Why I Love The Church - Preached Aug 22, 2010

“Why I Love the Church”
Source Texts - Ezekiel 36:24-28; Ephesians 5:25-30
Preached by Justin Ahlgrim at First Presbyterian Church of Rochelle, IL August 22, 2010


Let’s start with some prayer. Lord, thank you for this day. Lord prepare our hearts and our ears for this message. May we be attentive to what you have for us today. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Your sight O Lord our rock and our redeemer. Amen.


There was a church that was conducting a national poll surveying people’s views of the church. So they were asking people all sorts of questions. Who do you think Jesus is? What’s your experience with the church etc? It’s said that one guy when asked “what is your church preference?” He thought about it for a while, a good minute. He was pretty confident in his answer and he responded boldly, “My church preference is red brick.”


People have all sorts of different opinions about what the church is, how she should be run and it is really no surprise. In America alone there are over 2,000 Christian denominations, Roman Catholic being one. In Rochelle alone just in this area we have about thirty churches. So it is really no surprise that people have different experiences with the church and different perspectives on the church. However I feel like in culture today and even in our churches there’s been this growing perspective that has been hurtful to the church and it takes place in a form of a question. Why go to church? Why even go anymore? I mean, when I look at the newscast every once in a while there is always some big problem with the church. Stereotypically the church is seen as hypocritical and judgmental. There are problems with the church. Even in this church we’re going through some transition. We don’t have a senior pastor right now. We are going through this big process and it can be tough. I wonder if in the back of our minds, sometimes in my mind there is the question, “Why even go to church?” Should we keep it up? Ghandi, he’s famous for saying, “I love your Jesus but I don’t really like your Christians.” It's almost like today's culture's beef isn't with loving Jesus (what it means to be Christian), it's with the Christians themselves, and more specifically, it's the Church that's seen as the problem. There's a separation. Today, it's almost as if its okay to love Jesus ... as long as we don't love the Church.


A recent author, Ann Rice who wrote the Vampire Chronicles series, and I don’t know what’s up with vampires these days seems like everyone loves vampires. Anyways, Ann Rice, she wrote “An Interview With a Vampire” and some other vampire books. She recently denounced her faith in the church and organized religion. She writes this, “For those who care and I understand if you don’t. Today I quite being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ but not to being Christian or a part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to belong to this quarrelsome hostile and deservedly infamous group. For ten years I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else. In the name of Christ I quit Christianity and being Christian.” I feel like this perspective on seeing a separation between loving Jesus and loving the church is becoming ever-more common. Today spirituality is hot but religion is not. Organized religion is often seen as oppressive, irrelevant, and a waste of time. The world is crying out, “Sure love Jesus but the church, don’t love the church.” I think if we look at the words of Jesus we find something different. I think if we listen to him we’ll hear three words from our beloved Savior: Love the church. I think Christ is calling us to love the church. There is something special about the church. In fact I believe we should love the church one, because Christ loves the church, two, because we benefit from the church and three, because Christ commands us to love the church. That’s what I want to dive into today.


I want us to go back to Ephesians to see how Christ loves the church. Ephesians 5:25-30, “Husbands love your wives just as Christ loves the church and gave himself up for her in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of the water by the word so as to present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or anything of any kind yet so she may be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself for no one ever hates his own body but he nourishes it. He tenderly cares for it just as Christ does for the church for we are members of His body.” You see I love passages like these because I feel like I don’t even need to preach on it. It says it right there, Christ loves the church. That’s why he came to die on the cross for our sins: to make a people. You see I feel like we can get so caught up in “Jesus wants to have a personal relationship with him and you” and that’s true but that’s not all he came for. Christ came to make a people. He came for the church. He died for her to make us holy and clean so that we could build one another up. In fact the relationship between Christ and the church is described as a body. so without further ado, This is Ken and he is here to help you out today. The relationship between Christ and the church is described as the head on the body. Ephesians helps clarify what this truth means when it says that “no one hates his own body.” Let me show you what I think that means. Who has heads in this room? We have some heads? Good. Would it bother you if your body were completely gone? Of course, of course it would. You need your body. It would be ridiculous notion. It’s the same with Christ. Christ could have worked in the world in a variety of ways. Instead he chooses to use the church for his glory. Christ chooses to use us to be the light in the world to evangelize to people, to share with people the good news, to serve and love others. We’re his own body. and He loves us. as His own body. Well when people say, “I love Jesus,” but they live in such a way that they don’t love the church ...well it’s like playing with the head of Ken but not the body ... which would be ridiculous. Who wants to play with Ken like this? It would be crazy but there are people who say forget the church there’s too many problems. Well it would be like living the Christian life like this: with just a head but not the body. We should love the church because Christ does as his own body.


Secondly we should love the church because we benefit from the church. Ephesians talks about this, Ephesians 1:22-23 says, “God has put all things under Jesus’ feet and has made him the head over all things the church which is his body, “listen up,” “the fullness of him who fills all in all.” I truly believe if you want to experience and know the fullness of Jesus Christ it can’t be by living the Christian life alone. If you want to experience the fullness of Christ you find it here. You find it in the church where we specifically do practices to help build and encourage your faith. We do prayers for a reason and giving and tithes and offering and preaching and the teaching of the word in worshipping through song and gathering together to build one another up. This church benefits our spiritual lives like nothing else. It is the main means that Christ has us to build up our faith. we should love the church because we benefit from the church. We experience and know and grow in the fullness of Jesus Christ ... right here.


