Local Church: New Testament Pictures of a Local Assembly (Church) — Bruce Rodgers

I'm interested this week to take up with you the themes of the different assembly principles, truths. And so I'm going to call it Practical Truths of the Assembly. And I'll just give you a little bit of an idea of what we're going to try to cover.

And I realize in looking at this, I have taken this up a few times over the last number of years. And it's never quite the same no matter which time I do it. But I realize I'm short a night or so here.

And so I'm either going to have to leave some things out or cram. And I'm not very good at cramming either. So I'm going to give you the basic outline. I want to start out with looking at the idea of the truth that we are to be upholding.

The Local Assembly as God’s Witness to the Truth

And that's from 1 Timothy chapter three, which is where we're going to start tonight. And really part one, I have a list of New Testament pictures of an assembly. And we're going to try to cover that this evening.

And to help us to just get an understanding of what the assembly means to God. What is an assembly to God? And from that, we can ask ourselves the question, what does the assembly mean to me? And do I have an appreciation for it that sort of corresponds to what God thinks of the assembly and what it means to him?

So there's a number of interesting descriptions of an assembly. Part two, which is really where we're going to start tomorrow night, Lord willing, will be on principles and practices of our gathering unto him.

And we're going to be looking at Matthew 18 and 20 of being gathered unto his name. And probably Acts chapter two on what was really the beginning, the very first assembly in the world, the assembly at Jerusalem.

And the idea of a pattern, the idea that God has given to us a pattern from which to draw and to understand the principles of assembly, gathering, assembly, meeting, and so on. And I'm not sure if I will get into it or not, but I will be taking up from that principles of reception, of receiving to an assembly, the principles of fellowship within the assembly.

And there's some very precious things to think about in that. And then part C is really participation. In the activities of the assembly, and this would be our worship, our praise, the activities of preaching, of teaching, different spiritual gifts that are distributed to believers, ministries according to gift given and so on, gospel outreach.

And this is where it's going to get challenging because somewhere in here, something's going to have to give. I do like to go through 1 Timothy and show the very vital link between good teaching and godly living.

That's what 1 Timothy is really all about. And that is the proclaiming and preserving of the truth by sound teaching and godly living. And then finally, I'll be closing with this, will be the proclamation or proclaiming and the portraying of truth by symbols.

Now we have a minimum of rituals or symbols or symbolic acts in assembly testimony, in contrast to the Old Testament, and also in contrast to certain church organizations who have all kinds of ceremonies and rituals and so on.

I've been to a few of them at funerals and so on, and it's just, I find it kind of fascinating how many rituals they have as they go through these different things. The New Testament just gives us a bare minimum of them.

Baptism, the breaking of bread, partaking of the cup, the teaching of headship through the symbols of a head covering and an uncovered head. So I'm going to be trying to touch a little bit on that. But what I want to really start out with, and this will be, I hope, an important foundation.

The House, Assembly, and Pillar of Truth

So let's read in 1 Timothy 3, and starting at verse 14. These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly. But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how, how thou, it's really more generic, how one ought to behave in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed in the world, and received up into glory.

So we have this interesting description of what the assembly is. And there's really three of these pictures that are given to us right here. House of God, church or assembly of the living God, and pillar and ground of the truth.

Now I'm going to just primarily emphasize this pillar and ground of the truth. Now, when Paul wrote to Timothy, although he was writing to him as an individual, it wasn't just a personal letter to Timothy.

It is what has often been called a pastoral letter. In fact, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus are all called pastoral epistles or letters, which means they are to do with the shepherding of an assembly or a number of assemblies.

And so Paul had specifically left Timothy in Ephesus. It was already an established assembly, but there was some dangers. There were some problems that were surfacing of wrong teaching, of men arising, and they were beginning to teach different doctrines and beginning to cause havoc among the believers.

