Lesson # 9 The Church: Fellowship & Worship (Fundamentals of the Faith by John MacArthur)

This is lesson number nine on the church Fellowship and worship.

So how many of you have heard someone say I don't like Organized religion or I don't want anything to do with organized religion.

I always Wonder to myself did they want, you know disorganized religion or what?

What are they saying? I think what they're saying is they don't want anything to do with the church so We're gonna look at this lesson the church fellowship and worship

Hebrews 10 24 and 25 says and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds

Not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some

But encouraging one another in all the more as you see the day

Approaching for the day dawning near so assembling together is something

Christians have been doing since Day one and what I what I mean by day one is the day that Jesus was resurrected from the dead the disciples assembled together

Christ appeared to them and then the next Sunday the first day of the week.

They assembled together again and Christ appeared to them again and Christians have been gathering on the first day of the week

Ever since and obviously we gather on Sunday morning because Sunday morning is when

Jesus rose So in this book John MacArthur begins by talking about the

Universal Church that's number one and then the local church is Number two, but really it's all about the church

The church the church the church We live in a day and age where the church like I said with that statement

I'm I'm spiritual, but I'm not religious or I have no use. I'm not interested in organized religion

And that's just sort of the time that we're living in where people they they say they want

Christ But they don't want his body now how that makes sense. I don't know How can you have

Christ but you want nothing to do with his body here on the earth Larry?

You have a an idea of what that is. Okay This is organized it is yep

It's organized because we well, we'll get we'll get into it. He'll he'll explain this.

So number one the universal Church John MacArthur says the church is not a physical building

But a group of believers not a denomination sect or association but a spiritual body the church is not an

Organization but a communion. He's not saying it's not organized because there it is organized

We'll see that in a moment, but it's not a it's not like a club, right? It's not something that you just join it's not gonna not an organization, but a communion a fellowship that includes

Believers, so it starts out with Colossians chapter 1 verse 18 along with Ephesians 5 23

What is Christ's position in the church? So you want to talk about? organization every body every

Communion every organization has a head, right? Every company has a head every home

Supposed to have a head So who is the head of the church? Christ what is

Christ's position in the church? He is the head of the body the church and How is the church described?

Just said it His body. So again if somebody says well,

I love Christ but I Dislike his body or I want

Christ, but I don't want anything to do with his body You know, maybe they've never been taught properly

But but there's some some sort of disconnect and I get it people have been Hurt in churches.

Some people have been in bad churches and I get why some people feel that way But you know, not all churches are are bad

Matter of fact the church we're talking about the Universal Church The church is good, right?

The church is holy The church is the body of Christ at what this is be at what cost did

Christ? Purchase the church acts 20 verse 28 What was the cost he he bought the church with his his own blood?

Actually, I think acts 2028 talks about God Purchasing the church with his own blood if I'm not mistaken.

So And of course Jesus is God in in the flesh So that tells you how much

Jesus loves the church that he is willing to shed his blood for the assembly

So therefore if we are to have that same mind that Christ had How should we view the church?

Same way You should be willing to You know, you ought to be willing to put your life ahead of Other people there's been martyrs throughout history that have shed their blood defending the body of Christ if somebody put a gun to my head and said

Mike either renounce Christ or I'm gonna pull the trigger. I'd like to think that I would say hey do it do what you got to do

But I'm not renouncing Christ But when we turn our the point is when we turn our back on the body of Christ It's the same thing as turning your back on Christ himself

Because Christ is not present here on the earth except in his body, but this is talking about the

Universal Church every true believer from Every fellowship all over the world.

How does a person become a member of the body of Christ? Colossians 3 15 we are what?

Okay, we are called into the body first Corinthians 12 13. We are then

Baptized into the body now, how is the person called into the church? There's somebody pick up the phone and give him a call and say hey come come on into the church is that what happens

Marcus Right So the way it looks the way it appears on the surface is people hear the preaching of the word people hear the gospel

That's the gospel call that goes out But they come because they're being called or drawn by the

Holy Spirit So everything happens with the Word of God and the Spirit of God people are called

Into the body of Christ and then the visible symbol is baptism, but that just Represents the spiritual reality that God has already

Done a work in their heart. So this is the Universal Church. Does everybody have an understanding of what the

Universal Church is? Okay, so Morris Corner Church is not the

Universal Church We are a local church. The Universal Church is again that the one body of believers baptized believers from all over the world from The first century up until this point every believer

Who had the Holy Spirit is part of the universal body of Christ? But this is a local church and that's what we're going to get into next.

