August 11, 2019 – “Why the Church?” by Rev. Cody Sandahl

The sermon starts at the 2:52 mark after the music

Lay Reader = Matthew 28:16-20

16Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Introduction

We are starting a new series this week looking at the Great Ends of the Church. These six statements were adopted by one of the Presbyterian denominations in 1910, but they started working on it at least as early as 1878 and its roots go back even further than that. So if you ever think our church is moving too slowly on something, remember that it took our Presbyterian predecessors at least 32 years to finalize these six sentences. For Presbyterians, we work at warp speed! Feel the wind in your hair! We are one of the fastest snails around!

We have a number of people here that have been parents. One of the things I hear very frequently from parents and grandparents of every generation – “I wish there were an instruction manual for raising children.” Anyone ever felt that?

In other words, it’s not always clear what “good parenting” looks like. Is it better to have dinner together, or take your kids to activities they love? Should you make them try piano lessons, or let them play outside? Should you provide autonomy or protection? There is no succinct job description for parenting. There’s no list of reliable outcomes you should be shooting for.

The church can feel that way, too. What does a “successful church” look like? In the eyes of the world, that’s usually a function of the ABC’s: attendance, building, and cash. So the apex predator of the ABC’s is Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston. With 52,000 people worshiping in the arena that used to host the NBA’s Houston Rockets, with an annual budget hovering around $100 million.

Is that our goal? Is that God’s goal for every church? If God is handing out a report card for a church, does it have attendance, building, and cash as the measurements, or something else? The six Great Ends of the Church are the six measurements that we believe God uses when looking at a church.

Over the next six weeks we will look at each of the Great Ends in their turn, but today we’re just going to ask the big picture question: why does the church exist? And why are the Great Ends a good summary of why the church exists?

If you want to ponder these, send us an email to get on our weekly sermon devotional email. This week’s devotional has all six of the Great Ends and some questions to ponder. But just for reference, the six Great Ends are:

• Proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind
• Shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God
• Maintenance of divine worship
• Preservation of the truth
• Promotion of social righteousness
• Exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world

The text we’re using to kick start this conversation is my favorite summary of the church. It comes from Acts 2 right after Pentecost, right after Peter’s sermon to the city of Jerusalem proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God. In one day the church went from 200 people who had walked with Jesus personally to 3000 people who just a few months ago were calling for Jesus’ crucifixion. So this is what those first 200 Christians did to incorporate the 3000 new converts who didn’t know Jesus personally.

I love the image of those 3000 people being baptized in one day. When I was in Israel, I got to see all the little niches surrounding the Temple Mount. In Judaism, people were expected to ritually wash themselves prior to ascending to the Temple for worship and sacrifices on high holy days. So when the Holy Spirit brought 3000 people to the faith and they needed to be baptized, it just so happened that they were all standing on the one spot that was equipped with enough places to baptize them quickly. It’s almost like God plans ahead…

Acts 2:41-47

41So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. 42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

All Six

Well have I got a deal for you! I have a lovely car for sale. I wouldn’t say it’s used, I would say it’s been road-proven. It has brand spanking new tires. Very low miles. The body is perfect – not a scratch on it. And I’m offering it for 30% below Kelly Blue Book value. Are you interested?

Oh…there is one teeny, tiny, itsy bitsy issue with it. The engine’s blown out and doesn’t run right now. But everything else is great.

Well…it also doesn’t have any seats. But that just makes it lighter and more fuel efficient.

Any takers? Anyone? Well you know where to reach me if you change your mind. Bring your own tow truck, by the way.

For a car to be a useful car, it needs several things. It needs a running engine. It needs wheels and tires. It needs steering and breaks. It needs at least one seat for the driver – or a mount for the computers if it’s driver-less. If you’re missing any of those things, it’s not a functional car. I’ve seen pickup truck beds that were detached from their cab and engine. That’s not a pickup truck anymore. That’s a trailer. Or we were just in Michigan and we went to a farm, and they had what looked like an old extended golf cart that didn’t have a motor anymore. But it did still have two horsepower – in the form of two horses that pulled it. That’s not a golf cart anymore. That’s a horse-drawn buggy.

