The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

Luke 9:49-50
Today, Pastor Jack shares with us what a Christian church is supposed to look like. What makes a church good is when the people know they are loved, and they extend their love through worship, prayer, and fellowship.

Father, we ask you Lord now to bless this word. Oh Lord, we need your help.
This is a tough word is a strong word. Give us a tummy. Give us a stomach for it.
God that we may receive from your lips, from your throne, from your book, your heart on this matter.
Lord, what you shared with the disciples is so vitally important.
Help us Lord in this 21st century to catch up to the Bible, to catch up to its incredible relevance to our moment in which we’re in.
So father give us all ears to hear hands to do feet, to walk in the truth of God in Jesus name.
Amen. Grab your bibles then and turn if you would to the gospel of Luke, the gospel of Luke.
And it’s been a long time in the gospel of Luke. It’s a huge chapter very powerful.
And I tell you this morning, this is a message coming from the words of Jesus that is hard to give.
It’s hard to give church because listen, this is not a feel good, warm fuzzy thing.
It is a strong word that Jesus gives because it applies to us so much today when I say us and you’re going to hear me use that address us or we I am talking about this morning, the church universal, the church and the earth.
All those who call upon the Lord Jesus Christ in truth, those who are born again says the Bible, even those who are religious claim to know God claim to even know Jesus.
But frankly, in their conduct in life would have nothing to do with them all the way to those gatherings, even what we would call a church.
That is anything but a church.
And so this morning, it is going to be a strong thing because it’s going to challenge our thinking.
And well, look, the title of the message. Is this the good, the bad and the ugly.
How does that get you this morning? The good, the bad and the ugly.
I’m not talking about any one of us this morning. Exactly.
We’re talking about churches, churches and people who make them churches. So this is a strong thing.
This is a heart searching thing. And that’s exactly what Jesus was intending to do.
When he says what he, what he says to the disciples, it will shake them and it will shake us today.
Listen church before you think for a moment that just because something has a staple on it or a cross on it or a pulpit or a sanctuary or even the name church don’t think for a moment and in the eyes of God, it’s a church.
That’s a strong thing. I probably just lost some of you right now with what I just said.
You mean if you mean isn’t everything a church that says it’s a church? No, God makes it very clear.
Very clear indeed. Just because man declares something as a church doesn’t mean it’s necessarily has the approval of God.
And so this is a very, very serious thing. Acts chapter nine verses 49 to 50.
Now John answered and said that is to Jesus master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we forbade him because he does not follow with us.
But Jesus said to him, do not forbid him for he that is not against us is for us interesting word because it came right on the challenge that Jesus gave to the disciples last week in verse 48 you can’t separate really verse 48 from these next two verses.
Do you remember the study? Last time Jesus told them that unless they wanted to enter the kingdom of heaven, they would have to become like a child.
Again, they would have to become simple and trusting and faithful to the Lord.
And Luke 9 48, it says that he said to them, whoever receives this little child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives him, who sent me for.
He who is least among you will be great.
And that address that statement Jesus gave to the disciples because remember they were bickering and arguing about greatness about which of them would be the greatest.
And we remembered that each of their arguments presented was in their own defense.
It meant that Peter argued why he Peter should be the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.
John had his argument as to why John should be the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.
And they argued about this and Jesus said, no, you’ve got to become like a child to enter the kingdom of God.
And we saw in detail that becoming like a child is equal to or parallel to that statement that Jesus gave to Nicodemus, that you must be born again to enter the kingdom of Heaven.
If you are born from above or born again, what you and I will expect experience in our lives is a child likeness and trust toward God.
And Jesus is, this is how one enters the kingdom of Heaven.
But today, right now, we look to the attitude of ministry and what is called church.
A little bit of introduction, the ministry. If you look it up in the dictionary, it it’s kind of sterile.
You look at the word ministry and it means a profession in the services of religious duty, someone who is a professional religionist in service, the ministry.
And that’s unfortunate because that’s not how the Bible defines ministry.
