What Is God Doing in the World?
If I were to ask you, “What is God doing in the world?”, how would you answer? What word would you use to describe the role of the church in God’s plan? “Essential,” “indispensable,” or “fundamental”?
Many think of the church as optional, outdated, unnecessary, or irrelevant for their lives. But the church occupies a central role in God’s plan for the world. The church isn’t an ancillary, or secondary, part of God’s plan. The church is the main stage where God’s plans and purposes for the universe are performed.
The Glory of the Church in Four Passages of Scripture
Let’s look at four passages of Scripture that show us the central role of the church in God’s plan for the universe. First, Ephesians 3:10, “Through the church the manifold wisdom of God (is) made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” The church is like a billboard declaring to the spiritual forces of evil that “God is wise.” The church is God’s way of saying to the Devil, “I’m smarter than you.”
Second, Ephesians 1:22-23, “He (God) put all things under his (Jesus’s) feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” The church is the body of Christ on earth. At his ascension, Jesus was granted authority over all things. This authority is how he “fills all in all.” But this text is saying something even more astonishing. It says that Jesus’s “fullness” is displayed in “the church.” This means that the church reveals Jesus’ rule over the universe. The body of Christ is the tangible expression of Jesus’ rule over the whole universe. His reign in heaven is hidden, but is made visible in the church.
Third, 1 Timothy 3:14-15, “I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.” The church is God’s house. It’s where he lives. It’s what holds up and holds forth his truth. Reality as it actually is, this text says, is held up and displayed in the church. In a world full of lies and liars, the church is where we can find the truth. This is because the church is where God lives.
And fourth, Matthew 16:13-18, “Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’”
Jesus is building his church on people, like Peter, who confess him as “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus is building his church on true confessors, and nothing will stop him.
So, according to these texts, what is God doing in the world? He is revealing his wisdom and the authority of his Son and the truth about reality through the church, and nothing will stop him.
Nothing Will Defeat the Church
Evil trembles at what God is doing in the church. In C. S. Lewis’ book The Screwtape Letters, a senior demon tells his student that “the Church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, (is) terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans.”
Is the glory of the church invisible to you? Have you understood and felt the weight of God’s glory in the church? Do you realize that the church is the only army that will never lose, the only house that will never fall, and the only body that will never die? Church, do you understand who you are?
If Lewis is right, and if the four passages I read are true, then our view of the church is likely too small and weak and worldly. Whether we meet inside or outside, wear masks or not, we reveal the wisdom and truth of God and the authority of Jesus and will not be overcome by evil. Now, more than ever perhaps, because of a global pandemic and racial strife and economic uncertainty and a politically divided country, the people of God need to know who they are.
The forces of evil want to divide and conquer us, but God has set the seal of his Spirit on us, given us his truth, and promised us victory in his Son. This means that even if the coronavirus kills all of us, or we all lose our jobs, or our country continues to tear itself apart, or if we’re persecuted for following Jesus, we’ll be okay. The great thing about the church is that we win even if we lose. What I mean is that nothing will stop God’s purposes for his people. He will bring us safely home. We will live in his house and sit at his table and drink his wine and enjoy his glory in a new world forever. Even if we lose everything, we still have Christ. Even if we die, we will live.
These promises are only true for the church. This is why Paul says that those who’re without God in the world are without hope (Eph. 2:12).
Why Are We Studying the Church?
I know you must be thinking, “John, if the church is this important and glorious, then we really need to spend at least seven or eight months thinking about the church.” Well, if you’re thinking that, I agree, we should, and we are!
Today, we’re beginning a series on the church that will, Lord willing, take us all the way to next summer. I’ll go over some of the particulars in a moment. First, let me tell you why I, with Nick, think we should do this. So here are five reasons why we’re doing this study:
First, the Bible talks about the church. The people of God is one of the main themes of the Bible so it deserves careful and deliberate attention. Understanding exactly what and who we are according to the Bible seems like a good idea, especially in a world that teaches us that identity is something we discover within ourselves rather than something given to us by God.
