I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Eph 4:11-16
-- when the coronavirus pandemic
began, I got into an argument with a friend on Facebook about the church -- as
you remember, we had to close our churches as part of the measures that were
taken to try to fight the virus -- some churches, like ours, received this
order as a call for self-sacrifice -- to shut down and live out the biblical
mandate to protect and care for the least among us -- in this case, those most
vulnerable to infection
-- other churches, though, were
defiant -- they refused to shut down and met in defiance to the Government’s
orders because they felt the order was a violation of the First Amendment and
their right to gather to worship, despite the risk
-- this friend of mine offered up
another explanation for why pastors wanted to keep their churches open
regardless of what the Government said -- she wrote, “it’s the money -- all
that these pastors and these churches care about is money -- and if they’re
shut down, they aren’t getting any money” -- when I objected, she argued back,
“you don’t have to go to church -- you can just pray at home -- this is all
about money and power” -- at the end, her final response was that we don’t need
the church -- no one needs the church
-- her words cut deep -- they
wounded me -- is this what the world thinks about the church? -- is this how
they truly see us?
-- this argument caused me to spend
some time thinking about the church -- we’ve talked in here before about what
the church is -- and we’ve looked at the passage from Acts 2 where we see a
picture of the early church -- a community of believers coming together in true
fellowship to worship God and do life together -- but have we ever considered
the question that my friend posed? -- do we really need the church? -- do we
really need to come together on a regular basis in order to be a Christian?
-- I’ve had this discussion with
other believers throughout the years -- I can’t tell you how many people have
told me they don’t come to church because they don’t need it, especially during
deer season -- a man once told me, “I can worship God from my deer stand -- I
don’t have to come to church”
-- and now, in this information age
we live in, we have so many resources and so many places we can go to learn
about Jesus -- we can watch sermons or listen to Bible studies 24/7 on the
internet or on TV or the radio -- we can access millions of resources and
articles about Christianity and religious life on the internet -- we can even
have discussions with other Christians in other countries, all from our living
room couch
-- when the pandemic hit and our
churches closed, many churches offered virtual meetings on Facebook or Zoom or
other platforms -- and as churches have started reopening, many people have
decided to not come back, but just to watch and participate online from their
homes -- it’s so much easier than getting up and getting dressed and going all
the way to a building for a one-to-two hour meeting
-- so, why the church? -- is there a
reason for us to have this place to come to and meet? -- to physically come
together? -- or can we just live out our Christianity as my friend suggested --
at home and in private?
-- that’s what I want us to talk
about this morning
II. Why the Church?
-- look back with me at Ephesians
4:11-12
Ephesians
4:11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the
pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the
body of Christ may be built up
-- the church is the only enduring
evidence of the presence of Christ Jesus in this world -- it is the only
institution that Christ built when He was on earth
-- think about it -- even though
Jesus walked on this earth for 33 years -- even though He touched the lives of
so many people during the three years of His earthly ministry -- even though
His teachings are recorded for us in the Scriptures -- He left nothing behind
but His Spirit and the church
-- even though He was a carpenter,
He never left behind a wood carving of His message
-- even though He would write, He
never left behind a single parchment or letter that He wrote -- in fact, the
only record we have of Him actually writing anything was when He wrote on the
ground in the presence of the mob and the sinful woman -- letters that would be
erased with the next wind or the next rain
-- even though He was flesh and
blood just like us, He didn't even leave a body -- no bones -- nothing but an
empty tomb
-- Jesus left nothing to prove that
He ever existed except the Holy Spirit within us and the body of believers that
we call the Church of Christ
-- here in these verses we see the creation
of the church -- Paul tells us that it was Christ who set apart some individual
believers to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers -- for
one purpose -- to prepare God’s people for works of service -- so that the body
of Christ -- the church -- might be built up
-- in 1 Peter 2:5, Peter said the
church was the spiritual house of the Lord -- and that we individual believers
were like living stones, being put in place and used to build the house of God
-- in every mention of the church in
Scripture, we see it described as a community of believers coming together under
the lordship of Jesus Christ to be His body and His presence in this world --
and Christ expected us to belong to it
-- the testimony of the early
Christians was that they belonged to local groups of believers -- in Acts we
read of people being added to the numbers of the church -- in Timothy, we read
of the lists of widows that was maintained in the church -- obviously, the
early churches had a membership list of some type that listed who was part of
that particular local body of believers
-- the instructions on spiritual
discipline given by Jesus and by Paul do not make sense unless you acknowledge
a membership list in the local church -- Paul says to put unrepentant, backslidden
believers out of the fellowship -- how do you put someone out of fellowship
unless you have a way of putting them in?
