The Church | 1 Peter 2:4-5, 9-10
Introduction
How many of you have a memory of this little ditty?
Here is the church,
Here is the steeple.
Open the doors,
And see all the people.
Close the doors,
And hear them pray.
Open the doors,
And they all run away.
This used to be a Sunday school teacher’s best method of getting little children to stop poking one another and instead focus back on the teacher and the lesson. And it was a cute way to talk about the church while using hand motions. I pray we always appreciate the sweet, simple ways we can talk about God and our lives, especially with children, because we all must start simple!
Imagine if someone were to start telling you about the most complicated tax issue you will ever face, the most difficult problem you will encounter in your job, the hardest class you will ever take in school, or the most complicated parenting discussion you will have with your kids. God is kind to take all of us from simple to more complex issues throughout our lives in many ways, and we don’t want to look down on the simple. Simple is necessary. It is kind to stop and make things as simple as possible for people to understand, especially at the beginning of their path to understanding any idea.
In fact, right before our verse for this morning, Peter says this:
Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.
(1 Peter 2:2 ESV)
Regarding our walk with God, Peter wants to encourage us to long for spiritual milk—to long for the simple truth that will bring us to salvation—LIKE an infant. Clearly, the image there is even being willing to cry out, grasping for, and fervently desiring what God would offer us in the simplicity of the gospel of our salvation. The simple and basic is good for us, and something we should desire.
This morning, I want to encourage us to stop and look at this concept of “the church”. As we have been going through Genesis, we have said many times that the relationship of marriage between one man and one woman is meant to image the relationship that Jesus has with his church. That is something worth slowing down and thinking about. Jesus and his church. That image of Christ with his church becomes a large image throughout the rest of Scripture. God’s relationship with his people—the church—is one of the main storylines of Scripture. As we will see in Genesis 3, the tragedy of the story of Adam and Eve with God—the tragedy of our story with God—is the breaking of our relationship with God. God and his people, God and his church, are no longer together the way they were meant to be because of rebellion and sin.
So, this is a one-sermon pause on the story of Genesis to consider God’s church. What do we mean when we talk about “the church”? What is “the church”?
And I’ll be honest, when I first started thinking about taking this pause to talk about the church several weeks ago, my first thought was that we needed to stop and go DEEP on this idea. That we needed to stop and really mine the complexities of the church that we don’t often think about. As if our problem is that the idea of the church is really complex, so we need to study it more. But that is not how Peter presents this idea of the church and God’s people. In fact, it is just one verse after 1 Peter 2:2 where Peter is exhorting us to long for spiritual milk like a newborn baby that we find our verses for this morning in 1 Peter 2:4-10:
As you come to him [Jesus], a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 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…[Y]ou 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.
(1 Peter 2:4-5, 9–10 ESV)
At most, maybe we could say this is a “step two” in our understanding of being with God again in relationship through salvation in Jesus. Perhaps it is the equivalent of Cheerios soaked in milk for a small child to gum as a precursor to real food. But more than likely, Peter views our identity as God’s church, God’s people, as one of the most basic identities we need to know. It IS the simple milk of infancy. And perhaps that is the real reason we don’t come to this idea on our own often.
I’ve been wondering for myself, as I prepared this message, if I, and maybe all of us, view this idea of “the church” as too basic. As if someone is quoting John 3:16 again — “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” and we say yep, got it. Let’s move on to the next and more important verses. I have the basics, now I want the more complex. That’s not true of the gospel, nor is it true of this idea of the church. As though the idea of the church may feel like that child’s song that we learned long ago, but perhaps we’ve forgotten the value of what it means to really be God’s people, his church.
This morning, I want to bring us back to this sweet, simple truth about who we are. We are the church, and:
The church is God’s people in Jesus Christ together, on mission to glorify God.
We have the blessing of living on this side of all that God has done for us in Jesus Christ, as described throughout Scripture, and we don’t need to wait to see how this imagery of God’s people unfolds as we go along. We can stop, even this morning, and remind ourselves of the beauty of what it means to be God’s church, God’s people, right here at the beginning. And in doing so, we can rightly keep this beautiful truth before us as we continue to recall God’s grace throughout Genesis.
