Finding the Right Church, Sept 22, 2024

All right, so it is, it's wonderful to see you folks. It's wonderful to see people that are visiting, people that are just coming back for homecoming, whatever it is that brought you here today. And I have to confess, I don't really know all that much about homecoming services because I've never been a part of a church that did homecoming services.

So there's that. But I'm given to understand that the tradition is to have a former pastor come back and deliver the sermon. But in this case, given our recent history as a church, where we've been, that's all in the past.

We've chosen to move forward. And while that history is part of what makes this church Mount Zion, again, we are moving in a different direction, a different direction that we're headed. So it did not seem logical to go back to it.

So today you get me. And on a regular Sunday, you would come in and you would hear us going verse by verse in an expository manner through the Gospel of Matthew. Today I did feel that it was appropriate to take just a short break and consider a very specific topic that I think will be useful to every single person in this room, whether you're a part of this church, a part of another church, or part of no church at all.

And that topic is what it means to be a member of the local church. And I have a warning for you today as well. For those of us that are, well, those of you, those of you that are of a more charismatic bend and you would love to feel a move of the Holy Spirit, that may just happen today, but it may manifest itself as the Holy Spirit stepping on your toes.

Please know that I don't know your hearts. I don't know what's inside your hearts. I don't know what's inside your mind, but the Holy Spirit does. If I say something that makes you angry or that makes you uncomfortable, please only consider what the source of that is.

So that's just my way of letting myself off the hook here, right? So, and the reason I think this is an appropriate and important topic is because as Christians, we've lost sight of what the purpose of the church is.

The Consumeristic View of Church

As our society has grown more individualistic and more consumeristic, we find that a lot of that has spilled over into our Christianity and it's spilled over into how we view the role and the function of the local church and our role and our function in the local church as well.

So what we find is that rather than gathering together as brothers and sisters in Christ to worship God and to worship God in a way that pleases Him and in a way that He's prescribed for us in His word, we've come to believe that the purpose of a church is to entertain us and we've come to believe that the purpose of church is to give us this warm, fuzzy, good, emotional feeling about ourselves or that it's to provide the programs that we desperately want for our children or for us or for the things that we say that we need.

And the church should meet some specific needs for our families, but the need that should be met, a lot of times, it's a lot different from what our felt needs are. The need that we have to be met is different from what it is in our heads and that makes it different in the way that we go about choosing a church.

So the one thing that the church should do, indeed, the one thing that the church has to do is to preach and teach the full counsel of God's word. That's the role of the church and it's a huge part of the purpose of the church.

We see this in the command of Jesus in the Great Commission in Matthew 28, verses 18 through 20. Jesus tells us, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And then in verse 20, it says, teaching them to keep all that I have commanded you and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. So we see what Jesus commanded his disciples to do with the church.

Yet when it comes to church for us, we often make decisions about attending a church based on the style of worship, the demographics of the congregation, the programs for the kids. And we don't often think about the theology of the pulpit.

And we've all, myself included, probably left churches, stayed at churches or chosen churches for the wrong reason. I know I have. I've done it, we all have. And churches wanting to be sensitive to the felt needs of the people that are coming in the door have gone right along with this idea.

So what it turns into is this spiritually deficient or spiritually unhealthy kind of codependent cycle of stating a felt need and then rushing to build a program to meet it so that people won't walk out the door.

But when churches act like businesses, it's no wonder that congregants act like consumers. It's hard to blame anyone. If you got a church that says, come to us, we're different, we'll meet your needs, just pay attention to what's going on there.

Pay attention to what's going on in the pulpit. So I have two goals this morning. And the first is for us to develop a biblical understanding of the purpose and the nature of the church and then to extend that into the local church as well.

Then the second goal, building on the nature and the purpose of church is to develop a biblical understanding of what it is to be a member of a local church. And make no mistake, I believe that the model of church membership is a biblical model.

Is it spelled out in scripture? It is not. We have to come to it through inference. We have to come through it through what we see in the church. But nonetheless, I believe that that's biblical and I believe that churches that forego the idea of membership are making a mistake.

And not only that, they're adding to the consumerism that's going on in the Christian world. So with all that said, let's start by seeking a biblical understanding of what the church is. And it's impossible for us to understand the local church without a right understanding of the universal church.

Sometimes these are called the visible church, the local church, and the invisible church, which is the entire body of believers in the world. And the first thing that we have to say, even though this is a very elementary, very low-level idea, is that the church is not a building.

