The Purpose of the Church #1

0:00Welcome to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hello, I'm Bill Wright. Thanks for joining us as we continue teaching God's people God's Word. Don begins a new message today, so without further delay, let's join him right now in the Truth Pulpit. As you know, we're in the middle of a series teaching on the doctrine of the church. And I'm going to teach on the church tonight and on Sunday, and then we'll be done with that and we'll move on to other things. We're doing this in part in preparation for our upcoming church membership class. On Sunday, you're all still invited to that, and we would encourage you to attend that, to sign up for that if you would. We would love to have you be a part of that, even if you're not quite ready to become a member, it would be a great time for you to get to know us better. And so there's that aspect of it, but it's also good for our existing church body to be refreshed on these doctrines about the church, and the reason that the church exists.

1:12And to just have a refreshment in our minds about the fundamentals of the church. And so we've done that, and we've seen pre-eminently that the church belongs to Christ, that true believers are the ones that make up the church, the church isn't a body, it's about people. And on last Sunday, we saw the attitude of love that permeates the entire existence of the church. Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for us. And we saw that in response to the love of Christ, Christians give of themselves to a local body, they give of themselves relationally to one another, in a spirit of love. And we looked at 21 different one another, very quickly, that Scripture outlines in the ways that we relate to one another in the body of Christ, in that spirit of love. And so this has been very refreshing to me, and it has just renewed my appreciation for all of you.

2:17It has given me a fresh sense of appreciation and gratitude to God, to the people that He has brought here, every one of you, even if you're just visiting here recently. We're glad to have you with us. And I've thought about something, and there's kind of tied into things that I'm going to say later. If you think about it, for many, many, many of us, maybe 60 to 80% of us, five years ago, we didn't even know each other. And here we are gathering together around the Word of God and worshipping together and learning to love one another. We're growing together. We are learning things together. We're helping each other spiritually. It's just a wonderful dynamic. And this is how all happened rather quickly in the span of time. Five years ago, we were meeting 30 miles down the road in another place, in another location. We relocated the whole congregation, 30 miles up the road to a different church building.

3:19And that's just horribly disruptive. And yet here we are, and God has blessed us to bring us to His Word, to bring us to each other. And we have this wonderful thing that God has given us, this fellowship of fellow believers. And it's just a really, really sweet, sweet time, all in a rather short matter of calendar years in which this has taken place. And so it's just made me appreciate a fresh, everything that God has done, and everything that He is doing, to appreciate a fresh, every one of you that's here this evening. And hopefully what I want to do here tonight is to refresh your own mind about why we do what we do, what the church is supposed to do, what is the purpose of the church. And also to just give you a sense that, you know, for lack of a better word, that your pastor is very proud of you, and it's just very encouraged by every one of you and what God is doing in our midst.

4:27I think it's a very sweet, special thing, and I am eager to cultivate that, to watch it grow and develop still further, and also to do whatever I can in the position that the Lord has given me, to protect that, and to protect you in the midst of it, from those who might see things differently. And so that's what we're going to do tonight. When we consider the fact that Christ gave Himself for the church in love at the cross, He gave Himself for us, for you and me at the cross, when we consider that Christians are to give themselves for one another in the church and not approach things selfishly, and what's in it for me. It leads to this question then, we're gathered together in a spirit of love responding to the love of Christ and developing love for one another. Well, one thing that that does is we are immediately confronted with prior selfishness, and we're delivered from it.

5:33We realize that we don't have to have our own way in a church body, that that's not the purpose of the church, and we're delivered from that self-focus, and into a realm that is really foreign to the world. To love Christ and to love each other around His Word, the world knows nothing of that. And so it leads to the question then, why does the church exist? What is the purpose of the church? And as I've done throughout this brief series on the doctrine of the church, I'm not going to say anything new here, but rather to stir you up by way of reminder. And now that God has saved us by grace, what are we to do, corporately? What is the purpose of a church's existence? What is a church to do, corporately now that we have been brought into this relationship with Christ and with one another? Well, point number one tonight, the church exalts God. The church exalts God. And when you remember that the church belongs to Christ, this is a very obvious point to make.

6:44Our purpose is to worship and to bring honor and to glorify the one who brought us into existence. The church belongs to Him, and therefore the church is to respond to Him. And with His exalted deity, with His exalted glory, we respond to Him in a spirit of worship. Jesus Christ brought the church into life. Jesus Christ is the head of the church. And therefore we exist preeminently, not to serve society, not even preeminently, first and foremost, to serve one another. The church exists primarily to honor the one who gave life to it, to give glory to the one who gave life to it. Christ owns the church, we belong to the church, therefore we belong to Christ and we honor the one who has given us life. This is all very clear and very obvious, I would say.

