WeAre . . . The Church
(note when you see B/S that is when I say brothers and sisters)
OKAY
WELCOME – to church!
NOW - I want to start off this morning with some God-breathed words from the pen of both Matthew and Paul.
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
“Guys, it’s time for us to talk about my identity, about who I am…?
“Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”
Then he asked them, “But what about YOU, who do YOU say I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being.
Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it…
Then he sternly warned the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
“Guys, I need you to keep my Identity on the down low until it is time. I will let you know when… okay?
AND NOW – that you know who I am, let me tell you why I am here… AND – you better brace yourselves, because it might not be what you expected.
From then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead.
But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!”
Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”
Then Jesus said to his disciples,
“Oh yeah, let me tell you a little about your identity as one of my followers…’
“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. Those who want to save their lives will give up true life, and those who give up their lives for me will have true life. - Matthew 16:13-25
AND – check out these words from in Ephesians chapter 5.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. – Ephesians 5:25-27
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. – Matthew 13:44-46
Cry Out To Him Prayer (James 5:16-18; Mt 7:7,8; Eph 3:20,21)
OKAY MGCC
THIS MORNING - we kick off our new series called, ‘CHURCH…’
UNDERSTAND--countless ideas, images, thoughts, perceptions, beliefs and emotions come into people’s minds whenever they hear the word CHURCH.
QUESTION – what comes into your mind when you hear the word CHURCH? How does what comes into your mind make you feel?
NOW - some of these ideas, images, thoughts, perceptions, beliefs and emotions are: good, true, hopeful and helpful, but others are: bad, wrong, false and destructive.
Brother and sisters…
What is the church?
Why is it here?
Why does it matter?
Is it all that important?
Should you even care?
What should it look like?
What is your role and responsibility in it?
AND - the most important question of all
WHERE - do we go to find the answers to those questions and to many others about the church?
To our culture?
To a pastor or a church leader?
In the latest book or at the latest Christian Conference?
In \
UNDERSTAND - there is only one place that we can and must go to in order to discover the power, beauty, meaning and purpose of the church… to the living and active, enduring forever - Word of God.
AMEN?
HEY - checkout what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2 about what the church must be built upon… He has been talking about who we are in Christ and about the dramatic change it makes in us.
You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. – Ephesians 2:19,20
QUESTION – what IS the church built on?
On the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone
What do you call a building without a foundation? A pile of rubble…
NOW – as I mentioned last week I have a few goals for this series of conversations…
#1 –
To help each of us understand just how beautiful, awesome, amazing, precious, powerful, incredible, indescribable, uncontainable, unstoppable and essential the church is.
#2 – To move us to take the church much more excitedly (being in a state of excitement, emotionally aroused, stirred)
I MEAN – like the parable of the treasure, in his JOY he went and sold all that he had…
#3 - To move us to take the church much more seriously.
NOW - I gotta tell you, I have been doing a lot of studying for this series and I have a lot more studying to do…
AND – one of my key resources for study has been to listen to some teaching from Dr Roger Chambers (one of my professors, Arron Eats With Sinners dad, died in 1988, one class with Him, but still my greatest teacher and mentor in college through cassette tapes) faithfulpreaching.com.
WELL - in one of his lectures that he gave in a workshop at the North American Christian Convention, He makes the following statement…
“One of the major problems that the church faces today, is that it does not take itself seriously enough.” – Dr Roger Chambers
QUESTION – what do you think about that statement? Do you agree? Disagree?
AND – do you know what - I could not agree more…
We (you and I) simply do not take the church seriously enough.
I MEAN – how else do we explain how so many people think that it is totally okay to: quit, divide, ignore, neglect, gossip, speak negatively about the church - or allow others to do so…
AFTER ALL - as the Scriptures I just read a few minutes ago proclaim… This church that many feel free to quit, divide, ignore, neglect, gossip, speak negatively about
• Belongs to Jesus (I will build my church)
• Jesus gave Himself up and shed His blood for the church
• And the church is a priceless treasure worth selling and giving up everything that we have.
B/L – we all (you, me… and the person to your right and life)…
Need to take the church more seriously.
Amen?
I MEAN – we need to learn the very same lesson that Saul learned as he traveled on the road to Damascus to continue his persecution of the church…
THAT - what we do to the church Jesus takes personally.
