ACTS 2:42-47 "THE MARKS OF A LIVING CHURCH"

 

If the church were forced to focus on the bare minimum- what would we do?

If  the church stripped away everything and just do the essentials, what would we do?

If the church had to make a choice between the good and the biblical, what would we keep on doing?

Our text in Acts 2:42-47 gives us an indication of what are essential and vital marks of a living church, loved by God, redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ, indwelt by the Spirit of God. 

Following Pentecost and the outpouring of the Spirit, the Christian church comes into being. We immediately get an impression of the essential activities and responses which make a biblical church unique. As many were converted and baptised, these were added to the church (2:41),  the  immediate result was that the church began to organise itself in terms of  a commitment (i.e. they devoted themselves) to gather under the apostolic Word, a commitment to fellowship,  a commitment to  remember the Lord’s death in the Lord’s supper,  and a commitment to prayer. Here  then we see the essentials marks of a living church. 

(i)                 Regular apostolic teaching: The very first evidence of the Spirit’s presence in the church is that they devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus. He is the ultimate Communicator of the Word about Jesus. And the early apostles, chosen by Jesus were the foundation of the church (Eph. 2:20). Thus, by the Spirit  and under the supervision of the early apostles, the teachings of Jesus were accurately recorded and passed on.  And so we find that this is still so today. The  primary activity  of the church remains  the proclamation of the  Word of God – both  in the Old Testament and the New Testament.  At the heart of the church’s  establishment is the Word of God!  And so they  devoted themselves to the apostles teaching.

(ii)  Regular fellowship: “They devoted themselves… to the fellowship” (Koinonia – ‘communion’, ‘sharing in common’).  Our fellowship  is expressed in  two ways:

a.      It expresses what we share in: We share in common God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 1 John 1:1-4  says that our fellowship (koinonia) is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.  The heart of what we share together is defined by the Bible. We have fellowship in the Father and in the Son and in the Holy Spirit. Our fellowship – our common experience is defined by the fact that we share Him! That is the key to genuine fellowship.

b.      It expresses what we share out together: The church is deeply involved in each other’s lives. One of the key expressions of this is that they would help those who were disadvantaged in their midst. There was great compassion! This follows the O.T. pattern where Israel was taught to have a strong level of concern of care for the poor (e.g. Micah 6:8). Christian fellowship is Christian caring, and Christian caring is Christian sharing. We must not try to evade the challenge of these verses.

(iii)     Regular participation in the Lord’s supper:  “They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread and the prayers …”. They organised themselves to come together for the regular remembrance of the Lord’s death. The cross is where the church meets. The cross of Christ is our common experience - sinners saved by the grace of God. The cross of Jesus is our common ground.  The cross is that which brought us peace, with God and with one another.  Therefore the cross, the remembrance  of the  shed blood of Jesus is the symbol of our unity, and so every time we celebrate Communion, we are acknowledging our unity in Christ. We are one.

(iv)      Regular participation in the prayers.  The church had meetings for prayer all the time. We see this pattern in the book of Acts[1]. Illustratively then  we read in Acts 12:5-7: “So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer  for him was made to God  by the church...and behold ,  an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the and woke him, saying’ Get up quickly’. And the chains fell off his hands.” The Puritan preacher, Thomas  Watson,   commented here astutely: The angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer fetched the angel. By prayer the church reminds herself continually that her strength and help is from God. Prayer fetches God. Prayer says, “Look here Lord… help!”  … and we need so much help, don’t we,  in these  challenging days?    

 Now this organisation of the church   had a remarkable effect:

       (i)                 “awe came upon every soul” (2:43a)

 

       (ii)               “signs  and wonders were being done through the apostles” (2:43b) 

 

       (iii)              there was a culture of sharing (2:44,45)

 

       (iv)              there was a culture of worship and joy (2:46)  lit. exultation and sincerity of heart.” It is right in public worship to be dignified; it is unforgivable to be dull!  Our joy must be tempered by awe! When God was in their midst they knew it! And they bowed before Him in humility and wonder. The combination of joy and awe provides healthy balance in worship.  Also note  that the church  met both formally and informally  for fellowship and teaching i.e. in the temple  and in  each other’s homes (2:46),  which is an interesting combination, and I think that we need both today!

