01-08-2017 – Who Needs the Church?
January 8, 2017 John W. Baker Download: Audio
Sermon Title: Who Needs the Church?
Date: January 8, 2017
Place: LifeSpring Community Church
Series: Why the Church
Response Card:
Membership Challenge – a place to belong – it’s family
Tithing Challenge – it’s commitment to one another and to God
Introduction
It’s an age-old conversation that is out there in the “real world”: “Who needs the church?” Even in evangelical circles there is a mindset that we might as well leave the church to its dysfunctional fumblings and just gather a few friends around us to connect with Jesus on our own and in our own homes? I am sure many of us have heard some of those comments and we might have even participated in the conversations online with family or friends.
It is true that some of our churches carry optional trappings that weigh them down—practices and beliefs that we’ve wrongly labeled “essential.” And/or we inadvertently neglect other practices and beliefs that Jesus Himself emphasized. When either of the above happens, both seekers and the faithful begin to look elsewhere for spiritual nurture and sometimes they even form other churches or entire denominations.
And they are looking. Consider the report from the May 2011 Gallup poll: “More than 9 in 10 Americans still say ‘yes’ when asked the basic question, ‘Do you believe in God?’” While on vacation I got to visit a Barnes and Nobles which I haven’t been in a book store for a long time. As I walked past the religion section it was huge. I remember when I got out of college that it was only a shelf or two in most big chain book stores but now it takes up an entire row. Not just spirituality, but Christianity specifically. Shelf space is very expensive real estate and so the only reason book stores have such a large Religious section is because it is selling which means people are buy, which means people are really looking. The problem is, they are just not looking to the church for their answers these days and it might be because the church does have some real problems and we admit that, but most of us around the church are eager to explore how we might cut away the institutional-stuff, how we might vere from the wrong practices, how we might avoid becoming irrelevant and the fascinating thing is, we don’t need to really re-invent the church but we just need to go back to Jesus calling and may-be rediscover what church is really all about.
Larry Osborne, senior pastor of North Coast Church (EFCA) in Vista, Calif., put it this way: “Jesus said He would build His church and the gates of hell could not hold it back. So I’ll bank on His promise despite some occasional setbacks. . . . Yes, we’re messed up, but so was the early church; and God used them to turn the world upside down.” So abandoning the church altogether is simply not an option. The Church is what Jesus left behind to accomplish His work in this world.
The church is the incredible plan of God to bring salvation to the world and there is no plan B. There is an old tale, supposedly told by Erasmus, which tells of when Jesus returned to heaven after His time on earth. The angels gathered around Him to learn what had happened. Jesus told them of His miracles, His teaching and His death and resurrection. When He finished, the archangel Michael asked, ‘But Lord, what happens now?’ Jesus answered, ‘I have left behind eleven faithful men who will declare my message and express my love. These faithful men will establish and build my church. And that church will take my message, my life, to the world.’ ‘But,’ responded Michael, ‘What if they fail? What then?’ Jesus answered, ‘I have no other plan.’”
As we begin the new year, I am going to lead us down a road of asking, Why the church? What is so important about the church? Why did Jesus institute the church? Why did he leave his incredible work to the fallible hands of humans who lead and guide the church under his care? As we explore this idea, there are some other things that are going to come up along the way that I’m sure many of us have asked such as… “Why are there so many flavors of church?” Can’t all the churches and denominations just get along? What if the church has burned me or hurt me in the past? Aren’t all churches really saying the same thing? Do we really need the church?
My goal is not to open up a can of worms, but rather just to be honest about who we are and what the church is and what it was intended to do and be. I grew up in the Wesleyan church and so I know that will jade some of my thinking, but as much as I can, I want to be open and honest about these issues surrounding the church. I always will welcome conversation on any topic that I teach on. If something I say sparks a thought in your mind that you want to chase, I would love to sit down and have coffee or a coke together and talk about it further. With that said, let’s open in prayer asking God to be our ultimate teacher and guide.
OPEN IN PRAYER
Today I want to address three simple things about the church…
- How did the church start?
- What was the church’s basic mission?
- What Biblical structures did Jesus leave behind for the church (polity)? (I hate the phrase it this way but that is called poltics – we are not talking messed up government poltics but the world poltics is simply governing structures)
- How did the church start?
