The Mission of the Church Pt. 2

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Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. All right.

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Welcome everybody to Apologia Kauai. And I want to start off by saying happy St.

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Patrick's Day, which sounds weird, maybe in a reformed

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Protestant church, but contrary to popular belief, St. Patrick was actually not Catholic.

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He was a Protestant. just a quick little history lesson on him.

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He actually won Ireland, the whole island of Ireland, to Christ essentially in the 5th century.

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We actually were blessed. Actually a year ago today, we were leaving Ireland. We left Dublin. We got to go there.

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We were blessed to go there. I've been there twice actually. And we actually saw the cathedral that's named after him and there's actually a little little plaque that is said to be near the place where he first baptized his first converts.

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Now, I only mention this to say that what St. Patrick did actually ties in with the series that we're in right now.

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And just a quick, again, history lesson. Patrick was very faithful to this mission that we're talking about.

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And he was from Greyburn, but he was kidnapped when he was 16 by Irish barbarians, and they took him up to Ireland and made him a slave.

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So the Irish back then were actually considered to be uncivilized barbarians.

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And so the British didn't want anything to do with them. It was almost like Jonah going to the

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Ninevites, like we're not bringing the gospel to these people. So like I said, he was kidnapped when he was 16, was made a slave there.

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And then he actually returned to Great Britain after six years and he lived a full life. But while he was in Ireland, he learned their culture.

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He learned the language. And that was always a barrier to bringing the gospel to the

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Irish. So what's crazy is at the age of 48, which some of us in this room may not think 48 is that old.

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But 48 was considered to be like the end of your life expectancy in the 400s, right?

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So he's basically at the end of his life. And he had such a burden for the people that had kidnapped him and made him a slave.

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He goes back. He actually brought with him basically 12 apostles. There's a group of them.

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And so no one else would go. The British, like I said, they didn't like the Irish. They didn't want anything to do with them. But he went and he brought these 12 men with him and they went village to village to village until they won the whole island to Christ.

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One thing I thought was really cool that I was reading today, instead of trying to Romanize the

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Irish, which would just be not most of England was Romanized at the time in Great Britain and stuff.

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So instead of like trying to make them British, he brought the gospel there and didn't try to change their culture, but worked from within their culture with the gospel and transformed it instead of into a

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Romanized British culture. He transformed it into a Christian Irish culture. So he, you know, again, this ties in with everything we're talking about.

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He strived and he succeeded essentially to put their entire culture under the subjection of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. So the passage I want to, we're going to be in a bunch of places tonight, but the main passage

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I want to look at here. It says, oh,

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I forgot to put the reference. I apologize. This is, I'll tell you later.

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Anyways, it says, For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the

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God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.

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Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the age to come, and he put all things under his feet and gave him his head over all things to the church, which is the body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

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So before we pray, I want to, I got a quote from Spurgeon. He said, Blessed that she may bless.

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Let's pray. Lord, I'm just, again, so thankful for this opportunity to be here and go through this series here in Kauai, Lord.

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I love my family here, my brothers and sisters, Lord, and I just ask right now that you would just speak through me and get me out of the way,

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Lord, and that you'd use me and use this message for your glory, and in Christ's name we pray. Amen. So as a reminder, if you were here last week or if you saw the first message,

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I'm doing a three -part series on, called Missio Ecclesiae, which is just the mission of the church.

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And so last week, the first part was what is the mission. So we talked about what is this mission that we've been assigned.

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Tonight, I want to look at specifically what is the church, and then next week, part three, will be what to expect.

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And again, if you missed it as well, a lot of this was inspired by a short little booklet.

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It's only like 50 pages by Joe Boot called For Mission. So as a recap, what is the mission?

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Simply put, per the Great Commission in Matthew 28, we are to go, make, and teach with all authority delegated to us by Christ, both in heaven and on earth.

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So Christ is reconciling the world to himself, and we have been entrusted with the same ministry of reconciliation.

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So our mission is not just saving souls from hell, but also submitting all things under the lordship of King Jesus.

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And also for clarity, I mentioned there's basically four distinctions in the use of the term church, and we're going to get in a lot more of that tonight.

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But the first one is a universal church, which is the Catholic, meaning universal, not the

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Roman Catholic, bride of Christ. So it's past, present, and future Christians. It's all who have, all who are now, and all who will turn to Christ for salvation.

