Who is Head of the Church?

Two weeks ago was January 16th, and that was the 30th anniversary of something. Does anyone remember? Mr. Herbert Armstrong died very good on January 16th, 1986. And to some of us who have been around quite a while, it just doesn't seem possible that 30 years could have transpired.

I looked up online. I actually have the letter, the last letter that he wrote to the church. I have it somewhere. And yet, anymore, it's easier to do a search online and find it and hit print. And you've got it again. It may be formatted differently. But I wanted to read his first paragraph from his last letter. It was dated January 10th, 1986, because it speaks to a topic that I want to address with you today. But first, let me read his first paragraph. This is my first letter to you in 1986, and it could very well be my last. Now, in my 94th year, I am in a very physically weakened state, enduring severe pain, and with virtually no strength whatsoever. I briefly described my condition in last month's coworker letter to you, and now it has worsened. It may be that the work God has given to me to do is complete, but not the work of God's church, which will be faithfully doing God's work till Christ, the true head of this church, returns. And again, written January 10th, and six days later, his life ended. And that was, and will always be, a real benchmark for the Church of God, those of us who have roots back into the 1980s and 1970s and 60s and 50s, and some still go back further than that. We remember him finally as God's tool, a remarkable individual through whom God called us and taught us so much that we have about the truth. Now, he said in that letter, referring to Christ, the true head of this church.

And that hits on the crux of many of our problems that crop up from time to time. On occasion, we have individuals or families or congregations, and sadly, sometimes, a sizable fraction of the church, that just come to the conclusion that we've got to uproot from here and leave and go somewhere else. And that is never, ever the answer. The crux of the problem is the answer to this question. And the question I want to address with you today is, do you perceive Jesus Christ as being the head of the church?

Because if the answer to that question is yes, there are a lot of things that will come and then they'll go and will endure. Jesus said in Matthew 24, verse 13, And salvation is what it's all about. And salvation speaks of eternal life as spirit beings in the very family of God. And if we're going to get there, one of the great keys is we have to keep our eyes on the head of the church who is Jesus Christ.

Too many times we look at human beings. We look at someone who may look good, sound good, or maybe has been around forever. And yet human beings in time will let us down. But if we have our eyes on Christ, we're never let down. We may have things come along that disappoint us, that shock us, that distress us.

But we keep on because we see that Christ is the one leading the church. The belief that Christ is head is a part of one of our fundamental articles of faith. It is an article of faith of any Christian. We have in the United Church of God our booklet titled, just simply, Fundamental Beliefs, and it lists and explains 20 of those basic foundational teachings of the Word of God.

One of those fundamental beliefs is on the topic of the church. And one statement in that chapter, and you can look on page 40 in that booklet, the chapter on the church, page 40, at one place it says, Jesus Christ is the living head of the church which is described as the body of Christ. We're part of the New Testament Spirit-led church. But before us, we have a church spoken of all the way back to the days of Moses. At that time, it was called the church in the wilderness. Let's turn back to Deuteronomy 31 because there was a time, as Moses' ministry and life was about to come to its conclusion, there was a time to pass the baton to the man who would lead Israel as their work became that of occupying and taking possession of the promised land.

The baton was about to be passed from Moses to Joshua. Joshua had been set aside as the leader to come, to follow after Moses. And yet, in reality, neither of them really was the leader. The true head of the church at that time, as today, was the God of the Old Testament. And today is Jesus Christ. Same being, different names. Deuteronomy 31, verses 7 and 8. Verse 7, then Moses called Joshua and said to him on the side of Israel, Be strong and of good courage, for you must go with this people to the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it.

But then he reminds him in verse 8, and the Lord. And the all-caps, the all-capital letters, reminds us that this is from the YHVH, the Tetragrammaton, the Yahweh, the Eternal One. The Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. Do not fear nor be dismayed. Essentially, the statement was made that the Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament, was the One who is the Head. He's leading the church in the wilderness. He's the One who will go before you.

