891 What Did Jesus Say About the Church Pt.2 (Jn.15.1-17)
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- People who have been a Christian for a number of years will face times where they wonder what happened to their Christianity
- It’s not that they don’t believe, but the joy, the excitement, the authenticity of their Christianity seems to have waned
- Then comes the question of “why” this has happened
Q. Is it my circumstances? Is it my church? Is it my age? Is it my sin?
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- When you are young & there are less troubling concerns, like managing a family with all the responsibilities that go with it, it can be easy to enjoy a relationship with God
- But when we get older, there are much more responsibilities & many more concerns
- To add to this, the maturing of the Christians relationship with God
- Like a marriage, it does change somewhat
- Not only do circumstances change, but the relationship changes
- It adjusts to its maturity
- Obviously, the excitement of a new married couples relationship during their honeymoon a few years beyond cannot be expected to last for 60 yrs of marriage – not that I’m saying it will be bad – but that it will be different – just as good – but different
- It has matured & has become more settled & also more comfortable
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- You may not like the thought that your relationship with God might be different, might be settled & even comfortable – but you need to expect that it will mature & be somewhat different from the start
- I’m not saying worse! But you will need to accept that it may have nothing to do with your surroundings, your circumstances or what you’re doing – it may just be that God is moving you on to a more mature relationship with Himself
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- Our relationship with God – if we are honest – to begin with was joyful & exciting
- Even though it was based on faith, it was new & somewhat an adventure
- Mature Christians come to realise that life cannot be that way 24/7
- Not that I’m saying the relationship ought to be stale
- All I’m saying is that you may need to realise & accept that God accepts you through your faith in Jesus Christ, not on the basis of your feelings about Him – and this is an important distinction to keep in mind
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- I know it is true that we are very motivated according to our feelings & I don’t want to suggest that we should be unconcerned about them
- However, our primary concern is that we maintain our faith
- We need to grow our faith & live out our faith
- As we see in this reading today, Jesus will do some pruning
- That is not going to be pleasant & if you haven’t grounded your relationship in your faith in Jesus Christ, then you will struggle when that pruning comes along
- Because frankly, if the basis of your relationship is how good I feel about my relationship with Christ, then when He does some pruning those feelings will evaporate & nothing will be left but a vacuum
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- One of the greatest privileges is to hear someone say that so & so is a man or woman full of faith & of the Holy Spirit
5 The statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch.
- This is the goal, I believe, of every Christian – to be full of faith & of the Holy Spirit
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- Through faith in Jesus Christ, the church was born
- Peter, the rock, confessed Christ which prompted Jesus’ statement about His church
- Confession of Christ is a bedrock of the Gospel & this is what we take into the world as His people
1. The Church Witnesses to the Kingdom
1. The Church Witnesses to the Kingdom
In the “New Book Tallies Religions,”
Christianity began and ended the [19th] century as the world’s biggest religion with 555 million believers or 32.2 percent of world population in 1900 and 1.9 billion or 31 percent as of early 2000’s
At the start of the twentieth century, only 10 percent of the world’s Christians lived in the Southern continents and the East, while 90 percent lived in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
In the early 2000’s at least 70 percent of the world’s Christians live in the non-Western world.
More Christians worship in Anglican churches in Nigeria each week than in all the Episcopal and Anglican churches of Britain, Europe, and North America combined. There are more Baptists in Congo than in Britain, more people in church every Sunday in communist China than in all of Western Europe, and ten times more Assemblies of God members in Latin America than in the United States.1
- The church has indeed grown dramatically since its inception – and it continues to permeate all the earth
- When Jesus says that He will build His church & the gates of Hades will not overcome it, I don’t believe He is referring to the numerical growth of the church
- He seems to be referring to the immortal facet of the church - the fact that death will not engulf & take possession of His church forever
- The gates of death (Hades) will be unable to succeed in its effort to swallow up those who turn to Christ for salvation
- The gates of death will not be able to claim the final victory
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- The disciples of Jesus became a witness to the kingdom of God
- Telling others about Jesus; being willing to suffer for what they knew was true – as in His resurrection from the dead
- The church isn’t the kingdom & it cannot become the kingdom but it can witness to the coming of the kingdom in Jesus
- In who Jesus is & in what Jesus has done - this is God’s kingdom revealed
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- If we, as the people of God, are part of the kingdom & obey King Jesus, then it follows that we should show the kingdom & its work in our lives
- We belong to the future & we have been gifted the power of the future - the present dynamic rule of God
- One of the ways we display the kingdom is in showing, in the present, the incredible fellowship of the age to come
