Duties of the Church
Sermon 4 in the series “Church Matters"
Chuck Sligh
July 28, 2013
TEXT: Turn to Matthew 28
INTRODUCTION
Opening Illustration – Firemen Illustration (USE THREE VOLUNTEERS)
All given chores to do while waiting for the opportunity to put out a fire for regular maintenance of the fire station (ASSIGN THESE JOBS TO EAH VOLUNTEER)
• One to fix meals (Cook)
• One to cut the grass
• One to clean the toilets
AFTER ASSIGNING THEM THESE TASKS, ASK EACH: “Okay, now tell me what your job is.”
AFTER THE LAST ONE TELLS YOU HIS FIRE STATION CHORE (AS THEY USUALLY DO) SAY: “Brother, that’s not your job. Your job is to fight fires.”
MAKE APPLICATION: It is great to have activities and jobs and chores around the church, but they must not make us forget the main duties of the church.
This will be the last sermon in my series, “Church Matters.” I’d like us to close this series by examining some of the duties of the church.
I. THE FIRST DUTY OF THE CHURCH IS TO WIN PEOPLE – Matthew 28:19 – “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”
This passage is known as the Great Commission. It was the last command Jesus gave to His disciples, and by extension to us. Someone has said, “Christ’s last command is to be our first concern.”
Why should we always be trying to win people?
• First, because people need a SAVIOR – 1 John 4:14 – And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.”
A savior is one who saves from something. If you are lost, without salvation, you’re in a mess because of your sin.
The Bible says that we are all sinners who have chosen to go our own way and we have willfully trespassed God’s commandments. We have taken God’s name in vain; we have not honored the Lord’s Day to keep it holy; we have lied; we have coveted; we have stolen, we have dishonored our parents.
These are sins against a holy God who will not allow sin into heaven. We need a SAVIOR and the only savior who can cleanse us of our sin is Jesus!
Peter said, Acts 4:12 – “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
It is not being pushy to tell people about the Savior. In light of the eternal punishment that awaits those who have not believed, to tell people about Jesus is the ultimate act of compassion. We need to WIN people because they need a Savior.
• Second, we ought to win people to Christ because people need a SHEPHERD – In Matthew 9:36 we read, “But when he [Jesus] saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.”
Without Christ, people are without purpose and direction in life. Without Christ, people wander from pleasure to pleasure and from endeavor to endeavor looking for fulfillment and purpose.
But it is an empty search. As the writer of Ecclesiastes says, “I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.” (Ecclesiastes 1:14).
And so it is without Christ. Without Christ, a person’s life is purposeless, rudderless. Everyone needs a shepherd to guide and direct his lives and give it meaning.
• And third, we should win people because they need ABUNDANT LIFE – In John 10:10, Jesus said, “The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
The thief he’s talking about is the evil one—Satan and his forces—who have one purpose while they’re still roaming this earth: to steal from you all that is good and holy and wholesome; and to kill your soul and to destroy you for all eternity. But Christ came so that we might have everlasting life!
But not just everlasting life way out yonder someday when you die. No, he gives us “ABUNDANT LIFE” which is life in Christ—knowing Him as Savior and Friend; having Him with you in every situation; having His peace and joy and fulfillment in life; having purpose and JOY!
I can hardly contain myself describing the blessings of the Christian life. But they are only available through Jesus Christ.
Jesus told the woman at the well that He was the “living water” that would satisfy the thirst in her soul. Then he said these words to her in John 7:38 – “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”
As strange as it may sound, ancient people thought of the belly or the bowels as the seat of their inner heart and feelings. This verse would read like this today, “He who believes on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.”
Brethren, the first duty of the church is to WIN people to Jesus, because it’s only in HIM they will find a SAVIOR from their sins which separate them from God; a SHEPHERD to lead them through life; and ABUNDANT LIFE through having the wonderful Lord Jesus Himself come in and dwell with them.
God help us to never forget that one of the most important duties of the church is the WINNING OF THE LOST TO JESUS CHRIST!
II. THE SECOND DUTY OF THE CHURCH IS TO TEND PEOPLE – James 1:27 – “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
We often forget that once we’re saved, we’re to look after and tend to people. There are no orphans or widows in our church, but there are other ways to tend people
Illus. – We’ve seen God’s people here at Grace roar into action when someone goes into the hospital or faces a crisis. Our primary place for caregiving is through our homegroups.
