Opening Day

We are beginning a new series today called All In. The world desperately needs us. Who is us? We are the church. The world really needs us.

We are the hope of the world. In fact, when you hear the word salt, Salt Church, you think of this. This is why we have the name Salt Church. Why we've given ourselves the name Salt Church. Because Jesus gave a teaching in Matthew 5 about salt.

Let's go there real quick and I'll just kind of enter it. This is kind of our setting up scripture, our theme scripture, if you want to call it that. And it says, you are the salt of the earth. He's talking to people that are gathered around him. They don't have any kind of kingship.

They don't have any, they're not Sanhedrin. They're not Pharisees. They're not the elite of the elite. They aren't even elite. They're just people that are on the ground working, doing their thing.

And he says, you are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.

Some versions say city. You are a city on a hill. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it out on its stands and gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify the Father in heaven.

So you are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. We are the salt of the earth. Light of the world. And it only takes a little bit of salt to go a long way.

That's a saying we have here. A little bit of salt goes a long way. Just putting a little bit of salt in some food goes a very long way. Putting a little bit of light in a room goes a really long way. And we all have a part in this plan.

The world desperately needs the church. I love the local church. The local church is the hope of the world. And I don't know what comes to mind when you think of church, but I bet it was a far cry. It's a far cry from what the New Testament church was.

And perhaps you're thinking, you know, a nice building or pews or banners and Bibles and all those things that we think about church. But I bet you there are some other things that come to play for some of you when you think about church. Perhaps it's the reason you didn't go to church for a long time. Maybe you're visiting today. Maybe you're online.

And you're connecting today for the first time in a long time. Because you thought differently about church. Sadly, institutional. Overly political. Terribly hypocritical.

Or horribly judgmental. And the truth is, sometimes the church has been all of these things. Amen? I mean, it has. I've failed it, you've failed it, I've seen it, you've seen it.

Not all the time, but enough times to be a problem. And what I would like to say, if you were unchurched, if you were de-churched, on behalf of the church, I just want to say I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Because it doesn't represent the truth. It doesn't represent the story of Jesus.

And my goal today is to help you rethink that. So would you put aside some of those things today? Would you be willing to do that? Say, you know what? This happened, or that happened, or I felt this way about church.

But today, won't you just take some time, set those aside, as we enter into this series about what the church really is, how to be a church, what it means to be a church, what does it mean for us. That's what we're going to go through for the month of September. And we're going to talk about that. And the first time the church is mentioned, it is Jesus that mentions this word, church. And it started, what the church did, it started as a movement built on an idea.

And that idea was based on one thing. It was an event that took place. It was eyewitness accounts of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Nothing more, nothing less. And the church was launched.

And the first time you see the word church is in Matthew 16. If you want to turn there with me, if you have your Bibles, or you have your app, and you want to follow along, I love this passage of Scripture. It says, when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi. Now, let me give you a little bit of context here, okay? I haven't had an opportunity to visit Jerusalem or Israel yet.

I'm looking forward to doing that very soon. I'm talking about doing it maybe in the next couple of years. I'm talking to some people about going. But if you visited there, you know Caesarea Philippi is a very beautiful place. It flows with its mountains and streams, and it's crystal clear waters.

It's a very popular place for people to go. It would be the place you'd want to take a little break and get away, right? You want to be out in nature. And this was a very popular place, but it was also a very spiritual hotbed. There were a lot of idols.

There were Canaanite idols. There were Greek idols. There was an idol built to Caesar, a temple built to Caesar, Roman gods, all kinds of gods. It was a place of worship. People worshiped.

And it's interesting that Jesus comes. He purposefully chooses this place to talk to his disciples about this very, very important thing. Think about it for a minute. Put yourself in the shoes of the disciples. Here is the Son of God, the Messiah, the creator of the world in person, standing among all these gods, all these ideas, all these theologies of the world.

And here he is talking to these people. And Jesus was purposeful because he wanted to confront the idol. of that day when he said this, and he starts teaching us, he says, who do they say, who do the people say the Son of Man is? Very important question because maybe that's what we need to be asking. What's the word on the string?

What do people say? Who do people say Jesus is? Who is Jesus? A lot of people say He's a good teacher. Oh, that's great.

He's a prophet. He's, you know, one of many different religions. People have different ideas about Jesus because there's a lot of Jesus's out there, so Jesus is asking, and they respond that way. They say some say John the Baptist, some thought he was just reincarnated John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. There was a lot of talk about Jesus, but then he turns the question to them.

Based on what everybody says, what the world says, what's going on, who do you say that I am? And that's the question for today, right? Who do you say he is? And Peter, who gets it wrong all the time, I mean, it's just how he is. He finally gets it right, and he responds and says, Simon Peter answered, you are the Messiah, the Son of the living God, meaning you are God.

