The Mission Christ Gave His Church
The Mission Christ Gave His Church
"How can a church today expect people to hear what they say in a
world where there are problems like hunger, ignorance, poverty,
prejudice, and hatred?" This question is asked with repeated frequency
as sincere people seek to learn the role churches should play in our
world today. In this continuation of a study of the church Jesus said
He would build, we will look at the mission He gave His church.
Hopefully, we will see it from His perspective by the time we conclude
our study today. So, please stay with us.
The West End Church of Christ presents these fifteen minute
sermons each Sunday. We have only one reason for doing it -- we want to
preach the truth of God's word without being restricted by human
doctrines, creeds, and wisdom. That is why we repeatedly ask anyone who
listens to communicate with us if you do not agree with what we teach on
this program. This is not done out of a spirit of dare, or challenge,
but in sincerity and in the interest of being absolutely right about the
most important issue of this life and of eternity.
We also want to invite you to attend our services. Bible study
begins at 9 a.m. Sunday morning followed at 10 a.m. for worship -- we
honor God in the reading and teaching of His word, several prayers,
gospel songs, giving of our means, and partaking of the sacred memorial
feast of the Lord's Supper. Sunday evening we assemble for worship at 6
p.m. and mid-week Bible study is each Wednesday night at 7 p.m. Our
meeting house is located at the corner of Parkside Drive and Old
Morgantown Road, just across from Lampkin Park and Tapp’s Drive-in.
Please be our guest today.
Dr. Donald A. McGavran, Dean Emeritus at Fuller Theological
Seminary in Pasadena, California and Dr. Win Arn, Executive Director and
President of the Institute for American Church Growth, collaborated on a
book entitled, How To Grow A Church. It was published by Regal Books in
1979. In response to how a church can get people to listen to the
gospel where there are so many social problems that seem to be more
important than salvation from sin. Dr. McGavran made an interesting
point when he said, "Furthermore, we must never forget that in
evangelism we're not telling people how good we are. We preach Christ,
not ourselves. If we start preaching ourselves, we're done for; I don't
care how good we are." (page 167).
The church Jesus promised to build is truly one body, a spiritual
body, and is sent into the world on a very pointed spiritual mission --
saving the lost through preaching the word. Churches that lose sight of
that one goal Christ has commissioned become side tracked into many
unauthorized social, political, domestic, and economic endeavors. There
is only one way for any group of people who think they have even a
relative relationship to the church Jesus built to avoid drifting away
into the never, never land of secularism in religion. By maintaining an
unwavering loyalty to what Jesus said, to His authority, and to His
principles of right and wrong, can any of us remain unspotted from the
world we are here to save from sin.
Let us all be warned. A church today cannot be the same one Jesus
built if it does not actively engage in the fulfillment of the mission
He sent His church to accomplish. If Jesus sent the church into the
world to remove poverty, ignorance, hunger, hatred, and the like, then
those who do not energetically engage in that cannot be His church. On
the other hand, if Jesus sent His church into this world to make men
know the joy and way of salvation from sin, those who focus their chief
concern on eradication of poverty and ignorance rather than proclaiming
the gospel of Christ, cannot be His church today. So, it is extremely
important to get a clear view of that mission. And, it is equally
important to be unbiased about it -- may I add also to not allow our
feelings and emotions to override our respect for the Christ who built
His church.
Understanding the mission Christ gave His church is made easier by
considering the New Testament teaching about its basic nature. The
nature of His church manifests the work it is to accomplish. The nature
of Christ's church may be known first by the different descriptions
inspired men gave to it. Consider:
It is called His Body. Paul wrote, "And He is the head of the
body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead;
that in all things He might have the preeminence" (Colossians 1:18). As
the head, Christ directs the body in all of its activities. But also,
the body under the control of its head is but an extension of the head.
From a purely physiological point of view, the church, as Christ's body,
is but an extension of Christ Himself. Going into the world as His body
means that those who make up the church engage in the work Jesus came to
accomplish.
No mere man can accomplish the one work Jesus accomplished in His
atonement for man's sin. However, Jesus said, "For the Son of Man is
come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). Seeking the
lost, bringing them into the fold of safety, through salvation was His
primary concern. It should be the primary concern of His body, the
church, in every generation.
