Trinity Baptist Church October 13, 2002
How Christ builds the Church
It’s His Church!
Matthew 28:16-20, Acts 1:8
Charles Schultz was one of the best social critics and theologians of our time. He didn’t write books or make speeches. He drew cartoons. For decades, Peanuts was the creative platform he used to make comment and teach truth. One classic cartoon had Charlie Brown at camp, where he took part in archery. When one of the other characters comments on Charlie Brown’s amazing ability to hit bulls-eyes, Charlie says, "well, I do it a little differently. I first shoot the arrow and then I go and draw a bulls-eye around where it hits." The point is, you can appear effective at just about anything if you draw the bulls-eyes after you shoot!
People might observe that when we moderns "do church" we also draw the bulls-eyes after we shoot. What I mean is we often make the church be anything we want it to be. We re-design it to suit our tastes and still call it by its 2000-year-old name. But unlike Charlie Brown, we don’t have that luxury. All we have to do is take a peek at the NT and we realize that when Jesus Christ founded the Church He had a defined, concrete design in mind. What grabs our attention more is a declaration Jesus made in Matthew: He said, I will build My Church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.
Church is not a cozy club or comfortable place we invent or define, it’s a building work of the Son of God, in which we may participate. It’s not a meeting of believers on Sunday morning, church is a growing movement of close followers of Christ; He calls us to give up our small ambitions and play a role in that. No passes, no exceptions.
I want to begin today spending several weeks to take a hard look at How Christ builds the Church. The NT lets us know right off the bat, that it’s His Church, not ours, therefore, if we need to constantly re-align ourselves with His original design. We begin by looking at the last verses of Matthew’s gospel which Charles read for us. Look at Matthew 28:16-20
You probably know Matthew 28 records the last commission Jesus gave His followers. He had spent most of 3 years investing in these first disciples. He’s about to give them an assignment. This is the capstone of His earthly teaching ministry. To this odd assortment of people--fishermen, a tax collector, a political activist and the like, He communicates: "I’ve invested My life in yours. I have accomplished what I came to the Earth to do: die for the sins of the world. Now I want you to take My message and turn this little band of disciples into world-wide force of Christ-followers who will take on my character and my objective."
From His commission, we understand: Because it’s His Church . . .
1. . . .Jesus determines the objective. (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8)
What is His objective for the Church that would be born just a few weeks after this commission was delivered? His objective is that His Church will become a pervading, universal, cross-cultural body. Jesus isn’t content with His Church being Jewish, or later, European, or American. And He’s also not content that men and women and boys and girls in India or Africa or Asia or North America should go right on worshipping whatever gods or goddesses they already worshipped. He is the Son of God Who has come and died for the sins of all the world; He will now very rightfully receive worship, not only by these few but by people from all around God’s world. There’s no thought on His part that He will "fit in" and become one of the world’s religions.
Everyone, everywhere should hear His Name; all over planet earth, people should know that God’s Son came to die on the cross for them personally; and they should all have the opportunity to respond to His message of forgiveness of sin and eternal life.
Matthew 28 says that Jesus wants His church to make disciples -- close followers in and from every nation. The term in Greek is "ta ethne"; Jesus desires followers not just from every land mass but from every single ethnic group.
Revelation describes how that effort will culminate, when it says that in heaven a great throng of worshippers will assemble from every tribe and tongue and nation and people. God will be glorified eternally by what?s been called the culture of heaven -- people from every corner of His creation.
Look at it: beginning at verse 18-20. Jesus declares, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given Me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
Jesus says All authority has been given Me. Over in Ephesians 4, Paul writes that all power and authority was laid again in Jesus’ hands when He rose from the dead. There is no angel nor demon, king, president nor dictator, nor any other authority in all heaven or on earth which is not now subordinate to the risen Christ. He is the absolute Sovereign over all that is knowable by created beings. Ephesians also says, that Jesus’ authority extends very specifically to the Church. He founded it and He is its Head.
No apostle or missionary or pastor or elder or deacon or founding member has any claim to ownership or headship in an authentic NT church. It is by His authority that Jesus says, go therefore, extend my authority to every far flung corner of the world. It’s a huge task, but that?s His objective. For these first disciples and for us; if we?ve got any other objective or plan in mind for the church, we need to repent; we need to lay them aside, so we can give ourselves to this one.
He wants His name known. The rightful Son of God who is worshipped by every angel in heaven, wants to be worshipped on earth. He wants followers. He wants to be obeyed. If we’re busy doing anything else as a Church, we have to conclude that we have ignored His authority and thrown off His objective and we are doing our own thing. If that becomes true, we’re not His Church. He has determined the objective for His Church.
Secondly, because it’s His church. . .
2. . . . Jesus commissions the outcome. (Matthew 28:18-20)
By outcome, I mean what the Church produces. If we were a business or a factory what would be our product? Just like we get off target when it comes to the reason and purpose for the church’s existence, we can get off target when it comes to the product the church ought to produce. For some of us, it might be great programs that keep us coming. For others it might be strong, good music and worship. Others think the chuch ought to be about encouraging fellowship. Or strong doctrinal teaching.
