WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.900 with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20, we'll be looking at verses 28 to 32. 00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:15.599 Acts chapter 20, 28 to 32, and here the Apostle Paul is meeting with the elders of the church 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:20.219 at Ephesus, and he's been spending a great deal of time with them, and now he's leaving them, 00:00:20.600 --> 00:00:24.879 and probably will not see them again. And so here are his words to those elders, 00:00:24.879 --> 00:00:31.739 and this is the very word of God. Pay careful attention to yourself and to all the flock in 00:00:31.739 --> 00:00:37.359 which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:43.719 his own blood. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the 00:00:43.719 --> 00:00:50.299 flock, and if among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples 00:00:50.299 --> 00:00:56.739 after them. Therefore be alert. Remember that for three years I did not cease night or day to 00:00:56.739 --> 00:01:03.339 admonish everyone with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able 00:01:03.339 --> 00:01:09.479 to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. This is God's 00:01:09.479 --> 00:01:15.219 holy word. Let's pray. Our Father, we do thank you for your word. And now, O Lord, as we look at it, 00:01:15.219 --> 00:01:22.500 we pray that you would, again, we pray, open our eyes to see your glory, open our ears to receive 00:01:22.500 --> 00:01:29.180 your word, open our hearts to love what you teach, and to follow you full of faith. And we pray this 00:01:29.180 --> 00:01:35.840 in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Before we look at the text, I just want to give a personal 00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:41.560 word of thank you. Just thank you for allowing me to be here and to be with you. I moved here about 11 00:01:41.560 --> 00:01:47.820 years ago. And how many of you were at Cheyenne Mountain 11 years ago? A few. I have prayed for 00:01:47.820 --> 00:01:54.020 your church, and it has been a delight to watch what God has done at this church. It is a remarkable 00:01:54.020 --> 00:01:59.520 story of God's grace, how God wants this church to have a vibrant witness. Those of you who are not, 00:01:59.980 --> 00:02:04.599 let them share with you the stories of all that they have been through, because God has providentially 00:02:04.599 --> 00:02:11.300 cared for this church. And when you called Matthew Capone as your pastor, those of us who know Matthew, 00:02:11.300 --> 00:02:16.960 we're very excited about that. And Matthew and I have been getting to know each other a little bit, 00:02:17.020 --> 00:02:21.420 getting together for breakfast, and he's asked me about different things. And so what I've told him, 00:02:21.460 --> 00:02:26.520 he goes, here's what I did, and that did not work out well, so don't do that. That's the general tenor 00:02:26.520 --> 00:02:32.320 of many of our conversations, that he can learn from my mistakes. And, you know, he's a very wise 00:02:32.320 --> 00:02:37.080 young man, and I'm really, I'm very thrilled that you have called him as your pastor. 00:02:37.080 --> 00:02:43.340 Well, one morning I was at a local coffee shop waiting for some people, and they were a little 00:02:43.340 --> 00:02:47.140 bit late, and so I struck up a conversation with a man who turned out to be the owner of the coffee 00:02:47.140 --> 00:02:53.060 shop, and talked about the joys of coffee, which I love, and what it's like to run a shop. And then 00:02:53.060 --> 00:02:57.960 he asked me, he goes, well, what do you do? And I said, well, I'm a pastor of a church. And he goes, 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:03.380 oh, that's neat. He goes, I'm a Christian, but I'm just not into the church thing. My wife goes to church, 00:03:03.379 --> 00:03:09.900 but I'm just not into that. In fact, he went on to say, you know, basically, I'm just part of the 00:03:09.900 --> 00:03:19.299 whole body of Christ. And this man represents a growing number of people in our society who call 00:03:19.299 --> 00:03:23.519 themselves Christians. They call themselves Christians, but they describe themselves as 00:03:23.519 --> 00:03:29.859 spiritual, but not religious. Or they say they're Christians, but they're not into organized religion. 