WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.360 Okay, so I want us to go back to bear in mind that passage that we read together and as 00:00:07.360 --> 00:00:11.960 I said, I'm going to be looking through, I'm going to be dipping into a lot of different 00:00:11.960 --> 00:00:16.399 verses so I hope that's not too distracting. 00:00:16.399 --> 00:00:23.039 It's certainly not, it's far from a classic kind of proper sermon you're getting tonight 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:28.320 but I hope that nonetheless it's important when we think about this theme. 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:34.439 We've been looking at the image of God in us as Christians, we've been looking at what 00:00:34.439 --> 00:00:38.840 it means, we've also been looking at how that's been distorted and broken in the world in 00:00:38.840 --> 00:00:43.560 which we live and what that means. 00:00:43.560 --> 00:00:50.000 It's interesting, someone told me this week that you can look on, I think it was online, 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:59.880 you can look online at how many times in say theology or in books and in commentaries and 00:00:59.880 --> 00:01:09.319 in the media that certain biblical phrases come up and apparently the image of God is 00:01:09.319 --> 00:01:15.719 much more commonly referred to now than it was 50 and 100 years ago. 00:01:15.719 --> 00:01:21.480 Now, I have no idea why that's the case but it's interesting sometimes that different 00:01:21.480 --> 00:01:27.400 spiritual truths are more focused at different times in history. 00:01:27.400 --> 00:01:33.280 It not makes them more or less important but it's just interesting that that happens. 00:01:33.280 --> 00:01:39.719 So we're really looking at what the image of God means for us, being image bearers ourselves, 00:01:39.719 --> 00:01:45.719 you as an image bearer, me as an image bearer and also the catastrophic results of sin that 00:01:45.719 --> 00:01:53.359 have brought about a distortion of that image so that we have a better understanding of 00:01:53.359 --> 00:02:00.719 what it means to have a biblical worldview of life and what it means for us as Christians 00:02:00.719 --> 00:02:05.560 to live in the world in which we live. 00:02:05.560 --> 00:02:10.199 As we understand the world in which we live from a spiritual, from a theological point 00:02:10.199 --> 00:02:15.840 of view and what we can see, then it helps us to live by faith in the things we can't 00:02:15.840 --> 00:02:22.120 see because we see where the world has gone wrong and what sin has brought into the world 00:02:22.120 --> 00:02:28.960 and what God is doing in reforming us according to His image. 00:02:28.960 --> 00:02:38.879 And if you go back to these verses in Revelation chapter 7, what we have there is the fulfillment 00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:45.960 or heaven is, the new heavens and the new earth is the full restoration of God's image 00:02:45.960 --> 00:02:47.560 in humanity. 00:02:47.560 --> 00:02:50.000 So it's the end game, it's the end picture. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:54.480 So it's what we're aiming towards and that is what God is doing in us. 00:02:54.479 --> 00:03:01.239 He's recreating His image and when He returns and usher in the new heavens and the new earth, 00:03:01.239 --> 00:03:08.120 that will be that recreated image of God in humanity and in the universe. 00:03:08.120 --> 00:03:15.719 So what I want to do this evening is I want to recall our original verse really that deals 00:03:15.719 --> 00:03:19.759 with the image of God which is right back from Genesis 1, 26, 27. 00:03:19.759 --> 00:03:25.479 And I've highlighted these two bits of it, then God said, let us make man in our, I 00:03:25.479 --> 00:03:29.039 could have highlighted the us as well which I'll mention in a minute, later on. 00:03:29.039 --> 00:03:31.919 Let us make man in our image after our likeness. 00:03:31.919 --> 00:03:36.120 Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens and over the 00:03:36.120 --> 00:03:40.239 livestock and over every, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps 00:03:40.239 --> 00:03:41.239 in the earth. 00:03:41.239 --> 00:03:46.759 So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female 00:03:46.759 --> 00:03:49.359 He created them. 00:03:49.360 --> 00:03:53.800 And I want us to think about that from the very beginning right to the very end to the 00:03:53.800 --> 00:03:59.600 verses we looked at in Revelation which is the future, the city of God, the fully restored 00:03:59.600 --> 00:04:02.080 image of God. 