Who Is The Church? | Summer In The Psalms | Dr. Jeremy Sims

That there are a hundred different reasons why people have shown up. Like we've shown up for hundreds of different reasons. There's some of you in this room right now that you were raised in church and you don't know anything else. And on Sunday mornings you just show up. You come on Sunday mornings.

There's some of you maybe this morning that you are with someone who comes to church and you love them so much that you're willing to come to church because they come to church. There's some of you in the room this morning that maybe you are. You're scared not to come to church. Like, ah, like if I don't go to church, like God's gonna get me or something bad is gonna happen. So you show up almost out of a fear or a spiritual anxiety.

What happens if I don't? Maybe there are. There are, I know some of you in the room right now, you love church and you love worship and you love the preaching and you love the people. And you show up because these are like Guy said a little bit ago, these are your people and you're here. There's some that are today.

You've come in because you're looking for hope. You just, there's some type of disruption in your life, some type of confusion or anxiety in your life, and you're just reaching out, saying, God, you gotta meet me here today. I need some type of hope. Or maybe this morning there's some of you in the room where you're trying to just, maybe just figure out what you actually believe. You're trying to live this thing out and you go, I'm not exactly sure, but I'm going to show up and maybe I can start to put the pieces together to make some sense out of what I actually believe.

Maybe you're looking for a place to just belong, to find someone who knows you and who you know and who loves you and who you can love. And a place where you can just say, this is, this is where I belong. Maybe there's some of you in the room this morning. You're looking for like a discernment or clarity. You're like, God, I need you to speak to me today.

I've got to make some decisions about my life. I've got to make some decisions about my family, some decisions about my relationship and God, I've got to have you speak to me. You've got to give me clarity, you've got to give me wisdom. You've got to come through for me this morning and you've shown up here today, you've walked in the door and you said, God, today's the day I got to have something. I've got to make some decisions.

Or maybe you're just trying to be a better person and you think, hey, I want to raise my family right, or I want to live right, or I want to make better decisions. But again, there are hundreds of reasons why you could have come. So so many reasons of why you have come to church. But today I don't want to talk to you about why. I want to talk to you about what.

What is the church? Or better yet, who is the church? What is the church? Who is the church? What is this that you have shown up to this morning, and some of you have done it for decades?

What is the church? And you feel it in your soul that there's something here that is different than anything else on the planet. And today I hope that I can give you some language and some words for that. Who is the church? What is the church?

The truth is that, at least in American Christianity, whether we would actually say it or not, there are many who believe. In fact, a lot of us believe that it's necessary for me to believe in God, but it's only helpful for me to go to church. It's necessary that I believe that there's a true God. But it's. But, you know, if I can go to church, it's helpful for me to go to church.

We believe that my private life, my personal Lord and Savior, my private life is a work of the Spirit. But the church is just man's work to support my private faith. The church is negotiable to my maturation into Christlikeness. But today, what I want to do for the next few minutes is declare to you that the church is not man's response to God's action. The church is the action of God.

It's not a sociological experiment. It's not a set of aspirations. It's not an institutional reaction that's meant to house what God once did. But instead, the church is something that God is doing, God is up to. The church is something that God is making happen.

And you and I don't do church. We get caught up in it. We get swept up in what God is doing. The church isn't something that we enact. It's not something that we begin.

We don't sustain it. We don't complete it. We don't create it. We don't animate it. We don't preserve it, we don't initiate it.

We don't empower it, we don't keep it alive. The Church of Jesus Christ is a description of. It's a glimpse of what only God has done and God is doing. This is the Church of the risen Christ.

In Ephesians, chapter one, Paul says this about Jesus far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and, and appointed him to be head over everything for the Church which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. This is Jesus body. This is a gathering of the body of Christ. It's not a concert, it's not a lecture.

This isn't a TED talk, it's not a self improvement class. When you and I show up on a Sunday morning, this isn't a networking event where we've gathered together to, to exchange business contacts. It's not a political movement, it's not a social club. It's not a casual weekly commodity. This isn't a man made entertainment venue.

