“Four Myths about the Church” Math16: 18
The church is THE vehicle that God uses to push back the darkness and change our world.
I think we need a reminder, today, that there was a group of men and women who have gone before us, here at EBC, who boldly proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ. (Read this list from one of the pew Bibles)
These men and women took Romans 1:16 seriously “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it and it alone is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes,” These were not just a bunch of words on a page to them.
These words meant something as they stood up in the face of Satan, and proclaimed those words and preached those words.
And today as we come together, in the very place that these men and women gave their lives to build and maintain, let these names printed in these pew Bibles be something that spurs us to be the foundation for the generation to come to continue building kingdom of God. We must work to ensure that one day when you and I are just a faint memory, there will others to take our place, saying, “We are not ashamed of the gospel.”
Today we’re going to ask the question, “Is the church still relevant in today’s culture.”
We are living in a world where more and more people are saying that the Church is not important, the church has no value, and it is no longer important. My hope today is that each of us can see the importance of the church. I want us to understand that not only is the Church relevant, BUT the Church is the only hope for our world today.
We’re in an election season and many are watching all that’s taking place around our world, believing in the next election for the hope that we need. Many are looking for the next election to bring the answers to our challenges as a nation and as a world. Now I want you to understand that each of us not only has a right to take part in this election but we have a duty to do so. But at the same time, I can tell you without any doubts that the answer to our country’s problems and the problems in our world today will never be found in this election nor in any other. The answers to our Nation’s problem and the issues in the world will only be found in the one true and living God and the fact that He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for us.
And the ONLY place you will hear that message is through the local church!
That is why the Church is relevant. That is why the Church is important, and I believe firmly that the Church of Jesus Christ, is the vehicle that God has established to push back the darkness in our culture, and the church is the only way that’s going to happen.
Now unfortunately, in our culture today, we have a lot of myths about the Church. In fact, Michael Svigel, who is a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, wrote a book that talks about some of the myths that are in our church today.
I just want to share with you four very noticeable myths about the Church today. After we’ve looked at these, I think all of us will be able to say that we have experienced, seen, or maybe even some of us have believed some of these myths to be true ourselves.
1. Myth #1. The church is a human organization.
When this service is over some of you will go out to a restaurant for lunch or go home for lunch. When you walk into any restaurant in this town, any business in this town, you are walking into human organizations. These businesses were started by human beings to serve humans and to make a profit.
All of them are like that.
The only place that you can walk into that has NEVER been, is NOT today, and will NEVR be, in the future, a human organization is the Church of Jesus Christ. If you look back at Matthew chapter16, when Jesus established the Church He said, “Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”
I want to tell you a little secret.
There is not a human organization (business) in this community or any community in the world that can push back the gates of hell.
Only the Church of Jesus Christ can defeat the gates of hell.
Satan is a very real foe. He is somebody who the Bible calls in John 10:10 the thief who comes to steal and to kill and to destroy.
The Bible declares that he is out there to stop us. He wants to steal our joy, to kill our spirits, and to destroy our future. The Bible also compares Satan to a lion who is prowling around, looking for whom he might devour.
You see Satan wants to destroy you, and left to our own abilities, you and I are no match for him. Satan has more power than you or I and he can destroy us if left to our own devices.
But make no mistake about it, John10:10 DOES say the thief comes to steal and to kill and to destroy,
BUT JESUS SAID, “I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly,” which means this: That if you are grafted into the body of Christ… when you become a follower of Christ, It WILL NOT matter how powerful Satan is, he is no match for Jesus Christ! And I don’t care what Satan tries to do to us; he will not be successful because the Church is not a human organization.
The church is founded by, it is indwelt by and empowered by…the church is led by, our pastor who is Jesus and Jesus alone.
The Church is not a human organization.
2. Myth #2. The Church is a spiritual supermarket.
Many look at the Church as a supermarket for spiritual groceries. All of us, each and every week, in one way or another deal with the grocery store, hardware store etc. We walk into that store and the first thing we do is look for what we need.
But before we buy anything we’re looking at prices; checking for any discounts we can get. Maybe you’ve got a pile of coupons in your hands.
Now if we think the prices are too high or we don’t really like the selection or maybe we just don’t like the people who are working there, what do we do?
Eventually we’re going to find ourselves another store to do business with.
Does that sound sort of like the Church today? The reason it looks so familiar is because a lot of times we look at the Church as a supermarket for spiritual groceries.