00:03:29.860 --> 00:03:34.520 religion. And there's some understandable reasons why they're not into organized religion. 00:03:35.060 --> 00:03:40.180 That the church has had scandal after scandal after scandal. And it's not just those other churches. 00:03:40.300 --> 00:03:45.840 Our own little tribe of Presbyterian churches has had our own share of scandals over the years. 00:03:46.100 --> 00:03:50.360 And you can understand why people might say, you know, I'm just going to be me and Jesus, 00:03:50.520 --> 00:03:56.820 and that's all I need, and I don't need this church thing. And we understand that. Now, 00:03:56.819 --> 00:04:01.400 others fail to affiliate with the church because they don't really see a need. Because after all, 00:04:01.739 --> 00:04:05.159 you know, you don't have to go to church to worship God, right? I mean, you can worship God in your 00:04:05.159 --> 00:04:10.099 home. You can worship God in the mountains. You can worship God in nature. Or you can even just stay 00:04:10.099 --> 00:04:16.000 home. And you can worship church online. Your iPhone has a church service right there. In fact, 00:04:16.019 --> 00:04:21.180 you can download a sermon you like and get your own music playlist, and you'll like all the songs. 00:04:21.259 --> 00:04:25.860 You'll never complain about the music in church again. And so it's kind of an ideal setup. 00:04:25.860 --> 00:04:29.860 And the other thing that was just great about that is you don't have to deal with any of the 00:04:29.860 --> 00:04:34.460 annoying people. I mean, it's just you. And so there's not going to be anybody there who's going 00:04:34.460 --> 00:04:40.600 to kind of rub you the wrong way and irritate you. And so you're just part of that big, invisible 00:04:40.600 --> 00:04:47.259 church. Now, let's be honest. Some of that sounds kind of attractive. Some of that doesn't sound all 00:04:47.259 --> 00:04:54.280 bad. But here, Paul's speaking to the elders of the church in Ephesus. And we see here the importance 00:04:54.279 --> 00:05:01.039 of the church. Not this big, invisible thing that you can't touch. There is such a thing as an invisible 00:05:01.039 --> 00:05:05.899 church. But the great theologian John Murray said that term causes more confusion than it's worth. 00:05:06.279 --> 00:05:10.859 Because then we begin to think that the church is truly invisible without realizing it's always 00:05:10.859 --> 00:05:16.799 particular. And that the church is always represented in a local body of believers with 00:05:16.799 --> 00:05:22.000 living, breathing human beings with whom you must rub elbows. So let's begin by looking at the 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:27.040 importance of the local church. As I mentioned, Paul spent seven to eight years with these people. 00:05:27.480 --> 00:05:33.160 He has discipled these leaders. He has watched them grow. Probably about three of those seven to eight 00:05:33.160 --> 00:05:38.899 years in that region has been here at Ephesus. And now he is leaving. And if you read the whole account 00:05:38.899 --> 00:05:46.339 here, he's leaving with tears. I mean, this is a very sad goodbye. But he has to go. And he leaves them 00:05:46.339 --> 00:05:51.359 what some would call his last will and testament. Now the elders to whom he's speaking are not 00:05:51.359 --> 00:05:56.279 self-appointed leaders. These aren't people who said, I should be in charge here. As you read the 00:05:56.279 --> 00:06:02.239 book of Acts and you read Paul's other letters, we find that there's an orderly process for recognizing 00:06:02.239 --> 00:06:07.519 leaders in the church. They've been appointed by the apostles. And then from now on, what we've seen is 00:06:07.519 --> 00:06:12.299 those who've been appointed by the apostles lay hands on the next generation and the next generation 00:06:12.300 --> 00:06:19.259 the next generation. So when Matthew was ordained here a while back, the hands that were laid on him 00:06:19.259 --> 00:06:24.520 were laid on by somebody who else had hands laid on by them. And you can trace it all the way back to 00:06:24.520 --> 00:06:28.660 the apostles. It's an amazing thing. Same is true for all of your elders here in this church. 00:06:29.259 --> 00:06:35.460 The laying on of hands goes all the way back. And so they've been properly ordained in the church. 