Essentials: The Church

Introduction

Video: Cruise Ship vs. Battleship 2:09

A thought provoking video to begin our message with this morning as we look at what “We believe...” about the Church. What are we expecting when we get involved with this thing called “The Church”. Is our Sunday morning “service” about someone serving us or is it something closer to having “signed up for the service”.

Tension

Truth is that people have all kinds of ideas when it comes to what “The Church” is. I remember watching a TV show where two brothers were able to stop the charge of a demon possessed Monster Truck because they parked their car on top of the foundation of an old Church building. It made for an exciting story as the killer Truck came racing right at them throwing up dust and drama only to dissolve in a mystical cloud of smoke and engine parts... but is that really an example of the power of the Church? Some people think so. They may not buy the monster truck thing, but they still hold that “The Church” as a building is somehow sacred because spiritual meetings take place there.

Others see “The Church” as a “Eucharistic society through which God dispenses grace by means of the sacraments and a duly authorized and empowered hierarchy of bishops and priests operating in unbroken succession from the apostles.” Yeah, I had to read that one, but If you have a Catholic background then that might ring familiar.

Still others throw the pendulum the other way and they see Church as something more fluid, so that it can be any place and any time that a Christian gets together with another follower of Christ to talk and encourage each other in the faith and then they are “doing Church”. They don’t need a building or established leadership or even a Bible to do Church, just as long as they are journeying together then they say that they have experienced “The Church”.

And where we land across this varied landscape is often determined by the experiences that we have had with these various things that people call “Church”. And we could talk for hours if we stopped to hear all our good and not-so good stories about our involvement with different experiences of “Church” but I wonder if that would do anything but leave us all very confused or very frustrated.

What if the clearest picture of the Church is found by not looking at the Church at all?

What if our experiences with “The Church” bring us more distraction than discernment when it comes to what the Church can or should be.

What if instead of looking at our stories with “The Church” we looked at the story of Jesus and the Holy Spirit and then see how the Church was formed in their wake?

It seems to me that we could end up with a much stronger picture of what “The Church” should be if we started there. So we are going give that a try.

If you have your Bible with you then open up to Acts chapter 2, which is page 909 in the Bibles in the chairs. We will be there for some time, but then we will take what we find there and look for those ideas in our statement on the Church from our Declaration of Faith. As you are turning there, I will pray.

Truth

So Jesus promised the Holy Spirit and He came like a rushing wind and rested like tongues of fire on each of the disciples and they began declaring the mighty works of God in the various languages of the people who had gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate this holiday called the feast of Pentecost. And when the people heard these simple fishermen speaking in their native tongues and dialects they were amazed. Beginning in verse 12 of Acts 2 we read:

Acts 2:12–13 ESV

12 And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

This is pretty much the standard response whenever God does something supernatural. Some search for the meaning behind it all, but others want to just mock it…because they too don’t know the meaning but they really don’t want to. But Peter, now filled with the Holy Spirit, stood up and begins to answer their question and explain to them what they were seeing:

Acts 2:14–15 ESV

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. 15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.

Did they commonly drink wine back then? Yes, but not for breakfast! The “third hour of the day” was 9 a.m and if you can’t make it to 9 am with out a drink then that is a good indication that you have a problem.

So first Peter addresses the mockers, but then he speaks to those who actually want to understand what it is that they are experiencing. Peter continues...

Acts 2:16–21 ESV

16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: 17 “ ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; 18 even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. 19 And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; 20 the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. 21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

Notice what is happening here…the first Christian sermon begins with the revealed Word of God. Peter doesn’t overemphasize these supernatural events or work the crowd into some sort of hysteria but instead he explains these events by landing them squarely within the boundaries of what God has already revealed that He would do at a particular time for a particular purpose. Remember, the Holy Spirit never brings attention to himself, He is always about exalting Jesus. His next words are the story of Jesus...

Acts 2:22–24 ESV

22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

The first example Peter uses is the prophet Joel, and then he points them to Jesus. Then for the next 10 verses or so he gives the example of the great King David and then he again …points them dramatically to the story of Jesus. Verse 36.

Acts 2:36 ESV

36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Here at the birth of the Christian Church Peter begins his message with the Revelation of Joel and David and then shows brings everyone to see from the Scriptures how Jesus is the Christ. And following this Revelation we read of the people’s Response:

Acts 2:37 ESV

37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

Did you hear that? They were “cut to the heart”. They killed the Messiah, now what can they do?

When was the last time you were cut to the heart over the many injustices that Jesus endured on the cross? You might be thinking “Well I didn’t crucify Jesus” and that is wrong thinking because Jesus went to the cross because of your sin...and my sin and the sin of every person on earth. And so the Father put this pain-filled plan into place where He would send His only Son to suffer the punishment for what we did in our sin?