This is the body of the risen Jesus Christ filled by Jesus with His own presence, who fills it with everything in every way. This is the body of Christ.

The Church of Jesus Christ is the only eternal institution. So marriage is an institution, but even marriage isn't eternal. The Church is eternal. The body of Christ is eternal. It will last from this moment forever.

The Church Today I want to declare to you who the risen Christ is and who his body is in the three hundreds. So Pastor Derek was telling me that a few weeks ago he introduced some of you, maybe all of you, to the Apostles Creed. And the Apostles Creed declares, you know, what is it that we believe? What it does is it provides guardrails to understand those things that are essential, that are essential to believe. And it begins, I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord.

So it goes through there, it gets to the, to the third part and it says, I believe in the Holy Spirit and God's Holy Catholic church in the three hundreds. So 1700 years ago, all men and women sent to this place called Nicaea where they began to talk about what is essential that we believe. And they came up with the Nicene Creed. And in the Nicene Creed, what it does is it gives us what we call for the last 1700 years the four marks of the church. What is the church?

The four marks of the Church. What is it that says this is what the church is. This is who she is. This is what she does. And so this morning I want to tell you what the church is by those four marks.

The four marks are one, holy, Catholic, apostolic. And I don't want anybody to get scared by one of those words. We will deal with one of those words, so don't get scared. But today I want to read with you, if you'll look with me in Ephesians, chapter 2, where Paul is saying because of who Jesus is in chapter one, this is what he does in chapter two. So this is, if you'll look with me in chapter two, Ephesians, verse 19, it says.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit, the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. So the four marks are this.

Point number one is this. The church is one. The church is one in verse 19. And then in 21 it says, members of the household of God, in whom the whole structure is being joined together, you and I are being joined together as one, as one body. Paul will say it over and over and over again that we are being joined together as a body.

We're each different part. We have ears and eyes and lungs and elbows and shins and foreheads in here that make up the body of Christ. There's this idea that when I go to church, I want to. Have you ever heard of this idea that you're going to go, you move to a new place and you're going to go looking for a church? We're going to go church shopping.

Have you all heard that idea? Church shopping? Can I just say, that's dangerous. That's dangerous to church shop, right? I'm gonna go church shopping.

Like I go to Walmart and pick out a box of cereal. I'm gonna pick out a body of Christ. So we go in here to this. But there's this idea that when I'm looking for a church that I wanna find a church that believes what I believe, that prefers what I prefer, and that I can align myself as close, that will align as closely to what I believe, what I think, and look as much like me as it can, which is very dangerous. And Paul tells us over and over and over, literally every epistle.

So an Epistle is a letter written by an apostle. So in every letter that he writes to a church, he is saying it over and over again. Church is messy. You're gonna go to church with people that don't act like you, don't look like you. You're gonna go to church with people that do some things that you probably wish they wouldn't do.

You're gonna go to church that act holier than thou and church that act heathener than thou. And you're gonna be around all of those types of people. And this is what he says, get over it. Deal with it. That's what the church is.

It's not a uniform place. It's not a place where we come, where we're all this homogenous group that we all look the same and act the same. In fact, we are from every tribe and every nation. We're from all over the world. We're from all over the state, we're from all over the city.

We look different, we act different, and we're going to get together, we're going to take communion, and we are going to become the body of Christ. And it's going to be me messy. When we do this. You're looking around the room right now thinking, man, that guy over there, I love that guy. Man, what a saint.

What a good man. That woman over there, she just is godly. And I love giving my life and doing life with him or with her. And then you look the other way and you go, that guy. Not so much that guy.

I don't know, man. That is how. Whew. I think the church might be better if he began to do a little church shopping himself. And can I tell you, Paul is speaking exactly to that point right there.

Church is messy. And what Jesus is doing is he has made us one and he is making us one. He's made us one, and he is making us one. He is putting and knitting the pieces together. You and I are a living stone being built into the church.

And he is the cornerstone that holds it all together. And only God can put a group of people that are this disparate and this different and this odd together in a room and say, this is my church. Only God can do stuff like that. This is what God is doing. He's making us one.