The church is not a denomination. It's not anything like that. The universal church is not a place. It's a people. And the first place we see the church in Scripture, this is the first mention of the concept of church, is in Matthew 16.

This starts in verse 13 and goes through 18. We'll go through 18. Now, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he was asking his disciples, saying, who do people say that the Son of Man is?

And they said, some say John the Baptist and others, Elijah, but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered and said to him, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And 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.

So again, this is the first time that we see the mention of the church. And there's some very important and very significant things about what we see just in these few passages. But probably the most important place that we have to start comes in verse 18.

Jesus said, I will build my church. So at no point should we ever fall into the error of thinking that anyone or anything in a church comes before Christ. No pastor comes before Christ. No elder comes before Christ.

No committee comes before Christ, and no denomination comes before Christ. No man-made tradition comes before Christ. Everything in the church is subject to the lordship of Christ. He owns it all. As we will see, the church is what Christ shed his blood for.

Pastors, especially, can easily make this mistake given their position. But Scripture's clear. It even tells us, tells us all in Acts 20, 28 this, be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you a part.

I will build my church along with all my fellows.

Some are seeing you, but not all.

I will build my church on the rock used by the Roman Catholic Church as justification for the secession of popes. They say that Peter is the first pope and there's been an unbroken line of secession all the way to Peter.

But that's not what this verse means. That's a misinterpretation of the meaning of this. So the truth of that statement is that it is the profession of faith that Peter made, the profession of faith that the other apostles gave.

Those form the rock and the foundation upon which Jesus Christ has built his church, the foundation built on the apostles and the prophets. We see this concept in Ephesians 2 .20 through 22. Paul writes this, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, again, we're talking about the church, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole building being joined together is growing into a holy sanctuary in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together in a dwelling of God in the spirit.

The foundation of the church was laid by the apostles and the prophets. We see this in scripture, in the gospels, and in the Old Testament as well. But as we consider the concept of church as people, we have to make another clarification.

It's not just any people. Once again, we return to Matthew 16, and in verse 16, in response to that question from Jesus, who do you say I am? Peter says, you are Christ, the son of the living God. And that credible profession of faith is important, it's essential, but we also have to recognize something else that Jesus said about that.

Looking ahead to verse 17, Jesus says, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. So what we see here is something that I've told you before, this knowledge of Jesus as the son of God.

And again, Jesus hadn't died at this point, obviously, because he's right there talking to them. But knowledge that Jesus is the son of God, and for us, knowledge that Jesus was crucified, dead, and buried, and the third day rose from the dead and ascended to heaven, for us, is not something that we reason our way to.

It's not an intellectual exercise, it's not something that we can argue about until we come to an agreement of what it means. Scripture says what it means. And only the Holy Spirit can reveal that to you.

First Corinthians 2 .14 tells us, a natural man does not accept the depths of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. Without the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart and in your mind, it's not all heart, it's both, we'll consider the Bible, we'll consider the work of Jesus foolish.

Sounds silly. Sounds impossible. We've never seen anything like that. How could it have happened? Until the Holy Spirit changes you. So from that, we can deduce that the church, that the true church, Jesus's church, is built on a profession of faith that is supernaturally guided by God, the Holy Spirit, given to believers who now have the faith in Jesus's redemptive work on the cross.

So that tells us that a church is not just any gathering of people. You couldn't just go pick 50 people from out on 29, bring them in this building and call them the church, because it's a very specific people.

As usual, J .C. Ryle is a huge help. He says this, "'The church which Jesus promises to build upon a rock "'is the blessed company of all faithful people. "'It is not the visible church of any one nation "'or country or place.

"'It is the whole body of believers "'of every age, tongue, and people. "'It is a church composed of all "'who are washed in Christ's blood, "'clothed in Christ's righteousness, "'renewed by Christ's Spirit, "'joined to Christ by faith and letters of Christ in life.

"'It is a church in which every member "'is baptized with the Holy Spirit "'and is really and truly holy. "'It is a church which is one body. "'All who belong to it are of one heart and one mind "'and hold to the same truths "'and believe the same doctrines as necessary for salvation.

"'It is a church which has only one head, "'Jesus Christ himself.'". So the first question I would ask you today as we consider the implications of this statement is are you part of that church? Because if you aren't part of that church, it will be very difficult for you to be part of a local church.

It will be uncomfortable, it will be infuriating, and eventually you won't be. So if what we just discussed is the biblical concept of the church, the church universal, the body of believers who trust in Christ, do we need to be a part of a local church, and if so, why?

