The Foundation of the Church

Note: this is an old sermon of mine about the church. While I still believe much of what I wrote here, my views on church have drastically changed since I wrote and preached this sermon. For my more recent ideas about what the church is, try my book Skeleton Church. 

I. Old Testament Patterns

II. The Definition of the Church

A. The Church’s Form

1. Universal and Physical
2. Under Christ’s Headship

B. The Church’s Function

1. Exaltation of God
2. Edification of the Saints

a. Encourage
b. Equip

3. Evangelization of the World

What is the right way to “do” church?

I have book in my study which argues that the only true churches are those that are house churches. Others say that the only true churches are those that meet on Saturday. Then there are some who teach that a church should sing only hymns. Many say that a church should not have a pastor, just elders. The various opinions on how to “do” church are almost endless.

So is there a right way to “do” church? And if there is, how can we know what it is? Well, as we continue to look at God’s Blueprints for Church Growth, we want to try to answer this question. There is no way we can answer it completely, because there is far too much involved. But we can look at the framework.

Previously, we have learned that the rock solid foundation of the church is the Word of God. Any other foundation is sinking sand. Today we want to begin building upon this foundation by putting up some framework. We need to look to Scripture to see what the church should be and do.

Old Testament Patterns for the Church

Probably the best place to start is with the Old Testament. Immediately, I can hear someone exclaim, “The Old Testament! But the church doesn’t begin until the New Testament.”

That’s correct, but since the Old Testament is in the New fulfilled and the New Testament is in the Old concealed, all New Testament theology should have its basis in the Old Testament. The theology of the church is no different. In fact, I believe that one of the reasons there is so much confusion today about church is because we have neglected what the Old Testament has to say on the matter. When we focus on just the New Testament, we get a warped view.

It may very well be that one of the reasons the New Testament is so vague on the divisive issues of our day is because there was no need to give instructions when the New Testament was being written. It’s not that they struggled with different issues, but that they already knew the answers. How? From the Old Testament. This becomes clear when we think about it. How did Paul know what to write in his Pastoral Epistles? How did he know what instructions to give to the churches in Corinth, Ephesus, and Philippi? It was not because he had the New Testament – he was writing it!

No, when you read his letters of instruction, it becomes clear that Paul used the Old Testament as a basis for nearly everything he says. As an expert student of the law and the prophets, he was both answering questions Jews had about how to live as Christians and also which Gentiles had because they didn’t know the Old Testament. Paul was using an Old Testament model, and incorporated Christ into what was already set up. The Old Testament is the pattern for the New Testament church.

Nevertheless, the New Testament church is not an exact replica of Old Testament worship patterns. The Old Testament provides the basic structure, and within this structure, certain things needed to be changed. So for the most part, it is these changes that much of the writings of the New Testament is concerned with. The New Testament builds upon the foundation of the Old Testament and lets us know of any changes or renovations that had to be done on the old structure. To see this, let us look briefly at a few of the Old Testament Patterns which did not change with the New Testament.

First of all, everything was based on the Scripture. Since God’s Word is truth, it alone was the basis of what was taught and what was done. There was not room for man’s ideas for these generally just led to error. We see a reverence and respect for the Word of God that has no equal (Psalm 119). When teaching occurs, it was most often by a man reading the text and then explaining it. He did not say whatever he felt like saying and then throw in a verse to back it up. What was said was always focused, grounded, and anchored in understanding and applying the Bible in sequence and in context (cf. Neh 8:7-8).

Secondly, Biblical education begins in the home with the fathers teaching their wives and children (Exod 12:26-27; Deut 4:9-10, 6:7). This is severely lacking in Christian families today. Most fathers today think that religious instruction is the responsibility of the church. Yet we wonder why each successive generation seems to know less and less about God and the Bible. It is true that one of the primary tasks of the church is instruction about God and His Word. But just as people who don’t get enough food eventually starve to death, people who don’t get enough spiritual food will also spiritually starve. Therefore, the fathers are to be the spiritual bread winners for the family and provide daily spiritual food for their family. It was this father-guided family which constituted the essential pattern of Old Testament worship.

Third, there was a hierarchy – not a hierarchy made of individuals – but a hierarchy of groups (Exodus 18). We see this system set up by Moses in the wilderness when he could not handle all the problems of the Israelites. He set up groups to help deal with the various issues. A lone pastor, handling all the problems, doing all the teaching, meeting with all the people, planning all the programs, is a pastor who is quickly on his way out. The family of God is always a team effort led by groups of men called “elders” (Exod 19:7; Lev 4:15; Num 11:16; Deut 19:12, 21:19, 27:1, 31:28, etc.)

