Sermon Tone Analysis

*What Is the Church?*

*Matthew 16:13-20*

 

Intro: The next several Sundays I want to speak about church from the perspective of Jesus.

What do you think of when you think of church?

You get up on Sunday morning, put on             your church clothes, go to church, you have church, then go home and get on with your            lives.

Now I realize that it is more than this for some of you, but I am speaking in very             general terms about how the church is viewed in our culture.

Drive through any town in     any state across our nation, and churches will dot the landscape.

In fact there are about         405,000 churches in America.

To put that in perspective there are only around 13,000       McDonalds in the U.S.  If you put together all of the people who attend all professional           baseball, basketball and football event, it makes up only 2% of the people who attend            church services throughout a year.

Churches are the largest voluntary organization in the

            U.S. and the world.

Target: This morning I want to look at what is the church.

Because this church exists lives have   been altered for eternity.

Families have been healed, broken hearts have been mended,        lives that are misguided have been given new direction, and the best relationships are formed, and God is made known.

So what are we and how do we live more effectively as

            a church?

Matthew 16:13 (p.694)

(Pay careful attention because I worked hard on this.) */The church is a community of followers of Christ who profess and live His gracious rule over their lives.

To live this out they gather under a qualified leadership and together practice baptism, communion, communication with God through prayer and worship, scriptural teaching and loving relationships through acts of service.

After gathering they scatter to be missionaries in the world to expand God’s reign in their homes and communities.

/*

*What do you need to know? *

/13 //When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi,/

                1.

What the Marquette in the UP is to Michigan Caesarea Philippi is to Israel.

It is way                             up north away from everything.

It is a predominantly gentile region.

They are

                        outside of the established Jewish influences and in this gentile environment Jesus                          is going to make a startling announcement.

Jesus is going to announce this thing                               called church.

He is preparing his followers to understand that God’s kingdom

                        expansion will move away from the Jews being a majority to being a minority.

In              fact here is where we have the very first announcement of the church.

/he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” 14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

15 “But what about you?” he asked.

“Who do you say I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”/

            2.

Peter gets what most have not been able to see.

Jesus is the eternally appointed person                         to serve as the bridge between us and God.

This is the basic belief, confession                                 and practice of the church, the absolute leadership of Jesus Christ.

/ 17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church,/

/            3./

Peter gets a name and identity change.

He goes from Simon son of Jonah, to Peter,

                        meaning Rock son of the father in heaven.

His new name and identity means

                        “rock.”

Rock here refers to two things: 1) It refers to Peter’s confession which

                        make him a son of the Father.

The church is built upon those who confess Jesus                            to be the forgiver of their sins and the leader of their lives—the bridge to God.

But Peter himself was the rock because he was the first to lead others in this                           confession.

We’ll see that in a moment.

As the Bible says, the church is built on

                        the foundation of the apostle and prophets with Jesus Christ as the chief                                        cornerstone.

Acts 2:41 (p.772)

            4.

Peter preaches the gospel and 3,000 respond…In verses 41-47 it is like a seed or an

                        embryo we have all of the essentials of what makes a church a church.

And these                          are all in the definition I read earlier.

/41 //Those who accepted his message  /

*Essential # 1: Followers of Christ (v.41)—*it consists of those who accept Jesus Christ as the bridge to God.* *

*            *a.

This is where it starts.

If you don’t have this then you have absolutely nothing.

In fact

                        the term church means “called out ones” in the Greek.

They are a community that

                        is called out to follow Christ.

*/Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer/*

/were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day/

*Essential # 2: Baptism (v.41) *

*            *a.

This is the initiation or the first act of major obedience we do unto Christ.

I have

                        performed perhaps a few hundred baptisms and often times this has been the

                        experience of intense joy for the people baptized and for the ones witnessing it                              because God confirms it as an essential of being his followers.

/.

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ /

*Essential # 3: Qualified Leadership (v.42) *

*            *a.

There is a qualified leadership who gives overall direction to the church.

The core of

                        this leadership are pastors~/elders and deacons.

Peter functioned as an apostle, a

                        witness of Christ, but he called himself in his own letter an elder and shepherd.

You are not a church unless you have a called out and qualified leadership.

/teaching/

/ /*Essential # 4: Biblical teaching (v.42)  *

*            *a.

This is the center and most important activity is our shared life around the study and

                        application of the Bible.

/ and to the fellowship,/

*Essential # 5: Loving relationships (v.42) *

*            *a.

Out of the love and forgiveness we experience with God we live that out with one

                        another.

We use the gifts and resources God has given us to build up one another.

If someone is sick we are to support them.

If someone is in need we are to help    them.

If someone is hurting we are to help bring healing to their lives.

If someone       is going astray we are to challenge them.

We are to be a community of support,            challenge, and love.

/ to the breaking of bread /

*Essential # 6: Communion (v.42) *