Q. How do you change a person from a sinner to a saint?
- That is the work of an inner power that goes beyond physically forcing a person to change
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- The church exists in 2 realms: in this present evil age & in the age to come
- If you recall, the sons of Zebedee, James & John - along with their mother - came up to Jesus requesting that they take the two highest positions in the kingdom
- This is the way of the world where people like to have power over others, control over others
- In fact, brute force whether it is exercised in the school yard, the back street, or through politics is really a sign of the fallen world of sin & death
- Even though Christian politicians have to play the political game, this is not the way of the kingdom & will not be part of the future age
42 Calling them to Himself, Jesus said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. 43 “But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; 44 and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. 45 “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
- The natural way of the world is to make change by brute force
- Much of the world lives in hating & being hated
- The kingdom is different from this & when the church lives the life of the kingdom, the life of it’s king - then King Jesus is revealed
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Q. In our fellowship, does ill-will & animosity exist or does love through the evidence of forgiveness?
- Concern over greatness while natural to this age of sin & death is actually a contradiction to life in the kingdom
- As the church lives out the life of the kingdom, she bears witness to the kingdom itself
2. The Church Is the Instrument of the Kingdom
2. The Church Is the Instrument of the Kingdom
One Sunday morning, little Alex stared at the large plaque that hung in the foyer of the church. The seven-year-old had been staring at the plaque for some time, so Pastor McGhee walked up, stood beside the boy, and said quietly, “Good morning, Alex.” “Good morning,” said the boy, still absorbed in the plaque.
They stood together, staring at the large plaque.
The boy said, “Pastor McGhee, what is this?”
The pastor replied, “Well, son, all of these people have died in the service of the Lord,”
Then little Alex asked , “Which one, the 9:00 am or the 10:30 am service?”
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- Jesus continues His work through His church
1 The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen.
- This could be understood to suggest that Jesus is still involved beyond His earthly mission - of which we know He is
- Through His kingly power He is still building His church
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- As the church goes out into the world, we become His instruments
- In the service you perform, in the love & comfort you give, in speaking about Him to others – all these things are ways in which you are the instruments of His kingdom
- Jesus said to Peter...
18 “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
- The gates of Hades is the entrance to death
- These gates were seen to lock people in with no escape
- Like a prison from which there is no escape
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- But, as Jesus says here of the church – the gates of Hades will not prevail against His church
- We are His instruments & as other people come to know Jesus as Saviour & Lord, they also inherit the kingdom & everlasting life
- The gates of death cannot hold them captive – not with Jesus in command
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- The church has a hefty responsibility – the binding or loosing of a person is tied to the church & her work
19 “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”
- God does His work through the church
- In the message we preach, in the kingdom work we perform & live out
- I came to Christ in 1982 and it was through a church & through the preaching of the Gospel
-> Through that I came to know Christ which meant I came to know God
- The power to bind & loose became real on earth as people were involved in kingdom work
- The Lord Jesus is still working, but He is working in & through His church
3. The Church and Love in the Kingdom
3. The Church and Love in the Kingdom
- Jesus taught His church a key aspect to the kingdom- the love motive:
12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
- Paul outlines this love motive in 1 Cor. 13 & tells us concretely what this love looks like
4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
- Another way of putting that last verse is this: “Love never tires of support, never loses faith, never exhausts hope, never gives up.”
- What is glaringly different, in our culture, from this is that love according to our western culture, does not rejoice with the truth, but rejoices in unrighteousness – does it not?
- Should we not be concerned about this attitude in the church?
- That truth as strong & as honest as it might be - what - is unloving?
- Not according to Paul nor Jesus – Love rejoices with the truth/with righteousness
10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
- In the kingdom, God’s people love one another & they keep the commandments of Jesus
- His command is especially that we love one another
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- Jesus also talks about the imperative of abiding in the vine
- All you wine-lovers should be able to picture this well
- Grapes come from the branches & the branches are attached to the vine
Q. If the branches detach from the vine, what happens?
- The branches die & no fruit, that is, no grapes are produced & no wine to drink!!!
