Sermon for 1/4/2009
Make This Church the Best We Can
Introduction:
I was talking with the guys installing my satellite. Knowing that I was a preacher, one asked, “Can you be saved and not go to church?” I said, “Sure, the same way that you can be a soldier and not be in the military.”
WBTU:
A. In 2002 the Gallup Index of Leading Religious Indicators reached its lowest level, demonstrating the public’s most negative overall rating for organized religion since the index began in 1940. The poll found that confidence in organized religion had declined. In 2002, only 45 percent of Americans said they had “a great deal” of confidence in organized religion, compared to 60 percent in 2001. The index reached its peak score in 1956. Since then, American’s perception of “organized religion” has been in steady decline.
B. We hear many say, “I have no problem with Christ. What I have a problem with is the church (organized religion).” I have been there.
C. In the United States there is a growing phenomenon of Christians unconnected to any church. They float from this church to that church if they attend any at all.
D. Does the church have problems? Yes! The church is made up of people and because of this the church is very human.
E. We are starting a series in 2009 on the book of Ephesians. The book of Ephesians was written by Paul while he was in prison in Rome. He did not write this letter in response to any problem, sin or false teaching. The main reason he wrote it was to lift high the church. Ephesians reminds us that the church is people- redeemed people. Ephesians is calling upon Christians to live as the new humanity which God has brought into being through Christ.
F. Jesus is telling us from Ephesians, “Don’t give up on the Church.”
Thesis: Why is it necessary to commit myself to a local church? Let me give 5 reasons:
For instances:
1. Every person who accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior gets a family! Like it or not, the Church is our family.
A. We have God as our Father. Ephesians 1:5 says, “Adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ.” In Ephesians 2:18 says, “For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Also Ephesians 3:14 says, “For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.”
B. We have brothers and sisters. Ephesians 2:19-20, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.” Also in concluding this letter Paul said in Ephesians 6:23- “Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
C. These terms all indicate a close relationship. IT may be a relationship which we would prefer to deny, but we don’t have that option. We are family, we are related to each other, and we should be in relationship with one another. To cut ourselves off from our family is not good for us or for them.
D. Richard Clark, “I feel like I have lost a member of my family.”
2. Every Christian is included in the Body of Christ
A. God’s purpose does not end with our salvation. It is one of His goals to knit His children together into a working organism, a living body of believers.
B. all over Ephesians. Ephesians 1:22-23: To be head over everything for the church, which is his body. Ephesians 3:6- Members together of one body. Ephesians 4:4- One body. Ephesians 4:12- So that the body of Christ may be built up. 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. Ephesians 4:25- We are all members of one body. Ephesians 5:30- We are members of his body.
C. A preacher tells of a man who wanted his letter of Church membership back. The man stated that he was quitting as a Church member, but was not quitting as a Christian. The man explained that he just didn’t feel any need of the Church and so he was simply going to belong to Christ. The preacher told the man that he could not give him his letter of Church membership back, because he would not and could not participate in such a bloody amputation! We need each other.
3. God’s purpose is not just to save us. He is also building something.
A. Ephesians 2:20-22: Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
B. Ray Stedman- Some years ago I helped Paul Carlson build his house in northern Mexico, among the Indians. He had hired an Indian stonemason to work on the walls. I was very interested to watch him. He had a pile of stone he had dug up and gathered in from the hillside. He would go and look at these stones, and pick one he thought was the right size and shape. Then he would take a chisel and hammer and knock off a piece here and smooth off an edge there, and then place it where he wanted it to go. If it didn’t quite fit, he would knock off another piece here and there until it was exactly right. Then he would cement it in place with mortar.
C. That is exactly the picture Paul has given us here of how God is at work with us. He is knocking off the rough edges, shaping us up, getting us ready. And if he has put us with some people we don’t like, it is because they are the chisel God is using to knock off some rough edges. God is building a building, called the church. The local church is where he makes us usable for that building. The church is a living building.
4. Relationships with other Christians are essential for our holiness.
A. Over the next few weeks we are going to see that Ephesians tells us to put off our lusts, to put off falsehood, to deal constructively with anger, to stop stealing, to get rid of unwholesome language, to stop getting drunk on wine, to live as children of light.
B. When we are in fellowship with other Christians, we are forced to clean up our act and become more like Jesus Christ. Fellowship forces us to change. A good church will motivate us to holiness. Relationships with other Christians is not optional, it is essential for our purity.
C. Clean up the house when company comes over.
C. In the church we learn what is proper and what is not proper. Ephesians 5:3- But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.
D. Teach my boys what is proper and improper.
5. We receive and give grace in the local church.
A. This is what drew me to the book of Ephesians for this year. The word grace is mentioned quite a lot here.
B. Ephesians 2:8- For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.
B. For most of us we heard the gospel (death, burial and resurrection of Jesus) in the local church. We understood that Jesus did this for us. We understood about grace (God’s riches at Christ’s expense). We understood about the gift of God to mankind. Therefore, through faith, we were baptized. Did we baptize ourselves? No God baptized us through a human person. Every believer in the New Testament was baptized and this is by design. Everyone has a human connection in salvation. No one can save themselves. We need others to help us along to get to Christ. The book of Acts.
C. After we have received grace we need to give that grace to others. Paul says in Ephesians 3:2- God’s grace was given to me for you. He passed it on to them. Look at Ephesians 3:8- Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
D. But I cannot preach. Well, there are other ways to give God’s grace to others.
E. The “One Another’s” In Ephesians.
1. Ephesians 4:2- Bearing with one another in love.
2. Ephesians 4:32- Be kind and compassionate to one another
3. Ephesians 4:32- Forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
4. Ephesians 5:21- Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
5. Ephesians 5:19- Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
Conclusion and invitation:
Churches by James Blankinship
I think that I shall never see, A church that’s all it ought to be;
A church whose members never stray, Beyond the straight and narrow way.
A church that has no empty pews, Whose preacher never has the blues;
Where elders ‘eld’ and deacons ‘deek’ And none is proud, and all are meek.
Where gossip never peddles lies; Or makes complaints or criticizes.
Whose members all are sweet and kind, And to each other’s faults are blind.
Such congregations there may be, But none of them is known to me;
So let us work and pray and plan, To make this church the best we can.
One part of the church that we didn’t mention is that Ephesians refers to the church as the Bride of Christ. If you want to upset a man, mistreat or talk against his wife. The church is the Bride of Christ. We better take this seriously. To mistreat or talk against the church is to upset Jesus Christ, the church’s husband.
