WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.560 Okay, this morning I'd like to go back to this chapter. 00:00:04.560 --> 00:00:09.240 There's a lot in this chapter, obviously there's a lot we're not going to be able to cover, 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:13.400 but hopefully give some kind of overview to this chapter which is good and significant 00:00:13.400 --> 00:00:14.400 for us. 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:19.839 And I want just to highlight verse 16, the beginning of verse 16 of chapter 3. 00:00:19.839 --> 00:00:24.000 If you have that, it's on page 992 of the Bibles and do feel free to use the Bibles 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:27.080 that we have today in the church. 00:00:27.079 --> 00:00:31.919 Where Paul says, after speaking, because as Cori was saying last week and we've mentioned 00:00:31.919 --> 00:00:36.479 before, really Paul is giving instructions for how the church should be structured, how 00:00:36.479 --> 00:00:40.560 the church should be put together as it were as a church. 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:46.320 And he says, great indeed we confess is the mystery of godliness. 00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:50.439 Now I just want to start with this because it's very important I think in the context 00:00:50.439 --> 00:00:57.519 even of this chapter, because when the New Testament speaks about mystery, it's kind 00:00:57.519 --> 00:01:03.320 of different from what we think of as mystery or our definition of the word mystery. 00:01:03.320 --> 00:01:10.079 For us, a mystery is something that's difficult or impossible to explain, you know, what happens 00:01:10.079 --> 00:01:13.560 to the single socks in the washing machine. 00:01:13.560 --> 00:01:15.439 Now that's a mystery. 00:01:15.439 --> 00:01:16.759 Nobody knows what happens to them. 00:01:16.760 --> 00:01:21.800 You always lose one of the socks in the washing machine. 00:01:21.800 --> 00:01:26.560 Why some people would choose Coca-Cola over iron brew. 00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:28.160 That's a mystery. 00:01:28.160 --> 00:01:30.320 It's a mystery why anyone would do that. 00:01:30.320 --> 00:01:31.320 We don't know. 00:01:31.320 --> 00:01:32.320 It seems strange. 00:01:32.320 --> 00:01:36.800 It's impossible to explain people's tastes. 00:01:36.800 --> 00:01:43.400 Why a minister would choose to preach from a chapter by starting at the last verse. 00:01:43.400 --> 00:01:44.920 That's a mystery. 00:01:44.920 --> 00:01:48.760 There's no explanation for that, but sometimes it happens. 00:01:48.760 --> 00:01:53.920 So you see, that's really our understanding of mystery, something that can't be explained, 00:01:53.920 --> 00:01:58.560 something that's inexplicably different, difficult to understand. 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:02.200 But in the Bible, mystery has a different meaning. 00:02:02.200 --> 00:02:07.120 It really means something that can only be known when God reveals it. 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:09.599 It's a mystery that has been revealed. 00:02:09.599 --> 00:02:15.079 It's something that God makes clear to us through revelation, through the person of Christ 00:02:15.079 --> 00:02:16.960 and through the word of God. 00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:21.840 If you look back to Ephesians, it says quite a lot in Ephesians about them, or uses that 00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:22.840 word quite a lot. 00:02:22.840 --> 00:02:24.319 Paul uses it in chapter 3. 00:02:24.319 --> 00:02:32.759 I'm going to read verses 3 to 6 of this chapter in Ephesians where Paul says, How the mystery 00:02:32.759 --> 00:02:42.560 was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. 00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:47.919 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not 00:02:47.919 --> 00:02:52.680 made known to the sons of men and other generations as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles 00:02:52.680 --> 00:02:54.319 and prophets by the Spirit. 00:02:54.319 --> 00:02:59.599 This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, partakers 00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:03.560 of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 00:03:03.560 --> 00:03:09.879 Or in the very, a couple of letters on in our Bible in Colossians chapter 1 and verse 00:03:09.879 --> 00:03:18.240 27, Paul speaks about to them, God has made known how great among the Gentiles are the 00:03:18.240 --> 00:03:23.759 riches of His glory, of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 00:03:23.759 --> 00:03:30.000 So you can see that mystery in the Bible is really about what God reveals to us. 