THE PLAN
Matthew 16.18-19
S: Church
C: God’s plan for us.
Th: His power, His work – in us!
Pr: WE ARE TO BE A COMMUNITY OF FAITH SUBMITTING TO THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS.
?: What do we need to understand?
KW: Features
TS: We will find in our study of Matthew 16.18-19 five characteristics of the church that help us understand our role in it.
Type: Inductive; topical
The ____ characteristic is its…
I. INSTALLATION
II. INEVITABILITY
III. INTIMACY
IV. INVINCIBILITY
V. INFLUENCE
PA: How is the change to be observed?
• Realize this is God’s church, not mine.
• Submit to His headship.
• Speak the truth of salvation.
• Be an influencer – speaking and living a Christian worldview.
Version: ESV
RMBC 02 September 07 AM
Note the Loizeaux letter…
INTRODUCTION:
1. What good is the church?
I took that question to heart this week.
As I have mentioned before, from time to time, on my mother’s side, I have a great-grandfather who was a Baptist pastor in western and central New York.
I have many of his original messages in my possession, and he certainly was fundamentally sound when it came to proclaiming the truth of God’s Word.
So, in one sense, it may be that the church is in my genes, so to speak.
Though I had been brought to church all my life, it was not until the summer between my 6th and 7th grade that I came to understand the need of the Lord in my life, during a Vacation Bible School at the Batavia Christian and Missionary Alliance Church.
Understanding my propensity to sin and inability to stop it, it is then I received Him as my Savior and the Lord.
Then in the summer between my junior and senior year in high school, God placed on my heart a calling to serve His church.
I was unsure, at the time, exactly how that would be filled – whether I would be a missionary, a pastor, or working in a parachurch organization, I just knew that God would have me in fulltime Christian service.
It is a call I readily answered, because I became convinced that the church was God’s vehicle to fulfill His purposes in the world.
You see…
2. The church is good, if it fulfills its purpose.
This has certainly been true in my life.
But I think this is the challenge.
If we fail to keep our purpose to the forefront of all that we do, we get confused.
We forget…
ILL Church (H)
There were three churches - Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian – that worked together to sponsor a community-wide revival.
After the revival had concluded, the three pastors were discussing the results with one another.
The Methodist minister said, "The revival worked out great for us! We gained 4 new families."
The Baptist preacher said, "We did better than that! We gained 6 new families."
The Presbyterian pastor said, "Well, we did even better than that! We got rid of our 10 biggest troublemakers!"
This is a worry that I have here in the Buffalo area.
We are just moving people around.
We are just switching chairs.
And the church is not being what is supposed to be.
The church is not fulfilling its purpose.
Now, don’t expect the church to be perfect, because it is populated by people.
In other words, you will always be able to find people in the church who have done or will do stupid things.
We all have heard people say they don’t go to church because it’s filled with hypocrites.
But I think a better way of viewing that is that the church is simply filled with imperfect people who act in accordance with their imperfections.
So, don’t expect this or any church to treat you perfectly because no one is capable of doing that.
But we ought to expect the people in the church to do their best to relate the love of Christ and the grace He offers.
But it will be done imperfectly.
When I step back, I wonder why God did not come up with a different idea to get his message across.
His way does not seem the most efficient, as humanity is so imperfect and undependable.
But God has chosen to use us.
This is the plan.
And there is no other plan.
The church, simply, is God’s design and method.
The word for church in the Greek is ekklesia.
It is a compound word, coming from kaleo, meaning to call and ek, meaning out.
Thus it means “called out ones” and was used to describe an assembly of people, a community, or a congregation.
For us, we understand that we are called out of this world to make a difference.
This year, our discipleship emphasis theme is…
3. DE07 Theme: His power, His work – in us (Ephesians 3.20-21).
We do discipleship emphasis every year because we are, essentially, disciples.
As disciples, we are called out to be fruitful.
We are called out to make more disciples.
We are called out to see that more people become believers of Jesus.
We are called out to see that more people become committed followers of Jesus.
We are called out to be a “voice of hope” in this world.
