The Blessings of Belonging in God's Community & The Hope of Eternal Life
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Dear Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
It is a truly wonderful thing to belong. In this world be are branded and re-branding all the time - desire to belong to something bigger - find identity and security - not just in themselves but in their belonging. Wired this way because unlike our secular age - no transcendent, and just buffered selves… trying to find pleasure in 101 individual pursuit but never finding true happiness, unlike our secular world - claiming individual truths and enlightenment - ultimately stumbling in the dark. But when God began with Abraham to deal with people not only one at a time so to speak, but to raise up a seed and a nation where He would dwell and they would belong to His COMMUNITY - QAHAL. And the question that launches us into our text this morning, the event we mark with baby Loretta, is: Does God welcome her as a part of His Community of Grace, His People, His Church? Not asking if if he saves Loretta or if Loretta is granted the Holy Spirit and faith and repentance and born again . But I am asking: Is it God’s intent and desire to welcome her this morning into His church? I am also asking all of you - are you part of His Church is it your belonging place. I am not asking if you have personal faith yet, if you individually and personally have owned Christ as your Lord and Saviour. I am asking what belonging place are you living in?
It is interesting that in the OT after God made his intentions clear on what salvation is about - righteousness based on Faith in God's promises provision, - that God first of all says I am going to build you a community, look at those stars, some of them biological, some grafted in, some to come from every nation on earth - did you hear that universal promise? And no only that but in Gen 17 he says, even though your children some of them don’t have persona faith yet, some sadly rebel never will, nonetheless - this promise is for you and your children and all who the Lord will call, and in the OT as God builds this community where salvation will be found, where he will dwell in the middle of their life, where they will worship and His Word promises and teaching for life, and warning s - he says - your children are included in this, and they are to have a mark that sets them apart form all other ways of trying find happiness, other alien ways of drawing near to God - by anything but righteousness that’s by faith in the Living God. Mark was circumcision. Now its that reality of becoming [part of that outward covenant community - that we are focusing on this morning? What is this community what benefit is it? What does it mean to belong, what responsibility place on God on us? What comfort will this be to Loretta as she grows in this community and in this reality that she’s been marked and dedicated, bears the sign of the covenant of grace and people of God.
Let me use a very personal illustration. Marianne and I had a heart-wrenching experience, after Reuben was born, and stabilized by being rushed to another hospital. We had to go home for the first time having given birth to a child, and driving back form the hospital - but with an empty car seat in the back. And then the next 4-5 weeks - drove an hour back and forth every day to big hospital. And yes Reuben was biologically our child, yes he was born, but you know what in a belonging kind of way - he had not yet become part of our home, He had not yet really experienced the homely love and protection,, and poking and prodding and encouragement to grow to get balance, to play, sing and laugh of the Frielink family. Not until this day:
See his siblings there. That day he was initiated into a life of receiving a different emotional, psychological, spiritual , physical life - than he had known as a buffered little patient in the hospital. And a few weeks later, before his big heart surgery , something else dramatic happened - on a Sunday evening - just like you and I gathered over Zoom right now - people poured in set up chairs in addition to the almost 500 seating capacity. - they made promises, and God made promises to Reuben - he was baptized.... What did that accomplish - like coming home, like God pledging this belonging place is where you grow up , and our discipled, and encouraged… few days later - in our living room - church came to our home - prayed for his life physically and spiritually anointed with oil and prayed for healing! All of this of course didn’t save Reuben wasn’t conscious of it then, but it was Reuben being brought into the orbit the dwelling place of God’s action of Grace in Christ Jesus.
Look how two sentences in our Belgic Confession put It: Having abolished circumcision which was done with blood, he established in its place the sacrament of baptism. By it we are received into God’s church and set apart from all other people and alien religions, that we may be dedicated entirely to him, bearing his mark and sign. It also witnesses to us the He will be our God forever, since he is our gracious Father.
Now as a church we have been looking at the value of the sign and seal of God’s promise of forgiveness and of the promise of the Holy Spirit, but this morning we will focus on being received in to Christ’s church and the value that has for Loretta even before we know how she’ll respond to the gospel, and the value it has to us who have responded already!
Key Truth: In Baptism, we’re received as covenant members of the community of God’s people.
Key Truth: In Baptism, we’re received as covenant members of the community of God’s people.
