Two Faces of the Church

Now, for the sake of just simplicity here, I'm going to ask all those among us who have an RSV Bible to read aloud. And together with me, the rest of you can read softly. This is not O for a thousand tongues. Here we are. Ephesians 4, beginning in verse 1. I, therefore a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you've been called with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, it is said, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended, what does it mean? But that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth. And he who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. Okay, we're at verse 11. Everyone has an RSV. Lift your voice and read it out. And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles, rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth, and upbuilds itself in love. It's interesting there. I hadn't noticed this before, but in one place the Scripture says that we're to be like children and our praise. And here it says what? That we're not to be like children when it comes to our stability in the things of God. And once again, I'm going to mention. If you're in the back, it may be difficult for you to see. So from time to time I'll go down so that you know I really am speaking, and it's not a tape. And also, if you feel like you want to come up to be able to see a little better, that's fine. I'm going to be using the overhead some this morning, so we should be able to. If you're emphasizing you can't see, feel free to move in the middle. It was about 11 or 12 years ago that I was in a barracks with 44 other men standing at attention in my street clothes, listening to a stocky drill sergeant telling me and those of us assembled exactly what I could and could not do for the next 36 hours. Telling me what was available to me and what was off limits and what I needed to watch out for and what I needed to be careful of. And he concluded with these words that still kind of ring in my mind. He said, and wherever you go, remember you're always a Marine. Now, the funny thing about that was the last thing you wanted to remember when you left that place was that you were a Marine. But there's this thing about haircuts that help you to remember that all the time. I remember very clearly that though we wanted to leave there, it was my first leave from my basic training and I wanted to just get out and forget about the previous five weeks. I had been told to clearly remember that no matter where I went, I was a Marine. And it's interesting, in that very principle, there's something that speaks to our community. And it's a whole subject that I want to address today as we continue on in a series of teachings that deal with how the community is to function together. For the previous three weeks, we've dealt with the environment or the climate of life that we are to be a people that learn to deal with one another and with the world in freedom and acceptance, in love and forgiveness, that those qualities of. Of freedom and accepting one another, of love. Remember that love is the preciousness of the person apart from their performance and the forgiveness, the willingness to reconcile even when you've been wronged. It's interesting. I received a letter last week in response to the teaching. And I didn't bring it with me because I don't want to embarrass the person that sent it to me. But it was a. It was a beautiful letter. It wouldn't embarrass them that they wrote it, but anytime you call attention to someone, they tend to be embarrassed. And this letter said that as a result of the Holy Spirit moving in their life last Sunday, that they went and made, right, a relationship that had been strained and pressed and difficult for six months with a person that they really cared about. And I wonder how many of you had a similar experience this week or because of the Lord speaking to your heart about making relationships, right? You went and dealt with a person or a relative or someone that you care about. Just out of curiosity, I won't ask any more than this, but just put your hand up if you did something in response to that last week. Anybody else? A handful. God is working. God is working. But what do we do with this matter of our acceptance and love and our forgiveness of one another? How does it function? How does this body to be operating all the time? I had a guy that came up to the office yesterday, by the way, the office. We're going to tell you all about that next week. But it was a total shambles this week for a number of reasons, all good ones. And I had a fellow come up I hadn't seen for a while, and he said, why did you call yourself North Way Christian Community? He said, I understand the North Way part and I guess I understand the Christian part. Anyone ever asked you why it's called a community? No. Have you ever talked to anyone about it? Don't be afraid to do like this. No one's going to think you're a fanatic if you nod your head. And I share with this brother a little bit as to why. And then I realized that, you know, that's something that maybe a number of us really haven't thought through a great deal. And I want to talk today about the functioning of our body. Why are we different? What makes us different from a, quote, church, a normal church? And I want you to understand two fundamental principle premises that I'm going to work on. One is that we have largely in Christianity in our century, and particularly to my knowledge, in this last couple of decades, developed an unbiblical understanding of how the church is to function. And it's largely a reflection of our intent, really, to separate the secular and the spiritual. It's amazing to me how many people separate one segment of their life as being spiritual and godly and Christian and all the rest. And the other segment is, well, that's the real world. And I think that the unbiblical understanding of how the church is to function reflects to a large degree that misunderstanding, that dichotomy. The second premise that I want to work under is that the Word offers us some very precise guidelines as to how the church is to