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:38.879 It denotes something that is really radically different to the broken order of life that 00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:40.639 we would call normal. 00:03:40.639 --> 00:03:42.159 And God reveals a different way. 00:03:42.159 --> 00:03:46.719 It's something that for us should be amazing and should be awesome. 00:03:46.719 --> 00:03:49.919 It's not something that's made up. 00:03:49.919 --> 00:03:53.959 And it's something that we need God's help to understand and to know. 00:03:53.959 --> 00:04:00.439 We need God to open our eyes and open our heart to understand this amazing mystery. 00:04:00.439 --> 00:04:03.359 And how would you summarize this great mystery? 00:04:03.359 --> 00:04:12.279 Well, Paul does it here with this doxology or this early hymn, this doctrinal statement 00:04:12.279 --> 00:04:17.360 that you see is written in poetic form here in our Bibles. 00:04:17.360 --> 00:04:22.319 The rest of this chapter, the rest of this verse rather, great is the mystery of godliness. 00:04:22.319 --> 00:04:29.160 And he gives us this great definition of Jesus, of Jesus. 00:04:29.160 --> 00:04:35.120 He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed 00:04:35.120 --> 00:04:40.480 among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. 00:04:40.480 --> 00:04:46.199 So the greatest revelation of the mystery of what God wants us to know, what God can 00:04:46.199 --> 00:04:54.199 only reveal to us, is when we see and understand and know and grasp the person of Jesus Christ. 00:04:54.199 --> 00:05:03.000 Jesus is the greatest, most astounding revelation of God, because as he says there, is God manifested 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:13.639 in the flesh, God who entered the womb of Mary, God through whom Mary as Corey was talking 00:05:13.639 --> 00:05:21.959 about last week, Mary becomes the one through whom her seed becomes the Savior. 00:05:21.959 --> 00:05:30.079 And we are saved through her initial childbearing, moving forward to the birth of Jesus. 00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:37.000 And the Holy Spirit vindicated everything he said and did, empowered him to do amazing 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:45.759 miracles and then raised him from the dead on the third day, acknowledging that he was 00:05:45.759 --> 00:05:53.120 righteous and innocent, having taken our guilt and our judgment, the guilt and judgment of 00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:55.000 ordinary people on himself. 00:05:55.000 --> 00:06:03.439 The angels were told here saw that, they witnessed that, they declared his salvation in his birth 00:06:03.439 --> 00:06:09.120 and in his death and in his resurrection, and I'm sure they were gobsmacked. 00:06:09.120 --> 00:06:14.719 Gobsmacked by what God revealed was his plan of salvation, the silence in heaven wondering 00:06:14.719 --> 00:06:16.560 who would go. 00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:23.319 The angels having no word whatsoever to say as we were told in Revelation, then Christ 00:06:23.319 --> 00:06:32.120 comes and he takes a timid bunch of men, unschooled ordinary men and women. 00:06:32.120 --> 00:06:39.160 And he empowers these trembling, fearful people in an upper room with the greatest of good 00:06:39.160 --> 00:06:40.959 news. 00:06:40.959 --> 00:06:48.560 And they go and billions of people have been transformed, billions of lives have been turned 00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:54.280 upside down and redeemed, all sorts of people from every part of the world through the same 00:06:54.279 --> 00:07:05.959 Spirit of God who raised and saw Christ ascending and that same Christ returning again, taken 00:07:05.959 --> 00:07:12.919 up in glory and we will follow in his train. 00:07:12.919 --> 00:07:18.639 So the mystery of godliness is Christ. 00:07:18.639 --> 00:07:21.319 You couldn't make it up. 00:07:21.319 --> 00:07:23.719 You couldn't make that up. 00:07:23.720 --> 00:07:29.480 It's the greatest expression of God's character, of His divine love and of His purpose that 00:07:29.480 --> 00:07:32.600 involves every single one of us. 00:07:32.600 --> 00:07:34.920 He's the supreme revelation of God. 00:07:34.920 --> 00:07:42.880 The great mystery revealed can't be equalled, can't be surpassed, and today, you know, he 00:07:42.880 --> 00:07:44.480 can't even be ignored. 00:07:44.480 --> 00:07:46.880 He can't be ignored. 00:07:46.880 --> 00:07:50.080 You can't positively sideline Jesus. 00:07:50.079 --> 00:07:59.359 He can try, but it is impossible to do so because we will all stand before Him. 00:07:59.359 --> 00:08:06.680 And that is a great mystery revealed to us, and God chooses to reveal to us, and we reach 00:08:06.680 --> 00:08:11.159 out to Him and ask Him to reveal this great mystery to us. 00:08:11.159 --> 00:08:14.759 So I ask the question of myself when I'm looking at this, do I see His beauty? 