Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] All right, church, we are continuing our series today, this short series that we're calling Distinctive. Sorry, I'm using the handheld today. I don't know what I did, but I broke the other microphone, so.
[00:00:14] And I'm not a technology minded person, so there were several kind people trying to fix it this morning. I don't know what I did, but I broke it massively. So this is what we got. Today.
[00:00:24] We're continuing our series called Distinctive. We're talking about some of the things that we think set apart our church.
[00:00:32] Any gospel preaching church is wonderful. We celebrate every church in our community in the world that preaches the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. But we do believe that there is something about Emmanuel Fellowship Church that God called you to this church for a reason.
[00:00:47] And so we're taking a little bit of time to think about that. So what are some of the things that we care about that we're passionate about as a church that we think and makes that gospel soup that is Emmanuel Fellowship Church, a unique flavor. And so we've spent a couple of weeks digging into that. We talked about our passion for overflow ministry that as Christ pours into you, he pours out of you. We spent time talking about our fundamental conviction of the goodness of God and what the goodness of God and the glory of God, how that affects our joy in life. And today we're going to talk a little bit about how we believe God has designed the local church to work. We're going to talk about how the local church is called to be like a new kind of family for one another. Now, there's this cultural idea that's making the rounds right now that you'll read in articles and see in TV shows called Chosen Family. Have you guys heard this phrase before in recent history?
[00:01:42] It generally refers to the practice of finding deep and bonded committed community with non biological relationships, essentially building out a family experience from non blood family. Right? In Western culture, this often has a deep history with the LGBTQ community.
[00:02:02] And that makes sense. Those folk often find themselves ostracized from their biological family. And so it makes sense that that particular subculture would come around one another and build out the kind of relationships where these familial needs are actually being met for one another. But this principle, the idea of, of building out family relationships, it's almost universal. Right? Like we are, we're hardwired by God to need close community.
[00:02:31] We need people to show up at the hospital to celebrate our birthdays with us, to end up on our emergency contact list. To be in our group chat, to send goofy memes to at weird times of night. We need food folk to share our life with, right?
[00:02:51] There's if for any reason, for some reason, your biological family can't do that, there's lots of reasons from that. There's lots of reasons that might happen. Maybe it's distance because of a move. Maybe it's loss through death. Maybe it's broken relationship. Maybe it's something as awful as abuse. Whatever the reason, sometimes our biological family can't fit the bill and we find it somewhere.
[00:03:17] We do. We look for it. We're designed by God to long to not do life alone.
[00:03:23] You can see this in the creation narrative. When God makes Adam, he says it's not good for him to be alone. He needs a helper suitable for him. Life is meant to be done in community. And that makes sense because we're made in the image of a communal God.
[00:03:40] God is triune. He's father, son and spirit. He lives in perfect, eternal community with himself. And if we're going to be like him, set apart from creation, we're not just house cats that can wander off into the wilderness and be totally content by themselves forever. We're people made in the image of God. And we are made for community.
[00:04:03] We long to have people and are canned.
[00:04:08] God designed us this way. God knows this. And ultimately, beloved God meets this need in Christ.
[00:04:16] He adopts us into his family by his work on the cross. We are not alone. We're drawn into the very family of God. This is why Christians for literally 2000 years have called each other brother and sister.
[00:04:30] That's why we use that language, because we see our faith as a connection. It's absolutely vital to the overall experience of our communal life. Christians, regardless of their relationship to their biological families, for thousands of years. Hear that, guys? Thousands of years, Christians have found safety, intimacy, and shared life with one another.
[00:04:55] It's part of what makes Christianity Christianity. So my main point today is simply this. Church is like a new family.
[00:05:02] It's like a new family. We need each other to seek after Jesus together. Now, I know as soon as I say that, some of us in the room bristle a little bit.
[00:05:14] How is church like family? Many of us have experienced all sorts of hurts and burdens in our church life that don't seem like family sorts of things, right?
[00:05:26] Many of us have had deep relationship or connection with church friends who betrayed us or talked bad about us or left fellowship with us because of hurt and unresolved conflict or even something as silly as wanting different programs or not liking the weekend schedule.
