Let’s imagine it’s sometime this afternoon. You’re at home, working in the front yard, and you see a moving van stop a couple of houses down the street. Two men get out of the truck and start unloading furniture. Then you see a minivan pull up to the curb, and a family gets out. You want to be a good neighbor, so you put down the hedge trimmers and walk over to meet them. They’re dressed a little differently, and as you approach, you hear them talking with some kind of foreign-sounding accent. You say hello, you chat for a while, and in the course of the conversation you mention that you attend WestShore, and you invite them to come to church with you sometime. They look at you with blank expressions on their faces. You think maybe you’ve offended them, but then they startle you by asking, "what’s a church?" You’re a little surprised, but you figure that they must be from some part of the world where there are no churches, so you do the best you can to explain what a church is. And then they ask another question: "Why?". Why do you belong to a church? Why do you go to those meetings every week?
Now in one sense, that’s a pretty unlikely scenario. It would be unusual to run across someone who had no idea at all what a church was. But in another sense, it’s really not that unlikely. Because most of us live next door to people, and work with people, and are friends with people, who have at best a very hazy idea of what church is about. They know it has something to do with singing hymns and putting money in an offering plate, and they’re pretty sure there’s a sermon involved, but that’s about all. Or maybe their idea of church is clear, but clearly wrong. Perhaps their idea of church has been warped by a bad personal experience with a church sometime in their past. Or perhaps all they know about church comes from TV and movies. In fact, I suspect that even most people in churches would have a difficult time clearly explaining what church is, and what it’s about.
And that’s something we need to correct. Because without a firm belief in the value and importance of church, it just becomes a matter of habit. You go because you’ve always gone. And if that’s all it is, then just as you got into the habit of church-going, you can just as easily get out of the habit. Or perhaps you go because you enjoy it. You like the people, or the music, or the pastor, or the Krispy-Kreme donuts. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I hope you do enjoy church. But if that’s the only reason you come, because you enjoy it; then if you stop enjoying it so much - maybe the style of music changes, or they hire a new pastor, or they change from Starbucks coffee to Folgers - then you may just decide not to go to church anymore. What we need is a reason for belonging to a church, and attending church, and participating in the life of a church, that’s deeper than just force of habit, or personal enjoyment. We need a conviction that church is not only beneficial, but absolutely essential. We need to understand that, for anyone who wants to know God and grow spiritually, church is not an optional activity. It is not something that we can do or not do, as we please. It is a basic requirement. It is an essential source of nourishment for our souls.
Perhaps you’re skeptical. That’s natural. We live in a very individualistic society. It goes against our grain to suggest that we need other people, or need a group of people, for anything. "Yes, of course," you might say, "church has its benefits. But I could do without it if I chose. After all, I have the Bible to read. I can pray - I don’t need anybody else for that. I can read Christian books, and I can listen to Christian radio, and I can watch Robert Schuller on TV. And what about Tom Hanks, stranded on that island in the movie Castaway? He didn’t have a church. What about Robinson Crusoe? Are you trying to tell me that people stranded on desert islands can’t know God? Or what about missionaries who go and live in the jungle with remote tribes, where they are the only Christians? They get along all right without a church. So I can too."
Well, with all due respect to Tom Hanks, and Robinson Crusoe, and jungle missionaries, I still say that we need the church. Yes, God can give special grace to those who live outside his normal channels of blessing and power. But for most of us, He has made provision for meeting our spiritual needs through the church, and if we neglect or abandon his appointed means of grace, then He will not supply our spiritual needs in another way that we substitute. Listen to what Christ says:
"Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." - John 15:4-5
This passage is usually understood as referring to our individual relationship with Christ. He is the source of my spiritual life, and so I have to be in fellowship with Him in order to grow spiritually. I have to be constantly drawing on his life, just as a branch has to be constantly drawing nourishment from the vine for its life. I have to be living in obedience to Christ’s commands, and praying, and reading the Bible. And that’s all true. But it’s missing something important. Listen to this:
"The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. . . Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it." - 1 Corinthians 12:12, 27
"And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way" - Ephesians 1:22-23
The church is the visible, physical presence of Jesus Christ in the world. We are not merely his representatives, we are not just his ambassadors. Through the Holy Spirit, Christ lives in us, both individually as believers and corporately as the church. So let’s put these two ideas together. In order to have spiritual life and power, you must abide in Christ; you must remain in Him; you must continue in fellowship with Him. But the church is the body of Christ; His presence in the world. So in order to be in fellowship with Christ; you have to be in fellowship with the church. A person who tries to be a solo Christian is cutting themselves off from the God-appointed means of spiritual vitality and strength, which is the ministry of the Spirit through the church.
On Wednesday, July 4th, we’ll celebrate our freedoms. But I’m afraid that we take for granted our freedom of worship. Since it costs us so little, we tend to value it only a little. If the weather is bad, or if the weather is good, or we’ve stayed up late the night before, or we want to get an early start on our vacation, or we have relatives visiting from out of town, then we can just skip church, and not think much about it. We might miss it a little, but it’s not as if we really needed it. We can just as easily do without it, at least for a week or two. No big deal.
But in countries where this freedom is denied, Christians have a very different view. They will risk being imprisoned, or beaten, or even killed, in order to meet with other believers. In China, for example, there’s no need to advertise your church services. The location and time of church meetings is communicated by word of mouth. In fact, publicity is the last thing you want, because the police will show up and arrest everyone. And yet, people will travel for miles and will pack themselves wall-to-wall in a tiny apartment, just for the precious privilege of being with God’s people. In Sudan, or Vietnam, or India, or Guatemala, or Pakistan, or Indonesia, or Turkmenistan, or in dozens of other countries around the world, Christians who come together as a church risk being arrested, fined, deported, tortured; they risk having their homes and property destroyed or confiscated - they risk everything. And yet, they continue to meet together. Why? Do they need it more than we do? No. But perhaps they just realize their need of it more than we do. The cost of being part of a church in those countries has made them understand how necessary the church is to their spiritual life. They’ve had to count the cost of being part of a church; and so they have counted the value of church also.
