On Sunday 31 May – which was Pentecost Sunday, the BBC showed a service from Kingsgate Community Church in Peterborough. It’s quite a large, dynamic, vibrant church and they were holding a baptismal service.
The following day, Chris Moyles, who is a Radio 1 DJ who presents the breakfast show mentioned the service on air. He’d seen it on tv the day before – and what he’d seen had completely blown him away. The whole discussion on air is about 10 minutes – but just so that you can get a feel of how taken he was with what he saw – I’ve condensed it to about 2 minutes.
Show clip
Did you get all that? He was totally blown away with the joy, the excitement, the reality of people in relationship with Jesus Christ. His colleague said that the down side of church was that it was normally boring – and Chris Moyles says ‘I want to go’ and they start a conversation about baptism. And as I said the whole conversation lasted about 10 minutes – on the breakfast show – Radio 1.
And it just emphasised in my own mind what a negative view people often have of church. What a complete misunderstanding people have of who we are and why we are.
An older sister was sitting next to her younger brother in Church one Sunday morning unsuccessfully trying to keep him still and quiet. Finally she said, “I wish you would calm down.” “I can’t”, he said, “it’s just so boring.” And his sister turned and said, “It’s supposed to be boring.”
Then there’s the story about a little boy in church with his mother. He was a good little boy, quiet & well behaved. He didn’t cause any problems. But every once in a while he would stand up in the chair, turn around, look at the people behind him & smile at them. His smile was infectious, & soon everybody behind him was starting to smile back at him, too. It was all going fine until the mother realized what the little boy was doing. When she did, she grabbed him by his ear & twisted it a bit, told him to sit down & remember that he was in church. Then he started sniffling & crying, & she turned to him & said, "That’s better."
It’s sad, isn’t it, that many people have the impression that when we come to church that it is all gloom & doom, & that there is nothing here to really bring joy into our lives?
The perfect church
What is church? If I asked you that question this morning how would you answer? In just one word – what would you say? Boring, irrelevant, out of date, hypocritical – or would you say that it is a place of joy, hope, love, companionship, caring?
The truth is, there is no perfect churches. No matter where you go, you’re going to find things that you like and you’re going find things you don’t like. You could go to one of these new megachurch’s, hear the contemporary music, see the flashing lights, With all the guitars and drums, and lights and choirs and technological wizardry. And say, "Yeah! Praise the Lord – this is Church!" Then again, you could go and say, "They call this noise ’music?’– this is no church!"
What is church?
So what is a church? In modern day Britain there are many different types and styles and flavours and expressions of this thing called church. Church in a pub, Café church, Goth church, internet church – quiet churches, loud churches, traditional churches, contemporary churches, cultural churches.
So what is church? How do we define church? Is it something we come to on a Sunday that has a definite order of service, a distinctive style of worship or type of preaching. Maybe, but church is more than that. Is it somewhere where we come to catch up on all the latest news and gossip of the past week – a bit like a social club. Maybe, but church is more than that.
Perhaps church is just a place for the great Ceremonial occasions, the ritual, the performance. Hatch em, match em, and dispatch em. Baptisms, weddings, and funerals. The great ritual moments of life. But church is far more than that.
Tourists at Westminster Abbey
Is church for you a place that is filled with history and tradition, that must never be altered, or tampered with, or changed in any way less the mystery of the faith be lost – No better example of a church rich in history and tradition is Westminster Abbey. One day a tour group being shown the Abbey. They were shown all the symbols of Britain’s history. They saw the place where the monarchs are crowned. They visited the tombs and the memorials to the nation’s greatest. It was a wonderful trip backwards in time. But then one member of the tour group asked the guide a searching question. She said, “Sir, this is all very fine, but has anybody been saved here lately?”
Thats a good question for anybody’s church. “Has anybody been saved here lately?” We are so much more than ceremonial, so much more than history, so much more than narrow vision. We are so much more than hatch, match, and dispatch.
So the question remains what is church? And the answer – in a nutshell – is given in 1 John 4:11, ‘Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.’ In other words, Church is a place where the love of God is known, where the love of God is experienced and where the love of God is expressed amongst the fellowship. It’s not about formats or programmes, or music or styles – it’s about love.
What’s love got to do with it?
