Ten Marks Of A Biblical Church: Part 1

Ten Marks Of A Biblical Church
PART 1

In the book of Acts, the word “church” is used regularly to describe local groups of believers (Acts 13:1; 18:22). Each local church is a congregation in its own setting and a manifestation of the global Church, which is made up of all believers (1 Cor. 10:32; Col. 1:18). I love the Church! It is the greatest thing in the world. The great transforming love of Christ is at work through the Church.

In this two-part series we’ll look at ten important characteristics of a biblically functioning local church. Some may say that I’ve missed some points, and they’d be right. But I believe that these ten are especially pertinent today. They describe the kind of church believers should seek out and be committed to (Acts 2:41-47; Heb. 10:25).

1. Anointed Teaching
Christians in the early Church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching” (Acts 2:42 NIV). They knew that God’s Word “can build you up” and “is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness” (Acts 20:32; 2 Tim. 3:16-17). In fact, “the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).

The Word of God is the primary change agent in the lives of individuals in the church, and anointed teaching is teaching that is empowered by the Holy Spirit from preparation to presentation, and which goes beyond spiritual accuracy to a relevant application of truth that “conforms us to the likeness of Christ” (Rom. 8:29). Danger lurks whenever we depend on anything else. So we need to commit ourselves to a church where anointed teaching is the primary method for transformation in the lives of individuals.

A while ago on a Sunday morning I asked someone, “How’s your week been?” Her eyes filled up with tears and she started to tell me the struggle and hurt she was facing. I had no idea of her situation, and on the surface no one else would have known either. Now that person, that morning, needed anointing teaching.

Then I spoke with a mother bringing up two children on her own. She was worried about her children visiting their father at his home because there were drugs, alcohol, no meals, no bedtime and they were allowed to ride on his motorbike without a helmet. She was so open to anointed teaching.

One of our daughters lives in Queensland. She’s a Christian but rarely goes to church, yet when she is with us she’s happy to come to the family service. Like any other parent, or person bringing along someone who’s loved, we pray for anointed teaching when she comes.

We have a great responsibility to commit to a place where there is anointed teaching that transforms lives, to pray for everyone who teaches, and to let that anointed teaching transform our lives. “If a man’s gift is teaching, let him teach” the great truths of Scripture (Rom. 12:7).

2. Concern For The Lost
We also need to commit ourselves to a church where lost people matter. After telling the story of the lost sheep Jesus said, “In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost” (Mt. 18:14).

If you allow a church to run a natural course, it will always become inwardly focused. The natural flow of energy will always be to building up the Christians already there, and taking care of the business of “paying the bills and keeping the building maintained,” not messing with those high-risk efforts of reaching our friends for Christ. If you were Satan and wanted to suck the life out of the Church and bring it to its knees, you would stop all evangelism. What the Church needs is a disproportionate investment in evangelism.

I was given a video for Christmas called “The Life Of The Party.” It’s a video of Becky Tirabassi, a writer, speaking to about 1000 young people. When she was young, her father took her to church every Sunday; he was the chief usher, but he was an alcoholic. Someone should have warned her when she took her first drink at 17 that she was an alcoholic’s child. Becky started drinking because drinking was a way to have fun, lose her cares, become popular.

She went away to college and was soon drinking every day. She would drink till she passed out. At 21, at a friend’s pre-wedding celebration she passed out and woke up the next morning in bed next to a person she hardly knew. She didn’t know how she got there. She didn’t know where her car was. She didn’t know what she’d done the night before. She did know, however, that she was an out-of-control alcoholic, and she hated herself.

Becky went to church at Easter and Christmas. Since it was Easter, she went. She was the youngest person there, and no one talked to her but the caretaker. He approached her and said, “Jesus loves you just the way you are.” She thought, “You don’t know the way I am or you’d never say that.”

At 26, after alcohol had destroyed all her dreams and relationships, she confronted herself and said, “That’s it!” She remembered the caretaker who talked to her on those rare occasions when she went to church. She found him in the church basement, and crying said, “Ralph, we’ve got to talk.”

He said, “No, Becky, we just need to pray. Say this little prayer, ‘Dear Jesus, come into my heart.’” So Becky prayed, “Dear Jesus, come into my heart.” Then he said, ”Becky, ask God to forgive your sins, and confess them out loud.” So she did, in a torrent: “Forgive me this, and this, and this, and ...” As she went on and on his eyes got wider and wider.

When she finished, he said, “Becky, your countenance has changed. When you become a Christian you become a brand new person inside. ‘The old has gone, and the new has come!’” (2 Cor. 5:17).

Becky left the church basement and never drank again. She told everyone she had become a Christian. She told her friends, and they said she’d had a breakdown. She told her boyfriend, and he broke up with her. She told her parents and they said, “What do you think you’ve been all your life?”

On the video, Becky said, “I tell my story to offer hope. There is no situation, addiction or problem that God cannot handle. It may mean counseling, hard work, and a lot of tears – but you can call on Him now to help.” She finished by saying, “I went to church on Sunday, and most of the people were Christians. I had lots of friends, and some of them were Christians. But it was that caretaker, a stranger, who had the guts to tell me about Jesus. He told me that the One he loved, also loved me. No matter how many times I brushed him off he kept telling me about his Savior.”

The Great Commission tells us to “go and make disciples” (Mt. 28:19). But there has to be a balance between “going” to evangelize the unchurched, and “making disciples,” which is helping Christians to grow. We have to guard against being a church where everything is focused on those who already know Christ, and no one cares about the lost. The parable of the lost sheep teaches us the importance of finding the lost: “There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent” (Lk. 15:7).

If Satan wants to destroy the church, he only has to get us so focused on ourselves that the lost, those who matter most to God, don’t matter to us.

Acts 10 is about Peter, a Church leader, and Cornelius a seeker. God brings them together in a remarkable way, and Cornelius, his family and friends all become Christians. When God needed someone to speak to a seeker, Peter was ready. Today, each of us needs to be ready when God wants someone to reach out to those seeking Him. Ours needs to be a church where lost people matter to us because they matter to God.

3. Cultural Relevance
We need to commit ourselves to a church that is culturally relevant while remaining doctrinally pure. Paul made his communication culturally relevant to both Jews and non-Jews so that he might capture their attention “for the sake of the gospel” (1 Cor. 9:23). He practiced this when he went to Athens. He saw statue after statue of Greek gods, including one erected “to an unknown god” (Acts 17:23). He began right there, using quotations from their own poets, to preach the good news about Jesus and His resurrection (Acts 17:16-34).

Jesus was the most relevant communicator of all time. When He talked to fishermen, He captured their attention by likening evangelism to catching fish. When He talked to farmers, He got their attention by talking about sowing seed and trimming vines. Another time he talked about people who had been killed by a collapsed tower. Jesus drew His examples from whatever was woven into the fabric of everyday experiences.

Someone said that our job is to interest the uninterested. And we do so by starting where they are and leading them to scriptural truth. To do this we must be aware of where people are, and what they’re interested in.

A journalist, who became a Christian, exclaimed, “I can’t believe that churches can take the most exciting book in the world, the Bible, and make it boring!” For the sake of those who bring an unchurched friend or loved one to church in order to reach them for Christ, we must commit to being relevant yet doctrinally pure. If we get an A for cultural relevance and an F for doctrinal purity we’ve failed. If it’s the other way around we’ve also failed. Both non-Christians and the Church lose.

By Colin Tizzard

Next month look for Part 2 of this series.