Latest / HBCWestminster / 9.6.20 Matthew 16:16-18 Pastor Danny Gardner

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9.6.20 Matthew 16:16-18 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  If you've got your Bibles, you can open to Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16 and verses 16 to 18 will be our text this morning. I know that's a little bit different than normal. We have been going through the gospel of Luke, but this morning would ask you to turn to Matthew 16, beginning in verse 18. And if you're able to stand in honor of God's word, I would ask you to stand now. Matthew 16 verses 16 to 18. And it says, Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ.
• 0:31
  the son of the living God. 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. You pray with me, Lord, we lift up our church to you in prayer. God, we ask that you would make us
• 1:00
  the body of believers that you have envisioned. We ask that you make your will known among us. We ask that you make your mission known among us. Be glorified this morning, Lord Jesus, in the preaching of your word. And it's in your name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, thank you, church. You can be seated. Every year on Labor Day Sunday, today, we take a pause from our normal sermon series.
• 1:27
  in order to ensure that our direction as a church is in line with our stated mission and vision and for some who may be newer to highland if you're newer to our church than a year ago when we did this in 2019 these realignment sundays as they've come to be known have been wonderful
• 1:45
  because they help to define who we are. They help to define even the expectations placed upon our pastors, our board members, and congregants. And many who are new to our church, after hearing these expectations, the ones that I will share this morning, join our church, join our membership with enthusiasm, knowing clearly why we exist and what we do. Some, after hearing these expectations and priorities as a congregation,
• 2:10
  have politely excused themselves from our midst they've found another church in town that better fits their desires and honestly church i'm good with either one but some who have been a part of highland for many years may think these sundays unnecessary asking themselves do we really have to hear the same thing again every year a realignment sunday and the church and the answer church is yes yes we do these every year because the casting of vision
• 2:38
  is like pouring water into a bucket with a bunch of holes punched in it vision leaks it is easy to forget what we are doing here and so vision because it leaks has to be constantly refilled those buckets those leaky buckets have to be refilled and so allow me to take a moment to refill your buckets highland is actually a pretty old church we began as a church plant of northwest
• 3:05
  Baptist Church, in 1965, we have been open for 56 years. In fact, Highland predates any of our current attendees and members. Now, that is not to say that everybody is younger than 56 years. Quite the contrary, in fact. But rather, nobody in our midst currently has been attending the entire time. Our church building predates every other structure around it. Houses.
• 3:30
  Our City Hall and Police Station, the Barnes & Noble down the street, the Walmart down on Sheridan. When ground was broken for this building, it was the only thing around. Even 92nd Avenue was a dirt road. There was no 36. There was no Boulder Turnpike.
• 3:48
  Highland was planted with the vision to evangelize and eventually make disciples of what was then and still kind of is the up-and-coming northwest quadrant of Denver. Westminster, Broomfield, Thornton, North Glen, and Arvada, none of whose boundaries at the time touched. The founding members' hope was that God would bless this body to the point that they would themselves perchance plant another church someday, and that is still our hope.
• 4:17
  Our mission statement says this, and you'll see it on the screen. Highland Baptist Church exists to communicate the life-changing message of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you could stop right there, church. We exist to communicate the gospel. We exist to preach the gospel. That is our only purpose for having this church to preach, to evangelize the lost. And everything we do, including...
• 4:44
  Our Sunday morning worship services, our Wednesday night thrive sessions, family worship nights, even our fun events like family movie nights, all of those exist for the preaching of the gospel. Even in getting together and just watching a movie on the grass, our hope is that our neighbors will come, experience the love and grace of the church of Jesus Christ.
• 5:06
  feel compelled to come and worship with us and experience the life-transforming message of the gospel. That is why we exist, but here's how we do that. We do that by equipping the saints for the work of ministry. You know, and we hear this all the time at our church and from our pulpit, that our job
• 5:24
  as members of the church is to go out and win to win disciples it is not the pastor's job to evangelize your friends it is your job the pastor's job is to give you the tools to equip you with the tools to go and do it and so we equip the saints for the work of ministry through the preaching of god's word anytime you visit highland you'll know anytime we are here for our worship service the bible will be open it is god's word that is preached
• 5:49
  the preaching of God's word and the empowering of the Holy Spirit. And so our goal is to give you the tools necessary by the preaching of God's word and that God would empower you by his spirit to go out and win disciples of Jesus Christ. That's our mission. Our vision is to train Christ followers.