I believe we should love the church because Christ does. I believe we should love the Church because we benefit from the church, but most importantly I think we should love the church because Christ commands us to. Can we go over to John thirteen? Now many of you have heard this passage before. Jesus is talking to his disciples. John 13:34-35 says this, “I give you a new commandment that you love one another just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another." I feel like when I first heard that passage I told myself, “Oh yeah I’ve heard it before. Love, love people, I get it. I mean everyone knows that Christians are supposed to love people, ok.” But I’m not sure that’s what Jesus is saying here. I mean Jesus says I give you a new commandment. The old commandment would be love everyone. Leviticus 19:18, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” I think Jesus is saying something different here. Look at it. “A new commandment I give you, love one another.” He is talking with his disciples. Love one another as I have loved you so love one another. I think Jesus is saying three words to his disciples. Any guesses? Love the church. That’s what he’s saying. Love one another. Your love for the church, “by this people will know you are my disciples” and my followers by how you love the church, by how you love other Christians, by how you build one another up, by this time here people will know you are my disciples for your love for one another just as I have loved you and gave up my life for you so love the church. We’re called to love the church.


I think it’s easy for us to go to church service and think about things we don’t like or things that bother us. For a moment I want you to think about why do you love the church? Why do you love the church? I would like to call up some people to help us out with that. question Would Pauline, Nicole, Joe and Paul come up and just share a little bit why they love the church?


Paul Busching speaking: I love the church because the church first loved me really. The church is where I met the believers that introduced me to Jesus who by his Holy Spirit made me understand that he died for my sins and he saved me. I love this church because and it’s hard to think about why I love this church without trying to name names here. The one thing I take away every week when I come here is it’s that obedience to God’s presence that I see here every day. The marriages that are measured in fractions of centuries. The friendships that I see over decades being practiced and renewed in the fellowship hall and the relationships that just cross generations and we keep renewing them here because we’re here every day, every week and that obedience to the presence is why I love the church.


Pauline Cultra: Probably most of you know that this past year for me has been the most difficult year of my life because my son who’s had leukemia for a long time was told the only hope he had was to have a stem cell transplant. He was so excited and so assure it would work but the last four months of his life was terrible. It was horrible to watch this as a parent and I couldn’t do anything about it. But this church was so loving to me. The choir gave me a food shower and I can’t tell you enough how thankful I am for this church for being so loving to me and my family. I’ve had lots of problems after this because I over react nearly about everything. And I need to be here. My profession is this but I certainly gain a lot by being here. For me the church are not perfect people and if I’m told there’s so many hypocrites in it, I would rather be with the hypocrites in the church which I think is a small minority. I’m hypocritical too but then outside of the church. I love to be with the group of believers. Certainly you’ve shown me that you are a group of believers. Thank you.


Nicole McKinley: I would like Pauline to stay here because she actually is an illustration of what I would like to talk about. When Justin called me I asked him first are you talking about the local church or are you talking about the church universal. It occurred to me that there is no difference, it’s all the same. As Christians we’re never promised to be happy but we are given assurances that we can be joyful. I can tell you from my own personal experience. The periods of times in my life which are pretty much all the time that I am most joyful is when I am allowed to serve. The church has given me opportunities to serve in amazing ways. Pauline just alluded to what the choir did to help her out. I can tell you serving is always God inspired. God works through us and gives us the opportunities to do things that really count, that means something to individuals and to groups. For that I cherish this church and I cherish the church universal for the opportunities to serve as the hands and feet and the head and the heart and the voice for God to just hopefully be that person that God wants me to be.


Joe Medema: And I just love this church for the real beauty that it is with people like this. Well I do love the church and there’s no doubt in my mind that one of the reasons I love this church is because this is a sanctuary out of the real world I can come to and worship my Lord and Savior. But more then that I look out across there and I’ve got family all out there. I’ve got friends, I’ve got people I love but more than that when I look out here I see the face of Jesus on all of you who believe in Jesus Christ. When I go out this door what I want to be is equipped to go out this door and share that love that I feel in here with the rest of the world. Just a little bit of what I feel here I want to share out there and that’s the love of this church.


I don’t know why you love the church. I’m sure there’s lots of reasons you can choose from whether it’s the kindness the church has shown you, whether it’s the pastoral care, whether it’s someone that prayed for you or loved you or showed you love, whether it’s a chance to use your gifts and to serve, I don’t know. Whether it’s because Christ loves you and loves the church and calls you to love the church I encourage you ... just love the church. Make church a priority. Don’t just wipe it off the calendar. Make it a priority to get together. Do not neglect meeting together as some people do, Hebrews 10:24. Love the church, engage in it. Don’t just sit in the seats but worship with the music, worship when you pray, worship when you give, worship. Love the church; love the church with your gifts. Don’t let your spiritual gifts and the ways you can serve go to waste. How can you help children’s ministry, youth ministry, adult ministry, men’s and women’s ministry? How is God calling you to love the church because he calls us all to it?


Ultimately I think the Christian life is more than just an aimless head. Christ made a body for a reason.


Let’s pray. Lord thank you for your love for the church. Continue to teach us to love the church. Help us to use our gifts to glorify you. In Your name we pray. Amen.


Justin Ahlgrim

Youth Director

First Presbyterian Church

Rochelle, Illinois