As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
– Acts 9:3,4
AGAIN – my goals for this series are…
1. to help us understand how awesome the church is
2. to move us to take the church more excitedly, to stir us up with great joy that we get to be a part of it - R U kidding me
3. to move us to take the church more seriously (so that, we treat her like the bride belonging to Christ and like the priceless treasure that she is…)
4. to move each us to do an honest, deep, heart felt gut check that moves is to… commitment or a re-commitment to Christ and His church
Get it?
MAN – I know Jesus sure hopes we do ‘get it’ that is!
OKAY…
Here is where I ‘think’ we will be going in the next several weeks…
9/11 - WeAre… The Church
9/18 - WeARE… The Church (2)
9/25 - WeARE… Rescuers (Freedom Sunday)
10/02 - WeAre… Followers
10/09 – WeAre… Devoted
10/16 – WeAre… Servants
10/23 – WeAre… One
10/30 – WeAre… Pursuing
11/06 – WeAre… In
(which will be the day we each will have an opportunity to make new and fresh commitments to this church, which is His church)
ALRIGHT – let’s do this…
Conversation #1 - WeAre… The Church
BUT BEFORE – we go there… I just want to say one more preliminary thing… (and I think it is important)
NOW – on Monday in our FCFH Reading…
We read in Matthew 13 about the parable of the sower…
SO – we have this farmer out there just slinging seeds
Hard – the seed does not even penetrate
Rocky – sprang up quickly but had no roots, and when the sun came out, that was all she wrote.
Weedy – never really had a chance the weeds just choke the plants out
Good – produced crop of 30, 60, 100 times what was planted…
NOW – later on Jesus’ guys come up to him and they are like… “Okay, teacher what were you really trying to say…”
AND – Jesus is like, “So, glad you guys asked… shows me you care and want to know…”
“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path.
20 The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.
22 The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.
23 But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” – Matthew 13:18-23
OKAY
SO - here is the deal…
Over the next several weeks I am going to be slinging some serious seed about what the Bible says about the church…
AND LISTEN – that seed will be landing on FOUR different types of soil.
AND B/S – the question is… (and it’s a biggie)
WHAT - type of soil will you choose to be between (right now) and November 6th?
SO… let the slinging begin.
WeAre… The church (btw this is a 2 week discussion)
OKAY – the first point in your notes is…
Maple Grove IS the Church
NOW…
I know that this might seem like an odd and unnecessary statement to make, ‘Maple Grove IS the Church.’
BUT – please stick with me as I try to explain, what I mean by this and WHY it is so important that we both know and believe that Maple Grove IS the church.
YOU SEE – there is this concept, this idea out there and it has been around for a long time (since the early 5th century)
IT WAS - first taught by Saint Augustine the Bishop of Hippo
A place… He was not the bishop of the Hippopotamus…
(3000 pounds, 19 mph… average human 12-15 mph, kill 3000 people every year)… Okay – I am digressing here
AGAIN - Hippo was a place, a region located in Northern Africa, on the coast of eastern Algeria… AND LISTEN – this concept, this idea developed by Augustine was embraced 1000 years later by leaders of the Protestant Reformation like martin Luther and John Calvin.
AND - basically it was the idea
Please put up the slide above
That there are actually two churches, the local church that you can see, touch and attend…. AND – the real, universal, spiritual and invisible church that you cannot see.
NOW – this idea of the ‘invisible’ church came about for two primary reasons…
#1 - Because the church in Augustine’s time (which was the time of the Imperial State Church)… was a mess
IT - was full of sin, corruption and even murder.
I MEAN – if the church did not like what someone was doing, teaching or saying… they did not bother to hold a meeting they just would kill them.
Augustine was like, “okay, here is what we the church should be according to the book of Acts and the NT, but here is what we really are.”
R U tracking with me…
YOU SEE – one of the catalysts for this concept of their being a real, universal, invisible church was this dichotomy, this massive disconnect between the IDEAL Augustine saw in the Scriptures and the realities that he saw and experienced in the church.
