We Are The Church

My lesson today is about we are the church. And and uh I think it would be good for us to remind ourselves that we are the church. Everybody just kind of join in unison. We are the church. We are the church. We we are the church. I am not the church. I am not the church. We are the church. There's a there's a reason for my saying that. Matthew chapter 16 uh 13-18 Jesus narrative tells us what he was going to do. It says, "And when Jesus came to the coast of Cesaria Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the son of man, am?" And they said, "Some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, some others Jeremiah or one of the prophets?

He saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am?" And Simon Peter answered and said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Hm. One God. And there was a great declaration and revelation by Simon Peter. Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, blessed art thou, Simon Barjonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter.

Now Jesus had uh told him some time ago at the beginning of ministry that he would he would be called Peter Cphus a rock. And uh here is the first occasion where he uses that nickname and that new name uh of Simon Peter. Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Now there's been a lot of debate about the rock uh and and what Jesus exactly meant there. Uh there is an entire religion that that's built upon Peter, Simon Peter being the rock.

Uh he was after all the first pope, right? An entire religious system is built upon the fact that Simon Peter was the rock. But Paul in his writings, he told us who that rock was. He said, "Now Jesus Christ was that rock." That's a direct statement of scripture that Jesus Christ was the rock. I I believe myself personally uh to elude a lot of debate here that uh that Jesus Christ is the rock upon which the church is built. He is the cornerstone of the church.

We are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. But Jesus Christ is the chief of the corner. He is the cornerstone. We are the church. Apostolic Pentecostal church. We are the church. Pentecostal through our experience. Apostolic in our belief. And we are the church because of the habitation of the spirit. We are apostolic Pentecostal church. the church and I articulate that today. It's not a construction uh what they call in grammar an arthurist construction. It is articulated. We are not a church. We are the church.

The term actually means ecclesia. It means originally a calledout assembly in its original form. It was one of those terms that was used uh in civics in in government. It is a an assembly that is called out for a specific purpose. And I know we've been called out of darkness into marvelous light and all of that. uh that that's a great thing. But this particular word indicates that we are an assembly that is called together for a specific purpose. Are you with me? In its original form, it never existed except in assembly.

In assembly, it wasn't a people group. That's a deemos in the Greek. It wasn't a crowd. That's an aklas in the Greek. But it was a call to assembly that constituted a meeting. A meeting, a coming together of people for a purpose. The place of meeting was not the focus. And we hear often this building that's not the church. But it is the place where the church meets. It's a it's it's a place that's been dedicated for the assembling of ourselves together as the church. Amen.

The place is not important. They they met in catacombs. The church met in caves. The church met in houses. The place wasn't important. The place wasn't the church. The assembly is the church. The purpose for assembling is what determines that it is the ecclesia or the church. And there is a purpose for us assembling together. The writer to Hebrews says, "Don't forsake this. Don't abandon the the assembling of yourselves together. I am glad to have come from a a heritage. I'm glad to have been a part uh of a time when coming to church wasn't a speed bump in my schedule.

It wasn't an inconvenient interruption in my lifestyle. There was no question, are you going to church? Are we going to church tonight? There was no question about we're going to church. Hallelujah. We're going to the church building to assemble with people of like precious faith. And there is a purpose for coming together. It is number one to edify. That's a big umbrella. It means a lot of things. But I'm so glad for the church. Not the building, but the church, the people of God, because you have over the years strengthened me.

You have over the years been a comfort to me. You have been to me what I needed in my times of need. I have been edified by the preaching of the word of God and the teaching of the word of God. I am strengthened by these things. It is not a chore. And I'm going to tell you, it is not even a sacrifice for me to come to the house of God to assemble with the people of God. I get edified by this. That's the purpose of our assembling together.

And another purpose is to exercise the authority of the church. Is any sick among you? Let them call for the elders of the church and they'll pray and the prayer of faith will save the sick. This is a soul saving station. There is a purpose to our assembly together. We have the power within the church to exercise the authority that is in the name of Jesus Christ. Individuals are connected. I am connected individually to Jesus Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I am together with other believers.

That's a fellowship. That's a fellowship of believers. But I am called the temple of God in second Corinthians. I am called a son of God. In first John, we are called vessels, clay pots as it were, that we have this treasure in earthn vessels. I am also an ambassador of Jesus Christ. I am a witness of Jesus Christ. But one thing that I am not alone is the church. I am not the church when I walk into Walmart. I am not the church when I go about my daily business.

