Stay with the Church

Introduction:

Let me be real with you about the church! The church has a lot of flaws and failures attached to it. Sometimes the leaders of the church are scoundrels.

At times, members can be messy; trustees can’t be trusted; deacons can be dirty, ladies can be lazy, missionaries can be missing; choir members can be cantankerous, ushers can be unruly!

Some of the meanest people I have met have been people in the church! Some of the most hateful and selfish people I have met, have been in the church!

Even though the church has a lot of flaws and failures attached to it - STAY WITH THE CHURCH!

Even though members can be messy; trustees can’t be trusted; deacons can be dirty, ladies can be lazy, missionaries can be missing; choir members can be cantankerous, ushers can be unruly - STAY WITH THE CHURCH!

Even though some of the meanest people I have met have been people in the church! And some of the most hateful and selfish people I have met, have been in the church - STAY WITH THE CHURCH!

Now when Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, Who do people say that the Son of Man is?

· Note: The city also has an important place in the history of the area. Paneas, as it was called before its name was changed, was the site of a famous battle (198 B.C.) in which Antiochus the Great defeated the Egyptians and thereby took control of Palestine for the Seleucids. In 20 B.C., the Romans under Augustus, who then controlled the area, gave the territory to Herod the Great. After Herod's death, it passed to his son Philip who ruled there from 4 B.C. until his death in A.D. 34. Philip rebuilt the city into a beautiful place and renamed it Caesarea Philippi in honor of Tiberias Caesar and himself.

· Note: Caesarea Philippi had long been associated with idol worship. The site for pagan worship centered on a massive stone façade, which Jesus referred to in His play on words concerning “rock” in v. 18.

· Note: In the face of the surrounding idols, Christ led His disciples into a proclamation of His deity by first soliciting from them what other people said.

I. Foundation (Rock)

· It seems like, from the text, that Jesus could be talking about Peter, the disciple…

o [Greek, Petros—a large piece/fragment of rock], and on this Rock [Greek, petra—a [2] huge rock like Gibraltar, which represents STABILITY, STRENGTH, & STAMINA]

o Foundation is based on Peter’s confession of the Deity of Jesus, of which there are several key factors that point to this declaration:

§ He was born of a virgin ()

§ He was called Immanuel, meaning “God with us” ()

§ The title in Greek is emphatic: “the Son of the Living God”

II. Founder (…MY church…)

· “My” refers to possession, ownership

o New El Bethel Church is your church by membership.

o New El Bethel Church is my church by stewardship.

o New El Bethel Church is His church by ownership.

· He makes up His own rules…

o (illustration) When played ball in the apartments, we always used someone else’s ball; however, whoever owned the ball, we played by their rules…

III. Future (SHALL NOT…)

· 1) This implies that the church has enemies that fight against it, and endeavour its ruin overthrow, here represented by the gates of hell, that is, the city of hell; (which is directly opposite to this heavenly city, this city of the living God), the devil’s interest among the children of men. The gates of hell are the powers and policies of the devil’s kingdom, the dragon’s head and horns, by which he makes war with the Lamb; all that comes out of hell-gates, as being hatched and contrived there. These fight against the church by opposing gospel truths, corrupting gospel ordinances, persecuting good ministers and good Christians; drawing or driving, persuading by craft or forcing by cruelty, to that which is inconsistent with the purity of religion; this is the design of the gates of hell, to root out the name of Christianity (), to devour the man-child (), to raze this city to the ground.

· 2) This assures us that the enemies of the church shall not gain their point. While the world stands, Christ will have a church in it, in which his truths and ordinances shall be owned and kept up, in spite of all the opposition of the powers of darkness; they shall not prevail against it, , .

IV. Conclusion:

With all of her faults, flaws and failures…I’m going to stay with the church!

With all of its mistakes and mishaps, I’m going to stay with the church!

With all of its ups and down, I’m going to stay with the church!

With all of the government shut downs, I’m going to stay with the church!

But just as I have seen

Why would I stay with the church? I told you earlier, because of what Christ did for the church!

Why would I stay with the church? Because of what Christ is doing for the church! He is sustaining the church!

Why would I stay with the church? Because of what Christ will do with the church! He is going to rapture up the church!

There may be some dirty deacons, but there are also dedicated deacons; there may have been some messy missionaries, but there have also been some merciful missionaries; there may have been some treacherous trustees, but I have known some trustworthy trustees! Although I’ve met some of the meanest people at church; I have met some of the most anointed people at church!

The other day, I was asked about the 144,000 in the New Testament! If they would be the only ones going to heaven! I shared with them, that was one number that John saw, and that was inclusive of the Israelite gathering, but John saw another number - a number that no man could number - that number included me- that number included you!