The Christian Church
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Intro
We are generally skeptical of the church.
Christianity is a relationship, not a religion.
I like Jesus, but not Christians.
I’m opposed to organized religion (and so was Jesus)
The Church is too divisive.
But Paul says,
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
Why is the unity of the congregation so important? Why is a worthy life defined by unity, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearing? (None of those characterize our view of the church)
A lot of our objections to the church are based on the assumption that the church is somehow secondary or optional.
Assumes the only relationship in Christianity is vertical.
Assumes you can have Jesus without his people.
Assumes that religion isn’t useful (otherwise you would want it organized!)
The church isn’t worth dividing over.
But that’s not the case.
READ EPHESIANS 4:1-16
READ EPHESIANS 4:1-16
I. 4:4-6
I. 4:4-6
Objection: Christianity is a relationship, not a religion.
Is Christianity just about me and Jesus?
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
You are already united, because there is only one God. If you are adopted by a Father, you have a relationship with his family.
In fact, this is the point.
he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
God is uniting the world in CHRIST. (v. 4-6; 1:9-10)
This means that Christianity is a relationship, but not just with God—it’s a relationship with others, too.
II. 4:7-10
II. 4:7-10
But surely that relationship is secondary, right? Just because I have siblings doesn’t mean I have to be with them to be with my father.
Well, how will you experience Jesus on earth?
But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says:
“When he ascended on high,
he took many captives
and gave gifts to his people.”
(What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)
We are his presence on earth.
We are called the Body of Christ three times.
We encounter Christ through communion, baptism, and the gathering.
For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
The church is Christ’s BODY on EARTH. (v. 7-10; 2:14-22)
So when people say,
I like Christ, but not your Christians
We should question what they mean. How do they know who Christ is?
You can’t know who Christ is unless you experience the unity of the body.
If you can’t stand to be around broken people—people who are more ignorant, bigoted, or immoral than you; if you think that a good person shouldn’t have to endure evil people; if you think that your enemies should be condemned rather than forgiven—THEN WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU LIKE ABOUT JESUS?
If you don’t think you can find the Messiah in the midst of broken people, then you don’t like Jesus.
We don’t know who first said “I like Christ, but not Christians”—but I suspect it was a pharisee.
III. 4:11-13
III. 4:11-13
But, of course, we know that the sins of the church are a reality. When Paul says that we are the Body of Christ, he’s not saying that the church is perfect. In fact, that’s his point:
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
CHURCH is where the Body of Christ MATURES. (v. 11-13; 2-3)
This is where we can respond to the objection,
Jesus didn’t come to organize a religion (build a church)
If the church is the body of Christ, then don’t you want it to have some organization? Some maturity? Don’t you think Jesus does too?
But sometimes we get caught up in a one-sided view of growth.
God gave use leaders to help us grow—therefore I want a church where everyone is better than me, so I can grow.
Two problems:
First, assumes that you should only go where you can receive something.
Second, assumes that you only benefit from being served.
Remember Paul’s goal here:
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
We become more mature by interacting with the people that are difficult.
We learn to give grace by interacting with people who require grace.
IV. 4:14-16
IV. 4:14-16
There is one more objection: the church is too divisive. We are supposed to be serving the world, so don’t fight over the church so much.
This assumes that the church isn’t really worth fighting for.
The church exists to equip Christians to serve the world.
It assumes that the church serves the world because the church is temporary and the world endures. But notice how this passage climaxes:
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
It ends with the church, not the world. This happens frequently.
And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The church is what endures. It is the only thing that endures.
The church is worth fighting for. The church is worth dying for. Jesus certainly thought so.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
We think religion is especially violent. It’s not. Governments are way more violent.
The reason we abhor religious violence is because we think it’s not worth killing for.
If anything is worth killing for, it’s the church.
It’s not that the church isn’t worth killing for—but that killing is unworthy of the church.
Jesus is making us holy, cleansed, radiant, without stain or wrinkle or blemish, holy and blameless.
The MATURE CHURCH is the GOAL of all of God’s plans. (v. 14-16; 1:22-23; 2:21-22; 3:10-11; 5:25-27)
Jesus gave himself for the church; not just for you, but so you could be a part of something better than the world. How horrible would it be to be the only saved person in the world? God wants more for you than that. And he needs more from you than that.
This is what Paul means when he says,
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
