Love the Church
August 8, 2021 • Ephesians 5:25–27
Audio Trascnript:
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Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church. My name is Jan. I'm one of the pastors here, along with Pastor Shane and Pastor Andy. And if you're new or visiting, we'd love to connect with you. We do that through the connection card that you can get in the back at the Welcome Center. If you fill it out legibly, return it there, we'll get in touch with you over the course of the week. We also have a virtual one you can get in the App Store. Just search Mosaic Boston on Google Play or the App Store, and you can also get the card online on our website. With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's Word?
Heavenly Father, we thank you that you, the eternal God, have taken us finite, temporal beings who rebelled against you. You could have let us go, leave us alone to wander from you, to rebel against you, and you could have allowed us to die in our sins. Instead you sent your on, Jesus Christ. You loved us so much that you gave your son Jesus Christ to live the perfect life, to proclaim the Gospel, to speak truth to us, because we needed it and because you love us, and love means not just giving people what they want, but giving people what they need above all else. Jesus, you did that, and then on top of everything, you went to the cross to atone for our sins. It was the only way that we could be reconciled with God the Father. And by the power of the Holy Spirit today, we can be reconciled with you and Jesus. Jesus, you save us, and you saved us so that we can covenant together as your people in local churches as an embassy of God, a nation within a nation, a kingdom within a kingdom, to proclaim the glories, the excellencies of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ. That's our job.
I pray, Lord Jesus, show us how much you love the church. You love the church with an intimate, affectionate, a marital, a spousal love. Make us a people who love your church as much as you love the church. That makes the people who are part of the church want to see the church thrive, because the church is your body, and the church is your bride, and the church is your flock. It is your temple. The church is your army. And make us a people who don't just commit, don't just join, but make us a people who care for and are zealous for and pray for and serve the local church. And as we do, Lord, deepen our relationships with each other, and make us a people who don't forget there are many in this city, in this region who don't know you yet. Make the people care about them and go and pursue and preach the Gospel, and welcome them into the fold of God. Blessed art thou and the Holy Scriptures. Right now we pray this in Jesus's name. Amen.
We're in a three week sermon series that we're calling Love Jesus Simple. Those are the core values of Mosaic Boston as a church. Those values shape everything we've done, everything we do, everything we pray to do, and they've shaped the past decade of this church, and we pray that these values shape the next decade and decades, Lord willing, to come. And what do we mean when we say love Jesus simple? We mean that love is the motive for everything that we do. Jesus is our message, and simplicity is our method. What does love mean? Well, love means the God-given gift of love, which is so much more than just sentiment. It's volitional. It's an act of choice. I choose to love you. And the same way that God points to us, takes unlovely people, unloving people, and He chooses to pour out His love on us, that's the same love that motivates everything we do. It's a love that speaks truth into people's lives. You speak the truth with love.
When Jesus Christ came, He lived a perfect life. He fulfilled all of the law, and He summed up the essence of Christianity, the essence of the law, by saying this. That the essence of faith is love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. A holistic love for God. And love your neighbor as you love yourself. So, how did Jesus Christ... He perfectly did both of those. How did He do it? What did He devote Himself to? Did He go around singing praise songs and teaching people to sing praise songs, because hey, if you love God, you sing? Is that all He did? No. And in terms of loving people, did He just start soup kitchens and meet people's physical needs? That's not all He did. He did something so much more. In order to fulfill the commandments to love God and to love people, He devoted Himself to something. He loved something. He loved so much that He sacrificed for something. What was that? It's the church. Jesus Christ fulfilled the two greatest commandments, love God and love people, by loving the church, giving Himself for the church.
Our text for today is Ephesians 5:25 through 27, just to frame up our time together. And if you're new to Mosaic, what we usually do when we preach God's word is we take Holy Scriptures, it could be a paragraph, and we go verse by verse through the text. Today I want to architect, or lay out the architecture of what the church is from the whole framework of Scripture. There's going to be multiple Scriptures, but this will be our landing point. Ephesians chapter five, verses 25 through 27. Would you look at the text with me?
"Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church, and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish." This is the reading of God's holy and infallible, authoritative Word. May He write these internal truths upon our hearts. What an interesting text to start with. My wife loves this text. She's like, "Baby, you better get that memorized." She said no tattoos, unless I get Ephesians 5:25. A tremendous tattoo, in the Greek. Just to remind myself, husbands, love your wives.
Incredible pattern. But the pattern is given to us because it's based on a reality. What is that reality? The reality is that Jesus Christ loves something above everything else. That He loves this church as a way... He loves the church as a way to love God and to love people. This is what Jesus Christ devoted Himself to. I remember being, I was 22 years old, out at college, working a consulting job in outside D.C., Fairfax, Virginia, and I would drive every day from 8:00 to 8:29. I was driving my '99 Toyota Solara to work every day. And grace to you, John MacArthur would go on, and it was the first time I ever listened to expository preaching, verse by verse. Fell in love with it.
And then I remember listening to John MacArthur sharing his testimony about how God called him to be a pastor, and he asked this question. He said, "Hey, what should I do with my life? What should I devote my life to?" And he said, "I love Jesus Christ and I love the Scriptures, and in Jesus Christ and in the Scriptures, I see that Jesus devoted Himself to something, and He devoted Himself to the church above all else. Everything He did, everything He taught, everyone He served, it was all for the church." So why would we not devote ourselves to a greater degree to a church? And I pray that this sermon, this sermon series in particular, will deepen our love and zeal for the church of Jesus Christ.
