The Purchase Price of the Church

This building [where we are meeting] cost something. Some of you know very well how much it cost. It hasn’t been that long since you were talking about those figures and figuring out how you could pay for it. The houses we live in cost us something. Every building that’s ever been built cost something. It cost something to build the church, too. I can’t really tell you how much it cost, because I don’t think any human being can. Our finite minds are not capable of comprehending what it cost the Father and the Son to build the church, but we do have some Scriptural indicators. One that you’re probably already think of is given us by Paul in his address to the Ephesian elders in Acts, chapter 20, and verse 28, when he warns them to be very vigilant: “Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit hath made you bishops [overseers; elders], to feed the church of the Lord which He purchased with His Own blood.” There’s the purchase price.

Now, there’s no way to put a value upon that price, though, upon that blood. For you see, it wasn’t just the blood of a good man, though our Lord was a good man. It was not just the blood of a “martyr” for a good cause, though that’s true of our Lord in some respects. It was the blood of the ONLY…PERFECT…HUMAN…BEINGWHO EVER DID LIVE, AND EVER WILL LIVE. It was priceless, PURE and perfect blood! And how precious it was we cannot value in material terms, but that is what it cost to build the church.

Paul gives us another insight in Ephesians 5. In verse 25, he says, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave…Himself…up…for…it….” Everything He had, from a physical, human standpoint—He gave it up for the church! His body, His breath, His blood—they were ALL turned over to one cause and one purpose. That was, to bring His church into being.

My friends, what does that say to us about the value of the church Jesus built—and of how WE ought to value that church; and of how WE dare not sin against that church; WE dare not abandon it; WE dare not neglect it; WE dare not trifle with it; WE dare not try to make it over after OUR wills; WE…dare…not…live in such a way as to bring shame and reproach upon her? It’s the precious body and bride of Christ, bought with His Own blood. That’s what it cost.

The Nature and Work of the Church

For the sake of the nature and the work of the church, they have to be studied together, and there’s just one word that fits both of them—and that’s the word “spiritual.” The church is a spiritual institution. It’s not a financial institution; it’s not a commercial institution; it’s not a political institution; it’s not a hundred of other kinds of institutions you might think of. It is a spiritual institution. If we had no other statement from the Lord to indicate it, the statement in Pontus Pilate’s court would be sufficient. In John 18:36, He said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But My kingdom is not from hence.” Now, you think of the implications if this statement on the future, literal, earthly, political “kingdom theories” so much abroad in our world today. How do you reconcile what Jesus said here with those who say His kingdom IS of this world, His kingdom’s going to BE on this world for a thousand literal years? You cannot reconcile them; you would have to just ignore what Jesus said, and believe He didn’t know what He was talking about, to hold a “future kingdom” theory.

But notice what Jesus does say about His kingdom. If it’s not going to be an earthly, material, political kingdom, it has to be a spiritual kingdom. He said, “It’s not of this world, meaning it’s not going to exist in a political, physical sense like the kingdom you serve, Pilate. You don’t have to worry about Me being a rival to Caesar’s throne because My kingdom’s not of that kind of world, nature or sort! And moreover, My kingdom didn’t originate on this earth; it is not from hence. It’s from some other place. It came from outside this world. It came from eternity in heaven.” It’s a spiritual kingdom!

We see this flavor of the kingdom in Paul’s statement in Romans 14:17: “…the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” You see the contrast it draws here between physical and material things on one side, and things that are spiritual on the other side. The kingdom doesn’t have to do with just the physical needs and physical wants of man, such as eating and drinking. It has to do with his deepest spiritual needs—righteousness, peace and joy—things that come from the Holy Spirit, as we learn from His Word.

It’s a spiritual entity, and its work flows directly from its nature. As is true of any organization, we get a clue as to the spiritual work of the church from the very purpose for which Jesus came in His physical body. “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost,” He said in Luke 19:10. His spiritual body ought to be, by implication, about the same business—seeking and saving the lost. But by explication [to make clear; explain fully], we learn that from the Great Commission, do we not? “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned” Mark 16:15-16 and the parallel in Matthew 28:19-20 [“Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”]. There’s the work of the church, and it’s spiritual from start to finish—preaching the Gospel; getting the Message out so people who want to be saved can know how to be saved and go to heaven some day.

But someone says, “Didn’t Jesus heal a lot of sick people? Wasn’t He concerned about the physical needs of men? Didn’t He feed people by the thousands? Was He not full of compassion for the sorrows and pains of this world?” Oh, indeed, He was. None will ever exceed the compassion that He had.

But we missed it if we think that He came to this earth just…to…meet the…physical…needs…and…relieve the physical distresses of men. He could have stayed in heaven and done all of that through servants upon this earth. He did it through Old Testament prophets. He could surely have done it in New Testament times, as well, indeed as He left that power to do so when He left the earth. But He did not come just to heal the physical wounds of men. It was out of the deep compassion of His heart for all people that He did these wondrous works that brought about comfort physically.

But again, we have missed it if we think that is the primary purpose for which He did those things. There was a nobler and grander SPRIRTUAL motivation behind it. We do not have to guess about that. John states it plainly as he draws his Gospel account to a close. In John, chapter 20, verses 30 and 31, after he had recited the miracles that he recorded in his Gospel account, he then gives this summary statement: “Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written that you may BELIEVE that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may life in His Name.” Now, did you hear what John said? “I have not only told you why He did these works, but why I have given you a record of these works so that you can believe that He is Who He says He was, and that believing on Him you might have…LIFE in His Name. There is the deeper and nobler purpose behind all of those wondrous works of physical compassion. It’s to the saving of the soul! He didn’t come as a physical doctor; He came as the ONLY spiritual doctor.

Now, how does that relate to the church and its work? It is so easy to get the work of the church sidetracked. It is so easy for even well-meaning people to turn the church of the Lord into other areas of work, so that the spiritual work of preaching the Gospel and saving souls is almost forgotten. If the church does not preach the Gospel for the saving of the lost, who will do it? There is no one left to do it—no one willing or able to do it. And it’s not just any congregation of the Lord’s people that can do that anymore, because some have given up on it. And the message they’re preaching is not the Gospel. But if faithful congregations of the Lord’s people fail in this, their primary work, then the Gospel will not be preached. Governments are not going to do it; big business is not going to do it; higher education is not going to do it; the denominations are not going to do it. There is nobody…that…will…do it, and the Lord didn’t give it to anybody else to do, anyway! He gave it to us. We dare not make the church into merely a benevolent institution, though we need to have compassion for the physical needs of others, but it is not primarily a benevolent institution. And of course, we dare not channel its work into entertainment and recreation and things of that sort. It’s a spiritual institution. Its work is a spiritual work.