Thankful for the Local Church

Our main text for today will be Matthew 28:19-20. I want to take some weeks to slow down in scripture and focus on us and the local church. Today, more specifically, I want us to look at reasons why we should be thankful for the local church. We are coming up on a time in our country that we call Thanksgiving, so it is fitting that we talk here about things that we are thankful for.

For me to talk about how we are to be thankful for the local church, I need to first tell you why I am thankful for the local church.

Grew up in a UMC church that was very loving

had a lot of older people to look up to

but rejected the gospel until I was 21

spent several years at the church I was saved at and served the church there by doing the computer and sound system and even taught youth some

Went on to help plant a church

Was challenged and mentored by older men in the church and began to truly grasp a hold of what the gospel was and understand salvation

Several year later, we joined North Albemarle where I was even more built up by older men and just became great friends with many of them

You may be here today and wonder why anyone would be thankful for the local church. And I understand. Maybe you have been greatly hurt by the local church, maybe abused and taken advantage of by the local church. I want to say that I am truly sorry that has happened to you. I want to assure you that not all churches are the same and that hurt can heal through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But I want to answer the question that we should all consider. Why should I be thankful for the local church?

To answer this question, I think we must center all of this around the mission of the local church. The local church would not exist if we did not have an overarching mission that was given to us by Jesus Christ. And this is where we find our main passage for today.

Matthew 28:19–20 ESV

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

As we dive into this, I want to take this into two parts, us being thankful for the discipleship in the local church, and the centrality of scripture in the local church.

1. Thankful for Discipleship in the Local Church

Jesus made disciples. He had 12 of them that he really invested his time into.

He did not do this one on one with them

He did this with them as a group

But it was not only the 12 that he met with either

Crowd(120), Congregation (12), Core (3)

Peter, James, and John

Really invested into these 3

seen with him together 5 times in the gospels

Healing of Peters mother-in-law (Mark 1)

Raising of Jairus daughter from dead (Mark 5)

Mount of transfiguration (Mark 9)

The Olivet discourse when Jesus spoke of the end times (Mark 13)

Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26)

Jesus used all of these times to disciple

Larger crowds he taught, smaller crowds he showed

Maybe I need to slow down for a second and explain what discipleship is. A simple definition of discipleship is being taught. We can be discipled in many things. We could be discipled in being school teachers, healthcare workers, maybe in being good cooks.

But being a disciple is more than just being taught, especially when it comes to the Christian. Knowledge is not the end of the road. Living a life that is changed by God’s word is what we want to grow out of biblical knowledge. If we only have knowledge, we are no better than the demons. James 2:19 “19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” Belief is a good thing and we should all believe, but just thinking something is true does not make us disciples. And what are we called to do, make believers or make disciples?

There are a few ways that we practically see people become disciples.

Belief in the gospel - This is first and foremost. If you do not believe the gospel then you cannot be a disciple of Jesus Christ. John 14:6 “6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (gospel presentation)

Obeying the commands of Christ - How can we say that we follow someone when we don’t do what he clearly says in his word. When we try to shun scripture for what it teaches and come up with our own theology, then we create our own Gods which defies the great commandment. Matthew 22:37 “37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

Bearing fruit - This comes when we obey the commands of Jesus. This is how we know if someone is a true disciple of Jesus Christ. John 15:5–6 “5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.” Jesus is very clear that the Christian will bear fruit. Not maybe but will. Let me remind us what the fruits of the spirit are. Galatians 5:22–23 “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

Joining ourselves to a local congregation - Many of you will not agree with this. But how do we keep ourselves in check with these things without being joined together with a local body of believers. They will keep us in check with what we believe, they will help us to understand the teachings of the bible so that we can obey Christ’s commands, and they will hold us accountable with us bearing fruit. Without us being tied to a local church, we are not submitting ourselves under the authority of a church(we don’t like that word authority). But we need a church that is submitted to the authority of Jesus to keep us in check.

We are sinful people and we need guidance as believers in Christ. This is found in a local church. And this is one of the reasons that we should be thankful for the local church. Because of its ability to produce disciples that are centered around God’s word. So I want us to think of discipleship here at Immanuel a little differently. Maybe you were someone who said that they didn’t want to be discipled. Don’t tell anyone our secret, but we disciple people constantly. This is the primary focus of our Sunday School and Wednesday night study. We are being challenged by God’s word and learning what it means when we obey it.

Will discipleship always look like that here? Probably not. One day, soon hopefully, we will be even more involved in each others lives and we will begin to cultivate one on one discipleship relationships. Where we meet together on a regular basis and we open up God’s word and talk about it and see how each of us are growing in our walk with Christ. If you want to see a church grow, it will happen when we begin to focus not only on seeing people come to faith, but also focus on the command that Jesus gives us to make disciples.

When we look at Matthew 28, the command would actually read “as you are going, make disciples”. I believe that this is important as well. Yes, we are tying this into the life of the local church, but it does not end there. I think of a guy that I worked with for many years. We would talk regularly and discuss situations and talk about how Christians should handle situations. We would do bible studies together. But we did not even do this in the context of the local church. So us being missionaries in the world also involves us making disciples, so that we can see people profess their faith through baptism, as the scripture instructs us. I am thankful for the means of discipleship in the local church.