Yes If you'd like to get a better sense of that then come to the

Moldovan Church tonight Is it six o 'clock six o 'clock?

Yes Yeah Yeah, and you're saying that because you'll get a sense.

Yeah of other churches for one thing rather than just this church

And you'll get a sense of other parts of the world yep, and And I do believe that the

Lord is doing something special there on Sunday nights And if you enjoy

Being in a place where the Lord is doing things Yeah, good, yeah and whatever five different churches are

Represented, you know people from several different churches coming That's that's that's great because we're all part of we're not all part of the same

Local church, but we are all part of the same church as in the universal body of Christ Okay, so we're set on the universal church and what that means.

Yes Okay number two the local church This is a little easier to understand the

New Testament describes how believers came together in small groups to worship Christ receive instruction from the scriptures meet one another's needs pray and evangelize a the local church illustrated

Where did the believers meet before they had church buildings? Romans 16 5 1st

Corinthians 16 19 where did believers meet? in homes

Now that why did believers meet in homes? Why didn't they just go and purchase a building?

Okay, that's our church building We're all gonna assemble there Why didn't they do that? There's a real reason why they didn't do that Yeah, I mean it would have been illegal

The Jews wouldn't have allowed that the Sanhedrin the Romans And if everybody had a lot of enemies and if they knew where that that church was, you know

Somebody would have just tore it down It would they would have been an easy mark. So in the early church, they had to meet in homes

Yeah for for reasons of secrecy and persecution Right Right in many areas of the world

Yes, people still Christians still meet in homes now when people are meeting in homes in Western Mass I have to be a little skeptical about that.

I'm not saying there's never a situation but It's been my experience that when people meet in homes when you have the ability to be out in the open

Sometimes that's where you get into that. We don't like the organized religion thing we don't like authority and we want to just have our group at home around the coffee table talking and Again not to say it can't

Can't happen or that there's ever a situation but it here's the thing as soon as believers were able to have a church building they did and There's real reasons why you would would want that but in some places this is still necessary All right on what day of the week did they meet

Acts chapter 20 verse 7 They met The first day of the week now, why not have a church service on Saturday night that way you can sleep in on Sunday right

Why not have a church service on? Tuesday night, I mean why not why not?

Because traditions are an interest. Yeah. Well, I've that's one answer

Right Yeah In theory there could be again like overseas where there's persecution

Maybe you would have to have your church in a home. There might be scenarios where that's necessary Maybe there are situate.

I wouldn't say it's a sin to meet on a Tuesday night or a Saturday night there might be times where you have to or that's the only thing that works in a certain context, but Again tradition.

Sometimes we think the word tradition is oh, that's bad. You know, the Pharisees were into traditions Jesus taught the

Word of God. Well, actually the Bible speaks about tradition negatively and positively so there's nothing wrong with traditions

This is a good tradition. Why because it's honoring of Christ in his resurrection

We're just simply following the pattern of Christ's Apostles. Therefore. I believe it's a good tradition

All right list four things to which the early church was devoted Acts chapter 2 verse 42

What are they teaching Fellowship the breaking of bread and Prayer, so this is maybe the bare necessities of what you need for a church service

The church should be teaching. This is what's happening right now, right? I'm teaching

You and there's with ladies teaching the children So we get the teaching part fellowship, right we talk to each other beforehand we talk to each other in between and and after we make friends and connections and we keep in touch during the week and we have

Bible studies and Discipleship groups and all sorts of different things to have that fellowship, right?