He is the One you keep your eyes upon. He is the One who will show you where you should step in life. Throughout the pages of the Bible, and throughout the chapter of the history of the Church of God, many times God has picked up and used one human leader for a set period of time. Then He has laid that leader down and picks up another one. It's something that we have seen all through the ages.

We've seen it in the Church of God in our years that we've been around it. It is good to be reminded that no human leader's tenure is indefinite. We serve in an area for a given period of time, and then it's time to move on. Someone else picks up the baton and takes the responsibility and goes on. On occasion, throughout the pages of the Bible, God has reminded us like Psalm 146, verse 3. It says, put not your trust in princes, nor in the Son of Man, in whom there is no hope.

It reminds us, don't unwisely place your bet in a human being, because human beings will let us down. We have to keep our eyes upon the one whom Paul repeatedly called the head of the Church. We'll look at some of those verses shortly. In the New Testament, the word head, as we have it in the English, comes from the Greek word kathali.

It is a word, according to Thayer's Greek English lexicon, kathali metaphorically means anything supreme, chief, or prominent. And so, when it is used in application of Christ being the head, as we heard one verse read from Ephesians 4 in the sermonette, when it is referred to Christ, He is chief. He is prominent in the Church. He is the head. Now, many times in the New Testament, we have the phrase, Church of God, that is used. And that refers to the Church of called out ones. It refers to those who have been given an invitation to eternal life, invitation to the family of God.

Many are called, but few are chosen. They have received that invitation. They had to open it and act upon it. They were selected to be a part of the chosen or the elect. And they were placed in the very body of Jesus Christ, the Church of God. And it truly is the Church of God. I didn't put down in my notes, as Mr. Herbert Armstrong's last co-worker letter continued, about the third paragraph, and he introduced his decision of passing the baton to the man who would follow in that role after him.

But then he said, it will not be the Church of that man, just as it has never been the Church of Herbert W. Armstrong. It is the Church of God with Jesus Christ at the head. And we have to always keep that in mind. Christ is at the helm.

When we were baptized, we were not baptized as card-carrying members of a corporate body. My parents were baptized, yeah, it was just a year after the Church that taught us so much of the truth was called the Radio Church of God. When we began attending services, those who went back a few years, they were not card-carrying members of the Radio Church of God.

My parents did not become card-carrying members of the worldwide Church of God. You and I, as we came to this body, we're not card-carrying members of the United Church of God, although I love the United Church of God. I'm honored to be a member of it. But we're members of the body of Christ. And the Church of God is a spiritual body. And we recognize there are Christians in other bodies.

We were baptized, based upon what we read at the end of Matthew, into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, by and through the authority of Jesus Christ for the remission of all your sins. That's how we were baptized. There is a place north of the Sea of Galilee I would love to see again someday.

It may not happen, and that's fine. I'd rather go see kids and grandkids. But there is a place from the northern end of the Sea of Galilee, if you go about 25 miles to the northeast, there's a place called Caesarea Philippi. It's an ancient town. I was reading in William Berkeley's commentary on Matthew about that city. It was a place where it had a long history of the old Syrian Baal worship. You had a lot of...it was said to be the birthplace of the Greek god Pan, God of nature. It was actually called...and I may not be pronouncing it right...Panius.

Later, the P was more pronounced as a B, and it was known when we were there in the 70s as Banius or Benias. It's outside of a city called Caesarea Philippi. Caesarea Philippi. Let's turn to Matthew 16, because Jesus went there with the disciples. At that very place, and if you stand outside the city, and I know a few here have been to the Holy Land, you stand outside that city.

There's a place of a huge limestone cliff. At the base of it, when we were there, there was this huge spring that came out. I was saddened to hear that whatever has happened has changed where the water comes out, and it's not the same. But this gigantic limestone cliff, and then this rushing spring, one of the headwaters of the Jordan River, and all these little stones around as it made its way down a little further down was a falls with a pool, where many of us went swimming once upon a time.