2. Thankful for the Centrality of Scripture in the Local Church

Matthew 28:20 ESV

20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Teaching. This is an extremely important piece of the local church. But not just teaching people morals and ideology. That is not what Jesus commanded them to do. He said to teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. This is important. Especially in an age when churches and denominations are straying from scripture. In a few weeks, we will be going through scripture and seeing what things it is that we, as Immanuel Baptist, value. I believe that one thing we value is unwavering truth. This is rooted in scripture being inerrant(without error), infallible(unable to fail), and sufficient (able to meet every need).

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.

This is what we center ourselves around here at Immanuel. Our goal here is that everything that we do be centered around scripture.

serving the community

supporting a ministry outside of the church

teaching

preaching

prayer

Everything that we do needs to be centered around scripture. You may hear me say that and wonder why?

Going back to discipling, scripture is how we...

know God

know Jesus Christ

know about our sin

know how to pursue God’s righteousness

know our need for Jesus

We need scripture at the center of everything that we do. When we don’t have scripture at the center, this is where drift begins to happen. We begin to see scripture as something that is not completely necessary. Then it doesn’t meet the needs that we have. And ultimately, it does not relate to us and we don’t need it.

And this is what this comes down to. There are too many churches and too many people sitting in churches that do not see scripture as sufficient. What I mean when I talk about the sufficiency of scripture is what it teaches us. Ultimately, what scripture teaches us is who God is and who we are in relation to God. This is what we mean by sufficient. This does not mean that if my car breaks down on the side of the road, that I can open up my bible and it tell me how to fix it.

Scripture informs us of so much about ourselves. Our sinful nature that we are born with, our need for a savior, that savior being Jesus Christ, our need for repentance and belief, and how we are to live as Christians. This is extremely important. This is why we must be centered around scripture. And not just the New Testament but the Old Testament as well. When Paul was writing his letter to the Romans, he told them this very thing. Romans 15:4 “4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

Most of what I have said about the centrality of scripture has been around us hearing God’s word. But what about us seeing God’s word. We see God’s word visibly in the local church through the ordinances that we observe. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. In baptism we see the picture of dying to ourselves, being buried in Jesus’s death, and being resurrected to new life in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” This is why we make baptism such a big deal. Because it is. It symbolizes life change, which is another one of our core values that we have here at Immanuel Baptist.

The Lord’s Supper is a picture of things to come. While we remember with it the death of Jesus, it also is a picture of the heavenly banquet that we will one day participate in. Isaiah paints us a picture of this banquet.

Isaiah 25:6–8 ESV

6 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. 7 And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. 8 He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

Baptism and the Lord’s supper are visual ways that we see God’s word in our local church. But what about outside of out regular gatherings? In our church covenant, we have all agreed that we will maintain family devotions and secret devotions. Now are we putting a mark on this that we need to do this every day or 5 days a week? We are not being legalistic in this. Maybe you are not able to gather as a family every night. Maybe it is twice a week. That is great, do that. Maybe you think that it is just you and your spouse, so you don’t need any time for family devotion. Please, carve out time to do this. Maybe it doesn’t look formal. Maybe it is taking your wife out to eat and just talking about what you have been reading in scripture and praying for each other. If you do this, I promise your marriage will be changed.

Maybe you are single. This is where we lean on our private time with God in scripture in prayer. But also, this is why it is important for us to be in a growing relationship with each other here at church. Find you those friends that you get together on a regular basis, not to just hang out, but to talk about God’s word and pray with each other. This is how our church will change. This is how our church will get healthier.

This is why we must be thankful for discipleship and the centrality of scripture in the local church.

Conclusion

Why should we be thankful for the local church? If you have joined yourself to a local church and have grown in your faith, then you need to be thankful. Being part of a healthy church is one of the greatest things that we as believers can do. As we wrap this up, I have 3 different types of people that I want to speak to with a challenge for each of them. I want everyone to get their bulletin out because I want everyone to fill this out to make a commitment today. The first person that I want to speak to is those who have not placed their faith in Jesus Christ. I want to remind you of the gospel today (gospel presentation). Turn from your sin and place your faith in Jesus Christ. If you have done this today or want to hear more about this, please fill this out.

If you are a member of Immanuel Baptist Church, I want to challenge you to find a way to display your commitment to the local church in a new way. Maybe you only come to Sunday service. Then you can commit to coming to Sunday School. Maybe you come to Sunday school, then you could commit to coming to our Wednesday bible study. Maybe you come to all three of those. Maybe your commitment would be to pull someone aside and ask to start meeting with them regularly and talking about scripture and praying for one another.

Lastly, I want to speak to the people who have been coming to Immanuel for a period of time but have yet to join us in covenant membership. I want to challenge you to do so. And you may ask why. The reason we join the church that we go to is for a couple of reasons. One being discipleship. It is us committing ourselves to be discipled by a local church. Another is accountability. When someone will not join a church and falls into sin, the church cannot hold someone accountable. And most importantly, the bible tells us that we need to be part of a local church and official church membership is the best way that we can know how is part of our church and who isn’t so that we can care for the physical and spiritual needs of our people. So put your name on the tear off part of the bulletin and put on there if you want to join the church.

God is really working in his church. And for us specifically, God is really working in Immanuel Baptist. I am thankful for our local church.