God’s People in Jesus Christ
Let’s start with just this first section. The church is “God’s People in Jesus Christ.” Sounds simple enough. When we think of that phrase, we might say to ourselves:
“Yes. I am part of the church because I have come back to God through faith in Jesus, and now, I belong to him.”
That is very true. How amazing it is that simply through faith in Jesus, our God has brought us back into relationship with himself. It shouldn’t work that way. It shouldn’t be that easy. The fact that one day you and I can become aware of our sins and turn to God and find that he has done everything we have ever needed in Jesus to be saved, and then put our faith in Jesus and his good works and deeds on our behalf, and find that we now can walk together with our God IS a GLORIOUS MIRACLE.
In theology, we call this the idea of ‘Atonement’. That something has happened to atone or to make amends for the brokenness in our relationship with God. Our Deep Discipleship class was talking about this just this last week. At the cross, Jesus atoned for our sins. He repaired the brokenness of our relationships with God. So much happened at the cross in what Jesus did for us. And as we talk about the cross, theologians have some awesome, large, and sometimes intimidating words to describe what has happened in that moment of atonement on the cross:
Atonement: To repair/restore relationship with God.
Propitiation: Jesus turned away the wrath of God from us to himself.
Expiation: By removing our guilt from sin by dying for our sins
Imputation: By giving us his righteousness
Now don’t you glaze over—some of you already see big words show up on screen and are already checking out. I put these up there because you will run into nerds and books that will use these words. But you shouldn’t fear them. They are simply a shorthand for ideas you all know already.
Jesus, the very son of God, came to restore our relationship with God (that is, Atonement). One of the main problems was that Jesus needed to turn away the wrath of God from us. We are all sinners, and we deserve God’s wrath because of our rebellion against him. So Jesus directed that wrath of God upon himself. (That idea of turning away wrath from us to Jesus is called propitiation.) And to turn away God’s wrath, Jesus did two things. First, he took OUR penalty of sin off us and took that penalty upon himself on the cross. He literally removed that penalty from us and bore the weight of it as he hung there and died for us. That is expiation—removal and taking away sin’s consequence. But he also gave us something, something amazing! Through faith in Jesus, we are given Jesus’s righteousness. Jesus puts on us his good deeds and actions so that as God looks at us, he only sees the beautiful work of his beloved Son. That is imputation—giving to us his righteousness.
Salvation is amazing! This is likely very similar to what we all were told when we first came to faith in Jesus, without any of the big words. You and I have a problem: our sins and rebellion against God deserve wrath and punishment. Praise God, Jesus was willing to take the penalty for your sins on the cross and to give you his righteousness that you might come back into relationship with God. That is why we can say a sentence like:
“Yes. I am part of the church because I have come back to God through faith in Jesus, and now, I belong to him.”
All those big words and phrases are just shorthand to point to the beauty of what God has done in this one area of atonement, this area of restoring relationship with himself. In fact, a big word you probably have heard and know is justification, which is just this whole idea here:
Atonement: To repair/restore relationship with God.
Justification
Propitiation: Jesus turned away the wrath of God from us to himself.
Expiation: By removing our guilt from sin by dying for our sins
Imputation: By giving us his righteousness
You have been justified, made right before God legally, because of what Jesus did for you and me at the cross. This is the beauty of what Peter is praying we will long to know about in simplicity, that we might come to salvation in 1 Peter 1! This is the simple yet stunning joy of salvation that God has provided us in Jesus Christ. Peter longs for us to know this simple joy and to come to salvation, as he says:
…if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
1 Peter 2:3 ESV
God is indeed good. He has done amazingly good things for us in Jesus. Big words aside, I bet most of you Christians in this room know that story of your salvation like this. Sharing about the joy of our salvation in Jesus is meant to be simple—so simple a child can understand it. You may say it differently if you were to share it. The problem is that at some point, it can feel like old hat to you. Something you know so well you could start making your grocery list in your head or start prepping for your house projects after church, while I was sharing all that just now (yeah, I know you’re out there).
But this isn’t all that Jesus has done for us in restoring our relationship with God, in atonement! We could spend all day today just listing all that Jesus has done for us in restoring our relationship with God! At the cross, in atonement, Jesus has done many things!
Atonement: To repair/restore relationship with God.
