First Baptist Church Westerville Sunday Evening April 19, What is the Church? Defining our Biblical Purpose and Mission

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1 What is the Church? Defining our Biblical Purpose and Mission Question: What is the Church? Who or What is First Baptist Church of Westerivlle? It may seem outrageous to begin with such a simplistic question, especially when there seems to be so much work to do around here. I know that you many of you have served so faithfully for several years in a variety of different capacities. This church is now enjoying a new sanctuary and remodeled facilities. It is wonderful to be in such a beautiful building. But I want to ask the question, What is First Baptist Church of Westerville? I want us to think about this. If we don t have a clear understanding of who and what First Baptist Church of Westerville is, then we will inevitably fail in what we are doing. How can we be sure we are doing what we need to do if we do not know who or what we are? Where do People Get their Ideas about the Church? 1 1. People Get their Ideas from Past Experience of Church This is the way we ve always done it. When I was younger this is what I understood the church to be. Memory. 2. People get their ideas from pop-culture. What does the media tell us about the church? Some people s views of the church are shaped by books like Davinci Code 3. People get their ideas from the news. News Media, newspapers often formulate our understanding of the church. Usually a negative source: scandals, sin, criticisms, etc. 4. People get their ideas about the church based on what they personally want the church to be. Should a church have a gymnasium and fitness center? Should the church have a particular style of music? Personal Preferences often determine more about who or what a church looks like 5. People get their ideas about what the church is from analogous institutions. How should the church be run? 1 Partially Adapted from Mark D. Roberts article found on Accessed 4/18/15 1

2 Should the church be operated like a other societies: toastmasters, lion s club, rotary club, civil service organizations, or government agencies? What is often tried in business, government, or other are methods sometimes employed in the church. 6. People get their ideas about church from a particular tradition. What tradition do you come from? Catholic Anglican Methodist Southern Baptist Presbyterian Charismatic / Pentecostal These six categories are only a few of the different places that our ideas about the church are often shaped. There are probably countless other sources of influence concerning the essences of the church. However, none of these is a reliable guide to tell us what the church is and what the church should be! We need to acknowledge that we all bring a lot of ideas about church from our experience and our observations. Some of these things can be helpful to consider, but none of these things is a reliable guide in telling us what the church is, who composes the church, and what the mission of the church is. 1. The Only Sure Guide Scripture As we think about the subject of the church, we must first identify what is the source of information about the church? Where do we get introduced to the idea of the church? The answer is the Bible. The Bible is our chief guide and authority in all matters of life and doctrine. The Scriptures are inspired by God and they are God s authoritative revelation to us. 2 Timothy All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. 4 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. We Must Begin With the Scriptures. 2

3 Here Paul is writing to Timothy who is a young pastor and letting him know how he is to conduct his ministry. The Scriptures contain the message of the gospel and keep us from drifting off into error. We should also heed the warning that Paul gives: The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching. & They will accumulate teachers to suit their own passions. In other words, from the very beginning Paul tells us that there will be those who will seek to go outside of Scripture to formulate their understanding of who God is, what the gospel is, and what the church is. The very first Point then is this. We must be absolutely committed to letting the Scriptures speak clearly into our lives. The scriptures are our authority. Scripture must determine what the church is and what is seeks to become and do. Application: As your pastor, I m seeking to lead us as a church. There is much work to be done and we have so many opportunities in front of us. Even now, we are planning for a VBS and Cross Over Columbus initiative. There have been Sunday School Meetings where we are trying to evaluate discipleship, we have had various committee meetings, we will have a deacons meeting tonight after service. And both for the immediate future (this summer) and the overall trajectory of ministry for First Baptist Church of Westerville, we have a lot to do and consider. We feel the pressure and need to be doing something in this church and in the community. But before we are thrown headlong into busyness, we must ask ourselves. Who is First Baptist Church of Westerville? What is our purpose? What is it that we are supposed to be doing? You see... already we are taking a lot for granted at this point. And we must stop and ask ourselves, Who are we? & What are we doing? We don t have to put everything on hold completely, but rather we need to seek clarity as we meet, as we gather, as we study, as we live our lives so that we can ultimately be confident that what we are not casting a vision that originates in us, but instead originates in the heart of God. We want to make sure that our understanding of the church comes from God and his Word and not from our own passions and the desire to soothe our own itching ears. The Word of God alone should be the source from which we gain our understanding of the church. Mark Dever Church The church is the body of people called by god s grace through faith in Christ to glorify him together by serving him in his world. 2 2 Mark Dever, The Church, (B&H: Nashville, 2012), 3. 3