 

        (v)                there were regular conversions,  and  there was constant church growth (2:47)

 

a.       The Lord Himself did it: “the LORD added…. “ Yes, He did it through the preaching of the apostles, the witness of church members, through the witness of their common  life and common love for one another, but it is still by His power through them which He did it. “Salvation belongs to our God alone , This is such a much needed emphasis in a day when people speak of the work of salvation  as if it were all dependent upon human effort.

 

b.     The Lord added to their number!  The Lord saved them and then he added them to the church! Here is a solemn thought. God does not save us, without also placing us into a body. Salvation and church membership belong together. I would issue a simple challenge to you who say that you are Christians, but who have not committed themselves to the discipline of church membership.

 

c.  The Lord added daily!  The early church’s evangelism was not a sporadic or an occasional activity. They did not organise occasional evangelistic campaigns, and occasional mission trips! No! The life of the early church was evangelism and missions. Just as their worship was daily, so was their witness, and as their outreach was continuous, and  so converts were being added continuously.

 

d.       The Lord added those who were being saved!  The present participle emphasises that salvation is a progressive experience: we were saved … we are being saved … we shall be saved!

We note that this was winsome and contagious Christianity. “They were having favour with all the people”, notwithstanding the fact that very soon the enemy of the church would launch an all-out attack on them and scatter  them.

 
Today is a wonderful Sunday.

On this day we are experiencing much of what we read of here.

We are gathering around the Word and in prayer in the spirit of worship;  we are  gathering around the communion table; we are enjoying fellowship; we are  seeing people converted and baptised and received into the church; we are witnessing the sending out  of  our  missionaries.  And we are joyful!   

Thank God for Sundays and high days in which we have a taste  of what it was like for the  early church!

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[1] Acts 3:1;4:23-31; 12:5,12; 13:2,3; 14:23 ; 16:13,16

Ephesians 4:11-13 THE WORK OF THE PASTOR

Ephesians  4: 11-13

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds  and teachers,  12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood,  to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

A few introductory notes….

You will note that Ephesians chapter 4 begins with an appeal to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  

Take note of:

·       the foundational attitudes that underlie this  unity: humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love (the fruit of the Spirit).

·       These foundational attitudes are built on these foundational truths:  There is one body, one Holy Spirit, one hope, one Lord (Jesus Christ), one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.  (Note the Trinity here). Truth primarily governs our relationships and not feelings.

Our constant challenge   as members of a church is to remember the very basics upon which the church is built. We constantly need to remember these and rehearse these, lest we forget... but how shall we remember them? 

‘Ah’, says Paul in  4:8, ‘by the grace of God He has, through the ascended Christ and by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, given gifts[2] to the church. By means of their ministry these things will be remembered in all generations.’ 

The quote here is taken from Psalm 68:18 and it reflects the picture of a conquering king,   who after the victory over his enemies returns home with the spoils of war, and as he returns home he gives these spoils of war as gifts to his people.  Apply this to our King Jesus.  By His victory on the cross He purchased the freedom  of His people from the bondage of slavery, and He has  ushered in the new Kingdom.  He triumphantly ascended back home to His throne at the right  hand of God  in heaven, and from there He sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and with the Holy Spirit  He sent the spoils of war, the gifts  here spoken of. He gave gifts to the church. What gifts? The answer is found in  4:11,  ‘And He gave  the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers…”.   

For what  purpose did the ascended Lord give these gifts to the church? The ascended Lord gave His church these gifts to maintain the unity of  the church - ‘one body’. The Lord Jesus gave His church  a particular gift,  a body of foundational gifts, in the form of people to  preserve  the proper knowledge  and the proper attitudes  of   what the  true church ought to be like  and  look like.

The purpose of these foundational gifts is further explained in v. 12. These foundational gifts  exist for the ‘equipping the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ (the church).’  So, this is where the   work of the pastor/shepherd - teacher fits in. He is a gift from God to the church to help the church to remember the truth as it is in Jesus (4:21). He helps us to remember what Jesus said and  to remind  us what  Jesus was like in person.

The apostles and prophets are at the head of this list because they are the foundation of the foundation.  In Ephesians 2:19,20 the offices of apostles and prophets  are regarded  as ‘foundational’  in the church: “The household of God… is  built  on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets with Christ Jesus as the chief cornerstone“. 

