Things I Still Believe In: The Church

9/9/12 “30 Years Later: Things I Still Believe In: The Church” Matthew 16:13-19
I. Introduction
A. 30 years of listening to the same voice!
B. From the beginning, GPC has been a church which believes in the Bible
C. Newsweek April 9, 2012: an article by Andrew Sullivan, “Forget the Church, Follow Jesus”
1. Not a good title for the article, but it reflects a way of thinking growing in our society.
2. Over time, you come to see the soft underbelly of the church. You notice the politicking; you observe the hypocrisy; you watch the human failures; you experience its inefficiencies.
3. And it is tempting to grow disenchanted with the church and to lose your patience with it.
4. You find yourself nodding when you hear it said that “The institutional church is failing and so let’s give up on it and do something else.”
D. Have you noticed that you don't hear much teaching today on the subject of the church?
1. Some attend church for an hour on Sunday, but live their lives outside the context of the church.
a. Their rejection of church is more subtle. They don’t even realize it.
b. Church has become something they go to, not something they are part of.
E. I want you to know that I believe in the church. I believe Jesus believes in the church.
1. I believe in the church in the sense that I believe the church is His church.
2. I believe Jesus REALLY cares about His church. I believe He is building His church.
3. I believe that the church is created by Jesus to be His. Not just that it’s supposed to be His, but it is His.
F. Not that the church is necessarily doing well.
G. I did not grow up in the church. I was not converted in a church that had a high view of the church.
1. The Bible has convinced me to believe in the church.
II. Explanation of Matthew 16:13-19 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 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. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
A. Christ is building.
1. He’s at work, today. There’s a project He’s working on. He has plans and is making progress and has a specific goal in mind. Isn’t that wonderful?
2. The project isn’t completed yet.
3. Messy: Woe to those who despise the mess. Christ is at work! It’s God’s mess!
B. Christ is building a church
1. Not an organization, not a club, not a fellowship, not a parachurch organization. He’s not building nations or political parties or companies or even families. He’s building a church.
2. Maybe the church He’s talking about is completely different than what we think of as church.
3. 1Tim. 3:14-15: "...I am writing you these instructions so that...you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth."
a. What is the proper role of women in the church: are they supposed to teach or lead men?
b. The offices of elder and deacon and the qualifications of these offices.
c. How a charge against an elder ought to be handled and how elders should be treated.
d. How to deal with false teachers in the church.
e. Various things that should be included in the worship service.
f. Instructions about which widows should be financially supported by the church.
4. Whatever the church is supposed to be, it:
a. Has qualified officers.
b. Comes together for worship.
c. Has a regular place of meeting for worship.
d. Has men who are gifted and equipped to teach God’s word.
e. Practices the sacraments.
f. Conducts church discipline.
C. Christ is building His church
1. This is not a place for us to exercise our own preferences.
a. This isn’t a place where it’s my will against the elders’ will or the elders’ will against the deacons’ will or the officers’ will against the congregations’ will. It’s only Christ’s will that matters here.
b. It’s to be done His way, according to His instructions, not the world’s way, not other churches’ way.
2. This is God’s house. We are given the privilege of assisting Him in the construction, but “Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it.” Psalm 127:1
3. This is not my church, it is Christ’s.
4. Don’t ever give men the glory for what good happens in the church. The glory belongs to Christ.
5. God has not only ordained a message of salvation, He has also ordained an institution where that message is to be upheld, proclaimed and lived out on the earth.
6. The church is not a man-made institution.
D. Christ’s church will experience conflict.
1. There will surely be opposition.
2. The devil is not just going to sit around and watch Jesus build His church.
3. 1Cor.: much conflict, but it’s still Christ’s church!
E. And yet Jesus promises that the enemies of His church will not prevail.
1. The good news and the bad news: the church experiences opposition, but she also experiences the protection and the sustaining power of God, who guarantees her survival and triumph.
2. Often it doesn’t look like it is going to prevail.
a. Down through the ages many have speculated that the church was on its deathbed.
b. And many have set out to put an end to the church. Many of them are now dead, the church continues on. His promise has come true!
3. Getting discouraged about the church. Giving up on the church.
a. The amazing thing is that Jesus hasn’t given up on His church, and He never will.
4. “The church shall never perish! Her dear Lord (to defend, to guide, sustain and cherish) is with her to the end. Though there be those that hate her, and false sons in her pale, against or foe or traitor she ever shall prevail.”
III. Explanation
A. Christ is not just building individual believers. He is not just building Christian fellowship. He is building His Church. "Upon this rock I will build My church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it."
B. The church is Jesus’ flock, His family, His house. It is where He lives, and it is where His family lives.
C. It not only has life in it, it not only has power in it, it has an order in it, a structure that God spells out in His word (or at least it is supposed to).
D. Christians not only need to believe and behave, they need to belong.
E. For Christians the question must not be, Does it help me?
F. But people who are committed to Christ must also be committed to Christ's church.
G. The church is Christ's thing and therefore everyone who belongs to Christ must say, "It is MY thing."
H. How can we love the Bridegroom but hate the bride? How can we hold the Bridegroom in high regard and think nothing of the one that He calls precious in His sight?
I. We cannot separate the bride from the Bridegroom. “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder!”
J. Being hurt inclines us to give up. I understand that. But some things you can’t give up on. You can’t give up on your body. You can’t give up on your kids. You can’t give up on your parents. You can’t give up on your marriage. You can’t give up on the church.
K. Christ alone saves. Then why the Church? Full of error and sin, wracked by hypocrisy and shallowness, why even bother with church?
1. Because Jesus bothered with it. Because the Church is His beloved bride. Because He promised to build His Church and that the gates of hell would not overpower it (Matt.16:18).
L. The Church of the Lord Jesus is the community of His people. It is the place where God’s children are to be instructed and encouraged and challenged in the way of Christ. It is the family context where young Christians are to be nurtured in the faith and where growing Christians learn to use the gifts God has given them for the sake of the body. It is the setting in which the disciples of Christ are supposed to live out their love for one another, in obedience to His commands.
M. Of course, the church always fails to be all that it should be (and GPC is no exception). But it is still the church. It is still beloved of the Lord.
N. Our Lord loves His church -- how can we despise it? He prays for His church from the right hand of the Father -- how can we ignore it? He longs to bring her close -- how can His people repudiate it?
a. Yet, the family is not the church (Jesus: “Who are my mother and brothers?”).28:19-20.
O. Chuck Colson - "The church of Jesus Christ is like Noah's ark; the stench inside would be unbearable if it weren't for the storm outside."