Sermon: The State of the Church 2025

The Local Christendom Podcast with Aaron Ventura

The State of the Church 2025
Sunday, January 5th, 2025
Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA

John 21:15–25
So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me. Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me. Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.

Prayer

O Father, from the rising of the sun unto its going down, your name is to be praised. Make our prayers to ascend to you as incense, as a pure offering, so that your name shall be great among the heathen. Show forth the power of your Word, as we receive it now into ourselves, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction

On August 24th, 2012, the idea of planting a reformed church in Lewis County was being contemplated by a certain Joe Stout, and that idea was also expressed (via email) to a certain Dave Hatcher, pastor of Trinity Church (CREC) in Kirkland.

• However, seven years would go by before that idea would start to take shape, and that idea become a gathering of men, called Reformation Roundtable, which met for the first time in January of 2020.
  • Another year went by and then in January of 2021, those men and their families began to worship together, practicing the liturgy on Sunday evenings.
  • And then finally, five months later, on Pentecost Sunday, May 23rd, 2021, Christ Covenant Church was born. There were 59 people in attendance, many of whom are still here today, some who are not.
• Fast forward to January of 2025 (today) and we are a 3.5-year-old toddler of a church. And yet we have a building we can now call our own. We have a young and growing classical Christian school (also known as our children’s church and youth ministry, for those wondering). And last week we had 199 people who came here to “rise and worship the Triune God.” Who are we but those who have received grace upon grace upon grace?
  • God’s mercy and provision has been so abundant towards us, that while Joe planted, and Dave watered, and many of you have given of yourselves, your time, your prayers, and your resources to build up this body, we all say with one voice, the words of Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 3, “we are not anything, it is God who gives the growth.” It is God who planted us, and it is God who waters us. It is God who has loved us, and established us, and shall never abandon us. And we want God increase so that He may be all and in all.
• It is a marvelous work in our eyes, that God sent Christ to deliver us from ourselves. From our sins of self-absorption, our selfishness, our thinking far too highly and far too frequently of ourselves. Christ died and rose and ascended to heaven, to draw you up and out of yourself into God.
• And what’s more, God has gathered us out of ourselves so that we can be woven together, this particular body of saints, to be one body. A body diverse in so many ways, in age, in vocation, in background, in skill and learning, and yet united in our common confession of faith, in our shared hope of heaven, and in our fervent love for the Savior. We have the great privilege and challenge of sojourning together on our way to heaven.
  • So make no mistake, it is God’s grace that has built this church, and it is God’s grace that shall continue to build us and make us glorious if we will cooperate with His Spirit.

Now it has been our custom to have around the beginning of the New Year, a “State of the Church” sermon. And these sermons are a kind of memorial to what God has done for us in the past, so that we can be encouraged to trust Him and run even harder after Him in the year ahead.

• This is keeping with Paul’s words in Romans 15:4, where he says, “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”
• How are you hope levels? How is your “rejoicing always, praying without ceasing, and giving thanks in everything” going? This sermon is given to replenish our tanks, and to remind us of what we signed up for when said to Jesus, “I will follow you, come what may.”

And so there are Five Lessons I want to draw from our text. Five Smooth Stones from how The Gospel of John ends (and the Apostolic Church begins). So let us walk through this text and gather those lessons along the way.

Lesson #1 is a question – Do you really love Jesus?

