What is the church?

What is the church?

Well, the church is not a building. This building is not Beech Grove Baptist Church. This building is where the believers who constitute Beech Grove Baptist Church meets.

The building is not the church. The building is where the church meets.

There are people, and I hope you are not one, who place emphasis on the building. The building becomes an institution, but nothing about the building is special.

It is the church of believers that makes this building special. Tonight, we are going to take a brief look at the church by answering two questions.

1. What is the church?

The Church is the EKKLESIA.

It is a called out community of believers that worships and serves God together. The EKKLESIA is the gathered body of believers.

Hebrews 10:24–25 “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Acts 15:6 “Now the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter.”

Acts 7:48 ““However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says:”

The church is a group of believers called out of and separated from a lost world. I personally believe that mega churches distort what God intended the church to be. I believe the church is to be a local body of believers gathered together to worship and serve. I believe local church afford believers the opportunities to intimately learn one another. The problem with mega churches is that people slip and hide in the shadows neither serving nor worshipping.

Now, here comes the sticky point. If you are a part of this fellowship of believers, you are to meet when the other members of the fellowship meet.

Regardless of what you may think, believers are commanded to meet on the first day of the week which is Sunday.

Let me give you some Scripture.

Acts 20:7 “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.”

1 Corinthians 16:2 “On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.”

John 20:19 “Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.””

Revelation 1:10 “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet,”

Now, in these verses, we see how our services are to look when we gather.

The preacher is supposed to preach the Word of God unencumbered by time.

The congregation is to give financially.

The preacher and the congregation are to completely surrender themselves to the Holy Spirit.

There should be unity in the midst regardless of external circumstances.

In many groups of believers today, preaching the Word of God is the least important part of the service. You can sing as long as you want. You can give announcements as long as you want, but when the preacher starts, suddenly, people have to check their phones and thier watches. I do not know why they have to check both.

Well, dear friend, without preaching, ignorance of God’s Word exists. Paul preached to midnight and did not bat an eye. As far as I know, I have never done that. Now, I do not know what time it is in the Philippines when I lead them in Bible study, but I do not think I go until midnight.

Do you want me to tell you what I do know?

If I was completely surrendered to the Holy Spirit, and if you were completely surrendered to the Holy Spirit, neither of us would give one red cent for what time it was or for how long the preacher was preaching.

We are commanded to meet the first day of the week to commemorate the Resurrection, but since you have committed yourself to this body of believers, you are to meet when this body meets.

At some point in the past, the believers at Beech Grove decided they wanted to meet twice on Sunday and once on Wednesday. Since you have committed yourself to this body of believers, guess what that means?

It means you are to meet when the body of believers meets. The Bible even tells us that it might become necessary to meet more than once a week.

Acts 2:44–47 “Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.

So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people.

And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”

Hebrews 10:25 “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

As conditions continue to spiral downward in this world, we may have to start meeting more often in order to comfort and support one another as that early church in Acts chapter 2 did. Because they were faithful in meeting, the Bible says that God added to their church daily. Have you ever thought that we may not be meeting enough? Could that be why the Lord is adding to us daily?

I do not know, but I do know that meeting together is a special privilege and it should never be disregarded.

2. Who is the church?

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

IF YOU ARE SAVED, your physical body is the CHURCH OF GOD.

When you come to this building to meet with other believers, you are literally bringing the church into this building. You are the church. I am the church. We are the church. Not everyone who is a member of this church is the church, but every member who is truly saved is the church.

Now, this is what we say.

We say, “The Lord is here this morning.” More than that, dear friend, the Lord is with you everywhere you go.

You should act the same in the world as you do in this building. Your body is the temple, not this building, and that is the problem because most do act in this building like they do in society. They are uncaring, insincere, and prideful in the world, and they are the same way when the group of believers meet in this building.

Some people look like bullfrogs in this building and out of this building. They look like poor old Kawliga as Hank Williams sang. Dear friend, Paul and Silas were singing in jail yet many of us cannot even sing in this building.

You literally take the church with you everywhere you go. No, you do not take this building with you, but you do take the church with you.

Now, to be a part of the ekklesia in this community, you must be saved. You can belong to this building but not belong to this community of believers.

For the Lord’s presence to be manifested when we meet together, here is what must happen. Are you ready?

First, all believers must be sin-free.

1 John 1:5–9 “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Second, all believers must be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 5:18 “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,”

Being filled with the Holy Spirit is a choice. How do you choose to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 5:18–21 “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,

singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.”

To be filled by the Holy Spirit:

Speak to each other spiritually

Display joyfulness

Give thanks for all things to God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ

Submit to one another in the fear of God

Those are all things you choose. You literally determine if you are filled with the Holy Spirit or not.

Third, all believers must examine themselves.

You may not believe this, but it is okay for you to be wrong.

Now, listen carefully. Remember, the church is the group of called out believers who serve and worship together. A person who is not truly saved might be one membership roll, but that person is not a called out believer.

Here comes the whammy.

If one believer in the community has sin in his or her life, the whole community suffers. If you have sin in your life, you deprive the whole community of believers of the Lord’s presence when we meet.

1 Thessalonians 5:19 “Do not quench the Spirit.”

Do you know what the word quench means? It literally means to put out the fire.

That is exactly what you do if you bring sin into the community of believers. I believe that is why so many are dismissive toward church. They do not want to own up to their responsibilities to other believers, but owning up to them or not does not change the fact that each true believer in a community of believers is responsible to the other believers in the community.

Believers, you are the church. You are the who. Together, we are a group of believers called to serve and worship. Together, we are Beech Grove. This building is not Beech Grove. You, if you are saved, are Beech Grove, and everywhere you go, you take Beech Grove with you.

My closing question is this. What would others say about Beech Grove based off of what they see in you?