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:10.920 And think about what that means in terms of image bearing in this last theme which is 00:04:10.920 --> 00:04:17.040 that as image bearers, and this is the title of the sermon, we are image bearers at its 00:04:17.040 --> 00:04:21.200 fullest when we are individuals together. 00:04:21.200 --> 00:04:26.439 So that's really the theme tonight, it's about being individuals together which means it 00:04:26.439 --> 00:04:35.220 is the reflection of God's image most fully in life. 00:04:35.220 --> 00:04:43.120 Because when God created in the beginning, He created them male and female as individuals 00:04:43.120 --> 00:04:46.920 but He created them together in His image. 00:04:46.920 --> 00:04:54.920 So what I'm wanting to do is make us recognize that individuality is important but so is 00:04:54.920 --> 00:05:01.360 community is hugely important as well because both of these things reflect, will reflect 00:05:01.360 --> 00:05:05.879 fully the image of God in the new heavens and the new earth. 00:05:05.879 --> 00:05:13.200 And that is because we are image bearers of God, okay? 00:05:13.200 --> 00:05:16.040 And that is what we see in the character of God. 00:05:16.040 --> 00:05:20.439 That's what most reflects the Godhead. 00:05:20.439 --> 00:05:30.600 Individuals together most reflect the Godhead which is that theological reality of the Trinity, 00:05:30.600 --> 00:05:33.160 three persons in one God. 00:05:33.160 --> 00:05:38.780 And that's tremendously profound and it's in many ways beyond our understanding because 00:05:38.779 --> 00:05:46.719 God is therefore a hugely complex God but it's that image of God that we reflect by 00:05:46.719 --> 00:05:56.039 being individuals together because what you have in the divine person or in the Godhead 00:05:56.039 --> 00:05:59.599 you have three divine persons. 00:05:59.599 --> 00:06:02.959 Each are individual. 00:06:02.959 --> 00:06:12.019 God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit and yet you have one divine society, 00:06:12.019 --> 00:06:15.680 God, God the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. 00:06:15.680 --> 00:06:19.399 It's very interesting we've been looking at the Old Testament in the mornings. 00:06:19.399 --> 00:06:23.939 The Old Testament from beginning to end of the Old Testament it's stressing that there's 00:06:23.939 --> 00:06:27.199 one God, not a multiplicity of gods. 00:06:27.199 --> 00:06:28.199 There's one God. 00:06:28.199 --> 00:06:32.959 It's interesting that that's in a sense why the Jews wanted to crucify Jesus because he 00:06:32.959 --> 00:06:36.079 claimed to be God, God the Son. 00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:38.240 And yet, you know, there's truth in there. 00:06:38.240 --> 00:06:39.240 There's truth, isn't there? 00:06:39.240 --> 00:06:40.360 That God is one. 00:06:40.360 --> 00:06:41.800 There's not a multiplicity of gods. 00:06:41.800 --> 00:06:46.120 There's three persons in one divine society, God the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. 00:06:46.120 --> 00:06:48.199 They can't be separated. 00:06:48.199 --> 00:06:56.339 They can't be explained as modes of God or forms of God or manifestations of different 00:06:56.339 --> 00:06:58.959 manifestations of one God. 00:06:58.959 --> 00:07:06.399 It's beyond their capacity to fully understand but there's three persons in one God. 00:07:06.399 --> 00:07:14.399 That is crucial because it focuses our understanding of what it means to be image bearers. 00:07:14.399 --> 00:07:19.079 And if we misunderstand that, we get things all wrong. 00:07:19.079 --> 00:07:23.719 And that's why, for example, some people would talk about the crucifixion as being cosmic 00:07:23.720 --> 00:07:26.600 child abuse for a divine father. 00:07:26.600 --> 00:07:33.640 How could a divine father ever allow his son to go through such brutality? 00:07:33.640 --> 00:07:38.440 Because there's a failure to recognize the uniqueness of the character of God, which 00:07:38.440 --> 00:07:41.000 is three persons, one God. 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:44.720 God in Christ reconciling the world to himself. 00:07:44.720 --> 00:07:53.640 So that is deep and that is mysterious, but that is the image of God that we reflect. 