4 Wayne Grudem defines it this way, Church The church is the community of all true believers for all time. 3 These simple definitions will serve us for the moment. We will see that there are other qualifiers that we can add to these definitions. But suffice it to say that the Church is the community of true believers for all time. Or as Dever points out it is a body of people called by God s grace 2. People of God in the Old Testament The New Testament uses the word (ekkle sia) εκκλησια - literally means the called out ones. We find a term used in the Old Testament (qa ha l) ק ה ל which means assembly. If we begin by asserting that God s Word is the authoritative source for our understanding for all truth, and especially for our understanding of the church, then we must examine all of Scripture both the Old and New Testaments to understand what the Bible teaches about the church. God s Eternal Plan Adam & Eve God s eternal plan has always been to display his glory not just through individuals but through a corporate body. In Creation, God created not one person but two. 4 The whole purpose of creating male and female was so that they would fill the earth (Genesis ). So we see that from the very beginning God has always had a people in mind, not just individuals. Abraham If we fast-forward to Abraham in Genesis 12, we begin to see that God unfolds a plan to create a body of people who will be a blessing to all the peoples of the earth. Genesis 12.2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. Israel By the time of Moses in Exodus, the descendants of Abraham had multiplied so that they had become numerous. They had become a great nation. 3 Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, (Zondervan, 2000), Dever, 4. 4

5 God s Treasured Possesion Deuteronomy For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 5 God s Light to the Nations Isaiah he says: It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. 6 Israel s Purpose Israel was a people called out by God for the purpose of glorifying Him and being a light to the nations. We see that in this basic sense there is a lot of parallel with what we will find in the New Testament Church. The church consists of a group of people that are called out by God s grace through faith in Jesus Christ and glorify him and serve him. Old Testament Israel was not faithful to fulfill their calling as a people. The people of Israel and the covenant that they received point us forward to a new covenant and true and faithful servant. Mark Dever At the very least, it must be said that God has consistently had a plan to glorify his name through groups of people he chose and took as his own. [Thus]... The story of the church begins with Israel, the Old Testament People of God. 7 5 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Dt 7:6 8). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. 6 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Is 49:6). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. 7 Dever, 6. 5

6 3. The People of God in the New Testament: The Church Continuity The Old Testament language that was used for the people of God עם ה א להים is picked up by the New Testament writers to describe the distinctly Christian assembly of believers. Τω λαω του θεου is used by Peter 1 Peter 2:10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Jesus Matthew 16:18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. In the same way that Adam named his bride, Eve, so too does Jesus name his bride, the church. Jesus is not primarily focused upon Peter in this passage but rather upon Peter s confession. It is more appropriate to understand that it is Peter s confession of Jesus as the Christ which forms the foundation for the new assembly of the people of God. Peter is the first among the apostles and he would be a leader in the church. But despite what the Catholic Church teaches, Peter is not the focal point here. Jesus Purchased the Church Acts Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. Church The General Sense (Church Universal) It is important that we understand that the church consists of all Christians everywhere from all time. This is the general sense in which we use the word church. It refers to all of Christendom. Ephesians For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into 6

7 a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. 8 Wayne Grudem defines the Invisible Church this way. Invisible Church The invisible church is the church as God sees it. 9 In other words, we cannot see everyone that is part of God s family at all times. There are millions of Christians worldwide and we speak different languages but we are all united to Christ. The invisible church is the church as God sees it. It refers to everyone that belongs to Christ. Church The Specific Sense (Local Church) The New Testament makes big sweeping statements about the church and about God s people like we saw in Ephesians. However, we see that the church often times is referred to as a specific group of believers who are meeting together in a specific place. Visible Church Grudem defines it this way, The church as we see it. In other words. We do not experience all the joy and fellowship of all the saints right here and now. We experience the body of Christ through gathering locally with believers. Ephesians 1:1 To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus Romans 1:7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints. 1 Corinthians 1:2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus 8 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Eph 2:18 22). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. 9 Grudem