Flock & Banquet
The Mission of the Church  Part 05
Selected Passages        6-8-2014
Summary: The church is like a flock of sheep in that we need human leaders to feed us the Word, protect us from wolves, lead us, and care for our souls. The church is like Israel in that we are to accomplish God’s will in this world and be the avenue for salvation. We are the pillar and foundation of the truth in that we establish a beachhead for God’s truth in this world and make sure it has a significant presence. We are yeast and a mustard tree in that we will be more and more pervasive and expansive. As the face of Christ to the world we represent Him, and as priests we seek to offer the souls of people to God as sacrifices (both halves of the Great Commission). We are servants in the banquet in that it is our job to compel them to come in, and we are the banquet as well.
Introduction
Flock
We Need Shepherds
Israel
Pillar and Foundation of the Truth
Outreach
Representing Christ
Winning the Lost
Expansive
The Souls of Men and Women
Conversions
Edification
Banquet
Summary
What Do We Do?
Remembering
Application Questions (James 1:25)

Introduction
We are in the midst of a brief study on the mission of the church in the New Testament. What does the Bible say our job description is? We are currently being evaluated by the Lord Jesus Christ on how well we are carrying out our job description, so it is pretty important that we know what it is. And the first step to understanding your job description is knowing your title. God has given the church numerous different titles. So far we have studied seven of them (body, bride, household, temple, priesthood, stones, and lampstands).
I told you when we started that the most common analogy in the New Testament for describing the church is the body of Christ metaphor. I realized this week that I was wrong about that. There are two others that are used more than body.
Flock
We Need Shepherds
One of them is the analogy of a flock of sheep. The church is referred to that way in numerous places – mainly in passages that teach us what sort of leadership we need. All the analogies so far have focused on God as our leader. But this one teaches us that the church is an organization where God’s leadership is carried out through human leaders. Does that mean the church belongs to those leaders? Not at all. Paul made that clear in 1 Corinthians 3:6-9 where he says to the church, “You are God’s field. I planted and Apollos watered, but the whole thing belongs to God and He gets all the credit for any growth.” Do not ever make the mistake of thinking the founder of a church or the preaching pastor of a church own that church. The church is God’s.
Nevertheless, we do need human leaders – and not just any kind of leader either. If you are a team, the type of leader you need is a coach. If you are a big corporation, you need a CEO type. If you are an army, you need a general. If you are a school, you need a principal. But as a church, what sort of leaders do we need? Answer: shepherd types. God calls us sheep so we will understand that we need to be led, fed, protected, and cared for by human leaders. God calls those leaders shepherds (pastors).
That is what a church is, so if we want to be a real church, we need to make sure we have leaders who are capable of shepherding. That means they have to be able and willing to feed us from the Word of God. They must be capable leaders who can organize us and lead us in the right direction. They must be alert enough and knowledgeable enough and courageous enough to protect us from the wolves who rise up even from among our own number. And they must love us enough to care for us like a shepherd caring for his sheep.
When God calls a man to lead in that way, that man has the responsibility to step forward and go through whatever training is needed to fan his gifts into flame. And then shepherd the flock. 
And as a congregation, we all have the responsibility first of all to affirm that calling when you see it, and then to follow their leadership. That is a hard thing for this culture because we live in a Burger King, “Have it your way” world. For those of you who were not watching TV in the 1970’s, Burger King used to have a jingle that said, “Hold the pickle, hold the lettuce, special orders don't upset us, All we ask is that you let us serve it your way. Have it YOUR way!” We are so used to frequenting businesses that have that same “the customer is always right” philosophy. And people have become so used to it that they just expect it everywhere. They come to church and think they are in a Burger King. They not only want prompt, friendly service, but they wanted it adjusted to meet all their preferences. And so we need to be reminded that setting policies and procedures is not part of the job description of a sheep. Our job as sheep is to eat the food set out for us by the shepherd, follow where he leads, and run when he points out a wolf.
This is another part of our identity. If you don’t like the idea of being a sheep led by a human shepherd, you are in the wrong religion. A group of Christians who are not following the lead of qualified shepherds, and who are not being fed the Word of God by qualified shepherds, and who are not being protected from the wolves by qualified shepherds, is not operating as a real church.
Israel
The other metaphor I missed is the biggest one of all – Israel. More often by far than any other comparison, the church is compared to the nation of Israel. There is a lot of theological debate about the exact relationship, but it is very clear that very often, Old Testament names for Israel are applied in the New Testament to the church. We are even called the Israel of God in Galatians 6:16.
