A man once told about his school’s Spring Break Trip to Italy. When they visited Rome they entered St. Peter's Basilica, the 2nd largest church in world. The tour guide explained, "This church is so large no man on earth could hit a baseball from one end to the other. Not Lou Gehrig. Not Babe Ruth. Not even Mark McGwire."
In the silence that followed, one of the girls in the group asked: "You mean they actually let them hit baseballs in here?"
I think she missed the point. Church buildings generally don’t exist for people to play baseball in. But why DO church buildings exist? Well… I can’t tell you about EVERY church building, but I can tell you about this one. This church building exists to be a tool to serve God.
(We videoed this sermon in the Older part of our building) The part of the building we’re in now was the OLD sanctuary. In fact, it was the Sanctuary, and the Fellowship Hall, and Sunday school classes, all rolled into one. Over there (the camera panned to the right) was where the stage and pulpit were. Right here to my left was a portable baptistry with a red fitted cover on top. When we had a baptism scheduled, we’d take of the red cover, remove the top, roll the baptistry over to the kitchen and fill it with water. We’d do 2 or 3 baptisms, empty the water, put the lid and cover back on… and roll it back to its spot in front of our sound booth.
Then there was our communion table. Most churches you worship at have an elegant table with words like “Do This In Remembrance” engraved in it and decorated with grape vines… but not ours. Our communion table was made by one of our members and was made out of hollow doors. That’s right – hollow doors. That made it easier to move around, but it wasn’t especially awe-inspiring. Everything about the building was basically functional. It wasn’t impressive, it was just “useful.” And that’s the way we liked it. The people who worship here were NOT in love with building… they were in love with Jesus. And this building was just a tool we’ve used to serve God.
When we weren’t shut down with COVID 19, we did all kinds of things here with the building. We had English and Spanish and Burmese worship services; we had a free lunch for the community once a month; we had youth groups and Bible studies (and so on). And we STILL have a food pantry and now we have online worship. The question is WHY would we do all that? Why would use THIS building in the ways that we have? Well, we’ve done all that because the building is a tool designed to help us accomplish GOD’S GOALS.
So what are God’s goals for a church?
1st – the goal of the church is to reach out to people who don’t think God would want them… or that He’d forgive them.
The Peter’s sermon in our text today was preached on Pentecost – 50 days after Jesus had been crucified on Passover. God got the audience’s attention, and then Peter stood up and explained to the crowd that Jesus had been the promised Messiah, He’d been crucified… and then He’d been raised from the dead. And then Peter told them they’d been guilty of crucifying Him. It was their fault He’d died on the cross. The crowd was so convicted of their guilt they interrupted Peter’s sermon that they literally cried out in pain: “WHAT SHALL WE DO?”
There are people in this world who aren’t sure they can do anything about their past. They’ve done things, and thought things, and said things that make them cringe inside. They don’t like themselves very much… so why should God?
ILLUS: Some time back I was talking with a man who despised a particular politician. He was so worked up about this that he spewed hateful comments and said “the man is evil.” Now I wasn’t completely unsympathetic to my friend’s comments, but I did mention that we should pray for this politician and that God might change this man’s behavior. My friend became angry: “That man will never change.!!!! He’s evil… and he’ll always be evil!”
But that’s NOT the message of Scripture. I explained that Jesus has changed the lives of men more wicked than politician. When he said he didn’t believe that, I asked if he knew the song “Amazing Grace”? Of course, everybody knows that song, but then I asked if he knew who wrote it? “No” he replied. “Well, do you know a man named ‘Wilberforce?’” I asked. “Yes” (he knew the name from the movie named “Amazing Grace” about the politician who almost single-handedly repealed the practice of slavery in the British commonwealth). “Well, the man who wrote ‘Amazing Grace’ was named John Newton, and he was the force behind Wilberforce.”
In the movie, Newton was introduced as a preacher, but before he’d been a preacher John Newton had been an evil man - wayyyy more wicked than any individual you might think of. He frequented the Red Light districts; cursed like a sailor (in fact, he was a sailor) and bought and sold human flesh. He was a particularly nasty slaver in that day. But then one day, God got ahold of John Newton… and changed him. And once Newton was changed, he became an outspoken opponent of slavery and a close friend of William Wilberforce.
Paul wrote these words about himself - “I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.” I Timothy 1:13-16
In other words, Jesus showed mercy to Paul… to prove it could be done!
And this is why THIS church exists. We exist to tell people that God loves them no matter where they’ve been, what they’ve done, or how they’ve acted. God can, and has forgiven even the worst of sinners. Christian Comedian Brad Stine once said: “The only reason I’m a Christian is because it’s the only religion that would have me.”
2ndly, the church exists to help people grow and change AFTER they’ve become Christians.
Acts 2:42 says: And (the early Christians) continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.”
“Apostle’s Doctrine” are things like sermons and Sunday School and Bible Study. “Fellowship” simply means being together as a group of believers. “Breaking of Bread” was another term for “the Lord’s Supper” or “Communion. And prayers … well, they’re prayers.