Justification
Peace
Rest
Victory
Assurance
Sanctification
In Jesus, we are not only now justified, but we all now have true peace in our relationship with God. We can rest from any works and simply live out God’s calling on our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit. We have real victory in Jesus and our relationship with God over sin, over Satan, and even over death. We now have assurance, through our closeness with God in the Holy Spirit, that he is for us. We are growing in our likeness to God (sanctification) as we see him and know him better.
There is so much that Jesus has done in bringing us back into right relationship with God! You and I are so good at talking about the first one—justification—that we often forget the simplicity but enormity of all the rest that occurred in our coming back into relationship with our good Father and Creator. You can hear it in what we would usually say about being saved:
“Yes. I am part of the church because I have come back to God through faith in Jesus, and now, I belong to him.”
That is a lot about just justification and a lot about me. I, I, I. That statement is true, and it is necessary for us to understand this to be saved! You and I have been brought back to God through our individual faith, and we each belong to him. But the complimentary tension to knowing that I have a problem that is solved in Jesus is to remember that I have been brought into a we! Those two ideas are paired together. This is so much a concern for Peter that this is exactly where he goes in 1 Peter 2. After spending all of 1 Peter 1 reminding us of the beauty of the hope of salvation that we now have seen in Jesus, his second most important desire is to remind us of the WE that all of us are now a part of.
As you come to him [Jesus], a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 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…[Y]ou 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.
(1 Peter 2:4-5, 9–10 ESV)
Listen to all those “WE” images. A spiritual house. A holy and royal priesthood. A chosen race. Holy nation. A people. We are meant to BE a “WE”. We are meant to be a part of something bigger than just us and God.
We have seen that from the very beginning in Genesis 1:
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
(Genesis 1:27 ESV)
He created both man and woman, humanity, with the smallest group possible—two. And as God said in Genesis 2:
Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone;
(Genesis 2:18 ESV)
God was always creating a PEOPLE, not just a person, to be in relationship with him. This is part of what was broken in sin: we no longer live as a people together, loving God.
Part of the story of Scripture is God showing us that God will renew many parts of our lives, including our need to be a people with others. Our atonement in Jesus will include some other amazing aspects beyond just bringing us back individually to God. Atonement includes:
Atonement: To repair/restore relationship with God.
Justification
Peace
Rest
Victory
Assurance
Sanctification
Adoption
Family
Belonging
Justification, peace, rest, victory, assurance, sanctification. But it will also include Adoption. Family. Belonging. What Jesus did on the cross was not just for you individually but also for all of US. A great “WE” was being created by God permanently.
We actually begin to see God start to renew this image of his people together after it is broken in the fall, later in Genesis 12, when God comes to Abraham and promises him:
Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
(Genesis 12:1–2 ESV)
And then, as God gathers Israel out of Egypt, he says to them:
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
(Deuteronomy 7:6 ESV)
Or as Nehemiah tries to remind God:
They [Israel] are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand.
(Nehemiah 1:10 ESV)
But what we see is that, much like the garden, the attempt to have people for God doesn’t work well as long as people are sinners and without God in their lives. They continue to sin, they continue to rebel, they continue to walk away from their Lord and God. They don’t love one another. So much so that prophets like Elijah are very concerned. Elijah laments deeply to God:
He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”
(1 Kings 19:10 ESV)
There is only me left, Elijah says (or maybe whines). God reminds him that there are others (seven thousand God says), but Elijah is right to notice that the project of God having a people who work together, a people to praise him, isn’t going well. In fact, that struggle continues up until the moment Jesus saves his people. And then in Jesus, through the cross and in faith, something amazing has happened to God’s people, to you and me!
You may not have noticed it. You may not have thought about it. You may have even tried to avoid it. But in your faith in Jesus, you have been made a part of a people. It’s like the stamp that I had people put on your hands this morning. That may have seemed like an odd thing to have happen at church. For you, young people, it probably felt more like going to a club or a bar. But it is a great image of what happens when we are saved!
At some point, you realized God loved you greatly in Jesus Christ and that he smiled on you again in faith. That was a wonderful moment! You were indelibly marked by God as his. But you were also brought into something bigger than yourself. You are marked as belonging to something that others belong to as well. You were brought into a people, like it or not! The fellowship of the stamp, as it were. Those whom God is smiling upon. And that is amazing grace for us! It is a wonderful thing that God has done for us, bringing us not only to himself individually but also into a true people who love him!