Verse 15

15So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee…

• Recall that Peter had boasted earlier about how even if all the other disciples fall away, Peter would not. Peter’s name after all means Rock, and he thought he would be that rock immovable, who would lay down his life for Christ when nobody else would.
  • We read in Matthew 26:35, his boastful words, “’Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!’ And so said all the disciples.”
  • And yet we know how the story goes. All the disciples, including Peter, are scattered and run for their lives. Peter lies, he denies knowing Christ, and he does this three times in bold contradiction of his profession of love for Jesus.
  • Peter talked a big game, but when the game was on, he faltered and was humiliated.
• However, after Christ’s resurrection, that fear of death is conquered in Peter. And unlike Judas who betrayed Jesus and then committed suicide, Peter betrayed Jesus but then sought to be restored by Him.
• And this is the difference between a true Christian and a false one. What do you do after you sin? What do you do after you fall? Do you humble yourself, run to Christ, own up and confess that sin to Him? Or do you just feel bad for yourself, and conclude, what’s the use of even trying?
  • It says in Proverbs 24:16, “For a righteous man may fall seven times And rise again, But the wicked shall fall by calamity.”
  • Likewise, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7, there is a worldly sorrow that leads to death, but there is a godly sorrow that works repentance unto salvation.
• So what do you do after you sin? Because you should feel sorrow. You should feel bad. But the question is, What do you do with that sorrow, with that sadness? Do you let it eat you into the grave, or do you cast those sorrows before the cross of Christ, and by His grace rise again?
  • That is the mark of a true Christian, not that we never stumble, but that when we stumble, we rise again. We do not make excuses, we do not blame our circumstances, or our spouse, no, the mark of a true Christian is that we own up to our failures honestly before the Lord and plead with Him to restore us.
• Three times Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?
  • And three times a now chastened Simon Peter replies, “Yes Lord, you know that I love you.”
• So this is the first lesson and the most important question: Do you really love Jesus? And do you love him not only in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth?
  • Jesus says the greatest of all commandments is to love God, and then your neighbor. And Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16:22, “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha.”
• If you would like to live a blessed life not only in 2025, but for all time, you must really love the Lord Jesus, and you must seek forgiveness from Him whenever you sin. That is the first lesson and without it you cannot go further. As Paul says, without charity we are nothing.
• Now if we have charity, if we have authentic love for the Lord, then we should want to manifest that love according to our unique calling, vocation, and season of life. Paul says in Galatians 5:6, that “faith works by love.”
• And so Lesson #2 derives from Christ’s threefold command to Peter as an Apostle to, “feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my sheep.” If you really love me, then feed my sheep.
  • And so for those of us who are sheep, what is our job? To eat!

Lesson #2 – Feed on God’s Word.

• How did Jesus fast for 40 days and overcome the devil in the wilderness? He had the law of God upon his lips. As a man he lived not by bread but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
• How does the Apostle Paul say we can have peace in our hearts? By letting “the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” (Col. 3:16).
• Who is the man we read about in those Psalms, whose leaf does not whither, and whatsoever he does prospers? He is the man who meditates/chews upon the law of God day and night.
• So the Shepherd has his job, he must feed the sheep. A preacher must give milk to newborn lambs, and meat to the strong. But the sheep also have a job if they would follow the Good Shepherd. They must receive His Word.
  • James 1:21-22 says, “Lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”
  • Paul says likewise in 1 Thessalonians, “For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe” (1 Thess. 2:13).
• So are you hearing God’s Word with a noble mind, like the Bereans, of whom it says in Acts 17:11, “they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”
  • What kind of soil is your mind? Is it noble, fertile, ready to receive? Or has it been hardened by ignorance and sin. Or worse, do you have no spiritual appetite anymore because the cares of this world have choked you out?
• The Good Shepherd wants to feed you. He wants to make you lie down in green pastures, and lead you beside the still waters. The Lord wants to restore your soul and lead you in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. But you must follow Him and you must eat with thankfulness what He puts in front of you.
  • That means committing to reading, hearing, and knowing the Scriptures, and paying close attention to the Word as it is preached from this pulpit.
• So that is Lesson #2, “Feed on God’s Word.” And we find in Lesson #3 some added motivation.

Lesson #3 – All Sheep Must Eventually Die

Jesus says to Peter in verses 18-19 (NKJV), “Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” This He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me.”

