After the uproar had ceased, the uproar was the thing that happened in Ephesus. After the uproar had ceased, Paul called the disciples to himself, embraced them, and departed to go to Macedonia. Now, when he had gone over that region and encouraged them with many words, he came to Greece and stayed three months. And when the Jews plotted against him as he was about to sail to Syria, Syria is where Antioch was, where his, I guess you would say his home church was, where he launched off from. When the Jews plotted against him as he was about to sail to Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia, and Sopater of Berea accompanied him to Asia, also Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy, and Tychicus, and Trophimus of Asia. These men, going ahead, waited for us at Troas. But we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and in five days joined them at Troas, where we stayed for seven days." Now, some of the itinerary details that are there, I'll consider for you next week. But there's one thing in this passage of scripture that really jumps off the page at me as we practice expositing scripture and letting it speak to us, right? And that's this. And I wanna just go through it quickly because I have a bunch of other passages of scripture that I want for you to turn to in your Bibles with me as we go through this today. So it becomes like a little Bible study really on this one particular issue. And it says, after the uproar had ceased, It says Paul called the disciples because he's getting ready to leave the region where he was there in Ephesus to go back through Macedonia. And you know, there's some sea travel that's involved with that because Ephesus is in what we would call Western Turkey. Macedonia is in the southern part of mainland Europe, where Greece is. But it says this. It says, when he had gone over that region, and look at this, and encouraged them with many words, then he came to Greece. And it made me think of something, that phrase. And that is that, first of all, the church needs strengthening, always. The church, not just individual Christians, but the churches, they need strengthening, right? And that's what I think Paul, as we have seen many times, is a big church guy, right? Paul orders churches, Paul appoints elders in churches, he gives instructions for how churches ought to conduct themselves. And then Paul sees to it that those churches are strengthened. Have we not seen a few times already as we've gone through Acts that Paul like kind of retraces his steps going backwards and stops in all the places where churches had been founded to preach and to teach and to strengthen them. And then when he goes out on one of his missionary journeys, his intention was to go back through all the places in Asia where he had gone, so he could go through and visit all those churches and see how they're doing and strengthen them. Even in the prologue to one of his letters to the church at Rome, which is not a place where he had gone yet and was not a church that he had started, When he writes to them in Rome, he says, I want to come to you also so I can impart some spiritual gift to you. Paul was all about wanting to go to churches to strengthen them. And so, I think it's important to take a look into scripture then. And this is where we launch off into what I think will be... more of like a topical study. We'll pick up some more of the itinerant details, like I said, next week as we go into the next section of this. But I want to talk to you a little bit today about what the Bible says about strengthening the churches. And I tried to think to myself, What are the ways that a church would be strengthened? What is it that makes a church strong? Now, you can come up with all sorts of things just from your basic knowledge of scripture and make a list for yourself. I can't cover all of them. There are so many things. You know, you can talk about the importance of fellowship, right? Fellowship meaning are gathering together, are assembling for various purposes, especially for worship and teaching, and the priority that's supposed to be, and that we're not supposed to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, but rather encourage each other, as Hebrews 10 says, even so much the more as we see his day approaching. That's a way that a church is strengthened when the people devote themselves to assembling together. We could talk just a little bit about the care among brothers and sisters and how, when things are difficult, brothers and sisters in the church, they take on each other's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. And they care for each other. That strengthens the church. We could talk about evangelizing together. This is something that tremendously strengthens a church, right? Is that we're not just a circle-the-wagons type of thing. We are committed to the task that Jesus originally gave his church, which was to preach the gospel to every creature and then to make disciples of all of the nations, as many as would believe, teach them whatsoever things he's taught us and raise up disciples that way. This collectively sharing in an outward, looking out, reaching out kind of focus actually strengthens us in here. I would even suggest to you that having no evangelistic effort, no evangelistic focus whatsoever, would actually weaken what's going on inside. It seems counterintuitive, but I think it's the reaching out together that actually makes in here stronger. So, all of those things are messages unto themselves, right? I'm making brief reference to them, but I'm not going to focus on those things today. I think the whole idea of just worshipping together, that certainly strengthens the church, right? When we all gather together, that's the whole idea where scripture says, speak to each other in psalms and hymns and in spiritual songs, right? It's the whole idea of that, like, songs and music that praises God, done together, ministers to each other. So a church is strengthened that way. There's the whole idea of enduring hardships and trials. Look, you