Who is the Church?

Intro

I became a Christian when I was 23, nearly a couple years after I had graduated college. I had a roommate at the time, Trevor, one of my best friends still to this day. Trevor had a front-row seat as my life underwent all sorts of changes and blunders as I struggled to follow Jesus.

I can still remember one conversation I had with Trevor early on, I think it was a Sunday after I had just gotten home from a church service. I was probably sharing something that had happened or that the pastor said that morning. Then Trevor bluntly said to me, “ I dunno man, my experience of church people growing up, they don’t seem to care about anyone but themselves. Aren’t you worried about how political, bureaucratic, and selfish churches can be?”

I said to him, “Yeah, yeah. I know. But I’ve got it all figured out, ok? I’ll go to church when I can, but I won’t ever get too involved. I won’t join any programs or groups. I’ll sit in the back of the service and leave right when it is done. What’s most important to me is my relationship with Jesus.”

They say God must have a sense of humor, and I tend to agree.

I wanted to love Jesus, what I did not expect was that I would also fall in love with his church. Now, please hear me carefully. I don’t want to convey that falling in love with the church means you go into ministry. Our callings to the church and our affection for the church are two different things.

What I am trying to illustrate, however is how for me my affection for the church came unexpectedly. But my experience for the last 14 years has been that as my affection for Jesus has grown, so too has my affection for God’s people, this beautiful and often messy thing that we call church.

It hasn’t always been easy. In fact, my love for the church has often brought me deep pain. But I can also say that it is within the life of God’s people, the church, that I have experienced the fulness of Christ’s love for me and my family. And, through my participation in the life of the church, I have grown into more of myself, more into who Jesus created me to be, than I ever dreamed was possible.

I want that to be true for you to.

We’re pressing pause this morning on our summer Psalms series to begin a 3-week exploration of the church and church planting. We’ll be looking at Ephesians 2 through 4 together as we try to answer three big questions:

Who is the Church?

Why do we plant churches?

What are practical challenges facing us here at Redeemer in the work of the church and church planting?

Now right away, I can feel how this series might sound very unrelatable or abstract to you. What does a series about the church and church planting have to do with you and your every day life? I get it, I really do. But I want to suggest that these topics have everything to do with you and matter very much to your daily life. I say this for at least two reasons.

First, if you want to know what Jesus is up to in this world, what his plans for this world are, then you need to know about the church. You need to know who the church is, Jesus’ relationship to the church, and what Jesus intends to do with the church. You can see this here plainly in Ephesians 2 that we’re about to dig into. What do we see? In the church God is gathering his redeemed people, he’s joining people together across their many differences, and he’s creating a new people, a new humanity, with whom he promises to live.

So if you want to know what Jesus is up to, you have to know what it looks like to love and be a part of his people, the church.

Second, if you want to understand how Jesus intends to make you more of yourself, more of who he made you to be, then you should care about the church. I have an excerpt from Ephesians 4 for you on the next page of the worship guide. This gives you a bit of a preview where Paul is going and where the next 3 weeks is taking us. Look at Paul’s goal. That we would be built up and become fully mature. How? Through life in the church.

Do you want to become mature? Do you want to grow into the fullness of Christ? Do you want to be more fully alive?

Then I hope you see that the church matters. So, first question, Who is the Church? Christians love to get into a tizzy with each other over what the church is supposed to do. That’s an important conversation. But in a world that is so focused on business, activity, and results, we need to remember that first and foremost the church is called to be rather than to do.

Who are we? 1 Sentence, 3 parts:

The church is a group of people who have been redeemed by Christ, who are being joined together across their differences through Christ, and who are becoming a new humanity in Christ.

The Church is a Group of People Who Have Been Redeemed by Christ

Look with me first at verses 1-10. Paul’s concern in Ephesians, said one scholar, “Is the glory of Christ in the Church wherein the unity of a new humanity is revealed as a token of the ultimate unity of all things in him.” (Go back and lookin Eph 1 - unity all things, Paul saying now that this will be demonstrated first in the church) In these first several verses, Paul is getting our hearts tender for the work of being joined with others by reminding us of all that Jesus has saved us from.

Paul described two ways, or two kinds of sin, that Jesus has set us free from.

The first kind we could say is inner, personal sin. Look at verse 3. Cravings of the flesh, desires, thoughts. This word for craving, epithumia, is where we get the idea of lust. Cravings of the flesh are any of our deeply rooted tendencies to focus solely on ourselves and to love ourselves more than others. It’s self-centeredness. We don’t tend to think of sin that way, but this is so much of what lies beneath our sin. Our lusts, our greed, our hatred, our envy. Where does that come from? Self-centeredness.

