What is the Church
Part 1 of 2
(Titus 2:11-14) For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope- the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
(1 Peter 2:9) But ye [are] a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar* people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:
*(as in Titus, "a people that are his very own")
Introduction:
[We have been looking at basic questions of our faith. We have tried to start with the big ones— the simple ones— the ones we think it is almost heresy to ask, such as "Is there a God?" "What is God like?" "What is sin?" "What is salvation?"]
Any list of basic questions Christians must answer is not complete without this question, "What is the CHURCH?", and we address this question today and also, perhaps, next Sunday morning.
In the history of the Exodus we have a valid paradigm of how our God calls a people to Himself. And it is not "spiritualizing history" to look to that story for an outline of what Christ intends for His church.
The children of Israel cried out to the God of their fathers in misery from their bondage in Egypt. In 400 years the descendants of the seventy-two souls of Jacob's family that had been invited as guests of Pharaoh to Egypt had become an ethnic group of hundreds of thousands. They were no longer guests, but despised slaves and tools of a pagan culture.
And God heard their cry from their bondage. He came to them in power in the ministry of His servant Moses. God parted the Red Sea, and delivered them from slavery. Those who tried to keep them in chains were drowned in those same waters of deliverance which set God's people free.
As soon as they were free, and even before, a new thing was beginning. They were becoming *a people*; they were together for better or for worse. In the pressure and sifting they experienced in the wilderness, God gave them holy laws to live by, standards that reflected His own nature, His holiness and His love. These Ten Commandments set the emerging community apart, and gave them identity.
God watched over this band of travellers in the wilderness. He shaded them by day, and illuminated them by night. He rained food from heaven on them, and kept them from dying of thirst in the bleak desert. God defeated their enemies— sometimes as they watched, and sometimes when they didn't know anything about it. God brought them into a land flowing with milk and honey, and helped them become a real nation. He gave them a king when they cried for one. God took care of His own.
But all along, God's highest and best for the people He called His own was that they would be His sons and daughters; that they would love Him with all their hearts, and love each other as brothers and sisters as well. God wanted His people to be "family." For this great God loved the whole world, and it was through His people God wanted all nations of the earth to be blessed!
God's purpose then for people of faith is still the same today. And God's purpose for you and me helps answer the question, "What is the CHURCH?"
I. In One Vital Aspect, The Church Is Always *A Movement*
It has a vital interest in our LIBERATION!
True "liberation theology" is not interested in guns and bullets and violence, but in God's power stooping to set people free who cry out to him in despair.
(Just this week I interviewed a student (Kevin Coleman) who, as a pagan in New Jersey, cried in despair to a God he wasn't even sure existed— and God heard him! He will be joining the Church of the Nazarene next Sunday!)
The symbol of deliverance is not the sword or spear, and God's deliverance does not come by insistence on rights and by human hatred.
What God would have us remember is... the Red Sea! God wants the church to be a fellowship where men and women can be set free from sin and from enslaving bondage to things. The church is a place where people can get saved! When God speaks, sinners can get up and walk away from a life of bondage to sin!
II. The Church Is Also To Be *A Coming Together*
Because of a common faith, and a common way of life, the church becomes a place of IDENTITY!
Mount Sinai is more than just a place where the Law was given; it is also the symbol of a birth of a holy nation. God was teaching His people Who He IS and what He is like, and inviting them to identify with Him: Be Ye HOLY, for I AM HOLY!
And that is one of the things that happened on the day of Pentecost. God wrote the Law again— but this time on human hearts, instead of cold tablets of stone. And the church was born as men and women began to learn what Who God IS, and what God is like. And as a church, together we come to acknowledge why God put us here on this earth, and how we can become what God intends that we shall be.
In seeking to learn these lessons the church affirms its identity...
III. God's Church Is Also Intended To Be *A Fortress*
Some of the proud and the strong among us may not like to admit they need this; and some of the weaker among us think it is all the church is for. But God intends that His church shall be a place of SAFETY! We call this room in which we are worshipping "the sanctuary." We talk glibly about "a fortress mentality" and the negative implications of withdrawing into a shell to hold off the insidious and pervading evils of a dominant culture. And yes, God does expect us to do most of the work of the church outside these four walls.
But remember, too, that Jesus said (Matthew 6:33) "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness...and God will care for your needs of security!" That deep conviction that if we follow our Shepherd, our Shepherd will take care of us, is basic truth in our faith.