And so Paul had left Timothy there to charge some that they don't teach any of the doctrine. So that's back in chapter one. And he immediately makes the link that the purpose of this charge is that there might be in God's people love out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of a genuine, unhypocritical faith.

Now, if we could grasp that connection, it would help us a lot. I know some people don't like doctrine, but they just give us practical stuff. Now, my wife happens to be a very practical person, and she doesn't let me get away with being theoretical very long.

And she's very good for me. I can sort of get theoretical and academic and so on. We have to have truth connected to living. But we need to understand that the truth is foundation for living. And in fact, in the sixth chapter, he refers to the truth which is according to godliness.

And so if there's one thing we need to understand is that when we see here that the local assembly is intended to be the pillar, what's a pillar for? Well, if you know anything about the architecture of the ancient times, and you see it sometimes in important buildings where there's a lot of nice architecture there, they'll have these massive pillars.

And they're not just for decoration. They are part of the structure of the building. But they are also to portray certain things. And so it has the idea of it being the pillar and ground of the truth.

That's more like the base, the pillar and the base. And he's saying that a local assembly actually has this function in the world of being the pillar that is holding the truth out for people to see. So we are to protect the truth.

We're to guard the truth from being changed. We are to preserve the truth. We're to hold onto it, not let it go. We are to proclaim the truth. That's what a pillar does. Well, what is the truth then? It's really defined in the last verse, verse 16.

It's not just truth in an abstract sense. It is the ultimate reality. And that ultimate reality is God. That God manifested in flesh. 2 ,000 years ago, something happened here in this world that has irreversibly changed everything for everyone.

God became man. God, the invisible God, entered into humanity and came among us in manhood. Christ is God manifest in flesh. And so it says here, God was manifest in flesh. So not only is there this idea of God, this concept of God, but a very personal being, a being who loves, a being who cares, a being who is faithful, who enters into relationship and brings us to himself.

And so the gospel of the Lord Jesus is the most personal and ultimate revelation of God. And we have come to know God through believing the gospel through the Lord Jesus. But Christ isn't here, not visibly, not physically.

He left this world and he went back to heaven. But he left behind a message. And he left behind a little group of people who were charged with this awesome responsibility of upholding this greatest revelation of God to the world, to mankind.

God, our savior, God, our redeemer. And so it is the truth about the Lord Jesus and the truth of all that he has brought to us. And the fact that that truth has come into us and it has made us new creatures in Christ.

And we now have within us a life that is from God as those who are born of God. And so we have this important link then of truth and godliness. It's interesting that he uses this expression, the mystery of godliness.

Truth become manifest in the life. And so we are literally to be the perpetuation of the witness of Christ and of the life of Christ in our world. And so in contrast to the Old Testament, where God revealed himself to a nation, a called out people called the nation of Israel.

And he put his name upon them. He dwelled among them. If I were to ask you, what were the two great glories that belong to the nation of Israel? Would you know what they are? Romans chapter three says, the chief thing is that to them were committed the oracles of God, the word of God, the revelation of God of himself.

Came to the people of Israel. And they were the light bearers to the world. And they were supposed to be his witnesses to the rest of humanity and to bring humanity into the knowledge of God. But the tragedy is they became like the world around them.

They departed from God. They let go of the truth of God. They abandoned the worship of the living and true God and began to worship idols. And finally, God swept them out of the land of promise. He spread them among the nations.

And the majority of them are still spread among the nations. One day God is going to bring them back and God is going to recover Israel to its intended purpose. But in the meantime, he has begun a new work.

And that work is not through a divinely chosen nation, but through small companies of people gathered together, brought together to become witnesses, a public collective testimony to Christ. That's what an assembly is.

And so what I would like to emphasize is that all that we are going to be looking at and speaking about this week, it all derives its value from the person that it concerns. It's the Lord Jesus. And so if you say, I don't know if this is so important or that's so important, it's his truth.