What’s the outcome Jesus commissions? -- to multiply followers. He says, Go therefore and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. . .
For the Church, to be the Church, it needs to take people who don?t know Christ and turn them into close followers of His. That’s "job one". We do not have another.
Let’s have a grammar lesson in verses 19 and 20. Jesus’ words contain four verb forms. Look at them with me. Each verb form looks like it might be a command in English. But three of the four are not.
They are go baptizing teaching to obey.
In the Greek, Jesus’ words contain only one imperative verb; the other three are participles, meaning they revolve around the one command: the only command is make disciples.
At the heart of what Jesus tells His followers, just before He leaves them, is make disciples. Develop close followers. Jesus was saying: I want more just like you. In the gospels,Jesus defines disciples as
people who
would follow Him (they lay down their desires and take up His)
who take on His character (as they walk with Him, He transforms them)
who obey His Word (they’re not people who do their own thing)
who represent Him in their culture. (their lives and their mouths paint a picture of Jesus)
That’s the kind of followers Jesus wants. The kind He wants to make out of each one of us. Not Peter Pan Christians--the sort who never grow up. But intimate, close followers.
He also informs us how to go about developing these kind of followers. There’s kind of a three-step process involved, again in those non-command verbs.
We start by going: Going means we go where the people are. We don’t expect them to come to us, we go to them. We build relationships -- at work -- at school -- in our neighborhood, wherever we are, we become people-oriented. Jesus did not just mean, go to them, the implication of the word go is we go to people who need to hear His message. We share Jesus Christ. We share what He’s done in our lives and the truth of the gospel. We can’t begin making disciples unless we are where the people are.
Baptizing is the second step. People come to Christ and they’re baptized, they are identified with Christ, they declare their new allegiance in their baptism.
The third step is crucial, especially for us in Western Christianity who like to be cerebral with our faith. Notice Jesus doesn’t say simply, teaching. He says, teaching them to obey. We don?t simply win people to Christ; we expose them to truth; we move them toward a close personal, relationship with Christ Himself and in that, they learn how to obey Him, how to love Him, how to walk with Him.
Through that process, the outcome is close followers. The number of disciples is multiplied. Just like when Jesus uttered the command, He wants more disciples today; that’s how He builds His Church in every generation.
Third, because it’s His Church. . .
3. . . . Jesus provides the resources. (Acts 1:8)
Imagine you were there. Jesus has just told this rag-tag group of people--all of whom ran away the night He was arrested: I want you to take this thing to the whole world. Most of us would answer, "yeah, right!" And then the excuses would begin. But Lord, I don’t know how to talk to people. I can’t stand up front. I’m afraid of rejection. Let’s hire someone to do it for us. Let’s form a committee on world evangelism and let them figure it out.
Those excuses would all be valid, IF Jesus had said, "I’m leaving, it’s all up to you, get at it."
He didn’t. He provide every resource necessary. And he took a group of runaways and turned them into confident powerful witnesses who turned their world upside down.
Verse 20: I will be with you until the end of the age. With those words, Jesus told His first followers, and He tells us; "you’ll never go it alone". He didn’t assign them or us some impossibly huge task and walk away. He told us I will never leave you nor forsake you; in John 14, I will not leave you without a Comforter.
It’s vital that you and I understand that the 21st Century is no different than the 1st in terms of resources. Just like this odd bunch of disciples took on the established religion in Jerusalem and took on the culture and religion and power of Rome, Jesus expects that His Church today will move out for Him, understanding that He is fully present with us.
To reinforce that, He said in Acts 1:8, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the remotest parts of the earth.
He is with us always. He gives us His Spirit, to live in us and to empower us. The task is not unimaginable because the resources are supernatural. You know what this means??
God has already dealt with your excuses and mine. "I can’t" won’t wash. He never expected us to.
The task of the Church is for us. For all of us who belong to Christ and for everyone He’s made a member of His worldwide body. Every generation of the Church has to decide are we going to be part of what Jesus will do in building His Church?
As usual, when there’s truth, there are
implications
The obvious first one: we as Trinity must give ourselves to Christ’s objective and outcome. If we?re not engaged in cross-cultural ministry and intentional discipleship, we are dead in the water as a body.
The second is individual: each one of us, down to the last person at Trinity, needs to engage and be a real part of what Christ is doing. Let me urge you not to stay under the delusion that He cannot or will not use you in building up His Church. That’s unbiblical and deceptive thinking.
Application
Where are you when it comes to Christ’s objective and outcome for His church? Are you on the same page with Him? Are you moving every closer in following Him? Becoming His disciple? Are you intentionally putting yourself in places and with people where you will grow? And if you are, are making yourself available to help others come to know Christ and grow? As we will see in the next weeks, Jesus’ design for His church is for every part to be engaged according to His purposes.