00:08:14.759 --> 00:08:16.639 Do I see His glory? 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:19.919 Do I see the wonder of who Jesus Christ is? 00:08:19.920 --> 00:08:26.199 And am I willing to share that great mystery revealed to me through Jesus Christ's great 00:08:26.199 --> 00:08:30.720 work of redemption and salvation as we come to Him in faith and trust? 00:08:30.720 --> 00:08:36.879 Christ Jesus is the pinnacle of the mystery that God reveals. 00:08:36.879 --> 00:08:44.399 But this chapter unfolds further in the mystery of what is revealed to us in salvation, and 00:08:44.399 --> 00:08:48.879 it's done so in different ways because we're told that the church, this is God's mystery 00:08:48.879 --> 00:08:50.039 revealed to us. 00:08:50.039 --> 00:08:52.960 We all have our own ideas of what the church is, don't we? 00:08:52.960 --> 00:08:56.799 We all have our own particular emphasis of what do you think the church is if someone 00:08:56.799 --> 00:08:57.799 asks you there? 00:08:57.799 --> 00:08:58.799 What's the church? 00:08:58.799 --> 00:09:04.519 Well, God says here that the church, in verses 4, and you're right, that is a mystery, I'm 00:09:04.519 --> 00:09:09.679 going backwards, the church is God's household. 00:09:09.679 --> 00:09:11.279 That's how it is described. 00:09:11.279 --> 00:09:12.840 Verse 14, I hope to see you too soon. 00:09:12.840 --> 00:09:17.399 But I'm writing these things so that if I delay you might know them and how you ought 00:09:17.399 --> 00:09:22.639 to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and 00:09:22.639 --> 00:09:24.399 buttress of the truth. 00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:29.639 So we see a couple of things here that God reveals to us about what He sees the church 00:09:29.639 --> 00:09:35.840 as, because Paul is here giving instructions about what the church is and how the church 00:09:35.840 --> 00:09:37.439 should function, isn't it? 00:09:37.439 --> 00:09:40.279 We saw that last week and we see it again today. 00:09:40.279 --> 00:09:47.519 Well, the church is God's family, it's the family of the living God, the household of 00:09:47.519 --> 00:09:48.519 the living God. 00:09:48.519 --> 00:09:56.559 It's not a club, it's not an institution, it's not a ritual that we belong to. 00:09:56.559 --> 00:09:58.319 It's a family. 00:09:58.319 --> 00:10:04.199 And God uses the language of being adopted into His family, into His church, into God 00:10:04.199 --> 00:10:06.279 being our Father in this family. 00:10:06.279 --> 00:10:12.240 So our primary, your primary identity in mind today as Christians is that we are children 00:10:12.240 --> 00:10:19.799 of the living God and that is there to keep, to humble us, recognizing who we are before 00:10:19.799 --> 00:10:20.799 the living God. 00:10:20.799 --> 00:10:22.759 We are together here, brothers and sisters. 00:10:22.759 --> 00:10:28.039 They'll be people who are here for the first time today, who we've never met before, who 00:10:28.039 --> 00:10:29.480 love Jesus Christ. 00:10:29.480 --> 00:10:32.980 And we're brothers and sisters with them already. 00:10:32.980 --> 00:10:40.759 We are by nature of belonging to Jesus Christ and dwelt by the Holy Spirit. 00:10:40.759 --> 00:10:48.680 Our lives are marked by the transformation of knowing God and coming to know God in Jesus 00:10:48.680 --> 00:10:49.680 Christ. 00:10:49.680 --> 00:10:55.240 Being spiritually alive by the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. 00:10:55.240 --> 00:11:03.799 So we are to be people who in church, when we gather together are responsive to God's 00:11:03.799 --> 00:11:10.600 Word and alive to what God is saying that we're learning and that we're growing, that 00:11:10.600 --> 00:11:16.560 there's a vibrancy about who we are and a vibrancy about how we worship. 00:11:16.560 --> 00:11:22.440 And that we come recognizing we're governed by God's own instructions that He gives in 00:11:22.440 --> 00:11:29.640 this epistle and in many others about how to function as a church together that we are 00:11:29.640 --> 00:11:34.320 under His authority together as our heavenly Father. 00:11:34.320 --> 00:11:37.840 Now, sometimes that's difficult for us, isn't it? 00:11:37.840 --> 00:11:45.640 It may be difficult particularly if your idea or your experience of family is really negative. 00:11:45.640 --> 00:11:52.000 If you've had an abusive family, then it's very difficult to envisage church as a family 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:56.159 without having negative connotations about that. 00:11:56.159 --> 00:12:02.480 Or it may be you've got a great family and you've had an amazing family experience and 00:12:02.480 --> 00:12:03.759 that's a great privilege. 00:12:03.759 --> 00:12:10.799 But we have to see that as only a shadow of what we're asked to recognize the church family 00:12:10.799 --> 00:12:11.799 is being. 