I hope that the obvious answer to that question for you is yes, we do need to be a member of a local church. Hebrews 10 .25 reminds us of this saying, not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near.

You can't do that not part of a local body. And throughout Scripture, we see this as well. We see Christians gathering with one another for worship, and it starts in Acts chapter two, verse 42, which says they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers.

And then we see in all of Paul's epistles, basically, the letters of Paul, they're going to different churches all over the place. But there's an implication or an assumption that these are people gathered together with one another.

Talking about communion, 1 Corinthians 11 .18, he says, when you come together as a church, or you can look at the way the letters are opened, the first words, to the church of God at Corinth, to the churches of Galatia, to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus.

They didn't have YouTube. Paul couldn't email this to every individual believer sitting in their home so they could read it to themselves. He sent it to churches who gathered together to have his word read to them.

And think about it. It's the most natural thing in the world for us to gather together to enjoy things with people that also enjoy those things. Sporting events, concerts. I would say that both of those things are objectively better at home.

You can see what's going on in the game. You can hear what's going on in the music at a concert. But there's something about being with people. And further, we think nothing of driving multiple hours,.

Or even an hour.

We think nothing of driving to these. We think nothing of parking a long way and walking to them. We think nothing of paying to go. We think nothing of sitting for a long time in an uncomfortable seat and then having to do all that stuff over again to get home.

Just a thought.

The idea of gathering and enjoying with other people makes it different. And frankly, church takes that to another level. Add to that, God has created us to be in community. So it's only natural that we want to get together.

God made us in such a way that we need other people. And we want to share in what is literally the most important aspect of our life, what should be your defining belief. Pastor Jeffrey Johnson says this, Christ is the life of all who believe.

The life that each believer has in Christ, however, is the very life that is mutually shared by all believers. This shared life binds every Christian together into one spiritual family. And just as Christ has established the church, and God has created us for fellowship, he's also gifted people in a wide variety of ways as well to serve the church.

Again, we always go to scripture, right? If I say something, I want to back it up with God's word, because my word's not important. Ephesians 4, 11 through 12 says, and he himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ.

But it's not just those positions. God has uniquely created all redeemed believers for service to the church, no matter how insignificant you think that service is, God considers it important. We turn to 1 Corinthians 12.

I'm sure a lot of you knew where we were headed here. 1 Corinthians 12, I think we'll do verses 15 through 26. Oh, 14, for also the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, because I am not a hand, I am not part of the body, it is not for this reason any less a part of the body.

And if the ear says, because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body, it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?

But now God has appointed the members, each one of them in the body just as he desired. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you.

Or again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you. On the contrary, how much more is it that the members of the body, which seem to be weaker, are necessary? The example I've heard of this is, if you've ever broken your pinky toe or even stubbed your pinky toe, that's enough to bring down the biggest and strongest person that you can imagine.

And that is a very insignificant part of a large person's body. But they have to have it to walk or things aren't gonna be good. On the contrary, how much more is it that the members of the body, which seem to be weaker, are necessary?

And those members of the body, which we think as less honorable, on those we bestow more abundant honor and on our less presentable members become much more presentable. Whereas our more presentable members have no such need.

But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked.

We'll stop there.

The point being, the church was built for everybody that's a part of it. It doesn't matter if you're not preaching. It doesn't matter if you're not in the choir or if you're not singing, if that's not the way God has designed you.

You still are an integral and important part of the church. And that's what this is telling us because we need every believer. Every believer. So now we see that God has established and built up the church.

We have to ask ourselves what the purpose of the church is. And I think the answer to that is fairly easy. When we go back to some scripture that we've already read one time this morning. Go back to the Great Commission again.

All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. So therefore, go make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all I have commanded you and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

So that's the second time we've had the Great Commission this morning. So contained in that commission, we see the tasks of the church. We see the purpose, the role the church has to play to make disciples, to baptize, to teach.

Some of those things can take a variety of different forms. So you have to be careful to make sure that the church is doing what they actually should be doing. Some of those things can happen in the wrong way.

So that said, what do you look for? What do you look for in a local church? So another pastor, Joel Beakey, he provides a helpful list of three things. He calls these the marks of a true church. The first one is true doctrine.

This means preaching the word of God. It means when you come in on Sunday, you're not getting pop psychology, you're not getting a TED Talk, you're not getting stand-up comedy, you're not getting story hour with the pastor.

Because while all those things might be fun, they won't feed your soul. And you can probably get them better somewhere else where that's the purpose. So it might entertain you, but that's not why we're here.