We need fellowship breaking of bread What's the breaking of bread? Yeah, it's probably a reference to communion, of course, we do have a fellowship meal, but we do observe the

Lord's Supper and then our prayer obvious Christians get together and we we pray you noticed anything missing on this list

Yeah, okay giving there are a few examples where Paul and first Corinthians 16 verse 2

I think he talked about gathering together on the first day of the week to set something aside to give

I was thinking of music And you know me I listen I would not want a church service without music

So I don't want you to misunderstand what I'm saying But from what I gather a lot of church service

Services today that the main event is the music like it's basically a concert followed by a motivational speech

So the music has sort of taken over and maybe the megachurch movement where yeah, it's a concert

It's I just find it interesting that that's the one thing not mentioned But you know make of that what you will but I love the music

Yes, Larry Because well the hymns are

Just filled with doctrine of which we are taught from the word and a lot of times you know,

I'll think of a song and And there's something in that song that just you know puts in my

Just lifts me up because the truth from God's Word that is written in the lyrics right and and then the

The music as well and then you know For me it creates fellowship because I'll talk to somebody about it.

You know, yeah, it's just encouraging, right? Good Lenny Right most people find it easier to memorize things when they hear it set to music

Like their song lyrics that you just know and That that's helpful music is very important It helps it's part yet It can be part of the teaching because the hymns are all music does teach you something

This is why you know as I've grown in Christ Listening to secular music, you know,

I used to like it and I still like The way it sounds in some way but the lyrics man.

I just can't it burdens my You know the feeling it's like it's teaching you to go out and Fornicate and sin and do all sorts of evil.

That's that's secular music No, I'm not making too many friends this morning with that comment probably but I'm just talking about me.

I find it harder to listen to but anyways moving on Marcus Music has a lot to do with several of the things that we've said already communion being one one of the things

About this is the Lord wants us, you know Because we are his body and he is a head that means he's doing the thinking but we're supposed to be doing the doing and when we sing

We are in essence We are in communion with each other when we think of communion

We think of our closeness with the Lord our relationship with him in prayer and and worship

But music we're all singing the same words Yeah, and the words are

Coming out in something more beautiful than our spoken words

So it's communion and fellowship and it's it's an exercise in unity

Yeah, it's just a strong strong teaching of the whole the whole church the

Lord wants us to function as a unit as a wreck and as an efficient unit and this is why that person that said oh,

I love Jesus and me and him well He's not he's not all members of the body

He might be a hand here or he might be a foot or he might be something but to be a body

Yeah Who listened to the The sermon because you're supposed to memorize the verse and listen to the sermon

Okay, I won't ask for a raise of the hands, but if you listen to the sermon You heard John MacArthur talk about the people they say why

I love that person But I love them in Christ and that's like a way of saying

I don't really love them But I have to so I love them in Christ is

That something that happens. Yeah, so I know I have to love this person I I'm supposed to have fellowship with this person, but I really can't stand that but so I love them in Christ I love them in the

Lord and he was making the point that no, you just need to love them So, I'm not sure what that has to do with what

I was talking about, but I remembered it so I see a hand Well, I guess I was just gonna add or maybe ask the question is how that relates to Love the person not the deed.

So how does that relate? Well, I'm not I don't know. I'm not really sure Yeah, love

Love the sinner hate the sin type of a thing The problem

Right Right Yeah, the problem the problem with that is it's the person committing the sin and it's kind of hard to separate the two sometimes but when when we talk about love

Love has a definition in Scripture and it's tied to the commandments and how we are to treat one another

So if you really have someone's best in mind and you really want what's best for them

That means that there's going to be some behavior you find objectionable or you're not going to Tolerate or affirm certain things.

You're not going to affirm the sin, but you want what's best for them so maybe that's what they were saying, but Marcus Because Christ in dwells us.

Yeah, we have our own Individual souls and our own individual identities and so forth, but we also have

Christ Inside us and of course We want so much for him to have a greater heart and what the rest of us do

But God will give you a love for an unlovely person I have one and I have one specific one in mind right now, you know, yeah

Yeah, and he's not lovely. Mm -hmm Yeah Yeah Yeah, but this is why we need the church we can't just sit

Home on the couch and expect God to kind of zap us to where we know and we'll do the right thing

We're always learning and we learn from the teaching of God's Word. We learn from the hymns.

We learn from one another So even our behavior, I don't have it all figured out

I can learn from other people So there's some real challenges and how to apply some of these things.

