Church in the Trench: Outpost of Heaven
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Chapter 1: Trenches
Chapter 1: Trenches
Homiletic Point: The Church is God’s saved people who fight for Jesus, suffer for Jesus and proclaim Jesus.
Back in the day, battles were fought primarily in the field. The two armies would draw up lines on either side, and charge head first into each other.
With the invention of guns, a new strategy emerged. Cause if you just lined up against each other, you would be super vulnerable to gunfire. You needed cover, you needed somewhere you could fight from without exposing your army to enemy fire.
That’s where trenches come in. Trenches weren’t a new idea, but they came into their own when you have two armies with guns fighting over the same patch of land.
Trenches meant you could hide away from the enemy while you were on the battlefield. You could take pot shots from cover, or you could prepare a charge and burst out with a surprise attack to try and gain some ground.
World War 1 is famous for it’s trench warfare, and in Australia particularly famous for it’s use by the ANZACs at Gallipoli.
It gets a bad rap, but from the purely practical point of view, trenches are vastly superior to being exposed to enemy fire.
The trenches weren’t just for defending against the enemy, the trench was also a home for troops. Those on the front line would have a network of tunnels and trenches where they could sleep and eat and get patched up if they were injured. Trenches were the place where the infantry lived, where they were sheltered, and where they defended their nation.
Trenches were temporary homes. Places where soldiers found protection and reprieve, but no one wants to stay in the trench. They want the war to end, and to go to their true homes, to be joined to their loved ones and live in everlasting peace!
Friends, right now, Jesus’ Church is in the trench.
We’re not home yet.
The church on earth is a place of solace, and refreshment, but it’s also on the front line.
It’s like home: your country-men surround you, there is familiar food, there is familiar songs there’s the camaraderie of brothers (& sisters) in arms.
But we don’t want to stay there. It’s nice, it way better than the alternative of wandering around exposed to enemy fire - but it’s not home. It’s like home but not really home.
The church on earth is at the front line of an advancing kingdom, God is making ground for his kingdom which will one day overpower every enemy and establish an everlasting reign of peace and prosperity.
But we’re not there yet. We’re in the trench.
The Church on earth is on the front-line, an outpost in enemy territory where God is making his advance into the present darkness.
Sometimes it’s easy to think about God’s Church from the top down. Jesus wins. He brings peace! All will be well! God has a great plan in store for his people. Eternal life with God is just around the corner when we are joined to Jesus in faith. The church are the victorious redeemed Children of God who inherit divine blessing forevermore!
All of this is true, but it can be like talking about other wars, like in world war 2 from here: Allies won, Axis Lost. We know the big picture, we know who won and who lost, but that victory doesn’t hide the pain and suffering, loss, the work and the hard won achievements of those on the ground involved in the fray. Here in this outpost of heaven we have marching orders and battle strategies. We need defenses and we need to be kept in good health for what’s coming.
Today, and over the next three weeks we’re looking at this church on the ground. The Church in the trenches. The People of God, who know that Jesus has won, but who still live in the gritty reality that it’s not safe outside. Sin must still be killed off, Satan is still prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
So what should this church in the trench look like?
Chapter 2: The Church is God’s House
Chapter 2: The Church is God’s House
Temples: where heaven & earth cross over
Temples: where heaven & earth cross over
Hold the trench metaphor in you mind, we’re going to come back to that. But lets for a moment put that on hold and have a look at some more imagery of the church.
The church is a temple. Not this building. Not the institutions. The people of God.
The church is a temple.
A temple is a house for a god. You can travel throughout the world and see temples to false gods, it pretty common throughout history to build temples. You know why we build temples? Cause we’re designed to worship, and we’re designed to live with God.
God made Adam & Eve and put them in a Garden Temple: Eden. A place where God met with humanity. Where we lived in intimacy with God. Where humankind was given a job:
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
This sacred space, this zone where God dwelt on earth, Adam was told to care for it and protect it.
But “Adam done messed up!” He didn’t do his job and the temple was spoiled. Sin entered in, not only into the temple but all human-kind.