[00:05:45] That doesn't feel like family.
[00:05:48] Right? And if you've experienced that before, something in you bristles and goes, that's not how family operates. I have three brothers. They're some of my closest friends in the world. And I would not abandon my brothers because they're not meeting my desires for babysitting with my kids. Right?
[00:06:04] I mean, it might affect the Christmas present they get for a couple years in a row, but I'm not going to cut them off as my brother or in relationship because they're not meeting some need I've designed. And yet, many of us have experienced something incredibly similar in our church lives, where someone who says, oh, yeah, we're brothers and sisters. Yeah, we're in this together, get upset or hurt or frustrated or simply annoyed about some relational thing, some unmet need, some desire for a different program or structure, and they jet.
[00:06:40] We never see them again until three years later when you awkwardly run into them at a Home Depot and you're like, oh, hey, how's it going?
[00:06:46] So how does that work?
[00:06:49] How are we actually family?
[00:06:52] Well, the truth is, this guy's church isn't a family.
[00:06:54] It isn't.
[00:06:55] It's like a family.
[00:06:58] That's an important distinction. It's a little nuanced, but it's an important one. You see, church is one of the institutions God himself set up, installed, designed, and placed into the world.
[00:07:10] Family, the ancient kingdom of Israel and the church. Three institutions that God designed and set up. And they're not identical, but they are similar.
[00:07:19] And we can learn about them through the window of the other ones. And so there is something about our experience, our healthy experience of family, an institution that God set up and designed and put us all in that can help teach us about our life together as the church. So grab your Bibles, turn over to Ephesians chapter four. If you don't have a Bible with you today. We have house Bibles around the room. You can reach under the chair and find one. We really believe in the importance of access to God's Word here at Emmanuel. So if you're here today and you don't own a physical copy of God's Word, I'd strongly encourage you to take one of those or talk to one of the pastors. We'll get you a nicer one. But we're going to be in Ephesians chapter four today. While you're turning there, let me give us just a hair of context. So Ephesians is a letter that Paul wrote to a church in Ephesus. The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to this church. It's what we get. The book of Ephesians. Ephesus. The church at Ephesus was a strategic church in the early life of the global church. If you look at the ancient map of the Roman world, Ephesus was an important city geographically, and it was an important city geographically for the church. It was a junction point through which the Christian world was able to connect to one another. The Ephesian church was a culturally mixed church with lots of Jewish influence and lots of Gentile influence. And hear this. That wasn't a bad thing. It's a beautiful thing. But it meant that Paul couldn't assume the same level of biblical literacy as he could when he wrote to predominantly Jewish, Jewish churches. And so because of this, we know that Paul prayed fervently for the Ephesian Church. He had very specific concerns for this church. He wanted to see them grow in maturity and understanding of the Word and also in spiritual unity. In chapter three of Ephesians, it closes with Paul writing out one of his prayers for this church. He wants to see them first flourish in their faith. And as chapter four opens, he encourages this church to not just walk in maturity. You know, it's not just that you need to learn the Word and study the Bible and know that stuff, but you also need to walk in unity as one church, crossing these cultural barriers that would separate you in any other context, but allow the blood of Christ, allow your understanding of the Word, your engagement with the Gospel, to draw you together into one body. He's passionate about this idea.
[00:09:46] And then there's this transition to our text today where Paul essentially says, look, I know that sounds really hard.
[00:09:53] Hey, you need to get more spiritually mature, and you need to figure out how to be nice to each other and be totally unified. That sounds really difficult. But fear not, because the church isn't left to itself to navigate this stuff. We don't have to figure out maturity and unity on our own. God gives us. Jesus gives us gifts to help us. So read with me and we will continue on Ephesians, chapter 4. Starting in verse 11, we read this and he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build, build up the body of Christ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's Son growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ's fullness, then we will no longer be little children tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning and cleverness in the techniques of deceit. But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head, that is Christ. For from him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for the building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.
[00:11:22] That's a lot. Pray with me, church, and we'll talk about it.
