What is the Church?

Today, we finish up our short series called “Good Questions.” My purpose in doing this series was, one, to take a short break from our much longer series through Deuteronomy, and two, to explain our convictions on some very foundational topics and hopefully come to some common understanding on them and have greater unity. So we’ve already asked the questions, “What is the gospel?” and “What is preaching?” If you missed those, go listen online to them. Today, we ask the question, “What is the church?” And this is an important question for a few reasons. One is simply that the church is of central importance to God’s mission and purposes. God has always worked through groups of people; God has always called a defined group of people to be “his people, his possession.” Originally, this was the people of Israel. God worked in and through them in a unique way. And then after Jesus, the “people of God” is the church. Jesus is called the head of the church, and the savior of the church. He gives himself to die for the church. The church is called to submit to Jesus. And Jesus says the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. Clearly, the church—this group of people which we’ll consider today--is central to God’s purposes for the world. And yet, this concept is hard for us modern people to fully grasp. We are a very individualistic culture. We think Christianity can be lived out mostly individually and autonomously: the church is there when we need encouragement or advice, but it’s not all that central to my personal faith. Additionally, we are skeptical of institutions. So when we DO think of church and agree that church is important, we tend to put all the weight on the universal, invisible church. By that, I mean all true believers around the world, throughout history. We’re okay seeing ourselves as part of THAT church, but when it comes to a specific, local, institutional church, red flags come up. In part because that requires things like commitments, and accountability, and sacrifice, and other people who are weird. Which then, encourages us to continue to be very individualistic in our faith. It’s easier that way: we’re only accountable to ourselves, we can keep others and their problems at arm’s length, see them on Sunday perhaps, but not really have to get into the trenches of life with them. But surely God intends for the church to play a more significant role than this. Surely this entity bought with Jesus’ blood and against which the gates of hell shall not prevail is more than just an optional meeting we attend when life gets really hard and we need a pick-me-up. So we need to talk about the church. What is it and what are God’s purposes for it? To do this, we’re going to use a passage known as the Great Commission, some of Jesus’ last words to his disciples before he went up into heaven. And to go through these words, we’ll ask three questions: 1) Why does the church exist in the first place? 2) What is the purpose of the church? And 3) How does the church accomplish its purpose? First: Why does the church exist in the first place? Consider what the first part of our text says: 16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Before Jesus gives his disciples this great commissioning to go and make more disciples, He turns their attention to his identity and nature: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” In other words, the command to make disciples is fundamentally rooted in who Jesus is and what he has just done. The church exists because Jesus is the risen Savior and King. Without this fact, there is no church. On the one hand, he is the all-powerful king of the universe. He is the Creator of all creation. He will be the judge of all creation. Nothing is outside of his authority. And yet on the other hand, this same Jesus is also the humble savior. Just before He utters these words, he had given himself to be murdered in order to save sinners. The all-powerful king had suffered death, had willingly sacrificed himself to save undeserving, in fact, ill-deserving sinners like you and me. And it is because of this, what God has done for us in Jesus, that the church exists. The church exists, Christianity exists, because of who Jesus is and what He has done. This is what makes Christianity a “God-centered” religion. Everything begins with God. The reason we exist and the reason we have any hope in this world is because of what God has graciously done for us. God pursued us when we were lost and dead and enemies. God wrote his own death into the script of history. This means that the primary reason the church exists is not ultimately because we see needy people, not because we see a world that needs morality or joy or community or spirituality, not because of the suffering and pain in the world. These may be sufficient secondary motivations—we should love people and want to help people and want to bring relief to human suffering—and the gospel does affect these things. But the primary reason the church exists, the reason we have any hope to bring to this world, is because we have witnessed the sin-defeating, self-sacrificing, utterly-undeserved gracious work of God in the death of Jesus; we have witnessed the risen, victorious Savior. And we recognize that this is what the world needs more than anything else. This is the ultimate solution to all of the world’s problems. Without this motivation and this message, we would be indistinguishable from the many social and civic groups that are doing a lot of good things, but which are not the church. So we start with who God is and what He’s done for us in Jesus. And we don’t ever get away from that. That’s our motivation—why we exist—and that’s our message. It is the gospel that has the power to change people’s hearts, to make dead people alive, to make addicts free, to make perverts clean, to make enemies seek peace and reconciliation. The gospel gives us all of us a new identity as beloved children of God, and that changes everything. Second question: What is the purpose of the church? Having been given all authority in heaven and earth, and called