00:07:53.639 --> 00:08:00.399 So it means that in reflecting His image, we need to have a right understanding of individuality 00:08:00.399 --> 00:08:08.639 and a right understanding of society and how in Christ we seek the restoration and the 00:08:08.639 --> 00:08:15.199 transformation of what is distorted and what is broken because of sin. 00:08:15.199 --> 00:08:19.759 So let's for a minute just look at a world that's separated from God in order to help 00:08:19.759 --> 00:08:27.079 us understand how Christ in the gospel transforms that brokenness. 00:08:27.079 --> 00:08:32.200 I'm going to use two angles at looking at that. 00:08:32.200 --> 00:08:39.080 One is the fact that the world has shadows of God's image and I'm looking at that a bit 00:08:39.080 --> 00:08:40.639 more positively. 00:08:40.639 --> 00:08:45.600 And then, but it also has distortions of God's image when it comes to individuality and it 00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:48.639 comes to community. 00:08:48.639 --> 00:08:56.840 So we see in the world, and I do think this is important, that we look for shadows of 00:08:56.840 --> 00:09:00.879 God's image in the world in which we live. 00:09:00.879 --> 00:09:08.240 And as you go about your lives, you will see that in terms of the respect there is in society, 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:11.319 increasingly I think, for the individual. 00:09:11.319 --> 00:09:12.319 And that's a good thing. 00:09:12.319 --> 00:09:13.319 That's a good thing. 00:09:13.319 --> 00:09:14.319 We should applaud that. 00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:21.480 It's a good thing that people have more respect for individuals, people overcoming mental 00:09:21.480 --> 00:09:26.520 health stigma in individuals or being allowed to be different and not having to fit into 00:09:26.520 --> 00:09:32.120 a particular kind of norm that's the same as everybody else. 00:09:32.120 --> 00:09:38.360 Showing racism the red card for individual racism or seeing the person and not the disability. 00:09:38.360 --> 00:09:40.440 All of these things are good. 00:09:40.440 --> 00:09:45.760 Encouraging people to think and be independently minded and to be creative. 00:09:45.760 --> 00:09:52.200 All of these things we can see as pale reflect, pale shadows maybe, but nonetheless shadows 00:09:52.200 --> 00:09:57.120 of the individuality of individuals being made in God's image and being valuable and 00:09:57.120 --> 00:09:58.120 precious. 00:09:58.120 --> 00:10:02.780 And we can also see it sometimes in society. 00:10:02.780 --> 00:10:07.360 Even in a broken society, we can see things that I hope that as Christians you can say, 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:14.340 it's good and I'm not going to critique and criticize everything. 00:10:14.340 --> 00:10:20.120 You can see maybe over this pandemic, society, communities coming together, helping your 00:10:20.120 --> 00:10:21.120 neighbour. 00:10:21.120 --> 00:10:25.919 People will still talk about good Samaritan acts that happen in society. 00:10:25.919 --> 00:10:29.000 Charity work, teamwork, sacrificing for others. 00:10:29.000 --> 00:10:31.560 There's some great stories that we read. 00:10:31.560 --> 00:10:34.100 Occasionally we'll come up in the press. 00:10:34.100 --> 00:10:38.360 Maybe about how someone has sacrificed for the common good. 00:10:38.360 --> 00:10:47.360 And these are shadows of God's purpose, of God's image being reflected both in individuals 00:10:47.360 --> 00:10:51.759 and in our thinking of individuals and in society. 00:10:51.759 --> 00:10:57.159 But you know, and I know there's also distortions of God's image that sin has brought about 00:10:57.159 --> 00:11:00.320 that is hugely destructive. 00:11:00.320 --> 00:11:02.960 And maybe we've mentioned some of these things before. 00:11:02.960 --> 00:11:12.960 Because that drive beyond a praiseworthy individualism towards something that is much more brutal 00:11:12.960 --> 00:11:17.160 and much more individualistic and negative. 00:11:17.160 --> 00:11:22.720 There was a politician one time, I don't know who it possibly was, but who said, there's 00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:26.600 no such thing as society. 00:11:26.600 --> 00:11:30.720 And drove individualism to the nth degree. 00:11:30.720 --> 00:11:37.840 You know, today, my experience, what I do in my life, that's all that matters. 00:11:37.840 --> 00:11:43.800 And freedom is about cutting off from everything, cutting off from the roots of the past. 00:11:43.800 --> 00:11:48.440 You know, forgetting the cumulative wisdom of societies over generations. 