You are the unique Savior of the world. You are the one and only above all these other gods, all these other idols, all these people searching for all these different things. You are God. You are the one we have been waiting for. You are the anointed one.

And then Jesus replies, blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by the Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter. And on this rock, on that very proclamation that you made, Peter, that I am the Messiah, I am the Son of God, I am the one and only that I stand above all things. By that proclamation, I will build, and there's that word, church. I will build my church in the gates of Hades, the gates of hell, a better translation would be death, will not overcome it.

Nothing will hold back this church I'm getting ready to start. I'm getting ready to launch the greatest movement in history, and it starts right now upon that very statement, Peter, that you made. And the Greek word for church that is first mentioned, we got the law first mentioned in Scripture, it means it's very significant. This sets the tone for all of what the church is supposed to be is called ekklesia. You probably have heard that term, ekklesia.

It's kind of fun to say, ekklesia, right? And I hope you've heard that word, but if not, it means, it was a very common term in that day. It meant a gathering around an idea, a common idea. There were poli- Political ecclesias in that day, there were religious ecclesias, and they understood when Jesus said, upon this rock I'll build my church, they knew exactly what he was talking about when he said church. A congregation, a congregating around an idea, a coming together of an idea, a movement in a direction on a common goal or idea.

And the foundational of the beginning of the church is this assembly around the idea of Jesus. Not a building, but an event. And they gathered around the idea of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. They were excited, they were pumped, they were experiencing something they had never experienced before. An event that changed everything.

But over the course of time, something terrible happened. Something really bad happened. The English term for church comes from an entirely different Greek word, meaning of the Lord. And then it was picked up and adapted by the ancient Goths, the Germanic, in a Germanic period, Germanic tribe, in 300 A.D.

And they translated it, this word, Kirch. Or Kirch. Stefan probably can pronounce it better in German. But there you go. There you go.

But which meant the Lord's house, which interestingly sounds a lot like the word church we use today in English. And this really bad translation created some really bad theology. Some really bad theology. Because what had happened was it went from what was a place of delivering truth to the world, a gathering that was sending out this truth of Jesus' story of grace and love and truth. It became very insider focused and became more about a church building.

And if you control a church building, you control the people. And you control a church building, you can control the scriptures. And controlling the scriptures controls the people. And in some cases, it controlled the government, as we see in church history. And what was once a place of delivering truth, a place that was built around the common idea that Jesus was the Son of God, and that there was one common goal of sharing that story, it became more insider focused, hierarchical, ritual, and in some ways destructive and pagan.

It became immoral, and it had no reflection on the first church. And a lot of those same ideas are honestly reflected in a lot of churches today. But then came along someone, a very, very bold man. His name is William Tyndale. If you'll flash William up there.

Smile, William. They just didn't smile in those days. I don't get it. But he was the Father, or called the Father. of the English Bible.

And he translated and published the Bible in English from the original Greek and the original Hebrew, and the church didn't like that too much. So he had to flee in 1524. He fled to England, to Germany, excuse me, from England, and then began his process to finish his translation of the English Bible. And the Gutenberg Press was invented at that time, so he began to print and distribute those things, and they smuggled them back into England, and Tyndale continued to translate the Bible until Ephraim betrayed him, and he was brought back to England in 1536, and he was hung and burned at the stake for the translation of the English Bible. And he said this, this powerful, bold statement, he said, If God spare my life ere many years, I will cause a boy that drifteth the plow to know more of the Scripture than thou dost.

That the common man would be able to hold the Scripture. That the common man would be able to know Jesus, know the Word of God. And they wouldn't have to go through an organization, they wouldn't have to go through a priest, but it would be available to everyone. And one thing that drove the church leaders crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, in that day, was his translation of that day was his translation of Ekklesia, that it went from a building to a congregation. And they did not like that.

And this rings true today for many people in our own way, because there's always this gravitational pull to make it about everything else except the common goal, the common purpose. It's about programs, it's about social clubs, our needs, our traditions, and all those things we make the church about. Instead of that simple message, that simple idea, Jesus' simple message, he left us with one common goal, and that's the Great Commission. And what does it say to do? To make new believers.

To make new believers. God, in Jesus Christ's one goal was to make new believers. In Matthew 28, 18 through 20, many of you know this, but we'll say it again. Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

And surely I will be with you always to the end of the age. And two months after the resurrection, about 57 days, they gather, his followers gather, after he ascends to heaven, they gather in Jerusalem. Luke records that it was he, the disciples, his brothers, his mother, a few other people, and about a hundred other people were gathered in this upper room. And it was the day of Pentecost, the Jewish feast, where all people came from, all. All.

Lands around to celebrate this feast in Jerusalem. So you had every region represented and Jews and converts all alike come to this area from all around the world in that particular time. And the Holy Spirit fell on that 100 people in an upper room and they began to speak what Luke says, 14 different languages. They began to fall on them and they began to proclaim. And evidence, they would speak in these languages and people would hear.

