I remember being on a trip in Tennessee and coming to a crossroads. One road went to Copperhill; the other went to Norris Dam. There at the crossroads was a little white frame church. The church stands at every crossroad.

The Christian Church was no accident. It did not just happen. It was not merely a sociological phenomenon, a quirk of history. It was not founded upon a lie, an idea, a philosophy, hope, a dream, a delusion. It was planned, intended, constructed, trained, sent, commissioned, blessed, empowered, and directed.

The Master has come - to build his church.

One day Jesus stood at the crossroads. He and the twelve were up in the district of Caesarea Philippi. It was a place filled with much symbolism.

The town was named for two Roman rulers - Caesar Augustus and Philip. There was a Greek temple there, built in honor of the Greek god Pan. It was located near the headwaters of the Jordan River. So, the place was alive with the symbolism of Rome, Athens, and Jerusalem.

It was somewhere out in the country that Jesus must have stood on a little hill, and looked far off down south toward Jerusalem. As he stood there looking, the wind blew his hair across his face. He brushed it back, and said to the twelve: "Who do men say the son of man is?" They answered, "Some say John the Baptizer, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets."

Then Jesus turned toward them, and gave them that look only he possessed, and said, "But, who do you say I am?" As soon as the words fell across his lips Simon answered abruptly, "You are the Christ, the son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven."

Then Jesus and the twelve took that road which led them down toward Jerusalem. Matthew tells us, "From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things."

The Master has come - to build his church.

We are in the church today because the Master has come - because he has put the church here, and has called us to be in it. Carlyle Marney said, "The reaction to who Jesus is puts us in church always." The Master has come - and we are the church. Would you remember this about the church the Master has come to build?

I

The church has a message.

That is the first thing to remember about the church the Master has come to build: it has a message.

The church is built upon the affirmation that Jesus is Christ. "You are the Christ, the son of the living God." This is the message of the church. We must never forget this. The message is the motive. We have no other reason for being except that Jesus is Christ.

If Jesus is not Christ, then let’s all go home and quit fooling ourselves, for we have nothing to offer the world. If Jesus is not Christ, then we are no more than a civic club which meets on Sunday. The church does not even make a good civic club. The message about who Jesus is has created the church. He is Christ. We must remember this always.

Sometimes people say the church is old-fashioned, has old-fashioned beliefs, and is stubborn about holding onto them. The church had better hold onto them. That is all it has. We need to relate this message to the age in which we live, but we dare not become the age in which we live. Dean William R. Inge said when the church marries the spirit of the age she will become a widow in the next generation. We must hold onto our old message or become something less than church.

A young man went into a beautiful new library. He stood there on the first floor, and looked around at glass-covered display cases, stamp collections, marble statues, pictures, various announcements about classes and activities offered, magazine racks - and then said with a bewildered look, "Where do they keep the books?" He thought a library was a place for books.

A grand post office was built in a certain town. It cost several million dollars. But when it was opened and dedicated, it was discovered that the architect had left out one thing. There was no place to mail a letter. A post office is for letters.

Not long ago I rode by a church which had something on its bulletin board out front which greatly bothered me. There was no sermon title, worship invitiation, or catchy sentence. Instead, there were these words: "Karate Classes Every Tuesday." I thought to myself (after I got the car back on the road), "What does that have to do with church? What good would that do a person coming by here looking for hope, help, light, love?" Breaking someone’s face with the side of your hand has absolutely nothing to do with the message of the church. A church has a message about Christ or it is not a church.

Do you know why the message is so important? Because it is the only answer for the problems we face, and the problems of the world.

Two hunters got lost. One remembered reading that if you ever get lost while hunting you should shoot three times in the air. They tried it. No help came. They tried it again. No help. One asked, "What do we do now?" The other said, "I don’t know. I’m all out of arrows." Without the message about Jesus being Christ we are like lost hunters shooting arrows in the air. No one hears them, nor our cries for help. No one even cares. But Jesus the Christ cares. God cares. Help is on the way. Help has come. That is the church’s message. Jesus is Christ.

