What is Church?

Shige Nakazawa // Celebration 2022.02.12

Discussion Questions

1. What image or picture do you have about “church?” What is “church” to you?

2. What does it mean for you that you are a part of your Small Church?

3. How would you define the difference between your Small Church and other Christian meetings like a Bible study group?

Transcript

For the next eight weeks, we will be having a special season of learning about Church.

Each of the small churches is the Lord's church. But we don't often think deeply about what that means. The Bible teaches the church in numerous metaphors, such as "the family of God," "the bride of Christ," and "the body of Christ."

Let's look at each of these metaphors to see what it means for us to be the Lord's church. Not only will this deepen and strengthen us as a church, but it will also be a good opportunity for personal growth in our faith.

What is a Metaphor?

Webster dictionary defines it like this: A figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them. For example, when you want to say something like, "That person has a cheerful personality and has an influence on the people around him, making others feel happy," you can use the metaphor, "That person is ray of sun.” When I hear the phrase "ray of sun," there is an image that immediately comes to mind. It is bright and warm, and I think of the various benefits it brings to animals and plants, as well as to humans. I can feel the brightness and the warmth. This is the power of metaphor.

God uses a lot of metaphors to teach us what the church is. When we listen to these metaphors, it becomes easier for us to understand what the church is like.

Why have this special season?

It comes down to why we need to learn about "the church." The short answer is that it's about knowing who we are.To learn about the church is to learn about ourselves. For Christians, biblically speaking, the church is not just a place to go, or a place to attend, but it is who we are. But as in anything, if we are not taught by the Word of God, we will inevitably fall prey to our own biased, human preconceptions about church. Living with a biased or false view of the church is the same thing as living with a false understanding of ourselves.

When we as a church do not have a proper understanding of our identity, we are also unaware of the rich blessings that come from it, and the mission we have been given.

This is not only true for small churches. As I said, "church" equals “us” or more precisely “us as a community of believers.” So then, to learn about church is to learn about our identity, the blessings we have been given, and our mission on earth.

Through this special season of study, I’m hoping that we can deepen our understanding of Church and rediscover what it means to be the Lord's Church, so that not only will we be strengthened as churches but also will grow in our individual faiths.

And I hope that ultimately through all this that our love for God, our love for one another, as well as our mission to the world around us would all be renewed.

The Centrality of the Church in the Bible

In my talk tonight, I would like to just touch on the centrality of the church in the Bible.

Can’t I be a good Christian by myself?

Sometimes there are Christians who think like this. I have a friend like that. He says: “I don't really fit into church. In my current life I don't have time to attend church every week. Besides, church can become burdensome when relationships gets complicated. I read the Bible, and sometimes I listen to the messages of famous pastors online. I listen to praise songs on my way to work. So, for now, I'm good without going to any church.”

But the faith of such a person is very unstable and in danger of going astray.

It's true that these days you can listen to a lot of messages on the internet and find worship songs. Why then can't Christians have a healthy and growing faith without the church?

I think the answer can be seen when we look in the Bible at how much God considers the church to be important.

1) The object of Christ's love is the church.

For example, in Ephesians chapter 5, we read that Jesus, the Son of God, loved the church as His "bride" and gave Himself for the church. It says, " Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her," (5:25). At first glance it can look like Paul is mainly giving marriage advice, but then he makes it clear, "I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church." (5:32). To a good husband, his wife is as important as he himself. And a husband directs his special affection to his wife alone, not to any other woman. Jesus likewise pours out for the church his most special love that’s reserved for his Bride only and not for anyone else. He gave His life on the cross for the Church.

Of course, God loves each one of us personally as well. As Paul said, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. But the Bible also says that Christ loved the church. The church is not an individual Christian, but a community of Christians. So, here’s what it comes down to: if you really want to experience the love of God, you really need to be in the fellowship of the church. When we fellowship as a church, then we truly realize that Jesus really loves us.

