Who Are We Church?
Suzy and I recently found a new show we like called “Alone.” It’s one of those man versus nature shows where ten people are dropped off in the wilderness by themselves and the last one remaining wins. It’s fascinating how long a person can live on sea weed and slugs! But it’s also fascinating to see what happens to these individuals as they’re left with themselves for weeks and weeks on end. Many of the contestants talk about how they’re doing this so that they’ll finally get to know themselves. They’re willing to suffer greatly in order to find out who they are.
There’s a deep longing in each of our hearts to know who we are. Where did we come from? Where are we going? What are we here for?
The reason we’ve begun an eight month series on the church is because I want us to know who we are. When you think of yourself, what defines you? Your job, school, family, stuff, where you live? Where did you come from, where are you going, and what exactly are you here for?
A Dividing Line
The Bible teaches that, though we’re all made in the image of God, we either belong to God or we don’t, that we’re a child of God or we’re not, that there is a bright dividing line that runs through all of humanity, dividing those who trust in God and those who don’t. Those who’ve put their hope in God are the people of God. Those who haven’t, aren’t.
More than anything, as we do this series I want you to consider carefully which side of the dividing line you’re on. Because none of us are a Christian just because we say we are, we need to “examine ourselves, to see whether we are in the faith” (2 Cor. 13:5).
Those who’re “in the faith” are called the people of God, or the church. Putting together what we’ve learned over the last couple weeks, we’ve seen that the church is the chosen, miraculously created, international, marked-off people of God who believe the promises of God and who’re gathered together before God. This is what we’ve seen so far. But there’s more to see.
Why Is the Church Supposed to Gather?
I’ve talked a lot about how the church, by definition, is the gathering of God’s people. This begs the question about why the church is supposed to meet. Who called the meeting? What’s on the agenda?
This brings us to the next stop on our journey through the Bible looking for what we can learn about the people of God: Mount Sinai. When Stephen was preaching in Jerusalem right before he was stoned to death, he called what happened at Mount Sinai “the assembly in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38). The word for “assembly” here is ekklesia. This word was used to describe any gathering of people for a specific purpose. In the book of Acts, it was used to describe a riot (19:32), a citizens’ assembly (19:39), and a gathering of Christians (20:28).
In the New Testament times, an ekklesia happened when people came together for a specific purpose. But the reason Jesus chose this word to describe what he was building (Matt. 16:18) is rooted in the Old Testament. Ekklesia is the Greek word used to translate the Hebrew word (qahal) that described what happened when the people of God came to Mount Sinai to meet with God. It’s thus what happens at this particular meeting of God’s people that provides the backdrop we need to understand the theological seriousness of what an ekklesia is.
Saved to Meet God at the Mountain
To understand this, we need to journey to the “assembly in the wilderness” in Exodus 19 and see what we can learn about who we are as the church. The first thing we see is that God is the One who calls the meeting (vv. 1-3a).
The reason we know that God called this meeting is found back in the earlier chapters of Exodus when God first calls Moses to go to Pharaoh to tell him to let his people go. Like us, Moses doubted God’s ability to do what he said he’d do, and thus asked for a sign. God graciously agreed to give him one (3:12). Moses boldly goes to Pharaoh and tells him what God wants (5:1). When Pharaoh refused, the Lord sent Moses to Pharaoh one more time to insist on the what and the why he must let his people go (7:16).
God wanted Pharaoh to let his people go so that they could meet him in the wilderness, so that they could worship him, serve him, even feast with him. God didn’t want to just save the Israelites from Egypt. He wanted to save them so that they could meet with and worship him at the mountain.
The first sign God gave Moses wasn’t something he could see like his staff turned into a snake or his hand miraculously healed. The first sign he gave him was one that he had to believe. The sign was a promise, a promise that after God saved his people, he’d bring them to church.
A God-Called Meeting
This background helps us understand why 19:1-2 isn’t meaningless geographical detail. God brought them out of Egypt, to the wilderness of Sinai where they’d meet with him on the same mountain that he met with Moses at the burning bush (3:1). God fulfilled his word to Moses. The sign he gave him came true. He kept his promise.
This meeting at Mount Sinai was God’s idea. God took the initiative in calling the meeting. He did the impossible to make it happen. He sent ten plagues to break Pharaoh’s stubborn heart and brought his people safely through the waters of the Red Sea so that they could come and assemble in his presence.
God’s initiative in forming his people is what we’ve seen each of the last two weeks. God’s plan to assemble a people began in his mind and heart before anything existed (Eph. 1:4). He set his affection on his sons and daughters before he did anything else. As his plan moved forward, we saw that it was only God’s miraculous intervention that made Abram and Sarai the father and mother of a multitude that no one can number. Now we see that God called and brought his people to his mountain.