It's something that affects his honor. It's his word. And so it has a value that I am not willing to put a price tag on. It is something that is eternally valuable. And so then in looking at this, and I've already gone over the time to cover all of this, but let's begin to look then at some of the descriptions that are given to us.

We've already seen, there's already three of them here in the passage, but I'm going to go back and try to do it in a little bit of an order through the books, starting with 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians.

1 Corinthians has sometimes been called the charter of the church, the charter of the local assembly, because there is so much truth given in relation to the assembly and in principles about it. And it was given because of problems, things that were wrong in the assembly.

So 1 Corinthians, and the first description is the description found in chapter one, 1 Corinthians chapter one, and verse one and two. The church of God. Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God and sought the needs of our brother unto the church of God, which is at Corinth.

To them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours, and so on. The church of God. Now this expression is also used in Acts 20 and 28.

It's used in the verses we were just looking at before where it's called the church of the living God. So if I were to say to you today, the assembly of God, now I'm going to use the word assembly mostly because that gives it more of the accurate sense of what is intended in the word itself.

An assembly is just people who have been called, summoned to assemble together. That's what this word church means. Summoned, called to assemble together. And so what is the church of God in the cross?

Well, to a lot of people, that would be a very difficult thing to answer. And they would have a number of ideas. And I should just mention as I start into this that there is a church of God, the term church of God is applied to what we call the body of Christ in the large aspect, which means every person who has been saved since the death of Christ brought into the church, which is his body from the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came down and formed the body of Christ and no matter where you're from, no matter where you may happen to gather together on a Sunday morning, you are part of this church, which is his body.

It encompasses from Pentecost right up until the Lord comes at the rapture. It's a wonderful reality. This church will be the bride of Christ forever. Now, some people only see that in the scriptures.

And so when they come to an expression, the church of God, which is at Corinth, they would say, well, that's just simply all the Christians that are in that territory that are at Corinth. Well, they would say then on that concept, the church of God at La Crosse is just all the Christians in this area.

That's the church of God at La Crosse. That is not the sense in which it is being used here. The sense in which it is being used here is of a local assembly, which is a known group of people who know each other because they assemble together.

They gather together regularly to be a collective witness for the Lord Jesus in the community. Now, by saying that I believe that you are church of God in La Crosse, I am not denying any other gathering of what they are.

It's not my responsibility to assess them or judge them. I only go by what I see in the scriptures as to what God does in preaching the gospel, bringing people together, a group being formed to become a permanent testimony, an ongoing witness to the name of the Lord Jesus.

So we have this description, the church of God. So what does that tell us? Church of God. The first thing is origin. God establishes this work. It is God who brings it into being. It is of God. And then ownership.

Church of God, it is God's assembly. Now, I used to hear this expression used a lot. This is God's assembly. And sometimes I wasn't sure whether it was used sort of as a sense of exclusive pride that we're the people.

And that is not the way I appreciate it. I appreciate it as a recognition. The assembly is not mine. It is His. It is His. And so my desire to encourage you, to build you up, to strengthen you in your personal lives and your collective testimony together is because I appreciate you not just as individuals, but also as a collective testimony that God has established.

It's His. The assembly is His. Then let's look then into chapter three. We actually have three descriptions in 1 Corinthians chapter three. And here Paul is, the context of the passage is where some of the Corinthian believers had, they seemed to start having their preferences.

I like Paul. I really like Paul. I like Apollos. I like Peter. And they were following different men. And in reality, it seems like they were local men wanting to be leaders who were taking the name of Paul and Apollos in order to give them credibility and importance in the assembly.

That seems to come out in chapter four. But Paul is saying this. Verse five, who then is Paul? Who is Apollos but ministers by whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.

And so he says it's really God that is the important person involved. Verse eight, now he that planteth and he that watereth are one and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor for we are laborers together with God.

Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. Now, what is that really saying? God's husbandry and God's building? Well, the word husbandry really is the word a husband man is not a husband of some woman.