And people began to say, how do these Galileans, because that's what they were. They were Galileans. They didn't know these other languages and they were speaking these languages and they were like, how do they know our own language? And what proves and what shows us this was not just a Jewish movement. This was a movement, as Jesus said, for all people.

This was for everyone, the entire world. And they asked, what does this mean? And Peter stood up and he preached the first sermon in history, the start of the church, the launch of the church, this first gathering, this first sermon. And he stands up and he preaches this in Acts 2.22.

He says, people of Israel, listen to this. Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did among you through him as you yourselves know. So these people knew, they saw, they experienced, they heard the stories. And then he says, this man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge and you, with the help of wicked man, put him to death by knelling him to a cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

Amen. And God raised this Jesus to life and we are all witnesses of that fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit and has poured out what you see and hear. Therefore, tell all Jerusalem, be assured of this, God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah. And when the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other disciples, brothers, what shall we do?

They wanted to know what to do. They heard this message. It tore their hearts. They said, what shall we do? Peter said, attend church regularly.

I'm glad y'all laughed at that because that would have made any sense because there were no churches. There were no buildings. There wasn't anything. None of that would have made sense. But he says this.

He says, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. You will receive this free gift. And the promise is not only for you, but for your children. For all who are for all, for all whom the Lord our God will call, meaning you, meaning me, geographically and chronologically.

Those who accepted the message were baptized that day, and about 3,000 were added to their number that day. Now, if you're a small church person, you wouldn't have liked the first church, because it got big really quick in one day when it launched. 3,000 people came to Christ, 14 different languages the church launched as a movement, and it still continues, still continues today. Just as Jesus predicted, it was a gathering that rallied around one idea. Jesus is the resurrected Son of God, the Son of the living God.

When you think about church today, if they were thinking about church, they wouldn't have thought anything else. You couldn't go to church, because there weren't churches to go to. The church wasn't full of church people, because there were no church people, right? The church wasn't about location, because there were no locations. The church wasn't about liturgy, because there wasn't any liturgy.

The church wasn't about rituals or style, because there wasn't any style. There wasn't anything, and the mission of the church was one thing. One thing alone is to create followers of Christ, to lead people to Jesus, to help them see that there is a Jesus. There is a story of a man who is God, who died and rose again. And from that day forward, there has always been a group of people fighting to keep that alive.

That when tradition steps in, when rituals step in, when styles step in, or whatever it might be, that we pull into the picture, and we hold on to those things, rather than the central purpose of leading people to Jesus. That's really what it's about. We refuse to make it about buildings. We refuse to make it about anything else. And there's been missionaries and church planners and evangelists, Bible translators, pastors, student pastors, all kinds of people, even Bible smugglers, who have never allowed, have always hold on to that.

And my hope for you, as a church, is that we keep fighting for that. That we always fight, fight. That we never get so caught up in our traditions. We never get so caught up in how we were raised in church, or what we think about church, or how Americanized we are when it comes to church. Never, never, never let go that everything that we do, everything the way that we think, we should always keep in focus and in mind that it's about creating disciples.

It's about creating believers for Jesus Christ. That's why we do what we do. That's why we wanted... We don't have buildings. It isn't about the building.

It's about the people. It's about us gathering around the people. Why do we need, you know, presentations? Why do we need lights? Why do we need those?

It's not about those things. It's about the people. It's about the people that we're reaching. We never let go of that. We never let go of those ideas.

So let me give you three things real quick. First of all, I want us to not throw rocks at the past, okay? Remember the past. I think it's super important for us, number one, to remember the past. Remember the days of old.

Because a lot of people, they shed blood, sweat, and tears. Every time I look at a church building, I'm when I pass by a church building. I don't know if this is a church planter's disease. Maybe it is. Somebody who starts a church.

Maybe. I don't know. But every time I look at a church, I think of the people that were behind that. The time they put into it. The finances they put into it.

The sacrifice they put into it to create that environment for people to come to. It might have been 100 years ago. It might have been 50 years ago. Whatever it might have been. 200 years ago.

Somebody put time in there. We need to honor them. Honor those people. Honor those people. We never forget those people.

But the second thing we need to do is discern the present. We got to know what we're up against today because it's a different world. It's a different time. Because people don't know Jesus and they're not going to follow Jesus if they don't know Jesus. You can invite them to church all you want to.

But if they don't know Jesus, they're not going to understand why they even need church. So we need to think about those. We need to change our mindsets a little bit and think differently about how do we approach people? How do we get people to church? How do we get people to the gathering?

How do we get people to Jesus? How do we think about that a little better? Because they are ignorant. That's why Ephesians 4.18 says they are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of their ignorance.