The nation of Israel failed to produce the fruit that God wanted them to produce. In Matthew 21 Jesus told a parable that described Israel as being like a vineyard planted by God. But when the owner sent servants to collect the fruit, the tenants of that vineyard killed them. They even killed his Son. That is a picture of Jewish leadership killing the prophets in Old Testament times and finally killing Jesus Himself. 
Matthew 21:43 Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.
He does not define fruit, but if you look at the way Jesus speaks about fruit other places in the book of Matthew it seems to just refer to doing God’s will.
Matthew 7:20 by their fruit you will recognize them.  21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
So what is our identity? What is our mission? We are to function as Israel. God wanted Israel to be righteous and holy and to be the ones who carry out His will in this world. Now that is our role. According to Isaiah 43:20 God created Israel for the purpose of declaring His praises. Now that is our job. How about this one?
John 4:22 salvation is from the Jews.
God offered salvation to the whole world through Israel. The only way to know the true God is through the Scriptures, which were entrusted only to Israel. And the Messiah came from Israel. And now both those functions offering the Scriptures and introducing people to the Messiah are now our job.
Pillar and Foundation of the Truth
In 1 Timothy 3:15 the church is called the pillar and foundation of the truth. The truth about God is like a massive building that is held up by the church. 
“Wait a second – isn’t that backwards? Isn’t the truth the foundation of the church?”
Yes, it is. The church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets who wrote the Scripture (Eph.2:20). But here it is saying the church is the foundation and the pillar that is holding up the truth. What does that mean? In what sense is the church the foundation of the truth? Obviously the Bible does not need our support to be true. The truthfulness of God’s Word does not depend on us, but the presence of that truth in the world does depend on us. The church is the only vehicle there is for the dissemination of the truth of God’s Word in this world. The world is constantly attacking the truth, and we are constantly defending it and proclaiming it and teaching it and explaining it and living it out. Part of our job as the church is to make sure the truth of God’s Word has a presence in this world. It is our job to make sure it has a place at the table in the discussion of ideas in this world. In fact, that is not only our job – it is our identity. A church that is not establishing a beachhead for the truth of God in this world is malfunctioning as a church.
And that goes way beyond just what is preached in the pulpit and taught in the Bible studies. Every one of us needs to be bringing the truth of God’s Word to all the various nooks and crannies of the culture where we live and work and play and go to school and go on vacation.
Matthew 13:33 The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.
God expects us to be pervasive in this world.
So often people want to take the approach of, “Well, we don’t want to talk to them about the Bible. They will never go for that. Let’s just give them some philosophical arguments, and scientific arguments, and try to persuade them to behave in moral ways, and pass moral laws, and clean the outside of the cup the best we can without having to become Bible thumpers.” When we take that approach we cease to function as a church. Our job is to put forth the truth of God’s Word. When people are turned off by the Bible, why do you think that is? Do you think it is because of the leather binding or the paper or ink? No – it is because of what it says. And what does it say? It gives us God’s truth. When people reject the Bible it is because they don’t want the truth. So if you give them something else that they will accept, that thing you are giving them is not the truth of God.
When it comes to spiritual things, there are only two kinds of doctrines - the doctrines in the Bible, and the doctrines of demons – nothing else. If people do not want what is in the Bible, we don’t have anything else to offer them. 
“What about natural revelation?”
There is nothing you can learn about God from natural revelation that isn’t also in the Bible. Everything that can be known about God is in the Bible. So our job as a church is to hold up the truth of Scripture and give it a prominent place in this world so that anyone who is willing to accept it will at least know where it can be found.
Outreach
And that brings us finally to this issue of outreach. As we have progressed through this series, it has been a little surprising to some to see how much the Bible emphasizes ministry in the church to the church. Some of you have been taught all your life that the only purpose for the church is outreach to the world. But when we look at the instructions God gives us, the vast majority is internal ministry. You are a body part. Each individual body part does nothing but serve the rest of the body. As Christ’s bride we are to purify ourselves and pursue righteousness and holiness and faithful love. As a household we have responsibilities toward our Father and toward our other siblings in the household. As God’s Sanctuary we are a place of worship. As His Priesthood we are the worshippers. So much is internal focus. And some of you have been saying, “Ok, I get that. Internal ministry is the main focus. But still – isn’t there some kind of external, outward responsibility we have as the church?” The answer to that is yes, and it can be seen in several of the metaphors Scripture gives us for the church.
