The Dignity of the Church

Well, a good coach knows that teams that are well-schooled in the essentials, the basics, the fundamentals, will more often than not be the team that will win the game. All else being equal, it is the team that is better in the basics, the essentials of playing a sport that will be the better team. In basketball, that might mean knowing when and how to pass the proper defensive stance, but a box out, you are opponent to get a rebound. Those simple, but basic, fundamental things you do over and over and over again in drills and practices. That is what wins ball games. In baseball, it is proper base running technique or proper fielding technique or being able to hit the cutoff man when you throw back into the infield from outfield. In football, it is proper tackling technique, proper blocking technique. It is how the runner holds the football and as he gets to where he cuts the corner, shifts it to the outside arm. It is those simple, basic things that will win games. Every coach knows that and that is why there are so many camps and drills that go over and over and over and over those basics that you learned in elementary school. Get those down. We are going to do that today, not for basketball or football or baseball. We are going to do it for the church because the church sometimes needs to be reminded of the basics, the essentials as a church. I am so thankful here at Johnson Chapel that we have an amazing variety of highly specialized ministries. But one of the potential downsides of that is that we can become so easily focused on a little niche, a little specific piece of the puzzle that we developed tunnel vision and we lose sight of the big picture of the church, of the basics, the foundation, the essentials of what the church really is, what it is about and what it is supposed to do. So, Paul calls Timothy and us in the passage we look at today in 1st Timothy chapter 3 to an understanding to a reminder of, to a vision of the dignity of the church. The essentials of what a church is, of what we are to focus on, what we are to be and do. 1st Timothy 3 verses 14 through 16, just three short verses but they are pivotal not only in this book but in our understanding of the church and what the church is to be and to do. Our passage really is a summary midway through the book of why Paul is even writing this book of 1st Timothy. If Timothy wonders, Paul, why are you focusing on what we should believe, what our doctrine should be chapter 1, what our worship should be chapter 2, what our leadership should be chapter 3 and as he will in chapter 4 through 6, various warnings about dangers that the church will face and also some essentials, some miscellaneous items about church order and function that he will talk about. Why is all this important? Why even write me, Paul, and owner's manual of the church? Why give me these instructions? It's like Paul, right smack in the middle of this letter, backs up to say, okay, let's take a break, time out, I want to tell you why this is so important. And what he does is he vividly paints a portrait of the dignity of the church. It is because of, first of all, the nature of the church and the message of the church and how critical those are in God's purpose and the world that Paul writes this book. So when he takes this time out, this step back from all the instruction and kind of sets the table for Timothy as to why it's so important, he's reminding us, he's painting us, this portrait of the dignity of the church. Just what is the church anyway? What is the church supposed to be? What is it supposed to do? Why is this book so important? He begins in verse 14 by saying this, although I hope to come to you soon, I'm writing you these instructions so that if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves. In God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. He goes on through verse 16 with this focus, this portrait of the church. What he says is I want to come, I'd rather tell you these things in person. Paul has just been released from his first imprisonment in Rome. We don't know whether he suspected, he might be arrested again, indeed he would be later on. We don't know if he suspected that now or just because of the press of his duties, responsibilities of his travels and ministry, he wasn't sure he'd be able to get to Ephesus to see Paul or to see Timothy. And so he says, I don't get there, if I get delayed, I want to write you this letter. It's urgent enough that you get these instructions as soon as possible. Why is this so important, Timothy? It is because, first of all, of the nature of the church. What Paul does is he describes the church in three ways that get at the real crux of what the church is, the nature of the church and what it is to do. This is basic. Ephesus, like the legendary Vince Lombardi coach of the Green Bay Packers who was reputed to after a very terrible game early in his coaching career with the Packers, reputed to have gone back to practice and said, man, we're going to go back to the fundamentals. And he picked up a football and said, this is a football. Well, that's the place to start with the very basics. And what Paul is saying is he's holding up the church. He's portrait of the church and he's saying, this is the church. This is the church. What is it? Just what is the church? Three descriptions of the church. Beautiful