The Fountain of Life Church: THE CHURCH Part 2

“If it’s not about Jesus, it’s not about anything”

(Motto of the Fountain of Life Church)

Sermon Series Given at New Life in Christ Church Cambridge, Ohio beginning 6/4/16

PART 2 OF 3

SPS: The Sermon Purpose Statement is to address the five following questions:

1. What is the Church? 2. Why do we need it? 3. What is its purpose? 4. What does it look like? 5. Where is the Church?

THEME: Guiding this study will be two scriptures which shall be linked together.

Matthew 16:18: “Jesus said, ‘I will build my Church.’”

Ephesians 5:25: “…as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it.”

Brethren, this means that Jesus is building His church. And He loved it so much that He died for it. His love infuses everything.

2. WHY WE NEED THE CHURCH

The Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance indicates that the Greek word church (ekklesia) is used 114 times in the New Testament. Dr. Mike Morrison, of Grace Communion International (GCI), defines “ekklesia” as a Greek word meaning “assembly.” The Strong’s concordance word # 1577, “ekklesia” means literally a calling out or called out ones.

These called out ones are members on earth, saints in heaven or both. Yes, friends, we may be called individually, but we as individuals are also called out into an assembly, called out as members of something. That something is the Body of Christ, the Church. In Acts 5:11 we see that, “Great fear seized the whole church.” This shows that church means people not a building, or structure or location.

You no doubt, know many people who say they believe in Jesus, yet they do not attend any of His churches. The following sentence is a typical justification for not attending a church. “I know those people in that church. If they are Christians I don’t want any part of it.” In a short time, those people become any organized group of Christians and that one church morphs into all churches. Another common response is this. “I don’t need a Church. I have TV ministries. I have internet churches. I’m ok alone.” Let us consider the advice of Saint Paul in 1 Cor. 10:12: “Wherefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall.” Let us consider1 Pet. 5:8: “Your adversary, the Devil, walks about as a roaring lion, seeking all whom he may devour.” In 21^st Century paraphrase it seems that Peter is warning us to get in out of the rain. Get into the safety of the building. The figurative building in this paraphrase is the body of Christ, the Church.

What does Jesus say about this? Jesus speaks directly through the Holy Scripture. Through the human author of the book of Hebrews, He says in Heb. 10:25, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” The advice found from Jesus, the Creator, the Savior, the Lord in His inspired word is, in 21^st century paraphrase, “Don’t try to go it alone.”

Dr. Morrison says, “A local congregation can give us a sense of belonging, of being involved with other believers. It can give us some spiritual safety, so that we are not blown around by strange ideas.”

Brethren, the local church provides friendship, encouragement. Yes, it can provide a stage for us to display works of mercy, to put our gifts to use.

Human beings need each other. There are lone wolves. Grizzle bears prefer to be alone. Great white sharks are often alone. But God created many creatures to need each other. We may like to think of ourselves as proud lone wolves, rebelling against the system. Nevertheless, even our heroic lone wolves need the system; that is, they need the system to have something against which to rebel. Without the system, the rebels are nothing. We are never alone, and the Church is really our family. Saint Augustine called the Church on earth our Mother.

Dr. Morrison also said this, “Individuals who try to be Christian without the church fail to use their strengths to help the people the Bible says we should be helping. The church is a mutual-aid society, and we help each other, knowing that the day may come (and in fact is already here) that we will need to be helped.”

Why do we need the church? Let’s go to the Bible. Can we detect a theme? Key on the phrase “one another” and consider the place of love.

Can we detect a theme?

Gal. 5:13 – Through love, serve one another.

Notice, service is not through duty, it is not through commandment or moral code, it is not through custom…it is through love. Paul did not mince words in 1 Corinthians 13:3: “And if I give all my goods to feed the poor, and give my body to be burned, and if I have not love, it profits me nothing.” Service without love is legalism.

Rom. 12:10 – be kindly affectionate to one another in honor giving preference to one another.

Notice the working of love. It is impossible to be kindly affectionate without love.

Heb. 10:25 - Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together as is the custom of some. But exhort one another as you see the day approaching.

Notice, we assemble to exhort one another. Exhortation requires two. Two means relationship.

Rom. 15:7 – receive one another, just as Christ received us to the Glory of God

Notice, receiving one another is a foundation of building a relationship.

1 Cor. 12:25 - That there should be no schism in the body, that the members care for one another.

Notice, we care for each other. Care is an important element in relationship.