• Tradition holds that Peter was bound and then crucified upside down. And whether that specific form of execution is what actually took place we don’t know for sure, but what is certain is that Christ guarantees to Peter some 30 years before it will happen, a death that no man would naturally choose for himself. And then with that promise of a painful death, Jesus says to Peter, “Follow me.”
  • To follow Jesus is to follow him into the grave. For Peter as an apostle, it meant certain painful martyrdom by which he would glorify God. He would be dressed and carried where he did not want to go, and yet at the same time, God would be carrying Peter, to a place that He had prepared in advance for him, a place in the Father’s House, where there are many mansions.
  • This is the great challenge of following Jesus. Eternal life, abundant joy, is offered to us, but only through death. In this life we must die daily unto ourselves, we must put to death our own passions and sinful desires. And all of that dying in faith is meant to culminate in our eventual putting off of this mortal flesh, so that we can put on a body incorruptible.
• All sheep must eventually die. And no man knows the day or the hour in which that judgment shall come upon him. But every man can be certain that such a day shall come, and you do not want to be caught unawares.
  • Moses prays in Psalm 90:12, “Teach us to number our days, That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
  • And Solomon likewise testifies in Ecclesiastes 7:2, “It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.”
  • Have you taken to heart that you must die? And are you ready to give an account for what you have done in the body?
• You cannot truly live in freedom, until you have reckoned with that absolute inescapability of your death. And while probably none of us are worthy of the glorious crown of martyrdom, all of us should desire to be. We should all desire to glorify God in life and and in death.
  • Paul says in Romans 14:8, “For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.”
  • If you are following Jesus, you are following the one said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it” (Luke 9:23-24).
• Summary: Lesson #3 is that All Sheep Must Eventually Die, therefore make your plans accordingly. Number your days and become wise.
• Now we see in our text that Peter’s response to Jesus is to then inquire about John’s future. What about the disciple whom Jesus loved, what about him?

Verses 20-23 (NKJV)

Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?” Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, “But Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.” Then this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?”

• So even after Peter is restored to the Apostleship, and his love has been confirmed by Christ, and his glorious martyrdom foretold. He somehow still finds a way to get rebuked.
• And this leads us to Lesson #4…

Lesson #4 – Mind Thy Own Business

• Followers of Jesus are not immune to distraction. If an apostle can stumble here, so can we.
• Peter thinks it is somehow relevant to his life and ministry to know John’s destiny. But Jesus says otherwise. “What is that to you? You follow me.”
• These are words from Jesus that you must hammer into your soul. It is a question you must learn to hear from Christ whenever peace and joy is lacking. “1) Do you know your business? and 2) Are you doing it faithfully?”
  • Paul puts it this way in Romans 14:4, “Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls.”
• You will be tempted this year to expend time, energy, and attention on things that God has not asked you to expend any time or energy on.
  • Some of you are like Paul, a high-functioning over-achiever. And your temptation is to eat the bread of anxious toil (or to not eat at all), to rise early and sit up late, and to forget that unless the Lord is building through you, your labor is in vain (Ps. 127). For those who love and delight in hard work, you must learn to stop and rest, to find true Sabbath.
  • Some of you on the other hand are a little too leisurely (that is my nice way of calling you lazy). Perhaps you lack ambition or focus, or perhaps you are just disorganized. Or perhaps you lack diligence and never finish anything because you procrastinate. There is only one path to faithfulness but many paths to ruin.
    • It says in Proverbs 24:30-31, “I went by the field of the slothful, And by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, And nettles had covered the face thereof, And the stone wall thereof was broken down.”
    • Whereas it says in Proverbs 22:29, “Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings.”
  • So wherever you fall on that spectrum of labor and laziness, all of us should want to aim at being able to say what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:10, “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
    • The sign that you are minding your own business, working hard with God’s grace, is that you have peace. You have joy. You have the fruit of the Holy Spirit coming out of you, not fear and anxiety.
      • By the way, this comes from heeding Lesson #3 and numbering your days and counting yourself dead to the world already.
• So when the next controversy arises on the internet. Hear the words of Jesus, “What is that to you? You follow me.”
• Or, when you are tempted to compare yourself to that person or this one, to envy her, or covet his stuff. Hear the words of Jesus, “What is that to you? You follow me.”
• Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:11, “aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you.” That is your calling: Mind Thy Own Business.
• Finally, we will close where John’s gospel closes.

Verses 24-25

24This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true. 25And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.

The fifth and final lesson is…

Lesson #5 – Become A Good Book

• John wrote only a tiny fraction of the things that Jesus did. And when you receive Jesus into your heart, you become a book written by Him.
• So what kind of book do you want to be? What kind of testimony to Christ will your life have?
• What will the chapter of your life for “2025 Year of our Lord,” read like in heaven?
  • The Author and Finisher of your faith is ready to write. That is to say, He is overflowing with grace and truth and wants you to receive His Spirit in greater measure. So will you receive Christ anew, will you walk in that Holy Spirit, will you keep in step with the Spirit of Christ into and out of the grave?
  • May you ever be, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.