Why Do I Need the Church?

WHY DO I NEED CHURCH?

(John 13:1-17 ESV)

I have been a part of the church for the vast majority of my life.  I’ve been in church nearly every Sunday since I was three or four years old. For the last 15 years I have been involved in pastoral ministry.

Yet for all the time I’ve spent in the church there has always been an uneasiness, maybe it’s more a feeling of restlessness that I was never able to quite shake.  The uneasiness, my restlessness stemmed from the idea that I was perhaps missing out on something, that for all of my church attendance, and giving and all of my service there should have been something more, shouldn’t there be something more?  Shouldn’t there be more significance to the weekly gathering of the church than I and probably many others were experiencing?

My restlessness, perhaps my dissatisfaction led me to explore first of all what the Scriptures had to say about the ordinances, the sacraments of the Lord’s Supper and baptism.  Though I would never say I have arrived at a full understanding of the sacraments I certainly understand more of the significance of the Sacraments.  As my understanding of the sacraments have grown I have come to realize that their significance cannot be divorced from, cannot be separated from, or opposed to the weekly gathering of believers for worship.  The sacraments and the preaching of the Word are all means of grace.

In other words once I very slowly began to grasp the significance of baptism and the Lord’s Supper I also began to grasp the significance of the weekly gathering of believers for worship, the weekly church service.

My understanding has led me to the point where I can begin to properly and biblically  answer the question of “Why do I need church?”

This morning it is my prayer that the Holy Spirit will teach each one of us why we need the church.  Please don’t tune my out, because I believe you will be surprised and I hope pleasantly so.

Let me begin this morning by painting two verbal portraits, the first one for most of us who have been exposed to church will readily identify with.  Please understand that my goal is not to be critical of other churches, my comments are made for the sake of comparison only.

• PORTRAIT #1

How many times have you gone to church needing to hear, and hopefully expecting to hear from God, hoping to hear the Gospel?  By the way how do we refer to the gospel?  We refer to the gospel as good news.  Rightly so, because if the gospel is rightly preached it is the most incredibly good news you will ever hear.

The pastor begins his sermon and instead of hearing the gospel, you hear a set of moral principles presented as if they were the gospel.  In other words you are fed a steady diet of how to.  How to have a happy marriage, how to keep your kids on your team, how to have better relationships, on and on it goes, week after week it is more how to, how to, how to.  What is happening without anyone noticing is that the gospel is being replaced or presented as moralism.  The gospel was being presented as a “to do” list.  Do this and God is happy with you, do this and God will bless you.

I remember a lady saying in a small group study that I was leading, and if I said the name of the study most of us would recognize it, she said how am I to do all this stuff every week?  At the time the significance of what she said didn’t really connect with me.  But recently the statement that she made has challenged me, and haunted my thinking.  She was right in expressing her frustration because she knew she was having a hard time doing all of the stuff she was already supposed to be doing and now she felt like she was getting piled on.  Somehow the gospel has gone from being the good news of what God has done for us through Jesus Christ, to you have to do all of these things for God.

The preaching in many churches has turned into a steady diet of principles followed up with a constant barrage of exhortations.  Be a better Christian, read your Bible more, pray more, serve more and my favorite “do something great for God.”  Because the pastor has challenged the congregation to do something great for God, the church has to create the means by which you can do something great for God.  So the latest program is introduced, and everybody is encouraged to get involved and before you know you have no time to raise your family, much less love your neighbor.  But at least your doing something great for God or at least that is what you are being told.  Inevitably this leads to either burnout or hypocrisy.  Christians eventually wilt under this constant barrage, or they know down deep inside that they are struggling in their marriage, their kids are ready to defect from their team, and the guy at work is still a jerk despite all of the techniques you’ve been taught to make him your friend.  You don’t want to admit this to anybody because they will see you as some kind of inferior Christian and so we turn into a hypocrite, dying on the inside but always putting a smile on the outside.

I’m confident that many of us can identify with that picture.  I certainly can because I’ve been on both sides of the problem.  I set under preaching in which I was constantly challenged to do “great things for God” all the while knowing I was just an ordinary guy.  And unfortunately I’ve been behind the pulpit preaching “How to” instead of the gospel.

I am guilty as charged.

• PORTRAIT #2

What if you cane to church each week and instead of constantly being challenged to serve, you were instead the one being served?  This is what the bright guys would call a “paradigm shift”.

What if you were to come to church each week and each week you were faithfully reminded of your guilt before a Holy Righteous God but you were also reminded by “Word and sacrament” of God’s gracious work on our behalf through Jesus Christ.  What if you were to come to church each week and the emphasis was on what God has done for us, not on what we are to do for God?  What if you came to church each week and you were given reminders of what God has done and is doing for us through Jesus Christ?

What if each week you came to church, and you’ve been struggling with your marriage, and you’ve been struggling with you kids, and you’ve been struggling with your job and you have been beat low all week, what if you came to church knowing that God was going to serve you when you got there through His ministers?

What if you came to church each week armed with the knowledge that you were going to be a receiver of God’s gracious gifts, instead of being challenged to do more of what your already struggling to do.

Do you know why professing Christians sometimes give up on church?  I don’t think it’s because they have given up on Christ, they have simply come to the point that they know they can’t do anymore.  I can’t do last week’s how to, so why go add to my how to list?

Earlier I made mention of the preaching of the Word and the Sacraments ( the Lord’s Supper and baptism) as means of grace.

• Word and Sacrament as means of Grace

When we refer to the preaching of the word and the sacraments as means of grace that means that they are the methods that God has given to us to convey His grace to us.

