Nature of the Church

We are the Church  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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Good morning everyone…It is so great to see you all this morning. WE made it through Easter and we made it through our anniversary party last week. By the way, was that not one of the best meals that any of you have had in a REALLY LONG TIME…I mean, the deserts were so sweet and the rest was so savory, honestly it makes me want to do that every week. I haven’t had that good of a Sunday afternoon meal in a really long time Typically we have left overs on Sunday afternoon, so this was just plain fantastic for me :)
Well now that we’ve made it through those things I am really excited to share that our kids church has restarted this morning. Right now we are able to release our kids to go back in the kids space and join a couple of amazing adults who are going to teach the kids all about Scriptures on their level. How awesome is it that we have teachers here that value the kids to the point of wanting them to learn so much that they sacrifice themselves in order to teach those kids. Then next Sunday immediately after service we will be restarting all of our Bible Studies, so we will have the kids doing their lessons, then we will have the adults separated into a couple of classes. The classes are separated based on topics, not age groups. One of the classes will be starting a series on 1 and 2 Peter, so that will be good. Then the other class is still a surprise :), but it will be some sort of topical classes, so you will want to be prepared to jump into one of these classes starting next week! We will even have teen classes and those will be awesome, becuase we will be having a waffle bar, so that will be yummy :)
You see we have so many amazing things going on within the walls of this church becuase we so much believe that the church family is important to your spiritual health. Actually the church is so important that we are starting today a short series about the church. We are going to look at the nature of the church the purpose of the church and what church membership even looks like briefly. I don’t know exactly where this series will go, but I do know this. The church is vitally important piece of your family as a way to worship the Lord together in community. Actually, Kevin DeYoung says in his book Hole in our Holiness,
“The man who attempts Christianity without the church shoots himself in the foot, shoots his children in the leg, and shoots his grandchildren in the heart.” —Kevin DeYoung
So last year we did a couple of series on the church. One of the series is titled “Be the Church” and the other is titled “We are the Church”. You can find those on our website. But the point is this, the church is so important that we need to constantly remember why we are here and what we are doing here. For that reason, we are going to have a little refresher coarse on the church as well as the importance of church membership. Actually speaking of church membership I am in the process of writing a new class for anyone that would desire membership into the church. If that is you, then please make sure that I know that you would like to move into membership. I already know about a handful of you that are looking at membership, but just make sure that I know so that we can work out this special class with everyone. This class will be during our Sunday school time for just about 3 or 4 weeks, in order to make it the easiest for everyone. Anyway, now we are going to start this morning with coming to an understand of the nature of the church. In order to do that we much come to an understanding of the...

Definition of the church:

Pretty simply a great definition of the church for us to take with us is
“The church is the community of all true believers for all of time.”
I have given this definition because it is important to realize that the church is made of all of those that are truly saved. Paul says
“Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” —Eph. 5:25
In this passage the term church is used to describe those from all of time. All of those that Christ died to redeem and are truly saved by the death of Christ. This must include the believers from the New Testament like the disciples and Paul as well as many others, but it also must include the believers from the Old Testament. Look at what Moses wrote in
Deuteronomy 4:10 ESV
how on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’
The Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, uses the word, ekklesia for the phrase “gather the people” This is the same term that is used for the church in the New Testament. We even have Stephen speak about the Israelites in the wilderness as the “ekklesia” in
Acts 7:38 ESV
This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us.
Then look at what the author of Hebrews tells us in
Hebrews 2:12 ESV
saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”
“In the midst of the congregation (ekklesia), I will sing your praise. Follow with me over and see what Jesus says in
Matthew 16:18 ESV
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.
Jesus says, “I will build my church (ekklesia)”… Therefore, even though there are certainly new privileges and new blessings that are given to the people of God in the New Testament, both the usage of the term “church” in Scripture and the fact that throughout Scripture God has always called his people to assemble to worship himself, indicate that it is appropriate to think of the church as including all the people of God for all time, both Old Testament believers and New Testament believers. Although, this really speaks about the universal church, we really should take a quick look at the difference between the

Universal Church and the Local Church

In the New Testament the word “church” may be applied to a group of believers at any level, ranging from a very small group meeting in a private home all the way to the group of all true believers in the universal church. So, when we think about these two types of churches it is important to understand the difference here. First of all many times you may hear me say something like “the big or capital C church” When I say that I am speaking of the universal church that includes all believers for all of time. However, there is another church that we really need to know about and that is the local church. The local church is the church I was speaking about in the sermon series that I referred to earlier. The local church is what I am talking about when I refer to LRBC as the church. Let me show you what I mean in Scripture, becuase we can actually see both the universal church as well as the local church here.
First of all I Romans 16:5 a house church is called a church.
Romans 16:5 ESV
Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia.
Then we look at
1 Corinthians 16:19 ESV
The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord.
We see that Paul is talking about the churches or Asia, as well as Aquila and Prisca with the church in their house. You see , a church in an entire city is called a church in 1 Cor. 1:2 and 2 Cor. 1:1 and Thess. 1:1. Then in Acts 9:31 we see the believers in a region referred to as a church, and in Eph. 5:25 we see the believers throughout the entire world being referred to as the church when Paul says, “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” Wayne Grudem says this,
Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Bible Doctrine 3. The Church Is Local and Universal

We may conclude that the group of God’s people considered at any level from local to universal may rightly be called “a church.” We should not make the mistake of saying that only a church meeting in houses expresses the true nature of the church, or only a church considered at a city-wide level can rightly be called a church, or only the church universal can rightly be called by the name “church.” Rather, the community of God’s people considered at any level can be rightly called a church.

