Prioritize the Church

Acts 2:42-47

Acts 4:32-37

Acts 6:1-7

Acts 8:1-4

In these passages we see radical devotion to the church, whole-life commitment to the mission of the church, radical generosity, unnamed, obscure Christians responsible for the spread of the gospel and the planting of new churches, gifted men teaching and sending their best to plant new churches in unreached areas.

It’s important to take a look at Acts from time to time to remind ourselves how the early church spread so rapidly and why it was so powerful. And what stands out - something that is so simple you almost miss it - is the total commitment of these early Christians to the cause of the church.

We’re all busy. We’re loaded with commitments and responsibilities. We’re over the top active. I think it’s what happens when you have an affluent nation with innumerable opportunities. You can do almost anything you want. And often we think we should do whatever we want.

Let me be frank. My goal this morning is to persuade you that God’s call on your life, if you are a Christian, is to serve the church. I think it is the calling of every believer.

You’re going to serve something. You’re going to serve yourself, your ambitions, your career, your lusts, your fears, your possessions, your fame, your power. You cannot help it; the living God has made you to serve, and you will serve. But the problem of sin in Romans 1 is that we have fallen and we now worship and serve created things rather than the Creator.

So this morning I want you to feel God’s call to serve him, and I want to tell you that practically, what that means is that you commit to serve Christ’s church.

Every Christian should prioritize the church of Jesus Christ. It should be their greatest and highest commitment because Jesus is their Lord, their savior, their king, and example.

I have 5 biblical reasons why you should prioritize the local church:

# 1 Prioritize the Local Church Because Jesus Does

Acts 20:28. Paul is saying goodbye to the Ephesian church. He’s speaking to the elders and he says, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.”

What you’re willing to pay for reveals how much you value it. Jesus didn’t purchase the church with a few bucks, with a loan. He shed blood. He suffered torture. He offered himself to pay for the sins of his people that he might have the church for himself.

Jesus died to save and redeem the church. If we are following Jesus, we must ask ourselves: am I imitating Christ’s self-giving love for the church?

Jesus loves the church. Jesus bought the church with blood. Jesus identifies with the church like it’s his family. Acts 9:4.

Jesus is the head of the church according to Ephesians 1:22.

The church is the gathering Jesus said he’d build in Matthew 16.

The church is the spiritual house he’s constructing according to 1 Peter 2.

The church is his bride in Ephesians 5 & Rev. 19

What does it say about our love for Jesus if we can’t stand his bride?

No, if we don’t love the church, there’s something wrong with us. I like what Don Whitney said, “If you miss church but you don’t miss church, something’s wrong.”

To prioritize the church does not mean everyone leaves their jobs and gets into full-time ministry. It means you understand the purpose of your job is to bring God glory, provide for yourself and your family, and your church. A fundamental identity shift must occur. You are not a police officer who goes to church, you are a churchman whose vocation is police officer.

# 2 Prioritize the Local Church Because You Love Christians

1 John 4:7 says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” Where does true, biblical love come from? It comes from God. Those who have been born of God love.

1 John 5:1 “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.”

Christians love Christians. 1 John 2:9 that if you hate your brother you’re still in darkness.

In other words, if you love Christ you love Christians. Your commitment to the church becomes an expression of this love. This is a love that God produces in us, and it’s a love we’re called to express toward one another. 1 Peter 1:22 “love one another earnestly from a pure heart since you have been born again.” This is a calling.

Romans 12:5 Paul writes that “we are all members of one another” and in 1 Corinthians 12:26 he writes “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” This is a symptom of a loving church.

A good diagnostic question: Do you know the spiritual aches and pains of the people around you? Do you feel the aches and pains of those around you?

A way to identify a mature man or woman of God. When you ask, “How are you doing?” he goes into detail about the people he loves, the weak people he cares for, the disciples he’s leading, the lost people he’s praying for, the spiritual infants he’s nurturing. He is bound to them. He doesn’t consider his own life without considering the people he loves.

# 3 Prioritize the Local Church Because You’ve Made Commitments

Think of the commitments you’ve made in your life. You’ve probably made commitments to a club, perhaps a sports team. A school, a government, a group. And there are some Christian families whose calendars are so glutted with commitments they barely have any time for the church - for the Sunday gathering or for caring for people throughout the week.

But a Christian is someone who has made a commitment to Christ. Did you know when you gave your life to Jesus, you gave your life to serve his church? In Luke 14:33, Jesus Christ tells people that if they want to be his disciples they must “renounce everything they have.” There are no competing commitments. Everything I do revolves around my commitment to the church.

In baptism you committed to the church as your spiritual family. You made a public commitment to God and to his people.

Every time we have communion, we renew our commitments to our family. We are reminded of the unity we have with the body of Christ. Communion is like a vow renewal.

These are real commitments we’ve made. Both baptism and communion are public vows before God and man. Commitments to Christ and his people.

True churchmen and churchwomen are an inspiration. They’re the ones who get up at 3:30am to help set up, or stay up late to pick you up from the airport. They show up early to be a blessing to people and stay after to see how they can build connects that become platforms for ministry. They open up their homes, give generously, and make themselves available to provide counsel. They take responsibility for others.

I recently heard of a group of church members showing up at the home of an elderly woman, with hymnals, to sing to her on the last few days before she passed. It wasn’t a program. It was a family keeping their commitments to their beloved members.

I hope we can look each other in the eye and say, “I’m here for you.” I hope that if one of us goes down, a swarm of friends from Grace Rancho will be the first people there.