00:12:11.799 --> 00:12:16.080 And it needs to be revealed to us because it's not natural. 00:12:16.080 --> 00:12:22.680 It's not how we would necessarily want to gather together or how we would want to understand 00:12:22.680 --> 00:12:31.160 one another or come under His authority to act in love and grace towards one another. 00:12:31.160 --> 00:12:33.000 So the church is the family of the living God. 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:40.240 It's also the visit, so He describes it secondly in these verses 14 to 16, as the church of 00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:46.360 the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth or a pillar and foundation of the truth. 00:12:46.360 --> 00:12:51.799 So when we speak about the church, God's mystery revealed to us as the church is the 00:12:51.799 --> 00:12:54.159 pillar and the foundation of the truth. 00:12:54.159 --> 00:13:01.360 Now remember this was written to Timothy who was in Ephesus and Ephesus had at its center 00:13:01.360 --> 00:13:08.840 a really big temple and it was a temple to Diana, the goddess Diana who they worshiped. 00:13:08.840 --> 00:13:16.160 And I believe that it had 36 big strong pillars that were 40 feet high. 00:13:16.160 --> 00:13:23.759 And Antipater of Sidon who is a Greek poet who is ascribed as being the one who first 00:13:23.759 --> 00:13:29.560 talked about the seven wonders of the world, included the temple of Diana as one of the 00:13:29.560 --> 00:13:30.960 seven wonders of the world. 00:13:30.960 --> 00:13:37.160 And he said, the house of Artemis that mounted to the clouds, those other marvels, the six 00:13:37.159 --> 00:13:39.639 other wonders lost their brilliance. 00:13:39.639 --> 00:13:46.480 And I said, no, apart from Olympus, the sun never looks on anything so grand. 00:13:46.480 --> 00:13:49.719 It's the temple of Diana. 00:13:49.719 --> 00:13:51.600 Nothing ever looks so great. 00:13:51.600 --> 00:13:53.519 Great is Diana of Artemis. 00:13:53.519 --> 00:13:59.039 Great was the cry of people of this goddess that they worshiped. 00:13:59.039 --> 00:14:06.799 And yet Paul is saying the church is the pillar of the truth, the pillar and the foundation. 00:14:06.799 --> 00:14:11.719 And I think he's using that same illustration that people in Ephesus would have understood 00:14:11.719 --> 00:14:15.679 when they looked at the great temple of Artemis of Diana. 00:14:15.679 --> 00:14:20.639 And he's saying, no, the church is great indeed, he says, is the church because it's 00:14:20.639 --> 00:14:28.279 the pillar and foundation of the truth, not any idolatrous worship. 00:14:28.279 --> 00:14:35.359 The church then, can we say, can I say today, the church is the eighth wonder of the world? 00:14:35.360 --> 00:14:37.840 Is it the eighth wonder of the world? 00:14:37.840 --> 00:14:39.440 God's, or is it the first wonder? 00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:42.240 Is it the one to eight all subsumed all together? 00:14:42.240 --> 00:14:46.519 Of course it is because of who Jesus Christ is. 00:14:46.519 --> 00:14:55.120 And we are called to live and to display an example and spread as a people together, family, 00:14:55.120 --> 00:14:57.960 the truth of the redeeming God. 00:14:57.960 --> 00:15:04.300 We're to display it, we're to live it, we're to fuse that truth by our interactions with 00:15:04.299 --> 00:15:07.639 one another in our worship. 00:15:07.639 --> 00:15:17.740 We are to reveal God who is love, worship Him as love, and worship Him by loving one 00:15:17.740 --> 00:15:23.439 another as we are called to do, loving Him, loving one another, loving even our enemies. 00:15:23.439 --> 00:15:26.799 Now that's a mystery, isn't it? 00:15:26.799 --> 00:15:29.439 That's a mystery that's revealed. 00:15:29.439 --> 00:15:31.240 Nobody tells us to do that. 00:15:31.240 --> 00:15:32.479 Nobody speaks about that. 00:15:32.480 --> 00:15:38.039 But we're called to love our enemies and to love those who revile us. 00:15:38.039 --> 00:15:41.200 And we're called to love within the church. 00:15:41.200 --> 00:15:46.120 And it's a powerful thing because we're called to be truly great. 00:15:46.120 --> 00:15:48.000 Great is the mystery of Godliness. 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:54.639 So today I suspect, if you're like me, I suspect, and we're all sitting down, I know 00:15:54.639 --> 00:16:01.600 it's not going to happen, but I suspect we should all fall in our knees and ask for forgiveness. 00:16:01.600 --> 00:16:09.639 For having a much lower, a much less revelatory, a much duller view of the church and of each 00:16:09.639 --> 00:16:17.240 other and of our significant, or the significance of our lives and our worship under God. 00:16:17.240 --> 00:16:26.960 Isn't it true that often the church reflects bad society, divided, polarized, abusive, 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:31.480 anything but great? 