Sermon Series “Belief and Faith Coming Together”
Week Six – “The Promised Church”
Pastor John Bright – delivered 8/18/19
Acts 2 “46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”
It’s no accident that the Apostles’ Creed places the promise of the Holy Spirit right beside the promise of the Church. There can be no Church without the Holy Spirit!
The Apostles' Creed lists two marks of the True Church:
• Holy - "holiness of heart and mind" - doing the will of God
• Universal - "catholic" with a small "c" - this creed was written and used before the founding of the Roman Catholic church - includes those who hold to the beliefs we find in the Apostles' Creed - so we can’t include Buddhists or Muslims or Wiccans or Druids
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Today, I want to look at the Church from a Biblical point of view – put on your “Bible Glasses”
When I was in RVA – I had 2 minor foot surgeries. When I was on crutches, I noticed others on crutches. They were always there, I just noticed. Same thing happens when we are thinking about buying a certain kind of car. We start noticing that kind of car on the road or in a parking lot.
God is at work when we don’t notice -
Isaiah 64:3 “When You did awesome things for which we
did not look,
You came down,
The mountains shook at Your presence.”
We all have our own ideas about Church – even kids. One Sunday School teacher asked her class, “Why do we have to be quiet in church?’ A little boy quickly answered, “Because people are sleeping.”
A 6 year old girl was sitting in church with her very fidgety 4 year old brother. She spoke to him with a stern voice, “You’re supposed to be quiet in church.”
So her brother asked, “Whose gonna make me?”
She pointed to the back of the church, “See those guys, they are call Hushers.”
We use the word “church” in many ways. We often say “I went to church.” In the African American tradition – they would say “We did church.” There are many styles of worship, but that is not the Church.
In Matthew 16:18 we find Jesus saying “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Church here is a Greek word “ecclesia” (ek-clay-see-ah) Ecclesia means “called out/separated for a holy purpose.” I took classes in Seminary on the Study of the Church – Ecclesiology.
The Church is NOT: Buildings or Denominations or even Beliefs (boundaries)
The Church is what we heard in Acts 2:47 “The Lord added to the ecclesia daily” People are the Church – specifically - saved people make up the Body of Christ. We teach kids a little rhyme and hand motions. “Here is the church and here is the steeple, open the doors and see all the people.”
It’s cute and it’s wrong.
What if we changed it - start at the end, with all the fingers up, and work backwards – “Here’s the Church – it’s really the people, so why do they hide behind the doors and under the steeple?”
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I need to give you some meat this morning. Meat is different from milk. With milk you take a mouthful and swallow. What do you have to do with meat? CHEW! If this is too much – set it aside and chew on it for a while.
This is the meat - We are the physical manifestation of the spiritual church. In Revelation 2:5 we read “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.” This part of the judgement announced by Jesus upon the house churches in Ephesus. Why? They were putting God 2nd or 3rd or 4th. Told to repent – When? NOW! If they don’t – remove the lampstand. What’s that?
Revelation 1:20 “The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.”
The lampstand before the throne of God = the church here
More meat - Everything in the physical is a representation of something in the spiritual – 2 realms
Last week I talked about the “realness” of the spirt realm where the Holy Spirit operates. So what would it look like if God removed the lampstand (in the spirit realm) of a Church (people in the physical realm)? They could go on with nice buildings, beautiful sanctuaries, and have full pews. But do they have their first love and the fire of the Holy Spirit?
Is the fire burning in the Church today?
In Luke 24 the two men meet Jesus on the Road to Emmaus. They only recognize Him when He breaks the bread. What did they ask? ““Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”(v. 32)
As Methodists, we know the story of John Wesley going to a meeting on Aldersgate Street. There he listening to someone reading from Luther’s preface to the book of Romans. What did he later write? “…while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."
What about the folks who started _______________ Church many years ago? Did a fire burn within them? YES! But not for a big beautiful church… no they wanted to reach the lost with the Good News. That was the fire within them!
Does that fire burn in us today? In you?
Amen.
TEACHING SHEET
August 18, 2019
Sermon Series: Belief and Faith
Coming Together
Acts 2:46-47 “The Promised Church”
Apostles’ Creed – Marks of the True Church
Holy – “holiness of heart and mind” – doing the will of God
Universal - “catholic” with a small “c” – this creed was written and used before the founding of the RC church – includes those who hold to the beliefs we find in the Apostles’ Creed
We all have different views of what the Church is – including the kids.
Isaiah 64:3 “When You did awesome things for which we did not look,
You came down,
The mountains shook at Your presence.”
Do you have your God glasses on this morning to see Him at work?
Matthew 16:18 “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Church = “ecclesia” (ek-clay-see-ah)
ecclesia means “called out/separated for a holy purpose”
The Church is NOT:
• Buildings
• Denominations
• Beliefs
The Church is what we heard in Acts 2:47 – The Lord added to the ecclesia daily – people are the Church – saved people make up the Body of Christ
We are the physical manifestation of the spiritual church
Revelation 2:5 “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.”
Revelation 1:20 “The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.
The lampstand before the throne of God = the church here
Everything in the physical is a representation of something in the spiritual – 2 realms
What would happen if, in the spiritual, God removed the lampstand of a church?
• They could continue
• Nice buildings
• Beautiful sanctuaries
• Full pews
The question for a church today – IS THE FIRE BURNING IN YOU?
Road to Emmaus – Luke 24
John Wesley at Aldersgate
The folks who started Swansonville Methodist
What about today?