These were the main things Christians did when they gathered as a church. Now, these early Christians, spent a lot time together throughout the week praying together, and eating together, and probably reading and studying Scripture together all through the week. But on SUNDAY (the first day of the week) they made sure they got together as a group to do all that… PLUS Sunday was the day they set aside to eat the Lord’s Supper together.
Now, we’re going to talk about the “Lord’s Supper” or Communion in a couple of weeks, but my main point today is that on Sundays these early Christians made sure they spent time together focusing on God… Sunday, after Sunday, after Sunday.
ILLUS: Back in the 1700’s there was fiery atheist named Voltaire despised Christianity. He made a famous prediction about Sunday: “If you want to kill Christianity, you must abolish Sunday”
But why? Why should Sunday make any difference to us as Christians?
(PAUSE)Well think about this with me: any other day of the week, we CAN pray, and we CAN study scripture twice a day or more, and we CAN spend time with each other in fellowship day after day after day. BUT SUNDAY IS UNIQUE! Sunday is the DAY that Jesus rose from the dead. As a result, early Christians embraced Sunday as their main day of worship.
Acts 20:7 says “The FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, (was when they)… gathered together to break bread” (take communion).
In I Corinthians 16:2 Paul wrote to the church at Corinth that “On the FIRST DAY OF EVERY WEEK, each of you is to put something aside (as a special offering for those suffering in Jerusalem) and store it up”
Now, why not do these things on the 2nd or the 3rd or the 4th day of the week? Well, because Sunday was the day they set apart to worship together. And that continued on… for years afterward. Around 80 years after the church began, a man named Justin Martyr wrote this:
“ON SUNDAY a meeting is held of all who live in the cities and villages, and a section is read from the memoirs of the Apostles and the writings of the Prophets, as long as time permits. When the reading is finished, the president, in a discourse, gives the admonition and exhortation to imitate these noble things. After this we all arise and offer a common prayer. At the close of the prayer, as we have before described, bread and wine and thanks for them according to his ability, and the congregation answers, ‘Amen.’ Then the consecrated elements are distributed to each one and partaken of, and are carried by the deacons to the houses of the absent.”
But why is it so important that we MEET on Sundays? What is it about getting TOGETHER on Sundays that makes a church strong? Well, it’s like setting a clock in our lives. It helps us to understand “what time it is” in our lives.
ILLUS: A woman named Nicole Cottrell wrote about some of the lies she’d once believed before she took her Christianity seriously. One of those lies was: “Church is not necessary. In other words, it’s OK to be a lone Christian. I was a lone Christian for many years. I knew no differently and I honestly didn’t know any better. Somehow in my daily reading of scripture, all the talk of the body and fellowship just flew right past me.
“The saddest thing is that it was my lack of accountability and relationship that pushed me to my furthest point AWAY FROM GOD. I would wake up every morning and feel hopeless and alone.” (Nicole Cottrell http://www.churchleaders.com/outreach-missions/outreach-missions-blogs/154842-nicole_cottrell_top_5_lies_christians_believe.html?p=1)
Her inner clock was out of sync because she avoided being in church, and as a result, every morning became a day of hopelessness and loneliness. Church serves as a way to put our clocks back on “time” and give us hope and a sense of not being alone.
(PAUSE)
And, meeting on Sundays has an additional benefit – every Sunday we meet, we declare that we believe in Jesus. Paul said: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup (communion) you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” 1 Corinthians 11:26
You see, SUNDAY is a day of proclamation. It’s the day of the week we PREACH that we believe in Christ/ When we are faithful in our gathering as a Church, we preach to the world that Jesus means something to us.
That’s why – at this church – we’ve always stressed Sunday Worship, Weekly observance of Communion, Sermons, Bible Study and Prayer.
So, we exist to tell the world = God loves them and wants to forgive them, and we exist to create a fellowship where Christians can grow and be strengthened. But there’s a 3rd reason we exist: We exist as a church to help people realize that there IS something they can DO to change their past.
If you remember, I said earlier that there are many people who’ve done things, thought things, and said things that make them cringe inside. They don’t like themselves very much… so why should God like them? Their past haunts them and they’re not sure there’s anything they can DO to fix the what has been broken in their lives.
At Pentecost, the crowds faced the grim reality that they had been a party to the murder – not just an innocent man – but the Son of God, the Messiah. And they wondered what they could possibly do to undo that horrible sin. And so their anguished cry was “WHAT SHALL WE DO?”
Now Peter DIDN’T say: “You can’t do anything!” When they asked what they could do, Peter told them “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:38
The point is… the church has a message: YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE - all you need do is decide to belong to Jesus. All you need do is repent of your past and want to live for Christ. Accept that you can’t do anything that would earn your forgiveness from God. And all you need do is bury your past in a watery grave and then rise up to walk in newness of life.
CLOSE: These are the things that THIS church believes. We believe and we proclaim that God loves you, that He wants to change you, AND that He wants to give you the opportunity to accept forgiveness for you past. If you realize that this is what you need in your life… we are here to help.
INVITATION.