This is why, by the way, we have affirmations of commitments. Those affirmations are not Scripture, but they’re a summary of what the Scripture teaches about commitment to a church family. Many churches don’t teach on those commitments. We try to teach from the get-go what it means to be a part of a church. And that means commitment.

Romans 12:10 “Love one another with brotherly love.” Some translations use the word, “Be devoted to one another.” Devotion. The idea is sincere, committed, genuine, eager, love. That is the way you should love your church family.

Perhaps there are some people here who need to consider whether they’re following through on the commitments they’ve made to Jesus and his church. I want to encourage you: consider the cost of following Jesus. How’s your commitment? Is it a weightier commitment than your commitment to a sport or a hobby?

Maybe if these ideas are resonating with you, you could grab a copy of the affirmations of commitment, read through them again, asking yourself: “Am I being faithful to live this way?”

# 4 Prioritize the Local Church Because You Are Needy

Job 5:7 says “but man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards.” Life is hard, we are broken, and we are needy.

You do not have an accurate view of yourself if you do not feel that you are a needy person. The Bible teaches that we are needy. Tuck that away. We are needy.

And I know for most of us, it is far easier to help someone who has needs than to ask for help. We’d rather be in a position of control-- as the helper--than in a position of vulnerability--as the needy one.

But look at 1 Corinthians 12. In verse 14 he describes the body as being made up of many different members. Eyes, hands, nose, ears. But look at verse 21. Underline this, and let the truth here hit you afresh: “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you.’”

Here’s what we are not allowed to say to the others in our church. Here’s what we’re not allowed to believe about others in our church: “I have no need of you.” You are not allowed to believe that. You are called to believe the opposite: “I have great need of you.”

Is there any man here who is too proud to look a brother in the face and say, “I need your help?” Is there any woman here too proud to call a sister and say, “Please help me?”

So here’s the beautiful paradox of the church: you are needy. Desperately needy. And you are needed. And as Paul goes on to say in verse 22: “indispensable.”

Love the church because you are needy, and God has ordained that the church family be a place where he meets your needs.

I wonder if it’s been hard for you to connect with others. This is common, especially when we’re new to opening up our lives to other people. Start by praying, and then ask someone. Ask someone you trust for help. Ask them for prayer. Open up.

# 5 Prioritize the Local Church Because It’s God’s Mechanism for Preserving the gospel for generations and proclaiming the gospel to the nations.

1 Timothy 3:

A household is a family. The word is a family-word, not a building word. The idea is that the gathering of God’s people is a family gathering over which God presides as head of the household.

What an encouraging picture! Infinite power and absolute goodness preside over us, like a noble and kind father over his precious household. Christians, saved by grace and born again by the Holy Spirit, are God’s household.

The way into the household of God is to be utterly humbled by your sin, in total agreement with God that it is damnable, and to see Jesus and say, “He’s my hope! He took my sin and paid for it on the cross! He freely gives his righteousness to me! He is my help!”

And when you do that, God embraces you as his child. If that’s you, hear God inviting you in this morning: “Come to me” Jesus says, “All you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest!” Come to Jesus and be part of God’s spiritual family.

Look at the next phrase, which qualifies the previous one: “the church of the living God.”

Perhaps one of the oddest problems that plagues the church is that we are constantly forgetting that God is real. All throughout Scripture, God’s people draw courage from the reality that God, in fact, is real.

And here, when we are called to live together as God’s household, we are reminded that this is the church-- the ekklesia, the gathering, the people-- of the living God.

The words “living God” remind us of the fact of God’s eternality, that he lives, has always lived, and will always live. God was living before there were angels to serve him, before there were the cherubim to shout Holy, Holy, Holy, before there was an adversary Satan, before there was a creation to marvel at, before there were men to long for him, he the living God.

The living God created the world, and what did he put on it? Life. Birds in the air, fish in the sea, animals and insects-- the living God created life-- these creatures don’t have life in themselves. They are contingent, dependent-- existing entirely because the living God gives life to them.

He shaped a man from the dust and breathed the breath of life into him.

He is an unending stream of life. He does not get exhausted or run dry. He has life in himself. He will live forever. In this world, everything is aging, everything is dying, everything is decaying, everything is collapsing, and God lives above it all, and unchanged. He is infinitely Old-- the ancient of Days-- and infinitely young-- filled with the enthusiasm of perfect love.

The living God has not called a temple his house. He has said the heavens are his throne and the earth is his footstool. That is to say he does not live in a house made by hands. But here he says the church is his house. Not the building, the people. We are the household of the living God. Did you consider this reality when you gathered this morning? God is not your imagination. God is not an idea you need to work up. God is alive, and we, the church, are his household.

Third, “the pillar and buttress of the truth.” Timothy, living and serving in Ephesus would have immediately picture in his mind the great Temple of the goddess Diana when he read this. It had 127 giant marble pillars studded with jewels and overlaid with gold. It was a formidable edifice that was considered one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World.

Those pillars and supports were a metaphor for what the purpose of the church is.

Why do you think the church exists? Social club? Spiritual Jiffy-Lube to get tuned up?

No, we, the church, the household of God, are to to function like a pillar and buttress, that is, it exists to uphold and support the truth. To protect and promote it. God has revealed truth to us in a world plagued with lies and deception, and we are guardians of it.

A Christian giving up on the church is like a soldier deserting his post in the heat of the battle. A Christian with no commitment to the church is like a saying you’re on the team but you refuse to get in the game.

Because our lives are for Christ, our lives are to be wrapped up in the purposes of Christ, the body of Christ, the mission of Christ, for the glory of Christ. And that means every Christian should make Christ and his church the sun of their universe, around which they find their orbit.