The Church (Part II)

Well, thank you for joining us today as we continue our study through the Grace Fellowship Church Statement of Faith.

Today we'll be looking at the Doctrine of the Church, Part 2. This will be

Part 2 of 3 in our study of ecclesiology. You'll remember from last time that we, in Part 1, we looked at the study of the

Church and considered the purpose of the Church and the nature of the Church. This week we're going to transition and look at the activities of the

Church and the essential nature of the Church in the believer's life.

Because it's been a little bit, we'll just do a quick review on Part 1. So you'll remember that when we looked at Part 1, we considered the nature of the

Church. What is the Church? We learned that the Church is God's ecclesia.

Ec meaning out of, kleo meaning to be called, and so the

Church are God's called -out ones. God's called -out people who have been called out of the world by God specifically to assemble.

The Church is the assembly of God's called -out people. And we looked at the transliteration, the origins of the word

Church and the transliteration from the Greek, the Greek word kouriaké, which has been translated to mean

Church, and the Greek word kouriaké means that which belongs to the

Lord. And so the nature of the Church is this, the Church is God's called -out ones, called out of the world to assemble for His purposes and the

Church belongs to Him. You'll remember too that we looked at metaphors for the

Church, that the Church is Christ's body. The Church is made up of many members and yet is united.

The Church is one and exists to carry out God's will in the world. We looked at the

Church as Christ's bride. She is beloved, beloved of Christ, Christ gave

Himself up for her. He bled and He died and He purchased her with His own blood.

We looked at the Church as the temple of God, as the house of God. We looked at agricultural metaphors, that the

Church is God's flock, God's field. In architectural terms, the

Church is the pillar and buttress of the truth. The Church exists to hold up and to defend the truth of God, to defend the word of God.

And as I mentioned this week, we're now going to turn our attention to the activities of the Church and the essential role of the

Church in the believer's life. So let's take a look at our Statement of Faith. The second part of our

Statement on the Church reads like this. God has called the Church to a ministry of worship, discipleship, evangelism and Christ -exalting service.

We affirm the priesthood of all believers and the necessity of every Christian being joined with and actively involved in a local church where they will find fellowship, mutual upbuilding and accountability.

So as we've done over the last number of weeks, what we will do is isolate some of the various sections of this passage or this text, excuse me, from our statement and then unpack them together.

So we'll look at the first sentence first. The first sentence reads like this. God has called the Church to a ministry of worship, discipleship, evangelism and Christ -exalting service.

And we're going to park ourselves here really for the lion's share of our time. These are the activities of the

Church local and the Church universal. In the day -to -day life of the Church, in the functional life of the

Church, this is what the Church is to give itself to. To the ministry of worship, to the ministry of discipleship, to the ministry of evangelism and to the ministry of service and specifically

Christ -exalting service. And if we look very carefully, we can actually see that these different activities can be categorized quite neatly into three different domains.

So the first domain is ministry to God, that is a ministry of worship. The second domain is ministry to believers, namely the ministry of discipleship or as some theologians call it, the ministry of nurture.

And then thirdly, ministry to the world. And so ministering to the world through evangelism and through service, sacrificial loving service to our neighbors.

So let's focus first on the Church's ministry to God. The ministry of worship.

In our state, we affirm that the Church has been called primarily to a ministry of worship and this is such an important truth for us to grasp.

Before the Church gives herself to the work of evangelism, as important as that is.

Before the Church gives herself to the ministry of discipleship, as important as that is.

Before the Church gives herself to any other activity under the sun, the

Church must be a people who are individually and corporately given to the worship of God.

We must be a people whose mouths and actions honor God and whose hearts are near to Him.

This after all is why all of creation exists. That every animate being and every inanimate object might demonstrate and declare the praises of God.

We'll look at this in Scripture. Romans chapter 11. In Romans chapter 11 and verse 36,

Paul tells us, For from Him, so that is from God, and through Him and to Him are all things.

So everything is from God. Everything exists through Him. He upholds all things by the word of His power and everything exists ultimately to Him.

Everything exists for Him. Everything is to be returned to Him in praise and glory.

This doxology ends with, To Him be glory forever.

Amen. And I would say, Amen. That is why God made us.

That is why God made the Church. That is why God has called the people out of the world to assemble.