This is reflected in our purpose statement that starts this way:
Randall Memorial Baptist Church is a fellowship of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who are determined to love God and make committed followers of Jesus Christ.
I challenge you to consider the artwork that was once again done by Stan Friesen, as it is a creative way to get the point of our theme across.
And I challenge you to use the devotional book that has been prepared for your use over the next seven weeks (it is not as extensive as last year, so it is a bit more user friendly), but we want to be doing this together, to keep us thinking and moving in unity.
Our theme verse is Ephesians 3.20-21.
They are familiar because I often use them in the benediction:
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. (NIV)
Let us understand this…
God desires to do His work through us.
He has supplied His power so it can be accomplished.
For it to happen, we just simply need to be the church He wants us to be.
So…
4. We will find in our study of Matthew 16.18-19 five characteristics of the church that help us understand our role in it.
Here is our text this morning…
“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
OUR STUDY:
I. The first characteristic is its INSTALLATION.
What I mean by installation is how does the church get installed in the first place?
How does it come to be?
As much as I enjoy telling jokes about it…
1. Peter at the pearly gates makes for good humor, but not good theology.
The idea that Peter is at the pearly gates comes from a faulty understanding that is based on the Roman Catholic church’s interpretation of this Scriptural text.
Since we live in an area that is densely populated with those of the catholic faith, some explanation should be given this morning.
ILL Catholic (S)
For more than fifteen hundred years the Roman Catholic church has maintained that this passage teaches the church was built on the person of Peter who became the first pope and bishop of Rome and from whom the Catholic papacy has since descended. Because of this supposed divinely ordained apostolic succession, the pope is considered to be the supreme and authoritative representative of Christ on earth. When a pope speaks ex cathedra, that is, in his official capacity as head of the church, he is said to speak with divine authority equal to that of God in Scripture.
John MacArthur
The question is, did Jesus want someone to continue an office of solid rock protection for the church?
There is no doubt that Jesus does honor Peter in this text.
He is the leading disciple and will be the leading apostle.
He will be a significant leader in the church, for he will lead the way at Pentecost (Acts 2) and will also break the ground for the Gentiles to believe (Acts 10).
But is he to be the greatest of the leaders of the church, so much so, that the church is built upon him?
In Matthew 18, when Jesus is asked “Who is the greatest in the kingdom,” Jesus does not answer with “Peter.”
His answer is “whoever humbles himself as a child.”
If the disciples understood Jesus’ teaching about the rock and the keys of the kingdom as referring exclusively to Peter, why ask the question?
If they had forgotten or misunderstood, Jesus would have chided them for not remembering what He had already taught, which he does several times.
And again, why would the mother of James and John (at their urging) ask Jesus to give her sons the chief places in His kingdom.
This would have been an excellent occasion to restate and underscore Peter’s supremacy.
But Jesus gives no such an answer.
In his own letters, Peter also gives us no such indication.
He never claims a superior title, rank or privilege.
Rather, he refers to himself as a fellow elder and bond-servant.
In the text, it reads more like this…
“…you are Petros, and on this petra I will build my church…”
This is the first time that the form of the word rock is used as a name.
It was not a normal use.
You are Petros, and in some sense, it is more like the nickname, “Rocky.”
Petra was the normal use of the word.
We should note that though these are two different forms of the same word, two distinct forms of them are used.
Matthew could have reported Jesus’ words as…
“…you are Petros, and on this petros I will build my church…”
He does not say that.
Instead, He makes a distinction.
This means then, the church is not founded on petros, but petra.
So what is petra?
The answer is in the verses preceding, when Peter makes this statement to Jesus…
"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Petra is Christ-centeredness.
What the church is built on is the correct view of who Jesus is.
You see…
2. Jesus is the foundation of the church.
Peter will say in Acts 4.10-12…
“…let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
No further explanation is needed…
II. The second characteristic is its INEVITABILITY.
Jesus makes it clear that the church is going to happen.
It is inevitable.
Why?
Because…
Jesus promises to build the church.
He says, “I will build my church.”
“I will build…”
No one else builds.
