Start Together, Finish Together
Larger Than Life • Sermon • Submitted
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He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
PRAYER
Intro of series
The continual pattern of the NT Testament- the story of the church proclaiming forgiveness of sins, salvation from the hands of sin and death, and a life lived in relationship with a holy seemingly unapproachable God, is that ......
The Kingdom of God, leaves the Church of Jesus in its wake, made up of saints, doing the work of ministry for the health of the church and the community it engages.
One of the only ways that church becomes more than a club. More than a cruise ship, is when we understand the fundamental truth that the church is not in the hands of a chosen few, is when there is clarity in who we are and why we exist.
One of the only ways that church becomes more than a club. More than a cruise ship, is when we understand the fundamental truth that the church is not in the hands of a chosen few, is when there is clarity in who we are and why we exist.
Not as an institution, but as an organism is when we realize that there is.....
There is no hierarchy in church ministry
- no stragglers
Resources:
Centre Church (Keller) Chapter 21
Ogden Chapter 3
Thanksgiving
A church that is not satisfied with comfort but wants to be a part of the bigger eternal story that Jesus has called them to, needs to see that the church is not an organization run by a few people at the top.
Creating programs for the sole purpose of
There is one leader and that is Jesus; everyone else is a co-ministers.
People who have been transformed by the renewing of your mind. ()
If that is you, you’re in.
So we need to put off before we can put on!
We need to put off an institutional idea of church and put on a more organic one.
There was a golf course in Scholl Canyon California. The community was excited the new pristine Golf Course ready, the ribbon was cut, and the golfers took to the links to play golf.
Unfortunately, as the golfers hit the greens, they forgot about how clean everything looked. They forgot that their community had been waiting for a golf course of their own.
Because this golf course had been built over the Scholl Canyon Land fill.
And rather than get rid of what was their before thye had hoped that throwing good dirt on top, covering it up with nice grass and a few trees and throwing a few clubs in peoples hands would hid the fact that it was built upon a putrescent land fill.
The smell was so bad that very few finished a round of golf, calling it a day after just a few holes.
There were reports of stench from the parking lot.
One article in the LA Times said that....
“clear days--not to mention every other day--were hazardous to your health. In 1990, four years after the facility first opened its doors, the Air Quality Management District shut down Scholl because of methane gas leakage.
Methane, caused by the decomposition of the landfill matter, is a nearly odorless, colorless gas of high flammability.”
The stench and methane leakage weren't the only dilemma at Scholl I. Numerous structural defects developed. Subsidence was a problem on the greens. Fissures and sinkholes appeared in many places, not to mention the occasional flash fire.
"We'd have fissures open and somebody would flip a lighted cigarette in it and a little fire would break out,"
_____________
Once the city planners got “wind” of the issue the gold course was shut down left for four years before it was completely over turned, cleaned out, the stuff underneath was dealt with, and not Scholl Canyon II is a flourishing Golf and Country Club, and Scholl Canyon I is a memory.
When it comes to making change in our lives, in our church, throwing a veneer over, and smiling, doesn’t do it.
Pretending it doesn’t smell, doesn’t do it.
Fabreeze it!
This is true first on an individual level. We cannot simply throw on positive thoughts about our self, or think positive thoughts about the way God looks at us, if we are not willing to abolish The old. Abolish the old man. New light it's not that we've been given A new mask to put over the old one, we have been given a complete new life.
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Often when people come to me and ask for help wondering what they should do in a certain situation, the question is really usually about how they can Make a good decision, or fix a problem.
They don't want to do any real life change, they just want to get past this next problem.
The gospel calls us to is not simply to rebuild something, but to use completely new building materials!
Built on a new rock,
That's true on an individual level, but it is also true on a church level.
It will be impossible to grow a church, grow a new identity, If we do not wipe away some of the old and replace it.
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
So with this in mind I want to take a sledge hammer.....a loving …sledgehammer to some of the mindsets that many of us have inherited. Ideas of how the church ought to function as an institution rather and a living body, and organism of transformed lives, working in unity and the power of God’s Spirit to see lives and communities transformed.
Not relying on the program to do it. But seeing ourselves as the ministry to make it happen.
So....a few things to rebuild, I think when it comes to how we see the church and our place in it.
Let’s do some sound theological thinking on a few subjects, and see what needs to be taken out, before we can put on a biblical mind-set.
I. CLARIFYING TERMS (VS. 12)
A. Saints
What do most people think of when they think of saints?
Depending on what you back ground, it could mean any number of things to you.
If you grew up catholic, you might picture life size painted statues looking down on you during mass, reminding you of those who have gone before you.
The word may bring to mind those whom the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church recognize as those who have stepped above and beyond the masses of Christians by living impeccable lives, and performing miracles.
They are prayed to in time of need. A saint for each need.
Maybe we think of those who have dedicated their lives to God by joining a monastery or convents, filling their days with prayer and reading; vows of silence.
We associate sainthood with those who have reached a level of holiness we could never hope to meet!!
THESE ARE NOT BIBLICAL CONCEPTS
Whenever the Bible talks about saints it applies to the entire body of Christ; never a select group of people.
As one writer puts it:
Saints are the ordinary, garden-variety Christians in a particular time and place whose only distinction is that they are chosen by God, claimed by Jesus and convened by the Holy Spirit.
The Apostle Paul when writing his letters to the churches he started referred to the churches in their entirety as the saints.
He even does this in the First Letter to the church in Corinth.
To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:
What IS a saint:
I Corinthains 1:2
3 things to note: One Paul here calls saints simply those who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who belong and align with Jesus.
i. Saints are those who belong to Jesus
Two.....if Paul is calling the church in Corinth saints....we realize that the level of our spirituality to be called a saint is alot lower than many of us have assumed.