There are many other things that could be mentioned, like the OT pattern of music (see Psalms), tithing (this principle is changed in the New Testament), ministry training (done by the congregation), mentor-disciple leadership selection (Moses-Joshua, Elijah-Elisha, etc.), but many of these are mentioned in the New Testament as well (Eph 4; 2 Cor 8-9; Acts, 1-2 Timothy, etc.).

But due to a lack of understanding of what the Old Testament teaches about the church, many incorrect ideas and practices have arisen in the church. Most of them are half-truths about the nature of the church, or an overemphasis on a certain aspect of the church. One church will go off on one extreme, while another goes off the deep end in the opposite direction. Both sides generally have New Testament Scriptures which seem to support their views, but in reality, both are wrong, because neither has considered the Old Testament pattern. Both are unbalanced because they have not been balanced by all of Scripture.

The Definition of the Church

When you consider the whole counsel of God, both the Old Testament and the New Testament, you discover the following definition for the church. This definition cannot be found word for word within the Bible, but it is a summary of what the entire Bible says about the church. The Bible tells us that

The church body consists of the universal and local gathering of believers under the headship of Christ, meeting regularly and orderly for the purposes of exalting God, edifying one another and evangelizing the world.

This definition shows us two things about the church – it’s form and function. What it looks like and what it does. Let’s look at the Church’s Form.

A. The Church’s Form

1. Universal and Local (Spiritual and Physical)

The form of the church is that it is made of the universal and local gathering of believers. On the one hand, the church is universal. It consists of all Christians worldwide and through out time. You are in the same church Paul was, the same church Martin Luther was, and the same church as your cousin in Florida. This is because the church is universal. It is a spiritual organism. A Christian can be locked away in a prison cell in China for their entire life, and never attend a church service, and still be part of the universal church. Everyone who has believed in Jesus for eternal life is placed in Christ, and is therefore also part of the spiritual church, even if they never attend church.

But, let us be careful, because some people go off the deep on this and seem to believe that since they are part of the universal church, they don’t have to attend a local church. For example, some who correctly understand that the church is universal, timeless, and spiritual, believe that they can go “have church” on their own in the forest. They go for a walk or a bike-ride along a bubbling stream, and pray and sing, and during their mid-morning break, get out their Bibles and read a few verses. They believe that since the church is made up of all believers throughout time and around the world, that it is not Biblical to “go to” a local church.

A less extreme, but similar practice, is the “family” church, where the parents and children have their own “church” service in their living room on Sunday morning or some other time of the week as a substitute for church. The mother plays the piano, the father shares from Scripture, everybody prays. They believe they have had a church service. Now this is a wonderful example of obedience to the Biblical command for a father taking the role of spiritual leader, but this family has not had “church.” They have had family devotions.

The reason such things don’t qualify for church is because the local aspect of church is being neglected. You see, although the church is spiritual and universal, it is also physical and local. The Bible clearly tells us that God wants the believers of a local area to meet regularly and orderly in a physical setting. The Bible tells us we need to meet in smaller physical settings. Why? People who worship God on the bass lake are not accountable to anyone else. They are not being encouraged or taught by anyone else. They not equipping anyone else. They are not using their spiritual gifts to serve others. They are not supporting the work of the kingdom with their time, talents or money.

At the other end of this spectrum are those who emphasize the local/physical aspect of church. When they think of church, they think of a building that they go to on Sunday, but they don’t really think that the church goes with them when they leave. Rick Warren says these Christians sing “Onward Christian Soldiers” on Sunday, then go AWOL on Monday. I sometimes think of them as “Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde Christians.” They fairly regularly attend a church service where they sing, bow their heads in prayer, listen to a sermon, put some money in a plate, say a few pleasantries to the pastor after the service, and then rush home for the pot roast or the football game. They have “gone to church.” And for the rest of the week, not a thought for God or His Word enters their minds, until the next Saturday night when they set their alarm clocks for Sunday morning. The majority of those who attend Sunday Services in North America are of this sort. Since they view “church” as nothing more than a geographical place that you go to on a certain day of the week, the compartments of “church” and “life” never mix.

The Biblical truth is somewhere between these two extremes. It is true that if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, no matter where you are, or what you are doing, or who you are with – even if you are all alone in the forest, or locked up in a prison cell – you are a part of the church. Even those Christians who are no longer on this earth are part of the church. This is because Scripturally, the church is universal and spiritual.

