Sermon
The Marks Of A True Christian Church
October 20, 2002
Pastor Donald Sheley

Today our subject is the church. If you were to gather with us on Saturday evening, we do something every Saturday evening, we affirm our faith. And in the affirmation of faith in the closing words we say:
We believe God has made us His people,
 To invite others to follow Christ,
 To encourage one another to deeper commitment,
 To proclaim forgiveness of sins and hope,
 To reconcile men to God through word and deed,
 To bear witness to the power of love over hate,
 To proclaim Jesus the Lord over all,
 To meet the daily tasks of life with purpose,
  To the ends of the earth,
  To the end of the age,
  To the praise of His glory. Amen.
Thus, we affirm our faith in the Christian church which Christ established.

To our notes today -- Paul writes to the Colossians: He, speaking of Christ, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth; visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body the church, who is the beginning the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

And then the words in Matthew: When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus answered and said to 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 also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.

I begin our notes by suggesting that Christ came to establishing his society on earth. It was not enough just to call individual sinners to God. He promised that He would build His Church. And that it would be the most powerful force on earth providing it could be created, inspired and sustained with His life and with His love. Nothing could stop it, or ever has stopped, the revolution of love which He began two thousand years ago.

The Bible says in John 1: In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men. And the Light shines in the darkness, for the darkness has never overpowered it [put it out or absorbed it or appropriated it, and is unreceptive to it]. The darkness has never put out the light.

I was impressed many years ago when visiting in the city of Moscow and taken down to Red Square, there's a church, and that church has stood there for centuries. That church has many crosses on the top of it. And through those 70 years of communism those men of the Kremlin had to drive their car right past that church every morning when they went to their office in the Kremlin. And through those 70 years those crosses never came down. And I stood there and said isn't that amazing; those who hated God for 70 years ruled a nation that was atheist, and yet, they had to pass every morning on their way to work the church with its crosses.

The darkness never has put out the light, and never will. Someone once commented: I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever sailed, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together have not affected the life of man upon earth as that one solitary life -- Jesus Christ the founder of the Christian church.

Now in John's gospel we have a prayer that Jesus prayed for His Church, and I'd like for you to take your Bible and join with me at John 17. And as you listen to this prayer, I want you to somehow catch the truth that this is Christ praying for us who have believed in Him and are a part of His Church because we trust in Him as our Lord and Savior. This is Christ's prayer for us, for the church.

Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And is this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.

And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.

And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of predation, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctified them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believed that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them. Amen.

At the bottom of page 1 in our notes you'll notice that I make this suggestion, that in this prayer there are four major themes, things that Christ prayed for, for His Church. He prayed for the glory of God, the word of God, the joy of God, and the love of God would be displayed in His Church.

The word glory means basically the visible manifestation of the splendor and the power and the radiance of God. It is God revealing Himself so that, as far as possible, we can see the beauty and majesty of His living presence with us. And in secular Greek the word glory means reputation or opinion. And it is a sobering truth that God's reputation in the world, or the world's opinion of God, will depend, to a large extent, on how far His glory is seen in the Church.

If glory means reputation and opinion, it's how the church lives out its Christian faith that will fix the opinion and set the reputation for God in a community. And I have to tell you that when I see religious leaders fall, and when I see what the church does to bring shame to the cause of Christ, I often turn my head heavenward and say, Jesus, I'm sorry; I'm sorry. Because I know His heart must hurt. Because His reputation and the opinion of the world is set by how the church lives out its Christianity. What a sobering responsibility.

Listen to Paul as he prays for the church at Ephesus. "For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen"

When I think of that word glory my mind goes back into the old Testament text. You'll remember the occasion when Solomon builds that glorious temple there in Jerusalem. It has all the measurements and in the Chronicles we have all the materials that went into the beautiful temple. And I understand that some architects in recent years have sat down and figured out if they would rebuilt Solomon's temple today it would be in the billions and billions of dollars to replace it. It was a magnificent structure.

When it's all finished Solomon has a dedication service and in that dedication service he prays that God's glory would fill that house. And that's exactly what happened. In fact, the glory of God became so visible, so powerfully present, that everything had to stop because they were in the presence of God. He was manifesting His glory. Now if we lived in Old Testament time and we journeyed their with our tents pitched with all the rest of the children of Israel as we made our way from Israel to Canaan, we could look towards that tabernacle and we knew that God's presence was there because His presence hovered over. That was His divine glory.

