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THE
CHURCH
The
Church, what is the church of God. Is it a building, a denomination or
is it a group of people, Today as we turn to God’s word, I pray that
you will have answers to these and other questions before we end this
message. “When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he
asked his disciples, saying whom do men say that I the son of man is,
and they said, some say that thou art John the Baptist some, Elias; and
others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said unto them, but whom
say ye say that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the
Christ, the Son of the Living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him,
Bless art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it
unto thee, but my father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee,
That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee
the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever ever thou shalt bind
on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven!
This passage, (Matt 16:13-19), is one of the most informative passages regarding the New
Testament Church. I want each one of you to notice several important
things in this passage : (1) “I will build my church” this could be
better translated “ I will be building and building and building my
church.” Friends Jesus is the builder and He will continue building His
church until the last person is saved and the “bride” which is the church, is called out to heaven (2) Jesus says
it is “my church”, The church is the bride of Christ ”And
there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials
full of the seven last plagues and talked with me, saying come hither, I
will show thee the bride the Lamb’s wife” (Rev 21:9) (3). Hell shall not
prevail against Jesus’ Church Satan will not be able to stop or overcome His church. (4). Faith in Christ is the key to becoming a
part of this church. (5).
Jesus gave all the authority to the church in spiritual matters (v19)
this means that the church is to be seeking baptizing teaching, discipline, people
for His Church until
He returns. We can read the things which are very obvious, Jesus did not
build His church upon Peter, upon the temple or upon that group of
disciples! They, my dear friend were simply the first group to recognize
Jesus as Messiah and they went everywhere starting other churches.
Christ's Church is built on what Peter confessed.
Today
friends we will be examining the bride of Christ or the church. I think
a good definition of the church is, it’s a local church of called out
believers, called out from the world, sit aside for the work of the
carrying out of the Lord. It assembles on a scriptural basic for the
carrying out of God’s commands and commission to provide for the
fellowship strength, encouragement, edification, and Christian growth to
God’s people. It is vital that every Christian joins himself to a
church to help in carrying out the great commission.
The Church is also the body of Christ ”FOR AS THE BODY IS ONE,
AND HATH MANY MEMBERS, AND ALL THE MEMBERS OF THAT ONE BODY BEING MANY,
ARE ONE BODY: SO ALSO IS CHRIST. FOR BY ONE SPIRIT ARE WE ALL BAPTIZED
INTO ONE SPIRIT” (I Cor 12:12,13). Christ is the head and believers
are the body of Christ. A
person can only become a part of the body by being born-again. To be
born again a person must repent of their sins, (turn from them) and
believe that Jesus died for their sins and arose the third day, after
this step of confession by faith in Jesus, all one needs to do is ask
Jesus to forgive them their sins and according to God’s Holy Word He
will forgive them. From that point on that person must trust in Jesus
and allow him to be Lord and Savior of their lives. Anyone doing these
simple steps, by faith can become a part of the body of Christ. Friends,
a person may be a member of some church and may even meet in some church
building but he cannot become a member of the body of Christ without
being born again. It is very important that we understand that the church
is not a building but people who have committed their life to Christ.
Not to do good works but to live for Him." For by grace are ye
saved through faith; and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God;
Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph 2:8,9). Friends a person is
saved not by works but by faith in Jesus, I repeat a person is not saved
because of doing good things but because of their faith in the shed
blood of Jesus Christ making atonement for their sins. Now the church
has three meanings in the New Testament First, it means
the universal church. ”Concerning zeal, persecuting the
church; touching the righteousness which is in the law,
blameless. "(Phil 3:6), secondly and most
frequently, it means a
particular local church. ”I commend unto Phebe our sister; which is a
servant of the church which is at Cenchrea.”(Rom 16:1) Here Paul is
talking about a certain
church in a certain town, and thirdly, it means the actual assembly of
believers in any place, meeting together for the purpose of worshipping
God. FOR FIRST OF ALL, WHEN YE COME TOGETHER IN THE CHURCH, ”(I Cor
11:18). Here Paul is talking to a group of people meeting to worship
God. Now that we know all three meaning of church in the Bible we should
also know that each one of us can be apart of all three forms of this
word. When you become a born-again believer you become a part of the
Universal church. (the body of Christ). You can join a local church in
your community and become a part of the local church, and when you
exercise your privilege as a believer by going to church worshiping God
you become a part of all three forms of the word. ”church”. The word
church is used in the New Testament 109 times. The vast majority of
these times, perhaps 90 times, or more it refers to a local congregation
of Christians. Friends, there is coming a time when all of the saved of
Christ shall be one body in heaven, praising God. Every born-again
believer is today a part of the universal church. However, each
Christian should belong to a local congregation of believers who are committed
to carrying out the great commission in their city. Furthermore every born again church member should be faithful to his church when
they are assembled for worship ”Not forsaking the assembling of
ourselves together as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another;
and so much the more as you see the day approaching” (Heb 10:25).remember friends we are told to go to church we are not
merely ask to go. God say don’t forget to go to church.