That we might come together corporately to fulfill the very purpose for which we have been made, namely to proclaim

His excellencies. In the words of the psalmist in Psalm 149 and verse 1.

Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song, His praise, in the assembly of the godly.

And I want us to note that word assembly. In the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the

Old Testament, that word that is used for assembly is ecclesia. Sing to the

Lord a new song, His praise, in the assembly, in the ecclesia, in the church of the godly.

The church was made to worship. Now it begs the question, What is worship?

And I'm going to pose this question to you. When you think of worship, what is the first thing that comes to your mind?

For most people, it's singing. Maybe for some they might include praying.

Maybe for others, preaching. But it just seems to be that singing is always at the top of the list.

And then it descends slowly through other activities. And what

I would like to suggest is that I believe that worship is far more general than what most people think.

Most people, I believe, have a narrow or a truncated idea of what worship is.

When we look at the word worship, first if we consider its origins in the English language, our word worship actually comes from an

Old English term, which means worth Skype. And that might seem like a rather strange word, but in the first half of the word, it actually tells us what worship is, or what worth

Skype is. And that is to ascribe worth to something.

To attribute value. And this aligns quite well with the biblical usage of this term worship.

And so, in our New Testaments, the English word worship is translated from the

Greek word proskuneo, which means literally to kiss, to set our affections on something.

Or, in a posterior term, to be prostrate, to be on our faces in reverence and in adoration.

The word worship we also see in our Old Testaments, and that's been translated from the

Hebrew word halal. You might recognize that word from other usages, but there's also a

Hebrew usage of this word halal, and it means to show off, or to boast in, or to celebrate and praise.

So we could say that to worship is to do anything that ascribes worth to something.

To worship God is to ascribe worth to God. It is to adore

Him. It is to set our affections on Him. It is to revere

Him, to show Him off, to boast Him. It is to give

Him praise. And for the Christian Church, we are commanded to reserve all of these things for God alone.

We'll remember from Matthew chapter 4, when Christ, our Lord Jesus, was being tempted in the wilderness,

He said, He quoted Scripture in Matthew 4 .10, He said, You shall worship the

Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve. And so all of these things in the life of every believer and in the life of the corporate church, worship is reserved for God alone.

We are to celebrate Him. We are to fix our hearts on God our

Savior. We are to boast in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're to be consumed with one driving obsession.

And that obsession is lifting up and exalting and boasting in and showing off and magnifying our one true

God. The one true God of the Bible. And that's why Grace Fellowship Church has adopted part of 1

Peter 2 verses 8 and 9 as part of our mission statement.

We exist to proclaim the excellencies, to show off, to make known, to make much of the excellencies of God.

The God who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Now, I'm going to pose the question, how is it that we worship?

So how does the church worship? And it must be said that it is the

Bible that dictates. It is the Bible, it is the Word of God that regulates how we are to do this.

So in your handout, I've included a copy of our statement on worship.

We're actually going to do a study of a statement within a statement. So we're not going to be doing a separate study on the doctrine of worship.

We'll include this here. And it reads like this. Sorry, Grace Fellowship Church statement on worship.

We worship together by reading, teaching, and preaching the

Word of God. Praying, singing, giving, fellowshipping, and celebrating the ordinances of the church.

So this is what our statement reads. And that's good and helpful. But it's also important, necessary, that we see that this is actually borne out in the scriptures.

And so we're going to spend a little bit of time specifically today in Acts chapter 2. So if you have your

Bibles, turn there to Acts chapter 2 and verse 42. To set the scene, you'll remember that Peter had just preached a message after Pentecost.

And that literally thousands became believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And in this section here, beginning in Acts chapter 2 and verse 42, we see the life of that early church.

And this is what it says. And had all things in common.

And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need.

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising

God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

So here we see a description. Not necessarily a prescription, but a description of the early church and their priorities.

And I think that it's instructive for us, it can be helpful for us, to see what is it that the early church prioritized in their worship, in their corporate life, in their assembling.

And so leaning on this and leaning on our own statement on worship, we're going to work through what it is or how it is that the church corporately worships

God. So the very first thing I'm going to mention is that the church corporately worships

God by reading scripture, by preaching, and by teaching. We see this in Acts chapter 2.

What does it say? They devoted themselves. They were literally devoted. They gave themselves to, number one, the apostles' teaching.