Do you know this I don’t know if you know this or not, but do you know that Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights that there is a whole host of people that you don’t even know their names, that service this church.
They’re volunteers. They’re going around checking that the weeds are cleared out of the flower beds.
They’ve got blowers, you know, blowing the leaves away, they’re cleaning the windows. These people are not paid.
These people are you, these people are servants.
These people are ministers and often on Sunday mornings, they’re doing it in the dark early before church begins and they are serving the Lord.
They’re not professionals but listen, church be church without them because they’re so vitally needed. The children’s ministry.
Listen, you’re little ones right now though they may not sleep or some do sleep.
They all will be changed in a moment in a twinkle of an eye, their diaper will be taken off and a new one put on who does that?
People who are paid? No people who come to serve the Lord ministers.
So it’s not as the dictionary says, ministers are those who are paid.
The body of Christ is a mining body one to another.
But before we get too far into this by way of background, it says here that John said to Jesus, we forbade this one who was ministering in your name.
We forbade him, we made him stop. That word means that they stopped him. They made him be quiet.
They prevented him from serving. This sets up the direction in which we’re going, the good and the bad and the ugly.
How does that translate? Here are the ministers of Jesus being taught by Jesus?
And at some point in time when Jesus was not with them, John confesses, Lord, we saw some guy ministering in your name doing good stuff.
He was really kind of just like us but he wasn’t with us.
So do you know what we did, Jesus? We verbatim you what we forbade him?
We made him quit, we made him be quiet and we stopped him from serving Jesus.
What did you do that for? He’s serving with us. He’s building the kingdom.
And John says, well, we did this because he was not of us.
He was not with us And that is very important to where we’re going church. Listen.
Ephesians chapter two verse 14 says for he himself is our peace.
The Lord Jesus Christ who has made both one and the context of Ephesians. It is jew and gentile.
Now, if you’re not Jewish, you’re a gentile. I’m a gentile. Is anyone outside that address?
No, if you’re a Jew, you’re a Jew. If you’re a gentile, you’re everything else.
The Bible says here in Ephesians that the Lord Jesus has brought us together Jew and gentile alike and he has broken down the middle wall of separation church.
Listen, should there never be any division in the body of Christ. It should never be that way.
Why is there division in the body of Christ? Because of carnality? Jesus is against that.
And we’re going to be looking at the tape and I’m going to, I tell you right now it is going in a good way offend each and every one of us, including myself.
You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs.
You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series. Just go to Jack Hibbs dot com.
That’s Jack Hibbs dot com. And for now let’s get back to our teaching.
Once again, here’s pastor Jack Point # one.
Is this the good, the bad and the ugly it is this what makes a church good?
Can you write that down? This is very, very important. What makes a church good?
What makes a church worth attending? Why would you go? Well, look at number one.
Is this what makes a church good? Is that when the body is alive, when the body is alive?
When John said to Jesus that we stop this one who we saw?
He’s actually putting the brakes on a good work. Why would we do that?
When, what Jesus is saying is that this man though, the disciples didn’t know his name.
This man was doing a good work. This man was alive. This man was serving, no doubt.
Of course, the disciples were serving Christ.
But listen, this is a critical thing because a church is not a building, a church is not an address.
This structure is simply a building, it is concrete, it is glass, it is steel, you and I make up what this church is.
It will either be good, bad or ugly.
And one of the things is this to determine if it is a good church, you walk into a church, any church, anywhere in the world and listen, it has got to be alive.
A good church is a living church.
If you in chapter one verse two, verse 22 says this and God, the father put all things under his feet, Jesus’s feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is the body, the fullness of him who fills all in all that is a strong statement.
Ephesians 122 where Jesus is, there should be life, didn’t he raise people from the dead? Yes.
When he’s in a church, when he’s welcome in a church? Should not that church be alive?
Shouldn’t you be able to know it? Shouldn’t you be able to feel it? Absolutely.
A church will be alive. How do you know, take its pulse?
Hey, when you go to the doctor, you know, actually if they check your wait, if they check your pulse and you go to the doctor, you are worse off than I thought because I think they check your pulse or they think if you’re alive or dead, don’t they?