00:11:48.440 --> 00:11:54.680 I was speaking this afternoon about the really annoying phrase that people use a lot just 00:11:54.680 --> 00:11:59.000 now about being on the wrong side of history or the right side of history. 00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:04.080 Because if all, it's only what happens today that's important and everything else that 00:12:04.080 --> 00:12:06.360 they were foolish and ignorant. 00:12:06.360 --> 00:12:13.360 We're feelings for the, and within the individual, trump everything, including science and biology 00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:15.080 and physiology. 00:12:15.080 --> 00:12:17.000 Everything is personalized. 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:18.000 Everyone can be a victim. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:22.120 And I guess if everyone's a victim, no one's a victim. 00:12:22.120 --> 00:12:26.639 We're all personal rights triumph responsibility. 00:12:26.639 --> 00:12:33.919 And where technology is driving this individualism, even maybe subconsciously, to be living in 00:12:33.919 --> 00:12:39.600 an individual online world, which is increasingly detached from reality. 00:12:39.600 --> 00:12:42.639 And we need to be aware of that as Christians. 00:12:42.639 --> 00:12:49.720 And we need to be aware of that coming out of lockdown, where the individuality of choosing 00:12:49.720 --> 00:12:54.200 a go to church and choosing to be part of society and Christian society, where it's 00:12:54.200 --> 00:12:58.480 much more comfortable to watch when we want and follow. 00:12:58.480 --> 00:13:01.080 It's going to be, I think, a challenge for us. 00:13:01.080 --> 00:13:10.160 And taking up the sacrifice and commitment of serving Jesus beyond our own individual 00:13:10.160 --> 00:13:12.200 beliefs is going to be a challenge. 00:13:12.200 --> 00:13:15.000 So we see distortions to individualism. 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:22.520 And we also, of course, in the same way see a paradoxical distortion of groupthink, where 00:13:22.519 --> 00:13:26.199 identity politics overcomes everything else. 00:13:26.199 --> 00:13:30.559 Well, where all people get tired under one umbrella. 00:13:30.559 --> 00:13:33.759 You know, I'm a white, middle-aged, straight Christian man. 00:13:33.759 --> 00:13:39.600 That's the worst category in the world to be in today's society. 00:13:39.600 --> 00:13:45.039 I am, you know, we're the worst of all. 00:13:45.039 --> 00:13:50.519 I would be canceled and I will be canceled probably at some point. 00:13:50.519 --> 00:13:56.240 And the cancel culture which allows no flexibility, no questioning, no respect for other opinions, 00:13:56.240 --> 00:14:01.759 and no debate, no thoughtful interactions, no nuancing. 00:14:01.759 --> 00:14:09.679 And it leads far from a sense of community to a deep, deep sense of astonishing division, 00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:13.559 and unhealthy nationalism, religious and political conflict. 00:14:13.559 --> 00:14:19.679 We see it again in Palestine and Israel, racism, all coming from an unhealthy, unbiblical 00:14:19.679 --> 00:14:22.599 sinful groupthink. 00:14:22.599 --> 00:14:27.319 Now I think it's, I think it's simple, you may not, but I think it's important to know 00:14:27.319 --> 00:14:33.839 these things and to analyze them and to think about them because they reflect the reality 00:14:33.839 --> 00:14:40.000 of what it means to be broken, to bear a broken image of God. 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:48.679 And not only sometimes it's just a shadow, but often it's a distortion of these things. 00:14:48.679 --> 00:14:54.519 Because what happens is that people don't know how to have a right balance. 00:14:54.519 --> 00:15:00.439 They don't know how to be individuals together. 00:15:00.439 --> 00:15:03.959 I think there's a, so there's a deep, deep confusion. 00:15:03.959 --> 00:15:09.279 Everyone wants to be an individual, but everyone wants to be in a tribe. 00:15:09.279 --> 00:15:11.959 And everyone wants to belong. 00:15:11.959 --> 00:15:16.919 And because there's no truth and because there's no template, it's impossible to reconcile 00:15:16.919 --> 00:15:18.579 these two things. 00:15:18.579 --> 00:15:28.399 Because what's happening is really people are making up a God, like silver and gold 00:15:28.399 --> 00:15:31.919 in their own image, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 00:15:31.919 --> 00:15:34.719 And that's exactly what is happening. 