It is not Peter.
It is not us.
It is Jesus.
Which brings us to…
III. The third characteristic is its INTIMACY.
Jesus did not say that it was Peter’s church.
He did not say he would establish the Baptist church or the Methodist church or the Roman Catholic church.
He said, “I will build MY church.”
You see…
The church is Jesus’ personal possession.
It is His property.
It does not belong to Peter.
It does not belong to his successors.
It does not belong to any church leaders.
It belongs to its lone Architect, Builder, Owner and Lord – Jesus.
It intimately belongs to Jesus, for the church is His body of which He is the head.
Now to the mission, for…
IV. The fourth characteristic is its INVINCIBILITY.
Here is good news about the church.
You see, for the church…
The threat of death is meaningless.
In Jesus’ time, the gates of Hades was the way of saying the place or power of death.
So, what Jesus promises His community is the ultimate power.
He promises that we are able to come back through the doors of death.
The final and most painful of human questions is swallowed up by life, because the gates cannot resist Christ’s power.
As for us that have been rescued from the gates of death, this means that we have no reason to fear them.
We know that the spoken gospel offers salvation and warns of judgment to all who reject God.
So we go to those gates.
We challenge them.
We storm them.
And we tell the prisoners of death the good news.
Understand this…
The gospel message is true!
It is powerful.
And it can not be overpowered.
No matter how bad the news is in this world, the good news is better!
Now we come to…
V. The fifth characteristic is its INFLUENCE.
Jesus says to the church, “I will give you the keys.”
In Jesus’ time, the keeper of the keys was one of the most important roles a household servant could have.
It denoted influence and authority.
And correspondingly, It is an influence we are to use, for…
We use God’s Word to discern how life ought to be lived.
Jesus uses the terms of “binding and loosing” which was his contemporaries’ way of expressing what was “forbidden and permitted.”
What this means for us is that we are to see God’s will done on earth.
We are to live, demonstrate, and communicate the faithful way of God’s commandments.
We do this, because we are Jesus’ messengers.
The church is in every generation, the mind through which Christ thinks.
We are the heart through which Christ loves.
We are the voice through which Christ speaks.
We are the hands through which Christ helps.
We are the body of believers through whom Christ works.
CHALLENGE:
There’s a lot of disenchantment about the church these days.
In 2003, there was an article on the Christianity Today website called “Six Ways I Quit Church.”
It was written by a pastor – who had lost perspective about the Christian life and his faith – because, as he said, he knew more about the boat, than the fish.
So he just stopped going.
Another person described their disenchantment as “Tired of the church, hungry for God.”
I am sure there’s a lot of disgruntled people who look at the church as irrelevant, a waste of time, and a useless endeavor.
Some people see the church as an institution – highly organized and political.
For a lot of people the church is nothing but a business – out to make a profit at the expense of people in the name of religion.
For others it’s just a bunch of entertainment for people who are looking to feel good.
And it is a problem.
For it is too common for the church to adopt unhealthy and unbiblical views and practices regarding itself.
When we do so, we are in danger of rendering the church irrelevant and ineffective.
This is why we need to return to what Jesus expects the church to be.
And while there will always be skeptics, to be sure, we should be determined to not be supplying ammunition that gives them reason to be skeptical.
So what are we to do?
Let’s return to the basics, and realize that…
1. WE ARE TO BE A COMMUNITY OF FAITH SUBMITTING TO THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS.
We are a gathering, a community, not because we have chosen it, but because God has called us together.
We are a community of faith – that confesses Jesus.
We agree with Peter.
We are about Jesus.
Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.
He is our Savior.
And He is our Lord.
That being so, we are a community that submits to Him.
We lift Him up.
We recognize that He is in charge, and so we obey Him.
We know what He has told us to do.
He has told us to preach the gospel.
He has told us to be witnesses.
He has told us to be fishers of men.
He has told us to speak…
You see…
2. We need to speak the truth about Jesus.
Listen to the questions of the apostle Paul (Romans 10:14)…
But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
So we must tell this good news about Jesus.
