In Pursuit Of Christ

Introduction

I want to commend Sean for an excellent job in leading our singing. I actually know what he was talking about from the standpoint of preaching when all of a sudden you find yourself before a group four times this size. It’s the same kind of fear and trepidation that for some reason takes over. Don’t know why that is. It’s good to see everyone here today. Some of our young kids have come home to be with mom and dad. Good to have all of them. We welcome the Scoggin family to this neck of the woods. And it’s good to have visitors in our midst this morning and those who have been traveling. The Disney Worlders and all others who have been traveling over spring break. Good to have you home.

I postponed the sermon I was going to preach tonight on the subject of elders, thinking everybody would surely be back tonight. Wrong. So I’m going to force all of them, bad phrasers and all, who were not here to listen to it when it is posted on the internet. And I appreciate Dave’s work and doing all of that. It has not been easy. Gary, of course, has been involved in getting him the right files to put on the internet. And folks have been listening to my sermons, Gluttons for Punishment, that they are. All over, even from North Carolina. So that’s a good work that they’re doing. And it’s nice to know as a preacher that when you preach a lesson, it’s not over. It’s still affecting people in other places.

One of the great advantages of the times that we live in. And speaking of preaching, as I get started this morning, I reference this text a lot. And I make no apologies for it at all. In fact, I could speak on Philippians chapter 2, verses 1 through 16, almost on a weekly basis, and never exhaust it all. Incredible thoughts. A couple of Sunday nights ago, when I talked about our regard for others or how I regard others, we were referencing the first few verses of Philippians chapter 2, and really all of this, the working out your salvation in verse 12 of that text, this whole context revolves around, I think, verse 5, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Or have this attitude in yourselves, the New American Standard Bible says in Philippians 2 and verse 5.

And so this whole text revolves around thinking like he thought.

And I pick these passages, as you can see for a reason. Easy to remember. The first 16 verses of Philippians 2, the first 16 verses of Matthew 5. And if I could just get people meditating on these verses and their implications in our lives. If we could just become so familiar with these 32 verses in the Scripture, to the extent that we are thinking about them as we go about our lives and their meaning as we interact with people as we go about all of these activities that our lives are about, I want to tell you, we would be more like Christ. If I could just get people to be more impressed with him, and all of us to think more like him and be more like him.

That I could say with Paul in Philippians 2 and verse 16 that I have not run in vain and I have not toiled in vain in the preaching of this great message of Jesus Christ for salvation. And having said that, I want to affirm very loudly, which I’m good at doing and very strongly. It is more than words on a sign. We can slap out there on the sign that we are a church of Christ. And of course, everybody thinks denominationally about that. If you tell them we are the Decker Prairie Church of Christ, they’re going to think of a denomination by that name, which doesn’t exist, but that all churches of Christ are somehow organizationally tied together, and we’re going to address that in a moment.

But they’re going to think in terms of a denomination. We don’t think of that way at all. We simply claim by saying we are the saints meeting in Decker Prairie that we are his church. We are a church that belongs to Jesus Christ, or we are of Christ. And that’s what I want us to focus on this morning. This is what it means to be a Christ, to have his mind, to practice. It’s more than just words on a sign. I want to talk to you this morning about the incredible, the importance, the significance, the all-encompassing pursuit of being of Christ. If we’re not that, then we have faith. If we’re not that, then all of this is meaningless. We must be of Christ. How do we become of Christ?

1. We Have to Listen to Him

First, we have to listen to Him. And these are important verses that we need to take into consideration. If I could just get people focusing on Philippians 2, 1 through 16 and Matthew 5, 1 through 16. But the reason why I’m wanting you to do that is because Jesus Himself said, man shall not live by bread alone. But by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. We must give attention. We must give heed. And we must do as we’ve done in Bible study in the auditorium with Mike Moriarty this morning. We must look at all these passages because all of them have a bearing on us being of Christ. And truly possessing life spiritually. We need to come to grips with this entire message to imbibe as much of it as we can.

Sure, it’s a lot of information. But bring as much of it into our hearts and into our lives as we can so that we can truly live. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And this really has an application as I think of it now on something I’m going to say under point number two about the mission of the church. But here’s some other passages. A lot of folks aren’t familiar with Jesus’ words here. And again, if we’re going to be of Christ, we’ve got to pay attention to this. The flesh profits nothing, Jesus says in John 6, in that context of a challenge to his disciples that many withdrew and would not follow him anymore.

He said, the flesh profits nothing, but my words. They are spirit, and they are life. And if there are two verses of Jesus that I quote a lot.