00:15:34.719 --> 00:15:39.919 When we put God out of the picture, people imagine and make an image, not in the image 00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:45.399 of God as we were created to do, but they make up their own image and it's distorted 00:15:45.399 --> 00:15:50.120 and it's shadowy and it's destructive and it's confusing and it's sinful and it's separated 00:15:50.120 --> 00:15:52.600 from God. 00:15:52.600 --> 00:15:58.439 But I think it's important to see the shadows and the distortions because it enables us to 00:15:58.439 --> 00:16:04.679 be aligned with what God is transforming us to become in Jesus Christ and the end game 00:16:04.679 --> 00:16:11.240 which is Revelation 7 or Revelation 21, the new heavens and the new earth where we are 00:16:11.240 --> 00:16:15.159 to be individuals together. 00:16:15.159 --> 00:16:23.879 There's that right balance of image bearing where the two are fused together as we stand 00:16:23.879 --> 00:16:26.159 on the rock that is Christ. 00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:34.959 So just for the last week while, I want to ask the question, you know, what do we do? 00:16:34.959 --> 00:16:42.399 How are we image bearers and how do we live in this shadowy and distorted world with all 00:16:42.399 --> 00:16:48.079 of these realities that we face that you'll increasingly face in your workplace or in 00:16:48.079 --> 00:16:53.519 your studies or wherever it is we find in the media all the time. 00:16:53.519 --> 00:16:57.439 Well I think the first thing we do is we look for commonality. 00:16:57.439 --> 00:17:04.160 I think that's important that we look for the things that do shadow in shadow maybe, 00:17:04.160 --> 00:17:07.960 but do reflect that this is God's world. 00:17:07.960 --> 00:17:13.600 So you take Paul for example and it's a bit of a famous example I know in Athens, the 00:17:13.600 --> 00:17:17.360 Archaeopagus, many of Athens I perceive that in every way you're very religious for I 00:17:17.360 --> 00:17:20.079 passed along and observed the objects of your worship. 00:17:20.079 --> 00:17:24.880 I found also an altar with inscription, turn unknown God, what therefore you worship as 00:17:24.880 --> 00:17:27.600 unknown, this I proclaim to you. 00:17:27.600 --> 00:17:32.519 So you know, he didn't say you're a bunch of miserable idolaters, you know, repent and 00:17:32.519 --> 00:17:36.880 believe he didn't immediately, he made a connection with them. 00:17:36.880 --> 00:17:44.280 He noted something of commonality and he respected that and as a means of drawing them to something 00:17:44.280 --> 00:17:45.520 greater and better. 00:17:45.520 --> 00:17:52.240 And I think it's good and important for us to show respect and to highlight what reflects 00:17:52.240 --> 00:18:02.640 even in shadow the good things, what we would call theologically common grace, what is evident 00:18:02.640 --> 00:18:07.480 of God's blessing on every single day and in every single way. 00:18:07.480 --> 00:18:13.000 It's not a saving goodness, but it's an evidence of an estranged heritage. 00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:19.160 It's the whispers of God in the world in which we live, the way it could be. 00:18:19.160 --> 00:18:26.200 I don't think we should always be naysayers because we do have good news and we do praise 00:18:26.200 --> 00:18:33.799 the quest that people have to respect individual choice and to be thoughtful and to be individual 00:18:33.799 --> 00:18:41.960 in decision making and community and love, only as it points though to something greater 00:18:41.960 --> 00:18:42.960 in Christ. 00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:48.559 So we look for commonality, but I think also, and this is where I'm flicking through some 00:18:48.559 --> 00:18:53.000 verses, we need to be critically discerning that Paul says is my prayer that your love 00:18:53.000 --> 00:18:58.039 for the church may abound more and more with knowledge and with discernment. 00:18:58.039 --> 00:19:05.359 So I think discernment is an important gift, an important reality for us to have in our 00:19:05.359 --> 00:19:14.480 Christian lives that we would expose the distortions that we see in the world, the dangers of extremism, 00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:22.599 the dangers of rampant individualism, of people not thinking, the dangers of group 00:19:22.599 --> 00:19:27.639 think for example, not coming to their own conclusions, the denials of rights that we 00:19:27.639 --> 00:19:36.359 see around us, the vulnerable, the left behind, the isolated, the confused, that we're discerning. 