To understand how the church got its basic start we have to travel back to Bible and look at a couple things Jesus said. First we have to go to a discussion that Jesus had with Peter as recorded in Matthew 16 (use your bible.com app to follow along in our worship order this morning):
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 Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, 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. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
This is the first time the word “church” was used in scripture. In the Old Testament they had the concept of a temple and by Jesus day the concept of a synagogue (a mini temple on location where the Jews were where they could learn about God and worship) but this is the first the word church is used in connection with the Christian movement.
This passage lays a very core foundation about how the church started and gives a clue to one of the church’s core values. The “rock” that Jesus is referring to here is not Peter himself but his confession that Jesus is Lord that he is the Messiah. It is Jesus not the church, not the holy catholic church, not the Jewish temple, not the Pharisees or religious leaders, it is Jesus who saves mankind from their brokenness. It is upon this confession that Jesus states He will build his church.
Let’s address a quick question here that I hear from time to time (actually I am hearing it more and more these days). Aren’t all churches, aren’t all religions saying the same thing? If you are a God fearing Muslim then that is okay as long as you are devote in your faith. So isn’t it true that everyone is going to heaven when we die and religion is really just a man made up thing, you really don’t need the “church”?
Well, no! I am not giving you personal opinion today, I am giving you Jesus’ opinion. Right here he says that this is the foundation of His church. It is the confession that He alone is Messiah the son of the living God. If a church does not have Jesus squarely at its center, then they are something else besides a Christian church and they are not the road to salvation, the road to wholeness, or the road to heaven. So not all religions are saying the same thing! Jesus even went further. He said in John 14:6 “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except through me.” These are Jesus words. Jesus was more than a good man, a great prophet. He was God’s son and He came to save mankind and the only way to forgiveness, to God, to heaven is through Jesus Christ. This is the core foundation of the church in which all other things a church holds true must be based. If that core is moved, misplaced, or neglected you might have a social club but you do not have a church!
The church was then launched into operation several days later after Peter’s confession. After Jesus ascended to heaven the disciples found themselves meeting together in an upper room. Peter spoke up and began to lead this group as they began to decide who was going to do what next (we will look at that issue in just a moment). A few days later the disciples were all gathered back together when all of a sudden the Holy Spirit came upon the group and filled them with power, they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire rest on each of them. The disciples then went out from there and began teaching and preaching in the streets in all sorts of common languages. Some people thought they were drunk but others understood and were amazed. Peter then draws a crowd together and begins to preach explaining all they had experienced and after his teaching some 3000 people were added to the first ever “church” thus launching the church into existence off of what? Peter’s confession that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. This whole story if you want to read it on your own is found in Acts 1, 2, and 3. So that is how the church started or was launched.
- What is the mission or purpose of the church?
Any organization must understand why it exists. If an organization does not understand why it exists, it will soon cease to exist. The church is no exception to this, the church has a mission or a purpose, there is a reason Jesus built the church. A big clue is given to us on this front in Matthew 28. I am jumping around a little bit in the Jesus story so now I want to go back to right before he ascended to heaven. By this point in the Jesus story, Jesus has lived, ministered, died on the cross and now been raised back to life. He has spent a month or so hanging out with the disciples, appearing to various groups of people and now it is time for him to depart the earth and head back to heaven.
“Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
This verse lays out the core mission of the church. Now this mission is expanded and built upon throughout the New Testament, but this verse gives the mission in the raw if you will. The church’s mission or purpose is three fold (this is not a LifeSpring Mission, this is not a Wesleyan Church mission, this is the church universal’s mission as given by Jesus Christ, this is what the church is suppose to accomplish…
- Go and make disciples – this is the work of evangelism.The church is to be about spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. By the way – it still is good news. Jesus came to fix what was broken. I like the way Rick Warren says it when he talks about Celebrate Recovery, we all need to be in recovery because we are all broken. The government is broken, the family is broken, the economy is broken, the world is broken, our bodies are broken. Ever sense the fall of man, the world has been in a state of being broken and Jesus Christ came to fix that which was broken and the primary tool that He chose to use in this repair work IS THE CHURCH! The church’s first mission or purpose is to take the good news to a broken world that they might become disciples of Jesus Christ – we are to make disciples and this is solidified through believer baptism – the point in which a person declares publically by baptism that they are a follower of Jesus Christ.