[00:11:25] Jesus, we thank you so much for this morning.
[00:11:29] We thank you, Lord, for the gift of your word. We ask Jesus, as we take a few minutes to dig back through this text, to consider what you've taught us about your design for the church, to consider what you have called us to here at our little local church. God, we ask that you would be present in all of this, that you would be our teacher, our discipler, our encourager. Lord, let us leave this space today having been filled to the brim with you, having been reminded of your goodness, reminded of your call, challenged, encouraged. Lord, we need you to do this work, spirit. So we pray it in your name, Jesus. Amen.
[00:12:06] Okay, so if Jesus, as I said, is giving gifts to help the church grow in maturity and unity, what are those gifts?
[00:12:17] How is it that he's helping us?
[00:12:20] Well, this is how our text opens. And he himself, that's Jesus, gave some to be the apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers.
[00:12:33] Beloved Jesus gives the church the gift of leaders.
[00:12:37] That's the gift he gives folks who help build up the church and connect us to the gospel.
[00:12:45] The. The common thread between all those different categories Paul mentions here at the beginning, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, is that they point people to the gospel of Jesus.
[00:12:57] God gives the church leaders who expound and proclaim the good news of the gospel. And what does that do when they do that? When we have solid good leaders who expound and proclaim and help us dig in, understand and engage the gospel, it says to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to be build up the body of Christ.
[00:13:22] Jesus's gift of leaders who proclaim the gospel equips individual Christians for ministry and builds up the church.
[00:13:33] And so Paul says, in a. In a healthy church where there's good leaders proclaiming the gospel, there, there begins to be this movement from individual maturity to corporate maturity.
[00:13:48] A movement from individual maturity to corporate maturity. And look what it says next, verse 13.
[00:13:56] Until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's Son growing in maturity with a stature measured by Christ's fullness. This draws the church together both in maturity and and unity.
[00:14:14] That the more we grow as individuals in Christ, as Christ pours into us, the more we grow together as the church. Christ pours out of us into those around us and the more we are drawn together into unity.
[00:14:28] Maturity in the church leads to unity in the church.
[00:14:32] So Jesus gives the church the gift of leaders who proclaim the Gospel. This proclamation ministry helps empower individual Christians to live out their faith which in turn grows the whole church in maturity and then brings the whole church into unity.
[00:14:49] And look how Paul neatly defines for us Christian maturity.
[00:14:54] It is the measure of Christ's fullness, a measure of the fullness of Christ. Meaning Christian maturity just means a life that looks like Jesus.
[00:15:06] So Jesus gives the church the gift of gospel preaching leaders so that individuals incorporate church people can look more like him.
[00:15:15] Verse 14 is so important for us.
[00:15:19] Then we will no longer be little children tossed by the waves, blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning and cleverness and the techniques of deceit.
[00:15:29] The work of the church helping individuals and the whole church is important because we are not supposed to be tossed around in our faith.
[00:15:39] Guys. There were tons of different ideas about spirituality and emotional health and human flourishing floating around the first century Roman Empire.
[00:15:50] All sorts of ideas, all sorts of philosophies, all sorts of passions and people heard a lot of them. The Book of Acts talks about how rich folk in Athens and Corinth. Corinth would sit around and listen to the newest ideas about how to live their best life. Right now. Paul was genuinely concerned for his people who had little biblical foundation to not be turned aside by all the strange and unbiblical and dangerous ideas of self help and self growth, self growth floating around the empire. I know we have no idea what that's like today to live in a world where most folk haven't actually read their Bible cover to cover and are surrounded by conflicting ideas about life and spirituality and sexuality and emotion and human flourishing that are contrary to the way of Jesus. We don't know what it's like to live in a world where we have little 60 second videos flipped at us for hours a day that give us all sorts of ideas about how the world works and we don't actually look into the foundation or the roots of any of them. And they all sit in our mind like a stew and we haven't actually taken it enough of the Word to be able to counter them or discern through them. Right? Totally foreign to us.
[00:17:02] That's sarcastic.
[00:17:05] Beloved, this is exactly why growing in your faith is so important.
