Why Does the Church Exist?

We asked a poignant question yesterday in cell. Why does the church exists?

And there were indeed many answers given...

• A community of believers to support, pray for, help, encourage and edify one another
• A place where we can attend Christian Education courses to grow in God
• A place where there's worship services so we can come together and hear God's leaders preach the word
• A place where there are intercession for everyone
• A place where there are programmes such as cell groups, missions, evangelism, discipleship etc
• A place where we, as believers, can exercise our giftings to bless each other

All these are good but as I sat down to prepare for cell and pondered, God brought to me a deeper revelation of what the Church is and why it exists.

God: "Are You Missing the Point?"
The past week had been an emotional roller coaster for me, as I struggled with God and told Him that I wanted to be a mediocre Christian. But from Sunday all the way till Friday, God has been sending me a series of "lessons".

I used to learn a lot from God when I did my QT using Navigator's Discipleship Journal which brought me through the bible each day rather extensively, through passages in both the Old and New Testament. And I remember how it always excites me because, even though the passages are all from 4 different places in the bible, sometimes a consistent message or lesson just pop out at me. But I have stopped using the Discipleship Journal plan ever since completed it some time back, and instead switched to a shorter plan. But, as I went through the "roller coaster" week, there was a desire to want to hear from God clearly again. And as I picked it up on Monday, God brought me to Acts 1:4-8 (NKJV):

⁴ And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; ⁵ for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” ⁶ Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷ And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. ⁸ But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Here, Jesus was asking the disciples to wait for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, which would help them to go about His mission for them. But the disciples missed the point and instead asked Jesus if He was speaking about the restoration of the Kingdom to Israel. Jesus quickly brought the disciples back and reminded them that they will be empowered to be His witness, both locally and globally; to the ends of the earth. 


What Perspective?
There was a prompting to share this passage with cell yesterday but I did not know how to go about it. But it became clear to me during worship yesterday that I, just like the disciples, have missed the point when I struggled with God. I was holding on to a worldly perspective rather than a Kingdom perspective. God has helped me to realise that we too can sometimes miss the point e.g. about the purposes and role of the Church.

Yes, intercession, prayer meetings, cell groups, CE courses, missions, Sunday service, Sunday school, all these are good. But have we missed the whole point of why God caused the Church to exist? And it is also true that many of us receive from the Church many good things: teachings, growth, reminders, encouragement, counselling, friendship, peace, new perspectives but yet, why the Church?

God Loves EVERYONE
For this, God again brought me revelation as I read Acts 2: 38-39 (NKJV) for yesterday's QT.

³⁸ Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ The promise is for you and your children and for ALL who are far off—for ALL whom the Lord our God will call.” (Emphasis mine)

These 2 simple verses made me realise that God loves EVERYONE; you and me, He loves us so much that He does not want us to perish.

2 Peter 3:9 (NIV) -The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (Emphasis mine)

God's Restoration Work

And it became very clear to me, once again, that God is going about His restoration work, all the way from the very beginning of time.

Acts 3:21, 25-26 (NIV)

²¹ Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets... ²⁵ And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’ ²⁶ When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.” (Emphasis mine)

Somehow, this was apparent to me after I completed the KAIROS course years ago, but I have since forgotten.  On a sidenote, I would recommend everyone of you to go for KAIROS course, as it is a course which helps you make sense of the bible, as we examine it biblically, historically, strategically and culturally; everything in the past and in the current world will piece together and make sense as you see God's hands in it. 


But I am reminded that, yes, God started His restoration work from the very beginning when Adam and Eve fell.

Genesis 3:15 (NIV)

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

God was talking to Satan who have caused man to fall away from God and we now know that, from the very beginning, God was setting in motion His Kingdom salvation plan and will ultimately bring a Messiah, Jesus; offspring of the woman. Satan will strike His heel but Christ will crush his head.

And who is this Salvation plan for? The Jews? Us? No, it's for all peoples of the earth! Was not all of us in God's mind when He made the Abrahamic Covenant with Abraham when He said: "... and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

So it's now clear that God is not just concerned, from the very beginning for just a select group of people, but for ALL peoples of the earth. 2 Cor 5: 14a (NIV) reminds us that "one died for all".