But at that very site, Matthew 16, beginning of verse 13, took place. Verse 13, when Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi. See, the name of the town before was based on the name of the god Pan. It was Panias. But it had been changed just a little earlier to honor Caesar.

You see, there was a lot of worship of the emperor Caesar around the area as well. So it was named Caesarea in honor of Caesar. But then also, Philip the Tetrarch was the one who oversaw that area, and he gave his own name to distinguish it from Caesarea over on the coast down below Haifa. Caesarea Philippi. He asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? We won't read all of this.

Some said John the Baptist, some Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets. But he said, Who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered verse 16 and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Once in a while, sometimes Peter opened his mouth and stuck his foot in it, and once in a while, though, Peter opened his mouth and he was right on. He was spot on with what he said.

And Jesus answered and said, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, Simon, Son of Jonah. For flesh and blood is not revealed as to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter. That's from the Greek word petros. Smaller stones. You see, Peter was going to be one of those foundational stones.

And maybe in part it's saying he was the first one to get it, or at least to verbalize it. But he was going to be a smaller foundational stone. And on this rock, again, think of the setting, a gigantic limestone cliff with a spring and a stream, a bunch of little stones. And in that setting, he says, You're the little stones, but I'm going to build the church on this petra, this rock. On this rock, petra, I'll build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

I'll give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. What Jesus was building was a church of called out ones. And they were to be built upon the rock. And the rock represented Jesus Christ. And there were smaller stones upon which the church would be founded as well.

And there would be, across the ages and all the way to this day, there is this seemingly unending line of foundational stones of men and women of God who have been used to be lights to carry the baton of the way of God onto the next group of people. And it is a process that continues to this time.

There are times when we get unsettled as human beings. It brings a degree of stress to us. Sometimes the frustration level reaches a point where people start looking around thinking the answer is to splinter and fragment and go elsewhere. And again, it is never the answer. Never has been, never will be. Because Jesus prayed to His Father that Passover night, keep the one as we are one. He wants us to remain one. And it seems that Satan has had so much success in blinding us to being able to see that we need to stay together.

We can do a greater work. We can produce so much more together than we ever will individually. Let's turn to Ephesians 1. I think when the frustration level rises to critical mass, or whatever you call it, and decisions are made, and EJRC decisions are made at times, I think some of those decisions are based on the fact that they forget who is the head of the church. And they begin to justify actions to leave the place where Christ placed them. Ephesians 1, verse 20, Which He worked in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, we're breaking in on a thought, obviously, speaking of the Father, working in Christ, raised Him from the dead, seated Him at His right hand in heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, and not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.

And He put all things under His feet, the Father put all under Christ's feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of all who fills all in all.

The next chapter, Ephesians 2, notice verse 19, down through verse 21. Now therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. It's an interesting study. Christ is that rock the ancient Israel followed.

Christ is that rock. He is that chief cornerstone upon which the New Testament Spirit-led church is founded and built, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. Colossians 1, notice verse 18. Colossians 1, verse 18. These are some of Paul's prison epistles, and it seems it was uppermost on his mind, reminding the church, keep your eyes on the head. Verse 18, and he, speaking of Christ above, he is the head of the body, the church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence.

Chapter 2, Colossians 2, verse 10. And you are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power. The emphasis is on Christ. Names like Peter, Paul, James, John, and so many others were secondary. The primary focus is Christ.

Always has been, still is. But you know, as human beings, sometimes it seems Satan has such success in blinding us to being able to so clearly see how Christ is leading us. Sometimes we get so impatient, we want things to be fixed now. Sometimes we get on our high horse that things aren't done fast enough. Sometimes we, rather than walking the path of humility, we take steps down the path of pride. That's where it all began with Satan the devil.

