Defining The Role Of The Church
Scripture Reference: Matthew 16:13-18
Introduction
We are talking about the subject of church today. And speaking about church, a couple of months back we conducted a survey within the congregation to help the ministerial staff to preach a series of relevant messages to the congregation.
The results are finally tallied and today begins that series. The first statement that was asked sets up these messages because without clearly examining our thoughts concerning it we won’t be around for the other statements to be examined and expounded upon.
The first statement was, “When I come to church, I come for…46% of you who participated responded with praise and worship, 23% stated fellowship, 18% wrote down to learn more about God/to study the Word of God, and 13% of you recorded “to receive spiritual guidance and healing.”
So the overwhelming majority sees praise and worship as a priority for coming to church, while the other responses are way behind. So that tells me that praise and worship must be relevant on Sunday morning, but it can also tell me that if praise and worship is off you are more apt to skip church on Sunday.
Allow me to challenge you on what the church should represent to us beyond praise and worship. There is nothing wrong with praise and worship, I love it and value it’s place in the service. I also highly value the other responses to the survey. But lets see how it all comes together.
In his book, Spiritual Disciplines Within The Church, Donald Whitney asks the question, “Did you go to church last Sunday? If you did, you are in the minority of Americans. Although Americans has one of the highest percentages of churchgoers of any nation, more than half the people in this country did not go to church this past Lord’s day.”
Ask why people didn’t attend church and you’ll get a variety of responses, but most of them fall into about a dozen categories. Some say they don’t go to church because they are turned off by what seems the endless asking for money.
Others stay away because church services are boring. A percentage of those who have no interest in church say the sermons are irrelevant to their lives. Some refuse to go because when they do attend they leave feeling guilty.
Some stay because they feel their lifestyles are too unacceptable, and still for others it is because Sunday is their only day off and they want to spend it recuperating from working all week to maintain a certain lifestyle.
It has been discovered that a crisis or some catastrophic event can drive people to church but not necessarily keep people in church. After September 11, church attendance surged all across America. By year’s end, however, the mainstream and religious media alike reported that church attendance has dropped back to pre-September 11 levels.
That is in spite of all the Bible translations, all the study materials, all the Bible teachers, all the Christian radio and television broadcasts, all the Christian bookstores, scores of Christian colleges and universities, and hundreds of different Christian ministries, pastors and staff, church still seems to mis-defined in our culture today.
In Matthew 16:18, Jesus says, “I will build My church.” On the surface it appears that He has indeed built quite a church. According to the American Church List (1989), we have 330,000 Protestant churches in our nation, with a total membership 112 million people. The Gallup organization reports that 50 million Americans claim to be “born again.”
Transition
Let me give you a pre-definition for what the church is. For we have mistakenly defined itself in terms of a building where people gather once a week so they feel good enough to make it through the next week. That’s not the purpose of the church; it’s merely a benefit.
The sole purpose of the church is to be the dynamic, living body through which God can accomplish His work to His glory.
I. Understanding Who Jesus Is
Towards the end of His ministry on earth, Jesus had a heart-to-heart talk with His disciples about His identity. He wanted to know what His disciple’s thought of what other people said about Him and they personally understood about Him.
Jesus wanted to know if there was any difference between what the world thought about Him and what they thought about Him.
Anybody remember how the disciples responded? They in essence said, “On the streets some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
Then Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter, always the first to speak, jumped right in and answered for the group: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
In effect, Peter said, “Jesus, we’ve all talked about this. We had to decide a while back if giving up our fishing and families to follow You was worth it. We concluded that yes, You are the Messiah. You are the Son of God – the one we have been waiting for.
Now the question is, “What is the significance of Peter’s revelation?” Here’s the significance, once we recognize and agree upon who Jesus is, we have started to have church.
When we agree who is and choose to follow Him, we begin to live and function as His people --- the church. The thought of church doesn’t begin with us, it beings with Him.
Praise and worship is good, fellowshipping is good, learning and studying is good, getting spiritual guidance and healing is good, but Jesus is better. Why?
Because without Christ there can be no true Praise and worship. Without Christ there can be no true fellowship. Without Christ there can be no true knowledge of God. Without Christ there can be no solid spiritual guidance and healing.
If we are saved, it is because Jesus found us. He singled us out --- through no merit of our own --- paid the price, revealed Himself to us, and called us to follow Him.
If you understand who is in your life then all other things will be conformed to the knowledge of Him in here and out there.
Illustrate – 3D Movies and events (like Universal Studios)…the screen is fuzzy and out of focus, but with the glasses on…things jump right out at you…some of us are looking at life and it’s fuzzy and out of focus…with Christ things jump out…
Understanding who Jesus is should also lead us to understanding what Jesus said.
II. Understanding What Jesus Said
We must understand that coming church helps us to maintain our spiritual frame of reference. It is our moral compass.
Coming to church weekly helps to move from a group of religious-looking people to the living body through which God can accomplish his work and display His glory.
In our text, Jesus’ statement did not end with the words “I will build My Church.” He also said, “And the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
That statement alone means that our view of the church must go deeper because Jesus is implying that you’ve got something that the Devil wants to put a halt to.
Hades is the place of punishment for the spirits of dead unbelievers. The point of entry for such is death. This, then, is a Jewish phrase referring to death. Even death, the ultimate weapon of Satan (cf. Heb. 2:14, 15), has no power to stop the church.
Death will have no impact against us as believers. Death will not overcome, overpower, or overtake what Jesus is building.
If your are experiencing death to your spiritual life, death to your relationships, death to your finances, death to your marriage, death to your family, check who is do the building.
Jesus in essence says when I am the builder no matter what Hades throw at you it will not prevail. When you set out to build church your way, when you set out to define church your way, when we set out to redefine the agenda for the church our way…we will not be a powerful, redeeming influence in the streets.
If he said hell couldn’t stop His church, then hell cannot stop it. So if we are being stopped, then we must not be His church.
But we can overcome where we are to becoming who we are in Christ Jesus alone. My stop is only a temporary pause in my life because I realize what I have in Christ.
III. Understanding What Jesus Gave
19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven
He said I will give the keys of the kingdom. The keys represent authority. Nobody else has the key to your house but the one you give it to. Nobody else has the key to your car but the one you give it to.
No other people group has the keys to the kingdom but the one whom Jesus gave it to --- the church.
He didn’t give the keys to the politicians and political vehicles of the times; he didn’t give the keys to the social institutions of his time or our time; he didn’t give the keys to the ungodly men and women for self-gratification and self-absorption.
He gave the keys to the folks…
who were sinners but now saints;
who were lost but now found;
who were consumed by lust but now covered by love;
who were dead spiritually, but now alive legally;
who were a living a mess, but now a living miracle;
who were in the dark, but now in the light
who were facing the judgment of God, but now having the grace of God.
We don’t need to come to the building to be the church, but when we come together we show that we identify corporately with the one who has suffered, bled, died, was buried, but got up early Sunday morning.
Conclusion
We ought to keep coming to church because the Bible says so, we ought to keep coming to church to help prevent backsliding and apostasy, we ought to keep for spiritual encouragement and fellowship;
We ought to keep coming to public express our obedience to the great commandments, we ought keep coming to church as a testimony of our support for God’s work, we ought keep coming to church so that we can hear the Word of God for our very lives.
We need to keep on coming to help build up our immune system against spiritual AIDS.
