SPEAKER_00: Hi, it's Pastor Jonathan, and thanks for downloading the FBC El Dorado Sermon Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: In today's sermon, we begin a new series called We the Church.
SPEAKER_00: In week one, we look at Revelation chapter 21, verses 1 through 3 as we find our identity.
SPEAKER_00: We are the bride of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Watch your words.
SPEAKER_00: You'll save yourself a lot of grief.
SPEAKER_00: Watch your words, you'll save yourself a lot of grief.
SPEAKER_00: That, my friends, is a 24-carat nugget of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: It's found in Proverbs chapter 21, verse 23.
SPEAKER_00: One of the griefs that we can save ourselves, if we'll just take a minute and watch our words, is the grief of embarrassment.
SPEAKER_00: Specifically, the embarrassment that comes when the word I just said doesn't mean what I think that it means.
SPEAKER_00: Like I use a word incorrectly in my speech.
SPEAKER_00: Consider this.
SPEAKER_00: Consider the word can.
SPEAKER_00: So one day a student approaches his English teacher and asks, can I go to the bathroom?
SPEAKER_00: The student thinks can means what is permissible.
SPEAKER_00: Is it permissible for me to go to the bathroom at this moment?
SPEAKER_00: The teacher hears the question, gets a smirk on her face, and says, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Can you?
SPEAKER_00: Why would she reply that way?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's because can doesn't mean what that student thinks that it means.
SPEAKER_00: Can really means what is possible.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the student asked his English teacher, is it physically possible for me to go to the bathroom?
SPEAKER_00: Do I possess the physical capacity to go to the bathroom?
SPEAKER_00: And the teacher's like, that's a question you and only you can answer.
SPEAKER_00: And let's be honest, that student better figure it out real quick.
SPEAKER_00: Or using that word incorrectly, it could get really embarrassing.
SPEAKER_00: Or consider the word literally.
SPEAKER_00: Literally.
SPEAKER_00: People think the word literally means to emphasize.
SPEAKER_00: So people say things like, my head literally exploded.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the problem: literally actually means something that's uh real, true, or exact.
SPEAKER_00: So if you say my head literally exploded, not only is it an embarrassment, it's an absolute mess.
SPEAKER_00: Your head is like all over the place now.
SPEAKER_00: Or consider the word irregardless.
SPEAKER_00: You think that it means without regard, but what it really means is nothing.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually not a word.
SPEAKER_00: What you meant to say is the word regardless.
SPEAKER_00: So misusing a word like can or literally or irregardless, it can bring embarrassment to our lives.
SPEAKER_00: So it's best that we get it right.
SPEAKER_00: But the next word I want us to think about, um, if we misuse and misunderstand that word, the consequences are far greater.
SPEAKER_00: So the last and final word that we need to consider this morning is the word church.
SPEAKER_00: What we think it means is a place.
SPEAKER_00: It's why we go to it, it's why we get ready for it.
SPEAKER_00: It's the place we go on Sunday morning, it's the place we go on Wednesday nights, it's the place with stained glass windows and a pipe organ.
SPEAKER_00: It's the place I go to grow in my faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's the place I go to be spiritually fed.
SPEAKER_00: It's just another place that I go in an already jam-packed calendar.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the problem.
SPEAKER_00: We keep using the word church, and the Bible says it doesn't mean what you think that it means.
SPEAKER_00: What church actually means?
SPEAKER_00: A people.
SPEAKER_00: According to the Bible, according to God's word, church is a people.
SPEAKER_00: In the New Testament, the word that is most often translated as church is the word ecclesia.
SPEAKER_00: And ecclesia in the ancient world was a community, it was a gathering of people, it was a congregation of people.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in your mind, you may be thinking, does it even matter?
SPEAKER_00: Like, aren't you just kind of splitting hairs?
SPEAKER_00: Say it's wrong to think that church is a place and not a people?
SPEAKER_00: Like, you're you're making a mountain out of a molehill.
SPEAKER_00: But I actually think it's quite important to differentiate between let's go to church and let's gather with the church.
SPEAKER_00: Because how we define church sets certain expectations in our mind and it sets the standard.
SPEAKER_00: If church is a place, then it's just as easy to go to the place as it is to not go to the place.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to go to the place when it's convenient and fits into the calendar.
SPEAKER_00: And it's easy not to go to the place when you have something else on the schedule, when you have a better offer at hand.