• 6:08
  whose goal it would be to plant and support churches when and where the Lord allows in order to replicate this mission. And so our hope is that as we are going and making disciples of Christ, that those disciples of Christ would go and make disciples of Christ and that that mission would be replicated for many generations to come as long as the Lord tarries and until he returns. And what we must understand is that that same mission and vision exists here at Highland today, the same mission and vision that have always existed.
• 6:38
  Our desire is to preach the gospel where it has not been preached. Our desire is to raise up new disciples of Christ, to strengthen and train them, and then to plant and establish new churches where the church's presence is weak. And church, beloved church, what a time to be alive and what a place the Lord has put us. We live in one of the fastest growing cities.
• 7:04
  in america the people of america are coming to denver we don't even have to go out to them the people are coming to us and this is why there are town homes going up all over the place this is why the traffic is building to the glory of god a little bit annoying takes us five minutes longer to get home but what that means is god is bringing the people to us and it is our goal to plant churches where there are where there is no church influence and around here north denver that's everywhere that is everywhere
• 7:34
  More churches are needed. That is our heart's desire. And honestly, if that is your desire, then you're going to love it here. You really will. You will love the church. If you're new to the church, we want to say welcome you. We would love to welcome you into our midst by membership. You can reach out to the church and contact us and let you know you're interested in membership and we'll tell you how to do that. But that is why we exist. That is what we are doing. But this year's realignment is a bit different than in years past.
• 8:02
  Never before in our 56 years of existence has a realignment been so vital. COVID has shaken to its foundation our understanding of what the church truly is. We've been forced to ask ourselves questions that until 2020 we never even considered. Like, is the church essential? That question was asked this year. And we got a little glimpse.
• 8:29
  this year into what our state and local governments consider essential businesses. When we were told to stay inside and away from other people. We were told that small business owners would simply have to take one for the team by closing their shops, their hair salons, restaurants, chiropractic offices, and sporting goods stores for the sake of public health. We were told that schools, museums, sporting events,
• 8:56
  All religious worship services were too high risk and therefore non-essential. They would have to be closed. What really chafed against many believers, including myself, was that all of those were forced to be closed. All the while, liquor stores, marijuana dispensaries, and abortion clinics here in Colorado remained wide open. Business was booming, in fact, for them. Here's another question that was asked this year that really has not very well been asked before. Is gathering in person?
• 9:26
  necessary, or can church be provided online? I'm going to deal with an issue this morning that is gaining popularity in recent decades among those prone to church anti-establishment. You say, church what? Church anti-establishment. There is a growing number of Christians who have all but cast off the local church. They don't attend. They're not members. They're not involved. Honestly, they have no intention of becoming involved.
• 9:57
  The statement they make is often, I don't have to be a part of a local church to worship Jesus. I hear that frequently actually on the north side of Denver. That is pervasive among believers. I don't have to be a part of a church to worship Jesus. The question they'll ask, why can't it just be me, Jesus, and the mountains? I'll just go to the mountains every weekend. I mean, that's my worship service. It's just me, Jesus, and the mountains. We'll deal with that here in just a moment. Another one.
• 10:23
  Another question that has been asked this year that I've never heard asked before, but we are forced to grapple with now. Are people who are made in the image of God and whose souls therefore will last for eternity, either in heaven or in hell, are people nothing more than giant germ buckets to be avoided? Or...
• 10:46
  Is it honestly incumbent upon us believers to really genuinely meet the needs of others? Do we have to be around other people in order to accomplish the great commission? Church, staying at home may be saving lives, but it's costing souls. Evangelism is only effective when it is life on life. You've got to be with other people.
• 11:15
  Bridging the gaps, bridging the gap for the gospel. And there is therefore a phrase that we need to work on phasing out, Thailand. The phrase is, I'm just not comfortable. I'm just not comfortable. I have heard that phrase hundreds of times in the last six months that people have considered coming back to church, going back to work, putting their kids back in school. I mean, even just going about normal, what were normal daily activities. I'm just not comfortable.
• 11:44
  Some things which have been a part of the human experience for millennia have suddenly become suspect. Crowds shaking hands, singing in public, even speaking face to face are now being talked about like they're just a part of the past and we should just move on. Our comfort seemingly has become king. The problem is, church, that we cannot minister to others in the church.