They are John 8, 31 and 32. If you abide in my word, then you are disciples of mine. We can’t just ignore what Jesus said, not do what he said, and claim to be his disciples. Of mine, he says. If you abide in my word, then you are disciples of mine. You are truly of Christ. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And finally, how significant is this? It’s more than just making a claim, I am of Christ. Jesus says, the words that I have spoken, the same shall judge him. In the last day, we’re talking about our eternal destiny hanging in the balance of our response to Jesus Christ. I want to make a few simple observations this morning about this pursuit.

2. Christ Is Head Over All Things to the Church

More than just having the right words on the sign that we are a church that belongs to Jesus, but truly being that church in pursuit of Christ. And I would make this observation first of all. In pursuit of Christ, that says it all. That’s what all of this is about this morning. That’s why we come here. To be of Christ. That says it all. And I would take you to this important text in Ephesians chapter 1. Again, I reference Don Truex a lot, probably because he was the preacher for the Silver Street Church in New Auburn, Indiana, when I was a teenager. And you’re very impressionable as a teenager. I was 14 years old when he came. He was 20. So he sort of grew up with us.

And he taught my class, my high school class. And so, and I thought he was a great speaker. And other people think so too. But he was a great speaker. And I told the story before when he came to try out that my dad was one of the elders, you know, and we didn’t know much about him. And he gets up to speak, and that voice, and we went gaboo. Where did that come from? Of course, I went to my dad immediately. That’s the guy we need. I mean, I mean, what he believes matters, but you know, as a young kid, it was the voice. And so I remember a lot of the things Don said, and he quoted a lot of verses a lot that I have come to see why he did.

Like Isaiah 55, 8 and 9, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways than your ways. And this passage. And I quoted a lot through the years, when the Father says that he put all things in subjection under Jesus’ feet. And gave him as head over all things to the church. Now, again, we can call something whatever we want. We can say this is a church, this is a church that belongs to Jesus, but we’ve got to understand something about the real thing. It is his body. The fullness of him that fills all in all.

It affects what you look at, how you use your eyes, what you do with your hands or your feet.

It governs everything. Your tongue. You know, when somebody said, oh, that was just, that was just a slip of the tongue. It was almost like the tongue acted independently on its own. And sometimes, regardless in regards to what’s blurted out, it was almost as if it did. Because there was very little thought given to what was said and what came out. But I want to tell you all that is the mind did not carefully weigh everything that it should have before the tongue spoken. I talked how many times about how short a time it is between conception of thought and word coming out of one’s mouth. And sometimes there needs to be more lag time there.

Jesus says in Matthew chapter 12, verses 34 through 37. So we need to give attention to our minds, let this mind be in you. And that will affect the nature of our speech.

Okay, I’ve made my hand just do that. Now people have involuntary movements with body parts from time to time. That’s a medical condition. They’ve got names for that. Where the mind is doing things that I’m not telling it to do, causing these movements or twitches. Anybody ever have an eye twitch? Has that ever happened to you where your eye just starts switching? It’s like, why is that doing that? I didn’t call, I didn’t say eye twitch. You know what’s really sad? Churches have twitches. But theirs is not the result of a medical condition. It’s because they want to twitch. And they want to move in a direction that the Lord is not guiding. He is not allowed to be the head. And so to truly be of Christ, we have got to let him dictate.

And as Jared taught you in the final parable of the Sermon on the Mount about the wise man who built his house upon the rock, and so unfortunate that gets relegated to a story for children. Because Jesus was talking to adults. Who is the wise man who builds his or her house upon the rock? It’s the one who hears these words and sayings of mine and acts upon them. Again, we’re allowing the head to dictate our movements. And that’s why when we come to passages like 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 16, that we speak about the danger of presuming or innovating beyond what has been revealed in God’s word, in the words of Jesus, because he says, now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, and you can look at the context for what he’s referring to there.

But this statement then follows that in us you might learn not to exceed what is written in order that no one of you might become arrogant in behalf of one against the other. First of all, when we delve beyond what has been written, or act without authority or without Jesus at our head, it is arrogance to do so. Or it is our arrogance that causes us to go beyond what is written.

3. Christ Dictates Our Organization, Worship and Work

And so this is an important point. Some come along and deem something okay, though they are acting without biblical authority, that is, they are not operating within the scope of Christ’s instruction, and yet they’ll say, Well, some good is done in all of this. God is still being worshipped. Surely he could not be unpleased with this. But in every aspect of our labor together. And perhaps you’ve already heard this before, but again, I think it needs to be repeated. Every generation needs to hear this. In every aspect of our labor together, we must allow Christ to be the head. We must allow Him to dictate our movements in these three main areas. This is encompassing what our collective activity is all about. The way we’re organized.