That's why we need each other That's why we need a group because you're you by yourself with Jesus, whatever that means

That's not the way God intended It to be so we need to learn

Learn from each other. Have you learned something from other people in this? fellowship

Okay, so these were the four things that the early church was devoted to the teaching fellowship breaking of bread and prayer

Next it talks about the local church organized Okay. So how is the local church organized number one with gifted?

men according to Ephesians 4 11 and 12 God gave four types of gifted men to the church

List them. Who are they? Apostles prophets evangelists and pastors and teachers

God gave these gifted men to the church to equip the Saints for what purpose verse 12 equipping of the

Saints for the work of service or ministry to the building up of the body of Christ So God gave four types of gifted men

Do we yes Marcus Yeah Spiritual gifts would say the

Apostles there are no more fossils There are no more prophets and yet we have within Christianity I believe

I would like to think true Christianity. We have those who claim That we have the fossils and profits now.

Yeah Could you speaks? Scripturally about the cessation.

I know it says that there is one that says there it gives them They will cease but yeah

Okay, let me approach it this way Because we want unity He's gonna go on to talk about the importance of unity so can we all

Agree that within the church today there are evangelists. Yes Okay, I think every believer can agree there are evangelists.

There are those who preach the gospel. That's what an evangelist is There are pastors and teachers

Again, if you do if you want the disorganized religion, you don't want a church organization Then you're not gonna have any use for pastors and teachers, but I you know, these people are on the you know, the fringe at best so we all agree every

Believer and a local church is gonna agree. We have evangelists We have pastors and teachers right and I think even the non cessationist would agree that we have pastors and teachers.

So we agree All together with this, right? Okay Now we get to apostles and prophets and you made the statement

I know what you mean, but you said we believe we don't have apostles and prophets today.

I Believe we do have unity and that yes, we do have apostles today Their names are

Peter James John Paul, these are the apostles of the church that everybody disagree.

All right, everybody agrees and we have prophets Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel so the church has

Prophets and apostles that we all agree on. There you go We have unity now if you're gonna tell me that I need to accept

Benny Hinn as a prophet Then we're gonna run into some disunity or that Bill Johnson and read in California is an apostle or something like that The church doesn't recognize that those men are not recognized by Probably the majority of professing

Christians on earth. So hey, let's let's have unity Let's stick with Peter James and John and not

Benny Hinn Kenneth Copeland and whoever else is claiming to be prophets and a man. Can we agree on that?

Well, okay Yes Marcus Okay deal

And Yeah, Barnabas is called an apostle

I think there's a couple others They were from what I understand. They were apostles

You've heard me describe it an apostle with a lowercase a like Paul is a capital a apostle

Barnabas would be a lowercase a apostle But really Barnabas and those men were apostles of the church.

They were sent by the church They were not ordained as Apostles by Christ So in that sense, there are men today who are sent.

That's what apostle means one who is sent a missionary in that sense

Or someone who is sent by the church can be rightly called an apostle. We just don't use that term because it confuses people

But as far as apostle as in an apostle of Jesus Christ We know who the twelve were and Paul but the others are not

Apostles of Jesus, they're Apostles of the church They were sent by the church. That's how I would answer that Okay All right.

So We have the gifted men the Apostles prophets evangelists pastors and teachers number two the local church organized we have elders slash overseers overseer would be the word for Bishop says the qualifications of an elder or Overseer are stated in 1st

Timothy 3 1 through 7 and Titus 1 6 through 9

What are the two major? responsibilities of an elder according to 1st

Peter 5 1 and 2 Elders are to Shepherd the flock

That's number one number two they are to exercise oversight

What is the responsibility of believers to the elders Hebrews 13 verse 17?

Obey your leaders and submit to them why See, this is why people don't like organized religion.

I'm not gonna submit to anybody, you know, I'm just I'm gonna do my thing Of course the scripture says we are to all submit to one another right but Obey your elders submit to them why for they keep watch over your souls and those

Who will give an account or as those who will give an account let them do this with joy and not with grief

For this would be unprofitable to you now

Who who am I to disagree with John MacArthur? But in this church, we don't have elders we have pastors

Technically the word is bishop So I don't want to like get too technical here, but we recognize two offices in a local church

Bishop and deacon or pastor and deacon sometimes those words elder pastor

Bishop overseer they're all used synonymously, but I don't personally believe that elder is an office

In the New Testament Church, but if other churches, that's how they have it. It's not something we're gonna fight about Any questions on that Okay Does that mean you agree or you're just not sure

Okay Yeah the the office if you look at first Timothy 3 the office is bishop and deacon in Titus Paul told

Titus to appoint elders and What is the word elder mean it means a man who's older So I believe that he appointed men in the church.