So the apostles' teaching in the corporate life of the worship of God in the church.

One of the foundational elements of worship is the teaching and the preaching of God's word, the reading of God's word.

After all, all of worship ultimately is a response to revelation.

Worship that truly honors God, sees God in his word, sees

God certainly in his creation, but specifically and most specially in his word, and responds to God as he has disclosed himself to us in worship.

And so the word of God both ignites our worship by telling us who

God is, and it informs our worship by telling us how we are to worship him.

You'll remember in John chapter 4, verses 23 and 24, in Christ's interactions with the

Samaritan woman, our Lord Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the

Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

God is seeking those who engage in what

I call spirited worship, in worship that is empowered by the

Holy Spirit, certainly, but also, and also, worship that is heartfelt, that is genuine, that is passionate, that is sincere.

God wants us to have a genuine and a passionate worship.

True worship is not cool and casual, but is fervent, and it is white hot.

But, true worship does not consist in heat alone. True worship consists in heat and in light.

And I would like to submit, just like a light bulb, heat isn't generated until the light is on. True worship is not true worship until the light is on, and that light in itself generates the heat.

And I'll give an example of this. We know of many churches around that there is fervent worship, there is passion in their worship, and yet it is all heat and no light.

And our worship must be both of those things. This is an example of lots of heat and no light.

The preacher, pastor, author John MacArthur, in his book on worship, it's a great book on worship, it's called

Worship, the Ultimate Priority, he tells a story about a woman named

Maria Rubio, who lived in Lake Arthur, New Mexico. And on one particular morning, she was cooking a burrito on a skillet, and noticed that on this burrito, there appeared to be something that resembled the face of Jesus.

She excitedly showed it to her husband and her neighbors, and all agreed that the face on this particular tortilla truly did resemble the face of Christ.

And so she went to her priest, interestingly enough, and asked that her priest bless the tortilla.

MacArthur writes, she testified that the tortilla had changed her life, and Mr.

Rubio agreed that she had been a more peaceful, happy, submissive wife since the tortilla had arrived.

The priest, not accustomed to blessing tortillas, obviously, was somewhat reluctant, but agreed to do it.

After this, Mrs. Rubio took the tortilla home, she put it in a shadowbox frame with piles of cotton to make it look like it was floating on clouds.

Mr. Rubio built a special altar for it to rest on. They put the whole thing in a wooden utility shack in the backyard, and opened the little shrine to visitors.

Well, within two years, more than 35 ,000 people visited this tortilla shrine.

For 28 years, pilgrims kept coming to see the holy tortilla. Over time, the burn marks faded, and the image was hard to make out, but the people still wanted to worship at the shrine.

Then in 2005, Mrs. Rubio's granddaughter took the tortilla to school for show and tell, and someone accidentally dropped it, and it shattered.

Mrs. Rubio kept the shadowbox now, with only fragments of the shattered tortilla floating in the cotton clouds.

But no one seemed interested anymore, and the Rubio family finally closed the deteriorating shrine.

This is worship that consists all of heat and of no light. It is

Scripture, and Scripture alone, that informs our worship, who we are worshiping and how we are to worship.

And so we see that the Word of God had a prominent place in the worship of the Church. As I mentioned in Acts chapter 2, the

Church was devoted to the Apostles' teaching. In Acts chapter 20, in verse 27, we see the

Apostle Paul visiting with the Ephesian elders. He's on his way to Jerusalem, and he says to them, so this is during his time amongst the

Ephesian church, what did he give himself to? It wasn't displaying tortillas.

He said, I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

Paul writes to his protege, Timothy, who was actually ministering in Ephesus at the time.

And he says, until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, and to teaching.

This is to have a prominent place in the life of the Church, in the ministry of the under -shepherds, who oversee and care for and feed and protect

God's flock. Now some people might say that preaching has really become more of a cultural practice rather than a biblical practice in the worship of the

Church, and that maybe instead of having preaching, we could just have round tables with discussion.

But that just isn't accurate. I want us to listen here to the forceful words of Paul. So now this is

Paul's second letter to Timothy. Second Timothy. He's nearing the end of the course.

He's about to pour himself out. The emperor Nero is about to take his life.