Foundations are only laid once.  The building is constructed upon these foundations.   We are no longer building the foundations of the church. These have been laid, and they remain forever valid, and they are forever our reference point, and we build upon this sure foundation.   The prophets and apostles of the Bible continue to live and exercise their ministry among us every time we open our Bibles and read and study and take seriously what they have said.  In that sense  also we no longer have prophets and apostles   in the same way in which we find them in the Bible. In that sense we also do not need new apostles and prophets any more than we need a new cornerstone – the Lord Jesus. Just because Jesus is now not visibly seen among us, we cannot say that He is dead. In the same way, the apostolic and prophetic word which I hold in my hands is not dead, but it is being proclaimed among us. Every time we preach the Scriptures the prophetic and apostolic ministry lives  in the hand of gifted evangelists and pastor- teachers.   With this in mind, I make the  following observations.

1.The Work   of the Pastor- Teacher is a foundational gift to the church: The gift of the evangelist  and the pastor-teacher continues   to build upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets  and the gospels of Jesus Christ. 

2.The work of the Pastor- Teachers  is to equip the saints  for the work  of ministry:The word for equipping   is  the Greek word  katartizo.  It means ‘fixing something that's broken’ (as when nets were torn cf. Matt. 4:21). It can also mean, ‘to supply something that is lacking’ (as in 1 Thess. 3:10)  where Paul speaks to them about his desire to supply what is lacking in your faith.   

So, what is broken, what is lacking that needs to be supplied?

Remember that through the fall, all of us have become broken, leaking vessels.  Through the new birth we are restored  in  our relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, but  it is  through the ‘washing of the Word‘  that we  begin  to have our minds renewed, our hearts restored  and our wills aligned  to the will of God.  This is fundamentally the work of the gifted pastor –teacher.  In this regard one meets many dear believers who have had a conversion experience, but who were never brought under the foundational ministry of an expository pastoral ministry. And they are like those described in Hebrews 5:12-14, and they are not in a good place.    The pastor – teacher’s job is to repair what is broken or  to  supply what is lacking  in the saints  even  while he himself is subject to the same discipline! 

But that is not all. Pastor-teachers are not just there to repair and supply what is lacking.   Eph. 4:12 goes on to say that the goal of the pastoral ministry is to equip and prepare the saints for the work of ministry (literally diaconal service).  The fixing and supplying what is lacking is meant to make the saints into servants, and in this way every member of the church contributes to the wholeness of the entire body.  God has not given pastor-teachers   to do everything in the church.  They are simply repairers of broken vessels. They are simply    those who constantly remind the church of what they ought to be and do. This means that pastor- teachers need to know their calling from God, and their giftedness, and then they need to be sure that their own sinful selves are constantly subjected to the disciplines of the Word and prayer. That requires self- discipline and diligent  study  of the Bible  with  constant  prayer  and with watchful self examination.

The Bible insists that the pastor-teacher must be qualified to lead and teach the flock.  He must possess a true competence from God for the pastoral office (1 Tim 3:1). It must be a willing and not a forced desire (1 Pet. 5:2). He must have the character traits provided in  1 Timothy 3: 1-7.   The discipline of godliness is vital.  2 Timothy 2:15-26 and 1 Peter 5:1-5 describes these disciplines in detail.  The pastor must set an example for his people in speech, lifestyle, love, faith, and purity (1 Tim 4:12).

            .

A pastor is expected to do many things. He must be a counsellor to those who need guidance. He must encourage those who are discouraged. He must comfort those who are distressed. He must mentor leaders and give direction to the eldership team. He must be involved in the leading and administration of the church.  He participates in activities outside the church. He presents a face to the community.   But his main work is that of a preacher. In this he follows the pattern set by the Old Testament prophets and New Testament apostles.  He also follows the example of our Lord Himself. Our Lord Himself was firstly a preacher.  When the crowds wanted   more miracles, Jesus said to His disciples, "Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come" (Mk. 1:38).

