You and the Church
Series: Acts
Chuck Sligh
November 5, 2017
TEXT: Acts 20:28 – “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.”
INTRODUCTION
I want to share some staggering statistics about church. Since 2000, about 4000 churches in America have closed the doors each year, while only 1000 new churches were started each year—a net loss of 3000 per year. If those statistics are still true, and that’s an old study from 2007, that’s a net loss of about 80,000 churches! At the turn of the 1900’s there were 27 churches to every 10,000 people, but at the start of this millennium, there were only 11 churches to every 10,000 people. And that’s not all: every year, 2.7 million church members drop into inactivity.
This leaves us with some important questions: Is the church really important? What does the Bible say about the church? Can you live the Christian life successfully without the church? And What can I do to help the church?
Our text tells us that Paul had gathered the leaders of the church at Ephesus together for parting words before he left them on their own. Notice his words at the end of our text: He tells them to “…feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.”
This passage tells us something very important about the church, and that’s what I want to talk to you about today.
Please note with me four important things about the church and you:
I. FIRST, NOTICE WITH ME THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CHURCH.
Paul refers to the church of Ephesians as “…the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” We normally think of Christ’s work on the cross as an individual transaction: He died for ME, and YOU and every individual believer. But since we all collectively make the church, it may be properly said that Christ died for the church.
That ought to tell you something: It ought to tell you that the church is very important; that it is precious to Jesus, that it is something that is VITAL and significant. Anything Christ paid for with His blood is INFINITELY VALUABLE!
Illus. – Suppose you bought a brand new Lamborghini Veneno. One of them babies is valued at 4 MILLION DOLLARS brand new. So, let’s say you just bought a brand new one, and before you could even get insurance for it, someone took a sledge hammer and demolished it. It would make your blood boil, wouldn’t it! Why?—Because you had paid dearly for it.
Don’t you think Jesus thinks more of the church, which He gave HIS LIFE for, than we would for any car, or ALL the vehicles on earth?
Brethren, we ought to value something so dearly paid for by our Lord. I preached a sermon once titled, “The Church Is Worthy”—and it IS! Not because of who’s in it!—Why, it’s made up of the vilest of sinners! No, the church isn’t worthy because of its make-up, but because it’s bought with a price—the price of the precious blood of Jesus Christ. And folks, if it’s worthy enough for Jesus to shed his precious blood for, it ought to be important to us and worthy of some things from us!
II…NEXT, WHAT IS THE EMPHASIS IN THE BIBLE CONCERNING NEW TESTAMENT AGE CHURCH?
A. The word church is the translation of the Greek word ekklesía, which means “a called out assembly.”
The Bible uses the word in two ways.
1) First, it is used of the whole company of the redeemed throughout the New Testament age and is synonymous with the term “the Body of Christ.”
This is what theologians call “the universal church,” also called “the invisible church.” There are a few verses which indisputably speak of “the church” in this way.
2) The second way ekklesía is used is in the New Testament is when referring to visible, individual, local gatherings of believers in physical, earthly locations, such as this church you are in this morning.
This is what we mean by “the local church,” or “the visible church.” A local church is a visible, physical assembly of saved, baptized believers covenanted together to serve God according to God’s commands. You might say it is a subset of the universal church, or a local affiliate of it.
Both the universal concept of the church as well as the local concept of the church are scriptural, but which one is the predominant emphasis in the New Testament?
The following chart shows how ekklesía is used throughout the New Testament:
[This sermon was in table form in the original.]
--Local Church (Total=92 times) – Unmistakably referring to the local church 91 times & probably referring to the local church 1 time
--Universal Church (Total=16 times) – Unmistakably referring to the universal church 4 times & probably referring to the universal church 12 times
--Either the Local or Universal Church (Total=2 times) – Could be referring to EITHER the local church or the universal church: Difficult to determine 2 times
--Neither the local nor universal church (Total=4 times) – Not talking about either (i.e., referring to a secular “call-out assembly.” 4 times
What can we conclude from this? When the Bible uses the word ekklesia, it’s used overwhelmingly in reference to the LOCAL CHURCH (90%)—and that’s a very significant percentage. We can conclude that the most obvious emphasis of the New Testament for the word ekklesía is not on the universal body of Christ, but on visible, local assemblies gathered together to worship the Lord, carry out the great commission, administer the ordinances, and minister to one another in local churches.