It might be helpful here to remember that the word "church" is used in the Bible on several levels. In the book of Ephesians, "the church" as the object of Jesus’ self-sacrificial love refers to the “universal church" which consists of all believers in Jesus Christ everywhere throughout the ages. In other words, it is not only our small church that Jesus loves as His bride, obviously. Church here is the totality of Christians in Africa, China, Americas, the Middle East, everywhere and in every age.

But the word "church" can also be used in a more local sense. For example, in 1 Corinthians 1:2, Paul addresses his readers "to the church of God that is in Corinth." There were many house churches in the city of Corinth, and he refers to the fellowship of all these churches collectively as "the church.

Lastly, each one of these numerous house churches is also called a "church." For example, in 1 Corinthians 16, Paul tells the readers that the church that meets in the home of Aquila and Priscilla, Paul's fellow workers and friends, is called "the church. It says: “Aquila and Priscilla, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord.” So the Bible calls a group of Christians meeting in a house a "church" also.

So in this way it’s helpful to keep in mind that the word "church" has several levels of meaning.

Returning to the centrality of the Church in the Bible. The first was that the object of Christ's love is the church.

2) God's purpose in the world is done through the church.

Therefore, you could say that to be outside of the church is to be outside of God's purpose. Wow, that sounds like a big deal!

1 Timothy 3:15 "if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. There are many different values and ways of thinking in this world. How do you know how valid each one of them is? How will the world know what is truth? Well, that task is given to us as the church, as we firmly stand on the Word of God and as we faithfully preach the truth of the Gospel.

The church is the means by which God expresses Christ to the world. Ephesians 1:22-23 says, "And he (the Father) put all things under his (Christ’s) feet and gave him (Christ) as head over all things to the church, which is his (Christ’s) body, the fullness of him (Christ) who fills all in all."

In order for the world to know Christ, it is important and necessary for individuals to evangelize, but it is when people step into the fellowship of the church that they can best understand, "Oh, this is who Christ is.”

The church is at the center of God's purpose on earth. In other words, to be outside of the church is to place oneself outside of God's purpose.

3) An individual's spiritual growth is undeniably tied to his/her membership in the church.

In other words, do you want to grow as a Christian? You must be part of a church.

Ephesians 4:15-16

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

What we see here is that the spiritual growth of a Christian is inseparable from the church’s growth. Each Christian grows as a part of the body of Christ. There is no such thing as growing up on your own without growing up with the rest of the church. For example, as a human baby is born, becomes a child, and gradually grows into an adult, it is impossible for only a part of the body, such as the hand or feet, to grow into an adult size while the body stays in a baby size! That’s sounds really weird, doesn’t it?

When we talk about different parts of the body of Christ, we are talking about each of its members with various spiritual gifts making up the whole body. Each Christian has been given spiritual gifts by God. But these gifts are not given for themselves, but for the building up of the church (community of believers). If a person tries to use spiritual gifts for his own reputation, glory, or satisfaction, his faith will be badly distorted. Because he is focused on himself, such a person will take his eyes off of God, and in the end, after feeling empty and defeated, he may even become disillusioned with his faith and fall away from God's grace altogether. It’s a very dangerous thing not to think about using your spiritual gifts for the church’s growth. On the other hand, if you use your gifts to help the church to grow, you will be blessed with peace and joy from God, as well as spiritual and personal growth.

Here again, I think we can see how important the church is.

So that’s touching briefly on how important and central the church is.

Explanation of the actual weekly flow

So we’ll be studying about the church in the next 8 weeks.

We'll be covering seven of the biblical metaphors for church:

- The Bride of Christ

- Branches on a Vine

- Agricultural crops / God's field

- God's new temple

- Priesthood

- The Body of Christ (2 weeks)

I will be providing a study guide for each week.

The April Celebration is now tentatively scheduled for Saturday, April 16.

At the April Celebration, we will hopefully be able to share what we have learned in each church over the next 8 weeks, and how we would like to move forward as a small church based on what we have learned.