I know that many of us are planning on helping out at the Leukemia Benefit right after church for 3-year old Christian Bentley, so I am going to offer a shorter message this morning so we can get up there on time.
There are some who might not understand why we cut our sermons a little short for different reasons, but James said to be "doers" of the word and not merely listeners only. And one of the best ways to "do" is to take the love of Jesus we learn inside the church to those who are outside our church. And today, we shall be doing just that at the Leukemia Benefit we co-sponsored for little Christian.
My message this morning will be about the church. There seems to be some debate, not only about who really started the church, but even more debate over how to handle the church. In some churches, you will see one person in charge, while in others you will see a group of men in charge. In some churches, you will find the focus is primarily on those outside the church and in some you will find the focus entirely on those within the church.
And in today’s world, you will find some churches that claim to be Godly churches that teach many ungodly things. So it behooves us, from time to time, to sit back and take a good look at the church to find out who started the church, what the purpose of the church is, and how, as the Family of God, the church affects us.
First of all, the church was …
1. CREATED BY JESUS HIMSELF
MATTHEW 16:13-18
‘When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
“But what about you,” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”
There have been many who have read this passage and thought that Jesus was going to build his church on Peter; that Peter would be the head of the church. Jesus was not referring to Peter as the rock, but was referring to Peter’s belief and faith in Jesus as the rock.
And surely, that belief and faith in Jesus as our Christ is the rock that the church is built on, is it not? For without the belief in Jesus as Christ, or without the faith in His promises, we would have a nice social club, but we certainly would not have a church. So, we not only see in this passage that Jesus is the architect of the church, but that he built it upon a foundation in Himself, as the Messiah.
Let us keep in mind that the church is not God’s first building project, either. The first thing God built was the universe; which would house the earth He built; and that earth would house the church He built.
PSALM 102:25
‘In the beginning, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.’
ISAIAH 28:16
‘ … See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.’
Jesus Christ is the founder of the church, and as such, He is the cornerstone. A cornerstone is the block that identifies a building. When we build our lives on the foundation of Jesus, we will be identified as Christians because He will be our Cornerstone.
Many churches call themselves Christian churches, but do not see Jesus as anything other than a good man or a prophet of his time. But Scripture tells us of the perilous line they are walking.
1 JOHN 2:23
‘No one who denies the Son has the Father …’
The word “Christian” means, “being like Christ”. How can a church, or people, call themselves “Christian” if they are not trying to be the same as Christ? The answer is - they can’t. Satan has pulled the wool over many eyes, and they can no longer see the truth. This verse clearly tells us that if we do not have a relationship with Christ, there is no way we can have a relationship with God – period.
So, those so-called churches who espouse their belief that any old road will take you to Heaven, or that some other leader is the Messiah, well they are just wrong. They have no right to call themselves Christians because they do not follow Christ, and they have no right to call themselves a “church” because Jesus Christ owns the church!
It is time we stop thinking about what we want the Bible to say, and start thinking about what the Bible does say!
So, now we clearly see the church was not built by anyone other than Jesus. And any church that exalts anyone else is not a church that belongs to Christ. Since we know Jesus is the legal head of the church, we need to understand …
2. WHY THE CHURCH WAS CREATED
The job of the church is not to impact the church, but to impact the world by impacting its members. It’s like a huddle in a football game. Would you go to a football game and pay $25.00 or more for a ticket just to watch them stand there for two hours and huddle? No, because that’s not the point of the game! You want to know if the planning they did in the huddle will make a positive difference in the game.
And what Jesus wants to see is, not what the church does when we get together for our Sunday morning huddle, but what impact we make for Him after we leave the huddle. He wants us to leave the huddle and make a big difference for Him in the rest of the game.
But in many cases, Christians are only willing to go to church and listen, then go home and do nothing the rest of the week for Jesus. The problem is that the church has failed to help its members focus on what Christ wants. And this seems to always happen when the church turns its own focus inward and starts concentrating more on the church, rather than the people. Many a church has replaced its vision with its memories. They focus more on how they are supposed to do church than on why they are supposed to do church.
But to do the work for which it was intended, the church must always focus outward, and that requires something many churches don’t want to look at; that requires constant change. The purpose of the church is to stay abreast with the changes in society so that we can impact it for Jesus. If the church loses pace with society, it becomes a dinosaur, and will soon be a place where where their comfort replaces their calling.
A church must change as the people around it change, or it will lose its significance in the community. I had an elder once that said the church should always remain as is; that if it was good enough for him to grow up in yesterday, it should be good enough for others to grow up in today. I reminded him that the church he grew up in was different than the church his father grew up in, and that was even different than the church his grandfather grew up in.
Using that mentality, we should all be exactly like the first century church, shouldn’t we? But there are no churches today like the church in ACTS. Why? Because if the church had not changed to stay abreast with society, the church would have died. If the church doesn’t change, it soon becomes a memorial to a by-gone place in time, irrelevant and useless. The church would have been like the bright candle that burns for only a moment and then slowly flickers out.
Jesus gave us our goal when He told us to go and make disciples. That is the goal of a church body, or the Christians within the church organization; to take the message of Jesus to others outside the church. And when we do this, we will see those who choose to follow Jesus, too. And then, we then bring them into the local church and continue to teach, encourage, and love them. We do all we can to help them have a deeper relationship with Jesus through a greater knowledge of Him. And when they reach maturity in the word, they are supposed to repeat the cycle by going outside the church and touching others for Christ just as they were.
