God's Grace and Glory
Leaving Mission Statement • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 390 viewsNotes
Transcript
29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Prayer
Introduction
I want to start with a bit longer of an introduction than normal so that we can take a minute to remember what we are talking about this morning and why. You may remember that last week, I told you that it was the first of really a 2-part sermon, today being the second part. What my hope with these two last sermons is to remind us all, both individually and corporately, of two main things: Who we are in Christ, and what we are supposed to do in light of that truth.
Our mission statement sums up the idea succinctly where it says that we are “A church united in Christ to share God’s grace and show God’s glory.” Last week we focused on the first part – A church united in Christ. We saw the importance of our individual union with Christ - how we are grafted in to Christ - and how our individual union (or grafting) with Christ is the foundation for our union with one another.
We discussed how our union with one another – our churchiness – is not only important and helpful, but required and necessary. Disunity within the body of Christ is a strong indicator that the Spirit of Christ is unwelcome or unheeded. I want to reiterate, very clearly, that everything I say today is based on who we are in Christ – individually and as a church. It is really important that you know that. I am going to give lots of “oughts” this morning. Lots of biblical commands and requirements – imperatives, but do not forget that these imperatives are grounded in the indicative. They are grounded in the absolute truth of who you are in Christ Jesus. If they are not, you are merely being a moral person – like a Pharisee – who gains nothing spiritually or eternally.
Let me put that another way, being “good for goodness sake” has more to do with Santa Clause than it does the Gospel of Jesus. Christians don’t merely act right so that they get presents, Christians live righteous lives because they are grafted into Christ and that fuels good fruit – they have the Spirit of God indwelling them, causing them to hate their sin and to love that which is good – Christians obey Christ not so that He will forgive them, but because He has forgiven them. We will see some of how that fleshes out more in a moment, but for now, Let’s read 1 Peter 2:9-12 together.
Scripture
If you are able, please stand for the reading of God’s Word. We do this to show appreciation to God for His Word and in recognition that His Word is the most important Word there is. 1 Peter 2:9-12 says,
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
Thank you, you may be seated.
Sermon
Before we get too far along, did you see the indicative/imperative paradigm in that passage? “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, therefore, act this way”.
I want to pick up basically where we left off last week as we discussed unity in the body. Our union to Christ and to one another affects the way we interact with one another. Body Interactions – the way we respond to one another and talk to each and care for each other. That is one of the ways we share God’s grace.
Within the Body of Christ, graciousness should be pervasive, obvious, and intentional. But why? Why should we be gracious to one another? Let’s look at Ephesians 4:32 from our Scripture reading again. It says:
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Why be kind and tenderhearted? Because God in Christ forgave you. Our kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness flow from and must look like the kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness that we have received from God in Christ. Abounding. Quick. Repeated. Undeserving. The list goes on and on.
Our interactions with one another should obviously mark us as different than the world. Right? Isn’t that what Jesus says in John 13:34-35?
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Jesus commands His disciples to love one another, not just a little bit. Not just tolerate one another, but to love one another just as Christ loves us. Think just for a second about the ways Christ loves you. Perfectly, completely, intentionally, sacrificially. Does your love for one another look like that? And this is a practical love - that is to say that it is a practiced, visible love. It isn’t just a “love in our heart”. We know this because people can look in and know that we are disciples of Christ by the way we actively, practically, love one another like Christ loves us.
Let me put a really sharp point on this. Graciousness should be pouring out of us and flooding all of our “body interactions”. If we are not sharing God’s grace to one another, then we aren’t a church, we are merely a social club with a tall, pointy thing on top of our building. That’s a strong statement, I know, but let’s look at how expected graciousness is in the Body. I’m going to run through a number of verses and make a really short comment on each one. We won’t tarry long. My point is to simply help us to see how required graciousness is in the church.
Galatians 6:1-2 says,
1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
So, how do we deal with someone who is caught in sin? With gentleness, not harshness. With humility, knowing that it is only by the grace of God that we aren’t caught in yet even greater sin. We help each other with those burdens.
Colossians 3:11–14 says,
11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,
13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
See the focus is on unity in Christ and how that flows into kindness. And at the foundation of that is the idea that as God has forgiven us, so too must we to forgive.
1 Peter 3:8 says,
8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
Again we see this love, sympathy and tenderheartedness with humility.
Likewise,
Colossians 4:6 says,
6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
Gracious speech.
Romans 12:15 commands us to,
15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
Look at 2 Corinthians 1:3–4 which says,
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
God comforts us so that we might be able to comfort others.
Being gracious to one another isn’t something we do, its who we are. It’s in our spiritual DNA.
God, in His manifold wisdom, created living beings with the desire to procreate, to replicate. So too, if I may push the metaphor, the Body of Christ also has within her spiritual DNA the desire – the need – to proclaim the Gospel of Christ Jesus. That is, the body does outreach. And when I say outreach, I don’t mean merely feeding the hungry and helping the poor. Those may be good vehicles, but the cargo is the Gospel.
