What about the Church? - Alpha Course 14
Video of the complete Livestream where Tony asks, “What about the Church?”
Talk: What about the Church?
The subject I'm talking about today is close to my heart. And that is "Church". I've spent my life as a pastor. And so church plays a big part in my life. I've seen God use His church, the church of Jesus, throughout our city, our nation, and our world to bring lasting change to so many lives. But that word church is quite a loaded one for many of us.
What do you think about when you hear the word church? Some of us think about an impressive old building, maybe a steeple or a rusty old hall, depending on your church experience.
My wife, Annie, was a full-time prison chaplain for many years. It was remarkable how some of the women she worked with, highly vulnerable, who experienced incredible levels of brokenness, would often say to her that growing up, the one time they felt loved was at a kid's club in a local church. Those memories of church were pervasive and bright moments in a very broken and scarred life.
When we think about church, we think about significant life events. Some of us think about going to church just for life's special occasions, for christenings, marriages, and funerals, as we often talk about them as the hatch, match and dispatch events of life.
Is there more to Church?
I believe that church can and should be more than just going somewhere on a Sunday. Although buildings are essential in our lives and are crucial to the church, the church is far more than just buildings. There is more to the local church than a building, just as there's more to marriage than a ring or marriage certificate. Marriage has to be far more than that. If that were the sum of our marriage, it wouldn't be very good.
And so, the church is about far more than just buildings. The church is about God's people sharing life. The Bible never describes the church as just a building. The church in the Bible is the people of God and their relationships with one another.
The New Testament talks about an assembly when it speaks of the church. It's the coming together of God's people. So actually, it's not the building, but it's the people that make up the word church. When we're talking about church, we're not talking about where we're meeting instead about who is meeting. When the Bible says that Jesus loved the church so much that He gave His life for her, it doesn't mean that Jesus loved a building. It would be kind of strange, wouldn't it?
If you and I were passing by and there was a fire, and we knew somebody we loved was inside, we might risk our lives to rescue them. But I don't think we'd risk our lives for a building. Jesus gave his life for the church, and the church is the people. Therefore, because the church is the people and not the building, it isn't bricks and cement; its relationship, its friendship.
When we think of the church, we need to think more of an organism than an organisation. The church is the people of God, sharing life and connection. Together, we are connected to Jesus because of our faith. And because of our faith, we are also connected to one another. Because the church is such an important thing, the Bible gives us pictures that we can understand to understand what church is like.
#1 - Church is a family
The first one we're going to speak about is the idea that church is family. In the book of 1 John, in chapter five and verse one, it says this,
“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. ”
The idea here is clear. It's that because we have faith in Jesus, He gives us new life, God adopts us as His children. And that means not only that we have a relationship with God, but we have a relationship with our brothers and sisters, who are Christians also. The Bible's picture of baptism is dying with Christ and being raised to new life. As we come out of the water, the idea is that we are raised to a new life in Christ. And that's a new life in a bigger family.
Now, it's not a family without its troubles like any family. The church is frail at times. It does things wrong. But for all of that, the church is the family that God gives to us. Because we're Christians, we now have a new extended family worldwide. A family made up of many different backgrounds of race, class, colour, or creed; God gives us this big new family.
#2 - Church is a home
But next, the church is also a home. It's a place to belong. In Acts two and verse 44, we read this remarkable passage. It says,
So that's great! That lady was healed from her physical pain. But then, what about other things like anxiety or poor mental health or hurts from our past? Well, I believe God heals those too. Here's Ben's story,
“All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts...”
I want us to see this picture of what church can and should be like. We see it isn't just people going to a service, and that's the end of it. But we see a place to belong, a home, a real and vibrant community, a place where people share life together.
Just in that passage, we see that these people were friends. I like to think of churches as a place where people are mates. Just think about that M. A. T. E. S. mates. "M" they met together. They wanted to be with each other. "A" they ate together. "T" they taught one another. It was a place of learning and growth - not just learning from the front in a lecture, but learning from one another, learning from what God was doing in their lives. "E" they experienced life together through all of its ups and downs. That's an incredible thing. One thing I've seen during this pandemic is how the local church has been a place of community - a place of meeting one another's needs, of love and friendship, for those within the church and even the community.
Your close friends are those who are with you during hard times. And church ought to be, and in my experience, generally is a place where people can go through tough times together. I want to tell you about one of them: my friend, Len.
Len’s Story…
Len is an old East End geezer. There's no other way to describe him. He is pushing 80 something now. He used to be a boxer and has been through tough things in life. And I've known him for about 20 years. And for most of those years, whenever the talk would turn to God or church, he would politely say that he was okay. And that would be a man of tremendous dignity.
Len's sister was in our church, and then she got very ill with cancer. And during that time, people from the church took such good care of her. They looked out for her, brought her food, nursed her, and all the while, Len was looking on. When his sister sadly died, he said he was so touched by how the church had looked out for her. He said, Do you mind if I come and say thank you in one of your services?