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The second one then is the church militant, which we'll talk a lot about tonight. And that's the living, breathing, actively fighting church.

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It's Christians we presently see throughout the world. And then the third one is the church triumphant.

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So this is the portion of the church that's no longer with us, those that have died and are now in heaven, who have triumphantly finished the race.

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And then the fourth one, which we'll also talk a lot about tonight, is the institutional church. So that's the church as any entity or organization.

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And I want to correct something from last week. I said entity or organism. You'll see in a minute why I needed to correct that.

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But it's an entity or organization. Essentially, it'd be like Apology of Mesa, Apology of Kauai, Christchurch, Moscow, etc.

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So, church defined. Let's define that term. What do we mean by that?

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A basic definition by Boot in this book, he said, in the scriptures, the people of God are identified as those who are called out by the spirit, gathered together as a body, and appointed to a task.

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Historically, when the Jews were dispersed among the nations, the synagogues where they were meeting became the center for instruction and worship.

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It no longer was a temple. The temple was destroyed. So they met individually in these synagogues. And so this pattern then was carried over into the

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New Testament Christian era with the establishment of the local churches. So in the New Testament, then,

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God's people are referred to as the Ecclesia. That's where we get ecclesiology from. It's literally

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Greek for a summoned assembly. So it's Ecclesia. It's literally like the called out ones or called out from.

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And so Boot says this literally is a called out or regenerate group of people that are appointed to go forth and bear fruit.

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Boot says at this point that biblically, then, the church is clearly a people whose lives and their totality are oriented toward the gospel of the kingdom.

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This life is evidently much more than the buildings, liturgies, and structures of the church institute.

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So then during the late medieval age, the Roman Catholic church began to view the church institution and the kingdom of God as essentially one and the same.

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Church cathedrals were called basilicas, which is Greek for royal or king, and were thought to be essentially the realm of Christ where church hierarchy was considered to be the means by which

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Christ exercised his rule and authority. This thought process still plagues us today as there is no real or clear distinction made between the church institution and the church organism.

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And we're going to get into this a little bit here in a minute. The reformation, then, brought back a renewed and a clear distinction between the church operating as an institution and operating as an organism.

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Abraham Kuyper said, the conception of the instituted church is much narrower than the church when taken as the body of Christ, for the latter includes all the powers and workings that arise from recreation.

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The instituted church finds her province bounded by her offices, and these offices are limited to the ministry of the word, the sacraments, benevolence, and church government.

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Ultimately, then, the church institution is not an end in itself, and it most certainly does not exhaust the comprehensive biblical understanding of the kingdom of God.

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So contrary to the view of our culture, Sundays, like now, are not the last day of the week, but technically the first.

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And so the Sabbath worship services were established on Sundays in order to teach and equip and prepare for the six days that followed.

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Liturgy, which is nothing more than a fancy term for the particular way in which we arrange our services.

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So the way we've done the service today is our particular liturgy here. Every church essentially is different.

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It literally means public work and is simply preparing us then for the very culturally public task ahead of us.

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The Sunday public worship service is not intended solely for the building up of personal piety and leading the faithful to heaven, but is the time and the place where God's people are prepared for the liturgy of life and all of creation.

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So the church institution is established to prepare, equip, and train the church organism to live out its kingdom mission in all of the world.

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It is to faithfully serve this purpose, but is not a center of power, only looking to serve, expand, or enrich itself.

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So there are two clear modes of existence then for the visible church militant.

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So you have the institute and organism. And I know we're getting heavy in technical terms here. So just bear with me here as I'm trying to just kind of lay out some explanations here.

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So I'm going to say that again. There's two clear modes of existence then for the visible church militant. That's the church today that's fighting and living and breathing.

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So you have the institute and the organism. The church institution then is the worshiping community that includes offices and ministries, the local church organizations that are expressions specific to each body of believers.

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So each church body, each church institution is different the way they express things.

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Christ is the head and he's organized the church himself through apostolic succession and sacraments.

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The church organism then, that's the second one, is the total living and breathing body of believers throughout the world that are daily engaged in non -ecclesiastical, that means non -church related areas of life and service to Christ.

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The church organism could also be called the body of Christ, which you see mentioned a lot in scripture.