00:19:36.359 --> 00:19:41.879 And we're discerning how to bring Christ into people's lives in these situations that connects 00:19:41.879 --> 00:19:47.319 with them and that provides for them freedom and hope as we share our lives and share our 00:19:47.319 --> 00:19:48.839 faith. 00:19:48.839 --> 00:19:54.319 So critical discernment is the second thing, and the third thing is that we live out lives 00:19:54.319 --> 00:20:04.119 ourselves where the image of God by God's grace is being restored in us. 00:20:04.119 --> 00:20:07.839 So second, therefore, if anyone was in Christ, that's what we are, a new creation. 00:20:07.839 --> 00:20:11.000 The oldest passed away behold, the new has come. 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:18.799 So we live out the image of God and we allow Him to be transforming us. 00:20:18.799 --> 00:20:20.799 So what is that going to mean? 00:20:20.799 --> 00:20:25.200 It's going to mean that we have a balanced individuality. 00:20:25.200 --> 00:20:26.200 What is it? 00:20:26.200 --> 00:20:27.599 We're individuals together. 00:20:27.599 --> 00:20:32.919 So it means that you as an individual are unique in Christ. 00:20:32.919 --> 00:20:35.240 Christ redeemed you. 00:20:35.240 --> 00:20:38.399 Christ died for your sins on the cross. 00:20:38.399 --> 00:20:40.519 He is your Lord. 00:20:40.519 --> 00:20:45.200 There's nobody else in the seven billion people in this world like you. 00:20:45.200 --> 00:20:47.000 You're unique. 00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:53.559 And you're accountable to Him as a believer for how you live your lives, and so am I. 00:20:53.559 --> 00:21:01.440 And developing your morality and your obedience and your service to others and your use of 00:21:01.440 --> 00:21:08.759 gifts and your indwelling of the Spirit and your intimate relationship with God and your 00:21:08.759 --> 00:21:14.279 own thinking so that you're developing your knowledge and growing in your knowledge, that 00:21:14.279 --> 00:21:16.359 is your responsibility. 00:21:16.359 --> 00:21:17.359 You are an individual. 00:21:17.359 --> 00:21:22.240 That is part of the individuality that you have as a Christian. 00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:27.719 But there's also a group identity as Christians. 00:21:27.719 --> 00:21:29.679 So we are individuals together. 00:21:29.679 --> 00:21:34.359 You know, I could have taken any verse of the whole of the New Testament in many ways. 00:21:34.359 --> 00:21:39.319 So then you're no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, 00:21:39.319 --> 00:21:43.240 members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, 00:21:43.240 --> 00:21:45.439 Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone. 00:21:45.440 --> 00:21:48.600 So we also have an identity. 00:21:48.600 --> 00:21:51.559 We also have a group identity. 00:21:51.559 --> 00:21:58.200 And within that group identity, we all belong to Christ and Christ is our foundation. 00:21:58.200 --> 00:22:03.360 And we're not within that to be mindless or thoughtless. 00:22:03.360 --> 00:22:11.400 We're to know what we believe as individuals, but we're to be welcoming and open and sacrificial 00:22:11.400 --> 00:22:16.360 and serving because it's a new community. 00:22:16.360 --> 00:22:18.960 We are individuals in Christ together. 00:22:18.960 --> 00:22:22.600 It's a new community, Galatians 3, 20. 00:22:22.600 --> 00:22:26.040 These were really radical words when they were first penned. 00:22:26.040 --> 00:22:28.200 There's neither Jew nor Greek. 00:22:28.200 --> 00:22:29.600 There's neither slave nor free. 00:22:29.600 --> 00:22:30.880 Neither male nor free. 00:22:30.880 --> 00:22:34.640 Well, for you're all one in Jesus Christ. 00:22:34.640 --> 00:22:40.880 There's that need, yes, for discernment in the community, but not judgmental spirit. 00:22:40.880 --> 00:22:42.680 There's a willingness to be wronged. 00:22:42.680 --> 00:22:49.880 We're never to be sexist or racist or sectarian because it's a new community, individuals 00:22:49.880 --> 00:22:53.560 together under Christ, all of us. 00:22:53.560 --> 00:22:58.080 Jesus, great prayer, isn't it? 00:22:58.080 --> 00:22:59.600 You know, he said, I praise to the Father. 