WHAT IS THE CHURCH?
A man bought a new hunting dog. Eager to see how he would perform, he took him out to track a bear. No sooner had they gotten into the woods than the dog picked up the trail. Suddenly he stopped, sniffed the ground, and headed in a new direction. The inexperienced dag had caught the scent of a deer that had crossed the bear’s path. A few moments later the dog halted again, this time smelling a rabbit that had crossed the path of the deer. And so, on and on it went until finally the breathless hunter caught up with his dog, only to find him barking triumphantly down the hole of a field mouse. Sometimes we as Christians and the church as a whole is like that. We start out with high resolve, keeping Christ first in our lives. We plant churches to be light and salt but after a while our time, energy and attention is diverted to things of lesser importance. One pursuit leads to another until we’ve strayed far from our original purpose.
Today we want to go back to the basics and talk about the purpose for the church. I feel a little this morning like Vince Lombardi. In the early 1960’s he was rebuilding the Green Bay Packers. Just after losing a Superbowl and on the eve of a new season, he rallied his team in the locker room one day and mounted the bench for a speech. He reviewed last year’s loss, then began to talk about the plans for a return trip to the great game and how they would accomplish it. “We’re going back to basics,” he said. And with that he held up the familiar oblong, leather ball, and said slowly and deliberately, “Gentlemen, this is a football.” As we start this fall I want us to go back to the very basics and ask a very simple but important question: What is the church?
I read one definition which says that the church is “A group of people who find themselves in a new relationship with one another because of their new relationship with Jesus Christ.” We do not go to Church. We are the Church!
The Church is God’s creation and design; it is His method of providing spiritual nurture for believers and a community of faith through which the gospel is proclaimed and His will advanced in every generation.
Matt 16:13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" 14 They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." 15 "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" 16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 17 Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18 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. 19 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."
This is the first mention of the church in the Bible. Jesus spoke of it here before it had even come into existence on the day of Pentecost. The word church is the word EKKLESIA which comes from the verb KALEO which means to call. The church are the CALLED OUT ones. This Greek term originally referred to an assembly of people who were called out from among the population to meet and make decisions and to be instructed. This is what we are. We have been called out of the world into a community of faith.
This passage describes the church in 4 ways:
1. IT’S FOUNDATION – upon this rock I will build my church
Jesus said to Simon Peter “on this rock I will build my church”. Jesus did not say that He would build the church on Peter – “on your rock I will build the church”. It was not Peter’s church. There are lots of jokes about Peter standing at the pearly gates deciding who goes in and out. This is not the case. The church does not belong to the pastor or to the elders or to the deacons. He did not say he would build only the Baptist church or the Methodist church or the Catholic church. He said, “I will build MY church.” The church is His church. This church belongs to Jesus.
The rock upon which the church is built is Christ himself. It is built upon the truth of Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ – the son of God. Upon this confession everything is based. If Jesus is Lord than everything we do is for Him.
Luke 6:48 He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. 49 But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation . The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete."
Faith is only as good as the faithfulness of what you believe in. The issue is not just believing but the truth and faithfulness of what you believe in. The church is based upon the fact that Jesus is God.
Have you seen this picture of the last house standing following hurricane Ike. Why did that one house survive when everything around it did not. Was it a bigger house or better looking house than all the others. No. It’s foundation was secure. It was built to code!
Years ago at Niagara Falls two men were in a boat and found themselves caught in the current. The men jumped from their boat and swam for the shore. At last minute ropes from the shore were thrown out to them. The one man grabbed the rope and was pulled to shore. The other man grabbed a rope, but at the same instant the rope came into his hand, a log floated by him. The thoughtless and confused man, instead of seizing the rope, laid hold on the log. It was a fatal mistake. They were both in imminent peril, but the one was drawn to shore because he had a connection to the land. The other, clinging to the log, was carried over the falls and was killed.
2. IT’S FUNCTION – I give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven
Jesus gave to the church the keys of the kingdom. What does this mean? A key provides access. You cannot get into your house or car without a key. A key represent authority. E.g. friends of the family coming over to feed the cat when we were away. Jesus gave His church the authority to go into all the world to offer salvation and discipleship to all people. That is the function of the church.
Rom 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
Millard Erickson wrote, “The church is the repository of grace … it possesses the gospel, the good news of salvation” The church holds the keys to eternal life.
During World War II, some American soldiers took the body of their buddy to a local cemetery. The priest stopped them saying, “You can’t bury your friend here if he is not a Catholic.” Discouraged but not defeated, the boys buried their fellow soldier just outside the cemetery fence. After the war they came back to pay their respects but they could not find the grave. They questioned the priest about it, and he said, “The first part of the night I stayed awake disturbed by what I had told you. The second part of the night I spent moving the fence.”
This is the mission that comes again to the church in every generation. We are the hands and feet of Jesus, going out into all the world with the Good News and seeing people enter into a saving relationship with Jesus, passing from death to life. The church in every generation has the responsibility to preach the gospel and win the lost and train the disciples and heal the broken-hearted and lift up those who are fallen.
