What is a Church?

There is a story I once heard of two men who’s job was to chop wood. Every day they arrived at the same time, had the same quota for wood, and worked hard until noon. At noon one lumberjack left for two hours, while the other decided to keep on working. But every day, the man who took the break finished with his quota a full hour and a half before the other guy. This would both the man who seemingly worked harder for longer. Finally he asked the man as he was leaving. Every day we start at the same time, but then you disappear for two hours, while I keep working but you somehow manage to accomplish more work faster than me. What gives??

The man replied. Those two hours I’m gone. I’m not taking a break. I’m sharpening my axe.

What I hope to accomplish over the next several weeks is to sharpen our collective axe.

It is our habit here to walk through portions of Scripture chapter by chapter and verse by verse. I’d estimate that upwards of 95% of my sermons would fit into that category. But every now and again, it is helpful to take breaks from that in order to focus our attention on particular topics that will help us as a church body. This is one of those occasions.

As believers in Jesus Christ we have been given a task. As individuals who identify as being part of Pillar Fellowship, we have a mission that we desire to see accomplished. In order to accomplish those purposes, in order to perform our duty to our Lord, we must have a clear conception of what it is that we are doing. We must have clear definitions of what we are seeking to build. We must have a sharp axe as we step forward in this walk of faith together.

So, Over the next 5 weeks or so, we are going to walk through a series on biblical ecclesiology. Ecclesiology is a word formed by combining the Greek word ecclesia, meaning church, with ology, meaning study. Thus, ecclesiology simply means the study of the church.

Now, I realize that this may not seem like the most exciting subject in the world to study. Few people are searching youtube for inspiring series on Ecclesiology. But the importance of this subject cannot be overstated. In some ways, I feel as though this may be the most important series I’ve ever preached, because as I lay our the biblical texts, I’m praying that God uses this series to help set the trajectory of Pillar Fellowship.

We may ask, why ecclesiology?

Issues such as what qualifies an individual to be a pastor, elder, or deacon in the church, what even is a church, is church membership biblical, what ordinances should we observe and how should we observe them, why do we do the things we do when we gather such as singing, preaching, praying, etc....these are all issues of ecclesiology. We live ecclesiology every time we get together as a local church. Are we going to live good, biblical, God-directed ecclesiology? Or self directed ecclesiology?

As we work to see Pillar Fellowship established as a biblical local church for God’s glory here in Southern Indiana, we want to be a biblical church, amen? We don’t want to just drift along and hope we figure it our along the way, or worse, be directed by the shifting sands of the culture around us. We want to step forward with confidence that we are doing exactly what God would have us to do based on what he has told us in his word.

If we are to see this church build on a solid foundation, we will need to be clear one what we are trying to do here. We need to sharpen our axe.

So today, let us consider the question....what is a church?

What is The Church?

What is a church? Scripture often speaks of the church in two different ways. The first way is often called the “universal” or “invisible” church. The second is often called the visible, or a local church.

Here is how we can think of the universal church:

All who place their faith in Jesus Christ in this age are immediately placed by the Holy Spirit into one united spiritual Body, the church, of which Christ is the Head. The church is a unique spiritual organism designed by Christ, made up of all born-again believers in this present age.

We see clearly what the church is: a unique spiritual organism.

How do you enter the church, or become part of it?

It is only through a genuine repentance and faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Recognize your own sinful condition and that there is no hope for salvation outside of Christ, repent of your sins and turn in faith to Jesus Christ, his life, death, burial, and resurrection as the only hope for your soul. This is the only means of salvation, and the only doorway into the Universal church.

When we come to faith in Christ, Scripture speaks of several things that happen instantaneously. We are sealed with the Holy Spirit. We are united to Christ by Faith. We are adopted into the family of God, and we are placed into the spiritual body, a spiritual family, that is, the church. It’s a wonderful thing, and we praise God for it!

1 Corinthians 12:12–13 ESV

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

There is a unity there that we all share by virtue of being united to Christ by faith. this is the universal church.

But this isn’t the only way the Scriptures use the word church. In fact, most often the word is used to speak of local churches.

Now. Some might argue, hey. I’m saved. I’ve trusted in Christ. That’s enough isn’t it? What need is there for local churches? We are all part of the one universal church. Do I really have to be part of a local church?

The reality is that nearly every use of the word “church” in the NT refers to a specific local assembly. There are clearly places when the universal church is in view, particularly in the book of Ephesians, but nearly every other reference, and especially in the rest of the epistles, whenever the word church is used, it is in references to a local church.

1 Corinthians 1:2 (ESV)

2 To the church of God that is in Corinth...

Galatians 1:2 (ESV)

2 … To the churches of Galatia:

1 Thessalonians 1:1 (ESV)

1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians...

