Friends, because the church is called out by God, because that’s true of the local church, not one of us here today is here by accident. It is God who gathers the church together. It’s never you, me, and a few friends who we’ll choose between us. The congregation is gathered by God, not by us. The church belongs to Christ, and in the New Testament he adds to it daily. Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick, and today we continue our message, What is the church, and why does it matter? And Colin, you pointed out last time that the church matters because it matters to Christ, and if that’s so, it ought to matter to us. That’s right, and yet I think that it’s often the case that Christians would ask the question, well, why would I want to get involved in a church? There are a lot of problems where there are Christians gathered together and so forth. Why would you want to get involved in a local church? Well, let me ask you this question. Why would Jesus want to get involved with the church? And yet he did. He loves the church and gave himself for the church, and you want to be more like the Lord Jesus Christ, and part of that is that you will become like the Lord Jesus Christ in your love for the body of Christ and in your commitment to the body of Christ. You know, for all of its many faults, and every Christian has many faults and failings, one day the body will be redeemed and made perfect. You want to be part of it then, and you sure want to be part of it now. So I want that today’s programme will help folks who perhaps are detached a little from the church to see that Christ is honoured when we identify ourselves with his body. So I hope you’ll join us as we continue our message, What is the Church? Here’s Colin. When Jesus speaks about the church here in Matthew chapter 16, he speaks about what is sometimes called the church universal. That is the entire body of believers in every time and in every place. And it’s important to remember, folks, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who knows these believers. We don’t know them, and sometimes we can’t discern if someone is a true believer or not, if they’re the real article or if they’re just sitting in church in a hypocrite. But Jesus knows. Third observation, just before we move on. Since the church, as Jesus speaks about it here, is the full company of all true believers from every age and in every place, it follows that only Christ right now can see it. None of us has seen this. None of us has met, seen every believer in every place. So many are with the Lord. But the church in all of its glory is going to be unveiled on the day when Jesus Christ stands with his people in this vast, unimaginably vast congregation. John saw it in the vision in the book of Revelation. He said it was a multitude that no one could number. And they’re drawn from every tribe and language and nation. And they’re saying salvation belongs to God. And they’re there, John says, because they have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. That is Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who laid down his life as a sacrifice for our sins. And there they are. And the Lamb himself stands at the center of the throne. And he’s the one who leads them into springs of living water. And God wipes away all tears from their eyes. That’s the church. All believers, from every age, in every place. I want you to turn over in your Bible two pages to the second time that Jesus spoke about the church. It’s in Matthew chapter 18. And we pick it up in verse 15. Our Lord is speaking here about a situation where there is a dispute between two believers. Someone has wronged his brother. And he says, verse 15, if your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault just between the two of you. And then, if he won’t listen, verse 16, take someone else along. And then verse 17 is our focus, where Jesus uses the word church a second time. He says, if this person refuses to listen still, even to these people, tell it to the church. Matthew chapter 18 and verse 17. Tell it, that’s tell this problem to the church. Now think about it, folks. That cannot possibly mean tell it to all believers who have ever lived in every age, in every place. It cannot possibly mean that. So many of them are in heaven. So what is Jesus referring to when he speaks about the church here, to whom a situation is told when it has not otherwise been resolved? And the answer is surely that Jesus is speaking here about a local congregation of believers. So what I want you to grasp is that there are only two times when the word church is used in all of the four gospels. Only two times when Jesus used this word from his own lips. And on these two occasions, he defined for us what church is. One, that it is the body of all believers who have ever lived in every time and in any place, those who are in Christ. And two, that the church is a local congregation of believers who are called out by God to worship and are sent out by God to serve. Now let me explain the last part of that little statement that I put there before you. The word for church in the New Testament is the word ecclesia. It’s made up of two words, ecclesia. And these two words put together, their root meaning is basically called out. That’s what the word means, called out. The word could be used to describe a gathering, an assembly. We might say in our day, a congregation. And in the Old Testament, God called out an assembly, a congregation of people to worship him. This goes all the way back to the book of Exodus. You remember God said to Pharaoh, let my people go. Why? Why are God’s people to be let go? What does God redeeming and saving his people for? Answer, let my people go that they may worship me in the desert. I’m calling them out for worship. I’m going to meet with them at Mount Sinai. That’s what God is saying. And you remember how God’s people believed the promise and they painted the blood of the sacrificed lamb over the lintels, the doorframes of their houses. And God brought them out of slavery and he took them through the Red Sea and then he gathered them at the bottom of Mount Sinai where his presence was made known to them. So the great purpose of the Exodus, this is foundational to the whole Bible story, is that God is gathering a people for himself, a people who will worship him in a real place on the planet. And God says to Moses, Deuteronomy chapter four and verse 10, assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me. You