portrait of the church. He says, if I'm delayed, I want you to know how people ought to conduct themselves. First of all, in God's household. First of all, the church is a family. The church is a family. Now, Paul does not say here the church is a house. There are some translations that have the house of God. Whenever we think of the house of God, we think of the building, don't we? We talk about coming to the house of God and we're talking about the building. Paul's not talking about a building here. There were no church buildings in that day. He's not talking about a building. Although the church is described in the New Testament as a building, a temple. In four passages, Paul describes it as a temple. First Corinthians 3, first Corinthians 6, second Corinthians 3, Ephesians 2, in those four passages, he describes the church as a temple, a place where God lives, God manifests His presence through the temple, the body as it gathers. So there is that concept in the New Testament, but that's not the word Paul uses here. The word Paul uses here is of a household, a family. And so Paul is picturing the church as a family. We have one father and we love our father, but we are all his children, those of us who know Jesus as our Savior, are his children. So we are brothers and sisters. And the Bible often uses that family household terminology in the New Testament about the church. The focus of the church is on fellowship, unity, relationships, brothers and sisters together in a family. And it's easy to put the emphasis in the wrong place. There are a lot of people who put the emphasis on the building. You know, you've heard people say, well, if I show up at church, the raptors will cave in. You know, like walking in the building somehow draws a response from God. Well, there's nothing to do with anything. And there are people who say, well, I would never do that in a church. I hear people say to me all the time, I think they're joking, I hope they're joking. Well, I'm in a church, I can't lie. Well, I hope you don't lie. Hold on, either. Or it works. You know, I mean, it's not the building that makes any difference. Now, I get it. I understand that this is a building that is dedicated to the purpose of the functioning of the body that inhabits this building. And so it is in that sense, sacred, yes. But more sacred than the building is the family relationships in the church. The fact that we love our father and we love each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. And there are some people who would say, well, I never lie in a church, I never smoke in a church, I never say this in a church, I never knew that in a church, but they'll do it to their fellow believers. They'll carry a grudge against their brother in Christ, carried deep seated resentment and anger against the sister in Christ, gossip about a fellow church member. That is a violation of the nature of the church because the church is a family. Now I know that some of you probably grew up in dysfunctional families. Some of you probably have dysfunctional families now, not looking at any value of a particular, probably should look up. Some of you probably understand dysfunctional families, but families are not supposed to work that way. And the church is a family that's not supposed to be dysfunctional. It's supposed to be full of love, fellowship and unity. How do you get that? How do you get the kind of unity and fellowship, the sharing of our lives with one another? I'll tell you one key and I love, I read this this week, the AWTOSER, the key to unity, fellowship and love in a church is a focus on Christ. It's a focus on Christ. I love what he said in his book, The Pursuit of God. And I quote, has it ever occurred to you that 100 pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So 100 worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be worthy to become unity conscious and turn their eyes away from Christ to strive for closer fellowship. Ah, he nailed it. He's got it. That is such an insightful comment. How do we get unity and fellowship and true love in a church by all being tuned to the same tuning fork, the standard Christ himself? And as we focus upon our savior, then we will be drawn closer to each other, our unity, our fellowship, our love will be pure. The two are tied together so beautifully in John's first epistle where John says that we can tell that we love God when we love our brothers and sisters and we love God because he first loved us. And so those loves are all intertwined as we respond to God's love by loving him, then we can't help but love brothers and sisters in Christ. The church is a family, but there's a second description of the church that Paul gives. The church is also an assembly. It is an assembly. And notice the next phrase that Paul uses and we got to dig a little bit beneath the surface to see all that's packed into this phrase. He says, if I'm delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves. Here's the first one in God's household. Now notice the second one, which is the church of the living God. He will say, how do you get assembly out of that? Well, that's the meaning of the word church. Literally, the meaning of the word church is a called out assembly. The word church literally is a compound word, which means to call out, to call out of. But the purpose of the word has to do with assembly. It's