Sermon for Sunday September 21, 2003

Holy Vs Healthy Church by Dr. Craig  Nelson

Matthew 16:16-18

Multiplied numbers of books on church growth have been written that try to explain the characteristics of so called “healthy” churches yet they don’t really define the characteristics of a holy church.

What are God’s standards for becoming a holy church? His standards have never changed and remain absolute. The holy God reaches down to fallen mankind through the shed blood of Jesus but demands that the redeemed reach up to Him and become holy as He is Holy (1 Peter 1:16) There is no meeting in the middle, no “synthesis” of thought or behavior. God requires nothing less than the redeemed taking on the behavior and thoughts of Christ. (1 Cor 2:16)

Historically, the Church Growth Movement has failed to address this question. In any diagnosis of church health, a basic question must be answered: Who sets the vertical? Terms such as "radiant . . . holy and blameless" aren’t easily quantified (Ephesians 5:27).

The Infiltration

There is a conscious, organized effort to change the message and the music of the Christian Church – to make it more acceptable to the world. Christianity is supposed to transform the world, but you can see the breakdown of the family, the statistics on divorce in the world and the church. We have sacrificed millions of unborn children on the alters of our hedonistic self indulgence. There is not much difference between the church and society as a whole. We justify this because we want to get people into the church. This isn’t what God intended. Christianity is supposed to transform individuals and not make them more like the world.

The danger we face is making Christianity more palatable and not intimidating to ‘seekers’ – unchurched people – so that both churched and unchurched people can try to bring in more unchurched and make them ‘comfortable’ using an entertaining type of service. We avoid telling people they are sinners because that’s going to make them feel bad about themselves and hurt their self-esteem.

Seduction

The Church is being subtlety seduced. Seeker-friendly/felt need messages rarely speak of sin directly. Instead it is called ‘wrong doing’ or ‘bad / poor choices’ or ‘mistakes’. The reality of a literal burning hell is conveniently overlooked. Jesus is not presented as Lord, but as “Leader”. This softened message sears the conscience and lulls the church into semi-conscious state, no longer able to discern the very subtle watering down of the Word. The Bible says “that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron” (1 Tim 4:1-2 KJV)

A lot of religious organizations and churches are involved. Modern evangelism, church growth and counseling training manuals are all based on the feelings mode, the effective domain, not the cognitive, not the fact. They use Scripture, but they’re using the process as well. You can’t use this process because it’s not a Godly process. God is absolute. He doesn’t question Himself. He doesn’t see Himself as part of the solution because He is the solution. He doesn’t come to consensus with man.

Today many churches are fully involved in creating partnerships, relationship / community building using ice breaker exercises that get you to share (dialogue) with somebody else who’s different than you. You move into the "I think and I feel" mode of conversation for the sake of changing the person.

The truth is that you do NOT dialogue the Word of God, you preach and teach it. You dialogue what you’re not sure about. Decisions must be based upon what the Word of God says.

Separation and divorce are the result of the breakdown of our society, and the moral character that it used to have, because it was built on the integrity and the authority of God’s Word. God hates divorce and yet we have gone to the vagueness, the ambiguity, the tolerance of human, fallen human nature within the church.

The preaching of the Word is being changed so that you can have a relationship with another person. We are learning to pick and choose what Scripture to use and extrapolate so that we can continue this relationship. Scripture is left out and redefined so that it’s whatever feels good.

Synthesis

In a seeker friendly church believers mix with unbelievers and “synthesize” – that is, come to consensus where truth becomes somewhat in the middle for the sake of “community”. What happens is the believer ends up moved very slightly away from his original position of moral absolute – the seeker or the unbeliever is moved slightly more towards faith.

The Word of God is compromised or even sacrificed in the process. The Church should not be influenced by the world or take its cues from culture. When people walk into the church, it should be a reflection of heaven not a reflection of the world.

The Word of God must be proclaimed as truth and stated as fact. When Jesus taught, He said that some would believe, some would scratch their heads and others would turn away. He always taught factually. It would either convict or not convict people. It was never watered down or softened which is what is happening in the church growth movement.