He was right there at the throne of God. He saw everything. He heard everything. But in Ezekiel 28 it says, you were perfect till iniquity was found in you. You were lifted up. Well, it happens to human beings as well. We've had occasions as a family to go and visit places like Sea World or Busch Gardens. I shouldn't say Busch Gardens. We've seen the Budweiser Clydesdales. Now, I miss that stage of life, and I'm not complaining about it at all. I miss that stage of life of going out and putting the harness on a team of mules or draft horses or whatever to go out and ply your field.

It was a whole lot easier from the seat of an old farm aller case or John Deere. But my family, generations before, had a lot of mules. They had a lot of the old harness and the old rigging hanging up in the barn. I'd look at the bridle and it had the blinders to keep the horse or the mule looking ahead at the task at hand. To prohibit them from looking off to the side where maybe it would be tempting to go over there in Alfalfa and eat some for a while.

I think sometimes Satan is successful in putting the blinders on us so that we can't see Christ as head in the way that we need to. I want to talk about some of the attitudes that he uses, some of the minefields he lays out in front of us. And if we succumb to these attitudes, it blurs our vision that Christ is head. The first one, the first attitude is called disrespect. Disrespect. Synonyms for that would be irreverence, contempt, sarcasm, impudence, sacrilege. But disrespect. Now, you and I live in a world filled with disrespect.

Some of us are old enough that it galls us. It really does to see the disrespect shown toward our country's flag at times. The very fabric of who and what we are, our history. We watch history revision taking place. The rewriting of what really happened when this country was founded. We have those who try to tell us that those who signed that declaration were ungodly men. When in reality, a major percentage of them not only were leaders of the community, but they were ministers of religion as well.

Disrespect. We see it all around us. We are sadly well into another presidential election year. The Philippines has a presidential election taking place as well. It's not just an American thing.

It's wherever you go. Human nature is still human nature wherever you go. Some of the ads there remind me of some of the ads here. We've got 10 more months of that, 11 more months of that. We'll have one more election behind us, and then they'll wait a week and they'll start on the following election four years later. We're products of democracy, of a representative republic. Democracy, probably without our realizing, tends to breed an attitude of disrespect. I can look back across and remember more presidents now than I want to admit. I guess I was born, I don't remember him, but I was born when Harry Truman was president.

I faintly remember what was the thing. I like Ike. I faintly remember when he ran for reelection. I was old enough, kind of sort of, to remember that. But John Kennedy is really the first one I really remember. I remember that election, Nixon and Kennedy. The first one where you had televised debates, and one came across looking really good, and Mr. Nixon didn't... a perspiration beating up on his forehead, he didn't look comfortable at all. He was not photogenic in the way that John Kennedy was. But across the years, boy, you think of Gerald Ford tripping and falling, coming off, down the ramp off Air Force One, and the camera is focusing in on that, showing it to the world.

Or he'd swing at a golf ball, and it would go off, kind of like some balls I've hidden, which is why my career in golf really never started. And it would bean somebody, and it's world news all of a sudden.

And things Richard Nixon did and said before him, and Jimmy Carter... Well, LBJ, he picked up the... what was that? What kind of basset hound? Picked it up by its ears. Never heard the end of that. But once upon a time, we were a different country. And I saw an article years ago, a major percentage of the people in this country during World War II, and actually before that, the years leading up to it, a major percentage did not believe Franklin D.

Roosevelt was in a wheelchair, because the media would not take photos of him that way. And people didn't believe it. I think a lot of that was it was an age of respect. Now here you and I come along, and disrespect from the world around us is one of the most contagious diseases of the human mind. But it's been around a long time as well. Moses fought against that his whole time.

Let's look at Numbers 12. Sometimes it came from within Israel, and sometimes from within even his own family. Numbers 12, verse 1. Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses. Now remember, Moses is their little brother. And it had to be a trial. Just the fact that God chose little brother. God also used big brother and big sister in a remarkable way. But at this point, they spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman that he had married, for he had married an Ethiopian woman.

