Should the focus of a church be to grow in size? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, hi there and happy Friday. This is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. And this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. We would love to hear from you and our phone lines are open for the next 25 minutes or so. If you have a question for Pastor Adriel, here is the number 833-THE-CORE. 833-THE-CORE or 833-843-2673. You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram or Twitter accounts.
You can watch us right now on YouTube and send us a message that way. And you can always email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Debbie in Lodi, California. Debbie, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?
Hi, thanks for taking my call. I am wondering, in the context of the United States, where we have easy access to churches, is it biblical to have a home church? Well, Debbie, I think that this is a great question. The first thing I would want to say is what is a church? What makes a church a church and a worship service a worship service? Well, the question is, is the word of God being faithfully preached? That's the number one thing because the church is formed, created by God's word. Number two, is there worship in the way that Jesus instituted or the ordinances happening, sometimes referred to as the sacraments, the mysteries of the faith, baptism and the Lord's Supper.
Is that taking place? Is there discipline? Not just discipline in terms of Matthew 18, you know, when Jesus talked about church discipline, but a proper structure, a proper church structure. You think about what Paul said in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 about elders and deacons. When Paul wrote to Titus, he said, look, this is the reason I left you behind so that you would appoint elders in every single church. That structure, this is what makes the church the church. Certainly, you can have those things in a small setting, in a small church setting with a small gathering in someone's home.
A lot of times, that's how church plants get started, in fact, just in somebody's living room. One of my concerns with this is because you said, look, there are plenty of churches around and probably churches that have those three things. They're right preaching of God's word. They're worshiping the Lord according to the word of God.
There's this structure, this discipline that we see in the New Testament. The question is, well, why go off and do your own thing and have your own home church? One fear is I've seen individuals call themselves to the ministry, say, oh, you know what? I'm tired of all the churches around here. I'm going to be the pastor. They gather a small group of people around them. Maybe they have a gift for teaching, but they've essentially established themselves as this spiritual leader.
I've seen that go south really, really quickly. There's no real accountability structure. I would recommend for people who are looking for it, rather than just starting a church, finding a church that does those things, that faithfully teaches the word of God, where there is that structure, that discipline, those ordinances that Jesus gave to his church and committing to it. That's what I would say. It's not unbiblical necessarily to have a home church, but the question is why. It can be unbiblical if there isn't that structure and if an individual just calls themselves to the ministry.
They really aren't even qualified to be teaching the Bible. That's another significant concern that I would have. Debbie, thank you for that question. May the Lord bless you.
Debbie, we actually have a great core question on this topic. It's called How Do I Choose a Church? You can find that at our website, corechristianity.com forward slash questions. Just look for How Do I Choose a Church?
This is Core Christianity. If you have a question for Pastor Adriel, here's the number, 833-THE-CORE, 1-833-843-2673. He'd love to talk to you. Let's go to JB in St. Louis, Missouri. JB, what's your question for Adriel?
Hi. So my question is, a lot of pastors will emphasize the death of Jesus as providing a sacrifice to pay for our sins. But a lot less well-explained, in my experience, is the significance of Jesus' resurrection. There's a lot of praise around it, but its sort of theological meaning isn't explored as much. Can you speak to that?
Yeah, I would love to speak to this. When you think about the problem of sin and death from the very beginning, when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, God said, the day you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you're going to die. And so we have forgiveness of our sins through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, the atoning work of Christ. But the problem of death is solved by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And what this highlights for us is the fact that God cares about our bodies. And that's one of the many things that it highlights for us, that God is not just going to leave us to decay, but he's going to raise us up together as our Lord Jesus Christ himself was raised up. And there's a lot of, I mean, just so many theological implications and even things that the resurrection teaches us. The other thing I was thinking of as I was listening to your question, JB, is what the Apostle Paul says in the beginning of the book of Romans. In Romans chapter 1 verse 3, he says, concerning his son who was descended from David according to the flesh, speaking of Jesus, and was declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. There's something about the resurrection of our Lord Jesus that was this vindication, this even, we might refer to it as a justification, if you will, not that Jesus needed to be justified in the same way that we need to be justified. But the fact is death could not conquer him.
No, through death, he trampled down death. And so we have the hope of the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come through Jesus. And the other really important point, and this is something that Paul teases out in particular in 1 Corinthians, in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, where he's talking about the resurrection. He's correcting an issue that was happening there in the Corinthian church where some people were beginning to say that the resurrection had already happened. And he says, no, the resurrection hasn't already happened. Jesus Christ is the first fruits of the resurrection.
