WHY WE STILL NEED CHURCH

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on September 6, 2020 under 2020 |

Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; September 6, 2020 from John 14:12-18

Theme: The fellowship of the local church is essential to our faith because of what God provides for us through it.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

Click HERE for the live-stream archive of this sermon.

We’re returning this morning to a series that we started at the beginning of this year. It was something we called “Seven Resolves for Personal Revival”. They were key resolves concerning our own spiritual life for the coming New Year; and they help to prepare us in our own personal prayers for ‘revival’ in our time.

They were:

1. TO GROW IN MY RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS CHRIST.

2. TO GROW IN MY REPENTANCE FROM SIN.

3. TO GROW IN MY RELIANCE UPON THE HOLY SPIRIT.

4. TO GROW IN THE DAILY READING OF THE BIBLE.

5. TO GROW IN MY REGULAR ATTENDANCE AT CHURCH.

6. TO GROW IN THE RESTORATION OF RELATIONSHIPS.

7. TO GROW IN MY READINESS TO SHARE OUR FAITH.

And this morning, we take up the fifth resolve—that is, that we grow in our regular attendance at church. It’s an awkward subject to share during a pandemic lock-down, I know—but still very necessary for us to consider.

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There’s a passage in the New Testament in which Paul expressed a deep longing to be with his brothers and sisters for worship and fellowship—even though he could not be with them at the time. The circumstances of his separation from them were quite a bit different, of course, from our separation from one another today. But he expressed the longing to be with his fellow believers nevertheless. And with that expressed longing, he also described why it was that he genuinely needed to be with them.

In Romans 1, Paul wrote to his brothers and sisters and said;

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established—that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me (Romans 1:8-12).

This is a remarkable passage. In it, the apostle Paul expressed his deep need to be with his brothers and sisters in one-on-one fellowship. And it wasn’t all just emotional. In a practical sense, he needed something from them for the good of his soul that only they could give him; and they needed something that only he could give them. He said that he longed to see them “that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established …” What they needed from him was the use and exercise of his spiritual gifts—as an apostle—so that they would be established and well-grounded in the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And what he needed from them was “that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me”. Together, they needed what could only come through one-on-one, personal fellowship.

This reminds me of a conversation I had with another ministry leader in our area. He has a ministry to elderly folks; and he has been severely restricted from that ministry because of the virus—and because of the danger that it would present to himself and the people he serves. He has been doing his best to keep in touch with them; but most of them don’t use any of the on-line social media resources available that most folks in most churches have been able to use during the shut-down. He is frustrated for them; because they want to be together but can’t.

But as we talked, he also shared with me that he had been picking up on a trend from some of the younger folks and families in the church that he’s connected to. You might say that it’s an opposite problem from the older folks he serves. Over the past several months, these younger families have become very accustomed to having church ‘on-line’. And now, he is hearing some of them say that once the restrictions are lifted, and we are free to start meeting again, they are not planning to come back to church in person anymore. “It’s too much easier to just watch at home on the computer,” they are saying. “It’s such a hassle to come to church—to have to get the kids all ready, and to have to drive out to the building, and then to figure out the meals, and to have such a big chunk of the day taken up. We’re probably going to continue to watch at home and call it ‘church’.”

I was very concerned when I heard this. It’s something that I’ve been a little afraid of. To do this—to just settle for a passive ‘watching’ of church on a computer screen—is to ignore the things that Paul said he needed. They were things that his own heart yearned for because of the very nature of what the church truly is. When we trusted the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we were formed by the Holy Spirit into a spiritual body—the body of Christ on earth—the body in which each member is dependent upon the ministry and care of every other member. If we are not somehow meeting together and are not in some kind of contact with one another—fellowshipping together and worshiping our Lord with one another in one accord in some way—then we are no longer functioning as what God has made us to be.

Think of it! If even the apostle Paul needed the kind of up-close, personal care and nourishment that can only come from the face-to-face fellowship of the church body, how can we think that we could ever get along without it? That’s why we’re told in Hebrews 10:24-25;

And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching (Hebrews 10:24-25).

Now; obviously, we are in a very unusual time right now. For safety reasons, we have to limit what we can do. And particularly, in the region we’re living—because of current county restrictions—we are especially limited. Some people say that conforming to such restrictions is the same as ‘forsaking the assembling of ourselves together’. Personally, I don’t agree. But making a decision to settle for ‘on-line’ church from here on out, even after the restrictions are lifted, would, by definition, be ‘forsaking the assembling of ourselves together’. And we must not do that. It would end up being disastrous to our walk with the Lord Jesus.