I'm going to ruffle some feathers probably today and and upset some theological apple carts. But you alone are not the church. Ecclesia is never used of an individual. It is an assembly. We are the church when we are together. An assembly in a specific location is called the church. Let me just give you a civics lesson. We we elect politicians to the House of Representatives to the Senate. One of those people is a senator. The other is a representative. They are not the house in themselves.

They are not the senate in themselves. They do not carry the authority of the body when it comes together. It is only in assembly that they are called a legislative body. The church, the church is when it is an assembly exercising and wielding the authority in the name of Jesus Christ. You do have as believers certain authority and you do have certain abilities in the spirit. But it is only together that the the church in assembly is called the church. Hallelujah. The worldwide all ages church finds connectivity in the body.

You can read this in the New Testament. The body is what it's called worldwide. The body is the what is called universally. But the church is what it is specifically and locally. Stay with me. In Revelation 1:es 12 and 13, John says, "I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks. And in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and gird about the paps with a golden girdle." The church exists in a time.

We are not the We are not the church of the first century. Everybody got that? We don't dress up like them. We're not reenactors of that church. You see, re reenactors, Civil War reenactors, they they put on uniforms. They buy plastic guns and plastic bullets and they they go out and they pretend to fight battles, but those battles have already been fought in a past generation. They are reenactors. They're out of place for their time and we look at them and they become a spectacle to us.

The church is not irrelevant for today. We do not reenact what the early church did. We have the same power that the early church had, but we are not that church. The church is now. It exists in a time, in a culture, in a specific location. All of these churches that John saw were separated and yet the body was intact. The presence of Jesus in the midst of the church. That's what connected them. He says to the angel of the church, not a church. Each one of those seven churches mentioned is called the church.

They are all the church. They are separated. And yet the connection is Jesus Christ in the midst of them. It's Jesus that makes us the church. Jesus walking in the midst. You remember in the Old Testament in the tabernacle there was that seven branched manora the candle uh candalabra as it were the the lampstand upon which sat seven lamps that were burning all the time. They were individual lamps. They were connected to a single shaft in the middle. They were separate. They were not connected to each other.

They were connected to him to the shaft in the middle. And so it is with the church today. We that's why the church in Madagascar can be enjoying great revival and a church over here somewhere be dying on the vine because the church is not dependent upon another church. The church is dependent upon the one that walks in the midst by whom we are all connected to him. The church universal. Let me explain this. The church universal is the earthly body of Jesus Christ. spiritfilled believers through which God executes his purpose, establishes his power and extends his grace in the world.

The church, we are the church. And if we are the church, we are the ones through whom the Lord still works today. not a relic of the past, but thank God for the moving of the presence of God that he still walks in the midst of the church. The church age is going to end. The church will end as we know it. It's going to come to an end. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 49 says this. And as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

Verse 51 says, "Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." We are a called out assembly. We're called to assemble to a purpose, but there is going to be a final call out of the assembly. And we are going to assemble in another place. Stay with me. In a new city, as a new body. The writer John in the book of Revelation said, "And there came unto me one of the seven angels, which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, and I will show thee the bride." The only place that the bride exists is in the book of Revelation.

It's not now. You are not the bride. You're the church. There's going to come a change, a transition when we stop being the church and when we are changed. Paul said, "We're going to put off this mortal and we're going to take on immortality. We're going to put off the corruptible and we're going to put on incorruption. We are going to lay down the earthly role that we have played and we are going to step into a new dimension as the bride of the lamb. He said, I want to show you the place where they are assembled.

It's a city called the New Jerusalem that's coming down from God out of heaven. But it's still an assembly, a calledout assembly now called the bride of the lamb. The church in Revelation is not mentioned after the third chapter, but in chapters 19 and 21, it is called the bride. There's going to be a transition that we make. Why does the church exist? And what is the current state and relevance of the church? Why are we here? I apologize in advance to some of the people who come to prayer meeting for what I'm about to teach, but I told you Tuesday that it dovetales with this lesson today.