not just what you're called from or out of the world, sin, a life of degradation, a life outside of Christ, but it's what you're called to. And the new testament, the concept of the church is the church assembled. In fact, the word translated church here in our Bible is also used a couple of interesting ways in the book of Acts. It's used in Acts chapter 19 of a group of people who assembled, that's the word, it's how it's translated in Acts 19, assembled in the Roman theater in Ephesus, where Timothy is preaching in ministry. A group assembled there to oppose the apostles in the message of the gospel. And for two hours, they proclaimed the glory of their false God, Diana, or Artemis of the Ephesians, who was the goddess of love because they didn't want to hear the gospel, but they were an assembly. They were gathered together in one place. In Acts chapter 7, the Bible uses the same word of the Israelites that Moses called out of, God called out of, through Moses, out of Egypt, but it says they were called out to be an assembly in the desert. The word church, by its very definition, has to do with the assembling of people together. The church is an assembly, and the focus is on assembling together so that we might worship God together. We might hear the word of God together. We might grow together. That's the focus of this idea of the assembling together. The writer Hebrews would warn Jewish Christians in the New Testament who were being persecuted and were thinking, we got to get away from the church and we'll kind of gravitate back toward the temple. We'll still be Christians, but we just leave the church. He says, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. It's the manner of some is and so much so more as you see the day approaching. We need the assembly. We need the coming together. The focus here is on the coming together of people, the stress is on the importance of the church assembling together. The church is not a group of individuals doing their own thing and doing their own deal. The church is an assembly of people together. Now that's not all that's included in this phrase. It is the assembled group, the assembled, called out people of the living God. And those two are tied together. Listen friends, here's something that you may never have thought of quite in this way. When we assemble, the living God demonstrates His presence, His blessing in a way that is not possible on an individual level. There is something about the assembly of God's people that pleases Him and He is pleased to manifest His power, His presence, His very living, life-giving, flow of energy through us as we gather together. That's what the Old Testament means when it says God inhabits the praise of His people. When His people gather to praise Him, God dwells in that praise. He inhabits that praise. That's what the Bible means when it says that God is present with us when we gather together. Martin Luther whom we will celebrate the Protestant Reformation tonight. Luther said it this way, At home in my own house, there is no warmth or vigor in me. But in the church when the multitude is gathered together, a fire is kindled in my heart, and it breaks its way through. I don't know if you've ever experienced that. I have, and it's a glorious thing. There have been times when I've come, showed up on a Sunday morning or another church service time. And I may feel a little bit lonely or out of sorts with whatever has happened for the week. And then as God's people begin to come in and we greet one another and then we gather and start singing. There is a warmth of the presence of God that is not possible on a personal level. It comes when God's people assemble and that's the way God intended it to be. All of us need the assembly together. That's why the writer of Hebrews says, don't leave that. Don't forsake that. Don't opt out of that. And there is no one above that need for the assembly. Nobody. Deacon's teachers, pastors, all of us need this assembly. I encourage our pastors do not meet with people individually during church services. Do not counsel people during church services. Since a twofold message, number one, pastors are not interested in the assembly. Number two, neither should the people. That's the message it sends. And so if any pastor slips up and says, let's just go back and meet my office during the church service. I want you to call them on it. Oh no, I need to be in the assembly. There's something that happens here that God wants to happen here. It can't happen through a TV church. Now TV preachers are great. I love hearing some of them at times when I'm ill or we cancel services. Yeah, I'll tune in Charles Stanley or David Jeremiah. They're wonderful preachers and Bible teachers, but that is not the church. The church is when people assemble. Cyber church is not a church. That block where you love to listen to or the service you watch on television, it may have been their church, but it's not your church because you didn't assemble anywhere. A church by definition is the assembly of people together. There is something about the assembly that does what cannot be done on a personal individual basis. Our individual Bible study is not church. It's wonderful. It's great. I think it's needed, but I've had people tell me, oh yeah, I haven't been able to be at church for a year, but I've had church. I've been studying my