The Church’s PURPOSE
Last month we looked at how the ecclesia is God’s called out PEOPLE and this month we will consider what God’s PURPOSE was in calling us out.
As I set out in ministry as a young pastor (we were just a small group of about 25 committed members), I felt led to encourage the church to spend that first year in waiting upon God together. It was not that we did nothing, in fact a lot of things happened during that time – we did street evangelism, a number of people got filled with the Spirit and the church began to grow, but the most effective thing we did was to start a monthly day of prayer and fasting extra to our regular weekly prayer meeting.
The biggest thing that came during those weekly and monthly times of waiting upon God were the words “I will build My church.” Through prophetic words, tongues and interpretation, Bible studies, and other preachers, those words kept coming again and again. Although simultaneously we were praying for a piece of land, giving sacrificially and saving up to build a “church” we certainly understood that a building was not the church – we were.
Several years later, the day came, after many tests and many more days of prayer and fasting, that the “facility” (we avoided calling it a church), had been completed to the extent that we could leave our rented hall and meet in it even though it was not finished. So we had a Pre-Opening Celebration and the place was filled with people from other churches in the town and district, and friends from the USA - it was a grand occasion. Karen Lafferty who wrote the music to “Seek Ye first the Kingdom of God” was the guest soloist and my friend Pastor Floyd McClung from our “sister” church in Orange California was the preacher.
I had invited the assistant vicar of the Anglican church to do the Bible reading and left him to choose what to read. As he stood up and announced the reading from 1 Peter 2:4-11, Dr McClung turned to his wife and said “That young man has got the text of my sermon!” This was a wonderful confirmation of the message the Lord wanted to give us that day about the true nature of the church. Pastor Floyd had chosen 1 Peter 2:9 as his central text:
“You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.”
These words from the church’s first preacher – Peter – give us insight into the PURPOSE of the church and we shall look at each phrase together:
CHOSEN PEOPLE
I personally do not understand the word “chosen” here in a Calvinistic way, but if you do, that is fine. The important question is: “chosen for what?” and Peter gives us the answer. We are chosen to “declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.”
That’s the purpose of the church! We have come out of darkness – that’s something to shout about - that’s something to declare for those who are still in the darkness so that they can come into His wonderful light too!
That’s the church’s mission – to be witnesses to this wonderful light (Acts 1:8).
ROYAL PRIESTHOOD
Royal priesthood is a reference to Exodus 19:6 where the Lord appoints His chosen people Israel, to be a “Kingdom of priests”. My friend Dr McClung explained in his sermon that day, that a priest “pontifex” in Latin, means “bridge builder” and this is our task – to build bridges so that people can come over them out of the darkness and into the light.
Everyone in the church should be involved in some way in building those bridges to bring people into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Peter in the same passage declares that God’s people are: “Being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5).
For the church to be effective in fulfilling its PURPOSE we need to be living constantly in the spiritual dimension of prayer, worship, being filled with the Spirit, being led by the Spirit.
HOLY NATION
This again is a reference to Exodus 19:6 but first of all let us also note Matthew 16:16 when Peter declared to Jesus:
“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”
Each person who becomes a member of the church in some way has to have that revelation of WHO Jesus is and then confess it, firstly through baptism and for the rest of our lives.
God chose the nation of Israel to be his Holy Nation through whom He would reveal Himself to the world and through whom the Messiah would come. When Israel as a nation rejected their Messiah, the church became God’s new international Holy Nation.
GOD’S SPECIAL POSSESSION
It was God’s PURPOSE that His chosen people Israel would be His representatives and missionaries to the world but when they constantly failed and finally, rejected Jesus – this privilege passed to ALL who do recognise Jesus to be the Messiah and Son of God.
Israel was God’s “treasured possession” (Exodus 19:5) but this privileged position of being God’s “special possession” passed to the Church - made up of believing Jews and Gentiles.
DECLARING THE PRAISES
The purpose of the church is to shine as lights in the world – declaring His praises.
Our purpose is not to have fancy programmes, impressive organisation and grand buildings or to be a self-perpetuating “bless me club.” Any group of people who are fixated on these things are in great danger of missing the whole purpose of the church.
The mission of the church – to be witnesses, to work for the Kingdom of heaven – to be and to make disciples of Jesus has never changed. This is the real PURPOSE of the Church.
The real church is…
A chosen people… TO FULFIL GOD’S PURPOSE, by declaring His praises
A kingdom of priests… TO BUILD BRIDGES on earth into the Kingdom of heaven
A holy nation… TO REACH THE NATIONS, by making disciples of Jesus
God’s special possession… TO BE HIS REPRESENTATIVES TO THE WORLD
What a privilege!
Will the REAL church (with that clear sense of purpose and direction) therefore: PLEASE STAND UP!
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Please stand up!