"Preach the word!" is  Paul’s  instruction to Timothy. "Be ready in season and out of season.  Reprove rebuke , rebuke, exhort, with  complete patience and teaching" (2 Tim. 4:2) … and here  is part of the agony of preaching . Pastors must preach whether people want to hear or  whether they do not want to hear … "the time is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine, but  having itching ears  they  will accumulate for themselves teachers  to suit their own passions, and will  turn  away from listening to the truth, and wander off into myths." (vv. 3-4).  And he must preach whether they will hear or not hear, and when they will not listen, he continues to walk among them a broken heart, for they do not disobey him but the Lord whom he represents. The ministries by the prophets and apostles bear eloquent testimony to that.

Church members and leaders should take great care to insist that their teaching pastor maintain the work of preaching as the priority of his ministry. The spiritual health of a church ultimately depends upon a sound pulpit. It is the prime means which   God has given for   maintaining a sound church. Look at the Bible and look at the history of the church. When has church and society prospered most? When her pastors were most committed to the exposition of God’s Word! We look back to the days of the apostles, when the Word of God was preached widely and with great effect. By contrast we look back to the dark ages (AD 500 – 1500)  and consider  what happened when the Bible wasn’t preached, but   traded for tradition, mysticism, and pragmatism. We consider the mighty effect that the Protestant Reformation had on the church when the Word of God was preached by men like Martin Luther  of Germany and John Calvin of Switzerland, and John Knox of Scotland  and when the members of the church were equipped and encouraged  to  live  like true believers.   We look at the Puritan era, the 1600’s in England  for examples  of healthy church life. We look at the Great awakening  at the end of the 1700’s and into the 1800’s for examples of church revivals. We note the  Downgrade  Controversy of  the late 1800’s  and into the 1900’s, and we observe  the loss of confidence  in the authority and sufficiency  of the Scriptures and its terrible results upon the life and vitality of the church. Charles Haddon Spurgeon sounded the alarm in his day, but  that  faithful pastor  only could watch with a broken heart  as his own denomination, the Baptist Union of England descended  into coldness and apostasy  from the gospel. 

The life of the church, by God’s own design  depends on  God called, God equipped  pastor-teachers. Pray beloved people that God would continue  to grant us these gifts for the health and maintenance of the church  for the sake of  a future generation.  God have mercy on us if we were  ever  handed over to  ruthless shepherds who do not truly care.

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[1] John 16:12 ;

[2] Greek :  domata

1 Corinthians 12:12-31 "IS CHURCH MEMBERSHIP BIBLICAL?"

Our text teaches us that: 

(i)               V.12 The church can be compared to a human body with its many constituent parts (members). 

(ii)             V.13 The Holy Spirit is the One who brings about the new birth into that membership. (VERY IMPORTANT!)

(iii)           V.14 Although the body is one being, yet the body has many components (legs, arms, torso, various organs and sub –parts such as  foot, ears, eyes  etc.)  

(iv)            Vv.15 -17 each part serves a different purpose, but all exist for the good and benefit of the whole. No part exists (nor can it exist) for its own benefit.
(v)             Vv.18 -26 God arranged the members of the human body, as He sovereignly chose. Our bodies are His design. This design is not based on a single body part, but on a variety of body parts, and no body part is indispensable. No part of the body can say, ‘I don’t need you’. Paul repeats this again and again. There can be no thought of division of the body (v.25) and mutual caring of the members of our body is assumed. In fact, if one  part of the body suffers, all parts suffer; if one part rejoices, all  rejoice (v.26)

(vi)            V.27 So this analogy  of the  human works well  to describe  the  workings of the church.

(vii)          Vv. 28-30 In the church, which is made up of all those  who were baptized into one body by the Holy Spirit  there are various members with varying spiritual gifts, working together for the common good.

(viii)        V.31 and Chapter 13:  the attitude in which the body of Christ lives and works together is called ‘the more excellent way’ by Paul. In Chapter 13 Paul warns us that mere giftedness (13:1-3) is not what keeps a church unified. The gifts and individual talents of people must work by the rule of 13:4-7. This is the love that animates and produces true body life – true church life! 

I trust that from this text the Holy Spirit has immediately convinced you that membership in a church is a biblical concept. 

