Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

We’re doing something a little different today. We’re going to deviate from our current series called When Life & Truth Collide for one week. We’ll get back to it next week as we talk about the Collision of a Burdened Life.

But this week, I’ve got an exciting message for you. It’s the State of the Church Address for 2008.

President Bush delivered his final State of the Union address to Congress this past Monday. The State of the Union is traditionally an annual address that the President gives to a joint session of Congress.

I think it’s healthy. It’s healthy for our nation to reflect on the state of our union. It’s healthy to think about big picture ideas instead of just day-to-day stuff.

It’s a healthy thing for our nation and it’s also a healthy thing for our church. That’s why we’re pausing from our current series for this State of the Church message. One note about this: I am not the president around here. I’m not getting a big head here. I know my role. I’m not the president of this church. I am simply the primary spokesman for it. Just want to be sure we’re clear on that.

So let’s pray, and then we’ll consider the state of our church.

As we consider the state of our church, where we are and where we’re going, I want to explore a conversation between Jesus and Peter in Matthew 16. There are some powerful principles about the church that comes out in this short conversation. These are, and must continue to be, guiding principles for our church here at Amelia.

Matthew 16, starting in verse 13. “Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! [That simply means Simon, son of Jonah.] For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

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.” (Matthew 16:13-18, ESV)

Our story picks up with a question. Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” “The Son of Man” was a title that Jesus often used to refer to himself. Jesus is talking about himself. He’s asking his disciples, “Who do people say I am? What are they saying? What’s the word on the street about me?”

The disciples had heard the buzz on the street about Jesus. They had heard the conversations people were having about him.

They told Jesus, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” (Matthew 16:14, ESV)

This was the word on the street. People had taken notice of Jesus. They saw that he was special. So they suggested that he was John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or some other prophet.

Now there’s a subtle, but very critical point that we need to catch here. All the people who were talking about Jesus were trying to make Jesus fit into the mold of something that they already knew. Something that was familiar to them. Something that was comfortable to them.

They knew John the Baptist. He was a contemporary of Jesus. They didn’t know Elijah or Jeremiah personally since they had been dead for hundreds of years, but they knew their works of prophecy. They knew what the Scriptures said about them. They had become comfortable with them.

People were trying to force Jesus into a mold that they could accept. They knew and understood who the prophets were. As long as Jesus fit into that mold, then they knew what to do with him. As long as Jesus conformed to what they expected from him, then they were comfortable with him.

But what we must understand is that we can’t change Jesus to fit our religious paradigms. To varying degrees, we all have the tendency to want to redefine Jesus. Some of us want to have a Jesus that we’re comfortable with. Others of us want to have a Jesus that we can control. Still others of us want to have a Jesus that measures up to us instead of us measuring up to Jesus.

The same things were true when Jesus was alive here on earth. Nothing has changed in over 2,000 years. Even while he was alive, people wanted to redefine Jesus. Look at some of the Scriptural evidence.

In Matthew 12, the Bible tells us, “Going on from that place, [Jesus] went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"

He said to them, "If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?

How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."

Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.” (Matthew 12:9-14, NIV)

One of the hallmarks of Jesus’ ministry was healing people with miraculous power. The Pharisees knew this. So they run into a man with a shriveled hand, possibly from leprosy. The Pharisees see this as an opportunity to trap Jesus because it was the Sabbath. Manmade tradition prohibited Jewish people from doing much of anything on the Sabbath. So they think they’ve got Jesus nailed. They say, “Yeah, healing is all well and good, but you’re not going to do that on the Sabbath, are you?”

Jesus simply says, “Of course I am. If I’m going to heal somebody, then I’m going to heal them, regardless of what your religious traditions have to say about it.” He simply was not going to conform to what they wanted him to be.

And what blows me away about this story is that the Pharisees knew that Jesus could heal this guy! Jesus could perform incredible miracles of God. The Pharisees didn’t deny that. But instead of saying, “Wow, this Jesus is obviously from God. I should probably listen to him,” they couldn’t see beyond their own traditions. Because Jesus wouldn’t conform to be what they wanted him to be, their religion blinded them from seeing Jesus! They believed he could perform this miracle, they actually saw him perform this miracle, and yet they were so blinded by their religious traditions and paradigms that they went out and plotted how to kill Jesus. When we value religion above truth, which is essentially what the Pharisees did, it is so easy to be blinded from seeing and knowing the real Jesus.

Let’s look at even more Scriptural evidence that Jesus simply will not conform to what people want him to be. In Luke 7, Jesus said to the Pharisees, “"To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.’

For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.”’ (Luke 7:33-34, NIV)

Can’t you just feel the frustration in Jesus’ voice? He simply says, “I can’t win. There’s no pleasing these people. Play a happy song, they won’t dance. Sing a funeral song, they won’t cry.”