The Body of Christ shares God’s grace to one another by being gracious, and the Body “outreaches” to share God’s grace through the proclamation of the Gospel. A moment ago, we read 1 Peter 2:9-12, but let’s look again at verse 1 Peter 2:9 which says,
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Don’t miss that verse, it is so important. If we are to take this verse seriously, we have to recognize that we are saved by God’s grace so that we might proclaim His excellencies. And proclaiming His excellencies requires more than sitting on your backside. It requires action. Look at Romans 10:13-15 with me
13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
Church, we have been given a task – to share God’s grace. If we do not go and preach the good news, how will people hear? If they don’t hear, how can they be saved? That is a rhetorical question – the answer is, they can’t. The Body of Christ must be engaged in outreach. We must be in the business of proclaiming the excellencies of Christ Jesus. Of replicating through the preaching of the Gospel. But our words must not be hollow or hypocritical.
The Body of Christ must be holy. We must accurately reflect and represent who God is. Look with me again at our passage from this morning. 1 Peter 2:11-12 says,
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
Our way of life says something about our God. Our actions “reflect” upon God. Both the way we interact – people will know you are my disciples if you love one another – and the way we live our lives, shows God’s glory. Assuming we are interacting and living rightly.
Maybe you’ve heard the quote that says, “Preach the Gospel to all the world, and if necessary, use words.” That quote is nonsense. The very nature of preaching the Gospel the very definition of preaching requires the use of words. No one can know Christ merely by watching your life. They must hear the truth. Lifestyle-only evangelism is not a thing, because it is not evangelism. But our evangelism does need to be supported by our lifestyle.
In Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, Don Whitney put it this way, “Living a life openly devoted to Christ also manifests a power that augments evangelism.” A little later he wrote, “The most powerful ongoing Christian witness has always been the speaking of God’s Word by one who is living God’s Word.”
But living righteous lives is not only about evangelism. It is a component of evangelism, but not the main goal – the main goal is glorifying God. I know I’ve told you this before, but we catechize our kids. A catechism is a series of questions and answers used to teach theological truth. The first few questions and answers go like this:
“Who made you? God made me. What else did God make? God made all things. Why did God make you and all things? For His own glory. How can you glorify God? By loving Him and doing what He commands. Why ought you to glorify God? Because He made me and takes care of me.” So on and so forth it goes. The point being, we glorify God by loving and obeying Him.
The way we live our lives reflects on the God we serve. When I was a kid, I grew up in children’s homes. Most of you probably already know that, but my parents served in Christian ministries as professional parents. Our church gives towards supporting these very types of ministries. Anyway, I was continually reminded by my parents that I had to be above reproach. My behavior had to be exemplary because if I was disobedient or rebellious, it reflected poorly on them and it gave the other children living with us the license to do the same.
In much the same way, we are called to be holy as God is holy. Not to earn God’s favor, but to reflect God’s character. And in doing so, it brings God glory. It shows others how great God is and even brings others to proclaim God’s glory.
We looked at Romans 6 last week as we considered our union with Christ, but I want to look at it again very quickly. Romans 6:1-4 says,
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
The indicative is that we have been baptized into Christ. We are united to Him through His death, burial, and resurrection. And it is that union with Christ in His resurrection that empowers the imperative – the call to walk in newness of life – to live righteous lives which bring honor and glory to God.
I bring that passage back up because I want us to see and remember how interconnected all of this is. It is all based on our union with Christ. If there is no union with Christ, then there is no newness of life, and the inverse of that is true as well: if you aren’t living righteously, there is good reason to believe that you are not grafted in to Christ.
If there is no union with Christ, there is no desire to reach out to our neighbors or to the ends of the earth with the Gospel. And again, the inverse is true. If we have no desire to share God’s grace with the lost, can we actually say we have received God’s grace?
If there is no union with Christ, there is no basis for union in the body of Christ – the church. Our interactions with each other should look like Christ’s interactions towards us. And guess what, the inverse is true. If we are slanderous, backbiting, grumbling, complaining, etc. If we are ununited, there is no reason to believe that we are actually one Body.
Conclusion
Perhaps my words this morning sound harsh or are hard to bear. Know that I say these things, not as one who is perfect, but as one who constantly needs God’s grace and forgiveness. And also as someone who knows that we need to be reminded of the core, central things from time to time.
As I close my last sermon here at Emmanuel, I want you to remember who you are in Christ and what you are supposed to be doing in light of that truth.
If you, as an individual, are not united to Christ, I hope that you will repent of your sin and rebellion and trust Christ. Please be united to Christ today. Die to your sin and be raised with Christ to newness of life.
Believers. Church. Maybe there is an opportunity for you to repent today also. Are you as gracious as you should be towards your brothers and sisters in Christ? Are you zealous for and active in the proclamation of the excellencies of Christ as much as you should be? Are you living righteously in action, word and in thought? The reality is that no one here can claim to be as gracious, as evangelistic, or as righteous as they should be. We have an opportunity to glorify God through repentance and faith, don’t let it pass you by.
Here at Emmanuel, we believe that any time a person hears the Word of God, they respond in one of two ways: either in rebellion or in worship. Give God the glory due His name by responding to His Word in worship.
I will be on the front row worshipping with you. If you have any questions, need to talk or pray with someone, I’d be delighted to do that, just come up and talk to me. I’d also be happy to talk with you after the service if you prefer that. Whatever you do right now, do it to the glory of God. Let’s pray.