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So the question then is how do they relate to one another? Simply put, each individual church institution combined with all the believers that are not obediently connected to local churches make up the church organism or the body of Christ.

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So let me say that a different way. So essentially you have all the Christians that are living at one time, either the ones that are at local churches or the

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Christians that are kind of rogue and out on their own, all of them combined make up the body of Christ or the church organism.

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So hopefully you guys are with me. I didn't lose you here. So just stay with me here quickly. The 1689

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London Baptist Confession, a faith which we hold to, chapter 26 of the church point one says, the catholic or universal church, which with respect to the internal work of the spirit and truth of grace may be called invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one under Christ, the head thereof, and is the spouse, the body, the fullness of him that filleth all and all.

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So the body of Christ then is at first invisible and then visible.

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And let me explain what that means. So first when someone turns to Christ, you may not see them, right?

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So they might be invisible because you don't necessarily know who all has come to Christ. But that's only for a time because when they obey

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Christ and they become part of a local church, then they become visible, then you see who they are.

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So the visible church and the body of Christ embraces much more than any one particular or specific church denomination or institution.

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It is found wherever God's people are living faithful Christian lives. It manifests itself across the full range of societal relationships.

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What I mean by that is that the visible church is not limited to one particular society either.

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But per the Great Commission, it extends to all nations, all tribes, and all tongues.

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The church institution, however, is typically limited to each society or culture within which it exists.

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So you have the visible church that's throughout the world, right? But it's going to be specific to each culture.

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It's not necessarily that not each church institution is going to necessarily extend throughout the world.

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So how do the visible and invisible church relate to the kingdom of God? As we already discussed, just like the institutional church, the visible church is clearly not identical to the kingdom of God.

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For example, Christ and the disciples proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom long before there were ever any established local churches, local church institutions.

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Likewise, the invisible church is not identical to the kingdom of God because the rule and the reign of Christ is not limited to only those who love and obey him but extends to all of creation.

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Christ is the reigning ruler and king over all things whether in heaven or on earth.

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I'm going to say that a lot and I know I'm repeating it but I want to make sure we're clear about that. So as I mentioned last week,

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Psalm 2, 10 through 12 says, Now therefore, O kings, be wise.

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Be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.

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Blessed are all who take refuge in him. So that's addressed to all kings throughout all nations.

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Likewise then in Revelation 1, 4 through 5 says, John to the seven churches that are in Asia, Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before his throne and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of kings on earth.

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So Christ's lordship cannot be restricted simply to only Christians and their personal relationships with Christ but it extends to the entirety of created reality from sea to sea, from everywhere to everywhere.

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As Abraham Kuyper famously said, there is not a single square inch of the entire universe of which

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Christ the sovereign lord of all does not say this is mine. Next point, what does

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God say about the church? Matthew 6, 13 through 18.

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Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that the son of man is?

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And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

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He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the son of the living

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God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven.

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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.

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So quickly, I'm not going to get into the Greek here about Peter and the rock and the

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Catholic church and all that, but the point is that on this rock is a statement that Christ is the son of the living

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God. On that statement, Christ built his church. And we talked about this last week, right? The gates of hell will not prevail against it.

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We're going to talk about this more again in a little bit, but the point is that gates are defensive. They're not offensive, right?

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They're not trying to take, overcome somebody or overcome something else.

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So the gospel is what's offensive. And the gates of hell are defensive. They're trying to hold back the gospel.

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Ephesians 1, 15 through 23. So this was the passage at the beginning.

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I apologize. I forgot to put the reference in there, but I'll read it again. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the

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Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the

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God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of the

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Lord, to which he has called you. What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints? And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places?

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Verse 21 then. Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the age to come.

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So this is Christ, right? He's far above all rule, all authority, all power, all dominion, above every name that is named in that age and the age to come, the age that we are in now.

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Verse 22. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church.

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So this is God putting Christ, putting all things under Christ's feet and put him as head over the church, head over us.

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We, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

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And then a little further down in chapter 3 of Ephesians, 7 through 13, it says, of this gospel

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I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which is given me by the working of his power.

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To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.

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Do you remember last week we talked about being the salt and light, right? That's what we're talking about, bring darkness to light. Verse 10.

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So that through the church, that's us, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

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This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus, our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.

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So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.

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So you see here we have Christ has given us boldness, right? And confidence and this faith.

