Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): This is the Power Walk Ministries broadcast with Dr. Paul Cannings. We're so glad that you've joined us today as we pick up the second volume in our series, Why Church?

Since the pandemic started in the spring of 2020, we all isolated ourselves, and for good reason, and working from home became the norm for many. But sadly, so did worshipping at home. Through this series, Pastor Cannings answers precisely the question of, "Why Church?" Let's go to his message today called, Assembling Together.

Dr. Paul Cannings: Why church? Why church? Why would Christ put His name to one institution—church? I mean, there's only two things that God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit attached themselves to. It's the family in Genesis, which he calls Christ and the church in Ephesians chapter five, and the church. That's it.

You would think that when Christ comes on Earth, He would spend the entire synoptic Gospels teaching on the church so everybody knows specifically exactly what to do. But He doesn't do that. He just gives us two passages of scripture where He discusses church, and He leaves the rest for Paul to do.

You're trying to tell me that Jesus Christ did not get in here and break it out like Paul would do in Ephesians and First Corinthians? No. He would even say the Godhead in First Corinthians chapter 12, verse four through eight, the Godhead is attached to how the church operates.

You've got the Holy Spirit that gives the gifts. Jesus Christ would determine where the gifts fit—ministries. And God would determine the results. So He's the head of it. It's through the church in Ephesians chapter one, verse 22 through 23 that He will bless the world. So just like He would bless the world through Israel, He'll bless the world through the church.

When we come to this concept, I expected Christ to spend the entire synoptic Gospels teaching, teaching, teaching on the church, but He does not. He only teaches it in two passages of scripture and then inspires His apostles to do the rest.

So what is this scripture that He invests so much in that we could learn the importance of church? In some ways, church is becoming what the temple became for the nation of Israel—a ritual. People went and did what was best in their own eyes. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were an added body; He never put that in the structure He gave to Moses.

So we have added governments in the church. In the New Testament when He comes, He turns the tables upside down because the temple became about money. The temple became about, "Hey, let me get these folks to bring an animal that is actually good." When they go to the high priest, it's actually a good animal. They came a long way with that animal, most of the people.

When they came, the high priest would say, "This is not a good animal. You need to go outside and buy a better one." Now they've got to trade at the money tables. So it became about money, and the high priest gets a cut from the guy who's at the money tables. It became about money.

The temple became not about bringing a sacrifice like the woman with the mite; it became about just doing what the law says. So people just came and people went. You had the man who was poor at the temple gates, blind, and everybody walked past him.

Jesus Christ comes in the outside of the temple and the rabbis are explaining things, but the high priests are corrupt and they're just going through the rituals—ritual after ritual. How can they come to the temple when Anna is running around in the temple with Jesus as a baby in her hands saying, "Here's the Messiah, here's the Messiah"?

She served in the temple every day. When her husband passed, she gave her whole life to serving in the temple, looking for the day of redemption. And you don't see anyone bowing before Christ as a baby, anyone going around the temple going, "He's finally here!" No. But they're there to worship God, looking for the Messiah.

Church can become just like that. Great music, good preacher, love the environment when I come to it, it's close to the house, I can get in and get out. "I like small churches so we ain't trying to get this church to be as big as the New Testament church in Jerusalem. No, we like it being family. We like it being where we can control everything."

We've got all of these different things that you look into the temple, that is exactly what's taking place. I mean, the high priests are people that descended from one another. So you have all of these things taking place where, "Well, I've got to go to a big church. I like the music, I like all the accessories that come with it. You go to the gym, you could do this, you could do that." So when we come to the church, is Jesus Christ's definition matters anymore when we talk about church?

So let's just take a look at the two passages of scripture that He wraps everything into. It actually begins in Matthew chapter 16; it begins in verse 13. But we will actually reference that as we spend most of our time in verse 17 through verse 19 as we walk our way through this week.

As you know, at Power Walk, we don't just want to give you a quick word and you move on. We want to make sure it is sound biblically and also an application to it so it's practical that we could go out doing what God has called us to do.

And please, at the end of this week, please don't say things like, "Well, you know what? There ain't churches doing that anymore." No, don't make excuses. If one person decides to make a difference, it doesn't take 20,000 people. It just takes one person who chooses to do what's right that makes a difference. So when we come to this, let's throw away the excuses. Let's stop pointing the finger at everybody else. Let's just focus on the log in our own eye and stop messing with the speck in everyone else's. And that's what could make the difference.

The first thing that Christ establishes is that unless God is speaking, we don't have church. We just don't. I don't care how fancy the preacher is. I don't care how many PhDs that person has. I don't care how they can be so charismatic when they speak and you feel moved.

At the end of the day, if what we are teaching as pastors you can't find in the Bible, the church is off. That's why Jesus Christ—John would say—if we're going to talk about the Son of God, the first thing we need to talk about is, "In the beginning was the word."

The Bible starts off there. In Genesis, God spoke. You go to Ephesians chapter one, he would say God created an administration that is suitable for the presence of all times. Is that an administration that goes out? "Okay, we need to add more things to the church because new things are happening. All these different things are now taking place in time and space, so we need to do this." That's what they did in the temple and ended up with Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, all these people.