Wasn’t it Tina Turner who had that song ‘What’s love got to do with it, what’s love but a second hand emotion’. Well, according to 1 John 4 loves got everything to do with it – it is the basis of all we have and all that we are as a church.
James 2:8 says, "If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ’Love your neighbour as
yourself,’ you are doing right."
1 John 3:11 wrote: "This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another."
Romans 13:8 declared: "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another…"
1 Peter 1:22 says, "Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart."
And, of course Jesus said: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you: continue in my love. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That you love one another, as I have loved you." (John 15:9-12)
Do you see a pattern beginning to develop? The commandment of the kingdom, the royal law, the proclamation of the King of kings, the only definition of any true Church of Jesus Christ is this: Love one another as God has loved us.
Love Defines church - There is only one thing that defines us as a church. It’s not the fact that we meet together on Sundays. It’s not the fact that we sing hymns and choruses. It’s not even the fact that from time to time we might get caught praying or reading the scriptures. The only thing that defines us as a church, as the body of Christ, is our love for God and our love for one another. And John says in verse 20 that we can’t say we love God, if we don’t love one another.
I John 4:7-10), ‘Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
GOD IS LOVE notice it doesn’t say God loves but that God is love. It is not one of His many activities but it is the essence of all He is and all He does. And one of the most important things that you’ll ever learn in this life is that God never stops loving you! Peter denied being one of the disciples and cursed, but God still loved him and turned his life around. John Mark turned back and quit in the middle of a missionary journey but Christ still loved Him and caused him to be an asset to the church and the Apostle Paul (2 Timothy 4:11). David committed adultery and murder, but God still loved him.
Max Lucado writes, "If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning.
Whenever you want to talk, he’ll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, and he chose your heart... Face it, He’s crazy about you."
Our love for one another is a witness
And if we can take that love that God has for us – a love that was ultimately demonstrated by Jesus Christ coming into the world and being offered up as a sacrifice that we might be given eternal life – if we can take that kind of sacrificial love and demonstrate it to each other – it becomes the greatest form of evangelism the church and the world will ever see.
The fallen world - You know, we live in a terrible, fallen, sinful world. A world that is full of hatred and greed, and fighting and war, hopelessness and lovelessness. People are starving and dying, and suffering in all kinds of ways whilst the rest of the world just looks on. We live in a society where many people don’t even know their next door neighbour, let alone care about them.
John says v 12, ‘No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us’. Where can a lost world see the love of God? In us, in his body, in his church. At least, thats where it should be seen.
Love for fellow believers - Jesus said, ‘By this all men will know that you are my disciples – if you love one another’. This is how people will know that you are my church – because you love one another. This is how people will know that you belong to me, that you love me, because you love one another.
And he’s not talking about loving sinners, he’s not talking about loving the unsaved, he’s not talking about loving your mum and dad, or your relatives or your friends. He’s talking about loving your fellow believers. Those you share communion with, those you are supposed to be in fellowship with. Those you sit next to in church week after week. And without that love for one another – if that love isn’t there - we might as well pack up and go home. Forget about evangelising, forget about church programmes, forget about busyness, forget about upholding truth. Without love for one another and for God – we have nothing and we are nothing!
Our love for God is demonstrated by our love for one another! D L Moody wrote, ‘Show me a church where there is love, and I will show you a church that is a power in the community.’
Early church example
The non-Christian, Greek writer Lucian who lived from A.D. 120-200 made an observation about Christians. He said, “It is incredible to see the fervor with which the people of that religion help each other in their wants. They spare nothing. Their first legislator [Jesus] has put it into their heads that they are brethren.” Lucian said that Christians “spare nothing.” “Sparing nothing” is an indication of unconditional love.
And when the church of Jesus Christ today demonstrates that kind of unconditional and sacrificial love for one another – then God is made known to a world riddled with pain and sin. If you want to know how closely you are following Jesus? Look at your love life! Look at how you are loving others. If we want to know how closely we are following Jesus as a church, look at our love life! Look at how we are loving others.
Conclusion
So, one last time – What is a church? Is it a place for the religious and the ceremonial? Is it a place for history and tradition, is it a place for socialising and cliques – or is it a place where the love of God is known, where the love of God is experienced, and where the love of God is expressed amongst the fellowship.
‘Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.’
