What Good is the Church?

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We live in a day and age when the value of the Church is being questioned not only by the world, but also by the many Born-again Believers in Jesus Christ. Some who love and respect Jesus have no love or respect for the Church. There are even a few who are committed to world missions and yet they have no commitment to a local fellowship of Believers. They have their reasons but fail to recognize the sovereignty of God on this one issue.

God has designed each and every one of His new creations in Christ to be a particular member of the Body of Christ, which is the Church. The patterns given to us by God in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament, and even heaven and the whole of eternity, are one of coming together in an assembly to worship God as one body.

                                                  

 

In the Old Testament it was first an altar, then a tabernacle, and finally a temple which was the Old Testament Church. God’s children were commanded by the law of God to attend, worship, pray, give, and listen to the priests read from the Word of God on certain days, (Deuteronomy 16:16). Attendance and participation were not subject to personal choice.

In the New Testament, the Gospels tell us that Jesus was accustomed to attending the organized place of worship and participated in the services as was His habit every weekend, (Luke 4:16). The one result of the Promise of God, which was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, was the establishment of an organized local Church with a recognized Pastor, Elders, Prophets, Evangelists, Apostles, Deacons, missionaries, and thousands of local members.

The one goal and the fruit of every mission trip taken by missionaries from the Church in Jerusalem, the Church in Antioch, and the Church in Ephesus, our three main New Testament pattern Churches, were new Churches being established and commissioned as local congregations to continue the Great Commission, (Matthew 28:18-20), by spreading the Gospel message to their communities and ultimately to the whole world.

I have long said that if you want to be like Jesus, you’re going to have to go to Church … because He did and He will keep going. In fact, He is in Church today. Sunday is even called the Lord’s Day!

After looking for 12-year-old Jesus for three days, Mary and Joseph finally thought to look in the one place Jesus always wanted to be. They found Him in His Father’s house. (Luke 2:46ff)

And bear in mind, the people Jesus went to Church with weren’t perfect in His day either. Some of them were downright mean and more than one was possessed by devils. The preachers and the Church board often didn’t like Him. They lied on Him and treated Him like He was dirt. Jesus was thrown out of more than one congregation and yet He kept going.

The only glimpses we have been given of heaven and on into the millennial reign of Christ which will afterwards give way to a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness, where there is no need of a sun or moon for Jesus Christ shall be the Light thereof, is that of great assemblies where everyone from all nations and all tribes and tongues, everyone who makes it there, will gather together to praise and worship and adore the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and to give Him all the crowns they have earned.

Jesus died for the Church. Jesus is coming back again for the Church. Jesus is the Bridegroom, and the Church is the Bride. The Church is the Body of Christ and the family of God in the earth. The Psalmist said God sets the solitary in families, (Psalms 68:6). Paul said it this way: God sets us in the Church as it pleases Him … not as it pleases us, (1 Corinthians 12:18).

Are you ready for the Word today? We are going to read a passage and hope to find the answer to the question: What Good is the Church?

On the day of Pentecost 120 people were in an upper room praying and worshipping – they were having Church … and the prayer revival lasted 40 days … Then God sent the Holy Spirit to baptize them with power from on high and to give them the gift of being a witness. They immediately went out into the streets of Jerusalem and began sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ everyone from all the nations who were visiting during the Feast of Weeks. People were amazed and had many questions, (Acts 2:1ff)

Peter began to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ under the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2 NKJV

38  Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

·        The Bible only tells one story. In order for any one scripture verse to be correctly interpreted, it must fit into and not violate the entirety of the one-story God is telling.

·        The one story of the Bible is Redemption by God’s grace.

·        We are saved by grace and not by works.

·        Jesus is the pattern of all truth.

·        Jesus was baptized because He was the Son of God. He was not baptized in water so that He could become the Son of God.

·        His water baptism was a baptism of identification and to be the example for us to follow.

·        We are baptized in water for the remission of sins in the same way Jesse James was wanted for robbery. He was not wanted so that he could commit a robbery. He was wanted because he had committed robbery. This word as it is used here connects the present to the past, not the present to the future.

·        Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ (Greek word ‘eis’ = for or because) because your sins have been forgiven …

·        The word “for” in this verse signifies an action in the past.

·        This agrees with the whole narrative of salvation by grace and not by works, (Ephesians 2:8&9).

39  “For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

·        God is still calling and the Promise of receiving the Holy Spirit is still to us!

40  And with many other words Peter testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.”

·        Peter’s simple message conclusion: Be Saved!

41  Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.

·        3000 people were added to the 120 who just moved the revival outside and kept the Church service growing and going all over the world.

