Sermon Text:
1 Corinthians 1:1-3
Why should we care about the church? It can often seem outdated, and yet the church is part of God’s eternal plan for his people. The church is built on the foundation of the gospel as we see local churches gather as a representation of the universal church.
Sermon Transcript:
(transcribed with AI)
Well, good morning, everyone. It is good to be here with you all. For those of you who might not know me, my name is Jonathan. I have the privilege of being the pastor here. Today we are starting a brand new sermon series here in Promontory, going through the rest of our summer looking at the church. Our series is simply called "The Church Is," and each week we're going to be filling in another aspect of what the church is, how we should understand it, and what God has built.
Throughout this series, there are really two questions I want us to answer. The first is quite simple: Why should we care? Why should we care about the church at all? The church has been around forever. It's this outdated, outmoded religious institution. Is that really something we should care about? That sounds like the kind of thing we should be letting die and go by the wayside. Just let this one pass out. We don't need to focus on this. It's the 21st century. If I want to go to church, I can just turn on my TV, turn on my computer. I can find a better preacher online. There are plenty. Or you can strap on virtual reality and go to VR church. You can have an AI pastor. There are so many options. Why should we care about this religious institution that makes you wake up on a Sunday morning and come out here? Why should we care about church at all? That's the first question we want to answer.
The second is a little more focused on what we are doing here. For those of you who have been around for a little while, you'll know that we are making a transition this September. If you're new, we're part of Central Community Church. We're the Promontory campus. What we are looking at doing is planting Promontory as its own church this September as Promontory Community Church. We've been talking about this for quite some time now. A couple of years ago, we started this conversation looking at what would it look like to actually see a campus make that transition? Then about a year ago, we started actually making some plans. What would this really look like to take these steps? By God's grace, He's been answering us again and again, providing in so many different ways, to the point that now we're looking at September as actually stepping out on our own.
As I say that, please understand that's not because there's any sort of animosity between us and Central. Far from it. The only reason that we can ever consider this is because of Central's faithfulness and the way they've gifted us and allowed us to actually come together. So praise God. This is no slight against Central at all. But then the question is, well, why are we doing this? Why are we stepping out on our own? We still long to actually partner with Central on things. We just talked about the School of Ministry that's going to be starting. We're going to partner with Central to see that happen. You are allowed to sign up for that class. Go for it. It's going to be great. Jorge's already talked to me about teaching some of the classes. I'm excited to be able to partner together on this.
So why should you care about the church at all? Why are we taking this step of actually becoming a church? Really that's what I want us to look at over these next couple of weeks. But here, let me just start with this. We just finished a series in the book of Ephesians and all the way back, if you can remember, back to Ephesians chapter 3, Paul writes this about the church:
So that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.
More than just a hangout, more than a social club or an institution, the church is actually part of God's eternal plan so that in our salvation we are brought together as a display for the entire world to see what the gospel is like, both the physical and the spiritual world. The church is part of God's eternal plan. It is God's plan for God's people.
As we dive into this more and more in the coming weeks, my prayer is not only that we would recognize actually the importance of the church, but actually we would begin to appreciate more and more the beauty of what God has blessed us with. God's plan as all of God's works are captivatingly beautiful, and the church is very much part of that.
This morning as we're starting our series, we're going to look at what makes a church. What is the most fundamental foundational part of a church? We're simply looking at "the church is called." That is called by God, called by the gospel. The church is created, built, and defined by the gospel. This is the most fundamental foundational part of what any church is. This is what separates the church from a social club or a support group. The church is made up of people, of those who trust in Jesus.
Here is the reality for many of us: The reality for many of us, and maybe even you've been thinking in the back of your mind as I'm talking about this, you're saying, you know, I've been around churches for a little bit, and actually I've seen some really good things. You're right, but I've also seen some really awful things that have happened. Some of the things you've experienced in church might not have been wonderful and amazing. Maybe you've been really hurt by the church. You've seen some really awful things take place. It's true that is also part of how we experience church.
