RESTORING THE CHURCH INTO THE LIKENESS OF CHRIST!
A. Modern Day Parable:
ILLUSTRATION:
Around the turn of the last century, there was a man who lived alone with his 5 year-old son. The boy’s mother died shortly after giving birth. The boy was greatly ADMIRED by his father. He was especially admired for his INNOCENT CHARACTER--his HONESTY, LOYALTY, and GENUINESS—traits that his mother exemplified.
One day while waiting on some customers who came to shop at his GENERAL STORE, the man noticed two teen-age boys who shop-lifted two POCKETKNIVES setting on a display case. He ran after them, but the boys gave him the slip. That evening while walking home from work, he noticed other boys engaging in some very MISCHIEVOUS DEEDS. This annoyed him terribly. He thought, “Why are these boys so CRUEL? Where has their INNOCENCE gone?” Then it dawned on him that his own son will not always maintain his CHILD-LIKE INNOCENCE either.
All through dinner he sat watching his son—a very POLITE, WELL-MANNERED, LOVING child. The father was bothered by the actions of the gang of boys he saw earlier in the day. He wanted so much for his own son to be as PURE and INNOCENT as he now is, but knew deep down that will not always be. He wondered how he could remember his son as an INNOCENT little boy.
The father decided to commission an ARTIST to come live with him and his son so he could OBSERVE the boy and then CAPTURE his INNOCENCE on canvas. Some weeks later the artist finished the PAINTING. As he unveiled the PAINTING, the father’s face gleamed with delight. “That’s it!” the father said. “That’s how I want to remember my son.” The PAINTING depicted the boy as an ANGEL with wings and a halo ROMPING in a beautiful meadow.
The father would sit for hours GAZING at the PAINTING. Some of the towns-people said that he even had CONVERSATIONS with it. Meanwhile, the boy was being NEGLECTED by his father. They didn’t have the father and son talks like they once enjoyed. The FISHING TRIPS stopped. The father quit listening to his son’s PRAYERS at bedtime. If not for the MEALS they had together, the boy would have very little CONTACT with his father. As the boy grew OLDER, the NEGLECT worsened. The father became more and more OBSESSED with the PAINTING. It seemed that his LOVE shifted from the SON to the PAINTING. The PAINTING became his life.
On his son’s 10th birthday, there was a KNOCK at the door. The father invited the STRANGER in, and then called his son. Elated that his father wanted to see him, the boy came running down stairs. Pointing to his son, the father said to the STRANGER, “There he is. Go ahead and take him.” The STRANGER gently took the boy by the arm and began leading him outside where a horse and buggy awaited. “Father,” the boy said out of desperation, “where is he taking me? Are you coming father? Where am I going?” The father stood SILENT. The man said to the boy, “Son, you are going to live with me and some other boys on a WORK FARM. You’ll like the place once you get used to it.” The boy cried, “Father, please don’t let him take me. Please, father, please . . .!” The father turned around, walked into the house, sat down before the PAINTING and said, “Son, it’s just you and me, now!”
COMMENT:
You’re probably thinking, “Why would anyone LOVE and ADMIRE a painting, a picture, a sculpture, a model, a REPLICA of someone more than the actual person?” We can’t imagine a father loving the painting of his son more than the son himself. We wouldn’t dream of replacing anyone that we dearly love with a PHOTO or any other likeness of that person. Yet, I’m afraid that we may be GUILTY of doing that very thing to Jesus, in an UNINTENTIONAL way.
B. Many have been guilty of putting a greater
IMPORTANCE on the CHURCH than on Jesus!
1. In times past when conducting one-on-one Bible studies, my EMPHASIS was on the church not Jesus.
a. I CONVERTED people to the CHURCH, not Christ.
ILLUSTRATION:
I told them a lot about the church--how we WORSHIPPED, what we didn’t BELIEVE, why we have the name “Church of Christ,” etc. And after our STUDY, they knew how I felt about the CHURCH, but they knew very little how I felt about Jesus.
b. Is the gospel “GOOD NEWS” about the CHURCH, or it is “GOOD NEWS” about Jesus?