00:16:31.480 --> 00:16:34.840 Stabilized, disposable. 00:16:34.840 --> 00:16:39.879 We are called to be great, not because of ourselves, not because of who we are, but because of 00:16:39.879 --> 00:16:46.360 what has been done for us and by Jesus Christ in our place. 00:16:46.360 --> 00:16:50.519 There's no such thing as an ordinary Sunday when we gather. 00:16:50.519 --> 00:16:56.200 There's no such thing as our gathered worship being well down the line of our priorities. 00:16:56.200 --> 00:17:06.360 There can't be because the mystery of Godliness is that we are called by God to be His family 00:17:06.360 --> 00:17:09.120 and the pillar and buttress of the truth. 00:17:09.120 --> 00:17:16.960 Now, we come towards the climax, or at least the conclusion of the sermon, because in some 00:17:16.960 --> 00:17:18.559 ways the greatest mystery... 00:17:18.559 --> 00:17:22.880 Well, now maybe that's not right to say the greatest mystery of all, but the most remarkable 00:17:22.880 --> 00:17:33.280 one in many ways is the character that is required of the leadership in God's church 00:17:33.280 --> 00:17:35.520 family. 00:17:35.520 --> 00:17:42.840 The pastoral preaching, leading, an ordained role that was given as Corrie preached so 00:17:42.840 --> 00:17:47.840 powerfully last week to men in this role. 00:17:47.840 --> 00:17:52.240 Now, I just have to say at this point that it's not true. 00:17:52.240 --> 00:17:57.000 I've heard the rumors, but it's just not true that I chose to preach in the most westerly 00:17:57.000 --> 00:18:01.680 point in the Scottish mainland to avoid preaching that chapter. 00:18:01.680 --> 00:18:03.559 It's not true, okay? 00:18:03.559 --> 00:18:12.599 It was just how things fell, and there was nothing mischievous or wrong in me taking 00:18:12.599 --> 00:18:18.359 that submissive and sacrificial role of traveling 400 miles and going to Camelotown to preach 00:18:18.359 --> 00:18:19.759 the gospel there. 00:18:19.759 --> 00:18:25.559 But I would have to say that we need to come back to that chapter, and maybe 1 Corinthians 00:18:25.559 --> 00:18:29.000 11 and one or two other chapters, maybe in a Wednesday or a Sunday night and do a series 00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:33.759 on gender, because I think it was very helpful and very useful so to do. 00:18:33.759 --> 00:18:40.200 But Christ here, through Paul, is revealing this great mystery of what true leadership, 00:18:40.200 --> 00:18:46.079 to ordained leadership of elders and deacons is like in the church. 00:18:46.079 --> 00:18:48.480 And you know what's so mysterious about it? 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:58.720 It is absolutely the antithesis of what men are like by nature and by inclination, because 00:18:58.720 --> 00:19:06.400 we're promiscuous, we're out of control, we're self-indulgent, corrupt, drunken, violent, 00:19:06.400 --> 00:19:09.599 argumentative and greedy. 00:19:09.599 --> 00:19:17.759 We often abandon family responsibilities for the pursuit of career, proud and selfish, 00:19:17.759 --> 00:19:22.920 trying to make ourselves great, often at the expense of our reputation. 00:19:22.920 --> 00:19:28.359 That's man by nature, that's men by nature. 00:19:28.359 --> 00:19:35.000 But God reveals the mystery of godliness in revealing Jesus Christ and in being followers 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:36.319 of Jesus Christ. 00:19:36.319 --> 00:19:45.480 He's revealing a specific character and the specific calling of those in leadership, and 00:19:45.480 --> 00:19:54.480 so doing is revealing in many ways true manliness and also revealing the example and the characteristics 00:19:54.480 --> 00:20:00.720 of godliness in leadership generally, and I think also for all of us. 00:20:00.720 --> 00:20:06.720 Okay, there's heightened requirements, I think, for those who are ordained into pastoral leadership, 00:20:06.720 --> 00:20:09.799 but it's certainly commanded of us all. 00:20:09.799 --> 00:20:14.360 It's just one or two things then. 00:20:14.359 --> 00:20:15.359 First it's a noble task. 00:20:15.359 --> 00:20:21.439 I'm going to the second of Paul's five trustworthy sayings, I'm not going to elaborate these 00:20:21.439 --> 00:20:26.679 sayings any further, but it says, anyone who aspires to the office of it and overseers 00:20:26.679 --> 00:20:29.240 desires a noble task. 00:20:29.240 --> 00:20:36.959 So the task of an elder or deacon in a church, and to desire that is, it's not noble to desire 00:20:36.959 --> 00:20:40.839 it as much as it's a noble task to take it on board. 00:20:40.839 --> 00:20:44.279 It's a beautiful and worthy calling. 00:20:44.279 --> 00:20:45.720 That's a mystery, isn't it? 00:20:45.720 --> 00:20:51.759 Because many people despise the authority of the church within the church, let alone 00:20:51.759 --> 00:20:53.680 from outside. 