And it is essential.  According to this text you cannot say that you are a Christian, but not a member of the church.  Take careful note of this! To be ‘baptized by one Spirit into one body…’ (v.13) means that you are born again (for that is what Spirit baptism is) into one body  (the body of Christ – the church). 
The new birth = baptism by one Spirit. 
The Holy Spirit baptizes us into Jesus, but this is not where it ends. The Holy Spirit baptizes us into the body of Jesus – the church! 
You therefore cannot say, Jesus – YES, church - NO!   
You cannot divide that which God has joined together.   
If you have been sceptical, then I trust that the Holy Spirit inspired Bible has won the argument today. If you say that you trust Christ, it also follows that you  must obey Him.  
You cannot detach yourself from the body of Christ  if you claim to be His follower any more  than an  eye or an ear or a leg  can detach itself from your body, and survive!

There are many people in our day who are sceptical about joining in a church membership. Some say 'it’s not in the Bible’, using the common argument, ‘where in the Bible is there a membership list’?Others say that they have been previously hurt in a local church (and that is a problem that needs to be dealt with!) and like a divorced person they are now reluctant to commit themselves again to such a relationship in membership.  They use this argument to keep the church at a distance, whilst perhaps attending church services.  But that is it. No commitment, no accountability to the body.

But here is the painful reality and it is ironic.  There are members of any given local church that actually do the same. Whilst they are members, their participation in the body of Christ is not evident. They do not exert their spiritual gift in a meaningful way and with joy. They do not pray with the church in any visible way. Their fellowship is limited. They do not participate in the gospel ministry of the church. From our text we see that the membership that Paul envisages is   an integrated, committed, serving-one-another, loving, involved membership – just like the picture of the human body and its constituent parts, work in real sympathy and real support.  

So then, the concept of biblical church membership needs to be thought through.  And before we talk about being added to  a  membership list of our local church  we need  to be clear that  we are right with God.  Sometime  ago  a member  of our church came to me and said that they wanted to resign from membership, because  they felt that they were not  involved in the church  in any meaningful way, and did not attend regularly, and  did not serve the church. That was all true, and we have reason to believe that there was more to that conversation  than meets the eye, but  the bigger question in my own heart was this,  “Is this   dear soul really converted?”   How can you leave that which Christ loves supremely, unless of course your church is not a true church? 

The basis of biblical membership is being right with God. Last week Pastor Brits laid the foundation for today’s message when he preached from John 3:1-8,  ‘You must be born again’. The new birth, being born again from above  is foundational to being and becoming  a member of the church. Whenever this first principle has been disregarded in the life of the church, she will quickly lose her first love. Unconverted members kill the church, because there is no spiritual life in an unconverted person. Unconverted people do not love Jesus. They love an organisation that meets their needs, and helps them when it comes to dealing  with the vital  rituals of life – birth, marriage, death.

Let me help you to see this briefly by appealing to church history. When the early church embraced the practice of baptizing their children, the church  in the afterglow of  the plain  teaching of the apostles grew steadily  lukewarm  as baptized  children became church members  without necessarily experiencing  the new birth.  The church grew, so to speak by infant baptisms rather than by conversions. The  so called  dark  ages which  followed (roughly from the fall of Rome in 496 AD until the Renaissance  – 1500 AD)  were dark because  the church had become  a lukewarm, nominal entity, ruled by a corrupt  regime of popes and political power-brokers.  With few exceptions the reading of the history of the church of that time, including the 9 crusades (1095-1272 AD) doesn’t make for pretty reading. Religious zealotry akin to the Pharisees combined with political idealism ruled the day.   Please understand:  The unconverted heart can only do what it does, and in the hands of Satan the unconverted heart is the most powerful tool to subvert the holiness of the church.  That is why the Reformation was such a tonic. It was a spiritual awakening, and central to that awakening was the preaching of the gospel.  Men like Luther and Calvin and many others preached the gospel, and the Holy Spirit was pleased to blow liberally and many were converted.   Baptists, if we include the  Anabaptists of the  Reformation,  in their nearly 500 years since the Reformation  have substantially believed in the necessity of the new birth as the primary  requirement for  church membership. Conversion would then be followed by baptism and church membership. This is the New Testament practise, and this is where we stand today.  A healthy church is where  people are truly  converted  and  added to the church  by  signifying this in believers baptism.

Returning to the  Metaphor of the Body

Church membership is implied in the metaphor of the body in 1 Corinthians 12:12–31.   There is a unity and organic relationship implied in the imagery of the body. There is something unnatural about a Christian attaching him or herself to a body of believers and not being a member of the body.