Now that we have the meaning of the word church let us take a look at the structure. “Paul and Timotheus, the
servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at
Philippi, with the bishops and deacons (Phil 1:1). As we take a look at
this verse we can see there are three groups mentioned in the church
structures; saints, pastors, and deacons. This is what we want to take a
look at now . These three words refer to the various structures of the
church. The word bishops refers to Pastor. There are three tittles given
to pastors in the New Testament (Shepherd) which means to watch-care
over the flock. He is to be an example to the flock.2. (Bishop) ”which
means overseer, he is to be overseer of the entire church program. This
does not mean that he is to be a dictator, but it means to guide the
over all ministries of the church. Last the pastor is called an(
elder) this points to wisdom, council, and advice which every faithful pastor owes
to his people.
The deacons of the church are servants who were chosen because of
the heavy load that a pastor carry They are his helpers to assist him
with the responsibilities for deacons (I Tim 3:8-11). Unfortunately in
our modern day world most deacons think they are to run the church, but
that is not Biblical, the deacons are to be servants they are to serve
the people in the church if you read (Acts 6:1-8) you will see they were
elected to serve the people so the pastors could preach the word.
Looking at the ministries of the church
we can see a six fold function. The first duty of any local
church is two evangelize the unsaved. If the church you are in, is not
doing that friends they are missing the mark of the high calling. GO YE
THEREFORE AND TEACH ALL NATIONS, BAPTIZING THEM IN THE NAME OF THE HOLY
GHOST” (Matt 28:19) Friends, I don’t think one person should belong to
a church which does not evangelize the lost. The country we live in
needs to be reached for Christ. The church is not a social organization
it is not a place for people to do business in. And dear Christian
friends the church is not , nor has it ever been a place to speak on
politics. The point of business for every local church is evangelism.
Second the church is a place to teach the word of God to those who are
saved. ”And they continued steadfastly in the
opstles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread, and in
prayers” (Acts 2:42) Friends, it is very important that the church
exercise this gift to protect members. Also we can see the church is a
place to have fellowship with other believers just like yourself. You
aren’t going to find Christians in the world. This is a good time for
fellowship with people who you have things in common with. The church is
the place where God’s servants can administer the ordnances, the Lords
supper and baptism looking (Acts 2:42) we also see the church is a
place
of prayer. When Jesus entered the temple, and ran out everyone that was
doing business there, He says “ IT IS WRITTEN MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED
THE HOUSE OF PRAYER.” Let us remember this when we gather in the
church. And the last ministry of the church we will discuss is the
ministering to the saints. It is the responsibility of the church to
help it’s people when they are in need.
Now that we have looked at some of the functions of the church I
think we need to look at the Christian obligations to the church.
Faithfulness in attendance. Why should a person be faithful in attending the church? We always hear people say I don’t have to go
to church to be a Christian. Friends I have traveled half way around the
world and never meet a soul winner, spirit filled, growing Christian who
has not been baptized and faithfully attending a local church. Here are
some more reasons why we should be faithful to the church.(1) Obedience
to Christ (Heb 10:25, John 14:21;23;24, Exodus 20:8-11) tells us that
Sunday is to be a day of rest and a day of worship. We are to follow
Christ example and He went to church (Lk 4:14-16) if you really love
Jesus you will want to go to church “FOR THIS IS THE LOVE OF GOD THAT
WE KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS ; (I John 5:3) Friends it’s a command to go to
church and if you love God you will keep his commandments. We need to go
to church to grow in faith and knowledge of our Lord. You cannot grow if
you don’t attend a local church. You need to attend church to be an
example to others. A study once disclosed that if both mom and Dad
attended church regularly, 72% of their children remained faithful to
church. It also showed that if only Dad attended regular 55% of the
children remain faithful if only mother attends regularly only 15% of
the children remains faithful. If neither mom or Dad attend regularly,
only 6% of the children remain faithful. Friends, I think these statistics
speak for themselves. The example of parents and adults are more
important that all the efforts of church.
In
conclusion
We need to enter the house of God with a proper
attitude, we need to support the church with our tithes (Mal 3:8-10) and
we need to be faithful in serving in the church plus praying for the
leadership of our pastors. In closing friends I want to ask you what
kind of church member are you?
Some church members are like
wheelbarrows,
there are no good unless pushed.
Some are like kites, if you don’t
keep a string on them they fly away,
Some are like kittens, they
are more contended when
petted.
Some are like balloons, full of wind and likely to blow up
unless pulled.
Some are 100% members in regular attendance and very
cooperative.
What about you
friend. Let’s all go to church this Sunday and worship God and if you
aren’t saved, then give your heart to Jesus today and you will become
a part of the body of Christ.
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