It is great to be together again as we look into the Word of God. The title for the lesson is, “Christ Loved the Church,” and the text is taken from the Ephesians letter in the New Testament, Ephesians chapter five verses 25 through 27.  Listen to the Word of God.

 

Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word and to present her to himself as a radiant Church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.  Wonderful words. This is the Word of God.

 

It is seemingly, today, a popular pastime to take pot shots at the Church. The Church of Jesus Christ, the Lord’s Church is often persecuted and ridiculed from the outside, but also the Church is sometimes cut down and criticized from the inside.  So what does Jesus Christ think of the Church, his true Church?  Well, let’s begin in the gospel of Matthew chapter 16 and verse 18 where Christ stated, in part:  I will build my Church and the gates of Hades or hell will not overcome it.  Notice that Jesus Christ is alone the owner, the architect, the head. The Church is his Church, his possession. Therefore, to cut down, to ridicule the Church, God’s people, is also to ridicule the Church’s owner, Jesus Christ himself, which is a sobering thought. Certainly there can be legitimate, constructive criticism of the Church, God’s people, when, especially, we in the Church blatantly do not represent our head, our owner according to his—that is, Jesus Christ’s—character and teachings, when we fall so short of the character of Christ, the doctrine of Christ.

 

But I am referring to unwarranted ridicule and criticism, to simply sling mud at the Church, not trying to rehabilitate the Church, God’s people, but to ridicule God’s people and, by extension, to ridicule the head of the Church, even Jesus Christ. The Lord’s Church at large, universal, does seem weak and anemic at times.  But Jesus Christ affirmed that even the gates of Hades or hell will not overcome or overpower or overwhelm it. Hades is a place of punishment for the spirits of the dead, for unbelievers. And the point of entry or the gates of Hades is death.  So this is actually a Jewish phrase referring to death.  So the meaning here is: Even death does not have the power to overcome, to prevail over or to stop the Church. For all her and our shortcomings, the Church will survive. The Church is indwelt by God by the Holy Spirit that indwells the Church, the believer.  The Lord’s Church will not become extinct, will not disappear due to man or Satan. The true Church of Jesus Christ will survive until the Lord returns in the air to take her out, the true Church of Christ. The true Church will disappear from earth only when God, when Jesus takes her out. In the meantime anyone who persecutes the Lord’s Church, ridicules the Lord’s Church actually also persecutes its head, Jesus Christ. And this is scriptural.

 

Consider Acts chapter nine and verse two whereby it says, of the Church’s persecutor, Saul of Tarsus, in part:  If he found any there who belonged to the way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. Then a few verses down in Acts chapter nine and verse five, it says: Who are you, Lord, Saul asked.  I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. So to persecute the way, which is the Church, which is the way the Church was often referred to in Saul of Tarsus’ day, the way, because Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. So to persecute the Church or the way is to persecute Christ.  And let’s remember that when we are too quick to cut down the Church in an unwarranted fashion, God’s people.

 

And what sin did Saul consider—Saul, who later became Paul the apostle—consider his main sin?  The answer is in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse nine. For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God.  So this Saul recognized to be a great sin even though he knew that it was under the blood of Christ and yet he still remembered, sadly, how he had persecuted the Church of God. May that not be the case for you, for me and that we may instruct others about how serious this is in an unwarranted fashion. But God changed Saul whom instead of persecuting the Church was willing actually to suffer, not just for his Savior, but note the words in Paul’s epistle to the Colossians in Colossians chapter one and verse 24 where it says:  Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, which is the Church. 

 

Are we today even as born again, baptized believers, willing to suffer for the benefit of the Lord’s Church? The apostle Paul was.  The Church is the body of Christ, his instruments on earth. The Lord will protect and preserve his body, his bride, the Church till he comes for her including you and me in Christ who are at conversion automatically added to Christ’s universal Church.