If you Brother Lonnie is not here today, but he's a trumpet player. The trumpet is relying upon the master musician that picks it up. It relies upon the breath, our trombone player over here. You can put that instrument down. It can't do anything by itself. It requires the breath of the musician to bring it to life. That is why the church must have the spirit of God. Without Jesus, he said, you can do nothing without me. It is the breath of God breathing into the instrument that brings it to life.

There are other institutions that may fulfill roles of service and mercy and ministry, but there is nothing else in existence where judgment, truth, mercy, grace, and love converge into one body. That is the church. It's why the church, what does our mission statement say? To connect with God and with others. And I would go a step further and it's to say I connect with God in order to connect God to others. It's why we exist, the church, to connect with God and with others. In John the 8th chapter verses 1-1, there's a story told.

And I know that you know this story, but as I told our prayer meeting group the other day, like Paul Harvey, I'm going to tell you the rest of the story. Some of the things that you may not have pulled out of this story. The Bible says that Jesus had come to the temple. I've been teaching a series in that in that prayer meeting group about the temple revelations. There was something about Jesus coming to the temple that triggered him. Every time he gets aggressive and pyic, he he he goes to war with these people.

He all of a sudden this this gentle Jesus all of a sudden he becomes embattled and we find him throwing over tables and running people off every time practically that he comes to the temple something like this happens. So he comes and and uh this was the the feast of tabernacles and Jesus's teaching. And the Bible says that the Pharisees, they brought to him a woman who was taken in the very act of adultery. They bring him a woman. We've caught her in the very act of adultery.

Now the merciless law, these law and order guys, they did this in order to trap Jesus. They wanted to trap him because they said to him, uh, the law says we should stone her. What do you say? Now, if he says go ahead and stone her, he's violated Roman law by taking by by giving approval to an execution that the Romans have not approved. If he says let her go, he's in violation of Mosaic law because he doesn't have the right to override the Mosaic law according to them.

And so they bring to him these these law and order guys bring to him this woman taken in the very act of adultery. Now the law says she should be stoned. The law is merciless. The law represents only judgment. It is no prescription. It's only penalty for this act that she has committed. Unyielding, the law had begun its life and existence written and etched in stone. The stone represented unyielding mercy. If you break the law, you pay the penalty. If you if you do if you transgress against the law, you are going to pay the price.

And so when they brought this woman to Jesus, they said, "The law is written in stone. Her outcome is written in stone. Her penalty is written in stone." Jesus didn't say a word. The Bible says that he stooped down and he began to draw in the dust. The Lord dropped these words in my heart as I studied this. It's a significant contrast of law and mercy. While the law's penalty was written in stone, mercy wrote this woman's story to dust. Because judgment required her death, but Jesus extended her life as the writing in the dust would be soon erased when the wind did its work.

No such permanent record would remain to follow her when it was written in the dust once the wind did its work. Jeremiah had prophesied of such a time. He said, "This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, sayeth the Lord. I will put my law in their inward parts. I'm going to take my finger and write it in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." Listen, he said, "Right now, it's written in stone.

Everything is etched in stone. But when mercy has its work, uh, I'm going to write it in the dust. I'm going to write it in the original material from which I have made man. And when the wind comes along, it's going to erase the handwriting of ordinances that was against them. Mercy, not judgment. I will remember their sin. No more because the wind. Aren't you thankful today? Woo. That the wind of the spirit blew across the sears parched land of your life and brought to life that WHICH WAS DEAD AND that which was written in stone and that which was settled by the law.

But he wrote it in fleshly tables of heart and gave us a new beginning. So he wrote it in the dust. But then I think personally it was a a stroke of brilliance when Jesus stood up. It says, "So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said unto them these words, he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." Jesus qualified the executioner by saying, "The one that is without sin, let him be the first of the executioners." He didn't say, "Let the one who is innocent." He didn't say let the one who has kept the commandments because surely in that crowd there would have been those who stepped up and said like the rich young ruler I've kept all the commandments from my youth.

I haven't violated any. I can pick up a stone and I can cast the first stone because I am innocent of the charges of the law. Jesus didn't say let the one who is innocent of breaking and transgressing the law. He qualified it as the one who is sinless. Not innocent. sinless. You realize that there were people, the Bible says, who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. Innocence is not sinless. Sinless sin was something that touched all of creation. John said uh that Jesus said the one without sin, the sinless one.