The church in Corinth was full of real spiritual problems.
ii. Saints are not perfect
Thirdly, and most importantly----sainthood is not about us. It never has been and in fact that idea is against everything the Good News of Jesus teaches us.
iii. Saints are saints only because Jesus made them saints
Our sainthood is based on Jesus and the new life HE HAS GRANTED US THROUGH HIS WORK ON THE CROSS.
For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,
“This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws on their hearts,
and write them on their minds,”
then he adds,
“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
You and I are saints because of what has been done for us- “sanctified” by Christ- made holy by Christ and not through our own effort.
So saints are not those who excel in godliness----they are …you and me; forgiven and perfected by HIS action!!
The other word that needs clarification is the word ministry.
B. Ministry
We use interesting language when it come to ministry.
We talk about being called to the ministry.
Going into the ministry
Leaving the ministry
In some churches we give titles to pastors that place them in a spiritual realm unattainable by the rest of the saints who have chosen the “secular” way of life.
We have pastors and priests
Reverend
The Very Reverend
Right Reverend
The Most Right Reverend
Anglican Pastor, Michael Green, talks about this kind of distinction:
One cannot but help feeling that the whole gamut of ecclesiastical courtesy titles, “The Venerable,” “The Very Reverend,” “The Most Reverend” and so on , are a hinderance rather than a help in the work of “the” ministry. They tend to build an invisible wall between their bearer and the world at large; much more important, they tend to make him just a little proud, just a little pleased with himself, just a little further removed than he was before from the role of servant.
Now in our tradition, we don’t tend to draw such strong lines or deliver such lofty titles and to be honest, since we are talking about it, no one has once called me Reverend since I’ve become one and I definitely never hear anyone call me The Right Reverend!!
But WE DO tend, much like the word saint, to divide up the work of the Kingdom into ministry and secular.
A division that never existed in the early church, because to do so meant compromise and failing to see the sacredness of the live we are called to as saints.
We do tend to see pastors as those whom God has called, chosen, ordained to do the ministry of the church, leaving the rest of us to simply gather so the pastor didn’t work on a sermon for no reason and give money in the offering so that the lights stay on in the gym.
Wow!! What a beautiful story we’ve been invited into !
When we look at Paul’s use of the word ministry here in , and elsewhere we see something much larger than a certain work for a certain group of people!
until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Ephesians 4:13-
That is too big of a job for me!!! It is too big of a job for a lifetime of one person.
That is why he calls for an equipping of all the saints. and as he says in vs 16, when EACH PART IS WORKING PROPERLY
Each Christ-follower understands and lives out their sainthood, right standing with God, already a reality because of Jesus work on the cross, where every saint, then understand that they are the living ministry of Christ extended to the world THAT is when
When Paul
when each part is working properly, and makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Without fail the church will never be a healthy growing movement if we are continually seeing a certain group as the saints to do ministry; whether it is the pastor, the mature, or the saintly!!!
Ministry means giving our lives over for the benefit of others!!
Living a life that inherently serves something more than self!!
And when we find clarity in these words saints/ ministry it give us a ...
What this does is give us a ...
II. CLARITY OF PURPOSE
Who doesn't watch a game, or a concert, or for the slightly more cultured a ballet and think, imagine what if I was up there. What would it have taken for me to be a part of this production. What would it feel like if that was me.
That is the invitation!
Last week we heard from a pastor who has been witness to great things in the middle east.
Seeing those who live in areas of the world militantly opposed to the Gospel coming to know Jesus.
And we think....what would it take? What would it take to see that?
Paul would say…that a church that impacts its world- that is that effective.
What did it feel like to be on mission for the gospel?
If you are a Christ follower... You're in!!
I don't have all the answers..... Your in!!
Eg. , know this..I once was blind but now I see!!
I have a hard time and I still grapple with some of what Good has called me to... Your in!!..
I'm still walking through so much .... Your in!!
Humbly accept that your are a work in progress and get in.
To confess Jesus as your savior, and to them sit outside of his mission is to still feel homeless and without a family!!
An effective church takes a ministry of saints working in unity of faith, speaking the truth in love, held together by Christ, equipped with the Gospel, who are unwilling to settle for comfortable consumer church.
No perfect people; broken messy people who love Jesus; and love him more than they love any other pursuit.
If you are a Christ follower... You're in!!
I don't have all the answers..... Your in!!
I have a hard time and I still grapple with some of what Good has called me to... Your in!!..
I'm still walking through so much .... Your in!!
Humbly accept that your are a work in progress and get into the game!
Eg. , know this..I once was blind but now I see!!
The Kingdom of God, leaves the Church of Jesus in its wake, made up of saints, doing the work of ministry for the health of the church and the community it engages.
Who are these saints- you are
What is this ministry for and what does it accomplish- it is for everyone who calls themselves HIS, for the health of the church and the health of the community we live in.
For some of us this means a fundamental shift in why we come to church!
Why we put the kids in the car, why we read the bible, worship.
Is it about our benefit or the benefit of those around us? Do we approach church on Sunday with the mindset of building up and strengthening the church or of consuming it.
Is our salvation the end of the story we are invited into?
As one writer says it....
Or..as one Christian writer says...
Ed Stetzer says it this way..
“The church
“Church exists for the benefit of those who are not yet a part of it”
May that be true of CAChurch:Port Campus
May that be true of the saints that worship here;
May our lives be a lived as a benefit to those who are not yet a part of our community.
To the glory of God and the furthering of his mission.
PRAYER