Life Defined By The Church

Nothing has really changed, nothing from God’s perspective has changed, even though it has changed on earth in the Church. The Church is still called to be a fellowship of people, selflessly and humbly giving their lives away sacrificially to one another and to those outside. And that’s what I want to talk to you about tonight. We have been working our way through the marks of a real Church. We’ve talked about the absolute authority of Scripture that marks a real Church. We’ve talked about the priority of true worship. We’ve talked about doctrinal clarity and spiritual discernment.

We’ve talked about the pursuit of holiness. We’ve spoken, and we did this in our last session, of the real Church being identified by a plurality of godly leaders who feed and lead the flock and live exemplary lives that set the pattern to be followed. And then we finished up with a discussion of the necessary commitment in the Church to discipleship. That is to engage in the process of seeing the believers grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ. There was a very well-known pastor who put out a blog in the last couple of weeks in which he said, he declared for the whole world to see, I resign, I am through, from fixing people.

You can take this job and blank, no longer will I be engaged in fixing people. That is the life of the Church, as we all need fixing, and we need more of it all the time. So we looked at that last time, that the life of the Church is a life of mutual commitment to see one another grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, come to the fullness of the measure of the stature of Christ, which we’re going to look at in a moment, to grow up in the knowledge of Christ, to become mature, to become spiritual fathers who know Him, who is from the beginning, to receive from one and give to another.

Paul tells Timothy, what you’ve received from me, give to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. So we ended up talking about discipleship. Now, I want to come to what is in my little list, number eight in the marks of a real church, and this would be simply titled mutual loving ministry, mutual loving ministry. And that takes us back to the introduction. The Church is a fellowship of people who are engaged in loving expression of ministry to one another. In John 13, 34 and 35, Jesus said, by your love they will know you, by your love they will know you.

We heard that given in the testimonies in baptism tonight, the people viewed Christians and saw the reality of their love for each other, their demonstrable care for and ministry to each other. And that was a convincing reality as regards the true work of salvation. Paul, in writing to the Thessalonians, tells them that this is so basic that he says, now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves, are taught by God to love one another, for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren.

This isn’t something that requires information. If the breath of God has come on you, and he has if you have been redeemed, the spirit himself is shed abroad in your heart. And with the shedding of the spirit abroad in your heart, love has been shed abroad in your heart, as we heard also from Romans 5-5. And so you don’t need someone to teach you to love one another. You’re taught by God, the Holy Spirit, to do that. That is foundational to the life of the Church. That’s why in Acts 2, immediately when people were redeemed on the day of Pentecost, they were found studying the Apostle’s doctrine, praying, and they were breaking bread and fellowship, communion, a word that means partnership, participation, life together.

The New Testament is clear that this life together embodies the one and others of the New Testament. There are many of the one and others. You can look them up in your computer list or in your concordance, and you will find a myriad of one and others. They define life in the Church in terms of mutual care and mutual spiritual ministry. We also know that the New Testament talks about spiritual gifts. 1 Peter 4, Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, speak of the gifts that the Lord of the Church has given to every member of the Church to be distributed mutually among those in the Church for their spiritual benefit and education.

Now that is really what is on my heart as we come to the study of the Word of God tonight. And I want you to look with me at Ephesians 4, because here is a good starting point to understand the mutual ministry that is to occur in the Church. We can begin in 4.7, and I’ll read this to you. As a result we are no longer tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the Head, even Christ, from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

Thank you for joining us in this exploration of life defined by the Church. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way. [tr:trw].