Second, we need to study the church because the doctrine of the church is hugely neglected by evangelicals. Think of a Christian bookstore. There’s a huge selection of books on Christian living, marriage, kids, and bible studies of all kinds, but only a few books on the church gathering dust in the corner. Many Christians don’t think that the church is a vital part of the Christian life. We don’t think much about baptism, leadership, membership, or discipline in the church because an individual’s personal relationship with Christ is seen as the most important part of their spiritual life. The reason for this is my third reason for doing this study.
Third, we need to study the church in order to resist the ingrained individualism of our culture. Catholic Philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, in his book After Virtue, compares our culture to the Roman Empire right before it fell. He says that we’ve abandoned reason and the tradition of the virtues and are now governed by what he calls emotivism, or the idea that all our moral choices are expressions of what the individual feels is right.
Charles Taylor, another philosopher, says that our age is distinct because “today many people feel called to do this, feel they ought to do this, feel their lives would somehow be wasted or unfulfilled if they didn’t do it.” The “it” is, “Following your own heart, no matter what society says, or the church, or anybody else.” After extensive surveys and research, sociologist Christian Smith concludes, “All that society is, apparently, is a collection of autonomous individuals out to enjoy life.”
One Christian author rightly points out, “This kind of thinking is devastating to every kind of social stability but especially to the church. The church, a community that authoritatively teaches and disciples its members, cannot withstand a revolution in which each member becomes, in effect, his own pope.”
Because we live in a culture that teaches us that our main and only obligation is to ourselves, a culture that’s lost its sense of obligation to the past and the future, a culture that only lives to enjoy the moment, we need to understand just how counter-cultural life in the church is. In other words, we need to study the church in order to protect ourselves from, and resist, the prevailing winds of self-centeredness that blow through our culture.
A biblical understanding of the church not only protects us from individualism, but it actually serves to help us reach our decaying and darkening culture. The fourth reason why we should study the church is so that we can reach the world for Christ more effectively.
One author talks about how the church has begun to look like the world and what we must do to recover our witness in the world. He says, “Too many of our churches function as secular entertainment centers with religious morals slapped on top, when they should be functioning as the living, breathing Body of Christ. Too many churches have succumbed to modernity, rejecting the wisdom of past ages, treating worship as a consumer activity, and allowing parishioners to function as unaccountable, atomized members. The sad truth is, when the world sees us, it often fails to see anything different from nonbelievers. Christians often talk about ‘reaching the culture’ without realizing that, having no distinct Christian culture of their own, they have been co-opted by the secular culture they wish to evangelize. Without a substantial Christian culture, it’s no wonder that our children are forgetting what it means to be Christian, and no surprise that we are not bringing in new converts. If today’s churches are to survive the new Dark Age, they must stop ‘being normal.’ We will need to commit ourselves more deeply to our faith, and we will need to do that in ways that seem odd to contemporary eyes…(This) will result not only in stronger Christians but in a new evangelism as the salt recovers its savor.”
Do you see what he’s saying? He’s saying that the world sees nothing compelling in the church because the church looks more and more like the world. If we want to reach the world, our churches are going to have to offer something different than the world, something real and beautiful and true and holy. Churches seeking to do this will look more and more strange in our culture, but they’re likely to be more evangelistically fruitful. Growing in our understanding of, and pursuing the practices of the community of faith, will help us reach those far from God.
Fifth, to perhaps state the obvious, we should study the church in order to understand what a church is and what it does. This has been a need among Christians for a long time. Writing in 1992, Charles Colson in his book The Body talks about how most people associate the word “church” with a building. He says, “This is no harmless colloquialism,” but is “a symptom of a much greater problem – a genuine identity crisis. Not only do we see the church as bricks and mortar; we also misunderstand its character and its biblical purpose and mission.”