Three points to frame up our time. The church is gathered. Second, the church is family. And third, the church is temple, body, bride, flock, army, all different metaphors to define this reality of what the church is. And I start with the church is gathered, because gathering in all of the metaphors and all of these instances is essential. Gathering isn't merely a nice thing that Christians do. Gathering is central to what the church is. Gathering is who we are. Apart from the gathering, if the church does meet, there is no church at all.
The Greek word for church is ekklisia, which just means assembly. And a lot of people, when they want to talk about the church, they want to primarily go to talk about the universal church. Let's not talk about local church. Let's talk about universal church. So that's where we'll start. Tremendous. And then we'll talk about the local church. But the universal church is the universal gathering of every Christian in Heaven. Every Christian that has lived, every Christian that currently lives, and every Christian that will, in a sense. Because in Heaven, it's above time. It's a timeless place. So in Heaven, Hebrews 12:23, it says, "The assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in Heaven." So in a sense, every single Christian who is alive today, physically, you're here. Spiritually, you are already assembled in the universal supernatural church in Heaven. Yes, it is a future reality, but it's also a present reality.
Seeing Paul writing to all of the Epistles of the cities, but Colossae, for example. He writes to them in chapter one, verse two. He said, "All of you who are in Christ, you're in Heaven already. You're in Christ, because Jesus is seated at the right hand of God. You're in Christ, but you're at Colossae." So in Heaven you're assembled, but also here on Earth you're assembled. So even from Saint Paul's perspective that if you are part of the universal church, obviously, obviously you're part of the local church, because faithful local churches are earthly displays of the Heavenly church.
Here's how I want to frame up church membership. A lot of people ask me, because a lot of people, a lot of Christians really have no ecclesiology, and perhaps that's some of you. Perhaps you grew up in a church with... There are churches that never talked about a church, never talked about the importance of church. It's like being on a road trip, and you know where you're going, but you never talk about the car itself that you're in. You're just focused on the journey. Yeah, it's important, but you've also got to care for the car, and you've got to gas up the car, and you've got to change the oil, et cetera, et cetera. So, we have to speak about the church. The church is crucial.
And a lot of people are like, "Give me a Bible verse. I just want a Bible verse for the church." I'm going to give you a lot of Bible verses today, a lot. So, you're going to be kind of blown away by how much Scripture's going to come at you real quick. But I'm doing this for a few reasons, because I love Jesus, and I love the Holy Scriptures, and I love the church. I love the church, and I love this church, and I pray that you dear Christians fall in love with the church as much as Jesus Christ loves the church, and become a member of the local church.
So Matthew 18:20, "For where there are two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." All right. Jesus is talking about Christians gathering together, and Jesus is present through the Word. Well, a lot of people take this text out of context, and they use it as an excuse, justification for them not having to be part of a local church. Which is very ironic, because actually, the whole pericope, the whole text, has to do with the importance of the local church, because he's talking about church discipline.
But before I get... I remember I was at a prayer meeting. I joined a church in Moscow when I was doing a study abroad. I loved the church, and they had a prayer meeting. I was like, "Awesome." And I met a guy there who it was his first time, and when it was my first time, he was training for the Olympics in wrestling, and so we were like, "Yeah, let's hold each other accountable, and we'll go to even prayer gatherings." And we gathered. It was me, him, and there was two older ladies every single time. The two older ladies, they'd say the same thing every time. What they would say is, "Where two or three are gathered in the name of Jesus, Jesus is there with us." And I was like, "Oh, that sounds good."
But on the one hand, you're pulling a text out of context, because that text is talking about church discipline in Matthew 18. On the other hand, Jesus said, "I am with you always, until the end of the age." So, Jesus is with every single individual Christian, yeah, so it's not like I need another Christian to say, "Okay, you've got a little Jesus. I've got a little Jesus. With your powers combined, now Jesus erupts." That's not what's going on in here at all. So, you can't use this text to justify you chilling around your fire pit with your boys, smoking a cigar and drinking beers and talking a little about Jesus, saying, "That's my church." That's not your church. A church has qualities, qualifications, clear lines of delineation. And in that context... And we'll get into Matthew 18... it assumes that there's a body of believers. It assumes that we know who's in, who's out. It assumes that there's spiritual leadership. It assumes that the members meet together repeatedly in gatherings. It assumes ordinances and accountable membership.
So, from the perspective of the Old Testament, gathering, the assembly of believers was also always crucial. God saves Israel, brings them out of captivity in Egypt. And the very first thing that He does is He gives Moses the law, and the people of God gather on Mount Sinai to receive God's law. They hear God's law spoken, and Moses calls this in Deuteronomy 10, 9:10. He calls it The Day of Assembly. And then God afterwards says, "Hey. Now I want you to build a tabernacle where the people of God gather on a regular basis for the festivals, for the sacrifice, to hear God's word expounded, explained, for the people of God to worship and praise God." And then Israel would gather in synagogues. They would gather at the temple when it was built, and at critical junctures in the history of Israel. King Solomon, when he dedicated the temple in Second Chronicles, he called it "all of the assembly of Israel."
Then Jesus Christ, He goes to the cross, He dies, He's buried, and then for 40 days He's teaching His disciples. And then He finally ascends to Heaven, and He said, "Don't leave Jerusalem. Don't do anything until I send the helper, the Holy Spirit." On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descends upon the people of God, thus forming the first church. And as the church was formed, they knew who was in and who was out. In Acts five, the persecution of that church, and it said, "For fear of the persecution, others would not join the church." Assumption that there's joining. So when people are like, "Give me one Bible verse about church membership," I'm like, "Hold on. I'm going to give you the whole New Testament." Because the New Testament doesn't make sense apart from churches. Christianity doesn't make sense apart from membership in local churches.