Remember the church was newly founded. There was no structure There was really no leadership so he appointed older men who are mature and They were to set things in in order.

But anyways, that's a that's a side trail but deacons What are deacons the word deacon means?

Servant the deacons are to minister to the needs of the flock under the direction of the elders of the church or the pastors

Or the qualifications of deacons are stated in first Timothy 3 8 through 13

Let's turn their first Timothy 3 8 through 13 First Timothy 3

So you see there's Again, these terms are used synonymously So elder and pastor typically most

Christians would see that those terms are interchangeable and that's fine So you have the elders and then they're in charge of shepherding the flock and then the deacons

First Timothy 3 8 through 13 Says likewise the deacons must be reverent

Not double -tongued not given too much wine not greedy for money holding the mystery of the faith with the pure conscience

Let these also first be tested then let them serve as deacons being found blameless likewise their wives

Must be reverent not slanderers temperate faithful in all things and let the deacons be the husband of one wife

Ruling their children and their own houses well For those who have served well as deacons obtained for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith

Which is in Christ Jesus if you remember when the first deacons were ordained in Acts chapter 6 the

Apostles were the shepherds in the early church and They had this issue of Distributing the food and it turned into this big fiasco and they just didn't have time for it

So they appointed the deacons to take care of of those tasks why that would give the

Apostles all the time they needed for the ministry of the word and then the deacons would take care of of the other things but since I read the qualifications for a deacon, let's go back and read the qualifications for a

Bishop or a pastor is what the term we use today first Timothy 3 starting in verse 1

This is a faithful saying if a man desires the position of a what? Bishop he desires a good work

I kind of wish in our church constitution the the office said bishop instead of pastor be more it would be more biblically accurate, but you remember

Many of you who remember our last pastor pastor Riddle, what did he? Call him he'd refer to himself or people would call him what?

Yeah, the bishop was one of the one of the things the mayor of Morse Corner, but that that's not a religious title

But the first qualification the first thing you need is the desire like if you don't want to do it if you don't have the desire then a

Bishop must be blameless the husband of one wife temperate sober -minded of good behavior hospitable able to teach

I would recognize this would be the the main difference between a pastor and a deacon

The pastor has to be apt to teach like deacons are not necessarily required to teach

But if someone's going to be a pastor or an elder They have to be able to teach or preach otherwise

They're not meeting that qualification Not given to wine not violent not greedy for money.

I mean if your pastor is Violent and he's greedy like this is this is not gonna work out.

Well, but gentle not quarrelsome Not covetous one who rules his own house

Well having his children and submission with all reverence for if a man does not know how to rule his own house

How will he take care of the Church of God? Like if somebody says hey this you know

John Smith, he's the pastor. You know that guy's the pastor. Do you know what his kids are out doing?

You know, they just got he's letting them run wild. It's sort of like Samuel the Prophet right? This was Samuel's Samuel's problem.

He let his kids just kind of run wild and never did anything about it. Not a novice

So you can't just be a recent convert Hey, I came to Christ three months ago.

Now. I'm the pastor. That's not the way it works less being puffed up with pride He fall into the same condemnation of the devil.

Anyways, I'm getting off track. So let's get back Into the study here. So deacons

We're deacon means servant. The deacons are to minister to the flock Under the direction of the elders of the church the qualifications of deacons stated the first Timothy 3 8 through 13

Number four members of the body. What does Hebrews 10 25 warn believers not to neglect?

We already read this Yeah, the forsaking of the assembly and then it already was brought up Marcus with the spiritual gifts

We're gonna talk about the spiritual gifts soon if you can get every believer in a local church and get every

Believer serving in some capacity man. We would win the world to Christ probably by the end of the year

So we need organization in Hebrews 13 verse 7

Instructs us concerning those who teach us God's Word. What should be our response?