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And then further on in Ephesians 5 and Colossians 1, it's reiterated that Christ is the head of the church.

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The church is his body. Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Christ intends to present the church pure and spotless and Christ nourishes and cherishes the church and that the church submits to Christ.

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And then further on in Revelation, it refers to the church as Christ's bride. So lastly here and at this point,

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John 15, 16 says, You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the

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Father in my name, he may give it to you. So in accordance with the Great Commission then, we the church as Christ's bride are not only appointed to eternal life but also that we should go and bear fruit.

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And so this brings me then to my next point. How is the church multiplied? The simple answer, which should be obvious, is through the

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Great Commission. Through the mission we've been assigned by Christ himself. As I've mentioned, the

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Great Commission from Matthew 28, 18 through 22 is what? To go, make, and teach.

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But it starts with assuming all authority that Christ has conveyed to us both in heaven and on earth.

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So with all authority, we're to go into all the world and make disciples and baptize them and teach them all that God has commanded.

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I've also mentioned that many, if not most, modern day evangelical churches in our culture simply are outright failing this mission.

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Even if these churches are faithfully going, they're faithfully making, they are not consistently teaching.

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In other words, they may be making disciples but they are not discipling. If we're only going and we're only making but not also teaching, then we're not completing the mission.

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And if we're not completing our mission, then ultimately we are not loving God and we are not loving our neighbor.

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Only going and only making does not produce mature disciples, but instead births a lot of spiritual babies that have not been weaned from spiritual milk and graduated to spiritual meat.

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These immature infants in the faith are simply unable to make it in the God -hating culture on their own.

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True discipleship only occurs under the total lordship of Christ by teaching new believers all that God's word commands.

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This idea of submitting all of life to Christ's lordship, total lordship, is completely foreign to a lot of these churches.

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Discipleship is not simply relegated only to personal piety or to matters related to the church, but to all of life.

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Gordon Spikeman wrote, and it is our obligation to honor this claim, i .e. of Christ's total lordship and sovereignty, and to press it whenever and wherever possible.

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This calls for political discipleship, academic discipleship, and short for all sorts of cultural discipleships.

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This constitutes a truly staggering agenda. Truly staggering indeed.

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Unfortunately, he's absolutely correct. This concept is utterly startling to most modern evangelicals.

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We have fallen hook, line, and sinker for the myth of neutrality, that somehow we can live for Jesus in our own private bubbles while the world goes to hell.

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I have a quote here from Booth that I absolutely love. I'm going to read it twice for you because I like it so much. He said, the notion that the

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Christian's confrontation with systematic unbelief and culture should be responded to with systematic and comprehensive belief is simply foreign.

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Let me read that again. So there's this notion that Christians being confronted with systematic unbelief and culture should be responded to with systematic and comprehensive belief.

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It's simply foreign. Brothers and sisters, this is discipleship, and it must involve a systematic and comprehensive teaching of God's Word.

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Anything less than that is failing. Stagnant churches do not multiply, they die, and so we must do more than simply act as a

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Sunday social club. We cannot simply lead souls to Christ and then leave them defend for themselves.

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William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, said, people become Christians and we mummify them and sit them in a pew while the work of the kingdom of God is all around us.

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I love that quote. If we are going to grow the church organism, we must disciple

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Christ's bride, and if we are to disciple Christ's bride, we must subject all of life to all of God's Word.

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The fall left the world broken, and as I mentioned last week in part one, Colossians 1 teaches us that as the head of the body, as the head of his church, as the head of his bride,

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Christ is reconciling all things back to himself. Again, I said it, both in heaven and on earth, and as 2

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Corinthians 5 tells us, Christ has given us this ministry of reconciliation of all things, and so the only remedy for his broken world is a truly comprehensive

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Christian response that starts with the gospel, starts with the need for repentance, and ends with the teaching of all

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God has commanded, i .e. Christ's lordship over all of life.

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In part one, I also discussed the spheres of government, self, family, church, and civil.

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All four spheres must be permeated with the lordship of Christ, and if we view the church institution as the only distinctly

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Christian area of life, then we have failed. We cannot, as Boot says, simply adopt the world's way of doing politics, medicine, law, art, education, and much else besides in the name of common grace, with the saving grace of Christ perhaps sprinkled here and there as a condiment.