That's what Jesus was doing in the Gospels, is training up the leaders of the church. And in the Book of Acts, what we see is the Holy Spirit descends upon the early church, and what we see is the church grows. They go from Jerusalem to Judea to Sumeria to the ends of the Mediterranean, the Roman Empire. Saint Paul even wants to plant churches in Spain. What are they doing? Planting churches in city centers, so from there they could influence all of the Roman Empire. So when people are like, "Hey, give me a Bible verse for church membership," I'm like, "That's like saying, 'Give me a Bible verse to prove that God created everything.'" Yeah, there's one. In the beginning, God created all the Heavens and Earth. Boom. God created everything. But then the proof of it is... Look around. That's how God treats it. And then in Scripture, it's just assumed. It's assumed God created everything. It would be ludicrous to believe anything else. That's how Scripture approaches church membership as well. Obviously this is part and parcel of the faith.
Who starts churches? This is crucial before we start defining the church. God does. Saint Paul says, "I planted, Apollos watered." But God gave the growth. God's the one that's planting churches. So in Acts 20, verse 28, Saint Paul says, "Pay careful attention to yourselves, and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God, which He obtained with His own blood." He's talking about the elders in Ephesus who are leading a particular group of members in a church. This is Jesus's blood bought church, and He has ordained you. He has chosen you as overseers by the Holy Spirit. That's where it starts, the calling from God. Jesus starts churches. Jesus also ends churches.
In the Book of Revelation, he writes seven letters to seven churches, and to the church in Ephesus he says, in Revelation 2:5, "The words of Jesus Christ. 'Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen. Repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place, unless you repent.'" Because the church had stopped proclaiming the Word of God, stopped obeying the Word of God, and Jesus says, "I call you to repentance." Because He loves them, so He gives them a hard Word. That's what love means. Giving them what they need most, not what they want most. Calls them to repentance. Or else, He says, "I'm going to snuff out the light, the life of your church."
So there's a lot of churches. There's a lot of church buildings, even in our own city, that are dead. God snuffed out the lamp stand a long time ago, because they wouldn't repent. Every reference to the word church, almost every reference in the New Testament is about the local church, a group of Christians who covenant together, make a clear... There's a clear relationship. You hold me accountable, I hold you accountable to gather regularly for worship of God and ministry of the Gospel, to proclaim the Gospel to one another and to unbelievers, underqualified church leadership. So, that's why Titus has given to us in First Timothy, "For worship the preaching of God's word, the ordinances of baptism and communion."
And yes, there is a universal church, but we're physical beings. We're physical creatures. Right now we're in a time and we're in a place and in a space. So in the same way that our spirit is in the universal church of God there, our bodies need to be in a local church here, and we gather as an assembly, just like the early church did on the day of Pentecost. After they get saved, what do they devote themselves to? That's a tremendous pattern. We should devote ourselves to something similar.
Acts 2:42, 47. "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need, and day by day attending to the temple together and breaking bread in their homes. They received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people." And the Lord added to their number, which is clear. This is how many we have.
"Day by day, those who were being saved, they devoted themselves to the preaching of the Word, the understanding of the Scriptures." That's the apostles teaching. "They devoted themselves to fellowship." We get to know each other. We know who the other members are, and they did that by fellowshipping in homes, and that's why we have communities. We meet for worship on Sundays, for the Holy Scriptures, to worship God as a corporate body, and then during the week, we meet to have fellowship with one another, breaking of breads, communion. They prayed for one another, and they voluntarily met one another's needs.
I remember in college bible study, a guy was like, "Yup, this is why. This proves that Jesus was a socialist, and the early church was just... They were all socialists. They just sold everything, and they gave everything voluntarily." Voluntarily. That's the difference between socialism and Christianity. Socialism wants to demand, force everyone into generosity. You can't do that. That doesn't usually end well. You need gulags for that. Jesus does that by changing people's hearts. Now we're generous.
So, what we see is that Christianity is inextricably linked to the local church. The local church is the New Testament's expression of Christianity. And we see what happened in Acts, and it continues as the church grew. We see it in the Book of Acts, and then we see the Epistles of Saint Paul. If you don't understand the importance of church membership, clear, defined, who's in, who's out, you're not going to understand the Epistles. Every single one of the Epistles is either written to a church, or is written about churches. That's how important it is. And that's the Epistles. And then from the Epistles, we get the Book of Revelation. The Book of Revelation begins with seven letters from Jesus Christ to seven churches, and the Book of Revelation ends with Jesus Christ coming back dramatically for His bride, who is the church.
And just to give you a few other verses, First Corinthians 11:18. Just assume that a church gathers together. "For in the first place when you come together as a church, when you assemble as an assembly." And the original First Corinthians 4:23, "If therefore the whole church comes together." So, the assembly of the covenant members who said this. "We are a church body." They're coming together, gathering together. So the gathering is a distinct event, and then Paul provides specific instructions on what believers should do in church as the church gathers. First Corinthians 14:19, "Nevertheless, in church, I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than 10,000 words in a tongue." First Corinthians 14:28, "But if therefore, if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church, and speak himself to God."