think about what we're going through with the COVID thing right now, right? And it's hard, right? It's hard because you don't know what to do when you wake up. You know, we had plans for Christmas and we just, we decided to cancel them and we ended up just staying home just, you know, because we're not sure. I mean, none of us have COVID as far as we know. We haven't been around anybody who has, but you know, we're possibly going to go see my brother in Pennsylvania. We're possibly going to go see my mother in Pennsylvania today. And we didn't know what to do. We'd probably be okay if we did. We just, I don't understand. And you know, this is a difficult season. It's a difficult time for the church. You even look here today. I'm very glad that many of you have come today, but definitely less than we've usually been seeing. And there's good reasons for that. And I think for some of the people who have stayed home to watch, it was the right thing for them to do, right? For all of them. And even if you're just like uncomfortable with everything that's going on, that's fine too. It's one of the reasons why we put all of this together, you know? But this hardship, that we're going through day by day together. It's going through hard times and staying at it that makes you strong. What you don't want to do is just bail. Right? You know what? I'm just not going to do anything. I'm not. You know what? I don't like that they're still meeting. I don't like that they still do it online. Hey, we've given everyone every opportunity to not like us that they could possibly have. Right? You know, if you want to get mad at something, you can find it here. Right? There you go. But it's the whole idea, it's the whole idea of like going through something that's hard, going through the season that's hard, and staying at it that makes you strong. Right? So those are a list of a few things that I think strengthen churches. Fellowship, mutual care, evangelizing together, worshiping together, enduring hardships together. Now I have a few more for you that this next list, I have five more, these I'm going to spend some time on. We're going to turn to some other passages of scripture. Okay? Shake your head yes. Because that's what we're going to do. All right? Here's the most obvious thing. Now, you look here, and you look at the passage, and it says, now when he, in verse two, now when he had gone over that region, ready? And encouraged them, right? So that's the idea of strengthening, is that encouragement. To encourage means to add courage, to strengthen, to edify, to build up, okay? It says when he had gone over that region and encouraged them look with many words. So stop there. What is it that adds strength to a church that you could obviously see there when he when he talks about many words, he's talking about preaching and teaching. He's talking about doctrine. Doctrine is very important. And, I'll add this, doctrine that does what? Focuses people on Christ. These were all very new ministries and very new churches. Paul had gone out preaching something that at the time was brand new. And the foundation of it all was Christ Jesus. So, kind of my first two of those five points are wrapped up in that. Right? Number one, the most obvious thing that strengthens a church is its focus on Christ. Christ is at the center of everything. If a church remains Christ-focused, gospel-focused... You know, why do you think the Lord instituted the Lord's Supper? When you really step back and try to see what is the purpose for that act? What does the Lord's Supper, if done right, do? It takes you and your mind and your heart back to the foundation, which is His body, which is offered as a sacrifice for us, and His blood, which is shed for us. So, the focus on Christ is what is first of all, I think, important. And then the second thing that's in the middle of all that was the attention to teaching and doctrine. Teaching and doctrine are what make the church also very strong. So there's one and two right there. Let's look at some other scripture now, okay? Turn with me to Matthew chapter 16. Let's talk about Christ. Let's talk about Christ a little bit and his role in the church, why we need to focus on Christ. Matthew chapter 16 and verse 13. When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, who do men say that I, the son of man, am? So they said, some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, you're the Christ, you're the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered and said to him, now listen to this, Blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah, that is son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And also, and I also say to you that you are Peter, right? So now he's not Simon, now he's Peter. You're Peter. And on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Amen? How about that? So, why is a church strong when it's focused on Christ? Look what Christ himself says about himself in relation to the church. What does he say? He tells Peter, and you know, a lot of people get, there's a lot of talk I've always heard over the years about the first part of this, where in verse 18, Jesus says to Peter, you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, right? So you've probably at some point over your years as a Christian come across the idea that the name Peter, I mean, his given name is Simon, right? Jesus calls him Peter because Peter is a English Anglicanized version of a Greek word that basically means a stone. right? A rock. And then you see the play on the words, and on this rock, I will build my church. And some people look at that and they say, so Jesus is saying, you're Peter, and on this rock, I'm going to build my church. referring to the fact that the apostles, the early Christians, would be the foundation that Jesus would lay for the Church. And that's a plausible idea. The Roman Catholic Church, of course, takes it way beyond anything it could possibly mean, and say that somehow that means Peter himself personally is the foundation of the Church, and they use