It was a wonderful time. Len got up to the front, thanked the church, and he's never left since. He's been more regular on Sundays than I am, and I pastor the place. And the interesting thing was, he said, he saw that when his sister went through a tough time, the church was there for her, that we experienced tough times together.
And then lastly, "S" the church was a place where they shared things, they shared their stuff. Those who were in need had help from those who had. Church isn't a place of selfishness. But it's a place where we help meet one another's needs together.
#3 - Church is a body
The church is a body. That picture is given to us in the book of Corinthians. It says in 1 Corinthians 12:27,
“All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.”
In this picture, Jesus is the head. He is Lord. He is the boss, and He rules the church. And each of us, as followers of Jesus, throughout the entire world, are part of that body. And that's the exciting thing about being a Christian. You are part of a worldwide body. When the world looks at us, it ought to see something of what Jesus is like. This body is alive. It's vibrant; it's growing; it's changing.
Growth of Christianity
When you think about it, Jesus had this small group of followers. And when he was crucified and resurrected, they were persecuted and scattered and began to tell others about who Jesus was and what he had done for them. And that group of Christians grew from a small number to over 2 billion people worldwide today who would claim to be followers of Jesus.
In China alone, the church has grown from maybe one or 2 million in the 1940s to perhaps up to 100 million believers today. Even in places like Afghanistan, or North Korea, where the church is persecuted and being a Christian is dangerous. It can result in death and all sorts of hardship. But the church continues to grow because it is a healthy body, and healthy things grow.
Every day, worldwide, people choose to accept Jesus as their Lord. They become part of that body, and making Jesus Lord is a choice, choosing real life, choosing abundant life, and choosing all that God has for us as part of this incredible worldwide body. So whether we're in Shanghai, London, or Liverpool, we are part of something far more significant than ourselves. 1 Corinthians 12:12 says,
“The body is a unit, though it is composed of many parts. And although its parts are many, they all form one body. So it is with Christ.”
The church is one of the few places in Britain in our world and culture where genuinely, people from different backgrounds come together. One of the things I love most about our local church is that we are a vibrant community that is multicultural and multi-generational—people from all walks of life, sharing life.
In our world very often, we tend to live side by side with one another, different communities, living separate existences, maybe tolerating each other, crossing up points. But the local church is a place made up not of similar people but people who are different. Being part of a local church doesn't mean that you have to become like anyone else, except more like Jesus.
#4 - Church is a place of Love
Lastly, the church is a place of love. In Ephesians 5:25, Paul writes this,
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”
Jesus loved the church so much that he was prepared to die for her. In the Bible, we see that marriage is used as a picture of God's love for the church and an example because Christ loved the church and was willing to die for her. The church ought to be a place of love. It ought to be a place where Christians love others with that same kind of sacrificial love.
Jesus wasn't just sentimental towards the church. He wasn't just emotional. He didn't just have nice thoughts or nice feelings or nice words. His love was practical. It was real, it was demonstrated, and it was costly! Jesus loved the church enough to die for her. That means that we, as Christians, are given the example of how we must love those within the church and those outside it. The church exists mainly for the benefit of those outside of it. I want us to think about what it means to be a loving church.
Paul wrote to Timothy, and he said in 1 Timothy chapter one and verse five,
“The goal of our instruction is the love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a sincere faith.”
In other words, all Christian teaching isn't just to give us head knowledge. It's not to puff us up. It's not so that we can win an argument or feel morally superior, or think that we know more. No. Christian teaching instruction is designed to make us more loving.
The Church of Jesus is compelled to love deeply and sacrificially those the world sees as unlovable, the needy and the broken. The Church of Jesus is to be a welcome place for the refugee. The Church of Jesus is to be a place where the fatherless find family. The Church of Jesus is where we go to the margins, and the outsider becomes an insider.
The church is a place of love, and because it is a place of love, we are called to be what God has always intended us to be. We are called to be the feet of Jesus, going to all in need without fear or favour. We are called to be the hands of Jesus, extended to a broken and hurting world. And we are called to be the mouth of Jesus, speaking His hope, His life, His peace and His joy.
We are sent as ambassadors of Jesus to bring his good news. I want to encourage you to think again and think deeply about the wonderful, beautiful, flawed church!
CONVERSATION STREET
Questions we ask this week
Conversation Street is part of our live stream, where the host (in this case, Matt) chats through Tony’s talk and answers questions that were sent in through the live stream. You can watch the conversation in the video, it starts at 37 min 45 seconds into the live stream, or you can go straight there by clicking the button below. This week’s questions and topics of conversation are:
Do you think it is easy to criticise the church? What has your experience been like?
How do we deal with flawed, imperfect people in the church which a perfect God ordains?
How can we play our part in the church and not just become consumers?
Is the church an outdated place full of rules?