That is God’s plan for us and for this church. That is what we mean by membership. The membership list, and going through a series of membership classes  are secondary matters, but they do follow from that great principle of the body metaphor in 1 Corinthians 12. 

So when you are asking, ‘Where  do you find a membership list in the Bible?’  you are asking the wrong question. And  if you are saying, ‘...but I have been hurt in the church  and will not  commit  myself to another’,  then you are  letting  your negative emotions rule  over the truth as it is in Jesus. 

The answer is this - Find a church that  most closely exhibits the true marks of a church   (e.g. Acts 2:42). And if you say, ‘But I am a member of the universal church  of Christ, I don’t need  to belong to a local church‘, then I want you to consider that Paul was writing this letter not to the members  of the universal church, but the local church at Corinth. And he wrote a letter  to the Roman church, the Ephesian church, the  Galatian and Thessalonian churches, the Philippian and Colossian church, as well as the letters to Timothy, Pastor of the local  church at Ephesus.     

Final Appeal

The New Testament knows of no Christians who are not accountable members of a local church in the sense that we have just seen.  The  New Testament indicates  that  to be excluded from the local church was to be excluded from Christ, as in the case of the church discipline  found in 1 Corinthians 5.  Are you committed to discipline and being disciplined according to biblical standards? How can you exclude some from the membership of the church, if they are not recognised as a church member?  

Do you see yourself and your gifts as part of an organic ministering body?

And how do the leaders of a local church know who they are accountable for? 

Have you publicly declared your willingness to be shepherded and to be led by the leaders of a local church?

So then, are you an accountable member of a local church?  The question is not, ‘Is your name somewhere on some membership list?’ It should be.   The question is, are you actively engaged as a member of your local church? Have you said so by way of a public affirmation?   

After all is said and done, remember  that  Church membership begins with the work of the Holy Spirit. He applies the  work of  Jesus  (a blood bought gift) to your heart and He unites you  to other  brothers and sisters in your given locality.  More than most of us realize, it is a life-sustaining, faith-strengthening, joy-preserving means of God’s mercy to us.

MATTHEW 16:13- 20 - CHRIST WILL BUILD HIS CHURCH

The Eastside Baptist Church was constituted 33 years ago, in June 1985 to be a witness   to the glory of  God. Three goals characterize our church’s ministry: 

(i) We are here learning to love God (WORSHIP) 

(ii) We are here learning to love one another (FELLOWSHIP) 

(iii) we are here learning to love this lost world (MISSIONS & EVANGELISM). 

We do this all under the auspices of the  Eastside Baptist Church. 

But what is the church?  

What is the meaning  of the word, ‘church’?    The  English word   ‘church’, or the Afrikaans ‘kerk’, or German ‘Kirche’, or the Oshiwambo ‘ongereka’  are all derived from the Greek word kuriakos,  which translates as  ‘belonging to the Lord’ [1]. But the  Word  used most commonly  in the OT and  NT is the word  ‘assembly’. [OT ‘qahal’ ;  NT  ‘ekklesia’ ].  It is interesting that when Martin Luther translated the NT into vernacular German, he did not use the word “Kirche” to translate ἐκκλησία (ekklesia). He used the German word “Gemeinde”, which relates to the word assembly. Similarly, when  William Tyndale translated the NT into English in 1536, he also did not use the word “church” to translate the Greek word ἐκκλησία (ekklesia). Instead, he used the word “congregation”[2] – another word for ‘assembly’. But somehow, the word church stuck with us. Taking both words together then we may say that the church is the assembly of the people belonging to the Lord. That would surely constitute a biblical definition of the church. 

So then, the church is not an assembly of a random group of religious people. There are many people assembling in the name of a religion, and even in the Name of Christ. But they are not necessarily the church of Jesus. Jesus would say of them: “I never knew you; depart from me you workers of lawlessness.” [Matt. 7:23]. Neither is a church a building. Neither is it a denomination (e.g. Catholic Church, Lutheran Church, Baptist Church).  

The church is the assembled body of a people born again through the finished work of Christ. They are Spirit-indwelt worshippers of God. 

And so the church comes together for the purpose of (i) worshiping God (ii) fellowshiping with one another (iii) to  help the kingdom of God spread in our sinful  world in every generation, through evangelistic and missionary activity.  