Eph. 4:32 – Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God in Christ forgave you.

Notice: Can anybody be tenderhearted out of a sense of duty, obligation or custom? A moral code cannot produce tender feelings.

Col. 3:13 - and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you must also do.

Notice, forgiveness requires two. Two means relationship.

Is there a theme? These verses are painting a portrait of community; of people interacting together and the motive of the interactions is LOVE. These are not examples of people in isolation.

THE IMPORTANCE OF LOVE

That is why is it important that visitors to our congregations can see that that there is concern and forgiveness in the congregation; that visitors experience hospitality. Then they can know that the Holy Spirit is living in the church through its members.

If there are tongues and miracles and manifestations, but coldness or indifference shown to visitors and shown to each other, the Spirit is not living in that Church. If there are the finest doctrine and the most eloquent preaching, but coldness or indifference shown to visitors and shown to each other, the Spirit is not living in that Church.

I, as a pastor, tend to think that when there is peace, unity and respect between congregation members, then that is a greater manifestation of the Spirit than tongues itself. In fact, the peace, unity and respect allows the members hold different ideas about the rapture, or evolution, or water baptisms or Holy Spirit Baptism, or tongues or miracles without dividing the congregation.

That congregation focuses upon Jesus as the Captain of their salvation, not upon a doctrine or theory or a gift. That peace, unity and respect is the product of LOVE.

And if there grows a desire to preach Jesus, then there will be spiritual manifestations in that congregation, suitable to that congregation, and they will bring honor to the Father through the Son in that congregation’s unique way. As people are different, and gifts are different, congregations are different.

Why do we need the Church? Because, we are called out from something and called into something. We are called out from the world. If there is no church, then we are called into nothing and we are still in the world.

The Church is that thing into which we are called. It is the something into which we are members. Without the Church, we are all isolated individuals and members of nothing. Without the church, there is no ground to build relations with other members of the Body of Christ.

In closing this section, we again ask, “why do we need the church?” The very simple answer is because Jesus thinks the church is important. We know this from Matthew 16:18, Jesus says, “I will build my Church.”

If Jesus expresses personal, hands-on-involvement with anything, we can rest assured that we need it. Therefore, if maturity is really trusting Jesus, then let us trust Him and accept that we need that Church.

3. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH?

Three Purposes: Worship – Teaching – Ministry

1. Worship. John 4:23 is the narrative of the woman at the well. Jesus says we "worship in spirit and truth. The Father seeks such to worship him". 1 Peter 2:9 has this to say: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.” Hebrews 13:15 advises that we are called to “continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise.” The Church provides the opportunity to gather together, sing praises, pray to him and listen to his word. Hebrews 10:25: “Do not forsake the gathering of yourselves together.”

2. Teaching: Matt: 28:19-20 advises us that Jesus said we are to "go into the world, teaching all to observe" what He taught us. Peter tells us, 1 Peter 1:12, that Jesus revealed to the Church "things which the angels wished to look into". Here is a little know purpose of the Church found in Ephesians 3:10. “The intent of the church is to make known the manifold wisdom of God to the principalities and power in heavenly places.” Yes, the Church teaches the angels. Acts 2:42 shows that the early church was praised because they “devoted themselves to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

We may pray alone or together, but consider, can we fellowship alone? We may eat alone, but consider, can we break bread alone? Once again, the church is the excellent setting for practicing these important activities.

3. Ministry: Gal. 6:10… “As we have opportunity, let us do good unto all people. Especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” Human beings understand that we have duties to our physical families. This is common to all and is motivated by storge love. Paul, in Galatians, indicates that we have a duty to our church families and to the world at large. And this action is motivated by agape love. Agape is found in the Church and not in the world. With that in mind we look to Jesus’ words in Matthew 22:39 that the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbors as ourselves. Loving the unlovable; that is ministry. Ephesians 2:10 plainly states “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.” Good works certainly include feeding the poor, visiting the sick and those in prison.

When the motivation is agape, those works become truly godly works to be seen in the world, done by His children for His glory. Yet we must never forget that the greatest work, the greatest need in the entire world is the gospel. Yes, we should never ignore that because no other organization will preach the gospel. Consider this, no other organization is equipped to do that.

In part 3 of 3 question 4 “what does the church look like?” and question 5 “where is the church?” will be addressed.

Benediction: May God our Father and Jesus, His Son and Our Lord and Savior, bless you all with grace, joy, peace, and love.Amen.