Entertainment is not the reason. Jesus says in John 10, 21, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. So that's how you can determine true doctrine. Are they going to God's word? Do you hear God's word preached?

Do you hear God's word read? Do you hear God's word sung? And if you don't, then leave. Number two, true sacraments. This one's important as well. Another thing we've discussed here several times is that Christ has given two, that's four, two, two sacraments to be done with his church.

The first is baptism. We've talked about that at length. Baptism is that public profession of faith where you, upon being saved, announce to the world that you are a follower of Christ and everything that goes with it.

The second one is the Lord's Supper. We do that more often. That renews that idea that we're in covenant with Christ and it brings us together as one body to celebrate the sacrifice of Jesus. That's what the Lord's Supper does.

So those are the true sacraments. For a church to insist on anything else, any other ritual, any other sacrifice, any other activity as necessary or ordained by God is wrong. So watch out for additional requirements.

Now the third one is the most controversial. The third one is the one that everyone avoids, that nobody wants to hear about. The third mark of a true church is true discipline. What does this mean? Well, in order to determine what this means, we turn to Matthew chapter 18 and we look at verses 15 through 20.

Now, if your brother sins, go and show him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every fact may be confirmed.

And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as the Gentile and the tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.

Again, I say to you that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by my Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in my name, I am there in their midst.

And that does not mean that it requires two to three people together to create a church. That's not what the verse says. Think about this one thing. If it has to be where two or three are gathered, how can you pray by yourself?

Because it doesn't require two or three people. That whole section is about discipline in the church and about the proper procedure for confronting the sin of a fellow believer. And this is essential for the health of a church.

But it's uncomfortable. But here's the thing. When a church tolerates unrepentant sin, open sin in their church, that does a couple of things. First, it damages the witness of the church to the world.

This is how you get the atheist who says, I don't wanna join a church. They're no better than I am. But it also damages your witness to one another. How can you watch somebody or God forbid yourself live in a way that's directly contradictory to the words of Scripture and expect the church to be healthy?

Now, I wanna make another clarification about this. And that is the goal of discipline is not embarrassment. It's not shame. It's not to parade somebody in front of the church so that everybody can gossip about the things they did wrong.

It's to get them to repent of that sin and restore them to healthy membership in the church. It's not about trying to kick someone out because you don't like them. Actually, you love them and you wanna see them in communion with Christ and in communion with the church.

Discipline, properly and biblically handled is an act of love. So when we consider what to look for in a church, which was the heading of this section, it comes back around to some of the things that I mentioned at the start this morning.

So again, just to refresh, we have unbiblical ideas about how to select a church. So we call it church shopping. We visit a bunch of places as if it's a product or a store or something like that. And some churches sell themselves that way.

So I get the confusion. But we consider how the church looks, how it makes us feel, if the people look like us, if the music is a good style, if it's not too loud, if it's not too quiet, if it's not too old-fashioned or if it's not too modern.

We make sure it has the programs we want for the kids. If it doesn't, we're out the door. Gotta make sure the service is not too early or too late so that it matches our schedule perfectly because heaven forbid we inconvenience ourselves for God.

And you know, because church isn't our real life, right? It's just what we do on Sunday morning. And then we also look to make sure it's close enough to our house so that we're not inconvenienced by the drive.

All the while, considerations like that are primary and secondary is what is preached, how true it is. If we even look for that at all, not only how true it is, but how much of God's word is preached.

Is it just the good parts or is it the hard parts too? Paul Washer says, don't look for the church closest to your house. Look for the church that's closest to the Bible. And you might have to drive to find that.

And currently it's getting harder and harder to find that near your house. There's lots of churches that are close to your house. Not all of them are close to the Bible. Now, let me also state the obvious for this too.

There's no perfect church. There's no perfect pastor. All have some kind of flaws. And it's kind of like Groucho Marx, right? I wouldn't wanna join any club that would have me for a member. Because as soon as you find the perfect church and join it, you've ruined the whole thing.

But consider this, that the entire purpose of a church's worship is to please God. So when we make this punch list of things that we want in a church that don't have to do with God's word and pleasing God, we're making a mistake.

The entire purpose of a church's worship is to please God. It's not to please you. And I know that's hard to hear.

So I'll say it again.

The purpose of a church's worship is to please God. It's not to please you. So we all have preferences, but ultimately it's not our preferences that matter. Are we worshiping the way God has required that we worship him?