Every time that the pastor stands before the congregation God’s design is for that pastor to faithfully preach the law as law and the gospel as gospel thereby reminding us, communicating His grace to us through the spoken word.  Yes we are reminded of our guilt through the preaching of the Law but we are also reminded of our justification through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  How do I know anything about God’s grace unless He tells me about His grace?  The Father teaches us about grace through the preaching of His Word.

God gives us the preaching of the Word, so that we can hear about grace.  When the word is properly preached the Father’s grace is conveyed to us.  But God continues to give to us, He continues to serve us through the sacraments.  Every time we participate in the Lord’s supper we are assured of God’s grace.  Every time a baptism takes place we are assured of God’s grace and that our old man has died and we are raised to new life in Christ.

Somehow beyond our ability to comprehend, God’s Spirit communicates Christ to us through these earthly elements.  The preaching of the Word, Communion, Baptism are all means that convey God’s saving grace to us, rather than our own methods of striving.  Please, please, please grab hold of this.  Before we serve, we are served, Before we do anything at all, something is done to and for us.

At this time you may be asking if this is what the Bible really teaches.  Let me say that I am not saying that we are not to serve God, because we are.  What I am arguing for is that we have reversed the order.  We have focused all of our attention on serving God and have forgotten what God has done for us, and is doing for us through Christ.

Therefore people are being challenged week after week after week to serve God, to do great things for God but they don’t have the foundation underneath of them that gives them the right motivation, the right reason for serving God.

Also about this time you are probably wondering if I had a reason for reading John 13 or was I just killing time.  I did have a reason.

Now that I have just given you the longest introduction of my life, let’s read John 13 again and see if you don’t understand it in a different way.

If you have heard a sermon from this passage I would be say that the emphasis of the passage was that Jesus humbled himself and so should you.  Now that is true, Jesus did humble himself, and yes we should also humble ourselves for the sake of others.  In other words Jesus is presented as our example.  Again I don’t disagree with that.  But consider this, could there be more to the story than Jesus just setting us an example to follow?

If we view the washing of the disciples feet by Jesus as simply an example we will be guilty of making this event nothing more than a moral lesson, a moral example, a good thing to do.  But Jesus never intended for it to be viewed in those terms.

In verse 6, as Jesus prepares to wash the feet of Peter, Peter responds just as we would expect him to respond.  “Lord, do you wash my feet?”  He is incredulous.  But notice what Jesus says to him in verse 7.

“Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”

The key question that we have to ask ourselves this morning is what is the “afterward” that Jesus is referring to?  Is Jesus simply referring to after He has finished washing Peter’s feet and then the light will go on and Peter will get it?

How can we understand what Jesus means here?  Let’s back up a remind ourselves of what Jesus came to the earth to do.  Did Jesus come just to set a good example for all of us to follow?  Or was there a larger purpose, a much larger purpose for Him coming?  Verse 47 in chapter 12 Jesus says

“If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.”
(John 12:47 ESV)

Do you see it?  Jesus didn’t come to set an example, He came to save the world.  John 13 begins a section that culminates with the crucifixion of Jesus.  When would Peter understand what Jesus is doing?  After the Lord’s death burial and resurrection!

Do you see where the Scriptures are leading us?  The crucifixion of Christ, the gospel of Christ is God serving us.    Peter could only understand what Jesus was trying to teach all of them by washing their feet only after the Lord was crucified!  The washing away of dirt was signifying what Jesus was going to do on the cross.  A much more necessary cleansing was need, a spiritual cleansing was needed, we must be cleansed by the blood of Christ not, we are not cleansed by the example of Christ!

Can we separate the service acts of Christ with the sacrificial act of Christ?  Please meditate on this, there is no service with out sacrifice!  Once that reality begins to dawn on me, then Romans 12 begins to make perfect sense to me!

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.'

(Rom 12:1 ESV)

Christ served me by sacrificing His life, I now serve Him by sacrificing my life!

But what I want you to notice is the sequence.  Who served whom first?  Who washed the dirty feet first?

It was Jesus who served them first!  Not one of the disciples gave any indication that they would do it.  Jesus served them first, Jesus serves us first.  He continues to serve us, before He asks us to serve Him!

Each week when we come to church we come not to serve but to be served by Christ.  He serves us when His word is faithfully preached.  He serves us every time we receive the Lord’s Supper.  He serves us in our baptism.

Michael Horton writes beautifully on Christ serving us; “On this day (when we gather for worship) the sheep are not called to make the world a greener pasture but are led into the luxuriant pastures planned, purchased, and prepared by the Triune God.  This is the day of the week that participates in the everlasting Sabbath that will characterize every day in the age to come.  It is into this day that we long to bring our family, friends, and coworkers.  On this day we do not come to create a story for ourselves or to build a kingdom; we come as those who are “grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken” and therefore offering to “God acceptable worship with reverence and awe.”

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.””

(Matt 11:28-30 ESV)

Why do I need church?  You don’t if you don’t need to be frequently be reminded of and a recipient of God’s grace.  You don’t if you don’t want to be served by the Father and the Son.

But I do!  I need to be served each and every week.  I need God’s grace to be conveyed to me.  Each week I need my faith to be strengthened, each week I need to be reminded of the Father’s gracious provision for me, because that is what motivates me to go out of here and love my neighbor as myself.  Don’t you need church every week?

This morning Christ is going to serve us through serving us His supper.  This meal has been prepared by our Lord and it is He who serves it to us this morning.