• 12:11
  Nor can we minister to our unsaved friends and family apart from being with them. The Bible is divided into two sections, Old and New Testaments. Contained within these testaments are 66 books, and contained within these books are 1,189 chapters. Contained within these chapters are 31,102 verses. The number of words contained in those verses depends on the translation you use, but if we go old school King James,
• 12:43
  then contained in the Bible are 783,137 words inspired by God. And church, not one of them is really very concerned with your personal comfort. Not one. In fact, many of them actually preach the exact opposite. If you're comfortable, there might be a problem spiritually. This morning, I will attempt to answer these questions.
• 13:14
  by answering two different questions using the answers given by the Word of God. And so the two questions that I hope to answer this morning, I hope will by extension answer some of these questions that we have been confronted with as a church in 2020 that the church has never been confronted with before. And the two questions I will answer are first, what is the church? What is the church? And then second, what is my role in it? What is the church and what is my role in the church? And so let's look first.
• 13:44
  What is the church? How is the church defined in scripture? And for that, I'm going to turn to Jesus's own words in Matthew chapter 16. There's one phrase that I just want to focus on in verse 18. Verse 18, one phrase, you'll notice it says, I will build my church, which is where our title this morning comes from. I will build my church. You'll notice first,
• 14:13
  that the church as defined by Jesus himself is a gathering of believers. The first use of the term church appears here in Matthew's gospel. And although that same word appears dozens more times throughout the book of Acts in the epistles and in the book of Revelation, it is only used twice by Jesus himself and here most prominently.
• 14:41
  Jesus used in verse 18 the Greek word ekklesia, ekklesia, a word that was used commonly to refer to many different types of public gatherings, but he used it here in a new way. The literal definition of the term ekklesia is called out ones, called out ones. It referred to an assembly or a congregation of people that was intentionally different. And that is indeed exactly what the church is.
• 15:09
  Jesus has called out of the sea of humanity. He has called out a people for his own, called out them to live intentionally differently, that they would gather, that they would assemble. That is the church. And when Hebrews 12 and 23 describes the future inhabitants of heaven, it calls us, and I quote, the general assembly and church of the firstborn.
• 15:38
  Hebrews 12.23 uses the word ekklesia, a gathering, an assembly, a church. Jesus' use of the term makes it synonymous with any gathering of redeemed, all citizens of heaven who congregate for worship of his name. That, he says, is a church. But that is the key. The church is an assembly of believers.
• 16:08
  It is impossible to have an assembly without assembling. It is impossible to have a congregation without congregating. And church, this is why our online worship must be temporary. It must be temporary. I would tell you, make sure you hear me, church. And I know that some of you guys, you're still hardcore quarantining.
• 16:38
  You still haven't come out of your house. You're still, you know, kind of battening down the hatches. And I would encourage you, be wise, be wise. Use the discretion that the Lord gave you regarding your own health. But church, don't wait a single Sunday longer than you have to in order to gather with us again. Don't wait a single Sunday longer because you can't, despite what you hear in popular society, despite the encouragement of our governor, you cannot have church online.
• 17:07
  There's no such thing. You can worship the Lord online, but you cannot have church online because the church is, by its definition, an assembling, a gathering together of believers. Notice also in verse 18, the certainty with which Christ spoke of the church. He says in that one phrase, I will build my church. I will.
• 17:35
  I will statement is in the future tense. It means that the work that God had begun in establishing a people for himself and for his name, he would, Jesus would continue to do until its completion. I will continue to build my church. And his certainty in that statement means that we can trust that his plan will be completed.
• 18:02
  You want to know what Jesus was doing 2000 years ago when he came to earth? The answer is building his church. You want to know what Jesus is doing today in 2020? The answer is building his church. Do you want to know, church, what will happen if the United States of America falters? Do you want to know what will happen if the United States of America fails?
• 18:29
  If it completely goes under, if we become a failed state, you want to know what Jesus will be doing? The answer is building his church. Building his church. The certainty with which the sovereign God speaks. In this statement, I will cannot falter. He began a work. He will complete it. And church, it is the same language used when Philippians chapter 1 and verse 6 says that he began a work in you.
• 18:59
  and will be faithful to complete it. Jesus is building his church on earth. Jesus is building his kingdom in you, and he will be faithful to complete that work. Notice, finally, in verse 18, the intimacy with which Christ spoke of the church. Notice he says, in that one statement, I will build my church. My church.
• 19:31
  One of the questions the church at large has been confronted with in the year 2020 is, who is the head of the church? What authority do governors and presidents have over the body of Christ in America? Whose church is it? We have a mantra that you will hear repeatedly at Highland, and it is this, a statement that is often repeated, Jesus is the head of this church.