So he was raised and that sense has happened. But because Jesus was raised, all of us have the hope of the resurrection as well, that the language of first fruits indicates that Christ is the first fruits of the resurrection harvest and we are in Christ. So we have the assurance that because we belong to Jesus, because we are in Jesus, we too will be raised again from the dead. And so what God shows us through the resurrection of his son is that sin has been conquered, that death has been conquered. This new age has been ushered in by the work of our Lord Jesus. And we participate in that through faith.
We're going to be raised as well. And so it really is central to the gospel. In fact, that's what the apostle Paul says very clearly earlier in 1 Corinthians 15 at the very beginning. He says, this is what I delivered to you as a first importance, what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. And so I think we really need to recover not just the preaching of the cross, but the preaching of the resurrection, because that's the hope that we all have as believers.
Thanks for your question, JB. I don't know about you, Adaro, but I'm looking forward to that perfected body, because I'm having a lot of aches and pains these days, and that'll be great. Yeah, well, you know, I think that that's just practically, right? All of us, you know, experience pain in the body, that kind of a thing, the decay of our bodies day by day. And so this resurrection hope that we have, I mean, it just reveals to us that God is not just... Sometimes we think of salvation as, I'm going to die, I'm going to be this sort of disembodied spirit for all eternity floating around in heaven. Not sure what that's going to look like, but that's not at all the Christian hope. The Christian hope is, yes, you know, when we die, we're in the presence of the Lord in heaven, rejoicing around his throne, praising him.
But there's more to it than that. Your body is going to be restored. It's going to be glorified.
You're going to experience a bodily existence without sickness, without sin, without death, and that is an amazing hope. Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you enjoy our program, we want to mention to you that we are listener supported. We count on people just like you to keep this program on the air. We don't receive any government funds or we're not supported by a church or denomination. We're listener supported. So if you like this program and you want to see it continue, we'd encourage you to go to our website at corechristianity.com and learn about making a donation to keep our ministry going.
Let's go to Patricia in Gladstone, Missouri. Patricia, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Yes, we just recently elected a new pastor. Our senior pastor stepped down and this gentleman stepped up. And I was wondering, how does somebody react to that? Did the senior pastor just retire and so this is a new guy who's coming in, or was there some controversy associated with the transition?
No, he'd been doing it for a number of years and he thought it was time, as he put it, to turn the baton over to another gentleman. Yeah, well, I think it's an opportunity for you and for the rest of the congregation to spend time with and get to know this new pastor. I mean, the relationship between a pastor and his flock is a very, I think, special relationship and a really important one. It's the job of the pastor, of the minister, to shepherd the flock of God, to care for their souls. And I know it's really easy to get attached to a particular pastor if you've had a pastor for a really long period of time that God has used in your life.
And so it can be really hard when there are these kinds of transitions. But I would say, with humility and openness, praying for this pastor and saying, Lord, continue to do the great work that you've been doing already through the ministry of this former pastor, now with this new pastor as the church continues to move forward. I think, Patricia, that it really is important that we have these sort of succession plans in ministry so that the church is not about an individual, about a personality. It's about the preaching of the word of God. And good pastors, I think, as they get older and as they prepare to retire, they want to pave the way forward so that the church can continue to exist, so that another good minister can come in and continue to preach and be faithful to the word and care for the congregation.
And it sounds like maybe that's what's taken place. And so I would say, as a member of the church, receiving this individual's ministry and cherishing it as they preach the word of God to you, being open to listen, to receive it, and getting to know this pastor and his family would probably be the right approach. And so was there a vote of the congregation with getting this new pastor? Oh, okay. Oh, I'm sorry.
Yes, there was a vote, and the majority took him. He's a very nice young man and got a beautiful family, and we all seem to come together with it. Well, I'm really glad to hear that. And you can be a huge encouragement to him and to his family. You know, it can also be difficult for a new pastor to step into a congregation where, you know, there's been such a faithful ministry for a long period of time, and everybody has really enjoyed and cherished the previous pastor. And so it's, I think, important for the congregation to come around this pastor, to encourage him, to encourage his family to get to know him, and to pray about, you know, what the Lord is going to continue to do there in your church through his ministry. Again, we want to see the church continue to grow.
And so the passing of the baton, I think, is a good thing. It's a thing that honors the Lord, and so I'm excited for you and for your church as you move forward. Patricia, thanks so much for your call and for being a regular listener to CORE Christianity.