function. But I want to say this. I know many of you well Enough to know that you don't see this very clearly. And there's a chance that a lot of what I may say today is going to be a little hazy in your mind. And you're going to say, well, I guess that's right. And I suppose that that may be true. And I'm not so sure it's that different over here. But I want to tell you something. Unless you understand what I'm going to say today about how the church functions, you will not really come to grips with how this body, and I believe that the Lord now is establishing this body. We had that surge of enthusiasm and excitement and so on all through the summer. And now, folks, it's time to really lay down the foundations. But. But you won't understand how this body is to work unless you understand what I'm going to say today about how the church functions. Now, I want you to consider with me, and I've done this on an overhead, so that you can follow along two terms. The first one is the church gathered. In the Greek, the word is S U N E r K O M a I suner komai. For example, in 1 Corinthians 14:26, the Bible says, when you come together, that's the word. When you come together. First Corinthians 14:23, the same word suner kamai. It's talking about the church gathered. And the other word is the church dispersed. And that in the Greek is diaspero D I a s P e I R o dispersed. You see that word in Acts 11:19. Other places the church gathered and the church dispersed. Now, the church gathered is classically illustrated right here. This is Sunday morning at Bradley's. Northway Christian community is gathered together. We're here to enjoy fellowship and we're here to enjoy worship. And we're here to hear the word taught. We're here to see people and we're gathered together in the name of the Lord unto him to receive correction and reproof and exhortation. But the church also gathers from time to time. Apart from Sunday morning, the home group meeting is a good illustration. Little body of nine or 10 people meeting in a home. That's the church, right? The church gather. But the total of those two gatherings which comprise Northway Christian community gathering at this point is about five hours a week. And that means that the other 163 hours a week, the church of Northway Christian community is dispersed. We are out there, sent out. We are being salt. When the church is gathered, where's the salt? It's in the shaker, right? This is the salt shaker. We're in here together. And during the week the salt's poured out. Listen, nowhere in the Bible did Jesus say, you are the salt shaker of the earth, but you're the salt of the earth. And so we need to come to grips with what he really was saying and talking about being dispersed among us, among the world. Now, I want to look at some of the characteristics of the church gathered. It's a valid and important principle. If we didn't come together, it wouldn't be long before we wouldn't have an identity. We wouldn't know who we are. We wouldn't be able to bring the Word and encourage each other and sense the presence of the Lord. And so the gathering time is very important. And I in no way. And sharing these two elements of the church, I in no way want to so deprecate one that it seems to be unimportant. But I want you to see with me that the church gathered as an emphasis. If that becomes your focal point, if that becomes the thing that you get most excited about and look to the most, begins to plant in you a certain mentality and a certain set of motivations. And we're going to look at those in detail. When you think, well, this is where it's happening. I'm going to church where it's at. That's where the Spirit is. And I've talked in other Sundays about people who go where the Spirit is, however they feel like it each week, as opposed to really plugging in as a person who's a committed member of a body. And we'll see something of that implication. Now, what happens when you begin to focus on the church gathered? The first thing that happens is that the mentality begins to arise about the visibility of the church. If you're focusing on the church gathered, then it becomes important that you have a visible church. Right. Building. The building's got to be visible, because if that's where it's happening, we want people to be able to see it. They should drive by it on their way to work. It should be near the main road. And visibility becomes important. If your focus is the church gathered, the program and the promotion become really important because that's what's drawing the people in. I mean, the gathering is taking place and we want the people to come. So we've got to have things all up and down the line and every night of the week. And then we have to let people know what those things are. So we have to have somebody who is really talented in promotion so that they can get out the right kind of publicity and do a good job of hooking people in. Get the hook out there. I used to always hear that. So we can catch a fish and bring them on in to the pond where it's happening. And then the budget and the facility and all the rest of where the spirit is, that becomes. That's important. That's the focus, you see, because if it's not well taken care of and if it's not amply funded, then, well, people aren't going to be able to come and see what's happening like they really should. Now, believe it or not, I'm not talking here. When I'm talking about people who are focusing on a church, gather. I'm not talking about liberal churches, brothers and sisters, you understand that most of the evangelical churches that I know and have been part of all the way back in my past have had a philosophy of the church gathered as the focal point. What does that say then about their ministry? Well, you come to church to get ministry. Go to church and get someone to pray for you at church. Go to church where you can really worship the Lord. Ministry is taking place at the church. You've got to get over there or you're going to miss out on the ministry. And when that begins to happen and people come to church because that's where the ministry really is taking place, then the focus