We’re going to talk more about elders tonight. But corruption in organization has led to placing a limited number of men in charge of making decisions over a broad number of churches. We have synods and councils and conventions and a hierarchy like Roman Catholicism, where you end up with one man dictating church policy for thousands and millions, and everyone who claims allegiance to that particular brand of religion. Don’t you see the danger in all of that? Where one man’s edicts filter down to everyone who claims to be of that religious persuasion. That’s not the way the Lord organized his body. That’s why elders are not given any authority or oversight beyond the local church. They are to shepherd the church of God among them. Acts chapter 20 and verse 28, 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 2 and 3, as we’ll look at tonight.

Paul’s instruction that he taught everywhere in every church, according to 1 Corinthians 4 and verse 17, he described as my ways which are in Christ. The head Jesus Christ revealed the information through the Holy Spirit to Paul and the apostles, and they taught those things in all of those churches as they were to allow Jesus Christ to dictate all of their movements. And yet we come along and say, Well, we can do this more efficiently, more effectively, and we challenge God’s wisdom with our own. Even in regard to worship, corruption in worship and a seeming distaste of simple devotion has led to a multitude of innovations, particularly in relation to music, driven by the desire for entertainment, perhaps the aesthetic effect of instruments. But by what New Testament passage do we find authorization for such?

And in this last category, perhaps the most difficult to see is what constitutes being of Christ as it pertains to our work together. Present religious culture is making that very difficult to see. The modern mood is that churches need to be involved in a variety of human humanitarian endeavors that do.

James chapter 2, as we were looking at this morning in verses 14 through 16. But there are other words that also apply.

Some of those who are involved in handout organizations which have their place in society. I’m thankful for organizations that serve a community and provide a service that people want and need. That’s all well and good. But the question is: should a church be engaged in that activity? And a lot of churches these days, and even our government thinks this way, that churches exist to take some of the burden off government. Well, what about the burden off churches? To take some of the burden off government to do all of these kinds of handout things that people in cultures and societies want, especially in a city culture like ours. Where there will always be people who have physical needs and are hungry. Churches need to be involved in that, is the thinking of so many today.

That’s consistent with what Jesus is all about, they think. And I say, wrong, he’s not.

When he said, the poor you will have with you always, he could have well have said, the hungry you will have with you always. And here’s the thing. The mission, the work that he gave his church, was not stamping out physical hunger in people’s lives. You know what happens when you feed somebody tomorrow, they’re hungry again. And the day after that, they’re hungry again. And again, not that’s important. I wanted to eat today, and I want to eat tomorrow. It’s not that’s not important. The issue is what did the head instruct his church to do? And yes, we are in the business of stamping out hunger, but it’s not the hunger of the physical body that’s our mission that Christ gave us. He gave us the mission to stamp out spiritual hunger.

And to satisfy spiritual thirst. Jesus says, if any man would ask, I can give him the water that would quench his thirst. In John chapter 4, verses 13 and 14, the discussion that he had with the Samaritan woman there. The people knew what I had to offer. And that’s what we’re in the business of dispensing. And I will tell you, if the church of Christ, those who are truly of Christ, if we don’t do that, who’s going to do it? The Red Cross is not going to do it. Our government’s not going to do it, or any one of those other social organizations that feed people food, they’re not going to do it. This is the instruction he has given us that we have to do.

Or no one’s going to do it. And we’re overwhelmed by it already, aren’t we? The prospect of trying to reach souls who are hungry and thirsty and often they don’t even know it. To quench their hunger and thirst with the message of the gospel. That’s our mission. So why is it then that so many churches, even those who claim to be of Christ, get involved in all of these kinds of endeavors. I think there’s some reasons for that. First of all, it’s what men want. A lot of folks are much more interested in a meal than they are a spiritual meal. It caters to what people desire. The second thing is folks like to feel good about their participation among a group of people. And I’ll tell you, there’s something to feel good about satisfying the hunger that people have.

Being on that line that hands out the food that fills the hungry belly. I mean, there’s a payoff that comes with that makes me feel like I’m doing something worthwhile and good. I don’t question that for a second. But I’ll tell you there’s something else. It’s easier. It’s a lot easier work to do. It’s much easier to stand there and give people some macaroni and cheese and some meatloaf. I don’t know if that’s what they serve or not. I’m just throwing food out there. Sounds good right now, doesn’t it?

It’s a lot easier to stand there and hand out food because people want that. And it alleviates their hunger. Hunger’s a difficult thing. It’s a lot easier to do that than to give people what they really need, which they often don’t want. Or think they don’t want. And that’s the message that fills them up unto eternal life. Isn’t the devil crafty? As he gets us to focus on meeting physical needs and ignoring the greater spiritual needs. If we, as the body of Christ, those who claim to be of Christ, get distracted from this overriding and overarching and superior responsibility to satisfy the hunger and thirst of the soul. That’s exactly what the devil wants. It is not what the head dictates. Let someone else do the work that satisfies only temporarily.