This is important becuase as believers and members of LRBC we need to recognize that we are part of something much bigger than we can ever imagine. We are joined together with a great cloud of witnesses that reaches back to the earliest eras of the Old Testament. These witnesses can be seen in Hebrews 11, but look at what the author of Hebrews says in
Hebrews 12:1 ESV
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
You see, because you and I, as members of LRBC, are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, we can run with endurance the race that is set before us. Becuase all believers are joined together in this cloud you can see the universal church in that cloud. This however leads us to another nature of the church that we must address...

The Visible Church and the Invisible Church

Ok, so I will say this sounds a bit odd. Im sure you are thinking that as well. However, this is another truly important distinction that we as a church must be aware of. John MacArthur says it this way...
The New Testament recognizes that not everyone who externally associates with the church is a true believer —John MacArthur
Let me explain that for you. Put simply the visible church is the church as Christians on earth see it. That means that the visible church includes all who profess faith in Christ and give evidence of that faith in their lives. So if the visible church is the church as Christians see it, wouldn’t that simply be the church? Well, you would hope so, however we read in
Jude 4 ESV
For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Did you catch that? Ungodly people who pervert the grace of God into sensuality and deny the Lord Jesus. In other words, sometimes people will be in the church physically, but not actually be a part of the church Spiritually. This gives me the opportunity to talk very briefly about something called Progressive Christianity. This is a belief that sounds fair and good. However, there are many that would teach progressive Christianity from within churches all around us. Progressive Christianity is a cancer that is within the church. This is one of the false teachings that has snuck into the church, as Jude says, who were designated for condemnation long ago. In other words they are not part of the true invisible church. Progressive Christianity teaches that Jesus is one way to experience holiness, but not necessarily the only way. Progressive Christianity teaches that sin is ok if that is the way you choose to live. This is a teaching that says we each have our own way and we need to be inclusive of all teachings and all ideas, no matter how sinful and degenerate it is. I have spoken with so many pastors who would fall into this camp, and I have been called intolerant when I have called out their heresy publically. Progressive Christianity is not Biblical Christianity as you and I know and believe. No, this is an ungodly teaching that has invaded many churches, and especially over the last year many more churches have fallen into the grips of this progressive teaching. This is the modern day example of what was talked about in the New Testament. Even Jesus spoke about these false teachers in
Matthew 7:15–16 ESV
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
So what is the invisible church. The invisible church is simply put, the church as God sees it. That means that the invisible church is all those who have truly repented and surrendered to Christ.
Jesus continues to call this out plainly in
Matthew 7:21–23 ESV
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
That is the big difference. The invisible church is those that truly are saved, and the visible church are those that are saved, as well as those who claim to be saved. The thing is that you and I don’t actually see that distinction. You see when Paul writes his epistles he writes to the church in a region. Paul had to realize that there were unbelievers in some of those churches, some who had made a profession of faith that was not genuine, who appeared to be Christians but would eventually fall away. Yet neither Paul nor anyone else could tell with certainty who those people were. Paul simply wrote to the entire church that met together in any one place. In this sense, we could say today that the visible church is the group of people who come together each week to worship as a church and profess faith in Christ. Wayne grudem says nicely,
The visible church throughout the world will always include some unbelievers, and individual congregations will usually include some unbelievers, because we cannot see hearts as God sees them. —Wayne Grudem
In light of this reality Paul encourages believers to examine themselves in
2 Corinthians 13:5 ESV
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
This is the job of every single Christian as well as every single local body or believers or denomination and fellowship of churches in order to ensure that we are faithfully expressing the glory of God to those around us, and to prevent us from allowing a false teaching to come into our church. There is an important job of the Elders here at LRBC. You see it is our job to be the theological gatekeepers of the church and ensure that we are faithfully and rightly dividing the Word of truth every single week. This is what John MacArthur says about many churches today in the visible church.
When local churches, or even entire denominations or so-called Christian movements, embrace false teaching—thereby abandoning the purity of the gospel (Gal. 1:6–9) and denying the authority of Jesus Christ (Titus 1:16; 2 Pet. 2:1; Jude 4)—they are rightly labeled “apostate,” “heretical,” and “false.” Such churches are an abomination to the Lord (cf. Rev. 2:20–24; 3:1–4). By contrast, the true church exalts the lordship of Christ, submits to the authority of his Word, and upholds the truth of his gospel .—John MacArthur
Finally as we close this morning the question I want you to ask is

What is my relationship to the church?

Ultimately this question can only be answered by examining yourself and realizing if you are part of the invisible church, or just a part of the visible church, or maybe you are not a part of either. In other words, are you truly a faithful follower of Christ having surrendered to his will whatever that may be, or do you attend church on Sunday mornings?
I hope this shows you how important the church really is. I hope you are encouraged by knowing that there is so much more than just LRBC, and that we are actually joined with all of those that have come before us and all of those that will come after us. Through all of this we can see that there really are many aspects to the church besides just coming on Sunday morning. We can see the importance of the Gospel even if we feel we have heard it a million times because there is likely someone in this room right now that has not made the decision to follow Christ and truly surrender. Just like Grudem said, “individual congregations will usually include some unbelievers.” That is the ultimate truth that we all in this room must realize. There may be some that are not following Christ, and it is our job, collectively, to continue to show each other the Gospel with both our words and deeds. Only God can see inside the heart of man, so that means your neighbors, your coworkers, those that you come into contact with on a daily basis may not actually be following Christ the way they claim.
Finally this morning I want to leave you with a statement from Millard Erickson about the nature of the church,
“The church is not to be conceived of primarily as a sociological phenomenon, but as a divinely established institution. Accordingly, its essence is to be determined not from an analysis of its activity [and culture], but from Scripture [alone].”— Millard Erickson (words in brackets added by pastor Billy)
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