So they said, has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also? And the Lord heard it. And you know the rest of the story. We don't need to go on. God did not address the marriage into the line of the Ethiopians. God addressed the attitude. And there was a price to pay. And Miriam was healed, and she was outside the camp.

And they didn't move until after the week was up. Chapter 14. Chapter 14, verse 1, So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron. And the whole congregation said to them, if only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in the wilderness.

Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword that our wives and our children should become victims? Verse 4, they said, let us select a leader and return to Egypt. They wanted to go back where they came from. Chapter 16. Chapter 16. One more example. This is the classic story of the rebellion of Korah and those who aligned with him.

16, verse 1, Now Korah, son of Ishar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, so he was Levite, as were Moses and Aaron, with Dathan and Bairam, sons of Eliab, and on, the sons of Pilith, sons of Reuben, who took men and they rose up before Moses with some of the children of Israel, 250 leaders of the congregation. Sometimes a lot of people fall in with a movement.

250 representatives of the congregation, men of renown. You know, when it happens, it should remind us, you know, I've read about this somewhere before. And we also ought to go back and read what happened to them, and you know the rest of this story. The earth opened up and swallowed a whole bunch of them, who had so much disrespect for Moses and Aaron, that they lifted up their voices against them. Why, the end of verse 3, Why then do you exalt yourself above the assembly of the Lord? This old idea of the priesthood of all believers, that, well, I'm just as much of a man of God as you are.

You know, that's been around a long time. But God has specifically set aside Levi to take care of the service of the tabernacle, and within that tribe of Levi, the line of Aaron, to be the priests. God did that. The one who said, I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. That's the way he set it up. He didn't explain it. He doesn't need to explain it.

Well, what we read of here, back in around the 1400s BC, we can see it around us to this day, because human nature is still the same, and human nature, like water, if it's poured out on open ground, it's going to flow to the lowest place.

And, you know, we're so easily pulled into focusing on the things that God simply hasn't given us oversight of. A few years ago, well, actually, a couple of assignments, I've had situations where there have been prisoners that I've gone to go see. There was one man out. He was in a max unit out in Tehachapi, California.

You know, for him, I'd ask him, are you safe? And then, you know, thankfully, he was. I'd ask him about his diet, because it was at that time, it was awful, as far as they always had pork on the plate. Years later, there were a couple of fellows up here in East Tennessee I would go see. They were in a medium-security prison, and I asked them, are you safe?

They said, yeah, and they were. They said, right over there, down underneath, there's a hole. If anybody gives them one ounce of trouble, that's where they go. If they give it to them the second time, they ship them out of here. And I used to ask them, well, how's the diet? They finally told me, well, it's okay now. We always have either chicken or beef to choose from. I said, what brought that about? He said, the Muslims.

When the Muslims came into this prison and began making demands for halal food, the state snapped to it. At any rate, in talking with men like that, it's all about day by day survival. There are a lot of things that we worry about, they never worried about. We humans get into disrespect.

Verse 11, number 16, verse 11, Therefore you and all your company are gathered together against the Lord. And what is Aaron that you complain against him? Interesting, very insightful there. As Moses reminded them, you guys are in rebellion, and you are rebelling against God, and you are speaking against Aaron and me, and who in the world are we? God has always worked through human leaders, and that understands the fact that God has always worked through imperfect, fallible human beings who have problems and who will make mistakes.

But God is the one who did it. God is the one who decided to work this way. And God, as he sees fit, will correct his servant. One extremely difficult facet of our calling is to remain faithful, loyal, and focused as we are under the oversight of human leaders who have problems. We have to keep our eyes on Christ, and follow God, and follow human leaders as they follow Christ, and not as they do not follow Christ.

