Why a Christian Needs a Church to Thrive

Amos 2

By Rev. John Musgrave

Rev. John Musgrave is the Senior Pastor of Christ Church in Clayton, NC.

Can a Christian truly thrive apart from the church? In Amos 2:9–12, God shows us that while the church doesn’t save us, it is the place where He pours out essential blessings for our growth. Here we look at the real benefits of belonging to His people.

This is our second week in the book of Amos. Amos ministered and preached in the 750’s BC under King Jeroboam II in the northern tribes of Israel, and he wrote his book a few decades later, when its message also applied to Judah in the south. What we see here is God’s word to His people in that moment. And it’s worth remembering something: when the prophets write, they are almost always addressing God’s people in their unfaithfulness. So when we receive exhortation and direction from the prophets, we’re seeing what God’s people were not doing—and therefore what God’s priorities truly are.

So we turn to Amos 2, beginning in verse 9. This is God’s word, eternally true.

God, speaking through Amos, says:

I destroyed the Amorite before them, though he was tall as the cedars and strong as the oaks. I destroyed his fruit above and his roots below. I brought you up out of Egypt, and I led you for forty years in the desert to give you the land of the Amorites. I also raised up prophets from among your sons and Nazirites from among your young men. Is this not true, people of Israel?” declares the Lord.

But you made the Nazirites drink wine and commanded the prophets not to prophesy.

Here ends our reading. The printed response of thankfulness is in your worship guide and on the screen as well.

The word of the Lord.

You’ve probably heard people say—maybe many times — “I love Jesus, but I don’t like His church,” or “The church is full of hypocrites, so I don’t want to be around it.” Some folks think Jesus is fine, but they don’t need the church. If you’re older, like me, you remember the Doobie Brothers singing that Jesus was “just all right” with them. As a kid I never knew whether they meant that as faint praise or surfer slang admiration. But the point stands: some people think Jesus is all right, yet they want nothing to do with His church. They’ll just “do their own thing.”

The question is: Is that wise? Is it smart to love Jesus but stay away from His church? Does that put a Christian at an advantage—or a disadvantage?

Scripture is clear, and this passage in Amos reinforces it: being a Christian outside the church places a believer at a severe disadvantage in his growth, his vitality, and his prospering in Christ. It stunts his development and greatly limits his blessing. That’s what we’ll hear in this text.

Now, a brief summary of last week’s message from Amos 1–2. If you’re following along with the outline, here’s your first point:

A person’s presence in the church does not equal eternal life.

Last week we saw Amos deliver God’s condemnation on the nations surrounding Israel. The Israelites listening would have nodded along —“Yes, God will judge those nations.” But then God turns His attention to Judah, and then to the northern tribes themselves, and He condemns them as well. Judgment was coming upon God’s people too. So we noted that simply being present in a church does not guarantee eternal life. Jesus Himself teaches this repeatedly.

But beyond this, through one’s believing presence in the church—believing in Jesus and belonging to His people—a Christian receives significant, substantive, and lasting benefits. This week we’ll look at two of those major benefits, and next week we’ll consider a third.

Benefit #1: God rescues you from the kingdom of the world.

This rescue happens eternally, but it also happens weekly. When we gather here, God pulls us out of the world’s kingdom for a little while.

Look at verse 10. God reminds Israel that He rescued them from Egypt: “I brought you up out of Egypt.” Egypt was not a good place for God’s people. They were enslaved there. Slavery is not something you want to remain in; you want to be delivered. And God did deliver them—He brought them out of that harsh kingdom.

Likewise, for you today:

A. The world is a kingdom with a king who does not care about his citizens.

The “prince of the power of the air,” as Paul calls him in Ephesians 2, is not out for your good. When you are tempted, that temptation is not for your flourishing. If you fall into it, Satan laughs as you sit in the harm you’ve brought upon yourself. Peter says in 1 Peter 5:8 that the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. That is the kingdom of the world—a kingdom with a predator for a king.

Jesus describes him this way in John 10:10: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” In contrast, Jesus is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep.

