister, one would think those in that Baptist church would have sent another “in Jesus name” to have a one-on-one with the sinful “brother,” so “if he listens, then the brother will have been won over.” Then, if that didn’t work, send in “two or three in the name of Jesus,” who are “witnesses” to the presence of Jesus, as wife-souls of Yahweh, knowing salvation cannot allow sins. Then, if the failed minister refuses to comply, then take the matter before the “whole church,” where everyone is Jesus reborn into flesh, washed clean of sins forever by the Baptism of Spirit and the resurrection of Yahweh’s Son within each of their souls. A rejection of that influence to change means to treat the sinner as a sinner, meaning he (or she) is not to ever pretend to be a minister “in the name of Jesus.”
The replacement minister said at the beginning of his sermon, there was nobody in that church brave enough to confront a sinner. That says that is a “church filled with sinners,” not a “church in the name of Jesus.” That becomes a magnified example of why Christianity today does nothing of value to cease the number of sinners in the world. To stop sin, one must be taught to desire marriage to Yahweh, become His wife-soul, be Baptized by Spirit, become the wife-soul that becomes pregnant with the soul of Yahweh’s Son, and is reborn in the name of Yahweh, where the name “Jesus” says “Yahweh Saves.” That purpose is to send a body of flesh out into the world, where lost bodies of flesh cry from the weight of sins, to lead them to Salvation. Still, it is up to each individual soul to seek Salvation; and, that requires a true “church in the name of Jesus” to teach those lost souls the truth, which they will have to discern for themselves individually, to find the faith that Yahweh is indeed the answer.
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