When you become a member of a church, this is what you commit yourself to do.

Next time, God willing, we will take a look at how the early church organised itself in this regard. We are very aware  of the fact that  many people have varied opinions on the subject of  the church  and church membership, and my goal  is to help you to think through  afresh  the primary truths  revealed to us in the  Bible  concerning the church.  This cannot be done in one short sermon, and so we have decided to do a series of sermons entitled, “Life in the Father’s House”. [3]  

Today, we simply want to look at something  fundamental  that Jesus said  about the church, and I draw  your attention to Matthew  16:13-19,  and in particular  to this  phrase in v.18 , where  Jesus says:  “I will build my church, and the gates of hell  shall not prevail  against it .“  

Here the Lord Jesus tells you that the church is His church, and He tells us that, because she is His church, she cannot fail, as long as this world exists.   The church is God’s and not man’s, and if she is God’s then she cannot fail.  The reason why she fails[4] is because sinful men continuously attempt to make the church something which God never designed her to be. 

CONTEXT:

We ought  to be very aware that  the phrase “I will build my church, and the gates of hell  shall not prevail  against it “  occurs  in a context, and  I must take time to explain  this.

  

In v. 13 we are told  that Jesus came into the  district  of Caesarea Philippi  - about  40 km’s north-east of the Sea of Galilee, the modern Golan heights region.  Philip the Tetrarch, son of Herod the Great inherited the north-eastern part of his father’s kingdom, all which of course was ultimately under Roman rule.  Here he built  the city  of Caesarea  Philippi,  in honour of Tiberius Caesar [Roman emperor from 14 - 37 AD]  the reigning  Roman emperor, and  to distinguish it from  the Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast,  it was called Caesarea Philippi.  It is here  that  Jesus asked  His disciples a fundamental question:  “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  

It is of great interest to see where Jesus chose to ask this question. This question was  not asked in the heartland of the Jews. In fact, the area was hardly ever truly possessed by Israel as their inheritance. This region was scattered with temples of the ancient Syrian Baal worship. It is here that Mt. Hermon is found, and there is a place here at the foot of Mt. Hermon where there is a very deep cave, from which a strong spring flowed, becoming one of the tributaries of the Jordan river.  Apart from  all the ancient  Baal worship associated  with this area and this cave,the Greeks added  their  mythology to it, and  they believed  that  this cave was the birthplace of  Pan- the   god of nature. He was  portrayed  as a half-goat, half-human creature, and with horns.  Caesarea Philippi was originally named  Panias, by the Greeks, after this god and today  this  place is  known as Banias.[5]  

Now what is significant is that this cave was also sometimes   called the “Gates of Hades”, the gates to the underworld, because it was believed that Baal would enter and leave the underworld through places where water came out of it.  You will see Jesus using this phrase in v.18 in relation to the church. In this  atmosphere  and geographic locality then  that  Jesus  asks,  “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  The truth is that the disciples struggled  to  truly know  who Jesus  was and now it is as if Jesus deliberately set Himself against the background of the world's religions  and all their  history,  and  against that background  He asks this question.

 

14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Herod Antipas (the brother of Philip) who had John the Baptist killed, thought that Jesus was  John  the Baptist  who had come back from the dead.  Others said that he was Elijah etc. They were also saying that Jesus was the forerunner of the Messiah.  The prophet Malachi linked Elijah to the Messiah "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes" (Malachi 4:5). To this day  religious Jews expect the return of Elijah before the coming of the Messiah, and to this day they leave a chair vacant for Elijah when they celebrate the Passover, for when Elijah comes,  they know that the Messiah will not be far away. So the people looked on Jesus as the forerunner of the Messiah.  But He was more than that!

Jesus said to them (v.15)  …  that is what  others say about me, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”   Peter makes that great statement which ultimately sets Christ apart from all the great men of the Bible … and which, of course, sets Him apart from all the human gods. He is the Christ (The Anointed One, the Son of the living God).

17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. ¹⁸ And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Jesus  tells Peter  a  thing of tremendous importance:  “Peter,  this knowledge  has come to you not from what the people say, but  from what  my Father in Heaven has helped you to see. You cannot know me naturally. You have to know me supernaturally.”   