B. When you were in the kingdom of the world, you were a slave to sin.

Romans 6:6, 8, and 20 make this clear. Slavery is not freedom; it is bondage.

C. God rescued you from that kingdom and made you a citizen of heaven.

Philippians 3:20 tells us that our citizenship is now in heaven, where Christ is enthroned. Colossians 1:13–14 describes the great transfer that occurred when you believed: God “rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

That is your first benefit: God has rescued you from a harsh kingdom with a destructive ruler and made you a citizen of Christ’s kingdom.

Benefit #2: God leads you in the wilderness of your life.

Look again at verse 10: “I led you for forty years in the desert.” Egypt wasn’t Israel’s home. The desert wasn’t their home. Their home was the land promised to Abraham.

The New Testament tells us the same: this world is not our home. We should not treat it as our home. God leads His people through the wilderness of this life, just as He led Israel through theirs.

The world is not the promised land for us. Rather, the world is our desert — our wandering place. We are in a wilderness existence. When God’s people spent forty years in the desert between Egypt and the Promised Land, they lived in tents because they were not at home. You don’t build a house when you’re not home. It’s like going on vacation and hiring a contractor to build you a house in Florida when your real house is back in Clayton. God’s people didn’t build houses in the wilderness. They lived in tents.

The Feast of Tabernacles looked back on that. God’s people would build temporary shelters around Jerusalem to remember those forty years. And Peter, at the end of his life, uses the same image. In 2 Peter 1:13–14, he speaks of his earthly life as living in a tent. He’s telling us: this world is not our home. We’re here for a while, but this is our desert existence. We’re wandering in tents. He says he will soon “put aside” his tent and go to be with Jesus — his true home.

Paul speaks similarly in 2 Corinthians 5:8: when we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord; when we are away from the body, we are at home with the Lord. Scripture gives us two pictures: we are exiles, and we are desert wanderers. Both are true.

So this life is our time in the wilderness. We’ve been delivered from Egypt — from the kingdom of darkness, from slavery to sin — but we have not yet reached our true home. Our true home is with Jesus, surrounded only by believers who seek to glorify God. Right now, we are in the desert.

And what’s true of a desert? No signs. No landmarks. No direction. That’s why I hate The Two Towers — the whole movie feels like wandering. They’re not home; they haven’t reached their destination. I hate that sense of lostness. I didn’t have many traumatic “lost in the store” moments as a kid, but that’s still the feeling it brings up in me. I don’t like being lost.

When I go to a new city, I try to memorize the map. When our family went to New York City in 2009, I memorized enough of the layout so I’d always know roughly where we were. Still hard, because the buildings are so tall. One morning, running in Central Park, I got disoriented. If you know Central Park, you know the trails twist everywhere. I thought I knew exactly where I was — until I came upon a lake I wasn’t supposed to be near. I asked someone who looked like a native, “Am I on Central Park West or Central Park East?” He told me the wrong thing. Maybe he was a native who wanted to send me on a ride; maybe he was a tourist too.

Eventually I reached a street, saw the number, and started running south — except the numbers kept going up. Which means I was going north. I realized I was on the opposite side of the park. I don’t like feeling lost. And that’s what desert existence is like: no markers, no street signs, just open space.

Ironically, one of my favorite movies is All Is Lost with Robert Redford. It’s just Redford, alone on a yacht, lost in the middle of the ocean. Four spoken words in the whole film. For some reason, I like it — maybe because 2014 felt like that for me. But you don’t want to be lost in the desert. And that’s what people are without Christ. One of you recently said, after being around unbelieving relatives, “They’re so lost.” I feel that too when we’re around unbelieving friends — no direction, no markers, no home.

But here’s the good news: in this desert existence, the person who believes that the God of the Bible is the only God — the God who saves and rescues from final judgment — that person is led by God.

So your A point is this: God leads you by the Bible — His Word.

God’s people were led through the desert by His prophet Moses. Moses gave them Genesis — all those ancient events written down for people who were now camped at Sinai. Genesis 15 told them where they were going: God had promised Abraham’s descendants the land of Canaan. Moses kept that promise before them: God is giving you a land flowing with milk and honey.