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The Lord Jesus Christ has universal jurisdiction over all things. I've heard

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Joe Boot say this a lot, too. This is another great quote. He says, you often hear Christian leaders saying, we just want a seat at the table to be able to contribute, right?

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Jesus doesn't want a seat at the table. He owns the table. He owns everything. My next point, then, is what does

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Christ want from the church? First point, Christ wants his bride to be bold.

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I'm going to discuss this a lot more next week and what to expect, but quickly, 2

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Timothy 1, 6 through 12 says, for this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

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For God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power, and love, and self -control.

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Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which has now been manifested through the appearing of our

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Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which

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I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do.

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But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.

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So God did not give us a spirit of fear. The Greek word there is cowardice or timidity.

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I think probably the NASB says or give us a spirit of timidity.

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So it's being a coward, right? God didn't give us the spirit, but he gave us a spirit of power, of love, and self -control.

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And here it says, do not be ashamed of our assigned mission, but fan the flame. The spirit of God has given us here in the passage, this power is the same power of God we are to depend on in suffering for the gospel.

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The Greek word there is dunamis. It's where we get the word dynamite. The book of Acts alone uses the word for boldness nine times, and it is always in reference to bold proclamation of the gospel in the public square.

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We must follow this example set by the apostles to live lives unashamed of Christ. So the next point then is always be prepared, always be ready.

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So apology is our ministry versus first Peter 315. It's where we derive our name from, but I'm going to start in verse 13.

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Now, who was there to harm you if you were zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed.

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Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts, honor Christ the

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Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense, to make an apologia.

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That's the word there, a reasoned defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

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Yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.

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For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.

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So here is Peter saying, have no fear, do not be troubled.

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Then verse 15, but in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy. So it goes back to total lordship of Christ, right?

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You have to start with honoring Christ in your heart as holy. Always be ready to give a defense to anyone, anytime someone asks you, why are you a

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Christian? Why do you love Jesus? Why do you act this way? Why are you giving me hot dogs on the beach, right? We have a reasoned defense for that.

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And then the next point then, as already discussed, we, as the church, must go forth everywhere and to all nations.

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And as I mentioned in part one, this means everywhere to everywhere. Not one square inch of existence should be safe from our bold gospel witness.

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This includes the Africa and it includes your next door neighbor. Our mission is not relegated to overseas missionary work.

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It extends in our own community, in our own cultures. We should be living lives of sacrificial missionary service to our own communities.

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Again, in our own cultures, neither the gospel nor Christ's lordship should be restricted to the church institution.

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It cannot go forth if it stays within, right? So that means the gospel and Christ's lordship doesn't just stay in this room.

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It doesn't stop when we walk through those doors. It should carry on with us. Again, I'm going to say it again. It cannot go forth if it stays within.

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Boot says most of today's evangelicals have imprisoned the body of Christ, the organic church, and indeed the kingdom of God within the walls of the church institute.

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It's offices and ministries. As a result, the gospel itself is redacted to one small element of its full and glorious scope.

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The next point then is do not retreat. As I mentioned earlier, the gates of hell will not prevail against the power of the gospel.

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But this indicates a gospel offensive attack. It is not a defensive front.

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Again, the gospel is going forth. It is overcoming, not being overcome. It is overtaking, not being overtaken.

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Throughout the history of the church, there has been the most growth when there has been the most gospel proclamation.

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The church institution was not designed nor intended to serve as a bunker. Neither is the church organism designed or intended to serve as a last line of defense.

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It is quite the contrary. The church institution is designed to serve as a war academy, preparing and equipping soldiers to go forth into war.

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And likewise, the church organism is intended to advance in war until the enemy is defeated.

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And again, if we look at the book of Acts, the early Christian church did anything but retreat.

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They were always active and never portrayed as comfortable. Boot here says it was not a church and retreat from the world, but an organic body determined to live out the life of the kingdom, teaching and discipling all nations in terms of everything

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Christ commanded. The next point then is the church were not to be overly pious.

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So one thing I've learned over the years is that many Christians do not understand what it means to be pious or what the noun form of piety is.

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So I'm going to examine this concept here. Dictionary .com defines piety as reverence for God or devout fulfillment of religious obligations.

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This sounds like a good thing, right? It is. We most definitely should have reverence for God.

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We should, without a doubt, strive to devoutly fulfill our religious obligations to our creator, our

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Lord, and our savior. This is precisely what this entire series is about, fulfilling this mission that Christ has entrusted us with.

