Title What is the Church?
Contents
Ephesians 1:23 What is the Church?
As a pastor, I naturally read a lot of religious books. And when I find something that impresses me while reading a book, I underline it or fold the page and mark it so that I can look at it again later. Last week, I read a book called 'Pastor, please give me back my navel.' After reading the book, there is a place where I remember to fold the pages and mark them.
Paragraph 102 on page 60 has this title. Please listen to 'Ten Reasons Why People Don't Go to Church'.
2. The saints are unkind.
3. Every time we worship, we talk about offerings.
4. Unable to practice high moral standards spoken in sermons.
5. It seems that the church is only for women.
6. Worship time is too boring.
7. There are many immoral and deceitful people among the saints.
8. I have no interest in church music.
9. I want to rest with my family on Sunday.
10. Too many personal flaws in church officers.
Guys, how many students like to have their students go to school? Also, how many people would an office worker want to work for? Nevertheless, students go to school. Office workers also go to the company. It is because they think that going to school is better for their future than not going to work. The same is true. Coming to a foreign country, busy immigrant life While studying abroad, I am exhausted and exhausted, but at least once in my life, I feel like I want to go to church.
It's just like students miss school at least once for one reason or another, and office workers don't go to work at least once. However, if you become a student and do not go to school at all, or if you become an office worker and do not go to work, the situation becomes more serious. Of course, there are good reasons for that, but it is normal for students to go to school and office workers to go to work, and it is good to see. The same is true. Being a member and going to church is better to see than to know and give up.
Thankfully, Koreans have the characteristic of establishing churches wherever they go in the world and attending churches diligently. In other words, Jesus, the head of the church, used Korean people to establish churches all over the world and gave us the grace to go to church diligently. In particular, when it comes to immigrant life, the church is a very good place for Koreans to meet regularly.
However, if you come to a foreign land because you don't like Koreans, and you don't want to hang out with Koreans, church is the place you most want to avoid. Moreover, in these days when individualism is prevalent, meeting many people can be tiring to think of. We want to have the right idea of the church today. We want to receive God's blessing and happiness in life by finding out what the church is and why it is important.
1. The church is not a social hall.
In particular, among non-believers in Korea, there are people who misunderstand that the Immigrant Church is only a meeting place and social gathering place for Korean people who speak the same Korean culture and Korean language to meet and exchange information. When these kinds of people come to church, they get along quite well with the members at first. Especially, if you have the same hobbies as you are of the same age, you will have fun in church life. However, if such a social gathering does not go well for the purpose he had envisioned, he loses the power of coming to church.
However, the church is a place where I share love with the God who loves me so much, I worship God as I am moved by God's love, and the saints who have been loved by God have fellowship with each other in the Holy Spirit. It is not a place for unhealthy dating or socializing.
2. The church is not a place of business.
In a narrow immigrant society, there are often people who see the church as a vehicle to expand their business. Of course, it is very nice to see the members of the alumni helping each other in this foreign land. It is great to introduce each other to work, to share information about the business, and to pray for each other so that the business goes well. However, if attending church makes money, and if you go to church as a means to go to church, you are thinking about the church wrong.
Jesus really hated the church being a business place for merchants. In the Bible, Jesus cleanses the temple in Jerusalem twice. It was at the time of the Passover feast. Jews from all over the world flocked to Jerusalem to offer burnt offerings and pay the temple tax in Jewish currency. At this time, under the protection of the priests, money changers and people selling animals came to the temple to do business.
Jesus overturned their tables and made a whip out of cords to drive them away. And you said: ?쏧t is written, My house will be called a house of prayer, but you make a cave for robbers.??(Matthew 21:13) Jesus said that we come to church to worship, sing praises and pray, and God He was delighted to dedicate himself to God, but did not want it to become a business place for merchants.
3. The church is the body of Jesus.
The Bible says that Jesus is the head of the church, and the church is the body of Jesus. And we said that one saint and one saint are members attached to the body of Jesus, the church. Think about it. If the body and head fall off, they die. In other words, Jesus and the church cannot be separated from each other. In particular, we who are retarded will die if we leave the church, which is the body. Therefore, in order to destroy the faith of a believer, Satan is very good at temptations in the church to force them to leave the church.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Apostle Paul was a man who, at one time, especially persecuted the church and tried his best to destroy it. He criticized the church like that and thought that getting rid of the church was the best way to believe in God. However, while he was on his way to Damascus, he met the resurrected Jesus. I heard his splendid voice. ?쏶aul, Saul, why are you persecuting me???"Lord, who are you?" ?쏧 am Jesus whom you are persecuting.??That is, to persecute the church is to persecute Jesus, and to love the church is to love Jesus. If someone destroys the church, he commits a great sin of crucifying Jesus again. If a person insults the church, he insults Jesus; if he brags about the church, he brags about Jesus. Even in this foreign land, we can have the effect of caring for ourselves as we take care of the body of Jesus, the church.
4. The church is a place of blessing.
The only thing Jesus left on this earth when he went to heaven is the church. Why did Jesus establish a church on this earth? It is to give full blessings to our members through the church. When you work for a company, your boss gives you a reasonable remuneration. Likewise, God has promised that if we work in the church, He will give us the blessings we deserve. This is today's text. ?쏷he church is his body, the fullness that fills all in all??(Ephesians 1:23).
Ladies and gentlemen, how much God cares for and loves the church, He has given the church the blessing of filling all things. In other words, he made our members receive blessings through the church. In other words, the church is the channel through which we receive great blessings from God in this foreign land. Therefore, the church is really very precious to me, and the church is very precious to my family.
God has granted us various gifts of the Holy Spirit and commanded us to build up the church without fail. And God has given us this and that blessing and told us to use it to build the church. There is a secret that we Koreans receive blessings from God. Koreans build churches wherever they go. However, we should not be satisfied with just building the church, but we should cherish and love the church and nurture the church more. That is to love Jesus, to please God greatly, and it is a shortcut for you and me to receive blessings.
Conclusion. We love Jesus. Therefore, I love the Church, the body of Jesus. We are nourished by being attached to the body of Jesus, the church. So we have vitality. I pray that God's full blessings will be delivered to you and me through the church.