begins to come in on the people who are doing the ministry. And that's when you begin to look to the person up front, to the person with the beautiful voice. Let them do the singing, because I really don't have a very good voice. Let that person always, always, always teach because they really know the word. And let that person do the praying because, boy, they really know how to pray. And you see, what happens is ministry, which God never intended. This ministry begins to be seen as the domain of a handful. And your involvement, the involvement of the people is pretty much a positional thing. You are considered to be involved if you have a slot in the organizational ladder of the church. Well, I'm chairman of the Board of Missions. That's my ministry. Now, understand, I'm not saying that that's bad. I'm saying that that's how most of us, including myself, have come up. We're focusing on what happens when the church comes together and we see it as being something that we aren't really a part of, even though we love being there because we love the people and we Think it's kind of neat and all that. And what it ultimately leads to is a motivation about serving the church and doing what the church needs done. And so a person is deemed to have a ministry in the church when they are at the church doing something for it, that is babysitting or doing kitchen work, leading the junior choir. Jay, are you saying that all those things aren't serving God? I'm saying that if that's all that we see ministry as, we've only taken the first step of understanding what the Bible has to say about it. The focal point of the church gathered leads us to these attitudes, and our motivation becomes the goals of the organization. And that's why you'll drive down the road and see thermometers. I mean, in a big ones on a church lot somewhere. Our goal is to have 16 busses. That's not a big thing here. Boy, if you ever been down south, it's not how big your church is, it's how many busses you have in your lot. You think they'd meet in the busses? I don't know. But these are the things that take place. And ultimately the bottom line of it is. And listen, nobody ever stands up and says, this is what we're going to do. We're going to make you a spectator. No one ever says that. But implicit in the way they operate, that's what you end up being. You watch some talented people worship God, you listen to some talented people do their thing, and you have the privilege of standing up when they tell you to and sitting down when they tell you to. Now, I believe that many people have slipped into this mentality, this mindset of focusing on the church gathered very innocently. And some people do these things so well that the church seems to really thrive. You and I know churches that really have seen to be, quote, successful because they've done those things really well. But in the end, when you go through and you really know the people in the congregation, most of them are spectators. I heard Christianity was described once to be much like a football game where you have 22 people on the field in dire need of rest and 22,000 people in the stands in dire need of exercise. Watching them, It's much that way. I can tell you from the brethren that I know all around us out here in the North Hills that many pastors, many pastors and staff people are burned out because they have inherited this whole understanding of the church. And they've tried to do all these things, and there they have before them scores or hundreds of People who have absolutely no sense of how they might enter into the ministry as the Lord Jesus intended. One of two things happens. Either you enter into a passivity where you don't really think that you ever need to do anything, or. Or you enter into an inferiority where you feel like, gee, I just can't do it as well as they do it. And both of those attitudes, beloved, are going to bring death into you. The passive believer who never gets up and lifts a finger because someone else is going to do it, or the pastor is going to do it, or whatever, and the dear one who feels like, I could just never sing like they do, or I could just never have a meal like the pastor's wife. It's terrible. That's not what I meant to say, but you know what I'm saying. I'm not pointing to my family as an illustration of all this, but you know what I mean. And so we feel like someone else who really has it has to do it. Now, alongside of that, I want us to look well in this. Let me say this. In this illustration of the church gathered, what happens to the church when it's dispersed? When the focus is on the church gathered, what happens when the church goes out? What? Not much. That's right. Not much at all. Because people really aren't ready. They don't know what to do. People haven't really understood that God had a purpose for them when they left. And yet the Bible is full of things like 2 Corinthians 2:14, where you are the fragrance of Christ to the world, and Second Corinthians 5:20. The Bible says that you are an ambassador. What does an ambassador do? What is an ambassador? By definition? What's an ambassador? He's a representative in a foreign country. The Bible says you're Christ's ambassador. You're Christ's ambassadors in North Allegheny High School. So when you're dispersed, you're Christ's ambassadors at US Steel, you're Christ's ambassadors on Lori Valley Drive, wherever you are. That's where you are going to function as his ambassador. That's where you're going to be the salt of the earth. Now, what happens when the church is dispersed? Well, I want to say this. The church comes together so that it can be dispersed. That's why it comes together. It doesn't come together so it can get hype and hang on until it comes together again. I don't know if any of you would confess to having seen the Hearns and Leonard fight this week. Women. Any women I won't ask the men. I don't want to embarrass anybody. But wouldn't it have been ridiculous if the guys go back to their corner and have a great time with their trainer and coach and then go back in the middle and get bopped again and they come back to their corner? Oh, this is great. Or take a huddle in a football game. What is the purpose of the huddle? To have a good time, to get ready for the next huddle. The purpose of the huddle is to get ready for the play. The church gathered. We just had a great huddle. You know, go out and you play bombs, lose 15 yards. Let's have another huddle, have a good time. But the purpose of the church, when it huddles together, is to get ready for the play, to get ready to be poured out. And when that becomes your focus, your mentality is that the church is together to equip the saints. Now I want you to look with me @ephesians 4, Ephesians 4. Now, I won't take time to really draw out all the Scriptures out, but if you're taking notes, there's four basic outline or points of this outline in Ephesians 4. You can jot down in Ephesians 4. 