The Church's One Foundation: March 19th Devotional

The Church's One Foundation

Matthew 16:13-18

March 19th Devotional

On this day in 1882, the first stone is laid for one of the most breathtaking churches in all of Europe, the Sagrada Familia Basilica, located in Barcelona Spain.  The brainchild of the church was a bookkeeper named José María Bocabella.  Jose or Josep was enchanted by the huge, Gothic-style churches in Italy and felt that Spain would be best served by replicating one for itself.  Bocabella was a devout Catholic and wanted to create a place to worship the ‘holy family’, thus the name Sagrada Familia.  The first stone was laid on this day by the original architect named Francisco Paula del Villar.  Villar was a well-known Spanish architect who was familiar with designing and building churches.  He quit the project shortly after it started due to disagreements with Bocabella.  The task then fell onto the shoulders of a Catalan-born Spanish architect named Antoni Gaudi.  Gaudi is considered to be the most prolific Spanish architect of all time and would turn the project on its head.  The original design of the church was meant to be simple, but Gaudi would create an architectural masterpiece. The 31-year-old architect was already considered a genius and integrated his bold, unique style into the Sagrada Familia. His vision was beyond huge.  The church was designed to have 18 towers, 3 facades, and most artistic flair than any other religious structure.  Gaudi was a deeply devout Catholic who wanted the church’s design to tell a story.  The three facades would represent the nativity, passion, and glory of Christ. Gaudi would tragically die before he could complete the structure but left detailed plans on how to finish it.  The church would endure difficult times through the years.  It suffered through a fire that was started by rebels and countless other delays. Incredibly, after 141 years, the church remains unfinished.  An estimated finish date of 2026 has been set, but most people feel it will take much longer.  The Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, and the great pyramids were built faster than this church.  When it is finished it will be the tallest religious structure in all of Europe. Over four million tourists flock to this beautiful piece of art each year.

      I had a chance to visit the Sagrada Familia in 2002 and it was beyond breathtaking.  There are more details than my eyes or brain could ever process. There is one major problem with the Sagrada Familia.  It is built on a poor foundation, and I don’t mean the ground upon which the mammoth structure is built, I mean the spiritual foundation.  The church is gorgeous and glamorous, but it’s dead.  It’s dead because the Gospel is not the focal point of the ministry.  Any church that does not have the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the foundation is dead.  Many beautiful structures are dead while there are many tiny churches in the hollers of Appalachia that are alive. Churches adorned with stained glass windows might not share Christ while Chinese Christians meeting in dark caves are in love with Jesus.  Churches with great music and wonderful entertainment and large programs might miss the mark of the Gospel while people meeting in the open air of jungles are worshipping the Savior.  A lot of Western Christians have almost created an idol out of our building.  We fight over the color of curtains, carpets, and even the type of toilet paper the church purchases.  Jesus spoke about the foundation of the church in Matthew 16. He asked His followers who they thought He was, and Peter rightly affirmed, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”  Most of us are familiar with Jesus' response in verse eighteen, “That thou art Peter, and upon this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”  Christ will build His church on a foundation, but what foundation?  Stone?  On Peter? No.  Christ builds His church upon Himself.  The church isn’t about buildings, programs, music style, how you dress, or where you are located, instead it is built upon Jesus Christ alone.  Our physical churches are stationary, they don’t move.  The real ‘house of God’ isn’t an address, but people who come to worship Christ.  May we as believers not forget that.  My prayer is that God would open our eyes beyond the place of worship, to the person of worship.  Let’s not focus on drapes and curtains, but on the Gospel and the Word of God.  Let’s be more concerned about the people outside of the building instead of the building itself.

Head of the Church: October 9th Devotional

  Head of the Church

October 9th Devotional

Colossians 1:18

      On this day in 1635, Pastor Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Colony because of his ‘extreme Christian’ and separatist views.  The late 1500s and early 1600s were politically charged times in the colonies.  The Protestant Reformation was only slightly over 100 years earlier and England’s break from Catholicism even less time.  Christianity was in a moment of major flux.  While the Church of England proudly boasted its freedom from the Roman Catholic Church it still had many vestiges of Catholicism.  A group of people called the Separatists, better known as Puritans, felt a need to purify the church from what they called the rags of popery.  This particular group stood against the existence of a state-run church and felt that a church should have no authority over it except for the Bible and God.  This early group of Separatists were punished heavily for their opposition.  They would be jailed for failure to attend state-run church services, have their possessions removed, and some of them severely beaten.  One such Separatist was named Roger Williams.  Williams was born in the early 1600s.  The persecution against those that were Puritans in England was harsh.  Many were beaten and some were even burned at the stake. Williams fled to Massachusetts to find religious freedom.  He arrived in 1630, a mere ten years after the landing of the Mayflower.  Within those ten years, the Church of England dug its heel into the young colony and began to punish anyone who stood against the state church.  They claimed that the church’s independence was a doctrine of Satan.  Williams started to pastor in Boston but had to flee because of his views on the autonomy of the local church, along with his sympathy for the Native Americans.  He would then travel to Salem to pastor.  The congregation as a whole loved him but the magistrates did not.  They forced him to leave the colony under the penalty of death.  He left in the bitter winter.  He traversed 55 miles through the frigid and unforgiving terrain during a blizzard.  A group of Native Americans gave him aid and he legally purchased land from them.  It was on this site that Providence Rhode Island would be formed.  This land became a place for everyone fleeing religious persecution and seeking religious freedom.  This site would also be where the first established Baptist Church in America was formed.

      Williams's view 400 years ago was considered heretical.  It was extremely dangerous to question the state’s authority over the local church.  But, if the state isn’t the authority of the church, then who or what is?  The Bible doesn’t hesitate to tell us who is the authority of the local church.  Paul writes in Colossians 1:18, “He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.”  Paul uses the metaphor of the head to describe Christ’s position in the local church.  The head, or brain, controls the rest of the body.  What the brain does, the body responds in obedience.  If the body does not respond to the brain's requests then there is a serious medical issue.  Christ is the head of the church which means He is the leader of the church.  He controls every part of the church.  He provides it with life and direction.  Most of you reading this wouldn’t argue with the theological truth of Christ’s headship over the church.  The issue isn’t doctrinal, it’s application.  Does Christ have absolute authority in our local church?  Do we allow Him to lead and guide the church?  Does our church look more like a New Testament Church or a business model/pyramid scheme?  How do we place Christ as the head of the local Church?  It isn’t something a pastor or a counsel does, it’s something that individual believers do.  A church cannot have Christ in His preeminent position as leader unless He is first leader of each of our lives.  He must be the Lord of our hearts and homes before He is the Lord of our churches.  Honestly, do you allow Christ to lead your life and the life of your local church?