This morning as we open our Bibles, I want us to actually look at one of the worst churches. One of the worst churches in the New Testament. If you have a Bible, find your way to the book of 1 Corinthians. Paul is writing a letter to the church in Corinth, and this church has problems. This church has so many problems. There are divisions in this church. There is rampant sexual immorality. They are suing one another. People are getting drunk in church. This is a messed up church. But as Paul writes, and he has a lot of things he's got to correct them on, as he writes to them, he addresses them not by their sin, but actually by their salvation. That's what I want us to see here this morning.
If you have your Bibles with you, you can follow along with me. It's our tradition here we stand as we read God's word, so if you're able to, would you stand with me? 1 Corinthians chapter 1, starting in verse 1:
Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
This morning as we're looking at our text, we're really just going to spend the majority of time looking at one verse. We're going to spend pretty much our whole time just looking at verse 2 because Paul gives us quite the definition of what a church is to be.
If you're familiar with New Testament letters, you'll recognize what's going on here. This is the standard way that you would start a letter. You start off with the person who is writing the letter, then you list who it's going to, and then you give some kind of greeting right off the top, and so that's what we get. Paul here, he's the one writing this letter, he's with a man by the name of Sosthenes. We don't know much about Sosthenes, probably the church did. We get who it's addressed to, that is, to the church in Corinth, and then we get a very standard greeting, a blessing in the church: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. These blessings that are rich and deep throughout the New Testament are given as a blessing for every believer.
But really what sets this introduction apart from many others is how he unpacks who this is going to. It's to this church that Paul is addressing his letter, and he is unpacking what a church really is, who they are in Christ. Paul wants them to understand how they stand before God.
As we walk through this, well, I say passage, but walk through verse two, this is what I want us to understand. What is a church? When we use that word, what do we mean by it? Is it a building? Is it a people? A time? A program? What exactly is a church? I'm going to argue Paul tells us throughout this passage that a church is those who are called by the gospel of Jesus into a local expression of the universal people of God. The church is those who are called by the gospel into a local expression of the universal people of God.
But let's just start off here with the most basic. The most foundational is that the church is called by the gospel. Look back at verse two:
To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints.
Here is our beginning point of how we are to understand what a church is. The first and primary thing, probably so obvious you just passed it over, is that the church is people. It's to those, the people who are sanctified, to the people who are called to be saints. The first thing we learn is actually church is people coming together. If you grew up in Sunday school you probably heard this definition a thousand times. What is a church? The church isn't a building, the church is the people inside. But it's amazing how easy it is to forget that. To begin to associate a church with a name, a program, to be associated with a brand or some kind of charismatic speaker. That the pastor, he's really representing the whole church. But actually biblically, church is people.
Now it's not just any people here as Paul explains to us, rather it is the church of God. They are people who are known by the name of God. You remember the church is not our idea, it's God's. In fact the people are those who are sanctified. This is a very churchy kind of word to use this word sanctified. But if you're familiar with say the Old Testament, you'll probably come across this a few times. Something that was sanctified was something that was set apart. It was set apart for the purposes of God. It was given a special place reserved for service to God. In fact as we talk about people, actually those who reflect God's character, his perfection, his purity. It comes from the same word as holy. So that actually we are called to be holy even as God himself is holy. We are to be perfect as God himself is perfect. We are to be pure as God himself is pure.
But there's a very important part of what Paul just said that we need to recognize. We are sanctified in Christ Jesus. This is not our own ability to make our self better. This is not us pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps and saying, I can do this. Rather this is saying, this is what Jesus does for us. It's the gospel in a nutshell. It's what defines a church as a church. People who've been made holy by what Jesus has done because the truth is none of us are holy on our own. None of us are perfect. None of us are pure. None of us could say we represent the perfection of God himself. No hardly. We've all messed up. We've all done things that we're not proud of. We've all done things that have kept us up at night guilty with our stomach cramped into just a knot because we don't really want to have to think about what we've done. Those are just the ones we're aware of. We've done so many more. When we see God's standard, we fall so far short.
The problem is for us, God is actually perfect and that God will actually hold everyone accountable for what they've done. In fact, God wouldn't be good if he didn't. If he didn't deal with all the wrong and all the sin in this world, he wouldn't be perfect or good. But here's our problem. We aren't perfect or good. Actually we need God's help for this. This isn't something we can overcome on our own, but rather it's a work of God. God actually will forgive our sins. Not overlook our sins. Not just go, oh, that's fine. It doesn't really matter. No, God wouldn't be good if he did that. No, God actually forgives our sins. It's the very reason Jesus came in the first place so that he could die on the cross to pay the punishment of our sin.