I never will forget when one of our members went into the hospital when we had first started our homegroups here at Grace. Her husband was deployed to Iraq, and when I got to the hospital to visit her, two of the women in our homegroup had beat me to it. And every time I went there, there was someone visiting her; and not only that, they made arrangements for her daughter to stay with one of them, and got her to the bus stop and school every day and provided meals for a few days when she left the hospital.
That’s what I call tending people. To help those in special need is pure religion and undefiled according to James. That’s the way a church ought to operate. When a member of the church has a need, the whole church ought to swing into action to meet the need.
It doesn’t have to be a big catastrophe in somebody’s life either. We ought to be tending to others every day, all the time, in little ways and big.
Turn with me to Philippians 2:4, where we read these words: “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.”
That ought to be our motto around here—“Looking after the things of others!” That ought to be a guiding principle for our lives: How can I look out for others?—instead of “how can I look out for ‘old number one.’”
How are some ways you can tend to one another’s needs?
• You can encourage the downhearted.
People have marital problems, problems with heir kids, problems at work, problems with relatives, and problems with neighbors. We need to be alert to others’ needs instead of being self-centered and focused on self.
• Second, we can help those in financial need.
You may not be able to help much, but even a little bit of extra money in a financial need is a blessing and an encouragement. Don’t be stingy; be generous.
• Third, we can provide food and help when there is sickness in a family, as I mentioned before, something we often do very well, but sometimes drop the ball.
God help us to NEVER drop the ball, but to have a religion that is pure and undefiled.
III. ANOTHER DUTY OF THE CHURCH IS TO MEND PEOPLE – Luke 4:18 – “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.”
Note also Psalms 147:3 where the Psalmist says, “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.”
One of the most wondrous things about Christianity is that it is a MENDING Gospel! When you mend something, you take something that is broken or torn or damaged in some way, and you repair it and restore it and make it useful again. That’s one of the jobs of the church: We’re to MEND people.
I have had the joy of doing this through the Spirit of God and the Word of God from time to time in people’s marriages.
Illus. – A man and a woman come to me who are ready for a divorce. They’ve just given up hope and they just want to quit. I’ll do my best to give to the wife all the counsel I can from God’s Word to help them make their marriage work. Then I’ll give the husband all the counsel I can to help him learn to meet his wife’s special needs. Then to see two people who are desperate, their lives torn, their marriage tattered, with no hope that things can get better, and to be able to help them heal some wounds and mend some hurts, and to see them learn to love one another again, THAT’S a blessing!
Our job is to mend—to heal—to help—those who are having problems, who are down, who have failed, who are defeated. Yes, we preach and thunder against sin to keep people from breaking their lives.
But when they DO fail, our job is to help them pick up the pieces and to MEND them. One of the most precious truths in the Bible is that God is a God of the second chance!
Yes, you may have sinned; you may have failed the Lord; you may have let the Lord down; you may have let yourself down; you may have let your family down—but GOOD NEWS!—GOD IS THE GOD OF THE SECOND CHANCE! If you’ve failed the Lord, IT’S NOT OVER! You may still suffer some of the natural consequences of your actions, or you may have to finish reaping an old harvest of sin sown in the past for awhile. But if you’ll return to God and be faithful, He will FORGIVE you; and He will MEND you; and He’ll RESTORE you; and He’ll make you USABLE again! GOD IS THE GOD OF THE SECOND CHANCE!
Illus. – My favorite example of this is when Jesus restored Simon Peter in John 21. Peter had denied Christ three times. He had been a coward and he had deserted Jesus in His greatest hour of need.
After Jesus’s resurrection, Peter gave up. He said “I go a fishing.” Now that doesn’t mean he went on a fishing trip to get away from it all! Peter had left the fisherman’s trade to follow Christ. What he was saying was, “I failed the Lord. I blew it. I just don’t have it to be His disciple. I’m through. I’m going back to my old trade of fishing.”
Well, that’s exactly what he did, and in the process, he dragged some of the other disciples down with him, which is what often happens when we drop out. While they’re fishing, Jesus walks by and says: “Have you caught any fish?”