his disciple’s attention to that fact, Jesus could have made any pronouncement. He could have commanded anything. Here is the sovereign king of the universe, and what would he command his people to do? “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.” The purpose of the church is to make disciples of Jesus. Now, ultimately the purpose of the church, just like the purpose of every individual and the purpose of the world, is to glorify God. But God’s role for the church specifically within the world is to make disciples, who will then give glory to God. So what is a disciple? A disciple is first of all one who learns from Jesus. The word used for disciple in the NT literally means a student or learner of a particular teacher. A disciple of Jesus is one committed to learning from Jesus. But Jesus made it clear that to be his disciple meant more than just learning some life-tips from him or seeing him as a good teacher: it meant giving exclusive loyalty to him. Jesus said things like, “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” And, “…any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:27, 33). Jesus doesn’t try to downplay the sacrifice needed to follow Him. He doesn’t try to lower the bar to make Christianity more appealing. He says clearly, “This is going to cost you everything.” If you think you can continue to worship money or pleasure or respect or sex and also be my disciple, that’s not how this works. You must be willing to let go of all other functional gods and worship me alone. Now, it’s worth noting that becoming a disciple of Jesus is not a complicated thing. Jesus isn’t calling for people to jump through a series of hoops or study for five years first. Becoming a disciple is very simple: “Come to me all you who are weary and I will give you rest.” “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” Repent and believe. These are not complicated things; these are not hoops to jump through or items to check off a list or information to acquire. It’s really very simple. The only requirement is to come holding on to nothing and ready to give up everything. Ready to give up our self-rule and selfish ambitions, and self-righteousness. This is stated wonderfully in the hymn we just sang, Rock of Ages: Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to the cross I cling Naked come to thee for dress, Helpless look to thee for grace Wretched to the fount I fly, Wash me Savior or I die A disciple is more than someone who simply affirms Jesus as a great teacher. A disciple is more than someone who thinks that Christianity can improve their lives. A disciple is someone who sees their desperate need for God’s grace, and their utter helplessness to acquire this grace on their own, and so they submit their lives to Jesus. In other words, when you truly see who Jesus is and what He has done for you, you realize that the only right response is complete devotion and worship. And that’s what disciples do. So, the purpose of the church is to make these type of people: people who love, worship, serve, and obey Jesus. Now, Jesus says we are to make disciples “of all nations.” And that includes this nation, and this community. God has placed us here in the Stanwood-Camano community and our primary mission field for making disciples is right here. This is what our core value of “missional living” means. Our daily, ordinary lives are to have a missionary purpose to them. It is not only pastors or overseas missionaries with this responsibility. Every believer has a responsibility to bear witness to the risen Savior and King Jesus. Now, of course we also want to be a part of making disciples outside of our immediate community. And we are able to do this through our partnerships with the 3Strand Network, planting and supporting churches in the Puget Sound region; and through our partnership with the NAB, supporting church plants in North America; and then also supporting Josh and Amber Harrington in their missions work in Papua. But I would submit that our first and foremost responsibility in disciple-making is right here where God has placed us. And part of the reason I would argue this is because the discipleship process is intricately connected to the local church. We’ll come back to this. Third question: How does the church accomplish its purpose to make disciples? Are we left up to our own to figure this out, to find a process that works, to convince people to believe and submit to Jesus? Are we supposed to use whatever means possible to attract people to our churches and just hope that they want to give up everything for Jesus? No, God doesn’t just tell us to make disciples; he also tells us how to go about making disciples. We aren’t left guessing as to what will bring dead people to life, turn self-worshippers into God-worshippers, what will make and mature disciples and build up the church. Here’s how our passage ends, as Jesus explains what the process of making disciples looks like: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (19-20) The process of making disciples involves, at the least, baptizing them and teaching them. We’ll unpack these in a bit, but there is one other element that is also implied here. Before the church can baptize people, those people must first hear and respond to the gospel message. So the first thing the church must do, and must continue to do, is proclaim the gospel. The gospel is the announcement that God-dismissing, Creator-rejecting sinful humans like us can find peace and favor with God not by their sacrifices for Him, but by His sacrifice for them on the cross. We’ve already seen that it is this message that brings the church into existence. But it’s also this message that continues to grow the church. We are bound to proclaim the gospel. And we should do this to unbelievers and believers a like. We all need to regularly hear the gospel, because it is the ground of our identity, worth, and hope. This is the first thing we must do as a church. As people then respond to the gospel message with faith and repentance, the church has further responsibilities. Namely, the church is called to