God had another crack at establishing a temple - the tabernacle in the wilderness. As place where God would live with and bless his people. His own special people. They had to keep the temple clean - keep ritually pure, be holy. The whole nation who encamped around the tabernacle temple in the desert and the camp became sacred space. The closer you Got to the temple in the middle, the more careful you had to be about purity - God lived there with them. God would go with them to prepare the way for them as he took them to their new home in Canaan, the promised land.
But that didn’t work well in the long term - they kept spoiling their purity. They forgot that God was there. They tried to do things their own way, thinking that they new better. They rebelled against God.
God wasn’t surprised by this, but he used this to show the world that he both wanted to live with his people, but also that the impurity of the people, their sin, their rebellious spirit needed to be overcome. God would need to work an epic miracle in the lives of his chosen people in order to make living with them possible long term.
So, God set about save his people from their sins. He sent his Son Jesus Christ, who is God himself, into the world. He was born as a man and he lived in this world as a tradie in Palestine. But, he did not just live the simple life, he lived the perfect life - perfect in every way - completely obedient to his Heavenly Father. He was not a rebel. He was a servant, who being sinless himself, used his own life to pay for the sins of God’s people. Jesus died, on a cross to pay the penalty of our sins. He died to redeem us from sin.
You see, you and I are sinful - we have done what is objectively “wrong”, and i’m sorry to say folks, doing what is right, doesn’t make up for the fact that we are sinners. Giving to charity doesn't make up for stealing something that’s not yours. Saving two lives doesn’t make up for one murder. Obeying the road rules 95% of the time doesn’t mean you have permission to break them 5% of the time. We know it, if we took some time to examine ourselves that we’re all messed up inside - we’re all sinners. We need saving from ourselves.
Jesus came to save sinners. He came to die for sinners.
You sin has earned you God’ judgment - his justified punishment, but Jesus came to save his people from the punishment they deserve.
God wants to live with mankind, so he needs to deal with that perennial problem that exists between God and humanity - sin.
So Jesus died in the place of sinners, taking our sin on himself, but then he, in a crazy turn of events, rises from the dead in victory. Sin is a direct cause of death in the World, but now that Jesus has dealt with sin, he has also dealt with the power of death. Jesus then, in absolute gracious kindness gives his people his own purity, his own holiness, his own righteousness. He gives them eternal life. So his people are free from sin, free from the power of death, but now also credited with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
This is the church- those people who are saved. Jesus own people.
These people who are now purified from sin, cleansed and made righteous are ready to live with God. They are ready to experience the blessedness that Adam gave up - life with God.
These people were once unable to experience God’s presence, but now through Jesus, can have God live with them. At first it will be by the Holy Spirit indwelling us, purifying us and directing us to God, but eventually, one day, we will bodily live with God - in the physical presence of Jesus Christ our King.
The Church is described as a temple of God - a place where God lives. This is part of our new identity as the saved and purified people of God. We read what Paul said about this before:
For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Join the Church
Join the Church
We get to be the house of God - the dwelling place of God. Even though we are still physically separated from God’s presence he is here now by his Spirit at work in his people.
As the house of God we will look and feel like a house where God lives.
If you go into someone's house, you will be able to tell, just be looking around, attributes of the people who live there. Are the tidy or messy, are they rich or poor, are they showy or reserved. When God build his house, the Church, he builds it to be a place where he is comfortable living, so he takes the expulsion of sin seriously. In God’s house there is no greed, there is no pride, there’s no hate, there’s no strife, there’s no pain. Instead it is replaced by love, generosity, humility, unity and righteousness.
But Samuel, you say, have you seen the Church, have you seen this church? There’s still pain here, there's still greed, pride, hate. There’s still sin mixed up in us as people of the church!
Yes. God’s not done building his house yet.
In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
“Being built” it is happening... now, by the Spirit.
God has rescued his people in Jesus Christ, he has given them his righteousness - cleared their debts and filled their spiritual bank-accounts. But now he is working that righteousness into our bones. He building us, growing us, shaping us into the best and most beautiful temple you will ever see.
Solomon's temple aint’ got nothing on the temple that God is building with His Church!
God is hanging out in his church now, and we’re hanging out for the day when the scaffolds come down and God moves in permanently.
We ain’t perfect, so don’t go looking for a perfect church, you won’t find one this side of glory. Ee’re being made into that ideal, but we’re not there yet.
