Kingdom Outpost: What Do We Do? Let's imagine for a

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Kingdom Outpost: What Do We Do? Let’s imagine for a moment that you have a group of people who meet weekly at your house for a Bible Study. When does that Bible study change from being a Bible Study to being a church? In other words, we want to think this morning about what constitutes a church. What are the key marks or defining features of a church? It’s vital for us to consider the defining features of a church because these features will tell us some of the fundamental aspects of our ministry here. In school you probably studied the different classifications of animals. What makes something a mammal or a reptile? There are certain characteristics that make something a mammal and not a reptile and vice versa. A mammal may share certain qualities with a reptile but there are a few basic characteristics that when brought together define something as a mammal. It’s very similar when we come to the church. The last couple of weeks we have defined the church as an outpost of the kingdom and we said that our purpose is to glorify God by making disciples who look like Jesus. This week we want to ask the question: How is the church to be organized and run to ensure that our mission of making disciples and purpose of glorifying God is accomplished? The Bible is not silent on these matters. There are key elements that transform any group of people from a club to a church. What are those marks or signs? That’s what we are looking at today as we study 4 Marks of a Biblical Church that shape our ministry. 1. Biblical Preaching One of the major things that changes a Bible study to a church is the consistent and faithful preaching of God’s Word week after week. Preaching is an odd thing. Consider what we do on Sundays. You all come, sit, and listen to someone talk to you for 40 minutes each week. And this 40 minutes is the climax of our worship time. Why? Isn’t there something else we can do during this time? Why preaching? Because God, by his very nature, is the God who speaks. "God speaks, and his words are powerful, effective and creative of reality. The God who speaks is the God who acts through his words." - Peter Adam

The consistent testimony of the entire Bible is that God speaks and we humans listen and respond appropriately. When we open the Bible to Genesis 1 we find God creating…by His words. The Psalms calls on us to listen and obey God’s Words, to delight in His law, which has been spoken and recorded. The prophets came to Israel and spoke words from God and the people were expected to hear and respond. Jesus comes onto the scene in the NT preaching about the kingdom and calling people to repent and believe. So, preaching is the most accurate theological methodology for understanding God. In fact, the very method of preaching puts us in a position to grasp what God is like. He is the God who authoritatively speaks. When someone steps into this pulpit on Sunday, he authoritatively proclaims God's Words. He explains and expounds what God has said. And God's Words create life and faith in the hearer. 2 Timothy 4:1-4 make this element of church life very clear as Paul gives this instruction to Timothy. A group of people is not a church unless biblical preaching is the centerpiece of their gathering. "God's Word, working through God's Spirit, is God's primary instrument for growing God's church." - Jonathan Leeman 2. Practicing the Ordinances If preaching is how we come to know the gospel and its implications for life, practicing the ordinances is how the gospel is visualized and enacted in the life of the church. First of all, what do I mean by the ordinances? We believe that Jesus instituted two ordinances for the ongoing life of the church, baptism and the Lord’s Supper. They serve as visible signs of the realities of salvation. Listen to Mark Dever explain this: "Practicing baptism and the Lord's supper demonstrates obedience to Christ, and they are intended to complement by visible sign and symbol the audible preaching of the gospel." - Mark Dever So, I think we all understand that Jesus commanded these two ordinances to be done in the life of the church, but what does Dever mean by this last part that they complement the audible preaching of the gospel? Let’s start with baptism.

Baptism by immersion is done for believers and symbolizes or shows a person’s initiation into the body of Christ. It’s all about a public showcase of an inner reality. Baptism does not save you, but it testifies to the reality of your salvation and is closely linked with salvation in the NT. It shows that we have been united with Christ, buried with him in death, raised to walk in new life. Baptism by immersion is for believers and shows what has happened in my life. The Lord’s Supper is a sign or demonstration of my continuation and participation in the body of Christ. When we eat the bread and drink the cup we are showing that our spiritual life is daily dependent on Christ’s work. We are proclaiming our ongoing participation and dependence on the death of Jesus. “The church is only the church if it declares the gospel to its members and to the world. But we are not only to say the gospel. We are also summoned to see the gospel.” – Tom Schreiner The church must practice both ordinances to see the gospel. This is why the Lord’s Supper is not just an odd ritual that we do. We are remembering the importance of Christ’s death, acknowledging our dependence by eating and drinking, and anticipating the future, the full realization of Christ’s kingdom. Listen to these words from Jesus in Mark 14:24-25. The ordinances remind us and publicly proclaim our status as kingdom citizens awaiting the full arrival of Christ’s rule and reign. 3. Qualified Leadership One of the major things that moves a group of people from being a club or gathering and to being a church is the installation of qualified leaders. Of course, when we think about the church, there really is only one leader in the church, the head of the church, Jesus Christ. He leads and guides the universal body. But, the universal body of Christ always finds expression in local gatherings of believers who meet together for preaching and to take the ordinances. And those local bodies are given under shepherds who lead, protect, guide and care for the church. Listen to these words from Acts 20:28 that Paul gave to the elders at Ephesus. Notice that Paul makes it very clear that elders are placed in their position by the Holy Spirit. And they have a task to do, which is to care for the church and then

