I Love My Church Because

February 1, 2015

I Love My Church Series
Pt. 1:  I Love My Church . . . Because                 Notes Not Edited

Text:  Selected Verses

SIS—The church of Jesus Christ is the most significant institution of all time (and eternity) and She deserves our fervent love.

As a preacher, in many ways I live from sermon to sermon. Another way of putting it is I live in a sermon. I am always thinking about preaching. The Bible is a constant companion, whether I am reading it as a book, on digital media, or reviewing memory verses in my head.

For the next five weeks, Lord willing, our church will be moving through a study series titled, “I Love My Church.” This morning, a question popped into my head: “Would I miss my church if it suddenly closed down for some reason?” Now, being the pastor of the church, you would think the answer would be obvious. Therefore, I thought perhaps God was asking me a rhetorical question. As the thought crossed my mind slowly, the answer from my soul responded, “Not really.” “Not really!” But I love my church! I was shocked and saddened by my soul’s answer. Yet, it is true. Should my church suddenly close down, I would definitely grieve, but then I’d move on to another church. There are many, in fact. End of conversation.

No, that question was preparatory to this one: “If I suddenly was missing from my church, would the church miss me?” Well, this question led to an important conversation we all should have with ourselves and with the Lord. The forthcoming answer to this question also required a bit of reflection on my part. I am, after all, the pastor of the church. However, the church has had many pastors and has survived them all. I hold an important position but I am far from indispensible. As with the issue of the first question, the church would grieve if I were suddenly gone (though some would no doubt secretly rejoice).  Grief or no grief, our church would carry on.

So, what was the point of this internal conversation? It took me a few hours of reflection to come to some conclusion.  Many of us would grieve if our church went out of business because church is, at the core, “a love affair,” and loss causes grief when we lose something or someone we love.  Now sadly, many people in many churches would feel no significant loss if the church they attend were to suddenly go out of business because they are not “in love with the church.”  The church for many people is just one activity on a list of activities.

Over the next five weeks, Lord willing, I hope our study and worship time together will cause you to fall madly in love with our church. 

There is so much that could be said about the church that I have struggled with how to introduce this topic:  “I Love My Church.”  I’ve decided to introduce the series with a text about one of the greatest churches in the N.t.—Ephesus.  Let’s stand and read what Jesus had to say about “renewing our love for Him through the church”:

REV. 2:1-5

Everyone of us needs to take heed of these words.  Everyone of us needs to renew our love for the Lord by renewing our love for His church.  Today, I want to give you three great reasons why, “I Love My Church.”

REASON #1:  Because The Church First Loved Me (1Jn. 4:16-19)

¹⁶ And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. ¹⁷ In this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, for we are as He is in this world.  ¹⁸ There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment.  So the one who fears has not reached perfection in love.  ¹⁹ We love because He first loved us.

Love did not originate with man—at least not true love, or pure love.  The Bible says, “God is love” (1Jn. 4:8).  John mentioned this just above the text we read.  Love is powerful—it casts out fear—because God is powerful.  Love is also a source of great confidence.  We can stand confidently in the day of judgment if w have responded to God’s love.  Love builds strength and confidence in life because when we love others, we demonstrate that God’s love is in us.

There is not “object” for the verb, “love,” in verse 19.  It can mean we love God because He first loved us.  That is certainly true.  It can also mean that we love others because God first loved us.  The Bible does not make a sharp distinction between loving God and loving others.  They are two sides of the same coin.  On one occasion an expert in the O.T. Law asked Jesus a question, “What is the greatest Law?”  Jesus answered:

³⁷“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  ^{t 38} This is the greatest and most important  command. ³⁹ The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.  ^{w 40} All the Law and the Prophets depend  on these two commands.”

The entire Law of God can be summed up in these two statements:  “Love God and love others.”  If you are not doing the latter, you cannot say you are doing the former.  One verse past where we stopped reading says, ²⁰ If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother,  he is a liar.