00:20:53.680 --> 00:21:00.160 And yet it's a calling of the living God commanded and instructed by him. 00:21:00.160 --> 00:21:06.799 And what is revealed in these descriptions, really from verse one through right to verse 00:21:06.799 --> 00:21:07.759 13. 00:21:07.759 --> 00:21:15.279 And I'm not going to go into each of the characteristics, you'll be glad to know. 00:21:15.279 --> 00:21:18.160 It is servant leadership. 00:21:18.160 --> 00:21:19.359 That's the picture that we have. 00:21:19.359 --> 00:21:21.359 And Christ is the great example. 00:21:21.359 --> 00:21:23.440 Talk about the mystery of Godliness being Christ. 00:21:23.440 --> 00:21:28.400 Christ is the great example of servant leadership. 00:21:28.400 --> 00:21:36.960 He calls himself, Christ calls himself, or Peter calls him an overseer, an elder, a bishop 00:21:36.960 --> 00:21:38.279 in 1 Peter 2.25. 00:21:38.279 --> 00:21:43.200 He says, you were like sheep going astray, 1 Peter 2.25. 00:21:43.200 --> 00:21:48.039 But now you've returned to the shepherd, an overseer of your souls, the same word that's 00:21:48.039 --> 00:21:50.480 used here. 00:21:50.480 --> 00:21:55.120 The overseer, the one who looks intently, the one who keeps an eye on. 00:21:55.120 --> 00:21:59.960 That is who Christ is, and that is what has been spoken of here. 00:21:59.960 --> 00:22:06.759 And of course Christ himself, speaking about himself, but speaking about the leaders of 00:22:06.759 --> 00:22:11.599 the church in Luke 22.27, says, who is grayer? 00:22:11.599 --> 00:22:14.640 The one who's at the table, or the one who serves? 00:22:14.640 --> 00:22:18.279 Oh, the world cries out quickly, and they have a chorus, it's the one who's at the 00:22:18.279 --> 00:22:19.359 table. 00:22:19.359 --> 00:22:25.359 But Christ says, is it not the one who's at the table? 00:22:25.359 --> 00:22:28.640 But I am among you as one who serves. 00:22:28.640 --> 00:22:34.599 And so there's this, and that's the same word as is used here for the deacon, the servant. 00:22:34.599 --> 00:22:40.319 So we have this idea of servant leaders, servants and shepherds. 00:22:40.319 --> 00:22:43.199 That's the picture of the elder and the deacon. 00:22:43.199 --> 00:22:45.959 I'm taking them both generally together this morning. 00:22:45.959 --> 00:22:50.000 I know you could spend lots of time going into great detail. 00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:55.159 But those who are set apart for leadership are to lead by example. 00:22:55.159 --> 00:23:01.159 That is one of the great things, to care, protect, and feed, and serve their people. 00:23:01.159 --> 00:23:03.039 That is what we're called to do. 00:23:03.039 --> 00:23:10.200 There's never a place within God's ordained model of church, of family, the family, and 00:23:10.200 --> 00:23:13.680 the very fact that he uses the term family is so significant, isn't it? 00:23:13.680 --> 00:23:22.119 It's that there's no place for being arrogant, or distant, or abusive, or bullying, or harsh, 00:23:22.119 --> 00:23:24.519 or authoritarian. 00:23:24.519 --> 00:23:33.480 Having in these verses speaks against that, it's having this servant, shepherding role, 00:23:33.480 --> 00:23:39.799 always being willing to serve, always being willing to take on the most menial tasks. 00:23:39.799 --> 00:23:40.799 Servants and shepherds, that's... 00:23:40.799 --> 00:23:45.879 I'm overlooking the whole thing, servants and shepherds. 00:23:45.879 --> 00:23:48.359 What's the other thing that we can take from these lists, which we're not really going 00:23:48.359 --> 00:23:52.680 to go into, is character before gifts. 00:23:52.680 --> 00:23:54.720 That's what's important. 00:23:54.720 --> 00:24:00.000 You know, the world sees the leaders of the world will often say it's all about gifts, 00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:02.000 it's all about ability. 00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:08.519 But Christ says, no, it's much, much more important, his character. 00:24:08.519 --> 00:24:14.200 Gifting is much less significant, can I say, but still significant. 00:24:14.200 --> 00:24:19.560 There's really only one gifting mentioned, his ability to teach for the elders. 00:24:19.559 --> 00:24:24.720 And I hope that is self-explanatory, because we're called to the preaching and teaching 00:24:24.720 --> 00:24:25.720 ministry. 00:24:25.720 --> 00:24:30.559 But it's character before gifts, and we see it in three areas, don't we? 00:24:30.559 --> 00:24:33.679 We don't have time to go into them, but we see it first of all. 00:24:33.679 --> 00:24:36.240 And really, I don't need to explain these things. 00:24:36.240 --> 00:24:38.839 You all know exactly what they mean. 00:24:38.839 --> 00:24:39.839 We all know exactly what we mean. 00:24:39.839 --> 00:24:41.919 You don't need to go through them in great detail. 