What is the church?

Rediscover Church

Introduction

Matthew 16:18 “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Early on in my childhood years, my family was not a family of church attenders. Generations ago, our family line included preachers, but due to a bad experience my great-grandmother left church. From what I have been told, she was excommunicated from her church pastored by her father for missing church during a snowstorm in Indiana. Now this was generations ago now and who knows what the truth truly is, but she raised my grandfather to not value religion and when he grew up, He became a hard core atheist. So as a child, if you had asked me what the church is, I actually would have had very little idea.

My mom on the other hand was raised staunch Catholic and both she and her mother had considered at points in their lives becoming Nuns. So pretty early on, I began to think of the church as what the Catholic church is. I think it was when I was 7 or 8 years old, I ran away from home. The only items I brought with me were a bible and a robe because I was going to become a priest.

When I got saved in Misawa, Japan; I was just 9 years old and to me church was the building. We had Awanas at that church and it was the highlight of my week. We enjoyed going to Church for Awanas. I like many children, unsaved people and young Christians, thought of the church as a physical building, but as we have found out from the Corona virus, the church can’t always meet in a physical building. Does this mean it ceases to exist?

In this series of sermons, I want us to rediscover what it means to be the church, what does a healthy church look like and what obligations do we take on ourselves when we become members of a church. To lay that foundation, we must understand what the church is. What makes a church a church?

What if the three friends leave the park, head down to the local diner, and pray before their meal? Are they a church then? What if they pull out their Bibles and exhort one another? Agree to meet weekly? Serve communion? Make some sort of covenant? Get the local city officials to recognize them as a church with a legal document? Stop meeting in a diner booth and find a building with a steeple? What’s the tipping point between “three Christian friends hanging out” and “three Christians who together constitute a church”- Leemon

I. What the church is not

a club- church isn’t intended just to come and hang out and have friends although those are essential parts of being in a church. Our primary focus is to be like a country club.

a building- This is what most people think of when they refer to the church. In fact most of us would say, “I am going to the church.” The facilities are important as they are part of our physical representation in our community and they help our testimony with those around us. Imagine if we took duck tap and cardboard and boarded up some of the front windows and just left them like that. It sends a message to people about us and yet the building though important is not the Church.

an entertainment show- church is not primarily about you. Church is about the worship of God, the edification of other believers and the evangelism of the lost world around us. Your growth is important but the services of the church are not intended to be merely entertainment. Many contemporary churches have allowed themselves to become nothing more than a Christian Rock Concert. And while we may not use Rock music in our church, some probably come here just because they like the music. This is the same motivation as those who come to church for a Rock concert.

a cult- the church is not a cult following some man. There has been a stream of faithful bible teaching throughout the ages. We do not need to rediscover some lost truth. Seeking new truths from teachers because we have itching ears to hear something new will lead you into error. The bible says that the church is the pillar and ground of the truth. 1 Tim 3:15 “But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” The church has been the means of preserving biblical truth for 2000 years now.

II. What is the Church

My slightly modified definition of a church as defined by Jonthan Leemon is “a group of believers, assembled together to proclaim the good news , to affirm one another through the ordinances, to display God’s holiness and love through a unified and diverse people in all the world following the teaching and example of the elders/ pastors.

A. A Gathering of believers- The church is for believers. If you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your savior, biblically you cannot be a member of a biblical church. But I want to focus here on the gathering of those believers. Acts 2:47 “Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”

There is a debate among Baptist churches about whether the church is universal or only local. Just briefly I would like to explain what we mean by these terms and explain my answer to this debate. The term universal church is a term that is used in theology to refer to all Christians of all ages from Pentecost to the Rapture. Passages that reference the universal church would be Ephesians 1:22-23 “And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.” Single church, Christ’s single body Heb 12:23 “To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,” This universal body includes those in heaven (already dead) and those on earth (alive) 1 Cor 10:32 “Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:” The singular Church is a category parallel to Jews and Gentiles.

Proponents of a local church only theology argue that εκκλησια means assembly and therefore cannot refer to a universal body on physical local assemblies of Christians. While this argument is generally true of the secular usage of the word, the bible by its context amplifies this meeting. In secular literature, εκκλησια only referred to the actual assembly not the people assembled and so when they went home the εκκλησια ceased to exist. A dependence on secular definitions for the word leads us to believe that the church stops existing after Sunday services are over. if we are consistent. The bible expands the use of the word church to refer to the people in the church so that when they are not assembled they are still the church. Think of a football team, do they stop being OU Sooners just because they aren’t playing the game today or even at practice. If you are a sooner, you are a sooner whether you are at home or playing on the field. Now the Sooners find their greatest expression when they are on the field. If they never played the game, they would not be the Sooners. So it is with the church, the universal church includes all believers but it finds its greatest and essential expression when we are physically gathered together.

I once heard it estimated that 95% of the passages that reference the word church in the NT refer to the local church: the gathering of believers. Church cannot be everything it was designed to be if its members are not gathering together and so we are going to place the emphasis on the physical gathering of believers in this definition. Col 4:15 “Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house.”