And so they none of them qualified as sinless. They might have qualified as innocent but not sinless because sin is a charact characteristic of humanity. It's been passed on from Adam's seed. All of us, the Bible says that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. If we say that we have not sinned, the truth is not in us. So that it's a it's a twoedged sword. Not only do we have sin, but we do sin. But there were those who were innocent of the crimes of the law and transgressions of the law.

But Jesus qualified it not as innocence but as sinlessness. And the Bible says when they heard what he said, being convicted in their own conscience, because every one of them knew the sorted story of the fall of man and how sin had tainted all of the human race, they went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last. And Jesus was left alone. And the woman standing in the midst. Next, Jesus turns to the guilty, the woman. I want to paint this picture because I don't know if I personally saw all of this even over the years of looking at this story.

But you got a crowd here that's watching what's going on as Jesus is doing his uh his bit as they bring this woman there. There's a crowd. He's been teaching people. There's a crowd around him and and they're in the middle of this crowd and and all of these accusers, these law and order guys, they just got up and silently begin to leave. And Jesus is now standing in the midst with this woman. Nowhere for her to hide. She was by their admission and by hers she was guilty.

But Jesus said, I'm I'm still talking about we are the church. Here's why we need the church. Because this crowd that was around her, this the these people that surrounded her were watching these proceedings. Some of them with a puran interest and some just curiosity seekers. But there was a crowd around them. And Jesus turns to her. Watch. And he says, "Neither do I condemn thee." Great words, right? Neither do I condemn thee. You don't need me to condemn you because you see this crowd around us.

They're not going to forget. You may not know them, but I promise you, they will not forget you from this day forward. No matter where you go, they're going to remember this day. As much as you would like to forget this day, they are going to remember this day. The next words out of his mouth were, "Go." Think about this. This is a language of mercy. Mercy stops things from happening. He had stopped the execution. The next words were, "Go." Think about it. Where am I going to go to this crowd?

This crowd that's going to remember for the rest of my life what I have done. Am I supposed to go live among these people? go back to my family with the shame and the stain of sin on my life and my husband is probably going to give me a bill of divorcement and put me away out of his life. Go. Mercy has stopped my execution, but it's given me a life sentence. Where am I going to go? There was no there was no support group for this woman.

There was no grief share. There was no celebrate recovery. There was nobody in that crowd that was going to step up and say, "I understand what you're going through." Everybody who had been what she had been through what she had been through was dead because the law said stolen them. Jesus says go. Where am I going to go? There's no place for me to go. Mercy didn't deny her sin. Mercy didn't excuse her sin. It didn't reframe her sin. Jesus didn't even say, "I forgive you." Because her sin had touched other people and a third party can't forgive on their behalf.

Go. Where am I going to go? She could walk away, but she would carry the stigma of her sin wherever she went. There was no welcoming group for her that would take her in. There was nobody to admit, hey, I share your sentiment because I've been there where you've been. It was go where? Let me tell you something. Since the Holy Ghost wasn't yet given, she didn't have any inner strength to draw from. She didn't have a church where she could find acceptance and a people who would embrace and take her in and say, "We're going to help you through this." Why does the church exist?

Because of this very situation. Because while Jesus had stopped her execution, she now had to live with the scar and the stigma of her sin. Judgment without mercy is harsh. It is a penalty without prescription. But mercy without grace can be just as cruel to be rescued without a hope of restoration. the commutation of the sentence of death into one that it becomes a life sentence. I I told this story in prayer meeting. There were two brothers that I grew up with, Danny and and and Phil.

And Danny was the golden boy of the family. He was the older and a good-looking kid. And and uh make a long story short, he was a boy scout. He went to a scout jamboree. There was a fire. Danny went in as a teenager, a young teenager. He went in and he helped rescue other people out of the flames of the fires in their tents. He pulled him out, but in the process, he he was burned so badly himself. His face was disfigured. He had scars all over him from helping.

He was he was he was doing a good deed. And and and the doctor saved his life. But he was so scarred and and so pained that you wonder was that really mercy? Yeah, mercy stops. It's it halts the progress of that. But it doesn't take away the scars and it doesn't take away the pain. Ultimately, this boy, even as a teenager, committed suicide because he could not get past the scars and the pain. I'm still talking about the reason that the church exists because there are people who have been granted mercy, but they can't get past the scars and the pain of their past life.