Then he said, “John the Baptist came along and he only ate locusts and wild honey. He never touched a drop of wine in his life. You weren’t happy with him. In fact, you said that his abstinence from bread and wine meant that he had a demon. Ok, now I’ve come along. I eat lots of bread. I drink my fair share of wine. And you call me a glutton and a drunkard. There’s no pleasing you people!”

Did you notice at every turn that the Pharisees wanted to define what was acceptable and what was unacceptable. If they were comfortable with something, if it fit their religious paradigm, then it was ok. Neither John’s abstinence nor Jesus’ perceived overindulgence (we know it was perceived because gluttony and drunkenness are both sinful, and Jesus lived a sinless life) were acceptable to the Pharisees, so they condemned them both. Had either one been willing to change into the mold of the Pharisees, then they would have accepted them. But John wouldn’t change. And Jesus certainly wouldn’t change.

The lesson that we’re seeing from the Scripture is that Jesus simply will not be constrained by what we want him to be. He doesn’t fit into our categories. He makes his own categories. The point is that Jesus came to comfort us, but we can never become comfortable with him. We can’t control or manipulate him. He doesn’t allow for that.

Now, back to our original story. The disciples have told Jesus who everybody thinks he is. But Jesus presses the issue.

[Jesus] said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:15-16, ESV)

Jesus simply wouldn’t be pigeonholed into the mold of what people thought he should be. So he dug deeper. He told his disciples, “Ok, you’ve told me who everybody else thinks I am. But what about you? Who do you think I am?”

Peter spoke up (as he usually did) and answered the question. But this time quick-tempered, impetuous, loud-mouthed Peter was dead on target. He looked at Jesus and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Peter understood that the word on the street about Jesus wasn’t right. People’s perceptions of Jesus were incomplete and inadequate. Peter knew that Jesus didn’t fit in any other category or paradigm. Jesus was breaking new ground. Jesus was creating a new category and providing a new paradigm. The reason he didn’t fit into another’s category was because he was unlike any other. He was the Christ. The promised Messiah. The one and only Son of God.

Only when we come to know the real Jesus can we have hope. Knowing a Jesus that must fit our preconceived notions or religious ideals is not knowing the real Jesus. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

That means that I must conform to Jesus, not the other way around. That means that I don’t get to define who Jesus is. That means that I must come to know him as he is revealed in the Bible. That means that I can’t cherry pick the Scripture passages that I like and leave out the ones that don’t fit my theology. If my theology isn’t based on the Scripture as a whole, if it is not based on the real Jesus, then it is incomplete and dangerous.

After Peter told Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” look at what Jesus said next.

Pick it up in verse 17. “And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

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.” (Matthew 16:17-18, ESV)

Let’s key in on verse 18. Jesus makes a little wordplay here on Simon’s nickname. His nickname became the name he is most known by today: Peter. Roughly translated into English, the name Peter would be similar to our name Rocky. Jesus said, “You are Peter. You are Rocky. And on this rock, I will build my church.”

Jesus would use Peter (a very weak and sinful man) as a key instrument to build his church. Jesus always uses flawed and imperfect people to lead his church. But please notice this. Even though Peter would be instrumental in building the church, it wasn’t Peter’s church.

Jesus made it very clear that, “I will build my church.” The church did not belong to Peter. And we can’t forget that truth.

This church does not belong to anyone here today. It is not yours. It is not mine. This church belongs to Jesus, which is even indicated by our name. We are the Amelia Church of Christ. Not the Amelia Church of You or the Amelia Church of Me. Jesus runs the show around here. Jesus sets the course. Jesus sets the vision. Jesus prunes and Jesus blesses.

And Jesus then makes an additional promise. “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18, ESV)

The gates of hell will not prevail against the church. Think about that for a minute. Gates are defensive structures. They are not offensive weapons. You don’t attack someone with a gate. The gate is there to keep the attacker out. Gates are defensive. Are you getting where we’re going? If the gates of hell will not prevail against the church, that means that the church is attacking those gates.

God’s call on our church is to be on offense. The gates of hell will not prevail against the church because hell is on defense. The church is on offense. And when the church is on offense, the gates of hell cannot stand up to her.

But it’s easy for the church to lose sight of its mission. It’s so incredibly easy to quit playing offense and start playing defense. It happens when we lose sight of why we exist. That’s why we need messages like this, so God can remind us why we’re here.

The plain fact is that the Amelia Church of Christ doesn’t exist to make me happy. It doesn’t exist to please me. And it doesn’t exist to make you happy or to please you, either. Nowhere in Scripture will you find a passage that tells us that the church exists to cater to us. We all have things in our church that we wish were different. All of us. But the point is that if something is going on in your church that you dislike, that doesn’t automatically make it wrong. You and I are not the arbiters of what is right and what is wrong. That’s why we have the Bible. God’s Word is the standard we live by. When the Bible speaks about something, we speak about it. When it is silent about something, we remain silent.