• 20:02
  It is not Danny's church. Please never refer to it as my church. It's not my church. I don't have a church. I died for no one's sins. No sermons are ever preached about me. Nobody at Highland is ever baptized in my name. This is Jesus's church. And I don't even, in that statement, just mean Highland. Highland is Jesus's church.
• 20:30
  But the worldwide church through the generations belongs to Christ. He is the church's architect, its builder, its owner, its Lord. He considers members within the church his own possession. He calls us his own. And not only do members of his church belong to him, they are his very body. And this is why...
• 20:56
  when somebody attacks the church they're not only attacking the church they're attacking christ himself you'll recall when saul before his conversion and he became the apostle paul when saul was actively seeking out the church in order to persecute it and christ appears to him and stops him in his tracks and christ says to him saul saul why do you persecute me he doesn't say why do you persecute the church
• 21:26
  But rather, why do you persecute me? And the answer, the reason he does that is because an attack on the church is an attack on Christ. And make no mistake, Hyland, the church in America is under attack. I think like never before. I've not yet completed five decades on this planet. Five decades as an American.
• 21:53
  But man, I have never heard of attacks on the church, purposeful attacks on the church like are going on now in the United States of America. And whether all of those have been intentional or not by our elected officials, by our governors and county managers, I think is difficult to determine. Only the Lord knows their intention. Only the Lord knows their hearts. But the attack has certainly been intentional by the enemy of our souls.
• 22:25
  Satan's strategy is to hurt Christ. That's what he wants. The way that he is carrying his strategy out is to hurt and divide and conquer the people of God. Jesus will build his own church, a gathering of called out ones called by his name, members of his very body.
• 22:51
  And to attack that body is to attack the Lord. And so that is first. What is the church? That's what the church is. Jesus is its head. We are his body. We are a gathering, an assembly of believers. But the second main question I'm going to answer this morning is, what is my role in the church? What is my role in the church? Do I have to go? Is it imperative that believers in Jesus Christ be a part of a local church?
• 23:22
  What if I'm just not comfortable? And my hope is to finally put to rest the argument that the Bible never says you have to go to church. You know how many times I have heard people use that argument? I have heard people tell me, yeah, Pastor Danny, the Bible never says you have to go to church in order to be a believer. The Bible never says you have to go to church in order to be faithful. Yes, it does. Yes, it does.
• 23:48
  Hebrews 10.24 just flat out says, Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together as some are in the habit of doing. Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. That is the church. We just defined it. Ecclesia. I will build my church. The church is a called out assembly. And now here in Hebrews 10.24 it says, Don't forsake assembling together. It does say that you need to be a part of the church. Now I have heard for most of my life.
• 24:18
  that it can just be me and Jesus. It's just me and Jesus. Now, granted, listen, church, I have never heard a healthy believer say that. I've never heard a healthy believer say that. I've only ever heard believers say that. It's just me and you. I don't need the church. You don't need organized religion. You can believe in Jesus. It's just Jesus, you, and the mountains. The only people I ever heard say that, honestly, are the ones who are faltering spiritually. I'm being honest. Those are the people I hear say that. But I believe the apostle Paul said it best in Romans 12.
• 24:49
  in verse 15, and I would encourage you to turn there. Romans 12 and verse, not verse 15, I'm sorry, verse 5. Romans 12 and verse 5. He says, so we, speaking of the church, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members one of another. Let's look at that again. Romans 12, 5. We, though many,
• 25:20
  are one body in Christ and individually members one of another. Your role in the church can be summarized in two words. Are you ready for them? Everyone else. Do you have to go? Yeah. Why? Everyone else. Do I have to gather? Yeah. Why? Everyone else.
• 25:46
  Everyone else. You belong. I belong to everyone else. Everybody else in the church owns me. I belong to them. And therefore, for me to purposely forsake the assembling of ourselves is to really steal myself from the other members of the church to whom I belong. There is a narcissistic cancer pervasive in the minds of human beings.
• 26:18
  We often cannot see beyond our own noses. And because the church is full of human beings, this cancer also exists within the body of Christ. And our calling as a congregation called out to live differently, our calling as a church is to combat that narcissism. The English phrase here used in verse 5, one another, when it says members of one another.
• 26:48
  That English phrase is actually one word in the Greek, the word alelon, alelon, one another. That word alelon means mutual or reciprocal. That's literally what it means, that there is a reciprocity in the church, a reciprocity in the faith. I give and you give, and until we're both giving, neither of our needs gets met, a reciprocal.