But not only that…also…
3. We are to live a Christian worldview.
When we believe the message about Jesus, it means that it changes how we live.
We want to live for Him.
We recognize that His ways are the best ways, because He has the best in mind for us.
Sometimes, though, the church doesn’t get this right.
We get distracted by what we want to do, instead of what God has called us to be.
ILL Church (S)
He was a convicted criminal and a rough-looking character. His fellow prison inmates nicknamed him "Spike." Just before his release from prison after serving a fifteen-year sentence, Spike had a long talk with the prison chaplain. He told the clergyman how much he had been looking forward for all those years to the time when he could hold up his head in society and live a good life. Among other things, the chaplain advised Spike to join the church nearest to his home as soon as he was released. It so happened that Spike found an apartment on the edge of the poorest section of town, yet very near to the richest section of town. It so happened also that the church nearest to the ex-convict’s apartment was located on the edge of the rich area.
Spike called on the pastor of this fashionable church and told him of his desire to join. "My dear man," said the pastor, with more than a touch of superiority, "I do not think you would be happy here, though I appreciate your good intentions. Really, you would be most uncomfortable among my people and I am afraid it would be quite embarrassing to you and perhaps to them. I suggest you think it over and pray and meditate and see if God does not give you some direction."
A week later, Spike met the pastor on the street, stopped him, and said, "Reverend, I took your advice and prayed and meditated and finally God sent me word. He said I should not bother any more trying to join your church. He said He Himself had been trying to get in there for years without success.”
When we do let Jesus back into His church, it may be a painful experience.
He will demand great things from us and He will not tolerate complacency or half-hearted commitment.
He will demand changed lives from the workplace to the home to the church.
But it will be worth it!
For as we fulfill our purpose, God will bless, and bring a joy that cannot be surpassed.
Are you ready for His power, and His work, to be active in us?
For Further Study: Psalm 18.2; John 1.42, 14.19; Acts 2.24, 4.10-12, 20.32; Romans 6.9; I Corinthians 3.11, 15.54-57; Ephesians 2.20; Hebrews 2.11, 10.25, 11.16; I Peter 2.5; I John 5.4
BENEDICTION:
Note Choir start this week…
…Loizeaux letter
…booklet
Here is the challenge this week…
Are you fulfilling your part in the community of faith?
Growing, becoming more mature?
Are you submitting to the Lord, or are you doing what you want?
After the service is concluded and the postlude is finished, I will return to the platform.
If you have any need of prayer, I will be available to you.
Perhaps, you would like to know what it is to live a life of faith…
Or perhaps, you know that you have not been living your faith as you should, and you would appreciate prayer…
Or perhaps you have some other prayer need – physical or spiritual, please feel free to come up.
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.
RESOURCES:
SermonCentral:
Lewis, Brad The Basics of the Church
Perkins, Raymond The Nature of the Church
Sauer, Kenneth A BIG Responsibility
Villa, Daniel Unlearning the Church
Wood, Ed What’s Right with the Church?
Books, etc.:
Bible Knowledge Commentary: New Testament. Cook Communications Ministries, 2000.
Bruner, Frederick Dale. Matthew, a Commentary: The Churchbook. Dallas: Word Publishing, 1990.
Calvin, John. Calvin’s Commentaries. 22 vols, ed. The Calvin Translation Society. Edinburgh, Scotland, 1843.
Dictionary of Biblical Imagery. ed. Leland Ryken, James C. Wilhoit and Tremper Longman III. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998.
Hall, Chad. Six Ways I Quit Church. Christianity Today, Inc., 2003. Accessed August 31 2007. Available from http://www.christianitytoday.com/leaders/newsletter/2003/cln30715.html.
Keener, Craig S. The Ivp Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993.
MacArthur, John, Jr. Matthew 16-23. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary. Chicago: Moody Press, 1988.
Stern, David H. The Jewish New Testament Commentary. Clarksville, MD: Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc., 1992.
Wiersbe, Warren W. The Bible Exposition Commentary: New Testament. Colorado Springs: ChariotVictor Publishing, 1989.