So did you select the correct answer? We should observe their godly lives and follow their example of faith

Is that the one the third one? Is that what you chose? Okay good any questions so far We kind of took a rabbit trail there reading the quality

You know, it's in line with what we're talking about. But any questions at all comments from what you've heard?

This is gonna be a two or three parter I think and that's okay. We're not we're not in a rush right

Larry Amen. All right So this is see

How should we act toward other members of the body first Corinthians 12 verse 25

There be there may be no division in the body But that the members may have the same care for one another

Okay Another translation says that there may be no schism in the body so schism and division

Another term for this is the word heresy some of you have heard the word Heresy and some people they know it's bad.

They're not really sure what it means Heresy is something that creates a schism So if somebody preaches heresy in a church

That teaching is going to do what? It's gonna divide the church and then you're gonna have one side angry at the other side and that's where you get church splits

You know why there's so many denominations Because of false doctrine people preach things

Might not reach the level of heresy denying the person work of Christ But they teach things that are divisive and then it causes the church to divide so Division schism this is heresy oftentimes though when churches divide or when there's division in a church

It's not usually because of what's being preached Usually it's because of what Yeah, it's it's it's people just not getting along over ridiculous things or maybe it is something serious that'll happen

But then they don't agree on how to handle it. That's one of the old jokes that yeah church will split not over Doctrine a church will split over the color of the drapes or you know, they can't get together and vote

Over what the the carpet color should be and people laugh, but I mean that's a saying because it actually happened

Yeah, so But the way we treat each other if if somebody comes into a church and they're just rude and they're rude to people and they say

You know snide comments to this person and then to that person and then it becomes kind of grows into this bigger

Problem where they walk into the room. It's like oh man That kind of thing just my experience of nine years pastoring that is probably the most

The most common thing that's going to cause division in the church. Thankfully at the moment. We don't have that problem.

Amen. I Don't think As far as I'm aware, we don't all right.

How should those who are appointed to preach and teach? supported how should

Those who are appointed to preach and teach be supported 1st Corinthians 914 Says the

Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel

Galatians 6 6 the one who has taught the word is to share all good things

With the one who teaches him. So does somebody want to kind of put this in the vernacular?

What is the saying? Yes, Marcus Well, that's yeah, that's still a little too cryptic for some people

Yeah It's saying that the minister full -time people who are in full -time ministry or maybe if they're in part -time ministry

The point is the ministers in the church should be Compensated it should be paid.

This is you don't necessarily think of it as a profession or as a job But I mean it is it's it's what you do for the majority of your waking hours

Now there are some churches who don't pay their pastors one

Well -known church that doesn't pay their pastors is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day

Saints Also known as the Mormons. They do not believe in paying ministers

There are some other sects that don't pay ministers and if the minister gets paid, you know what they call them

They call them a hireling And If there are and I have to admit there are some churches where the pastor is treated like an employee

Like he's not the one leading He's just there to do a job and they pay him and he really doesn't have any say or sway or authority and that's really not the way

God intended it so since I brought it up, what is a hireling a

Hireling is someone who's there just for the money. They don't give a rip about the sheep So if the church divides, hey, whatever

I'll just go somewhere else and get another another gig and there are people who do that They'll hop from one place to another to another and they really don't care about the she so that would be a hireling it really has nothing to do whether you get paid or not because the scriptural command is that They are

Supported that that's how we would say it like a missionary Someone goes to India to be a missionary to India He's not going to be able to do

God's work if he has to work a secular job Monday through Saturday, right? So it's it's necessary that people that's their

Profession for a lack of a better term any comments or questions on that? Yes Marcus That do have secular jobs because their congregations are so small

I guess they can't really afford yet a full -time Pastor, but they still call it that this is why

I think What really needs to happen or should be sought after in a viable church is it would take 10?

You know families or people that time at least

So that you know one 10th of their time, but that would just support their pastor would be a building right, right, right

Well, just like meeting in a house I'm not against house churches sometimes that might be necessary Sometimes it might be necessary for a pastor pastor to work a secular job

Paul worked a secular job in a sense for a time He was a tent maker and he did the work of ministry.

So some of these things are not the ideal, but if they're necessary then so be it but we're just going through what the scripture says about the local church and We'll we'll get into it more next week.