And the New Testament instructs Christians as they gather to do things that can only be done when you meet together. Teaching, admonishing one another, singing, psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, and reading Scripture publicly. First Timothy, 4:13, "Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture to exhortation to teaching." And when we gather together, we remember our hope that is in Christ, that Jesus is our high priest. He is our temple. And because our hope is in Christ, that's why we gather.
A lot of people have this backwards. A lot of people say, "I have a relationship with Christ. He's forgiven all of my sins, and now I could just feed myself off of podcasts, or go to conferences and read Christian books. I can have a great time, and listen to my own preferred style of worship, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera." But in Hebrews 10:19 through 25, the writer of Hebrews, he grounds the commandment to not forsake gathering in the hope we have in Christ. So, because we have this hope, because He's our high priest, because we can go to Him, let us go to Him by gathering together.
This is Hebrews 10:19 through 25. "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain that is through His flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the House of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up in one another love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near." So we're not to forsake the gathering because of the hope we have in Christ.
And even when the author of Hebrews wrote this, there were clearly people there, as is the habit of some... And I always feel, whenever I talk about church membership or the importance of attending a church, I always feel like the teacher that gets up and starts berating all the students who are there, berating them because of so many students who are absent. And I get it. You're here. But that issue, that's always been an issue. There's always been Christians who just hear what they want to hear. "Oh, Jesus forgives my sins. Oh, Jesus is my personal savior. Now I can just follow Jesus on my own," without understanding that no, you need to be part of a church. You need the church. The church needs you.
And then also, Jesus envisions the church as a whole when it speaks to the unrepentant sinner. This is in the context of church discipline in Matthew 18. One of the reasons I've been... So, I grew up in a Russian church that my dad was a minister at. Became a member at 16. Moved to college, outside after college. Moved to D.C. Joined a church there where my uncle was a pastor. It was kind of like family, so church goes together. But I remember the first time I joined a church on my own volition, outside of family. I had to make a decision to join this church. It was FBC Durham, where Pastor Andy Davis was, is still the pastor. Where, like you had to decide. This church, what do they believe? How do they do ministry? And it's a volitional decision.
My wife and I, we said, "Look. We want to join this church," even though I was in seminary, and it was just for a short period of time. But I knew we needed it. I knew we needed to go to another body of believers and say, "Please hold us accountable. I do not trust myself, because I know the flesh wants an excuse to walk away from God, walk away from faithfulness. My wife and I and our family, we need this. My soul needs this. I need you to hold me accountable, and I will return the favor." And that's how Jesus views church. Actually, one of the only times He uses the Word ekklisia in the Gospels, He does in the context of church discipline, which is going to a Christian who's living an unrepentant sin and speaking truth into that person's life. As awkward as it is, as hard as it is, this is the most loving thing to do when a person is walking away from the faith, because it wakes them up from the spiritual stupor of sin.
So, this is Matthew 18, 15 through 20. "If your brother sins against your brother," you know who your brother and your sister is, because you have defined relationships with spiritual family. "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church." So, it's clear who the church is, clear who's in and who's out. Tell it to the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and tax collector, meaning the person is no longer in the church. The person's in the category of an unbeliever. A believer, by definition, you're a Christian if you repent of your sin. As soon as you stop repenting of sin, you, by your lifestyle, are showing that you are not a Christian. So now you are like a Gentile or a tax collector, so now you're not a brother or sister that we hold each other accountable. Now you're an unbeliever that we are preaching the Gospel to.
Verse 18, "Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven. Whatever you loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven. Again I say to you, if two or three of you agree on Earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in Heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." So in that context, you see. When the gathering of two or three people who agree, "Yes, this is true. Yes, this is God's will," and yes, this person to testifies to be a Christian isn't living in line with the Gospel, is living in unrepentant sin, now that person is no longer a church, a part of the church. So it's clear who's in, who's out.
Saint Paul, in First Corinthians chapter five there's a sordid account of a gentleman who was sleeping with his mother in law, and they were just celebrating. They're tolerating this sin as a church, because they're so loving. And Saint Paul says, "That's not loving. That's actually the most hateful thing you can do when someone's living in sin and you're celebrating that sin. The most loving thing you can do is to say to that person, 'You're on track to end up in hell for eternity, unless you repent of your sin.'" So then Saint Paul says this. First Corinthians, 5:4, "When you are assembled, when the church ekklisia is assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord."
On just the first reading, you know, that's not love. It's the most loving thing that can happen. If a person is walking away from the truth, from Christ, who is the only way of salvation, there's no coming to God the father except through Him. This person is walking away, pursuing sin. And if we as a church say, "Oh, that's fine. That's okay," we're doing the biggest disservice to that person, and we are ruining the testimony of the church and the community at large.
So, Saint Paul then later in that chapter says, "Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? We are to judge brothers and sisters. Are you living in line with the truth of God?" And that's what we mean by love. A lot of you... And I've heard this several times... "I come to Mosaic, and I just feel insulted. You just tell me how much of a degenerate, reprobate, pagan, just ungodly person." That's what I do. That's what I do, because I love you. Because I love you. I don't want you to go to hell. Life is short. Eternity is long. Hell is hot. And there's only one way out, and that's through faith in Jesus Christ. That's why we do what we do.
So a lot of people, when they think, "Oh, love. It's sentimental. It's gooey," if someone says they love you, but never tell you the truth, that person does not love you. They tolerate you. Indifferent is not love. Indifference is actually the greatest level of hate. Even if a person says, "I hate you," at least they care about you. Indifference is like, "I don't care what happens to you." That's not what we do. We want to tell you the truth, and this is why church membership is so important. In church membership, you say, "Please tell me the truth. Please hold me accountable." So church is gathering of the saints, and this is how we actually grow in sanctification to become the Christians we're called to be.