affirm and oversee credible professions of faith. Now, you might be wondering, “Where does it say this in the Bible?” Well, it doesn’t say it exactly like that, but in many ways, this is what the Bible calls the church to do. And one of the ways that the church is to do this is through baptism and communion. Baptism is how the church affirms credible professions of faith. Baptism is a celebration of someone being transferred from death to life, from being an enemy of God to a beloved child of God. And it’s an announcement that this person is now a disciple, a committed follower of Jesus. In baptizing someone, we are saying to the world, “If you want to see a disciple, look at this person. If you want to see the gospel at work in someone’s life, look at this person.” And so we don’t baptize anyone and everyone. We only baptize those who have heard the gospel, understood the basics of the gospel, and responded in repentance and faith. I had a woman call me several months ago who I’ve never met and who’s never been to our church, and ask if we do baptisms. I said, “Yes.” She asked if she could get baptized. I said that I’d like to hear more about her story, hear what she believes about the gospel, and talk about what it means to get baptized. She said, “So you don’t do like John the Baptist and baptize anyone that wants to.” I said that baptism is not just a union with God; it’s also a union with his church. And Jesus commanded us not only to baptize people, but also to teach them, which I take to mean that while baptism is a one-time event, it is meant to be connected to a lifelong commitment to be a disciple of Jesus, in Jesus’ church. So no, we don’t just baptize anyone who shows up once and says they want to be baptized without at least a conversation about what baptism means. Now, perhaps in a country where being a Christian means certain persecution, where being baptized as a Christian means rejection by family and friends and possibly death threats, there wouldn’t be as much of a need to explain the significance of the decision. Because someone willing to risk their friends, family, and lives for Jesus already fully understands and embraces what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. But in our context, where simply calling yourself a Christian is unlikely to bring much real persecution, where there are a ton of false gospels out there, we are wise to do our due diligence to hear and affirm professions of faith and not simply proclaim everyone a Christian simply because they keep a tradition of going to church, or seem like decent people, or want others to think of them as a “Christian.” Baptism means something, because being a disciple means something. And then the church’s partaking of communion has a similar function: to continue to oversee credible professions of faith. When we partake of communion together as a church, we are making a statement. We are proclaiming our dependence on Christ’s death and our being a part of his body, the church. Again, there is both a vertical union with God and a horizontal union with his people. Jonathan Leeman sums up well the role of baptism and communion: “Through baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the church waves the flag and dons the army uniform of our nation. It makes us visible. To be baptized is to identify ourselves with the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as well as to identify our union with Christ’s death and resurrection. To receive the Lord’s Supper is to proclaim his death and our membership in his body. God wants his people to be known and marked off. He wants a line between the church and the world.” (Leeman) Now, that might seem pretty exclusive. Wasn’t Jesus welcoming of everyone? Don’t we want to welcome everyone in our churches? Yes! The gospel is for everyone. Our church gatherings are open for anyone. Invite your friends, neighbors, co-workers. Invite believers, non-believers, skeptics. We want as many people as possible to hear the good news, and as many people as possible to respond in faith and repentance. But walking in the doors of a church doesn’t make someone a Christian, nor should we lead people to believe that. We do a disservice to them, to the church, and to the watching world when we are careless about affirming people’s faith. Because a disciple of Jesus should look different. The world should see a disciple of Jesus and say that something is different with them. Not that they’re perfect or sinless or happy all the time. But there is a real and significant change when someone becomes a disciple of Jesus, and there also ought to be continual change as someone continues to be a disciple of Jesus. And the church is called to proclaim who these disciples are through baptism and communion. Okay, moving on. Jesus also says that the process of making disciples includes the teaching of God’s word: “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Being a disciple is an ongoing process of hearing God’s word and obeying God’s word. A disciple is not one who prayed a prayer way back at summer camp, is assured of heaven, and so now can get on with the rest of their life anyway they’d like. A disciple is one who has seen the great glory of the Creator God, has seen the utter offensiveness of their own sin, has seen the magnitude of what Jesus has done to save them. And having seen this, they give up. They give up trying to be their own god; they give up trying to appease God by their goodness or religion or sacrifices. And they trust solely in Jesus’ death in their place. And for these people, the idea that you could come to Jesus for eternal salvation but not submit your whole life to him is ludicrous. God came down to earth to die for his rebellious creation, who deserved no less than death and separation from Him, and we want to take the benefits of his death, but ignore his call on our life? We want to acknowledge him as Savior, but ignore him as Lord? This is called cheap grace. And not only is it ludicrous; it doesn’t work. Because to those whom truly repent and believe, God gives His Spirit who begins to change them from