that to say that he's the first Pope. I don't think either sound theology or history bear that out, right? So, but then other people will look at it and say when Jesus says upon this rock, I will build my church. He's referring to himself when he says the rock, right? Your Peter, which is a word that means a stone and upon this rock, which is another form of a word the word Peter, that refers more to like a foundation, a bedrock or something like that. So that's possible. Maybe Jesus is referring to himself. And a big deal gets made about that, right? But may I suggest to you that the important, the really important part of that verse gets lost if all you do is get hung up on that one little point right there, right? Because what comes after it is what is significantly important. First of all, he says what? I will build my church. Who's the builder of the church? Jesus is. I mean, in my thinking, I've kind of gone back and forth on the rock thing a little bit. Like, I kind of feel like Peter is being told there that Jesus is going to use you and the rest of the apostles as, like, the foundation of the church. Right? Right? But the important thing to note is, who's the builder of the church? Jesus is the builder of the church. And then look what he goes on to say. The gates of Hades. What is Hades? Hades is a word that refers to the place of being dead, or the state of being dead. It's not literally hell, but it's like when you die, you're dead. Hades is like the realm of the dead, if you will. So in other words, what he's saying is basically, I'm going to build the church. And death is going to have no power over it. Yeah, hallelujah is right. And that's why I say a truly strong church is a church that remains focused on Christ. And you see in a lot of churches and a lot of ministries that profess to be Christian, I feel like wandering off into all sorts of other issues and all sorts of other realms and taking on all sorts of other things in the political realm, in the social realm, in the academic realm. And there's a lot of wandering off into those things, but that's not what strengthens a church. What strengthens a church is remaining devoted to the one who says, I will build my church and death shall have no power over it. In the church, look, what is the church? The church is people who have been redeemed through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And what is the great promise of that gospel? You will never die. The church is, at its foundation, the fellowship of people who do not fear death, for whom death has no power over them, because Christ is the leader and the founder and the builder of the church that we are part of. So what strengthens a church? The church that looks to Christ. Looks to Christ and exalts Him. Looks to Christ and finds Him entirely sufficient for salvation. Looks to Christ and does not try to justify themselves, does not try to add their own works to justify themselves, does not boast about themselves. Everything is about exalting and lifting up Christ. Therein is a church that is strong. Turn to Colossians chapter 1. So if you ever get tired of just hearing about Christ all the time in Fellowship Bible Church, then I suggest that you change your view about that. Because that's what we do. We focus on and exalt Christ. You understand? Amen? That's great. Now, in Colossians chapter one, and verse, oh, let's start in verse 13. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. So, the He in the beginning of verse 13 is God the Father, right? And the Son of His love, that's Christ, right? So now read that again. He, God the Father, has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into, conveyed us, transferred us, taken us out of one kingdom and put us in another. Conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, that's Jesus, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. When you trust in Christ, when you are born again, when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, by God's grace, you receive adoption as sons and daughters. You were dead and you were brought to life. You were far away and you are brought near. You were apart from Him and you are now reconciled to Him. And you are snatched out of the kingdom of this world and put into the kingdom which is being built one redeemed soul at a time, and the king of that kingdom is Christ himself. And like with every kingdom, the focus is the glory of the king. Right? Now go on in this passage. Verse 15. He is, this is Christ now. He, Christ. Verse 15. This is all about Jesus. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him, this is Christ, by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through Him and for Him, and He, this is still all Christ, He is before all things, and in Him all things consist, now listen to this, and He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. Pre means before. In other words, the eminence of Christ comes before everything else. That's why churches that are strong are churches that exalt Christ Jesus and preach Him and preach Him again and keep going. Don't you know that when Paul went back through all of these churches and exhorted them, encouraged them with many words. Don't you know that those words had to do with grounding them and reminding them and deepening their understanding of and pointing them to Christ? How do you know that? Read all of his letters. It was during these times that Paul wrote. When it says he encouraged him with many words, there's preaching, teaching, and person. But Paul wrote a lot, too. And we have letters that he wrote in the Bible. Show me one letter that Paul wrote that doesn't have kind of as its ultimate message the exaltation and glorification of Christ. Whether he's writing to the Galatians about the the problem with the Judaizers, or he's writing to the Philippians, the great letter about all of his joy and everything else, or he's writing to Timothy and to Titus about ordering the churches and appointing elders in the churches. In every one of those letters, as you see through it, significant