Bible at home. Well, it's wonderful you've been studying your Bible, but that's not church. It does not take the place of the church because by definition the church is when God's people assemble. That is the church. It's the assembly. And none of us are above that. We all need that. And listen, please don't misunderstand me. It has nothing to do with wanting everybody to hear me preach. That's not the issue. From my heart, that is not the issue. We have lots of wonderful teachers in this church, many of whom can handle the word as well as if not better than I. And they are a tremendous blessing to our church. And if you have a biblical view of the church, you also recognize that Acts chapter 20, Ephesians chapter 4 and 1 Peter chapter 5, entrust the pastor teacher with feeding the flock. And so there is at least one time during the week when we need to come together for the feeding of the flock from the pastor teacher, the one whom God has entrusted that responsibility to do. Whoever that may be. It's not about me. It's about following the biblical concept of the church. And what the church is to be. And do we are an assembly. An assembly of people together. There is nothing that takes the place of that. There are a lot of other things that can help with that and be added to that and bless that. But nothing can take the place of the assembly of God's people. To be involved in so many other things that you never, anytime during the week, meet together with God's people. And it happens in our church where there are people who are so involved in ministries at every service time they are never, never in the assembly. That shows an amazing disregard for the biblical nature of the church. And a biblical ignorance and lack of understanding of the assembling of people together. And why that's needed. The church is a family. Because of that, we love our father. We love one another. The church is also an assembly. It is there that we grow. But the church also, thirdly, has a mission. And that's where Paul gets to at the end of verse 15. He says, the church is also the pillar and foundation of the truth. Interesting coupling of words here. The church is the pillar and foundation of the truth. Now there have been some to misunderstand that to mean that the church is the repository of truth. That the church decides what the truth is. And that is not at all true. You'll probably hear something tonight. I have no clue what ABC's gonna do tonight. I know this was a part of the Protestant Reformation. That basically it was people like Martin Luther and John Calvin and Ulrich Wingsley and John Knox and others who would say, no, the church does not decide what the truth is. This book decides what the truth is. But there have been some who misunderstood this phrase to mean that the church decides what the truth is. And that's not at all what Paul's saying. He uses two very specific words. Pillar and foundation. If the word pillar, what he's saying is the church's mission is to promote the truth. To promote the truth. When Paul used the word pillar, every person who lived in Ephesus, a light bulb would go on. There would be an aha moment. I mentioned before that Ephesus was the location of the great temple of Diana of the Ephesians or Artemis. She was also referred to by the Romans. The temple, which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, it was an amazing, beautiful building. This temple to Diana of the Ephesians had a marble roof that was lifted up on 127 pillars. 127 pillars, all of the more than 50 feet high. The reason it was one of the seven wonders of the world is because the marble-gleaming roof of that temple was raised up so high everybody could see it for miles and miles and miles. It was lifted up and held up for everybody to see. That's what Paul means by pillar. The mission of the church is to hold up the truth so that everybody can see it, not to hide it within the four walls of the church, but to pick it out where people can see it, to penetrate the community, to spread the truth throughout our world. That's being the pillar that holds high the truth and promotes it for everybody to see, know and understand, to promote the truth. But a part of the mission of the church, if we're going to promote the truth, is also to protect the truth. That's in the word foundation. Now foundation is a word which literally has to do with, I love the way the ESV translates it, a buttress. Now a buttress, as I understand it, I'm not an architect, but as I understand it, a buttress, a buttress is a protrusion of masonry or wood that helps provide stability to a structure. You know, the medieval churches in Europe were built with what was called the flying buttresses. You know, those large beams on the outside of the church. There was a strategic architectural purpose for those. They helped provide stability so that the thing wouldn't crash in. You could also refer this as a bulwark. A bulwark is a foundational type of wall that protects a fort from attack. So the idea in this word is not that the church is the foundation. Christ is the foundation. Paul makes that clear in other places. But the church is the buttress or bulwark of the truth. That which holds up the truth so that it does not come crashing down and protects it against attack. So if we are to promote the truth, we also need to keep it pure. Keep it protected. And that