It's a farmer. And I like to use what helps me to appreciate it is to just to say God's garden, God's garden. It's not farmland that's just pasture land. This is where the farmer has a plot of ground and he spends a lot of intensive effort and interest in it.

This is his garden. And when you think of a garden where someone has planted the garden, someone is taking care of it by watering it, the purpose is so that there's growth, that there's fruitfulness. And so an assembly is intended to be like a garden where there are these precious plants that have been planted and God has an interest in every one of them and he wants to see development and fruitfulness.

And so are we growing? Are we developing? Is our spirituality developing? Is there spiritual fruit? Are we growing in Christ? So that's one beautiful little description of an assembly. And then immediately after that, he says, you are God's building.

Now, I don't know whether he intended to make this look like a completed picture. Here's my garden, here's my house, God's building. So let's appreciate this. God is building you. God has a purpose for you.

And the assembly is being looked at as a building in progress. Now, the emphasis that Paul is making here, as he goes on to say in verse 10, according to the grace of God, which is given to me, that is God supplies various men and women with certain gifts, certain abilities, certain ministries.

And Paul says, the grace that has been given to me is to be a planter and is to be a master builder who lays the foundation and gets the building started. Now, I have had the joy and the privilege of being involved in two assemblies being planted.

And it is a privilege that I deeply appreciate. And I have learned to appreciate what an assembly is in seeing a group of people who have been saved just out of the world, with no background in the gospel whatsoever.

And through the preaching of the gospel, they are brought to Christ. And then as they are taught, and as they begin to gather together, as we meet together and the word of God is taught, an assembly is formed and it begins to develop.

It's very, very wonderful to see the grace of God at work, planting, watering the garden and beginning to build the building. And so he says, be very careful how you build because there's only one foundation and that's Christ.

So just as the Lord Jesus is your personal foundation of your Christian life, so he is the foundation for everything that an assembly is meant to be. And so then the building that is to be going on has to correspond to what Christ is.

So he talks about the building materials, gold, silver, precious stones, or wood, hay and stubble. And he looks forward to a final day in the future that he calls, it's really the judgment seat of Christ or the day of Christ.

Not in this world at all, but in the kingdom of God. And he says, the work that you're doing today is gonna be examined before his presence. And one of the important things we need to gather from this is that while an assembly, a local assembly is not eternal, it's for today, it's for witness now in the time of his absence.

There's a day coming when he is going to come back into the world and establish his rule. Assembly witnesses for now, but it has eternal character. What God is building in his people and the assembly and the way the assembly is meant to be has eternal character.

And I would just draw your memories to Revelation 21. When you get that glimpse of the new Jerusalem, the bride of Christ, and you see the description of the materials of that city, you get the same materials, precious stones, gold.

And so we are not here for entertainment. We are not here even just to keep everybody happy. We are here to build into one another eternal character, eternal character that corresponds to the Lord himself.

Then we come down the chapter a little bit, verse 16, and this will tell us what that building is all for. What kind of building is it? He says, know ye not that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you?

If any man defile or corrupt the temple of God, him shall God destroy. Those two words are actually almost identical in the original. You corrupt the temple, God will corrupt you or destroy you. For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

So it's not just any kind of building. It's not a machine shed. It's not a barn. It's his house. It's where he is, where his presence is. It is a building devoted to him and to his worship. Now, I think you're probably familiar enough with the teaching to know that in 1 Corinthians 6, we are taught that each one of us individually, our body is a temple of God.

But the Holy Spirit indwells me individually. And so it isn't a strange concept to understand that the local assembly as a collective entity is a temple because each one of us are a temple of God. And the Holy Spirit indwells me and he indwells you.

And so as we live and as we function as an assembly, we automatically should have temple character. But it's a very important thing to think of this. God is here, his presence is here, not just as a visitor, but as the one who is the master of the house, the owner of the house, the one for whom the house exists.