00:06:35.840 --> 00:06:41.780 More importantly, verse 28, Paul says that the Holy Spirit is the one who's made these men elders. 00:06:41.779 --> 00:06:47.479 In other words, the church is simply recognizing what God's Spirit has already done. So the men 00:06:47.479 --> 00:06:53.159 who are elders have been appointed by God for the care of the local church. And Paul tells them this 00:06:53.159 --> 00:06:58.079 is not going to be easy. This is going to be a very difficult task. He says, threatens will come to the 00:06:58.079 --> 00:07:06.379 church both from outside and from within. And so they have to be watchful. And without these watchful 00:07:06.379 --> 00:07:14.319 godly leaders, the church will not survive. The church will not make it. Christians are not to be 00:07:14.319 --> 00:07:20.399 lone wolves going at it alone. Paul says instead, we're not lone wolves. Rather, we are a flock 00:07:20.399 --> 00:07:27.719 gathered together, guided and guarded by God's appointed shepherds. And so to be a Christian then 00:07:27.720 --> 00:07:34.660 means you're part of a church. And not just the church, but a church, a local church with elders 00:07:34.660 --> 00:07:40.080 and pastors and those who others who profess the same faith. There's no such thing as a freelance 00:07:40.080 --> 00:07:46.000 Christian or a Christian without portfolio. Biblically speaking, being part of the universal church means 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:51.720 being part of the local church. The two are inseparable. In fact, we see this in the commands that God gives 00:07:51.720 --> 00:07:58.300 to us. In Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17, the writer of Hebrews tells us, actually God tells us through 00:07:58.300 --> 00:08:05.280 the writer of Hebrews, he says, obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over 00:08:05.280 --> 00:08:12.680 your souls and those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning 00:08:12.680 --> 00:08:19.700 for that would be of no advantage to you. Now notice that this idea of obeying your leaders and doing 00:08:19.699 --> 00:08:26.000 it with joy and not with grumbling is not a suggestion. Paul's not saying this is a good idea. 00:08:26.439 --> 00:08:33.179 This is a biblical command, something we are called by God to do. And we're explicitly told that we're 00:08:33.179 --> 00:08:38.539 to gather together and to live under the authority of those whom God has appointed overseers. And so as 00:08:38.539 --> 00:08:44.600 members of the church, what that means for us, and by the way, those are pastors and elders, we've taken 00:08:44.600 --> 00:08:50.820 vows as part of the church as well. It means that sometimes that things may not be happening the way 00:08:50.820 --> 00:08:56.480 you think are necessarily best. Has that ever happened to you in a church experience? I'm the 00:08:56.480 --> 00:09:01.639 pastor of a church. That happens all the time in the church in my experience. So what do you do? Well, 00:09:01.659 --> 00:09:06.519 there are proper ways to deal with that. You go to your leaders. You speak to them. How do we typically 00:09:06.519 --> 00:09:12.160 handle problems in the church? How do we typically handle them? Do we go to the leaders? No, what we'll do 00:09:12.159 --> 00:09:18.379 is we'll go to everybody else. And we'll go to everybody else and we'll call it discernment. 00:09:18.699 --> 00:09:23.699 I'm just being discerning about what's going on here. There's a biblical word for it. It's called 00:09:23.699 --> 00:09:31.079 gossip. And it's called stirring up dissension. And so what we're called to do then is not to stir up 00:09:31.079 --> 00:09:39.139 dissension. We're called then to follow our leaders as God has ordained them in their proper place. 00:09:39.139 --> 00:09:44.779 So to be a Christian means you're not only connected to Christ, but you're connected to 00:09:44.779 --> 00:09:51.699 Christ's people. And you're under his God-ordained authority structure. But here's the problem. 00:09:52.360 --> 00:09:57.659 If you're part of the local church, you better come in with your eyes wide open because the next 00:09:57.659 --> 00:10:05.659 point is the church is a mess. The church is a mess. And we see this with Paul speaking to them. 00:10:05.659 --> 00:10:09.559 He says Paul gathers these leaders together and he charges them as overseers of the flock. 