In fact, in John chapter 17, Jesus is going to pray a prayer that I'm going to tell you the prayer, and I want you to understand it is as audacious as it sounds. You're going to say, man, that's a powerful prayer. And can. I want you to know the most powerful prayer that Jesus ever prays is in John chapter 17, and it should blow your mind what he says in John chapter 17. This is the end of Jesus life.

Somewhere between the table, what we call the Last Supper and the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus stops and prays this prayer over the apostles, over the disciples. And he says this. Father, I pray that you make them one, you and I are one, and that they will become one with us. The Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. In the same way that the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Spirit, and the Father honors the Son and the Father honors the Spirit and the Spirit honors the Spirit, the Father and the Spirit honors the Son the same way they had this mutual relationship where they are the Trinity.

Jesus says, make them one the same way we are one. And then he says, make them one with us. And can I tell you that every prayer that Jesus prays is a yes and amen from the Father, Every prayer that he prays, which means that you and I are not only being joined together as one in the same way the Trinity is one, but you and I are being joined into the eternal relationship of the Trinity. The Church of Jesus Christ is one. And as you look around this room, it might look messy to you, but what Jesus is knitting together is this beautiful tapestry of unity.

Point number two, the church is holy. In verse 21, it says, the church grows into a holy temple in the Lord, a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Holy means to be set apart. It means to be different. You and I are strangers and aliens in this world.

The Church is going to look like something different than anything else that exists, which is in which is. It's scary for us when the Church starts looking like some other business or some other institution or some other organization. The church is not an organization. The church is an organism. The church is in a corporation.

The church is a corpus. It's a living body. And when we start looking like anything else, we are not being holy. We are not being set apart. The truth is, is what's going to happen is we're going to stick out.

You're going to stick out. You believe things. There's a part of you that just believes things that's being woven into you that is different than the way that the world operates. Like Paul will say, do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds. Listen, you're going to work differently, you're going to do relationships differently, you're going to do your taxes differently, because you and I are going to stick out.

Jesus has already told us that the church operates in an upside down way than any other thing in the world. We're talking about the Jesus who says, I'm willing to leave the 99 to save the 1. I don't know if you know this, that's terrible math. No one leaves 99 to save 1, but Jesus does. He says, if you want to be first, you've got to be last.

If you want to gain your life, you have to lose your life. To be holy is to be different. To be set apart is to operate on a different set of principles and understandings that will not make sense to the world. It doesn't make sense to the world to not cheat on your taxes, find every loophole you can, find any way that you can. It doesn't look.

It doesn't look normal to the world to not be 18 and 19 and 20 and 21 and to not go sow your wild oats. It doesn't make sense to the world. But you and I are holy and we're set apart. I want to speak to what I think is really the elephant in the room, and that is those of you that have experienced church hurt. If the church is holy and the church is set apart, then why can it be so damaging at times?

Why can it be so hurtful to the world? And what I want to tell you is this, that I do believe that there are men and women in this room that have experienced deep church hurt, whether it was by a pastor or a leader or. Or just another person. And church hurt is real. And the reason it's real is because the church is filled with real people with real problems who make stupid decisions.

And church hurt is real. And I'm actually gonna mention it at the end of this sermon for you to respond. There are people in this room that there is a barrier in your heart, in your soul to respond to Jesus, to continue to move you forward in maturity and in Christlikeness. And I can only tell it to you this way. Only Jesus can help you move beyond that.

And today I want to pray for you in a few moments and just say, if you're stuck in this mire of a real church hurt, a real church pain, something that really happened, I don't want to move past that fast at all. A holy church, not acting holy. I want to ask Jesus to heal you. But the truth is the church is Holy. And we're set apart.

And we are being made holy. And we are being set apart. We are in the process of becoming like everything that Jesus longs the body of Christ to be. And we have our bright spots. Can I just tell you, I have seen the church be the best that the church can possibly be.

I have seen her at her greatest, and some of you have experienced her at her worst. And we are being made. We are the body, and we are being made the body. We are holy, and we are being made holy. The third is this, is that the church is Catholic.