SPEAKER_00: Or if church is a place and you go to that place focusing on uh strengthening your faith or having your spiritual needs met, then if there's a season in life when you don't feel like your spiritual needs are being met, it's really easy to go and look somewhere else.
SPEAKER_00: Start shopping around.
SPEAKER_00: If church is a place, then our standard is simply this attendance.
SPEAKER_00: Showing up.
SPEAKER_00: You maybe you would attend out of compulsion, you attend out of habit, you attend out of guilt, you attend, well, you're not sure why you attend, you just show up every single week.
SPEAKER_00: Someone drug you here.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing: if attendance is the standard, then once you leave that place, do you know what you're able to do?
SPEAKER_00: You're able just to go about the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_00: One hour a week, two hours a week, I go to church.
SPEAKER_00: The rest of the week, the rest of my life, it's mine.
SPEAKER_00: But if church is a people, then the expectation and the standards are radically different.
SPEAKER_00: If church is a people, then the reason I gather, listen, isn't out of convenience, it's the result of a commitment.
SPEAKER_00: A commitment to other people.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 12, verse 10 says, be devoted to one another.
SPEAKER_00: You can't be devoted to one another if you don't see one another.
SPEAKER_00: If the church is a people, then when I gather with the church, the focus isn't on self, the focus is on service.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians chapter 6, verse 10 says, Let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
SPEAKER_00: And if church is a people, listen, friends, if church is a people, then the standard isn't attendance.
SPEAKER_00: Attendance sets the bar way too low.
SPEAKER_00: If church is a people, then the standard is engagement, it's involvement, it's participation in the life of the church.
SPEAKER_00: Because if the church is operating as God intended and God planned, then our lives become interwoven with one another.
SPEAKER_00: And you see, even when you leave that place, the people you leave behind, the people you'll see again, they still have an important part in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing it's important to realize church is a people and not a place.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's what it enables us to say, we the church.
SPEAKER_00: Or you could say this way, we are church.
SPEAKER_00: We will you say that with me?
SPEAKER_00: We are church.
SPEAKER_00: It's not architecture, it's not adornment, it's not buildings, it's not bricks.
SPEAKER_00: We the church.
SPEAKER_00: Today we're starting a series with that very statement.
SPEAKER_00: We the church, with hopes that this local church, this gathering of people, can reclaim God's biblical vision for his church as the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: And we reclaim this biblical vision, and it's my prayer that every individual and every family in this room would recommit themselves to the gathering of God's people, to engaging in the life of the local church, to involving themselves in the life of God's local church.
SPEAKER_00: Because our lives are interwoven with one another, because we love each other, because when I say the word church, I see your face.
SPEAKER_00: I don't see this building, I don't see the columns outside, I don't see the stained glass.
SPEAKER_00: When I say church, when I say I am a part of First Baptist Church, I see your face.
SPEAKER_00: And I count it a blessing to see your face when I say the word church.
SPEAKER_00: And we want to be involved and we want to participate in the life of the local church because God has given the local church a mission which nothing else, no other institution, no other gathering or group of people in the world can accomplish to make disciples of all nations.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, not even the forces of hell can stop the advance of the church.
SPEAKER_00: The forces of hell can stop all sorts of other things.
SPEAKER_00: Because the church is God's plan in the world.
SPEAKER_00: We, the church.
SPEAKER_00: So in week one, in today's message, we're gonna begin by giving our attention to a passage that's gonna help clarify the identity of this local church.
SPEAKER_00: Clarify the identity of this local church as the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: So if you have your Bibles, join me in Revelation chapter 21, verses 1 through 3.
SPEAKER_00: And in these few verses, here's what we learn: we are the bride of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We are the bride of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: John writes these words, beginning in verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
SPEAKER_00: For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.
SPEAKER_00: I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband.
SPEAKER_00: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Look, God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.
SPEAKER_00: They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation twenty-one describes this glorious vision of God's good future.
SPEAKER_00: In God's good future there will be a new heaven and a new earth.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God, hallelujah, and amen.
SPEAKER_00: The first heaven and the first earth will have passed away.
SPEAKER_00: Because sin and death and decay were a part of the first heaven and the first earth.
SPEAKER_00: And sin and death and decay have no part in God's good future.
SPEAKER_00: At the center of this vision of God's good future, well, is God.