What is a right and fitting Response to something like this? Peter tells the “brothers”

Acts 2:38–39 ESV

38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

The right and fitting response to the message of the Gospel is to repent (to turn away from your wrong thinking and doing) and be baptized (to be personally cleaned and publically aligned with Jesus as the Christ). We will get to baptism in a couple of weeks, but the idea here is that formation of the Church began by preaching the Revelation of God and calling for a Response from the people …and then God gave the Result.

This is how it went down...

Acts 2:40–47 ESV

40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. 42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

It wasn’t Peter’s fancy words. It wasn’t Peter’s’ fancy suit. It wasn’t the music or the lighting or the greeters or the comfortable chairs…The Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

I am not saying there is anything wrong with those other things, but what we see in the birth of the Church is that when people respond to the revelation of the Gospel message, the result is that God saves them and “adds” them to “The Church”. And we can see this pattern over and over again in the early Church:

REVELATION: What God Did: The Gospel

RESPONSE: What We Do: Repent and Believe

RESULT: What God gives: Forgiveness and the Holy Spirit or “Regeneration” as we named it last week.

This is why we are so passionate about “Communicating the life giving message of Jesus Christ” or Communicating the Gospel. Because we believe that the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. (Rom 1:16)The power of the Church is found not in the building or the community but in the message.

And we shouldn’t be surprised at this because this is exactly how Jesus promised He would build His church. Remember how He once asked His disciples: “Who do you say that I am?”. Peter was the one to stand up that day as well, and we read in Matthew 16

Matthew 16:16–18 ESV

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.

Jesus isn’t going to build His church on Peter, like our Catholic friends would tell us. “Peter” means pebble or small little rock. Jesus is going to build His Church on the message that this “little rock” proclaimed. The Message of the Gospel. That Jesus is the Christ. The same message that Peter is proclaiming here on the day of Pentecost when the the Church went from about 120 to more than 3,000 people in one day.

I wonder what it would have been like to be there that day? It had to be an incredible experience…and yet...many of us get discouraged when we think about how the Church first behaved and then compare it to what we see in our Church experience today. I mean they were just nailing it! Right? They were truly “Devoted” to all the important things - to the teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. We could easily get discouraged when comparing the Church in Acts 2 to “The Church” of today.

But Acts chapter 2 is only the beginning of the Church, not the end. There are a lot of things to aspire to here - but it didn’t take long before the Church became something closer to what we have experienced.

In chapter 3, Peter preaches again and this time he is thrown in jail.

In chapter 4 They are on trial, they pray for boldness, God literally rocks the house and again they are off selling their stuff to give to anyone who had need.

In chapter 5 One family tries to lie about how much money they donated in order to look good…and God strikes them dead fr their hyposcisy.

In chapter 6 One group in the Church started complaining that the leadership was playing favorites toward another group

In chapter 7 One of the leaders gets really excited in his preaching to the unbelievers and they stone him to death.

Then chapter 8 Begins with the words, “And their arose on that day a great persecution against the church”

And then the rest of the book unfolds in somewhat of a repeated pattern of preaching the Gospel, being arrested, beaten and/or imprisoned all while trying to teach “The Church” to stop worshipping idols, fighting amongst each other, teaching wrong stuff and having leaders who can’t get along.

So before we “romanticize” over the early church thinking “Why can’t the Church be like it was back in the book of Acts” we should probably keep reading past Acts chapter 2. People keep looking for it, but on this side of Heaven, There is no such thing as the perfect Church. It is even more mythical than killer monster trucks. And let’s say you did finally find one, what makes you think they are going to let YOU join them? What we often think is that because we have issues we want a Church that doesn’t have issues so that they have room to deal with our problems. That is a first class ticket to the “Cruise Ship”. What we need is a Church with people like us so that we can help each other with our issues and grow together in the life and power of the Gospel. That is a Battle Ship.

And, spoiler alert, my plan for our series this coming fall is to walk through the life of the early Church to learn from all the joys and struggles that they went through because it is much more applicable to our experiences of Church today than we probably think.

With all that in mind, let’s look now to the statement in our Declaration of Faith on “The Church” to see where we can agree and grow each other to be the Church as God intended it to be.

Our statement is broken up into the two ways that the Bible talks about the Church. It either speaks of it as “the Universal Church” or the the “local Church”. I have found it helpful to think about it this way. That The Church is Globally Recognized but Locally Organized.

Let me show you what I mean. The first part of our statement reads: We believe in the universal church as a living spiritual body of which Christ is the head and all regenerated persons are partners in fellowship.

