Post on 09-Aug-2015
transcript
How valuable is the church?
Jesus says the church has great value (Matt
13:44-46).
I love the church.
Why?
The church of
Christ is precious.
If the church is not precious, Jesus died for her in
vain. “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”
(Acts 20:28).
Eph 5:25-27.
We were redeemed with “the precious blood of Christ, like
that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Pet 1:19).
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who
will believe in me through their word, that they may
all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in
you, that they also may be in us, so that the world
may believe that you have sent me” (Jn 17:20-21). Jesus prayed for the church knowing his death was near.
He did pray for himself (Matt 26:36-46).
Yet, in his anguish, he prayed for the church!
Many churches were founded by men.
Yet, I am a member of a church founded by
Jesus.
“On this rock I will build my church, and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt 16:18).
1 Cor 3:10-11.
Jesus is the cornerstone of the church (Eph 2:20).
The very idea of a temple to the ancients was that
the temple housed a deity.
“The Philistines took the ark of God and brought it
into the house of Dagon and set it up beside
Dagon” (1 Sam 5:2).
Notice two things:
The Philistines carried the ark “into the house of
Dagon.”
The Philistines put the ark “beside Dagon.”
Our God once dwelt in physical buildings.
“Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell
in their midst” (Ex 25:8).
1 Ki 8:10-11.
God now dwells in the church. “The God who made the world and everything in it, being
Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made
by man” (Acts 17:24).
God now dwells in the church of his Son.
“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that
God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s
temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy,
and you are that temple” (1 Cor 3:16-17).
The church is the “household” of God (1 Tim 3:14-15).
God’s wisdom is perceived in the church.
“Through the church the manifold wisdom of God
might now be made known to the rulers and
authorities in the heavenly places” (Eph 3:10).
Not perceived on earth, but God’s wisdom is still
perceived.
Jesus did not establish the church on a whim; he did so as
part of God’s plan. “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom
that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another
people” (Dan 2:44).
“We impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed
before the ages for our glory” (1 Cor 2:7).
The church “was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized
in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph 3:11).
God “saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our
works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in
Christ Jesus before the ages began” (2 Tim 1:9).
The holy city in Rev 21 is the church. Rev 21:1-4:
The holy city comes down from heaven.
The city is prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
This city is also the dwelling place of God.
Rev 21:9-27:
Bride of the Lamb.
John sees the city from a high mountain. The church is the “mountain of the LORD” (Is 2:1-4).
The foundations of the wall had the names of the twelve
apostles (v 14).
God places you in the church when you are baptized. “The Lord added to their number day by day those who
were being saved” (Acts 2:47).
“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” (1 Cor 12:13).
The Samaritans “believed Philip as he preached good
news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus
Christ, they were baptized, both men and women” (Acts
8:12).
We find community in the church.
“Exhort one another every day, as long as it is
called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened
by the deceitfulness of sin” (Heb 3:13).
“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law
of Christ” (Gal 6:2).