Before we get to this question, let’s ask ourselves this question….What is the church? A quick google search will show you the following results…
In the new testament, the Greek word Ekklesia has been used to describe the church, it means the assembly of the whole body of Christians scattered throughout the earth.
Notice what it says the church is not… the church is not a building… not a country club membership… not a place for man-made tradition… certainly not denomination… as what many of us are led to believe…
In Col 1:18 & Eph 1:22-23, the church is described as the body of Christ!
[Col 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church.
Eph 1:22-23 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.]
The church has been clearly described as His Body,… as His people….
Eph 5:30 & Acts 20:28 actually says that we are members of His Body that He purchased with His own blood
[Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. ]
The Bible says that we are God’s temple and His Spirit dwells in us… that He does not dwell in houses made by hands…
(1 Cor 3:16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
Acts 7:48 48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says,
2 Cor 6:16 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
and I will be their God,and they shall be my people.”)
Although as the people of God, we do often meet in buildings but the buildings themselves are not the church…
So what is it that’s wrong with the church today?
Apart from not getting the definition right, many of us often didn’t get the purpose of the church right as well…
Rather than proclaiming the true gospel… many flock to what is not gospel at all…
Today we are easily impressed by great numbers and the success of the so-called church has often been measured by 2 things:
- the total size or number of the congregation … and
- the amount of offering that the organization receives… this often manifests itself in the form of how lavish and luxurious the church interior or the décor of the building is… and also how good the facilities provided by the so-called “church”…
Instead of being motivated because of the great and comfortable facilities offered and feel-good messages offered… …
What we should have been proclaiming instead…. Is the TRUE GOSPEL…
You see… true gospel has nothing to do with what I’ve just mentioned above… the true gospel is all about repentance… which sadly… is not much preached about in the modern churches today anymore…
Rather than Worshipping God in Spirit and in truth ….
(John 3:23 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.)
WORSHIP has often become the presentation that please the people… It is often more about the good experience that the congregation feel and get… rather than about the Object of Worship….God Himself…!
Mat 15:8 “‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;”
Rather than loving & Caring for one another from a pure heart…. We have often gathered around instead for feel-good events… self-seeking entertainment and programs…
But… Do we seek to please God?… or man..? do we seek to please Him who save us (Gal 1:10 10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.)
Now… to paint a more accurate picture of what a biblical church should look like… here’s an idea… What if…. The true church actually looks more like the first original one… all the way back from the description of the early church…
As The Fellowship of the Believers …
In Acts 2:42-47, it says that
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
And awe[a] came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
(1 Cor 1:27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;)
in the true church of Jesus Christ… there is such a hunger for the truth. It is the inner deep desire to seek God and not the external outward form of godliness that man often cares so much about…
God is looking everywhere for godly man, those with repentant hearts, and people who will take His commandment to love Him, love others and to make disciples seriously….
No doubt that Jesus will one day come back again and establish His righteous Kingdom here on earth and set everything right again, but till then… He has handed down a very important task for us to accomplish… the Great Commission
Mat 28:18-20
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The early church did their part and that’s why we’re here today… the question is… have we taken Jesus command as seriously today? Have we made His last command our first priority?
It is time to make the world to be more like Christ instead of the other way round… we as the church becoming more like the world…
John 13:35 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Can you imagine that? The Bible says that people will actually recognize us as the followers and disciples of Christ not for any other thing but for the simple reason that we actually love one another…. That we are actually like Christ…
So… the next time you gather again around other believers, remember to stir up another up to love and good works and to encourage and to keep on exhorting one another, as long as it’s called “today” that none of us may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin… [end]
(Hebrew 10:24-25
24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Heb 3:13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.)
(Eph 5:25-27
….as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.)
With all that is wrong with the church today… let’s make things right again by truly becoming the salt and the light of the world, living right before God that He might present the church to Himself in splendor… without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy…. And without blemish…