00:10:09.980 --> 00:10:14.480 And he tells them it's not going to be easy. And he warns them, notice this, that false teachers will 00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:19.939 arise in the church. That means there's going to be false doctrine that's going to be taught in the 00:10:19.939 --> 00:10:26.000 church. And he's saying to guard against that. In fact, he even warns them that some of these errors 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:30.720 will come from other elders. And not only is there going to be doctoral conflict, there's going to be 00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:37.060 personal conflict. Paul later writes a letter to the same church, the church at Ephesus. And in his 00:10:37.060 --> 00:10:44.600 letter, he warns them against anger, bitterness, selfishness, and tearing people down. He then tells 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:49.759 them that in the church they need to forgive one another. Now what's presupposed in the command that 00:10:49.759 --> 00:10:55.759 you're to forgive one another? You're going to be sinned against. You're not going to say forgive 00:10:55.759 --> 00:11:00.200 one another because nothing's ever going to go wrong. But he's assuming you will be sinned against 00:11:00.200 --> 00:11:06.039 in the church. Someone is going to offend you. Oftentimes when new people come to a church, 00:11:06.620 --> 00:11:10.460 I'm sure you've had this happen here in Athens at our church, they'll come and they go, oh, 00:11:11.019 --> 00:11:15.159 I love this church. It's so different from my other church. I'm so glad to be gone there. And I'm 00:11:15.159 --> 00:11:22.759 thinking, oh boy. Oh boy. Because, you know, if I have not offended you yet, that only means we don't 00:11:22.759 --> 00:11:28.720 know each other. That is all that that means. To know me is to be offended by me almost. And so 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:35.600 hopefully most of the time, not always, most of the time not intentionally. But it's, you know, 00:11:35.620 --> 00:11:42.059 we can see this in the church. And so you look at the church and we see what happens, that the mark 00:11:42.059 --> 00:11:48.600 of the church is not sinlessness. That is not a mark of the church. The mark of the church here that 00:11:48.600 --> 00:11:55.200 Paul is talking about is grace. Not sinlessness, but grace. The difference between the world and 00:11:55.200 --> 00:12:01.000 the church is not that you'll be offended by one and not by the other. The difference between the 00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:06.680 world and the church is in the church there's grace, there's forgiveness. We forgive one another 00:12:06.680 --> 00:12:15.379 for what they do to us because Christ has forgiven us. And so the church actually gets to be a place 00:12:15.379 --> 00:12:21.500 where you get to practice forgiveness. If you want to learn about the grace of God, you learn it in the 00:12:21.500 --> 00:12:27.379 church. First through the proclamation of grace in the word, but then you learn it through the practicing 00:12:27.379 --> 00:12:32.899 of grace with one another. Because you are going to sin against one another. You are going to be offended 00:12:32.899 --> 00:12:40.740 by one another. And so what we're to do is we're to be a model of grace. And even pastors and elders, 00:12:40.740 --> 00:12:47.139 elders, obviously, are broken people themselves. And yet even though they're broken, they are called 00:12:47.139 --> 00:12:53.840 to be God's ordained means of caring for the messy church. Elders are sinners. They offend people. They 00:12:53.840 --> 00:12:59.899 make mistakes. Elders are also godly men who've been set apart by the Holy Spirit for the care of 00:12:59.899 --> 00:13:06.220 his church. And without elders, imperfect though they may be, the flock is unprotected and will come to 00:13:06.220 --> 00:13:12.340 ruin. And so Paul, you know, Paul's not naive about elders. He's not thinking these guys have arrived and 00:13:12.340 --> 00:13:16.660 that they're going to do everything perfectly. He knows what he's dealing with. Paul understands 00:13:16.660 --> 00:13:22.379 original sin. He understands human depravity. He understands the men he's put in charge. And yet 00:13:22.379 --> 00:13:27.980 he still says these things that we're to honor those who are in authority over us. So the messiness 00:13:27.980 --> 00:13:35.160 of the church can make you want to run away. And trust me, I understand that. I've been in the church my 00:13:35.159 --> 00:13:42.559 whole life. I get that. But there's a reason why we stay. Some say, why bother with the church? Why bother 00:13:42.559 --> 00:13:49.620 with the messiness? And Paul answers that in verse 28 with the glory of the local church. The glory of the 00:13:49.620 --> 00:13:57.059 local church. How do you determine how much something is worth? Let's say your house. And you love your house. 00:13:57.679 --> 00:14:04.639 And so you think it should be worth, say, $300,000. But nobody offers you $300,000. They offer you $250,000. 00:14:04.639 --> 00:14:11.199 What's your house worth? $250,000. Let's say your Aunt Edna painted this beautiful painting that you 00:14:11.199 --> 00:14:16.120 love and you've been kept in your attic. And to you, this is a priceless treasure. And you put it up on 00:14:16.120 --> 00:14:23.799 eBay. And the highest bid you get is five bucks. What is Aunt Edna's painting worth? Now, it's worth a lot 00:14:23.799 --> 00:14:31.639 more to you. But on the open market, it's five bucks. What's the church worth? You see what it's worth by 00:14:31.639 --> 00:14:36.840 what someone is willing to pay for it. And what does Paul say the church is worth here in our passage? 00:14:37.879 --> 00:14:44.720 The worth of the church is the blood of Christ. God purchased the church with his own blood. 00:14:45.299 --> 00:14:52.699 The church is precious to Jesus and therefore ought to be precious to us. If I say, what's the most 00:14:52.700 --> 00:15:01.020 corrupt church in the New Testament, what do you say? I vote for Corinthians, right? I mean, they are, 00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:06.780 I mean, you're talking about a church that's pretty messed up. They have divisions, cliques, false 00:15:06.780 --> 00:15:12.280 teachings, lawsuits, drunkenness, flagrant sexual immorality. I mean, it's just like the catalog of the 00:15:12.280 --> 00:15:18.280 seven deadly sins all in one place as Paul writes his letter to them. And it's a notoriously corrupt 00:15:18.279 --> 00:15:23.939 church. Yet listen to how Paul describes that church when he writes them that letter. He says 00:15:23.939 --> 00:15:30.959 that they are, quote, sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, that is holy ones, together 00:15:30.959 --> 00:15:37.019 with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. He even says that he gives 00:15:37.019 --> 00:15:44.620 thanks for them because of the grace of God that was given to them. Again, Paul is not naive. He's writing 00:15:44.620 --> 00:15:49.860 about all their problems, and yet he looks at the church, even though he knows they're messed up, 00:15:50.200 --> 00:15:55.700 and he thanks them because he does not see them as they are currently living, but he sees them as the 00:15:55.700 --> 00:16:03.159 radiant bride of Christ. He sees the beauty and the glory of the church. See, we see the church with all 00:16:03.159 --> 00:16:09.779 of its stains. Jesus sees the church in all of her beauty. Because of the loving sacrifice of Jesus for 00:16:09.779 --> 00:16:15.199 his bride, the church, this messed up body of Christ with messed up people and messed up pastors and 00:16:15.199 --> 00:16:23.559 messed up elders, is holy without blemish, clothed, and glorious splendor. Jesus loves the church. 00:16:24.379 --> 00:16:29.860 And if you love Jesus, you're going to love what he loves. I mean, I think about this way as a parent. 00:16:30.339 --> 00:16:34.100 What if somebody were to say to me, Mark, I really like you, but I can't stand your children. 00:16:34.100 --> 00:16:40.200 Well, you don't like me. You don't like my children. First of all, you'd love my children. 00:16:40.600 --> 00:16:46.779 Me, the one you might have trouble with. But you think, no, you can't. No, if you're going to love 00:16:46.779 --> 00:16:51.060 me, you've got to love my children. You can't take one without the other. And if you're going to love 00:16:51.060 --> 00:16:57.800 Jesus, you have to love his bride. And so Jesus loves his bride. Now, why is this important? 