TITLE: THE CHURCH HAS LEFT THE BUILDING
SCRIPTURE: ST. MARK 16:15
On last Sunday I preached from the subject “THE CHURCH” – this morning I want to continue that message or Part-II and tag this message – “THE CHURCH HAS LEFT THE BUILDING.” I remember when I was still relatively young, Elvis Pressley was all the rage. A phrase that became very familiar to Elvis fans at the height of his cultic popularity was, "Elvis Has Left The Building!" It is a phrase that was often used by public address announcers following Elvis Presley concerts to disperse audiences who lingered in hopes of an Elvis encore or to get a glimpse of him or autograph.
• I was 16 years of age on August 16, 1977 when news announced Elvis had died at 42 years of age
We have heard the phrase over the past few decades “Elvis Has Left The Building.” 43 years after his death, we still use the phrase which in essence means today – “The Show Is Over” “It’s Time to Leave.” I have a simple message for us this morning – “The Show Is Over” “It’s Time to Leave” -- “THE CHURCH HAS LEFT THE BUILDING.” Many of the churches -- and by churches, I mean Christians -- have forgotten the church is meant to thrive outside the walls of the church house by serving others and by being a means of God’s Grace. It is time for the Church to leave the building.
When we read about the life of Jesus in the Bible, we see an extraordinary thing. everywhere Jesus went lives were transformed --
• PETER - ANDREW - JAMES - PHILLIP - JOHN were ordinary fishermen
• MATTHEW was a tax collector
• PAUL was a Jesus hater
• JOHN THE BAPTIST was a nomad
• One man was a Leper
• A little girl was demon possessed
• Another was Lame
• Yet another man was Blind
• THOMAS was a Doubter
After their encounter with Jesus, they were transformed.
• Paul went from Jesus hater - to Jesus lover
• John went from being a nomad - to being on a mission
• Peter went from hothead fisherman - to passionate disciple
• The Lame walked
• The Blind saw
• The unclean Leper was healed and cleaned
• Thomas Believed
None of these encounters with Christ happened in a Church Building. As these people’s lives were transformed, they became witnesses to Christ.
• After Christ left, He left them His Spirit
• When His Spirit indwelt them, they became the Body of Christ
• As the Body of Christ, together they formed the Church
Sometimes we in the church have been guilty of assuming we are a landmark for site seers.
• Come and see our Worship
• Come and see our Savior
• Come and see all of our great people
• Come and see the sights and sounds of our church
• Someone once said, "We are all called to be fishers of men, not keepers of the aquarium"
• The reality is most people are not converted in the church
• More prayers of salvation are said in a HOME - OR A CAR - OR EVEN A PARK than in a Church Building
The Church has left the building. There are two main reasons the unchurched remain unchurched.
1. Either they consider church irrelevant, which is a shame because worshipping God and being a part of Christian community and getting all this great practical truth out of the Word of God together is so VERY RELEVANT!
2. They mistakenly think church is “ONLY (and this breaks my heart to even say this) FOR INSIDERS”
Instead of being critical of our friends and family that don’t worship God, do we realize why the Church isn’t very contagious sometimes? Sometimes we keep the good news to ourselves. We may not realize we’re doing it and we certainly don’t want people to stay on the outside without finding a way in. But we haven’t done what the Bible tells us to do to -
• It’s really simplistic
• It’s really not difficult at all
• "GO"
That haunts me because I know God wants everyone to experience and enjoy His love -- His grace - His peace. we don’t want anyone to think the church is just for insiders!
• What can we do to erase these misconceptions?
• What can we do to dispel this haunting image?
• How do we effectively get the message across that the church is for everyone?
The church is going to have to leave the building in order to be contagious! If the unchurched are going to know that church is relevant, and that there are no outsiders, then the church must leave the building! This principle is really rather ironic in the first place because the Bible never employs the word “church” to describe a building.
The word “Church” in the Bible never refers to bricks and mortar - wood - nails - lighting - decorations. In Scripture, “Church” refers to -
• The community of believers
• It refers to the people, not the place
• The first church buildings weren’t even constructed until the Church had been in existence for 300 to 400 years!
• When the New Testament of the Bible was being written, there were no church buildings!
Evangelism is sharing the good news about Jesus. We can evangelize inside the church building but in the NT of the Bible, no one ever came to Christ inside a church building? No one was evangelized inside a church building! They didn’t have them! People made faith commitments to Christ in Jails - in their Homes - Out in the Fields - On the Road.
• One man came to Christ sitting on his Chariot
• One woman came to faith in Christ standing by a Well
• People decided to follow Christ at WORK - IN THEIR COURTYARDS - ON THE MOUNTAINSIDE - you name it
All along God meant for the church to leave the building! The church has been sent by Jesus to “GO” to the unchurched and tell them the Good News!
• The Church has been directed by the Lord Jesus to leave the building!
• That’s a simple instruction given by Jesus over and over again in the New Testament
The Church is most effective when we follow Jesus and seek to be a servant in the community. We should be helping to feed the poor - share the love of Jesus - and be a means of grace to everyone. By building new relationships and modeling God’s love, we don’t just do church, we become the church.
We must be Emotionally - Physically - Spiritually ready when we reach out. That is why we come to the building. The building provides a central location for us to gather together in worship of God which helps us grow Spiritually and Emotionally. The praying together strengthens us and the exposure to God’s Word prepares us spiritually.