This is really the basis of biblical church membership! A true church member  is a person   who has been helped by God  to see Jesus for who He truly is.  It is called , the new birth in John Chapter 3.

Now unfortunately the Roman Catholic church have really  messed badly with this text.  They say that this text makes Peter the first pope of the church, and that the present pope  Francis, they say,   stands upon  Peter’s shoulders having the same authority!  But this is not what  Jesus  says here.   Let's try to see what Jesus is saying here : 

Jesus is  using Peter’s name  Petros.  His Aramaic name was Cephas. Both names mean ‘rock’. So, Jesus  is using Peter’s name  to   explain  what  He is about to do. In which sense then is Peter, the rock on which Jesus will build his church?  In the Bible God is often referred to as our Rock, and so Peter cannot possibly replace God. No, Peter is in a symbolic sense the first stone (the first NT believer) upon which the Church is founded.  He was, biblically speaking the first man to define and confess who Jesus truly was. And in ages to come, everyone who makes the same discovery as Peter, joins Peter, and thus becomes another rock, another stone added into the building of the Church of Christ.  1 Peter 2:4-8 explains this.   Ephesians 2:20 further explains  that ,Jesus is the chief corner-stone. He is the force who holds the Church together. When Jesus said to Peter that  He  would build His church  on  him,  He did not mean that the Church depended on Peter,  in the same way as it  would depended on Himself and on God the Rock. He meant that the Church began with Peter and only  in that sense   is Peter the foundation of the Church.

Jesus then goes on to say that the gates of Hades shall not prevail against his Church. Do you remember the surroundings in which Jesus spoke these words?  Jesus knew what  the church would be up against, and the book of Acts and subsequent church history bear testimony  to the fact  of how the church has had to  battle against  the odds and sometimes  she has barely survived.  And here in in the shadow of the memory of powerful pagan worship, and the place known as ‘the gates of hell’  Jesus  says ,  “They will not prevail against you”… “ because I am with you even until the end of the ages”-  using the closing words of the Gospel of Matthew  [Matt 28:20].  

Here  they were  in a place of powerful pagan worship, a place  where the gates of Hades  were  believed  to have been. The function of gates is to keep things in, to confine them, control them. There was one person whom the gates of Hades could not shut in; and that was Jesus Christ. He overcame death[6]. Jesus is saying here to Peter: "You have discovered that I am the Messiah, the Son of the living God. The time will soon come when I will be crucified, and the gates of Hades will close behind me. But they are powerless to shut me in. The gates of Hades have no power  over me!” But Jesus  is saying even more. He is not only saying that He  is indestructible. He is also saying that the church for which  He is laying down  His life is indestructible!

And with that He gives Peter, the first representative of the church a special sign. He gives to the true church, represented here by Peter the keys of the Kingdom. [See also Rev 1:18; 3:7].  And so the  authority of Christ on earth came to rest in the true church. 

And we see how this came first true at Pentecost.  

The preaching of Peter opened the door to three thousand souls in one day (Acts 2:41) and then many more came. But it is not only Peter who has the keys of the Kingdom. The church, wherever she gathers (even as two or three are gathered - Matt 18:20) has it. And into the hands of the church God has committed great binding and loosening authority (see also Matthew 18:18, where  the authority of the church extends  to  church discipline). 

But this text in Matthew 16  is really about the matter of salvation, and in that sense Peter is the first convert. And the powerful gates of hell that hold so many prisoners (for all have sinned), cannot withstand  the work of the church  in prayer and  in the preaching of the gospel.  That is how Ephesus (see Acts 20)  was  transformed in  Paul’s day. This is how our society is transformed in our day – by the  agency  of  the true church of Jesus Christ. 

That is how Christ builds His church.  

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[1] In this sense it is used in 1 Corinthians 11:20  - “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s [κυριακόν – kuriakon] supper that you eat” ; Revelation 1:10 “ I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s [κυριακῆ – kuriake] day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet…”

[2] http://assembling.alanknox.net/2007/07/ekklesia-and-kuriakon/

[3] Dr Wayne Mack and David Swavely have written a good and helpful book  with that title on this subject

[4] e.g.  5 of the 7 churches in Revelation 2&3 failed

[5]  check out  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banias

[6] Acts 2:24; Acts 2:27