know that the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, but in the Greek version of the Old Testament the word that is used in Deuteronomy 4.10 and in many other places for assemble is ecclesia. God says call the people out, Moses. Gather the people in one place for worship. Call them to be hearers of my word. Notice how he says that, Exodus 4, Deuteronomy 4 and verse 10. And do this so that they will learn how to live, learn how to revere me. So God’s pattern for Israel is that his redeemed people who he has brought out from slavery should enter into this purpose that they assemble before him in his presence, placing themselves under his word so that God’s people may learn to worship him and learn how to live under his authority. But there’s more. The ecclesia, the church, is a congregation of believers called out by God for worship and sent out by God for service. See, God’s people in the Old Testament, it goes right back to the beginning, they were not only called out by God to worship him, they were sent out by God to serve him. That’s why, for example, in Isaiah chapter 49, God says to his people, I will make you a light to the nations so that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth. I’ve redeemed you, not only so that you may worship and live under the nourishment of my word, but so that you as a people may be sent out. I’m not only going to gather you, I’m also going to scatter you. I send you out into the world. So the ecclesia, the assembly, the congregation of the redeemed in the Old Testament was called out by God to worship and sent out by God to serve. And Jesus takes this word, with all its rich background of Old Testament meaning, and he says, I will build my ecclesia. I will build a community of people called out by God to worship and sent out by God to serve, and that ecclesia will be visible on earth, Matthew 18, in local congregations of living believers. And so writing to the church later in the New Testament, Peter says, you are a chosen people. He’s writing to us. You are a royal priesthood. You are a holy nation. You are a people belonging to God for this reason that you may declare the praise of him who brought you out of darkness and into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, you were just a bunch of individuals, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Think of it, folks, as a local church here in this community, we have been called out by God for worship, and we are sent out by God for service. Jesus says, as the Father has sent me, so I am sending you. So if you want to understand the church, try and get hold of this. John Stott calls it our double identity. He says, we come to Christ in worship, and we go for Christ in mission. Think about this. Apply it to yourself, friends. Because the church is called out by God, because that’s true of the local church. Not one of us here today is here by accident. It is God who gathers the church together. The church is not a self-selecting group of individuals. That’s very important in our individualistic culture. It’s never you, me, and a few friends who we’ll choose between us. The congregation is gathered by God, not by us. The church belongs to Christ, and in the New Testament, he adds to it daily, the New Testament says, such as he is saving. So again, Christ uses the word church on just two occasions. Once to refer to all believers in every time and place. Once to refer to a local congregation of believers, called out by God for worship, and sent out by God for service. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and our message, What is the Church? It’s part of our series, What is the Church and Why Does It Matter? And if you miss any of our messages, don’t forget you can always go online and catch up or go back and listen again. Our website is openthebible.org.uk. Let’s get back to the message now. Here’s Colin. So again, Christ uses the word church on just two occasions. Once to refer to all believers in every time and place. Once to refer to a local congregation of believers, called out by God for worship, and sent out by God for service. That is what the word church means. On the lips of Jesus, it’s never used any other time. There’s no other definition that is given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore, I’m suggesting to you that that defines the meaning of the word church for us. So next time you hear someone chatting loosely about church and, you know, or saying, hey, we’re the church, you know, just think to yourself now, which of the two ways in which Jesus used the word is this person speaking? Is he saying we are all believers everywhere we’ve ever lived? Can’t be that. Or is this person saying that we are actually a local community of believers who are called out for worship and sent out for service? Or or maybe this person just needs to learn what is meant by Jesus in the word church. I hope you’ve got it. I hope it’ll be clear for you. I hope it’ll stay with you. That you know what the church is. Because we can’t begin to understand what the church does or what it should do until we know what God says it is. One more comment before we come to a conclusion here. It’s very fascinating to me and surely very significant that a local congregation of believers is never described in the New Testament as part of the church. It always speaks about the church in Corinth or the church in Antioch or the church in any particular locality. A local gathering of believers gathered by God for worship and for service. Alan Stibbs, who’s a very insightful writer, has a helpful picture of this. He points out the fact that if you go out at night and you’re looking at the sky and there’s just a thin sliver of the moon showing, you don’t say, oh look, there’s part of the moon. You say, oh look at the moon, don’t you? And let me quote to you from Stibbs. He is so helpful here. He says that the part that is visible is genuine moon. And what is more, it is actually, though to us invisibly, united with all of the rest of the moon. He says, similarly, a local Christian congregation, that’s what we are, is genuine church. Become visible. It is body of Christ and invisibly one in him with the whole of his body. Now I want to close then with two very simple questions. The first is this, do you belong to the church? Do you belong to the church? I’m asking today, do you belong to the great company of men and women and boys and girls from every age and in every