Why Church Matters - 1st Session

Is church a specific place you go to? Is church where that really good speaker talks? Is church just something you do on Sunday mornings? Is church the place you go to where you are forced to dress up? Is church....a variety of other things?

Why is church important?

Because my parents told me so? Because that’s what Christians do? Because

Your what will define your why

If you don’t understand what church is, you will never understand why church matters!!!

Need an illustration here - school maybe? soccer? could use a student coming up and me explaining something to them that they care nothing about

What is the church?

The Bible refers to the church as a: well, church (that one should be obvious)…but also as body (), as a bride (), as a family ( - children of God), as a fellowship ( - Andy devotions)

But let’s define it so we have a launching point for our discussion:

In the NT, the word church never refers to a building or a place…so we can check off that one

But…it always refers to people....more specifically, a group of people

The definition of church is this: The total number of believers throughout the world who profess Christ as Lord and Savior.

That means, if you are a believer, you are part of God’s church

While you may go to a building, the building itself does not constitute a church…the believers inside of it are the church

God designed the church to be THE WAY He accomplishes His mission in the world

And as His mission spread from the book of Acts onward....local churches were planted

A local church would be defined as: a local body of baptized believers who meet together under leadership to regularly to make much of God through the worship of Jesus, by being taught from the Word of God, and who observe the Lord’s table”

Need verses

Now, as obviously evident here this weekend…we don’t all go to the same church do we?

And some of us are thinking, man, my church is so much better than their church!

But God designed it so we are all a part of His global church, while we take part in the local church

And the church you came with this weekend, that’s your local church…a body of believers in this part of the world who profess Christ as Lord and Savior

God loves the church. Christ died so the church could exist (Eph 5:25)

What is the goal/role of the church?

To glorify God and promote the supremacy of Christ among all people

In fact, it’s the same goal we are supposed to do as individual believers

The church exists so that as tells us, “the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known...”

But the church fulfills this through:

Carrying out the Great Commission

Teaching of God’s Word

That’s when that guy gets up and speaks

Praise and worship of Him

- “12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.”

Fellowship

Community, believers coming together

We see that all through Acts and the New Testament

Acts 2:42

Whether it be in houses, or small gatherings..they’re coming together under the authority of a pastor

Prayer

- “ 42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

Encouragement

- “44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common.”

Sacraments

Baptism

Communion

A healthy church will make much of God

The Problem

In our overly connected and internet saturated world....students, young people, people just like you, are leaving the church in droves. They don’t find the church to be important or necessary in their lives

Which is amazing to me because God literally designed the church…this was His plan, not some man-made function that Peter and Paul decided would be a good idea

- “ 13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Did you see it?

Peter, a believer - You are Christ, the son of the living God!

Making much of Christ to the glory of God

And Christ responds - upon your belief in me, I will build my church

This was always God’s design for us to meet together, and fast forward to Acts, you see Peter carrying this out

And as you read through Acts and Paul’s letters, you see the church growing…local church after local church after local church popping up.

It’s estimated that by the end of the first century, there were over 1 million believers in the known world, did you know that?

Why? Because churches were glorifying God and making much of Jesus and they would grow to big and they’d go plant another one

But today, we can’t even get “believers” to come to church.....

So why are people leaving the church. Why is church not viewed as important anymore. Why do we believe we, as believers, can function without the God-ordained church in our lives

I think there are a few reasons, one being....this

Pull out iphone - Because of this, well, not this exact phone, but the mentality that comes along with it

Not only are we living in an overly connected and internet saturated world, but its causing use to replace real relationships with fake relationships, real interaction with fake interaction, and real communication with fake communication

We live in a world where we can have anything we want almost instantly

We live in a world that has become totally, ME CENTERED

And what has happened, what Christians have done with the church is left it and tried, and failed, to mimic it in a virtual world

we’ve to replaced real community with (I)community

real relationships with (I)relationships

and real church with (I)church

We want church that will fit in our pockets

It’s almost like our viewpoint is: if you give me snapchat, instagram, and youtube - I can find/do/be the church on my own.

I can listen to the latest hippest pastor preach from my bedroom

And if he’s boring that week, I can find someone else that gives me what....I WANT TO HEAR

I can share a spiritual post or post something that God revealed to me from my own personal study, or I can like a post that someone else shared

And at the same time, people will think that…I AM SUPER SPIRITUAL

I can listen to praise and worship music and that will replace singing in an actual church

Music that appeals to what I WANT TO HEAR

OR, maybe some of us don’t go that far, but.....