I watched this idea of loving others play out in my own life, though I really didn’t appreciate it much at the time.  My parents were not involved in church much as I was growing up, but a small Baptist church in West Virginia loved me anyway.  Sunday School teachers taught me the important stories of the Bible.  The choir sang for me each Sunday.  Leaders in the church opened their gym for me to play basketball.  The preacher preached heaven high and hell hot so I could clearly understand the importance of the gospel and get saved.  These people were not perfect; but they loved me.  They kept the church going when I am sure they were tired.  So, I love the church today because the Church loved me first.

A great gospel singer, Ray Boltz, expresses why I love the church better than I could say with mere words.  Listen to this poem in music and you will see why I say, “I love my church because the Church first loved me.”

VIDEO:  THANK YOU FOR GIVING TO THE LORD

Reason #2:  Because the Church Loves the World 

Let me expand on the theme of “loving others because God first loved us” by showing exactly what that would look like in a real-world situation.  Luke 10:25-37 tells a familiar story:

²⁵ Just  then an expert in the law  stood up to test  Him, saying, “Teacher,  what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ²⁶ “What is written in the law?” He asked him. “How do you read it?” ²⁷ He answered:  Love the Lord your God  with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind;  and your neighbor as yourself.  ^r28 “You’ve answered correctly,” He told him. “Do this and you will live.” ²⁹ But wanting to justify himself,  he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” ³⁰ Jesus took up the question and said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead. ³¹ A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. ³² In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a Samaritan  on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion.  ³⁴ He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil  and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day  he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’ ³⁶ “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” ³⁷ “The one who showed mercy  to him,” he said. Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”

This story could easily be a series of messages all by itself.  This morning I want to focus on the theme, “what does real love through the church look like.”  If we say we “love our church because the church is the best source of love for the world,” then what does that look like.  I love my church because I am convinced that the church alone is the best place for a broken world to find the love of God. 

The broken world has not, and will not find the love of God through religion.  Notice that as this unfortunate man lay beaten and battered alongside the road, neither a priest, nor his assistant, Levite, was of any good.  No clearer picture of the impotence of religion could be given than this.  The road from Jerusalem to Jericho was steep and winding.  It had many places for bandits to hide.  The priest and Levite had both been fulfilling their two weeks of service in the Temple at Jerusalem and were returning to Jericho where there was a housing development for temple workers.  They were very religion—and equally useless.

Many churches are like the priest and Levite—very religious and equally useless.  This may sting a little bit, but it is not meant to be mean or send you on a guilt trip, but . . . how many homes did you pass this morning on the way to church full of lost and broken people?  My count is easy.  I live one house from the church.  I passed a house in which I am absolutely positive those living in it are broken people.  It breaks my heart.  They don’t know the love of God.  And, they will never know it unless someone—like myself—shares it with them.

People cannot find real love at the grocery store.  The government cannot share the love of God with people.  Only the church—the True Church of Christ—has what a broken, beat-up world needs.  I LOVE THE CHURCH BECAUSE THE CHURCH LOVES THE WORLD! – or, at least it should! 

This afternoon one of the most esteemed contests in all of sports will be played.  Today, the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks will face off in SuperBowl XLIX to win one of the most treasured and coveted trophies in sports—the Vince Lombardi Trophy.  Named for the legendary Green Bay Packers coach in 1970 after he died of cancer to commemorate his leading the Green Bay Packers to victories in the first two Super Bowls. 

Now, if you don’t care much about football, don’t sweat it.  I just want to point out the most important task the coaches of these two teams will perform today.  Vince Lombardi was a master at this task.  Sure, he knew the game of football inside and out.  He knew how to write up a game plan.  All that is important; but, not as important as this one task he will perform before the game—the Pre-game Locker Room pep talk.  Many a game of football has been won in the locker room before anyone sets foot on the turf.

However, the world we live in today does not need a “pep talk.”  Our broken, beat-up world needs what only the Church of Jesus Christ can provide:  the love of God.  I love my church because we are the best hope for many people who need to “see” and “hear” and “feel” the love of God. 