Are we truly being taught God's word? Are we singing songs that are biblical and songs that exalt God and not ourselves? And are you worshiping in spirit and in truth? Short personal story. When I went to my chaplain training, the first thing I did was use a very specific church finder to look for a church that I knew would be pastored by somebody who was a true man of God.

And I went to that church and for three months, I was able to sit there and have the word of God preached to me and it was beautiful. And it's hard to do, you know, when you do something, it's hard to go where somebody else is doing it and just be content because you're like, well, I might be able to do that better or I wouldn't do it that way.

Or, you know, I wouldn't have said that, I would have said this, but it was wonderful because if anything was different, it didn't matter because it was truly God's word being preached. So if you find a church that is doing that, congratulations because you've found a church that's worth joining.

So what do you do now? It's obvious, join the church. Figure out what the process is and what it takes to join the church. Because we have another unbiblical idea that is going through our Christian society and that's that we can just come and go as we please.

We think that we can just show up one week and not another or go to this church this week and this church that week. I like the music here, I like the preaching here, the seats are more comfortable here, but this church has the kids' programs and you know the seats aren't comfortable here, so I know you're not coming to our church for that one.

Then again, no church is perfect, but you have to commit to a church and you have to commit to a church where you can be discipled, where your walk with the Lord is guided, where you can be pushed toward holiness on a regular basis because sanctification should be your priority and it should be the priority for your church.

But guess what? If you're not a member, you don't go regularly, you don't interact with people and you're not known by the church, this will never happen. And if you randomly just attend when you feel like it, it's not gonna happen.

And let me also say this, because this is another mistake. Just because your name is on the roster of a church, it doesn't make you a member. If your name is on there, but you haven't been for a year, two years, and you don't have like a medical reason or some very compelling excuse, you're not a member of that church.

Just take your name off. Actually, don't take your name off, come back. So, but this is a lot on you, right? Let me tell you this, your church and your pastor, they owe you something.

They do.

They owe you some very specific things. They owe it to you to help you grow spiritually. There is no ceiling on your level of spiritual growth. Because you can never learn it all and you can never master it and you can never get it right.

So don't settle for a place that's gonna cap you right here because the pastor refuses to grow or because they wanna make sure it's appealing to people and that they feel good. So they owe you that by faithfully teaching the full counsel of God's word.

Your pastor also owes you this. They owe you the care of your soul. And that is difficult when churches get too large. This is why you have to have pastors and elders at a certain point. But they owe you the care of your soul.

And that's another thing that can never happen if you're not a regular attendee. And if you just keep to yourself, come in, sit in the back, exit as soon as the service is over. As a pastor, I appreciate this verse quite a bit, Hebrews 13, 17.

It says, obey your leaders and submit to them. For they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account so that they will do this with joy and not with groaning. For this would be unprofitable for you.

But lest you think that I'm just trying to get you to do what I want and, yeah, I just want you to do what I tell you so that I'll be happy. Scripture has words for the pastors too. You go back to Jeremiah and see what God says about unfaithful shepherds.

He says, woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture, declares Yahweh. Therefore, thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who are shepherding the people, you have scattered my flock and banished them and have not attended to them.

Behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds, declares Yahweh. Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the land where I have banished them and cause them to return to their pasture and they will be fruitful and multiply.

And he also tells those unfaithful shepherds that he will destroy them. So pastors fear God as well because we all have responsibilities. This comes back to the fact that it's not our church, it's Christ's church.

And we need to honor Christ in what we do. And again, just like you're owed certain things by the church and the pastor, you owe certain things to them too, to be a productive church member. And let me say that all this assumes a God-centered worship and it assumes biblical teaching.

You don't owe these things to somebody who's not giving you what they're supposed to give you. The first is attendance. You have to be an active part of the church. You have to be there. And if you're not teachable, if you're not willing to be taught, and sometimes that involves effort on your part, then you're not really being a productive part of the church.

So be at a church that's teaching you the word of God and you can accept it. You know what makes that easier? Take notes. If it's hard to focus, take notes. Just do something that will help you because if you write down something that's said, you might even remember it later.

The second thing, the second thing that's required of you that you owe the church is to serve one another. As we mentioned earlier, God's gifted each one of us in certain ways. And, you know, that gives us an opportunity.

And when the opportunity to serve with the way that you were gifted shows up, you should take it. But that doesn't always happen, yet things still have to be done. I read a really interesting quote on gifts.

And this author said, probably the most important and certainly the most difficult lesson for us to learn is that ultimately spiritual gifts are not our presumed strengths and abilities, not something that we have or even have been given, but what God does through us in spite of ourselves and our weaknesses.