Meaning they just don't know. They don't know. And this is in them due to the hardening of their heart. They don't know because their hearts are hardened. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity.

Meaning that because they don't know, because they're ignorant, because their hearts are hardened, how can we expect them to live any differently? So we need to think differently. Years ago I read just a few little statistics here. And I know I don't have much more time here. But I read a book about the religious nuns.

N-O-N-E-S. The religious nuns. Those who are irreligious, have no affiliation with the religion. Just doesn't. I don't care, you know, like, you know, Jesus, Muhammad, what's the difference kind of thing.

I don't have a problem with religion, but you know, I'm just not religiously affiliated. And there was, in this particular time, 23%, this was a few years back, 23% of our population were considered what you would call religious nuns. And young Americans are more likely to be religiously unaffiliated than older Americans, with millennials comprising about 44% of the religious nuns. So, if you're a millennial, and then that kind of, you know, you come from that group, right? Just, I don't, I'm not affiliated with anything.

A Barna study in 2011 said 10% of Americans qualify as skeptics when it came to the Bible. In 2016, just six years later, the number had doubled. Doubled. And currently, this was a few years ago, 22% of Americans do not believe that the Bible has any divine underpinning. So, people aren't even thinking the Bible is true, or real, or divine, or God's Word.

And then, my generation, this was something that was, that I came across to as well. Well, Americans in their 40s and 50s often identify with religion, but they aren't putting their faith into practice. There has been a 12% decrease since 2020 in people ages 39 to 57 who have been attending church. Why? Because middle-aged Americans are busy raising their kids.

Isn't that supposed to be the number one thing you want to raise your kids in, is knowing God and coming to church and being centered on Jesus Christ? But this is, this is, this is more important to them. They're raising their kids. They're caring for the aging parents and juggling demanding jobs. And these factors are contributing to a decrease in church attendance.

This is what we're up against. A world, it's a different world than it was 15, 20 years ago. And the pandemic elevated, escalated those things to even further means. And there's a lot of, a lot of stuff out there to show that we are living in a post-church period. So, we need to discern.

We need to think, okay, okay, I need to think, how are we going to reach these people? As a church that gathers around one common goal to create disciples for Jesus Christ. How do, how do we do that? And then, finally, we need to posture for the future. So, if we think about that, we need to put some things into action.

If we are the church, if we are the hope of the world, if we are salt and light, if we are the light of, if he's the light of life and we are reflections of the light of life, amen? As the church, how do we represent this thing called Jesus Christ, Son of God? This event that took place. How do you reach out to you? How do we represent that?

Well, Paul gives us lots of reasons here, and just hold on just for a second, this last quote from Scripture, 1 Corinthians 9, 19-23. Though I am free, I belong to no one. I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. So he became a slave to everyone. To the Jews I became a Jew, to win the Jews, so I looked like a Jew, I acted like a Jew, whatever it took.

And those under the law, I became like one under the law, though I myself am not under the law. So as to win those under the law. To those not having the law, I became like one not having the law. Though I am not free from God's law, but I am under Christ's law. So as to win those not having the law.

To the weak, I became weak to win the weak. And I have become all things, all things to all people. I sacrifice my traditions and my ways of life, and I sweat, blood, tears, whatever it took, served, so that by all possible means I might save some. I just want to save some. And do all this for the sake of the gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ is indeed alive and changing the world through the church that I may share in its blessings.

We should do whatever it takes. We should do whatever it takes. What Paul is saying here is we should do whatever it takes to win some. We should do whatever it takes to change our minds, to change our mindsets, to do things differently, to think in different ways, to study our culture, and find ways to be missionaries in our culture. But the culture is winning, that's for sure.

But if we learn where to meet them, how to meet them, and connect with them, that's what our job is as a church. So you're ready to be salt? Yes. Are you ready to be light? Yes.

Because we are the salt of the earth. We are the light of the world. Let's pray. Father, thank you, God, for your word. Lord, I thank you for your scripture that just really challenges and really inspires and motivates and corrects and reproves and does all those beautiful things, Lord, to make us more like you and to send us on mission to change this world together for your glory and for your kingdom, God.

Lord, I pray that for those here today that are believers, that are following you, but to help them see and help them open up their hearts and open up their minds to possibly what is before us, Lord. Lord, how can we win? How can we become like the weak? How can we be like those not under the law and under the law? Everything is being given away from one of the закон.

They are going to be like the scientific opportunity. Become slave to everyone so that we could win just a few more people to your kingdom before you return, Lord. Whatever we have to do, Lord, we will do it. And then there are those maybe that are unchurched, the D-churched, that have been hurt. Maybe they're carrying some church hurt.

I don't know, Lord. But perhaps they would consider Jesus today. Maybe they would consider you today after hearing your word and your heart, Lord. That they would give their lives to you and be forever changed, made a new creation. We ask this in your name.

Amen.