While the teaching on baptism has come in sermons before this the focus this morning is the nature of the community that God Himself is welcoming Loretta and you and I into , and marking us as belongers to that community!
Peter uses a vivid picture of God’s community on earth as building, specifically a temple - the dwelling place of God on earth!
A. Believers & their Children Belong to An Eternal Community of Faith where God Dwells & Acts
A. Believers & their Children Belong to An Eternal Community of Faith where God Dwells & Acts
Now the physical temple in Jerusalem - isn’t eternal is it? very definitely had a beginning point and even that beginning - pattern of heavenly temple David received by invitation, based on the basic plan of the first model of heavenly dwelling place of God with people the tabernacle. And as it turns out predicted by Scripture the earthly temple in Jerusalem also has an end point . Sad but true. And we can’t welcome Loretta into a community of bricks and mortar that’s not what the Church of Jesus Christ is?
Jesus himself asked by disciples look at these ornate stones , magnificent buildings, not only will stand on top of each other. Physical temple, for largely and largely nationalistic OT Israel people of God isn’t what the goal and finish line. No years before God gave Neb the vision while in the court of Daniel raised up to interpret it. Remember four kingdoms but then a stone was cut out of a mountain not made with hands, and the stone struck the image and broke into pieces. Listen to Daniel 2:44
And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever,
Isaiah before him prophesied: Isaiah 28:16a
therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’
Psalm 118:22 one of the most quoted prophesies from the OT in the NT foretold:
The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
So OT Israel in their spiritual bones knew deep down that she was God’s promised kingdom, that Jerusalem was Gods saving city, and that the temple stood at the center of God’s activity in the world!
Then comes Jesus the Son of God - defending His fulfillment of the whole OT - he stakes all of this OT imagery of the stone - says, I am the fulfilment, I am the Rock. Remember the turning point of first three gospels Peter calls Jesus the Christ the Son of the Living God and that confession Jesus says is the Rock, you are Peter Little Rock and on that confession I will build my church!
as the fulfillment, not the replacement or a new plan, but fulfilled in Chirst, Israel, Judaism, and the temple. Then Peter says: as you come to Christ , not the city of Jerusalem - scattered every - you come to the LIVING STONE> what a strange idea a stone that is living!
As you come to Jesus not Judaism you come into God’s Kingdom. When you come to Jesus not the ornate temple - listen we become God’s ‘spiritual house, God’s holy priesthood” in this world!
Do you get it Peter knew these where the three most exalted ideas within OT Judaism: spiritual house was the temple, if God was going to dwell and work anywhere on earth it was from the temple. That’ was God’s house and his presence was to be found there. And within that temple those served the Lord the honoured royal priesthood had the privilege of standing in God’s very presence. And astonishingly Peter says all that exalted truth and reality now Zion, God’s Jerusalem, now the temple now the priesthood these truths all transferred to the Church of Jesus Christ, to the followers of Jesus. The church has become God’s people and God’s place in the world! Hebrews 12 makes the same point when you come to the followers of Jesu come to God’s Zion his dwelling place!
This morning we are marking that Loretta has not just been born to Christian parents, nor that she is coming to worship - but that she belongs to a community in which the Eternal Son of God dwells and acts and blesses and protects and warns and moves in love to this hurting world. DO you see why though ethnic and national Israel is not eternal in sense that it had a beginning, do you see why temple not eternal beginning and end, do you see why - the church of Jesus Christ is eternal?
Look at our text 1 Peter 2:4
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious,
This living stone, if the very Son of God, in his role stepping forward before the Creation of the world, to say I will go Redeem your fallen and sinful people And though rejected and crucified as Psalm 118 puts it the builders of the physical temple reject him, but now he has become the living corner stone of the spiritual temple . You tear it down and three days, It will be rebuilt. Think of Amos 9 and Acts 15 rebuilt tabernacle of Jesus - Jews and Gentiles saved same way - as unified in Christ.