All of this means that God’s grace and power are the only reasons the church exists. We owe our origins to God alone. God owes us nothing but judgment because of our sin, but in grace he’s called us into his assembly.
These truths are meant to shut our prideful mouths and soften our hard hearts and comfort our anxious minds. We did nothing to bring ourselves to God. Salvation is all of grace, from first to last. This grace is freely offered to all who’ll repent of their sins and believe in the gospel. And we can know we’ve received this grace because we see tangible results of it in our lives. God’s grace creates affections for Jesus, love for Jesus’ people, obedience to Jesus’ word, and passion for Jesus’ mission. If these things are absent from your life, why do you assume that you’re under grace? God’s grace brings God’s people to places they never could’ve arrived at themselves.
God Sets the Agenda for the Meeting
God called his people out of Egypt and to Mount Sinai. This was a “God-called meeting.” Because he called the meeting, he gets to decide what happens. If you’ve ever led a meeting at work, you know that you’re the one responsible for what’s on the agenda. God called the meeting at Sinai, so he gets to set the agenda.
We’ll see what’s on his agenda in a moment. But first let’s consider how this applies to the church today. God is the One calling his people into his assembly today. Because he’s the One calling the meeting, he has the right to insist on how we should meet and what we should do.
When discussing what churches should do when they gather, theologians often apply the “regulative principle” or the “normative principle.” What are these? The regulative principle says that everything a church does in a worship gathering must be clearly warranted by Scripture. The normative principle says that, as long as a practice isn’t forbidden by Scripture, then a church is free to do it. The regulative principle forbids anything not commanded by Scripture. The normative principle allows anything not forbidden by Scripture.
There are godly and Bible-loving people on each side. Because God alone has the right to set the agenda for the meeting of his people, I’ve led our church to adopt the regulative principle. What does this look like in practice? It means our gatherings are marked by reading the word, preaching the word, praying the word, singing the word, and seeing the word (in the ordinances). These elements of corporate worship are all explicitly commanded in the New Testament, thus we try to obey God by making sure that our gatherings do these things, and only these things.
Many have told me in membership interviews how much they appreciate the simple and laser-like focus on God and the gospel in our services. We’re convinced that this is what’s best for our church because it’s what God has told us to do. Because he called the meeting, he gets to set the agenda.
God Calls the Meeting to Speak to His People
The second thing we learn from the assembly at Mount Sinai is that God called the meeting in order to speak to his people (vv. 3b-7). Notice that the people weren’t called to sing, pray, give, or anything else we might normally associate with worshipping God. The first thing they must do is listen. “The Lord called to Moses…‘Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel….So Moses…set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him” (vv. 3, 7).
The promise that God made to Moses helps us understand why this was the case. Remember what he told Moses in 3:12: “When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” The promise was that they would be saved by God to serve God. What do servants do? They carry out instructions. How do they know what those instructions are unless they first listen to their master? This is why churches call their gatherings worship services. We are servants who come to hear our Master’s instructions. This is the most fundamental way we serve God.
Yes, we gather to sing and pray. But, as theologian Christopher Green says, “We must first attend closely to God’s word. How else do we know how or whom to serve, or what we are to sing or celebrate? Gathering God’s people to listen was the great cause of the assembly on Sinai.” We might define the church as God’s people gathered around God’s word.
The Miracle of Revelation
At Sinai, God wanted to reveal himself to his people; he did not want to remain hidden. So in his grace he chose to speak to them, audibly at first, and then through Moses. This is the miracle of revelation, a miracle of grace. It’s grace because God didn’t have to speak to his people, but in his grace, he chose to. It’s a miracle because God did it, not man, first audibly, then through Moses, and now through the Holy Scriptures.
God spoke directly and audibly to the people of Israel from Mount Sinai in Exodus 20, giving them the Ten Commandments (vv. 1-17). We often say that we wish God would just speak to us clearly, or audibly, so that we’d know exactly what he wants. But the audible voice of the Lord was too much for the people of Israel to bear, so they asked Moses to intercede for them (20:18-19).
The voice of the Lord was so strong and intense that the people thought they’d die if he kept speaking to them. Do you understand what you’re holding in your Bible? You’re holding the very words of God, words that can make alive and lead to death.
Promises and Commands
What did God want his people to hear at Sinai? Two things. He wanted to remind them of his promises (vv. 4-6a) and tell them what to do (v. 5a). Israel was promised to have a rich relationship with God. Out of all the nations on the earth, they were his delight. Green again says, “As a kingdom of priests they would rule under him, and serve him, like thousands of Adams in the new Eden they would shortly inherit.”
These were incredible promises. Their subsequent history, however, shows us that these promises require a greater fulfillment. A “kingdom of priests” is very different from what ended up as a handful of very corrupt priests. A “holy nation” is very different from the divided monarchy that happened after King Solomon. Their defeat and exile by the Babylonians could be seen as the death of their status as God’s “treasured possession among all peoples.”