And near the end of his letter, when one might reserve some of the most important, some of the most profound, some of the most necessary exhortations, he says to Timothy in 2

Timothy 4, verse 1, He says, I charge you. Listen to the gravity of these words.

He says, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom, so in light of the coming judgment, in light of eternity.

Verse 2, preach the word. Those three words. Preach the word.

Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching.

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but will have itching ears.

Sorry, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

As for you, always be sober -minded. Endure suffering.

Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry.

This is how Timothy was to fulfill his ministry. Not by doing what the false teachers were doing.

Not by doing what was popular amongst other people, amongst professing Christians, amongst the other crowds.

But in the light of eternity, preach the word of God. Give yourself to this. Do the work of an evangelist.

Fulfill your ministry. And so for a pastor, for an elder, for an under -shepherd who is assigned to the care of God's church, we are to preach the word.

We see this in the lives of faithful men in the Old Testament. And we see this even in the life of Christ.

Mark chapter 1 and verse 38. Christ said, Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also.

For this is why I came out. Certainly it is trustworthy saying that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

And as part of that, as one of the principal elements of Christ's earthly ministry, it was a ministry of preaching and teaching.

Dr. Martin Lloyd -Jones, the good doctor, he recognized this. In one of his very first pastorates in Wales, he came to a church that gave a lot of preference to drama ministries and other elements of, maybe what

I would say, less essential elements of church life. And the very first thing he did was he took the pulpit and he nailed it to the floor.

The word of God was to be central in the meeting of the church. And it must be central in our worship.

It must inform our worship. It must give truth and fuel to our worship.

It must be the foundation of everything that we do as the corporate body of Christ.

We need to understand that it is ultimately not emotionalism.

It's not good music. But it is deep doctrine that leads to deep doxology.

Deep doctrine that leads to deep doxology. If the church wants to instill a culture of fervent, white, hot worship to God, we must instill a culture of faithfulness to the word of God, regardless of what other people do.

Our worship must be a word -centered worship. Next we see in the corporate life of the church's worship, the church gave themselves to prayer.

We see that again in Acts chapter 2. They devoted themselves, they gave themselves to prayer.

And this is really only natural. Prayer, after all, is communication with God.

And a church that rightly ascribes worth to God will have an insatiable appetite to know

Him, to seek Him, to find

Him, to walk with Him, to talk to Him, both individually and corporately.

In many ways, I think prayer is a taste of heaven. This should be true in the lives of every

Christian, that right now we are walking by faith. And we ought to be walking with our

God by faith, walking with Him and talking with Him. I think it should be as if there is a veil between us and Him, and we are walking alongside, we are talking to Him, and one day the veil will be removed and faith will give way to sight.

And we see this prioritized again in the life of the church. Paul writes to the

Colossian church, continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

That's Colossians 4 .2. He says in 1 Thessalonians 5 .17, Pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

In 1 Timothy 2, again writing to Timothy, we see a lot of this is coming out of these pastoral epistles because it's instructive for the church.

He says, First of all then, 1 Timothy 2 .1, First of all then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

He continues on in verse 8, he says, I desire that in every place, and he is talking about the corporate life of the church if you look at the context of this particular section in chapter 2.

He says, I desire that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.

The church is to give herself to prayer, always individually and certainly corporately.

Earlier this week, during our family worship time, our family was discussing

Matthew chapter 6. And if you're familiar with Matthew chapter 6, this is in the middle of the

Sermon on the Mount and the Lord Jesus is teaching his disciples about praying in secret and giving in secret and fasting in secret.

And he says in Matthew chapter 6 that we should go into our room and close the door and pray to our

Father who is in secret. And he who sees what is in secret will reward you.

And my kids asked a good question. They asked the question, well, dad, does that mean that it's wrong for us to pray in public?

And of course, the answer is no. The primary purpose of that whole teaching is to say that we are to have a private prayer life, a private prayer life before God that only

God sees, that no one else sees, and that we're to do it for the one who sees in secret and for the one who will reward us.

But even the Lord Jesus taught, he demonstrated, he acted as an example of one who prays in public.

In John chapter 17, we see the high priestly prayer of Christ. Christ is in the presence of his disciples and he offers up a lengthy prayer, a prayer that takes up a full chapter in the

Scriptures, all of John chapter 17. We see the public prayer life of the

Apostle Paul, certainly a man given to praying in private.