00:24:41.919 --> 00:24:44.200 We know what they mean, don't we? 00:24:44.200 --> 00:24:47.679 So you've got heart character. 00:24:47.680 --> 00:24:53.279 What we're like in our heart, verses 2 to 4, the overseer must be above reproach, husband 00:24:53.279 --> 00:24:59.960 of want, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, not a drunkard, not violent, but 00:24:59.960 --> 00:25:03.400 gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 00:25:03.400 --> 00:25:06.279 That's easy, isn't it? 00:25:06.279 --> 00:25:08.720 We know what these characteristics mean. 00:25:08.720 --> 00:25:12.960 I don't need to spend ages explaining them. 00:25:12.960 --> 00:25:19.759 Our hearts, and it talks about our family. 00:25:19.759 --> 00:25:28.559 The one wife that is the wife of the prospective elder, and if they have a family, that is, 00:25:28.559 --> 00:25:33.840 I don't think it's in any way a barrier to single men becoming elders. 00:25:33.840 --> 00:25:41.840 In that family, if you have that family, there must be a management in the right and personal 00:25:41.839 --> 00:25:47.439 way of managing their own household well, because if they can't do that, and it's the 00:25:47.439 --> 00:25:48.439 parallel, isn't it? 00:25:48.439 --> 00:25:49.439 It's the family. 00:25:49.439 --> 00:25:54.319 If you're in your own family, if there's chaos, then how can they lead in the church 00:25:54.319 --> 00:25:55.319 family? 00:25:55.319 --> 00:26:00.679 So there's the parallel between families, small and big, as it were, or functional and 00:26:00.679 --> 00:26:03.000 spiritual in different ways. 00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:11.119 So there's heart, and there's family, and significantly there's also society. 00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:12.119 There's seven more. 00:26:12.119 --> 00:26:16.599 Over he must be well thought of by outsiders, so they may not fall into disgrace, into 00:26:16.599 --> 00:26:17.599 the snare of the devil. 00:26:17.599 --> 00:26:24.759 It's just persons to be well thought of in society, in the workplace, in the neighborhood. 00:26:24.759 --> 00:26:28.359 We've often ignored that, haven't we, in many different ways. 00:26:28.359 --> 00:26:32.639 So the heart, the family, and society. 00:26:32.639 --> 00:26:35.839 Now we were all sitting for the family stuff. 00:26:35.839 --> 00:26:43.119 Well, the elders and deacons here, and ourselves, and me, and Corey, we would do well to be 00:26:43.119 --> 00:26:48.279 prostitutes, lying openly on the ground. 00:26:48.279 --> 00:26:55.879 As leaders, we would all do well to reflect, and I suspect if you're like me, repent. 00:26:55.879 --> 00:27:03.519 Repent for sure, when we look at the characteristics that are here. 00:27:03.519 --> 00:27:05.399 But I'm not going to let anyone else off. 00:27:05.400 --> 00:27:11.600 I'm not going to let other men off, because all of us as men are to show these Christ-like 00:27:11.600 --> 00:27:14.160 and godly characteristics in our lives. 00:27:14.160 --> 00:27:18.400 We're not here to point the finger at one another. 00:27:18.400 --> 00:27:23.040 We're not here to expose the weaknesses of the ministry, and the eldership, and the deaconate 00:27:23.040 --> 00:27:27.840 here in St. Columbus, because we all come under God's sovereign word here, don't we? 00:27:27.840 --> 00:27:33.560 And indeed, all of us men and women together recognize as one family, all of us are called 00:27:33.559 --> 00:27:43.879 to reflect Jesus Christ, to look like Him with our own individual and unique characteristics. 00:27:43.879 --> 00:27:51.519 And I'm calling on you today to pray for your leaders here, because we need your help. 00:27:51.519 --> 00:27:52.519 We need your grace. 00:27:52.519 --> 00:27:57.000 We need your forgiveness. 00:27:57.000 --> 00:28:02.679 We need to recognize the great significance of our calling more clearly. 00:28:02.680 --> 00:28:09.400 And also, we all need to recognize that the mirror of Scripture holds all of us to account 00:28:09.400 --> 00:28:13.240 and points all of us to Jesus. 00:28:13.240 --> 00:28:15.880 These things are not there to paralyze us. 00:28:15.880 --> 00:28:18.480 They're not there to beat us with a stick. 00:28:18.480 --> 00:28:23.759 They're not there to make us feel hopelessly guilty and useless, far from it. 00:28:23.759 --> 00:28:30.720 They drive us towards Jesus in all His forgiving love and forgiving power, and enabling power 00:28:30.720 --> 00:28:32.839 to be the kind of people He wants us to be. 00:28:32.839 --> 00:28:38.920 And as a church to be the kind of church that He wants us to be, it's a mystery. 00:28:38.920 --> 00:28:41.240 It's a mystery of godliness. 00:28:41.240 --> 00:28:48.079 And when we do so, and when we follow Him and when we come to Him and allow ourselves to 00:28:48.079 --> 00:28:51.799 be molded by Him, I think we find spiritual strength. 