We really do appreciate it. By the way, we have a great resource we'd like to tell you about, and it deals with worship. How does the Bible define worship? It's a free resource that talks about that, and we'd like to offer that to you today.
That's right. The resource is called Nine Things You Should Know About Worship. And especially in light of the pandemic of 2020 and a lot of the questions that we were getting related to worship and what makes a worship service a worship service, we think that this resource will be really helpful for you and also really encouraging. We get so many questions on this broadcast about even the first question we opened up with today, you know, what about home churches and what should worship look like, that kind of a thing.
Just a lot of questions about this, and so get a hold of this resource, Nine Things You Should Know About Worship. It's just one of our many CORE guides we'd like to make available to you. It's a PDF you can download for free by going to our website, corechristianity.com forward slash offers. That's corechristianity.com forward slash offers. You can also call us for that resource or any one of our CORE guides or Bible studies, 833-843-2873.
That's 833, the CORE. Let's go to Benjamin in El Paso, Texas. Benjamin, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?
Hi, Pastor Adriel Sanchez. I've just finished reading to the Book of Revelation with my family, and I know there's a lot of controversy and even some polarized theories on how to view the Book of Revelation, how to read it, how to interpret it and exegete it properly. Is there any hope for a young layman like me to really understand this book, or is this book just the hope that we have and Jesus will come back in the way he sees fit and we'll never understand it?
Man, Benjamin, one, I'm stoked to hear that you're reading the Book of Revelation with your family. I think some people might hear that and say, boy, why pick that book? It's just so hard, you know, your kid's able to even follow along, that kind of a thing, but there's so much rich and vivid imagery throughout the Book of Revelation. I think it's one of those books that you can read with your family and you get the attention of the kids as you're hearing about these beasts and these great apocalyptic events. It really is a riveting book, but it's also a book, as you said, that a lot of people have a hard time understanding. I mean, we've offered our Revelation Bible study on this broadcast several times.
One thing I would say is get ahold of that resource and maybe when you get off the line, we can stick on the line with you and send you that resource and so we'll make sure that we do that. But I would say get ahold of our Revelation Bible study. It's really accessible, it's really helpful, and I think a couple of the things that you want to keep in mind as you read the Book of Revelation are, number one, the genre. This is apocalyptic literature and so you do have a lot of that imagery, a lot of these vivid pictures, and we need to understand that some of it is going to be symbolic, and that's just how this kind of literature was meant to be read. You have these symbols that point us to other things, to greater realities.
Incense, right? The prayer of the saints or the prayers of the saints, for example. Seven golden lampstands referring to the seven churches. You have a lot of imagery like that and so it's important that we recognize that.
The other thing I would say is just understanding the context. I mean, this was written to the persecuted church of that time, and the goal, John's goal in the Book of Revelation is to encourage them to persevere by setting their hopes on Jesus, by helping them to understand that Jesus conquered through his suffering death. And in one sense he's saying, you guys are going to be conquerors as well, so the Book of Revelation is really so practical.
I mean, it's written for Christians in the middle of suffering to help them endure in the Christian life. It doesn't get more practical than that, and I think if you keep those two things in mind, the genre and the purpose, it will really help you as you continue to read through the Book of Revelation and then get a hold of that resource that I already mentioned, our Revelation Bible study. And so, hey man, good on you for opening up the Book of Revelation. I know it can be intimidating to a lot of people, but I think it's great that you're reading it.
Man, hang on the line. We will send you a copy of that Revelation Bible study, which is brand new. We also have a core question available on this topic. It's, what are the main views of the end times? There are a couple different views on this, as we've mentioned before on this program. Just go to corechristianity.com forward slash questions and look for that core question, what are the main views of the end times? Let's go to Lori in Nashville, Tennessee. Lori, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?
Okay, hi Pastor Sanchez. My question is in Genesis chapter 19 verse 13. I have gone to commentaries, I've gone to the notes on my Bible, but I can't find an answer. It talks about the outcry to the Lord against his people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it. The angels, they were telling Lot that they were going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. My question is, who was it that cried out to the Lord? And I know that the Lord God knows everything, he already knew what was going on, but who was it that cried out to him? Thank you for that question, Lori, and I hope I can help you with an answer for this one.
Here's where I would go. I think if you look at the book of 2 Peter, in 2 Peter chapter 2 there's an answer for you. Beginning in verse 4, it's talking about God's judgment on false teachers. And I'm going to start in verse 4, it says, For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell, and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness, to be kept until the judgment. And if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. If by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, now we're getting into Genesis 19 there, he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly. And if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked, as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard. Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment. And so, here's what I think.