the inside out. And one of the ways that the Spirit begins to change disciples is to put in them a desire for God’s word. God’s people want God’s word. They want to hear it and they to want to obey it. Not to earn God’s love and favor, not to check off a box and feel good about themselves. No, God’s people want God’s word because God works through His word. God’s word is his means of strengthening and maturing us. God’s word convicts us. God’s word gives us hope and encouragement. God’s word gives us joy and faith and perseverance. Because of the centrality of God’s word, God calls churches to be led by pastor/elders who are able to teach God’s word: In fact, this is the only ability required of pastor/elders; every other requirement is a matter of character. In other words, God wants his church to be fed and led by His word. Because God works through his word, and disciples are both established and built up through His word. Okay, so we’ve seen that the church’s purpose is to make disciples, and they do this by proclaiming the gospel, affirming and overseeing one another’s professions of faith, and teaching God’s word. Now, someone might object that this great commission passage doesn’t actually talk about the church. Sure, it’s relevant to the universal church, because all disciples of Jesus are a part of the universal church. But does this process of making disciples really require specific, local congregations? Isn’t all that matters is that we get the gospel message out there, get people saved, and then perhaps baptize them? And can’t this be done by individuals, like missionaries? And if disciples are to grow and mature in their faith, sure the church is a good option, but there’s also books, and podcasts, and conferences, and TV preachers. Again, can’t we make disciples as individuals just as well? Do we really need the local church? And I would say, only if we pick and choose certain aspects of the disciple-making process and separate them from the rest of the process, can it be done apart from a local church. But if we are to fully obey this command and make healthy, growing, God-glorifying disciples, we need the church. God intends for the local church to be the engine for making disciples. For example, a missionary may go out to a village that has never heard the gospel, and may proclaim the gospel. People may respond and be saved. Up till that point, there has been no need for a local church. But as soon as people start coming to the faith, what needs to happen: they need to get baptized, they need to be taught. And as soon as someone baptizes them and they gather to hear the word, they are a church. Similarly in our context: we can, and should, be proclaiming the gospel, wherever we are. We are missionaries, or witnesses, wherever God has placed us. But as soon as someone responds to our witness, what do we do? Is the discipleship process over? Can they now be discipled simply by reading some books or watching some church services on TV or the internet? No, at this point they need the church. They need a community like this. They need to regularly hear and respond to God’s word, they need the mutual affirmation and oversight of fellow believers (baptism and communion), and they need the encouragement and love and support of fellow believers. The process of making disciples, as God intends it, depends on the local church. Which means, that for you and I to obey Jesus’ authoritative, Great Commission, we don’t need to each go out and do every step of this process on our own. It’s not on each of us to proclaim the gospel, baptize those who respond, and then teach them. Parts of this we can and should be doing individually. But to obey the whole command, we commit to a local church, where the gospel is preached, where people are baptized, and where God’s word is taught. Now, I should clarify: this doesn’t mean that disciples are made merely through the work of the pastors and leaders of the church. To say that the church is central to disciple-making is not to say that all one needs to do is come to church on Sundays, hear the pastor preach, partake of communion, and then go home. No, discipleship is dependent on the ministry of the whole church, not just its leaders. In Ephesians 4, Paul says that the work of ministry is the responsibility of every member of the church, and the pastors are there to equip them in this. To equip THE CHURCH for ministry. He then uses the metaphor of a physical body to describe how this works. Just as each part of our physical bodies is in some way affected by, if not dependent on, all the other parts of the body, so it is with members of the church. The health of the church as a whole, and the health of individual believers within the church, is dependent on each member being engaged with and committed to one another. So you have a vital role to play in making disciples. You and I and every believer is called to be a disciple maker. But your role in this is not to go out and do every part of the process on your own, essentially be a church unto yourself. No, your role and my role is first and foremost to be a part of a local church body. Because God has ordained the church to be the engine for making disciples. And this should really give us great comfort. Because it’s not up to us to figure out how to make disciples. It’s not up to us to find a process or program that works and put it into place, and then when it stops working, find a new one. God has given us a process. He has told us how disciples are made. It is through gospel-proclaiming local churches where believers are baptized, regularly encounter God’s word, and then respond to God’s word in community. And so that’s what we are doing here. We want to simply continue faithfully in what God has called us to. He has called us to make disciples and told us how to go about it. And we commit to this because we have encountered the risen Savior and King, we have experienced the goodness and glory and grace of God, and we are being changed by the Spirit. So we make disciples to glorify God. Motivated by the gospel. And continuing to proclaim the gospel. 13