Sermon Tone Analysis

THE PRACTICE OF THE CHURCH

*Selected Scriptures*

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Over the past few weeks we have discovered and hopefully we have begun to understand the purpose of the church (to display the wisdom of God), the power of the church (Paul prayed that we would be strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit in our inner man).

Now we need to move on to the practice of the church.

What has the Scriptures laid out as the practices, the responsibilities of the local church?

Just as God sets the purpose for the church and provides the power of the church.

He has also determined the practices of the church.

Today I’m going to start a series of messages and in this series my aim is to go back to the Scriptures and learn what the Bible teaches that we as the church must be doing in order to meet the biblical qualifications for being recognized by the Lord Jesus Christ as a true body of Christ, a true church.

Is a church really a church simply because they have the word church in their name?

Is it possible for an organization to make a claim to which they have no right?

Is it possible that many groups that claim to be a church are not really churches at all?

 

Let’s begin to answer those questions.

An organization may claim to be a church but in reality they don’t meet the biblical qualifications in order to be recognized in God’s eyes as a true church.

I’ll flesh out those biblical qualifications here in just a moment.

Keep this in mind, just because a group of people gets together and start a church doesn’t mean they are really a church.

Many groups of people have started what they want to call a church but because they don’t meet the biblical qualifications they are not truly a church.

Conversely, it is possible for a church to at one time to have been recognized by God as a true church but over time they begin to operate apart from the Scriptures and thus they lose the right to be called a true church.

That organization may go on and may continue to grow and they may believe that their growth is a sign of God’s blessing when in reality the growth is not God given but human manufactured.

So what is a true church according to the Scriptures?

 

*1.

THE TRUE CHURCH*

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As you might suspect there has been much discussion about true and false churches in the history of the church.

The issue became of critical importance during the time of the Reformation.

Out of the debates of that time the marks as they were called the marks of a true church were finally decided upon.

At first there were only two marks identified but eventually a third mark was added and in reality the third mark was implied in the second mark.

The author of the Augsburg Confession stated that the marks of a true church were the “teaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments”.

In 1553 Thomas Cranmer produced the forty two articles of the Church of England.

Article Nineteen read “/The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men in which the pure word of God is preached and the sacraments be duly administered, according to Christ’s ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same.”

/

 

John Calvin wrote in his /Institutes of the Christian Religion /book four chapter one section 19, /“Wherever we see the Word of God purely preached and heard, and the sacraments administered according to God’s institution, there, it is not to be doubted, a church of God exists.”/

The Belgic confession of 1561 added a third distinguishing mark of a true church and that third mark is the consistent practice of church discipline.

Article 29 reads /“The marks by which the true Church is known is these: If the pure doctrine of the gospel is preached therein; if she maintains the pure administration of the sacraments as instituted by Christ; if church discipline is exercised in punishing sin; in short, if all things are managed according to the pure Word of God, all things contrary thereto rejected, and Jesus Christ acknowledged as the only Head of the Church.”/

Edmund Clowney has summarized these three marks of the true church as “true preaching of the Word; proper observance of the sacraments; and faithful exercise of church discipline.”

That has been the historic position of the church since the sixteenth century.

I wonder how many churches, pastors and church members are even aware that the legitimacy of a church was even debated?

If these three marks are the distinguishing factors that separates the true church from the false then was does that say about so many organizations that call them selves churches today?

If they don’t faithfully preach the Word of God then they are not a true church, if they don’t faithfully and scripturally administer the ordinances, that is baptism and the Lord’s Supper then they are not a true church.

Here is the final nail in the coffin of many and that is church discipline.

If a church will not obey the Lord in exercising church discipline then it cannot be classified as a true church.

That is why we must exercise church discipline if we are going to meet the Scriptures requirements for being a true church.

*2.

THE CHURCH DEFINED*

 

Let’s begin by defining what the church is.

H.L. Wilmington writes, “/The Greek word in the New Testament for our English word church is ekklesia.

It is derived from the verb ekkaleo.

The compound ek means out, and kaleo means to call or summon.

Thus, the literal meaning is to call out.

/

 

When the term is used in connection with secular Greek ekklesia referred only to an assembly or meeting and never to the people, which made up that assembly.

For instance the mob that wanted to carry out a lynching in Acts 19:32 could be referred to as an ekklesia, but once this same mob broke up they would not be considered an ekklesia.

I point this out because to the Greek mind they would never see a religious connection in an ekklesia.

But, when we come to the New Testament we find that the same word begins to take on an added dimension.

The word ekklesia becomes the technical term, the theological term for the “people of God”.

There are only five instances in the New Testament where the term ekklesia is used where it is not used in connection or in describing the people of God.

When we say the people of God we mean the church.

The ekklesia is the church.

The church is a group of people who have been called out of or summoned out of this world to be placed into a spiritual body and that body is called together to accomplish a very specific purpose, which we have been studying the past few weeks.

John MacArthur writes “The term church sets us apart from all other human institutions.

We are the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, purchased with His own blood.

No other institution in the world owes its existence to such a fact.”

Let’s pause right here for a moment and ask ourselves a very important question.

If the church is a group of people who have been called out of this world, or summoned out of this world then how does one become a part of the church?

Who is it that places us in the church?

Is it something that we do?

Or is it something that God does?

The obvious answer is that God places us into this body.

Listen to what the Scriptures say.

* *

*“But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.”

(1 Corinthians 12:18, NASB95)*

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Practically what does that mean for the church?

It means that the church body, the membership of the church is to only be made up of regenerate people.

Only those who have been born again are eligible to become part of the membership of the local church.

A church should always have more attenders than it does members.

But unfortunately that is not what we find today.

Most churches will tell you how many members they have and their membership exceeds their attendance.

Again that is a fairly recent development in the church.

And I might  One of the signs that the church you attend is healthy is if it has more attenders than it has members and not the other way around.

The New Testament supplies us with plenty of information about the church.

I’m going to begin this morning to teach several truths about the church that we find in the New Testament.

This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list; these were things that caught my attention as I was studying the verses that deal with the church this week.

*I.

The New Testament teaches us whose church it is.

*

 

Who does the church belong to?

According to the Scriptures the church belongs to God.

The book of Acts makes it very clear that it is God’s church and the price Christ paid for the church.

Acts 20:28 says

*“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.”

(Acts 20:28, NASB95)*

 

Three important truths come from this one verse.

The first truth is the responsibilities of the pastor or the shepherd of the local church.

The pastor is to make sure that he is on guard for himself and for his flock, for the members of his church.

The word guard there means that I as your pastor, I am to be on a state of high alert as it were.

It is my responsibility to watch over my own life but to watch over your life as well.

I am to be watching out for any danger signs that come into your life and then I am to spring into action to warn you and to protect you.

Folks where else outside of the church can you go and find that kind of love and concern for you?

If you understand this truth it means that you will better be able to take rebuke and correction from your pastor.

Please understand that in order for me to be true to the position that God has placed me in I have an obligation to be on guard and to protect you.

The sad state of affairs in the church today is that many pastors have all but neglected this aspect of their calling.

They are afraid of how people will react, they are afraid of being fired, they are afraid of people leaving the church, and their fear leads to their failure in one of their primary responsibilities as a pastor as a shepherd and that is to protect his flock and correct his flock.

This correction and rebuke is always done with the goal of preparing you to become like Christ.

I don’t know if I’ve ever shared my life’s verses with all of you, some of you I have.

But here is my own personal scriptural mission statement.

It is found in Colossians 1.

 

“*Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.