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
(John 1:12–13 ESV)
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
(Galatians 4:4–5 ESV)
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
(Romans 8:15 ESV)
The church is God’s people in Jesus Christ…
In Jesus, what we were meant for is finally coming true. Because of our common faith, our common salvation, our common hope, we are now brought back together with a people who actually can worship and serve our God! We can succeed where Israel and those before failed because God has dealt with our sin problem on the cross. God has given us his very Holy Spirit that is changing our hearts and renewing our minds. Our faith is now one of real change because of what Jesus has done for us.
Because of our faith in Jesus, you and I are part of the church, which means we are part of God’s people. My personal problem of sin and rebellion against God has also solved my problem of not needing to be alone. To be a part of a people and a family. That is amazingly good news!
And that is also where the rub lies!
Because being a part of a family or people group is hard. Because of sin, families hurt one another. They don’t always treat one another with love and respect. We often don’t even say we are sorry for the hurt we cause. Note the challenge some Americans face at the Olympics in communicating that they love their country—their people—while also saying they may not agree with everything people hear about it. It’s hard to get lumped in with a group you may not always agree with in a variety of ways. It’s hard to communicate love when things don’t go as you expect.
But in Jesus, there is also forgiveness for mistakes as his people. In Jesus, there is a real opportunity for growth as we draw closer to our God and the Holy Spirit works in us. In Jesus, there is a chance for humility to repent to one another and find mercy and grace. In Jesus, what binds us together matters more than any issues that may arise. That is new in the New Covenant with Jesus!
For many of you, realizing that God brought you into a people is an amazing idea and so comforting! You have longed to know that you belong, and I hope that thinking about how your faith has not only brought you back to God but also back to his people is an incredible encouragement. Praise God that this is something Jesus did for all of us on the cross. He wasn’t just saving us individually, he was saving us as a people!
However, for some of you, the idea of being with a people has been tainted by the realization of WHO God let in and how hard they can be at times. There’s Uncle Joe, over in the corner, on his soapbox again about the end times and rapture and how we all need to be ready. Aunt Sue is over there with ribbons and a tambourine, trying to get you to play the cowbell during the worship service. And that one person, that one person who didn’t treat you well the other day, is there as well.
More than just individuals, God has brought us into a people that is meant to display the manifold glory of God’s righteousness and goodness to one another and the world. We are meant to be like a multi-faceted diamond of glory to God, demonstrated and displayed in his people. And this side of heaven we are—to say the least—a ‘little’ smudged. The light isn’t reflected quite right. The glory is a little dim at times. But that doesn’t mean we weren’t meant to be a people!
In Scripture, it is an unknown idea to say you love God, but you don’t love his people. There is no Lone Ranger Christian, no true walk with God without also walking with his people. From the very beginning, here in Genesis, that is how God has made it. He has made a people for himself. Originally, as a family, now as a family united in our common hope and faith in Jesus. God loves his people, and we are invited to love them too. He has bought for himself at the cross not just a person but many peoples. Peoples from every tribe, nation, and tongue (Rev 7:9–10). And God has given us this amazing privilege—the opportunity to gather as just one of his many expressions of his people and be this people in a very tangible way to one another.
We start this morning by noting that being the church means we are God’s people in Jesus Christ. God has made us part of a group by his grace in our salvation. He wants a people, AND he wants you to be a part of those people. And even though it is hard at times, like a family, this is ultimately for our good.
You may have read that original sentence about the church as one long idea, but I want us to see those last two statements as the application this morning.
The church is God’s people in Jesus Christ together, on mission to glorify God.
To make what I mean a little more explicit:
The church is God’s people in Jesus Christ:
The church is God’s people in Jesus Christ together on mission.
The church is God’s people in Jesus Christ to glorify God.
If you hear this beautiful declaration that you are saved in Jesus Christ to a people and are looking around Main Street and wondering about God’s wisdom as you see this crew, 1) remember some other people are thinking that about you and me and you too, and 2) realize that there are at least two amazing reasons why God did this. Two reasons why God gave us a people, why God let us gather together here as this group this morning, even if this side of heaven, we are not always rightly reflecting the goodness and glory we are meant to share.
