The Purpose-Full Church: An Overview Series

So what are God’s purposes for the Church? We can see God’s purpose and design for the Church in several verses throughout the NT. However, we are only going to look at two passages in Matthew’s Gospel. In these words of Jesus we have summarization of the five purposes of the Church.

The Great Commandment

The first passage we want to look at is commonly referred to as the Great Commandment. It is found in Matthew 22:36-40 (p. 736 and on the screen). Let’s look at these verses together. [Read]

The context in which Jesus gives this answer is in response to a question asked by an expert in the law who was attempting to find something that he could use against Him in a possible future court proceeding. He points the lawyer to two OT references that he was well acquainted with. And the lawyer had no further questions to ask.

The Great Commission

The second passage we want to look at is commonly referred to as the Great Commission. It is found in Matthew 28:18-20 (p. 743 and on the screen). Please read along with me. [Read]

The context of this passage is just prior to Jesus’ ascension into heaven. These words represent a declaration of victory, a command to be obeyed, and a message of hope.

Contained within these passages is a synopsis of the five biblical purposes of the Church. Two of these purposes are found in the Great Commandment. The first is Worship: Love the Lord your God.... The second purpose we see in these verses is Service: Love your neighbor as yourself.

Within the Great Commission, we find other three pur-poses of the Church. Go and make disciples points us to the purpose of Evangelism. Baptizing them speaks to the purpose of Fellowship. And teaching them to obey refers to the purpose of Disciplemaking.

Conclusion

This is all the time we have this morning to investigate these matters. Next week we will finish up this message by defining those purposes and we’ll take a look at an example of a purpose-full church.