August 14, 2011
Morning Worship
Text: Matthew 16:13-20
Subject: The Church
Title: I Will Build My Church -The Fourfold Function of the Church
Last week we finished a five part series on the Great Commission. If you stop and think about it the whole purpose of the Great Commission is for the Church of Jesus Christ to be established by faith in the power and authority that has been given to us.
This week I want to begin to look closer into what it really is that the church is supposed to be. And I want to do that by focusing on the core values of this church and then continue on with the fourfold purpose of the church. Then we will continue the series next week by talking about the vision of the church. Finally, we will end up by revisiting our sixteen fundamental doctrines. I believe it is vitally important for each of you to know and understand what it is that we as a church believe.
Let’s look at the core values of our church. We are a church that “Loves God, Trusts God, and Loves people”. If you connect the dots between our core values and the Great Commission we just finished studying, you see that one goes hand-in-hand with the other. If we truly love God then how can we disregard the command to go and preach and make disciples? If we trust God then wouldn’t we trust Him to empower us with His Spirit and confirm the message we are taking into the world with signs following the way He said He would? And if we love people the way we say we do, how can we refuse them the right to hear about what God has done for them?
Ok, so we have established that our core values are tied to the Great Commission. Now I want to look at the fourfold function of the church. Here they are in not any particular order of importance.
1. The church exists as an agency for evangelizing the whole world. That involves personal evangelism as well as the call to send and support missionaries to every nation.
2. The church exists as a place where believers can come together to worship God corporately.
3. The church exists to provide believers the opportunity to grow in their faith through teaching, preaching, and the administration of the gifts of the Spirit.
4. The church exists in order to help provide for the needs of others by displaying the compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In Matthew 16:13-20, 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.” 20 Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.
Lord, open my eyes to see and my ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.
… I will build my church …
As we go through these for purposes for the church’s being, I want you to understand that these are not four suggestions posted on the Assemblies of God website as things you can do to make church better, these are biblical commands that are given to you and to me so that Jesus can build His church through us and that church will beat down the doors of hell.
Are you ready?
I. EVANGELISM. Turn over to Luke chapter 4. I want you to see something for yourself. In Luke 4 Jesus is in His home synagogue and is getting ready to speak to the congregation there. He begins by reading from the prophet Isaiah chapter 61. I want you to notice the very first thing that Jesus reads and in doing so connects His ministry to it. Luke 4 verse 18, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to… What? to do all kinds of magic tricks to entertain people… To make the religious leaders mad every time we get together… No… he has anointed me … to preach good news to the poor. Right after He left the synagogue then He began His healing ministry, but as He did in Mark 1 we see this, 35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” 38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 39 So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. So when Jesus commanded the disciples to “GO!” and preach the good news, make disciples, work signs and wonders… He was only telling to do what He had done before. Did you ever think about this – if Jesus said that we are to go and preach the “good news” doesn’t that mean then, that there must be bad news as well? The bad news is what happens to those who fail to trust Jesus. Don’t people need to hear the terrible truth about their eternal fate that comes from a life lived without Christ? Jesus told us to go and He has given us everything we need to be effective as witnesses. Our going is directly connected to our teaching others to do the same things He has commanded us to do. OK, so who is going to build His Church? Jesus said He would. We have to stop and look at the dynamic of this chain of command involved. Colossians 1:18, “And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.” Who is the Head? Jesus…Where is He right now? At the right hand of the Father… Who are we? The body – the church… What does He want us to do? Build the church by going and preaching, teaching, and making disciples… We have the message. We have the authority. We have the power. What is lacking? Jesus has opened a door for us that we are reluctant to walk through. It is kind of like this… During any given week I may spend time with as many as three different people helping them learn to play musical instruments. Here are the instructions I give them. As you play you need to learn to sing along because when you do you can begin to hear when there is a chord change. I also teach them as beginners, that they need to count in their heads or by tapping their feet to the beat of the music to help them keep time. Now I have given them some very important information that will enable them to do what they want to do. I have taught all the guitar students those lessons. Out of, say, about 10 people that I have worked with over the last few years, how many would you guess have taken those lessons to heart by actually doing them? ONE! And why don’t the rest try it? Because it is too hard… And that is where the church is in regard to evangelism. We know what we should do but it’s too hard… Who is building the church? Why isn’t it happening? Because God said in 1 Samuel 2:30, that those who honor Him He would honor… Think about that the next time you pray about your lost family members or neighbors. Are you honoring God by being obedient to the Great Commission? If you aren’t, you can change that right now… I will build my church…
II. WORSHIP What is worship? Traditionally we recognize worship as the time during a church service when we sing and give glory to God. And that is part of our worship experience. In Putting an End to Worship Wars, Elmer Towns asked the questions: What do you do in worship? How do you worship? What motivates you to worship? And what are the results of worship? From the responses he identified six worship styles in America: Evangelistic - winning the lost; Expositional - teaching the word; Renewal - excitement, revival, ’touching God’; Body-life - fellowship, relationships and small groups; Liturgical - serving & glorifying God through liturgy and Congregational - worship expressed by the laity. Of these, the renewal, liturgical, congregational approaches are arguably what most Christians conceive of as worship - times of personal and corporate singing and praise. As we have seen, however, the biblical principles and commands related to worship are much broader and more integrated into the Christian life. Worship is the response of grateful and humble people to the living God where submission, sacrificial service, praise, profession, testimony and gratitude are freely expressed in innumerable ways. This is a much richer concept than mere corporate singing and praise once each week for 20 minutes - an event that could occur without any actual worship going on at all. But in order for us to understand worship we need to look at the original languages of the bible. In Hebrew the word translated “worship” is shachah (shaw-khaw’) v. 1. to depress, i.e. prostrate (especially reflexive, in homage to royalty or God) KJV: bow down, crouch, fall down (flat), humbly beseech, do reverence… In the Greek it is the word, proskuneo (pros-koo-neh’-o) v. 1. to fawn or crouch to 2. to fall face down (prostrate) in adoration 3. a physical act of lowering oneself in humble submission with an attitude of utmost adoration or respect… So worship doesn’t have as much to do with singing as it does with the attitude of your heart. What we do in a corporate setting with song each Sunday is a reflection of the attitudes of our hearts that we are living out every day. When we come together we proclaim who He is (the Creator) and recognize who we are (the created) and we respond accordingly. Jack Hayford says, “Worship is the pathway and the atmosphere for people to discover their royal calling in Christ, their high destiny in life, their fullest personal worth and their deepest human fulfillment. Worship is a means by which God’s presence can be realized consistently. Worship is an opportunity for man to invite God’s power and presence to move among those worshipping him.” That is what real worship is and Jesus is building a worshipping church.
