Page 24 24 Headship and express it in the earth. In Bethany, Jesus Christ is given His rightful place as Head. Not a man. Not a group of men. But Christ as the exclusive Head. Not just in pious rhetoric, but in living reality. He is not simply a welcomed guest; He is the Master of the house. And that house becomes His house. The Drawing Power of Bethany I would like to make one final observation. In Acts 1, we have another account where Jesus ascends into the heavens. After the Lord ascends, an angel tells the disciples that the Lord will return in the same manner that He left. There is a prophecy in Zechariah 14 which throws light on this, I think. It says that the Lord’s feet shall stand in the Mount of Olives when He returns to the earth. Now I have a question. Could it be that when Jesus Christ returns to this planet that He will return to the very place where He left . . . Bethany, on the Mount of Olives . . . thus sending a message to the entire world that spiritual Bethanies are what He is after and what will bring Him back? Perhaps the message here is that Bethany possesses a Divine drawing power. When the Lord sees Bethanies all over this planet, He will return for His own. For He will be received. And He will take over this planet as Head over all things, both in heaven and on earth. Summary To summarize, Bethany was priceless to our Lord. And when the spirit of Bethany is present in a group of Christians today, it’s still priceless to Him. Bethany represents the Lord’s heart for His church. God wants a Bethany in every city on this earth. The call to be a Bethany is the high calling to every Christian in this hour. The earth awaits a group of Christians in every city who will receive the Son of God utterly and completely. A group who will enthrone Christ as Head over their gatherings and their corporate life rather than a pastor or a group of elders. A group who will esteem Jesus above all else and who will give Him His rightful place of supremacy and centrality. A group who will give themselves utterly to the Lord and to one another. A group who is willing to “waste” their lives on Him together . . . including their time. The earth awaits such. May our Lord have that which His soul longs for . . . a Bethany in every town–a place where He can lay His Head. Will you pay the price to be part of such a place?
The true church is called “invisible.” This does not mean that true Christians are invisible but that their “trueness” or genuineness is invisible to man. For example, the true faith of the eleven apostles was not visible any more than the false faith of Judas was visible (until the betrayal and suicide following Christ’s rejection of him revealed it).
John Gerstner