People can tune into Joel and get a great pep talk—but they can’t “feel” love.  Great T.V. preachers abound in our society, but our society gets more broken and beat-up every day.  T.V. preachers are not going to feed the hungry in our city.  T.V. preachers are not going to visit the sick in our city.  T.V. preachers are not going to give a hand up to the homeless in our city.  No—to experience the real love of God our city needs a church that really loves God.  That’s why I love my church—BECAUSE THROUGH MY CHURCH I CAN LOVE THE WORLD.

Reason #3:  Because Jesus loved the Church

There are many more reasons why we should love our church than the fact that we were first loved by a church and the church is the best, and only, way for the world to experience the real love of God.  But, no matter what reasons you can come up with as you read the Bible, the fact that Jesus loved the Church is “numero uno.”  In a section talking about the love between a man and his bride, the Bible says this (Ephesians 5):

²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. ²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself  for her.

This passage is a source of much debate in scholarly circles.  Two camps line up against each other to wrestle over the implications of what it means for a “wife to submit to her husband.”  This debate gets quite heated.  In fact, when a section on the family was added to the Baptist Faith and Message--which outlines the general beliefs of Southern Baptists—stating,  “a woman should submit herself graciously'' to her husband's leadership and that a husband should ''provide for, protect and lead his family,” the Convention almost split.  That was in 1998 and the two factions are still fighting over it now, seventeen years later.

The point I want to make is this:  debating the point about wives submitting to husbands” (which the Scripture clearly teaches) misses the point that husbands are to “love their wives like Jesus loved the Church.”  That’s the main point and the most important point.  “We are to love our family like Christ loved the Church.”

So, the point is really two-fold.  First, Jesus loved the church.  Second, he loved the church absolutely, completely, and sacrificially.  “Jesus loved the church—HOW?—HE GAVE HIMSELF FOR HER!” 

And, how much did Jesus give of Himself for His Bride, the Church?  He gave ALL OF HIMSELF.  By the time Jesus even made it to the cross, He was a bloody mess.  His skin had been stripped from His back by a Roman flogging.  Many prisoners never made it to the crucifixion sight because they died at the flogging.  Even after Jesus had died, a Roman soldier pierced His side and drained His blood on the ground.  Why did Jesus do this?  He did it for you and I that make up His Bride, the church.  Revelation 21 describes the Bride of Christ:

⁹ Then one of the seven angels, who had held the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues,  came and spoke with me: “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” ¹⁰ He then carried me away in the Spirit  ^v to a great and high mountain  and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, ¹¹ arrayed with God’s glory.  Her radiance was like a very precious stone, like a jasper stone, bright as crystal.

This “holy city” inhabited by the saints of God—the Church—is described as a Bride that is more radiant than precious stones and as bright as crystal.  Jesus loves the Church.  It is his Bride.  Every local church of Christ makes up the Bride of Christ.  There is a Universal Church of which every God-fearing, Christ-honoring local congregation is a part.

Of all the reasons I could come up with for “Why I Love My Church,” the fact that JESUS LOVES THE CHURCH is most important of all.  How is it even possible to say with any credibility that a person is a Christian, but does not love the church?  One cannot say such a thing and be taken seriously.

It is not enough, however, to know that you should love the church because Jesus loves the church.  We use the word, “love” so flippantly.  We talk about how much we love “this” or we love “that.”  We speak in the same way about loving our dog as we do loving our wife.  Philosophers call this “equivocation”—using the same word in totally different ways. 

Do we really love like Jesus loved—the way He loved others?  The way He loved the Church?  Are we really giving ourselves to our church as Jesus gave Himself for the church?  I think we can all quickly say, “no!”  I want to—but I don’t.  Some people don’t even want to love the church by giving some—let alone all!

I hope as we move through this series over the next four weeks, Lord willing, we will fall madly in love with the church again—and if we have never been saved and in love with the church the first time, then I hope you will consider falling madly in love with Jesus, and you will naturally fall madly in love with His bride.

I Love My Church—I really do!

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