00:28:51.799 --> 00:28:56.200 The inverse 13 He says for those deacons, gain a good standing for themselves and also 00:28:56.200 --> 00:28:58.720 great confidence in the faith that's in Christ Jesus. 00:28:58.720 --> 00:29:10.240 I think that can be applied broader, that we all find great confidence, great strength 00:29:10.240 --> 00:29:15.440 when in our weakness we go to the one who is our source. 00:29:15.440 --> 00:29:19.799 And it doesn't paralyze us, and it doesn't make us say, oh, woe is me, I'm hopeless, 00:29:19.799 --> 00:29:21.960 I can't go on, I'm a rubbish Christian. 00:29:21.960 --> 00:29:24.519 That's just self-pity. 00:29:24.519 --> 00:29:27.279 And He doesn't want us to be full of self-pity. 00:29:27.279 --> 00:29:31.839 He wants us to be transformed, and His promises are that He will transform us. 00:29:31.839 --> 00:29:34.319 He doesn't expect the past to be perfect. 00:29:34.319 --> 00:29:37.399 He doesn't expect us to be always great at everything we do. 00:29:37.399 --> 00:29:40.599 But He says, I'll give you back the years the locus of eating. 00:29:40.599 --> 00:29:42.839 I'll give them all back to you. 00:29:42.839 --> 00:29:49.680 I'll make today and tomorrow great as you come independence, and we find confidence and strength 00:29:49.680 --> 00:29:52.000 and a good standing that way. 00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:53.000 Isn't that beautiful? 00:29:53.000 --> 00:30:00.559 Because it's about health and about strength and about wholeness, which is what He does. 00:30:00.559 --> 00:30:06.839 So my deepest fear for myself, and you may share this as well, I'm sure, is that we're 00:30:06.839 --> 00:30:19.920 content with ordinary, manageable, grace-deficient substitute in our understanding of our lives 00:30:19.920 --> 00:30:30.039 and God's hopes for us, for our understanding of the church as being the pillar and foundation 00:30:30.039 --> 00:30:33.960 of the truth, and of being God's family. 00:30:33.960 --> 00:30:41.400 And as men, as leaders, and as leaders of men and women, because we have women in many 00:30:41.400 --> 00:30:47.519 different aspects of the church leading, that we are called to be an example, and we're 00:30:47.519 --> 00:30:55.519 called to be an example in our hearts, in our homes, and in our society, in the workplace 00:30:55.519 --> 00:31:04.279 or the halls of our academia, or whatever we happen to be. 00:31:04.279 --> 00:31:09.960 I'm afraid sometimes that we're content without revelation, and without that mystery of being 00:31:09.960 --> 00:31:10.960 revealed. 00:31:10.960 --> 00:31:14.960 But we are called to be great. 00:31:14.960 --> 00:31:24.680 Great for Him, for His glory in His strength, for everyone to see as a church and as individuals, 00:31:24.680 --> 00:31:26.960 let's make Jesus famous. 00:31:26.960 --> 00:31:28.960 That's our calling. 00:31:28.960 --> 00:31:34.680 And all of us can do that by His grace and with His favour on us. 00:31:34.680 --> 00:31:42.319 And if you don't know Jesus, and if the mystery is a mystery to you, then call out to the 00:31:42.319 --> 00:31:47.399 one who promises to make known that mystery as you come to Him in repentance and faith. 00:31:47.399 --> 00:31:48.399 It's great. 00:31:48.399 --> 00:31:51.079 It's great good news we share today. 00:31:51.079 --> 00:31:52.079 Let's pray. 00:31:52.079 --> 00:31:55.079 Father God, we thank You for Your Word. 00:31:55.079 --> 00:31:58.039 We thank You for this passage. 00:31:58.039 --> 00:32:12.960 We are challenged and moved and sensed deep, deep inadequacy as leaders, as elders, as deacons, 00:32:12.960 --> 00:32:16.839 as people, as Christians, as children of God. 00:32:16.839 --> 00:32:21.960 But we know that You never intend that to paralyze us. 00:32:21.960 --> 00:32:27.879 We rejoice that You make many promises, and that that great Spirit of God who rose Jesus 00:32:27.880 --> 00:32:33.720 from the dead, then, is the same power that we are given to have lives that are transformed. 00:32:33.720 --> 00:32:38.440 What a picture of character we're given in this early verses of the chapter. 00:32:38.440 --> 00:32:40.200 What if we were all like this Lord? 00:32:40.200 --> 00:32:42.880 What an amazing place we would be. 00:32:42.880 --> 00:32:45.000 So forgive us, we ask. 00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:51.600 Give us a high view of the church, of Your authority, of Your ordained leadership structure 00:32:51.600 --> 00:32:54.760 so despised and rejected today. 00:32:54.759 --> 00:33:03.720 And may we humbly live out that structure that You give with all grace and with all humility, 00:33:03.720 --> 00:33:08.519 servants, pastor servants, shepherd servants. 00:33:08.519 --> 00:33:14.759 And may we all come under the great grace and word of the overseer of our souls, the 00:33:14.759 --> 00:33:15.759 Lord Jesus Christ. 00:33:15.759 --> 00:33:17.759 We ask in His precious name. 00:33:17.759 --> 00:33:24.759 Amen.