What Every True Church Should Be - Part 1 - Part A

The purpose of the Church is to glorify God. The purpose of the Church, number one, is to glorify God. The Church has many purposes, and this has been debated throughout history. Some people will say, well, the real purpose of the Church is fellowship, community. No, it's not.

It actually is a purpose, but it is not primary, it's secondary. Jesus is the one who built the Church, so he gets the ultimate say in what the marks of a true Church should be. And today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares how the Church demonstrates God's glory and how you can live to glorify the Lord. But before we begin, we want to let you know about a resource that will help strengthen your faith as you explore the lives of notable women in the Bible.

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Connectwithskip.com slash offer. Now we're in John chapter 17 as Skip Heitzig gets into today's message. If you remember last week in the Gospel of Matthew, we noted that Jesus made the statement that he was going to make a new community, a community that he would call his church.

We discussed what that meant. The church is a group of people called out from the world to gather together for the purposes of God. Today, we get to discover what those purposes of God are exactly in the prayer of Jesus in John 17.

So let me tell you where we are here. Let me tell you why I've chosen John 17 and what's going on. In Matthew 16, Jesus makes the announcement, I'm going to build my church. When we get to the book of Acts, we see the birth of that church. In Acts chapter 2, we see the spread and the expansion of the church around the world and the challenges that come with that. When we get to the epistles of Paul and Peter and John, we get to all of the instructions given to the church.

How to form leaders, how to enact church discipline, how to engage in public worship, etc. We even have other names that are given for the church. Names like the body of Christ, the flock of God, the pillar and ground of truth, the bride of Christ, the household of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit. And then finally, we get to the book of Revelation, which tells us the future of the church. And we see that awesome picture of the church gathered around the throne of God with the angelic choirs singing praises to him. But in John chapter 17, we get the original design or intention of the church.

It is the big picture. And it's the prayer of Jesus Christ, one of my favorite sections of the Bible. It's the most intimate prayer on record and the longest prayer recorded of Jesus to his Father in heaven. And he prays for his followers, not only his followers then, but we'll see next time we gather that he prays for his followers eventually, all those who will believe in Jesus through the word of the original followers. So he is praying for his church. And it's noteworthy to find out what he is praying for his church. Because as we go through this prayer, we find that there are four marks of a true church, four characteristics. Every true church should be like this. Now we're going to look at two of the marks this week and two of the marks next week because I don't want to go through this too fast.

I want to really drill down and make application. But you know, not every group that gathers together and calls itself a church is a true church. In Revelation chapters two and three, there are some institutions that are called the synagogue of Satan.

Nobody would like to be called that. Hey, what church do you go to? Oh, I go to Satan's synagogue.

Oh, okay, great. The synagogue of Satan. Even Jesus spoke to leaders who were opposed to him and opposed to his message. And Jesus called them children of the devil.

So just because you assemble together and you call yourself something doesn't mean you are that. So we want to discover what the marks of every true church is. I was reading a study some time ago that said the most important thing that a church can do to attract people is to provide parking. The parking lot was number one.

You want a successful church? Number one, parking lot. Number two on that list, nursery. Parking lot number one, nursery. Now you had to read down the list pretty far to get to preaching and worship and things like that. Number one, parking. Number two, nursery. I'm not saying those things are not important. I laugh a little bit because when we first started in this building, we didn't have parking. We just had like 20 or 30 on-site parking spaces and people parked in neighborhoods and walked down the street and it was quite comical.

We didn't follow any of that advice at all. But here's the deal. If Jesus said he's going to build the church in Matthew 16, if he is the head of the church, then he gets to say what is important as being a characteristic. So we want to look at it.

There are four and I'm going to go through two this week. Number one, every true church should demonstrate God's glory. Every true church should demonstrate God's glory. Let's begin in John 17. Let's read some of the verses and there is a word that is repeated more than any other word in this section.

You'll notice it as we go through it. Verse one, Jesus spoke these words, lifted his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that your son also may glorify you as you have given him authority over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. And this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I have glorified you on the earth.

I have finished the work which you have given me to do. And now, oh Father, glorify me together with yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world was. Go down to verse nine. I pray for them, them being his disciples, his followers. I pray for them.

I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours and all mine are yours and yours are mine and I am glorified in them. Go down to verse 22. And the glory which you gave me, I have given them that they may be one as we are one.

And then finally, down to verse 24. Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which you have given me for you loved me before the foundation of the world. Eight times a word shows up in one form or another, and that is the word glory or glorified. And that's a term we have heard, right? Most Christians know the term glory, glory of God, glorifying God. The problem is, what does it mean exactly? What is the glory of God? What does it mean to glorify God?