The Church is eternal not in the sense that God is with no beginning at all and no end. But the church is eternal in the sense that before time, we existed as it were in Christ in the mind of God - Eph 1:3-6
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
We were predestined or saved individually, because of anything in us - but in the love of Christ, IN Him we were known. You and all who have come to faith and born again - always known to God - and joined not only to Christ but to His people. And this assembly of those in Christ - not only reaches back to eternity past in Christ, the living stone, but to eternity future and time right now! And though no human can know election, predestination, you can’t know that about Loretta. We can know that God says, let these children of believers come to me the living stone, let them know like Abraham’s children, my protection, my teaching, my promises, I am engaged in their lives. Like Noah’s family, only know Noah truly saved, but whole household enters that ark - knows the blessing and protection and instruction - And God says, I want you to mark that these children and your family on the boat with you - engaged and dedicated to know me and experience the blessings of my covenant. You know how Paul put it in speaking o this body the Church: Eph 4:4-5
There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
This is not a sign of our faith, but of God’s faithfulness and the finished work of Cross offered to us - promising the reality of life in the Living Stone to all who come to faith in him. It is remarkable isn’t it that Abraham - bungled things so soon after getting the covenant and faith - didn’t trust God in Egypt - yet God fulfills the covenant despite sin, message of the burning pot. Reminder that those who reject or break the covenant will be CUT OFF, punished with death, eternal death, but that Christ came to take all of our broken promises and failures and sin, and says I will be the one who is cut off for you! See it wasn’t Abraham’s obedience or his circumcision that saved, but his faith in what it represented - and that was promised to his children many who would have the same faith, and those outside ethnic Israel like you and me - who believe the gospel circumcision and baptism proclaim. Belief in the promises of God.
And this is why it isn’t just the Church that is eternal, but it is the covenant of grace itself. Yes God would see that it would be passed down from generation to generation. But it was eternal even more importantly because it pictured the eternal grace that the second Adam Jesus who would pay for the sins of Abraham and all who who have that same faith in God’s gospel. That eternal grace will never fail any who turn to Him.
And God is saying to Loretta and your family, and our whole church family - welcome into this community of faith and grace where I dwell in special way, where there is a embassy of heaven, a special headquarters of kingdom work, a place where my Spirit is busy proclaiming my gospel and my ways. Welcome into this little ark, Loretta, welcome in you who hear and respond to this gospel of Jesus. Come in, you need to this gospel if you are to be saved - other voices in this world - say don't need the living stone, satisfy seeking pleasures in 101 other places, other voices pull us away to define right and wrong our selves or our cultures a 101 others voices that say your calling in life isn't wot worship and serve God in all you do say and think , You calling is to please yourself, and you can do that individually!
And you who have believed in Jesus you need the promises of the covenant signed and sealed in our baptism, as much as Loretta; voices pulling you away too. But look what God does when he makes Covenant with Abraham and his his whole family. Genesis 15:1
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”
Think about why Abraham left all his family and wealth amid idol worship of Ur of Chaldeans. Why pass through dangerous wilderness with all those herds of livestock - dangerous to be picked off by raiding gangs, why get to the promised land experiences famine. Being part of the covenant is not a guarantee for us or our children of a safe, comfy life with no danger. But God says, I am promising you great great reward and protection - I will be a shield to you and to your children. Hebrews 11:10 SAYS THAT Abraham BELIEVED INTO THAT:
For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
God through Jesus Christ became Abraham very great reward.
Former missionary and now NA church planter - put it this way. UMBRELLAS!
i. IN THIS LIFE THOSE WITH COVENANT SIGN - protection gracious care protection, provision and hope of deliverance - common grace not eternal only temporal ,
ii. A second, smaller umbrella falls beneath the first. This umbrella covers all the temporal blessings of God’s covenant with Abraham, including the benefits explicitly given, such as children, nations and kings, as well the promise that righteousness will be given on the basis of faith. Secondarily, it included elements implicit in God’s favor, such as the provision of the necessities of life, protection from surrounding enemies, and deliverance. The sign of this covenant to Abraham was circumcision. Those who were circumcised came under this umbrella of covenant grace.
In this way Israel, going into the promised Land, hadn’t been doing these circumcision in the wilderness years of Rebellion, cross the Jordan and the whole community, fathers with children - God says you need my promises, my mark , picture and promise of how clean and dedciated to me - you and your children!