The Ministry of Reconciliation
Jesus came to reconcile us to God but left with us the mission to continue this ministry of reconciliation, which Daniel Goh so aptly pointed out in 2 Cor 5:18-20 (NIV):

¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

So, from the very beginning, God has you and ALL peoples in mind, to restore us back to Him, away from the work of the Satan, who seeks to "steal, kill and destroy".

So coming back, where does the Church stand in all these? The Church is meant to be the "called out" ones; the ones who have been called by God to restoration with Him and then, to in turn call out others back to Him. This is why the Church exists. And all the cell groups, seminars, Sunday schools, missions, intercession, prayer meetings are the means to the end (not the end) of helping us, on a daily basis, to be restored to God and in turn to help us restore others to God. 


God's Holy Spirit & Empowerment
And God did not leave us alone because He knows we need empowerment. Thus, He gave the Holy Spirit to each of us, just as Jesus had the Holy Spirit which empowers Him:

Luke 4:18-19 (NIV)

"“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Yes, there are people who are unlovable, who are resistant, who we might feel do not deserve Christ. But think about it, you and I are also unlovable to some other people and definitely unlovable in God's standards. But someone cared enough to bring us to be restored with God. All the peoples, both locally and globally, are children of God and God cares for them. What are you doing about it? 


Do you now know why the Church exists?

In a nutshell:

• God loves EVERYONE
• God loves EVERYONE enough to begin His Salvation plan from the moment man fell
• Jesus came to bring reconciliation between God and His people
• Jesus gave the ministry of reconciliation to His followers
• The Church exists, not as a building or institution or club, but as a gathering and community of His followers to be about this ministry of reconciliation.
• Missions, cell groups, prayer meetings, services, CE courses all are means to help us be restored to God, on a daily basis, and to help us to restore others to God
• God does not leave us alone but gives us the Holy Spirit to help us
• And ultimately, the Kingdom of God will be established on earth, as it is in heaven
• Amen

Do you now have the Kingdom perspective of the Church?

I have also included the videos which I showed in cell yesterday and hope it helps to further drive the points across.

Thanks for Hosting GSCC Pastors

Hello everyone,

Thanks to all who have helped us to host our first missionaries in our cell! And Onelife 3 will continue to play host to all that God brings through our doors.

Group Photo with Pastor Raju & Pastor Tanda (+ Daniel who is humbly serving behind the scene taking the photo)

I hope that both Pastor Raju and Tanda has blessed you with their testimonies, and sometimes seeing the circumstances that they serve in and yet how their hearts burn fervently for God, it can be quite a humbling experience for me, who can lament over the slightest things. But there, they have to face with lack of resources, having to go on foot for 15km to share the gospel, face rejections and threats from people; actual dangers to their lives. Their heart to serve comes out of gratitude for God who has changed their lives. And we should continue to honor and keep all missionaries in prayers cause it can be a challenging task. God reminds us in 1 Tim 5:17-18 that we are to honor leaders "especially those whose work is preaching and teaching" (v17b); to these people, God says they are worthy of "double honor".

We all can have the privilege of being in God's presence because of our forefather missionaries who worked against all odds. And I believe that Pastors Raju and Tanda will not only come to be a great channel of blessing but will also raise many a great leaders. We are glad to have been a part of the learning journey of these pastors who are here to be trained and mentored. Like Elder Andrew mentioned, thanks for doing something for eternity.

Let's continue to pray for all our missionaries and as this week approach, there will also be more opportunities for you to find out more about missions at the mission night on 9 Mar (Fri), 8.15pm-10pm at Worship Centre and also on 11 Mar, 2pm @ Rooms 214, 215 as we hear from our own local Riverlife missionaries who are going to the field, how God has called them and the work they are going to do. I commend that to you and hope you will join us. I also comment to you to consider going together as a cell perhaps to India for mission trip for the next round.

Lastly, Pastors Raju and Tanda has invited us to their graduation from Tung Ling Bible School, on 22 Mar (Thu), 7.30pm at Bethesda Cathedral, 30 Chai Chee Street S468979. Anyone keen to go?

James