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But this is also why I preface this by saying that we are not to be overly pious.

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To better understand what I mean, I want to look at the objective form of the word pious. I want to specifically discuss four of the five definitions on dictionary .com.

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The first one is having or showing a dutiful spirit of reverence for God or an earnest wish to fulfill religious obligations.

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This is very similar to the definition we just discussed. And again, it's still a good thing when reverence is appropriate.

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We should strive to be described this way. The next three, though, is where it becomes a problem.

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So the second one is characterized by a hypocritical concern with virtue or religious devotion sanctimonious.

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So this is where being overly pious becomes an issue. We should never ever be characterized as being hypocritical.

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The third one is practiced or use the name of real or pretended religious motives or for some ostensibly good object, falsely earnest or sincere.

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Again, this is also a problem. This is really simply just being fake. It's pretending to look sincerely religious on the outside and outwardly, but inwardly, we're just putting on a show.

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And then the last one here is it's of or relating to religious devotion, sacred rather than secular.

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If you remember from part one last week, this is where we talked about things becoming dualistic. And it's also not a good thing.

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So essentially, religious devotion only applies to the sacred, the church, and is not relevant to the secular.

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Again, this is modern day Gnosticism. I'm not going to get into this today. We talked about it last week. So we're all familiar with Christ's condemnation of the

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Pharisees in Matthew chapter 23. Quickly, I'm going to go quickly here, but it's verses 1 through 28.

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I'm going to kind of as we go through, I'm going to explain. So Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, the scribes and the

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Pharisees sit on Moses' seat. So do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do, for they preach, but do not practice.

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So again, this is where we're being hypocritical. They're talking the talk, but not walking the walk. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.

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So essentially, they're making their own man -made creative laws, right? And they're putting these burdens on people to follow, even though they're not

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God's law. They're not God's requirements. Let's see, verse 5. They do all their deeds to be seen by others, for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long.

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That's what we were talking about the other day. And they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplace and being called rabbi by others.

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Essentially, they like attention. They like to be seen. They like to be recognized as being something special.

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Verse 8. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers, and call no man your father on earth, for you have one

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Father who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ, the greatest among you shall be your servant.

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Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. So again, this is just we need to be humble.

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We need to serve one another. We need to have humility.

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Verse 13. But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. So this is where he really starts laying into him. So now he's calling them hypocrites.

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For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces, for you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.

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Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte.

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That's a disciple. And when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourself.

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So they're making false disciples. Verse 16. Woe to you, blind guides, who say, if anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.

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You blind fools, for which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred?

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And you say, if anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.

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You blind men, for which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred?

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So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it.

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And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

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And then verse 23. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

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Again, he's going right after him. For you tithe men and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness.

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These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.

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So again, what we have going on here is they're outwardly, they're looking good. They're tithing and people are seeing them pray and they look really religious and really great.

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But they're ignoring, as Christ says, the weightier matters of the law. They're ignoring justice. They're ignoring mercy and they're ignoring faithfulness because those are the things that are in their heart.

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And then verse 25. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self -indulgence.

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You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and the plate that the outside also may be clean.

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So the point here is, again, on the outside, they look great. They're clean. They're polished. They look religious.

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But inwardly, as we'll see here in a minute, they're like whitewashed tombs.

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Well, I'll just get to that. They're terrible on the inside. Their hearts are filthy. Their hearts are a hot mess, right? So verse 27.

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Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.

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So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

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So again, this just reiterates what I've been saying. So the Pharisees were the poster children of being overly pious.

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The piousness we're up against today in the church is of precisely the same nature.

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So these modern day Pharisees that we encounter today neglect the truth of God's law, but burden other

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Christians with their man -made laws of their own creation. They often appear very legalistic when it comes to their attire, the food they eat, what they drink, their view of culture.

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They appear very pious, very religious outwardly, but inwardly they are hypocritical and judgmental.

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Boot says this kind of pious sentimentality is commonplace in today's evangelicalism, where God's law is neither known nor regarded as important.

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The salvation of the individuals from hell is seen as the preeminent concern for the pietist, not the glory, not the justice, not the kingdom rule of God.

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From its inception, pietism was implicitly antinomian, which just means anti -law, seeing no place for God's lawward.

