The Long Line
In my sermon today, I will use a word you have not heard from the pulpit for several years. It is not that the word is unimportant, it is simply that the teaching has taken us in a different direction in which I have not needed to explain the doctrine expressed. To give you an introduction to the word, I invite you to walk down the hall leading to the older part of the building. Most of you will not need to because your memory of what is there will serve fine.
On the right-hand wall under spotlights are the portraits of all the pastors who have served this church over the past fifty-five years of our existence. I am the last in the line and have the distinction of serving longer than any of the earlier men. Some may lament this, but I doubt my record run will end soon. This brings me to the word I want to use later, and when I do, you will be quite sure of its meaning and have the visual expression of it in your brain. The word is perpetuity. Applied in our setting, it means the continuous uninterrupted existence of the church. Concerning this local body of Christians, Berean Baptist Church has continued the ministry here for fifty-five years. We are a church of the Lord Jesus Christ, but our history is not the total years of Christ’s church as you well know. In our study of Mark’s gospel, we read of Christ’s choice of twelve men appointed as His apostles and serving as the foundation stones of His church with later scriptures explaining that Christ Himself anchored this foundation with Him as the chief cornerstone.
Armed with this truth and two thousand years of history, we may confidently say the church of Jesus Christ has existed in perpetuity for twenty centuries. This accords with Christ’s promise in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of hell would not prevail against His church. In Matthew 28, Jesus commissioned the church with the gospel and commanded His disciples to make more disciples, to baptize them, and teach them to obey everything He commanded. This would ensure His promise of perpetuity and that His church would be here until the end of this age. Until Christ returns, the church continues and brings more of God’s people into its fellowship. Each of the pastors on the wall have done their part to support this legacy of ministry in Rohnert Park.
Across the world, there are many groups who are pretenders claiming to be part of the church founded by Christ. They bear His name and claim His blessings. We do not agree to the validity of many of these claims. We judge the claims of The New Testament church by its connection to the doctrines taught by the original church with each generation checking their close adherence to these doctrines. The apostolic doctrines of the church do not change. The word of God does not change; Christ promise does not fail. Therefore, we believe churches built on the model of the New Testament still exist. We are responsible to compare and associate ourselves only with those churches.
The apostles are long dead but the truths they taught remain. These are unalterable no matter how much time passes or how much the culture in which we live may be different from the time of the apostles. Number one on the list of pastors of Berean is Harry Buerer. Pastor Buerer planted this church in 1969 from the doctrinal seeds of churches preceding him. I stand at the end of the line still holding the truths taught in 1969, and more importantly checking those doctrines to make sure they follow what God says in His word.
Listen for the word perpetuity today and for reason I use it. We are the church of Jesus Christ in Rohnert Park. We intend to stay that way.
Pastor V. Mark Smith