SPEAKER_00: God will finally, and God will fully dwell among his people.
SPEAKER_00: And the way that John describes, the image that John uses to describe the relationship between God and the people he will dwell with, the people he will live with, is that of a groom and his bride.
SPEAKER_00: God, of course, is the groom, and the bride, we are told, is the new Jerusalem, the new city that comes down.
SPEAKER_00: The bride, the new Jerusalem, that's the city in which God's people will dwell for all of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: God's church will dwell, inhabit that new Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And as future residents of that holy city, we take on the identity of that city.
SPEAKER_00: We share in the identity of that city that is to come.
SPEAKER_00: So we know we are the bride of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We live in anticipation of the future that is to come.
SPEAKER_00: We claim that identity in the here and now.
SPEAKER_00: And like any groom, listen, Jesus loves his bride.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus loves the church.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus loves First Baptist El Dorado.
SPEAKER_00: May 21st of 2005.
SPEAKER_00: That was the day Lauren and I got married.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember my anxious excitement before the ceremony.
SPEAKER_00: I remember when I first caught a glimpse of her walking down the aisle.
SPEAKER_00: I still remember saying I do.
SPEAKER_00: And I keep a picture on my desk to remember that day of Lauren before our wedding.
SPEAKER_00: Just a really candid shot one of her friends took.
SPEAKER_00: Some of those arguments weren't very Christian.
SPEAKER_00: We're real people who both can get kind of angry sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: But even in the heat of the argument, you know what has always been totally unacceptable?
SPEAKER_00: It's unacceptable for a person I know, including our kids, to say something that is hurtful or disparaging against my bride.
SPEAKER_00: She always and forever will be my bride, my wife.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I truly believe that if a person would just get to know Lauren, they would love her.
SPEAKER_00: They would love her for her humor, they would love her for her storytelling, they would love her for her immense gifts that she shares.
SPEAKER_00: And if they got to know her, and if you get to know someone well enough, do you know what you're able to do?
SPEAKER_00: You're able to love them in spite of their faults.
SPEAKER_00: In much the same way.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the groom and the church is his bride.
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder if Jesus keeps a picture of his bride on his desk because he wants to remember them in all that's beauty and glory and splendor every single day.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, that doesn't mean that Jesus doesn't have arguments with his bride, right?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, like if you read earlier on in Revelation, or if you read passages in the Gospels, Jesus has some pretty tough words that he shares with his church.
SPEAKER_00: But he shares them out of love.
SPEAKER_00: He shares them out of a relationship.
SPEAKER_00: He shares them because he sees the beauty, the potential beauty that lies within the church, that exists within the church, and he wants that beauty to shine for the world to see.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, he's gonna defend his church to the very end.
SPEAKER_00: So be careful what you say about the church.
SPEAKER_00: It's not perfect, never will be.
SPEAKER_00: It's filled with imperfect people who've got brokenness and baggage in their life.
SPEAKER_00: People who don't have it all together.
SPEAKER_00: People who think they have answers when really they just need to ask more questions.
SPEAKER_00: People have opinions that are uninformed.
SPEAKER_00: But there's something so beautifully broken about the church.
SPEAKER_00: Because it is a gathering of people who have been what?
SPEAKER_00: Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.
SPEAKER_00: Who are united by the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And it is Jesus' desire.
SPEAKER_00: Listen.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' desire that his closest friends, his disciples, would love the church just as he loved the church.
SPEAKER_00: When Lauren and I began dating, one of the first people I told was my college roommate.
SPEAKER_00: His name was Clint.
SPEAKER_00: Clint was my best friend.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted his approval.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted him to say, yeah, that's a great idea.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, good for you.
SPEAKER_00: And then when Lauren and I took the next step in our relationship again, one of the first people I called was Clint.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man, that sounds awesome.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad y'all are happy and like serious, like you're gonna move across the country and she's gonna stay in Arkansas, but yeah, go for it.
SPEAKER_00: Sounds good.
SPEAKER_00: I don't recommend it, but God worked it out.
SPEAKER_00: And then when I told him, I was like, man, yeah, we're gonna get engaged and we're gonna get married.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, yeah, that is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: And then on the day we were married, May 21st, 2005, Clint stood beside me.
SPEAKER_00: He was my best man.
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, what's he doing?
SPEAKER_00: He's giving his blessing on our marriage, right?