Second, the church is called a temple. Peter wrote, "Ye also, as
living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood,
to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ"
(I Peter 2:5). As a spiritual house, the church is concerned in the
first place with spiritual work, saving souls through gospel preaching.
The offering up of the sacrifices in the church today is not from the
smoke of animal sacrifices, nor is it from the so-called "fellowship
halls" or kitchens that so many churches have. Someone once wrote, "If
the Lord allows time to continue, one wonders archaeologists of the
future will not wonder what sort of gods this generation served, as they
dig up the remains of our steam kitchens." The sacrifices we offer to
God consist of our own service as His disciples, preserving and
perpetuating His own personal mission, preaching the saving message of
truth to the lost.
It is interesting that in the next verse, Peter said, "Because I
lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious and he that believeth
on Him shall not be put to shame." The temple of God, the church Jesus
built, rests on the solid footing of His deity. And the word "because"
is significant. Because the church is His spiritual temple, to engage
in the offering up of spiritual services, He has laid the foundation
here on earth. From that solid rock of truth, the church of Christ must
continually be active and energetic in spreading nothing but the truth
of the gospel of Christ.
The church Jesus promised to build is called "the pillar and
ground of the truth." Paul wrote, "But if I tarry long, that thou
mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God which
is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" (I
Timothy 3:16). The truth is the one means of spiritual freedom. Jesus
said, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free"
(John 8:32). Truth is the sanctifying power of God. Jesus prayed,
"Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy word is truth" (John 17:17).
Truth is the one path in which the church must walk. John wrote to an
individual named Gaius. "Beloved, I pray that in all things thou mayest
prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced
greatly when brethren came and bare witness unto thy truth, even as thou
walkest in truth. Greater joy have I none than this to hear of my
children walking in truth" (III John 2-4). Only those who walk in the
confines of truth follow Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life
(John 14:6). To walk in the ways of social reform, political activism,
and worldly entertainment, is to abandon the path Jesus blazed for His
church to follow.
But how is the work to be done? The church of Christ is to
support the preaching of nothing other than the gospel as revealed in
the New Testament. Paul said of the Philippians, "Do all things without
murmurings and questionings; that ye may become blameless and harmless,
children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse
generation among whom ye are seen as lights in the world, holding forth
the word of life; that I may have whereof to glory in the day of Christ
that I did not run in vain neither labor in vain" (Philippians 2:14-16).
If the church bogs down with a social emphasis, it will soon engage in
bickering and strife. We don't have time for such as that. If every
one who claims to believe the Bible, were to restrict both teaching and
activity to only what can be found in the Bible, there would not be
enough time to be side tracked into unauthorized activities.
Churches of Christ in the first century give us a clear view of
how that work is to be done. Churches sent preachers into a field of
work to preach. Luke tells us, "And the report concerning them came to
the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem; and they sent forth
Barnabas as far as Antioch, who when he was come, and had seen the grace
of God, was glad, and he exhorted them all that with purpose of heart,
they would cleave unto the Lord" (Acts 11:22-23). Other times, churches
sent financial contributions to preachers. Paul spoke kindly of the
Philippians who had sent "once and again to" his necessities
(Philippians 45:15-16). Notice that it was to relieve his needs -- not
to make him wealthy.
This, then is the essential mission of Christ's church. It is
tragic that churches of our generation are moving farther and farther
away from this simplicity and fundamentalism into realms where social
concerns are more important than going to heaven. Truly, modern day
religion is focused on this world rather than that which is to come.
But, that is not so of all churches. We of the West End church of
Christ are seeking to be only what Christ promised to build. And, we
invite your most careful examination of all that we teach, preach, and
practice. I hope you have listened with an open mind.
If you have any question at all about this topic, or if you would
like extra study materials on it, contact us. You can write us at
West End Church of Christ, 1609 Parkside Dr., Bowling Green, KY. 42101.
Until the next time we have this opportunity to be with you by radio,
may God richly bless you and yours. Good bye.
Radio Sermon No. 64
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