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So let us therefore be genuinely zealous for the mission set before us, but do so in a way that transparently loves

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God and loves our neighbor. So we're not being fake, we're not being outwardly religious.

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We're being real, we're being transparent, and we're legitimately loving God and loving our neighbor.

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So lastly then, I want to look at the churches in Revelation. So Christ gave admonition and encouragement to seven different churches in Revelation chapters two through three.

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So I want to quickly examine what Christ was pleased and displeased with, and therefore look to the model set before us.

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So in order, the churches are starting in chapter two, verse one through seven.

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The first one is Ephesus. So this is Christ through John to the church in Ephesus. To the angel of the church in Ephesus write the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven gold lampstands.

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I know your works, your toil, and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, that have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.

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I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary, but I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

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Remember therefore from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first.

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If not, I will come to and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. Yet this you have, you hate the works of the

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Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

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To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

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So what can we learn from the church in Ephesus? One, to produce good works and to toil.

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The second one is to have patient endurance. Do not bear with evildoers.

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Test false teachers. Bear all things for the sake of Christ. Do not grow weary.

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And do all of this in love. Second church is the church of Smyrna.

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This is chapter 2, 8 through 11. And to the angel of the church in Smyrna, write the words of the first and the last who died and came to life.

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I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich. And the slander of those who say that they are

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Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear for what you're about to suffer.

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Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested. And for 10 days you will have tribulation.

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Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the

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Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death. So what can we learn from Smyrna then?

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Endure slander and tribulation. Do not fear. Be faithful unto death.

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The church, third church, is Pergamum. This is chapter 2, verses 12 through 17. And to the angel of the church in Pergamum, write the words of him who has the sharp two -edged sword.

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I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.

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But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught

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Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they may eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.

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So also, you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Therefore, repent.

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If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the

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Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone with a new name written on that stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.

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So quickly, what can we learn from Pergamum? To hold fast to the name of Christ. Do not deny the faith.

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Again, do not tolerate false teachers. I found a really great quote from Spurgeon. He said, an unwatchful church will soon become an unholy church.

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So do not allow any sort of false teaching, any heresy, anything contrary to scripture to even gain a foothold in your church.

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And then lastly, it's to repent of sins when necessary. The next church, the fourth one is

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Thyatira. This is Revelation 2, 18 through 29. And to the angel of the church in Thyatira, write the words of the

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Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your works, your love and your faith and service and patient endurance and that your latter works exceed the first.

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But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrifice to idols.

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I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed and those who commit adultery with her

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I will throw into a great tribulation unless they repent of their works. And I will strike her children dead and all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart and I will give to each of you according to your works.

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But to the rest of you in Thyatira who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you

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I say I do not lay on you any other burden, only hold fast what you have until I come.

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The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron as when earth and pots are broken in pieces even as I myself have received authority from my father and I will give you or I will give him the morning star.

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He who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. So what can we learn from Thyatira then?

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To produce good works in love and faith, to serve one another with patient endurance, and then lastly do not tolerate sexual immorality just like the false teachers.

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This should be something we should not even tolerate if there's any even a hint of sexual immorality needs to be put to death immediately.

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So the fifth church is Sardis. This is now chapter three verses one through six. And to the angel of the church in Sardis write the words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.

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I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive but you are dead. Wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to die for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my

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God. Remember then what you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If you will not wake up I will come like a thief and you will not know at what hour

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I will come against you. Yet you have still a few names in Sardis. People who have not spoiled their garments and they will walk with me in white for they are worthy.

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The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments and I will never blot his name out of the book of life.

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I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. He who has an ear let him hear what the church says.

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So here this church of Sardis is one. They are barely hanging on.

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They are almost dead. Nobody in this church is really even truly a Christian. So what can we learn from them?

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Christ says to produce good works. So don't just have a reputation for being alive. This goes back to the piety discussion.

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They looked alive. They looked like they were producing good works but inwardly they were like the whitewashed tombs full of dead man's bones.

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So don't just talk the talk but walk the walk. Be strong. Remember the truth that we have received and keep it and again repent when necessary.

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The sixth church then is Philadelphia. This is chapter 3, 7 -13.

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And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write the words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.

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I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut.

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I know that you have but little power and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

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Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not but lie. Behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet and they will learn that I have loved you because you have kept my word about with patient endurance.