Titus chapter 3 tells us:
He that is God, God saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
God has forgiven our sins, saved us not because of what we have done, but because of what Jesus has done in our place. Jesus came to this earth, lived a perfect life, died on the cross for our sins so that anyone who would trust in him would be saved. So that anyone who trusted in him, our sins are placed on Christ, his perfect record placed on us. When Paul says that the church is sanctified in Jesus, that's what he's talking about. In fact, he's talking about those whose sins have been covered and made holy in Jesus. This is the hope for all who would trust in him. Confess your sins, ask for God's forgiveness. No one is turned away.
Even notice there, Paul says we are called to be saints and then at the end he says we are those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. God calls us by his gospel. We respond by calling upon him for forgiveness.
As Paul writes to this church, this is how he addresses them. Despite all the fact of the problems rampant in this church, he addresses them first and foremost by what Jesus has done. Because this is what defines the church. What Jesus has done creates it. In fact, if you remember even when Jesus was speaking with his disciples, Matthew records this for us. He's asking them, what do people, or who do people say that I am? So Jesus said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied:
You are the Christ, the son of the living God.
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 gives him a new name, Peter means rock. Jesus says on this I will build my church, not on Peter himself, but upon the confession that he has just made. Jesus is the son of God. The church is built on the foundation of the trust in Jesus, his death and his resurrection that has paid for our sins.
In fact, this is so foundational, so important for the church that if this message is lost, the church is lost. In fact, you don't have a church outside of this gospel message. I know there's been plenty of churches and they've begun for reasons, whatever they are, to actually leave off this message. The problem is when the gospel is no longer proclaimed, you're no longer a church. You might still have good songs, you might still have good friends. You might still be a fun time, charismatic speakers and good programs, but if the gospel isn't there, it's no longer church.
Hear me, as we start out, as we work out on our own, the gospel must be part of what we do. So much so that we would have wasted all of our time if we have an amazing program. If Sunday goes amazingly smooth, but the gospel isn't there, we have wasted our time. Actually, even if I stop preaching it, if I start missing this, I'm asking you, pleading with you, stop me. In fact, that is the role of the elders, just to be clear. They're called to guard the doctrine of the church. Why? Because if this isn't there, the church is lost.
To be part of a church means you are trusting in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. It's what the church is based on. It's how we are partnered into it. The church is the people who have been forgiven, who are sanctified and are being sanctified.
We should realize, just because you trust in Jesus doesn't mean that you are a perfect person. I wish it was sometimes. I wish that when we trusted in Jesus, boom, we never sinned ever again. God in His plan has decided that's not the best. In fact, He calls us to work on that, to rely on the Holy Spirit to grow in holiness. In fact, Peter makes this point in the beginning of his letter. He says:
To the elect exiles, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with His blood.
We're called by the Gospel, given the Holy Spirit so that we would grow in holiness. The church is both sanctified, past tense, and being sanctified, present tense. The church is made up of sinful people, declared holy, and yet needing to grow in our holiness. Notice again, Paul is talking to a church filled with problems. This is the case for all of us.
So when you come to church, expect that you will find people who are sinful. Expect to find people who don't have everything perfectly together because we don't. That's not what defines a church. A church is not full of perfect people. In fact, if we come to church expecting that is the case, we have already lost the Gospel because the Gospel is for those who are sinful, who can't do it on their own, who need the gift of the Holy Spirit to grow in holiness. If we come expecting that everyone is going to be perfect, we're going to start pretending we are. What's going to happen is all the sin in your life will start to be hidden in secret, grow in secret, consume you in secret. The church is not meant to be that, but the place in which we come and say, I need God's help. I need the help of those around me. We're not perfect people. Rather, we are growing in holiness together. That's the whole point. We don't accept it. We don't ignore it. We fight to grow for sanctification.
Hebrews 12 puts it this way:
Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
Strive to be more like Jesus. The church is called by the Gospel, trust in Jesus, grow in holiness, sanctified and called to be holy. This is the most foundational part of the church and yet Paul is going to add to our understanding of that.