And its notable that as Peter explains Christ gospel in the first Christian sermon he says to them - just before repent and be baptized, these promises just like the OT promises , they are for you and for your children!
iii. the true eternal benefits of the covenant are applied. The grace under this umbrella encompasses all that is offered in the other two, but moves far beyond them by providing the ultimate deliverance from the dominion and penalty of sin through Jesus Christ. All who are under this umbrella are the true sons and daughters of Abraham and have been saved through faith in Christ. It is important to understand that not all who received the sign of the covenant were under this umbrella, as some would break the covenant by rejecting salvation through Christ, being “cut off” from God’s people and spending eternity in hell.1
Children of believers belong to Christ’s church and growing up as members of the covenant are to experience the second blessings and protection of the first two umbrellas. And it is our responsibility as parents, and as a church family - to disciple them that inwardly embrace and experience conversion - can’t do it only Holy Spirit, but uses means and we are called to faithfulness in those means! Simply put modeling of the gospel in your own living , the reading and teaching of Scripture, and prayer .
So that is the great privilege extended and to be sought for all initiated into Christ’s Church including Loretta.
But let me conclude with the second teaching of 1 Peter 2 regarding the nature of the church. Not just eternal community with Christ a s living stone, drawing those under umbrella 1 and two to know and experience umbrella three!. But also once that moment comes and Loretta believes and commits to life of repentance and faith of following Jesus, once you have done that church member moved from just umbrella 2 to umbrella three.
B. Believers, Including Children Who Come to Truly Trust Christ, are Part of a Unified Royal Priesthood by which they are Served and in Which They Serve!
B. Believers, Including Children Who Come to Truly Trust Christ, are Part of a Unified Royal Priesthood by which they are Served and in Which They Serve!
People are going through this world today in darkness and ignorance of their eternal purpose and destination! In the words of U2 still haven’t found what they are looking for. One children’s doctor looking at failure to launch of so many young adult boys - Boys A Drift. Five dollar bill, said spent our days in school, church, and the hockey rink but mostly the hockey rink. Mistaken idea of church as a building and only institution, But when we truly find Christ and receive eternal salvation - that moment we are transferred out of the kingdom of darkness in which whole race born, we are born again in a kingdom of light. And that very moment we receive a new calling, don’t have to search around … God makes you His royal priest, not just few religious higher ups who gets God’s presence. New Covenant how did Jeremiah 31 put it? No longer will man teach his brothers saying know the Lord all know me least, youngest to the oldest and the greatest. Isaiah even says a little child will lead them. Holy Spirit universally come upon all true believers even at youngest years here. And what are we to do when that happens?
1 Peter 2:5
you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Only living sacrifices possible to give now - don’t be conformed to this world, but Romans 12:1-2 be transformed this is your acceptable worship -
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
praise on your lips in worship - witness to magnificent your God and Saviour is, Look 1 Peter 2:9
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.
So each one with One Head in Christ, endued by One Spirit with whole rainbow of different grace as and gifts. Each positioned a little different. Some in this part of their work others in different area - all for glory of King. Understand you need the church, God’s chosen place to dwell and to act. You need the church - because saved not as an individual but as a body, a holy nation, a citizen of kingdom - and the people here pledge to encourage and teach and warn and comfort, And you are given a posting - in who you will grow up in to salvation, having tasted that God is good, serve others here in His church.
Do you see it? It is what Mary praised God for in the great Magnificat as she brought Jesus into the world for you and me: Luke 1:50
And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
And in Zechariah's song: Luke 1:72-74
to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear,
This is the promise from generation to generation that we are to be marked with - God separates us to know His Gospel to live into it, he will protect us, and adopts us into His covenant family. This is the big welcome home - you belong sign given as a precious gift of a loving Father. And when explained and embraced and lived into daily - God is making good on His promise - I will be your constant provider, your Protector and deliverer, I will bring you through all trials, temptation and snare graciously save ed you and will lead you through to the Promised Land!
When Israel gathered on border of promised land on Plains of Moab, kind of like us here, in worship, waiting on God’s word, believing His promises. He said to that generation on there way to the Promised Land: Deut 30:6
And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
We are claiming that promise in prayer for this child, Lord God Loretta knows common grace of life, she will grow up in covenant grace of your church, but Lord send your Holy Spirit, we’re relying on you, we will model what the gospel means, we will pray, we will teach, but Lord You alone - can cleanse her heart, you alone can give her new heart new life to truly follow you. Do it according to your promise and for Jesus glory in this world through her. Amen.