He talks to the churches in his letters about not ceasing to pray for them, to make mention of them in all of his prayers.

And we see again in Acts chapter 20, again amongst the Ephesian elders. In Acts chapter 20, in verse 36, it says,

And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all, and there was much weeping on the part of all.

We see in the life of the church that there were prayer meetings. In Acts chapter 12, we're told that James, the brother of John, was killed by Herod.

And Herod, who saw that this pleased the Jews, imprisoned Peter, perhaps to do away with him as well.

And in Acts chapter 12, in verse 5, it says, So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.

And then we know the story. The angel led

Peter out of the jail. He helped him to escape from jail. And Peter went to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark.

And there, when he came to that house, what were they doing? Acts chapter 12, in verse 12, tell us they were having a prayer meeting.

Many were gathered together and were praying, it says. So we see this prioritized in the early church,

Acts chapter 2. We see this in the life of Christ. We see this in the life of Paul. We see this throughout the scriptures that the church prayed.

We must be a people, corporately, who are committed to abiding prayer. Prayers of adoration.

Prayers of confession. Prayers of thanksgiving. Prayers of supplication and intercession.

I love this quote from E .M. Bounds. He says, One of the constitutional enforcements of the gospel is prayer.

Without prayer, the gospel can neither be preached effectively, promulgated faithfully, experienced in the heart, nor be practiced in the life.

And for the very simple reason that by leaving prayer out of the catalog of religious duties, we leave

God out, and his work cannot progress without him. When we leave prayer, we need to realize this, when we leave prayer out of the corporate worship of the church, ultimately we leave

God out of the corporate worship of the church. We must give ourselves to prayer.

Next we see that the church is to worship God through singing. This is probably the form of worship that we're most familiar with, and so maybe

I have to make the least amount of argument for it, but we see it in the Psalms. Psalm 30, verse 4,

Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, corporately, you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name.

We see that even in the life of Christ, in Matthew chapter 26, verse 30, it tells us,

And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Even our Lord Jesus sang hymns of praise.

Colossians chapter 3, verse 16, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

There we see the fuel for this worship. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thanksgiving in your hearts.

And so we see the connection between the word of Christ, the role of teaching and admonishing, and then the songs that the church sings.

Some of our Presbyterian brothers and sisters think that it's only right that we sing psalms.

I would respectfully disagree. We're to sing psalms? Absolutely. We should make greater efforts,

I think, to sing more psalms in our worship. But we should also sing hymns, old hymns, new hymns, spiritual songs.

We shouldn't be smug or elitist about it. If it's a song that's filled, if it's rich with the word about Christ, if it's rich with truth about God, then it's just right for us to sing.

We see again in Ephesians 5, And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the

Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the

Lord with your heart. We see the fervency there. There should be passion in your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God, the

Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to pick up speed as we continue moving along.

We should worship God through giving. Again, Acts chapter 2, we see this in action.

But we have to acknowledge that because of abuses by men who profess to be shepherds of God, because of abuses by churches and a variety of things, people treat giving with suspicion.

But we ought to. Maybe I'll ask you, what do you think? Does giving have a place in the church's worship?

I think if we were to look at the scriptures, we would say absolutely.

Part of the entire Old Testament system of worship included tithes and sacrifices and giving.

Giving for the sake, for the benefit of the Levitical priests. Giving in the sacrifices and worship to God.

Giving to those who were under -resourced. In Acts chapter 4, verse 34 and 35, we read this.

There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet and it was distributed to each as any had need.

So there was a sense of generosity, of sacrificial giving, of loving our neighbors as any had need.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 9, verses 6 and 7, Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

This passage is not preaching a prosperity gospel, that when we sow a seed, if we give a thousand dollars to some pastor or to some ministry, that God will multiply that a hundredfold or a thousandfold.

No, what this is saying is that when we are generous with God's resources, when we steward

God's money well, He will provide more for us to steward.

When we demonstrate that we are faithful in little, He will allow us to be faithful in much.

And notice here that it does not teach a 10 % tie.

I don't believe that a 10 % tie under the new covenant is a biblical view of giving.

No, instead in this passage in 2 Corinthians 9, it says each one must give as he has decided in his heart.

It's not to be a tithe, but to be an offering. And I think that for those who have an eternal perspective, we appreciate that it is better to store treasure in heaven than to store our treasure here on earth.