- We are then to be about the work of instructing or teaching people to obey everything Christ taught.This is the work of discipleship building. The church was built to be a place where people can learn about their faith and grow in their faith. If you go to a church for 1 year and never learn a new thing or two, you have entered a church that has gotten off mark and it can happen even in well meaning situations. As part of my district work back in Minnesota in which I was on a board that watched over about 40 churches, we had one church that was growing well but everything they did was all about the first part of the church mission, they were about evangelism, they lived it breathed it, only taught on it. The down side was, they did little to help those who found Christ grow in their faith. They reached hundreds of people every year for Jesus but they had nothing inside the church to help the new believers learn about their faith and so the church became like a fast running faucette bringing people into the church and passing them out as fast as they came in to other church’s who were discipling. Not only is a church to be about the work of reaching people for Jesus they are also to be in the work of helping those people grow in their faith.
- Lastly, there is an expected result to the church’s work – it makes disciples.If you were to build a great machine that would be worth millions of dollars that machine is expected to produce something. You put something in the one end and something different comes out the other end. On our way home to Michelle’s folks in Indiana we drive by the largest GM assembly plant in the United States. This building is huge. They have their own power station, their own water tower, it is massive in size. The factory was built while I was in high-school and has been expanded several times throughout the years. If you buy any GM truck it was assembled in this factory.
I’ve always wanted to take a tour of the factory. Several of my friends have and they said it was the most amazing machinery they had every seen. The entire plant is one big machine. Various truck parts or loaded up in conveyor and transit systems by humans and robots. All these parts and then moved throughout the plant for painting, various assembly parts added, and at just the right time these parts are then brought to the main assembly line where humans and robots put them into place and then wield them up or bolt them on to a truck chassis. As more and more parts are added to the chassis it eventually becomes a truck and at the end of the big machine, off will roll a brand new GM truck under its own power. So thousands of parts are coming together from all over the plant to form this one truck. Any great machine is expected to produce something.
The church is no different. In this great commission Jesus had an expectation that the church would produce disciples. It’s would reach people who did not know Jesus and walk them through the process discipleship to the point that they would be mature followers of Jesus. We as a church have defined this as servant leaders or selfless individuals. Without Christ, people are selfish but the core fundamental change that takes place in a person who invites Christ into their lives is that they begin to become selfless. Our test of how we are doing is that, are we producing disciples who are becoming selfless followers of Christ?
So the core mission of the church is to reach lost people with the gospel, disciple them through teaching and example, to the point that they join the church in serving and loving the world as Christ does.
- What structures does the Bible give for the church
The last question we are going to tackle this morning is the question of polity. Polity is simple the systems or structures of the church. This answers the basic question any organization must face – WHO’S IN CHARGE?
There are three basic forms of church structure in existence today. These labels by the way do not reflect denominational titles but are simply word labels. You have the episcopal form of polity, the presbyterian form of polity, and final the congregational form of polity. The Episcopal form is most notably practices by the Catholic church and Lutheran church. In this form you have a Bishop, or Pope, or Leader board who calls the shots for the entire denomination. Authority in this structure if very much top down. What the Pope says goes for the entire church. In the presbyter system you have local leaders sometimes referred to as Bishops or Elders who lead a local congregation and makes theological calls and decisions. They might be loosely connected to a larger group but by and large the individual churches are fairly autonomous. In this system the power of the church falls to the local pastor or Presbyter, they are hands down in charge. The final system is the congregational system. This system is completely opposite of the Episcopal system in which the power lays in the hands of the local congregation. Theological distinctions are set and governed by all the individuals which make up the local church.
Each of these three forms clearly have a foundation in scripture. You also have to note most churches today function in a mix of these various styles. We can delve deep into this and if you want to investigate this further or learn about the system we live within, I would really encourage you to join our next round of Membership Classes which is labeled Discovering LifeSpring 101. (did you like that little plug there).
For this morning, I want to set some scriptural bench marks which span all of these major systems as we ask the question, who is in charge…
Church Structure – Head of the church
If we were to create an organizational chart, Jesus Christ would fill the positions of Founder, President, CEO, CFO and Chairman of the Board. In biblical language, Christ is “head over everything for the church” (Ephesians 1:22; cf. Colossians 1:18). The church is “his body, of which he is the Savior” (Ephesians 5:23). Jesus’ relationship with the church is very close and loving, for “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25). He desires “to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:27).
Church Structure – Church offices
Next the Bible lays out several human offices that direct the affairs of the church. The pastor (literally, “shepherd”) is the human head of a church. In the early church, it seems there was a plurality of elders or pastors, also called “bishops” or “overseers.” This is where we begin to see some political difference immerge. In some cases the pastors were the original disciples and everything went back to them but in other cases the pastor or main shepherd was a local pastor who lived in the same location as the church.
Whether local or affair the role of the elder or pastor is the same. They are responsible
responsible for teaching the Word and guiding, admonishing, and exhorting the people of God. (See 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Acts 14:23.) The basic overall health of the church lays at their feet.
