What is the Church
In whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. - Ephesians 2:22
Who needs the church? Well, the answer is: if you're a child of God, you need the church. I need the church. We all need the church. And when we say the word "church," some people have this great sense of joy and delight. Some people have this sense of, "Who needs the church?" Some people have a sense of confusion . . . "What is the church?" Let us meditate and address some of those questions.
What’s wrong with the church? A man from Wales gave this answer. “What’s wrong with the church is “our failure to realize and wonder at the beauty, the mystery, the glory, and the greatness of the church”.
That is so true, and I think it's very needed in our generation, especially in our younger generation, that we redeem the concept of the church. Many people today feel, even many believers feel, "I don't need the church." I want us to look into God's Word and wonder at the beauty, the mystery, the glory, and the greatness of the church."
The Church was not man's idea; it is not man's institution. It is God's idea; it is God's plan. You're going to see that you need the Church; I need the Church. Every child of God needs the Church. Acts 20:28 tells us, Therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.
The Church has something of an identity crisis today. And We know, we grow up as little children: "Here's the church. Here's the altar. Open the doors. Where are all the people?" The church was a building. It's a place you go to. Well, we have buildings that we call churches, but essentially the Church is not somewhere you go. Basically, the Church is not just an organization. It's not just an institution. It is not just a place. It's not just somewhere you go. It's something we are. The Church is something we are.
I. Church is the Hidden Mystery
Now the book of Ephesians has a lot to say about the Church. It's kind of a theological text on the Church and it lifts up the glory and the wonder of the Church as God ordained it. In Ephesians chapter 3:-9-11, Paul says that he wanted to: . . . bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord (vv. 9–11) NIV.
And to the Old Testament saints this plan was a mystery. It was hinted in the Old Testament, but those Old Testament saints could not see clearly what we now learn in the New Testament. It's God's plan to have His body, the body of Christ, be a Church. It was God's plan from the beginning of the ages, and it is crucial to God's redemption purpose on this earth. The Church is the core, it is central to what God is doing in making all things new in this earth. It is the expression on earth of the kingdom of God, the body of Christ.
In Ephesians 3, Paul says that "the manifold wisdom of God . . ." That word "manifold" means variegated, many-sided, many-splendored, many-faceted, "wisdom of God is revealed to the principalities and powers in heavenly places by the church" (v. 10). What does that mean? the principalities and powers? Those are angels, both holy angels and fallen angels—demons. He said the angels and the demons see the glory of God in the Church. Psalm 96:6 Honor and majesty are before Him; Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.
They see something that they marvel at, that they wonder at, that reveals the wisdom and glory of God when they look at God's plan for the Church. It's a magnificent plan of God. So, magnificent that even the angels and the demons wonder at it. Psalm 96:9, Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!
Tremble before Him, all the earth.
II. Church is the body of Christ
Now in the New Testament, there are a number of metaphors for the Church. The first is that the Church is the body. It's the body of Christ. Ephesians 1: 22 says that God gave Christ "as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all" (vv. 22–23). Christ is the head; the Church is the body, and God has designed us to fit together to be united as one.
Ephesians 4:15 says, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
So, Paul is saying that the head supplies what the body needs, so that all the members of the body can function together, and the body can grow; it can build itself up. So the body grows up into Christ. It grows together as a body, and then it grows out bringing others into the body.
We are members of His body.
To be a body of Christ, for the Church to be a body means that we as believers are united with Christ. A head that is severed from a body is not alive. The body can't be alive if it's not connected to the head. But we are inseparable to Christ, our Head, and to the rest of the body.
Someone said, "The closer I feel to God, the less need I feel to be in church." Now, that's not a biblical way of thinking. You can't be close to Christ and keep your distance from the rest of His body. We're members of His body. We fit together; we're connected to Him, inseparable to Him and to each other.
We're dependent on each other, as my hand and my arm and my body. All my body parts are dependent on each other. The body parts can't function without the head. We need each other for our very life. Here's another illustration of the fact that the Church is the body of Christ. The way you treat the body is the way you treat Christ Himself.
Remember when Paul was persecuting the Christians, when he was Saul before he became the apostle Paul? The voice came to him on the Damascus road and said, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" Acts 9:4. Paul didn't think he was persecuting God. He thought he was persecuting these people who called themselves believers in Christ. But because he was persecuting Christ's body, he was persecuting Christ Himself.
So, if you hurt the body of Christ, you hurt Christ. And just as when you minister to the body of Christ, when you bless the body of Christ, when you give to the body of Christ, you give to Christ. You minister to Christ. You bless Christ. To neglect other believers, to mistreat other believers, to despise other believers is to do harm to Christ and to yourself because they are part of your body.