2. Throughout the New Testament the EMPHASIS is always on Christ, not the church.
a. When Philip was asked to join the Ethiopian Eunuch to help him understand the passage he was reading from Isaiah, the text states that “Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from the Scripture he PREACHED Jesus to him”- Acts 8:35. (He didn’t preach the church, he preached Jesus.)
b. Paul told the Corinthians when he first taught them the GOSPEL: “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified”- I Cor. 2:2. (His emphasis was not on the CHURCH, but on Jesus.)
3. If you want to CONVERT somebody from the WORLD, you don’t show him the CHURCH—the MODEL—you show him Jesus.
-John 12:32- “And if I be LIFTED UP, I will draw all men to myself.”
C. I think we have been ADMIRING the wrong thing.
1. Over the years we desperately have been trying to RESTORE the First-Century church.
COMMENT:
We look at the church today with its problems and struggles, and LAMENT because we aren’t like the early church. Recently I have been studying the New Testament church from a different perspective, and have come to the conclusion that we are more like the early church than we think.
2. The EARLY CHURCH had its PROBLEMS as well. They had:
a. DIVISIONS
b. PREJUDICE
c. UNBELIEF
d. NON-COMMITMENT
e. IMMORALITY
f. VAIN WORSHIP
g. APOSTASY
h. IMPURE MOTIVES
i. JUDGMENTAL SPIRIT
j. LACK of LOVE
k. COMPLACENCY
l. SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS
m. LEGALISM
n. LIBERALISM
o. MATERIALISM
COMMENT:
When we try to RESTORE the First-Century church today in the Twenty-First Century, we are IMITATING an IMPERFECT model!
D. Instead of RESTORING the New Testament church, we must go about RESTORING the ATTITUDE and LIFE of Jesus Christ within the Twenty-First Century church.
1. We have been FOCUSING on the MODEL, and not the REAL THING.
COMMENT:
We have taken the COPY of Christ, the CHURCH of the New Testament (which, I might add, is not a very good LIKENESS), and tried to be like the MODEL. Nowhere in Scripture does it say that we are to LIFT-UP the First-Century church as our MODEL and IMITATE her.
2. Ephesians 1:18-23 (READ)
COMMENT:
There is debate among scholars as to what v. 23 means when Paul states: “The church is the fullness of Christ who fills everything in every way.” It may mean that the church contains the “FULLNESS of Christ,” which is a great compliment. But others believe, and I tend to agree, “the church somehow brings Christ to FULLNESS.”
In other words, the WORK, LIFE, and MINISTRY of the church brings about Christ’s FULLNESS in the world today. Christ hasn’t completed His work on this earth—He’s working through the CHURCH to fulfill His PURPOSE. If the church is to bring about the FULLNESS of Christ, then why do we COMPARE ourselves with ourselves instead of with Jesus?
The church today will be more what Jesus wants her to be when we quit COPYING the COPY and attempt to COPY the real person, Jesus Christ. If we start doing that, then we will REVOLUTIONIZE the church today. What is about Jesus that, if IMITATED, will change the course of the Twenty-First Century church?
MESSAGE:
I. HIS DEDICATION TO THE FATHER
A. If we could ask Jesus why He left heaven and came to this earth, he would probably say, “Because my Father asked me.”
1. While upon this earth, Jesus set-out to do His Father’s WILL!
a. John 4:34 (READ and COMMENT)
b. John 5:30 (READ and COMMENT)
c. John 6:38 (READ and COMMENT)
COMMENT:
Jesus, even though through Him all things were CREATED, even though He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, even though He is God in the FLESH, He purposed to do what His Father wanted. Even when it came to DYING on the CROSS Jesus did it because that’s what His Father wanted, not because He got a KICK out of it. Yes, Jesus gave His life VOLUNTARILY (He didn’t have to go through with it), but He DIED because that was His Father’s WILL.
When Jesus AGONIZED in the Garden of Gethsemene pleading, “Father . . . not my will be done” (Luke 22:42), He was saying, “Father, I don’t want to DIE this horrible death! I don’t want to be CRUCIFIED. I don’t want to go through the PAIN, the AGONY, the HUMILIATION. Father, I know that you can STOP this if you want. But Father, let your WILL be done, not mine.”
