June 30th, 2026
Message

We live in an age that seems to worship independence.  Our culture tells us that the ultimate goal of life is self-sufficiency.  The radical independents among us have come to believe that we can do everything on our own, including our faith.  You have probably heard people say, “I am spiritual, but not religious.” or “I love Jesus, but I do not need the church.”  It is tempting to view faith as a private contract between “me and God”, but the Bible paints a completely different picture.  From my teenage years, I remember a song by Tom T. Hall that went like this: “Me and Jesus, got our own thing goin’; Me and Jesus got it all worked out; Me and Jesus, got our own thing goin’; We don’t need anybody to tell us what it’s all about.” [Me and Jesus]  While our nation leans that way, the New Testament knows nothing of a solitary Christian.  God never intended following Jesus to be a solo sport; it is a team journey.  While our faith is deeply personal, Christ never intended it to be private.

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In Matthew 16:18, Jesus made a massive declaration, as He said to His disciples following Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God [Matthew 16:16].  That declaration was that Jesus would build His church “. . . and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.” [Matthew 16:18, NLT]  Notice what Jesus did not say; He did not say, “I will build your individual platform.” or “I will build your private devotional life.”  Instead, Jesus said that He would build His church.  The Greek word used here for church is ekklesia, which means a called out assembly; it refers to a gathering of people.  Today, we are going to look at three primary biblical metaphors that illustrate the church’s essential role in our faith.  The church is not just a building we visit, as followers of Jesus, the church is an identity we share and, in spite of the opinion of many, it is a necessity for our spiritual health and survival.

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The first, and perhaps primary, metaphor the Bible uses to describe the church is a body.  When I was in seminary in West Tennessee, Joanna and I owned and operated a Christian bookstore.  I can still remember how confused I was when I realized that at least halve of our regular customers did not attend a church, and seemed to be proud about it.  Not to be gross, but imagine walking down the street and finding a human finger lying on the sidewalk.  You would not look at it and say, “Wow, what a beautiful, independent, self-sufficient finger!”  No, you would be horrified.  Why?  Because a finger is only useful, alive, and healthy when attached to a hand, which is attached to an arm, which is attached to a living body.  Separated from that body, the finger loses its life, its blood supply, and its purpose.  It cannot heal, it cannot grow, and it cannot function.

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Many Christians, at least many people whose names are on the church roll, try to live like that detached finger.  They sit at home most every Sunday, cut off from the local church, often wondering why their spiritual life feels cold, dry, and dead.  One cannot fulfill our God-given purpose in isolation.  In the verses following our text for today, the Apostle Paul wrote that “‘. . . the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’; nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’” [First Corinthians 12:21, NKJV]  That is obvious in reference to our physical body, but somehow, when it comes to the Body of Christ—to the church—we often miss the point.  So let me be clear: If you have the gift of teaching, you need to teach people, not lay out of Sunday School; if you have the gift of encouragement, you need to encourage people every time we gather together, not just on an occasional drop by; if you have the gift of hospitality, you need to welcome everyone who comes through these doors, not just the ones who meet your limited criteria.  The church is where your spiritual gifts find their outlet.  By the way, criticizing other church members behind their backs is not a spiritual gift; praying for the ones you want to criticize is.  Without the church, your faith is incomplete because you are trying to function as a body part without a body.  We need each other’s gifts to survive because together we make up the whole body.

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The second metaphor the Bible uses to describe the church is a family.  In First Timothy 3:15, the Apostle Paul referred to followers of Jesus as “. . . the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.” [AMP]  When we trusted Christ as our Savior, God did not just become our Lord and Master, He became our Father, and if God is your Father, that means the person sitting next to you in the pew is your brother or your sister.  Think about a healthy family.  Family life is often beautiful, but at times, it is also messy.  Anyone who has raised siblings knows that they do not always get along.  They fight over toys, they argue, and they push each other’s buttons, oftentimes intentionally, but it is precisely within the safety of the family home that children learn how to share, how to apologize, how to forgive, and how to love someone who is annoying them.  We do not learn patience by being alone in a room where no one ever bothers us.  We learn patience when someone tests our tolerance and we choose to love that person anyway.

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The local church is God’s “greenhouse” for spiritual maturity.  It is easy to think we are a deeply loving, patient, and forgiving person when we are completely isolated.  The real test of our faith happens when we have to worship alongside people who have different political views, different backgrounds, different personalities, or are from different generations.  The New Testament contains over fifty “one another” commands: love one another [John 13:34]; forgive one another [Colossians 3:13]; bear one another’s burdens [Galatians 6:2]; and confess our sins to one another [James 5:16], just to name a few.  We cannot obey even one of these commands by ourselves sitting on our couch alone on Sunday mornings.  The church is the “family laboratory” where our rough edges are smoothed out.  It is where God transforms our faith from a theoretical idea into a lived reality.  When the church functions as a family, the world takes notice because they see supernatural unity in a deeply divided culture

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The third metaphor the Bible uses to describe the church is a fortress.  The reality is that we live in a fallen world, which means that living out our faith in Christ is often a battle.  Here is another reality: we need each other for protection.  In Hebrews 10:24-25, the author gave us wise counsel: “. . . let us consider [thoughtfully] how we may encourage one another to love and to do good deeds, not forsaking our meeting together [as believers for worship and instruction], as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; . . .” [AMP]  Imagine a roaring campfire on a cold winter night.  Together the logs and coals create a massive, radiant heat.  If you take a set of tongs, reach into the center of that fire, pull out one glowing red coal and set it off to the side on the cold dirt by itself, what happens?  At first, it stays bright, but within minutes, the red glow begins to fade.  Then, gray ash covers it.  Before long, it is completely cold to the touch.  Did the coal change?  No, it is made of the exact same material it was a short while ago, but it lost its heat because you removed it from the community of the fire.

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We live in a world that is spiritually cold and hostile to our faith.  Doubts creep in; temptation knocks on our door; suffering catches us off guard.  When you isolate yourself from the church, your spiritual temperature drops leaving you vulnerable.  In the animal kingdom, predators do not attack the center of the herd.  They wait for a stray sheep to wander away from the flock, away from the shepherd, and away from the protection of the group.  We need the church to protect our faith.  We need brothers and sisters in Christ who will look us in the eye when we are straying and say, “I love you too much to watch you ruin your life.”  We need people who will hold us up in prayer when we are too weak to pray for ourselves.  The church is a fortress of accountability and encouragement that keeps our faith from burning out.

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As a body, the church gives our faith function through spiritual gifts.  As a family, the church gives our faith formation through relational accountability.  As a fortress, the church gives our faith protection against isolation and spiritual coldness.  God never meant for church to be a weekly spectator sport where you show up, consume a religious product, and leave unchanged.  Jesus shed His blood for the church; it is His Bride.  You cannot fully love the Groom while neglecting His Bride.  If you have been keeping the church at arm’s length, treating it like an optional hobby, I challenge you today to step in.  Move from the sidelines to the playing field.  Stop just attending church and start being the church.  Commit to a community, share your burdens, use your gifts, and let God use this flawed, beautiful, messy family to anchor your faith.  If you want to dive deeper into applying this truth this week, consider these steps: identify one spiritual gift you have and look for a way to use it to serve this week; reach out to one person in the congregation who is carrying a burden and offer to pray with or help them; commit to consistent weekly worship gatherings to keep your spiritual coal burning bright.