• 27:16
  Faith, and that word alelon, what is translated in English, one another, that word is used 100 times in the New Testament. 100 times! It's used both in the positive and negative sense. In other words, there are some things we are supposed to do one to another. There are some things we are not supposed to do one to another.
• 27:43
  But all 100 instances refer to dealings within the body of Christ, within the church, and all 100 instances are imperatives. All 100 instances are imperatives. You say, what does that mean? That means that all 100 times it is used, one another, it is used as a command. We are commanded.
• 28:10
  to do these things one to another or not to do these things one to another. They are not optional statements. They are commands. C.S. Lewis one time said that scripture is like a lion. He said, it doesn't need to be defended. Just let it loose. It'll defend itself. Scripture is a lion. Just let it loose. And so I'm not going to give a great deal of explanation on this point. Rather, I'm just going to simply let the word of God loose.
• 28:36
  to do whatever that lion needs to do in your heart i'm going to give you and they're just going to be on your screen and you can push pause and look up each of these references if you'd like i'm just going to let you drink from the fire hose of god's word for about a minute and a half and i'm just going to show you 31 instances there are 100 instances 31 instances of the one another commands in god's word and at the end of it let's you can decide for yourself
• 29:02
  whether the church is necessary, whether the gathering together of believers is necessary or not. Here they are. John 13, 34, love one another. Romans 12, 10, be devoted to one another. Also Romans 12, 10, honor one another. Romans 12, 16, live in harmony with one another. Romans 14, 19, build one another up. Romans 15, 5, be like-minded toward one another. Romans 15, 7, accept one another.
• 29:31
  Romans 15, 14, admonish one another. Romans 16, 16, greet one another. 1 Corinthians 12, care for one another. Galatians 5, 13, serve one another. Galatians 6, 2, bear one another's burdens. Ephesians 4, verse 2, forgive one another. Colossians 3, 13, be patient with one another. Ephesians 4, 15, speak the truth to one another in love.
• 29:59
  Ephesians 4.32 Ephesians 5.19 Ephesians 5.21 Philippians 2.3 Philippians 2.4 Colossians 3.13 Colossians 3.16 1 Thessalonians 4.18
• 30:29
  1 Thessalonians 5.11, encourage one another. Hebrews 3.13, exhort one another. Hebrews 10.24, stir up, that means provoke, stimulate one another to love and good works. 1 Peter 4.9, show hospitality to one another. 1 Peter 4.10, employ the gifts that God has given you for the benefit of one another. 1 Peter 5.5, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another. James 5.16,
• 30:56
  Pray for one another. Also, James 5.16, confess your faults to one another. In church, the honest truth is we just cannot fulfill the one another's online. We can't. Dale Partridge has said this, you can do a lot over the internet, but like you can't raise a child through FaceTime calls or maintain a marriage over Zoom, a Christian cannot survive on internet church.
• 31:27
  At some point, you must see that you're a member of a body, a sheep and a flock, a living stone in God's building. That is, the one and others of scripture are not virtual. They're physical. And he just says, get back with the people of God. Church, I want to say this delicately. I really do because I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. But every day that passes, every online sermon I record,
• 31:58
  I feel like Highland is turning into more and more two congregations. There is the Highland that gathers and worships and takes communion together. Then there is the Highland that just stays away, that stays online, that stays at home. And for those who are still quarantining and have not yet turned off this sermon, because I think, if I'm honest, church, I think a few probably have at this point. I've probably lost some hearers.
• 32:29
  But for those who are still quarantining and have not yet turned us off, I know that the health issues are real. They are real. I know that the risk is real. Whether you should come back to worship with us or not is between you, your Lord, and your doctor. I really believe that. And there will not be judgment cast if you cannot come. If you just say, Danny, I really am at high risk. I can't come yet. That's okay. Make sure you hear me. That's okay, church. I will continue to do these online sermons.
• 32:58
  As long as Highland needs it, we are committed to continue to do them. Indefinitely if we have to. Indefinitely. But church, don't stay away forever. Don't stay away because of fear. Don't stay away because you deemed the church unnecessary. Look to the word of God. Look to the word of God. Jesus didn't define it that way. Let's pray. Lord, this is your church.
• 33:29
  And we are your people. We are the people of your pasture. God, may we align our hearts with yours. May we align our hearts with your mission. Align our hearts with your vision. God, in every year, we'll ask again next year that we would realign every single year to make sure that we are going the direction that you want us to go. And so, Lord, enlighten your will to us and glorify yourself in us, we pray. Amen.