Sermon Tone Analysis

*"Membership: The Covenanted Church"*

*Ephesians 4:11-18*

 

It is possible that in conversations with friends and family who profess to believe in Jesus you have been confused.

It’s confusing because some of these same people do not belong to a particular church.

You may have heard statements like, "I follow Jesus.

I don't need a church."

Or you’ve likely heard “I don’t need the church.

It’s full of hypocrites.

They just get in the way of my spiritual journey.”

Or perhaps you have thought along similar lines.

The church is too hierarchical or permeated with social cliques or outdated or filled with unattainable rules or whatever.

Maybe you’ve spent considerable time in churches and have been hurt by them.

And you have made it your goal to be bitter for the rest of your life.

And you do not have the capacity to forgive.

Regarding the first perspective (I don’t need a church, I follow Jesus), this is truly a fabricated perspective.

Jesus came to die for the church because of his great love for her.

Take note of Ephesians 5.25 where the husband is to love their wives as Christ loved the church and /gave himself up /for her.

Though this sermon cannot exhaustively teach on the nature of the church, I hope that you will come away with at least a fresh perspective of the church.

It’s not that churches are (or can be) perfect in this life.

But they are the instrument that God has chosen to bring the gospel to the world.

At the end of the day, I hope that you will see that when a person is saved by Jesus Christ, he has been transferred into the family of God, which is the church.

And the plan is that we collectively use our gifts to build one another up and to declare the message of the gospel to those who have yet to hear.

If you were to search the Scriptures, you would find that we were not designed to "follow Christ" alone.

God called out a people in the Old Testament to be a light to the nations.

And he calls out his Church in the New Testament.

And both were called to declare the glories of God to the world.

Let’s begin by looking at our first point, *What Church?

*As we look through the pages of Scripture we notice that there is reference to both a “universal church” and a “local church”.

It would serve us well to understand what these refer to.

As I already mentioned, the universal church consists of all believers in Jesus Christ for all time.

And so that we can see some Scripture that would point this out, we recall from Matthew 16:18 “18 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.”

Jesus is not here referring to First Baptist Church of Galilee.

He speaks of the people that will be called on to believe in him and would continue the mission to declare him.

In Ephesians 5:22–27, Paul draws a close comparison of the relationship between husbands and wives, Christ and the church.

Paul writes, “22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.

24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

Inasmuch as Jesus loves individuals, they are not to be isolated from the community into which he calls and saves them.

So, we see that there is a “universal” sense in which believers in Jesus Christ are part of an eternal family.

This consists of those who have preceded us and those who will also trust Jesus in the future.

Let’s now pursue an understanding of the concept of a local church.

You do not have to go far into the Scriptures to identify this reality.

In fact, you would really only need to look at the Table of Contents in your Bible because much of the New Testament is written to churches.

But even before /Paul/ wrote to the church, Jesus refers to a local church context.

In the famous passage in Matthew 18 that contains the procedure of discipline of the Christian, we find Jesus gives instruction within this context.

Jesus says, “15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.

If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.

16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to */the church/*.

And if he refuses to listen even to */the church/*, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”

So even here, Jesus anticipates that his followers would be a part of a local community that would place themselves in submission to the Word and church leaders.

Acts 13:1 1 Now there were in */the church at Antioch/* prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.”

Again, there was an identifiable community in Antioch.

Romans 16:1 “1 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of */the church at Cenchreae/*.”

Paul identified Phoebe as part of this local church at Cenchreae.

And you are most likely familiar that many of addressees in the early part of the book of Revelation were directed to the churches in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

And then to add some weight to this understanding, let’s look at the beginning of several of Paul’s letters. 1 Corinthians 1:2 “2 */To the church of God that is in Corinth/*, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Paul correlates those sanctified and saints and part of the church in Corinth.

In his second letter, 2 Corinthians 1:1 “1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To */the church of God that is at Corinth/*, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia.”

Ephesians 1:1 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the */saints who are in Ephesus/*, and are faithful in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 1:1 “1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, */To the church of the Thessalonians/* in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.

“ And Philippians 1:1 1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus */who are at Philippi/*, with the overseers and deacons.”

Here Paul even provides a glimpse to the structure within the church as he points out a couple of the offices in overseers and deacons.

But let’s move beyond this references and look into our second point, which is *Mission of the Church.

*We’ve seen that there is biblical reference to what qualifies to be a part of God’s universal church – belief in Jesus Christ alone.

But then we’ve also seen that there is also a close correlation with local expressions of believers.

I want to briefly look at one passage of Scripture to get a better understanding of the why and the how of the church – and how it finds its expression in the local context.

Turn in your Bibles to Ephesians 4.11-16.

Even before we read this together, we need to remember the context.

Paul is referring to the “saints who are in Ephesus”.

He is writing to a localized community of believers.

And yet we recognize that through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, he writes to all believers for all time.

Let’s read Ephesians 4.11-16 together.

*READ.

*

The section begins by drawing attention to the uniqueness of some of the gifts that are given by God.

You can parallel sections in 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12.

But even out of the gate here in Ephesians 4, we see that is part of the plan for God to gift people uniquely in order to work as a coordinated whole.

In this passage, Paul refers first to the apostles, prophets and evangelists.

At another time, we could discuss whether or not the gifts of apostleship and prophecy continue.

But I think this reference to these first three refer to those who established the initial New Testament churches – including Ephesus.

From what I’ve read, the next two should be combined and not separated.

It refers to shepherd~/teachers or pastor~/teachers.

Note what their responsibility is.

The job of the pastor is to “equip the saints for the work of ministry”.

The first thing we see here is that there is an expectation that when we become a Christian (a saint) we are to be trained for ministry.

This is not solely for pastors and scholars.

This is for everyone!

I would suggest that this involves both a pursuit of knowledge and the practical application of what we learn.

We learn and we apply in the church.

Next, this is for building up the body of Christ.

You can’t do /this/ in your recliner watching the television preacher.

One of the goals is to build up Jesus’ church.

This should consist of both depth and breadth.

We should be actively sharing the gospel so that unbelievers embrace Jesus Christ.

And we should also be diligent to encourage each other as part of the same body.

How */long/* do we continue to learn and grow and minister and encourage each other?

Verse 13 helps us out.

Paul says “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature mahood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”.

Anyone there yet?

Ok.