Untitled Sermon (2)

The New Reality For Church:

Intro

Last week pastor Glenn introduced us to our new series - A New Reality —

Reminded us that truth of Jesus’ love is at the centre and is unchanging but His mercies are new every morning…

This week we will look at the theme of ‘A New Reality’ and how that impacts the church.

Eph. 1:23

All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.

Eph 1:23

Ephesians 1:15–23

15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints,

16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,

17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,

18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,

19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might

20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,

21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church,

23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Me

COVID has brought us to the place of doing things very differently, and that is not going to change.

From my perspective, the only other example I have of this kind of event impacting my life is 9/11. Forever changed air travel.

Now again on a scale larger than every before, we are dealing with a change in the way of life that is far reach. This is a new reality if we have ever seen one.

And yet Jesus is at the centre of this chaotic time sharing His peace that passes all understanding (scripture).

WE

Examples of new realities

A new reality for me was kids

Perhaps a promotion

Or Graduating

Or Marriage

Does not change the core or truth of who you are but changes the expression and actions you might offer others.

So as we consider what this means for us as the Church or as FCC; we have to remember that no matter what the reality is in society; the truth of who the church is never changes. The expressions might but the truth does not.

The trouble is that we want the expressions to stay the same even if they begin to deny the reality of God (Romans 1, exchanging the truth for a lie).

The church is established on the truth of God’s Word — salvation — not traditions. Tradition is not wrong; but truth is what is important.

We see this in debates about:

How we dress in church

What we sing or don’t sing

How we do our gatherings

We are not defined by society but by the Spirit of God…

We continually trade long term Spiritual significance for short term secular success.

* The church is not peripheral to the world but the world is peripheral to the church

Our new reality with distance measures; has caused us to see just how healthy or unhealthy we are as a church.

There are many aspects and attributes of the church to consider but for today I want us to take a look at three areas which are core:

GOD

COVID has caused us to look at Church and really see how we have been doing.

The church is Jesus:

Ephesians: An Introduction and Commentary c. Prayer for Divine Enlightenment (1:15–23)

We may paraphrase this by saying that it is God’s purpose that the church should be the full expression of Jesus Christ, who himself fills everything there is. Colossians 1:19 and 2:9 speak of all the divine fullness indwelling Christ himself, that is to say he is filled by, and is the full expression of, the Godhead.10 Colossians 2:10 continues ‘you have come to fullness of life in him’. In this sense Christians are intended to be ‘filled with all the fullness of God’ (3:19; and cf. John 1:14, 16), that is, to receive the fullness of the attributes and gifts of God that it is possible for people to receive. In this same way 4:13 describes the Christian’s growth to spiritual maturity as development ‘to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ’.

Ephesians: An Introduction and Commentary c. Prayer for Divine Enlightenment (1:15–23)

The sequence of thought here seems to be: by his resurrection and ascension Christ is exalted to be Lord of all, he is head of all things for the church; the church is his body intended to express him in the world; more than that, the church is intended to be a full expression of him by being filled by him whose purpose it is to fill everything there is.

1. The church is alive and Jesus is the head.

They met in homes etc., not big gatherings

* Ephesians 1:22

22 And dhe put all things under his feet and gave him as ehead over all things to the church,

d Cited from Ps. 8:6; See 1 Cor. 15:27

e ch. 4:15; 5:23; Col. 1:18; 2:19; [1 Cor. 11:3; Col. 2:10]

* The church is not peripheral to the world but the world is peripheral to the church

Not an organization -Organism not organization — Peripheral to church, not the other way around.

When was there annual business meeting ?

2. Fullness of Jesus Christ

Heavily invested in one another.

Not a brand

Not publishing house

Not a music label

Those are all new and modern efforts.

These are all OK if the truth is held I the same way.

The church is Jesus.

And as we learned last week Jesus doesn’t change —

You

So now that we understand, and have been remidnede that the church is led by Jesus and is his fullness, what does that mean for the practice of our faith?

The difficulty for us in the our new societal reality has exposed the disparity between the church of the NT and our western church.

Now what?

A. The Church by nature is meant to be changing

* Wine skins

* Food to idols

Truth doesn’t change but the expression, the methodology does and should change:

B. . Creating Opportunities.

C. Spiritual Significance found in discipleship—, Christ’s example:

The twelve, the three and the one