What difference does the church make?

What difference does the church make?

I'll tell you, on this edition of Key Life.

That was author and seminary professor Steve Brown

and this is Key Life.

We're all about radical grace.

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to live a life of joy and surprising faithfully.

Thank you, Matthew.

If you were listening yesterday,

we started talking about the church

and the importance of the church.

And one of the things that you've got to remember,

if you're a Christian,

you're a member of the church.

You have met all of the qualifications

to be a member of the church.

I one time served as a pastor of the church

and we had weeks of training

before anybody would join the church.

And I had a guy who was in the church

whose name was Roland.

And he said, Steve,

I've been going through all these classes.

And do you know it's harder to join your church

than it is to get to heaven?

And I said, you know, I thought about that.

But that's true.

And that's when I stopped all of the church training.

I decided that if you're a Christian,

if you've come to Christ,

if you're forgiven,

you're a member of the church.

And you can't get out of it.

You're a part of it.

Who was it that said,

I don't want to be a member of any organization

that would accept me as a member?

Well, it's kind of like that.

The church is the church.

And if you, we saw yesterday,

if you're a Christian,

you are a member of the church.

I asked the question at the beginning of this broadcast.

What difference did the church make?

That question is not asked

to decide whether or not to be in the church.

That's already an accomplished fact.

The question, when properly understood,

is asked in order to perceive

one's place in the church.

Now, before we talk about the importance of the church,

the difference the church makes,

it's important that we talk a little bit more exactly

about what the church is.

We saw yesterday that it's from a Greek word

that means cold out ones,

ecclesia, and before an individual

becomes a Christian.

He or she is cold out to be different,

to belong to Christ.

What some people don't tell you

is that when that happens,

you become a member of the church.

Before an individual can answer the question

of purpose or experience,

there's a prior question of essence,

which must be answered.

In other words, we can't understand

what we are doing here unless we know who we are.

That is also true of the church.

We can't understand what difference the church will make

until we know what it is.

And so, it's important to examine

some of the biblical things that the church is.

The way the Bible defines the church.

First, the Bible teaches that the church is people

who have been brought close to God

at a great price.

The writer of the book of Hebrews,

after speaking of the sacrifice,

offered in former times

with a blood of animals,

says this,

How much more shall the blood of Christ,

who, through the eternal spirit,

offered himself without blemish to God,

purify your conscience from dead works

to serve a living God.

Hebrews 9.14

We've been brought near to God

through Christ's blood shed on the cross.

Paul put it this way,

husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church

and gave Himself up for her.

That He might present the church to Himself

in splendor without spot or wrinkle,

or any such thing that those who were in the church,

that it might be holy and without blemish.

Those who are in the church know

that it is made up of men and women and children

who together were brought to God

at the price of the cross.

Now because of that cross,

they can experience together His love,

His acceptance and His power.

The Archbishop of Canterbury,

back years ago when he married the late Queen Elizabeth,

said to the couple in the wedding ceremony,

Jesus is present here in this place right now.

And then He smiled and He said,

you stay close to Him and thereby

you will stay close to one another.

Okay.

Secondly, the Bible teaches

that the church has not only been

brought to God at the price of the cross,

it is a family brought together

by the same price.

The church is unique because of its beginning.

It was not formed so that there would be

separation between good and bad people

to give reason for religious people

to get together and meet and have

a covered disuppers or even to perform

service to the world.

It was performed or it was formed

because a man died on a cross to form it,

to all people everywhere who had believed

in Christ and what he has done on the cross,

gay God gave the power to become

the family of God.

That's John 1-12.

I want to say,

or to a man who has been rejected

by his human family,

stand before congregation and say,

I don't have a mother and father

or a sister or a brother

in a human sense anymore.

But I do have a family.

You're my family.

Last week I had holes in my shoes

and one of my brothers came to me

and said, my brother should not have holes in his shoes

and he brought me a new pair of shoes.

I've been hungry and my sister has said

my brother should not be hungry

and she gave me a meal.

I've been afraid and my family has said to me,

our brother should not be afraid

because the family is with him

and they comforted me.

I have an earthly family.

I don't have an earthly family anymore.

But I have you.

You are my family and I love you.

Incidentally, that was see more.

The assemblies of God,

preacher of another age

and I was there that night when he said it.

And after he said that quote,

I just read to you,

he said, everybody, come forward.

Let's get together.

I love you because you're my family

and this old Presbyterian preacher

and in those days I wore a collar,

a clerical collar.

I came with him because I was a part

of that family too.

That, seeing him worn,

defined the church.

Then third, the church is not only a family

brought to God and to each other

at the price of the cross.

The church is a family with a fantastic heritage.

Listen to what Paul said in Ephesians 2, 19 and 20.

So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners.

But you are fellow citizens

with the saints and members

of the household of God

built upon the foundation

of the apostles and the prophets.

There's no other organization

on the face of the earth

with a heritage like the church.

When Paul wrote the above words

to the churches in Asia,

he was riding to men

and women of low estate.

There were many slaves

and vassals and common people

and he was saying,

my brothers and sisters,

you may not have a great family heritage.

You may not have much prestige here.

But you have something much greater.

You're a part of a spiritual family

whose roots go back thousands of years.

You're a part of a family

built of great men and women of God

who, because they were committed to the family

and because many of them were strong and courageous,

have given you a heritage

that you should never forget.

The church is a family

with a great heritage

brought to God and together

at the price of the cross.

But it's more than that.

It's a family whose head

is Jesus Christ.

Paul said in Ephesians 523,

and Ephesians is the church book

of the Bible.

For the husband is head of the wife

as Christ is head of the church,

his body, and is himself

its savior.

Church is not a democracy.

It is a dictatorship of Christ

who is the absolute head.

The church's responsibility

is not to meet together

and decide what to do

or even to look at the problems

in the world and decide which ones

are to be addressed.

The church comes together

to discern what Jesus wants them to do

and then to do it.

Christ is the head of our family.

His authority is absolute.

His power unbridled.

You think about that?

Amen.

What difference does the church make?

Well, now you know.

Thanks, Steve.

We've been exploring the basics of the faith.

A series we're calling welcome to the family.

We'll continue delving into who

the church is tomorrow.

So be sure to join us, won't you?

Well, could the ancient discipleship

tool of catechisms help us

take on modern secular culture?

Author Trevyn Wack says that answer is yes.

His new book is called the gospel way catechism,

50 truths that take on the world.

We spoke with Trevyn about it

on Steve Brown, et cetera,

and I think you'll be intrigued

by what he says.

Check out that entire conversation

on CD for free by calling us

at 1-800-KEY-LIFE.

That's 1-800-539-5433.

You can also email Steve at keylife.org

to ask for that CD,

or to mail your request,

go to keylife.org-contact

to find our mailing addresses

for the US and Canada.

Again, just ask for the absolutely free CD

featuring Trevyn Wack's.

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