I love what Randy Alcorn wrote. He wrote a book called The Treasure Principle. It's a small book, but a very helpful book.

And his treasure principle is this, that we cannot keep it in this life.

We cannot keep our wealth in this life, but we can send it ahead. And brethren, we ought to do this for those of us who have an eternal perspective.

And for us as a church plant, it is our desire not only to be givers individually, but to be givers as a church corporately, to be generous, to worship

God with the resources that He gives us to steward. And so we see it's important to serve, as we see in Scripture, to give to missions, as the

Philippians gave to Paul for the sake of the proclamation of the gospel. We see that it's important to meet the needs of the household of faith to provide for and to care for the needs within our own assembly.

We see that it's important to give to those who are not within the household of faith to ensure that their needs are cared for.

And we think it's important as well to provide for those who make their living by preaching and teaching the word and the gospel, to pay them double honor.

The laborer deserves his wages. Next, we see that the church gave themselves to fellowshipping.

And we're going to talk about this a little bit later. But what I want us to point out here is that the church gave themselves, it says day by day.

They were able to love one another because they knew one another. There was a genuine friendship.

There was a genuine care. It wasn't in and out as fast as they can do it.

No, but it was getting to know one another and breaking bread and having meals in each other's homes.

It was about hospitality. Our Lord Jesus says, the world will know you are my disciples by your love for one another.

And there ought to be this superficial love in our hearts, or excuse me, supernatural, not superficial, a supernatural love in our hearts for one another.

A genuine love. We're to fulfill all of the one another's of Scripture.

If we open our Bibles, and if you were to just look in a concordance or do an online search for all of the one another's of Scripture, you'd find that there are dozens of these commands.

It is impossible to live the Christian life as a lone ranger. And then we're to do it by celebrating the ordinances.

Again, we see this in Acts 2. They broke bread. What are the two ordinances of the church?

The two ordinances of the church are the Lord's Supper, the breaking of bread, the bread in the cup, and the ordinance of baptism.

The word ordinance really means just that which has been ordained by God.

And we're actually going to study the ordinances at a later date, so I won't look at that too much here.

So we're to worship through the reading, the preaching, the teaching of God's Word. We're to worship through prayer.

We're to worship through singing. We're to worship through giving. We're to worship through fellowshipping. We're to worship through the ordinances of the church.

Next, we will turn our attention to ministry to believers, namely discipleship or to nurturing

Christians. Now many of us are familiar with Christ's command to make disciples, right?

We're familiar with Matthew 28, verses 18 to 20, the Great Commission. There we read,

And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.

Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the

Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you until the end of the age. So we're familiar with this command, this commission to make disciples.

But let me ask you, what is discipleship? Or if I'm to make it a bit more specific, what is the ultimate goal?

What is the final goal of discipleship? Biblically speaking, the discipleship, the goal of discipleship is likeness to Christ.

It is to be like our Lord Jesus. It is to be holy as He is holy. It is to be consecrated to God as He was and is consecrated to the

Father. But I think it's very possible that we are in the midst of a discipleship identity crisis in many respects.

Because I think that many people think that in order to do discipleship or the goal of discipleship is to get someone on a

Bible reading plan or to have someone consistently doing their quiet time or going to church on a regular basis.

Those are all good things, but they are not the end of discipleship.

Those are means to an end. Those are means to the end that the saints would be as much like Christ as is humanly possible on this earth.

That is the true goal of discipleship. The true goal of discipleship is radical

Christlikeness. It is holiness. It is a righteous life. A righteous life at home and at work, in private, amongst friends, with family.

It is to be like Christ, a mind that is set on the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of the glory of the

Father. And we see Paul's heart in this ministry of discipleship.

We see this, for instance, in passages like Galatians 4 .19. Paul writes to this troubled church, troubled with bad doctrine.

He says, I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.

He was in anguish. I've never had a baby, but I hear that it is hard.

And here is Paul saying he is in the anguish of childbirth, working, laboring, toiling, struggling for what purpose?

That Christ would be formed in them, fully formed in them. We see that this is ultimately the purpose of God for every believer and one of the driving forces behind his sovereign orchestration of all of our circumstances and affairs in life in Romans chapter 8 and verse 28 and 29.

