The Church Part 1

April 15, 2007

Mike Larsen

Adult Sunday School

1 Tim 3:15

Open your Bible to: 1 Tim 3:15 “…that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”

Introduction:  The last 2 lessons had us look at how the Bible was inspired and preserved for us.  Today and next week we will look at the Church.  The word translated church is Ekklesia.  People say things like, “I went to church today”.  Or they say, “My Church is the Lutheran church”, or The Church is in need of decorating, or Church makes me feel good, etc.. 

I. Church (Ekklesia) – What is it?  The Church is a called out group of people.  The scriptures depict two different uses of the word Church.  The Invisible and the visible Church

A. Invisible Church      Mat 16:18  “And I also say unto thee, Thou art Peter (Petros, meaning a piece of rock), and upon this rock (Petra, meaning a mass of rock) I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.  Eph 5:25-26  “Husbands love you wives as Christ loved the church…

B. Localized visible Church   Mat 18:17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it to the church…  Here scripture references the local assembly of believers in a specific place.  Such as our “church”  1 Cor 1:2  “Unto the church of God which is at Corinth…”  Here Paul is writing a letter to a specific assembly of believers at a specific place he calls the church at Corinth.

So the Bible uses the word church to describe both the invisible church and the visible church.  The invisible church consists of only true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.  They are all over the world.  The visible church contains people who assemble themselves together who claim to be believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is not required to be a true Christian to belong to the visible church but it is required to be a true Christian to belong to the invisible church. 

Through the rest of this study we will discuss the visible church since much of the New Testament is about instructing us how to live together in the local assembly of believers.

II. The importance of the Local Church.          The Local Church has gone through periods of growth and periods of decline throughout history.  The Jesus movement of the 60’s and 70’s spawned hundreds of para-church organizations devoted to proclaiming the Gospel and teaching the Bible.  In most cases those organizations redirected the focus of believers away from the local church.  A generation of leaders were exercising their spiritual gifts in other contexts besides the assemblies they attended on Sunday.  This activity and a society accelerating into secularism combined to reduce church attendance to low levels.  The late eighties and nineties brought good news and bad news to the institution of the local church.  The good news was that interest in church increased and many American churches grew greatly in attendance.  The bad news is that the Church Growth Movement was mainly built on secular marketing techniques and an unfortunate tendency to camouflage or dilute the more confrontational features of the Biblical message.  As a result of mischaracterizing the Church, commitment level of attendees was very low and many became disillusioned with the church institution. 

William Hendrix, who wrote a book about the phenomena in 1993 said, “There’s a dark side to the recent reports of surging church attendance in North America.  While countless un-churched people may be flocking in the front door of the church, a steady stream of the churched, is flowing quietly out the back.  It’s estimated that 53,000 people leave churches every week and never come back.”

When the “churched People” who left were interviewed they said that after languishing for a while they decided to get out and find a better way.  Quite often they described themselves as getting closer to God but further from the church.  It is truly a sad story.  What those people should have done is leave the Apostate church and join to one that is not Apostate!  What is sad is that people in our day believe that Christianity can be lived out aside from the Local Church!  They believe that they can worship God the way they want to, on their schedule. 

Here are the questions;

Is it possible have a vibrant spiritual life and successfully nurture our relationship with God apart from a local church?

Is it just conventional wisdom that tells us we must be a part of one?

Is it possible to move closer to God and farther away from the church?

Are there lots of alternatives to the church when it comes to spiritual growth?

Are those who forsake all church involvement truly blameless for that choice?

The answer to all those questions is a resounding NO!  Far from being only one of many options for the Christian, the church is the primary means through which God accomplishes His plan in the world.  It is His ordained instrument for brining the lost to Himself and the context in which He sanctifies those who are born into His family.  The assembly of the local church is and has always been of extreme importance.  Even a casual reading of the New Testament makes clear the centrality of the church in the biblical record.  Jesus said he would build His church, invest in it the authority to act with license from Heaven and ultimately told us to establish assemblies all over the world.  Most of the epistles are written to local churches and three of the others (written to individuals) discuss how the local church should function.  Finally the Revelation was written to seven individual churches in Asia Minor and sent to them by the apostle John at the command of the risen Christ.  No single verse proclaims the importance of the local church more powerfully than 1 Timothy 3:15.  We will use that verse as the frame work to discuss the importance of the local church.

As we come to this verse let’s look at the context beginning at 1 Tim 3 and verse 1.

So we see that this is written to Timothy instructing how he is to organize the leadership structure of an organized assembly of believers.  Other places in scripture give clear instruction to other members of the local assemblies as well such as role of women, handling disputes, exercising spiritual gifts, etc.

1 Timothy 3:15

III. The House of God
The Word house is “oikos” which can mean dwelling place (house) or a family (household).  Both meanings are applied to the church in Scripture and both provide profound testimony to its divine origin and significance.