[00:17:10] We all must grow in our faith. All of us.
[00:17:13] We must grow in maturity.
[00:17:16] Beloved, I'm here to tell you many of you in this room have been following Jesus since before I was born. Praise the Lord. I'm grateful for you.
[00:17:25] You are not so mature that you are done maturing in Christ.
[00:17:30] You have not reached some level of perfected holiness where you no longer need the movement of the Spirit in your life to help you grow in maturity and strength. You are not so strong that you cannot be tripped up by the waves of new and false teaching. You're not.
[00:17:46] You're not.
[00:17:48] We don't graduate from our sanctification.
[00:17:53] You always need more grounding in the Gospel. Always.
[00:17:58] Until Jesus takes you up to heaven, you will not reach a place of maturity where you no longer need discipleship.
[00:18:06] You won't.
[00:18:07] We can all be tripped up by the winds of new teaching. Hear that, guys? All of us.
[00:18:13] All of us.
[00:18:15] You can hear it just right. And it. It syncs up to some idol. Some need. Some. Some desire you have just right. At a time when you're just weak enough in your faith, every single one of us can be tripped up.
[00:18:29] But growth and maturity in Christ helps bolster us against such foolishness.
[00:18:35] And verse 15 gives us the method.
[00:18:39] Truth and love work together to make us more like Christ.
[00:18:45] Truth and love born together. Not just harsh truth beating people up, and not just love that is scared to step into conflict, but truth and love working together. Together make us more like Christ.
[00:19:01] The truth of the Gospel spoken to us in a context of the love of Jesus will grow us in Christ likeness. Beloved. Growth in maturity and holiness. Growth in Christ likeness. Hear this. This is the essence of the Christian life.
[00:19:20] To live your life committed to the gospel following after Jesus could be summed up as this.
[00:19:27] A life lived. Growing in maturity and holiness. Growing in Christlikeness.
[00:19:33] And our text ends out with this wonderful truth.
[00:19:36] Our personal individual growth will always translate into not just corporate spiritual growth in the church, but unity in the church as well.
[00:19:48] The Christian life is not static.
[00:19:53] It's alive.
[00:19:55] Growth is a part of what it means to follow Christ.
[00:20:00] We need each other to grow in faith and to engage in the work of the kingdom. We do it together.
[00:20:07] Happens in the context of the church, in the context of the church family. We grow in our understanding and our experience of the gospel. Beloved, remember the gospel.
[00:20:19] Jesus brings you into his kingdom apart from your works. You don't need to obtain some level of spiritual maturity or worthiness or gain some spiritual secret to get in. No. You are brought in by the love and favor and grace of Jesus. The Gospel is free. Jesus loves you and saves you exactly as you are.
[00:20:41] He doesn't ask you to come to him with your act put together, with your stuff cleaned up. He asks you to come to him and ask for help.
[00:20:48] The Gospel is a free gift of grace to those who seek after the Lord.
[00:20:54] But the love of Jesus is too great to simply leave you where you are.
[00:21:00] Beloved, you are not made for sin.
[00:21:02] You weren't designed with idols in mind. You weren't made to live your life in brokenness.
[00:21:09] It will not be so in heaven.
[00:21:11] That's not how it will be, because that's not how Jesus designed you. So in his grace, he doesn't just offer you grace and acceptance and forgiveness. No, he does that.
[00:21:24] But he doesn't just save you. He takes it a step beyond that and he sanctifies you.
[00:21:31] He places his righteousness upon you. And then His Spirit digs through you and worms out all the brokenness and all the sin and all the idolatry.
[00:21:43] Like a. Like a sculptor going to a piece of marble, carving out the pieces that aren't meant to be there to reveal the design that is actually within.
[00:21:53] Christ in his love, scrapes the sin and brokenness out of you, reforms you in his likeness.
[00:22:03] He changes you.
[00:22:05] The Christian life is a life of growth and life of change. Because Jesus loves you so much.
[00:22:12] If he will fix what sin is broken within you, he will make you like Him.
[00:22:17] And if we were to read on, and if you.