2. That’s DEDICATION, isn’t it?
COMMENT:
Jesus was a dedicated person. He was dedicated to His worship, His prayer life, His service, His teaching, His disciples, to people. The reason He was dedicated to all of these is because he was ultimately dedicated to His Father.
B. Is today’s church really DEDICATED to the Father?
1. If our DEDICATION can be COMPARED to that of some of the churches we read about in the New Testament, we can confidently say “Yes!”
ILLUSTRATION:
The church today as a whole is as DEDICATED as the Jerusalem church in their “CARE of NEEDY WIDOWS." Especially in light of their NEGLECTING many of the WIDOWS because of PREJUDICE- Acts 6.
The church today is as DEDICATED to WORSHIP as were the Hebrew Christians who made a “HABIT of FORSAKING the assembly”- Hebrews 10:25.
The church today is as DEDICATED to UNITY and HARMONY as was the Corinthian church who “DIVIDED over PREACHERS, POSITIONS, ABILITIES, and OPINIONS.”
The church today is as DEDICATED to their ZEAL for God as was the Laodician church who was condemned by Jesus for their “LUKE-WARMNESS”- Revelation 3:16.
COMMENT:
When comparing our DEDICATION to the New Testament church, we have reason to PAT ourselves on the BACK and CELEBRATE. But when COMPARING our DEDICATION to that of Jesus, we fall way short.
2. What would happen if the church today made every effort to be as DEDICATED to the Father as was Jesus.
a. Many souls will be brought to the Father.
b. Many people will be SERVED, and their NEEDS met.
c. Christians will not have to be BEGGED to get involved in the ministry of the church.
d. Church buildings will be FILLED to capacity for WORSHIP.
e. Christians’ PRAYER LIFE and MEDITATION upon God’s Word will greatly IMPROVE.
COMMENT:
Changes will be brought about in the DEDICATION of the church only when it begins to COPY Jesus instead of COPYING the COPY.
II. HIS LOVE FOR PEOPLE
A. Although Jesus was totally DEDICATED to His Father in OBEDIENCE and SERVICE, it was His LOVE for people that made a greater IMPACT on those who FOLLOWED Him.
1. During Jesus’ MINISTRY, there were two ACCUSATIONS constantly brought against Him.
a. “He claims to be the Son of God.”
b. “He is a friend of sinners.”
COMMENT:
Undoubtedly there are Christians today who would not want the REPUTATION of being a “friend of sinners.” With this DISTINCTION comes the idea that such a person tries to HELP sinners, that he or she SPEAKS to them, that sinners are ACCEPTED by him or her.
That describes Jesus. If you wanted to find Jesus, you wouldn’t look for him at the SYNAGOGUE or find him conversing with some RABBIS about some deep THEOLOGICAL issue. He could most often be found either eating with sinners or helping some person with a physical need.
Because Jesus cared for people. Because He ACCEPTED them as they were and tried to HELP them to become better ... because He was a FRIEND of SINNERS . . . because He went about LIFTING burdens, FEEDING the hungry, HEALING the sick, FORGIVING sins . . . Jesus had many FOLLOWERS.
2. These people, although they ADMIRED Jesus for His DEDICATION to the Father, FOLLOWED Him because of He LOVED them.
COMMENT:
The Pharisees were also highly DEDICATED to God. Paul said “Pharsaism was the strictest sect of the Jewish religion”- Acts 26:5. They endeavored to adhere to the law of God to the very best of their ABILITY. They did it better than anyone else.
However, you don’t find people FLOCKING after them. No doubt the Pharisees were also ADMIRED for their DEDICATION. But they didn’t have LOVE for people. Imitating Jesus’ DEDICATION without His LOVE makes you a PHARISEE, not Christ-like!
3. While Jesus sought to help the SINFUL feel
COMFORTABLE being around Him, He made the RELIGIOUS increasingly UNCOMFORTABLE.
COMMENT:
That’s what often happens when a church shifts their FOCUS from trying to keep the SAVED happy and content to endeavoring to REACH the LOST. Adjustments have to be made to bring LOST SOULS to God. In the process of trying different METHODS and APPROACHES to reach the UNSAVED, the SAVED (the RELIGIOUS) often becomes UNEASY.