When we focus on personal preference, we lose our offensive momentum. We start playing defense.

When division creeps into a church, it can be a death sentence for the church’s mission. Again, remember that the church is called to be on offense. Division in a church puts that church in a defensive posture.

Mark Batterson wrote, “It grieves me when I see infighting in the church. We’re called to play offense. But we’re busy playing defense against people who are supposed to be on our team. So we waste all kinds of energy fighting with each other when we ought to be fighting the enemy. Think of it as sideways energy.

Here’s a thought: what if we used all that sideways energy and converted it into forward energy expanding God's kingdom?

Am I beyond criticism? Are you kidding me! I’m so flawed. And I’m so not omniscient. But I’d rather pick a fight with the enemy than pick a fight with a brother.

I’ve always subscribed to something attributed to Rupertus Meldenius. This is a great guiding principle:

In Essentials, Unity; in Non-essentials, Liberty; in All Things, Charity.”

When we spend time fighting and arguing over non-essential issues, we end up wasting our energy.

The Bible tells us that in Titus 3 when it says, “But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.” (Titus 3:9, NIV)

When we get bogged down with infighting and squabbling over issues that aren’t clear Biblical mandates, it is unprofitable and useless. That’s not me talking. That’s the Bible. It’s unprofitable and useless because it takes us off mission. It takes us from the offensive to the defensive side of the ball. And as any football player can tell you, it is more exhausting to play defense than offense.

In today’s Super Bowl, I can already tell you what the Patriots’ game plan is against the Giants. Their game plan is to keep Tom Brady and Randy Moss on the field. The more their offense is on the field, the more the Giants’ defense is going to wear down.

The reason is simple. When a wide receiver, like Randy Moss, takes off down the field, he knows where he is going. He knows the route that he is going to run. He knows the play that his team is executing.

But on defense, you’re constantly trying to guess. If you’re the Giants’ Corey Webster or Sam Madison and you’re covering Randy Moss, you’ve always got to try to guess where he’s going. If he makes a stutter step and you read it wrong, he’ll run right by you and you’ll have to run that much harder trying to catch up. The reason teams want to keep their offense on the field is because of the effect that it has on their opponent. It is more mentally and physically exhausting to play defense. Simply wear your opponent down by keeping them on defense, and you’re on track for victory.

In that same line of thinking, is it any wonder why Satan wants to keep the church on defense? If he can bring division into a church and put that church on defense, then he doesn’t have to worry about that church moving the Kingdom of God forward.

In recent months, there has been a fair amount of division in our church. There has been some criticism and some active campaigns against our church’s leadership and vision. And it has taken a great toll on our church. It has gotten us off mission. It has put us on defense. And it simply has to stop.

I understand the different stances people have. I really do. But we’ve got to be willing to agree to disagree on certain issues, not for my good or for your good, but for the good of God’s Kingdom. Ultimately, that’s what matters.

Before he was arrested and put to death, Jesus prayed this prayer for all those who would come to faith in him. He prayed, God, “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:23, NIV)

Jesus’ prayer for his church is complete unity. But what if you’ve tried and you just can’t get there. You’re just never going to be unified with our church or our leadership. I want to go back to something that I preached in our Decibels series in August of last year. I think it bears repeating here.

What happens when someone just can’t come to an agreement with the vision of their church? It’s not that this person doesn’t love God. It’s not that they don’t know Jesus. It’s just that they’re not unified with the leadership or they don’t line up with a church’s vision. What then?

Craig Groeschel, pastor of LifeChurch, wrote, “To have a really healthy church, you need to develop a climate that allows people to leave your church gracefully.

The church I came from years ago was sort of like the movie The Firm. Once you were in, you could never leave–at least not without controversy.

If you left the church, many people thought you were:

1) Betraying the pastor

2) Abandoning your friends

3) Disobeying God

After someone left, they were treated like they were leaving Christianity. That’s a tragedy. People change. What they have to offer a church changes. What they need from a church changes. When things change, hopefully you will have created an environment that allows people the opportunity to move on without controversy and pain.”

Craig said that he has actually had people write thank you notes to him as they left the church where he ministers because they were allowed to do it graciously. He said, “When I see them in public, we don’t have hard feelings. They aren’t “trash-talking” our church. And they still love God… they’re simply worshiping Him at another church.”

The Kingdom of God is bigger than any one church. If someone leaves one church and begins worshipping at another church, they’re not lost to the Kingdom. And if we’re really all about building God’s Kingdom, then think about this…wouldn’t God’s Kingdom benefit if everyone found a place where they could be fully unified with a church’s vision and mission. A place where they could fully support a church’s leadership and work with them to win their community for Christ.

