Why the Local Church?

Why the Local Church? Nelson Munyiri

hy the local church? What is this local church in meaning and practice? What are the marks of a true and healthy local church? Where is this local church to be found? These among many other questions arise when you think about this issue. These questions bear even more weight in our society which has been so intense-

ly but falsely ‘evangelized’ that it has become so familiar to the ‘gospel’ and, “the sound of its doctrines” and has insensibly become “dead to its power” (Ryle, 1879). The church, the body of Christ, the beautiful bride of Christ, is casually spoken and thought of, often with disdain from the world, and an increasing muddiness from professing Christians. The fear J.C Ryle had that religion would sink down into a little vague talk about our own weakness and corruption, and a few sentimental expressions about Christ, while real practical fighting on Christ’s side is altogether neglected, has become the norm. With this in mind I implore you to spare a thought on the issue of the life of the local church. This article seeks to offer insight to the question: why the local church?

To begin with, the local church is simply but profoundly to be understood as the im- mediate expression of the universal church/body of believers. ‘Gathered and fully organized according to the mind of Christ, consisting of officers (elders and deacons) and members’ (The Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689, 26/8 1975 ed.). There- fore, to handle the local church as separate from the universal church or the universal church separate from the local church would be erroneous. So why the local church?

Eph. 3:10-12 “...so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord,12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.”

1.BECAUSE GOD.

God has bestowed it upon the church to make known His manifold wisdom. He has made plain His divine nature and eternal power ever since creation in the things that have been made, Paul the apostle wrote, and the Psalmist testified of the same saying, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” But now, it is clear that of the many purposes that we may give for the existence of the church, the one most undeniable and necessary purpose would be, “to display God and his glorious gospel to His creation....to reflect the-out-of-this world and glorious character of God” (Dever, 2007). Anything other than the display of God is not in accordance to His eternal purpose, and this eternal purpose is not just a futuristic, yet-to-come, in-the-pipeline kind of purpose, but rather “it has been realized in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph.

3:11). Anything else is amiss. ‘Mixture in sacred things is like a dash in the 

wine, which though it gives it a colour, yet only adulterates it....Whatever is not of God’s own appointment in His worship He looks upon as ‘strange fire’ Lev. 10:1-2.’ (Watson, 1666). Nadab and Abihu were consumed by fire for offering an unauthorized fire, Saul was deserted by God for offering a sacrifice when obedience was required (1 Sam. 13), Ananias and Saphira slain for withholding part of their property (Acts 5), and need I mention the Pharisee who prayed with the tax collector (Luke 18)? “...No wonder God is so incensed at it (Nadab and Abihu’s offering) as if He were not wise enough to appoint the manner in which he will be served.” (Watson, 1666).

What are we displaying in our churches? Is it the manifold wisdom of God or the communal beliefs and personal values of some select few?

It is then of paramount importance for us who claim to be part of this church to pursue the will of Him who instituted it, His will to display Himself. Do our churches display God as Holy, Holy, Holy (Isaiah 6:3)? As a God of love, who without prejudice or condition has reconciled such wrath-deserving, depraved, helpless sinners such as us to Himself at a great cost to Himself. As the Supreme authority so that it is His word that is the final authority in teaching, reproof, correction, and training in right- eousness? This is not the logic of man, and definitely not history or culture.

What are we making known, we who call ourselves the church? What are we display- ing in our churches? Is it the manifold wisdom of God or the communal beliefs and personal values of some select few? Is it God’s holiness, love and authority or some fashionable spiritualism that makes one seem closer to God and heaven on account of how much you have been materially blessed. What are we displaying?

Has the wisdom of God in the cross of Christ been the very stronghold of our en- gagements as a church or has it been a means to an end? As we meditate on these questions let us keep in mind this sobering warning:

Heb. 10:29 “How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, andhas outraged the Spirit of grace?” (emphasis added)

2.BECAUSE MAN.

Men have sinned. We are all wretched sinners deserving no lesser punishment than the fullness of God’s wrath in Hell. And He would be just in doing so. But in His great love He chose to display through the church his manifold wisdom in saving man. Sadly, in this state of sinfulness we have destroyed this beautiful display so much so that the importance of it is put to question. The beautiful body of Christ, the bride of Christ, looks defaced and dismembered to factions and denominations and movements. This I say with all reverence to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

How have we destroyed this display? ‘Men....try to direct Him (God), and as if the rules for his worship were defective, they will attempt to correct the copy and superadd their inventions.’ (Watson, 1666) Like the Israelites we have begged to have a king so that we may be like the nations, rejecting God, taking the unwise counsel of other men to be the standard for our engagements as a church. Instead of the infallible, unfailing word of God, we follow human precepts and teachings that have an appearance of wisdom commonly called ‘depth’, and all they do is promote a self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh (Col. 3:23).