II

The church has a Master.

That is the second thing we need to know about this church the Master came to build. He is the Master of the church. The church has a Master - a Lord, a leader, a head, a foundation

- none other than Jesus who is Christ. Jesus said to the disciples that he would build his church on the affirmation of the rock-man, Simon Peter, and that "the powers of death will not prevail against it."

The church has a Master - someone who builds, inspires, and leads the church, someone whom the church worships, serves, and imitates. Jesus the Christ is Master of his church. We must remember not only the message, but also the Master. If we do not remember who the Master is, the message gets lost. We forget it, warp it, twist it, or make it into some old or new heresy.

When Christians take their eyes off the Master, they become something other than Christian - and their church becomes something other than a church. When we take our eyes off the Master we begin thinking the church is ours instead of his. We seek our will instead of God’s will.

When I was six years old, my father was sent to be the pastor of a church in south Georgia. The church badly needed an educational building. Everyone in the church wanted to build it except for three men. They opposed it, and said the church did not need it. They each said, "Over my dead body." They should not have said that. I am glad to report that after a year the building was on the ground. I am sorry to report that the three men were under the ground. It was built almost literally over their dead bodies.

Don’t bet against God. Jesus said not even the powers of death would defeat his church.

At the theology school at Emory University named for Bishop Warren A. Candler, there is a statue of the bishop. When I was a student I would often stop and look at it, and think about the words on the inscription, "A master among men whose master was Christ."

The church has a Master.

III

The church has a mission.

That is the third thing to remember. A church with a message and a Master always has a mission. The mission is to spread the message about the Master. That means it is our mission to tell the world about Jesus who is Christ. Jesus said, "I will give you the keys to the kingdom." He entrusted the disciples with a mission.

At first glance you might think that is a narrow definition of the task at hand. But, this does not mean we simply announce "Jesus is Christ," and that is it. It does not mean hands off everything else, don’t meddle - don’t get into anything controversial, don’t dabble in politics, economics, war and peace.

It does not mean we just say, "Jesus is Christ" and sit around with smiles on our faces while the whole world goes to hell. If Jesus is Christ then everything in the world comes under his sovereign rule. Every issue is seen clearly only in the light of his ethic. Every problem finds its solution only in the depth of his understanding. Every sorrow finds a comfort only in the width of his mercy. That is why the mission of the church is so vitally important.

A man was charged with being drunk and setting a bed on fire. When he went before the judge he said, "Your honor, I am guilty of being drunk, but that bed was on fire when I got in it."

The world was already in trouble when the church got in it, and it still is. Without the church’s mission - its message about the Master - the world does not stand a chance, for we are bound and determined to destroy ourselves and each other.

Jesus Christ always has been, is today, and always will be the hope of the world. Truly, Jesus is the world’s only hope. If you do not believe that, then you are living in a dream world, a world which will not long endure. That is why the church has a mission. That is the mission. That is why it is vital that we make some choices about who will have our allegience, and what will be our priorities. That is why the Master still calls us today to be Christian, to be discipled, to be church.

In the early days of the church there were some Roman soldiers who had become Christians. They were going to be put to death because of their faith. There were fifty of them. They were marched out onto a frozen lake - told to remove their clothing - and were left there to freeze to death.

As they stood on the ice they were singing together, "Fifty soldiers of the Cross, and all prepared to die." But, then the song changed to "Forty-nine soldiers of the Cross, and all prepared to die." Those on the bank saw one of them coming toward land, putting his clothes back on.

Then, one of the Roman officers stepped out onto the ice, and began walking toward the Christians. He took off his clothing, and disappeared in the blowing snow. And, the song changed again: "Fifty soldiers of the Cross, and all prepared to die."

Jesus the Christ is calling us to be "rock people" - people upon whose faith he can build his church.

Would you be a rock person for Jesus?