Basically, the Bible uses that word in two different ways. Number one, it's something you see. Number two, it's something you do.

It's something you do. It's something visible. When God shows up, there's some glorious manifestation sometimes. So it's something you see. Then it's something you do to glorify God.

So let's drill down a little bit. Number one, God's glory refers to a visible expression of God, a visible expression of God. It is the outward wow that brings the inward whoa.

You know what I'm referring to? In Isaiah chapter six, Isaiah gets a vision of God's glory. He said, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on the throne high and lifted up. The train of his robe filled the temple. There were seraphim around the throne.

They were singing out to one another. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. The whole earth is filled with his glory.

Immediately, Isaiah said, woe is me. The wow of the vision led him to the woe is me. So it's the outward wow that brings the inward whoa. It's the visible expression of God. Many times in the Old Testament, we read the glory of the Lord appeared. And so often when you read the glory of the Lord appeared, the reaction of people on earth is sort of like the the four in the Wizard of Oz. You know, they just sort of shake in their boots.

It's like, whoa. God showed up. And then this is Christmas time. So we talk about Luke chapter two every year. And in Luke chapter two, we know the narrative. It says, the angel of the Lord stood before the shepherds and the glory of the Lord shone round about them.

And they were very afraid. So number one, it's the visible expression of God. There's another way it is used. Sometimes it refers to the valued attention toward God. That's what it means to glorify God.

The word is doxado. And that is a word that means to make renown or to make famous or to form a good opinion of. So look how Jesus uses it that way. Verse four, I have glorified you on the earth. Go down to verse six. I have manifested your name to the men that you have given me. Simply put, I have pointed toward you. I have focused attention on you. I, the Son, have turned the spotlight on you, Father.

I have made you the center of focus on the stage of history. And not only have I done that, I have passed that on as a goal to my followers. So the purpose of the church is to glorify God. The purpose of the church, number one, is to glorify God. The church has many purposes. And this has been debated throughout history. Some people will say, well, the real purpose of the church is fellowship, community.

No, it's not. It actually is a purpose. But it is not primary, it's secondary. Others will say, well, the main purpose of the church is to evangelize the world because Jesus said go into all the world and preach the gospel.

Okay, that's important. We exist for that reason. But that's not the primary reason. The primary reason is not going. The primary reason is not going.

The primary reason is not growing. The primary reason is glorifying God. We exist to bring glory, to point focus, to make renown, to give attention to God. Every true church has a true north.

It points in a direction. It should be oriented toward God. I don't know if you know what a catechism is, but if you were raised in a traditional church, you do know what a catechism is.

I grew up with one. It's a little manual that is used to teach children faith in God and how to follow Christ. So in the 1600s in England, there was a catechism printed known as, it's still used widely, the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

And the Westminster Shorter Catechism was primarily a tool to teach children the Christian faith. And the catechism begins with a question followed by an answer. Here's the question. What is the chief end of man? What is the chief end of man?

In other words, it's an old English way of saying, why are we here? What is the purpose of life as we know it? What is the chief end of man? Here's the answer. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. It's a great answer. The chief end of man, the reason I exist is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.

So the first mark of Jesus' true church is to point to, to give attention to, to make renown God. Okay, great. Glorify God. Now that sounds good on paper. That sounds good philosophically. Okay, good. I should glorify God. But how do you do that exactly?

I'm so glad you asked. Because Jesus gives us two ways. We glorify God by our declaration, what we say, what comes out of our mouth, we declare it. And we glorify God by our demonstration, what we do. So I want you to, I want you to see that.

Go, go to verse six. It's the declaration. I have manifested your name. I have made your name great. I have revealed your character, your name.

I have made your name great. You know, one thing you realize about Jesus is he always honored the father, always said the father's will should be done. That's part of our prayer to him and the Lord's prayer. And he spoke about how great the father is. He always declared God, always, always pointed to him. How do we do that? How do we declare it?

Well, I can think of a few ways. When we witness to somebody, we share the gospel with them, we're declaring God is great, worthy to be believed in and followed. Whenever you train your children in the things of God, you are declaring how great God is to your children.

You are in effect glorifying God with your kids. If you teach a Sunday school class or you have a place a place of instruction of new believers or disciples, you are declaring God, you are glorifying him. We also do that by worship. Whenever we sing like we just did, whenever we sing the words pointing to him, we are declaring God is worthy, God is valuable. You know, worship is the one exercise we do where God gets all the attention. The focus is now off of us and completely onto him, if it's true worship. Now it can be false worship where you're there worshiping and you're looking around to see who's looking at you because look how holy I am. My hands are raised up right now. See?