There are countless exceptional testimonies regarding Christ’s Church and her survival even to thriving. For example, Christianity in Ethiopia, a nation in Africa, goes back to the Ethiopian eunuch and Philip in Acts chapter eight. However, in the year of our Lord 1927 missionaries were sent to a wild tribe, even worshippers of Satan in that very nation, in Ethiopia. And after several years of toil, of evangelization of that tribe, a small church was established. However in 1935 Mussolini’s fascists invaded Ethiopia and these invaders demanded all missionaries leave Ethiopia. Only 48 believers remained in this small church that had converted to Christ from Satanism after nine years of Christian evangelization in Ethiopia. And it wasn’t until July fourth, 1943 that the missionaries were able to return to Ethiopia. And at that time great testimonies were shared that the native Ethiopian church leaders received 100 lashes, were whipped, for continuing church services.  And several native Ethiopian believers, Christians, several died, were martyred because of Christ and his Church. Many were beaten in public, yet preached to the crowds between the lashes, an incredible testimony. And instead of destroying the Church in Ethiopia, conversions multiplied. The tribes’ Christians even began sending native missionaries to other Ethiopian tribes. And instead of 48 believers, the returning missionaries found 18,000 Christian believers.   So, again, the blood of the martyrs became the seed of the Church.

 

Usually it is when worldliness infiltrates the Church that she becomes soft and shallow and weak.  The world at its worst needs the Church at its best. And that includes you and me in the Church. We, the Lord’s Church today need to get serious about our faith and live it out daily before the world. We are God’s instruments, God’s body, the Lord’s body on this earth. And they need to see Christ in us, hear Christ in us, experience Christ in us?

Too many today are ignorant and unbelieving people that claim that the Church is just a waste of time, worthless, even irrelevant in the 21^st century, the Church just a dinosaur headed for extinction. But that is not true.  The Church will be here when the Lord comes in the air to take her home.

Consider Jesus’ attitude towards his Church. In Ephesians chapter five and verse 25 it says, in part, that Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, like a husband for his wife, a bridegroom for his bride. Christ sacrificed himself for the Church.  Yes, for the sin of the world, but also for the Church, those that would become part of his Church through faith, through saving faith, through obedient faith in him and his atoning work on the cross on their behalf.  And Christ’s love is a perfect love for his Church, which can include you if you would receive Jesus through obedient faith. Be immersed into him, certainly repenting and confessing him as your personal Savior and Lord and persevering in him, baptized into Christ to be part of the family of God. 

In Ephesians chapter five and verse 26 it says: To make her—that is the Church—holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, because the Church is holy, sanctified, set apart, not by our own righteousness, but by Christ’s righteousness, which is reckoned, credited, transferred to us in his Church through faith and by the grace of God that we don’t deserve.  Cleansed through the waters of obedient baptism, cleansed through the Word of God in which we believe and repent.  And that is why we are called saints. But it is only by the blood of Christ that sanctifies us. 

And the apostle Paul piles up the imagery of our cleansing.  In verse 27 it says: And to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

 

All of this is ours in the Lord’s Church because of Christ and his perfect, once and for all atoning sacrifice on the cross on our behalf.  This passage also emphasizes just how similarly, of course, husbands are to love and sacrifice for their wives.  The Church is not to be dragged through the mud unfairly criticized, ridiculed or rejected. Yes, congregations will close. Many professing Christians will be hypocrites. Others will also commit apostasy, apostatize, fall away from the faith, from Christ. However, the bride of Christ, the Church of Christ remains until he comes for us in the air, because the Church is his precious possession. Jesus Christ is the bridegroom. And the Church is his bride, purified positionally by his blood through saving faith on our part.

There is an amazing statement in Ephesians chapter three and verse 10 that says: His intent was that now through the Church the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to rulers and authorities in heavenly realms. Well, what does this mean, exactly? Evidently it means that God through his Church showers his glory to both holy and unholy angels by God’s salvation and preservation of his Church, which includes us. The Church radiates God’s glory. Of course, we need to be genuinely in Christ, receive Christ as our personal Savior and Lord, be baptized into him and persevere in him, because the Church is not a mistake.  We are not misfits, but the marvelous family of God on earth, a pure virgin bride in Christ Jesus. And we need to treasure this and we need to testify to these truths.