You can't play a sport just virtually and say, "Okay. I did that sport." You can't play football. You can't play Madden Football in a video game and say, "I'm a football player." You're not a football player. You're not a football player. I don't care what football you're talking about. American football or soccer or whatever. I don't care. You've got to actually play. And yes, football players, during the week many of them don't even look like football players. But if you don't show up for game day, you are not on the team. And that's really what church membership is. Who is the team? With whom are we on the team together?
So the gathering of the invisible church is made visible weekly in the gathering together, and then why? Because the church is also family. The church is family. In a family, individuals matter, as does the whole. And you need that balance. My wife and I, we have four daughters. I love my four daughters individually. Individually. They're very different. Each one of them has a... You need a very distinct approach to each one of them. Each one of them, I've learned that approach, I use that approach. We love them individually. And I even tell them, and I say, "Don't tell the others. You're my favorite. You're my favorite." I tell each of them that, and then they get together and they're like, "Dad said I'm his favorite," and the other's like, "Ah, he told me the same thing." Yeah. You are my favorite. Tremendously. But I also love them as a family, as a whole.
And a lot of Christians, they just want this. It's like yes, Jesus loves you individually. If you were the only person to be alive, to have ever lived, Jesus would have still died for your sins on the cross. That's how much He loves you. Your name is graven on His hands. Your name is written in the Book of Life with the Blood of the Lamb. He loves you individually. But not at the expense of loving His family corporally. God is Father, and He adopts children into His family. When you become a Christian it's a process of adoption, and God loves his family corporally.
So we reject the two extremes of spiritual individualism and institutional Christianity. Spiritual individualism says, "I have a private relationship." By a personal relationship with Jesus, what they mean is, "It's private. You can't ask me about my relationship. You can't ask me what I believe about Jesus. You can't hold me accountable for anything. Who are you to judge me? It's just me and Jesus." And we reject that, because that contradicts Scripture. We also reject institutional Christianity, as seen in the traditional Roman Catholic church and Roman Catholicism, where they say there's no salvation outside the church and necessitates sacraments for salvation. We reject that as well. We do believe in individual regeneration. When you become a Christian, you yourself, the expectation now is you join the corporate body of believers, and you make your spiritual individual experience a congregational reality. That's why Scripture talks about church as a household of God. That you're adopted, and now you're in the House of God.
First Timothy, 3:14 and 15, "I hope to come to you soon," Paul tells Timothy, "... but I'm writing these things to you so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the Church of the Living God, a pillar and a buttress, the truth." Paul writing to Timothy, who is a pastor, an elder of the local church, and he said that church is a household of God. We're a family. A family of truth seekers, a family of truth defenders. And as the redeemed family of God, yeah, we are His special people with a special purpose. To do what? To model what God expects of us all. So, we as a church need to... The vision should be that we reflect to the world, to the community, what it means to be a redeemed people. That we are a city within a city, a people within a people, a nation within a nation, so when people look into the church, they say, "This is how God intends for people to live." This is how God intends for family to happen, for marriage to happen, for sex to happen, for raising children, for money, for job, everything." It's a categorically different humanity.
Therefore church membership is important, because if there's a member of the church, a member of the family who is not representing God the Father, is not mirroring or growing in the likeness of God the Son, or isn't walking in the Holy Spirit, but is actually walking in the flesh, that's when we need to come along to this brother or sister and say, "Look. For the witness of the church, for the witness of this body, we need to work together and lead you to a path of repentance."
The other thing about family. This is why family is so important. How many of you have siblings, and you had no say in who your sibling is? No say. Just none. You had no clue. My mom and dad, I'm the oldest of five. My mom and dad, it was me and then three sisters. And I thought we were done. I thought we were great. I thought it was tremendous. We're doneski. And then I'm in sixth grade. I had a brother show up. Like, "Ugh. Great. Tremendous." And I love him. He's great. But I had no choice. You get to choose your friends. You have no say of who your siblings are. I told my daughter. I was just kidding around. I have four daughters. I told my daughter Sophia, I'm like, "Oh, I can't wait to have a son. I still want a son." She started freaking out. "No, not another one. Please, no." It's already hard enough for her at school to tell people that she's got three siblings. Like, haven't you heard of climate change and overpopulation and stuff? No, I haven't. The Bible says kids are a blessing. Praise God. Hallelujah. But my wife said no more for now, so who knows?
But what I'm saying is that kids, they have no choice. They have absolutely zero choice. You have zero choice. Same thing with the family of God. And we have people come in from bigger churches, maybe down South, where they've got a program for everything. They've got a niche group for everything. And they come in and they're like, "Okay, which one of your community groups is the young adult ministry? Which one of your community groups is the singles group? Which one of your community groups is parents with children, or moms of preschool? MOPS, moms of preschool?" And we don't play that game. I don't see any of that in the Holy Scripture. We have community groups for Christians. And I want your community... I want you to join a community group. You can't be a member of the church unless you join a community group, because that's the only way where we can actually shepherd you as a family. The little family gatherings, get to know each other. We're interconnected, interdependent, et cetera.
