The Work of the Restored

Introduction

Good morning, church. Today we wrap up our three week “Restored for a Purpose” series. The first week we discussed the Imago Dei, the Fall of Man, and God’s plan for restoration through Jesus, our great Kinsman Redeemer. Last week we looked at God’s work within us to bring clarity in reflecting His attributes, and we discussed it as the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Today, we will be looking at our calling and responsibilities. It does not escape me that last week was quite long. I promise that my intent is to be brief this morning. Let’s begin with a quick look at where our sermon passage carries us today, to the church in AD 60 Ephesus.

Historical Context

Much like Corinth which we discussed a few weeks back, Ephesus was initially a Greek settlement that became a major Roman city due to its vitality in trade, religion, and culture. Ephesus was so important that it became the Roman capital of Asia. Unlike his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus was not a response to problems, nor a defense of his ministry, but a letter of encouragement. Paul’s aim was to encourage new believers and emphasize unity with Jewish believers. Paul loved this city, and rightly so as he had lived there for 3-years at one point in his ministry.

It should also be noted that while this letter is credited to have been written to this specific church, it is widely speculated that it was Paul’s intent that it be passed around to the other churches in the near area as well. This thought exists because of the absence of addressing Ephesus directly in other early associated transcripts. Nevertheless, our bibles will show that it is addressed to Ephesus, so we approach the text from that understanding.

It is is of notable importance that Paul was writing this letter from Rome while imprisoned there. With Nero as Emperor, Christians were being persecuted and martyred on a large scale. New Christians would have been fearful, so Paul’s encouragement was timely in offering encouragement to persevere. Nevertheless, unity is the main theme, and the main intention is to offer a deep understanding of their purpose as the church; the same as our aim today.

Folk Theology

During my sermon on our Welcome Sunday, I mentioned the idea of Folk Theology and how I would discuss that in more detail in the coming weeks, thinking of this point in our sermon series. Simply put, folk theology are beliefs and practices formed outside of formal doctrines and established tradition, often involving cultural adaptations. As an illustration, consider the scenario of an unchurched child growing up in front of a television watching a cartoon cat die and then immediately seen sitting on a cloud with a new pair of wings, and playing a harp. From that repeated visual of their Saturday cartoon routine, that unchurched child has now developed an understanding that when we die we become angels, which we know to be completely inaccurate.

Similarly, Constantinianism was formed when the Emperor Constantine integrated Christianity into the Roman imperial structure. The word is often referenced to express the idea of church and state being uniquely united in such a sense that they help form ideals. On the surface, that almost sounds great because how we govern should be influenced by God’s mandate as declared through the holy word. Yet, in Constantinianism, our sense of government pride and duty also influences our Christian identity. That can be more than a little dangerous. After all, we already have an Imago Dei that, when unmarred by sin, appropriately reflects God. So the only help we need to formulate a Christian walk is a godly Jesus and a Holy Spirit.

So all of these influences can misshape our understanding of God, of Heaven, our purpose, and our future. This has happened ever since the fall of man. You add in the fact that people who we revere and love have affirmed these folk theologies over the years, and in many instances even compounded them, and it’s reasonable that they have become prevalent in our beliefs. This is why in speaking of His demands, decrees, and regulations, God instructed the Hebrew nation in Deuteronomy 6:7–9 to “repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” He wants us to know them so intimately that they can’t possibly get confused or altered. God says in Hosea 4:6 “My people perish for lack of knowledge”. So we have to develop a clear, rightly influenced, understanding concerning the things of God.

Our Future

Lack of knowledge has caused a divide of understanding within the church. Many folks have this idea that earth will one day only be a thing of the past and that heaven is our eternal home. Therefore, they prepare for an earth abandonment. They believe that we are leaving earth and moving to heaven, that nothing of the created order will survive a holocaust, so every earthly thing will perish and humans will simply go to live with God. Out of that expectation is built a character of living for many Christians. They become fixated on self-preservation and the salvation of souls, and become less focused on our original purpose to reflect God in our governance of this world. But Revelation 1 offers imagery of Christ’s second coming, and Revelation 21 offers clarification that the old earth and old heaven will pass away, and a new heaven and new earth will be formed, and not that people will go to dwell with God, but that God will come and dwell among His people. If that is the case, then the salvation of souls remains our highest calling, but we cannot neglect our original purpose of governing the world, the original purpose of our Imago Dei.

We have also mentioned the Wesleyan Quadrilateral over the past several weeks. As a reminder, the Wesleyan Quadrilateral is our theological framework with scripture as the primary guide, but also giving value to tradition, reason, and experience. Under that framework, we can declare that it is inconsistent with the character of God to compromise. Therefore, it is unreasonable to think that He would not restore all that sin has undone. If He wanted the utopian garden filled with his unique creations in the beginning, then He shall have it!

Our Purpose

So what does all of this mean of our purpose? Keeping it simple, it really means only 3 things:

We Testify

We study and understand His holy word.

We testify that sin has negatively affected everything

We share that God is in the midst of a course-correction for us with redemption through Christ Jesus, and sanctification through the Holy Spirit

We reflect God

Care for each other

Care for creatures

Care for our environment

We worship God

Prayer

Praise

Service

Obedience

Closing

Friends, we have a high calling to testify and reflect the attributes of God in the way that we govern this world. However, the first piece of this is that God has to begin restoration within you. If you’ve not asked for God to forgive you of your sins, and if you haven’t accepted Christ as your savior, then today is a good day to do that. I am going to ask everyone to bow their heads