The next position we see develop in scripture is that of the deacon. While we don’t use the designation of deacon in our church system we still have them. Deacons are people who handle the practical concerns of the church, such as caring for the sick, elderly or widowed. They are responsible for the finances of the church, the church structures, the ongoing administrative duties of the ministry of the church. (See Acts 6:1-6 and 1 Timothy 3:8-12.) Acts 6 explodes this role onto the scenes of the early church. Deacons were first chosen by the church in Jerusalem (see Acts 6). The apostles, who functioned as elders there, appointed the deacons and set out their duties. Thus, deacons have always been under the authority of the elders. The Elders or Pastors are the leaders of the church and lead in teaching and prayer for the church they are responsible to keep the church on mission while the deacons would administrate the more common affairs of the church and the works of the church.
The final rung on this leadership ladder is then the parishioner or congregant or church member/attendee. In the early church, everyone was expected to do something. So if you attended church you couldn’t just sit and soak, you had a role. One of the things I love about Celebrate Recovery is that they don’t believe in sit and soak. If you come to C.R. for a couple weeks, you are going to get a job. It might not be teaching and instructing but it will be something that fits your level like greeting at the door, cleaning up, may-be food prep. Everyone is expected to help out. This was the model in the early church. Christ leads his church, pastors lead the local church and sometimes regional church, local laymen or leaders lead the administrative duties within the church, and the people in general do the work of the church.
Church Structure – Relationship between the offices
In the average church in America today this functions in two basic ways. You have a lead pastor who is the primary teacher and leader of the church and then either a staff pastor who takes care of the administrative and day to day work of the church or you have a local board or deacon board or in some cases they call them an elder board who takes on these duties so that the pastor can be about the teaching, preaching and prayer. We see this develop in Acts 6. The disciples or pastors were beginning to be bogged down in the day to day affairs of the church and began neglecting their main duties and so they chose some very spirit filled capable men to take care of the day to do things so that they could give themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word.
How this plays out for us is that I am the pastor or main teacher obveiously and then we have a leadership board which oversees the various ministries of our church. We have Barb who watches over the finances, Lauren who takes careful notes of all we do, Sue who leads our prayer efforts. Shelia who oversees our outreach or evangelism efforts, Brian who oversees our discipleship efforts, and Mike who oversees our congregational service or involvement. Mike is also the lay-leader or vice-chair of the church – my right hand man. We then have a trustee board who oversees all the physical property and grounds of our church.
So the basic church structure as given in scripture is Jesus as the head, the pastor as the human leader, a board of leaders or deacons, and then the congregation as a whole.
Conclusion
We were simply note created to go it alone. We need the church. The church is the hope of the world. Jesus did not say he would save the world through individuals, nope, he wouldn’t save it through Billy Graham although Billy did a lot a good. Jesus plan was not to save it through John or Charles Wesley, not through Charles Spurgeon or Martin Luther. His plan was to save the world through the church, so the church is the hope of the world. We need the church.
Here is the last thought I want to give to you. The church is not an institution. It is not a structure or building. It is at its very nature organic, it is alive. That is probably why the church gets so messy. If it were a structure or institution it would be a lot neater but it is organic, it is a family.
We just got through the Holiday season and I am sure many of you traveled home or visited relatives during the past 3-4 weeks. So how many of your families are messy? Just to help you feel better about your family, most families are pretty messy. Families get into stupid little fits, we get our undies in a bunch over silly little things. Jenny is not talking to brother Billy because of what he said at her daughter’s wedding. Mom is being silly again with her expectations, uncle George well, let’s just not go down that road. And no matter what you do, never bring up politics. Families are messy. They all look different, they all function in strange and unique ways, but they are the things that bring the best to our lives. The church is not an institution it is organic, it is a family. Which means the church lives and breaths and changes, and sometimes is pretty but at other times smells really funky. It may not do everything right and perfect, but then again, what family does get it right 100% of the time. Our family may drive us nuts but at the same time, when things are good, there is nothing as awesome as family. I’m sorry, I’m talking about the church!
Being a part of Jesus’ church is the most exciting thing in this world even though it is far from perfect. Hey, sense it’s not perfect, there is always room for you. If they would let me in, they will let you in. If you are a member of our family – awesome, if you are not, why not consider it! We are going to be firing up another round of membership and we would love for you to consider becoming a part of our family called LifeSpring. Just mark your connection card and we will get back to you.