Look again, verse 2:
To the church of God that is in Corinth.
The church is defined first and foremost by the gathering of those who trust in Jesus and then here he defines it by where they are. They are the church in Corinth. In fact, he contrasts that with the end of this verse. He says:
Together with those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul says you are united to Jesus, the church, those who have been saved by Christ have now two realities, the local church and the universal church. The universal church, that's everyone across the entire world, across all of time who has ever trusted in Jesus is brought into this church, the universal church. But we are also actually called to the local church and here let's just focus in on the local church for a moment because often this is what gets overlooked.
Paul addresses this letter specifically to the people in Corinth. The word church here just means gathering. Honestly it's used for a lot of different things. Sometimes it's just people coming together. In Acts 19 it's used for the mob that tries to attack the church. Sometimes it's used for a political assembly. In the Old Testament it can even be used for the people of God. But here what defines the local church is the people who have been saved by the gospel now physically gathering together.
Here's where we need to realize so often in our very Western mindset we think about the gospel very individualistically. I am saved. Me singular, one person. Hear me, there's some truth to this. We actually do need to trust in Jesus personally. No one else can do that for you. That's something between you and God. You must place your trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. That is between you and God. But don't make the mistake of thinking then that you are isolated because God actually saves us into a people, brings us together.
Actually I'm going to argue that the physicality of the church is significant. Actually that the church gathered together is the place where we are called to live out the commands of Scripture. The Bible has a lot of these commands that we sometimes call the one anothers. You may have read through them and seen all these things we are to do for one another. Let me give you an example here.
1 Peter:
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.
Question is, who is the one another? Well, the context is actually the church. Your church around you. Again, look at 1 Thessalonians:
Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Who are we to encourage? Actually those around us in the church. Again, Ephesians:
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
We're actually called to do these things. We're called to fulfill these commands primarily or at least chiefly in the church. As much as I might feel an affection towards my brothers and sisters in Indonesia, I am incapable right now of being kind to them, showing them hospitality right now or loving them in a practical way. Actually, I need the church around me to do that. We're not meant to live the Christian life in isolation. We actually need to be with others. We actually need to put our faith into practice. Actually, the church is how we are called to do that.
Or even listen to how Paul talks about his suffering. Colossians:
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.
This is a verse that often confuses people because we look at that and we think, what is lacking from the afflictions of Christ? I thought that was sufficient, and hear me, yes it is. Jesus' death and resurrection is sufficient, covers all of our sins. There is nothing lacking there. What is lacking for us? Well, I, you, didn't see it. I didn't see the physical display worked out before me. In fact, Paul writing to the Colossians, they didn't see it either. So how is Paul filling it up? Because they get to watch him. They get to see what it looks like to suffer while trusting God. Paul gets to be that display so that they can look at his life and go, oh, I understand now more what it looks like, and hear me, oh, do we need that as well.
It is one thing to know that I can trust God in all of my sufferings. It is another thing to watch someone go through it, to see the example of someone who goes through hardships fully relying and trusting on God each and every step. That example is so critical to our own faith. I might not be able to see Jesus walk on this earth, but I get to see the church. I get to watch your example. I get to encourage you as well.
The church is meant to be the physical display of the message of the gospel. As we care for one another, as we love one another, as we welcome one another, we are showing in a physical display what the gospel looks like in our lives. Hear me, that's not the call for the universal church. That's the local church. Physically live this out. It's a gift to us as believers. It's a gift even to those outside the church. They get to see that demonstration. Do we make the gospel look good in this church so that people want to be part of it? You want to share the gospel with someone? Bring them to church. Not because the pastor is going to do your work for you, but because the church together is called to live it out, to show what the gospel looks like.
The church is the physical display of the universal church, the outpost of God's kingdom. Or you can think of it like an embassy in a foreign country. If you travel abroad and something happens to you, you know, your visa gets complicated, whatever it is, what you do is you go and you say, I need to find the Canadian embassy in this country. So you go to the Canadian embassy and they're able to help you because they are the outpost of Canada in a foreign country. In many ways, that's what the church is meant to be. The church is meant to be that physical display of the kingdom of heaven for people to come and see, citizens gathered together of another land. Church is God's plan to be a display of the gospel. We are called to put it on display.
