New Covenant Presbyterian Church
Sermon Ephesians 4:15 “The Church”
October 14, 2018
Listen to this sermon.
We are now in the sixth week of our study of Believe, Living the Story of the Bible to Become Like Jesus. We know that our triune God loves us very much. God has revealed himself to us by giving us the Bible. And God has given us new identities by calling us, Children of God. Today we will look at another gift God gives us, the Church. We will get to this, but first, let’s pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
Who owns the church? There are some people who say that the pastor owns the church. I often refer to the church as “my church”. But the church does not belong to the pastor. Some say that the church belongs to the session. The session has authority over the church and has the responsibility of providing for the spiritual growth of the members. But the session does not own the church. So who owns the church? Some say the congregation owns the church. After all, it is your contributions that keep the church going. But the congregation does not own the church either. So let’s turn to scripture to see who owns the church.
Ephesians 4:15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
Jesus Christ owns the church. So let’s ask Jesus what he wants the church to do. For that let's go back to scripture.
Genesis 12:1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. 2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
So the church is a group of people who are richly blessed by God. They come to worship to thank God for all their blessings. Then they return to the community to bless others. By thanking God and blessing others the church grows until every family is blessed. Church is a beautiful thing.
But sometimes church needs reformation. This happened in the first century. In the first century, church consisted of a Jerusalem temple and neighborhood communities called synagogues. But the church got away from being a blessing for others. Instead, it became judgemental and went after people who violated the law of Moses. Jesus came as a reformer with a message designed to get the church back on track.
Matthew 22:37 … “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
So Jesus redirected the church back to its original mission of loving God for all the blessings we have received and sharing these blessings with others out of our love for our neighbors. Once again church is a beautiful thing.
But by the sixteenth-century reform was once again needed. The problem was that the church was continuing to use Latin, a language that had disappeared. The Bible the church used was the Latin Vulgate translated from Greek and Hebrew by Jerome. But by the 16th century, almost no one could read it. Most priests did not know Latin at all so they couldn’t read the Bible and they mumbled through the Latin worship service.
The Protestant reformers said that people should be able to read and understand the Bible. And they said that the sacraments of communion and baptism had to be clearly understood. So they began to use the language people used for worship and they began to translate the Bible into local languages. And they trained pastors so they could correctly interpret the Bible and explain the sacraments clearly to God’s people. And reformers took the additional step of setting up church structure in such a way that individual churches would be held accountable for properly proclaiming God’s word and administering sacraments. With these reforms church once again became a beautiful thing.
Today, the church once again needs to be reformed. We are still doing a good job of proclaiming the Word of God and administering sacraments. But the church is in decline. How can we be a blessing to all families on earth with fewer and fewer people and less and less money? What do we do?
Let me tell you about a contemporary reformer, Lesslie Newbigin. Dr. Newbigin was born in Scotland in 1909. He was ordained by the Church of Scotland and sent to India as a missionary. There Dr. Newbigin planted churches and became the first Bishop to serve India. He wrote extensively about missiology, the theology of missions. In 1974 Dr. Newbigin retired and he and his wife returned to England where he became a lecturer and writer.
Upon returning to England, Dr. Newbigin realized that things had changed. Before he left for India the church was robust, filled with people. The church had a privileged place in society, a blessing the church had enjoyed since the 4th century with Emperor Constantine made it the official church of the empire. People were expected to go to church. Businesses were closed on Sundays. There was social pressure to attend church. And that’s what people did.
But by the 1970s all this had ended. No longer did the church hold a privileged position in culture. No longer was their social pressure on people to attend church on Sundays. So the church was getting smaller and smaller as older people died and younger people did not join the way they had done before. No longer was the church privileged. Christendom had come to an end. Once again reformation is needed.
Dr. Newbigin knew what had to be done. He had spent a career in India where the church did not have a privileged place in the culture. In fact, most people were Hindu. So in that environment, the church had to return to its roots.
Genesis 12:2 … I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
So the church in India would gather to worship and thank God for the blessings they received then they would go into the community and bless others by telling people the good news about Jesus Christ. The church in India had to be missional. And today, the church in western Europe and North America must also become missional. We must be a blessing to our communities.
So what do we do? We have made a good start by volunteering to serve meals for Old Daily Bread, and we bring stuff for Neighborhood House. These are good things to do and they bless our community. But Jesus, the head of the church, wants us to do more. Let’s listen to what he has to say.
Matthew 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
So, we are to go into our communities and make disciples. We are to tell people about Jesus Christ. We are to invite people to come to church. We are to warmly welcome people who come to church and encourage them to be involved. This is what the church in India had to do. And now we have to do it.
But we can’t. There is no way we can go into Bayberry, or Parkside, or Whitehall and make disciples. The culture is against us. We just don’t have the power to do it. So Jesus, What should we do?
Here is what Jesus said.
Acts 1:4 On one occasion, while [Jesus] was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
So we are to wait until the Holy Spirit comes upon us. But when it does we will be witnesses in Bayberry, Whitehall, Parkside and all of Middletown. We don’t know when this event of the Holy Spirit empowering this church will occur, but we can pray for it now.
Father in heaven, send your Holy Spirit to us this day. Empower us to bless the people of Middletown by being witnesses of all that your son did when he was with us on earth. So bless us, Lord, with your spirit so that we may go into the neighborhoods around the church and bless other with good news of Jesus Christ. This we pray in his glorious name. Amen.
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