III. SPIRITUAL GROWTH… As we go through these “reasons for being” I am beginning to see a pattern developing. First we are call to obedience to Jesus’ command to preach the good news. Second, as we worship our Creator together, we come to an understanding that Jesus had the authority to tell us to go. As the Father has sent Me , I am sending you… And now as we come to this third purpose of the church – spiritual growth – we realize that the more we mature, the more we will respond to the first two points. I love to preach and teach. I don’t have any doubt that this is what God called me to do. But more importantly, He has called me to be a pastor. Ephesians 4:11-13, 11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. If the Lord has brought us here so I can pastor this church and teach, and I know He has – then the ultimate fulfillment of that comes when the pastor that I am can see results from the teaching I give you. Spiritual growth does not have anything to do with head knowledge of the scriptures. Spiritual growth has everything to do with your response to what you hear and learn. 2 Peter 1:3, His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. I can teach you and the Holy Spirit will give you that special moment when all of a sudden you get it, and God has given you everything you need to do something with it. Scriptural knowledge without application has no power. Jesus is building a church that not only grows in what it knows, but more importantly responds with obedience because it worships the God who has called it to this place and time.
IV. COMPASSION Finally, the church that Jesus is building is one that has the same compassion for all mankind that He had. Jesus had compassion for the lost – He preached the good news. He had compassion on the sick – He healed them. He had compassion on the demon possessed – He cast out demons. He had compassion on the hungry and He fed them. This is the ministry that Jesus called us to in Mathew 25. 31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40 “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’ There are many church denominations that participate in compassion ministries. Here is the big difference between what many of them do and what I believe the church is called to do. Many feed the hungry, clothe the poor, give drink to the thirsty hoping that somehow they will see the love of Christ in them and come to the Lord. But the gospel must come first. We feed, clothe and care for the needs of others in accompaniment with the gospel. Who among us can see the pictures on the evening news of a child in Somalia dying of starvation without being touched in our innermost being? But what is worse than a child dying because they didn’t have food is knowing that many people will die without the gospel and suffer an eternity in hell. Jesus is building a compassionate church.
And now we have come full circle. We are a fourfold church that loves God, trusts God, and loves people. All four reasons for being are tied up neatly in our core values.
Are we spreading the gospel? … Yes!
Are we worshiping God with our lives as well as our voices?…Yes we are!
Are we growing spiritually? … No doubt!
Are we a compassionate church, taking care of the needs of others? … Yes again!
Can we do more? Of course we can.
Paul wrote… until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
We aren’t there yet.
My vision for this church is one that sees an increase in the number of missionaries that we support. I also see a church that is reaching out to friends and neighbors to share God’s love and invite them to church. That’s the kind of church that Jesus is building…
I see a church that is willing to do whatever it has to do to get into the presence of God in worship during the song service and then live out that intimacy in a life of worship. I see a church where visitors not only see friendly faces, they see the very reflection of God in those faces. That’s the kind of church that God is building…
I see a church growing in the Lord through teaching, praying and study. I see a church that is willing to set the flesh aside and walk in the Spirit, operating in the gifts of the Spirit, taking God’s word for what it says, laying hands on the sick and seeing them get well, casting out demons and doing everything that Jesus did. This is a church of spiritual power and authority that recognizes the power and authority given to them and confessing that Jesus has come that we might have life to the fullest. That is the church Jesus is building…
And I see a church that is full of the compassion of Christ reaching out to supply the needs of those who are less fortunate without counting the cost. That is the church that Jesus is building… and you are a part of it.
We are headed in the right direction but there is much to be done.
Is that a church you want to be a part of?
It’s time to ask God what you can do and to show you where you need help.
Loving God, Trusting God, Loving People.
It ahs to be more than just a slogan that we are recognized by – it must be a pattern we live by. Are you ready?