Representing Christ
One comes from the very first one we looked at – the body of Christ. As His body, one of our functions is to represent Him to the world. When someone looks at you, what do they see? Your heart? No. Soul? No. The only thing they see is your body. It’s the same thing with Jesus Christ. If people want to see what Jesus is like, all they can do is look at His body – the church. We represent Him. So much so that however a person treats the church, that is how they are treating Jesus. When Saul persecuted the church, Jesus said, “Why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4). In Matthew 24 Jesus said, “Whatever you do to My brothers you do to Me.” Whatever someone’s attitude is toward the church, that is their attitude toward Jesus. As His body, we represent Him in this world.
So when you think about the significance of the body of Christ metaphor, think three things. First think about whichever body part you are as determined by your spiritual gift. Then think about the hands, because the church is to do the work of Christ in this world. But also think about the face – because we are the face of Christ to the world. We represent Him. 
That means it is the church’s responsibility to showcase the glory of Christ to the world. We do that in what we preach, and in how we live. By living holy lives and proclaiming the truth of God’s Word, we show the world Jesus’ glory.
Winning the Lost
And when we do that, we don’t do it with indifference in our hearts about how it is received.  As much as possible we couch it in terms that will be most likely to win people over, and bring them to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. God’s plan is for the church to continually grow in numbers.
Expansive
In Matthew 13 Jesus told a series of parables to describe what the kingdom of God would look like on earth between His first and Second Coming. 
Matthew 13:31 The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.
The church is going to start small but then become more and more expansive. At the beginning it was 120 in Jerusalem – now it is millions all over the world, and that trajectory is to continue until the Second Coming. That is our nature. That is part of our identity. The church is a growing, expanding organism. 
I hope you don’t have a pessimistic outlook on the future of the church. I hope you don’t turn on the news and hear about all the terrible things the government is doing and fall into worry and fear and despair. The world is going to get worse and worse; that’s true. But the church is going to get better and better; stronger and stronger; bigger and bigger. As time goes on we will become more and more expansive as well as more and more pervasive. The church will go farther and wider, but it will also saturate culture more and more. It is a sure thing. Being a part of the church right now is like getting in on Wal-Mart stock when it was 13 cents a share and knowing ahead of time what would happen. The church is going to succeed. Not even the gates of hell will prevail against it.
All that is part of the nature of the church, so if we are not involved in that, we are not functioning as a church.
The Souls of Men and Women
And if you care about worship, you will care about reaching the lost because one of the reasons we want to reach them is so we can offer their souls to God as a pleasing sacrifice of worship. That is part of our duty as priests. We found last week that every Christian is a priest. Priests are professional worshippers who offer acceptable sacrifices to God. And one of the sacrifices that is pleasing and acceptable to God is the souls of men and women.
Romans 15:15 I have written to you more boldly on some points because of the grace given me by God 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as a priest of God's gospel. My purpose is that the Gentiles might become an acceptable offering, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 
Conversions
Paul was trying to reach the Gentiles with the gospel and bring them to faith in Christ so that he could offer God those souls like a priest offering a sacrifice of worship. When you lead an unbeliever to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that is a soul that you can offer to God in worship. One of the greatest priests of the Old Testament was Phinehas. And he was great because 
Malachi 2:5 …he feared me and stood in awe of my name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin.
It is one thing to go around confronting people about their sin. But it is something else to actually succeed in turning them from their sin. But a great priest does that with many.
Edification 
And that applies whether the person is a believer or unbeliever. This principle of offering people’s souls to God as worship applies to both the first part of the Great Commission and the second part. After Jesus’ resurrection He gave marching orders to the Church:
Matthew 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  
There are two parts to making disciples: baptize them and then teach them to obey everything Jesus commanded. Baptizing points to their conversion. Teaching them to obey all that Christ commanded is a lifelong process of helping them grow in the Lord. And all of it is for the purpose of offering them to God as a sacrifice. 
Think of how often you work on people’s souls. Just as a doctor works on fixing what is wrong with people’s bodies, so all of you work on what is wrong with people’s souls.
“Oh, not me. I’m no therapist.” 