1, 2. I want you to note that those adjectives that describe Paul's exhortation to their spirit, lowliness, meekness, patience, forbearance, that is the environment. That's the love, acceptance, and forgiveness that we're talking about being here. Okay, then the next three verses, three through six, talk about unity, perfect unity. That's what God intends for his people. Now that the acceptance and love and the forgiveness and the unity with which we operate, that becomes the climate whereby we are strengthened and we go out. Then we see gifts in 7 through 11. And gifts are for a specific purpose. Gifts that are described Here in Ephesians 4, 7, 11 are for the purpose of getting you ready to fulfill your call or your goal. That's the fourth thing. So one and two is the climate of love and acceptance forbearing one another. You see the words there? 3 through 6 is unity, 7 through 11 is the gifts, and 12 through 16 is the goals. And I want you to look with me specifically at 11 and 12. And his gifts were that some should be apostles. These are Christ's gifts, different from the Holy Spirit's gifts, different from the Father's gifts. Christ's gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. And here's what they're to do to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ. Now, what does it mean to equip the saints? The Greek word is right there. Actually, that's a combination of Greek and passive, which means it's pretty garbled. But that word is catartizo. That word means some of your Bibles. It's translated perfect. Anyone have a Bible that says perfecting the saints? Okay, a couple of folks do. To perfect the saints or perfect the saints, if you want to use that. And flexion. That word is very interesting. In the Greek, the word means, first of all from a political standpoint, opposing factions are brought together. It means from a surgical standpoint, that a broken limb is set in proper place. When a surgeon was set a limb. In the Greek, this word would be used to say that that limb was properly set. It was catetizo. And it means primarily this. It's putting a person or a thing in the condition that it ought to be. Putting a person or thing in the condition that it ought to be. In Mark 1:9, it's used in reference to mending a net, putting it in the condition that it was to be. And so what we're saying here is to equip the saints means that you are prepared to be fully who God wants you to be. You're equipped by becoming what God wants you to be. And it also has with it the idea of coordination and blending together, fitted together. It's translated one other place in the Greek New Testament. And you see, brothers and sisters, this is the function of a pastor. This is what I'm supposed to be doing. God measures my success, if you can use that word in spiritual ministry, it's not in the New Testament. But he measures how well I'm doing as a pastor by how well you're doing in your ministry, not by how well I'm doing at bringing in big crowds and all that kind of thing. That's not God's standard of measure, and it's certainly not going to be mine. God wants me to be as a pastor and anyone else who he's called to these other offices to serve you by equipping you for the work of the ministry. That's the Greek word diakonia. That's the word that's used in Acts 6, from which we get deacons. Diakonia is also an interesting word. Primarily means this. Get ready. Primarily was used as household service. A person who did diakonia did the basic chore level duties Well, I thought ministry meant that you could lead people out in worship, or I thought ministry meant that you could heal somebody. Well, that's part of ministry. But ministry in its fundamental sense means simply looking out for the interests of another. That's another Greek meaning looking out. Can you have a ministry if it's looking out for the needs of someone else? Right. Can you have a ministry? Can any of us have a min. If it's looking out for the needs of someone else, how many of us can have a ministry? Amen. As I said initially, the temptation is to hear what I'm saying and say, I guess that's right. But to be gripped with the truth of this will revolutionize this fellowship. Because as we're equipped, as we're put in the condition, we're to be prepared as we see our ministry as we begin to move out. So many times people say, I just don't know what my ministry is, Jack. I mean, I've asked the Lord if I have a ministry of a teacher, if I have a ministry of a prophet. And my response most often is just do what you find you want to do for other people. Do you enjoy calling up somebody and praying with them? Do you enjoy helping someone to clean their home? Do you enjoy going over to a friend's house and just talking with them about their needs? Do you enjoy teaching the children? Then don't look for a lightning bolt. Just move into your ministry. Find your diakonia and move into it. And you'll find that as you do that, that you begin to build up the body of Christ. The Greek word oikodemeo, there is the word that talks about building a house. When you're moving in your ministry, you're building up the house. I think myself, this is interpretation. I won't say it's absolutely right. It means both you build it up in terms of quality and quantity. Because how many of you know that if you leave this place excited