Application
Together on Mission
First, we are meant to be “Together on mission”. What a glorious thought. I’m still fascinated by how much I can learn from a verse I have read many times before. Look at Matthew 28:18 with me again:
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
(Matthew 28:18–20 ESV)
We have talked about how this Great Commission is a redo of the mandate God gave Adam and Eve in Genesis 1 and 2. We all now take part in God’s spreading throughout the world not only through direct dominion over everything we do in our jobs, our church, and our families, but also in the spiritual act of seeing others come to know and put their faith in Jesus.
And you have probably heard someone note that this phrase “go therefore” is really saying “therefore as you are going.” Jesus is presuming that we all go out and engage others, that we are still trying to have dominion over this earth in many ways. In that sense, we are always going. But as we go now, we are to be sure to share with them the gospel and—Lord willing—see others come to faith.
But I notice something new to me this week. That phrase “going” is plural. That means that phrase is really saying something like ‘therefore, as all y’all are going.” It’s like the American deep south is the spiritual offspring of biblical Greek! This going, this mission to share the gospel with others, is not just a solo task—it is a group project.
I think one of the reasons we may not be as effective as we would like in our evangelism is that we have tried to make it a solo project. But the images used in Scripture for our life together would push against that. Our life of encouraging, exhorting, and even evangelizing is imaged in togetherness.
As we just saw in 1 Peter, we are a spiritual house. A holy and royal priesthood. A chosen race. A holy nation. Images of our togetherness and how we need one another. We are a body with many parts, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12.
As a building needs studs, sheeting, siding, windows, doors, roofing, electricity, so too we need a variety of people to help one another in this great commission of taking out the gospel of Jesus Christ and presenting the full breadth of God’s love and care for one another. Just like a body needs eyes, and hands, and feet, and hearts, we too need the varied gifts of one another to rightly care for those God might put in front of us.
Could it be that one of the reasons that the body of Christ frustrates us at times is that we are trying to use it as a means to entertain and make ourselves happy, rather than a tool to equip, exhort, and evangelize? Like using a hammer to try to turn a nail, could it be that we are trying harder to make ourselves happy with one another more than we are trying to make ourselves holy and healthy?
Together on mission. God knew that we would need a variety of gifts, a variety of personalities, a variety of ways of engaging with one another to walk out this life here well. We couldn’t and can’t do it alone. None of us is broad enough, gifted enough, smart enough, connected enough, experienced enough to engage everything we will come across in our lifetime here on this earth. We are meant to be God’s people in Jesus Christ, and God has done that so we can be together on mission. On mission to care well for one another and exhort each other to holiness in God. On mission to share the gospel of Jesus Christ that others might see, know, and love him. It is the best group project we will ever be a part of!
To Glorify God
Yet there is even more! Simply by being this diverse group, together, we accomplish something. We glorify God. And again, I’m not seeing that as the final goal of all these statements, though it could be: I’m using that statement as its own, unique goal.
The church is God’s people in Jesus Christ to glorify God.
This ragtag, “scruffy, nerf-herder” (thank you, Star Wars) group of people was meant to be exactly that. Lawyers and doctors. Children and adults. Students and drop-outs. Part-time workers and full-time workers. Mechanics, plumbers, construction workers. Stay-at-home moms and dads. People who struggle with patience. People who struggle with anxiety. People who have faith and confidence in ways they may not, and people who struggle to have the smallest of faith.
We were placed together because it is exactly in and through this type of people that God, and God alone, gets the glory.
But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
(2 Corinthians 4:7 ESV)
God gets glory because we are broken and failing, because HE is our only strength and power. But he also gets glory in our differences. Romans 14 really is a fascinating idea to dwell on in this regard. After describing all the ways our consciences might lead us to different conclusions, Paul says this:
Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
(Romans 14:18–19 ESV)
You and I, as long as we are all trying to pursue God and listen to his word and Spirit, can glorify God with very different decisions. As different, Paul says, as eating food sacrificed to idols or not eating food sacrificed to idols. That is amazing! No other religion is like that. God’s people glorify him in their diversity, EVEN WHEN that diversity might look like exact opposites to one another. As long as we are pursuing peace with one another, truly trying to build one another up, and submitting ourselves to God’s word, our opposite actions can all bring glory to God.