We have many classic examples we could turn to. Think of David, the attitude David had towards Saul. David was anointed to become the next king, but he would not lift up his hand against God's anointed. He was not his calling. Joshua, remarkable example of one who deferred to Moses until the time there in Joshua 1, where God said, Moses, my servant is dead. Now, you've got the job. Go forward. I'm with you. I won't leave you. Be filled with courage. Disrespect blinds people a lot of times.

Number two is dissension. Dissension, or we could say discord, discontent, disharmony. Let's look at Psalm 133. Psalm 133, a beautiful little short psalm. Psalm of unity. One of the songs of degrees, or songs of ascents. One written by David. Psalm 133, verse 1, Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. But one of the great things Satan wants to do is to drive wedges between brethren.

He wants us to be in disharmony. He wants us to descent away from each other. It is like the precious oil. Oil, olive oil, is one of those beautiful emblems in the Word of God for the Holy Spirit. One of the physical emblems God gives us to help us to comprehend what it is and how it works. It's like the oil, the precious oil, on the head running down to the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down to the edge of his garments.

There was this fringe that he wore, but enough oil was poured on. When we anoint, we get just a little dab of olive oil on a finger and place it on the person's head. But with Aaron, he apparently was really doused with oil, and it ran down, and it fully covered him. It is like the dew of Herman. Now, Mount Herman is about 10,000 elevation. It's up north above Caesarea, Philippi, way up across the border from Lebanon, the tallest place in the little country called Israel.

Dew is one of those beautiful biblical emblems for the Holy Spirit as well. Because we wake up whenever there is a dew, it's everywhere. We didn't hear it fall. It develops from the temperature changes and the condensation, and sometimes it's slight and sometimes it's very heavy. But it works invisibly, and it brings about a tremendous benefit, and it's likened to the Holy Spirit.

Descending upon the mountains of Zion, so from that farthest mountain to the north to the mountains down in the south part of the country, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore. These should be favorite verses for all of us, because it is a beautiful thing when brethren dwell together in unity.

And it is an ugly thing when brethren are choosing sides and being pulled in different directions. When that happens, it is not a product of the Spirit of God. It's a product of a different spirit. How many times have we had to patiently wait in faith until God led His church to understand something?

Or think of the early church. How long did some have to wait until God showed the early church that, no, the church is not to be simply a Jewish church? That He meant it when He said, you start here and you go to Samaria and to the end of the world, that it is for every person on earth.

Well, let's go to Acts 10, because we have the story of Peter down on the coast land, and going to the place where Cornelius and family were gathered. And we see what transpires here, and what a remarkable story it was, as God revealed to them the three times that the sheep came down, and then the three men appearing at the door, and the connecting of the dots. And in Acts 10, verse 28, He said to them, you know it is unlawful for a Jewish man to keep company with, or to go to another nation, or one of another nation.

But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Now, I didn't check the date, but this is probably 7, 8, 9, maybe as many as 10 years down the line. A long time. And finally, well, actually in chapter 8, Philip had gone down to Samaria and preached the gospel there and baptized. But it very much so was an exclusive church, still. Maybe approaching a decade down the line, it was reserved for the Jews. This is before we even introduced Saul, who became Paul. Paul and Barnabas began going to the world. And then others.

Let's go over to chapter 15, and we can date this one fairly close to around 50 AD. So we're looking 20 years down the line, and we still had those teaching new converts, males from non-Israelite areas whom God called the church.

The church, many were teaching. They have to be physically circumcised. How long did some cry out in prayer? How long, O Lord? And yet, even after the events of chapter 15, another decade had passed. And you know, we could go to Galatians 2, and we find the story where Paul came along the line, and here was Peter and Barnabas eating with some of the Gentiles, and then some of the Jews came, and they got up and removed themselves.