If all this seems like an overstatement I ask that you meditate with me for a moment on a few matters. Are you a member of a local church? If so, is your answer based on convenience, fitting in, history, liking? (‘I’ve never liked how they do things,’ or ‘I like how they do,’ or ‘I’ve always been going to ....’)? Or is it a matter of Biblical truth? How much emphasis has been laid on denomination and practices over the word of God? How much do you know of your denomination? Have you ever read the state- ment of faith of your denomination and studied it against God’s word?

In our society, are we the church or do we go to church? Church is a place to go to on Sundays and if it is a people, it is limited to convenience and temperaments. Worse still some have turned to make the meeting of believers a place of trade, where the success- ful buyer is the one with the most faith measured in scale to your giving to this sales- man. The cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches have choked us and the zeal that consumes us is not for the house of God, but for an ease in this life, a security and comfort and laid-back-ness, in the thick of the greatest war. . The Great Commis- sion (Matt. 28:18-20) is no longer great and consuming in this war. Making disciples who are taught to observe all that God has commanded has become secondary to our vocations and dispositions. The thirst for ease and security, health and wealth, has put back that veil that was torn down when Christ died, so that our engagements as a church are an earnest seeking after God’s hand not heart. Oh, how much can be said of why we need to be taught, reproved, corrected and trained in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16)!

For those honest with themselves it is clear very little attention is given to understand the purpose for which God established the church adnd how He intends it to be. But rather much more effort is on the more visible practices. How often do our congrega- tions suffer from the pretences and self-righteousness of its members, that the thought of confessing our sins one to another is unimaginable, because of the fear of being seen less righteous? How sad is it that we know so much about the manner in which services are conducted, and very little of sound theology upon the subject of the church. Finally I commend to you the words of Christ to Peter:

Matt. 16:22-23 “And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! 

You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” (emphasis added)

3.BECAUSE CHRIST.

Why the local church? Because Christ has founded it. “Do we belong to the church which is built upon a rock? Are we members of the only church in which our souls can be saved? These are serious questions. They deserve serious consideration.” (Ryle, 1879) These questions posed more than a century ago, still plead today. In them one truth firmly stands, on Christ will the church be founded; by Christ will the church be sustained. How precious Christ is to the church.

1 Cor. 3:11 “For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

Matt. 16:18 “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

This is the first time that Christ explicitly refers to the church, and he does speaks pur- posely to make clear on what the church will be founded on. In the 13th chapter of his book Holiness, J.C Ryle gives insight to understanding what Christ meant when he said “on this rock I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18). In context, it is clear that Christ wasn’t making reference to Peter as being the foundation but rather the good confes- sion which the apostle had just made in verse 17. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” “It was not Peter, the erring, unstable man, but the mighty truth which the Father had revealed to Peter. It was the truth concerning Jesus Christ Himself which was the rock. It was Christ’s mediatorship, and Christ’s Messiahship. It was the blessed truth that Jesus was the promised Saviour, the true Surety, the real Intercessor between God and man. This was the rock, and this the foundation upon which the church of Christ was to be built .....No other foundation could have met the necessities of lost, guilty, corrupt, weak, helpless sinners.” (Ryle, 1879) All other ground is sinking sand. Hold this truth against the rest of Scripture and see how every bit of it is true, consist ent and inseparable.

Furthermore, the church not only has its foundation in Christ but its sustenance. The growth (in size and maturity) and the preservation of the church even under the great- est persecution, disease, disaster, false teaching and even death, is assured only in Christ. It is not anything of ourselves that holds the church together, gives it growth or pre- serves it; not our eloquences and methodologies, not our programs or skills, not our personalities or education even if all these have their place. A few verses to fan this flame of truth ablaze in our hearts:

Col. 1:17; 2:19 “And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.18 And he is the head of the body, the church. ....holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.” (emphasis added)

Eph. 1:15-16 “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” (emphasis added)

John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (emphasis added)

John 10:29-30 “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.30 I and the Father are one.” (emphasis added)

John 6:39 “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.” (emphasis added)

Bibliography

Dever, M. (2007). What is a Healthy Church? Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books. Ryle, J. (1879). Holiness. Evangelical Press.

The 1689 Confession of Faith. (1975 edition). Carey Publications Ltd.

Watson, T. (1666). The Godly Man’s Picture. The Banner Of Truth Trust.