4. What Is God's Estimate of Me

Our mission and our work is to do that which fills a person eternally. Let us never forget that. And finally, this morning, when we speak of being of Christ and the pursuit of that, is that God’s estimate of me? Again, it’s not about a name on a sign and what we want to call ourselves and look at each other. Bobby, yeah, I like Bobby, he’s of Christ. And I look over here and Mary Jane, she’s of Christ. And, you know, it’s not just about how I might regard. The issue is what is God’s estimate of me. Well, the fact is the scriptures explain that we can know his estimate of us. First, we need to be birthed in him, born again by the living and abiding seed, the word of God.

That is, we embrace this message and allow it to dictate our movements. Again, let Jesus be your head. And he said, He who believes and is baptized shall be saved. The washing of regeneration, Titus chapter 3, the renewing by the Holy Spirit, buried with him in baptism, rising to walk in newness of life. I’ll tell you that. When I have faith that encourages me to repent and to confess the name of Jesus and to be baptized, as the scriptures indicate very clearly, very plainly, and I come up out of the waters of baptism, I am of Christ. I’m born unto him. And that’s where it begins. And it continues with these words that gives life. And I can take you to so many passages. Again, all of the word of God is really relevant here, but in 1 Timothy 6 and verse 3, this warning is uttered by the Apostle Paul to Timothy.

If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness. Okay, he has all kinds of spiritual problems. He’s conceited and understands nothing, and I tell you, don’t want to be that. The doctrine conforming to godliness, the sound words. That’s what makes me of Christ ungodly. My life says, ungodly. I’m God focused in my thinking and conduct and behavior. So I’m going to tell you what this requires. It requires my diligent, sincere, and genuine attempt to possess the mind of Christ. Flip over to 2 Timothy chapter 2. We’re going to read just a couple of verses there. Listen, you cannot be, you cannot be of Christ while minimizing the practice of sin.

Again, you can claim whatever you want. But you can’t truly be of Christ while minimizing the practice of sin. 2 Timothy 2 22, flee from youthful lust. This is the doctrine conforming to godliness that he’s already described. Flee, youthful us and pursue. That’s our word this morning. Pursue being of Christ. Pursue righteousness. That is the things that are right. Pursue faith, a trust and dependence upon God and be faith. Love. That which affects every one of my relationships with every person and peace. My desire for people to come to know peace with God and be at peace with me. With those. That’s us together with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. We’ve been about the business today, and this sermon has been about the development of our heart, our minds, with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart, he says.

You can’t be of Christ if you’re uninterested in this. You can’t be of Christ if you’re not interested in worshiping Him. And unfortunately, the faith of some degenerates to the point. It grows so weak that they’re not interested in this anymore. They really don’t want to participate. Sometimes they come because of guilt, and the brother are going to think less of them. And so I’m going to come, I’m going to punch the time clock. Because it’s expected. But bottom line is, I don’t get much out of this. I don’t really enjoy this. I don’t want to lift the words of my devotion to the throne of God. That’s the further. Can you believe people come to a building like this and they don’t even think about the fact that they’re coming into the presence of God with worship?

But they do. I know they do. To satisfy these requirements. It’s what it means if I don’t do it, the church is going to withdraw from it. Look. That’s not of Christ. You can’t be of Christ and not want to worship them. It just doesn’t go. It doesn’t fly. It doesn’t work. We can do a lot of things. We can say, well, but we’re doing a lot of things right. You know, we did the Lord’s Supper right this morning. We sang right. We didn’t add those instruments you talked about. But that’s not of Christ. And it’s not of Christ when we look into the word at the kind of mind that we’re supposed to have, the kind of love that we’re supposed to have for one another and say, no, I’m not going to do that.

I’m not going to do that. I don’t want to. Makes me vulnerable. People abuse it. If I act in this relationship the way God has told me to act in this relationship, I’m going to get taken advantage of. I’m going to be hurt. Wait a minute. Was Jesus hurt because he loved people? Do you ever suffer any rejection? Think he died on the cross. Wasn’t that an example of rejection?

Conclusion

We don’t get to come along and say, I don’t want to do that because. Because he’s the head. I’m not always of Christ. I think all of us could say that. But let’s do our best to make that sign a reality. That in my life I’m truly of Christ. This is about allegiance and loyalty and submission. And that’s the invitation of Jesus. Come and to me. The invitation is to come and be of him in everything. And what we do corporately, well, how I live individually. Would you come to his cleansing blood this morning and be buried with him in baptism? That’s where it begins. Rebirth in him, the put off, putting off of an old man and putting on of a new man. And let’s help each other to be of Christ.

That’s what this body of people is all about. If you’re subject to his invitation, respond as Sean leads us in an invitation song. Come now.