is the responsibility of those who handle the word to protect the truth of God. Now, with this gleaming portrait of the church, this beautiful picture of the church, as a family, as an assembly, with a mission. For a couple of three things I would like to say in summary about the church. I am passionate about these things. I love the church. I have given 44 years of my life, which is all but about 5 or 10 years. I have given 44 years of my life to the church. I love the church. So I am passionate about this. I love that Paul centers the whole epistle around this beautiful portrait of the church. So I want to say something about the importance of the church in God's work. The church is often devalued today. The church is often looked at negatively. Oh, there are other and better means for doing God's work today. Well, you know, I still have first Timothy 3 in my Bible, do you? I don't see who just changed. It's still there. Now, there are many wonderful organizations that come alongside the church to help the church promote and protect the truth like Bible colleges and seminaries and mission agencies and other ministries that have special burdens and niches of ministry. Those things are valuable, very valuable, but they do not take the place of the church. They help serve the church and enable the church to fulfill its mission. Everything, no organization on planet earth can take the place of the church. Jesus, Ephesians 5 says, loved the church and gave himself for it. Jesus said, I will build my mission agency. No, Bible college? No. I will build my church and the gates of hell should not prevail against it. Now, I love, I taught in a Bible college, I understand the purpose and need. I value mission agencies to do things to help us get our missionaries on the field and keep them there and keep the supply lines open things that we as a church would have trouble doing. I value those organizations, but none of them can ever take the place of the church. They are servants of the church to help the church fulfill its mission. I would also like to say something about the importance of the church and the believer's life. I am afraid the attitude of many Christians today is appalling. And that is, I will work the church in when it is convenient for me to do so. I know there are many of you who are absolutely committed to the church as a reflection of your commitment to Christ, but I also know in the culture that we live in, the church has a tendency to be put on the back burner. And if there is nothing else that takes my time, if there is nothing else that I want to do or have scheduled to do or I find pleasureable to do, then I will work in the church. The church kind of gets put in last place on our list of things to do and be involved in. That troubles me when Jesus loved the church so much he gave his life for it. It troubles me when there are persecuted believers across the world who will walk miles to go to a secret meeting and risk their lives literally together as a church. Troubles me that I and maybe many others have such a tendency to devalue the church. A please, again, don't misunderstand me. I am not saying that spirituality is measured by how many times you show up in a service. I am not saying that you are more spiritual if you come to two services a week and if you are three, wow, you are really growing in real spiritual and if you come to four serve, man, that is an eye popper. You are really godly if you come to four a week. That is legalism. That is just placing a numerical value on the number of times. I have never seen a mouse here at Johnston Chapel, but if there are some, they come to church a lot more than you do. Any of you, they are not spiritual. It is not just a formal equivalency of come to church so many times and that shows how spiritual are, but on the other hand, our devotion to Christ is reflected in the devotion to things he loves and he loves the church. And our love for the church reflects, I believe, our love for him. Okay, while we are on the church and the nature of the church, I have to say this too. I don't know if you noticed this. It is just like a light bulb went on this week as I was looking at this and actually it was last night as I was reviewing this message again. It hit me that really what Paul is saying here is our purpose statement and our ministry strategy. Love, grow, serve is found in those three portraits of the church. It is our purpose here at Johnston Chapel to develop followers of Christ who love him, who grow in him and who serve him. As a family, we love him. He is our father, we love him and that is reflected in our love for each other. That is love. We gather together, we assemble together to grow, to consider his word together. And here his word preached and taught so that we can grow in the knowledge and likeness to our Lord. But then we also have a mission and that is to serve to take the truth out to the community to penetrate our area and our world with the truth of the gospel. That is serving. So let me encourage you this morning, check the balance of those three things in your life. Here is the balance. Is there any focus on loving the father and loving his children, your brothers and sisters in Christ, the fellowship with God's people being together with God's people? Any focus on that? Is there a focus on growing? Are you giving yourself enough to the church