Whether you think of yourself as a counselor or not, the reality is, it is impossible for you to avoid having an impact on other people’s hearts – either for good or for harm. Every time you attempt to encourage someone – what are you doing? Are you doing something to their body? No – you are strengthening their inner man. Every time you make someone smile, every time you help someone see his sin, every time you motivate someone to change – you are working on their heart. If one of your kids does something well and you say, “Nice job” – what is that directed at? The body?  No - the heart. We are constantly ministering to people’s hearts – trying to bring them to a certain place spiritually. And when we do that, we should think in terms of offering the end product to God as a gift of worship.
Just imagine yourself doing that – just like you are putting that person’s soul in the offering box. During the praise time when everyone is coming up and putting their gifts in the offering box, imagine yourself walking up and saying, “Here God, here’s that uplifted soul from the guy I tried to encourage in my prayer group.”
“Here’s the repentant heart of the person I confronted with his sin.”
“That woman who was losing hope, then I pointed her to some of Your great promises and now she’s smiling – here’s her heart, God.”
If you can understand the Bible enough to be a Christian yourself, then you can understand it enough to help someone else with their Christian life.
Romans 15:14 …you yourselves are … competent to instruct one another.
Ultimately all ministry is for impacting people’s hearts, right? If your job is to mow the grass – why do you do that? You do it to make this place a more pleasant, inviting place for people to come, so that they will come and will hear the Word of God and their hearts will be changed. If your job is to help count the offerings – why do you do that? You do that so this church can function, because when the church functions smoothly the result is people come here and hear the Word of God and their hearts are changed. Some ministries are much more direct, others indirect, but anything you do that is designed to contribute to the success of the church, the purpose is so hearts will be changed so we can offer those changed hearts to God as a gift of worship.
Banquet
There are always two reasons for winning the lost. We do it for their sake, and we do it for God’s glory. In Luke 14 Jesus described the church as being like God’s banquet, which God wants to be very well-attended – a full house, and the way it becomes full is by us going out and compelling people to come in.
Luke 14:21 …The owner of the house … ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ 22 “ ‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ 23 “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.  
That servant is us. God commands us to take the Gospel to the world and use it to bring them into the banquet. If you do that locally we call it evangelism; if you do it cross-culturally we call it missions. And both are commanded by God. Millions of people will never hear the gospel unless someone is willing to take it cross-culturally to them. And people in our own area need to hear as well, so we do both.
We invite them to the banquet. And what is that? The church! So really it is a dual metaphor. We are both the banquet and the servant. As the servant it is our job to go out and compel people to come in. And what they come in to is the church, which is like a banquet. The church is a place where people can come and have the appetites of their heart fulfilled by the presence of God. It is a place of joy and celebration and fellowship and love – all the things you associate with a wonderful banquet. Part of our identity as a church is that we are to function as a spiritual feast for anyone who is hungry or thirsty for God.
Summary
So, I told you that our mission has three parts:
1)	What are we?
2)	What are we supposed to do?
3)	How does God want us to do it?
Everything so far has been to answer the first question: What are we? We are Israel, a flock, a body, a bride, a household, a temple, a banquet, lampstands, priests, bricks, yeast, a tree, and the pillar and foundation of the truth. And that is still not even all of them. But for the sake of overview, so we can remember the most important aspects, let’s see if we can boil it down a little bit. There is some overlap in some of these metaphors. For example, we can lump temple, priesthood, lampstands, and living stones all under the one heading “Temple.”  And we can do the same with the outreach metaphors. Yeast, mustard tree, Israel, the banquet, and the servant who is told to go out and bring people in to fill up God’s house – let’s lump all that together under the one heading, “banquet.”
That would get us down to a somewhat manageable list. Do you think you could memorize this: Body, bride, banquet, household, temple, pillar, flock? The first three all start with the letter B. Then household and temple are similar because the temple is actually called God’s house. They are both the same building. And in a temple you would expect to see pillars. And then flock. I really think if you can remember those seven, and the primary meanings of each one, you will have a much, much better understanding of the doctrine of the church than most seminary graduates. And that is important, not because I want you to be seminary graduates, but because God has called you to be the church. And then He gave us all these pictures to help us understand what we are. Maybe it will help you to imagine a series of pictures in your mind. Picture a man’s body, next to him, a woman with a wedding dress on. From there zoom out and you see a big banquet (like at a wedding reception). And where is this banquet?  God’s house, which is the temple – which is held up by pillars. And when you look closely at the priests in this temple, they are all dressed like shepherds, leading a flock of sheep. I don’t know if that helps or not, but one way or another I think we would do well to try to remember at least these seven: body, bride, banquet, household, temple, pillar, flock.