-- so, obviously, Jesus wanted us to
be in a church with other believers -- it is a Biblical mandate for believers
to be part of a local body of Christ
-- but that doesn’t answer our
original question, “Why?” -- why did Christ establish the church and command us
to belong? -- what purpose does it serve -- in our lives and in this world?
-- look back at verse 11 again
Ephesians
4:11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the
pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the
body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in
the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole
measure of the fullness of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed
back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching
and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.
-- here we see one of the main
reasons we need the church -- it is the wellspring of the gospel -- it is the
place where we find Jesus -- where we grow in grace and in the knowledge of
Christ -- it is the place where we become mature in our faith -- attaining to
the whole measure of the fulness of Christ -- in other words, it is where we
become who Christ has called us to be
-- in Ephesians 4:1, Paul urges us
to live a life worthy of the calling we have received -- we fulfill that command
only within a community of believers -- for it is here that we are taught and
experience Christ and grow into mature believers -- you can’t do that alone
-- that’s why Jesus called and
gifted certain individuals to be pastors and teachers and evangelists -- to
help train up new believers and to disciple them in the faith -- to teach them
the right path -- to correct them when they are led astray by the waves of
popular opinion or the winds of false teaching and the deliberate scheming and
falsehoods of those who seek to deceive
-- that’s why Jesus tells us that
wherever two or three are gathered in His name, He is there -- it’s because it
is in relationships with others that we experience Christ -- that we share His
message of grace -- that we truly become His hands and His feet, ministering to
others
-- it is walking in faith with
others that we learn what true faith is -- living out the truth of the gospel
together in this world
-- you can’t do all of this on your
living room couch or in a deer stand -- can you learn about Jesus at home? --
sure -- can you pray and worship Him at home? -- sure -- but can you truly
apply and live out your faith at home? -- no -- we need others -- we need the
church
-- verse 15
Ephesians
4:15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every
respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
-- here we see that the world needs
the church, too -- the church in recent years has become passive -- it has
become a place to go to rather than a vibrant community that goes out into the
world -- it has become a place where we seek to be entertained, rather than to
be built up and prepared to go out and serve others
-- but that is not the church Christ
envisioned -- He calls us to go out and serve others in His name -- to speak
the truth in love -- to tell others of the gospel message -- of the good news
of salvation and the forgiveness of sins and eternal life in Him -- the message
of the church is a fragrant scent -- a light shining in the darkness -- a city
set upon a hill
-- the world needs this -- the world
needs the church to give it hope -- to remind it of a better future and a
better place -- and to be the example of moral propriety in a world gone mad
-- a friend of mine once wrote, "Imagine,
if you will, what a community would be like if the only church left was rundown
and decayed to the point of being condemned -- stretch your imagination even
farther and think what a community would be like if the Bible had been out of
use for so long that no one even would know what you meant if you said the word
"Bible"
-- in the most war-torn and ravaged
regions -- in the dangerous inner city areas throughout the world -- it is the
church that stands as the last beacon of hope and refuge -- it is the church
that stands with wide open arms and offers redemption and restoration and
renewal -- when darkness threatens to overtake all, it is the church that
shines bright and says, “no”
-- this is what the world needs --
this is what the church is supposed to do -- sadly, it appears as if that is
not what we are at this moment -- otherwise, my friend and the many who commented
on her Facebook post would not have agreed that the church was no longer
necessary or needed in the world today
-- our failures, though, do not
negate our purpose or the need that Christ saw as He established the church
with His very presence -- may we become who Christ called us to be as His body
on earth
-- verse 16
Ephesians
4:16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting
ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
-- finally, we need the church, too
-- not only as the place where we learn and grow in grace -- where we are
discipled and mentored and learn to go out and serve others
-- no, we need the church because
the church supports us -- the church is the tie that binds -- the whole body is