III. THIRD, I’D LIKE US TO CONSIDER THE PURPOSES OF THE CHURCH.
If the local church is the main emphasis in the New Testament, what are its purposes? What as the biblical purposes of Grace Baptist Church? What are we here to do as a church?
Basically, if you want to spell out a simple job description for the local church, you could boil it down to five all-encompassing purposes laid down in what is often referred to as the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.
-- In His Great Commandment, Jesus give us the first two purposes of the church:
1) The first one is WORSHIP in Mark 12:30 – “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.”
2) The second is MINISTRY IN Mark 12:31 – “And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”
-- Three more purposes are given in the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20:
3) Number 3 is EVANGELISM in verse 19a – “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,” which literally means to “make disciples in all nations.”
4) Number 4 is FELLOWSHIP in verse 19b – “…baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” – Baptism is the entrance into fellowship with Christ’s people—those who have made a public stand of their faith in Christ’s death, burial and resurrection.
5) The fifth major purpose of the church is TEACHING, or DISCIPLESHIP, found in verse 20 – “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
Now those are the purposes of the local church in a nutshell. Everything else falls under those two main purposes. Edification, the ordinances, church services, prayer, missions, potlucks, church programs—all come under those five master purposes commissioned by Christ, and if anything doesn’t, we have no business doing it.
Now there’s nothing more important for the local church than these five purposes. You know what this tells me?—It tells me that fun, entertainment, travel, sports, even your job are not as important as the church.
The church is important because it’s entrusted with the most important purposes in the world and we ought to show by our lives and actions its worth and importance!
IV. FINALLY, CONSIDER WITH ME YOUR ROLE IN THE CHURCH.
If the church is as important as we’ve seen today, that truth ought to affect our lives.
James 1:22 says, “…be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only…”
Now if the local church is so important, then what should you DO about it?
1) First, you ought to consider JOINING a church.
It’s a popular refrain today that church membership is not in the Bible. Well…not so fast. Church membership as practiced today may be different what was practiced in the early days of the church when there was only one church in a city or town and there was not a proliferation of denominations, but all the hallmarks of modern “church membership” were clearly evident. I’d like you to think about five indicators of church membership of some sort in the New Testament, even if there are some differences from today’s practices:
-- First, the biblical metaphors used to describe local churches in the Bible speak of a group who are members and those who are not.
Paul refers to local churches with metaphors like flock, temple, body and household (Acts 20; Eph. 2; 1 Cor. 12; 1 Tim. 3). Each of these metaphors has a clear distinction of some who are part of the flock, body, household, etc., and some who are not.
-- Second is the mention of “the whole church” in 1 Corinthians 14:23.
There Paul says, “if the whole church comes together in one place....”, and he goes on from there.
How would the leaders of the Corinthian church know if the “whole church” were there if no formal relationship had been established?
-- Third, the instructions for pastoral oversight and spiritual leadership indicate there was some concept of membership in the early church.
Pastors/overseers/shepherds/deacons were to care for “all the flock” (Acts 20:28, cf. 1 Tim. 3; Acts 20; Phil. 1:1; Titus 1). Since leaders were accountable for the souls of their flock (Heb. 13:17), they must have had some way of knowing who was part of the flock versus who was not.
-- Also, the meaning of the word “join” in Acts 5:13 infers membership of some kind or another.
After the frightening deaths of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5, verse 13 goes on to say that no non-believers “dared join them.” The Greek word for join has strong connotations of commitment. The same word is used to speak of sexual relationships in 1 Corinthians 6:16 and joining to the Lord in verse 6:17.
-- Lastly, the instructions for church discipline speak of membership.
Matthew 18:15-17 and 1 Corinthians 5 speak of putting an unrepentant sinning person out of the church. How can someone be put OUT of a church unless first he is IN it, and if being IN a church doesn’t mean you’re a member, what DOES it mean?
Rather than take a hard stand that membership as we practice it today is or is not found in the New Testament, it might be better to admit that we may do it differently today, but that the PURPOSE of membership—commitment and duties to a local church body—and certain RIGHTS of membership are biblical, which is why membership is still practiced throughout Christendom.
Now I realize that because many of you are only in Germany for a short period of time, you may not feel you want to move your membership here. Fair enough, which is why we don’t make church membership a requirement for serve in most ministries at GBC, except those the office of deacon and certain church leaders. But I’d encourage you to at least pray about it.
