CH01 Rev 2 & 3 The Identity of The Church
The Identity of The Church
Rev 2-3
INTRO:
“Stop Dating the Church” was the title of a book I read a couple of years ago written by Joshua Harris; A Book which struck a cord in my heart about the importance of the local church! It made it clear that Jesus Loves the church that is a universal entity and yet it is only expressed in a local Community and it is in the local church that the wonder of the universal church can be seen and as such we aught to love the Church and in particular the local church in an evident way!
Since then I have had a strange sensitivity to the talk of the church and I have heard certain comments made about “The Church” that have given me great concern. Comments made by both youth and adults; Comments that come from a view of the church which in fact is very low and very wrong.
and then just a couple of months ago Ramon Rodriguez E-Mailed me and asked if I would come and preach at His Churches 27th year anniversary and in asking him what he would like me to focus on he said “The Church” and so with both this preaching engagement and the comments that I have heard very recently the thought of the church has been a growing concern for me and I think it aught to be and it aught to be for all of us especially in light of the way the bible speaks of the church!
And yet it is a topic which is not addressed much and I think not understood much In light of all of this we will be taking a break from the Gospel of John and moving to the Apocalypse of John and focusing in on Jesus Words to the Church! and I pray that we get a right understanding of what the church is and what the church is to be so that we the church would fulfill God’s design as the church!
We will do this through a quick overview of Revelation chapter 2-3 and with a slower walk through Paul’s first letter to timothy whose theme verse is
1 Tim 3:15-16 “but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth”
Text Rev 2:1-7
1st) The Importance of Focusing on the Church
Robert Culver in his introduction to the Church has as his fist chapter “the critical importance of the doctrine of the church” in which he states 2 reason for such importance (1) “the church is of supreme importance to God and (2) the doctrine of the church is of critical importance to the correct understanding of Christianity, to a healthy spiritual life of every believer and to the propagation of Christianity”
A) Jesus Personal Concern For The Church
Here we have the word’s of Jesus to the churches written by John on the island of Patmos about 95 AD that is about 60 years after the death and resurrection of the Jesus Christ!
about 54AD is when the church at Ephesus was started which would be about 30 years later the letter from Jesus was written and taken to the church!
1) Jesus Personally Addresses His Church
You can clearly see this in the Address, for these letters are all Addressed to the Angel or better translated to the messenger of the church which indicates to us that it was and it a message that was to be communicated to the church!
Note that it was to a Local Church – Verse 2:1; 2:8; 2:12; 2:18; 3:1; 3:7; 3:14;
Once again we must understand that what ever the church is it is manifest in a local Sense! I must emphasis the importance of the local church it is not a small matter it is an extremely important matter important enough to warrants Jesus attention!
Note also that these letter where to a specific Church for their time and with us in view in other words Jesus sent it to them with the express intention that they would listen and live but he also intended these letter to be read from generation to generation for as long as there is a church!
Turn to Rev 1:1-4 & Rev 22:16 I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star”
B) Jesus Powerful Warns His Church
Note that 5 out of 7 of the letters have a very stern warning coming from Christ to His Church: 2:5; 2:16; 2:21-23; 3:3; 3:16 and
C) Jesus Passionately Call and Promises His Church
Note the chorus of the letter is a call and a promise – 2:7; 2:11; 2:17; 2:26; 3:5; 3:12; 3:21
This was meant for them and us and all who will come after us! Do you see how vitally important it is for us to be reminded by Jesus what a church is and how the church’s identity is to be expressed in a God pleasing way? And to see what it is that he judges a church by?
2nd) What is the Church? as a child asks what is it let us ask what is it – The identity of the church
The Primary Term for Church. = The word Ekklesia (Ἐκκλεσια) comes from kaleō (καλεω) “to call,” and ek (ἐκ) “out from.” The compound verb means “to call out from.” Wuest, Kenneth S.: Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament : For the English Reader. Grand Rapids : Eerdmans, 1997, c1984, S. Studies in the Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament: p.27
The Principle of First mention = the word is used 114 times in the New Testament and in 90 of these references; a local church (assembly) is in view. First time it is mention is in Matt 16:18 where Jesus declares to peter on this rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it!