services to grow, to growth groups, Bible fellowships or small groups? Are you growing? But also are you serving? Is there anything you are doing to contribute to the spread of the gospel throughout our area and our world? You see, we need to have a balance between those three. And sometimes I think we may be a little top heavy at our church on the grow side. You know, some of you come to a Bible fellowship and you grow. You come to a Sunday morning service and you grow. You come to Sunday night service and you grow. You come to a Wednesday night service and you grow. And maybe in a small group too and you grow or some other Bible study in the week and you are growing. Man, you are growing, growing, growing, growing, growing. Are you serving? Any? Is the balance all out of whack here? Is there anything you are doing to take the gospel to anybody? To be involved in community outreach? Are you involved in fellowship with other believers or is it just large group growing opportunities? It leads me to this thought and this is I am preaching to myself right now. I think in light of this beautiful portrait of the church and these three images of what the church is to be and do, that every church needs to constantly be evaluating itself as to do we provide the right kind of balance. Are we expecting you to be at grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, five times so that between that and your family and your job you don't have any time to serve. You don't have any time to get out in the community and be a witness to your neighbors and to be involved in some kind of community minute. You don't have the time. Why? Because you feel the expectation to come, come, come, come, come all the time. Maybe is a church we need to re-evaluate our ministry schedule. Love, grow, serve is there a balance? Is there a balance? Yes, that's the beautiful portrait of the church. But then quickly let me also, I wanted to collect this, we also hasten to the message of the church. Because Paul devotes chapter, verse 16, to the message of the church. He's painted a beautiful portrait of the nature of the church and now he gives us the message of the church and it can be summarized in one word, Christ. He is the message. Jesus Paul says that he says, beyond all question some would translate this by common confession. And many believe that this verse, you see in your translation, maybe set aside kind of in verse form like a poem, biblical poetry doesn't require rhyming, it just requires statements that are kind of equal and linked and so forth. This is set up to be either what may have been an early doctrinal statement of the church, maybe an early church creed or maybe even an early church hymn, a summary of the church's message, a summary of the church's doctrine. So beyond all question, this common confession, he says, the mystery from which true godliness springs, mystery being the truth revealed by God which leads us to godliness, godliness being a relationship with God which grows and develops so that we are becoming more like him, more Christ like that's godliness. So the truth of God which promotes a relationship with him and helps us to grow to be more like him, this is what it is and it begins in verse 16 with the word he, he. He says, this truth, this message of the church is great and it's all about he, the subject of this whole six line description of our message is he, Christ. And so he's our message. What is it about the message that's important quickly, his humanity? He appeared in the flesh. Jesus Christ came in a human body. We call it the incarnation. We call it the birth and humanity of Christ. God was made visible in Christ. As John says in John chapter 1 verse 18, no one has ever seen God but the one and only son who is God himself and is in closest relationship with the father has made him known. So Jesus comes to this earth takes on a human body so that we can see God's made visible. We can see what he would be like, how he would respond to issues and people and what he would say his humanity is extremely important. Let's move on. Secondly, his deity Christ appeared in the flesh. Secondly, he was vindicated by the spirit. The word literally is justified, declared righteous but sometimes it's used in the New Testament of being declared to be not righteous in the sense of getting saved. Jesus didn't need that but declared righteous in the sense of being exactly what God wanted him to be. What he said he was in this sense it's used of his deity. The Holy Spirit vindicates him, declares him to be God and that happened throughout his life at his baptism. The Holy Spirit descends on him like a dove as the voice of the father says from heaven this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. God was showing this is my son. He is not only man, he is also God. The Holy Spirit was involved in that the Holy Spirit showed Christ's deity through his sinless life through his authority, powerful teaching and through his miracles through the power of the spirit but more than anything else the Holy Spirit declared Christ to be the Son of God through the miracle of his resurrection. Romans chapter 1 and verse 4 tells us this and who Christ speaking of here and who through the spirit of holiness was appointed better translated, declared, declared the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ our Lord. A mouthful