On April 10 1912 the reportedly unsinkable ship Titanic set sail from England with 2,240 people on board. More than 1,500 never made it. Survivor Eva Hart remembers the night, April 15, 1912, on which the Titanic sank some two hours and forty minutes after an iceberg tore a 300-foot gash in the starboard side: "I saw all the horror of its sinking, and I heard, even more dreadful, the cries of drowning people." Although twenty life-boats and rafts were launched - too few and only partly filled - most of the passengers ended up struggling in the icy seas while those in the boats waited a safe distance away. Lifeboat No. 14 did row back after the ship sank at 2:20 AM. Alone, it chased cries in the darkness, seeking and saving a precious few. Incredibly, no other boat joined it. Some were already overloaded, but in virtually every other boat, those already saved rowed their half-filled boats aimlessly in the night, listening to the cries of the lost. Each feared a crush of unknown swimmers would cling to their craft, eventually swamping it. "I came to seek and to save the lost," our Savior said. And he commissioned us to do the same. But we face a large obstacle: fear. While people drown in the treacherous waters around us, we are tempted to stay dry and make certain no one rocks the boat.
3. IT’S FRUIT - whatever you bind … whatever you loose
Jesus has not only given us the keys to the kingdom but he has also given us the Holy Spirit to empower us to victorious Christian living. In Him we have not only eternal life but life abundant. In the name of Christ we have been given the authority to take the spiritual resources of heaven and apply them to the problems of earth. We are to bind the powers that enslave people and loose them to live as Christ intended them too. One of my greatest joys as a pastor is seeing how Jesus can transform lives. E.g. encounter retreat at the Philippine Embassy.
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.
Through the Holy Spirit we are transformed. Old habits and addictions are changed as our characters are aligned to Christ. We are changed and become different people.
We have been set free in Christ and empowered to do the work that Jesus has given us to do. It is always amazing to see the power that is in the name of Jesus, especially when dealing with the demonic. Through the church the fruit of the Spirit is released on earth bring healing and change and transformation as the kingdom of God breaks out.
4. IT’S FUTURE - the gates of Hades will not overcome it
The church is not a fortress but a moving army. The gospel is going out every day and more and more people are responding to it. Many people in Europe and North America are saddened but what they see as the shrinking church but that is not true of the global church. The kingdom of God is moving forward and there is nothing in the world that can stop it. Nothing.
Notice that is says the gates of hell will not overcome it. When was the last time you were chased by a gate? Has a door ever jumped off it’s hinge and ran after you? This passage presupposes that it is the church that is moving forward.
Matt 11:12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.
The word here for FORCEFULL in Greek is the word BIAZO which comes from the word BIOS or life. Living things grow. The picture here is of a tree growing out through a crack in the concrete – it is forcing it’s way out. Some day the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and Christ.
Hab 2:14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea .
We know from the end of the book what the outcome will be. We see that in the end we win! Until then the church has work to do. We know the end of the book but there are chapters yet to be written. God has given us everything we need to fulfill our mission. We as His church need to do it.
There was a lot of notable wealthy people on the Titanic in 1912. But the most notable passenger on the Titanic was someone that most of the world has never heard of before. He was a man by the name of John Harper. He was a plan ordinary Pastor from the city of Glasgow in Scotland. He had faithfully shepherded his congregation for years and had just accepted the call to pastor Moody Church in Chicago. That is why he and his daughter were on the Titanic. It is told that the night the Titanic sunk that John Harper put his daughter into one of the lifeboats and then started helping others to safety. He had given his life in helping people find salvation and that night was no different.
That night 1528 people went into the frigid waters. John Harper clung to a piece of the wreck and was frantically calling out to people in the water leading them to Jesus before they got hypothermia and died. Mr. Harper floated near one young man who had climbed up on a piece of debris. He asked him between breaths, "young man, are you saved?" The young man replied “no I am not”. Harper then cried out "Believe on the Name of the Lord Jesus and you will be saved." A wave swept him away and the young man was alone. Amazingly, a few minutes later the waves brought John Harper back and again he called out "young man, are you saved yet?"
The young man answered “no, I cannot honestly say that I am”. Again he cried out "Believe on the Name of the Lord Jesus and you will be saved." Moments later John Harper died of hypothermia and went under. The young man, alone in the water with no hope of being rescued believed and gave his life to Christ. Of the 1528 people that went into the water that night, six were rescued by Lifeboat No 14. One of them was this young man on the debris. Years later he gave his testimony of that night saying with tears “I am John Harper’s last convert”.
Does Hollywood remember this man? No. Oh well, no matter. This servant of God did what he had to do. While other people were trying to buy their way onto the lifeboats and selfishly trying to save their own lives, John Harper gave up his life so that others could be saved. He did it because he understood that this life was not the end but only a beginning. He knew what awaited him.
And so do we!
