This morning, we had a joint Sunday School gathering at Tabernacle. Our guest speaker was a former member of TBC and Union native, Ralph Brown. His topic was the title of this post, "The Strength of the Church." The text he used was Luke 24:44-53 and records some of Jesus' last words to His disciples prior to his ascension and I encourage you to read it. He shared with us from that scripture 4 points that are the strength of the church and these are my takeaways from that message.
1. Headship
The head of the church is Jesus Christ. That goes for the worldwide kingdom of God and the local church body. The head of your church is, or at least should be, Jesus. It's not your pastor, the deacons, or the biggest tithers. Jesus is to be the leader of the church. Colossians 1:18 reads, "And he is the head of the body, the church."
Jesus should be our motivation for why and where we come to church. We shouldn't come just for Sunday school, just for preaching, because of the preacher, because of the music, or for any other human reason. We come to church to worship the head of the church, Jesus.
2. Community & Unity
God does His best work in and through unified churches. As individuals, we are capable of great things. But when good people come together, so much more becomes possible. Just look at the early church in Acts 2:42-47 and their actions: They devoted themselves to the teaching, fellowship, and breaking bread together. They had many things in common and shared needs together. They attended the temple together daily. And they increased in number and in those being saved. God loves unity and wants to see His people grow together.
3. Doctrine
The church must believe and stick to the scriptures. Look at the references in this passage: v44 - Law of Moses, v45 - scriptures, v46 - it is written. If God said it, He meant it. Every word in the Bible serves a purpose today. It may be to teach us, inspire us, lead us, to prove itself as true, or a number of other purposes. But as the church we must believe God's Word if we call ourselves Christians and do our best to live by it.
4. Worship
Most churches primarily gather on Sundays and Wednesdays, but worship is not to be limited to the church building or these couple days. All that we do should be to uplift the name of Christ. Look here at vs 52-53, worship led to greater joy which led to more time and presence in the temple with God. When we realize God's "worth-ship" we cannot help but glorify Him more and more.
As many people around here know, a year and half or so ago, our pastor left Tabernacle. There was some shock, some hurt, some confusion, and I'm sure many other emotions. We have since lost a few a members and gained a few members. But overall our church has persevered. Why? Because we worship Jesus Christ. Our last pastor, our interim pastor, nor our next pastor will ever take the place of Christ in our church and our hearts. Yes, we should love and support our pastor, but we must remember that he's not the reason we are where we are - Jesus is.
This also speaks to the unity of TBC. Do we get along all the time? No. Is every church vote unanimous? No. But guess what, if you say something about our church or one of our members we will suck it up and put aside our differences and come running to the defense.
We are able to do these things largely because of some of our more faithful and studied members. Their knowledge and understanding of scripture is so important and their willingness to pass it on to others coming after them continues that cycle. We are a church rooted in the Bible, and that's a vital characteristic for any church you consider being a member of.
If you've ever been to one of our fellowships, you know how superb we are at breaking bread together. We gather and worship a risen Savior often together. You cannot help but feel joy of the presence of all those believers and most importantly the presence of our God who is worth worshipping.
If you want grow in Christ this year, consider joining a local church. If you want to know more about Tabernacle, just ask. 2018 is set up to be an amazing year here!
1. Headship
The head of the church is Jesus Christ. That goes for the worldwide kingdom of God and the local church body. The head of your church is, or at least should be, Jesus. It's not your pastor, the deacons, or the biggest tithers. Jesus is to be the leader of the church. Colossians 1:18 reads, "And he is the head of the body, the church."
Jesus should be our motivation for why and where we come to church. We shouldn't come just for Sunday school, just for preaching, because of the preacher, because of the music, or for any other human reason. We come to church to worship the head of the church, Jesus.
2. Community & Unity
God does His best work in and through unified churches. As individuals, we are capable of great things. But when good people come together, so much more becomes possible. Just look at the early church in Acts 2:42-47 and their actions: They devoted themselves to the teaching, fellowship, and breaking bread together. They had many things in common and shared needs together. They attended the temple together daily. And they increased in number and in those being saved. God loves unity and wants to see His people grow together.
3. Doctrine
The church must believe and stick to the scriptures. Look at the references in this passage: v44 - Law of Moses, v45 - scriptures, v46 - it is written. If God said it, He meant it. Every word in the Bible serves a purpose today. It may be to teach us, inspire us, lead us, to prove itself as true, or a number of other purposes. But as the church we must believe God's Word if we call ourselves Christians and do our best to live by it.
4. Worship
Most churches primarily gather on Sundays and Wednesdays, but worship is not to be limited to the church building or these couple days. All that we do should be to uplift the name of Christ. Look here at vs 52-53, worship led to greater joy which led to more time and presence in the temple with God. When we realize God's "worth-ship" we cannot help but glorify Him more and more.
As many people around here know, a year and half or so ago, our pastor left Tabernacle. There was some shock, some hurt, some confusion, and I'm sure many other emotions. We have since lost a few a members and gained a few members. But overall our church has persevered. Why? Because we worship Jesus Christ. Our last pastor, our interim pastor, nor our next pastor will ever take the place of Christ in our church and our hearts. Yes, we should love and support our pastor, but we must remember that he's not the reason we are where we are - Jesus is.
This also speaks to the unity of TBC. Do we get along all the time? No. Is every church vote unanimous? No. But guess what, if you say something about our church or one of our members we will suck it up and put aside our differences and come running to the defense.
We are able to do these things largely because of some of our more faithful and studied members. Their knowledge and understanding of scripture is so important and their willingness to pass it on to others coming after them continues that cycle. We are a church rooted in the Bible, and that's a vital characteristic for any church you consider being a member of.
If you've ever been to one of our fellowships, you know how superb we are at breaking bread together. We gather and worship a risen Savior often together. You cannot help but feel joy of the presence of all those believers and most importantly the presence of our God who is worth worshipping.
If you want grow in Christ this year, consider joining a local church. If you want to know more about Tabernacle, just ask. 2018 is set up to be an amazing year here!
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