Matt 16:18 "I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
The term joined together with Jesus declaration “I will Build My Church” we can clearly say that the Church in its most simple of definitions is = The Called out Community of People Belonging to God!
v This would include all people in all times from all nations –
Rev 5:9-10 “And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. 10 "You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth”
? Do not all things including people belong to God? Yes!
Deut 10:14 "Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it”
Ps 24:1 The earth is the Lord's, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it.
So yes all people belong to God but not all people belong to God in the same way there are those whom God calls to be a part of His church. Now before we settle in and start looking at the identity of these people let me emphasis that it is first and for most a Community!
Community = a unified body of individuals
Merriam-Webster, Inc: Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Eleventh ed. Springfield, Mass. : Merriam-Webster, Inc., 2003
this is very important to understand that when we talk about the church we are not talking in terms of {Me, Myself and I} but in terms of {We, Us, Our, all of Us}
and yet we are not simple talking about people who are unified by common interest or political stance no we are talking about a unified body of individual who are distinctly different then all other people in all the world and who are identified in the term Church!
So now let us take a closer look at this called out community and we will see that they are by definition people belonging to God in a select – saved and set-apart community!
They are by definition a Select People!
A) The Church is a Selected Community of People Belonging to God
You can not look at the church with out running into the reality that those in the church did not pick to be a part of the church but that God selected them to be a part of the church!
This was true of the Old Testament - Deut 7:6 “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth”
As well as the New Testament – Matt 22:14 "For many are called, but few are chosen.”
John 15:16-20 "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. 17 "This I command you, that you love one another. 18 "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 "If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you”
Eph 1:3-4 “Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him”
The church is first and foremost a particular people who God has chosen as his own position above all other people – a people whom he has loved distinctly then all other people! Yes he owns all people but there are some whom he selected to be his unique people different then all others!
They are consequently a saved people
B) The Church is a Saved Community of People Belonging to God
The Bible teaches that all people are separated from him because of sin and left in their sin they will be judged for and by their sins and the punishment is very clear – Death – a complete death which would be a physical death and untimely a spiritual and eternal death!
Therefore those whom God chooses he saves and we must high light 4 elements which are essential to the act of God Saving His Chosen people:
1) Redemption by God From Sin
This redemption come thru the substationary work of Jesus Christ in which he takes upon himself the sins of his chosen people and pays the penalty for their sins and then gifts his people with the Pardon of the sins and the partaking of His righteousness!
this is what the people means by redemption and it is not only the forgiveness of sin but the payment for that forgiveness and wonder of all wonders then the gifting onto the forgiven the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ so that they now not only stand before God their judge as forgiven but also as perfect as the Jesus!
Titus 2:11-14 “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, 14 who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds”
Yet, this does not just stop at this great wonder but moves to an even greater wonder our adoption as son
2) Adopted by God as Sons
Gal 4:3-7 “So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. 4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as son!
Salvation includes the Pardon of Sin and the Partaking of Righteousness of Jesus as well as the adoption as Sons God! We are sons of God!
This is truly the splendor of our Salvation that you and I are not just brought out of our sins and given new cloths and left outside but that we are brought in to God’s house and not just as servants or slaves but as family as sons we are adopted into the Devine community and made a part of god’s family!
We here have an idea of what it mean to be adopted and I have told you I spent time in a home where the hope of those who where there was adoption and yet this knowledge corrupts our understanding of what the bible describes as adoption! for God goes to the place where people have no hope of adoption he goes to the prison full of convicted and condemned law breakers he goes to the hospital in the trauma ward where the hopelessly sick and destined dying are and it is to these people that God applies adoption!
Just sit and think would you go to the jails of China, Russia or Japan and pay the penalty to have an inmate released and then give to him a clean set of cloths and money and a whole new life? maybe but how many of us would include in that whole new life adoption how many of us would bring this person home and give him our last name and all the privileges of being our soon as well as write this person into our wills to gain our inheritance! here my friends is a different story in fact it is the Devine story it is the gospel the good news that God came to this prison called earth filled with convicted and condemned criminal of the law of God of all kinds and he paid for the sins of his chosen and washed them and cleaned then and gave to them a whole new life a new life as sons he write them into his will and gives to them the inheritance as son!
Here is where the “we, us and our” of the church shines it brightens for we where never saved to be sons in isolation but we where saved to be sons united by God into His Family!