In the same way, the church exists to perform all SIX of the purposes in the Great Ends of the church. If we are amazing in four, but totally missing the other two, we’re not a fully functioning church.

I know people in churches that are pushing for the radical social righteousness that is championed by the Old Testament prophets and all the way through the New Testament as well. But some of those same people I know have wondered aloud whether Jesus is really the Son of God. Or maybe they personally believe in Jesus, but they don’t think other people need to. Whatever truth works for you is good. Without Jesus, that’s just a service organization. How different is that from the Red Cross?

I know other people who are all in when it comes to proclaiming the Gospel. Some of them brag about how many people they’ve baptized. Some of them stand on street corners shouting that you’re going to go to hell if you don’t repent. But as we’re talking about in our Prodigal God class, that’s the older brother mentality. That’s religion for the sake of controlling God, that’s not the Gospel. I could break baptism records by driving around in my car with a super soaker and recording every person I hit three times with the water gun as a baptism. But if they aren’t connected to Jesus, the true vine…if they aren’t connected to the church, the branches off the true vine…what have we accomplished?

I’ve shared before how in college I tried to be a Christian on my own. If I just read the Bible, think about it, pray on occasion, and try to be a good person, then I’ve got my faith checkbox all done, thank you very much. But instead of being liberated by that approach, I felt drained, rudderless, and purposeless. Without worship with other followers of Jesus, I was like a sailboat without any wind.

I’ve heard from some church planters who are flabbergasted by how much time, energy, and resources we allocate to caring for people within our church. They tell me that doesn’t lead to church growth. They tell me that doesn’t spread the Gospel to new people. They tell me that doesn’t change our community. But at the same time, most of their new churches don’t have people who have been retired for a couple of decades. And if someone in their church develops a chronic condition that requires long-term support, or if they have a special needs child, many times those new churches that don’t invest much in caring for the faithful just don’t work for them anymore. If you don’t offer care, those who need care can’t be a part of your church.

Joseph Small is a Presbyterian theologian who wrote a book about the Great Ends of the Church, and in his book he writes that the Great Ends are “a comprehensive check-up that provides us with a faithful way to examine our life together…[they are] a unified vision of the church’s purpose, and each of the six aims presents us with a sharp challenge concerning the ways we shape church life.”

Just as a car needs many systems to actually be a functioning car, a church needs all six of these Great Ends to be a functioning church in God’s eyes. And you can do these well regardless of your ABC’s. No matter how many are in attendance, you can proclaim the Gospel. No matter the size of your building, you can shelter and nurture in fellowship. No matter how much cash you have, you can exhibit the Kingdom of Heaven to the world. No matter your ABC’s, you can maintain divine worship, you can promote social righteousness, you can preserve the truth.

So we can do all six of these, and in fact we need to do all six of these to be a functioning church in God’s eyes.

Verbs, not Nouns

I have spent a large majority of my life battling my internal perfectionist tendencies. And one way I’ve done that is convincing myself that continuous improvement is an acceptable substitute for perfection. If the trend line is good, I’m usually OK. But if the trend line is flat or – God forbid – going down, then I get a little squirmy.

A college basketball coach wanted to help his team to know instinctively where they should be shooting on the floor. There are certain spots on the court where shooters of every ability shoot a little bit better, and there are spots on the court where shooters of every ability shoot a little bit worse. So he wanted the team to take more shots from the good spots. So he painted their practice court so that the good spots were in one color, and all the bad spots were in another color. Then the players could visually see where they should be, and when it was game time they had a natural feel for the good spots as well.

I think the verbs in the Great Ends are the good spots for our church. They are the measurements on our report card from God. And we see all of them in our text from Acts 2.