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
- Judaism cannot help you; philosophies cannot help you; self-help books cannot help you; the many religions cannot help you
- The one Person who can cause you to bear the fruit of God is Jesus
- Only by abiding or remaining in Him can you be with God
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- The kingdom is something to be loved for it changes people from the inside out
- This is the fruit that comes from abiding in Christ, the king
- We are concerned about so many things & we busy ourselves with the many worries & concerns of the world - & we have to to live & survive – but often we forget what is truly the most important of all
33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
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- To be honest with you, I worry about the faith of this generation - my generation
- Yes, there have been faith issues in every generation, but there is a pronounced lack of faith that seems to be overrunning the western world
- People are overwhelmed by the secularism, the godlessness & the apparent demise of Christianity in the West
- But we need to take courage for God knows what happens – Jesus seems to even throw out the possibility of a faithless generation
8 “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”
- For those who are losing heart, who are suffering injustice at the hands of the godless, Jesus encourages them to stay faithful til the end – to keep looking to the Lord
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- Certainly, this day & age is a challenging one, but it is not the exception – most of church history has been a challenging one for the people of God
- But what difficult times do reveal is whether a person is in the faith for the long haul & whether they are truly lovers of God & Jesus
No matter what I see, I choose faith.
No matter what I feel, I choose faith.
Even in my doubts, I bow the knee
Even in the waiting, I believe that He is good
- Mike and Amy Nappa wrote the reasons for why they stopped going to ball games —which could apply just as easily to why we could stop going to church, they said:
1. Whenever I go to a game, they ask for money.
2. The other fans don’t care about me.
3. The seats are too hard.
4. The referee makes calls I disagree with.
5. Some of the games go into overtime and make me late for dinner.
6. The band plays songs I don’t know.
7. I have other things to do at game time.
8. My parents took me to too many games when I was growing up.
9. I know more than the coaches do anyway.
10. I can be just as good a fan at the lake. - Mike and Amy Nappa
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- The bottom line of being in Christ & in His church is that we are the salt & light of the earth – we are His kingdom people
- We don’t hide what we have under a basket
- We seek to honour Him as our king & stay true & faithful to Him & to His church until He comes
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- I’ve assembled some faith sayings that will help us wrestle with the reality of faith
- Man says, “Seeing is believing.” God says, “Believing is seeing.”
- The business of faith is to believe things that are out of sight.
- What God promises, God will provide.
- Faith keeps the man who keeps the faith.
- Faith looks beyond the darkness of earth to the brightness of heaven.
- We do not need to possess a faith; we need a faith that possesses us.
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- The Christian who claims the promises of God should obey the commands of God.
- Feed your faith and your doubt will starve to death.
- Feelings are no substitute for facts and faith.
- When you cease to use faith, you lose it.
- Some people feel their faith is strong enough to take them to heaven, but it does not take them to church.
- Faith is not like gasoline, which runs out as you use it, but like a muscle, which grows stronger as you exercise it.
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- To the Israelites, Goliath was “too big to hit”; but to little David, he was “too big to miss.”
- Faith is like a toothbrush—every man should have one and use it regularly, but he shouldn’t try to use someone else’s.
- Faith without works is like a car without gas.
- Pray not for faith to move mountains, rather pray for faith that will move you.
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- Paul closes 1 Cor. 13 with now remain, “Faith, hope & love, but the greatest of these is love”
- God’s kingdom is the dynamic rule of Jesus who is not just going to rule in the end, but now as He changes people from the inside out defeating those enemies that would have your relationship with God overturned
- Sin, Satan’s temptations & the me-first attitude keeps people from the church that Jesus created; from His people with whom He indwells
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- We are also examples of faith & faithfulness to the next generation
- What the children should see is always what you ought to be
- Our life of faith in Jesus is who we are – we are in Him & we have been transformed - no one & nothing should take that away
1“New Book Tallies Religions,” Associated Press (1-17-01); source: World Christian Encyclopedia; submitted by Kevin Miller