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, I love Jonathan and I love his bride.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, if you are a friend of Jesus, then I think Jesus wants you to be able to say, Not only do I love Jesus, not only do I love you, I love your bride.
SPEAKER_00: I love your church.
SPEAKER_00: I love this church.
SPEAKER_00: I love First Baptist Church of El Dorado.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus desires his closest friends and followers, his closest disciples, people who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, people have been empowered by the Holy Spirit to love the bride as he loves the bride.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to what he says in John chapter 13.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, A new command I give you, love one another, as I have loved you, so you must love one another.
SPEAKER_00: By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.
SPEAKER_00: This two verses they they set the standard for the church that is to come, the church that's come to come.
SPEAKER_00: That will be established in the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: And the standard is love.
SPEAKER_00: If you are a disciple of Jesus, you will love one another.
SPEAKER_00: You will love the church.
SPEAKER_00: You will love the people who have been saved by Jesus Christ, who God has brought you into a relationship with through the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That's the standard by which God's people will be known.
SPEAKER_00: Love.
SPEAKER_00: And they won't love a place, they'll love a people.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, there are moments in people's lives when the church and even this church have unintentionally and intentionally hurt and wounded people.
SPEAKER_00: For that we're so sorry.
SPEAKER_00: Like, we messed up.
SPEAKER_00: And what you felt is inexcusable.
SPEAKER_00: And what you experienced was never God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: It was not the church at its best, it was the church at its worst, where people hurt each other carelessly and intentionally.
SPEAKER_00: And we just ask for you to forgive us.
SPEAKER_00: We're still getting dressed for our wedding day.
SPEAKER_00: We still have hurts and pains we're working through, and we took it out on you.
SPEAKER_00: We're sorry.
SPEAKER_00: We're still just a group of imperfect people who found a family that knows a perfect Savior.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the the great glory of this all.
SPEAKER_00: Even in our imperfection, Jesus still loves his bride.
SPEAKER_00: And because Jesus loves his bride, imperfections and all, we can love his bride.
SPEAKER_00: We can love this church, this group of people, warts and all.
SPEAKER_00: Just a couple ideas on how you can love First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: Not the architecture or the adornments, not the building and the bricks, how you can love the faces in the room.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it's all about, right?
SPEAKER_00: Church is not a place, it's a people, it's God's people in the world, the called-out ones by the Father.
SPEAKER_00: One way we love the faces in the room is by connecting with the faces in the room.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, if church is a place, and that's all it is, you can come and you can go.
SPEAKER_00: And you can live in anonymity.
SPEAKER_00: If church is a place, then it can kind of operate like a waiting room, right?
SPEAKER_00: A place where you can come and keep to yourself, have your needs met, and always remain anonymous.
SPEAKER_00: But church, listen, church isn't a waiting room.
SPEAKER_00: And this is gonna get me in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: Church is more like cheers.
SPEAKER_00: What do we know about cheers?
SPEAKER_00: Everybody knows your name.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: No one's anonymous at cheers.
SPEAKER_00: It's a very old television show for the young ones in the room.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody knows your name because it's all about the people who gather together.
SPEAKER_00: It's a people who, through the power of the Holy Spirit, live in relationship with one another.
SPEAKER_00: So don't come and go.
SPEAKER_00: Get involved.
SPEAKER_00: Get to know someone.
SPEAKER_00: Call the church office.
SPEAKER_00: We want to help you find a life group, help you find a Bible study.
SPEAKER_00: Or if you're a member of a life group, you're a member of a Bible study, take that next step.
SPEAKER_00: Have coffee or lunch or dinner or just get together with someone you're already in a group with.
SPEAKER_00: And try to make it a regular occurrence.
SPEAKER_00: Get to know them, connect with them.
SPEAKER_00: You love the church when you develop these deep, meaningful relationships within the church.
SPEAKER_00: Second, you can love by serving.
SPEAKER_00: If you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then through the power of the Holy Spirit, you've been given some supernatural abilities to serve God, those spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_00: Find a place to use your spiritual gifts in the church.
SPEAKER_00: Later on in our series, we're going to think through how to identify what your spiritual gift is so you can put it into action.
SPEAKER_00: And the third would be this: love by sharing.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, the love that Jesus Christ that we experience when this group of people comes together, it's something that should not be contained within these walls.