The symbol of God's care in the story of Exodus might well be the 'Pillar of Fire.' Or, it might be the manna, or water from the rock, or any other of the many times God kept and provided and defended His people. I hope you read and know and love those stories.
The church is to be a sanctuary from the storm of evil; a place of refreshing and renewal. It is the only source of true security in a world of change.
There is danger, of course, that security and sanctuary can become an end in and of itself. The legitimate need for God's protection can degenerate into a cry for comfort at any price. We don't merely want God to help us through problems, we don't want to experience any pain. But life isn't like that!
There came a time that the holy nation cried out for a king, so they could become a secular nation as well. They wanted for a king to defend and deliver them, and soon any love and caring and family spirit was gone. David may have been a man after God's own heart, but he soon became absorbed with keeping the machinery of government working. And by the time Solomon's reign had ended the nation that was to be God's own people had traded their liberty for the safety of keeping the status quo.
Here is a point of caution: we must exist for reasons beyond maintaining organization and status quo.
IV. But remember, The Highest Form The Church Takes Is *A Family*
Our God is a God who loves FELLOWSHIP! He created us to love Him— there is no no higher reason for life than that! All the laws of community, and all the commandments; all the teachings of Jesus, including the Great Commandment, have to do with LOVE! And do you know where "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself!" is found? In the story of the Exodus, Leviticus 19:18! (and eight other times, quoted in the New Testament.) The church as family is not an idea that is new.
The acid test of the reality of the Christian faith, as John wrote, was to be, "Behold how they love one another!" One great purpose of the church, from our human perspective, is to restore the fellowship of the Garden of Eden. The high point in life for Adam and Eve, was walking with God in the cool of the day. They walked with God and loved each other with pure love, not because they had to, but because it was what made them happiest! The church is to be a family! It is to know a love beyond legislation!
And that is just what we are striving for here— what every true fellowship within the church wants. WE ARE FAMILY! And more and more we need to see that reality grow!
V. But remember, too, God has another great purpose for the church. God Intends That The Church Shall Be *A Witness*
When the word got out [about 1492 B.C.] that a renegade son of Pharaoh named Moses had led a motley throng of Hebrew slaves into the wilderness, loaded with gold and silver jewelry, and with no visible means of defense, what do you think the kings of the established nations in the Sinai peninsula and the rest of the western Oriental world thought?
One of these pagan rulers, Sihon, king of the Amorites, decided he was not going to let this mass of people go through his territory, even though they asked him politely. He probably thought Pharaoh's loss was his gain— he would make a huge profit of these defenseless shepherds. But God told Moses not to be afraid, and Sihon was killed and his armies routed. And after that incident Sihon's name is mentioned more than twenty times in the rest of the Bible, usually in a Song of Praise to God, as the "church" looked back on how God blessed them when they were defenseless.
What do you think this did as a witness to God's power and love for His people? Everybody— EVERYBODY!!— knew that the Hebrews' strange God— a God no one could see- stood by them! The watching kingdoms saw the manna— they saw God's care. They witnessed the defeat of evil enemies. God stood by the Jews, not because He loved them better than the rest of mankind, but because He chose them to witness to His great love! I believe this truth would be acknowledged by the great Jewish scholars, even though it is easy for both Jews and non-Jews to think that God simply had His favorites and didn't care about the rest of the world.
The Golden Verse of the Bible does not say, "God so loved the Jews that He gave His only begotten Son!" But listen carefully, John 3:16 does not say, "God so loved THE CHURCH! that He gave His Son", either! God does love the church, and intends that we shall love Him and love each other, God also loves the world, ALL the world, and intends that His people shall be witnesses to that love.
God loves all people everywhere. The primary witness to God's love for the world is the church. A very important part of that witness will be a deliberate evangelism, or taking the gospel to the ends of the earth in obedience to Christ's Great Commission. But all of the life of the church can be a witness! From the Red Sea to the Promised Land God spoke to the world by His people.
In every facet of its existence, in worship, and education, and in service, as well as in fellowship, as well as evangelism, a living Church is a living witness! If we are simply reacting against our culture, or worse, if we are simply a non-critical part of our culture, then no wonder we are a poor witness or no witness at all.
But if we are on our way to God's Promised Land, and are walking by His vision for us, across cultural pressures where need be, then we shall be the witness God wants us to be!
WHAT IS THE CHURCH? (text) We are God's people! God help us to live like God's people! Amen.
#8(EH) Christ is Made the Sure Foundation