there but basically Paul saying Jesus was vindicated by his resurrection. He was declared in power to be who he claimed to be the Son of God and the Holy Spirit did that through raising him from the dead. So what Paul's talking about here is his deity. He appeared in the flesh humanity. He appeared by the spirit, his deity and then noticed he was seen by angels. That's his preeminence. Christ is preeminent. He was seen by angels. There was an increase in angelic activity at his first coming. Lots of angels showed up at his birth. You know the Christmas story well enough to know. There are at least six appearances of angels making announcements about the birth of Christ. Again at Jesus' temptation after 40 days of successfully battling Satan and defeating him. The Bible says at the end of that time, angels came and ministered to him. In the Garden of Gethsemane after his agonizing prayer and sweating drops of blood, an angel came and ministered to him. Angels were at the tomb announcing his resurrection. Angels were deciding as he ascended back into heaven and in all of those occasions the center of attention is not on the angels. It's on the one who was seen by the angels. The angels came to gaze upon him, to admire him, to bask in his glory. Nobody should ever put emphasis on angels, angels worship and adore Christ. You may remember in the book of Revelation John twice fell at the feet of an angel to worship him and the angel said, no, no, quit that. Don't do that. I'm a fellow servant. Jesus. So when Christ is seen by angels, it means he is preeminent over them. They come to put all of their focus and attention on him. Christ is preeminent. And then notice the next phrase was preached among the nations. That's his commission. He has commissioned us to preach. That's the method. He has commissioned us to preach him. He was preached. That's our message. And he's commissioned us to preach among the nations. That's our mission. All the nations must hear of the glory of Christ. That's his commission. And then the next phrase was believed on in the world. That's his power to save. That message that's taken to the nations of Christ, Christ who has come. As the Son of God to die for our sins, that message is believed. Christ is trusted throughout the nations and everyone who trusts him finds him to be a sufficient savior. So that has to do with his power to save. Christ is the only way of salvation. He himself is the way the truth in the life. And then the last phrase was taken up in glory. That's his ascension. And when I first looked at this, I was a little troubled because of my OCD tendencies. This is out of place chronologically. He's already been preached in the world, believed on by nations. And now you come back to the ascension, that's not in the right order. But really it is. Because the ascension of Jesus caps everything. The ascension means that he is now in heaven as he's been preached among the nations and believed on in the world. He is now in heaven praying for us, interceding for us, empowering us to fulfill the mission of the church. And it means he will come back someday. The whole point of the ascension in Acts 1 was the angels telling the disciples, stop hanging around here looking up into heaven. He's going to come back the same way you saw him go. And so the final message of the ascension is that Jesus is coming back. And that really summarizes everything about Christ. He's coming back to rule in his kingdom. Our message is Christ. Christ is our message to be preached to the nations. Oh, my friends, what a beautiful portrait of the church, the dignity of the church. The church is a family. And thus we love our Father and love each other. The church is a gathering where we come together to be fed the Word of God so that we can grow. But then the church has a mission and we go to serve and to proclaim the gospel and promote the gospel to everyone we can. That message that we carry with us is the message of Christ, crucified, buried, risen, and coming. Christ. The church has the most vital place in God's work. And thus the most vital message for the world today. Don't devalue the church. It has the most vital place in God's work today and the most vital message for the world today. So if you were to wonder or if Timothy were to wonder, why all this instruction about doing the church right? Now you know, it's because of the dignity of the church, the beauty, the glory, the value God places upon his family, his assembly, whom he's given a mission to this world. That's why he wants us to do it right. That's why he wants us to take it seriously. Let's pray that we'll do that. Father, you've entrusted us with so much. We feel so unworthy of that trust. The church is your bride. The church is your body. And you've entrusted us with instructions as to how to guide and direct, feed, be a part of function as a church. Help us to take that very seriously, Lord. Thank you that you've, you've enabled us to be a part of Johnston's church, chapel. I thank you for everyone who goes to make up this assembly. What a blessing this place is. May we always be your church, your family, your beloved people who assembled together to grow and then go out to serve. Help us to never lose sight of those essentials, those basics in the midst of all the details of things we do. Help us to keep that at the core. And Jesus' name we pray, amen.