Beginning

This blog is designed to encourage the faith of believers in every facet of our lives. To do this, I will look to the Word of God and glean what the Lord is teaching us regarding our faith in Him. Comments are not only welcome but greatly encouraged.

In thinking about beginning any work devoted to serving the Lord, I find that it is almost overwhelming to begin. My mom used to say to me that the hardest thing to do is start. She is right.

I have been composing short posts that explain my thoughts, so I will begin posting them in the days and weeks ahead. The best way to begin is with a definition of the church.

What is the church?

The church is the people that God has called together in His sovereignty. In 1 Corinthians 1:2 we have a good working definition of the church in Corinth and by implication, to the church today:

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.

Those sanctified in Christ Jesus
We see that the church is composed of people who have had a radical change in their lives. They have been sanctified. Simply stated, they have been washed clean of the stain of their sin.

Called to be saints
The church is a people who are called. They are called by their great shepherd as Jesus describes a shepherd calling his sheep in John 10:2-3.

But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

It’s God’s sovereign choice that creates the church, not our choice.

We are called to be saints. The term ‘saints’ in a modern context can be confusing because of the Catholic usage of it. For Paul, ‘saints’ is synonymous with believers in Jesus Christ. The link is made later in 1 Corinthians 1:9 where Paul further identifies God’s sovereignty in calling the church:

God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Together
We are called to be together. Paul leaves little room for believers to wiggle out of this command.

. . .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.

He is the Lord. We belong to Him. That is the meaning of the word ‘Lord.’

So the church is the people that God has called together in His sovereignty.

So what are some implications for us?

One implication is that the church exists to bring glory to God. It does so by people calling upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. If there is no mention of Jesus, there is no church. Many churches shy away from proclaiming Jesus Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 1:23). This is the offence of the cross that will separate believers from unbelievers. Do you treasure Jesus Christ crucified or is this foolish to you? Are you offended when someone mentions that they believe that Jesus Christ died for their sins on a cross or do you praise Him for it? I urge you to call upon the name of Jesus Christ. Cry out to Him for the forgiveness of your sin. If you do so and you start to see the cross as your treasure, an amazing thing has happened. You will find that even before you called upon His name, He called you into fellowship and saved you. That is the beauty of the Gospel – The Good Message of Jesus Christ – that we love because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

Another implication is that churches are not groups of perfect people. Matthew 9:13 quotes Jesus saying ". . . I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." We are called together to glorify God as sinners saved by Him but the Proverbs 14:4 principle applies – "Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox." As my children have learned, I can apply this verse to virtually every area of life but it is especially true with the church.

We are the imperfect means to glorifying a perfect God. It may get messy at times since we all come into it with residual sin, but we are called nonetheless. We bear each others’ burdens to the glory of God. We love each other to the glory of God. We edify each other to the glory of God.

To God be the glory through His church.


Some of the topics that I will address in the posts to come are:

• The foundation of the church
• The function of the church
• The leading of the church
• The witness of the church