This Is Reformation

(any ideas for a title???)

Verse 1:

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In Your presence there is fullness of joy

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In Your salvation I greatly rejoice

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In Your lovingkindness I will not be shaken (2x)

Pre-chorus

C

I will tell of all Your wonders

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I will praise Your Holy Name

Chorus:

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Your goodness lasts forever

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Your greatness knows no ends

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How majestic is Your name

Verse 2:

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Out from the dust I cry to You

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Lord, come reveal Yourself to me

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In Your lovingkindness I will not be shaken (2x)

Bridge:

We are the generation who seek Your face

Let’s get rid of the common misconception and find out what real, biblical church looks like. The word “church” derives from the Greek word “ekklesia” which means “gathering” or “assembly”. So what does the church do? Who are we? To summarize, I’m going to borrow a definition from Mark Driscoll who hit the nail on the head. “The local church is a community of regenerated believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord. In obedience to Scripture they organize under qualified leadership, gather regularly for preaching and worship, observe the biblical sacraments of baptism and Communion, are unified by the Spirit, are disciplined for holiness, and scatter to fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great Commission as missionaries to the world for God’s glory and their joy.”

Who is the church? The New Testament lays it out very plain and simple for us. The church is universal, meaning that the church is all Christians, everywhere  and are one body (Romans 12:5). It is NOT a building, a temple, or specific place (Acts 17:24-25). The church is one body, unified by the confession and shared life of Christ through the Spirit. The church is made up of regenerated  believers (Acts 2:36-41). The church is a fellowship of true disciples who are devoted to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer (Acts 2:42). The church gathers together in meetings and in fellowship in their homes with glad and generous hearts (Acts 2:46). 

The church is holy by its Christlike character, not just by what it doesn’t do through religiously obeying rules, but by living out new life modeled after Jesus by the Holy Spirit’s power. The church is organized under qualified and competent leadership who have the role of teaching the people (Acts 2:42). The leadership leads the congregation in wise decision making about potentially divisive problems within the body (Acts 6:1-6). The qualified leaders appoint other leaders (deacons, elders, ministry teams, etc.) to handle smaller, yet still very important tasks in the body, led by both men and women (Acts 6:1-6, Phil. 1:1, 1 Tim. 3:1-13).

The church regularly gathers to hear the preaching of God’s Word and to worship corporately. The church is under apostolic authority of Scripture (Acts 2:42). The early church in Berea sets the example as to how we should receive the Word. “Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11). The emphasis on corporate worship is also very clear in the early church. We’re not only supposed to gather to hear the preaching of Scripture, but to also praise and worship in community (Acts 2:47). Worship is simply a physical response from the revelation of the Lord for who He is, what He has done, and what He is going to do. Worship consists of, but is not limited to adoration and proclamation of the greatness of the Lord and his mighty works (Acts 2:11), serving Him by living out His character and walking in obedience to the commands of Scripture (1 John 4:12-15, John 17:21), falling down and kissing Jesus’ feet as an expression of allegiance and adoration to God (Matt. 2:11; 4:9; 8:2; 28:9, Revelation 19:10), and to minister, or do work and service in the world in the name of Jesus (Romans 1:9; 12:1, Revelation 7:15).

The church has been called to practice two ordinances or sacraments which are visible representations of the gospel. These commands are not negotiable, but necessary for every believer. The two are baptism and communion. Baptism is a public representation of the physical death and resurrection of Jesus and also the proclamation of the spiritual death and resurrection and the profession of faith in Jesus Christ after receiving salvation (Rom. 6:1-10, 1 Cor. 12:12-13, 1 Pet. 3:2, 1 Cor. 10:1-4, Gal. 3:26-27, Col. 2:12). Jesus and the apostles commanded that all Christians be baptized as an initial act of discipleship (Matt. 28:19, Acts 2:38). In the book of Acts and in the early church, baptism is administered immediately upon conversion (Acts 2:38-41; 8:12; 36-38; 9:18; 10:47-48; 16:15; 33; 18:8; 19:5). Believers should be baptized immediately upon credible profession of faith in Jesus. The second ordinance of the church is communion. Communion is a presentation that reminds us in a powerful manner of the death of Jesus Christ on our place for our sins, calls Christians to put our sin to death in light of the fact that Jesus died for our sins and compels us to examine ourselves and repent of sin before partaking, shows the unity of God’s people around the person and work of Jesus, and anticipates our participation in the marriage and supper of the Lamb when His kingdom comes in its fullness. This practice has several different names, but none of which are the real concern here. The Lord’s Supper is the example that we are given (Matt. 26:26-30, Mark 14:22-26, Luke 22:14-20, John 13:1-20).

The church is unified by the confession and shared life of Christ through the Holy Spirit through theological, relational, philosophical, missional, and organizational unity. Although we will all have our own styles, preferences, cultures, and open-handed doctrines, the church is unified with the same primary, close-handed doctrines. Some of the primary close-handed beliefs and doctrines that none of us can argue on are the Trinity as the only God and object of worship, the Scriptures as God’s inerrant, infallible, perfect Word, Jesus as fully God and fully man born of a virgin to live without sin before dying for our sins and physically rising for our salvation, and salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

The church is disciplined for holiness. The heart of discipline is discipleship. Leaders use Scripture to teach, correct, train, and equip Christians to be a holy people who continually grow in Christlikeness (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Repentance is necessary for all believers (2 Cor. 7:9-10, Rev. 2:5) To repent, as defined in the New Testament, is to turn away and change your mind about sin, aligning your thoughts with God.

The church obeys the Great Commandment to love. This does not mean that everyone is required to be best friends with everyone else, but it does mean that people take care of each other like extended family. The church is first to love God (Matt. 6:24, 22:39). The church is to love our family (Eph. 5:25; 6:1-4, Titus 2:4). The church is to conduct itself in such an honoring and respectful way that its church leaders find it a joy to pastor the church, which is a practical way of loving them (1 Tim. 5:17, Heb. 13:17). The church is to love fellow Christians (1 John 3:14). The church is to love their neighbors (Matt. 22:39, Luke 10:30-37, Rom. 13:9-10, Gal. 5:14, James 2:8). The church is to love strangers (Heb. 13:12). The church is to love even its enemies (Matt. 5:43-45, Luke 6:32).

The church obeys the Great Commission to evangelize and make disciples. The church is an evangelistic community where the gospel of Jesus is constantly made visible through its proclamation of the gospel, the witness of the members’ lives, and its Spirit-empowered life of love. We see a real example of results of taking this command seriously in Acts 2:47. The Great Commission is an instruction given to all believers, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:19-20). While not imposing religion on anyone, the church of Jesus Christ is to constantly be proposing reconciliation with God to everyone (Acts 13:43; 17:4; 17; 18:4; 19:4; 26; 26:1-28; 28:23-24, 2 Cor. 5:11; 20, Col. 1:28-29).

This is what God’s Word says the church should be. This is the example. This is Jesus’ church.

Today is the Lord’s