I mean, based off of what Peter says there in 2 Peter 2, he says, look, as Lot was living there, he was crying out to the Lord. His righteous soul was being tormented by the lawless deeds that he saw all around him. You know, this is, I mean, I think we can relate to this.
When you see evil and lawlessness in society, doesn't it just grip you and frustrate you and make you angry at times? Even what are we supposed to do in light of that? We go to the Lord in prayer. We cry out to the Lord for justice, for his gospel to advance, for his kingdom to come. And I think that's what Lot was doing. He would see this sensual conduct, this evil conduct of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and he would cry out to the Lord. And I don't know if there were others, but I think we could definitely say Lot was one of the ones who was crying out to the Lord.
And so the Lord came in judgment. Thank you for your question, Laurie. Thanks so much, Laurie. Thanks for being a regular listener to CORE Christianity. One of the ways that you can ask us a question is by calling us and leaving a voicemail.
You can do that 24 hours a day at 833-THE-CORE. Here's a voicemail we received from Angie. Hi, my name is Angie, and I come from a very large family. We've always worshipped together at generally the same church. Now, we had a relative that pastored at a church, and we were excited to go.
Several of the kids came in, young adults. But what we found is that they were so focused on growing the church, they lost sight of nurturing those of us in the church. And it's very hard because we feel very overlooked.
The focus is truly on growing, growing, growing, and the church itself seems to be dying. And I need to know, what do we do? Do we stand by? I don't want to say anything and ruffle feathers or hurt feelings.
Thank you. Yeah, Angie, it sounds like a tough position to be in, certainly. And I know as a minister of the gospel, as a pastor, the temptation that we face as pastors to feel like, oh, I got to make this thing work. People need to start coming. We need to grow. And even a temptation to compare yourself to other ministries, to other pastors in the area, to churches that are growing, and it can really become this unhealthy thing where if that's your focus, if your focus is on we just need more numbers, we just need more people, you can lose sight of what God has actually called you to.
And the result actually isn't more growth, it's death. And maybe it might actually be more growth, but spiritual death because the word of God is not being faithfully taught. And that's the primary thing is, is the word of God being faithfully taught? I think for pastors, what we have to go to is, look, number one, what does God call me to do, and can I do that faithfully? I want to do that faithfully. I want to faithfully teach God's word. I want to faithfully shepherd the flock of God, the people that God has called as a part of this church.
He's entrusted to my care. That needs to be the priority, that needs to be the focus, not getting more people or more numbers. And what you find is as you're faithful to teach the word of God and to shepherd the flock that God has put in front of you, I think God handles the rest. Jesus is the one who made the promise, I will build my church, Matthew chapter 16, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
The growth of the church is a work of the Holy Spirit. It's not something that you can force or coerce as a pastor or you can just sort of manifest through your skills or clever planning. You might be able to gather together a crowd, but ultimately that's not our job as pastors. It's not to make a crowd, it's to make disciples. That's what Jesus said in Matthew 28. So if that's not the focus, if the focus isn't the pure preaching of God's word and the making of disciples and growing together under Jesus Christ the King, I think it's right to ask questions and maybe to bring this up, just sharing, hey, this is kind of how I feel. I feel like the sheep are being overlooked, and we're so focused on how to get people through the doors that we're not being fed. It seems to me that Jesus didn't care so much about gathering a large crowd.
I mean, he could. He was an excellent teacher, but you think about that scene, Angie, in John chapter 6, where you had this enormous crowd, hundreds of people surrounding Jesus. He had just fed them. He had done a miracle where he had made bread, basically a pure out of thin air.
He fed them. They want more bread. And Jesus says, look, I'm not here to just give you whatever you want. I'm here to tell you I am the bread of life. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life indeed.
And if you don't do that, if you don't want me, well, then I can't help you. The fact of the matter is our primary calling as pastors is to give people the bread of life, and sometimes that's not going to attract a crowd. It didn't on that day in John 6 with Jesus. We're told that many people left him. Only the disciples stayed, and Jesus said, are you guys going to leave too? And Peter says, where shall we go?
To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. It's our job as pastors. It's your pastor's job to feed the sheep with those words of Jesus, the words of eternal life, to be faithful in that. And as we do that as ministers, as pastors, God gives the increase. God gives the growth. It might be more people or not. You don't know, but people are going to grow in their faith. Disciples are going to be made, and that needs to be our focus. And so may the Lord bless you and have that conversation. We'll be right back.
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