Friday, January 11, 2013

Whose Church Is It?

"I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it...But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love" (Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 4:15-16)

I recently had occasion to reflect once again upon what has become a significant weakness within many local churches today, beloved, and that is the inability to answer the question posed above.  Now, please note that I did not say that we not have an answer for it but rather that the answer we are voicing so very often is just flat out wrong!  I cannot tell you how many times over the years I have heard people state emphatically that the particular church of which they are a part is their church.  Either someone's great-grandfather cleared the land on which the church sat or someone else's uncle donated the money for the building materials of which the church was ultimately built.  For whatever reason, no matter how sincerely and honestly felt, we have simply come to believe that this church is our church.

It is well past time for us as Christians to put this chicken to roost once and for all, beloved.  I find two issues inherent in rightly answering this question which we must consider.  The first has to do with whose church it really is.  Did you note that Jesus informed Peter that, beyond any shadow of any doubt, the church with which He chose to be connected would be His church and no one else's?  Very simply, Jesus made it clear that any church that is not His church has no right to associate itself with His name in any way.  You see, the truth revealed in Scripture, beloved, is that the answer to the question before us is that this is Christ's church and not yours or mine.  It doesn't matter whose family member donated the land or whose loved one stoked the wood-burning stove every week so that the building would be warm for worshipers.  Those are acts of a servant, beloved, not acts of an owner.

The second issue that I find in these verses has to do with whose authority is supreme in the church.  It is has been my experience that whenever people have insisted in times past that the church is theirs, what they mean is that they run it.  Claims of church ownership in local congregations are almost always tied to an inner struggle for power.  But did you note also in these verses what the Apostle Paul told the saints in Ephesus about who has the true authority in the church?  He told them straight out that Jesus Christ is the church's "head" and that the rest of us are its body parts.  And there is nothing more unwieldy or ineffective, beloved, than a "two-headed" church!

So whose church is it?  It is Jesus' church and only Jesus' church.  It is not mine and it is not yours.  Never has been.  Never will be.  It is Jesus' church because He is the only one who paid the ultimate price to establish it and to call it His own.  And who is the operating authority in the church?  Paul said that Jesus is the "head" and Jesus Himself said that all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to Him by His Father (Matthew 28:18).  Thus, we find undeniably taught in God's Word that this is Christ's church and that He is the only one authorized to run it.  The rest of us are His servants who wait upon His pleasure and then joyfully do His bidding.  Don't you think it's time that we started acting like servants?

Ron