AND - the second catalyst (for developing this concept of the invisible church) WAS - the fact that Augustine before his conversion to Christianity at the age of 32, was a Neo-Platonist (Which mean he believed in Greek dualism, which taught the physical world is evil and the unseen spiritual world is good)…
Still tracking with me…
SO – Augustine is like, “yeah the church I see does not come close to matching what I see in the NT… and probably never will be. But that is okay, because the church I can see is only a reflection of the - real, invisible, universal, spiritual/not physical – church that I cannot see…
BOTTOM LINE – this idea of the invisible church was a way to get the local church and her leaders off the hook…
I MEAN – since the local church is not the real church then there is no reason to get all worked up about trying to conform it to what we see in the book of the Acts or the rest of the NT.
“No the local is not perfect and it never will be. But hey, these imperfections don’t really matter because we are not the real church anyway.”
YOU SEE – (and stay with me)
IF the local church is not the real church then the authority to live under the NT is eased…
SURE JESUS SAID…
• to forgive anyone who sins against us
• to love our enemies
•
BUT – that is unrealistic… I MEAN – even he knows we could never do or be that…
AND SO – we have these 3 extremely influential church leaders (Augustine, Luther and Calvin) embracing this concept of there being 2 churches…
The local church (messy and not too pretty at times) and the real/universal/invisible/perfect/ideal church
BUT LISTEN – just because they embraced it, and taught it does not make it true.
UNDERSTAND – the bible knows of only one church and it is the local church.
AND YES – we like they do face many imperfections in the church…
BUT MGCC – just because we are not yet what we should be does not mean that we are not the church.
I MEAN – if the church in Corinth was the church….
B/S – what I am trying to say and I know I am not saying it very well…
WHEN – what we read in the NT and what we see in the church does not match up…
THAT - does not mean we just throw in the towel and give up on the ideal. INSTEAD – it means that we must continue to chase after and NEVER give up on what the church ‘can be’ and ‘should be.’
AMEN???
OKAY – let me wrap this first point up by mentioning the 2 extremes that we must avoid… when we look at the church that we are and compare to the IDEAL that we should be…
1. We must avoid the extreme of becoming so enamored with the IDEAL, that it causes us to hate on the church and it’s imperfect people.
2. We must avoid the extreme of letting the IDEAL so discourage us (man, that so ain’t us) that we give up on the church and on the dream of who we can and must be...
B/S
Maple Grove IS the church!
Let’s repeat that
NOW – I know I spent a lot of time on it and I know that it was probably not ‘funnest’ teaching I have ever given…
‘Funnest’ - adverb. 1 – an activity that brings great enjoyment 2 – causing people to nod their heads, clap their hands, say amen and shout ‘hallelujah, what a great time we are having.
NEVERTHELESS – it is a vital because I want you to know that
Everything I will be sharing about what the church is,
Maple Grove Is…
Because Maple Grove is the church…
OKAY…
Let’s talk about what the NT says about the church about MGCC…
The Church Is . .
NOW - some of the ‘The Church Is’ truths we will be talking about, will be pretty quick (will not take much time to unpack), WHILE - others will take a little more time…
AND – don’t forget we will continue finish up this particular conversation (WeAre… The Church) next week…
The Church Is . .
Christ’s (it belongs to Jesus)…
UNDERSTAND - this is not my church, the elders church or your church… It’s His church.
On this rock I will build my church – Matthew 16
R/L – it’s not YOUR church.
NOW - few weeks back in our FCFH reading… (Acts is where we are now)…
BUT – back on August 25th we read the first few chapters of Revelation…
AND – it opens up with John who was exiled on the Island of Patmos (the Roman version of Alcatraz) having this incredible vision of seeing Jesus in all His glory…
When I turned to see who was speaking to me, I saw seven gold lampstands. 13 And standing in the middle of the lampstands was someone like the Son of Man. He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash across his chest. 14 His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow. And his eyes were like flames of fire. 15 His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice thundered like mighty ocean waves. 16 He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword came from his mouth. And his face was like the sun in all its brilliance.
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave. Revelation 1:12-18
This is the meaning of the mystery of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and the seven gold lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. – Revelation 1:20
I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. – Rev 2:2
I know your afflictions and your poverty. –
Walks among the lampstands
I know
The Church is
Not a building, it’s ‘us’
The Church Is . . .
The Promised Messianic Kingdom
The Church Is . . .
The Body Of Christ
The Church Is . . .
The Bride Of Christ
The Church Is . . .
The Called Out Of God