Let me ask you, would you do that? Would you show up for church this morning if you knew the police might walk through those doors at any minute? Would this be so precious to you that you would risk what those Christians are risking in order to be here? And if not, why not? Brothers and sisters, I’m not trying to make anyone feel guilty. I’m not saying you should never miss church for any reason. And I am not your judge, so please don’t feel that from now on, whenever you miss church, you have to give me a good reason. Whether you should have been in church, rather than somewhere else, is between you and God. Frankly, when I look out over the congregation each week, I’m just so thankful for those who did show up, that I don’t give much thought to the reasons why some didn’t. But what I’m trying to do is convince you of the tremendous privilege it is for us to come together as the church; what an absolute necessity the church is for the sustenance our spiritual lives. I want you to be committed to the church; not out of guilt or obligation, but because it’s precious to you; because you value it and realize how much you need it.
I’ve been talking about the fact that the church is the body of Christ, and how that’s related to Christ’s command that we remain in Him. The picture of the church as Christ’s body also emphasizes how much we need each other; how interdependent we all are. I’m not talking about people generally, I’m talking about the people in this room. We rely on one another, just like the feet need the eyes to see where they’re going, or the eyes need to feet to get them from one place to another. Every one of us, even the most competent and intelligent and spiritually mature, needs all of the others. None of us is self-sufficient; and likewise, none of us is unnecessary. We need one another’s strengths, and we need one another’s weaknesses, because there can be no giving without someone to receive; there can be no forgiving without someone to forgive; there can be no comforting without someone who needs comfort. We need one another, not just because we need one another’s skills and talents. We need each other because we need Christ; we need the grace of God that comes to us through one another’s lives. Do you believe that? Do you believe that you are both needy, and needed? Are you willing both to serve and to be served? Are you willing both to forgive and be forgiven? Look around you. Those people need you. They need what Christ is planning to do in their lives through you. And you need them. No exceptions. Because that is what it means to be the church. If you close yourself off from the people in this room; if you close yourself off from the church, then you close yourself off from Christ. Because Christ comes to us through His people, through His body, through His church.
The picture of the church as a body also shows how ridiculous it is for Christians to quarrel with one another, because they’re just hurting themselves. It’s like a body in which the hand is fighting with the nose. The hand makes a fist and punches the nose, and in retaliation, the nose stops breathing. Or the mouth bites the hand, and so the hand refuses to put any food into the mouth. How ridiculous!
"The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other." - Galatians 5:14-15
The Bible also speaks of the church as a family. In fact, in the New Testament, the terms "brothers" and "sisters" are used as synonym for "Christians" over 200 times.
"Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers." - Galatians 6:10
Thinking of the church as a family highlights the love and care that we ought to have as a church. Our concern for one another, and our love for one another, ought to be as close as our connection to our blood relatives; in fact, even closer:
"Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple." - Luke 14:26
Our devotion to Christ and to his church; our love for Christ and for one another; ought to be so strong that comparatively speaking, it makes our love for our mother and father and brothers and sisters seem like hatred. Not that we should love them any less; but that we should love Christ, and our brothers and sisters in Christ, even more. In fact, it was our love for one another that Christ identified as the thing that would distinguish us as Christians.
"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." - John 13:35
Not our attendance at meetings, not our "WWJD" bracelets or fish bumper stickers, not whether we drink or smoke or dance or go to R-rated movies; but our love for one another. That’s what marks us as disciples of Jesus Christ. If we have that, we’re real. If we don’t, then we’re frauds. When we give out Bratwurst on Wednesday, it’s not going to be the quality of the sausage that gets people’s attention. It’s going to be the quality of our love for one another. Anybody can cook a hot dog. But genuine love is rare.
Finally, there’s one other aspect of family life that I’d like to highlight. Except for your husband or wife; or any adopted children, you don’t choose your family members. You had no voice in the kind of parents you got. Your brothers and sisters were not selected by you. Even your children - you may have had some influence over the timing of their arrival, but their personality, temperament, size, shape, appearance - almost everything else was completely out of your control.
And the same is true of the church. We don’t choose who will become a part of God’s family; He chooses. Sometimes, just like in human families, he puts people together in a church family that are not an obvious match. Even in our relatively small congregation, we have quite a range of personalities, backgrounds, vocations, political views. Why is that? Because God wants to use those people in our lives to refine our character. He wants us to learn to love one another, even those who are different from us, even those who occasionally get on our nerves, even those whom we don’t understand, even those whom we might not ordinarily choose as friends. And we didn’t choose them. That’s the point. God did. And he did it for a good reason. Because he wanted to reveal His power and glory in us, in his church. He wanted our love for one another to be something that couldn’t be explained as just the result of similar interests or compatible personalities; He wanted our love for one another to be something so amazing that it could only be explained as the result of His grace. And as I look out on this "motley crew" of people, and consider how different you all are, and yet how real your love for one another is, I know that I’m amazed by it. I thank God for it, because I know that nothing other than His Spirit could have produced it. And I pray that it will only become stronger and deeper and more real in the months and years to come.
(For an .rtf file of this and other sermons, see www.journeychurchonline.org/messages.htm)