place who confess with Peter and believers all over the world that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God? Have you come to the place of saying to Jesus, your word is truth for me, your will is the way for me, your grace is life for me? Have you come to the place of turning away from wickedness in your own life deliberately, consciously, determinedly, and persistently? Are you ready to come to that place today? Would you be ready to come to the Lord Jesus Christ and submit yourself to him today? Would you be ready to come to this Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God? Would you be ready to come to him and say, receive me as the rebel who surrenders to you today? Would you come to him and say, will you embrace me as the skeptic who believes in you today? Would you come to him and say, Lord Jesus, bring me home as the lost sheep who has been found by you today? You belong to the church by being joined to Jesus Christ. I’m asking, are you joined to Jesus Christ in the bond of living union of faith? Is he your saviour? Is he your Lord? Is his life within you? Are you one of those who will be on the last day in that great uncountable number? In heaven, I urge you to put your faith in Jesus Christ, the son of God, just as Peter did those many, many years ago. And as for him, it was the beginning of a whole life of following Jesus. So it will be for you today. My last question is simply this. If you really are a Christian, do you see today the privilege of belonging to the church? If you’re in Christ, do you see what has happened, that God has released you from the tyranny of sin and of death and of hell? He has set you free through a new exodus in Jesus Christ. And he’s called you out. And here he’s gathered you with brothers and sisters who are who are around you right now. To be a community of people and for you to be part of a body that worships him and lives under the authority of his word in a world that cares nothing for him, except to use his name as blasphemy. Do you see that not only has he called you out for worship, but that wonderfully he is the one who sends you out into the world. You say, oh pastor, I live and work in an incredibly hard place. Yes, but you’re the light there. And it may be that if it wasn’t for you, there wouldn’t be any light. He sent you to be the light there. Do you see the dignity of that? By God’s grace, the church has been called out to worship. By God’s spirit, the church is sent out to serve. And the day is coming when by God’s son, the whole church will be taken up into glory. Don’t you think it is marvelous to be part of that? One quote and we’re done. The Heidelberg Catechism, that sounds heavy, doesn’t it? Hang with me. It’s an old document that some of you were perhaps brought up with. It has some wonderful words in there. And I’ll tell you, just reflecting on these words has moved me to the core of my being this week. That’s why I read them to you. It asks the question, what do you believe about the church? And it gives the answer that a true Christian believer can give today. What do you believe about the church? Answer, I believe that the son of God, through the spirit and the word, out of the entire human race, from the beginning of the world to its end, gathers, protects, and preserves for himself a community of people chosen for eternal life and united in faith. And of this community, I am and always will be a living member. I cannot imagine a greater privilege than that of this community, redeemed from the entire history of the world and from every culture by Christ, through his shed blood, through the word, by the spirit. Of this community, I am and always will be a living member. You’ve been listening to Pastor Colin Smith on Open the Bible, and the message, What is the Church? Part of our series, What is the Church and Why Does It Matter? And as we continue the series, we’re going to look at some of the things the church has been described as in scripture, as the body of Christ, the building, and the bride. So I hope you’ll look out for that. And if you do ever miss one of our messages, or you want to go back and listen again, you can do that by coming to our website. That’s openthebible.org.uk. There you can listen to any of our previously broadcast messages entirely free. You can also find us as a podcast on any of the regular podcasting sites. Just search for Open the Bible UK. Open the Bible is supported entirely by our listeners. That’s people just like you. If that’s something you haven’t done up to this time, but feel you’d like to begin doing it, we have an offer for you this month. If you are able to set up a new donation to the work of Open the Bible in the amount of £5 per month or more, we’d love to thank you by sending you an Advent devotional. It’s called The Coming of the King, and it’s by J.C. Ryle. Now Colin, how might we benefit from reading this book? Well, it’s a book to help us prepare for Christmas. And Christmas is not only the most wonderful and joyful time of the year, it’s also for sure the busiest time of the year. And we all have relentless schedules as we move into these next weeks that lie ahead of us. So if you’re looking for something that would give you in just a very short space of time, some rich nourishment to focus your mind and your heart on the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and all the hope that is yours in Him, this book by J.C. Ryle, The Coming of the King, I think will be absolutely ideal and wonderfully helpful to you. It gives in just a couple of pages a glimpse of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ for each day leading up to Christmas. You can use it over a period of 25 days. I love reading Ryle. He’s so clear. He’s so warm. He’s so Christ-centred. And you will find this nourishing for your soul in the relentless busyness of this season. The Coming of the King by Bishop Ryle. I’m going to be reading it again as we go through Advent, and I hope that it will be a blessing and a joy for you as well. And we’d love to send you a copy of this book as a thank you for setting up a new donation to the work of Open the Bible in the amount of five pounds per month or more. Full details on our website, openthebible.org.uk. You’ve been listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick, and I very much hope you’ll join us again next time. In the Bible, the church is sometimes called the body of Christ. Find out what that means next time on Open the Bible.