00:16:58.660 --> 00:17:03.000 And why, for the elders, why is it important for them to know? Why is it important for us to know? 00:17:04.099 --> 00:17:10.019 Because the messiness of the church will cloud our judgment to the value of the church. And our 00:17:10.019 --> 00:17:17.859 constant temptation will be to assess the church by worldly means rather than gospel means. 00:17:18.379 --> 00:17:23.439 Because as you interact and live among the people of the church, you're going to be tempted not to 00:17:23.439 --> 00:17:29.279 esteem them highly. They will sin against you. They're going to get on your nerves. Anybody here ever 00:17:29.279 --> 00:17:33.159 have anybody in the church get on their nerves? Okay, you don't have to raise your hands. It's okay. 00:17:34.099 --> 00:17:40.959 Just me. Some people will offend your cultural sensibilities. Others are going to act in very 00:17:40.959 --> 00:17:45.439 unchristian ways, and you're going to be tempted to write them off. You're going to be tempted to say, 00:17:45.799 --> 00:17:50.059 they're not worth my time. They're not worth the investment. They're not worth the hassle. 00:17:50.859 --> 00:17:56.019 And when this happens, what you have to realize is you have an idealized image of the church and not 00:17:56.019 --> 00:18:02.440 a biblical image of the church. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a helpful little booklet called Life 00:18:02.440 --> 00:18:05.240 Together. And in it, he said this, 00:18:05.240 --> 00:18:11.859 On innumerable occasions, a whole Christian community has been shattered because it has 00:18:11.859 --> 00:18:18.120 lived on the basis of a wishful image. That is, a wishful image of the dream of a perfect church. 00:18:18.779 --> 00:18:23.380 And those who love their dream of Christian community more than the Christian community itself 00:18:23.380 --> 00:18:28.940 become destroyers of that Christian community, even though their personal intentions may be ever 00:18:28.940 --> 00:18:36.019 so honest, earnest, and sacrificial. God hates this wishful dreaming because it makes the dreamer 00:18:36.019 --> 00:18:41.440 proud and pretentious. And those who dream of this idealized community then demand that these dreams 00:18:41.440 --> 00:18:46.180 be fulfilled by God, by others, and by themselves. They enter into the community of Christians with 00:18:46.180 --> 00:18:51.680 their demands, set up their own law, and judge one another, and even God accordingly. And whatever 00:18:51.680 --> 00:18:58.960 does not go their way, they call a failure. You ever been guilty of that? You know who's most guilty 00:18:58.960 --> 00:19:08.660 of that often? Pastors. And particularly because pastors oftentimes call out to call the church to 00:19:08.660 --> 00:19:15.140 the vision of what calls it to be. And what can happen then is you begin to love your dream for how 00:19:15.140 --> 00:19:20.960 the church ought to be rather than loving the people that are actually there. And when that happens, 00:19:21.080 --> 00:19:27.800 Bonhoeffer rightly says, you become a destroyer of the church. You become the cancer that kills it. 00:19:28.560 --> 00:19:34.720 The church, like any living organism, cannot be loved generally. You can't just have this general 00:19:34.720 --> 00:19:39.900 love for the church. You have to have a specific love for the specific church. And we're called to love 00:19:39.900 --> 00:19:45.780 the church. So by showing us the church is both messy and needy of the corrective leadership of 00:19:45.780 --> 00:19:51.840 elders, and yet also precious to God, so much so that he obtained her with his own blood, 00:19:52.640 --> 00:19:58.759 Paul reminds us that we are called to live lives in the messiness of community, and that our fellowship 00:19:58.759 --> 00:20:05.580 with one another is not based on works, but it's based on grace. The gospel is not only how we relate 00:20:05.579 --> 00:20:11.099 to Christ, but it's also the basis for how we relate to one another. That is, think about this. 00:20:12.179 --> 00:20:18.000 Fellowship with others is not based on their performance any more than your fellowship with 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:23.119 Christ is based on your performance. Because if your fellowship with Christ is based on your 00:20:23.119 --> 00:20:30.519 performance, we're all up a creek. We're all lost. But the gospel is that our relationship with God 00:20:30.519 --> 00:20:39.299 is not based on our performance, but on Christ's performance. We are justified by grace alone. 