If I hurt my hand intentionally—if I scratch it or cut a finger off of my hand—I'm hurting myself. I'm not hurting just my finger; I'm not just hurting my hand. I'm hurting myself. I'm hurting my whole body. So if I neglect other parts of the body, if I mistreat my whole body, if I despise them, if I speak critically or ill of them, I'm hurting myself. I'm hurting Christ.
Ephesians 5 says, "For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of His body" (vv. 29–30).
The Church is a family: Ephesians 2:19 says, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. The household of God, the family of God.”
In Ephesians 3:14 Paul refers to God as our Father. The Old Testament believers an extraordinarily little concept of God as Father. That's a New Testament term primarily that God would be our Father; that we would be His children. Christ the firstborn son, Christ our brother, and ourselves—brothers and sisters. This is a family relationship.
That's what God says in 2 Corinthians 6:18, "I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord almighty". You know what that means? If He's our father, we are His sons and daughters. What does that make us to each other? Brothers and sisters. We're blood-related through the blood of Christ shed on our behalf. We're related to one another.
So the church is a place of family relationships, like it or not. You may not like some of the people in the church. Some of the people in the church may not like you, but we are family. We have to learn to like each other, to love each other, to get along with each other. We're going to spend eternity with each other as a family.
III. Church is A place to Belong
Thirdly, church is called to belong, not just believe. Ephesians 2:19: Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. We are created for community, fashioned for fellowship, and formed for a family. The Bible says, we are put together, joined together, built together, members together and held together. There can be problems in families, but families can also be the place of the most intimate possible relationships. To be a part of the Church means that we belong to each other, that we're related to each other. We're a family. In God’s family you are connected to every other believer, and we will belong to each other for eternity. We discover our role in life through our relationship with others.
In Ephesians the Church is a body, not a building; an organism, not an organization. Not as in a place you go, but as in God is making us into a building or a temple for God. Ephesians 2:20-22 19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
God is taking these individual members, these individual parts, these living stones as believers were called in 1 Peter 2:5 says, “you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” He's assembling us together into a building or a temple, a dwelling place. That phrase literally means a permanent home for God. God's building a temple. The temple here on earth in the Old Testament was just an earthly physical picture of a great eternal spiritual reality of God's plan for the Church: a dwelling place for God. God wants to live in us.
Now there's a sense in which my body individually is the temple of the Holy Spirit, but there's another sense in which we all together corporately comprise a temple, a building that God is building to be His home. God's building a house for Himself and we are the pieces; we are the parts; we are the stones.
And who is the foundation stone? Christ Jesus Himself. God is making us a dwelling place, a sanctuary for God. We are being fit together and joined together with Christ to be a place fit for God to live in. We're building a temple.
IV. Church is the Bridegroom of Christ
Fourthly, the Bible calls the church the bride of Christ and the body of Christ. We're a bride; and Christ, of course, is the bridegroom. You have this picture particularly in Ephesians 5:23. Paul's talking about marriage. “For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.” But keep in mind that every earthly institution that God has designed is created to be a representation, a picture, of a heavenly reality. Marriage is wonderful; marriage is God-created. Marriage is designed by God, but marriage is intended to be a picture of the Church's relationship with Christ. So Paul says in Ephesians 5:23, The husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands (v24).
There's a husband-wife relationship here that isn't just about marriage. It's about Christ's relationship with His Church. So husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. . . .
When you come to the end of the Bible, the end of the New Testament, the end of the book of Revelation. In just the last few chapters, you find four references to the Church as the bride. She's called the wife of the Lamb. Who's the Lamb? Christ is the Lamb, the Lamb of God. And so Revelation 19 says: "Let us rejoice and exalt, and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready" (v. 7).
When you think of the Church as the bride and Christ as the bridegroom, that speaks of a covenant love relationship. It's not a contract that can be broken. He will never divorce His Church. He will never, not love us completely. He will never stop saving us. He is our eternal Savior and bridegroom and that is a covenant relationship, a love relationship. If you are a child of God, you are part of the Church—a body, a family, a building, a bride of Christ, our heavenly bridegroom.
Conclusion:
Understand, dear brothers and sisters, God has made the church the core of change for this world. God has a plan for us and for this world. He created the church to show His majesty on this earth. Essentially, the Church is not just an organization. It is not just a place. It's not just somewhere you go. It's something we are. We, as a congregation, are the body of Christ. With God as our head, we are His body. Each and everyone of us are members of His body. When we bless others, we bless the body of Christ. However, when you hurt another, you also hurt the Lord. Therefore, hold each other like family. For we are all a part of God and the children of God by His blood, which He shed for all of us on the cross.
And because we are all His children, He created a place for us to worship. He created a household which has been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with God as the cornerstone. God created the church for those who had to leave their families to join the family of God. And now the Lord tells us to be ready. The church must be ready. For we are like brides waiting for the groom. We, the church, must prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord. For He is the lamb who will save us and prepare a place for us in His kingdom. Amen.