Now, it's interesting that other passages that talk of this kind of language speak about the priesthood that functions in this temple. And we also are priests in the presence of God. That's 1 Peter chapter two.

And so what is the emphasis I'm just gonna leave you with here is this. We are building and it's vital what we are building into the assembly. It has to be his truth, not the wisdom of the world. That's what the chapter is all about.

The wisdom of men cannot build what God wants to be built. And today we are being inundated. There is such a tremendous influence of the world and its philosophy, its thinking, its culture. And it's difficult for us to not become so acclimatized to the thinking of the world, the ideas, the philosophies, that we don't start absorbing them and start bringing them into the assembly and our concept of what is right and what is true and what we ought to be practicing.

And so he is emphasizing that the world and its wisdom has always been in opposition to God. We need to make sure that we are teaching what is of God and for his glory and in harmony with himself. So either the teaching or as chapter five teaches, the immoral behavior of the world, that doesn't belong in the temple of God either.

And so that's the emphasis of these expressions. So let's go over then to chapter 12. And this is in the middle of teaching about the diversity of spiritual gifts, all the different kinds of gifts, the functions that we are intended to have as Christians in the assembly.

The Body of Christ and Mutual Care

And here's where we have some of the overlap of body of Christ teaching, that is the universal church and the local assembly teaching. In chapter 12 and verse 12, he says, "'For as the body is one and has many members "'and all the members of that one body being many "'are one body, so also is Christ.

"'For by one spirit are, or where we all baptized "'into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, "'whether we be bond or free, "'and then all need to drink into one spirit.'". Now, you could look at that as being the body of Christ, universal.

But as the passage develops, you will see that he's really talking about the assembly in Corinth and the way they treat each other. And he is saying now, you're a member in a body. And the eye can't say to the ear, I don't need you.

Or the hand to the foot, I don't need you. And you don't wanna be like the ear that says, well, because I'm not the eye, you know, I'm nothing. And so he takes what is a self-centered perspective and he says, get rid of that idea in your mind.

You know, because I'm not like brother so-and-so, I can't preach like him, I can't teach like him, I can't pray like him, you know, I'm nothing. And, you know, I might as well just keep quiet and no use in me taking any part or being involved.

They say, no, God has formed the body and God has given each member a function. And he wants us primarily to care for one another. So when we come to verse 25, let's read verse 24. For our comely or beautiful parts have no need, but God has tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to the parts which lack, that there should be no schism or division in the body, that the members should have the same care one for another.

And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. One member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now he's talking about a natural illustration here of a human body. And then verse 27, he applies it.

Now you are, you are body of Christ and members in particular. Now, one of the things I'll just comment on, and this may make sense to you or may not be too helpful. Whenever it's talking about the body of Christ as the large entity, the church, which is his body, it usually uses the definite article, the.

When it is referring to the local assembly with this character, that definite article is dropped out in the Greek language. And in my Bible, it's shown in italics, which shows that it's not there in the original.

And it's not just saying that you are the body of Christ, nor that you are a body of Christ, as if the Lord has, you know, 1500 bodies in the world, but you are body of Christ. You have body character in assembly relationships.

In other words, we all belong to Christ. We all are members of him. We belong to him. We are part of him. And this is one reason why I can come from Sudbury, Ontario, and come here and be among you. And I'm like one of you.

We share together the life in Christ. We share together faith in him. And so I can come among you. I share the same life that you do in the Lord Jesus. And so I can minister to you and you can minister to me.

And so he's saying that we are members one of another. And one of the things I find very important is that every place in the New Testament, in the main chapters that take up the question of our service, our gifts, our spiritual gifts, it always does it in the context of body truth, body language.

And it teaches me that what he wants us to appreciate is we need to serve God, serve him with our gifts, as caring for one another, as being fellow members of the same body. Now, my right hand and my left hand, they don't start quarreling with each other as to who gets to use the pen or who gets to steer the steering wheel.