Do you want to be a part of this?
Do you want to be part of God’s construction project where he makes us earthly people into heavenly beings? Do you want to have your sins taken away?
Do you want to live with God in eternal blessedness?! Eternal Peace?! Do you want your home to be with God?
Do you you want to be the Eastgate of the Temple, looking forward to the coming return of God’s presence?
Jesus saved God’s people. But when it happened, God’s people didn’t know it yet. Many of God’s children didn’t realize at the time that Jesus had saved them. Many of God’s people don’t know it even today - they haven’t realized that Jesus has saved them.
There are many who are wandering far from God, strangers and foreigners to God’s people. God has made them part of the family, and now calls them to come in! Come! Come into the household of God! Come! Come receive salvation and life!
I’m here to tell you today, the message that” Jesus save sinners.” I’m here to call you into God’s house! And if you hear this message, if you receive this good news, you can enter into God’s church, into God’s house. You can receive the spirit of God who will purify you from the inside out. You can be freed from the penalty of sin. You can receive eternal life! You can come into God’s kingdom!
Jesus says
and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Repent! Come hat-in-hand to Jesus, confessing your sins, rejecting your moral failures. Come and humble yourself before him, and receive the good news! Believe the Good news that Jesus saves people.
among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
Come to Jesus, hear the call. Come and enter into God’s temple and prepare to live with him forever.
Jesus’ Church in the trenches is God’s saved people, who are being built into a permanent house for God. They have eternal security and blessed reward ready for them, but God’s building project is still ongoing. He’s still putting in place the bricks and mortar. He’s building on the foundation that is Jesus Christ. It’s not done yet, but it will be any day now.
Chapter 3: The Church Protects & Guards
Chapter 3: The Church Protects & Guards
Priests of God who Protect & Guard
Priests of God who Protect & Guard
So getting back to our trench metaphor, we have a better idea of who this Church in the trenches is. These are God’s people, whom God is working in. They’re still in the world that is full of sin, and evil and wickedness but they’ve rejected that world to belong to Jesus’ team. They’re on Jesus side now. They’re God’s house, on earth. An outpost of heaven.
Now, the outpost needs to be guarded. The Church is in the trench because there are enemies.
Remember back to when I mentioned the Garden of Eden and Adam’s job?
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
Adam was meant to make Eden flourish, to work it, but he was also there to keep it. To watch over it, to guard it. He was a priest of God’s temple.
What would he need to guard God’s temple form?’
Well, you probably know who - the deceiving serpent, a rebellious spiritual being. Although it is the fact that Adam & Eve listen to the serpent which leads to their downfall, the very fact Adam didn’t kick the snake out as soon as he questioned God’s words shows he wasn’t doing his job.
So instead, Adam gets kicked out (like he should have kicked out the serpent) and he is replaced by a cherubim who will guard the way to life.
There’s a similar story of temple guarding with the Levites around the tabernacle - the wilderness temple. The Levites were a clan of people who were commissioned by God to be his priests. They had proved their devotion to protecting God’s holiness by “practicing church discipline” on 3000 Israelite idolaters at the Golden calf incident. I say “practicing church discipline” tongue in cheek, because Moses sent the Levites to kill, to slaughter, the people who were introducing evil into the midst of God’s chosen people. They were commissioned as priests who would protect and guard God’s tabernacle temple:
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Bring the tribe of Levi near, and set them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister to him. They shall keep guard over him and over the whole congregation before the tent of meeting, as they minister at the tabernacle. They shall guard all the furnishings of the tent of meeting, and keep guard over the people of Israel as they minister at the tabernacle.
Take up Arms
Take up Arms
God commissions priests to guard his temple.
So, if we, the Church are the Temple of God, who guards this temple?
Well, God does...
But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.
But he seems to do it through Jesus, our great high Priest:
which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.
But it’s also by the Holy Spirit working in us, to do the Guarding:
By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.
(Now here he’s specifically talking about guarding the Gospel ministry that he has, but this is part of the operations of the church as the temple of God, to take the gospel out and see people join the church)
So God is guarding the temple, and specifically Jesus is guarding and he is working through the Holy Spirit to enable us to be guarding the temple.
So, if God wants us to guard his temple, does that make us priests?