space, significant effort, significant attention and care is given to exalting Christ as the head of the church. For a church to be strong, it must be a church that is Christ-focused and Christ-exalting. Amen? Now, the second thing on the list that I said was related to that, what else strengthens a church, obviously, then, is what? Doctrine. Doctrine. It's easy for me to quote for you 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16. that tells us that all scripture is given by inspiration of God. That is to say, as the New International Version and some other modern versions put it, God breathed. I know I've explained that before, but that phrase, given by inspiration of God, in the New King James and King James, that is five words that are used to translate one word. And the one word is Theanoustas. which basically means God and to breathe formed in one word. So, all scripture, every word of the Old Testament and New Testament, though God used men to write it down, God is, through the Apostle there, trying to convey to you that every word of your Bible, oh, yes, Moses wrote down the first five books, and David wrote a lot of the Psalms, and Solomon wrote a lot of wisdom, and maybe Samuel, Ezra, the prophets, they did all of their writing, and then the Apostles, and Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, all those people who did all the, listen, Every word of the Bible is God's. That's the point. All scripture is God-breathed. And it's profitable, useful, for doctrine. Reproof. Reproof means to check what you believe to make sure it's accurate by comparing it to scripture. Doctrine, reproof, correction, which means you use the words of scripture to correct thinking and conduct, and then instruction in righteousness, which is righteousness meaning to do what's right. Scripture is used to teach us, we who, our ways used to be like all over the place, and we all went to our own way, as the prophet Isaiah said. Scripture can be used to teach us to walk in a righteous way before the Lord, right? That the man of God may be complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work. So, it is doctrine, it is sound doctrine that consists of the preaching and teaching of all scripture. It is all scripture that is God-breathed, every word of the book. I should say the books, but you put them together and they make one big book, right? All scripture is God-breathed, and it is the careful, verse by verse, line by line, Story by story, if you will. Principle by principle. Book by book. Teaching of all scripture is what equips people, strengthens them, and equips them, and builds them up. Now, we talked about churches being Christ-focused. Let's talk a little bit about the pulpits in churches. I don't know what you're looking for in a church, but what you should be caring about what a church must do. And don't you know what Paul did when he used many words to encourage these churches? He didn't waste his time telling them stories. You know, in the same passage in 1-2 Timothy that I quoted for you, he goes on to say, be careful because the days are coming when they'll be turned aside to fables and stories. And you hear that today. And pulpits are used to like, manipulate people out of their money. Pulpits are used to, like, make preachers and churches famous. Pulpits are used to put forth political and other sorts of agendas. Listen to me. Everyone just look at me. Look at me. Every pulpit that's truly in a church that is of God should be used to exposit the words of all Scripture, verse by verse. We are committed to that here. You can find other churches that are better at it, but at least we're committed to that here, right? And every church, that's what they should be doing, because that's what strengthens a church. Now, turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 11. talk about strengthening a church. It seems like every other week I find reason to read this passage to you, doesn't it? I mean, are the pages worn out yet enough? Do you even need to thumb through it very much to find Ephesians chapter 4? You haven't marked up enough by now or the pages are all dog-eared? Verse 11, Ephesians 4, and he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers For the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry. For the edifying. Do you know what edify means? You must, right? I know you know this because I've said it before and you yourself have heard it probably other places before. To edify basically just means to build something up. Build it up! What? Strengthen it! Build it up and make it beautiful! Build it up and make it strong! So God himself, notice it says he himself, this is God's doing. He himself gave. Gave? We think at Christmas time of God giving Jesus his son, right? But look what else God gave. God gave people to the church to do what? Preach and teach his word. All those offices that are listed there, apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher, what they all have in common is they handle the word of God in the hearing of other people, and specifically in the hearing of the church. That is God's gift to the church. That God calls some people to be pastors, and equips them to stand up and preach the Word of God. That's not just man's design. God designed that. And listen, the faithful ones, who are faithful to the Word, the reason elsewhere in Scripture it says they're worthy of double honor, is because God gave them to the Church. Do you understand that? For the edifying of the body. We're talking about strengthening the Church, which is the body of Christ. Good doctrine. Good Bible preaching and teaching. That's what In the midst of every church, probably, there are false believers, there are those who don't believe, there are those who don't agree with that, and there are those who will even try to undermine it. Jesus said there's wheat and tares, right? He said there's sheep and there's goats, right? But listen, the Lord, ready for this? You ready for this? The Lord knows who his real church is. And his true children, are edified and