And Paul said, I was stood Peter to his face. He was wrong. Sometimes it takes a long time. And how many Gentile men were there crying out, How long, O Lord, till you straighten this out? How long, till you change this? They had simply to wait in faith until Christ led the church to realize you accept all human beings. It doesn't matter what gender. It doesn't matter what their status in life is.

It doesn't matter whether they're free or they're a slave. If they're called of God, if they're Christs, they're heirs of eternal life. Well, Chapter 15, I went here. You could just refer to the first seven verses or so. Another decade had passed, and we still had some teaching that circumcision physically was required. And yet, the church was wrong. And in God's own time, He corrected the error. He corrected the error. Now, some of you go back long enough to remember when the church kept the Day of Pentecost on Monday. I don't know how many remember that. Quite a few. It was changed in 1974.

Up until that, there's one Hebrew word back there in Leviticus 23, and Mr. Armstrong read it one way. And until you dig in to see what it means, you can easily come to the conclusion that you start in such a way, and you begin on or begin with that one, and you count so many weeks, and then the morrow after, and the church concluded, it was a Monday.

The interesting thing is, in looking back, is Dr. and Mrs. Hay. Dr. Herman Hay. I don't know when he came across the conviction that the church was wrong, but he realized, no, we're not calculating correctly. We need to be keeping it on a Sunday. Because it very clearly, you look at it now, and it very clearly says, you count seven Sabbaths and then the morrow after, and that by man's, the names of the days on man's calendar, that's a Sunday.

But for several years, Dr. and Mrs. Hay, quietly at home, kept Pentecost on a Sunday. And the next day, on Monday, they went and kept it with the church. And he didn't say one word to anybody until Mr. Armstrong began looking into it, and Mr. Armstrong asked him what he thought. What a marvelous example that is, where they just patiently waited.

They didn't dissent. They didn't rebel. They patiently waited for God in His own due time to teach the church. And it happened. Colossians 2, we were there a while ago, but a little further down the chapter. Colossians 2, verse 19, "...and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God, holding fast to the head." If we perceive that Christ is the living head of the church, we realize that at times, God has allowed the church to be wrong. It was in the book of Acts and in the Gospels. It has been in our day and age.

We don't know what it is, but maybe we're wrong about some things today. And we have to patiently wait and realize, as Paul told Timothy, the church is the pillar and stay of the truth. We stay with the church, and God will teach us. The Spirit of God will lead us into truth. But we stay with the church. New truth does not come in riding over out of the sunset like the Lone Ranger.

It takes place within the church. Number 3, disobedience. This is another attitude that can blind our ability to see Christ as head. Disobedience. Synonyms would be insubordination, defection, sedition. Disobedience. Because, you see, when we disobey, it warps our vision. As a lad, I had a longbow. It seemed like I was always running low on arrows because I was shooting at things and I couldn't find an arrow anymore. Then I had a .22 stomping around the farm where there was some water in the creek or one of the ponds and I'd see a fish.

I learned that, you know, when the light goes through water, I didn't even know the term at the time, but it refracts. And you see the fish there and you aim at it. And you have to learn, no, it's distorted. I've got to aim down low and I might actually hit that thing. Disobedience distorts our perception as well. It distorts our vision. Let's go to 1 John 3. 1 John 3. Beginning in verse 7. 1 John 3, verse 7.

Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he, that's God, is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for his seed remains in him, and he cannot sin because he had been born of God.

In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. It goes on speaking of the command we've had from the beginning, that we should love one another. Disobedience affects our vision. Disobedience, especially one who practices sin, cannot see Christ leading the church. Think of Scripture examples. Adam and Eve had God walking with them in the garden, but when they took of the fruit of the one tree, God says, that one isn't yours, they were different and never the same again.

And they hid from God when He came walking in the garden. We could look at Cain. He chose the path of sin. And even King David at times, he had his moments when he went into sin, but in his case, he snapped out of it. His heart was right, and he came back to God. In the New Testament, we have examples like Ananias, Sapphira. And what better example do we have than Judas? Judas reached the point where he finally sold himself as a deceiver, as a betrayer.