First, the early church proclaimed. It says “day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” Do you think that happened because people walked by their house gatherings and just felt compelled to investigate? How likely are you to walk by some other group you don’t know about and just walk into their meeting? But that’s for some reason what we expect people to do with the church. And yet, in surveys 82% of people who do not go to a church said they would consider going if they were invited. It takes a little proclamation to invite someone, but that’s the main way the Lord will add to the church’s number those who are being saved.

How about nurture and shelter? The early church had “all things in common” and would “distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” In fact, scholars have found that the most likely reason people stayed in the early churches is the remarkable love they found within the early church communities. It defied all expectations of the ancient world. The first were last. The last were first. The poor were uplifted. The rich gave instead of hoarding. It was shocking! Shockingly good! And more than just physical needs, they spent time in each other’s homes, eating with glad and generous hearts. This wasn’t just a social service, it was a relationship.

The early church also maintained divine worship. In Acts 2, we see that they spent much time together in the Temple – that was their worship. In their worship, it says they “praised God.” Their worship was a blessing to them, a blessing to their relationship with God, and a blessing to those who came to scope it out.

What about preserving the truth? The text says they “devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and the prayers.” These were the primary spiritual practices at the time. And those spiritual practices included the apostle’s teaching. Not just my truth and your truth and whoever’s truth. They tried to discover God’s truth through the apostles’ teachings.

The promotion of social righteousness? “Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles.” They were causing a wondrous transformation in their community. They were working miracles, not just for themselves, but in their communities. If you follow the apostles – especially Paul – throughout the rest of the New Testament, you see where they dismantle unfair practices. They free the oppressed. They heal those who have been outcast. They fight against exploitation. Or I’m aware of at least ten times that the Bible talks about how much God hates dishonest scales. In fact, when the rich and powerful abuse their position to defraud people by using dishonest scales, it’s one of the things God calls an “abomination.” God detests dishonest and exploitative business practices according to Proverbs 20. Righting those wrongs is part of the church’s job description. I bet there are a plethora of philosophies on how we should be or shouldn’t be doing that, but it’s part of our report card to God.

And exhibiting the Kingdom of Heaven to the world? Well it says they had “the goodwill of all the people.” Joseph Small puts it this way: “When the world looks at us, what does it see? Does [it] reflect God’s new Way in the world, or does it simply mirror the way things already are in the world?” If a person who is an outcast in our community encounters us as a church and us as individuals, do they experience being an outcast like they always do, or do they experience God’s radical love? Are we just like everyone else, or are we truly different? I often hear people say that their method of pointing to God is to live a good life and others will notice. That’s definitely possible. But how many people have asked you about it? If that number is zero (like it is for most people), you might need to step it up a few notches or come up with a new plan.

One of my biggest takeaways from Acts 2 and from the six Great Ends of the Church is just how many verbs there are – not just nouns. There’s a lot of action, not just ideas or knowledge. There’s a lot of daily living, not just one-time experiences. The church isn’t just a place to learn things. It’s a place to get equipped to do things and be a certain way in your heart and soul. The church is supposed to be a place of movement. The church is where we get in the game, not watch from the bleachers.

Summary

So let’s take Joseph Small’s advice and see these Great Ends of the Church as our scorecard. Our report card. Our measuring stick. Like every church everywhere, we have strong suits and weak points. Like every person everywhere, you have some strong suits and some weak points. What does your scorecard look like, and what does our church’s scorecard look like?

How are you contributing to our church’s proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind?

How are you contributing to our church’s shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God?

How are you contributing to our church’s maintenance of divine worship?

How are you contributing to your church’s preservation of the truth?

How are you contributing to our church’s promotion of social righteousness?

How are you contributing to our church’s exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world?

I don’t expect perfection. Well, actually I do internally, but I know that’s wrong so I expect continuous improvement instead. I think it’s time to face our scorecard as a church and as individuals. And once we have some grades, once we know how we’re being graded, I think we’ll know better how to improve. Do you want to move that trend line closer to God’s vision for the church? I know I do. Let’s move that trend line closer to God, even if we have a long way to go. Amen.