But it is also clear from Scripture that the church regularly meets and fellowships in physical locations. Where this is not happening, the church is not functioning. One of the vital elements of being part of the church is corporate worship. But when this time of corporate worship is over, church is not over. When you leave this building today, you are not leaving church. Rather, the church is leaving this building. When you leave, the church goes with you, because you are the church. This is the Biblical balance. The church is formed by the local and universal, physical and spiritual body of believers. But secondly, the church is formed under the headship of Christ.

2. Under Christ’s Headship

This means that the Pastor is not the head of the church – Christ is. The elders are not the head of the church – Christ is. The Pope is not the head of the church – Christ is. And may I point out that the Holy Spirit is not the head of the church either? Christ is. Be very careful of any church that puts anybody or anything up on a pedestal rather than Christ. Christ alone must be lifted up and glorified. Christ must be talked about and emphasized more than anybody else. Christ must be listened to and obeyed, because Christ alone is the head of the church. As the head of the church, Christ tells us what to do and how to do it. He gives us our marching orders. He gives us our instructions.

The picture of course, is a body. The head is the control center for the body. Everything the body does, it does because the head tells it to. The legs take the body where the head tells it to go. The arms do the work the head tells it to. The eyes look where the head wants them to. The mouth eats and feeds the body according to the heads instructions. When a person’s head is not controlling the body as it is meant to, the person normally ends up in some sort of assisted living program or mental institution. When the head does not function properly, a person cannot take care of themselves.

Similarly, when Christ is not allowed to be the head of the church, chaos reigns. When Christ is not allowed to rule the church, you end up having an arm trying to tell everybody what to do, and most of the time, that arm wants everybody to act like an arm. Or if the mouth takes control, the mouth wants everybody to look like and act like a mouth. But when Christ is in control, He enables us to be who we are supposed to be so that we can do what we are supposed to do. There can be unity, peace and harmony where there is great diversity and differences of opinion.

So how do we allow Christ to be the head? Simply by doing what he tells us to do. The head tells the body what to do, and the body obeys. It’s that simple. And the best and primary way to hear what Christ is telling us to do is by reading, studying, learning and obeying His Word, the Bible. When we do this, we will ultimately be fulfilling our function. We’ve looked at the form, let’s now turn to the function.

B. The Church’s Function

The function is the second part of our definition. According to the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20, the overall function and purpose of the church is to make disciples. You could picture the church as an assembly plant (Heb. 10:24-25) where the end product is mature disciples.

And according to Scripture, disciple making involves three components: The Exaltation of God, the Edification of Believers and the Evangelism of the world. The first, the exaltation of God, can be accomplished anywhere, in any way, by any Christian. The second though, edification, can only be accomplished within and through the local church. This is one reason it is important to be plugged in to a local church. Then thirdly, once we have gathered to be edified, we scatter to evangelize. Let’s look at all three in more detail.

1. Exaltation of God

The first E is the Exaltation of God. The Scripture most often refers to this as bringing glory to God. Everything we do, everything we say should bring glory to God. Most of us seem to imagine that the only place we really exalt God, or bring glory to God is at church. But this is not true. While church is one place we should and can exalt God, we are to live every second of every day in the exaltation of God. When you are going to work, you can work to the glory of God by working cheerfully, honestly and with integrity. When you interact with the members of your family, you can treat them like the children of God that they are. No matter what you do, begin and end it with the glory of God in mind.

Johann Sebastian Bach composed music. Here is what he said about his music: “All music should have no other end and aim than the glory of God and the soul’s refreshment; where this is not remembered there is no real music but only a devilish hub-bub.” He headed his compositions: “J.J.” “Jesus Juva” which means “Jesus help me.” He ended them “S.D.G.” “Soli Dei gratia” which means “To God alone the praise.” He began and ended every composition with the glory of God. You can do the same thing in your life. Whatever you do, start your projects, start your day saying, “God, let what I do today glorify your name.” At the end of every day, say, “God, let what I have done today be used for your glory.”

The first E in our function is the exaltation of God – brining glory to God in all that we think, say and do.

2. Edification of the Saints

The second E is Edification. 1 Corinthians 14 (cf. 14, 26), where Paul is still talking about how to use spiritual gifts, he tells us over and over that all the gifts must be used for the purpose of edifying one another. Whether you have speaking gifts or serving gifts, they must be used in a way that brings edification to other people.

