Church Life Worthy of the Gospel

Paul admonishes the church at Philippi to let their manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ (Phil 1:27a).

What then does a church look like whose corporate manner of life is worthy of the gospel of Christ?

Paul tells us: it is a church that is always standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel (Phil 1:27b).

When a church fails to understand that individual rights and desires within the body aren't ultimate (when these things become ultimate, it's a form of idolatry), it will experience carnal division and infighting in the body that damages the reputation of the gospel of Christ.

However, when a church understands that the gospel of Jesus Christ is ultimate; that is, we don't exist as a church for ourselves, but for the sake of the gospel, that church will be too busy on the front lines of ministry to concern itself with secondary and peripheral matters that end up dividing brothers and sisters who are called to stand firm in one spirit, with one mind.

My prayer for FBC Fisherville today is that we will continue to grow as a church that can aptly be described by its striving for the faith of the gospel. Please pray with me.

As Was His Custom

Today in worship, we saw among other things that every Sabbath, Jesus "went to the synagogue," "as was his custom" (Luke 4:16).

If anyone had the right to think that he didn’t need to go to worship it was Jesus. Think how often he had to sit through subpar teaching. It would’ve been easy to say: “I don’t need to go to synagogue. I can commune better with the Father without the distraction of bad preaching and people I don't have a lot in common with."

Yet it was his custom. Weekly worship attendance is the fixed point for any life and any family that seeks to glorify God.

B.B. Warfield has some insightful words on Jesus' weekly discipline of corporate worship: If ever there was one who might justly plead that the common worship of the community had nothing to offer him it was the Lord Jesus Christ. But every Sabbath found him seated in his place among the worshipping people…. It is a reminder,” as Sir William Robertson Nicoll well insists, “of the truth which…we are apt to forget — that the holiest personal life can scarcely afford to dispense with stated forms of devotion, and that the regular public worship of the church, for all its local imperfections and dullness, is a divine provision for sustaining the individual soul.”“We cannot afford to be wiser than our Lord in this matter. If any one could have pled that his spiritual experience was so lofty that it did not require public worship, if any one might have felt that the consecration and communion of his personal life exempted him from what ordinary mortals needed, it was Jesus. But he made no such plea. Sabbath after Sabbath even he was found in the place of worship, side by side with God’s people…. Is it reasonable, then, that any of us should think we can safely afford to dispense with the pious custom of regular participation with the common worship of our locality? (Selected Shorter Writings, 1:421–422:).

Inactive Church Membership: Not a Biblical Category

This is not to dismiss the reality of "shut-ins" who can't physically take part in the "body-life" of the local church; however, the idea that one can be a physically able member of a local church and yet not attend is absolutely foreign to the New Testament.

In this regard, I agree with the words of Tom Rainer: The only inactive members we see in the history of the New Testament fellowship are Ananias and Sapphira as they are carried out feet first from the Jerusalem church (see Acts 5:1-11) (High Expectations, 49).

By the Spirit, Through the Church and Family, To the World, For Christ's Glory

Last Sunday I spoke of the Plot of all plots, which is God's purpose to glorify himself by establishing his universal rule over all of creation through his Seed (the Lord Jesus Christ [Gal 3:16] and those in union with Christ [Gal 3:29]). If our lives aren't centered and embedded in that Plot, then we are playing Monopoly with our short lives. In keeping with this idea, I came across this statement today by Pastor David Fairchild in a book I am reading. I think what he says corresponds nicely to what I said.

Frequently we lose sight of that fact that the gospel reaches beyond our own families. We grow content with having nice children who say "please" and "thank you," and we forget that the gospel is meant to inform all of our relationships, especially the ones we have with those outside. Remembering the truths of the gospel and that they are for those sinners, the ones out there, will keep the parents from seeing gospel centeredness merely as a cul-de-sac where we have pious, covenant families who live only for their own holiness rather than giving themselves and their children away for the cause of the gospel and advancement of the kingdom. Christ is on mission from his throne, by his Spirit, through the church and our family, to the world, for his glory. We join in the mission of Christ as he turns to his own and says, "as the Father has sent me, so I send you." We are called to be the "light of the world."...Because of Christ's mission to seek and save the lost, we are to become part of the narrative and see ourselves as real actors in the drama of his redemptive story (David Fairchild).

When an Entire Church is Aroused to "Sacred Energy"

Great things are done by the Holy Spirit when a whole church is aroused to sacred energy: then there are hundreds of testimonies instead of one, and these strengthen each other (Charles H. Spurgeon).

The Prerequisite to Revival

We are not aware of our impotence, we are not aware of our weakness, and of our need for power.

As long as we think we can organise [revival], there is no hope for us. The beginning of revival is to realise that without this manifestation of God's power we can do nothing. We have got to get back to that position, in which the apostle Paul so constantly found himself. I am never tired of quoting it. It is the text, more than any other, that needs to be held before every section of the Church today.