7:52So look at the book of Ephesians chapter 1. We'll see this in a trainitarian setting, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the three persons of the one Godhead. What we find in this passage that we've looked at many times over the years from many different perspectives is we see this emphasis on the giving glory to the Godhead. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3, it says, God chose us, brought us into Christ, brought us into adoption so that we would exist in Christ, and we would be in Christ.

9:06According to the kind intention of his will, here it is, to the praise of the glory of his grace. God chose us, brought us into Christ, brought us into adoption so that we would exist under the praise of the glory of his grace. We, you and I, undeserving sinners, saved, loved by the eternal God, loved by Christ at the cross, purchased and redeemed by him at Calvary. We recognize how good, how kind, how gracious he has been, and we praise the glory of his undeserved favor toward us. We give glory to him. We worship him, we exalt him. That's why we exist. It goes on, speaking of Christ in verse 7, the Apostle Paul goes on, I should say, in him, meaning in Christ, we have redemption through his blood. The forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, go down to verse 12 for the sake of time.

10:12To the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of his glory. We worship in response to the work of the Father, we worship in response to the work of the Son, and we see in verses 13 and 14 that we worship in response to the work of the Holy Spirit as well, verse 13. In him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise. Who, the Holy Spirit that is, is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, there it is again, to the praise of his glory. To the praise of his glory, to the praise of his glory, to the praise of his glory. Beloved, we go over those words again and again, and we see that ultimate purpose, and it sinks into our minds the reason that the church exists, the church universal, and a proper local church.

11:20We exist to the praise of the glory of the one who saved us. That is why we exist. Now what does it mean to glorify God? Well, we honor his character. We speak about him. When we come together, we direct the attention vertically. We speak to sinners about Christ and His power to save them from sin. We speak to believers, and we remind them of God's gracious work in their lives, His sovereign, providential directing of every detail of their lives. The ultimate hope that we have to be in heaven with Him throughout all of eternity, and we remind each other vertically of all of these wonderful truths that have been made known to us in the Scriptures. We are humbled by it, and we give praise to the glory of the one to whom Scripture testifies. We honor His character. We thank Him for what He has done for us. We speak well of Him.

12:22We honor His word. We teach His word. We obey His word together. And so in all of those things, we are scribing honor and glory and praise, and worth to the name of the one who saved us in such a great way. That is why we exist. It is why a non-saved person wouldn't stay around here too long because they know nothing about those affections and passions. We would want them to stay. We would love for them to be under the Word of God, but the purpose of a church and of Christians compared to the purpose of an unbeliever were on two different trajectories. They need to work at God in their lives, or they are never going to see why we do what we do. But for us, gathered together as Christians, that needs to be clear in our mind. That is why we are here.

13:27Glorifying God is our supreme and comprehensive priority. Everything else falls under that umbrella, making Him known to the lost, edifying each other as we will talk about later. All of it falls under that greater purpose of bringing glory to God. Look at Matthew 10, verse 37 with me. If you would, Matthew 10, verse 37. As you are turning there, I would say this. You should be able, as you walk out tonight, to be able to articulate a three-fold purpose of the church in your mind. That is very clear, that is very simple, that you are always able to replicate and repeat easily because these purposes just fall out one upon the other. We exist to exalt God. Now in Matthew 10, verse 37, this is a very searching passage. This is one of the more difficult sayings of Jesus. It deserves in the future a single treatment. I need to give a single sermon devoted entirely to this text in Matthew 37, verse 39.

14:45For now we will just read it and get the basic thrust of it. Jesus said in verse 37, he who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who has found his life will lose it and he who has lost his life from my sake will find it. Christ comes and asserts his authority and his preeminence over the souls of every man. And he tells us that we must regard him as the highest object of our affection or we are not worthy of him at all. And that follows. And when you understand what Christ has done for us in salvation, you realize that it could be no other way. No matter how much you love your spouse, no matter how much you love your parents, no matter how much you might love that beloved son or daughter of yours, none of them died for your soul.

16:01None of them delivered you from your sin. None of them had the power to save you. Christ alone had that power. Christ alone did the work and therefore Christ alone gets the preeminent affection of your heart. And he says that someone who doesn't see that and regard him in that supremely exalting way is not worthy of him and of his kingdom. That's pretty searching. What is the highest affection of your heart? What do you love more than anything else? Well, Christ comes to us in His word and He says it's got to be me. And the church, the true church embraces that and says, yes, Lord, of course it could be no other way. I wouldn't want it any other way. So this glory of God, Romans 1136 to just quote a familiar passage for from Him and through Him and to Him are all things to Him be the glory forever.