SPEAKER_00: It cannot be contained within these walls.
SPEAKER_00: It's a love we're meant to share with our community.
SPEAKER_00: And if we aren't, listen, sharing the love of God through our words and deeds, then we aren't truly loving, right?
SPEAKER_00: If we don't want to open the doors of our relationships with one another and say there's room for more, there's room for more people to hear the gospel, there's room for more people to experience the love of God, then we don't truly understand the love of God.
SPEAKER_00: You can share.
SPEAKER_00: Opportunities coming up, scare them the square, opportunity to share the love.
SPEAKER_00: You can volunteer when we go and uh give out free hot dogs during youth soccer season here coming up in a couple weeks.
SPEAKER_00: There's other opportunities as well.
SPEAKER_00: Our team getting back at Mermill.
SPEAKER_00: But if you truly love the church, then you will want to share the love you find in this place, you experience with these people when we come together.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what scripture reminded us of this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We are the bride of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And we are called to love the bride of Christ because we are church.
SPEAKER_00: So many years ago, Philip Yancey published a book with this kind of provocative title.
SPEAKER_00: It said, Church, why bother?
SPEAKER_00: Church, why bother?
SPEAKER_00: It was a story, that book, uh Yancey tells the story of his own like pilgrimage and kind of a conflicted relationship with the church.
SPEAKER_00: The title is, you know, a question that at times I have asked myself.
SPEAKER_00: Church, why bother?
SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you why I bother with the church.
SPEAKER_00: It's not because of this building.
SPEAKER_00: It's really pretty.
SPEAKER_00: It's historic.
SPEAKER_00: But it's old and requires a lot of maintenance and upkeep.
SPEAKER_00: It's not because it's my job either.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a pastor, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: But there are other lines of work that I could pursue.
SPEAKER_00: I could look into.
SPEAKER_00: So why do I bother with the church?
SPEAKER_00: I bother with the church.
SPEAKER_00: And it can be a bother some days.
SPEAKER_00: It really can be.
SPEAKER_00: It's none of you in the room, but I bother with the church because of the faces I see today.
SPEAKER_00: I bother with the church because the church is God's people.
SPEAKER_00: We are church.
SPEAKER_00: We the church have received, listen, the greatest gift the world has ever seen salvation through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And it's now our calling to come together in, to gather together so that we can see something beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, it's really cool to stand here every week and open God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And it's inspiring to see how the Holy Spirit is at work.
SPEAKER_00: But one of the things that God reminds me of is how each of you have a unique story.
SPEAKER_00: Each of you, like, and your story is not all mountaintop peaks where everything was going great.
SPEAKER_00: You have your own brokenness in your own baggage, but you know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And I have my own brokenness in my own baggage, and I know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And God can take each of our messed up lives and all the things we don't have together, and He can say, Y'all need to gather together, and I'm gonna put my spirit in the middle of it all, and you're gonna be unified around a common vision and a common mission to fulfill the Great Commission, to honor the great commandment in the world, and I can do something great through you.
SPEAKER_00: The church is this beautiful broken mess in the world, but God says, I can do something great through it.
SPEAKER_00: Because you have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So, guys, let's be that sort of church in our community for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: How will they know?
SPEAKER_00: Scripture asks, how will they know unless someone tells them?
SPEAKER_00: How will they know unless the church is the church in the world?
SPEAKER_00: Unless the bride tells the world about the groom who is to come.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: I want you just to take a moment where you're seated right now to thank God for the people.
SPEAKER_00: For the people on your pew, for the people around you, for the people who compose First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: Is your standard that just of attendance?
SPEAKER_00: Are you willing to engage, be involved, and participate?
SPEAKER_00: To say yes to opportunities to serve.
SPEAKER_00: Almighty God, always faithful Father.
SPEAKER_00: We are your church.
SPEAKER_00: In your sovereignty, you have called us together, called us out to gather together for your glory and for the movement of the gospel in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Let us lay claim to that.
SPEAKER_00: We say thank you.
SPEAKER_00: God, I just pray you would rekindle within each of us a love for your people.
SPEAKER_00: That we want to be involved in one another's lives, we want to serve together, come alongside one another.
SPEAKER_00: The church, or there's nothing like it in the world.
SPEAKER_00: It is this grace-filled experiment of what happens when really broken people work together for something so much greater than they are by themselves.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ's name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.