Paul writes this, he says, and we know that for those who love God, all things, all things work together for good.

For those who are called according to his purpose, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined.

Predestined to salvation? Absolutely. But that's not how he finishes this. He says, are predestined, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his

Son. To be conformed to the image of Christ, to be like Christ.

And so to be a disciple of Christ is to seek to be like him and to do discipleship is to encourage and to admonish and to teach and to instruct that people might be like our

Lord Jesus. How do we do discipleship? We see this in the

Great Commission. Our Lord says, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, so bringing them into the ordinances of the church, the life of the church.

In verse 20 he says, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

To be a disciple after all. The Greek word for disciple is mathetes. To be a disciple is to be a student.

It is to be a learner. And where do we go to learn? We go to the school of Christ.

We go to the word of God. We go to the scriptures. We go to the precepts of God.

And it's the role of the church, corporately, in our worship on Sunday mornings, in our gatherings during the week, and individually, so within the lives of each believer, to teach and to encourage and to correct and to train and to rebuke and to fulfill the one in others.

And not according to the precepts of the world. Not according to philosophy or psychology or even good things like history, but according to the word of God, according to the

Bible. We see this, Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3, verse 16, all scripture, in verse 17

I should say, all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

So it's profitable for all of these things, for what purpose?

That the man of God may be complete. It is the word of God that helps us reach the goal of discipleship.

In Colossians chapter 1, Paul writes to the church there. He says, Him, he's speaking about Christ, Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

And so he wants to present the church mature in Christ. And how does he do this? By warning, by teaching with all wisdom, toiling and struggling to that end.

We won't go there, but in Ephesians chapter 4, we see the five -fold ministry, what I call the apest, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and the teachers.

And they're given to equip the saints for the work of ministry that they might reach mature manhood, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

And so the church has been given a ministry of worship. She is to engage in worship, a ministry to God, ministry to believers, discipleship and lastly, a ministry to the world, namely evangelism and service.

Now, what is evangelism? There are a lot of people that think a lot of things about evangelism, but biblically, what is evangelism?

Some have said, preach the gospel at all times and when necessary, use words.

And so they think of evangelism as a way of life, a lifestyle. But is that really evangelism?

Biblically speaking, the evangelism, evangelism is the proclamation of the euangelion.

It is the declaration of the good news. It is the declaration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The life, according to 1 Corinthians 15, the life, death, burial and resurrection of Christ.

That he lived a perfect life, a life that we could never live. That he fulfilled all righteousness.

That he lived, he was tempted in all things and yet was without sin. And he lived a perfect, righteous, blameless life before God and men.

That he died, that he was crucified, that he was nailed to a cross and on that cross, not only did he die physically, but he endured the judgment of God, the wrath of God, the righteous indignation of God in our place on the cross.

That he was buried in a borrowed tomb, in a rich man's tomb, but on the third day, he rose from the dead.

He rose from the dead, conquering death and the devil.

The last enemy and the gospel is a proclamation of these things and a call to all people everywhere.

God commands everyone everywhere to repent, to turn from your sins, change your mind, turn to God and believe on the

Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

That is evangelism, to proclaim the gospel. God, man, Christ and a response come to him.

Be reconciled to God. Why is evangelism important?

We know evangelism is important because there is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved other than the name of Jesus Christ.

John 14, 6, Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the

Father except through me. Jesus Christ is the only way.

And so we proclaim the gospel for the glory of God that we might make worshippers, more worshippers of God.

As I said last time from John Piper, missions exist because worship does not.

So we go out to make worshippers of God to the glory of God. But we also go out to our neighbors for their good as ambassadors for Christ.

God making his appeal through us, we implore people on the behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Be reconciled to God. And how do we do evangelism today?

Is it any different from the way that the church did evangelism 2 ,000 years ago? No. It is the same message.

It is the same method. Romans 1, 16, Paul says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the

Jew first and also the Greek. Later in that same book in chapter 10, he says,

Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. We do evangelism by preaching the gospel through friendship evangelism and through street ministry, through preaching the gospel in our corporate assemblies and preaching the gospel in the world.

Certainly we adorn the gospel with our lives. And so we should live righteous lives on the side of the world, blameless lives on the side of the world, but we preach the gospel, we reach our neighbors, we get glory for God by preaching

Christ and Him crucified. And then our other ministry to the world is the ministry of service.

