Defining The Church?(151)
James R. Davis
Introduction:
How would you describe or define a church? We usually begin with a few
statements of faith concerning what we believe. We look at our doctrinal
statements. We usually think of embracing the teachings of an organized
group of people.
We may look at the work of a church. We think about embracing the good
works and lending a helping hand. We may describe a church by its charismatic
excitement. We might try to describe the church by the activities of the
worship service. We may define a church by its requirements for membership.
Some think that a church is a holy place for holy people. Or we may
think of the church being made up of religious people.
Actually the church that Jesus built is a plan for your life and my
life.
I. Church Is made Up of Saved Sinners.
The best way to describe the church is by going back to the Bible and
learning God's description of the church. It helps to know about the kind
of people that God adds to his church. In Acts 2:47 is the first time that
the church is spoken of as being established. Luke tells us the kind of
people who were added to the church. Luke says that the saved were added
to the church.
Acts 2:47
Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added
to the church daily such as should be saved.
God was adding the saved to the church. That means that they were once
lost. But now God through his amazing grace has added them to the number
of saved. Paul gives us insight as to the kind of persons that made up
the church at Corinth in the following verses.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?
Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers
nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy
nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of
God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified,
you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit
of our God.
The church is a place for sinners. For even sinners of the worst kind.
It is a spiritual place where grace and mercy reign.
Ephesians 2:8-9
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.
Titus 2:11-14
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that
blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour
Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all
iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
It is a small wonder that the church is becoming more and more irrelevant.
We live in a world where the economy is the only thing that matters. We
live in a world that no longer believes in sin. This has made it hard to
face who we really are. Someone said, We can't understand our need for
the church unless we face the mess we are in.
Romans 3:9-18
What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have
already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin.
As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no
one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have
together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."
"Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit." "The poison
of vipers is on their lips." "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."
"Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and
the way of peace they do not know." There is no fear of God before their
eyes."
We live in a world that believes that it is a sin to admit that we are
sinners. But our understanding of the church and Christ's death will remain
as superficial as our understanding of our personal sin.
A Sunday School teacher had just concluded a review of the day's lesson.
And she asked, "And now, children, who can tell me what we must do before
we can expect forgiveness of sin?" There was a pause, but finally one little
boy spoke up, "Well," he mused, "first we've got to sin."
Luke 18:9-14
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down
on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple
to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood
up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other
men-- robbers, evildoers, adulterers-- or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' "But the tax collector
stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his
breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' "I tell you that this
man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone
who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be
exalted."
I John 1:7-10
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship
with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all
sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth
is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will
forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim
we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place
in our lives.
Church is a refuge of safety where sinners prevail by the grace of God.
II. Church Those Whom God Has Saved.
The church is a spiritual realm where the emphasis is on what God has
done for us, instead of what we have done for God. Have you ever noticed
that when you spend your time with church people that they tell you how
good they are? When you spend your time with sinners they will tell you
how bad they are. But the emphasizes should be on what God has done.
Titus 3:3-7 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and
enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and
envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love
of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things
we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing
of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously
through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his
grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
Romans 5:7-11
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good
man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love
for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since
we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved
from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were
reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been
reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but
we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have
now received reconciliation.
Most people look forward to payday. You do too. It is hard earned and
well deserved. You don't bow before your boss, saying, "Thank you. Oh,
thank you for this wonderful, undeserved gift. How can I possibly thank
you enough for my pay check." You invest it! You spend it! You cash it.
You give it! We earn what we receive; we work for it. The wage "is not
reckoned as a favor but as what is due."
God's economy is much different. There is no wage relationship with
God. Spiritually speaking, you and I cannot earn anything but death. Like
it or not, we are absolutely bankrupt, without eternal hope, without any
spiritual merit; we have nothing in ourselves that gives us favor in the
eyes of God. Christ is the Saviour of the body.
Ephesians 5:25-27
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and
gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing
of water by the word,
That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot,
or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
There is absolutely nothing we can do that would cause God to raise
his eyebrows and say, "Um, now maybe you deserve eternal life with me."
The person whose life track record is morally pure has no better chance
at earning God's favor than the individual who has made a wreck and waste
of his/her life and is currently living in unrestrained disobedience.
Everyone who hopes to be saved must come to God on exactly the same
terms . . . it is on the basis of grace . . . it is a gift . . . that gift
is absolutely free.
Luke 7:36-50
Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so
he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. When a woman
who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating
at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as
she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with
her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume
on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself,
"If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what
kind of woman she is-- that she is a sinner." Jesus answered him, "Simon,
I have something to tell you." "Tell me, teacher," he said. "Two men owed
money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and
the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled
the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?" Simon replied,
"I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled." "You have judged
correctly," Jesus said. Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon,
"Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any
water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with
her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered,
has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she
has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have
been forgiven-- for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little
loves little." Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." The other
guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives
sins?" Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
We are justified by faith not by works. Too many are trying to be religious,
trying to find God, trying to please God through their own futile effort.
Many are living on a religious treadmill . . . the result is frustration.
Romans 5:1-2
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access
by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope
of the glory of God.
Romans 5:19-21
For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made
sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be
made righteous. The law was added so that the trespass might increase.
But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as
sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to
bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
No one can bat a thousand. There are bad batters that bat .180. The
good batter bats .275. The champ that bats .375. But who bats a 1.000.
No one . . . Babe Ruth, DiMaggio, Mays ... no one bats a 1.000.
Romans 7:14-19
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a
slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do
not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree
that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but
it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is,
in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot
carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil
I do not want to do-- this I keep on doing.
Romans 7:24-25
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
Thanks be to God-- through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in
my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the
law of sin.
Amazing grace! how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
Sin is actually a malady of which we cannot be cured. A psychiatrist
told a story about a patient he felt was making good progress in the cure
of a split personality. "I was optimistic," confessed the psychiatrist,
"until this patient called and wanted to know why he'd received only one
bill."
We have an ongoing problem and the only answer is Jesus Christ.
III. Church Is The Place Where God Salvages Lives
Whatever we become in the Christian life we owe it to the grace of God.
1 Corinthians 15:9-10
For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called
an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of
God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked
harder than all of them-- yet not I, but the grace of God that was with
me.
God does what he does by the power of his grace. Paul said, "I am what
I am by the grace of God."
Acts 20:32,35
"Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build
you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified .
. . In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work
we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said:
'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"
Grace is not something simply to be claimed; it is too be demonstrated.
It is to be shared. It is to be used as a basis for friendships. It is
to be drawn upon for sustaining relationships. People grow better in grace
when they are undeserving and unconditionally loved.
One of the first realities a new Christian experiences is the clean
feeling of being forgiven and making a fresh start, but the new Christian
soon realizes as Paul did that the old nature is still very much alive.
It is then we realize that we need the power of God's grace in a special
to control what I cannot control. God is in the process of changing me,
but without my involvement the changes cannot not take place.
Conclusion:
What is the church of Christ.
I. Saved sinners.
II. Church is made up of those whom God has saved.
III. Church is where lives are salvaged by the grace of God.
How do I get into Christ church?
Acts 2:36-40
"Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus,
whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." When the people heard this,
they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers,
what shall we do?" Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of
you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And
you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and
your children and for all who are far off-- for all whom the Lord our God
will call." With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them,
"Save yourselves from this corrupt generation."
Acts 2:46-47
Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They
broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,
praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added
to their number daily those who were being saved.
