4.5.31 6.30.2024 The Church Matters

Entice: The New Testament describes salvation and God’s pursuit and collection of fallen humanity into His restored community. Every Lord’s day we celebrate our mutual salvation. In the New Testament salvation is primarily discussed in corporate terms and only rarely described on individual terms.

The testimony is consistent and clear.

Jesus is saving His Church.

His death burial and resurrection inaugurate

a new Covenant,

for a new People,

a new Israel,

a new Kingdom.

I think you know I love this Hymn that so eloquently and concisely sets out this truth.

The church's one foundation

is Jesus Christ, her Lord;

she is his new creation

by water and the Word:

from heav'n he came and sought her

to be his holy bride;

with his own blood he bought her,

and for her life he died.

One of the difficulties in the Post modern world is persistent, stubborn individualism. This is true even for those who should know better. Far too much about “me” in Christian music, too little about us. Too much preaching about solving personal problems or answering individual questions. Not nearly enough focus on what Jesus is doing through His Church. Even the Church is too often conformed into patterns that fit our culture rather than challenging the values of that culture.

Engage: We have…

Turned our church houses into something like darkened theaters, venues appropriate for entertainment rather than worship.

Transformed Kingdom purpose into a personalized buffet of self-indulgence.

Allowed pursuit of God to become preoccupation with self.

Exchanged mystery for spectacle.

Driven out preachers and pastors to replace them with celebrity spokesmen.

Replaced tested leaders with inexperienced, telegenic “frontmen”.

Sold our birthright for power, influence, and standing.

How did it happen?

How do we undo the damage?

It begins with a little bit of understanding about how we got where we are at.

Expand: Modern “revivalism” began in the mid 19th century. Really for the first time there were organized, sophisticated meetings; external to established congregations, designed to “save” people from their personal sins without integrating them into the Body of Christ. It seemed like a good idea, a bold idea.

Most heresies do.

As the US became more individualistic the revivalistic trends fed and nurtured the idea that you don’t really need the Church. And now, here we are.

Jesus died for the Church.

The Church matters to God.

It should matter to us.

Does it matter to ______?

Excite: The Testimony of the New Testament is not just that the Church matters but that it is

essential.

The metaphors used by Jesus and His Apostles not only remind us of this fact—they drive it home—repeatedly.

In case you missed it let me say this again as plainly as I can…

Explore:

The Church matters because Jesus is saving His Church—you need to be a part of His Church!

Expand: From all the terms used to describe the Church let’s look at three of the collective images used of God’s people.

Body of Sermon: We are

1 His Body

This idea is developed most fully in Ephesians…

1.1 The fullness of Christ.

Ephesians 1:23 (ESV)

23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

1.2 Jews and Gentiles in one Body.

Ephesians 3:6 (ESV)

6 This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

1.3 One unified Spirit-in-dwelt Body.

Ephesians 4:4 (ESV)

4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—

1.4 One whole Body.

1 Corinthians 12:14–20 (ESV)

14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many.

15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.

16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.

17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?

18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.

19 If all were a single member, where would the body be?

20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

1.5 One Body built up in love.

Ephesians 4:16 (ESV)

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.

2 His Building

2.1 Our Foundation

1 Corinthians 3:10–11 ESV

10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:19–22 ESV

19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

2.2 Our Focus

1 Corinthians 3:16–17 (ESV)

16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

We are not just any building. We are the temple! The place where God dwells in His Spirit!

Any talk of new, physical temples with renewed sacrifices is yet another unnecessary notion. WE ARE THE TEMPLE!

And finally, we are His

3 His Bride

3.1 Beloved

Ephesians 5:25–30 (ESV)

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,

27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,

30 because we are members of his body.

3.2 Nurturing

2 John 1–4 (ESV)

1 The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth,

2 because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever:

3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love.

4 I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father.

3.3 Prepared.

Revelation 21:1–2 (ESV)

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Shut Down

When a person is born, we say they are “delivered”. That deliverance exists in several dimensions. For example, a baby is delivered from the nurturing womb of mom, into a family. The other members of the family are able to share the responsibility that fell on the mother’s shoulders during pregnancy.

The same thing should happen in Christian Baptism. An individual is delivered from sin

into the family.

The Church.

The bride.

The building.

The body.

The Church mattered

enough the Jesus became incarnate. The Church mattered enough that Jesus died to save her.