Despite the OPPOSITION, Jesus kept right on doing what He was doing to reach LOST SOULS. “He came to call SINNERS, not the RIGHTEOUS!”
B. When it came to IMITATING the LOVE of Jesus, the New Testament church fell short.
1. If we are trying to COPY the LOVE the early church had for one another, we have reason to BRAG because the FIRST CENTURY churches were no DIFFERENT from many of today’s CONGREGATIONS.
COMMENT:
Many of the congregations you read about in the New Testament had problems with HATRED, JEALOUSY, ENVY, PREJUDICE, BICKERING, BACK-BITING, FAULT-FINDING, CRITICIZING, COMPLAINING, GOSSIPING. There were DIVISIONS, STRIFE, UNFORGIVING HEARTS.
2. If we want to IMITATE a LOVING SPIRIT, it’s not the early church that we want to MODEL—it’s Jesus.
C. If people of the world cannot LOOK at us and know that we are DISCIPLES of Christ, it’s not because of a weak DOCTRINE but because we haven’t been MODELING the LOVE of Jesus.
1. John 13:34-35 (READ and COMMENT)
2. John 17:20-23 (READ and COMMENT)
COMMENT:
We might have RESTORED the LOVE of the New Testament church, but we’ve already seen that they didn’t always DEMONSTRATE the LOVE of Christ. We need to set Jesus before us and look at Him and not the early church as our example of LOVE!
3. There is so much that we can do in our CHURCHES, our COMMUNITY, our PLACES of WORK and SCHOOL to DEMONSTRATE the LOVE of Christ.
COMMENT:
Where ever there are people with PROBLEMS, BURDENS, NEEDS, there is an OPPORTUNITY to LOVE them the way Christ LOVES people. Sometimes your LOVE for them may COST you your TIME, MONEY, your SKILLFUL touch. Other times it may simply COST you a KIND WORD or GESTURE. How ever you show your LOVE for others, it’s a way that you are CONFIRMING your DISCIPLESHIP—your Christianity. It’s a way that you are letting people see Jesus in you.
4. When Christians genuinely LOVE people as Jesus LOVES, that’s when we will see drastic changes brought about in the lives of people and in the church.
COMMENT:
COPYING the COPY won’t bring about those CHANGES.
CONCLUSION:
ILLUSTRATION:
On the Day of Pentecost, the disciples took BRUSHES in hand and began PAINTING a PORTRAIT of Jesus. Laboriously they WORKED trying to CAPTURE the very ESSENCE of the Son of God. When the PAINTING was finally finished they UNVEILED it, and there on the CANVAS was a PAINTING of the church.
At first glance the PAINTING looked almost IDENTICAL to Jesus. But then the FLAWS became NOTICEABLE. Their FOCUS became DISTORTED. When they attempted to CAPTURE the DEDICATION that Jesus had to the Father, they started out STRONG. But then the DEDICATION feature quickly DIMINISHED. And when they attempted to CAPTURE the LOVE that Jesus had for people, they FAILED miserably.
It was a good EFFORT on the part of the disciples, but they just could not DUPLICATE the PERFECTION of Jesus. It just wasn’t a very GOOD COPY.
Later in the 19th and 20th Centuries there were groups of people who took the PAINTING of Jesus and tried to EMULATE it. They did quite well COPYING the COPY. Some thought that they had ARRIVED SPIRITUALLY because their IMITATION of the COPY was almost IDENTICAL.
But then a group, after reading about the LIFE of Jesus in the Gospels, realized that the COPY of Christ they had been COPYING wasn’t a very good LIKENESS after all. So they decided to do what the DISCIPLES tried to do on the Day of Pentecost, take the REAL THING, Jesus Himself, and try to be like Him. Once they did that, people began saying; “Doesn’t that CHURCH remind you of Jesus!”
HAVE WE BEEN TRYING TO COPY THE COPY?
(The idea for this lesson was inspired by books, articles, and sermons by Dr. Rubel Shelly of the Woodmont Hills Church in Nashville, TN.)