There are millions of them out there that bear the scars of life and they wonder where can I go that where's a place that will help me. That's what the church is all about. Mercy, but there is also grace. But grace without love can be cold. its protocol replacing penalty of the law when it's a rigid formality without any feeling. I'm talking about the church. In the church is met judgment and mercy and grace, but there's also the addition of love. Paul said the greatest thing that you've got going for you is love.

The greatest gift. The greatest of all of these is love. It ties everything together. Judgment imposes a penalty. Mercy halts the process. Grace extends pardon. But love provides a path forward. Mercy can save a person from judgment. And grace can give that person a future. But love provides restoration. I need the church. Not just the sinners, not just others. I need the church. The Bible talks about the righteous falls seven times. Anybody here never fallen? God bless you. Don't raise your hand. I don't want to make anybody a liar.

The reason we need the church is because even after we receive salvation, I'm going to stumble and I'm going to fall. It's not that judgment is not passed. Judgment is going to be executed. Mercy is going to be extended. But grace is going to be expressed. And I know that there is an assembly of people. I know that there is a church who can come alongside and say, "I've experienced some of the things that you have experienced." Paul said as he listed that list of people who would not inherit the kingdom of God.

He said, "And such were some of you, but you are washed. You're sanctified. You're saved by the grace of God." I know that within the framework of the church, there are people who can come alongside and say, "I have walked where you've walked. I've been in the grief. I've been in the shadows where you have been, and I want to help in your restoration process." At Calvary, through Jesus death, mercy put an end to the reign of sin. By his resurrection, grace provided hope. Pentecost though gave birth to the church.

Pentecost brought a new creation into existence. The church, a support group, not only for the sinners, but for the saints. Hallelujah. Thank God that people who walk through those doors can find a placeh. Yeah, your sins are going to be brought out and they're going to be judged, but by the same token, there's going to be a support group that says, "We're going to pray with you. We're going to support you. We're going to lift you up. We're going to be right beside you on this every step of your journey." Hallelujah.

because such were some of us. The old song says, let's stand together. The old song says there mercy there was great and grace was free. Pardon there was multiplied to me. There my burdened soul found liberty. This woman in John 8 had no church to which to resort, no place that she could go. Thank God. I thank God every day for the not the building but the fitly framed together building of the saints of God. Those of you who walk this journey with me, those of you who stand alongside in our times of grief and sorrow, in our times of great failure, I know that I'm not going to become a castaway because there is a church that will embrace me and put its arms around me and say, "There's help and there's hope and there's restoration because the love of God is shed abroad in my heart.

This is what God accomplishes through the church. People, people who have experienced grace dispensing grace. People who have experienced love dispensing love. I can't greet you with just a cold formality and and replace the the penalty of m of judgment with protocol of grace. No, no, no, no, no. There has to be a love. There has to be a love that people when they come here, they got to feel. Hey, I don't know what you've been through, but I can tell you that somewhere in this assembly, there is somebody who has shared your experience.

somebody who's been where you are and with open arms we embrace and we are here for your restoration. That's why we exist to connect with God and others to put them in the presence of the almighty God. I wonder what a report card would look like. This church, I'm not talking about I'm not talking about Bridgton. I'm not talking about the sanctuary. I'm not talking about Arnold, the hope church. This church, this is the church right here. This is the church right here. And as God looks at us, does because when he looked at the churches of Revelation, five out of the seven were failing, five out of seven, only two received passing marks.

Only two, but they stood. And he gave the others a chance to repent. I wonder when he looks at us, I I thank God somebody, it's been mentioned over the past few days, several times, this church is a welcoming church. We welcome people. It's not because of us. It's because of him. Because of the love of God that's been shed abroad in our hearts. We welcome you. If you're a guest with us today, we welcome you. We embrace you with the love of God. I am so glad that you're here.

And I want you to experience my Jesus the same way that we have experienced this Jesus Christ. Why don't we all just thank the Lord together for the church? Thank you Lord God that you have set the solitary in families. You have put us in the confines of a group of people who have shared the experience of having been sinners but now are made saints of the most high God. And let us ever express that love to others when they come to this place in Jesus' name.

Let it be done. God bless you. take a break and and thank you for your attentiveness to the word of God.