In other words, we come to a church in order to be served. We come to a church in order to have our needs met. We come to a church to make sure that what we like is what we get.
And that’s why so often people will walk into a church and they’ll look at the building and they’ll talk to the people and they’ll go check out the nursery and maybe it comes to a point where they participate in the service, they enjoy the church, BUT then at some point they may not like a song that was sung or they may have a run-in with one of the nursery workers or they might not like the color of the carpet. Or, God forbid, somebody sat in my seat.
We are creatures of habit here at EBC. I know this because you all sit in the same seats every week.
That’s how I take attendance; I know where you usually sit, and if you move or you don’t show up, I know it because you’re sitting in the same seats every week. And so there are people who will look at the church as when I come in and someone’s sitting in my seat or I don’t like that song or I don’t like that teacher or I don’t like that nursery worker, then what ends up happening is we get mad and we leave and we go look for another church.
And every time we treat the church as if her existence is only to make sure that I’m happy, then we’re discounting the fact that this is Christ’s Church, not ours. This church is not here to serve me, it’s not here to serve you but as Jesus said, we are here to serve. So a myth that we have in our world today, is that the Church is really all about what I can get out of it. What does it do for me?
Do you remember that famous speech, in which JFK said, “Ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country!” Maybe we need to put it this way. “Ask not what the church can do for you. Ask what you can do for the church of Jesus Christ”
3. Myth #3. We don’t need to meet together like this.
Many, today, feel that we don’t need to come together as the body of Christ. It’s old fashioned to think that we need to come together to sing and worship together and to study God’s Word together.
“I can read my Bible at home or any other place I go.” And I hope you do.
“Why I can get together with a friend or two at Krispy Kreme or Bo Jangles and study God’s Word there. And you can. BUT
According to God’s Word, the idea that we don’t need a church is a lie straight out of hell and just not true. The Bible says that we should NOT forsake the assembling of ourselves together. The Bible talks very specifically about the importance of gathering together.
In Acts 2, we’re told that every day they continued together either in the temple, or house to house. And then it says that there were thousands added to them daily.
You know why the church was so successful? Because they followed God’s plan for the Church. They got together corporately, they got together in small groups and small Bible studies. When they did this, God used that institution to reach people with the life-changing message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We sometimes believe that the Church is nothing more than organized religion and we just don’t need the headache.
Many refuse to gather, not only for worship but for fellowship. When the fellowship of the church is broken, the church is broken. In the last 20+ years, I have heard every lame excuse there is for people not joining in the fellowship. When we allow Satan to separate us from the fellowship of believers, we are playing right in to his hands. Not only is he devouring you but he is using you to destroy the body of Christ, the local church.
4. Myth #4. Church is optional.
Many believe the Church is optional and that being a part of a local church is really not part of walking with God. It’s just not an important part of walking in faith.
So when we believe this myth, we will usually replace the local church with sports or we with a church organized travel team, or we will replace the local church with golf, or hanging out at the beach, or hanging out with friends or we will replace the local church with being out too late on a Saturday night and sleeping in on a Sunday morning. “I’m just having a lazy day.” Is something I hear all too often. What amazes me is the number of times I’ve been invited to some cookout on Sunday afternoon and when I say I can’t make it, I get “Why not?” We, I don’t have the same privileges that the average church goers have, I’m the pastor so I have to be there. NO I want to be there!
Please hear me, this morning when I say that the Church should not be optional. We can’t believe, we can’t buy into the lie, because all of these myths are grounded in what Satan wants to do in the local church.
Satan knows he’s no match for Christ, but Satan knows if he can get ahold of you, if he can change your way of thinking, if he can get you to believe things that are not biblical with regard to the local church, then he CAN stop the Church’s forward momentum.
So what is the church? I love the definition that Pastor Jonathon Falwell gives.
“A church is Jesus’ family, led under His authority, living out His Word on His mission.”
This statement does not say on our or on my authority or your mission. It’s all on His. We are here to bring honor to the Name of Jesus and to worship, to celebrate who Jesus is and what Jesus has done.
Once we figure that out then we are to figure out how we can do that and use that to change our world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That’s what we are here to do.
The Church is not a destination. The Church is the vehicle that God has chosen for us to be able to get where we need to be, to do what we are supposed to do, to push back the darkness of this culture with the only light that there is, with the only hope that exists, with the only truth that reigns, and that is the message of Jesus Christ and Him alone. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father except through me.”
And God has sent His Church to tell that message.
“Ask not what the church can do for you. Ask what you can do for the church of Jesus Christ”