But Moses gave them more than direction. He gave them law — from Exodus 20 through Numbers — instructions on how to live, how to act, how to treat your neighbor, how to love your neighbor as yourself (Jesus didn’t invent that; it’s from Leviticus), and how to love God (the first commandments). God gave His people direction and instruction in the desert.

So how does God direct His people today?

A1. God directs you in the church with the Bible and through teachers of the Bible.

In the desert, God provided manna — food for their bodies — and His law — food for their souls. Hebrews 5 calls God’s Word spiritual food. Peter calls it spiritual milk in 1 Peter 2. God provides nourishment for your soul through His Word.

Jesus shows this in His own wilderness experience. In Matthew 4:4, when He is tempted, He resists by quoting Scripture: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” God’s Word sustained Him.

And God’s Word sustains you.

And so we have bread for our souls—words God has given us in this book to direct us in our lives. In Amos 2:11, notice what God says in the first part of the verse: not only had He fed His people through the great prophet Moses, but He had continued feeding them through other prophets who taught His word throughout the centuries after they entered the Promised Land. Amos is speaking in the 750s BC, and Israel had been in the land since around 1400 BC. That’s roughly 650 years of prophets—Elijah, Elisha, and many others—before the era of the writing prophets like Amos and Jonah.

God fed His people then, and He continues to feed you now. Heaven is your home; this life is your wilderness. However long your earthly life is, it is your “forty years” in the desert. But God gives you manna—spiritual food—to nourish and direct you in this life before heaven. He gives you His Word, the Bible. And He gives you modern day prophets—not predictors of the future, but proclaimers of God’s Word.

Old Testament prophets constantly pointed back to the law of Moses: “Here is what God has said; here is how you should walk.” New Testament teachers do the same: they point to Scripture and say, “Here is how this applies to your life. Walk in this way and experience God’s blessing.”

God gives you teachers in the church—Ephesians 4 makes this clear—who feed you by explaining God’s Word. And He gives you the Bible itself, which you can read at home and be nourished. Teachers help with the parts that aren’t immediately clear. Many of you email me during the week: “I read this this morning—do I have this right?” And you’re getting better and better at interpreting Scripture. When I say, “Yes, you’ve got it,” that gives you confidence to apply it to your life. You know how to live, and you can live confidently.

So God leads you by giving you the Bible—through your own reading and through teachers He has gifted to help you understand it.

This is why God exhorts you to read and seek—read the Bible and seek to be taught the Bible. First Peter 2:2–3 tells us to long for the pure spiritual milk of the Word so that we may grow in maturity after receiving salvation. God leads us through His Word while we are in this desert.

But God didn’t lead His people only by commandments and promises. He also led them by His Spirit. So your B point is this:

God leads you by the Holy Spirit.

Not the Spirit independent of the Bible—that leads to confusion and, historically, to cults. And not the Bible independent of the Spirit—that leads to cold misinterpretation. These two always go together: the Spirit and the Word.

In Moses’ day, God led His people by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Nehemiah 9 recounts this. The presence of the Holy Spirit was in that cloud. When the cloud stayed, the people stayed. When the cloud moved, they packed up and followed. God was saying, “Follow Me. Don’t run ahead.”

It’s like when my kids were younger and we were walking somewhere. I knew where we were going; they didn’t. They’d run ahead in the wrong direction, and I’d call out, “Over here!” God’s people were to follow the pillar—follow the Spirit.

Today, the Spirit doesn’t lead us by a visible cloud, but He leads us in two essential ways:

1. The Spirit gives us understanding of the Bible.

A person can read Scripture and know the nouns, verbs, adjectives, and conjunctions—and still not get it. You’ve seen that glazed look in someone’s eyes when they’re listening but not understanding. We need the Spirit to help us “get it.”

Paul explains this in 1 Corinthians 2. No one understands the mind of God except the Spirit of God. And the Spirit of God dwells in us. The “natural man”—the person without the Spirit—cannot understand the things of God. But the believer can, because the Spirit reveals them.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:12:

“We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.”

So the Spirit gives us understanding. He is our pillar of cloud and fire as we read the Bible.

