In Defense of
the Bride of Christ
March 23, 2014
Let us hold
fast the confession of our hope without wavering,
for he who
promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate
one another to
love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling
together, as
is the habit of some, but encouraging one another;
and all the
more as you see the day drawing near.
Hebrews
10.23-25
Introduction:
·
Speaking today on the importance and value of
the church...
·
Already heard…
o
Psalm 84: Our Call to Worship
§ 1-2: “How lovely are your dwelling
places, O Lord of hosts! My soul
longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing
for joy to the living God.”
§ 10: “For a day in your courts
is better than a thousand outside.
I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God than dwell
in the tents of wickedness.”
o
Hebrews 10.25: “not forsaking our own assembling together,
as is the habit of some”
·
Not everybody appreciates the church as the gathered community…
o
Claim: “You don’t need to go to church to be a Christian.”
o
Claim: “You don’t need to go to church to worship God.”
o
Claim: “I worship God better in God’s nature by myself.”
·
Donald Miller: author of Blue Like Jazz
o
Blog post: “I Don’t Worship God by Singing. I Connect With Him Elsewhere” (Feb. 3, 2014)[1]
§ “I’ve a confession. I don’t connect with God by singing to
Him. Not at all.”
§ “It’s just that I don’t
experience that intimacy in a traditional worship service.”
§ “I connect with God by
working. I literally feel an
intimacy with God when I build my company.”
§ “So, do I attend
church? Not often, to be honest.”
§ “But I also believe the
church is all around us, not to be confined by a specific tribe.”
§ “I’m fine with where I’ve
landed and finally experiencing some forward momentum in my faith. I worship God every day through my
work. It’s a blast.”
·
I want to respond to this mindset and provide a defense of the Bride of
Christ.
Why is the
church important? Why is it
valuable? Why defend the church?
o
Eight (8) main points
o
Lots of Scripture: quote some; turn to some for us to read
o
Cumulative case being developed
o
Notes are on: whiterosereview.blogspot.com
1.
Jesus said he would build
his church.
a. Matthew 16.18
“I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this
rock I
will build my church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”
b. Jesus assumes it is a big deal: Matthew 18.17
“If he refuses to listen to
them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even
to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
2.
The gathered church is the
Spirit-blessed model of the early followers of Jesus.
a. Acts 2.41-47: “Continually devoting
themselves to…”
i. Apostles’ teaching
ii. Fellowship
iii. Breaking of bread: Lord’s Supper
iv. Prayer
v. Communal care: even with possessions
vi. Meals together
vii. Praising God
viii.
Seeing God add to their number
b. Donald Miller writes[2]:
i. “your church probably
doesn’t look anything like the church in the book of Acts, so let’s not get
self righteous.”
ii. “But again, your church
likely doesn’t look like the church in Acts.”
c. Donald Miller is just wrong
on this!
d. Jonathan Leeman responds[3]:
i. “But you keep saying no
one’s church looks like the church in Acts? Many churches I know do. People gather to hear the teaching of the apostles. And they scatter to enjoy fellowship
and hospitality and care for one another’s needs. They baptize as a way of declaring who belongs to ‘their
number.’ And they exercise
discipline when a professor lives falsely (okay, here I’m borrowing from the
epistles, unless you count Peter’s responses to Ananias, Sephira, or Simon as
disciple).”
3.
The Spirit-inspired structure
of the church implies authority and submission in a community.
a. Hebrews 13.17 (cf. 1
Thessalonians 5.12-13)
“Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep
watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with
grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.”
b. Makings of church membership
i. Two groups
1. Leaders
2. “Souls” they keep watch over
c. Mere individualism is
inconsistent with this view of the community.
d. For those who don’t think
they need the church to be a Christian…
i. Question: How do you obey
Hebrews 13.17?
e. For us at here at our church...
i. Do we pray for our elders?
ii. Do we seek to bring them
joy?
iii. Do you bring them grief?
iv. How are you obeying Hebrews
13.17?
4.