We are always looking for a new church experience.

So we church hop, and maybe you guys don’t do that so much as teenagers…but as you move out, if your understanding of the church isn’t grounded in truth…you’ll be susceptible to this

Looking for the new up and coming church that has really good coffee for free

Looking for the church that just hired the new cutting edge music pastor who wears the skinny jeans and who’s hair is always on point

Look for a pastor who’s sermons just make me feel good and provide me with some self-help strategies to live my best life now

I definitely don’t want to go to a church where I have to think about sin, or wrath, or, gasp, think about somebody else!

But, that’s not why the church exists. Some of those things (preaching, worship, community, fellowship, giving) are part of what happens as the church....but the church was designed to glorify God and make much of Jesus.

God says in - “ the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.”

Why Church Matters

So, we’ve seen what the church is:

A body of believers who profess Christ as Lord and Savior

And in a local context, a a local body of baptized believers who meet together under leadership regularly to make much of God through the worship of Jesus, by being taught from the Word of God, and who observe the Lord’s table

And we’ve seen why it’s important

Because it is the means with which God chose to glorify Himself among all peoples and to make much of Jesus Christ among the nations

And so the rest of my time tonight, and over the other two sessions, I want us to consider 5 reasons that the church is essential to you as a believer

The Church Shows that You Love God

Church matters because it proves that you love God

Turn to :

“20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

Oof, okay, let’s unpack this a bit

20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

How many of you have ever played on a team before?

Okay, so you’ve got your team, right, and your team has what?....a common goal

And in order to achieve your common goal, what do you have to do? all work together, all be pulling in the same direction

And in order to work together and be pulling in the same direction? you have to like each other

You may disagree with me on that....but it’s true

See, Christianity is a team sport…and God designed the church to display the common goal (to glorify God and make much of Jesus) through our love for one another

And you can see how the culture of me-centerdness messes with this right?

Let’s try to illustrate this, I need two volunteers (pick a student from two different churches)

Have 4 chairs set up and have one student sitting like they are waiting for the service to start

Then, have the second student walk in “to church” like they are looking for a place to sit, and instruct them to sit where they would most likely sit if this was an actual pew or chairs in an actual church

We’ll whip out our phones and pretend to be doing something

We’ll look intentionally away so we don’t make that awkward eye contact that then makes us maybe feel like we should say hi

We’ll get up real quick and go to the bathroom and come in right at the start of service so we don’t have to deal with the situation

We’ll leave right at the end of service to avoid each other

I watch this happen all too often at our church

We struggle to love each other

Cold indifference is the same thing as hating

And notice what John said, “whoever loves God must also love his brother”

That word brother here means other believer

We are called, as the Church, to love other believers if we claim to love God!!!!

The church is supposed to be this picture of selfless love that shows the world the love of Christ (making much of Him) for the glory of God!!!!!

Okay, we can’t claim to love God and then hate the other ones who claim to love God and who God Himself loves

That’s not love…that’s selfishness

Alright, I’ve heard this illustrated this way before, and I think it’s phenomenal so I’m totally going to steal it, but I made it clear it’s not my own

Okay, let’s say you and your dad are really really tight, okay? Yeah, you’re part of a famiy…but you and your dad have something special. Like you love each other, you hang out all the time one-on-one, you go mini-golfing, you watch movies together, you definitely eat together and so on......

Alright? And every night, your dad has family dinner, where all of your brothers and sisters come together and just be a family over a meal (any baptists in here…we love our potlucks!)

And he continues, “And I’ve invited your brothers and sisters. It’s going to be awesome. We are all going to get together and have a good time, we’ll eat (any Baptists in here?), we’ll fellowship, we’ll talk about things....it’s going to be a blast”

And every night, you skip family dinner. You’re not into the whole family thing…you just love your dad. You just want that personal one-on-one relationship

But what you don’t realize is this, that your dad is the one who is organizing the family dinner

So not only are you ignoring and hurting the relationships with your brother and sisters, but you’re hurting your relationship with your dad…because this was HIS IDEA!

John actually says, “If anyone says, I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

Application

One of the ways we glorify God and make much of Christ is by the being part of a body of believers who love one another

You’re commitment to a local church is a commitment to love one another

- “34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Notice that you guys....By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another

By rejecting and viewing the church as unnecessary because of your personal walk with Jesus, you’re rejecting the very plan of God, and the other people whom Jesus laid his life down for

Did you see that? Jesus said, “just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another”

How did he love us?

“No greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends”