The Church Defined or Described?

THE CHURCH

Matthew 16:18

The goal of this study is to see if the church is defined by the Scriptures or is the church described by the Scriptures.  This study was given at Grace Community Church of Madison County Ky.

Matthew 16:18 is the first time that the word "church" is used in the New Testament and it was Jesus who first used the term church. The thrust of the Lord's teaching was that He himself was going to build the church and that it would be indestructible. That means that the church that Jesus promised to build then is still in existence today. It's interesting that from what has been recorded here by Matthew that Jesus did not attempt to define the church for them and apparently none of the disciples asked him what he meant by what he said. It certainly is something to ponder.

Part of the answer may be that Jesus used a word that can be translated into English as church and Peter and the other disciples would have been familiar with.

Why Do I Need the Church?

WHY DO I NEED CHURCH?

(John 13:1-17 ESV)

I have been a part of the church for the vast majority of my life.  I’ve been in church nearly every Sunday since I was three or four years old. For the last 15 years I have been involved in pastoral ministry.

Yet for all the time I’ve spent in the church there has always been an uneasiness, maybe it’s more a feeling of restlessness that I was never able to quite shake.  The uneasiness, my restlessness stemmed from the idea that I was perhaps missing out on something, that for all of my church attendance, and giving and all of my service there should have been something more, shouldn’t there be something more?  Shouldn’t there be more significance to the weekly gathering of the church than I and probably many others were experiencing?

My restlessness, perhaps my dissatisfaction led me to explore first of all what the Scriptures had to say about the ordinances, the sacraments of the Lord’s Supper and baptism.  Though I would never say I have arrived at a full understanding of the sacraments I certainly understand more of the significance of the Sacraments.  As my understanding of the sacraments have grown I have come to realize that their significance cannot be divorced from, cannot be separated from, or opposed to the weekly gathering of believers for worship.  The sacraments and the preaching of the Word are all means of grace.

After I've Been To Church Now What?

“AFTER WE’VE BEEN TO CHURCH NOW WHAT?”

Mark 12:28-31

Last week we learned from the Scriptures that the reason we come to church is not to serve God, it is not for us to give to God.  Michael Horton writes “Why should a person go through all the trouble of belonging to a church and showing up each Sunday if God is the passive receiver and we are the active giver?  It’s like being expected to look forward to Christmas when you are always giving but never receiving any gifts.” (Michael Horton Christless Christianity pg. 228)

The Scriptures teach that we come to church not to serve, not to find our ministry; rather we come to church to be served.  Each week we come to the weekly gathering of believers and we are to look forward to Christ serving us through his ministers, through those he has given as gifts to serve the church. Each week as we come to the weekly gathering of believers we should be reminded that it is the Lord who kills us with his Law and gives us life by His grace.  We need to be reminded through the preaching of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments that although our guilt was great, our forgiveness is even greater.  It is this frequent reminder of our great forgiveness that helps to motivate us to fulfill the Great Commandment.

Do you remember when Jesus went to have dinner at the house of Simon the Pharisee and this woman came in began to cry and the teardrops ran down her face and poured out on the feet of Jesus.  Then she took her hair and she wiped the Lord’s feet off with her hair and then she began to kiss his feet and then she took a bottle of ointment and she poured the oil on his feet.  Simon thought to himself, if he only knew who this woman was, if he only knew that she was a sinner!  Of course Jesus knew what Simon was thinking and so he told Simon the parable about the two men who both had their debts forgiven, but one man’s debt was ten times larger than the other.  What did Jesus ask Simon?  Of the two who will show the greater love?  Even Simon couldn’t get this question wrong, he said of course the one who had the larger debt forgiven.  Jesus said you’re right!

The Church Where Do We Start?

THE CHURCH: WHERE DOES IT ALL BEGIN?

Matthew 16:13-20

There was a book written a couple of years ago with the title “They like Jesus but not the Church”. The book dealt with the attitude that was held by many younger people  that they were to a certain degree  fascinated with Jesus but wanted very little if anything to do with the church.

Obviously from the title of the book and the theme of the book there is a disconnect between Jesus the Head of the Church and the Church itself which I will remind you that Christ died for.

In other words many people are happy to take a look at Jesus but not so happy to take a look at the church.  They held the attitude of “I’ll take Jesus but I’ll leave the church behind thank you very much.”

But the Scriptures clearly teach that just as you cannot separate Jesus from the Gospel neither can you separate Jesus from the Church.

Unfortunately this same attitude of “I like Jesus but not the church” has bled over into the lives of many believers.  They have their own personal relationship with Jesus Christ and many times consider the Church to be an afterthought.  Many times the fault for this, the blame as to why people think this way is because of the neglect of the Church to properly teach to it’s members ecclesiology which is the doctrine of the Church.