The danger of using modern day Madison Avenue marketing methods, slick ad campaigns, man made organizational techniques and human management principals is that they are changing the environment of the church and minimizing the message preached so as to make it un-offensive. You run the risk of denying the work of the Holy Spirit in motivating the church to reach out to the lost. And you run the risk of not motivating the lost once they come to desire THE truth found only in the Word. The church is supposed to be tailored around the feeding of the Word for the perfecting, building up and edifying of the saints, rather than for meeting the “felt” needs of unbelievers.

The Unity Objective

Scripture talks about unity and loving one another. But you need to realize that the Gospel is the Good News. It is not unity, it is not hope, it’s Jesus Christ. And so, the hope of the Gospel and the unity of the Gospel is found only in Christ. We must look to Him as the source of our relationship. Relationship is based upon Him.

The danger is making unity the objective. Because of all the different interpretations of who Christ is, for the sake of unity, you would have to go into the Word of God and find what Scripture has in common with Buddhism, Islam, and all the other religions of the world. Once you find what you have in common, you then redefine Christ for the sake of unity, relationship, hope and world peace.

God’s Word is supposed to change us. We can’t go in and change it. That’s what the religious organizations have been pulled into. People go to seminary not knowing that when they go there and take “biblical” counseling strategies that are rooted in psychology, sociology, and anthropology. The danger is learning how to read the Bible in order to define God’s Word in changing times – actually redefining it for the sake of meeting the felt needs within the community and drawing people in. The Bible calls these felt needs, “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (John 2:16 KJV)

If you use felt needs, which is our fallen human nature, as your agenda, you have changed your belief system. If your agenda is to bring people to the Lord Jesus Christ, you’re must proclaim the Law which brings them to realization that they are a sinner. The only way they can have their sins covered is through the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ the Messiah. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life." He didn’t say, "I am the feeling." You don’t come to God through feelings, you come to God through facts, through the truth of His Word. Here’s what Jesus says about unity: "Suppose ye that I come to bring peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division." (Luke 12:51)

The Law Of God

Human standards are what psychology and sociology are based upon. They’re not built upon God’s standards. We all fall short of the Glory of God. We’ve all broken those laws. They’re not changeable. We can’t justify the changing of them to make them user friendly for the continuation of relationship with mankind and God. We must realize the hopelessness of saving ourselves and that it’s only in Christ that we receive our salvation. That’s contrition and that is what is being left out today. Now it’s social sin. It’s bad behavior based upon how we relate with one another. Pastors are afraid to speak against sinful behavior because they may be labeled as not loving or tolerant. Here’s what the Bible has to say about tolerance: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." (1st John 2:15)

The primary agenda of Christianity is that a personal relationship with Jesus Christ means you might stand alone. The fact that you and the other person disagree has to be determined by your relationship with Jesus and the Word of God. That is the ground you stand on. You don’t change His law for the sake of diversity and to save a relationship with anyone. Compromise comes when beliefs are based on feelings and not the Word of God or faith that the Lord knows the answer. We’re accountable to it, as is, not how we feel or think about it. That’s where faith is involved. Faith is not a tool to be changed to our human understanding and knowledge, then coming to a synthesis of “ideas” in order to meet our felt needs for the sake of a relationship. The ministry of Jesus wasn’t built on "I think and I feel." It was built on "I know." Here’s what Jesus says about diversity: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me." (John 14:6)

The agenda that the Berean church revealed to Paul was that they weren’t hung up on Paul. They weren’t hung up on a relationship, or tolerance, or diversity or unity. They were hung up on truth. So when the Apostle Paul shared the Gospel, they went to the Word of God and checked him out. That sounds like a good idea to me.

BECOMING A HOLY CHURCH

Christ the Head

Let’s start with the Head of the Church, the Lord Jesus Christ. What do we learn from His two references to the Church? The first is Matthew 16:18: "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it." The Protestant understanding extracts two qualities from this text:

1) The Church’s foundation is the confession that Jesus is "the Christ, the Son of the living God" (16:16)
2) The Church is indestructible (16:18).

The second reference to the Church is Matthew 18:17: "If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church, and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector." The context is the discipline of a believer.

Again two principles emerge:
1) The Church is the final court of appeal, after individual confrontations have failed
2) Failure to heed the Church leads to excommunication from the Church. By deduction, we also learn that the Church gathered has a high level of authority over the lives of her members. She speaks for God. She must be holy.