We need to train our minds and hearts to see the church as a people with a purpose, not a place that provides religious products. As we do this, I pray that several more things result. I pray that people who’re not members of this church or any church would be compelled to join a church. Chuck Colson says, “There is today a widespread belief that one can be a Christian or develop one’s own faith system apart from the church…Following the pattern made normative in the Book of Acts, each believer is to make his or her confession, be baptized, and become part of a local congregation with all of the accountability that implies…Unfortunately it is not uncommon for Christians to drift from congregation to congregation, usually where their friends lead them or where the pastor happens to give the most satisfying message. Many have no sense of roots or responsibility, and some never even join a local church.” He concludes, “Membership in a confessing body is fundamental to the faithful Christian life.”
I also pray that, through this study, members of Preston Highlands would come to better understand the privileges and responsibilities that come with membership in a church. Your membership is no small thing. Through faith in Christ, you are a member of the body of Christ, a spiritual reality made tangible through your membership in this particular local church.
Another result that I hope comes from our study is that, if the Lord leads you away from this church, you’ll make finding a new church priority number one. As you grow to understand what a church is and does, I hope that lifelong convictions would form in your heart that quickly lead you to another church if you ever leave this one. In our church covenant, our members actually promise to do this. It says, “We covenant to, when we move from this place, as soon as possible, unite with some other church where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of God’s Word.”
Another result will be growing in our understanding of how parachurch ministries, such as BSM, CRU, 9Marks, Desiring God, and others, are fundamentally different than the church. A group of Christians doing good things in the world does not make a church. Parachurch ministries do much good in the world, but, as I hope our study shows, they are not the church.
My intention with this series is to do a study on the doctrine of the church, but please don’t consider this as a merely academic study. We desperately need to know what the Bible says about who we are and what we are to do. This means that there is perhaps no more practical study we could do. Who we are as the church and what we’re supposed to be doing is what makes up the substance of our lives.
The Church is Not God or the Gospel
A clarifying comment is in order. Despite its massive importance, the church is not the most important thing in the world. God is. God and his gospel is the “truth” that the church is supposed to hold up. The church isn’t the most important thing, but it does hold the most important thing.
Pastor Mark Dever’s definition of the church is helpful here. He says, “The church is the gospel made visible.” The gospel is what creates the church and the church is what reveals the gospel, through its proclamation and its life together. Dever continues, “Take away the church and you take away the visible manifestation of the gospel in the world…(In the church) the world will witness the reign of God begun in a community of people made in his image and reborn by his Spirit.”
In other words, the church is meant to be a picture of heaven on earth. It’s meant to display what life with God and God’s people in God’s kingdom looks like. Dever concludes, “Christians, not just as individuals but as God’s people bound together in churches, are the clearest picture the world sees of who God is and what his will is for them.”
Therefore, if we want people to see and know God and his Son Jesus Christ, we will care deeply about the doctrine of the church. We’ll want to know all that the Bible says about who we are and what we’re supposed to do. We’ll want to do our best to understand the church in order to faithfully reveal and represent Jesus in the world.
Where Are We Going?
To these ends, we’re embarking on an eight month journey into the doctrine of the church. Find the handout you received on the way in and let’s look together at where we’re going. We’ll begin by doing four weeks on “The History of the Church.” This will be an overview of what the Bible says about the people of God. Then we’ll launch into an array of topics about who we are and what we’re supposed to do.
This list isn’t exhaustive, and we may tweak it a bit as we go along. But the list is long, as you can tell. It’s overwhelming, even to me, for at least two reasons. First, if you know me well, you know that I prefer to preach expositionally rather than topically. Topical preaching is harder and more dangerous because preachers can use bits and pieces of the Bible to say just about anything. So the way I’m going to approach each week is by picking one primary text on the topic at hand, examine it carefully, and then bring in other texts as needed. This should make this a series of expositions on specific topics.
Second, the amount of time I’d like to devote to this topic is a bit overwhelming. Two things on this. First, if the church is as important and neglected as I’ve tried to argue, then devoting significant time to studying it seems reasonable. Second, if the Lord allows me to preach here for thirty or forty years, then eight months on the church really isn’t that long! I pray that this study would be something that shapes and forms and prepares us for ministry together for decades to come.
In the church, God is revealing his wisdom and the authority of his Son and the truth about reality, and nothing will stop him. May he give us strength and grace to comprehend and live out this glorious truth.