strengthened through His Word. Doctrine. Doctrine strengthens the church. Let me just read a few more verses in that passage. It says, till we all come, verse 13, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, there's the Christ. See how they overlap? There's the Christ focus. The knowledge of the Son of God. There's the focus on Christ in the middle of the doctrine. To a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. In other words, the reason why churches are committed to doctrine, and the reason why churches must remain Christ-focused, is because Christ is the standard by which you disciple a person. Right? I mean, isn't that the ultimate goal of the church, is to raise up people who, in their conduct, and in their words, and in their love, and in their living, look like Jesus, their Lord? That we should no longer be children. Here's why doctrine's important. So you grow up. No longer children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine. In other words, every false thing that comes down, that sounds so, and you know, they put it on television and you see a lot of people sitting and listening and people flock to buy books and go to seminars, this teaching, that teaching, everything else. Listen, we're not supposed to be little children, little babies. The church is strengthened when the Bible is preached verse by verse. And the people who are strengthened by that, they're not flipped here and there, left and right, to and fro, by every new crazy thing that comes out. Right? with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But speaking the truth, that's what strengthens people, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into him who is the head." There's that again. Christ is the head. You see how good doctrine and the headship of Christ overlap. The point of good doctrine is to raise people up to love Jesus, to even look like Jesus, in such a way that they're immovable from that. Alright. Next on my list. Read the rest of this verse 16, because it segues, one segues into the other. from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself." See? Jesus raises up his church to be like a self-edifying kind of thing. He's the one that works in us and through us. But through us, the individual members of the church build each other up. That's why good teaching is important and sound doctrine. And it edifies itself in what? What's it say? Love. Love. And that's the third thing on my list. What is another characteristic of a strong church? What is another thing that shows that a church is truly being strengthened? Well, one was its focus on Christ. Two was its focus on sound doctrine. And three is its focus on what? Love. Let me show you this in maybe not a place you'd expect. You might expect me to turn to something Jesus said about, by this all men will know you are disciples that you have love for one another. That would be a very great thing to look at. You might expect me to turn to 1 Corinthians 13 when Paul talks about the preeminence of love over everything else, right? But I want you to turn to 1 Timothy chapter 1. Not because I'm clever or anything, because I'm not. Just because... I want you to see this. Now keep your finger at 1 Timothy chapter 1 and look over at 1 Timothy chapter 3 in verse 14. I want to remind you of something. I want to remind you why Paul wrote 1 Timothy. because he says so, right in the middle of the letter. He says, these things I write to you, all the stuff that it says in the letter, these things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly, but if I'm delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God. And he goes on to describe it as the pillar and ground of the truth, right? But the reason Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, Timothy who was in leadership over the church at Ephesus at the time, the reason he writes this letter to Timothy is so Timothy can teach and so all the people under him in the church would know how they ought to conduct themselves in the house of God, which I think means both when it's assembled and in just the conducting of their everyday lives. So that's the purpose for which he writes. Now, look at the opening of the letter. 1st Timothy chapter 1 and verse 3. He says, as I urged you when I went into Macedonia, remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification, which is in faith. Right? So there, that picks up what we were just talking about before, right? I told you to stay there in Ephesus and charge some people to stop teaching nonsense and get them into what Paul says is needed, which is all scripture. Okay? Now, verse 5, ready? Now the purpose of the commandment. Ah, so he goes deeper. So he doesn't just tell Timothy, This is great. He doesn't just tell Timothy, look, you silence these false teachers who are taking people out of their Bibles, for lack of a better way to say it, they didn't call it that back then, but they're taking people out of the Scriptures. You silence them and tell them not to teach anything else, right? And the reason that's important, the purpose for that commandment is what? Love from a pure heart and from a good conscience and from sincere faith. Some people had strayed from that and turned themselves over to useless, idle talk. Here's the point. Love, real love among believers, is like the highest attitude of the heart and conduct of the life that a Christian can ascribe to. Can I say that again? Love is the highest thing in this life, in living, that a Christian can ascribe to in the attitudes of his heart and the conducting of his life. And when Paul says to Timothy here, you make sure you silence those that are teaching false doctrine. Why? What was the reason he gave that commandment? Because the false doctrine corrupted love. Listen. to the subject of what we're talking about today, which is strengthening churches, the enemy certainly is aware of the fact that to weaken a church, you weaken the love of the people. That's what false doctrine really does. And we don't think of it that way. We just think of false