What if the very thing that frustrates us at times in this idea of being a people, the church—our differences—is a feature, not a brokenness? What if God saved us to a people, his church, so that we could be together on mission with one another, rubbing shoulders with each other as we seek to exhort, encourage, and evangelize together, but that our very differences IN THEMSELVES also glorify God. That each of our unique ways of loving God and living our lives brings God a type of glory that he wouldn’t have otherwise. What if our unity amidst our lack of uniformity was a goal?
Conclusion
Friends, what is the church?
The church is God’s people in Jesus Christ together on mission to glorify God.
Here is the church,
Here is the steeple.
Open the doors,
And see all HIS people—his true church bought together through faith in Jesus Christ.
Close the doors,
And hear them pray—a multitude together, unique in many ways, giving glory to God IN their differences.
Open the doors,
And they all run away—yet together, on mission to see God’s gospel spread!
The church is God’s people in Jesus Christ together on mission to glorify God.
What a simple yet profound joy it is that we are saved not just to be justified before God, but also to be brought back into a people. A family. A holy nation. A chosen race. A priesthood. A bond of the people of the stamp! Each expression of the body of Christ, his church, is a place and a chance for each of us to love the very people that God loves.
I’m going to invite the worship team up here, but we want to stop and consider for a moment what this might mean for each of us. Instead of just ending our sermon, we want to give you a moment before you get your children or leave here to think about what this could mean for your life. If we truly are the church, God’s people in Jesus Christ together, on mission to glorify God, what might that mean for each of us this week? What might it mean for each of us today?
Let me just give you one thought (or two!) for each of the statements in that sentence.
God’s people in Jesus Christ
When you and I think about God’s call on your life, instead of asking:
Will I go to church today?
Maybe instead ask,
Will I engage with God’s people today?
Or even better:
HOW will I engage with God’s people today?
We need each other. We were made to be with one another. It is not perfect, but we are praying that by God’s grace, each day, we might see more and more of heaven breaking through into our daily gatherings with one another and that we would glimpse a taste of the beauty of what heaven is going to be like with one another and with our God! If you want to know more about THAT idea—what our future holds and what we are hoping for—come to our Men’s and Women’s weekenders, where we will talk about heaven, what our hope is in the life to come, and how that motivates us now in this in-between moment.
And we get opportunities to engage one another all the time! We do it on Sundays, we do it during Gospel Communities. We do it when men get together and when women get together. We do it when we invite someone over for dinner, a movie, or some games. We have so many opportunities to be the people of God together.
Together on Mission
As you think about our goal of being together as a people to be on mission together, maybe ask yourself:
Who am I inviting into my life so we can be together on mission together?
Again, we have men’s and women’s groups that meet regularly. We have Gospel Communities that meet weekly or bi-weekly. This expression of the people of God, called Main Street, is here so we have partners in the mission God has given us. People who can complement us. People who can support us. People who can encourage us. Part of God’s goal in creating a people is so that we can, together, take part in all he has called us to. In this sense, it does take a village to grow in holiness before our God. Who are you going to invite into your life here that you might be together on mission?
To Glorify God
Last, but not least, are you ready to glorify God IN the differences? In the reality that God made you part of something much bigger than you and quite different than you?
How can I glorify God in our unity without uniformity?
How can I glorify God in the brokenness, yet still living in the grace of Jesus?
Sure, if we wanted to elect someone Pope over all our churches, maybe they could organize us to be with people who were much more like us. People who did everything the same: similar stages of life, jobs, thoughts, political votes, child-rearing philosophies, helpful preaching styles for our learning style. I think that could work, but I think we would lose something amazing about our God and life together as his people. We would miss how God is using this, US, to help us all see more about God and his very nature. We are being given the opportunity to grow in amazing ways simply by being here, today, this Sunday, on Main and 27th Street, together as God’s people.
That is what we see at the very beginning in Genesis 2—God’s love for his people, his church, as displayed in the marriage of one man with one woman. And that story continues on until Jesus, through the cross, brings us back to God and to one another again in his Holy Spirit. What an amazing God we have! Main Street, in Jesus Christ, we are God’s people together on mission, glorifying God in our very nature as this people.
Take a minute as the worship team plays quietly to pray over these questions. What is God showing you today in this message about his church, his people? After a time of reflection, the team will lead us in a song of response, and I will come back up and wrap up the sermon in a prayer.
Prayer
Communion
Benediction
Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to [the] gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ and through his people the church! Amen.
(Romans 16:25–27 ESV, paraphrased)