Paul drops this little reminder that Jesus purchased this group of people with His own blood. What does that tell you about the church? This body of believers, Woodhaven Bible Church, a kingdom outpost, is incredibly precious to Jesus Christ. Jesus paid the ultimate price in order to secure our salvation and to place us together in fellowship. And, after dying in order to create the church, he places leaders in the church who are to care for her. This is why when you see a leadership position in the NT, those leaders are always supposed to be qualified leaders. God says that elders are to care for the church and in Titus 1 and 1 Timothy 3 he gives specific character qualifications for those who would care for his bride. He won’t just let anyone be responsible for his people. It’s a weighty thing to be responsible for Christ’s bride. This is one of the reasons that throughout the NT we consistently see that the church is to be led by a plurality of elders or leaders. Some of the elders can be financially supported by the church and others may not be, but they all lead, guide, and care for the church together. No one man is capable of this task nor should he be. Listen to 1 Peter 5:1-4. You can see here that there is a chief shepherd and under shepherds. In order to be a church, you must have qualified, functioning leaders who are being led by Christ as they lead the church. So, a biblical church preaches the word, practices the ordinances, and is led and cared for by qualified leadership. And all of these first 3 marks lead us to actual ministry functions, which is our 4th mark. 4. Commitment to One Another and the World In order to be a church you have to have these first 3 marks, but you also have to commit to one another for ministry, fellowship, and evangelism. I’m going to flesh out this last mark with 3 ways that this commitment shows itself. • Membership If the church is an outpost of the kingdom, the church does not make someone a member of the body of Christ, but it does affirm their membership and give a visible and public recognition of the reality of that membership. It's what a US embassy does in Germany when you are visiting there and need a new passport

page. They give visible recognition and public acknowledgement of your citizenship. This is exactly what the church is responsible to do. And if you think back to that bible study group, what makes that group a church? There’s a level of official commitment to one another. An official commitment like membership means that you are devoted to this group of people for good and difficulty. It means I am aligning myself with this group of believers and we are going to represent our king together as an outpost of his kingdom. Now, once you are committed to one another you begin to function like a church and this means doing ministry. • Ministry Turn in your Bibles to Ephesians 4:11-16. We’ve already talked this morning about preaching and qualified leaders. This passage tells us that these leaders equip the saints of the church so that the saints, the individual members of the body will functionally do the work of ministry, according to verse 12. What is the goal of our ministry to one another? Look at verse 13. We talked last week about discipleship, virtue and character formation and how the ultimate goal is that each disciple would look like Jesus. Well, we need each other for this. I’ll say this as clearly as I can: My role in this is to equip you so that you can help one another to grow to be like Jesus. How do you do this? And this is the question of what we mean when we use the word ministry. Look down at verse 15. Ministry means speaking the truths of God’s Word in love so that we all grow to be more like Jesus. Ministry is wordbased. But ministry also means we edify one another by practicing the one-another commands given throughout the NT. We speak the truth in love and then we act on our union with one another. There are certain implications to the biblical image of the church as a body. We have responsibilities to one another and fulfilling those responsibilities makes us a church. Look how this is described in Romans 12:3-13. The only way to actually fulfill these commands is to be joined to a local church body and to have a place where you can actively serve with your gifts and love in a genuine way. This is what ministry means. It’s not always comfortable or easy.

At times we will disagree on certain matters, but those moments of disagreement are when our commitment to one another is most needed and our love for one another is most needed. • Evangelism As we talk about what makes a church and the key marks of a church it’s vital that we don’t only think internally. There’s so much to do with ministry to each other and in dealing with relationships with one another that we can turn into navel gazers. And at times it’s perhaps easier to focus on ourselves and worry about some program within the church or some aspect of life here at WBC. But keep in mind the very core definition of the church that we are working with in this series. We are a kingdom outpost. We are here in order to bring the good news of our king and his kingdom into the world around us. Our purpose is very clear and if we are not actively about the purpose of reaching into the world to make disciples, then we aren’t a church in the biblical sense. So, what do we do? We live out these marks and we minister to one another and take the gospel into the world. That is what makes us a kingdom outpost and not just another club or association. This is our privilege and joy.