They said, “No” to which Jesus replied, “Cast your net on the right side and you’ll catch a-plenty.” Well, they did, and they caught so many, they could hardly draw the net in.
Then they came ashore because there’s no use fishing if your boat is full. I can just picture old Peter coming ashore, his head hung low, turning his back to Jesus to tie the boat, trying to avoid Jesus’s gaze, going about his business.
Jesus already had a fire going and some bread and some of His own fish, and He says, “Bring the fish you just caught.” Eating together in the Bible is always symbolic of fellowship, so this was an invitation to fellowship with Jesus. But Peter felt OUT OF FELLOWSHIP with the Lord, and he didn’t really feel like spending time with Jesus right the .
Have you ever felt that way?—You’ve failed incredibly and one part of you wants to be reconciled to the Lord, but the other doesn’t want to face the Lord because you’re so disappointed in yourself, and think He is too.
Well, Peter heard the invitation, and I can picture Peter thinking, “Oh, boy. I guess there’s no way I can get out of this without being rude.” So he brings the fish and kind of hangs back, and Jesus says, “Come and dine.”
Again, remember that this is an invitation to fellowship: to fellowship with the One whom he had DENIED three times; the one whom he had DESERTED in His darkest hour; the One whom he had FAILED so utterly and completely. So I can picture him sitting furthest from Jesus; eating quietly; not saying a word; tentative; ashamed; feeling unworthy.
And then Jesus breaks the silence and asks Peter twice, “Peter, do you love me more than these”—by which I presume he meant these fish and fishing.
Now Jesus used the word agapaō for love here, which is the Greek word for the highest form of love; the selfless love God loves us with.
Both times, Peter replies and says, “Lord you know that I phileō you,”: that is, “I love you like a brother”—but not with that perfect, self-sacrificing agapé love.
The first time he answered this way, Jesus replied by saying, “Feed my lambs” and the second time, He said, “Feed my sheep.”
You know what He was doing?—He was inviting Peter back into ministry and usefunless, even though his love was still imperfect and fell short of what it should be, for we are commanded to agapaō God with ALL of our heart and with ALL of our soul and with ALL of our might! Peter was saying, “Lord I love you; but my love falls short of your commandment”…and Jesus STILL invites him back into ministry and service!
And then a third time, Jesus asks the same question, only this time Jesus says, “Peter, do you phileō me?”—“Do you love me like a brother?”—and now Peter is grieved and he says, “Lord you know everything. You KNOW that I phileō You” and again Jesus invites Him to ministry by saying, “Feed my sheep.”
And then Jesus makes a remarkable prophecy. ¿Remember in the Upper Room when Peter was full of swagger and bravado about how no matter what, HE would never abandon the Lord; and Jesus prophesied, “Before the cock crows three times, you will deny me three times.” NOW Peter is humbled and meek and no longer braggadocious. That is to say, he was now truly USEFUL! And Jesus now prophecies about how Peter would die for Jesus’ sake—the very opposite of what he did in the hours leading up to Jesus’s death!
The story ends like this, “And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, ‘Follow me.’” That is THE VERY SAME CALLING Jesus had given Peter when He first came along the shores of Gallilee and called Peter the first time.—“Follow me.” Remarkable!
Do you know what Jesus did in this story?—He lovingly and gently mended and restored a failed saint and GAVE HIM A SECOND CHANCE! May God help us to mend people like Jesus did—to help restore them, to help bring them back to spiritual health, to let them know that GOD IS THE GOD OF THE SECOND CHANCE!
A FOURTH DUTY OF THE CHURCH IS TO SEND PEOPLE – Acts 13:1-3 – “Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. 3 And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.”
Once we win people, tend them and mend them, then it’s time to send them out. Not only do we want to minister to those within the church, but we want to be sending forth soldiers of the cross to fight the battle in other areas.
CONCLUSION
Brethren, here are four important duties of the church in general, and our church in particular, and by extension to each of us personally.
• Win People
• Tend People
• Mend People
• Send People
These aren’t the only duties the church is tasked to do; there are others as well. But these are unmistakably taught in the Word. May we be a church and a people who do our duty!