Israel would fail to live up to these promises. But God’s plan to make a people like this would not fail. To the church, Peter wrote, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession” (1 Pet. 2:9). God would fulfill these promises in the new and true Israel, Jesus Christ, and all who’re united to him through faith.
With these promises, God also gave his people his instructions (v. 5a). God remembered his covenant with Abraham (3:6), thus he heard the Israelites when they called out to him when they were facing genocide (2:24). At Sinai, he was about to make another covenant with them. It wouldn’t cancel the one made with Abraham, but it would provide the people with God’s expectations for them as his covenant people.
We call this the “Mosaic covenant,” as it was established through Moses, and it’s a covenant of works, meaning that its benefits only come through obedience. The rules of this covenant start with the Ten Commandments in chapter 20 and go all the way through chapter 31.
In the Abrahamic covenant, the people were promised a land. In the Mosaic covenant, they were told how they should live in the land. In the Abrahamic covenant, they were promised descendants. In the Mosaic covenant, they were told how these descendants should live.
God told them what he’d done for them, and how he’s with them (v. 4). Now he’s going to say that, in light of what he’s done, they must “obey his voice and keep his covenant” (v. 5). God has sovereignly saved his people and kept his promises. Now he expects his people to obey him.
Only One Obeyed
The problem was that no one could obey the law. Even the most holy people, the priests, had to offer sacrifices to cover their own lawbreaking. The people couldn’t even keep the first ten laws, much less all the others. The law was good in that it ordered their society and told them what pleased the Lord. But the law also made them guilty and in need of a blood sacrifice to take away their guilt.
We all stand condemned under the law of God because we’ve all disobeyed it. Those who think they’re a pretty good person and therefore going to heaven to be with God forever need to understand how God feels about them breaking his laws. The prophet Ezekiel says, “The soul who sins shall die” (18:4). Paul says that “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). He also says that the law is the mechanism that God will use to judge the world (Rom. 3:19). The law is what shows us that we’ve sinned against God (v. 20).
If the law condemns us, do we have any hope? Yes, but only by putting all our hope and trust in the One who perfectly obeyed the law on our behalf, Jesus Christ (vv. 21-24). Everyone who understands that they’ve broken God’s law and deserve the consequences of breaking the law, and yet look to Jesus in faith and turn away from their sins will be forgiven of their lawbreaking and counted righteous in Christ.
You’ve broken the law of God, and yet God still loves you. He sees you. He wants to lift the guilt and shame from your life. He wants to heal your heart. Jesus came to rescue those dying under the law. He came to set you free and give you a new life. Do you hear his word? How will you respond?
God’s People Respond
God’s word to us in the gospel demands a response. You must choose to obey it and believe it, or not, understanding that there are eternal consequences either way. God’s Word has always demanded and produced a response from God’s people. This is the next thing we see back in Exodus 19, verses 7-8. The people of God understand what’s expected of them. They must obey the God who saved them.
As I said earlier, this scene is the backdrop for what Jesus has in mind when he said that he would build “his church” (Mt. 16:18). By “church,” Jesus meant, “my assembly of my people whom I have saved, who will do what I say and bind themselves unconditionally to me.” The church was never meant to just be a meeting of people, but rather a meeting of people with the clear purpose of hearing from God about how to serve him. The church is God’s people gathered together to hear from and obey God’s word.
God’s People Rebel
Unfortunately, the commitment of the Israelites was short-lived. They quickly lost faith in God and broke their word (32:1-6). God’s people decided to find another god who saved them. While God was telling Moses how to fashion their gold into the instruments for the tabernacle, they melted it into an idol. They were smashing God’s word by their actions, so when Moses sees what they’re doing he smashes the Ten Commandments (v. 19).
Fast forward forty years to Moses’ last sermon to the Israelites in Deuteronomy. In his sermon, he stressed again and again that the main reason God assembled them at Mount Sinai was to give them his law (4:10, 9:10). The instructions about the tabernacle, and eventually the temple, were important, but God’s main point was that he wanted obedience to the whole law.
Part of Israel’s problem from here to the exile was that they boiled worship down to their temple activities and lived the rest of their lives without regard to the Lord (Isa. 1:12-17, Jer. 7:1-11). Their shallow religion and hypocrisy would eventually lead to their exile.
Would the exile bring God’s work to an end? Would he assemble his people again? How could his people be assembled since they were now scattered all over the world? We’ll find out next week as we look at the church from exile to eternity.
Let’s put everything we’ve learned in these three weeks together. What is the church? The church are the chosen, miraculously created, international, marked-off people of God who believe the promises of God and who’re gathered together by God in order to listen to and obey God. I pray that you’d examine yourself carefully in order to see whether you’re part of this people.