It makes a big difference if we remember what the Bible teaches us about the nature of the church, and what it tells us about what a provision for our soul the local church is designed by our Lord to be. And I can’t think of a better passage from which to learn about that than Ephesians 4:1-16. It says;

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love (Ephesians 4:11-16).

So; let’s spend the remainder of our time looking at this passage. It teaches us that the fellowship of the local church is essential to us because of what God provides for us through it.

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Now; in this passage, the apostle Paul was writing about how we—as believers—are to walk in a manner that is worthy of our Lord. Ephesians 4:1 says,

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called … (Ephesians 4:1).

Understanding the ministry of the local church, then, is vital to walking in a manner that is worthy of our calling in Jesus Christ. Becoming a part of a local church—and participating in the fellowship of it—is essential to our walk with Jesus. We can’t do without it.

And Paul then went on, in our passage—in verse 11—to talk about the provision that the Lord has made for the local church. He wrote that the Lord Jesus—who suffered the death of the cross, and then rose victoriously over the grave, and who is now ascended to the right hand of God the Father for us—has given gifts to His church. Among them are people with gifted roles.

First, He gave apostles. The word ‘apostle’ means ‘sent-one’. These were those men who were authorized eyewitnesses to the life and ministry and teaching of our Lord. Then, He gave prophets. A prophet is someone who declares an authoritative message from God. The prophets of the Old Testament—by the power of the Holy Spirit—proclaimed a revelation of God’s plan to send His Son into the world to die for our sins. These two ‘gifts’—apostles and prophets—are foundational to the church. As Paul says in Ephesians 2:20, the church has been built “on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone”.

Once you lay the foundation of a house, you don’t have to keep laying it. But you do have to build on the foundation. And so, the next two gifts are people who ‘maintain’ the church that was built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. The first of these are evangelists. These are servants of the Lord that are called by God to proclaim the message of the gospel in unreached places, and to plant churches in places where there was no church. You might think of them as not only evangelists but also as missionaries and church-planters. And the second is pastors and teachers. These are two names for one person who does his work in two aspects. He pastors or ‘shepherd’s’ the people of God—providing the local church with spiritual nurture and care and leadership; and he also teaches the people of God by opening up God’s word to them and helping them to understand what it says.

And notice what an important provision these gifted leaders are to the ministry of the church. In verse 12, Paul says that they—that is, these gifted leaders—are “for the equipping of the saints …” They are the means to an end; and that end is that the people of God might have what they need in order to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. Those leaders themselves are not intended to do all the work of the ministry of the church. They are given in order to equip the rest of the church family “for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ”.

We should always remember that—and never let ourselves think of church as a place were we all sit and passively ‘receive’ while the ministry professionals do all the work. That’s not what the local church was designed by our Lord to be. But that’s what it would become if we all just permanently ‘settled’ for watching church on-line. Instead, we must be actively ministering to one another in the local church—all of the members of the church doing the work for which they are being equipped.

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And now; as the church is being built-up, what is it that the well-equipped local church then provides for all its members? Paul goes on to speak of six things the Lord gives us through the local church—six provisions that we can only have, in the way the Lord wants us to have them, through the personal fellowship of a local congregation.

The first is …

1. THE UNITY OF THE FAITH.

In verse 13, Paul says that we are to keep on doing the work of the ministry of edifying the body of Christ “till we all come to the unity of the faith …” The ‘faith’ being spoken of here is not a feeling or an attitude. It is a thing. It has to do with the doctrinal content of what we are to believe together as a church family from the Bible.

It’s not that we’re to simply become a group of people who have ‘faith’. There’s no value in just having any ol’ undefined set of beliefs that we choose for ourselves. Nor is it that we are to be simply ‘united’ in faith—as if we’re just a bunch of people that have an undefined faith together. Rather, it’s that we are to have unity in “the” faith—the one true faith—the gospel that has been given to us, once and for all time. In the Book of Jude—in the third verse—we’re told that we are to “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” It’s not a vague and undefined thing. It’s a specific set of beliefs that was given to us and that we are to be united in. It’s “the” faith.

There might be some differences between us in how we believe about secondary matters of Christian doctrine. But we must be united in the fundamentals of “the” faith. And to do that, we must assemble together. The local church gives this to us through its teaching ministry and through our biblical interactions and discussions with one another.