What Do We Do?
Ok, so that concludes part 1 of this series – What are we? Now that we understand what the church is, we can move on to the second question: What are we supposed to do? When we make decisions as a church about what we are going to spend our time and resources doing, what should it be? Now that we know what we are, that question is already answered. As His body our job is to showcase His glory (as His face), do His work (as His hands), and grow to maturity by each playing their unique role (as whichever body part you are). As His bride we are to be beautiful and faithful, by pursuing purity and love for the Bridegroom. And as the banquet servants we go out and compel as many as possible to come in to the church, and when they come in we serve as the banquet itself – the place where people can find a feast of satisfaction in God. As Israel and the pillar and foundation of the truth our job is to carry out the will of God in this world and present the truth of God’s Word to the world. As His household we love, fear, and obey God as our Father, we love and serve our siblings, and we dispense grace as stewards with our gifts. As His temple/priests we function as a place where people experience God’s presence and offer acceptable worship sacrifices. And as a flock of sheep we feed on the Word, follow the shepherds, and run from the wolves.
Is that too much to remember? Our mission statement bumper sticker requires a semi-trailer at this point. It is a lot, and for seven years I have been trying to think up ways to condense it down, but I have finally come to the conclusion that what I just gave you is already condensed down to such a concentrated form that it is right on the borderline of an over-simplification as it is. We could summarize it further, but any simplification we do from this point on, I think, will cause us to lose sight of some absolutely crucial principles. We could sum it all up in two words: Love God. That would be accurate, but it wouldn’t be helpful for anyone who does not understand that all those things are crucial aspects of how a church loves God.
We could fill it out a little bit more by putting all our various responsibilities under three headings: Worship, one-anothers, and winning the lost. Pretty much everything fits under those three headings. Or, if we want to keep love for God as the focus of everything, we could hit those same three headings in a slogan form. “Expressing, spreading, and deepening delight in Christ.” Using the word “delight” rather than “love” helps us remember the importance of the emotional component of loving God. And our job is to deepen that delight (by bringing saints to greater maturity), and to spread that delight (by using evangelism and missions to cause more and more souls to love God), and express that delight (through worship). Worship, one-anothers, winning the lost. Expressing, spreading, and deepening delight in Christ.
Remembering 
If those can help trigger your memory on some of these things, that’s great. But I really do think there is value in making an effort to remember more than just those. I fear that in our current Christian culture we have become somewhat lazy in the area of working to remember the truths of God’s Word. We just want to listen, listen, listen and then hope it sinks in. A lot of it will, but Scripture warns us about the problem of listening and forgetting.
James 1:22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.
They key is not just listening. They key is listening and not forgetting. Ask yourself – how much effort do you put into not forgetting? What would you do if you found out your gas tank had a leak? Would you say, “That’s just the way my tank is. I just need to make sure I get gas three or four times a day”? No – you would want to try to patch it up. Why go to all the trouble of learning all that you learn here if most of it is going to leak out on the parking lot before you even make it back to your car?
It takes a little work, but memorizing is something God has enabled every single one of us to do. No matter what age you are or how feeble your mind might be – you have millions of things memorized and you are capable of memorizing much, much more if you work at it.
And one of the techniques the church has used for 2000 years has been a technique known as catechism. A catechism is a summary of some doctrine put in the form of questions and answers. Many people have learned large amounts of doctrine by memorizing the answers to questions in catechisms. And I think if we used that method, we could get these principles of what God expects of us to stick in our memory. In your bulletin you will find some flash cards that you can use. My guess is if you worked on this every day with your family, in a couple weeks you would have it. And for those of you who feel guilty because you haven’t been doing any family devotions, here’s something you could try.
The command to go win this world for Christ would be a daunting command if God had not promised us success. So I would like to give you the same words of encouragement God gave Joshua when God promise him success ahead of time, but there was still a temptation for fear because the task of taking the land seemed humanly impossible.
Benediction: Joshua 1:8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.  9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