doctrine as being wrong, and we need to correct it. But what suffers is love. False doctrine creates contentions. It says it right in here. It creates contentions and squabbles and quarrels. And that chips away at love. And love is what strengthens the church. Right? Paul, in Acts 20, travels through some towns in Macedonia, spends three months in Greece. Right? And it says he encourages, everywhere he goes, he encourages with many words. Don't you know that those words, don't you know that those words would involve teaching about love? May I say this to you? One of the churches in Greece that undoubtedly he went to was in Corinth. And it was to the church in Corinth that he wrote The greatest thing of all is love. So you don't even need to speculate about it. There it is right there. All right. So number one. What are churches strengthened in? Number one, their devotion to Christ as their head. Number two, they're devoted to sound doctrine, the teaching of all scripture. Number three, they're devoted to love. Now here, number four, here's one you might not expect to be on this list. But it is the enduring of discipline. It is discipline. Listen, churches are called to practice discipline. Churches are actually called to lovingly correct the conduct of their own. In Matthew 18, Jesus says, if your brother or your sister offends you, you go to them and you try to resolve it with them. You don't just let it go. Our Americanism creeps in. The worldly rudiment of our rugged American individuality sometimes erroneously creeps into our Christian theology. And we come to falsely believe and unthink that we are not subject to anything in the church. We are individuals, and we have individual liberty, and everything is individual. That may be politically true, but in the Bible, Jesus says within his church, if your brother and sister offends you in some way, you go to him or to her privately, alone. and you try to resolve that matter with your brother or your sister, without gossiping about it, without spreading it around. And if you are able to, you've won them back. Maybe even in the process you discover some wrongdoing on your own, which happens often. And you're able to confess to each other, affirm your love for one another. Now, can I say something? Let me go through the rest of it. If that doesn't bring the reconciliation, then you take witnesses with you and you go again. And then if that doesn't work, then you take it to the church. And so the church is to practice discipline in that way, that if the person doesn't even respond to the church in some wrongdoing, then the command of the church is to put them out That's all in Matthew chapter 18. May I say to you that what we often miss in all of that is the reason behind it is what? The strengthening of the church. Two people at odds with one another, not settling their issues, weakens the church. People not being responsive when they're truly and humbly and in love being confronted in some error or some wrongdoing. That weakens the church. The church simply allowing people to run amok in sin and in unrighteousness and in false doctrine weakens the church. The enduring of discipline, the endurance of discipline strengthens the church. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12. Starting in verse three, Hebrews chapter 12. For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your own souls." Right? So it starts off by telling us, think of how hard Jesus had it when you're going through something hard. Even if that hard thing you're going through is your own fault. which for Jesus it never was. He never did anything wrong. But you're going through a difficult season, a difficult experience. Remember how Jesus himself had to endure things. Verse four, you have not yet resisted into bloodshed striving against sin. Right? So sin is something to be warred with, W-A-R-R-E-D, fought against in your own life. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as sons. That's an important statement. The following is addressed to sons. It's not addressed to the people of the world. It's addressed to the children of God. My son, it's from Proverbs, right? My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. God, because he loves us, practices discipline in our lives. The discipline that the church is supposed to practice in the lives of its members, God practices that discipline in our lives as children. Now here's the key, ready? Don't miss this. Look, verse 7. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as sons. He's not, look, sometimes you hear it and like someone maybe is in a difficult situation or they're battling with sin or something like that and they just think God's like against them. God chastens us not because He hates us. God chastens us not because He mocks us. God chastens us not because He's sick of us. He chastens us because He loves us. It's a mark of His love for us. And it goes on to say what? For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you're without it, that's when you should be worried. When there's no loving God disciplining you in your life, that's when you should be worried. And even there you shouldn't be worried. You should humble yourself. Maybe get some counsel and pray and study scripture and get back to where you need to be with the Lord. But if you're without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you're illegitimate and you're not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we pay them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits, that's God, and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us, that is, our earthly fathers, as seemed best to them, but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. Now, ready? Here's the key to it. No chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful, right? I mean, when you're going through being disciplined, it doesn't seem pleasant. And here's one of the things that people think wrong about Christianity. They think everything that is Christian must feel good. They think that everything that is Christian must