3) United by God into one People
Robert Culver Quotes Afred Kuen (1971) “The Christians of the first Century would never have conceived of his Christian life other then in communion with his brothers and sisters in the church…the Robinson Crusoe Christian does not exist. During the first centuries of Christianity the church became progressively so important that one finally thought “outside of the church-no salvation.” the Catholic overvaluation of the church was followed by the protestant overemphasis of individual salvation. The church has little place in Protestant theological research from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century”
In fighting against the wrongs of the Catholic Church we have moved away from the clear teaching of scripture to emphasize individuality to the harm of God’s Church!
NOTE – what was wrong with the belief “outside of the church – no salvation” was the definition of the church not the definition of salvation! They had the wrong church for they defined the church as in the Roman Catholic Church which at the time was not a Biblical church which we get to later and as such the statement was wrong! You do not have to be a part of the Roman Catholic Church to be saved! Nor do you have to a be a part of a particular church to be saved but!
The definition of salvation would include being united to the church which is “The Called out Community of People Belonging to God!”
The Bible teaches that our Salvation is an Individual Redemption which adopts us as sons simultaneously unites us to God’s One household called the Church! We where never meant to think upon our salvation in isolation to other believes but in unity to other believer in unity with the Church! this is the definition of Salvation the selecting and saving of people so as to make them a part of the Called out community of people belonging to God that is the church!
Jesus declaration to peter about what he was building Matt 16:18 "I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
Acts the birth and growth of the church where the church is mention 17 time in 22 chapters and towards the end this is what he hear Acts 20:27-28 "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood
And then you move into the letters all written to churches in some fashion or another yes the dealt with individual Christian but only as a part of the church and a few specifically heavy in their teaching of the church itself
1 Corinthians mentions the church 17 times in 16 chapters and it is here that we find teach like this:
Ephesians which mention the church 9 time in 6 chapters
We can see this in the many metaphors used to describe the church:
¨ A Flock – One sheepfold with one Good Shepherded
¨ A Kingdom – One People with one King
¨ A Vineyard – One Garden with one Husbandman
¨ A House Hold – One Family with one Father
¨ A Building – One Temple with one Foundation
¨ A Bride – One Wife with one Husband
¨ A Body – One Body with one Head {Note – not in the Old Testament}
1 Cor 12:12-13 “For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit”
1 Cor 12:18-27 “18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. 19 If they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now there are many members, but one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; or again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." 22 On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; 23 and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, 24 whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, 25 so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. 27 Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it”
Rom 12:4-6 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6
And as such the church is consequently a set-apart people
C) The Church is a Set-apart People Belonging to God
The church should not look like the world because it is a Called out Community to be in the world but not of the world what is it that will identify the called out community of people belonging to God?
1) They are a God Glorifying Community of people
They are a people who are God like who imitate god who show for his glory the weight of his character and nature to a dark word!
Eph 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children
Eph 4:1-2 Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,
1 Cor 10:31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
2) They are a Jesus Treasuring Community of people
They are a people who value Jesus above any and everything else he is a treasure to them and a growing treasure at that!
Phil 3:8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ
Phil 3:15-16 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; 16 however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.
3) They are a Spirit Filled Community of people
They are a people who are filled, that is controlled by the spirit of God which dwells among them they seek not to grieve or quench the spirit but instead be filled by that is controlled by the spirit!
Eph 4:30-31 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Eph 5:15-19 15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, 16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil. 17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,
1 Thess 5:19 Do not quench the Spirit
This is the identity of the Church – A Called out Community of people belonging to God and tonight if you are not a part of God’s Church I want and you are hear God’s call to Salvation I pray that you would respond and be saved and be made a part of the church!
But here are some thought:
¨ How do you view the church and your salvation are they in unity or do you think that you can be fine in your salvation with out being a vital part of a local church
¨ are you doing your part in your church! many of you go to other church and I do think you need to be a part of your church and if you have time then participate with other churches but never to the determent of your local church – Home and outside the home
¨ are you caring for each other for you are one – with them Forgiveness and repentance –
Next week we will come back and look at what Jesus highlight are the elements of a triumphant Church as you and I look at the heart of the triumphant church and we will gain much as to what a church should be!