• Community is vital to living lives that are intimate with the Spirit
• It is the community that intercedes for us while we are in the midst of the battle
• It is the relationships formed in those communities that help sustain us emotionally
• Most often God works through other people
Last week I called it and referred to “the fruits of the coronavirus.” In a matter of several months, this virus did what two decades of books - blogs - podcasts could not.
• The Church has left the building
• And God is at work
This is not the first time the church has been pushed out and scattered for the gospel. In the NT book of Acts, following the persecution arising after the martyrdom of Stephen, believers were scattered. As they went, they did what Jesus had told them to do -
• They testified to the Gospel
• The result?
• A Church planted in the Gentile City of Antioch, which became the base of missionaries Paul and Barnabas
For different circumstances and with different opportunities technologically, we are also scattered. anecdotal reports of lives being changed by the Gospel are encouraging, though to date no research is out on how open people are to faith conversations during this pandemic.
• However, based on prior LifeWay Research, which found that 79% of unchurched people are open to faith conversations
• I would suggest that number is likely even higher during this time of Pandemic
The unchurched public is not looking for coping mechanisms during this pandemic, they have those.
• They are not looking for the Jesus who simply punches their “Get out of Hell ticket”
• Nor are they looking for the boogie man God who is waiting for them to mess up so He can give them the smack down
• They want genuine transformation
• They are not looking for the feel good platitudes that have been so flippantly tossed around in the past by the Church
They are asking difficult questions –
• Where is God when we suffer Police Brutality in the streets?
• Where is God when children are living in poverty?
• Where is God when 200,000 now dead of COVID-19 in our nation?
• Where is God apparent in my life?
• Where is the church when the hurricanes and tornados rip through our cities?
We have answers.
• When we are there at their point of need, we become the answer to their questions
• We are there for you helping to rescue from the flood, praying or you when you are sick
• Feeding you when you are hungry
• Clothing you when you are naked
• In that moment God is working through us
• Quite often the healing of God comes through the people of God
• THE CHURCH HAS LEFT THE BUILDING
In our text for examination, Jesus said ‘Go” -- “YE INTO ALL THE WORLD, AND PREACH THE GOSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE.” Because Jesus has power and authority, Jesus sends us out. We are to preach and as the Great Commission says -- “TO MAKE DISCIPLES.”
• To make disciples is something similar in meaning to Educate or to Tutor
• It pictures students sitting at the feet of the teacher
• We bring people into a community by baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
• We are not a society of like-minded individuals - spiritual vagabonds - or seekers - or hopers - or a heritage group of those with the same blood-lines
• We have our doubts always - but we also have our faith
• We worship
• We do not have all the answers - but we have Jesus
• It is enough to have Jesus
Our specific assignment as “The Church” is to reach every person in every group where you have influence. This means you don’t need to buy a plane ticket and fly to the other side of the world to do this job. Mission trips are great experiences, but you have a mission field right where you -
• Work
• Where you attend school
• Where you purchase your groceries
• In every place where you have some level of personal influence
Open your eyes and look around you! jesus told the disciples that the fields of people all around them were “WHITE ALREADY TO HARVEST” -- ST. JOHN 4:35. If you will look around you, you will see that the fields around you are white unto harvest as well.
• People near you are struggling through life, just wishing someone would help them
• They are waiting for you to come to them with the saving message of Jesus Christ
• You are the missionary God wants to send them
Why does God want to use you to reach these people in your life?
• Because you already have a relationship with them
• You have influence with them
• They will listen to you when you tell them the Good News!
• So, open your heart and mind today to the Holy Spirit, and let Him use you to bring eternal change to the lost people who literally encompass your life!
• For this to happen and be effective – THE CHURCH HAS LEFT THE BUILDING
Go and preach the good news -- not “sit around and wait for people to come” -- but to get up and go – we have forgotten the going part. One thing that I have learned in the past several years is that Christianity is, first and foremost, about relationships.
• I always thought that it was about going to Church
• I always thought it was about reading the Bible
• I always thought it was about Prayer and the Sacraments
• And those are important -- they are a part of what it means to be a Christian
But, if we are going to do what Jesus says -- if we are going to “GO” -- then we have to be intentional about making relationships with other people
• About sharing with them the good news of Christ
• About showing them the presence of Jesus through our love
• This means we go where the people are
• We don’t just stay where we are at
• We don’t just stay at church or stay at home - but we go out and meet others and tell them about Jesus
• That means where we Work
• That means where we Play
• That means everywhere we find ourselves
• Whether at the Coffee Shop
• Or the Grocery Store
• Or the Park
• THE CHURCH HAS LEFT THE BUILDING
Whether you have considered it or not, you have the unique ability to impact the world right from where you live -- just look around you when you’re in town this week at the diversity of people in our community.
• We have the University Center with a few hundred students
• We have people moving to our City weekly
• A new Luxury Apartment Complex being build
• We have a high Latino population moving into our neighborhood
• We have a lot of people right here in our midst from the ends of the earth we can reach with the Gospel of Christ
Who knows what impact you can have just by reaching out and sharing with them the good news of Jesus? With COVID-19 maybe you saying, well Pastor, I don’t get out much.
--Think about the internet -- right in your home -- probably right in your pocket if you have a smart phone
--You have the ability to speak to people from around this world in an instant
--You can share God’s message with people on the other side of the world
--Even people in countries where Christianity is outlawed or persecuted
--People come to our Church Page by the hundreds each week to hear the message, looking for hope
--We will never know what the impact of that is, but it is a form of “going” as Jesus tells us to do here in this passage
--The methods are many
--The key is to actually start “Going”
--To just get up and do something
--THE CHURCH HAS LEFT THE BUILDING