17:06In Philippians chapter 4 verse 20, it says now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever a man. Verse Corinthians 10 talks about whatever you do, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do do all to the glory of God. And so everything that takes place within the realm of the church is directed to the glory of its founder, to the glory of the one who bought it. The thing of it is beloved is that this is not a burden or an obligation to a true Christian or to a congregation that is comprised of true believers. This isn't a burden or contrary to our nature. This is exactly what you and I want to do. If we are truly in Christ, we want Christ to receive glory through our lives and through our church. Because he has done for us what no one else could do. Charles Spurgeon said this and I quote, he said he has done such great things for us and he has shown so much good will toward us that to pay Him reverence seems not so much the call of duty as the natural impulse of love.

18:28This is just natural, this comes naturally to a Christian to honor and praise the name of Christ. And if that's true of an individual Christian then it should likewise on a greater scale be true corporately of the local church that that is their supreme and surpassing desire. And so the honor of God is a stream of refreshment and encouragement from which we continually drink. We are not diminished as we give glory to God. We are fulfilling the purpose for which He saved us and why He called a church like this into existence. It's because the purpose of the church is to exalt God. Now, secondly, as we move along through this little synopsis of the purpose of the church here this evening, point number two, the church edifies the saints.

19:30By which we mean this, the church is the realm in which Christians can grow spiritually. The church exists so that the lambs of Christ could grow into the mature sheep of his flock. Christ is the great shepherd. We are like sheep to him. Sometimes there's little baby lambs and the whole point of the church is that there is this place, this realm of sanctuary and love and instruction and care where God's people can grow and become the more mature saints that He intends them to be. It is a very great and a very grave error for a church to neglect this for the sake of simply wanting to be a center of evangelization to the world and to make that the exclusive focus on which they do come in, come in, we want to bring all the world in.

20:34At some point there needs to be something central about a true church that recognizes that its mission is not simply to evangelize but there is this priority that Christ places on the feeding of his lambs to build them up in the truth so that they could grow in the image and reflection of Christ in their lives. Without proper instruction that does not happen and you end up with distorted and deformed views of what a Christian is because they have never been properly instructed. Go back to the book of Ephesians with me if you would. Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4 beginning in verse 11, let's say and we'll look at a more extended passage here.

21:34Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11 Paul describing some of the offices in the church says that he gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers. Why did he do this? Why were those people given? Verse 12 for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ. These men are given to the church so that the church, these individual believers who come together can grow up in Christ and grow from being babes into being young men and being mature saints. And this is the whole purpose of the church, verse 13, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature man to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

22:44Let me ask you a very simple question of which the answer is obvious. If the church does not instruct Christians and build them up in the faith and teach them what they need to know and bring accountability and love to their lives, where is that going to happen? Where are they going to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ? Shall they go to the bars? Shall they go to the sports stadiums and find this growth in Christ? Shall they find it on their TV programs? Shall they find it with their unsaved neighbors? Who will teach them? Where will they grow in Christ if it does not take place in the church? Would Christ save and bring babes as it were into his body and then leave them on the doorstep of the world to be abused and abandoned to suffer from malnourishment?

23:51No, obviously not. He saved a people to make a people like himself and he's appointed the church to be the realm in which that takes place. He gives offices and officers to the church instructed with the responsibility to teach, to love, to illustrate Christian living. This happens in the realm of the body. The church exists to edify the saints. And so, as it goes on in verse 14, we see this, as a result, we are no longer to be children, 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.

24:54According to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in what? In love. There's that word again. The church grows up, the church ministers, we minister to one another so that we can all grow up, that we can all be built up so that we would all better manifest this love which is the purpose of the church. And we edify one another to that end. You make your contribution, I make mine. We all play our part and we all benefit from each other, the lack of a better word, the synergy of those relationships coming together. And we all benefit, we all profit from it. We all grow from it. And that is what is supposed to happen. Well, my friend, if today's broadcast has helped you, can I ask you for a simple favor in return? It's more important than you could possibly know.

25:59Please just go to our website, thetruthpulpit.com, and tell us where you heard the broadcast. Sounds easy and simple, I know, but it's really important for us. You can do that at the website under our contact us link. You may wonder whether such a simple act really matters, but I assure you that it does because it helps us know that our resources are rightly placed to reach you in ministry. Thank you in advance for that little act of service to us. And again, that website is thetruthpulpit.com. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you so much for listening to the Truth Pulpit. Join us next time for more as we continue teaching God's people, God's Word.