Episode 1. The Lordship of Christ
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Different churches have all sorts of different focuses. Some focus more on social justice things. Others on developing those in the church. Others on evangelism. And all that’s great. But unless …
Different churches have all sorts of different focuses. Some focus more on social justice things. Others on developing those in the church. Others on evangelism. And all that’s great. But unless there’s a sense of the lordship of Christ amongst the people … then the church isn’t even a church.
Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been having a bit of a poke around this thing we call ‘Church’. And there’s a reason for that. Church, as much as some people may think that the term is old fashioned or irrelevant, Church is a big deal because it’s God’s idea, not a human idea.
It’s God’s idea as the family of His children, to bring them into relationship with Him and one another and to get them together to bring more about His business here on this earth. The business of drawing more and more people to an eternity with Him.
And I know many, many people have many, many objections to this ‘Church’ thing. Down through the centuries, Church has sometimes behaved very, very badly indeed. Even now sometimes you have to wonder right?
So over the last couple of weeks, we looked at some of those objections, I hope, through God’s eyes. Today, this week and next week on the program I want to share some thoughts with you about the things that I go looking for in a Church.
If I’m out there looking for a Church to belong to what are the things that I should look for in that Church? See whilst in huge part I think the biggest thing about belonging to this Church or that Church is a sense of God’s calling for each one of us. I also think He gave us a brain to think through the options and to choose a Church that’s Godly and a Church that’s truly having an impact in the world.
Before the car the Church the people went to was determined largely by two things. Firstly, geographical proximity and then the denomination in which they’d grown up. In some parts of the world geographical proximity is still the biggest issue. If the only way to get to Church is to walk, well you need to be within walking distance of the Church.
In other parts of the world where people have their own cars the geographical catchment of a potential Church widens considerably. And frankly, Berni, me, I’m a post denominationalist. By that I mean, denominations just don’t mean much to me anymore. To some people they do and that’s fine but not to me.
What really matters to me is that this local Church, that’s what it’s all about. Not some sense of wider brand organisational affiliation. Today I want to kick off with the number one thing that I’m looking for in a Church when I walk into that place.
Interestingly over the coming couple of weeks, we’re going to look at the results of a major international research project that involved over 1,000 Churches in 32 countries and 4.2 million responses from Church-goers. Based on that comprehensive research it comes up with eight common factors that are common threads across those Churches that are growing both in quantity, the number of people, and in quality. I think that qualitative dimension is really important.
Eight factors, each of which must be present in order for a Church to be growing in numbers and quality. Great stuff. We’ll look at each of those over the coming couple of weeks but this first criteria that I’m looking for in a Church isn’t even amongst those eight. It wasn’t identified as a critical factor in a growing Church.
And yet, whether the research bears it out or not, it’s the factor and that factor is this. The number one thing that I’m looking for when I walk into a Church is the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In Ephesians chapter 1 the Apostle Paul’s writing to his friends in the Church of Ephesus.
And he says that his prayer for his friends is that they get to know God better and better. They would know Him for themselves the great hope they have in Christ. The riches of their inheritance and the immeasurable greatness of His power for them.
But have a listen now to what he goes on to say about this incomparably great power. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 20:
God put this power to work in Christ when He raised Him up from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places far above every rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age but also in the age to come.
And He has put all things under His feet and He has made Him (listen to this) head over all things for the Church which is the body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
See, Christ is the head of the Church and we are His body, plain and simple. But you see at times, when I’ve been wandering around looking for a Church to belong to I’ve wandered into many a Church where, frankly, Christ is simply not the head. I’ve wandered into Churches that are doing so many good philanthropic or social justice deeds, so many, but in doing those deeds they’ve drifted a million miles from Christ.
They’ve stopped believing in and proclaiming the Word of God. And then I’ve walked into Churches where every Sunday you get a great motivational sermon about being all that you can be or achieving all that you can achieve and earning all that you can earn. And every now and then there’s a passing reference to what God said. Every now and then.
And I’ve met with groups of Christians socially over coffee or a meal where the conversations turn to everything and anything other than Jesus Christ. I’ve been amongst groups of Christians who, in their midst, accept low standards of moral behaviour. The sorts of things that are among the very few things that God says clearly, in His Word, for us not to do.
Now you might think I’m being critical. I’m just looking at things and telling you the way I see them. See God’s Word, the Bible, it’s not a series of fables or allegories. It’s not something that we have up there on the shelf somewhere gathering dust. God’s Word, the Bible, is the living Word of the living God. It’s God speaking with us.
My friend, Jesus is the Lord above all. Above heaven. Above earth. Above everyone. Above every name. Above everything. Church isn’t a country club. It’s not a place where we get to push our own pet projects and theologies. Church is a place that’s supposed to be full of people who are full to overflowing with the Spirit of God and the Word of God.
And those sorts of people call Jesus Christ ‘Lord’. The Lord of their lives individually, where they’re doing things that only God and they can see; and the Lord of their Church collectively. Those sorts of people are the sort of people that hunger to hear what God has to say to them in their lives through His word today.
Those sorts of people are the sort of people who thirst to experience for themselves the presence of the Spirit of God in their hearts and their lives. Those sorts of people are the sorts of people who want to be disciples of Jesus Christ:
Jesus told His disciples, ‘If you want to become my followers then deny yourselves and take up your cross and follow me. Because if you want to save your life, you’re going to lose it and yet, if you lose your life for my sake then you’ll find it. What will it profit you if you gain the whole world and yet forfeit your life? And what will you give in return for your life?’
These are the sort of people who will lay down their lives, their selfish agenda’s and pride to make Jesus Christ the Lord, and instead, take up their cross. My friend, if that isn’t the groundswell of the culture of a Church then it has no business calling itself a Church.
I’m not talking about finding the perfect Church full of perfect people. Just one that genuinely calls Jesus Christ ‘Lord’. Not just in what it says. Not just in its rhetoric. Not just in its sermons or in its prayers. But in what it does. In how people treat one another. In how they sacrifice, how they love.
Without that, I don’t believe it’s a Church at all. It’s nothing without the Lordship of Christ.
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