Church Lives in a Place
Notes
Transcript
Warren Brosi
November 5, 2023
Dominant Thought: The Church lives the good news of Jesus where we live in holiness for the glory of God.
Objectives:
I want my listeners to see the connect of the church as a heavenly embassy on earth.
I want my listeners to grow in love for the local church.
I want my listeners to look for a specific way to bless our community in the name of Jesus.
I love the church. Growing up in southwest Missouri where most of our family was 500 miles away, we needed the church. In a very real sense, Seneca Christian Church was our family. Some of our deepest friendships were formed there. They helped raise me. They came alongside my parents and helped them raise me and my sister in the love of Jesus. I love the church.
This week, we begin a series on the church by looking at Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Today’s we’ll look at the theme, “The Church lives in a place.” As we begin, I’d like to start by reading by reading the middle of the Philippians which serves as the heartbeat of Paul’s letter.
READ Philippians 2.5-11.
Those verses describe the good news of Jesus. While Jesus could have stayed in heaven, he chose to become human to die on a cross. God exalted Him to the highest place and gave him the name above all names. At the name of Jesus every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess Jesus Christ is Lord, tot he glory of God the Father.
One way I could describe the church in relation to her location would be as follows: The church lives the good news of Jesus where we live in holiness for the glory of God.
To unpack that sentence, we’ll take it a phrase at a time.
The church lives...
Someone has describe the church as “a group of Christians” (Colin Hansen & Jonathan Leeman, Rediscover Church, p. 26). The church is a group of people who follow Jesus.
Jesus and Peter have this beautiful interaction Matthew 16, where Jesus asks the disciples who do people say I am? Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” (Matthew 16.16).
Jesus replies in Matthew 16.17-18
Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.
And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
The church is a group of people who follow Jesus as King. The church is alive. The gates of Hades or the grave will not overcome it.
The church has longevity. Our church is on the verge of celebrating our 200th birthday. Many people over the years have called Berlin Christian Church home. In a sense, the church historically is still alive. We carry on the legacy of faith of those who have gone before us.
The church has global aspect to it as well. When we say we are part of the church, we join Christ followers in Asia and Africa, Maine and Montana. The church lives in different parts of the world.
We’ve chosen to anchor our series on the church in one of the letters that the Apostle Paul writes to a church, the church in Philippi. It was located in Macedonia.
The church lives the good news of Jesus...
“We are formed by our places, and we form our places” ( J. T. English, Deep Discipleship, p. 57).
Philippians 2 is the heartbeat of the letter. Paul wants this church to have a clear picture of Jesus. He could have stayed in heaven, but chose to walk this earth and take on flesh. We are weeks away from celebrating the Christmas celebration where Jesus was born as a baby. He humbled himself to death on a cross. One of the most humiliating and excruciating deaths possible. He laid down His life so that we could be made right with God.
Paul expresses his appreciation and affection for this church in the opening words of the letter in Philippians 1.3-8. He appreciates their partnership in the gospel—the good news of Jesus. He is confident that He [God] who began a good work in them will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ. Paul then goes on to describe his ministry of defending and confirming the gospel and how they share in God’s grace with him. He loves and longs for them.
I asked one of our leaders what He loves about the church and he said, “grace.” Church is where you meet the grace of God. Grace is receiving the opposite of what you deserve. Instead of a punishment, you receive a reward. The church lives out that good news of Jesus, the grace of God.
The church lives the good news of Jesus where we live...
Paul addresses several places in this letter, namely Philippi. If you go back to Acts 16, you find that this church will be birth from “the place of prayer” (Acts 16.13, 16). One of the first converts of this church was Lydia a seller of purple cloth, who welcomed Paul and Silas into her home (Acts 16.15). Paul and Silas get thrown into prison. At midnight, they are having church in a prison—praying and singing hymns (Acts 16.25). An earthquake opens the jail. The jailer and his household believe in Jesus and are baptized. So, the early roots of the church in Philippi are the place of prayer, prison, and homes.