But in a community group, I want it to be slightly uncomfortable. I want it to be slightly annoying. There's people that show up and they have a different house smell, from a different... You know what I'm saying? You're different. You're just a different aroma. It's all right. Welcome. I've got a different house smell. And there's people that show up with accents. Yeah. We want you to sit there and actually have a hard time to figure out what this person is saying. We want you to do that. Because in the Kingdom of Heaven, there's going to be people talking all kinds of different languages, so let's learn them now. So, this is what we do as a church. And you know what? When you show up, now you have to learn how to love. Love isn't just getting along with people who are just like you. That's not love. That's affinity. That's easy. Love is when you have people who are very different from you, slightly annoying, maybe smell differently, their theology is off, and you love them because you choose to love them.
I love my daughters. There's an affection there. We love them. We're generous with words of affection, and with massages and hugs. They love the little scratchy scratch before they go to sleep, and the little tips of your fingers. They love that. I do that on the face, and then I close their eyelids, just you're asleep and then that's it. Because I love them. It's tremendous. But there's some days where everyone's exhausted. You show up and you're like, "Just figure it out. You brush your own teeth. You wash up. Find yourself dinner. I'm out. I'm locking myself in the door. You're lucky I haven't abandoned you." There's days like that as well. And the only reason I haven't abandoned them at moments like that is because I love them, and love means I made a decision. I did that with my wife, until death do us part. I do it with my kids. It's a covenant relationship. That's why covenant membership is so important at Mosaic. You make that covenant because you're saying, "There will be days where I would have left, had I not made a decision to love you." And that's why church membership is so important.
First John, 3:10, "By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice the righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother." And here it's not just physical biological brother. It's spiritual brother. He's talking about the brethren in the church. So, we are a gathering. Church is a gathering. Church is a family. And then I'm going to give five more metaphors. It's a temple, a body, a bride, a flock, an army. And as I give you these five metaphors from Scripture to describe church, I want you to think through these metaphors through the prism of the mission statement of Mosaic. What is the mission statement? Mosaic's mission statement is we exist to love Jesus, love those who love Jesus, and then love those who don't yet love Jesus. Love Jesus. This is our worship. This is our obedience. This is our service to God. Love those who love Jesus. This is we love other Christians, in particular this household of God with whom we covenant together. And then love those who don't yet love Jesus. We do those two because we want unbelievers to come to know Jesus.
So, the first metaphor is the temple. The temple assumes collective. You're interlocked. You're interdependent. Collective worship, collective ministry, collective witness. We've heard from First Corinthians and Second Corinthians, where it says that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. So, this is the verse that people use to say, "Hey, you shouldn't abuse alcohol or drugs. Hey, you should eat right and exercise." Your body, your physical body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. You should care for yourself. Yes, it is you singularly, but most of the time that metaphor is used plurally. That you together are the temple of the Holy Spirit. And you see this in First Corinthians chapter three, verse 16. "Do you not know that you," plural, "... are God's temple and God's spirit dwells in you?" Meaning every single Christian is filled with the Holy Spirit, and when we come together, we come together as building blocks or stones of the spiritual temple, and when we're gathered together, we experience more of the work of the Holy Spirit together.
First Peter 2, four through eight, talks about this. "As you come to Him a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious. You yourselves are like living stones. Like living stones, being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifice that's acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, for it stands in Scripture. Behold, I'm laying on Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious. Whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame." So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of a fence. They stumble because they disobey the Word, as they were destined to do. Jesus is the cornerstone. Every single Christian in a local church is a stone that is built up together.
So, from the perspective of the prism of how do we love God, love Jesus, love those who love Jesus, love those who don't yet love Jesus, from the perspective of the temple, is we first of all need to be part. I need to love God and honor God and obey God's commandment to be part of a local church, because that local church has a space in the wall of the temple that I need to fill. So, now I'm in there. I fill that need. Whatever that need is, I bring all my talent, time and treasure. Whatever God has given me, I do that. And as I do it, I'm interconnected with the other stones that have the Holy Spirit, Christians. There's people underneath me that I am standing on their shoulders. I need them. I need them to serve me and teach me. There's people above me. I need to serve these people. I need to support them and encourage them. And there's people next to me, to the left and to the right.
So that's from that perspective of like, this is how I love God. I do what He calls me to do. And I love other believers, but I also understand that there's room for those who are not yet Christians. So, we will never get to this point as a church where you say, "We're big enough. We've got enough members. We've got enough Christians." No, because as soon as you say that, you insulate yourself and you forget the mission, that we are to welcome other people to join, to be part, to allow God to build them into the community.
Ephesians 2:19 through 22, "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone in whom... " Excuse me. "In whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit." Here are the whole structures, the church an emphasis. He's writing this letter to a local church, and to that local church he's saying, "You're a structure. You're being joined together. You are the holy temple. You're being built together." So from the one hand, you need to know that God builds the church. On the other hand, God uses us to build the church. So where am I building the church? With whom am I building the church? For whom am I building the church? That's for God, and for those who don't yet know Him.
The second metaphor that we're looking at, point three is that Christ, church is His body. He loves His church. He's so intimately involved with His church, that He views His church as His body. A lot of people who just say, "I love Jesus and only Jesus," they worship a decapitated Jesus. It's like cutting off His head, and, "I love Jesus, and I don't need His body." Jesus Himself views the church as His body.
