Sermon Cloud

Of course we would all love to find a perfect church, and this morning I’d like to introduce you to one. If you are a true believer in Jesus Christ – you belong to it. This Church – with a capital C – is so fabulous that there is no sin whatsoever in her. No, its not a figment of our imagination; it’s the reality described by John in Revelation 21:1-4.

The church perfected

The central feature of the marriage supper, Rev 19:9 will be the bride and the groom. Jesus the bridegroom; will be resplendent in his glory.  But so too will the bride. We will be she; we the true believers - those whose faith is in Christ BEFORE we die; chosen from before the world began, those for whom Christ died.

Is that you? It is if you recognise your sin – that you are a rebel at heart and deserve only one thing – hell. Having known the wrath of God hanging over you, you looked to Christ and saw his work on the cross; you realised that he was forsaken by God so that you need never be; he was forsaken so that you could be forgiven. You cried out to God: “O Lord I deserve your anger, but in your mercy save me”.  And he did. Furthermore he changed you; from a rebel who ran from God to a child who ran towards God as often as possible.

Sure every day you know you are not what you should be.  But you know you are not what you were.  And one day; you will be all that God had planned for you – perfectly remade into his perfect image. You will be perfect; fully satisfied; restored to even better than mint condition. 

You will side with your hero and mine, Jesus the Christ. You’ll say “It is good to be here and it is good that you rescued all these others. And those you judged – well they, and we deserved it. But they wouldn’t humble themselves and cry out for rescue. But Lord Jesus, lion of Judah, you have done everything exquisitely. You are perfect, and we are perfect, and the new world is perfect” We will be happy every-after.

But is all that pie in the sky? Isn’t the reality that we on earth do not always live up to that grand ideal. Maybe you get so fed-up with your fellow believers, they are all such poor examples of what a believer should be, that you only come along out of duty, and then scurry home as quickly as you can.

But the people of God are the best people in the world; they’re not perfect people, but they are repentant and forgiven.  Yes they have imperfections – but perhaps the plank in your eye is blocking out their specks.  You see, their imperfections are yours. For we, who are repentant, forgiven people are part of both the true church in glory, and the imperfect church on earth.

The key task this morning in realising what we will be like, is to work hard on what we are like now.

The church incomplete

The church on earth is incomplete. It’s a building that’s still under construction - 1 Peter 2.Look what we are 9 – chosen people, royal priesthood, holy nation, people belonging to God declaring his worth.  It is true we weren’t always that – 10 – but that’s what we now are.

And look what’s happening to us: 5 you are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood. The church on earth is a work in progress; look is what happening.

The Church mixed - On earth the church is a mixture

In heaven there will only be believers. But on earth the human church is not so pure.  It’s more like the Old Covenant –some Jews had faith and some didn’t.  The New Covenant consists of only believers.

Church for many of us, means a club or an institution; it is certainly a gathering – but it gathers up on-lookers, even those who go for the wrong reasons; there are hangers-on and those just about to drop off. Part of the role of the church is to bring into the centre those on the fringe – by preaching the gospel and equipping each other for ministry. Another part of its role is to pastor and discipline those not playing their full part. We will never have a 100% pure church on earth – much as though we might try. But we can still have an effective church.

Some churches – or groups that claim to be church – are actually false churches.  Where scripture is blatantly put to one side – maybe it is regarded as for a past generation, or is “impossible” to accept cos of, say the miracles, or is always subject to human reason or our traditions – that’s a false church. In reality it is NOT a church but a religious club, for the Scriptures are not the final authority.

But amongst true churches there are those that are “more pure” and those that are “less pure”.

More pure – less pure

The NT letters are written to some churches which seem to be good on doctrine and moral practice – eg Philippi, or Thessalonica.  But there are other churches – still true churches – where the defects are quite large – Galatians was in trouble doctrinally; Corinth, morally.  The more pure churches conformed more closely to God’s revealed will; and were relatively free from wrong teaching and conduct.

Now this state of affairs can change; churches can be turned round – they can also plummit.  It’s our job as members of this church, to ensure that we mature – become purer as the days go on.

These are good tests to apply.  The goal for the church is expressed in Eph 5:26f; Christ is working with us, to make us holy, he wants a people that he can present to himself as radiant, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish; holy and blameless.  He is in the cleaning business; washing us through his word.

Jude urged Christians to contend for the faith once entrusted to the saints.  Now, churches also divide

Some break off as healthily as “plants” and others as unhealthily “splits”.  Churches tend to group together in likeminded clusters – and before long we have, what we call “denominations”.  In some cases the issues are over right/wrong – true/false – but not always. Many are different styles, or different emphases

Remember the future church will be perfect. No disagreements over baptism; nor over the Lord’s Supper – for both will not be needed – they will have fulfilled their purpose – pointing us to the Lord Jesus. There will be no “special seats”, or special clothes. No church practices that need voting on!

But we’re not there yet!

How do we mature and become more beautiful?  Greater maturity is found by

·          By all the members playing their full part. That’s why the body metaphor is so important. Paul told the Corinthians that they were to excel in gifts that build up the church. We are all to work for the purity of the church; therefore we must play our part.

·          By the truth being constantly taught. That’s why the pastoral letters (Tim/Titus) are essential

·          By the death of Jesus being regularly remembered. That’s why we need to go over and over the gospel, and show it in Communion and Baptism

The solution to imperfection is not to avoid church; its not to have nothing to do with it and keep away. It’s to get stuck in and to help make it better; to ask others to help me do better. Not so much “what can the church do for me; but what can I do for my church?” Our vertical relationship must develop into a horizontal one – or else we are not true church. It’s good we examine ourselves, it’s good that we use scripture as our plumb-line..  but what a joy to know that God is for us – working in us to conform us to the image of his Son.  You don’t get that anywhere else in the world – only in the church of Jesus Christ.

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