So this is one dimension of sin that Christ has saved us from. The second is an outward, relational, we could even say, social or systemic, kind of sin. Look at verse 2. We used to follow the ways of this world, which is under the control of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, that is the devil. What was Paul getting at?

Sin is not merely some impersonal force, but is being wielded by a cruel and evil master in this world on a massive, societal scale. The 20th century Anglican theologian John Stott described the Devil’s rule as dehumaniztion. Look at this quote you have:

Wherever human beings are being dehumanized—by political oppression or bureaucratic tyranny, by an outlook that is secular (repudiating God), amoral (repudiating absolutes) or materialistic (glorifying the consumer market), by poverty, hunger or unemployment, by racial discrimination, or by any form of injustice—there we can detect the sub-human values of “this age” and “this world.”

Now, Paul was not promising us victory over those sins. He was saying that outside of Christ we were mastered by both these inner lusts as well as to all manner of outward, social-relational sins. Now we’re free from their mastery. I hope you can see how Paul is already setting up the impact of what the new humanity inside the church ought to look like, on both an inner and outward scale.

But because we were mastered by sin in this way, we were deserving of God’s wrath and judgment. We were hopeless, we were dead.

And while God’s wrath is clearly in view here, it was not Paul’s main point. What was his point? To remind us of the magnitude of God’s love and mercy in Christ that he would save us from all these things and bring us into a new life. We have been exalted, Paul said. We have been raised to new life and we are now seated with Christ in heavenly places. That’s royalty language! In a world of dehumanization, you have been bestowed with the highest value and dignity. Dead sinners remade into royal saints!

The church is a group of people who have been rescued from their sin and now share a common salvation in Christ.

What do you think would be shared characteristics of such a group of people? Several words come to mind. Thankful. Generous. Humble. Tender. Do such words describe you? Do they describe us?

How can we start to think about applying this in our lives. Well, fortunately we have two more weeks to revisit this as Paul keeps pressing this point deeper. For now, I just want you to see the gravity of what Paul is saying.

Unless Jesus has softened your heart, you’re not ready to grow up into maturity. Unless Jesus is the central, gravitational force of your life, you’re not ready to be a member of this new thing Jesus is doing.

Because you can’t strive for unity if you’re still proud. You can’t take part in God’s peace when you still look down on others. You can’t be one brick in this new building or a citizen of this new city if you just want to go your own way.

Until the grace of God in Jesus is the center of your life, you’re not ready. That’s what Paul is saying.

We talk a lot here about the safety of the gospel. When we know that Jesus loves us, even in our sin, there is a safety with God and with each other. And even with ourselves, to be honest with ourselves, not to be self-deceived. This is a chance to be honest with yourself. And I say this with three important caveats.

First, if you are healing from wounds that you have received in a church, you are likely all sorts of confused and unsure of what you think right now. This might not be the best season for you to be introspective. Instead my advice while you heal is to stay fixed on Jesus. Find a sense of gravity again. He’ll walk you through that. It’s gonna take time, but he’ll do it.

Second, if you’re someone who is subject to intense feelings of shame - perfectionist (like me), or you battle anxiety, depression, or some other besetting mental health struggle, you likely are not the best judge of yourself. This is why you need safe relationships in a local church that can help you see what Jesus is doing in your life.

Third, when you’re evaluating the gospel’s power in your life, you need to look over the long term. If you’ve had a rough month, six months, even a rough year, you might think that Jesus isn’t working in you. Worse, you might doubt your salvation. You need to look over the long term. Not days, weeks, or months, but over several years. Do you see growth in grace over long periods of time.

Emily Pilkington said it well this week when she said that when the gospel is small our hearts are most hardened.

What about you? Is the gospel big or small to you? Is your heart warmed by what Christ has done for you?

Who are being joined across our differences

With the foundation being laid, we now turn to Paul’s principal concern in Ephesians: that the church would become one, would become a new humanity, by being joined together across our differences.

The divides between Jew and Gentile were both theological and sociological. This will be important for us to keep in mind as we think more about challenges facing us in future weeks.

They were theological because of the ceremonial laws that the Jewish people practiced in order to live what they thought was a holy life. But so many of the Jewish people at the time had taken this good law from God and used it as a basis for hatred rather than for blessing.

So, many of the Jewish people looked down on Gentiles because they didn’t have the law. They regarded Gentiles as unclean, unworthy of God’s love. Such theological justifications for hatred are not at all unique to the Jewish people of this time but can be seen in every generation and any religion, no less so than among those of us who call on the name of Jesus.