about your ministry, wherever you are, that people are going to be affected? And when somebody is affected, what are they going to want to do? They are going to want to say, hey, something really is happening in your life. And I just kind of like to find out about it and you can share with them. First of all, well, I go to this church. You say, you talk about Jesus, you share your testimony of his love, and it won't be long before they'll be coming out here. I mean, if that's where God wants them to be. But that's not the object anyhow, do you see the difference, that's the object over here. And what I'm saying to you is if we're really participating, if we're really doing what the Lord calls us to do here, God's going to take care of this. It will be built up, it's going to happen. And do you see what the goal is? Look with me, verse 13. The goal is that we all attain the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That's what the Lord wants to do with us. That's how it takes place. Listen, God never ever measured how well a body was doing by how big it was. He measures it by the fullness of the stature of Christ in you. And now listen, that can be a cop out for a dead church. You can talk to a church of 30 people that's been that way for 10 years and they say, well, we're not very many, but we have quality people here. After 10 years, a quality people that has not multiplied itself at all isn't a quality people. They're kidding themselves. But on the other hand, his measure is the fullness of Christ in you. His measure is what's happening in you. And that's what our measure is going to be as well. Just like I was a Marine, whether I was on the base or out on liberty, so too we are the church, whether we're here or out there. The difference really though in the analogy is this, that when we're out there, we're performing our primary function. When we come together, it's that we might be encouraged as these people to be out there. One thing that's been happening a lot lately, people have been saying, I'd really like to get out of my job and get where I could have a ministry. I really like to. I just find it oppressive where I am and I'd like to get out of my job and get into full time ministry. Do you see how close that gets right off the bat to being a contradiction? I have a friend who, one of the people in his fellowship was just terribly upset with his living place. It was one of these fancier condominium kind of places and they were just frustrated with it and they said there's so much sin here and there's all kinds of things taking place and we're sick of it. And we really think we ought to have a Christian alternative, we ought to have Christian housing. And my friend dealt with his brother and thought about it some and prayed about it and said, you know, somehow it would seem to me that what God would have us to do is to not get all the christians bunched together, because that would be a christian salt shaker apartment building, wouldn't it? And all the salt would be in that shaker, but rather that God's purpose would be to infect that apartment building. So he said, now, you know, this guy is like all of us a little bit timid, and says, what do you want me to do? He said, well, God can use you there just like he could use me or anyone else. Why don't you just see if you can get people together and begin to influence the people in the apartment building? Well, what should I do? Preach? Go out by the pool and begin to. You know what he did? He wrote out his testimony. Just wrote it out, one page, typewritten, put it on the bulletin board where a lot of people went, near the lounge, in the social room, in the swimming pool. He said, anyone interested in and learning more about this kind of life, come to the manager's apartment. This man happened to be the manager. And do you know that people made a path to talk to him and it wasn't long before they had a bible study in that apartment complex. Praise the lord. And God wants to affect people right where we are, you say, well, that's easy for you to say because you don't have to deal with the. The vulgarity and the pride and the materialism. Well beloved Jesus came and he spent his time with who? Sinners and tax collectors. He didn't hole up in some sanctuary and hope that people would come and find him. He was out there. Now from time to time, God will raise up in the body people who will help with that equipment. And in our midst, we're blessed because we're seeing that principle right now with blaine and the lord. Through the last number of years that I've known, blaine and particularly in the last few months, has been preparing his heart to become an equipper of the body. Not to be doing all the ministry, but to help all of us move into our ministry. And I'm excited because this week Blaine began his ministry in our midst. Now, understand, I think this is so of God because it illustrates the point. Blaine's theological credentials are pretty short. He loves Jesus. He doesn't have a seminary degree. He hasn't been trained at the finest. Neither have I. But in a lot of ways, that the church gathered tends to evaluate people's ability to minister by their PhDs and their books written and all the Seminars they've led and all the rest, Blaine doesn't have it. But on the enablement of the holy spirit, on his availability to God and on his desire to be obedient, Blaine's come in to where God wants him to be, and that's exciting to me. And every time that you see blaine or realize his ministry in some fashion, remember, you can say without any equivocation, he's just like me. Now, the thing is that God's not going to raise up all 200 or so of us to be ministers, right? I'm sorry, I shouldn't say it that way. He's not going to raise up all 200 of us to be equippers, but he is going to raise up all of us to be ministers. Technically, if you ever want to worry about what you're going to title, me and blaine and others were pastors, you're ministers. And that's the way God intended it to be. And so, as we conclude today, I want you to remember that your greatest joy as you stand before Jesus is going to be his words