What is the greatest commandment? Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.

So we've been given a ministry to the world of love, a ministry of loving our neighbors as ourselves, of seeing a need and trying to meet it, of approaching the world not with a proud and elitist attitude, but with the attitude of a servant.

Think about Christ's words in Matthew chapter 20 in verse 26 to 28. He says,

But whoever would be great among you must be your servant. Christ's exalting service is to be a servant and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the

Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give

His life as a ransom for many. Christ, God the

Son, came not to be served but to serve and to give

His life as a ransom for many and He lived, He provided this as an example to His church that we would serve.

It is characteristic of the body of Christ that we would care for people, that we would love our neighbors, that we would care for those who are in the household of faith and those who are outside of the household of faith.

Much of the world owes their hospitals and so many important elements of service and care to the church.

Next, we'll look at the believer's participation in the life of the church.

So we've looked at the activities of the church, now the essential nature of the church.

We don't have a lot of time and so I'm just going to speed through this here. You'll see in our statement it says that we affirm the necessity of every

Christian being joined with and actively involved in a local church.

Being actively involved, joined in. We at Grace Fellowship Church believe in formal church membership.

We believe that it's important to belong to a church. It is necessary for believers to belong to a local church.

In many ways, Christians are kind of like burning embers in a fire.

If you've ever sat around a campfire or something like that and you're looking into the fire, you'll see at the base of the fire all of the coals, the red hot coals glowing and pulsing in the heat of the fire.

In many ways, Christians are like, every Christian is like one of those embers. If you were to leave all of those embers together in the fire and were to go to sleep in the morning, you could probably start a fire again just with the heat of those embers without any other source of ignition.

But, if you were to sit there around the campfire and to isolate one of those embers, pull it out of the fire and set it on the ground, probably within an hour, you could pick it up with your bare hands and it'll be lukewarm, if not cold, already.

And that is the way that our Lord has designed the Church. That together, as we fulfill the one another's, as we fellowship with one another, as we care for one another, as we exhort one another, as we warn one another not to be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, it is together that we burn hot for the

Lord, that we live for Him, that we please Him, that we honor Him. The Lord has given us one another as a means of His protection and His grace and His kindness and His goodness and His blessing to us.

I know a person who I see on fairly regular, I guess, a fairly regular frequency, and a few years ago, she said, well, my husband and I, we stopped attending our church.

We find actually that we're just as edified by going for a walk on Sunday mornings together or going out and getting exercise, going on a trail or skiing or doing something like that.

And I, because of the nature of the relationship, I haven't been able to talk to her about it at length, but I often think to myself, what a travesty.

She is separating herself from one of the greatest means of God's blessing in the world, which is

His church, His body. We were not meant to live alone as believers, but to exhort and to encourage and to strengthen one another in Christ.

Hebrews 10, this is something that we're hearing often right now in the times that we're in. Hebrews 10, 23 -25.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

We're not to neglect meeting together as is the habit of some, but we're to give ourselves to encouraging, to strengthening, to stirring up one another, to love, to good works.

We're to hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.

And part of the way that the Lord has designed us is for us to do that together as the church, where we find encouragement, where we find accountability.

We won't have time to talk about it today, but where we find mechanisms like church discipline, where we work together to strengthen and to restore.

I'll end with these quotes from John Calvin and Augustine.

John Calvin said, If we do not prefer the church to all other objects of interest in this world, sporting events, vacations, social engagements, whatever it might be, if we do not prefer the church to all other objects of interest in this world, we are unworthy of being counted among her members.

We should prioritize the corporate life of the church.

It is essential. We hear about things that are essential and non -essential and occupations that are essential and non -essential right now.

I'm telling you, the church is essential. Augustine said,

He cannot have God for his father who refuses to have the church as his mother.

Brothers and sisters, the Lord has given us his church for our mutual upbuilding, for our edification, for our blessing.

So let's give ourselves to this ministry of worship, to this ministry of discipleship, to this ministry of evangelism, to this ministry of service.

Let's give ourselves to the Lord our God and to one another as the church.

Let's pray. Father, I pray that this message would be a blessing to those who hear it or that it would strengthen us, that it would encourage us, that it would help us to serve you faithfully or that you'd be glorified and honored through the hearing and the obeying of your word.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

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