When it comes to the Christian life, the question of the church’s importance is
perhaps one that is too often overlooked. How often do we stop and think, “Why
is the church so important? What is the purpose of the church?” The answer to
such questions will provide us both direction for how churches should build the
body of Christ and encouragement to be faithful as we play our part in it.
In this lesson, we will explore the critical role that the local church plays in God’s
glorious purposes, as well as the overall vision of this particular local church.
We will find that our relationships with other believers are a tremendous means
of blessing, both for ourselves and others. God never meant for us to live the
Christian life alone. Instead, he gives us the marvelous privilege of traveling on
this journey together.
A. The ultimate purpose of the church is the glory of God.
1. The Bible clearly reveals that mankind stands in rebellion against God.
However, throughout history God has made himself known to people, called
them to himself, and gathered them together to worship him and bring glory
to his name. Because the church is uniquely God’s, we are to be distinctly
different from the world.
Exodus 19:4-6: “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and
how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if
you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured
possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall
be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
2. Believers living after Christ came to earth have the even greater privilege of
joining together to enjoy and proclaim the pinnacle of God’s saving acts: the
death of Christ on the cross for our sins.
Ephesians 1:3-8: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly
places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that
we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for
adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the
praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In
him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses,
according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us...”
B. The church’s role is exclusive.
The church is God’s chosen means for carrying out his purposes until he
returns. He has ordained no other organization or structure for this purpose.
Matthew 16:18: “...I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it.”
1 Timothy 3:15: “...if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the
household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress
of truth.”
C. Our true nature as the church, and as Christians, is corporate.
Throughout the history of redemption, God has been acting to save a people,
not a disconnected group of isolated individuals.
1 Peter 2:9-10: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of
him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were
not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received
mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
There are many aspects of the Christian life that we typically think of as
involving our personal relationship with God: our response to the gospel, our
growth in godliness, our love for doctrine, and our empowerment by God’s
Spirit. While all of these things are critical for our personal lives, it is possible
to understand them, incorrectly, as involving only our personal lives.
It is a key assumption of New Testament teaching that the Christian life is to be
lived out in relationship with other believers in the context of the local church.
Although we enter into a relationship with God as individuals, we nevertheless
enter into something greater than our own individuality: the church—the
community of God’s people.
Used by permission of Covenant Life Church.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/).