I know this is going to raise an eyebrow or two, but no one is held hostage here at Amelia. This isn’t The Firm. Our church is changing as we pursue where God wants our church family to go. It’s possible that somebody here won’t be able to totally buy into what’s happening. They won’t be able to be in “complete unity” like Jesus prayed about. Does that make them a bad person? No. Does it mean that they aren’t a Christian? That’s ludicrous. It simply means that they aren’t unified with a church here. It doesn’t mean that they can’t be unified with a church here, or here, or here. And if after a time of prayer and seeking God’s will that person decides that the time has come to find another church to worship and serve with, isn’t the mature attitude to wish them well? To pray God’s continued blessing on their life. Isn’t the mature attitude one that says that I won’t speak ill of you, you won’t speak ill of me? Isn’t the mature attitude one that says that we still love one another in Christ, we just worship in different churches? There would be a lot less heartache, a lot more unity, and a lot more people coming to Jesus if more churches would take this step of Christian maturity. God’s Kingdom doesn’t revolve around our church. Our church is one of many in God’s Kingdom.

And before you think this is some pie-in-the-sky, impossible ideal, it’s not. When I was a kid, we left two different churches before we landed at my home church. My dad wasn’t a Christian at the time, so my mom was the driving force behind why my family changed churches. She simply didn’t line up with the vision and direction of these churches. But I can tell you this and it’s absolutely true. I never heard her utter one negative word about either church that we left. Not one. And once we found the church that was the right fit for us, our family flourished spiritually. This is not an impossible ideal. It’s a picture of spiritual maturity.

Now, where do we go from here? We go on offense. This is the state of the church message, and the state of our church is strong and it’s going to get stronger.

In the past two years, we have had more decisions for Christ and more membership additions to our church than in the previous five years. In two years, the number of decisions exceeded the previous five. Praise be to God! That’s some awesome stuff!

Now let’s talk about some of the exciting things to come in 2008.

Our leaders have decided to take a bold step of faith this year and hire a part-time children’s minister. How awesome if that going to be? Our children’s ministry is going to be completely revamped from the ground up. We’re going to renovate the basement, turning it into a hub of ministry that will be exciting and engaging for our kids. We’re looking to bring in a person who is passionate about ministering to children, teaching them, leading them in worship, having fun with them, and growing them in their relationship with Christ. It’s going to move our church forward by light years. Our community is looking for this. Our kids deserve this. And our church is committed to this.

If you’re in Jr. or Sr. High, then maybe you’ve already experienced where we’re going in your ministry this year. Our student ministry has already been re-created from the ground up. There is a new adult volunteer staff, there are new programs, new ideas, and a new energy and excitement. I attended the launch of our student ministry’s flagship program called Nexus last Sunday and I was blown away. Brian Morrissey and the entire staff in Luminous Student Ministries deserves our praise and encouragement. And this is just a sign of things to come for our teens.

But what if you’re older than a teenager…maybe a lot older than a teenager. Last week I attended a meeting of the Golden Ambassadors, our seniors ministry, and I was so encouraged to see them planning out the calendar for their ministry this year. There are a lot of fun outings planned, plus some great ministry projects benefiting organizations like the Ronald McDonald House and The City Gospel Mission. I left so excited about our vibrant seniors ministry. Absolutely awesome stuff.

We’ve got a new evangelism series coming up called Just Walk Across the Room that will lead us to our biggest evangelistic opportunity of the year: Easter Sunday. You can sign up for a book in the foyer today. It’s all about how to go on offense and take our faith to people who desperately need Jesus.

We’ve got exciting fellowship events planned for this year. Some are staples that are on our church calendar every year. Some are new opportunities to fellowship together as God’s family.

We’re looking to expand our discipleship even further. People are growing in their faith like crazy in our church and we want to keep that going. We’ve got a great Bible study offered on Sunday nights led by one of our elders, Yance Pyle. It’s here tonight at 6:30. It’s a discussion format aimed at a deeper understanding of God’s Word.

I’ll be offering another session of Ground Floor, a class that teaches the foundational, basic truths of our faith. Our last session was unbelievable and if you want to get in on it for the next session, stay tuned. We’ll announce the dates soon.

And this is just a tiny sample of what 2008 holds for our church family. We’re on offense. And I think Satan is running scared. He’s going on defense, which is right where we want him.

The point of it all is this: we exist to glorify God, to reach people far from God, and to love them into a growing relationship with God. It’s a huge mission, but we have a huge God.

The Bible tells us that God, “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…” (Ephesians 3:20, NIV)

God’s power is at work in us and in our church. And as we remain faithful to him and his Word, he’s going to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine.

May we have the heartbeat of Jesus expressed in Luke 2:49: “I must be about my Father's business.” (Luke 2:49b, KJV)

Mike Edmisten

Tags: State of the Church, church, division, Matthew 16, Peter, unity, vision