'And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.' (1 Cor. 2:3-5) (Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Revival, 182).

Local Churches as Commissioned Communities

As we have been discussing over the past two weeks as a church body,we have a responsibility to consider how we can as a church help those who are hurting in the South from the recent storm outbreak.

In this regard, I thought these words from a book I am currently reading were appropriate:

The salvation of God is "for" us. The Father has chosen us. Jesus' blood has purchased us. We are adopted orphans.
Salvation is "to" us. The Holy Spirit stirs our heart, so that we come to faith in Jesus Christ personally. We are forgiven sinners.
Salvation is also "through" us. The world will be blessed by the good deeds we do in the context of the community of faith. We are commissioned communities (Trevin Wax, Holy Subversion, 55).

The Simple Tasks of the Church in God's New Creation Project

Israel's downfall began when it demanded a king like the rulers of the nations instead of being satisfied with its true, heavenly King. Similarly, whenever the church tries to make Christ's kingdom visible through its own decisions, programs, and methods, it becomes assimilated to this passing evil age, swallowed in the sea along with Pharaoh's mighty men. Yet whenever the church proclaims the gospel, baptizes, teaches, and administers the Lord's Table, the powers of the age to come break into this present age, and the light of the new creation dawns (Mike Horton, The Gospel Commission, 54).

The Church and Mission Creep

There is a new term that has been coined that I think needs to be reflected upon by the local church. The term is "mission creep." Here's how Wikipedia defines it: Mission creep is the expansion of a project or mission beyond its original goals, often after initial successes.

The phrase first appeared in articles concerning the UN Peacekeeping mission during the Somali Civil War in the Washington Post on April 15, 1993. The writer of the article argued that a humanitarian mission to Somalia turned into a military operation which did not have clearly spelled-out goals and for which the soldiers on the ground were not prepared.

In the same way, it's easy to lose our way in the local church. We simply lose sight of our mission and in our passion for relevance, we end up subordinating the strategies that Christ promised to bless to our own action plans (see M. Horton, The Gospel Commission, 16).

But the strategies that Christ promised to bless are specifically related to our calling: to be a sign and agent of the kingdom of Christ. Hence, our mission and strategies are to be geared to that end alone. Consider Ed Clowney's words in this regard: In the pursuit of holiness, in the proclamation of the gospel, in the service of the poor and friendless, the church of Christ builds a spiritual culture, a foretaste of the kingdom to come (The Church, 176).

Let's beware of mission creep!

The Most Important Thing on the World's Stage

In light of the hunt, capture, and death of Osama bin Laden and all the implications for the war on terror stemming from that event, it's easy to think that this is more important in the scheme of things than it really is. To be sure, it is important. This evil man needed to come to justice. However, don't make it an ultimate thing. The Father's work through the Son by the Spirit for the sake of His name and remembrance (Is 26:8) is what is ultimate. Everything else pales.

Thinking about such things reminded me of a statement I read years ago by Eric Alexander that I think very appropriate and timely. Alexander writes:

The most significant thing happening in history is the calling, redeeming, and perfecting of the people of God. God is building the church of Jesus Christ. The rest of history is simply a stage God erects for that purpose. He is calling out a people. He is perfecting them. He is changing them. History’s great climax comes when God brings down the curtain on this bankrupt world and the Lord Jesus Christ arrives in his infinite glory. The rest of history is simply a scaffolding for the real work (“Application of Redemption,” in To Glorify and Enjoy God, 245).

Get that? Outside of God's redemption plan, the rest of history is simply a scaffolding for the real work.

In light of this, let's make the wise choice and embed our stories into this more ultimate story so that we live with a God's Story mentality.

The Church: The Pillar and Buttress of the Truth

In his book on “The Arctic,” Barry Lopez reports that in the far northern waters different types of ice, though side by side, will sometimes appear to be flowing in opposite directions. This is not, however, merely an optical illusion. The shallow ice is often driven by the winds and surface currents, while the icebergs, with most of their bulk hidden beneath the surface, are driven by the deeper currents of the sea.

One of the most remarkable and profound descriptions in the New Testament of the church is that it is described as the pillar and buttress of the truth (1 Tim 3:15), which means we have the responsibility to be so deeply rooted in truth that we are not driven by the surface winds of the culture in which we are living.

John Albert Bengel, a contemporary of John Wesley said in this regard, “Scripture is the foundation of the Church: the Church is the guardian of Scripture. When the Church is in strong health, the light of Scripture shines bright; when the Church is sick, Scripture is corroded by neglect; and thus it happens, that the outward form of Scripture and that of the Church, usually seem to exhibit simultaneously either health or else sickness; and as a rule the way in which Scirpture is being treated is in exact correspondence with the condition of the Church.”

Today on the Lord's Day, please continue to pray that we will continue to become people of the Scriptures--as individuals, families, and corporately as a body.