You know, there's no competition or rivalry. They just instinctively move to grab things together, to do things. My left foot, my right foot, and my right hand and my right foot, and so on. They just instinctively all work together to work in harmony for the common benefit of the whole body.

That's how we are to function, to recognize each other, appreciate each other, and seek to help one another as we serve God. Now, let's go then quickly into 2 Corinthians. There are two that we find in 2 Corinthians.

The Assembly as Christ’s Letter to the World

One is in chapter three, 2 Corinthians chapter three. And again, there's always a context in these, which if I take the time to give you all the context, I won't get through. But here, Paul is saying to, do I need a letter of commendation to you, or a letter of commendation from you?

Now, this is just referring to a practice that was well-known in that day, that when a visitor would come to an assembly that wasn't known to the Christians there, they would bring a letter of introduction, a letter commending them as a fellow Christian who is faithful and honorable and so on, and believes the truth as we do it.

And so you could receive somebody that you didn't know personally. And welcome them among you. And some of the Corinthians were treating Paul as if they didn't know him, even though he was the one who started the assembly, he founded the assembly.

He says, do I need a letter of introduction to you? Or do I need you to send me to somewhere else? Then he says, you are my letter. You are my letter of commendation. If someone wants to know what I stand for and what I represent, I'll just tell them about you.

You are my letter. And so just by him talking that way, he then draws this next expression. And here's what he says. Verse three. Verse two says, you are our epistle, our letter, written in our hearts, known and read of or by all men.

For as much as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

What he's really saying is this. You're not just my letter of commendation. You are Christ's letter of commendation. So we could say this. You are, as an assembly of God in this community, you are God's letter to the people around you.

You are God's message to the people around you. And so we could ask this question. What is the gospel of Christ according to you? What kind of message are you giving to the people around you? Would they get to know the gospel through you, by what you talk about, by what you bear witness to, and by the way you live your life?

Would they get an idea of the God that you know and worship? He says, that's what you are. You are a letter, an epistle, written not with pen and ink, but written by the spirit of God upon your very heart.

So that is an interesting description. And over in chapter 11, we have another one that is very, very interesting and touching. He says, verse one, I would, or would to God, you could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with me, for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy.

For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Single-Hearted Devotion to Christ

Now, this is talking about a girl who is engaged. And he says, she is a pure virgin. She is someone who is not running around partying with anybody and everybody. She is someone who has her heart sealed for one man that she's waiting for.

This is the language that we would normally associate with personal devotion to Christ. But he says, I want you as an assembly to have this character. You only have your eyes for Christ. You only care about him.

You're not trying to be impressed by somebody else or to impress somebody else. Your loyalty, your love is centered upon the Lord Jesus. That's something that Paul would use that kind of language. He says, I'm like a father jealously guarding the purity of his daughter because I have espoused you to one husband, even Christ.

I would have to say that I really appreciate this picture. I appreciate Christians who have a single-hearted devotedness to the Lord Jesus. He means everything to those individuals. And I really appreciate this picture that it's possible for a whole assembly to have this character.

Not just one or two, but a whole assembly to be in love with the Lord Jesus, to care about his interests, to be loyal to him at all costs, and not to be caught up with anything and everything else around.

You see, what was happening is there were other men coming along who were wanting to influence these believers, draw them after themselves, lead them away from loyalty to the Lord Jesus, to some other teaching, to some other kind of Jesus or Christ, as he says.

The House of God and God’s Administration

Now, I think the last one that I was, well, if I should get back to 1 Timothy 3, where we did read already, I'll just mention it here because my time is. Yeah, you'll give me permission. All right, I'll take a little bit of liberty then.

Let's go to Timothy again. I didn't draw attention to it too much before, but in 1 Timothy 3, verses 14 to 16, where we read already, it says, verse 15, "'But if I tarry long, that thou may know how thou ought "'or how one ought to behave in the house of God.'".