I remember talking with someone, this was a while ago, this was not here. I was talking to someone, it was our first time in church. I said, hey, well, that's great, what brought you in today? He goes, oh, I'm a Christian, I just, every Sunday I go to another church. Go to a different church every single Sunday, I try and travel around, and my goal is I want to encourage everyone. In one sense, that sounds like a really good thing, doesn't it? Travel around, encourage a bunch of people. The challenge is you actually end up encouraging probably no one. Because all you can really do is ever have that surface level discussion, that surface level encouragement. You're not going to actually bunker down with someone, go through the difficult parts of life, see them grow in holiness, support them, care for them, hold them accountable. You're missing out on so much of what God wants you to do. If your goal is simply, I'll just be part of the universal church. No, actually, God calls us put these things into practice. Local church is how we are to do that. It's how we take the realm of abstract ideas, vague ambition or inconsequential lectures, and then say, I want to put that into practice. It happens in the church.
If you want your faith to be real, practical, functional in your life, lean into what God has created to build your faith. The church is to be more than just the people we're happened to be around. It is the place that our faith is put into practice, the visible expression of God's people for the world to see.
But even as we say that, then let me balance and not go to the other extreme and say we should ignore God's wider body. Paul actually reminds the church in Corinth, they are not alone, that they are part of this universal church of all of God's people. Look back, verse 2:
You are called to be saints together with all those in every place who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.
What defines the universal church is everyone who trusts in Jesus Christ. Actually that means we are united together. Again, Paul writes in Colossians:
And He, that is Jesus, is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross.
In Jesus, because of His death and resurrection, everyone is held together. Everyone who is trusted in Jesus is brought together across the entire globe as brothers and sisters in Christ. One of my favorite things to do whenever I get a chance to travel is to go to another church. I know it's summer, you guys are traveling. When you are gone on a Sunday, go find a church, because the beautiful part of what happens when you do is that you walk in and you find not strangers, but family, others who are worshiping God and trusting in Jesus. There is such an incredible reality that we get to enjoy in the church. Do not miss out on it.
But that also means for us here, here in Chilliwack, we're not called to be territorial, as if other churches are the enemy that we should try and keep out and keep to your side of the city. You can do stuff over there, but this is our place. Hardly. That is absolute nonsense. If we were fighting in a war and every company of soldiers thought they were the only ones fighting, not only would you be ineffective, you would soon be firing on your own side. May we as churches never fall into so obvious a trap of Satan. Let us pray for other churches. Pray that God would bless and fill them with the glory of God, that the gospel would go forward. They are not our enemy, but rather our brothers and sisters in Christ. Pray for them. Support them. That's what the universal church is supposed to do.
In fact, Jesus praying in John 17, he prayed for this:
I do not ask for these only, that is, his disciples, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. That's us. 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.
Jesus in the final hours before he went to the cross is praying that the church would be united together. I cannot tell you how many times I've talked with somebody who has said, I don't want to be involved with any of those church stuff. There are so many churches and they can't get along. Actually the world is noticed. Jesus is praying. The world would see our unity. We are united in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us actually live that out.
Even as we are planting a church here, it's not to be separate. It is to stand side by side with our fellow soldiers on God's kingdom. What we long to do is see the gospel made known, made known in the universal church as we unite together in Jesus, made known in our local expression as we live it out, as we showcase and trust this gospel of Jesus Christ that defines our church.
So why are we planting a church? Why does it matter? Because this is God's plan for his people, that we would make his glory visible in our lives, in our community, and in the world around us.
Let's pray together.
Our heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much. Lord, we thank you for the good news of Jesus Christ. Lord, that though we are sinful people, though we cannot do it on our own, you have looked on us with love and mercy. You have poured out grace in Jesus that our sins may be forgiven. Father, I pray would you sanctify us even as you have sanctified us. Father, would we grow in holiness, grow to be more like you? Father, as we come together as a church, would your gospel be visible among us? Lord, allow us to live it out in practical, real ways so that your glory is seen, so that the goodness of your gospel would be beheld and beloved. Father, I pray, work in us, unite us together, allow us to stand in the unity of your gospel that your glory would be made known. We ask all these things in your name. Amen.