A man was driving to work when a truck ran a stop sign, broadsiding his car and knocking him out. A passerby pulled him from the wreck and revived him. As he came to, he began to struggle and panic. They finally got him calmed down, and then they asked him why he woke up struggling so much. He said that when he came to, he was looking at the flashing SHELL sign across the street, but that somebody was standing in front of the ‘S’. He thought he had gone to HELL!
We laugh and find humor in that, because we fail to see the tragedy of that story. Too many people are not being reached for Jesus, and when they eventually die, they will go straight to hell. That is why it is so vital that we begin a campaign now, and work together as a team, to make an impact in our area for Jesus Christ.
What is the definition of a team? It is: ‘Two or more people working together in unity for a common goal.’
We need to work as a team. I want you to write this down if you have a pen with you.
BE A T.E.A.M. (Together, Everyone Accomplishes Ministry)
If you, the members here at CrossRoads Church will work together as a team, not only will our church grow in numbers, it will grow in stability, and the number of believers in Jesus will also grow.
Let me tell you how I personally feel towards our team and the work we do as a team.
· If anything goes bad, I did it
· If something goes just so-so, WE did it
· but if something goes fantastic, YOU did it
That is how you work best as a team, by putting the team’s objectives above your own personal objectives. You will notice in basketball games that nobody likes a player hogs the ball and tries to sink every basket by himself. Coaches preach teamwork for the sake of success.
But if we are to operate as a team, we need to know that the team we are on is …
3. THE FAMILY OF GOD
God has expectations for His children. He has given each one of us different kinds of talents and He expects us to use them. In MATTHEW, He said that if we are faithful in a few things here on earth, He will make us rulers over many things in Heaven. That tells us that we are to use the tools He gave us to do the job He gave us.
Last week I preached on the parable of the talents that were given to the servants. Two servants put their talents to use and doubled the amount. The third servant hid his talents and his Master was angry because he didn’t use them. We have been given talents to use for Jesus Christ, and we cannot afford to hide them or we will be thrown into the dark of night, also.
In 2 PETER, it says that the Lord wants us to grow stronger in faith and knowledge in the Lord. We can only do that by encouraging each other to read and study His word.
And, as children of the most High God, we receive an abundance of forgiveness from our Father. In MATTHEW 18, we are told to forgive those who wrong us seventy times seven. In other words, keep forgiving continuously.
We seem to think that if a person keeps doing something wrong, there is a point when we use some tough love and tell them to sink or swim, don’t we? We seem to think that after a while, enough is enough and there is no more forgiving until we see the complete change in a person.
But think about that. Is that the same attitude we want God to have with us when we sin? No, we want Him to keep forgiving us as long as we keep messing up, don’t we? And God wants us to keep forgiving others, too. See, that is the kind of things you learn in church, and as you learn things like this, you get stronger in faith and closer to God. And, just like He promises; the closer you get to God, the closer He will get to you!
My dad gave me an abundance of love and guidance as I was growing up, and I owed him for that. The only way I could repay that debt I owed is to be the best son I could be. Likewise, Jesus has offered us forgiveness in His blood, and eternal love at the Table of Grace. Doesn’t it stand to reason that we might also owe Him now?
ROMANS 13:8
‘Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law.’
And, as Christians, if we love each other, we will help carry one another’s burdens.
GALATIANS 6:2
‘Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.’
John said, ‘How great is the love the Father has lavished upon us – that we should be called the children of God.’
As members of God’s family, we are obligated to keep God’s law and we are obligated to help each other. We know that life is going to be tough for all of us, and during the overwhelming times we go through, we need to be able to lean on, and be supported by, our church family.
As He hung on the cross, Jesus looked down at His mother, and then He looked at John and said, “Here is your mother.” In this unselfish act of love, Jesus used his dying breaths to care for His sheep – His family, and He made sure that we would care for each other in His absence.
We are a purpose-driven church. What does that mean? It means that this church knows its purpose and strives to live its purpose. That purpose is to be what Christ intended His church to be – and like the Army slogan, we will be all that we can be - for Christ.
And there is no such thing in the church as a “maintenance only” attitude. That is where the church focuses on keeping the memory alive of how they used to have church, just like that elder I was telling you about did.
The church is like a plane or a bicycle; once we stop going forward - we fall. To stay alive and relevant for Jesus, we must maintain a forward momentum for Jesus.
And to maintain that forward momentum, we must be a church that is filled with prayer and belief in prayer. 1 THESSALONIANS 5:17 tells us to never stop praying, and JAMES 5:15 tells us that a prayer offered in faith will heal us and forgive us. So how do you offer a prayer in faith?
In MARK 11, Jesus tells us that if we have the faith of a small mustard seed, we can move mountains. Jesus is talking of having the faith to move the mountains of obstacles Satan puts in front of us to distract us from Jesus. Let me explain how to have that faith.
God’s word is so powerful it can create things. It created the universe. It created the stars and animals. In fact, God spoke everything into existence but man. With us, He laid hands upon us by scooping up clay and forming us. And instead of speaking life into us, He gave us a kiss and breathed air into us. We were made by the touch of God. And because God loved us so much, He gave us the promise of His word.
ISAIAH 55:11 tells us that God’s word will never return empty. And that promise gives us the ability to have absolute faith in Him, whether it is in prayer or deed. When we pray, pray those things that are not, as though they were. When you do, you will begin to believe and have faith that God will indeed answer your prayers.
And our prayer is that you become closer to Christ than ever before: That your entire life will be wrapped around your love for, and your belief in, Jesus as your Savior. Will you take the opportunity this morning to do just that, as we go into our time of .....
INVITATION