I'll give you just one illustration of this. Saint Paul, when he was still an unbeliever, he was persecuting the church, zealous for the things of God, not knowing the things of God, ignorant of the truth. He's going to persecute Christians, to imprison them, to kill them. Jesus stops him on the road to Damascus, and look what Jesus says. "Now, as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from Heaven shone around him, and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him... " And this is the voice of Jesus, "... a voice saying to him, 'Saul, Saul. Why are you persecuting... " What? Christians? Why are you persecuting the church? No. "Why are you persecuting me?" Jesus is so intimately involved with the church, if you persecute the church, Jesus feels it. It's His body. Therefore how you view, how you engage, how you serve, how you love, how you care for the church is how you engage with and view and care and love for Jesus Christ. Christ is the beloved Son, and as people who are created in Him, redeemed by Him, now our identity is in Him. Christ is the beloved, and in Him, we the church are also His beloved body.
Ephesians four, 11 through 16, "He, Jesus, gives the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, the teachers, the spiritual leaders," qualified spiritual leaders, for what? What's our job? What's my job, Pastor Shane's job, Pastor Andy's? What's our job? To do the work of the ministry? No. Our job, we're basically coaches. I'm Belichick. That explains my preaching style. This is what I do. I'm Belichick. I'm going to start preaching in a hood. I'm Belichick. All of you are Tom Brady. Don't go to Tampa. Don't go. It's nicer there, I know. But still. You're called here. Your job is to do the work of the ministry. My job is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the Body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith, of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullest of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.
"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. So we hold on to Jesus, the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow, so that it builds itself up in love." We, the local church, are the Body of Christ. So how do we love Jesus from this perspective, looking at the body through the prism? How do we love Jesus? We love Jesus by doing the job that He has designed us to do in the local body. And we love those who love Jesus, we love other Christians, because they're other body parts of Jesus, and my, me as the gift that God has given me, I need to bless others, and they need to bless me, and we're interdependent. And how do we love those who don't yet love Jesus? When the body is healthy, when the body is functioning, is firing on all pistons, so to speak, that's when we can fulfill the mission of God most effectively, and that's when the love of God and the spirit of God draws people to Himself.
First Corinthians 12:12 through 27, "For just as the body is one that has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one spirit, we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit. For the body does not consist of one member, but of many. If the foot should say, 'Because I'm not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' that will not make it any less a part of the body. But if the ear should say, 'Because I'm not an eye, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? And if the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as He chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.'
"On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer. If one member is honored, all rejoice together."
Now, you are the Body of Christ, and individually members of it. That's why we call it membership. People are like, "Ah, I don't like membership. I'm not a big fan of organized religion. Membership reminds me of Costco. Nah, I don't want to do that." That's not what we mean when we say membership. We're talking about you're a member of a body, and each one of us has a very specific role. For as long as you're here, you need the church and the church needs you. The parts are important, but so is the sum.
And then the church is the bride. More than 30 times in the New Testament, the church is called the beloved. The church is the Bride of Christ. Ephesians 5:22 through 27, "Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church's body, and is Himself its savior. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. That she might be holy without blemish." So, the church is the Bride of Christ.
And you need to meditate on this if this is the first time you're hearing it through the prism of loving Jesus, loving those who love Jesus, and loving those who don't yet love Jesus. We love Christ as the church. We love Him by pursuing holiness, by being washed with the water of the Word. What's He doing with the preaching of the Word? It's revealing sin or blemishes, unrighteousness, unholiness, so we want to love God by saying, "God, where must we repent, so that we can be a bride that is unblemished?"
It's like when people get married, they say like on your wedding day, that is the pinnacle of your physical attraction. Like for both, like both groom and bride. You did the whole protocol. You worked out. Body fat is as low... You know, that's as low as it's getting. You got the hair did and your skin therapy and all that. You're looking tremendous. That's what they say. You prepare for that wedding. In a similar way, the church needs to be... This is why. We're preparing for the wedding day in Heaven, when Jesus comes and returns, takes His bride, and we're going to rejoice and celebrate at the wedding supper of the Lamb. So that's number one. That's how we love God.
How do we love one another? "Hey, brother or sister. This is unbecoming of the Bride of Christ, this lifestyle." Like, "This is a blemish, and let's work through this together. Repent of sin." And then for unbelievers, we do the same thing and we say, "Look. Jesus accepts us as we are." Jesus did not choose a perfect bride. He did not. He chose a very unperfect bride, a very blemished bride, a very sinful, unrighteous, unholy bride. So unbelievers, yeah. You're all welcome. That's how we enter the church together. Jesus Christ welcomes us, accepts us as we are, and then loves us so much that He transforms us into His own likeness. Jesus committed to an imperfect bride.
So just this idea, like when people say, "I love Jesus. I just don't love the church." It's false. That's false. You don't love Jesus. If you don't love His bride, and you don't love the church, it's like you coming up to me like, "Jan, I like you. I just don't like your wife." Yeah, I'm never talking to you again. Well, I'll pray for you, but we're not hanging out. And that's what people do with Jesus. "Jesus, I love you. I can't stand your bride." And Jesus is like, "I love my bride, so, sorry." That's how it is. So, that's number one.
The other thing is a lot of people say that church is a man made invention. "It's not God's idea. God just wants a relationship with me, that's all." That's not true. The church is God's invention. Jesus Christ is going to marry the church. It's His bride. He loves the church. And then the other thing. A lot of people are like, "Yeah, but church is full of so many hypocrites." And that mindset, it's usually like people who have that mindset who are perennial church hoppers. Just go to a church, just consume. Go to another church, consume. And they never commit. Here's what I say to people like that. If you ever find the perfect church, please leave it, because you're going to ruin it, because every single one of us is a sinner. We're imperfect. We're all sinners.