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I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth.

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I'm coming soon. Hold fast what you have so that no one may seize your crown.

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The one who conquers I will make him a pillar in the temple of God. Never shall he go out of it and I will write on him the name of my

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God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which comes down from my God out of heaven and my own new name.

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He who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says of the churches. So three things we can learn from Philadelphia.

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Produce good works, keep God's word with patient endurance, and again hold fast.

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And then lastly, this is probably the most famous one that everybody knows about, Laodicea, right?

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This is chapter 3, 14 through 22. And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write the words of the amen, the faithful and the true witness, the beginning of God's creation.

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I know your works. You are neither hot nor cold. Would that you were either cold or hot.

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So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say

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I am rich, I have prospered and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

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I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

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Those whom I love I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

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If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me.

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The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne.

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He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. So again, what can we learn from Laodicea?

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Simply produce good works. Do not be lukewarm. Realize our wretchedness before God.

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Be zealous and repent. So the church here in Laodicea, again, it's similar to the Pharisees we talked about, similar to this overly pious group.

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They look good, right? But they're neither hot nor cold. They're just kind of hanging out. They come to church on Sunday.

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It's the social club mentality where they're just hanging out. They're not really doing anything. It's not like they're even terrible either.

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They're just kind of neutral. That's a myth. Remember the myth of neutrality. It's not a real thing.

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So God says he will literally vomit them out of his mouth. So in conclusion, as Christians, we are all part of Christ's bride, whether visible or invisible.

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We all make up the living, breathing, fighting militant church organism.

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And we should be connected with and accountable to a local church institution. So we are called and we're commanded to boldly and courageously, with all authority in heaven and on earth, go forth into all the world and make disciples of all nations, teaching all that Christ has commanded.

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As ambassadors of the ministry of reconciliation, actively reconciling all things back to God.

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Anything less than putting all things under the subjection, under the lordship of Christ is a failure of the church's mission.

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Next week in part three, I mentioned we're going to discuss what to expect as we engage the culture with this mission.

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So last thing I'm going to leave you with a quote from Spurgeon. He said, stagnation in a church is the devil's delight.

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I'm going to read that one more time. Stagnation in the church is the devil's delight. Let's pray.

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Lord, I'm just so again, thankful for this opportunity to be here. Lord, we thank you for saving us.

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We thank you for your church. We thank you for Christ, Lord. I just ask that we would just leave from here,

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Lord, and bring this ministry of reconciliation with us or not leave it within the four walls of this building.

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And Lord, that we would seek to actively, boldly, and courageously put all things under the subjection of Christ for you,

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Lord. And I'm thankful for this church. I'm thankful for my brothers and sisters here, Lord. I love them so much.

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And we just ask that you'd be glorified in Christ's name we pray. Amen. All right.

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We're going to go ahead and take communion then. Like last week, if you weren't here,

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I have something I wrote to tie in communion with the message.

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So, oh, come let us partake of this meal together as Christ's bride.

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His body of called out ambassadors. The wine represents his blood shed for our sins.

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The bread represents his flesh broken to bring us life eternal. His life for ours.

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His sacrifice brought us reconciliation that we may go forth and reconcile all things back to him.

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He courageously and sacrificially offered himself for those whom he loves.

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We are his beloved and he is ours. May this serve as a reminder of the one we serve.

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May this prepare and equip us to face the world and the culture as we leave this building. May Christ be glorified by all we do, say, think, and feel.

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May Christ's lordship permeate and saturate every pore and every cell of our being.

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If you are new, this table is for all baptized believers in Christ but is not limited to the members of Apologia.

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Part of reconciling all things is being reconciled to your brothers and sisters. If there is anyone or someone in this room you need to repent to, please do so now.

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Please take a few moments to prepare your hearts before God before taking communion.

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Oh, come let us remember. Lord, I'm just again also thankful for this opportunity to come before your throne,

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Lord, to come to the table. We're thankful for Christ, for his blood and his flesh that was sacrificed for our sins.

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Lord, we thank you for reconciliation. We thank you for reconciling us to you. And I just ask,

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Lord, that you would allow this table to be a reminder to us throughout this next week,

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Lord, until we meet again, that Christ is our Lord and Savior.

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And I ask that you give us boldness and strength and courage to go forth to reconcile all things back to Christ, Lord.