Now; the Bible points us to Jesus. And so, another thing that is provided to us is …

2. THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SON OF GOD.

In verse 13, Paul goes on to say that, through the local assembly, we’re to come to “the knowledge of the Son of God …” And it’s not just a mental awareness of Him. It’s that we all come to know Him in a personal and relational way that transforms us—“to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ …”

To put it simply, we’re to be together as people who share such a common knowledge of and personal relationship of love with the Lord Jesus that we grow together—daily—to be more like Him. In fact, the end goal of our relationship together with Him is that we will be transformed into His glory on the day when He returns for us.

We need each other in order to grow in the knowledge of our Lord. And that’s another thing that God provides for us through the fellowship of the local church.

This all happens in the midst of an unbelieving world. And so, another thing that our fellowship together gives us—something that is very needed today—is …

3. A STABILITY IN DAILY LIVING.

Paul wrote in verse 14 that we need to grow together in the local church “that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting …”

It’s a dangerous thing to be all on your own—searching out your own interpretation of the Christian faith as a ‘lone wolf’. Many people try to do this by searching around and reading blogs and articles and books—never discerning truth from error—easily falling victim to false teachers who take advantage of them. One of the great benefits of the local church, then, is the accountability of faith and action that we enjoy. One brother can come alongside another brother, and one sister can come alongside another sister, and say, “I’ve been watching what you’ve been doing, or I’ve been listening to what you’ve been saying, and I need to warn you that you’re getting misled.”

This stability in life, then, is a great blessing we are able to provide to one another through the local church.

Another blessing is …

4. TRUTH IN LOVE.

One of the ongoing activities of the local church that is to be happening—something that Paul mentions in verse 15—is that we are to be “speaking the truth in love …” A way that this can be translated—although there’s not an easy way to put it in English—is that we are to be “truthing in love” toward one another.

Someone once said that truth without love is brutality; but that love without truth is hypocrisy. We need both together. We need those who love us enough to tell us the truth—even when we don’t want to hear it. But we also need them to deeply love us with the love of Jesus when they do it. It is essential to our faithful walk with Jesus that we have both truth and love together in the way we speak and interact with one another.

And we get both—truth and love—in the local church.

It is through that ongoing work of ‘truthing in love’ toward one another that we are also provided …

5. GROWTH IN CHRIST-LIKENESS.

To grow in the likeness of Jesus Christ—to develop and mature into that perfection that is our ultimate destiny in Christ—is an ongoing work. Paul said in verse 15 that speak truth to one another in love, that we “may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ …” Just as we are to no longer be children who are easily tossed about by false things, we are instead to grow up more and more in the image of our Lord.

It’s not that we’re all in some merely-human, self-proclaimed ‘personal improvement program’. Our growth is nothing less than growth into the image of Jesus Christ. That kind of growth is only attainable—in the way it needs to happen—in the context of the fellowship of the local church family.

And finally, this is shown to be especially so because of the wonderful provision in the local church fellowship of …

6. MUTUAL CARE.

Jesus is the Head of His body—the church. And it is from the Head that—as Paul puts it in verse 16—that “the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”

You know what ‘joints’ are in the body. They’re the necessary points of contact between one part and another; so that they function together for the good of the whole. And Jesus has joined us together so that my role in the body blesses and benefits you in love; and that your role blesses and benefits me in love; and that together we grow in love.

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Now; let’s look at that passage again:

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love

Can you see that none of this can happen unless we are in regular contact with one another?—not, anyway, to the degree that our Lord wants it to happen?

And even though we may be very limited in the personal face-to-face contact we can have right now, we can still keep contact with one another. We can still reach out to one another as best we can. As we saw at the beginning of our time together, even the apostle Paul found a way to do that—so that the members of the body of Christ still had contact with one another. And we have far more ways to do that today than Paul could have ever imagined.

So; during this time of separation, let’s do our very best to keep on being the body of Christ. Let’s call one another. Let’s send notes. Let’s pray with each other. Let’s visit in whatever way we can. Let’s not neglect the blessings that we have together in being the body of Christ. Let’s recommit to renewing our ‘assembling together’—now during this time of restrictions; and even more so once the restrictions are lifted.

Let’s remember that the fellowship of the local church is essential to our walk with Jesus because of the indispensable things that God provides for us through it.

EA