Now, when you hear me say Catholic, you hear Roman Catholic. And that's not what I'm saying. Roman Catholic is a stream of the church, just like the Assemblies of God is a stream of the church. I'm an assemblies of God, just like the Southern Baptist and the Methodist and the Presbyterian. It's a stream the Presbyterian Protestant movement.

But when I say Catholic, what I mean what the church meant in the three hundreds. It's actually two Greek words. The first one is katha or kata, which means according to. And the second word is halos, which means all. So it means according to the whole.

It means all of the church. What that means is that when you and I gather in this room, a few hundred of us in this room today, over the course of the day, thousands will gather here. That we are not gathering as a single entity, but we are joining our voices to an anthemic chorus, a church that is gathering around the world, hundreds of millions. And we don't begin service today. We join our service with all of the services that are going on around the world.

And there are hundreds of millions of believers that are lifting their voices and joining with an eternal chorus of angels that are worshiping the Father, the Son and the Spirit, and have been worshiping for all of time. You and I aren't just joining our voices to those that are happening today, but we are joining our voices to this anthemic chorus of worship and service to God that has been happening for millennia. And we are Catholic because we are the church. We are part of the body of Christ that has existed now for 2,000 years, and you and I are part of it. I'm not just an ear in this church.

You're an ear in the body of Christ that's existed for thousands of years. And we are joining in on this institution that has been happening forever. At the same time, I'm not just part of the global church, but I'm part of this church. I'm part of crossroads Church, which is both part of the church and at the same time. This body is the full, full expression of God at the same time.

This is the body of Christ. This local community is the full expression of the body of Christ. I'm part of the full expression and I am the full expression. And I meet in this room and there are people meeting in this room and they're meeting. And my brother sent me a picture, he's in Italy right now, sent me a picture of this beautiful cathedral in Italy in this remote village where they just built this beautiful cathedral over there.

And there are people. I've got a student who is, He's a, He's a. He's over what's called the Rural Pastors Initiative in Nigeria where he brings in somewhere between 80 and 100 pastors who all pastor churches of 20 or less in remote villages, meeting in homes and living rooms of cinder block with thatched roof huts. And they gather together and they are part of the body, but they are also those 18 people and gathered around a bread and wine who partake it together. Those 18 people are the full expression of the body of Christ.

And that's what it means to be Catholic, that you are part of the whole and you are also the full expression. And sometimes we forget how unbelievably infinite and eternal this thing is. You're not just gathering a few hundred people today, we're gathering with hundreds of millions. And we forget I'm part of something massive, part of something huge. I'm part of something.

And I'm not just, I'm not doing this, I'm getting caught up in it. When I was, I was a youth pastor in South Alabama back in the early 2000s, and one night we would do, on Sunday night. So we used to do Sunday night service. Those of you that have been in the church for a little while, we used to do church a lot. Like, A lot like we would go on Sunday night, Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night and Friday night prayer meeting.

We'd have revivals. And I remember going one summer, my mom told us we were going to church every day. Like, it's. I was like, are you kidding me? It's my summer.

I'm playing Nintendo and I'm playing outside and jumping on the trampoline. She's like, we're going to church every day. We were in a revival for two weeks. Can I just tell you that's not good news to an eight year old sitting there? And by the way, back then, nobody was rushing home from Church, you didn't have to go to meals or anything.

Nobody was doing these 75 minute services. We were doing like, like 400 minute services, right? Nobody's rushing home. We'd get in and we'd fall asleep. By the time you woke up, it was time to go to church again.

I was like, God help us. But one night I was at South Alabama and we would do. On Sunday nights, we would. We would do. Back then, we used to do an offertory or a special.

How many of you are old enough to remember the offertory? So on Sunday mornings, what we would do is we'd put our really good singers and on Sunday night, not so much. And so this was a Sunday night and we had one of our singers that he was kind of Frankie, God love him, he's gone on to be with Jesus. But Frankie was one of those in between. Every once in a while.