So that's not real. If it's real worship, if it's real worship, then all of the focus, all of the attention is on him. And so the first reason we exist and we meet together is to glorify our great God. You see, the church is the only community on earth where God is the star of the show. God isn't the star of the show in a lot of other meeting places. At the Elks Club, God is not the star of the show. At the Moose Lodge, God is not number one. At the Chess and Checker Association, it's not all about God, right? At the Motorcycle Club, all of these are gatherings where God is not at the center, but at church.

Every true church has a true north and that is to glorify God. And now this is another reason why it's important to meet together. Because when we meet together, it allows us to magnify God uniquely. Something happens when I am part of a worshiping community. It reorients my life.

It reorients my life. You know, I may come in forlorn. I may come in disparaged. I may come in angry.

I may come in selfish. And then the songs start being sung, and people around me are closing their eyes or lifting their hands or bowing their heads and worshiping, and it reorients me. I start thinking, yeah, it's not really all about me. Really is all about him. Yes, God is on the throne. Yes, he is in charge.

Yes, he can handle this. Don Whitney, who wrote a book on spiritual disciplines, wrote this. There's an element of worship in Christianity that cannot be experienced in private worship or by watching worship.

There are some graces and blessings that God gives only in the meeting together with other believers. Do you believe that? I know you believe that because you're here.

You know who else believed that? Martin Luther. Look what Luther wrote.

He said, at home in my own house, there's no warmth or vigor in me. But in the church, when the multitude is gathered together, a fire is kindled in my heart, and it breaks its way through. Now, you know what they're referring to in layman's terms? Positive peer pressure. We know what peer pressure is. It can be bad, but it can be good. And in this case, it's good.

It's positive peer pressure. Everybody's orienting themselves toward God, putting the focus on him. So it helps me.

It changes the way I think. There's a great example of this in Psalm 73. I'm just going to read a couple verses to you.

Let me just tell you the background. In Psalm 73, the author is a guy named Asaph. Asaph is hot and bothered about the world.

Things are happening in his world to get him really, really bummed out. So he begins by saying, truly God is good to Israel, to such as are pure in heart. Now, I think he started that way because he felt like he had to say that. Okay, I'm a worship leader. I need to say this. God is good all the time.

So he said it, but listen to what he says right after that. But as for me, my feet almost stumbled. My steps had nearly slipped, for I was envious of the boastful when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. And the Psalm goes on where he describes, you know, God, I follow you and I love you.

And my life seems so much worse than unbelievers who seem to be prosperous and at ease and not suffering like I'm suffering. I don't get that. I don't like that.

So he's bothered about that. And he says this down in verse 16. When I thought to understand this, it was too painful for me. Man, I'm bothered by the fact that those unbelievers seem to have it made while I go through trial after trial after trial and God's supposed to love me.

It was too painful for me. Until, ah, now there's a shift. Until I went into the sanctuary of God.

Then I understood their end. You know, I came to church one day and there were worshipers there in that temple. And all of a sudden when I was envious of unbelievers, now in this place of worship, my life is reoriented. I'm reeducated. And I started thinking about the end of the life of an unbeliever.

And I wasn't envious of them any longer. They're going to be in eternity without God. I understood their end. What happened to Asaph? He was in a crowd of believers in a place where God is worshiped and he was reoriented. Until I went into the sanctuary. So we glorify God by our declaration. We glorify God also by our demonstration, what we do. So go back to verse four in our Lord's Prayer. I have glorified you on the earth.

I have finished the work which you have given me to do. Now look at that verse with your eyes. There are two sentences in it. And this is what we call an oppositional statement.

Where you have one statement made, a phrase or a sentence, followed by another one that is parallel to the first but explains the first. So the first statement, I have glorified you on the earth. Well, how did you do that exactly, Lord Jesus?

Here's the second statement. I have finished the work which you have given me to do. So now let me ask you the question. How do you glorify God? By finishing the work he's given us to do. I've glorified you on the earth. I finished the work which you have given me to do. Do you know that God has a task for you that only you can fulfill?

God has an assignment that only you can accomplish? That's Skip Heitzing with a message from his series 2020. Now here's Skip with an important message for you. We're excited to share how God is using your support to inspire and encourage others to share the good news of Jesus.

Listen to this letter. Dear Skip, I feel that during these many months of difficult and challenging times, with the uncertainty of COVID, I continue to have the calmness of pure peace and comfort. I'm usually very apprehensive of the unknown, and as a result, I've been a very negative person.

That was my pattern, worry and fear. Now I know because of God's love for me and his faithfulness that he is a big God and I trust in him. Thank you for letting me share my joy in which your Bible teachings have helped in strengthening my walk and trusting our Father in heaven. Letters like this one demonstrate how God is using your support to change lives for eternity.

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