Charles Spurgeon said this: "If I had never joined a church until I found one that was perfect, I should have never joined one at all. And the moment I did join it, if I had found one, I should have spoiled it, for I would not have been a perfect church after I had become a member. But still, imperfect as it is, it is the dearest place on Earth." Yeah, we're a fellowship of the flawed. We're all sinners, though repentant. That's the difference. And Jesus does accept us, and He does bring us into a relationship with Himself because He loves us as a husband loves a bride.
So, we're also the flock of Jesus. Jesus is our great shepherd, who laid down His life for the sheep. And Jesus said, "My sheep, hear my voice," and then they follow me. First Peter, 5:1 through 5 is important. "So I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker of the glory that is going to be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, but not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples in the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
I use this text because it's so important. He's talking to pastors, and he's saying, "You, pastors, are shepherds of the sheep that is God's flock. But don't forget Jesus is your over shepherd." So what he's saying is, "You, pastors, are still sheep. You're sheep following the shepherd. The better you follow the shepherd, the better you know how to shepherd the flock for your sheep." So, the idea here is we're the flock of Jesus Christ following Him, but you can't just be the dumb sheep that's always consuming and only caring for itself. You've got to grow to the point of you now are a mature sheep, and a mature sheep cares for the other sheep. So the mature sheep are the ones on the outside, and the ones in the front and the ones in the back, keeping the immature sheep who are still growing in the middle, following Jesus.
And the mature sheep should be the ones that when they see a sheep wandering, they're the ones that go and get it, or notify the shepherd, "Hey, let's go get it." And those are the ones on the outside that see a wandering sheep by itself and say, "Hey, repent of your sins, little dear sheep, and turn to Jesus Christ and follow us. You're in the flock now." So, that's where we need to grow.
And then finally, the church is an army. Church is an army. If you don't understand this reality, you're not going to understand church as God called it to be. The church is by definition militant, and I use that word on purpose, that we are waging a spiritual war individually fight the good fight of faith. Stand firm in the Lord, and in the strength of His might, all of Ephesians six. And we also wage that war together. Yes, we were rebels. Yes, we were enemies of God. Yes, we were on the opposing team. We were in the Kingdom of Darkness. God saves us, snatches us out of captivity.
"Now we join His army, and our weapon is the love of God, the Gospel of God, and empowered by the Holy Spirit in prayer... " This is Ephesians 3:7 through 10... "Of this Gospel, as made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which is given to me by the working of His power to me. Though I'm the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Through the church, manifold wisdom of God, made known to whom? Who's the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places? It's Satan. It's demons. It's the demonic.
He's saying that when the Church of God assembles, when it worships, when it obeys God, when it prays, the demons are looking, and the demons are in trepidation, trembling before the Church of God. This is why Satan hates the gathering of Christians. Satan wants to destroy the gathering of Christians. This is why whenever you see an authoritarian regime, a political regime come into power, the very first thing they start to attack is the physical gathering of Christians. I've seen this intimately in the Soviet Union. My dad and my uncle, other family members, spent time in gulags for being Christians, for gathering as saints. You see this with the CCP. The Chinese Communist Party makes a habit of breaking up churches, and this should make us pause and think, why? Why do they care so much about these just regular people, Christians gathering to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ? Why do they feel so threatened by the gathering of believers?
I'll tell you why. Because they listen to the message, and the message is that our ultimate allegiance is not to a political party, and it's not to a political figure. It's not to a king, and it's not to a nation. Whatever political figure comes into power, we say, "That's not the guy. That's not the guy. That's not the guy. Don't put your hope and trust in that guy." No. We are not citizens primarily of this land, of this nation. We are a Kingdom within a Kingdom, a Nation within a Nation. We are an embassy, and we are ambassadors of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and He is giving us marching orders here, which is to go and make disciples of all nations.
So, that's why at church we don't just sit around in a circle and talk about our feelings, and if that's what you do primarily at your community group, get past that quickly. Because from feelings you've got to go to the fact, of the fact that God gave us marching orders to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And we do that. That's how we're organized. Because we love God, we love Christians, and we love those who don't yet love Jesus.
I'll close with this. John 13:34 through 35, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another by this. All people will know that you are my disciples if you love one another." A few questions to finish up our time. What if the church hurt me? Do I still have to go to church? The church hurt Jesus. The church wounded Jesus, and Jesus still shows up. So go to church, join the church, be the church. Well, what if the church is annoying? Well, so are you, so go to church. What if I connect more with God and nature than with people? Go to church, and then go to nature. Do that after. What if I can just get everything I need from an online service? Well, it's literally called a service, and if the only one being served is you, that's not a worship service, so go to church.
What if I'm afraid of COVID? Well, do you go to the grocery store? Do you go to the gas station? Do you go out to eat? Do you go to house parties? Do you go to sporting events? Do you fly? Well, I don't want to put anyone at risk. Well, do you drive? Because if you drive in Boston, you're putting everyone at risk. But Delta, but Lambda, but Kappa. But the Alpha and Omega said that we go to church, so go to church. Love God, and... That's Jesus, by the way, if you don't know Revelation. Love God, and love people by loving the church. Amen. Let's pray.
Jesus, we thank you for this time and the Holy Scriptures. We thank you that you love the church, and I pray infuse our hearts with the same love for your church, for your local church here at Mosaic here in Boston, the Greater Boston area. Continue to build your church, Jesus. We love you and pray this in your name. Amen.
