Sermon Tone Analysis
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I Love the Church
I make that statement because I believe it.
I really do love the church.
In fact, I am a pastor today because I love the church.
I grew up in a ministry family.
We were literally in church every time the doors opened.
I grew up going to Sunday School in the morning and Training Union on Sunday evenings, with Royal Ambassadors and church suppers on Wednesday night before prayer meeting.
I have served the church in some capacity for the last 38 years.
That’s why I love volunteer service in the church.
How many of you here today are volunteers in some ministry of this church?
[stand] Our church literally could not function without volunteer service.
Thank you all for the many different ways that you serve this church.
This week, I am not preaching on a sermon that Jesus gave, but a conversation that He had with His disciples.
Specifically this conversation was with the Apostle Peter...
[pray]
Father God, we come before You today lifting Your name on high.
You are Who we praise and Who we desire Lord.
Father, we ask that you would forgive us today for the ways that we practice church imperfectly… for ways that we fail to live up to your expectations for Your people.
We submit our ways to You God and we aim to walk in the proper path that Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior set before us.
Father, I ask that you would grant me clarity of mind, precision of speech, and a heart for your people as I bring your message today.
Amen
I say that “I love the church,” because I believe in it!
Even though the church isn’t perfect.
I have not found a perfect church yet.
I also love the church, because I believe in Jesus and Jesus founded the church.
That’s what we were just reading about in the book of Matthew.
This event documented Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God.
When Peter made this simple statement, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” he was really making a bold claim.
Peter may have been surprised at the words coming from his mouth.
Have you ever done that?
Have you ever had a moment of clarity and said something so profound that you may not have even fully realized or understood the impact of what you were saying?
Peter did just that.
He was proclaiming that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah, the deliverer of Israel, and that He was the very Son of God!
This claim made publicly would eventually have him crucified.
This passage is called Peter’s Confession of Christ, and it is an important passage just for this statement alone, but greater still this passage records the foundation of the church.
Jesus founded the church.
He believed in the church.
And, ultimately, He died for the church.
The very same church that you and I are a part of today.
The Church is in Difficult Days
However, the church has fallen on difficult times these days, hasn’t it?
We are beginning to see a general disdain for and a volatile attitude toward the church in the public marketplace.
There are activist movements at work in the USA today to discredit, disrupt, and destroy the church:
The tax exempt status of the church is in jeopardy as a growing public voice begins to call this tax benefit into question.
I don’t know of many churches that could survive such a move toward taxation.
The LBGT movement is beginning to set their eyes on churches in their attempt to change our way of doing things through lawsuits and legislation.
We are seeing reports that 2/3’s of youth that grow up in the church drift away for some period of time after they leave home and begin independent life as adults.
They even have a name for this group that has left the church, “Dones.”
Many churches struggle to survive financially since giving among younger generations is down compared to previous generations.
Also as congregations age, churches across the country are failing to develop a new generation of disciples to support the church through giving, volunteer service, and active participation in the church.
Difficult days indeed.
I believe that many of these attacks on the church are a result of two things...
The church is not living up to its mandate and is actually existing in a state that is contrary to the teachings of God’s Word through Jesus Christ and the apostles.
We can see this echoed in the Book of the Revelation as John describes the messages given to the seven churches.
The world culture is growing much more secular as we progress toward the return of Jesus Christ.
Many of those who attend church today run around looking for the perfect church.
They are looking for an experience that gives them warm feelings inside rather than an encounter with the living God.
But we must stick to our calling and depend upon Jesus Christ as our Shepherd and head of the local church.
That was my decision as a youth.
I determined what I believed and I chose to actively engage in the church.
Colossians 1:18 states clearly that Jesus is the head of the church...
Just as the head leads the body, Jesus still leads the church today.
We know that as the head of the church, Jesus is perfect.
But the body is not!
Why is that?
Because the body of the church is you and me.
We are just sinners saved by Grace, are we not?
While we have Christ in us, we are mere human flesh, which is often controlled by sin and selfishness.
I have never found a perfect church.
Have you?
The church won’t be perfect until Jesus comes back to us to claim his place and set things straight.
John tells us in 1 John 3:2 that “we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”
It won’t be until that moment—the moment that we see Jesus—that the church will become perfect in the presence of Jesus Christ.
Christians often forget that we are representatives of Christ here on earth until He returns to us.
We the Church are the only Christ that people will ever see.
We are His hands, His feet, His arms, His legs.
We are His body.
WE are the church!
But often times we get caught up in our own feelings and our own ambitions.
There are times that we put ourselves before the needs of the church and the needs of others.
Because that is the message that we hear in the world today.
But scripture tells us to…
THIS is what the church should look like, rather than arguments and condemnation and tearing down others.
The original word for “church” in the original Greek is ekklesia, which, in simple terms, means a congregation or assembly, but at a deeper level means “called out ones.”
Called Out Ones - The church is made up of those whom Jesus has called out of death into life.
Out of blindness into sight.
Out of lostness into foundness!
That’s the Church!
People who have been called out of the world into Christ.
That’s the Church.
The problem isn’t with the Church.
The Problem is what we have done to the Church.
Many, many churches have lost Jesus’ purpose and mission and intention for what His Body was and is supposed to be.
Many of these “dones” have left the church because they have been wounded by a church that has overstepped its authority.
OR they have found churches that weaken the word of God by teaching a watered down Gospel.
It’s like the teenager who suddenly decides to clean up his room.
His mother walks in and says, “Who are you and what have you done with my son?”
I’ve often thought that someday when Jesus comes to receive His Church He might first say, “ Who are you and what have you done with my Church?”
This morning I want to take you right back to the beginning.
To the source.
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