Why the Church?

Last week we asked the big question “Why?” and came to the conclusion that the reason for everything is to bring God glory.  Remember that glory means weight, weightiness, or gravity.  We revolve around God, not the other way around.

When the Apostle Paul writes to the church in Corinth, he tells them whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31).  So when we look at the church, we have to realize that the reason for our existence as an institution is to bring God glory.  The church is never about us. Our ultimate goal isn’t fellowship or even growth or learning or worship – these are all means to the same end; to bring God glory.  It reminds me of a business where I saw a sign that says “Safety is our top priority.” Or another that claimed something similar about customer service.  Those aren’t really true. Making money is their top priority, and they realize that if they keep safe and serve their customers, they will make more money. Otherwise they could just stop trying to sell products and just go around serving people and helping to make other people’s workplaces safer.

Paul concludes his letter to the church in Ephesus this way: Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)  To Him be glory in the church. When it comes to the church, we have to evaluate everything to determine if it brings God glory.  If we exist for anything else, we’re missing the mark. The Church exists to bring God glory.

In Matthew 16, we find a passage that should be familiar if you’ve been in church for a while.  Jesus is alone with his disciples and he asks them who people think he is.  They begin to answer: “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” (Matthew 16:14)   But he asks them “What about you?  Who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:15) Peter speaks up, with his great confession of faith:“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16).  Upon hearing this, Jesus makes a proclamation:  

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.  And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Right here, Jesus is founding His church.  Notice that he never calls it something else; it’s Jesus’ church.  That’s a good reminder for all of us – as a pastor, it’s never my church.  I have been called by God and appointed by a Bishop, but it’s not my church.  Some of you were raised here since you were little; it’s not your church either.  In my first appointment, I was in a church where there were still “charter members” – it’s not their church.  It’s always Jesus’ church.

There has been a lot of discussion about what Jesus meant when he told Simon “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.” In Greek, Peter means rock.  And in Aramaic, Cephas also means rock.  Jesus was renaming Simon, calling him “rock” and saying “I’m building my church on the rock.”  Though it’s always Jesus’ church, He builds His church on people.  There is a song in our hymnal with the lyrics: “The church is not a building, the church is not a steeple, the church is not a resting place, the church is a people.”

As Jesus institutes the Church, he also tells why.  The Church exists as a means of spiritual warfare. Jesus said that the gates of Hades will not prevail against His Church!  Do you really believe that? Then why don’t we go storming Hell’s gates instead of passively sitting by and letting Satan have his way even in the church?

This is absolutely pivotal; if we’re not storming Hell’s gates, we’re not being the church.  Where does scripture describe Jesus’ church as sitting back and letting Satan have his way?  Where does the Bible show Jesus’ church letting society or tradition dictate our course?  I do find the concept (if not the phrase) “We’ve always done it this way” in the scripture, and every time that attitude is taken, it makes God furious.  That can never be the attitude of the church.  If that were the case, we’d all still be Jews. 

You see, Jesus’ desire was that every person would come into a relationship with him.  The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9) There are people you see every day who are on their way to Hell, and we, the church, can do something about it. 

Jesus mission including doing all kinds of miracles; healing the sick, feeding the hungry, releasing the oppressed and imprisoned, raising the dead.  He did this all to bring glory to God.  But the incarnate Jesus was just one person in one place.  So he taught his disciples and he sent them out to do what he had been doing.

And before he was crucified, he said to them: I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.  (John 14:12)  

Jesus commissioned the church to do even greater things than his disciples saw him doing.  We can physically do what Jesus told his disciples would happen: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8) 

God’s plan is that His Church would be his witnesses everywhere.  In Ephesians 3:10-11, Paul writes this about God’s plan: His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms in according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.  God planned for the church to be His scheme to reconcile everything to himself.  Everything and everyone will eventually bow to Jesus Christ, and the church is the vehicle through which he will accomplish his plan.

If the Church is the vehicle to accomplish God’s plan of bringing Himself glory, how do we do it? 
The best place to look would be the early church.  In Acts 2, we see the birth of the church.  The Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost, and three thousand immediately joined the church.  In Acts 2:42-47, we see this:  They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.  Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.  All the believers were together and had everything in common.  They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.  Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,  praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

The church was all about four things: devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayer.  Notice that they didn’t just “listen” to the apostles’ teaching; they were devoted to it.  We have the apostles’ teaching – the Word of God.  Are you devoted to the Word of God?  I have been up and down in my devotion to the Word; there are times when I would be studying the Bible every day and then just not wanting to even get into the Word.  But my continual prayer is that I will be hungry for God’s Word.  So I set aside a certain time every day when I get into Scriptures, before I do anything else, I’m spending time with God, devoted to the apostles’ teaching. 

But devotion to the teaching doesn’t just mean studying the Word.  It means that we allow it to inform us and transform us.  I had a district superintendent who told us: if you are studying a scripture or doing a book study and nobody is transformed, don’t switch and do another study; do the same one over again.  Do it until there is transformation!

The early church was also all about fellowship.  Chuck Swindoll says “if we had teaching without fellowship, the church would be a school – a place that simply dispenses information.” (The Church Awakening). But he continues by saying that biblical fellowship isn’t just “potluck suppers, dinners on the grounds, and Christmas concerts.  Koinonia represents close relationships that involve sharing life with one another – the bad times as well as the good.”

It means doing life together.  Authenticity with one another.  Encouragement.  Accountability.  These things don’t happen in the large group meetings.  We can’t really be authentic when we’re meeting with 100 people.  That’s why we have cell groups; to encourage true biblical koinonia!  Sunday morning worship is not a one-stop shop for all your church needs!

The early church devoted themselves to the breaking of bread – meaning Communion.  They were devoted to a lifelong communion with Jesus Christ, growing daily in His likeness.  This is to say that our lives should be devoted to worship – to ascribe to God the weight and the place He deserves in our lives.  This isn’t just singing.  I don’t know how I can make this more clear; music is one way we worship, but it’s not the only way.  And please don’t let Sunday morning be the only time you worship; what a fantastic thing it is when worshipers who have been worshiping all week gather together with a worship celebration!  Our very lives, everything about us, are meant to be all about worship, with everything revolving around God. 

And the early church devoted themselves to prayer.  We cannot pray enough.  Jesus himself got fired up when he went into the Temple and found all sorts of other stuff going on; he drove out the money changers, saying “‘My house will be a house of prayer’ but you have made it a den of robbers.” (Matthew 21:13,Mark 11:17, Luke 19:46) 

But 1 Corinthians 3:16, we read Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives within you?  So if God’s temple is to be a house of prayer and we ourselves are God’s temple, doesn’t it stand to reason that we should be all about prayer?

This is how we connect with God and how God communicates with us.  The church is all about connecting others with God and communicating with them –God chooses to do this through us.  And may God use us to bring Him glory.

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