I mean, blood pressure. Yeah, and all that kind of stuff. But check his pulse. Why do people say that?
See if it’s alive? Check its pulse. When you check the pulse of a church.
Keep this in mind, you might want to jot this down. I think it’s important.
How do you know if a church is alive? It’ll be in love with Jesus.
It will be in love with the Lord. You know what?
Some people um it drives people, other people crazy when they’re not walking with Jesus too close.
You come up to people who are in love with Jesus and all they can talk about is Jesus and all he talks about is Jesus.
Well, what’s wrong with that? That’s a little too much.
Well, you know what, why don’t you find out why that person is so hot in love with Jesus?
Maybe Jesus caused them in a way to be one risen from the dead.
Maybe Jesus delivered them from alcoholism or violence or whatever if Jesus Christ is alive and well, in your life personally And you get enough of those people together.
Just a few of them. It just takes a few.
They are contagious, they are hot, they are burning in love with Jesus Christ. And guess what happens?
The church grows first, John 4 19. It says there that we love him because he first loved us.
Do you know how good that is, Hey, does anybody love you? I’m not sure.
Well, this, you can be sure of God loves you.
And here’s the great thing we can say, oh, Lord, I love you so much. You know why?
That’s true because he loved you first man. He’s good. He pulls us in often.
I think about my life before Jesus and I think about the close calls.
I think about one night going down some street in Orange County and a big suburban blowing an intersection going right by our bumpers.
We were going across the intersection. The guy flew by us and we’re so young and dumb.
You know, when you’re young, you’re usually dumb. Oh man. Whoa. That was so close.
That was so close, man.
You know how close I was translated now that I’m older and a Christian stressed Christian.
Do you know how close we were to dying and going straight to hell?
Do you know how close I was from slipping into eternity without Christ? No, man.
When you’re young and dumb or when you’re, you can be old and dumb without Jesus?
Oh man, that was, we had a great time. Oh, when was crashed?
Where would you have gone in eternity?
Where last night this church was called to the hospital because In a moment, 55 year old woman in a moment drops dead.
You don’t know. Are you in love with Jesus? Can you check? Can I check my heart?
Right now and say, you know what I’m alive, I’m in love with Jesus. That’s the criteria.
You can be alive and not know Jesus. And the Bible says of you that you’re not even living.
He said, oh, can you sit, I’m sitting here, aren’t I?
The Bible does not say that that is living and then there’s fellowship, it’s a fellowship that is with other people.
If, if Jesus Christ is in your life and he’s hot in your heart and you love him, it’s going to also translate to fellowship.
Galatians 3 20 verse 26 Galatians 3 26 says, if you are all sons of God or for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ.
Jesus for as many as were baptized into Christ that is not in the water but into his person.
You have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free.
There is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ. Listen the fellowship.
If Jesus Christ was alive in you, if a church is a church that uh is a good church to be in, it is a church like this.
It is a church that loves Jesus Christ preeminently and it fellowships with God’s people.
And that’s very important because you want to ask this question, who’s God’s people?
And this is the great challenge, didn’t John say we saw one mining in your name?
That means that whoever this guy was, he was preaching and doing Godly work in the name of Jesus Christ.
And the word implies not a false Jesus, not a conjured up Jesus, the Jesus that you and I know from the Bible.
This is a good guy. We don’t know him, we don’t know his name but he’s a, he’s a good guy.
Jesus supports this man’s ministry. But what church did he go to, uh, was he a Lutheran?
Because if he’s not a Lutheran, I’m not gonna talk to him.
Well, if he’s not a Baptist, I’m not going to talk to him.
Does he go to or is he in our denomination or if he doesn’t go to Calver Chapel?
I’m not going to talk to him. Do you see how carnal these things are?
Do you see how this morning church ushers, lock the doors this morning?
If we are a people a Christian who says, I don’t, you know what?
I don’t fellowship with the Baptist or the Calvary Chapel or the Lutheran or the Methodist, I can’t go feed the hungry because Lutherans and, and you see what I’m saying?