00:22:59.600 --> 00:23:03.160 I do not ask for these only, but I also ask for those you will believe in me through their 00:23:03.160 --> 00:23:10.240 word that they may be one just as you, Father are in me and I in you, that they may also 00:23:10.240 --> 00:23:13.279 be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 00:23:13.279 --> 00:23:21.680 It's such a radically powerful truth that the triune God lives in his people and we 00:23:21.680 --> 00:23:23.039 are one. 00:23:23.039 --> 00:23:28.039 So there is individuality, but there is communality. 00:23:28.039 --> 00:23:30.559 The danger? 00:23:30.559 --> 00:23:34.599 The danger is you have your own personal Jesus. 00:23:34.599 --> 00:23:41.719 It makes you unconnected and distant from others. 00:23:41.719 --> 00:23:47.039 The danger is that you belong to a church or you belong to a tradition where you don't 00:23:47.039 --> 00:23:51.279 think for yourself, where you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus. 00:23:51.279 --> 00:23:53.439 You just follow the crowd. 00:23:53.439 --> 00:23:58.839 You just believe what everyone else believes, but you haven't come to Him personally. 00:23:58.839 --> 00:24:01.000 You haven't dealt with Him personally. 00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:06.720 You just want to live outwardly in a certain way to look good within that community to 00:24:06.720 --> 00:24:12.880 be accepted, but there's no radical relationship with Jesus on the inside. 00:24:12.880 --> 00:24:18.720 There are dangers for us to not be transformed, to not be like Jesus. 00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:23.279 We are to be image bearers and that picture which I hope you've kept in your mind of the 00:24:23.279 --> 00:24:32.039 great multitude which comes from every tribe and every people and all languages is what 00:24:32.039 --> 00:24:40.680 we are aiming for, individuals together, not just of what we share but in who we are. 00:24:40.680 --> 00:24:48.519 And we are asked, you ask the question about evangelism, about sharing your faith? 00:24:48.519 --> 00:24:49.519 How do we do it? 00:24:49.519 --> 00:24:54.000 How do we draw people out of the shadows and the distortions that sin has brought into 00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:57.599 the image bearing of the world? 00:24:57.599 --> 00:24:59.680 How can we show them a better way? 00:24:59.680 --> 00:25:04.519 How can we be individuals together? 00:25:04.519 --> 00:25:10.079 Showing ourselves to be transforming and transformed image bearers. 00:25:10.079 --> 00:25:16.440 You know, people talk about the importance of preaching, the power of preaching. 00:25:16.440 --> 00:25:21.720 Nothing's no good if there's no one who doesn't know Jesus if we're going to be preaching 00:25:21.720 --> 00:25:25.640 for people's souls and to save them. 00:25:25.640 --> 00:25:32.759 How can we as a city center church in the 21st century coming out of pandemic live in 00:25:32.759 --> 00:25:40.120 such a way that shows a renewed image of God in us as individuals together? 00:25:40.120 --> 00:25:43.600 That is for me a huge challenge. 00:25:43.600 --> 00:25:46.320 How are we going to do it? 00:25:46.319 --> 00:25:54.000 Because it involves therefore sharing, not just our individual testimony and story, it 00:25:54.000 --> 00:26:01.720 involves sharing our community and our life together and our society because that is as 00:26:01.720 --> 00:26:08.000 individuals together when we reflect God and His image most. 00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:15.799 I don't know, one hour of formal worship in a Sunday where then we retreat to our own 00:26:15.799 --> 00:26:23.599 individual lives is not the height of transformed image bearing. 00:26:23.599 --> 00:26:24.599 How is it? 00:26:24.599 --> 00:26:26.599 How will we do it better together? 00:26:26.599 --> 00:26:31.240 I think that's a political statement, isn't it? 00:26:31.240 --> 00:26:36.480 I don't mean it as a political one, better together. 00:26:36.480 --> 00:26:38.160 But how do we do it? 00:26:38.160 --> 00:26:45.680 How do we reflect the image of God better together which reflects God and His glory? 00:26:45.680 --> 00:26:51.960 It's a huge challenge for you, for me, for us as leaders, for you as members of the Christian 00:26:51.960 --> 00:26:58.160 church and community here, especially as things change again and as people leave and new people 00:26:58.160 --> 00:26:59.160 come. 00:26:59.160 --> 00:27:07.800 How do we share that renewed image bearing reflection of God as a people, as individuals 00:27:07.800 --> 00:27:08.800 together? 00:27:08.800 --> 00:27:12.160 It's a huge challenge. 