Myths and Misconceptions
About the Church
Part One
6/08/08
(The following was used with
a PowerPoint presentation, the asterisks indicate slide changes.)
*Some people were asked, “How
relevant is the Church today?”
*Bluefish video “Relevant.”
*Myths and Misconceptions
about the Church.
Prayer
This message has been growing
in my heart for a long time.
I need a tremendous amount of
wisdom to speak and prayerful listening ears to hear.
I do not share this implying that
I have all the insight and understand fully where we are going. It’s a journey. The Lord Jesus gives just enough light to walk in it.
The Church’s influence in
America is greatly lacking.
*The Church is the salt and
light on this earth.
This might seem over
simplified but to define the role of the Church in the simplest terms here it
is…
*The role of the Church is to
lead people to Jesus Christ, grow disciples and influence society.
*Misconception…
*The Church should try to fit
in society.
That
is a gross misconception.
Here is the truth…
*The Church should influence
society but should never try to “fit” in society.
The Laodicean church is the
church that tries to “fit” in society.
*Rev. 3:14 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea
write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the
ruler of God’s creation. 15I know your deeds, that you are neither
cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16So, because
you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about
*to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired
wealth and do not need a thing.’ But
you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.
*Any church that wants to be
embraced by society will be a church full of compromise!
*Myth!
*The Church should be non
offensive.
*Mat. 15:1 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law
came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2“Why do your disciples break
the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!” 3Jesus
replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your
tradition? 4For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone
who curses his father
*or mother must be put to death.’ 5But you
say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you might
otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ 6he is
not to ‘honor his father’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake
of your tradition. 7You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he
prophesied about you: 8 “‘These people honor me
*with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 9
They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’” 10Jesus
called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. 11What
goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean,’ but what comes out of his
mouth, that is what makes him‘unclean.’” 12Then the disciples came
to him and asked, “Do you know that
the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”
The
disciples would not have asked this question if they had not been shocked by
what Jesus did.
*Misconception
*God is only a good God. He would not be harmful to anyone.
God really is a good
God. He is also good in His
judgment. He is just in all that He
does!
The truth is, the Lord is a
whole lot more serious about things than we are!
He is a whole lot more
serious about what goes on within His Church!
*Acts 5:1 Now a man named Ananias, together with his
wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2With his wife’s full
knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and
put it at the apostles’ feet.
3Then
Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have
lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the
*money you received for the land? 4Didn’t
it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at
your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to
men but to God.”
5When
Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard
what had happened. 6Then the young men came forward,
*wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried
him. 7About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had
happened. 8Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and
Ananias got for the land?” “Yes,” she said, “that is the price.” 9Peter
said to her, “How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The
feet of the men who buried your husband
*are at the door, and they will carry you out also.” 10At
that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and,
finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11
Great fear seized the whole church
and all who heard about these events.
*Myth
*Different denominations are
of God to reach more people.
What
a propagated lie!
We would rather excuse our
differences rather than resolve them.
The Church has actually
embraced disunity as being something from God!
*Acts 9:31 Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee
and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the
Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.
*Acts 11:22 …the church
at Jerusalem…
*Acts 11:25 Then
Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26and when he found him,
he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great
numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.
The only places in the New
Testament where “churches” in the plural is used is where geographically it was
necessary.
But it didn’t take long
before divisions started arising.
Division in the church is
because people like to tailor their beliefs to suit their own desires and
convenience.
The apostle Paul addressed
this issue with the Corinthians…
*1 Cor. 11:18 In the first
place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions
among you, and to some extent I believe it.
*Myth
*“My Christian maturity is
proportional to my Christian knowledge.”
This is our justification…
*Hos. 4:6 …my people are destroyed from lack of
knowledge.
The spirit of religion can so
easily blind us from walking in righteousness.
Let’s look at Hos. 4 again…
*Hos. 4:6 …my people are destroyed from lack of
knowledge. “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as
my priests; because you have ignored
the law of your God, I also will ignore your children. 7 The
more the priests increased, the more they sinned against me; they
*exchanged their Glory
for something disgraceful. 8 They feed on the sins of my people and
relish their wickedness. 9 And it will be: Like people, like
priests. I will punish both of them for their ways and repay them for their
deeds.
It was this spirit of
religion that crucified our Lord and Savior Jesus!
Jesus made a profound
statement to the religious leaders…
*Jo. 5:37 And the
Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard
his voice nor seen his form, 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for
you do not believe the one he sent. 39 You diligently study the Scriptures
*because you think that by them you possess eternal
life. These are the Scriptures
that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
*(Blank)
The deception of having false
security by the amount of Christian knowledge cannot be overstated!
*If the effectiveness of the church
was proportional to the amount of Christian sources at our fingertips (Books,
tapes, DVDs, computer programs, seminars, conferences, etc.) we would have
evangelized the entire world!
*Why is it that the more we
have (to increase our knowledge) the less effective the church becomes?
Our actions don’t equal our
knowledge!
*Jo. 13:16 I tell you
the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater
than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
The writer of Hebrews
addresses this same issue…
*Heb. 5:11 We have much to
say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12In
fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach
you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not
solid food! 13Anyone who lives on milk,
*being still an infant, is
not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid
food is for the mature, who by
constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
*(Blank)
So now we have a dilemma.
We have a balance problem.
Is personal growth more important than the purpose
of the church?
It seems like our answer to every issue is… another class; another teaching; another seminar; another conference; another study, it’s never ending!