He was Sunday morning most often Sunday night. The key that got him on Sunday morning was is he just knew how to pick the right song. And he knew the right song for the right moment to the right group of people. And he didn't always hit every note, but. But he always hit the right song.

And so Sunday night he's singing the song called the Anchor Holds. You remember this? The anchor holds. Though the ship is tattered, the anchor holds and he's singing this song. And you can just kind of feel the energy of the room begin to rush up.

You can feel, you know, when you're in a room and you just start feeling the life of it and the energy of it. And Frankie singing and he's belting out almost the right note and you just feel the energy of the room. And I. And just as we're getting to just kind of this culminating moment of the grand finale, the anchor holds and the ship is tattered and that you can feel the room. And the room stands up and they're starting to clap and they're starting to cheer.

And we're in South Alabama. So I mean, it is just. We're starting to do something. Do you know this word? Hoop and holler.

We're starting to hoop and holler. Not just hoop, but we're also hollering. And so we're hooping and hollering and you feel the energy. And I remember the song ends and Frankie belts out that last almost note. And everybody stands and they cheer and people are going, who?

And I remember I was playing the piano that night and I was standing next to a guy named Jimmy. Jimmy played the bass and Jimmy would travel all over the state with his sister and their friend, and they were a Southern gospel trio. And he's playing the bass and he's standing there and Frankie sings the last note, almost note. And Jimmy's just, brr. You know, just ringing out that last note.

And we're standing and we're cheering and I hear Jimmy go, whoo. And Jimmy is all in. He thinks, this is the greatest thing that has ever happened. The room just filled. And Jimmy looks over at me with the, with the room hooping and hollering and he says these words.

That right there is what we're going to sing in heaven. And I remember going, now look, I've matured. I've matured a little bit since then. This was the year 2001, so 25 years ago. I mean, I would have been like six, right?

But anyway, I. But it was, it was, it was 25 years ago, and I've matured a little since then, but I was a little more smart alecky back then. And I remember looking at Jimmy and just going, what is what we're going to sing in heaven? And Jimmy goes, remember, we're standing there, he's ringing out the bass and he just. And all.

He goes, that right there. And I said, jimmy, are you. Are you. Are you saying Southern Gospel is what we're gonna sing in heaven? And he goes, what else would we sing?

And I said, and I can't help it. And I say, jimmy, are you telling me that we're gonna make the Africans and the Russians and the Asians and the Hispanics, we're gonna make them sing Southern gospel? And he says, absolutely.

Jimmy's making. Making our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world sing. The anchor holds as we lay our crowns at the feet of Jesus. And sometimes we forget just how big the body of Christ is. You join your voice this morning with every tribe and every nation and every language that has been in existence for 2000 years.

You are part of the Catholic Church. And finally, the fourth mark is the church is apostolic. It's apostolic built. Verse 20, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.

What it means to be apostolic means that we don't get to reinvent this thing every Tuesday. We don't get to make this stuff up. But this has been passed down from the prophets and the apostles, and this is what they have told us we are, and we are to become. It's been passed down to us. Jesus says to the apostles and to the disciples in Matthew, chapter 28.

Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every living being, baptizing them in my name and teaching them to obey. We like to get this idea that you and I are the ones that Jesus is speaking to, to go into all the world. But you and I are only here because they went. The apostles went. Do you understand that Jesus walked and moved around an area that's barely as big as Martinsburg.

That's where he was. And somehow this message, this reality, left that place, place through the voice of the apostles and went all over the world. There's not a corner of the world that this message hasn't begun to be reached.

You and I are, of course, we're supposed to go, but actually, you and I are the ones that are being taught to obey. We're the obeyers.

And this apostolic means that Jesus has sent this message around the world. And you and I are here in this beautiful building because the apostles heard it, believed it, and gave their lives for it.

And what they teach us in the scripture is not just the same words that you read when you lay down in the bed and you open up your best novel and you start reading those words off the page. Page. But the words that you read off of this page that they wrote 2000 years ago are. It is. Those words are just as alive when it comes off the page into your mind as it was when they sat down and pinned them.