God’s Standards for Church Members

Matthew 5:1-12 identifies personal characteristics of those who are part of Christ’s body. Interestingly, this passage moves the focus from the corporate church to individual members.

What are their qualities to be?

· Poor in spirit (5:3)
· Those who mourn (Deplore) sin (5:4)
· Meek (5:5)
· Hunger and thirst for righteousness (5:6)
· Merciful (5:7)
· Pure in heart (5:8)
· Peacemakers (5:9)
· Persecuted because of righteousness (5: 10)
· Insulted and falsely accused of evil (5:11 )

Note the counterculture nature in each of the characteristics. None of these are seeker-sensitive nor truly sought after traits in the world system. Jesus repeatedly reminds us of the fact that we are not of the world. (John 15:18-19).

God’s Expectations

1) That we live lives counter culture to this world system
2) That we live as light and salt in this present world (Matthew 5:13-14).

Read: 1 Cor 1:2; 10:1-24, 11:23-32, Eph 1:4, Heb 12:14, 1 Peter 1:14-16, Phil 2:1-8, Acts 5:1-9

Seven Characteristics of a Healthy AND Holy Church

By studying the seven churches of Asia Minor in the Book of Revelation and doing the OPPOSITE of what they were rebuked for, we learn how to quantify becoming a HEALTHY and HOLY church.

The Church in Ephesus: Revelation 2:1-7
A respectable church with very distinguished leadership, it was commended for its hard work. Their moral integrity was beyond reproach. Doctrinally they were intolerant of sin. But in His audit, Jesus identified a glaring defect: "You have forsaken your first love" (2:4).

The Need: A love relationship with Jesus.

The Church in Smyrna. Rev 2:8-11
A poor and afflicted church. They were slandered, attacked by Satan and suffered persecution yet Jesus said they were rich and, because of their faith, promised them the Crown of Life for overcoming.

The Need: Faith-filled

The Church in Pergamum: Revelation 2:12-17
Although they lived "where Satan has his throne," they were affirmed for their uncompromising witness (2:13). Yet, in spite of their strong and steady witness Jesus rebuked them for being nearsightedness and condoning heresy, i.e., the seductive teaching of Balaam and the eating of things sacrificed as taught by the Nicolaitans, both of which had led them into idolatry and immorality.

The Need: Sound Doctrine and Morally purity

The Church in Thyatira: Revelation 2:18-29
This church is commended for the essentials of love, faith, service and perseverance (2:19), in which they continued to grow: " . . . doing more than you did at first" (2:19). But they allowed the teaching of unsound doctrine which promoted immorality (2:20-23). Jesus warned them that He is the one who searches every man’s heart and will repay them according to their deeds (2:23). The second statement confirms the fact that He will judge individually, member by member, not just the corporate whole.

The Need: Personal accountability

The Church in Sardis: Revelation 3:1-6
Although they were commended for "a few people ... who [had] not soiled their clothes" (3:4), Christ fingered their major flaw: "You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead" (3:1). Apparently hypocrisy, meaning "to play a part on the stage," was totally unacceptable.

The Need: Integrity

The Church in Philadelphia. Rev 3:7-13
Here was a church that was under the pressure of daily persecution and many obstacles to doing good and avoiding temptation, yet they remained faithful. “I know your deeds” Jesus says, “I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut,” “I know that you have little strength” (v8) Jesus is telling them that no matter how small or weak they may feel (or be) He will give them spiritual energy to continue and provide opportunities to be used by Him. They had endured patiently and held steadfastly to the faith, relying on Jesus and their only source of life.

The Need: Patient Endurance

The Church in Laodicea: Revelation 3:14-22
For this church, located among the rich and famous, and renowned for its medical expertise, Christ has no words of commendation. With cutting words, He bites through the veneer of affluence and spiritual apathy. They are "lukewarm," then He adds, "I wish you were either one or the other," either hot or cold (3:15). But that isn’t all. He rebukes their "self-righteousness" (3:17). This is the only church where Jesus positions Himself as an outsider: "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (3:20).

The Need: Zealous and enthusiastic devotion to Jesus