Now, what is edification? Well, edification basically means to build up. When we edify someone, we are building them up. And there are numerous ways we can build up and edify one another. Let’s look at just two, both of which start with E’s.

a. Encourage

We can encourage one another by praising them when they make progress in the Christian faith, or by challenging one another in a positive way to press on. Will Rogers once said that we can’t all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by. You may be a clapper, an encourager. Encouraging others is a wonderful thing we can do to build them up. I don’t think you can ever encourage somebody too much. You cannot “over encourage.” Parents, your children desperately need your praise and encouragement. Husbands and wives, one way to help your marriage is to constantly be encouraging your spouse. Even in here church, we all need to be encouraging one another to press on, and persevere and live up to the standards God has laid out for us. The writer of Hebrews tells us to encourage one another, and all the more as we see the day approaching (Heb 10:25).

And you know, you can be as creative as you want in your encouragement. An elderly widow, restricted in her activities, was eager to encourage others. After praying about this, she realized that she could bring blessing to others by playing the piano. The next day she placed this small ad in the Oakland Tribune: “Pianist will play hymns by phone daily for those who are sick and despondent–the service is free.” The notice included the number to dial. When people called, she would ask, “What hymn would you like to hear?” Within a few months her playing had brought cheer to several hundred people. Many of them freely poured out their hearts to her, and she was able to help and encourage them.

Encouraging others is one way to edify. And some people have the spiritual gift of encouragement which makes them wonderful at edifying others in this way.

b. Equip

But we can also edify others by equipping them. One of the places this is mentioned is in Ephesians 4:11-16 which we will be looking at in the next few week. Equipping is one of the main ways that Christians can be edified. It is different than encouraging. Encouraging is when you come alongside someone to help them press on and keep up the fight. Equipping is coming along side to give them some training or some new tools to help them be more effective in their ministry. One of my gifts is pastor/teacher, and so one of my primary, God given responsibilities to you is to equip you, and train you, and give you the skills and tools to do the ministry God wants you to do in and through this church.

Ask yourself occasionally if how you are interacting with other Christians is edifying to them or destructive. Are you building them up, or tearing them down? Are you encouraging or discouraging others in the walk with God? Are you using your own spiritual gifts to benefit the body, or are you just coming to church for your own benefit? All of this comes under the umbrella of edification, of building one another up. That is the second E. The first E of ministry is God directed exaltation. The second E is directed at other Christians and is edification. And the second e-word, edification, has two e-words of it’s own – encouraging and equipping.

3. Evangelization of the World

The third E is directed at the lost people of the world. We’ve already got ministry toward God and other believers taken care of, so that only leaves non-believers. This E is Evangelizing. Evangelizing is the ministry of all believers toward lost people. It is sharing with them through our words and actions that even though we are all sinners, God loves us and offers eternal life to anyone who simply believes in Jesus Christ for it. This is the good news that all of us are to take part in sharing.

One way we can do this is by supporting missions work that is being done around the world. We can either go ourselves, or support those who have gone by praying for them and giving money to support their work. But beyond this, all of us are to be witnesses in our own communities and lives. You can evangelize at work or in your neighborhood. Some of you can even do this at home with your spouse or parents. I know that for many of you, evangelism and witnessing are some of the most difficult things to do. It scares you to talk to someone, and even if you did, you wouldn’t know what to say or how to say it.

But that is why this is the third E. If you are focusing your life first of all on Exalting God, then people will see the light of God shine through you. God’s love will be so evident in all you say and do around unbelievers. St. Francis of Assisi said, “Preach the Gospel at all time, and if necessary, use words.”

A young salesman was disappointed about losing a big sale, and as he talked with his sales manager he lamented, “I guess it just proves you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.” The manager replied, “Son, take my advice: your job is not to make him drink. Your job is to make him thirsty.” So it is with evangelism. Our lives should be so filled with Christ that they create a thirst for the Gospel. When you are exalting God with your life, your life will automatically be a testimony to others because they will thirst for what you have in your life.

But the second E is vital also for witnessing. As you come to church and listen to the sermons, and attend a Bible study where the Word of God is discussed, and fellowship with other Christians who face the same questions and struggles you face, you will learn more about the Bible, and will gain confidence about how to share the Gospel, and what words to say, and how to say them. Part of the Edification process is to equip you for evangelism. So if you are struggling with evangelism, make sure your life exalts God, and that you are getting as much edification from the church as possible. Coming to church and going to Bible studies are like eating a meal, or putting gas in your car – they give you energy for the work that is ahead.

The entire Bible has a lot to say about the church. The Old Testament gives us a pattern. The New Testament gives us some changes and renovations. Both must be considered to get a healthy picture of the church so that we can build on the foundation laid out for us. And when we consider both, we see the church’s form and function. It is formed by every Christian around the world and throughout time, and this universal church meets in places like this building to fulfill our function. Our function is to exalt God, edify one another, and evangelize the world.