Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

My desire as we begin this new series which will take us through the end of November is that we will think biblically and in so doing we will think rightly about the Church.

We hear the word church thrown around a lot.

There are so many different thoughts about the church, ideas about how we should be doing church or what the church is about in our culture.

In an age where things are so easily accessible you can find 1000 different ideas about church and what the church should be doing, what the church should focus on, what the church should be about.

Even as we begin this time I want to make it clear that it is my goal for us to think about the church biblically.

In other words we want God’s thoughts about the church about ultimately what matters is what God thinks anyway, right?

I think of Revelation

It does not matter if a “church” has a reputation of being alive and they seem to have so many things going right and thousands are flocking to the doors what matters is the Lord’s assessment of the church right?

We will spend out time this morning looking mainly at

I think we see 6 things here that we can learn about the church.

We are going to church?

Are you going to church?

The Certainty of the Church

The first that we will notice is that Jesus says,

I will build my church

not I may or I a going to try or I hope to build my church

Instead what we have here is a divine promise, the LORD will build His church.

Men can build buildings, they can grow organizations, they can gather people; but Jesus alone is the One who builds His church.

The church is supernaturally constructed, right?

that is what we see here.

Listen to John Macarthur

“For all of the years of labor at Grace Church, it has been my prayer and my desire to see Christ build His church.

I never want to come to the end of my life and look back and wonder if He did it or I did it.

I want this church to be the church that Christ is building.

That is why we resist the gimmicks and techniques and manipulations and all the rest that people use to increase attention or numbers, all we want to do is get out of the way so the Lord can build His church His way.

And it has been an exciting ministry here for me because we have seen Christ build His church.”

So often I feel like most of the church growth in our day can be described or explained in merely human terms, it is based off of the newest or the best business model of the day.

Think of the church in Smyrna, it was not a place where the newest and the coolest plans for church growth in our day would have worked.

When is the last time that you saw a church growing and the only explanation for the growth of the church was that it was a work of the Lord

There was tribulation, poverty (but according to the Lord they were rich).

There was persecution and yet the Lord has nothing but positive and encouraging words for this small suffering church.

It did not look well but the Lord was committed to building His church and He promised faithfulness to that church.

Through the history of the church as it has ebbed and flowed there have been times when God’s few sat back and felt like this may be the end, it looks like we are going to be swallowed up, things look bleak, they look bad and we don’t know if they can get any worse.

So often the churches

And yet at those times the church has needed to remember what Jesus says here in , will build my church.

Jesus cannot lie, He cannot fail and so the certainty of the church is based on the unchanging, unwavering, absolute promise of God the power of God to do what He said He would do.

How does the Lord build His church?

Through the preaching of the Word, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit

Look in the book of Acts as the Lord is building His church, how does He do it?

Notice the Lord added to their number day by day.

Brothers and sisters, if you are part of the church it is only because the Lord added you to the church.

By God’s grace you heard the gospel

By God’s grace you had ears to hear the gospel

By God’s grace you were convicted of your sin and your need for Christ

By God’s grace you repented of your sin and trusted in Christ

Another simple reminder as we think about this brothers and sisters is that we are called to be faithful to share the gospel, we are to be faithful to proclaim God’s Word but none of us in this room can build the church of Jesus Christ.

There is no one other than the Lord Himself that can build the church.

We are to strive to be holy and faithful and obedient so that God can do His work and we may have the privilege of being instruments used by the Lord and brothers and sisters we are to be confident knowing that the Lord will build His church.

The Owner of the Church

Not only will the Lord build the church but notice what the text says,

It does not say I will build the church

But I will build my church

The church belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ.

He has purchased them by His blood.

He laid down His life to save the church from the coming wrath of God.

He saved them from their sin and from wrath

He

Till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more!

Acts 20.

The Identity of the Church

How are we to understand this word church?

This word appears only twice in the gospels here and then in .

It appears more later in the NT, but this word does not come to us in a vacum.

There is a context.

How would of the disciples understood this word?

The Greek word here is ekklesia and it is the word used in the Septuagint to refer to a congregation, that is a gathering of Jews, an assembly of people.

The word simply means a gathering, an assembly.

In fact in the NT the word is used to refer to Israel

In and 41 it is used to refer to a pagan Gentile crowd

And then check this out

Here it refers to all the redeemed from all of redemptive history

The point is simply this,

there are times in the NT when it does have the technical sense of church like the church in Ephesus in

but there are also times when it is used to refer to an assembly, more of the non-technical usage.

I think what Jesus is saying is that He will gather together His people, He is gathering together all that the Holy Spirit draws to Him, all that are given to Him by the Father.

Sam Waldron

“There was a very important sense in which the church began as an institution and organism in the complex of events surrounding Christ’s first advent.

There was a sense in which historically the church began in the events of Christ’s earthly ministry, death, resurrection and pouring out of the Spirit

On the other hand, the church is the climactic earthly expression of the people of God.

Thus the church will one day be composed of all the redeemed.”

In other words though in a sense the church began with Jesus’ first coming, the reality is that the OT saints are part of the church in that they are part of the redeemed, they will only get into heaven by the blood of Jesus just like those of us who have trusted in Jesus after His coming.

The Foundation of the Church

This may be the central point for us to consider today.

What is the foundation of the church of Jesus Christ?

“On this rock I will build My church”

Catholic church have used this verse for the authority of the priesthood claiming that Peter was the first Pope, this has lead to all sorts of ungodliness and error.

Some have see the twisted and distorted doctrine of the papacy within the catholic church and have said this can’t be talking about Peter but about his confession.

Peter cannot be the head of the church, he cannot be the foundation of the church, Peter could not hold up this structure.

I do think that the text is clearly referring to Peter, but only in as much as he is lead by the Father in heaven to confess Jesus as Messiah.

Jesus is not saying Peter I am going to build the church on your office, on your talent,, on your rank, on your worthiness, on your intellect.

I am building the church on you because you are affirming the foundational truth of the church, namely that I am the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

Some

In other words the Cornerstone is Christ, the confession of the Messiahship of Christ is the foundation upon which the living stones are built.

What is the point?

Christ builds His church on the truth of divine revelation and all who articulate divine revelation are foundational to the building of the church.

The church will be built as the truth of who Jesus Christ is and what He came to do is proclaimed.

Again notice the point

As long as Peter proclaims the centrality of Christ, of who Christ is and what He came to do he will be foundational but when he speaks according to his own wisdom he is a stumbling block

Peter, speak the Word of God and I will build my church on that