The Church (in this sense)... is globally recognized

We are not talking about a Church with a mailing address here, but the family of God across time and around the world. People have called this perspective of the Church:

The “true church”, The “global church” The “invisible church or as it is stated in our Declaration of faith the “universal church”.

This “Big” perspective of the Church is what Jesus was talking about when He said that He is going to build His Church. He was not talking about just one people group, one culture or tribe and certainly not one denomination or one congregation. The Church of Jesus is so much bigger than our little slice of it.

We see the “Universal Church” first of all as a Living Spiritual Body. We get this from verses like...

Ephesians 1:22–23 ESV

22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

1 Corinthians 12:12–14 ESV

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many.

There are many members of this “Living Spiritual Body” of which....Christ is the head

Colossians 1:18 ESV

18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

And then lastly, this living spiritual body is made up of All regenerated persons are partners in fellowship

We talked extensively on “Regeneration” last week, so I am not going to go into a lot of detail here but in short this is everyone who has been “born again” by the power of the Holy Spirit. So even if for some reason you are not a member of a local church yet, when you are born again or regenerated in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit you are instantly a “member” of the ‘the Universal Church”.

And this is so cool, because what this means is that are a part of the fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ from all around the world, most of which we have never met. They are from different nations, tribes and tongues and yet we share this beautiful fellowship In Christ that one day will find us singing God’s praises together throughout eternity. What began with so few people in the city of Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost has now moved throughout the world... just as Jesus said it would.

Acts 1:8 ESV

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

I read one pastor say that in this way and I think this is a good definition of the universal Church that is recognized Globally” He summarized it as... “The church is the regenerated people of God saved by the power of God for the purposes of God in this world.” That is a good definition of the “Universal Church” ... but then Scripture also talks about the Church locally.

Remember that the New Testament books of the Bible called the “Epistles” are letters that were primarily sent to local Churches. In other words, the Church in this sense does have an address, or really many different addresses. The Church is Globally recognized but it its

The Church…is locally organized

For this sense of “The Church” our statement reads: We believe in the local church, consisting of a company of believers in Jesus Christ, baptized after a credible profession of faith and associated for worship, work and fellowship. We believe God has lain upon the members of the local church the primary task of giving the gospel of Jesus Christ to our lost world.

So the word translated as “Church” throughout the New Testament is the word ἐκκλησία (ekklesia) which in general means a gathering or assembly. The word is not unique to a Christian gathering, in fact in Acts 19 it is used to describe and angry mob that gathered to oppose the message of the Church. The big idea here is that the Church is really more of a “Who” than a “What”.

We might drive by a building and refer to it as a Church. We could also tell someone that we are going to an event on Sunday Morning that we call “Church” but “The Church” is really not a “What” it is a “Who”. A “Who” that is locally assembled together in the name and for the purposes of Christ. And that assembly requires more than one person. You cannot “ekklessia” on your own.

You may have a great time on your solo trip in the woods enjoying God’s creation with your Bible and your guitar but that is not Church. You have not gathered.

We also believe, as Peter proclaimed in Acts chapter 2 that a right response to the Gospel Message is to repent and be baptized…but we will get to that in more detail in a couple of weeks.

But this “company” (as we currently are calling it ) is associated not just in name but for action. We gather together for worship, work and fellowship. It is in this way that we are much closer to a “Battleship” than a “Cruise Ship”.

We see these things spelled out in verses like 1 Cor 14 where it says:

1 Corinthians 14:26 ESV

26 What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.

And then it moves on to list several very detailed instruction of how “The Church” should operate their orderly worship services where each person using their spiritual gifts according to the measure that God has given them.

We also see this gathering at work in Hebrews 10 where it commands us:

Hebrews 10:24–25 ESV

24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Gospel Application

Lastly, our statement on “The Church” emphasizes that our primary work as a Church is to communicate the Gospel to a lost world who so desperately needs it. And this brings us full circle doesn’t it?

Jesus never intended His Church to be about a building, although it often meets in buildings.

He never intended it to be just about community, although it cannot exist without community.

The primary work of The Church of Jesus Christ is to spread the message of the Gospel. It is on this rock that Jesus is building His Church!

Landing

Let me leave you this morning with some modified battleship questions that we began with in hopes that you will ask yourself as part of this local expression of God’s global church...

Are you aware of a “clear and noble mission” at your Church?

Do you believe that your Church’s leadership is walking in submission to the highest authority?

Do you come here to be equipped to succeed in our shared mission?

Are you contributing in significant and meaningful ways?

In everything that we do, are we doing it all for the honor and glory of Jesus Christ our Lord and savior?

Oh, that the Lord would add to our number daily those who are being saved…lets pray together on it.