And we could go on.

What can we surmise from this?

The entire NT loudly assumes the establishment and continuity of local church realities. This isn’t like some secret doctrine that you have extrapolate from obscure texts. It’s everywhere in the NT.

The NT scriptures have no category for a believer who is not in regular fellowship with a local church, except in the most extreme of circumstances like imprisonment, exile, or excommunication.

Not only do we have the implicit argument from many texts regarding the necessity of local churches, but what is more, we have specific commands from Scripture to assemble with other believers.

Hebrews 10:19–21 ESV

19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,

Hebrews 10:22–23 ESV

22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

Hebrews 10:24–25 ESV

24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Because of what we have in Christ, the great high priest who has given his life for ours, the writer gives us a lettuce salad.

Let us draw near to our marvelous god!

Let us hold fast to our confession of hope-Because he is faithful!

And let us consider how we can stir up one another to love and good works.

But how we can spur each other on to love and good deeds?

It can only happen if we actually see each other. It can only happen if we spend time with one another. It can only happen if we are joined together in covenant community together in a local church.

We are therefore commanded by this passage not to forsake the gathering because to do so is to forsake holiness and eventually to forsake the faith! If you read on in this passage that is what you find.

So we are command: gather together. Don’t neglect assembling.

Now the question becomes this…What is a local church? What counts as assembling?

What is a LOCAL Church?

Is a small group bible study “church” such that I don’t need to attend a worship meeting such as we have here today? Why? If not, why not?

does a bible college chapel count as “church”? I attended a small bible college that required chapel attendance. Is that church? We sang songs, we heard a sermon, we prayed…at my school we even observed the Lord’s table from the time to time…were we a church? Why or why not?

I’d like to suggest a definition today that contain 7 elements. These elements comprise what I believe to be the the most basic and stripped down definition of what a biblical local church is. A church may indeed be a church if one of these is missing, but I’d argue they aren’t a biblical church. That isn’t a point of shame. We are a church plant. When we launched, we didn’t have all these elements. But we knew what the goal was, and were working toward it. Every church should be working toward seeing each of these elements functioning in biblically defined and healthy ways.

Here is the definition that will be breaking down and examining biblically

A local church is a group of believers who share a commitment to the word of God and each other and meet regularly to 1) worship the triune God, 2) edify one another through the use of their spiritual gifts, 3) be exhorted and equipped from the Word of God for ministry, and 4) celebrate, observe, and practice the ordinances and discipline under the guidance of duly appointed leaders

(Matt 18:15-19, 28:19-20; Acts 2:42; Rom 12:3-8; 1 Cor 5:1-5, 11:23-26; Eph 4:11-16; Col 3:16; 2 Tim 4:2; Titus 1:5-9; Heb 10:24-25).

Within that definition are seven elements. These are the essential elements that make a church a biblical church.

Now, again. We are still a church in development here. By God’s grace we will grow in each of these seven areas and practice biblical principles that we might be a biblical and healthy church.

Let’s break this down

1. A group of believers who share a commitment to the Word of God and each other.

This may seem silly, but you can’t have a church without people. You can’t have a church without believers.

But what are we believers in?

A biblical church shares a common commitment to the Word of God, which reveals to us the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

There are so many so-called churches in the world that are following the whims of the culture, the vision of an iconic leader, or the dictates of a hierarchy imposed upon them. A biblica church has a commitment to the word of God!

Here at Pillar Fellowship, we make no apologies. We stand on the word of God as the sole authority for faith and practice. And really, why would we stand upon anything else?

2 Timothy 3:16–17 ESV

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Hebrews 4:12 ESV

12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

What else can be described that way? What else carries that authority? What else can shape our hearts and minds? My words cannot do that. My vision cannot do that. The culture cannot do that.

And this ought to govern everything else that follows.

1. A group of believers who share a commitment to the Word of God and each other.

Not only are we to be committed to the Word, but we are to share a commitment to each other.

If we were to look through the NT, we would find that there are so many commands that govern how we as believers in the same local church are to relate to one another. We are love, care for, forgive, encourage, edify, exhort, admonish, and pray for one another. God did not design the church to to be a group of people who show up for some songs and a sermon and then walk out the door without engaging one another. We are to be a community who is committed to one another. Consider even the Hebrews passage we read earlier. We are to consider how we can stir one another up. I’m to have your back and you’re to have mine in our pursuit of growth and holiness. The Christian life cannot be lived in isolation, but we need one another.