We get to learn how to love
strange people.[4]
a. “We are going to church
today to learn how to love strange people. Almost everybody only wants to spend
time with people who they feel most comfortable around. People generally want to hang out with
people who have their same amount of money, have the same skin color, are their
same age, like the same food, and watch the same TV shows. Other kinds of people are strange to
them.” --Matthew
Westerholm
b. Ephesians 2.11-14
i. Jew/Gentile barrier broken
down in the community of Jesus
ii. “For he himself is our peace,
who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall”
(v. 14)
c. Galatians 3.26-29
i. “baptized into Christ” (v. 27)
ii. “There is neither Jew nor
Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female;
for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (v. 28)
iii. “And if you belong to
Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.” (v. 29)
d. These “strange people” are
different but oriented around a common confession that Jesus is Lord
i. Strange mix of people
ii. Theological center
e. Donald Miller has it backwards!
i. “Imagine the relationships
people lose out on, the incredible life memories, the healing and community
they aren’t involved in because they can’t engage or have community with people
who do not agree with them theologically.
I’ve no interest. People are either kind or mean. I choose kind ones, I don’t care what
they believe. This is part of
why I feel like my community is so healthy.”[5]
ii. Two issues to note:
1. Are there no theological
boundaries?: “I don’t care what they believe.”
2. Donald Miller is the center: “I choose…”
a. Jonathan Leeman responds:
“Your idea of community, to
my ears, honestly sounds more American and Romantic (as in the –ism of the 19th
century) than biblical. All
authority remains with the individual to pick and choose, come and go, owing
some of the obligations of love, perhaps, but always on one’s own terms, happy
to stay as long as the experience ‘completes me’ and my sense of self.”[6]
3. Individualistic mentality: treats the church like a prostitute!
5.
Jesus considers the gathered
church with the utmost seriousness.
a. 1 Corinthians 11.17-34: Lord’s Table
i. 17-22: Problems in the church
ii. 23-26: Tradition passed on
regarding the Lord’s Table
iii. 27-34: Caution and danger in
regards to the Table
1. “Judge the body rightly” (v.
29)
a. Look outward (to the body)
b. Do I despise my brother and
sisters? Do I judge them by
standards other than the gospel?
i. Economic
ii. Intellectual
iii. Social
2. “For this reason many among
you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.” (v. 30)
b. I do not have the right to
despise those whom Jesus accepts!
i. What to do while waiting for
your turn to go to receive the sacrament…consider the body of Christ!
6.
The church is the body of
Christ Jesus.
a. 1 Corinthians 12: “Now concerning spiritual
gifts…” (v. 1)
i. Verses 4-7
1. Spiritual gifts given for
the “common good” (v. 7)
ii. Verses 12-14
1. One body…
2. Many members
iii. Verse 27: “Now you are Christ’s body,
and individually members of it.”
7.
The church is the wife of
Jesus.
a. Ephesians 5.22-33: focus on verses 25-29 -- What Christ does…
i. Loved the church
ii. Sanctifies and cleanses her
iii. Desire to present her in
“all her glory”; holy and blameless
iv. Nourishes and cherishes the
church!
v. We are members of his body
(v. 30)
b. A brief note on singing -- Ephesians 5.18-19
“I don’t connect with God by singing to Him. Not at all.”
ii. Admission of weakness: not a reason to not sing!
iii. Perhaps God connects with us
through singing?!
“The Lord your God is in
your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you with his love; he
will exult over you with loud singing.” (ESV)
iv. Singing in our culture
1. Church sings
2. Who else?
8.
Jesus gave his blood for the
church: Acts 20.28
Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood.
a.
The value of the church is
measured by the price God has paid for her!
b. The church is valuable
because God has shed his blood for her!
c. Do we value what Jesus
values?
d. We cannot love Jesus without
loving his church!
e. I love the church…
i. Not because she is perfect…
ii. but because Jesus loves the
church!
iii. I want to love what Jesus
loves!
·
We get to sing now -- “The Church’s One
Foundation”
·
Listen to some of the words…
(1)The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord;she is his new creation by water and the Word:from heav’n he came and sought her to be his holy bride;with his own blood he bought her and for her life he died.…(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.
[4] Matthew
Westerholm, “Why Do We Have To Go To Church Again?” http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgcworship/2014/03/06/why-do-we-have-to-go-to-church-again/
[8] Sam Storm’s
book The Singing God: Discover the Joy of
Being Enjoyed by God (Creation House, 1998) is a good gospel-centered
meditation on this theme.