Paul writes to this church in Philippi, probably from Roman house arrest. He tells the church that “it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that he is in chains for Christ” (Philippians 1.13). Throughout the letter Paul gives other spatial references like “in Christ” (Philippians 1.1), with Christ (Philippians 2.1), in the Spirit (Philippians 2.1), in the Lord (Philippians 3.1; 4.1,2,4,10). The church in Philippi lived the good news by sending gifts to Paul and encouragement through messengers (Philippians 2.25; 4.10).
Jesus taught His disciples to pray to our Father in heaven, “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6.10).
“Sometimes people say that ‘a church is a people, not a place.’ It’s slightly more accurate to say that a church is a people assembled in a place” (Jonathan Leeman, Rediscover Church, p. 48).
Michael will teach more next week on how the church is a people. Yes, the church is a people, but we live out this church in our communities and neighborhoods. Jesus left heaven to walk the earth.
Churches live the good news of Jesus in time and space. In 1824, Andrew Scott, a minister, settled in Island Grove with the aim “to teach and preach the true faith of the pure gospel” (Nathaniel S. Haynes, The History of the Disciples in Illinois, 1819-1914, p. 25-26). Our local church began about 2 miles northwest of our present location. One of the earliest names of our church was the Spring Creek Church. Notice the location. In 1855, Robert Foster immersed 30 converts in Spring Creek (Nathaniel S. Hayes, History of the Disciples of Christ in Illinois, 1819-1914, p. 371).
Another name of our church tied it to a location, Mt. Zion Christian Church. Mt. Zion is located in Jerusalem. It was the location where the temple was built. Mt. Zion or Zion represents where God dwelled with his people. So, you can see why people would choose Mt. Zion for a name of a church. We want God to dwell here.
In 1859, when the church relocated to the village of Berlin, the church became known as Berlin Christian Church.
Over the years, our church has served the needs of our community in the name of Jesus for the glory of God. We have fed the hungry, clothed the naked, baptized the repentant, comforted the grieving, and celebrated new life. In this little corner of the prairie, we live the good news of Jesus.
The church lives the good news of Jesus where we live in holiness...
Paul opens and closes this letter by greeting the saints or holy ones (Philippians 1.1; 4.21). Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi (Phil.1.1). A saint is a holy one. We are made holy by the work of Jesus and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We live holy lives in our community because that who Christians are. We are holy ones. Our lives will look different than those around us.
The church lives the good news of Jesus where we live in holiness for the glory of God.
That beautiful hymn in Philippians 2, closes with the words, “every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2.11). The church lives the good news of Jesus where we live in holiness for the glory of God. We don’t care for the needy for our own glory. We do so to shine the light on our heavenly Father.
Near the end of Philippians, Paul closes with a prayer, “To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen” (Philippians 4.20).
Another way to look at giving glory to God is by affirming where our citizenship really is. If you look at my passport it will show I am a United States citizen. However, as a follower of Jesus, I have dual citizenship. While I am a citizen of the United States, I have a deeper allegiance to the King of Kings and Lord of Lord, Jesus Christ.
The Philippians would have know about citizenship because it was a Roman colony and many Roman military retired to Philippi. They understood citizenship.
In Philippians 3.20-21, Paul tells the Philippians, “our citizenship is in heaven.” In most countries around the world, they’ll have embassies. An embassy is “an officially sanctioned outpost of one nation inside the borders of another nation” (Jonathan Leeman, Rediscover Church, p. 54). In Washington D.C., you can drive down “Embassy Row.” Buildings or campuses with flags of other nations representing that country. When we were in Mexico City, we drove by the United States embassy. I told our team, “If something happens here, run to that building.” In a very real sense, the church is an embassy of heaven here on earth.
That beautiful hymn at the heart of Philippians has roots in the prophet Isaiah.
“Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.
By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear.
They will say of me, ‘In the Lord alone are deliverance and strength.’ ” All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame.
But all the descendants of Israel will find deliverance in the Lord and will make their boast in him.
The church lives the good news of Jesus where we live in holiness for the glory of God.