Application Questions (James 1:25)
1)	How are you doing in fulfilling your role as a sheep (feeding, following, fleeing)? Are there any attitudes in your heart that hinder that?
2)	Name some people who could offer your soul to God as a sacrifice (they either led you to the Lord or contributed to your growth). Think of three people whose souls you would like to be able to offer to God as a sacrifice a year from now. Can you think of any specific steps you need to take different from what you have already doing to make that happen?

2) What do we do?

Express, spread, and deepen delight in Christ by worship, winning the lost, and one-anothers.

1)	What are we?

Organ, hands, face.
As an organ I bring the body to maturity by serving with in my unique role.

As His hands we do His work and carry out His will in the world.

As His face we showcase His glory.

1

1(e) What does it mean to be the Temple/Priesthood?

As the Temple we function as a holy place where people experience God’s presence.

As priests we offer acceptable worship sacrifices.

Days 93-94

1(d) What does it mean to be the Household of God?

We love, fear & obey God as Father 

We fulfill the one-anothers as siblings, slaves, and stewards of grace.

1(c) What does it mean to be the Banquet servant and the banquet? 

As the banquet servants we go out and compel as many as possible to come in to the church.

And when they come in we serve as the banquet – the place where they can find a feast of satisfaction in God.

1(b) What does it mean to be the Bride of Christ?

Beauty and faithful love.
We become beautiful through purity.

1(a) What does it mean to be the body of Christ?

Body, Bride, Banquet, 
Household, Temple, Pillar,
Flock 

3) How do we do it?

By applying the Word of God to the hearts of men and women

1(f) What does it mean to be the Pillar and Foundation of the Truth?

We make known the truth of His Word in this world.

1(g) What does it mean to be a flock?

We feed on the Word, follow the shepherds, and flee from the wolves.

2(c) What does it mean to deepen delight in Christ?

To make the worship of our people more and more acceptable to God through spiritual growth

2(a) What does it mean to express our delight in Christ?

Worship (exalt and exult)

2(b) What does it mean to What does it mean to spread delight in Christ?

To add more and more voices and greater variety of voices to the choir of true worshippers

Days 85-86