00:20:40.240 --> 00:20:48.440 Alone. Through faith alone. In Christ alone. And because we are made right with God through grace 00:20:48.440 --> 00:20:54.740 alone, and we relate to him by grace alone, the same is true for how we relate to one another's. 00:20:55.000 --> 00:21:00.500 The gospel is not be good and perform well, and then God will accept you. The gospel is, 00:21:00.500 --> 00:21:06.240 while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And so if you're a Christian, God does not relate 00:21:06.240 --> 00:21:10.660 to you on the basis of your performance, but the performance of Christ. And therefore, that's how 00:21:10.660 --> 00:21:17.279 we're to relate to one another. As Bonhoeffer again reminds us, our community consists solely in what 00:21:17.279 --> 00:21:23.839 Christ has done for both of us, not what we have done for one another. And here's where the church can be 00:21:23.839 --> 00:21:29.159 such a beautiful witness to the world. We tell the world about God's unconditional love. 00:21:29.579 --> 00:21:34.279 Our world doesn't believe in unconditional love. They don't think it actually exists. 00:21:35.299 --> 00:21:40.519 But if we can tell them about God's unconditional love, and then we can show that unconditional love 00:21:40.519 --> 00:21:46.779 in the way that we love one another, suddenly our proclamation becomes believable. The world will 00:21:46.779 --> 00:21:51.799 begin to see as we love one another. These aren't my words, right? This is Jesus' words, right? 00:21:51.799 --> 00:21:57.299 The world will know that you're mine by your love for one another. And when we love one another, 00:21:57.639 --> 00:22:02.500 and forgive one another, and bear with one another, then the church will begin to see 00:22:02.500 --> 00:22:11.359 that the gospel message we proclaim is true. So church, it's a beautiful thing. It's a messy thing, 00:22:11.759 --> 00:22:15.879 but it's Christ's bride. And so we are called to love it. Let's pray. 00:22:15.880 --> 00:22:24.600 Father, we do thank you just for your word, for the encouragement and exhortation it gives to us. 00:22:24.680 --> 00:22:31.400 And Father, we confess that many of us come to the church with that dream of the perfect church, 00:22:31.440 --> 00:22:36.100 and we begin to judge everyone by it. Oh, Lord, forgive us. Because if you were to treat us 00:22:36.100 --> 00:22:43.860 that way, who could stand before you? So, Lord, we pray that we would love the church as it is, 00:22:43.859 --> 00:22:50.979 even as you love us. And Lord, we do pray, though, that as the church, we would continue to grow more 00:22:50.979 --> 00:22:58.519 in holiness and grace, and to live in a way that conforms to your will. But Lord, we also pray that 00:22:58.519 --> 00:23:03.679 we would learn what it means to love one another, bear with one another, encourage one another, 00:23:04.179 --> 00:23:09.619 and forgive one another. And so, Lord, may the world know that we are yours by our love for one 00:23:09.619 --> 00:23:15.779 another. So, Father, I pray for this church. I pray this church, as they follow the lead of their 00:23:15.779 --> 00:23:21.839 elders, that they would be obedient to your command, a command that is as good for us as your church, 00:23:22.439 --> 00:23:27.719 that they would obey and submit, that they would do so willingly, that they would not make it hard for 00:23:27.719 --> 00:23:34.459 those who are leading them, but instead would seek to be an encouragement to them. We pray this 00:23:34.460 --> 00:23:39.559 particularly on this occasion as Matthew is being installed as the pastor here at this church. 00:23:40.360 --> 00:23:46.200 May they give him the encouragement and support that he needs. May they be ones who are quick to 00:23:46.200 --> 00:23:54.160 forgive him, and particularly as he leads and at times will do things that some people may not like, 00:23:55.019 --> 00:23:59.539 as he works together with the other elders, and the elders together may do things that they do not 00:23:59.539 --> 00:24:06.319 like. But, oh, Lord, we pray. We pray, oh, Lord, that this church be marked by unity, by peace, by love, 00:24:06.960 --> 00:24:11.720 by adoration of you as well. And so, Lord, we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.