2) Second, you ought to BE FAITHFUL TO your local church.
Hebrews 10:25 – “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
I’ve noticed something down through these years in the ministry. I’ve noticed that people who are faithful to all the services of a local church, unless they are providentially hindered, or out of town, grow spiritually much more than those who aren’t faithful.
Why do we gather together in the local church?
-- First of all, to corporately worship the Lord.
I’ve heard people say all my life, “Well, you don’t have to be in a church to worship God. You can worship God out on a lake just as good as you can in a church.”
That’s JUST NOT TRUE. If there’s anything we learn about worship in the Bible, it’s that worship is both individual and corporate (with people). We SHOULD worship God individually, and indeed you CAN do that out on a lake, or in the mountains, or in a prison or hospital. But all through the Word we see the gathering of believers to collectively lift up their voices in song and praise and prayer to God in anticipation of blessing and spiritual feeding from God. You can’t do that by yourself on a mountainside or in a forest.
-- Second, we gather in the local church to hear the God’s Word.
It’s the challenge of the preaching and teaching of the Word of God that stirs our hearts, convicts us of sin, challenges us, and spurs us on to greater spiritual heights. Yes, we can and should study the Bible on our own individually. But Ephesians 4 tells us that God has given to local churches “…prophets…and…evangelists…and… pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:11-12) These people are gifts to local churches to edify and strengthen us in the faith so we can become grounded and victorious Christians.
-- Another reason we gather in the local church is to strengthen relationships with other beleivers.
God never intended for us to live the Christian life alone. Solomon said, “a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12) By the mutual edification, encouragement and example of other believers in the local church, we’re strengthened and challenged in our own Christian walk.
Illus. – The story’s told of a man named Simon, who used to be faithful to church, but had stopped attending. After a few weeks, the pastor dropped by for a visit. It was a wet, chilly evening.
The pastor found Simon at home before a blazing fire. Guessing the reason for his pastor’s visit, Simon let him in, and led him to a chair near the fireplace and waited. The pastor got comfortable…but didn’t say a word. Silently he watched the flames around the burning logs.
After a few minutes, he took the fire tongs, carefully picked up a brightly burning ember and placed it to one side of the hearth all alone. Then he sat back in his chair, still silent. Simon just watched all this in quiet fascination. As the one lone ember’s flame diminished, there was a momentary glow and then its fire extinguished completely.
Not a word had been spoken since the initial greeting. Just before leaving, the pastor picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in the middle of the fire. Immediately it began to glow once more with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it.
Then the pastor got up to go home. Just as he reached the door, Simon stopped him and said, “Thank you, Pastor, for your visit, and especially for the fiery sermon. Don’t worry. I’ll be back in church this Sunday and I’ll not be missing anymore.”
Yes, you ought to join a good local church and you ought to be faithful to a good local church.
3) Third, you ought to SUPPORT your local church.
Giving to God is found in both the Old and New Testaments and it’s essential for the functioning of the local church to fulfill its purposes. If you’re a receiver of the benefits of a church, you ought to support it through generous giving so it can keep on doing what it is doing.
4) Fourth, you ought to BE ACTIVE IN your local church….
-- Active through SERVING, by teaching or helping in a children’s Sunday School class or a K.I.D.S. Church class once a month, or doing childcare in the nursery once a month
-- Active by a participating in homegroup.
-- Active by doing your part in cleaning the downstairs every now and then, or once a month joining the upstairs cleaning crew.
-- Active in prayer for the church, the pastor and its members.
-- Active by telling others about your church so they can be in a place where they can hear the Gospel and find Christ and grow though sound Bible teaching.
-- Active by joining the Welcome Team at the front door once a month.
-- Active by heartily greeting guest so that they feel a warm welcome at Grace.
-- Active by encouraging the downhearted and exhorting one another.
God help us to be active not lazy, uninvolved, neutral, idle.
CONCLUSION
Beloved, the local church is very important. It’s the backbone of God’s plan and purposes on this earth in this age. It’s important because of the price paid for it and because of its mission and purpose.
Therefore, what is important to Christ ought to be important to us. God help you to be a participants of a good, Bible-believing, Christ-honoring church. By the way, I know a good one you really ought to consider joining! And once you do, God help you to be faithful to it, to support it, and to be active in it!