joined and held together by every supporting ligament -- by each individual
believer
-- we support each other in times of
want and in times of plenty -- when someone in the church is hurting, we are
called to support them -- when someone in the church is in need, we are called
to give of our very self to meet their needs -- when someone in the church is
hungry or thirsty, we are called to bring them food and drink
-- and when we are in need, we to
turn to the church for support, too
-- my friend said all the church
cared about was money -- that money was the reason pastors were defiant and not
willing to shut down their in-person meetings
-- money is needed -- even Jesus had
the original twelve disciples take up collections -- and Paul mentions in his
letters that he was collecting offerings from the churches to take to Jerusalem
-- not to build a brick-and-mortar facility -- not to replace the carpets or to
paint the outside of the building -- but to meet the needs of the church and to
support the ministry and outreach to those in the world
-- I rarely talk about money in the
church because I know what kind of reception it gets -- even before this
pandemic, I’ve heard people say, “all that church talks about is money” -- but
the church needs money -- it needs resources -- it needs people -- if it is to
fulfill the calling that it has received -- if it is to be the light in the darkness
and a true source of refuge and hope in the world
-- the people who complain about
churches receiving money from members don’t complain after the hurricane when
the church brings in food and water -- they don’t complain when the church
shows up to rebuild homes and clean up debris -- when the church opens the
doors and offers shelter from the storm
-- do some churches and pastors
mismanage their resources? -- do some churches and pastors abuse the financial
trust that is given to them? -- absolutely -- but that doesn’t mean that all
churches and pastors do that -- and that certainly isn’t the reason to say that
churches no longer are needed
-- I know of a church in Tifton that
years ago made a decision on how to use their financial resources -- they would
use what they needed for the minimum maintenance of their facility -- lights --
water -- etc -- but all the rest would go to missions -- to meeting the needs
of their neighbors -- and this little church -- just a handful of faithful
believers -- sends over $100,000 annually to support missions across the world
-- we need churches like this -- the
world needs churches like this -- we need people who come together in the name
of Jesus -- who are joined and held up by every other member -- who do what
they are called to do and support each other to build up the church and to be
the hands of feet of Jesus in the communities where they gather
-- why the church? -- is it needed?
-- yes, without a doubt
III.
CLOSING
-- A few years ago, Andrew Sullivan
wrote a cover story for Newsweek titled "Christianity in Crisis:
Christianity has been destroyed by politics, priests, and get-rich
evangelists." -- he urged people to "Forget the church” and just “Follow
Jesus"
-- Mark Galli wrote a thoughtful
response to the article and it’s call to abandon the church -- the same call my
friend was making on Facebook at the start of the pandemic
-- Galli admitted that people in the
church can exude self-righteousness and mean-spiritedness -- but he made the
case that the church is the perfect place to follow Jesus and learn how to love
like Jesus.
-- he writes that there's "no
other way to learn love except by plunging in with people like this …. So the
church seems to be an academy of love, and the place where the love of Christ
meets us more objectively, especially in word and sacrament."
-- the church today may be wounded
-- it may be flawed -- it may not be what Christ intended -- but that should
not stop us from trying to live out our faith together as His body -- as His
church -- because the world needs us -- and we need the church
-- Christ said that the church was
to be the salt of the earth -- we are called to do more than passively exist as
a building we go to on Sundays -- we are called to do more than collect funds
to maintain a shrine or an institution -- we are called to meet the needs of
believers and this world -- to season and flavor this world by sharing with
them the good news and the grace of the risen Christ
-- we are called to bear Christ's
name -- in our lives -- in our homes -- and together as His church -- we are
called to be the teachers -- the mentors -- the disciplers -- the keepers of
the Book -- of the Holy Bible -- to make sure it does not disappear from memory
or gather dust on our shelves -- to make sure that it is lived out in our lives
and in our homes and in our communities
-- we are called to build upon the
faith of those who have gone before and to lead our families and our
communities in following the way of God and not the way of this world
--
we are called to stand against spiritual decline and to be God's light in this
community and in this place
-- is the church needed? --
emphatically, YES!
-- so, go -- and be the church today
-- let us pray
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