You know, wrong. That is, do we not have peripheral issues that we disagree on?
Who cares, who cares? Do we not agree fully on the essentials of Christianity?
Do you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again from the dead?
Do you believe that you’re saved by faith in him? Alone.
Do you believe in those essentials of Christianity that are listed in scripture? Yes.
The divisions have come of denominations because of peripheral issues. And that’s unfortunate.
It’s man’s desires who have led to the division of the body of Christ. But is Christ divided?
No, I think the church will be shocked in heaven when you and I will meet up with people that we thought, maybe.
How did they ever get here? Guess what they’re going to be saying to us?
How did they get here? I think God’s going to blow our minds.
Pastor and bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on real life radio with his message called the Good, the Bad and the ugly.
Thanks for being with us today.
You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Gospel of Luke.
It’s a series on the book of Luke and the unveiling of Jesus Christ to this world.
And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Hey, Pastor Jack, check this out.
Me and me and pastor Jack in the studio together. This is happening more and more. I like that.
I really do. Hey, uh our book of the month. Can we talk about that real quick?
It’s by Doctor A E Wilder hyphenated Smith. A Wilder Smith.
It’s titled He Who Thinks Has to believe. Yeah, I know nothing about this book. Help me with it.
You’re not the only one. Yeah.
Here’s the reason why by the way, first of all, it was written many years ago, Dr Wilder Smith had seven doctorates.
He was a consultant to NATO, to the European Union.
But number one thing above all his passion and his love listen uh for Jesus is epic and because of his genius, because of his brilliance, he took science and used it as an evangelistic tool.
So he has written many books. Uh some of them, most of you would never want to touch.
Not because it’s not good. It’s just because you don’t have the brain capacity. Nor do I.
For example, one of his books is uh uh titled The Ironic Approach to the Evolutionary Theory uh where he walks through the evolutionary claims by scientists and he applies science to their claims and absolutely debunks their claims based on just secular, right?
I say secular, just on science. So this book is a book that we have actually friends listen up.
We’ve never done this before. We tried to get it and it was out of print And we chased down permission uh to get this book up.
And we, I think our first run was just around 7000 books we have right now.
And here’s why you’re gonna want it.
Here’s why we went through the effort to make it a book of the month is because if you have a junior higher high schooler and certainly a college age kid who is either struggling with the existence of God or is now being swayed to leave their faith or just doesn’t believe at all period in the supernatural, the uh creator God of the universe.
You’re gonna want to read this book.
Here’s the reason why Dr Wilder Smith had the same troubles trying to communicate to people uh but they weren’t listening.
And so he broke away from his norm and he wound up taking the CS Lewis approach.
And that is this, he wrote an allegorical book called He who thinks has to believe and it challenges you uh to look around at your observable universe and he forces you to draw conclusions.
He’s gonna make you think while you’re enjoying an allegory.
The, the story is about a plane that goes down in a jungle and it begins there and you will be fascinated with the very, very CS Lewis chronicles of Narnia type of J R R Tolkien Lord of the Rings approach.
And it’s gonna, kids are gonna love the story, but it’s gonna come to a conclusion to where, oh my gosh, there must be a God because if I think I have to believe, if I choose to just simply uh muse myself, then I can stay in unbelief.
Because if I’m amused, I never muse and to muse is to ponder.
So look, we’re sitting here just moments away from numerous Southern California amusement parks.
Why did we build them in the first place? Because we want to escape life in reality.
So instead of musing on our world, we created uh amusement parks so we could go to a place and not think what Wilder Smith does with this is he gets you truth without you expecting it to uh arrive like it does.
He who thinks has to believe by doctor A E Wilder Smith.
It’s a great book and it’s our book of the month for the month of February.
You can get it for a gift of any amount at Jack Hibbs dot com. That’s Jack Hibbs dot com.
This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you.
Our listeners visit us at Jack Hibbs dot com. That’s Jack Hibbs dot com.
Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio. Wish for you.
Solid and steady growth in Christ and in his word, we’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.