never feel like any burden in their lives. The path of the Christian is marked with many difficulties. We must endure many hardships to enter the kingdom of God, scripture says, including this. Look what it says. Nevertheless, here's the key, afterwards it yields the peaceable food of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. The word yields means that it produces something. Right? We're talking about strengthening churches. Right? Well, when Christians together endure discipline the right way, what is the result of it? It yields strength. It yields growth. It yields training. Discipline is one of the ways that God trains and strengthens and raises up his church. Amen? It's a hard one to say amen to, but it's very biblical and it's very important. Last one, number five. So turn to Revelation chapter three. Jesus himself spoke. through the Apostle John in the beginning of the book of Revelation, before he gets into all the heavy end times prophetic stuff, Jesus actually spoke to the church. Did you know that? It comes in the form of seven letters to seven actual churches. And these seven letters occupy chapters two and three. And I want to show you something in chapter three and in verse one. And to the angel of the church of Sardis write, these things says he who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. Now listen, the seven spirits of God is a reference to the seven churches, the seven stars is a reference to the messengers of those churches, the elders, the pastors, the ones that he gave, all right? I know your works, that you have a name that you're alive but you're dead. Serious rebuke. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die. For I have not found your works perfect before God. Remember therefore how you have received and heard. Hold fast and repent. Now, for time's sake, I won't go through the rest of it, but number five on the list. What is Jesus doing there? He's calling out for the strengthening of that which remains in that church. And what is necessary for it? A humble spirit of what? Repentance. Here's another thing that gets lost. What strengthens a church? A humble, repentant spirit. When you read through Revelation 3 and you come to the church of Laodicea, then you see a church that has no spirit of repentance at all. The church at Laodicea, which is the letter that comes right after this, if you look ahead to verse 15, to that church he says, I know your works, you're neither cold nor hot, I could wish you were cold or hot, so then because you're lukewarm and neither cold nor hot I'm going to spit you or vomit you out of my mouth. Why? You say, I'm rich, and I've become wealthy, and I'm in need of nothing, and you don't realize that you're poor, wretched, miserable, blind, and naked. So, what? When a church loses its humility, when a church thinks it's arrived, and listen, this can be so deceiving, Because you might look and maybe there's a lot of people, a lot of things going on, a lot of money, new projects. Listen, listen. In the heart of man, in the heart of God's children, there should always be a humility and a spirit of repentance. That is to say, we repent, but we never grow out of that spirit that recognizes that we have sinned against God and it is only by His grace that we have been saved. Spurgeon talked about this and said that repentance is something that's always going on in a Christian's life. Because we always battle and struggle with sin. And so we're always humbling ourselves and acknowledging that and turning to the Lord. Turning back, turning back, turning back. That's what these letters in Revelation call out for. Be zealous and repent, he says to the Laodicean church. Well, let me leave that one there because I want to wrap this up. So I talked about a few points that I didn't go into detail, but the ones I went into detail on were this. Here are, when Paul goes through and he strengthens these churches, here's what makes for a strengthened church. Hopefully you've seen this. Number one is their focus and their commitment to Christ. Number two, their doctrine. It is the Bible. Their doctrine is the Bible. Number three, their love. Number four, they endure discipline together. And number five, they maintain a humble spirit of repentance. Not about money and flash and influence. It's about those things. It's not about the size of it. It's not about the prominence of it. It's about those things. unswervingly devoted to Christ, unswervingly committed to good doctrine that's based on the words of all scripture, unswervingly committed to love, unswervingly committed to enduring discipline and hardship, and unswervingly committed to a humble spirit of repentance. That'll make for a strong church. It might not make for a big one, but that'll make for a strong one. Our Father in heaven, We thank you, Lord, for this time that we've had together here today. I pray, Lord God, that knowing that you love the church and gave yourself for the church and are the head of the church, promising that death would never prevail against it as you build it. I pray that you would help us to love our place in your church and to handle it with care. and to walk as we should walk. Thank you for your grace which sustains us. Thank you for your power which works in us and through us. Thank you for each person that you have redeemed and is part of your church. I pray for this church and every church that is committed to these things that you would strengthen them. And I pray for every person listening to this that they would recognize that they're not even part of the church unless they have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and no one or nothing else. All the things we've talked about today, how you gave your life for our sins and rose from the dead, and all the power to save is in that gospel, that simple gospel. I pray that you would open the hearts and minds of people and bring them to salvation today. And I believe you can. And we trust that you will, according to your holy will. I thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.