In turn, the Gentiles despised the Jews for despising them. The Roman Government also looked down on Jews, and encouraged a kind of segregation that kept Jews and Gentiles separate from each other. And what happens when two groups of people, who now have animosity for each other, are intentionally segregated? Discrimination. It’s inevitable.

So the hostility was theological and sociological. What did God do about it? Three things.

First, he abolished the requirements of the ceremonial law. Circumcision, purity laws, all of these things that the Jewish people thought gave them ethnic or nationalistic favor in God’s eyes were relativized in light of what Christ has done. God’s favor is not achieved but received solely by faith in what Christ has done.

Second, he brought the Gentiles near. Gentiles really were far off. They really were cut off. They didn’t have the Torah. They didn’t know about God’s covenant promises. They really had given themselves to all kinds of false gods and licentious behavior. Lustful behavior and false worship were often intertwined in many of the pagan cults.

So, on the one hand, God abolished that which gave the Jews a feeling of ethnic and nationalistic superiority. He brought the Gentiles close through the gospel. And now, with these two groups brought near, he deals with their hostility by putting it to death on the cross.

Remember what we noticed a few minutes ago. What is the effect of a shared salvation in Christ? Tender hearts. Humility. Gentleness. Forgiveness. Whatever reason peoples might have for hatred across whatever boundaries might have become insignificant in light of our shared salvation.

In fact, our bonds in Christ are so close that Paul described us as a new humanity. That’s crazy talk. But not if you believe the gospel.

Here’s the point. Being joined with people you would otherwise have no association with is a key characteristic of the church. The church has been most attractive in history when it has been most successful at a true joining of peoples across their differences. The church has been most repulsive in history when we have been a vehicle for segregation and discrimination.

I want you to notice something here, and this is important. Listen. Paul did not say that our differences no longer matter. Paul did not say that our differences are relativized. Paul did not say that we should maintain the status quo and you should stop being angry if that doesn’t benefit you. Paul did not say Jesus has done it all and there is no work left for us to do. He didn’t say any of that.

Paul said Jesus dealt with the hostility that arose from our differences, and now we, sharing in Christ’s redemption, must mature into, must work toward, this unity which Christ has won for us. Look at the end of chapter 2. Look at chapter 4. We still need to be built up, to grow up, to mature into unity.

This is so important, not least because predominantly White churches and traditions like ours have gotten this wrong for so long.

I once worked with a church leader who talked a big game about racial reconciliation in the church. I had the privilege during this season of walking alongside of a young, undocumented Latino man as he came to the faith. But as he came to participate in the life of our church, he felt pressured into buying an entire wardrobe of suits and ties in order to fit in on Sunday morning. Of course, he had very little money to do this with.

I shared this with our team of leaders, and asked if we weren’t unintentionally communicating something on Sunday morning. To which this one leader responded, “Good, if this young man wants to be a part of our church, he should want to be just like us.”

As it turns out, when this leader talked about reconciliation, what they actually meant was assimilation.

The Spirit of joining is not a Spirit of sameness; He is a Spirit of embracing others in our differences: differences in generational views and experiences, racial and ethnic background, gender, politics, class.

And this is hard. It is painful. I plan to share a story next week about how painful this can be. The work of joining is not for the faint of heart. If it was easy, the Bible wouldn’t tell us we need the Spirit’s help to do it. The work of joining requires a willingness to set aside our comforts, our preferences, our power, our privileges. It requires us to be vulnerable. It requires us to take risks. It requires that we apologize. A lot.

None of this is possible unless our hearts are softened by Jesus. Obviously I want to say more. It will have to wait.

The Church is becoming New Humanity Through Christ

We’ve already seen the New Humanity language. It’s in verse 15. To this language, Paul adds several images. We are citizens of a new city, members of a new household, bricks of a new temple for God to dwell. In short, we are a group of people who can only be explained by the gospel.

Nobody can get to the end of this chapter and reasonably think, I can follow Jesus but life with God’s people in the church doesn’t matter. That makes no sense. It’s not easy. It’s not romantic. It’s often the hardest thing we might do.

When we truly live out who we are meant to be, man, there is nothing else like the church. When we are sacrificing ourselves for the sake of others, when we are bridging across the world’s barriers and growing in mutual love, when the love between Christians in a place cannot be defined by any one social group or culture, there is nothing like it.

[Ms. Sherry story]

You won’t hear stories like that on social media. You won’t hear it on the news or podcasts. Most people might look at moments like that and see it as a drop in the bucket of the world’s biggest problems.

But God sees that as the accomplishment of his eternal purposes in his people. Don’t you want to be a part of that? I hope you do.

Let’s pray.