YES!
We are priests of God. Those who protect and guard God’s sacred space.
Jesus made us priests, a kingdom of priests:
English Standard Version Chapter 1
made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father
And we are called to protect the sacred space - the place where God lives, and is going to live forever.
What does that look like? 4 things.
1. For starters, don’t mix the church with the world. There’s more to it than this, but a good example is the believers don’t marry unbelievers if they have any choice in the matter.
What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
We don’t do mixing believers & non believers in Jesus church. We don’t invite interfaith representatives to pray in our service. We don’t invite non-believers to partake of the Lord’s Supper.
2. Guarding God’s temple means being in unity under Jesus Christ, not creating divisions and factions. Division fractures and weakens the Church. Paul wrote this to people who were causing these divisions:
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
3. Protecting God’s temple means fighting against sin in our own lives, so that we are each a pure sacred space where God dwell. God has to do this by his Spirit, but when you fight against the passions of your flesh, the sinful things we’re attracted to, we are actually fighting to protect and guard God’s temple. Each of us is protecting their little patch of sacred space.
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
4. The last one I want to mention, (there are many more but we can’t look at them all!) is that we practice church discipline. This is a way of guarding God’s temple, both by saving each other from defecting to the enemy, but also by flushing out the “snakes”, those who are hanging out in God’s temple, but don’t belong.
Paul says
But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
In Church discipline, when we see people acting like enemies of God, living in unrepentant sin, we go and chat to them - we say hey, mate, what you’re doing is not right. Then, if they listen, great! God’s temple is made more pure by their repentance! If not, we call them out again, in private, but with a friend, to highlight the seriousness of their sin. If they still don’t listen, we make it public and the church collectively gets a chance to warn the person in error. If it still doesn’t work, we assume that they’re really not part of God’s people, not part of the Church, so we kick-em out.
Hopefully this process shakes them to their senses and they realize the severity of their sin so that they repent and come back into God’s church on earth.
So God’s temple needs guardian priests, and that’s you and me. Each of us doing our part in the strength of the Holy Spirit to contribute to the holiness of the whole church. Ultimately, our great high Priest Jesus is leading the way here, directing the work, and making things happen, but we follow his example as soldiers in his employment.
Chapter 4: The Church Suffers
Chapter 4: The Church Suffers
Jesus Suffered in our Place
Jesus Suffered in our Place
Now, this chapter won’t be very long - but we couldn’t talk about God’s church in the trench without talking about suffering.
We here are an outpost of heaven, but the fullness of heaven hasn’t arrived yet. We’re still on the front line in the battle, suffering wounds, earning scars.
We’re like Jesus himself who went before us into death. Now his suffering purifies us:
So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.
Suffer for Jesus Sake
Suffer for Jesus Sake
The life of Christian faith will be tainted by suffering. We are facing down our enemy, and they don’t like us, because we belong to Jesus. We can’t expect to join the battle and not suffer the attacks of the enemy.
Paul wrote to his protege about this suffering in the service of Jesus:
You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus,
Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
Brothers & sisters, if you have come into the church, if you have received the free gift of Salvation, the good news is that Christ suffered your divine punishment, but I’m sorry to say that there is still the attacks of the enemy that we must withstand, and you may get hurt.
There is persecution if not here today, there is somewhere and some times persecution of God’s church. These acts are usually perpetrated by people who don’t know better, but some of them are actively trying to overcome God’s church by trying to tear down his temple.
But ultimately, we’re not fighting against these people, we’re fighting against real spiritual enemies behind their persecution:
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
These powers may work though human people as we see throughout the scriptures, but they may also, if God allows, attack us more directly. God may let them attack us so that we can learn to defend. God encourages us to endure suffering as a trail that makes us stronger in the Lord.
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
So knowing that the trials are coming, we should take up the armor of God, as we read before, and be ready for the enemy attack:
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.
Conclusion
Conclusion
We’re in the trench, not glorified in God’s presence yet...
The Church is God’s saved people who protect Jesus temple on the ground.
The Church is God’s House
The Church protects and guards
The Church Suffers
You are invited to join this church - Jesus is always enlisting, he’s always accepting defectors who leave the world behind, he’s always saving sinners who will join the cause and
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. 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. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 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.