It is alive. It's exploding. It's breathing life into your life right now. These words are inspired and they come alive as they enact what they say in the same way that God's voice says, let there be light. And all of a sudden, something that has never before existed does.

When these words come into your soul, they explode into you apostolically inspired by the spirit, and they explode into you and bring you to life. The church is apostolic. It is one holy, catholic apostolic church. And what you and I are doing here today, it's not. It's not just another Sunday, my friends.

This is the church of Jesus Christ. The risen Christ. And his resurrected power is in this room right now. It is making you one, making you holy. Joining you together catholically around the world through the apostolic witness and voice that pops off of this page that is alive.

You and I are part of the body. We're the bride of Christ. The temple of God, the house of God, the kingdom of God. Today, I'd like to ask you to stand with me.

And if you close your eyes. I told you I was gonna ask for a Couple things to respond to.

First one is this. I mentioned this to you just a little bit ago.

There's some of you in the room today that because of church hurt, you've hit a barrier in your own walk. And it isn't, it is impossible for you to get past. You've tried, you've wanted to, or maybe you've held onto it and you haven't wanted to. Maybe you've kind of fed this hurt, you've held on to it because it helped you to understand even your own broken identity. And today God is saying, will you let me heal you?

Will you let me move you? Will you let me continue to join you to the body and today with nobody looking around but me? If that's you this morning, will you lift your hand and you say, jeremy, I'm, I, I, I need to, I'm ready to get past this. I'm ready for God to heal me. I'm ready for God to change me.

I'm ready for God to continue to knit me together in a new way. Yeah, a lot of hands. Thank you. Secondly is this. Maybe this morning you, you are here and somehow you can put your hands down.

Say you, you were here somehow you got up at 8:00 and got here at 8:30. But you, you aren't a follower of Jesus. You aren't a part of, of the body of Christ. You haven't been made a part, you haven't been made one or made holy or brought into the Catholic apostolic witness. And you say, jeremy, there's something about today.

I woke up and it's different today. And I, and I, I want to make today the day that I remember for the rest of my life that I step into this moment and say, I'm choosing today to become part of the church, become part of the body and make Jesus Lord and Savior of my life. If today is there one or two or three in the room that would say, jeremy, today is, it's today for me. Anybody in here? Will you lift your hand?

I want to pray for you in just a moment. Yeah, yeah, I see that hand. Anybody else?

Yeah, I see that hand. Anybody else? You can put your hands down. And last is this. Maybe today you're in this room, you would say, jeremy, truth is it's not that I have church hurt, it's that this has just never really clicked for me.

It's just another thing that I do on the weekends. It hasn't really made its way into the rest of my life. I do this on Sundays, but I don't think what I am becoming coming in this room has made its way into the rest of my life yet. And today I want to ask Jesus to absolutely saturate my entire week. I want what happens in this moment as I am being joined to the body to make its way into the way that I live every day.

I want my Mondays and my Wednesdays and my Thursdays and my Saturdays. I want them to look like I am holy and set apart heart and it doesn't right now. And if that's you today, Jeremy, I, I, I want God to absolutely take every minute of every day of my week. If that's you today, will you lift your hand? I want to pray for you.

Yeah, a lot of hands. Jesus, today you know that we are your body. And just like your body was broken, we're a broken body that you are knitting together with each other and with you and with the Father, the Son, the Spirit. Today those that lifted their hands with church hurt. Father, I pray right now that you would begin to heal them this barrier where they can't get past to become just a little bit more mature, to grow a little more, to heal a little more.

I ask today that you would heal them in a moment progressively and instantly. God, for those couple of hands that lifted their hand today that said today is the day that I give my life to Jesus to be Lord and Savior and it will never be the same. We celebrate with the angels of heaven that say today is that day and it is never going to be the same. And for those many dozens that lifted their hands that say, I don't want Sunday to look different than the rest of the week anymore, but I want to be the body of Christ, holy and set apart in every moment of the week. Will you saturate in vain invade and make space everywhere in their lives.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.