A. The Church is Gods Dwelling Place

• If Paul used the word to mean dwelling place then it testifies to the fact that God lives in and among his church.  The church itself is the “House of God”. We are not talking about the church building but the people who are assembled together.  Wherever we dedicate as our place of worship we tend to consider the “House of God”.  When we move from this building to our next assembly place we will consider that place “the house of God”
  
  
• The term alludes to the old testament tabernacle and temple which are often called the house of God.  John 2:16 & Acts 7:47.  It refers to the fact that throughout history God has chosen to work with groups of people and manifest himself in a special way when they assemble together.  There is something special about when God’s people assemble together.
  
  
• 1 Cor 3:16-17  Paul’s says to the church at Corinth, “Know ye not that you are the Temple of God…”  He is talking to the whole church not just one individual.   In 2 Cor 6:16 he says to the same group of people, “Ye are the temple of the living God…  I will dwell in them and walk in them; and I will be there God and they shall be my people.”
  
  
• Eph 2:19-22  We are part of God’s household and are built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets with Jesus being the chief corner stone!  We are builded together for a habitation of God!  God’s plan is that we individually come together and collectively complete this “building”.  The Christian life is not complete unless we are assembling together bringing our building blocks and benefiting from the blocks of others.

B. The church is God’s family

Most likely the meaning of the word “House” in 1 Tim 3:15 is that of a family since that is how Paul uses it in verses 4,5 and 12.  The idea of being part of the family of God is throughout Scripture of course.  We become born again into God’s family when we trust Christ.  We become sons of God and we can call Him Father.  As part of Gods family we have his love, care, guidance, correction, protection, provision, etc.  Our Father owns the cattle on a thousand hills AMEN!  As family members we live and meet together as siblings in the local church.

IV. The Church of the Living God
The emphasis in this second description of the church falls on the words “of the living God.”  The church proceeded from God and belongs to God.  This divine Originator and Owner of the church is the God – the only true God.  And in contrast to the temples of dead pagan idols, Paul says that this church is of the living God.  So at all times, He is personally and actively involved in its operation and enterprises. 

Throughout the New Testament, God makes it clear to us that the church is His dearest creation and possession. 

1. The Father paid the ultimate price for the church by sending His beloved Son to die (John 3:16; I John 4:14),
   
   so that it is said to have been “purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28). 
   
   He participates continually in the fellowship of the church (1 John 1:3 & 4),
   
   and it functions primarily for the purpose of bringing Him glory (Eph. 3:21).
   
   
2. The Son of God “also loved the church and gave Himself up for her: (Eph. 5:25;  Titus 2:14). 
   
   He laid down His very life for His sheep (John 10:11-16). 
   
   Therefore God has made Him “the head of the church” (Eph. 5:23, Eph 1:22),
   
   and it is repeatedly called “the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:12;  1 Cor. 12:12). 
   
   Jesus has promised to be personally present when the church meets to enact His process of loving discipline (Matt. 18:20)  Notice  this passage relates to church discipline and in verse 17 there is a point of bringing it to the assembly. 
   
   and when it goes forth to carry out His command to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:19-20). 
   
   The church is also where His beloved ordinance of Communion is observed regularly in commemoration of His death (Luke 22:17-20; 1 Cor. 11:23-26).
   
   
3. Finally, the Holy Spirit initiated the New Testament church at Pentecost through marvelous signs and wonders (Acts 2:1-4)
   
   and confirmed the inclusion of the Gentiles by a repeat performance (Acts 10:44-48). 
   
   He brings each member into the body of Christ through His miracle of regeneration and guarantees their eventual glorification (Eph. 1:13-14).  Jesus sent the Spirit to lead us into all truth and comfort us.
   
   
4. Therefore, we who would be “called sons of the living God” (Rom. 9:26) must be involved in His church.  And no doubt the stern warnings of the book of Hebrews apply today to those who would spurn such involvement:  “Take Heed, brethren, lest there be in any on of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God” (Heb. 3:12) and, “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31). 
   
   Heb 10:24-25  The most quoted verse on the subject by far is this verse.  Let us consider (fully behold).  This is about accountability.  We assemble together to encourage each other in the faith so that we will hold fast to the truth and be able to resist the devil and avoid sin.
   
   We would do well to remember that this jealous living God is the One to whom the church belongs.
   
   
   

Conclusion:  The church is of vital importance to the believer.  Apart from it a believer can not grow spiritually as God would have him grow.  Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians to the church at Thessalonica.  He states at the end of the letter that it was to be read to all the Holy brethren.  The members were read the scripture and were edified because they were part of the assembly.  If they were not there they would have missed out.

1 John 3:14 says we know that we have passed from life unto death because we love the brethren.  He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

A person who truly understands the great sacrifice that God made to secure the church would want to be part of the fellowship. 

We will look at the last half of 1 Tim 3:15 next week.