Why Does the church exist? Why did God create the Body to be the Bride of Christ? What is our purpose as Christians? Why were we not immediately taken to heaven upon our conversion? Why did God create the church?
One of the major misconceptions we have as believers is that the church in its current form is an exact replica of what was formed in the book of Acts. As early Christians gathered together their purposes for gathering were much different than that of today.
Today we come to church out of obligation, we come for the social status it gives us. We come to meet new people, and increase our database of friends. And yet for some reason we are unfulfilled as believers. So we seek to add programs and games, community events, we even use evangelism as a way to fill this void that church can’t fill.
Over the past few weeks, over the past few years my thoughts have continually turned to the thought of why do we need a church, why do we need the institution. And the overwhelming answer is that we don’t. You see, the majority of us have confused the true definition of the church to mean a gathering, with programs, and outreach. We have transformed the definition to mean a place rather than a people. I’m not saying that a gathering of God’s people isn’t vital to our growth and our lives as believers. Scripture teaches clearly that we are to gather together. But how much better would our lives be if we had the definition of Church “ecclesia” right.
As I have studied, and sought council from men of God, I have been constantly drawn back to the book of Ephesians. Here Paul is responding to the church at Ephesus who historically we find were asking the same questions posed today.
You see the majority of the believers at Ephesus were converted idol worshippers. People who had devoted their lives to the possession of things. People who worshipped that which they owned. They had placed idols over different aspects of their lives. Idols over their children, idols over their homes, idols over their financial status. Idols had consumed their existence. The beautiful thing about their conversion is that you and I can relate easily. Actually you and I can relate to Paul’s response easier than the believers at Ephesus. Where they had placed idols we simply place things. We place our children, our homes, our cars, our education, our social status, our jobs as idols in our lives. We completely bypass the idol and make the material possession our God.
Getting back to questions at hand, we look at Paul’s response to the question, why do the Christians exist to make up the church? And just exactly what is this church we’re talking about anyway.
In chapter two he explains that prior to being Christians they were spiritually dead, separated from Christ, not included in God's covenant, without hope, and without God. Their preconversion condition was horribly grim.
But in Chapter 1 Paul goes in depth as to the purpose their being Christians and ultimately being the church.
He began by explaining these things.
God is the source of blessings (verse 3).
God provides every spiritual blessing in Christ (verse 3). There is no blessing that comes outside of the gift of God. Nothing that I can gain is beneficial to me, except that it come from Christ alone. Anything that I can do on my own is worthless. God blesses us according to our submission and outside of that submission no blessing can occur. God has blessed us to be a blessing to others. A life not devoted to blessing others through Christ cannot receive the true rewards of the kingdom.
Before God created the world, God chose all people who would be holy
and blameless to be His people (verse 4).
Before creation he chose to adopt the church as the Bride of Christ (verse 5).
It is clear that God is Sovereign and that his foreknowledge of those that would come to him must cause us to realize his immense love for us. He knowingly takes our sin and forgives without question. He formally adopts us to be His own. The beauty of our election and adoption are the purest form of love that we can truly wrap our arms around.
The realization of my adoption causes me to ask:
Why? Why would God do those things?
So that those who were alive in Christ would exist to the praise of
the glory of His grace (verse 6). – God is a jealous God, and for our praise to be placed anywhere other than unto Him is everything but an outright rejection of His love for us. God created us to worship Him, he saves us to Praise him, and he created us as the church to be a celebration of what he has done and is doing.
We exist as Christians to be living evidence of how good God is, to
demonstrate God's goodness, and to cause other people to glorify God.
Paul continued his emphasis.
In Christ you have redemption through his blood (verse 7).
In Christ you have the forgiveness of your trespasses. - Christ calls us to be His known, so that we can not take credit for our own salvation. When we realize that there is nothing that we could have done to earn Christ’s favor, only then can we truly live out our calling to be instruments of praise.
In fact, in Christ:
God lavishes His grace upon you (verse 8). To further help us understand that we are incapable of saving ourselves, causing us to even further appreciate the love that is poured out on us.
God showed you what He was doing--makes known to you the mystery (verse 9). – Like any good leader, nothing of importance is hidden from us. We see clearly that we, the people of God, are chosen to be instruments of praise. When God lays out before us His plan, and then continues on with it, we cannot help but realize that His will for our lives is good. That he sets before us the plan which is best for us, and most glorifying to Him. And yet too often we reject His will in pursuit of our own dream, only to find that our success is dependant upon our submission to plan he has so clearly laid out before us.
God reveals His complete purpose and shows how that purpose is summed
up in Jesus (verse 10).
Through that purpose, we have obtained an inheritance (verse 11). That inheritance is the Kingdom of Heaven.
Why? Why has God revealed all those things in Christ?
(verse 12)
So that we who have our hope in Christ should be to the praise
of God's glory. Through our praise people are drawn to praise and glorify, not through our programs and institutions, not through our knowledge or social status, but through our praise. People will begin to praise God, and know God when God’s people begin to praise God for who he is. The world will know God by the praise that abounds in the lives of believers.
Why? Why would God do that? (verse 14)
Because He expected them to be to the praise of His glory.
When other people saw what God did in them, those people would praise
God and give Him glory. The existence of the church cannot and will not live on if it is lived within the walls of a building. God expects us to be the praise of His glory, that means that everything you and I do should be to the Glory of God and to the expansion of His kingdom. This morning we must all take a step back and reevaluate that which is in our lives. If it doesn’t bring Glory to God it must be removed, changed, or dealt with.
Why does the church exist, not to simply gather for the sake of gathering. The church exists for the praise of the One who is worthy of all our praise.
The church is not a building, the church is the people of God, who commit their lives to the praise of God.
