What is the church? A sacrificial people
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Recap-
Recap-
The church is being built by Jesus.
The church belongs to Jesus.
The church will succeed because of Jesus.
The church is a body that holds each of its members accountable to their confession of Christ.
The church is a worshipful people.
The church is a suffering people.
This week I want to to turn your attention to Philippians 2-
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
As many of you know, I’ve been going to school some more. And many of the books I have read have involved church health.
I’ve read a lot of books on church health, church revitalization, church growth.
They’ve been pretty helpful overall. Some more than others. Some not at all.
One of my first assignments in my first seminar was to identify and write a paper what I believed a healthy church looked like from a biblical standpoint.
Now if you were to ask people on the street, what does a healthy church look like?
You would probably get a lot of different answers.
“A healthy church is a big church.” A certain amount of people.
(How many y’all running now?)
“A healthy church is a church that has a good youth and children’s program. They’ve got somehting for everyone at that church.” Where we measure the health of the church by the amount of programs and things they do.
(Just this last week, I was asked, do y’all have a children’s and youth program at your church. I told them that we minister to the children and the youth. Their response was, well that how you build a church).
“A healthy church has a lot of money coming in each week.” Where we measure the health of the church by its bank account. How much money do we have?
“A healthy church has well maintained and state of the art buildings. Everything is in its place. The lighting is spectacular. The carpet is flawless, and the pews are soft.” Where we measure the church by the church buildings at its campus.
But is any of that the true measure of a church’s health?
Now to be fair, none of those things are necessarily bad and those things could very well be symptoms of a church that is healthy.
Its not wrong to (Repeat)
But none of those things means that a church is healthy.
In fact, all of those things could be true and the could still not be healthy.
So answer this question-
What does a healthy church look like? Get answers-
Good answers there-
Mark Dever says these things are the 9 marks of a healthy church. Where basically he went through and identified what he believed are THE essential qualities of a healthy church.
Expositional preaching- The preacher preaches the Bible.
Biblical theology- The church not just the pastor believes what the Bible says about God.
Biblical understanding of the Gospel- The people in the church know the good news and they know it well- Not easy believism. Not legalism.
Biblical understanding of conversion- The people in the church know what it means to be converted and what it looks like. Expressed in repentance.
Biblical understanding of evangelism- The people in the church know that they have been called to evangelize the lost. To actually tell them the good news. When is the last time you shared the Gospel with someone who you know to be lost?
Biblical understanding of membership- the church has a well defined membership. They know who is a member and who isn’t because the member is involved regularly in church life.
Biblical church discipline- The church takes measures to ensure all their members are following Christ. If not, then they take steps to correct it.
Promotion of Christian discipleship and growth- The church promotes discipleship. People are becoming more like Christ and helping others become like Christ.
Biblical understanding of church leadership- The church know what the Bible teaches about the offices of the church and works to have its leadership reflect the Bible’s teaching.
Thats a pretty good list and it has nothing to do with the list I mentioned previously.
Those things (size, money, buildings, programs) aren’t mentioned at all.
I think he is correct.
Biblical church health is not measure how we tend to measure growth.
In fact, the 9 marks are more to do with what the church knows and believes than what it has regarding numbers and buildings and such.
In other words, church health is more do to with quality than quantity.
But pastors get caught up with this.
As I said earlier- How many y’all running now is the favorite refrain?
(I had a pastor recently call me and ask if I know a pastor. I said yes and then he asked me what church he pastored. I told him and he responded, “He’s a big dog then right?” My response was that- he pastors a large church.)
Now I know what he meant by that but it reveals something about the way we think as Americans.
Even pastors get caught up with this- No Christian or church should ever seek to be a “big dog”
But the problem with that is that God never tells us to seek prominence and worldly esteem.
The Bible does not ever tells us to exalt ourselves. The Bible doesn’t tell us to be a big dog. The Bible tells us to follow Jesus.
Look at what Paul said to a church. The church of Philippi
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit.
(Story of Taking the wormer medication.Cleaning the wound).
He was willing to lay down his comfort and safety for the good of someone else.
It sounds and looks a whole lot like Jesus.
When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him. And a leper came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Now that would have been culturally mind blowing and even unacceptable.
Especially for a Rabbi.
You didn’t touch the lepers. They were unclean.
Jesus touched him. Why? Because he was more concerned about helping the man than he was of the public perception of Him.
That should be our attitude as a church.
We are not Big Dogs.
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Have this attitude- in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.
Did Jesus seek esteem? Did he seek notoriety? No. And here is the amazing part of this passage and really the part that hits us deeply.
Although he existed in the form of God.
Jesus was God, but as a human, as one who deserved esteem. Who deserved notoriety. If anyone deserve the notoriety. If anyone deserve esteem in this world, he did. If anyone deserved the fame, He did.
He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.
Instead, He emptied Himself. He took the form of a servant, and being made in the likeness of man.
What this tells us here is that the expectation for us, that we would follow the same example.
But he gave up his life.
The church is a humble people and a sacrificial people.
We give up ourselves for others.
Too often, this is not the way it works.
Too often, people leave the church when things don’t go their way. Pastors included. As a church, we ought to take up the collective task of being a servant.
Jesus died for us.
He told us we would would have to sacrifice to follow him.
And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
The church is a humble and sacrificial people.