He's saying no, it's an administration, it's a structure because it's the body of Christ suitable for the fullness of times. And He's not asking for our advice. That's why in Genesis, God said, "Let there be." Before we could ever be born, before we could ever be established on earth, He spoke.

So when we come to Christ, who is He? The Word. Because God said to Moses, "I am that I am." Jesus Christ finished the sentence: "I am the Good Shepherd, I am the light, I am the life." He finishes the sentence because, like Hebrews chapter one says, God spoke in many portions and many ways, but Jesus Christ speaks.

So that's it. That's exactly what you see right here in Matthew chapter 16 is that God spoke. And when He spoke, He chose the leader. He didn't ask them to do like they did with Matthias and decide who is going to be the leader and then later go pick Paul on the road to Damascus. No, He picks Peter.

He didn't ask for a vote. He didn't ask them to come together and do anything. God spoke. God decided that God is going to use Peter. And that's exactly what you see at Pentecost.

He comes to Peter in the midst of all of these pagan temples and Jesus Christ says, "Well, who do you say that I am?" It's obvious that they were listening to other people because they started naming them. They were listening to other people.

And Jesus Christ wanted to take these guys that are going to be the foundation upon which He builds the church—John chapter 17, verse 13 on—"I'm going to use you to write the scriptures down." That's why an apostle is a huge word that we can never play with, because they were the ones who He inspired to write the Bible. It's huge. We can never touch that without understanding clearly what that is.

And He says when He builds on that foundation, there's not another one you can build on. So when we come to that, He has to establish who leads this group. Same thing you would see when it comes to the Gentiles and trying to figure out about the Gentiles.

Before Paul shows up in Acts 15, in Acts chapter 10, after Paul is called on the road to Damascus in Acts chapter nine, Peter is the one who sees the animals that he's not supposed to eat in a dream and was told to eat whatever God has made. And then He sends him to Cornelius' house and Cornelius is saved like anybody else.

He solves that with Peter, so when the argument develops—and it was an argument—in Acts chapter 15, Peter could say, "Hold up, everybody. Let me tell you what God has taught me when it came to Cornelius and how Cornelius received the Holy Spirit just like we did."

In those times, He established Peter's leadership in order for Paul to go to the Gentiles. Clearly, God decided first thing that He's going to speak. And right after this, Christ speaks. So Christ is respecting the leadership of the Father.

Christ doesn't speak; He asks the question. God responds with the answer to Peter. And then Jesus Christ starts telling the disciples what to do with the church. So the first thing in church leadership, if you want to quench the Holy Spirit, all you have to do is disrupt the leadership of the church. Just disrupt it.

That's why it's critical in Acts 14:23 that they would pray and they would fast before they select who the persons were that would lead the church. They would literally fast and pray.

And then in Acts 20, it would say the Holy Spirit made you overseers. Not your ability, what kind of job you had, what company you run, how much money you give, how eloquent you speak—no. It has to do with, "Does the character of God consistently be displayed in this person's life? And is it obvious that the Spirit of God lives in them?"

So there's no guesswork as to who those persons are. Understand, it's huge that what Christ is establishing is Himself on Earth. So the first thing they would do when they're establishing a New Testament church, like the Church of Ephesus, they went and discipled leaders to figure out if they were men of God.

"I will select for you pastor-teachers," Ephesians chapter four, verse 11 through 12. "I will bring this structure into play." His whole body's attached to that. He's the head of it. It is from the church He impacts the world.

So we can't come around going, "Oh, I need to hear from God. Oh, I need God to speak to me," and ignore the organism that He is first committed to and the leadership that He's first committed to work through.

Because the Bible says in Second Corinthians chapter 11 that Satan will try to corrupt that to make sure that if he could corrupt where it started, he could influence everything else because he knows that's where God starts.

And that's why He says in the Bible there will be many false teachers that would come. Some of them would even call themselves Christ in order to damage. So folks, as we talk about this this week, we can't just be apathetic about church because that's where God in the New Testament times starts everything.

We'll continue this so that we grow together and learn how to experience God His way. Stay focused.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Pastor Cannings. Friends, picking up a sermon online or watching a favorite ministry on television can't be replaced for corporate in-person worship and fellowship. Besides, let's remember first and foremost, we're commanded to not neglect the assembling together with other believers.

Now to order this message series, you can log on to PowerWalkMinistries.org. That's PowerWalkMinistries.org, or give us a call at 281-260-7402. That's 281-260-7402.

Dr. Paul Cannings: Hello everyone, this is Pastor Cannings. It's been a pleasure coming into your home, maybe your car. It's been a blessing to serve you. And I hope that you will become a partner as we seek to continue to serve God in an effective manner.

Many times He opens up so many doors, but what we lack is resources to get it done. You can't go through every door, but you know the ones that are a great fit for our ministry to touch lives. So I pray that you will become a Power Walk partner as we power walk together to impact lives. Thank you for listening. It's been a blessing serving you.

Guest (Male): We'd love to hear from you. And if you live in the Houston area or you're planning a visit, please join Dr. Cannings at Living Word Fellowship Church this Sunday. For church location and service times, visit LWFellowshipChurch.org.

And now remember, the two institutions Christ is committed to are the family and the church. So let's be committed wholeheartedly to these as well.