As we begin to move through the rest of our definition, we find elements of purpose. A group of believers who share a commitment to the word of God and each other, who gather for specific purposes:

2. They meet to worship the triune God

The theological term for this concept is the a doxological purpose. It’s on our banners here. We exist to glorify God. God has made us to worship him and we are at our best when we are living lives of worship before God.

Sometimes our culture talks about worship as being just music. “Oh the worship was really good today” Many churches have a worship band, or a worship leader.

But the Scriptural concept of worship speaks of presenting our very lives before God

Romans 12:1 ESV

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Singing songs of praise is worship, but worship is also much more than that.

We also specify that we worship the triune God. There are many so-called churches who worship false ideas of God by denying the doctrine of the trinity. These are not true churches.

3. They meet to edify one another

There is so much in this world that exists to tear one another down. I don’t know if you’ve ever met people like that. Hardly a positive thing to say. We are to build one another up.

Listen to Eph 4:11-13

Ephesians 4:11–13 ESV

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

Ephesians 4:14–16 ESV

14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

The word that’s translated as “build up” is the word for “edification” or “to edify” and its translated that way in many translations. But the concept is to build up, like a structure.

We are to build up one another so that we would be mature believers in Christ.

We are to build up one another so that we would be stable in our faith, and not tossed around by false doctrine and the craftiness of man.

We are to build one another up by speaking the truth in love. And it has to be both. Love without truth is no love at all. It’s been said that love without truth is sentimentality. Its feels good. It supports and affirms us, but it keeps us in denial about our flaws.

But its been said that truth without love is hypocrisy, brutality, and can end up becoming a weapon. It might give us true information, but in such a way that we cannot really hear it. Instead, we are to speak both Truth IN love.

And when every part of the church is working properly, the whole body builds itself up in love.

As we continue on, we find the fourth element.

4. They meet to be exhorted and equipped for ministry

This occurs through the building up of one another, but Scripture places a special emphasis on the role of the Pastor in this task.

That same Ephesians four passage:

Ephesians 4:11–12 ESV

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

Many get the role of the pastor wrong. They think that the pastor is one who does ministry, and everyone else receives it. That’s not what this text says. The pastor equips the saints for the work of the ministry. The whole church is supposed to be engaged in ministry to one another and with the world seeking to lead them to Christ. My role is to equip you for that task.

Here is how Paul exhorted Timothy, a young pastor, in the last Scriptural letter that Paul wrote before his death

2 Timothy 4:1–2 ESV

1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

We gather together to hear the word of God preached. Not mere human philosophies and self-help pep talks, but exhortation from the preaching of the word of God!

For the sake of time I’m going to press on.

5. They meet to celebrate, observe, and practice the ordinances

We have observed the Lord’s table here today. We believe that biblical churches observe the ordinances. Not all observe it the same way, and that’s okay. But it ought to be observed.

We also believe in believer’s baptism by immersion.

Neither of these ordinances save any one. They are designed to be a dramatic picture of the sacrifice of Christ and demonstrate the Gospel. I plan to do a sermon on the Lord’s Table toward the end of this series, so I won’t go into more detail now.

6. They practice church discipline when biblically needed

This is a criteria that is often uncomfortable for us to think about. But a biblical church will practice church discipline as needed.

The process of church discipline ought to follow the guidelines and steps that are laid out for us in 1 Cor 5 and Matt 18. The goal of church discipline is always reconciliation and the restoration of the wayward believer, and is never to be thought of as punitive. Even when excommunication is the necessary result, the goal is still to see repentance and restoration.

So often churches get church discipline wrong. They either don’t practice it at all or else go way over the top and practice it in an angry or spiteful manner. If we are guided by Scripture we will practice discipline, but do so in accordance with biblical pricniples.

The purpose of church discipline is to preserve the purity and witness of the church. Internally, when public sin is allowed to continue without being addressed it will tear the church apart. Externally, when sin is allowed to continue without being addressed, it destroys the testimony of the church and brings reproach to the name of Christ.

Finally,

7. They operate under the guidance of duly appointed leaders.

This is another element that I shall not spend significant time on here because next week we will be discussing the role of the those leaders. But a biblical church has godly leaders who have been duly appointed. The method of that appointing is not specified in Scripture, but it is clear from Scripture that church is not a free-for-all when it comes to leadership. 1 Tim 3 and Titus 1 provide a list of qualifications that the leader of the church must meet if the church is to be a biblical church.

I read this week that Abraham Lincoln once said, If I am given 6 hours to ship down a tree, I shall spend the first 4 sharpening my axe.

Well, I’m sure we can all agree that I didn’t spend four hours preaching this sermon today. But I do we are sharpened and over the next several weeks as we consider more deeply the things introduced today.

Let’s pray.