00:27:12.160 --> 00:27:17.920 But we're looking as people who have looked into the face of Jesus Christ and seen His 00:27:17.920 --> 00:27:26.840 glory that we all, we all, it says, we all are being transformed into the same image from 00:27:26.839 --> 00:27:30.839 one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. 00:27:30.839 --> 00:27:38.240 And there's this sense that there's a collectiveness in our own individual reflection as we come 00:27:38.240 --> 00:27:42.959 together which shows the glory of Jesus. 00:27:42.959 --> 00:27:49.199 So I've left you some questions there and I'm not going to give you the answers because 00:27:49.199 --> 00:27:52.039 I don't have them. 00:27:52.039 --> 00:27:58.960 But I do think coming out of a pandemic there is going to be a challenge for us in terms 00:27:58.960 --> 00:28:06.720 of society and community and the risk of being involved in society. 00:28:06.720 --> 00:28:12.799 The risk of being involved in serving again, which has been great maybe for a whole year 00:28:12.799 --> 00:28:21.200 and 16, 17 months maybe, not just to be committed and involved in serving in ways we might have 00:28:21.200 --> 00:28:22.200 done in the past. 00:28:22.200 --> 00:28:26.759 I think that will be, I think that will be a challenge for the whole of the church in 00:28:26.759 --> 00:28:29.880 our nation and maybe throughout the world as well. 00:28:29.880 --> 00:28:36.319 And there's always the challenge of being image-bearers, being recreated in Christ in 00:28:36.319 --> 00:28:48.000 a world which is both broken, has shadows and whispers of God, but also deep, desperate 00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:51.279 distortions of God. 00:28:51.279 --> 00:28:57.240 And so we come to the end of that series looking at that theme of being individuals together 00:28:57.240 --> 00:29:04.279 which reflects the character of God and which points us forward to heaven where we will 00:29:04.279 --> 00:29:08.920 be individuals together for eternity. 00:29:08.920 --> 00:29:14.400 Next Sunday evening, if you have any questions from this series because it's intended, it 00:29:14.400 --> 00:29:22.240 has intended to be quite practical and looking at society and God and what that means. 00:29:22.240 --> 00:29:27.920 If you have any questions then Thomas and John will be delighted to answer them next 00:29:27.920 --> 00:29:33.400 week because I'm going to skive and not be there. 00:29:33.400 --> 00:29:39.360 But they will, are more than adequate to answer your questions. 00:29:39.360 --> 00:29:40.880 So let's pray. 00:29:40.880 --> 00:29:43.840 Jesus, we thank you for who you are. 00:29:43.839 --> 00:29:46.399 We thank you for the love of God. 00:29:46.399 --> 00:29:53.399 We thank you for the amazing continuity of the Bible, of your Word, which we saw about 00:29:53.399 --> 00:29:58.079 this morning but also which we've recognized right from the beginning that we are made 00:29:58.079 --> 00:30:03.679 in your image and the brokenness of sin and the destructive brutality and horror of Satan 00:30:03.680 --> 00:30:14.480 and his jealous, vicious, brutal envy of God and destruction of God's creation, the 00:30:14.480 --> 00:30:17.120 horror of that, the evil and darkness. 00:30:17.120 --> 00:30:23.840 We thank you that you crushed him on Calvary and that you are recreating what has been 00:30:23.840 --> 00:30:29.680 lost and will surpass that in glory, which we long for. 00:30:29.680 --> 00:30:36.440 And we know that times it's difficult to see, so difficult to see sometimes the changes. 00:30:36.440 --> 00:30:42.920 It's difficult to see your kingdom coming because we're so, myopic, our vision is so 00:30:42.920 --> 00:30:47.519 blunted so often and we just can't see beyond ourselves. 00:30:47.519 --> 00:30:54.759 So help us Lord to have that faith and that hope and that love which enables us to persevere 00:30:54.759 --> 00:31:02.079 and to become individuals together, knowing our individual value and worth in Christ. 00:31:02.079 --> 00:31:07.599 Your amazing love for us as people, as individual people and how you've brought us into your 00:31:07.599 --> 00:31:14.160 family and that we are collectively one, that Christ is with us all, that we are to outwork 00:31:14.160 --> 00:31:21.640 that renewed relationship together with all its struggles and battles and beauty as well. 00:31:21.640 --> 00:31:26.360 So help us we pray and give us vision and clarity moving forward as to how to come out 00:31:26.360 --> 00:31:33.120 of this pandemic as people who are allowing our fears and our mind and our mentality and 00:31:33.120 --> 00:31:37.160 our perspective change through Jesus. 00:31:37.160 --> 00:31:53.240 Amen.