Judas reached the point where he couldn't see Christ in Christ Himself. He chose the path of sin. We must continue our struggle to draw close to God and to remain close to God. And to draw close to God, we have to emulate the example of Christ. The calling of God is all about that. Looking to Christ's example, striving to live His life, live by faith in Him, yielding our lives to Him to lead our way, striving to live by every word of God. As we obey, we can see how God works.

As we disobey, maybe like Judas, we reach a point where we can't see Christ right in front of us. And the last one, number four, is discouragement. Discouragement, that's another attitude Satan uses to bind us. Discouragement, being disheartened, dejected, depressed. Satan would love to get us confused and panicked.

He'd love to get us to where we just go sit down on the bench and watch others out there running their Christian race. But we're disheartened. Some of the great men of God went through that. I mean, think of Elijah. Elijah there, what is it? 1 Kings 18, the great overthrow of the prophets of Baal and prophets of the grove.

And the very next chapter, Jezebel sends a message, and he says, feet, don't fail me now. And he got out of there. He took off running. And God had to speak to him in that still small voice. And he came back, but he never was used in quite the way he was beforehand. Disheartened, discouraged, dejected. We can only speculate, but he understood. Maybe we could say the 11 after Christ's death. Because in one place it says, Peter says, well, I'm going to go fishing, and it's like the rest of them.

Okay, well, let's go. It's all over. The show's over. Christ is up. He's gone. We don't know where he is, so let's go back fishing. Revelation 1. Revelation 1. We have a remarkable picture that is painted here in words of what John saw. A description of the glorified Christ.

I think it's good that we are reminded as we read this that Jesus Christ, as the head of the church, is and has always been standing right there in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, representing the church. Verse 13, and in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to his feet, and girded about his chest with a golden band, his head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, his eyes like a flame of fire. His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters.

He had in his right hand seven stars, out of his mouth when a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was like the sun shining in his strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead, and he laid his right hand on me, saying to me, Do not be afraid, I am the first and the last.

I am he who lives who was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Verse 19, write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this, and the mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands.

The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands, which you saw, are the seven churches. He is right there in the midst of the church, or the seven churches in this case. And He has said He will never leave us nor forsake us.

That He is our living Head. He is our High Priest, our Savior, our Lord, our Master, our soon-coming King. And as we look at this topic, do you perceive Christ as Head of the church? It is good to remember there are landmines out there called disrespect and dissension, disobedience and discouragement, landmines we must avoid. We should also remember what is most important is to love God with all our heart, and along with that, to love our fellow man. But once upon a time, we proved the calling of God, and we responded to it.

We proved the church of God. But you know the church of God is filled with people, and people have their problems. And we prove that Christ is Head. And it's kind of like there at the end, it would be at the end of John 6, where many of the disciples turned away from Him by some of the heavy teachings that He had, about eating My flesh and drinking My blood. And He asked the disciples, are you going to go back also?

That's another place where Peter had the right answer. Where are we going to go? You have the words of eternal life. Let's close in John 20. John 20, beginning of verse 28. John 20, verse 28, this is breaking in on the story where Thomas, doubting Thomas, he's often called. He wasn't there the first time when Christ came by. And he made it clear that I have to see and I have to touch. Well, he had that opportunity. Verse 28, Thomas answered and said, My Lord and My God. And Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed.

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Truly, Jesus said many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. When we focus on Christ as head, a lot of things that we as humans tend to worry about just don't seem to be all that important. Because we realize that with Jesus Christ as head, all things are possible. And in the meantime, He is responsible.

But in the process, we're tried and we're tested. Sometimes it's a frustrating, sometimes it's an unpleasant process. But one of the great articles of faith that we must always be reminded of is our faith that Christ is living head of the church. Our belief, our faith in His headship is necessary to ultimately receive eternal life.