So in the Old Testament you had the visible manifestation of the glory of God. It was without question. They knew God was present. There is a phrase that appears frequently in the old text where it says God chose to place His name there. It simply means God at certain times in history and at specific location chooses to manifest His glory in dimensions so wondrous and so powerful. As we near the Sunday services I pray, dear God, I ask You to place Your name amongst us this weekend in our services. And what I am praying is this, dear God, come in all of Your glory and splendor and wonder and fill this house with Your presence.

It's not important to me if people are impressed. I want them to be delighted they're here. But when they walk through that door my prayer is that they feel the presence of God. And I thank God from time to time -- those who visit with us. I had a lady who came to me a few weeks ago and said, Pastor, as soon as I came to the front door I started crying and messed up all my mascara. She said, I didn't stop crying throughout all the service. She said, I'll tell you why. I've never walked into a church where I felt God's presence. And I just cried with joy inside because that's the thing I pray for, that people sense the presence of God.

But Jesus said something very interesting about that glory. He said, Father, the glory that You gave Me I have given them. And for some time I thought about that. What is that glory? I know what the glory is in the Old Testament, but Jesus changes the whole concept of glory in the New Testament. And He says that glory is witnessed in the oneness and the unity of the believers. When the church is praying together, working together, rejoicing together, crying together, sharing one another's burdens and so fulfilling the love Christ there's a sense of God's glory that fills the house.

And strangers who walk through that door they can pick it up immediately, if there isn't unity, if there's animosity, if there's cleavage in the family. They'll pick it up. They live in the atmosphere out there in the world. When they go to the workplace they know what it means to live in an environment of tension and distrust. It doesn't take them a minute to pick it up when they walk through the doors of a church. When they can come into a church and they sense God's love and His presence and His joy flowing between brothers and sisters, those within the family of God, that's what the glory that Jesus prayed for: Father, that glory that We had in oneness and that We have in oneness, may that be the glory of the church. Because when there is unity and when there's oneness, it becomes a powerful testimony to the cause of Jesus Christ in the community.

There's nothing more shameful than for a church to be fighting one another and hurting one another. I've watched over the neighborhoods for the last 40 years as I've pastored here in this community, and I've watched churches go through difficult times, divisions, splits, gossip, tearing the church apart. And I think of the cause of Christ in the community as the reputation of God and the opinion of the church has been so deeply hurt by divisive members within the body of Christ.

Jesus prayed, Father, may the church be a church where there is unity and where there is love and where My presence can dwell. That's the marks of a Christian church -- a church where God's presence dwells.

Jesus also prayed about the word. You'll notice many times in His prayer He said, I have given them Thy word; They have kept Thy word; Sanctify them in the truth; Thy Word is truth. And the word for 'keep' in His prayer means to keep safe, to watch over, to hold fast, to guard. So His prayer for the church was not only that there be a sense of unity that radiates His glory, but that the church will be the church where the word is proclaimed and exhorted, and sought to be guidance and the source of our strength.

Look at what Paul writes to Timothy. He says, "But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from your childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. I charge you, therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching."

The church that is alive and relevant for today's generation must be a prophetic church. You say, Pastor, what do you mean by that? I mean in the scriptural terms, the gift of prophecy is the proclamation of the word of God under divine anointing. It's not somebody standing up and saying, here's the will of the Lord and thus saith the Lord. That's not its reference here. In the Bible when it speaks of the gift of prophecy it speaks of that gift that's exercised within the body of believers, the preaching of the word of God under divine anointing.

And in our notes I suggest we must therefore listen very carefully in order to discern what God is saying to us in His Word -- not what society is saying and not what the thinking of our day is. It's what saith the word of God, and that's the ultimate and that's the final word on the matter. It always is.

The church that is alive for God will let the word of Christ dwell richly in the minds and the hearts of its members, and be alert to what God is saying.

Just remember this: Jesus prayed and His prayer was, God, fill the church with glory and may its word that is preach be the word of truth. Amen. That's my heart beat. That's my prayer for this church. God fill this church with Your glory. Amen?

Lord Jesus that is our prayer, so that when the world walks through these doors they sense You. They'll realize they've come face-to-face with You. So fill this house with Your glory, O Christ, I pray. And everybody said -- amen. God bless you folks.