2. The Spirit gives us power to follow God’s commands.

Paul writes in Romans 8:12–14 that we have an obligation—not to the sinful nature, but to live by the Spirit. If we live by the sinful nature, we die. But if we live by the Spirit, we put to death the misdeeds of the body. The Spirit helps us say no to temptation. He helps us stop doing the sinful things we once did.

And then Paul says, “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” That’s you. You are among God’s people, watching the pillar. “Should I stay here? Should I go?” The Spirit leads you.

So we live by the Spirit, and by the Spirit we put to death the misdeeds of the body. The Spirit enables us to say no to sin. Paul says something similar in Galatians 5:16: “So I say, live by the Spirit”—or, as some translations put it, walk by the Spirit. That word “walk” picks up the image of God’s people in the desert, following the Spirit’s leading step by step. “Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”

God the Holy Spirit living in you is the key—not only to understanding the commands of Scripture, but to walking in those commands to your own blessing, so that you arrive at the promised land of heaven in good order.

A few verses later, in Galatians 5:25, Paul adds: “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” Again, the picture is of Israel following the pillar of cloud and fire. Keep in step with the Spirit. How do you do that? By the Spirit Himself living within you.

So God leads us in this desert existence by giving us His Word and His Spirit. We need both. We need Moses telling us where to go—God’s commands and promises—and we need God’s Spirit telling us when and how to go.

Third, God leads you by giving you examples of devotion to Him.

God says through Amos, “I brought you up out of Egypt; I led you for forty years in the desert; I raised up prophets from among your sons” (v. 11). And then He adds: “and Nazirites from among your young men.”

Nazirites were people especially devoted to God. Sometimes the vow was placed on them from birth—Samson, and likely John the Baptist. But Numbers 6 shows that any Israelite could take a Nazarite vow for a set period of time—a week, a month, longer. During that vow, they lived in particular ways: they abstained from wine, avoided contact with anything dead, and if something dead touched them accidentally, they had to start their vow over. Their devotion was visible.

God gave His people examples of devotion—living, breathing models of what wholehearted commitment looked like.

Paul says the same is true for Christians. In 2 Corinthians 11:3 he warns that our minds can be led astray from “sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” That’s the goal for you and me: sincere, pure devotion to Christ. And where do you see that? In the church.

You won’t get the Bible taught to you outside the church. Jimmy Fallon isn’t going to exegete Romans for you. You won’t be surrounded by people who have the Spirit of God outside the church. And you won’t find examples of sincere, pure devotion to Christ outside the church. God provides those inside His people—just as He provided Nazirites in the Old Testament.

I’ve had those examples. I think of my friend Rich Lanning, who was in our wedding. We met on a Campus Crusade summer project in Ocean City, New Jersey, in 1988. He was my age, but so deeply devoted to Christ—so excited about Him. His prayers, his joy, his seriousness about the Lord—they affected me profoundly. That’s why he stood in our wedding, even though I’d only known him a summer.

I think of my pastors. Peter says in 1 Peter 5 that elders are to be “examples to the flock.” God gives elders to the church so that His people can see what devotion looks like. And elders feel that weight. I’ve told you many times: knowing that my fall would harm you keeps me from sins I might otherwise commit. It’s a good weight. It’s a protective weight.

I think of Tim, our pastor in Bloomington. I grew up non confrontational—my dad was loving, but what he said went. I never learned how to disagree. Tim was a gentle bear of a man, but when he exhorted you, it felt like thunder rolling through your body. Strong, loving exhortation. “No—you don’t do that.” He didn’t put up with biblical nonsense. He said what was true, no matter what anyone thought. His devotion shaped me. You’ve benefited from him more than you know.

Then in seminary, Tim told me, “John, you’re a teaching guy, a logic guy. You need to get under a pastor who is gentle and merciful with people.” So we visited churches—seven of them. And one pastor stood out. Tender, kind, compassionate. He’d get down on both knees to talk to Allison and Larissa after the service. He loved his people. I told him what Tim had said, and he replied, “Great. I visit people in nursing homes and hospitals on Friday afternoons. I’ll pick you up at the seminary—you can come with me.” And I did.