B. Assembled to proclaim the good news 2 Corinthians 5:17-19 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.”

I wanted to pick a passage that we don’t hear all the time about evangelism. Some like Martin Llyod Jones have argued that the great commission passages only applied to the apostles and preachers, so I figured we would take a look at this one instead. In this text, we see first of all who is being addressed any man be in Christ any Christian is the focus of this discussion. That man is a new creature because Jesus has reconciled us to God. The end of vs 19 says that to “us” has been committed the word of reconciliation. Who is the “us”? grammatically, it is referring to those of us who have been reconciled to God by Jesus Christ: every Christian. Vs 20 continued this theme 2 Cor 5:20 “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”

One of the primary purposes of the church is evangelism. In fact it is one of the few activities of the church that cannot be done in heaven so it provides the main reason why we don’t just go to heaven right away when we get saved.

C. Affirming one another through the ordinances- ordinances refer to commands of Christ given to the church generally, but more specifically in this case they are ceremonial acts that symbolize the finished work of Christ on the Cross. Baptist represents the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus and the Lord’s supper represents the shed blood and body of Christ on the cross. Matt 28:19-20 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” Gives us the command about Baptist and the entire second half of 1 Corinthians 11 teaches about the Lord’s supper.

D. A display of God’s holiness, love- The church shows this point primarily through church discipline. When the world looks at church discipline they don’t see love and holiness. They think of it mean, but Hebrews 12:6 “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” teaches that discipline is a form of love. God is so loving that He has to and wants us to deal with unrepentant sin in the church. God is also holy and expects holiness of His Children. We have an example of church discipline in 1 Cor 5:5 “To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” In this account, it seems that a man had had sex with his step mother and in the first epistle Paul tells the church to kick him out, to let Satan do with him what he wants. Seems harsh, but in vs 5 we see that it is for his good, “so the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” 1 Cor 5:6 “Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?” Vs 6 also teaches that discipline is what is good for the rest of the church. we read in Second Corinthians that this man finally did repent and Paul told them to let him back in and receive him into their fellowship.

E. A unified and yet diverse group of believers- 1 Cor 12:13 “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” Within the church, there should be and is a variety of different people. According to this verse, the early church had Jews and Gentiles and free people and slaves all in one church, but they have been united by the same Spirit. The text goes on to teach that we have all been given differing gifts that we are supposed to use to serve others in the church.

F. Continuing in the teaching of the Word- Acts 2:41-42 “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” We see most of what we are talking about today summarized in this text. Those who were saved were baptized, they officially joined the church, the fellowshipped with the believers, they prayed together and they broke bread (in this case refers to the Lord’s supper). But one they also did one other thing. They continued in the teaching of the Apostles. The Church should center around the preaching and teaching of the word of God.

G. Following the example and leadership of the pastor- Pastor Karsies just preached on this topic last week from Hebrews 13:7 “Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.” and Hebrews 13:17 “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.” God has placed leaders in the church to guide and shepherd the church. We ought to listen to their teaching and their example and follow it. Now this isn’t blind following. We are to consider the end of their conversation (lifestlye), but if they are seeking to live a loving and holy life before God, we should follow. Vs 17 goes to say to submit to their leadership. No preacher should ever let this power go to his head and become a dictator though because as the text says, we will give an account for the souls of those we shepherd.

III. Why does it matter

I think a lot of people have lost touch with what the church is supposed to be and because of that they do not value it in their lives. The church is designed to give us community a sense of belonging. It is designed to give us guidance through the teaching of the word of God and the example of other believers and leaders. It gives us the opportunity to join together to worship God through offerings of praise and keeping the ordinances. By it we can show the world about God’s holiness and love through our purity and church discipline. And we can spread the message of forgiveness by evangelism. This is what the church was intended to be.

So why does it matter?

We need the church- other brothers and sisters in Christ are there to encourage us when we are struggling. The church gives us the opportunity to serve others and use our spiritual gifts. Without these opportunities to pour ourselves out into the lives of others we would not grow to be spiritually mature. The communal ceremonies of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are part of our obedience to God and cannot be performed outside the church.

Because Jesus loved the church so much he died for it- Ephesians 5:25 “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;”

The end of time is approaching- Hebrews 10:25 “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” The author of Hebrews was concerned about those who were completely abandoning the church and so he challenged the Hebrew believers not to abandon gathering together. In fact, he said that they should meet together more and more the closer we get to the Lord’s coming so that we can exhort one another. Living like a Christian is not becoming easier in our society. The temptations to compromise are getting harder. Society has become anti-Christian in many ways. We need each other more now because the end is coming.

Conclusion

This series on Rediscovering Church is intended to help us see why church is so important for our spiritual growth. Many have fallen away from attending church because they can watch online, or listen to a podcast and if your experience with church is all about you and being entertained than yeah, it makes no sense to go to church. For those of us who have the ability to be in church, we should value the gathering of the believers. Let’s not just show up last minute and then walk out the door. Let’s take advantage of the family God has called us to be. Let’s be the Church.