Choosing Jesus Means Choosing His Church

This text which is focused on marriage also speaks powerfully about the nature and work of the church.

Many people are personally religious but they have no place in their lives for the church. This sentiment seems to be increasing in its prominence and intensity.

• I experienced as a 12-year-old boy what many people might call a home Bible study or a house church. It happened in a living room in an ordinary house in El Paso. I remember my father with an open Bible. I remember adults sitting around with their Bibles in their laps.
• And I remember as a boy being bored and wandering around the house during the teaching sessions.
• We not only studied the Bible in our house church. We also ate together and enjoyed great fellowship. And we prayed together. In other words, we gathered around the Apostle’s doctrine, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer. That’s what the early church did as well in the Book of Acts.

I remember a definition of “church” from my early days as a Southern Baptist. The definition used the term “organized.” A church was a group of Jesus people who were “organized to make disciples” or something like that. Maybe one of you can lay your hands on that definition and send it to me.

The “organized” part of church life is what seems off-putting to some people. We sometimes make the joke that if you don’t like organized religion you’ll love our church because we are really disorganized.

Being disorganized, though, does not sound like a positive thing. It sounds like a lack of concern and direction and focus.

I think the house church of which I was a part was a true church. It accomplished at least some of the fundamental things that churches do—teaching the word, breaking the bread, fellowship, and prayer.

But it was not organized for outreach or ministry. It was very relaxed and made few if any demands on those attending. We did not have any formal membership rolls or membership requirements. We just gathered, enjoyed the Word and one another, and went home.

Sounds pretty good, really, when you say it that way. I don’t remember taking up any offerings. I don’t remember anyone being baptized. I remember it remaining small with a constant membership of the same people.

Christ Loves the Church:

"...just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." — Ephesians 5:25

The word for love is agape. Christ gives this word its very definition by loving us to the dying point.

• He loves us individually.
• He also loves us collectively, as this passage says.

The word church is ecclesia. Ek means “out” and clesia is “to call.” So ecclesia is the “called out assembly.” The word was used to describe the gatherings in the Greek city-states when citizens were assembled to discuss matters about their community.

• I am saying in this title that when we choose Christ we are choosing to be a part of his church. But it might be more accurate to say that when Christ chooses us he chooses us to be part of his church.
• Remember, the narrow gate says “whosoever will may come” on this side. But once you enter and look back it says, “Chosen from the foundation of the earth.”

Christ is the husband. The church is his bride. The husband chooses the bride. But the bride also chooses the husband. It is a matter of mutual choice.

• Christ has not only chosen us. He has chosen to love us.

His love for us is demonstrated in this: Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her (v25). This word means “to deliver into the hands of another.” Christ gave himself up to sinful men, to the hands of the executioners. This was the extent of his love for us.

• He gave himself up so that he could accomplish something for us that we could not do for ourselves. He gave himself to save us.
• This is not unknown in human history. Many of our medals of honor are given posthumously, presented to family members after one of their loved ones has given his life in service to his friends and fellow soldiers. You can see the wall of honor in the National WWII Museum.

In love, Jesus handed over his body to be tortured and killed. In this act of love he took upon himself the sins of the world. He carried those sins to the cross and died in our place to pay the penalty of our sin.

Christ is Sanctifying His Church:

"...to make her holy, cleansingher by the washing with water through the word." — Ephesians 5:26

Christ is at work in his church. He has a continuing relationship with the church, which is his body.

Christ is purifying the church, making her holy. This is the standard word for sanctification in the New Testament.

• Sanctification refers to the process of spiritual growth and maturation that should take place in every believer.
• Here it addresses all that Christ is doing in the church as he prepares her for the presentation in heaven one day.

You know that moment when The Bridal Chorus begins and everyone stands? We all turn toward the doors to see the Bride enter in her white gown. That is the kind of moment for which Christ is preparing his church. He wants his church to be spotless in that moment.

Christ is Feeding and Caring for His Church:

"No one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church." — Ephesians 5:29

Jesus did not simply create the church. He did not lay down his life for the church and then leave it alone. No, he loves the church. And he is working on the church to make it all he intends for it to be.

Jesus is feeding and caring for his church. To “feed and care” for the body sounds almost like taking care of an infant son or daughter. It sounds pretty intense.

• Feeding his church focuses on the milk and meat of the word of God. It’s about nourishment. Jesus is the supreme Teacher. The Holy Spirit is the one who brings to mind all that he teaches us. Through the Spirit and Word Jesus feeds his church.
• Caring for the church is the word for “cherish.” In the root it means “to keep warm, to warm” like a mother hen does with her baby chicks. Jesus is holding the church in his arms, protecting her and keeping her warm and healthy. He is our friend, our comforter, and our guide. He is the author and perfector of our faith.
• Jesus is practicing the Care Effect with his church—meeting our needs and shaping our character through loving care and concern. As the author of Hebrews reminds us, "God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.' So we say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?'" — Hebrews 13:5-6
• You are familiar with the word never? Never means never. You will never be alone. You will never be abandoned.

I was blessed to convey this truth to a person in tremendous grief and sorrow. “God is with you and will not leave you,” I said, and he nodded in agreement.