These are Nazarites for me—examples of devotion. God gives them to His people inside the church.

It’s been so instructive for me to watch these examples of devotion. I think about Mike—his tenderness, his kindness, his care for everyone. Not just the important people, but the kids, the overlooked, the ones the world doesn’t respect. And I think of Terry, my pastor here during our first year. Terry was Mr. Initiative, Mr. Social, Mr. “Talk to everyone.” I’m an introvert, but his example has been so helpful. He did those things because he loved Christ and wanted to bring people into the church—and wanted to help them minister to others.

God gives us these examples in the church. Not outside it. We receive them inside the church—examples of people devoted to Christ, doing things well, doing things in Christlike ways. Nobody gets everything right, but we get different strengths from different brothers and sisters, especially from elders and those who are spiritually mature.

So your exhortation is simple:

Follow—emulate—copy the devotion of the spiritually mature in the church.

Look for it. Imitate it.

In Amos’s day, the people weren’t doing this. Look again at verse 11:

“I raised up prophets from among your sons, and Nazirites from among your young men.”

Two gifts: prophets to teach God’s Word and give direction, and Nazirites to give examples of devotion. God says, “I gave you both so you could flourish in the land.”

But verse 12:

“You made the Nazirites drink wine.”

Part of the Nazarite vow was abstaining from wine. It wasn’t a lifelong vow—just a set period of devotion. But the people encouraged the devoted to become undevoted.

You know what that’s like—from workplaces, neighbors, school, dorms, fraternities:

“Oh, come on. Don’t do that. Everybody does this.”

That’s encouraging a Nazarite to drink wine.

God says, “No. That’s not how My people operate.”

He gives us the devoted so that we rise up to them, not pull them down.

I’ve been watching a lot of Tiger Woods clips lately. I know he’s had troubles, but I love his golf. And every golfer of his era—Phil Mickelson, David Duval, Ernie Els—says the same thing: “My game was better because Tiger beat me.” His devotion made their devotion stronger. Phil said, “I wouldn’t have practiced as hard if it weren’t for Tiger.” Tiger’s excellence lifted everyone around him.

That’s what devotion in the church does. It lifts others.

But Amos says the people did the opposite:

“You commanded the prophets not to prophesy.”

They didn’t want to hear God’s Word. Jeremiah’s generation did the same: “Be quiet. We don’t want to hear from you.”

So the exhortation for us is the reverse:

Long for the Word of God. Long to be taught the Word of God.

Follow the devotion of the spiritually mature. Listen to the teaching of those gifted to teach. Follow their devotion in their Bible reading as well.

Three benefits of the church

We’ve talked about two this morning.

Benefit #1: God rescues you.

In the church you hear the message of rescue—how God delivers you from slavery to sin, from the kingdom of the world that does not care about you, and brings you into the kingdom of His beloved Son, where the King loves you and died for you. The church is the place where you meet a benevolent King who protects and provides for you.

Benefit #2: God leads you.

The church is the place where you receive leadership in this desert of a life. Your unbelieving neighbors are wandering—trying this, trying that—just guesses, often destructive guesses. But in the church you receive direction, guidance, and confidence for how to live.

Next week we’ll look at Benefit #3, revealed in Amos.

I know—sorry to tease you. But we’re at time, and you’re ready to be done.

Summary

Great benefits are obtained in the church. Know that a Christian outside the church is impoverished. I know I’m preaching to the choir, but you all have friends who think they don’t need the church. I want you strengthened in your conviction that the church matters—that without it, you’re running your life on 86 octane fuel when your engine requires high octane.

Benefit #1: Rescue.

Rescue from the kingdom of the world, and entrance into the kingdom of God, where you have a King who protects you, provides for you, and gives you manna in the desert—His Word.

Benefit #2: Leadership.

Direction and guidance for your life in the wilderness. You learn how to live—and how to live confidently.

This article is based upon a verbatim transcript of a sermon by Rev. John Musgrave. It has been lightly edited by Copilot, as well as the theological staff at Third Millennium Ministries.