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Text: I Timothy 3:15

The Church of the Living God

Clint Akins is a close, personal friend of mine who has spent the last 17 years serving as a church-planting missionary in the island country of Madagascar. He is one of my heroes! We attended college together at Tennessee Temple, and seminary together at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Memphis. We both had the privilege of pastoring churches during our seminary days. I was reminded recently of an incident which took place in the small Missouri town in which Clint pastored.

After a year of knocking on doors, and spreading his God-given grace and compassion throughout the area, a handful of city leaders came to his home one night for a visit. Their purpose was to encourage and enlist him to run for the mayorship of the city in an upcoming election. I will never forget His response to these men! With clear and unwavering resolve he said, "Men, I already have the most important job in this town! Why would I want to step down, and run for mayor?" Brethren, may God grant to all His preachers such a heavenly perspective!

What makes the local church such a special entity? Among the revelations of Scripture is the truth of I Timothy 3:15, defining the house of God as "the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." Paul’s admonition to Timothy? The very nature of its Founder is sufficient to govern the behavior of its membership, beginning with its leaders. It is, after all, the Living God with Whom we have to do!

The phrase "the living God" has an enlightening Biblical background! It is found 31 times in Scripture--15 in the Old Testament, and 16 in the New Testament. The first usage is found in Deuteronomy 5:26. This context has Israel at the foot of Sinai, and God’s awesome presence in the mount. There was the dispensing of the law, the audible voice of God, a consuming fire on display, and a nation fearful for their lives in the presence of God’s manifested glory! In verse 26 they offer this inquiry, "For who is there of all flesh, that hath heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire as we have, and lived?" After 400 years of exposure to a panoply of lifeless Egyptian deities, the sons of Abraham have encountered a living God Who does indeed speak to sinners, and allows them to live! He is a God of glory and greatness who inspires awe in those to whom He reveals Himself. It is important to see that "the living God" was a title first ascribed to Him by men.

I believe this adds meaning to the first New Testament usage of the title, where Peter affirms that Jesus is "The Christ, the son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16). Peter had experienced God in the flesh, and such a revelation was made to him by the Father. From his Old Testament background, Peter is essentially saying this: "The living God Who revealed Himself to our forefathers was powerful in presence, thundering in His speech, awe inspiring in His acts, and compassionate to sinners! You are just like Him! You are God in the flesh! You must be His Son!" Brethren, this is the God of the local church!

Preachers, God have mercy on us when we stand behind a pulpit without the Word of God burning in us like a fire! Has Moses been in your pulpit lately? What has happened to the thunder? Where is the manifested presence and power of God? Why does so much preaching take the form of an academic lecture series? Why does our doctrine lack dynamite? Why are our theological gun barrels both straight and empty? Why does conversational pulpit praying lack fervency and heart? Why do pulpit prayers sound like admonitions to the congregation rather than addresses to the God of heaven? Why do hungry souls in search of the living God find dead orthodoxy instead? Why do so-called "worship leaders" have to get us in the mood? Where is the church of the living God? Where is the living God of the church?

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