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The first of the "first works" that a church has to do to recover health, Harry Reeder has been saying, is to return to an emphasis on the gospel of God's grace. There is one final aspect of this truth we have still to consider - the need to focus on Jesus Christ.
"A gospel-centred church is a Christ-centred church," Reeder says, " because he is the embodiment of the good news. So, to emphasize God's grace... we must build our ministries around the person of Jesus Christ" (p. 71).
This might seem so obvious that it doesn't merit special mention. However, as we have been saying over the past two weeks, when we try to make the gospel central we find ourselves in spiritual warfare. Satan will do everything he can to stop a church doing that. One of his strategies, we have noted, is to distort the gospel. Another is to divert attention from the One who is at the heart of the gospel to some peripheral issue on the fringes. This has happened repeatedly in the history of the church. Bible-believing churches have been absorbed with the authority of the Bible, the sovereignty of God, the call of church missions, church leadership dynamics and so on, at the expense of an emphasis on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It happens easily, and it always leads to spiritual coldness and death.
How are we to stop this from happening? Harry Reeder offers two suggestions. The first is to make Christ the centre of all the ministries and activities of the church. This has to be done in a very deliberate way. "All our preaching and teaching, as well as the ministries of the body," he writes, "must be focused on him. We must constantly emphasize the preeminence of Christ (Col. 1:17), the love of Christ (2 Cor. 5:14), the cross of Christ (1 Cor. 2:2), and the necessity of abiding in Christ (John 15:1-8)" (p. 71).
It doesn't matter what aspect of church (or Christian) life we may be thinking about, we have to make a deliberate effort to anchor it in Christ. Recently I have been thinking and writing on women's roles in the church, and on the way in which preachers should address issues in the church. In both cases I've found it an enormous help to make Christ the starting point and centre of what I have been trying to say. It has required self-conscious effort to do so, because in both cases so many other factors are on hand to distract away from this central emphasis. Deliberate effort is needed to keep Christ at the centre of our thinking and living.
A second thing that will help us keep Christ central, Harry Reeder suggests, is remembering that the church belongs to him. "Most of all," he writes, "we must remember that the church belongs to Jesus Christ. It is not our church, and it does not belong to a denomination. It is the bride of Christ and the body of Christ" (pp. 71-2). Flowing on from that he adds, "We are not the ones who build the church - it is Jesus who does that. We are merely called to labor under and alongside him in this task" (p. 72).
Keeping that in mind will keep us close to Christ. What is more, it will keep us expectant as well. Knowing that Christ is the One who builds his Church, we will expect to see great things happen. Harry Reeder puts it well when he says, "As we continue to work with him, by trusting him and following his instructions, the possibilities for this 'construction project' are endless! A thousand talented and committed 'experts' could not build or renew a church apart from Christ. But with him, just one faithful man, no matter how weak or inadequate he may feel, can see it happen" (p. 72).