·        Make no mistake … the initial and lasting results of Pentecost is Church! And it’s still growing and going all over the world.

42 ¶  And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.

·        Here are The First 4 Things the Church is Good For:

o   Doctrine

o   Fellowship

o   Communion

o   Prayer

·        These are the primary pillars, responsibilities, goals, and benefits of the Church.

·        Without the Church, God knows the world will lose these pillars.

43  Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

·        The Church is good for maintaining an awe of God in the earth.

·        The Church is good for signs and wonders.

o   God works in, on, for, and through the Church.

o   I can testify all day about the signs God is moving through the Church and each one of them is a wonder to everyone who hears and sees.

§  Just in our little congregation here in a small community in the corner of Southeast Texas … Our Church Congregation is responsible for:

·        More than 700 water wells all over the earth.

·        More than a dozen congregations just within our local communities.

·        More than 150 sponsored children.

·        Orphanages, schools, hospitals, medical clinics, seminaries, feeding centers, preaching points, missionaries, publications, television programs, dozens of Christ-centered websites with free life-changing resources, and millions and millions of souls saved, and families restored here in our area and all around the globe.

§  I constantly wonder at the miracles done by those, and these proverbial, 120 who took their witness outside the walls of their little Church meeting and trusted in the power of the Holy Spirit.

·        Just this week we were able to buy shoes for poor and needy families in the Philippines.

·        Just this week we were given another building at Gioto Dumping Site in Kenya in which the Government has authorized us to remodel and expand our KE Learning Center to include First and Second grade classes.

·        Just this week we, right here from our Church, were able to fund three more months’ worth of salaries for the Medical Doctor and the Dentist who come every week to a clinic in Atoyac, Mexico, where we funded and drilled 3 new water wells last week. I can remember back in 1994 sending a group of 5 men from our Church to paint that surgical clinic which we had helped to build a few years earlier. My son was on that team, he was 15 at the time.

o   Talk about signs and wonders being done by and through the Church … not to mention those done for the Church by God!

·        These should all give us a sense of awe and respect for God and for His vehicle of choice, the Church of the living God.

44  Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common,

45  and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.

·        One of the responsibilities of the Church is to help one another and those in need by giving of those things God has blessed us with.

·        We see this happening every day in the Church, in so many ways.

·        The tithes and offerings people bring to the Church enable us to reach out and meet so many needs here within our congregation and community and elsewhere.

o   From our food bank to our outreaches to the simple benevolence needs which we meet to the toys at Christmas and so many other things you never hear about.

o   The left hand does not often know what the right hand is doing.

o   Last month alone three cars that I know of were given away from families in our Church to other families in our Church. There were probably more … there usually are and later I find out about it.

o   Last week our Church blessed a ministry assisting children in the Texas CPS system by giving them one of our 15 passenger vans. They were in desperate need, and they do a great service for children and families in some of the most terrible and trying times of life. We got a lot of use out of that van and it was a perfect fit for them and their need. We can believe God for another van.

·        That’s what the Church is good for … meeting needs.

·        I read somewhere recently that more real needs are met in communities around the world by Churches than by any other type of organizations.

We are almost finished … 2 more short verses and the best is yet to come.

What Good is the Church?

46  So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,

47  praising God and having favor with all the people. And …

·        Stop right there for a moment before we finish that verse.

·        The Church helps us to keep things simple and to help God fill the hearts of our congregation members with gladness.

·        Together we praise God and others favor us because of all the good we do.

·        But … Do you know the best thing about the Church?

o   You know what the Church is really good for?

o   The best thing about the Church is the rest of that verse:

… the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

People are being saved on a daily basis in and through the efforts of the Church in our little part of the world and all around the globe.

The greatest responsibility, privilege, priority, and hope of the Church is that in all the good we do, we do not forget that our primary call is to bring people to the saving grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

·        Have you been saved?

·        Are you committed to a local Church?

·        Can you remember a time when someone in the Church prayed for you, encouraged you, stood with you in faith, or walked with you through a trying time? Bible studies, camps, fellowships, and mission trips together all produce results that reach beyond our lifetimes.

·        Organized Church is the will and plan of God for every generation.

·        Church is not just a good thing; Church is a God thing.

What good is the Church? It is the Church that keeps satan and his demon angels from taking over this world and enslaving every soul for eternity.

Refuse to believe or propagate the devil’s message of doom and gloom. Jesus is the answer for the world today and Churches are the messengers.

Get saved and get plugged into a Bible believing, Christ-centered, missions oriented, church planting congregation and make an eternal difference by leaving it better than you found it.